So this week has been pretty exciting! Our mission was
selected to receive iPads! So i am typing this on an iPad!
Monday: So after dinner our appointment canceled so we
decided to go find some more people to teach. As we were walking around, we
started talking to a man as he was fixing up part of his truck. So in talking
with this man we come to find out that he was baptized years ago and is now
less active. We started to talk to him and his wife and we were able to set an
appointment to return! It was so great!
Wednesday: Exchange! I slept on the floor in the tiny
apartment. I slept perpendicular to a hallway and within the doorway of the
bedroom and within the doorway of the study room. I slept ok... My back has
been tight recently, probably stress, but sleeping on the floor didn't help. I
just remember how for like the last month of school, even through finals and
graduation, i was able to sleep on the floor like it was nothing. Then again,
it was my floor. We did studies then had district meeting. I started getting
heavy eyes during the meeting. Usually, on exchanges, you go to bed a little
bit later than usual. Especially if you are good friends with the other
missionaries. So, I was tired on Wednesday. After district meeting, we did some
service at a food bank setting up food on tables for people to get a small
supply. We then went across town to see a new investigator. He was really cool
and has a ton of faith and potential. He knows that great spiritual strength and
"armor" can be found from reading the Bible and Book of Mormon, and
from praying every day. After, we did some former hunting and found a potential
investigator that those Elders set an appointment to visit later. We had dinner
back at the apartment. We went out to this small town area called Hurley. It is
super tiny! Anyway, they drove me down the main street that had a bar, a police
office with one cop car, and many closed down and rundown businesses. Outside
of the only running business, the feed shop, there was an ancient Coca-Cola
machine. There was also another ancient soda machine. I went up and pressed a
button hoping for a soda to appear. I pressed the button with the handwritten
sign, "Dr. Pepper". I heard a buzzing, I wished with all my might, and
I heard some tumbling, then a can of Dr. Pepper appeared! And yes, I checked
the expiration date just to be sure it was safe and it was good! We then made
the drive back to Lordsburg on a nice beautiful dirt road. It was awesome and
we got to see some great sunsets! I took pictures.
Thursday: This morning, we met with the old less active man
we met on Monday night. We had a very interesting lesson. The lesson was
focused on the Word of Wisdom, in the unplanned manner of course, and it was
very interesting. We were guided and not confounded. He needs to read the
scriptures and attend church. We had lunch then visited another less active man
and had a very nice talk with him. After the lesson, we went to explore a bit
of our area to find some good areas to find more people to teach. We then had
to go to the church to set up our iPads! It was so awkward holding an iPad...
It is really cool what we are going to be able to do for studies in the
mornings, for teaching our investigators, and for missionary work in a
logistical sense. The main part is learning how to be disciples in the digital
age. This process is a time to "immunize" from the bad in the media
world. Technology is only a tool, and like a pen or pencil, it can be used for
either good or evil. As missionaries with iPads, we are making good and
wholesome technology habits to be able to transfer or carryover to post mission
life. We then had dinner with a family from the branch but had to leave quickly
to get to a meeting with a member of the stake presidency. We were able to talk
about goals and discuss how we as zone leaders and faithful missionaries can be
unified with the stake presidency. We cover, in our zone, 2 stakes. We have 7
missionary companionships in the Silver City stake and 3 companionships in the
Duncan Arizona stake. After our meeting, we were able to have a great lesson
with our main investigator family. They are experiencing a very interesting
time. As they try harder and harder to prepare for baptism, they find that it
is as if someone is throwing things in the way. Small challenges arise and they
described it as this, "You are trying to walk down a hallway but someone
keeps throwing chairs in the way." We are praying hard and working hard to
help them overcome.
Friday: We had a nice time playing ultimate frisbee for a
bit with other missionaries during our exercise time. We did studies and I
realized that I didn't have any content downloaded on my iPad. So we went to
the church building during lunch so that I could download some content. We
later tried to visit a less active man but he wasn't home. We then returned to
our apartment to do some weekly planning, the longest planning session we do as
missionaries. We average about 3-5 hours. We had dinner with a nice member
family then rushed to our appointment across town only to find that they didn't
answer the door. We knocked a bit then went to a lesson with the young man that
we met Monday evening. It was great! He loves talking to the missionaries and
remember a ton from his past lessons. After, we had an appointment set with our
main investigator family. We knocked a few times, no answer. Elder Tyler had to
go to the bathroom so we stopped at the nearest gas station. On our way out we
sent a text to the family saying that we hope everything is ok. They responded
immediately and said to come back and that they were on a walk just down the
street. Therefore, inspired bathroom stop! We were able to have a nice lesson
with them and we can see that they are doing ok but we all know they need to
get to church if they want to overcome these challenges.
Saturday: This morning we helped clean the church and then
did some service for a member. We painted. And me, being the tallest there, I
was chosen to paint the ceiling. It went really well. A picture will be
included. We then came home, washed all the paint off, and finished our
studies. We then took the nice drive south, basically to the boarder, to visit
a less active woman in Columbus. She had 4 very nice dogs that we brushed as we
shared a message and talked. She is very kind and funny. She wants to go to the
temple but she knows that she needs to attend church more. This is what we
love, someone that has a goal and desire and someone that knows what they need
to do to achieve that goal. We can do what we can to help her achieve the goal
as much as we can but ultimately it is up to her to attend church. We then
drove back to Deming and helped the branch president load a trailer to help a
woman move. We were given money for dinner so we filled our craving of pizza
with Domino's pizza. We then went to see a potential that was driving away as
we walked up. They stopped and we talked for a second, just long enough for
them to say that they are not interested. We then pressed on and went to pick
up a young man to go with us to our next lesson. We went to the next lesson,
knocked, and no answer. It was quite odd because this was the young former
investigator we talked to the night before. So we pressed on even more, carry
on, carry on, carry on, and we went to an apartment complex to contact some
referrals from the sisters. The actual referral said he was no longer
interested. We then were able to have a lesson with a nice woman, then a very
very loud drunk man that gave Elder Tyler a hug (he also let out a HUGE breath
of stinky BudLight breath in Elder Tyler's face during the hug), and lastly, a
young man sitting at a picnic table. We hope they felt the spirit and that they
will act on the impressions they received and will receive to learn more about
the true restored gospel.
Sunday: We went down to the group meeting in Columbus. It
was only me, Elder Tyler, and Bro. Nicoll for the first 15 minutes. Then, a
less active woman with her 4 kids drove up! It was awesome! We had a nice
little sacrament meeting then a little class about the commandments. We then
went to our ward. We had a great sacrament meeting, Elder Tyler spoke about
Priesthood. We then sat in the class with the youth for Sunday school. It was a
great class about following spiritual promptings. Then we had a nice meeting
combined with all the adults. We had a nice dinner at home then went to a YSA
activity. Then with Sunday night calls our zone found 17 news this past week!
Hope you all had a great week! Thank you all for your
prayers, letters, thoughts, and everything!
Love,
Elder Dallin Baker
(Pictures of the dog bite and offending dog)
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