Wk 60

Hey Family!!      

      I felt like it was such a short call. I wished I could have talked to each more. It is just awesome hearing all your voices. I didn't quite feel like I said goodbye to everyone. So goodbye and I love you. Sorry if I didn't answer everyone’s questions...:) There were lots. Just write me and ask me.  Kevin you too.  Well I love you all. Can't wait to talk to you again soon. Next year.

      Well this week is going to be quite the week. We are going to be super busy with 20 new foreign missionaries coming in. We have to take them and their luggage everyone. Feed um. Stay the night at a hotel with them (I have never been more excited to take a hot shower, 1st in a year). We are so jammed pack with a busy schedule that we probably won't be able to work very much in our area.

      We had a amazing day yesterday (Sunday). Oh man..two whole investigator families came to church. The Tanaman and the Enriquez both came to church which was sooo awesome. Also we had three other investigators there. One of them is reading the Gospel Principles manual and reading the Book of Mormon. He is a super smart guy.  We will start teaching him after the new year. Well Elder Adams and Elder Gowey will. I on the other hand will be transferred to I don't know where. I am super excited though. I will find out on Friday.

      Christmas was really fun! We ran around everywhere and delivered gifts to investigators and other random kids on the street. It got pretty ridiculous. Everyone here, especially if you’re white, will ask you for their Paskua (gift) They saw us giving a gift to someone so all these little kids ran up to us and were attacking us, pulling our clothes and trying to get presents. It was pretty bad. Me and Elder Adams had to sprint away from everyone. I almost felt bad giving gifts away. They go crazy for gifts. We wanted to share a little message about Christ and give them a little something but they were grabbing stuff away from us before we could. So we just had to evacuate. It was really cool though seeing other people and how grateful they were for the little things we gave them.  I am pretty sure some were the only presents they would get for Christmas.

      It made me pretty grateful for how close everyone is on Christmas at home. We are super blessed we have such an good family. That we can all get together and celebrate Christmas for what it is really for. 

     Well I just want you all to know that I love you, and I love serving the Lord, and these people. Hope all is going..the best. Happy New Year Naman.

-Elder Kirschbaum

I included some pictures of the investigators we are teaching. 

Michael and Wela’s Wedding.

Some kids caroling. (When kids carol here they do a little presentation and then they ask for money or a Paskwa) All the little kids are out doing that for the whole week of Christmas. 

Wk 59

Hey Family,           December 19, 2010      

      So I just got back from the wedding of Micheal Seduco to Wela Elizan. Micheal has been an investigator for a very long time, and just a few hours ago he finally did what he has needed to do for years. Get Married! I just realized that was my first wedding I had been to in my life. It was neat. Really simple and short. There was about 20 people there in all. We got to sign as the witnesses. I felt pretty cool. I was really excited for them. They have been waiting a long time to get married. His baptismal date is set more January 15th now. So we are excited about that too.

      This transfer has flown by. It will end right before the new year. This transfer with Elder Adams has been a great growing period. And I have absolutely loved it. It is always fun getting to know new people new companions and learning how to make this work well with each of them. Elder Adams is a really strait forward guy, so it has been nice because as soon as something isn't as good... as it could be in our companionship... he will bring it right up. It has helped me a lot with being able to talk things out, when usually I am just quiet about it. So our companionship has been awesome, because we have had very minimal time in allowing disagreements to linger. Which is super important cause it is impossible to teach people if there is the spirit of contention. Those same lessons of love has been nailed into me over and over again. If we are just trying to be like Christ, if we just think at all times about other people, life is so much more pleasant and just fun. Sometimes I feel like I am too reserved of a person, it is also something I have been trying to improve on. I realized how all reservedness goes right away when your life starts to focus on others. 

     Thanks for sending that analogy mom and dad, I really liked it, about how our life is a tandem bike with Christ at the front leading. All we have to do is Pedal. Even if it the road is a little scary and fast, just keep pedaling. I like the end "And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ." 

      It has been really neat hearing from all my friends out there in the field. We are in such different places but things are so similar. Josh’s letter was awesome. What a strong missionary.  Mckay has always been the most Christlike person I know. Thanks for sending their letters every week.

     Alright so President pulled me in his office last week and told me I would be leaving the office.....haha...I was pretty excited. I am going to miss the office a lot but it is going to be so great to be more involved in the work. I will be serving as a zone leader somewhere on Panay. Don't know where yet. I am just hoping I don't have to learn a new language. I might have to go back to Tagalog. Wherever, I am pretty stoked to go. No more car though...:) This next week I will be training Elder Gowey as my replacement in the office. There are tons to train on so I am pretty excited.

     Oh yeah and on Christmas I will get to go to the Guimaras Island. We get to sail across the ocean a little ways to Guimaras on these viking look alike boats. I am way excited about that. We will be going to see Elder Goweys baptisms that are on Christmas. We also are preparing for the 22 foreign missionaries that are coming in. It will be crazy. There are so many of them we have to get them hotel rooms for their first few days here.

      So Karver is way sad looking. Poor little guys left eye. It looked pretty beat. You’re all going to Las Vegas for Christmas? Sweet! So I will call you when you are all there. About that...I was thinking I was going to call Christmas morning here, which means Christmas eve evening there. I am not sure what time I should call there. Let me check on google really quick. If I call around 9am here on Christmas, then it will be about 5pm there. I will try to call around that time not unless you want me to call sometime different. I could also call Christmas night if you want. Just tell me what’s up.

      Looking forward to hearing from you on the 24/25th! Love you all and talk to you soon.

-Elder Kirschbaum

  

 Peddling The Road Of Life                                                                        

At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there sort of like a president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, But I really didn't know Him.                                                                                               But later on when I met Christ, it seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal.                                                                                          I don't know just when it was that he suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since. When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable... It was the shortest distance between two points.                                    

But when He took the lead, He knows the delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds, it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal!"                           

I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure. And when I'd say, "I'm scared," He'd lean back and touch my hand.                                                                                          He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. They gave me gifts to take on my journey, my Lord's and mine.                  

And we're off again. He said, "Give the gifts away; they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.                                                               

I did not trust him at first, in control of my life. I thought He'd wreck it; but he knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.                  

And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ.                                                               

And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He just smiles and says.... "Pedal."                                                                           Author Unknown

Wk 58

Hey!!

     Haha I am super glad Elder Booth stopped by. That was fast, I didn't even know he had left Moapa yet. SO that must have been a blast seeing him and having him show you our area. I bet you kirschbombed him with questions. He is pretty guapo huh? I was thinking I guess he probably didn't show up to your door with a suit coat and tie. I bet he was wearing the Element shirts we bought at SM the last week he was here. When you see him next time tell him palangga ko sia, and tanan di nahidlaw sa iya pati ako.

     Anyways Family back the real stuff...

This week was a pretty awesome. A whole bunch of stuff happened. Here it goes:

1. The Enriquez are attending church every week and are doing awesome as ever. Their little 2 year old kid is super cute and will find me during the sacrament and come and slap my face. Brother Enriquez met with our Mission President. Yeah pretty crazy huh? We strongly believe that Bro. Enriguez can change his life around. We got to teach their oldest daughter the other day, Lelev. We are hoping she will see the need to listen to us also.

2. An investigator that we have been semi teaching and the missionaries before us since 1999 is finally taking some steps forward. We have been helping him a lot and to make it to church every week. His name is Micheal, and he has now been to church twice in a row. This week will be a hard with a big decision. We are excited for him though. He has made a lot of great strides.  We contacted him everyday for a while reminding him about his commitments for baptism and his family. Then he talked to the bishop and him and his member wife are going to get married on the 20th. Super stoked for it. It has been forever in waiting.

3. The Lord put 3 really awesome families in our way. The first was a family that has been struggling. We were able to teach them and almost all their family was at church the next week. We have become really close to them really fast. Their kids brought out a small spider and saw I was afraid of it. They finally got me to hold it.  Which I was pretty proud of. Then they brought a spider about 10 times as big. Not exaggerating, probably as big as a good size 6 inch pizza...or a hat or plate. Anyways it was huge. You could have tied a leash on it. Well I thought I was in a horror movie and pretty much broke down as they threw at me and chased me around with it. It was pretty rough. It ended up dead at the end. All the little kids and the parents thought it was hilarious that I was so terrified. Then we had a really good lesson. Haha. Only in the Philippines.  The other two families are new investigators that we found. I will hopefully tell you more about them later.

     Dad I am glad the interview went well with the special needs school. That seems like it would be a way cool project to do. Probably meet some way cool people along the way too. What other things have been going on?

     I saw the lights. They look awesome. I never thought I would see the day that we have Christmas lights on our....house or front lawn and one tree! But I am super proud. There are lots of Christmas lights going up here. And even some in our room.

     We still are thinking of stuff to do for Christmas here. We have a few Christmas parties and what not. Yeah hopefully we will get to do a choir or something. So what are your plans for Christmas? That is crazy about Tanner Charlesworth, poor guy. Tell him to get his back better and get back out there.

     So yes I did just get your package mother thanks so much. I will be handing out the little candy canes probably to all the little kids. Well I love you all so much. I love the work here. Excited to talk to you soon. I will tell you when I will call hopefully next week in my letter.

-Love Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 57

So this week flew by real fast. Let's get right to it.

      So how is your Christmas going in the Philippines? Christmas is going great. It is actually pretty sweet here. I was surprised to see how many Christmas lights people put up here. It is almost like America but not. They also make these Christmas tree out of wood and decorate them outside their houses.  It‘s pretty cool. I will have to send you a picture.

      There are a bunch of Christmas programs coming up with the church so we will be busy doing the Haka and singing at those. We are super excited. 

     Our room in our apartment smells like Christmas. We have a felt Christmas tree taped to our wall with ornaments on it. And we went out and bought some Christmas lights.

      This week with the work we have been trying to get our teaching pool going again. We kind of went small on the investigators and so we have been working with members and finding a lot. It has been way fun.

      The Enriquez came to church again this week which was awesome. The father shared how he wanted to have the gospel in his life when he attended the Gospel Essentials class. It was fast and testimony meeting this week so we tried to help out Sister Enriquez with her kid so they could hear some of the testimonies. That was kind of fun too. They have a super cute crazy 2 year old. The whole time he was trying to jump off the balcony of the church and screaming. :).

      We made some awesome progress with a long time investigator Micheal Seducu. He has been taught by the missionaries a lot but we just started teaching again and they will be getting married in a few weeks. They have wanted to get married for a while but it just has been put off and put off. They came to church last week and talked to the bishop about getting married so me and Elder Adams are way excited.

More Answers to Questions:

What do you like most about the Phillipines lately? (from Kyle) Lately I have just enjoyed talking to random people on the street. We have met some pretty funny people and played the drums in a marching band practice.

     I am also enjoying the weather. It;s perfect right now. I haven't had dog tongue but I did have some mac and cheese on Sunday to break my fast.  I don't know if I have told you this but you eat food alot with your hands here. That’s always fun.

     It is pretty insane that it has already been a year. It is just getting better and better.

     Me and Elder Adams are having lots of fun. He is a pretty "get it done" kind of guy. It is going to be fun learning with him. He isn't afraid to tell you if something bugs him. So it has been good with being united. Except for the fact that I can’t keep up with his walking speed. I have to jog to catch him. I love um though. Hopefully I will take some more pictures soon and send them off to you guys.

I love you all so much!

      Good luck with the Special Needs School Dad and thanks for the quote.  "We will not always be rescued from proximate problems, but we will be rescued from everlasting death!  Meanwhile, ultimate hope makes it possible to say the same three words used centuries ago by three valiant men.  They knew God could rescue them from the fiery furnace if he chose, “But if not,” they said, nevertheless, they would still serve Him!”  Elder Maxwell

Invite Elder Booth over to the house. He is a Man. And tell him I love him.

Wk 56

Yeah!                                                       

 Hey Family! I just love you all so much.

      So we are finally done with all the busy weeks of training and transfers. Things are settling down this next week. Except for today, Elder Adams Birthday. We will be going to get Two "Super Gang" Pizzas at Pizzaro later. And Really Good Mango Shakes. I'm stoked.

I had quite the memorable week last week. I will try to tell you all what happened.

     Because Elder Adams was training, I got to work with Elder Farnsworth in his area.  Elder Farnsworth is the Mission Recorder.  We went to this area, called Sooc. And I met this amazing family, the Villaneuva's. She is the most awesome lady. They have a family of 5 kids all really cute and all of them are really progressing. The mother has so much faith.The father is also a neat guy. We gave all the kids CTR rings. So the next time we came over the dad was doing really well and all the little kids were wearing the rings. They always tell us how grateful they are that the missionaries came to them. I probably won't be able to see them again because I am in a different area. But maybe we will be able to attend their baptism.

      We visited the Enriquez this last Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. I think it will be another week before we will go over there.

      The other day we were over at Dave and Genavas Ramos's house. The two single adults and mother we baptized. The father that usually isn’t there when we visit, for the first time opened up and started to join the conversation. I was pretty awed that he had lightened up. The whole Ramos family are members and active gid kaayo (really active). We are hoping the father will continue to open his heart and allow us to teach him. The family is sooo strong and so amazing. Dave bore his testimony at Stake Conference yesterday and told everyone how he was excited one day to serve a mission and was really touched. The gospel has changed that family drastically. I will hopefully send you a picture of them soon.

      Sorry I have to wrap this up. I will send a picture of me like you told me mom probably next week though.

     I did open the two Christmas wrapped things. I couldn't wait. Thanks so much for them. Me and Elder Adams decided to buy Christmas lights for Christmas and make a fort in our room so it will be nice and Christmassy. I am excited to talk to you all again pretty soon.

      Dad and Mom I hope all is doing well with you. I am so thankful for the awesome parents I have.  You guys are such awesome siblings. I love you so much. I am so glad I am out here serving the Lord and want all of you to know how much I love you and love this gospel. We are so lucky to have the knowledge of our Heavenly Father’s plan for us and to know that He knows us personally and will help us in every aspect of our lives.

Love,

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 55

Hey!

      I loved the vids you sent Heidi, and Kyle. Ashton is a super funny guy. I like how good he is at talking with his arms. I think it really helps get the message across. I am going to try to do my arms like his when I am teaching our investigators. I CAN"T BELIEVE how big Oli is. She’s not a baby any more. And I am finally a big boy. ;). And Kevin...well he is an old man. And Mom and Dad......ehem

     This week has been awesome. You know the ten investigators that came to church last Sunday. Well...none of them came this Sunday. Yeah we were pretty depressed. Not even the Enriquez family came. Me and Adams were thinking it was because Elder Booth is no longer here.

     Yeah Elder Booth has now hit the dust. He is home. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning to take him to the airport. Ridiculously early ya know, but it was nice to see everyone go home. I am not going to lie but I felt pretty trunky while I was carrying his bags up to the check in. We took a few photos and they all left. (I attached one photo).

      All the trunkiness is out of me now though. Me and Adams are super excited to get working. He has to train in a few leadership trainings this week, so it will probably just be me going out to work.

     Yesterday President Pagadaun joined us for our companionship study and worked with us for half the day. I was pretty nervous at first. But I quickly discovered how sweet our President is. He Really Just rocks. He sports the short sleeves when he goes out with us and is way powerful. We got to go to the Enriquez with him. But it was kind of a bummer because Ezekial wasn't there.  We were bummed but we had a good lesson with the wife and her two kids. I guess they didn't come to church because one of their kids were sick and some other reasons.  She was so glad that she let us in because for the first time in his life he has stared to change his life, pray, and read the scriptures. In that lesson we told her how much we know that the Book of Mormon will change their family and that the peace that they need they could find as they continued. Keep ya updated.

      Man the mission is awesome. It has been so great being able to communicate to these people. They’re so amazing. There is so much to learn. Ahh I just want to learn it all. But we are not allowed to. We have to learn the lessons we need to learn through the way Heavenly Father wants us to learn them.

     Well things are doing good. I love you all, and appreciate all the emails. Talk to you next week.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Mom, 

My electric shaver is Great!  I love it. I am saving money like crazy and look as Guapo as ever.  And the insoles are great on my feet too and the rest of the package was awesome also. I will get a check up on my eyes pretty soon and I will see how much contacts will cost

Love you,  Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 54

My Beloved Family,

     Well there were no new emails this week... so I will have lots of time to tell you what’s up in the Philippines.

     The first thing is first. Elder Booth is going home and the new AP has been called. My new companion will be an Elder that lived with us in our 6 elder apartment. His name is Elder Talon Adams. I will send you a picture of him. He is a way awesome guy. He is actually younger than me in the mission by about 3 transfers. Both of us will be working hard on the language. Speaking of the Language, it is coming along awesome now. It is just about vocabulary. There are so many words in three different languages.  Elder Adams and I might have a member help us with our pronunciation every week. We are really excited.

     So this week was the last week of Elder Booth, and we had 10 investigators at church this week. The coolest part was that the Enriquez family came, all of them with their two daughters and little boy. Their littlest boy is probably about 2 years old and is a wild kid. He is super cute though. He was climbing under the seats and pressing the keys on the piano during Sacrament. So Lenor, the mom had to take him out. During Sacrament I looked back at them and he was reading the Book of Mormon. I was pretty happy. A change has already taken place in their family. They are so prepared to finally hear the Gospel. They just kind of fell in our hands. One of our members told us about them.  We told her we wanted to meet them and bamb the next Sunday they were at church. We just committed them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Today we will go back and see how they are doing.

      This next week is TRANSFER WEEK. That means there are going to be late nights. I never thought I would stay awake past 10:30 on my mission. And especially past 12:00. But that is the joy of transfer week. I have to wake up at 3:30 on Wednesday to take Elder Booth and his Batch to the airport. It’s a way busy week but I love it cause we get to see all the new missionaries and their fiery spirits, and their horrified faces when they ride for their first time in the Philippines. And we get to eat the food of sister Pagaduan!

      I am pretty proud about my non pickiness now in my life. I really think that just being able to eat healthier food is going to change my life. I had a huge burger the other day. Not Healthy. But I had it with Lettuce and Cucumbers and Sauce. I turned to my companion after I had eaten it and told him, "My parents would be proud of me." Mom I can't wait to try all the good healthy food that I never ate at home that you cooked.

      Well things are going well. Super Excited about the work here in the Philippines. There is and will always been so much more to learn. One thing that I learned from Elder Booth is that "Never look how much further there is to go, but how far you’ve already come."

I love you all so much, Mom, Dad, Leah, Heidi, Kyle. I know that this Gospel is True.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Week 53

Brotha,

     Yae my spling is gting pritty bad isnt it?

     Yeh we have the transfer conference meeting but we don't do testimonies at them. They are actually pretty fast. All those who are being transfer come and then our President gives a message. The new missionaries all line up in front as they call their trainers. Everyone either laughs and says nothing when the trainers are match up with their new Bata (kid).

     Well I am just going to make this the email for the whole family since I don't have very much time this week.

So HEY FAMILY,

     I got the package from mom. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you...thank you. I felt like it was Christmas a month early. I am loving the electric shaver. It is so much better than razors. Even though it burns a little bit, It’s still wicked.

     I gave some of the snickers to an investigator of ours that asked me for some chocolate the other day. Haha other than that I pretty much ate it all.

     Our work this week has been very minimal. Really it is pretty lame. We have been taking President everywhere and picking area Seventies up from the airport. That was actually kind of cool. I drove out to the airport last week with Elder Andres (the hermit king) and picked up Elder Misalucha of the area 70. I was pretty nervous about driving. Since the driving in the philippines is so crazy, I wasn't sure if I was driving recklessly or not. So busy week.

     We are teaching a new family that we are really excited about. They are the Burungy Captain. Which means he is a politician of a certain section of the town. Here they have Cities. Example: Molo. and inside of Molo they have what is called Burungy. So the Enriquez family is the Burungy Kagawad or counselor of Burungy KasingKasing (heart heart). They are a pretty well known family. They are super sincere and really want to study out the church and change their lives. The mother came to church last Sunday, the first week after we taught her, which was awesome. Yesterday we got the father to say the closing prayer. So we are exited to teach them.

     The transfer is coming up pretty soon. On the 18th of November. This next week after this will be the busiest week. The new AP, Assistant to the President is coming in to be trained. Two other office elders will be leaving and the newcomers and the people leaving and cargo, and hopefully work, and food. Sleep. wash clothes and just these past two days my eyes have started twitching without my control. It is super sabad (annoying). Well, I have to end it short this week.

LOVE YOU

-Elder Garrett Kirschbaum

Wk 52

Hello Family!                

    This has been ridiculous. The Tsunami's have been crazy. This past one Tsunami Juan, was way bad. We are super lucky to have a car. The flooding is really bad in some parts of the town especially where the rivers are. A lot of houses are almost or close to half way under water. It is pretty sad. The wind too has ripped a few areas apart. We are way lucky that our apartment is two floors the first floor is destroyed and probably still has about 3 feet of water. The work goes on though.

     We taught a family the other day, the Delacruzs, in about 4 feet of water. The mission has given us these special bathing suit procelating clothes so we can just swim from appointment to appointment. And the other day when we were trying to get to another one of the people we are teaching some guy jumped out from the water and started pulling my leg....bahahaha. Jk. The tsunami's are very minimal here in the Panay region. It does flood but only for a short amount of time. It’s nothing to be worried about. I think I have seen worse rainstorms in Utah.

      We had an activity for our Ward Missionaries this week. We put on a little MTC training thing for them. We had a bunch of the surrounding missionaries come teach. There was different stations and stuff. It was a good turn out and pretty fun. We have such a strong ward missionary group.

     The other week our ward missionaries went tracting by themselves and found a family. They started to teach them the lessons and go back a few times a week. They just told us one day that they had this family they were teaching. We were like…What? You do? When we went there they had a Book of Mormon and assignments. It was pretty funny. Our ward mission leader had to tell them to refer people to us faster and not teach them the first 3 lessons until they tell us. They are really hard working. A lot of the Young Adults just don't really have anything to do with their time so they go "work", missionary work.

      Transfers are in two weeks. I am pretty excited and sad. Sad Elder Booth will be leaving but exited to see who the next AP is. Did I tell you that Elder Booth will be living in Ceder Hills right up by the golf course. Really close right off Canyon Road?

Yess I got the letters from Josh. They’re awesome.  It is way good to hear from him.  Do you have his address so I can write him in Ascunsion?

Well I am going to try to send some pictures so I will make this letter shorter. Sorry half of it was just a joke. But I love you all and your letters!

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 51

Ang Akon Buang pero Namit nga Pamilya,

     This week went by sooo fast. Time goes by soo fast. It’s almost scary. It’s almost been one year. Elder Booth is going to be going home in less than 3 weeks. He is scared out of his mind. Oh yeah he will be moving to Cedar Hills to live with his brother. He will live right by the mouth of the Canyon. So I told him to drop by and you would make him some pizza or something :).

       I don't have a cough anymore! *I just typed that as I was coughing* At least it has subsided a little bit. We have been really busy in the office lately. I will be honest...it’s pretty rough sometimes. Somedays I just want to be more a missionary. But it is way good for me. I am learning how to be not stressed and maintain a positive istura at all times. This past week another missionary went home. I feel pretty bad for our President. That makes 3 missionaries in this past month that have gone home. Two in the last two weeks. Two new missionaries from the newest batch went home.

      I am loving the Philippines right now. I really just might not ever come home. The work is really taken a 180 degree change. Just understanding our purpose as missionaries makes all the difference, and helping the investigators understand it too. It makes giving baptismal dates in the first two lessons easy. It’s fun taking these people through these spiritual experiences. Yesterday we went to a family called the Delids. Their father has a hip problem and has a hard time getting around. He actually just got a wheel chair donated by the church. We saw it at his house and asked him where it came from and he said, “Oh yeah that wheel chair came from your church”. We were pretty proud.  Anyways...last night we committed Brother Delid to ask Heavenly Father, in prayer, right then and there, if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith really was a prophet. We all sat there as he prayed the most perfect prayer simply asking Heavenly Father if this was true. After he was done we looked at him and he smiled. He was a little taken back by the experience. He told us that he felt very light and like he was floating. We looked at him and said, "Brother Delid...that is the Holy Ghost."

     It has been really neat learning how to be bold in our message. Learning how to tell them why we are in their house. What our message is. What is the role of the Holy Ghost. How important it is that they go to church, reading the deep Illango scriptures with them and having their eyes light up when they finally understand what they are reading.

There is still so much to learn and teach. I always just want to learn it all right now and be super sagad (skilled) right now, but I have to remind myself that it takes time to develop. You know enough, all you have to do is trust in the Lord. As soon as we know who we really are and gain confidence in that. Boom...you’re unstoppable.

     Well that is about it for me today. Love you all so much. I about say that every week. It’s probably because...I do love you. Talk to you again next week.

-Elder Garrett Kirschbaum

Wk 41, but really 50 (cuz of MTC)

Famdamily, Hey!                           #50   10/17/10

      How was my week? It was...rough. Both me and Elder Booth are coughing our lungs out. Elder Booth got a sickness...cough, stuffy nose, fever.  Then of course because I am his companion thru good and rough, I got it too. We weren't able to work very much this week. We taught one lesson where we just took turns teaching while the other coughed. We were pretty embarrassed by the end. 

     We gave everyone stones at church instead of a hand shakes. People don't really give stones here. It’s handshake or nothing. The other lesson we taught was to the Delid Family. The Delid father has a kidney stone and a hip problem. They got the operation sponsored though otherwise he would have been out of luck. We taught them about Jesus Christ’s example of being baptized. The mother decided she would step away from her store for a little bit to read the Book of Mormon. So the whole family was there. I committed them to be baptized at the end of November. They are now reading the Book of Mormon and the whole family is attending the lessons. We haven't been able to go back to them that much this week. We will see what happens this next week though.

      It has been super rainy here lately. The other day we had to go pick up a missionary from a terminal outside of town and it was raining super hard. The rain was about up to the bottom of the car in some parts of the city. It was pretty crazy. I felt like we were in a boat. The other traffic would create waves that would hit the front of our car and splash up...just like the ocean hits the rocks...ya know. Me and Elder Booth had fun driving in it. We drenched a few people with the wake of the car.

      The Zuchers look like a cool family. Where were they from in Iloilo?

      Yeah I think that would be a good idea to have you have the other moms send their weekly letters to you and then you send them out or something. It’s up to you. I am not sure what Will's address is. I will try to figure it out.

      Thanks for the package. I am excited to get it. You can just put the PO Box you don't have to put the other stuff. What I think I will do with my glasses is;  well first off my glasses will work fine how they are now. But I think I will get a check up and see what my grade is then send it to you and have you send me some contacts. I will tell you the grade as soon as I get my eyes checked out.

      Dad good luck with the Mountain View Wyoming School. 32 architects is pretty ridiculous. Nothing you can't handle though. I enjoyed the super corny Gospel Questions. :) I am glad everything is going well. I love you all so much. Talk to you again next week.

-Elder Kirschbaum