I can now testify for myself, that green eggs are not the best...

Helo mundo. That's tagalog for, "Hello world."

This is my investigator's manokan (place where he takes care of his chickens).

Before I get into the everyday goings on in my life, I have a story to tell you. I woke up Wednesday morning and thought it would be just an average morning, but little did I know there would be something very different. It all happened when cooking my breakfast. I put my bread in the toaster oven thing, then turned on the stove to heat up the pan for my eggs. I grabbed a couple eggs from the fridge, and cracked one onto the pan. It was perfect. The yolk didn't break or anything! I flipped the egg. Perpekto pa rin [perfect still]. I spatula-ed it onto my plate. I cracked the other egg onto the pan and much to my surprise, the egg whites wasn't very white. I think we could call it egg greens. I cooked it just like a regular egg and it turned out alright, except that it was green. I debated on not eating it, but then said to myself, “walang sayang!” [‘no affection!”] You may be thinking that's super gross, but I remembered Dr. Seuss' book, Green Eggs and Ham. That guy didn't want to eat the green eggs, but thanks to Sam I Am's persistence, he figured out that green eggs are actually really good. I can now testify for myself, that green eggs are not the best, and not nearly as good as the normal egg, but it didn't kill me either. (I included a photo of my green egg) Later on in the week we learned that almost the entire carton of eggs we bought that week were super bad and not suitable to be eaten by humans. We tossed them out and the neighbors dog went for them. So much for walang sayang. :)

I think I said last week we were going to look for star fish. Just so you know, we found them. Their entire hive. At first we were looking at couldn't find a single one, then after about a half an hour on our way back there were suddenly like a hundred along the way. It was awesome! Star fish are fun.

These were my companions when I worked in Taytay last week. Elder DelPilar and Elder DeCastro. They're super awesome!

Yeah. Elder Wilkes is pretty guwapo.

We went on Exchanges in Taytay last week too which is always fun! 

We were blessed once again to be the only ones in the shuttle going there. That's always the best thing ever, because when they cram 15 people onto 12 seats it gets a bit crowded. My knees don't appreciate it very much. It was a good exchange. We got rained on, but only a little. Every time the rain started to get super malakas [strong] we would go in someones house for a lesson, and then we would finish just as the rain stopped. That happened like 3 times. I was really pleased 'cause I forgot to bring my payong [umbrella].

Suffer the children to come unto me.

Another cool thing happened just yesterday. We were teaching Maryann (the bunsong kapatid [youngest sibling] of sister Marissa) and we asked about her Book of Mormon reading, and she's already to chapter 3 of 1st Nephi. It's cool 'cause we just gave her the book last Wednesday or something. She even read the whole pambungad, [introduction], testimony of the witnesses and of Joseph Smith. She's definitely getting baptized soon. Our lesson yesterday was Ang Word of Wisdom (the word of wisdom). She was fine with everything but one thing. Kape (coffee)! That is the worst thing. It gets everyone. Don't worry though. She promised not to drink it ever again magpakailanman [forever]. Cool stuff. 

Here's brother Joseph Alquezar eating a banana. You don't know him, but he's one of the coolest people I've met my whole mission. The lady in the photo is his wife. She's way cool too!!!

A crazy thing happened yesterday. We got home in the evening and were super hungry so we made a huge thing of spaghetti and ate ourselves silly, then later while Elder Tanner was taking out the trash (sometimes he likes to do the Rob job) and the neighbors were having a birthday party and were like, "Kain tayo!" [Let’s eat] That's the Filipino way of saying hi if they just so happen to be eating at the time. They don't really want to share their food, unless they say it 3 times. That's the magic number daw (There goes that school house rock song again! haha) the first time he was just like "sige po" like we always do. Then they said it again, "Kain tayo." He started explaining we had just filled our bellies to the brim on spaghetti when it happened the 3rd time. "Kain tayo!" (Notice the explanation point on this last one) He couldn't refuse. We went and they loaded up a couple plates for us. It was good food, but we were already oh so super duper busog. Somehow I managed to get it all down. Then it was like 10:25 and time for sleep. I still haven't eaten anything today and I'm still not hungry. Fun story huh. Yup. Filipinos take their birthdays pretty seriously!

Elder Fawson staying happy!

Robert inherited the coveted single eyebrow lifting gene :)

That's about all the interesting things I have to say about this week. I'm still safe and all is well in Roxas. I may not be in Roxas for much longer though. Next week is transfers and I have reason to think that there is a good chance I'll be transferring for my last transfer. It's not sigurado [sure] yet though. We'll see what happens. So yeah. Mahal ko kayo! Have a good week! I know I will. :)

We eat here sometimes and always order footlongs (really long hotdogs) and the people always are surprised that we want an entire footlong. Maybe they think we can't kaya the whole thing, and always double-check that we don't want just a 6 inch footlong. hahahaha

Another weird thing I just remembered is that this morning we went to the palengke (market) to buy some beef for our tacos we want to make before Elder Tanner goes home so we bought a kilo and as we were walking home we noticed it was almost all bone. They basically gave us a kilo of cow bone with a little bit of meat on it. That was disappointing. Now you can be thankful every time you go to the store and buy preground, boneless beef. :) Mahal kita ulit!  [I love you again] :)

Elder Fawson

Here's that dead rat on our porch last week.

✊we tao-poed this house and they gave us the go away hand...✋

Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat! at least it's hapon dito. Maybe it's more in the gabi time for you. :)

[ Good afternoon to everyone! At least it's afternoon here. Maybe it's more in the night time for you. :) ]

This week has been pretty awesome. We were OYMing last Tuesday and we Tao-poed [knock knocked] this house and they gave us the go away hand, so we turned around just in time to see this guy across the street look at us then shut his door in the jiffiest way possible (even jiffier than peanut butter). We went and tao-poed his house like any good missionary would do and he pulled the old I'm-going-to-be-really-quiet-and-wait-for-them-to-go-away trick on us. We debated on camping out in front of his house all night so we could catch him on his way to work in the morning but opted out and finally left. 

Bowser

Then we went to a house next to a tree covered in Bowser spikes and they let us right in. I like it when that happens! They were a super nice family and the dad already knows a bit about the church. We were like, "We're missionaries." and he was like, "Oh, Moroni, right?" "Yeah. that is right!" They seem super prepared. His wife was sorta sad that day because her mom had died the week before and she was doing some funeral thing later, so we've got a good Plan of Salvation message for her. :) The gospel really is for everyone! That was just one of the miracles we saw this week. Life is good!

We had stake coordination meeting last Thursday, so that killed almost all of that day to work, but it was fun anyways. Elder Tanner got to see Bishop Edwards talk about his strategies to help out his dead wood one last time, so you could say it was all worth it! :)

Another fun thing happened on Saturday. We found a dead rat in our back area. We just got rid of him this morning, and he was already half decayed and covered in hundreds of maggots. Don't worry, I snapped a photo that I'll send you someday when I can figure out my flash drive. Probably next week. :) 

Guess what. Elder Tanner has only like 2 weeks left in his mission and then I have only like less than 2 months. Then Elder Wilkes who just got here last transfer has only like 2 years left. that's three twos. If I was playing phase 10 I would only need one for set of 3 to pass the first phase. Cool huh? Wait!!! We had an investigator family come to church yesterday "and there were 3 in the family (School House Rock, 3 is a Magic Number)." That's my second set! Phase 2, I'm ready for ya! The only problem is I don't remember what phase 2 was. :(

Elder Tanner shared with me a discovery he made in his personal study the other day. I want you all to read D&C 38:28. Read it and think really hard how to apply that to your life. If a giant snake doesn't come to mind, I'll be sorely disappointed! :)

That's about all the fun stuff I did this week, except that we made a bunch of snickerdoodles this morning. Ovens are such a blessing! Mahal ko kayo!!!

Elder Fawson

The earthquake was far from my Palawan paradise.

Hello world!

You may have noticed from the subject line that there was an earthquake a few days ago. Our phone told us so. it was a magnitude of 6.1 daw. I don't know if that's super big or what. We didn't feel it at all though because it happened in Batangas, which is far from my Palawan paradise of Roxas. It would have been a bit closer had I been in Manila, but Uncle Ed and Aunt Elaine would have had it far worse than me. I haven't heard any other news, so probably it's not a gigantor deal. 

 Rob got to play hymns for everyone at Zone Conference :)

Elder Tanner and Elder Fawson's break-out class.

This week was our zone conference, so that's always fun. We got to learn loads of cool stuff from President Fermanis, then teach loads of cool stuff in the break-out classes. Elder Tanner and I taught about using the Book of Mormon in EVERY aspect of the work. Not only in teaching, but in finding, asking for referrals, answering questions, resolving concerns, studies, and anything else that you can think of that a missionary does. I want to reiterate real quick what President Monson said about the Book of Mormon at the last Conference, that if you're not reading it every day, "please do so." I think that's his nice way of saying, "thou shalt do so!" In this regard I stand with Nike. "Just do it." I am. I'm learning about faith this time through, and this morning I just started into the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi. Fun fun fun!!!

Photos of Zone conference from Sister Fermanis' FB page

A crazy thing happened just before zone conference started. A few of us were sitting in the gym with one of the senior couples, and he started saying he wasn't feeling well and asked President Maskera to drive him home. Then he got super pale, and passed out. A couple people caught him before he fell out of his chair and he was just limp for a little bit then started to make weird sounds in his throat. after about 20 seconds or so he woke up and we gave him a blessing. Someone anointed him with oil then they all looked at me and I went to seal the anointing and give the blessing. It was super all of a sudden. After the blessing he was taken to a car and driven home. His wife said he would be fine, but that was the last I heard from him. Then the next day when we got home that night we got a text that said he was all well again and able to go about his normal missionary duties that day. So let this be a reminder to you that the priesthood is real. Don't take it for granted, and if you are a holder, always be worthy to use it, because you never know when the time will come that you'll need it. That was a cool spiritual experience that happened this week. 

There was a frog in our house last night. I caught him and put him in a little garden area out front. I think he'd appreciate living there more than under our sofa. :)

We found a new investigator couple this week too. They're Muslims and right in the middle of us sharing about the restoration the guys prayer reminder alarm went off and we had to cut it short so he wasn't late for his prayer. I guess they have set times that they have to pray every day. They are super nice though, and I was able to eat my first Nutella sandwich since my arrival here in Roxas more than 6 months ago. What a blessing that was! :)

That about sums up all the excitement of my week. I hope you all had Nutella sandwiches and frogs a part of your life this week too! Oh yeah, and the Book of Mormon. Good stuff, that Nutella! :)

Mahal ko kayo!!! Ingat.

Elder Fawson

The Book of Mormon is so cool

kamusta kayo? 

Busy ako.

Pwede po ba kaming makapagkilala sa inyo?

Busy ako.

Ako si Elder Fawson. Ano po ang pangalan ninyo?

next time na lang. Busy ako.

Sige po. Pero ano ang pangalan mo? 

................. *Pumasok sa bahay at hindi na siya lumabas

Sige. Ingat.

That's a conversation I have almost on the daily, but this week it didn't even happen once. Wanna know why? Syempre you wanna know! Because I had almost 0 time in my area. Last week was crazy! We had Pday on Monday, then Tuesday after lunch we went to Puerto, then on Wednesday we flew to Manila and our plane was delayed like 4 hours, then on Thursday we went to MLC then our flight to Puerto after MLC was delayed to the next day so I worked with Elder Zesiger in my very first area of my mission which was super fun and Elder Zesiger almost got killed by a super makulit [troublesome/ demanding] kid waving a toy gun around, then on Friday we flew to Puerto and came back to Roxas on a super masikit [cheerful] shuttle, then we did our studies for the day then it was time for bed, then on Saturday we did weekly planning and were able to work a bit when tanghali [noon] rolled around, then we had a baptism to attend in our district that evening then I woke up and it was Sunday and I finished the Book of Mormon again then we went to church and after church I got to interview a couple people for baptism and they both passed, then we did our studies for Sundays then we worked a bit that evening and found a couple new investigators named Robin and Hellen who are Catholic (just like almost everyone else) Then we came home and ate spaghetti and followed up our district leaders then I got followed up by Elder Zesiger, then I slept, then I woke up and started reading the Book of Mormon again, then we made a plate of Fibonacci pancakes now I'm here. I think I just won a reward for the longest run-on sentence ever. :)

I really did finish the Book of Mormon again. It was super cool. What I did this time is underline all the different names of the Godhead, then made a list on the back cover. Every time is said a name of Jesus Christ I underlined it in green ('cause that's my favorite color), then Heavenly Father was blue, and the Holy Ghost was red. I had no idea there were so many names for Christ. By the time I finished Moroni 10 I had a total of 95 different names/titles for him. Apparently someone at BYU said he found 101, so I guess I have to read it again and find the other 6. haha It was super cool. You'd think after you finish Alma or something they just wouldn't be able to think of any more, but they just keep coming! You should try it if you want, then tell me how many you find. The Book of Mormon is so cool!

I found a blister on my heel last week too, so that was fun... sorta. It's on my right foot. That foot is just so kawawa [poor]. That's the foot that got an ingrown toenail, that's the one I stubbed my toe super hard and only cried for less than 20 minutes, and now it has a blister. Poor guy! 

All is well. I'll be able to work a bit more this week, so that's good. We are going to Puerto again for zone conference, but that will just be a 2 day affair, not 4. We get to stay in a Hotel again. That means another one of those hot showers that are oh so nice. The only thing that could make it better is if they had one of those frog bathroom mats that are in the bathroom at home. That's a cool frog mat!

So yeah. That's what I've been up to lately. All is well in Roxas. :) I hope you all have a great rest of the week. I know I will! Mahal ko kayo.

Elder Fawson

I was supposed to sing a solo for General Conference...

Hello my friends! (remember that one movie we watched for ward youth conference like 5 years ago? I think it was called "Unitards." That's what I was trying to quote) :)

I'm glad dad had such a fun time with the Mila and Eevee and that all was well for you this week too. My week was super great!  We had a half-day mission with the ward last Saturday and we worked with this lolo [grandfather] named Tatay Sornito. He is so awesome! we got like 7 new investigators in only 3 hours. That's the power of member workers! :) One of them was named Nedi and at the very start she was asking about modern day prophets. We were like, "That is exactly what we wanted to share with you today. Let me tell you about this guy named Joseph Smith..." It was an awesome lesson and at the end she said she would come to church the next day. The only bummer is that she didn't come to church. But that's 'cause her son got super sick. The good part is that we saw her about 15 minutes ago on the daan [way] coming here to the computer shop and she apologized and said she would come "next week na lang." Tatay Sornito [Daddy Sornito] is a champion! One time when we went to his house we heard from above us, "elders!" Then he climbs down this tree he'd been in collecting fruit. He's like 60 years old and still climbing trees like a modern Filipino Mowgli. He's our most dependable member worker by far!

I had a dream the other night that I think might interest you. I was in a super huge family history library doing some family history work. It was interesting. Every generation back I went, I had to go another level down stairs. I slowly made my way down to dungeon level 2 to 3 until finally I made it all the way down to level 7. While working on my great-great-great-great-great grandparents (that's 5 greats) I was stuck and didn't know what to do. I said a prayer that I could figure out my problem and when I opened my eyes, a glorious vision opened up before me. If you want to read Joseph Smith's account of when Moroni appeared to him in his bedroom, that's what it was like. A super white bright portal opened up above me and an angel slowly descended down from the portal. When he was completely visible the portal closed and he spoke to me. He said, "My name is Merlin. I'v been sent to help you with your family history. From that point on he answered my questions and helped me fill in all the information that was lacking. I was almost ready to go down to the next level, dungeon level 8, when suddenly the alarm went off and I woke up. It was an awesome dream and I can still visualize it really well if I think about it. It was awesome!!!!

I had another dream that was pretty good too. I was supposed to sing a solo for general conference, but my accompanist couldn't find his music and was looking for it for minutes and then I guess Elder Holland got sick of waiting, so he went up to the organ and played a crazy organ solo instead. That was a nice dream too. I think it's interesting that the things you do every day affect what you even dream about. I don't think I ever would have dreamed of me performing in general conference, but now that I'm a missionary stuff like that happens. It's pretty fun. Being a missionary is fun! If you haven't done it before I highly recommend it. :)

These guys cracking up at Robert during his general conference dream... hahaha

This week is MLC so that means I'm going to Manila. That means I won't have any work in my area for almost all week. We leave Roxas on Tuesday and won't be back 'til Friday. Rough stuff! MLC is fun though. They always have these super tasty treats afterwards. :) So yeah. Weeks like this always go by so fast. When I go to Manila time is supposed to pause here, but it doesn't, so when I get home it feels like Wednesday, but it's actually Friday and time to do weekly planning... again! Weekly planning always comes around so fast! Time is weird! 

Anyways, Mahal ko po kayo!!! [I love you all!!!]

Elder Fawson

P.S. I wanted to send some photos, but the computers here are super ayaw [do not] to my flashdrive. Next week na lang! [That’s all!] The anticipation must be killing you. Especially to see the monkey photos (yup, that's a plural noun) that I took for Heidi. :)

[Cute excerpt from a separate letter]

I was just looking at my family history...seeing if Merlin was in the 7th generation back and I noticed a green temple on the name of Cyrus Bates. He's from your side. Open up the arrow above James O Gamble, then the arrow above Appollos Lambson. It's just sitting there waiting for some savior on mount zion to help him out. :) Maybe you could do it. It's not reserved or anything.

There are a few blank spaces in my 7th generation back. When I get home I'll find out who they are and probably one of them is named Merlin. I'm super excited about this!

Life is good! Paradise, here I stay!!

Hello everybody!

I hope you all had a grand time playing and doing all the fun things you do. I did! It was a pretty average week with lots of time to work with our people. the only thing going on was stake coordination on Thursday. We left that afternoon after lunch, spent two hours in one of those masikit [cheerful] torture shuttles, went to the mall to buy some light bulbs, headed to the church, did our reporting, two more hours on a torture shuttle, and got home before 10:00. That's a new record. One time it was past mid-night when we got home from stake coordination. All went well though, and we now have our new light bulbs working so our bahay [house] is way brighter now! 

The craziest thing happened. Two Sundays ago Elder Tanner was asked to give a talk for sacrament meeting, but he used his vain flattering words to weasel his way out of it, but at the same time weaseling me into it. He was like, "Next week is transfer week, and Elder Fawson has been here for like 6 months now so this will be his last Sunday in the ward. He should do the talk." Bishop was like, "Yeah. Your right. It should be Elder Fawson!" So I gave my talk (which was most superb by the way!!!) and now the entire ward is ready to see me off, but then when I logged onto my E-mail today the transfer announcement was there and I'm not even leaving. I'm going to be here for at least 7 months. I'm so happy! but Elder Tanner so should have given that talk! Oh well. I'm so happy to be with him still. It's so sweet. This'll be my 5th transfer here! Life is good! Paradise, Here I stay!!

I got some fun photos of a monkey in our area, so that'll make Heidi pretty jealous! :) 

I don't have a lot more to say. I'm just happy I'm not leaving! We've got some baptisms coming up this next month that I almost was going to miss. Hindi na! Nandito ako pa rin! Ang saya-saya ko! Ito ang pinakamagandang balita na narinig ko sa buong araw!! [No longer! I'm still here! I'm very happy! This is the best news I've heard all day !!] Sorry if you can't understand that. My joy caused a wild tagalog outburst. It happens minsan [sometimes] (there it goes again! haha)

Yup. All is well.

Elder Fawson

20 new investigators are proof of this week's hardworkingness

Robert's Zone in Roxas

With his new mission president and his wife President and Sister Fermanis from New Zealand.

Helo po!

This week is super awesome! We had almost nothing to do to distract us from working in our own area. This is the most full week of work I've had in the past 2 transfers, so that was cool. Our 20 new investigators we found are proof of our kasipagan (hardworkingness). :) 4 of those investigators are a new family we found. It all started last Thursday. We had been punted for a few hours (which I wish happened a bit less often) and were on our way to a birthday party of a member  we had been invited to, the Orio family, when we decided to stop by this house just a few houses away from our destination. We said "Tao po!" and this lady walked out and started talking to us. I could see inside this bald guy sitting facing away from us and he didn't have a shirt on. Usually shirtless bald guys have this impression in my mind as super stern grumpy people, but as he heard us talking he started putting a shirt on and told us to com inside. Turns out he's not grumpy at all, but super friendly and nice. We had a nice first lesson with them and taught them about temples because he used to live in Quezon city right close to the Manila temple and had some questions about that. It was great, and the next lesson we taught them about Joseph Smith and they were super cool about that too. Brother had to work yesterday kaya hindi sila nakapagsimba [so they an not go to church], but I feel they are super prepared and ready for the gospel. I like it when stuff like that happens. 

That's not the only thing that happened that was crazy cool this week. Just yesterday evening we were teaching this girl and she has had some bad experiences with some other churches she's been to (I won't go way into it) and she started saying to us "I wish I had a Mormon bible so I could see what it has that could help me." Then we were like, "well sister, we have a Book of Mormon with us that we could give to you if you want." Then she was all like "Wey! (that's the Filipino equivalent for "your joshin' with me!") Talaga? (for reals?)" Then we were like "Syempre! (Of course)" and gave it to her. Then she was like 20 seconds straight of "Salamat! salamat! salamat! salamat! salamat!" It was so cool. Then she gave the closing prayer and actually started crying. I've never had someone so excited about receiving a Book of Mormon before. It was awesome! What makes it even cooler is that during the whole lesson Satan was blasting Babylonian music super loud, but it was to no effect. The still small voice of the Spirit conquered the blasting speakers of evil and I felt like Satan took a spiritual round-house-kick to the face.

Those were the highlights of my week. We also made good use of our oven and baked like 30 cookies for us to eat all by ourselves. Maybe sometime we'll give some to the members as bribes for more referrals. hahahaha We just have so much brownie and cookie mix that we found at a mall in Puerto a few weeks ago and feel a need to ubos it before I get transferred. It's rough stuff! It really is. :)

inspecting a lightbulb in his apartment

at the church for a meeting with the president

President Fermanis came to visit Roxas last week to see what it's like up here so we had the whole zone meet in the Roxas chapel and had a little zone meeting when he got here. It was way cool. Before he got here I was thinking to myself, "I hope he likes it here!" Then I remembered a nice movie quote and tweaked it a bit for my situation that brought peace to my soul. "I think President Fermanis will be most pleased with the world of Roxas. I know I am!" (If anyone lacks wisdom of what movie that derives from, let him ask of Heidi)

Map of their area in their house

picture of Robert's kabahay

I must say, things are going pretty good. I wish I could just stay in Roxas for the rest of my mission, but I find the odds not in my favor. Whatever happens though, it'll be fine. That's called faith! 

Anywho, I'm glad you were able to have fun at the baby blessing of my new niece who I haven't seen yet and I hope you continue to have fun for the rest of your stay here on Earth until the time comes to check out of this hotel of mortality. I know I will. :)

Elder Fawson

I think this is the gate in front of Robert's house in Roxas

Elder Fawson bakes cookies in his oven for guests!

Elder Fawson and Elder Tanner next to their dusty shoes

Robert on the 4th of July eating a hot dog

no ladder required for changing light bulbs is handy

yummy shark meat

shark slices ready to cook up for dinner.