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