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