This work has a lot of great experiences!

The bus ride home from church, ha ha! 

This past weeks was full of some really cool and really funny experiences!

I'll start with the funny and fun things. The first one was on Wednesday. We were teaching a man named Maxwell whom we have known for a long time. Teaching him was always difficult because he could never find time for us. But he came to church one Sunday, and decided that he will make time for us to come teach. So we have been teaching him quite a bit for a few weeks now and he has been progressing pretty well. Well the funny thing was, that while we were teaching him, he looked down the road and saw three police officers coming from a ways off. Immediately when he saw them, he just took off running and hid behind a container. Well the police walked by and went on down the road. A few minutes later Maxwell came out and said, "They are coming to collect taxes from me but I don't want to pay." When he said that he had this smug grin on his face and I just started laughing so hard. Then his friend who was in a shop down the road came by and said he did the same thing, ha ha. Man these people are funny out here. 

Cleaning off all the mud and grass after soccer, ha ha!

The fun thing that happened was yesterday while we were playing soccer at the old MTC. We started playing at ten and it was super fun. After after about forty-five minutes it started to rain a little. It wasn't too bad so we just kept playing. Well all the sudden, it started to just downpour on us. Some people were wanting to stop playing, but we convinced them all to stay. So we played in a super heavy rain and it was the funnest thing I have done out here (besides playing with monkeys). The field had at least two or three inches everywhere and in some places it was even deeper. It was super muddy so everyone was slipping and falling and it was just a blast. Everyone was just laughing and having a super fun time!

My companion, Elder Kallay, went and baptized these two in his old area on Saturday.

Now for the spiritual things. The girl we have been focusing a lot of our teaching with is Vanessa. She is supposed to be baptized this coming Sunday so we are praying it will still happen. But this last week while teaching her, I asked her if she has received an answer to her prayers yet. She said no. I asked her how has she felt while praying. She said that the other night she had a feeling of relief. I asked her to explain what happened. She said that for a few days she was being ridiculed in school. The school system in Ghana is connected with religion. SO in school, they study and test on certain principles of the gospel. The problem is that they teach it wrong. They teach that Heavenly father is a spirit and that no one can see him and no one has ever seen him. As we have been teaching Vanessa, she has come to learn that is wrong. She takes her Book of Mormon to school to read every day. The teachers and students have been mocking her for having a Book of Mormon and for believing God has a body of flesh and bone. She even said people write in her book and a boy pushed her to the ground and was laughing at her for wanting to be a "Mormon". 

She said she prayed one night for help and guidance and that is when she felt the relief come over her. I told her that is her answer. When I said that, she had this super excited look as she realized God indeed answered her prayers. She has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. She knows the church is true and is completely converted and I believe it will never fail. I am so proud of her and how far she has come. 

Life sometimes comes and tests our faith. Anti-"Mormon" literature and videos are everywhere. The adversary wants us to fall from the faith. But we can't let that happen! We need to gain our own testimonies of the truth and divinity of this church. If we do so, the Lord with strengthen us to endure our challenges. So gain those testimonies and be a light in the darkness of this world!

Sincerely,

Elder Baird

Mom's notes:

1. Elder Baird had to do his emailing on Tuesday because he didn't have power.

2. We took the stickers off our travel trailer and I sent him pictures of it. He said that we should name it, "The Long Long Trailer." Ha ha! :)

3. He thinks that Brendon is growing up too fast. I agree. :(

4. He claims that he invented wearing goggles when cutting onions. What do you think family? Does he get the credit. (I sent a picture of Justin cutting onions with them on).

5. He is excited that Devin and Ally are coming to Ghana in December! :)

6. Elder Baird says that his release date is listed as October 3rd, 2019. If he is released then, it is exactly a year from today. :) He says that they have it mapped out with the transfers that way but things can change if transfers get moved around. It they do a nine week transfer instead of six then his release date will be October 23rd.

7. The member who will be called to serve with Elder Baird for the last three weeks of this transfer has a mission call to serve in the Congo an he will leave on November 23rd. He is super excited to go. He says that they already know each other and get a long really well. He is twenty-three.

8. He will get to watch General Conference this weekend.

9. This week he will be doing an exchange and a zone conference. He said that he will make sure that Sister Keyes takes his picture for me. :)