Hey family! I hope that you all had a great week! it sure sounds like you did. this week i was thinking about how much i am blessed to have each one of you in my life! you are all examples to me and I love to hear from you every week. this week we had transfers and elder Antonio and i are still in the same area but the area next to us is closing this week. this means that for us we can proselyte in this area so the area that we have to work in is quite massive! It also means that we will now teach the investigators in that area. Also we might be able to move to a better house that is more central to this area.also we might be able find another place to wash clothes. I am so excited for this! Louisiana! this is so exciting! Say hi to the fam for me! Dad i am so excited for your hunt. Have a good time! Exito! send lots of pictures! I hope that your work is going well. Mom i love you and hope that work is going well! I also hope that all is well in all of your church callings. I received your letter today with Jackson's talk. Thank you so much! i am working on sending letters by mail.I am so excited for general conference this week! please take notes and send me your 3 favorite quotes! I love all of you so much! have a good week!

This week flew by just like all the others! it was amazing! We have had a ton of rain this week which really makes things interesting. The rain here never really seems to be ¨´light´´ just either a hurricane or clear and sunny! I love it. The good news is that my clothes have been just a tad cleaner this week due to the water! Our investigators are doing great! Rosario was baptised saturday evening! I am so excited for her and her family.They are really amazing and now they are working toward the temple! Her husband is now active again in the church and it has been amazing to see the blessings that come from the true gospel or Jesus Christ. The baptism of Hermana Rosario was a miracle! About one hour before the baptism a heavy rainstorm hit and shut down all of milagro.  There was crazy traffic and the church started to flood!  We were running around with buckets and brooms to try to keep the water out of the iglesia. Then the time for the baptism came and nobody was in the church. We were worried for Rosario because the date had already been changed once. My companion and I turned to prayer and soon after the rain completely stopped and the church was dry. soon after Rosario arrived with her family and she was able to be baptised! The spirit of God like a fire was burning.This experience really strengthened my testimony of the power of prayer. Heavenly Father love us so much and he wants to bless us.He hears our Prayers.He asks for so little from us. If we faithfully ask him he will answer our prayers in the manner that is most beneficial for us. I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

-Elder Baldwin

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-------------------------------------- 9/27/2015   

I hope you survive all of the bus rides---good thing people are praying for your safety every day!

Do you like Papaya juice?

Rosalio---did she get over her hiccups? Was she baptized?

I wish we could have heard your talk in church...wow the whole time that is amazing!

We are so amazed and grateful that you received the watches! They were packaged so terribly--Heavenly Father answered the prayers! I will not package anything so stupidly again! There is a watch in the next package....somewhere stuffed amidst the rest.

Today was fast Sunday--I bore my testimony in Young Women's today specifically on the Atonement and how grateful I am for the grace of the Savior and how he helps us right now to overcome not when we have done all we can do.


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Dad's back is out again----he thinks because of sitting too long of hours at his desk..he is going to see a chiropractor tomorrow. Pray for him..He has been preparing for this next hunt coming up on OCt. 1st---he has been hiking and getting in good shape, his ribs are about 90% healed--but now his back so pray that he will be able to heal and have a successful hunt :)

We are looking forward to conference--I bet you are too! How will you view it?
It is sad that there are 3 wonderful men taken from us; but exciting that they have better things and places to be now. We are all speculating who the next 3 apostles will be: Dax Keller?
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Hello in La Guatemala. We have had a fun week. Bret and I went out on Wednesday to sight in. We were shooting at 100 and 300 yards. I found those VRD's that you loaded. I shot several times and realized that the scope was coming off. Was trying to get it dead on at one hundred so I could use the reticles on that Vortex. Got it tightened down and shot a few more times and was dean on. Then shot at 326 yards and put both shots w/i like an inch and a half of center. So i feel good. Bret was shooting the Lapua He is on with it. And he can see now cause he had lasix. 

I am all packed and am heading up Thursday night. I ordered the tires for the Yamaha. They will be here Wednesday but its just me and Bret so I wont rush to get them on. 

All is good here. Church was good today. We had fast and testimony meeting. We have a new ward mission leader. I am in charge and am building up an army of missionaries. It s about to get serious in Dammeron.

So as far as the language, I had been out probably 304 months before i got comfortable with what people were saying. But I did noy study as I should have. If you study a lot things will start clicking. Once I began to study, it went fast. Study vocabulary a lot. Then every other time study vocab and then verbs and conjugation. One day it will click. Spanish is easy. All verbs for the most part are conjugated the same with a few exceptions. Learn the exceptions. The biggest breakthrough is when you understand the subjunctive tenses and feel comfortable using them. example: We we hoping that you would not use that food. "Esparabamos que no usara esa comida." The subjunctive of usar is usara. The verb book explains it well. Just keep studying and it will come. You have a great advantage of having a native spanish speaking comp. While frustrating, it can also be helpful. 

We get to find out who will be our new apostles this next week. I am bringing a radio so we can listen mid day to all of it at elk camp. Cole and Emily came over and we had a fun visit. Talked about Riverdale a lot. Glad to hear you are getting your packages. Sounds like you guys ae working really hard. Don't get discouraged. When you have the mind set that you are an instrument in the Lord's hands, he will make sure you are successful. For a long time I put a lot of pressure on myself to convert people. I felt it was my responsibility. Once I realized that Heavenly Father prepares people through experiences and the Holy Ghost converts, it went so much better. Just be the instrument so you can be led and guided to be where you need to be and say what you should say. Language prep, Scripture study, and etc will help tons. But your desire to help people change and see them happy will be your biggest tool. I used to tell them that I sacrificed everything for 2 years because I have seen how the gospel can change lives, It changed mine. thats why I was there. Once they sensed my heart... they opened theirs to the message. You have been blessed with a special spirit. You received a blessing that people will be drawn to you. Just don't let Satan introduce doubt into your thinking as an individual nor as a companionship. Then you will see miracles begin to occur at a level you never thought possible. 

Everyone asks about you and says hi. Things are great here and we are being blessed because of your diligence. We love you and pray for you daily. Work hard and play hard. Have fun Son. I love you and am so very proud. I will take lots of pics. We are gonna make a youtube video of our hunt. I'll send you the link probably in December once we are done hunting. Love Dad.

9/21/2015

   What a week! th really is crazy how fast the time flies by! At the end of every week I look back and an think to myself 5 weeks already? What a Blessing. this week was busy (another blessing) we had a meeting for all of the  for all of the nuevos and trainers the a place called Montoffer. I was like a 30 or 40 minute bus ride  from our area. I think the bus rides here are just a little more exciting thant the rides at lagoon. Our meeting was awesome! there was so much to learn from. Its always nice and exciting to see other parts of this tiny country! We also had the opportunity to have divisions with other missionaries twice this week one area that i got to visit was super rural! The people there are very humble and speak a couple of mayan dialects that really had me confused for a while. They are so nice and willing to listen. Also they give us Papaya juice at every corner unfortunatly!

This week we are perparing for the baptism of rosalio quinonez. she was going to be baptised last week but there was a small hiccup and we are working hard so that she can be baptised this week she has a strong desire to follow our savior. Unfortunately Alfredo hit a road block. He was searching for money to help in his time of need. Unfortunatly as missionaries we can only nourish with the word and not with monotary means. He asked to stop having lessons and so at this moment he is not progressing with us.

this month we have been studying the atonement as a mission. It has been incredible for me. I was studying alma 34 this week. my favorite scripture is in verse 31. if we can overcome our pride and soften our hearts, immediately the plan of the salvation can be brought upon us. Imediately we can find peace and strength through the atonemant of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ. How great is this promise for us as children of our Heavenly Father.

   Yesterday I had an opportunity to give a talk in church. It was a suprise for me so I didn´t have much time to prepare! what a blessing it was. I was able to speak the entire time. This was a tender mercy of the Lord. I think that the members understood what I was saying. At least I hope!

I recieved the watches this week! thank you so much I cannot describe how much they Help me! I also recieved the letter that you sent with the atricle about patience. I jsut want you to know how much that helped me through the week. I really needed it! I love you so much! I want to your know how much you mean to me mom. I really wich i could tell that to you in person and give you a hug. I think about you every day. Please know that you are loved. You are an amazing example for me.I also miss your cooking. I think im going to be a teddy bear when i get home! but i Love you! thanks for all you do for me. 

Elder B.

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    Well this has been a fun week. I'm so focused on getting ready for the hunts that I can't stand it. Bret and I went up to the cabins to start getting elk camp ready. We hung a cross log in a tree to hang the elk. We cooked dutch oven elk steaks and deer steak with potateos and carrots. Was very good. Stood out  by the fire gorging ourselves until 1:00 am. Then got up at 9:00 and Bret found the trail that went up behind the burn where we followed that herd last year. That is a cool canyon. We climbed up to the top of a big rock and within half an hour I called in a big 6x7 bull. We played with him for an hour and then he walked away. We did not know that the limited entry bull hunt had been open 3 days already. Not very many folks hunting that area. A guide had cut down 75 trees over the road going up there because they saw that giant bull we saw last year. Its world class. Apparently they have someone who has a tag. I wish we did. So we had some fun. Good news is that noone will be going up there:) 

    I went to the gun show yesterday and traded those 2 small antique pistols for a H&R 243 youth rifle with a 3x9 scope, Its a single shot, but should be ok for Erin. I may sell it and look for another better one. Also got 100 factory reload 45s for 27.99. Good price. 

Do you remember where those 270 bullets are you loaded? I really need to sight in this week. I have looked everywhere. Please let me know.

    Church is good. Don Stingley has had 2 surgeries and got a bad infection. Almost died. Trying to recover. Brother savage lost his job and may be moving. 4 new retired families moved in the past 2 weeks. Eardleys moved to diamond this weekend cause their house sold. They will start building in pinion hills. Hardly any kids in YW/YM now. Kinda weird. 

    Sounds like things are going well. I sure hope you get your packages that we sent. I will probably start sending them instead of Mom. How is your spanish coming? Hope it is getting easier to understand. How is your health? Did the baptism go well this week? We have been praying for your investigators. 

Well,

Have a great week. This is a great opportunity for you. Make the best of it. This is where you decide how you will live your life. The habits you have there will be carried into your marriage and career and family life. Be true to yourself and dedicated to the savior and Heavely Father will shower blessings upon you and you will recieve the guidance you need.

Love dad.

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9/20/2015

Hopefully you are over your sickness! Do you need the netting? We pray for you several times a day and I put your name in the temple every 2 weeks. 

You have a new investigator Rosalia Q. was she baptized Saturday? What about Alfredo?

     Be thinking about what you would like in your Christmas package---sent the sheets, watch,tool kit, washer, flashdrive with music, meet mormon videos, and ties(sent it 9/15/ so it probably will not arrive until 10/15 ish). I am having people donate unwanted ties for your next package.. Hopefully the watches make it this next 2 weeks; I sent them August 20th--( I packaged them really stupid. But this next package should make it. I had assistnace for hurst Ace hard ware store on bluff. The mail man there knows everything about mailing for missionaries.) I could try to get some vidoes in spanish on a thumb drive. I was able to get the spanish hymns from Deseret book. I will try to get them on a thumb drive ---do you have access to a CD player? Do you have a microwave?

     CJ. Wilding reported today 9/20/2015--he severed in the Australia mission. I was so impressed with his polishedness. He is so sure in his convictions, I could feel and hear the difference in his returning address. His message was about change and never giving up: Never give up- Missions---invite everybody. That is the key isn't it ? That is what we have control over--inviting, we can make goals to contact/invite x amount of people every week. They in turn have their free agency to accept or  not to commit or not to change or not. 

  C.J was daily put out of his comfort zone, said he was forced to grow. He related an experience where he took a recent convert man around 17 years of age who had lost his fire of conversion. C.J. wanted to spark his testimony again. So they went and knocked on doors----before they did C.J. asked the man what their goal should be? and the man said "find someone to teach." so he said a prayer and they went hard all day long--hot, tired, with no success, at the end of the day--felt like giving up. CJ saw a family across the street, he was tempted to brush them off. but he had promised this man that he would see a miracle. so they walked across the street  to this family of 7 and they said "come and teach us, we have been praying about a church we should join a church we could attend." What would have happened if they would have given up and not gone across the street?---the extra little bit is what made and is what makes the difference.

   We need to be pleading for grace and the enabling power of the atonement, I know you do just a reminder:0

  xoxoxoxo,

Mother

9/14/2015What an incredible lesson on faith !!! Good ol Alfredo pulls through :)

I was thinking maybe you & your companion had to have all of the rejection that day just do you could be really humbled and ready to receive the inspiration you needed to hear the direct promptings to go see Alfredo. Sometimes we can get so discouraged and tired and maybe it's the Lord preparing us for great blessings . There is opposition in all things right ? We have to go through tough times to be grateful for the good times. I've seen this first hand recently with Sunnie. She really struggled this last year spiritually . She got messed up with wrong friends and unfortunately they pulled her down . She was at her lowest low spiritually and emotionally. She doubted her faith and testimony. For a period she really didn't think she was a daughter of God. Watching her go through this literally broke my heart . During this time the further away she became from her Heavenly Father - the closer I became to Him. For the first time in my life I really knew the true meaning of the Atonement. I knew my Savior.
Fast forward to today .... Long story short - Sunnies great. She's come into Christ. She has her "light " back. She just was made seminary president in her class and she's preparing to get her patriarchal blessing next week! Yes!!!!!!! She's amazing!!! Sunnies a true testimony to me that hearts can soften and hearts can change.

Grant the gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of pure happiness. It is!! You are so lucky to see this on a regular basis .  You can change lives. You can be God instrument to help bring others back - just like Sunnie came back.
Don't get discouraged- when doors close ... Another one always will open right. ?
We love you - you are doing amazing things . You are changing lives.
We are praying for you.
Xoxoxo
Auntie ang

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 9/13/2105

We are gathering the items, wanted to know if you have access to peanut butter we could send you powdered peanut butter.

Also with the thumb drive we assume you want the aduio version of the talks correct?

What about oatmeal---but do you have milk? should we worry about sending oatmeal packets? Are you sure you do not want CD's ? no CD player, do you have a micro wave?

I am also sending you another watch just in case the 2 do not arrive-----I was really studpid in the way I sent the 2 watches, i do not know what I was thinking I sent them together with the plastic casing still intact so they were bulky and obvious that they wer new watches. In the future I have been advised to only list the items as being 5.00 and list educational and religious supplies, I am sending this next package through the hurst/ace hardware store because they have a cool way that they computerize the customs and they will put "educational and religious supplies" into the system, Sister Hill advised me regarding this issue.

Yes, I am enjoying school, I have a good bunch of students again. I have one challenging class of 8th grade students. 3 of the 12 are off the wall as far as add and very immature, also one of the students is extreemely deficit  1st grade reading level. He is so frustrated, he is acting out mostly because of this, I am sure school is pure torture for him to go through every day. Again, thank you for your blessing, It has brought much peace. Speaking of peace, I went to the temple last night. I dropped Erin off at a friends and performed some initiatories for Sister Stephens--(she had given the youth temple names for baptisms last week, So before I returned them I completed some initiaories and then chose one of the initiatories for an endowment and went and performed an endowment for "Rieka "from Grand Rapids. I have never done that before, done one ordiance and then gone right into another for one of the same people, it was good to do.

Hopefully the work is still progressing with Alfredo? Keeping contact and being there for him as he needs it is so vital, and involvoing members in this process, so exciting.

Xoxoxoxo

Mom

Grant Baldwin	11:48 AM (6 hours ago)
to me

FOR THE BALDWIN RESIDENCE ONLY:

Hey Family!! this week has flown by!! well...kind of. We were able to go to a part of our area that is super rural! We were able to teach alot and meet many new people! We focused on finding and working hard to find new investigators. It was a really humbling experience because the poeple that live there have next to nothing! they are always friendly and offer anything that they can! It was a great day! but unfortunately  there were a ton of mosquitos in this area and i got bit a ton. the next day i started to feel a sick! turns out that I got a sickness called chicken gunya from a mosquito bite. It was quite the experience but i am blessed because it only lasted for a coupple days! Unfortunately because of this we were not able to work as much as we would have liked but we are going to make up for it this week! This week we have an investigator named Rosalia Quinonez that is preparing to be baptized this saturday! Her husband is becomming active again in the church and we are so excited for them! this week we also had the opportunnnity to attend a multizone conference in an area of the city called utatlan. It was great to be able to leave miligro and see more of the county. I learned so much! It was great to hear from our president again! he Is such a great example for allof us as missionaries!

Thank you so much for gathering those things. I have not recieved the watches but today i did get a letter from mom! Thank your so much for writing me! it means so much! I cannot tell you how much those letters mean to me! I can buy peanut butter here its just really expensive:) The audio versions of the talk would be amazing but if you can do both i would love that as well. if it is not too heavy in the package cds would be great! IF you can please send the movie meet to mormons also. I also have oatmeal here tambien:) thank you though mom. also dr sholls for size 12.5 if you can swing it! please use my money to pay for this stuff. And then please send the package when you can. Some tips that i have heard for the packages are to write the  address with sloppy ( but legible) handwriting and then to tape one of the picture of Jesus pass along cards in on the oustide of the box before sending. Thank you so much for doing this. Sorry to ask for so much Love you all! Elder Baldwin.

Attachments area

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Greetings Elder Baldwin---

9/6/2015--

Yestaerday was our 25/sliver anniversary---by the way on  our golden the children are supposed to make a big deal out of it and take the paraents on a world cruise, just giving you a heads up.)

 A couple of weeks ago I asked dad what he wanted to do and he said "get a hotel room in Toukervilee, I said "Really? why don't we just stay at home, we will have the house to ourselfes, Erin could stay at Alix's house." He said , "no this is our 25th we need to do something. So I made a reservation at the cliffside inn. I didn't want to go to Vegas. I really wanted to have a ngiht alone at the house. So I told dad I got a room for us, you decide where to go for dinner. The night before I told dad that I would head right ot the hotel after work because checkin was at 3:00pm . So at 5:30 we went to the temple to do dealings. We were abel to do sealings for some Rassmussen's and Schiffman's.      AFter the sealings we went to dinner at the Olive Garden. The next morning I worked out in their work out room and then had a tub and read while dad slept. I lost track of time, we missed the free Continental breakfast so we went to the brunch they had. It took forever but the food was good. As we were checking out dad asked how much the room was and when he found out it was 170.00 he flipped. I told him that we should have stayed home and not spend the money....he said he was kidding about the hotel room, that he didn't care if we got one.! !!!! funny we still cannot communicate even after 25 years. I don't think we ever will but I love dad more today that 25 years ago....cant wait to spend the next 25!
      Tomorrow Cole, Emily, Mac, Jessica, traegon, Brittany and T.J are coming up. They are gong to catch crawdad, and play pickle ball, swim etc. I bought pickle ball to play on the driveway for our anniversary present.

Questions:I am thinking ahead for Christmas-----What would you like in it? Here are some things I am thinking of:

Bedding-sheets, pillow case, etc.

Light blanket

Do you have electrical outlets?

Shorts for pday- T shirts for PDAY?

Medicine: Ibuprofen? Imodium AD?

Food?

Hopefully you are going to receive your watches soon, I sent 2 of them.  I sent them on August 20th it took about 24 day for you to receive your first package. So you should be getting your next around the 2nd week of September.

xxoxoxoxoxo

Mom

Grant Baldwin	10:06 AM (19 hours ago)
Hello familia! 9/7/2015

 this week has gone by so fast! We are working hard to accomplish the the work of the lord. It has also been a little wild because yesterday was elections for the new president here! Everybody left was out abouit  in the streets and fireworks were going off everywhere! but today the commotion is over and people are back normal. This has also been a week of miracles for our area. On thursday we had every single appointment with investigators fall through for the second day in a row! It was pretty discouraging! Not knowing exaclty what to do(we cannot knock on doors to contact after 6pm) We prayed for direction. Afterwords, we felt impressed to visit with a man that we contacted a few days earlier that lives in the same alley that we do. His name is Alfredo! He welcomed us in and we had an amazing visit.He was excited about the gospel! he assisted church with us yesterday and said that he wants to be baptised! Im am so excited for him! he has a such a desire to find strength through the atonement. The lord answers our prays after a trial of our faith! I am so blessed to be where i am. I love My mission and I am so excited to have to opportuinuty serve these people. The lords hand is truly in every moment of our life We can grow and have a stronger relation with him as we strive to recognize all of the blessings that He gives us every day!