December 26th, 2011

Judging by the position of the sun, and the crisp cool feeling of air conditioning, as well as the fact that I am quite hungry at the moment can only mean one thing! It is time to email home!

 

I had an interesting week, being Pasko and all, I got to call home yesterday, and Devin answered, his voice sounded so manly and it suprised me a little, I had planned to pretend to be a fireman from Seattle wishing them a happy birthday, than I was going to sing them a Filipino Christmas song, in English.. But I just said hello. I could only understand about half of what was said, while my companion had a flawless connection, but I am not jealous. I enjoyed talking to you family! Even though I was pretty confused. Mother's day is pretty close, I might even still be here!

 

I told a couple stories on the phone, I do not know how well they were received, and I do not remember what I said. But I have a couple stories to share for now.

 

Their is an Indian sister named Sister Gupta, she is super awesome, and did not have any language training, but she is probably better than me in Tagalog. She was walking across a not so stable bridge, and it collapsed, and there is no plumbing, so all the people's digested food goes under the bridge, she went in waist deep. She is a trooper and kept working after she got cleaned off. Also one of their investigators who has trouble walking (he had a stroke and is half paralyzed) fell in at a different time, up to his neck, at 9pm, someone found him though and helped him out, he was pretty happy though and just laughed about the experience. I know him fairly well because I helped translate for his interview and he comes to church in the morning and in the afternoon. He is a stud. 

 

Elder Munk gets to teach district meeting this week, because the whole zone will be there, we are exorted to be bold but not overbearing when correcting people, so I am going to have fun.. :) I might even take my shoe off. (Filipinos disipline children with shoes, usually flip flops) and I am trying to become Filipino, I bet you cannot wait for me to get home! 

 

I have been having a very good time here, we had a baptism on Christmas! He is super awesome, and for those who understand (probably only Jon Chin..) his whole family is Iglesia ni Cristo, so he took a whole lot of heat for his decision, but he has a very strong testimony. 

 

Also! I am going to go buy some Christmas gifts today! For my beloved family, and for a couple other people whom I love, like Elder Crandall and Elder Galbraith, I hope at least one of you gave Stewart hugs and kisses before they left. They are two best people in the whole world, along with my family. I love them! I had to get that out there again. 

 

I have had some pretty powerful spiritual experiences that have helped my faith to grow, nothing super crazy or unheard of, but I have seen such amazing changes in people's lives, growing closer to Jesus Christ, and without any worldly gain, or an increase in their standard of living these people are finding true happiness, in the way that God intended. I really hope that everyone can find that peace and happiness in their lives. I see the biggest change with those who read the Book of Mormon daily, and share what they learn with others, it seems like something simple, or sometimes like something that you can do just because you are told to, but those who really study it out in their minds, even for 15-30 minutes a day really grow, and I hear testimonies of that almost everyday. I would exort you all to read the Book of Mormon everyday! Even if you are tired, or do not want to, just do it! I promise you will never regret it, even if you lose 10 minutes of sleep, or have to give up a little time of doing something else. I especially want to challenge Trevor to make sure he is doing it everyday! Along with Kaitlyn Marie Stambaugh! You are on my mind too, thank you for emailing me :) Read it too!

(Do not forget to mark verses that you like! And other things.)

 

 

I love you family!

 

Elder Munk

 

P.S.! Merry Christmas!

 

December 19th, 2011 Letter

Hello!
 
This week was quite exciting, we had a good time and worked hard,
things seem to be working out alright. I heard what was expected of me
coming up to be in charge of the missionaries here, to try and help
them be more effective and excited about the work. I thought it would
not be that hard, because I could just work hard, be successful and
help to show them that being truly happy comes from working hard and
helping others come unto Christ. When I got to my new area a couple
weeks ago my plan got shut down a little bit because this area has
been struggling a bit. So I have been trying to stretch myself and be
a good leader. We have seen some big improvements in our area in the
last little bit. And things are starting to go better now. We have
been working hard to bring less actives back to church and have found
success so far. We are also trying to find those who are ready to be
baptized. We found a whole lot of people, all of them said no at
first, but they are starting to progress now, and are accepting
baptismal invitations. So we will see how it goes.
 
We are finding the best success through the help of two recent convert
families, they are excited about bringing their friends into the
church, and are more often than not rejected, but they never get down,
they are awesome!
 
I had some exciting things happen in the last few minutes also, I got
a lot of emails! About 1/3 of them were from Kaity Stambaugh, which
suprised me, but I was super excited to hear from you Kaity! I will do
what you asked. And I hope everything goes well, stay happy and work
hard! But try to have fun at the same time! Thats what I do everyday,
and it is Elder Munk approved. Remember that really good looking Elder
with slightly curly hair? I forgot his name.. :)
 
I have quite a few pictures but I will admit that I do not look so
good looking in most of them, but I will send a few. I decided I get
distracted to easily to be in pictures. Did you know that there are
squirrels in the Philippines?
 
Anyways, I get to work with the Assistances to the President tomorrow,
which will be fun, I was a little bit nervous, but it will be a good
experience.
 
We have experienced a whole lot of Anti-Mormon related stuff in the
last week, I have heard bad things said but people can say the
darndest things. We heard a lot about how we worship Satan and will
all burn. I also heard we are good dancers, which is partly true, but
personally I would not consider myself talented.
 
My mind is a bit scattered now, and I am having trouble putting my
thoughts together I said last week that I would do better this week,
but I guess I was wrong.
 
I got to play in a Christmas talent show, I did Drifting again on the
guitar, which I enjoy playing, it is hard with next to no practice for
a full year. But no one knows it that well, so I can mess up without
others realizing.
 
Thank you again Kaity for the emails! Keep it up! :)
 
I want you all to know I love you very much, and I am excited to talk
to my Mommy and Daddy and Tashie, and Dev, and Trev on Christmas. I
will be calling at 8 or 9 am Christmas morning (Elder Munk time aka
Philippines time) so around 2-3ish in the afternoon on Christmas Eve.
 
 
 
Elder Munk
 

December 12th, 2011 Letter (Early Christmas)

Hello!

 

I am not sure if I should admit the things that I have done wrong first or if I should tell some stories. My mind seems to be going blank with the stories. Actually they just came back, I will tell stories first.

 

This last week was pretty exciting, on Wednesday I took a plane to Manila for Zone Leaders Council but they flew us out a day early. Because of the frequency of storms and flight delays they want us to be there early, as opposed to possibly missing the meeting.. At least that is my guess, but maybe I am wrong. We had a day in Manila, I am not used to having a day without work, but we were told not to go to different areas and work with other missionaries, especially in our old areas. So we took the opportunity to go out to eat, we went to Wendy's and it was delicious. It was a bit expensive, it costs about the same as it does in America but it used about 10% of my month's food support. I will not miss any meals though because of my one expensive one, I usually have money left over, so you do not need to worry Mommy. We than went to National Book Store and looked around, when I go back in January I am going to buy a Bible there, one that has English and Tagalog. We looked at a few and the translations were so far off, they add and take away from the Bible left and right. We found the versions of the Bible that are supported by the church combined into one.King James and Magandang Balita. We also had the opportunity to attend the temple. That was a very strong spiritual experience, I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to go, I really had a strong purpose for being there, and received  some direction. We went back to the mission home afterwards, I have not been there since it was remodeled. It was amazing! I felt like I was in a million dollar home, the Stucki's took good care of us, and made corn dogs. President Stucki even gave me two ties, and I will have to say I look rather Gwapo (guapo). We slept in an airconditioned room and took hot showers, it was a once in a year experience, well... It will be once a month until I change areas. :) Only 6 missions get to experience that every month, and I will likely be one of them at least for a few months. We had our council meeting and we changed our focus, we will still be trying to baptize a lot of people, but we will focus heavily on reactivating those who have gone astray. I will not mention numbers or percentages.. but it needs a little bit of work. 

 

Alright, now I need to admit my faults, and my crafty ways. I would first like to say thank you to the Burnhams and to my family for sending me Christmas packages, :) it made me super excited. I was told not to read the customs paper so I would not know what was in the pack my family sent. So I did not read it, but another missionary did, and excitedly exclaimed to me that I got a new frisbee! And he mentioned everything else, the suprise was a little bit destroyed, and I basically came to a knowledge of everything in the box. So I was excited, and I may have opened it. I wanted to wait till Christmas, but my companion said "Ya right Elder Munk, just open it now!" So I did. I than realized that everything was individual wrapped. I grinned, and came to the realization that I had not really opened it all the way, so I would not get in trouble. Than I began feeling the packages, and I figured out where the watch was. So I was tempted again.. Because I always have to ask what time it is, so I opened it. And I love my new watch, it is legit! In TJ terms. In Elder Munk terms it is also legit. I slowly gave into temptation again, and opened the Burnham's package, because they did not tell me not to open it. I am currently wearing the tie they sent, I tell my housemates that Alivia sent it, so I can tell them a girl sent me something, but I do not really know who did. But I appreciate it a lot :)  I continued faithfully to my Mom's email (by not opening everything) and earlier today I also came to another realization! That because the frisbee was wrapped tightly I could still play with it, without removing the wrapping. So we did! After about 10 minutes the paper was wore and fell off. I currently have one unopened gift, which I have shaken, smelled, and evaluated, it is a chocolate orange. I think I will open it on Christmas. 

 

I will admit, I thoughtfully opened my packages, I quickly realized that no one would get mad at me if I opened them. Because you are all so proud of me, and I am really far away. I also realized that Mommy would be worried because I do not have any gifts to open on Christmas, but I still have a chocolate orange. Due to my planning, and tactfully giving into temptation I feel I have accomplished the best possible outcome. I also am super happy. 

 

Haha. Anyways, I love you all, I will be better about writing spiritual things in the upcoming weeks, but I had fun writing this letter, I hope you are all doing well. I also heard that Spencer would be coming home due to health problems, Trevor sent me an email, how is he doing? Keep me updated, and give him hugs and kisses for me. I love you Spencer!

 

Elder Munk

 

P.S. Also I heard that Elder Oaks was in Bellevue on November 19th, I have read through what he taught, it was very helpful and I will end up using it in the next few days :)