Monday, February 27, 2017

Best District in the Zone

Hello Everyone,

This week was a pretty normal week but there were a few different things that happen.  To start, my district finally arrived to Roseburg, so I am no longer the district leader without a district.  Due to medical problems, they were not able to come until now, but they are awesome missionaries.  We got to introduce them to the zone on Monday and have a good district meeting about humility on Friday.  I think that we have the best district in the zone in my opinion.

Outside of that, the largest things were finding a couple of awesome people through Tracting who want to read the Book of Mormon as well as having to give a last minute talk about Sabbath Day Observance for Sunday.  The talk turned out well and it was good.  Beyond that, it was a pretty normal week and there isn't a whole lot else to say.

The work is moving forward and is definitely the work of the Lord.  I feel blessed to be apart of it and I look forward to seeing how the final third of the transfer plays out.  Thank you for all of the support!

Elder Baxter

Showing off his Valentine tie [mom note:  still don't know how to rotate pictures]


Tiger

Monday, February 20, 2017

Grateful

Hello Everyone,

This was another average week of missionary work.  We have done a lot more tracting as well as trying to reach out to less active members. To start off, we got to do service at a food bank where we helped store various food items and helped deliver the food to the vehicles of those who ordered them. Following that we got to meet with several less active members, who were very nice. Winston is a retirement community so we have a lot of  members who can't come to church due to medical reasons, but it is still great to visit them.  Towards the end of the week we met with a less active member who just had a family member pass away.  We managed to share a message that really helped her as well as motivate her to come back to God.

We also got to meet with our on date investigators.  We talked to Nora about church, as well as just get to know her better, and we got to meet with Rennie.  When we came over to visit Rennie we found that her sister was just recently sent to the hospital in a coma and Rennie was very distressed. We offered to give her a priesthood blessing and  immediately after the blessing she got a phone call saying that her sister had woken up.  She was super grateful to God and it was awesome to see.

The end of the week ended on a more depressing note.  We got a call from my last companion who is still in Oakridge.  He told me that Chuck, who I got to know fairly well and was wanting to be baptized, had passed away.  It was sad, but the Plan of Salvation is great and really does remove most of the sting.  We are now entering a new week though and who knows what may happen.

Thanks for all of the support!

Elder Baxter

Valentine package from home [Carlton's Mom:  Sorry I don't know how to rotate the pictures.]


Panoramic view 


Monday, February 13, 2017

Help Trough Faith

Hello Everyone,

This week the work has started to pick up here in Winston and Green. Elder Smith and I redoubled our efforts in tracting and contacting our investigators, as well as started to try to reach out to the ward more for referrals and help in the work.  Rather than go through day by day I will share a couple experiences.

First, on Tuesday as we were tracting a series of homes on a steep hill, we ran into one lady who was a former.  She was very nice and really seemed different from the rest of the doors we  had knocked on. She has had a deep history with church members already and really wants to learn, despite a move that will soon take place and the demand of her kids who have special needs.  We will not teach her long, but she was the one we found while tracting and it was a miracle.

The following Thursday we got to teach Rennie who is battling word of wisdom problems, as well as faith in tithing.  While talking, however, she told us that she can not leave the light she has already found and she came to church Sunday despite her own doubts.  Faith has the ability to really help anyone past any concern, if they have a desire to believe.  The largest event to happen though was when we taught a different lady on Friday.  She is practically a "dry Mormon" and has many friends and family who are already part of the church.  Over the course of the lesson she accepted the invitation to baptism in April and was excited to have a baptism that would "last through eternity".  She is awesome and I look forward to seeing what happens.

Thank you for all of the support and happy Valentines Day!
Elder Baxter

Elder Baxter in Winston

Look out Winston here comes Elder Baxter!

Monday, February 6, 2017

First Week in Winston

Hello Everyone,

This was my first week in Winston and the city of Green, and it has been a bit tough.  Coming in, I found that the previous Elder's had planned nothing for the upcoming week, so the whole week was us white washing Green's area (there was a second set of elders in that city that left for the transfer), as well as maintain Winston itself.  On Tuesday we did a bunch of tracting as well as contacting.  We met several of the members who are very nice, as well as the bishop and ward mission leader who are very supportive.  It turns out that my trainer, Elder Borden, as well as his trainer, Elder Finlinson, both served in Winston, as well as his trainer, so I was destined to come here at some point during the mission.

On Wednesday we did service at a food pantry where we helped load and unload a bunch of food, and the rest of the day was spent meeting a bunch of the investigators we had.  One of them included our On date named Rennie, who gets attached to missionaries very easily.  She is nice and very blunt, but is interested in learning about the Gospel.  Thursday we did a lot of tracting, contacting, and hunting down referrals who ended up having imaginary addresses.  Friday we then had district meeting, where I had to go to another district due to the other elders in my district arriving several weeks late.  Finally, I got to meet the ward on Sunday and here a lot of really good testimonies in Fast and Testimony meetings.  Towards the end of the day I started to feel slightly sick, which I hope doesn't get any worse.

The week has been chaotic and confusing due to taking over two areas, but it has been fun.  There is a lot of potential in the Winston area, and I know that as I rely on the Spirit that I will be guided to those who we need to see.  The Gospel is great and I have learned that to have faith is to repent, which is to be baptized, which is to receive the Holy Ghost.  It is amazing to get to teach people about this Gospel and help them see that as we live it in all aspects of our lives that we can accomplish the things that God wants us to do, and it is a miracle to see.

Thanks for all of the support!
Elder Baxter

Pictures from last week (when he was in Oakridge) since Carlton didn't take any for this week.  

Poppy

Troy & Shauna

Dan & The Fern Family

Finding Carlton in the transfer pictures