Week 7

(Mom typed this for Leah - she is on the other end on the phone and her internet has been out at home.)  12:50 a.m.  Garrett was on line at the same time so it was almost like communicating.

Hey Garrett,

I missed you.  I was thinking today that it's probably pretty intense and stressful and learning the language and being in a whole new world but don't get too stressed out.  I think the most important thing is that you are just there, being your happy self and loving the people and being a light and that's a language that everybody can understand.  You will get through to them - your countenance and spirit will get through to them despite the language barrier.

Have a good week.  Love ya, Leah

Thank you Leah! The language has been going okay. Yeah it definitely can be annoying not being able to communicate everything I want to say. I got a new companion Elder Tiu. He is sweet. He plays the guitar super good. The first night with him we sang a bunch of "non mission songs" Saosin, Taking on Seven years (you were the first one to show me that song :) ). It was pretty awesome. We made a goal to only play church music during the week but on P-Day we can play a few OTHER songs :).

It has been sweet with him because He doesn't know a whole lot of the language so I have been learning a lot this past two days. The other day was pretty sweet. I was able to understand a lot of what people said. The language is going alot better. Give me another month and I will be set. Anyways. Love you Leah I hope you are doing awesome. I hope you are happy and having the time of your life. Love you.

-Your little brother Elder K-Bomb

Hey Dad!

I am doing pretty good out here in the green stinky Philipino earth. SO Happy Birthday! A hockey game huh that pretty new for you guys. So my new elder is from Manilla. He doesn't speak English. He speaks Illango language. He is way sweet. I am going to have to make this letter really little. I will tell you about things that have happened this week next week. A few good stories.

But I am doing good. I am slowly loosing the English language. I semi healthy with a few rashes here and there. The work is progressing slowly but it's good. Same with the language :). I love you all! Talk to you soon!

-Elder Kershbom.

Questions of February 21, 2010  He answered them immediately but that was the price of not getting a family letter.  Guess he was pressed for time.

Garrett:  Tell me if you want me to answer these questions more in depth.

ANY MORE WINDOW THREATS?  No not yet. The window is fixed. :) 

WERE YOU ABLE TO PATCH UP YOUR WINDOW?  See previous questions. 

HOW’S YOUR BACK? Lately it has been killing me. I really don't know what to do to make it feel better. Some days are better than others. Don't worry though :) 

WHAT MOST STRENGTHENED YOUR TESTIMONY THIS PAST WEEK?  Yeah I will get back to you on that.

WHAT DID YOU LIKE  BEST ABOUT YOUR COMPANION ELDER TORIO?  He is super awesome to the people here.

DID YOU GET TO SEE ELDER HILL?   Yes at transfer day.

DID YOU MEET AN ELDER SWARTZ FROM ARIZONA?  Yeah I met him at transfer day.

DO YOU STILL WANT ME TO SEND THE MUSIC NOTE CARDS AND THE BEGINNING PIANO BOOK? Yeah.  If you could send the music note cards and some music staff paper that would be awesome and maybe our metronome.

IS IT A REAL PIANO YOU PLAY AT CHURCH?  OR ELECTRONIC?  Real

DO YOU THINK YOU WILL GET TO GO TO THE MANILLA TEMPLE SOMETIME?  Not while I’m on my mission.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE HYMN?  I am not sure, but I was wondering if you could send me some music. Like the efy cds or anything. Music is awesome here. You don't have to send me alot just a cd once and a while. :)

IS YOUR NEW COMPANION ELDER TIU AMERICAN OR FILIPINO?

He’s a phill. I didn't have a lot of time today sorry. I will write more dason. Hopefully I will be able to print off your letters next week. I couldn't this week.

Halong for now.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Week 6 February 15, 2010

Hey!

      So just a few new exciting things happened this week. First off, this week is transfer week. I will probably not be getting transferred, just my companion. It will be sweet to see all of our batch from the MTC again at transfer day and the new ones coming in.

      This week I saw my first monkey up close. I was on splits and we were walking by this little house and there was a monkey in a cage. As we walked by it stuck its hand out at me like it was begging for food. I grabbed its hand and shook it. It was so human. I felt like I could talk to it.

      Later that same day on our way to one of our appointments, I saw this old little lady walking along the road. As I passed her, I said hello. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up close to her and in her shacky ol’ grandma voice she said in English "I'm hungry". It was soo sad. I didn't have any food on me and we aren't supposed to give them money. I really didn't know what to do. Luckily the person I was on splits with had a biscuit so we gave her that. I guess she was a widower so no one was really taking care of her.

      About two days ago someone chucked a huge rock through our window about 12:00 at night. We didn't realize what happened until the next day when one of us sat on our couch and was stabbed by glass. We went outside and saw this huge hole in our window and glass everywhere. We found the rock that was thrown inside our house. It was a huge rock. We also shut our gate at night so they had to have thrown it from outside our gate, which is pretty far. Who ever threw it was pretty strong. So now I’ve learned that not everyone likes the Mormons :).

 We have been teaching in a new little barangay called Lumbia Uno. It is the coolest place.  Not the actual place but the people. The first time we went to teach there tons and tons of people came to listen to us teach. The lady we are teaching there’s name is Nida. She is super poor and is having to find a job to live somewhere else. When we told her that we couldn't teach her anymore because she would be gone, she said she would find another job closer by.

She is so awesome. She went around for a little while working with us. It's just really awesome. We have barely started teaching her and she already is super willing and grateful. Because of her, we might baptize the whole barangay (village).

Thank you guys all for your letters. I love reading them.

Leah I am glad your are having fun living it up in Vegas. Thailand sounds like an adventure but Hawaii would be pretty rad too.

So Ashton is better, that is good. That is pretty crazy he had to go to the hospital.

Kyle yes there are plenty of places to buy toilet paper but the trick is having it everywhere with you when you need it. Unfortunately for me, the time came where I didn't have any. I was really sick and had to go. I forget to bring some. It actually wasn't that bad.

Yeah, my companion is pretty sweet. We listen to alot of the same music. So it’s fun singing songs together.

Kyle I do keep a note pad by my bed. But I haven’t received any midnight revelations yet.

Oh Mom, don't worry about us singing. We have sung tons. We do sing at lessons too.

Well, things are good. Hope all is well with you. Love you all.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Week 5 Hello

Hey! Family!

   Wow it is so crazy it has already been a month in the mission. My month mark was yesterday on the 7th. So it is 4:06 pm here right now. I attached some pictures finally! yay!

  Yes! Mother Father I got your packages. One of them came a few weeks ago. The last one with the Valentines monkey came this week. Thank you so much. I am also getting all of your emails too.

  Thank you for the recipes. I actually have been eating oatmeal in the morning too. This morning I made oatmeal with coconut juice. It was really good.

  Tell Elder Swartz not to worry about vitamins they give us endless vitamins here. And yes mom I have been taking them.

  So just tell friends to send me DearElders.com.  I am planning on just writing them letters through the pouch back and just family through email.

  For pictures I will just have to send you my cards or something or if you sent me a usb with a bunch of storage I might be able to store them on there maybe. For now I will send you my card which is full.

  So I decided you guys haven't heard alot of what it is like here. I will type up my journal entry. It is kind of negative, but don't worry I am not anymore, I am an official Filippino.  And I am an official Man now. I will tell you about that later.

   "Alright so our apartment looks like a haunted house from the outside.

As you walk in there is a huge spider stuck in the screen door. The living room is nice but very messy. The whole house is really a pig-sty. The bathroom is a dump. There is a sink, shower head, and toilet all in the same tiny room. If the shower was on while you took a poop you would get wet. (It’s now to the point where I get wet no matter what I am doing in the bathroom. Everything leaks.) Most people here wipe with their hands. I have a thing for toilet paper so I borrow a roll from the  Mission office every time I visit. Anyways I don't dare not wear sandals in the bathroom, its beyond words. I’ve learned to love it now though. We wash our dishes by hand everyday in our messy kitchen. Many times there are ants all over eating left over Uga (dried fish) We constantly have a fan on us, because it is so hot and wet here. I keep my toothbrush in the fridge so ants don't get it. I have a nice wood frame bed with a soft thin mattress pad thing. My sheet has signatures of other missionaries. We have another bathroom right off our room but no one goes in it because its even worse. I listen to it drip water at night. There are these really cool lizard gecko things here.  We have a ton all around. A few are smashed in our door, with the spider. Our apartment is right by the main road so the cars race by making really loud sounds. When we are going to bed it is like we are blasting off in a spaceship every 5 minutes because it’s so loud. Our beds rumble. If the roosters aren’t crowing at 11:00 pm, they are at 4:30 am. We live not a foot away from around 30 roosters. The whole “morning only rooster crow thing” is a myth.  They scream every time of the day.

   All right so our area is beautiful. We live in a small town outside the city of Bacolod about 30 minutes north. (For Kyle my address is EB Magalona Tabigy Street between the bridge at the gas station.) Most houses are made of either bamboo or cement. For transportation we use tricycles.  They are those motorcycle + carriage vehicles. I am too big to fit comfortably in them so I usually ride on the ledge over the wheel.

Alot of times I almost hit into things on the side of the road. Tons of people squish on them. It is super fun. Better than riding a motorcycle:).

Their houses are very close together. They don't have any of the utilities we have.

  Everyone, including me, washes their clothes by hand. It is quite the process. We get the water from a pump in the ground. We then hang them up to dry.

  The rice fields are beautiful here with lush green grass rice and palm trees. The ocean is in our area. Some of the houses by the ocean are elevated on just bamboo poles alone. In one of our investigators homes the bamboo bends frighteningly low when I step on it. I am always scared I am going to maul over their home. When it rains here it rains in small spurts. It will be completely dry then in a second it will rain. Then 30 seconds later it will stop in a snap of a finger. The rain is also misty.

It is really trashy. Everyone puts their garbage everywhere. Pretty gross smelling sometimes."

  That was my January 21st entry.

  This week I went on splits 3 times. So me and either the Bishop or a member named Tommy. It is hard going on splits when you can barely speak the language.

  We have two wards: The EB Magalona Ward and Manta-angan Branch. The  Bishop of EB is quite the guy. EB is a struggling ward. Haha we watched a movie in Sacrament two weeks ago too. That’s what it’s like.

   Well, there is still tons to tell you.

   I love all of you so much!

I hope that everything is okay with Ashton, poor guy. I will pray for him. Tell everyone I love them.

Till next time!

-Elder Kirschbaum

Week 4 :)

Hey Family!

I can't believe it’s almost been a month in the Philippines. Time flies so fast. It is weird to think I was in the MTC last month. Things are sure different than the MTC. There definitely isn't the bounteous selection of food here. Well I actually I take that back. There is lots of food here it is just weird parts of an animal. This week I ate more chicken intestines, skin, and feet. I also have been getting good at eating a whole fish. I took a grody bite of a fish mouth the other day.

Alright so the Philippines is the most beautiful place ever. If you can get past all of the garbage in the streets and the sewer running everywhere. We have investigators that live way far away from our area right next to the ocean. It is so unreal. I will try sending you pictures soon.

Things have been going alright. I am trying to learn the basics of waking up and working out, eating a good breakfast, drinking lots of water, washing my clothes, remembering who my investigators are, and communicating with anyone.

I had a journal entry that described what the Philippines is like and I was going to type it up but I forgot it. Maybe next week I will give you an idea of what it is like here.

So I committed my first person to get baptised. I was really excited and kind of nervous cause I didn't know how she would react. Her name is Sister Sesbrano. She is a 19 year old girl with a family. She says she is really really happy and feels that the Book of Mormon is true. At least that is what my companion said. Because I can't understand anything anyone says yet. Well anyway I committed her to baptism. Himoon mo bala magpreperar para sa pagbunyag. Will you prepare your self for baptism? And her head went down, and she started saying all of this stuff I didn't understand. I just turn to my companion Elder Torio. I guess she was already baptized into a Catholic church and went inactive, she didn't want to do that again. She also said her family was Catholic and she just wasn't sure. Well that was that. She said no. We are now working on resolving her family concerns. We have been teaching more of her family which is nice.

Still lost in the language but I am sure it will come soon enough. I can buy things from the store and commit people to baptism. What else do I need to know?

Well I love you all so much.

Gotta go preach the Gospel. Halong.

-Elder Kirschbaum

Palagpat! Week 3

Palagpat!‏

Hey!!!!!

Oh man, the Philippines is quite the place. I still haven't quite adjusted to the big time change.  Around 8 o’clock I get super exhausted. It is also hard not to take a nap during the 12:00-2:00 fiesta thing everyday. My companion Elder Torio naps every day and tells me it is essential. I refuse though.

I will try to answer more of your questions.

How’s the language, and your companion?

The language is pretty discouraging right now. I feel like I am not progressing at all. I made a new plan to study the language this week during Personal and Comp study so hopefully that will help. It is coming though. I am pretty hard on myself.

Are you eating ok and are you getting used to the heat?

Eating has actually become quite a difficult thing.

So far I haven't been eating breakfast, or I will just eat some rice. For lunch I will have some bread from the local market. It is really namit (delicious). A lot of times we will eat at a members house, rice and chicken and some sort of fish. My favorite meal is UGA. It is a dried small fish. The head is really crunchy and you have to spit out the hard bones. You don't even notice the eyeball. It is quite painful to eat, really salty too. My companion loves them so we eat them often. They don't waste anything here. They have meat vendors all over the streets we will eat at also. So far I have tried chicken intestine which is really good for real, and chicken skin namit also. The heat really isn't that bad.  

Have you gotten our package?

I haven't yet. The only mail I got was dearelder from a few friends.

Do you have some new investigators?

Yes, we have new investigators every day.

Kyle,

We live in an area called EB Magalona. It is about 30 mins north of Bacolod City. I am not sure of our address though. (I will try to figure it out.)

The humidity is actually lovely. The temp isn't bad at all. And yes I have seen a nasty spider. The other day my companion shook one from his towel. It was the size of a medium pancake. It was quite the smash.

Well I wish I could write more but my companion needs to get on. Next week I will just tell you about everything that is going on here and more about the Philippines. Sorry it is so short. I will try to get more done next week. We still only have about 30 mins to write and read. It is hard to get it done all in thirty mins. Well I love you all. Talk to you soon.

-Elder Kirschbaum

2 Weeks In

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:28:28 +0000

Hey Family!

So there is so much to tell you, some spiritual, some not. Okay here I go. :)

This week we had a baptism. Her name was Maricel Arcangel. I think she was in her twenties. Elder Torio had been teaching her for a little while. Even though I didn't teach her much it was still really amazing seeing her be baptized and listening to her testimony.

We were also supposed to baptize this little girl named Jazine. She is 12 years old and is really excited. Her sister went to the hospital so she was gone for a little while. We couldn't get her baptismal interview done so we couldn't baptize her. She came to the church all ready to be baptized and we had to tell her she couldn't. She was so sad she cried. We will baptize her next week though.

I am just starting to get to know what is going on.  I was lost for a little bit. I didn't know who was who and where they lived. It is getting better though. The language is coming along great. This morning I taught the first 3 principles of the 1st lesson in Ilanggo to my companion. I felt pretty good about that. I can only speak super simple sentences but I can now put things together. I take around a note pad and ask my companion questions all day. That has been the biggest help with the language. I was able to get a grammar book the other day too. That should help also.

My companion Elder Torio is a really neat guy. He speaks English pretty well so he helps me alot. He is from the northern part of the Philippines. I forget what it is called.

So I saw a fairly sad thing happen this week.  I am sure there will be worse. We were waiting for the bus to go to one of our areas. There was this old guy holding a bag and a stick walking down the road. All of the sudden out of nowhere he slams the bag on the ground and starts beating it with a stick. Maybe I shouldn't tell you this. But I will. There was a dog in the bag. The dog started yelping in pain. He continued to do it until the dog died. He then just dumped it on the side of the road. I went to check it out after he left and there were three other dogs by it. The Filipino people don't like dogs as much as we do I guess. Pretty sad.

Anyways the area is so beautiful. We have a fairly big area so we have to ride those motorcycle carriage things. I am of course too big so I usually am on the back or sitting on the side over the wheel. It is really awesome. It is almost better than driving a motorcycle. We drive those to the cluster of houses and then walk from there.

All of the houses are scrunched together. They are really small. No carpet or cement, just bamboo. I guess people there don't usually see American Joes so everyone stares at me and smiles.  I just say Maayo Hapon and give them a high five. I don't quite yet have the skills to hold a meaningful conversation with them.

Thank you for praying for me. I definitely need it. Everything is going well. Just the occasional rough day. I hope all is good with everyone.

I am excited for Josh to get his call, and Mckay to go to the MTC in a few weeks.

Love you a lot,

Elder Kirschbaum

1st Week EB Magalona

Family,

Grabe naman! I am in the Philippines. There is so much to tell. I got here on the 7th late at night. Traveling here was a blast :). The fourteen hour plane ride to Taiwan wasn't too bad. It didn't really feel like 14 hours. I pretty much slept the whole time. It was sooo weird arriving in Taiwan. Everyone was Asian! And I couldn't understand anything. It is fun being the only white American. Everyone stared at us. We had a little while to kill in Taipei so we walked around.

The flight to Manila was the best flight of my life.

I sat next to this super friendly Filipino lady on the plane. It was my first experience with a Filipino and she was extremely nice. She laughed at everything, and when she laughed she would cover her mouth to hide her smile. She was a really cute lady. We talked the entire flight. I showed her pictures of you guys and she shared some of her Asian food she was bringing home to her kids. We finally got on the topic of the church and she had a bunch of questions about the judgement and what happens when we die. I talked to her about the resurrection and how everyone is resurrected and receives a perfect body. I told her about how we would be accountable for our works here on earth but we could be forgiven. She was really scared of the judgement so I told her about repentance. It was just a really natural conversation. By the end of the plane ride I had gotten her address for the missionaries and gave her my Book of Mormon and committed her to read 3rd Nephi 11 and Moroni's promise. She lives in the northern part of the Philippines so I probably won’t see her again, but it would be cool if the missionaries could teach her.

So when we got here we stayed the night at President Tobias house. We had a lovely Filipino dinner. And yes I ate fruits and vegetables and all that gross stuff.

I am over that.  There are grosser things to worry about like the raw crab someone gave me. I had to split the head of the crab open and just go for it.

The next day we had an awesome breakfast and went to the transfer meeting where we met our companions. My companion is Elder Torio. He is such an amazing guy. He is a Filipino. He is really good with the people. He gives everyone high fives and is really chill.

We rode a Ceres (bus) to our area EB Magalona. It felt like a dream. It was so beautiful. Palm trees, jungle huts, little Filipino kids running around everywhere. It is unreal. It has been such a rush. The Philippines is the most beautiful place!

Alright, so we got to our apartment and It ROCKS! It is super ghetto. It is a mess but I quickly got used to it. The coolest thing about it is there is a wicked spider in the screen door smashed. The bathroom consists of a toilet with a broken lid and a shower that drips rusty water and a sink that might be mistaken for the toilet. The shower is in between the sink and toilet and just dribbles water, cold water. It feels good though cause it is so hot and humid. It is so small that I pretty much shower over the toilet.

I don't dare take off my sandals when I shower. Oh yeah and no toilet paper. We won't go into that. The gospel is true.

So we have 5 baptismal dates coming up and around 4 more progressing investigators. The first lesson I taught was in a bamboo hut with a bunch of little kids running around. We sat cross-legged on the ground and showed them the restoration video.

All the little kids just stare at me. They see very few Americans. When we walk to other appointments the little kids gather and give me high fives and call me Joe. I guess Joe is the American name to call Americans.

HEY JOE! I just give them high fives since I can't understand a word they say. Ilonggo is completely different than Tagalog. I am definitely lost. So I feel like I am in a movie or something.

There was one time I was walking down this village path and 10 little kids come up to me and started talking to me. They kept on following us. I was like the leader of the pack. It is so fun. I feel like a celebrity. Oh man the little kids are the cutest.

You can tell a big difference in the families that have the gospel and those that don't. They need the gospel so bad. I wish I was able to speak.

On Sunday I bore my testimony in church a few times. When they called me up to the stand they can barely say our last name. It’s funny.

I was able to play the piano for Sacrament Meeting since nobody can play. You were right mom. You knew that would happen. It was good though. I didn't mess up too badly.

Well I am doing awesome. I am a little sweaty and tired and itchy and I have rashes and other diseases but I am doing good. The space Olympics is not canceled in the Philippines because they are that awesome.

I love you all so much and I hope you are doing well. We are so lucky to have the gospel like we do. It makes such a difference in the peoples lives here and I know it makes the same difference in America.

Kabalo ko ini.

That is the extent of my Ilanggo now. Love you.

-Elder Kirschbaum