Week Three? I Think?

The first thing I want to say is that the Filipino people are like MY people! They all get distracted super easily just like me. Elder Ehlert says I just have this skill for getting us both off topic SUPER easily without him even realizing what's happening. Just something I've been working on for my entire life! One of our investigators, Sonny Q, gets off on some crazy tangents! We'll be teaching about the Word of Wisdom and then he'll just butt in and start talking about how he drinks so much water and tells us about all the benefits of water for like 5 minutes. Haha, so great! And our other investigator, Sonny F (yup, they have the same name. They're both best friends too), goes off as well! We often times end up talking about some bad things like a boil he's had and all the puss that squirted out. He's a funny guy though! The last time we taught him we were teaching the Plan of Salvation. I was sitting there when I suddenly realized I'd never seen his wife. I thought, "I wonder what happened to her." Literally RIGHT after I thought that he launched into his story. They were lying in bed one day when she complained about a pain in her chest. That was the last thing he heard her say before she passed out. He yelled to his son to get the car because "Mom isn't feeling well" and they rushed to the hospital. He told us how he waited at her bed side holding her hand while he watched her heart beat monitor. The beat was irregular and he slowly watched as the time grew longer and longer between beats until it reached a flat line. Within three hours of her passing out she had died. Totally unexpected. It was just heartbreaking to hear him tell that story. It made the rest of lesson just amazing though as we told him about where she is now and how he can someday return and live with her again. That was an incredible experience. Really cemented in my mind exactly why I'm here, ya know? 

We also had our first CSP this week! (Community Service Project) That was just tough though. All it was was cleaning all the water out of this well. We had a bucket and some rope. Let's just say that we have a lot of blisters from said rope. We worked for HOURS just hoisting bucket after bucket out of this well and only cleared out like 15 feet of water. We still had more to do, but had to go teach some lessons. I think they got some people from the ward to help out though. So that was fun. Makes showering just awesome with all these open wounds all over my fingers! Elder Ehlert showers with gloves on now because it hurts so bad! haha It's the funniest thing watching him go in there with his gloves on. 

Elder Ehlert and I are also trying to do some more street contacting. We try to just start off conversations naturally and stuff and it really works! One of my favorites is this: We were walking down the street a couple nights ago when I saw a guy and this girl sitting on the hood of a Jeepney with a guitar. Elder Ehlert saw me staring at the guitar and said, "Ask him if you can play it." So I did. Of course the first song I busted out was "I'm Sexy and I Know It" which was cause for some good laughs and, soon enough, I had a little crowd of like 15 people listening to me play and sing. It was so cool. Just like sitting on the hood of this car under a yellow streetlight while everything else was just pitch black with night. Just straight up one of those magical mission moments I'll never forget. I then started playing some "Never Know" by Jack Johnson and kept the really quite and gentle sounding guitar part going as Elder Ehlert started teaching our small crowd about the Restoration. We didn't have enough pamphlets on us to give to everyone! It was just so awesome. We said goodbye and continued on our way. Now everyone knows who we are on that street. It's like that everywhere though! All we have to do is one memorable thing on a street and EVERYONE will know our names on that one street. We have a few places like that where we'll just get mobbed with kids the instant we set foot on the street. I literally feel like a rock star. People will just yell our names from down the street and give us a big smile and a wave. I love the people here so much! 

The language is coming along okay I guess. Humihinga pa ako (I'm still breathing). I know it'll get better, but it's just hard to be so handicapped as a teacher. Oh well. Just know I'm doing really well! Sorry, I forgot to take pictures this week! It's so hard to remember to do that! My mind is just in other places all day. Thinking about our investigators and stuff. 

But ya, I love you all so much! Thanks for all the support and love you give me. I just want everyone to know that I'm so thankful that I can be a missionary! It's a wonderful calling and, even though it can be really hard at times, I know I'm doing what I need to be doing right now. Ingat po! (Take care)

Elder Krueger

P.S. It's really weird to hear my first name now.. Like it just feels wrong even calling myself Patrick hahaha sorta funny!