Playing Basketball in Punta

Hello everyone! Well, during our last preparation-day we went on an excursion to a place called Punta! It’s a branch about 25 minutes away from my town of Tanza. We got to watch the movie Monsters University and play basketball, football, and ultimate frisbee!! It was pretty awesome because my friends Elder Christensen and Elder Golden were there as well as Elder Anderson. Elder Anderson is from the Puyallup area and his mom works at Beehive Books & More, the LDS bookstore in Edgewood where we bought our missionary supplies. He is really nice and I like hanging out with him at meetings and activities. We had some good ol’ American soda pop and some very good cheese roll things! I have included some photos that I took this week but there are not too many because I’m trying not to look like a tourist!

Elder Anderson playing football on P-Day in Punta!

My companion and I are working hard. We taught about 35-40 lessons this week and we have a baptism on Sunday! We are always busy with appointments and so we are always walking from place to place, which gives us good opportunities to “OYM” (Open your mouth) and do some street contacting! There was a fun experience yesterday on the boardwalk area of a town called Julugan! We were walking along with some of the local members and this man called out “Hey Joe!” – which is what they call the Americans. It was him and about 20 other guys who were just hanging out on the beach, so we approached them and ended up teaching them part of the first lesson – right there on the beach!

Julugan reminds me of Venice Beach, CA because it is a densely populated area that has a boardwalk type area where people like to hang out. There are also a lot of fishing boats and little home shops right on the beach. We have four investigators there, so we spend quite a bit of time traveling back and forth to that town. The weather is also warm like California but it has been cloudy, yet really hot and muggy. But when the sun breaks out and hits you, it feels like you’re instantly being burnt! There’s a small island off the coast called Bataan which we can see if the air quality is good enough!

We eat a lot of Chicken Adobo which is seasoned chicken and rice, rice, rice, and more rice. I like making Top Ramen and then putting a lot of rice in it to soak up the juice. Also, there’s this place called Angel’s Burger – which is the typical of the fast food in the Philippines! They give you two cheeseburgers for about 15 cents which is pretty awesome!

I have been missing home a bit, and especially Tyler! He’s so close, but I can’t see him. Anyway, it sounds like he is having a good time though. My advice to my family and friends at home is to rely on prayer, read the scriptures, and be thankful for what you have. Count your blessings! It’s amazing how blessed we are.

Be thankful for washing machines too! We wash our clothes in a bucket by hand. First you mash the clothing item around in the soapy water for a few minutes, then you ring it out good, and then rinse, ring, rinse, then wring it out, then hang it to dry! All of that takes more than an hour and the soap irritates my hands and forearms a little. As a result of this labor-intensive routine, I’ve started wearing my pants and shirts for two days before washing them!

I guess that is all for now! I am glad to hear that my T-Birds are doing well! I sure appreciate all of the emails and letters from people back home.  Take care and I’ll write more next week.

Love,

Elder Hunter Burbidge