Pictures!

Ok, so I have failed to post the pictures that came with a few of the letters.  Here they are:

These 5 are from March 24th, and go with the letter titled "Semana 3 in the CCM!":

 

 

 

These two are from May 10th, and go with the letter titled "Week what again?":

These 4 are from April 25th (did not come with a specific letter):

 Zone Meeting

 Tacos de Lengua! (tacos w/ tongue meat)

 Me and my companion in the tabernacle on temple square

Just to prove that I ate the taco :)

Update Time from Magna

Dear family and friends,

How are you all? I had a really good week this week. Time is flying!

Sometimes the weeks seem like days. All is well here and I'm enjoying

the work! Here's what happened this week:

Monday - After climbing had our Zone activity! It was pretty fun, we

played some basketball and some volleyball. After P-day was over we

met with the elders quorum president for dinner and to discuss going

out with the members to help them start doing home teaching.

Unfortunately that took way longer than expected, so that was pretty

much the end of our night.

Tuesday - The first official day of my second transfer! We had a

lesson with José about obedience and how obedience brings blessings!

Also since it was the first day of the transfer, Elder Gee and I spent

some time setting some goals for the next 6 weeks and planning what we

need to do to make it happen. Then we went out and worked! It was a

pretty normal day. We did talk to a less active we had never met

before named Julian...we set up an appointment to come and talk to him

on Thursday...more to come on that...

Wednesday - we had a lesson with José Andrade and his mom after

lunch...we taught them about Baptism and confirmation. It was super

funny because about halfway through the lesson she started getting all

sleepy on us. So we started asking her questions and stuff but despite

all our best efforts she fell asleep for a couple seconds at least 3

different times! It wasn't even a long lesson! Her head and eyelids

kept drooping as she looked at us. It was ridiculous . So we started

engaging her like crazy...we used some bananas from her kitchen to

make an analogy, we started getting super into the lesson, using our

hands a lot, etc. etc. It worked pretty well and it was pretty fun

actually :) By the end of the lesson she said she wants to get

baptized "some time," but the problem is that she doesn't want to do

the things necessary to get herself prepared...she hasn't even come to

church in a long time! So we're going to be focusing on that for her

this next week.

Thursday - we had a meeting to go to for Elder Gee, then we came home

and ate lunch, then we did some weekly planning for 3 hours.  we set

some good plans though. Our dinner cancelled last minute so the bishop

of the ward we're eating with this week took us to Hardys Jr. for

burgers. It was pretty good! I had never been there before. I still

prefer 5 guys though :) After dinner we had the lesson with Julian

that I mentioned earlier...we got there, rang the door and a little

girl answered. We asked if her parents were home and she said she

would go get them...about 3 minutes later we saw an adult come to the

door and shut it on us. We thought it might have been an accident or

something, because when we talked to him the first time he seemed fine

with us coming over! So we knocked again but no one answered. It was

odd.

Friday - Super busy day today...but we didn't do much proselytizing

until the end of the day. But it was awesome because we got to take

Fabian into the temple for the first time! We had district meeting

right after morning studies which lasted until about 12:30. Then we

had to rush home (we didn't have our bikes) because we were getting

picked up at 12:45 by a senior missionary couple who was going to take

us, Fabian and the family that Fabian is living with to the temple.

Welllll, we barely got home in time to grab some granola bars for

lunch and then we ran out the door to meet our ride. And then when we

got to Fabian's house they weren't ready! My comp was feeling a little

panicked about getting there on time. But luckily it all worked out

and Fabian seemed to really enjoy going. We got home just in time for

dinner and then we went out and visited a senior missionary couple in

our area, and did a bunch of other visits. Sadly we didn't have any

lessons though.

Saturday - We spent the whole morning doing service! There was a

member in our apartment complex who was moving to a different

apartment in the complex. He must've decided that since he was just

moving across the way he didn't need to pack very well or get a truck

or anything. Well, we tried carrying his huge couches all the way up

to the new apartment and decided it was a futile effort...so we

starting calling a bunch of the ward members and luckily some of them

brought some trucks to haul the stuff from one apartment to the other!

It was a huge blessing that they were able to come because it probably

would have taken all day if they hadn't. After all of that we had two

lessons with two new people that we had contacted earlier in the week.

The first one fell through, but the second one was an awesome lesson.

It's a guy just a little younger than me named Luis. How we found him

is kind of a cool story...we were sitting down, waiting for a member

to come pick us up to go out with us. When he didn't show up on time

we were just like well, we should go talk to people instead of sitting

here! At first there was literally no one around...the first person we

saw was Luis, so we went and talked to him and he was so ready! We set

up an appointment after teaching a 30 second restoration lesson on the

spot. He had told us when we talked to him on the street that His mom

would be interested in hearing our message too, but sadly she wasn't

around for the lesson. Anyway, we taught him the rest of the

restoration and invited him to be baptized. He said he would pray

about it, and we have another lesson this week! We're really excited

to keep teaching him.

Sunday - after church we had ward council meeting, then went to

Hermano Carrasco's (ward mission leader) house for lunch! I don't know

how much I've told you about him, but he's awesome. He's the one that

the elders used to live with before they lived her. He's kinda like

Grandpa Baxter, but shorter and Mexican, and instead of tuning pianos,

he tunes up cars. Sometimes we call him abuelito. After having lunch

with him we went back to our place to do some weekly reports and

catching up in the area book. We got to visit several less active

members and also had a lesson with a semi active youth in the ward. My

favorite part of the night was that I got to translate a stake mission

leader meeting for Hermano Carrasco! It was crazy! But I think I was

able to at least get the main ideas of everything that was said, so it

was good :)

Algo que yo aprendí esta semana es que Dios siempre está

bendiciéndonos. Pero a veces tenemos barreras en nuestras vidas que

bloquean las bendiciones. Nosotros tenemos que quitar las barreras

para que podamos recibir las bendiciones que dios tiene para nosotros.

Sé que él el evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadera y que por medio de

la expiación, podemos superar nuestras barreras y dificultades.

Les amo!

Love,

Elder Baxter

1 Transfer in the Bag!

Last weeks letter! Somehow it didn't go out. Love you all! Hey everyone! I had a good week this week! We finished the transfer, went rock climbing, and got a car! We had our ups and downs, but overall we had a solid week. Transfer news: I'm staying with Elder Gee here in Magna! I'm super happy about that. This is his last transfer so we're hoping to tear it up! Also, we've been in a triplet this week with Elder Fakatou because his comp had to get transferred early. Here's more about my week. Monday - On Monday morning we went hiking with Fabian and Hermano Posso! It was pretty fun. Neither me nor my companion knew of any good hikes around here so we just found a path on google maps that looked like it led up to the mountain...well most of the mountain near us is owned by a copper mining company, so we didn't end up getting very far. we ended up going to the Great Salt Lake! I didn't know how badly it smelled! Holy guacamole (or maybe rotten guacamole). After we got home we just did emails, laundry, cleaning, and had our apartment inspected. We passed :) That night we had a a lesson fall through, so we went and visited a couple families that haven't been to church in a while. Tuesday - We did a bunch of service in the morning for a lady from the English ward with the other missionaries in our district. We basically just moved some wood and branches to clean up her yard. She also had like ten new puppies, hence the puppy picture :) After that we  had a lesson with Jose Andrade and his mom. We then had dinner with a family  from one of the English wards. After dinner we were planning to contact a bunch of people and we had a couple of lessons set, but almost everything fell  through. We did have one lesson with a less active guy in our ward, but I think that was it. Wednesday - we had a lesson with Fabian! We found out right before we got there  that the APs would be coming dropping off a car for us because one of our zone l eaders was going to transfer early and the other ZL couldn't drive. Buuuut we had to  cut the lesson short so that we could pick up some elders from the dentist. And  we also found out that we would have the car for the rest of the week!! We  were pretty excited. We picked them up, went to lunch at a Hawaiian restaurant,  (really good!) and then went back to our area. We had a lesson or two, then went to a  ward family home evening activity. Our recent convert Eduardo Hernandez (he  and his wife got baptized like the first week that I was here) received the  priesthood! Which was awesome. Thursday - the only problem with having a car is that sometimes we get  used to run errands. So Thursday was a hard day to be productive because we had  to take two elders who are about to "die" (mission slang for going home) to the  mission office for a temple trip. Aside from that, we had weekly planning,  and did some work in the trailer park. It was a kinda boring day. Friday - we had district meeting, then we did a BUNCH of contacting. Friday  was the first day after getting a car where we REALLY got to work some  solid consecutive hours. And we saw some miracles. One of which was that we went  to visit to one lady who hadn't been to church in a lonnng time. She said she had  been through some hard things and just was having a hard time bringing herself  to go to church, despite how much she wanted to. After we talked to her for a  few minutes and we were about to leave, she told us that she had been praying  extra hard of late for some help. It was a really cool experience to be able to be that help!  Just one of the cool experiences we had this week! I didn't realize how much we had  been missing out on with all the errands we had to run and the complications of being  in a triplet. But it was a good day!  Saturday - we had morning studies then we went to eat lunch and ice cream  with a member at a restaurant called Leatherbys! It was delicious. Then we  came back and did a lemonade stand as a finding activity with the sisters! Honestly  I didn't really want to do it at first, but it ended up going pretty well!  After that Elder Fakatou had a baptism so we went and helped him set up and get  everything ready. Then we left him to go on splits with a senior elder so that  we could go out and work. We contacted some people in the trailer park and then went  back to get elder Fakatou and did some stuff that he needed to do in his area. We  were supposed to have a lesson with a new family that we found but they  weren't home. It was sad. Sunday - we went to 4 hours of church! Our Spanish ward and  then an English ward for elder Fakatou. We had some meetings,  went home to do some reports/catching up on our own personal record book and then  went to some lessons we were supposed to have...but neither of them were home. We  had to meet the sisters to drop off some supplies and then went to two  more lessons we had. Luckily they were both home! The first one was a hard lesson.  We've been working with them for a while and they haven't acted on our invitations,  so we had to drop them. The second one was the lady that had been praying extra  hard for some help. We just taught her about the importance of prayer,  scripture reading and church attendance. It was a good lesson.  Today - we went rock climbing! It was awesome! We went to Big  Cottonwood canyon. We were so close to the Johnsons house it was crazy! But  at the same time it was super sad because I didn't have their number or any  way to get ahold of them! But anyway, Climbing was a blast, we got to repel too. I'll send some pictures. Love you all! Hope you have a great week! Hasta luego, Elder Baxter

 I tried barefoot climbing! It was actually so much easier, just super cold.

 Action shot

Me, Fabian, Elder Gee, and Elder Fakatou

Semana 10!

Dear Family and friends,

How are you all? I'm doing pretty great! It's slowly getting hotter

and hotter here, with the occasional cooler day to give us some

respite (thank goodness)! I never realized how hot dress slacks are

before...but I really can't complain because I know it's a lot hotter

in places where some of my friends from the MTC are serving (shoutout

to district 15B!). Anyway, I had a good week! Here's what it looked

like:

Monday - was not my p-day. It was just a normal day because we went to

the temple on Tuesday and temple day usually is on P-day. It was good

though! We had a lesson with Fabian and went over the last several

things before his baptism. Then we spent some time helping one of the

senior couples in our district figure some stuff out for their reports

and also helped them with some other small things. After that we had

dinner with Brother Lindford who invited us to his house on my

birthday for dinner. He's awesome. We got special permission from our

mission president to go rock climbing with him next P-day! He's really

good to us missionaries. After that we did some contacting and then

went home.

Tuesday - was an absolutely crazy day. We got up extra early to go to

the Temple in Bountiful. The pictures I sent last week were all from

that. One of our senior couples bought us all lunch in the cafeteria

downstairs, which was really nice! After the temple we went to the zoo

with another district. So by the time we did all that we barely had

time to finish our laundry, let alone write emails. That night we went

on exchanges with the English elders, our zone leaders, because they

double booked a couple lessons, so we both spoke a lot of English that

night. Sometimes I don't like when I have to speak too much English,

but I really enjoyed it and all the people we got to visit.

Wednesday - we had a meeting in the morning for my companion and then

we went to the church so that Fabian could have his baptismal

interview. The interview went great and we went to the Posso family's

house (the family that Fabian lives with) for lunch. That evening we

made several visits (don't remember exactly where we went) and had our

last lesson of the night lesson with a sister named Guadalupe. She is

a less active who has a hard family situation who is trying to come

back to church. She could use your prayers.

Thursday - Fabian's baptism! Such a crazy day, holy guacamole. We had

all of our morning studies, then lunch, the weekly planning, (which

didn't get all the way done because we were filling the font and doing

a bunch of other stuff at the same time) printing programs, etc. We

had a quick dinner with a family from one of the English wards, then

came back to finish preparing. The baptism was awesome! Fabian was so

happy to be baptized and he even shared a few remarks at the end of

the service. It was really cool because Fabian was my first real

lesson, and we taught him starting from the very first lesson, so I

got to see the whole process of him changing his life and trying to

come closer to the savior. I will try to send some pictures today but

it might have to wait until next week because he still hasn't sent

them to us.

Friday - we had zone meeting and then just a normal day of visits and

contacting. We also finished weekly planning. It was a good day, but I

don't really remember all the details.

Saturday - we did a bunch of service on Friday (helping a member with

his car--trying to figure out vocabulary about cars and engines and

bolts in Spanish is real fun :)).We ate some really good lunch at a

members, then went to a baptism of someone that my companion found. We

had dinner, did some contacting and had a first lesson with a family

that we just met recently. It was a good lesson.

Sunday - Was another great Sunday. :) Fabian asked me to do his

confirmation (elder Gee baptized him), which was a little nerve

wracking in Spanish! It went great though. We also conferred the

priesthood to him, with permission of the bishop. We had some meetings

after church, some reports to do, and then dinner. The brother who we

ate dinner with is in a bluegrass band and plays a lot of the songs we

do! He also wore a kilt. It was a good time! After that we had some

lessons with two less actives, which both went really well.

I'm really grateful for all the things I am learning! I am growing in

the language and also, more importantly in my testimony of Jesus

Christ and his teachings. I know that through Him and His gospel we

can overcome all pains, weaknesses, guilt and sadness.

I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Hasta luego,

Elder Baxter

Fotos courtesy of random lady in Walmart

Week what again?

*Please note that I have not been making up these post titles.  These are the subject lines of Joshua's letters.  I could do much better ;)  ~Madelyn

Dear family and friends,

I have literally 5 minutes to write this, so don't expect much! We

went to the bountiful temple and then to the zoo, so it's been a crazy

day!

This week was a good one! We taught a lot of less actives, some new

investigators, and talked to lots of people on the street. Had some

pretty cool experiences but unfortunately I'll have to share them with

you all next week! But I just wanted to let you know that I'm still

alive, everything is going well, and the work goes onward!

As my man Elder Ovalles says, the church is true and the book is blue!

I love you all and I promise a better letter next week :)

Love,

Elder Baxter

Week 3! (Happy Birthday Joshua!!)

*This letter was from last week (May 2); I'm so sorry I didn't post it sooner!

Hey family and friends!

Hope you had a great week! Here's my week

Monday - We did our morning studies, wrote emails, did some shopping,

cleaned the house, etc. It was a relaxing P-day! That night we had a

lesson with the Tamayo family--they're a part member family--and the

wife cooks some GOOD Mexican food. And she told us whenever we don't

have someone to eat with we can just go over to her house because

"Siempre tenemos comida aquí." She is the best!

Tuesday - I woke up on Tuesday with a pretty bad cold. I felt really

tired all day but I made it. We taught Fabian after our morning

studies! We had a good lesson with him about the law of chastity and

the word of wisdom. After that we had lunch and then went out tracting

in the trailer park! It was my first time and it was actually sorta

fun! We also had a lesson with Hermana Andrade about the godhead--she

had a lot of confusion about who was who and so we spent the whole

lesson reading scriptures to try and help her understand. It was a

successful lesson! Now she just needs to follow through with the

invitations we are giving her...

Wednesday - we had another lesson with Fabian, came home to each lunch

and finish our studies, then went to our ward mission leaders house so

that my companion could work on some stuff for college. After that we

went to the trailer park and did some more tracting, and then went to

dinner. I'm a little sad because they just changed our eating schedule

to make it so that we're eating with the English wards now. It's good

because we'll get to meet more people, but sad because it reduces the

amount of Spanish we get to speak. After dinner we contacted some

people we haven't seen in a while, then had a lesson with the recently

baptized Hernandez family. A lot of biking, a lot of walking. It was

an exhausting day!

Thursday - We had lunch with the Posso family! They are in our ward

and recently moved here from Columbia. Our investigator Fabian also

happens to be living with them. They taught us how to make some

Columbian plátanos fritos (fried plantains)!They were pretty good!

They were similar to the ones Sister Ovalles makes (pero yo creo que

los de hermana Ovalles son mejores;). After that we went home to do

weekly planning. It took 3 hours, but it felt like 6. It was rough.

After that we walked to our dinner appointment and talked to a couple

people on the way. Dinner was delicious. It was a full blown meal with

pork chops, mashed potatoes, corn, homemade rolls and just about every

vegetable you can imagine. After dinner we visited a couple less

actives who want to come back to church but can't because of work or

other reasons.

Friday - We had district meeting! We talked about the importance of

the Book of Mormon and about teaching the repentance and baptism. My

companion got a recent convert to come and talk to us about her

conversion story. It was pretty cool! She and her husband were baptist

ministers before converting and they said that reading the Book of

Mormon was the turning point for them. We had district lunch after the

meeting (free subway! Benefits of Utah missions:) and then went home

to do language study. We were supposed to have a lesson with Fabian,

but he cancelled. Jose Andrade also cancelled on us, so we talked to

his mom for a while and then walked around to try to visit other

people in the trailer park and around our area. Cancellations were

pretty much the theme for Friday.

Saturday - A lot of cancellations on Saturday too. And a lot of

walking. We spent some time at the church in the family history center

so my companion could do some stuff for college, and then we visited a

senior couple in our district to see if they had some tools I could

use to fix a loose pedal on the bike I've been using. One awesome

thing about Saturday though was that we got fed by a random family who

didn't know us! We went to go contact someone that we hadn't

seen/heard from in a while, but when we knocked on the door he was

supposedly asleep! So we thought it would be a no-go, but the family

(who we had never even seen before) ended up inviting us in for

dinner! It was shrimp and rice and this Guatemalan vegetable. It was

delicious! And of course we shared the restoration with them

afterward. To finish the day off we went to visit the bishop and talk

to him about some of the people we've been working with. He dropped us

off at someone's house but they weren't home, so we had to walk all

the way back across town to our apartment.

Sunday - Sunday was the best day of the week! I really enjoyed church.

We had a long ward leadership council but it was okay because it was

in Spanish! And it was good practice for me. I think I loved Sunday

cause we were really busy! I don't think we had any appointments fall

through and it just felt like a really solid day. We did some reports,

visited a lot of less actives, had a great Venezuelan dinner

(something called arrepas),

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Baxter