...my first beach baptism...we found a starfish while walking out into the deeper water.

Hello everybody!

I don't have a lot to say since we just spoke a few hours ago, but I do want to share a miracle that happened since we last spoke. About a half hour after our skype ended we were in our apartment about to start our personal study and then the power went out. You may be thinking, "What kind of miracle is that?" the miracle comes from the fact that it didn't go out during our Skype. Do you want to know why? Syempre you do [of course you do]. Because as we were leaving the house going to the church before the Skype I prayed that there wouldn't be a burn-out during our skype so Heavenly Father postponed the burnout 'til we were done. Cool, huh. I already told you pretty much everything about this week about the baptism, and how I touched a Kalabau, so I'll just send you a part of my letter to Pres. Ostler that covers most of what I said earlier. That way you have something to put on my blog and all my fans won't be mega-disappointed. :) Your welcome, fans!!!

"President Ostler,

This week was awesome!!! We were really busy and had lots of surprise things happen, but they all turned out really great. Also we had a baptism, so you can't really beat that! 

On Wednesday we went to Puerto with Jomar, one of our investigators, to meet with Pres. Caduada. I was so happy when Jomar passed the interview. 4 hours of sitting in an uncomfortable shuttle was all worth it! :) His baptism was just last Saturday. It was really stressful as first. The baptism was supposed to be at 5:00 but when we got to the church at 4:00 the font was empty and we couldn't figure out how to turn on the water because there was a burn-out earlier that morning and that always messes with the water. finally we got the water going but it was going to take like 3 hours to fill up the font so we decided to start the baptismal service at the church and then go to the ocean for the actual ordinance. It was my first beach baptism so that was really cool. Also we found a starfish while walking out into the deeper water. Jomar's dad was the one to baptize him which was great too because he had just been baptized last month so he had an opportunity to use his priesthood. When Jomar came up out of the water he was smiling so big and we were all just so happy! I love baptisms! The only thing that could have made it better is if he had been confirmed yesterday. Now he'll have to wait 2 more weeks because next week is the District Conference. It was a way nice baptism though!

Thursday was supposed to be a normal day, but had a plot twist and the branch said that there was this Roxas festival happening and all the religions in Roxas were invited to say an opening prayer to start the festivities and bless Roxas. Of coarse the branch chose a missionary to say this prayer and the lots fell on Elder Tanner. It was really cool though. There were probably 10 different religions that prayed. Some were really intense, shouting with all energy of heart, most were written down and had obviously been practiced many times. It was nice when Elder Tanner prayed though. it was just really simple and sincere. 

On Sunday we had a good experience with one of our progressing investigators. She is amazing! her name is sister Jocelyn. We had her start doing the highlighter method and it is working wonders. We asked her how her reading is and she just started quoting the Book of Mormon. She was like, "I really like what Lehi said to his son how he should be like unto this river, continually flowing into the fountain of righteousness." Then she bore testimony of how she knows the Book of Mormon is true. I was so amazed at her. She is going to be baptized in just 2 weeks on May 27th. I'm so excited for that!"

Roxas

So yeah. That's about all that's up with me. "Life is grand in the magic land of [Roxas]." Ingat kayo! Mahal ko kayong lahat!

Elder Fawson