The Perfect Home

This letter today is going to be a bit different, I have a lot on my mind, I need to fix a lot of problems and I have very little time. That is pretty much the story of our lives right? We just feel like we don't have the time or we have too many problems. Well, I think that sometimes it comes to the point where it looks like everyone that had "it all figured out" before are having a hard time and the people that were really struggling before are in a good position.

    

I want to focus on one sentence that I read the other day, in a specific place that I will not tell you guys. It said: "The celestial kingdom is the continuation of the ideal home."

Let’s think about that for just a second.

If we go to the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, the feelings there should not be much different because we have already been working so hard to make our home filled with the spirit and good times. But I have noticed that sometimes in this life we do not allow ourselves to have and feel this in our own lives – or we try to take it away from others.

I write about this because my sister is Getting Married. That is right, Caroline Faulkner is going to be married. This is a thing that will actually happen. I love her so much and I am so excited that she has this opportunity.

     

Now you may be saying at this moment "But Jordan (that's weird), what are you talking about? That isn't happy! You will never be able to make it to the wedding!" I KNOW, and the most wonderful part is – it doesn't matter at all to me. Don't get me wrong, I will be sad. But the joy that Caroline and Thomas Collett will be able to have in their new home with their new lives together is much more important than anything I could have at this time. And then in the following years, I will be able to see them grow and become while I was over here serving in the Philippines.

     

Sometimes we miss the mark with family; we think we need to keep things the way they are – or that family is focused around one or two people. There is one person that you are expected to love as much as you love God. That is your husband or your wife. LITERALLY NO ONE ELSE, which means you need to do everything in your power to empower that relationship.

Now I know what you are thinking "Well Jordan (still weird), You know nothing about any of this – you are just a kid." Nice try, but that argument will do nothing. I have spent a long long time studying the plan that God has created for all of us, and I don't really think there is any room for hurt feelings – or for anything else of the sort. As a missionary of Jesus Christ, I represent him, I can say whatever I feel inspired to say.

       

Anyways, what we have to understand here is that I love you all. I know that my sister is doing an amazing thing; and all of you that have experienced that know about the pains and hardships that come with it. But you hopefully understand the goal here. I am so proud of my sister and what she is doing with her life. She will go far. I hope that everyone will support her fully in her decisions. It is probably already hard on them, but they need the support now more than ever.

     

Welp Marriage I know nothing about that. Good luck Caroline and Thomas

Culture: When the bride and the groom dance at weddings, Filipinos pin money to their clothes. The whole dance, they just get more and more money. It is very interesting. It is a good luck wishing that their marriage will be successful and will be fruitful.

Tagalesson: Kasal: marriage

Asawa: Spouse

Kaligayahan: Joy

“Ikakasal sina Caroline Faulkner at Thomas Collett.” = "Thomas and Caroline are getting married"

Mahal:love

Welp people. Go to Caroline's wedding.

Read the book of Mormon.

Teach people not lessons.

Love you all,

Elder Faulkner

Pictures:

My reading library

Outside the house

Elder Torres.

Bocaue Bois

I talked a little bit about the floods here last week. I said that they were not that bad. Well, the day after that we had a giant rainstorm. Almost everything flooded. Just on the highway to the church for district meeting, the water was around waist high. It was a very interesting day.

     

Welp. This week we worked pretty hard. We are having a good time in this area and it is good to see the area progress because of that work and because of our effort. I have noticed here that I am becoming more of a tool in God's hands. I teach lessons – not to get the lesson taught, but to really apply it to the persons life. It is a lot harder, especially in a language that you don’t speak exceptionally fluently. It comes down to coming into someone’s house and assessing all of the possible problems that they could be facing in their lives at the time as fast as you can – while also listening to the spirit (which helps you out in this process). Then, once you kind of know what their problem might be, you teach them something that they can apply and learn something from. After that, you commit them to change their lives. It is really a different way of doing missionary work – I think sometimes people don’t understand.

      

I have learned so many things – I am not sure what is important to share anymore. I have started a book to help other people to learn Tagalog. It will have a ton of sections – specifically I want to help people gain a solid accent, pronunciations, words that people do and do not understand. I want to help those that struggle with the language and make them effective teachers and to really understand how to speak the language – no matter how hard it may seem.

      

Life in the city is quite different than life in the province. In the city, the people are a whole lot closer to one another – that is physically speaking, not mentally or emotionally. It is both easier and harder to find people to teach: there are more people in a smaller area, but not as many are as receptive to listening. SMOG, there is a lot of pollution in the air. Luckily, our area has a section that is more removed. If we need some fresh air, we can always work out there. Everything is a lot more flat here, making the walking easier. Back in Sapang Palay, we had a lot of hills and it was really hard to walk for long periods of time. Not here.

      

Culture: In the City people tend to live very close. This means that families tend to be found in only one or two streets and everyone in that street is related somehow. Families are very big here in the Philippines. We see a lot of people that when asked if they have family nearby, they just start pointing to houses to show us where they live. The families are close to each other, but not exceptionally. Oftentimes they are kind of separated when it comes to family ties – they do things together every once in a while, but for the most part are pretty separate.

Tagalesson: This week I am going to teach you about the word "Ba" this is really important because it is the word you put in in order to make a statement into a yes or no question. This is just inserted in there and people will now know that what you are saying is a question. It is very interesting that they have a word for this. It makes it a lot easier to understand speech when you know for sure that someone is asking you a direct question.

Welp, I am quickly running out of time here, I love you all and I trust you will have a good week, there are a lot of storms in the world so don’t forget to stay safe.

Love Elder Faulkner

Pictures Again finally:

1. I took a short nap

2. A kitten

3. That kitten when riled up

4. Zesto is a juice brand here, I bought all the different kinds of their juice and I am gonna mix them and drink it all at once.

Miracles in Bocaue

Alright, so as I said in my last email I transferred this week to Bocaue. My companion is Elder Torres; he is a great missionary and a skilled teacher. We get along very well, and we have set very high goals for our area and for our work. Elder Torres is basically a Filipino version of myself.

The area has a reputation of being a hard one, but I don’t particularly like reputations, so my plan is not let it affect anything that happens while I am here. We have already – just in this short week here – found several families that are very interested in what we have to teach. I have found that as I become a better missionary, and as I improve in the language – I have a much MUCH bigger impact on the areas that I am in.

       

There is a lot to talk about and I am pretty certain I won’t get to all of it. For the basics: this area in Bocaue is flooding right now. They aren’t crazy flash floods, but there is water a lot of places that we go. Sometimes, when we want to tract in certain areas – we need to be creative about how we make it through the flood water. Soon, we are gonna get some companionship boots so that we can go anywhere we want and focus on those progressing areas, even if they are flooded. A lot of houses here, when the floods are high, have water coming into them. When we want to go tracting, we need to go through the flood to get to the people that God has prepared for us. Sometimes during the low tides there are no obstructions and we can easily visit any house that we want, other times at hightide it can be a real struggle to get out and visit those people; we aren’t really scared of water so we press on.

     

I will have a lot to say about this area in the coming weeks and months. We will have many interesting experiences in Bocaue. I really enjoy it here. This is my first time in the city, up to this point it has been province. There are actual places to eat here – we have a McDonalds. We also have a big foodpark across the street called "The Ranch", but that will probably get its own email in the future.

     

Culture: Day to day living. This is so important. People have to do things that keep them subsisting one day at a time. Especially people who own Tindahans or tricycles; these people are getting money and then spending it almost immediately to buy food for that day only. When we tell people they need to set apart Sunday as a day for the Lord, that they cannot work and they cannot buy things, it takes a huge toll on them mentally. God will provide for their financial needs, if they are doing it in faith – but it takes an insane amount of faith to start on that path. A lot of things done in the Philippines are daily. Going to the market to buy food, getting paid at your job. It is like living paycheck to paycheck but a lot less consistent.

     

Tagalesson: Followup:

We gonna learn how to go to someones house and to see if they remember what you told them and if they read what you gave them.

"Nakapagbasa po ba kayo ng ibinigay namin sa inyo sa nakaraang?"-"Were you able to read that thing that we gave you last time?"

"Anong naalala mo tungkol sa last lesson namin?"-"what do you remember about our last lesson?"

“Pwede ba nating imbitahan ang buong pamiliya mo dito para makinig sa mensahe namin?"- Can we invite your whole family to listen to this message?"

If you get these sentences down you are good at followup, it is that simple.

Alrighty, for next week I will try to get things organized to talk about the area that I am now in.

As long I don’t die in a flood, I will be safe to email you next week.

Keep on keeping on

Love

Elder Faulkner

Fireworks Capital of the Philippines

Alrighty, so first thing is first as it tends to be in a list of things. Because if something else were first, obviously that thing would be first...

       

But anyways, I am moving. I am going to be moving to the city of Bucaue. As you probably don’t know, but may have guessed from the subject of this letter, Bucaue is the fireworks capital of the Philippines. I obviously don’t know how that is going to go yet; but I will be leaving tomorrow. I will move over there and my companion will be Elder Torres. I do not yet know him, so this will be a solidly fresh start with a new companion.

       

Google Map

Welp that is how life is going right about now. I will leave Elder Oronos – who is getting a new trainee. We aren’t yet sure who that is, but they will meet each other tomorrow. He will also become the district leader. I am very excited for him and to see what he can do with our district.

      

I will be a little bit sad to leave Sapang Palay but at the same time I am pretty ready to go. I have been here 6 months and have seen a whole lot of the area and met a lot of people. As a missionary in an area for 6 months, it starts to feel a little too long. You get tired of working in the same place, and you just want to move on. I am excited for my new area and I am ready to set out for newer pastures.

       

Culture: Pancit on your birthday. This is a pretty short thing, but you need to know it. Pancit means noodles. Every time anyone ever has a birthday – ever – they buy and cook pancit. There is a joke that goes along with this: because noodles are longer than rice, they will say that they eat pancit because it is longer and it will make your life longer; that is why they eat it on birthdays.

        

Tagalesson: Birthday: Kaarawan (no one uses this word)

Noodles: Pancit

Party: Party

Kailan ang birthday mo?: ""When is your birthday?"

Anong gagawin mo sa birthday mo?: "What are you doing on/for your birthday?"

Welp that is pretty much what you need to know about this topic.

We are going to talk about the language for a bit before we head out.

I feel that not many missionaries in this mission go home especially fluent. Even the older missionaries in our mission currently are not fluent. They can teach well, but they don’t reach the level of fluency that I have come to expect. I had a lot of thoughts about where I would be in the language at the end of my mission, and what level of fluency I would be at. It is a very interesting thing. Either way it is important to try your best. For me, I want to speak like a native when I come home. Now, that might not be super reasonable, but we can hope, can’t we? (We can also put in hours and hours of hard work and studying, but that is besides the point.)

Love you all

Elder Faulkner