Changing Things Up

Eating lunch at a members house before Ehlert left

Being silly!!

Sorry if this is a short one. I've been up since 3 am and I got like one hour of sleep last night.. I was just sweating my butt off all night long! 

This past week has been good though. Elder Oana and I get along well!  I just speak to him in Tagalog and he speaks to me in English.  We have had quite a few good laughs together, especially with the ninja stuff from my birthday package. (I sent him Ninja Nerf blow darts and face masks. I know my boy!) We may have had a war with all of those blow dart things.. So much fun!

 Nothing of the work here has really stood out this week. We have just been continuing to drop people and find new people to teach. It's slow going though. Our numbers have definitely taken a fall. But it's all for the better! Really the highlight of this week was my surprise birthday part from all the ward missionaries! That was a ton of fun and it was just great seeing everyone and just having some good laughs. I also finally wore through the pads on the inside of my shoes! They are looking WAY worn! Like the heels are completely worn down and sorta lopsided. They look hilarious! Then I guess the only other thing is just that on Saturday we had a "mini MTC" at the church. It was just an MTC experience for all of the primary kids. Each of the 4 Elders got a district and we taught them a little bit and did some practice teaching. It was way fun! I loved doing that. All of the kids are just so awesome in this ward.

 But ya. that's about it for this week. Sorry! Not all too exciting. Haha 
Love you all and more next week.

Elder Krueger

Leading the Area

One of the girls in Patrick's zone took this picture and her mom posted it, thank heavens!
This must me Patrick's new companion next to him with the black shirt.

Ya. So this is happening. Leading the area. It's really not TOO bad, I just have now realized how much Elder Ehlert did for the area. I really like Elder Oana though. He is a way cool (and a way short) guy! We have had some good laughs thus far. It was weird saying bye to Elder Ehlert though. Just like "Well, see ya," and he got in a taxi and left. Then Elder Oana came the next day and the work resumed as normal. Part of what has made this week so hard is that both of us have been battling sickness for the past week. Makes the work very difficult, especially when I'm the only one who knows anyone and where people live. But the work moves ahead as always! 

Nothing all too exciting happened this week though.. The ward had a Valentines Day party and that was WAY funny! I'm getting to the point where I can understand humor in Tagalog and I just love joking with everyone! They played these hilarious games at the party and that was actually a good time. Tagalog is slowly taking over my vocabulary. Like yesterday I couldn't remember the word "hammock" because all I could remember was the Tagalog word "duyan." Strangest feeling in the world. I've also lost just about all of my German. I could barely remember how to say good morning! Haha I was sad at first, but then I realized how much Tagalog I can speak and I was totally fine with it. 

We also did a Zone CSP (Community Service Project) this week and that was way cool! We went to this one persons house and just did what ever they needed, which mostly involved us carrying large bags of cement up three flights of stairs. I did a lot of lifting! haha We were all just sweating so much and it all mixed in with the dirt and dust and cement on our skin... I felt so disgusting.. It was nice to hang out with the entire zone though! We have some really cool Elders and Sisters in it! My lolo (grandpa) is also my Zone Leader. He was the trainer of Elder Ehlert! I also learned that my family tree of trainers is quite extensive. We have a way big family tree haha So that's fun. 

This week is looking to be good as well! Elder Oana's birthday is actually today! Turning 21! And then we have mine on Friday. Should be exciting. Not really sure what we will do to celebrate, but maybe someone will have us over for dinner. 

I had a way cool experience this week with one of our LA's (less active's). I have always been sorta troubled about how exactly to "follow the Spirit." It never really made sense to me, but I know now EXACTLY what that means. We were in this guys house and it was the first time that we have ever visited there while he has been home. We were just going to see how he was doing and then teach a little bit of the Restoration, but I had this strong impression that I needed to share something about prayer, so I pulled out 2nd Nephi 32:8-9 because I just had this feeling that he might not feel "worthy" enough to pray. I then found my opportunity to share it after Elder Oana asked how his relationship with God was on a % scale from 1-100. He answered 20% and I took my opportunity. I shared the scripture and talked about prayer for a few minutes. Just about how much of a blessing it is that the most powerful being in the UNIVERSE wants to hear from us personally and how we have this ability to ask Him any question we want and receive an answer through the Holy Ghost. I finished and he looked at me and just said, "Thank you, that is exactly what I needed." He then went on to explain about his life and just that he had forgotten that we have this divine connection with our Father in Heaven and the knowledge and guidance we can receive from it. It was just so cool to hear those words, "That is exactly what I needed." I just know that it wasn't me that was the one who decided to share that with him. I received that prompting from an outside source. From the Holy Ghost. 

I'm so thankful to be doing this work and for the help that we can all receive from our Father. We need only ask. 

I love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Krueger

Finally Done with Training!

Well, it's done now. Training is over. We have transfers tomorrow and Elder Ehlert is leaving. I get a new companion named Elder Oana (pronounced Oh-ah-nyuh). He's a Filipino dude, so that'll be cool to have a Filipino companion! I'm going to be the only American in the apartment now. All Filipinos. I'm gonna be learning Tagalog fast! haha 

This past week has been good. We had a baptism this week!! WOO! That was way cool! I was the one who got to baptize her too. "Her" is one of our investigators named Eva. She is just way nice! Has 4 kids and is married to another Recent Convert. Just a really nice family. Elder Juario and I also sang a duet of "Brightly Beams" and I sang the tenor part. Sounded WAY good!! Like even Elder Ehlert, who had heard us practice for like EVER, said that it sounded incredible. That was fun! 

Another exciting thing this week- those cats that were in our ceiling? They abandoned one kitten and just left it there in the ceiling. I finally just reached my hand up into the little hole in the ceiling and felt around until I grabbed it and pulled it out. We had no idea what to do with it so we just left it in a box behind our house... It's gone now. Not really sure what happened to it, but it's probably living happily in cat heaven now! 

I also tried chicken feet last night. Made me feel sorta really sick! Haha Just sucking off the meat from the toes of a chicken.. Fun.. It was in this soup stuff and it was way alarming to just be eating your soup and then pull out an entire chicken foot. But that's what you get over here! Yummy. 

The teaching is coming along as well. I'm starting to know enough Tagalog that I can actually share personal experiences during lessons and stuff. It's exciting! It wouldn't be so bad if the grammar wasn't super weird! Just takes a while to get used to the word order and how the verbs change and conjugate and stuff. All in all, stuff is going good here. 

Sorry if this email is a bit shorter.  But I'm happy and still alive! I love you all and more next week!

Elder Krueger

Almost done... with training!!

We haven't seen any pictures from Patrick since Christmas and he said it takes forever for them to download so he is going to send home his SD card. Can't wait to see them!!

Well, Just one more week and I am done with training! Finally! It actually feels like it's been no time at all and I feel way unprepared haha but life moves on and now I will be a total complete 120% missionary! So excited for that! 

So, I have quite a bit of stuff to get through today. Last week on PDay we got a bunch of good food from the mall. I got cream cheese and that is like the best tasting thing ever! I have it on toast all the time and I feel like crying every time. So good. We also got a bunch of cake and ice cream to celebrate Elder Ehlert's one year mark in the mission! WOO! It's insane that he's been out a year already! That's gonna be me pretty soon actually. Just blows my mind every time. So ya, that all happened. This next thing is pretty crazy though. We have thought for the past 3 months that there has been a rat living in our ceiling, but then one day I heard the soft mewing of kittens. I thought I was going crazy, but then I looked up and realized that it was kittens in our ceiling! We took out one of our light fixtures and pushed our cameras through and eventually caught sight of these 5 kittens that are living in our ceiling! They are just the cutest tiniest things you have ever seen! We just left them there because we don't really know what to do about them.. but ya. We have kittens in our ceiling. Speaking of small animals, our bishop also has these 7 TINY puppies at his house! They are just so great! They don't know how to grip on concrete yet and they were all just slipping around. They seriously just looked like tiny little balls of fur. So cute. Also, on our way over to his house, we saw a pig being slaughtered. I'm not sure if anyone has ever heard the sounds a pig makes as it is being slaughtered, but it is not pretty. You just know that that pig knows that it is going to die. Just horrible squealing and then silence.. ugh.. There's a lot of that here though. Why, just the other day we saw a guy with half a pig just slung over his shoulder. Like literally exactly half of a pig. It still had one ear and half of the head and the tail was still on. Just exactly half of a pig! Crazy! 

Elder Ehlert and I also got these electrical massage device things from one of our investigators! They are like WAY sketchy and we use them all the time now. You attach these two gelatin pads to anywhere you really want and just turn it on. It has a few different settings and strengths and stuff. It's just super sketchy because it looks like some sort of torture device and, since all it does is shoot electricity into your muscles, you often times lose control of your muscles. I always put it on my shoulders and it just makes it look like I'm shrugging like crazy. My shoulders are just up and down and up and down. It is the funniest thing in the world! I wish you guys could see it! I also found a butterfly knife in the apartment and I can now do a bunch of tricks with it now. A great way to pass the time! Just gotta be careful not to get cut too bad. It's crazy how many times I've already cut myself with my pocket knives. I think I'm up to at least like 6 or 7 haha Nothing all too bad though! Don't worry! He cracks me up! I love that he is still Patrick!! "Don't worry mom, sketchy elecricity and knives! I am having fun!" 

Now onto some more "missionary" experience type of things. There is this one grandma that we teach named Clarita. We are teaching her because she was a referral from one of her daughters and, let me tell you, she was prepared for this gospel. She came to church once and instantly wanted to be baptized. She said that she had a dream and had seen our church in that dream. She said that she saw the two pillars on either side of the door and instantly recognized it as the building from her dream. How crazy is that!? She just instantly knew that this is where she needed to be and wants to be baptized like as soon as possible! And then a cockroach dropped from the ceiling right onto my shoulder.. Sorta killed the mood.. I kinda freaked out haha But anyways, I though that that was just sweet! 

We also had to OYM (open your mouth) one day, and I HATE OYMing... It's just so awkward when I still don't know too much of the language to just walk up to someone and start talking to them. But the Lord really is funny in how he gets you to act. Elder Ehlert and I were arguing about who would do the next OYM because neither of us wanted to do it, and then some guy just walked up to us and said, "Do you have a pamphlet I can read?" Like this guy just totally OYM'd himself! He was way drunk and was smoking, but he wanted the gospel. He apologized for being drunk and for smoking and just said that he wanted to change. Then he was like, "Thursday at 7 come to my house and teach me." And it just so happens that our only free time on Thursday is at 7, so we are definitely going back to that guy. Just got to love those missionary experiences! 

Well, that's about it. Nothing else really especially exciting happened this week. I love being here and in 6 weeks I will be one fourth of the way done with my mission. THAT is crazy! I'm so grateful for everyone back at home who continues to support me week by week and I'm so grateful that I can have this opportunity to be a missionary. 

I love you all!

Elder Krueger

*I thought I would let everyone know that they are opening up the Tacloban mission again (the one they closed after the horrible Typhoon) and all the missionaries are slowly returning. One of the Elders from Patrick's apt. is heading back on Tuesday. The stories will be amazing coming from this hard hit area.