September 7

Hi Mom,

This has been a good week! So for starters, Sister Kunz and I have

been praying for Brother B and his family, who has not been focused

on in a long time if at all. There is no record of them in the area

book other than on the ward list, and the ward doesn't really know who

he is, except for President R. So we decided we would call

President R to see if he would like to go and extend and invitation

to the Gladys Knight Fireside. President R was more than thrilled.

So we called Brother B, like we do frequently, with the expectation

of us leaving him a message and just hoping that he will be home. This

message had a bit of a different ring to him when we said that

President R would be coming with us. He called us back immediately,

all excited. He set a specific appointment with us and everything.

When we arrived, he was dressed in his best church suit despite the

hot weather. We had a nice meeting with him, and his wife. It was a

miracle, President R later told us, that Sister B sat in and

participated. He told us that she had never ever participated in a

church conversation in the 20 years he has known the family. It was an

incredible experience. We found out a lot about some things we can do

to hopefully help him have a desire to return to activity. After such

a long time, miracles are happening in people who have said they would never change or come back. I am so grateful to be apart of this great work while the Lord is hastening it. I truly do love being a

missionary.

Another awesome miracle for the week... Sister V came to church

with her daughters!! She told us that she wouldn't be able to until

the end of October because she was going to be out of town, but she

committed to come, and she did! It was so great to see her there, and

her daughters seemed to like it too! That was great!

Sorry for the confusion, mom. Transfers were last week. Sister Kunz

and I are pretty much guaranteed two transfers together to be able to

finish up her training, and then usually one of us will switch.

Sister Jarvis left, and we have a new sister here, who Sister Jackson

is training, named Sister Hemenway. She is also from Idaho. Sister

Jackson has actually been here for awhile. When Sister Kunz and I

came here, we just split the area that had already been worked in.

Also this transfer will only be 5 weeks, so hopefully that doesn't

throw you off too much.

Other big news! ST. MARYS SPLIT!!!!! There is just too much work

there right now to be handled by one set of missionaries, and has

split in half. I will let you know more about the details of the

split when I hear more. From what I have heard through the grapevine

is that it is still on fire. I hope that is true. I miss it a lot

there.

Well I love you all! I know that this church is the only church by

which we can be a family forever, and though life is hard sometimes,

it is worth it.

Love,

Sister Bakker

August 31

Hi Mom,

You will never guess what happened this week! Well I don't know if

any of you have forgotten what I sound like when I sing, but somehow

they got me to get up there and sing for a special musical number in

church! It was the 6 missionaries in the ward, and we sang our

mission song. It actually turned out pretty good. I really felt the

spirit as we sang. It is such a powerful song!

Another positive, we had a meeting on Saturday to prepare for Gladys

Knight and her choir, Saints Unified Voices to come. It is a pretty

big deal that they are coming here, and we have been doing a crazy ton

to get ready for it all. That meeting we were supposed to meet with

everyone in the Toledo Stake (which should have been Sister O'Banion

and her new companion). Turns out they couldn't make it. They were

at Sister M's baptism!! I was so happy to hear that everything

went okay. I haven't gotten pictures yet, but I will send them on

when I do.

This week we had a lot of meetings, so not too much to report.

Sister Kunz had her first chance to invite someone to be baptized. It

went pretty stellar! She did a great job! I am really happy to be

serving with her.

I love you all! I hope you have a really great week!

Love,

Sister Bakker

August 24

Hi Mom!

This week was really good. We had our Zone Conference, and I learned

a lot about how the church organization works, and our roles in it.

President Vellinga talked about the growth in St. Marys in front of

everyone as he talked about it, and had me talk a bit on it. After

all of that he had me publicly announce how many people were there my first week, and decided it would be a good idea right then and there

to tell me that there was 81 people there last Sunday, and that

everyone I have been working with is still on date for baptism (this Saturday and those on Sept 20th). I definitely teared up

at all of that. I never knew how much you could love a whole

collection of people until I came on my mission.

The City of North Royalton is doing good! Sister Kunz and I have been

working hard this week! I really love this place. The hills are kind

of fun and it has been a new adventure living around a highly

populated city. I love talking with everyone as we go! We are doing

our best to find as we go in every situation. We had a really awesome

experience this last week. We went to Firestone to get our tires

changed, which took a little while. While we were there waiting, they

had us sit in chairs in front of a tv, so we pulled out our reading

material that we took in with us. There was a couple sitting next to

us that decided to comment on it. That conversation involved into a

mini lesson on the plan of salvation, and the blessings of having

restored truths! It was an incredible teaching opportunity, and they

were a captive audience. Unfortunately they aren't in our area, but we

were given permission to go and teach them to explain that elders

would be coming soon. The spirit was so strong there.

I love being a missionary so much! Sister Frampton went home this

last week mid-transfer for school. It has really put into perspective

how short your time really is as a missionary. I know that the

restored gospel of Jesus Christ can help anyone no matter where they

are at in their lives. I know that when we learn to rely on the

atonement, we can change to become something far greater than what we

are now.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Bakker

August 17

Hi Mom,

This week has been a good one! I feel like I am writing less and

less, so sorry about that. We have been working hard to find more

service opportunities to do to get our faces out in the community

more. Hopefully we have some more prospects for that this week.

We had a grand finale for the week. There is a less-active, Brother

N, who's wife ratted him out when they were tracted into a

year or so ago, but has no records in the ward yet. We talked with

his wife (who is Catholic) last week, and talked about family history

with her. The topic of an old painting that his grandma had done when

she converted to the church came up, and how he had rescued the

painting from a flood. I know that the spirit of Elijah touched her

heart. Last week, she told us that her husband would avoid the

missionaries at all cost, and the church, but that she wished he would

reconnect with the church because of the good it did for his mother.

Well to make a long story short, she told him about our lesson, and

our interest in his mother and grandmother's painting, and he couldn't

wait to tell us the story. So he set up an appointment for the first

time in decades with the missionaries. Just yesterday, he brought out

the painting and told us the story of how it came to be, and how it

has traveled all of the country. He and she both have agreed to take

the missionary lessons starting this week! I know that the spirit of

Elijah is real. I also know that the veil is thin, and that there are

family members of mine and those I am working with who are helping

this great work move along. I love my mission!

I love you all! Thank you so much for all you do for me each week!

Love,

Sister Bakker

August 11

Dear Mom,

I still love living with the other sisters.  I think it is a great time.  We don't walk a ton.  We still drive.  There is rumor that they will make this a biking area.  There are a lot of hills here, so it would be tough for whoever does it.  The highest point in Ohio is here.  

This week, we didn't have too much to report on.   Sister Kunz is a great missionary!  She really is learning quickly.  I feel like she is teaching me more than anything else which is awesome.  The area here is different.  We have less people to work with because it is so small.  We have pretty much no one in our teaching pool, but we are working on that.  We are trying to serve in as many places as we can.  The ward is good to us.  They have had a big turnover of missionaries here in the last few months, which has been hard for them.  It is hard to let in another set, that according to their past experience, will be leaving in a transfer or less.  They are really supportive, though.  

I know that nothing happens in missionary work until we have someone to teach.  Finding people to teach is primarily the role of members.  The members here in the Strongsville Ward have a huge desire to find people for us to teach.  Many of them are working on certain people as we speak, and that is so effective.  I can't wait to go home and do the same thing.  I love my mission, but a missionary is so limited in the impact that you can have on helping people join the church.  I have seen a lot of success on my mission.  More than a lot of missionaries.  The successes that I have had here is not because of the missionaries.  All of the success has come because of the primary support of the members.  I know that is true.  

I am so grateful for my mission, and love being here so much!  I love you all!

Love,

Sister Bakker

Aug 4

Taken in St Marys, Ohio

Dear Mom,

So this week has been a lot of just stopping by people to try to get to know everyone in the little city of North Royalton.  Usually missionaries don't both start off new in an area like this, so it hasn't taken me as long in my last areas to learn names, and already have lots of people to teach.  Our teaching pool is literally zilch.  To me that is all just part of the fun.  I am glad that Sister Kunz and I get to figure it all out together.  I think that makes it less hard for someone who is being trained to not feel like they are the only new one.  It just makes for two clueless missionaries, some awkward moments, and fun contacting experiences. 

Everyone already knows how I feel about tracting.  It is not the most effective, though can work occasionally.  So we have been trying other alternatives, like service and such.  Sister Kunz really wanted to tract one night, though, so we did.  I was so impressed!  She was the first one to open her mouth without prompting from me or anything.  She is very bold, and has a lot of confidence.  I love that!  

Something else that has really impressed me about the Strongsville ward is the amount of sisters who are returned missionaries (who are only here temporarily for pest control) who just are aching to go out with us.  We had one family say, "Sisters, what can we do to help find investigators for you to teach?"  They understand their purpose.  That is for sure!  So many of the other members are willing and eager to go out teaching with us, or even have their investigators in their homes for lessons.  Members sometimes forget how powerful their influence is in just being involved in the teaching process without even having to teach anything.  I know that any investigator who is taught with the involvement of the members, their retention in the church is much greater than it is if their whole experience with solely with the missionaries.  I want to be like those good members when I return.  I want to be involved in going teaching.  I want to invite the missionaries to bring their investigators and less-actives they are working with into my home.  I want to help find people to teach. 

I love my mission and I am grateful for it every day!  I wish that there words that could describe how much it has changed my life, but I can't.  Everyone should experience this.  

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Bakker

There are so many White Tail Deer out here.  They are so over populated out here, and not afraid of people.

There are some pictures of cleveland and a church out there.