Wk 103 October 24, 2011

Here is the update fam!

     I have a new companion as of last Friday, Elder Buluran. He is a Filipino. He is from Manila, but also lived in LA for a little while. We get along great it is way nice. It has been a fun few days with him. We have already had some crazy experiences. One of which we were inches away of being struck by lightning.

     I will "DIE" here in Makato, meaning this will be my last area. Elder Buluran will "Kill Me".  I am excited though that this will be my last area. I am glad that I didn't get transferred for my last transfer. I absolutely love this branch and will love them till the end. The Branch is so awesome in fellowshipping our investigators. This Friday is the birthday of one of our investigators. They are using their auxiliary budget to throw a little surprise birthday party for our investigator, Kristine.

     I don't think I have told you about Kristine yet. We met her at an activity we planned last week. She went to the activity, the following day she went to church, then that Sunday we taught her and committed her for baptism. She pretty much asked us if she could be baptized. What a blessing. We are so lucky. This last week it is just amazing how she is gaining her testimony. For a long time Kristine has been trying to get work. She told us that she finally got accepted to work at a pretty popular restaurant. She was way excited and it was a pretty big blessing for her. The next time we saw her we taught her about keeping the Sabbath day holy. We told her to read 1 Nephi 3, and seek guidance from the Lord. You can never come closer to the Lord and be an investigator without trials. Today was p-day. As we were at the shopping center, Kristine ran up to us. She was holding her Book of Mormon, with it’s protective case she made. Who does that? Who runs around the Mall reading the Book of Mormon? She is just on fire.  All will work out.

     It has been an awesome week with investigators. New investigators coming to church and just the spiritual experiences with them has been amazing.

     Now...we were teaching at Bro and Sis Antoja's house. I was holding the Book of Mormon explaining something, Elder Buluran was watching me. Our ward member and the wife of Bro Antoja sat across from us. All of a sudden (we put together what everyone saw) a lighting bolt entered the house from outside through the door and hit Elder Bulurans watch. Sister Antoja and our member said the stream of light exploded off his watch. The explosion is what I saw, nothing else. Following the explosion, Elder Buluran, Sister Antoja, and our member saw a stream of fire, Red-violet and orange on top go in between me and Elder Buluran. Elder Buluran was watching me teach but all of the sudden lost sight of me because of the Red-violet light that went between him and me. Sister Antoja said the light went directly to my face then all of the sudden dodged my face then left the room. Everyone’s mouth was open as we stared at each other for about 2 seconds. Then the loudest thunder...that sank into our souls...came. All of us didn't know what in the world just happened. We put what happened together in the next 30 minutes. We decided we were pretty much protected amazingly. The weird thing is no one felt anything and Elder Bulurans watch was working fine. I believe we had some heavenly assistance. The next day we went to one of our investigators that lives close by and they said that last night they saw a big bold of lightning hit something a few houses down. We all smiled and then told them it hit us. The lightning that night was ridiculous.  We were pretty much running home scared it was going to chase us home.

So there is my new experience of being inches away from being hit by lightning.

      Well Life is good here in the Philippines. Yes there is lots of rain, and I might add lightning also. But the work of God will go forth boldy and nobly until the great Jehovah shall say....The Work is Done!

Love you all

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 102 October 17, 2011

Akong Pinapalanggaon na Fam.

     Crazy Week this week. It starts off with a crazy bagio/tropical storm, followed by a new found awesome family, 3 branch combined activity, then to top it off with Erma's Confirmation...

     I'm not sure if you heard any news about the tropical storms here in the Philippines, but earlier this week was we had a scale 1 ( it’s 1 out of 3, 3 being the worst) tropical storm hit Panay. It started to rain on Wednesday early in the morning. The rain was super heavy. You know when the rain hits so hard on the roof that you can’t hear anything. That was it. Well the rain continued like that all day. Elder Verzo and I got out our umbrellas and put our scriptures in ziplock bags and headed out. We got soaked as soon as we stepped out of the house. As we were walking to our appointments, we walked by a river that was unusually high and almost coming up onto the road. That was about 5 pm. Later that night coming home we saw a bunch of people gathered on the side of the road. The water that is usually way below the bridge was almost spilling over. The houses right next to the river had water about 5 feet high. There is nothing you can do when there is a flood. The people just watch their houses being filled with water. They took out some furniture and other things so they didn't get wet, but anything else was under water. One house that we saw was at least one story under water. Our apartment was fine because we don't live close to the river so that was fine besides a few minor leaks. But most houses are just bamboo with bamboo leaves for the roof so they got pretty wet. The following day we helped one of our members of our branch take down all their rice that had been put up high as to not get wet from the bagio, so they could eat. All in all it was the worse tropical storm that I have been in, and I guess it wasn't even all that bad. My comp was just like "yeah, whatever, this is normal". There were other areas that were hit worse, and in Iloilo I guess there were a few kids that were washed away by the current of a river. Pretty sad.

      We met a way awesome family the other day. We had no set appointments for that day and we were close to "turning around and going back".  We were talking about what we would do next. We were standing close by a house on the side of the road and so I just walked up to it and said "Tag Baeay!" That is when we met a new awesome family. The most awesome family ever! We taught just the dad the first time and then set a schedule to come back. The second time we taught the wife and a few of their kids. They have I think 7 kids. The dad said to us "I usually don't let people like you (missionaries) come to our house." But he said "I don't know why I let you in, maybe it’s time" The lesson kind of went long and I was thinking...okay I will just say the prayer, but I thought to bare my testimony and ask the father to say the prayer...and he did! He gave an awesome prayer. We have had a few more lessons with them and some other way awesome experiences but I don't have time to share them all. But the last time we went we asked their daughter to give the closing prayer. Without resistance, ahaha, she gave the prayer. She gave the best prayer. She said. "Thank you God for all the things we learned, thank you that we have another testament of Jesus Christ, God we hope that we can go to church." Boom. Yeah I am way excited about them.

     We had a combined activity with the three branches in our ward that we planned. It went well and we were also able to find some people to teach from it. We will see how that goes.  Best of all Erma Dangautan was given the Gift of the Holy Ghost this last Sunday.

     Welp I love you all and thanks for your letters, videos, and ....love. Talk to you again next week.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 101 October 10, 2011

Maayad-ayad nga hapon pamilya!  

     Hey well this week was the Baptism of Sister Erma! It was such an awesome baptism. If my companion wasn't so short he would have probably baptized her but Erma joked around that they would both go under if she let him baptize her...So I was the one to baptize. Our whole branch showed up to the baptism.  Erma's whole family including their daughter. Erma's member daughter Maryanne was assigned to give one of the talks. Before the baptism though she ate some fish and started to swell up. She came to the baptism even though she felt like she could barely stand. When she got there she asked us to bless her. So we took her into one of the rooms and gave her a blessing. By the time she going to give her talk, even though her eyes were almost swollen shut, and had big bumps all over her, she gave a tear filled talk on the Holy Ghost. Her mom, Erma was in tears, along with the other members of the branch. Then we had the baptism. The spirit was strong as we both were standing in the water. It was such a privilege to baptize her. After when she gave her testimony she just kept on saying how good she felt when she came up out of the water. She said she felt like she was falling from really really high. It was hard to not cry as she bore her testimony. I just kept on thinking the whole time how lucky I was to be a part of her conversion and her journey to follow Jesus Christ.

     General Conference was gut blowing - a mix between gut wrenching and mind blowing. The talks from Priesthood session were crazy. I love Jeffery R. Holland's talks. Mom when his talk comes out in the Ensign and you can read it, tell me when you and dad will be going on a mission huh. I took Elder Scott advice on memorizing scriptures. I like what he said about how a memorized scripture is like a good friend that never leaves you. Good for Elder Scott.

      We met at our Stake Center to watch Conference. On Saturday it was pretty much just the missionaries, but on Sunday the church was packed with members. Brother Alfonso came and loved it. He and his wife fasted this last Sunday for strength.   He is doing great and just loves talking about the gospel. I gave him my "Our Heritage" and "Search for Happiness" books. He has already finished Our Heritage.

     We have been doing a lot of finding this last week.  Still repenting and trying to be a little more patient with my companion. I think by the time our time is over, I will have learned a lot. It has honestly been a good challenge for me.

     Well, I am going to check out some BYU stuff now. I love you and thanks for all you do. I love God’s plan for us and I love him and I am so grateful I can be a part of this.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Wk 100 October 3, 2011

Hey!!                    

     What’s up ya'll? You guys are going to have to teach me how to speak Utahn English again when I get back.

     This week was a just a wonderful loving week. It was kind of like an opening in the cloudy sky and with some sunshine too. This week I really dedicated my study time to the last General Conference Ensign issue. Oh man I love General Conference. I learned so much from reading it and trying to apply the things I learned into my week. There was a lot of good talks that helped me learn patience towards my comp and self. :).

     We haven't seen General Conference yet. We will be going to Kalibo this weekend to watch all the sessions. I am super excited.

     This week we have been going over to Alfonso's house everyday. We are confident he will continue doing well. He really feels strong that he wants to be baptized in November. He is doing great though. Him and his wife play scrabble to keep his mind in the right direction.

     Hey I got some new pants. Brother Alfonso when they came back from Manila gave me some of his pants. That was super nice no? I felt pretty special.

     Sorry this is a really sort letter. We are over our time here at the internet cafe. That would probably be due to putting BYU more as a priority than you guys. JOKe, but kind of not. Next week I will make sure I don't worry about BYU stuff till after I write you. Well,  Love you all and talk to you again next week.

-Elder Kirschbaum