Jacob - April 11, 2016

Hey mom, I thought I'd send ya a quick email.. this week was good. I
had my first baptism! I baptized an investigator back in my old area,
he's super tall. I'll try and send pictures soon, but man it was
tough. Haha, but it was super cool and humbling that he chose me to do
it. Also this week I had 2 exchanges. One with a ZL (I'm district mom
right now, so that's fun), I also went on one with another elder in
the district. They both went pretty good, but you can definitely tell
the difference between a ZL and a missionary that's one transfer
younger than me. Hmm I think that's mostly it for this week. The
language has been picking up pretty good recently. I'm starting to
understand a little bit more, especially with gospel discussions, but
I still get lost a few times. 

Um this week I've been trying to figure

out what makes imperfect past so special. Or I guess when it's
appropriate to use it. I've kind of came to a conclusion. Um also I've
been working on subjunctive, that's a killer, but it's not too bad
once I start to recognize the triggers. I've already got a few down.
Like querer or esperar, to name a few. Oh man what else... I think
that's mainly it. The teaching is good, lots of finding, but I mean
it's all part of the work. Hopefully we'll find some solid people
soon. We got a referral yesterday that looks promising so we'll see
what happens with that. But that's it for this week. Love ya mom, hope
you have a good one!

Elder Baer

Jacob - April 4, 2016

Hey mom, sounds like you had a good week. That's good to hear, this
message probably won't be too long because I wrote you on Thursday,
not a ton has happened since then. Probably the most awesome thing was
conference and talking with a member that goes to an English Ward. His
name was Mark but he has a sweet 65' Impala. I'm going to need some
pictures with it, but he himself is way cool as well. We were able to
connect on a few things like what we've done for work. I told him
about the D.O.T. And he told me about his trucking job and some other
stuff. But we both came to the conclusion that working with a bunch of
other guys can be crazy. Haha, that was a fun chat with him, that was
on Sunday and overall that was one of the best days of my mission.
Conference was so awesome! I could not believe how fast it went, I
really regret how I looked at conference in the past. It truly is a
blessing to have prophets and apostles. There was a ton of good
messages, even Priesthood was super good and how I can better magnify
my calling. Unfortunately I didn't baptize Ethan quite yet, it's
planned for next Sunday because a lot of the members that gave him the
most support were up in Utah for conference. But next week it should
be going down. Anyways I can't think much else to say. I love you mom,
take care.
Elder Baer

Jacob - March 28, 2016

Hey Mom, has it going? Sorry I didn't write Monday, our P-day is today
instead. We had a temple trip and we just finished our session so that
was pretty relaxing. But this past week and a half has been good. The
new area is pretty good. It's definitely not as bad as Elder
Galleguillos made it sound when I talked to him about it. It's super
small though at least compared to my old area, but I like it. We are
on bike and I bought one that is pretty nice. The entire package with
brakes and lights and the bike was like $475. Not too bad since the
bike is really good quality. But I don't think you want to hear about
my bike so I'll get back on topic. Um Elder Fonnesbeck is pretty cool.
He is pretty goal driven which I like and also he is super good at
exercise in the mornings so that's also fun. And he also helps me out
a lot with the Spanish which is sweet. Right now I'm trying to improve
my ability on Subjunctive which is different since there isn't a
English equivalent, but I'm picking up on it. One thing that he said
to me is that my Spanish now is how his Spanish was at one year so
that was a pretty nice compliment. I know I can speak it alright, but
understanding it is still tough. Another thing that happened this week
is that we had a zone meeting on the importance of studies. I need to
change up mine a little bit, but I always love those meetings because
I learn something that I can improve. Oh and the people we're teaching
are doing pretty well. We've been teaching a family that are sweet! I
think they're questions are some of the best I've heard yet and it's
awesome because there is zero hesitancy in them asking them. Super
cool, but so far they like everything they've been hearing. Oh boy I'm
having trouble remembering stuff... Ok one last thing. An investigator
back in SA10 (old area) wants me to baptize him this Sunday! I'll send
some pictures of that to ya soon. But that's pretty much the past week
or so, hopefully it's enough to put in the blog thing. Love ya mom,
you're awesome!

Elder Baer

Jacob - March 21, 2016

Hey everyone! Sorry again for sending out a group email, but I know
for a fact that I'm not going to have a ton of time to write today.
Today is Transfers! I'm changing areas and companions. I'm heading to
Santa Ana 11 West. The same area that my trainer was in before he
moved to Santa Ana 10. He was telling me all about for the last day or
two. People I should try and visit or things to watch out for. I guess
it's pretty much the most ghetto area in The mission so I'm stoked. My
Comp is going to be Elder Fonsbeck. He's been out for quite a while,
but I'm excited because I'm probably going to learn a lot of Spanish
because I won't have a native companion to rely on. Hopefully all will
go well. I'm a little nervous because I want to leave a good
impression, but it'll be hard since I don't speak fluent or anything,
but it'll be ok. Anyways this week was good. My comp and I tried to
keep busy with finding people. Nothing too crazy happened. Spanish is
coming along, I'm doing my best to stay on top of it. I like to read
it. I can understand Tayler and Lexie's emails that they send me, but
speaking it is a little tough. Um what else... Oh we had a talent show
this week that went pretty well. We brought an investigator with us
and also another member brought a date that will soon be an
investigator. But that's all I can think of for now. So I love you
guys and I hope you have a great week.

Jacob - March 14, 2016

Hey everyone, sounds like everyone had a good time listening to
Tayler's homecoming. I know conversion is a big part of the gospel so
that was probably a real good topic. I think each day I become a
little more converted to the gospel and to this work. It's pretty
humbling to go door to door and realize the significance that the
gospel is. There are so many people here that turn us down and they
don't even know what we share. Sometimes I wish people would give us
more chances, but it does make me really appreciate the people that do
give us a shot. But anyways this week was pretty good. We had some
good lessons and found some new people that were excited to work with.
But one part that was pretty disappointing was that our investigator
that wants to get baptized didn't have any time for us this past
week... So he did t get baptized, but hopefully this week we'll get
him. I think a highlight for this week is that we got to have a
,eating with Elder Hamula. That was super cool and shared a lot of
advice how we can become more Christlike and be better consecrated. It
was really good. We also had a good district meeting about using
scriptures in our lessons, that was good as well. But nothing super
new happened this week. Just working everyday, trying to find people
interested in the gospel. My Spanish is going good. If it's a
discussion regarding the gospel I'm pretty good. But if it's small
talk trying to get to know them, it's tough. But it's going well. I've
been reading random scriptures in the Book of Mormon like yesterday I
read 1 Nephi 8 about Lehi's vision. Um I'm not too sure what else to
say, but I got some sweet photos for you guys so stay in tune. Love
you all, I hope you have a great week.

Elder Baer

Jacob - March 7, 2016

Hey mom, that's pretty awesome to see that Tayler is back home. Man it's weird, but I'm not too far behind, considering I've got 5 months already. That went by quick. But this week was pretty good for me. My highlight was definitely Sunday, but I'll save that for the end. Another highlight is that I had an exchange with one of the ZL's. I went to his area and had a lot of fun with him. We started the day out right by playing soccer with another set of missionaries. That was a lot of fun because usually missionaries don't live within the same apartment complex. Plus I knew one of them from my first transfer in the field. With Elder Thornton we had a pretty good day of mostly teaching less actives. Those were pretty good lessons and I understood quite a bit of what was shared. But I had a lot of fun with him and just trying my best to become better by following his example. We also spoke a ton of Spanish, that was nice. But also we found some cool people this week, we'll sort of. We taught some cool people. One is Luis and the other is Jose. Luis is pretty cool cause we're 95% certain he has been taught in the past because he has a picture of the San Diego temple in his home, but he is super open to the message. Also Jose is a teenager we found that has a super tough life, but we're trying to show him how much the gospel can bless him. He's pretty cool, but his story really makes me appreciate what I have... Sometimes I wonder why Heavenly Father decided to bless me with all I have when there are tons of people out there that could be in my shoes. Not sure if I'll ever figure that question out, but anyways. Back to this Sunday. Everything went super well. Testimonies were really good and one of the members shared her testimony in English so that one of my investigators could understand, but man it was powerful. And later in gospel principles I finally had a class where I understood everything, also nice. Later after church we taught Ethan about some of the commandments, also went really well and right after that we watched a baptism with him. But the thing that I'm most excited about is that after the baptism he was going around telling people that he's getting baptized next week. He even told my mission president. So my comp and I are super excited and are probably going to super focus on him this week. But man I can't wait! Anyways hopefully that's enough for this week. I love you mom, hope you enjoy the company of Tayler. Se cuida!

Jacob - February 29, 2016

Hey sorry again that I have to write a group email, hopefully it's not
too bad for all of you. I figure I write usually the same stuff to
everyone anyways. But this week was pretty good. The Spanish is coming
along. I still don't give myself a ton of credit, but I usually pick
up on most things and I can usually figure out certain words by the
way sentences of flow, so that's improving as well. I think I mainly
need to work on teaching simpler with better verbs, probably also my
ability to conjugate. But so far so good, can't really complain about.
I just barely read Tayler's email, granted there were words I didn't
know, but I understood everything, so that's pretty cool. Also I make
more jokes now since I can understand people, so people are starting
to like me more. Um this week for teaching was good, we were able to
find some people we've been struggling to get a hold of, we also found
some new people were going to teach tonight or later this week. I'm
pretty excited about them because they seemed to have genuine
interest. We passed a super cool family this week to English, the
Vargas Family. Man their sweet, we have a visit with them tomorrow to
help them switch over to English. Also we have another kid who is
progressing really well. Yesterday we taught him the law of chastity
and how he has to move out, he was super ok with it and took
everything really well. He's got a date for the the 13th of March, but
he has a lot of distractions going on right now that we're concerned
about so be sure to pray for him. Other investigators are doing well,
I think the toughest part is just not seeing people do commitments
because I see them as blessings, but they see it as wasting time or
something. I just wish people could change their minds a little bit.
But also the packet on the atonement is super good. I really like the
several messages that I've been able to read. One of the things that
caught my mind is that we need to be submissive when it comes to
making change. I know all of us want to change for the better, but
Heavenly Father is only going to help us if we are willing to follow
his will. I guess it's something to think about. Ok last thing, we had
a service and school called el modelo or "Elmo" we did a blood drive
and it was pretty chill. Um I can't really think of much else to say.
Les Amo! Que Tengan un buena semana! Yo espero que ustedes tengan un
gran tiempo cuando Tayler llegue. Se cuidan!

Elder Baer





Here's some pics for you guys. The reason we're wearing sweats is
because of a rule that wasn't being very I forced, but president
thought it was time to re I force it. It's not too bad, but I'm just
waiting till it's actually summer. But following the lord equals
blessings so it's define toy worth it. I think Mosiah 4:9 fits it
pretty well. We may not understand the purpose of some commandments,
but the lord does, so we just need to be obedient and trust in him. I
think that goes for a lot more than just this no shorts rule. Oh and
the shirts are from the blood drive we went to earlier this week. Well
that's it for today. Love you guys and take care!