My Area? Your Area? Our Area.

This week I started in a new companionship. I am here in Sapang Palay with Elder Oronos and Elder Stephens. We are in a trio; this means that when we teach there are three of us, if we want to go anywhere all three of us have to go – the work is a lot different. The other big change in the work is that now we are responsible for the entirety of Sapang Palay. The size of our area right now is about twice the size of my last area, because it includes my last area. Our teaching pool is very large and we have a lot of people to visit. Every one of these things is both a blessing and a hardship, but we try to think of them as blessings.

      

We are focusing on following up with people that are progressing in both areas. We are also trying to find time to find new investigators, but almost all of our time is taken up with teaching.

        

Before the transfer, Elder Stephens and Elder Kirifi worked in one half of the city, Elder Tagal and I worked in the other half, and Elder Oronos was in a place called Baliwag. Now I have to learn Elder Stephens half, he has to learn my half, and Elder Oronos needs to learn everything. We are trying to combine the areas so it is more like one area and not just two halves, but it is very hard work.

        

You learn a lot while working with two people, especially when they best communicate in different languages; I switch between Tagalog and English about a million times a day. Elder Stephens understands a lot better in English (and obviously so do I) but Elder Oronos understands in Tagalog. It pushes your language skills to switch back and forth between two languages – especially when they are so different. It is like writing an essay about art and doing math homework at the same time, but you cant pick one or the other.

     

Welp that is pretty much where we are at. The thing I am learning most here is that when put in a hard spot it is not just good and bad, almost every part of the situation has a good and a bad. Every hardship is an opportunity to learn, also every blessing is received through our hardships and our learning. I don’t think I will be in a trio very long, but I think there will be a lot to learn in that time.

      

That is pretty much most of the update on my life right now. It is good where I am at and I am learning a lot. I am learning to handle more stress without freaking out too much,

      

Culture: Indirectness: Filipinos are not usually very direct with asking for things or giving feedback. it goes a lot with the culture. It is not really acceptable to point out someone’s flaws or ask for something directly. This can lead to the situation where people will not fully express their feeling about you directly to your face; it can be hard to get the point across because things are not generally said directly. The same idea works with asking for permission, most of the time it is easier for people to skip that step; they avoid asking for permission for the time that they want. As foreigners, sometimes we are too direct in their eyes but we don’t want to be misunderstood when we speak. It really is a different culture when you talk to people over here.

        

Tagalesson: How Filipinos understand the language: They usually don’t explain the language of Tagalog well to foreigners. They understand it much differently. For example, if someone asked you what the past perfect tense of "I am buying the cereal" was in English you would probably not know what to tell them. When we start asking about focuses and conjugations, they don’t really know what we are talking about. It comes down to having a lot to learn and not always having a person who can explain it well enough. I don’t really know what to put here to help you all understand the language but I can say that as you speak it more fluently, you understand it much differently.

     

Life is pretty good right now. There is a lot to learn, and I find that I am feeling the process of conversion in my life a lot stronger. I encourage you all to start studying the Book of Mormon; really start giving time to it, it is the key to learn what is true about religion. It testifies of Jesus Christ and his life, as it says in the introduction. The Book of Mormon tells people what they should do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come. Who here doesn’t want that?  One day, just sit down in a place with no distractions. Give yourself 20 minutes. Start with a prayer, and write down some notes along the way. You will see a difference in your life. I promise.

      

Welp that is about all I got for you. Keep on keeping on. I love you all.

Love

Elder Faulkner

Dapat Ako malilipat Kaso...

We all thought I was headed out of this area, instead Elder Tagal ended up moving out of the area. This is a very interesting thing because he has only been here 6 weeks. Normally, when someone moves into an area – their companion almost always moves out before them. This happens because their companion (Who was already in the area) has been their much longer. For example. I have been here 4 months and Elder Tagal has only been here 6 weeks. You would think that I would move, because I have been here longer, but sometimes God works differently than we think.

      

So with that we come to the fact that I am still here. This is what is happening on transfer day: Elder Tagal will move to Novaliches, Elder Krifi will get on a plane and head back to New Zealand, and Elder Stephens and I will be waiting for our new companions. Slight problem, only one person is being sent to replace two people. To solve this, Elder Oronos will come to Sapang Palay, and I will be working in a trio of elders. Before this, there were two areas in Sapang Palay and I was only in one of them; now I will be responsible over an area that is about twice as large as my old one. This also means that I will be legitimate companions with my MTC companion in the field. This is not a thing that really ever happens.

       

I am running out of time here so I will probably keep this short, but I do want to talk about conversion. After being a missionary for 8 months, I have a much better understanding of how the process of conversion works: As we trust God, He gives us a better understanding and we begin to be changed. It is a process fueled by the mercy of Jesus Christ and repentance. As we rely on God to change us, we change. This has very little to do with our willpower to change, and everything to do with our divine potential and His divine power to change.

       

Culture: Giving feedback. Insults go a long way here. You have to be very VERY careful how you speak to people and how you give them advice and feedback. A lot of things are connected here: Work, Family, School. If you insult someone, they take it as an insult to their Family, intelligence, and their work. People here are very sensitive so it is important to say all words with love and make all criticizing remarks constructive and gentle. No sarcasm.

      

Tagalesson: Nga. This is a word that can be very hard to pronounce and use. The word "Nga" is used to either increase the politeness of a sentence or emphasize the truth in the sentence. It is very hard to explain. There is a very obscure grammar rule when it comes to where exactly you should place this word, and when it should come into play when speaking. Just know a couple things. You can emphasize that something is especially true by saying "O nga". It equates roughly to "Yeah, really". You can also use it after commands as the word "please". For example: "Basahin mo nga ang aklat" or "Please read the book".

That is pretty much all I got for you today. I will be in Sapang Palay for at least 6 more weeks (we will see how that goes). Hopefully we will see some of the people that we are teaching make steps towards baptism. I will update you more on that in the coming weeks.

Keep on keeping on.

P.S. Sorry there are no pictures. I am um... working on it kind of.

Love

Elder Faulkner

Our New President

I have been through a decent amount of new presidents in the last year. First my country elected Trump to lead; I left as soon as I could after that happened. When I arrived here, I discovered I had two presidents to deal with: President Duterte (the president of the Philippines) and the MTC president, President Trask. One of those is very strict and the other is not at all. When I entered the mission field, I met the person who would be my Mission President for the next 6 months. His name was President Bertin. Now that President Bertin’s time is up, I have a new president (as of 2 weeks ago) – President Hughes.

     

I am starting to think that none of these Presidents have first names.

          

Anyways, I have been through a lot of people that are expected to be my leader. They are here to teach us and lead us, that is what presidents do (hopefully). I had my first interview with President Hughes on Friday. He is a very insightful man who had a lot of things to say that were helpful in the work. I look forward to working with him. I don't, however, look forward to coming back to be led by the first president I mentioned at the top of this page.

     

Leadership is always an interesting thing. We often expect the leaders in our lives to do everything for us. We elect a president and hope that he deals with the debt problems, and the wars, and the welfare. Oftentimes our expectations are kind of ridiculous. I think what we miss in the expectations of our leaders is their need to be an example for us. If our leaders don’t even follow the rules, then we cant really expect them to be what they need to be as a leader to us.

      

Jesus was the best leader that ever lived because he discerned what people needed and helped them individually. The creator of the world obviously knows what needs to happen for the people that live in it. He knows people individually and I find that as leaders aim to teach and encourage people individually, their leadership skills change dramatically.

      

I don’t have a ton to say this week, my camera is still out of commission I am gonna maybe buy batteries for the other camera that I have over here and start using that. This last week we had a district activity: we went down to a mall and did bowling. We bowled at SM Fairview which is quite large. They have a dairy queen. I got to eat dairy queen. I have also not really gotten any better at bowling.

      

Culture: Voice: Don’t talk loud. All my life I have had a problem controlling the volume of my voice – even if I am talking to just one person. Don’t let your voice get too loud here. It makes it seem like you are very mad. The volume of your voice depicts how mad you are, it can sometimes depict other emotions like humor and what not. But in general, if you talk loud – you do not sound very nice here. It is something I have noticed. I am trying very hard right now to speak Tagalog quieter, especially with teaching. When teaching, you focus your words very carefully and deliver them quietly as you can so that they still hear you.

      

Tagalesson: Colors and numbers:

For colors, you can use almost anything to describe a color, as long as that thing is always the same color. Example: Kulay-Dagat "Color of the sea". They do this more than using the colors as they normally exist in Tagalog. Most of the time they will use the English color. The other times, they will use the word “kulay” (Color) then an object that is the color they want to describe.

     

Numbers I will not go through numbers in Tagalog because they are a pain and basically never get used. I will however explain shortly what language they use for which numbers.

1-19: Tagalog, English, Spanish

20,30,40,50: English and Spanish

20-50: English (sometimes Spanish but mostly English)

51+: English, with few exceptions

Welp now (assuming you know Spanish numbers) you can pretty much say any number that you want.

This week was pretty good.

Love,

Elder Faulkner

The fruit of the labor

So last week I talked a lot about fruit, specifically mangoes. This week I am going to write about the fruit that we have in missionary work. But before I do that, there is something that we should understand about work and faith:

      

The word faith includes a few parts that we don't always remember. Faith is a belief and a desire that urges us to work. When we have faith, we put in effort in order to achieve a certain result. For example, a farmer works every day and puts in countless hours to have a successful harvest. If the farmer did not believe the crops would grow or the harvest would be successful, he wouldn’t even plant the seeds. In missionary work we put in a lot of effort every day. We work very hard because we believe in the result of our work. Now that result is not baptism, only a step in the process. Our goal for the people we teach (and for ourselves as well), is eternal salvation.

       

If a missionary does not believe the people he or she helps will be able to obtain eternal salvation, he won’t even leave the house. Even that, in itself, is an act of faith: to get up in the morning and start to work. We show that we truly believe the people we are teaching will receive unending blessings in the life to come. We know they still have to follow the spirit and listen to what we have to say, but if they do... People like to measure success. We like to measure our success by what our investigators choose to do. For example, a lot of missionaries try to measure their success by the number of baptisms. But any converted missionary that has faith will know, the fruit of their labor was apparent based on their effort – no matter how many people listened.

      

With that being said, the amount that you work and the amount of faith that you have highly impact your ability to understand the fruit of your labor. Those that don’t understand will often feel like they failed, even if they put in a lot of work. Or feel like they succeeded with very little work at all. We might remember that Abinadi as a missionary had only one convert (One he didn’t know was even listening to his words) but brought to pass much repentance and salvation for his fellow men.

      

I have seen more baptisms than many people will on their entire missions, but that means absolutely nothing. What matters is the amount of work that I put in and the amount that I helped people become converted, including myself.

       

This is what we should be looking at in our lives as well. We find that some days, despite our best efforts, we seem to be lacking in happiness. We need to remember that we don’t always see what we will harvest until long after the hard work is put in. We lack the faith to understand that no effort of ours in the work of salvation (whether our own or for others) is wasted.

      

Now I will step down from my soapbox.

This week many things happened. Firstly, I finished reading the book of Mormon again. Remember how I challenged you all to read it by the end of the year (your time is running out). I started at the same time and now I am finished. Secondly, I started reading the Book of Mormon (that actually happened on the same day that I finished). I started again on the title page and have begun my journey through the book another time. Thirdly, we had three baptisms here in Sapang Palay: Mariel Sheiga, Charito Bonayon, and Nino Malla. They have all been great investigators, and now they are ready to start their time being great members of the only true church on the earth. (I say that because this is the only church that has claim to direct authority from God and is complete unadulterated truth. If you don’t believe it, you should probably start by reading the Book of Mormon.)

Culture: Humor. Humor here it is very different, jokes cannot be long – and they can’t be sarcastic. So that basically means ALL of my jokes are out. The humor here is very slapstick. It involves laughing very often – even if things are not really funny (at least not to foreigners). Humor is one of the things that Foreigners don’t seem to get very easily here. Honestly, with the culture here, it may be one of the things that I never end up conforming to. I don’t really desire to change my sense of humor. And this is pretty much how humor goes here.

     

Tagalessson: So I know that the whole focus thing still doesn’t make sense to any of you. I don’t expect it to yet but we will get there. But right now we are gonna learn a lesson that has to do with focuses at least a little bit. We have a word "May". It is pronounced like "My" in English. This word means "To have" or "There is". We can use this in conjunction with other verbs to describe what there is. Let us use an example with the word "Bili" Bili is the root word and means to buy.

Bibili: Will buy (this is in the sense like someone will buy) – Actor Focus

Bibilihin: Will buy (in the sense of a thing being bought) – Object focus

If you say "May bibili" it means that "There is a person that will buy"

and if you say "May bibilihin" it means "There is a thing that will be bought"

This is important because in different focuses it leads to completely different meanings, this is something that they use a lot and is very important to understand.

Pictures: I am trying a new way to send the pictures because these got sent to me

They involve the people being baptized and an old batchmate from the MTC, his name is Elder Solano.

Also Elder Stephens my MTC companion is in one or two of those.

I love you all and hope that you are doing well wherever you are. Life is good here, although sometimes it is stressful I am trying my hardest out here.

Love

Elder Faulkner

Mangoes

I really like eating mangoes here. There are three different types of mangoes here. The Orange ones: these are always sweet and normal sized. They are good but they lack the little bit of sour that we are used to in mangoes back home.

The Yellow ones: these are a lot closer to the yellow mangoes you find in America. They can be either sweet or sour, and grow a little larger than the orange ones. They are normally my favorite and they tend to get very big here.

And the Green ones. These are the unripe mangoes. A lot of people like to eat these with vinegar and salt. They are normally very sour, but sometimes have sweet parts (depending on how ripe they actually are). I normally don’t buy this kind of mango; they arent as good as they other kind – but they are a lot cheaper.

Mangoes are normally somewhere between 30-60 pesos for a kilo. If you are counting back home, this equates to about 30-60 cents a pound – which, from what I remember about the cost of mangoes, that is pretty dang good. They also happen to be better than most of the mangoes I have had back home.

The Filipinos also have different ways of cutting and eating the mango, depending on what tools they have to cut and how ripe the mango is. Just recently, I have been buying a lot of mangoes because the price went down very low. They normally measure by the half kilo. I got around 9 good sized mangoes for around 3 American dollars.

       

Welp, I should probably stop talking about fruit. In the missionary work, we have three baptisms this week. Charito, Mariel, and Nino. They are all pretty prepared and we have been teaching them for quite a while. We are working on making sure that they are prepared to continue to go to church and keep the covenants they will making. Even if someone is prepared for baptism, they don’t usually understand how important that action is in their lives. Other than those three, we may have a few more people ready to be baptized soon. We are working on helping members interact with those we teach so that they will continue to go to church.

       

With three of our people getting baptized, we are also finding a decent amount. We still have a number of people to teach every week, but we need to keep going so we can find those that are ready to hear our message. We have been doing splits with the ward a decent amount, so we may have a lot of progression soon. Splits are when the missionaries break apart to each work with a member of the ward. This is important, as it allows us to work at twice as many appointments and visit twice as many families in the ward.

       

I am learning a lot about Filipino Culture right now and how you need to talk to Filipinos.

        

Culture: Basketball: everyone plays here. They often take it very seriously as well.

Filipino rules:

If there only one ball, and you are not playing a game (everyone is just taking shots), when someone shoots they get two shots.

You always give it back to them after the first shot.

If you do not comply with this rule, they are not happy at all.

         

Tagalesson: I was going to do a lesson on words for playing basketball with Filipinos, but I don’t really like basketball. So I scrapped that idea. Basically we are gonna have 2 cultural lessons this week, and nothing about the language.

Harvesting fruit: Most of the fruit that grows out of reach can be gotten with very long sticks. You get a very long stick made out of bamboo and a net at the end, hold the stick up, and scoop the fruit into the net. I have done this a few times to get the mangoes out of the tree. You can do this almost anywhere. Some people harvest the mangoes and other fruit to sell at the market. Most of the time, people get really lazy and don’t even wait until the fruit is ripe. They eat the unripe fruit! I guess they are okay with it.

Welp, I didn’t take any pictures this week – but I have another of that kitten from last week.

Anyways the work is good here.

I hope that you are all having a good week and enriching experiences without me. Keep on keeping on.

Love,

Elder Faulkner