June 15, 2015 Spoke some Portuguese!

Hello everyone! I hope all of you are doing well! I'm doing great! We had an interesting week.
First off, thank you so much for the package! Those cookies were amazing, and thank you for the ties! Also for the picture. That was awesome. Thanks so much.

Disc golf with Elder Wilson on P-day

We had some awesome meetings this week. We had two meetings with a member of the first quorum of the Seventy on Thursday, which was awesome. One meeting was just for missionaries, and the other was for us and the bishops and some members of the ward council. It was super awesome, and very specific on certain things that we as missionaries and members need to be doing. Super helpful. We had actually scheduled to meet with our bishop and ward mission leader this week, to talk about things that needed to be done in order to help the missionary work in the ward, and the Seventy basically covered all of it. Which was great, because it means a whole lot more coming from him than from me. So, if our ward chooses to act on what he asked us to do, I think there will be some great things coming!! Let's hope and pray.
We also had a stake priesthood meeting yesterday, and that was amazing as well. The stake presidency basically called everyone to repentance for some very specific things, and it was sweet. I loved it. They talked about the law of the fast, sabbath day observance, and the sacrament, as well as how important it is to fulfill and magnify our callings, especially in relation to home teaching. I love our stake president here. He is totally awesome, and loves the missionaries. We have breakfast at his house with missionaries in the whole zone/stake, and it's sweet.
I met a Brazilian lady at church yesterday! She is in the other ward, and I had never met her before. She moved here like 2 years ago. We talked some Portuguese, which was cool. And made me realize how much I am not good anymore. So that was fun. She was super happy to meet me though. She said she missed speaking Portuguese. I believe she may have even cried she was so happy haha. So that was neat yesterday.
For my spiritual thought, I'll refer to that meeting with the member of the Seventy. He talked about how nothing is more important than the salvation of souls. Not our job, not money, not our hobbies, not anything. If we are too busy to worry about bringing someone else to Christ, than we are doing it all wrong. That really stuck out to me. So that was cool. Don't get so caught up in ANYTHING that we don't have time to worry about the salvation of others.
This week has still been fairly slow, but a little better. We taught a few more lessons, so that was good! Hopefully with more from the ward, the work will start to pick up! Some great things could happen! So, we will see.
Love you all! Hope this week is great!
Elder Baldridge

June 8, 2015 Keep the commandments and serve others!

Hey everyone! Sounds like things are going good back in Indiana.
School is out, everyone is having fun, and more importantly you are
all doing some awesome church stuff, like the temple names and
preparing for the temple celebrations and such. Keep it up!
This week, and the past few weeks really, have been very slow. It's
frustrating, honestly. The number of lessons we teach has dropped
significantly, and we just can't really find new investigators. I feel
like I'm just not doing enough as a missionary, and I feel bad for
Elder Malauulu sometimes because when I first got here, we were pretty
busy. And now we just aren't. We stay busy trying to contact people
and all, but not much teaching. I know some points on your mission
will be super hard and slow and all, and that's fine. That's the way
it's supposed to be. But, we need to be doing more. I just don't know
what we can do. But we are trying. Our fast yesterday was all about
knowing what Heavenly Father wants us to be doing. How to use our
time, who to visit. Just to know His will for us and for this area. We
are meeting with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader tomorrow to
discuss some important things that I think will help, so let's hope
that goes well.
In the midst of all the frustrating things, we still found A……  last
Saturday. A…….  is cool. The gospel can really help him, and we are
hoping he will let it. We have a lesson with him tonight, and hope to
put him on date for baptism. So that's exciting! At least there is one
bright spot.
This week has been super hot, like Mom pointed out. It's not fun. We
had the car, which was nice. Hopefully it isn't as hot this week when
we don't have the car, but we will see. I've got to get ready for
Brazil I guess....

Elder Malauulu and Elder Baldridge

Elder Malauulu and I are getting along really well still. I like him a
lot. So all is well in that area.
I don't have a whole bunch to say this week, so sorry about that.
My spiritual thought is something I read this morning. I was reading
about baptism in Preach My Gospel, and it talked about receiving and
retaining a remission of our sins. You receive a remission of your
sins when you make covenants with God like baptism. But retaining that
is the most important part. Look up Mosiah 4:11-12 and verse 26.
Basically, it's all about keeping the commandments and serving others.
I really liked how service is a big part of our retaining forgiveness.
It's not just about repenting and apologizing, but then we need to
show our desires to follow Christ by keeping the commandments and
serving others like Christ did. That is when we can always retain a
remission of our sins. So, strive for that, and I will too.
I love all of you. I hope your week is wonderful! I love this church,
and I love this work.
Elder Baldridge

June 1, 2015 First Week Training

Hey everyone! Sounds like you all are doing well! Yay schools out.
That's awesome. Way to make it through another year, everyone. I'm so
proud.

Picture from Elder Watson's last day in the District

Our District was, and still is, crazy!

 So I'm training!  It's crazy! I spent Tuesday and Wednesday with
another trainer, Elder Larsen, because our companions were transferred
and we needed companions. We served in our area. He was super cool.
Wish I could have spent more time with him. But on Thursday we got our
new greenies! We had a meeting with President Samuelian as trainers,
which was awesome! Any time you can be with president is amazing. He
asked each of us how we were feeling. I said I was nervous but
excited, of course. He said I would be training myself along with the
new missionary, which is so true. I still have no clue what's going
on, so we can learn together. He also mentioned how awesome it would
be to go to Brazil already having the experience of training a
missionary. Which is true, that will be sweet. Also stressed the
importance of trainers. If we screw our kids up (the person you train
is referred to as your son), their sins can come upon our heads. If we don’t
do it well, we can shame the mission and this kid forever. So, it's
kinda important. And scary.

Say hello to my "firstborn son", Elder Malauulu.
Kid is a stud!!

Then we got our greenies! I am training Elder Malauulu (pronounced
Mala-ooloo).  He's super cool! He is from San Diego, but his
grandparents are natives of Samoa. I already love him. He worked in
the oil fields in California for a year, which means he lived away
from home and is already more mature than right after high school, so
that is super nice. I feel like I got pretty lucky. I don't know him
too well yet, because we have only been together like 4 days, but I'm
so excited!
Training is forcing me to be a better missionary. I've had to change
my mindset and do my best to be a good example.  I really am training myself at the same time, and I think it's
pretty cool. Also scary, because as stated before, I barely know
anything. I better learn fast.
This week we had a cool experience, which will lead into my thought
for the week as well. We had time planned for basically street
contacting, and no real plans. So I went through the area book, both
the paper copy and the app, and picked some former and potential
investigators to go visit. I had never even heard of them before. As
we went and visited them, we set up an appointment with one. Another
we knocked on the door and he wasn't home, but as we were leaving some
car pulled up. A guy got out and we helped him carry stuff inside,
then proceeded to have like a 45 minute lesson, ending in him
accepting a soft baptismal challenge. It totally wasn't the guy we
were looking for, but Heavenly Father made it work out. It was such a
cool experience.
We had been struggling to find people to teach for awhile. We baptized
3 people, which destroyed our teaching pool. So, we were praying for
new investigators and kinda getting down because it was super hot and
we walked a lot and nothing happened. Then we picked some random names
to visit, prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help us out, and then
put in the work to go visit people. So, for the thought, I know that
as we pray in faith, and then put in the work, miracles will happen.
As long as we have righteous desires, the Lord will provide a way.
Missionary work is awesome! Being a missionary is cool. Love it.
Training is weird, but sweet. I love all of you! Have a great week!
Elder Baldridge