Normally in one
missionary area you only have 2 companions, one when you come in and then
another before you leave. This is generally the way that things work out. I got
a new companion this week his name is Elder Bromley, the thing about Elder
Bromley is that he never stops smiling. It is really fun to work with him
because he is almost always laughing, regardless of the situation. Elder
Bromley replaced Elder Eccles on this last Thursday and we have working very
hard in this area to see the improvement in the ward and our investigators. We
have started keeping audio recordings of our days. When we get back home, we
take an audio recording of all the things we remember from the day and what we
really liked.
Today we had temple P-day.
This is the first time I have been to the temple for almost a year. We had to
get up very early and have been very tired today. All in all, it has been a
super heavy week. I need a solid nap, but I might not get it. In this last week,
we extended 4 dates for baptism in the month of December. That means that if
everything goes as it should, we should have at least that many baptisms. But,
there are others that we are really trying to help prepare themselves for
baptism. I thought a decent amount about covenants today. God makes a promise
to us and we choose to rise to the occasion, or to not follow his standards.
For some people, baptism is too difficult; it requires a change that they are
not yet ready for. Our covenants with Jesus Christ are about showing how ready
we are to change and to become just like him. Covenants are an important way to
improve in many ways in our lives.
The Moseros family
dropped us.
Brother Mendoza
really wants to be baptized but isn’t really ready, daw.
We extended a
baptisimal date in the first lesson that was accepted, but it was to a 14-year-old
without her parents there, Elder Bromley kinda jumped the gun on that one.
We are working with
the ward and fixing what the past missionaries have done wrong.
The area is fun, it
hasn’t had a baptism in 8 months and we plan for 8 baptisms in December.
Elder Bromley
struggles with the language quite a lot but nothing we can’t fix
Life is pretty
solid.
Culture: People hate
saying things straight up. Here there is a lot of "beating around the
bush". Sometimes they will never tell you what the actual problem is.
Asking specific questions can get you a good idea about what the real problem
is, but it takes a lot of practice. Sometimes you really have to work a problem
out of them and sometimes you just have to let it sit. For the example with the
Moseros family: the mom wouldn’t tell us why they didn’t want us to come
inside. She said that she was busy; we asked a lot of questions and got the
idea of what might actually be going on with the family. You get a lot in the
way people act around you once you work with people so much. As a missionary,
part of the job is to understand people.
Tagalesson: The word
"Naman". The word Naman has no English translation and cannot really
be said to be any specific word. It can be used in a variety of ways that
change based on the situation. I like this word because it is used as assurance.
If you say "Hindi naman" it is like "not really" instead of
just "no" You can use it in many ways and it is a very interesting
word that can carry a lot of meaning or hardly any at all. I really like this
word, but good luck figuring it out.
I don’t really know
what the next few weeks are looking like but I am excited.
Keep up the good
work and thanks for all the emails this week. Although sometimes the replies
are kinda short I love seeing what you all took the time to write to me.
Love
Elder Faulkner
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