Preach the Freakin Gospel to the Depths of their Souls! -WEEK 55

HELLO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!! 

So sorry about the no email last week, my missionary email is broken and it still is, so that's why I haven't been talking to you guys!! Don't worry it's probably gonna get fixed.. we'll see hahaha!!

Well little update...I MOVED!! I got transferred over to Tabaco zone I'm in Malilipot!!

ps. Malilipot is the closest area to the HUGE MAYON VOLCANO!! So ya i get a great view of that every day!! And when it erupts I'll be right here to catch all the lava!! hehe But this area is great, it's just like Mobo, my first area. It's a long strip of a highway and just has a ton of lil neighborhoods on both sides!! So plenty of people to preach the gospel to!! And we have a lot of investigators right now!! But we are gonna tract alot more, cause the last guy here hated tracting haha, so we are gonna just tract everywhere here!! 

We also have a group out here that we do a sacrament at after church, which is kinda really far hahaha and we have to walk!! But it's a cool place it's right next to the ocean!! Which means we're gonna do some tracting out there, so that we can baptize in the ocean hehe!! 

But this area is great, they had one investigator attend last week and she came back this week also!! BUT WE HAD A WHOLE FAMILY COME TO CHURCH!! A part member family, the mom is a member but her 3 kids and husband aren't yet!! But we are gonna work on getting them ready for baptism!! And we have a couple other families we are gonna work on getting to church next week too!!!!!!!  One other interesting thing!  The people here like only speak bicol hahahaha, so I'm gonna be trying to learn bicol!   Like all of sacrament was in bicol except my talk hahaha!! 

Well I'm really excited about this next week, and can't wait to give you guys another update next week!! I love you all soo much!!! 

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO THE FLYEST CHICK I EVER DID MEET!! THE BEST BIG SISTER EVER!! AND MY BEST FRIEND!! 

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BIG POPS THE BEST GRANDPA EVER AND THE BEST ACCORDION PLAYER!! AND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOU TWO ALSO GRANDPA AND GRANDMA!! LOVE YOU!!

Elder Baker

HAKUNA MATATA!

And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my father!

--D & C 18:15

BATMAN! -WEEK 53

So first of all, I bought a lego batman this last week and took a ton of pictures with him and whatever I was doing, so look for him in the pictures!! I realized I never really tell you guys what I do during the week so I will this time!!

Well this week was wayy cool.. well it ended cool!! So the beginning was just normal, Monday night we blessed a house of a part member family! This family happens to be a German guy and a Filipino haha! The German is not a member but they are really cool!! Well since he's German he doesn't speak Tagalog so when we did the blessing on the house they asked me to do it so I could do it in English! Which was weird praying in English! hahaha But it was also weird, because I've never blessed a house before haha!! But it was a wayy cool experience!! Then right after that, we headed over to a FHE with this American guy for his last week!! They left yesterday to go to Utah!! So that was funn!

Well then Tuesday morning we had a service project tearing out plants from a field of chili!! Which had a ton of thorns hahaha! But it's fun to be able to do some yard work, it reminds me of home! Then Wednesday not really anything happened just a normal work day! Thursday we had a cool district meeting that sister Infante taught and she talked about how important the holy ghost is in our work and how we have to be worthy to have the spirit! Which was cool.  It  went along with my personal study this week WHICH WAS THE 4TH MISSIONARY!! Such a great talk!! Really makes you think about what you're doing on your mission and how you can change!!
Then Friday was a normal day and then Saturday was a GREAT DAY!

We were lucky to join a young women activity in helping the YW come back to church.  So we visited with the members to less-actives!And lemme tell you... members visiting less actives and not just missionaries, works wayy better than just us coming by every week! We had 3 families come to church that we have been working on the last 2 transfers!!

SOOO YOU MEMBERS NEED TO GO OUT AND DO YOUR VISITING TEACHING AND HOME TEACHING TO THOSE "LOST SHEEP"!!
I wish I  would have realized the impact of member missionary work before my mish!!  It's soo important even if it's just a visit and a lil talk!! Or drop off some food!! I know it will help!! I love you all sooo much!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER
HAKUNA MATATA!!

LUMAPIT KA SA AKIN! -WEEK 52

So my title this week has to do with 2 things!!  Well first of all it means "come unto me" so first it is part of our purpose as missionaries! Because part of our purpose is to invite others to COME UNTO CHRIST!  Sooo how as missionaries do we invite them to come unto Christ...by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, baptism, receiving the holy ghost and enduring to the end!

WELL this last week I got to see a lot of coming unto Christ!! And GREAT MISSIONARY WORK!! So on Tuesday we got to attend a baptism of a child of record! Then after that on Saturday I had the privilege of baptizing 3 boys of one part member family and then baptizing the husband of the boys older sister!! So we completed one family and then almost completed the other, but the one sister is waiting for her older brother to baptize her who is in the navy right now!
BUT HOW GREAT THE EXPERIENCE TO SEE 5 PEOPLE COMING UNTO CHRIST THRU BAPTISM!!! in one week! WHOOP THERE IT IS!

The other part of the coming unto Christ comes from a verse I read the other day in D & C forgot the reference hehe but it says "draw near unto me and I will draw near to you" WHAT A GREAT PROMISE!!  Everyone in life feels sometimes like Christ is moving away from them and making their life harder, but we are just making the mistake of not making our effort of coming unto Him and asking for His grace and mercy!! Cause we have the promise when we do that He will come unto us and comfort us!!  Luckily I haven't had anything like that happening to me, but this last Sunday was testimony meeting and so many people were testifying of overcoming their trials and I wish I would have found that verse before sacrament, but I found it after church!! But at least I could share it with you guys!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER
HAKUNA MATATA!!

Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you;

seek me diligently and ye shall find me; 

ask, and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you.  

--D & C 88:63

BI...BI...BINYAG! -WEEK 51

WELL WE FINALLY GOT THAT BAPTISM WE'VE BEEN WORKING FOR!! There is nothing better than when you see someone that you found and taught all the lessons and helped get prepared for baptism and then watching them actually get baptized is literally the greatest feeling ever!! Like it says in D & C 18 how great shall be your joy if you shall bring one soul unto me!! I testify that it truly is a GREAT FEELING!! That baptism went really well. We were supposed to have Elder Merrill be with us and have his baptism also but they canceled on us but it still worked out fine!

But Saturday was CRAZY!! We did a thing called a "one day mission" which is where the members will work with us but we don't really work, we just go and find the less actives because there's a ton of less active or inactives here, but so we do splits with them just to go and find them and just get to know them and then the main thing we were doing was trying to map all the houses on the computer so that missionaries or leaders could find them easier! But we started that at 7:30 and then we ended that at like 3 and then we had to get ready for the baptism at 5 and then we finished the baptism at like 7  so we didn't end up getting home until 8 haha it was a LONG DAY hahaha but it was a super succesful day and very rewarding!!

Then on Saturday night the branch president decides to let me know that I have a talk the next day haha but that was ok! He told me to talk about missionary work.  As I thought about it, I thought of the spirit of missionary work and how do we get the spirit of missionary work! One of the things that came to my mind and stuck out a lot to me, is that we believe that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored the one and only church of Jesus Christ through a man named Joseph Smith and thru Joseph Smith, he received heavenly power to do sacred ordinances in the church, but most importantly we believe that this is THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE CHURCH ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH! Do you realize how great of a claim that is!! We don't just believe that we have the most true doctrine, but THE true doctrine!  "HOW GREAT THE IMPORTANCE TO MAKE THESE THINGS KNOWN UNTO THE CHILDREN OF MEN" 2 NEPHI 2:8 That talk made me realize how great my calling is and how important it is!! But more importantly, how important it is for you guys!! Normal people with a ton of friends that don't yet know THE  TRUTH!!

I KNOW THAT THIS WORK THAT WE ARE DOING IS THE LORDS WORK!! WE ARE ON THE LORDS TEAM!! AND I GUARANTEE THE LORDS TEAM WILL WIN!!

I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO GIVE A SHOUTOUT TO MY FAVORITE BOY IN THE WORLD!! THE MOST GWAPO 5 YEAR OLD WALKING THE STREETS OF AMERICA!! LOVE YOU ASHER!! HAVE A GOOD BIRTHDAY!!
STAY FRESH!
STAY SWAG!
STAY GWAPO!

Love you all soo much!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER
HAKUNA MATATA!!