Hola a todos! This week was a blast! We had 2 people at Sacrament Meeting this past week it was a miracle. I feel that working with members is a very important responsibility as a missionary. I really enjoy working with members because they have the strongest testimonies.

This past week a family I had dinner with threw me a surprise early Birthday party since my Birthday is on March 21st the 1st day of spring (a full month an a half away😂🥰 . To understand my feelings on this topic, one has to understand that I come from a party culture. It seemed like growing up that my Mexican side of the family always had reasons to celebrate and we had parties for all kinds of occasions. Sometimes multiple parties for the same birthday or wedding. My Dad’s side of the family is pretty festive as well. In my family, we didn’t celebrate birthdays for just a day – we celebrate a birthday for an entire week. The art of celebrating is a great tradition that can really help families and communities come together. And sure enough we need the celebrations to forget about the gloomy days and focus on spreading joy. So much to my joy, I realized this very thought Barrera family spent so much time putting that party together for me and my roommates. It was a great experience and I am so grateful to the them for doing that and hope to stay close to them in the years to come.

In Preach My Gospel on Page 217, it talks about ministering assignments. It says ” with approval of your mission president, local leaders may consider asking full-time missionaries to assist in ministering assignments on a limited basis. That is so awesome because members are very important in the Lord’s work. Members are important because:

1: They make friends with those we teach.

2: They are given many opportunities to do visits that they wouldn’t get to regularly do.

3: They are great examples to those who are learning about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I am grateful for members and how they work each day by growing their testimonies. Those that are reading this email if you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints I invite you to reach out to your local missionaries Elders or Sisters and ask about going on visits with them. THEY NEED YOU! THE LORD NEEDS YOU! 🙌 I know that if you do this you will feel the most love and joy you can ever feel.

I know God lives! He has a work for all of us to do. I know President Nelson is a prophet of God. He guides this church under the direction of Heavenly Father. I love you all and hope this week is a blast! ✌️❤️😃 

ELDER BALDWIN