Stand as a Witness

I hope you are all doing well because I really miss each and every one of you!  This week was A LOT better than last week.  Although it sucks being sick, it feels amazing when you start to heal so it all worked out :)

We had our zone conference this week and it was incredible as always.  There's always something special about hearing from your Mission President because you know that he holds the keys and authority to give the missionaries in this mission the guidance and instruction that they need to carry out our responsibilities as representatives of Jesus Christ.  The theme that I got out of this zone conference was standing as a witness of Jesus Christ.  Every member of this church has their own witness as Jesus Christ and all of us have an obligation to protect our faith and constantly exercise it by following His example and learning more about His word.  Stand as a witness and let nobody touch that foundation that you have built as acknowledging Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer.  Great zone conference I enjoyed it immensely.  

Of course the struggle we had this week was, you guessed it, investigators attending church.  Sometimes it gets really hard when you spend a whole week teaching about the importance of church attendance and your investigators don't show up to church.  You just love them so much and want them to exercise their faith but DANG JUST COME TO CHURCH.  Hahaha nevertheless we'll keep working and I know Heavenly Father will provide ways for them to come to church.  

Here's a picture of my companion and Blackie Chan lurking in the background there. Look at how cute my companion is freak.

Alright that's it for this week I love you all have an amazing week and STAND AS WITNESSES!

Elder Burdeos

Weather Have Mercy

This week was extremely hard.  The weather has really not been showing any mercy to us lately.  We've been struggling a little bit here because our investigators have not been attending church which i'm sure any missionary would agree is the hardest part of the conversion process.  We were supposed to have 3 baptisms here on June 4th but if they don't come to church there's no way we can baptize them.  We're still working really hard and with that being said we still have LOTS of potential here in our area.

We had our last formal interview with the Ostlers and that really sucked.  I honestly don't want President Ostler and Sister Ostler to leave.  They are outstanding mission presidents and we are always able to receive the guidance and help we need from them :(  At least we still have 2 zone conferences with them!  We'll make those count.  

So yesterday must have been the WORST day of my mission.  The weather is starting to change from rainy season which you can see we were NOT prepared for.

I got REALLY sick from the rain.  I felt like throwing up all morning yesterday because I was so dizzy and my head hurt really bad.  Luckily for me I was asked to give a talk on missionary work yesterday and so I had no choice but to suck it up and go to church.  I drank some tylenol and little did I know that it was the drowzy kind and so I fell asleep during all of sacrament meeting (up until my talk which I rushed through because I was sleepy and my head hurt)  then I fell asleep during the rest of church.

This is a random picture from our day of service on Saturday with Mormon Helping Hands!  So not exactly my best week but we'll keep pushing and get those baptisms!  Love you all have an amazing week!!!

Death to the Daga

This week really flew by I feel like I haven't left this computer.  We struggle here every day and to be honest it is REALLY exhausting but we are definitely making progress so i'm pretty excited about that!!  We had our investigators attend sacrament finally and that was really exciting.  Unfortunately it was ward conference so it wasn't exactly the most spiritually uplifting sacrament meeting ever.  We obtained a new bishop so it was basically a testimony meeting of our former bishop, his counselors, and their wives.  Also we had the opportunity to join our ward choir this week!  One of our investigators who attended sacrament meeting, Tatay Noel (you may know him as our investigator who fell asleep while we were teaching him), fell asleep again while we were up there singing in the choir so I ended up just laughing and staring at him the entire time!  He's a blast and a half.  We've changed our focus from finding new investigators to focusing on our investigators that have baptismal dates so i'll let you know how that turns out.

We got to do a session in the Manila temple last week and I loved it.  I wish I could go to the temple every single week.  

WE FOUND THE DAGA (Rat in tagalog)!  This jerk has been eating our bread and breaking stuff while we have been sleeping for the past few weeks.  Elder Albis chased it around the house (and it came up and bit him) late at night when he got up to go to the bathroom and finally trapped it in between our spare door and a wall.  He then flattened the heck our of it as you can see in the picture above.  I think there may be more of these around our house so when we find them i'll be sure to film it, it's a great time.  

We had our zone service project on Saturday where we painted and cleaned classrooms at a local school!  To be completely honest with you we did a terrible job i'm not exactly the most artistic person in the world but they were so happy and thankful so PRAISE TO THE LORD!

This is just a picture from our ward conference yesterday, i'm not exactly sure who this family is and neither is Elder Dominguez :').

Missionary work is hard.  I hope you all have an amazing week!

Elder Burdeos

I LOVE YOU MOMMY

Happy Mother's Day to all you amazing mothers out there!!!  Be sure to give all of your moms giant hugs because you never actually realize how much they mean to you and how much they do for you until they aren't there by your side all the time!  Mom if you're reading this (which you better be)  I love you so much!  I got to call my amazing family and it really made me realize how lucky I am to have such an amazing family!  

We are doing pretty dang well here in Tondo, we have extended some baptismal invitations and they were accepted!  I honestly don't want to say how many because here in the Philippines, or really any mission, just because somebody accepts a baptismal invitation it doesn't necessarily mean they will end up getting baptized.  So hopefully we will progress those whom the Lord has prepared for us to help at this time.  One of my favorite moments this week was when Elder Dominguez and I were teaching an investigator we have, Brother Noel.  He is 60 years old and he is always so receptive to the message so we love teaching him.  One day he was extremely tired while we were teaching him so he began to fall asleep while we were teaching and there was a period in time where while we were talking he was completely asleep.  We stopped teaching and it was completely silent.  Elder Dominguez and I looked at each other and broke out laughing I was laughing so hard even when Brother Noel woke up and he started laughing with us too.  Great moment, always embrace the awkwardness!

I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures this week so I will do better next time but here they are:

(Me showing off my incredible artistic capabilities)

(The new district also notice how psycho my companion is he is honestly THE best companion I could ask for)

(This is basically what Tondo looks like, poor houses, loud music, happy people)  

Love you all have an amazing week!!!

Elder Burdeos

Parañaque > Manila West

Remember how last week I said I was scared for what was going to happen this transfer week?  Well I had a good reason to be scared because I was transferred!  I thought for sure Elder Desabille would be the one transferring because he has been in Parañaque for about 5 months now.  We were pretty surprised to hear that I was the one transferring and to be honest I was REALLY sad.  I love Parañaque and the members and most of all I HATE packing.  

I've been assigned in Manila West, Tondo 1st Ward.  Tondo is referred to as the Detroit of the Philippines so you can imagine my excitement upon hearing that I would be assigned there!  Transfer day itself was SUPER hectic.  We spent a total of 7 hours waiting for a taxi on transfer day.  3 hours to get from Parañaque to Makati, 2 hours to get from Makati to Tondo, then 2 more hours to drop an Elder off at his area since his companions are zone leaders and they were attending a meeting at the mission home.  Our house here is pretty ugly to be honest, there's rats and cockroaches.  The only difference is the cockroaches here are not the size of a dollar bill.  Also to top it all off the very first day we arrived here the water was broken throughout the whole city.  There were people showering in the giant pipes to the side of the road.  Tondo is absolute craziness but the weird part is I am so happy here.  As weird as this place is I really love it here in Tondo.  There are SO many people here.  It's like i'm walking through a concert crowd 24/7 but they are so friendly to us.  Before we even introduce ourselves and the church they tell us to come in and they are so willing to hear our message.  I know that this place will continue to progress and there are so many people here that the Lord has prepared for us and I cannot wait to share this message with them.  I have a good feeling about this area and i'm starting to learn more and more about what it takes to be a missionary the harder things get!  

Here are my pictures for this week:

Last pictures with Tatay Desabille.  He is incredible and he has taught me a ton!  He's going to continue to change lives and i'm so grateful for the opportunity to be companions with him!

My new companion is Elder Dominguez, the crazy one holding taking the picture.  He is amazing and I can't wait to change some lives with him!

Have an amazing week everyone and remember you are loved!

Elder Burdeos

I'm Melting

So first let me start of by saying it's hot.  I've been here for close to 3 months and still every time I step out of the apartment I cry a little bit (and those tears sizzle and dissolve into the sun because DANG it is hot)  I got a fever from the heat and i've been recovering from it the last few days but we've still been able to head out and work every day which I do not regret.  This is what we eat when it gets super hot it's called Halo-Halo and it consists of whatever the heck they decide to put in it (Coconut, Jello, fruits, condensed milk, etc.) + ice!  It's saves lives. 

So this week is transfers and we are extremely sad since two missionaries in our District will be finishing their missions this transfer.  Elder Sanchez, one of my best friends on the mission, is one of them.  (Please excuse how sleep deprived I look in this photo).  He has taught me a lot about missionary work and what it truly takes to serve the Lord diligently and i'll never forget him! 

Also not to mention since it's their last week here we were able to obtain more dinner appointments because the members invited our whole district to dinner.  This was one of them with the Ronquillo Family, they are always so kind and love to have dinner with the missionaries since they too have two missionaries serving in the field right now.  

The other missionary going home is Sister Crichton, she is the one in red on the right of me.  She is one of the funniest people I have ever met.  She is from American Samoa and loves to joke around.  These two missionaries are still very diligent and hard working even though they will be going home this week, this was taken at their baptisms that they had this week.  

Not exactly sure what is going to happen this week with transfers since i'll finally be graduating from training!  I'm extremely nervous and intimidated but all I can do is trust in the Lord.  He wouldn't give any of us trials that he knew we wouldn't be able to handle.  That's it for this week I love you all remember to brush twice daily to avoid gingivitis!!

Elder Burdeos​

We're Just Getting Started

This is Tess Montilla​ (I promise she's usually smiling i'm not exactly sure what she's doing in this picture)  She has been an investigator here in Paranaque for 14 months.  She comes from a catholic background so she already had somewhat of a testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior (as do the majority of the people here actually)  She is a single parent with a son named Roland who is a member of the INC (Iglesia ni Cristo) a popular church here in the Philippines.  I've mentioned her in my previous emails, when we began to start trying to teaching her again back in February she was super receptive to the message and accepted the baptismal date we extended to her for a service in March.  We encountered a stumbling block when she was informed by one of her friends that our church was a cult and she told us that she wanted us to stop teaching her.  We were able to resolve her problem and ever since that day we noticed a very apparent change in her.  She began to take our lessons very seriously and STUDIED the Book of Mormon.  Not only did she read it but she had pages of notes that she had been writing as she pondered its message.  It was incredible!  I was able to baptize her this last Saturday and she bore a strong testimony at the service.  It felt amazing to know that just like that, another one of Heavenly Father's children is on the path to salvation and will have a chance to return to him!

We also threw a sick party after the baptismal service and a lot of members showed up and brought food.  It was also a party to celebrate Elder Sanchez's birthday so there was also cake and ice cream so if you're wondering why my face is way more round than it used to be there is your explanation.  You can also see that Tess looks a lot happier in this picture than in the previous one!  Baptisms are a great experience, we'll keep working to find more of scattered Israel, we're just getting started.  

We also had the opportunity to visit this majestic House of God last Tuesday.  ​So if you were wondering why my email was one day late last week (which i'm pretty sure none of you were except for my poor mom who waited until 2 am to read my email) this is where I was sorry mom.  The temple provided the spiritual jumpstart that I really needed.  

Also something that excited was one of our investigators who we had actually dropped because he was not replying to our texts showed up at church yesterday!!  He told us he wanted to continue hearing our message and that he had some family issues and that's why he had not been able to attend for the last two weeks!  So exciting can't wait to start teaching him again!  Missionary work is great, such an honor to be here!

Elder Burdeos