When you can't think of a subject. . .

This This is SaraLyn- Madelyn was out of town two weeks ago and I never got the letter posted.

Then last week, Joshua apparently wrote it, but it somehow didn't get sent. So today we got

last week's letter and today's.  So you get all three today, like it or not! :)

June 13, 2016

Hey everybody!

Here's what my week looked like:

Monday - we had studies, did cleaning, shopping, all that other good

P-day stuff. We also played some basketball and just relaxed a little

:) After P-day was over we went out for a lesson we were supposed to

have with a girl named Alejandra. We stopped to talk to a couple

people on the way though, and one lady talked to us in the street for

like thirty minutes or more! It was crazy! So when we finally got to

Alejandra's house she wasn't there. We went and tried to contact some

other people in the area but we didn't have any luck until the end of

the day when we had a lesson with a less active named Noe Gasca. He

invited us in and we could tell pretty soon he just wanted to planchar

(argue/bible bash). All churches are true because God is everywhere,

I'll go to church if God wants me to etc etc. So we shared a short

message of the restoration, talked a little bit about why there are so

many churches on the earth and then invited him to read the rest of

the pamphlet, and pray about it. By the end of the lesson he seemed to

soften his heart a little and be willing to listen and not just argue

:)

Martes - we started off the day at the chapel because my comp had to

register for his classes...he did that while I did some lesson reports

and then we had a lesson with Fabian. It was a really good lesson! We

were planning to teach him about the great apostasy, but when we

started the lesson, my companion randomly asked how he had been with

the word of wisdom, and it turned out that that was exactly what

Fabian needed. It was really cool! After that we had to go to South

Jordan to the dentist because Elder Gee had two fillings pop out. We

got to eat out at a burger place called The Edge though, so that was a

plus! ;) We had service when we got back from the dentist (moving a

stack of wood, again) then we had dinner with a family from Samoa!

They were super generous and treated us like their own sons. Even

though they were very humble they were some of the most giving and

hospitable people. The dad had been in jail in the past and is working

super hard to get himself and his family back to where they should be.

It was very humbling to me also to see the changes taking place in

their lives through the atonement of Jesus Christ and through living

the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think sometimes when life is good we

forget that ALL of us are desperately in need of the atonement of

Jesus Christ.

Wednesday we had another lesson with Fabian, then we came home for

lunch and spent a bunch of time planning for a district blitz

activity...it was basically an activity where we all got together as a

district, divided up with members (so we had twice as many

companionships) and went out to contact a bunch of referrals and also

tract some apartment buildings! It took a LOT of planning though, but

it was worth it in the end. That took until dinner time, then after we

had a couple lessons and visits. We had a lesson with Alicia that was

really good. We have been reading the Book of Mormon with her and she

seems to really be enjoying it! She is making connections from what

she reads to her own life so we're really excited to see that

improvement! Before we gave her the challenge to read the whole thing

through she didn't really keep any of the commitments we extended, so

she has come a long way!

Thursday. We had lunch at Rancho market (a little Mexican

store/restaurant) with the ZLs and then did weekly planning. I talked

to the lady at the cash register all in Spanish and didn't really

think until afterward how crazy that was. :) after weekly planning we

tried to visit Alejandra again, ate dinner and then had another lesson

with Noe Gasca. It was a really different lesson compared to the

previous one. He was a lot more willing to listen and wasn't

argumentative at all! It was a huge change.

Friday was the big day for the district blitz, and it was crazy! We

had district meeting in the morning (and we always have to go early

since elder Gee is district leader), then right after we had lunch

with the Posso family and Fabian. It was a really big lunch because in

a lot of Latino cultures lunch is the big meal of the day instead of

dinner. It was good stuff :) And it was a good thing too because we

accidentally miscommunicated with dinner and missed it completely!

After lunch we rushed back to the church to finish planning and

printing off some stuff for the blitz, Elder Gee and I split with the

zone leaders so that he could go and do a Spanish baptismal interview,

I taught two English lessons with elder Fakatou, then we met back up

briefly before the blitz started. The blitz was awesome. I was with a

brother from our ward who is pretty young and served his mission in

Honduras--we put on the "after burners" and tracted a whole building

and a half in a little over an hour! We got some new investigators for

us and for the English elders, so it was awesome! And Hermano

Rodriguez is hilarious so it was a good time.

Saturday we did some service in the morning, then we spent a ton of

time contacting some of the Spanish speakers we didn't get to on

Friday. We biked so much! It starting pouring rain about halfway

through the day, and our umbrellas were at home on the other side of

town, so we got soaked! :) We ate dinner at Wendy's during the worst

part of the storm. We had one lesson with Jose Andrade, but the other

lessons we had for the day cancelled. It was a little sad, but it was

still a good day because we got to clean up our area book a lot with

all the contacting we did.

Sunday we biked a lot again! I wish I had a mile counter or something!

After our regular church meetings we went to give Hermano Carrasco a

blessing because he was sick and of course we stayed a little bit to

talk with him (he told us some crazy stories from California and some

"haunted places." It was kinda funny :)then we headed to the trailer

park for some lessons we were SUPPOSED to have. We had 4 people cancel

on us. So we visited some less actives that we didn't see at church

and then headed to dinner. We were able to have a lesson with the

Goodson family and Sarahi Mercado which was good. We also went home

teaching which was a fun change up :) someone didn't have his

companion so we went with him instead! It was super weird not to be

leading the lesson. At the end of the day we had a lesson with a guy

named Ruben Marquez who we've been trying to meet with for a while! It

was such a good lesson. He is a member who hasn't gone to church since

he was a kid. He is so sincere about wanting to know if the church is

true and he's just really fun to teach because when he understands

something he gets really into it and excited :) I have high hopes for

him to return to church.

Overall it was a great week! We had quite a few cancellations, but we

also had some unforeseen opportunities to help others and to teach

some unplanned lessons! And also it rained quite a bit so it wasn't

too hot, which is a plus :)

Sad news is that Elder Gee only has three weeks left! Time is still

flying, which means we're having fun, but it will be sad to see him

go. I hope you all have a great week this week! Yikes this got long!

Thanks for all the letters and support. It means a lot!

Love you all,

Elder Baxter

P.S. some pics...

Us after getting soaked!

Planning for the blitz/elder Gee's thinking face

Workin' our glutes ;)

Elder Gee when he fell asleep during a conversation we were having during lunch