Hello everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!  It was pretty anticlimactic here since it is not celebrated at all, so we had ourselves a nice meal of Top Ramen and hot dogs and made a toast to the good ol’ USA!!  See photo below for the feast!

Thanksgiving feast of ramen noodles and hot dogs! Nummy!!

Lately I have been busy out of my mind!  My companion treats me REALLY well. He makes me food, helps me prepare for future problems (companions, investigators, leadership) and he’s a good friend to me too and is able to joke around.  We had two progressing investigators at church yesterday which is a huuuuuuge step for investigators here.  Coming to church is important so that they can feel the holy spirit and meet the members.

Elder Hunter Burbidge out doing the work!

So they know what that’s all about now and we are praying that they will progress in the Gospel.  We met one of them last Sunday and gave her a Book of Mormon and she finished it on WEDNESDAY!!  Crazy right??  She’s 16 years old and her name is Darlin (pronounced “Darleen”).  So she’s probably going to be baptized on the 28th if she goes to church 3 more times before that.  It’s possible, so we will keep praying for her and you can do the same.  And she loves the Book of Mormon already!

Our scheduling of appointments is going better now that we have gotten more organized. We set up return appointments for each person now after we teach them and we coordinate that by the areas that they’re are in. We spend a lot of time now teaching Darlin, and her friends Janet and Dennis, who is a less active member of the church, and Janet is his non-member wife. We go there almost every other day and sometimes a few days in a row.

We’ve also been out to a place called Bunga quite a bit this week. It’s really far away and takes a while to get there, but the people there speak a language called “Waray Waray”, which is the language my companion spoke in Tacloban before he was evacuated due to the typhoon. So they’ve taken a real interest in us and we have a few investigators out there as well.

So as I said, we are very busy. I’ve become more comfortable in speaking to strangers. I can almost understand a lot of what people are talking about, but when It comes to speaking it’s still difficult for me. Just lack of vocabulary and confidence. but the more I speak, the better that will get I am sure!

I miss all of my family a lot, and being able to go to the temple. I’ve been longing to go back, and wish it wasn’t such a long time before I can.  The spirit is so strong there and I really miss it a lot!  Well I love all of you back home and would encourage you to read your scriptures.  Following are a few pictures of my mission area and some friends of mine from the MTC.

Take Care,

Elder Hunter Burbidge

Beach scene near my mission area

Missionary friends of mine from the Missionary Training Center together on a Preparation Day activity!