Thanksgiving 2010 at the Provo MTC

Hi everyone :)

 

First want to say thank you Mommy and/or Daddy my temple recommend is working so I got into the temple quite a bit faster this morning than the last couple of times :)

 

And I was wondering if you had the chance to send any pictures yet I will need them as soon as I can get them for my language assignment :) I really appreciate it.

 

Kaitlyn Marie Stambaugh! Happy birthday! Sorry I am three days late, I was running low on time last Monday so I thought it would be easier this Monday. I really enjoyed getting your letter, and I am glad you have been safe. I hope school is going super well and that you had the most awesome birthday ever :) I love you a ton and I will see you in a couple years :)

 

Kristena Hall! That letter you sent was kind of mean, just remember do not forget to tell me in a couple years, do not forget! :)

 

Daddy I really appreciate the letter you sent, I really liked the quotes that you sent, I really liked the one by Sam Lefkawitz "When asked if my cup is 1/2 full or 1/2 empty my only response is I am thankful that I have a cup." In my life I have never really had less than 3/4 full in my cup, and that is because of my parents and family and friends. I really love all of you and appreciate everything you do for me :)

 

About 1/6 young men serve missions in our church, only about 9% serve if their father did not serve before them. So Dad I want you to realize how big of an impact your decision has had on my life, I appreciate everything you have done for me and the example you set.

 

I am at the point where I am completely happy here, I do not really think to much about missing anyone anymore, I know why I am here. I am happy to see all of you again, but not until the end of October 2012 at the earliest :)

 

I will admit I could not help but miss having a home cooked Thanksgiving though. Having it here is no where near the same as it is at home. I realized I have not been home for Thanksgiving the last 2 years, and I only have 1 more time before I get to eat my Mother's wonderful home cooked Thanksgiving meal.

 

Although I will have to admit Thanksgiving here was super awesome. We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Holland for a little over an hour. He had his whole family here. His three children, their spouses and children. He said it was alright if we missed having home cooked meals and being with our families on Thanksgiving. But he offered his family to be ours for the day. However he has one 18 year old granddaughter that he told the Elders not to look at, so I do not know what she looks like.

 

Later that day we had the opportunity to do service making backpacks for children who cannot afford them, mainly in foreign countries. We made 33,400 of them in the short amount of time that was given us, it was an awesome experience :)

 

Mommy! The song I am going to sing is a mix of I Stand All Amazed and I Believe in Christ. Technically Elder Heather told me not to tell anyone. I am supposed to say it is "I know my Redeemer Lives." :) But none of you will be here so that is okay. I did not sing it yesterday it will be in 6 days. Too many people wanted to sing yesterday so it was full, but I have a guaranteed spot next week. And I am actually auditioning to sing at a devotional. I still do not know what those little note things are supposed to sound like, but there is a small chance I could be singing a duet with a Prophet or Apostle present... Which kind of makes me a little bit more nervous about it, but we shall see what happens with that, I think the audition is on Thursday.

 

I appreciate you sending me the letter from Elder Calvert also, he is an awesome man, and a great example to me :)

 

I have had the chance to write 3 talks in Tagalog so far, I have not given any yet, but I have 4 more to write before I leave, so I will probably before I get to the Philippines. They take me about 20 minutes to say if I do not read my paper, and about 7 if I read through it. It is still hard to come up with real sentences using deep gospel words. Like pananampalataya, and pinakamahalaga and there are a lot of other words bigger than those two.

 

I have three days until I will be teaching the full first lesson in Tagalog, plus a language task, so that's about 50 minutes of Tagalog, which is going to be a fun experience, I am looking forward to it :)

 

Okay, I have a couple of challenges I want to extend to everyone. It is up to you whether or not to accept them, but I know they will bless your lives. If you are already perfect at these two things you either need to repent and be more humble or you are super awesome.
#1 First I think most people read their scriptures every night, at least the people who are reading this, if you are not start doing that now. But that is not the challenge. I want everyone to try (actually do, I am just being nice, do it) to read your scriptures when you get up every morning. Yes even if you go to seminary. and Yes even if that means you have to wake up an extra 10 minutes early to do so. You will receive answers to your prayers through reading the scriptures, and at the very least you will have a better start to your day.

 

#2 God has told us that our bodies are temples and should be treated as such. I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of keeping our bodies as healthy as we can. I know some people have circumstances that make this difficult, but you still can do your very best, no matter who you are. I want to challenge everyone to eat healthier, and take care of your bodies. I would suggest throwing out sodas and super sugary drinks those have no value to you whatsoever. I do not want you to stop eating baked goods and candy, and ice cream, just know the limits, stay healthy and happy. Along with this, get good exercise do all you can to really stay healthy :) You are promised many blessings for keeping yourself healthy, both physically and spiritually. I suggest looking those up, and then deciding whether or not you want those in your life. (The answer will be of course you do).

 

 

Almost out of time! okay, I got good sleep last night! more than 4 hours :) for the first time in almost 2 weeks. I am hoping I can keep that up, I love getting enough sleep, not 1/2 enough sleep :)

 

So all of you! Strive to do better. I know all of my friends are the best of the best, but you can always do better :)

 

Mahal ko Kayo :)

4th P-Day at Provo MTC

Sorry if this is a little bit shorter than normal. The computer froze and I lost about 1/4th of my writing time.

 

Want to say good luck mommy :) Have fun with planning the Christmas party, you will make it super awesomely fun. And Happy future birthday Linda :)

 

Little Trevor brother, I expect you to be able to play Lord of the Rings when I get back, I mean hot crossed buns is a great song, but in two years I think you will be a master viola-ist.. Keep up the practice and do not get discouraged learning a musical instrument can be hard, challenge yourself and really learn how to read music, and learn some stuff on your own, practice practice practice :)

 

And Mommy, I go to the temple every Monday at 7:20 am speaking of this! I need to have my recommend activated.. it does not work anymore because it says I have not been ordained an elder yet, I think either the stake or ward clerk is in charge of that, so if you could talk to them that would be super amazing.

 

Nice job Krissy! I am so glad to hear that you went on splits with the missionaries that is so awesome :) Try to go as much as you can it really is fun, uplifting and will give you good experience teaching and putting yourself in a missionaries shoes is really fun :) Thank you for the hugs and kisses! Chocolate of course, do not worry family, I am being obedient. And I will be flying through LAX I think :)

 

I watched the Joseph Smith movie again last night, and I want to challenge my Mormon friends to invite some of their friends over to watch it sometime, it is inspiring, and a simple invitation to watch it can really change their lives if they act on the promptings they get. Maybe a big movie party at the Munk's home! sounds like a plan to me.

 

Daddy I have been receiving your dear elders and I really appreciate them, everything you have to say is helpful and I can tell is thought out. I am trying to remember so much to send back but it is difficult with this timer on the side of the monitor.. :)

 

Sister! (Tasha) :) keep exercising!!! I am so proud of you that you are doing that now, I know it is not easy, and it may not seem like there are a lot of benefits but stick with it, I know that it will make you feel better, healthier, and happier. Keep it up :)

 

Brendin Crandall!!! I love you brother, you are the man. I feel like I should tell you to start praying now, I know you are, but specifically pray for the people that you will touch down in Brazil, pray to love them and you will have that desire built up to serve them so strong before you leave. You will be a great missionary, and I am so excited for the day you, me and TJ can all meet up again :)

 

Guess what!!! I bet none of you in the whole world would guess what I am about to say. I will give a little bit of a preface, I am tone-deaf, I do not like singing very much, I would like to sing if I knew how... But I am singing a duet in Sacrament meeting 6 days from now, I still stink at singing, but oh well, I guess that is okay, I am praying a ton just so I will hopefully not embarrass myself to much. I am doing it with the big Samoan Elder Heather. and I will send a picture so you can see him. So wish me luck, I am going way out of my comfort zone right now.

 

So the word duet reminds me of Kray Blanding, which reminds me of going to his house when I was younger. And I just remembered a story, I believe I was around 7-8 years old. And me Tasha and Devin were all going to go have a play date at the Blandings. Someone turned up the thermostat and Mom said we could not go over until someone admitted that they did it, and apologized. Eventually little 4-5 year old Devin said it was his fault, and he had a talking to from my Mommy. I may have told you this already, but it was me who turned it up, not Devin. So I am sorry for that, and I think you owe Devin a Snickers bar for falsely chewing him out for something that was my fault. Love you family :)

 

One missionary wants to go home in my zone, please pray for him, he needs to stay and he needs all the help and encouragement he can get.

 

Papa, I have a piece of paper that is for 100 free photo prints at Costco, if possible could you use like 20 of those prints to send a bunch of family pictures to me, I would like at least one full family picture and individuals pictures of everyone.. So I guess I only really need 7 and you can use the rest to print off whatever you would like, I just need those family pictures as soon as I can get them :) Love you daddy. (And the sheet is a 1 time use.. so it cannot be divided, use all 100 pictures :) ) I would not mind a couple pictures of friends too, but its up to you :)

 

Kevin Pearson from the 70 gave the devotional on Tuesday, he was very bold and loud, which I will admit kind of bugged me at first, but his talk really ended up helping me last week. :) Boldness is not bad, but I think being annoyed by good things is kind of bad. So do not get annoyed easily :) (Challenge.)

 

We got new missionaries on Wednesday, and they are awesome lots of pacific islanders, they are all beasts :)

 

Saturday is my 1/2 way through the MTC point, just so you know, I am not counting though, I like it here :)

 

 

Sorry if I forgot anything! I am out of time, I love you all so much, especially you Devin ;)

 

3rd P-Day

Hello family and friends,

 

Time is fairly limited so this might be a little bit unorganized, sorry :)

 

So I have developed a new way to mark up my scriptures it includes about 5 different colors a few different shapes, a lot of extra reading and studying. And my scriptures are so bright and colorful I love it. I know people have advised not marking up to much, but it is really helpful for me to really tear apart the scriptures and try to learn as much as I can about everything thaty I read, I might send a picture back of one of the pages, I have not gotten very far because it takes so long but I am part way through second Nephi in the book of Mormon. It is good reading, I recommend it to everyone :)

 

Pono! I am excited for you, I know you have a little ways to wait before you can leave on your mission, but you will seriously be a super awesome missionary. Hopefully you can come to Manila or at least Tagalog speaking so we can talk behind people's backs in a few years :)

 

On Tuesday 6 whole days ago Elder Bednar gave a talk and the music director asked him what song he would like us to sing. He picked "Because I have been Given Much" now I am not sure you can make the connection here but there defintely is one. And if you know my mother as well as I do you would know the connection. But you might not, so I will tell you, Elder Bednar (as far as I know) is my mommy's favorite speaker and that song has some pretty big significance in my mommy's life. So I was thinking of my mom a lot during his talk. Which was a very good talk :)

 

The oldest elders in my zone just took off today they will be getting to the Philippines on Wednesday at 5:30 am, so it sounds like a fun flight, I think they have two four hour layovers, one in California and one in Taipei. So yes Krissy I will be stopping in California! in about a month and a half. :)

 

On Wednesday I had the super fun chance to do service. Here service means cleaning up I had the opportunity to mop a few sets of stairs and clean doors for a little over an hour, which actually was quite fun, I dare all of you to go clean doors, its the best. :)

 

Tasha/Linda I sent you a letter today it is short, but it is all I had time to write.

 

Parents/Devin/Trevor I sent a letter to you too, but it is also short... But it is written in purple ink, so its okay.

 

On 11/11, whatever day that was.. I spoke with someone in Tagalog for about 10 minutes, with a very limited number of awkward silences, there were still a few but I think I did alright, I still have so much to learn, but it is slowly coming.

 

Jon and Angela Chin! I love both of you so much, I really appreciate the journal you sent me, I had all of my favorite missionaries who left today sign it, and by the end of two years it will be super full of all my favorite experiences :)

 

Someday.. last week my teacher told us her favorite hymn at the beginning of class, so at the end of class we told her we had a secret and we sang it for her. Elder Coakley played it on piano, he came up with his own composition right on the spot. He is very talented at the piano and can do that with any song.

 

I am also getting better at teaching believe it or not I do talk more :) even more than my companion does, which is kind of weird.

 

I did super well during gym this last week, I play volleyball with three samoans, they are huge and very good at volleyball. I blocked spikes from all three of them in one day :) I was needless to say super proud of myself.

 

I also made a good save the ball was so low that I had to slide to get it, so I did.. I didn't tear any skin this time, but I did rip my shoelace in half, so I tied it back together and it is working wonderfully now ha.

 

My skin is kind of getting dry and itchy, I blame Utah.

 

Alivia Burnham! Elder Taylor J. Jolly gave me your message "Hi Nate!" Since he did that the letter you are sending me soon can be 2 words shorter now. I think that sounds fair :)

 

Kayla! I am so excited for you, and that will be a great opportunity for Alex Burt. Keep me updated on how you are doing and what you are learning from the missionary discussions :)

 

Devin + others involved (including Mom) nice work helping Jon with his leaves, I am sure he really appreciated the help even though he was probably slightly embarrased to receive it, keep up the good work and always be willing to lend a hand to those in need :) Especially you Jared.

 

Little Devin, I am sorry that Mom got slightly upset with you for calling me Nate, (You can still call me Nate just do it in secret, don't tell Mom I said that). But I guess technically you can say what you would like :) I know I am supposed to address Elders as Elders, I don't know what the rule for you is, I guess just listen to your parents :)

 

Devin again.. you are a beast, nice work bench pressing 205, that is impressive, it is quite heavy. I benched 250 on a machine here.. it felt like it was about 175 tops.. because I could do it like 6 times... which maxed out the machine.. kind of depressing.

 

 Gah! Running out of time!

 

I love you all and wish you the happiest best lives possible :)

 

Elder Munk

 

2nd P - Day Letter

Hello everybody! I have a pretty limited amount of time but here we go.

 

Thank you Rachel Chumley for your letter I am really enjoying my time here and I only have 7 weeks from today until I get sent out :) Good job to your football team winning over port angeles 41-0 is pretty impressive I would have to say. And also, I said this before but I highly recommend byu provo for a college choice it is an awesome place I love you and hope you are doing well :)

 

Aunt Julie! you have very good timing skills, that is awesome that you knew when my flight would be going over the twin fallish area, and I defintely waved back too because Buhl is super visible from the sky, with all those landmarks, and tons of houses and everything :) I know Tasha is quite a hit with all the guys but she should definitely stay away from the 8th graders, little young. I am glad you get to record and watch conference talks, I get to watch them fairly often over here, and just watched the Joseph Smith movie and I love it :) the part when he is a young boy and has to have surgery hits me the most, but the whole movie is great, and everyone should watch it, if they already have or not, it is great.

 

Kayla! thank you so much for your letters I really appreciate the scripture refference I am looking for a lot of uplifting scriptures whenever I need a boost and that is defintely a good one, look up D&C 121:7-10 :) I have a lot of others too that I really like. but right now that one is my favorite. I do not really have time to draw pokemon right now, but when I get home I will defintely be sure to do that, it is something that I do miss a bit, but its okay.

 

Tasha! I will be writing you a written letter soon! so... wait for that :D

 

Kaity Stambaugh, not going to lie I think you sent me the shortest letter, even shorter than Trevor's and he sent a couple, I love hearing from you though :) and I am not trying to pick on you too much, I miss you and hope that school is going well, take full advantage of college, it is so much fun even though at times it is not super easy.

 

Little Trevor Brother! I really liked hearing from you too, I love you so much and I cannot wait to see you again, even though you might be bigger than me when I get home, I am eating a lot, but I have lost about 5-6 lbs since I have gotten here, there is not quite enough time to exercise, so get an extra 2 years worth before you get to the MTC okay buddy! It will come sooner than you think it will. And Trevor I am expecting you to be able to bench press a llama by the time I get home, I expect nothing less. Love you Trevor :)

 

Linda! I will send you a written letter with Tasha's, it might be a bit before I have time, my P-day is running short today so I will defintely write it by next Monday, I appreciate the letter and I hope everything is going well, I love you Linda :)

 

Home family of mine, I am going to write you too, today ended up being crazy busy and I will hopefully get a letter to you soon. The picture printing machine is broken but it will hopefully be up soon, I will send pictures as soon as I can. I look good in a suit, quite handsome I might say.

 

I also want to say I love Sister Tryon her letters really do make me happy, they are uplifting and help me keep chugging along, I wait for them every week :)

 

I also want to say sorry if I sounded kind of negative last week, it was a bit of an adjustment coming here, but it has really gone uphill from that point and I am enjoying my time here, the food is good, the spirit is so strong, and I am learning so much here, it is a great experience and I expect every LDS young man to go on a mission, or I might have to hunt you down, seriously I will.

 

I would also like to say I have received more letters than anyone in my hall, I felt kind of bad about it at first, but I guess I do not need to feel bad ha, keep sending the letters, I really love getting them and I am trying my best to respond to all of them, but it is very hard cause there is not much time at all.

 

I really love the Elders in my district and in my zone they are all great elders and I am learning a lot from them, the oldest elders in my group are leaving in 7 days, and I am 6 weeks behind them, so still a little ways away, I am really excited for them but I am going to miss them a lot.

 

There are a couple of things that are not completely awesome here. There are always a few elders who decide that they want to stay up later than curfew, and it seems like there goal is to keep everyone else awake, and they seems to be successful a lot of the time, so I got some pretty nifty earplugs, but I take them out in my sleep, and usually find them like 1/2 way across the room. I dont know exactly what I do with them.

 

Since my last letter back I have been able to hear from M. Russell Ballard and Sister Sheri Dew, they both gave outstanding talks and I learned a lot from them about being a good missionary and bettering my own life as well as the people I may have some influence over. I did miss Elder Richard G. Scott by one day from when I got here, but he handed out a sheet of things he has learned and gave a few of them out, my zone leader got one, and I will share some of those things with you after I return home ;)

 

Well knowing me, I tend to goof off, and like to have a good time when I am doing sports. If they allowed Ultimate Frisbee here it would be worse but I have cuts on both my arms, legs, hands, on my chest and on my back.. All from playing volleyball, and I am being pretty careful, but I just cannot really help diving for the ball sometimes, and I have a few blood stains on various atricles of clothing, who ever knew that could happen.

 

Okay, there are a few people who have not written me since I have been here... it has not been very long since I got here.. but I am going to call you out anyways, Alivia, Kandi, Natasha, Jenny, Brieccia you all should write me soon.. I do not know if you ever read this blog ha, but somehow you might get this message, I want to know how you are doing :)

 

 

So far Trevor, my mom and my Dad are winning, I think that is because they love me the most :) I will send a written letter soon, I just dont think I will have time today, I love all of you and miss you, I wish you the very best and hope everything is going well.

 

Be good :)

- Elder Munk

 

 

Nates 1st P-Day Letter

Hello family and friends,

First I would like to say, yes Mommy I would like my retainer case, and I don't think I brought my old pair of glasses either, so I am being careful with my new ones.

I would also like to say to my family, and my good buddies that I love all of you, but I miss none of you :) well maybe just a little bit but not too much. So far I have learned a ton while here at the MTC and it is awesome, the food is good, my kasama is awesome and I really like my zone leaders Elder Lowry and Elder Green (who is from New Zealand) they are really great guys. My whole district is quite awesome, and I am learning a lot from these guys. \

29 missionaries entered the MTC in my zone on Wednesday and that is a lot, they enter every 3 weeks, and the last time they only had 9 missionaries. I was told my zone was the least blessed because we did not have any sisters in our zone but I would like to say that is definitely not true, we just have extra awesome guys to make up for the lack of sisters in my district. I will send pictures back next week, I am going to get some printed off and send them home to my loving family and they will probably post them on the blog, if not you can complain to them. :)

I would also like to say thank you to everyone who has sent me letters, Krissy Hall, Pono Santos, Kim/Kade Porter, my mommy, Brendin Crandall, and Grace Chumley, I will do my best to get back to you all if not on here in a handwritten letter.

So I began my MTC experience on a kind of high lowish note, I was so excited to be entering the MTC. However right before I entered I saw the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I just couldn't help but think "This is going to be a very long 2 years." When I entered I was quickly rushed through a countless number of stations to get the things I needed in order to be ready to start my classes, I dropped my stuff off in my room and headed to my classroom. I was greeted by my teacher (guru) in Tagalog, and I could answer in Tagalog which made me feel very good. I only told her that I was doing well, mabuti is fine, no pun intended. I did some orientation video, which froze so I did it again from the start than I went to class. The teachers speak almost all in Tagalog which can be very frustrating but it is helping me learn, I can bear my testimony and pray in Tagalog now at least I can fairly simply.

We had an activity where we went outside and bore each other’s testimonies to each other. And I said some things I did not know how to say, which was kind of awesome :) and my teacher said I did it right even though we had not gone over some of the vocab or all of the sentence structure yet. The same has happened during my prayers too, it is just so incredible here, and the spirit is so strong and is such a great teacher.

Another experience I have had was my teacher out of the blue asked us to pray to find a scripture that will help our companion, I think it helped me just as much, but I prayed and I saw the scripture in my head but just verse 10, I did not know what chapter, but I guessed it was Doctrine Covenants, so I opened up immediately to Doctrine and Covenants 121 I read verses 7-10, and they really hit me strongly, I have been trying to use that scripture to keep me chugging along because I am not going to lie.. It is extremely tough here, I have never worked this hard and long before, it is very difficult, but I know it is for my gain, any prayers offered in my behalf would mean a lot to me, I need all the help I can get.

I also would like more letters! DearElder.com is so easy to use, just do it :) it means the world to me, and it really encourages me. Also I want to know how all of you are doing, don’t worry about being a distraction, just tell me how your life is going. This is kind of like prison, as Brother Holt mentioned, except with no visitors, so I need letters, they are kind of like having visitors but not completely the same.

I really appreciate all of you as my friends and you have been a huge example to me.

And mommy you can put the whole thing up on the blog that would probably be the easiest, except for a small part that is for your eyes only :)

Alam ko po na totoo ang ebanghelyo at si JesuCristo

Alam ko po na totoo ang Aklat ni Mormon

Alam ko po na buhay si JesuCristo at ang Diyos

Alam ko po na mahalaga ang pamilya

sa pangalan ni JesuCristo

Amen

I love all of you and will see you again soon :)

Elder Munk