The Island Life 2 #WeMadeItAgain

This week had to have been one of the most memorable and amazing weeks of my whole mission!!  I can't even begin to summarize what went on so I'll just give you the day by day!

Tuesday: We flew out to Palawan and met up with all of the missionaries at a chapel in a place called Malvar.  They were having their interviews with President Fermanis.  I was able to catch up with some friends that I haven't been able to talk to in ages hahaha!  In the evening we held our follow up meeting with all the new missionaries on their trainers.

Wednesday: ZONE CONFERENCE ON PALAWAN!!  I was able to attend my first zone conference here on the island.  We taught with President about extending commitments and improving other teaching skills.  The main focus of what we've been trying to emphasize at our zone conferences has been teaching with plainness.  We did a lot of practicing with the missionaries and I believe we all came out of the conference having had a spiritual experience.  At night we took a shuttle to the missionary house in Roxas!

Thursday: We got on a boat first thing in the morning and headed to a place in the mission called Green Island which is near the port in Roxas.  Green Island is a pretty legendary place because it's one of the newest areas in the mission and within the span of the first 6 weeks of it being opened, the missionaries were able to baptize over 50 people!!  We were able to come down and work there and there is no doubt in my mind that the Lord has prepared the people on the Island to receive the gospel.   The area itself however is pretty extreme.  It has no source of clean water so they get their water delivered from a different island and the Elders here have to go to a well and to get water and use that to shower.  To make it even better, the water is saltier than I am sometimes hehe.

Friday: First thing in the morning we took another boat back to Roxas and we were able to work with the Elders down there!  Their area was basically a giant mountain and we just walked all over the place all day it was crazy haha.  We got some nice views though.

Saturday: We had the pleasure of having our preparation day on Palawan!!  President gave us permission to head to a place called Sabang to experience the "Underground River".  It's one of the most well known attractions in the Philippines and it was beautiful!  While getting on the boat to head back though I tore my 5th pair of pants and that's about all I want to say about that hahahaha!!  We rode bikes on the beach and that was one of my favorite experiences in my whole mission!  At night we took a shuttle to the Zone Leaders apartment in Santa Monica. 

Sunday: The Senior couple picked us up from the Zone Leaders apartment and took us to the airport where we caught our flight back to Manila.  We had a fun time attending church in Mandaluyong 4th Ward and we are grateful for them.

AAANNNNDDD that brings us to today haha!  WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK!

Here are some pictures for you guys, sorry I don't know what order they'll send in so I'll just give descriptions another time hahaha.  

Love you guys!!  Have a good week!

Elder Burdeos

ELDER BURDEOS

2016 - 2018

PHILIPPINES MANILA MISSION

Zone Conference in Manila!

Hello my friends!!  Thanks for tuning in this week.

This last weekend we had the opportunity to watch the rebroadcasts of General Conference and let me just tell you, it really blessed my life.  This General Conference I decided to put down my notebook and as opposed to trying to remember the doctrine and the informational aspect of what the speakers were saying, I tried to remember how I felt hearing those called of God to deliver their messages and it made a big change.  I can truly testify that God is at the helm of this church.

Wednesday we had our zone conference and I'll be honest it was a little bit intimidating teaching in front of half of the mission.   We provided instruction on how to teach with plainness and thanks to the spirit we were all able to learn together and receive revelation.  After the conference I felt a sense of relief from my nerves.  That relief will last up until we have to do it again on Wednesday for the Palawan zone conference hahaha!  I love it!

Pictures:

1) Elder Somosa and I providing instruction at the conference.

2) Post Zone Conference photos!

3) We celebrated the birthday of a Sister missionary!  She bought us all ice cream and brought it to the office for us :) 

4,5,6) Post General Conference with some of my favorite members/missionaries.  I'm so grateful for the friends I've been able to make here :))

I know that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God.  I love and sustain him along with the other leaders of this church called to guide us in the path of following the Savior.  I will see you guys next week! Love you!

Elder Burdeos

ELDER BURDEOS

2016 - 2018

PHILIPPINES MANILA MISSION

The Island Life #WeMadeIt

HELLO ANG MINAMAHAL KONG MGA KAKILALA

This week simply put was just amazing.  Lots of stuff to keep us busy and I really enjoyed it.

Thursday we had our MLC and once again we were able to meet with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders and counseled on what we can do to better minister to the needs of our stewardships.  It was enlightening and I'm looking forward to the next time we will have that opportunity.

Something that you should probably know is that the whole mission is aware that I am the only missionary this old in the mission who has never been assigned on Palawan which is our island here.  Well this week President Fermanis being the holy man that he is was prompted to take us down to Palawan with him to check up on the missionaries and build trust with the members and leaders in the southern part of the island.  SO HA HA take that h8ers hahaha.  

But in all seriousness it was an awesome experience and we were able to work with some missionaries in an area called Quezon which is the highest baptizing area in the mission.  After being able to work there for a couple of days I have no questions as to why that is.  The people there are ready to receive the missionaries and the wonderful message that they bring.  It's crazy how different it is from Manila!  I felt like I was in a completely different world.  It was a successful trip and we were able to get a lot done.  I had some pretty incredible conversations with President Fermanis during the drives to each area which were hours at a time.  He's really is the man.

Pictures:

1) Post MLC photo!  Elder Hernaez, my previous companion in the office, will be transferring out of the office this transfer to go be a Zone Leader in Puerto Princesa.

2) Another post MLC photo!

3) On the flight heading to Palawan! :)

4) Selfie with the missionaries assigned in Berong

5) Selfie with the missionaries assigned in Cabar in front of their meetinghouse

6) A quick shot of Palawan

7) Selfie with the missionaries assigned in Sandoval (feat. THE President Fermanis)

This week we will be having our Zone Conference here in the Mainland.  I'm pretty nervous with the fact that I'll be teaching and providing some individual instruction for the missionaries but I'm also very excited to be enlightened and learn what God would have us learn at this time as a mission.

Thanks for all the love and the support I love you guys tons!!  Talk to you next week!!

Elder Burdeos

ELDER BURDEOS

2016 - 2018

PHILIPPINES MANILA MISSION

Back to the Roots

This was a pretty standard week but we've worked our hardest and done all that we can so I truly feel that it's been a success!!

We've had a lot of time to work in our area here in Mandaluyong!  We've focused our time on working mainly with the members and we've been able to find some success in finding part members which has been our main goal.

We were able to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Parañaque and I got to work the whole day with my good friend Elder Ludlow who I'm sure you've seen a lot of in my previous pictures hahaha!  We worked in my first area in Parañaque 2nd Ward and it was CRAZY going back.  Just to think it's been about a year and a half since the last time i've been back!  Feels like it was yesterday.  The members that we went to remembered my name and that made me feel like I was able to make somewhat of an impact on this ward even though back in the day I had no idea what any of them were saying hahaha!

Pictures:

1) Elder Somosa and I in the office... again

2) We found tons of wild goats while walking around Parañaque!  What a great day

3) The man Elder Ludlow!

4) One of the missionaries in our mission's brother came in to drop off some stuff so we took a picture with him :)

This week is MLC!!  We're excited to meet with the leaders of the mission and receive the revelation needed to help and improve this mission.  

It's a great time to be a missionary.

Love you guys have a good week!!

Elder Burdeos

ELDER BURDEOS

2016 - 2018

PHILIPPINES MANILA MISSION

Heartbreak Transfer Day

Hello friends and family! 

This week was yet another sad transfer days with lots of goodbyes sad moments.  This happens every six weeks so and it can be really hard but on the bright side the day after the departing missionaries go home we get a new group of missionaries who are eager to learn and serve which makes it a lot less sad hahaha.  

This transfer day was different than any other transfer day for me.  Usually on transfer day I'm at the mission office making sure that all missionaries meet up with their companions and safely make it back to their respective areas but now I stay at the mission home and teach the new missionaries and trainers at their orientation meeting!  It was a great experience and by the end of the meeting they were all awake so I consider it a success hahaha!!

Pictures:

1) We had a baptism on Saturday for Troi.  He is a relative of the Mattias family in Makati 1st Ward!  He was very excited and we were happy for him.

2) President and Sister Stucki, the mission presidents of the Manila Mission in 2011 paid us a visit at the mission office.  They are a very friendly couple!

3) We had the opportunity to go through the temple with the departing missionaries!  President and Sister Fermanis also came with us and that was an awesome experience!

4) Sending Elder Tuiatua off!  I learned a lot from him about what it means to be a good leader.  We will miss him.

5) One of my good friends Elder Palmer also went home this week.  Hands down one of the most obedient missionaries I have ever met.  Learned tons from him.

6) We will miss these Aussies. 

7) Our new office squad

This week we also transferred wards!!  We will now be serving in the Mandaluyong 4th Ward and we are very excited to hasten the work in our new area.  

That's it for this week!!  Thanks for all the support, I love you guys!

Elder Burdeos

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ELDER BURDEOS

2016 - 2018

PHILIPPINES MANILA MISSION

The Mission XXI: Return to the Office

Yes you heard me right, I have been transferred back into the office hahaha.  Only this time around I’ll be coming back to serve as an Assistant. I got a call from President Fermanis a little while back telling me the news!  That means I'll be mainly emailing on Saturdays from now on (Fridays in Utah). My “new” companion will be Elder Somosa. I say “new” because Elder Somosa was actually my companion back in the day when we served as Office Elders hahaha!  The boys are back. We’ll be serving in my old ward in Makati and it seems as if this will be my last area in the mission. It was super difficult having to say goodbye to my wards here in Sampaloc and MYSA.  The members here made me feel so welcome and treated me like a member of their family. I’m so grateful to Heavenly Father for giving me the chance to meet these incredible people and I will never forget them.  I will also never forget the wonderful experiences that I had in my time serving here in Sampaloc.

This week we had our

-MLC

-Temple trip

-MTC exchanges

-P-day trip to Ocean Park with the Parañaque ZLs and Vedz

-Interviews with President Fermanis

Pics:

1) Elder Dewsnup (to the right of me) will be replacing me here in Manila when I transfer back to Makati.

2) Elder Burdeos is cheezin' :)

3) We went to the temple with our zone and we saw our recent convert Charline there!! She went all by herself hahaha she is so amazing.

4) A group of students studying at PUP conducted an interview with us hoping to learn more about the church for an assignment!

5) MYSA ward being MYSA ward hahaha

6) WE ARE BACK AT OCEAN PARK YET AGAIN! It's basically the Disneyland of all P-days hahaha

Thanks to Kenneth and Vedz for the fun pictures!!

 IMG20180903152352.jpg

I won’t lie, I’m a little nervous for this new responsibility but if I’ve learned anything from my mission it’s that we are never alone.  Heavenly Father is with us every step of the way, we just need to trust in Him and always give Him our best. I'm also super excited to have the chance to work closely with President Fermanis again. Such an incredible Mission President and I'm excited to learn so much from him.

Love you guys!  Have an amazing week!

Elder Burdeos

ELDER BURDEOS

""

2016 - 2018

PHILIPPINES MANILA MISSION

TWO DECADES

What a fun week it's been here in the Manila/Mandaluyong Zone.  

On Tuesday we were able to test out one of my ideas that I came up with!  It's called the Find-Off and it's a super basic concept.  It's a district vs. district finding activity, within the span of 2 hours.  We were able to see some success come from it, within that span of  2 hours we as a zone were able to teach and find 25 new people!!  

Friday the MIR held a mini MTC event which was a success!  There were a good amount of non-members who attended and it was such an awesome experience to see non-members take upon themselves the role of a missionary!! There they learned how to teach, share scriptures, and follow mission rules.

Saturday was my birthday and man it was such an amazing time.  Prior to serving a mission I always thought that holidays and birthdays in the mission were going to be sad and terrible but the members and missionaries still find a way to make it an enjoyable experience for you.  The members in our ward gave me kind letters and surprised me with a cake!!  The Sister missionaries in the ward gave me a GIANT card signed by some of my best friends in the mission and favorite members.  It meant so much to me and I'm grateful for everybody who made my birthday a special day.  It did however end kind of awkwardly with us attending a funeral service but that's okay I still had a great day.  

Sunday was the Manila Stake Conference.  It was crazy because a year ago I attended the same stake conference at that same chapel when I was assigned in Tondo and it felt like that was yesterday.  Time flies.  President and Sister Fermanis also gave some super strong talks and that was super enlightening to us.  They spoke about the importance of reading from the Book of Mormon EVERY SINGLE DAY!!  Imagine reading from the Book of Mormon as talking on the phone with our Heavenly Father.  Also imagine that every time we refuse to read it's like we are putting Heavenly Father on hold or rejecting His call.  JUST READ IT!  IT WILL BLESS YOU I PROMISE!

I had an amazing week!!!  I received some fun news that I'm excited to share with you guys on a later date hahaha.  

I have so many pictures to show you guys but my card reader isn't working so I guess we'll have to wait another week :(((((  I do have some from yesterday though :)  ALSO I WILL NOT BE EMAILING UNTIL TUESDAY NEXT WEEK DUE TO OUR TEMPLE DAY!  

Love you guys tons!  Have an amazing week!

Elder Burdeos

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ELDER BURDEOS

2016 - 2018

PHILIPPINES MANILA MISSION