200

In the 7th chapter of Judges, we read of Gideon's battle against the Midianites by the hill Moreh.  Gideon took with him 32,000 soldiers from the House of Israel.  The Lord said it was too many and told Gideon to lower the number of soldiers with him so Israel could not say that they defeated the Midianites by their own strength.  Through a series of questions and tests, the Lord eliminated from the army of Israel all of those who were fearful, afraid or careless.  Gideon was left with an army of 300 to face a foe who were like grasshoppers for multitude.  The Lord delivered the Midianites into Gideon's hands.  It was a miracle from God: Israel was victorious -- or rather, God was victorious.

In the month of January, we also experienced a miracle with our little army of missionaries.  As I relate this miracle, I will, by necessity, be required to give you some numbers.  Critics often say mission leaders are too focused upon numbers.  I admit, I am focused on numbers; because I know that numbers often reflect effort; and more importantly, behind every baptism number there is an individual who has begun a process to find greater joy and contentment in this life (and the life to come), by drawing closer to God and making sacred commitments with Him.

Prior to the lockdowns caused by COVID-19, the most people we baptised in a month was 118.  We accomplished this in February 2020 when we had 203 missionaries.  Rarely had we obtained more than 100 in a month.  These numbers are consistent with those of our predecessors.  After the lockdowns began, there were long periods of time when everyone, including our missionaries, were confined to their apartments.  The missionaries could only go outside for food or medicine.  They could not visit members of the Church or try to visit with people outside; so as to find new people to teach.  Missionaries did their best to find and teach people using their keypad phones.  

Later, they received smartphones, which helped a lot, but the learning curve on how to properly use this technology is steep and often the people who were willing to be taught did not have smartphones or sufficient strength in the signal in their neighbourhoods to receive a video call in order to be taught.  Slowly, we began to be able to go outside more and more and meet and teach people face to face on a limited basis, following strict health protocols.  There was, however, almost no way to travel from place to place, because public transportation was, and remains, very limited.  Recently, the Church sent us a large shipment of bikes to alleviate this problem, but they have only just arrived and are
generally, awaiting delivery to our missionaries.  

Another problem created by the pandemic is the loss of missionaries.  Immediately after the lockdowns began (which necessitated the evacuation of most foreign missionaries), our missionary force was reduced from 203 missionaries to 105.  As missionaries finished their missions and returned home, our numbers have steadily declined.  Today, we have 80 young missionaries (37 Sisters and 43 Elders). 

It is against this backdrop that I tell you of the Mission Tour we enjoyed late last September when our Area President, Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, visited our mission and conducted a series of meetings and interviews with our missionaries over a 4 day period.  This was, of course, all done using Zoom, because we now have smartphones and there remains severe travel restrictions and lockdowns.  It was a wonderful experience to have him teach and train our missionaries.  During the tour, I made the mistake of bragging to him that in the month of August, we had 62 baptisms, which was among the top numbers obtained by the 23 missions in the Philippines that month.  At the conclusion of the Mission Tour, Elder Wakolo challenged us to set a goal to obtain 150 baptisms during the month of January 2021.  I tried not to gasp and hoped that he was kidding.  The most we could get with 203 missionaries who were free to travel and teach and contact prior to the pandemic was 118.  Now we had only a few missionaries and still faced severe travel restrictions.  How could he be serious?  I guess it was my own fault for bragging in the first place.  

Like Gideon with his small army we knew that we needed a miracle.  Fortunately, we are in the miracle business.  Times of trial often soften hearts.  We knew that people were being prepared to hear our message.

We commenced by inviting our missionaries to prepare a fertile field, where faith could grow. Once prepared, they could humbly ask God to open the windows of heaven and grant unto them a miracle.  We invited them to rid themselves of all disobedience, increase their scripture study and to fast and pray with us for this miracle.  We then approached all local leaders, for we knew that this was not just a mission goal, but a goal for all of us.  We needed them to help us visit and invite all family members of people in their congregations who where not yet members of the Church, and to also ask for other referrals of people to teach from these leaders.  This was actually frightening.  You begin to think, "What will happen if after all this work, we fail to obtain our goal (our HUGE goal)?"  We could look like fools and lose all credibility.   Each time I prayed, however, I felt very calm and felt inspired that we could reach our goal.  

We fasted and prayed and worked hard.  Our local leaders and members were amazing and very helpful (91% of those baptised in January came from referrals from members or persons who have family members already in the Church).  But would that be enough?  In early December I studied the list of people with baptismal dates and my heart sank.  We only had 108 people with a baptismal date in January.  We worked harder and prayed much harder.  Troubles increased.  There was major flooding within the mission.  Floods that had not been seen in 50 years.  Our northern Province of Cagayan was almost completely shut down by the flooding.  People rightly focused more on survival than studying with the missionaries.  Leaders focused on helping affected people.  After the flooding, there was a large spike in COVID cases throughout the Mission.  Our largest City of Tuguegarao and most surrounding towns were placed under a total lockdown where people could hardly leave their homes let alone meet with missionaries or go to the Church and be baptised.  The lockdown started January 20th and continues still.

Joseph Smith has said that: "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing".   By the third week of January we realised that a miracle was upon us and we would easily reach 150 baptisms.  We held a Mission-wide Zoom meeting and I proposed that our goal be increased to 200 baptisms in January.  We bound ourselves to this goal.  Late last Sunday night, we awaited word from our missionaries, then we shouted for joy as word finally arrived that we had obtained our goal.  200 baptisms!  It was a miracle!  We humbly got on our knees and thanked our Father in Heaven for his kindnesses to us in allowing us to watch this miracle happen.  Our hearts are full.