Jacob - July 18, 2016

Hey family, I'm doing good. There's not much to report about these
past few days. I'm still kicking it. Juan came to church again, but we
weren't able to teach him this time. I'm still pretty sure that he'll
get baptized someday though. I did hear about how an investigator back
in SA10 is getting baptized this week. I found him with Elder
Galleguillos and this Saturday he is getting married and Sunday he's
getting baptized. Hopefully I'll be at both, but I'm really happy for
him and his family. Other than that there isn't much to say. Hopefully
this is enough for my email for today.

Elder Baer

Jacob - July 14, 2016

Something I've noticed over here is how beautiful
the sunsets are. Some evenings are super pretty. I'll put in a
panorama from the 4th of July for proof. I finally got more pics to
send today! It was temple p-day. Super cool experience there. I read
the analogy of the olive tree inside and was able to find a cool
relation to missionary work. Sometimes on a mission we get "poor
areas," but the tree grows very strong there (the missionary), and
others times we get "good areas," but the missionary doesn't grow very
well, maybe because the area is too easy that the missionary doesn't
stretch and therefore grow. Sorta like muscles I guess. Stretch =
growth. Possibly an eternal principle? No idea, maybe I'll study that.
But this week was really good. We had lots of opportunities to teach
which was a nice change and so far this week has been really good too.
We've still got that solid investigator. He'll hopefully be baptized
in August, just because we aren't able to teach him more than once a
week. But I'm confident that he'll make it. Um as far as you sending
me stuff, I'm not sure what I need, but I'll think about it this
weekend and I'll write you some stuff Monday. Hope that works out. But
I'm not sure what else to say for this letter, everything is good. And
if I forgot something I'll send it to ya monday. But I love you mom
and I hope you have a great weekend since I'll be writing you soon.
Take care!

Elder Baer

Jacob - July 5, 2016

Hey Mom, it's good to hear that you had a good week. Just to let you know, I was able to write out an email for John so hopefully he can get 50. But it sounds like your week was pretty busy. I enjoyed your little "gate of baptism" lesson. It sounds really interesting and that is a perfect mentality to have, because it's true! I guess sometimes we get caught up thinking about being perfect that we aren't worthy to be in the kingdom, but like how you said it... That's the reason we have the atonement. Brilliant! You always were a great teacher.  Also super cool that you did a song deal at sacrament meeting. I think that's something they don't do super often in the Spanish wards, also there are like 100 songs missing compared to the English hymn book. But it's all good.


Anyways this week was good for me. Juan came to church again and it seems like it'll be a little tough to teach him. He's a very busy man so Sunday's will be our only days to teach him. But I'm confident that he'll be ready after teaching him everything. Also 4th of July was sweet! We had to be inside at 8, but from 8:45-9:30 it's been nonstop fire works. Elder Mark and I also found a pretty tall building where we took some pictures and videos, it was cool. We also ate some tasty food at an investigators house. Oh and something I can't forget, the mission had its 50th anniversary! So we had a cool program where a bunch of the cultures did little things to participate. There was a Spanish & Tongan dance (separate), the ASL missionaries signed a son, and the Korean elders sang a version of "I believe in Christ," oh my goodness it was probably the best song I've ever heard as far as hymns go. Super spiritual. We then heard from a bunch of past mission presidents. And for the closing remarks we heard Elder Acosta. I'm not sure if you remember, but I served in the same Ward as him back in SA10, but he is an amazing man. So humble, and knowledgable of the gospel. He's a concert and shared with us his conversion story. It was super spiritual. And lastly the Mission Choir sang a song to close it off. It was a mission song from 50 years ago called "Our Hearts Beat Strong." Man that was a great event. Oh and also I was able to go an exchange with elder Galleguillos since he is a ZL in my zone. It was a lot of fun and super cool to see the improvements we've made over the past few months. Something we talked a lot about that day is the importance of members in missionary work. I loved how he put it, he said, "the only way an area can catch fire, is with the help of the members." It's definitely something that I've seen in my time here. Everything is better when a member joins us for a lesson or fellowships people at church. And also referrals! Those are always awesome. And the last thing this week worth writing about is Zone Meeting. We went over the importance of the Spirit. We talked about the importance of faith filled prayers and having the right mentality as we pray. It was a good zone meeting. But overall the week was good, I can't really think of much else to say. Hopefully that's enough for this week. Love you mom and I hope you have a great week!


Elder Baer

Jacob - June 27, 2016

Hey everyone, it was good to hear from you all. Apologies for writing
a group email this week. But I don't have a lot of time before sport
time begins. I got a get my b-ball on. But this week went by pretty
good. We still weren't able to have a ton of lessons, but we were able
to see an awesome blessing. So even though our numbers hasn't been
great, we were able to finally teach Juan yesterday after church (the
guy who has been coming the past 3 weeks.) it was sweet, he kind of
dropped out of the sky. But he has a date for the 17th next month so
hopefully that'll happen. Also I had a crazy exchange Saturday with
elder Castillo this past Saturday. We were teaching a lesson with this
guy named Roberto, when all of a sudden in the middle of the prayer
his crazy sister came out and sprayed him with a hose and then turned
it on me... Probably my most crazy experience yet in the mission. But
it was a refreshing ride home (on bike). Um that's mostly what comes
to mind for this week. But I love you all and hope you have a great
week.

Elder Baer

Hey mom, I'll make this one a quick email since I wrote one to you
all. But a few weeks ago I thought of a super cool thought. I know you
love math so my comp and I made a math equation for how the attributes
of Christ work. (At least in my mind.) so an exponential equation
starts out super small, like .0000000000047 or something like that,
but as it goes down the graph it slowly becomes bigger until it shoots
right? So I like to think our earth life is those beginning moments.
We might not see the progress as clear as day, but when we die and are
later resurrected we begin to see the signs and when we are exalted it
just shoots! I'm not sure if it's exactly how it works, but it's a
cool way to look at it. Also the idea came because it seems that if
you increase one attribute of Christ, another will increase too until
it goes around in a circle to the one that started. Idk it's a cool
thought, we also had the idea of how black holes are like a visual
representation of sons of perdition. That one was interesting too, but
I'll try and have some more spiritual ideas as I write you. Right now
I'm reading the New Testament and so far it's great. I'll probably
finish the gospel of Mathew tomorrow. But I love you mom, you're
awesome!

Elder Baer

Jacob - June 20, 2016

But this week went ok, not much to write
about honestly. It was tough and frustrating because we had not a lot
of lessons, but I'm hopefully because there was an investigator that
came to church for two weeks straight now without even hearing the
missionary lessons. So he has tons of potential. But we're working and
trying to patient. Hopefully this week we'll go by a little better.
But I love you both and hope you have a great week!

Elder Baer

Jacob - June 16, 2016

Hey mom, it's good to hear from you. That's pretty cool that a family
got baptized back home. That's also cool that Tayler got to
participate in the blessing circle. I didn't even know they had
another child so it was weird to hear that from grandma last week. Um
also it's good to hear that your college stuff is finishing up. I
think I took my time with that a little for granted. I could of tried
to work a little harder at it, but it's good to see that you are
determined to finish it. Also it sounds like Tennessee will be a lot
of fun. Maybe it's not math, but at the least its an opportunity to
learn. That's a characteristic that is super awesome. It seems like we
talk to a lot of people each day, but hardly anyone is interested in
learning more about the Gospel, or increasing their faith. It's tough,
but I'm staying patient with it. Just today we saw a family at the
mission office. They were looking for things to study so some
Hermana's gave them a bible and Book of Mormon. But they could be in
our area so hopefully we can teach them soon. Also another member
brought a friend to church yesterday and it turns out that he lives in
our area. So we'll see what comes with them this week. Oh and I did
get the pants, they fit me nicely so thank you a bunches for doing
that. I think I'm good as far as stuff. I did like the pics you sent.
Please feel free to send me anymore at anytime. I'm sorry I haven't
been able to send you any lately. I haven't taken a lot of pics, but
we'll see about these coming weeks. And if the video won't send, don't
worry about it. It hasn't even been in my mind this week. It's pretty
crazy how Monday's I usually think of family in friends, just a
little. But then when the week starts back up its all on the work.

For this week it went ok. A lot of the appointments to visit members &
investigators fell through... That was tough, but elder Mark and I are
going to try sacrificing a few things to hopefully bring more success
to our area. Also today is transfers! Nothing is happening to me and
my comp, so not much to say about that. But there were a bunch of
other moves in the mission that were exciting. Oh and also this week I
finished reading the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time in the mission.
And I'm almost to Alma in the él libro de mormón. I've noticed that as
I read that I've been able to get pretty good at looking for context
clues so I understand more and more each time. But there are still
lots of words that I still don't understand. Also reading Spanish and
hearing Spanish are two different things entirely, but it's coming
along. I'm not too sure what else to report on for this week. It was
pretty normal, just a lot of work on trying to find people to teach,
but also in helping the members to be more active/strengthen their
testimonies.

Elder Baer

Jacob - June 6, 2016

Hey mom, well I'm glad to hear that you had a good week, it's also good to hear that all the wedding stuff is settling down. My week went pretty well, but overall I'd say it was pretty normal. We've been trying to improve the missionary work within the Ward & from what I can see so far.. It's looking good. There were still a few times were my patience has been tested, but they're just moments that I shrug off. Um the Spanish is going good. I've sort of developed a more optimistic view on it. Tomorrow I hit the 1/3 mark so I figure if people already believe I speak Spanish now, who knows what they'll think in another 16 months. But the work is fun and I'm excited to see what this week will bring, we've been able to schedule a lot of visits so hopefully those all happen. But there's not much more I can think of other than that. Well actually I take that back, I do remember one thing that was sweet. I got to go on an exchange with elder Groesbeck. It was a lot of fun and we had some pretty humbling experiences with some members & other potential investigators. So we both are still pretty young in our missions so sometimes we understand Spanish and sometimes not. But one house we went to their was a lady that would throw in what she knew about English and it was pretty humbling to see someone to try they're best to help us out when that kind of stuff should be our job. But anyway that was a great day and I was able to learn a few things. But that's about it. I love you and hope you have a great week!

Elder Baer

Jacob - May 30, 2016

Hey mom, I'm glad you had a good week. Hopefully this week will also
be good, but you'll have to forgive me because I got a headache so
I'll just send the stuff that I wrote earlier, it goes a long the
lines of this... This week went by pretty well. It's been a little
tough finding people to teach. E get usually a good amount of street
contacts per day, but we only receive a few addresses from those and
then when we do stop by, not many people are home. So it's tough to
find those people that are prepared. Fortunately we had a meeting with
the Bishop. We pretty much asked what we can do to best work in this
Ward. He mentioned a lot about visiting members and it's something
that we're going to try out. But hopefully we'll find a balance
between teaching the members and finding new investigators. That's
pretty much how the work went this week. We also had an activity that
was pretty fun. It was designed for the Primary so there was tons of
little games. And also for Saturday's dinner we went to the Galvon's.
Oh man it was so tasty. They cooked a cow, but they did the method
were they buried it underground. It was super tender and they also had
a bucket down there to catch all the liquids. So we had a soup thing
and then super good barbacoa. Also they made tacos and it was just a
blast. I think overall the week went pretty well. I was also able to
go an exchange with Elder Castillo again. We went over to his area and
we had a good time. We weren't able to have a lot of lessons, but we
were trying our best to fulfill our purpose. For some reason I feel
like this transfer has been a lot about patience... I'm not completely
sure why, but we aren't having the success we would like to have or we
don't have a ton of people that we are teaching. Even though,Newell at
least to me, we are trying our best. So idk what's up, but I just hope
to keep a good attitude through out it. Missions definitely have ups
and downs, but I think a lot of it just depends on how we look at
what's going. But anyways I think that's mostly went down for this
week. I love you & hope you have a great week!

Jacob - May 23, 2016

Hey everyone! Sounded like it was a great week. I'm pretty sure
Lexie's wedding was the main event, but that's way cool. I don't have
a lot of time so I'm not sure how long this email will be. But this
week went well. We weren't able to teach a lot of people so we have
been street contacting like crazy. It's pretty fun and I'm starting to
be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Also I went on an exchange
with a ZL named elder cottam. He's a really cool missionary and gave
me a lot of advice. He also showed me a few different ways that I can
street contact. Something I hope to do this week is read more
scriptures as I street contact. I got that idea from Christ reading
the scriptures with his apostles as he walked with them. It's
somewhere in Luke I think. Um also we had zone conference and that
focused on us using the key indicators a little more wisely. Using
them as a way to see the progression of who we teach rather than a
rating system for missionaries. Also we went over a lot about
conversion. Something really cool and interesting. That was mainly the
highlights of the week. But I love you all and I hope you have a great
week!

Elder Baer

Jacob - May16, 2016

Hey everyone, sounds like you are all having a good time back at home.
It seems like the main topic is Lexie's wedding, pretty crazy that
it's happening this week. Hope fully it all goes well. But anyways
this week was good. I had an exchange with an Elder named elder
Castillo. He's a pretty sweet guy. We are a lot a like as far as music
taste and what we did back home. So it was a lot of fun and we saw a
ton of miracles. We taught a guy named victor, he's a brother of one
of the sisters in my ward. But he's really cool and has a great desire
to change his life to be a better example to his family. He's got a
date at the moment for the 5th of June. Also we saw a lot of small
little things that led us to see miracles. For example instead of
visiting with a member family we thought we should try and work, so
that led us to meeting a guy that also wants to change his life. We
haven't had a lesson with him, but he's in our thoughts. Oh and this
week the mission had a "power week," we saw a lot of cool things. The
other elders in my district ended up casting out an evil spirit too,
haha lots of cool things. I'm not sure what else to really write this
week. But I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Jacob - May 9, 2016

Hey everyone, so it was super good seeing you guys yesterday! I'm not
sure what to say in this email because I probably said it to you guys
already. But I love you all and hope you have a great week. Take care.

Elder Baer

Jacob - May 2, 2016

So this week is transfers so I don't have enough time to write each of
you a personal email.. Hope you don't mind. But this transfer is a
little crazy. From what I've heard it seems like a lot of district
leaders are just moving around. My companion, Elder Fonnesbeck, is
going to Garden Grove to be a DL over there. My new companion is Elder
Mark and he's pretty cool. It's his first time being a DL, but he's
pretty excited and I am as well. I'm also a little nervous because I
only have 6 weeks here and I'm pretty much leading it now... So
hopefully I can do a good job of showing him around. As far as
stories.. Um idk. Not too much happened this week. We've been having
more street contacts, but we still don't have a ton of investigators.
Right now we are teaching an old lady, but she is having a tough
understanding what we teach... So we're going to continue try helping
her. Oh I just remembered we had a nice encounter with a homeless
man.. Haha he had some crazy ideas for what religion was suppose to
be. But other than that I can't think of much. Everything is good
here. Spanish is coming along, I'm still trying to figure out what
people say sometimes. But I am on page like 100 in the libro de Mormon
so that's exciting. I can usually understand the stories as I read
them. But that's it for now. I love you guys and hope you all have a
great week. Take care!
Elder Baer

Jacob - April 25, 2016

Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. It reminds me a little bit
about a talk that I read a few days ago. It was by Elder Bednar and
how not shrinking is better than surviving. It was really good and
changed my perception on the work here. I think a lot of missionaries
expect to have results, but from what I understand.. We're suppose to
have faith to find and to teach, the faith or I guess the hope that
everything will turn out awesome. But after reading the talk, there's
another part that I think people will sometimes overlook, not just
missionaries but everyone. Out here, no matter what happens, it's all
up to Heavenly Father. I think rather it's important to develop the
faith in God and to succumb to his will, but at the same time
understand that whatever happens is and will always be for our
benefit. Which reminds me of The opposition talk from elder oaks. Man
I could probably go on this for a while. There's so many cool things
I'm learning and experiencing. But this week was pretty good. We had
president interviews which were awesome! We talked about President
Monson's talks and the commitments he extended us. Also we talked
about things that I can do to become better which included putting my
thoughts towards others and avoiding casualness. Really good stuff. Um
a crazy experience I had is that I was almost attacked by a dog. That
was crazy, but I'm fine. Nothing happened. But I'm having a tough time
of thinking about what else happened this week... We've been doing a
lot of finding lately so it's tough, but I'm enjoying it. Anyways I
love you mom, hope you have a great week!

Elder Baer