Monday, May 30, 2016

The Philippines has the Bieber fever

Hello again!!! I'm sooo sorry I didn't write you a letter last week!!! I didn't even know that I had forgotten! I was so intrigued with all the things happening over on that side of the world that I didn't think to update you about myself. I think it was the death of Donatello [our box turtle from the back yard]. A moment of silence.... and I'm back!

Before I say anything else, I just have to tell you that the Philippines has the Bieber fever. haha I was eating my lunch the other day to "What do you mean?" and lots of other songs by him that I can't remember. It's not only here in Aborlan either. Back in Makati I remember shopping in the Super 8 with him going in the background more than once. hahaha It seems like everyone in America doesn't like him, but he's still big over here. Interesting, huh?


Justin Bieber when he was in the Philippines visiting Typhoon Haiyan victims
Now that I got that off my chest, Sister Hannalyn, who we baptized last Saturday, got confirmed yesterday!!! woot woot! It took a week longer than expected, but it happened, and that's what matters. We already started her reteaching! The other neat thing is that we had members work with us for her reteaching. It was really nice to have them there, because we haven't had a member worker in almost 3 weeks. I'd not realized before how great they were, but after not having one for so long, It's like how when you always have food in the fridge to snack on, but one day your parents start some crazy cleanse thing and you come home from school with those 'rumblies in your tumbly' and the fridge is mysteriously empty of anything tasty to eat. All there is is some Almond milk and some sort of cucumber soup. I feel you Heidi. I really do. :) hahaha

Next month is going to be a very productive month of missionary work here in Aborlan. We have 4 quite probable baptisms lined up. 2 of them are a couple that are getting married on June 7th, and then baptized on June 18th. They have 3 kids and are super awesome! Too bad Elder Ordesta won't be in town to see it. Wednesday is transfer day you see, and he got a text earlier saying he is transferring to Puerto. It's only about 45 minutes away, so maybe he can get permission to come and be there. I'm actually the only person in the Whole district that's staying. I don't think I am district leader though. That's fine though, I have enough responsibility on my shoulders being the new house mouse. hahaha Hopefully my new companion is really nice! haha

Thanks for the cuticle tip by the way. I did my laundry earlier and remembered the wise words of my mother, and they are all pushed back and happy! :)

That's about all I have to say this week. Oh! You should listen to Heidi's advice more often. Maybe she should review all of your letters to me. I am really happy to hear about Luke’s beard. Those things are very important. hahaha

I have one word of advice before I leave. "Be excellent to each other." -Bill


Elder Fawson

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

semi-self-conscious about his overgrown cuticles ;)

Hello everybody. I'm just still livin' the missionary life in Aborlan. No crazy transfers this week to throw all ya’ll off your rockers. :)

It was really fun to talk to you last week!!! That's funny you thought I would have Skype on my phone. I guess you would only assume that we had super high tech equipment like that, but unfortunately our phone doesn't have Skype... or even a touch screen... or even a camera... or anything else like that. It looks like your really old phone that was red that you had way back like 10 years ago that I liked to play snake on, except it's black, and doesn't have any games on it to play. All it can do is call and text. Actually it can do more than that. It has an alarm clock too. hahaha :) 

That's cool that Jon is doing his part in the missionary world. It is sooo nice to have good members like that. I never realized how important it was until now. We are having trouble getting members to work with us. It's a trial, but we'll figure it out. 

Several sweet things happened last week and at least one super sweet thing will happen this week.Our investigators, the Barony family are going to get married soon so that they can get baptized, so that will be happening within the next couple weeks. They are progressing really well and are pretty sure candidates for baptism. Also The baptism that I said would probably happen this week is happening for realsies and will be on Saturday. WOOT WOOT!!!!

 I had a couple crazy dreams that were really fun. One of them was that I had to come home for a couple days from my mission to go to honors Orchestra, so that was really fun to see Hurricane again. Everything was just like I imagined it would be... because I was imagining it in my dream. Elder Ordesta had to come with me so he got to see my home town so that was cool. Brains are cool how they can just be so clear in their memories while you dream. I also had a dream that I was a dinosaur eating a bunch of pirañas. I would catch them in a big mason jar, then grab their tails and drop them in my mouth. It was super fun. I wonder if pirañas are actually very tasty. They were in my dream. haha :)

The other day I was sitting in sacrament meeting and an old lolo (grandfather) interrupted me during the opening hymn and sign languaged for me to push back my cuticles on my finger nails. haha it was funny and I've been semi-self-conscious about it ever since. haha

Last thing. I was walking along the road when a trike drove passed and the passenger inside looked just like Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars. It was quite shocking. haha that's all.

So yeah. All is going well on this hemisphere. I'm glad you are all doing okay. Mahal ko kayo!!!


Elder Fawson

Monday, May 9, 2016

Robert speaks English with a Tagalog accent now :)


The 30 second video clip above is of Robert speaking in Tagalog It was so fun to hear his voice on Mother's day!





This second clip is 30 seconds of Rob talking about food and you can hear his hilarious new accent. We pretty much laughed at him for an hour last night :) 

Life is going good in Palawan!!! It was super great to get to talk to you guys today! Elder Ordesta was all like "Man, you haawesome family!" 'cause he heard all the fun things we talked about. he was all like "my family is always really serious to me." haha

I'm not allowed to proselyte today because it is election day and things are apparently getting a bit rowdy in some places so we are just to stay in our apartment and not get shot or beat-up or anything. haha

We have some good news! We'll be having a baptism on the 21st!!! Her name is Hannalyn. She is super awesome and sobrang excited!! She was found by the missionaries before us and we just continued her teaching and stuff. That's probably the most happy news I have for you. Nothing gets better than accomplishing your purpose here. Life is great!!!

A couple of other exciting things happened this week. First is that I got attacked by a goat. Not really attacked. it was more like when Mylo gets really excited and just wants to lick up your nose. More like that, but it was a goat. haha Actually he was just rubbing his head all over my back. It was really funny. hahaha Second, is that a couple days ago, we were super punted and so we decided to go to a less active member’s home that lives sort of far away. When we got there, it turned out that it was his Birthday. he was really happy to see us and even fed us some rice and pancit. it was great!!!

That about sums up my week this week. I'm in a hurry so I can get home to my house and not get beat-up by the crazy voters. :)

Mahal ko kayo!!!

Elder Fawson

Monday, May 2, 2016

Eating fish heads while awake and playing the viola in his dreams

My week has been really awesome! Lots of fun and new things are happening!

Wanna know why there are more spines that heads? I'll tell ya why. 'Cause I ate the heads. Cool huh? hahaha True story!
Yesterday I made history. We had 9 investigators at church. WOWZERS!!! I haven't had that many my entire mission so far. Pretty good work eh? Yeah. The Holy Ghost is a really good convincer! I'll put a fun photo of the ****** family attached to this e-mail. We just taught them about the word of wisdom last Saturday.We were just like, "susundin ba ninyo ang word of wisdom?" (will you follow the word of wisdom?) and they were just like, "Opo. Bakit hindi?" (Yeah. Why not?) Now they don't drink coffee anymore. they switched to Milo. Pretty much they are just the best!!! haha

Elder Ordesta, Fabulous Investigators and Elder Fawson

Another fun thing that happened is that we started teaching an English class, and naturally, me being the only native english speaker here (other than Elder Clark, but he's got an Australian accent that no one understands. haha) I am the head teacher. You could start calling me Elder Professor Fawson if you want. We teach every Saturday at 4:00 pm, so if you're free, and want to take the trip half-way around the world to watch me teach English, feel free. :) I'll attach a photo of me in action. haha. It's sort of fun! I've noticed that since the class started, my Tagalog has gotten a lot better. I guess that as I am giving this service and teaching these people English, the Lord is giving me more blessings of the gift of tongues. That's how it works though. When we serve, we get blessed. 

Elder Professor Fawson

That is a really good insight about the goal thing. Pretty much everything we do as missionaries is to accomplish our goals. When we are walking down the street, we are watching out for people we can strike a conversation with and OYM 'em. We have teaching goals, health goals, all sorts of goals. I maybe should take them more seriously and do my 100% best effort to reach them. Otherwise it's sort of pointless to set in the first place. 

Rob and his awesome house mates waiting for an interview!

Our interviews went pretty great. We got to update President Ostler about our area face-to-face which is much better than e-mail, and afterwards, we went to McDonalds, and I was able to get a Happy Meal with an Ice King toy from Adventure Time. It was super fun. Now the Ice King watches me as I study the gospel every morning. He gives me moral support to keep going with his intense, non-blinking eyes. 
I had a dream that I was on the school bus going to honors orchestra again with all my orchestra friends. You can tell that to Grandpa and reassure him that I haven't lost my desire to play. I still viola it up while I sleep. haha Don't worry about me.

Yup. Fun stuff, missions. I've had a great week!!!!! All is pretty alright in Zion! haha



Elder Fawson