What in the world is Holy Week?

So this week was Holy Week!  A celebration of the Resurrection of our Savior!  This was new to me, we left the apartment and walked outside.  There was not a person in sight.  I began to think that we had just slept through the Apocalypse and we were the only ones alive but Elder Desabille explained to me that usually people go out of town on vacation or stay inside on Holy Week.  This was a good and bad thing for us.  Good, because we were able to get to our appointments REALLY fast with no traffic, and bad because nobody wants to hear from some little boys while they're celebrating Holy Week.  Since we were not having a very successful time finding new investigators, we decided to focus our attention on less active members and recent converts. This is Sister Corpus, a less active member in our ward.  She is SO nice.  We talked to her and taught her and after we were done teaching she saw that my bag was torn and jumped up and said "ELDER SAGLIT LANG" (Elder wait one second) and she went and grabbed her materials and told me she was going to fix my bag, and that she did.  She did an amazing job!  The people here are so hospitable and friendly!

This is me with Brother Aaron, one of our three youth workers.  We took this while Sister Corpus was fixing my bag.  Brother Aaron is such a great help to us because without him we wouldn't be able to visit some of our investigators due to what we call the 3rd lalaki rule.  Strong testimony too!

We also had our zone conference on Friday and it was so enjoyable.  We truly have the best Mission President.  I have a lot of trust and faith in President Ostler.  He'll be leaving in July though so that is a nice kick to the face but i'll enjoy him while we have him!!!  

And here is just a picture of me (in case you forgot what I look like), my room mate Elders, and Brother Credo, one of my favorite members.  Loving the work and it just keeps getting better and better!!!!  The church is true I love you all have an amazing week!!!!!

Earthquakes and Heartbreaks

Super crazy week this week!  A lot happened but i'll try my best to sum it all up in an email.

We had our interviews with President Ostler this week!  We ended up waiting at the chapel for 9 hours just studying and watching the approved church movies it was actually very enjoyable!  I had a great interview with President and got to know him better and he is incredible.  We left to return to our apartment at around 6 pm.

We found this cool horse statue on our way to the shuttle back home! 

Our shuttle actually broke down on the way so we had to switch shuttles and so it took about an hour to get home and we were exhausted.  We were just chilling in our apartment and I was talking to one of my roommates, Elder Sanchez (The Elder in my picture above) and all of a sudden our whole apartment started swaying.  I thought it was Elder Sanchez shaking my desk at first but I looked up and everything was starting to topple over and I had no idea what to do.  I had never experienced an earthquake before!  After our apartment stopped shaking we grabbed our 72 hour kits and headed outside.  There were tons of people evacuated out of the building and we waited there for about 40 minutes until it was safe to go back inside.  We went up 10 stories of stairs and it really sucked.  But i'm still alive!

We also had our Zone meeting on Thursday and I love seeing our zone they're super chill and give really good advice!

We finally got to watch general conference and they announced another temple that will be close to our mission!  Unfortunately I might not be here by the time they finish building it :(  But it's a great symbol of the gospel progressing here in the Philippines!!  I appreciated general conference 10x more as a missionary, I felt such a burning desire to progress this work and it was such a priviledge hearing from our church leaders and living prophet!  When we returned from watching general conference at the chapel on Saturday to our surprise ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE.  We joined the people who had evacuated and we waited another 40 minutes to return to the apartment.  

THEN ANOTHER 10 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.  My legs still burn.

During the Sunday session of General Conference I was able to watch conference with some family! This is my cousin JT and his wife Mona and their beautiful family!  I got to meet my little cousins for the first time and i'm pretty sure they read at a higher reading level than me already...  General Conference is amazing and it's even better when you have family with you!

That just about sums up my week, crazy but so enjoyable!  I love you all have an amazing week and the church is true!!

Elder Burdeos

Another Week in the Manila Mission

This week we were not able to do too much because Elder Desabille was sick so we stayed in for a couple of days but that gave me a chance to read the scriptures and improve my tagalog so I was not complaining!  We focused on progressing our investigators this week towards their baptismal dates that are approaching this month.  We were able to extend another baptismal invitation to Sister Jennifer.  Sister Jennifer is the girlfriend of an inactive member, Brother Jonathan.  We approached their house just going door to door asking if people wanted to hear our message and they immediately let us in.  Brother Jonathan explained to us that he had been praying for missionaries to teach his family!  He told us that he wanted us to teach Sister Jennifer about Joseph Smith and the Restoration!  Crazy right?!  Missionary work is no joke, the Lord actually prepares people for you to teach!  After a couple of lessons, she wanted to be baptized and to follow Jesus Christ.  Other than that awesome experience we basically just tried to finish teaching all the lessons that are required to teach prior to baptism to those investigators who have baptismal invitations.  I will be sure to send the pictures of their baptisms and explain more about their backgrounds when you can actually see what they look like haha!  This picture sums up my whole week!  Love you all have an amazing week and trust in God, He is always with us!

Happy Earth Hour!

This week was pretty dang fun.  We had no idea what to do so we just prayed for guidance and we were able to find some people to teach!  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to email so i'm just going to send pictures and explain them!

We went to a place called Rizal park which is named after a man named Jose Rizal who is considered a national hero!  This is supposedly where he was shot so I wasn't sure if I was supposed to smile or be sad or what but hey might as well.  Also while taking this picture I had two americans take pictures with me because they heard my American accent and it turns out they're from Salt Lake!!!! 

Pretty fun monument we found in celebration of National Woman's month here! ​

​Also something fun that happened this week is there was an event called Earth hour where the Philippines turned off all lights for one hour to preserve energy and it looked really cool actually all you could see was the headlights of cars!  I would have taken a picture but since it was so dark you could probably just close your eyes and get the same effect... Well that's all for now I love you all have a great week!

Elder "Bro"deos​

Transfer 1

Time is so weird when you're serving a mission.  It feels like it goes by so dang fast while at the same time is goes by extremely slow.  It's already the end of my first transfer and I feel like i've been here for one week.  

This week we were able to progress all of our investigators surprisingly because usually there's usually a few who try to avoid us and don't want to meet with us.  On Saturday we were able to attend the Lopez family's baptism.  They are a family in our ward that has been interested in the church for quite some time now.  I had the opportunity to teach them when going on exchanges with Elder Sanchez, our district leader.  They have been waiting to be baptized for quite some time now and it has been so enjoyable to watch them progress over these last few weeks.  It was such an amazing experience to see them all act on their desire to follow Christ.  After their baptism they all bore strong testimonies and you could really feel the spirit testifying of the truthfulness of the ordinance of baptism.

Today's Philippines culture lesson is about..............THE JEEPNEY!

These chubby little buses are the main source of transportation to get around the city!  They are able to hold as many people as will fit in them.  No joke you'll have strangers sitting on the floor and riding on the back of them these things are amazing.  They cost 8 pesos to ride which is about the equivalent of 15 cents.  These things are great I wish we had these in America.

Also here is a picture of my sidekick here in the Philippines!  In celebration of Moana becoming an approved movie in my mission!!!!

That's all for right now I hope you all have an amazing week!!

Elder Burdeos

This Place Is Fun

I'm going to start of this email by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  First to my wonderful sister Erin who was birthed on the 14th!  Also exciting news she just got accepted into Disney College so that's the best birthday gift for her!!  Second Baesen Rollo's birthday is on the 18th!  Hannah Brown and Seth Vanmaren too dang everybody has a birthday this month.  Also the new Beauty and the Beast is coming out sometime this month so i'm extremely jealous of anyone who will have the chance to see it :-|

This week has been very difficult but worth it.  One of our progressing investigators, Tess, told us that she did not want to continue learning from us.  That came as a shock from us because she was progressing so well, attending church and keeping the Word of Wisdom.  Apparently she heard from one of her best friends that the Mormon church is similar to a cult and an organization.  We were able to resolve her concerns and she agreed to continue learning from us.  However, she hasn't been progressing as well as she had been so hopefully we'll be able to see some progress.  I extended a baptismal invitation to one of our "golden" investigators.  A golden investigator is a person whom we know is ready for this Gospel.  They show signs of progress and engagement in our lessons and I know that they are put in front of us by the Lord Himself.  We just have to be willing to find them.  His name is Brother Mac.  He was born catholic but went inactive after moving away from his family.  He wants direction in his life and he believes this church is where to find that direction.  He accepted the invitation to be baptized and he will prepare for April 15th!  It's a great feeling to take part in such moments like these.  

This is basically what our area looks like in Green Hills, the poorest part of our area.  Even though the houses and people are poor, they are the most happy people you will ever meet.  

The Philippines is probably the funniest place and i'm going to start including some funny culture facts into some of my emails... Starting next week haha

I love you all THE CHURCH IS TRUE

-Elder Burdeos

This Place Is So Unique

Hello loved ones back home!  We are working dang hard here in the Philippines.  I have never walked so much in my life I feel like i'm going to collapse every night.  It is really hot here AND IT'S NOT EVEN SUMMER.  I think this might be the end, i'm going to melt but just know I died a happy puddle.  Well anyways this week flew by really I feel like i'm time travelling sometimes. We traveled to Makati to have new missionary follow ups and I learned that I have the smallest transfer group ever.  It's just me.  I literally walked in there and it was me, President Ostler, and Elder Desabille my companion.  President Ostler said they usually have it at a chapel and it's a big event but since it was just me he gave us one on one coaching in the mission home.  It was awesome!  Getting tutored by a mission president is such a great experience because it gives you the opportunity to receive helpful advice and guidance.  Throughout the week we have been able to find some really solid investigators and those whom we have extended baptismal dates to are preparing for their baptisms which has been such a blessing.  God has miracles in store for us we just have to be willing to trust Him and His plan.  We do this by working our hardest every day!  

     This area is so interesting because it ranges from some of the poorest houses I have ever seen to houses that I would dream to live in.  I'll be sure to take more pictures of my area to really show you how cool this place is.  I didn't get to take many pictures this week so please enjoy this one of my handsome companion holding puppies at a member's house.

Also here is a picture I took while driving to Makati city. 

Sorry I didn't get too in depth with my email this week i'm still deciding how I want to format these.  Also to those who came through with sending me packages of food, you know who you are, I love love love love you thank you so much.  I love you all have an amazing week!!!

Elder Burdeos