BLIZZARD!!!!!!! (the oreo kind)

So guess what??? Yes, we got around 2 feet of snow!!! It snowed for like 2 1/2 days straight!! We kept looking out the window, and the snow kept coming down, and piling up higher and higher!! On Saturday President Taggart said that we weren't allowed to drive or go outside unless it was in our best judgement to do so. So all day Saturday we were inside watching the snow and getting some much needed areabook housekeeping done! We organized a lot, and went through a lot of people in our areabook. The mission wanted all of the paper areabooks gone, so we inputted and shredded all the rest of the information that wasn't already in... and that was pretty boring... BUT after that we got all bundled up and went outside to play in the snow.... We pretended like we were pioneers trekking through the frozen tundra... When we came back, our skirts were literally frozen stiff... like in the movie FROZEN when Ana comes out of the stream and her skirt won'f move? Yup, thats how it was... Honestly, I have never seen so much snow in my entire life... I hope the pictures I sent will somewhat accurately express how crazy this snowstorm actually was haha. Seriously, in some parts it was higher than my waist! And the wind made it even crazier, because we had HUGE snowdrifts in some parts. In fact... we don't know how we are going to dig our car out, because it is still covered in snow... we have a dustpan in the closet though... it will all work out...

I am so thankful for modern technology though! The ipads make everything SO much easier and faster so we can spend more time working with people. I have a growing testimony that technology is a great tool that Heavenly Father has blessed us with to hasten this work, and prepare us to raise the next generation as the masters of technology, and not the servants. 

On Sunday church was cancelled because of all the snow, and we still weren't allowed to drive, so we walked over four miles through the snow to a couple of appointments. But it made for a wonderful service opportunity!!! On the way, we met this older couple whose car was COMPLETELY covered with snow, and when we asked if they needed help, they started getting really excited, because the husband had had a heart attack, and they had no idea how they were going to get their car out... So there we were on the side of the road, in our skirts, standing in giant piles of dirty snow, digging this giant car out hahaha. It was so awesome! They were so nice, and the lady (Rosemarie) went and got a bag of apples and oranges and cookies and got some hot chocolate for us. They tried to give us a wad of cash too haha so we took it and bought ourselves a mini golf course for our apartment. JUST KIDDING!!!! goodness!!! No, we didn't take the money, but we did leave them with a Book of Mormon, and they told us that we could come back and talk to them about it! Then they gave us a ride the rest of the way to our appointment haha. It was so much fun.

It was so cool though to see how everyone came together and helped each other shovel snow and dig each others cars out. Sunday morning when the snow stopped, everyone was outside working to get the town cleaned up, and it was nice to see how real people here are. :) I love New Jersey. I don't ever want to leave, so if you want to see me again, you'll have to come to me. (sorry Dad...)

 We did have some spiritual time together on Sunday though. We had a little mini church session... but it was sad that we didn't get to take the sacrament. That is literally what I depend on every week to get me through. So this week, I am looking at it as a time to refresh how big of an impact the sacrament actually has when I go without it. It is good to remember the power of our covenants, when we understand the difference without having them renewed.

Sister Hale and I also went on exchanges this week, where Sister Hale and I split up, and spend 24 hours with a different sister missionary, to learn how to improve our area, which was really good for us. It helped me to understand how much I ADORE Sister Hale! I don't know what in the world I am going to do without her, because we get along so well, and have so much fun! We have great comp unity, and work really well together... But I have the feeling that Heavenly Father isn't going to give us another transfer together... :/ It will be ok though... Everything will work out for our good. But man, we have some weird Sister Training Leaders though... I mean they are so sweet, and spiritual though... but maybe I am just not as good as them or something, because they are strange... but we still love them. :) 

So every Thursday morning, we teach English classes, and it is so much fun! There is a guy that comes every time named Lewis, and He is awesome! He sometimes brings his wife, Manuela, and he said that he might bring a bunch of his friends next time too! Even though I don't know much Spanish, I am thankful for the tiny bit I do, because it sure comes in handy! I think I am learning as much Spanish from them as they are learning English! Just kidding, but it is such a cool experience learning how to teach something completely new to someone who has no idea what you are saying haha. We get pretty good at charades, and thank HEAVENS for the translation app that we have on our ipads! Lewis is making so much progress though, and we are so proud of him! 

Anyways... Ok, I think I am done with this madness.... OH!!!! By the way!!! The mission has a really cool facebook page now!! So all of you go on and be our friends!! :) They will be posting pictures and quotes and other stuff that is super cool.. So find us on Facebook!!

All of you are such a blessing to me, and have influenced me so much! Because I knew you, I have been changed for good!!! (Hope you get that reference) I love you all so much, and am so thankful for your prayers and letters and support. Always remember that Heavenly Father loves you so much, and no matter what your needs or concerns might be, the Savior, and His teachings, the Gospel will help you. :) Love you MUCHO!!!!

Sister Baine :)

SNOWWW!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone!!! Guess what? Yes, this week we got some SNOW!!!
Finally! After all the crazy weather, we finally get snow... and now
it is like sunny outside again.... but oh well haha.

This week was not as fabulous as we had planned it to be... But thats
ok, because that is why we have the Atonement! We did have a WONDERFUL
and INSPIRING Zone Conference on Friday that gave me so much
revelation, I don't even know what to do with it all. I love the
leaders of this mission so much, and have been learning more than I
can even comprehend!

So we went to a Pep Boys to get our car fixed, and walked around for a
little bit while it was in there, but no one was around because it was
FREEZING! But we did find some creepy pigs outside of an Asian
restaurant which I will send pictures of.... Be careful where you eat
in Jersey... And we also got some of the BEST hot chocolate I have
ever had from a Shell gas station for 50 cents to warm us up.... That
was fun.

I also got to see Chris this week! (He is my recent convert from
Morristown. He said that he was in Plainfield for work, so we met up
at Wendy's and had some frostys... Then as we were on our way out, we
met this guy named Donnell, and he was so awesome! We had a lesson
with him, and Chris had the opportunity to bear his testimony of the
Book of Mormon to him! We left him with a copy, and it was all
awesome. :)

We saw our cop friend, Nick again. We talked to him more about
missionary work and the church, and said a prayer with him! ....That
was after we almost died though... So it was the second snow of New
Jersey this week, and it was actually sticking on the ground, and
freezing on the roads. So yes, the roads were very slick.... Well even
though  my dearest Sister Hale is from Idaho, so she SHOULD be used to
driving in snow, she thought she could make the right turn before the
light turned red at an intersection. Well... We made the light... But
were spinning in the middle of the intersection for a good few seconds
screaming "JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL!!"  as our lives passed before our
eyes. We ended up turning left, but its all good because nothing bad
ended up happening. I definitely have a rock-solid testimony that
Heavenly Father watches over and protects His missionaries! Even when
they are silly sometimes.

Anyways, thats about all the exciting things that happened this
week.... If there is anything else that I missed, I will let you know
later when I send all the pictures. I love you all so much!!! I pray
that your world is as great as mine!!!

Sister Baine :D

Another Juan Bites the Dust!

Alright! Who's got a great start to the new year?! WE DO!!!!!!

I will do my best to make this email shorter than the last couple weeks have been haha. But suffice it to say that this week has been jam-packed with awesome things. 

So, Friday. We had an AMAZING DAY! We went to Walmart to "shop," but really we would just go around the store pretending to put things in our cart as we talked to people about Jesus Christ. It was so fun! We met so many crazy Walmart people. One of them was a pastor of another church haha and she said that she had already been saved for 23 years! Another lady told us a CRAZY experience she had that was kind of creepy. It started out great with her telling us about how she found Jesus, but then she started talking about this dark spirit leaving her, and how then one time she was speaking in tongues and didn't know what she was saying.... We don't know what to think about crazy things like that.

 Anyways, so we went on having an AWESOME day, and then we had like 20 mins left before we needed to go sync our ipads. So we prayed and asked Heavenly Father where He wanted us to go, and then we just started driving. It was some AWESOME comp unity when we started turning through this neighborhood to where the spirit guided us. Then, Sister Hale said to stop, and we went up to house number 366 and knocked. We found a GREAT family that let us come in and talk to them. So that was a miracle. 

Then we got back to the library to use the wifi to sync our areabooks. So we parked across like 5 handicapped spaces because its 9 at night and no one is around. But then this cop pulls up, and we are like aw flip. So we run over to the cop, and explain it to him and that we are just poor missionaries using the wifi. Well finding out that we were missionaries completely changed everything, and we had a 15 minute conversation about what we do and the church and everything. We left officer Nick with a Book of Mormon, and an invitation to come to church and learn more. WE ARE GOING TO BAPTIZE A POPO!!!!!!! Yeah buddy!!!!!!!

Ok, so that was totally the highlight of my week. Also, there is this lady that is apparently from out of town and no one really knows who she is and she isn't staying for very long. Well she has come to church the past couple of weeks, but she rolls around this little cart thing, and last Sunday she had two big buckets with hamsters in them that she wheeled around the chapel, and this week she had a little dog chillin on the cart learning about the gospel... Our recent convert was REAL confused about what was going on... and for once, we were kind of glad we didn't have brand new investigators there to ask questions about it...

 We also picked up trash along the streets this week, and we found a lot of drugs.... WOOHOO!!!! Party time!! Just kidding... But man, New Jersey can be really filthy sometimes, and boy did our trash bags smell bad!

Alright... now to be serious for two minutos. The first Presidency has really been stressing making the Sabbath a delight. As a missionary, sometimes that is hard to do, because Sundays, and especially at church, we are generally the busiest, and it can feel so crazy sometimes. But as I have pondered about how I can make the sacrament more meaningful, and how we can strengthen the ward as well, it came to my mind that the Sacrament is the center of it all. As Sister Hale and I discuss it, and have been talking to more and more members about the Sacrament, the spirit has taught me more and more about it. What if Jesus Christ were to be in your Sacrament meeting this Sunday? You walk into the Chapel, and He is sitting up on the stand to observe how the ordinance of His sacrifice is performed. How would you prepare? What would you do differently during that ten minutes while the Sacrament is being passed? As covenant members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have the privilege each week of inviting Christ to be with us each week when we take the sacrament. We have that promise that we will always have His spirit to be with us. 

The sacrament is a rehearsal. It is a sacred practice of how it will be when Jesus Christ really does come again. How we take the Sacrament each week is a reflection of how we will receive Him. Think of the parable of the 10 virgins. Elder Bednar has said that the 5 wise ones were prepared because they had the oil of conversion in their lamps, and were ready to meet the BrideGroom. We take the Sacrament each week for ourselves, and no one can take it for us. No one can force us to have the Spirit with us, and be one with Christ. Only we can be FILLED (3 Nephi 18) with the oil of conversion if we make the sacrament meaningful each week. It is a sacred time when we align our will with the will of the Father. Just like in the talk "What Lack I Yet?" He says that the sacrament is a perfect time to ask what we can do to better become converted. 

I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for the Sacrament. It is truly a sacred time between us and the Lord individually. I can testify as a representative of Jesus Christ that partaking of the bread of life and living waters worthily and inviting Christ to spend those 10 minutes with you will fill you. It will Make the Sabbath a delight, and you will be prepared to meet Him with joy when He comes. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sister Baine :)

HAP-PPY NOOOOO YEAR!!!!!

It is @)!^ (thats French for 2016!!!) Can you believe it????? I am seriously going crazy!!! Tomorrow will be my 5th month birthday in the mission, and that makes me even more sick!!!! Sometimes I think that I am honestly doing all I can, and have nothing else to give... and then other times I realize I have been out for 5 months, and wonder what I have been doing all this time... and why 500 people aren't baptized already? Maybe I need more faith... So if anyone has extra faith they can send me, that would be great.. just kidding, thats not real.

But SACRED BEEF we got so much CANDY!!!!! We seriously had mountains of sugar after Christmas! The sad thing is though, is that now it is almost all gone... i don't really know where it went... I am going to blame it on Sister Hale. 

New Years was good though, however, I was a little surprised. Normally you'd think that everyone would be out and about doing fun things and getting drunk on New Years Eve... but we went out contacting that night, and there was not a soul on the streets! Maybe it was too cold, but it was really lame. 

The rest of the week was really great though. So here's a great story for you guys haha. A member named Brother LaConte from my old ward in Morristown came down for an evening to go contacting with us. (Don't worry, its not creepy, he likes to go around to a bunch of different companionships and spend evenings with them....) So we went to a couple of people, and got some good lessons and potential investigators. But then Sister Hale felt prompted to go down this one street, so we did, and we started knocking. Most of the people weren't interested, but when we knocked on this one house, the lady opened the door and immediately was like "Oh come in, come in!" We were like... "uhhh what...?" She ushered us in the house though and there were two other ladies in her living room. They both seemed really nice, and then the first lady went into the other room to take a phone call, so we introduced ourselves, and then when the lady came back, we found out that we had happened upon a Buddhist meeting!!! When we introduced ourselves as being from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she was kind of awkward, but they were all so nice, and invited us to sit in on it for a while! We sat and talked and learned about Buddhism for an hour! It was such a blessing to have Brother LaConte with us though, because before he became a member, he was really into the Buddhist philosophy and everything. It was one of the coolest meetings I have ever had though, because while they were all talking about what they believed, the spirit was SO SO STRONG when it was true and went along with what we believe. But when they started talking about chanting in front of scrolls, and how God isn't a Heavenly Being and other false doctrines, the spirit left. It was so amazing how district of a difference it was, when the Spirit would come and go and come and go. The Spirit testifies of all truth! However, Satan is really tricky, and even half truths or straight up false truths can not be confirmed by the Spirit. 

We also met some Hindu people this week, which was really cool to be able to talk to them. It is so nerve-racking for me to talk to all these different kinds of people though! They bring up so many different concerns and needs and ideas that I don't know how to address! But that is why we have the Gift of the Holy Ghost. That is why we have to open our mouths and have faith that the Lord will fill them with the words we should say... And that is exactly why I pray for humility every day haha, because I don't think that I am too good at doing that yet... :/

Lets see, what else happened this week. We taught a couple of homeless people! They are so funny, and Sister Hale almost got kissed by one! It was a guy that they had taught a lot before, and when she shook his hand, he started pulling her in and leaning in closer and closer! We think that he might have been drunk though, because it was New Years Day, and he was acting weird as it is haha. It was still hilarious though. 

It is also really sad to see and talk to all the homeless people here though. They have such hard lives that I don't understand, and it is hard to relate to them sometimes. But I know that as a representative of Jesus Christ, He will bless me with His love if I seek it. He loves these people. He loves them even if they smell bad or look scary or have missing teeth, or dig through trash, or get abused, or aren't nice. He loves them all, and He wants to heal them physically and spiritually. I pray that as I go among them, He will work through me to bless their lives and allow them to feel loved and comforted. 

Sorry this is sounding like a journal entry... I am so thankful that I am coming to love this people so much. :)

Alright, here is another funny story. So our poor car is getting so beat up and run down. I mean it is still really nice, but it badly needs a tune up. A couple days ago, the tire light came on on the dashboard, and I was like "oh, we need to put air in our tire." So we pulled into a gas station to use the air pump. But we didn't have a tire gauge, so I was like "oh, we will just have to guess which tire needs air and how much to put in..." We started filling up the tire that we guessed was the one that needed air. I was just pumpin away, puttin air into our tire, when this truck driver came over and asked if we needed any help. I told him that we didn't have a tire gauge, but then he smartly pointed out that there is one ON the air pump. So I handed him the nozzle, and he checked the tire, and he was like "OH MY GOSH!!!! YOU HAVE 70 POUNDS OF AIR IN THIS TIRE!!!! YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE IT EXPLODE!!!" And I was like, "What? How much is supposed to be in there?" and he said that it was supposed to only have 32 pounds of air.... so he QUICKLY started letting all the air out. After wards, we thanked him for saving our lives, and asked him about religion, gave him a card and drove away... and the tire light was still on... so we didn't even get the right tire... -_- Sorry Grandpa Serra... I know you did your best to teach me how to take care of my car, but I didn't represent you very well haha. 

Well, I think I have told you enough nonsense for the week. I love you all so much!!!! I know I say that every week, but i really really do! I tell Heavenly Father every week how much I love you, and always pray for all of you! Thank you all so much for supporting me! Stay stellar!!! And don't take any wooden nickles!

Love Sister Baine