Hello Hello Hello, po. Today was a little bit crazy, it started at 6:30am, like basically every other day as a missionary, but it was a little bit different. We immediately started packing and moving our stuff downstairs so we could load it up into a jeepney, we got it ready and when the jeep arrived we began loading it full of stuff, the inside and the roof. We packed it super tight, and than went to unload it, we got to our new house and saw that it was still being painted, even though they told us it would already be done, we still brought our stuff in and went to go load up the jeep again. We ended up cleaning the house, with it 12 years of dirtiness and wear and tear. (It had been used by missionaries for the last 12 years, and it has been cleaned/not cleaned by the 19 year old men) It was super dirty and took 6 hours, with 9 people cleaning non-stop. Than we finished up our move and realized that our house did not have electricity or water yet, so we scratched our heads and the senior couple took us out to get some drinkable water, and randomly bought us 3 roasted chickens and a lot of soda. We have not had time today to shop, do laundry, or anything else, but we made it here to the email shop, with a few minutes left to quickly respond to the emails I have received. That's my story of today. Our new house is super nice. It is so big that the senior couples told us we cannot use the whole house, because it is too big, and will be too much to clean with the time we have in the week. We now have water and electricity. I did not really celebrate my birthday this year, because there was no time, last year was easy because it was on a preparation day, I will be celebrating it on the 23rd, with Elder Ward, because that is the day in between our birthdays. I am super tired. I cannot believe Rachel is getting married, which I guess means I cannot marry her now... So I am not sure what to do after I get home, but something will probably work out eventually. :) Love you Rachel! I have not charged my camera in about 2 weeks, so I will do that. I will send some pictures soon. With the goals Elder Ward and I have we should be sending some pretty awesome pictures soon. I have been working on my smile, it keeps getting bigger and bigger. Anyways, I love you! And I am grateful for the birthday wishes that you sent, I have not received your letters yet, but I did get some from the Single Adults ward, which is pretty awesome! I even got written by a girl who I have never met! Thats always exciting, she seems super nice, but I forgot her name, sorry really nice girl. See you Later! Love, Elder Munk
Monday, April 16, 2012
Moving Day
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
April 8th Letter
Hello po! Happy Easter! This keyboard is not amazing, in fact it is what I would call below average. Anyways, I need to take care of some unfinished business. I know I did not leave commentaries from the pictures.. I take full responsibility for that, time was running a little bit short, so I will do my best now, if I can remember what the pictures are... Of course I remember my moment with the Princess of Puerto, I have never kissed a girl taller than me before, but I guess there is a first time for everything. We also went jogging to the baywalk which was rather fun, it was my first time jogging since I had gotten Dengue Fever, and it was miserable and very tiring, but it was still fun. Also the baptism is a girl named Dhea Cubilan, she is the daughter of a previously inactive returned missionary. She is super cool, and has an amazing singing voice. Anyways, I am loving having a Mcdonalds near by, it is definitely not an everyday thing, but I have gone twice in the passed five days, twice in the same day actually, I got breakfast and 3 ice creams, it was delicious! My flight from Puerto was delayed for 9 hours, it was terrible. We were in the airport for sooo long that the airport provided us with 2 free meals. It was kind of funny what happened, we boarded the plane and started down the runway, we came to a pretty quick stop,and the captain said there were engine problems, that according to his instruments were pretty serious. That news did not seem to faze him, so we tried to take off again, and we came to a quick halt, and he announced that the problems with the plane were confirmed. We began our wait, we talked to some people, looked at the super expensive food menu, and sat forever. Side Note! Last year at this time Elder Vail's Aunt, Uncle, and cousin came to Manila, and took Elder Vail and I out for pizza. End of side note! I saw them at the airport! They got there 6 hours after we did... and they left before us. They had a group of 40 people from Utah to go around the Philippines teaching English, and they had vacation on Palawan. I was a bit disappointed with how the Mormon girls were dressed, most of them were too. They would not even come talk to the Elders. How many members avoid missionaries? Not too many... To make things better I lost my voice that day and it did not come back till Sunday. It is so hard to teach with no voice, I tried super hard, but I do not think anyone understood me too well.. We did not get home till midnight. General Conference was super great! I need to review all the talks, I am excited to hopefully get the Liahona, we did not get it last time. Palawan gets a little bit neglected... I have a whole lot of work ahead of me here, it is going to be difficult. We have over 1000 members in this branch, and 260 are active... And this whole zone has been struggling for a while... It will be fun. I love you all! Elder Munk P.S. I had a weird dream last night. (the photos Nate spoke of are in the previous post)
Sunday, April 1, 2012
April 1st, 2012 Letter
Hello my very awesome family, and everyone else! Today is sad. I received a call on Saturday night from my mission president, President Stucki. He told me that he was very proud of me and all that I had done in Puerto Princesa. After he said that I knew I was going to be kicked off of the island, my heart kind of sank a little bit, I would have been just fine staying on Palawan until I went home, I could stay here the rest o my life and be fine. The next thing he said to me was "Elder Munk, you have been out there a long time haven't you?" I gave a slightly fake chuckle and said "It has not been all that long." I am going to be transferring on Wednesday to San Gabriel which is in Cavite, it is still not very city-like, nothing like Manila, but it is not Palawan! Thats alright though, I am going to enjoy being there, and work hard. I learned something last night that will make is a lot easier to go there, if you all remember who my companion was at the Missionary Training Center, Elder Ward. Well he is going to be MY KASAMA again! :) I am super excited to be with him. Super super excited. So far this area in Puerto has obviously been the area that I have been the best missionary in my whole mission. My work ethic has been the same, but I have a lot more experience and was able to work effectively. Even though that is true, and I have had very good hard working companions here, it has been by far the least fruitful area, in terms on baptisms. That is going to change pretty soon, in the past little bit we have been able to find and teach people who are super prepared, we are not sure it all happened. We currently have 20 people who have committed to be baptized in April and May. We are going to extend the commitment to be baptized to at least 5 more people before Wednesday. I do not know how many people will be baptized, but I am hoping to receive emails with pictures from Elder Querubin, I have never had so many people accept the invitation to be baptized, it is exciting! Now I am leaving.. I have been so tired recently and I think fast food at least once a month will re-energize Elder Munk, instead on once in 8 months.. Palawan is one of the only places (I am guessing) in the world without a McDonalds.. Its pretty sad, the Mayor will not allow them to come in, because he owns the enemy of McDonalds, which is also fast food, but I do not eat there, it is super nasty. We call McDonalds MacHeaven, we do not have a nickname for Jollibee, we just say "oh no!" whenever we walk by. I also have some presents for people! I will not say for who, because I have not decided who to give them too yet, except my family, I got all of them something :) And TJ and Brendin. Anyways, this week has been crazy, I am excited to take my 16th airplane, since being set apart, on Wednesday. I love you family, Devin if you find that you are being tempted, just do what Buzz Lightyear did. :) Just kidding... See you later! Elder Munk
March 2012 Letters
March 26th 2012 Letter
Hello my most favorite people!
This last week was a very good week, we had a few successes that were
very much wanted and had been expected for a long time. We were able
to get Brother Ramos to church, he has been a member longer than I
have been alive, they were baptized when the church had only been in
Palawan for 4 years, in 1984. He has had a few trials that have kept
him from church for a long time, and we have visited him often trying
to help him back. He came to church for the first time yesterday and
we expect him to come every week until he dies. We will do all we can
to help that go forward.
The church has announced to the missionaries that the Philippines has
a large problem. There are so many people returning to activity and
the sacrament attendance is rising so much that there will need to be
new buildings built as well as new branches and wards made. The
baptisms have dropped a little bit with the new focus, but they are
starting to rise up as the missionaries are learning to balance their
work. Over 350 members are now active, just in the month of March, in
Manila. Our goal is to achieve 700 per month, but we have a good
start. We have a pretty big 8-fold focus in the mission right now. It
seems like a lot having that many focuses, but they are all things
that can and will be accomplished, I have found a way to improve on
all 8 and will continue to do my best to do so. I have all the goals
written down in different places so I can see them throughout the
whole day, except when I am sleeping. The goals are 1. Baptize 2.
Retain 3. Reactivate 4. Acquire Charity 5. Become master teachers 6.
Work hard and effective 7. Obey with exactness 8. Harness the Power of
the members.
I am pretty excited about all these things, and the zone has made big
improvements, especially in the last week. It is awesome!
One of our defeats this week was to a dog. We have a new family we are
teaching with baptismal dates, they are super excited to come to
church and were getting prepared Sunday morning, their daughter had a
fever, but they decided to come regardless. They had read what we left
them to read, and are super golden. About an hour before they were
planning to leave the house Sister Laurel got bit by a dog, and went
to get a rabies vaccination instead of going to church. We could tell
by the cut on her hand and the smile on her face when we came over,
that she really wanted to come, but she realized quickly that because
this church is true and it is what God wants her to do, there would be
trials. They will be at church next week. While she gave the closing
prayer she asked Heavenly Father, to bless us that we would always
keep coming to them. I think we can make that happen!
I have the chance to teach our Zone Meeting tomorrow, which happens
monthly. We only have an hour and a half to teach and train all those
present. We have a pretty good idea ho to do it, we definitely cannot
teach all we learned in our 16 hours of training in Manila. We will
focus on one part of the training and will do all that we can in our
short amount of time to help the missionaries fulfill their purpose.
I also really appreciate the emails I received, especially from Mamma
Mia and Papa Boss, (That is the name of a restaurant here is Puerto
but I really mean Mommy and Daddy) and also Aunt Linda, it was really
helpful to me. I will continue to ponder and pray about the things
your wrote. Thank you.
I love you all, and I am glad Devin misses the three amigos in
volleyball. I have played once in the Philippines... I need to
practice again, it was not a pretty sight.
Elder Munk
This last week was a very good week, we had a few successes that were
very much wanted and had been expected for a long time. We were able
to get Brother Ramos to church, he has been a member longer than I
have been alive, they were baptized when the church had only been in
Palawan for 4 years, in 1984. He has had a few trials that have kept
him from church for a long time, and we have visited him often trying
to help him back. He came to church for the first time yesterday and
we expect him to come every week until he dies. We will do all we can
to help that go forward.
The church has announced to the missionaries that the Philippines has
a large problem. There are so many people returning to activity and
the sacrament attendance is rising so much that there will need to be
new buildings built as well as new branches and wards made. The
baptisms have dropped a little bit with the new focus, but they are
starting to rise up as the missionaries are learning to balance their
work. Over 350 members are now active, just in the month of March, in
Manila. Our goal is to achieve 700 per month, but we have a good
start. We have a pretty big 8-fold focus in the mission right now. It
seems like a lot having that many focuses, but they are all things
that can and will be accomplished, I have found a way to improve on
all 8 and will continue to do my best to do so. I have all the goals
written down in different places so I can see them throughout the
whole day, except when I am sleeping. The goals are 1. Baptize 2.
Retain 3. Reactivate 4. Acquire Charity 5. Become master teachers 6.
Work hard and effective 7. Obey with exactness 8. Harness the Power of
the members.
I am pretty excited about all these things, and the zone has made big
improvements, especially in the last week. It is awesome!
One of our defeats this week was to a dog. We have a new family we are
teaching with baptismal dates, they are super excited to come to
church and were getting prepared Sunday morning, their daughter had a
fever, but they decided to come regardless. They had read what we left
them to read, and are super golden. About an hour before they were
planning to leave the house Sister Laurel got bit by a dog, and went
to get a rabies vaccination instead of going to church. We could tell
by the cut on her hand and the smile on her face when we came over,
that she really wanted to come, but she realized quickly that because
this church is true and it is what God wants her to do, there would be
trials. They will be at church next week. While she gave the closing
prayer she asked Heavenly Father, to bless us that we would always
keep coming to them. I think we can make that happen!
I have the chance to teach our Zone Meeting tomorrow, which happens
monthly. We only have an hour and a half to teach and train all those
present. We have a pretty good idea ho to do it, we definitely cannot
teach all we learned in our 16 hours of training in Manila. We will
focus on one part of the training and will do all that we can in our
short amount of time to help the missionaries fulfill their purpose.
I also really appreciate the emails I received, especially from Mamma
Mia and Papa Boss, (That is the name of a restaurant here is Puerto
but I really mean Mommy and Daddy) and also Aunt Linda, it was really
helpful to me. I will continue to ponder and pray about the things
your wrote. Thank you.
I love you all, and I am glad Devin misses the three amigos in
volleyball. I have played once in the Philippines... I need to
practice again, it was not a pretty sight.
Elder Munk
March 19th 2012
Hello hello!
This week was crazy, it was a very spiritual week and in terms of
lessons taught and things accomplished in my area it was the lowest it
has ever been, even lower than when I had dengue fever! That is
because from Wednesday at 4 pm we left for Manila and did not get home
until Saturday morning... We had training meeting for all of the
leaders in the Manila mission, there were about 50 of us there, I did
not realize there were so many! The Assistants to the President, Zone
Leaders and District Leaders were all there and it was a very
spiritual 16 hours of meetings. We learned a lot, and got to go out
and apply the things that we learned.
One of the activities we did was picking up trash around the church,
all 50 of us went out and blitzed the nearby areas. We had gloves, and
picked up all kinds of things, including tissues full of vomit, which
I did not realize until my sense of smell started kicking in. We also
picked up cigarette butts, in front of people who were smoking, almost
all of them said at one point or another, sino nagtapon ng yoshi? or
Sino nagkalat ng basura?! They were all asking who was to blame for
the cigarettes being everywhere, because everyone knows it was not
them... :)
The second activity we did was go to lunch! With the objective to talk
with everyone we could along the way and be back in time for the
meeting to start. I took 2 Books of Mormon, and 5 pamphlets on the
Restoration of the Gospel. My companion also had a Book of Mormon and
3 pamphlets, we worked as a team to place all of them while getting to
know people, eat at McDonalds (for the first time since July) and get
back to the church on time. We successfully did it, we evaluated
somethings to improve on, like getting their names written down and
their addresses.. We met many different people, 3 of which seemed nice
and interested. Some of them would not even acknowledge we were
talking to them, even though they knew we were.
It was a lot of fun and we learned many things over the two days that
we had meetings, it was pretty awesome. We practices correcting false
behavior, as well as many other things, and we were able to have very
successful work, and we were able to hit many of the standards of
excellence in 1/2 of the week. We are excited to see what can happen
with a full week of work.
One success story we had was asking everyone for referrals, I asked a
missionary at the training who I knew served in my area 1 year ago, I
asked him and we thought about it for a while and gave me 4 families
to visit, the day we got back we found one of them with the help of
the members and gave them a baptismal comittment in the first lesson
for April 28th. All 4 of them said yes, with some unexpected and very
much appreciated excitement! They said they would not be able to come
to church this week but will next week. They are only really worried
that they do not know too many people at church, but we got permission
from them to bring a big-ish group of members over for them to meet :)
They seemed happy that we were willing to get that put together. And
we are excited to see what happens from here.
I am always tired, I do not know how to become untired. But I am also
super happy and do not really remember how to be unhappy. I would
rather be happy and tired than not happy and not tired, or even worse
tired and unhappy. :)
I am thankful for those who emailed too! As well as those I have written too.
Also Devin that girl that found you on facebook is super awesome! She
was baptized with her family in January, she has been giving us lots
of referrals and helping us a lot. Her english is not bad... But it is
a little bit choppy, she told me she talked to you, all she said was
that you said you love me, I love you too little Devin!
Also! We had a baptism! Two days ago, but I forgot to bring my camera.. oops!
Sorry.
Well, I still love you, even though you are all getting older and
probably chubbier.
:)
Elder Munk
This week was crazy, it was a very spiritual week and in terms of
lessons taught and things accomplished in my area it was the lowest it
has ever been, even lower than when I had dengue fever! That is
because from Wednesday at 4 pm we left for Manila and did not get home
until Saturday morning... We had training meeting for all of the
leaders in the Manila mission, there were about 50 of us there, I did
not realize there were so many! The Assistants to the President, Zone
Leaders and District Leaders were all there and it was a very
spiritual 16 hours of meetings. We learned a lot, and got to go out
and apply the things that we learned.
One of the activities we did was picking up trash around the church,
all 50 of us went out and blitzed the nearby areas. We had gloves, and
picked up all kinds of things, including tissues full of vomit, which
I did not realize until my sense of smell started kicking in. We also
picked up cigarette butts, in front of people who were smoking, almost
all of them said at one point or another, sino nagtapon ng yoshi? or
Sino nagkalat ng basura?! They were all asking who was to blame for
the cigarettes being everywhere, because everyone knows it was not
them... :)
The second activity we did was go to lunch! With the objective to talk
with everyone we could along the way and be back in time for the
meeting to start. I took 2 Books of Mormon, and 5 pamphlets on the
Restoration of the Gospel. My companion also had a Book of Mormon and
3 pamphlets, we worked as a team to place all of them while getting to
know people, eat at McDonalds (for the first time since July) and get
back to the church on time. We successfully did it, we evaluated
somethings to improve on, like getting their names written down and
their addresses.. We met many different people, 3 of which seemed nice
and interested. Some of them would not even acknowledge we were
talking to them, even though they knew we were.
It was a lot of fun and we learned many things over the two days that
we had meetings, it was pretty awesome. We practices correcting false
behavior, as well as many other things, and we were able to have very
successful work, and we were able to hit many of the standards of
excellence in 1/2 of the week. We are excited to see what can happen
with a full week of work.
One success story we had was asking everyone for referrals, I asked a
missionary at the training who I knew served in my area 1 year ago, I
asked him and we thought about it for a while and gave me 4 families
to visit, the day we got back we found one of them with the help of
the members and gave them a baptismal comittment in the first lesson
for April 28th. All 4 of them said yes, with some unexpected and very
much appreciated excitement! They said they would not be able to come
to church this week but will next week. They are only really worried
that they do not know too many people at church, but we got permission
from them to bring a big-ish group of members over for them to meet :)
They seemed happy that we were willing to get that put together. And
we are excited to see what happens from here.
I am always tired, I do not know how to become untired. But I am also
super happy and do not really remember how to be unhappy. I would
rather be happy and tired than not happy and not tired, or even worse
tired and unhappy. :)
I am thankful for those who emailed too! As well as those I have written too.
Also Devin that girl that found you on facebook is super awesome! She
was baptized with her family in January, she has been giving us lots
of referrals and helping us a lot. Her english is not bad... But it is
a little bit choppy, she told me she talked to you, all she said was
that you said you love me, I love you too little Devin!
Also! We had a baptism! Two days ago, but I forgot to bring my camera.. oops!
Sorry.
Well, I still love you, even though you are all getting older and
probably chubbier.
:)
Elder Munk
March 12th 2012 Letter
I am super excited!
Anyways, today is a good day. Just like every other day, but I am
excited for today.
I want to first say thank you to Aunt Tammy for the email, I will
apply what I learned and I will return and report to let you know how
everything goes. Unless I forget. I actually have something to test it
out on, we have a few problems to resolve that were brought up on
Saturday. With missionaries joking and teasing to much and making
branch missionaries cry.. Anywho, I think I can handle this pretty
well, because I used to tease a whole lot and I can see how this
situation was brought about, so it will be an easy fix. I have
improved a lot in how I treat others, of course there are plently of
times that are appropriate to joke around but there are a lot of times
that it is better not to.. :)
My companion will be going home to officially become a citizen of
Ireland, so I will be without a companion for probably three days.
This looks like it will increase my chances of staying in this area
for another transfer, I sure hope that I do!
The Morales family that we found at the end of December is still going
strong, they have not been baptized yet, but they are getting close,
all 6 of them were at church yesterday and it was super awesome! We
will be having a family home evening at their house later.
Devin also sent me an email saying he will be rooming with TJ and
Lance! That is astig talaga! I hope I will be able to make it into
that house when I am back, I would love to live with my brothers.
There will likely be a lack of sleep and an increase of parties, but
we will keep our grades up :) My Irish/Filipino companion reminds me a
lot of Lance.
I also went to the doctor today because I have a rash, I got some
powerful medications and will get rid of it.. He said it will take 2
weeks of medication 4-5 times per day.
We reached the goals set by the mission for zone leaders to "go green"
as it is called. We are getting ready to see the fruits of our work,
we will have our first baptism since January on Saturday, and we are
hoping to have 2+ this month. And and 6 or so next month, that is at
least what our goal is :)
Anyways, I am super excited still.
Well that is all,
Love,
Elder Munk
P.S. They are starting to call me Elder Hunk... I need to get them to
stop that, but in case you are wondering I am putting weight back on,
lots of manly muscles. But I am still under 160 lbs.. I might also be
6' 3" by now, I do not know, the lady at the doctor's office did not
even try to reach the measuring tape up to my head...
Anyways, today is a good day. Just like every other day, but I am
excited for today.
I want to first say thank you to Aunt Tammy for the email, I will
apply what I learned and I will return and report to let you know how
everything goes. Unless I forget. I actually have something to test it
out on, we have a few problems to resolve that were brought up on
Saturday. With missionaries joking and teasing to much and making
branch missionaries cry.. Anywho, I think I can handle this pretty
well, because I used to tease a whole lot and I can see how this
situation was brought about, so it will be an easy fix. I have
improved a lot in how I treat others, of course there are plently of
times that are appropriate to joke around but there are a lot of times
that it is better not to.. :)
My companion will be going home to officially become a citizen of
Ireland, so I will be without a companion for probably three days.
This looks like it will increase my chances of staying in this area
for another transfer, I sure hope that I do!
The Morales family that we found at the end of December is still going
strong, they have not been baptized yet, but they are getting close,
all 6 of them were at church yesterday and it was super awesome! We
will be having a family home evening at their house later.
Devin also sent me an email saying he will be rooming with TJ and
Lance! That is astig talaga! I hope I will be able to make it into
that house when I am back, I would love to live with my brothers.
There will likely be a lack of sleep and an increase of parties, but
we will keep our grades up :) My Irish/Filipino companion reminds me a
lot of Lance.
I also went to the doctor today because I have a rash, I got some
powerful medications and will get rid of it.. He said it will take 2
weeks of medication 4-5 times per day.
We reached the goals set by the mission for zone leaders to "go green"
as it is called. We are getting ready to see the fruits of our work,
we will have our first baptism since January on Saturday, and we are
hoping to have 2+ this month. And and 6 or so next month, that is at
least what our goal is :)
Anyways, I am super excited still.
Well that is all,
Love,
Elder Munk
P.S. They are starting to call me Elder Hunk... I need to get them to
stop that, but in case you are wondering I am putting weight back on,
lots of manly muscles. But I am still under 160 lbs.. I might also be
6' 3" by now, I do not know, the lady at the doctor's office did not
even try to reach the measuring tape up to my head...
March 5th 2012 Letter
Hello!
Today has been pretty exciting, we have studied and washed laundry.. That is all.. But we still have a lot more stuff to do.
Last week on Tuesday I got to give the announcements in our district meeting, I had everyone write down February 28th and then told them it was my Littlest Sister's birthday. They all laughed and wrote it down. I do not remember what other announcements I gave, but none of them were as important, so I guess it is okay that I have forgotten.
I am trying to figure out how I can be a better leader, I am trying my best to put forth a good example and be as obedient as I can. So far I have not had any trouble with those things. But I have come to realize that I usually expect a lot more out of people than they want to do. I kind of took a wrong step and I did not chastise anyone, but I told them what they should be doing. I learned that usually does not work, they ended up getting frustrated and would not talk to me for a bit. I have not wavered from what should be done, but I have found it to be really difficult, because when I tell people what not to do they will get frustrated and just do it anyways. If I tell them it is okay to do something that is not then it puts the fault on me, and I am not a huge fan of that. In short, I am learning how to be patient and to deal with people in a way that keeps them happy while doing what is right. I am not super good at it, and I do things that frustrate others at least on a weekly basis, usually 2-3 times, including this morning... But I am improving, and the zone seems to be doing alright as well..
In the past few days a lot of things have fallen apart. I have holes in my socks, shoes, pants, and shirts. But that is normal. The other things that have fallen apart are the big plans we had for this month. We have been working very hard for the past few months, sometimes we forget to eat and we do not sleep as much as we should because there is so much to do and everything was going perfectly. We had a plan to baptize 21 people in the next two months, with 12 of them that seemed fairly sure, all of them committed and came to church. As of now we are pretty sure we will get at least one, but the others are avoiding us, and have fallen away because of various different things. Mostly the influence of others. Those 12 had been found in the past 2 months and have been visited countless times (or at least a lot). I have had times in my mission like this before where I have gotten frustrated and did not know why these things were happening. I feel strangely peaceful and good about all of it now. I feel like I have done my best to help them, and will continue to do so while I am here. I am hoping everything will change for the better, but if not, I will of at least done my best to help them.
I am pretty excited though for the things that are happening and I read some scriptures this morning in my personal study that really made me think, while there were tons of missionaries telling us to come to a beach activity for Preparation day I felt like I needed to do study, they kind of were disappointed in me, but they will get over it.. :)
I read in the Book of Mormon about missionary work, in Alma 29, specifically verses 6, 9-10. I felt the spirit when I read these verses, it was really what I needed.
I am learning slowly but surely to become a better person. I am excited to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ make changes in people's lives, that could not be brought about in any other way. Walang ibang paraan, kundi sa pamamagitan ni JesuCristo at Kanyang Pagbabayad-Sala. I love Tagalog :)
Anyways, I love all of you and I am so grateful for everything you have done, are doing, and will do, keep being awesome, and if you ever need anything ask Devin, he might not be able to help you, but he will try. If he cannot help you, you will at least enjoy the time with him!
See you later!
Love, Elder Munk
P.S. Do not tell me how much time I have left. I have started hearing that a lot recently, and I do not like ignoring people, but if you say that I will ignore you. :)
February 2012 Letters
February 27th 2012
Hello my family!
I am doing super well, this week was tiring, but I kind of like being
tired. This week also ended very well, we saw a huge increase of
member involvement in the past 2 days. The last 2 weeks almost no
member has done anything! I will not complain because we were blessed
because of it. We worked super hard and did our best to get them
excited and involved.
The whole week, every single day we had branch missionaries and
members who texted us and said they would work with us, and they all
texted a few minutes later and cancelled, so we did things a little
bit backwards and brought investigators to the members homes, with
about 2-3 minutes of warning in advance and taught there. I think the
members saw that we were serious about what we were doing and got
involved! We were given 7 referrals this week, and we we have
contacted 4 of them, it also lead to four new investigators at church.
I have really high goals for the next too months, that kind of seemed
impossible until a couple days ago, they are more within reach now,
and as one man once said "the best is yet to come."
I had a good learning experience this week, and am becoming more of
who I want to be. We were walking, after church, to one of our
appointments, when we saw someone trying to pushstart a car, he was
doing it by him self. Elder Munk thought to himself "Should we help
him?" Than quickly said to his kasama, "Lets help this poor fellow!"
Well actually I said "Elder, tulungan natin siya, mahirapan siya
dyan!" We help him, and he was very suprised that someone even offered
to help, because a lot of people were walking by and not doing
anything. We gave him a pamphlet about the Restoration and wrote down
his information. Which we texted to the sisters in the area next to
us. I was a little bit disappointed with myself, I made a goal to
never ask myself that question "Should we help him?" even though it
was in my mind, I would rather think right away, "Lets help!" I am
excited to see what comes from it, I hope the sisters are able to
teach him and his family.
We have taken lots of opportunities to serve, we helped a french
couple reserve a shuttle to El Nido this morning, and other small
things like that, I love helping people it makes Elder Munk feel good
:)
And do not worry, I will get my shoes fixed...
Love,
Elder Munk
P.S. Thank you Kaity for emailing! I love hearing from you
P.S.S. Thank you also Sister Campbell! Your words were very helpful :)
P.S.S.S. I do not think I have ever written PSSS so I wanted to.
Bye!
I am doing super well, this week was tiring, but I kind of like being
tired. This week also ended very well, we saw a huge increase of
member involvement in the past 2 days. The last 2 weeks almost no
member has done anything! I will not complain because we were blessed
because of it. We worked super hard and did our best to get them
excited and involved.
The whole week, every single day we had branch missionaries and
members who texted us and said they would work with us, and they all
texted a few minutes later and cancelled, so we did things a little
bit backwards and brought investigators to the members homes, with
about 2-3 minutes of warning in advance and taught there. I think the
members saw that we were serious about what we were doing and got
involved! We were given 7 referrals this week, and we we have
contacted 4 of them, it also lead to four new investigators at church.
I have really high goals for the next too months, that kind of seemed
impossible until a couple days ago, they are more within reach now,
and as one man once said "the best is yet to come."
I had a good learning experience this week, and am becoming more of
who I want to be. We were walking, after church, to one of our
appointments, when we saw someone trying to pushstart a car, he was
doing it by him self. Elder Munk thought to himself "Should we help
him?" Than quickly said to his kasama, "Lets help this poor fellow!"
Well actually I said "Elder, tulungan natin siya, mahirapan siya
dyan!" We help him, and he was very suprised that someone even offered
to help, because a lot of people were walking by and not doing
anything. We gave him a pamphlet about the Restoration and wrote down
his information. Which we texted to the sisters in the area next to
us. I was a little bit disappointed with myself, I made a goal to
never ask myself that question "Should we help him?" even though it
was in my mind, I would rather think right away, "Lets help!" I am
excited to see what comes from it, I hope the sisters are able to
teach him and his family.
We have taken lots of opportunities to serve, we helped a french
couple reserve a shuttle to El Nido this morning, and other small
things like that, I love helping people it makes Elder Munk feel good
:)
And do not worry, I will get my shoes fixed...
Love,
Elder Munk
P.S. Thank you Kaity for emailing! I love hearing from you
P.S.S. Thank you also Sister Campbell! Your words were very helpful :)
P.S.S.S. I do not think I have ever written PSSS so I wanted to.
Bye!
February 20th 2012 Letter
Hello Family!
I am doing rather well, and I even remembered to bring my camera
today, and my memory card. Elder Hyde and I went to a crocodile farm
today because he is transfering, I started taking my first picture
when we arrived, and my camera turned off because the battery was
low... So I do not have any pictures from that, but I do have a few
other pictures :) Some of them are a little bit old, but they are
still good.
I am back to full health, I am starting to put weight back on and I am
exercising, so I can be super good looking. Because right now I am too
skinny! I did buy a tub of ice cream though, we are going to eat all
of that later tonight after we get home.
It is transfer week already and I am excited, and a little bit sad
with what will be happening. I am going to miss my kasama Elder Hyde,
and my kapatid Elder Gagnon, it will be a little bit rough. Elder
Gagnon and I have the same trainer, which we call Tatay (dad) and we
also have the same birthday! That is pretty cool, I am about 21 hours
older than him. And he is Canadian. He would make Elder Galbraith
proud.
So far in my mission there have been 5 missionaries that I have seen
and really wanted to be companions with, out of 200 in the mission it
is not likely that I would be assigned with them, one of them has gone
home, and I have been assigned with two of them so far, for a total of
7 months. My next companion will be one off of my list as well. So far
my list that I have been companions with is Elder Vail, Elder Hyde,
and Elder Queribin will be added to that shortly. He is a Filipino
from Ireland, his Tagalog is very Filipino but his English has a
pretty cool Irish accent. I am excited.
Also, my brother Elder Gagnon gave birth at the beginning of this
transfer to Elder Villa, who is my Nephew, my son will be follow up
training Elder Villa, which makes him Elder Villa's uncle, and that in
turn makes him my brother. I did not know it was possible to have your
son become a brother but it is happening and I am excited to have
Elder Halterman in my Zone! I am super excited!
The area I have been in has struggled for the past 1.5 years, and we
have not had great success in terms of reactivating and baptizing in
the past little bit since I have been here, in March we are planning
to have a lot of things happen, it will be a crazy month. We have
actually had pretty good success at raising the sacrament attendance
the average is 185 for the last year, yesterday it was 227, we are
hoping to get it upto 250 within the next month, we will see what we
can do :)
This last week we had one less day of work because we went upto TayTay
for interviews, that is 4 hours away and 4 hours back, we left our
house at 4:30am in the pouring rain and got back to our area at 8:30pm
and tried to go to a few different investigators, they were all busy
or already asleep. But the rest of the week we were able to get a lot
done in our area. The long trip really makes you tired, I was pretty
physically tired, and I experienced something I was not used to I have
read through experiences of prophets and missionaries being brought
down and spiritually tired a lot in the Book of Mormon. On the ride
home I sat next to two men from Sweden and one from Finland. They were
the worldliest people I have talked to before. I did not know that
people were capable of stooping to the level that they did, they
things they said about God were vile enough to make an Atheist mad. I
came very close to chastizing them, and I could have done so for the
full hour and a half left on the ride, without ceasing. I felt like it
would not do any good, but the things they said honestly made me feel
sick. I came to the realization that the real world still exists..
Well I do not want to end on a bad note, to these guys I never raised
my voice, and just bore testimony of what I knew to be true, even
though they just laughed and treated me like I was stupid. I know that
the things I testified of are true, and that is something I cannot
deny to anyone. It would be an insult to God to deny anything that he
has helped me realize and understand.
On a different note, I am super excited that my little brother was
accepted to BYU, he is going to be swarmed by beautiful modestly
dressed women and will have to tell them all "No!" and "Goodbye my
friends" as he receives his mission call. Well, I want you to know
little Devin, that I love you!
Anyways, I love everyone else too, I hope everything is going well
there in my homeland. I am making a plan to hide in the jungle when my
mission comes to an end, so I do not have to leave, but you can come
visit me after October, I will be on Palawan. :)
Love, Elder Munk
I am doing rather well, and I even remembered to bring my camera
today, and my memory card. Elder Hyde and I went to a crocodile farm
today because he is transfering, I started taking my first picture
when we arrived, and my camera turned off because the battery was
low... So I do not have any pictures from that, but I do have a few
other pictures :) Some of them are a little bit old, but they are
still good.
I am back to full health, I am starting to put weight back on and I am
exercising, so I can be super good looking. Because right now I am too
skinny! I did buy a tub of ice cream though, we are going to eat all
of that later tonight after we get home.
It is transfer week already and I am excited, and a little bit sad
with what will be happening. I am going to miss my kasama Elder Hyde,
and my kapatid Elder Gagnon, it will be a little bit rough. Elder
Gagnon and I have the same trainer, which we call Tatay (dad) and we
also have the same birthday! That is pretty cool, I am about 21 hours
older than him. And he is Canadian. He would make Elder Galbraith
proud.
So far in my mission there have been 5 missionaries that I have seen
and really wanted to be companions with, out of 200 in the mission it
is not likely that I would be assigned with them, one of them has gone
home, and I have been assigned with two of them so far, for a total of
7 months. My next companion will be one off of my list as well. So far
my list that I have been companions with is Elder Vail, Elder Hyde,
and Elder Queribin will be added to that shortly. He is a Filipino
from Ireland, his Tagalog is very Filipino but his English has a
pretty cool Irish accent. I am excited.
Also, my brother Elder Gagnon gave birth at the beginning of this
transfer to Elder Villa, who is my Nephew, my son will be follow up
training Elder Villa, which makes him Elder Villa's uncle, and that in
turn makes him my brother. I did not know it was possible to have your
son become a brother but it is happening and I am excited to have
Elder Halterman in my Zone! I am super excited!
The area I have been in has struggled for the past 1.5 years, and we
have not had great success in terms of reactivating and baptizing in
the past little bit since I have been here, in March we are planning
to have a lot of things happen, it will be a crazy month. We have
actually had pretty good success at raising the sacrament attendance
the average is 185 for the last year, yesterday it was 227, we are
hoping to get it upto 250 within the next month, we will see what we
can do :)
This last week we had one less day of work because we went upto TayTay
for interviews, that is 4 hours away and 4 hours back, we left our
house at 4:30am in the pouring rain and got back to our area at 8:30pm
and tried to go to a few different investigators, they were all busy
or already asleep. But the rest of the week we were able to get a lot
done in our area. The long trip really makes you tired, I was pretty
physically tired, and I experienced something I was not used to I have
read through experiences of prophets and missionaries being brought
down and spiritually tired a lot in the Book of Mormon. On the ride
home I sat next to two men from Sweden and one from Finland. They were
the worldliest people I have talked to before. I did not know that
people were capable of stooping to the level that they did, they
things they said about God were vile enough to make an Atheist mad. I
came very close to chastizing them, and I could have done so for the
full hour and a half left on the ride, without ceasing. I felt like it
would not do any good, but the things they said honestly made me feel
sick. I came to the realization that the real world still exists..
Well I do not want to end on a bad note, to these guys I never raised
my voice, and just bore testimony of what I knew to be true, even
though they just laughed and treated me like I was stupid. I know that
the things I testified of are true, and that is something I cannot
deny to anyone. It would be an insult to God to deny anything that he
has helped me realize and understand.
On a different note, I am super excited that my little brother was
accepted to BYU, he is going to be swarmed by beautiful modestly
dressed women and will have to tell them all "No!" and "Goodbye my
friends" as he receives his mission call. Well, I want you to know
little Devin, that I love you!
Anyways, I love everyone else too, I hope everything is going well
there in my homeland. I am making a plan to hide in the jungle when my
mission comes to an end, so I do not have to leave, but you can come
visit me after October, I will be on Palawan. :)
Love, Elder Munk
February 13th 2012 Letter
Hello po my super awesome family! And my friends who have not gotten
tired of reading my letters :) I love you!
Anyways, this last week has been pretty good, we were able to better
adjust our way of working to fit the mission plan, we are reactivating
all who are willing to come back to church. The way that it is
measured is coming back to church for four consecutive weeks. So far
there are 22 who have been technically reactivated in the last two
weeks in the Puerto Princessa District. That is quite a lot! Our Zone
goal is 48 in February, and we have a couple weeks left.
I really enjoy teaching less active members, because they are a lot
nicer to us than most people we talk to. I like it when people are
nice to me, and I like being nice to people too. We have a list of 17
households that we are visiting which have less actives, or are all
less active. We are trying to find less actives as well, we were able
to teach 8 less actives this last week for the first time. One of them
came to church, and the others, were at least reminded about coming to
church.
Well, due to the concern of Elder Munk's loving Mother, I will let you
know what happened, and why I was sick for approximately but not
exceeded 11 days. I was bit by a mosquito that just so happened to be
carrying around a dengue virus (what are the chances?). I will admit
that it was not fun, it made me super tired, it took me out of action
for almost a full day of work, because I was told to rest. I listened
and rested, until 6, than I could not cure my bordem with anything in
the house, so I went out and worked for 3 hours, it was quite fun and
slightly successful. I am feeling a lot better now, and have regained
my appetite. My appetite has been expensive.
I forgot to bring my card reader today, last week I brought my camera
and card reader, but I still forgot to send pictures. So.. I am sorry
about that.
Elder Munk is a bit excited for this week, we will miss one day of
work because we are going up to TayTay Palawan! After this week I will
have been to every area on Palawan except for 1, but I have been to
the apartment of the missionaries that are in the area that I have not
been in, which is not in their area. Anywho, what I am trying to say,
is Palawan is super long, and have been to the most south area, and
will be going to the most north! (That has missionaries). I will take
some pictures.
I also got some presents! For the females of the family, and I got one
for someone else too, pero, malalaman pa natin kung sino. Because I am
not quite sure who it will be for :)
Anyways, I love you all, and I super love the Book of Mormon, I have
been studying on specific topics and really searching through it. It
is true! And inspired of God, keep reading it! Unless you are not
reading it, than start :)
With much love, (lub)
Elder Munk
tired of reading my letters :) I love you!
Anyways, this last week has been pretty good, we were able to better
adjust our way of working to fit the mission plan, we are reactivating
all who are willing to come back to church. The way that it is
measured is coming back to church for four consecutive weeks. So far
there are 22 who have been technically reactivated in the last two
weeks in the Puerto Princessa District. That is quite a lot! Our Zone
goal is 48 in February, and we have a couple weeks left.
I really enjoy teaching less active members, because they are a lot
nicer to us than most people we talk to. I like it when people are
nice to me, and I like being nice to people too. We have a list of 17
households that we are visiting which have less actives, or are all
less active. We are trying to find less actives as well, we were able
to teach 8 less actives this last week for the first time. One of them
came to church, and the others, were at least reminded about coming to
church.
Well, due to the concern of Elder Munk's loving Mother, I will let you
know what happened, and why I was sick for approximately but not
exceeded 11 days. I was bit by a mosquito that just so happened to be
carrying around a dengue virus (what are the chances?). I will admit
that it was not fun, it made me super tired, it took me out of action
for almost a full day of work, because I was told to rest. I listened
and rested, until 6, than I could not cure my bordem with anything in
the house, so I went out and worked for 3 hours, it was quite fun and
slightly successful. I am feeling a lot better now, and have regained
my appetite. My appetite has been expensive.
I forgot to bring my card reader today, last week I brought my camera
and card reader, but I still forgot to send pictures. So.. I am sorry
about that.
Elder Munk is a bit excited for this week, we will miss one day of
work because we are going up to TayTay Palawan! After this week I will
have been to every area on Palawan except for 1, but I have been to
the apartment of the missionaries that are in the area that I have not
been in, which is not in their area. Anywho, what I am trying to say,
is Palawan is super long, and have been to the most south area, and
will be going to the most north! (That has missionaries). I will take
some pictures.
I also got some presents! For the females of the family, and I got one
for someone else too, pero, malalaman pa natin kung sino. Because I am
not quite sure who it will be for :)
Anyways, I love you all, and I super love the Book of Mormon, I have
been studying on specific topics and really searching through it. It
is true! And inspired of God, keep reading it! Unless you are not
reading it, than start :)
With much love, (lub)
Elder Munk
February 6th 2012 Letter
Hello!
I am Elder Munk.
I saw a sign the other day of a pretty lady and it had in print, "I am
confident, that my name is Jennifer." I guess it is good to be
confident about your name.
Anyways, this last week was the most humbling week of my mission. And
of my life. I never like to admit that I am unable to do something,
because even when things are hard I just grit my teeth and do my best.
I got to the mission home on Thursday and I was told to go to bed, so
thats what I did. We had our meeting then we headed back to the lovely
island of Palawan. We worked for the hour we had left in the day after
our travels and came home. I was told that I could work a little bit,
but I had to take time and rest also. My first thought was "yeah
right!" But I decided it would be good to listen, so I did. I ended up
getting my companion a branch missionary and one of my roomates stayed
home with me, so we could still get work done in both areas. I slept
until 6pm, and it was terrible. I wanted to go out and work so bad. I
ended up getting out at 7 and went to two close appointments and we
came home at 9.
Right now I am feeling a lot better and I have most of my strength
back, I have been sick for a little over a week, and I am pretty
skinny. I went out to eat earlier, as part of my plan to get filled
out again. I had a burger and a burrito, with some chips, because they
were out of fries. I am hopefully going to be fed by the senior couple
later tonight, they are taking care of me. They have a few ideas about
what I might have, but I will let you know once I know for sure. :)
But I feel good. Someone told me I look good too.
We have hit a little bit of a plateau in our work, and we really need
to step things up, the past few days I have not been about to walk
fast, and I have not been myself, so I am excited to get out and work
now that I feel good.
We have a strong directive from the area to reactivate those who have
fallen away, we were able to get 5 back in January and we are hoping
for at least 3 in Febuary. We are struggling to get the branch excited
and involved. They have tons of meetings and plan everything out. But
I think they have that idea in their minds that the missionaries will
take care of everything. Which is a little bit difficult.
In our area in we hardly ever get a full week of work, because we have
meetings, and have to take care of other things, we are expected to
still produce the most, and we are working hard. We did not acheive as
much as we wanted last week, but we are doing our best this week.
We have had some good success in the past few days, it looks like we
will have 5-6 baptisms in Febuary, which is pretty exciting, we are
hoping to find a way to accomplish the same in March. We are not quite
sure how yet..
I have been reading the New Testament in Tagalog recently and it is
super easy to understand, I was kind of disappointed because I heard
it was really hard to read. I am not even that great at the language,
just kind of average, maybe it will get more difficult later on :)
I love you family, hope you are all doing super well, I am excited for
Rachel! Even though I do not get to go on a date with her now... I
think Devin and I will just go up into the mountains where no one
knows, and build a house, and live there together telling manly
stories and staying away from cliffs and wild turkies.
Anyways..
This is from,
Elder Munk
I am Elder Munk.
I saw a sign the other day of a pretty lady and it had in print, "I am
confident, that my name is Jennifer." I guess it is good to be
confident about your name.
Anyways, this last week was the most humbling week of my mission. And
of my life. I never like to admit that I am unable to do something,
because even when things are hard I just grit my teeth and do my best.
I got to the mission home on Thursday and I was told to go to bed, so
thats what I did. We had our meeting then we headed back to the lovely
island of Palawan. We worked for the hour we had left in the day after
our travels and came home. I was told that I could work a little bit,
but I had to take time and rest also. My first thought was "yeah
right!" But I decided it would be good to listen, so I did. I ended up
getting my companion a branch missionary and one of my roomates stayed
home with me, so we could still get work done in both areas. I slept
until 6pm, and it was terrible. I wanted to go out and work so bad. I
ended up getting out at 7 and went to two close appointments and we
came home at 9.
Right now I am feeling a lot better and I have most of my strength
back, I have been sick for a little over a week, and I am pretty
skinny. I went out to eat earlier, as part of my plan to get filled
out again. I had a burger and a burrito, with some chips, because they
were out of fries. I am hopefully going to be fed by the senior couple
later tonight, they are taking care of me. They have a few ideas about
what I might have, but I will let you know once I know for sure. :)
But I feel good. Someone told me I look good too.
We have hit a little bit of a plateau in our work, and we really need
to step things up, the past few days I have not been about to walk
fast, and I have not been myself, so I am excited to get out and work
now that I feel good.
We have a strong directive from the area to reactivate those who have
fallen away, we were able to get 5 back in January and we are hoping
for at least 3 in Febuary. We are struggling to get the branch excited
and involved. They have tons of meetings and plan everything out. But
I think they have that idea in their minds that the missionaries will
take care of everything. Which is a little bit difficult.
In our area in we hardly ever get a full week of work, because we have
meetings, and have to take care of other things, we are expected to
still produce the most, and we are working hard. We did not acheive as
much as we wanted last week, but we are doing our best this week.
We have had some good success in the past few days, it looks like we
will have 5-6 baptisms in Febuary, which is pretty exciting, we are
hoping to find a way to accomplish the same in March. We are not quite
sure how yet..
I have been reading the New Testament in Tagalog recently and it is
super easy to understand, I was kind of disappointed because I heard
it was really hard to read. I am not even that great at the language,
just kind of average, maybe it will get more difficult later on :)
I love you family, hope you are all doing super well, I am excited for
Rachel! Even though I do not get to go on a date with her now... I
think Devin and I will just go up into the mountains where no one
knows, and build a house, and live there together telling manly
stories and staying away from cliffs and wild turkies.
Anyways..
This is from,
Elder Munk
January 2nd 2012 - January 30th 2012
January 30th 2012 Letter
Hello! This week turned out to be quite fun, we worked super hard and found some success, of course we got rejected a lot more than we got accepted, but we got accepted more than normal. We found about 10 new people who I would consider pretty good potential, out of the 20 new people we taught, and we will follow up with all of them to make sure. Last week was a bit of a rough week, we worked super hard and only 2 people came to church. One of which is moving to Manila on Friday and the other needs to be married before she can be baptized. We were definitely happy they came, even though they were late, they made it to Sacrament, which is often last in the Philippines, because everyone is late to everything. This week we had 12 investigators at church, we are hoping for 8 to be baptized on the 25th of February, which is the Morales family, Mike, our investigator who thinks he is a Muslim and Queenie, who is the one who needs to be married first. They all want to be baptized we just are worried about drinking problems with Tatay Morales. If everything is going well than February 25th will be a super awesome day, if not everything goes well it still should be super awesome. I have never baptized that many people on the 25th of February before... Or any other day. My tooth is fine, the dentist here is super good, my tooth is still alive :) it is just 1/3 alive, which is less than half dead but still alive. Meaning.. well.. I am not sure. But he said it looks good. The tooth next to it is fine, I can even put ice on it and it does not hurt :) I am feeling super good and healthy now, I did get sick on Saturday though, from what I think was food poisoning, I did not eat much that day, because it did not stay down. A few days before Elder Hyde quoted his football coach, "You will pass out before you die! So do not make any excuses till than!" I was not sick when he said that, but when he asked me if I needed to go back home to rest at all, so I said that back to him, and we worked till 9:30. It was in the top three hardest days of my mission, I was a little bit dizzy and taught in a few houses with metal roofs and no electric fans, and it was super hot, but I have always felt that when you do your best dispite of the circumstances than you will be blessed. I got home that night and lied down in Elder Coopers bed, because his has an electric fan and mine does not, he got frustrated with me and told me to get out, I just laughed and told him I love him, when I got out of his bed to go throw up in the toilet he took his bed back. But I figured out a way to get the breeze to reach me. (Mommy you are not allowed to be worried, I am taking care of myself :) ) When I woke up on Sunday I felt almost 100% That is what happened this week, it was pretty fun, the chapel currently (as of yesterday's attendance) room to seat 22 more fully grown bums, so we have a goal to fill those up, and have to set up chairs. In one area in my last zone the whole branch is involved in reactivating and fellowshipping investigators, they are doing such a great job. They set up chairs inside the chapel and outside by the windows, because they cannot fit everyone inside, it is awesome! One of my friends also passed away a couple days ago, he was the branch president of the Rizal district. He was only 34 years old, and I believe Saturday morning his wife tried to wake him up, and he would not wake up. I had many chances to work with him, and I did the interviews for the converts being baptized in that branch for 3 months. He is a great man, and was very dedicated to serving. His family from what I hear is being taken well care of, and the branch including all the less actives came to church, the biggest problem in the Philippines is people going less active, and not coming to church, every single less active was at church in Rizal yesterday. My good friend Elder Gillette (who was in my BYU Mission Prep class) has been there for a long time and is doing very well. I love you very much family, include the Juan family in your prayers. That is the former branch president of Rizal's family. Elder Munk
January 23rd 2012 Letter
Hello po!
This last week has been a little bit crazy, I was planning on it being
a super good week, and in some aspects it was, but it some other
aspects it was a hard week. I have been exhausted since I left home,
but this week was the most exhausting so far.
We found a lot of people who seemed to be open, and who have us return
appointments, some even told us to make sure to come every week and
make sure not to miss an appointment. We went to them at the time they
promised to be there, they were there, but they would not open the
door. That is kind of how our whole week went. We had planned to have
a crazy awesome baptism on February 18th, with between 6-11 people
getting baptized, everything was going well and everyone was just
golden. After what happened in the past two days there is a
possiblility of 1 on the 18th, but it is one that we considered to be
the least likely. We will see how everything goes...
I have not let myself get discouraged, but I have been disappointed a
little bit, I know there is a lot more good that can happen, and if it
can that means it should, and if it should that means it will in my
mind, until someone can prove otherwise. Every single time we leave a
lesson with anyone, I look over at my companion and tell him I am
excited for them, sometimes I say "I want to baptize them!" Elder Hyde
always answers back with a laugh, "Well you want to baptize everyone!"
This week has been rough, but some things have gone well, our recent
convert who I call mom just texted us a referral a few seconds ago, I
am super excited to go to their referral :) Referrals lead to good
things, from what I have experienced, about 6/7 referrals are excited
the first lesson and the second lesson they hide from you, and pretend
like they are not home. The other 1/7 tries to hide but gets caught,
and has to let you teach them, because they are too nice to lie and
say they are busy when they are not (Missionaries know when you are
lying) most of those who let you teach them that second time learn
that missionaries are people too, and continue to the point where they
know they need to be baptized. 1/2 of the 1/7 get baptized, the others
do not because of influence from family members and from neighbors. I
have a good feeling about this referral, I do not know them, but I
think I have seen their house before. It is made out of bamboo and big
linkin' logs.
Also, I think I should tell you this, but I am slightly hesitant.. I
would not call it a surgery, maybe just an operation.. Well whatever
you call it, I had it. I will tell you a story, so you can understand.
Last April I got a toothache, I did not want to spend the money to get
it looked at, and I did not trust the dentists in Manila to even look
inside of my mouth, let alone touch anything, or drill anything. I did
not really have any money either. So I decided to deal with the pain,
I dealt with it for 9 months, everyday it hurt and was slightly
distracting. Especially when cold things touched it, the pain was bad
enough to make you clench your fists, and occasionally make funny
faces and smack the table. I was told that there was a good dentist in
Puerto, who was as good as in America, so I decided to go see him. I
learned new Tagalog, that you likely would not learn outside of a
Dentist, and he took a picture of my tooth, with a cool mouth camera.
It was cool looking, and my enamel was still perfect, but the inside
was a little damaged. He had another patient, so he made me come back
the next day, he gave me two options, to remove the tooth, or to get a
root canal, I, being the tooth lover that I am decided to keep my
tooth, he cut half of my tooth off and than drilled and dis-in-pulped
my tooth, when we were done he said that my tooth was the most damaged
he had ever seen, (Dentists see lots of teeth) I laughed and gave him
a big smile. Right now my tooth is still only 1/2 a tooth, but it
feels so good, I even put ice on it just because I do not remember a
time when it did not hurt to do so. But anyways, my tooth feels really
good, and I am loving life.
Well that is part of my week, yesterday for the first time in my
mission I went to bed before 10, I usually get to bed late, I still
feel really drug(dragged) down and tired, but I am happy, I am always
happy, so life is good, I love my family, I love the Philippines, and
I love being tired, because if I did not life would be terrible,
anyways, have a good day, keep on keepin' on.
Love you('s)
Elder MunkJanuary 16th 2012 Letter
Hello! Today has been pretty exciting, for the past few months I have forgotten to bring my camera with me to the computer shop, we had a baptism that occured two days ago, they are a super awesome family and I love them so much. They are my family in Puerto. I have a family in every area :) Three of them where baptized, and I have a story to tell. Once in Quezon we had a baptism that happened after sacrament meeting, because the candidate was sick the day before. People tried to leave to go home, but there was a man with a lauching slingshot-ish knife and a fork outside the church, he launched the slingshot-ish knife at a member, and than everyone went inside and watched the baptism. (In the Philippines we hardly ever get anyone to come to baptisms) The room was not big enough for everyone, so people watched the baptism from outside the windows. It was super awesome! This last baptism had a whole lot of people too! Not everyone could fit inside the room. (About three times the size of a normal sunday school classroom at home) There was a broadcast before the baptism which was given by the Area Presidency, including Elder Ardern, who I had met a couple months ago. We did not all fit in the room, and the Morales family (investigators) even came to the baptism! We have only had 1 other person baptized since I have been here, and he performed the baptism. He took work of that night, and because he did so he could not get it off to go to church. But we were still super excited to teach him. As most people know, whether from being a missionary or rejecting missionaries, missionaries get rejected a whole lot. More often than not. Most people that let them in once will not let them come back. I have learned that over and over, just about everyday for the last year. We had some good experiences with finding people who are ready in the last few days. We found a Muslim (he says he is Muslim but he is a little confused) who believes in Christ. He never really had a super strong desire to know about God, or to grow closer to Christ. He is a really good person though. He joined Islam, I am not sure why . But we taught him, and he kept telling us that it is just now that he is having an interest, he came to church and at the end he told me he will be at church every week. And he keeps asking us how he can become a member. We usually end up trying to push people forward and give them direction and commitments, with him we are trying to slow things down a bit so he can have enough time to fully understand everything. The work is going well here, I am trying to speed it up, so I can meet what is called the standard of excellence in the mission. Our president expects all the zone leaders to do so by the middle of Febuary. And than the other areas will follow. It is set pretty high, but we are pretty close to reaching the goals we have set. It is really fun and we are seeing the fruits from working hard and we are starting to enjoy being exhausted. Because if we did not enjoy it we would always be miserable. The work continues to go forward. And we are loving it! Even though there is no (as in 0) Mcdonalds on the island of Palawan. :) Love, Elder Munk
January 9th, 2012 Letter
Hello po! Today is the week of transfers, based on the fact that I was just in Manila and they flew me back here means I will likely be staying here. One of the Palawan Zone leaders was left in Manila. Elder Munk is doing super well, this last week has been very tiring though, I have not had much time to sleep, and no time to rest, so I am still sick just like last week, but I am doing alright and getting many things done. I ate at Chili's a few days ago, and it was super delicious, there are not very many fast food places on Palawan.. So it is fun to be in Manila once a month, just to be able to eat. In my first area (which is pretty small) there are 7 Mcdonalds. There are none on this island. But there is a Pizza place. It is pretty delicious, but it is also expensive. Speaking of food, I would appreciate it if I could get some simple recipes, that are healthy, do not take much time, and are fairly cheap... If it is possible to get all of those together. I am eating a lot of eggs, as well as Tuna and Sardines, but I would not mind mixing it up to much. My budget is about $4 per day on food. In this last week I have travel to Manila and back, than to Narra and back, and to Roxas.. and back. The work seemed to take a little bit of a hit because of the lack of time in my area. But we actually found a lot of success, our at sacrament attendance was about 3 times more than average, and it seems like they will keep coming. I am really excited for the upcoming weeks. There will also be a baptism on Saturday, a family of three. The father of the family will be getting baptized later, he wanted his family to be first, so he can have time to prepare more fully. Well, in better words to start preparing. You need to start before you can continue, he is a little bit makulit, but he is slowing moving in the right direction. He keeps getting made at his wife though, for making him milk instead of coffee. Here you have to "make milk" because it is almost all powder. Unless you are rich, than you can has the super pasterized stuff. But there is no fresh milk for sale here.. Speaking of fresh milk, I had a really awkward experience the other day. But we can talk about that later... It is in my journal. I did not realize how misinformed most people are about the church. I hear new things all the time about the "Mormons" how we will burn in hell as false prophets, and worship a different god, and teach incest. Anyways, it has been pretty crazy, and everyone we have taught has been yelled at by someone, or have been gotten mad at. By relatives, or by random people who have seen us go into their homes. I have found the best way to deal with that is to laugh a bit, because most of the time I cannot help it. The things the say are ridiculious. I have found my natural reaction of laughing makes others laugh to, and I think it clicks in their minds better that the things that the have heard are absurd, and just used by others to try to tear down the Church of Jesus Christ. I do not think they realized that they are not able to, it actually strengthens more of our investigators. It also helps them gain trust in us, because the lose the ability to trust those who try to bring down and attack our church. I have really been enjoying studying the scriptures, I always do, but I have a lot in the last little bit. I enjoy scriptures that are very direct and do not beat around the bush. I found that I usually teach that way, I tell people how it is and teach the doctrine. I do not go overboard and offend people but I think I am getting better at being able to help people feel the need to change. I enjoy teaching, and have a whole lot to work on, and I feel inadequate quite often. But I can see myself improving, and I always have fun. I can tell when my companion is having a rough time when we get punted a lot, or rejected a lot. I will throw out words of encouragement, like "This will be fun! The next family we find wwill be a family of 17!" I learned at a young age that huge families exist. And I was also taught by Brother Callens why big families exist. Especially on farms in Idaho. Well we have not found a family of 17 yet, because that would be pretty unheard of, but we did find a family of two, and a family of five. Also! Congratulations Rachel Chumley! I was caught by suprise a little bit.. Just make sure he is good enough for you, cause if he is not.. I will have to have a word with him. I trust your judgement, but I have a protective keep Rachel safe instinct. I love you Rachel :) I love you too family, keep my updated on how everything is going! Love, Elder Munk
January 2nd, 2012 Letter
Hello Family!
This last week has been a bit crazy, but some super awesome things happened. I made a goal to get to bed on time in December, because we have been super busy and cannot seem to make it in bed by 10:30pm. On December 31st, I made it in bed at 10:29 with about 26 seconds to spare. I did not make it any other day in December, but I am working on it.. January I will go for two nights.
In my days down in Quezon I helped reactivate a family, they lived far away on a white tropical beach, with lots of fire flies. They were far away from anyone else we were teaching, and no one else there would listen to us. We decided to take the time to go to them, and I really loved their family. They even have a grandkid named Moroni, thats pretty awesome. They started coming back to church and were pretty good about being there everyweek. I left Quezon and came upto Puerto, and was out tao-po'ing doors, and we found a family with the same last name, I immediately felt a strong connection to them and really just lit up with excitement. We started teaching them, and everything just happened perfectly, the parents came to church and the kids will next week (they were tired from new years) they are currently being fellowshipped by some of our other investigators who still have a bit of time before they will get baptized. They are progressing well and are really enjoying learning new things. The only thing that stands in their way is Word of Wisdom, which I believe they will 'iwas' in the next few days.
I really enjoyed talking to my family, even though I could not understand much, I saw some of the Christmas pictures though. Tasha looks super healthy! Well at least a whole lot healthier, and I was super excited to see that. Devin looks tired/on drugs, Trevor looks like a stud, have you been working out Trevor? Mommy and Daddy look like they have aged... I still love you parents! But you do look older than I remember.. :) I was told that you would before I made it back home.
When I get out and work, I work like I just got here, I still think everyone I teach will be getting baptized, and everything will turn out perfectly all the time. I am not sure why, because a whole lot more often than not we get rejected, and sometimes picked on a little bit, by drunk people half our size. But I am really happy, everyday, even though I am always tired.
Also they are playing a band that Dad and I love in the computer shop right now! I need a second to remember who they are, because.. I cannot right now.. Oh yes! I got it now, you will probably laugh at me for forgetting.. Its Dire Straights. I cannot believe I forgot that...
We had a pretty good new years, because Palawan is part of the Manila mission we had to go home at 6pm. It is not dangerous on Palawan, except for what happened to this one guy... But we do not need to go into any details.. In Manila everyone goes crazy, and lots of people get beat, killed, shot, stabbed, and dance like crazy people. So we played frisbee within the gates of our apartment, and washed laundry. It was pretty fun. The fireworks were below average, so we just played games instead. Then I went to bed on time!
It is weird to think that I am going home this year, someone told me I was yesterday, I almost threw my shoe at him, I am glad that it is closer to the end of the year.
Also, I made a goal to gain weight, my companion is trying to lose weight, I hope we all have some very good new years resolutions that we will accomplish. I know Devin has at least a couple. I want to be as manly as Devin when I get home. As part of my manly goal I have been exercising better, we woke up at 5:30 to go play basketball and we ran (I did, I kept running ahead and running back) the way there, and Elder Hyde and I ran back. I was sweating so much, my shirt weighed about 5 lbs, which is more than it was earlier... I have been sick for the past few days and thought running and jumping would knock all of the chunky goopy stuff out of my lungs.. It actually did not, it was just really hard to breath, and super tiring. But fun, it a painful, slighlty enjoyable way.
Anyways, I am not sure how much of this made sense, I hope it made at least a little bit. :)
Love you (in the plural)!
Elder Munk
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