Elder Gabe Burdeos: Coron Days

This week was insane!

Exactly a year from this last week I was on an island on Palawan called Coron helping them start a branch in a remote part of the island called Busuanga. Well now we have Coron under our stewardship and that gave me the opportunity to go back and work with the missionaries currently on the island! I learned so much from them and I could really feel the love that they have for the people they serve in my time working with them.

This is Elder Boyce, a brand new missionary who recently arrived here in the mission on Halloween. If there's one thing that motivates me more than anything else it's working with a brand new missionary. Their desire to preach the gospel and courage heed to the promptings of the spirit is beyond measure. Sometimes we as missionaries get caught up on the physical aspect of the mission such as proselyting hours and numbers but new missionaries always remind us what this work is really about, inviting others to come unto Christ. They bring fire to the mission field and we love being able to work with them.

This is Sister Rose, a member in Busuanga! She was recently baptized in April and she has been a great help to the missionaries :)

On Wednesday morning, the morning before we left to catch our flight, we climbed a mountain in Coron that they call Mt. Tapyas and boy let me tell you I got a feel for just how out of shape that I've been on my mission while trying to climb that mountain hahaha. 721 steps has never been so difficult haha! When reaching the top of it I remembered a quote shared by one of the members in Sampaloc stating that the nicest views always come after the hardest climbs. We may not know why our life gets difficult or why we are experiencing the trials in our life but if we hold tight and stay faithful, God will make it known to us.