WEEK 17

WELLL WELLL WELLL I've got some news for you guys!!! I'll start with a Tagalog scripture that I memorized this last week...

bilang nattasan ni jesucristo bibinyagan kita sa pangalan ng ama at ng anak at ng espiritu santo, amen. WELLLL, since none of you know Tagalog lol it is the baptismal prayer.... why would I, ELDER BAKER need to memorize the baptismal prayer?  hmmmm wait maybe I got my first baptism.... BUT MAYBE THERE'S MORE!!!  NOT ONLY DID I DO MY FIRST BAPTISM... BUT I DID IT IN THE OCEAN!!!  WHAT!!!?!??? That has literally been a life time goal of mine!!  Ever since I was a kid I dreamed of the day I would baptize in the ocean!!  Little did I know it would be in the Philippines 3 months into my mission!!

WELL, remember when I ate that chicken intestines!!!! well I continued my journey to the rest of the chicken!!  Next I ate the chicken DUGO... BLOOD!!!  hahahaa it's masarap!!  or delicious!!  Then my next part of the chicken, of course, would have to be the FEET!!  Ya that one actually wasn't good!! lol 

"Fried chicken BLOOD on a stick"

"the chicket FEET" ewwww

Well, we had 2 family home evenings this week and those are soooo fun.  I love those!!!  I'll send pics next week.  Sorry for the short letter internet is bad today... I LOVE YOU ALL AND REMEMBER, PRAY ALWAYS AND HAKUNA MATATA!!

   

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

In case you were wondering:  One week Elder Baker wrote to me from the MTC........he told me that he had a lot on his mind and he was wondering how he would be able to do it all.  The teaching, the language, the culture/food in the Philippines, the homesickness feelings, etc......... He had been praying for help with all of this and he said that he knew Heavenly Father would help him and he did feel better, also he had a song come to his mind....he's a lover of disney songs!!!  He thought of the song "Hakuna Matata" from the Lion King.  He decided then and there to "WORK HARD AND DO ALL HE CAN and leave it up to the Lord to do the rest".  Hakuna Matata, it means no worries for the rest of your days................Dillon's Mission Motto.

Hakuna matata

What a wonderful phrase

Hakuna matata

Ain't no passin' craze

It means no worries

For the rest of your days

And it's a problem-free philosophy

HAKUNA MATATA!

100 DAY'S SAY WHAT!?? -WEEK 14

Well I'm getting close to 100 days holy cow it's gone by soo fast!!  Time flys when your having fun right!? YES I'M DEFINITELY HAVING FUN!!  I love the mission!!  Although I'm a little jealous of Tanner jumping in the snow!!  That looked like fun!  But its ok I love my random humid rain storms lol!! 

So this week was funn!! IT STARTED OUT TEACHING A PASTOR...  lol so we were teaching this family and then out of nowhere their grandpa comes up and starts telling us everything we're teaching is a lie!!  Ya it was pretty sad but instead of arguing, we just wrapped up the lesson and left!  That pastor is lucky I don't speak Tagalog or I would spit straight fire at him!!  GOSPEL FIRE!! 

And then another cool story.  So Friday we went to go to one of our investigators who is an old man and when we got there he was like worried about something and we got talking and he said his sister had escaped out of her room and he didn't know where she was.  She is a 30 yr old lady but she has a little mental problem so he was scared about where she was!  So we started driving in a trike towards the city looking for her!  It was kinda fun.  As we were going we would ask people if they had seen her walking and the first guy said ya she walked by about an hour ago!  Then the next guy said she passed by 30 minutes ago!  Then 10 minutes and then we got into the city where it was gonna be really difficult to find her.  I was sitting in the trike and said a quick little prayer to find her and then like 1 minute later we saw her on the side of the road!!  So we picked her up and went back to his house!  Then we were teaching the investigator and she came out and started to listen.  Part way thru the lesson we asked our investigator if his sister knew how to read and he said no she never went to school.  Well we grabed the Book of Mormon and took it over to her and asked if she could read it and she read it perfectly! (in Tagalog of course) and the guy was soo confused he had no idea she could read!!  But she did so we gave her the Book of Mormon and asked her to read it!  Then on Sunday guess who showed up at church!!?? The INVESTIGATOR!!  Sadly not his sister because she was to shy to go but it was great that he came!! 

So to end this letter I want to quote my boy Nate Garry! "I know little... but the little I know is big!" I was thinking about that and for me it's very true for 2 reasons! 1. I'm not the smartest when it comes to teaching stuff about the gospel!!  But I know it's important and the little I know is VERY BIG!  2.  I know VERY LITTLE Tagalog, but the Tagalog that I do know... IS VERY BIG  and the most important thing any American could say to these Filipinos!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

ps. Don't forget you have Heavenly Father that can help you through anything!!

 Elder Baker LOVES the little kids...and they love him right back!

 A sample of his meals.  Elder Baker totally happy to eat it!

 Karaoke.....It's HUGE in the Philippines!  Elder Baker had fun pretending : )

Monster butterflies?

I am a child of God.

His promises are sure;

Celestial glory shall be mine

If I can but endure.

PRIESTHOOD POWER! -WEEK 13

Note from Mom:  I'm attaching a picture to this email.  It has two ladies in it.  Dillon "Elder Baker" says they are his new Filipino moms!!  They feed him literally EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!  My heart is full of gratitude for these ladies.  They don't need appointments...........they just show up every night and they get fed.  Makes me want to try to be more like these ladies.  When we see missionaries in our area, please BE NICE!  Give them a SMILE!!  And offer to FEED THEM!  ok, now enjoy Dillon's email:

SIGE, so this week was a pretty normal week in the mission field without any crazy accidents or anything!! 

BUTTT COOL SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE YAYYYY 

So on Wednesday this family in our ward that is recent converts came over to the Gambas house while we were eating dinner and one of the little girls was sick! (this is the single moms family with 3 girls, so no dad aka priesthood holder) soo she asked Elder Irabon to give her daughter a blessing and Elder Irabon looked at me and said will you give her a blessing... I was like HUH!? I don't even know the language!! And the mom said its ok just do taglish!! I was like ya ok I can do that!! ... ya that didn't happen lol I used tagalog to bless her to get healthy but then after that when I was listening to the spirit guiding me what to say I couldn't keep up with trying to translate!! lol it's okay lang because the spirit only has one language and we all understand it! Well I finished the blessing and didn't even remember what I said but I felt GREAT!!! And then the next day she was completely fine and even did a jump rope competition and was perfectly healthy!! It was such a cool experience for me to see me actually blessing someones life!! And I know I'm gonna bless the people of the Legazpi mission muuuuch more in 2 years!! 

So every Sunday me and my comp do a split with Mark Jade and Justin Gamba and I go out to Uson which is like an hour away and do a special sacrament and then teach a couple people out there and it's wayy funn hahhaa yesterday it was me and MJ and I was showing him pics from back home and halloween last year and if you saw the pics from last halloween you would know how confused he must have been lol!! But it was a weird halloween here because here it is araw ng mga patay or day of the dead and there was no-one dressed up or anything. kinda boring!! 

I JUST REMEMBERED!! I ATE CAT THIS WEEK!! LOL it was suprisingly really good!!!  haha as long as you cook it good! Also anyone that knows me really well knows I don't really eat fruits or vegetables but now I eat pretty much anything lol!! 

Soo cool little thing I noticed this week.  So I was thinking about learning Tagalog and some words just have a familiar ring to them and I was wondering why and I was thinking we already knew the language that we are learning in heaven!! That's why we can learn them soo fast and it sounds familiar!! I don't know about other missionaries but it does sound familiar to me lol! 

well thats my report lol! 

ps.; always remember to HAKUNA MATATA!!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

 Cute Baby goat friend!

Looks like they did some serious clearing work here!  Good job Elders!  

 So, I'm (mom) just guessing.....but I think this is Mark Jade (MJ)

who Elder Baker refers to in his letters.  He is awaiting his mission call

and goes out teaching with the Elders all the time!  He's getting very prepared!

The Priesthood is restored,

The truth made known to man,

That God has spoken to the earth,

His pow'r is here again!

I USED TOILET PAPER! -WEEK 10

Ok so to start off, I used toilet paper for the first time!!  So yes all the myths and joking around about using my hand is 1000 percent true!!  But cool parable about it!  So wiping with your hand is like repenting!  You might not want to go down there with your hand just like you might not want to go and repent of your sins and confess to a priesthood leader!  But it is 100 precent necessary, cause if you don't go down there with your hand and clean it all out your gonna have stains on your underwear... and if you don't go and confess your not gonna be completely clean!  Well, there's my lesson for the week!  lol 

So this week we had an earthquake at 10:30 at night and I was going down stairs to turn the lights off and as I was going up the stairs it happened and we have 2 metal garage doors down stairs and they started shaking and it sounded like gun shots!  So I thought I was getting shot at, so I jumped and then ran up the stairs and jumped in bed!!  I had no idea it was an earthquake till the next morning when we got a text asking if we felt the earthquake, and my comp said oh that's what that noise was... I thought you fell hahahha!!

Ok so I've never been more excited for conference before in my life and I loved it!  We didn't get to see saturday sessions but the other ones were great!!  I really loved in Elder Bednars talk he quoted, I think Elder Wirthlin,  but he said "come what may, and love it" and that's how the mission has been for me!!  I've had many hard things come up and also some gross and weird things butttt I just decided to love it!!  I'm not gonna be able to wipe with my hand in  2 years, so why not enjoy it di ba??

We had a baptism on Thursday and my companion took a pic of me during a quick talk on baptism so there's a pic of me in live action!  It's so great having baptisms, it makes me soo happy!  Like one of the conference talks said " look at every person thru heavenly fathers eyes... and we can only do that thru the spirit" and during baptisms you really get to do that, and it's truly amazing seeing a person come unto christ!!!

Last thing sooo in Devin G Durrant's talk he invited everyone to ponderize a scripture.  I invite you all to do it too!!  My scripture this week is Alma 26:12  I don't have time to type it up but it's great.  I encourage you to look it up and then choose your own!!


ps." Don't just go thru the motions" Elder Oaks quote!   Keep being the best examples to the whole world!!  And keep the light in your eye shining like President Monson said!

LOVE ELDER BAKER

HAKUNA MATATA!!

Doing some service!  

 Watching conference

With the kids...Probably his favorite place! 

 Giving a talk on "baptism"

 Their drinks come in plastic bags!

I am like a star shining brightly,

Smiling for the whole world to see.

I can do and say happy things each day,

For I know Heav'nly Father loves me.

MASTER BAKER -WEEK 9

Well first off, the subject!  Instead of PANADERO,  they call me MASTER BAKER sorry dad I think mine is better!! 

Ok so this last week.  So on Monday last week we gave a blessing to an old man and then we came and emailed, and then on Tuesday we found out he had leukemia and then on Wednesday he died.  And I was really depressed thinking the blessing didn't work but my companion pointed out to me that it is better that he die now instead of having to live longer with leukemia and he was also like paralyzed and blind so ya, it was bad!  So my companion pointed out that that was the power of the priesthood blessing, that he would either be healed, or put out of his misery and his families misery of having to watch him struggle everyday.  k then Wednesday we took a trip to THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!  lol this whole island is the middle of nowhere, but really it was a 4 hour trike and bus ride out there, and then a 30 minute motorcycle ride into the deep parts of the jungle!!  Oh ya, and on our way out there I pooped for the first time here in Masbate!  lol ya I know like a whole week!  And we had to stop at a school and I was like 1 second away from pooping my pants!

Lol but it was all worth it, cause the investigator out there is GOLDEN!  She is READY to be baptised!!  Thursday I don't really remember too much but we taught an investigator who came to church this week!  ummm Friday we did a baptismal interview with the girl who got married last week, and she's getting baptised this coming Saturday!  SATURDAY WE HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM!!!  I didn't do it but still it was soo cool! Now Sunday! Well yesterday we did not watch conference yet we had a district conference, so all the members on Masbate Island were there!  It was a WHOPPING 200 people! LOL ya not that many members but still ALL great people!!  Then after 7 and a half hours of conference,  we went straight to a blessing..... at the top of a mountain!  lol it was a 30 minute hike up in the rain!  And then on he way down stopped at the Villiamors family area!  They all live together up in this mountain place it's sweet!  And while we were there we gave another blessing!  It's also fast Sunday we haven't eaten forever!!!  Well now today I'm here just chillin!  I love you all!

ps. if you're ever having a bad day read a couple hymns they're the best!

LOVE ELDER BAKER
HAKUNA MATATA!!

the motorcycle ride

 the school with the "bathroom" lol

 baptism

Just hum your favorite hymn,

Sing out with vigor and vim.

And you will find it clears your mind,

Hum your favorite hymn.