November 14, 2011

hahahha his signature is so crazy!! (mission president) Everytime he writes on the whiteboard he ruins the marker cuz he is so intense and no one can tell what it says. Everyone calls him a little ``fireball.`` He is! Haha he is great though I love him.

Mom, CTR means ``conserve tua rota`` which isn´t choose the write, but I think the brazilians were too lazy to change the rings so they just changed the saying hahaha. Choose the right would be ``escolha o certo.``

Lets see, unfortunately this week wasn´t too action packed. I went to Floripa almost all week. Last pday I went to floripa to go to a dermotologist appt but the secratary of the mission told me wrong and it was actually on wednesday. So I went back that day to my area (2 hours away) and worked normally on tuesday. I taught that same guy with cancer again cuz his son told me to go see him again so we taught the plan of salvation and he liked it but denied baptism.. Wednesday I returned to Florianópolis to got to my appt and got 100 SPF prescription sunscreen cuz I guess my skin on my face is allergic to normal crappy brazil sunscreen. And then just did random crap around the office all day. It was alright. But I got one of my packages already!! I opened it up just to be able to put the presents under the tree, I didn´t read any letters or open anything. It was the one with CTR rings in it. I found a chinese buffet (chinese is hard to find here) for 8 REAIS!! Thats like 5 bucks! With a drink! Some things are so cheap here its awesome. Some things are not so cheap.

Thursday was the ZL counsel. The prez just gave us a training that said that the first presidency is really worried that we are not talking enough about God and too much about prophets and stuff. Which is important, but not as important as the one who created them, right? But it was good, I got to see all my old companions and hang out with them a little bit. One of my friends is going home in december, and he is soo goood at piano. I am so sad I didn´t decide to do piano lessons when I was littler. He can play clair de lune! Thats my favorite song. Hey, is L.H. still alive?? You gotta keep me updated on his liveliness.

Friday I also was at the counsel and we just practiced teaching for hours and hours. Did I tell you that every missionary house has a DVD player now? And, in the near future, every house will have an iPad as an area book and every companionship will have an iPhone!! Its pretty cool, but I will be home before then. It will take a little more than a year, and I only have 10 months left!!!

Saturday we worked normally. It was great overcast weather so I didnt get burned and my nose finished peeling. Gross. But Sunday we had 6 investigators at church! Its a pretty cool area, I dont do anything except get up in the morning and the Lord does the rest! I hope he isn´t condemning me or anything.. But the members here are cool, I dunno if I told you or not but one of the members drove by the beach the other day and it was really pretty. Elder M. Santos wrote you huh? Send me a copy!! He is with me right now, cuz he will be working in my zone for a little bit. There are so big time slackers in the area next to me and he has to get em workin again.

Sorry, this email kinda sucks. I did have a neat dream though the other day. IT kinda made me nervous. I had previously studied about dreams because the living prophets teach about dreams and how God can communicate through them and also the scriptures are filled with people having visions in dreams. So I dreamed I was in a big white mansion. I climbed a bunch of staircases that were made of gold. When I got to the top, it was just a big open room, but with Gordon B. Hinckley sitting at a normal wooden table eating a steak. He called me to sit with him and had a steak for me too. We talked a little bit and then he said, ``maintain the relationship you have with your friends.`` Thats all I remember him saying. Then he got up and went out a door and I woke up. Crazy huh! Probably just a dream though, I am going crazy.

We get to watch 2 movies on Christmas and 2 on New Years eve and get to sleep in too!! I was nervous I would have to spend 2 christmas days prosylitignggnkhntkrhhng.

Thats all for this week, I love you all and miss you tons! Mom, I sent you another package!!!

P.S. Dad, how is my stock doing??? Up or down??

Love Elder Baker

November 7, 2011

HELLOOO

Soo I am wondering if you got the BIG package or the little tiny one. It just had a tape in it, but the huge one had a bunch of crap in it. I am gonna get you both a present today and send it off today or tomorrow. I am excited! I am bring M. Santos to be able to tell what is authentic Brazilian or not. It´ll be cool.

But, one day I was walkin down the road and a member ran up to me and said, ``do you know Elder Fitts?`` Hahah he was Fitts´s companion on his mission!! It was pretty cool, I am going to go over there sometime to see all the viedos and pics that he took with Fitts. Speaking of Fitts I hear that he already got back surgery and that he is going to back out on the mission in 3 weeks!! I don´t know if you remember what happened to him but he had to go home to get back surgery.

But on Wednesday was transfers and like I said I had a lot of people passing through my area, so I had to coordinate it all. It was probably the most stressed I have ever been ever about paperwork. I had to organize everyone´s rides, coordinate what member would pick who up at which time. It was tough!! But it all went down smoothly. And, my comp was transferred. But there were a few problems that came up that were UNEXPECTED. One, the assistant called me and said that there was a new missionary that had gotten lost in the transit (got the wrong bus or somethin) and he was somewhere in Northern santa Catarina, and I had to find him! hahaha but luckily a member called and said he had found the elder lost and brought him home. What luck! But the other one was that a sister that was going home accidentally took the house keys with her, and the sisters called me scared to leave their house and scared someone would murder them so I had to find a way to go to Balneário Camboriú to give them the keys. That also went down smoothly, and on the way home the member took the beach route. We got to see all the beaches of Itajaí and of Balneário Camboriú. Look up that city and google. It is suuuch a cool city!! But, transfers went well, and now my comp is a 23 year old red head from california. He is really cool and we get along pretty well.

It is tough to be relied on to plan for the day when I don´t know where I am or any investigators!! So we have been tracting a lot. Its been good. My Portuguese is actually improving with my american comp because no one understands ONE WORD that he says. ahaha poor guy, he can´t roll his R´s. But the sun is so hot and I am outside so much that I am black now, at east my face and neck until the collar and my arms as well. Hahah I don´t think I have ever been this dark!! But my back is really white, Mike and Dad know how it is. We have AT LEAST 4 baptisms this month which is cool since I didn´t do anything. The Lord just put them in our path, literally. They are all member references. I showed up to church the first week and they all came running giving me references!! I think they were waiting for a good elder to pass by. But Dad, did you ever consider going on splits with the missionaries somewhere?? I think it would be fun to see how the work has changed. Also, you guys should have the missionaries for dinner again!! Maybe for thanksgiving at grandma´s house! That would be hilarious.

So my house is slowly receiving more and more new stuff. We have a new washer, a new fridge, a new stove and really good huge desks. The next step is a new clothes closet thingy (how do you spell armwa?) and new matresses. And I need to buy a pillow, my neck hurts. But on Thursday I went to a wedding in the chapel. They are so weird here! Just imagine a wedding where Creed is playing while the bride is entering the room. Hahah creed, sum 41, its so strange!! But, it was a good wedding. The chapel is really crappy but it was still a pretty ceremony. They do 2 here cuz they cannot do a civil marriage in the temple.

I think I told you about the really spiritual pesson I taught to the old man with cancer and said that he liked the message but wasn´t sure about the baptism?? I guess now he wasnts to be baptized!! Even the oldest of people with the catholic-ist of tradition can be changed by the gospel.

Well, thats about all!! I miss you all and Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAY!! Olivia as well. But, MOM, (edit this part out) what do you think about everyone´s christmas presents?? I want to buy something for everyone and send it to you all. I was thinkin Havaianas (those flip flops that everyone loves from Brazil) but I dunno everyones size. What do you think would be good??

But, I am glad you had a good anniversary, I am thankful for the example that you show of enduring to the end. I am trying to see how I can be able to attend Elder M. Santos´s wedding, which will be the 10th of november. Next year. But, did you ask the stake prez about if I can be released still over the phone??

LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU!!!!!

Mike, seen any good ski movies??

Love Elder Baker

October 31, 2011

Yo:

Mom, I sent off a HUGE package last week and a tiny tiny one for your birthday, but I´m gonna send another this week. I am loaded right now cuz I lost my card ya know and my money is piling up haha.

But a kid named Mark Bell wrote me a letter the other day. Actually he wrote it way before he went into the MTC on October 12 but since the strike didn´t end til recently I didn´t get it. But he got called to the Florianópolis mission!!! He went to East and is in our stake, I dunno if you know his parents. I think it would be really cool of you to call them and tell them a little bit of what I have told you. Tell them that he will love it and it is really actually pretty clean for Brazil and it is more like Europe. Tell them that I am gonna talk to president to see if he will let me train him!!! That would be really cool. I always talked to him at mission prep class.

But last p day I forgot to tell you that I went to a city called Navegantes. Its like 30 min away from my area but it was pretty cool to get there because there is a big world famous port in Itajaí and there is a huge river that runs through the middle of the city and to get to Navegantes I had to ride on a little ferry boat across the river!! It made me soo homesick though all I could think of was out trip to Port Townsend and Seattle. I hope we continue that trip when I get home.

ALLLRIGHT so lemme tell ya what a ZL does. He gets all of the areas numbers in his zone on Sunday, he does baptismal interviews for the people in his zone, he does travel around to see how all the areas are doing because he is responsible for the success of all of the areas. Its just a little more responsibility. Nothin much. But good news!! MY TERRRIBLE COMP GOT TRANSFERRED!!!! Poor guy, I think he is bipolar. I studied alone for this one week with him, he slept in all day and didn´t study. I tried to nicely tell him we couldn´t do what he was doing but he didn´t have it. I am going to be companions with Elder Checketts, my first American companion from California who has flaming red hair. But I know him a little bit, he is really cool. I am excited. But Elder Neilson is in my zone, and it just so happens he needed a baptismal interview this last week! So I went to his area called Brusque to interview his baptism and I slept there cuz its kinda far away. But we went on splits and it was so fun to go out with one of my MTC friends and to see how much we have both progressed in portuguese. He is a great guy, one of my best friends on the mission.

The weather is kind of strange right now too. Mom, the weather in September is mild and not too hot so it´ll be good to visit. The water might be kinda cold if we want to go to the beaches, but I will go anyways haha.

Mom, can you make an ORKUT account for me?? Its basically like facebook, but EVERY single brazilian has it and asks if I have it. It would be a great way to break the ice with people when I go into their houses. Put some pictures on there from my facebook that you think are cool and allow everyone to see them. Put the name as Elder Alexander Baker.

But this week was full of lessons! We taught a bunch of super spiritual lessons, and were able to mark 6 baptisms for this next month!! If everything goes well and the Lord blesses us further, we will baptize a family that we are teaching right now which will result in 4 more!! The work here is great! But we taught one lesson that was extremely strong to a guy that was dying that has been catholic his whole life. He´s got stomach cancer and doesn´t have long to live. We taught him the restoration and he said the for the first time in 60 years (his son has been a member and served a mission) he felt the truthfulness. Its cool to see how the first vision invites the spirit so strongly. But he will be baptized as well, but it might take a lil bit cuz he is have chemotherapy in Floripa.

I also went to Blumenau to do a baptismal interview. That city is SOOO COOOLL!!!! I have never been to Germany before, but I imagine that the architecture there is exactly the same as it is in Blumenau. It was so weird!! There were people speaking German in the streets, German markets, and even the clothes were different!! But, everyone speaks Portuguese luckily. There are some neighborhoods though that the kids aren´t even taught Portuguese, only German. The people are really white skinned all with blue eyes. I fit right in. It is an extremely well planned city and is super clean and unique because not only is it like Germany, but its also one of the more forested places in Brazil. Its like Germany in the middle of the Amazon!! Its really neat, if I were to live in Brazil and didn´t have the money to live in Rio Tavares on the island I would live there for sure.

So you got the packages off huh?? Did you happened to send the ski pamphlets off too?? I want those so bad. Hey Mike, some member knew that I liked skiing and he called me over to the computer one day and showed me ``The Grand Bizarre`` which is Poor Boyz new film. It looked pretty good, but I didn´t hardly recognize any of the skiers!! They all had crazy icelantic names or somethin. But hopefully you send the pamphlet off!! I would like a copy of Powder Magazine if possible as well.

So the accent is way different here. For all the ``sss`` sounds here they say ``sh``. So instead of saying Deus (God) which is prenounced Day-oos, they say Day-oosh. Haha its weird. But the big bus station in Itajaí is in my area and a lot of people are coming and leaving the area so I have to arrange it so that a missionary is never alone in the bus station and also rides for millions who need to go to various places. Its pretty stressful. It took me a couple hours to plan it all out but I think I got it done.

The members are really good here but there is a lot of gossip as well. Not good. I almost fought with a member already, but everyone told me he is crazy so I am not too worried about it. He refused to go on splits with us just because we were a TINY bit late to arrive at his house.

Well, thats all for this week!! I love you all and miss you and its really getting close to Christmas!! I want to do Skype again!

Mom, ask the Stake Prez is I can still be released by telephone.

I love you!!

Love, Elder Baker

P.S. Mom can yo send me a cookie recepie!??

October 24, 2011

Alright,

primeiramente, I will answer the questions
1-I have the Christmas tree. I will use it!!
2-I don´t think I will have time to write in the newsletter. You can write one for me, and if I have time next week I will send it to you. As well as a picture.
3-No, don´t send more garments. Its good you sent these ones, it is SOO hot.
4-Deodurant. I LOVE that one NBA kind you sent me. Its called ``mineral fresh`` its the best kind ever. send some!!
5-Wish list items: Primarily, I want letters and I want pictures. Send some of sports (that one of me playing rugby) and other cool pictures of friends and family. I want that one forearm workout called ``gyro ball`` I want sunscreen for the face. An external hard drive!! And then there are these ones that would be cool to have as well. And a slim fit cuff link shirt size 16 neck. And maybe some cuff links if you can find some. OO and a gold watch. (to wear to fancy meetings-it can be a fake one from NY)

But, the PResident changed his mind again. I am not training, but he called me as zone leader sooo I am zone leader now. I didn´t want to be ever, but he knows what the Lord wants I guess. But I got transferred to ITAJAÍ. Its a big old city close to Joinville and it is REALLLLLY hot. The chapel is from the 60s and has yet to be redone. My apartment is also from the 60s and was so dirty I had to spend 2 days cleaning it. And, I asked for a new mattress cuz the one that was there had cockroaches in it haha. But its good. My comp is Elder Conceição and he is from Acre, which is where all of the Brazilians think isn´t part of Brazil.

BUT, monday, I left Imbituba. I also sent 2 packages off. One was full of stuff I want but didnt need in Brazil. The other was full of fun stuff. It took years to pack cuz I have so much crap. I am replacing an elder who had to go home 9months early because he snapped a tendon in his knee (ouch). But the house was so terrible, it was unbelieveable. The president would have had a heart attack if he would have seen the house in the condition that it was in. I went immediately to the nearest market and bout 20 bucks worth of cleaning supplies and cleaned the whole place for 2 days strait. The second day we went to lunch and that was where I THOUGHT I had lost my wallet. But, a miracle happened haha. I´ll tell you what happened.

So after lunch we were walkin to our house and I guess I dropped my wallet in the middle of the road (WHICH NEVER HAPPENS). We got home and I noticed my wallet was gone. We retraced our tracks and it took all day and we just walked and walked. I was so depressed cuz it has like 5 years worth of cards in it and all my stuff from my mission as well as 200 bucks and both my money cards. I was so sad the whole day and called the office to tell them to call you to cancel everything. The next morning, the same member that had given us lunch the previous day called and said that her 8 year old son was walking down the road and found a wallet!!!!! IT WAS MINE!! what are the odds that he would find it!! It was soo lucky!! But it had everything in it and so I have everything including my lisense. Unfortunately you already cancelled the card. But its better to be safe than sorry.

So I have thought of 2 genius inventions that you should invent mom. One is a detergent or a fabric softener with acne medication in it so that when you wash your pillowcase your acne gets better. The other one is a matchstick that is sharpened on the end so that it is a match/toothpick. Mom, invent them and give me the money. You can have a little bit.

The members are pretty darn cool here. I walked into church and they have me a million references and it seems like there are gunna be a bunch of baptisms while I am here. I hope that it will be like that. But we did (I did) a bunch of contacts these past 3 days. I am extremely tired. But I gotta go, we gotta take the bus to get home in time to go to a visit we marked.

I love you all and ONLY 2 MONTHS until we talk again!!

LOVE YOU!!

Elder Baker

October 17, 2011

Hey YALL:

Soooo President called today and said that there are going to be new missionaries arriving on Wednesday and he put me to train one of them. Sooo, using the slang we use on the mission, I am going to be a pai (dad). The missionary I am going to train is gonna be my filho (kid). So that should be stressful. I dunno if he is Brazilian or American, but I suspect he is going to be an American, cuz they usually do not send Brazilians in the middle of the transfer. I don´t know where yet, but I was kinda sad that I got transferred. I really enjoy serving with Elder M. Santos.

Alright, I did a little better this week in keeping my cool experiences and stuff noted in my planner, so I will give a chronologically correct update. ON Tuesday me and Elder Rolim left to work. We basically did a million contacts. There really are some days when you just have no plans so you have to knock doors all day. Just like everyone imagines we do all day everyday. But its kinda weird cuz we ran into a lot of crazy people. For some reason Imbituba has a lot of homeless crazy people. And EVERY single one of them knows the story of Joseph Smith and about the missionaries. One walked up to me and said ``Salt Lake Cikry?```hahahaha. I guess its cuz the crazies always ask for money or just talk to everyone and so the missionaries just did contacts with them haah. But, Tuesday I got my package!!! YAAAY! I was suffering without garments. Haha MOM! I like the t shirt kinds NOT the swoop neck ones!! But, you actually helped me out cuz it is getting really hot and the swoop ones are a LOOOT cooler and more comfortable to wear. And also I like the other kind of deodorant... haha sorry. The normal kind. BUT, you also helped me there as well. The kind you sent me helps you not sweat as much. So, your mistakes helped me out, so you don´t have to feel bad. haaha just kidding thanks a bunch for the package it really saved me. My old garments are yellow cuz I didn´t know how to say bleach until 2 weeks ago. Its ``sanitary water`` in Portuguese. Strange.

On Wednesday we visited a baptism to be of Elder Rolims named Simone. She is soo cool. Remember that big guy that I talked about that I taught in Louisiana named Marquis:? She is just like him. She gives us references all the time and takes us to people´s house to teach them. We marked 4 more baptisms just because of her!! One of them was a cool experience. But first, on the way there, we were walking in the middle of nowhere. There was LITERALLY nothing taller than me for at least a mile in all directions. Just short little bushes. There seemingly APPEARED a guy walking behind us. He was walking really fast, so I looked back repeatedly to see why. I couldn´t see why, and didn´t worry about it. All the sudden I realized that he was pretty close behind, probably 20 feet. Then I heard him stop. No more than 3 seconds later, I looked back to see why he had stopped. HE DISAPPEARED. I went back to try to find him and searched for 30 minutes. I searched that place up and down and he was no where to be found. You can call me crazy but he really did disappear. What is the explanation to this? I am trying to find out too. It was weird.

But then we taught a lesson to a lady and had the most spiritually strong lesson I have ever had. I can honestly say that I felt something different in the room when I began to say the First Vision. It was incredible. She accepted to be baptized and cried a bunch. Even more spectacular, she said that her son, who has severe ADHD and ADD, has never paid attention to anyone or anything. But, when we came in, he sat down and paid FULL attention and asked some extremely intelligent questions. It was a miracle. He will be baptized next week.

The next couple days I left to work with Rolim as well, but the days were just full of contacts and terrible lessons. There is this Gaúcho guy (guy from Rio Grande do Sul) who hates Americans. I taught him the first lesson and he hated it. But, he confessed later that he felt that the church is true and now he is trying to be more friendly with me. Its cool to se the gospel change people´s lives. Unfortunately The church here is really sad. I told you last week, but I will reaffirm it this week.

I am really nervous to train but not really cuz if I am or not it´ll happen anyways. So we´ll see how it goes. I don´t remember if I told you but Fitts had to go home early (he is home as I am writing this) to get surgery on his back. BUT, he is expected to go back out in December. So pray for him too.

Mom, you cand send the package now, the strike ended. Try not to send too much stuff that I lug around. I have a bunch of crap already and I am thinking about sending a whole suitcase home. I think I will. Tell both granparents I love them and miss them a lot. I think about them a lot. I have been wanting to know about my geneology lately. Who are my ancestors, their names, where they were from, etc. Would be cool to know. But tell them I love them.

Alllllrighty then I love you guys, see you in 11 months.

Love Elder Baker

October 11, 2011

Hello family:

Mom, don´t send the package yet, they are still on strike.

This week was good, I worked normally. I am still in Imbituba. I live with my comp M. Santos and 2 elders that I already told you about. They are good guys. But yea, this week was good. We visited a bunch of people; cut a lot of people, and found some new people to teach.

We had a really cool experience at this family´s house. They are a family of 3 sisters and they had one sister die a few years ago. We taught the first lesson, and afterward one of them started telling us about this dream she had. She said that she dreamed (THE night before) that she and her dead sister were standing next to a really pretty pool of water. She said that in the dream, she jumped in, went fully underwater, and came up and got out on the other side. She said she had a really good feeling of cleanliness when she got out of the water. She then called to her sister to jump into the water. But, for some reason, because she had already died, she was not able to jump into the water alone. Then she woke up. We both realized that she described baptisms for the dead!! We told her what her dream meant and taught about temples and about baptisms for the dead. She loved it and cried and wants to be baptized now to be able to enter the temple to baptize her sister and her parents. For some odd reason, 2 of the sisters didn´t fell the spirit and don´t yet want to be baptized. But it was cool nonetheless.

The group here is a sad sight. The president of the group doesn´t really care, and there are about 25-30 people in attendance at sacrament meeting. It is so weak!! I never imagined that there were groups that existed like this. But, here I am. This area is so windy its weird. This area covers 5 cities so we walk a whole lot. I think I will be leaving here pretty soon to go to another area. But I am still waiting on that freaking package with garments. Its tough to live just with 4 pair. Especially without a dryer!! Stupid mail service. And now the banks went into strike for some reason. They made banners of people being tortured and glued them to the windows of all the banks. Its weird.

There´s really not much else. I hear Jason Sperry got back from his mission. That´s weird!! I hope that the ski season isn´t that great this year so I don´t have to feel so homesick again. OF COURSE last year was the best year in centuries. But it is turning into summer here, and its really hot. I hope you put sunscreen into the package ma. I need it already. I am going to go with my comp to the orthodontist just to see what I would need and how long and how much it would be. I´ll let yo know.
Also, can I buy an external hard drive? I found 1 terabyte for 190 reais. Which is unfillable and pretty cheap. Since we are pretty close to paraguay, where all the factories are, things are pretty cheap. My mission prez is crackin down on everything its crazy. He is beginning to be like my first president, which isn´t a bad thing.

I have been out MORE than a year now!! Cool huh?


Thats all for this week, it was just a bunch of contacts and cutting people basically.

Love Elder Baker

October 3, 2011

Helloo family!

Soo yea I was supposed to go to Tapera on the island, but President Fernandes changed his mind and asked me and M. Santos to go to IMBITUBA. Haha I think the name is funny. But it is the wind surf capitol of the world!! It is pretty cool. Just a small, quiet town. It always has a really strong wind going, which is good because it is gettin gpretty hot. I am actually in a city 4 hours away called Criciúma right now, because we have to prepare a conference with the president for this zone. I don´t like Criciúma, its burning hot. Just pray I don´t go to Joinville, where it gets to 120 with 98 percent humidity.

I go on splits with an Elder named Elder Rolim. He is from Paraná, which would be like serving in twin falls idaho if you were from odgen. Poor guy is only 2 hours away from his house. He is cool though. I like with pure Brazilians ands its really fun. We have an investigator from Rio Grande do Sul, which is the southern most state in Brazil, and he is REALLY smart. He asks questions that none of us has the answer to. Like, for example; where did John the Baptist get his authority to baptize?? I went home and found the answer, but that is a really good question!! He will be baptized in the near future. Thats all the work I have done so far (we taught him the first lesson) but otherwise we have just been doing contacts the whole time cuz the area is struggling. One contact (she was really pretty) said I was really handsome and asked if I wanted to sleep with her. I said no, sorry. But now she is obssessed with me so I gotta be careful haha. But the people in Imbituba seem like good people. Its just a tiny little group that meets together so there is a lot of work to be done here.

I watched the saturday session and one session on Sunday in Portuguese. I can understand it well, but the translator loses some of the words and it just doesn´t have the same meaning sometimes as it does in english. So, I watched the last session in english on the stake presidents laptop. It was a really good conference!! I still haven´t seen the priesthood session though, it was broadcast at 9 here and we weren´t allowed to watch it. But I learned a lot. Every priesthood meeting that I have gone to with Dad I had always wondered why he cared to take notes. I always thought that just listening is a better way to absorb the message. But on my mission I have learned what he was doing. He was recording certain things that they said that stuck out to him and he was recording his feelings of the spirit, which may be even more important than what the speaker has to say!! I have already learned so much on my mission, I am kinda sad I only have a year left. But at the same time I am happy a year has gone by!! Dad, I too started to keep a study journal not too long ago. I like it, it helps me remember types of things that I always used to forget and didn´t even realize that they were forgotten because I had forgotten them! I won´t forget anymore though.

We rented a big old van and filled our investigators in it to drive to Tubarão (a city, which means shark) to watch conference. It was pretty cool. But Mom, I did get the oil package, thanks! I gave one to M. Santos but he already lost it. I kept one of them. The mail system is still on strike but some of them are starting to work now so I am expecting the package soon. Thanks for sending it. The people here think that Halloween is ridiculous. They laugh in my face for having celebrated it. They think its so dumb, but I am gonna be sad on halloween. Its ok though, they have a holliday every other weekend here. Mom, we don´t do english class here. I dunno why. I am glad likes his new job a lil better, thats what I prayed for!!

Thats all for this week. I really want to start being a normal missionary again so I can have emails that are more fun to read. But, I can´t do anything about it, sooo yea.

I love you all, I miss you more than ever.

Love Elder Baker

September 26, 2011

Helloo!!

Soo, even though I am being completely obedient and not doing anything wrong and doing my job correctly, I, unfortunately, did not have one spiritual experience this last week. For some reason, President Fernandez transferred my companion to a city 14 hours away called Chapecó. So, just take a guess who is my new comp. Its M. Santos! Again! He was pretty excited about it. I am too, he is way fun. And, we are going to be doing what we are supposed to be doing starting thursday instead of solving problems and planning things.

We are going to go to an area called Tapera, it´s here on the island. Its affectionately referred to as ``the armpit of the island.`` So, it should be fun. Frankly I don´t care, as long as we get to go out of the office!! I will NEVER have an office job. A job like Dad´s, where you are in an office for some of the time, I could do. But never could I be in the office full time. But anyways, unfortunately nothing really cool happened this week. P day was pretty fun, we went to Morro da Cruz. Its a viewpoint from the top of the highest mountain in the downtown area. I attached some pics. Unfortunately the day was kinda foggy, but what do ya do.

President gave a training to a few zones today and it was really cool! He told us we could email whoever we want now! We have to keep it within an hour. But he is really intense. I don´t know if I already told you, but everytime he writes on a whiteboard he destroys the marker cuz he writes so hard. haha. But the training was really cool. It testifies that he was called of God. But, the thing that I found even more interesting was that, in the mission, he is making a lot of changes then changing he mind and then changing it again. It shows that God calls normal people to be leaders and prepares them and teaches them. It reminded me of a Bible verse that says that Christ received his knowledge, grace by grace. If Christ received it piece by piece, than how can I expect to receive anything all at once!!

I am glad everyone is doing well, that missionary dinner sounded like a blast. I am so excited that I still have a year to be a missionary!! I am also excited that in less than a year, I will be with you guys again!! less than a year!!! I am happier than ever, and even I can see my own God-given progress. Its really cool.

I love you all, sorry the email was short. Nothing really happened.

Love Alex Elder Baker

September 19, 2011

Hello:::::::::::::

Mom, lemme tell you a little bit about`what I do right now. The mission president has 4 assistants. He split the mission up into 4 zones and put an assistant in each zone with a jr companion. The junior´s calling is ``junior viajante`` which means junior traveler. I am companions with Elder Athayde, and assistant, and I am Junior Viajante. We are in charge of the areas São José and Florianópolis. I believe that I will now be in charge of Itajaí and Joinville as well because an assitant is going home in 3 days. I will stay with Elder Athayde for one more transfer. The president of the mission looks at the numbers of each area of the mission each week. The areas with the lowest numbers in each of the zones is where the president usually sends the assistants to work, for more or less 2 weeks. I worked and lived in Serraria sleeping on the air mattresses the president bought for us for 3 weeks. I then went to live in the Center of Florianópolis. I am still living in the center and I continue to work in an area called Rio Tavares (the prettiest area in Brazil). We are always changing who we work with for the day, so I work with Athayde sometimes and sometimes the other two missionaires. Each day I wake up, do studies and all that stuff, and take the bus (20 minutes) to Rio Tavares. At the end of the day I take the bus back to the Center and sleep there. Many times the president will call us and send us to the office to solve some problem regarding furniture in a missionarie´s apartment of problems with uncertanty of rules in an area. Or preparing trainings or whatever he needs. That is my job!!

This week we were in the office a lot doing various things, but mainly preparing for the new missionaries to arrive. I did work for a couple of days in Rio Tavares. We went up this huge hill and found a hidden city in a hidden valley that had never before seen the missionaires. We talked to an 80 year old that never had left that city and he said that he had never seen the missionaries. So we marked an appointment with him and will try to visit him tomorrow. But the secret valley was pretty cool, its what I imagined when I read my call for the first time. It was like wood huts, no electricity, etc. The people were really receptive.

I have been hanging out a lot with M. Santos and it has been a blast. (first companion). We went to Tijucas on Sunday (because he can do it if he wants) and visited our old area. Thats the best area in the mission! It was really funny because we walked in and all the members saw us walk in and got really excited! They miss us, we were, supposedly, ``the dream team.`` M. Santos wants to end his mission there and he is gonig to ask president to put me there with him haha. That would be pretty fun. But we ate with Rafael, who set a date to be sealed in the temple in June.

I enjoyed the story a lot about Dad. I am thankful that that lady fainted. I don´t remember you talking to us on skype though... Maybe it was just with mom. When I got interviewed for finding the skeleton I learned that the news often makes stories more drastic, so that might have been the case. But I find it so noble how Dad explains his experience. It is practically impossible for the news channels to see the good that has come from 9/11 and is hard for many people but Dad points out one very impressive improvement and I think thats cool

Sooo I was in the office a lot and I only taught one lesson to an idiot baptist that reminded me of Baton Rouge.. So no spiritual news or cool stories, sorry. It would kinda suck to be an assistant. But, we had a really cool p day today!! We went to sand dunes in a place called Lagoa de Conceição. It was soo pretty! The pictures were taken today. But I am enjoying my mission to the fullest extent, you can be assured of that. Thanks for the email Dad, sorry Linds I don´t have time to email you. Mom, did you send that package?? I will continue to work in Rio Tavares until I don´t know when.

September 12, 2011

HIIIIII:

Hows it goin? So my new job...I just spend millions of dollars travelling around to visit different missionaries. I went to Serraria again, Agronômica, Tapera, Rio Tavares, Florianópolis, Saco dos Limões, and more. All of which are on the island except Serraria. But, at the same time, I like this job. Its fun to travel around and see the island!! It´ll be cool because I will know how to travel around, at least on the island. We just don´t do normal missionary work a lot of the time its always solving problems and bringing people stuff.

But anyways, the beginning of the week we went to Serraria for the last day because a member wanted us to do a family home evening with his less active wife. We watched a movie called Charly which is a movie made by the church. It is a pretty good movie! Its sad. It would be a good movie to watch with the fam. The next couple days I did normal things in Rio Tavares. I am with an elder named Elder Armitstead and his comp Elder Allen. Armitstead is really cool. It rained soooo much this week! If you look at recent news of Santa Catarina, it will talk about the floods that happened. Some of the missionaries houses are completely underwater. Luckily I am living in Florianópolis and we live and the 4th floor. But poor elder Neilson´s house got flooded completely in Brusque. In Rio Tavares it was knee deep but it we were still able to work. One night I was walking home and I heard a huge crashing sound. I went to see what it was and it was the beach!!! It was the prettiest beach I have ever seen. The forest goes right up until the beach but the beach is still really big. The waves were really big too. But we aren´t allowed to step on the beach so I just saw it from a distance.

The coolest experience I had for this week was that I visited Tijucas. I saw all my old friends and baptisms and ate at Rafael´s house (my coolest baptism) He now teaches the gospel principles class. It is cool to see him progress. When I first met him he was too embarrassed to pray in front of us. Now he gives the class! But the bishop there told me something that I thought was pretty cool. It made me feel a little bit of satisfaction. It made me see that I was an effective tool in the Lord´s hands. The period between when I got to Tijucas and when I left the frequency of the ward went up 25 people. I thought it was pretty cool! I don´t want to take credit though, I am glad I was in the right place at the right time.

I was reading through grandpa Richard´s conversion story again and I noticed that grandma said that Dad´s eyes are blue??? Am I crazy or are his eyes brown??

I was a bit nervous on 9/11. The news was saying that the terrorists were planning another attack on the same day. As of right now I only heard of a false car bomb alert. I am glad nothing happened. I am sure it was way annoying for Dad to hear all the radio and TV stations talking about it. I can only imagine that it is a hard memory to recall. I like the story though (if I remember it right) because it shows that Dad is sensitive to the spirit. It is also a big testimony builder for me!! I remember that he told me about the liahona that I had above my bed. I can´t remember where that went, I wish I still had it.

Transfers are coming up and I hope I don´t get transferred!! I don´t want to have a crappy companion!! And I like living in the staff house! But tell everyone I love them and miss them!! Oh, and my first comp M. Santos says hi.

Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, thats all I have to say. It rained a whole lot, I found a new umbrella, and there was Brazil´s biggest gay parade that marched right past my apartment yesterday.

Love], Elder BAkeR

September 5, 2011

Hellooooooo!

I am in the office again, but nobody is here but me and my comp. This week was pretty nuts. The guy that I was doing splits was being really sucky and suspicious. I found out that he had a cell phone and was talking to other missionaries on the mission about some group they formed to go against all the rules of the mission. Fools. We confronted him and he refused to talk or give us his phone so the president called hm and interviewed him today. It is probable there will be a few missionaries sent home without honor. But I have been working with him for 3 weeks now! t has been rough. At least he will get the punishment he deserves. I would be scared, President Fernandes is ruthless.

But, anyways, other than that (the biggest news of the mission ever, brazilians love fofoca, or, gossip) this week was good. I will be working in Rio Tavaresand I´ll be living in the staff house for the next two weeks, which is the only missionary apartment that has a DRYER!! I am so excited about it. I was struggling to keep clean clothes ready to use, mainly because I don´t have very many anymore. I think a missionary stole them cuz they don´t make they same kind of garment here is Brazil and the ones that are made there are a lot better. So, having said that, I made a list of things that I will ask for that I ask that you send asap. tomorrow if possible. I don´´t think it will be too expensive. Here´s the list:

1- My face has really sensitive skin. Those 2 blade razors are horrific that you send me, sorry haha. I need you to send me Gilette Fusion Proglide Automatic razor heads. The orange ones. I used one for 8 months, so 3 should do it. I think they come in packs of three anyways.They are 100 reais here! Ridiculous!!

2- Garments. I have 4 pair now. I don´t know what happened to the rest. The only possible answer is that they were stolen, cuz I checked everywhere. Or they blew away. If you can, send 5 medium 50/50 pairs. Tops and bottoms. NOT the swoop neck ones, just the t shirt-like ones.

3-My socks are dying too. Ifyou can send more, that´d be good. I can buy some crappy socks here if you want.

4-Might as well throw in those short sleeve dress shirts.

5-I am on my last deodorant! I like speed stick and right guard. The non-taulky kind is better. The gelly type is best (not the actual gel stuff, the solid gel!) Don´t get old spice, it gives me rashes.

Thats it! sorry if that seems like a lot, but on the 20th of this month, I will be coming home in a year. I need to be restocked with stuff. I am almost half way done!!! I want to send a package home soon with suff that I never use. I made the same mistake as every single american that goes on a mission and brought a bunch of stuff. I think I will start getting together a package and get something cool to send home. (It won´t be too expensive, don´t worry) I checked my debit card today and its activated, thanks!!

Tell Emily to keep going with cross country. Its really fun to be involved in something at school. I loved being on the basketball team and being in Acapella. Tell her to keep it up. Maybe you should stall to get her social security card so she has to wait a little longer to get her license!! And keep looking for a little 4x4 for her... I can´t even remember how many girls I have seen who have no idea how to drive in snow.. And if you find a jeep wrangler 4 door for me, you can buy it if you want.

Lets see, this week I worked on the computer a lot in the office. I had to get a video off youtube, translate it, and put it on DVDs for missionaries. Every mission in the entire world is in the process of receiving a portable DVD player to use to teach. This mission received them today. I don´t quite agree with every missionary companionship having a portable DVD player because there will be slacker missionaries that will watch DVDs and movies, but it was the first presidency´s idea, so I trust them!!!! But, there were a couple of days that I worked in Rio Tavares. They have a huge chapel there and own an entire mountain that only has forest on it. The word is that the church bought the terrain to build a temple there! It would be the coolest temple ever because it would be on top of a huge hill!! And practically the whole south part of the island would be able to see it. But it is really cool there, it is much moe what you would imagine brazil would be like. Palm trees everywhere, beaches, jungle, monkeys, etc. Its cool.

My comp had to get a huge cancerous mole taken off his back the other day. I asked if I could watch the opperation, but the doctor said no. My poor comp is always in pain now cuz it was right on the spine where lots of nerves pass, so he is in a lot of pain. I have to clean and bandage the cut every night cuz he can´t reach it. Its kinda cool, maybe I´d like to be a surgeon! But I dunno.

The only cool missionary-like cool thing that happened this week was that I randomly decided to knock a street and there turned out to be one person at home on the whole road. But that one person just had her baptism marked! So hopefully I can say that it was a prompting of the spirit to go to knock (we don´t actually knock though, we clap our hands outside the gate) that street. But I am glad Lowell Hicks is still alive. Tell Linds that I would love her to go to hair school cuz she could cut my hair how I like it cuz I am always nervous to talk if the person cuts my hair wrong. How is everyone else doin? I haven´t heard from Mike for a while, how are he and Kate doin?

Tell Dad good luck with the firms. I wanted to ask him or you to send me a the story of his 9/11 story. I kinda forgot how it went. I can´t remember if he had a newspaper story on it (I think so) that would be cool to have. Also in his own words just telling me how it went. If he has time! Also, Mom and Dad, you both have a sentence in your patriarchal blessings that is crazy!! I learned about patriarchal blessings this week. You guys are set. If possible, could I have a copy of Katie´s and Lindsey´s blessings too, if they let me??

Alright, thats all I have for this week. It looks like I will be with elder Athayde another transfer. That is a good thing, he is really fun. Did ever tell you his full name?? Its Luciann Gustavo Cicero Cavalcante de Athayde. Ridiculous.

Bye, I love you all!!

Love Elder Baker

August 22, 2011

Hello:

How is everyone doin? I am still in the hole of Serraria, and the work is really difficult here. Mostly because every single person that lives here is a drug trafficker. But its ok I think I will leave before next p day. If not, oh well. There are sooo many hills in this area I have already lost 8 pounds here! My first two areas (Baton Rouge and Tijucas) were extremely flat. So I am exra exhausted right now. Even worse, I have been fatally ill the past week because one night it was so cold I almost died. But the weird thing was that the mattress has felt on it so even though I was way cold I sweat a lot. I woke up almost dead, it was the worst. I have been sick ever since.

Last week we had a member of the church that is very famous here that the people call ``wizard`` come speak at the stake center in Floripa (which is GIAGANTIC-the church builds the chapels here enormous cuz they are a little bit more scarce) He is like a billionaire cuz he created a company that teaches people english for really cheap here in Brazil. I didn´t get to hear his talk, which was on how to become a billionaire because I was too busy making contacts to the millions of non members. The President asked that me and my comp and 2 other companionships go and help get names to go visit. Afterward a mexican lady came up to me and started talking fluently in english about how she was born into the church and lived in Utah for 14 years. She moved to Floripa, married a very catholic guy, and now is miserable because he hates Mormons. I felt so bad for her. She was crying and said that the church was everything to her. It was so sad. I got her address and we are personally going to visit her to see if we can talk to her husband. She said she told him that she doesn´t care what he says anymore, which is a good start I guess!

I spend a lot of time in the center of downtown floripa. Its kinda cool cuz it is the biggest city I have ever lived in. It reminds me of L.A. or NYC a little bit. Soo the Prez bought two air mattresses for me and my comp to carry with us cuz we travel around. Mine was faulty and popped, so we slept on the same mattress for a week haha. Strictly against the rules! the Prez authorized it though but said, ``be careful!`` haha. We went to swap it on Saturday at a mall. It is a general rule in Brazil that missionaries aren´t allowed to go to the mall. Malls here are called ``shopping`` which is really confusing. The first time I heard it was ``Você já foi pra shopping?`` which means ``have you already been to shopping (the mall?) haha its weird. But the mall was cool, everything is SUPER cheap. The brazilian missionaries complain that its expensive here in the south, and say São Paulo is even cheaper but I don´t believe it!! The mall was different though. Too bad I will never return.

My comp, who is kinda fluent in english, asked me to show him how to teach the lessons in english. I agreed to do so and started to teach. (I don´t know if you had to ``practice`` on your mission everyday Dad, but we do!) It was so weird, I couldn´t do it!! I would struggle to say a sentence or 2 in english and then say a few Portuguese words without even realizing it!! It was weird. My homecoming talk is gonna be strange. But its ok, I took that as a sign that my Portuguese is improving!

Mom, next package, could you send me some face sunscreen? With the strongest SPF you can find? In the summer all of the eastern part of the state gets to 110-120 degrees F, with 90% + humidity.

Talk to ya next week!

Love, Elder Baker

Hellooo:

Soo I am in the office today and have the president and all the staff breathing down my neck, so its pretty fun. They are actually all really cool guys. Soo I have two things to ask rght off. Is Lowell Hicks still alive? I want to hear him play again. Second, well , its more of a request. If Dad is ever at an estate sale and there is a junker to buy, buy it! I promise you that you want a junker 4x4 for emily. I promise. After watching 16-19 year old girls drive for 6 years I have come to the conclusion that a small 4x4 SUV is the best for girls. Maybe like a suzuki sidekick or samarai. (they are good cars and cheap too)

But anyways, everything is good. I am getting better, the fatal illness is fading. I was pretty sick though, it was my freakin sinuses. It is so incredibly humid they filled up to the brim. I hate the humidity, is is only fun to be in for one week at the max. But I am getting better now.

I usually write things that I want to email to you in my planner, but this week was so exhausting that I didn´t even have time to write in my journal. So I´ll try my best to remember what was cool during the week. Well, basically, nothing fun or cool or exciting happened. The area is really difficult. But, last tuesday, we got a call from the president saying that a member of the 70 was going to come to visit and we needed to go to floripa to plan EVERY SINGLE missionaries travel route to get here. Athayde needed to do something else, so it was me that planned all their travel routes via bus. It was tough! Some of them had the worst schedules ever, like get a bus to a city at midnight and arrive at another city at 4, and then get another bus to floripa at 6 and arrive at 10. But it was the only way for some of them.

The 70 that came was Elder Mazzagardi. He was a HUGE guy with monstrous hands. He had a funny spanish-like accent. His talk was really cool. Its kinda fun to get so much attention from all the leaders of the church while you are on a mission. Thats just one more thing that missionaries lose when they go home. He spoke about some pretty profound doctrine, and I had to study my notes for a lil to understand fully!! It was neat though.

Hmm lets see, all we basically do in Serraria is contacts. We have to because there is no one to teach. It is really a terrible area full of drugs and gangs. But, we managed to find a couples familes, although not married and smoking, to teach. One family came to church and it was like the members had never seen an investigator at church.

On the plus side, I like my comp a lot! He is really funny and is almost fluent in english. I am still teaching him a little, and he makes funny mistakes, so it is fun. Haha, I´ll tell you one. It has a kinda bad word though. The word in portuguese for ``nigger`` is ``preito.`` But, preito also means ``black`` and ``dark.`` My comp was trying to say, ``do you have a dark past?`` but, he didn´t know there was a difference between the words ``dark`` and ``nigger`` in english. soo, he said, ``do you have a nigger past?`` hahhahaha all the americans laughed so hard. It was funny hah.

Well, as I said, I am in Floripa right now. We will work in Rio Tavares for this week, which supposedly is the prettiest area on the island. I don´t know where I´ll go next. Maybe back to Serraria, if the prez wants us to.

I got the package, thanks for the peanut butter.

Gotta run, love you all!!

love Elder Baker

Hello:

How is everyone doin? I am still in the hole of Serraria, and the work is really difficult here. Mostly because every single person that lives here is a drug trafficker. But its ok I think I will leave before next p day. If not, oh well. There are sooo many hills in this area I have already lost 8 pounds here! My first two areas (Baton Rouge and Tijucas) were extremely flat. So I am exra exhausted right now. Even worse, I have been fatally ill the past week because one night it was so cold I almost died. But the weird thing was that the mattress has felt on it so even though I was way cold I sweat a lot. I woke up almost dead, it was the worst. I have been sick ever since. When I go back to Floripa (which should be this week-my comp has to get surgery) I will see if Rich gave me any medicine that would help.

Last week we had a member of the church that is very famous here that the people call ``wizard`` come speak at the stake center in Floripa (which is GIAGANTIC-the church builds the chapels here enormous cuz they are a little bit more scarce) He is like a billionaire cuz he created a company that teaches people english for really cheap here in Brazil. I didn´t get to hear his talk, which was on how to become a billionaire because I was too busy making contacts to the millions of non members. The President asked that me and my comp and 2 other companionships go and help get names to go visit. Afterward a mexican lady came up to me and started talking fluently in english about how she was born into the church and lived in Utah for 14 years. She moved to Floripa, married a very catholic guy, and now is miserable because he hates Mormons. I felt so bad for her. She was crying and said that the church was everything to her. It was so sad. I got her address and we are personally going to visit her to see if we can talk to her husband. She said she told him that she doesn´t care what he says anymore, which is a good start I guess!

I spend a lot of time in the center of downtown floripa. Its kinda cool cuz it is the biggest city I have ever lived in. It reminds me of L.A. or NYC a little bit. Soo the Prez bought two air mattresses for me and my comp to carry with us cuz we travel around. Mine was faulty and popped, so we slept on the same mattress for a week haha. Strictly against the rules! the Prez authorized it though but said, ``be careful!`` haha. We went to swap it on Saturday at a mall. It is a general rule in Brazil that missionaries aren´t allowed to go to the mall. Malls here are called ``shopping`` which is really confusing. The first time I heard it was ``Você já foi pra shopping?`` which means ``have you already been to shopping (the mall?) haha its weird. But the mall was cool, everything is SUPER cheap. The brazilian missionaries complain that its expensive here in the south, and say São Paulo is even cheaper but I don´t believe it!! The mall was different though. Too bad I will never return.

My comp, who is kinda fluent in english, asked me to show him how to teach the lessons in english. I agreed to do so and started to teach. (I don´t know if you had to ``practice`` on your mission everyday Dad, but we do!) It was so weird, I couldn´t do it!! I would struggle to say a sentence or 2 in english and then say a few Portuguese words without even realizing it!! It was weird. My homecoming talk is gonna be strange. But its ok, I took that as a sign that my Portuguese is improving!

Mom, next package, could you send me some face sunscreen? With the strongest SPF you can find? In the summer all of the eastern part of the state gets to 110-120 degrees F, with 90% + humidity.

Thats about all I got. I am glad that everyone is doing well. My mission president banned emailing anyone except immediate family. I can´t even email grandparents anymore. Just sisters and parents. He is kinda crazy. I think he will calm down though.

Talk to ya next week!

Love, Elder Baker

August 15, 2011

Tudo bom?

HAPPY DIA DOS PAIS DAD!!

Hello everyone, my area for the next two weeks is called Serraria, and it is a hole. It only has favelas and drug dealers. But, At least it is only for 2 weeks!

So last week I packed my bags up and said goodbye to all my favorite people in Tijucas. I feel bad for them cuz the missionary that took my place there is another ``gringo`` (its the same in spanish right dad?) and he doesn´t speak any portuguese. The next day I sat around the office ALL day with my first comp M. Santos and Presidente Fernandez. He is so short haha. But it was a very relaxed day, something I am not accustomed to anymore. The next day, I sat around all day AGAIN. I did some random crap around the office but not really. We headed to Serraria early next morning, which is on the continent across the water from the island. Pretty close to Tijucas. I only get to travel around the East of the mission. And only areas that are having trouble. But, this place is such a whole! You might be shocked, but I would rather live in Baton Rouge!! I don´t think I have compared anything to Baton Rouge that was worse than Baton Rouge until now. Its such a pit here! There is just like 50 members and the chapel is a rented out house. Its so weird to see these places that don´t have a chapel or very many worthy Melkesidek Priesthood holders. I have soo much junk in the suitcases! I think I might start sending some of it home. I use the little one that I got in Baton Rouge to travel around in. Its hard to live out of a suitcase and not have your own personal place. I study at the dinner table haha.

it is sooo much better to live with 4 missionaries. Its so much more fun at night and in the morning when we are at home!

I got the conversion story from grandma!! Tell her thank you so much and I loved it! It was written like a novel, I can tell she spent a lot of time on it! I wrote her a letter too, did she not get it?? I sent it to the address you wrote in my address book 10 months ago. If not, tell me and I will write her again. She included some things that I had no idea about!! She saaid she was Miss Germany and Miss California? And I didn´t know grandpa Richard was a surfer? And that he played semi pro baseball???? Is all this true?? Oh, and she said that grandpa was a 70? Is that true!?

So I have been fatally ill this past week. It was sooooooo cold whenI got to Serraria and the missionaries were supposed to have blankets but they didn´t so I used a towel-like cloth the first night and got way sick. My sinuses are filled to the mex and it sucks cuz now its way hot. The stupid weather is bipolar. But right now it is raining and when I left Tijucas it was raining. It was pretty much flooded when I left!!

No my comp isn´t my first comp, its Elder Luciann Gustavo Cícero Cavalcante de Athayde. His name is ridiculous! and he is a really good guy. He is a lot like my first comp.

Well thats all for this week, I will basically get my package right when it gets here cuz I go to floripa a lot.

Love you all!!

Dad, desculpa que eu não mandei uma carta especial pra você pra Dia Dos Pais, más eu não tinha tempo nenhum! A semana passada foi muito agitado. Essa área tem bastante morro and meus pernas estão doendo demais!! Mas eu te-amo e eu sempre tenho muito saudade de você. Sou muito grato por seu exemplo que é quaise perfeito!! Foi perfeito na minha causa. Você é o melhor Pai que eu conhecie.

Love ELDER BAKER

August 8, 2011

Hey everyone!!

This has got to be really quick, because I have to finish packing my bags!! Yup, I got transferred! But, the weird thing is, I don´t have an area... Not even a house!! I will be JR traveling companion with the assistant elder Atayde! I will travel around the mission, stay in an area for 2 weeks more or less, and travel to another area! When we get to the area Elder Atayde will be senior to one missionary and I will be senior to the other.. So it should be interesting for the first little bit. It actually isn´t traveling to all the mission, just the the eastern part. Which includes the island! Hopefully I will get to know the island really well so we can travel around when we visit.

Check photobucket, I am gonna ask a member to put up pictures for me.

Real quick, it was Rafael´s birthday yesterday. We had secret meetings to plan his party throughout the week. My old comp M. Santos came to Tijucas to go to church, and we all acted like we didnt know it was his birthday. But as soon as he left (we had a member make lunch for him at their house) we ran to Rafael´s and put up decorations and made cake and cookies. When Rafael finished lunch at the members house, the member borrowed someones car and sped to Rafael´s house and beat him there, so when he walked in he had no idea! It was really fun. Its sad to get transferred cuz I love the people but I will be able to visit whenever I want supposedly, if it is convenient.

Sorry its really short but I will write a good long email next week. Love you!

Elder Baker

August 1, 2011

Dear Everyone:

How is everyone? Sounds like everyone has a cold huh? Thats a bummer. Soooooo Mom, I just counted out the weeks of the transfers cuz I know that they are 6 weeks, so thats how I did it. That isn´t official, but I am pretty sure it is right. Jonas loves to talk to you guys, and it is nice to have him. But I will have to find a new one if I get transfered. Did you get the message that Rafael sent?? He wrote on my fb. Hey Mom, where is Old Farm?? You said you bid on a place in old farm??

This week was good. It rained all week and Tijucas sucks and floods and my shoes suck though. We met this kid that I thought was 6 cuz he is so short but he is 15, has a full time job, and is in school. He pays rent!! We marked his baptism for next week, which has the possibility of me not being here anymore. I am nervous cuz I might get sent to the west, where apparently it is so cold in the mornings that the water doesn´t leave the tap and the toilets don´t work because the water is frozen!! So that will be fun. I will have to buy a jacket if that is the case. The fleece you put in my bag is doing well here in Tijucas though. Anyways, while we were at his house, watching his huge 60 inch TV that he bought (we are allowed to watch TV with investigators- weird huh? President Quieroz authorized it) and everyone is talking about how the U.S. is in some crunch of some sorts. I don´t understand the TV very well. Is the U.S. bankrupt?

I am excited about the stock. You gotta keep me updated on how it is doing!! Hopefully it will make some money while I am gone. I saw that dow jones was down like 1.5%, so thats that a good sign. I also saw that Reggie Bush got traded to the Dolphins? I don´t know if anyone cares, but I thought that was weird. Hey I have a question for Dad. Dad, what were those scriptures that you told me about that said ``christ sat down with them``?

I finished my first journal yesterday!! I will start the new little one tonight. I looked back a little bit and I had some pretty odd times in Baton Rouge. I am glad that I am here!! Last week I went on switches with that missionary from Paraguay. He taught me a little bit of Guarani, the language they speak there other than spanish. It is so stupid sounding! Haha it sounds like caveman language. But it was cool because we visited a member family that is from Paraguay that speaks Guarani as well and they conversed for a while and it was way weird. But Portuguese is going really well. I can almost 100% understand reading, and I can get the majority of what people are saying. They have to be talking to be though and I have to be able to hear it well. You know in english when you faintly hear someone talking in the backround and you can tell what they are saying?? I can´t do that. Not even close!! But its weird, when I talk to american missionaries in english sometimes I accidentally use portuguese words and I don´t even notice!!

The chapel had a little party thing this last week and had a bunch of native South American food. Not brazilian, they had weird food that the indiginous people eat. They had a drink called ``quentão`` which literally means ``really hot`` haha. It is made with ginger and grape juice and a bunch of weird leaves. It was pretty good! All the indiginous people live to be like 110 years old and everyone suspects that it is this drink that is super healthy. But, Brazilians like to put alcohol in it, so that ruins it. It was pretty good without alcohol though! The next day, Sunday, we had a member of the 70 come speak to our tiny congregation. His name is Elder Koch, and I talked to him a little bit before church. He is a really nice guy! He knows where we live, he travels to Utah a lot. (Obviously) He spoke about humility and said that poverty is not necessarily humility. That made me remember Baton Rouge! Everyone is full of pride there, even if they don´t have a house. Its bizzare.

We had a baptism this week of a kid of a less active member that lives in Bombinhas, which is really far away but still my area. I wanted to baptize him in the ocean soo bad but we have a crappy baptisimal font so I had to do it in there. The water was green... haha and really, really cold. Bombinhas is sooo pretty though, I want to go there when I am not a missionary.

I hear from Devan a lot, he is leaving on the 4th for Chile I think.

For the package, all I want is more peanut butter and if you can squeeze in that tie that you said dad found thats all I want. Oooo oo and an oil container for blessed oil. My old comp, M. Santos, asked me to ask you to send him a really ``cool`` one. So, if you can find a really huge shiny cheesy oil container, send it for him. He really helped me a lot, he is awesome. I invited him to stay at our house when he can afford to travel to the U.S. cuz he really wants to visit but doesn´t have a lot of money, sooo yea. They sell those at deseret book.

Thats all for this week, love you!!

Love Elder Baker

July 25, 2011

HELLOO:

Yea so, my bday was cool. It was actually fun cuz it landed on p day but the next one isn´t dang it. did you get a chance to look in my closet yet? I hope its ok.

first off, let me tell you a really cool story. Well, firstly first off, my first companion that I had, (the one I didn´t get along with too well) was in the psychiatric ward in Baton Rouge for a week and was released from his mission 5 months early due to a severe mental breakdown... So thats kinda sad. I hope I didn´t add to the insanity. But, on to the happy part of the story. I emailed one of my friends in Baton Rouge and asked about the work. He emailed me back and told me about a guy named Darius. he was baptized last week. I don´t know if I ever told you about him, but it was me and Elder Taylor who tracted into him and taught him a little bit about christ and about the book of mormon. He knew nothing of it beforehand because he is from the middle east and was muslim. I only got to teach him twice before I left, and it seemed like it wasn´t going to go anywhere. He was iffy about the message, and was meeting with Jehovah´s Wittnesses as well. But today I got the email that he was baptized and is going on strong!! It is evidence on how important it is to ´´plant seeds.´´

Last week the couple that me and M. Santos baptized were married. I went to the wedding. It was cheesy and poor, but special at the same time. EXCEPT that when the bride walked in they played music (I didn´t recognize who it was) that was in enlgish and it swore a lot-it was kinda funny though cuz I was the only one who understood it. The next day we went to the poorest place in Santa Catarina (literally) to visit some guy that randomly came to church. Some crazy guy with no shirt was running down the road with a huge butcher knife, it was a little bit scary. We didn´t find the guy we came to visit and decided to knock some door. The lady that lives there is a less active member and was praying that she could somehow receive strength to make it back to church. It was no coincidence that we just randomly decided to knock that door! She is a good person and I hope to see her at church. She didn´t come yesterday but said she can come next week.

My comp and I get along well. I didn´t know that things can grow mold so easily! We battle mold everyday. The walls grow mold if we arent careful. I love living in a dry place! I could never live in the humidity. Sometimes all I look forward to is having a dryer to use when I get home. We have to hang everything to dry, which isnt bad, except it doesn´t stop raining and the clothes cant dry without sun and grow mold if they are out there too long. Its tough!!

My favorite baptism so far, Rafael, said that he wants me to go to the temple with him and his wife, in late 2012. That would be a cool experience, but I dont know how likely it will be! But have you guys ever heard of chimarrão? Proabably not. It is a really strange drink that is native to the south of brazil and EVERYONE drinks it. You have to have a weird fancy cup and a cool straw to drink it. It looks like marajuana. Look it up on google.

Dad, have you heard anything about the full p day? Apparently, there are going to be a lot of changes starting this next transfer. Oh, the transfers are as follows:

August 10
September 21
November 2
December 14
January 25
March 7
April 12
May 23
July 4
August 15
September 20

I read Kate´s blog the other day. Thanks for the entry, kate! the 4th looked really fun. I hope you invite me to go shoot guns on the 4th when I get back.
I forgot to tell you, but tell hannah and chase congrats.. Its kinda late now, huh? Do you know where Hannah´s husband served?
So last week I went to bombinhas again. But, we spent the whole day there. We visited a less active family that literally lived in a wood shack. I remember katie writing asking if thats how it was. Well, in this part of bombinhas, it is just like the shacks in district 9 that the aliens live in. All the roads are not roads, they are just areas that don´t have jungle that an SUV could pass through. It is a really unique place. On the other side of the hill though there is a top notch tourist resort haha.
Mom, I know you´ll hate to hear it, but my teeth are getting worse. I may ask for braces for Christmas haha. But my bite is really weird now.

To top the email off, sorry that it was so spuratic, it was hard to remember the happenings for 2 weeks!
Mom, the english classes are improving and my portuguese is decent now. I can joke around a little, hold a decent conversation, and teach a lot of the lessons. Its pretty cool, I am starting to think in Portuguese sometimes!!

I gotta run, but I love you and miss you all!!

Love Elder Baker