Hello from the Southern Hemisphere!  I heard it has been really cold there in Washington but that is not the case here in Tanza!  It stays about 85 degrees and humid most of the year – so bundle up and think of me wearing short sleeves.  Actually it hasn’t rained here in a while so it’s been hot and drier than usual.

Elder Hunter Burbidge with some of his fellow missionaries.

Me and my companion are really good friends now, we find ourselves laughing out of nowhere and then it gets contagious and we laugh for minutes. It’s kinda funny. He’s really funny and it’s great to have a companion with some similarities to me!  It is hard though because he only has five months left before he goes home and it’s difficult for me to see that I have so much longer!  But he told me that he’s trying to help me be a better missionary than he is, which is saying a LOT because he’s stellar!!  He’s really good with that stuff and motivating me, so I just need to learn all I possible can from him while I have the chance.

As far as Christmas preparations, they put up some cool festival lights in the streets and hang big stars up in the streets and it looks pretty festive.  It sounds like a lot is happening with the Tumwater Football team!  Nice shot at the title T-Birds! I’m proud of you and hope you’re all realizing the great moments that you’ve had as a T-Bird in the playoffs!

Anyway, just a couple thoughts this week about trials and challenges!  I’ve learned a lot from my trials here on my mission already that there is a reason for every single little tiny thing that happens right down to what you say to somebody. We were tracting (trying to find people by knocking on doors and street contacts) two days ago and we weren’t having any luck at all.  We walked around and tried talking to people, but they wouldn’t really be interested or anything.  Ends up, we got a little lost and ended up finding ourselves where we started.  There was a man that was staring at us and so we thought we could go talk to him, and it ends up that his two nephews are members of the church, and that he’s been taught a little bit by previous missionaries. We talked with him for a while, and got a return appointment to teach him about how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help us in our families and other relationships each day!  I’m excited to go teach him, and I learned that all in all we need to realize that these trials will eventually come to a conclusion with a result.  That result, is the result that God wants for us.  Maybe it’s not the result we want or expect, but it’s the result He wants.  It takes humility for sure to realize this, but it is possible.  In the scriptures it says that God will not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able to overcome.  He won’t give us trials that we can’t take.  It’s true.  I know it!  So keep that in mind when things are getting crazy, and act for the best outcome that will be the most effective in the happiness of your life in the future.  It may be hard now, but will definitely be worth it in the future.  Press forward with faith in Christ and do your part in working your hardest to complete and overcome those obstacles and everything will work out!

This last week was kind of slow in the work, but it’s okay!  The lessons we taught were meaningful…and we finally found out where the cool marketplace is!  Little did we know it was right behind our apartment, we just have to walk a round about way to get there!  We have a zone meeting this week that I’m pretty excited for.  It’ll be fun to see elder Anderson who is from the Puyallup area!  He’s always nice to talk to and we’re expecting the Seahawks to win the Superbowl!!

It’s definitely been difficult being away for the holidays, but it really helps me remember the true meaning of them huh!  I’ve really been trying to be grateful for he things that I have. Not just the things that are with me, but things back home as well as the people here. Speaking of the people back home – it makes me thankful that I have so much support from my family about this part in my life.  It just seems like yesterday when we were in the Tacoma Dome celebrating a state championship huh!  It’s crazy how fast time flies…that was three years ago…crazy right?

Well that is about it for this week.  I am on my last week of my “training” so soon I’ll be a regular missionary!!

I love you all very much,

Elder Hunter Burbidge

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!

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

Wow, what a week! We had a surprise transfer day! I didn’t get transferred but I got a new companion who was displaced from the Tacloban Mission named Elder Jansrikesorn. He’s from Northern California and seems like a really hard worker.  He was originally assigned to the East Samara area of the Tacloban Mission.  A lot of the areas and cities where he had served in the past are totally wiped off the map. He misses his mission a lot, but we’ve already had some really good experiences in the short amount of time we have been together.  We know we’re supposed to be assigned together.  He has six months left in his mission, so there’s a major experience gap but I’m really going to try hard to serve my hardest and do my best for him.

I never thought the Typhoon would influence my life so much. I had heard it was bad, but I didn’t think it was bad enough to close down a mission!  So now, our main focus is to talk to everybody that we come in contact with. We need people to teach, and missionary work can’t progress if there is nobody to teach!

My mission experience is getting better by the day. I’m really starting to enjoy it and I’m so ready to learn. A lot of the time people think that the missionaries know everything, that we have the answers to everything. But we need to remember that the answers are in the scriptures. We can find any answer from the scriptures. I urge you all to read some book of scripture (preferably the Book of Mormon!) and think about how it makes you feel! It’s great. I know it’s true!

I miss everyone back home, but I know that this work is so important. It can change lives, and it’s changing mine. I’ve learned that we need to ACT if we want to improve. So if you feel a little weak in some area of your life, do something to make it stronger.  I’m thankful for the example that you all are to me back home! Keep progressing, raise the bar for yourself each day, and set goals with real intent (follow through).

Hope you all have a good week!  Love,

Elder Hunter Burbidge

Elder Burbidge doing laundry in a bucket!

Hello everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that I am safe and totally fine after Typhoon Haiyan passed through (which is called Yolanda here in the Philippines)! Since we are hundreds of miles to the north of the impacted area, it felt a lot like a warm winter storm from back home and that’s it!  Since we don’t watch TV and I don’t understand very much Tagalog anyway I did not understand the full impact of the storm until I got emails today!  It sounds pretty scary in Kyle Oake’s mission area of Tacloban – I will keep him and the rest of his missionaries and Filipino people in my prayers.

Some of the branch threw a little party for me to make me happy on my birthday so I appreciated that very much 🙂  I haven’t gotten any birthday packages from home yet! I’m hoping that I might get them tomorrow at a zone meeting which is where a lot of people get mail from the states.  If not, I will get them eventually!  Also, President and Sister Tye called me and sang me the “Happy Birthday” song so I know they love me!

A birthday cake provided by local members of the church.

Me with frosting smeared on my face!

Here’s a picture of a baptism we had on Saturday!

Editor’s Note:  Although Hunter’s area was relatively unscathed by the Super-Typhoon, other areas of the Philippines were devastated.  To learn how you can contribute to the LDS Church’s humanitarian aid efforts in the Philippines and throughout the world click the link below:

http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/funds/humanitarian-general-fund.html#topOfPage

Hello from Tanza! This last week I got some pictures from home and they were awesome. I love pictures from home because it reminds me that I have a family back in the USA supporting me!! I’m getting twinges of homesickness throughout the day which is difficult to deal with because it distracts me a little. I think I’m being too serious lately, but I just want this mission experience to be meaningful. I want to lighten up, but I don’t want to be disobedient or loose sight of my purpose as a missionary.

Friends in the Philippines!

This is a photo of a family that we just helped reactivate in the church! They’re awesome! They were less active for 8 YEARS. We received their name from a list that the branch president provided and started making more contact with them. I believe that the husband is a tricycle driver, and I’m not sure what the wife does, but they’re always busy and hard working people! The younger daughter has the same birthday as me! Crazy right? It reminds me of Sarah Orgill sharing our birthday! We are also getting two new missionaries in Tanza, so we’re splitting up the area and that family won’t be in my area anymore – bummer!

The weather is a little bit drizzly here today, but still in the 80’s with about 80% humidity. The English language is getting more difficult to remember. I’m starting to understand how to use Tagalog grammar now so I’m getting pretty excited about it. Verb conjugation is definitely important!

Cute Filipino child with Elder Burbidge and his companion.

I’m eating pretty good for a missionary! We eat a lot of top ramen and rice, but the members feed us a lot and we pick up little things every once in a while to snack on. I’ve been feeling just a little bit queezy the last couple of days, but we were fasting so I think that was part of it. I’ve also felt more tired lately – more like fatigue tired rather than sleepy tired if that makes any sense!

We had another baptism yesterday of a man who had to wait a long time to be baptized. He’s 25 years old and had his appendix taken out so he had to wait basically 2 months after he was ready to be baptized for the actual thing. THAT TAKES A LOT OF FAITH! He’s diligent and works at a golf course in Cavite so we have to teach him at nights. He’s really cool and lives right on the beach so it’s fun to go and teach him!

We have a current investigator who is having a hard time seeing the blessings of the Book of Mormon and prayer. She has a really hard life, but incredible faith. We recently gave her grandson a blessing because he had a toothache, and right after the blessing he stopped crying and was playing with the other kids and stuff which was a testimony of the power of the Priesthood and prayer. We will keep working with her on her testimony and we appreciate all of your prayers on her behalf!

Well, that’s about it for this week. I love and appreciate all of my family and friends back home but am happy to be doing this work!

Love,

Elder Hunter Burbidge

Elder Burbidge resting on P-Day.

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

Hello everyone!  I am going on my third week in Tanza and I have learned a lot about myself in this short amount of time.  Overall I am loving my mission and the experiences I am having in the Philippines.

Mission life, however, has its ups and downs!  This past week I have learned a lot about how we can endure something we don’t necessarily like, with a positive outcome at the end. We need to progress while we endure, having a “I will be stronger after this” attitude, instead of a “Bite the bullet” attitude. The “Bite the bullet” attitude definitely works, but we are basically the same person at the end with some scars and bad memories. If we look at a situation that we don’t think we can handle and only look at the negative outcomes, that is exactly what we’ll receive. If we think, “What could I possibly gain from this?” We will find something. It may not be what you’re thinking either. It could be something completely different. Pray for help. When we are lacking in hope, STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH. How do we strengthen our faith? Read, ponder, and pray the word of God (Scriptures, Conference talks, Preach My Gospel).

Things are going well in Tanza. We have a few baptisms coming up in the next few weeks and we are trying our best to find investigators!  I experienced my first typhoon! It was only a level 1 but there was so much rain…. haha!

Truck blocking roadway! Had to walk around it and hop on another bus.

On the way to conference we hit a roadblock. A large trailer truck had gotten stuck in the mud and was placed across the road. So we had to get off the bus, and get on another one. To relate this to patience, we had to get off our bus (current thought process) wait for a little bit (allow ourselves to calm down), and then get on another kind of bus/jeepney (take a different thought process/change attitude). We got to conference on time and everything worked out! I hope you all are doing well! This Church is true, The Book is blue, and Moroni is always on the ball! I know that Christ helps us in our times of need. I love Him, I love my Father in Heaven, and I love the Holy Ghost.

Love,

Elder Hunter Burbidge

A big toad in the laundry area!

Hello everyone from my new home town of Tanza, Cavite, Philippines!  It took a couple of weeks but I am getting settled into my new living situation and finding good success on my mission.  Following are some answers to questions that my mom asked me about:

We eat mostly Rice Rice and MORE RICE.  It gets old quick, but its cheap and you can put stuff like fish or chicken on it. But I just went grocery shopping, so I got some pasta with “Italian Style Spaghetti Sauce” and some cereal and milk.  We eat at members houses about 3-4 times a week and they are very generous!  I’m losing weight – I’m not sure how much – but the end of my belt is getting longer which means I can sinch it up more.  Who knows, pretty soon I might have to cut it down a little bit!

The weather is warm and humid.  Sometimes I wake up at night and don’t know if I’m cold or warm because I sweat so much.   In the words of my good friend Elder Matina, “It’s hotter than sin” So yes, really hot, but it cools off with a little breeze at night! To about 75 degrees F.

I am learning a lot from my companion.  He is from the Southern part of the Philippines and has had to make a lot of sacrifices in his life to serve a mission.  When he first went through the temple, he had to travel 24 hours on a sheep in order to get there. Haha crazy!  He eats like a madman, he throws it down.. and can’t sing worth anything!

A typical day in my life involves waking up at 6:30 a.m. and working out for 30 minutes. I do push ups and sit ups with some calf raises thrown in every once in a while to make dad proud.  Then eat/shower/iron/dress, followed by personal study at 8:00, companion study at 9:00, 12-week training at 10:00, and language study at 11:00.  We eat at noon, leave at 12:30-1 and proselyte until 8:30 – 9:00 p.m.

The living conditions are pretty poor in this area.  It feels like I’m in a Jason Bourne movie when he’s in a third world country.  The district that I have been assigned to is geographically spread out over a long highway, so that’s why transportation is hard. So we have to plan things out pretty well, and it’s hard when appointments fall through because then we have to go somewhere completely different, but we’re figuring it out!

We have been teaching about five progressing investigators right now. One of which is on track to be baptized on Oct. 19th. He’s 12 years old and is ready for the Gospel! Two other progressing investigators are 9 and 10 year old boys named Christopher and Andre from a part-member family.  They will be baptized on Nov. 9th!  A perfect birthday present right!?  We teach a lot of less active members and families, so it’s neat to see them progress.

A recent experience I had was when we went to church my first Sunday it felt different. I didn’t know how I would feel about the sacrament, but when we had the sacrament I felt the same way I always have during the sacrament:  Peaceful and thankful. It was such a great experience to me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help us ANYWHERE. It is available all over the world. And although cultures and lifestyles may be different, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not. It is perfect. It is pure. And it can help us through the toughest trials.

Love to all,Elder Hunter Burbidge