Learning the Ropes of Leadership in Siniloan

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