Translation Squad

Things here are really good! Its weirdly warm right now.... its been like 7 degrees Celsius (mid 40's), its super foggy, and has been raining a lot. This whole transfer we have been sifting through the wheat and the tares and trying to find the people who are really prepared for the gospel. We have been getting more and more successful as we have just worked our tails off.

We have a couple that we met in Pizza Pizza (Canada's knock off of Little Caesars) about a month ago, that we have just recently been able to get in contact with. They are super cool!  When we first talked to them they wanted to volunteer in our church and help out in whatever way they could and they even offered to help us translate for the others who don't understand English. The funny thing is is that only one of them can translate... the other needs translation himself hahahahha, But that's ok because his wife can help and we have an investigator right now that is a legit translator so that would be awesome.

The couple is also finding out what religion is for themselves and our ward mission leader (Brother Andrei Ardelean from Romania) laid down the law on how they will never find out what religion is for themselves and what our services mean unless they read and pray about the Book of Mormon.
Elder Casdorph and I thought that was a little over the top but he responded very well and is like BFF's with bother Ardelean! And his wife is making so many friends with out us inviting the members to do so! We told them afterwards "if you have any questions just to feel free to ask us", and they said "ok thanks! but to be honest I have so many friends here I'll probably just ask one of them!"
They are so great and they love coming to church!!

This was just one of the major tender mercies we have seen from the Lord.

Love you all and hope you are all doing well :)

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ارشد باکر

Elder Bakker

Not a real Email

This week has been good.

I hope everyone is good! I don't have a lot of time.

We have been hit with heaps of referrals lately and it has been a huge blessing.

We got 3 new investigators this week and expected around 10 investigators at church! sadly we only had 2... but hey that's still good, 2 souls progressing is enough :) We also had some of our less active members come to church! Pretty good day over all.

The 2 people that came are extremely educated and want to serve in the church! so Bishop Holdaway is thinking and praying of something that they can do, they offered to do translation for sacrament meeting and I think that would be awesome! They would preach the gospel before they know it.

nothing else really happened this week.

love you all!!!!!
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Elder Bakker

  

 

5.5 Hours

All is well here and this past week has been full of miracles.

This whole transfer my companion and I have been trying to contact the former investigators we have. So on Saturday we did just that and ended up knocking doors for about five and a half hours with no real success. Came home and we were pretty beaten down. The day seemed like a waste. But the next day we came to church and we were sitting in ward council and a young man from the Chinese ward came in and told us that there was a Persian couple in the Chinese sacrament meeting. So my companion and I jumped up and went to talk with them. To our surprise it was a former investigator from 6 months ago! They didn't know about the time change and they just came when they thought it was. They ended up staying in the Chinese ward and got English translation, and they said that Chinese was good but they are excited to come to the English ward. The Lord really knows the effort we put in and sees the sincerity in our actions. The 5 and a half hours of tracting was all worth it the next day when we picked up 2 former investigators!

I hope everyones new years has been good!


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Elder Bakker

What happens when a bunch of missionaries get a package of mustaches sent to them...

2017

Happy new year!

This week has been fairly slow.... During the Holidays no one ever wants to meet or talk because they are always with family and friends.
So Elder Casdorph and I have been hitting our former investigators list hard. Lots of tracting and lots of slammed doors. You'd think people would at least be courteous enough to say "I'm good how are you?" instead of looking at us and slamming the door.
But I have learned something from all this. No matter how many people say no, or how many doors are shut, the Lord knows exactly where you are. He knows what you are going through and what you need. He will always put those people who are prepared to receive the gospel in your path. We knocked doors in three buildings last week with no success until the last floor when we ran into a man that was getting on the elevator. He listened to us and said that he is available to meet.

There is success in what we do as long as we work as hard as we can.

love you all.
happy new year.


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Elder Bakker

Christmas and Bolut

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas this year!
On Christmas Eve my comp and I were able to go to the Paez's (member in Richmond Hill) for breakfast. Then we went to a party with the Wilsons (Don Valley) where we had a 3 course meal, acted out the nativity, and sing Chirstmas carols until about 8 o'clock. Then we went back up to Richmond Hill for another party at the Macdonalds house! At the Macdonalds I was able to try some Kangaroo meat (@ElderSimons) and some homemade Hot Apple Cider.

Then on Christmas day we had our Christmas Sunday service combined with the Chinese ward and we had a lot of our people there! Lots of less actives, recent converts, and investigators came, it was awesome. After church we went to the Rollins home where I was able to skype the Fam! It is super weird seeing your family for the first time while still on the mission, but I loved it! The Rollins then gave us enough food to feed an army.

Later in the week we went to a new investigators home to help her out because she told us her house is haunted. She didn't answer her phone or her buzzer when we called. So to get into the building we said a quick prayer and called a random number on the buzzer list, Mrs.Turner. She answered and we told her that we have a gift for her, so she let us in and told us to come up to her pent house. When we got up there we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her a little about what we do. She then unloaded her whole life story on us and what she's been through and even the dream she had of her father comforting her. We gave her a couple scriptures to read and told her about the plan that God has for all of us and she told us to come back next time we were visiting someone in the building.
Our Investigator wasn't home but it was still worth going just to meet Mrs. Turner.
After that experience we took the member we were with home. On the way he told us about his Christmas and what they ate for dinner. He is Filipino so he tells us about this "Snack" they have called Bolut. For whoever doesn't know what this is, It's a chicken or duck egg that has been incubated or matured for around half a month. So he brings us in to try this with his family! Elder Casdorph had a duck and he went first. I had a chicken egg and that was something like 16 days old. what you do is you cook it, crack the top open, drink the juice, then peel the rest of the egg. As I peeled mine I saw that the top had a small chicken forming in it. I asked if that was normal and they assured me it was and said I was lucky it didn't have feathers yet. This thing had a full head formed with eyes and beak. Goodness. That was nuts.
Apparently they love feeding white people Bolut because they think it is the funniest thing ever.


Happy new year everyone!

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Elder Bakker

Kicked out of a Persian Party

E Bakker, E McBeth, E Janson, E Milad, E Casdorph

Hey Hey!

This week has been pretty hectic... Day 1 with my new companion, Elder Casdorph, we spent a good chunk of the day cleaning our apartment and setting up appointmets. We also got rid of the bunk bed we have been using for the past 2 transfers. Goooooodness that thing was the worst. But now after all that, our apartment is looking pretty good.

Later in the week we decided we wanted to go see a less active of ours, but he wasn't home..... so we went to see another less active member, but he moved.... the good news tho is that a Persian man moved into the members house!!!! crazy how things work.

E Bakker and Sister Alexander who lives in the Kitchener Area

The next big thing that happened this week was that we were able to go to Kitchener/Waterloo again! The work there is progressing and we were able to find a new investigator! We felt that we should go into Dollar Tree for some reason, not sure why.... the Dollar Tree's here are gross. But as we walked through we ran into a man that speaks Dari!!! (Dari is a dialect of Persian) and we talked for a bit got his information and then went on with our day excited to be able to contact him. We then went to a Shawarma place near by and got Shawarma Poutine (delicious btw) and the guy working the front register and the lady on the grill both spoke Persian!!! what?! Persians are all over K/W. Then we met up with an investigator of ours and she brought us to this get together, we walked in and found a room full of Persian people. Oh my goodness it was awesome! All the people loved us there and were super interested in how we know Farsi! And the best part was that the drummer in the band was the man we met in Dollar Tree! We got to talk to him and he invited us back to meet with him and others every Friday! So cool!
When we were getting ready to go a man came up to us and asked who we were, where we came from and who invited us. After talking to him for a bit he said that he would walk us out. Probably the nicest kick out I've ever experienced. Haha, good times.

Well I love you all and hope that you are enjoying this Christmas season!!


کریستماس مبارک

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Elder Bakker