phlegm globs and sharing the gospel...not at the same time!

Helo everybody!

This week has been full of nose sniffling, phlegm globs and sharing the gospel. Don't worry though! I try not to do the last 2 of those things at the same time. hahahaha "I'd like to share a message with you about (chgraaaughoutch ptew!) the restoration of the gospel." hahaha Don't worry anymore though. I kicked that snuffy-nose out of my face so hard, his ancestors could feel it! I didn't literally kick it because I'm not nearly flexible enough to effectively kick myself in my own face, but it did finally leave after an excessive amount of hacking and gargling and stuff. My stuffy-nose is no more. :)

Speaking of Sunday, remember that one time when I said I'd never spoken in church on my mission. I've been dodging bullet after bullet, but yesterday I finally got hit, and it was a fatal blow. I was the concluding speaker yesterday and had to speak, no was privileged to speak the very longest. It was super nerve racking!!! I'm not very good at giving talks in English. Let alone Tagalog! It actually went fine though. I talked about home teaching and visiting teaching. I felt prompted that that would be a good topic and I guess it's a good thing too, because later on yesterday I learned that our ward is super terrible with home teaching. Hopefully something I said can help the people here to see how important it is! Listen carefully to President Monson this upcoming general conference, because I think he'll be declaring my talk as "Doctrine and Covenants, Section 139". haha Or maybe "Official Declaration 3."

That's too bad Brother Burdette died. I always liked shaking his hand every Sunday before Sacrament meeting. Maybe because he magnified his calling so well as ward greeter, he will be the official greeter of everyone who goes to Spirit Paradise. That would be cool! I wonder if they have Sunday meeting and stuff over there in the Spirit world. I guess I'll have to go James 1:5 on that one. 

I'm sorry to hear about Mylo's eye. I met an old lady the other night walking a dog that looked just like Mylo, except not nearly as handsome, and I started talking to her about her dog. After a minute or so I introduced myself as a missionary and she all of a sudden had somewhere very important to be. haha People are so ridiculous. They'll talk all day with you about their dog, or if Lebron James is really 6'8", but once you bring up the gospel, their language turns from Tagalog, to "ayaw"kano. haha (There is a language in the Philippines called Ilokano, so if someone rejects us we make fun and say they are fluent in "ayaw"kano. Ayaw means "don't want/like". It's really funny if you get it.)

Anywho, I didn't get translated during my last district meeting like I hoped, but maybe this Tuesday. :) haha It's been a really awesome week! 

Grabe! Sayang ang balbas mo Sam. Pero, guwapo pa rin!!! Almost as good lookin' as I'll be when I'm allowed to grow a sweet beard. haha

Mahal ko kayo!!! I hope all y'all have a super awesome week this week! bye.

Elder Fawson

Eating at the September zone conference feast!

Rob receiving his birthday treat

all the September birthday boys and girls in the zone :)

I love how Robert's hair is like a flaming beacon in this picture!

I totally OYMed Ronald McDonald

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! (last Wednesday) HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!

(last Thursday) HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTIN!!! (Last Friday)

Woo wee! Lots of fun things happening at home way over there yonder on

that side of the world. But let me tell ya', fun things happened here

too! On Wednesday (my moms birthday) I went on exchanges with Elder

Baquiran, my zone leader, and we had a super amazing day! I get to do

stuff like that because I'm a district leader. It's the only exchanges

I get to go on because the rest of my district are sisters. Anywho, we

had a super successful day. We were able to have 8 lessons, and 80

OYMs. Grabe ang dami [heavy volume]!!!! There was this one time where we were

completely surrounded by little children shouting at me, "Ano ang

height mo? Grabe ang tangkad! Kaya mo bang mag-dunk?" [ What is height Mo? 

Heavy height!  So you like to dunk?]and lots of

stuff of the like. I turned to Elder Baquiran and said, "They're my

disciples!" hahaha I think Elder Baquiran has heard the word

"Matangkad" [tall] more times that day alone than his whole life previous.

hahaha It was awesome!

I had a super crazy awesome OYM last Monday after we left e-mailing

for lunch. We went to McDonalds and it just so happened that Ronald

McDonald was home. haha I totally OYMed him and gave him a restoration

pamphlet. I think that's the famousest person I've ever OYMed in my

whole mission. haha My chicken McNuggets tasted just that much better!

hahaha

Elder Guzman and I had a really successful week this week. Last week

we had a shortage of OYMs. We only got 157 (Our goal is 190). This

week we went crazy and had 224. We made up the slack of last week and

plussed one. haha. We are super pleased with ourselves, however, I

must say na mas magaling ang Espiritu Santo! haha

Dad, I'm with you on not feeling super great at the moment. I had a

super bad sore throat last Thursday and then thursday ng gabi, nawala

ang voice ko talaga! [Thursday night I really lost my voice] I sounded worse than 

Yoda would after 63 years of smoking. It was ridiculous. It was so hard.

 I could barely force out a "Magandang gabi po. [Good Evening]" 

to the passers-by. My voice did come back. but I'm still hacking up a bunch

 of nastiness from my throat. I think I'm actually a teensy bit sick right now, 

but it's no biggy. "Carry on, carry on, carry on!"

Don't be surprised if there is an extra section added to the Doctrine

and Covenants in the very near future. I've got quite the district

meeting planned for tomorrow, so you can all be on the look out for

that. Maybe it will be announced in a few weeks in General Conference.

:)

So yeah. That's what's up with me! I'm glad you were able to go to

Ryan's Homecoming. He's the best running partner a running partner

could ask for. If you see him again, tell him I've got some sweet

Pedro-proof shoes.

I do have a scripture of the week. It is found in Deuteronomy 22:5.

Cross-dressing is an abomination daw. Have fun applying that to your

life and finding spiritual comfort.

Mahal ko kayo!!!

Elder Fawson

My birthday was awesome!

Helo sa lahat! at sa lahat, magandang araw!

[Hello Everyone! And in all, a good day!]

I know your all just dying to know, so I'll curb your curiosity now. My birthday was awesome! We ordered some pizza and had a mini kabahay-party during our lunch time which was really tasty! I haven't had Papa Johns for quite some time! The baptism was also a success, so that was also a good addition to the happy-day atmosphere! I was able to interview sister Hanna last week and she is so awesome. Elder Guzman (I always think Goose Man when I say his name. haha) was the one to baptize her. As we were leaving the bahay to go there we was grabbing an extra pair of garments and I told him about how after my baptisms on Palawan I didn't have to change my garments because the water level was below my knees. haha He laughed at me. hahaha

One thing that was not super fortunate about my birthday is when we went to visit one of our investigators. He had been trying to quit smoking and drinking, and has been doing pretty good for a couple weeks, but he was drunk when we got there. it was a super bummer! His whole family are members except him, and his wife was so sad that he had given in to temptation. We gave him a print-out of the churches Addiction-recovery program and hopefully that works out for him. I really hope that he can take advantage of the resources of the church and accept our help to overcome his addiction. It's sad because he has a strong desire to change, but it's so hard for him. He's awesome though!

Tara! mag-party tayo! (come on! Let's party!)

On a happier note, pizza isn't the only thing I was able to eat that I've been deprived of for a long time. I had the wonderful opportunity to go to SUBWAY last Thursday after our zone conference. It was super awesome. As I walked into the establishment a tsunami of joy and contentment crashed onto the beach of my heart. It was amazing. As I took my first bite of SUBWAY in almost 11 months, I said to Elder Guzman, "Ito ang lasa ng Celestial Kingdom!" It wasn't quite as good as Amerikanong SUBWAY, but it was still way satisfying. I guess that's the difference between being single in the celestial kingdom and being there sealed to your family. Filipino SUBWAY is still SUBWAY just as the celestial kingdom is still the celestial kingdom, but having your family with you makes it just that much better. I guess that makes Jimmy-Johns like the terrestrial kingdom. hahaha SUBWAY!!!

So yeah. It's been a super great week, and quite the grand birthday!!! Thanks for all your wishes and prayers. Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Fawson

P.S. I still haven't gotten my package, so hopefully it comes before general conference. I don't know if I can go through another 10 hours of inspired talks by the wonderful leaders of our church and not nibble on some candy corn at the same time. hahaha Mahal ko kayo ulit!

I made the Triforce my symbol of inspiration for my mission...

This is a picture of the road to our recent converts. I basically lived in the jungle for 5 months. No biggy.

Helo! Thanks for the birthday wish! I haven't gotten your package yet, but zone conference is this Thursday, so I'll be going to Buendia and be able to drop by the mission office and hopefully it will be there. I'm super excited!!! 

This'll be my first birthday in the mission, so who knows how it'll go? I do!!! I'll wake up at 6:30, say to myself, "Maligayang kaarawan, Elder Fawson!" then exercise for a half hour. Then I'll take a shower, prepare for the day, do my studies, eat lunch, and go out and invite others to come unto Christ. Around 4:00, I'll go and attend a baptism of sister Hanna, an investigator of a companionship in my district. You can all say congratulations to Sister Munda and Sister Balasubramaniyam!!! Her name is sooo long!  I was the one to interview her and say she is allowed, so that was cool! Being the district leaders, I interview all the baptismal candidates in my district. It was actually a miracle. I was really worried when I was called to be district leader about conducting this interview, because my Tagalog isn't perfect yet and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to understand everything she was saying, but during the interview I had the gift of interpretation of tongues and understood every single word she said. It was awesome!!!! After the baptism I'll eat some dinner, proselyte some more, go home, plan, eat some birthday Choco Muchos (Mmmm boy!) and go to bed. I can't think of a better way to celebrate! hahaha

There are 3 points to the Triforce: Power, wisdom, and courage. I made it my symbol of inspiration for my mission. Power in the priesthood /Wisdom in inspired questions /Courage to OYM 

Also being district leader, I get to teach district meeting, so last Tuesday was my first time to teach that. It was pretty good. I taught how to more effectively find new investigators. I thunk up a super nice analogy about it too. You see, hunting for new investigators is just like hunting for a shiny Pokemon. You have to come across thousands and thousands of Pokemon before you find a shiny. The same goes for finding. There are Thousands and thousands of people we will talk to before we will find that "golden investigator." It was quite a successful lesson if I do say so myself. I'm just glad I'm not the only Poke-maniac in my district. That would have been super awkward!!! hahaha

I'm really liking my area. I had forgotten what it was like to be flocked by herds of children. Sometimes it's like I have my own disciples. I sort of know what Jesus felt when he was on earth about his disciples. He performed some awesome miracle and the people were all amazed and followed him around the streets, then he started teaching them his gospel, the people realized it was hard and stopped following him. I get children following me around all the time. I'll dunk a basketball or something and get these crowds of 10-15 kids, then I introduce myself as a missionary, give them a pamphlet and they lose interest and go back to their old lives. It's sort of sad, but I've found a few new investigators through these tactics, so it's always worth a shot! 

That Balut picture was crazy huh? You could see the little duck head and everything. I just sprinkled some salt on it, and dumped the whole thing into my mouth. I could't just swallow it, 'cause it was an entire mouthful. I chewed for almost a minute. It wasn't hard, but sometimes there would be a little crunch as I chewed the baby beak and stuff. It wasn't super gross, but I not jumping for another opportunity to do it either. I'd do it again though if everyone else was. It was a good experience and I invite everyone to try it if they ever get the chance. hahaha

I'll send some more pictures for you from my journeys on Palawan!

I hope you all have a nice week! Mahal kita!

Elder Fawson

Kabahay farewell party...We had ice cream, and made some toron (a banana wrapped in brown sugar and a thin, crusty tortilla, then deep-fried. Super yummy!)

This is a picture of the shrimp that our elder quorum president gave to us. We fried it and turned it into a delicious ulam. MMMM

Monkey Picture for Heidi

You can tell Grandpa to sell the tractors and just buy a couple of carabao for the farm. The only problem is that I think they only live in the Philippines. hahaha

Exchanges with the sister missionaries...basically futile!

Steve’s letter to Rob last week included the following joke... following the joke is Robert’s reply :)

A Typical LDS Mission

THE MISSION PRESIDENT:

Leaps tall buildings in a single bound, 

Is more powerful than a locomotive,

Is faster than a speeding bullet,

Walks on water,

Associates with God.

THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: 

Leaps short buildings in a single bound,

Is more powerful than a switch engine,

Is just as fast as a speeding bullet,

Walks on water if the sea is calm,

Talks with God.

THE ZONE LEADER:

Leaps short buildings with a running start and favorable winds,

Is almost as powerful as a switch engine,

Is faster than a decelerating bullet,

Walks on water in an indoor swimming pool,

Talks with God if special request is approved.

THE DISTRICT LEADER:

Barely clears a mud hut,

Loses tug-of-war with locomotives,

Can fire a speeding bullet,

Swims well,

Is occasionally addressed by God.

THE SENIOR COMPANION:

Makes high marks on the wall when trying to leap tall buildings,

Is run over by locomotives,

Can sometimes handle a gun without inflicting self-injury,

Dog paddles,

Talks to animals.

THE JUNIOR COMPANION:

Runs into buildings,

Recognizes locomotives 2 out of 3 times,

Is not issued ammunition,

Can stay afloat with a life jacket,

Talks to walls.

THE GREENIE:

Falls over doorsteps when trying to enter buildings.

Says, "Look at the choo-choo!"

Wets himself with a water pistol,

Plays in mud puddles,

Mumbles to himself.

THE SISTER MISSIONARY:

Lifts buildings and walks under them,

Kicks locomotives off the tracks,

Catches speeding bullets with her teeth and eats them,

Freezes water in a single glance,

Knows God.

THE RETURNED MISSIONARY:

Leaps at a chance to enter a certain building with a "special someone",

Is loco,

Speeds while driving,

Walks on water if there are girls around,

Thinks he IS God.

I think I'm more qualified to be just a junior companion. I bump my head on low ceilings all the time, can only recognize a locomotive if I have my glasses on and it's not too dark, and never earned my rifle or shotgun merit badge at thunder ridge scout camp due to my terrible aim. I am quite a good swimmer though, so that fits the district leader qualifications, and I say hello to all the dogs, cats and goats that I see, so that fits me for zone leader. Life is rough, but it's hard to progress if life is so smooth you can't catch any friction to move forward. Totoo iyon [that's true]! I laughed really hard at this e-mail just so you know. haha

Howdy y'all! That's not Tagalog. :)

That's super neat that Mason is home and stuff and that's also crazy that he's already leaving home again. I think I picked a perfect time to leave and return. God also picked a super awesome place for me to come in the mean-time. <3 ko ang Pilipinas!!!

It's way different on the main land than on my little secluded town in the middle of nowhere. Instead of trees, there are light poles. Instead of jungles there are buildings and instead of little pleasant dirt paths, there are mazes of alleys through the buildings full of hungry people and little children asking for money. Sometimes if they are too persistent I give them some Mentos and that usually satisfies them. It's nice to be here and actually know what all the masses of people are saying. Back in Makati I could hardly speak to people, but now I can understand all their corny tall person jokes and comments. "Ang tangkad mo! Matangkad ka! One Amerikano... short."

It's way different being district leader. I've already had a lot of duties to perform. Every Sunday I have to report all the numbers of the whole district to the Zone leaders, and give reasons why some numbers are a little low and stuff. It's sort of hard, but I'll get the hang of things and figure it out. You may be thinking, "Ah. Now that you're a district leader you can do exchanges with other companionships in your district." Not so. Under normal circumstances, yes, but the other 2 companionships in my district are both sisters. For some reason I'm not allowed to do exchanges with them. hahaha Sayang na sayang malaga [basically futile]!

Now that I'm back on the mainland my OYM standard is back up to 190. No more of that 130 nonsense. However we decided to be over-achievers and got 191 instead. That's what I call starting the transfer out right!!!

I was reading the Old Testament yesterday and came across one of the most fantastic verses in all scripture. It even matches the glory of when He-Man attended the dedication of Solomon's temple. This scripture is in Numbers 23:22. It says that God has the strength of a UNICORN. Now the bible has proven the existence of aliens and unicorns. CrAzY!!! That really comforts my soul that no matter what problem I have, God can help me because he has the strength of a unicorn. He can do anything. True story.

I'm back in an apartment of all Filipino kabahay [housemates]. Don't worry though. It was really hard before, but now I can actually talk to them and we are all happy together. So it's us (Elder Guzman and I), and our Zone leaders. I forgot their names. It was funny when I heard Elder Guzman's name for the first time. I thought it was Goose Man. hahaha It made me think of Uncle Waldo from the Aristocats. haha He's really fun though. I'm a little older than him in the mission. He's about 5 months into the field. He's really awesome though, because he doesn't have to learn a new language. He can just practice right into teaching skills and stuff. I still amn't super refined in my teaching skills like asking inspired questions and stuff is hard for me, but it's coming. I'm getting to be not too shabby, and Tagalog is still not easy, but I can speak, so that's what's important! 

I'm going to learn a lot from being a district leader and stuff. Life is awesome as a missionary!

Mahal kita!!!! I have to go bring more people to Christ now. Toodles!

Elder Fawson

P.S. Remember how I told you I ate Bolut? Maybe I didn't, but I did eat it. Here's a picture of the little baby duck before it plopped into my mouth. haha

Balut is a fertilized bird egg (usually a duck- aparently mallards are the best) that is incubated for 14 to 21 days, boiled or steamed, and the contents eaten direct from the shell. In balut that has been incubated for longer periods, the embryo is well developed and the features of a baby duck are recognizable. The partially-developed embryo bones are soft enough to chew and swallow as a whole. In the Philippines it is a common street-food and valued for it’s high protein content and healing powers! In the Philippines, it is traditionally preferred to eat balut eggs with salt and/or a chili, garlic and vinegar mixture to season.

Follow the advice of the Happy Mask Salesman...

Hello mom and family and anyone else who wants me to say hi to them!

I’m sort of annoyed right now because I just typed this entire e-mail

and then there was an internet problem and so now I am doing it all

over again. It didn’t even save in my drafts. Lame!!!

Several crazy things happened this week. One of them is not super

happy so I’ll say it first and get it over with. One of our

progressing investigators totally dropped us. We went to her house to

teach her and she came out and wouldn’t even talk to us. I don’t get

why. It was really awkward. She just sat down and stared into the

distance. It was her sister-in-law that said she didn’t want to listen

to us anymore. It was a super bummer, but understandable considering

the fact that she is only 14. Hopefully someday she will be baptized.

Her brother is our branch mission leader, so she has support.

Hint for those who won't understand the Pokemon reference below...

The next was an awesome miracle. One of our recent convert’s BCR

(baptism/confirmation record) went missing and so we were sent to make

a new one. It had to be done by Saturday and we were just told

Thursday night. It’s not really hard to fill out, but the problem was

getting in contact with the person. She lives farther away than 'Far

Far Away' from Shrek, and trikes are super hard to find to go there.

Harder than Ash’s Metapod. We’ve tried to go there a few times the

past few weeks, but she’s never been home and it was a huge waste of

time ‘cause then we have to walk like 2 hours back. The miracle is

that right as we arrived at the terminal, we saw sister Gladis, the

person who we were going to’s daughter. It just turns out that Gladis

is going home for the weekend and also a trike was just leaving to go

there in like 5 minutes. We usually have to wait forever to get a

trike there, but not this time. Every thing worked out perfect to get

the BCR filled out and she and Gladis went to church for the first

time in a couple months. 

Filipino Trike

Miracles do happen these days just like Moroni says. You just have to follow the advice of the Happy Mask Salesman and “have faith. Hm hm hm hm hm hm hm” If you have faith, you

will not meet with a terrible fate at the last day. That’s a promise from me to you.

Heidi had to tell Steve and I who the Happy Mask Salesman was...she was able to rub her hands together and do the crazy laugh represented by Robert's Hm hm hm... She declined the opportunity to be recorded and featured on the blog demonstrating the line from Zelda. hahaha I'm not sure how our kids turned out this weird???

The last crazy thing actually was just this morning. It was during

companion study and Elder Corpuz was practice-teaching me about

baptism when the phone meowed (our text tone is a cat). It was

President Ostler. He said I am being transferred to Pamplona ward,

Paranaque West Zone. Not only that, but I’m district leader too! I

guess President Ostler recognized I was such an outstanding house

mouse and thought I could handle being district leader. I’m sort of

nervous, and feel like I don’t have the leadership skills needed, but

I will do my best, and I know that Heavenly Father will help me too.

So yeah.

 I’m gonna miss Aborlan!!! And all the crazy people too. Just the

other day there was this crazy guy walking around with a 5 piso coin

in his ear. I think he forgot his headphones and so he put 5 pisos in

there instead. Hahaha Filipinos are funny!

That’s so awesome you are almost done with the Book of Mormon again.

Something President Demille said to me before my mission was to pray

about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon at least once a week,

and that each time you do, the Holy Ghost will tell you again and

again that it’s true and that each time you do, you testimony will get

stronger and stronger with each witness. You should do that too. It’s

helped me a lot. Alam ko na totoo Ang Aklat ni Mormon.  I know it’s

true in english too! Haha

I definitely will keep enjoying my exotic food. Just this morning our

elders quorum president came to our house during companion study I

opened the door. "Ah. Kamusta po president Ayade?" Then he held up a

plastic bag and was like, "Squid!" hahaha He gave us a bag of squid to

eat for dinner. He's so nice! WE'RE HAVING SQUID TONIGHT! hahaha

Mahal ko kayong lahat!!!

Elder Fawson