Coming Home

Sister Brittany Baumgarten will be coming home from her mission on Wednesday, May 16th. She truly has touched the lives of many people, both in California and elsewhere. Thanks to everyone who has loved, supported and prayed for her throughout this amazing journey!

April 10, 2012

We picked up a new investigator on Friday. He's the nine-year-old son of a less active lady with an alcoholic husband. The kid is a bible whiz because of a Christian after school program he's involved with. Last week they watched a movie on the life of Christ so he decided he wanted to learn more and downloaded the Bible on his Kindle. This kid is NINE and he rattled off to us what was going on in the first few chapters of Genesis! I don't know how long we'll be able to keep teaching him because of his parents, but he's technically an investigator for now.
Brayden is still progressing in the gospel. Last week we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he committed to live it (even though it will mean giving up his Starbucks - He's such a Cali boy!). It was really cute how serious he took the invitation to live it. His parents unfortunately are still being a little standoffish towards us and the ward members. Despite that roadblock, we're still staying optimistic that they'll let him be baptized soon.
On Saturday we had a "fun" little thing happen to us. For the first time on my mission I got royally yelled at. We tried to contact a guy in a parking lot and before my companion could get more than a few words out he started yelling "No, no, no!!!" over and over again. Of course we backed off and wished him a happy Easter, but as we did that he went off about how we didn't even know what Easter was about, and then he tried to sick his dog on us! I couldn't believe it! I have never been treated like that before in my life. I mean, I've dealt with lots of rude people, but this guy was downright hostile. I don't care who you are, no grown man should ever speak like that to girls. What is the matter with people that they think they can behave like that? I was so upset about it that I instantly started crying and he still continued to yell at us as we walked away. I guess that kind of thing happens to every missionary and I couldn't get away without having at least one person scream at me, but it was not an experience I wish to repeat.

April 17, 2012

We had a really neat opportunity on Saturday to have a mission conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson. We all got to shake his hand and during his talk he opened up some time for us to ask him questions. He said some things that I know were just for me. There were some things that I had been praying about that he answered directly. It was amazing!

April 24, 2012

In more spiritual news, we picked up an amazing investigator this morning. For the first time on my entire mission I taught a lesson and found an investigator by tracking. She's golden! She's in her 40's and is a stay at home mom. It's incredible how receptive she was to the message of the restoration, and she really truly has a desire to know if it's true. The spirit was so strong during the lesson and my companion and I were truly able to teach with unity. It's so amazing how God prepares people to hear our message. I've seen so little measurable success on my mission that I'm still amazed, even after having been a missionary for so long, at the miracles God provides in this work. The one challenge that our new investigator will face is her husband. He's sort of anti-religion. He's of the opinion that religion is pointless because all it does is cause contention and death (Middle East, anyone?). It will be hard to convince him that all other churches except ours are man-made, hence all of the contention found in other churches and religions.
Let's see, what else is happening lately.... Brayden isn't doing so great. He has really withdrawn himself from us over the last couple of weeks. We're super worried about him, but he won't open up to us and talk about what's going on that is weighing on him so heavily. Keep him in your prayers.
Guess what? There was an earthquake on Monday! True story. We were at district meeting and everything started rumbling. It was crazy! The rumbling only lasted for five seconds or so, but it was a pretty good tremor. We found out later that it was only a 3.9, but I was amazed at how much you could feel even a small scale earthquake. I can't even imagine how scary a big earthquake would be. I'm praying that I'll make it home safely before a big one hits.

April 30, 2012

Sunday I attended my last ward council meeting, which was really weird to think about. They cancelled them for the next two Sundays for fast Sunday and Mother's Day. Ward Council has become such a huge part of my Sunday experience that it just feels so crazy that I won't be going again for probably quite awhile. It still hasn't quite hit me that I'm going home in two weeks. I don't know, it has, but it hasn't. Heavenly Father seems to be helping me transition out of missionary mode by making me rely on the inspiration that my companion receives about the work instead of allowing me to be inspired. I'm starting to feel my stewardship over the people decrease slowly, hence the decrease of inspiration about them. I don't know if any of that makes sense, but there you go.

May 8, 2012

Well, this is it. We've made it! This is the last letter from me as a missionary. It seems so strange to have my mission be over. I feel like this last letter should be profound and moving, but I'm really at a loss for what to write. So I'm afraid you all just get an ordinary letter.
I had my interview with Pres. Cook this morning. He asked for a brief report on my mission, and we talked about a few of the things I learned and qualities that I've developed like patience, hope & charity. He walked me through the itinerary for the night before and the day I go home. We'll be getting up early Wednesday morning to do an 8:00am session at the San Diego Temple and then we'll go the the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. I've learned so much from this experience. Every challenge that I'm faced with in life, every calling I'm given will be opportunities for me to draw from the lessons learned on my mission. The mission has put in perspective for me the things that really matter.

On Sunday the Elders Quorum president came up to us as we were greeting people during sacrament and said, "Sisters, I just want you to know that we've had a lot of great missionaries in our ward, but you two have such an exceptional spirit about you. You really add something extra special to our ward." Isn't that sweet? He was so sincere when he said it. It made my entire week worthwhile. It's nice to know that at least someone in the state of California thinks I'm a special missionary.
Last week was pretty rough; we haven't had a week that empty in a long, long time. Every single appointment we had cancelled or fell through. It made for a very long week. It didn't help that it rained all weekend which didn't help our contacting at all.
I'm not really sure what else to tell you all, so I guess I'll leave it at that. Love you all!

I don't have much to report as far as missionary work goes this week. We actually taught more lessons than normal last week, which was nice for us. Even with more set lessons, the week was still very long. It didn't help that it rained for three days straight. When it rains like that the temperature drops down into the 40's (cold for California), which can make it hard to stay motivated about going out and knocking doors. Hopefully next week it will be sunny again!

February 28, 2012

Here's my investigator update for the week. We lost one of the investigators that we have been working with. I guess the opposition was just too much for her. She was getting so much flack from her family that she just decided to take the easy route by going to a church her husband approves of. As if we weren't heartbroken enough about it, the WML's wife is blaming us for her choice.

On a better note, the two young investigators that we have are doing great. I think i've made a really good connection with one of them. In fact, he hugged me after sacrament meeting this last Sunday, Haha, I just instinctively hugged him back without even thinking about it, and it was really funny to see the looks on peoples faces after the fact. Oops! He kind of reminds me of Weston with his curly hair.

Oh, I have a cool story to tell you. We were visiting some elderly people in the ward this last week and we stopped in on this couple. He and his wife are German immigrants, and, get this, he fought under Hitler in WWII! True Story! Can you believe that? He was actually on the front lines when the Nazis invaded Russia. When the war ended he was captured by some Americans who then turned him over to the Russians. He spent five years in a Russian prisoner of war camp and was one of the 10% or so (if that) who survived. He told us about how his faith in God kept him alive (he was already a member of the church) and how he refused to drink the coffee that they gave the prisoners to drink instead of water. To stay alive he would drink water from a contaminated well, but he would pray every time he had to drink it and he never once got sick. Isn't that amazing? He enlisted when he was sixteen years old and wasn't released from the camp until he was 22. His family was told that he'd been killed in action, so they were quite surprised when he showed up on the doorstep one day. Anyway, he was the sweetest old man on the planet. He's the guy in the pictures standing next to the model of the Salt Lake temple. He built an entire little city in his backyard with a train running through it, and the whole thing lights up! It's amazing!

I love and miss you all!

Saturday we helped a kid in our ward with his Eagle Project. We painted baseball dugouts in this massive field for community sports. It was actually really fun. We painted for four hours and only got three dugouts finished. It was a LOT of work.
We officially picked up a girl that we've been visiting as an investigator. She had a friend invite her to seminary several months ago, and she's been attending faithfully ever since! She has attended church twice now and we're hoping to invite her to be baptized next week.
A sister in the ward's friend came to church with us on Sunday as well. She loved it! The Relief Society lesson was on Joseph Smith and after church she couldn't stop talking about how it makes total sense that God would have direct revelation through a prophet today just like in Bible days. Bingo! She's totally golden! She lives outside of the ward though, so we'll end up handing her over to different missionaries so they can get her baptized.
President's Day was pretty good for us. We arranged to hang out with a bunch of different families in the ward. It was fun, but doesn't quite compare with being home. Love you all!!

Wow, I'm really not sure where this last week went. I really don't know what the highlights of the past few days are. Everything is sort of a blur. Let's see, we picked up a new investigator on Sunday. He's a 15-year old boy that reminds me a lot of an investigator that I had in my first area. He is super intelligent and has already read the complete standard works. Yep, everything from the Old Testament to the Pearl of Great Price. He has made it very clear that he wants to be baptized so we're hoping to set a date with him later this week.
One of our investigators that we have been working with a lot is going back to Illinois on Wednesday, and we're so sad about it. We've already contacted the bishop of the ward out there where she is moving to, so the transition to the new missionaries should be smooth. She wanted all my contact info so we could stay in touch and she could let us know how things go for her with the new missionaries.