Lexie - June 21, 2014

I have a minute so I'll try and think of some more to say. We've been saying bye to our teachers yesterday and today. It's been really weird and it's so strange to not give them hugs. We've been making lots of cards for people. One of the guys that is here is a real investigator and his name is Javier. He's from spain. He's a professor at some school in Price. He's one of those people that is SO SMART that he'll never be convinced with facts. It would have to be something spiritual, but he also has a hard time with faith. We had to talk to him about why girls don't hold the priesthood and some other weird stuff. He just knows so much. But obviously isn't accepting at this point but since he is working at the MTC with missionaries hopefully that will change. He's a very nice very smart guy. Que mas, Uhm, I'm doing pretty good with my spanish this week. I think it all makes sense slowly but when I'm speaking I can't think quick enough for some of the conjugations it's crazy. I'm super stressed about packing. There is just literally no time in our days to accomplish anything. I know I'll be busy in the field but probably in a little bit different way. We had infield orientation all day on thursday which was just a blurr. It was ridiculous. I dont know how neccisary it was but I guess I learned lots. They talk A LOT about involving members. It's the way missionary work works. It's really kind of cool. So to everyone that's a member of the church, don't rely on the missionaries! Go find and share the gospel yourself! I think that's about it for this week. Lots of just running around and getting things done. Thank you again for the new skirt I love it and it's wonderfully stretchy! Oh so this is funny lol. My companions are weird. I love them but their weird. They are SO CONCERNED with laundry. Maybe that's normal? I don't know. I did 3 loads today and that's weird. I usually just do lights and darks but today I put some of that tide with bleach into my solid whites so I did 3. One of my companions did 6 loads of laundry! Because she is so concerned with mixing things together lol. It kindof cracks me up because I'm pretty sure most of my clothes are going to get destroyed down there or I'm going to give them away. I'm sure at some point. Who knows. Anyways, it makes me laugh. I think I'm ready for a change of scenery with companions. It's a dang good thing I get to marry a boy becuause I couldn't deal with a girl for the rest of my life. No way. I need the laid back thing. Oh dear and Mexico Is probably going to destroy my stomach becuase i think it's already been destroyed here.

Tayler - June 23, 2014

ok so this week was probably the haredest most stressful week ever. we had our transfers last week and my companion got transfered to another area so almost all of last week i had to lead the are and help my companion because i knew where the members and investigators lived, well sort of. it was so stressfull i realized that before with my trainer i probably could have done more to learn about the are and where people lived so i would be ready when i had to lead but i didnt. so this week has been a struggle the other day i was thinking about our key indicators and all the lessons we needed with members and other lessons and i couldnt think of any possible situation where we would be able to accomplish our goals for the week. but last night we were able to finish all of our indicators except we didnt have very many people come to church with us wich is the only thing we werent able to accomplish but it was a great learning experience for me. last night we had about 45 minutes left and we need to find one more lesson to teach so because i know the are better than my companion i had to find people to teach. first we went to visit a sister that is a member and we were going to talk with her grandchildren but they werent home so that didnt work, then we went to try and talk to some investigators that we talked to once last week but they couldnt talk because they were busy or something. after those two i had no idea who we could talk to, but i knew there was more investigators in a different part of the are so we starting heading that way but i chose to take a rode where i knew an investigator lived but the last few times we had passed by she wasnt home, so we passed by her house and she was home and we had a great lesson with her and we finished our goals for the week. for me that experience really strengthened my testimony of 1 nephi 3:7 that we can accomplish all the things the lord has asked us to do as long as we put our faith in him and follow the spirit the way is prepared. that was a really cool experience and i feel like this week i have learned a whole lot about faith and miracles. thats crazy that lexie already left for mexico i cant beleive that was six week ago that she entered the mtc.


well we had our last transfer meeting with our mission president last wednsday and it was really sad. i have only been here like 3 months but president carter is awesome and i am going to miss him, i wish he could have been my mission president the whole time. but we get our new president on the 28th so thats kind of exciting to.and the sister carter has been making a blog its something like buenosaireswest at blogspot i think. but i dont think the new mission president is going to do a blog. and the address is always to the mission office so i thin its in my mission packet or i sent you an email a few weeks ago with the addresss to. i love you


love elder baer

Lexie - June 30, 2014

oh my gosh. this week has been insane lol. i love your pictures. sorry for my gross typing. this keyboard is weird lol. alright heres whats going on in a nutshell. the driving here is crazy. i stayed right in tuxtla for my first area and live at the real de bosque. apparently i need a cord for my camera for the computers here. ugh. so ill try and figure that out and if not ill get you pictures next week. real de bosque is just house upon house upon house upon house all staked on this stinking mountain. i walk up and down hills all day long. im so happy and miserable at the same time its a little ridiculous lol. so our apartment was soooo gross. if i meet the elders that had it before us i might kill them. oh my gosh. i opened the microwave to a molding plate of who knows what. they left us 6 bags of trash and i saw my first cocraoches last night in the room i have all my clothes in. i screamed like a baby. so gross. there were like 3. ugh. so needless to say i didn{t sleep at all last night because i was so paranoid. we didnt have water until wednesday becasue we didnt know we had to pay for water in these huge tanks on top of the houses. so i was looking really special. theres a walmart here and a sams club so ill have everything ill need im pretty sure. ok so i wish i could send pictures ill try again soon but i literally have 60 mosquito bites. ive been gong through the bug spray like crazy and a member gave us some cream that helps them not itch. so their getting better and i ahvent gotten a ton more. so painful though lol. and oh my gosh hace calor. it is sooooo hot. so hot. im brown. well red brown already. ive been trying to carry an umbrella to keep the sun off but i have so much stuff it gets heavy. that and im literally pooping water. i dont think ill poop solid for a year and a half. not going to lie i had to change my g bottoms the other day. ew. so gross. bad bad bad. anyways. at least my stomache isnt bugging me. just struggling. we ride in these things called cambios everywhere and pay 7 pescos. just insane. and oh this is hilarious. my compainon loves singing but is so tone deaf i can hardly stand it. i want to die laughing everytime we sing. at first i though she just didnt know the tunes. but at church on sunday the lady in front of us was plugging an ear to hear herself and get the tune lol. it was so bad i started laughing so hard. oh and i caught a lizard thing in the house too the other day. they are everywhere. one more funny thing one of my investigators calls me hermana baer and thinks it is just the funniest thing in the whole world lol. anyways, i think thats in on the weird random stuff.. heres how the church stuff has gone


first, i dont know if ive ever told you to read the prayer section in the bible dictionary but do it! its soo good. go to the part that starts with, as soon as we learn the true realtionship.. its so good and it makes me think differently about how i pray. i really like my trainer. shes from tampico mexico. but i kind of feel like a salcker this week. contacting is hard when i dont know the language so ill report next week and hopefully ill be braver. we had one investigator come to church and hes really great. the best thing about him so far is that the first time we taught him my comp said, hes not interested. and i didnt feel the same way. in the second lesson he broke down crying and said we wants to believe in god but he doesnt know how. it was really cool. we watched the finding faith in christ video with him. it made me realize again that im not the judge and i dont know who is ready and who isnt to recieve the gospel. and if i dont contact and ask! the answer is always no. thats my modo this week. i also gave the baptism invite this week and the lady accepted so that was really cool too. i feel like we walk a ton and teach really little but my comp doesnt know this area so were learning where everything is and its taking a little bit of time. overall though im learning something everyday and except for those stinking roaches ive slept really good. i think thats all for today. ill send another if i think of anything. i love you tons! i cant even believe ive been here a week already. its flying by even though its hard. Love you, have an awesome week and thank you for the pictures!  Talk to you again soon. Love you,


Hermana Baer

Tayler - June 9, 2014

it was kind of weird to go in to the city for the first time last week. ever since i have been in argentina the only things i have seen were dirt roads and makeshift brick houses it was weird to see buildings with tons of windows like a normal building. and we drove by river on our way to immigration and i took a picture of the ships masts. its crazy because buenos aires is next to a fiver and not the ocean but the river is gigantic, we couldnt see the other side from where we were. anyways, we have like three people here that are basically ready to be baptized but the cant becuase of some little things. and that is kind of my first experience with satan trying to prevent these people from being baptized. one investigator has been sick for the last few weeks, another we need to get the signatures of her parents but they are never home and when they are they never want to talk with us, and lastly we have one that lives somewhere else but always come to our ward but because he doesnt live in the ward he cant be baptized here. its kind of annoying that we have been helping them so much but we have just kind of hit a wall but we just need to work around that and get them baptized no matter what.


when we first got here president carter told us that we were going to lose weight but i am not sure if i have. we walk all day but we eat so much for lunch, most days i can barely eat all they give me to eat, and then in a ton of our lessons people offer us food, they eat a whole lot of bread here to if you dont have bread you are not eating a real meal. so im not sure if i have gained weight or lost any but i am feeling good. beside the fact that i think i am alergic to argentina every day at times i just have sneezing attacks and i cant stop sneezing for like 5 minutes. hopefully that will go away. and its kind of weird that this city is huge but you can actually see a lot of stars wich is weird cause in salt lake you cant see any and its a lot smaller. also i think that in the states you can see venus in the early morning but here we always see it when it starts to get dark, i dont know if its different or if i just never noticed seeing venus in the states. i think thats all for this week, i will send you some pictures too. i love you


love elder baer

these are facturas they are basically donuts. this one is dulce de leche its my favorite

Lexie - June 7, 2014

This week flew by! I can't even believe I only have 2 weeks left and I had some really cool things happen this week. I took a ridiculous language assessment test on the computer on Monday and did terrible! It's timed so it was so bad. The people that gave feedback made sure to give me a bunch of positives before the corrections though, it made me feel like I was at the gym! lol. We had a great devotional on Tuesday that was about finding your identity. It reminded me a lot of Danny Poulsens talk when he got home from his mission. I shared bits of his talk with my district after. The talk was also a lot about loving the people we teach. Sometimes I think it's interesting that we talk about that so much but as my district shared their thoughts I realized that not everyone grows up with an amazing mom who loves and cares about everyone no matter what their situation. Thank goodness I had that influence growing up because I feel like i just love people! We have this adorable investigator right now that is from Mexico and has told us all about our mission. She says most people sleep in hamacas because it's so hot and she said don't eat the monkey! lol I had the coolest experience teaching her yesterday. For the first time since being here I felt like I was about to carry and lead a lesson, and in spanish! Crazy. She asked a lot of questions and for some reason I knew the answers. We talked about why the priesthood was important and why God waited such a long time before establishing the church back on the earth. I could feel the spirit so strong in the room and I just smiled as she was talking to my companions because I couldn't believe I had answered it in a way that made sense. At the end of the lesson I asked if she had any questions and she grinned and said, "No, you answered everything I wanted to know." That is so cool. Sometimes we get asked questions and we have to say something like, "That's a great question can we talk about it next lesson?" But this time everything just worked. It was awesome and she is so great. Another cool thing that happened this week was that for the first time I ever I was studying the scriptures and I think I really found something that jumped out and applied to my life. It was so awesome. I was reading 3 Nephi 13. The whole chapter is great. There is a funny scripture about fasting and how you shouldn't disfugre your face so people know lol. I found it the day after fast sunday and I felt bad for whinning about not eating all day. But! the best part was at the end of the chapter. I want to say it's verses 30-33 but don't quote me. Just go look! It talks about how God knows what we need and as long as we seek first to live the gospel then everything else will be provided. When I was researching more I found out that preach my gospel compares this to balancing work and family and it totally makes sense. Always put the Lord first and everything else will work out in one way or another. Loved the scripture.


On a less spiritual note! My teacher had the most rocking zit on his neck the other morning and he went to the bathroom in the middle of class and had taken care of it. I told him at the end of class that I was glad he got a handle on it for his date that day. He tells me all the time that he's never been so harassed by a student before. It's hilarious, he's a really cool teacher. I feel like when I'm in his class it's the only time of the day I get to be myself! I bought some rocking sweatpants here that say MTC on them so I'll be wearing those for the rest of forever. And! because it was so precious I want to just let everyone know that yesterday was probably the most unattractive day of my entire life. I had a rocking volcano zit on my cheek. My hair looked like a wet poodle and my face was melting because we were outside so much. that and I was out of all the clothes I like so I was rocking my grandma shoes(no offense grandma) which I love so much because they are so comfortable but definately not that attractive. It was a really struggling day. Good thing the spirit is there no matter what I look like! My companions was saying the other day that her parents used to always tell her, "If the church wasn't true the missionaries would have screwed it up by now." I think that's so funny and so true. All the elders here seem so young to me, they are all like my little brothers. And so many people haven't left home before this so some of the things said in lessons just make me shake my head lol. But the spirit makes up for it! Thank goodness that's how it works! That's about it this week. All the new mission presidents arrive this coming Tuesday so we're supposed to have a pretty cool devotional speaker. Fingers crossed! Thank you to everyone that has written me dear elders! It is the best feeling in the world to get mail. You are all awesome! Miss you!

Tayler - June 2, 2014

this week went pretty well. i was really focusing this week on really trying to understand and answer people when they had questions. i think it went pretty well i feel like everyday i am getting a little better, and a lot of the elders in my district say i speak really well so either they are trying to be nice or its true. anyway i think i am still not quite accumstomed to the mission life, its kind of hard for me to really pay attention to people especially when a tv is on, like the other day we were talking with someone and on the tv they were watching highlights of the playoffs and i was really struggling to pay attention. i think part of the problem is i dont understand them very good but i still need to pay attention to be able to learn faster. and i have really come to love reading the scriptures, basically i talk about them all day and i have really gained the desire to learn more and i enjoy it alot. i have been reading the book of mormon in personal study and i have almost finished it but usually i am super tired in the morning and personal study is the first thing every morning so i kind of struggle to stay awake. and with praying, that is something that i probably should have done better at home. we pray all the time every morning every time we leave the apartment and every lesson and every night we pray all the time. but i do think that i have grown closer to heavenly father doing so. we teach a lot of people how to pray and that has helped me too i have learned that prayer is a conversation i can tell anything to my heavenly father and he is going to respond in some way usually its subtle but there is always an answer. thats also one thing that i have learned to that heavenly father really has blessed our family even though we have had hard times. the blessings always come after the trial of faith. i love you.


love elder baer

Bruschetta style pizza!

Buenos Aries!

Lexie - June 1, 2014

It was a rough week. Started off with some lessons on monday that did not go well. One of the elders in our district bought all the hermanas ice cream that night, i think he could sense some irritation lol. I got a new teacher on Monday who is the person who was our first "investigator" so he knows all the stupid things we've said in lessons and that's super emberassing. Tuesday Russell M. Nelson came and talked and focused a lot on the missionary purpose. His wife gave a short talk that was really good about desperation, she said desperation can be a good thing on a mission. be desperate to contact people and desperate to share the gospel because when we're desperate for some reason we figure out how to get stuff done. it was an interesting concept. Also on Tuesday we taught our first TRC lesson which is teaching members so it's kind of like home teaching. We of course were not told this was happening so we were not prepared at all and totally flopped the first lesson. The one right after it went a lot better. The second lesson we just talked about the BOM and shared our favorite scriptures. It was a lot better than trying to teach a member like an investigator. Wednesday went a lot better and we gave a really good lesson. We were prepared and had some good examples and scriptures to use. I think I could almost do the whole first lesson in entirely spanish and that blows my mind. We started learning future tense this week which isn't bad but I fee llike past tense will probably destroy me. Thursday I went to Salt Lake to the Mexican Consulate to take pictures and finger print for our Visas. So they should be arriving here to us pretty soon. I drank a real mountain dew and had the most delicious food at Maverick on the way back to Provo. I don't even know what I ate but it's sad that it tasted that good. The MTC food keeps me alive but I wouldn't say I enjoy it most days. OH! And at the consulate we met our new mission president and his wife! They will arrive in Mexico just after us and are really nice. They are Dairy farmers from Cody Wyoming. They seem really cool. Other than that everything has been pretty much the same. The days are so long and I'm always tired so thank goodness for mints to help keep me awake!

Watch this...

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/mountains-to-climb?lang=eng