Did I really do that bad of a job?

29 February 2018 

"Yes." -- Jeremy Brett.  [references Sherlock Holmes and the Solitary Cyclist]

Don't ask me why I still remember that. And also, please don't ask me where "Good cheer, no fear" is in the scriptures.

TRANSFERS: now that Hermana Wade has a decent grasp on Windy Ridge (like a python:), they decided to send me to exile. AKA Fort Pierce.
Here's a picture.  First of all, here's my current area (give or take). It's about an hour to get from corner to corner.

Ok, now here's the mission.  My current area is pretty small, huh.

Ok, now here's Fort Pierce.

Basically, I just get the Gromit pat every time I tell someone where I'm going. :)
I'm excited.

All I remember from this week is a bunch of sight reading music. I sight-read some baptism songs for a member's 8-year-old daughter at her baptism Friday, then we headed to Sis. Wades last zone as the three sons of her recent converts decided to get baptized too. That was way cool! They're an amazing family! Here's a picture of Downtown Orlando. (That was a jump that made way more sense in my head:)

Check out this cool scripture!
D&C 78:17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

Wow. Sounds like a lot. (Sounds sticky!) I'm excited. I guess I'll keep working hard here on Earth and hoping I'm doing something good. But it’s kinda cool to know that anything great on this Earth is pitiable in the world to come. A little motivation.

Ok, I gotta go pack!
CIAOOO!
Hermana Baer

Pics:
The prettiest Florida has ever been!

Sis. Wade getting her dream fulfilled: dinner at Waffle House! What an experience!

Oh yeah…

I'm getting transferred to Fort Pierce! (AKA exile)

Here's a picture of the Orlando mission with where I am now and where I will be tomorrow marked.

Mom: Oh. My. Goodness. Being near the ocean is super-fabulous in hot weather. Do you know your new companion yet? 

Her name is Hermana Andrus. There's a 95% chance I'll 'kill' her. I'm excited to be close to the ocean; heck I'm even excited to be in the boonies! Just wait, my next email will be a lot of me realizing just what I've gotten myself into. 😄

Sweet Li’l Chocolate Surprises

Sis. Wade and I have discovered French toast sandwiches, with fruit and chocolate on the inside. Mmm. So good! So fat! (We'll be having Bologna sandwiches, but... No bread.) 

The best part of my week was by far painting a member's "house". Our regularly scheduled service fell through, but then one of the Elders got a phone call from a brother in his ward. Now, the quotation marks should have alerted you to the fact that this wasn't any ol' paint job. We were definitely unprepared for emergency service that day, so some kind elders brought work clothes for us. This kind brother had been renting out his... house to a blind veteran with 5 dogs. Also, this house is in a sketchy part of town. Usually you'd be pretty worried about getting... "in trouble"... but he worked at the jail for a long time, so no one touches his property; they all know not to. But the best part of this service was when I got to squat on the rickety handrail leaning precariously far trying to hammer a tin roof back out of a tree while 4 other missionaries tried not to drop said roof and all its accompanying dirt on their heads. So Fun! Blurry (and unattractive) evidence following. But the owner was really appreciative as he was an older gentleman with cerebral palsy. He's been working on this house for a long time, poor guy. It was really nice just to feel like anything I do will be better than if I hadn't done it. Sure I might have done a terrible paint job and sure I may have painted a couple ladybugs in... but at least it got painted. Sometimes I feel pressure in missionary work not to mess up; I feel like I should give more, like my best isn't good enough. To go somewhere where your good is heaven-sent... yeah, that felt good. Also, the Elders were there to make it fun. So that was a plus.

We also met with a super golden family but they have crazy work schedules. We were really hoping the daughter could make it to church - we got a ride for her and everything - but Sunday morning she canceled with us :( So Prayers for Jean Paul and his beautiful family!!

Thanks for all yinz do! I 'preciate it! I hope y'all enjoyed the 1st presidency meeting; I know we sure did! Prayers for you and for our new presidency!

Hermana Baer

Finally a house my size.

Ogre hunting. (In the swamps.)

If you could only take 3 things with you . . .

Hm, this week. I know! Story time.

So there I was. Sleeping like a log in my bed. The time? Midnight. The sugar plum fairies are dancing, and so are the Lamanite daughters. (Wow what fun in my brain!) Suddenly, a really loud sound jolts me from my death-like slumber. It takes sister Wade and I a good 3 min. To put together the sound with its name: the fire alarm. We evacuate, like slugs in peanut butter. There's probably about 20 people outside, and there's a guy on his balcony on the 3rd floor. After about 20 min, the fire truck and a cop car come, lights cutting through the dark mists of night. A out this time, Im thinking clearly enough to realize what I grabbed to save from the fire: a pony-tail holder and a jacket that's been left here from missionaries long dead. The tablet didn't make it out, neither did my watch, or heck, even the keys. (Luckily, Sis. Wade grabbed those.) After about 10 more min, they tell us we can go back in; someone on the fourth floor pulled the alarm. We slink back in, and put things away, and return to the blessed sleep.

3 hours later.
I wake to blood running from my ears as the fire alarm pays a personal visit to my pillow. Not really but, wowsers, that's loud! This time, about 7 people evacuate, the fire truck comes alone with sirens off, obviously disgusted with our complex. We party it up outside by the fountains. Us and a lady with her dog. BUT! This time, I take my tablet and watch, and I even get my missionary tag on my jacket! I was so ready to preach the gospel! Woo! When we finally get back in, we both just collapse in bed nothing gets put away or even taken off.

The End.
Pictures following.

We had a week of people not answering and "te aviso!"-ing us. (I'll let you know) There was quite a bit of door knocking.
:)
Um...
The End.

PS I may or may not be addicted to veggie straws now.

I guess I'll add a spiritual thought to my letter.
While I was waiting to fall back asleep at midnight, I felt so bad that I didn't thank the firemen who came at a ridiculous time at night to turn off the world's most annoying alarm clock. I promised the Lord that if I ever got another experience like this, I'd go out of my way to thank them. Right before I fell asleep, I heard a little angel laughing. 3 hours later, they gave me that chance. I made Sis Wade wait while I found someone and thanked them. All those guilty thoughts of 10 lepers faded way, and I felt great! Maybe because it was 3 am, and I was super tired, but I choose to think the Lord taught me a great lesson in a moment I would listen the most. That was cool to see. And then I got to sleep!
Ok, now:
THE END!

I Love Firemen! They're super cool! But really. Take a moment to thank them. And that does mean you! Yes you!

Meet me at the drop spot tonight at 8:30 and I'll give ya' the goods!

 

Hermana Wade being cautious at English class.

 

Back in Black

Here's a picture to sum this week:

Also this one:

It was cold. Yes, yes, laugh it up fuzzball! I realize you could take my temperature and divide it by 4.5 and it still wouldn't quite be yours.

But, you could also take my humidity and divide it by 9000 and it would still be more than yours! ,':]

Uuuuuummmmmm..... things happened? But only sometimes?? We had a day or two where all of our scheduled plans fell through, but then God was like "Here have this super prepared family. They even speak a dialect of Spanish you can understand." So that was pretty cool. Except we didn't ever catch the name of the family. And then they fell off the face of the earth. So don't tell, but we lost God's elect. 😁

One of our investigators (we'll call her Carol) recently lost their dad. Mom is visiting, but dad was still in Venezuela, so it must've been sudden. We took her flowers, chocolate, and a note, but haven't seen her since. We hope she can find solace in the Book of Mormon. I can't help but feel like this is the final straw between her and joining the church though. If she can look to God and draw close to Him by reading and praying, she'll feel His love and know for herself that the BoM is true. Or she will collapse on the inside and we won't keep visiting her. I hope she's ok.

Our other investigator's (we'll call her Sharol) brother is currently in the hospital with a brain tumor. She said she'd read the Book of Mormon while sitting with him. Again, if she can feel of God's love in this hard time, she's going to pull through and be fine. We know this family will come to the gospel, as they're just so great, but when... We don't know. We're just hoping she's reading.

Everyone else in Florida is sick due to the cold. We've had so many cute Spanish ladies, barely visible through a mostly closed door, explain in detail how cold it is outside and how they couldn't possibly talk any longer and how sick they are and how sick all their friends are and how we must be positively freezing and oh how cold it is. Then they repeat themselves at least once or twice more then close the door, letting us run back to our car. Cute! Also, So grateful for a car. BLESSINGS!!

That's about all that happened this week. So... see you next week?

Same Bat-time,
Same Bat-channel.

P.S. This is a dessert called Plátanos. And oh! It's so good! It's just sliced and fried plantains. They were served at Zone Conference, and all the Hermanas had doubles because the English missionaries didn't realize what they're missing put on. Silly English missionaries!

Other photo: brigaderos. Sweet and condensed milk mixed with chocolate and butter. |:》

Leg Prisons*

This week, I wore pants*. And not even just once. 3 days in a row. It was weird. It felt like one big, eternal wedgie. I miss home and all, but I don't actually miss the part where it's socially expected to wear pants. I bet you all are dying to ask me "Sister Baer, (at which point I'd correct you, pointing out the whole Hermana thing; you'd probably then say in a slightly less patient and caring tone "Hermana Baer," at which point I'd correct you and tell you the H is silent, at which point you'd probably just walk away;) what is a sister (/Hermana) of your stellar caliber doing wearing pants?" Here I say "The Lord is good." We ran out of Miles this week. Twice. Do you know what that means--BIKES!!! IT MEANS BIKES!!! Wow! Such fun! So joy! I have been waiting since day 2 of the MTC to ride my bike. We got to go 2 whole miles to knock some doors! Wheeee! I was so sore the next day! How embarrassing!! 😄 Mostly I just don't ever want to drive the car again! And I want a slightly thicker toothpick for a seat. But New Years Eve, we parked the car with 2.4 allotted miles left in the month, 15 left in the gas tank, and -30 minutes to get home on time. Oops. Oh well. Maybe the mission office will start realizing how terrible of a driver I am and release me from the burning confines of designated driver. /:"

 Um... ever since Sis. Bond went home, we haven't taken at least 2 selfies a day, so... I don't really remember what else happened this week...

> Christmas was food! (I tried to type good, but I missed and food just kinda happened. Thinking back, Christmas really was food. So I'm leaving it.)

> We accidentally stayed out until ... a really late hour caroling with the Relief Society. We had to get a member ride (‘cuz we ran out of Miles -- see above) and it was the same member who we were stuck with when we locked our keys and phone in the car. I'm going to keep this part a little vague in case President Clark finds and reads my blog. :) So... Sh!

 > Sis. Wade had a baptism in her old area, so we went on a road trip. Downtown Orlando is pretty cool! I took some really terrible pictures of it, which I will now share with you. Almost every Hermana in the mission was there. We were only missing Hermanas Kent and Robbins. I didn't want them to feel left out, so I drew them in.

Ok, I'm tired of typing/texting. You can make up your own great story and pretend like it happened to me. At this point, it probably either will or has happened.

Ok, BYYEEEEE!

I've decided to call our bike rack Jerry. Because it's rigged. If you look really hard, you might see the prayers and angels holding it on.

Cool story: I took this picture by my self. Look Mom, No Hands!!

Caroling 5 days after Christmas at a super late hour.

Bad pictures of D-T Orlando. You're welcome.

Hermanas at the baptism.

Hermana-land (you can't even tell Hna. Kent y Robbins WEREN'T there. Bob Ross would be proud)

What the Gladsome Tidings?!

25 December 2017 

Murry Chursmus! You did it. You made it through the crazy holiday season. I guess, not really. There's still new years. So... I guess not... this is awkward... :/

But Christmas! You got it all wrapped and presents under the tree and stocking filled and everything!! I'm so pa-roood!

We started out the week with transfers. Same area but a new companion. I'm now with Hermana Wade: 6 foot 2 with bright red hair. She's been out only one transfer more than I have, so we've had a couple moments of shaky Spanish, but... the Lord's got it. But she's great! She loves being a missionary and is super loving the area. I hope she's here for a long time! I think the members will really love her. :)

How to describe this week: Um... Phenomenal? We had a baptism on Saturday, a super cute and spiritually strong Peruvian couple. He's been searching for God for years, and in our first lesson (in which we said about 10 words) he told us that something about this church just feels right, that we've got something other churches don't. Already God was preparing him. But we planned out everything carefully for the baptism, so I was surprised when everything seemed to fail and fall through. I did my very best (in prep, on the piano, with technology, in Spanish, behind the scenes in the font, and with the food afterwards) but I just felt like I wasn't good enough. In the last prayer, I had a secret prayer of my own where I just begged God to accept my failure of a baptism, just asking for it to be enough for this couple. In that moment, He shared with me a lot about Grace. It was a really cool moment for me, and in the end, it was enough. The wonderful couple had so much joy! Mmm, God is good, and not just to me.

 I hope Christmas is going/ went well, and I hope you have a simply Marvelous New Year!


Picture time!

Florida's version of a white Christmas

Someone's mom got a little excited with wrapping paper.

Sis Robbins and I played (sang? performed? shared?) a musical number at the Christmas devo this week. Let's just say, she did really good, and His grace is sufficient.

I'm grateful I could hold the door open to God in their life. I really did nothing to help them; they practically jumped into the font! I just handed them a pamphlet on their way down.

Man, I miss the snow

Who're you calling Old! ...Ok, I'm old*

Oh King Boomy*. He's still fantastic.  *references this scene from Avatar, the Last Airbender

The subject line applies to sister Bond, and if you change the word Old to Fat, it applies to me too!!
Because it was Sis Bonds last week, we got offers for food from Everyone and their dog!! Yesterday we literally ran from appointment to appointment. We had 2 lunches and a dinner in a 5 hour period. And these are not just mere lunches or snacking, these are Hispanic heaping piles. Let's just say, ..... ouch. My poor bod.

Our wonderful friend "Debbie" who's fiance got kicked out was baptised yesterday! We're so proud of her! I'm so excited for the many blessings she'll see in her life now that she's got the gospel!! We've already had some miracles as she's got an oak tree of faith in God. (an oak tree comes right after a pine log and right before a weeping willow on the metric scale of measurement.)

We also had a slight moment of missionary failure as one of us left the phone in the car, and the other one locked the keys (whoever was in charge of driving.... I dunno who that poor sap is) in the trunk. Heh heh heh........ oops!😅 Missionaries are supposed to head home at 9:00, 9:30 if a lesson is going really well. At 10:00, we finally figured out how to call Elder Gould, the mission office person in charge of cars and their problems. The members we were with spent a full hour trying to break into our car with a hanger, but finally, Elder Gould and his wife showed up at 11:00 with a spare key and some cookies. Wow! I'm impressed on so many levels!

Gotta run, but I'll see y'all next week! If any shocking news comes in, I'll try to let you know, picture style. But.... maybe not. Things are pretty out of control right now. Wow. How fun!

Ciao ciao all!

 

SHE MADE IT!!

Second lunch. Oof

Blurry photographic evidence

Heh heh. I'm sending this to Sis. Bond in a week!

What the-- It's Cold out here!

Hey y'all! Carma hit so fast! Here I was, mocking your pain (please feel free to say "You mock my pain!") And Florida was all like "Probs not." Thursday it was 86°. Saturday was 45°     |:[   Sister Bond has been really struggling with the cold. We'll be praying for her when she hits Utah in a week.

We also had exchanges on Saturday (oh what a day Saturday was). Blessed Sister Sorensen came and took Sister Bonds place. Sister Sorensen is in English work. Which means I got to teach a lesson in Spanish all by my one-sy. C-c-c-coolcoolcoolcoolcooool. *insert nervous sweating face* BUT, I know God was there and taking care of me. We had 5-ish people we tried to see. We saw one (who in hindsight would have been the most patient and understanding one) of 5, then we got stuck in traffic for an hour. God knew and took care of me. :] But really, God knew what I could do, and that whole lesson was all things I had practice with. Aka, we read 1 Nephi 8 out loud. That's basically all I do in language study! Wow. Church is true.

Also this week we got some crazy news from "Debbie," our investigator. She's recently decided to turn her life around and find God. (She's the one who was found wandering the temple grounds one day, wondering about the beautiful white building. Already a Fabulous sign!) She has been trying so hard to get married to her boyfriend, who she's lived with for the past 4 years, so she could get baptised next Sunday. We've been a little worried when he just wasn't being especially helpful or easy in this matter, but we trust that God loves her and will take care of her. Her wedding license ran out on the 10th, so we were going to hold the wedding Saturday evening. We meet with her Wednesday, and she tells us this story: "I'm watching TV with my fiance and a commercial about divorce comes on and informs me on how you can get a divorce super fast here in Florida. I make a casual remark to him, and he gets unnecessarily defensive. Things escalate, then he leave the room, but he leaves his phone on the sofa. In all 4 years living together, I've never looked on his phone, but I suddenly feel like I need to check it. Sisters, he's been cheating on me." Cue jaw drop. Here's a little more crazy though: he's already moved out, she's feeling really calm and peaceful about it, and now she's all set for baptism next week. ... Wut?

"Debbie" is over 9000. And so is God for that matter. But that was a bit of the crazy from this week. But you should go read the other Sister Baer's letter. You'll like it. It's gooud. (Bloop bloop bloop)*

Have fun y'alls, and make it a merry Christmas!

Hermana Beer

Studies are obviously going well...

Junior Columbian Burger joint. Pretty darn good.

Chicken burger anyone?

Sister Sorensen's crazy day in Spanish work

The Spanish Elders. I promise we do actually do missionary work in Spanish.

JÖRG KLEBINGAT!!!!!

Elder Jörg Klebingat

Wow! The Lord loves me. He sent me one of my favorite members of the Seventy, right to my Zone Conference. And, as President Monson once put it, "Tears could not be restrained, nor should they have been. Such tears produce a certain cleansing of the soul." We ended an amazing conference with “I Believe in Christ,” and I could only sing about one line before I couldn't speak anymore.

It was really amazing to be so close to someone so spiritually strong and to be the recipient of his wisdom and knowledge. He didn't just say 'You should baptize more people.' He said 'You should be the kind of person that could have the spirit work through you to touch others in a critical moment to not only save their life, but the future lives of your family.' He treated us not as harvesters in the field, but as a gathered group of volunteers who've sacrificed precious years to do what God had asked.

I can't begin to say how grateful I am, so instead I'll leave you one or two of his thoughts. "You have been asked to do it, so you can't just choose not to do it." I learned a lot about obedience from him, another being "Obedience is freely given." Are you freely giving it? "The greater your faith in God, the less you will worry. The only thing you have to worry about is sin. And you've got a choice over that." I love that. All you have to fear is sin. And nothing more. Nothing.

Sorry it's so short and poorly written, but I gotta run. I love you all and I hope you realize just how close God is to you. It's Close. Rul close.

Ciao ciao all!

Axolotl!

Fall???

Food, fiestas, y more food

 o_O
Remember the mayor in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? That's how I felt this week. We had at least 4 Thanksgiving dinners (though not all were on Thanksgiving, thank goodness!) and were invited to at least 2 more. Oh the blessed people of Florida! I'm grateful for a place where I'm so well fed and cared for.

It was Elder Rocha's birthday. We spent the last month hand-making a piñata for him. Turns out he'd never seen/heard of a piñata before, so we had to explain it to him. But it's ok, because we dumped 2 bottles of glitter in there! Glitter: the gift that keeps on giving! I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking here.

This week I had my first Jehovah's Witness encounter. We went to see Milagro kinda spur of the moment and her friend was over. WAIT I HAVE TO TELL YOU!!!!!!! Pause story!

New story: Once upon a time I was standing in the hall at the church, something missionaries get very good at doing. Sis. Bond was talking to a new member, who we'll call Sheryl. Sheryl's friend was standing there a little awkward I attempted to talk to her. After a few tries, we switched to English where she told me her sister was recently serving a mission in the Czech-slovak mission. I told her I had this friend who just returned, named Elder Swink. She texts her sister and 5 min. later, we're both blown out of our little minds when the sister says, "I know Elder Swink; red hair, right?" BOOM! My neighbor's brother's mission friend's sister was standing in front of me. Wut. And that is why Matthew Swink got called to Czech Republic. End story.

Continuing with previous story: Milagro's friend was over, and she was asking us about the gift of tongues, why we celebrate birthdays, and if God's name was Jehovah. Worried about Milagro (who wasn't really buying into this whole J.W. thing, but was definitely not ignoring it), we share a video with Thomas S. Monson and say something like "We don't know. We'll write down your questions and study them. *Insert guffaw that could easily be mistaken for a laugh of triumph from JW friend* But it's late and we have to be going. Can we leave with a prayer?" Prayer happens, and it's a pretty good one. I knew before looking that Milagro felt the peace and good. Looking up, I saw that she was smiling contentedly. What I didn't expect to see was our JW friend weeping; El Espíritu Santo touched the rest of us, but He dropped a train on her, Edgar! Milagro made some comment on the Holy Ghost and I had to do my best not high-five her. But I walked out of what could've been a strange, spiritless meeting trying hard not to smirk. And I'm not saying I did anything to help. Like in Alma 26:11-12: But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever

 /:}

Yep. That was my week. Pretty good. I hope y'all enjoyed Thanksgiving, and it sounds like school is still going on. Best of luck with that...

Pues, Ciao!

Pictures:
Thanksgiving with English Class! We've never had such a great turnout!

The rest of them: Next time, 3 bottles of glitter!