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!!

PRAY THAT WE FIND A SOLID FAMILY! -WEEK 50

HEYOO FAM AND FRIENDS! 

So this week was one of the new transfer and there were a lot of changes to our district well not a lot but half cause there's only 8 of us! But the 4 sisters got pulled out and 4 new ones came in! So that was pretty hard for them this week! But us.... we were just working like normal, besides when the sisters needed help then we would have to help them, but it was fine.. we had a lot of time to work!

SO like last week we were working with our progressing investigators sister Loribell and the Peranca family and Loribell is doing great! We are gonna visit her everyday this week because she is hopefully gonna be baptized on the last Saturday of July!! Yess!!  She is soo great she is like always into the lessons and wants to learn and then goes to like the activities that all the young single adult members go to!! I'm wayy excited!  The Peranca's actually didn't attend this week... we went to the house to invite them and they weren't there... but we'll go over there tomorrow and straighten that up hahaha! 

But other than that we have just been focusing our work on families, so we are gonna focus on finding families and completing part member families. So we are just gonna look for some families this week hehe!  I'll let you know how it goes. Pray that we find a solid family!! 

Sorry this is short but GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES!! 

I have a lil spiritual thought and a question for you guys!  The question is an argument we've been having!  Did Jesus have a body when he created the earth? Or before he was born?? All answers would be appreciated hehe or thoughts!

And then for the spritual part, comes from a verse in the Book of Mormon! 3 Nephi 12:48 Jesus says to the Nephites "I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven in perfect."  k now think about what things are keeping you from being perfect.... did you find alot?? k now get on your knees and pray for those weaknesses to be come strengths (Ether 12:27)  Then start your journey of perfection!!  Something I was thinking about yesterday and I'm gonna do it later tonight! 

MAHAL NA MAHAL KITA!! PAGDAGOS LANG KAYO!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

 Elder Anselmo and a Tricy on a rainy day in Ligao

 "I still haven't sent a pic of a tricy or jeepney, but this one is just a bike not a motorcycle!! that's all a tricy is... is a motor with a side cart!"

 371 days left?  what?  almost to halfway??
Elder Baker and Elder Merrill MTC buds for life!

 Ligao zone.... and here is a quote from Dillon about the pic below 😂

"the one is my boy elder puyong who is a straight g he's dropping the hottest album in 2016 as you can see from the pic!" 

 "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      

#EveryMemberAMissionary -WEEK 49

YOOO WHAT UP FAM AND FRIENDS!! I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July!! No one blew up their arm right?? I bet Marqus and Brady did... 

Well we had a pretty great 4th hahaha we had a zone activity so ya that was fun. Sadly I didn't bring my wardrobe of American flag apparel so I just had to wear normal clothes... but I still remembered America in my heart!! And I'm happy to say that America was represented well early this morning as me and Elder Pullicar took on two pinoys in a nice game of 2 on 2 basketball and we wrecked them!! #MERICA!! 

But like other than showing pinoys how us Americans roll we actually did some spiritual stuff and worked haha!! This week was actually a great week! So of course we have been working with Loribell one of our progressing investigators and actually we only got 1 lesson last week cause she was busy, but we got to teach her with her mom who was visiting!! She wasn't interested buttt Loribell still is and she attended church this week!! THEN ON WEDNESDAY we had a member give us a referral of a family that used to be taught but idk what happened cause they're golden investigators! So we went there, and taught the first lesson and they knew all the answers like better than some members do!! haha and We taught them twice and then they attended church on Sunday too!! There is 3 of them that came to church! The oldest sister Kristina and the brother Jomel and sister Kyla!! We're gonna start working with them alot, because they said they've been to church like 20 times, but never got baptized, soo we'll see what the problem was there!! 

I LOVE YOU GUYS ALL!  JUST KEEP DOING WHAT WE DO AS MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH AND BECOME A LIGHT UNTO THE WORLD!!  I read that the best missionary work a member can do is show their faith by the choices they make!! 

"Live your life so that those who don't know Him but know you will come to know Him because of you"  TROOF!! #EveryMemberAMissionary 

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

The LIGAO Zone

 He says every Sunday they get fed like KINGS

and even more days of the week...He loves it!

We love the families that feed our missionaries all over the world 💞

 Jersey shop he found where he can have anything made! Go Devils!

an oldie but a goodie.......

 Elder Baker's American Flag Apparel!

(left at home, but always loved)

I'm trying to be like Jesus;

I'm following in his ways.

I'm trying to love as he did,

in all that I do and say.

At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice,

But I try to listen as the still small voice whispers,

"Love one another as Jesus love you.

Try to show kindness in all that you do.

Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,

For these are the things Jesus taught."

NAVY MEDICAL MISSION -WEEK 48

Sooooo this week started out pretty dang cool! So Tuesday and Wednesday we got to be interpreters for the Americans from the Navy hahaha which was soooo cool! We just like sat and translated everything they were saying like both ways haha! So on Tuesday I was in optometry working on eyes. All they were doing was just checking their eyes then giving them glasses for reading or seeing better! So we just like talked to them about what the problem was and then ya they got some glasses and left haha but it was wayy cool having a ton of Americans around me hahaha soooo much English!!!! Then on Wednesday we went back and we helped in just general medical so we were helping them find out what the pain was on their body and then helped them find out how to fix it!! So that was a cool start to the week! Then after that it was just normal work.  

We have been working with our progressing investigator Loribell trying to get her to know for herself that our message is true and she went to institute on Saturday with a member ....but didn't come on Sunday... because there was a lot of rain and her umbrella was broken!! welp that was a heart breaker... but luckily one of our members brought his sister to church who is a non member! I didn't even know she wasn't, and she's been coming to church the last 2 weeks and sat behind us and I was always giving them candy so now were tight and maybe we can teach them!! hahahha

But like that's all that happened this week!! I love you all and hope you guys just keep living life to the fullest never let a moment go by without making the most of it! 

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

"LIGAO" 

people waiting to be seen by the navy medical

 

 Translators for the Navy Medical officers

Navy Medical