First off, let me just say that I’m okay!!! I didn’t feel any side-effects of the storm until I got my new companion! He’s been out on his mission for a while (about 18 months) and is really helping me better myself.  The Spirit is so crucial in this work. This week we had a couple of experiences where we felt like we were led by the Spirit. Here’s one:

We’ve set a goal to go finding for at least one hour per day this week and in doing so, we need to find the people that have been prepared for us to teach!  It’s a spiritual experience when finding as well, not just teaching!  We were returning from an appointment in an area called Bunga (in Tagalog it means fruit). It’s kind of out of the way from everything and so we were out in the middle of nowhere.  We saw this cluster of homes and decided to go over and find some people to talk to.  Come to find out, we took the wrong path. We were tempted to head back to the main drag, but I had a large urge to just keep walking. We walked until we were back into the trees a little bit and found some people to talk to.  They were really nice. We started to talk about the message that we usually share, and out of nowhere about 6-7 people showed up and started listening to us and want us to come back!  We’ll see how it goes, but it was just a testimony builder that I had this week.

The work is progressing here in Tanza! We’re really striving to get to know more members so that we can be more effective as an area rather than just two missionaries!  All of the phases of missionary work are coming together for us!  It feels good to be fulfilling our purpose and finding out our individual callings as missionaries of the Lord.  I know this work is true and real, and for the right reason, TO BRING PEOPLE HAPPINESS. That’s what it’s all about. The message that the missionaries have may be a little different than what you’ve heard in the past, but I KNOW it will bring you happiness. Give them a listen! They are there because they love you!

I miss you all back home, keep giving it your best!

Love,

Elder Hunter Burbidge