IT'S SOOOO WORTH IT!! -WEEK 63

HEYOO!! What’s up fam and friends!

So here’s another update on whats been going on out here in GUINOBATAN! Well this week we were able to do the c.s.p we had planned and cleaned up this guys house and it was great cause he gave us some rambutan! I'm sure you have no idea what that is, but it’s delicious!! But this week was great, we were able to go to one of our FAR areas! hahaha We have a group out in one of our areas like 45 minutes away from our area! BUT THE AREA IS GREAT!! People are so open to the gospel and it’s GREAT cause there is one guy out there that’s like 60 yrs old, and him and his wife WILL WORK WITH US ALL DAY EVERYDAY if we were working out there!! Like for real they're awesome, cause like you have to walk A LOT!! haha like A LOT! Sometimes like up to one hour of walking up mountains hahaha cause the area is literally up in the mountains!! But when I asked tatay Orlina how he can do it walking around and still being soo happy! His response was AWESOME!! He said "as you're walking to their house and sweating and breathing really hard as you get closer and closer to their house my heart just gets so happy and I can’t wait to share with them, and when you get to their house you get to rest and talk with some of our brothers and sisters!” It's amazing the sacrifice this guy gives for missionary work and his wife…. who can walk for an hour up a mountain and not even look like she’s walked at all! remember 60 yrs old!! HAHAHA But I was super humbled by my experience to work out there these last 2 times this last week! I love that area! And the members out there love the gospel! Something sad happened this last week tho.. at our sacrament meeting out there a very little people showed up.. then bishop said under his breath if this is all thats gonna come we might shut this group down... and the one tatay that works with us heard and just about died!! he didn’t complain or anything, but looked like you just pulled his heart out of his chest!! Even though he goes to church in the main area too he had no problem but the other people out there that wouldn't be able to attend church in the main area would be the ones to suffer!! BUT as we had the sacrament, bishop had a huge CHANGE of heart and after the sacrament we started setting plans for beautifying the little sacrament area!! And we are gonna be doing a lot out there to help beautify that and then we started planning a 1 day mission to help progress the area out there!! I'm so happy to be here and help them with this area!! Tatay Orlina opened my eyes to missionary work!! Like the scripture that talks about the joy we will have after helping people come unto Christ!! And I know everything that I'm going thru and all other people on missions is SOOO WORTH IT! 

I LOVE THIS WORK!! 

PS. I forgot to say that the guy that works with us looks just like my dad hahaha!! So it makes working with him WAY MORE FUN!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

 Went to some old ruins called Cagsawa Kanina.  It’s an old church from the 1500’s….. it was Cool!

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!

And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

                                                   -- D & C 18: 15-16

CONQUERING TYPHOONS SPREADING GOOD TIDINGS!! -WEEK 62

Well this week was EXCITING like always hahaha!! Never a dull moment out here!!

This week was great we had a typhoon on Saturday but it was nothing really, we were told to stay inside and be ready for anything bad to happen, but I was "lucky" (my mom says lucky I say unlucky) to be here in the main land not really close to any of the coast right now so we didn't get anything too bad. It actually hit pretty bad in one of our zones out on Catanduanes island! There was a lot of rain!!! And a lot of flooding and some people may have died! So please give your prayers to those people that may have been affected by the typhoon! But like our mission hymn says, "whether rain comes down in torrents or the sun is there instead we always share the gospel word we show no fear no dread!" We were still able to get a lesson that night that we had promised one of our investigators we would go to so we made our way to her house and she was surprised and happy that even though there was a typhoon we still made it to the lesson! 

ONE GREAT THING I LOVE ABOUT TYPHOONS!! can you guess???    SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES!! 

I made sure that Sunday at church we could find someone who needed service after the typhoon and we got a project tomorrow cleaning up a yard! 

Other than that lil typical problem we still had normal work all week! It’s been a struggle here! Tracting is HARD! Well it’s easy for me BUT THE PEOPLE ARE HARD! hahaha but no matter how hard it is to keep going from house to house until you find that person that is waiting for you we keep going and pushing forward!! I guess we weren't diligent enough, cause we still didn't find the person that is ready for us...BUT I DID MAKE SOME GOOD FRIENDS!! haha  I'll tell a quick story of our tracting that I thought was fun! 

So while walking from yet another house that rejected us.. a guy yells at me in English "hey where you going" hahaha he wasn't expecting me to answer that I was coming over to become his friend inTagalog! His reply... "oh hey he speaks Tagalog" haha! Well we started talking and then he introduced me to all his friends that were sitting by us and then I was able to bear a quick testimony of our message to them and they said we could come back and teach them another day because they were leaving! hahaha It was one of those times that even though tracting is hard and stressful sometimes that it’s still SO FUN TALKING TO AND MEETING NEW PEOPLE!! 

Mom to answer your questions 1. Biggest challenge this week? Finding new investigators   2. Biggest sucess this week?  ALWAYS STAYING POSITIVE and making new friends!  3. Who was my favorite person I met this week? Either that guy I talked about earlier or the guy that rejected us right before that guy hahaha even though he rejected us, we had a funny interaction! 4. What’s the weirdest thing i ate this week? PIZZA! hahaha I had pizza for the first time earlier today! yummiest! DIY BURGER it’s this place you make your own burger hence the "DIY" and it was like real BEEF  AND CHEESE AND MEAT AHHHH!! SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!  

Love you all thanks for the support and prayers palagi! 

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

TYPHOON KAREN

a letter from the Mission President regarding an incoming TYPHOON:

15 October 2016

Dear Brother and Sister Baker,

I am writing to inform you that we are currently being impacted by a moderate typhoon named Karen. The Church has been observing this storm for days and has made numerous preparations for its arrival. The main track of the storm is north of our mainland mission, but headed close to our Island of Catanduanes. We are experiencing high winds and heavy rains as the outer edges of this typhoon are currently being felt. I have asked for the missionaries to stay in their apartments—particularly in Catanduanes—and not be out during the worst of the storm. All our missionaries are in safe, secure locations and prepared for the impact of the storm.

We alerted all of our missionaries to purchase enough water and food to last them through next Tuesday. They have also been instructed to keep their cell phones charged. We have a calling tree in place for rapid communication across the mission. Each missionary also has cash to use, if needed, in an emergency.

If the storm compromises our electrical or Internet infrastructure, you may receive your email late next week form your missionary. Be assured, I will be constantly monitoring the situation, and my first concern will always be the safety of the missionaries. We love each of them!

Join us as we pray for any in the Philippines who may be impacted by this typhoon. We pray for their safety and protection. If there are any further developments that would impact our missionaries, I will let you know.

Sincerely,

President Dale Kotter

GUINOBATAN! -WEEK 61

AYOOO it’s your boy Elder Baker hittin you up from Guinobatan! haha I didn't give a heads up last week, but this last week I got transferred to Guinobatan! I was sad to leave Malilipot after only being there for 1 transfer, but I got done what I needed to do there now I'm here trying to find what I need to do now!! 

Well my new compo is ELDER AYSON!  Well he’s a great guy!!  He and his comp last transfer got transferred here in week 3 of the transfer, so they didn't really have very many people to teach.. and up until now they still didn't have much. So this last week we've been going around, I kinda found out the area and now this week is gonna be just straight TRACTING!! hahaha we NEED to find some investigators!! hahaha We did find 3 last week that were referrals, and they look like they are gonna be pretty good... hopefully we will see the gospel affect their lives!! 

Something cool that happened last week is sister Mercy, one of our new investigators, after the first lesson we set a return appointment and then when Saturday came at the time for our appointment we walked up to her like apartment complex kinda thing and she was waiting outside her house on the bench for us to come hahaha!! I was like what are you doing out here and she's like I was waiting for you!! HAHAHA it was so cool like to see how excited she was for us to come back and teach her again!! She had some questions about the apostasy and our lesson was perfect! We taught about the Book of Mormon and how it helped to end the apostasy!! She was really interested and ready to read the Book of Mormon! BUT she doesn't have glasses. She said she was gonna buy some! Hopefully she finds some haha!! So that was really cool but we also had some problems this week with my comp and the ward mission leader, they kinda had a lil argument... but it got fixed and we got everything figured out!! 

Something that I shared while we were trying to fix the problem is something I read once it says "be thou humble and the Lord shall lead thee by thy hand”.  I shared how the ward has been struggling with missionary work here the last year, and my comp was being hard hearted and didn't want to take some suggestions from the members, BUT if we will humble ourselves, the Lord will guide us in this work and THIS WARD AND THIS WORK WILL PROGRESS!!

I JOIN WITH SOME OF MY FRIENDS IN TESTIFYING THAT THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!! THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE ANSWER TO ALL OUR QUESTIONS AND I AM SOO BLESSED TO BE IN THIS WORK.  I LOVE THE LORD AND I KNOW HE LOVES ME MORE!! 

I love you all soo much!! 

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.   --Ether 12:27