Turkey and Kilio

Merry Christmas ha-ha! Its officially time for snow and all things Christmas. We've been quite excited around here, we set up our decorations a few weeks ago ha-ha. 

A few key highlights this week were trying to meet with all those people we found. First up we have Papa Jean (Yes that's exactly how he introduced himself). He has been saying yes to us coming over and then canceling for weeks on end. Eventually we talked with a couple of his older sons and apparently, he just is one of those people who can't say no and the mom is totally against us coming over ha-ha. We were happy to finally have a real answer but we're sad because these two sons were super cool and genuinely are interested (they've read some of the book of Mormon in the past and know about Joseph Smith). But you win some, you lose some, I guess. 

We also went over to meet with someone else, but he wasn't home, his roommate was though. This man is named Phillipe and was super cool. He's investigated all kinds of other Christian faiths before and was telling us about some Jehovah's Witnesses he talked with in the past. (He might be Muslim too, my French glitched a little during that part of the convo.) But he's super cool and we had a great 5-minute, doorstep, restoration lesson and taught him about Joseph Smith. We are hoping to actually sit down with him sometime soon. 

On Wednesday we cooked and sat down with two more new people. I made sweet potatoes and my companion made pumpkin bars (essentially a pumpkin roll without the roll). Then we met with Denise. She seems to have been in America for quite some time because her English is fantastic. We taught the restoration, and she asked some good questions that helped guide the lesson. Then we went over to Mathew, he is a man that I met like 2 months ago and I finally taught him again. He's a busy guy and we only talked for like 5 minutes, but it was worth it. He also has a super cute baby son. 

Thursday, we went to another new guy named Patrick before Thanksgiving. His family was cooking when we came by so to avoid the noise, he grabbed 3 chairs, and we talked in the hallway of this apartment complex. To no surprise we also discussed Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Patrick did not seem to be focused or interested until I mentioned Joseph, but suddenly his curiosity was piqued, and he was not very attentive. We then gave him a BoM and he instantly went "No I can't take it because I know I don't have time to read it and I will feel bad seeing it." Naturally we convinced him to keep it anyway and we plan to read with him in the future. 

Then we had Thanksgiving, it was fun, and I ate like a crazy person. The 6 French Elders and the senior missionary couple who work in the branch went over to an American member's, who lives alone, house. We all brought something, and she had a ham and a turkey. It was so yummy!

Friday, we had interviews which were great as always. President told me I need to be better at writing him emails 😬 ha-ha. 

Saturday, we went to a funeral party thing. It's called a Kilio which means cry, and essentially the entire community (of people in the bembe tribe from east Congo, there's a lot here in the states) gets together after the funeral, listens to a speech or Teo and has a big party. They used our church to hold it, so we got to go. And the best part is that Tangente was there!! He's an elected official for this tribe here in Kentucky so he often goes to these kinds of events and helps to host them. He was very excited to see us missionaries there and had us cut the food line, so we didn't have to wait. I really hope that man gets over whatever this hurdle is and gets baptized!!! 

Sunday was church and a stake music event. A bunch of different members in the stake performed and the branch were also asked to sing a song together. We sang a classic French carol called "Il est né, le divin enfant". We had a few of our members join and also invited all the stake members who know French up on the stand as well. I'm sorry mom but I don't think anyone recorded it, but it was pretty bad, and nobody could keep the tempo anyway ha-ha. 

Much longer email this week because things are getting going again. I'm so excited to see where it all leads. Thank you, God, for these miracles. 

Also, since December is coming, I encourage everyone to join me and all of us around the globe to "Light the World" this Christmas season. If you need ideas go to https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/light-the-world 

Love you all and have a good week! 

Happy Thanksgiving

Wow I don't know about everyone else but for thanksgiving I'm going to be grateful for miracles, because that was a crazy weekend. 

The week started pretty slowly. We were trying to reach out to people, and we were doing more knocking, to achieve the goal of 30 testifying contacts, but nothing really was happening. That is until Thursday. We had district council a day early and we were told that over the weekend we would be competing against the Lexington North Zone (the two zones cover a half of the city of Lexington and a bunch of boonies until the mission border) to see who could find the most "New people being taught". My companion decided to take this challenge and go crazy.  We found 3 people Thursday night, and it was awesome. 

The next day (Friday) we had an exchange. I stayed in my area with Elder Lundgreen where we found a few more people who are the family of someone else we've been trying to get in contact with. We also taught Albert the word of wisdom, but it didn't seem to surprise him much, I am wondering if he understood it super well honestly. 

On Saturday we went crazy, we were stopping by people at the right times, finding strangers on the streets, making the right calls. It was great! We even got a call back during our weekly soccer night from a guy we've never met, and he said he wanted to meet! 

Sunday continued the trend. We went to visit someone from Haiti, he wasn't home, but his roommate invited us in, and we taught him instead! He didn't speak French though... the whole time he was speaking Haitian Creole. Now yes Haitian used to be French, but it is not the same language anymore. It has been heavily simplified and changed to a point where we could communicate but I was really confused for the majority. Haitians seemed to have looked at the French they were speaking and say, "nah this is too hard, the writing makes no sense, were going to fix it". And to a certain extent that's exactly what they did, it's spelled completely phonetic, and the grammar is much simpler. Instead of conjugating for different subjects (I am, you are, she is) it's all the same (something like I is, you is, we is). But for someone who speaks the old way it is very confusing to have a conversation ha-ha. We successfully taught about Joseph Smith and left a pamphlet but we chances are we won't make it too far with him ha-ha. 

In total we made about 12 new friends in our missionary app last weekend, consisting of family members of people being taught, people we've been trying to meet with already, and completely new people. It was incredible and a complete blessing and I'm so grateful for it. I can't wait to finish out these last couple weeks of the transfer and I am hoping to be able to see these new people progress with us!!

I love you all and I encourage you all to keep the faith, have patience and the lord will send his blessings when you show him you are willing and able to follow through in his timing. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and know that I am praying for you all!

Elder Baird. 

Fear and Doubt are Enemies of Faith

Hello everyone! How's life going? I'm doing alright. 

Two emails in one again, but this time I have a reason. We had a visiting Authority 70 last week and a special zone conference. So, let's get right into it! 

First off, we had Halloween, we had our first lesson with one of the adult sons in a new member family. He's a really cool guy and were hopeful to see him progress because his mom and 3 younger siblings were all baptized. We also had a fun zone call where we acted out a scene as a scripture charade game. Since all 6 of us French Elders came together to celebrate Halloween, we were able to have more characters and did Jesus and the women caught in adultery. 

I also went to the dentist ha-ha. I thought I had a cavity but apparently, I did not. Oh well though, it was a fun experience and now I have a new kind of toothpaste.

On Friday the 3rd we visited a longtime member named Msafiri and discussed life. We got to know him and his years in the church. At the end he was telling us about his friends that he has helped join the church and how one of these friends' wife wasn't interested in being baptized and how he is thinking of new ways to ask her. He also brought up Tangente and how he once visited him after a trip to the temple. Tangente asked him how he felt and Msafiri said his answer was "glorious". It was such a testimony to me that God works so deeply in all our lives and also, I love that word as a way to describe the temple. 

We've been trying to get in contact with someone who sent in a referral because of an online ad produced by the church. We met his two kids outside his house, and apparently both the parents speak French! Which is so amazing as I'm still trying to improve Swahili. 

Speaking of my language learning, it's slow. But I can now talk with people on the street and I'm learning how to teach lessons. Iko sawa, najaribu. 

Tuesday night the 7th we went to Louisville and stayed the night in my old apartment. We were there because the zone conference was on Wednesday morning, and we didn't want to get up early to drive. It was fun to stay there and meet the other 2 French Elders who I had yet to meet. Elder Roush and Elder Worth are both great and doing good work in my old area. They actually had a baptism with a person they had found! That was super exciting to hear. 

The zone conference was with Elder Bowen of the 70 and his wife. He had some great things to say about the dangers of false limitations we impose on ourselves and others. He then gave us a challenge to push our limits. They included getting up on time and planning for 30 minutes daily, not too hard to do. He also challenged us to have 30 testifying contacts a day and 30 lessons a week, now that one will be a challenge. But we're working hard to achieve it! And lastly, he asked us to have quiet dignity and a sense of urgency. It's interesting that he chose those two mindsets, but I like it and we're working to have them. 

One of our teenage new members asked a great question. He wanted to know why Satan couldn't repent, what makes him different from us that he doesn't have that option anymore. It was super cool to be able to prepare a lesson that a member wanted to know more about. It went great and honestly, he's such a smart kid. He's 14 and just awesome. 

That's all for these two weeks. Also, I think I've mentioned this before, but it's just so good. BYU speeches are amazing, and I recommend "His Grace is Sufficient" first! Go give it a listen, you will see the idea of grace in a totally different light. 

Love you all!

Elder Baird