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