Easter

This week flewwwwwwwwwwww by. Idk what happened but time doesn't wait for anyone.

Met with our investigator a couple times and he is working towards his baptism on May 14th! He still hasn't gotten a sure answer but he is doing everything he can to get one so it should come soon! He also came to church on Sunday. I got to go on a 5 hour exchange with Elder Holden and I was able to be in the circle for 3 confirmations.

We met with our other investigtor this week and some how it came up that Glen Beck is a Mormon and he started going off about how great Glen Beck is and now he wants us to show him his conversion story.... that so next time we meet he just wants to listen to Glen Beck. Ha, we will see how that goes.

We also met with our other investigator, he has been out of town for about 2.5 weeks but we were able to get in contact! We met up and to our surprise he actually read the Book of Mormon between our discussions! He read the testimonies of the witnesses and the introduction. He liked them but still has some basic questions. We are meeting with him weekly now and we are excited to see his progression!

Sorry but there is not much else to report.

I'm so grateful for our savior and the sacrifice he made for us.

Happy Easter!

also sorry that I can't include names....

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ارشد جک باکر

Elder Jack Bakker

K Limits

So this week just flew by! The mission is going by so fast, wish it would slow down for a bit.
"I wish someone would tell you that you are in the 'Good ol' Days' before you left them." -Andy (the office)  Thank you Andy for the nugget of inspiration. I've been trying to suck out every moment so far and it is still going by too quickly.  Don't let the good times pass without even noticing them.

This week we saw a miracle! Our investigator is super cool he has honest desire and true intent to find the truth. He doesn't have a witness of the Book of Mormon yet and doesn't know that the things we teach are true but he has made the step of faith by setting a baptismal date for the middle of May!! Super excited to help him learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be able to see the change in him!

The mission has been cracking down on how much we drive.... an average month as Farsi missionaries we drive about 2200 Kilometers and the mission has brought our limit down to 1400....... I know that this is for the good of the mission but there is no way we are going to be able to stay under 1400.... we have tried our best for the past 2 weeks and we have driven about 60-80 K's per day.... if we want to be under 1400 we have to drive around 46...... sorry CTM... we are trying.....

Some Members in Germany were able to translate the new Prince of Peace video into Persian!!!! as Elder Holland would say "What a blessing."



Love you all and I hope that you have a great week!!!!!!!!



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ارشد جک باکر

Elder Jack Bakker

Temple, Noruz and Conference

Pretty awesome week this week!

The whole week led to the weekend and that is where everything happened!

Friday morning and 7:20 AM the mission had the temple reserved and we were able to go through and feel the spirit before conference started on Saturday.

The temple was also really helpful as we were going into Friday night and as we were getting ready for our NORUZ PARTY!!! That was super crazy, we cooked up like 70+ lbs of beef and chicken kebab aka koobideh and jujeh kebab. It took about 4-5 hours of grilling and setting up to get ready for the night but it was all worth it when we had about 145 people show up!

The next day we had the wonderful privilege of watching General Conference. So many great things were talked about but I especially liked S. Mark Palmer's talk about "Beholding people and loving them". That is something I have felt like I have needed to do. I also really enjoyed all the talks on listening to the spirit and acting on the first impression we receive. The Living Christ was also a big topic so go home and read it! Such and blessing to have a living prophet and to be able to hear him speak.

Sorry for the short email, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!


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ارشد جک باکر

Elder Jack Bakker

8 Mths 0 Days 11 Hrs 30 Min AD (After Draper)

Not counting tho.

Hey hey!!

Pretty slow week here in Toronto..... All of our investigators have been partying for their Persian New Year aka Noruz (نوروز). so we have been doing our best to get things done and to find new people to teach.

A couple days ago Elder Milad and I had a goal to find 2 new investigators but we didn't have a lot of time in the day to go and out and do that. We felt like that was the goal we should set so we did it and just prayed that we would be able to get our goal.  We went to Scarborough to try and see an investigator but we weren't able to get in contact with him.... he has no phone and is rarely home but has read most of the Book of Mormon if not the whole thing by now and loves it, so we try to see him multiple times a week. After that fell through we didnt have much time until we had to leave so for the extra 15 minutes we had we decided to go contact on a nearby highly Afghani street.
The first guy we talked to spoke little English but we were able to communicate a little by saying Isa Masih (Jesus Christ) and translating lds.org into Arabic on his phone. He liked it and decided to set up an appointment on Tuesday!   The second guy we talked to was walking down the street when we stopped him, he asked which church we were from and we said "the Church of Jesus Chr...." and he quickly responded with "oh your Mormons?" He then asked us about the other book we believe in and asked how we can do that when in Revelations there shall be no books after that one. So we will have a good time talking to him on Tuesday at our appointment! 

Its amazing what the lord will do for you when you put in all your effort to push his work along.

Time flies out here! Already 8 months in and it feels like yesterday that I was getting off the plane.

love you all!

ارشد جک باکر

Elder Jack Bakker

Still Here!

So pretty much same old same old for me! Still here in Don Valley preaching the good word to the people of North York! The only difference is that now I am doing it with ELDER MILAD!!!!

This past week hasn't been the most amazing, pretty slow but that's usually how this first week is for us. Lots of cleaning and walking down Yonge street looking for new investigators. We did find one new but he can't meet until April.....

There is this holiday called Noruz that lasts an eternity. When it comes everyone just drops off the radar and it gets pretty hard to set up appointments and meet with people. So for the next couple weeks I'm expecting to be doing a lot of ground work on the street!

Sorry for the short email.... not much to report on.
love you all !!!!
happy spring!
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ارشد جک باکر

Elder Jack Bakker

Transfer #6

So transfer calls were last night and it turns out the I am staying in Don Valley again! I have already been here for 6 months and I wouldn't be surprised if I stay for 9.

My new companion is Elder Milad! He is super cool, He is from Vancouver and is a really good missionary. I am super excited to serve with him!!

Things are going well here in Toronto, a lot of progression in the work. We were able to get in contact with some of the Farsi speaking missionaries in Germany! They sent us the official baptismal prayer and interview questions that have been approved by Salt Lake! That's super exciting!

Our investigator is really thinking about baptism and thinks that he can be ready in about 3-4 months, we didn't get a solid date with him but he has been asking all the members how they got their answer that the Church is true and he has a true desire and real intent to find out for himself. He says that he could get baptized tomorrow but it wouldn't mean anything to him. I am so blessed to be able to teach people who truly want to know the truth. It makes me so happy to see the spirit work in the people around me and to see them physically and spiritually change.

Sorry I don't have a lot of time to write....

hope you all have a good week!!!!

The Don Valley Missionaries

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ارشد جک باکر

Elder Jack Bakker

Skyline at sunrise

Purify

Last Monday was my 7 month mark! So to celebrate Elder McBeth, Elder Milad, Elder Casdorph and I went to Niagara Falls!! Definitely the best way to start off the week.
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The highlight of my week was definitely zone council. Elder Milad and Elder McBeth held a great Talk Show called "The Zone Show" and they talked about the book Jesus The Christ, which has has me inspired to read it through.
Later our zone leaders Elder Munsey and Elder Shu talked about purifying ourselves as missionaries and becoming the best we can.
That has hit me hard as I have been reflecting on the last 7 months of my mission, thinking about the things that I can do better and about the blessings not only I will receive but the blessings that I will be able to see in the lives of the people I teach and the lives of everyone around me.

I went on exchange this last week and we played basketball with a group of Filipinos. Not sure if you have ever played ball with anyone from the Philippines but if you have you know how good they are at basketball. I asked one of the members that plays how much he played back home and he just looked at me and straight faced said "daily." It was definitely one of the best exercises I've had my whole mission.

I hope you all have a great week!

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ارشد جک باکر

Elder Jack Bakker