May 25, 2015 - Transfer week!!

Hello family! Happy Memorial Day!! I'm glad to hear everyone is doing
well! School is done tomorrow?! Holy cow, that's crazy. Can't believe
it!  I got a letter from Grandma Poulson today, so thank you so much to them for that!
 I loved it!

Oregon is beautiful!!

This week has been crazy! We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, which was
absolutely amazing. We focused on getting back to the basics as a
mission. It was awesome. Any time you can be with President and Sister
Samuelian is a great time. They are both amazing! Zone Conference
definitely took about 12 hours of our day though, so that day was shot
haha.
Our tripanionship went fairly well.  We were still productive. We had to cover two areas for
the week, so our numbers in our individual wards were down, but it was
all good. Overall it was a good week.
We did service a couple times, which was good. I love serving people!!
Our teaching pool is pretty small right now, which is lame. Man,
baptizing people makes things harder haha. But, I wouldn't have it any
other way. We will definitely need to be doing a lot of finding in the
coming weeks though.
Speaking of the coming weeks, you probably want to know who I will be
with. Transfer calls were on Saturday. We got the call from President
in the middle of the day, which means someone is getting leadership.
Elder Watson will be leaving and becoming a tech Elder, to train and
work with the iPads and such in the mission. He will be in another
tripanionship, but will be serving with his trainer during his
trainers last transfer. So he is excited about that. As for me, I will
be staying in Dallas. I have no idea who my new companion will be yet.
I do know one thing though. He is still in the MTC as I write this.
I've been called as a trainer! President said it was very rare that a
visa waiter trains, but it is what the Lord wants. He said he is
praying that my visa doesn't come for at least another transfer.
Jerk... Haha :)
I definitely feel very inadequate for this assignment. I'll be
responsible for a whole other person and their progression. That's
scary. But, I know that the call is from the Lord, and both He and
President trust me. I'm nervous, but also very excited.
My thought for this week is that the Lord will help us when he asks us
to do something. Just like Nephi said, I know the Lord doesn't ask
anything of us without giving us a way to accomplish it. I know that
who He calls, He qualifies for that calling. I know that I can't train
a new missionary on my own. That sounds horrible. But I'm comforted in
the fact that Heavenly Father has asked me to do this, and he won't
let me fail. However, I could also definitely use some prayers to help
me recognize that help and have everything I need to be the best
trainer I can possibly be for my new companion. But I know that if I
rely on the Lord, all will be well.
I love you all! Thanks for all your support and prayers! Have a
wonderful week! I'll let you know all about my new greenie next week!!
Elder Baldridge

May 18, 2015 - Another baptism this week!

May 18, 2015 – Another baptism this week!
This week has been pretty good. C….. was baptized on Saturday!!  That went really well. He has progressed so much even in the last week alone. I'm so glad we pushed his baptism back a week, and it was definitely Spirit led. He invited a lot of non-members to his baptism too, which was sweet. Our ward mission leader felt prompted to ask him to share his testimony after the baptism, and he straight up told everyone to take the lessons to feel the same joy that he has felt. That was awesome haha. Then on Sunday I had the opportunity to confirm him, which was awesome as well! Love him.
I said goodbye to Elder Lowe on Friday. He leaves for Brazil either today or tomorrow. That's crazy. So he will be there soon.
Speaking of visas, I got an email on Friday, saying... There are new visa requirements for the LA Consolate! Yay! So I had to email Amber (at Church Travel) a picture of my driver's license. But, that also means that they haven't done anything with my visa yet haha. So, that's some news. I don't care. I love Oregon, and I'll leave when I need to. No worries.
I am a little nervous about the transfer coming up. I know everything will end up how it is supposed to be, but it just will be weird. Elder Watson has been here a long time, and could very possibly leave. We will find out on Saturday.

Elder Baldridge and Elder Pope

For the next week, I'll be in a tripanionship with Elder Watson and Elder Pope. Since Elder Lowe is leaving, someone had to go to his area to be with his companion. So Elder Wilson will go there, and Elder Pope will be with us. They are both from another ward in Dallas. So, we will see how this week goes. Could be interesting.
This week has still been pretty slow. We had a baptism, which was definitely exciting, but not much happening in terms of future success right now. I think we need to change some things in order to be more effective.
Anyway, spiritual thought. This week I have heard multiple times about how our personal conversion comes before anything else in the church. There are lots of great programs like home teaching and young mens and all that stuff, but nothing is more important than our personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. We work out our own salvation individually. But, as we improve ourselves as disciples of Christ, the other things take care of themselves and improve as well. As each of us strengthens our own discipleship, then our families will be strengthened. As families are strengthened, wards improve. And so on. It all starts as we work on our personal conversions. So, focus most heavily on improving yourself and becoming more converted to the gospel, and the rest will follow.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Baldridge

Time is Flying!!

Time is Flying!!!
Hey everyone!
It was so nice to skype you yesterday! I'm glad everyone could be
there in one way or another haha. That 40 minutes went by SO fast. It
seems like we barely talked at all. But, it was so nice, and I was
very grateful for technology as well.
This transfer is FLYING by. It's already week 5. We get transfer calls
at the end of next week. That is ridiculous! I can't believe how fast
it's gone.
The last two weeks have been kinda slow in terms of lessons and
things. It's lame how we don't teach the lessons after people are
baptized. Ward missionaries take care of the new member lessons in
this ward. So after baptisms, we get less busy in terms of scheduled
lessons. Lame. I guess people getting baptized is kinda cool too
though... :) I definitely want to teach more though.
We have been going on lots of temporary exchanges with the Elders in
the Oakdale ward the last two weeks. Elder Young is the district
leader and has some meetings to go to. But they also have appointments
sometimes they need to go to, so we help them out. I go with Elder
Sims and Elder Watson goes with Elder Young, and it's pretty fun. We
don't have as much time in our area though.
They also double booked service projects on Saturday, so we helped
them out with that.
Our district is crazy.  We have so much fun. At what point is
it too much fun?? Question of the century. Elders Young and Sims and
Elder Watson and I are all super good friends, and we have a lot of
fun. One of the reasons they also ask us when they need help on those
exchanges and stuff.
This week we began doing push-ups for things that we want to improve
in ourselves. For example, I do 25 push-ups everytime I put myself
down or put someone else down. The push-ups add up during the day, and
then we do them at night. So far the most I have had to do is 125. Not
too horrible... We are either going to be super righteous or super
buff. We shall see which way it goes haha.
C…. should be baptized this Saturday, which is exciting. We've got a
lot of work to do in this area now. We definitely need to find new
investigators, because our teaching pool is running a little dry.
That's a big goal this week.
Spiritual thought for the week: the Atonement is very real. I know
that Christ really did suffer for our sins, as well as our pains,
weaknesses, etc. It is only through the Atonement that we can return
to live with Heavenly Father again. I am so grateful to Heavenly
Father for sacrificing His son for us, and for Christ sacrificing
himself. It is only through the Atonement of Christ that we can
experience a fullness of joy, both in this life and the life to come.
Christ is literally our Savior, and I will forever be grateful. May we
all strive to apply the Atonement in our lives more effectively and
more abundantly. That's my goal, and I hope you all make it yours too.
I love you all. Hope this coming week is wonderful!
Elder Baldridge

May 4, 2015 Time goes so fast!

Hey family! Sounds like everyone is doing well.  Sounds

like everyone else had a great week too, so that's awesome.

L.... was baptized on Saturday! She is my favorite! I love her so

much. It was awesome. After the baptism, she came up to us and was

like "I just need to hug you guys" and comes at me very quickly. I

very smoothly stepped back and extended my arm at the same time,

quickly explaining I can't do that. It was fairly awkward and so

disappointing, because I want to hug her and congratulate her, but you

just can't, first time that has happened to me. Probably not the last.

I forgot the notes I had written for this week, so my email my be

jumbled and not very detailed. Sorry.

We just got done playing a round of golf, which was really fun. I shot

like a 48 or so on a par 31 9 hole course. With the amount I have

played golf throughout my life, I thought I did pretty good. Should

definitely play golf more, though.

Elder Watson forgot his name tag one day, so he wore my spare!
That was interesting to explain!

C..... is still scheduled to be baptized this Saturday, but we aren't

sure it's going to happen. First off with his mom, and second I just

don't know if he is ready. But definitely working hard with him.

This week has been really weird. Lots of just random things popped up.

We had to help some of the other Elders in Dallas out with some

lessons and stuff at the last minute, so that was fun. I don't really

know how to describe it, but this week has just been weird.

About Mother's Day, I believe we will be Skyping from a members home.

But, right now I have no idea what time or how to set that up or

anything. I will have to let you know later. I don't even know how to

let you know though... We will try to figure it out.

This week I have been studying a lot about charity. Charity is SO

incredibly important. If you do everything else right, but don't have

charity, you are basically worthless. Charity means loving others the

way Heavenly Father loves them. It means seeing people the way

Heavenly Father sees them. And it also means loving Heavenly Father

and wanting to please him. Basically everything that we do stems from

those two things - love for Heavenly Father and love for others. True

disciples of Christ have charity. So, work to develop charity, and we

can improve on all the other Christlike attributes as well. That's my

thought for this week.

I love you all. I can't believe it's already Mother's Day this week.

Time is flying. It's crazy. Have a wonderful week! Make it great! Love

you!!

Elder Baldridge

April 27

Hey everyone! Sounds like a decent week for you all. Lame about Adam Wainwright. Come on!

So, this week has been good. The days and times are all mixed up and everything. It is crazy.

We have two investigators right now under the age of 18. Both with baptismal dates, and both with parents who are not too happy about that. And so, they may not exactly be happening as planned. But, the kids are great, and I think they will both get baptized at some point. We just need to keep making sure their testimony is growing. So, a little bump in the road that is fairly disappointing.

L.... is still set for this weekend, and we are super excited!! I love her so much. She is super cool. Anytime we go over there with a member, the member is always like "she is going to be a great member of the church" and one even said he could see her as a fantastic relief society president. Couldn't agree more, she is that awesome. So we are pumped.

We had exchanges again on Saturday. Once again, I was with Elder Young in our area. And once again, we totally killed it. I love him so much, he is awesome. He is the district leader now, by the way. So, we did like 3 hours of service, taught some members a short lesson and committed them to having us names for referrals by the end of this week, and found another new investigator street contacting. Not as wild an experience with the street contacting as before, but still awesome. We kill it together. haha!

Last night we went over to a part member family, where the wife hasn't been to church in awhile, mainly because of health issues. They were super awesome and love sports, so we talked about that a lot. Then they said they knew one of our investigators, and the non member husband invited us to teach him in their home if the place we normally taught didn't work out. Teach an investigator in the home of a non member and less active? Um, yes, absolutely!! So, we should be doing that this Thursday. Such a sweet blessing.

This week has been fairly normal and not all that exciting. Today for P-day we did go to a driving range (a member in another ward manages a golf course). We thought we were going to actually play golf, but there were a lot of people cause today was a really nice day, and they didn't want us newbies screwing up the experienced golfers. It was still fun though. We also went to a batting cage in town and threw to each other. But we only had a softball bat, plus I haven't hit in like a year, so it was ugly. But fun. This group of Elders in Dallas now are willing to do fun stuff on P-day, which is so nice.

We are still working out three days a week. I'm so out of shape, but so glad I am finally doing something again. Even if I do have to get up at 5:00 to do it.

Elder Watson and Elder Baldridge at the temple

Elder Watson and I have started communicating even better the last few days. I think things with our companionship will get even better, which will be awesome. Communication is so crucial, and I never really realized it.

Cruisin' with Elder Watson

I just recently finished reading the war chapters in Alma, and I LOVED them. They are amazing. They are so many spiritual applications I got out of them all. About preparing for when Satan comes, and relying on the Lord, and other awesome things. I don't have my notes or my scriptures right now, so this spiritual thought is kinda lame, but read those chapters and think about how they apply to you today. Cause they definitely do.

Sorry I haven't sent pictures recently. We have just been emailing from our ipads so that is hard. But, I will today. Lucky you.

I love you all, and hope all goes well this coming week. Enjoy your trip Mom and Dad! I miss everyone, but it's all good. This is kinda important too. Love you!!

Elder Baldridge