It's the start of 2019! 1-7-2019

 We found a cool river/stream in our area so I decided to just take a couple pictures of it. ha ha

I want to start off by saying, that this year is beginning pretty well! Our area is seeing some real progress!

SO this past week we had a lot of fun and we had some cool things happen. First we went over to our Bishops house to play KanJam (a frisbee game my family sent me). We made dinner and I made some Reese's brownies my family had sent me. It was such a blast! My companion and I shared a spiritual message at the end, but I will talk about that later in my email. 

We really enjoyed the Reese's! Especially Elder Eliason. :)

On Friday I had the chance to go on an exchange with none other than my old companion Elder Bidi! It was quite a fun time! It was really great to talk about all the fun memories and experiences we had in Akatsi together! We gave a super cool lesson. We met a guy (I forgot his name) and asked if we could share a short message with him. We started the discussion like usual and then we began talking about the first topic in the first lesson. We were talking about how Christ had built his church while he was on the earth and then the man that we were teaching all of a sudden just lit up. He seemed sooooo interested in what we were saying! We told him about how the church collapsed due to the wickedness of the people and because of the death of Christ's apostles. 

Elder Bidi asked him what would need to happen in order for the church to come back. The man answered perfectly, he said, "God will need to call a true prophet to bring back the correct teaching." We were able to testify that this is indeed what has happened. Then we closed the lesson. We had been there for a while and we had someone else to see but you could tell he was so excited to find out how the church had come back! He took the pamphlet and started reading through it right as we left. Sadly, I probably won't get to see him progress but I can tell you that the Spirit touched his heart and It had worked in him.

Today my companion and I were just sitting and talking after cleaning up the apartment and I found him looking at me funny. So I took a picture, ha ha!

This is a pretty interesting story for you guys, ha ha. On Christmas day Elder Eliason and I ran into a super drunk guy who was just talking nonsense. He was crying then happy, and then crying and happy again. We were just like let's get out of here, ha ha. We gave him a pamphlet and left and he was just walking away shouting hallelujah and other crazy things. Well you will never guess that he came to church yesterday! He walked into the church and my jaw just dropped! I couldn't believe that he actually came! We didn't talk to him much because he left right after sacrament meeting but he seemed like he really liked it! SO you never know what impact you have on people even when they seem crazy and weird, ha ha!

Okay so I now want to tell you a little bit about the spiritual thought that I shared with my Bishop and his family. I read to them Ether 3:1. In that chapter it talks about how the brother of Jared made sixteen glass stones and he carried them up to the top of a mountain. He asked the Lord to put light in them. The Lord in the previous chapter had told him that he can ask Him to do anything. I am so impressed that the brother of Jared made something by himself and then he asked the Lord to put light in it.

Why didn't he just tell the Lord to make the stones and to put light in it too? Why did he walk all the way to the top of a high mountain instead of asking the Lord to do it right where he was? I am sure carrying those sixteen stones up the mountain wasn't very easy on his hands, ha ha. Well, in short, my spiritual thought was this:  the brother of Jared made the stones to show to the Lord that he was willing to work for the miracle and he showed the Lord how faithful he was. He went to the top of the mountain and he carried those stones. I think that he did this to separate himself from the world.

I talked about how this applies to us today. How many of us pray while we are lying in bed? How many of us pray where there are distractions? How many of us pray for the Lord to do everything for us? In our lives, we need to remove all the distractions that we can. We need to find a place where we can hear the Lord's voice or to feel of His Spirit. We need to come before the Lord with a plan. We shouldn't just ask Him to do everything for us. We need to show that we are willing to work for the help that we receive. Come with your own ideas to the Lord and then ask Him what He thinks. Don't just tell Him what you want and expect to get it. Make the Lord's job a bit easier by putting some of your own effort into it. Prepare before you pray. 

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful year! :)

Sincerely,

Elder Baird 

Mom's notes:

1. He found a bunch of new people to teach this week and he visited a lot of members. :)

2. He has been working out and he feels much healthier. His High School track coach sent him a workout to do. Thanks Coach Talley.

3. It was good for him to get to go on splits with his trainer, Elder Bidi.