Week 16

Hey Fam,                                   

      Things are going great. Enjoyed all of your letters, thanks! This week has been pretty chill.

We got 15 lessons with a member present - 6 other lessons.

7 progressing investigators and 72 OYMs (open your mouths). 

2 dead rats

20 new mosquito bites

and 97 Hey Joe's

      It has been super hot here. Just today it started raining. I think the rainy season is on its way pretty quick. I think I would rather be wet all the time then hot. I was born to be wet. I might pull out my black shoes and start wearing them cause it will get cooler.

      So we found a new family that is really cool. We ate at their house on Sunday and did magic tricks for all the little kids. The father is a college teacher and a past Priest of the Catholic church. He teaches logistics at the college here.  

     The Rojo family is doing good. We have just been trying to get them to come to church. All of this stuff just comes up on Sunday and they end up not being able to go. But they are such an amazing family and we are praying hard that Brother Rojo will gain a strong testimony.

      This week we won't have much work in our area because we have zone conference and interviews in Roxas City.  It’s about a 3 hour van ride away to Kalibo so we will be staying in Roxas till Thursday.

      Tell Karver and Hana Happy birthday! I just got a letter from Hana. She is so awesome. I need to write here back gid.

      Well I love you all. Talk to you soon.

 -Elder Kirschbaum

Week 15

Hey!

    This week has been way sweet. My companion and I have been working really hard trying to involve members and be creative, like Kyle said. We have had a lot of fun this week.

    The Rojo family is super amazing. We have been teaching them about temples and missionary work which has been really neat. We had a family home evening over at their house last night. It went really good, and of course thousands of little kids showed up when they heard us having fun. We taught about missionary work to the family and we had some members come over with us. The members are great fellowshippers and it is helping tons. During the family home evening when Elder Budy was bearing his testimony the father of Bro. Rojo showed up super drunk. He came in all loud and started yelling stuff to everyone. We got through that part good and played some really fun games with everyone. Bro. Rojo was super happy. The thing that was neat was Bro. Rojo got to see both sides of life. With his dad drunk and with all the little kids and his wife having a fun time playing games. He was really grateful for the experience. Right now we are still working on getting them to get to church. I am pretty sure they won't ever miss another week. We will see what happens this next week.

     I’ve got to keep it short this week. To sum up the rest of my week. I met the Major here. Major Masqueda and his wife. We invited them to listen to the gospel. They pretty much said no.

     A mouse chewed up my SD card on my camera. Half of it was eaten but it still managed to work.

     Anyways the work is going great. I am learning so much every week.

I am so grateful for the gospel. You can see the huge change it brings on the people here. I love you all so much. Talk to you soon. Elder Kershbom 

  

I haven't gotten the package with the $10 or the music package yet, maybe someone needed it more that I did :). Your dear elder came last week, thanks. And the paper from all the support friends from home from Josh.  It was super awesome getting that. It definitely made me feel like I rocked. I also got a letter from Hana and Josh (telling me he just put in his papers :) ) today. Letters are the best. They always motivate me and make the next week so much better. I set a personal goal to write more letters so hopefully that will get done.

What do you mean a quad is on the way? Tell me if you already sent it because I am ordering one from the office here next week on Tuesday. It would be sweet to have two quads but 1 is great. :) I will look into the phone home thing.

Love You

Week 14

Hey Fam,                                                               

  So how was conference? We only ended up seeing two talks. All the active members of the church here gathered at the church building and watched general conference on a TV. We even had one of our investigators come to watch it too which was really awesome. Their names are Brother and Sister Rojo. They are a young couple with one kid. I am really excited about them. They are super awesome. They are a pretty solid normal family. They came to church this Sunday but it was sad cause we had to leave with the Stake President to go to Roxas in the middle of the meeting. So sadly enough we left our investigators at the church. Estancia is really far away from everything so we had to catch a ride into the town around 3:00 with the Pres.  If you wait any later there are no rides out.

  The rats in our house are ridiculous. When I was on Negros Island I bought a Carabow belt made from the horn of a carabow. It is a really hard sturdy belt. The rats had eaten sections out of it. They are pretty powerful rats to chew thru rock carabow. The other night I came home and saw one out in the open, so as fast as I could I grabbed a kitchen knife and started swinging at it. I hit it dead on once but I don't think it did anything cause it just ran away again. The apartment we are in reminds me of the haunted house that we used to go in next to Smiths Grocery Store.

  My companion is a great guy. He is trying to be a lot more obedient. I didn't realize how ridiculous missionaries here can be. The zone I came into used to be super lazy/trunky. All of the missionaries would play video games on the computer, watch movies, etc...;). Lots of crazy stuff you would never even think of. 

  Dad that is super awesome you are doing a Developmental School. The handicapped people in the Philippines are super funny. There was a little albino girl I saw the other day.  Her parents pointed to me and told her I was her father.  I guess she’s not handicap just albino.

  There is no piano at our church house to answer mom's question. They play tapes of people singing the hymns instead.

So I am trying to find out how to get a small quad. The big one I have is super hard to carry around and it hurts my back really bad. How much would it be to send one from the states?  I think we can order them from the office here but I am not sure.

Oh and do you know the exact amount of money in my back account?

Ayos! So things are going good. Love you all talk to you soon.

Bye Bye

Elder Kirschbaum

Week 13 Iloilo Mission - Estancia

Family,

     So I got transferred to a new Island, Panay. I will probably spend the next two years here in Panay because the mission is splitting. I will be in the Iloilo Philippines mission now. So I finally got my true mission call. Philippines Iloillo Mission, Illongo, Kina Rai-a, Aklanon , Hiligaynon, Cebuano speaking. My new area is in a place called Estancia. It is way far away from the big city of Iloilo (eelo eelo) 67 miles. It is right on the ocean and it is super mountainy. It is really awesome. We just have a branch here with about 40 members that are active. 

     Oh man our apartment is crazy! It is super haunted. The electricity only sometimes works. The lights I guess ground out and don’t work. My companion keeps our bedroom door locked in case someone comes in our house. One more thing we have tons of huge rats. They poop everywhere. They are super loud too. You can hear their tails pounding against the walls when they run. It’s pretty exciting.

     My new companion’s name is Elder Budy (Boody) He is a pinoy (filipino) again. I don't have the most obedient of companions right now. He is way cool though. My companion now really likes “Boys like Girls” and so this morning he was blasting it thru the house. He also scheduled an Island Hopping trip with some members where you get on a boat and go from island to island. I told him we probably maybe shouldn't do that. :)

     So yeah being on a mission isn't at all what I thought it would be. Everything so far has just been a rush of culture and every other change. There has been a few times during these last 4 months that I would stop and think to myself "What the crap is happening, this is so weird driving in this bus with all these little foreign people listening to “shorty hit the floor”.  "Am I really sitting cross-legged in a Bamboo Hut teaching about Christ in this Illango language?”.  A mission is a lot harder than I thought it would be too :).  It is a lot more free than I thought it would be too. It's me and my companion in some random house 5 hours away from anything, and we have to some how convert others to the gospel while we maintain the few members that we have. There is a lot to do, and some how it all gets done and ends up being successful in the end.  As of right now I would have to say it has been more difficult than rewarding but I know the best is yet to come. I have definitely learned a whole lot though.

It is weird comparing how we think our mission is going to be when we are 17 years old and then actually being on one. I imagined myself some hugely changed man.  I am just the same Garrett, but only now I am Garrett, on a Island. I guess changing takes time and the only way to become anything is through the Lord. I have a long way to go. I have a lot to learn, about myself, about the language, about being social and good at teaching, faith, loving, teaching with the Spirit, being obedient. But I guess what is the most important is I just make the best of who I am right now.

...Anyways my new area is great :). My Illango is getting better.  I just need to work on my confidence in speaking it.

     I love you all. Now more than ever I want to spend time with all of you.  I guess you really appreciate your family while you’re on a mission.  Hopefully the same feeling will stay even after the mission ;).  I know only through this Church and the knowledge we gain from it, we will become the happiest and most importantly we will be able to live together forever with our families forever.  I love you gid (alot).

-Elder Garrett Kirschbaum

P.S.  Estancia is called "the little Alaska of the Philippines" because of it's fishing industry, salmon, crab, shrimp. . .