Jacob - November 30, 2015

Hey mom, it was good to hear from you as Always and I'm glad you were able to have a good week and a good Sunday. I've too have been learning some different things and just trying to apply them to my investigates as best as I can. It was a good week for me. I can't really complain too much, it's a little frustrating when I have a lesson and can't say what I want to say or understand what they're saying.. It's hard but I'm just trying to be patient with it. I probably need to try a little harder to learn Spanish though. But this week was alright. We had quite a bit of lessons this week. Some were planned and others were just quick door step messages. We met some pretty interesting experiences this week. For example I had my first bashing. Some lady approached us and started to talk to us about gospel stuff. It started out pretty good, but slowly it more towards issues she had with the church and told us that Jesus is not our brother.. Kind of weird and the whole time I felt strange because I knew what she was saying was false and I just think it was the spirit telling me to not trust anything she was saying. My companion related it to 3 Nephi 3 very well when it talks of Giddianhi's epistle to Lachoneus. I've had I guess a few other experiences like that one, but this one was probably the most memorable of them. The lady talked to us for days and wasted our time, but oh well I guess it happens. Um what else happened.. Idk.. But things are good. I'm learning a lot and just trying to keep improving myself. My lessons have been mostly good, the only thing I wish is that our progressing investigators would have more free time for me and elder G. But we're doing what we can do. I love you mom, have a good week.



Also you can probably put 1 Nephi 13:37 for my plaque.. I like several scriptures like Alma 29:9 was good also, but this one in Nephi is the most missionary sounding.

Tayler - November 30, 2015

Well we had a great week, I almost wrote that in spanish. We did some visits with a member on tuesday and we even found a new investigator with him so that was cool. Also on saturday we had an activity called capilla abierta, it was like an open house and visitor center in the church and all the missionaries in the zone came and helped out. IT was really cool in the morning all the missionaries went out with address of people to visit and invite. I went with my comp and another misisonary to look for a man we went to the house but the guy didnt live there anymore but the people told us to visit the man next door. SO we went and talked with him a little he is very catholic but was very nice. ANd we invited him to come and he ended up coming and he really liked it he said he felt like he was in the church 2000 years ago he felt like he was in the church with the original apostles taht was pretty cool. So we had a good week and we got lots of references. Well I love you, and have a good week.


Love Elder Baer

Jacob - November 23, 2015

This week has been pretty good. It kind of sucked when I thought I knew Spanish, but after this week I am terrible. My sentences are not structured correctly, but fortunately people can still manage to understand what I am trying to say. I pretty much just say I don't speak very good Spanish with almost every lesson and my listening is even worse. It takes me so long to try and decipher what people are saying to me. I know I'll get it within a few weeks, but right now it's pretty tough. I'm not worried too much about it though. I'll figure it out eventually.
I do have a sweet trainer though. His name is Elder Galleguillos and is from New York, but his parents are Chilean. He speaks fluent Spanish and has helped me out quite a bit this first week. I'll try and send you a picture of him later today though. I'm at a Library right now and didn't take any pictures yet this week. I will later today.
To answer some of your questions Lexie.. I do have a car! Haha! It is so nice to get from place to place in 10 min or less. But on top of that we have iPad's too! We are definitely a blessed mission. I think the iPad's are more helpful than the cars actually. We have an area book app on them which makes planning and finding people to teach so much easier. We have a downloaded record of everyone in the area from Potential Investigators, Progressing Investigators, Not interested and also not keeping commitments. Oh also the members have records to for less-actives, new converts and also active members. With each person we can just click on their name and their address, phone and back ground info pops up along with reported lessons in the past. Super useful. Yesterday I planned for today and it only took like 10-15 minutes to find people close to each other and have promising back ground info.
Lessons were pretty good this week. We didn't have any set appointments, well we did, but they were cancelled. However that didn't stop us from teaching people that we found. We just used our app found people, knocked and taught a quick lesson. I usually try to bear my testimony at the end or invite them to keep a commitment. So far it has been pretty good and little by little I pick up on the Spanish. I don't know if I'd say we're killing it, but for a first week it was really good. One thing that I have tried to remember is our Purpose, to invite others to come to Christ. One day I remember we didn't really teach anyone, but I looked back and though of my purpose and I still felt like we had a good day, despite our lack of teaching because we were able to help maybe one person come nearer to Him. I think that's the attitude I'm going to try and have on my mission. That numbers don't matter and I know I have heard that before, but being on a mission I can see the impact that counting numbers could have. I'm glad we don't do that here. Granted we keep track of our goals and stuff, but I don't think the President is too worried about each Missionary having a Baptism every week or anything like that.
I'll probably check my email again later today. I hope this answered most of your questions and I can't wait to hear back from you two. Take care and have a happy Thanksgiving.


Con Amor, Elder Baer

Jacob - November 198, 2015

Hey Mom and Dad, I made it to Anaheim and have already met the Mission President, He is a really cool guy and served in Argentina so I talked a little about Tayler with him. But I'm doing well and excited to be here. I'm pretty tired cause I only had about 5 hours of sleep. 1 hour last night and then whatever I could get on the plane. Um I think they mentioned something about Facebook that I could send you both.. One is something along the lines of LDS California Anaheim Missionary Friends & Family. I don't know what you'll learn from that, but It's something to check out.  I think that's it for this email since I don't have much else to say. I'm really excited though and I've heard some very good things about becoming fluent here. Some people have said that I might be in about 6 months so let's hope that's true. My mission President said that I may have times where I am speaking Spanish for 3 weeks on end.. That would be way cool to experience something like that in the states. But I love you both and I can't wait to tell you about my first week this coming Monday. Love ya.

Tayler - November 23, 2015

Well we had a good week this week. Our investigator Javier got baptised on saturday and the confirmation on sunday. They went really well a man from the ward did the baptism and the confirmation and is helping out Javier a lot i think it is one of the only times i have seen a member really take care of one of our baptisms and it is really nice now that Javier has a friend at church i think he will stay active. We also found this awesome family on saturday at the last hour, we were really far from our apartment and we were just going to start heading back but we decided to go and visit a family who's kids are friends of the kids of the man that got baptised so we visited them and we taught the restoration and they had lots of questions and they are going to read the book of mormon so that was cool. And well you will have to try and learn as much spanish before i come home or else you wont understand anything and even if you do understand lexie you wont be able to understand me the accent is very different. Well thanks for everything mom, happy thanksgiving. I love you.


Love Elder Baer

Jacob - November 16, 2015

Hello Fam, Today is my last day at the CCM so we all get to write for a little bit. Anyways I'm still doing good and really excited to move on to the actual field. I've had a good day so far and a lot of goodbyes, but it's been good. I leave tommorrow at 3:00 am and my flight leaves at like 6 am. First I have to go to Dallas for about a 2 hour layover and I think were allowed to call when we arrive there, at least that's what everyone says so that'll be around 8-10 and I think it was central, but i'm not sure. Anyways be ready for a call tommorrow morning. I hope all of you have a good week and I love you bunches. I'll try and send some more pics next P-day.

Tayler - November 15, 2015

we had a good week. We spent more time teaching so that was good, we found some news and now we have to find more and continue working with the ones we have. we are also going to have a baptism this saturday we are excited for that. Also yesterday we spent all day traveling to go to a baptismal interview that went well. it went better than my first interview this time i wasnt as nervous. Also this week i was reading a lot in the bible yesterday i started Joshua so it is going good there it is pretty interesting. So yeah i am doing good, i like my comp he is a funny guy and we get along well so thats good. well i love you, and have a good week.


Love Elder Baer

Jacob - November 12, 2015

Hey mom, just thought I'd see how you're doing. My time here at the CCM has been alright, but I can't wait to get out in the field. The days here are starting to get boring and I can tell my district wants to leave. I'm not quite ready to head out, but It's alright. I've tried to work hard and I know that through time I'll be a better missionary. To be honest I don't think a missionary is ever ready to head out, but I can't wait till I do. I have about 5 more days here in the CCM so a little over a month I've been here. It's crazy to think that cause it doesn't seem like it's been that long. I wonder if the days will go by fast out in the field. I kind of hope they do. Nothing too exciting happened this week. But I did get a hair cut and the lady cut it differently than you normally do.. I'm not sure whether I'll keep it or keep doing it the style it is now. I'll try and send ya a pic. But other than that nothing exciting. I guess the devotionals were good, but they always are. But me and my companion did have to teach a Book of Mormon lesson last night and that went really well. We decided to read Chapter 26 of Alma where it is Ammon talking about him and his brothers success with the lamanites. It went really well and I could feel the spirit pretty well so I know it was a good lesson. I've come to rely on that a lot here.. If I don't feel the spirit, it makes it really hard to know whether the investigator or whoever I'm teaching understands what I'm saying. Granted during my investigators there is a language barrier which makes it hard to know whether I'm doing alright or not.. But oh well I know through time I'll get it. But other than that I think that's about it for this email. I love you mom. I hope you have a good week and I can't wait to hear from ya.