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!

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

Final Week in Oakridge

Hello Everyone,

This past week was my final week in Oakridge.  Honestly, there wasn't a whole bunch to say that was out of the normal.  We did a lot of Tracting, as well as contacting, with a bunch of lessons falling through on us.  One cool experience though came from teaching our next door neighbor De, who is on date for baptism.  As we taught the lesson she pointed out to us that she was feeling the Spirit and that it was giving her peace despite of all the trials she is going through.  She is awesome and is wholeheartedly accepting the Gospel.

Another good experience came from early in the week.  We ended up giving a blessing to a former member named Troy the week before because the doctors felt he had cancer.  A few days later the results came and they said it was gone and that he should be fine at least in that medical problem he had.  It was a miracle and it really shows that the priesthood is real and that God does love us.

Sunday was full of saying goodbyes, and at 6:30 this morning we left for the transfer spot in Eugene.  I was sent to the Roseburg zone, in the Winston area that includes the city of Green.  One of the Elders that was in my MTC district is my zone leader here which is fun, and my companion is Elder Smith and he is a fun, goofy guy.  Roseburg has a lot of potential and it should be a great transfer.

Thank you for all of the support!
Elder Baxter

Old companion

New companion

Goodbye to Oakridge

 This person is an investigator named Chuck who is on date for baptism

in Oakridge.

Week Full of Blessings

Hello everyone!  This past week was a fairly normal week.  On Tuesday we had a Zone Conference that was about repentance which was good.  The meeting allowed me to catch up with some of my MTC district who are currently serving in Corvallis.  The meeting ate up the majority of the day and not much else happened.  On Wednesday we did some more service with Poppy and had a lesson where we talked about how we receive answers to prayers.  This time we brought a member that managed to connect to her in a way that we have not been able to previously, which was nice to see.  The rest of the day was filled with other random lessons as well as Tracting and contacting.

Thursday we had a weekly planning where the AP's randomly showed up, as well as another exchange with Elder's McCleary and Anderyl.  We did some Tracting and contacting in Westfi,r as well as getting to teach our next door neighbor De, who accepted an invitation to be baptized on March 25th.  She is very excited for it and we are very happy for her and the area in general.  We are being blessed.  The day ended with giving a blessing to an investigator.  Friday was normal as well as Saturday, with lessons falling through and others happening.  On Sunday Poppy came to church and we managed to meet with another investigator (who we have had trouble meeting with recently) who is now progressing in the Gospel.  The week has been busy but full of blessings, and now as I move on to my last week of the transfer, and possibly my final week in Oakridge, I look forward to seeing what happens.

Thanks for reading and all the support!
Elder Baxter

Splits

Tree Lover

Finding and Teaching

Hello everyone, this past week has been a great week for finding new investigators as well as teaching.  To start off, on Monday we had three back to back lessons where we got to teach our next door neighbor who just recently moved in, as well as Dan who is on date, and a new young family.  All the lessons were nice and they went really well.  What we focused teaching people was "the why", which means eternal life.  It helped many people see why we ask them to do so much, as well as why we keep coming over.

On Tuesday we helped Poppy de-mold her home again and learn that she might move this year to avoid having to continue to repair her home.  We then taught the complete restoration lesson to an older lady and did a lot of Tracting and visiting formers.  Wednesday was more of the same.  Thursday we got to do the new kind of exchanges that Salt Lake has ordered, where all four of the missionaries on exchange come to the leaders area for the day and night.  The Elders that came over were the Spanish missionaries named Elder Ellis and Elder Elldredge.  One of us focused on Tracting Oakridge while the other did Westfir.  Because of it we found several new investigators, taught a bunch of lessons, and had a fun night at the apartment.

Friday I taught another district meeting and met with a less active couple, and Saturday was a regular day.  Finally, after two weeks of canceling, on Sunday we got to go to church again which was nice.  The final notable event that happened was a dinner appointment with a member who fed us his rabbits he killed the day before because they annoyed him.

Thanks for reading and for all of the support, and Elder Cluff says "Hi,"
Elder Baxter

Missionary Exchange

We built "Frosty" last week.  He is Elder Cluff's first snowman.

Winter weather

Seeing a Light

Hello everyone, this past week has been a weird week for missionary work out here in Oakridge.  To start off, on Tuesday I went to my first MLC which stands for mission leadership conference.  While we were there we took notes on the topics we would have to teach the zone at a meeting on Friday called ZTM (zone training meeting), as well we had a council that discussed goals for baptisms in the mission for President Russell's final six months.  The meeting lasted until around four pm, we had dinner with the other district leader, and then finished the night by making a long drive back to Oakridge.

Wednesday was a fairly normal day where we got back into our usual routine for missionary work, where we also had a lesson with Poppy.  We talked about baptism with her and found out some of her concerns, but it went down fairly well.  On Thursday we had interviews with the mission president that were nice, and then the rest of the day consisted of lessons falling through.  Friday was ZTM where I got to teach the zone a segment about the Book of Mormon, had a lesson with a less active family named the Drapers, and had a lesson with a guy who was very respectful but wasn't too sure about the church.

Saturday was a bipolar day.  The night before it snowed about six inches, and it continued to snow for the majority of the day.  We walked a mile to a lesson we had in the storm only for them to tell us it wasn't a good time.  After walking back, we had lunch and visited another investigator named Chuck and his less active grandson named Jacob.  We had met them many times in the past, and Chuck was opposed to the Book of Mormon and baptism, but when we visited this time something changed.  He told us he wanted to apologize for what he had said, and that recently he had been reading the Book of Mormon and wanted to be baptized!  Chuck has been taught by missionaries for years and somehow we said something that got through to him.  He will be baptized March 4th.  We then moved on to shoveling people's sidewalks and helping people out for the rest of the day.  Sunday nothing to note worthy happened.

The highlight of the week was seeing a light open up in Chuck and seeing how the Lord does his work and it is great to be apart of it.  Thank you for reading and all of the support!

Elder Baxter

A picture from last week

Snow this week

MLC

2017 The Year I Will Spend Completely on a Mission!

Hello everyone!  The final week of 2016 has come and gone and it has been a great week for us while tracting and teaching.  To start, the rest of last Monday was pretty standard, but the following day we began by searching for a referral that lived in a trailer park hidden in a nearby mountain.  He had recently visited a baptism and said that we could come on over and teach him more in the coming weeks, which was great for us to hear.  The rest of the day was then spent trying to tract a rich part of Westfir, located on the top of a large hill, as well as trying to contact various people.

Wednesday was more of the same, except near the end of the day.  We visited a potential named Mike, who had a large discussion with us about the Spirit and the need for a restored church that he said he has been looking for.  He is a very religious man and will either embrace what we say or drop us, but we are hopeful for future lessons that will be had with him.  On Thursday I went on exchange down to Springfield with Elder Finlinson, who is my zone leader, first AP, and mission "grandpa".  We spent a lot of time contacting various people and had several lessons fall through, but it was a fun time.  Then Friday came, we ended the exchange and had district meeting where we brought the rest of the homemade cookies we had made for Christmas for the district.

Saturday we spent trying to contact in a part of town that we have never went before, ate pizza at a nearby restaurant, and had to spend the rest of the evening inside due to mission rules for New Years Eve.  The following Sunday and first day of the New Year we got several inches of snow and church was cancelled because of it.  We then attempted to contact several less active members in the snow and slush, had dinner, and that about describes the day.  Overall, the week had a lot of tracting and contacting where we managed to find five new people who would like to meet us in the future.  Now onward to 2017, the year that I completely spend on the mission!

Thank you for reading and all of the support the past year and for the upcoming year,
Elder Baxter

Going artsy with the name tag

Oregon country

With Elder Finlinson

Christmas PJs 

Winter is here