Monday, March 31, 2014

march 31


E Woolums, welcome visitors from Oak Ridge, Andrew

Hey there!
This flea market has been here 21 years and is 1/2 mile long
Greetings from Asheville, North Carolina! Well we were able to find a member to drive us down to Etowa this week, where Chelsea and Alex are living temporarily. That was a great lesson we retaught the restoration lesson focused really on how the GOSPEL was what was lost and restored and how the GOSPEL is what will ultimately help us live happy lives and return to Heavenly Father as eternal families. Pretty simple idea (not easy to accomplish per se, just simple to comprehend) that because God loves us enough to have sent His son, IF we have faith; repent; make, keep and renew sacred covenants; receive and remain worthy to keep the Holy Ghost; and continue the cycle we can inherit all God has to give us. The gospel is restored and that’s what this great work is all about.
View of Asheville from his favorite parking garage
Glad to hear everyone enjoyed the women’s broadcast, I heard it was an awe inspiring night for sure. As for our plans for conference we will most likely be attending all the sessions at the church. Dani and I communicate through email almost weekly and she sent me some cool pass along cards she made up and I printed them off here and made a few hundred and we are busy inviting every neighbor we have around the church personally to come hear a living prophet. So that’s exciting. We have invited tons of people that seem interested, maybe we will have one or two show up! That would be a miracle! We also made bigger fliers that we have been putting up all over down town, and while we post them up we also have had a couple people interested in talking about it. We have adapted the phrase "local event" people in Asheville love local. Lots of liberals that are all about local food and green energy and being vegan and all the rest.
well love ya
the Gospel is the way home and the Lord is in it!

Love Elder R.A. Bakker

Monday, March 24, 2014

March 24


White Duck Taco's
Things are going pretty normally up here. really not a whole lot going on this week. I’m staying put another transfer here, so that will be good. Oh so we had a lesson scheduled with our investigators Chelsea and her boyfriend Alex  and they had to cancel because they had a home invasion and 2 guys threw a brick through their window and broke down their front door over an xbox.... it was crazy they went in, and she said she felt the Lord with her since we have been teaching her and she told them to turn around and leave and for some reason with out question they just left the house! Really crazy experience, but they are out of the area for a while where it’s safe. So cool miracle that saved Chelsea and her two young girls, however it puts a wrench in the teaching for the time being.
Asheville Drum Circle
We got to go to the first "Asheville Drum Circle" of the year! Every Friday night downtown everyone gathers and does a wild drum circle! Lots of drums, lots of people, super crazy, too much fun. We went and did some street contacting there and met a guy that was pretty interested, his family are all members and he wants to sit down with us and figure some stuff out, it sounds pretty promising actually.
But yeah another week, another transfer come and gone. Loving every moment! The gospel is true and we are doing our best to find many people to share it with here! That’s the greatest feeling in the world. truly proclaiming the Lord's everlasting gospel. love ya!

love Elder R.A. Bakker

Monday, March 17, 2014

march 17

E Woolums and the creepy things in the attic of their house

Super big excerpts of the Book of Mormon


Hey! Good week this week! We had an investigator named Gregory that had a hard time reading the Book of Mormons that we supply be cause they are so small. So we thought well we will order a large print. Well the large prints are on back order until further notice, so " well what do we do?". Then we decided to cut one up and copy the pages of a little Book of Mormon and enlarge them to a 8.5 by 11 sheet. That day we brought it by and he said that he still couldn’t read it! ha so we were like well we have no idea so we bought him a magnifying glass and he still couldn’t read it! We were running out of ideas. We thought of who could help in the branch. So we went to a Kinkos and a member happens to work there. He made it even bigger! So we put them on 11 by 17 inch sheets. They were so massive! We showed up the Next day to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we don’t know what happened but some issues came out, and long story short came to the conclusion that he wanted to stay Baptist. It was a sad ending. We put a lot of effort to help him out. Who knows maybe some other missionaries will help him out in the future.
Then we had a lesson with another one of our investigators named Chelsea. She had her mother in law and he step brother there. We taught a short version of the plan of salvation touching on where we came from and why were we here, solid lesson, interesting how almost know one knows the purpose of life. It was a great lesson we were able to get their input and involve them in the lesson and they wanted to learn more! The next lesson we had with them was great because Chelsea’s boyfriend decided that he was going to change his life! So we taught them the Doctrine of Christ. They are great, but didn’t show up to church yesterday, so we have to head over and see what happened but yeah!
Well that’s about it as far as life this week! love ya! The gospel is true, and the only way home!
Love Elder R.A. Bakker


the pictures are the super big Book of Mormon we made and the other is Elder Woolums with some creepy dolls. We were able to break into the attic of our house because the lights were mysteriously on... and there is a padlock on the door... so how they got on who knows... but we got up there by pulling the hinges off the door to get the lights off and there were those creepy dolls, pictures of the little black girl named Betsy that haunts our house and dead birds kinda neatly lined up and creepy writing.... haunted house..... haha and I’m sure the footsteps we here downstairs every night is just something falling over... every night... :0

Monday, March 10, 2014

March 10

We had a really good week this week. Miracles are definitely abounding here. We received a surprise investigator this week that called the church and asked the person who answered if he could be baptized. He has gotta be in his late 80's, but his name is Gregory and he is awesome. Just so willing to follow the Lord and do whatever the lord tells him to do. He is in an assisted living facility here in Asheville and can’t really get around, so we always have to have someone pick him up for church and things like that. But he is scheduled to be baptized on March the 22nd and we are anxiously awaiting that date.
Our whole zone is doing so awesome we have been really teaching the doctrines of faith and miracles to the zone lately and as a result of missionaries actively petitioning the Lord for such it has been granted. We scarcely go a day without hearing of a surprise baptismal date or some other miracle of the like happening somewhere in the zone!
One of the most tender miracles that happened to us this week was on Wednesday I believe. We get a text from a family in a neighboring ward that is rushing their 7 week old baby to the emergency room at Mission Hospital in our area. They ask us to come quickly and give a blessing to the little boy with a high fever. They had taken him to the doctor earlier that day and the doctor sent them right out the door to rush him to Mission, needless to say it was quite serious. We arrive at the hospital and after conquering the maze of hallways find ourselves in the emergency room in the room of the little boy and his face is bright red and he is crying and in what seemed to be quite a lot of pain and discomfort. Well his father takes him in his arms, and I hear the spirit whisper to me, "you heal that baby!" so we lay our hands on his head and commanded him to be healed. Instantly the crying stopped and his color returned to a normal hue and he peacefully fell asleep in his father’s arms, sleeping for the first time in 2 days. The nurse walks in the room amazed and excited that he appears to be feeling better. Well we left probably never to see anyone in that room again, with a sure testimony of the divinity of Priesthood Power and the Love the Lord has for each of us his children. I know the Lord lives and ministers to us each day upon our personal qualification and worthiness. This work is true.

Love Elder R.A. Bakker   

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

March 3

Hey!
great week this week, well I guess its always a great week out in the service of the lord! Asheville is treating me great! We have one solid investigator right now. Her name is Chelsea and she is great she loves church! We also have a few more solid people we are going to get in contact again with this week, so that should be good. Pray for miracles!
We are working with to college students that are less actives right now and they are great. Jen and Ash, they are dating. Jen is 19 and Ash (her boyfriend) is 20. We have been doing weekly lessons with them to help them stay focused on a more eternal prospective, its been going well we really felt good about how Jen is progressing lately and Ash has been kinda just there and not real involved. However, yesterday in fast and testimony meeting Ash decided to surprise us and get up and bear his testimony! It was awesome! Really spiritually moving! We like them.
Oh interesting fact, Billy Graham lives in Asheville and there is freeway named after him that we travel on almost every day... also rumor has it that Walt Disney lived in our house at one point and has drawings on the walls of our basement... I’m not sure I believe it, but hey cool legend I guess.
Well that’s about it for the week! Loving everything about being a missionary!
Love ya!
Elder R.A. Bakker