Friday, September 22, 2017
September 19, 2017
3 1/2 years of Baer missionaries has come to an end. It has been a blessing filled time for all of us. I am eternally grateful for my children's example of faithfulness, for their service to their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to the people in the areas where they served. They have grown in their testimony of the Book of Mormon, the power of prayer, and of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. So much to be grateful for. I am now grateful to have my children home.
Jacob - September 11, 2017 THE LAST!
Hey Family, so this week went super well. It was definitely one of
those weeks that we were able to see the fruits of our labors. This
Sunday we had 8 investigators at church. One was the family that we
found, the parents came and also the majority of their children. We've
been also teaching that family pretty frequently and have a lesson
with them tomorrow. There was another investigator that came that we
have been working with for the past few weeks. She has some health
problems at the moment, but she lives in the complex with a lot of
members and so one of the member families brought her yesterday, we
also have a lesson with her tomorrow. Lastly there was a less active
mom that was baptized about 3 years ago that came and her 2 children.
The kids aren't baptized so we are hoping that as the mom becomes
active again, the kids will be able to progress more. Other highlights
of the week, on Saturday we had the Dia de Hispanidad. It's a giant
stake activity at the stake center. All the wards go and eat food and
have a good time together. Also at the end of the day, probably around
6 or 7, they have a cultural dance from each ward. The ward I am in
wasn't able to perform because we were informed a bit late about the
dancing part. But it's all good. My comp and I didn't stick around
because we had work to do up in our area. Also Saturday we had a
Temple Tour, we went down because we were expecting some people to go,
but on the way down we were informed that none of our investigators
would be able to go... So that was a bummer, but I was able to have a
good conversation with a man returning to activity. We spoke a little
bit about the Gathering of Israel and the establishment of Zion. These
were probably the highlights for this week. I can't recall much else
about the week besides service, teaching & finding, and district
meeting. But it was a pretty good week. This upcoming week i'm going
to be pretty busy. Thursday I'll be going to the temple with President
Golden as well as with all the dying missionaries. Friday we'll have a
"farewell Dinner," that'll take all the night... It goes from 6-9pm.
Saturday is going to be the adult session of Stake Conference, we'll
probably have people there so we'll most likely go. And then Sunday
will be the General Session of Stake Conference. Should be a pretty
good week.
Love you all! I've been hearing a lot about natural disasters so I
hope you all stay safe!
Elder Baer
those weeks that we were able to see the fruits of our labors. This
Sunday we had 8 investigators at church. One was the family that we
found, the parents came and also the majority of their children. We've
been also teaching that family pretty frequently and have a lesson
with them tomorrow. There was another investigator that came that we
have been working with for the past few weeks. She has some health
problems at the moment, but she lives in the complex with a lot of
members and so one of the member families brought her yesterday, we
also have a lesson with her tomorrow. Lastly there was a less active
mom that was baptized about 3 years ago that came and her 2 children.
The kids aren't baptized so we are hoping that as the mom becomes
active again, the kids will be able to progress more. Other highlights
of the week, on Saturday we had the Dia de Hispanidad. It's a giant
stake activity at the stake center. All the wards go and eat food and
have a good time together. Also at the end of the day, probably around
6 or 7, they have a cultural dance from each ward. The ward I am in
wasn't able to perform because we were informed a bit late about the
dancing part. But it's all good. My comp and I didn't stick around
because we had work to do up in our area. Also Saturday we had a
Temple Tour, we went down because we were expecting some people to go,
but on the way down we were informed that none of our investigators
would be able to go... So that was a bummer, but I was able to have a
good conversation with a man returning to activity. We spoke a little
bit about the Gathering of Israel and the establishment of Zion. These
were probably the highlights for this week. I can't recall much else
about the week besides service, teaching & finding, and district
meeting. But it was a pretty good week. This upcoming week i'm going
to be pretty busy. Thursday I'll be going to the temple with President
Golden as well as with all the dying missionaries. Friday we'll have a
"farewell Dinner," that'll take all the night... It goes from 6-9pm.
Saturday is going to be the adult session of Stake Conference, we'll
probably have people there so we'll most likely go. And then Sunday
will be the General Session of Stake Conference. Should be a pretty
good week.
Love you all! I've been hearing a lot about natural disasters so I
hope you all stay safe!
Elder Baer
Monday, September 4, 2017
Jacob - September 4, 2017
Hey family, it's good to hear from all of you. It's good to hear
things are going well. I'm trying to think of a few more things that
have happened recently to talk about. As you already know, we had a
temple trip which was super cool. When we were there i saw a family,
well a couple back from San Juan Ward. They were there to get there
endowments and after the session they got sealed. Super cool. On
Saturday we were on exchanges. I was in a different area with elder
Reinsch. He's from Nebraska so he knew a little bit about Iowa, he
lived a little bit south of Omaha, I think it was a town called
Lincoln. But I had a good day with him, we were able to teach a few
lessons and it seems he's doing a good work in that area. Sunday was a
miracle day, some investigators came to church. They are a part member
family that had a brother and sister get baptized about 6 years ago. A
lot of the ward knows them and they have a lot of desire to be a
Christ centered family. They have the most real intent that I have
seen in a long time. They are currently on date for the 8th of
October. That was probably the highlight of Sunday. I also shared my
testimony with the ward since it was fast Sunday. I spoke a little
about receiving revelation especially the importance of prayer,
scriptures and going to church. (The fundamentals). Today we had an
elders activty for all the Spanish elders. That was super fun. We had
a 4v4 basketball tournament. I think there was a total of 5-6 teams
and mine got 3rd overall. Me and another elder were sort of carrying
the team, but it was a lot of fun and a lot of good sports from
everyone. The stacked teams of course played the championship any my
comp won the whole thing with his team. Other than that we are just
taking care of a few things. We are at the office now and hopefully
we'll get some haircuts done later today. Anyways I love you all. It
was good hearing from you all once again. Take care!
Elder Baer
things are going well. I'm trying to think of a few more things that
have happened recently to talk about. As you already know, we had a
temple trip which was super cool. When we were there i saw a family,
well a couple back from San Juan Ward. They were there to get there
endowments and after the session they got sealed. Super cool. On
Saturday we were on exchanges. I was in a different area with elder
Reinsch. He's from Nebraska so he knew a little bit about Iowa, he
lived a little bit south of Omaha, I think it was a town called
Lincoln. But I had a good day with him, we were able to teach a few
lessons and it seems he's doing a good work in that area. Sunday was a
miracle day, some investigators came to church. They are a part member
family that had a brother and sister get baptized about 6 years ago. A
lot of the ward knows them and they have a lot of desire to be a
Christ centered family. They have the most real intent that I have
seen in a long time. They are currently on date for the 8th of
October. That was probably the highlight of Sunday. I also shared my
testimony with the ward since it was fast Sunday. I spoke a little
about receiving revelation especially the importance of prayer,
scriptures and going to church. (The fundamentals). Today we had an
elders activty for all the Spanish elders. That was super fun. We had
a 4v4 basketball tournament. I think there was a total of 5-6 teams
and mine got 3rd overall. Me and another elder were sort of carrying
the team, but it was a lot of fun and a lot of good sports from
everyone. The stacked teams of course played the championship any my
comp won the whole thing with his team. Other than that we are just
taking care of a few things. We are at the office now and hopefully
we'll get some haircuts done later today. Anyways I love you all. It
was good hearing from you all once again. Take care!
Elder Baer
Jacob - September 1, 2017
Hey everybody so this past week and a half has been really good. My
companion and I are finding lots of people to teach and we are
excited. Some have some baptismal dates set for October and they seem
pretty willing to do their commitments. Hopefully some will come this
Sunday. Also this past week we had President Interviews and that was
good, I sort of asked a "trunky" question about what lessons he wished
he knew/was grateful when he was returning home from his mission. He
shared some good advice. Also one of the families we met are super
prepared. They've met missionaries a while back, about 5 years and so
and some of them were baptized. But we found them and about 7 or so
can be baptized they are all willing to listen. The mom went to an
activity this past weekend, we didn't even know about an activity so
she has some member friends or something. Super cool. But I can't
really think at the moment of more things to say.. so if I forget
something I'll write more about it in like 2 days. Love you all!
Elder Baer
companion and I are finding lots of people to teach and we are
excited. Some have some baptismal dates set for October and they seem
pretty willing to do their commitments. Hopefully some will come this
Sunday. Also this past week we had President Interviews and that was
good, I sort of asked a "trunky" question about what lessons he wished
he knew/was grateful when he was returning home from his mission. He
shared some good advice. Also one of the families we met are super
prepared. They've met missionaries a while back, about 5 years and so
and some of them were baptized. But we found them and about 7 or so
can be baptized they are all willing to listen. The mom went to an
activity this past weekend, we didn't even know about an activity so
she has some member friends or something. Super cool. But I can't
really think at the moment of more things to say.. so if I forget
something I'll write more about it in like 2 days. Love you all!
Elder Baer
Monday, August 21, 2017
Jacob - August 21, 2017
Hey family, first things first because I'll probably forget to mention
it if I don't write it now. But I won't be writing this upcoming
Monday because P-day will be on Friday. It'll be a Temple day so
that's the reason why, I'm pretty excited. But this week for us went
by pretty well. We dropped a bunch of people and in turn we met a lot
of new people this week. Some have already began reading in the Book
of Mormon. We have a lot of good expectations, especially one because
she is friends with a less active and the less active is helping her
read and learn, hopefully she'll become active in the process. Also
this past week we had a zone conference. We spoke about Diligence, the
new mission standards of excellence, dignity, & how to more
effectively plan. It was a good conference, I especially liked the
comments about diligence, it's probably my most favorite attribute of
Christ. Also this week we had an exchanges with the district leader, I
was with elder Wilkinson up in his area. We had a good time together
and it was a pretty quick day. We taught a good amount. I'm not sure
if I can say I learned anything new, not sure if that's a bad thing, I
wanted to use the Book of Mormon more on street contacts, but the
areas we went to didn't really present opportunities to do so, so I'll
have to do it here in my are throughout the week. I've been studying a
lot of agency scriptures to share, trying to motivate people to choose
to follow God and not be passive about it while at the same time
warning people of the consequences of sin. Some scriptures I liked
were: Hel. 14:30, 2 Nephi 2:27 & Alma 42:27. Some of them are a bit
fuego(y), but there all super true. 2 Nephi 2:27 is probably the best
one for street contacts. Anyways as I've said, things are going well
in the area. We have a LOT of people to follow up with. This past week
we took some time to go through our area book to look for people we
had met before and found like 20 or so names that we need to go follow
up with. So we are going to be trying to find the balance between
finding and teaching the investigators that we already have. We are
looking forward to the challenge and we already have some lessons with
our ward mission leader and bishop set up. This past Sunday we got a
new ward mission leader, Hermano Cuevas, he is super cool and pumped
for missionary work. We can tell he doesn't quite know what it
entails, but he is ready to go to work. Also this week I finished
reading the B.O.M. in Spanish so that's I think number 5 for times
I've read it on the mission. It's a super good book, inspired by God
and every time I read it, something new sticks out at me. For the
remainder of my time I'm going to try reading the new testament. I'm
looking forward to this week and the one that is coming. We also
received news that Elder Christofferson is coming to our mission, well
actually to the stake conference coming up. It'll be interesting
though because this past transfer, one of the ward's was moved from
the Anaheim mission to the Irvine Mission and the stake center falls
on the Irvine side, so we are going to need permission from a Seventy
to go to that, but it's decently far still so I'lll worry about that
later. Lot's of cool things are going on in the mission though. But
this is it for this letter. I love you all and I'll talk to you soon.
Take care!
it if I don't write it now. But I won't be writing this upcoming
Monday because P-day will be on Friday. It'll be a Temple day so
that's the reason why, I'm pretty excited. But this week for us went
by pretty well. We dropped a bunch of people and in turn we met a lot
of new people this week. Some have already began reading in the Book
of Mormon. We have a lot of good expectations, especially one because
she is friends with a less active and the less active is helping her
read and learn, hopefully she'll become active in the process. Also
this past week we had a zone conference. We spoke about Diligence, the
new mission standards of excellence, dignity, & how to more
effectively plan. It was a good conference, I especially liked the
comments about diligence, it's probably my most favorite attribute of
Christ. Also this week we had an exchanges with the district leader, I
was with elder Wilkinson up in his area. We had a good time together
and it was a pretty quick day. We taught a good amount. I'm not sure
if I can say I learned anything new, not sure if that's a bad thing, I
wanted to use the Book of Mormon more on street contacts, but the
areas we went to didn't really present opportunities to do so, so I'll
have to do it here in my are throughout the week. I've been studying a
lot of agency scriptures to share, trying to motivate people to choose
to follow God and not be passive about it while at the same time
warning people of the consequences of sin. Some scriptures I liked
were: Hel. 14:30, 2 Nephi 2:27 & Alma 42:27. Some of them are a bit
fuego(y), but there all super true. 2 Nephi 2:27 is probably the best
one for street contacts. Anyways as I've said, things are going well
in the area. We have a LOT of people to follow up with. This past week
we took some time to go through our area book to look for people we
had met before and found like 20 or so names that we need to go follow
up with. So we are going to be trying to find the balance between
finding and teaching the investigators that we already have. We are
looking forward to the challenge and we already have some lessons with
our ward mission leader and bishop set up. This past Sunday we got a
new ward mission leader, Hermano Cuevas, he is super cool and pumped
for missionary work. We can tell he doesn't quite know what it
entails, but he is ready to go to work. Also this week I finished
reading the B.O.M. in Spanish so that's I think number 5 for times
I've read it on the mission. It's a super good book, inspired by God
and every time I read it, something new sticks out at me. For the
remainder of my time I'm going to try reading the new testament. I'm
looking forward to this week and the one that is coming. We also
received news that Elder Christofferson is coming to our mission, well
actually to the stake conference coming up. It'll be interesting
though because this past transfer, one of the ward's was moved from
the Anaheim mission to the Irvine Mission and the stake center falls
on the Irvine side, so we are going to need permission from a Seventy
to go to that, but it's decently far still so I'lll worry about that
later. Lot's of cool things are going on in the mission though. But
this is it for this letter. I love you all and I'll talk to you soon.
Take care!
Jacob - August 14, 2017
Hey everybody, this week went by well and pretty quick. I have a new
companion named Elder Mckellar. He's been around a few different
places, but lived the majority of his life in Iowa. He's really nice
and kind and has a fire to do the work. All the missionaries here do.
We had a good week together. We contacted tons of people, it reminded
me a lot about the first week i had with elder cooper. We've also been
able to visit several members and encourage them to share the gospel
through social media. Sometimes that was successful. I think the
members around here don't really have fears about posting stuff, but
could do better at following up with the people that comment and like
the posts. So we are going to try and help them on that aspect. We
weren't able to teach a ton of people this week, people are stubborn
to let us teach them even though we are persistent. So hopefully as we
follow up with people this week that we will find some more prepared
people. Also this week I had my "my Plan" Meeting, that was good, just
a meeting to help me think about what I'm going to be doing with my
life. Nothing I guess to crazy. But everything is going well here.
Still finding joy in the work despite the challenges that come. I love
being here in SoCal, the people here are the best!
Elder Baer
companion named Elder Mckellar. He's been around a few different
places, but lived the majority of his life in Iowa. He's really nice
and kind and has a fire to do the work. All the missionaries here do.
We had a good week together. We contacted tons of people, it reminded
me a lot about the first week i had with elder cooper. We've also been
able to visit several members and encourage them to share the gospel
through social media. Sometimes that was successful. I think the
members around here don't really have fears about posting stuff, but
could do better at following up with the people that comment and like
the posts. So we are going to try and help them on that aspect. We
weren't able to teach a ton of people this week, people are stubborn
to let us teach them even though we are persistent. So hopefully as we
follow up with people this week that we will find some more prepared
people. Also this week I had my "my Plan" Meeting, that was good, just
a meeting to help me think about what I'm going to be doing with my
life. Nothing I guess to crazy. But everything is going well here.
Still finding joy in the work despite the challenges that come. I love
being here in SoCal, the people here are the best!
Elder Baer
Monday, August 7, 2017
Jacob - August 7, 2017
Hey everybody, today has been a crazy day with moving and what not,
I'm not sure what else more we have in plan for the day. Fortunately
all the stressful stuff is taken care of. We got all my stuff in a new
apartment, it'll be my last one. My companions goes home tomorrow back
to Texas so we'll spend this last night together and then tomorrow
I'll be with my new companion. But this week was good. Lots of the
normal finding and teaching. We haven't been able to find many solid
people so we are still working at that. But with a new companion, I'm
sure it will bring a lot of good to the area. We've slowly been able
to try new areas to proselyte where there are Hispanics, it'll just be
the challenge of finding those that are prepared. It always is that
way. But I'm confident that we will find success together. We do have
a lot of good things happening, we've been helping a lot of members in
our area and some are doing very well. So we'll keep up on that. I
finished the Book of Mormon this past week (in English) that was good.
I'm not too far behind on my Spanish study either, right now I am in 3
Nephi 20, so I'll finish that in the next few weeks or so. But all is
well for me. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Baer
I'm not sure what else more we have in plan for the day. Fortunately
all the stressful stuff is taken care of. We got all my stuff in a new
apartment, it'll be my last one. My companions goes home tomorrow back
to Texas so we'll spend this last night together and then tomorrow
I'll be with my new companion. But this week was good. Lots of the
normal finding and teaching. We haven't been able to find many solid
people so we are still working at that. But with a new companion, I'm
sure it will bring a lot of good to the area. We've slowly been able
to try new areas to proselyte where there are Hispanics, it'll just be
the challenge of finding those that are prepared. It always is that
way. But I'm confident that we will find success together. We do have
a lot of good things happening, we've been helping a lot of members in
our area and some are doing very well. So we'll keep up on that. I
finished the Book of Mormon this past week (in English) that was good.
I'm not too far behind on my Spanish study either, right now I am in 3
Nephi 20, so I'll finish that in the next few weeks or so. But all is
well for me. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Baer
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