June 26, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

Today we went to the Employment Resources Services center from 8:30 AM - 2:00 PM. It was a long day but we accomplished much. We sat in on while our trainer, Brother Goodworth, coached a recently baptized member and college graduate. We learned  a lot, but I think the greatest thing we learned was a stronger compassion for someone who is genuinely trying hard to be self-reliant.

We were able to meet with Sister Fulton, one of the other missionaries from our stake, to divide up the wards in our stake. We will work with five of the 10 wards, our own included. This was a fruitful meeting.

I also showed one of the veteran missionaries how to delete files from the desk top of a computer and helped her log into the Provident Living website! When she tried to log in the program wasn’t opening the way she was used to it. The program she used was using Firefox to access the Internet and it wouldn’t open the files properly. So I showed her how to find Internet Explorer and use it - it worked!

 When we finished the meeting with Sister Fulton we headed to Sandy to visit Michelle and her family. We had asked Michelle to take our missionary pictures. Our bishop has asked us to furnish a picture and favorite scripture so one of those missionary plaques can be put up with the rest of the missionaries from our ward.

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June 25, 2008 by Patricia Baldwin.

With lots of information coming in, I’m hoping it’s truly being stored in our brains somewhere for future use and we will be able to retrieve it when needed!  We have a great teacher.  We know we are doing what the Lord wants us to be doing.

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June 25, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

Yesterday’s experience watching our president, Brother Stevenson, (actually he is the director of the the LDS Employment Resource Services Center in Provo and is paid church employee) counsel with a young man about scholarships, we got to thinking about our own grand children and their prospects of going to college. We thought of Ashley, Carter, and Dallen probably because the young man had just completed his Sophmore year in high school and has already secured a $2000 scholarship. He is working and applying for additional scholarships, hoping to secure enough to pay his way through school and provide some spending money while attending school. His homework is to submit on application for a scholarship each day until he reaches his goal. He has a list of over 70 possible scholarships and is working to increase that list to 150+. I could see Ashley, Carter, and Dallen doing the same thing. The resources are available and it would give a “Wow!” to you. Here are some possible places to start: www.Finaid.org ; www.petersons.com ; and www.FastWeb.com . The young man I was telling you about started with FastWeb.com and is now expanding using the other resources mentioned. From one of the handouts we will be using:

Follow these simple instructions to find the web sites.

1. Type www.ldsjobs.org in the address bar of your Internet browser. Press enter.
2. Click on “Find Jobs and Other Opportunities”
3. Click on “Financial Aid (Educational)” Leave the country on “United States”. click “Next”
4. Click on the type of funding you want. then, click on “Next”
5. Click on each of the “All States. . .” and “UT”. Then, click “Search” (Search each one separately)

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June 22, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

It is hard to believe that we have been on a mission for a week. It has been a week of study and learning. There are so many things to learn about our sevice at the Provo Employment Resource Center and being stake employment specialists. Our testimony of the Lord’s work has strengthened our testimony and resolve to serve. The focus of our mission is to “perfect the saints,” whereas the focus of Elder and Sister Parker’s mission is to “proclaim the gospel” and the focus of Elder and Sister Watt’s (Max and Serena) mission is to “redeem the dead.” All three missions are to lead souls unto Christ. We have been taught, this past week, 90% of all we need to be successful missionaries; now we practice to become more comfortable with the work. We have called people and set up appointments; yet, we have much more to do for our stake. We have appointments set up for this coming week to check on the people’s progress and to counsel them about being successful in finding and securing job or improving their job. Our first mission (zone and district) meetings will be this Thursday. There is another missionary couple from our stake, so this week we will divide up our large stake so we can be more focused and serviceable.

I still taking time to carve walking sticks for friends who have made a difference in other people’s lives. My friend has been an excellent student and a kind friend. We were on our way to serve in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple when we delivered the walking stick. We have been asked to wear our missionary tags when we go anywhere to do church things; and, we can, if we choose, to wear our missionary tags any time we want - even when working in the yard!

I am excited to hear about Grant soon to earn his Arrow of Light - time for a new walking stick! It looks like I need to carve one for our first grand son to become an Eagle Scout - Carter earned his Eagle Scout rank not long ago.

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June 20, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

Jodi, Lexie, Mason, Lily, and I hike to the Y just east of the BYU campus. We were hiking during the hot time of the day. All though it was a hard hike for me, everyone seemed to get along just great. Mason chased four lizards and had a great time. Lily said she was hiking for her dad - Stephen had hike the Y with her last summer but carried her most of the way. I guess it was Lily’s way of saying Happy Father’s Day to Stephen.

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June 20, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

We have completed our first week of the mission. It was an awesome learning opportunity; our learning curve was very steep! We are learning so many new things and our testimony continues to grow. We are doing what we know is the right thing to do. I’ll write more later.

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June 20, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

  Although we are serving a mission our assignment to work in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple has not changed. We will be serving as ordinance workers each Saturday from 4:00 pm until the temple closes. This, like the mission, has been a wonderful learning experience. We are excited to continue learning and strengthening our testimony. All we do on our mission points to the temple - to bind families together. It is difficult for families and individuals to look to the temple when they are having a difficult time with health or employment. Once they are back to feeling and being self-reliant, they wil look to further their commitment to serving the Lord.

We appreciate our family for the example each one sets; it brings many blessings to our lives. We continue look forward to serving in the temple and at the Provo LDS Employment Resources Center (as well as serving as stake employment specialists).

Read the rest of this entry »

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June 18, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

We have begun our MTC experience. While this experience is not at the Provo MTC where all the procelyting missionaries go for training, our training is equally intensive. Our roll in the three-fold mission of the church is perfecting the saints rather than proclaiming the gospel. We are learning our roll at the Provo Employment Center and our responsibilities as Stake Employment Specialists. There is so much to learn. We are reading a lot more than we used to! We are happy.

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June 18, 2008 by Stephen Baldwin.

Welcome to Stephen and Patricia Baldwin’s family blog. We are excited to share our mission and stay in Orem, Utah with friends and family. Jodi took this picture just as we were about to get in the car an go to our first time to the Prove Employment Resource Services Center. Jodi, Alexis, Mason, Lili, Olivia, and J.T. saw us off. They to pick up Stephen about noon upon his return from a trip to South America with his brothers - John and Paul. (John, Stephen, and Paul - sounds kind of like missionaries/church leaders from New Testament times!)

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