Man! Nine months down!

This little girl, on Sunday, wouldn't let me leave so our bishop's wife had to grab her as we sneaked out the back, ha ha ha.

Nine months have flown by! I don't even know where the time has gone. 

This last week,was super hard. We just couldn't seem to find any success. I was down and discouraged for about half of the week and by Wednesday I had enough. I called my trainer and ranted to him for a bit and I was so frustrated. I was comparing myself to other missionaries because for the past nine months I have had the same struggle of getting people to come to church. In Akatsi it was because of the distance, in this area, it is the exact same. It's very far to travel. So as I talked with my trainer he just told me, "Give it to the Lord and ask him for help." SO I did. I went inside and knelt down and poured out my heart to the Lord. I asked for help, guidance and many other things. 

I was taking a picture of this street, because I thought it looked cool, 

but my goofy companion decided to jump in, ha ha.

The next day, I told my companion that we are going to explore a new area that we have never been in. As we were doing that, I was having a lot of doubts about if this is was the area that we should be trying to find people in. We passed by a shop and there were three ladies in it and I noticed that they were looking at us with some interest. But I walked right on past them. Then my companion says to me, "Elder Baird, I think we need to talk to those people." That surprised me so I said, "Nah, let's go try somewhere else." He looked at me dead in the eyes and said, "Let's have the faith that these are the people that the Lord is directing us to." SO I decided to follow him. Well sure enough, one lady was extremely interested and wants to continue learning, and the other two ladies, one mother and one daughter, told me that the father was a member from Texas and that he loves the church so very much. In that moment, I was really chastened and learned a wonderful lesson. I had asked the Lord for direction, he gave it, and I didn't follow it. This experience has taught me that I  need to follow his guidance when he gives it to me and never, ever think twice. 

Our stake did a blood drive on Saturday. Before we went, we asked our mission president for permission. He said, "If Jehovah Witness, no. If Mormon, yes." I laughed pretty hard at that, ha ha. If any of you know me really well, you know that I hate needles with a passion. So it was quite the endeavor for me to let them stick that giant needle in my arm, ha ha.

Then to add to all of this, yesterday was Sunday and we didn't have anyone come to church once again. I was pretty sad about it. But during the sacrament I prayed to please help someone to come who will be willing to learn and to accept the truth. After church we were talking with one of the members who is eighteen. He asked us if we could help him find his membership record so he can move them. We couldn't find them. As we were discussing this, we found out that he was baptized four years ago, but he was NEVER CONFIRMED! So we went straight to the bishop and he told us, "Well Elders, it looks like you are having a baptism this week." So technically, he isn't our convert but we are the ones who have been given the opportunity to help him learn everything again and to baptize him. That was such a miracle to me!

I need to stop giving the youth my camera, ha ha.

And THEN! Something else had happened! After church, we were visiting with the bishop's wife about a few things when a girl walked by and the bishops wife asked us, "When are you going to baptize that girl?" I was like, "What?? SHE'S NOT A MEMBER?? SHE HAS BEEN COMING HERE FOR 2 MONTHS??" So it turns out, that the young women had never informed us that she was an investigator all this time. As we talked to her, we learned that she has wanted to be a member for a really long time but no one told her that she would need to meet with us. SO, the Lord answered my prayer, he indeed did bring someone to church that was ready to accept the truth. We just didn't know it.

Zone Conference 

So in the end of it all, the Lord truly did bless us this past week and it was been so wonderful to witness it happening. I love this work! I truly do. It is the greatest work on the face of the earth and we all need to be engaged in it. There are so many people we need to help to find it. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Elder Baird

Playing soccer with a $5.00 pair of cleats, ha ha. Didn't work out so well...

Mom's notes:

1. He was late emailing today because he was stuck in traffic in Ashaiman. They had a multi-zone activity of soccer for their p-day.

2. He sent this story about playing soccer to his Dad, "I have a wonderful story for you today. We had a multi -zone activity playing soccer. It was zone vs. zone. Each team played three games. The first game my zone wouldn't let me play, (the Africans were in charge) and we lost. The second game they let me play the first half and,  literally the first time I touched the ball I went and scored, ha ha. They were all pretty shocked, ha ha. Then they kicked me out in the second half to let someone who they thought was better play. Well long story short, they lost that game too. In the third game I scored a header, and then got another goal making that three for the day. Someone tried taking me out but one of the Africans said, "He is literally the only person on this team to score today so let him stay." So it was pretty funny. Everyone was quite surprised that this little white American could play soccer. They all were telling me that they are having me play on their team from now on,  ha ha. Don't underestimate the Baird's. :)

3. One of the Elders in his apartment leaves food out so he is killing roaches all the time. I told him that he could go into pest control when he gets home. He said, "Nahhhhh."

4. He feels like he is becoming close friends with his new companion. He said that his companion, "truly loves the Book of Mormon" and that his, "testimony of it is so strong."

5. This coming Saturday, they will be helping with a big ward activity. They are teaching some homemaking skills and some other things.

6. He said that their area is, "pretty dang big!) and they are getting to know the ward better.

7. He said that the weather has been really mild lately. He said that it has been, "super cloudy and so the sun hasn't been bad at all."