Thanksgiving Report.... December 1, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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