Week 15-Time flies when you have none of it! -Sister Helmbold

Me, sister day, sister rowley and sister Helmbold outside the VC taking selfies

Hanging out with the plants!

These are the Affleck's! Dr Affleck is the doctor for the 10 missions around here and they live in our ward so they feed us sometimes, they're great though:)

The title of this email came from one of the wonderful sisters that I serve with due to the fact that we literally had no time in our area this week!! So our normal schedule is:

6:30: wake up (sometimes earlier to get a better work out in)

8:00: personal studies

9:00: companionship study

10:00: 12 week (new missionary training)

11:00 lunch

12:00: language study 

1-2:30: time in our area

3:00-9:00: serving in the visitors center

Sometimes we serve in the morning (9:00-3:00) but the schedule is basically the same with about an hour in our area including a half hour of driving time.

But this week we have been tackling the task of converting our area books on to our iPads and our mission president has asked that we work on them for 2 hours every day....so when do we get to our area?...good question. 

Haha some people say Visitor’s Center sisters have it easy, man so not true! But we have seen so many miracles in the very little time that we have.  We have to sacrifice a lot of our time, but because we sacrifice for him He brings people to us to teach! 

We've been teaching one man recently, who is kind of hard to catch because he's really busy, but we just had like 15 minutes to go see someone. We didn't have an appointment with him but we decided to stop by. We knocked on his door and no one was home, so we left a note, but as we were walking back to the car guess who drove up in his car? Our investigator!:) We were able to have such a great lesson with him even though time was so short and we were able to be there at the perfect time to catch him. God really is directing this work!

This week has been so great though when it comes to my studies, I have learned so much!! One thing that I want to share with all of you is the awesome tool that Preach My Gospel is! I thought it was just for missionaries, but man I was so wrong! It is packed full with awesome truths that can be applied to any person’s life, and hey, every member is a missionary right?:) So a challenge for everyone this week, read a section from preach my gospel! If you want to learn how to better feel the spirit, how to improve your prayers, how to study better, or really anything, you can find answers in preach my gospel combined with the scriptures! And even better, it's free on the gospel library under missionary!! So this week, crack that open and get closer to your savior:)

Love you all! Thanks so much for your support and prayers. I feel them always!

And as always, all is well and God is good:)

Love Hermana Baggett

The plants here grow like crazy!! They're taller than one of the sisters!! (She is only 4'10" but hey no one is measuring right?:))

And ice cream on p-day with Sister Hansen, me, Sister Helmbold, Sister Hunt, Sister Rowley, and Sister Morgan!

Making Sister Morgan's cookie logs.

Sisters Morgan, Hafoka and me! Sister Hafoka was in a wheel chair because she got her knee kicked during morning sports at the stake center!

The Toronto's are the directors of the VC and the Liberty Jail. All the VC sisters went to waffle Wednesday breakfast at their home.
 

Week 14- Miracles are real

I guess it was the day to wear pink.  We all showed up matching!  Sis Morgan, Sis Hunt, Sis Day, Sis Moss and me!

Everyone needs an ugly picture once in awhile...so enjoy!

My whole mission (not like it's been that long so far but it feels
like it's been forever haha) I've been praying to find a family to
teach. Family's are usually much more successful in staying in the
church because they have support and love and they have the goal to
make it to the temple to be sealed to be together forever! So I wanted
to find a family, and this week, God lead us to a family:)

We were out tracting and had a list of potentials (people who have
talked to the missionaries before who might be interested) we were
trying to contact. It was our last stop of the day and we'd been going
all day and we only had about 5 minutes left before we needed to head
back but we decided to stop and see if we could set up an appointment
for later. We knocked on the door, she opened the door and saw us and
before we said anything was like, oh we're busy right now but can we
set up a time that you come back later and talk with us? I MEAN WHAT!?
Usually people don't usually even want to talk with us but she was
like yeah come back! So we went back and taught the restoration of the
gospel to her and her family and the spirit was so strong in the
lesson, and we are going back later today to teach them more! It has
just been crazy to me that we were led to one name on a list of so
many and she and her family want to listen and are willing to learn
and let us come back!

God really is directing this work; he is leading us and all the other
missionaries all over the world to teach this gospel to his other
children. He wants everyone to hear the message and we are willing to
share it with anyone who will talk with us long enough to hear it:)

A little thought for this week about the atonement. As a whole mission
we have been studying the atonement to better understand what it is,
what it does and how to apply it so we can be closer to the spirit and
be able to teach better. As we've studied something dawned on me that
all of you may have already figured out but it just took me a little
more time:) it dawned on me that repentance isn't a bad thing. There's
a stigma in the church that when you have to repent it's a shameful
thing because you did something wrong, but that is a stigma I am
willing to do just about anything to get rid of. Satan tells us to be
ashamed because he doesn't want us to repent, those feelings are not
from God. Rather than a shameful thing, repentance is a joyful thing!
It's us having the opportunity to lay aside our sins and to come
closer to God. By repenting we are moving closer to our Heavenly
Father and savior and we can feel their love more strongly. Instead of
looking down at repentance and thinking you are bad because you have
to repent, we should be excited that we have been given the
opportunity to come closer to our loving Heavenly Father. It's not a
bad thing, it's a blessing.

Missouri is great and the work is progressing! I'm grateful that the
Lord trusts me enough to teach his children and do his work. I know
this church is true and that we are doing the work of God on the
earth. For a little challenge this week, pray and ask your Heavenly
Father what you can do or change in your life to be closer to him.
Pray hard, study the scriptures and have faith. And I know the Lord
will answer your cry to him.

Thank you for all your support and prayers, I feel them often.
And don't forget, all is well and God is good.
Love Sister Baggett

A lady came into the Visitors center the other day and wanted to give us her left over cupcakes from an event.  Almost 100 cupcakes!  There's always too many treats at the Visitors Center!

Week 13-Have faith and adventures!

Myself, Hermana Cuevas, Elder Umperiez and Elder Reis getting McFlurrys on the way to transfers.

We had our first transfer this week and man what an adventure that
was! This is also why I'm emailing on Tuesday, my Pday is Tuesday for
the next transfer because all the visitors center sisters can't have
Pday all on the same day haha.  My companion and I assumed that we
would be staying together because I'm still in training and we were
both new to the area, but I learned quickly learned never to assume
because you're almost never right!:) haha so Hermana Cuevas was
transferred out of the visitors center and my new companions name is
Sister Hunt!

Here's the catch, we were in the MTC together so we've both only been
out for 6 weeks. The training that new missionaries do is a 12 week
program, so we are finishing each other's training together. Pretty
wild! Haha but we have seen so many miracles already I know that we
were supposed to be companions and that this change is where God needs
us even though it sounds crazy:)

Since we are both new and don't have too much experience we have been
praying so hard for help and trusting that the lord would take care of
us if we were obedient and the lord never fails us:) we have had
incredible experiences this week with both less actives and
investigators. 3 of the less active family's that we have been working
with made it to church this week and we were so excited to see the
ward give them a loving welcome!

We also had our first meeting with a new investigator at 7 one night.
So we went over and his wife said he wasn't home but he should be back
later and she said we could come back later that night if he came back
in time. We weren't sure if we'd see him but prayed that he would and
went to visit some other people. But at 8:15 we really felt like we
should go back. We didn't know if we would have time, because we're
supposed to be back to the visitors center by 8:50 and we needed to
drive 15 minutes to get there, but decided we would go anyway. Turns
out he had just gotten home and we were able to teach him!

Even though it was a short lesson, the spirit was there, he committed
to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we had such a good
feeling leaving! I know this experience, and so many others this week,
were directed by the spirit! It may seem like such a little thing for
us to have gone back to his house that night, but this book and gospel
are changing people's lives, IT'S NOT A LITTLE THING. And it can
change your life too, just like it can for these investigators and I
can testify of this, because I have seen it change my own life.

My companion and I have been studying how to use the Book of Mormon
better in teaching this week because of a quote we ready in preach my
gospel. It said, "the Book of Mormon, combined with the spirit, is
your most powerful resource in conversion." And this brings my little
challenge for you this week:) I challenge all of you to read the
introduction of the Book of Mormon and read for at least 5 minutes
every day. And then pray to your Heavenly Father and ask if this is
true. Even if you've already received an answer before, ask again:)
the lord will reconfirm to you and you will have a greater desire to
learn more from the Book of Mormon. I have received confirmation after
confirmation that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know
will all my heart that as we consistently read from it each day that
will receive blessings beyond measure.

So, read the book, pray and serve:) all have a good week y'all, I sure
do love you:)
And never forget, all is well and God is good:)
Love Hermana Baggett

This is my new companion Sister Hunt!  We matched on accident, but it was cute :)

Just a little fun in the play area at the Visitor Center before we closed one day!  Hermana Cuevas in the front then left to right, Hermana Lamb, me, Sister Marshall and Hermana Delgado.

And the visitors keep coming!

Dani, Courtney and Annelise have been friends since elementary school.  They also were on the Bingham Swim Team for years together!
From Dani:
I love Courtney so much! It was so good to see her! She had NO IDEA I was going to be there and she came out of a door and saw me and ran and tackled me with a huge hug and started to tear up! We talked for a way long time and she looks SO GOOD! So healthy and so happy! Exactly where she belongs! 

More friends

This is La from South Jordan.  She was on the track team with Courtney and is a good friend of Charlie.

The Richins are in our ward and are our neighbors.  These are two of their daughters Heather and Adriene.

Here is a Laura Adams and her son. She was a sister in Chuck's mission in Texas.  

Visitors

Our friends and neighbors, the Condies, were able to see Courtney on their Church History tour.  They were lucky enough to have her take them on a tour.  They came back with words that parents love to hear!  "You wouldn't think she has only been out 6 weeks.  You would think she has been a missionary her entire life!"

Week 12-First burn of the summer...In August!

This week has been a great one as always with lots of hard work, my favorite!  One of the great adventures was we took our day that we weren't assigned to the visitors center and walked all day!  I know to all my lovely friends who are serving in places like Argentina this is a common thing...however we have a wonderful blessing of using cars!  But we needed to save some miles and it would be a good opportunity to talk to a lot of people that are outside so we began walking! 

We walked a lot and talked to a lot of people, none of whom were really interested in hearing our message, and sweat buckets!  (I mean buckets, the humidity is insane!) But it was such a great day!  I felt like I got a little bit of sun, but didn't realize how much until I walked into the visitors center that night and all the sisters were wide-eyed-worried and asking why I didn't use sun screen.  I said I don't use sunscreen! haha but now I have a nice tan line from my dress:)

I know I've talked about the bugs here before, and they haven't really been too bad.  I was praying that I wouldn't see them if they were there so I didn't get afraid...that doesn't seem to be working anymore because they're coming out to play!  We keep finding pretty big ones in our study room and my companion refuses to kill them.  (She said the commandments say thou shalt not kill so she won't, obviously she rocks at being exactly obedient but not to my benefit this time haha)  But it's pretty routine now that every time I scream, the wonderful Sister Jones who lives with her companion in our house also comes down the stairs and says "where is it this time?"  hahah what a life saver she is!

Something I have gained a stronger testimony of this week is that prayer is so real.  There are many many people in this world who don't pray.  They don't think there is a God, or if they do believe in God they don't think he would listen.  But I testify that he truly does!  Not only does he listen, but he wants to listen, he wants to hear from you.  You are his child, and he loves you, talk with Him. 

I can testify of this because I have seen the power of prayer in my own life.  Missionary work is not at all easy.  It is so incredible, so worth it, and so exciting but it is not all easy.  There are nights I get on my knees and I feel like we've hit a wall, we don't know what to do and it gets discouraging.  But every time I take those discouraged feelings to my knees, when I stand back  I know everything will work out.  It doesn't make the situation change, but it comforts and strengthens my soul, which is exactly what I need.  I know the Lord wants to do the same for you, he wants to comfort, strengthen and love you.  And as we pray to him, he will bless us with those things and more!

Doctrine and Covenants 68:6

And kind of some big news on this end, you'll be getting a letter in the next week or so from the mission because I have been called to be a trainer this next transfer.  Pretty crazy right? haha I still don't believe it.  Usually you don't train after only 6 weeks in the field ( I'm actually still in training myself, the training is 12 weeks)  but with the huge wave that came in with me, that is coming in this transfer and also the next, 3 other sisters and I have been called to be trainers after only 6 weeks and we won't be finishing our own training.  It's a huge responsibility and I'm pretty nervous, but really excited too.  Just sad because Hermana Cuevas thinks that she will be leaving the VC because she's been here for 5 transfers.  We won't know where we're going for sure though until then, so that will be exciting to see!  But all is well here, working hard and loving it:) 

Once again thank you so much for all the support and love!  Thank you for the prayers for the missionaries.  We need it and feel those prayers every day.  A little challenge for this week, kneel in prayer and just talk to your heavenly father.  Don't get off your knees until you feel Him listening.  Even if you already know, do it again!  A feeling of confirmation and love is never a bad thing:)  I know if you ask for this comfort and love he will give it to you.

Have a great week every one!  All is well and God is good:)

Love Sister Baggett

My August sunburn!

Me, Sister Cuevas, Sister Lamb and Sister Delgado, the 4 Spanish speaking sisters at the VC rewarding ourselves with Oreo Mcflurrys on Pday!