The Big 19

This week was so sick.  I'm so grateful to our Heavenly Father for the success we were able to find and the edification that I have experienced through having a week like this.  It was a little slow at first but we made it through with some great experiences.

To summarize all of it:  1)  We had a service project at a member's house in which we sanded down a staircase for 2 hours so that they could repaint it... INTENSE.  2)  Interviews with THE PRESIDENT FERMANIS.  3)  We had exchanges yet again on Wednesday.  4)  Our investigators attended church on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!  For some it was their first time to attend church in over two months and for others it was their first time to attend church period!!!  I love it.  5)  We got to go to our Manila Philippines Temple and do a session there!  

As you can see this week has been super busy and eventful!  It actually started out sucking and was super stressful because my card that has ALL of my mission pictures was infected by a virus at one of these computer shops and I also lost my favorite umbrella which is my best friend here in the mission field.  We also faced some hard times finding new investigators and people who were willing to listen to us this week and that left me feeling pretty washed out but I remembered the advice that President Fermanis had given me in our interview.  Whenever we are facing hard times in life, it's Heavenly Father's way of edifying us and helping us to be stronger and it will mold us to what he wants us to become!  Just something to think about when you're going through a hard time!!  I was able to maintain a more positive attitude and also I was able to get rid of my virus and found my favorite umbrella!!!  Yeah this week was great.  

I was only able to take a few pictures this week at the temple but I can promise there will be a lot next week.  

Thank you so much to those who have wished me an advanced happy birthday and shoutout to my wonderful family and extended family who hooked it up with the birthday package!!!!  I turn 19 on Friday... I'm so old bury me now. I love you all have a good week!  

Elder Burdeos

Ang Hari ng Tondo

We have been so grateful for this week.  We have managed to really work through the stress and we've seen the blessings coming from it.  We've found some solid new investigators, given out baptismal dates, and delivered some strong lessons this week.  

  Something that really contributed to the drive and motivation behind our work this week was our Zone Conference on Tuesday.  We had the opportunity to receive guidance from President and Sister Fermanis and it was very inspiring.  We focused on how our lessons should focus on The Restoration of the Gospel because the message that God had reached out to us once again through calling a prophet and revealed another testament of scripture is something that no other religion can say they have. 

I had just finished the Book of Mormon again and I was going to focus my studies on The New Testament.  I went a couple of days without reading the Book of Mormon it just didn't feel right.  As members of this church we should be reading The Book of Mormon every single day.  God communicating with us every day and giving us guidance is never something we should take for granted.  I can testify that if we read The Book of Mormon every day, even just a little, we will be able to hold onto our testimonies and feel the pure love of God. 

This week I became the "Hari ng Tondo"  (King of Tondo)  All that means is i've worked in every area in Tondo.  (I went on exchanges with Elder Prandas on Tuesday)  The term actually comes from a man named Asiong Salonga who was an infamous gangster here in Tondo.  sick.  The little girl in this picture was so dang cute.  Apparently she's scared of Moroni from the Book of Mormon so her parents always use him and his name to get her to behave. 

A highly requested picture of me holding a turtle

THE MORMON JEEPNEY.  You already know we rolled out it this.  

Alrighty folks that's it for now be sure to say your prayers and give your moms hugs just because.  Love you

Elder Burdeos

Born a Mormon, Die a Mormon

Not too much to report on this week but I had a pretty good time.

The difficult thing about our area is nobody is consistently home on weekdays so Saturday is really the only time we can teach people.  So we have very few lessons throughout the week then we are scattering to teach when Saturday comes and unfortunately this Saturday a lot of lessons fell through which left us feeling pretty discouraged.  Our focus right now is just finding new investigators (that are hopefully available for more than one day of the week).

We did have a new investigator this week who said something that I really liked.  He said that he is willing to hear our message but warned us that he was "born a Roman Catholic, and will die as a Roman Catholic".  Even though that wasn't exactly the best news for us, I really respected that.  Looking at it from my perspective, I was born a member of this church and I will die as a member of this church.  I've seen the miracles, known the grace, and felt the peace and blessings that comes from knowing that we all have a loving Heavenly Father who has a plan for us to return to Him as eternal families.  Nothing anybody says here can ever change that.  "And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken."  Jacob 7:5

Missions are the BEST when you hold onto your testimony.

I made a salad because that's actually all I know how to make... 

Have an amazing week and hold onto the iron rod!!!

Elder Burdeos

Hey I finally ate a burger

I'm sure as you have all read the title, nothing too spectacular happened this week so i'm going to try and keep this email relatively short.  

This was a very tough week.  It pushed us physically and really tried our faith.  Up until the latter part of the week we found very little success.  Our investigators either weren't home, leaving soon, or had some other reasons as to why they were unavailable at the moment.  It can be REALLY frustrating sometimes when you feel like you're giving your all and seeing little payout or outcome from your efforts.  There are some days you really just want to give up and run away from all trials and struggles.  I testify that it is in those times that we feel so desperate and useless that God is ready to lift us up and help us.  All we need to do is remember to turn to him.  He loves us as His children and He may be the only one who knows what we're going through so He is on hold waiting to see what we will do next.  A really funny experience that i'd like to share happened while we were contacting a media referral we received from the office.  We were introducing ourselves and he asks us if our chapel is the one with the basketball court and we say yes.  He then asks us if we know why our church has a basketball court and we ask him why.  He then goes into his house to search for something and comes back with a picture in his hand and says, "Because basketball is the sport of the Savior".  He then shows us the Picture and lone behold, a picture of the Savior in full basketball attire, shorts and jersey dribbling a basketball!! That was one of the most interesting conversations I think i've ever had...  You learn something new every day!

As the title states, I finally ate a burger.  It was incredible and it came with disposable gloves so that I wouldn't get my hands messy... GENIUSES!  

We found this cool landmark in our area.  KKK does not mean what you think it does.  It means, "Kataas-taasan Kagalang-galang Katipunan nang mga Anak nang bayan"  

...Yeah whatever that means

We also celebrated Bishop's birthday this week at their house!  Our Bishop is awesome and super helpful to us and to the progressing of this work.

That's it for this week I hope you all remember we are children of the Highest God!!!!!!

Elder Burdeos