Hermana Baggett and Äldste Baggett Homecoming and Farewell

Hermana Baggett is HOME!

Äldste Baggett and Hermana Baggett

Sunday November 20th 1:00 p.m.

Hermana Baggett will be speaking as she is returning home from the Missouri, Independence mission. Äldste Baggett will also be speaking as he prepares to serve in Sweden.
Our sacrament is at 1:00 pm and you are welcome at our home for food and visiting right after the meeting. Members of our ward are encouraged to attend our block and we would love for you to come at 4:00 to eat and to visit. Our ward building is located at 9894 South 2700 West and our home address is 9668 South 2950 West in South Jordan.

From the Momma!

Sister Baggett was our first missionary and we had no idea what we were doing when getting her ready to leave.  Everything has been a learning experience for us and I hope that we have done a good job.  During these past 18 months, there have been ups and downs, many ranges of emotions and just plain happiness.  There is something really special about having a missionary out.  One thing that I was not prepared for is the sadness that her mission is over.  Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to see her in a few days, but I will miss the spiritual connection and communication that we have had every week.  We couldn't be more proud of Courtney.  I have throughly enjoyed updating this blog every week and will have it made into a book for Courtney so that she can remember what an amazing missionary she was.  I know it is hard to transition back into the world but I hope Courtney will remember “Onward, ever onward . . . forward, pressing forward!” The familiar anthem of missionary work also makes a fantastic motto for post-mission life. A “press forward” attitude bids a joyous farewell to the past and turns with purposeful optimism to the unfolding future.   

I get a three week break from weekly blog updates as Charlie will be leaving soon.  I will close the door to this chapter of our daughter's life and open the door to Sweden!  Let the Swedish experiences begin.
Love,
The Momma

Week 78 - Grateful for my mission

I never thought this day would come but here we are and it's my last Pday. But a weekly email from Sister Baggett would not be the same without a miracle story, so we'll start with that! 

The best story from the week was a follow up on Bruce who I talked about last week. The Ward stepped up big time to make sure this Veteran's Day Service thing happened. A couple member families decorated boxes and a couple others made homemade cookies to give to the vets. They we met with the youth on Thursday night to put together the boxes and Bruce came and gave a little presentation on the importance of Veterans Day and he was able to meet and talk with many of the members. The youth loved his presentation too! 

So then we get all the boxes together and then Friday which was the actual holiday, we sat outside the Texas Roadhouse because they were giving free lunch to vets and had some scouts there to hand them all out! We were worried we had made too many boxes to hand out, but the 30 we made were gone within 15 minutes! Everything just worked out so perfectly and Bruce and some other Ward members started to plan of how they could make next year even better and bigger!! It was just such an incredible thing to see all the Ward come together to serve and help a man accomplish something he knew would be a good thing. It really is one of my favorite feelings to be able to help someone accomplish something they are passionate about.

Veteran's Day service with Tami, Sarah, Bruce and the boys.

As I've come to the close of my mission I have been feeling an incredible amount of gratitude. Before I left on my mission I felt It would be a sacrifice for me to go out for a year and a half and not think of my personal plans, to only think of others. I thought I was coming to Missouri to help others change their lives and so they would understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Little did I know then on of the biggest reasons I needed to be on a mission was so Heavenly Father could change my life, so he could help me understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those others things happened like I thought they would, but my mission has truly changed me. I'm still learning and I still have a long way to go but I am so grateful for all my mission has done for me. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that my mission really wasn't a sacrifice on my part, but it would have been a sacrifice for me not to come. A sacrifice of getting to know amazing people, getting to feel the spirit so strong every day, getting to see people change their lives, a sacrifice of time with my savior. It would have been more of a sacrifice not to come. 

I hope you all know that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ, he is truly our Savior. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and when we read it we can feel the love from our Heavenly Father. I know that when we live the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be happier than we ever can be with out it. I have had more support on my mission than I could ever dream of. Thank you to all of you, my mission would not have been the same without all of you. Love you all and see you later this week.

Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

The Neilson Family

PDay lunch.

Week 77 - Temple Tuesday

Change of Pday because Sister Morgan and I got to go to the temple today!:) I love to be able to attend the temple and feel the incredible spirit that is there. So this next weeks we'll be a great one because we started off with the spirit!

Temple Tuesday with my fav!

My favorite story from this week is with a man named Bruce. He is a retired army veteran and has many injuries because his time in the service. He is a member, but hasn't been to church for a long time. We were in his area and the sisters in the past had had some contact with him before so we wanted to meet him and see how he was. When we first started chatting he said he wasn't really interested in changing his life, so we asked if we could do anything to serve him. Nothing came to mind but we had a great conversation with him for about 20 minutes and then left. 

As we were driving away we get a call from him and he said he thought of some service! He said he knew it was short notice, but we could do something for Veterans Day if we really wanted to serve, and then ideas started flowing. Of course that's not too short of notice for us! We set up plans with some Ward members and they jumped on the idea. Before we knew it we had families making boxes and homemade cookies to pass out to vets on the 11th. We wanted to get the youth involved, so for activity night on Thursday Bruce is going to talk to the youth about the significance of Veterans Day and then we will be assembling all the cookie boxes. We had had so much contact with Bruce since our conversation on Friday and we know that this will help to bring us all together! Service and love bring light into our lives that we all so desperately need.

And to follow up on the truck driver we are teaching over the phone. We call for his lesson Sunday afternoon and he goes, funny you called, I'm with Sisters Gudgeon and Oldroyd (the sisters who had been teaching him in Cameron, Missouri) right now and we just got back from church and we are going to the Independence visitors center right now! Haha not very often you get a call like that from your investigator!:) he was in town during a weekend so he was able to meet with the other sisters and go to church. I'm so excited to see him keep progressing. 

The weather is holding out here, it's still very nice! I tell everyone it's because I sent my coats home in June and so I told Heavenly Father it couldn't get that cold until I go Home because I don't have a coat! Haha we did have a pretty crazy hail storm though, so that made it interesting! 

Our hail storm after they had melted for awhile.  Some were the size of a quarter!

Other than that all is well here. This week I have been pondering a lot about how much my mission had done for me and it just leaves me in a feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. I had so grateful that God would allow me to be a part of these amazing experiences. I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

All is well and God is so good:)

Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

Me, Allie and her little brother and their brand new kitty at dinner!

Lunch with some missionaries after a meeting.

Our special visitor Sister Prior comes back to the mission!  I sure do love all my sisters who will forever be my sisters:)

Week 76 - The gospel really can make you so happy!

Lego Party

 
Back for another week! 

 On Monday night last week we had what's called a Lego party. It was a big service project and this man collects Legos then he cleans them all and sorts them out. Then he puts sets back together and gives them to kids in foster care. But he has buckets and buckets and Legos and he needs help sorting them so that's what we did! Ward members invited their neighbors and friends and we probably had about 100 people and it was so awesome to serve with the community and build relationships with other people who want to serve! 

Our Sisters at the 8 Witness Monument

 This week we also met a man named Larry, and we are going to be teaching him over the phone! He is a truck driver but met the sisters when he was home for 4 days. Over that weekend they had 3 lessons with him, he went to church and decided he needed to get baptized but e problem was, he had to get back on the road and couldn't stay in contact with those sisters. So they referred him over to us and because we are serving in a visitor’s center we had the opportunity to teach online. So even though Larry can meet with missionaries in person, we can still teach him the lessons and he loves reading the Book of Mormon every night! I know Heavenly Father loves all his children, so he makes it possible for every person to know about His plan. 

Also the happiest part of our whole week was we had people come to church!:) if you remember the family we started teaching who had a picture of the temple on their mantle already? They are so prepared to receive the gospel in their lives! The father's parents are members so they came with them to church and everyone loved it. The kids especially! They had to leave a little early because they had a prior commitment, but as we pulled the kids out of primary they were like, we're leaving already!? The mom texted us after and said that her whole family loved church and she felt that we were heaven sent. And I know that we were because the spirit guides us to know where to be! I love when people being to understand how happy living the gospel really can make them. That's one of my favorite things about being a missionary:) 

All is well and God is good:)

Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

Julia and Elise Marble with Sister Morgan and I

Trunk or Treat

Week 75 - Ain't no party like a Holy Ghost Party!

The Liberty 1st District.  Elders Leary, Mogan, Bytheway, Christiansen, Reis and Anderson.  Sisters Morgan, me, Hixon, Anderson, Flake and Jorgensen

Awesome miracles from this week as always!:) Follow up on last week with our service with the woman we met at the hospital. We met Janet at the Kansas City Rescue Mission on Wednesday with a member and she had some members from her church there with her. It was so incredible to serve there. It's hard to see what these people are going though as they are homeless and going though a very hard time in their life. But to see the light come into their eyes as we give them a meal and sing hymns and share scriptures. They can be fed both spiritually and physically. I was so grateful for the opportunity and to see how Christ lifts all. Our new friends taught us a new song they told us we had to learn before we left, it goes...

"Ain't no party like a Holy Ghost party cause the Holy Ghost party don't stop"  

Service at the Kansas City Rescue Mission.  If I don't look like a lunch lady, I don't know who does!  Janet, Sister Morgan, Michael, Nancy me and Tami.  Notice Michael's shirt!! haha They're so awesome!

I went on an awesome exchange this week with Sister Anderson!! She is such a great missionary and something she taught me this week was how important it is to be kind to yourself and to listen. Words that we use with ourselves can be very destructive. Would we say to others thing that we say to ourselves? Often times probably not. But we are just as important and special as the people we love! The need to listen is so important as well. When we listen we show people we care. So show someone you care this week and listen to their feelings and their thoughts. 

Friday was Sister Morgan's birthday so happy 21 to her!:) and then Saturday we went to Kloe Russell's baptism. She just turned 8 the day before and was so excited to be baptized!

Kloe Russell's Baptism.

Tonight we are going to go to what's called a "Lego party" and basically what is it is this man collects Legos and then he cleans and sorts them. After they're sorted he puts them together in to full sets and gives them to kids in foster care. So a Ward member met up with the man in charge and invited around 160 people, members and nonmembers to come have a party and sort with us!! Serving with people builds relationships with members and nonmembers so we're super excited!! Get out there and serve this week:) 

Love you all and hope you have a great week:) all is well and God is good!

Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

At dinner with the Hansen family playing with their lizard :)

Sister Morgan and I matching one day.