REASSIGNMENTS! Feb. 25, 2015

We just opened our reassignments!! And I hope you saw the bracket we made, because we absolutely called it!! Me, Elder Lowe, and Elder Moffat are going to Salem, Oregon!!! I have no idea how we called it by flipping coins, but we did!!  (Mom's note - apparently Elder Baldridge and the other Elders in his district who haven't received their visas yet, made up a bracket and flipped coins to determine where they thought they would be reassigned.Oregon won the bracket. They were amused the next day when three of them actually did get assigned to serve in Oregon!  The bracket is behind them on the white board in the picture!)

We leave next Wednesday!! We leave the MTC at like 3:40 am and our flight leaves at 8:45.   We get into Portland at about 9:40.  I'm excited!

Reassignment " bracket" for Elders still waiting for their visas to Brazil 

MTC WEEK 5 - Feb. 24, 2015

Hello everyone! This week was pretty cool. On Wednesday we got to host new missionaries. And we get to again this week! It was kinda cool. But the missionary I hosted was coming back for a second time because of some medical stuff the first time, so he didn't even really need me. Lame. And I only got to host one person, because not as many people came into the MTC last week. Our zone didn't get a new district, and we don't again this week. So that is strange.

I'm pretty sure our district has the two best teachers ever! I'm sure all MTC teachers are great, but they rock. We love them, and they tell us every day that they love us. One day an Elder was having a fairly bad day for some reason. But Irmao (Brother) Sears noticed, and stayed after class like 30 minutes to talk to him. And ever since, he has been doing great. So basically, the teachers here are amazing.

On Friday we did TRC, but we skyped Brazilians! We skyped this nice lady named T… , who was about 23 or so, and was a returned missionary herself. It was a cool experience. She and her husband were super nice. We could understand a decent amount of what she said. And she said our Portuguese was good! She probably was going to say that even if it wasn't, but I'll take the compliment.

Saturday it snowed for like 10 minutes. Literally just a bit of dusting on the ground. And all the foreign missionaries from like island places and I'm sure other places too, flipped out. We were walking back to our residence halls at night at they were taking group pictures in less than a 1/4 inch of snow. Haha it was super funny to see!

On Sunday, Elder Lowe and I were released as Zone Leaders. It was kinda sad, because I loved getting to know people in our zone better, and serving them. President Jackson, our branch President, said he wished he could leave us in our positions, but they are supposed to switch every 3 weeks. That was a nice thing to hear though.

Half our district also sang in church on Sunday, because it was our last normal Sunday, since this next week is Fast Sunday. We sang Come Thou Fount, and I personally think we sounded pretty good. A lot of people said we did good (of course, typical thing to say) but one Elder came up to me and thanked us, and sincerely said he felt the spirit during our song. That was cool, and meant a lot more than anyone saying we sounded good.

Yesterday, some of the Elders spoke only in Portuguese the whole day. It was tough, and I would still speak English to other people, of course, but it was a cool experience. I can definitely see how fast you will learn if you are immersed in it and speak it all day every day. I think we will try to do that for most of this week. We will see how it all goes.

I think we get reassignments on Thursday! I'm pretty excited! I would be a whole lot more nervous if I were going straight to Brazil, just because of the language. So this is probably a good first step haha. Although I'm also worried about losing the Portuguese a bit. So either way is a little scary. I heard that when we get our reassignments, we can email you for like 20 minutes that day. So, be ready for that sometime later this week!!

Anyway, this week has been good. Still lots of learning and lots of feeling the spirit and a whole lot of work haha. I'm really loving it though. It seems like we have been here forever, but I also wish I had more time everyday, because there isn't enough time at all to study and learn all the things that I want to. Oh well. All is well. I am healthy, and I love being a missionary. I miss you all, but this is where I need to be. Keep doing awesome things! I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Baldridge

MTC week 4 - Feb. 17, 2015

Hello everyone!! Sounds like all of you are doing well! I'm excited to hear about your lives. Happy Birthday, Addison!! You are getting so old! Don't grow up too fast, please!

Being Zone Leader is going well. I really enjoy getting to know all the missionaries in our zone better, and I'm trying to establish some sort of relationship with all the Elders. Which is hard, but also fun. We have a great zone, so there isn't too much correcting of behavior to be done.  I pray to love all the people in our zone everyday, and I definitely do. I appreciate all of their sacrifices to be here on missions, so I already love that about them. And as I get to know each of them a little  better, that only grows. I'm pretty sure this is our last week as Zone Leaders though, cause normally it only lasts 3 weeks. I don't know what I will do if I don't have any sort of calling for the last week...

This week we welcomed another new district, who I already love a lot! They all came with a strong desire to learn, both the language and the gospel, and are really trying their best every day.   I'm excited to see them progress over the next two weeks!

It's crazy to think that I have been here just about a month! Time flies in here! But at the same time it feels like I have been here forever, so I don't know how to feel haha.

This week when Elder Lowe was kinda sick, he was pretty tired. So I did most of the planning for our lessons that day. Normally he takes the lead in lessons because he is a little more confident in his Portuguese than me (even though mine is decent, I just need more confidence in it), but he asked me to take the lead on this one. So with "Fabio", our teacher acting as an investigator, I took the lead and we had a super awesome lesson. Elder Lowe still contributed a lot, but I was kinda leading the discussion and stuff. Fabio was a kinda difficult investigator who didn't really believe in God or anything. His mom was baptized, and he went to the baptism, and felt like the church was organized well and all, and everyone was nice, but nothing more. And by the end of that lesson (I believe our 4th with him) we committed him to baptism. Now, it's obviously a fake person, but the Spirit was real, and it was a cool experience. Still lots to teach him, but cool nonetheless.

This week after our movie night on Sunday (we watched Testaments, which is super good of course) we were helping pick up chairs afterward and talked to some native Brazilians. Their Portuguese was super hard to understand because they talk quietly and fast and with a heavy accent, but it was cool. Two of them have the same lunch time as us, so we are trying to sit with them at lunch and learn from them. We will see how that goes, but it was cool. The worker here who was directing us in stacking the chairs moved here form Brazil like 2 months ago, and we talked to him too.

I started reading Jesus the Christ this week, which I wish I had started so much sooner! I am excited to learn more about Christ, and I'm just sad that I didn't already read it.  So I read some of it everyday, and I love what I have read so far.

This week we also started to teach other missionaries in our district acting as investigators. It's good for us to practice more Portuguese in that way, but they also want us to learn what it is like to be an investigator, and try to see more from their perspective. Try to understand what their needs are, and how they can be helped by the gospel. It's a really neat idea, and I like it a lot. It should be a good experience.

Anyway, I am doing well. I'm healthy, learning lots, and enjoying my time. No major problems yet. All is well. I hope all of you continue to do so well too! I love every one of you!! Tchau!!

p.s. I just realized like yesterday that I had been spelling tchau wrong. It's still pronounced the same as ciao, but I feel like an idiot because that is how I would end letters to people haha oh well

Elder Baldridge with other missionaries in his district

MTC week 3 - Feb. 10. 2015

This week has been good! Seems like its been an eternity, but it really hasn't been that long

This week I had the opportunity to give a blessing to a Sister in our district who had been sick for about a week or so. Maybe it just felt like a week... not really sure. But anyway, that was a cool experience. Our whole district (all the Elders, I mean) participated in the blessing, but I got to give it. It was a cool experience, and I definitely felt the Spirit working through me. And she is feeling better now, so that's good too.

Like I said, we got to welcome 2 new districts this week, with a combined 20 new missionaries - 10 new Elders and 10 Sisters. It's nice to be zone leader and be able to get to know them a little better. They seem to be doing well right now.

This week was the first time we taught TRC (I actually forget what that stands for). But it is really cool because you have people come from BYU or UVU or something that speak Portuguese and they don't try to act like an investigator, you just teach them like real people. They have real problems, and you try to help them with what you can. You teach twice, for 20 minutes each, and it was cool. Elder Lowe and I taught about trying to invite the Spirit more into our lives, and how we recognize it when we do that. It went fairly well. Those two lessons were half of the 4 lessons that we taught on Friday. It wasn't a normal day because some schedules had been thrown off, but that was lots of teaching for one day. But overall, it went well.

The teachers at the MTC are crazy good and definitely inspired. I love our teachers a lot. Irmao (brother) Sears and Irma (sister) Wells are both super great, and always tell us that they love us. And we love them. Another really cool thing is that when we teach them, they pretend to be investigators. It's kinda strange, but cool. And yesterday Irmao Sears told us that the people he pretends to be are real people that he knows from Brazil. And if in our lessons he feels the Spirit and feels there is something that the real people could do to strengthen and deepen their own conversions, he emails them and tells them. So even though it's a member and our teacher that we know isn't an investigator, we are kinda teaching real people through him. I thought that was really cool.

 Elder Harris - left for Fiji yesterday. I saw him at breakfast I think, or lunch, and had to say goodbye for two years. It was sad, but I'm really excited for him. He will do great. I've also seen a few other guys from BYU here, and that is kinda fun. A lot of my friends from BYU are getting mission calls right now.. Missions are pretty cool, I think haha..

I will finish this email with a little taste of our devotional from Sunday night. Brother Kelly Mills, the director of all international MTCs, spoke. He talked about how important it is to lose yourself in the service of others. He told a cool story about one time in woodshop class or something when he was sanding a piece of wood. He was kinda daydreaming, and was only sanding the middle of it. His teacher, who was also his bishop or something like that, came over and told him that "if you focus on the edges, the middle takes care of itself" (because logically, on a small piece of wood, if you sand the edges, you are also sanding the middle. If you only sand the middle, you still have all the edges to do). So if you focus on other people and not on yourself, everything will work out for you too. It was a good reminder to forget ourselves and get to work serving others.

Anyway, I love you all and appreciate all the love and support you give me!!

Love,

Elder Baldridge

Saying goodbye to Elder Harris, BYU friend, before he left the MTC to serve in Fiji

MTC Week 2 - Feb. 3, 2015

Oi Everyone!!!

It sounds like everything is going well !  So this week like half our zone left, heading out to mostly Portugal. They left this morning actually. It was sad to see them go, but we didn't know them too well, so it's all good. I was also impeached as District Leader this week. I don't know what I did wrong, but now Elder Lowe and I are Zone Leaders! haha I'm excited to get to know the people in our zone better. I know that service is all about love, so I'm also excited to learn to love all the people. We have to welcome 20 new missionaries tomorrow, so that will be fun. With half our zone leaving, and another district leaving next week, our district basically runs this place haha. We have the zone leaders, the sister training leaders (basically zone leaders for sisters), the music coordinator, and the sacrament coordinator. So basically, we took over haha.

There isn't really too much to report for this week. Most days are the same old thing. They are long, and not all that exciting, but full of learning and other good things, so all is well. The 4 people from our district going to the Brazil MTC left this morning, so that is pretty sad. But other than that, not too much to report. We are continuing to teach lessons in Portuguese, which is going okay. We have great devotionals every Sunday and Tuesday, so those are fun to go to. But really, nothing has changed. There's about 10 hours of class time a day, so there isn't really fun stuff to write about

I love you all, and it still doesn't feel like I will be gone for two years. But I know I'm in the right place. All is well, I'm learning more every day, and can't wait to get out in the field.

. I love you all!

Love, Elder Baldridge