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

Donovan Mitchell > Elder Mitchell

Hello ang aking mga kaibigan,  I missed you.  

I had a very eventful week and we were able to see many miracles and blessings which made it even better.  We were able to get to the area on time every day this week and it felt awesome.

Tuesday:  We took a Sister the airport to get to her new area in Coron.  Right after, we were able to have a service project at a member family household in which we cleaned their house and did their dishes.  Only here in the mission field do the things listed above become your favorite things to do.  We had district meeting and one of the sisters in our district was really sad and when we asked why she said it was because Avicii died.  Then all of us were sad with her :(.

Thursday:  We went to the LTO to help some Elders get their Philippines drivers licenses.  We had to be super patient because the wait to receive the license was 3 and a half hours long.  SWEET...

Saturday:  We were able to pick up my camera from SM Megamall because it has been getting repaired for the last few weeks :(  But expect more pictures coming now that I have it again :)  Also I received news that the Jazz smoked Russell Westbrook and the Thunder like a sausage and that made my whole day.  At night we were able to teach some of our investigators and invite them to church.

Sunday:  MIRACLES!  Sister Lynn, one of our investigators that we've been teaching for my whole time in this area, came to church for the first time.  She is always super busy with her work but she was able to get a Sunday off and really enjoyed the church service that we had.  She said she'll continue to try and get Sundays off from work to come attend church.  Also we had four more investigators attend the church service, all of them being cousins and friends of one of our recent converts.  Today was a good reminder to me that the more effort that we put into progressing this work and being obedient to God's commandments, the more He is willing to reward us openly and guide us.  

Pictures:

1- We got bored at the LTO so we started flipping our water bottles and Elder Amoring somehow managed to flip his onto this thin beam.  Sick.

2- We had a jeepney to ourselves on the way home one night.

That's it for this week!  I would encourage each and every one of you to continue to minister to those who you think could use help or a nice boost along the way to following the Savior and His example.  Love you guys!

Mission XVI: Return to Tondo

This week:

- We had our zone conference on Wednesday in which we discussed the importance of ministering to others.  Ministering shouldn't be a new concept to the members of this church.  Serving others and caring for each other has always been a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  After Zone Conference we took a field trip to Tondo with the squad.  Elder Fiesta, Elder Reber, Elder Cibuco, and I all went back to visit some of those we taught and a couple of members as well.  The highlight of the day was visiting a couple of my investigators, Marife and Robert, and they told me that they had plans on getting married within the next couple of months and they invited me to their baptism!!  That news made my whole night.  Unfortunately we got caught in traffic on the way back and when we arrived at the house we couldn't get a hold of the missionaries inside and the door was locked so... It's a blessing that we have a van!  That was the original plan but the Lord blessed us with a miracle and one of the missionaries woke up and unlocked the front door.

- While walking back to the car in Tondo there was a giant building that began to burn down and swarms of firetrucks approaching.  Good to see that Tondo hasn't changed a bit since I've left.

- Erick was confirmed on Sunday and he's happy as ever.

Pictures:

1. For the first time in 4 transfers I got to ride a jeepney again!

2. Chillin' at headquarters with Elder Hernaez

3. Elder Fiesta goes home on May 1st :(

4. President is awesome and allowed us come to the mission home on P-day.

Thanks for everything.  Take ministering seriously, they're your brothers and sisters.  Love you!

Elder Burdeos

Erick was 'yagged

Hello my beloved friends and family, thanks for tuning in.  

My week was sweet, the church is true.  We felt the hand of God in the work as we were able to find new people to teach.  Our members here in Makati 1st have been super helpful to us and i'm really grateful for them and their desire to progress this work.

Also Erick had his baptism on Friday!  It was a really great experience for him and we had a great turnout of members at the baptism.  I'm very grateful for him and for the opportunity that we had to help him find his way to the path to follow the Savior.  

Sunday, we brought Erick to a fireside at the mission home.  The fireside consisted of missionaries and their investigators.  While we were there we watched a video called "Finding faith in Christ" and it was super powerful and you could see the impact it had on those who were in attendance.  If you haven't seen it I would encourage you to do so.

Pictures:

1- This picture describes our companionship pretty accurately.

2- Erick is a pogi dude

3- Moments before the 'yag.

4- We went to the Mall of Asia for P-day and I this was definitely the highlight.

I forgot to mention that for the fourth time on my mission I am in a companionship of three!!  Welcome Elder Harmer!  We're having a great time together and i'm excited to see where what we can do with this trio.  

Thanks for the love and support that you guys always give to me!  Love you have an amazing week!