Baptisms

 Hello our beloved family,

I hope everyone is doing well and the grandkids are happy.  It has been a challenge to keep up  writing our letters.  Internet is unstable here sometimes plus  traveling takes up a lot of our time.

It has been a very busy and eventful few weeks .  We have also witnessed a lot of miracles as we serve here in our area.  We know for sure that this is Lord's work!  We had witnessed His hands in all that we do here.  The field is white in this part of His Vineyard.   Every companionship in our Zone last week had one or more baptisms.  And they continue to have baptisms on a weekly basis.  They usually baptize in the ocean or river because they don't have a baptismal font yet.  They only have small meetinghouses here.  Only two branches have a church building.  We were able to attend some of their baptisms.  It is just so humbling to see the members support each other.  During one of the baptisms, we had to drive close to the ocean.  Members had to pile people in their tricycle.  They would have at least 10+ members there.  I'll send you the picture if our phone works.  We felt so bad we were not able to let them be in our van as it is against  mission rules to put members in the van.  We are only allowed to bring missionaries.  

The last couple of weeks we had to run to the ER.  One of our sister missionaries got thrown out of her bike as they were biking one day. They called us and we immediately drove to her apartment which is about 30 minutes away.  She had a concussion and experienced severe headache and nausea.  She was given a priesthood blessing and miraculously all her tests were normal.  The following week, one of our elders was electrocuted.   He just finished baptizing someone.  Then he went to change in the CR (comfort room) but there was no water.  So, he went to the electric pump and tried to pull out something.  It was also raining that day and as soon as he touched the pump, the electricity seemed to pull him towards the pump and he yelled.  Luckily a member heard him and he yelled that he was electrocuted and one member was also standing next to the circuit breaker and he immediately turned the power off.  This is a miracle!   Without the power being turned off, he could have not survived the incident.   After that, he was thrown out and became unconscious for about 5 minutes.  The members that were there carried him inside the meetinghouse and started massaging his whole body.  He woke up after that but he looked weak.  This was their baptism that morning.  Then they had another baptism that afternoon.  That's when we were there to attend that baptism.  He didn't say anything until one member told us the story.  He still wanted to baptize that afternoon.  I discouraged him from doing that but he told me he was fine.  After the baptism, he didn't feel well.  Dad said, "let's run him to the ER, so he can get checked."  That's about an hour away from where we were.  On our way to the hospital, he passed out in our van.  His companion and the zone leaders were there and started massaging him again.  Then we put our mission nurse on the phone to help direct us what to do.  While she was on the phone, everyone was panicking except for dad who calmly was driving the van to the ER.  We didn't know how to call an ambulance here.  His companion and the zone leaders were all crying because he wasn't waking up.  Prior to that, he said that one half of his body is numb and his heart hurts.  That's when he fainted all the way to the hospital.  To make a long story short, we made it to the hospital and he was immediately taken care of there.  He was confined overnight for observation and so they could also run some tests.  They told us that when you are electrocuted, it can affect your heart.   WE visited him the next day and all the tests were good.  Another miracle in our mission!  We were so grateful that we were at the right place at the right time, we attended that baptism, not knowing that this thing would happen.  If we weren't there, he would be transported by tricycle to the nearest hospital which was an hour away.  

This incident happened two days prior to transfer.  This happened on a Saturday and we were supposed to drive some missionaries to the mainland for transfer.  We thought we couldn't make it.  But the Lord provided a way for that Elder to be blessed with healing. And we were able to leave as scheduled the following Monday.  We took an elder who was getting transferred to his area 5 hours away.  We dropped him off and picked up 5 more elders to take with us to the mainland in Cavite.  We arrived in the mission office at 6pm and delivered the elders to their new companions.

So our trip last week was double purpose.  We were also accompanying three of our 7 branches to the temple.  They had a youth temple trip. We were able to join them and help with baptisms for the dead.  We were also able to attend a session.  We had two members in our district get their temple blessings.  It was humbling to help them out and dad was able to help them understand a little bit more what they were doing that day. 

The president allowed us to stay with your Auntie Grace in Quezon City which is just a 20 minute drive to the temple.  So, we parked the van at the MTC/Area Office as there is no parking in Quezon City.  So, your Auntie Grace and Aaron would take turns driving us to the temple.  Your Uncle Joe also met up with us.  Our youth and their leaders stayed at the patron house by the temple.  We went back here in MIndoro last Friday and took with us the elder who was being assigned here in our area.  That was transfer day for us!  The trip was very long.  But it was great and rewarding!  We are thankful to be the Lord's hand here in this area.  We love our mission and we love our area. We are humbled to be a small tool in the Lord's hand to help build His Kingdom here.  Hooray for Israel!

Conference thoughts: October 2022

"My dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead. In the coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior's power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns 'with power and great glory,' He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful. 

-President Russell M. Nelson

"When we follow Satan, we give him power. When we follow God, He gives us power."

-Elder Johnson, Quorum of the 70

Love you guys deeply!

Love, 

Mom and Dad (Elder & Sis Roxas)

Baptism in the river