Another baptism!

This is the kid I was able to baptize. His name is Ericson and he is 9 years old. After the baptism, and when we were all leaving he came and gave me a huge hug. He had the biggest smile on his face. Man, it was quite wonderful to experience that. :)

We were finally able to have another baptism! This one was much deserved, ha ha!

I'll start off by saying that this area is really difficult, ha ha. But we are making slow progress which is such a blessing. We have been teaching some new people who have been showing some real progress. First off we have Desmond. Man he has been stubborn, ha ha. Finally, he is now coming to church. Then we have Vanessa who is so stinking smart and she is so willing to learn. She came to an activity on Thursday, a wedding on Saturday, and then church on Sunday! This girl is amazing! 

We were invited to attend a wedding in our ward. It was a very short and a simple one but it was also very spiritual. It was a super fun experience! The bride knows Brayden Kowal very well!

This past Thursday, we had a missionary fireside that my companion and I were in charge of. We decided that we should watch a movie about missionary work. So we watched the Other Side of Heaven. The fireside was a huge success. Our Bishop just kept saying thank you to us because he was so proud of how we did the fireside. We didn't just watch the movie, we would stop it, have a discussion for a bit and it was so amazing. The spirit really was there. Desmond and Vanessa both came and said that they want to be missionaries now and they said they had felt something while watching the movie. The spirit really does work wonders everyone!

I had a few other things happen this past week but I forgot my journal so I can't remember them, ha ha! I will put them in my letter next week!

Good old banku and Occro soup! (or AKA snot soup ha ha)

This past week has been very funny though. A lot of the ward members have been telling us how much they love my companion and I. They keep saying we are the best set of missionaries they have seen in this area. My bishop has even said it multiple times to us. I am really going to miss this ward when I have to leave it. The people here are just so kind and generous and it is truly amazing to feel their love for us. 

We were waiting for a lesson and my companion accidentally fell asleep while waiting, ha ha ha. Man, this work is really exhausting. :)

Lastly, I was giving my testimony yesterday because I now love any opportunity I get to go up and share it with the ward, ha ha. While I was giving it, a thought came into my head and it is a line from the, "Other Side of Heaven." In one part of the movie they are stranded in the ocean. They are in their sailboat without any wind. So they go into a row boat and started rowing by hand to go to an Island. Well while they were talking the man said a very profound statement that I will never forget and it is now my motto. The missionary asks the man why he is paddling such a far distance. The man responds with this, "I didn't choose to start serving the Lord until I was old, so now, I can be his wind." That's not the perfect quote, ha ha, but you get the idea. Let's all be the Lord's wind that he is talking about. Instead of us waiting for the Lord to give us an opportunity to serve or to help someone, let's go out there and do it on our own. Then the blessings will be poured out upon us.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week:)

Sincerely,

Elder Baird

Mom's notes:

1. Elder Baird was able to baptize that cute 9 year old on his brother Kamdon's 9th birthday. Pretty cool! They will confirm him this upcoming Sunday.

2. For p-day they went to the mall again and "got a bunch of doughnuts, ha ha, and it was great!"

3. The investigators that seem serious about learning right now are: Vanessa, Desmond, Mercy and Harry.

4. He can't explain what the "snot soup" tastes like but he says it is "really good though."

5. He is "way" more used to the heat and it doesn't bother him much anymore. He said that it has been pretty cool recently though.

6. He said that, "Planting seeds is what we are here to do. :) Sometimes we are rewarded with seeing the outcome but not very often. :)"