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.
Tyler Burbidge's Mission 
We have it pretty easy here compared to the tricycle birth don’t we? 🙂 Makes me wonder why we get all freaked out over every little germ when things like that happen. To all moms: in no way am I saying we ladies should give birth on the go then jump on the tricycle! So I’ll reiterate…we have it pretty good here. Lol When you come back I want to hear you speak that language. You’ve come a long way with it…wasn’t as easy when you first got there! Take care and have fun….hugs hugs hugs