Pastry Chef

So there is this restaurant... and I hope you understand this, for 200 Peso (4 American dollars) you get all the food you want. As the name implies, a decent amount of the food that they have is cakes and other pastries. Logically, we go there as a kabahayship (group of roommates) every week on P-day. Also, logically (as we just came from this place), I am very full.

If you are interested in more pictures from this restaurant - click here. It looks delicious!!

     

This week was very interesting, I think Elder Jucutan and I are getting into the habit of finding people and we are getting a little better about opening our mouths and sharing to people. This has been a weakness of both of ours for a long time now. I have learned that I can hold a pretty decent conversation in Tagalog right now for a small while. If we start talking about something that I don’t know the words for, I am completely lost. This has helped my confidence in talking to people, as I have found it a lot easier to talk when I believe that I will be able to say what I need to say. 

     

Honestly, that has been one of the most difficult things so far: having something to say and just not having the words to say it. Looking someone right in the eyes, knowing exactly what you should say, then not being able to have them understand is a frustrating feeling. However, I have seen that when I open my mouth in those times, I end up saying something that I needed to say, not what I wanted to say. I lacked the words to say what I wanted to say, but what came out worked just as well. When speaking a different language, you learn a lot of ways to say things. Sometimes you forget how to say something and you need to say it in a more roundabout way. 

       

Conversation can be difficult here, especially when we are with someone we have never talked to before and we are trying to learn their beliefs. Oftentimes it is my trainer and them talking; many times, they are talking so fast that my brain can’t make a response faster than they are talking and it is difficult to get a word in edgewise. I did, however, have a very good experience with this this last week. We were in what seemed like a hopeless conversation: the lady we were talking to knew a lot about the scriptures and she had a habit of interrupting Elder Jucutan, finishing his sentence, then take over the conversation again. This made it almost impossible to say anything, especially because I have to put all my thoughts in another language. In the end, we discussed authority and what happened to the church Jesus established. I had the chance (just a split second) to come in and I talk about how important proper authority is when dealing with spiritual matters. Missionaries would not be out teaching people if we didn't believe we are called of God. I talked about why we need baptism and why it must done with proper authority to truly follow Christ's example (baptism by immersion with authority). I ended that conversation with what I said and I felt good to speak my mind. 

     

I still struggle with the language, a lot. I was called to give a talk in sacrament meeting the other day. They gave me less than 24 hours (most of which was proselyting time) advanced notice. It was really hard, and about the last 40% was in English. I think that is okay because even the bishop uses English when speaking in church. I felt bad because much of what I wanted to say, I knew I could say – I just needed more time to think. I didn’t want to pause for 10-15 seconds to think, in front of a bunch of people – essentially looking like an idiot. I don’t know how many people won on that occasion.

       

The other huge thing that happened this week was the 7-week follow-up training. I got to get together with all the people that entered the Quezon City North Mission at the same time I did. All the people from my mission that were in the MTC with me were there. It was a cool thing to see how they all were doing. I learned that I need not compare myself with other people – that we all learn and progress at different rates, in different ways. (Sounds a lot like life, doesn’t it?) All-in-all, I really appreciated that experience; it was nice to see friends again.

     

Culture: Public Transportation. There are two major ways of getting around in the Philippines (for short distances at least). Jeepneys and Trikneys. The Trikney is basically a motorcycle that someone jerry-rigged a side car to. There are about a million of them. They are small and they fit anywhere from 1 to 8 people. The Jeepneys are trucks which you enter from the back. They have seats on either side. They fit anywhere from 1 to 30 people (they really stuff those things full.) Both means of transportation seem really unsafe, but that is really only true because of the way that everyone drives – which is fine by me because I don’t drive much safer. [Insert from Jordan’s sister here – he really doesn’t. I appreciate his honestly here, despite the fact that it really worries me.]

     

Tagalesson: Words you need to know for transportation along with the most important word that is the easiest to miss:

Bayad: means to buy. You use this when you need to pay, then you pass your money up, and people pass it to the driver.

Dao: pronounced "Dow" it means "Someone else said". When you add this in a sentence (Which this word is super easy to not hear if people talk fast), it means that it is coming from a different source. For example, when someone says "Bayad dao", it means someone else is paying.

Saan: Said by the driver to ask where you are going it means "Where"

Po: I said this one before, it means respect, but it also means a lot more. It basically fills the spot of “please” (as there isn’t an effective word for please in this language) so a person usually says "Bayad po" in order to pay.

Magkano: "How much" – you ask this to know how much you must give to the driver.

Learning to do public transportation was actually a really fun experience here.

I am pretty much out of time, so I will see you all next week. We have Zone conference so I will be on 2 days later (Wednesday for me Tuesday night for you) next week.

Love you all,

Elder Faulkner

Pictures:

Me with my batch from the MTC 

Me with a package from home

Me and Elder Jucutan with a couple RCs

Lock Your Heart and Close Your Eyes

So as many of you may be very aware of, Valentines day is coming up tomorrow. Holidays are things that I don't think about a whole lot anymore, the days pass very quickly now and it feels like Christmas was not very long ago at all. But Valentines day is still a thing that a lot of people talk about, surprisingly (or perhaps not) even missionaries. In the MTC they sat all the missionaries down and said "Lock your hearts." They told us to forget about people we may have back home, people that may have said they are going to wait for us. Many missionaries have funny sayings that come out of that talk that we all get. The favorite among them seems to be, "Lock your heart, but keep your eyes wide open." I think it is kind of funny that Valentines day becomes a big joke as a missionary. And the day effects everyone differently including missionaries.

     

Welp that is enough about that. I had balut again this week but I didn't take any pictures this time. Sorry bout that one. This last week we had transfers, like I said before. I said goodbye to one of my roommates and I got a new one. He is actually really cool and gives some pretty good advice. His name is Elder Narciso and he goes home in only 3 months. He is a very experienced missionary, and he has all kinds of stories. It is nice when I have problems and he is there to give specific guidance. 

     

Sometimes I think a lot about how weird being a missionary is. There are tens of thousands of 18-25 year old men and women running around preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I sometimes think:

Wouldn't it be better if these people were more experienced with the world? Or understood more about what life is? had more life experience? Were just a little bit older?

Now I realize – who better to talk about something that will change your life forever than someone, who at the young age of 18-20, is constantly seeing how Jesus Christ is changing their life? Missionaries may be pretty big goofs sometimes; we are little more than children. But Jesus was only 12 years old when he was teaching in the temple to "learned men". There is power in a testimony that changes and strengthens everyday. 

     

I feel like I do not have a ton to say and this is the point where I normally start rambling about whatever my thoughts are at the time. I will try to not do that right now. I was sick this week, and I will tell you missionary work is pretty hard to do when you are sick – especially the part that involves speaking a different language. The sickness wasn't that bad, but I was really tired all the time and I had a constant runny nose and headache. Sometimes I was still able to talk and teach well, despite my sickness. I have definitely seen the blessings that God gives to you when you put your mind to something and fully commit.

   

Cultural stuffs: We are back to communication here, because that is still a hurdle for me. There are two words in Tagalog "Ate" and "Kuya": meaning "Big sister" and "Big brother" respectively. These words can be used as the actual meaning, but their other use is to show respect to someone whether they are your sibling or not. A lot of times we refer to people much younger than us as "Ate" or Kuya" in order to show them respect. One of the greatest forms of respect here (in my opinions) that I receive is when someone on the street calls me "Kuya" it lifts my spirits because I have been, in a small way, accepted into the culture.

     

Tagalesson: I was pretty afraid when I started learning Tagalog that the language would involve gender differentiation. As many of you may know, in many Latin based languages every noun that exists has a gender – either male or female. The glorious thing here is, not only does Tagalog have no gender differentiation for nouns. They do not usually have different words for most things that English does. For example: in English, you have "nieces and nephews" in Tagalog you have "Mga Pamangking". In English we have "brothers and sisters" in Tagalog "Mga Kapatid". Even their word for "him/her" is “Siya”. This can make translation directly from English to Tagalog very difficult. However, I am able to think in Tagalog it so much more smoothly. (Also "mga" is the word for pluralization you put it before any noun to make that noun plural. No exceptions.)

     

I hope all is going well back home. If you are unaware my sisters Lisa is keeping a blog for me, it is probably much more appealing to read than these emails. It basically is these emails with better colors and better punctuation.

   

I love you all and wish you a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Faulkner

Pictures this week of:

My room.

A recent convert family (baptized Dec 10)

A kitten we found.

My District before transfers.

Hey Joe

First transfer: done. Training: half over. Things are falling into place, it seems. If you are unaware, a mission is broken up into 6 week-long time periods called transfers. At the end of every 6 weeks, we get in a room with our zone (around 20 missionaries), and we get the announcements of who will be going where. My training lasts 3 months, or two transfers. Then, chances are, I will be follow-up-trained – by someone who is not my current companion – for one transfer. I will see some people go, including one of my roommates; but my current companion will stay with me for the next 6 weeks to continue to train me. We only get a 2-day advance notice if we are going to move, so it is a big deal when the announcements come in.

     

Transfers are pretty important to missionary work. Sometimes you are in an area for 1 transfer (or 6 weeks) and other times it could be 6 (which is 9 months). It changes a lot and depends on you, God, and your mission president. You never really know if you will move to a new place and teach new people or if you will continue to teach the same people. Sometimes it will be really hard to leave investigators. Of this I am sure.

     

You get pretty attached to the people you teach because you have helped them change their lives. The way transfers work makes that a pretty heart wrenching experience sometimes. I hope to stay in this area for a while, but I have no idea how soon I will leave.

     

Whenever we have transfers our P-Day changes. So, just know that every 6 weeks I will email on Tuesday and not on Monday. For most of you: Monday night instead of Sunday night.

       

I find myself wanting to use the phrase "I am learning a lot" every other sentence. Just know that I learn new stuff every day, and when it is hardest – I learn more. I keep working on constant improvement and changing my perspective. I am getting much better at talking to people conversationally. Honestly, right now that is the biggest hurdle.

       

Conversation in Tagalog is much MUCH different than it is in English. This is also a huge culture thing. I will use this to explain a little more about culture. Last week, I talked about how important language is to the people of the Philippines. The thing about their conversation is it has to do mostly with HOW you say something, and much less about the words you use. For example: in English there are about a million ways that you can ask someone if they will come back. In Tagalog there is only one word. And they use that word for every single translation you might think of: return, come back, give back, return an item, etc… It really matters how they say the word and the context it is in. Tagalog conversation also tends to be much simpler. They hardly ever talk in complete sentences when asking for something or telling you to do something. You only tend to find full sentences when you have an extended conversation, and it is kind of hard to explain. 

     

Tagalesson: Going along with the above segment about how people speak I will talk about teaching. There won’t be much of anything to learn here word wise; but I have learned a lot about communication from being here. In order to connect with someone, one of the first things you need is to teach using inflection that allows them to understand what parts are more important and why they are important. For example, I was teaching a family about the importance of family strength in the gospel. Honestly, I was speaking so simply that it didn't matter what I was saying. But when I made eye contact with the mother, and told her why it was important that Christ is the center of her family – she agreed. You have to talk to people openly here, not just in the words you use but more so in how you say them. People know when your words and your tone are different from each other. I will try to follow this up with examples in later weeks but I have rambled far too long.

Wow I totally did not mean to do that, I just kept going and going. I apologize. 

Just know that the work is good and there is always room for improvement. I strive every day to become a better missionary, but it is a long road, with the best reward. It will be a long time before I am an effective teacher, but for now I am teaching people as openly as I can.

Love,

Elder Faulkner

Long Roads, and Big Rewards

This week has been kind of difficult. I am not really sure why, as it seemed mostly like another week in the field. I can’t say for certain why but it was harder than the other weeks. We had high expectations, and for the most part our goals went unfulfilled. I think if I have learned a lesson here, it is:

Don't do a lot of work without being smart about it. Don't walk a long road for a small reward. Always have a goal in mind every second of every day.

I have learned a lot recently about respect of parents. I think the trick is that children shouldn't be punks and parents in general won't be hard to get along with. I wish I had learned that one a little sooner. The same basic principle works with spiritual things. God is our Dad. He wants good things for us. He wants us to live with him forever. He gave his Son for us. He gives everything so, if we listen for Him, we will have the ability to be comforted – to have a family with us forever, to become perfect. So the trick here is "Don't be a punk kid." He expects certain things from you. He needs certain things from you in order for you to receive: "A state of eternal happiness." This is why I believe that obedience and respect to parents is a celestial law. It cannot be overlooked. If we cannot respect our parents on earth in easy things, how can we respect our Heavenly Father. Okay rant pretty much over (also that was pretty much mostly for myself but if someone learns something from it was worth it.)

       

Alright, so like I said this week was kind of hard, but there were two things that made it worth it. One we had a baptism! Brother Mark Ais was baptized this Saturday, and I got to see his life change. He is more firm in his understanding and knowledge now; he has changed completely when talking about spiritual matters; and he has learned a lot. Mark was always fun to teach, but also really hard because he doesn’t always understand right away. My words are usually very slow to be understood, so it was always hard to know if he got what I was saying. The other thing that made it all worth it is where the title of this email comes from.

Brother Kamarlon (our star investigator) recently got fired from his job. We always taught him at work, so we were really worried because we didn't know where he lived. All we knew about where he lived was the name of the barangay (which is a Tagalog word that kind of means neighborhood but it is a little different.) Barangays are often around 1000 houses, sometimes more, and this one was no different. So one day we went off in search of Brother Kamarlon’s home – with nothing more than questions to people around us and the spirit to guide us. We walked around for a good long while and made it to the end of one of the major streets. We decided to turn around and try another time. As we turned and made our way back down the street, we heard the question "Anong pangalan mo?" Which means "What is your name?" A question I get around 50 times a day from children. But this time we stopped, turned around, and looked at the person inquiring. We found brother Kamarlon there with several of his friends and some of his family members (if you remember he has 8 brothers and sisters.) We sat down right there and taught them most of the first lesson. They all seemed interested and now we have 5 families to teach – if all of them will let us in again. We had walked a long road (something we had been doing all week), but the difference is we had a big goal in mind. We weren't walking just for walking, we had a destination in mind.

     

You are blessed for walking long hard roads in life. But you open yourselves to those blessings when you walk those roads with determination and a goal in mind.

     

Sorry that was a really long story.

     

I have had a couple requests to talk about Filipino culture from family. I don’t know how many of you are aware that I shower out of a bucket now. Also, I eat some pretty weird foods. Other than those things life here isn’t that much different. I will, however, try to include things about the culture every week. This week is on dialects. The thing about the Philippines, depending on who you ask, is they have around 2000 dialects (I didn’t put an extra zero). They have Tagalog as a base, but sometimes it isn’t effective if the person doesn’t speak it very well. Language is a big part of their culture and people love to be able to speak their native language. Each one is distinct and has its own cool background. 

     

Tagalesson: Deep Tagalog. You know how in English we have "Old English" or words that are more cryptic, or words we just don't use anymore? Certain words in Tagalog aren't used as much and they refer to those as "Deep Tagalog". When you really look at this language, it can be really deep. Tagalog uses the same alphabet we use in English (minus a couple letters like C and Q) [Insert by Jordan’s sister: Letters that are redundant in the English Language and could be done away with here too] but that wasn't always the case. The fact that some words aren't used anymore, and the fact that many languages exist here, means you have to be careful with how you speak. Sometimes the people you are talking with do not know certain words. For example: the word Takipsilim is the Tagalog word for both "Sunset" and "Eve". Depending on who you ask, they might not even know that that word exists. I find it really interesting that depending on who you talk to, the language can change drastically.

Sorry, this email got kind of rambly. Remember that when you are walking a long road that you should be looking for a big reward. Don't let yourself settle for small rewards. Also remember that only the long roads in life have the worthwhile rewards.

Also I saw another huge spider. This one was very venomous and I didn't touch it. Also, it was my companion’s birthday this week. The picture of the family is a recent convert family. Their baptisms were a few weeks before I got there.

Love

Elder Faulkner

Walruses or Walri?

That is my question for this week: is the proper pluralization of one singular Walrus Walruses or Walri? I think it is a very good question.

     

Anyways now that that seemingly unrelated thought is over with, I will get into how my week was. I feel like I am learning faster now and I am getting a good grasp on how to teach in Tagalog. It can be very frustrating when I have something I want to say and I can't explain it adequately. Then I must start over with my thoughts completely. It really, truly, makes you think about what you want to say – long before it comes out of your mouth. That being said, I have also been working on listening. Not just understanding what people are saying, but seeing their needs through their tone and their eyes. It is impossible to teach someone to their needs if you don’t know what their needs are.

     

One thing that I would like to say is that the people here love Jesus. I think that missionary work in other countries tends to follow along the lines of telling people about the restoration of the gospel as fast as possible and bearing witness it is true. Whereas here, if you do not spend 15-20 minutes talking about Jesus Christ and what he has done for us – then the people might question what our message truly is about. It makes it easier to teach about the reason why we do anything, why missionaries exist: to invite others to follow Christ, to testify of Christ, to give witness of His life, and His true church and gospel. I really do love teaching the first half of the first lesson now. If you are unfamiliar, the first lesson is about the restoration of God's true church (the same church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth). The first half of the lesson, we are supposed to talk about prophets, Jesus Christ's life, and why it was important. We get to share doctrines from Jesus that some people don’t understand. The second half of the lesson is about the restoration of that same church through a modern day prophet. 

     

I realize the importance of Christ's life more every time I teach that lesson; every time I help people understand what Christ did for them and what he wants us to do because of it. Christ spent his whole life inviting people to follow Him and keep God's commandments; and it is my job to do the same thing.

     

We had a small cleansing of our teaching pool. We are shifting focus away from those that are unwilling to keep commitments and pray to know the truth of what we teach; and we focused a lot on finding and teaching new investigators. We were truly blessed as we found many people that we were able to teach and have started to keep commitments. One in specific is Brother Kamarlon. He was unable to come to church this week because he couldn’t get work off, but he told us when we checked up on him yesterday that he wanted to serve a mission. He said he has a strong desire to know the truth and share it with others.

     

I would like to share a spiritual thought out of the book of Enos in the Book of Mormon. After Enos prays all day for a remission of sins, he receives the answer from God that because of his faithfulness he is forgiven. He gains a testimony of the truth. Then in verse 9 he says: "And it came to pass that when I had heard these wordsI began to feel a desire for the welfare of my brethren, the Nephites;wherefore, I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them." If you have truly received a witness how are you sharing it? If you have yet to receive a witness what are you waiting for?

     

Tagalesson:

This language is very much one of intent. People understand you based on how you say things and quite a bit less on what you say. The lesson I am going to teach is on the word "Lang". It means “only”, or “just”. It is used much how we use the word “just” in English. It is a word that you tack on the end of another word (almost always an English word) and it means about what you would expect it to mean. The only difference is that the way this is used it mostly based on tone and a lot less on the word itself. For example, 90% of the time if I ask how someone is they say "okay-Lang" meaning "just okay" but this varies depending on how you say it. Think of when you ask how someone is in America, and they reply "Good" but if they say that with a frown and a sigh it probably isn't. “Okay-lang” doesn't really mean "I am just okay" it means whatever the person wants based on how they say it.

     

I don't know if I have a lot to say, other than the weeks are moving by really quickly. I am almost half way done with training and by then I will hopefully be able to teach with confidence. Right now I am focusing a lot on how I say things and the inflection I put behind my words. The two things that go through my mind are. "The people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" and "It doesn't matter what you say it matters what the people feel."

     

The message I share is true and I need to share it in a manner that bespeaks that truth. If you have but a desire to believe, find a copy of the Book of Mormon and go to Alma32 and read the chapter. If you are reading in English it starts on page 288, you are halfway there. 

     

Keep on keeping on people I didn't take too many pictures but I will give you what I got. Some of these will be roommates and one of them should be a house we got to visit that we had to travel on a small bamboo bridge to get to.

     

I wish you all a good next week. If you are having a hard time, focus on improvement. I have learned that improvement can be pretty easy if you feel like you are at the lowest in life. Start with your smallest flaw and work on it then move to something bigger. Baby steps will get us to wherever we want to go as long as we are constantly taking them.

I love you all.

Elder Faulkner

WARNING BALUT AHEAD! Also that moment when your Investigator is on fire.

Alrighty. This week just flew by, but I still have a lot to say and not a whole lot of time to say it in. I realized that these emails are probably kinda of boring to read sometimes, so I am gonna change up the font and I am finally adding in some pictures this week.

The first thing that I want to share is a realization that I had: every day will have parts that are hard, parts that are easy, and parts that make everything worth it. I realized this has been true my entire life, but I am just starting to realize that I need to focus on the hard and how to fix it and improve. I really need to focus on what made my day worth it, because without that perspective I have little to work for and no way to improve.

Next, I will go right into prefacing some of the pictures I have, because before I didn’t have these. The spider was found a few hours ago outside of our apartment. That was really cool.

The balut I had a couple of days ago, and it was actually not even that bad, that is really young balut tho so it is not really grown that much. I ate it with some pig ear on a stick. That is apparently a real thing. We went to a person selling food on the side of the road – a bunch of different things – and I just bought some and took it home and then my companion said it was pig ear (after I had eaten like 2 of them). They weren’t so bad, but the texture was weird. The balut was much better, but appearance makes it look gross. 

We got to go into the sister's area for a bit (that is where the fields come from). A lot of those are rice fields and it was really pretty out there. That isn't quite what my whole area looks like, but a lot of it is green like that. I love my area.

My struggles this week are mostly from OYMing (Opening Your Mouth: talking to people and sharing with them, then asking if we can return and teach them later.) My conversational Tagalog is pretty bad, so it is pretty terrifying to talk to people; especially when I don’t understand what they say back to me. But I understand that to make my time worth it, I have to open my mouth and talk to people. It can just be really scary sometimes.

     

This week I am thankful for one investigator in particular. His name is Kamarlon and he was prepared for us. The first lesson we taught, we shared two principles (God is our loving heavenly father, and the gospel blesses families). At the end, he told us he wanted to close with the prayer and he wanted to say it. He prayed that we would have strength and intelligence to teach him effectively and that we would be able to share with him the truth. The next lesson he prayed as well. Once we taught him the rest of the Restoration, he was close to tears by the end of his prayer. We extended the invitation to be baptized on February 11th and he said that he would. We encouraged him to pray to know of the truth and he said that he knew we were sent to help him change his life.

         

Tagalesson: beginnings, specifically "Pag". In Tagalog you can take a verb base of anything you want and then stick a different beginning on it to change the meaning "basa” = “read" "pagbabasa” = “reading" as a noun (ie "Did you do your reading?" Sometimes, you double the first syllable – like in that instance tho. If you are really sharp, you can catch almost anything people are saying if you know the beginnings well enough. They also use those same beginnings to turn English words into Tagalog words: ie "Pagpapray" means "prayer". In actual Tagalog it is "Pagdadasal", the root being "dasal” = “pray".

Speaking Tagalog is basically like putting a puzzle together, but doing it really fast. There are around 50 of these beginnings that do different things to the verb bases so there is a lot to listen for. But once you understand, you can say almost anything you want, and you can constantly make new words that people know what they mean. 

         

This week I will struggle a lot with improving getting to know people and talk about their lives, but through OYMing I both learn how to speak better and also do what I was called to do. Hopefully, I will have the courage to open my mouth.

     

I leave you with a small spiritual thought from Mosiah Chapter 2 verses 30-31. God strengthens us, He gives us hard things to do, but when we start to do them and trust him we have the promise of help. Let God empower you in all things.

Elder Faulkner

Nakakapagpabagabag

The title of this email is the Tagalog word for disturbing, but the reason it is up there is because of the fact that it is a Tagalog tongue twister. There are people that have been speaking Tagalog their entire lives that can’t pronounce that word with consistency. I mention this because a lot of times it feels like my tongue is tied. The language will probably be my primary obstacle for a good while.

Then again, I know that there is a lot of hope. Last night I had a great experience after fasting and praying for the gift of tongues (and for several of my investigators). After struggling almost that entire day to teach and speak in Tagalog, at the very end of the day on our last lesson, I was able to teach – not just speak, but I was able to say words with a manner of conviction and explain the life of Jesus Christ and the importance of prophets to a family without using almost any English at all. I know that the gifts of the spirit exist and that we can receive them. I know that you need to ask in order to receive, and that faith takes action first. Sometimes you will try hundreds of times with seemingly no progress, but that next time stepping forward with faith your mouth opens and the perfect words come out.

The people here, by and large, are amazingly receptive. About 85% of the country is Catholic, and so they know about Jesus. They will gladly invite us in if we say that we have a message about Jesus and his true gospel on the Earth. Our ward helps a lot with that too. They are very supportive of missionary work, and we almost always have someone coming with us and being our member present for lessons.

I have already learned a lot about teaching and that is my second obstacle that I know I must overcome. Not only do I have to be able to speak in Tagalog – in a way that people understand (it helps that people here generally understand a lot of English, so they can help me out when I am a bit lost.) – but I have to teach in a way that people understand and teach in a way that brings in the spirit at the same time. Sometimes it is a lot to juggle, and other times you don't even have to think about it – it all flows.

I am learning more and more every day, and I know it is worth it to struggle all day – even if I make the smallest amount of progress. One of my favorite scriptures is Ether 12:27 (Which gains a little bit of more meaning when read in Tagalog because of focus. But I will talk about that in another email.) Basically in Ether 12:27 it is explained to us that, we all have weakness (that is something we should all know already) but it is only after we humble ourselves because of that weakness that God's grace empowers us. We then present ourselves to God with our weakness in one hand and our humility in the other. It is at that moment that he takes the weakness away from us and replaces it with strength. He does, however, let us keep the humility. For without it, we cannot do hard things.

My Tagalesson for this week is on “na” and “pa” because that is what I studied to increase my comprehension this week. I have struggled a lot with comprehension ever since I got here, but the last couple days I have seen crazy improvement. One thing about Tagalog is that the smallest sounds added can make a huge difference in a sentence. For example if you put "na" in a sentence (it usually comes out as the second word, but there are exceptions) it puts a closeness between the action and the present time. For example "He is sleeping" but when you add "Na" the sentence becomes "He is already sleeping." It can mean many different things; including, but not limited to: 

Already, now, even, just now, it can make a sentence a command, or show spatial closeness.

"Pa" is the exact same principles except it adds distance "He is sleeping" with "Pa" added becomes "He is still sleeping." It can mean, but is not limited to:

Still, another, even, later, any more, or showing spatial distance.

These small words change meanings of things very quickly.

Just like how the spirit can be hard to hear sometimes, but our understanding is blessed in great ways when we look for it – I have increased in language understanding by looking for words like these and looking for meaning based on what I am hearing.

This is a good work. Every week I focus on becoming a better me. Sometimes I realize I write these emails for myself as a kind of weekly journal to see that I have changed. I am sorry if I get too rambly in them, but that is kind of how I am.

I love you all and the gospel is a huge blessing in my life. Every day I learn that lesson again and again.

Love,

Elder Faulkner