Monthly Archives: December 2014

Merry Christmas everyone!!!  I’ve got like a couple of minutes to shoot off an email telling you that I love you before we leave the office for the night!  This morning we got up at 4:30 am, left the mission home at 6:00 am, drove two hours to Lucena, gave a one hour training meeting for new trainers at 8:30 am.  Then at 10:00 am zone conference started that went until 4:00 pm. During that zone conference we gave a workshop about short powerful messages in finding.  We taught about the principle of reflection. How we receive light from our Heavenly Father through Christ and it is an unchangable law of God not for us to reflect it once we receive it.  If you want to get deep with it, I found it while studying Facsimile 2 in the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price along with Doctrine & Covenants 88 (40ish verses).  It’s wild, but so simple how God’s laws apply to everything that he creates. There’s a lot of light going on out in space, but it’s all organized. Just like our testimonies and our faith. If you are really receiving light through the Atonement, you should really be reflecting just as much to those around you. 

Elder Burbidge & President Mangum, his mission president at Zone Conference. President Mangum was reading ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas” to the leaders.

Selfie with Elder Burbidge and Elder Bodkin at Zone Conference.

Tomorrow is the same schedule, except we get to sleep in a little bit later than yesterday because our venue for the zone conference is closer – in the town of Lipa.  I struggled a bit in church this last week about not being with the family at Christmas time, but it made me so grateful for you all that I became happy instead.  I’ve been trying to observe how much light is going on around us through the actions of others and you’ll find that even though the world is pretty crude right now, most people have light that they don’t know that they have.  That means you do too.  Magnify that light through living worthy of the Spirit to guide you in which direction and which way to “direct your reflect”.  Thank you so much!  I love you all!  Merry Christmas. 

Love,

Elder Tyler Burbidge

Elder Bland, Elder Burbidge, and a Sister missionary at Zone conference.

‘Ello mates!

I’m alive. The storm wasn’t bad where i was at. But as assistants, office elders, and stranded zone leaders, we organized evacuation plans and stuff for other zones, but i’ll go over that later.

I guess I’ll start with last week. We went on an exchange on Tuesday to Wednesday with a district leader and then attended their district meeting. It was REALLY good. I was on exchanges with the district leader.  On Tuesday, we talked and counseled about different ways to really take “ownership” of the district that you lead. To set goals, use time wisely, receive revelation, act, follow up, etc. I felt like when we were discussing these things, he was listening. Turns out he was REALLY listening because he hit the nail on the head at district meeting. It was really refreshing seeing someone apply something so quickly and so effectively.

On Thursday, we completed our workshop and the training plan for our Mission Leader’s Council.  As assistants, we conduct the meeting, present the training plan, and give an hour long workshop on a topic that we receive through revelation for the mission that will aid the leaders in effectively leading their missionaries. We decided to twist things up a bit. In the past, the MLC workshops were given to instruct the missionaries on teaching skills that would have somehow “carried-over” into leadership qualities that could also be used in the next week’s zone training meeting to train missionaries. This MLC, my companion and I went straight for the core leadership of the mission. We gave a workshop to THEM about their needs, about how to become more like Christ and to lead like Him. We gave a workshop focused on the Christlike attribute of CHARITY and how it connects to our training plan topic of REPENTANCE AND THE ATONEMENT.

Studying and preparing for the workshop was cool. I realized on a completely different level how everything in the gospel is related. Prayer and The Resurrection. Tithing and the Pre-existence. Eternal Families and Planning. I’ve found that if we find the simple connection between doctrine (which is so vast) and every day simple things that we understand well, such as prayer, fasting, or faith, our understanding of Jesus Christ, who He is, what He did, and who we are, becomes so incredibly clear. With charity, we taught a principle that you’ll find in a physics book. For every charitable ACTION there is a charitable (or Christlike) REACTION. in other words, if you exercise any of the attributes listed in Moroni 7:45, you will invoke a charitable (or Christlike) reaction upon another person, or in other words, you help them to REPENT as Christ helped others repent. 

Why do you want to repent? where does that desire come from? It comes from Christ’s Atonement for us. It’s something that we ALL feel, whether we have knowledge of Christ or not. We all feel a need to exercise virtue, or endure, or believe, just because Christ acted out of love for us. How cool is that? i’m learning soooo much here in the office. I feel a little down sometimes, because it’s hard to see the direct effect that comes so often with teaching investigators, but it is still a feeling that i’m fulfilling the purpose in some way. 

As for the storm, on Friday we had an office meeting. We put together group text messages and assigned each elder in the office 1 or 2 zones to be responsible throughout and after the storm for reporting purposes. I was assigned to the Lopez Zone and the San Pablo Zone. For the last storm, Glenda back in July, Lopez got absolutely thrashed, so as soon as this storm got anywhere close to our mission, we evacuated the whole zone to a chapel in the area that was highest in elevation and most able to withstand the storm. San Pablo wasn’t effected much and we saw that the storm wouldn’t really effect the missionaries here, but we did evacuate two apartments before the storm for a risk of flooding. It was really cool to kind of be a part of a “headquarters” crew that managed people and places and stuff. It was kinda scary because we didn’t know what was going to happen, but it turned out the worst we had was flooding out of the bathrooms at that Lopez Zone evacuation spot. 

Yesterday, while staying in our apartment, we just hung out, studied, sang, tried to eat 72 hour kit food, and slept. It was a nice relaxing day. Not much happened, but it got pretty windy during the evening hours. I’m really enjoying the cool weather that the storms bring. I forgot how nice it was to sleep with a sweatshirt on.

I think that’s about it friends! I’m happy and safe!  We’re taking our P-day today on Tuesday, so I might try to find some socks… they seem to disappear. Have a great week! Patuloy lang! mahal ka ni Jesucristo, huwag kang magaalala sa iyong mga pagsubok. basta maniwala sa ating Diyos and ang Kanyang dakilang plano. ilagay ang iyong pagtiwala sa kanyang kamay at gawin lahat para maging masunurin sa kanyang mga utos. mahal ko kayo!!!! ingat lagiz.

Elder Tyler Burbidge

Hey guys! This week was good. Really busy in trying to organize everything for this week’s Mission Leader Council (MLC). We’re giving a different type of workshop and also creating a new training plan for the missionaries here. We are doing a lot more exchanges with missionaries now than the AP’s have done in the past so that’s why we’re so busy I think. But it’s fun. I hope you’re all doing well. We had some cool things happen this week. We’ve been able to help a lot of missionaries in a short amount of time (one week) so that was cool for me. It’ll be interesting to see where things go.

Elder Burbidge heading from Mindoro Island to Luzon for MLC.

I like being in the office, but it’s hard not having a working schedule every day. I’m starting to see how much i enjoyed teaching and working and talking to people about the Gospel that has been restored to the earth. I feel kind of a lack here, just because we’re in the office a lot doing things that don’t seem directly related to the work, but in reality, support the work and give it a purpose. It’s a big blessing to see how the big scheme works. I feel blessed to serve like this, and I can’t wait to see how it’ll help me grow.

This week, we’re going on exchanges with some elders, attending a district meeting and preparing for our MLC on Friday which we as assistants conduct, organize, and plan. We also are introducing a new training plan on repentance and presenting a different style of workshop for our leaders. We’re pretty excited about it. 

Elder Burbidge jumping for joy!

I’m glad you all had a great Thanksgiving. We’re getting a pizza tonight that wouldn’t fit in the back of dad’s truck bed, so I hope you all think you got full eating turkey and mashed potatoes. I love you all and I hope you know that God loves all of you. If you don’t have a personal witness that He does in fact love you, ask Him yourself. 

ingat kau lagi. namimiss ko kau.

Love,

Elder Tyler Burbidge