Utah!

Dear family and friends,

Crazy week this week! Sadly I'm not in Mexico anymore, but I'm loving

Utah so far. As much as I miss Mexico, it's good to be out in the real

world again :)

Monday - Last day in the MTC. It was super busy. We ran a last load of

laundry, finished packing, cleaned our casa, said a lot of goodbyes,

and did some pre-flight document checks. It was sad and really

exciting at the same time. Unlike most of the other missionaries in

our "generation" though, we left at noon. Everyone else left super

early in the morning, so I was greatful to get a good nights sleep. In

the Mexico airport we met a Mormon couple headed to Utah too. It was

really lucky we ran in to them though, because they changed our flight

to a different gate at the last minute and all of us almost missed it.

If we hadn't been with the couple we probably would've missed the

Spanish announcement over the intercom. The flight was kinda funny

because there were a bunch of other missionaries going home from

Mexico so the flight attendants (and EVERYONE in SLC airport) thought

we were arriving home. It was hilarious. President Palmer met us in

the airport and he and his wife took us out to eat. It was WEIRD to

eat American food again! I didn't think the food in the MTC was any

different at first but when I got back and ate at Cracker Barrel it

was pretty strange! After dinner we stopped at the mission office and

president Palmer showed us around and showed us who our new companions

were. After that we got picked up by a pair of zone leaders and stayed

the night at their house.

Tuesday - woke up and went to the mission office for new

missionary/trainer meeting. We got our iPads! As well as a bit of an

orientation. My new Companion is Elder Gee! He is great. We have a lot

in common and he is a great missionary. He told me that he has had a

lot of hard companions though, so I'm a little worried about that! We

spent most of the rest of the day moving in and getting unpacked

because the mission closed the home that Elder Gee had been living in

previously, so we had a lot of stuff the move into our new apartment.

The apartment is pretty darn nice! It has two bathrooms and two

showers, so it's a perfect missionary set up. It's just me and Elder

Gee there, so I'm definitely enjoying the the cushy part of state-side

missions right now. :)

Wednesday - I taught my first real lesson! It was a guy named Fabian.

He's from Columbia and he's just a few years older than me. We taught

him the restoration and read with him out of 1 Nephi 1. Then we spent

some more time cleaning up the old house the elders were in and moving

stuff back to our apartment. After lunch we went to the trailer park

(we spend a decent amount of our time there) to talk to some less

actives. It started to rain and we didn't have umbrellas. Sooo we got

soaked! Good times. That night there was youth activities. Elder Gee

and I went on splits so that we could teach two different lessons

(both at the church). I taught a less active member with a member of

the bishopric while Elder Gee taught a couple who were getting

baptized in a few days. Then we played volleyball for a few minutes

with the youth and then went home.

Thursday - we spent a lot of the day in our apartment because we had

weekly planning, and we already have more study time in the morning than

most other missionaries because as Spanish speaking missionaries we

have an extra hour of language study, and also, since I'm being

trained, we have an extra hour for that. So when you add on a 3 hour

weekly planning session it pretty much takes up most of the day. After

all that, we went to eat dinner at a member's house, and then went to

the church for choir.

Friday - we spent a bunch of the day moving furniture from the old

apartment to the mission storage shed. Then we spent some time

contacting in the trailer park. Nothing super interesting.

Saturday - We had a baptism! It was the couple that I mentioned

earlier. I actually hadn't got to teach them at all, but my companion

asked me to baptize the Hermana that was getting baptized. And of

course it was in Spanish! It was a crazy day because there was so much

to do to get ready for the service. It was interesting because I've

never seen how much preparation goes into it from the perspective of a

missionary! We had to write the program, we had trouble printing it

up, etc etc. it was a bit of a struggle! But when it was finally time

for the service it was all worth it.

Sunday - church in Spanish! It's funny because some days I feel like I

speak Spanish fluently, but then other days I realize just how much I

don't know yet. Church meetings usually make me feel good about my

Spanish because I know church vocabulary pretty well now, but when it

comes to our ward mission leader talking about the cars he's fixing or

really fast Spanish speakers I feel completely lost.

Gotta go, but I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Baxter