September 26, 2016 -- "We are all going climbing"

Click for an audio message from Sestra Baxter. (If it doesn't work in your browser, right click the link, "save link as," and play it in your local player.)

So we had a great week.  It started off by meeting with our investigator L___.

She is doing great. She loves to talk so that is good for us because we get to learn patience. But I think we are the only adults she really can talk to. I think I have come to realize that even listening can be the best kind of service you can do. We are still working on getting her and her kids to church. 

Our next big, big, event was exchanges in Plzen it went awesome. Those sweet Sisters are such great examples of courage. Sister Anderson is training, and Sister Miller is a greenie, opening a new area in Plzen. I was with Sister Miller. She is so darling. Her faith is just where it should be at as a new greenie. She is truly ready to work. They are doing great, and we pray that we were able to be a little bit of help in building their Area. Exchanges always bring miracles, so it was so fun to see those in the beautiful land of Plzen. Looking forward to the many more miracles that the Lord has on the next 6 exchanges. 

Also, I am a firm believer that activities work in finding people. This past week we had 24 (not counting the children) who played football better then us at sports night. Beside the kids, most of them were foreigners from Africa, India, Syria, El Salvador, Argentina and other parts of the world. It was lots of fun, and at the end the Starsi shared a spiritual thought. All of them believed in God and a number of them wanted to come to Church the next day. It was so great. 

Tomorrow and Wednesday we will be giving our training and we are all going climbing!!! Spiritually! So I am pretty stoked for that. Random thought, I had a dream two nights ago that everyone I knew or had known--family, Oregon friends, school friends, coworkers, college friends, other friends, mission friends, members . . . like everyone--was at City of the Rocks in Idaho. It was sooo happy. I hope that really does happen one day. I like to kind of relate my interesting dream to this: We are all at a places where there are multiple walls to climb, and  we are truly spiritually all in City of the Rocks. I think each of us on Earth now has a very specific route where only we can climb. My little sister Alana Dea wrote in a recent talk,

In climbing there is a climber and a belayer.  The belayer can catch a climber's fall, provide tension on the rope through tricky situations, and lower a climber back down to the ground. When you’re the climber i find it’s easier for me to enjoy the route if I trust the belayer. If I fall they’ll catch me. They’ll safely lower me down. In life we are the climbers. Heavenly Father is our belayer. He will get us through our tricky situations, catch us if we fall, and get us back to him safely, if we have faith in him.

I know Heavenly Father is our perfect belayer. I know that He will always catch us in the tough situations. But I also know we are not the first to climb our climb even at our crux--the hardest part of the climb--our older brother has overcome every obstacle. Our Savior has been exactly where we are and has shown us every hold. May we follow Him. 


I love these missionaries; I love this area; I love these people; I love you, and I love the Lord.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.


--Sestra Baxter

September 19, 2016 - "Pomahej Buh"

Click for audio message from Sestra Baxter.

Drahy Prezidente,

Haha so I just relized I still have "Dear Prezident" on my letter this week. So I pretty much copy and paste the same letter I have to my mission prezident, but oh well. Forgive me. Ha ha. 

 So we started off this week visiting a sweet member Sister K_____. Her heart is so big. It is so hard not to just adore members like her. We always start off singing. She asked us to try some new songs from the hymn book, as well. So that was interesting. We starting singing a song called "Pomahej Buh." She started singing it in a different way. Then Sister Manners and I started singing it with a little beat, almost rap-ish sound. But she loved it! She also asked if we practiced before and showed the goosebumps on her arms. Hahaha. She is darling and also has a rock solid testimony: riding her bike 30 mins to the train station, then riding the train 30 mins, then the bus to church almost every Sunday at 80 years old. I know I need to always be more dedicated to whatever I am doing when I see her example. 


MLC was great. It wasn't as scary as I thought, even though I feel like my Czech level drops to my first transfer whenever I am around a lot of missionaries. I feel really honored to be in a leadership position. And even though I feel like I don't know what I am doing, I am confident God does. Looking back now, I always have admired God's work. Especially with my mission. He has really pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it has taught me so much. 

We are probably going to change D_____'s baptismal date again so he can

The river in Pardubice. Our apartment is on the left behind that tree

come to church more. He did make it last week, which was wonderful. But also he brought his Czech "friend." she is so darling and is a Christian herself. We asked her what she thought, and she loved it. She thought that it was just like a big family--which it truly is like that. So we pray that we will start being able to teach her as well. Speaking more about church, this former investigator called us on our phone and wanted to meet. He is originally from Turkey but moved to Bulgaria and now has been in the Czech Republic for several years. We met with him for a moment, then, that next day, he traveled with us to church!

Our other foreigners are doing well, like L____ and R____. L___ is from Slovakia. We found her contacting on family history, and she has two sweet little kids. A___, age 9 and E___, age 7. We have been going to her house with two members, and she loves reading from the church website. Before we could teach her the Restoration, she told us everything about that and Lucy, Joseph Smith's wife. R___is from Syria and is Muslim. We just got everything in his language, so we are excited to start teaching him more stuff in a way he understands. 

Emailing from the library in Hradec Kralove.

Just looking back on my mission I have realized that I have been blessed with wonderful companions. I have heard,  "Just you wait. On your mission you will have to have a hard companion." To be totally honest, I remember like twice having to go and pray in the bathroom to help me love that companion just that day, and all the other days were 100% fine. Starting from the MTC, Sister Coons and Thriot, Sister Henderson and Sasser, Sister Holland, Sister Heap, Sister Cyrier, Sister Huylar, and now Sister Manners. Wow, I am so blessed!!

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Sestra Baxter

The Holts.  They are angels and sooo wise. 

I could listen to the Holts tell about history all day.

Braun's Nativity Scene

If it would have had color

September 12, 2016 -- "I love the first week of transfers"

 It is so well here in Pardubice. I love the first week of transfers,  learning how

Ti jo my companion, though.

to work with your companion and teaching and setting the area on fire. Always i____. We were able to meet with and talk to on the streets so many people. So many people are ready to hear about the Gospel in these parts. So I have been very blessed since coming here. I was sad leaving Liberec because our wonderful investigator L___ is going to be baptized but here, as well, they have D______ on a baptismal date. It is truly humbling to see another person who has been humble and prepared to enter the gate of baptism. He is from Ghana, and we helped him move to his new apartment for the year.  We had a way cool lesson with him about family history. Wow, every time I have taught family history on my mission, it just brings the spirit. 

On Saturday, we had an activity where all the member from the Czech Republic, past missionaries, and their families got together and did service. We did it at this center in a little village of Nova Paka called "zivot bez bariary" which is "life without barriers."  They house a ton of people who can't walk on their own. It was so fun. It is seriously like a big family here in the Czech Republic. I feel so special I can be a part of it. I love these people. I have been starting to realize how these people have literally changed my life around, and I will forever be a different person.  From the sweetest diligent member traveling and hour and a half to church each week or to the person who yells at us on the street, I am so thankful that I can teach these people about the nature of God, and then invite them to find it for themselves. 

Being a sister training leader is actually pretty fun. We have the sweetest, most diligent sisters. I am so thankful that I can serve with them and learn with them. They are so prepared for what the Lord has in store for them. I am so thankful I can be here and serve. I love to serve.


S Laskou, 
Sestra Baxter

-- 

Save the Trees and Pray Always

Sestra Baxter

September 5, 2016 -- "Pardubice Buzzing" and "Leaving Liberec"

Friends and family!

I am repenting. I am sorry I didn't write last week. To be honest, I only emailed my little sister. But wow.  Lots is happening in this mission because on Wednesday we will be getting 6 new sisters in this mission not counting the

Slovak sisters. I have received the news that I will be sister training leader with Sister Manners in the city of Pardubice. (For more on Pardubice, click here.) That was a total shock because we are the oldest sisters in the mission. In the past they have split the sister training leaders up so they can train. So, also, Sister Heap and Boza are serving together in Prague now, training. Which is also a total surprise because they are the oldest sisters in the mission, as well. So like the youngest sisters in this mission are training. I LOVE IT. 

I may have cried for an hour straight because I never ever ever ever ever had a

desire to be a Sister Training Leader my whole mission. I thought I might sneak under the train tracks. I like my areas and my companion and my branch.  And a little part of me didn't want to have to care about other people's areas or have to go on exchanges ever single week or call sisters each night to see how everything's going, or to have to go to big scary meeting where everone speaks almost perfect Czech, or train at trainings.   So that is probably exactly why Heavenly Father called me to this calling.  HA HA.  But really, I think this is a transfer where I will grow the most. And it sounds like the transfer most like my patriarchal blessing.

Sister Manner is my companion. It will be such a transfer. This is the first older missionary I have served with since my trainer.  So that is good. I never thought

I would serve with an older missionary. We already decided that this is the transfer where we are going to be completely consecrated missionaries and get Pardubice buzzing.

So leaving Liberec was so sad. But the last thing I said to Sister Huylar was to get L_____, our investigator, to the waters. He is sooo good and so ready to change.  He decided to stop smoking, drinking--everything all at once. And members have been giving him ideas of how they kept the Word of Wisdom. I know Sister Huylar and Witezel are going to work so hard there, and I am so excited for them. Also speaking of baptisms, we have one here in Pardubice, the 18th, next week. He is from Ghana and met missionaries there. So good.

Ti jo. I love you allllll.

-- 

Save the Trees and Pray Always

Sestra Baxter