lizards and laundry

Sorry I haven't sent out a group email in a while... I haven't had a ton of time I didn't think anyone really noticed/read these stinkin' things (thanks for reading them Grandma) But I guess people want to hear about this crazy place so I'll try to email again! So I guess I should talk about my subject line. Every night we end the day with a companionship prayer and then say our personal prayers. We just got done saying our Kasama prayers and we were crawling onto the tops of our beds to say our personal prayers I grabbed my pillow and as soon as I did a little lizard ran out from under it... Sister Tu'akalau had already started her prayers so I had to muffle the little yelp I let out with the same pillow the lizard had made his home. I got him off said my prayers and went to bed. He was at my toes the next morning so I have a new pet lizard... Also doing our laundry is always an adventure. So we have to wash our clothes inside where our faucet is and if you've ever done your laundry by hand you will know everything gets wet quick... so our tile floor gets covered in water and it gets hard to walk around without slipping...as I was rinsing the soap out of our freshly cleaned clothes I reached down to dunk my dress in the water, lost my balance and fell... right into the water... covered in water I just looked at Tu'akalau and we both lost it! I was laughing so hard I couldn't even get out of the water for a solid 4-5 minuets... when I finally got control of myself I got out of the water and finished washing our laundry. That's been the reacquiring lesson for this week. When things slip through and get all messed up you just got to laugh it off and keep going. A good attitude doesn't get rid of the problem, the laundry still doesn't do itself, the language just doesn't come and people don't bring themselves unto Christ but! It makes all those things more bearable and fun! Over an over this week our plans have been messed up but we laugh it off and find something else to do. through this "messed up schedule" we were able to find 14 new investigators! Its not a ton but its much better than we had last week! Moral of the story: Keep laughing and keep going! Ano ba iyan and move on! Mahal Kita! Hope you all have a great week!

Love Sister Baton

Gerold and love

This week I've been thinking a lot about people and how they can stay active in the church. I think I already told you the inactivity in our ward is over 1100 people but it was making me a little discouraged this week. Me and Tu'akalau had a talk about it one night. I told her how it’s hard to want to baptize others when it feels like everyone is just being baptized into inactivity and she told me that lately she had been feeling the same. I told her I think we need to focus on the Book of Mormon more. I have really come to learn the BOM is the only real life line we have. If people really love the BOM if they study it every day they will be lead to Christ and his true church! My testimony for the Book of Mormon has grown so much! If we ever go red in the flood (if we have to evacuate) I’m grabbing my BOM and my camera! The BOM because its full of notes and pictures and spiritual revelation and my camera because heaven knows the pictures and videos on their comedy gold! (at least to missionaries...) But I sent my mom a BOM challenge you should do it too! I honestly have never felt so close to heavenly father! So this week we had my first baptism YEAH!!! Sister Nene was baptized and it was so cool to stand over on the side with Sister Tu'akalau and watch her go in and back out of the water! WHen she came out she had the biggest smile on her face it was so amazing to see! She also is the guardian for the cutest little 9 year old named Gerald. Me and Gerald are best friends and every time we "hangout" we probably say less then 20 words to each other because I don't understand his Tagalog and doesn't understand mine but I've learned you can say a lot through love alone! Every time we teach him or he comes to church he comes straight over to sit by me and together we learn the gospel and laugh and enjoy every second. We have this thing too that every time I see him I put my hands in a heart shape over my heart and make "heart" sounds and then he laughs and does it back. Im not sure how it started? I just did it one day in our serve others lesson and now its just our thing. Another thing I learned from Gerald and love is that when you are judging others you aren't loving them. Gerald was labeled a "hard kid" because he didn't ever talk in lessons but I felt that because of the serious way they taught him he felt uncomfortable and of course when you teach a nine year old like an adult the child isn't going to learn so I asked if we could teach him a little different... might I add I did this in the middle of his lesson... We were teaching him about prayer and he wasnt saying anything and was just looking down playing with the rubber band on his wrist so I asked him if I could see one of his bands set up a cup on a chair in front of us and told him the 1st one to get the rubber band in the cup wins 1,2,3 GO! It was so much fun! He started laughing and when I missed and had to go get my rubber band I kept poking him in the side so he would laugh and not win but he still did beat me. I then told him saying your prayers can be kinda hard at first like shooting a rubber band in the cup but the more you pray (or the more you practice shooting) the easier it gets we then invited him to say the closing prayer and he DID!!! That was the start of our breakthrough with him! When he watched his grandma get baptized he asked us when he could be baptized too! The Lord will send miracles and help but first you have to do the work and stop judging the people! Yes we much be smart... if someone is holding a gun to your head maybe don't try to hug him because "Maybe hes having a bad day." But don't be afraid to help someone because at first it seems they aren't interested. The words of "As I have loved you" have been playing in my head. As I have loved you, love one another... is we want to be loved by others, by heavenly father, then me must first be ready to love! Sorry that story was a lot longer than I meant for it to be but thats okay! Missions are hard but that doesnt mean they aren’t fun!

I hope you are having a great week! Love you!

Sister Baton

A child's Prayer

Friends and family,
    This email is written by Lisa Baton because Taylor didn't send a group email and we don't want anyone to worry or miss out on what's happening with sister Baton...
    I will just share part of my letter to her. I had an awesome opportunity to go to the temple with one of the elders moms that Taylor flew out with (elder Pond) her name is Kara. We went to breakfast and the temple. It was so fun to trade stories and talk about our missionaries. While in the temple I just could hear the words to the primary song "a child's prayer", mainly pray he is there, he loves the children, speak he is listening, his love now surrounds you. I just felt overwhelming love. And know Heavenly Father is with her. I wrote to her and told her this...she replied "it's so weird to read your emails because I'll have little promptings throughout the week and things you say will match perfectly." Your head popped into my head this week with almost the exact words to that song. This week has been kind of hard because I got sick and had two days in bed ( I'm feeling a lot better now don't worry, we pumped me full of med's and orange juice) But I was feeling really annoyed with myself and was really mad that I wasn't out working when your words came to my head and I just sat and prayed to Heavenly Father and asked him for comfort and help. His answer to me was the talk about the airplane and oxygen mask. When the plane has an emergency you find that you have to put on your own mask and then you can help others with theirs. I was reminded that I am in a new country full of new things and my body just needs to get used to it. Stressing out about not being able to go out and work was just making it harder for my body to get better so I just had to relax, let my body feel better so I could then help others feel better.
     One of my favorite spiritual things was yesterday we went to follow up and teach a referral we got from one of the member visits.  These two cute twins their 9 and we had a thought to invite the entire family to come listen to the lesson and they did! The spirit was so strong we talked Jesus and the atonement! Now we have five new investigators possibly six when the dad makes a decision. It was so so cool! Have a great week. Mahal kita!
     She is amazing and we love all the support that is shown to our family. Thank you for all the prayers and kindness!
     One last thing she asked me if I could send her easy recipes to cook that don't require an oven or microwave. If you have any ideas, let me know. I'm not even sure what kind of ingredients she can get. Thanks again
      Love ya

another great week

Another week over her in the Philippines and I have loved it so much! I dont have a lot of time so sorry this will be short but I just have a couple of things I wanted to share! First I LOVE THE KIDS HERE!!! Its so funny but they always seem to be the ones who really understand me and my bad Tagalog (mainly because they speak bad tagalog along with all of their friends so they're use to it) Second People are so funny here!!! I could fill a book with all the funny things people have said to me or done around me. I'll give a couple examples: A guy, probably in his late 40's asked me if I was married, when i said no he told me all about how strong and single he is :) another guy crashed into a pothole while driving his motorcycle while looking at me while he drove. People are fascinated by my white skin. Third Conference is the best thing every!!! I invite all of you to go and read, watch, listen to it again!!! I absolutely loved every second of conference! Anyways I love you all!!! Mahal Kita!

Love Sister Baton

greetings from Gapan

thank heavens for 7-11

laundry room

Hello po!

SO guess what! I finally made it to the field! I am serving in the Gapan City Zone.  I have the most beautiful Nanay (mom/trainer) in the entire mission! Her name is Sister Tu’akalau from New Zealand and she is so SO AMAZING! She has been out for 11 months now and I am actually her second anak! SO I have an older sister and she is actually training one of the Sisters in my batch so I have a niece too! But I really love it here! I do understand now why new missionaries are called anak or children for the first part of their missions. It’s because we are helpless useless things that can’t talk or buy food for themselves or walk anywhere without their Nanays (trainers)! Haha I honestly hold her hand as I cross the street because I have no idea what I am doing! She is the best. But I will say I am so surprised how much Tagalog I understand (through the help of the spirit) after lessons and church and things like that my Nanay will always ask me what I understood and usually I get almost everything! I still cant really say anything back but she says that’s how it was for her too. I guess everyone starts to understand before they can actually speak (just like little babies) the streets around here are crazy too! We will walk through this little thing that looks like a dirt path to the middle of nowhere and suddenly it will open up to a big street! Almost everything is different here, the roads, the houses, showers, washing clothes, even the way you have to flush the toilet! But it is so much fun! So a little about the houses, most houses are just broken fences with tarps over them. A few of them are actual “houses” you could say. Like four walls a door stuff like that but they’re actually pretty cool! People over here are resourceful! It amazes me daily! As for showers J I take bucket showers. So you walk into out bathroom and its just a room with a toilet in one corner and a bucket and drain in the other one. So you feel the bucket up with water and there is like a little plastic pot that you use to dump the water on yourself. It sounds weird but it actually works great! My hair loves it! My feet though are always kinda hard to clean (walking around anywhere makes them dirty) Also washing clothes! I washed my clothes for the first time! So you start by getting them all really wet in a bucket then you fill up a wash bin with water and put soap in it and mix it all up so you have a lot of bubbles then you just put your clothes in and scrub them with your hands. Its kinda hard to explain so I’ll make a video next time! Then you rinse them off twice soak them in a bucket with fabric conditioner and hang them to dry! Then you wait J oh and then our pluming is so funny! So to flush the toilet you flush it like a normal toilet then at just the right moment you have to poor a cup of water in it so it will actually flush and if you mess up you have to wait like a minute before you can try it again! And our sink in the kitchen will randomly be really weird to turn off most times you turn it off and to turn it off you just push it back around to the off spot but every now and then you will go to turn it off and it will go past the off point and start turning on again, in that case you have to turn it all the way one and then half way off and it will turn off. I don’t have any idea why! But the Philippines does have one thing in common with America and its 7/11! We found one the other day so my Nanay let us go in and we ate dinner there, hotdogs and Slurpee’s. It was fantastic! The weather here is crazy but I love it! We always have our umbrellas out, one second to protect us from the rain and the next to keep the beating sun off us! And it with honestly change in seconds! I don’t know what else to say and I’ve already said a TON! But if you have any questions let me know! Wait I just want to add one last thing! BE A MEMBER MISSIONARY!!! You don’t have to do anything to great to be a member missionary! It doesn’t take a ton of time, its not hard but it makes the work so much easier! Right now in our area we have a really hard time getting people to come to church because when they come NO ONE TALKS TO THEM! If someone walks into your sacrament hall and you don’t know who they are you better get you booty over to talk to them! Its so hard to be an investigator! You walk into a place full of new cultures and new language you’ve never heard and a schedule you’ve never gone through and if you don’t have anyone to help you through you bet you wont want to come back! I never know how that felt until I came here and experienced it for myself so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! For me help them out! I love you all so much but I don’t want to see any of you for 16 more months because I love it so much here ;) Mahal Kita! Kitakits!

fresh from the MTC

she made it to the mission home and is now assigned to her first area and a companion from New Zealand!

last week in MTC

Hello Everyone,

Guess what! its my last P-Day in the MTC!!!! I leave the MTC on the 27^th.  We went to the store, went to a starbucks dahil why not? it is so much fun! Yesterday we got to go in the field again and it was so much fun! I rode in a Jeepie (not sure how to spell that?) and a trike it rained so hard we got stuck in the city for two hours! one hour trying to find someone who would drive through the flood and traffic to get us back to the church so we could go back to the MTC. OH ALSO! Everyone now thinks im superwoman! on the way home one of our sisters got sooooo sick on the ride from the church to MTC Elder Pond gave her a blessing and when we got back to the mtc we woke her up to tell her to go inside and that we made it and she hurt so much no one could move her! So Elder Pond asked if he could carry her and they said no,  sorry,  so I asked can I carry her and everyone looked at me and was like Hindi po alam? Can you carry her so I said yes and as soon as I said yes I got kinda worried and was like please let her weigh less than a bale of hay! Haha and she did so I carried her down the stairs and up the stars to the nurse and everyone was like WOW you are an amazing Wonder Woman!  And everyone calls me mom around here because im always taking care and loving everyone so they all walk around and say wow my mom is the coolest! So that was kinda fun! And that sister is okay now! But yeah I have some videos im going to try to send you! of the flood and one i made today and one of me and Elder Pond and our awesome handshake! Oh and the Family i got to teach this week!!! Mahal Kita!!! Have a great week! 

Love Sister Baton

Elder Andersen

Well this email is going to be short because ELDER ANDERSON IS COMING TO THE MTC!!!! (im just a little excited) But today has been an awesome day! We just got back from the temple where I was able to be an escort for one of the Sisters here! A lot of them have to go through the temple for the first time while they are here in the Philippines because its hard around here to get to a temple but wow is it amazing when they finally do! So Fun Facts that people may or may not already know (because i dont really know who ive told or who actually got the information) My Kasama is Sister Riabova from Ukraine. I am in the Moroni District with the most amazing people ever!!! Im the new senior Sister Training Leader! Its kinda nice because at night I get to go arounf with my kasama and turn off all the lights in two of the MTC buildings. and it is my favorite! I love being able to go and see the temple when all the lights are out and being able to sit by the Christmas Tree (oh yeah it Christmas around here) its kinda weird but i am not use to seeing white people anymore. there are like 25 white kids here and I know all of them so when you see a white kid you dont know it throws you off! But I love the people sooooo much! I think its so funny too how much they love me (mostly because im white) ;) but we had one sister last week who was leaving with the last batch and she hugged me and told me i was magandang for 10 mins... no joke... But I LOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE these people! I hope all is good back in the USA! Remember the Heavenly Father is watching over you!!! Mahal Kita!!!

This is a typical study night around her the temple at night and the christmas tree that i love!​

Merry Christmas

Welcome to the Philippines where Christmas starts on September 1st and goes throughout all the "Ber" months. SO grandma if my dad tells you its too early for Christmas music just tell him youre having Christmas with me and my Philippines people! ;) So I made a video! I never have enough time to say everything so i just made a video! But outside of the video I saw Elder Webster this week!!! He came to pick up the other sisters and elders leaving the MTC for the field. I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs (dragging my Kasama) so fast! it was so good to see and talk to him! Also yesterday we went to the field!!! We got to go do splits with some sisters in the Manila Area and it was so amazing!!! We rode in the tricycles (look them up) I was so squished but it was so much fun! I had so many people look at me! being the only white girl or person for that matter people just looked at me but it was good :) i smiled adn said Kamusta to everyone! the little kids are sooooooooooooo magandang and guapo here!!!!!! I love them! they just hangout and walk with us! i wish i couldve got some pictures with them but we couldnt bring our cameras.... But! it was so good to talk to them! I also got to meet this really cute member that runs one of the stores in the little market we went to, side note the markets are so cool! just dont walk next to the fish because you might get water splashed on you while they throw the water on the live fish to keep them "fresh" but anyways! She gave us food and asked me about Utah and the temple and america and gave us the best drink ever!!!! It was just this orange fruit drink in a little plastic bag with a straw and it was soooo good! And the people here are so wonderful! I love them more and more everyday! While we were talking to this little old lady i had the most amazing feeling! I just looked in her worn out dark brown eyes as we sat in her chicken filled home and for a moment heavenly father let me see her adn the world through his eyes. I dare you all to try it! See someone else through his eyes and i know you will feel so much love you wont know what to do with yourself! Also I had a ton of people as about the rain so i guess I will tell you more about it :) When it rains here it is so beautiful! all the green plants and flowers covered in water is an amazing sight that words can not do justice! The thunder is so long too! its my favorite thing to fall asleep to the sound of the rain! I remember when i was younger my dad told me one night the thunder is cowboys riding in heaven so listening to the thunder makes me feel closer to heaven and closer to him :) I love it here so much! Words can not even explain all the things i feel and learn in a day! Sorry for those who are not getting me emails! I keep forgetting to bring my completed email list to email time so forward this to anyone who wants it! Mahal Kita! I hope you are all doing amazing back in the USA! 

Love Sister Baton

week 3 short and simple

Im almost out of time so this is going to be short! Like really short! 3 things 

1) I love rain!!! I dont know if i will ever love anything back home as much as I love rain here it is AMAZING!

2) This language is hard! I dont think i have ever worked so hard for something! But me and Elder Pond found Dr. Pepper so we can go another day!

3) God loves me! And i know he loves you! it has been so hard but god is always helping me and i love it!

I want you to know I love you all! Next week ill talk more! goodbye! 

Love Sister baton

brother Alex is getting baptism

MAGANDANG UMAGA!!! Good morning! Wow its only been one week but with everything that's happened I feel like its been one year! So a typical day in the Philippines, Wake up at 6am put on your exercise clothes and work out for 30 min. (note that just walking outside makes you all kinds of wet...) SO running around outside and playing volley ball is so hot but so much fun! Then we shower get ready for the day and it all starts. SO many meeting and planning plus lots of language study,  lunch then preparing to teach out investigator (Brother Alex) then dinner teaching brother Alex snacks always somewhere in the day then at 9 quiet time and bed time at 10. Then we start again! I might add in between this all there are lots of companionship talks sooo sooo many prayers some crying (some bad some good) and lots of joking and fun! SO since I've already told you our "investigator" Brother Alex is getting baptized! We taught him for 4 days, in very bad Taglish (Tagalog and English mixed) on the second lesson the teachers told us to memorize how to invite someone to be baptized in Tagalog so we did and used it in our lesson that night. He said no... He said he was already baptized when he was a baby adn asked why he needed to again. we told him we would teach him more about it the next time we taught him. Side note! The Spirit is amazing! I can not understand almost any Tagalog but when we get to out lesson and pray we understand almost everything between our opening and closing prayer! It is so amazing! Anyway yesterday in our lesson Alex asked us kinda near the end of the lesson why his family wasn't changed even though he was praying and reading the scriptures. his family life is not great he has two little siblings his sister and brother. His dad is a drunk adn will beat Alex adn his mom cant do anything about it. (When he told us I cried like a baby with him) I had so much to say and didnt know how to say it in tagalog so i just asked him if i could just say it in english and the spirit could talk to him adn he said yes! so I told him my testimony! I dont really remember what I said but he started to cry and i Cried with him. And suddenly I felt like i needed to ask him to be baptized again so i did and he said YES!!! We didnt know what to do after that so we just said Magaling! Mabuti! Salamat po! Me and my Kasama Sister Riabova were so happy! That night he came adn talked to us and learned that he was really brother Alex but his dad was Alex and the problem we had talked about were his real problems when his father was little. He said his dad had joined the church but was currently inactive and the real Alex had called out fake investigator Alex and told him he felt like he needed to go back to church. Fake Alex then thanked us for all the prayers and fasting and work we had done for Alex the investigator because it had helped the real Alex. After the meeting he came and thanked me. He said your Tagalog is not great but your spirit is and I felt you love in every broken word. THE SPIRIT IS AWESOME!!! Prayer is powerful and I have felt yours for me so thank you! Salamat po!

I love you all!

Sister Baton

we made it!

Well I made it hear we had a bit of a problem with the the flight from LAX to Hing KONG but me and Elder Pond got if fixed so were good! We have three sisters and 8 brothers traveling together so that has been awesome! the roads here are amazing! everything is so crazy and no stop signs plus people just walk across the road and no one gets hit everyone drives inches away from each other! I love it here! it has been so amazing so far! we all studied

together in the hotel last night and the spirit was awesome! (the music in the back ground... no so awesome it was the same song over and over again... hate that jazz song) but it really is so so SSSOOO awesome! I love you all so much! pray for me and this language! LOVE YA!

Sister Baton