Pioneer Day & First Talk

Hey so this week was pretty good! We did a lot of work around the evening hours and have plenty of mosquito bites to show for it!

Monday: We had Pday and played volleyball, six square(like 4 square), and were ambushed by water balloons. We went to thrift stores to find things to wear for the pioneer day activity this Saturday. Elder Elton had some good finds. We had a great dinner and then were able to see Teresa for a moment. We then went knocking and met Joe. He is very cool! He served in Vietnam and is interesting in our message!

Transfer Update!

Hey guys! No more Tuesday Pdays for transfers. Alway will be on Monday now. I am staying in Deming, NM with Elder Elton!

Monday: So today we took care of everything then we went to the City of Rocks to play capture the flag! We played one round then came back to Deming to play Ultimate Frisbee. It was a ton of fun! Then we had a nice dinner with a member. Also, in the morning we made a cake for a challenge we did we the Chavez family. They completed their charity and service challenge but we had to postpone the little party. Then we went contacting. We met some very interesting people and finished the night with a nice old hispanic Jehovah's Witness lady.

Week 5. Entering Week 6. Final week of the Transfer

I have had a great time this transfer! Elder Elton is the best! One of my favorite transfers!

Monday: So we went to the dentist this morning. Elder Elton was having some pain in his mouth. Everything was good. We then did studies, laundry, email, and shopping. We had lunch at our apartment then went to the church building to play sports. We played volleyball! We then had dinner with the Chavez family. A tradition that they have involves these Extremely Hot Pickles. They are super hot and the tradition is for new missionaries in the area to eat at least one. Elder Elton and Sister Hubert both ate one or two. Elder Tyler and I hold the record for eating 8 each! Then Sister Hubert challenged me. She said, "Elder Baker, if you eat 5 pickle slices at once, I will buy you a big bag of Swedish Fish." So I then began to pick the pickles I would eat. They made sure they were the biggest. I will include the video. So it wasn't very hot. I think its worse when you eat them one by one. So I will be getting some Swedish Fish very soon. After dinner, we shared a message about charity and service. Their challenge is to do a chain of charity. For every act of service, they get another link on the chain. This follows the scripture Mosiah 18:21 in the Book of Mormon. As we serve one another, we will have our hearts knit together. We then had a less active on our list that lives very far away. So we took a nice long drive only to find that the house doesn't exist. That took up the rest of our night.

Bees and Blessings!

Monday: So Monday we did a sunrise hike in Spring Canyon of the Florida Mountains. We woke up at like 3:45 to start at 4. It was beautiful! Pictures will be included! It was really cool to be above the world and see the beauty. Then we did studies and laundry. We then went to Miguel's house and made cookies with him. He wanted to just buy cookie dough from the store but we made them from scratch. We then went to the church and played volleyball with other missionaries and Miguel's friends. A member took us to Subway for dinner and it was so good. We then visited a less active family that I had never met before. We will be working with them very closely as they have a lot potential to return to activity in the church. Its more than coming to church  it is following Christ and progressing in the gospel. We had a nice talk with the bee guy from Sunday as he sat on his porch. I was getting a little frustrated though. He seems pretty interested and has a good religious foundation. No bees at this lesson. 

It Hurts to be White

Sorry, this one is a bit shorter. 

Tuesday: Today was Pday and we did all the usual. Then, as a district of 8 missionaries, we went and played mini-golf! It was a ton of fun! We then had a great dinner and message with a member family. I translated the hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" from English to Spanish. It turned out pretty well! We went to the building to help out with the little Deming Institute class. Then we drove towards Silver City to do and exchange. 

Choirs of Angels & the Scraped Up Knee

Monday: Shopping, laundry, studies, and a haircut! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, today is PDay! I got a nice haircut from a young man in the branch for free! Instead of what I did last time, pay $20 at the salon place at Walmart only to have her cut my neck and not tell me. Yes, now I have a blood stain on my collar. Anyway, today we played sand volleyball on some really hot and rough sand! I dove and scraped up my knee, nothing new. After volleyball we had dinner with some members. It was their son's birthday and the had family over. We got started late and had to leave fairly quickly to make our next appointment, only for it to fall through. We grabbed Andrew, a young man that just put in his mission papers, and tried to see Daniel and Maneli but they weren't home. We then went to see Oscar, the less active young man, and we read from the Book of Mormon with him. I am very proud that I can read really well in Spanish! Then the members that we had dinner with invited us over for some cake :)