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, October 31, 2010

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

Sunday, October 24, 2010

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

Monday, October 18, 2010

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

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wk 40


Hey!                                      
     Well this week was the crazy transfer week. We welcomed 18 missionaries from the United States. One sister missionary from India, Sister Ganta, and two other sister missionaries. The sister missionary from India has motion sickness and can only travel 20 minutes without...well throwing up. She probably traveled 20min X 100 to get here. I felt really bad for her. Then she got sent to the furthest away area on Panay, about four hours away. She just cried. Yeah I felt pretty bad.
     This week has been a super difficult week. Elder Booth has been sick (we are comps for one more transfer, I will probably drive him to the airport when he leaves.) We haven't been able to teach our investigators because we are so busy taking care of all the new babies of the mission. General Conference was cool. We were sick for a little bit of it so we didn't see all of it. Haha I saw Josh! Which was awesome. Then I saw another kid I knew, I saw Caleb’s mother, I saw the Sis. Boulter, and that’s about it. It was way cool seeing Josh. I just wanted to give him a big hug...but I couldn't.
      Our area split into two areas now, ours is a super small area. We can walk around it in about 10 minutes, but there are tons of people. This week we are taking the other Elders around the area so they can get oriented.
      About your question mother, yes, forward Josh’s letters to me every week if you can and then forward mine. What you should do is...Have Caleb’s mom send you his letters once in a while and Mckay’s and Josh’s and send them to me and then I will send you mine and distribute them out so we call all get hooked up.
     Ah Will sent me a Dear Elder the other day. It was way awesome. He has his mission call too. Super excited for him. He is such a man.
      Well this is going to be a really short email. But it doesn't mean that I love you guys any less. Love you Fam!
-Elder Kirschbaum

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Wk 39




Hey!                                                                                                                            October 4, 2010                          
      So we just found out about transfers. I will be staying as an Office Elder. Probably for a few more transfers....then our area Molo, will be split in half. The area is super small already and now they are going to split it in half. We talked with our Bishop about it and me and Booth will take the center of Molo which we kind of pretty much walk around in 30 minutes. So our area is going to be super small. It will be really awesome though.
     This week is transfer week, and it is already been way busy. We will get 20 new American missionaries this next week. It is going to be crazy. Pretty much everyone in the mission is training.
     Yesterday Eva was confirmed as a member of the church. And the day before that she was baptized by her son. It was amazing seeing Dave baptize his mother. They are such a awesome little family. Dave says that he wants to go on a mission somewhere where the people are super hardheaded, so it will be hard.
     Before the baptism we had a church tour that turned out really well. Our ward missionaries invited friends and potential investigators to attend the church tour and then the baptism. Our ward missionaries are awesome and brought about 10 investigators.
     Also a man in our ward, Brother Pancho came up to us yesterday at church with his son in law and said to us that his son in law, Jelon needed to be baptized. Jelon was  sitting right there the whole time probably thinking...who knows what, while Brother Pancho told him he needed to listen to us. Then he turned to us and in English and said, "He is a golden investigator".  When can you teach him....so we set up an appointment for later today.  We are excited to talk to him.
     Well I just want everyone to know things are going great for me here. Just trying to be the best missionary the Lord wants me to be. I love you all so much and love hearing from you. Sorry I wasn't able to email everyone back but I will as soon as I can. Love you all again.
-Elder Kirschbaum