A WHOLE NEW WORLD! -WEEK 43

Well everything is completely new from last week!!!   First off, I'm not in Masbate anymore!!  Yes it was sad to leave but I'm actually kinda happy to be in a new area!  Second, NEW area!! Me and my new comp are opening this area which means neither of us know this area!!  So we are literally going to just walk around and talk to people until we find people to teach cause we have no idea where anyone is!! And it's not like America where people have house addresses all it is like the general are like saying she's in Mesa in mountain view highschool area! Then you go and find the girl.... we’re PRETTY FREAKIN PUMPED!! 

Also new MY COMP!!  Elder Anselmo!! He came to the mission with my trainee!! So he's kinda new but he's cool!! he's filipino fyi!! 

 Ya so last week we baptized ante cute sooo sweet!! Love that gurl!! she's gonna stay strong!! And then we were kinda just visiting people the rest of the week cause I was pretty sure I would be transferred! But it was fun I got to go over to the other side of mobo to visit old people I taught!!!

Then on Sunday, we slept at the ZL's and I went and saw a couple of people I taught with them! Then yesterday we left at 4 in the morning to head over to Legazpi!! And me and Elder Rupp sat on top of the boat the whole way (the boat was like the one that fits like 20 people and is like bamboo things its weird hahah but we sat on top, took a photoshoot and talked about our lives!! and then I got freakin burnt on the boat!! Then when we landed in Legazpi I spotted one of the office Elders trucks so we jumped in that instead of a jeepney and we had 6 people in the back of a 3 seat truck!! hahahha ya Philippines is sick!! Well then when we got to the office I found out that Elder Downing from the mtc is in the office, he's the supply elder, and then Elder Tonga who was with me in mobo for a bit is the new ap!! so I was just chilling in the office with them!! Because the ac was freakin amazing!! Then they told me I had to go get my license. So I went and got it and yes they're  just like in America... it takes 2 hours to get a license!! BUT HEY I HAVE A DRIVERS LICENSE IN THE PPINES!!!  Then we had to take a 1 hour jeepney ride to our area and then met up with our like house mates! and I found out that one of them lived in Cody Porters area in Boise Idaho!! So we took a pic and I sent over Cody's way hehe!! Then we just got settled in cause it was night time and we hadn't eaten or anything and we didn't know where our area is hahaha!

But now we are on pday... we played basketball with the zone earlier, then like a little game with the whole zone!! then went home washed some clothes by hand.  I still  didn't get put in an area with a washing machine!! In some areas missionaries buy washing machines and then leave them!! Now we have to go buy some groceries and then we're gonna just go walk around later tonight in our area and see who we can find!!  I'm gonna "roll up my sleeves and get to work!" that's what dad wants me to do!! THAT'S WHAT THE LORD WANTS ME TO DO AND I WILL DO IT!! 

 LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

Ante Cute...Sheila's baptism

dinner out before transfers!

 

gonna miss these guys!!!

Saying goodbye to all the Masbate peeps!

 Some fun YSA's that came to the port to see the missionaries

off on their transfer day!

 Elder Baker and Elder Rupp transferring back from Masbate

talking about LIFE..on top of the boat!

 

 Loved running into one of his MTC buddies:

Elder Downing...."Homies Forever"

 A wig he found in the new apartment.

He's having withdrawals of his long hair!!!  uh oh 

And it shall come to pass that power shall rest upon thee; thou shalt have great faith, and I will be with thee and go before thy face.         --D&C 39:12

WORK HARD PLAY HARD! -WEEK 41

Sooo we got pretty lucky this week! We busted out a ton of lessons last week and then this week we ended up having to take a trip to Cataingan ( 2 hours away) and do an interview and then we slept there, so we had a day and a half off which is really nice to rest but still be out kinda working lol! And then that day we came home we stopped at our branch presidents house which is an hour away from us and we dug a 4 foot hole for him to make a baloon!! Wait what a baloon!?!?!? Well baloon in Tagalog is a well.. hehe like the thing that holds water!! Ya so we dug him a well and then he gave us some food and then gave us pacwan or watermelon!! And I ate like a whole thing by myself!! I love watermelon!! It's sooo masarap!! 

Well that was the end to our fun for that week!! But the rest of the week we were really going hard to get our lessons up because we lost 3 days of work!! And we busted out 30 lessons in 4 days soo that was wayyyy sick!! We were just on the grind this week!! And it was sweet because we were really getting aunt cute or Sheila ready for her baptism, which is this Saturday, and we are really excited for that!!  Then guess what!  On Saturday she said that she had a family partyy at the beach on Sunday and her mom really wanted her to attend that instead of church!! And she was gonna go to it because her mom said if she didn't go she couldn't get baptised!!  BUTTT SHE SHOWED UP TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!  LIKE WHAT!!?  NOOO WAYY!! But we haven't heard from her since yesterday so we'll see how her mom felt about her attending church!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

Digging the Balon (well)

He doesn't mind getting a little dirty and working hard!

The Masbate Zone!

 Workin' on his fitness! 

Where there is a task to do,

Do it with a smile.

Do more than you are asked to do

and go the second mile.

In your work in and in your play,

try it for a while.

You'll find that you'll be happy

when you go the second mile.

PAMBIHIRA ANG PPINES!! -WEEK 39

Short and Sweet and Awesome!!!  Sounds like he didn't have power for some of his P-day..... his email came through at 3:20 AM which was actually the end of Pday for him, so he was out of time and had to get back to work!  

Soo first off, sorry momma I'm on soo late, but there was a brown out for like 3 hours earlier!!  So we have just been waiting to email and now we only got a lil time!! 

But this week was wayy great!!  Not really any cool things happened but it was just a great week in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ!!  Something cool happened this week.  We had interviews with our Mission President who will be leaving soon and I asked him one phrase to describe his mission, and he answered right away with "Jesus Christ" like what woah  I was like k that was wayy sick cause if someone asked me that question I would say like sressfull/or hard or fun!!  But nope he said Jesus Christ!!  He then ended the interview with "we all have one master one leader, let's serve Him diligently"!! 

I LOVE THE PPINES SOOO MUCH.  IT'S CHANGING MY LIFE BEING OUT HERE ON A MISH AND ESPECIALLY IN THE PPINES!! 

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

ps from Shawna (Like he said in the email, he had interviews in the city.  Some of the YSA kids took some pics and I found them posted on facebook!  Lucky ME since he couldn't send any!)

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

and all these things shall be added unto you.

--3 Nephi 13

PPINES UPDATE -WEEK 38

Well this week was the first week with my new comp!!  And well it was AMAZING!!  So it was really hard last transfer because I was trying to go and work and teach people, but my comp was really just wanting to sit around at the members house, so it was like making me pretty mad.  I wanted to go work but since he was like 24 he was just like ya don't tell me what to do.. so it was annoying!!  But then this new guy came in and everyone was saying he was gonna be lazy too but NOO he is not lazy, he's like let's get out and work!! hahaha the first day with him we went out and got 12 lessons!! hahaha  It was soooo sweet!  That's the most we've gotten in a while!!  And like all the other days are like 10 or 8 lessons!!  So it's great to be back in the grind of things!! 

Well update on some of our investigators!!  Well we found this girl last week, she was a referral from our new convert family!  She is 11 yrs old and her name is Shella Cervantes!  But everyone calls her aunty cute!! (aunty means like sister) hahha but so we call her aunty cute too hahahha!!  Well we first taught her last Saturday and then she attended church the following Sunday!!  And she attended yesterday din!!  So that's working out great!! We also found a friend of Justing her name is Betsey, and she's pretty cool too, she reads the Book of Mormon but her mom wont let her attend church at the "mormons" but hey, we'll get hat figured out! (i'll have elder nonu take her out) And then last week we had one of our old investigators who I thought still wasn't interested but then she told us last week she wants us to start teaching her again!!  So that's awesome!!  And then a couple days ago we were over there and I saw a ctr ring on her finger hahaha!!! 

Something that is pretty funny but kinda annoying!! Is Sundays!!  On Sundays I'm pretty much like the first counselor!!  The president calls me all the time to do something for him or like I had to teach Sunday school and Priesthood class two weeks ago!! and I almost always have to teach at least one class if I'm not teaching Sunday school I have to teach Priesthood!!  But it's been great cause I learn sooo much more and it helps me like feel more comfortable getting up and teaching or talking in front of people!!  But then again when I come home and have to speak in front of 300 plus people I'm still gonna be pretty freaked out!!  But it will be a lot better talk than my last one cause I have learned soooo much on this mish!!  I love it and I'm soo gratefull for this mission!! 

LAST I WANT TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO MY MOMMA!!! AND TO ALL OTHER MOMS AROUND THE GLOBE THAT ARE READING THIS!!!  HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!  I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING THAT YOU GUYS DO FOR YOUR KIDS!!!  I'VE SEEN SOME OF THE BEST GUYS OUT HERE AND THEY ALL SAY I'TS BECAUSE OF THEIR MOTHERS!!  YOU FIND OUT THERE'S A LOT OF SECRET MOMMAS BOYS WHILE YOU'RE ON THE MISH!!  BUT I ALSO JUST WANT TO GIVE A LIL EXTRA SHOUTOUT TO MY MOM, BECAUSE IT'S HER BDAY THIS WEEK!!  AND IF IT WASN'T FOR MY MOM I WOULDN'T BE HERE!!  ACTUALLY I DON'T THINK I WOULD HAVE GRADUATED HIGHSCHOOL, BECAUSE SHE WAS THE ONE WAKING ME UP AND MAKING ME BREAKFAST EVERYDAY!!  (MAN I MISS THAT BREAKFAST!!)  MAHAL NA MAHAL KITA MAMA!! 

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed

and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God.

For behold, they are blesed in all things, both temporal and spiritual;

and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven,

that thereby thay may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. 

O remember, remember that these things are true;

for the Lord God hath spoken it.

                                                      --Mosiah 2:41

BAPTISMS/TRANSFERS/PPINES!!!! -WEEK 37

WELL THIS WEEK WAS PRETTY DANG SWEET!!

Soo last Saturday we had 7 baptisms in one day!!! It was soo cool we had 4 from mobo and then 3 in masbate!!! But it was wayyy cool, cause because 3 of the investigators of the missionaries chose me to baptize them!!  And then I was supposed to baptize our investigator, but the investiagtor that Elder Jardeleza was supposed to baptize bailed.  So then I gave him our investigator.   It was so cool tho cause every missionary in mobo got to baptize someone in one day!!  It was super funny tho cause I was just like chillin in the water waiting for the next person lol!!! But something really cool I realized the other day is I have not in my whole entire life baptized someone in English!! Actually as I was writing that I remembered I did baptize for the dead once with Liv!! So that's not true, I have baptised for the dead in English but... I have yet to baptize an alive person in English!!! 

Next funny thing!! I DIDN'T GET TRANSFERED!!  I've been in this area for 7 months and after this transfer I'll be here for 9 months!!! I think I'm the only one of all my friends still in their first area!!  Yessica will probably go to her second area before me lol!! BUT MY SON GOT TRANSFERED!! My son is my trainee!!! It was sad sending him off on the boat, but it's okay he's gonna be a great missionary!! WELL, MY NEW COMP IS ELDER NONU!!  He's from Australia!!  He's like 5 foot 6 and 225 pounds!! He's a sick guy, he's a rugby player!! But he's a pretty new missionary!! He just came out of training so he has a very limited amount of Tagalog, so it's gonna be fun trying to teach now!! I'm super excited tho I've always wanted like an Australian or Newzealeander comp!! 

Well this last week we were super busy going to different places for interviews and it really screwed up our work we only had a limited amount of time to work!! But we have this really cool inveestigator named Betsey!! She is 16 and she is really interested in reading the Book of Mormon!! We haven't been to her house since we dropped off the BOM but we're going there tomorrow to see how it goes!! We also had a new investigator come to church!! Her real name is Shella, but she just goes by aunty cute!! hahaha she attended church for the first time last week!!

Well I still haven't seen General Conference so if you want to tell me some of your fav talks so I can look out for them that would be nice!! But I was reading in the old conference talks last week and I was reading one of my favs, which is "A Saint Is A Sinner That Just Keeps Trying! by Elder Dale G Renlund.  I would advise you all to go read it, it's super cool!! and inspires you to be better!!

GIHIGUGMA KO KAYO!!!! 

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/latter-day-saints-keep-on-trying?lang=eng

God cares a lot more about who we are
and about who we are becoming
than about who we once were.
                         --Elder Dale G. Renlund

PPINES -WEEK 36

Alrighty, so to start out my momma has some questions she wants me to answer that will probably be fun for everyone to hear about!!   So ...

no.1  When I go out tracting what is it like??   Well when we go tracting, we don't do what other missionaries do and knock doors... WE JUST YELL OUT "TAO PO" OR "AYO" hahaha  tao po is just saying "PEOPLE" hahahahah and the people are actually usually really nice and either invite you in or will let you give them a lil pamphlet!  But just because they let you does not mean in any way they want to listen... the people here are just too nice to say no!! 

no.2  What made me laugh this week?   Well I'm glad you asked!!  So the other day I was listening to my ipod in the apartment and one of my fav disney songs came on!! "circle of life" from lion king! And you know the beginning where it like screams african words?? YA WELL I TURNED UP THE VOLUME FULL BLAST AND WAS SCREAMING IT AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!! hahahaha the guys that live with me came down stairs and started listening and were DYING LAUGHING AND MY COMP WHEN HE LAUGHS SOUNDS LIKE A HIENA!! (you know like the animal on lion king that has a weird laugh) hahaha  Then we were all laughing!  Then after, we were sitting there and I was like lol this is like the language of Nate Garry's mission!!! HAHAHAHA!!! T hat was a really funny time!!  All the neighbors like ask me what was going on in the house hahahaha!!  

no.3  Who was favorite person i taught this week?   Umm this week was probably teaching the Golimlim family!!  We taught them last night!  They are a recent convert family of all girls. The dad lives in Manila!  Well,  Elder Jardeleza shared a scripture about charity!!  And then as we were teaching I just felt the spirit so strong teaching about the importance of charity and I shared how when I first got here I couldn't speak or understand Tagalog... and it was the hardest couple months of my life!!  And how charity is what I tried to develop when I was new here because I knew if I had charity, I wouldn't be worried about myself... I would only care about the people!  And I think now that I've got the language fine, I kinda started slacking in LOVING EVERY SINGLE PERSON!!  And I realized I need to start looking for people in need everywhere I go at all times!! 

no.4  Favorite meal this week?   One of my favs is an egg plant that you like smash flat and then dip it in eggs and then fry it!!  And it's seriously soo good!!  But my other favorite snack this week was BALUT!! lol!!  Which is a 18 day old bird egg that you like boil!! hahahaha it's actually really good!! 

no.5  What am I currently studying?   Right now I am reading the Book of Mormon and the New Testament!  In the BOM,  I am in Mosiah chap. 24 lol same chapter my mom quoted in her email to me!!  Well, I had always read chap. 13 cause it's the commandments but never found all the other great stuff there!!  I invite you to read this chapter it's really cool!! 

LOVE YOU ALLLL SOOOOOO MUCHHHHH!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

yea,  the Lord did strengthen them that they could

bear up their burdens with ease,

and they did submit cheerfully and with patience

 to all the will of the Lord.

                            ~Mosiah 24:15

PPINES UPDATE FROM YOURS TRULY -WEEK 35

Well I wish I had some cool story like I had last week!! But you know that stuff like just doesn't happen everyday lol!! Well ya actually this week we didn't have anything crazy happen... we just kinda went and taught people all week lol like what else are we supposed to as missionaries! HAHAHA TOTALLY KIDDING!  Well this last week we really taught lessons, but it was alot better than just teaching, because one of the families we were teaching this last week was a part member family and the non-member is the dad.  And so of couse we really want to get him to be a member also so that we can get that family sealed in the temple!!  So they can recieve all the blessings of the gospel!!  It's also really sad to see the mom practically crying because she wants her husband to become a member!!  The problem is that he is only at the house for like 1 week and now he went back to work far away!! 

Well another person we were focusing on was ROBINHO!!  Our investigator getting baptized!!  So we went over there alot this week!!  AND WE HAD THE BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!! AHHH IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!! HE'S LITERALLY LIKE MY FAVORITE LIL KID EVER!  HE'S LIKE A LIL BROTHER I NEVER HAD OR LIKE A SON I HAVEN'T HAD YET... well it was hilarious when he got baptized and came out of the water he looked me in the eyes and just screamed out WOOOHOOO!!  I don't know if it was cause it was cold or he just felt like the people in the people in the Book of Mormon that felt the spirit so strong that they shouted for joy!!!  lol Well, that was an amazing experience baptizing him!!  And I'm soo excited for him to eventually be serving a mission!!  And I'll be able to see the fruits of my labors for years to come!!

Well I haven't seen general conference yet ... soo everyone send me some of your favs from conference and I'll send some of my favs when I watch it!!  Well I'll share you something I found this last week!!  This little powerful verse I found is found in Mark 11:22 it says "and Jesus answering saith unto them, have faith in God." YUP THATS IT!! SHORT SIMPLE POWERFUL AND YOU CAN APPLY IT ANYWAY YOU WANT ANY SITUATION YOU WANT AND AT ANYTIME!!  JUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THE FUTURE IS AS BRIGHT AS YOUR FAITH SOO MAKE YOUR FUTURE BRIGHT BY GAINING MORE FAITH!!  I LOVE YOU ALL AND KEEP PRESSING FORWARD!!  AND PAGTITIS HANGANG WAKAS!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

More holiness give me,

More strivings within,

More patience in suffering,

More sorrow for sin,

More faith in my Savior,

More sense of his care,

More joy in his service,

More purpose in prayer.