The last transfer...

So this week was transfer announcements. We will have 8 companionships in the zone:  Me and Elder Cadayong, 1 other regular companionship, and then every other companionship will have a trainee missionary. 3 of those have only been in the mission for 6 weeks. The other 3 will be completely new on this coming Wednesday. As some of the biggest batches of missionaries are headed out, some of the biggest batches are also coming in.

Elder Cadayong and I will both be staying this transfer. I will live out the rest of my mission here in Batasan hills with Elder Cadayong. We are gonna get all the people we are teaching baptized and we are gonna find a lot more that will be baptized after I go. This area is really great. We are getting solid help from the ward. We have seen a big result of their effort in bringing people to Christ.

We had another baptism this week – the oldest person I will probably ever baptize. His name is Tatay Andronico. He is one of my favorite people to teach, but at the same time it is so hard to teach him. 

Andronico has a very strong faith and he speaks mostly exclusively Cebuano, which I speak very little of. But I love him a lot. We also got some great pictures with him. 

Yesterday we went to his house and decided to show him the restoration video in Cebuano. He just started talking to us in pure Cebuano, and I couldn’t understand him at all. We left him to watch the movie without us. It was a great experience. We are also now teaching one of his close friends, who has now been to church twice. Her name is Emma.

This coming Saturday, we have a scheduled baptism for John Jay Espina. We have tried to share the gospel with his family, but they are not interested. He will be the pioneering member in his family and he has shown the necessary faith to be able to do that. Will send pics.

Well I am pretty much out of time. Love you all, keep on keeping on. I will keep the pictures coming.

Love

Elder Faulkner

Typhoon Ompong/Mangkhut

https://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-mangkhut

Typhoon Ompong (or Mangkhut if you’re in the states) is heading towards the Philippines right now. Ompong is the equivalent of  a category 5 hurricane - larger and stronger than Hurricane Florence. Storm experts believe it to be as strong as Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines in 2013. 

Elder Faulkner is on the west side and will not receive the brunt of the storm. However, it is expected to cause much damage in the way of flooding where he is. Please keep the people of the Philippines and the people of China, Laos, and Vietnam in your prayers.

Kawawa Dam

We did a zone activity, pictures to follow I can’t send all the pictures, but I will just share the album with my sister Lisa and she can post the pictures wherever she wants. Siya ang Bahala. For the Zone activity, we went to Wawa Dam. It was actually really fun. It was about a 7-minute walk, after a 1-hour jeep ride. We saw some big rocks and some water and a lot of trees. I had a good time. 10/10 would do again. We went with the whole zone and only some people complained. So that is pretty good.

For the last couple weeks, I have been evolving my Taglish skills. Normally when someone speaks Taglish, it is mostly Tagalog but then you mix in some English words that pretty much everyone understands. Now that I have been here in the Philippines for so long, there are some bagay that are just more mahirap to express in English, so I tend to put the Tagalog word there so that it comes out a little more mabilis. Now this is more mahirap for some iba to understand, but for me it is great because it makes things so much easier. Basta I have come to love this language and I will be sad to leave it behind. The first few weeks might be really hard with switching back to speaking English exclusively. I will have to hanap some Filipinos. 

That being said, we are still on for the goal for 15 baptisms. We are really seeing a good difference in our investigators as we focus on baptism more and more. This last Saturday we had 4 baptisms (pictures to follow): Karen Pasco, Bryan Pasco, Gloria Gonzaga, and Jemuel Gonzaga, One completed family and one that is starting off. We were so excited about this because we have been working with these four for a little while and we have really seen their desire to make that change in their lives. They are all amazing wonderful people and I am sure that they will keep strong in the gospel.

Good week, Good work, doing great things seeing great miracles. Teaching great people.

I love you all. Keep up the great work. Don’t think about me coming home – I am sure that it will come eventually. As for me, I am trying to think of it more so it feels like a longer time away... Joke lang... Or maybe, not sure what to think anymore.

Love,

Elder Faulkner

Sanay na

Well we are doing really well here right now, we are seeing a lot of good things happening in the area and we have good hopes for the coming months in the progression of our investigators.

As for two of our investigators, Karen and Bryan, their baptism got pushed one more week because their dad had to go out of town for work. He is supposed to baptize them, so we pushed it out another week. They are going to be baptized along with Sister Gloria and Brother Jemuel.

We are planning for a lot of people's baptisms right now and it is a little hard to keep track sometimes. We are really focused on getting our investigators to baptism and we should really be able to prepare the area and the ward for the next missionaries.

As for the zone, they are doing so well. I am proud of all my missionaries, especially because most of them are very very young in the mission and are still learning a lot. Despite that, they are still seeing huge miracles and having great success in their areas.

We had Missionary leadership council this week – it is my favorite meeting in the mission – and it was a really nice experience to be able to talk with President and the other zone leaders. This is where I learn what they are doing in their zones to see success and to help others come unto Christ.

Elder Cadayong is doing really well right now, and I think he will have an okay time when he takes over as the senior zone leader. He has a lot of adjustments to make right now. The mission is a lot different when you have to worry about 8 other companionships on top of your own. It is a lot to think about and it is sometimes overwhelming. He is still adjusting to the work load but is taking it like a champ.

There is always a lot to think about in the work and we are always so focused on the present. It is weird to think of the future, especially when people keep telling me that I am so close to going home. It is a weird feeling, but I try not to focus on it.

Well anyways I got some pictures. We have one of my favorite members, Romel. He is the one that has the chessboard. We also have a picture of our whole zone.

We are doing great.

Hope you all are as well.

Love

Elder Faulkner

Got my flight itinerary this week, that is a scary thing...

We are just getting back from the temple, so this might be a little bit shorter than normal.

Everything is going really well in our area. We are seeing a lot of miracles. I have been praying for baptisms before I go, specifically this transfer. I knew it would be hard seeing that some of the weeks have already passed by this transfer, but God still found a way to make it happen. This last Sunday, we met a part-member family who has been going to church for 2 weeks now – and we had no idea. We went to their house, taught her for the first time, and she will be baptized on September 15^th – before the end of the transfer. It is amazing how even in the times where you think that something is literally impossible, but you still pray about it sincerely, and God shows His power and makes it happen. We are now goaling for at least 7 baptisms in the month of September as a companionship. I think we might even be able to hit higher than that.

These past two transfers have been great. It has been fantastic to work in the area consistently and to see the progress that has come from that. I enjoy the work so much now that I am committed to seeing baptisms happen and helping those around me become truly converted. I like the goal of weekly baptisms for the rest of my time in the mission. I don’t know how likely it is, but like I said earlier – it isn’t really a matter of how possible something is, just a matter of how much faith you have in getting it and how much work you are willing to put in.

Elder Cadayong and I are doing really well. I think he is learning a lot about leadership. It is a big adjustment, and I understand it is a lot at first. We still have to make sure he is ready to deal with all the concerns of all our missionaries by the time that I leave. We have to make sure he is mature and prepared enough to take charge in a strong willed and tactful manner. One of the hardships of being a leader in the mission is constantly communicating, delegating, and solving problems – not just in English, but in Tagalog. The first time you encounter a specific problem and need to give immediate advice in a different language, is really tough. This is always a struggle when someone starts in leadership in the mission; you have to be an effective diplomat in multiple languages.

This week has been really good. We had only a little bit of time to work in the area, but we still saw the miracles; we still saw what God wanted us to see in the people around us. Most of what missionary work is, is trying to look at people how God sees them and focusing the most attention on those that want to become like Him. Our eternal quest to come closer to God should lead us in an eternal track to becoming like God. That means that the people we teach should have a desire to change their lives to become more Godlike. That is one of the hardest paths we can choose to take, but at the same time it is the most noble. We change, we improve, we desire salvation, and we desire it as well for those around us.

Keep on working to improve. Keep on putting up a fight. Hone your skills; if you feel like you don’t have skills – find out what your skills are. There are lucky people here on earth, but my definition of luck is a bit different now. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. If you never prepare, you will never be lucky. So go out there and get lucky, through preparation. Whatever it is that you want to be – just go out and work for that thing. Until you get it.

Go, Do, Fight, Win

Love you all

Keep it up.

Elder Faulkner

Nakaraos Naman!

So with what we mentioned last week about baptism goals and about our area, we are seeing a lot of success in our zone. This week we had 9 baptisms. One of the 10 that were scheduled got pushed to next week, but as it stands that is very good for us in general. One thing that we are trying for is a consistent 2 baptisms per companionship, per month. This means that in the zone of 9 companionships – we should be hitting 18 baptisms each month. Ever since I got to Fairview, we have been climbing steadily: May: 7, June: 9, July: 13, August: 19 (with what we have scheduled for this coming week). We are helping a lot of people make big changes in their lives and enter into covenants made with God. It is amazing to see the results of the missionary work in the lives of people around me – it just kind of lifts everyone up: the missionaries and those that they teach.

This week we tried something new with some of the people that we teach. We went to their house in the morning for about 7 minutes. We gave them a specific reading assignment in the Book of Mormon, along with a few questions to answer. The reading was only about 3 verses long and could easily be done in 20 minutes in total. We then told them we would come back later that day; but instead of teaching like normal, we would just ask about how the reading was. We did that with 3 people who had not yet read the Book of Mormon. 2 of them did the assignment and the other said she read it but did not answer the questions. It was interesting to see that when we gave them a specific time we would be back, they were much more willing to complete the reading. It is like if we all knew the exact day Jesus was coming back, we would all at least go to church the Sunday before that... right?

Elder Cadayong and I are doing great. We both want to do hard work and get success. He reminds me that I am going home quite often, but that is okay cause it mostly just slides off my back like water. It is a very interesting time in my mission. I feel like my time to make a difference is waning, but I feel like one of the biggest things I can do is work with other missionaries to get them to improve and to teach them what they need to know before I go. I think helping the other missionaries will be very helpful in the salvation of others because we really push the work along for the future "generations".

Anyways, I got distracted again and didn’t write a lot. Either way, we are just doing our best over here – trying to make sure all the new trainees in our zone can figure out how to be good missionaries.

Keep on keeping on. Here are some pictures from some stuff that we did over the last two weeks. We ran out of electricity and lit a candle. And one of our investigators had a baby.

Love you all

Elder Faulkner

Malapit na ang Pasco

Life is going pretty decent right now; we are finally seeing good success in the area, and not just our zone. We are really pushing baptism, as I don’t have that much longer here, and I cant really do my job here after I have gone home.

Right now, we are planning and preparing for 5 people's baptisms. There might be some more but 5 are keeping commitments and committed to being baptized on a specific date. 2 of them could be baptized at almost any time, but they are waiting for their relatives so they can be baptized together.

There is a lot of other potential in our area right now and we are working on following up with everyone. There are a whole lot of people who could be making commitments and getting baptized. We will be heavily focused on working with them and finding those who are ready.

     

This week has been so busy, I just want to sleep. But I also don’t want to sleep because I want to be successful. Elder Cadayong and I have been talking a lot about how we can improve our teaching skills and our work as a missionary. We are working on interacting better with our investigators – making them feel like they can learn and feel like they are in a position to change their lives. I have learned a lot about human nature out here. There are so many things you can do for someone, but one of the best is to put them in an environment where they can change themselves.

       

Sorry I don’t have too much time – but I do have pictures!!

We did a big service project because a lot of houses got flooded. We helped move mud and water out of houses. We got really dirty, but it was really fun.

These are just a bunch of pictures for you, I should have more for you all next week. The one in Yellow is Elder Cadayong

Love

Elder Faulkner