Youth temple scramble

Alright so I'm going to make this somewhat quick because I am trying to get all my backlogged emails figured out.

We started this week with a bit of a breakdown ha-ha. Monday night I was feeling sad and stressed that I haven't worked hard enough during the last two years, and I just wanted to finish the best I can. What I learned was that I really have tried my best and I needed to learn more about grace and the power of forgiveness and change. So, I started the rest of the week with that in mind. 

We had a stake youth temple trip that has been in the works for this whole transfer. It was supposed to be all figured out with a bunch of temple recommend interviews last Sunday after church. Well because of snow they cancelled church so instead we went to all of the youth's homes and handed them a phone call with the branch President Bawili on the other line. Most of the time he was at work, or we woke him up to do these calls ha-ha. But he was a trooper, and 6 kids were able to go. Honestly, a highlight of my mission. It was the first time for almost all of these kids and most of them they beat their parents to the temple ha-ha. 

Sadly, though this week one of our new member families moved out of our area. It was really sad. So, they've had some issues with their house and the heat hasn't been working. They went to a check up/vaccinations and the doctor said they needed to move. So, they went to the refugee organization, and they put them in a hotel for 2 nights and got them a new home. They moved like 5 minutes away but went on the other side of the border of the area which was sad. Goodbye Sango, Mauwa, and their family. 

We went and finally visited a referral that we received at like the beginning of the transfer. He finally gave us his apt number, so we went and met him. He is apparently amazing ha-ha. His name is Jaques and is from Congo. He speaks French, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, and English fluently. He has like 3 friends who are (inactive) members of the church. He was super cool and when we called in a member Jaques really wanted to come to church. He's here in America completely on his own so it would be awesome to connect him to a bit of a church family. 

Finally, we went by a friend we've been teaching by the name of Albert. We've been hoping for a while to be able to extend him a baptismal date but never felt he was ready. We discussed in district council that day about extending baptismal invitations, so it was fresh on our minds. We discussed the plan of salvation in general and went into depth about the premortal life. Then we called in our member Fiston to testify and he at some point asked if Albert plans to be baptized in the church. He said no and Fiston explained why he should be baptized again and he just accepted it ha-ha. We then put him on date for the end of February and it was so cool to watch the member missionary work in action!!

In all I learned this week that God expects effort. I've heard before that Heavenly Father treats weakness differently than he does rebellion. One involves turning away from God and the other involves a recognition of our own imperfections. The grace comes in when we accept help. Something that I don't understand yet is how we can apply God's power to ourselves, but I do know it is there, and it is available to us all. Christ loves you and he gives you the power to change. Have a great week and I love you too!!

Infinity War

So, transfers happened and I'm back to Lexington! Not only that but I have now served in every single French area. I feel like Thanos collecting the infinity stones. Tuesday two weeks ago I did a mini exchange with Elder Wirth and we went to visit mama Zura and Fahila. It was a great time. Then that night we got the call I would be coming to Lexington North with Elder Mann, presumably to finish my mission. 

On Wednesday we visited a lot of the members that I have come to love in the Louisville 1st ward. In total I have served almost a year of my mission in this ward (8 transfers). I remembered right before I left home almost 2 years ago, I asked my sister Hailey what I should do to adjust to living far away. Her response was simply to get to know the members wherever I am and ask people about their story. This ward was really the place I did that the best. It is an American ward with a French group, but I have come to love everyone in there. Of all my areas LV FR N is my home, and I was worried to leave. In the end I knew that the Lord would help all of the friends I taught, and the missionaries would take care of them. My two "sons" are serving there now, and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Thursday, I loaded everything up to move for most likely the last time before getting on that plane. It's weird to feel the end be near, but I am excited to see what these next 3months have in store. 

Friday started a blur that was the last week and a half. We were working 2 areas in a trio with a previous companion Elder Arscott until his trainee arrived. We met a lot of friends and members who had been found and baptized since I had been here in Lex, as well as some of the old ones I remembered. A few highlights are:

-A new member family in my area (north). Sango and Mauwa. They are literally the best. They love the missionaries so much that they feed us twice a week when we go to teach. They have 5 kids: Sela, Machozi, Tereza, Munga, and Mimi. (Mimi is the missionary fan favorite baby, she's adorable.) 

-The dunia family is a very large family we have named after the first man who was baptized. Dunia is also the friend that got Alenge and Mwaliasha interested in the church. This family is chaos ha-ha. There are 3 apartments in the same complex. One is Dunia and his family, another is his sister Binwa and her family, and the third is their brother Sadi and he lives with another brother. The grandma and another couple siblings also live in the first two apartments as well as a couple of Binwa's adult sons. (Hats off to elder Lundgreen a while back for sitting down with them and learning what their family tree actually is.) Currently, like 5 or 6 of the adults in this family have been baptized in the last year, with 2 more having been baptized I the last 2 years. We visit them a few times a week for new member lessons and because one of Binwa's sons, Bitazo, is preparing to be baptized in January as well as another woman named Deborah is progressing quite well. 

-Shebani is another man who has a baptismal date for January that we are working with. It's hard because we're not super sure what his interest or commitment level is yet, but we will keep working with him because we trust the previous elders. 

-And lastly Albert. He pulled up to church for the first time a week before Christmas. He had just flown into Kentucky from Maine that morning to live with another of our new members named Henry. We have been over a few times to teach him and he's really cool!! We have high hopes for Albert.

For the most part these last two weeks have been trying to figure out who everyone is and inviting people to the Christmas party this week and Christmas church yesterday. It has been a good time and I'm really excited to serve here. 

To end we had a zone gathering for Christmas and I'd like to talk about what I learned there. We were invited to read the whole Book of Mormon before April 30th as a mission. I return home on March 14th. During the meeting I was faced with a choice, continue floating until i finish my mission or did deep and open myself to learning something before I return home. I've learned many things on my mission, and I could return home now feeling accomplished, but the spirit reminded me through President McGinn that I still have something to learn and there are people prepared here for me to help. I'm excited to see the hand of the Lord!!

Elder Baird