Beth and Jerry's dog

Elders Buckley and Baldwin at Yogi Bear's Jelly Stone Camping Park

Elder Baldwin

Tic on Elder Baldwin's leg (he lost a bet and had to "nair" his legs)

Email #11

good morning...

 

    after leaving Beth an Jerry's house (they fed us lunch after my first appointment on thursday) we were running a little behind, but i wanted to go see a Bull-Mastiff that one of the members had in the area. Elder Buckley wasnt sure about going over there because of us running behind but i insisted on going over there, i just had a feeling that we needed to. When we got there, the husband was so grateful we showed up because his wife really needed a blessing. She had just gotten her knees replaced and was going through a lot of pain and discomfort. So i gave my first blessing. it was pretty cool and the dog was massive. i want one....not! The spirit is powerful and he will guide us to where we need to be.

    The Edmonds fed us again on friday night. She makes some good spaghetti! we had a good lesson and taught Mary about the restoration again

.

    I got a tick on saturday. i think it was from Laranes front yard when we went over there to follow up with her. i didnt notice it til i got to Emporia while we were visiting Gerard who is supposed to be drawing us a picture of the first presidency. i scratched my leg and came across what felt like a little scab, i pulled my pant leg up and it was a tick! it was legit. ever since Elder Buckley got his tick a couple of weeks ago, ive wanted one. so i got what i wished for! Gerard pulled it off with some tweezers, head and all and then burnt it. i shouldve saved it or something to put in my journal but didnt even think of it at the time. those things can get deep in your skin!

    Larane was at church yesterday and she seemed to really enjoy herself. she participated in class and everything.  she is looking forward to being baptized on the 14th of april and we have a good fellowshipper for her to give her rides to church and everything which is good. We have another investigator set for baptism on the 14th, Sharon, but she needs to learn more.  hopefully she will be able to make it to church soon.

   Veronica still hasnt made it to church because of her work schedule. Marcus got the priesthood yesterday so hopefuly that will help her in her conversion.  shes been taught all the lessons, all she needs to do is gain a testimony and go to church one more time.

    thats about it. keep me in your prayers.  I have to go to leadership training all this week down in Meadowbrook.  i will be staying in Manchester with the elders up there to go to leadership. Elder Buckley is going to petersburg. it will be nice going to leadership to be counseled by Pres Perry and his counselors as well as the assistants. ill let you know how it goes. i love you all and miss you. take it easy

love, Elder Baldwin

Elder Cook(last AP) and Elder Baldwin

Elder Coon (former DL) and Elder Baldwin

Elder Wheelock (new AP) and Elder Baldwin

Elder Baldwin with Sister Minozzi's puppy

Edmonds and Elders Buckley & Baldwin

Edmond's house

Sister Minozzi

Elder Baldwin with Larane's puppy:BethAnn

email #10

Goodmorning,

  This week was a successful week in finding investigators and teaching lessons. We were able to get 4 new investigators from one single lesson. that was pretty cool. One of the investigators has previously investigated the church and the only thing holding him back from baptism was Galatians 1:8. Next time we meet with him we are going to explain to him that Joseph Smith and the church teach the same things that Paul taught to the galatians. He investigated for 2 years, went to a temple open house and loved it, and that one scripture is the only thing holding him back. He is engaged to one of the other girls sitting in the lesson. All 4 of them enjoyed the lesson and 3 of them accepted the invitation to be baptized. It was the first lesson that i felt like i was being myself and wasn't teaching in a stiff-type of way, if that makes any sense. Hopefully we can get all 4 of them together again at the same time to teach them again. we will see....

 

We went over to Sister Minozzi's farm to help her a little bit. We helped clean out the barn and helped her move the goats. She gave us a bunch of license plates, so i will send them home eventually. Sis Minozzi is so cool. We are trying really hard to get her back to church! Her husband is a trucker and only comes home on the weekends, so she spends time with him.

 

On Tuesday we had another lesson with the Edmonds. They are awesome. I love them so much. They fed us so much! Big plate of Lasagna and salad and some bread and she fed us some pound cake with cool whip and strawberries on top. She is a good cook and loves to feed us. We went over there last night and they fed us jumbo cheeseburgers unexpectedly. She sewed up my pants on the machine and reinforced the leg seams and crotch seems. She also re-sewed my reflector strip on my backpack because she saw how I sewed it on the first time and felt bad i guess. haha. She did her up good.  They love to tell stories!!! hahah. Some of them are hilarious. He told us one of his halloween pranks as a kid.

 

He had many many more to tell about tippin' peoples outhouses over while they were in it, and all kinds of hilarious stuff they did as kids. the Edmonds are awesome. He has a few concerns about heaven and who is going to heaven, so we are going to have to study up on it this week to answer his questions. We meet with them again on Friday.

 

 We went to transfer meeting on Thursday and talked to Pres. Perry. Elder Buckley asked if we could go visit one of his recent converts along with one of the member families he visited a lot. The recent converts, Beth and Jerry  are going to feed us this Thursday. I guess when they feed the missionaries, they go all-out. That will be fun. They are really good people and they just got their Patriarchial Blessings and are preapring to go through the temple soon. After visiting them, we went over to the other families house. The husband has MS and is bed-ridden, same with the son. He was so appreciative of us stopping by. You could tell how much he loved Elder Buckley when we walked in. His face just lit up. It was pretty cool. After spending a few minutes with him, we had to hit the highway for our hour and a half journey back home to make it to James' funeral service. It was a good service. A lot of nice things were said about him. 

 

That was the big week we had. 4 new investigators, 2 dinners, a funeral, whoopee!!!

 

Friday, we are doing exchanges with the Zone Leaders. One of them is coming here with me in Lawrenceville. It will be cool to learn from a zone leader. Our ZL' s are good missionaries and show great charity for everyone. 

 

Tell everyone I said Hello. I love you all and miss you! Take care, you are all in my prayers. Peace!

 

Love, Elder Baldwin

Email #9

Good day to ya!

 

     This week was full of surprises. Some good, some bad. I'll start with the bad news first. James, who is a recent convert that got baptized on January 14th, was found lying on his bed dead. He was 62 years old. We have been going over there a couple times a week to visit him and to check up on him. His health was decreasing at a fast pace and i kept urging and urging him to go see a doctor. I feel bad because I know I could've done more to help him out. He had a bunch of fluid in his lungs and had really bad liver problems.  It was not good at all. We attempted to visit him towards the end of the week, but didnt get a response to our door knocks or phone calls. We went over there with the Bro Dilworth (Branch Mission Leader) and got the same...no response. He wanted us to go back on sunday to see if we could get a hold of him and if not, we would have to call the sheriffs office. Well, Sunday came around and still didnt get a response so we called the Sheriff and they came and broke into the house and found him lying on his bed. Its unfortunate because we were able to establish a good relationship with him. We are awaiting information from the family on when the services are.

   

    We were able to set another investigator for baptism this week! Larane is set for April. she is progressing really well and is really starting to recognize the promptings of the spirit as she prays. It is awesome. She had 4 more puppies this week which makes 11 dogs total now!! WOW! She wants them out of her hair, so she gave us the responsibility of finding homes for them. So far, weve already found 2 homes haha. They are so cute, they are a Black Lab, German Shepherd, Chow mix. Dont know what the heck they are going to look like when they grow, but right now they are cute. Later that day after we taught her, we went over to another investigators house to teach a lesson and her Dog peed all over my shoe! and i was wearing my brown shoes that have the softer leather so it just soaked it all up! My shoes smell so bad right now haha. But its whatever!

 

    Marshall and Mary are doing well. They said they would get baptized eventually but wanted to learn more first. We are going over there tomorrow to have a lesson and they are feeding us too! They are awesome, I love them! They are very receptive to the message and they seem to understand it pretty well and dont really have any concerns so far. Tomorrow we are teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, and endure to the end. Hopefully they will see the importance of baptism and see how it all ties into eternal life.

 

    Yesterday we had a 24-hour Mission fast for finding the elect of god that have been prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel. President Perry felt inspired to have this fast and with doing the fast, we tracted about 4 hours yesterday. We tracted in south hill and the first street we hit, we got 4 return appointments to teach. It was pretty cool to see the blessings that come from fasting. We are just praying that each of them follow through with their appointment with us and that they will truly be interested in hearing the message. After tracting, we went over to Sister Pearce's house and she fed us a big bbq chicken dinner with a salad, rolls, and corn. it was delicious! We only have 2 dinner appointments this month at members houses. I asked one of the members on the calendar to fix us some squirrel or opossum or something. If im going to be in the south, i gotta partake of some true southern backwood cookin'. I also said that snapping turtle soup would be fine too! haha. We will see if she pulls through or not. i guess her son goes out hunting and always gets some squirrel and stuff so hopefully he will kill some for us.

 

    As far as the weather goes... we have had tornado warnings, but none have touched down from what i know. We got a light snow this morning, but its gone now. The weather is crazy here. One day it will be 75 degrees bright and sunny, and the next day will be like 40 degrees cloudy and rainy. its nuts. I dont even want to think about what the summer weather is going to be like. I heard it is perfect......NOT!

 

    I hope you all have fun at the Grand Canyon! Shoot that sounds fun a lil bit! and then going to Cali to party it up! Thats legit. Let everyone know that I love them and miss them. Its kind of weird that ive been out for 2 months. Time is flying, although I still have like 22 more months to go. haahha. No biggy though. I love it out here!

 

  Im trying to think what else happened this week....oh! Sister Minozzi breeds dogs and she has 3 new litters! Dachsund, Cocker spaniel, and shih-tzu. we were able to hold the weiner dogs last week after helping her on the farm and i want one of those. I forgot my camera this morning to send you pictures, but i will send them next week with the email. She gets pretty good money breeding dogs.  Sis. Minozzi is awesome. 

 

    I've been getting sick these past couple days. Sinus infection or something.  I still cant sleep at night and i think that is what is getting me sick, just as it did in the mtc. I'm going to see a doctor in Richmond on thursday and hopefully he will fix the problem! Ill let you know how it goes. but other than that, the week has been good except for the passing of James.

 

   I love you all and I miss you! Take care, drive safe and send me pictures.

 

Love,

Elder baldwin