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.
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