Slap Sadness in the Face !

Two letters posted April 20th, April 25th

April 20th letter:

 

Hello everyone,

 

I guess my Mommy has been getting a lot of questions about how my stuff got stolen, and I am safe, there is nothing really dangerous here, I just have to hold stuff over my head and no one can reach it. My camera got stolen off my desk on P-day, while my housemates were there, and my money got stolen while I was sleeping, when the door was locked.. So that kind of limits who could have done it but no one is coming forward so I guess it is alright, everyone has there agency and can steal my stuff if they want to. Also I do not need any extra money sent, I have saved enough I could survive for like 5 weeks or so without this months budget, the funny thing (to me, I am not judging it is just funny) that I had almost 1/2 of my monthly support stolen and out of the 4 people in my apartment I have the most money left from this months support. It kind of makes me laugh, my housemates are big spenders I guess. Also if you decide you randomly want to buy elder Munk a camera as a secret super nice present.. Don't! :) If you sent me a $100 camera I would get charged $200 in customs fees, besides I am writing in my journal and that is good enough.

 

This week has gone well, we have had a member working with us basically the whole time we are out. I got a birthday card from a family we are teaching which is way cooler than a camera, and it made me happy. I enjoyed that, and I will let you see it someday, I am almost 1/4 the way done with my mission already, so I will be home pretty soon. It is just whizzing by.

 

I got to go to the temple this morning which was super awesome, I bought the Joseph Smith movie along with 4 others in a pack together for under 50 cents, it was pretty sweet. I had to wake up at 4 to go, and it is getting close to 12 now, and I have not had any food yet, so I am pretty hungry right now.

 

I have been doing pretty well with the language, I can understand basically everything I hear now, and I can say almost anything I want to say, but I still get laughed at a lot ha, its okay though because I laugh at their English sometimes.. On accident of course.

 

I am so excited for Elder Crandall!!! That is awesome that he made it to Brazil, and I guess he has been in the field for like a solid 2 days now. I hope all is going well with him, that crazy language that I do not know how to spell sounds hard, way harder than Tagalog :) Tagalog sounds like it was invented by a little kid, who likes making up big random words, so I understand it pretty well :)

 

Well... Anyways, I love you all and hope everything is going super well, everything is going super well with me, it is just kind of hard to think right now because the music in here is crazy screamo stuff. Oh goodness the sound just changed to the I'm Blue song, 2nd grade flashback.

 

Anyways I will send something more exciting next week, I am hungry and confused right now, so I am done thinking for now :) Good thing it is P-day.

 

Love

 

Elder Munk

 

April 25th letter:

Alrighty it is P-day again already, it seems like it was like 2 days ago, but I guess it was longer than that. I should probably start out by answering my Mommy's questions. 1st. do not worry Mom :) I am keeping myself healthy, I am not cutting down on food, or eating just rice, in fact the rice I do cook for myself is brown, and it sometimes has weevles in it, which is extra protein. I am guessing that makes it even healthier. I have money saved up from the previous transfers so I can survive until May, if I did not have any saved up I would be living on less than 25 cents per day, if that was the case I would probably be hungry, but I am fine. Also with the second question, I have talked with the Mission President and he is aware of what is going on, I am also being more careful with my stuff. I do not know who stole my stuff, but I have received a little tip from the Bishop's son as to wear my camera is, and it is not anywhere near where I am. It is potentially on one of the southern islands in the Philippines, it is kind of a long story but I am going to try to get it sent back, the genius who stole it was unable to find my camera charger, because I keep it hidden in my Altoids tin. It is a perfect fit. I will probably buy a new one in a month or 2 if it does not end up turning up, but I am kind of a little bit not rich, so I am hopefully going to get mine back.

 

Everything else is going super great, and I am hoping that I will be staying in this area for at least 1 more transfer, me and Elder Vail have a plan of of getting a gym membership next month, because it is only $10 and of course we are going to stay safe, we wont be pushing ourselves too hard, there are more important things to be doing here other than being injured. Also this is for Devin, my arms are almost 14 inches! Which is probably smaller than you.. But it still makes me happy.

 

Me and Elder Vail have a member working with us almost everyday, his name is Brother Rudy, he is super awesome, and I love that man. He only likes working with American missionaries, so we are pretty well set working with him. Every morning we go over there he sprays us half to death with cologne. If you think that middle school kids with Axe are bad, you should see full grown Filipino men, the average one uses 15 sprays every morning on themselves, so Rudy uses 15 on himself and about 5 on each of us, imagine that room after he is done. Goodness. He finished up his bottle on Saturday and I am waiting to see what his newest scent will be. I am hoping it is manly.

 

We are visiting a certain family that has been going to church everyweek for the last 2 years, and they are not members yet. Over the past 2 years the missionaries were unable to make progress with this family, and I think me and Elder Vail are here specifically for them, and they are just a super awesome family. I also played guitar for them last time we were there, it was pretty exciting, they are expecting me to play the piano next time.. I do not think they understood that I am not much of a piano player. But I will do my best, playing some chopsticks, and I might even whip out some Journey if I am feeling confident.

 

The work is really going great, most people say that missionary work is up and down happy and sad, kind of like a rollercoaster, but these last 5 weeks have been super great, so I think my camera was taken to try to make me sad, but I slap sadness in the face.

 

Oh yes, there is a bakery right by our apartment that we go to like 2 times a day, it is so great, and really cheap. We always get greeted by Himay, he is.. well he is Himay. I do not know how to describe him to well but I will do my best. He has a goatie, and a huge tongue, that fills his whole mouth so he cannot talk. And he has some mental disabilities. He always yells "hraeeeywagleeeya" at us, so we say hello, then he tells us in his own sign language how he always gets beat at basketball and he tells us that he is gotten a bunch of ladies pregnant. And we always tell him that he should not lie, and thats not the best thing to be talking about, but he is pretty stuck on it. Life would not be the same without that man,

 

Funny sidenote, the song "I'm going home" by Chris Daughtry is on.

 

Well my time is just about up, I am really tempted to buy something here to keep with me forever, but I think I might tell you next week :) If I buy it or not... It has been tempting me every week...

 

Also I may have accidently emailed someone (Kristena! Sorry) directly, cause I was responding to your email, and it just kind of naturally happened that I clicked send and I was like oh no! So if anyone wants to email me you are more than welcome to, and I will do my best to email you back, it might be short though cause my time is limited, I hope you are all doing super well. I love you all, keep being awesome, if you are not awesome be awesome, then stay awesome.

 

Mahal Kita,

 

Elder Munk

 

PS Watch the video on LDS.org about the kid who helped his friend run a marathon, I think you will like it, it is called Daytons legs.

 

Letter from April 11th

Hello everyone!

 

Well today is my birthday, I will officially never technically be a teenager again, but at heart I will never get past that point, well maybe at 104, but I do not plan on living that long.

 

So this has been an interesting birthday, I do not mean to complain, but it kind of makes me sad that I have had more things stolen from me than I have had things given to me. I read the email from my Mom, and she was excited that I would be possibly sending some pictures home from my birthday, but my camera was among my stolen stuff, so I will draw a picture and mail it home, it will be even better than the real thing. Then she said, maybe you could get some of that purple ice cream and celebrate, but I cannot afford it either, because someone stole almost all of my monthly support for the month. I am not going to place any accusations and I am not really even mad or anything, but it kind of makes me sad someone would do that.

 

I will add to that with another weird thing than I will get back to something a little more positive. So me and Elder Vail were walking home from an appointment to finish up the night, and a very drunk very not straight man came out of a house and went after my companion, I kind of laughed, but was ready to defend my companion if necessary, and make like a nerd and book it out of there. So I saw he had made a barrier between himself and the man with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, so I felt a little safer. Then a drunk woman came after me, her first intention was to bring me to her house, so she could have my children, which I would never do that to my poor children, so I said bawal! Hindi pwede! So then she grabbed my neck and tried to kiss me, I have never had such quick reflexes before, I was like a ninja, she then proceeded to swear at me in English, and me and Elder Vail were both in heavy shock trying to figure out what happened. I tried to write that as cleanly as possible, and let you still know what happened. It was an adventure.

 

I have had a good week other than those couple of things, and a couple of other smaller things that have happened. With general conference there is always a spiritual high, and I really loved it, especially the talk by Richard G. Scott in the Sunday Afternoon Session. Ha, it gave me insights on how to help some certain people I am teaching to strengthen their families, because that is what the message is all about, happiness in families, and that families can be together forever through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the greatest message on earth, and I have seen it personally change a lot of lives in the last few months, as well as my whole life.

 

naiintindihan ko ang Tagalog, mas mabuti ngayon kaysa sa noon, minsan mahirap ang Tagalog talaga, pero masaya pa rin, kahit hindi perpekto ang tagalog ko, mahal ko siya, at ang mga tao dito. At alam ko na sa pammamagitan ng Ebanghelyo at Pagbabayad-Sala ni JesuCristo, magiging walang hanggan and mga pamilya natin, kung susudin natin ang mga kautusan ng Ating Ama sa Langit. Mag-ingat kayo, kasi alam ng Kaaway ang mga kahinaan natin, at pili and tama. Alam ng Diyos ang puso natin, at tutulungan tayo ng Diyos, kung ginagawa natin ang pinakamabuti, at nagdarasal tayo palagi, iyan lang ngayon, sa susunod sigero ang email ko ay lahat na Tagalog. Sigero.

 

I am not sure if that will translate in google translator because my spelling is probably not that great, and my grammar is not perfect, but it is improving, and it is a lot easier to speak than it is to type, I can talk pretty fluently now, but my family will get to hear that pretty soon. :)

 

I love you all :) Gawin ninyo ang mabuti :) huwag n'yong reklamo :)

 

Elder Munk