June 16, 2010

hola familia!

 

it was great to hear from you, once again. mom, don't worry about not being able to write me. i understand, just don't let it happen again.... haha just kidding. it's great to hear you are having fun and enjoying the things around San Antonio. i'm glad you've had some good success too dad! congrats.

 

well, don't worry about the dentist! there was no problems. i didn't even have a cavity! what i was worried about turns out to merely be wearing down of my tooth. just from grinding my teeth. so there's no need to worry. the dentist was a member and he was really cool! he quoted scriptures when he talked to me and talked about living to the age of a tree and then POOF! haha it's a great blessing that i have that tax return money so that you can pay for my leftover hospital bills! i hope that's all taken care of now. does it seem like there are any more?

 

well this week has come and gone rather fast. next week is transfers and we're all a little anxious to see what they're going to do. this next transfer is only going to be 2 weeks long. and then... the merger! they are going to combine the two missions and who knows where i could be sent at that transfer. i'm really hoping that i stay here in the south city. i love it here. but i'm trying to remember that wherever i'm sent is where i need to be and that keeps my hopes up pretty well. i'm going to be sad losing president and sister Roach though. they are great and although i haven't had much time with them, i do love and respect them a lot. they are amazing people.

 

so a few awesome missionary things.... my companion and i were tracting before our appointment. the time was close to our appointment and so we stopped in the middle of this block and headed to our bikes. then, both elder rapier and i recieved phone calls (they merged the areas and we still have 2 phones) from our next 2 appointments. they both canceled on us! they were both member appointments and we thought they were going to be pretty solid, so that just opened up almost 2 hours of time in our day! i laughed about it and looked at my companion. i told him "there HAS to be someone on this block that the Lord wants us to find!" so we left our bikes and got back to tracting instead of finding other types of missionary work to do. we continued on and met a few different people and set up come-back appointments. 2 houses from the end of the block we walked to the backyard to knock on the back door. this lady was sitting outside and at first we startled her. then she looked so happy to see us and welcomed us in her house. we were a little, okay very, confused at this hospitality. she seemed to know exactly who we were. once we started talking to her we found out that she had known missionaries, who baptized her 2 daughters, FIFTEEN years ago! she was excited to see us and introduced us to her 2 grand children. this woman and these two kids are great people. i'm so excited that we were blessed to meet them. they should be coming to church with us this sunday and hopefully we can help remind her of the truth our message has and she'll be baptized. the two kids are super cute and friendly. we taught them the 10 commandments with hand signals. it was really fun.

 

another thing that i wanted to share with you was part of my studies. i was reading "our search for happiness" and Elder ballard was sharing his testimony and an experience that he had that changed his life. he said it wasn't anything huge, just a feeling that came to him one moment where he KNEW the church was true and that Christ really was his Savior. as i read his testimony i started thinking about my own. i reflected on the moment in my life where i KNEW my Savior. i knew that he lived and loved me very much. i hadn't reflected on this experience recently, and i felt guilty for that. i began to think about my testimony and evaluate my actions. this thought process changed a lot of things for me! i know that we need to LIVE in accordance to our testimonies. i feel several times i evaluate myself and think about if i am living the testimony that i have. every day since then i remember my experience when i knew my Savior. every day i remember it and it brings an enormous amount of strength to me. whenever i have a doubt, hard day, or any sort of issue, i remember and it fills my heart with joy.

 

i'd love to invite you all to write down your testimonies. write anything and everything that you want to about your own personal testimony. and then when you finish, read over it and ask yourselves if you are living in accordance to this testimony, what you can do to improve, and what you can do to strengthen your testimony. mom told me that Gabby Cunningham talked about something similar to this, but now it's personal to me :)

 

i love you all and hope all is well! take care and i'll talk to ya next week!

elder munoz

 

p.s. the Flick family sent me a package!! tell them thank you so very much. the cookies were delicious and i'm HONORED to use the tie they sent as a "burn tie" :) haha they are great!

June 9th Letter with Photos!

this week my letter isn't going to be as long as usual, BUT it's because i'm working on adding some pictures for you all to have! so i hope that evens things out. 

i'm glad to know that everyone is doing well! and learning lessons (mom's doughnut story and ambers knitting). it sounds like everyone is staying super busy too! wow mom you're going to be doing youth conference and then girls camp the following week? pretty intense. and dad, starting up a new branch over in Laraedo? whew. stay strong everyone! haha don't be too busy to enjoy the blessings of life though :) there was a talk in this months Ensign about not always being in a hurry. it was a good one.

haha mom why do you think it's funny if i learn crochet?? never saw that one coming did you? well i haven't learned yet. but i know the basics of knitting. my district leader and i just went on exchanges yesterday and apparently he knits a lot in his little spare time. he's made several hats and scarfs and bags. so i'm looking forward to learning to be more skillful with my knitting like him. i also laughed when you told me about Aunt Pauline calling you to remind you about posting my emails. i love her. hi Aunt Pauline! i love and miss you! hope all is well :)

so this past week has been good. my companion and i have found some very potential people to investigate the church. and that's always exciting when you can find new people to share the gospel with. it's sometimes intimidating because i want to talk to EVERYONE and i want them all to enjoy the blessings of having the true gospel of Jesus Chirst in their lives. it seems to be an overwhelming task. but i know that if i do my best effort, that will be enough. and i know that although sometimes it makes me sad, the truth is that not everyone is going to except the gospel. the important thing is that i don't get discouraged, and i rely on the Spirit to lead me to those who will listen to the message that i have to share with them.

we are unable to make frequent visits with Rebecca because she is getting ready for cancer treatment, and then she'll be sick for several days afterward. but we did talk to her again and she shared a great experience she had with prayer, and her doubts of God have vanished! we were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and she said that she will be reading it a lot during her recooperation process. she is going through a hard time in life, but i know that the BOM will help her in so many great ways. and i am excited to hear from her again when she is better.

you get to meet and talk to SO many different people on a mission. i'm so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord in this part of Chicago. it's incredible to serve people. as i come to realize more and more that we are all children of God, i understand better the meaning that we are all brothers and sisters. it's incredible to have a testimony of that. it makes things so much more personal and rewarding because you truly desire the welfare of all those around you. we need to be doing our part wherever we may be so that we can help our brothers and sisters in whatever we can. little acts of service can have SUCH a grand impact on someone. i'm trying to focus on building my capacity to love. something everyone can strive to improve is their charity towards others. it's extremly needed today in the society that we live. it's rare to see people who will give up a moment of "their" time to help another. so i hope you all look daily for opportunities that you can give a little bit of yourself to help another. whether it be your time, or a listening ear, or a helping hand.

i love you all! thanks for the love you send.

elder munoz

June 2, 2010

Hello Family!

yeah i loved the package, but as for anything else, i think i'm getting along just fine. BUT i did want to ask for a favor from you all! i sent home that extra triple combination home because i didn't know why i would need two. and guess what? now i need it! haha Jesus, the man i baptized a few weeks ago is doing great in the church. he's really awesome and had asked about how he can get a copy of D&C to use and read. well, i figured that it would be awesome to give him my extra one! so if you wouldn't mind sending that sometime when you get the chance, it'd be greatly appreciated.

 

don't worry about the dentist dad. i haven't seen one yet but i've talked to the mission presidents wife and i should be having an appointment soon. if i have to i'll just pull it out myself! hopefully it won't come to that but Tom Hanks did it on Castaway, and i think i remember how he did it... i wouldn't even have to be that primative about it! :)

 

things are going great here. just enjoying missionary life. it's been miracle after miracle. we were looking for a place to do some tracting because we had an appointment cancel on us. we were just riding our bikes and i was trying to find a place that felt like... success! well, we found a street, chose a side, and locked up our bikes. after only a few houses of rejection, we found Rebecca sitting on her porch listening to her i-pod. and she's AWESOME. right now she's fighting cancer, and it's really sad. BUT she is staying strong and faithful. she has been looking into different churches but ultimately has just been trying to keep a strong relationship with God. well we talked to her for a while and taught her on her porch. we really felt blessed to have been led right into her and have high hopes for helping her obtain a testimony of the restoration. she's a very sincere girl (22) and we look forward to seeing her again this week. sometimes it's incredible to see the strength that others have and it's inspiring for me to keep pressing forward!

 

my companion and i also had another great opportunity to serve someone we're teaching. i've told you about another lady that has been struggling to provide for her two kids, and there is no father figure around. well we've been meeting with her and we found out that her son's 4th birthday was coming up! considering their circumstances, they weren't going to be able to do much other than hopefully enjoy a good day at the park to celebrate. my companion and i knew that we couldn't let this boy have a birthday with not even a cake! so that evening we baked a cake, using food coloring to make the cake blue! and the frosting we made purple, green, and orange (it was definitely an "elders" cake). we wrote "feliz cumpleanos alex!" and dropped it off with them. we haven't met with her since then but we hope that they enjoyed it and that it brought them some hope. it's amazing how much you get to help Heavenly Father reach down to his children in both small and big ways.

 

well dad just so you know my spanish is coming along pretty well! feel free to write me a spanish letter. i'm pretty good at understanding written spanish, i can speak it the best when i'm talking about the gospel, and i've improved a lot in my listening. the hard part is that when i listen to people, for me to understand it i'm always a few moments behind what they are saying. because i have to process somethings in my head. so the difficult part is that when they are talking and then ask me a question, i slightly pannic! haha i get nervous because i'm still figuring out what they said and THAT'S the hard part/struggle. but you can send me a letter in spanish! esta bien. me encanta a leer en espanol porque tengo mas tiempo para pensar! tambien, necesito practicar escribiendo en espanol. no tengo mucho oportunidad para escribir.

 

we've been working hard and the last two days were PACKED with appointments. and when something fell through we were able to find other people to teach by contacting or tracting. fun stuff :)

 

well today my companion made Jamaica(or something like that) which was cool! it's a drink that's made from boiling a flower in water (obviously)! it's delicious and he was pretty proud of himself. i made brownies(super easy...)!

 

i'm thrilled about your FHE group! that's really cool! i've been studying the conference ensign like you guys, and it's been incredible. there are SO many talks about strenghtening the family and the home. that's where it all starts! and i love the talks from the First Presidency in the priesthood session about patience, diligence, and preparation. there are so many wise words and they are all directed to us! as i've told you i'm studying the BOM for the second time while being out here, and i think it's so cool that i can study the words of both ancient and living prophets. WAY cool. President Boyd K. Packer was talking about "The Power of the Priesthood", but he also talked about the sisters. after talking about the responsibility priesthood holders have, he said "i include thie sisters because it is crucial for everyone to understand what is expected of the brethren. unless we enlist the attention of the mothers and daughters and sisters- who have influence on their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers- we cannot progress. the priesthood will lose great power if the sisters are neglected." everyone in the family has a very important role. all of us should be there to strengthen and love each other. we also should strengthen ourselves. i like when Elder Holland reminds us, "if a tv show is indecent, turn it off. if a movie is crude, walk out. if an improper relationship is developing, sever it... an old proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so watch your step."

 

well i love you all. i must be going now! take care

elder munoz