Monday, October 30, 2023

The Hauntings of Locust Hill


 

October 30


First things first, happy Halloween! Sorry, this is coming so late I forgot to send it ha-ha. 

To fit the Halloween theme, we had some spooky occurrences the week of the 16th. One day we came home, and things were weird. All the chairs had been overturned and a few pieces of furniture had been moved a bit. Now we live in a fairly safe neighborhood so there's a habit of not locking our door. The 4 of us who live here were fairly unnerved not knowing if someone had pranked us, some unstable person had entered our apartment, or even a ghost had been here ha-ha. The longer we talked about it the more weird we felt so a couple of them wanted to bless the house just to be sure. The next day we came home to find it had happened again... now we were really uncomfortable. We called the other 2 French Elders who don't live with us, and they said that they pranked us, but only the second time. Needless to say, my companion was not amused. It's was a weird couple of days ha-ha. 

We also got to go to the temple on the 18th!! I love the temple so much and I'm sad that it closed at the end of October. They say they it should only be closed for 6 months, which is good. It was a great opportunity to feel the spirit and a nice little break from the usual missionary labors. 

Lessons have been few and far between but the ones we do have are good. We met again with the Angola family and taught from the Book of Mormon. We read about the tree of life from Nephi's vision. That was a mistake because he doesn't repeat the vision, he just explains it ha-ha. Next time I'm reading from Lehi's first. But it worked out because we pulled up the video and they understood pretty well after watching and further explanation. It's a slow burn with them but we're still gonna keep working at it and hope all goes well. 



We were able to teach someone I haven't met yet! His name is Maurice. We've been trying to get in contact with him for quite a while and we're finally able to get something to work on. He's a cool guy and has been taught for a little while. He's read some of the book of Mormon and we had a good re-discussion on the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. 

Let me just say the branch is a very different experience from the wards in Louisville. We do a lot more here ha-ha, when it comes to running things that is. The branch president is pretty good, but the members are all pretty new and their kids are crazy. It's just a very different culture where the parents go to church more for themselves than for their families. We spend a lot of our time corralling people and children but it's alright. It's very interesting to see how in different areas there are such different needs. 

We also met a really interesting woman named Lucy. We went to visit a previously taught friend and his mother-in-law answered the door. She said he was showering so we asked if we could shade a message with her. She was hesitant but invited us in because it was rainy outside. We sat down and she said she's already Christian and her daughter is a member (she goes to the English ward). She also said she had another daughter pass away that month (the funeral dinner was at our building as well). While we were talking about her family she asked if I was holding a Bible, to which I happily stated that it was in fact the book of Mormon. We had a good discussion about its purpose, where it came from, and who Joseph Smith was. In the end we saw Felix and he said that they were leaving but he would come to church. In the end we asked for Lucy's phone number, and she hesitated for a moment and eventually gave it to us. In the end it was a really cool interaction and I'm hopeful that she'll continue forward.  


I wasn't expecting this email to be so long ha-ha. Also, next week is transfers on the 3rd,  I don't expect anything to change but hey anything is possible. And because a visiting Authority is coming the next week so the next p-day will be Thursday the 9th. 

Have a great week! And a happy Halloween! 

Elder Baird


Monday, October 16, 2023

Canadian on the Run

 Monday October 16


Hello everyone! How's life treating you this spooky season? It's been great over here in the Horse Capital of the World. The weather has cooled down quite a bit and it's been raining this past week. Sweater weather has definitely arrived here ha-ha, my companion is very excited for it. 

So, essentially these last two weeks have been constant finding with lessons and member visits sprinkled in. Calling previously taught people and knocking doors definitely isn't my favorite way to spend my time but it's important to fill our time with the best we can. We've got in contact with a few pretty cool people though, so it's always worth it in the end (even if it takes days to get there). 


So, the major story of two weeks ago is our runaway Canadian ha-ha. Elder Peterson, who finishes his mission in 2 months, is a Canadian citizen and his resident VISA expired. His family has been living for years in Texas and often has to travel back to Canada to renew their VISAs and it just so happened that it happened to him while on his mission. So, he flew out Thursday morning (the 5th) and met up with his mom in Toronto. They were able to get it figured out in a few days but it's crazy how he had to leave the country and meet up with his Mom so close to the end of his mission. All is good now and he's happy to have had a short break so now he can finish out his mission strong.


On Friday (the 6th) we had interviews with the mission president. It's always amazing to meet with him and share all that's been on my mind. I haven't been getting along super well with my companion as of late. We had just started to get our feet under us and then we got sick for like a week and a half. So, it was nice to be able to discuss with the president ways that I can improve our relationship and resolve any conflict. We're doing better now, and I do appreciate him and all the work he puts in. 

Saturday of 2 weeks ago was the busiest day we've had the entire transfer, and it's looking like it will continue to hold that spot. We first stopped by a house full of Haitians that we've been trying to get in contact with and we were able to meet with a man named Reggie, he's really cool and very kind and open to learning more about Christ. We then stopped by a member named Byenigulu and his family, he's been coming to church regularly but hasn't been bringing his kids. Even to the point where they recently went to church with a neighbor because they have friends in that one, I think it also doesn't help that here in the branch we combine young men's and young women's classes with the English ward in the area (and they don't speak English yet). But we're still working on them, they said they watched some of General Conference though which is good. We also met with a friend named Albert who speaks French, we read from the Book of Mormon about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to read another chapter about it. He seemed quite interested about the Book of Mormon and I'm excited for when we can meet with him again. After that we met with another new member family whose mom is named Regina. They are awesome, there's three baptized kids and they all come to church every week (Regina hasn't even come once since I've been here). We showed them the thinking Celestial talk and discussed temples and what we do in them. Lastly, we met with José, he's the adult son of an Angolan family of 3 who the mom was on baptismal date when I arrived. We talked with him about the Book of Mormon and started talking about the Savior's visit in 3 Nephi, which he claims he's never heard of before, but my companion says he remembers reading it with them in the past ha-ha. But we had a good lesson where we were able to explain to him the purpose of the book and why we read it. 


Aside from zone conference and an exchange last week has followed the same pattern as the rest of this transfer: meet with 4 new member families once a week, have a lesson with Albert, the Angolans, and Philip, and have a random lesson here or there with someone we haven't seen before with a bunch of calling sprinkled in there. But let me tell you about Phillip, this man is amazing. We've met with him 3 times so far, and they've all lasted over 45 minutes with the last one taking almost an hour and a half. He is a man of a million questions and a true desire to learn more about other religions and see people from their perspective. He says over and over how he just wants to be open to new information and learn more, and how he will never turn anyone away if they want to share what they know. He says he's talked with Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, and various other faiths. We have primarily focused on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, with our last invite being for him to pray to know if they are true. He says he likes the book and has no problem praying about it, but pushed back against Joseph Smith saying it is very hard to believe that there is a true prophet who speaks for God living on the earth today (honestly a very fair idea to imagine that someone with the same call as Moses speaks today). Sadly, for us though is that he doesn't speak French and his Swahili is not good. He moved from Congo when he was 14 around 20 years ago, so his English sounds almost native which is awesome but means we should pass him off onto English missionaries if he doesn't intend on meeting with the branch. We have a lot of hope for him and he's super great to teach because we can be comfortable in English, and he understands everything really well. 

We also had zone conference which was a blast as always. We learned about uniting with local leaders and all the unique things we get to do as missionaries. The AP's had a great line, they asked if we have "FOMO or JOMO" (the fear of missing out or the joy of missing out).  It gave me a good perspective that we can have joy in all the things we don't have to worry about as missionaries. 



Have a great week everyone! I love you all. Feel free to send me a message throughout the week and I'll be sure to respond on Monday. 















Monday, October 2, 2023

General Conference!


Can I just start by saying General Conference is quickly becoming one of my most anticipated weekends in the year. It's always a blessing to hear from modern prophets and leaders who love the Lord and want us to grow closer to Him. 


This week has also been a bit of a blur, we have done so many contacts. We have been reaching out to pretty much all the people who have been taught in the past that speak French. So far almost no one has responded to us, but we have been putting in the work and I know it won't be wasted. 


We did find someone named Phillip, he moved from Africa like 20 years ago, so his English is way better than his Swahili. Sadly, we're going to pass him off soon but he's so great we don't want to yet, ha-ha! He is one of the directors of a non-profit organization called Box2Box.  It helps get impoverished kids off the streets and into something productive. In this case it's usually soccer, which makes sense because it was started by African immigrants. But it is a great program because it also puts kids in touch with mentors who can help with school or other things in life, they don't have the tools to do, like finding a good job or applying for further education. But, Phillip doesn't stop there, he's super curious in what we teach and has a huge desire to learn more. It was amazing to talk with him because he has so many questions!


When I got here, we had 2 people on baptismal date, Annie and Lucia. Annie is very interesting, and we honestly think that she wants to be baptized to get rent aid, but she moved and kind of disappeared for 3 weeks until she moved into an apartment in the North area. Needless to say, she's not on baptismal date anymore ha-ha. Hopefully she sees that the gospel is here to make her life better though and continues foreword learning. 


Lucia is great! She's an older woman who moved from Angola. Which means she speaks Portuguese, French, and who knows how many other languages. But she's totally ready to be baptized. We went over and taught her on a porch, and we ran into an issue. Guess what?? She's concerned about second baptism... so we then taught about the unique promises we make when we are baptized with the proper authority. She said she understands but would have to take some time to ponder it all over. We asked if we could still have a date in the future to work towards, but she said no sadly. 


But, everyone's conference was great! We watched a couple sessions with some younger members and that was really fun. I am doing my best to start following the prophet's counsel to "think celestial," and I encourage all of you to go listen to the conference and choose at least one thing you want to incorporate into your life. 


Have a great week! 
Elder Baird 

Welcome Home Elder Baird!!!