September 23, 2010

hey there family!

 

how's it hangin? 

 

i'll try to send some pictures next week. i'll probably be able to send a CD or something. my new area is a lot less mexican... haha i'm not sure. it's about the same size as my last, which is small. i think this is the smallest area of the mission! it's still city which, i really like. there's a lot of different people to talk to. on the hispanic side there are people from all over which i've mentioned before. what's interesting about this area is that it is covered by another companionship as well! kinda strange. they live a few blocks from us, and then two stories above them is where the english elders live. so it's a whole lot of fun to have them so close so we can do things together like lunches and dinners. and if we need to use the bathroom and their house is closer, we have a key there. it's pretty cool.

 

well family, things have been exciting this week. my companion and i have been working hard to find new people to teach. and sunday we found 3, monday 3 and tuesday 2 new investigators. i was so happy! it's such a great feeling to find new people that are interested in hearing the wonderful message that we bring. hopefully these people will continue to learn and grow in the gospel. my comp and i are trying to improve our teaching skills so that we are able to help these people understand the great importance of knowing that God has called a prophet.

 

we also went to the temple yesterday! how awesome is that? it was such a great peaceful experience. i would like to see how many different temples i can go to. that would be a fun trip. mom didn't you mention that the burnhams or someone would take a roadtrip and stop at all the temples on the way? that's neat. so how has it been for you guys working at the temple? do you think that it's gonna happen? 

well i'm really excited about the general conference coming up! it's going to be so great to hear the words of prophets and apostles again. and it's cool because i understand myself better as a missionary and how the people here in chicago are. so i am hoping that i will be able to learn many new things and apply them to myself here in the mission as well as to those who i am and will teach. 

 

welp i love you all! thanks for all you do! i hope all is, and will continue to be, well!

until next week....

e. mUNoZ

September 15, 2010

Hey there fam!

what's up? sounds like a lot! i'm glad that everyone seems to be learning a lot! that's great. mom i thought it was hilarious that you said you "ducked out" of choir. you crazy kids :)

well things are going the same here. we've been trying to find the elect but they're well hidden! haha sometimes things are difficult, but my companion and i have been able to keep up our attitudes and press forward. we found a part member family that has a lot of potential! i think i mentioned them last week. they say that they have a desire to come back to church and hopefully they will progress and we can get the father and son baptized. we also found a really great guy while tracting and we'll meet with him again on sunday. he said that he likes to read and that he would begin the Book of Mormon. hopefully he fulfills his commitments and feels the Spirit while reading!

my companion and i went with a several missionaries to the chicago aquarium! it was incredible to see all sorts of fish and seacreatures! they were amazing. i've never seen a real seahorse before! haha it really was fun! there were some HUGE fish. it made me kinda scared because i would never want to swim in a lake or in the ocean with animals that size.... big as me.... we then went with the Assistants to the President to the (what used to be called) the Sears tower. we were in one of the tallest buildings, 103 stories up! it was an incredible view of the city all around. so so cool. and they have a small part that sticks OUT of the building, made of thick glass, even the floor! so you can step out onto it and look straight down to the street. right under your feet. it was intense! one of the AP's and i hopped from the building part onto the glass and it looks like you are about to fall 103 stories! wow. it was a fun experience and i enjoyed spending time with the ap's because one of them, elder Bateman, is going home at the end of the transfer and i'm gonna miss him. he's a great missionary. 

well family, i read a quote about the importance of studing and applying the words of conference the entire 6 months until the following conference. i was good about it right when the conference ensign came out, but i haven't looked at it in a few months, so i started to again. and i highly suggest it! i love it. and there were some things that i had already forgotten! these are the words of OUR prophets today. and we should be so greatful and anxious to have them. i really enjoyed the one by Ballard about the power of the priesthood. let me know what ones you all like.

i love you all and thank you for your love and support. i hope all is well!

e. mUnOZ

September 9, 2010

hey there familia!

 

this week was great. my companion and i had a zone conference in which we were reminded of some great things we need to apply to our missions. we had a member of the 70 there teaching us. he was great and truly inspired. reminded me of my purpose as a missionary and what i need to do. he also talked about goals a lot. it was great to hear and learn about that because goals are TRULY what lead to success. setting good goals and FOLLOWING THROUGH with achieving those goals.

 

my companion and i found a less-active family that is part-member. they said they have a desire to come back to church and we are going to start regularly meeting with them. as well we are really hoping to be able to teach the father and the 9 yr-old son. they used to go all the time to church with the part of the family who are members. so hopefully things will progress with them.

i can't believe that it is already september mom! it's starting to change into fall but you can't tell that much yet, except for the weather change. which is GREAT. it is so nice and cool outside. i love it here. umm... we didn't do anything special for labor day, we actually didn't even realize that it was labor day until half way through the day. BUT it was my companions birthday on tuesday and a family made us a delicious cake. also, we bought a pinata :) and we had to ride our bikes all the way home holding it. haha it was a funny site. we haven't broken it open yet. there's no candy in it, we just wanted to get one for fun.

 

well i'm not sure what you can teach on unity right off hand, but being a missionary i would say relate it to being united with the spirit. if you aren't united with the spirit, you are not taking advantage of the right you have for His guidance. and what good can you do without the spirit? Christ has told us to be perfect, even as He is perfect. we should work in unity with those who we need to, when trying to fulfill a righteous cause. Chirst worked in PERFECT unity with the Holy Ghost as well as The Father.

 

i love you all and am glad to hear that all is well. it's awesome you got to go visit devin and meet his... girlfriends? family.

 

love y'all!

e. muNoZ

September 1, 2010

why hello there familia!

yeah my companion and i are trying to get the members in our area excited to do missionary work. as well, all the missionaries in the ward got together and we're trying to put our heads together on what more we can all do. we've got some fun goals for the ward and our areas that we'll hopefully implement soon.

 

that's great that devin went to church! church is SUCH an important part of our week. sometimes i think that we forget why it's so important. it's INCREDIBLY important that we renew our baptismal covenants each week. it's a grand blessing we have :) i hope dev keeps on pressing forward with conviction to learn more about the church.

 

sounds like you are all having an excellent time. it's great you got to see devin on his birthday. i'm jealous you get to go up to abliene and get lunch with their family! i want to meet them. send pictures!

 

i can't wait to go to the temple too! we have to find members that will be willing to take us there. hopefully we can do that within the next few weeks.

 

well missionary work is going great. i love being here. my comp and i have been meeting all sorts of different kinds of people. my last area was full of mexican people. here there are still many people from mexico, but also many from puerto rico, guatemala, and other countries. it's neat to see different cultures and accents from all over. i'm improving my spanish a lot. at least trying to. my comp is a grammer expert! so he's teaching me some good things.

 

well we have an investigator that we're starting to help stop smoking. this is my first time dealing with that situation so it's going to be a big learning experience. i've heard that cinnamon toothpaste helps so we might have to get her some of that ha. but i know that with the Lord, she'll have strength to do it.

 

i love you all. 

 

e. mUnOZ