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 Munk

January 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