Week 69 Robbed

Dearest Awesomest Family,

     Well it’s another week of Email, and it never gets old. It is always without fail a refreshing experience, just sitting down and semi relaxing reading what’s up in the Americas, lookin at pictures and smiling to a computer. Then reviewing my past week, and thinking what should I tell the fam. (while fighting urges to go to the bathroom. We haven't changed our filters for a little while so the water is giving us LBM.)

      Today was the first day in about 2 months that we got to play basketball. We went to a nearby plaza in Lapaz and we played basketball. At first it was just 5 Americans (Kano) but pretty soon we had a big group of Baptist Missionaries on break from school watching us, and a Kano vs. Pinoy Basketball game. Yes we smacked them, as in we beat them. I would have taken pictures but......WE GOT ROBBED. Hence the subject line.

      On around Tuesday I had to interview a baptismal candidate in another area. So I went on Exchanges for the day with and Elder Austin Adams. We had a successful day and went right to bed...forgetting to lock the door. When we woke up one of the Elders, Elder Cooper, one of the funniest missionaries, found the door open. He thought nothing of it until we came down and I saw my wallet opened lying on the table with all my money taken out (the money I just withdrew from my personal account) luckily leaving the cards. Then I saw my bag. All the pockets were open and my CAMERA was gone. Ah it hurt. I have been saving pictures on a usb drive that were so good. But still the camera was gone. The thief ended up coming into our house in the night and stealing 3 cameras and a gold mine of money. We were angry, but had to press on because we had zone conference...which was awesome. My paragraphs are flowing quite well...

      We learned the exact same thing that Elder Smith learned in his Zone Conference about the Ai army and Joshua. Joshua had a big army that should have whompped this small army of the Ai's but because one soldier disobeyed God's commandment and stole some booty (Booty/Goods), Joshua's army failed. President Pagaduan shared some other really cool object lessons and stories from the Bible about exact obedience. So now me and Elder Misbach are looking for what other rules we can follow so we can get even more blessings :).

     Our work is doing well in Leganez. Eric didn't come to church, he said it was because he was super tired from the church activity the night before. Lame huh? We have been helping him with word of wisdom problems and he seems to be doing really well. They both are doing pretty well and are excited for them. Zarr his sister went to church without him this week for the first time. Both me and Elder Misbach were exited. She is also reading and marking the libro ni mormon up. She has read every assignment and is asking of it’s truth. She hasn't received her answer yet but we have faith that she will.

      Still working with the members on referrals...that has been our biggest struggle. We don't have a lot of people in our teaching pool. We have an appointment with a member everyday this week so we will see how that goes.

      Me and Elder Misbach have a motto. "and they were wild men" Genesis 16:12.  We are trying to be wild men, this transfer. Wild in every way...obedience, preaching the gospel, inviting, loving, and focusing on the three most important things in life; our relationship with God, our relationship with others, and our relationship with ourselves. (Elder Uctdorf last conference I believe gave this address.) Elder Misbach is a way good companion for me. We’re learning lots, he is a great guy. We’re excited to continue (Padayon).

      Oh yeah we are having the members teach us the language on Saturday for an hour. It’s way fun. Just a side note.

      Well of course I am now going to say....I love you all...I enjoyed your emails. Tell Veronica hi for me Heidi. Hope school is going well for Leah. Congrats on the new calling mom and dad. You have to tell me how things go once you learn more about your calling. Kyle thanks for your email and the pics. Talk to you again next week. Halong for now.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Random Fact of the Philippines: Everyone has a cell phone. This how they text message: Good Afty. Elow hw ru. wen kamu maarrive sa amon. stl bst prens ta. u fol asleep. (Good afternoon. Hello how are you. When will you arrive. Are we still best friends. Did you fall asleep.) CRAZY HUH. It’s fun sometimes.

     So is there anyway I could negotiate something to get a new camera. They are about 8,000 pesos ($183) - 13,000 ($297) pesos for a nice one. I will convert that next week. But tell me what you think.

Week 68 The Word for Love is ... Palangga

Dearest Family,                       2/21/2011

      This week we were a trisome companionship for a few days. Elder Gunnel from Maine was our third comp.  Way awesome guy, about 4 months in the field exfire fighter.  So Now it is just me and Elder Misbach again in Leganez.

      I hope Dad and Heidi's birthday was awesome. I will say...Happy Birthday to you two again just in case my other happy birthday didn't reach you. I miss the macaroni grill type of food. Lately...due to our laziness, we have just been cooking mac noodles, and peanut butter sandwiches. We are repenting though (sorrow, confessing, restoring, forgiving oneself) and bringing out the cookbook. We will attempt chicken curry, and a few other vegie fries.

      So now things are back to normal. Eric...didn't come to church. We were pretty sad. We have been teaching him the word of wisdom. He is way honest with us. He has quite a few addictions but he wants to get rid of them and we believe he can do it. The biggest problem he told us was his friends. They all have been drinking and smoking since...the...beginning. So me and Elder Misbach made a plan and took some action.

      On Thursday we dropped by his Burungay (village) and challenged his friends to a B-Ball game. Of course though, we said..."If we beat you we get to teach you about....THE Word Of WISDOM." You probably know what happens next. We lost, and we went on our way without a lesson. Nahhhh, that was a joke. We wasted them and sat them down and taught them about the word of wisdom, and committed them all to obey it. BOOM. 

     They said they would, we”ll see next time we go there.  At least they now know and we are hoping that will help Eric resist the temptation of his friends. The last few days Eric hasn't smoked or drank. We are now teaching his sister Zarr, and working with their father.

      Shoes are surprisingly doing well. They are getting a little teared up on the back end but if I shine them.  They look pretty hot. I might need to get some new ones pretty soon though. I guess I can just tell you when that time comes. Well this is about it for me. I will send pics soon.

NagaPalangga

Elder Kirschbaum. :)

Week 66 Chillin in a Typhoon!

Maayong Hapon sa inyo tanan (good afternoon to you all)

     I am still alive, don't worry...I am just a day late to email.

Yesterday we starting writing our weekly letter to our mission president online when shortly after it started to poor rain. Then Brown Out-ed. (in the states, I believe it is considered as Black out.  Here it is a brown out. In the Philippines the electricity head man, thinks it’s funny every once in a while to just select a city to shut off the power. So every day there is a time when there is no power.) Anyways now it is pitch black no electricity and lightning and raining way heavy. So me and elder Misbach ran to the house, by the time we got there we were drenched. Everything, even our phone which is now not working..grrr. We decided to change clothes and go play in the rain....so we did. It lasted for a while.  The electricity didn't come on till late so we weren't able to finish email. So that is why I am just now emailing.

     So don't worry mother I will not give up trying to cook even if it makes me throw up all night. This afternoon we will be attempting to make "Pinukbet" which is a mix of vegetables with coconut oil and BEEF and rice. I will make it for you when I get back...if we have all the ingredients.

      Yesterday I received a whole stack of letters that had been kept from me for a few weeks maybe. It was awesome. McKay and Bryce Romney wrote me which was way cool. McKay is the man. I love reading all their email that you send in Dear Elder.  It is motivating and just good to hear how they are doing. I read the "letter to home" from Caleb shepdawg. I thought he was dead.  It had been close to a year since I have heard what’s up with him. He sounds like he is doing great. Maybe I will just take this time to give a shout out to all my Brothers serving the Lord! Elder Stewart keep up the Spanish! Te amo (I love you?) Elder Smith, just got your letter. I love you! Elder Shephard, You’re not fat. I am glad your organized comp reminds you of me ;). Whoo.

     Back to the family. Mom, have you heard how Jeff or Will are doing? Does anyone have an addresses for either of them? Anyways I am just thankful mother that you are sending me those Dear Elders.

     This week was a little bit of a struggle again with the work. We are working with the ward and not having too much success, but not giving up. I think me and Elder Misbach are going to change our approach with the ward members and finding.  We will see.

     We had an activity last Saturday where we watched "Together Forever".  After inviting members to bring investigators, no one really showed up....but Eric, Ryan, and Leonard came. It ended up going okay. The other day he asked one of the members what he needed to do to get baptized...so we are going to try to help him out and get him ready for baptism.

      Me and Elder Misbach will be together for one more transfer at least. We just found out and we are excited. WOO!

     Just want to let you all know that I love you so much. I read the talk of President Monson this morning about Gratitude. I read it because Elder Stewart mentioned it in one of his letters. Anyways it is way good. And I realized I need to focus on the things I have. One of those things is my family.  So I am grateful for you, and Love you. Talk to you again next week.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 65 January 31, 2011

How are ya Family?                                                 

     Today is a chilly day. The weather is the coldest it gets here in the Philippines, which means it’s probably about 70 degrees. It is about the perfect weather. I actually got a little bit cold last night with the fan running and hitting right on me. It was pretty hard dumping water on me in the shower too, because it was so cold. But now it is a warm afternoon, and my hands are soaking wet on the keyboard just like they should be.

      We had to wake up earlier this morning so we could travel to a city called Passi for District Meeting. Our zone has two districts; one in Jaro and one in Passi.  They are about an hour away from each other. We decided to see how the missionaries in Passi are doing this week. Me and Elder Misbach enjoy the long bus rides.

     Let’s see...Earlier this week me and Elder Misbach decided we were going to get good at cooking Filipino food so we cooked up some chicken and dipped them in buffalo wing herbs with rice. We were proud of our cooking skills. But...I guess what happened was the chicken wasn't cooked in the middle.  All was well until we came home that night, went to bed, woke up, and started a night of throwing up periodically about 5 times. We kind of took turns. The next day reminisced on how much more pleasing it would be to sick in bed at home with our moms taking care of us. At least that was what I was thinking. I realized those days were over the first few weeks here.

      So now we are well, in fact I just ate 3 donuts.

 I can't remember if I told you about the "guys" last week. But we have about ten 19-22 year old guys that we are teaching.  5 of them have been to church now twice which is a really awesome. I guess I did tell you about them.  They were the ones that heard about the law of chastity and successful parenting their first time in church. Well they are doing really good. A few of them are starting to stick out more than others.  Some are very attentive in our lessons  and really want to understand. When they don't understand something, they ask questions.

     We taught a lesson the other day with a few of them. We had planned to teach them about Faith and Repentance. We started teaching and it wasn't going very well.  All of a sudden one of them just randomly asked the question of "why doesn't your church have the saints or the crosses?" Elder Misbach, me, and our member, started then to explain. Then the lesson turned around. We answered his question and ended up reviewing a lot of things we discussed in the earlier lessons with them, but I think this time it made a lot more sense to them. They started asking questions like "why is there so many different beliefs in religion?" Everything they asked applied directly back to the story of Joseph Smith. We then talked to them about Prayer and asking Heavenly Father.  It was a really neat experience teaching them that we could actually speak to their Heavenly Father.   It was just really cool seeing how the Spirit was working with each of these guys differently. They all realize different things at different times.

     It has been kind of a challenge figuring out how to teach to the needs of all these guys. We will start being able to teach them at their own house pretty soon with their families. So that is something me and Elder Misbach have to look forward to this week.

     Tomorrow we have Zone Leaders Conference. That is always fun. It is fun being with all the other elders.

     Well it’s been good to wrap it up.  Just want to tell you all I love you.

Well, Love you all.

-Elder Kirschbaum