Elder Munoz

Less than a month!

2012-01-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

With the holiday and everything I got a little behind posting Derek's letters. Now with only 24 DAYS LEFT (Wow!!!!) I have alot of catching up to do. So here are some more letters!

January 17, 2012

we are doing great and i'm happy :) it HAS not been very cold (haha i
thought that was funny). very mild winter and although some days have
been freezing, generally it's been nice. i still haven't gotten sick,
like my whole mission! cool huh? i am so grateful for all the Lord has
done for not only me, but our family through my missionary service.
i'm stunned at all the blessings we have been given.

we had a miracle happen the other day! my companion and i were walking
in the snow towards home. it was actually cold that dad and it was the
day it snowed, so my head was down and i was walking quickly as my
companion told me a story. he then stopped, looked back and said "i
think we should help her". i looked back to see a woman taking in her
groceries (which were a lot of things). i didn't even notice her when
we walked by! so we huslted back to help the woman. unfortunately when
we brought up the gospel- not very interested. so we began walking
back home when we heard someone shouting behind us. we turned around
and a young woman was at the house we had just been at. she beckoned
us to go over and the only thing she said was "can you come back? in
like 2 hours?" we said yes and she went inside to hide from the cold.
we were kinda confused but thoguht it was awesome! we went back 2
hours later and taught this young woman. the family had spoken with
missionaries a few years back and she wanted to hear us again. we're
going to try to work with the whole family. we'll see how it goes this
week!

well i love you tons. i hope you and dad can share emails together
because they are different! take care and have a great week okay?

i miss ya,
elder derek munoz

January 10, 2012

familia!

so guess what? pdays are now monday, however, for those of us in the
city, we will be emailing tuesdays! haha we just barely changed the
pday and there was a problem between the city and the library
employees and funds gettin cut... so now mondays the libraries will be
closed.

things are going well. i'm really scared to go home, not gonna lie!
haha i'm really excited to be home and see all of you!!! but i've been
a missionary for so long! i'm not sure how to be a normal human being!
because obviously missionaries are not normal human beings ;) haha i'm
sure things will be fine though, i'm trying not to stress or even
think about it too much.

any stories or experiences to share for your talk? i have no idea!
haha sorry mom but i have so many stories and so many experiences that
idk where to start. if you want to give me a better idea of what you
may talk about or something i can try to think of something that fits!
but for the moment i have no idea what you're lookin for so idk what
to share. sorry! but i love you and so does God so you will be helped
:)

we had a really cool miracles happen! last week Jesus shared his
testimony with us. it was such an incredible feeling to hear him talk
about the blessings he has recieved from the gospel. he was sharing
with us how much his life has changed and it's changed A LOT more than
i realized before. he shared some things about his past i hadn't heard
before. he was struggling new years weekend with some old problems
that were coming back. he was going to do something "really stupid" in
his own words, because he didn't see any other option. but he decided
to stop, and pray to Heavenly Father for strength or a sign or
something to let him know that he wasn't alone and that He actually
cared. as he finished his prayer, the clouds on this dreary day
parted. the sun shone brightly on him and he began to sob. he said
that he know knew more than ever of Gods love and the power of prayer.
it was so cool to hear him share this with us. i realized how much i'm
going to miss being here teaching the gospel. what gives me comfort
though is that i now will be a better member missionary than ever
before! i can't wait to share the gospel with those around me
throughout my life.

i love you all. thanks for everything! dont worry about the money for
the marriage licence. its taken care of!

love elder munoz

January 4, 2012

howdy-ho family!

things are going well! 2012 should be an awesome year! i think it's a
cool start to the year being on my last transfer! work hard, have fun,
see miracles in the mission and then start the next chapter of my
life. cool beans. we had a really fun new year's. went to bed, woke up
and went to 9am church. whoop whoop!

so... jesus is doing well but we have to push things back a little
longer. i think i was put here in this area for just the right amount
of time. like he needs this much time to make this big change and i'm
here for it. i don't think that is a coincidence. i'm not worried for
him. he's slower to progress than most people i've worked with but
he'll be alright. we have never gotten the chance but it seems now we
may be able to start teaching his... fiance? pretty soon! that'll be
good.

yeah i love the experiences that the Lord gives us so that we can
grow. sometimes we need time, facing problems, so that we can increase
in our faith, or appreciating, or our reliance on Him. i'm grateful
for the sometimes hard situations we face because, if we choose for it
to be so, we can always learn, grow and come out on top. it interests
me how much ATTITUDE has an effect on everything. it's really not
worth it to have a bad attitude. it doesn't lead to happiness.

the last few days i've been in a threesome with my old mtc companion!
he's come with us because his companion was moved to a different area
monday morning. so until this afternoon he is our comp. it's really
cool! so much fun talking and seeing how much we have both learned and
grown since we were together so long ago. we had been in contact and
spent some pdays together, but as far as working together we have
never really been very close or had those opportunities. it was fun to
have them together.

i hope all is well. i love you and appreciate you all so much. thanks
for everything you have done for me!
elder munoz

December 28, 2011

hey there family!!!

so it was awesome to talk to ya'll on Christmas. i loved it. you all
sound like you are doing well and that's a great blessing :)

well i'm not sure what to say because i just talked to ya'll on the
phone! a little cooler than just an email. things are still going
good. i can't believe i only have 7 weeks left! it's crazy! i'm trying
to work hard still and let the Lord take care of things like always.

we are trying to get Jesus married and baptized this weekend. it's
going to be crazy and stressful and i'm not quite sure if everything
will work out but i'm praying for it! we're going to do everything we
can and pray for a lot of help. i'm sure the Lord will make it happen
if that's what's supposed to happen. he's doing great though. we met
him this morning and i'm just so pleased with the changes he's made.
he's so much more happy and positive than when i first met him. a
great guy!

my companion and i had some cool things happen yesterday! it was kind
of a crummy day with not much happening. i felt like things were just
not working the way i wanted and i was bummed. HOWEVER even though i
was discouraged and we had no appointments for the last few hours of
the day, we went out and knocked doors. within a block we found 3 new
people to teach! something that we've been struggling with lately. it
was awesome! and then when we were walking to visit a recent convert,
our investigator Edith who we had lost contact with met us walking in
the opposite direction! she had lost her phone but now we are back in
contact! awesome. so many miracles. i know that God was helping me out
and blessing me in a time when i really needed that comfort. i'm so
grateful for His love.

i love you all and thanks for all you do for me! you are all great
examples and i appreciate your care and concern for me.
take care!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
elder derek munoz

December 21, 2011

hey there!!!

wow i'm excited to talk to ya'll this sunday! yes, i think 1:00 should
be fine. we have church at 11 so right after that i'll do it. i can't
wait to hear about the baptism! too bad that one elder just got
transfered. that kinda stinks!

don't worry about not sending a stocking, you sent stuff that i would
usually find in a stocking so thats okay! haha i love all the gifts!
so fun. i enjoyed some captain crunch this morning from the "eight
needful things" present. cool stuff! and i'm glad you gave the
missionaries those treats! that's so cool. i'm sure they just loved
it. it's so nice when members think of you to give you somethin. not
that you have to give something to show you love someone of course,
but you know what i mean. it's a fun little thing to show you
appreciate them and that means a lot when you are far from family.

Jesus is doing well and so far on schedule to get baptized new years
eve, and confirmed new years day. i don't want to say it's for sure
yet because you never know what happens. but he's doing well and i'm
praying that the Lord keeps helping him.

things are going well! my companion is a really funny guy. we have fun
together but i feel bad because he tries my patience a lot. lets just
saying i'm learning to be better at constructive criticizing than ever
before! he's a great guy, and i'm trying to be a good trainer.

it feels like Christmas has just come by way fast. its incredible how
time moves on the mission. i don't know where it's gone. i have 8
weeks left until i get home. that's scary! i am just gonna keep
preaching and try not to think about it.

i saw a story of a member of the church that was badly burned in an
airplane crash 3 years ago, but survived. it made me really appreciate
my life and the beauty of the soul. although she was badly burned, you
can see the most incredible light in her eyes. she is such a great
example of strength and faith. i dont think she could be who she is
without the gospel though. i love this gospel and know that it is
true. it creates like a physical protection that makes me so happy.
well, i sent this woman and her family a Christmas carD! i hope she
likes it. i think she has a blog too if you want to check it out. her
name is stephanie nielson.

Christmas caroling was awesome! we had lots of fun and talked to
people from all over. many people were very grateful for our service
and some even stopped and sang along! Chicago is a very festive city.
i really like it.

i loveyou all! sorry this was a little short! but i'll talk to you soon.elder derek munoz

December 14, 2011

hey there!

haha mom it's funny that you said you hope i stay warm and dry because
it's gotten warmer (still a bit cold tho, 40's) and it's been raining!
today we walked the whole way to the library while it rained... the
busses came up to us each time we arrived at the street we needed to
get off on... hahha that's life though. luckily we had
umbrella-ella-ellas! last week there were some FREEZING days. but
lately it's been okay

well it sounds like ya'll are having a party at the Munoz house! ya'll
are doing a bunch of fun activities! and you sent another package? i
just got one last week of the 12 days of Christmas stuff. i opened the
first one today! it was a cool little tree :) and i decorated it.
thanks :)

thats cool that devin and kat will get to be with ya'll. when should i
call? i assume we'll do like last year where we 3-way call right? just
start thinkin about it and coordinate something because my last
communication with ya'll will be next week! wow, it's coming fast
isn't it?

we ARE going Christmas caroling! we are going downtown, a ground of
like 20 missionaries, to sing carols and talk about the gospel. i
think i told you we did something similar last year and so i'm excited
to do it again. we've been doing well. we're sharing part of the birth
of Christ with people and reading it from the Book of Mormon. then
we're asking to come back and share more about this book that has
blessed us so much. it's been good because more people are open to it
and it gives us a chance to testify about the restored gospel.

my comp and i... are getting along. HAHA i know that we're together
for a reason. let me just say it's not the easiest. but it's okay.
he's full of spunk and that's good. we laugh a lot too! but we went on
exchanges the other day and my buddy elder barney said that i was must
be a special person hahaha. take that for what you want.

well jesus is staying strong! he is going to get married soon! he even
brought his financee to church last week! i'm so happy for him. i
think he is the longest ive ever worked with an investigator before.
and to see things finally start to take hold is great. i know that the
Lord works miracles with people. He is so patient with us. i need to
be more patient wtih people. love really is such a HUGE thing. it's so
important. love can change lives.

i love you all a ton. i miss you! but i will talk to you soon! oh, i'm
really sorry but i didn't save up money this year for presents... i
will make sure to send a disc or something with photos tho...
elder derek munoz

December 7, 2011

hey there!

i don't know how much i'll be able to write this week because i'm sick :( i can't concentrate a whole lot. don't worry though i'll be fine. just need to sleep it off...

i'd love to see pictures of the decorations you spent so much time doing! my companion and i joined some other missionaries in buying a tree and we all are going to put the presents under it and get together for Christmas to open them. i'm excited for that! that's way cool that you got a video camera! very nice.

so that Christmas caroling sounds fun! we are going to do that on the 17th downtown and it should be fun. we did something similar last year but this time it will be better cuz we'll have more people. i still can't sing very well but i'm looking forward to it nonetheless. today we went downtown and saw a bunch of Christmas lights and a big Christmas tree and tons of stuff. it was fun, and not too cold yet. in the 30's but i'm worried cuz it should be gettin consistantly into the 20's by the end of the week. still no snow sticking! by this time last year there was a bunch. it should be comin soon though i'm sure.

so dad i really want to write you in spanish but i'm just like- 'bleh...' right now. maybe i can hand write you one soon. i really enjoyed the stories that you shared with me though! thanks for that. it's way cool how much the Lord loves and watches over his missionaries. what a blessing.

well my comp and i are getting along fine. he's hilarious. and we're stoked about Jesus' baptism comin up in a few weeks. he's been making great strides to repent and find out when he can get married and everything to start the new year with a clean slate, being baptized and confirmed dec31and jan1.it will be a great end and start to the years.

in other news, i found out that my best buddy alec swope is going back the the mission field! or should i say, comin back to Chicago! he went home back in the february and should be here for the jan 4th transfer! he will be back for the last transfer of my mission! i'm way excited. i love him a ton. one of my very best friends.

i love you all. i hope that you are remembering to spread the Christmas spirit with everyone you come in contact with! i loved the devotional by the first presidency! inspiring. my companion and i have been talking to people about the birth of Christ in our contacts and it's a great feeling to help others remember it's true meaning.

hope all is well!

elder derek munoz

November 30, 2011

hey hey fam!

i hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving. my companion and i enjoyed the
day with some other missionaries ultimate frisbee, soccer, and just
talking at the church over some icecream. it was loads of fun to be
there with some of my really close missionary friends. then we ate
with some families and they were really fun to be with too. i just
love passing time with loved ones! i hope you are all enjoying the
moments that God is giving you together.

well elder melenciano and i just finished our first week together!
HAHAHA let me tell ya... he is one of a kind. we've been having a lot
of fun together so far. he's crazy! haha he's a little tiny guy that
tells me, if you say that in my country, you have to fight. hahaha so
i tease him a lot and he pretends to beat me up. maybe not the norm...
but it works ;) we have been working hard, and it really is hard to
work hard! haha it's been so cold and windy lately. the other day when
we were biking, i was peddling hard but if i stopped, in 5 secons my
bike would stop. i think it would have pushed me backwards if i had
stopped peddling actually...

we finally set a solid date with Jesus. man he's been up and down like
a roller coaster with his baptism. he just has so many things to fight
through. but we are here trying to help him the best we can and i know
that this is something he wants. he's still battling with tobacco.
he's making actual marriage plans now though and that's HUGE! we're
going to visit him today and give him a baptismal calander to help him
prepare and stay focused on what he needs to do.

i'm not sure if i shared this miracle with you before or if i just
wrote it in my journal but i wanted to tell ya'll anyway. so a while
ago we were working in an area and we were going to head back home to
eat that night. but before we left we decided to randomly stop by this
less active family that we hadn't been able to contact in a while. we
just wanted to say hi. they invited us right in and said we came at
the perfect time. the Hermano had a sick sister and they were about to
go to the hospital, but he was not doing well. he was really burdened
down and needed help. so we gave him a blessing and afterwards he
cried and gave us huge hugs. he was in need of some heavenly help and
i was so glad that we were able to be there for him. the work of the
Lord is so incredible! i love it.

today we're going to set up a Christmas tree and decorate it! we are
way pumped for that. well, i am at least. it should be fun. i can't
believe it's already december! ah. time goes too fast. i don't like
it. that's why it's so important to enjoy the moment! my mission
president tells us, don't just hit the notes, but FEEL the music! i
really like that and i've been trying to apply it.

i love you all and miss ya! hope everything is going well.
love elder munoz
November 16, 2011

hey ma, pa and other kin!

well things are going really well here. i'm a little nervous about
transfers next week. i think that i might train! don't get your hopes
up, i don't know til next week. i'm scared about leaving though
because we just began teaching an amazing family!!! for real! i'm so
happy. we are teaching a family and they have 4 girls between the ages
7-13. it's so cool because even the girls like to learn about the
church. we taught them how to pray and what prophets are and they are
such good learners! and they are all super cute girls that are just so
attentive and nice! it's incredible. it's really fun too because it's
a whole new teaching style for me. i'm really not used to teaching
younger people. but i get to try to be much more interactive and
excited when i teach them, to keep their attention. and we're finding
different ways to present information and examples we can show them. i
really like this family, i already love them and we've only taught
them twice. the mom is really cool too and they are going to feed us
dinner friday night! for me it hasn't been that frequent that
investigators feed us so i'm excited. this family is awesome and
really soaking up the gospel. it's going to be a challenge to get them
to church because of the parents work schedules but it'll work out.

karla, who we baptized about a month ago is doing great too! she
actually came with us to the last appointment to help be an example
for these girls and she did great. she's already inviting her friends
to meet with us, she's never missed church, and she's now been to a
missionary appointment with us! it's awesome. and then my other recent
convert that was baptized in september, is doing great! we just met
with him yesterday and HE had something planned from his reading that
he wanted to share with US. haha he taught us from the book of mormon
sharing a story about Lehi and prayer. it was really cool to
experience that and see that these two people are progressing so well
in the gospel. it makes me so happy.

so this next week i have many mission friends that are "dying" and
going home. it's sad! and its scary because i feel like my time is
just around the corner! i'm trying not to think about it. haha for a
little while i was thinking about it a lot but recent events reminded
me to just stop worrying about it all! so that's what i'm going to try
to do. and it feels good. no sense in worrying about it. live in the
moment right mom!?!

i love you.
elder munoz

November 9, 2011

2011-11-10T05:43:00.000-08:00

hey hey!

do i even know where the cruise is to yet? i feel like nobody has told
me anything about this fancy new adventure you are going on! maybe i
just have a bad memory though... hey don't worry! i've been biking for
two years yeah, and i'm going to want to keep it up. i like riding
bikes and i want to do it for a good work out. haha some of my mission
friends say they wont get on a bike again for years hahah

hmm well i really want to go to Colombia, but i also want to go to
Chicago... hmm who knows. we'll have to have a good discussion. haha
but before you go on your cruise i just wanna say have fun and be
safe! i want to see lots of pictures okay? so keep your camera with ya
always!

so things are going well here except for the weather. it's been
pretty... bleh. cold AND rainy. fun yeah? haha we're still on bikes
for another couple weeks. probably until the first snow hits. it
stinks because the weather effects so many different things. it's
harder to find people who want to give you some time and that makes it
harder to keep a good attitude. BUT we're trying. i love being a
missionary so that helps haha.

we finally got one of our investigators to come to church and he liked
it! haha it was awesome. and it was good because we've already
established a good relationship between him and some members so he
felt really comfortable and it was good to see the members showing him
around and helping him with what they could. i feel like the mission
just opens your eyes so much about the church and it really helps you
see through the eyes of someone who isn't a member. and that is
something you keep for the rest of your life. I'm so much more aware
of how i can better talk to my friends about the gospel through my
whole life. and like... it makes me want to help new people, members
or not, feel Christ's love when they come to church. and if i can
offer a helping hand, or a welcoming smile or anything to help lift
their spirits and lighten their loads, I'm gonna do it.

well my companion is a great guy. i love him a lot. but it's not
always easy. I'm not sure how to help motivate him. haha he likes to
buy things to make him happy when he has a bad day. last thing he
bought was a remote control monster truck hahahaha. he's hilarious but
i want to help him love the work more. i guess I'll pray for some
inspiration.

well jesus is going to be baptized in about the next 2 weeks.
exciting! i'm a little nervous though. not for any real reason i
guess. i just always get nervous when a baptism comes up. i know that
sounds crazy but hear me out! haha i just hope that these people are
truly converted and that they will stay strong their whole lives in
the gospel. but i guess i can't expect everyone to love the gospel as
much as i do. even when they are going to get baptized they still have
much to learn and to grow. and he is AWESOME! he has been progressing
a lot and so i'm not sure why i'm nervous. he hasn't smoked in 3
weeks!!! and he is just like a rock haha. he knows and understands the
difference in his life now compared to before he met us. it's cool
stuff.

so before i end i just want to say that i did find some stuff that i
might need... i could use a new belt cuz mine is destroyed! and
another elder just got some nice black shoes for cheap! so i was
thinkin those two items i'd like to get if you could help me out.
thanks!

i love you all! hope you continue to see miracles :) if you aren't,
then ask for some! (it works!)
your missionary,
elder munoz

October 2011

2011-10-30T16:38:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-30T16:37:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-30T16:34:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-30T16:33:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-30T16:32:00.001-07:00

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

Derek's Letter on August 31, 2011

2011-09-05T10:33:00.001-07:00

hey there!

i know ya'll love me. no doubt!! ya'll rock. don't worry i plan on finishing strong. it's been kinda hard because we see investigators come and go so quickly in our area... but i know that there are people prepared and will be baptized. we have a baptism this weekend. i haven't mentioned much about him tho just because he was already preparing to be baptized before i got here. but it's been great to have a small part in everything for him.

wow i cannot believe that there have been so many changes! so many weddings. cool! i know a couple of the people you were mentioning. i do remember the winegar family! thats neat to hear about so many things. i cannot believe that lise goreman is engaged to isabelle's brother! wow. i've been writing to isabelle and she never said that!!! crazy stuff. tell brooke jump and lise goreman congrats for me and give them a hug! thanks.

sounds like you all are having so much adventures. i can't wait to join ya'll! it's gonna be so different but good now that everyone is grown up and starting their lives. so yeah i want to start school asap too... but you still think that i should go to the summer term so i can get a little money yeah? spring term may be too quick. maybe not idk! so a cruise huh?? haha that would be a blast. i would do it! haha yeah why not?? but the thing is are we still going to be able to come visit chicago? yeah i may want to visit utah pretty soon after i get home too... but it's too early to tell that little detail. we'll see.

my comp and i are going to stay together one more transfer. that's good because we really get along. i enjoy it because he's a great worker and has pure desires. we are good about keeping eachother having a good attitude. we're teaching a deaf investigator. did i tell ya that? they are really cool. we'll see where it goes... i'm lovin chicago. we went by Obamas house today. it was wierd with all the secret service and what not. stinks for the people that live next to him...

well i love ya tons! i'm gonna email daddy.

your missionary,

elder derek munoz

Derek's Letter on August 24, 2011

2011-09-05T10:32:00.001-07:00

hey there!

dude where is the love? where is the love? haha maybe my email last time wasn't good enough. but i'll try to be more entertaining this week. haha that might be hard cuz not a whole lot has happend. well, awesome stuff with the work actually...

so my comp and i have been workin hard of course. haha can you believe that the transfer is almost over?! that is crazy for me. next week we have transfers but i don't think there will be any changes here with elder hancock and i. which is a good thing because i'd like to work with him again. i only have 4 transfers left! time to work my butt off. it's the last stretch. President Roach always said that the way you end your mission is the way that you will remember it. and i want to finish strong! i love it. i'm going to miss it. and i believe it's true that i'll remember it for the rest of my life.

well we have been teaching Jesus and he's been doing great! there is a lot that he is going to need to change in his life but he wants to finally get right with God and be happy in his life. and we are here to help him do that! we have been having some awesome lessons with him. what makes them awesome is that we can feel the spirit and then when we ask him questions, we can see that the spirit is guiding him. helping him to answer the questions. that is the best kind of learning that he can do! he's talked to us about how he has alwasy had questions and wanted to know where it is that he could find truth but has never found it. and now he finally feels like we have been helping him recieve the answers that he is looking for. he said that he was going to read and pray about the book of mormon to know if it is true for himself and we'll see how it went when we go over tonight. he wasn't able to go to church last week but this week is looking good for it :)

we also have gotten back into contact with a really cool family. this woman has two kids, and one of them is 9 years old and he is a CHAMP! he loves church and learning about the prophets and knows a lot of the bible stories. it was funny because the first time we met them he wanted to learn a lot more from us and it was his mom that was hesitant. she just didn't know what she was looking for and so it was hard to keep in contact and teaching them. BUT just yesterday we stopped by to give the son a kids BOM and it was like perfect timing. we chatted with her for a little while and i showed her the picture in the Conference Ensign of the prophets and apostles, and it finally connected with her. she had her interest sparked again, and finally confessed to us that it's good we've been persistant because she now sees the need to find a spiritual foundation. she now wants to know what we have to say and if it's true! before she just thought it was interesting but wasn't really super serious about it all. but i knew there was somethin about the family and now their time has come. sweet yeah? we'll see how it goes but i have a lot of hope for them.

we have been teaching some others too and it's just incredible the feeling you get when you find someone who finally appreciates the comfort the answers we have are. i love it.

well so i was hoping to start school in the summer term for BYU. but there is a missionary i heard from that went home back in march. well he went to tennessee to sell security and made 15grand!!! in 2 and 1/2 months! may to july. i think that would be awesome. because i need money to go to school and everything. and that would be an incredible opportunity to make that. and i think that i can do it! but here's the thing, should i do that and put off school til the fall? or should i try to see if i can go sell and be back in utah for the summer term? what do ya'll think? that might keep me away from home for a while though because i want to go the fall right after the summer term.

i love ya'll! i have to go get something checked out at the doctor and i have to pay this co-pay. i was wondering if you could put 10 or 20 on my home card soon to pay for it. yeah? thanks

elder derek munoz

August 16, 2011 Letter

2011-09-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

why hello there!

wow mom and dad you two have some demanding callings now. one of my friends on the mission said he hated going to his home ward after the mission because at church his dad stood on the stand in the bishopric and his mom was up there for the music. so he was sitting all by himself! i think that might be what i go through! dad on the stand, mom visiting different wards. lame... haha jk. i'm not sure if i'll want to go to the singles ward. it'll be wierd. who knows though. i hope dev and kat make new great friends too. that will make a big difference in their church experience. i bet they will though.

so how does amber and jeremy have friends from india? what is going on here?? haha that's really cool though. there is a big Indian community in chicago. there's really people from everywhere here. its really neat. right now though as you know i'm just serving in little mexico. that's cool that even ya'll are getting to see a new culture!

wow so the wards are growing out there?? tell me more about that. are they just going to need to split our ward or are they going to split other wards too? any more news about the members from the stake? any more recent marriages or anything exciting?

well the work here is going well too. we found a really cool new investigator recently. he's got a LOT of deep life questions and has felt like they've never really been answered, but he's never talked to us before! so we're going to teach him tonight. we also found a deaf person that we just started teaching! we ran into her tracting and although we couldn't speak with her, we wrote down a few messages on paper and she accepted to watch the restoration dvd because that has ASL to it. we're going back tonight to teach her too and we're bringing an interpreter from the suburbs haha! isn't that cool? that lesson we had was the first lesson i have had without talking! i'm telling ya, i really want to learn ASL when i go to BYU. i guarantee that it'll come up in my life and i'll need it.

my comp is doing well too. he is picking up spanish a lot! i'm so grateful to be working with him because we both have desire to be the best we can. so we openly execpt constructive criticism from one another and seek how to improve individually and as a companionship. he's got a great heart.

well i love you all. i printed off some pictures and i made a cd with some pictures too. i'll be sure to send it soon cuz i haven't had the chance to mail it. but you'll have it before i email ya again i'm sure!

love,

elder derek munoz

Visit With My Bro.... August 10, 2011 Letter with Photos!

2011-09-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

hey MAH!!

i am still workin hard, but not really the rest of the things... haha i mean here's the deal. eating healthy is really hard to do when you have only 2 MAYBE 3 meals coming in for the week. haha it's hard to be healthy grocery shopping when many days you have to make 3 meals. p90x and knitting? well we are keeping pretty diligent and so i'm too tired to do those things! but don't worry i'm still applying many good things in my life continually! i've been writing in my journal still and my comp and i work continually to self-improve. we are working hard to increase in diligence, obedience, and faith. 3 keys to success!

you chatted with annie's mom? haha that's fun. i didn't really know that you had ever communicated. annie sent me a christmas package! haha yeah she's a little late but Christmas in August is still cool. she made a stocking that was a missionary! haha it was a shirt, tie and tag. stuffed with candy! and i was TRYING to eat healthy! but man. when you just place candy in front of me...

well i gave dad some details of the visit with dev and kat. like i told him we just ate, talked and enjoyed our few moments together. i really enjoyed it. but i was explainging to dad that i couldn't think of what to say cuz i was just happy he was there! i really enjoyed the company of my new sis-in-law too. haha i really wanted her to step outside her comfort zone though. i'm not sure how she appreciated it... haha i took them out to eat at authentic mexican places, and i had them stay with a mexican couple that hardly spoke english and iwasn't able to be there to introduce them. Kat wanted to stay in a hotel but i insisted that they didn't. hahaha i think the mission has REALLY taught me to step outside my comfort zone and try new things. i'm not sure if i told you but recently when we went out to eat i voluntarily ordered cow tongue. i think i said that last week... but i like tryin new things.

anyways, it was a great visit. i can't wait to get home and visit with all of you!!!

but i still have 6 months left. it's going to go by FAST so i'm trying to enjoy every moment of it and work hard. it's gonna fly by, but it's plenty of time for me to have a great influence and do a lot of good work in the mission field. we have been finding like crazy. however we are filtering trhough many of them because we are striving to find the Lords elect! it's a fun quest.

i love ya. guess what?? i'm going to be ordering some pictures today so within the next week you should be getting some k? love ya'll.

Lunch with Devin in Chicago!

Great Times!

First time meeting the new Sister-in-Law!

Miracles Out The Wazoo! August 3, 2011

2011-09-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

hey there familia!

miracles out the wazoo! haha my comp and i have been working so hard and having so much fun. ah... it's nice to be back in my greenie area and i am getting my "greenie fire" back! i think we are going to see a lot of success in this area/companionship. but let me respond to your letter first.

haha mom you are the famous cook among the missionaries? that is so cool! i want to ask them about it! haha there are sometimes certain families things that becomes the legend in the area and sometimes it spreads through lots of missionaries. i wonder if your cooking has acheived that!? haha i'm sure it has or will.

whew mom. AC out when dad goes out of town? sorry. i've heard that it has been really bad there in texas. many members have told me that there is a drought and that it's been really hot for a long time. hang in there!

can you believe that devin is married and moving to new york? wierd huh? do you know if he is going to be staying there for the summer or what his plans are? so i was thinking. i think i asked but do you think the best choice for me is to wait and go to byu in the summer term? that starts in like end of june or beginning of july. the spring term would be like end of april or beginning of may. that might just be too soon to get sufficient money though.

so my companion is elder hancock and he has great desires. he's really helping me to improve my missionary efforts. we have been working well as a team so far constantly evaluating ourselves and talking about how we can improve. it's nice. i feel like i'm finally consistently fine-tuning myself to be a better tool for the lord. our teaching skills are getting better, our listening to the Spirit is finer-tuned, and we're having fun being tired at the end of the day!

we have our sights on having 3 baptisms next month. you know that i haven't had a ton of baptisms in my mission, and 3 baptisms in one month would be AWESOME for me. i feel like its' going to happen. we are working with someone already who will get baptized this month, but i know we can also have 3 next month. we're going to be working and praying for it at least! and i know the Lord will help us out. just yesterday we got a random call out of the blue from someone who wanted us to come over. she is visiting from texas with one of her sons who is a member. but his wife isn't. well we showed up and they both have desires to turn to God to strenghthen their marriage! they are both young and going through a rough patch. but we invited his wife to prepare to be baptized and she accepted!

i have to get going but we have been seeing miracles all over. the Lord is guiding us to those he has prepared and i love it!

love you all a ton! i miss ya!

elder derek munoz

Oh Happy Day... July 27, 2011

2011-07-27T18:04:00.001-07:00

hey there!

yeah i had a great week here in chicago. it's a little strange being back here in my old area. but it's good to see the members again and we're trying to work really hard so that we can grow the work. i'm not going to lie, it's less stressful as a district leader than it is as a zone leader. i feel like i can focus better on my area and i am responsible for less missionaries and have more frequent contact with them so that's cool. i enjoyed the time that i was called as a zone leader though. i learned a lot over those months. so my very first apartment caught fire due to an unattended grill or something like that. crazy huh? that happened to some missionaries on like the 1st of this year. but we have a really sweet new apartment now though. i really like it.

thats awesome that you are hitting the gym! sometimes it's hard to start when you don't do it for a while. so yeah all the missionaries got dvd players for the apartments. we have been given the preach my gospel training videos and we use those a lot for examples and to see how we can better our own teaching skills. it's really neat and i think it's effective! and i'll be able to use p90x in the mornings too so that will be cool!

thats great that gramps is getting so many blessings! i miss him and i can't wait to talk to him in spanish more. he's gonna have to teach me the Colombian accent though because everyone says that it's awesome. everyone thinks that it's a beautiful accent. has he gone to church at all? how come he doesn't want to get baptized??

well things are awesome. i miss and love you all. but i love this work. we went on exchanges on monday. i went to another elders area and we had a great time. the Lord helped us see miracles. we were knocking doors so that we could find them some new investigators and we approached a family that was trying to blow us off saying that they were catholic and believed in the virgin mary. but we didn't let it phase us and began talking to them about prophets. the woman we were talking to seemed touched at some of the questions we had for her and she agreed to listen to us. we taught her and her mom and they loved what we had to say. the elders are going to visit them again tomorrow i think. and on Sunday we saw miracles in our area too! we were trying to reach our goal of new investigators and we needed two more for the week. and we only had like an hour left of proselyting time. so we went to work!!! we started talking to people and knocking doors. i recognized one house that we got to and i had taught there before, but they didn't progress. maybe it was now their time to listen to the gospel! turns out they weren't interested... BUT! we kept going and the very next house we found a whole family that listened to us! they were really nice and we have hope for them. they are going to meet us at the church this saturday so that we can give them a tour and teach them a little more. i hope that they feel the spirit and want to come to church sunday!!!

oh how merciful the Lord is. blesses us when we are trying our best.

i love and miss ya'll tons!

elder derek munoz

July 20, 2011

2011-07-24T13:04:00.001-07:00

hahah!

i knew you would enjoy that mom! it's been fun. my comp has helped me branch out and try stuff like that and it's been good. i like cooking and eating healthy much more than before.

man that must be such a change that things are so quiet and everyone is gone now. that's super relaxing now though yeah.? and that is SUCH a cool experience to go do baptisms for the dead with all those who hadn't done that before. did you know that's what our stake here has been doing? it's a GREAT idea. dad said that the stake president was thinking about doing it on that level too. i think it's neat. and you got to be apart of it! way to go mom!

i'm nervous about my mission president saying no. but i still want devin to come say hi. how do you feel about that? hahaha (don't judge me, i'm not perfect ;) )

thanks for your prayers! we have been doing really well together. i was truly hoping to serve one more transfer with elder swenson, but.... my time is up!!! i'm finally being transfered. i had a good run. 11 months in the ward! can you believe that? oh my i love this ward. i honestly think that it's one of the best in chicago and my area too. we have a ton of cool members! well my time was good but now it's time for a new adventure. can you guess where i'm going?? well... i'm staying in the city... somewhere that i'm familiar with... hahha i'm going back to the area where i started my mission!!! can you believe that? i'm stoked. i will actually know what i'mdoing this time around and how to speak spanish. i'm moving back to the south side in 26th street. i'll be in a new apartment though, i'm not sure if i told you but my old apartment burnt down. haha. i'll be serving as a district leader in the Chicago Zone with an elder hancock. adventures lay ahead!

we've had some awesome adventures recently though. my companion and i have been teaching a lot and really picking up the work in the area. we have found several people to teach and gosh dang it! i'm going to miss out on some baptisms for sure. we are teaching a Cuban lady that i'm pretty sure i talked to you about. she is really nice and interested in the gospel. she has been to church before and thought it was beautiful. the other woman that's really cool is a dominican lady. she's the mother of Carmen who has been meeting with missionaries for YEARS and has always loved the members of the church. but her husband didn't approve of "mormonism". apparently he has had a change of heart though! she should be baptized within a month. her mother has expressed interest in the church now and went to services. she loved it and now wants to prepare for baptism too!!! many good things have beeen happening in the area. many miracles from the Lord.

well thanks for sending me p90x! i'm really excited to get it. and AH! i'll be sure to send pictures soon. sorry i'm so lazy about that. forgive me! i'll try to print some off today. so my most recent convert, juan ramirez gave me a gift when i said goodbye. he gave me a 2 and a half feet high statue of a bear with a chicago Bears jersey and helmet. hahah it's really cool, i'll send a pic. i'm going to miss the people here in this area. and in the whole ward. they've taught me a lot and i love being able to serve them. but i look forward to serving chicago 2nd ward too. i'm a much better missionary now than when i started and i hope they'll be able to see the changes in me.

love you tons and miss you tons!

elder munoz

make this week an awesome one!! everyday choose to make it a better day than yesterday

Missionary Ninja... July 13, 2011

2011-07-24T13:03:00.001-07:00

hey hey!

i'm doing so great. i mean lets be honest. the mission is rough. but i love it and it's all worth it! but i'm doing so good you have no idea! i've been writing in my journal, doing p90x, eating healthy, and we've been finding tons of people to teach!!

I love this photo! Me & my buddy fighting evil!

so it sounds like you all still haven't had a ton of time to just relax yet! still trying to recover from everything? haha stay strong family! you are babysitting Cloe, remind me who that is. sounds super familiar...

wow they are on a cruise to jamaica. so cool. and ya'll are going to go on a cruise too?? i didn't know that. i thought you gave it up to them. so tell me about ya'lls!!! are amber and jeremy going on that one too? speaking of trips... when i get home i really want to save up some money and go to Colombia with gramps. ya'll in?? also i wanted to ask ya'll, want to go to utah for the april conference next year? i want to try to go. there is an AWESOME family in my ward that is going to go. i told them i want to try and meet up with them and it would be a sweet opportunity to see some of my friends from the mission who are in utah (there's a TON of them hahaha).

mom this might be the favorite part of my email... haha so my companion and i HAVE been doing p90x and it feels good. i feel like it's been pretty effective, i just still need to work on getting rid of my love handles and i little of my stomach... :) but i'm only on week 2 so it'll come. anyways i would appreciate if you could send those dvds sometime. ALSO, you will be happy to hear that i've been eating much better. my companion and i make salads, SALADS!!! with grilled chicken, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, and apple. super yummy. i also like to eat cottage cheese with fruit now. can you believe the change in me?? and i've been doing so much better at writing in my journal. i'm not going to lie, there are some spaces in the mission where i haven't written for months... but i've broken the habit and doing well with that. we'll have to print out these emails to fill the time i didn't write.

well as cool as that is, it gets better. my companion and i have really tried to keep positive attitudes, be obedient, and be diligent! i mean i always tried to do those things, but now it's a much more focused thing. i'm actively trying to make better changes. it's been cool so far! i feel good about the work, and we have been having a lot to do. the past few days we've found new people to teach like EVERYDAY! and guess what? we've found 2 families!! this is a cool story... so we were on exchanges and i had an Elder Harris here in the area with me. he's a great missionary and i enjoyed our day to work together. well, we were tracting a street and not having any luck. the exchange was almost over and we hadn't found anyone to teach yet. so i stopped in the street, pulled out my map, and told him, "elder harris, we need to find someone to teach! where do you think we should go?". he looked at my map and pointed out a street that i hadn't reallly worked on before. that area has less hispanic people in it, but we went anyways. the 10 minute bike ride over there i was praying the whole way. i was asking Heavenly Father to bless us and lead us to someone ready to listen. well we got there and began to knock. a few houses down, we got let in! it was an english guy though (and we hand over english investigators), but i figured, maybe this is who we were meant to find together. well he was an old man and began talking to us. he actually didn't let us teach him and was closed to our message.... haha but that's not the good part, 2 houses later, we got let in! we got to teach Ana and her daughter the restoration and the spirit was so strong. Ana seemed to really enjoy what we were teaching her. oh man i know that the Lord led us to them. she recently went through some bad family issues and what we provided her seemed to comfort her needs. she's been working a whole lot, but we'll hopefully get to teach them this week. i'll keep you posted :)

it seems like all the people we have been finding have been straight miracles from the Lord. it's been so awesome.

well i love you all. thanks for your love and prayers. i miss you all tons!!!

elder derek munoz

July 6, 2011

2011-07-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

hey hey!

that is so awesome that you were all there together in the celestial room! i wish that i was there! it was so cool talking to devin and he said that the temple was an incredible experience. he sounded so happy when i talked to him, which just fills my heart with joy. i miss you all a ton! i can't wait to see all the pictures and i really can't wait to get to go do a session with you all after the mission. that'll be such a special experience. oh man how time changes things! i'm so so grateful for the answers i've recieved from my prayers.

dad told me about some of the challenges ya'll faced at the wedding reception. sounds super stressful!!! but i'm happy that it all worked out in the end and that everyone enjoyed themselves. tell uncle louie thanks for video taping the thing! i'm looking forward to re-living that with ya'll. yeah i know what you mean mom, it's strange having a sister-in-law. wierd stuff. cool though.

oh mom i'm sorry you haven't been able to get much sleep. i've learned my lesson on the importance of sleep! i don't know if i can say that i like getting up early... when it's early in the morning... but as soon as i get going, i'm very grateful to have gone to bed early and gotten up early. it feels good! (idk if i would have the self control in special occasions and parties though!) has devin told you that my companion and i have started P90X?? so far we just did day 3... but i really like it! i've been eating a lot healthier and the exercise is awesome. the other day my comp and i broiled some BBQ chicken breasts, melted a little cheese on top, and ate it with sauteed onion, carrots and zucchini! it was delicious. i was wondering if you were still doing it too? ya think you can burn the dvd's for me?

well i'm glad you had an awesome wedding, and an awesome 4th of july! over here we had a good time too. well really we had a mission council that elder swenson and i were at for most of the day, and then we had to do our report for stake missionary coordination. so pretty much all day was filled with neccessary non-proselyting things to do. bitter-sweet. but what was cool was that we got to see a TON of fireworks! although it's illegal, there's so many people that just shoot them off anyway, there's not much that the city can do about it haha. so my comp and i went out onto the roof of the house and watched an AWESOME fireworks display from all sides. it was like a war zone. it was tons of fun.

i'm happy to say that the work is going well. we've got some great ideas to implement into our zone and our own area. we had been struggling to get people to come to church the last few weeks. and it was a trend in the whole zone. but guess what?? the next topic the mission is going to cover is "revelation through church attendance"! we're going to learn how to better teach and invite people to come to chruch! haha it's so cool how the Lord works. He knew what our needs would be in this time, long before it came up. neat huh?

also, last sunday was awesome! although nobody we had invited came to church, the Lord provided. a member in our area had brought his friend to come to church with him and we got to meet with him! then we went over to the members house after church and taught him!! although everything is really new to him, he really liked what we talked about and agreed to prepare for baptism on august 6th!!! he just fell out of the sky! we had no idea that was coming our way. i'm just so happy that we have been so blessed for the efforts we had been putting in, even though it came in a way not directly connected to what we were doing. it's absolutley the Lords work and not ours.

well i love you! hope all keeps going well!

miss ya!

elder munoz

June 22, 2011

2011-07-24T12:59:00.002-07:00

hey there!

no no no! don't feel bad when you can't email every once in a while. i'm fine i was just giving you a hard time! i really understand that you are so busy especially in summer!

i'm glad that girls camp and youth conference both went well! i miss those activities. they were so much fun but i don't think i appreciated the experiences then as much as i do now. they are such faith/character building things. so good work mom! the youth will remember what happened and even if you don't see the appreciation, know that your efforts are appreciated!!!

not much has gone on in this past week. we have been really blessed however to find many new people to teach again. we are working hard at finding some solid people. right now we have a pretty big, but young teaching pool. as in there are many people we've taught that will take a little more time to know how/where they are. but we have been so surprised and thankful to have found this really cool 19 year old boy. he's rough at first glance with his son and tattoos, HOWEVER he's got a great heart! he is such a sincere guy and has been loving what we have taught him so far. we are going to teach him this evening and are planning on inviting him to be baptized again, but this time with a date. i'll tell you how things go next week.

so i've realized that i want to do humanitarian work with my life. i want to do a lot of volunteer things in the comunity and in the world after the mission. i was watching some Mormon.org videos and there are a lot of members that go out and give their time and love to people that they don't know to help them have a better life. it's awesome. and there is a sister missionary in my district who's dad is a dentist. he is part of a ground of people that go to different countries to do free dental and medical things. apparently what they try to focus on is working with people in the age range of going on a mission! and they do they work for free and encourage them to go serve missions! that is so cool!!! i want to do that. i have misse dout on a lot of opportunities to offer service and don't want to miss any more.

anyways i love you alll and i miss ya. i hope that you are all not stressing too much about the wedding and all. it'll all work out. just enjoy the moment!

peace out my fam!

elder munoz

Chicken for Dinner! June 15, 2011

2011-07-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

howdy ya'll!

don't worry about the craziness family. i understand sometimes it's hard to write to your lonely son who lives so far away that you can't see or even talk to on a regular basis. i mean don't worry, i think he'd be okay if you ddidn't make time to sit down for a minute to write him a simple email so that he has a glimpse of happiness in his week... i'm sure that young boy would understand.... HAHA just kiddin pops. and mom. i'm doing GREAT :) and thanks for trying to email every week. it's awesome! sometimes it's hard and time just flies but i really appreciate the amount that ya'll write me. so don't worry about if you miss a week.

things are going well. and i'm working hard with my companion and we found 10 new investigators last week!!! it was so cool and it just fed the fire for us. we just wanted to keep working because of that. and we have goals to keep on finding. we are starting to try and teach Juans' wife. i think that things should work out :) he has kids but they are all grown up now. some of them live close by though so maybe we can teach them in the future.

we killed, prepped and ate the chicken last week. i almost chickend out of doin it but i just thought, if devin and dad were here, they would do it! so we did. i have to send pictures! my comp did the killing but after that i was in there for everything! i pulled the guts out and i held it's heart... haha it really was a great learning experience. for real. now i know how to kill prep and cook chicken from the beginning.

Gutting the chicken that we just killed!
You have to be brave or crazy to do this!

Are you sure this isn't considered a foreign mission?

Enjoying the fruits of their labors!

well there's not a whole lot to say today. we had a couple changes in the zone and we're excited aobut that. i will hopefully be in this area with this ward for one more transfer. that would mean that i spend just over a year in the ward! and 8 months in the area. i wouldn't mind.

i love you all!

elder derek munoz

June 8, 2011

2011-07-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

hey there familia!!

anyways, last week we went to the hospital 3 times with different missionaries in the zone. aye. it was pretty crazy but thankfully enough everyone is doing alright. we just had transfers and there is a good amount of changes to the zone. i think in the city zones there's usually a good amount of changes, because they have more missionaries. anyways i'm staying the same. this is going to be my 5th transfer in this area, and the 8th in this ward. since last august! but i love it! hopefully i will do just one more before taking off to a different place. i'm still with elder swenson as well. i'm happy with that. he is a great worker!

Juan WAS baptized last saturday. it was really cool. we were hoping that a member that has been teaching us would do the baptism but he couldn't because he has a bad back. so he confirmed him sunday, and saturday elder swenson baptized him. it was cool, his first time doing the ordinance! great stuff. juan's baptism went SUPER smoothly. better than i had hoped it would go. his wife showed up who hasn't really wanted to learn too much from us and she really enjoyed it. and Juan bore a beautiful testimony at the end. i wish you were able to see all the changes that he has gone through and the difference you see in him now.

well, we have quite an adventure planned for today. there is a store in our area that sells live poultry. so... we're going to buy some chickens! then we are going to kill them and prepare them to eat. haha what do you think about that? good thing the mission is teaching me such important stuff right? haha it should be a good learning experience. i'll let you know how things turn out. we might make chicken rolls out of them :)

i love and miss you all.

elder munoz

June 1, 2011

2011-06-05T19:43:00.001-07:00

hey fam!

i really don't have too much time today. things have been going crazy. but i'll let you know about a few updates...

so i forgot to mention that last week i gave my first talk in sacrament! haha i was able to last so long without giving one, i didn't think i'd ever have to! but i did. it went well, at least i hope so. a few members said they liked it and something i said was even quoted! i talked about the blessings that come from missionary service. it was way easy to talk about. (i actually think that i went over time...)

last week the zone activity we put on was awesome! everyone loved it and everything worked out just nicely. we were really worried because we woke up and it was POURING out. and we were planning on having a water balloon fight and grilling! but luckily we put forth our faith to go through with it. there was like a 4 hour window of a beautiful day where we were able to do everything we planned. it was nice, and then the weather got lame and dreary again. everyone had fun and the food was pretty good. an elder chavira and i were manning the grills and we're both from texas so that's why it tasted so good.

juan is still supposed to get baptized this week! he has his interview tomorrow so we'll see if everything is good to go then. i'll let you know. i'm super excited for him and i'm so happy that we are having success. we have been getting referrals too like i mentioned before, so that's always great.

one of the missionaries got "door-ed" on his bike yesterday and we had to take him to the hospital. he wasn't it TOO bad of shape but it did turn out that he had a broken arm! when you get door-ed that's when you are riding your bike and someone parked by the curb opens their door without looking and you crash into it. it's scary stuff!

i hope wedding stuff is going well. dad said that there is a lot of painting going on and what-not! cool stuff. the house is going to look so different. also, dad mentioned a music room? is that the garage? i don't know what he is referring to. and mom, you hurt your foot!?! i hope you are okay :/ that's scary

love you all tons.

elder derek munoz

May 25, 2011

2011-06-05T19:42:00.001-07:00

hey there mom!

well i'm going to try to write everyone so my emails might be a little shorter.

i'm glad you have decided to repent and be better at your keeping of the sabbath day! haha that's what our mission president calls it when we have some kind of training or meeting. he asks what we are going to do to repent and be better.

sounds like a lot of things are going on. that is really funny that the little girl asked if devin was superman! haha so when is girls camp? that's cool that you are talking to them all. you were always good working with the young women. so my companion has "the miracle of forgiveness" and i've been reading it. it's GREAT! really teaches you how gravely important virtue really is. might not be right for the young women though... haha idk maybe.

i LOVE reading the scriptures now. i used to think of it like a chore. but now it makes my day so much better and i love studying in the book of mormon. i used to think the scriptures were so complicated but after studying them out, they are a lot easier to understand! haha it's like piano, i've been studying it out and i want to learn when i get back home. i know i could do it.

so the work is going great here. we should have a baptism coming up in a week or two. plus we have been getting some great referrals! the Lord truly has been blessing us. we've been trying to work harder, not waste so much time and be obedient. i'm so greatful to be workin with the companion that i have. we invited one of our families in the ward to pray about someone and then invited them to meet with us. just last night we had dinner with them and they had a friend over with her daughter! we taught them and they should be coming to church! another thing that i've learned is that the people i should be talking to are the people placed in my path. like sometimes i fall into the trap of saying, oh we tracted so that was our finding" but really i know that i need to be constantly talking to people in my path. we've been seeing miracles that way finding people interested to talk with us :)

i love you tons. i'm doing great. please give a personal hug to both sister flick and sister hill. tell them i miss them.

elder derek munoz

Gotta Love Chicago! May 18, 2011

2011-06-05T19:40:00.001-07:00

hi hi!

that sounds so fun to have devin be your buddy around the house! isn't he cool? haha he is such a hard worker! i've learned so much from his example. actually our whole family is full of hard workers that i have learned from. i am probably the laziest out of the family but i'm changing that! well i'm trying to haha. the mission definately helps out a ton. it's like ya'll sent me to a church boot camp! haha okay maybe not quite but i'm grateful for all that the mission has taught me and help me become.

anyways, that is cool that you got six flags passes! it'll be a good thing to do to relax from the stress of planning the wedding stuff. how is that going btw? i want to hear about the plans and what not. amber said the bridesmaides dresses are done yeah? thats cool. i guess i don't really know what to ask about the wedding being a guy, but i want to know about it cuz it stinks i'm not apart of it.

but it's okay because i'm on the mission sharing the gospel. it brings so much excitement and happiness. i'm not even sure how to explain the aweseome feelings you get when you teach the gospel or testify of truth. i guess the book or mormon prophets and missionaries said it best when they said their souls are filled with joy. that's what i get to feel. yeah sometimes it's hard because people don't want to hear or accept it, but when you find that one person who has been prepared, it makes it all worth it. we should have a baptism coming up and he;'s still doing well.

well one of the women that we baptized has moved back to mexico. she was here visiting family. the good thing is that her brother and his wife are members and they moved back with her. her brother was part of the elders quorum presidency from my first ward! it was so funny seeing him and knowing that i was now teaching his sister up here on the north side! it was cool. luckily she said she will be coming back to visit next year. around may!! that's when hopefully we'll be here visiting chicago! cool huh?? ya'll should get to meet her. the other woman we baptized has been on vacation but she just got back! and she is doing great. she is going to start working with her family to share the gospel with them. i gave each of them a picture frame with a photo of their baptism with all their family there. they seemed to really like it.

i love you all! can you believe that david barton should be home now or really soon from his mission?? and caleb has not even 5 months left on his! time flies.

elder derek munoz

May 11, 2011

2011-06-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

hey there family!

well, not much has changed in the past 2 days! it was so much fun talking to all of ya'll. i still have one more phone call left. haha time seems to be going by so fast, but 9 months still seems like it's forever away, yet not enough time for me to want to go home at the end of it. time on the mission is just super wierd.

anyways it was great talking to all of you. i miss you all a ton but i enjoyed hearing your voices. i wish i could've had a little more time! haha i can't wait to talk with grandpa when i get home. like amber told me, i'm going to understand all his funny comments now!

so what did you all do for mothers day/your birthday mom? i bet it was a blast. amber said that devin has already moved back home. crazy! truly a full house now. where is everyone staying? seems like ya'll, mom and dad, never have had an empty nest have ya? maybe everyone will be out in a few months, but then I'LL be back! hahaha. but hopefully i will be able to go to BYU soon.

what do ya'll think i should do? i looked it up and for 2012 the spring semester starts april 24, summer starts june 18, fall starts august 27. i'm going to be getting home february 16. this is a while away, but i want to make sure that everything gets done in time for me to enter school at one of those times... everything else about after the mission i don't need to worry about. i know i'll be taken care of by the Lord if i work hard here and continue that hard work when i get released.

so my comp and i are working well together. we are constantly moving. the other day i just had to take a nap after i ate lunch. i was so tired i was out in an instant! but i like it. we are working well together and having fun at the same time. it makes me happier! we are working with a Juan Ramirez and we just had a great lesson with him yesterday. he's got a baptismal date for june 4th and so far he is progressing really well to be able to do so. ah... teaching the gospel is just so awesome. it just feels nice to talk to people about what i love so much. i wish i was able to better discuss the gospel and share it before the mission too. that's something i'm gonna have to change when i get home! i'm sure i had so many opportunities that i missed out on... but ya live and ya learn.

i love you all! thanks for always helping me out.

elder derek munoz

Chicago White Sox Game- May 5, 2011

2011-06-05T19:38:00.001-07:00

hey there mom!

i'm so excited to call ya'll this sunday. i'm sure that 5 oclock will be fine. so we are allowed to skype but i'm not sure where i could do that. we don't have too many really tech-savy people in the spanish program to be completely honest. i mean there are a few families with web-cams but i'm not sure how good their internet is or if i would be bothering them on mother's day. but really, i don't think i would want to skype to be honest. it sounds really cool but i would really like to see you all for the first time when i get off the plane next february. i think that would be cool. it'll add to the suspense and excitement yeah?? hahaha i hope ya'll aren't annoyed with that but i'd rather just talk on the phone.

anyways it's so exciting to hear that you have been having such great spiritual experiences! i mean, that is so cool that the FHE group is working so well and that you feel they are helping everyone involved. and i'm so happy that you and devin gave your testimonies together! how incredible. as you said, i never knew that it would be this soon that he would find his way back to the church. i'm so happy and thankful to our Heavenly Father for answering our prayers!

well things are going well here. we have been so busy! i love it. my new companion is a stud. we're getting along really well so far. i like it because we have some very similar goals. so since we are on the same page we can really help each other get to where we want to be. we have found some really great new investigators and we are really hoping that we can be good instruments in the Lords hands in helping them prepare for baptism. i feel like we are going to be a great team. things with our zone are already looking up.

well i also got to go to a Chicago White Sox game. it was so cool! they lost 3-2 but it was exciting. if you ask amber she'll tell you that we had quite a few things go wrong yesterday... haha but we've been working hard and we know that they are just trials. we are still happy and positive that the Lord is pleased with our progression. sometimes when we try our hardest to do what is right and be good, everything goes wrong! but instead of being bitter, i know that i am just being tried and tempted by the adversary. my Father and my Savior love me and they want whats' best. so i continue knowing that they will help me over come everything.

i love you all and can't wait to talk to ya!

elder derek munoz

Best Easter Ever! April 27, 2011

2011-06-05T19:36:00.001-07:00

hey there familia!

we had 2 baptisms!!!! and they were so happy/excited! it was such a great experience. and i want more like it! haha we had transfers and i have a new companion named elder swenson. he's from Snohomish, WA. strange name... but he's an awesome guy! i'm so excited to serve with him and we'll learn a ton from each other. anyways, we're going to continue the baptizing! it was a great way to end my service with elder john, having two people enter into the waters of baptism. i baptized one and elder john confirmed her, then he baptised the other and i confirmed her. sweet huh? i'll be sending pictures real soon.

Maria Ledezma Baptism on April 23, 2011

Balbina Ruiz Baptism on April 23, 2011

Easter was GREAT!!!! two baptisms easter weekend. plus, i did get your package! thanks ya'll! it was awesome. and i love the picture book! that was so tight and i was so happy to read the little messages people left for me. it was really sweet. so thanks! i'm going to enjoy it for sure! (surprisingly i havent' finished it all yet). for Easter day we did get to eat with members. actually, twice! right after church we went to a family for lunch. it was tons of fun. i barbequed!!! hamburgers and hot dogs! (delicious of course). and they had these bunny ears for everyone to put on... haha funny stuff. they also had a bunny costume that we dressed up in. i'll send pictures, don't worry! they are an awesome family. then later that evening all 6 of us missionaries went and ate with the Delgado family. the ones that you have talked to. it was a great Easter weekend. best one ever.

The Arruela Family

Opening Easter Basket from Mom and Dad

Photo Book from Mom and Dad

okay so funny story... i got my companion elder swenson this morning and he came over to the apartment. and... the kitchen smelt really bad. haha elder john and i have been so busy lately we haven't really even been in there. maybe we made a quick meal and then threw the dishes in the sink but that's it. well... he was tryin to figure out why in the world it smelt so bad! the sink was pretty bad... but that wasn't the end. we decided to not wait and clean the fridge real quick. he was workin on throwing away some old food, and there was this container of old leftovers. he opened it to throw it away, and was hit by a real bad, horrible stench! haha he said he gagged from it! oops... welcome to the apartment elder swenson! (don't worry, we're goin to try and be cleaner and throw away old food too).

so the weather is getting warmer. the only problem now is that it has been raining like crazy. it was like that last year too. we're going to try and use the bikes a lot more, because we both want to get back in shape! haha but it's good that we have a car on the really bad weather days. it's a good balance i think.

so how is everything? anything new or exciting? mom are you still doing p90x? or running with Gracie to the church? how are the wedding plans comin along? how's work dad? what's the status with amber and jeremy? ya'll just both workin a lot? i miss you all! take care and i'll call ya in a week and a half!! i'm not sure when but what sounds like a good time for ya'll? let me know and next week i'll see what i can do with it.

love

elder derek munoz

April 20, 2011

2011-06-05T19:28:00.001-07:00

Hi there!

things are great. i am so so happy that these two women have made the choice to be baptized. and i'm extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to have a part in their learning the gospel! what an incredible feeling. it was so awesome because i have been trying to really have and show love for the people i'm teaching. so we were talking about baptism with one of our investigators and before we asked, she asked me if i would baptize her! she said she had already thought about it and wanted me to do it. i felt so honored. i just felt the love i tried to give her return to me. she's a really cute older woman too. as her baptism has approached she seems to be happier and happier when we see her. she's always got a smile on and looking to say hi to us. we went to a wedding reception for a family that recently got sealed last weekend, and she was watchin us when we got there from accross the room, and when we saw her she waved at us with a big smile! it was awesome.

i'm so happy for peter. don't forget that i want a picture or invitation or something! so a while ago i got a letter from the Lundeen family. they said that they are doing well but sister lundeen said she does'nt get to see you much because you are really busy. that stinks! you should hang out with her. she told me that mckayla is doing water polo. that is so cool! i wish i could see her play.

well we have transfers once again! next week we'll find out what happens. i think i'm going to stay here, but that my companion will leave. he's been here for a long time and we've served together for 3 transfers now. but it's possible we'll stick together one more.

we are teaching a Zone meeting tomorrow, and i'll see if they recieved the package you sent yet. if we've got it, they should bring it for me tomorrow. but if not it might be next week that i get it. either way that is okay though. thanks for sending me something. i love ya'll. FAMILY! can you believe that i get to call home in less than 3 weeks?? how cool is that?? time just slips by...

i'm doing great. i love all of you. i'm so happy that you keep in such good communications with me. keep up the good work ;)

love,

elder derek munoz

April 13th Letter

2011-06-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

hey guys!!

dad, you have had a crazy busy week. that is intense. that's too bad that you are going to lose devin though! he told me that he got into the program at new york. YEAH! that is so cool. but you are going to lose your hang out buddy. don't worry, in about 10 months (haha) i'll be home for a little while i think and i'll tag along!

awe mom, don't cry! in my words, i'm not dead yet! so don't worry. i'll be home soon. can you believe that i get to call next month?? it's comin fast right? that is so neat that you two got to serve in the temple together for the first time. i think that would be such an incredibly relationship building thing. me and my wife work in the temple? sweet.

i had no idea that peter cunningham was getting married! wow. tell him that i say hello and that i miss him. also tell him i said congratulations and that i want him to send me an invitation or announcement or whatever k?

so get this. Hermana Curtis who i've been serving around for a long time, has been telling me about her study abroad program she did through BYU. she went for a semester to Jerusalem. it sounds incredible. i think i might want to look into that when i get home. the only thing is it would take A LOT of work. it's very expensive. but she said that when she got accepted, she didn't have any money. she did several fundraisers and such to get the funds. i want to look into it.

things are going well with our investigators. i think that we will be able to have 2 baptisms this month! and we are still working to get another person married. hopefully they will and we will help her prepare for baptism for next month. i love this work. it's really hard sometimes! being in sales and having served a mission you know how it is getting rejected a lot. but ya just gotta keep on movin forward. i know that ther are people that have been prepared because i have seen it. and spreading the gospel gives you so much joy that you just keep goin!

we went on exchanges with the Assistants yesterday. that was a great experience. elder mcdonnel taught me a lot. he's a really dedicated missionary who just loves his mission. it was good to see the joy he got from talking to people about the gospel.

i'm happy that you were able to have such a successful time with FHE. i love teaching about the atonement. it is such an incredible tool in our lives that helps us be happier every single day. what is sad is that there are so many people that don't understand. i've met many people who think that Christ's suffering is so sad and that they are sorry that he had to do that for them. while it is a very sad subject, it happened because he LOVES US! and he wants us to use the atonement to make us happy and return to our father in heaven. the atonement should be used gratefully. we need to realize that the price has already been paid. now it's up to us to use that precious gift.

i love you all and i miss ya'll. i hope everything is going well and that you are all remembering the Savior in this Easter season.

hugs and kisses,

elder derek munoz

April 6, 2011

2011-05-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

yeah i'm really happy to be here. i mean don't get me wrong, this is the hardest thing ever! haha it's hard physically, spiritually, emotionally. but ever bit of suffering is worth it! it's the greatest joy ever. so i'm happy for that. we still have our car, but we have limited miles that we can use each month. during the winter we recieved bus passes but now we are back on bikes. which, means more extra costs here and there. that's okay though i like biking.

i LOVED conference too. that talk on BEING and not just DOING was really good like you said. i also liked the talk about putting action to your hopes and dreams. the priesthood session was amazing like always. i really liked that talk by President Uchtdorf too. i'm not sure how much dad told you about it but i THINK that talk was about living up to your priesthood duties and priviledges. i watched all of conference so without my notes i can get mixed up sometimes. he talked about us living below our priveledges and how we need to overcome that. i loved it. my impressions? it's so true. i think to different extents we are all guilty of it. i'm going to try and be better and exemplify my callings and responsibilities more, while enjoying it every step of the way. oh! i also loved Elder Christoffersons talk on giving, taking and seeking righteous correction. i loved it because i want to be the best missionary i can be so i need to be accetpting and even SEARCH out constructive criticism.

mom i love the quotes you send me btw. i loved the one about the way to have a great, lasting relationship being that you take full responsibility for it and don't expect anytyhing in return. awesome. i've been trying to better live by that.

well, our two investigators with baptismal dates are progressing nicely along! i'm so happy and excited for each of them. they are both scheduled to be baptized on the 23rd of this month. they have come so far and i'm so excited for them. each one of them is excited for it too and have told us that they know that this is right. so cool. we were actually a little unsure of how solid Maria was feeling about it, but the last time we met with her she told us about how she has already started inviting her family to come and support her at the baptism!!! we were very happy to hear that.

so my district went to the temple today. it was great. such an incredible feeling of love, peace and happiness. whenever i go in there i just ccan't stop smiling. i think it's great you two get the chance to work there. so unfortunately like i said, i need garments but the distribution center was closed for another two hours by the time we were done. so we didn't get to buy any! darn right?

i love you all. hope everyone is doing fine. devin sent me his wedding invites~! i'm so stoked. i have been showing everyone. even members haha. i'm so happy and i can't wait to see pictures of the wedding.

love,

elder derek munoz

- Show quoted text -

Letter on March 30, 2011 with picture of my District!

2011-05-01T06:10:00.001-07:00

hey there mama!

things are going well here, but YES it has been cold. and i don't like it! it's almost april! we were hoping that it would be warmer. but i think it should get warmer pretty soon. our bus passes expire soon so we will be back on bikes. it'll be good because i'll need that exercise. there hasn't been snow in a while though.

that's awesome that you get to work in the temple. we should be going next week. it'll be a great pday following general conference. which i'm WAY excited about. i love conference. it is so upliftin and makes me feel so much hope in the world. i can't wait to hear about what ya'll liked and share what i learned too.

it's incredible how much the Lord truly blesses us right? we have so much to be thankful for. elder john and i have been incredibly blessed. yesterday we found a new family to teach! a family of 4 and we also found a new woman to teach! so 5 new investigators yesterday! we're excited to see how they progress this week and we really hope that they can come to one of the sessions of conference this weekend.

we are still working with a couple other investigators. we had a GREAT lesson with the "husband" of one of our investigators. they aren't married and have said they think they want to wait to go back to Ecuador to get married, but now i think we might be able to set a marriage and baptismal date with her! she's a really kind woman and has desire to do what's right. she's just struggling because the onluy thing she's known is catholisism. however she's recieved an answer about joseph smith. so HECK YES! :) she'll be fine.

i love you all. thanks for all of your support. keep on moving forward!

love elder derek munoz

Missionaries in my District

March 23, 2011

2011-05-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

hey there!

i'm doing great this week. it is great to hear about all that's going on back home. sounds like a lot of crazy stuff like always. don't worry mom, you and dad usually touch on different subjects or if it's the same thing, you both have different perspectives.

see how missionary work can be so easy mom?? we just need to let ourselves be mormons all the time. we need to always have Christ's image engraved in our countenance and invite people when we have an opportunity. and we ALWAYS have opportunities. if they aren't interested, that's okay. maybe right now they aren't prepared, but we can't make that decision for them! so many people try to make the decision for others, saying they aren't ready. but you never know...

that's crazy about the glass door shattering again. seems like our house has gone through so many changes bytheway... that's cool though

well the work is going forward! elder john and i are so excited for the changes in the zone. like i said, not because they old missionaries were bad, it's just good to have a change once in a while to get some fresh blood, fresh ideas for different areas. some of the missionaries had been there for a while. so we are hoping that the work here in the city increases a lot.

we lost one of our investigators last week. it was sad because he was the one that was so great! ha he was receptive and wanted to keep the commitments we had left him, but after his few weeks in mexico with other family, we lost him. he came back with just a different mind-set and stronger belief in his families religion. maybe in the future he'll regain his desire. so right now we are focusing harder on our other investigators that we have. they are doing well and all have different situations we have to work through. sometimes that is rough but we are going well and hoping that the Spirit really takes over with how we need to approach things with them.

so just so you know i picked up knitting again. i didn't really know much before but i feel like i know more now. my comp and i have been doing it at the end of the night before bed and it's been fun haha. we're both making big beanie hats. they are lookin pretty good. we got a new district member who likes to knit a lot and taught us some cool things. he's knitting a sweater!! haha he's so funny.

i love you all and hope you are well.

elder munoz

March 16, 2011

2011-03-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

hey there familia!

things are going great here! we invited another lady to be baptized and she said yes! she's a sweet older woman. her son and his family are members but she for the longest time, didn't want anything to do with us! haha she was sweet but didn't want to talk to us because she was Catholic. but we started talking little by little and with the help of her son, she agreed to actually listen to our message. she has incredible faith!! she knows that God answers prayers and already feels she recieved an answer about joseph smith. it's a little hard because she is not scripturally knowledged at all. so she doesn't understand even some basic stuff. that only means we have to teach very simply and explain the truly important things.

we've also made a great breakthrough with another woman and will hopefully be able to set a date for baptism with her too. she has been taught by many different missionaries, but only now understands the importance of prophets and the Book of Mormon. we found out some of her other concerns and i think we'll be able to really help her overcome them. i've been trying to be better about LOVING the people i teach. and showing that love. and i think it's truly helping, especially with this woman just mentioned.

wow mom. that is one crazy hat!!! how the heck did you make it? or where did you buy it?? haha you are such a fun person. i'm glad that you won.

it sound like the family is enjoying the company of Kat's family. that's great to hear. i can't wait to meet all of them too. they seem so country! haha i love it. i want to get some cowboy boots too! so i'm not left out. i heard that the river walk was going to be shut down for a few months for cleaning or something. is that true?

don't worry ma, i'm not sick. like you guessed i've been blessed to stay healthy so far and hopefully it stays that way.

guess what?? elder ferrel, or now travis, came back to chicago with his parents! he's the companion i had before elder john. i was with him for 4.5 months, the one from texas. they came back to visit during his spring break. they took us out to eat and came to our ward last sunday. it was good to see him and meet his parents. he's such a funny, big bear. haha

well i haven't mentioned yet, but we just had transfers and elder john and i are going to be staying here and doing one more transfer together. so we'll do at least 4.5 months together like i did with elder ferrel. guess what's crazy about transfers? him and i are the ONLY companionship in our zone not changing! out of 12 comps, we are the only one. we're really excited about the change. not that we won't miss the old missionaries, but we feel like we are going to get a great fire in the zone. sometimes you just need to get a fresh mind in the area to make great things happen. and we'll have 5 of the companionships training so they will bring "greeny fire". hopefully this zone will be seeing a lot of success in the next few months.

i love you all! miss ya'll tons. i think for now i'm doing good mom. i can't really think of anything i need except that i ran out of candy... just sayin ;)

until next week,

elder derek munoz

March 9, 2011

2011-03-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

hey mom!

i'm doing great. thanks for liking my letters! haha i love hearing from all of you also. so the mormon.org thing is great to show non-members and you can all set up your own profiles. it's to let people know who we are and get them introduced to the gospel. i think the church is trying to really expand the church's outlook to be more positive. anyways i put up the picture because when i went online i didn't see the picture that you had put up. for some reason it didnt' come up so i put that one on there.

i'm glad that you have been enjoying the missionaries. how is the work going for them? things are good here. i was telling dad that we have had many members offer their friends for us to give them blessings when they have been sick or otherwise afflicted. it's been great because we have had a positive experience sharing the gospel with them after the blessing. we hope to invite many more people to be baptized this week so pray for us!

i am doing so great. i love it here. so i looked up some upcoming shows in chicago and they are going to have peter pan, beauty and the beast, and west side story this year! hoepfully i can see some of them.

i love you a ton and hope you are doing well. i miss you. thanks for your love and support. read what i sent to dad :)

love, elder munoz

March 3, 2011

2011-03-17T05:34:00.001-07:00

hey there familia!

sounds like everyone is having a blast at home! i know mom the title of your blog is so true. munoz family adventure, heck yes we love adventures. even if it's just a regular day at home right? we know how to have fun anywhere. part of it is because we have that "honey" in our lives that you mentioned. the gospel helps us be so much happier right??

i know that you are sometimes tired with your busy lives and everything but i'm sure the Lord is just pouring out blessings. you are doing wonderful work in the temple mom and dad and i'm so happy that you have the opportunity to do that. it is so peaceful and happy in there right?

well family, the work is going great! elder john and i had a very successful zone meeting last week. we were both nervous as always... but I LOVE TEACHING. mainly just about the gospel. i don't know why but it just feels so good. i really enjoy it but i'm worried that that means i might get a calling like early morning seminary! haha just kidding. i think it's just because i like the spirit you can feel when discussing gospel topics. i'm not sure if elder john and i will be together one more but i think that we will.

our investigators are doing well. i'm excited that we are teaching maria and her brother once again. they are great with true desire! she is just a slow learner... but we're working through that! she's doing fine. and gabriel is in mexico for aobut 2 weeks but as soon as he is back we will continue helping him prepare for baptism. we know that the adversary works hard against people so we will be keeping in touch with him by phone til he returns.

i love you all. and i love the Lord. and i love His work!!! it's HARD. but so rewarding.

elder munoz

February 23, 2011

2011-02-24T04:30:00.000-08:00

hey there ma!

my week has been great thanks. the auto show WAS a blast.

well, like i told dad, we have an awesome investigator named Gabriel. he is progressing a lot. he is such a funny guy too! we taught him saturday night about the word of wisdom and he was a little concerned because he really likes his coffee. but he said that he would do it and he would start right then! so the next morning in sacrament he leaned over to me and said "i'm falling asleep because i don't have my coffee!" and then we both laughed about it. he said that it'll take a little getting used to but that he'll be fine without it. we are going to teach him tonight so we'll see if he's gotten over it and still going strong.

it's great what i get to teach everyone! because i believe in everything so strongly, it makes it nice because i know i need not worry about it. i have my testimony of what i teach. although i'm not perfect and don't know close to everything, i know that what i teach shouldn't be a problem because it's true. it's so awesome because i have learned to be sweetly bold and confident. fear not! and trust in Heavenly Father.

i got the valentines card ya'll sent! thanks for that! i loved the snoopy. haha

well i'm going strong through the fierceness of chicago! i like you have found a love for reading my scriptures. and just like i told dad, i'm reading Jesus the Christ! i remember you suggested that to me several years back. well now i'm reading it and i wish i took your advice sooner! it's awesome. i love that book. i've been learning a lot.

i love ya'll. until next week!

elder munoz

February 17, 2011

2011-02-24T04:28:00.000-08:00

hey there all!

so there was an elder that left and came back to the ward a year later? that's awesome! did i know him? cuz that was right when i left right? (i just hit my year-to-go-home mark today!) and that is SO cool that you all got to talk to that family. they are way cool. they have been members for about 3 years and they are temple workers and have a daughter on a mission! pretty neat yeah? they always welcome the missionaries to come over and eat, and are always willing to help us teach if they can. we really enjoy their company.

things sound like they are going great for everyone! i'm glad that you have been able to do your work-outs and studies in the morning mom! dad you bought tickets for Wicked?? that is awesome! you two will love the show! it was playing here and i wish i would've bought a ticket. they are also playing les miserables now and some missionaries are going next week i think. maybe i can go to a play here sometime too. i like musical theater and i think it's amber's fault.

well things are going great here. my comp elder john and i had a great and productive talk with one another this week. i feel like for the first time we really opened up with eachother and i think it's going to push the work forward exponentially. we were kinda struggling because we weren't on the same page and we weren't doing everything that we could do to be successful. but we have discussed our challenges, repented, and look forward to working the hardest we have worked! i really am glad that we had our talk beacuse i think we are going to be able to help each other reach our potentials as missionaries. when we weren't unified it made that a lot harder to accomplish.

our investigators are doing well. Gabriel is doing AWESOME. we taught him yesterday and he had such great questions about what we were teaching him. he kept asking about what he can do to be baptized and have the Holy Spirit with him constantly. we're a little nervous to teach the Word of Wisdom this saturday because he has a lot of wine and liquor bottles in his living room... haha but i know not to fear because what we teach is true and he's felt the Spirit before. he should know that this is a commandment of God.

well this week we went to the Auto Show and saw a bunch of cool cars! they were so nice and i got to sit in a bunch of cars i never thought i'd even see in real life! haha that was such a fun thing to do because it's something different than the norm. i'll be sure to send you some pictures. we also got to do this test ride in a jeep and now i want one so bad! it would be so fun to go jeeping and exploring in utah with one.

i'm doing great. i love and miss you all! the work is moving forward and i appreciate the prayers you've said for me. thanks again for the valentines package! i'm enjoying that a ton. mom you're gonna have to kick my butt with p90x when i get home so i can get my figure back! ;)

love,

munoz

SNOW! February 9, 2011

2011-02-24T04:26:00.000-08:00

hey there!

yeah the snow storm was crazy. there is still a TON of snow everywhere. it's insane and i think i'm on your side of not really wanting to live in a place that snows every winter. eh, maybe, we'll see. haha that is funny about home. texas gets made fun of because there is like, no snow yet everything closes. but it makes sense! we aren't prepared with salt and junk so the roads freeze.

well things are going well here mom. it was a rough few days with the work because of the weather, but don't worry, things are moving forward! we have several potential people to get baptized! we have 2 solid investigators who are coming to church regularly. hopefully they will enter into the waters of baptism at the end of this month and the beginning of next. i'm trying to fine-tune myself as an instrument in the Lords hands. so that's good. also i'm learning how to look over many other people. as a zone leader i'm tryin to make sure that everyone feels and knows of my love for them. i call many of the missionaries to see how they are doing and to give them council and encouragement. i just know that i would appreciate it if i were in their shoes.

well i love you tons. and hope all is well. keep up the good work! you are always an inspiration to many.

love, elder munoz

New Favorite Hobby... Shoveling Snow! February 4, 2011

2011-02-06T18:47:00.001-08:00

hey!

we had a crazy week too. the weather was insane. we had a huge storm start up tuesday night and went on through the night. wednesday there was SO much snow. we spent the whole day helping the old bishop (who we live above) shovel the backway and shoveling our car out of the snow. our car was burried!!! we had to move our p-day to thursday and the libraries haven't been open until today. whew. there is still snow everywhere and it makes parking a pain to find. but it's all good. i think you were right not to want snow or cold weather! haha

well, last week was AWESOME. my companion and i were able to teach so much! and all 3 of our main investigators came to church! what a miracle! things went so well last week because on Sunday i turned in my Fast Offerings, and i paid extra with a prayer in my heart that the Lord would bless us. and our week was the best this area has seen in many many months! and on Saturday i fasted that our investigators would have experiences that will push them to attend church with us and feel of the Spirit that this is what they should be doing. and all 3 of them came!! so exciting. i'm hoping that they can progress and get baptized this and next month.

i forgot that sister lundeen is the seminary teacher!!! how has she been doing? and let me know how your class went with them.

wow that is great about devin and about your friend at work that you invited to learn more. oh man. this is so cool. i'm so happy about the blessings that our family has been recieving. i want to hear all about devin's ordination and how he is doing. i miss him so much. i miss you all!

i got your package but it is still in the mission office and i will pick it up monday when we have mission council with all the leaders. thanks for the package! my friend said it was huge. haha what is in it? my electric blanket?

well, my good friend, elder swope is training this transfer. when you transfer they call your greeny your son. so on p-day we threw him a little surprise. haha it was p-day yesterday and that was when he went to pick up his greeny. i have a key to his apartment so my companion and i bought some balloons and streamers and decorated his apartment! we wrote all sorts of things like "it's a boy! like father like son! proud father! welcome baby!" on all the balloons and taped them all over his apartment. and on his door we put a sign that said "congrats" and then when they opened the door we hung a banner saying "it's a boy!". my comp filmed it and i played the guitar while they walked in. it was so much fun! i hope that got elder swope excited to train and that his greeny felt welcomed into the mission.

well i love you all. thanks for your love and support. i can't wait to hear about your weekend and how devin is doing, how seminary went, and everything! keep on pressing forward in the faith!

love elder munoz

January 26, 2011

2011-02-06T18:46:00.001-08:00

Hi Mom,

things are going well with elder john and i. we had our zone meeting and it went pretty well. i was a little nervous and some of the missionaries were a little resistant at some new mission changes, but it went well. we actually didn't get to teach for very long or half of what we had prepared for because the AP's took up our time. but that's okay. we're both probably going to be here another transfer or many more. transfers are next week already! wow.

we are still teaching maria and antonio. they weren't able to come to church last week because their sister was leaving to mexico. but i think that they are doing fine and should be there this week. we are also working well with our members. we have papers that have a Family Mission Plan with who they want to work with, what they want to do, and by when they want to do it. it's a great tool to help them keep up with their missionary responsibility as members.

i love you a bunch. i'm proud that you have been so bold as to invite your friends to listen to the missionaries! way to go. i miss you and will talk to you again soon.

elder munoz

Got Package! January 19, 2011

2011-01-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

hey mom and dad!

i did have a great week thanks. i'm not sure if i told you about maria and antonio because i thinik we found them on thursday. BUT they are a blessing from heaven. they have been to many different churches and are looking for the truth. they are looking for what feels right. and we were able to teach them and invite them to church. they said yes, and ACTUALLY CAME! haha it's sometiems pretty hard to get people to come to church, but they were there! actually... they even got there before we arrived! but they really liked it and we'll see them again tomorrow. i'm excited. i know it's just the beginning, but hopefullly they continue to learn and progress toward baptism for next month.

my companion and i are doing well. we are going to teach a Zone Meeting tomorrow. we give a little instruction (along with the AP's and President) to our zone of about 22-24 missionaries. i'm a little nervous but i think that we will do a good job. we'll be fine :) i actually really enjoy teaching and speaking in front of people. i still get really nervous and hate to be the center of attention, but i like teaching! it's weird. like when i give a talk at home i get super nervous, but i love it! i think it's because i get to express how i feel or my perspective on a subject, and (especially when it's gospel topics) i can feel the Spirit teach and testify to ME of the truth of what i'm saying. so it's weird that i hate it and love it at the same time. i'll be sure to let you know how it went next week.

i got a package from the Walkers! the older walkers. they sent me a bunch of crackers, pringles, top roman, and hot-cocoa! it was so exciting to open haha and i've been eating the snacks like everyday. they are such a sweet couple and i'm going to send them a thank you note. but be sure to give them a hug for me. i honestly can't remember if i sent the Flicks a thank you note for their last package... i hope i did. they sent me 2 so far and i'm positive i sent one the first time...

i'm so glad to have the support of a wonderful family and a great ward. i hope that everyone is doing well and that the missionary work there is going awesome. please help out the missionaries! ask them what they need with their investigators. and mom i still want to know about your co-worker with the tattoos! i hope he's still active.

i love you all and hope that everyone is enjoying life.

elder derek munoz

Humberto... January 12, 2011

2011-01-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

hey there!

mom i had a great week! it was awesome. well... i mean there was some discouraging moments because we were struggling to find some new investigators. BUT i began to really pray hard and to be specific in my prayers. and i was being Shaped by my Father. He knows exactly when to give me a pick-me-up. yesterday my companion and i were really diligent! i wanted to find 2 new investigators and that's what i asked God to help me accomplish. it was snowing and we went out to tract. and that's when we found Humberto. we had a great lesson with him and i was so happy because the spirit was strong in the room. Berto speaks spanish and english and we ended up teaching him in english. i love my mission language but it was nice to be able to have no language barrier whatsoever (well... execpt some gospel principles i had to translate into english in my head). we testified to him and asked him how he felt. he said that he felt so much better than before. he had been having a bad day and when we came up, something told him that he should listen to us. BAM! how cool is that? i'm so excited to continue teaching him. we're going to see him tomorrow.

that's not the only thing that i've been blessed with. we found another new investigator that we're going to teach saturday. we also found a less-active part-member family that we didn't know about. they agreed to let us come back when the whole family was there!

well as you can see things are going well here. HAPPY 26TH ANNIVERSARY! i hope your day was awesome! i love you mom and dad.

i looked at the family blog today so i could see your pictures. and wow! you all look so good! and the house looks different! you mentioned changes, but i didn't realize! nice big red couch! it'll be strange/fun coming home and getting used to everything.

haha you crazy old folks with your FHE. that's so great. i'm glad that you are strengthening yourselves spiritually and as a community. that's a really important thing.

i want to know how your co-worker is doing mom! the one that got baptized before i left with tattoos and stuff. i hope that he is still doing well. if not, you should find out what he's up to. yeah?? hopefully he's still strong in the church.

well have a great week. i love and miss you all.

elder MUnoZ!

New Year's Eve with Elder John!

Epiphany...January 5, 2011

2011-01-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

hey mom and dad! and everyone else :)

things are going great! i have a completely new outlook on the mission now. i've been renewed in my excitement and love for the work! i know i was "if-y" about my mission president before but i had an epiphany... he is different than my last mission president, i know that. but that doesn't mean he isn't great. i actually thought about a story mom told me a while back.

mom you told me that you about when you had worked so hard to help out at, i think it was, youth conference. there was an activity and you put in your heart and soul to make sure everything went great. even still, you told me at the end of it someone had made an inconsiderate comment and you told me it made you cry! i was so upset when i heard that story. nobody makes my mom cry! but anyways, i related that to my situation right now. i realized that my leaders don't want to see me fail!! they want what's best for me, what's best for the mission. and i need to appreciate and respect that. so i had been thinking about that, plus we also had a mission council. that's where the mission president and the assistants, meet with all of the zone leaders. we talked a lot about the mission and how we had done the last year. we talked about things that need to change and improve so that we can push forward the work we are doing for Christ. and it got me so excited! i'm so happy about the vision and direction we now have for the mission. we have a goal to get the missionaries motivated and executing their purpose to baptize. we want to change the culture of the mission so that eveyone is working hard and being obedient because they want to. so that they can be worthy to recieve the blessing of God. we want each companionship to push for a goal to baptize MONTHLY.

i'm also really looking forward to this calling of being a Zone Leader. i want to help the other missionaries. i'm thankful to have a part in this mission and to be able to serve others. opportunities like this are gifts from God. we just need to remember that it's WITH Him that we can be successful in what he calls us to do. so i'm trying to remember to fufill His will.

so all in all, i love my mission, i love my leaders, and i love my Savior. and i am going to try and focus on consecrating myself more fully to doing His work. it makes me happy :)

anyway, way to go mom on starting the day off with scripture studies! it makes an incredible difference doesn't it? once we realize something like that it's just like you said, we don't want to stop!

that is so cool that you are going to begin to serve in the temple. it's going to be such a great experience. i can't wait to hear about it! my comp and i are going to try and go sometime this month. we both need new garment bottoms! don't worry though, the ones you sent helped a ton and i have funds to buy a few more for myself :) i did use some of the money dad put in my account to buy new sheets though... the ones i had were great while they lasted! but they were gettin old.

so mom, i think what i would ask for in this package would be pictures!!! please :) i know last time you sent some i looked at them for a while and then sent some back.... that was partly because i didn't want to get trunky. but now i see that it wouldn't make me trunky. they're nice to have! which btw, i LOVE my family calendar. it's great :) but if you wanted to send some pics from the holidays, that would be great. also if you wanted to copy some pictures of my friends and i, maybe from my facebook onto a flash drive, and print some pics of my friends too, that'd be cool.

well i hope that all is going well. we have been finding people to teach and everytime, that's a miracle. God places people in our path and it's a great feeling to be apart of His plan.

i miss you and hope eveyone is happy!

love,

elder munoz

Christmas in the field... December 29, 2010

2011-01-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

hey there mom,

yeah it was great to talk to you all too. it's so much easier to communicate and share more things when we can talk to each other! i DID wear my santa hat! i'm not sure if we have any pictures of it though so i'll have to pretend like you suggested :) and i'm glad that you liked the CD and are enjoying the pictures.

mom don't worry! you can get back in the routine of working and working out. i believe in you :) it always feels good, even if you are wanting a break, to be in a routine and feel purpose oriented.

so i'm glad that all went well with everything Christmas! we had fun here. after i got off the phone with you all, we went downtown! we sang Christmas hymns and passed out cards from the church. it was so much fun! even though we aren't the best singers... haha some people didn't like us, some people loved us! after that we ate with a family Christmas eve and then came home and drank some eggnogg. then Christmas morning my companion and i listened to Christmas music while opening our presents and taking pictures. then we got ready to head to another member families house. they have 4 little kids. the two youngest boys are less than a year apart and they are a little trouble making team! but they are so much fun and it was great spending brunch with them. they are a little more americanized and the Sister speaks a lot of english. she mad us a typical american breakfast (for all the missionaries in the ward) with pancakes, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and orange juice. then i danced around with the kids. it was funny. later on my companion called his family and i played with Christmas stuff. then we were able to take a glorious nap before heading over to another members house for dinner. so mainly Christmas consisted of us eating a lot. i enjoyed it.

yeah i'm excited about this calling to be zone leader too. i really hope to make a difference. my companion and i are going to work hard and so far we are getting along fine. he is such a humble guy. he's a great missionary and really knows what's right. he is a little shy and on the conservative side, but we have been having much fun together. we have some ideas that we think will help the missionaries in our zone progress and move the work forward. hopefully we can stand strong and stand up for what we know is best.

i love my mission and i'm learning to love my mission president. i do respect him! i just want to point out a difference between him and my first that will hopefully get you to understand where i'm coming from better... so with president Roach, we heavily focused on "becoming baptizing missionaries"! which was GREAT because that is our ultimate purpose as full-time missionaries. we even had a member of the 70 come and tell us that. (of course it's not about numbers! baptizing still includes making sure everyone is ready and hopefully going to be strong faithful members til the end). but now with president Doll, we are more focused on "becoming contacting missionaries". and that is NOT our purpose. that is just what we obviously do as missionaries. SO, elder john and i, being original southside missionaries, want to help the other missionaries remember their purpose is to baptize.

don't worry about me though, we are really loving what we do. i don't know if you could see it in our conversation, but i feel like i've grown a lot. there's so much i've learned. i love the gospel. i know that there is a TRUE mental, physical, emotional, spiritual difference in your life when you are doing all that is possible to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and when you are not. the gospel is happiness. God loves us and wants to bless us. that's why the gospel is here. so that through our obedience, we will obtain everything that our Father has for us. it's so exciting to bring that to others!!!!

i love you all and miss you much. i hope all is going well. i hope you have a great new years! i think we'll celebrate by going to bed early since we can't be out late! haha

much love,

elder munoz

Last Christmas with Elder Ferrell

YUM!

2010-12-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

How can Derek be gaining wait with this diet?!:)

Does this mean that Derek likes fish now?

Derek keeps telling us that the Hispanic people
are very generous to missionaries and
that they love to feed them. It is evident here
as we see they offer all that they have.

It's All About Teaching & Preaching

2010-12-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

PD's Rock in Chicago!

2010-12-28T06:39:00.000-08:00

Surviving Chicago's Brutal Winter On A Bike!

2010-12-28T06:13:00.000-08:00

Derek's companion

Gotta love the white stuff!

Way to stay positive Elder!

Dinner Time?!

2010-12-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

Is this what they eat in Chicago? Derek is going to have
to explain this one in more detail.
We thought he wasn't on a foreign mission!

Excerpt from December 22nd Letter

2010-12-27T17:29:00.000-08:00

I got transfered. i'm only moving to the neighboring
area with elder john as a zone leader. still the same ward and district. but
different families, house, and.... are you ready? i got a car!!!! ah,
finally i'm not biking or out using buses and stuff. i'm excited about that.
the only thing is that we don't have a lot of miles each month, but they
haven't given us bus passes. therefore we're goin to call president and ask
for either 1)more miles or 2) bus passes.

December 8, 2010

2010-12-27T17:24:00.000-08:00

Hey there!

yeah i missed ya'll too but i get to call in 2 weeks!!! the mission is HARD but it's awesome. so yeah i'm lovin it. luckily my companion is still working! he's great. but he is on his 'dying transfer' meaning he's going to finish his mission Dec 23rd when we have transfers. but he is still working hard.

it's AWESOME to hear about all the blessing that you are all recieving! i'm glad that i'm not a burden. i shouldn't have said that because i know that the Lord promises to bless my family while i'm gone so i shouldn't be surprised that you are all doing okay. right now i'm doing great with the things that i need though. so don't worry about me! the Lord is taking care of me too :) dad told me that you think i might need pants or suits or things, but don't worry, there is a good thrift store near our house. dad put some money in my account a few weeks ago and i did use that for a suit, an AWESOME pair of pants, and yes... a few really cool ties. thanks a lot for that! i think that i mentioned that the suit was a little small, but i got the pants altered and i call it a "european style" fit. :)

(i think i might need my electric blanket in the near future though)

well the work is going well. my comp and i have found another family!!! i LOVE it. families are the best but in my experience hasn't been the most common. we found a really sweet family yesterday knocking doors. well, it was just an older couple that we taught but they loved us and want us to come back and said they have like two older sons we should teach too. well, it was only our first lesson and they didn't quite grasp what our message really was. but they said they would pray about Joseph Smith and we are going to teach them again later this week. i have hope for them. it seems like a lot of investigators come and go, and that's the life of a missionary, but it's sad. it's too bad they all can't accept the gospel. but i'm learning a lot, constantly. i'm trying to find out how we can improve and help these people to feel converted to the gospel.

it's so amazing the gospel that we have in our lives. i'm so very grateful to have the knowledge that i do. it makes me so happy. i love being able to share it with others. sometimes things are hard, but the best cure to get through anything is my faith in my Heavenly Father and in my Savior. if there's only one person converted on my mission, and that person is me, i'll still be thankful for the time i served and what the Lord has taught me.

i love and miss you all!

i look forward to next weeks' emails!!

elder MuNoZ

November 24, 2010

2010-12-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

hey there family!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

it's kinda wierd because it doesn't really seem like thanksgiving. just because we are still just doing missionary work and stuff. it's good though :) my comp and i have a few different places to eat tomorrow! haha tomorrow will be our p-day, but our mission president still wanted us to do shopping, laundry, email today before 12. i think some missionaries are going to meet up in the morning to play volleyball/basketball at the church, then we'll head out to stuff our faces. i look forward to it. it's interesting though because all the hispanic people here celebrate thanksgiving late in the day! haha we had all our invitations for either 6 or 7! only one family invited us at noon, so we'll get thanksgiving lunch, and dinner :)

i hope you all love and enjoy thanksgiving together. it's a fun holiday. you get to eat, and eat, be with family, and think about all the blessings that you have in your life. i hope you are all always remembering the things that the Lord has blessed our family with.

i'll miss your pies mom! but i won't miss out on the feeling of exploding! because hispanic people love to feed us haha. and sometimes we eat twice in a row. whew, it's hard work. but the love my companion and i for being able to eat their food haha.

well dad, you had asked about the golden woman we found. we've been struggling to get into contact with her, because of her work schedule, it's crazy. but anyway we talked with her daughter yesterday and we're going to stop by their house this sunday before church. hopefully things go well! things have been pretty... like a rollercoaster! we have been working hard and have seen the Spirit work with people. and we've also seen times where we lose contact with people! and then we find someone new waiting for us. so it's up and down and then back up again. i love it though, because it makes me try harder to focus on the fact that this is the LORDS work and not mine. i need to follow what the spirit teaches me and let things work on the Lords time instead of my own.

we recently got into contact with William. we had a come-back appointment to teach him. but when we arrived, we found out he wasn't at home. so we got our bikes and were about to head off, when my companion realized his tire was flat. so i took out my pump and started to fill it with air. it's a hand-pump so it takes a while to fill a tire up! but just when i was about done, guess who came walking up?? William! coincidence? i think not. haha he apologized and let us come in so we could teach him. he had EXCELLENT questions! and his understanding of what we taught was incredible. he enjoyed what we had to teach him and we look forward to going back friday. he said he would be baptized when he gets his answer on things. the only problem is that he works every sunday right now. but when i mentioned that hopefully we could work out a way to get him sundays off, he had no problem with it. i'm excited to see where he goes.

we're still working with lazaro. he's progressing, i guess i just wish he was moving a little faster! haha but it's okay. the important thing is that he feels ready and committed. he went to a "Turkey Bowl" with the ward last saturday and really liked that.

i am so grateful for all of you. i love you all so much. we are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives and to know all the things that we must do to be happy here and in the life to come. we are so blessed for the sound understanding of the gospel that others don't have. everyday i'm so very grateful to be able to have the testimony i do. it's undescribable.

i look forward to talking to you all next week!

love,

e. mUnOZ

December 8, 2010

2010-12-11T10:25:00.003-08:00

(i think i might need my electric blanket in the near future though)

wow... it would be AWESOME to have that little blue car when i came home and went off to school again. but even if that didn't work out (cuz you need a car mom), i'd be alright. i've been biking for... quite a few months ;) and so i would be totally fine biking to get around town in utah (hopefully i get into BYU)!

that's so great about edwin and his girlfriend. i'm glad that you are able to take part in their conversion and help them progress to baptism. that's really cool! way to go fam! and mom i'm glad you are going to reach your goal to read all of the scriptures! that's neat.

i love and miss you all!

i look forward to next weeks' emails!!

elder MuNoZ

Thanksgiving Report.... December 1, 2010

2010-12-11T10:24:00.001-08:00

hello family!!

i'm doing great here in the windy city. thanksgiving was great although it didnt' feel that much like the holidays without the family nearby. don't think it was sad though! it was actually LESS depressing that way. haha we played volleyball in the morning and then my comp and i had thanksgiving lunch AND dinner with families in the ward. it was fun even though i missed all of you. i can't wait for my phone call to you in 24 days!

it's pretty darn cold here in chicago. i'm handling it better than i thought i would. some days we can't spend long periods of time outside though, we have to go in and warm up! it just barely started snowing today. i'm not sure if that is exciting or not... haha. i've heard rumors that this winter might be REALLY bad. hmm... we'll have to see how that goes.

i got devin's package and letter just a few weeks ago. it was awesome! but i did send him a letter back. chicago mail system really really stinks so maybe that's why he hasn't heard back from me yet. you all should encourage him to pray and ask Heavenly Father specifically about the Book of Mormon and the church, and thihngs like that. that way he can obtain his own testimony and be able to do everything on his own will.

so my blue suit is still in good condition. but my black one (the one i've had for years) has taken a beating and i'll probably throw it out soon... and my brown suit (which gets the most compliments haha) is too small now and i'm going to give it away to one of the other missionaries. but usually i just wear pants and not the suits, and most of them are either beaten up or too small now. so here's what i did... i bought a new pair of pants that i love and fit great. i also just bought a new suit and i took it to a tailor to get the pants taken out a little bit so that suit will work great for a while. AND i decided to try my sewing skills and on one of my pants that are too small now, i'm trying to take them out myself. i'm just starting the sewing process so i'll tell you how it goes...

thanks for sending some packages! i look forward to putting them under our chirstmas tree. yes, we have a tree! we just need to make decorations for it :)

mom i know i'm already a financial burden with my mission costs, so don't worry about me! don't send any more packages for Christmas, i'll be fine! hopefully you all just have a nice modest, fun christmas and dont' worry too much on material things. i'm really sorry that i won't be able to give presents out :/ i'll try to find a way to give something though.

well the work is getting harder, just because it gets dark earlier, and it's colder. BUT we just found a great family! this is my first time getting to be able to teach the whole family! i love it. i can't wait to see them again this saturday. they are 5 in total, and the oldest kid is 11. we're going to bring a member so that they can start feeling welcome. i'm really hoping that they all come this sunday. we're still working with several different people, but they all have tough situations that we're trying to work through and hopefully we don't have to drop them.

i love it here. i love the work and the gospel is what makes me the most happy. i'm so thankful that we have this precious knowledge in our lives. the scriptures are such a blessing and they provide me with strength everyday. i heard a quote that "faith isn't faith until it is tested". that is so true. our faith is going to be tested, and we need to stand strong in all we do! and the best way to get through the hard times is to do those DAILY steps such as scripture study and constant prayer. i hope that thigns are still going well with all of you in your scripture study.

i love you all and i hope that you look for missionary opportunities often. remember to pray for the missionaries in your own areas and offer to help them in more ways than just a meal. this is the season of giving! :)

i love you all so much. and miss you tons.

love,

e. MuNOz

November 17, 2010 Email

2010-11-19T04:16:00.000-08:00

hey fam!

don't worry about me! i'm doing great. we moved into a new apartment and it's really cool. i have everything that i need. i MIGHT need to ask you to send me my electric blanket, but i don't think i'll need it for like another month. we have a pretty good heater system in our current apartment. some of the other elders in older apartments don't have it as good as i do unfortunately. thanks for the emergency money dad! i'll probably buy a few wool socks, but in my last apartment i found like 3 pairs in a drawer and i just took those haha. we'll see when the REAL winter comes how i'm feeling.

i'm glad that you guys have been keeping busy. everything sounds really fun with the FHE group and everything. i really would like to do a lot more service things when i get back home. we have a really awesome family in the ward that is so generous. they do not focus on themselves, but on how they can help others. instead of buying themselves new things, they find ways to donate money, or they go and plant trees in the neighborhood. it's neat. but anyway i was talking to some elders and it's going to be hard to come back home if we don't have something to do! like going to school or working right away. because when you are busy it helps you to keep active and happy. work really does bring happiness! as long as you aren't over-working yourself.

the work is going well. my comp and i went tracting and it always seems like the last house is the one to actually let us in! haha but this woman let us come in and teach her. and the lesson was AMAZING the spirit was so strong and she started crying in the first vision. it was really cool because i could feel the spirit working inside me. i can't really explain how powerfully it's presence was. we always have the spirit there when we are teaching someone, but this was stronger than usual, probably the most strongest on my mission. i really think that she is an ellect person from God. she truly has a lot of faith and said that she wants to continue learning and see if she can get an answer to her prayers like joseph smith did. we explained to her how her answer would more likely come, but it all went really well. and she accepted to be baptized! we set a date for this december :) and we hope to begin teaching her family this week.

lazaro is still progressing too. we set his baptismal date back, because he wanted to make his own goal. so december 4th is what we're looking at.

i love you all. thanks for all your prayers and emails. i miss you but i'm thankful to be here.

:) love

e. mUnOZ

November 11, 2010

2010-11-19T04:14:00.000-08:00

hello familia!

well, things here are going well. we had transfers and i'm going to be staying in the same area with the same companion. this is three transfers together! i've never been with another companion more than one! i'm enjoying it though. he's a great guy. maybe a little bit trunky, but he's still working so that's great. sometimes him and elder filipi (in our district) make me a little bit trunky haha but i'm doing good. time is going by so fast! we moved apartments, but in the same area. the one we have now is smaller, but it's nicer. my companion and i re-arranged things and it's SWEET. we even bought a new (not ripped and moldy) shower curtain! it's got a big green tree frog on it. haha i like it.

well i am loving being in chicago. the weather this week has been a great blessing. 60's all week. i'm scared cuz i think next week it's going to start dropping again! but that's the life in chicago. we have been doing really good on our first lessons here. the mission has been stressing on teaching the first in a short 15-minute spirit packed lesson. and include a bap-invitation. and i love it. i think our teaching skills are constantly improving. i really like teaching. and lately I'VE been the one to invite them to be baptized, and it's so spiritual. i love it. it's cool because i really feel a lot closer to my purpose now that we are doing that better. we did it before, but i don't feel like we were as consistant.

lazaro is doing well, but we're going to push his baptismal date back a little bit. he wasn't able to come to church this past sunday, AND this weekend there are a lot of schedule conflicts with him, the bishop, the ward mission leader. so we're going to wait a little while. we want to make sure that he is ready before he gets in the water!

the other day, because we had to move so suddenly, we didn't get to do our morning studies. we had to move into our new apartment and shut down ours (we used to have 2 companionships covering this same area, but now it's just my comp and i). so we were packing and getting ready for other missionaries to come with the moving trailer. and i must tell you all, my day felt so much different! especially when we were trying to teach and everything we missionaries do. i didn't read my scriptures that day and it was a tremendous difference in how my day felt. it's hard to describe in words. we teach people all the time that there are 3 basic things we must do so that we can stay strong and endure to the end. 1.go to church every week 2.pray every day and 3.read the scriptures daily. i hope that you are all finding time to read every single day. and to constantly keep a prayer in your heart. because these things can make a world of difference.

i love you all and hope the best for you! i pray for you all daily!

e. MuNOz

October 26, 2010

2010-10-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

why hellooo there!

okay okay i hear everyone is laughing about how i didn't know how colombian we acutally were.... but i didn't! haha :) umm the food we ate at the restaurant was some steak or beef that was really moist and fell apart easily, with potatos and they were both in that certain sauce with tomato. the taste was exactly like home. with white rice just like ya'll make.

thanks for the package! it was super good. i still haven't finished everything and yeah i've shared a bit with my companion :) that's great that you like the new missionaries in the ward. i hope they're pretty awesome. are they both spanish? or did they just communicate with gramps as best they could with english? dad, you should take gramps to spanish church! maybe he'll be more interested if he understands it more haha.

good work being a missionary, mom! with both sharing the gospel and handling being stood-up :) so dad says ya'll got a new bed?? nice. my neck has been hurting many mornings. i think i just need a better pillow! mine aren't the greatest haha. i think i'll try and see if i can budget one in for november. i'm sure i can. wow that's a crazy diet guys! i'm glad that you changed it. i'm sure it will be a lot better for you two.

well things are going great here. i'm really excited because the missionaries in my district and ward are all determined to work better with the ward to get things rolling. we just got a new bishopric, i'm not sure if i mentioned that. finally i have the bishop living in MY area! we met with him for breakfast yesterday. he's a great man and i think that he seems very missionary-oriented. i think that we can get his support in working more with the ward. my companion and i are going to try and get to know all the members better, and the leaders so that we can put on missionary firesides or activities once a month. that's our goal at least.

i'm very happy to be here! i'm really looking forward to getting the conference issue of the Ensign soon. it provides such a strength to me to read the living prophets words. and the scriptures are awesome too. i'm glad you have set some great new goals for yourself dad! we learn out here that follow-up (or follow-through) is 50%! that's a lot!

i love you all. thanks for your spanish letter dad! i love it.

e. mUnOZ

Colombian Food Rocks! October 22, 2010

2010-10-24T20:29:00.001-07:00

hey there!

mom and dad thanks for your emails! they were awesome. like always.
i'm glad to hear of your latest adventures. that's really neat that
you went to hang out with devin again. it all sounded like a lot of
fun. dad did you like my birthday card?? i thought it was pretty funny
so i hope you liked it. thanks for the spiritual thought mom. i really
liked it. you should teach about that in your next FHE :)

so a few fun things here. i went out to eat at a colombian restaurant
with a few other missionaries. it was awesome! so much like the food
mom and dad made back home. NO JOKE! i was so so surprised that the
plate i had was so much like what i've eaten back home. it's funny
because i didn't realize how colombian ya'lls food really was. since i
grew up with it. but here i am in chicago eating at a legit colombian
place and it's just like back home. so i really enjoyed that. made me
a little trunky though... we also have a really cool turf soccer field
near our house and we played there last p-day. it was really neat.
it's such a nice field and we hope to play there again today.

well, the work was kind of hard last week. but this week it's been
great!!! our friend Lazaro who has a bap-date came back into the
picture! we hadn't heard from him for a week but he's back still with
a desire to be baptized. i'm excited about that. We also were able to
set up some sweet appointments for the upcoming week! I really think
that there will be potential with them. One of them is an argentine
woman with a cool accent. My first time teaching an Argentine! I'll
let you know how things go.

So we were tracting and ran into someone who knew who the prophet was.
At first we were a bit confused and worried about who he was. Then he
smiled and said he was a member! Apparently his family has been
inactive for a little while. Thankfully the Lord put us in their path
and we found them at home. I really think this family will start
coming again. HE actually bore a strong testimony to US at the end of
our lesson. I'm excited to visit with them some more.

I love you all! Thanks for your love and support in all things!
E. mUnOz

October 13, 2010

2010-10-24T20:28:00.001-07:00

hello there!

my birthday was great. i loved the package. and don't worry mom, on your instruction sheet you said to take a bunch of pictures so i did. i just got the Robinsons package yesterday and it was awesome. i miss them! they are such a cool family. tell everyone that i am doing great.

hey mom! i'm reading the same spot in the Book of Mormon in spanish! cool :) i love alma 26. one of my favorite chapters. i love how he boasts not in himself but in his God. i am not sure if it is in the same chapter, i don't think it is. but i also love how overcome with joy he is when they run into Alma. they talk to each other and so great was his joy that he passed out! and his joy was for the success of not only his work but all the success of his brethren. i really enjoyed that because i'm going to try harder and rejoice in the success of those around me as well. we are all trying to press forward doing the same work of the Lord and i want to rejoice for those around me as well.

that sounds like an excellent FHE! wow, that must be really cool to learn how to do some family history right on your own laptop. i would like to learn to do that when i get home. i'm glad that the youth activity went well! sounds like fun. from being out here on a mission and learning different things, i would LOVE to work with the youth. they are in such a big part of their lives. a lot can change for good and bad during those teenage years and the youth of the church needs all the help they can get. to learn how to be strong and the reality of the fact that they are God's children and should do things pleasing to Him. man i can't wait to experience what it's like to help out the youth!

devin is nominated for homecoming king!? sweet!!! have fun together in abilene! give devin a big hug for me!

well things are going well here. sunday was disappointing because our investigator didnt' show up at church. but i'm trying to press forward and rely on the Lord to show me how to best do His work. i think that Lazaro will still progress towards baptism. pray for him! and for the missionaries in your area. i love you all and i am glad to be apart of the Lords' work.

elder munoz

Happy 21st Birthday!
Derek opens his birthday package from hone!

To remind him that nothin is bigger than Texas!

Mom forced Derek to wear a crown! So proud that he did it!

Not quite 21 candles but it is enough to make a wish upon

Derek made the Fun Fetti cake that mom sent!

September 29, 2010

2010-10-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

howdy family!

i'm glad to hear that everyone has been having a blast and all laughing together. that's great :) i can only imagine how crazy it gets when gramps, dad, and jeremy are all together. i was just telling my companion a little while ago how funny grandpa was. yeah i agree, if we had cameras following us around, it would be full of some funny stuff to watch ahaha :)

i'm glad that you have been loving the scriptures mom. i do too! i'm almost done with the Book of Mormon again. after i finish, i'm gonna only study my spanish scriptures! i've been studying them both, but i'm trying to fly through reading it in english. then i'm just going to only study in spanish. i'm excited about it!

i'll have to read that talk mom. i've been reading all the apotles talks, and President Monson's. i'm stoked about conference! i'm really looking forward to it. we should have some investigators coming too so that will be great. i'm hoping that they will feel the Spirit and power behing the words that the living prophets will speak and gain a stronger testimony of what we have been teaching them. i hope you all are as excited as i am. is devin going to be able to watch some of the sessions?

before i forget, sister flick sent me a package a week or two ago. can you please tell her that i said thank you very much and give her a big hug?? thanks!

well things are going really well. we have been working with many of those new investigators that i told you about last week. we have two people we are focusing most of our efforts on at the moment. one is a 19 year-old who has many great questions for us. he is sincere and very willing to learn. the other person is an older woman with a lot of spunk! she is still very alert and really sweet. they both should be coming to some sessions with us this weekend! :)

the work is going good. i'm enjoying it. we have been knocking a LOT of doors lately though and it makes me realize how much nicer i need to be to people who come to my door in the future. especially people from church! (ours or not)

alrighty then. i love you all and hope you are all enjoying life. take care and keep me updated on the rest of your adventures!

love,

e. mUNoZ

September 23, 2010

2010-09-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-21T19:01:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-01T17:53:00.001-07:00

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

August 25, 2010 Letter

2010-08-31T18:06:00.001-07:00

hey family!

oh man! thanks for all the emails. it was great to hear from all of you. sounds like things are changing in the munoz family. constant change. but that's good :)

well things here are great. it's only been a week so we're still trying to get things rolling along in our area. they had a baptism right before i came in and didn't have a whole lot more going on. but my companion and i have been trying to get to know all the members in our area and have been making contact with former investigators of the church. we have been doing really well and have several people lined up to teach :) i'm really excited to begin teaching these people. we made contact with a woman who used to meet with the missionaries. she lost her husband and has been feeling alone. we told her that we can help with the gospel! i was really impressed with her sincerity and i think that she will be receptive.

one thing that has been really cool though, that i feel like i'm learning to do, is be more BOLD. :) i've been better about telling people the way things are- "straight up" in modern slang. because this truly is the most important message that they could ever hear. so i need to not downplay that at all. "bold, but not overbearing" as the scriptures say. it's actually really fun to be bold and it's powerful.

well one awesome thing that happened is that we were knocking a street. we got finished with it and were unlocking our bikes at the house where we started. we already knocked the house and nobody had answered. but i noticed that the side gate was opened and we hadn't knocked the basement yet. so i told my companion i thought we should try it just in case. i was a little embarrassed because it was quite possible nobody would be there but i had a feeling, and i juust wanted to do it, just in case. turns out there was a family there and we have a appoinment to teach them this week! blessing of the spirit.

i love you all and want you to know i'm doing great. sorry this wasn't longer! thanks for updating me. i emailed dev too :)

e munoz

August 18, 2010 Letter

2010-08-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hello,

well, the work in my old area was going great!!! guess what happened on monday? i'll tell you. we got to teach Amelia again. she's progressing fine :) at the end of the lesson we actually asked if she had any questions, and she did. very humbly and shyly, she said that we scheduled her baptism for next month and she wanted to know if she could get baptized SOONER! we were so impressed with her righteous desires. she's great. but we did tell her that we think it's best for her to wait because she still has a lot to learn. i know that she will be ready when her date comes, and the fact that we are waiting a little bit will help her have some more time to grow in her love for the gospel. okay but that's not all that happened! later that day we went to visit Magdalena. she is the one with 3 kids who are members, and she wants to be a member, but isn't actually married to her "husband". well we've been trying to encourage them to get married and trying to start working with Juan to get him interested in the gospel. well last friday he said he wanted to start learning! and then he came to church on sunday! and then he was there for our lesson with the family monday night! the lesson went well and we could all feel the Spirit. so we invited them to get married so that they both could get baptized. they said yes!!! AH! we were so excited about that! it was so awesome. we were thrilled. i had to tell so many people :)

so that happened monday night and transfer calls were going to come tuesday morning. i had a feeling that because of what happened the day before, the Lord was going to send me off as a joke because i had been.... slightly complaining for a change of scenery. haha and it happened. i've finally left my first area and now i'm in Logans Square. it's still in the city, just north of where i was serving. on the chicago north mission side! i'm really excited to be here. and yeah i'm still on a bike. my companion is Elder Ferrell. he's awesome! he's from texas too haha and he's actually one of the missionaries that i met at the mtc LAST year. i slept on the top bunk and he slept on the bottom! haha and my old companion, Elder Melton is in my district as my Zone Leader! is this cool or what?? i feel like this is going to be a blast and Ferrell and i are going to be so blessed in the work. we will work well together. i think that i'll probably be here for a long time because the mission president likes to keep people in areas for a while. so i might be here all winter if i'm here 4 transfers!

i love you all family! i hope you are all doing what you can to build your relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ on a daily basis. because that's what we need to do. have growth daily.

until next time...

e. mUNoZ

July 14, 2010

2010-07-14T19:13:00.001-07:00

hello family!

thanks for the testimonies that you shared with me recently. i really loved them :)

i'm glad to hear that things are going well with you all. that's great that your boss got to come visit dad! i'm sure it was a little hard and nerve-racking, but surely you impressed her. and i'm glad to hear that you got to go to the temple! isn't it great? we get to go to the temple more often now with the new mission president. i'm excited for that.

wow there's a new bishopric!? that's interesting. i remembered bishop saying that he might leave but i forgot! well i'm sure the new people will do a good job. i need to write bishop linnemeyer a letter before they leave! he's a great person. i'm glad that i was able to work with him while getting ready to come out here.

well the missions are officially combined. i have a north-sider for my companion. haha i wasnt' too excited about it at first. and the first couple days we had together were REALLY rough... but don't worry. things have gotten a lot better. he's kind of an odd guy. haha but i really do love him. i honestly and sincerely think that he has aspergers disorder. at first i just didn't understand that, so it was difficult. the first few days my patience was really tested. i really had to control myself to speak calmly and level-headed with him, because he kept having problems with me and if he felt i wasn't listening, he was rude. haha i made a kind suggestion that he should speak slower when we teach (because he talks really fast) and he got really mad and said "don't tell me what to do. you don't know spanish." LOW BLOW! haha don't worry i stayed calm and didn't retaliate. well so yes, it was hard at first but things are going a lot better now. we get along with each other and he really does have great insights and i've already learned much from him. so i'm thankful to have him with me. (btw my spanish is great :) haha)

well, yesterday we found 3 new investigators! one was a boy playing guitar on his porch. i rode my bike past him and i had a feeling that on the way back, i should stop and talk to him. so i stopped at his house and started talking to him about the guitar. he was a really nice college student who agreed to hear the first lesson! he also agreed to read and pray about the book of mormon! we meet with him tomorrow. my companion and i have really been feeling the spirit and seeing blessings in our lives. the Lord has his hands in the work.

my companion and i have been a lot more specific in our prayers and i already feel like i'm seeing a difference in everything i do. i've truly been keeping a prayer in my heart and it makes life so much easier! i don't really hesitate to talk to anyone anymore. i LOVE it!

i don't know how to describe the strength my testimony has recieved. i love being here. even though sometimes it's hard, i see so much in a different perspective than so many of my brothers and sisters on the street. and it makes things so much better. and i want to share my eternal perspective with everyone.

i love you all! thanks for your love. tell annie happy birthday for me! it was yesterday! ok??

til next week, elder munoz

July 7th, 2010

2010-07-08T17:27:00.001-07:00

Hey there mom and dad!

it's great that you all had a good 4th of july! family parties are always a blast. haha we did the same thing that we always do. it was really hard on sunday though because some of our appointments fell through, and people did not want to talk to us when we were tracting! everyone was enjoying a bbq with family or friends so that was a little challenging. we did see a lot of fire works though when we got back to the apartment. there were loud bangs going off for hours! my companion and i sat on the roof for a little bit, watching them go off. it was fun.

it's great that you've been doing so well dad! way to go. so what happened with jeremy? i hope that he can find some success with Red McCombs. don't worry mom! i'm healthy and eating enough. well, i'm eating enough... not sure how healthy i am. we ate 4 times monday!!! so we were STUFFED. and as for health, i played soccer today so i ran around! ;)

thanks for sending me that package. ya'll are great. but don't worry i don't need anything at the moment.

well i've met my president now. he's a great man, it's just... different i guess, because of the changes. he seems like a really fun person and really caring. i don't understand why we do some of the things that we do, but i guess i don't have to. because we combined the missions, we had that short two week transfer until we got on track with the northside transfer schedule. so we just had transfers today! and guess what? they DID effect me. i have a new companion again. i guess i'm just a "1 transfer missionary" haha. i was only with Elder Devey for 2 weeks, and now i'm with an elder who came from the northside. he seems like a good kid. he's been out here for 20 months! so he's pretty old in the mission. he kind of seems young though for some reason. haha he's a little goofy (in a good way!) and i'm sure i'll love him. the most important thing is that he seems to know why he's here and wants to work, so i like that a lot. because that's the most important thing.

thanks for sharing that journal entry with me mom. i really enjoy reading your insights and having different glimpses of your testimony. you two dad! thanks for your comments on finding people to teach. you two are a great source of strength! i'm very grateful to have you both. i'm working hard to let people know why i am here as a missionary. like i mentioned, my last companion taught me a lot of things. recently we've had to learn to be very honest and bold with people and i love it. we let them know why we are here as missionaries. we explain that we are here to tell them of the one church of Jesus Chirst and to baptize them. then we figure out their commitment level and if we really should continue meeting with them. and with our members as well. we have been working on asking members to pray about people we can teach. my new companion and i should have a very successful time together.

we met with one of our investigators yesterday. we taught him at the church and he brought his girlfriend. it was great because we were able to show them around the church and then teach them both the message of the restoration in the building. the spirit was really strong and my companion and i worked together very well! i think that was one of the best lessons i've been apart of so far. the spirit testified even to me as i was teaching. i hope that they continue in their learning and read the book of mormons that we gave them. i'll let you know.

well i love you all! sometimes life is difficult, for me and for you all at home. but there is one thing that matters above all, and that is our testimonies of the gospel. i find so much more ease and comfort knowing our purpose here on the earth as God's children. like you said mom, that little piece of knowledge is very important. we are His children with potential to be like him. oh man the gospel is great! it makes me smile :) i hope you all are doing well and i'm glad to hear mom that you have been praying for missionary experiences. keep up the awesome work family!!

until next week,

elder munoz out.

June 30, 2010 Letter

2010-07-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

well dad, i love that story that you all discussed. it is so true, that we all want to be like Nephi but in reality, there are many times where we are more like laman and lemuel. for instance, they went and they to go get the plates of brass, they just murmured and complained the whole time. we should not be that way. when we have been commanded or directed to do something from the prophets, we should be happy to do so! because we should find joy in doing what our Father in Heaven has asked of us. and recieve satisfaction of knowing that we are making Him happy! and like you said, we can't forget all the things that He does for us! there are so many small and simple gifts that we recieve on a daily basis and we need to remember His hand in our lives. thanks for your insights! that example of worth is great too. it makes me think about how Christ saw us through spiritual eyes. he loves us as his brothers and sisters and that's why he suffered for us. we need to look at others with spiritual eyes. we need to be concerned with the welfare of those around us and strive to take care of them! both temporally and spiritually like Mosiah 14 says.

wow mom! sounds like you guys got the hook up with the steaks! that should be really fun. where did the new restaurant open up? and i did not know that they were already getting married! wow that's really great! i'm glad that they are getting to drive up for the wedding :)

so my companion is great! he knows how to work hard and be a great missionary, but to have fun in the process. i've been laughing a lot lately! we get along well and it's kind of a brother-like relationship. haha i mean we sometimes tease each other and hit each other... haha it's funny though and i'm glad to have been getting along so well.

it's a great balance though because he has been teaching me a lot of things! he's been out almost a year and a half now, and has the language down! as well as good teaching skills. let me give you two quick examples of the work we've been doing. he's helping me to be bold because right now we have an investigator that is almost 17 years old. we've been teaching him since the end of my first transfer and he's even come to church the past few Sundays. BUT he's not able to get baptized because his mother is against it, and wants him to wait until he's 18 and an adult. well my other compaions and i were not sure what to do. but i didn't feel it was right to drop him. when Devey came into the area he was able to provide new insights. we've planned a great bold lesson on baptism to get him to understand the importance and to want it more (right now he does not want to go against his mother. which is a good thing i guess haha). so we are going to ask him to share his feelings with his mom and talk to her again about it, as well as hopefully letting us be apart of the conversation. we've also asked members in the ward to pray for him and for his mom's heart to be softened.

we also have another family where the kids are all baptized, and the mother loves the church, but she's not married (the father isn't interested). we haven't been sure what we were going to do with that either because she said when the missionaries first taught them that she didn't want to get married. well my companion said it's time to be bold. so we taught a lesson on faith last monday. then at the end, i asked her to be baptized! when she said she couldn't because she didn't want to get married, my companion asked if she believed in the Book of Mormon. she said yes, and then he said that she should pray and ask God if getting married and then getting baptized is something she should do. she agreed to do so. whew! that was an intense lesson. but it went well! and i was happy that we were able to make this progress with her.

so all in all, i've been having lots of fun, while also learning new things, working better with the members, trying to be more bold, and doing my best to help these people. it's been a great week!

i haven't met the new mission president yet, but it is now officially the Chicago Illinois Mission! another big change. we have a meet and greet this week on friday. so i should be able to tell you a little more next week. it's going to be... different... but i know i'll love the new mission president. i just thought President and Sister Roach were so amazing. i'll miss them!

i love you all. thanks for you lovely letters! until next week!

Elder Munoz

June 23, 2010

2010-07-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

hi familia!

well things are going really well here. it turns out that i'm staying in the same area for the next two weeks which i suspected, BUT something different is that my companion is leaving! i didn't really think that that would happen in these short two weeks. but yes, he's leaving and i'm going to be with my district leader, Elder Devey, who is coming over to 26th street. i'm exctied about it because i know that he's a good missionary. there is a possibility that we might butt heads a little bit... but i know that there is a reason the Lord wants us to serve together and also that i just need to love him.

my companion and i have been working really hard the last week. we have had to do a lot more tracting than usual. tracting can be tiresom and discouraging, but we have been doing our best to keep up good hopes and to do our best to share the gospel with everyone we talk to! sometimes it's hard because people don't actually listen to what you are saying... haha. they just say "si... si...." but then you ask them a question and they don't know what's going on. haha :) but don't worry! our efforts are paying off. we have been finding a few people to teach. AND we had another great experience. my companion and i had 3 out of 4 appointments cancel on us this past Sunday. and we were forced to fill some hours with tracting. and it was great!!! the way that things worked out with the timing and the area that we were knocking, led us straight to Juan. he is a very sincere young man that said "sure" when we asked if we could share a message with him. we talked to him right on his door step and told him about the restoration. whenever we asked him questions, his responses were great. he really wants to find something good in the world and said that it would mean a great deal to him to know if we truly do have a prophet in the world. we were led to this boy by the Lord. i'm sure of it. i'm so excited to teach him again this week.

there are countless miracles that we can find in our daily lives if we just keep our eyes open for them. there have been times where i am just filled with thanks because of a beautiful day. it's incredible what the gospel does for you. i just read "our search for happiness" and there is a very important point that elder ballard pointed out. with our knowledge as members of the gospel, our whole lives change. we are given an ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE. haha mom and dad you should remember how much i love those two little words. they make everything better. we know our purpose here on the earth and what we have to do to fufill it. i'm so greatful to have this knowledge with me of the gospel. everything is just, happier :)

i love you all, and i hope all is well. thanks for your updates, i really love them! i miss you all but i'm so glad for this blessed time i have to serve a mission!

-elder munoz

June 16, 2010

2010-06-16T18:55:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-06-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-08T04:19:00.000-07:00

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

Tracting... May 26, 2010

2010-05-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

okay family, the work is going great here in Chicago! summer time so we have lots of opportunities to talk to people. something cool that happened recently is that we met with Maria for a second time and gave her a Book of Mormon. she is an elderly woman, 79 years old! she's got 8 kids and like a million grand/great-grand children. she's a really sweet lady that unfortunately has a lot of health issues due to her age. so she's in and out of doctors appointments, and it's hard to see her a lot. BUT we gave her a BOM and she was extremely grateful. it was wonderful to see how precious this scripture was to her. she even HUGGED it when we explained that the copy was for her. it was a beautiful thing and i can't wait to go back and see her later this week.

there is another great experience that i've had. whenever we go tracting, if the person is not there, we leave a card on their door. well this lady called for a free video. when we went to go talk to her it turns out that she had found the card in the street. she said that she saw it and thought that it was sad that there was someone throwing the card of Jesus Christ on the ground. she picked it up and called for the free video because she's been going through some struggles in life. she isn't sure how long her and her two kids are going to be able to live in their current house, because she hasn't been working. and her phone is going to be shut off soon. she recently found out she is pregnant and it doesn't seem like there is a father figure around. she's an extremely nice person who seems to really want God in her life. she was very receptive to our message. i feel really bad for the situation that she's in right now. i wish i could do so much more to help her! her and her two kids might be homeless at the end of this week. it's a sad story and we're going to do everything that we can to help her out. she said she wants to go to church, but is not sure about baptism until she knows that the church is true for herself. she's really honest and sincere in her search to be closer to Heavenly Father.

so i'm working hard here to help the people of Chicago as much as i can. i know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can bring true happiness and that it can heal ALL wounds. that's such a great thing to know.

well it's getting really hot here in the windy city. we're biking a lot and the heat is pounding us! but that's okay because it gives us a slightly increased motivation to get inside peoples houses! so we can cool off haha. so want to know something COOL about the area i'm serving in? alright well try to think of the song, "welcome to the hotel california". well the rumor here is that it's talking about a prison! and guess what? that prison is in my area. it's a maximum security prison that i pass by at least once every week now that my area combined with anothers. i'm not sure if it's true but i thought it was pretty cool. haha

okay mom i have a question. are you with an email group or something where you can talk to other people who have children serving in Chicago? missionary mom or something? becasue my mission presidents wife is asking. she says she'll get me a dentist when i get her that information hahaha because i was supposed to ask you about it right when i got here. some cite that you used to find out things about chicago missionaries? let me know! thanks :)

well i love you all! thanks for your love! take care and until next week, missionary munoz OUT!

love

elder munoz

Happy Wednesday! May 5, 2010

2010-05-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday,

The work here is going well. Jesus's baptism is this saturday! i'm so excited! he is really ready. let me tell you somethings about him... when we were about to teach him the Sabbath day and keeping it holy, we asked him what it meant to him. he told us that he probably shouldn't work out on sundays anymore. AH! that was before we even taught him! i was shocked at his faith and willingness to strive to be a better person! i actually laughed because i was so dumbfounded. yesterday we taught him about tithing and fast offerings. we (again, before we actually taught what it was and was for) asked him why it's important because he said he thought he knew what it was. he told us that it was important because it helps to build up the church for things like temples. again i was shocked hahaha. i'm not sure if i am getting across the fact that in the lesson he was giving golden answers to the things we were talking about. i was so excited for him because he's ready to be baptized. i'm so happy for him and for the blessing i have had to be apart of this process with him.

my companion and i have been working hard to find and teach as many people as we can. we have had our difficulties, (we had an intense and heated companionship inventory) but we pulled through and i really love Elder Rios. i only get to be with him for this one transfer and that is pretty sad. he's going to be going home this next Thursday! ah i can't believe it. i've learned so much from him and i hope he's learned from me. i know that the Lord put us together for a reason. we aren't the most compatable but i've seen that his strenghts are my weaknesses and my strenghts are his weaknesses. thus again we see the Master Hand taking a part in all things. His plan is intricate and i'm really thankful to know how much that He is aware of me.

well a few fun facts for you, i get to go to the Mexico vs. Senegal soccer game at Soldier Field Stadium next Monday! since it's my companions last week we got permission from the President to take our P-day on the day of the game! i'm so excited for that! it's going to be great because i know it will be a good game with an exciting crowd! haha i've never been to a real soccer game before! also, next transfer i'm MOST likely going to be with an Elder Rapier who is in my district now. and he is really a great missionary and i get along with him well. so that would be fun.

i love you all! i hope you are doing well and enjoying life. take care and keep me posted! i'll talk to you in a few days! what time should i call you? i get home from church around 2:30. honestly i don't even remember what time you have church but i think it's in the mornings now right? well we're in the same time zone so it will be best for me to call after my church is over. so i'd say plan on me calling around... 3 okay? and don't worry, if for some reason you can't talk then, i'll be able to call later on in the evening. take care!

love

elder munoz

First Zone Conference...April 28th Letter

2010-05-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Familia,

well last Thursday i had my first zone conference. i really enjoyed it a lot! it was something different, we all (the missionaries in the zone) got to get together with the mission president and learn a lot of things. we actually learned a lot about finances and keeping a budget and living within your means. what i really liked about the zone conference was they were teaching us things to learn on the mission, and how to apply it after a mission. the mission president talked about maintaining finances with your future spouse and home purchases and what-not. he based a lot of it off of what Elder Marvin J. Ashton taught LDS families about how to stay financially smart. they gave us a pamphlet that the church put together based on his talk. anyway we learned other things too. it was really spirtitually uplifting about always working hard to find people who are ready to accept the gospel.

things have been going great for my companion and i. i really have been blessed to start the mission in the area that i'm in. there's a LOT of work to be done here. we have a mission goal of teaching 20 lessons every week. while many other misisonaries have been struggling with this, Elder Rios and i have been able to meet it and this past week we had 23 lessons! we were really excited about that. altough we know that numbers are NOT a measure of success, we are just thankful for the work the Lord has given us and thankful that we have been able to reach our goals.

we have been really working with a few solid investigators, and trying to always find new people to teach. we found a family that has been really kind and listens intently when we teach (we've taught them twice). on this next appointment we hope to ask them to work towards a baptismal date.

It's been great working and teaching the members too. many of the members in our area i just realized are "recent converts" because they haven't even been members for a year yet. we've been meeting regularly with one family that is very strong and humble. they are SO kind to us. we just taught them about family home evening and what it is. we put on the first one they've ever had. it was so much fun and something that i never considered i'd be doing as a missionary! i just never really thought about all the things that i would share and teach people! i loved having FHE with them. i taught them a game too, the rythm game that we call in our family Matthew Mark Luke John. the one where you pat your legs, clap, and then snap while calling out the names or whatever. haha does that even make sense? well you know what game i mean. well i taught them that and they LOVED IT! they thought it was so much fun and we laughed a lot. what's funny to me is that the game actually went really horribly! haha only because it's a RYTHM game and you are supposed to say the names on the two snaps. they didn't really understand that and there was really no rythm to the game. so people just got out if they missed calling the right names or didn't realize it was their turn. i thought the family was so cute the enjoyment they were having. it was great.

well i love it here! things are a lot of fun and i really am so so grateful that it's finally my turn to serve a mission! there is nothing that makes me happier than the gospel. and i get to share that with people every single day. take care and know that i love you all!

love,

elder munoz

Life in the MTC (turn off the "sweet church tunes" at the bottom before playing!)

2010-04-13T22:38:00.001-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Traveling Pillow

2010-04-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

It was Derek's turn to mail the "Giving Tree" pillow to Mom and Dad during the month of April.

He added photos and motivation quotes. It was so fun to get and read. Loved it!

I'm in Chicago!!

2010-04-07T17:55:00.001-07:00

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!

Family of Slackers!

2010-03-25T05:43:00.001-07:00

FAMILY!

slackers. i have no email to respond to. thats ok though because i never have any time either. SO SORRY about the pillows. i'll send them off (hopefully) today. it's just hard because like i said it's hard to find time. Mom, thanks for the DearElder! i loved it.

anyway, happy wednesday! it is such a beautiful day here in Provo! it's a little chilly outside for my Texas preference, but it's bright and sunny. how's the weather in texas? my friend from near Dallas said that it snowed there last weekend! 6 inches! and then the next day it was in the 70's haha. i won't be here for much longer though! i got my travel plans!

ok so i am leaving next wednesday. Elder Robbins (one of my comps) and i are the last to leave in my district! i'm not sure if this relates or not, maybe it doesn't, but listen to this... i really want to play out on the missionary field before i leave. enough to where... i simply asked my Father in Heaven for that one little favor. i asked the night before i got my travel plans, and i find out that i'm leaving WEDNSDAY! after everyone else is gone. i'm wondering if He's playing a small joke on me and i'll get to play on the field tuesday, the day before i leave. and i have to stay an extra day haha. maybe it's not related, who knows, but it wsa a funny thought. ok ANYWAYS i will be in the airport around 6:30 or 7 AM. my flight leaves at 8:45. so i'm not sure if i'll be able to talk to you mom, because you'll be at work. but dad i'll call you okay? that's going to be really strange. maybe we'll talk in spanish!! weird... so yeah, that's the plan. i'll be in chicago by 1 o'clock! (we're in the same time zone again padres!)

this week is awesome. instead of having classes all week, this is la semana de enseñanzas. or the week of teachings! it´s so much fun! because we have to contact other spanish missionaries so that we can teach them the discussions. and we can't teach the missionaries that are in our zone, so we have been talkng to and teaching people that we haven't met before and stuff. we go to other floors and other buildings to find people. we're teaching all 3 types of misisonaries too! we're teaching people that are also learning spanish, missionaries that are in intermediate and advanced spanish classes, and we're also teaching NATIVES! we have two really great missionaries that are from Mexico and from Cali, Colombia! they're here learning english. it's so much fun teaching native spanish speakers. they are really friendly, patient and helpful. it was so much fun too telling one of them that my dad was from Colombia. so this week is great. it's as real as we can get here. we've already had several appointments not work out. they didn't show up or forgot and they were in class. so we took it like we'd do in the field and found other people near by that we could teach.

so of course, being a missionary, i have to tell you a missionary thought. well i was thinking this, i know that our family is truly blessed. BUT all of us struggle. our family has a lot to do! we struggle getting through in school, in our callings, at work and other stuff. and these things really take a toll on our financial status. well, we just need to be faithful and put our trust in the Lord. we don't pay our tithing with money, but with faith. that's what i heard this week. we HAVE to pay our tithing and we will be taken care of. we have been promised that. 3 Ne 1:31-33 i think.

i love you all! time is running out!! you are the best

munoz

St Patty's Day

2010-03-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

HEY family! happy st. pat day!

yes mom, i'm wearing my green tie! the one that devin gave me a while back (thanks bro, it rocks). so luckily i haven't been pinched or anything. although my friend in the district from Hawaii didn't wear any today... stinks for him (i'm not sure if it relates to him being from Hawaii haha...)

ok so let me pour out my deepest apologies for not having the time to send a letter last week. i really wanted to because my email had been so short, but i just didn't have the time. even though it is our preparation day, we have an investigator that we teach on Wednesday nights right after dinner so we have to prepare for that. and the temple takes a lot of our time too so really i don't have too much free time. which is fine though because going to the temple is AWESOME! one of the best parts of the week. but yes, i humbly apologize for not sending out a letter. forgive me. that's why i wrote on annie's letter to share some things with you all. i'm not sure if i told her this scripture to go with that story so i'll repeat myself, Alma 26:3. that's the scripture to go with the temple story and Elder Shilhabel.

how has everyone's week been? mom said that it's been busy! mom, how was Utah?? dad, how was it having to be without mama? (did you survive??) devin, how was visiting home? (i miss your guts) amber and jeremy, were you stoked to see mom!? that must have been so fun. by the way you two, one of my really good friends in my zone is from Pocatello Idaho! or wherever it's called. and whenever i meet sister missionaries that went to BYUI i ask them if they know you amber! but, you're married so idk if that makes it different. i haven't met anyone who knows you yet haha but maybe one day.

MOM! actually, EVERYBODY! that's so cool what you said about the missionary sharing that they try to look at everyone the way the Lord views them. that's definitely something that is important for everyone to learn. i'm trying hard to be that way too. i thought it was neat that you mentioned that to me because last night i realized something pretty similar to that. well we sometimes discuss how the gospel makes people feel so close to each other! many of these missionaries i feel like i have and will know them forever! many have become family! and we've only known each other for about 2 months. well what i thought about last night was that it's because when we discuss and try to live the gospel, we feel the Spirit strongly! and because we feel the Spirit so strongly, i feel that many times we get a glimpse of the Savior's love for them. i'm not perfect, and so sometimes different people in different situations, it is hard for me to feel that Christlike love. but when i'm putting myself ASIDE and trying to be more like the Lord, i do feel that love. i feel that pure love and that's what brings us so close. we all have those glimpses. so yeah, that is something i constantly work on. loving others. that's one of his commandments! "love one another, even as i have loved you".

so one more thing from my study is one of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon. Mosiah chapter 4!!! it is FULL of great things. but i love how it talks about beggars. how do we treat beggars? what do we think of the homeless? well verse 17 says "perhaps thou shalt say: the man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore i will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance". isn't that true many times? don't we think that? well verse 18 says that those who think that should repent of that! and 19 says "are we not all beggars? do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have"? yes, we all receive everything from our God and we should share these blessings with those who aren't as fortunate. the chapter is a great one to study.

well, i love the idea of looking for miracles! we should all look for them in our lives. the other day i was looking in my scriptures and found a note that someone had left for me, encouraging me and supporting me for all i have done in the district, with scriptures to go along with it. they said that God noticed all the good i did. i felt that immediately lift my spirit and i was so thankful.

i love you all! let me know how things are!

love elder munoz

Derek is a new District Leader

2010-03-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

Hi family!
that is so cool that you sent this email the same day that i'm reading it haha. yeah i'm diong laundry right now. i finally got the package from devin! thanks brother! it was awesome. i was so excited and i loved it. the shirt you gave me and the "stress reliever" was awesome. everyone, thanks for your letters of love and support. it's so nice to hear from everyone! well i just set up this new email today so that took about half of my computer time! so this email won't be quite as long as they usually are. also, for some reason my ENTER key isn't working so this might not look as organized.

well i got a letter from David in Japan that mom forwarded to me! he's doing great and loving it in the field. and guess who else i've finally heard from?? caleb! i finally got a letter from him and i was way excited for it. did you know that he passes out pieces of paper with his name and phone number so that people will call them to learn about the church. i've never heard of that before! i thought it was pretty cool. well this week was exciting!

my district leader and his companion were made the new zone leaders. and i'm the new district leader! i'm excited to serve the people in my district further. i'm a little nervous about it. but i know that with the Lord's help i will be able to know their needs. it's pushing me to be a better missionary because i want to set the example for them. so that's great!

well i want to share a scripture with you! read 2 Nephi 31:19-20. it's awesome. we must press forward in our faith in Christ. ah there is so much i want to say about these scriptures because they are great. it tells us exactly what we need to do in order to come closer to Christ and our Father in heaven. but i don't have time to write all i want to say. so take this in your personal study and see what you can get out of it. also, 2 Nephi 25:23-26. i love you all! sorry i didn't have more time! take care!!!!!

- Show quoted text -

Another Letter From the MTC

2010-03-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

Here is part of a letter that Derek emailed last week. He mailed us some pictures that I will post soon.

Hello again family!

i'm just hanging out in the dungeons of the laundry room. it's WAY exciting haha. well every week seems to go by so fast. i'm always busy, and things are intense. BUT it's great of course. i'm enjoying myself. some days i feel so beat though because of all that i'm learning. i am loving the spanish, and i'm trying to practice more!

so just so you know, it is beautiful here! i look at the mountains everyday. it's awesome. BUT it's freezing! i'm a texas kid! right now it's snowin out there! i guess i need to get used to it because i am going to chicago... i heard something about it possibly snowing in texas?? what is that about?? am i gonna come home and have to more even MORE south? aye... it's not too bad... snow is fun! different from what i'm used to.

did i tell you about the pinata annie got me? like dad wrote in his email to me, sometimes it's hard to remember if i've said something the week before... well i'll tell you again and maybe it'll be a little different. okay so annie sent me a pinata for Valentines! how cool is that?? everyone was jealous. haha i had some people coming in my room to take pictures and i didn't even know them! it was a missionary pinata with an Elder Munoz tag. it was homemade too. i sent some pictures and i think you should get them real soon if you haven't already. it had all sorts of candy and things inside. i felt really bad busting it open though... haha it's still in my room.

so the unity between the district i'm in is really great. i love everyone in my class! sometimes people can get on my nerves.... but that's okay right? haha. my zone is really fun too. i've met so many people that have been good influences on me. everyone has their own personal experiencse and some of them are really personal, but through their adversity they have obtained amazing testimonies! luckily i don't think i cried this week about anything haha :) but there's always next week.

Love,
Derek

The Elders with Hermana Coleman (bottom) and Hermana Doeman.

We have a large district.

Pinata of Derek from Annie.

Cute!!

Notice the resemblance?!

Elder Munoz with Elders Thomas, Little, Reagan, Bean,

Bottom: Boyd (new companion), Robbins (other new companion),

and Hawk (old companion).

Elder Munoz with Elder Hawk