Exchanges, Blitz, and Miracles

Hey all!!

So this week has been amazing!! I will stick with the really big things that happened. 

On Thursday, we had an amazing dinner with a less active family and we also had couple that was active there as well. It was a miracle that it happened because the wife went out of town unexpectedly and was not able to be there. We had tried for an hour, trying to get someone to be able to go with us and 30 minutes before the dinner we called him and let him know we were not going to be able to stay and eat. No sooner than when we hung up, we received a text from this couple saying they could go!!! We were so excited and of course we called him back right away and let him know we'd be there!!

We then had a blitz in our area!!! It is where the entire Zone, and our Sister Training leaders came and worked in our area for 2 hours. We were able to find 3 new investigators and over 10 new potentials!! The Lord was most definitely preparing people for that night. We are so grateful for all the work people were willing to put in.

After the blitz we went straight into exchanges, which were AMAZING!! Sister Beck and Sister Cha are seriously the best. I don't know what I could do without them. Not only did Sister Cha and I have exchanges, but we decided we were doing a full bike day!! We made it all the way to 7pm, but then ended up having to take the car so we were not late to an appointment. We saw so many miracles and were able to talk to so many people!! 

Did I mention that all three of those things were straight in a row? It was a crazy end of the week, but so good!! 

This coming week is going to be crazy, but also so good!! We are getting a new Mission President and we are having Zone Conference!!! I cannot wait!

I also wanted to say congrats to Lee and Samantha who were sealed with Arabella as a forever family this week. The pictures and everything looked so beautiful.

I am so incredible grateful for the blessing of being able to have our families forever. Heavenly Father loves us and only wants us to be happy. 

Question this week: Would you rather be deaf or blind and why?

Much Love Always,

Sister MJ Baird

Sister Baird at the Ward BBQ - location changed and they needed to point people in the right direction! 

Sister Baird and Sister Wong - Selfie Time!

Sister Baird and Sister Wong! Selfie Time again!

IT IS HOT. ALSO HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Well, this email is going to be fairly short because Sister Wong and I have some business to deal with for our Ward we just found out about and that kind of takes priority over group emails. I want to say that I love you all and the Lord loves each and every one of you. He knows you personally and is always willing to help lift you when you are down and struggling.

In news, it is very hot. Not the real temperature, but what the car showed when we started it today be will in one of the pictures. Currently, I believe, it is 107. Woot woot!!

Speaking of hot things, I have some news, I guess I should share about home life. The Baird's are moving!! My family is in the final process of selling the house and will be heading out to Arizona. Hot hot hot!! It is mixed emotions about leaving the place I call home, but I know that it is all in the Lord's plan. Otherwise, it would not have happened. I will always be a mid-west girl that I can tell you! I love my flat land and horizons and fall bonfires! 

In news of the work, after almost two weeks of no contact with Craig, we made contact with him!! It had gotten to the point where we said if we do not make contact, we are releasing him. We pulled up and there he was. Not the time to release yet!! :)

Madi Griffin had an amazing time at girls' camp and made so many friends!! I was seriously a glowing proud Mom at church. She chose to sit with friends over us, and let me tell you, that is a good thing!! 

Other than that, I have just two more things to say.

Congrats to my Brother and Sister-in-law, Lee and Samantha. Tomorrow, they will be sealed in the Temple for all time and eternity. I am so proud of you two and wish I could be there more than anything. I love you both!!

And Happy Father's Day to all of you, who have, are or will dads out there. This also goes out to all the men who have been father figures in my life. Thank you for your great examples. 

Most of all, Happy Father's Day to my Heavenly Father. He knows me better than myself and He will always be there by my side, helping me to become the best version of myself. 

I love you all and the question I have for you this week, what is the most exciting summer plan you have? Even if it is just sleeping, I want to know :)

Much Love Always,

Sister MJ Baird

Sad, but not sure why....

Eating healthy. Proof!

Circa 1995 New Era Cover
Top Left person in picture is our Chinese Group Leader in our Ward.
He's Japanese and Chinese.

Sister Wong and Sister Baird selfie time!

Sister Wong and Sister Baird selfie time! Take 2

Sister Wong and Sister Baird selfie time! Take 3

Sister Wong and Sister Baird selfie time! Take 4

Little girl at a dinner appointment that wanted to take a Selfie! Couldn't resist!

Someone had one of the locks on their house for selling it and she had never seen one before,
SOOO of course we took a picture!

We actually had time to get ready because there was no Ward Council.
Thanks Dads!!

Told you, it was hot!

Transfers and just a few pictures :)

Howdy all!

That was in honor of my new district leader, Elder Snow who is from Texas. Speaking of District Leaders, we had transfers this week, hence the Tuesday email. No I didn't just get lazy and not send one. :) My transfer was...Stay in the beautiful Folsom 4th Ward and Silva Valley Ward with Sister Wong another 6 weeks!! I am so excited to still be serving with Sister Wong and these wards. I have truly come to love the people here and it is going to about kill me when I leave. Luckily that won't be for at least 6 weeks :) By the end of this transfer I will have spent a 1/3 of my mission. I will have reach a 1/3 of my mission. When did that happen? The time is definitely going fast. 

Sadly however, the work is still a bit slow. Right before the end of transfers, the District did a blitz for us and got to see what we deal with basically everyday. A blitz, by the way, is where all the companionships in the District work in just your area and go see a list of people you have put together for them. We had 4 companionships going to see 8 people each. At least 20 of them were no answers. Possibly more. Yeah. People don't like to answer their doors, or they really might not be home. 

Some good news, in Silva Valley we did get this 10 year old girl to finally say yes to being baptized. Her brother who is only about 8 days older or something (yes real siblings, not explaining why the age difference) was baptized a bit ago, and she has just been saying not ready, not ready. Well, Sunday she finally said YES!! We could not be more excited for her. Please keep her in your prayers, that all will continue to go well. Maddie :)

Craig unfortunately did not show up for his appointment. We even had members with us. Hopefully he will progress more this week.

Well, fun news, I got to go to the Temple today!! That was amazing. Last time I went was in the MTC and that felt like forever ago. Definitely take advantage of the Temple if you have one near you. Not being able to go all the time is so hard. 

Well, that is really all I have this week. Sorry there isn't more cool stuff. 

I will share with you my testimony of how much your Heavenly Father loves you. We had an experience this week where a lady got mad that we knocked on her door twice instead of just leaving after no one answered the first time. Even though she was rude and mean to us, I know that Heavenly Father loves her just as much as me. We also met a lady who basically told us because we did not believe the same thing as her we were going to end up in hell. She was at least polite, but meant the same regardless. Yet, I know Heavenly Father loves her still the same. No matter what we do, He will always love us, because we are each his children.

I love you all and I know this church is true. I know Jesus Christ lives and loves each and every one of us.

Much Love Always,

Sister MJ Baird

WE HAVE A NEW INVESTIGATOR!!

Beautiful souls,

So, AMAZING news this week that I can't help but share right away. After about 2 months, we finally have a new investigator. We are so excited!! We have been praying and did a fast for this to start happening and it has. The work is going to pick up, we know it!!!

This week we had some exciting things happen!!

Zone Conference was this week and that is ALWAYS an amazing experience. This was the first one I did not sing at. Currently I am at 2 for 3. It was Sister Wong's first one in America so that was really awesome too. A little miracle here. At zone conference we actually were committed to handing out a Book of Mormon that night and to invite the person we invited to be baptized. We were not able to do the second half, but we were able to accomplish the first half!! The miracle part? We had about 10 minutes to do it. The rest of our day was full and that was the only time we had for it. We prayed and started walking on a trail and found 2 girls we were able to give Book of Mormons too. It was incredible!!

We also had Sister Wong's 5 Week New Missionary Meeting this week!! That was fun. I always love seeing the other missionaries. Plus I got to see my MTC Companion so that is always a bonus too. My favorite part was definitely when all the trainee's got to bare their testimonies. The spirit was so strong! After that meeting is actually when we found out we had a new investigator. We were unable to go to the appointment we had set that day because of the meeting, so we actually had the Sister Training Leaders go for us. We had a member meet them there and it went well. He has read the Book of Mormon twice! They asked if he had ever prayed about it and he said no. Prayer is essential in gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. They committed him to do that and set up another appointment. Sister Wong and I are confident in his progress moving forward. We are excited. 

On top of all that we got to help take a bunch of old people to the zoo and walk them around :)

Besides that life is good!! We had a scavenger hunt as a zone activity today so if there is wild pictures attached to the blog that would be why.

I love you all and miss you!!

Happy Memorial Day!!!

Much Love Always,

Sister MJ Baird

There can be miracles, if you believe!!

Aloha,

There was a man who graduated from BYU Hawaii who spoke at the Stake's Seminary Graduation so I thought I'd go back to where a part of my heart will always be.

Anyway. Today's email isn't going to be crazy long, but I wanted to make sure I sent one.

A few random facts. Today Sister Wong had her first American Burger and she expected it to be bigger because of the restaurant in Twilight. She is still looking for a "family restaurant" to eat at because of that movie. Fun little tid bit. She thinks American high school is just like high school musical. If only my locker could have been pink. How amazing would that have been??  Sister Wong also does not like the sun. At all. Completely opposite of me - completely. I am my mother's daughter and adore the sun. We were driving home the other day and she, as usual says the sun is "chasing" or "following" her. This time she decided to say "Don't you fall in love with me, you won't even get the chance!". This was said to the sun. So I guess the sun doesn't get a chance at falling in love with Sister Wong haha. She's great.

Now for a miracle, or TWO.

So in one of the wards we cover, there hasn't been any work since Sister Wong got her. We ended up releasing everyone the week before she got her and have yet to have anyone since. We have been trying and nothing. This Sunday we decided we were going to specifically fast for this ward. They deserve people and we could not think of anything else left to do. We start our fast Saturday night and go into our regular running (really driving) around Sunday. When we get back to this ward to finally stay for the rest of church, they had just finished sacrament and we were going around talking to people, you know being good missionaries. ;) We then have a member waving us over to this couple we neither Sister Wong or I know. It turns out it is a member of the church who has been less active most of his life and his non-member wife. He woke up that morning and felt like he should come back to his roots. But wait, it gets better. They did not know which ward they were in or what time it started. They randomly showed up to the building where the wife immediately went up to a set of Elders that were in the lobby and asked when the next service was and if he knew what ward they were in . She told him where they lived and he told her what ward she was in and that the service started in about 5 minutes. I know the Lord's hand was in it. There is no such thing as coincidences.

That night we then found out that the Zone Leaders had contacted someone who lived in our area and got a return appointment with him for tomorrow!!

We had no idea the power fasting truly had, but we were incredibly grateful and still are to see all the blessings that have already come from it.

A returning part member family and a potential new investigator. Life is amazing.

I love this gospel more than anything. We have been faced with a lot of Anti (Anti-Mormons who are actively seeking was to put the church down in any way they can) this week and it has been such a huge blessing to see that regardless my testimony stands firm. I know what I have received a witness of and no one can take that away from me.

Much Love Always,

Hey Stephanie, welcome to Cali!

Pretty flowers that bloomed from my birthday

She saw a fancy car and wanted a picture.

She was a bit tired from service on Saturday. 

We have squirrels here. Squirrels are nice, chipmunks are evil. Sorry Alvin.

Sister Wong and Sister Baird at Charming Charlies!

How my companion likes to pray. Isn't it awesome?

Sister Wong enjoying her first good ole' fashion American burger!

I made her let me study in the sun :)

I made her let me study in the sun :)

I made her let me study in the sun :)

A scripture I love!

Sister MJ Baird

Firsts, Exchanges, Skype, Birthday, and 4/18th of the way

Well. I typed out this long, awesome email. And then magically I bumped some keys on the board and it deleted it all. Yep. It's great. So this version may not be so awesome or great.

First for the week!!

Madi was baptized and it was amazing!! The Spirit was so so strong and it was Sister Wong's first baptism in America!!

I got my first flat tire. How you ask?? Curbs are evil I tell you, evil! You know what else is the BEST? Rush hour traffic on the high way. SO FUN. Oh! Question, what is the difference between a high way and freeway? I have no clue. They seem the same to me.

I had my first Starbucks cup with my name on it! As my zone leader said "Congrats, you're officially a white girl". That, or I just really love my name being on a cup.

We also had exchanges this week, which were amazing. I got a killer sunburn on the bottom 1/4 of my arm. Yay for 3/4 sleeves while ridding a bike in the sun :) I also managed to forget all my stuff back in our area and didn't realize it until we got there. Sometimes I am a little forgetful. Ha..haha.

Then I got to Skype home for the first time!! It was so amazing. It also happened to be on the same day as when I turned the big 2-0. It was definitely an amazing day. Thank you to everyone who reached out in some way and made sure I heard from you. It meant so much.

Through this crazy week I also managed to hit my 4 month mark! Time really is going by fast!!

Sorry this email is kind of lame, I promise the first one was better. Darn keyboard, that I am actually really grateful for.

Shoutouts, because, well because I want to:

Lee and Tim HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND CONGRATS ON BEING ONE YEAR OLDER!!

Happy Mother's Day to all current moms, one day moms, and mother like role models out there :)

AND my beautiful Sister graduated high school!! Woot woot!!

It has been a crazy but awesome week.

I love you all!!

Much Love Always,

Sister MJ Baird

Sister Wong's first recliner experience

Exchanges. Got to ride in a jeep with no top. It was fun!

Madi's Baptism
L to R - Sister Wong, Madi, Sister Baird

Happy Birthday to me!

Sister Baird and the Cup

Madi's Baptism
L to R: Sister Wong, Madi, Sister Baird

Exchanges. Got to ride in a jeep with no top. It was fun!


 

Companionship Selfie! Because we are so cute!

Flat Tire...nuff said.

Flat Tire

On exchanges!!