Home Sweet Home! Welcome home!

Home Sweet Home! Welcome home!

To the rescue!

To the rescue!

After the storm

After the storm

P-Day Hike

P-Day Hike

All wet!

All wet!

Flooding

Flooding

Bagio, Tropical Storm

Bagio, Tropical Storm

A day to remember!

A day to remember!

Zone or General Conference

Zone or General Conference

Elder K and gummies

Elder K and gummies

Street sitting

Street sitting

Jogging on the beach

Jogging on the beach

Elder K 21st Birthday

Elder K 21st Birthday

Birthday Mango Icecream

Birthday Mango Icecream

Elder Verzo - Big Boss!

Elder Verzo - Big Boss!

Elder Verzo new comp

Elder Verzo new comp

Mission Tour

Mission Tour

The Best Zone Ever! My comp circled

The Best Zone Ever!  My comp circled

Teaching with Elder Misbach

Teaching with Elder Misbach

Leganez w/Pablero Family

Leganez w/Pablero Family

Zone Leaders Conference

Zone Leaders Conference

Iloilo Zone

Iloilo Zone

Filipino Smile

Filipino Smile

Elder Misbach's back

Elder Misbach's back

Elder K face

Elder K face

Big pig!

Big pig!

Clothes dryer on the beach

Clothes dryer on the beach

The Seduco Wedding!

The Seduco Wedding!

Hookey bobbin in the Philippines!!

Hookey bobbin in the Philippines!!

Three Iloilo kids

Three Iloilo kids

Iloilo lil boy

Iloilo lil boy

Happy mug shot

Happy mug shot

Digging it

Digging it

Grocery Shopping

Grocery Shopping

Airport scene

Airport scene

Iloilo Trio!

Iloilo Trio!

Yum yum green and all!

Yum yum green and all!

The Fearless Duo

The Fearless Duo

Hiy-ya!

Hiy-ya!

A little out of focus, but happy!

A little out of focus, but happy!

Heleman Warriors?

Heleman Warriors?

Baptism Rhea, Geneva & Dave

Baptism Rhea, Geneva & Dave

Me and Elder Booth w/face paint

Me and Elder Booth w/face paint

Sheryl's Baptism

Sheryl's Baptism

Baptized in July

Baptized in July

Basking in the Light

Basking in the Light

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Week 12


Hey,
    This week has been great :). Zone conference was a great break. There was actually a lot of breaks this week. Patag Waterfall, P-Day, District Meeting, Zone Conference, CSP. It was actually really nice.
     Zone conference was really long, but we had a lot of fun. My companion made up a sweet version of Spirit of God on the guitar so we transferred it onto piano and taught the other people in our district the song and performed it at Zone Conference. It sounded awesome.
I didn't get to see sister Grant’s musical number. She had a different Zone conference.
     Transfer day is coming up, I am excited for that. The mission is splitting soon. I am not sure if you knew that yet. The Island of Panay and Bacolod will become two different missions. So I have a chance that I might get called to the Panay Phillipines mission.
      The work has been slowly progressing here. We had a lot of investigators come to church which was great. I am beginning to be able to teach some of the lessons in the language. I went on splits and taught 4 lessons which was a great success for me. I just can't wait to get to the point that I can truly express my testimony about the Gospel.
     Family, do you know of any good recipes for food. I have a pan and a stove, a blender and a fridge.  I am learning to cook finally. It’s great.
     I saw your 3d model of the auditorium Dad, it looked sweet gid! It will be way sweet when it’s done. Have they started building yet?

Well, I love you all my family.
-Elder Kirschbaum

Monday, March 22, 2010

Week 11


Hey Family! I love you!
      So this week has been pretty difficult, a lot of things testing my patience. But it has also been rewarding. I have been trying to learn to take whatever my companion throws at me. My companion has been having me teach or try to teach the lessons. It’s really rough cause I don't know the doctrine first off and second I can barely poop out Ilanggo. So I have been learning patience and extreme willingness. “Man missions” are fun/hard, mostly fun though.                         Today we went to a city way out in the boonies/buked. The city is called Patag. It took us about 1-1/2 hours to get there in a super squishy bus ride. It was ridiculous though. We pretty much hiked up in the middle of the jungle and jungle sounds and everything to this sweet huge waterfall.
I will try to send pictures. Anyway that is how we spent our  P-Day today.
      So this week we have really been trying to commit our investigators to get to church. The biggest challenge with some people here is they don't like to keep commitments. They agree with everything you say and they say it is true but they don't pray or read or simba. So it can be pretty hard to get them to keep commitments.
      This week on Sunday we got there when church was supposed to start at 8:30. Only around 5 people were there. I was nervous to see if our investigators would show up. When it was 9:00 I started to worry if any members would show up either. We ended up starting Sacrament like 30 minutes late. They scramble to get things together and some how they pull off a semi successful Sacrament Meeting. Sunday School is a whole different thing. Half the members go home after Sacrament Meeting. Haha me and my companion just run around trying to organize a Gospel Essentials class for our investigators to go to. Things ended up working out in the end, like of course they always do. But we have a lot of work to do in the Church itself before we can get real missionary work going. I kind of miss the old ward. It actually ran properly.
      So Kyle I keep on thinking of stuff I want to ask you about your mission but I always forget when I sit down to type. I will try to write it down when I do think of it. 
Oh how long did it take you to learn Spanish? By what transfer did you feel comfortable teaching lessons by yourself? 
      Leah I want to hear more from you. What is happening in Vegas? Have you decided if you’re going to Hawaii or Taiwan? ...Or did you already tell me that?
      Well we got a family night at a less active members house. We will see how that goes. Tomorrow is District Meeting.  Then Thursday is Zone conference, which I love because they feed us good food.
     Oh man, Mom you would be proud of the stuff I eat here. When I come home I will be able to cook some good Filipino foods for you and everyone.  Sounds like you have been doing a lot of missionary work yourself mother.
     That was a funny story about Cole Freeman. I am glad people still remember me from our ward.
Hey well I got to get.
Well I love you all! See you in two years.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Week 10

3/15
Hey,
      Hey everyone. So I am all better of my sickness. I have to make this short because we are late for a FHE. I am sending pictures though.  Not alot though because my other SD card has a virus so it can't read the pictures. Lame huh?
      Mom I got that last package you sent me last week. 
      I’ve been on a few splits this week with just me and the ward missionaries. It's really good for me cause it makes me get out there and teach lessons! The language is coming. It’s becoming less annoying and more fun. People can understand me and I can understand a little of what they say. I can actually have a conversation.
      Hey so tell Josh that I love him, after you tell the family I love them too. I wonder what Josh is up to a lot. I am excited for him to get on a mission. He is going to be legendary. Tell him to send me a small Dear Elder. Dear Elders come fast.
      So we had to drop the Obeho family because the Inglesio ni Kristo father got really mad at us when he was drunk. I didn't really know what was going on but he was getting after Elder Tiu pretty bad. I just put my hand around his shoulder and asked him where he was going and what his name was. I didn't realize till after that it was the Obeho dad.
      We found a few new awesome investors I am pretty excited about. I will tell you more about them later. For now I am off. Palangga Taka Gid. Makita ay Kita sa duha ka Years!
-Elder Kirschbaum

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Week 9



Hey,
     So things here are still as crazy as ever. The Philippines is starting to become more like home. It is still awesome.  It’s just almost normal now. So the language is still coming along. It is more frustrating now. I will just leave it at that.
     So for about the last three weeks I have had really bad stomach aches. And I have been going to the bathroom alot. And I have had no toilet paper. So I am now a firm believer in using no toilet paper. It has been at least three weeks since I’ve used toilet paper. Anyways, my stomach aches and just started getting worse so today I am going to the doctors to check it out. The office Elders said I probably just have an Amebia or something like that.  So that is probably the reason I have lost a bunch of weight too. Every time I see someone I know they say Wow Elder Kirschbaum you are really skinny now.  So I am back to my handsome self :).
I am not saying all of this to make you worry.  It really isn't bad at all.
I just need to go pick up some pills or something from the doctors.
     So we had 4 baptisms this week; Irine, Jolo, Romnick and Jovy. Jovy is a girl actually. She is doing great. The baptism went good. I actually baptized for my first time this week.
     We are teaching a family named Obehos. Their father died and the mother remarried to a Inglesio ni Kristo so he doesn't like the mom going to church. Missionary work is way exciting.
      I haven't had any dreams yet in Ilanggo yet but the language is coming. If I put myself out more, I do better with the language. The people are super nice too and always help me, especially the kids. The kids always tell me when I say something wrong.
     I haven't yet got your packages but I am sure they are almost here. Thanks for your letter. I will talk to you next week.
      I will try to attach pictures again next week. I think I got a virus on my card so when I tried sending you pictures today it couldn't read my SD card. Sayung.

Love you all,
Elder Kirschbaum

Monday, March 1, 2010

Week 8 Hey! from the Philippines



Hey!
    So things are going okay. So I am having a hard time trying to think of what to type because the email cafe we are at is blasting Non Missionary music :).
    So things have been pretty different with Elder Tiu. He is a really good hard worker. This week he had me and a brand new Elder, Elder Phelps, go on splits.
Elder Phelps is just learning Ilanggo so it was going to be super difficult to teach our investigators. I taught two lessons about the Word of Wisdom, in which both investigators had problems with Alak (beer) and Coffee. It was pretty difficult but exciting. It was like I was on my own training.
    Just before Elder Torio left we had a baptism to organize. I didn't know exactly what to do, and since he was gone it didn't help. I some how got this baptism together and was assigning talks all over the place. The baptismal font was luckily full from the last baptism other wise we would have had to postpone it cause it takes forever to fill. Then when we were starting the opening hymn a chicken ran in and decided to hang out with us. The whole thing was stressful but a good memory.
     The work right now seems to be going slow. We do have an investigator name Jovey Conhehos getting ready to be baptized on the 6th of this month. So that is exciting.
    This week has been pretty difficult with the language. I am definitely not as good as I thought I was in the language. But I must carry on.  So you know how missionaries while they are learning the language say funny things on accident. Well I found out I have been using a bad word for a while, while I bear my testimony.  I say, “I know God will answer your questions”. The word for answer is Sabat, and the word for pubic hair is Sabot. This whole time I have been saying "God will give you pubic hairs" pretty bad huh? Poor guys are probably so confused. Maybe that is why our investigators aren't progressing.
    So how is everything going with you guys? Mom, thanks for the updates on everyone. It’s kind of fun to hear what’s going on.  I am writing Mckay now, but I am so tired at night if I even have time to write I usually choose to hit the sack early.
    Well I swear my testimony is growing. I’ve noticed my letters aren't that spiritual yet. I am sure as soon as I can understand what is going on here they will begin to make you weep.
    Well we have a family night at the Obehos tonight.:) And I should  figure out what I will teach them. Wish me luck. Love you all.
-Love
The American Joe Elder Kirschbaum