Happy New Year!

So this week for my email I wanted to share another video with you. In honor of the new year, here is a video about how we can't live in the past. We must look forward with faith because God has already blessed us so much, that what he has in store for the future can only be better! :)

 

"Look Not Behind Thee"

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=910930409001

 

(The scripture this video is based off of. Gen. 19:26)

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/gen/19.26?lang=eng#25

 

 

 

The past is to be learned from but not lived in.

(Words that I need to live by as well.)

 

 

 

Another Good talk by my good friend Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. READ IT!

 

 

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1819

 

 

Ok... That's all folks! Have a Happy New Year! I will talk to you all later!!!! Love you!!

 

Love Sister Bauer

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas to my friends and family!!!

I don't have a TON of time to write, but I wanted to leave you with some Christmas cheer!

Watch this video. I love it.

"What Shall We Give"

http://www.mormonchannel.org/christmas-videos?v=2919740155001

Also Watch this one:

"The Nativity"

http://www.mormonchannel.org/christmas-videos?v=2893093383001

And Watch this one:

"O Come O Come Emmanuel"

http://www.mormonchannel.org/more-videos?v=2008190983001

And read this:

LUKE 2:7-30

7 And she brought forth her ^afirstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the ^binn.

 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the ^aglory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you ^agood tidings of great ^bjoy, which shall be to all people.

 11 For unto you is ^aborn this day in the city of David a ^bSaviour, which is Christ the ^cLord.

 12 And this shall be a ^asign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

 14 ^aGlory to God in the highest, and on earth ^bpeace, good will toward men.

 15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

 16 And they came with ^ahaste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

 18 And all they that heard it ^awondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

 19 But Mary kept all these things, and ^apondered them in her heart.

 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them

May you Keep Christ in Christmas this year and remember to keep the spirit of Christmas in your hearts!

Merry Christmas from the Norwalk ward Missionaries!!! (and Santa!)

Love,
Sister Bauer

There Must Needs be Opposition in ALL Things.

Oh Boy did that scripture ring true this week. It was the hardest, but best week I have had in a while.

On the one hand, Sherry Got baptized. Sherry was my investigator in my last area. She was the one who just waltzed right into church by herself! Knowing her now... that doesn't surprise me one bit! It's just like her.

It was the best baptism I have been too on my mission! The spirit was so strong and everything was just so..... right! The timing, the people there, the missionaries who came. It was how a baptism SHOULD feel. I love her so much and I am so glad that she was able to make this covenant with God. She is an amazing example and I could literally go on for hours about how much I love her.

Next week she will be confirmed and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And then she will be a member of Jesus Christ's restored church on the earth! I cried so much at the baptism. I sang and the whole time I was on the verge of tears. It was the best feeling ever. To see someone you love so much make that promise. It was a day I won't soon forget.

On the flip side of things, this was a REALLY tough week. Every appointment we scheduled cancelled on us. And to top that off, we got dropped by one of our investigators, we got rejected in every single contact and yelled at and called crazy a few different times. It was definitely a tough few days. But Like President Uchtdorf says, "Life is not measured by the number of times we stumble, but by the number of times we stand up, dust ourselves off, and stride forward."

Currently working on that!

WELL, that's it for this week! I love you all and will talk to you next week!!!!

I LOVE YOU!

Have a good week!

Love, Sister Bauer

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

But 2 pictures is just priceless!!!

****Scenario***

Phone Ringing

Me: Hello this is Sister Bauer!

Other Voice: Hi Sister Bauer, do you know who this is?

Me: Uhhh.... Sherry? (She called on the Woodruff Sisters phone.)

Sherry: Yes. I was wondering what you were doing this Sunday at 4?

Me: Why....

Sherry: Because I need your vocal Chords.

Me: WHY????? (the anxiousness in my voice rising.)

Sherry: For a Baptism.

Me: WHOS????????

Sherry: Mine.

Me: Screams!!!! WHAT?????????????

Sobs

Sobs

Sobs

Me: Yes I will be there!!!

And I was!!!

And it was the BEST DAY EVER!!!!!

A week of Ups and Downs.

Hello Family and friends! I hope this past week was so great for all of you.

Like the title of this email states, this week was a week of ups and downs.

Lets first talk about the downs....

This week was a week of discouragement. When sister Lindsey and I first got to this area, we both had really good feelings about it. We felt like God was just waiting to pour out blessings upon us, but we also felt like we would really have to work hard if we wanted them. Well, anyways... other missionaries have been witnessing miracles upon miracles and Sister Lindsey and I were getting so discouraged because we felt like we weren't the recipients of any miracles. I was getting really frusterated. but then I realized how we felt at the beginning. I realized we haven't been working as hard as we could, I also feel like we haven't been as obedient as we could. It's not like we are DISobedient, but there is always room to improve right?

I also made a realization this week. I was so mad at myself because I felt like I didn't love my mission. I want to so badly, but I couldn't help but find myself envying those who had already gone home, or who were preparing to leave. I would sit and think about how life will be when I get home. I would imagine seeing my family and what I will do with them when I am done. And I realized that my life is one big countdown. And that's not what I want! I want to LOVE my mission and my investigators.

So this week as I had those few things working against me, you can imagine how down I was feeling. Then, (cue the ups) like always, my mom seemed to be an answer to my prayers. She sent me a letter of encouragement and told me that she knew I was doing great things and that I never needed to fear that I was alone. She always knows what to say...

So I had a nice chat with Heavenly Father. I told Him that I wanted to love my mission. I didn't want to wake up and dread knocking on the doors that I knew were gong to be slammed in my face. I didn't want to feel like it was a burden to talk to everyone. And I made a promise to Heavenly Father that I would be dilligent and work hard if he would bless me with the miracles to keep me going.

And guess what!?

He did!

This week we were finally able to meet with Cecilia! She is a woman we found contacting a few weeks ago. She was really sweet and said we could come back but cancelled twice. We were finally able to meet with her Sunday morning and she is SO PREPARED! She told us about how the only reason she let us come back was because she felt bad for us. But we visited her Friday night just on a whim and went in for just a minute. She said she felt like what we had to say was important and at that point really wanted to hear what we had to say. She told us that she had been to Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and that when she went she felt something "different" She said, "I felt something completely different there than at the Catholic Chuch. It was a feeling of peace, and a place where she could feel the spirit of God." She then proceeded to tell us about her friend that had recenlty joined our church who had a hard life. She said that afer she "became Mormon" she seemed so much happier and that it was probably because of the church. We testified to her that the peace she felt WAS indeed the spirit and that she could feel that all the time. We are meeting with her again this week and giving her a church tour!

I know that God does indeed place prepared people in our paths!!! That we have to talk to everyone in order to find the prepared few.

Also, another funny/cool story that happened. Last night, Sunday night, we were visiting some Less Active's in our ward and there was no answer. I felt prompted to diverge from our plans that we had and to try to visit some Part Member Familes in our area. So we looked to see who we could visit and we came across the name Jose and Lisa Garcia. Jose was the member and Lisa was not. So we decided to stop by. As we knocked on the door, Jose answered and had a look of confusion on his face and said, "Uhh... not who I was expecting..." And so me and Sis. Lindsey looked at each other and asked who he was expecting? He told us the male missionaries were coming at 8:00pm (it was 7:30). We were really confused because we were in OUR area, and the elders wouldn't just come into our area and teach a Part Member Family without telling us... would they???

*Side note*

We share a ward with 2 other sets of missionares, a set of Elders and a set of sisters. So the ward is split into 3 areas. We don't cross boundaries unless we are visiting an active member, and we always tell the missionaries whos area we are in when we are there so that we don't both show up to the same house... awkward.

*Side note #2*

We also share ward boundaries with the Spanish ward because there are SOOO many spanish speaking people in our area. So a lot of the time we run into the spanish elders. Because sometimes people who speak Spanish come to the English ward, then switch or vice versa, so we have repeats.

So anyways! We were thinking maybe the spanish elders are coming by? But when we asked the names of the elders, He said, "Sturgell and Bengtzon". They are the elders in our ward. We were SO confused. Then the elders call us and they realize where we are and that they will be there at 8. Then they show up, and it was just awkward.

BUT this is where the miracle happens.

Apparently sisters have never been able to get into thier house, so the elders tried. They were able to get in and have success in coming back. So they established with the last sisters that they would teach this family. Well then Sis. Lindsey and I white washed in and didn't know about this little arrangement. But as we left thier house, we were able to set a return appointment.

It was awkward, but I know that I was promted to go visit this family because they were already expecting missionaries.

I know that God blesses those who work hard and follow the spirit. I'm so grateful to be a missionary at this time.

I love this Gospel and I know that it is led by Jesus Christ!

I love you all and wish you all a happy week!!!!!

Love, Sister Bauer

I'm Thankful for a LOT!!!

Friends and Family!!!

Oh, I love to write to you all!! I miss and love you all so much!!!

This past week was Thanksgiving. It was full of thankfulness and reflection.

We went to the ward mission leaders house for Thanksgiving and it was good! His wife's family is huge and half of them are in our ward. So they have really big holidays and all the sister missionaries in the ward went there for dinner. It was a good time.

The kid sitting next to me... his name is Ammon and he served his mission in the Boise Idaho Mission. So we had a good time talking about Idaho and how great it is. He served in Nampa and his area was ALL FOUR STAKES!!!!! That's a big area. I asked him if he knew where the birch building was and he said yeah and then told him that used to be my church building. It was fun to talk about Idaho!! Any chance I get to talk about it, I take!!! :) haha you can take the girl out of Idaho, but you can't take the Idaho out of the girl!!!


Next to me is my companion sister Lindsey and next to her is sister Afualo... one of the other sister missionaries in our ward. These were all the "cousins". They are a giant Filipino family.

So I can't believe that it's December here... its literally still like 75*-80* everyday! It's super weird! But This is a cool picture that I took and really like.... so I thought I would send it to you!! Happy December from Sunny California!!! :)



This ward is a lot more missionary minded than the last ward that I was in. They seem to really care about doing missionary work and people actually sign up to come on splits with us. So that's good. The ward is just split up into 3 areas. Our area is only about 3 blocks. It's pretty small. The elders have the sketchy part of town. They don't let the sisters go over there much. We ARE teaching one lady. Her name is Patricia. She is the brother of a Less Active member of the ward. But I don't really know if she has real intent or not. I suppose we will find out this week. We have to schedule another lesson with her.

Well, I know Thanksgiving is over, but I wanted to share a little video with you that has to do with thanksgiving! Click on the link.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911161818001

Well, I don't really know what else to say except that Next month I hit 9 months!!! Where does the time go? I will be halfway done with the journey of serving the Lord for 18 months! It's crazy to think about what has transpired in a year's time.

-Friends returning from missions

-Marriages

-A Year since I turned in my mission papers.

And a lot more.

Time never stops and precious moments don't last very long. So I'm trying to savor every last second of this beautiful 18 months that in reality isn't that long. It's really hard, and at times I find myself wishing that it could just be over, but then I realize that this time is short and there will be a time when I am wishing that I could go back. So, every night and morning in my prayers, I say to Heavenly Father, "Thank-you for this opportunity to serve Thee Lord, even though it's hard and I sometimes complain. Thank-you for the growth and change I am experiencing, and that I get to serve you with all my "Might, mind, and strength" (D&C 4) Help me reap the blessings."

I'm thankful to be a missionary.

I'm thankful for all of you.

And I'm thankful for the knowledge that this gospel brings me.

Love you all!! Have a good week!!

Love, Sister Bauer