Jacob - January 23, 2017

Hey everyone, this week went by alright. To be honest, my comp and I
dropped a bunch of people and we've been having a tough time finding
people home or finding people that are willing to listen to our
message. So in that aspect this week was tough. But we just keep
trying to find more prepared people. Fortunately our member work has
been picking up a lot, this week we have a pretty high goal of getting
member lessons so hopefully the members will be available to help us
out. Something pretty crazy is that these past few weeks it has rained
a lot, probably more times than it did all of last year. Anyways
yesterday it was really bad. California has terrible storm draining so
there were several streets that were just like small rivers, the
entire street was covered in water about 4-6 inches deep. All of the
bike lanes were flooded and it would raise up high enough to cover the
sidewalks as well. So we had to stay in yesterday and do missionary
work over the phone.. But it was quite the experience. Other than that
this week wasn't too crazy. We just did a lot of finding which was
good. We met some cool people, just not cool enough to let us share
something. But we keep going at it. Anyways I love you family and hope
you have a great week!

Elder Baer

Jacob - January 16, 2017

Hey family, it was good to hear from you. Sounds like everyone had a
good week. My week went well, I'll try and share with you the
highlights. So right now I am with Elder Bean and he's a really cool
missionary. He's pretty young missionary wise, he's got about 6-7
months out, but he's got a lot of desires to improve and is always
setting goals. So it's been a lot of fun to work with him. This week
we didn't teach a ton, we definitely tried, but our pool of
investigators has been shrinking. It's been tough to get people
willing to listen to us, so that's what we are going to be working on
this week. But there wasn't too many things that stood out from this
week. Tuesday we had service, that was good. Thursday we had a
district meeting, that was good as well. Friday we had President
interviews and that was probably the thing that stands out most from
the week. But other than that it was a normal week, not much to really
say. But I love you all, sorry this email was a small one, but I'm not
sure what to say. Have a good one!

Elder Baer

Jacob - January 9, 2017

Hey everyone, this'll be a short email, hopefully that's ok. This week
we were really busy with finding and teaching. We taught a good
amount, but people are having hard time progressing. We've been uping
our levels on how to begin teaching, trying to emphasize that these
people need to act. But we are trying out best with them, just lot's
of patience. This week I also went on two exchanges. One with the
companion of my district leader and later I went on exchanges with my
zone leader, elder mark. I was actually companions with him earlier in
the mission so it was cool to see the improvement in him. Overall the
week went well, but as you noticed, today is transfer day. Elder
clifford, my old companion went over to santa ana and now i am with
Elder bean. So we are elder oso and elder frijol. But i am super
excited because this transfer is going to be the best of my mission.
But that's it for this week. Hopefully it's sufficient. Love you all!!

Elder Baer

Jacob - January 2, 2017

This week was pretty busy for me. We taught a bunch of people and have been finding like crazy. It's going to be a tough week for us this week with trying to teach them all, but I have faith that we'll be able to do it. We've got investigators all over the spectrum. Some we've taught for a while, others we just barely picked up. So it'll be an interesting week of trying to figure out on who is ready and who is not. We do have one family that we are really excited about, they are the Christmas miracle family that i wrote about last week. They've been doing good and are super attentive during the lessons and aren't afraid to ask questions. It's been really cool to teach them and I just hope they fulfill their commitments, it seems like they have the desire. Other than that I can't really recall what happened this week. The days just all seem a blur and before I know it the week is already up. Speaking of things ending quick, this is will be the last week of the transfer (crazy), but i'm excited to work hard and make it another good week. I've definitely felt blessed trying to work in this area, lot's of ups and downs and lots of people, but i've enjoyed it. But I love you, and i hope you have a great week, talk to you next lunes.

Elder Baer

Jacob - December 26, 2016

Hey everyone, it was good to see you all Saturday. I hope you all had
a great Christmas, anyways I wanted to share something really quick.
We had a combined sacrament meeting this Sunday with the english ward,
that was pretty cool. One of the English sisters sang "Holy Night" and
it was really good. Other than that we spent Saturday & Sunday night
christmas caroling which was super fun, everyone we sang to had a huge
smile and felt the christmas spirit. Also i'll share a miracle with
ya. So there is an elder here in the ward that served in my current
area a while back, but the other day he referred us a Less Active
member to try that doesn't have any records at the moment in LDS
Tools. So we tried her door and she let us in and it turns out she is
going through some tough trials... So we have been visiting her 2
times now and she is super willing for us to come by and has
recognized God's hand in us being there. But here's the miracle, when
we sang Christmas carols we visited her and the elder said to us that
this was the wrong house and that the Less Active lived some where
else. So turns out we have a cool new investigator that has a great
opportunity to see how the gospel will bless her life. (Also she has a
husband and 2 kids) I'm excited to see what will happen with them.

Elder Baer

Jacoob's Espanol...Christmas Eve morning.

Jacob - December 19, 2016

Hey everyone, this week was good. We were able to do a lot of service which was cool. First off we went to the soup Kitchen on Tuesday which was a lot of fun, later we went to stop hunger now which was a service I would do like 9-11 months ago in Santa Ana 10. All we did there was put together some of their supplies and cleaned up a bit. And then we had another service on Friday and we sang some of the songs that we practiced for a school, that was fun as well. We also got a free lunch out of it so that was a plus.

The work is going ok for my comp and I. We are definitely trying to find those that are ready, it's just a little tough. We have a lot of people that we are seeing, but not a lot of them are acting on their commitments. Or we did have some guy get on YouTube to research Mormonism, he's pretty confused now.. we also have this other lady that we are sort of teaching, she has come to church a few times, but she doesn't understand the gospel or what the restoration was. She just likes the church so she comes which is better than most people I guess.

Also this week we had a Christmas party with the ward. It was a lot of fun and the food was super good. They made barbacoa which is really tender beef so I made a bunch of tacos with some bean and rice in them. Also they did this super funny play thing. They showed he Christmas nativity which was really spiritual and then a little girl walked up and said she wanted to sing a Christmas song. So with the nativity back drop she sang I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. It was the most random thing I've seen for a Christmas activity. But that's Hispanics for ya.

I can't really think of what else to say. I'll talk to you guys Saturday. I'll probably be calling at 8 am here or 9 pm in mountain time. But I hope you have a great week and I'll see ya soon.

Jacob - December 12, 2016

Hey mom, it was good to hear from you. I'm glad to hear that your activity went well. Our christmas will be this Saturday, hopefully it'll be a good one. Also thanks for sending me those pictures of Morgan, it looks like he's having a good time despite the challenges there. Also thank you for your little spiritual thought about the brother of Jared, i haven't thought of it that way before so that was interesting. I'm actually almost into Ether in my book of mormon reading. I just read about the Apostasy of the Nephites that lead to their destruction, that's some sad stuff. It is a good reminder though about staying on the lord's side. Obedience = Blessings. Anyways I'm going to go through our week somewhat quickly. I'm running a little low on time. But this week was good, we taught a good amount and we have been using the video a bunch during our contacts with people. It's a really great video because it doesn't matter if someone is Catholic, Jehova's Witness or Christian, the video applies to all people that believe in Christ. We then will usually try to apply a principle from the Restoration to the people and understand better of what we believe. So that has been going well. This week we also had a zone meeting that was based on the attributes of Christ. It went really well and I enjoyed it a lot. I always love to study those attributes, but something that I've enjoyed is finding the connections between the attributes for example how obedience effects patience or virtue or maybe viceversa. Lastly on Sunday night there was a stake activity where a bunch of wards or smaller groups sang some songs. It was a really spiritual night, one of the songs we sang together (all the members) and that was really cool, very loud but in a rejoicing sort of way. Also there was a missionary choir and we killed it. We sang Jesus en pesebre, venid adoremos & la primera navidad. We sounded really good, especially on venid adoremos. We'll be singing it two more times so hopefully I'll be able to get a recording of it. Also today for p day we did a hike. It was one I've done earlier in the mission, but it was a lot of fun. I think I'll be feeling it later tonight or tomorrow. We'll see. That's sort of the reason this email is so late, but it looks like I got it off in time before P-day officially ended. But I love you lots and I hope you have a good week. Also please show tayler some of this email if you'd like, I wasn't able to send him something.

Elder Baer

Jacob - December 12, 2016

So this letter I'm going to try and make it somewhat efficient, but
truth be told I am having a hard time thinking about what happened
this week. We weren't able to do a lot of teaching this week. It was
more of seeing people and setting return appointments, but we would
try and share spiritual messages with the people we saw, we also tried
to use the Christmas Initiative. I'm excited to see what kind of
blessings and miracles we'll see as we use it more and more. Also
hopefully the members here can get involved as well. This Sunday we
are having a sacrament meeting that will be focused on investigators,
it should be a neat experience. We've been inviting members to invite
people to it so I think it'll be a good turn out. Also something worth
mentioning is that we had a cool district meeting this week. So
normally we just meet and talk about how we can better ourselves as
missionaries, but since district meeting was on the first of December
this week, we went to a nursing home and sang Christmas songs to the
elderly. Also we helped set up decorations and visited some of the
people there, that was a good experience. Also at the moment the
Spanish missionaries are preparing for a stake Devotional or some
stake thing, we are going to sing some Christmas songs there as well,
but we broke the songs down into parts so that'll be cool. We also did
service at the soup Kitchen this week, that's always fun to help
there. Yeah that's all I can think of at the moment.. sorry if it's a
little short, but I imagine you all understand. I love you all so
much!

Jacob - December 5, 2016

I ATE THIS!

It was heart, intestine, pancreas, liver and whatever else they threw in it. I'll write a bigger letter to you and the family later. Love you.

Elder Baer