Title: The Final Countdown!

Oh my goodness, I leave for Quetzaltenango in 6 days! I could not be any more excited. I am a little nervous due to my broken Spanish, but once I am out in the field I know I will pick up on it much faster because I will be totally immersed. Its likely that my first companion will be a native spanish speaker, which will be so good for me, it will force me to use my Spanish! Pray for her... She is going to need a whole lot of patience once she hears me try to talk! I can´t wait to meet her and my mission president. This is going to be such an amazing experience and I am so ready for it to begin.

This last week at the MTC has been a little different. The week started off great. Last tuesday we got to go to this little mall and shop around for awhile. We mainly just bought candy and snacks--and they had peanut butter!!! I was so happy. Well, unfortunately, I havent been able to eat any of it because a couple of days later I woke up feeling very sick. Turns out I had a stomach virus! I hadn´t ever felt so sick to my stomach before, the nurse put me on a speacial diet to try and calm it. It lasted about 4 or 5 days. Two of the days I was so sick that I couldn´t go to class and had to sleep. Thankfully this happened at the MTC so that my companion was still able to go to class and didn´t just have to stay in the room with me. I am so grateful for her, she has been so extremely patient and loving the last few days with me! Anyways, its all good now, I feel 100x better! Now these next 6 days I am just going to have to study my heart out so that I can make up for the 2 days I lost last week! 

Today was the last time we get to go to the Guatemala City Temple. It has been such a blessing to have the temple just right outside the gates of the MTC. Every morning when we walk down to breakfast we have an awesome view of it, with the mountains right behind it. Today at the temple I was just thinking about how great it is to be a member of the church that Jesus Christ organized. I was thinking about how blessed everyone in this world is to have a brother who would sacrafice his life for us, and suffer for all of his brothers and sisters, so that we all could progress in this life, and live with our Heavenly Father once again. Whenever I think about this sacrafice, it motivates me even more to give all of my might, mind, and strength to God these next 18 months, to show him how thankful I am for what his Son did for all of us. 

I love you all so much and am so grateful for your support!
Have an amazing week,

Hermana Baird<3

PS.  My mission address on my bookmark should read:

Sister Anastasia D. Baird

Guatemala Quetzeltenango Mission

5A Calle 14-35, Zona 3

09001 Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Title: THE BEST WEEK EVER!

Hola mi familia y mi amigos :)

This week has been so awesome!! Last Tuesday we got to start the day with going to the temple which is always amazing. After that we got to leave the MTC and go to the central mercado and central plaza in the heart of Guatemala City! It was so great to finally get out and see parts of Guatemala (in the MTC it kinda feels like we are still in America). The best part about this little adventure was when we went to the central plaza we had two Books of Mormon to hand out. My companion, Hermana Compton, and I prayed about who we should pass them to, and then began the search. We saw a couple sitting with a baby and a stoller and felt like we should talk to them. There names were George and Sharon. They had heard of the Church before, and seen missionaries like us before. George told us that his mom and siblings were actually members of the church, and that he had been thinking that he wanted to learn more about it--so cool!!! We got to know him, his wife, and his three kids for a couple of minutes and then introduced the Book of Mormon to him. We gave them a copy and the seemed so grateful and happy to receive it. They gave us their contact info and we were able to give it to the MTC president so that they could start meeting with missionaries that are in their area! Our next copy we gave to another couple, Rosa and Gary.  They were so kind and willing to listen to our message too. People here are so humble and accepting here it is amazing! They all love to listen to the messages we have. Anyway, we found out that Gary and Rosa were Catholic, so we asked them if they believed in the Bible. They said yes, so we began to explain the Libro de Mormon was an addition to the Bible, its another testimony of Jesus Christ only when he visited the Americas. We had them read a short part of the Introduction and they said, "que bonita!" They seemed to really love it and took a copy and said they were going to read it. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE! It was such a great experience getting a little taste of what I will be doing when I leave the training center and am in the field. I am so excited--only three more weeks :) 

So last week Hermana Compton and I were talking to Hermana Cox who is the MTC President's wife. We were talking about what food we really missed from home and Hermana Compton said chocolate chip cookies. So then Hermana Cox said, okay sometime this week I am going to bake cookies for you two and your roommates. But keep it a secret because its only for the four of you. So on Friday after our exercise time we got to go to her and Presidente Cox's apartment and eat fresh, homemade chocolate chip cookies :) I never thought I would apprecieate cookies so much. It was so fun getting to chat with Presidente and Hermana Cox for a little while. What awesome people with such a strong love for missionaries and the gospel. Since conference was the next morning they encouraged us to think of questions that we wanted answered. My main question was what can I do to become the very best missionary I can be, and that was definately answered! 

Conference was so incredible, and I was so grateful to be able to watch it at the MTC. The spirit here is so strong which made conference even better than I imagined it to be. I had a lot of favorite talks, but one of my most favorites was by President Monson about being a light, and letting your light shine. He gave us six ways that we could do this. Be an example in word and conversation, reach out to all in need with charity, be an example in spirit by having gratitude kindness and goodwill, be and example of faith by trusting the in the Lord, and to be pure. If we do these things we are qualifed to be lights of the World. We will stand out as bright lights in this dark world. As we are lights, we can light and illuminate the paths of others. I loved that. I know that if we do these things it will not only bring us happiness, but those around us! I love President Monson with all my heart, I love the Apostles with all of my heart, and I am so excited for these 3 new Apostles who just got called this weekend. 

I love you all so much, thanks for being such great supports. 

Much love from Guatemala,

Hermana Baird

Semana Numero Dos!

Hi Everyone!

Everything is going so great in Guatemala! I love my mission. I am learning so much about the gospel, and am trying to learn a lot of Spanish but it is still super hard! I am getting better at speaking it, but when people talk to me its hard for me to understand. I love this language though, its becoming so much fun to practice speaking it! 

I am really sad because tomorrow all of the Latinos are leaving for the mission field. I got really close to two of them. One of them was from Honduras and the other from Ecuador. They laughed at my Spanish a lot (I would too, I'm not surprised) but it was so fun practicing with them and learning from them. Hermana Jara, the one from Ecuador, is such an example to me! She has been a member of the church for only 2 years, and decided to go on a mission. She is the only member in her family and has such a strong testimony! When we were sharing our stories with each other we automatically bonded because ours are so similar!  I love all of the Hermanas here, they are so great and such great teachers and examples to me! 

My teacher here is so awesome. His name is Hermano Abadillo. He is from Guatemala City but served his mission in Houston Texas and got back about five months ago. He speaks absolutely perfect English so it gives me hope with my Spanish! He has so many super inspirational stories. Basically all of the Elders in my district have come to the mission right after graduating high school.. So the maturity levels between the Hermanas and Elders is a little bit different.. Okay a lot different, its a little hard for them to be quiet and stay focused on studying! Haha but luckily our teacher knows how to keep them in line. Every time one of them talks in English in class, says dude or any other slang, or is just being a bad example, he gives them a point and they are going to have to go and sing hymns in each classroom by themselves. Thank goodness they have calmed down a little bit since he started that! I love my district though! The elders are awesome even if they are a little outta control sometimes, and the Hermanas are amazing! All of us Hermanas in my district are going to the same mission so hopefully i will get to see them later on in the mission! 

I cannot believe its already been 2 weeks here at the MTC, time is absolutely flying by! In four weeks I will be out in the field. Holy cow. I cannot wait. Thanks so much for all of your support! 

Yo se que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los últimos dios is verdadera. 

Yo se que José Smith es un profeta de Dios.

Yo se que el Libro de Mormón son las palabaras de Dios. 

Yo se que el templo es la casa de Dios y estoy agradecido que is muy cerca a CCM (MTC).

Yo quiero este Iglesia y mi salvador Jesucristo. 

En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen. 

Love,

Hermana Baird

(Staci sent pics to be posted but I was unable to open them, so we will try again next week.  Also she asked that I let you know her computer time is very limited so she may not get back with you right away when you email her.  She loves the support! Lynn)

Week Number One!!!

Wow this first week out as a missionary has been absolutely insane! The first day we arrived in Guatemala at 6:30 am after flying all night.  Right when we arrived at the MTC we had classes and meetings. Luckily we got about a 2 hour nap, but then had to get up and work again until about 8 pm.  It was so exhausting! But, as exhausting as it has been, it has been absolutely amazing! I have been learning so many new things about the gospel, and about myself.  I am attempting to learn Spanish, but it is SO hard! All of our classes are in Spanish and my brain just hurts at the end of every day from using it so much.  Luckily we are blessed with the Gift of Tounges. I know that this is a true gift from the Holy Spirit, because there is no way that my Spanish could improve as much as it has in the last 6 days.  I am so grateful for that gift! 

We already had two lessons with our first investigator at the MTC. They went great! Except for the fact that I don't know much Spanish and the lessons have to be taught in it... Thank goodness my awesome companion is really good at Spanish and can take over the lesson when I get absolutely lost in it! Its been so much fun though, I cannot wait to get into the field and teach real investigators about this true Gospel that can bless them and their families life's more than they can even imagine.  

P-days are literally like Christmas here at the MTC. We work so hard every other day (we have class from about 7 am to 7:30 pm) so its so nice to have a day that we can relax a little. We got to go to the temple this morning and then come back, write our families, and now we have deportes (sports) for the next 4 hours! Tonight the central america area 70 is coming here to talk to us. It is going to be so great. The devotionals and lessons here have been so amazing. The spirit at the MTC is like nothing I have ever felt before. It is so strong all of the time. Everyone is trying to become the best they can be and trying to be more like Christ, making the environment a perfect place for the Spirit to be. It is amazing.

This first week has defintely not been easy, but I know that this is right where I am suppose to be. Guatemala is suppose to be my home for the next 18 months. I know that I am going to go through difficult times and miss my family so much, but the experiences that I am going to be having will make up for those hard experiences that I will encounter. Elder Richard G. Scott promises that missions make us better daughters, mothers, and wives. Knowing that these next 18 months are not only going to be a blessing in my life and those i am serving, but also will be blessing my family and my future family, makes it all so worth it! I love you all and am so grateful for all the love and support! 

Love,

Hermana Baird