Sister Baylee Anne Kendrick: Scuttle Butt Baptism

Hello all!

This week wasn't nearly as exciting as last week, but a good week nonetheless!

Monday we went to the Waukgen Harbor. Sister Jones is afraid of water I think... We walked out on a ½ mile pier and she was having a little panic attack because we were surrounded by water hahaha.... Ok, I may have made that sound a little dramatic, but she was for sure uneasy. I thought it was funny, all I wanted to do was jump in the water. It looked so pretty, and a like it would be a great swim:)

On Tuesday we served at the food pantry like usual. Most of the time they are concerned about us doing hard things because we are girls and we "will hurt ourselves"... But they don't even give us a chance! I somehow weaseled my way up to help unload the truck this time and proved my strength and speed :). They were very impressed to say the least. I think I have a new job now. Once they saw that I could move steel, unanimously they all exclaimed that I must be from a farm hahah.... I don't get it, people just don't know how to work hard I guess. Tuesday night we had dinner with Elder and Sister Woods. Nick and Drew were also there. It was so good. Our plan was to find out a little bit more about Nick this time. Where he is from, what his plans are, and who he wants to be. You know the usual:) and then the same with Drew. That did not happen at all. We sat down and the two sailors where so happy to be out of class and off the base they just went crazy. Hahaha They started to talk horror stories about boot camp and then they just started to throw out 3 letter acronyms. It was so funny Sister Jones and I were so lost, like come on who even knows what : TTM NMOT SCUTTLE BUTT JFR ZDB GTY .... What is this??? Haha After dinner we taught him about commandments and covenants, and he stopped drinking coffee and he's living the word of wisdom... And so much more!!! We put him on date and I'm so so so excited for him it's truly amazing what he has been able to learn and understand in such a short amount of time. The Lords hand has truly been guiding us! There have been so many things that have just “HAPPENED “to work out just in the right time, just the right way. He has truly been prepared ;) it's so cool !! Nick is going to be baptized on June 11th! We are so excited! He is so excited to learn the gospel and he is just eating it all up

Wednesday we taught Frank and Shelley. They are hippies. Haha About 6 months ago Sister Jones and Sister Smith were tracting in Zion, and the first door they knocked on was theirs! They let them right in and they talked to them for a while. They found out they knew a member of their ward and left them with a Book of Mormon. They didn't really think much of it. Little did they know that six months later they would be interested in learning more!! They have been coming to church the last couple weeks with their member friend, and we had the opportunity to teach them for the first time this week! They are excited to learn, but they don't have a firm belief in much of anything. We will be starting from ground zero :). We love them already! They have never been a part of a organized religion, ever, in their lives so we've got our work cut out for us. It’s truly going to be great ;)

Thursday we taught Sister Watkins and told her we have a vision for her family to go to the temple. She loves having us over and we can see her testimony growing! We had dinner with Christina Wood that night. She made jello for dessert but it wasn't set so she put it in the freezer. The next time the freezer door was opened, there was jello splattered EVERYWHERE. We got to do some impromptu service and cleaned her kitchen all up :)

Friday we were able to teach Gail, she is growing so much!!! We are still trying to help her understand Joseph Smith. That night we helped a family in the ward set up for their daughter’s wedding. I
struggled a lot!!! It was just thrown together and I was needless to say having a heart attack!! I had to remind myself a 1000 times that is wasn't my wedding and it was ok that they had plastic table clothes
hanging on the walls and that the flowers didn't match the theme ect... Lesson learned, I don't want to have a wedding anytime soon!!!! I'm way to high maintenance #anyonegotaxanax. And then they gave us a giant pizza for dinner aka why missionaries gain weight!! We even tried to pawn it off on a few people but no takers so we ended up just tossing 1/2 of it.

Friday night Brother Eager, a member of the bishopric called and asked if I would speak for 20 minutes on Sunday. I freaked a little but it ended up being all good. I just got up there and winged it. Good thing I'm not scared of speaking.

During all of our open time this week we distributed invitations for the pancake breakfast our ward put on this morning! We got to help make pancakes and serve everyone. One sweet brother in our ward made crawfish and cheese grits to share, and it was so good! Charlie is an army veteran, but wore his authentic civil war cavalry uniform to the breakfast! I love Charlie he is the coolest guy!!!

I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I know Christ strengthens us when we turn to him!

Have a wonder holiday and week!!! Keep smilin love you