July 14, 2010

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

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

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

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

hola familia!

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

elder munoz

 

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

June 9th Letter with Photos!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

elder munoz

June 2, 2010

Hello Family!

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

elder munoz