BAKIT???

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to the latest installment of my life. I figure at this point I have learned around 330-350 Tagalog words in the last 11 or so days not including around 40 or so phrases that I can say about different things. Maybe a little more than that but it is around there.

I feel like I am learning a ton, but I know that there is so much to learn. My biggest accomplishment this past week has been the memorization of the following scriptures/passages in Tagalog: The Missionary baptismal invitation, Moroni 10:4-5, 1 Nephi 3:7, and My missionary Purpose. We have progressed a lot with our Roleplay Investigators and I love the lessons we get to teach.

     

I have learned that a lot about being a missionary is about relating to people's lives and SHOWING them, not TELLING them, why the gospel is so important. A direct relationship with God is pretty much the most important thing you can have in this life, and no one is kept from that. No one at all. 

     

The People here are fantastic. They are really loving and they always want to help you out. Even if they don’t want to hear your message, they will help you with the language and they will talk to you. I think one of the most important things I am learning here is something that is said a lot the first week: "The people do not care about what you know, until they know how much you care." That is a huge thing for me because I want to show how much I know but I also understand that at some point it is mostly unimportant.

This week has been mostly the same as last week except I am learning the importance of obedience and also the importance of making eye contact and establishing a relationship with the people I teach. I think I will have a hard transition from the MTC to the field, but I know that I can do it and that I will be able to do good work as a missionary.

     

The lesson in Tagalog today in this email is Moroni 10:5 which in English reads: "And through the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things." In Tagalog it is "At sa pamamagitan ng kapangyarihan ng espiritu santo malaman ninyo ang katotohanan ng lahat ng bagay." This is the truth and many go about without answers because they don't stop and ask. How can we know but through our own experiences and the spirit manifesting the truth of it unto us? I would have written down Moroni 10:4 as well but it would have taken around an hour to type in Tagalog ;).

I hope you all are doing well. I am doing my best to get back to all of you that email me personally. I am doing very well and having a great time here. I love you all and keep on keeping on.

Love,

Elder Faulkner

Ps: The Tagalog word "Pamamagitan" means by/through, so every time you want to say "by" you get that mouthful instead.

Pps: "Bakit" means "why" I have made a friend here (Elder Nelson) who loves to scream "BAKIT".

Pwede Po Bang Magsalita Sa Ingles?

The above statement pretty much summarizes my life over the last 6 days. If you haven't caught on it means "Can I speak English?" we are encouraged to ask that any time before we speak English and let me tell you that can be frustrating. 

           

I have learned a ton in the last few days. I have learned that I have to rely on God. There is no other way around that. I fasted the other day with my companion Elder Stephens. We were miserable all day, but we figured we would be blessed with greater understanding of the language and a better ability to communicate... Boy were we wrong! Instead, we learned a lot about how much we can do without God helping us out – which is basically zero. We have a recurring roleplay investigator, which basically means that every day we go into a room with someone who we have to teach. We can’t use English (they pretend to not understand us when we speak it) and we have to teach to the best of our ability. Usually this doesn't go so bad but the day we fasted was the day we received the lesson that it isn't US teaching at all. We just sat there in the room with blank looks on our faces. We got out of there after lots of quiet moments and not a whole lot said. We were humbled. Normally, our lessons with Sister Ruth (our roleplay investigator) go kinda well. But that one most certainly did not.

       

I have been called as district leader which means I have a few more responsibilities than I had previously expected.

There is actually a lot to say now that I think of it.

I speak an absolute ton of “taglish” (Tagalog/English). But every word in Tagalog is like twice as hard as its English counterpart. Our favorite example is “faith.” In Tagalog is "Pananampalataya" < You can now understand my struggles. 

       

I've had some good spiritual lessons here. We got to go to the temple today (luckily for me the service was in English). The first day I accidentally offered to take over a role play in front of our entire batch. My companion had to join me and he was ... ecstatic (but ya know not really).

     

I am appalled by the amount I still have to learn, but I am also impressed by what I have already learned through the help of God. I have learned to pray in Tagalog and most of my nightly prayers are not in English anymore, I can also tell what I know to be true for somethings.

Grammar is hard in this language.

I hope everyone is doing well, if you want a personal email then email me personally. Make sure to also send me any emails that I might not have so that everyone hears my crazy ramblings each week.

I love you all keep up the good work.

Elder Faulkner

This is the Place

Hello Everyone

This is the first of the mass emails I will send out during my mission, no one gets a personal email this time cause I am still in the hotel and I have a little bit of time to send out one email right now. I was worried up until I got here, but I think that I am ready. I believe that I will come to love the people very quickly. 

The people here drive just like me they are amazingly polite, and have a great sense of humor ( at least what I got through the language barrier.) The language itself is just as I thought it would be, Foreign. 

There is so much I don't understand but am eager to learn. I feel like a five year old being placed in a university class. I am sure I will adapt soon and I will try to get personal emails as well as a mass email out next time I have the chance. 

I love you all. Know I am safe and excited and a healthy amount nervous but aal iz well

Love

Elder Fauilkner

Onward Christian Soldier

Today, at 5 PM - Jordan Taylor Faulkner will be set apart to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He will spread the gospel through the northern part of Quezon City (just west of the capital Manila), Philippines in the Tagalog language (I'm sure among many others). 

At 9 PM, he will board an airplane for Los Angeles. At midnight, he will board another plane bound for Hong Kong, where he will stay the night before traveling on to the Missionary Training Center in Manila. He will spend 8 or 9 weeks there learning the language and prepping to teach. 

He would love to receive letters and even packages to this address:

Elder Jordan Faulkner

Missionary Training Center

13 Temple Drive

Corner White Plains Avenue

Green Meadows Subdivision

Quezon City 1110, Metro Manila

Philippines

This address will be good through the first week of January. I don’t have an exact date of when he will be exiting. Mail to the Philippines takes between 2 and 6 weeks (per the USPS website), so keep that in mind when you are shipping something near the end.

Thank you for supporting him as he leaves us for this short time so that others may be with their family for eternity.