Elder Munoz: April 2010

Hello family!!!

it's been a week since i've left the mtc! i've been working in Chicago for a while! ah exciting news!! where do i even start?

my companion is Elder Rios. His family is from Guatemala but he's actually from L.A. he's a great elder. i'm his first son! that means that i'm the first that he's trained on his mission. and i'm going to be there when he dies! that means that his mission will be over. we'll only be here together for this one transfer, then his 2 years are up. so i'm a little disappointed with that because usually you're with your trainer for a few transfers.

i love chicago. it's sometimes scary because i feel like i'm living in this game called Grand Theft Auto. you probably don't know what it is but maybe you can get a younster to explain it. my first area is in the city! and i'm surrounded by hispanic people. it's like 90% spanish here where my area is. some people are scary because they look at you like they want to hurt you, or they eye your bike up and down when you're locking it. i over heard one guy telling his friend that he stabbed someone... haha but don't worry!!! although i'm not invincible, if i do what the Lord has asked of me, i will be safe. it's really sad though. there is so much evil in the world. so many of the young girls have babies. and there are so many kids that have tattoos or piercings. we live across the street from like an elementary school and i can here them outside in the mornings during personal study. i hear little kids saying the worst words! and even a grown woman who works here at the library was having a conversation using the F word. yes, the F word (reference from the office). and much more things... we're not allowed to be out at night unless we have set appointments. it makes me sad. BUT don't you worry about me. don't take this negatively. the way i think about it is like i'm in the Book of Mormon! hahaha and i have a great desire to bring the gospel to the Lamanites, my brethren. that's what i'm here to do! called of God.

i have been here for only one week and i've already seen miracles! it's incredible! my companion and i have been working hard and talking to as many people as we are able to. wanna hear my first miracle? too bad. it's personal. kidding. here it is...

well as we were knocking doors we were about to change areas, get on our bikes and go somewhere else. BUT i saw a young man walking down the street on the opposite side. we almost didn't talk to him but i really wanted to for some reason. so i walked across and talked to him. we set up an appointment for Sunday evening to go back. well sunday evening came, we locked our bikes near his house and went to knock on the door. guess what?? he wasn't there... but you know what i knew i was supposed to do?! look around to see if God had placed anyone in our path, because he already knew that Gabriel wasn't going to be home. and guess what happened?? nobody was around... so we went to unlock our bikes and were going to visit another home. as i was unlocking my bike, guess what happened?? dogs came out of nowhere on the other side of the fence and were barking and growling at me! i was using a U shaped lock that was hooked around the fence. i had everything i needed except that part of the lock. i couldn't get it back around the fence because the dogs would be able to bite me. as i was struggling to figure out what to do, one of the two dogs bit my lock, carried it about ten yards inside the fence, dropped it, and came back to bark at me. AH! i HAVE to have my lock because we had more appointments that night, and i dont have another lock anyway, and you can't NOT have a lock on your bike or it will get jacked (stolen)! my comp and i stood there trying to figure out our options. the person who lived there wasn't home. we knocked on the neighbors door and they let us have a broom. the broom 1. didn't reach and 2. the dogs would bite at it. we spent about 20 minutes trying to work something out. guess who comes walking down the street? GABRIEL! our appointment! i walk up to him and talk to him and he looks like there's something wrong and tells me something like he didn't really want to talk to us right now (this was in spanish so i kinda had to guess what he actually said). at this point i'm laughing at the situation i'm in and try to tell him about the dogs and my lock, although i don't know the spanish vocab so he couldn't understand. i had my companion talk to him as i tried to figure out the situation. just then the owner came out of the back house, and he gave us the lock. we ended up talking to Gabriel and we taught him the 1st lesson outside of his house. we found out that he's 18 years old and lives alone here because his family is back home in Mexico. he had just gotten back from breaking up with his girlfriend. we also found out that he doesn't really have any friends because all he does is work. he needs a friend and he needs the gospel. i KNOW that this was an orchestrated miracle for us to stay there and talk with him. we visit him again tomorrow morning and i'm really excited about it! he's such a great kid! we're going to ask him to be baptized for sure.

i've had another miracle happen. we went to another appointment and she wasn't there. so i looked around to see the first person i could talk to. some man had walked out of his house 2 doors down. i immediately walked toward him to talk to him. usually people keep walking or hurry on their way when they see us missionaries coming (haha) but he stood and waited for me as i said hello. my companion and i started talking to him and he was WAY nice and receptive. he liked the work that we were doing. we set up a time to teach the first lesson. then a Paleta guy, or ice cream cart pusher man, came by. the man insisted and bought us both some ice cream and went on his way. my comp and i sat on the sidewalk just for a minute to eat the popsicles. as we were eating them, the lady that we had the original appointment with, Patricia, walked out of the house! we talked to her and she said she was sorry and she must have been in the back yard when we knocked. she happily agreed to have us come back. okay so that was a miracle but it gets better. we go back to talk to this nice man who bought us Paletas. his name is Jesus (in english it sounds like hey-zeus). well we taught him the first lesson and it went great! he was way interactive and receptive. guess what? he agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, he doesn't work sundays and will come to church with us, AND said he would prepare to be baptized on May 1st! AH! we already have investigators preparing to be baptized! super exciting. and the lady that i talked about, Patricia, we went to her house and she wasn't there again. but her son said she was down the street on the corner getting her hair done. we walked there, walked inside and started talking to her. it was so funny because she was in there getting her hair done while we asked where the heck she was haha. although it seems like she's not entirely interested, she is a way funny/nice woman and i think she's just been busy. i really have a good feeling about her. her personality would be great in the church! i feel like she'd be way involved.

well i'm not gonna write too much more because i want to go play soccer! and we're late already. but i'll say a few more things.

i almost forgot!!! when i arrived at the first place i would be staying at, i was so frustrated. yeah the house is really old, but it was just way messy and stuff just because of missionaries! ah it was way messy. there was stuff everywhere, i could barely walk around and you couldn't sit on the furniture without sitting on stuff. BUT i cleaned it up. mom, annie, you should be way proud! family, you may think i'm messy but i cannot stand to live in a messy house! so i cleaned every room. i was eager to get to work, and i didn't want to waste time cleaning, but this had to be done. the spirit would struggle to live there. we have been told to keep our homes clean, a place similar to the temple where the spirit thrives! so the second day i had to do it. we cleaned (mainly me...). i put tons of things in trash boxes and bags. mom, i even MOVED the furniture to vacuum under. i organized things, threw things away, wiped things down, and vacuumed. there's a closet that has all sorts of church pass-along cards, pamphlets and such, it was even a mess. all the papers and things were everywhere. guess what? i organized that too! it felt great.

chicago rocks! i'm on a bike and it's crazy riding on all the streets with so many cars and stuff. most houses have different families in the basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor, and attick. the weather is crazy. sunny, rainy, chilly, all sorts. i get SOAKED when we bike in the rain of course.

i love you all! mom and dad, i'm only allowed to write one email so please forward this to others. to annie too.annieanderson132@gaggle.net i THINK. devin and amber and jeremy and dad and mom, i miss ya'll. love you!!

love elder munoz.

p.s. i'll probably be needing some short sleeve shirts soon. also send some good, cheap recipies :) love you!