Hi Mom,
So the weather this week has been pretty cold. You
could probably verify this fact for us, but rumor has it that here in Ohio, we
have been colder than both Antarctica and Alaska when you factor in the
windchill. Last night it sounded like our whole building was definitely
coming down. Hard to sleep through it sometimes, and if we don't want to
have to be dug out of our apartment, we have to keep clearing the snow!
Ha! It is cold, needless to say. It was really fun shoveling Sister
B's driveway. She is from Utah. Her husband is one of the six
pediatric residents here in our ward, and will be here for probably another two
years before they move again.
We had some really neat experiences this week. The
first was with Jon, Julie and the K family at the Family History Center in
Youngstown. We got them up and going, and Julie started finding
generations that an unknown family member must have started putting
together. So many of them need their work done in the temple to
boot! The hopes of that lesson was to help them prepare to take names to
the temple to do baptisms for the dead as soon as possible! Jon is
excited about it. He did feel a bit of pressure though, as he is the
first member in his family, which means there is a lot of work that needs to be
done. I know he can live up the responsibility though!
Another great experience this week was with Sister
Olson. You probably all have yet to forget my control issues... That has
been hard for me to overcome as a trainer, but this week I feel like I was able
to let go a lot more. As part of training, missionaries go through a
12-week book that helps trainers to stay on track, and trainees to know what
they should be learning. I have been encouraging Sister Olson to take the
lead in more and more things, and she continues to amaze me! As she lead
out our planning session on Thursday evening, we had difficulty deciding what
needed to happen in the afternoon. We had a hard time setting
appointments for a huge chunk of time, and there were few things for us to do
in the area we were going to be in besides tract. So despite the cold,
that is what we planned for. While we were eating our lunch, we received
a distress call from St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in Youngstown. A member in
our ward's husband had a stroke the night before, and asked for the sisters to
come. We were all the way in Alliance at the time, which is an hour away,
just about to head over to Lake Milton (the other direction from Youngstown) to
tract. Fortunately our schedule was open for us to go, and we hurried as
fast as we could. Rocco wasn't doing too good when we got there, so the
Elders gave him a blessing. As we left it was so evident that that was
the reason our planning session the night before went the way it did. I
am so grateful to always be lead by the Holy Ghost to do things Heavenly Father
wants us to do. 
The last experience we had was with Gia. I don't
remember if I have ever talked about her before to you all. She is 14,
and was invited to hear the missionary discussions by her friend, Ethen.
Her parents allow us to teach her once a month, and she is permitted to attend
church once a month, and she cannot be baptized until she is 18. It makes
it hard to help her to progress since she doesn't have the constant interaction
with us like we try to have with our other investigators. So we have been
working really hard with Gia to help her gain an answer to the Book of
Mormon. This last week was like a toe in the door, and a huge break
through for her. At our last lesson we encouraged her to recognize how
she feels as she reads the Book of Mormon. She has been seeking a big
loud answer, and it has been hard to help her realize it is a still small
voice. Before we even started our lesson we asked how she has been
feeling. She looked almost concerned for a moment, and then a huge peace
came into the room as she told us that she has come to the conclusion that if
the book is not bad, it must therefore be good (she is very logical for a 14
year-old, she does debate ;) ). We were so excited! She seemed
confident in her answer. Sister Olson also took the lead in preparing
that lesson, and felt that it was an important day to teach fasting (which
originally seemed off from where we thought we would be with her as far as
lessons go). We told her that we could fast for special reasons, and we
invited her to fast this next week for something important to her, and that we
would join her in her fast. She wants us to fast for a concrete answer to
the Book of Mormon. I am so excited for her! I have never met
someone her age who is so willing to strive to do the things Heavenly Father
wants her to do. She really is so fun for us to teach! Definitely
keep her in your prayers this week.
I love Ohio, and being a missionary! I hope you
are all doing well back home! I love you all!
Love,
Sister Bakker
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| The view from Dani's apartment. The patches of no snow are actually the river. |
also, heads up. Transfers are next week which
means preparation day is Tuesday, and there is a good chance I will be
leaving.... I hope not, but there is a good possibility. So my
Surrey Lane address probably won't be good to use.
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