Let's Do This....

Well this week has been JAM PACKED with adventures. I think this has
been the busiest week of my mission. We went on three exchanges this
week with our sisters who needed some extra help, and it was so much
fun. We all learned a lot and saw SO many miracles! Wow, it is
incredible how much the Lord blesses us when we do our best to obey.
Miracles always happen on exchange. :)

The fun part is that the last exchange we went on was with Sister Hale
and Vanhoven! And guess what? I got to be companions with my beloved
Sister Hale again for a day!!! It was SUCH a party to work with her
and reminisce about old times haha. We literally died laughing at all
the memories and pictures and videos we went back through. So much fun
:D

Then yesterday we had a baptism! Lydia got baptized, and it was such a
sweet experience. Her brother baptized her, and her mother shared her
testimony with all of us. She didn't want it to be a big thing with
lots of people and speakers and everything, so we mainly just had
testimonies, and the spirit was SO strong!

THEN we went to the temple open house with Alan and Amos!!! It was a
blast, and even though the AC didn't work in the van we rode in for
and hour and a half, it was worth it :) The spirit was definitely
there, and the temple is SO beautiful! On the ride back, apparently
Alan and Amos made a pact that whoever gets baptized first has to
baptize the other one ;) so hopefully they are serious, because if not
we are dropping both of them. But they are really good friends with
the Houts (the member fam that took us) So hopefully they will stick
around.

We also got transfer calls last night! I am staying here in Plainsboro
and will be leading out the area for the first time! Sister McAllister
will be getting transferred to be with Sister Wood in Scotch Plains!
In my old apartment! It is so funny how the Lord works. Sister Dean
will be my new companion, and I am super excited because she came out
here with me! We were in the same MTC district! This is going to be a
straight up donkey show with us together haha.

Well I hope you like the pictures!! I love you all and pray you are
doing well! Thank you so much for your support and prayers! MUAH!

Sister Baine

Wow Wow Wubsey (7/18)

Hello everyone!!! Sorry this isn't going to be as long as last weeks,
but I have some AWESOME pictures for you!!! Last week for Pday we went
to a Hindu Temple!!! It was so cool, but also kinda crazy. It
definitely wasn't a spiritual experience at all (all those statues and
idols etc were kinda creepy) haha but it was definitely impressive.

So this next week is going to be SUPER crazy... But awesome. We are
going on 3 exchanges (an exchange very day!) and then this Sunday we
are having a baptism! Her name is Lydia and she is the daughter of a
member in our ward. She we have been teaching her for less than a
month because she has already been going to church and pretty much
knows everything haha. We still love her so much though, and she is so
sweet.

We also have a special temple trip this Sunday to go tour the new
Philadelphia Temple, and we are bringing Amos and Alan (they are our
two stubborn Black guys haha) and hopefully we will have Gayle and
Jamie too! We are sad because Varsha and her friends (the Hindus)
haven't met with us in a couple of weeks :( but we are praying that
they will come back soon.

Well I love you all, and I am so thankful for all your prayers. I
really feel them! I KNOW that I have been blessed with the best family
Heavenly Father could give me. My family helps and supports me from
both sides of the veil, and I will forever be grateful for it. :) love
you so much!!!

Sister Baine :)

I Can See Clearly Now, the Rain is Gone.... (7/11)

Seriously, it has been raining so much here! One day it will be super
hot, and then the next day... It will still be super hot, but it will
be pouring rain! And then it will completely downpour for like 2
minutes, and then stop... And then 30 minutes later go again haha.
This world is so crazy...

So I went on two exchanges this week, back to back, but it was so much
fun! I love my sisters SO much, and I have been growing so much from
working with them and learning from their experiences as well. Let me
tell you, these missionaries that come out are prepared to do the
Lords work! Oh and guess what? ...Maybe I already told you, but Sister
Hale is in the Zone that I cover! OH!!!! And you know what else is
super ironic?? She is serving in Toms River, which is my old area were
I served right before here! And The sisters that were serving there,
Sister McConkie and Sister Wood, both went to Scotch Plains where
Sister Hale just left, and I served before with her!! I thought it was
so funny how God connected everything. But yes, so now my beloved
Sister Hale is training a new missionary (her second time training) in
Toms River, and I got to go on exchange with her baby... .Her name is
Sister Vanhoven, and she is SO awesome! And then the other exchange I
went on was with Sister Perkinson (who for some reason I ALWAYS forget
to take pictures with... Sorry). It was so much fun though, and even
though I am super exhausted, I am so thankful for the miracles that we
could see. It is absolutely amazing what the Lord can do through you
when you are serving others. SO many miracles, and I have never felt
more in tune or of use in Heavenly Fathers hands than when I have been
on exchange. The revelations that we get to help these sisters are so
cool to receive!

Ok, I will tell you just a couple miracle stories haha. So when I was
with Sister Perkinson, We were knocking for forever (which I really
very strongly dislike with a lot of my heart) and it was SO hot, and
we smelled SO bad haha, but at the very end of the day, we knocked on
this door and an older man answered, and for some reason my mouth and
my brain couldn't work together to form words... So I stood there
stuttering for a few moments, and then said something dumb asking him
if he had heard of the Book of Mormon or something like that.... But
he ended up being super nice and we talked to him for nearly an hour
on his doorstep. He told us some of the things that he had been
through in life, and the miracles that he had seen, and we shared a
couple of scriptures with him, and introduced the Book of Mormon. It
was SO cool, and the spirit was very strong, and we said a prayer with
him before we left. Then as we were walking away, and we're almost to
our car, he called out to us, and we turned around, and he had his
wife in tow and introduced her to us, and it turns out that she and
Sister Perkinson are from the same town in Arizona! We exchanged
contact information, and hopefully they go back to teach and baptize
them!

THEN! When I was with Sister Vanhoven... Man there were so many
miracles... That girl has so much faith, and she has only been out for
like 4 weeks. So to be brief, we went to Seaside and found a less
active and taught him, which was a miracle because he hadn't been in
contact with the church in about 8 years. Then we went contacting and
knocking for about 4 hours around there (with a delicious lunch break
in between) and had a couple contacts, but didn't teach anyone, and
even though it was the PERFECT day weather wise to be contacting by
the shore, we started to get a little discouraged. So we decided that
we were going to share the video with ONE person before we left, and
then we saw a lady in her car, and Sister Vanhoven asked if she had a
couple minutes. Surprisingly, she said yes! So we showed her the
video, and then talked with her for a long time about her faith in
Christ and found out that she lives right down the street from our
church, and she said she would go and that we could come back and talk
to her more about our message!

THEN! The next day we went to go see
one of the investigators that they were working with (that I actually
started teaching with Sister McConkie) and she wasn't there, so we
started driving away when the spirit told us to go back and knock one
of the doors. So we went back, and on our way to knock the door, we
met a guy named Matt walking with his dog and nephew. We started
talking to him, and he said that he recognized Sister Vanhoven and had
talked to her before (even though she didn't remember it at all haha).
We showed a video to him and his nephew, and talked to them for a
while, then they had to go. So we knocked on the door, and there was
no one there... Oh well. On our way back to the car, I was awkwardly
doing a happy dance, when I noticed a guy sitting in a creepy white
van watching me do my happy dance... AWKWARD... So I stopped, and told
Sis Vanhoven. Then what does she do? She goes up and starts talking to
the guy!! It turns out he wasn't really creepy, he just had a flat
tire and was waiting for someone to come and pick him up. So we talked
about Jesus Christ, and she taught him about the Book of Mormon. He
took a copy, and she got his number so they could set up a time to
meet. Then we did end up seeing the investigator (Dorothy) anyways,
and she said she would come to church. :)

Wow!!! That was a lot, sorry... I kind of word vomited all over you
guys... BUT! One more thing. We had dinner at a members house with
Alan this week, and it was great! We talked about the Holy Ghost and
how we know when things are true, and everyone bore their testimony
and the spirit was so strong!!! Then we got pictures haha. We also got
another guy named Amos to go to the temple with us on the 24! I am so
excited! It is such a huge blessing that we are going to have another
temple so close to us, and that we can bring so many people to
experience it at the open house. It is going to be the best!

 
Ok... Well I think that's it for now... God is good. Love you all so
much!!!! :) MUAH!
Oh, and by the way, Happy Birthday 2 days ago to the BEST Mom in the
ENTIRE WORLD!!! Love you!!!

Sister Baine :)

What is Love? 7/4)

 Thank you all so much to all who fasted for me yesterday!! You have
no idea how much it helped me. I feel so loved and blessed and I know
that things are going to be ok. I love you so much, and I have a
strong testimony that Heavenly Father has blessed me with the best
family on earth. I know that we are also all part of His family, and
that the veil is not a boundary between families that are tied
together by covenants. I am so thankful that we have been blessed with
that. And thank you all for the emails! I am sorry I can't respond to
all of them, but I will respond next week!

So happy 4th of July everyone! Sorry this won't be very long, but I
wanted to share a miracle with you! So we went to a meeting Saturday
morning, and on our way there we saw this guy in pajama pants walking
down the street. So we made fun of him and went on our merry way. Well
later that day on our way back, we saw the SAME guy walking down the
street in pajama pants, so i waved at him, and thought that maybe we
should pull over, and then two seconds later we saw one of our
investigators and his friend standing on the street too! So we were
REALLY like PULL OVER! So we did and tried to find the pajama guy....
But he disappeared... So we went and talked to our investigator and
his friends and it was so fun, and we ended up handing out two books
of Mormons to them! Then we continued down the road and this lady
pulls up on her bike right next to a park bench and asked us if we
were going to sit there. We said no, but then she saw our tags and
started asking us about our church and the address and what we believe
and if we had a message for her, and if she could keep the Book of
Mormon.... WHAT!? Blessings!!! So we got her contact info, and she
said she would come to church too! Then we met some other crazy people
and other people who don't speak English.... But it was still a lot of
fun, and we are so thankful that we saw that miracle. 😁

Thank you  all so much for your faith and prayers. I love and miss you all!!!
Sister Baine :)

Who speaks English? (6/27)

Wow!!!! You never know how much people love you until you don't write
them! Sorry for the lack of communication! Last week we had an all
mission conference/ P-day, where the entire mission got together and
played sports and ate lunch and had a grand old time! After a couple
hours of that President Taggart's son, Spencer, spoke to us. He does a
little bit of travel as an inspirational speaker, and told us stories
about his mission and taught us how to be better missionaries. It was
super good and I learned a lot!

Heavenly Father has been being very good to us lately, for which I am
very grateful! So I will start going down the list.
First of all, there is Allan. He was a former investigator that we
called and started meeting with again. We have taught him a couple
times, but he has kind of a problem with faith. He is very
philosophical. But one of the team ups that we brought with us (he
bishops wife) called him a couple days ago, and she said that they
talked on the phone for over an hour about faith and how to tell when
things are tue or not. She has high hopes for him, and we feel like
his heart is slowly softening!

We also have Varsha and Tina and Sreeja. They are roommates and all
from India haha. Sister McCallister and Sister Shaffer found Sreeja a
month or two ago, and we have been trying to meet back with her for a
long time, but the last time that we knocked on their door Varsha
answered and we started teaching her. And then the next time we came
We taught Varsha and Tina, and then the next time it was Varsha and
Sreeja! They keep switching everything up on us, but Varsha is super
prepared, and she said that she would get baptized! So hopefully
everything keeps going well with them!

Then there is Adrienne. Actually let me give you context. So Stefanie
is a lady in our ward that works for a company called Vivint, and she
goes from door to door offering solar to people. Well she is also a
GREAT missionary because she talks to everyone about the gospel too,
and gives the missionaries tons of referrals. She doesn't work in our
area, so she mainly gives them to the other two sets of elders who
work close by. But when she met this one sweet lady named Adrienne,
she said she would prefer to meet with sisters. We have plans to hand
her off to the elders soon anyways, but holy tolito is Adrienne
prepared! She has had some deaths in the family in the past few years,
and when we taught her the Plan of Salvation, the spirit was SO
strong!! She shared so many cool experiences with us! She accepted a
baptismal invitation, and we are going to set her on date tomorrow! We
have taught her the restoration since then and the spirit was just as
strong! Then yesterday she came to church and brought her daughter and
two friends with her as well!!! We are so excited!!!

There have also been a couple other people that we have found that
could potentially progress towards baptism, and we have been
cultivating really good relationships with the ward lately too. God is
being very good to us! Thank you all for your prayers!!! I love and
miss you very much!

Sister Baine 😊

What Does the Squirrel Say??? (6/13)

This week has been a wild ride... Like a buckin bronco... Or the
Avalanche ride at Roaring Springs... Or eggplant casserole.

Avocados for dayyysssss!!! (6/6)

Hola mi familia y amigos!

My Spanish is getting better! Just kidding I don't know any. BUT! This
week has been super exciting! So many miracles!

We do service at a super awesome food pantry that is run by a guy from
the Spanish branch down here (his name is Juan...) and lately they
have been getting a lot of extra produce, and last time we served
there, they had 10 boxes of avocados!!!! They were all perfectly ripe
too, so Juan gave us a whole box of them! So MANY! So we started
giving everyone avocados!!! It was a super good excuse to see less
actives and members and investigators and random Hispanics that don't
speak English.... his name was also Juan... Anyways. It made things
super fun this week haha.

We also almost had a heart attack this week... We had President Bean
(a member of the mission presidency) text us randomly and ask if he
could come out with us on Thursday evening with his daughter who is
home from college for a while.... WHAT??? I was going crazy all week
long! So we set up an appointment and then he was going to take us to
dinner and then do some leadership training with Sister McAllister and
I. Probably because we are the worst leaders in the mission and need
all the help we can get. So that evening he picks us up and we start
going to our appointment... But then we go the wrong way.. So then we
get there late. And then she doesn't answer the door.... And it was
super embarrassing. But then we did go to dinner... And it was super
good... But I couldn't enjoy it because I was so nervous... I don't
know why because President Bean is SUPER awesome. But because he is so
awesome he is also super intimidating. When we did the training it was
SOOO good!!! It was honestly one of the most inspiring and humbling
experiences on my mission because of how it helped me. We talked all
about what leadership is and he gave us some scriptures and quotes and
a talk and we went through how Jesus Christ is the perfect leader and
how we can follow His example. Man, I could go on and on and on. I
leaned so much!

We had a couple super awesome lessons with this former named Amos this
week too... only the second time he was being super stubborn and
didn't want to cooperate... But then we get out and he texts us that
he might keep reading the Book of Mormon.... GAH! Whatever.. He is
super cool though... And he fed us breakfast at a diner... It was
delicious. The only bad thing was that we had already met at a
different diner that morning right before that for a District Leader
Council meeting. So I got TWO breakfasts!!! Blegh.

Well anyways, I love you all, and I hope you are all doing FABULOUSLY!!!

OH YES!!! And I also forgot to tell you about a crazy experience that
we had with an investigator named Alex! He is super awesome, and we
went to meet with him at a park and everything was great! But then
while Sister McAllister was reading a scripture he noticed a creepy
guy behind us standing super close and listening to everything we were
saying... So we asked if he wanted to come and sit with us while we
talked and we were thinking like oh cool super miracle and a new
investigator! But as soon as he sat down he started going off about
Joseph smith and quoting a bunch of stuff from the bible, and it was
like the devil had just joined us.... He looked and talked just like
Moriarty from Sherlock.... He started going off into a ton of deep
doctrine stuff, and our lesson went downhill fast and we ended up just
leaving, and then our investigator was so confused.... It was awful.
:/ the creepiest part was that this bad guys name was Alex too, and
they were both from Guatemala!!!! It was eerily coincidental. I firmly
believe that Satan planned it all out and sent him to shake our
investigator.... I have a growing testimony of how much influence
Satan has on people in this world. He is being fully unleashed and his
most faithful angels are being sent after Heavenly Fathers most
valiant children. He is so sneaky, but I also know with all of my
heart that with the Gift of Holy Ghost can help us detect deception in
all of its forms and if we obey Christ we will be protected and have
power given to us to combat Satan.  I love you all!!!! Please stay
faithful to the light and truth that you have received!

Love Sister Baine :)

Today we took a walk around Princeton, and it is SO pretty!! I am
going to work to get super rich so that I can go to school here
hahaha, it is like walking through Hogwarts!