You Can't See Me

Kamusta yung mga nagbabasa ng emails ko hanggang ngayon.  Konti lang kayo seguro hahaha!

We're killing it here in Makati.  We've been able to see some small miracles coming from our diligent work in our area.  I come home super tired every day and I wake up maybe even more tired but we've found a way to make it work.  

One day we were on exchanges and a man walking his dog stops us on the street and says, "Elders!!  I have a question!  What's the difference between the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood?"  What in the world.  How crazy is that?  Turns out a while back, this man had a copy of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration Pamphlet but moved away before he could really be taught.  We were super excited to hear about that and we've been teaching him ever since!  Another super cool experience came during a super long stressful day.  Elder Asay and I had just been walking back and forth from appointments that fell through so we just opened our planners and started going to some of our potential investigators.  I got the impression to visit the house of a man we had street contacted the other day.  We looked for his house for a good 20 minutes walking up and down the street but we could not seem to find it so we decided to just give up on that.  However, we passed by an investigator who we had dropped a while back because he was rarely available due to his work and his little kids.  We decided to head to his house even though we didn't really want to because it just seemed like a waste of time walking to his house and we didn't feel like getting rejected for what felt like the 100th time that week; but we had nothing to lose so we did it.  Turns out we caught him at the perfect time.  Him and his wife were just sitting in the living room playing with their 3 little kids.  They let us in and let them teach us and we were able to really connect the gospel to their needs.  Brother had to lose his job to take care of his family and was going through a lot of stressful times but we were able to share some scriptures from the Book of Mormon that seemed to comfort him and bring him some happiness that day.  He invited us to come back and teach them about the message this week!  

It really boosted our testimony that the Lord has His own way of moving this work along.  Even though what we feel we should do may not be what we want to do or it may seem pointless at first, if you follow that spirit you'll follow the will of God which ultimately leads to happiness.  I stand by what my awesome companion said this week, "Straying away from the will of God is straying away from the happiness that he has prepared for you".

Elder Adawag and I went on exchanges this week.  He claims to be full Filipino but deep down I know he's a chinese kwanner.  He's crazy.  I love the guy.

We seem happy but we're dead inside :))))

"You can't see me" - The legend, John Cena.

​Have fun.  Be safe.  See a doctor if the symptoms persist.  Love you.

Elder Burdeos​

The Great Oil Explosion of 2017

Wow time flies when you're having fun.  We've been really pushing ourselves to find people to teach and I feel that the Lord has helped us to find some success.  Elder Asay has a super strong desire to go out and talk to everybody and it has brought fire to our companionship and motivated me as well.  So one day Elder Asay and I were sharing what we learned in our personal study and it turns out we learned some pretty similar things.  The main point was that everybody deserves to hear the message, being children of God.  In any circumstance we were going to try and talk to anybody we could.  So we did and we have seen blessings and encountered people that we know have been set in our way by God for us to teach.  It really strengthened my testimony about trusting in God and having faith that our effort will not go to waste.  If we love the people around us we'll have a natural desire to share this message with them.  Sometimes it may be hard to love someone, for example we knocked on one of our investigator's doors and he answered wearing University of Utah sleeping pants...  So that was super tough.  Still love him anyways.  I didn't get to take many pictures at all this week because my camera was dead and my last companion took the charger :(  But i'll get another one and have more next week.

These are my new house mates in Makati.  They're incredible Elders and we get all get along super well.

I like working with a brand new missionary because they're super bold and they have their purpose fresh in their mind everyday.  That's it, i'm out.  Love you

Elder Burdeos  

Manila West ---> Makati (TATAY GABE)

This week was probably the most hectic week of my mission so far...  

So during district meeting it was announced that I would be transferring to Makati 2C with Elder Asay.  So nothing really stood out to me, just another area and another Filipino companion.  So we said some SUPER painful goodbyes to some members and investigators and headed to Buendia the next day to meet our new companions.  When I got out of the car our zone leaders approached me and and said, "Elder Burdeos, shouldn't you be at the mission home?"  and I was super confused as to why I needed to be at the mission home and it was then they informed me that Elder Asay is straight out of the MTC and i'll be training him.  So at that point I was super excited because I was kind of hoping that I would be able to train at one point but I was also panicking because I was going to be super late to the meeting.  I waited for a taxi with Elder Nacalaban, my old district leader who was also not informed that he would be training a new missionary and we headed to the mission home.  Upon arrival I was super shocked to find out that Elder Asay is from Mapleton, Utah and his name is actually pronounced AY-CEE.  He is officially the first American that i'll be working with on my mission so I was super excited.  So we had our orientation and told us all that we needed to know to train these missionaries.  After our orientation we made our way back to our new apartment and we then encountered a new problem.  Our area doesn't even exist yet.  We'll be opening a new area in Makati.  It's pretty hard just to start in a brand new area but it's even more difficult when you have no idea what your area even is.  At first I was very intimidated and didn't know what to do so we just decided to walk around and find people and it was surprisingly super effective!!!  Elder Asay is incredible and the people here love him!!  He's adjusting super well and his tagalog is incredible for being right out of the MTC.  He's a super humble missionary who follows direction and counsel super well and he has such a strong desire to work hard and serve the Lord... Does it get any better than that?!  

So on Sunday we attended a live stream broadcast from the Kia theater.  THE PHILIPPINES JUST REACHED 100 STAKES!!  Elder Neil L. Anderson visited to help open the 100th stake in Mandaluyong, which is our mission!!  I felt the spirit so strongly during the conference, just thinking about how grateful I am to be serving in a country that is so prepared for the gospel and it just keeps motivating us to keep pushing because we are only getting started here and I know there are people here that the Lord is preparing for us to teach! 

Last P-day with the squad in Tondo (Team Drogas)  If any of you were wondering, all of us were transferred.

Here are some of our investigators that were super hard to say bye to. They'll be getting baptized the last week of this month and Sister Mariefe will be getting married as well!! 

In-field orientation with the new missionaries

This is me and my Anak (son)  Elder Asay.  He is THE MAN.  He's super chill and we get along super well, mostly because he's into sports and knows what Chick fil-a is :))

Sorry this email was so dang long but this week was awesome.  I'll be sure to send some pictures of the area next week!!  I love you all!

Elder Burdeos