August 15

It has been another week of miracles here in Toto! First of all, I went to my first Consejo de Líderes and it was amazing. Its where all of the Zone Leaders and Hermana Leaders go and listen to our mission President. It was so amazing, the spirit was so strong, and I learned SO much. We learned a lot about our desires, and if we put our desires in line with the desires of the Lord, we will find out that we can have a lot more success. We also talked a lot about faith. And how in order to reach our desires we need to have faith and hope that the Lord will help us. He has promised to help us as long as we are always trying to keep his commandments. Our mission president talked a lot about obedience. For those of you who have served a mission, you know that obedience is one of the most, if not the most, important thing. We need to be obedient so that the Holy Spirit can be with us. If we do one thing wrong, we are offending the Spirit, and its hard to have it with us when we teach. After consejo, my companion and I made the commitment to be exactly obedient in everything! I have truly seen and felt the difference this week because of this. We saw so many miracles, and were truly led by the Spirit in our lesson, and while trying to find new people to teach. I had a very special experience on Friday. We went to a lesson with an investigator who we had just started teaching. We had only taught him one time and really didn't know too much about him still. We got to his house planning on teaching a lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we started talking to him we felt quickly that we should not talk about that, but that we needed to talk about repentance and baptism. A scripture came to my mind, it was a scripture about the final judgement. I opened up my Book of Mormon and I knew exactly what verses he needed to read. I asked him to please read the 4 verses, and as he began reading I realized those were not the scriptures about the topic I was thinking. It was a scripture that talked exactly about Repentance, and was a scripture that was absolutely perfect for the situation. I was in complete shock. This scripture came very clearly to my mind, and I didn't even realize it was different than what I had been thinking. The Lord truly helps us in life if we are worthy to have the Spirit to be with us. This experience testified that to me. The spirit puts the exact words in our mouths, and the exact ideas that we need to share in our minds. The mission is so amazing, and I know I always say this, but I have learned so much, and am so excited to keep on learning. I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

xoxoxo
Hermana Baird

August 8

Okay so this week was just amazing and full of so many exciting and joyful things! First of all on Thursday we got to go to the temple. This is something so special because we only get to go every 6 months. When we got there one of the first people I saw was a Sister named Paty Socop. She was one of my favorite people in my other ward, Baúl, so I was so exciting to see her! Then the next person I saw was the Bishop´s wife from Baúl too! Another one of my all time favorite people. As we were in the temple I was pondering a lot about my mission up to this point, and was just filled with love and gratitude because Heavenly Father has put so many amazing people in my path that have made it so much fun to work hard with. As we left the temple, Bishop Willy, from Baúl was outside waiting for his wife!! We took some pictures and were able to catch up some. It was such a great day to be able to go to the House of the Lord and to see so many people that I love so much. 

Yesterday we had an experiencia that I would like to share also. On Saturday, we had a day where we just kind of felt down. But something that I have learned is when you start feeling like that, the only thing to help you out is to just keep working, but harder! Yesterday we were working and we felt a ton better. We stopped by this place that sells tortillas to talk with the people there. There were two girls who started talking to us, Graciela and Sandra. We asked if we could share a video about Jesus Christ with them and the gladly accepted. The invited us in and we starting to share a message with them. At the end of the lesson we felt the spirit so strong. We invited them to be baptized, and they both said that they wanted to be. We asked Graciela why she would like to be, and she told us that she felt like what we had talked about was true and that she felt that we were sent to her house because she needed help. She told us that she has been feeling really sad lately and really alone:her family all lives about 2 hours away, and she just lives with her sister and cousin to sell tortillas. She told us she knew that we were there to help her and that she felt so happy that we came to visit her. We know that the gospel is going to bless her life so much and we are so happy that our Heavenly Father placed them in our path.

Today was an amazing day too! We had a zone activity which is always fun. But then, my favorite family ever came to visit us! THE FAMILIA SANCHEZ! They came all the way to Toto from Xela to take us out to lunch and to visit with us. Jaime Sanchez, actually traveled to the states a couple of weeks ago and was able to meet my mom, stepdad, and our horses so he was able to show me all the pics they took and catch me up on everything. It was such a great day! 

I love the mission so so much. Although there are times where it can be the hardest thing that I have ever done, the miracles, and the tender mercies make up for it all! This week my heart has been filled with so much love and so much happiness. I love Guatemala and I love the people here. This place truly feels like my home and I am just so grateful for all of the experiences I have had in these past 10 months. 

Thanks for all the support! 

xoxoxox

Una hermana de nuestro barrio quien es la mejor! 

Y mi querida compañera :)

July 18

Well this last week has been a pretty exciting one. I had transfers! I was so sad to leave my area because I really have a lot of love for those people in theat ward, but I know that they are my family now and I will see them all again soon! The sadness passed quickly though, because my new area and new comp are super awesome! Its actually funny because my comp is Hermana Compton again! She was my comp in the MTC so we already know basically everything about each other and are learning quickly how to work together here in the field. 

My new area is amazing! I am in a part of guatemala called Totonicapan. This place is way different than anything I have ever seen. Almost everyone is dressed in the typical clothing here called ´corte´. They also speak another language which is called K´iche. Its nothing like spanish! Luckily almost everyone speaks both languages so we can still comunicate with them, but some of the older people dont understand spanish very well so we will have to bring translators with us. Its super fun, we are trying to learn a little bit of it, but holy cow its so hard. I have never heard anything like it before. We have about 5 aldeas (I think that means village in English) in our area. They are little villages up in the mountains that are super far from centro, where we live. Its so awesome because so many people have never even heard of the church, so there is just so much work to be done here! 

I love this work and I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for the oportunity to serve the people here in Toto! Amo a toto! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Baird

Hermana Compton and I! 

 Hermanas in our district! 

 An aldea in our beautiful area!

 The view from my desk! So pretty! 

It's been awhile....

Ahhh I havent written a blog in forever but I am going to just update on the most important stuff.. First of all, Alejandro got baptized! I am going to attach what i sent to my mission president about Alejandro so you guys can get to know him a little too:

"Hola Presidente Smith,

This week was seriously great. We have an investigator named Alejandro who is 17. We actually found him when we were doing a service project for the semana de la familia. Him and his mom passed by and were asking what organization we were. We talked with them for a bit and then got there info. We kept trying to call and pass by their house to put a appointment, but never could find them, and when we talked to them on the phone they said they were about to leave and didnt know when we could visit them. So one day we finally were able to put an appointment and when we got their they werent there. As we were leaving we found them walking back to their house. We started to talk and they were very straight forward with us and told us that they were evangelicos and that the day they talked to us they had no idea that we were Mormons. They said they were just looking for work for their son, and good friends for him, so thats why they were interested when they saw us. We were with the mission leader of the stake and he started to explain that we would jsut like to visit them and explain who we are and what we believe without any comittment. We also explained mutual and how Alejandro could meet knew friends that have good values. They accepted and we started to visit them. He went to every single mutual since we invited him, but he didnt want to go to church sunday because he went to his other. We were going slowly with him because of what they had told us. Well a couple of saturdays ago we visited him and invited him to church again, and he said yes he wanted to go! We were super excited and that same day at church he met with the Bishop and asked him how he could become an official member of the church. So the next day we visited him and we put a baptism date, and he is getting baptized this thursday!! We are so happy for him. Yesterday we had a missionary activity for all of the young men and women in the stake. It was a talk and then we left with the kids and contacted. When we got back to the church we had a testimony meeting and alejandro bore his testimony in front of everyone. Elder Fuentes was in his group and said that he was super awesome and the kid who was contacting the most people in his group. We are so excited for him and its truly amazing how the Lord prepares people and then uses us as intraments to bring them to the gospel."

So yeah, alejandro is super awesome, and he got baptized this Thursday! The baptism was amazing and the spirit was so strong. He now wants to start getting ready for his mission, so we are super excited for him.

This week we had a super cool experience. There was a lady outside her house cutting flowers and I had this super strong feeling to talk to her.. We kept walking cuz my comp was on the phone but I told her that I really wanted to talk to that lady so when we go back we need to knock on her door. Well when we had finished lunch and were on our way back she was outside still doing yard work. We asked if we could help and we started pulling weeeds with her. After we were able to share something with her and she was super receptive to us. The next appointment she told us that she had a dream that she wanted to share with us. (People here in guate have a serious gift.. There dreams are amazing! Everyone has super religious dreams) She told us that in her dream Jesus came and there were tons of people that were wearing white and rising up to heaven. She was stuck on the ground, she really wanted to start to rise but couldnt. She prayed and prayed and God told her she wasnt prepared. There were then two gringas (white people) who came up to here and started talking and she new in that moment God was giving her another oportunity. It was super cool and we were able to explain to her that it isnt a coincidence that we were there with her--two gringas just like her dream, who were hear to help her come to know God better. She told us she knew it wasnt a coincidence and when she saw us in the street she felt like she needed to talk with us, and was happy when we started talking to her. I love being a missionary, I love guatemala, and I LOVE these people so much!

Much love from Guate,
Hermana Baird                                  new comp

last comp and comp from MTC

                                                              Alejandro

volcano eruption

May 23

Wow I feel like it has been forever since I have written a blog-we have been super super busy! But everything is going just great and I am still enjoying my mission a ton. I am really enjoying my new area and we are working as hard as we can here. It is an area that hasnt had a baptism in almost a year, so we are really searching for those who are prepared and are waiting to receive the blessings of the true gospel! Right now in these last couple of weeks we have found a lot of people who are extremely positive and interested in the gospel. It is so rewarding to see how when these people learn of the gospel, we can see the change in them, and we can see how much happier they are. 

Two weeks ago was "Semana de la familia" it means Family Week. There were various activities throughout the week for all of the community, and Saturday we did a community service project. We went to an area where many people pass by everyday, where there is a ton of trash. Here in Guatemala litering is a huge problem, and its super sad because the country is so beautiful, but there is trash everywhere! So anyways we started at 7am and collected trash until about 11. We filled 100+ big black garbage bags. It was super cool because a lot of people passed by us and asked what program we were with, and we were able to talk a little bit about the church. Some people joined in with us, and others we were able to get their information and are now teaching them. It was an experiencia muy bonita and we are hoping to do something like it again soon! 

I am trying to enjoy every minute of every day here in the mission because time is seriously SO fast! I am basically half way through my mission, and i literally feel like I just got here last week. Its such a priviledge to be able to dedicate all of my time right now to the Lord, and to be able to dedicate all of my time to serving others. There are definiately hard times during these 18 months, but the good times over power every sad, hard, discouraging moment that we have.  I love guatemala and all of these humble, amazing people here. I love that I have this opportunity to be here and bring the life-changing messege to these people: that our Heavenly Father has restored the Church of Jesus Christ here in the tierra, and that Jesus Christ is at the head of this church guiding our beloved prophet and apostoles. I am so greatful for each and everyone of you and the support that I have recieved from you all. 

Con mucho amor de Guatemala,
 Hermana Baird

  Cute little hermanas that we are teaching! They are from a place where they speak a language called Quiche. But luckily they can speak spanish too :) This is the clothing typical here in Guatemala. Its called "Corte". Its superrrr expensive, for the shirt at the skirt it ranges from about 300-700 dollars! 

Pictures from service project

As of June 11, all blogs are entered:)

Early May Photos

View walking each day

Picture outside apartment

After district activity-soccer with Elders

El Baul

El Baul

Wooo I am now in my second area! I am slowly getting adjusted, it feels a little like I am restarting my mission because I don't know anyone and never know where I am, but little by little I'm getting used to it! I am now in Quetzaltenango and am in area that is called Baul because Mt. Baul is right next to us. Its super pretty. Its actually super cold here and has rained everyday since I have gotten here. But I am loving it! 

The members in this ward are superrrr awesome and love missionary work which is great great news for us! There is a family in this ward who the dad was a mission president, the temple President here in Xela, and a 70. And this last general conference one of his sons was just called as a 70! Its awesome to see how strong the members are here in Quetzaltenango. Well yesterday was my first Sunday and my companion told me that I would be sharing my testimony during sacrament. I was fine with that until we were sitting in sacrament before church and a 70 walked in! I got super nervous because I was going to have to talk in front of a 70 haha but it was all good, and I don't think I slaughtered my Spanish too bad. It was a great opportunity to be able to hear from on of the leaders of the church and increase my faith a little more. 

My new comp is awesome! Her name is Hermana Ruiz and she is from Honduras. She reminds me in some ways of my first comp Hermana Rodriguez which is great. :) She has 3 months in the mission, and is already a super awesome missionary. I feel blessed to have her as my companion! 

Love you all so much! And just a reminder, I love hearing from you guys so write me! anastasia.baird@myldsmail.net. 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Baird