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

Tuesday, April 21 - 2nd week of this transfer

So, transfers were on Tuesday.  Guess who is in the district now, and who I am sitting next to right now on our ride back from the temple. Elder Lowe (Mom’s note – Elder Lowe was Elder Baldridge’s companion for the 6 weeks that they were  in the Missionary Training Center!  He also got reassigned to Salem Oregon to wait for his visa)  Haha he got transferred from his trainer after one transfer and is now in Lincoln City. But, he also got a text on Friday during district meeting that he got his visa! So he leaves in like four weeks, and spends two weeks in the São Paulo mtc before heading to Manaus. I am convinced I will be here at least one more transfer, but we shall see. We also got two other new elders in our district, and one new sister. The two Elders are Elder Sims and Wilson. I like them both a lot. 

Elder Baldridge's District at the temple

We just went to the temple! The Portland temple is amazing! The celestial room is two stories, and is the coolest one I have seen by far. It was an awesome experience, too. I love the temple

We now have three people on date for baptism! L…. decided May 2^nd would be the best day for her and her family to be there, so that's when hers will be. C….  is on date for the 9th. And M….  is on date
for the 16th. We are super excited about all of them. They all seem to be doing pretty well. The baptism dates are pretty soon, and we have a lot to do before then.
The weather in Oregon is crazy. One day it was sunny, rained, was sunny, hailed, and then was sunny again, all within like 5 hours. It was wild. It was also like 80 degrees yesterday, which was really hot.
But then I realized it was nothing like Manaus, which was depressing... Yuck.
We started working out three times a week this week. Elder Watson and I compromised. We have to wake up at 5:00 to go work out with the Oakdale Elders. So, I like the compromise. Working out half the time and sleeping half the time. It's all good.
So, being on a mission has really shown me that I have way more weaknesses than I have realized in the past. There are so many things I need to improve. Basically, you think you are going to be a good
missionary and then you realize that you never do anything perfect, or even close. But, that's okay. As long as you are trying your best and being obedient and asking Heavenly Father to help, he will help make up the difference. I'm so grateful that the Atonement covers more than just our sins, and helps with our weaknesses too. So, that's my thought for the week. We will never be perfect, but when we do our best and ask for help with the rest, we can be good enough for Heavenly Father to help with the rest.
I love all of you so much! Hope you have a great week!
Elder Baldridge

April 13, 2015

Hey everyone! Sounds like your weeks have been super good.  That's so cool that you all got to go to the temple together! I hope that was a sweet experience, especially for Addison! Keep up all the good work and stuff, family!  So this week has been awesome! I am currently sending you this email from my new iPad! We got them on Wednesday at a big zone conference with President Samuelian and his wife. It was awesome, and interesting. There was little talk about how to use the iPads to teach

and stuff. We are just supposed to follow the spirit. They talked all about how to protect ourselves with technology. And stressed that learning that now isn't just for missionary work, but will be
important for post mission life and even for our salvation. It's so true.  I really realized that
technology is how Satan will most attack us now, and will be the "stumbling block" of this generation. I think one of the reasons I am in this mission right now is to learn to use technology appropriately and effectively.
So, D…..  did get baptized this week! Elder Watson baptized her, and yesterday I got to confirm her! So cool. I have no idea what I said in the blessing, because it was definitely the spirit doing the talking. Anyway, first ordinance I have performed. Awesome. L…..  was going to be baptized the same time as D……. But about an hour before the baptism, she decided to postpone it. Her family
couldn't be there, and at first she thought she could just do it on her own. But she decided she wanted to involve her family and just make sure everything feels right. So,  postponed, but for all the
right reasons. It is now scheduled for the 25th.

By the way, I survived my first transfer! Elder Watson and I are both staying put for the next 6 weeks. I'm excited because great things are happening.
When D and L  were baptized, we would have like no investigators left. So we were worried and praying about that. And we got three new investigators this week! A………, the girl we met on the
street, finally was there and let us in, and she and her husband/boyfriend are fairly interested. Awesome. Yesterday at church a kid we knew from this bible study group we go to sometimes came with a member friend. Afterwards we talked to him and he asked some questions. Long story short, he asked what he needed to do to be baptized and we have a lesson on Tuesday. Crazy!!  There is also a nonmember who is dating he bishops daughter, and has been coming to church forever. No one has ever forced the issue on teaching him really. Well on Wednesday, we committed with our zone leaders to find a new investigator. I thought that would be impossible because the technology meeting lasted like all day and we had no real proselyting time. But we were at the church, I was thinking about how we could possibly find a new investigator before the day was over, and this kid walks by. He walked by and I just felt immediately like he was the one. I looked at Elder Watson and he looked at me clearly having the same impression. So we went up to him, and we pretty bold in just asking how serious he was about the church. Long story short again, he's taking the lessons. This week has been so awesome!
We went on exchanges with the zone leaders this Friday. That double booked their exchanges, so we just had a tri-panionship with Elder Lloyd. I love him. We had a great day. Loved it.
For a quick spiritual thought, just know that miracles are real! I've been working a lot on trying to develop more faith that the Lord is preparing people and that he can make up for all my weaknesses if I rely on Him. Working on that. But, it's definitely true! So basically this week has been awesome.   Just know that all is well in Dallas, Oregon. This week has been amazing, and I am so looking forward to this next transfer. I love you all, and hope everything is going well!
Love,  Elder Baldridge

April 6, 2015 Easter and General Conference

Hello everyone! Sounds like everyone enjoyed conference and had a great week. If you didn't enjoy conference, you are crazy, because it was amazing. 

So, conference. Wow. AMAZING. I went into conference with about 6 or 7 questions. I prayed to be able to find the answers through conference. And sure enough, I got at least some sort of an answer to all of my questions. It's almost like Heavenly Father hears our prayers and loves us enough to answer them. Crazy, huh? Nope, not at all. I knew that as long as I asked and was sincerely seeking the answers, they were there. And that applies to a lot more than just conference. So keep that in mind.

This week has been pretty good. D…. had her baptismal interview on Friday, and she is set for this Saturday. So excited. L….. has her interview on Tuesday. She has missed a couple Sundays because of work (they are in the process of hiring new people so she can get all sundays off though!) and she had to cancel a few lessons for emergencies. So, she will definitely be baptized, we just don't know if she will be ready for this week, or wait until next week. But, it will happen. And she is awesome. I love L….. a lot.

Both of them were able to watch at least one session of conference, but not all of them. We got to watch one session at a member's home with L…., which was super cool. The other sessions we just watched at the church. It was the 6 missionaries in Dallas and like 4 other people. Everyone just stays home to watch conference haha. But conference was really good. I loved it, and seemed to get so much more out of it this year. It was awesome.

Elders Baldridge and Watson

Funny story of the week. We went to try to talk to this kid who we had given a Book of Mormon before. He came to the door and was like "I'll be back out in just a sec." So, we waited. And he never came back. Ha we waited like 20 minutes, and nothing. It was actually really funny, and strange. That was a first for me. Good times as missionaries.

On Friday we gave a blessing to a guy who is really cool and we have a good relationship with. He was really sick. He could barely just sit up in bed for us to give him the blessing. He said he has some kind of problem where he gets sick a lot. And then he asked me to give the blessing, which really surprised me because everyone around here has a better relationship with Elder Watson since he's been here longer. But, it was a cool experience for me, so I'm glad he asked. And the next day he was at the Priesthood Session of conference joking around and looking fine and everything. So, that was neat. Little miracles are awesome.

On Wednesday a ward member asked us to visit her mother-in-law, who is a former member of the church, but now goes to another church. So, we drove by, and she was outside sweeping her sidewalk. We stopped and asked if we could do it for her. She said yes because she has a bad back. As a former member, she knew who we were, and probably didn't want to see us, but needed the help. We then asked if we could do anything else for her. She asked us to come back later and vacuum her house (we had an appointment right then, so we had to leave). We of course did, and she made us some awesome dinner that she said she had been saving for company the next day, but made for us instead. I think she liked us. We never once brought up the gospel (we did leave her a card with our numbers with the Easter video on it, but we just left it with her), we just served her and let her know that we care. She may never want to hear about our church again, but she appreciated the service a lot. Service can open so many more doors than pass-along cards or anything else. Show them that you love them and that Heavenly Father loves them, through you, and people's hearts will be softened. 

Easter was great. Mainly because of General Conference. In the morning while Elder Watson was in the shower I opened the box from you and arranged all his stuff in a nice way where he normally studies. He was very excited, mainly because he lives to eat unhealthy haha. But thank you for the package, and for remembering him too. I knew you would!

Easter treats Elder Baldridge set out for his companion, Elder Watson

So, we watched conference, weekly planned (a solid 2 hour planning session for the whole week, which I kinda enjoy but most people despise), and then went to a member's house for dinner. Dinner was really good, so that was awesome. But, it was a couple with no kids at home, so we didn't do anything kiddish like I knew you would be doing with the Elders there  haha. But that's okay. It was a good time.

So, spiritual thought. During conference, I realized that I have always believed a lot of things about the gospel, but there were lots of things I didn't really know. I had a testimony, and that testimony has been strengthened and deepened throughout the years. But there I was a lot I didn't know for sure. So, this morning during personal study, I set out to fix that. I got on my knees and asked sincerely for the knowledge I need to not only help my own testimony, but to help others strengthen theirs as well. As I said before, Heavenly Father definitely hears and answers our prayers. It was a very personal experience which I won't share all of, but now I know a whole lot more. I don't just hope and believe that God loves me, I know it. I know that Christ suffered for our sins out of love for us, and I am grateful for that sacrifice. I don't know everything about how the Atonement works, but I know that it is real. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and an older brother who was willing to suffer and die for me. I hope during this Easter season, all of you remember that too.

I love you all, more than you know. I hope everyone has a wonderful week full of awesome, fun things. Keep being cool and keep sharing gospel stuff even though Easter has passed.

Love, Elder Baldridge

P.S. We may have bought some Easter candy on clearance when we went shopping this morning.... I'm getting so out of shape. Oops.

March 30, 2015 Best Day So Far!

This week has been really good. One day this week (I believe Wednesday) I read "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" which is an amazing book. I literally read it in one day. Everyone should read it. The subtitle I guess you would call it is "The what and how of missionary work" or something like that. And that is what it tells you. It talks about how to be a missionary through simple means. It can help everyone, both full-time missionaries and members, to become better missionaries. So read it.

Our investigators with baptismal dates are doing pretty well. D….. is doing really well and is definitely ready to be baptized, I believe. She has changed so much from when we started teaching her to now. The gospel has brought so much joy into her life that wasn't there before. It is great to see. L…… is doing well. She has almost quit smoking!  We may have to push her baptism date back because she has only been able to make it to church once, but only because of some crazy stuff at work. She said they are hiring two new people so she can have weekends off, so she will definitely be able to make it to church in the near future. So, we may have to push it back, but she is pretty much ready for baptism. And she is awesome.

We did a decent amount of service this week. Probably like 6ish hours. I think the goal for the zone is 10 hours a week, but that is hard. So 6 was good. We did some yard work, worked at a food pantry, and helped a member in a wheelchair clean out cages for these massive bunnies that she has. It was all pretty fun. I love doing service!!

This week we also got pass along cards to hand out for the Because He Lives video, the Easter video the church has put out. It is an awesome video (I saw it for the first time yesterday) and the cards are an easy way to start a conversation with people. So that has been good. The first day we got them we gave out like 15 and had some good talks. You should all totally share that video, whether on Facebook or suggest it to specific people or whatever. But it is super great.

Last night we typed up our Family Mission Plans that we will be starting to implement this week. I'm excited because it should definitely get members more involved. You can't do mission work without members!

So I had the best day and coolest experience of my mission so far this week. On Thursday, I went on an exchange with Elder Young, another Elder in the Dallas area, right next to us. He is super cool and probably the most obedient missionary I have met. He and his companion Elder Mariano work out every morning, so Elder Watson and I went with them since we were on exchanges. We got up at 4:30 (which they do every morning!!) and Elder Young and I jogged to the church, about a mile away. They picked up some weights at a members house, and we did a workout in the church parking lot. First real workout I've done in awhile. My legs were sore...

So, after that Elder Young and I had really good studies together. Then he did my training for that day, which was also super good. We came up with really good questions about the Plan of Salvation to ask people, and then chose one to use throughout the day. The one we chose came in real handy later.

So, then we start our day. I wrote down a couple people from our potential investigator list as backup plans with their addresses, because I still barely know people. I just picked random people. Or so I thought. Definitely Spirit led. One that I picked we went over there and she was happy to see us because she needs help moving sometime this week. So, service opportunity. Then we went and did some service. It was the bunny service project with Elder Young. Later that night, we visited an investigator and had about 40 minutes before 9:00. I thought we could just take a long way home and try to talk to people on the way and be back by 9:00. But Elder Young and the Spirit had different plans. He suggested we go see L….. and one of the people I had written down that morning, who live in the same area. L….. had told us she was out of town all week, and I didn't even know the other lady. but we went. Didn't even have the time to see either of them, because on the way we met A…….

So this lady is walking by us and Elder Young stops her and does the short missionary intros tells her that we are testifying that God has a plan for each of us and asks the question we had come up with that morning - "How would it be important to you to know God's plan for you?" This lady immediately starts to cry and tell us that she had just been in an argument with someone and that she knew that meeting us was God showing her that he loved her. We then got her name and address and phone number and have an appointment on Wednesday. It was wild! You always hear about crazy stuff like that happening, and it really does. It was awesome!!

Spiritual thought this week - I had always known that living the gospel makes us happy, and I've always known that God loves us. But on my mission I have connected those two points. God loves us so much that He wants us to be as happy as possible. He has given us the gospel to help accomplish that. He gives us prophets and scriptures to guide us; he gives us commandments to tell us what we need to do; he gave us Christ to give us a perfect example of what to do; he provided a way to get rid of guilt and unhappiness through Christ's Atonement; and the sole reason He has done all of that is to make us happy. People need to understand that this isn't just another church to teach you what is right and what is wrong. This is the only way to true happiness, both in this life and the life to come.

So that is something that has become much clearer the last two months. Anyway, I love you all! Keep being awesome!

Love, Elder Baldridge