New Companion

Hey everybody!

 

Oh man.. where to begin.. I am so excited right now! Today is transfer day, well that's all over and I have a new companion now and I am just loving life. He is a tall white man (Americano) by the name of Elder Vial. He has been on his mission for about a year and like 2-3 months. He is very good at Tagalog and I have heard from others that he likes to work and really use his time effectively. So in terms missionaries only use when they are speaking to each other, we are just going to tear it up in Pasay! Technically my area is in Manila, but I am still in the Pasay Zone. But this is going to be a great transfer and I am super pumped!

 

So anyways, the day before the transfer meeting, yesterday, I went on splits and spent the whole day with the zone leaders and it was super awesome! We had lessons all day, and only got punted (dropped/forgotten/left to dry etc). So we were teaching all day and the zone leaders said my Tagalog was very good. Which made me feel good, cause I feel like it is coming very slowly, but when I think about it, I am improving pretty quickly. We ended the  day with pizza and playing some games until 12... but do not tell anyone I said that.  :)

 

The work has been going well, it has seemed to slow down the last little bit, with investigators who stop progressing and other things, so it has been hard that way. We are re-evaluating our approach, and we know if we have a goal and work our best our loving Heavenly Father will make it possible. And one of my goals that I have prayed about is filling the chapel, with members and non-members. We are going to do all we can to accomplish that. 

 

Life is just so good right now. I have been working on my Christlike attributes and applying the one I am working on to my life, I am trying to get it applied to my whole life 24/7 but I still have things I definitely could do better at. And this keyboard is terrible.

 

I have a couple of people to email so time is short, I love you all. I got a package from the Burnham family, and Alivia and her parents each wrote me and something stood out to me. (Besides my parents) I really have looked up to people who are my age or younger than me. Alivia made mention that they had a speed dating activity for mutual with the young men and women, and she asked Devin and Jared who their hero was. They both said Nate Munk! (With some enthusiasm of course). And my first thought was kind of like this: I have especially in the past few months, (2 years actually) really looked up to Devin and Jared Tryon, and I am not even close to being ashamed to say  that they are my heroes, even though they are younger than me, I have really looked up to them because of their examples to me. Also Alivia's parents, I am not sure which one... I will say Jeff :) Said thanks for being an example to Alivia, I kind of chuckled and was like she has been my example! She shares the gospel with everyone and just has no fences! that was/is still a huge example to Elder Munk. So thank you 3 for being super awesome even though you are yet little children :) ha :P

 

Anyways, ulit, I love you all :)

 

 

Love, Elder Munk

Thirsty For A Challenge?

Hey everyone! I want to start out by telling everyone I love them, not like a big general love, but really for each of you individually I have really developed that love for people as individuals and wanted to start out by saying that.

 

A couple of days a go I was reading in Preach My Gospel (Mission Training Book) and in the back there are 57 Christlike attributes that it gives us a chance to rank ourselves from 1-5 on how well we think we are doing in those things. I have made a goal to perfect (the best I can) each attribute, doing 1 every week so I will finish in April 2012. Right around my Birthday! Does not really get much better than that for a birthday gift if you ask Elder Munk. And Preach My Gospel is for members preparing to serve on a mission and I felt that I should encourage Devin to do the same thing, I am planning on doing those in order starting last night, so if you start now we can share our growth and experiences together and I think that would be awesome. I will send you a personal email with more instructions for you. Love you Devin! Family! Do it too! But I have a special plan for Devin. If everything turns out absolutely perfectly Devin will be sitting where I am in three years! :) I am going to be honest I am biased and want him to serve here in the Philippines Manila Mission.

 

Also to answer my Mommy's question everything has been going better, I went through a few trials with my companion this week and really ended up growing from it, I keep telling myself that marriage cannot be this hard, but deep down I know that it will have a lot bigger challenges. Not that I am thinking about that at all. I am really loving it here definitely, even though a young man is reading over my shoulder, I am not sure how well he understands what he is reading.

 

Oh and everything is fine with my companion, and I am becoming kind of a lot more Filipino than I thought I would. I do have a lot of American pride I will admit. But a lot of American Missionaries get frustrated with the Filipinos and vise versa, because of the culture differences, and the way that we think differently. I am trying to find the perfect balance of doing just what the Spirit tells me to do and I think I can handle being with any companion and learn and become a better person through the experience. Unless he had no desire to work, but although I am in pretty bad shape I could still beat on him if I needed to. (Joke, but true) I really do love my companion right now, and my apartment-mates they are great.

 

I still do not have my camera someone else is using it right now, I think it is supposed to make its way back here soon because my companion needs to use it also to send in some pictures to the assistant to the President because next week they have a short slide-show of each transfer during the transfer meeting.

 

I have some pictures from our activity at Tagaytay on p-day, and also from a baptism on the 5th. You should all look up pictures of Tagaytay it is a very beautiful place. And I do not know if this is allowed, but I bought a pretty awesome butterfly knife (original Filipino of course). Also one of the places that is in the running for the 7 natural wonders of the world is in my mission, so once I go there... I will send some pictures, it is on a different island, Palawan so I am really hoping I will have a chance to go there, it is a 45 minute flight away, which costs $10. And I do not remember if I mentioned this before, but the lower half of Palawan is off limits for white missionaries, and sisters, because they kill all the white people that go there. Which makes me sad because before I got here my goal was to go there. But that is fine, I could stay in this same area for my whole mission and be fine, whatever God's plan for me is, that is what I will do. 

 

My zone leaders will get my mail tomorrow and I will get it from them next time I see them, which will be no later than Tuesday.

 

Well, I want to tell you again that I love you and to really make the best of your lives. Just do all you can, our Heavenly Father does not expect you to do any better than your best. (But he expects nothing less)

 

 

Love, Elder Munk

Celebrate Good Times!

Oh goodness where to begin?

 

That is an attention grabber, cause now you think there will be a lot of cool stories, and interesting things that happened this week! But there was not a ton of uniquely different things that happened.  This week was still super awesome, we had two baptismal interviews, celebrated Tasha's birthday, and met with President Howard.

 

I will go in the order that I wrote those things, even though they happened in the opposite order. My two friends who are getting baptized on Saturday are Tess and MJ. Tess is about 30 years old, she has three children and is living in the house of a member named Sister Annie Jaucian. Tess has had it a bit rough, I may have mentioned this a while ago, but her husband left her, and her youngest son was kidnapped when just a baby. She has a really strong spirit and was introduced to the church through the family she is living with. And her oldest son MJ is 8 years old, and a really bright kid. Yesterday we were waiting for them and the zone leaders at the church so they could be interviewed, all the sudden MJ runs in and wraps his arms around my legs, and it is kind of against the rules, but I hugged him back, I could not really help it. And Sister Tess only got a handshake and of course a big smile :) We gave MJ a test of the baptismal interview questions, and gave him a hard time on the Law of Chastity, because he could not remember what it was.  Then the zone leaders showed up and to make a long story short, they both passed the interview!

 

Tasha's birthday! We celebrated with 2 liters of ice cream. It all started out when I went down to buy the ice cream. The price is written on the box, only 89 pescos! But the people charged me 105 pescos, and I did not want to argue with them, but I am white not stupid... But anywho, we proceeded to eat the ice cream and sung happy birthday and a few other things.

 

 

President Howard is awesome! I do not really know what else to say about my interview, everything is going super great, I think I will be in this area for one transfer after this one, so I get to spend my first 4.5 months in this area which is awesome! Also, I thought before the mission was splitting next year, but it actually is this year in June or July, and there is a big chance that the mission will be split again next year, so we will see how everything pans out, but the church is growing like crazy in the Philippines.

 

Also, Brother Jon Chin sent me a letter, he told me a story of an investigator named Jonathan he had, who was 15 years old and wanted to be baptized but could not because his parents would not let him. I have an investigator named Jonathan, 17 years old, his parents said at first they would kick him out of the house if he was baptized, and we just got the consent form signed a few days ago, with happy willing parents. That was super awesome. Also we are teaching an 18 year old named RJ, we had been teaching him and Jonathan for a while and given them both baptismal dates, and they are good friends, and they saw each other at church a while back and were super excited. Now they are both getting baptized together on the 19th. I am so super excited for that!

 

And the very first people I taught when I came to my area are getting baptized on the 19th, we are finalizing the things for their marriage, and working out a few kinks, so they are not sure for sure, but they are pretty sure. So the work is going awesome! I love it here! And everything is going super great!

 

 Anywho, time is running low! I love you!

 

Oh yes, Brother Litchfield sent me $10 and I just got it and used it all in one place on a guitar tuner, so I am super excited! Thank you! I wish I could tune by ear, but now I have a guitar that sounds good :) It is not really mine, but... It will be as long as I am in my apartment. :)

 

Well ulit! I love you :)

 

Also special one for Alix Boyd, I love you! even though you have not written me yet :)

 

Love, Elder Munk