Transfered?? Well yes! ...but actually no.

Let me just say, I apologize to everyone (a little) because this is going to be a chunky email. But y'all want to know what I'm up to. 

So first of all, these last two weeks have honestly been a blur of teaching and finding and emotions and grinding (Hehe rhymes). But thankfully I took some notes as I went along. 

 

So, first things first. Two weeks ago, I knew something was going to change because Elder Xanthos was going home. And I made a guess that I was going to combine areas and work Louisville French North & West with Elder Shumate. It seemed like the most logical solution because 4 missionaries were going home and 2 came in, and it turns out I was right ha-ha. So, I've now moved 4 times in 4 months but only had 1 teaching area so far haha. I'm now living in the West Elders apartment, and we drive around the whole city to teach our peeps (oh and I'm designated driver woot woot). It's fun but we lose a lot of time driving... oh well c'est la vie. 

There's a lot to talk about so I'll make it somewhat brief

So, to start off two weeks ago, we had a charcuterie picnic in the park for district p-day and we played pickleball with President and Sister Alder. They're seriously the coolest! Sadly, they go home this week but I'm very excited to meet the new mission president! 

We've met with Marine again and shared a song, and Ether 12:27, then we asked how she thinks God could help her with her weaknesses. To that she replies, "Oh no, I don't have any of those". Which reminded me of Hades and Meg from Hercules, "He has no weaknesses, and he's going to destr..." "Oh I think he does; I think he does". 

We've had some great member meals lately and it's been really wonderful to meet with these people. They have a special light about them, and I absolutely love the additional thoughts they bring to the table. 

 We met a new family, they're from Rwanda and moved in like 3 weeks before we knocked on their door.  My initial count when we first walked in was 8 kids and 2 parents. As we were teaching another family of their friends walked in which made to around 15 people that we taught in one room. And only about 3 of them spoke Swahili, 1 of those knew French and another knew English. The rest was translated to the kids through them. Elder Xanthos said that was the most people he'd ever taught in one lesson!!

We had some miracles the last week in direct relation to Elder Xanthos going home. We stopped by some friends who had been too busy in the past and stopped teaching, and they were both available! I loved sitting down and talking with people who had learned a lot in the past but had fallen off. Hopefully we can reignite the flame again!

 Justin and Massan are still really cool! They have a great desire to learn more and love what we are teaching them. The hard part is that Justin has a position in his church and wants to come and try ours but just needs some kind of push over the hill. 

 

Akili and Paulina are still cool also. They haven't fed us more nasty food yet, just regular food ha-ha. We did help them move ha-ha, the video of the car with the couch inside and cabinet on top was them. They're great though and I love their family. I don't think they quite realize the gravity of what we teach them. But I'm hoping it clicks soon and we start to see some improvement. 

And Christian is still awesome, he got arrested for trespassing and then drug tested. He said that he's never used drugs before, but he would like to one day, we told him no ha-ha. Hopefully we can meet with him soon and get him to church again!!

 There were a lot of goodbyes, and it was hard to see Elder Xanthos leave, but it's ok because my new comp Elder Shumate is so cool!! I'm super excited to work with him on this transfer! 

It's been a great two weeks and I'm going to echo what a lot of other missionaries are saying right now. NEW PMG!! It's great and for use by members and missionaries alike. God's work continues for every one of us. I love you all and so does he. Have a great week. 

Elder Baird 

 

P.S. the English elder's DL came over for a sleepover the night before transfers, and we played cards and talked until past like 2am. That was a party, but I was very sleepy ha-ha.