Another fun week!

Let me start off by saying I forgot to bring my camera cord so I don't have any pictures this week.... sorry guys! But I will get some good ones for next week don't worry!

This past week with my new companion was really interesting! I will start with a funny/scary story ha ha. Maybe I shouldn't send this so my mom doesn't read it. 

(Mom, this next part you can just skip over but don't worry:)) 

I was going to a baptismal interview with the other elders in our apartment. I was biking on the side of a busy road, I was on a dirt section and the road was a little higher so there was a small lip that I had to go over to get back onto the road. As I was going over it, I hit a rock that I didn't see because it was dark. It turned my tire completely sideways and I lost control and started to fall. When I was falling, I could of sure there was a car right behind me so I thought I was going to get hit. I fell right in the middle of the road right on my back. I looked up as quick as I could to see if there were any cars coming. Surprisingly, there wasn't one coming! Honestly I was completely surprised! The road we were on was so busy all night that there was break in the line of cars, but as I fell, I guess there was a very big gap. I can honestly say that the Lord was watching over me. The Lord really does protect his missionaries and I am really thankful that I wasn't harmed. 

(OK you can read now mom. :))

We had a super cool experience while contacting on Friday. We were biking around and we passed by a shop that I have passed by almost every day since I have been in this area. I had met the man who works there before because Elder Blanchard bought some things from him. After passing him by about 40 yards my companion said, "What about that guy in the shop we just passed?" I had little interest in going to see him but I just went with it because he felt like we should go. We went in and started talking to him for about ten  minutes and he really didn't have much interest to learn with us. 

Just then the rain started to come down really, really hard. A car pulled up and two ladies got out. The first one that got out saw us in the shop and yelled "Elders! How are you?? I am from the Bethlehem ward in Ashaiman!" I was shocked. She turned out to be the daughter of the man we were visiting. At that moment I realized, the Lord wanted us to go there. If we didn't stop we would not have met her there and we would not have been able to discuss some things with her and her father. Because of that, I think that her father has some interest in the church. 

Another really cool experience was on Saturday.  We had our first lesson in the morning. We were teaching some girls about the apostasy and how the church was taken from the earth. I asked my companion to teach it and he was very nervous. He was struggling with what words to say, what scriptures to use and so on. It was his first time teaching on his own. Afterwords, I just talked to him and encouraged him that he will do better. That he just needs to rely on the Spirit. 

The next lesson we went to, we were teaching the same thing.  I gave him the opportunity to teach the same thing again and to just see how he would do. Well all the sudden, he started teaching beautifully! I don't know where it came from! He didn't study anything in between the lessons. We didn't talk about anything specific. He just started teaching perfectly! I was so amazed! After the lesson I said, "Did you feel that??" and he said, "Man the spirit was there!" I was so amazed that had happened. He told me that he didn't know what he was saying. He just started talking and felt the words just appearing in his mind and so he just went on talking. 

The spirit works miracles everyone. It really does. I want to encourage you all really strengthen yourself spiritually in order to hear the promptings of the spirit at all times in your lives. Trust me, it will help.:) I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Elder Baird

Mom's notes:

1. He loves his new companion, Brother Samuel, and he is very happy with how training is going. Brother Samuel loves to work and he is a really fun guy to be with. He has three sisters.

2. Two weeks left until the next transfer. He said that this week they are going to the American ladies house for dinner, renewing their government ID because it expires after one year and they have choir practice for the Christmas party. :)

3. He thinks that 2 hour church will really help the people where he is. This was his reasoning, "A lot of people have a hard time staying for so long, ha ha. Our church is at 8:00 am and the distance is far. So now we will start at 10:00 am so that members will have a lot more time to come to church.

4. We had a man from his ward come and visit us for three days. We had such a great time with him. He is a great example to our family. I hope that he will come again. Here are some pictures from our visit. His name is Victor Ubakaeze. He is the Elders Quorum President in Elder Baird's ward.