June 2, 2010

Hello Family!

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

elder munoz

Tracting... May 26, 2010

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

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

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!)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Traveling Pillow

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!!

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!