Monthly Archives: July 2014

Hey everyone!

Well, the typhoon was pretty crazy!  I was still in Calamba when it hit, and I guess it was actually pretty bad there but it was the worst out in my previous areas of Atimonan and Lucena. I was pretty worried about the members out there, but i’ve heard that they’re ok.  I did see a roof get shredded across the street but the only thing in the air was rain!  Water was pouring into our apartment all night.  I think I had it worse than Hunter, because it was actually super freaky – I thought our doors or glass windows were going to get shattered by the wind.  Then the day after the typhoon I got transferred to my new area of Siniloan, and it seems like the storm wasn’t very bad there.  Just no electricity for a couple days.

We are really seeing progression in our area right now! We kind of had to start over even though there have been missionaries here for a long time.  We are re-establishing expectations with the branch we are in and using our resources more effectively!  Sometimes it feels more like doing a business and setting structure to the way we manage things… so it’s kind of interesting!  But it’s fun and always directed by the spirit and in Tagalog!

I’m in a zone leaders area, because I’m a zone leader now.  My companion is a big New Zealander who plays rugby.  He’s very Polynesian.  Anyway, no photos this week – sorry, I need to buy some batteries for the camera.  There is a branch of the church here and our branch president is pretty cool.  He reminds me of Jason as far as his age and personality go.  This last week was good, we had exchanges with the AP’s so that was interesting (editor’s note:  the term “AP” refers to Assistant to the President, which are above Tyler in the mission chain of command).  We are kind of rebooting our area so we just did finding the WHOLE DAY, so it was a great learning experience about leadership.  We’re going to have exchanges again tomorrow with another companionship just to correct any issues or help inspire them to do the right things.  We hope to provide some re-motivation and focus on their area.

I have been missing Hunter sometimes more than others.   All I seem to get each week in his emails to me is, “Hey are you on???” or “Where the heck are you???” or “Hey”.  I never get anything in detail (editor’s note:  this is ironic because Tyler rarely gives us much detail!!)

Love,

Elder Tyler Burbidge

Hey everybody!

This is just a quick post to let you know that I am safe and sound after Typhoon Glenda blew through Calamba.  It’s been crazy, but in addition to the typhoon I got transferred, so I’m not anywhere to close to Hunter anymore.  I am in the the town of Siniloan which is still in the Laguna Province but on the East side of Laguna de Bay.  I have been called to be a zone leader, which means I am responsible for about 24 other missionaries in this area.  My new companion is a big Tongan from New Zealand and he’s super funny and nice.

I will be bale to post more on Monday, which is our P-Day, but our mission president said we could send a quick email to let everyone know that we are safe and have power and services back after the storm.  Being called to serve as a zone leader freaked me the heck out at first, but it’s going pretty well and it’s helping me so much to become more like Christ.

The storm was INTENSE!  I watched a roof get ripped off around 4 am, but it wasn’t ours so that was good.  At one point through the night I was getting rained on inside of my apartment through the windows and the air conditioning unit, so I got up and walked out into the living area and water was pouring through the back window!   It was freaking loud as heck… so yeah it was flippin’ scary.  But, alas I am yet alive and well in a new zone with some of the members of my MTC district back in Utah, so that is fun to re-connect with them and do good work.

Location of Siniloan in the Laguna Province.

I’ll write more in a few days and hopefully send photos of my new area.

Love,

Elder Tyler Burbidge

Hey everyone!

This is a photo of my group of missionaries right now (it’s called a Zone)!  There are more missionaries in our zone, but some of them decided not to come to the activity.  The photo was taken at the University of the Philippines, Los Banos campus for our zone p-day.  I’m in my yellow “King Felix” T-shirt and next to me is my buddy, Elder Bland.  My companion is the one holding a rugby ball in black behind me. We got some sweet floral hats!

Our Zone activity at the University of the Philippines

So as you can tell from the title of my blog post, I’ve got a story for you.  So we went to 7/11 early in the morning to meet with our fellow missionaries and travel to our meeting NEW MISSION PRESIDENT!  We arrived several minutes late to 7/11 (but were still ‘early’ compared to our other elders). Outside in the parking lot was a woman who was screaming, and before we know what’s going on, a man is laying down a NEWBORN BABY on the seat of a filthy, dirty, germy, tricycle!!!  They then moved the baby (who was still tied to the mother via the umbilical chord) and the mother to another tricycle and took off to, hopefully, the hospital!  Yeah, sooooo… that was a FREAKING CRAZY EXPERIENCE.  Ahh the miracle of life!

Well, this area is testing me!  It demands EXACT planning, EXACT patience, EXACT love, and EXACT understanding, which is hard for a human being like myself.  It’s helping me to grow and to change expectations for myself and for others to a realistic level.  That doesn’t mean giving less effort, rather adjusting the fruit that will come from the effort to a realistic level with consistent progress, be it fast, at a jog, or at a crawl.  I have to keep reminding myself that God has a plan for this area, and it doesn’t depend on my opinion, my companion’s opinion or anyone else.  As long as we’re obedient to the counsel that we receive from HIM, we should be doing well. We were going to have a baptism, but it fell through because our investigator didn’t attend church, but God’s will is right in the middle of it all so I am sure it will all work out.