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
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