3rd Transfer

Dear family and friends,

Well, first of all, transfer news. We got transfer calls last night. Sister Kratzer and I are both staying here, so my address will be the same for the next 6 weeks at least. But we had a lot of elders that were zone leaders leave this week, so there will be a lot of changes in leadership this transfer. I'm excited to see how that goes. I'm also pretty sure we'll be getting more sisters in our zone, which will be a nice change. 

Now for the rest of my week. Last Monday was great. We had a nice relaxing P-day and then that night we had a blitz. We had all the missionaries from our district plus our zone leaders come to our area. We also had a lot of ward missionaries/members come out. So we paired up a full time missionary with a ward missionary and went tracting. Tracting is no my favorite thing, but it was a really great experience. All the ward members that came out with us seemed to have a really good time and it got them more excited about missionary work. And now sister Kratzer and I have a lot of people to contact and some new people to teach. Unfortunately we found out the next day that we're not actually supposed to do blitzes, so we can't do that for any of the other areas. But it was a really great experience.

Tuesday we got a new investigator named Travis. He is dating Felicia, a girl we contacted awhile ago and have been trying to set up a lesson with. We stopped by to talk to her, but she wasn't home so we talked to Travis instead. We told him a little about The Book of Mormon and he agreed to start reading it. It was such a cool experience.

On Thursday we contacted a former investigator who was getting ready to move, but she let us in and we talked to her for awhile. (She was playing country music very loudly, which was hard because I LOVE country, but I was able to tune it out for the most part.) And then we went back Friday morning to help her clean her house so they 'd be ready to leave on time. And we got all her contact information for where she's moving so we can send the missionaries up there to her. That night we also contacted a less active member. She's been really hard to get ahold of, and we weren't sure what we were going to do to be able to help her, but she let us in no problem. And she told us that she really wants to change and is ready to come back to church. She's got twins that are 9 that haven't been bapitzed yet, and hopefully we'll start teaching them soon. We've got several appointments with her this week and I am so excited to get to know her better.

Friday was great as well. We had service in the morning, and then that night we were supposed to have a lesson with Travis. He wasn't there, but Felicia was, so we got to talk to her for awhile. We answered some of her questions and talked about The Restoration of the Gospel. She agreed to start reading The Book of Mormon and she agreed to be baptized if she finds out for herself that it's true. It was such an awesome lesson! The spirit was so strong and she is so prepared for the gospel! We have another lesson with her this week and I can't wait to go back.

Saturday we contacted a less active family that we've been trying to get into for weeks. The kids parents are divorced and they spend the weekends with their mom. The kids got baptized almost a year ago but haven't been to church very often, so we're trying to encourage them to come to church. We found out that their dad is going through a divorce and they're having a really hard time. The mom told us that her daughter was super excited to see and she asked us to come back next Saturday. She's going to feed us dinner and everything. 

And then Sunday. It was a great day, but also somewhat stressful. We had church for 6 hours, as usual. (The joys of covering multiple wards) In one of our wards, the less active member we stopped by on Thursday came to church with two of her kids! It was so great to see her there. And Sunday night we had the mission president devotional, which we can only go to if we take an investigator or recent convert. We were able to go because there is a boy in one of our wards who is dating a nonmember and she agreed to go. It was really cool. 3 recent converts got up and shared their conversion stories, and then President Nattress spoke. The spirit was so strong and it was so great. Plus the sisters we live with sang for the musical number, which was amazing. And then after we got home we had transfer calls, which are super stressful. Because you don't know if you'll get a call or when it will come. Plus it takes awhile, so we go to bed pretty late. Like I said, I'm staying here, but there will be a lot of changes in the zone so I'll tell you all about that next week.

Also, while I'm thinking about it, i'm not sure if I told you this yet. Because my first transfer was shortened to 3 weeks instead of 6 I'll be coming home 3 weeks earlier. I know that's not for a really long time, but just though you should know. I'll be back at the end of November now instead of the middle of December.

We have so many cool experiences everyday that show how much the Lord is helping us out. He wants us all to be able to return to live with Him again, and as a missionary I get to help people learn and understand that. This gospel is so great and I am so blessed to have the chance to share it with others. I am so grateful for my Savior and all that he did and does for me. 

I hope everyone is doing well back home. I love and miss you all!

Love always,
Baylee

P.S. We got a cow this week. Well our members did. Haha. And the other pics are of my district and waiting for transfer calls.