An Apostle of God shook my hand...

It's true! This weekend we got to hear from Elder Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He came and spoke to our mission about all things missionary work. Mostly about how to find more. And you know what he said? Talk to more people! That's the secret! haha who knew???

Elder Ballard talked about how if we can just talk to more people, our teaching pools will increase and our baptisms will go up also. It was so cool to listen to a Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and just soak up his words.

I also got to shake his hand!! Ahh! 

There was a question and answer portion at the end and a sweet elder from our mission asked a really inspired question that touched everyone in the room. He talked about how he had only had incredible companions and how he was so grateful for that, but he also felt so inadequate because they were so amazing. 

Elder Ballard, in the sweetest way, said, "Elder I can fix that right now! You are a SON of GOD!" And he proceeded to tell him (and the rest of us for that matter) that inadequate feelings are not from our Heavenly Father. They are from the adversary and we are enough for God. It was a REALLY cool and good reminder that it doesn't matter that I am not the best at everything I do. God has set forth his plan that the gospel will be declared "by the weak and simple things of the world". And I am so grateful for that. 

God is so good! He has inspired men who are called and who speak inspired words. I'm so grateful that I got to hear Elder Ballard!

This was a picture after the conference was over. IT was really cool because the whole mission was in the same place! So we all got to see old friends. Love it!

These are my Homies! :) My good friends in the mission. (From left to right:) Sister Perry, Sister Luter, Me, Elder Bengtzen. Sis Perry is my comp. and Sis Luter is also a Sister Training Leader, so we talk to her a lot. I love them... :) 

​

That's it for this week!

Love,

Sister Bauer

Happy Memorial Day! (Round 2)

I can still remember this day last year and what I did! We went to a member's house for a BBQ and Elder Komarek's parents were there (And elder who I was serving with) and I met them! Hard to believe it's been a year.

So this week was fuuuullll of learning experiences. I have really been trying to remember my purpose as a missionary and try to be consecrated fully. We had some fun experiences.

But first... Something cool to brag about! :) So do any of you know who Aly and AJ is??? They were Disney Channel stars a few years back? They were in the movie Cowbells... anyways... So we are teaching their uncle. His name is Mike. He is so wonderful. We love him. Anyways, We have signed pics from them and we even got invited to be in thier movie! but... alas... we are missionaries... so we can't haha. But we will come back and visit and meet them! He already promised! :)

This is Mike! and Aly! and the picture they signed for me! :) So cool!

​
This week we set 2 baptismal dates with our cute little investigators Bianca and Natalia. They are 10 and 11 Year old girls who have a thirst for the gospel like you wouldn't believe. They just LOVE God. We actually set the date for June 1st with them last week, but they were sick so they couldn't come to church last week. So we went over yesterday to make sure they were still game to come to church because in order to be baptized you have to come to church twice. So we knocked... and no answer... so we knocked again... no answer. So we knocked again and again and again and still never an answer. Ay Carumba... So we went and we sat in our car and we prayed. So we got out and knocked again... this time someone answered!!! But not the way that we wanted. The girls' dad came to the door and yelled at us and told us (using some very colorful language...) that the girls would not be coming to church today. Then proceeded to slam the door. Well, ok then. We both looked at each other and just walked back to the car. It kind of made us sad the rest of the day. :( But then we had an AWESOME lesson in Relief Society about Elder Holland's talk from general Conference "The Cost--and Blessings--of discipleship" (You should read it it's really good.) And it said some amazing things about being a missionary.

Elder Holland said, (in that talk)

"Indeed, of Jesus Himself, Jacob's brother Nephi wrote: "And the world,because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught;wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because ofhis loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.'

In keeping with the Savior's own experience, there has been a long history of rejection and a painfully high price paid by prophets and apostles, missionaries and members in every generation—all those who have tried to honor God's call to lift the human family to' a more excellent way."

As I had that experience with being yelled at, I thought about all the other times I had been rejected, and made fun of, and looked down upon as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I realized that OF COURSE I would be rejected! OF COURSE I would be made fun of! and OF COURSE it would be heartbreaking! 

Jesus Christ Himself experienced all of those things, and I am a REPRESENTATIVE of Him. I have been called by a Prophet of God, and set apart by someone who holds the same Priesthood that Jesus Christ held, to stand in place of the Savior. If I get to experience the joy that comes from telling people about him, and minister the way He ministered then of course I will be rejected and spit upon and feel a sliver of the pain that He felt. 

I love my mission so much! I have learned more then I ever could have if I hadn't come. I've learned so much about myself and so much about what God has in store for me. I have learned more about what I want for my future and how I want to raise my family. I love the gospel so much! I love you all and I love my Savior!

Have a wonderful week! I love you all!!!

Love, Sister Bauer

Happy Week 2 of the Transfer!

I literally cannot believe that week 2 of the transfer is already over! What the what? It is really blowing my mind and freaking me out how quickly the time is going. After this transfer is over I only have 3 left... I am really hoping that Sister Perry and I will get to stay together for another transfer. But That's getting ahead of myself! Let's talk about this week!

This week was good. We had a lesson with our investigators Bianca & Natalia. They are so sweet! They are 10 and 11. We set baptismal dates with them and they love talking about God! They didn't get to come to church this week though because they both got really sick. Sad day... but we will see them tonight! They are adorable!

We also had a lesson with our investigators Becky, Harold, and Jeff. Jeff actually just got out of jail because he had gotten himself into trouble and then turned himself in. He read the whole Book of Mormon while he was in there and was even quoting scripture and applying it to himself when we had our lesson with him. We talked about the Book of Mormon and where it came from and why it is important and how we come to know if it is true. It was a super good lesson.

In our mission we have this culture we are trying to establish, it's:

"We teach every night, we find every week, and we bring someone to church every week." 

And I love that Sister Perry and I have actually been able to accomplish that! (Kinda) This week we had committed 7 people to come to church! Buuuut...... Gosh dang Satan and his sneaky ways! Bianca and Natalia got sick, Ron & Barbara (Our other investigators who are moving to Arizona...) had family come into town last minute, Tina got stressed and freaked out, Sasha is 13 and her dad wouldn't let her come (Which we kinda figured would happen), BUT Lauren (A less active we are working with) came! She is so cute! I love her! She has a newborn wittle babyyyy!!!! And she's half black and she's sooo cuuuuute! :)

So, this week was good. We had 3 exchanges this week and they were fun! I actually really enjoy exchanges for the most part... I just hate leaving Sis. Perry... I get separation anxiety. haha

Well Anyways! I love you all!! Have a great week and I will email ya'll next week!!! 

Love, Sister Bauer

Me, Sister Andelin (The blonde), & Sis. Perry (The Auburn colored hair) ;)

A Week of Bliss!

Oh my Gooooooosshhh!!! Let's just talk about how wonderful this past week was! 

So wonderful! :)

I was able to be companions with my best friend out here, and I was able to do MISSIONARY WORK!!! Not that I haven't before, but I worked sooo hard and we had some MAJOR miracles!

This week we found 9 New Investigators and had 7 Member Present Lessons! IT was the coolest thing of my life. And I was sick this week! So awesome!!!

I wish I had more time to talk about some of the miracles that we saw. well I will give you one of them.

So, I LOOOOOVE contacting people!! It's really scary and hard at first, but once I get into the swing of things, I love it so much! So we were on our way to visit a former investigator and we crossed paths with 3 Jr. High Aged girls. So we started talking to them and I flat out told them we weren't creeps and started teaching them about their worth and how important they were to God. Then thier 4th friend showed up and we taught her too. We were able to have a lesson with them and set up a return appointment with these 4 sweet girls for next week! They loved what we had to say and wanted to learn more. I love teaching youth because I can be so real with them and straight up tell them how it is. So we have a lesson with them next week.

We also found 2 sweet 10 and 11 year old girls who looove the idea of being baptized. We just have to meet with their parents and get permission to teach them. 

Definitely a week of miracles!!

Well my time is up! 

Love Y'all!

Love, Sister Bauer

Easter as a Missionary.

So, since being a missionary, holidays that revolve around Christ mean so much more. Recently God has been trying to help me understand the Atonement so much more. And what a perfect season to do it! So Last week I sent a link to that website on Mormon.org that had the "Because of Him" video. I think those of you who didn't watch it should watch it again. Because it is AMAZING!

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. He LIVES and loves us and #BecauseofHim we can live with God again!

This week I was on exchanges in the singles ward. We taught the Plan of Salvation to one of their investigators and it was one of the coolest Plan of Salvation lessons I have taught on my mission. As we were teaching about the Atonement and how we get to love with God again, this kid's eyes just lit up! He was grinning from ear to ear and me and Sister Lindsey were EXCITED! We were stoked and so was he! We said, "You get to have this!!! This is something that you can look forward to! and all you have do is these 5 simple steps!" It was super cool to see this 19 year old kid see the happiness that can come with living with God again!!!

MAN! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

Something I have learned this week:

In order for us to experience great joy, we must first pass through deep sorrow. Because there must needs be opposition in all things. (2 Nephi 2:11)

Charity suffereth long... to have Charity, we have to suffer... It's a weird thing I am learning these days. But it makes a lot of sense.

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week and I will talk to you all next week! :D Peace and Blessings!

PS

OH AND HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember the Savior Lives!!! 

Go to the link!

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

Love Sister Bauer

Temple Tuesday Yet Again! :)

Well, Sorry I didn't warn some of you last week that it was temple transfer week! But Here I am now... You can all rest easy. I'm not dead. (Delci, Heidi, Madison)

Well This wee was pretty good. We had a miracle this week. I was on exchanges with Sister Turner and we were in my area. We had a really good day planned and I had made the decision that I was going to talk to everyone. I have really been struggling with that lately. So we talked to everyone and because we did we met this guy who was genuinely interested in what we had to say. We had a lesson with him on the street and taught him the restoration. It was so cool! Then we set up a return appointment with him.

I also gained a testimony of the "Adjusting to missionary life" booklet thing. This past week I was struggling. So I decided to open my adjusting to missionary life booklet and look at the talking to strangers part. One of the things it says is to think about what is the worst that can happen. So I did and I came to the conclusion that the worst that can happen is that someone is mean to me... Well... God decided to apply that principle into my life. That same night we contacted a referral we had received through the system and he was NOT INTERESTED to say the least. but after about 10 minutes of verbal abuse... I was still alive and God confirmed to me that I was ok and that there wasn't much worse that was ever going to happen then that... so stop being scared to talk to everyone! :) God works in mysterious ways but he is SOOO good!

So the temple this morning was amazing! I felt the peace that I have been begging for and it just really spiritually rejuvenated me. I love the temple so much!

Well I don't know what else to say. HAve a good week and I will talk to you all soon!

Mosiah 24:13-15 READ IT. LOVE IT. EMBRACE IT.

Love you!

Love your favorite missionary girl, 

Sister Bauer