October 2011

October 5, 2011

hey there fam!

that's cool that annie told you about the application for a scholarship. i'm gonna need it! yeah it's going to be down until oct 17 so that kind of stinks. but it'll work out. so can you get a copy of my high school transcript and send one to me as well? thanks. and i'll  be asking my mission president for a recommendation soon.

guess what? josh, annies brother, is going to serve his mission in Louisville, KY!! guess what? you know the delgado family that you've talked to before? that's where their daughter is serving too! so he's going to meet her i'm sure! isn't that crazy? small world. i've talked to Hermana Delgado on both Christmas and Mothers day because she called the house when i was having dinner with the family. haha i was serving in her ward a few months before she left for the mission field. cool stuff...

wow! so dad and jeremy are in the bishopric? crazy. i don't know anyone anymore. how many bishops have changed since i've been gone? i thought bishop jackson has been my bishop this whole time! what's going on!? haha i don't even know who bishop doly or fulbright are... however the latter name sounds familiar.

well thanks for my birthday package! i loved every bit of it. i've been wearing those sweet pj bottoms nightly (don't worry i wash them!) and the shades are really cool. of course the candy arrived JUST in time for general conference weekend haha and now it's almost all gone... and i'm really happy about the new journal, that even has my name engraved. haha ya'll are the best. i love you all a ton!

well, i recieved so much revelation during conference. it's the greatest spiritual feast ever. man i can't wait to actually go and BE THERE next year for conference. i'm going to do my best to go. i'm not sure if i told you but there is a family here that wants me to go and meet up with them for general conference. they are an awesome family. guatemaltecos! i really enjoyed the talk by Boyd K. Packer. he really reminded me of the spiritual war that we are in and the need to strengthen myself against evil. going along those lines, i loved the talk by sister dalton about being a great father and priesthood holder for your kids. i like that both these speakers talked about how it's not only very important for ourselves to be worthy of the Spirits protection, but it's something vital for my future children who will be growing up in such a moral-decaying society. and President Monson is amazing. he is so strong in spirit and still has such a great sense of humor. oh i love that man. it was very exciting to hear about the new temples and also about the new temple fund! i think that's an excellent idea! i can't wait to help contribute to it.

i love you all so much. i know that this gospel is true. and i love it. i love the peace and happiness that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to our lives. i know that we have a very special purpose being here on the earth. and i know that our Heavenly Father wants us to succeed in our endeavors, and we CAN! as long as we put Him first in our lives.

love,

elder derek  munoz

October 12, 2011

hey there!

 

i had a great week and a great birthday thank you very much! 22 years. man i'm so old, wise and mature right?? ;) thanks for the cake. the other elders and i loved it.  can you believe that caleb is almost home?! tomorrow he gets there! blows my mind. i miss him a ton. i hope you all can give him a big hug for me. i think he's grown a lot too. haha he keeps telling me that i should be an awesome missionary but then he says, but don't turn into a robot! dont be lame! hahaha i love him.

 

thanks for your testimony mom. it's always nice to hear the testimonies of my family members. it makes me so grateful to know that my family is strong in the gospel and trying to keep on the right path in this life. wow i don't know what i would do without all of ya'lls great influences! i know my Father in Heaven has given me countless blessings and i am eternally grateful. know that i love you!

 

well i got transfered! wait wait, no i didn't. but my comp did. i'm now going to be serving with an elder findlay. i've served around him before and i'm excited to now be his companion. we're going to get along fine. today me and him are going to the dollar store and we're going to decorate Elder Barney's apartment. he's been serving in the ward with me the past few months and we're really good friends now. he's training! so we're going to get balloons and write, "it's a boy!" and stuff like that. haha because who you train is your "son" in the mission. so that should be fun today.

 

you should be happy to know that i have a pretty determined goal to write daily in my journal the last few months that i am out here. it's about 4 months til i get home. i'll be sure to write details like you always say, and reflect a lot. i'm trying to "live in the moment" mom like you always used to say.

 

love you,

elder munoz

October 19, 2011

my dearest mother,

 

howdy!! that's awesome that his whole family was able to speak! way cool. i can't wait to see caleb. it's killin me! haha i miss him. it's so great to hear that everyone is doing well. everyone has their own different callings now which are pretty cool. i'm sure sometimes its demanding. but that is so neat that everyone seems happy and enjoying what God has given them. one of the closing testimonies that i heard yesterday, the elder talked about letting God change him month by month. i think it's so cool and important that we look to the future with faith, and open ourselves to allow the Lord to change who we are. he wants us to continually progress, and never plateau.

 

HAHHAA hilarious story about the dog door. haha wow you all are crazy... i miss it! what fun.

 

so my comp and i had an AWESOME and long conversation last night. well, he had a lot of things on the mission that he bought that weren't the most... obedient. it just was not allowing him to focus the way he could. the mission really pushes you in many different ways and sometimes its hard to deal with it all. well we had an awesome conversation and we decided to have an experiment for this week. we boxed up anything and everything that might distract our thoughts or our hearts from the work and we're going to see what changes. i'm excited! blessings are bound to pour out upon us. i'm trying to push him, but not too hard cuz i don't want to have a reverse effect happen. but anyways he's a great kid and i love him a lot. i know that he's going to do great things on his mission. i'm really excited for him.

 

so yesterday we had a zone conference with elder ellis from the 70 and it was really cool. i learned a lot. i know that i need to be a lot better at exercising my faith in the Lord. he encouraged us not to be praying to find SOMEONE to baptize, but instead, a FAMILY to baptize. so that's what we are going to begin to do. i'm stoked.

 

well, we are also going to have a baptism this saturday. i'm really excited for Karla! elder swenson, my old companion, interviewed her and said that she was way prepared and ready for it. that made me feel so good. the mission is awesome. seeing Karla go from "not believing" to being prepared for baptism is just the coolest blessing! ah... i love it.

 

i love you all. take care!!!

elder munoz

October 26, 2011

hello there!

no problem for the letter! i thought that you might like a little surprise. thanks for the prayers! thinsg are going well with my investigators. i'm happy for them. it's hard sometimes... because you just want the best for them and sometimes they don't want it. we gotta continue strong tho and help them out as much as we can. many of the conference magazine talks that i have are aobut families and doing your best to help guide your kids on the right path even tho sometimes they may wander. you just have to do your best to love and guide them the rightg way. i guess that's similar to what i have to do with the people i teach.

thanks for sharing your journal exerpt with me. i really liked it. i'm so grateful for how much my testimony and LOVe for the scriptures has developed. they provide such greater strength than i every thought. it's awesome isn't it? i have found that the gospel has provided such a great barrier for me. between me and the world. it provides such a protection that makes me never want to lose it. i feel so happy and comfortable when i have that with me.

well things are going well. we had a baptism! i told dad all about how stressful it was.... hahaha so ask him to fill you in. the good thing is that it went through and she's doing great. horay! i know that sometimes satan tries to throw us off course, but as long as we trust in the Lord and strive to do what He has asked, things will be okay. he wants us to succeed.

so mom when is the family reunion?? i want to be there but i may be in school if i'm going to the summer term at byu. give me the low-down. well i apologize this letter was short. i love you tons! we'll talk again next week ;)

your missionary,
elder munoz

September 28, 2011

so i need you to figure something out for me. well on my application to BYU i said that i wanted to apply for the Winter because the options for spring or summer aren't up yet. well i'm not sure if i can change it haha. i may have to withdrawl my application and do it over. but you have a bit more time to figure that out than i do. but that would be cool to get a job where Sarah is. i'm absolutely going to need one. i'm not sure how to do the FAFSFA or whatever it is but i think it's going to need to be done around the time i get home. we'll figure it out. and i'm going to TRY to room with caleb but i think his plans might be different from mine. at least until the Fall semester. can you believe i hit 20 months yesterday? crazy.

i'm glad everything worked out for you. it's awesome when we put in a little bit of faith, what God will do for us. way to go mom! and don't worry, i understood your story. it was funny! well, i laughed here in the library! i'm glad that things are going well. so the missionaries are going over Sunday? that's awesome. Conference weekend is so great as a missionary. it's just such a sweet re-energizer. i can't wait to learn from it. i've grown to appreciate it WAY more than i ever have before.

so things are moving well here. we are still working with those 2 investigators to prepare them to be baptized this month. i have really grown to love them and so i hope it works out. one of the people we are teaching is 17. i've never taught someone that young (consistently) in my mission. but its awesome because she is so sincere. the other day she told us about how she was struggling with a problem at work (she got fired...) and she was going to freak out BUT she remembered what she learned at church! she stayed calm and said a prayer and it helped her a ton. one of our members had given the young women a lollypop with a note that said, "is it right? is it good? if not i won't do it because i'm a child of God". she had it in her purse! haha that's awesome. and Jesus is still struggling to quit smoking. he hasn't been doing it a lot, less than before, so that's good. but he's having trouble just kickin the habit all the way. i know that he'll be able to do it though. i think conference is going to help both of them really well. and i'm excited because i think we'll be able to get more people to church than usual.

well i've been learning a lot lately. my companion and i have been trying to watch our words and thoughts more that i have in the past. it's been really cool because i have been learning a lot about the real purpose of missionary work and the real purpose of our time here on earth. we are trying to be like Christ, and that means we are trying to constantly progress to align our will, to the Fathers. that's what progression is about, and that's how we can really finally be happy. even if we DO what we are supposed to do, while thinking about how we really want to do what WE want to do, we wont be happy. the Lord will always ask of us. he always wants to stretch us and to mold us. if we don't give into it and WANT to do it because that's what God wants, we wont be happy! it'll always be an internal conflict we have.

well i love you tons. i hope all is well! keep me updated, i love even the little stories you share!
elder munoz

September 21, 2011

HEY FAMILY!

 

okay so yes, last week was hard. just because there was a lot of discouraging things happening. people yelling at us really harshly and investigators falling through and all sorts of things. dont' worry though, things have been going awesome. my companion and i have been studying obedience, and we have seen some incredible things happen. we are seeing a lot of miracles.

 

but first i wanted to talk about some other stuff. so mom, sounds like you are SUPER busy. keep strong mom! don't get too overwhelmed. i saw an article in an ensign or something recently by a young person, about setting priorities. they were involved in WAY too many things than they could handle and they had to pray to know what were the best and most important things to do. anyways, i know that most of the things you do are necessary and sometimes there is nothing you can do about it, but i just worry about ya. remember, it's not required to run faster than we have strength. love you :)

 

so i said that i bought an electric razor, but don't think i didn't need the money to go to the hospital like i asked for! haha i DID need that and i did go to the hospital. don'[t worry, things are okay :) no cancer or anythin.

 

Aslynn is gettin married! wow crazy stuff. you'd think the Prophet said that the young adults should get hitched or something... marriage... aye.

 

so caleb is going to get home soon! isn't that awesome? i miss him. that is really neat about devin's new calling. i know he's going to do really well. he's a smart guy. how come i didn't get that from ya'll mom and dad!? anyways what else... oh so i have ONE request for my birthday. i'm almost done with my journal... idk if you already sent something or if you already jumped on the idea to just save money but just throwin it out there.

 

so things out here on the mission... are AWESOME! i've had one of the best weeks of my mission. i read this really inspiring talk about different types of missionaries. and i started reading it RIGHT as i was inspired to fine tune myself. it was so cool. because i just had some revelation to make my weak spots strong. i decided that i was going to be even more obedient and diligent than i had been. and i decided i'm going to try to give more of my heart and mind to the Lord, by eliminating distractions (i took down most of the pictures of fam/friends and just have a lot of Jesus up). anyways i read the talk and it really inspired me too. it's been awesome. i feel like the Lord is just pouring out the Spirit upon me and upon our work. in 2 days, we already have 17 lessons and 8 new investigators. that's like what most people usually get in a week! it's been awesome. i'm really grateful for what the Lord has been doing.

 

i think i've learned a lot about consecration this last week. i mean, the whole mission is supposed to be about consecration i know. but i feel like i just learned a lot about it personally. we've found some pretty cool people as well. we're teaching a young woman who had originally said that she was atheist. i think i've told you about her. but anyways, she's now doing really well. her prayers are awesome and she even came to church! she's really sincere and she's not the only person that we've found that's sincere. we'll have to see how it goes though. because like i've told you we pick up and drop people really fast.

 

we also went to the temple today. incredible stuff. it really does give you a good boost. i've been so tired lately because we have been working really hard... but i feel so refreshed after going to the temple. i've been so tired that we get home, plan, and i'm gettin in bed! haha lately i've just been making PB&J so i can take a quick nap during our lunch hour before we get to work again. but it feels great.

 

i love you all. i wrote a lot today! sorry if it was boring! 

elder derek munoz

September 14, 2011

hey there fam!

 

well... it was a rough week... but in the end it was awesome! well my companion and i have been studying patience and hope. and the Lord has given us many opportunities to develope that. funny how that works right? well this week we had many hardships... many investigators fell off the face of the earth, or cancelled our appointments, or we just couldn't find new people, and we were struggling to reach our goals. BUT in the end, things worked out for the best. we tried to continue to be patient and hopeful. haha it was funny because we were fully aware of what was happeneing to us. (it was still hard). at the end of the week we were able to see that we did well working to get our goals. it seemed to be the last 2 days of the week that things really made a difference and we saw many blessings. similiar to the story you shared with me dad (thanks for that!) i know that we really are blessed and can see miracles, but not until after the trial of our faith.

 

jesus is still doing great! he hasn't smoked and although we moved back his baptismal date for october 8th, it's going great. he actually said that he feels good about changing it back. he said it's something he wants, and he knows it's serious. so he's going to prepare the best that he can. i can explain how great it feels to work with him. he's been searching for truth his whole life. he was bitter toward religion for a long time, but now finally has been finding his answers.

 

my comp and i are doing great together. and i can't believe i'm turning 22 soon. strange. i don't really want much for my bday (i'm sorry but i purchased an electric razor so that's why i went into my personal funds). BUT there is a tiny thing that i do want... instead of gifts for my bday or christmas, can you just start a 'fly derek to utah as soon as he gets home' fund? just a thought. haha but your call.

 

love you all tons. peace! keep lookin for miracles

elder munoz

 

oh! p.s. annie and my mission friend alec swope met each other! haha that's awesome.

Labor Day

did we have another great week? why yes we did. did we find a lot of people home on labor day to teach? no... haha but don't worry! it was still an awesome labor day. we were working all day and not really having much luck... but we just kept working. it was a little rough because we didn't have any appointments all day since it was a holiday... but the Lord delivers when you do your part first. not until towards the end of the day did we see something happen. we knocked this door and a teenage girl answered. we asked if her family would be interested in a message and she looked at us for a moment, then said, 'yeah sure. you want to come in?' we were kinda surprised but we went in. her mom came over and was thrilled that we spoke spanish. she sat down with us and seemed really happy to meet with us. to be honest that usually puts me on alert because most of the time the person knows exactly who we missionaries are and it's not always a good thing hahaha. but we taught her and her daughters and it was incredible. she said that she had been going through some tough times and has been praying very very hard for help from God, and then we show up! and she knows that she wants to help her daughters grow up and have faith in God, but she hasn't found a church that she felt was right. well, after the first vision the spirit was really strong. all three of them were really touched by it. we can't wait to see them again tomorrow!

 

and our investigator Jesus is doing really well. he's been working hard to quit smoking and it's going well. i'm excited for his baptism at the end of the month. i love this work!!!

 

how are things going for all of you? can you believe that caleb is almost home?? what miracles have you been seeing lately?  i love ya'll.

 

elder munoz