The Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses Families.

Yesterday Elder Oronos and I dedicated the entire day to finding people. From 2 o'clock (when district meeting ended) until 9 o'clock at night we would have no set appointments, we would only be looking for new people to teach. This isn’t too normal, especially because the normal amount of time we find each day is 1 or 2 hours. But either way, we started out on a street that I had never been down before and started knocking on every door (or yelling "tao po" as is the culture here). We had a couple people that didn’t seem interested at all and sent us away pretty quickly. But as we continued, we came across a couple that were in their 40's. We came to know that they have 3 children. They quickly let us inside to share with them. It is rare that the first time you share with someone, especially a family, that they seem to understand how important what your sharing is to them. They all listened intently and seemed to get the importance of it all. As we explained how our message would bless their family, they listened. We told them about the restoration of the gospel and promised them blessings if they asked God about the truth. This was basically the first time I sat in front of a full family and they understood (at least a little bit) of the gravity of the words that I was saying.

There were a lot of things that led up to this experience, a lot of things that we included in the lesson that were important for them to hear – and they took it all in. When God prepares people for the gospel, they recognize it right away. The teachings of Jesus Christ and his unfathomable power have the ability to mend families. The power to right all wrongs and to fix all broken hearts, no matter the offence, is on earth today. That is the message that we attempt to teach people. Even we as missionaries don’t really get it. No one on earth really gets it. We don’t even begin to understand what kind of power God has to forgive, to atone, or to act as a perfect mediator. This is the foundation of why the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our families, because as we accept this into our lives. All those stupid little problems fall out of our lives. When we realize that a God already suffered and atoned for the sins and shortcomings of those around us, we start worrying more about ourselves and searching for the forgiveness of others. There is a whole side to the atonement that tends to go over our heads: that Jesus Christ's atonement applies to everyone; not just you as an individual, but when you go to blame someone for something – that sin they committed has already been suffered for. This means you have nothing you can blame them for, you have only the right to forgive them and ask for forgiveness yourself.

       

We didn’t end up finding all day. After we found about 10 new people for our teaching pool, we stopped finding and went to visit some less active members. We will still have to plan a day where we just find. Just know that when you plan for everything and start doing the work, God consecrates that effort and you have time for other things as well. We are blessed to be able to accomplish our righteous purposes.

     

Culture: English. English is a culture thing here for a lot of different reasons. Firstly, English is the most widely understood language in the Philippines; a lot of the people in the far reaches of this country will not understand even Tagalog. English is more universal here. That being said, almost every place has their own language – English and Tagalog are their base languages, but not everyone understands those very well. Basically, if you are going to the Philippines – depending on where you are going – it may be better just to use English. Tagalog might not get you super far.

     

Tagalesson: Now that you know the basics about English in the Philippines, the English here is quite different than in America. Certain words are pronounced differently and more especially with letters.

Generally, when you are speaking with English words, you have to pronounce them as a Filipino would or you will not be understood. These are the problem letters:

D=R (only sometimes, just make sure you roll your r's))

F=P

V=B

Example: if you want to say that you have “five pesos”, it probably should come out more along the lines of “pibe pisos”.

I have learned that speaking English in a Filipino accent helps your Tagalog accent a lot.

Those are the best tips that I can give you to be understood here.

There isn’t much more to say here. Thanks for the emails that you sent me. Thanks for all the support. Also remember that if you have problems in your family. Forgive first. Then start working on what you can do to improve. You will be amazed by the changes you see in other people.

Thanks people

Love

Elder Faulkner

The pictures in this blog are from one of Elder Faulkner's batch mates - Elder Solano. He is very gracious to allow me to post them here.