Monday, December 25, 2017

Bromley in Bocaue (But I am not)


I have completely moved over to Meycauayan and Elder Bromley is no longer in the companionship. He got a new companion and now I am just with Elder Ewing. Elder Ewing is fun to be around and has had a pretty successful mission, I will learn stuff from him.
     
I really have very little time today so I am racing against the clock. I will let you know now there are no pictures (forgot the cord) 
     
This coming week two of the investigators from Bocaue will be baptized (Rony and Aiko) I moved just in time to miss them.
     
We have a lot of meetings as zone leaders and it feels like there is always something to do. It can get to you sometimes.
     
This week we had something called a blitz, where all the missionaries in the whole zone work with the members in one ward. It is a great idea for the members but when it is not properly organized, the purpose of the blitz does not get fulfilled – and it feels like we are just wasting time. This last blitz was in our ward and it was kind of a flop. It was not nearly as effective as it should have been and I am kind of disappointed in the lack of planning.
     
We have been really really busy and I am sorry that this is super short, but I had to spend a little longer on my email to president. I will get you all more updated on the next p-day.

I love you all and I hope you are reading the book of mormon. It will help you out promise.

Love,

Elder Faulkner

Monday, December 18, 2017

Buti na lang na nanaginip ako




So, about a million things happened. I don’t have nearly the time that I need in order to explain it all.

1. One of our zone leaders got surprise transferred away.
2. Bromley and I are replacing him.
3. We are now in a trio
4. We now work in 2 full areas.
5. I am the replacement Zone leader with Elder Ewing
6. We have no idea what the schedule is for work.
7. We have a lot of meetings
8. Christmas is fast approaching and I will get to call my family, the plan is to do that on the 26th here in the morning (THAT IS THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS FOR YOU ALL)
9. Should have 2 baptisms in 2 weeks
10. I will move to Meycauayan for sure and not move back to Bocaue – starting on January 10.
11. As of right now, our work covers Bocaue and Meycauayan.


I want to share an experience that I had. Many years ago, I had a dream where I was walking down a street. The appearance of the street has stayed with me all this time, although I have since long forgotten what exactly happened in the dream. When I arrived in Bocaue, I found that street. We passed it 2 times a week (it is very far from the church) and I didn’t say anything to Elder Torres or Elder Eccles, but when Elder Bromley arrived I told him about this dream. This last week, we went down that street and found a barangay that we didn’t know existed. Not very far into this barangay, someone called us over. She had just moved in, about a month ago, and she had been wanting the missionaries to come by. She told us about how her husband really wanted to be baptized and he would be able to be taught in the coming weeks. She was extremely grateful and we set a return appointment. She says her husband is extremely ready and has a great desire to be baptized. Her name is Sarah, and she was about to go to the Christmas party, and agreed to go to church in Bocaue in the coming weeks with her husband. This is one of the most interesting experiences in my mission thus far. All because I had a dream.

Culture: Aswang and Mumo. There are two kinds of Ghosts in the Philippines. The nice friendly kind (kind of like Casper) is called a “Mumo”. This is like the kid word for ghost.
The real scary kind is called an "Aswang" – not to be confused with "Asawa".
This kind of ghost is like the vampire or demon type ghost. People are sometimes afraid of the word "aswang"
Tagalesson: An update on the book I am writing. My mission president wants it to be published and distributed to the missionaries in our mission. It might be within the next few months. We have a lot to do for this book. Chances are you can all learn from this book, sana.

This is my first Emergency transfer, and it will be a very weird next few weeks. But we got this. 

I love you all sorry if I didn’t get back to all of you in personal emails. Next week naman.

Love
Elder Faulkner






Monday, December 11, 2017

We made it out alive bois




We are working towards baptism with many people, but they are having trouble making it to church.

Elder Bromley is doing a lot better in the language, now we just need be a bit more serious ;). I know right that coming from me...

We make a lot of appointments, but we have a good portion fall through.

I am still district leader but that might change soonish. (step down bois.)

We are super sleep deprived, pretty much all of our time is spent working hard, we have little time to rest.

God's grace is sufficient to save you, don’t forget that.

Repent and be baptized.

The work is good and God loves us, but He still allows us agency.

I talked a little bit about agency last week. Agency is not just about making more right decisions than wrong decisions, it is about using your choices every single day to become something better than you were before. It is a process. The goal in our mission right now is to become agents of change, to allow people to utilize their agency correctly and get as many blessings as they can.

Culture: The word "po" is used for respect, but it can also be used as a distance thing. It can be used to distance yourself from others. For example, you would not use po with a close friend – no matter how much you respect them. Parents use the word po to their children so that the kids will learn to use it.

Tagalesson: Bawal. "Bawal" means “forbidden”, or not allowed, or against the rules. It is one of the most convenient words, it can be used for kids games or for God's commandments. You just tell someone that something is bawal and they know they aren’t allowed to do it.


Welp, we are all good. We took some pictures for the Christmas slideshow in the mission so I will send you some of those.
Love you all
Elder Faulkner



Monday, December 4, 2017

Batia in Bocaue


Morning po.

This week was real.

We have been hitting a little bit of a wall with our investigators not going to church. Even some of them that have been going have problems that keep them from going consistently. Somewhere along the road, there is not much that we can do because they have their agency. Being two Americans, a lot of people listen to us; but only a select few choose to do anything with our message. It is sad to see people miss out on opportunities.
      
One of our biggest focuses in our mission right now is something called ITA, or Invitations To Act. The idea is to always be challenging people around you to change and to become closer to Christ. We are expected to make 30 different invitations every single day; these can be very small things like the invitation to listen to a message about Jesus Christ, or something large, like being baptized. Anytime that we give someone a specific chance to use their agency to become closer to God, we have successfully given an ITA. This really helps us to see who is progressing, who is keeping commitments, and where people are at in their repentance process.
     
We are thinking of dropping one of our farthest areas, Batia. With our usage of ITAs, we have seen that most of our investigators are not willing to keep even the small commitments. It is hard to see that in an area that was progressing before. It is quite far from the church. We have seen a few good investigators there, but they haven’t really been able to make it to church and see large effects of the gospel in their lives.
      
One of our investigators died, that was very sad.

Culture: Cooking. We made sopas. Sopas is a soup here in the Philippines; one of the only soups that they have. It has macaroni and some evaporated milk. Elder Bromley and I made it and it was really fun.

Tagalesson: The word "sana". The word "sana" means "hopefully". It can also be used to describe things that you want and are really too shy to be direct about. You can use it as like a hint, so they know what you want but aren’t too pressured into offending you if they don’t get it. A lot of people use it in prayers to ask things of God. I do not.

Welp That is pretty much all I got for you all this week. I will check up with you next week. Love you all.

Elder Faulkner