Baker, Justin

   Kamusta ang lahat! This past week week felt super long but it was really good! There is an election going on right now and for some reason that means literally everyone is busy all day. So silly. If I didn't know any better I would think they're using it as an excuse just to not talk to our message.    Tuesday we weren't able to teach much unfortunately.  We spent most of the day walking around iba't ibang kapitbahayan (different neighborhoods) Which was good since we were able to talk to lots of people in the street. We found 3 new people. So awesome     Wednesday and Thursday were more of the same. Lots of street contacting and findings. We found 2 people on wednesday and 4 more on thursday. Thursday we had zone interviews with President Cobing. That was nice to be able to talk with him. He said something a little interesting " because of the war in Israel, and since you're a foreigner, you have to be careful. There are sympathizers everywhere." U...

     Kamusta!!! This past week had been a solid one. We found a few new people and played alot of basketball hahahaha     One of the things I liked about the week was the home to home contacting! We found 8 new people! I still have to get over the feat of yelling TAO PO at people's houses over and over until they come out hahaha I still feel weird when I do it. I just gotta remember that's its a normal thing here.    Another thing that was awesome was my improvement in understanding of  people speaking. Now I can usually understand everything people say! Unless it's a Nanay or Tatay (grandma or Grandpa) since they almost always have no teeth. If it's one of them then I'm lost and I just nod my head and smile.     One miracle that happened with the Language, happened last night during our last lesson. My companion gave me the restoration and asked me to explain who jospeh smith was and what he did. I haven't said more than a few one liner...

   Kamusta kayo aking mga kaibigan!?! Another week is over! So crazy. This week flewwww by. Some great things happened!    I'm gunna start with the thing I loved most about this week. We had a baptism on Saturday! His name is Brother Marchan. He's such a stud. Before I got here, my trainer had been teaching him since April. He really wanted to find truth which was super awesome since lots of people we meet are content with living the religion they were born into. Which is almost always Catholic. But from what I've been able to see is that Brother Marchan really does believe in the gospel. In So stoked for him. One of the biggest challenges with recent converts here in our mission is retention, but He hasn't missed a day of church in a few months and he has lots of friend's in the ward, so we have high hopes for him.    The other great part was we found 13 new people. Our goal was 10 which ive heard is usually pretty high but we were blessed big time this we...

    Yoooo what's up everyone?! I love it here in the Philippines and I love the people! But i'm not gonna lie this week has been pretty hard. Along with most new missionaries who are learning a language in the mission field, I felt like I wanted to learn the language right now. Which is not realistic for my first week or first month or for probably a long time here. I just see the people that we are teaching and I want to tell them everything I know! For the first few days I tried to bare my testimony in tagalog and it wasn't going very well. It's kinda hard to teach with the spirit and think of all of the grammar at the same time hahaha. When Thursday personal study came I was exhausted, I felt like I wasn't learning anything and I couldn't teach with the spirit. I decided to just pray, and that's exactly what I needed. I felt like I needed to open my grammar book and start reading from the beginning. I opened it up and on the second page there was a quote ...

       Whats up ya'll?! This past week has been pretty crazy! I finally made it to my first area!! But before I got here me and my MTC District flew to Cauayan City from Manila to meet our mission president and his wife. They are some of the kindest people I've ever met. We stayed in Cauayan Friday night, and then on Saturday we got to meet our trainers! Mine is such a stud! He speaks just enough English to to help me with most of my tagalog questions which is so nice! But anyways, after we met our trainers we had lunch with the president and his wife, then we left! We all got on different busses and went to our own areas. It was pretty sad saying bye to all of them since they are the people I've been living with for the past month but it is so awesome to know that the people of the Cauayan mission will have amazing missionaries serving them!        So yeah, Now I'm here! I'm definitely getting a bit of culture shock during these first few da...