Oct 24

Well, the first part of our time together as companions was rough as you can see.. Thats what happens when a BYU fan and a Utah fan have to be comps... But the good news is, is that she is still super cool and we can get over it and be best friends again. 

District activity with Distrito Totonicapán. Volleyball, uno, and Marios pizza. The typical Monday in Guatemala.

Oct 17

Hermanita Juanita y Ofelia en la iglesia el Domingo. Amo estas hermanitas!! 

Trying to learn how to make corte.. So difficult! Juana (on the right) does this for her work. And she is only 16 years old! She is so awesome. 

 






Hermana Schiess and I at our Zone Conference. Love her and my zone! 

 

Oct 10

Hola a todos! This week has been super great, but also a little bittersweet. We had changes and that means Hermana Compton left for a different area. It was super sad because she is seriously one of my best friends, so saying bye to her was definately hard. We had a lot of miracles together, and had SO much fun being companions. Butttt, the good news is that my new comp is super awesome too! Her name is Hermana Schiess. She is from Provo, Utah, and she is super funny and a great missionary. We have already seen so many miracles together, so I can't wait to see how many more we will see during the next 6 weeks together. 

So we are still visiting the familia Ramierez, and they are just so great. They are so willing to learn and so willing to make changes in their lives. This week we went with them and they had just bought a pet duck.. Yes, to have as a pet haha. So as we were leaving we asked if they were able to hold it. Hermana Juana started to chase it around the house until she finally got ahold of it. Then she told me to hold it and I got super freaked out. She basically just put it in my hands and I started yelling a little bit and everyone was just laughing at me haha, my comp definately caught the moment on camera perfectly. 

This week we saw a great miracle. Yesterday we were going to a little village that is far from the center of our area. On Sundays, the buses dont run, so we had to walk. Well, lets just say this walk is more like a hike because we have to climb up a mountain, and it took probably about 40 minutes to get there. When we got there we found out the person who we were going to visit moved. So we started contacting houses up there. As we were heading back to center, the member who we were with showed us a house and told us that there were members who were inactive that lived there. So we decided to knock on the door. A mom and her kids answered and they immedately greeted us as if we were their friends. As we began to talk we learned that 3 of her 4 kids were baptized, and that she in the past went to church with them. She invited us in and we were able to share some things with them. They commited to start reading the Book of Mormon as a family everyday, and we will be returning with them this week. It is so cool how the Lord guides us exactly where we need to be in the exact moment we need to be there. 

I love this Gospel and I love being able to share it with everyone. I know that through Christ, and only through him we can experience true happiness and joy. Thank you to everyone for all of your support and prayers. Have a great week!

Hermana Baird

Oct 3, My favorite picture from my mission

Me and a cute little Guatemalan women. What is on my head is a carrying device. People put a bunch of different things in the little bag, and then carry it on their heads like this! This little women was walking with all of this stuff on her back, and so I asked her if I could help her. Well, I am not sure how a little lady who weighs maybe 90 pounds was carrying that because I had a headache afterwards!

Sept 26

This has been such a great week! We started it out with a Zone Conference with our Mission President. I just love it every time we have the opportunity to listen to him and learn from him. I was really impacted by what we talked about. The sacrifice that Christ made for us is literally unimaginable. He loves us SO much, that first of all he wants us to return to his presence, and second, enough to literally give up his life for us so that we are able to do that. I realized that anything I do in this life, really isn´t a sacrifice compared for what the Savior did for each one of us. Being a missionary is such a blessing, not a sacrifice. Being able to testify and teach of Christ each and everyday, and being able to help all of the people here in Guatemala learn of his true Gospel is one of the biggest blessing that I have ever had and I am more and more grateful everyday.

In our mission, we are really trying to focus on complete families more. Hermana Compton and I have been putting goals to find new families everyday. Something we have been trying to do also is increase our faith each day to be able to find these families that the Lord is preparing. Last week we were working hard all week to find one and we didn't. But we kept working and kept having the faith that we would find one. Sunday in the afternoon our prayers were answered. We were able to visit a family who we had contacted earlier in the week. It was a family of 4. Efraín, Juana, Fredy, and Angela. We entered their house and began to teach. At the end of the lesson we felt prompted by the Spirit to invite them to baptism, and the accepted! They told us that they would like to learn more and they were very receptive to our message. When we returned this week they were waiting for us outside of their house. As we shared the message of the Restoration with them, their eyes lit up, and they truly desired to know more. Efrain, the dad, told us that he had no doubt that José Smith was a profeta, and that Jesus Christ appeared to him. It was such a miracle to find this family. The Lord is truly always preparing people to hear of this message.

On Friday we did divisions with the Sisters who live in Quiche. It was such a great experience. There is a Sister there named Hermana Griffiths who just barely got to the mission about 4 weeks ago. That means that she is going through the hard times, that every gringo goes through, of not understanding anything anyone is saying to you in Spanish, and not being able to explain anything to anyone. It brought back a lot of memories when I just got to the mission and couldn't speak a word of Spanish haha. It was such a great experience being able to work with her, because although she maybe couldn't understand or explain herself perfectly, she just testified of Christ and of the church. It was a good reminder to me that the thing most important, not only as missionaries, but members too, is testify. When we do that, the people can truly feel the love of the Lord.

Well, sadly changes are next Tuesday and me and Hermana Compton probably are going to have them. I am so sad because I love her so much and she has been such an amazing companion! We have had so much fun, and also worked really hard together. I am going to miss her!

Anyways, thanks for all your support, and sorry I haven't written in so long! Love you all!
Con mucho amor de Guatemala,

Hermana Baird