You Can't See Me

Kamusta yung mga nagbabasa ng emails ko hanggang ngayon.  Konti lang kayo seguro hahaha!

We're killing it here in Makati.  We've been able to see some small miracles coming from our diligent work in our area.  I come home super tired every day and I wake up maybe even more tired but we've found a way to make it work.  

One day we were on exchanges and a man walking his dog stops us on the street and says, "Elders!!  I have a question!  What's the difference between the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood?"  What in the world.  How crazy is that?  Turns out a while back, this man had a copy of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration Pamphlet but moved away before he could really be taught.  We were super excited to hear about that and we've been teaching him ever since!  Another super cool experience came during a super long stressful day.  Elder Asay and I had just been walking back and forth from appointments that fell through so we just opened our planners and started going to some of our potential investigators.  I got the impression to visit the house of a man we had street contacted the other day.  We looked for his house for a good 20 minutes walking up and down the street but we could not seem to find it so we decided to just give up on that.  However, we passed by an investigator who we had dropped a while back because he was rarely available due to his work and his little kids.  We decided to head to his house even though we didn't really want to because it just seemed like a waste of time walking to his house and we didn't feel like getting rejected for what felt like the 100th time that week; but we had nothing to lose so we did it.  Turns out we caught him at the perfect time.  Him and his wife were just sitting in the living room playing with their 3 little kids.  They let us in and let them teach us and we were able to really connect the gospel to their needs.  Brother had to lose his job to take care of his family and was going through a lot of stressful times but we were able to share some scriptures from the Book of Mormon that seemed to comfort him and bring him some happiness that day.  He invited us to come back and teach them about the message this week!  

It really boosted our testimony that the Lord has His own way of moving this work along.  Even though what we feel we should do may not be what we want to do or it may seem pointless at first, if you follow that spirit you'll follow the will of God which ultimately leads to happiness.  I stand by what my awesome companion said this week, "Straying away from the will of God is straying away from the happiness that he has prepared for you".

Elder Adawag and I went on exchanges this week.  He claims to be full Filipino but deep down I know he's a chinese kwanner.  He's crazy.  I love the guy.

We seem happy but we're dead inside :))))

"You can't see me" - The legend, John Cena.

​Have fun.  Be safe.  See a doctor if the symptoms persist.  Love you.

Elder Burdeos​

The Great Oil Explosion of 2017

Wow time flies when you're having fun.  We've been really pushing ourselves to find people to teach and I feel that the Lord has helped us to find some success.  Elder Asay has a super strong desire to go out and talk to everybody and it has brought fire to our companionship and motivated me as well.  So one day Elder Asay and I were sharing what we learned in our personal study and it turns out we learned some pretty similar things.  The main point was that everybody deserves to hear the message, being children of God.  In any circumstance we were going to try and talk to anybody we could.  So we did and we have seen blessings and encountered people that we know have been set in our way by God for us to teach.  It really strengthened my testimony about trusting in God and having faith that our effort will not go to waste.  If we love the people around us we'll have a natural desire to share this message with them.  Sometimes it may be hard to love someone, for example we knocked on one of our investigator's doors and he answered wearing University of Utah sleeping pants...  So that was super tough.  Still love him anyways.  I didn't get to take many pictures at all this week because my camera was dead and my last companion took the charger :(  But i'll get another one and have more next week.

These are my new house mates in Makati.  They're incredible Elders and we get all get along super well.

I like working with a brand new missionary because they're super bold and they have their purpose fresh in their mind everyday.  That's it, i'm out.  Love you

Elder Burdeos  

Manila West ---> Makati (TATAY GABE)

This week was probably the most hectic week of my mission so far...  

So during district meeting it was announced that I would be transferring to Makati 2C with Elder Asay.  So nothing really stood out to me, just another area and another Filipino companion.  So we said some SUPER painful goodbyes to some members and investigators and headed to Buendia the next day to meet our new companions.  When I got out of the car our zone leaders approached me and and said, "Elder Burdeos, shouldn't you be at the mission home?"  and I was super confused as to why I needed to be at the mission home and it was then they informed me that Elder Asay is straight out of the MTC and i'll be training him.  So at that point I was super excited because I was kind of hoping that I would be able to train at one point but I was also panicking because I was going to be super late to the meeting.  I waited for a taxi with Elder Nacalaban, my old district leader who was also not informed that he would be training a new missionary and we headed to the mission home.  Upon arrival I was super shocked to find out that Elder Asay is from Mapleton, Utah and his name is actually pronounced AY-CEE.  He is officially the first American that i'll be working with on my mission so I was super excited.  So we had our orientation and told us all that we needed to know to train these missionaries.  After our orientation we made our way back to our new apartment and we then encountered a new problem.  Our area doesn't even exist yet.  We'll be opening a new area in Makati.  It's pretty hard just to start in a brand new area but it's even more difficult when you have no idea what your area even is.  At first I was very intimidated and didn't know what to do so we just decided to walk around and find people and it was surprisingly super effective!!!  Elder Asay is incredible and the people here love him!!  He's adjusting super well and his tagalog is incredible for being right out of the MTC.  He's a super humble missionary who follows direction and counsel super well and he has such a strong desire to work hard and serve the Lord... Does it get any better than that?!  

So on Sunday we attended a live stream broadcast from the Kia theater.  THE PHILIPPINES JUST REACHED 100 STAKES!!  Elder Neil L. Anderson visited to help open the 100th stake in Mandaluyong, which is our mission!!  I felt the spirit so strongly during the conference, just thinking about how grateful I am to be serving in a country that is so prepared for the gospel and it just keeps motivating us to keep pushing because we are only getting started here and I know there are people here that the Lord is preparing for us to teach! 

Last P-day with the squad in Tondo (Team Drogas)  If any of you were wondering, all of us were transferred.

Here are some of our investigators that were super hard to say bye to. They'll be getting baptized the last week of this month and Sister Mariefe will be getting married as well!! 

In-field orientation with the new missionaries

This is me and my Anak (son)  Elder Asay.  He is THE MAN.  He's super chill and we get along super well, mostly because he's into sports and knows what Chick fil-a is :))

Sorry this email was so dang long but this week was awesome.  I'll be sure to send some pictures of the area next week!!  I love you all!

Elder Burdeos

The Big 19

This week was so sick.  I'm so grateful to our Heavenly Father for the success we were able to find and the edification that I have experienced through having a week like this.  It was a little slow at first but we made it through with some great experiences.

To summarize all of it:  1)  We had a service project at a member's house in which we sanded down a staircase for 2 hours so that they could repaint it... INTENSE.  2)  Interviews with THE PRESIDENT FERMANIS.  3)  We had exchanges yet again on Wednesday.  4)  Our investigators attended church on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!  For some it was their first time to attend church in over two months and for others it was their first time to attend church period!!!  I love it.  5)  We got to go to our Manila Philippines Temple and do a session there!  

As you can see this week has been super busy and eventful!  It actually started out sucking and was super stressful because my card that has ALL of my mission pictures was infected by a virus at one of these computer shops and I also lost my favorite umbrella which is my best friend here in the mission field.  We also faced some hard times finding new investigators and people who were willing to listen to us this week and that left me feeling pretty washed out but I remembered the advice that President Fermanis had given me in our interview.  Whenever we are facing hard times in life, it's Heavenly Father's way of edifying us and helping us to be stronger and it will mold us to what he wants us to become!  Just something to think about when you're going through a hard time!!  I was able to maintain a more positive attitude and also I was able to get rid of my virus and found my favorite umbrella!!!  Yeah this week was great.  

I was only able to take a few pictures this week at the temple but I can promise there will be a lot next week.  

Thank you so much to those who have wished me an advanced happy birthday and shoutout to my wonderful family and extended family who hooked it up with the birthday package!!!!  I turn 19 on Friday... I'm so old bury me now. I love you all have a good week!  

Elder Burdeos

Ang Hari ng Tondo

We have been so grateful for this week.  We have managed to really work through the stress and we've seen the blessings coming from it.  We've found some solid new investigators, given out baptismal dates, and delivered some strong lessons this week.  

  Something that really contributed to the drive and motivation behind our work this week was our Zone Conference on Tuesday.  We had the opportunity to receive guidance from President and Sister Fermanis and it was very inspiring.  We focused on how our lessons should focus on The Restoration of the Gospel because the message that God had reached out to us once again through calling a prophet and revealed another testament of scripture is something that no other religion can say they have. 

I had just finished the Book of Mormon again and I was going to focus my studies on The New Testament.  I went a couple of days without reading the Book of Mormon it just didn't feel right.  As members of this church we should be reading The Book of Mormon every single day.  God communicating with us every day and giving us guidance is never something we should take for granted.  I can testify that if we read The Book of Mormon every day, even just a little, we will be able to hold onto our testimonies and feel the pure love of God. 

This week I became the "Hari ng Tondo"  (King of Tondo)  All that means is i've worked in every area in Tondo.  (I went on exchanges with Elder Prandas on Tuesday)  The term actually comes from a man named Asiong Salonga who was an infamous gangster here in Tondo.  sick.  The little girl in this picture was so dang cute.  Apparently she's scared of Moroni from the Book of Mormon so her parents always use him and his name to get her to behave. 

A highly requested picture of me holding a turtle

THE MORMON JEEPNEY.  You already know we rolled out it this.  

Alrighty folks that's it for now be sure to say your prayers and give your moms hugs just because.  Love you

Elder Burdeos

Born a Mormon, Die a Mormon

Not too much to report on this week but I had a pretty good time.

The difficult thing about our area is nobody is consistently home on weekdays so Saturday is really the only time we can teach people.  So we have very few lessons throughout the week then we are scattering to teach when Saturday comes and unfortunately this Saturday a lot of lessons fell through which left us feeling pretty discouraged.  Our focus right now is just finding new investigators (that are hopefully available for more than one day of the week).

We did have a new investigator this week who said something that I really liked.  He said that he is willing to hear our message but warned us that he was "born a Roman Catholic, and will die as a Roman Catholic".  Even though that wasn't exactly the best news for us, I really respected that.  Looking at it from my perspective, I was born a member of this church and I will die as a member of this church.  I've seen the miracles, known the grace, and felt the peace and blessings that comes from knowing that we all have a loving Heavenly Father who has a plan for us to return to Him as eternal families.  Nothing anybody says here can ever change that.  "And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken."  Jacob 7:5

Missions are the BEST when you hold onto your testimony.

I made a salad because that's actually all I know how to make... 

Have an amazing week and hold onto the iron rod!!!

Elder Burdeos

Hey I finally ate a burger

I'm sure as you have all read the title, nothing too spectacular happened this week so i'm going to try and keep this email relatively short.  

This was a very tough week.  It pushed us physically and really tried our faith.  Up until the latter part of the week we found very little success.  Our investigators either weren't home, leaving soon, or had some other reasons as to why they were unavailable at the moment.  It can be REALLY frustrating sometimes when you feel like you're giving your all and seeing little payout or outcome from your efforts.  There are some days you really just want to give up and run away from all trials and struggles.  I testify that it is in those times that we feel so desperate and useless that God is ready to lift us up and help us.  All we need to do is remember to turn to him.  He loves us as His children and He may be the only one who knows what we're going through so He is on hold waiting to see what we will do next.  A really funny experience that i'd like to share happened while we were contacting a media referral we received from the office.  We were introducing ourselves and he asks us if our chapel is the one with the basketball court and we say yes.  He then asks us if we know why our church has a basketball court and we ask him why.  He then goes into his house to search for something and comes back with a picture in his hand and says, "Because basketball is the sport of the Savior".  He then shows us the Picture and lone behold, a picture of the Savior in full basketball attire, shorts and jersey dribbling a basketball!! That was one of the most interesting conversations I think i've ever had...  You learn something new every day!

As the title states, I finally ate a burger.  It was incredible and it came with disposable gloves so that I wouldn't get my hands messy... GENIUSES!  

We found this cool landmark in our area.  KKK does not mean what you think it does.  It means, "Kataas-taasan Kagalang-galang Katipunan nang mga Anak nang bayan"  

...Yeah whatever that means

We also celebrated Bishop's birthday this week at their house!  Our Bishop is awesome and super helpful to us and to the progressing of this work.

That's it for this week I hope you all remember we are children of the Highest God!!!!!!

Elder Burdeos