The Week of the Baker

It's been quite the week for Sister Baker! We spent the first two hours of our p-day in the hospital waiting for x-rays. Yesterday we jumped on our bikes to head out to see a referral and I heard a noise and looked back to see Sister Baker, sitting next to her bicycle on the ground. In fact, she had fallen quite gracefully and I was well impressed at how she finagled that in her skirt! She wasn't going very fast and her handlebars got caught on a flower basket thing and she toppled over and landed on her wrist. It started swelling up and the pain kept getting worse and worse, so thus! the hospital. But nothing broken! So that's good. Just gets to wear a..cool..splint and take pain meds. She hurt her dominant hand so her President's letter was pretty hilarious. It was in this little kid type handwriting and the first sentance reads, "Dear President Ogden, Today I fell off my bike and hurt my wrist." priceless.

Well, the magic didn't stop there, we had quite the night in Birmingham! We were going to Harbourne for a baptism (an 82 year old woman that Sister Clark and Baker had taught). We were waiting at a train station for the Harbourne sisters to come and get us when this guy comes up to Sister Baker to ask directions. He's totally not with it. Drunk or high or something, and she's trying to look up in the map some bogus streets he keeps coming up with, and I'm on the phone with the other Sisters trying to tell them where we are. Well, I turn back to look at Sister Baker and see this guy leaning in with a huge pair of lips to give her a big old smoochy smooch on the cheeck. Oh the horror! The look on Sister Baker's face! Fantastic! Instead of helping I just lose it and can't stop laughing. Then he starts asking us if we have kids, "Hey do you have kids? I have three." We're like "no" and in an attempt to deter him and possibly connect with whatever brain power he may still have available, I tell him, "No, we're nuns." but I think that just got him more excited. I call the Harbourne sisters again to tell them to please hurry, but since I'm laughing so hard all I can say, is, "just hurry" and I wanted to communicate to Sister Baker to just STOP talking to the guy, but I just kept laughing (we were on a busy road and he had no idea what was going on) and the car finally pulled up and before he can get another kissy kiss,Sister Baker distracts him by handing him a pass along card. I jump in the car and am yelling at Sister Baker to hurry up, and our friend is yelling at sister baker, "Hey Bab! Where’s the numba?! There’s no numba on 'ere!!" Blast, he'll have to go onto mormon.org if he ever wants to see her again!  Oh boy! good times.

Marianne got baptized this week and Sister Whitaker and I got to go! It was so cool. I got to see the Stewart family at the baptism! Bradley goes, "Your mom told me to give you a big hug," so he does, and then I realize the Elders standing behind us are a bit in shock, so I had to explain that he was my cousin. ha ha. But Bradley got to baptize Marianne and I got a good view because I got to hold the towel for her when she came back out of the font, and the spirit was so strong. Marianne came out of the water and was just in shock at the power she felt. It was so beautiful.

In district meeting we were challenged to read Preach My Gospel and then apply what we learned. I started doing this and earlier in the week I read about how we should tell the First Vision in Joseph Smith's own words, saying it slowly, and then baring testimony of how we came to know it was true. I hadn't been the best at doing that so I had been going over the first vision, making sure I had all the words in order. On Sunday we were in our Gospel Principles class and one of our ward missionaries was teaching the lesson, Sister Lallyette. She started talking about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. She started giving his background and building up to the first vision. I was thinking, "dang, I'm even ready to give the first vision and we're not teaching today." She started talking about the great religious confusion of the time and how Joseph wanted to know which church was true. She stopped and then said, "Then what happened Sister Pope?" Sweet. So I picked it up, and went into the first vision and said slowly and carefully, "I saw a pillar of light..." and then bore my testimony and sat back and the lesson continued. Crazy! I was chuffed that the spirit was there to prompt Sister Lallyette, and that the Lord could use me as a resource. I've learned that the best lessons are the ones when we step back ourselves and let Heavenly Father give the lesson, and let us be His resources when necessary, as the Holy Ghost directs.

Good stuff!

Love you all!

Madie aka Sista Pope

Apostolic Week!

It was quite the week! Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to talk with us for three hours! I can't tell you what it's like to shake hands with a special witness of Christ and then to feel him looking into your eyes for a brief moment. It was like looking into an ocean. He was great, just got right down to business. He first explained that it would be a discussion and he asked us to volunteer to answer questions and ask questions. He made it clear that he would not call anybody out or make anyone feel uncomfortable. When missionaries stood to ask something or make a comment about something, if he wanted to ask them a question, he always preceded it with, "Can I ask you a question?" And thus taught us a cool principle. He wanted us to understand that we are agents, not objects. We have our moral agency. We can choose to act and not be acted upon. Objects on the other hand, can only be acted upon. We need to act as if we are agents. We should never treat people as objects. He talked about strengthening our prayers. He hates it when people stand up in church and say in their prayers, "please bless those who are not here today, that they can come to church next week." he told us for once, he would just love if someone stood up and said something along the lines, "we know that we are missing several people, we know that we need to go and to visit them, and we just ask that we will all pay heed to the spirit so that we know what to say and what to do, and also where to go so we don't all show up at the same house." You are the agent, you are the tool that will help God answer your prayers.

Man he gave us a lot of cool stuff, I'll share more next week. twas really amazing.

All my love and stuff!

God is so good. Everything is possible.

Okay, well yesterday was the best day of my mission!

Behold! Garry Barnes was baptized!!! The chapel was packed - there was not a free seat. In attendance were the Evesham Branch, the Barnes extended family, two bishops, the stake president, the entire branch presidency, the mission president, and eleven missionaries. Sister Clark and I got to sit on the front bench with the Barnes family along with Sister Stucki and Sister T. Garry's sister in law (Wendy's sister) gave the first talk. She started talking about eternal families. Sister Clark and I had Maddy Barnes, the youngest girl, six years old, snuggled up between us. I leaned forward to look at the faces of Harrison, Harley, Bradley, Wendy, and Garry, all sitting one after another. The oldest boys were still fasting. Wendy had tears in her eyes; Garry in white, in his baptism clothes. There was another talk, and then a multitude of children stood up to sing the "Armies of Helaman" and then it was time! Garry got dunked! At the beginning of my mission our area president came and told us to wake up early every morning and visualize the person we wanted to baptize. He shared with us a verse from Ether 12:19 "and there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad." For months I woke up to visualize Garry's baptism, and yesterday I truly saw with my eyes the things, which I had beheld with an eye of faith, and I was GLAD! I even made green jello, which we gave Garry a huge bowl of and forced him to eat it! Victory! But anyways, the baptism was beautiful, and while we waited for Garry to get changed Sister Clark and Sister Stucki and I were asked to give our testimonies and then when Garry came back some of Wendy's family sang a beautiful song and President Retallick welcomed him into the branch. "As branch president I now get to give you assignments and my first one is for you to come up and bear your testimony." Garry stood up, and was able to explain that there was no thunderbolt, no flash of lightening. The thing that got him were the experiences that he had recorded in his journal, of times where he had felt the spirit, and he could not deny the things he had written with his own hand. He simply thanked everyone for their examples of living the gospel. That’s all the gospel really is. It's making our lives good. It's bringing joy and peace and happiness to our lives by bringing us closer to the Savior and teaching us the things we should do. Garry was able to make the leap of faith and decide for himself and it was truly amazing. I cannot explain the joy that filled my being.

To top off the day, I was also able to see my very first convert.  It had been one year since her baptism, and she's still active in the church! Again words can't express that joy I felt when we embraced.

Also! Tell Grandma Maurine that I played the piano for sacrament meeting in Banbury! Yes! There was no one else available, and bless them, they actually let me attempt! Scary man. It was my crowning piano moment.

I also got to hold Brad and Jessica's new baby boy! Sooo cute! I met him when he was two days old. It's so cool to be around family. Truly, truly.

Also, Sally Earley, who was baptized a month ago in Evesham, has been called to serve as 2nd counselor in the Relief Society presidency! I got to see her yesterday at Garry's baptism and her countenance was radiating.

God is so good. Everything is possible.

super powers

Half my brain is in Banbury with the stuff we did there, the other half is in Solihull with the stuff we did here, and so I really don't know what to tell you about because I'm just not sure what happened where and who knows what day it happened?? The longer my mission goes on, the more jumbled my brain gets. We go to dinner appointments and members ask, "so what did you do today?" and I honestly have to sit there and think hard. What on earth did we do today? And then some foggy memory will come back, kind of like the feeling you get when you remember your dreams from the night before...oh yeah! We did this and this and this! But on occasions when the Lord really needs you to use your noggin, cool things happen. The amazing abilities of the brain combined with the spirit, sometimes makes you feel like you have super powers. Like I've run into people that I haven't seen for months, and who I'd only spent five to ten min talking with and somehow I've been able to recognize them, and their names come to my head. That’s just crazy. The spirit is good stuff!

Welp!

Love you all! Be the best!