The Flood Came

My kapatids in the faith, how is it hanging.  This was yet another great week even though it's been raining super hard lately and we've had to do some Indiana Jones maneuvers to make it home without getting soaked hahaha!

Tuesday: We went around checking all of the apartments in the zone to ensure their safety and cleanliness.  Elder Gifford, the senior missionary assigned in the office and my good friend, came with us and he's still the best.  I was actually really impressed with how well the missionaries take care of their apartments.  Their parents must have taught them well :)

Saturday: We went on exchanges with the brand new missionaries that are currently in the MTC.  I really love the fire that new missionaries bring to the field.  They are so motivated and eager to go out and preach the gospel.  It is my goal to become as excited about the work as they are at the beginning of their missions.  I worked with Elder Berger, who will actually be assigned here in our mission!  He's a powerhouse missionary and he'll be a great asset to us here in the Manila mission.

We received a text from Charlene, who was our investigator that we took to the fireside at the beginning of this transfer.  She told us that she wants to be baptized regardless of whether or not her parents will accept it.  She told us that she wants to please Heavenly Father more.  We had a very spiritual lesson with her yesterday and she's definitely ready to be baptized.  It's been such an incredible experience seeing the conversion in her and it's seeing her faith in all of the trials that she is going through is strengthening my faith.  I love being a missionary and being able to witness the conversion of those whom we serve here in this field.  We'll keep you updated on how she is.

Pics:

​​1- We attended a farewell dinner for Sister Long who went home on Wednesday!  She will be missed dearly.

2- Taken while doing apartment checks in our zone

3- Waiting for the missionaries from the MTC to arrive to start our exchanges.

4- Here's the Elder I went on exchanges with, Elder Berger!  We can't wait for him to get here in the field.

5- I carved Sister Versaga's face into this banana

6- For P-day today we played some fun Filipino games with the Manila West District.  We played a game involving knocking over a can with your sandals.  Doesn't sound fun but it was SUPER fun.  

This is a great time to be a missionary.  Transfers are this week already... Time is going fast and I'm going to make the most of it.\

Love you all have a good week!!

Elder Burdeos

IT'S GON' RAIN

What a fantastic week it has been here in Manila.  I've learned so much about the importance of diligence and working through hardships and I'm grateful for it.  I've become a sponge and tried to just soak up new information and ideas.  Also it's RAINY SEASON in the Philippines and I'm so happy!  I'm sleeping with a blanket every night :)  The only bad part is that when it's cold outside, the water that we use to shower gets even colder :(

We had our MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) on Thursday where we discussed a new vision for our mission and the necessary actions that we were going to take to fulfill that vision.  I learned a lot about the importance of realistic goal setting.  We also discussed the importance of matching the dignity of our callings as missionaries through our actions.  The thought of "are my actions accurately portraying the message of the gospel" should be filtering through our minds in every aspect of the work.  I had an amazing time and it was also nice to catch up with some of the missionaries that I haven't seen in quite some time now.  

We just got back from the temple and I had such a spiritually enlightening time there.  It's such a blessing to be able to visit the temple on a regular basis and I can truly testify with all of my heart that temples are indeed houses of God.  If you have not had the opportunity to visit or go through one, I would highly recommend that you take the appropriate steps in order to do so.  I have some sweet pictures to send but I think I'll wait until next week to fill you in on the awesome time we had earlier today. 

Pictures:

1- Elder Palmer and I hanging out during the lunch break at MLC

2- The legendary Sister Training Leaders in Puerto Princesa

3- We also had our ward conference on Saturday and Sunday.  This was taken after the meeting. 

4- We got rained in after the ward conference for a period of time.  The members were so bored while waiting that they actually started doing math problems...

5 & 6- Pictures after our ward conference on Sunday.  The Sister in the flower skirt in the front is Sister Cerbas who recently went home this last transfer and was previously assigned in this ward :)

I know that this church is true and there truly is no greater happiness than serving the Lord and living the principles of the gospel.  I love you guys, I will see you next week!

Out of thin air

Hello friends and family, this week was incredible.  It consisted of lots of walking and tests of patience but we had lots great experiences!!  We're starting to adjust well to this new area and we've had a lot of members work with us to help show us around.

We had a cool moment happen to us at sacrament meeting this week.  We struck up a conversation with a Sister in our ward whom we thought to be a member.  After furthering the conversation we later found out that she was actually not a member and it was her first time attending church in almost 2 years.  Her name is Sister Charlene and she was taught by the missionaries in her province of Zambales and now she's currently here in Manila studying for her board exam to be an accountant.  She lives far from the church in the province but was excited to see that there was a church within close proximity to where she is currently staying and decided to come attend church again.  WOW.   Miracles don't get any cooler than that.  A problem that we are currently trying to work out however is getting her parents to support her being baptized.  She created a deal with them that if she would pass her board exam she could then get baptized into the church!  I'll keep you updated on how that goes but just know she's amazing.

Pics:

1) Our area is the border of the Manila Mission and Quezon City mission.  The basketball marks that border.

2) Every Saturday evening the Manila YSA ward has a family home evening.

3) Taken at the fireside that is held monthly at the mission home

4)  The Sister next to President is Charlene.  We took her to the mission home fireside because we felt that she would benefit from the testimonies of others who were investigating the church and she also had the chance to speak 1 on 1 with President Fermanis.  She said that it was such an inspiring night for her and we're so happy she was able to attend.

The Lord has blessed us this week with new investigators that we are excited to start teaching!  3 of which were able to attend church yesterday and had a great time in doing so.  I'm super excited to see what else the Lord has planned for us here in this field. 

I've started to re-read the Doctrine and Covenants and it's had a giant impact on my perspective on what we are going through right now.  Every time I seem to open it I feel that I receive an answer specifically for what I am going through.  I encourage you to look to the scriptures every day to receive the guidance that you are searching for.  I also encourage you to share what you've learned with someone around you who you think would enjoy it.

I love you guys!  Have a good week!

Elder Burdeos

MAMA ZONE

Emails:

Hello ang aking mga kaibigan, how is it hanging?  Hopefully you all had a great week!  Elder Vinas and I had an amazing week.  We spent tons of time in our new area which was a good feeling.  We’re finally getting settled in and adjusting well.  It can be pretty difficult at times when we feel like we’ve been walking all day and haven’t had much success in regards to lessons taught but the more we get punted from lesson to lesson, the more we start to treasure each and every lesson that doesn’t fall through.

We’ve focused on trying to visit members to help us meet those in our ward and get more familiar with our area.  Our ward directory has been letting us down a little as a large portion of the members have moved out but we did have a good experience come from it.  We wandered to a location on the ward directory that was supposedly supposed to be a household of a member but upon arriving it ended up being a public computer shop.  We asked with the worker of the computer shop if we were at the correct address and he said it was the correct address but the family must have moved out a while ago.  We were a little disappointed but we used that conversation as an opportunity to start getting to know the worker at the computer shop and before we knew it we were teaching him about the restoration.  It just goes to show that sometimes our intentions aren’t quite aligned with God’s will but it will always work out. 

We had our zone meeting on Thursday and it was super useful in announcing the new ideas that we were hoping to implement in our zone.  These missionaries are super hard working i’m blessed to be serving in the atmosphere that they provide here.

Pics:

1- The dream team

2- Transfer day I was assigned to help people weigh their luggage before transferring to Palawan.  It was a lot more fun then it sounds.

3- Elder Stowers, a good friend of mine, finished his mission this transfer.  He will be dearly missed.

4- One of our first days in the ward we were able to do a community service project with them for the National Day of Service here.  It was a good opportunity to get to build relationships with them.

5- For the service we cleaned and repainted some classrooms at a local elementary school before the kids come back to class in a few couple of months.  These are the Sister Training Leaders in our zone and we share our wards with them.

6- We had a family home evening at a home of a few members.

7- We attended district meeting in the Santa Mesa District this week, they are a solid hard-working district.

8 & 9- Pictures taken after our zone meeting.  We are the Manila/Mandaluyong Zone or otherwise known as the MAMA ZONE!

I love being a missionary.
I also love you guys, thanks for the love and support!  Have a good week!!

Elder Burdeos

MISSION XV11: RETURN TO MANILA

Yes you heard me right, Elder Burdeos has been TRANSFERRED.  Leaving the office after 8 months was sad because it's kind of a different life there and i'm going to miss the people that I had the opportunity to work with.  I learned a lot about being responsible and finding ways around problems but I go where the Lord wants me. 

I've been assigned in the Manila/Mandaluyong Zone and I will be covering the Sampaloc ward and the Manila Young Single Adult Ward (MYSA).  For the third time in my mission I will be "fresh starting" an area or in other words coming to an area with a companion who is also new to the area.  It can be difficult at times but it gives us motivation to work harder and take more risks because if we don't we'll be doing a whole lot of walking and a lot less teaching hahaha.  I absolutely love it here and it's nice to have more time to proselyte in our area.  My companion is Elder Viñas and he is from a province in the Philippines called Samar.  He's super funny and he's very similar to Elder Somosa, one of my past companions.  We along well and he's a big help because this was his first area so he can remember a little bit about the area and he's met the majority of the members.  We attend two churches and I enjoy that immensely because sometimes as a missionary you tend to forget how holy and important the Sabbath Day is because all of the days start blending together; but with all that time dedicated to attending church and remembering the Savior it provides that spiritual boost that we need to keep us going every week.

The wards here are great and i'm super excited to work with them.  We share the ward with the Sister Training Leaders and they've been a great help in showing us around and introducing us to members.  We met with our District Leaders on Saturday and we discussed the plans that we have for our Zone.  We'll also be having a Zone Meeting on Thursday where Elder Viñas and I will implement the new ideas that we've come up with for our zone. 

That's just a little update because I don't have too much time!  Love you guys!  (Sorry I don't have any pictures at the moment because I left my card reader at the office before I transferred but i'll have some next week I promise :)

Elder Burdeos

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

I just got off the phone after skyping my family and it felt amazing to be able to communicate with them again.  I'd just like to take this time to testify that families are forever and I am more than honored to have the privilege to share that message to those who are in need of that knowledge.  I know that this is all possible through Jesus Christ and His Atoning sacrifice.  Also on this day I am especially grateful for the role of Mothers and the importance of their callings in this life.  

Along with being able to call my family, this week was awesome!!  A very spiritual experience happened at a baptism that we attended on Saturday.  Due to some miscommunication, the baptismal font had not been filled prior to the start of the baptism therefore by the time of the ordinance, the water was way too low and not high enough for the baptism.  In order to speed up the process, we decided to fill up tanks of water from other sources of water found around the church facility and dumped them into the baptismal font.  It was a incredible to witness the investigator who was getting baptized that day was a big help in filling up and emptying the heavy tanks of water to fill the font to a reasonable level.  It was a very strong sign of his desire to be baptized and also a witness of his the conversion that he must have went through to get to that point.  Definitely a baptism to be remembered.

Saturday was my last p-day in the office therefore we decided to go all out and went to Ocean Park!  My favorite aquarium.  It honestly just keeps getting better and better every time I go haha.

Pictures:

1. They threw Elder Reber and I a farewell party as we will be leaving the office this transfer.

2. We held a family history activity at a place here called BGC which is a pretty rich city with tons of skyscrapers and call centers.  I was expecting the people there to be kind of uptight and mean but they were the complete opposite and welcoming to the message!    

3. We "blitzed" the Makati 2nd ward and afterwards we hooked our district up with some dessert because we hit our goal.

4. BEAUTIFUL OCEAN PARK

5. We met a returned Sister missionary named Sister Long who served in Legazpi mission and she tagalog-ed my face off.

6. Penguins :)

Love you mommy!!  Have an amazing week guys!!  See you in the field!

Fireside feat. Elder Haynie

Hello my beloved friends and family!  I'm hopefully going to have a lot of fun photos to share and that will be able to explain how great my week was.

It didn't start out too well because we had to say bye to one of my best friends here in the mission, Elder Fiesta.  We go pretty back as he was my very first Zone Leader here in the mission back in my first area and he's taught me so much about the importance of being obedient and showed me the urgency in the work.  We'll miss him tons.  He'll hopefully be studying at BYU Hawaii though so maybe I'll get the chance to see him down the road.

-We had interviews held at the office with President Fermanis all week.  It's always a fun time being able to talk with some missionaries from all over the mission and catch up with them.  

-Thursday was MLC and we decided it would be a good idea to order S&R pizza (which is basically the Costco of the Philippines).  The only downside to it was we had to carry 16 boxes of pizza through a mall to get it over there.  This was the result of the very bottom pizza.

A fun highlight of my week was Stake Conference with Elder Allen D. Haynie on Saturday and Sunday.  We had the chance to listen to him speak about the importance of Ministering.  Ministering has become a very popular topic within the church, as it should be.  Nothing indicates true disciples of Jesus Christ more than caring for one another as His example has shown us to do.  

After the Stake Conference we had a fireside at the mission home with some fellow missionaries and their investigators.  We were able to bring a family that we have been teaching, Sister Susan and her children.  It was a very successful fireside and we had the opportunity to hear testimonies from those investigating the church and it was a very spiritually powerful atmosphere.  I'm so grateful to be able witness the conversion that comes upon all those who gain a testimony that this church is true and are baptized.  

Additional Pictures:

1- We bought dog shirts on P-day

2- Friends from MLC, Elder Tuiatua and Elder Davie

3- After the fireside I found a young man with the same tie as me.  He'll also be applying for his mission soon to get the matching nametag as well!

4- At the fireside yesterday I was able to catch up with some friends from my first area.  PARAÑAQUE 2ND WARD WOO

5- Post fireside pic

So that's it for my week, it was awesome and I'm loving it here in the mission field.  Change is coming, just stay tuned.  Have an awesome week, love you guys!!

Elder Burdeos