Email # 24

> My dear Family,
> 
> I hope all is well back at home! Things are pretty much the same
> around here, just waiting for my MRI coming up this friday to know
> what will happen next. We just pretty much sit around all day studying
> unless we have an appointment scheduled which means that we are going
> crazy! It's getting hot here, in the 90's with 80% humidity.  Yuk!
> Sounds like your weekend was pretty eventful! Im so bummed i
> couldnt be there for Parkers priesthood ordination! i cant believe he
> is old enough! where does time go? So the shower went well huh? who
> all came to it? FLOWRIDER? say what! that is so awesome! Dad, you cant
> be breaking your back on me now.... hahha take it easy! you arent 12
> anymore.... haha just kidding!
> So i got a sweet deal on my suit. We first went to kohls and it
> was going to be around 200 bucks, so i decided to go to mens wearhouse
> because it would be around the same price. the manager helped me and
> got me trying on some nice suits, we got to talking about the mission
> and what i do and how i dont get payed for what i do, and she told me
> that she would hook me up. i was thinking like maybe $25 off or
> something. The suits at her store didnt fit me right so she drove to
> another store close-by to pick some up for me to choose from. the one
> that fit me the best was of course the more expensive one. at the end
> of the deal, she gave me a $500 suit for $200. not too shabby for a
> missionary eh? i look good in it :) a little healthy, but good :) 
> The district is doing excellent this month. bon air has 3 people
> set with a date and should have a couple more soon! I interview one of
> them on thursday. Midlothian is also doing well. They are teaching a
> ugandan family which sister ogwang loves because she is from uganda.
> This week in district meeting we will be training on christ-like
> attributes and how developing christ like attributes can help us in
> our fiinding efforts. It should be pretty good.
> Today we had a district pday at our building where i set up the
> projector in the cultural hall and set up the sound through the
> speakers in there and watched finding nemo. it was pretty fun. elder
> mcclellan and i made pizza for the sisters and we also brought popcorn
> and some sorbet. everyone seemed to really enjoy it which pleased me.
> it was funny what pres. perry said to me when i asked him if we could
> watch a movie. he texted me "go ahead elder baldwin with the movie,
> just remember to be dignified with all of those sisters :) " hahhaa
> president perry is awesome.
>So Jackie is going to do addys hair for the wedding? she will do great on it
> atta boy jedi for giving me a shout out. harley... youre lame. jedi
> better not peace out on me while im gone. and if he does, you better
> have a black lab puppy waiting for me when i get home. or ill just buy
> one.
> well i dont know what else to say.   i love you all and miss you!
> The mailbox is pretty empty these days.... just saying.
> love, elder baldwin!

Email # 23

 Hey!!

> 
> No results yet... The hospital where im getting the
> MRI should be calling me soon (within 24 hours) to schedule the mri.
> after that i will have to schedule another appt with Dr. Mcglynn to
> discuss possible surgery. I will keep you posted.

> Im glad you had a relaxing fathers day! I sent you a letter and you
> should receive it either today or tomorrow at grandma baldwins house.
> That is so crazy that Cortney and Jeff are married!!!!! It doesnt even seem real to me that they are
> married. How did the wedding go? where was it held? What are you doing
> next for addys wedding? what left do you have to plan for? I am
> waiting for the suit to come in the mail before i take the picture. I
> think i will look better in a suit that fits me rather than one that
> makes me look like fat.  i feel disgusting!!! I cant work out at all because of my dumb hip and i am
> going crazy!!!!! sitting in the apartment all day is so lame. and we
> cant drive anywhere because they took 150 miles away from each car in
> the zone. theyve been cracking down big time with the cars. I am the
> only one that can drive the car we have now (2012 chevy cruze) i dont
> mind that sometimes, but it would be nice to cut a break from driving
> all the time. We almost got rear-ended big time last week. the two
> guys behind us locked their breaks up for like 25 feet and came to a
> screetching hault about 5 feet behind us. Elder McClellan and i about
> pooped our pants! haha. It was crazy!
> I dont know how our investigators are doing.... we havent been able
> to meet with them for about 2 weeks! it is pretty frustrating. well,
> actually we taught yuan on tuesday and he is doing well. We taught him
> the plan of salvation and he thought it was amazing. we asked him
> about being baptized and he still wants to wait until his english gets
> a little better so he can fully understand what we are teaching him.
> Bro mitchell is still translating sacrament meeting for him and that
> is going great! bro mitchell really enjoys doing that for yuan and it
> gives yuan another great fellowship! killing two birds with one stone
> right there! We contacted another one of our investigators this week
> and he was all high up on something. it was pretty disappointing
> seeing him like that.  Darnell is still doing well i think. he has
> been super busy with work which is a good thing. its keeping him out
> of trouble. he texts us every once in a while to see how we are doing,
> and it sounds like he is doing well. he still wants to get baptized,
> its just a matter of when. he was set for the 30th but he hasnt been
> able to make it to church so we are going to have to push it back a
> few weeks.
> being a DL is pretty fun. I had my first official District meeting
> on thursday and it went pretty well. elder mcclellan and i trained on
> the importance of members and how we can find investigators through
> the members. we've already had some success in the district with
> receiving member referrals. after the district meeting, the midlothian
> sisters received 2 member referrals and they are now teaching them.
> the bon air sisters have 3 people set with a baptism date which is
> great! I have 2 baptismal interviews to do on the 27th. one of them is
> milton who is like 80!!! its going to be so cool!  one of
> the midlothian sisters got pre-diagnosed with lyme disease so keep her
> in your prayers!!! 
> dinner appointments picked up a little bit. definitely not what it
> should be like, but its getting there.  The walkers took us out to costco on saturday and bought
> us a bunch of stuff from there, so we should be good for another week
> or so and a member is bringing us chinese food tonight.
> I still havent killed any squirrels yet. ive had plenty of shots at
> them, but i keep missing!!!!! I cant wait to get one of those buggers
> to fry up one night! one of the members has like a half-mile driveway
> in the woods that we take at least 10 minutes on trying to find
> squirrels to shoot. haha its pretty fun. I just cant wait to get my
> hip fixed so i can actually do the work that im called to do!!!!!!!!
> Last friday we painted Bro Bridges' apartment. He is a quadriplegic
> and on a ventilator and wanted his house painted so it wouldnt be so
> boring for him. he had his nurse cook us steak and potatoes! it was
> pretty good! not a bad gig huh? tomorrow we will go over there and
> paint the kitchen. she asked what we wanted this time, and i said taco
> bell??? hahhaha i havent had taco bell in forever!! its going to be
> delicious! bro bridges kind of laughed when he heard thats what we
> wanted. We also made a visit to sister wolstenholme. she is literally
> allergic to everything! WE cant go inside her home because our smell
> lingers and it makes her sick for weeks. haha shoot, i shower twice a
> day and she still cant handle my smell. haha i guess she is chemical
> sensitive and gets super sick. her home was built specially for her
> and her condition. its pretty crazy! she cant go anywhere without
> getting sick. church, the store, friends houses, library, nothing!! we
> are going over there tomorrow to do some service for her. she wants us
> to put salt out on the driveway to kill the weeds. everything has to
> be done naturally or else she gets sick.
> I think thats about it!! have an awesome week!  i love you all and miss
> you!!!! take care!!
> 
> love, elder baldwin
> > 

Email # 22

> hey family! bad news on the hip.... it hasnt gotten any better. i cant
> walk on it for more than a half hour before it starts to hurt. so the
> zone leaders want me in for the day unless we have an appointment
> scheduled. my appointment with the orthopod is on monday the 18th and
> from there we will know where/when i get the mri on it. ive talked to
> a couple doctors and another orthopedic surgeon in the ward and he
> said that i most likely have a tear in it.  ill update you on what happens....

> so not too much has happened this week because we have had to stay
> in all day which drives us crazy! and we cant go drive anywhere
> because the mission is cutting our miles so now we only have 750 miles
> to drive per month instead of the usual 900 we had. and we cant walk
> anywhere or bike because of my hip, so we are just stuck... lame!
> sounds like you had a great time at beckas homecoming and for
> jackies birthday! thats pretty awesome that you were able to go to
> that and thanks for giving her a hug for me! haha. its so crazy that
> she is already home! it seriously doesnt feel like too long ago that
> chase and i were singing at her farewell! it is crazy how time flies
> sometimes. and ive already been out for almost 6 months. thats even
> more crazy! thats how long chase had been out when i left for the mtc
> and now hes been out for a year now! time is going to start going by
> faster and faster now. how are the oppenlanders doing? i miss them a
> lot!

> im so happy to hear that kennady is doing so well with the sports
> she is involved in. who wouldve thought that she would enjoy
> swimming?! tell her to keep it up! 
> im not even able to workout right now because of my leg. so im just
> getting fat!  i feel disgusting. what
> size is that brown suit?  i seriously look like a tool in the
> suit coat i have now. its way too small...the deacons look better than
> me -__- i went to goodwill and they didnt have any suit coats there
> my size or anything close to it. 

> the weather here is beginning to warm up. it was in the low 90's
> this week with a bit of humidity. today was like 40% humidity i think
> at 87 degrees. not too bad. everyone is telling me that the summer is
> not going to be fun at all! i dont even know what to expect. maybe i
> can lose some weight! haha

> sorry i am emailing you later today. we just came from the
> midlothian house and were trying to shoot squirrels in the backyard
> because i want to fry some up for dinner one night. i bought a wrist
> rocket and some marbles and have been trying to kill one of those
> suckers for the past week but cant seem to do so. the time will come
> though. :) yesterday we went with the johnsons to the hospital to give
> a less active member a blessing. i guess she was found unconscious
> outside the barbershop she works at and her grandson was robbed at
> gunpoint the night before so she was distraught at that also. we are
> still working with darnell. he wasnt able to come to church yesterday
> which means we will probably have to push his baptism back a couple
> weeks. we are meeting with him this week to discuss it.
> can you send me my black pocket knife? i could use that. its the
> bench made one.

> i hope you all have a wonderful week! take care! have fun in cali!
> love,elder baldwin
> 

Email #21

 Heyyo!

 So transfer week was Crazy!!!! to say the least.... we were running
 around all over the place! Tuesday morning i went and dropped elder
 cook off at the mission home and then went to the misison office to
 drop elder powell off, and then i went and ran errands with the Zone
 Leaders. after that, elder orr and i met up and went back to my
apartment to clean the carpets. then we went and ran more errands. the
 next day i had to take elder orr to his training meeting at the
 mission office and then i went with the zone leaders again and cleaned
 their carpets! after the trainers meeting was over, elder orr, elder
 case, and i went to the midlothian house to hang out while elder orr
 packed for transfers. The next day (transfer day) i had to take elder
 newman to the mission home to pick up a bike for his new area and we
 stayed and ate breakfast with all of the new missionaries and then
 headed to transfer meeting! Elder McClellan is way stoked to be in
 manchester.  we are helping each other out quite a bit.
 We were able to set Darnell with a baptism date last week for June
 30th. We both think that he will be able to do it. Tomorrow night i get
 to have my first baptismal interview with an investigator from the Bon
 Air area. we will see how that goes! The investigator is super solid
 so im sure it will be great! Being DL is pretty cool. Its nice having
 a leadership responsibility that keeps me busy. The 4 Sister
 missionaries that are in my district are great missionaries!
 President definitely gave me the best sisters to work with.
 our dinner calendar is suffering again....i dont know what the
 deal is! i think manchester ward is the only ward in the area that
 doesnt feed the missionaries every night.. other wards have a calling
 to fill the calendar ever single night. i think we have a total of 5
 or 6 for the whole month?! its crazy! i need to send home one of my
 letter binders and maybe a couple of other things. ill start putting
 them in a box to send home and let you know when its ready to be sent
 off. Ill get that picture taken this week when we have a sunny day. i
 actually have to where a light jacket today because of how rainy it
 is. i think its like 60 degrees outside? its nice though... these past
 couple of days have been perfect!
 let me know how california goes and beckas homecoming!
 give her a big hug for me! i love you all and hope you have a great
 week!
 love, elder baldwin

Powhatan District

Correlation meeting

Elders Powell & Baldwin with Darnell

The Crowders

Elder & Sister Johnson--ran into a Church light post

Elders Johnson & Baldwin

FHE

FHE Group

Elders Cook & Baldwin in a 1090 Cadillac

Elders Powell, Cook & Baldwin with The Whites

Last day together.  Elder Cook goes home and Elder Powell goes to Bulgaria

Transfer Board in Mission Office

Transfer day at Mission Office

New Companionship/ Elder Baldwin was made New District Leader for Manchester

Email # 20

Dear Family,

    Thank you so much for emailing me! sorry i am emailing you back a day late, but the libraries were closed yesterday and our schedule was packed full of visits for elder cook. We visited a bunch of people from the Clover Hill ward because he served there for 8 months as an AP. So some exciting news came in Sunday night...President Perry gave me a phone call and asked if i would be the district leader for the new manchester district. haha. he also gave me a new companion ...all i know is that its elder mclellan and he came out with me. so the manchester district has my companionship, elder and sister johnson, and the midlothian sisters and the bon air sisters. so 4 sister missionaries i have to take care of! ahahha it will be interesting for sure! the bon air sisters are in President Perrys ward which means they are pretty good. Im excited to be the DL and to learn from everyone in my district! 

    WE finally found a chinese translator! his name is Bro Mitchell from the clover hill ward and he is going to start translating for us next sunday! what a miracle! I'm so excited for that! this email might be a little scrawny because i don't have much to talk about. last p day i went mountain biking with elder marriott(ZL) and elder Farr (AP) we biked 10.2 miles and i found 6 ticks on me! the ticks love me out here! it was crazy! so much fun though, we had a good time together. i went on another exchange with the district leader and ate at this old couples house. they were so cool! they had a piano there that never got played, so i asked if i could play a couple hymns and that made them so happy! 

      i did get my pants fixed and my suit is out of the dry cleaners.  our dinner calendar is starting to look bum bum again. we only have like 6 appointments for the month. i guess other wards have a specific calling for someone to make sure the dinner calendar is filled up. we need that in our ward! 

    I'm praying for you! y'all have a great safe week! i love you! 

love elder baldwin

Tram ride at Zoo

Old Richmond Water Building on James River

Lemonade Stand on VCU campus

Elder & Sister Johnson on Skyride at Zoo

Email #19

> Hey Y'all!

> 
> Sounds like you have quite the busy schedule coming up!! That sounds
> like a lot of fun! Kennady sounds like she is having an awesome time
> playing softball and it sounds like the team is doing pretty well
> also! What is Ian up to these days besides getting pumped up to go surf
> and hang out with all the cali kids? When does Kennady and Ian get out
> of school? it should be in a couple weeks right? I think schools out
> here are ending the first week of june or something...not too sure.
> Dang, the weather is already getting crazy in AZ? that is horrible!
> The weather here is the best, but i hear it wont be like this for too
> much longer. We got some rain yesterday that carried over to this
> morning. During the days the highest its been is probably 85 with a
> little humidity. not too bad though. I guess in the summer it will get
> up to 100 degrees with like 95% - 110% humidity haha. it will be
> crazy!!!!!! time to shed some weight :) i cant wait! we have been
> trying to exercise every night. 
> That is crazy that you ran into the andreasens and the mcilhaneys!
> haha. next time i see elder mcilhaney i will be sure to take a picture
> with him! maybe ill see him at transfer meeting next week... i think
> he is serving in the waynseboro zone?? dont know for sure but i think
> thats where he is. Its crazy that we got sent to the same mission.
> people get confused though because i say im from california and then
> they find out that i played on the same baseball team as somebody from
> az, so i have to explain the whole situation....its funny watching
> people get confused about where im actually from. i still tell
> everyone that im from California though. One of the members in the
> manchester ward goes to Irvine every once-in-a-while for a business
> trip and i told him that the next time he goes, he should meet up with
> dad for lunch or something. He is a pretty cool guy, we play
> basketball with him and a bunch of other people in the ward on tuesday
> nights and saturday mornings.
> so this past week was a rough one for us. we didnt have too much
> going on so we did a bunch of service. it was pretty cool what we did.
> we picked a neighborhood to do service in and we went over to the
> midlothian elders house to borrow their lawn mower. we took it all
> apart to fit it in the trunk of our subaru and then went and borrowed
> a members weed wacker and had that sticking out of the window also
> with a rake. it looked pretty ho-dunk. haha so we went to the
> neighborhood, parked the car took the mower, wacker, and rake out and
> just walked down the street asking people if we could mow their lawn
> for them for free. we mowed about 4 lawns on one street. we have been
> having a hard time finding people to teach so we thought that would be
> a good way to get a good rep for ourselves so that people would be
> more likely to invite us in. we havent seen any potentials from it
> yet, but i feel some coming along the more we do it. we did that on
> friday and the mower and rake are still in our car and it smells
> horrible. i think we all get a little queezy everytime we get into the
> car because of all the gas fumes. haha its crazy what we will do to
> get some service done!
> I went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week! it was so
> much fun! they are in the singles ward and their area covers VCU.
> Elder Marriott (ZL) was a firefighter for Cal Fire so we had some fun
> conversations about that. we get along very well together. so on the
> exchanges we went to VCU and did a lemonade stand in the middle of the
> quad as a finding activity. I talked to some cool people! I talked to
> a Buddhist for about 20 minutes just talking about her religion and
> then ours, comparing and then i invited her to learn more and to read
> the book of mormon, but she wasnt interested.  i also talked to a
> few otheres who accepted the invitation to read and learn more. so
> hopefully they can set up a time to meet with the ones i talked to. i
> think we placed about 10 books within an hour span. The campus was
> dead too because they are in their break before summer classes start
> tomorrow. i want to go back their during school time to find. that
> would be som much fun. i guess in the past they will hand out a full
> box of BoM's within a half hour. crazy! Finding on a college campus is
> a great experience! it was a lot easier for me to talk about the
> gospel there for some reason. it was like the one time i actually felt
> comfortable talking to people about religion. our other lesson was with

   a recent convert. we read
> chapter 19 with him out of Jesus the Christ and had a lesson on
> allegories and parables.  my goal this week is to start reading it and 

   to not stop reading it until i
> have finished it. crazy! but im excited! it was so cool serving in
> downtown richmond for a day! we played soccer in a park with some
> former investigators, and biked some sweet trails along the james
> river for my workouts. haha it was like moountain biking, but in the
> pitch black and the only lights we had on our bikes were elder
> marriotts, who was infront of me, and elder Dotson, who was behind
> me... i got stuck without a light which made it very difficult to bike
> on the trails! it was a great exchange and i learned a lot!
> Our investigators are doing well. we are still searching for a
> chinese translator for Lina and Yuan. and our boy darnell still wants
> to go to BYU. i think we are going to show him the honor code. he is hilarious and
> isnt afraid to tell us about his past!!! :o keep them in your prayers!
> especially Yuan. he is so close to getting baptized, we just have to
> get his dads approval to set him with a date! This week looks a lot
> better. we have a lot of appointments already scheduled, and its elder
> cooks and elder powells last week before they leave so we have to make
> it a good one!!!   i love you all and miss you. it
> was good hearing from you and i will be keeping my eyes open for a
> package!! :) love you!

      Elder Baldwin

May 2012

Elders Cook & Baldwin making a paper macho man
May 2012

Elder Baldwin--Capital bldg

At the River  May 2012

Email # 18

> hello!
> it was great talking to you guys yesterday and better yet, seeing you!
> this email is going to be a short one....we got stuff to do and
> people to see! i left something out yesterday.....remember josh
> mcilhaney? <----thats definitely not how you spell it, but i think you
> got it...anyways, i saw him at mission conference! we are in the same
> mission together! pretty crazy huh? he came up to me and asked where i
> was from and my answer was "josh??"" hahaha. it was cool seeing him
> and talking to him for a few. he came out in 2010 and goes home this
> december. who knows, maybe we will be companions in the future. im
> sending some pics in the email from our pday last week and from our
> paper mache project last night.
> we decided to paper mache last night before we went to bed, so
> elder cook made a little guy out of a trash bag, sealed it up, and
> blew it up to make a balloon type thingy.  so we put the newspaper all over it
> and realized that it had to stay blown up throughout the night to dry
> so it doesnt lose its form. elder cook rigged a fan to blow into it
> all night long. we put a trash bag over the fan to funnel the air to
> our "dude" and then put straws from the fan to the dude to keep the
> air going in it. that didnt work so we had to make a paper funnel
> going from the fan to the guy and that kept it up all night. its
> actually still drying now. it was hilarious how rigged-up that thing was.
> elder powell  leaves on the 29th for Bulgaria. I'm bummed that elder cook has

   to leave to go home.

> ill get those pants fixed soon. ill ask around the ward to see if
> anyone can do them for me. if not, i will just have to take them to
> the cleaners. i hope you have a great week! ill send you pics from the
> zoo next week :) love you all!
> love,
> elder baldwin
>
> 

Email # 17

> Buenos Dias!!!
> 
>> We had a pretty good week. We were able to get a new investigator
> who is hilarious. his name is Darnell and he has investigated the
> church before. he texted us yesterday and told us that we need to help
> him get into BYU hahha. He really appreciates the "mormons" and what
> we do for each other. so we will see how the BYU thing goes. we are
> going to have to convince him to go to a JC first and then try to
> transfer in. Hopefully when we meet with him this week we can set him
> with a solid date for baptism. we set him for the first weekend in
> June and agreed to it, so now we just need to set an actual date for
> him to work towards. Another one of our investigators, Yuan, is
> probably going to get set this week for May 26th. He really wants to
> get baptized but also wants to learn english better first so he
> understands the doctrine. His first language is Chinese and we don't
> know anyone to translate for us. we teach him one principle at a time
> and it seems to be working out for him. he goes to church every week,
> goes to mutual, and plays basketball with us on tuesday nights and we
> are going to play tennis with him today. it should be fun!!!
> we have such a solid ward here. every week we have a member of the
> high priest group go out with us on exchanges. the bishop wants the
> members to get more involved in missionary work because the members
> have all of the solid referrals. we really have earned the trust of
> our bishopric and members here. on tuesday night we went out with the
> bishopric on splits and visited a few less active families. it went
> really well. i just love this ward! it feels like home here.
> This weekend was amazing!!!! We were visited by Elder Russell M
> Nelson, Elder Jay E. Jenson, and Elder Lansing (area 70). it was
> legit!! we all got to shake each of their hands before the meeting
> started which was pretty cool. They gave some pretty darn good
> training on how we can become more effective missionaries. Elder
> Nelson is a jokester.... At the close of his training, he left us with an

 apostolic blessing. in my
> next email ill have to write what he said in it. it was pretty
> amazing. i dont have my backpack with me right now or else id put it
> in this week. he did bless all of my family and friends though. that
> should give you some comfort being blessed by an apostle. :) i loved
> it! all 200+ missionaries were there in the chapel being edified and
> trained by general authorities.
> Elder cook goes home in like 3 weeks!! that is crazy! he is starting to get sad about it,

   but still working hard! we are having a lot of success here. im learning
> so much from the people we talk to! people are definitely 
> knowledgable here which means im studying my
> scriptures a heck of a lot more. i love the scriptures!! i finished
> reading the book of mormon last week and am starting it again. i think
> im going to have to read it like 50 more times to understand what all
> happens in it haha. theres so much to learn from it! Elder Cook is
> teaching me a lot too as we have lessons with investigators, and even
> on door approaches. we teach a lot of doctrine on doorsteps. Elder
> Nelson gave us a suggestion to use family search to our advantage and
> it works!! people get pretty interested in doing family history and
> our building has a family history library in it.
> I was able to get 2 pairs of pants!  we go
> to walmart today to do more grocery shopping so i have to go now.

 i hope you all have a wonderful week!
> take care and ill be skyping you on sunday for Mothers' Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont know
> what time yet, but when i do, ill have a member call you or something.
> we will figure it out. :) i love you and miss you!!! talk to you
> soon!!!
> 
> love,
> elder Baldwin

Elder Baldwin at the Zoo in Virginia April 2012

April 2012

Elder Cook

Elders Cook and Powell

Marcus in the suit Elder Baldwin gave him

Rhino at the Zoo on P-day

Email # 16

> Good Day!!
> I love Manchester! I want to serve here the rest of my mission no joke
> haha. This place is pretty awesome. We got 3 new investigators this
> week. the Armstrongs, and Alex. The armstrongs were tracted into a few
> weeks ago and were given a book of mormon to read. We decided to stop
> by yesterday to see how they were doing and to follow up on their
> reading. We had a long discussion just about religion and we cleared
> up some beliefs of ours. I also shared my favorite verse with them,
> Ether 12:27 and they immediately recognized it from their reading. it
> was awesome. at the end of our visit we invited them to continue to
> read and pray, and Mr. Armstrong asked if we could pray about it right
> then. It kind of caught me by surprise!! We all stood up, joined hands
> and Mr. Armstrong gave an excellent prayer asking for an answer if the
> book is true. In the prayer he even said that they were confident it
> was, but they wanted a true answer. It was an experience to die for as
> a missionary. He asked if we could come back again sometime so we set
> up to go have a lesson with them next sunday.
> Alex has been an investigator that was dropped. we were finally able to

   meet with him again, and
> committed to meet with us again and to come to church. he is going
> through some rough times in his life and really needs the gospel. i
> told him that the gospel will change his life around and promised him
> some specific blessings. He appreciated it and got his desire back to
> learn more. he came to church with us this week and stayed for the
> whole 3 hours including our linger longer Super Spud Sunday
> Spectacular Supper, that was definitely in the wrong order, but you
> get the point. The ward put together this linger longer to invite
> friends to. we had a pretty good turnout and i was able to introduce
> myself to a lot of the members in the ward. After the Linger Longer,
> Bishop Sorensons daughter was baptized and another investigator of
> ours, Yuan was able to stay and watch that. I really think he is going
> to be baptized soon.
> So we went to the zoo last pday. it was so fun. i got to feed
> giraffes! it was so cool! Ill send you pictures in this email. i dont
> know what we are going to do today. probably just go do some grocery
> shopping and then sleep. I am wiped out. the past couple of nights ive
> been gettting up at 3 and staying awake for an hour- an hour and a
> half. i dont know why im doing it but its getting frustrating. Other than the

   sleeping issue, I'm feeling great. 
> This past weeks personal goal was to pick one verse from a gospel
> principle to study and teach about during companionship study. I was
> having a hard time remembering scriptures during lessons so i thought
> that doing this during my study would help. I really enjoy digging
> into the scriptures, and Elder Cook helps out a lot. He is a
> scriptorian. i really enjoy serving with him. Elder Powell, i learned a couple nights
> ago flew to Georgia for a national Rubiks Cube competition. i
> guess hes on the Rubiks cube association for his solving time or
> something.
> Im still in a car and will be my whole mission i think. I try to workout
> every night, that helps me sleep. That is good that everyone is doing well in school!
> Ian got bumped up to Var? thats pretty sweet! let me know if he stays
> up for playoffs. and kennady is doing well in softball? that is so
> good! keep up the good work!
> ill have to take a picture of me for addys wedding. ill hopefully
> get it to you next monday. June sent me a package last week! had a 4lb
> tub of twizzlers in it :) haha. along with 4 packs of black socks! it
> was perfect!!!! it was like christmas! i needed black socks so bad! i
> need her address though so i can write her a thank you note. send it
> to me next week! my time is up, so i have to go! take care and have an
> amazing week!
> love,
> Elder Baldwin
> 

Email #15

> 

> Manchester is GREAT!
> 
> How are you all doing? I am doing so well here in the Manchester area!
> so many miracles are waiting to happen here. Transfers was no biggy, I
> said goodbye to everyone and i was on my way! My Companions are Elder
> Cook, former AP, and Elder Powell, fresh out of the MTC waiting to go
> to Bulgaria. He will only be here for a couple weeks. I guess the
> Bulgarian missionaries get their Visas pretty quick. In his free time back at home in Texas he enjoyed
> catching Frogs, Snakes, Lizards, and writing computer programs. Elder
> Cook and I are just being an example to him so he can grow to be an
> excellent missionary.  I dont know what
> Bulgarian is supposed to sound like, but i guess he can speak it
> pretty well. i only know how to say "elder" in it because they use a
> different alphabet and its difficult to learn. We get an extra hour of
> study time because he has to study the language, so i usually just
> read an ensign or something or read the Color Code. Elder Cook is from
> Seattle, Washington and is going home in 5 weeks!! Im killing him off!
> hahah He is a great elder and works super hard! Ive tracted more in
> the last 4 days ive been here than i have my whole mission. Tracting
> with him makes it fun because he is really good at asking inspired
> questions to get people thinking about religion.
> We dont have too many investigators right now, but we have a lot
> of potentials that appear to be pretty solid. One of them is a lady
> named Lina. Brother Barr (a less
> active) went to china on a trip or something and found a woman that he
> wanted to marry (Lina). Lina knew no english. anyways... bro barr brought Lina back to the
> states, married her, and is trying to teach her english. i guess its
> come a long way since shes been here, but it is still super hard to
> understand what she is saying. I guess bro barr takes her to a chinese
> baptist church where she is able to communicate with the congregation
> which doesnt help because now she has a solid group of chinese friends
> that are baptist and are able to communicate with her and teach her
> about their church. Too bad we dont have any chinese missionaries in
> our mission to help us out.
> another investigator, Chase, was tracted into. it was the perfect
> time to tract intno him because he had been asking himself a lot of
> questions about religion. he had never read any of the bible before
> and showed great desire to learn more. we gave him a bible and a book
> of mormon and he commited to read the both of them. we taught him the
> first half of the plan of salvation and were able to answer a lot of
> his questions about pre-earth life, our purpose, and what happens
> after we die. everytime we meet with him he shows more and more desire
> to learn. he is golden and i am so excited to help him in his
> conversion. he is about 21 and works part time, but looking for a full
> time job so he doesnt have to work weekends. please pray for him! he
> was out of town this weekend, so we are going to call him today to
> schedule an appointment. :)
> Church yesterday was awesome. The ward is so cool! the people in
> it are great. the bishop really trusts us with anything which is so
> huge!!! we have a great ward mission leader, Nate Eaton who is the
> channel 8 news anchor. we call him channel 8 nate. he is legit. he's
> probably in his mid 20's and got married a year ago. he has a lot of
> enthusiasm towards missionary work and helps us out a ton. im really
> looking forward to working with him to further the work in this area.
> so there is a zoo in our area :) and a member in the ward owns it
> which means we get in for free!!! we are going there today so i will
> take pictures of me feeding the giraffes or something ahha. Im running
> into a bit of a problem though. this area we wear our suit coats
> everyday and i only have 2 pairs of pants that match my coats. my
> brown suit pants tore in the crotch, yes, im gaining weight!! i cant
> stand it. i run a mile in the morning and a mile at night but its not
> helping. i guess i need to bump it up, or lesson the chow. but, i'm
> going to need to purchase a couple pairs of black slacks to go with my
> black coat. we have every store imaginable here. theres a mall across
> the street with target, best buy, kohls, wal mart, many many
> resteraunts, and i think there is a tj maxx. could you transfer some
> money so i could buy a pair...like today? the suit pants im wearing
> now cant be thrown in the wash, theyre dry clean only and they stink!
> Sounds like you are going to get pretty busy with wedding plans!!!
> that is so crazy that you are planning for a wedding! I will get you a picture of me full length

 this week sometime. i'll have elder cook take it. ill take multiple so you have some to choose from.

>
> 
> love you all!!
> elder baldwin
> 

More pictures April 2012

Cooking out with Marcus

Elder Baldwin giving a haircut

rounding up the escaped pigs

mama pig and her babies

feeding the calves

Larane's baptism
April 14, 2012
Elders Buckley & Baldwin
1st Baptism

chopping block for harvesting Rooster

Harvesting a Rooster April 2012

Feeding the calves