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. :)
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