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