The Ulan is Very Malakas Right Now

The weather here has been pretty crazy lately!  We're finding ways to work around the rain at the moment and it's actually pretty fun hahaha.  

This week:

-I went on exchanges with one of my good friends, Elder Tuiatua.  He's a great missionary and he taught me a lot about ministering this week.

-We had our zone conference and it was good.  My favorite part was President Fermanis going off on Book of Mormon doctrine.  Absolutely blew my mind, the man is called of God.

-We were blessed to have a baptism on Saturday!  His name is Evan and he has been an investigator since last year but temporarily moved back to his province and was able to be baptized.  He came back and we quickly jumped on the opportunity to baptize him before he could go back hahaha.  He's awesome and he is loved by the ward and has tons of friends so we can expect him to stick around for a long time :))

Pics:

1)Candid photo of me and the boy Elder Ludlow on P-day at a place called Intramuros.

2)This is a good friend of ours named Kenneth.  If you ever see awesome quality photos in my emails they are all from him!  Thanks Kenneth!!

3)The whole squad @ Intramuros.

4)Had to say goodbye to some of my past companions who will be departing this transfer.  This one is Elder Dominguez from Tondo

5)Elder Harmer from Makati!  They will be missed

6)Post Zone Conference vibe

7)THIS IS EVAN THE MAN!!

8)Kenneth and I worked on making this beautiful work of art on the chalkboard for Evan's baptism.  See if you can tell which part Kenneth did and which part I did :)) 

What a great week it has been.  I love being a missionary.  HAVE A GOOD WEEK LOVE Y'ALL!

Elder Burdeos

Scattered Israel

WHAT A WEEK!!  

We had MLC with Elder Allen D. Haynie and it was a super uplifting experience for us.  We discussed the term "Scattered Israel".  These are people in our areas whom the Lord has prepared and is ready to receive.  They have a magnetic pull to the message of the gospel and will not be able to resist or deny the truthfulness of this church.   I'll give you two examples:

This is Charline!.  One Sunday she just mysteriously showed up to sacrament meeting.  Since I was new in the ward I just started talking to everybody and building relationships.  I had a conversation with her after sacrament meeting and I just assumed she was a member but she informed me that she had not yet been baptized!  She is a 2 year investigator from Zambales and she has been investigating the church ever since. The only thing that held her back from being baptized in the province was obtaining permission from her parents.  They weren’t exactly on board with the idea of her being baptized into the church. She made a deal with her parents that if she passed her board exam in October here in Manila to become an accountant they would allow her to be baptized.  We brought her along to the mission home the night that she told us that to attend a fireside with President Fermanis. They had a conversation and long story short, she wanted to be baptized regardless of what came after. We extended a baptismal date to her and continued to teach her to prepare her for that date.  We invited her to fast with us to help overcome the trials that came before her baptism and we received a text a few days afterwards that her parents had accepted her desire to be baptized and allowed it. SWEET!! The Lord will do everything in His power to help us if we do everything in our power to serve Him. So Charline was baptized and the ward absolutely loves her.  She’s been studying the gospel for the last two years and very familiar with the church already so she’s basically already been a member, the only thing missing was the baptism hahaha. She’s a huge blessing to us we are so grateful to have had the chance to witness her conversion.

This is Jay-pee!  His story is similar to Charline’s in regards to parents not being on board with the whole idea of joining a different church.  He’s been investigating for years as well and his girlfriend in Ilocos is a member. He’s studying here in Manila and that’s why he’s currently in our ward.  He has also been studying the doctrine of the church in the meantime of waiting for his parents to approve his baptism so he was very prepared by the time we found him.  Again, we invited him to fast with us to help pave the way for his baptism and the Lord came through once again. He's really open to learning more about the gospel and has a strong testimony of the fact that our families can be together forever. He believes that one day his family will also have the opportunity to receive the gospel just as he did.

WOW the Lord is so amazing. Blessing us openly just like He said he would. I don't have much more time to email but I would just like to bear my testimony that we truly do have a loving Heavenly Father who knows what we need. He's there to pick us up when we are down and we can turn to Him for anything. I can also testify of the power of the Book of Mormon and the role that it has on keeping us converted. Elder Haynie mentioned 2 things that every member can do to keep from going less-active:

1) Read the Book of Mormon DAILY

2) Pay tithing

If you are not currently doing these 2 things then WHAT ARE YOU WATING FOR?  I would highly suggest you do so.  Make God happy and I promise He will do the same to you, only in ways you would never see possible.  

Love you guys have an awesome week!!!  

Elder Burdeos

HAPPY 9TH OF JULY!!!!

Yeah I totally forgot to say happy 4th of July last week but we can appreciate the greatness of America every day... right? :))  

This week was awesome.  We walked and walked then walked even more... MISSIONARY WORK!

Pics:

1- Brother Peñalosa, the previous bishop in our ward, took us to visit some families! 

2-President and Sister Andrada were the previous mission presidents in the Philippines Laoag Mission.  They came home this last week and it turns out they are actually in our ward!!  It was such a crazy experience casually having a night with a former mission president.  

3-I had an opportunity to arrange exchanges with the Elders currently assigned in my old area in Tondo and I showed them to some of my old investigators.  It was so nice seeing them again and they are still very interested in the church!!  What a blessing that was.

4-Some of the Tondo boyz

5-The Sisters had a baptism this last Saturday!  Welcome Sister April to the Lord's restored kingdom!!!

Charlene and Jaypee are getting baptized on Saturday!!  It's just the best feeling in the world being a missionary.  The church is true!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS

Elder Burdeos

Another 6 in Sampaloc/MYSA!!

Kumusta na kayo?  Medyo matagal na hindi di ko kayo nakausap.  This week was transfer week and this one was especially difficult because a lot of my good friends here in the mission went home.  They will be missed but with or without them the work of God carries on. The work is hastening!!!

We’ve seen many blessings this week in regards to progress being made in our area.   A couple of our investigators, Charlene and Jaypee, have accepted the baptismal invitation we extended to them for July 14th.  I know that they are ready to make this covenant with God and they know it too. I am so excited for them! I’ll keep you updated on their progress in preparing for that date.

Pics:

1- Said bye to the boy Elder Ho Ching who will be opening a new area on Palawan. CUYO!

2- RIP MAMA ZONE PART 1

3- It was Elder Viñas's birthday on Friday so I bought him a surprise cake and the Sisters helped me arrange a surprise Ward home evening for him that night.

It’s a privilege to be a part of this great and marvelous work.  It’s not easy and it takes a lot of patience but I can testify that it is the work of God.  Something that I would like to share is an awesome quote from a member of our ward that she said while we were teaching Charlene:  “When we take care of the things that matter to God, He will take care of the things that matter to us”. I know that it a true statement, and if we do our part to follow God, he will provide 100% of the time.  

I love you guys be safe and have a good week!

Elder Burdeos

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