Wk 25 I learned to text on my mission

Hey Family!

      So I wish there was more to tell you guys about this week. I decided I needed to write down more experience so I can remember them.

      To answer some of your questions. Yes, I am taking care of myself ;). I am still comps with Elder Garcia. I will probably be comps with him for the next 3 or 4 months. We have been trying to transition the office here on Panay. This next week is the big week when the president will come and the office will be done. I will get my Philippines License in a few days too. ;0 I am way excited to drive. There are pretty much no rules for driving here in the Philippines... We got cell phones last week. It has been really weird learning how to text. I am super slow. I am learning how to text and walk at the same time. It’s pretty difficult.

      As of right now we have a super amazing investigator, Sharyl. It is a family friend of the 2nd Counselor. We started teaching her about two weeks ago. She is probably the most perfect investigator you can have. We ask her how her reading was and she starts explaining every single part of what she read. She takes everything we give her and studies it like crazy. Right we are trying to help her have the more spiritual experiences.  She is super smart but needs to experience the spiritual promptings you cannot deny.  She also is a Tagalog speaker. It is very difficult to communicate with her when it is just me teaching because she can't really understand Illango.

      I can't believe you guys are going to the Czech! That is going to be a blast. I have been super horrible writing Hana back. She has written me a few letters. I finally wrote her back last week. I just need to get it to the post office here. Tell Hana Congrats Gid! for getting accepted into the Med University! Tell Petr Happy Birthday also! 21 is getting pretty old. Shoot maybe he will be getting married pretty soon. That would be wierd.

      Hey well nahidlaw ko so inyo. I miss you guys. Love U lots. 

-Elder Kirschbaum 

New mailing address as of July 1st:

ELDER GARRETT KIRSCHBAUM

PHILIPPINES ILOILO MISSION

Osmena Street

Arevalo

5000 ILOILO

PHILIPPINES

Wk 24

     Hey! I enjoyed your letter. You need to write that like more often. I had no idea you guys were that good at writing. I can barely express myself in my letters.

     So I gave an early Happy Father’s Day to Dad last week. I just thought I would say it’s a week ahead so I could be the first. But for real Happy Fathers Day. Oh yeah and to Kyle too! (I forget he is a father even though he is my brother) and I guess to all the other fathers there are in our family. Shoot Happy Fathers Day Kevin! 

     So this transfer went by really fast. It was probably the hardest of the transfers yet.  We didn't have a lot of work in our area because of all of the trips to Bacolod and doing other mission stuff. And nothing crazy out of the ordinary Filipino things happened.

     I went to a baptism on Saturday. The water in the font smelled like bum because Kono - tons of dead frogs in the bottom of the well where we were getting the water from. We are just getting out of an El Nino so there wasn't alot of water. We didn't have enough water at first but it started to pour rain like crazy. We were only able to get the water to a little above the knee. When Elder Adams baptized the people he put them in the water and then had to kind of shove them down even more. Just when they wanted to come up he had to push them farther down so they were completely immersed. Amazingly it went okay. He was able to baptize two of his investigators.  You kind of get used to really weird ghetto church function experiences.

     I love you all and happy that you are all...happy. mamiss ko kamo gid, labin na gid sa Lunes sang magsulat ko sa inyo. Nanamian ko ang mga email nyo, tuod na. Maligayon Adlaw sang mga Amay (happy day of fathers) Padayon lang kita. FooShizalmyNizzel. (Ive been teaching all the little kids to say that, it’s pretty funny)

PagPalangga Halin sa Pinalangga nga Anak mo ;)

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 23

Akon Pinalangga nga Pamilla

     I got back from Bacolod on Saturday last week. While I was there in Bacolod, Elder Potter the AP on Bacolod along with Elder Larson and Elder Ajuy got in a good car accident. The car was totaled but they ended up all being okay. It was pretty crazy seeing the pictures of the car.  It’s pretty smashed.

     So Happy Fathers Day Father! Tell me about how Father’s day was. I celebrated Fathers day watching the Cebu Temple be dedicated. President Monson was super funny at the Dedication. He played the piano and was cracking jokes like crazy, not inside the temple but when they were doing the Cornerstone Dedication. It was pretty funny seeing him act the way he did.

      Sorry this email is so short, I have to go to an appointment at 5:00 and it’s 10 til.  One of our investigators has something to confess to us so...we will see what happens. But Happy Fathers Day Dad.  Hope all is well.  I hope your still beating John at Racquetball ;). Well, that’s all for now.

Halong

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 22

Akong Pinalangga nga Pamila,

     So things have been a little crazy these past few days.  As of right now I am back on the Island of Bacolod training to be an office Elder for when they open up the IloIlo Mission. Last week they had my companion go to Bacolod for a week to get trained, and now I am in Bacolod getting trained. It is going to be quite the switch to an office Elder. I am not quite sure what to think. I think I might get fat again. That’s alright though because I need to put a few pounds on. 

      I will be driving also and learning how to text on a cellular phone, something I haven't experience yet. I can say I learned how to text on my mission. Our apartement might have airconditioning too. :) I will update you as more things unfold.

      Well the city is going good. It really is alot different.  Not as many people stare at you and yell "Hey Joe!" to you. Our area has been neglected lately because of all the sickness and other stuff going on. I was able to get out in our area this last week. My stomach pain is gone, just a little bad water or food intake.  All is well now.

      We have an investigator that had a stroke a few months ago. We have been teaching him and last Sunday we wanted to go to church. He can't really walk so we picked him up on Sunday with a makeshift wheelchair. The little paths we had to push him on were super small, and on either side of the cement path is the sewer. I was super scared I was going to spill him into the green sewage the whole time I was pushing him. It ended up going well. We got him to church safely, and after we took him home, he started to cry and said to me. " Thanks for taking me to God's church." It was a really neat experience.

      Things are still going great as ever.  Amat Amat in the language. I love you all so much. Thank you fam for all your email this week. I will try to reply as fast as I can.

Kita ay Kits Karon

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 21

Mon 5/31/10 5:066 AM

Hey I will email tomorrow because we had interviews all today so there is no time left for email. Buas na lang. Love ya

Tue 6/01/10 4:39 AM

Hey!

     Thank you guys all for your emails. I loved reading them this week. Yesterday we had interviews. Interviews are pretty funny. I can never really hear what my President says to me. The interview I had yesterday was kind of awkward. He asked me like 2 questions and then said I was done with the interview. Probably 1 min 30 sec interview. We have a pretty funny president.

     So this week has been pretty sicky again. Last Friday I was sick with a high fever. My comp gave me a blessing on Saturday and then on Monday I was okay. Then the following week I came down with some ugly pain in my stomach, like I was going to throw up all day but I didn't. After two days of really bad pain we went to the Hospital just to get a check up. They took my Urine sample and other samples. All my samples we slightly infected so now I need to go get some meds they prescribed to me. I am super sick of being sick. My companion has been really good with taking care of me. He is a nice guy. He is from Manilla, and his first name is Prince.  His last name is Garcia.  Elder Adams is the other American Elder.

    Yeah so I haven't been to church for two weeks. The ward thinks the their missionarys are super lazy and skip out on church.  With the sicknesses and everything we havn't had a lot of great success in our area. We have a few okay investigators but I don't know too much about them as of now. :).

     I had a good experience with the Ward Mission Leader and a Ward Missionary. I went out working with our WML because my comp had bad LBM, I was like OMG. LOL. Anyways we went to a less active members house to give her an invitation to the Cebu temple dedication. When we gave it to her she took it, looked at it, then folded it up and put it on the table and said she would never come to church again. I was woah...uh....how should I respond? Our WML started bearing his testimony, then our Ward Missionary Shane bore her testimony and it was really an amazing testimony. Both her and Sister Grandeca started to cry. The Spirit was strong and I think it helped this sister realize what she would be missing if she didn't keep on going to church.

      Thanks for all your support family. Emails and such helped these past few sick days be alot more enjoyable. I love you all so much. I am so grateful to be out here serving the Lord and having all these experiences. Love you again. Halong till next week.

Hey Tell John Benson thanks for the letter.  I loved it.  It was super fun reading.  I actually bought some Beef lumpia today.

Oh and yes the maps you sent were right on. You can see our apartment on them.