Elder David A. Bednar

What a spiritual week this was!  The culture is starting to sink in and i'm starting to adjust little by little.  Our mission was extremely blessed to be able to host a visit from Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  

He spake to us at the Buendia Chapel which is actually the very first chapel ever established in the Philippines.  As he spoke to us he talked with such passion and I was able to tell that he is not just some random guy who we claim to be a leader.  He is a man called of God to help guide and teach us with the power of the spirit.  He allowed us to raise our hands and he would answer any questions that we had regarding the gospel and his answers were always exactly what we as missionaries needed to hear.  I also had the opportunity to meet every missionary serving in the Philippines Manila Mission and I feel very blessed, they are very obedient and hard working.  The majority of us are Filipino and Polynesian.

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​While taking this picture waiting for Elder Bednar to arrive our whole mission sang a few hymns and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had.  Being in a room of servants of the Lord who are so in tune with the spirit and feeling the power in the room was indescribable.  Also the amount of talent found within our mission is off the charts.  Almost every single one of us has an incredible voice (I say almost every single one because I am the exception).  If ever you feel down or like there is no way to carry on, turn to your Heavenly Father.  Say a prayer or sing a hymn.  I can promise you that with the help and comfort of Heavenly Father always being there for you, you will be able to carry on and overcome ANYTHING.  

Elder Desabille and I dialed in on two investigators this week who have not been progressing as well as we would hope.  We planned on teaching them the Plan of Salvation and hopefully extending a commitment to attend church with us.  The moment we walked in, Tess immediately starting talking about baptism and asking questions regarding the topic.  We answered her questions and explained to her the importance of baptism and we were prompted to extend the commitment to prepare for baptism on March 18th so we did and they accepted!  We will now do everything that we can to help them prepare!  It felt amazing to see children of God progress and take that leap of faith to be baptized in His name in order to return to Him.  I'm very grateful to be here as a missionary and for this work, I can't wait to see many more souls accept this gospel and come unto Him!!  Love you all hope you have an amazing week!​

Elder Burdeos

Parañaque West

This week flew by!  I've been adjusting to the in field schedule and I really enjoy it actually.  

The Philippines is basically just one giant party everyone is always outside playing, dancing, and just enjoying life!  It is an extremely different culture here which I will go more into depth in later emails.  Right now we are focusing on 6 investigators.  We are hoping to gain more by following those who were discontinued in our area book for no reason.  The missionaries in this area before were not the best apparently.  We had 2 of our investigators Tess and Roland Montilla attend a temple trip with us.  We rode in a jeepney for 2 hours, got to the temple in the pouring rain, then rode back for another 3 hours because of traffic.  Terrible yet they were able to feel the spirit and really enjoyed it.  We're hoping to give them a baptismal date this week.  They've been attending church weekly since we've met with them.  I can already tell it's going to be an amazing time here in the Philippines.

Here are some pictures of my area i'll have more for you next week!!  I love you all be safe and the church is true!

Elder Burdeos

Welcome to Manila

I'm alive!!!!!  I felt the need to state that since it's been about 18 days since you last heard from me.  It has been 18 of the most hectic days of my life! We arrived safely in Manila on February 3rd.  Since our flight left Salt Lake City at around 11:30 pmto Hong Kong, I was able to successfully sleep through all of February 2nd!!!  It was the WORST flight of my life.  I was against a wall and my seat didn't recline so it was 15 hours of sleeping completely straight up.  As soon as we arrived here in Manila I started sweating hard and it was hard to breathe because of the humidity.  We got in the car to the MTC and held on for dear life.  There is 1 rule to driving in Manila and it's: don't crash.  Many instances I thought we were going to drive right through the cars in front of us but luckily we made it to the MTC safely.  We stayed at the Manila MTC for 5 days and it felt like a vacation.  We had the chance to go out and proselyte with some of the missionaries serving in Quezon City.  We also had the chance to visit the Manila Temple.  It is absolutely beautiful and it was amazing to be able to go through it.  I think that my favorite part of my MTC stay was being able to meet my Grandma for the first time and some of my cousins.  I had to say even more heart breaking goodbyes to my companions and to my district.  I left for the Manila mission home at 6 am on Wednesday and met President and Sister Ostler for the first time.  They are the coolest mission presidents ever and it makes me sad they will be leaving in July.  We had orientation and I received my first area assignment, Parañaque West!  My companion is native Filipino, Elder Desabille.  Since then i've just been adjusting to the new culture and schedule!! It Really is a whole different world here!

Love you all see you next week!

Elder Burdeos​