90 Days

First I want to start by saying Happy Birthday to my beautiful cousin Ellie and Happy Valentines Day :)

 (yesterday) it is freaking my 90th day what?!? 

 This week started out with an awesome lesson with Kevin and Sheri. We read some of the Book of Mormon with them and helped them understand what they were reading.  We talked and read about putting on the armor of righteousness and how important it is to be spiritually strong and firm. Good stuff! It is so cool to look back at the first time I met them to now and see how much they have progressed in the gospel. Sheri really wants to learn and Kevin has such a desire to be baptized. Hopefully in the next few months they will be able to be married and baptized :) We did tons of biking this week so I am pretty sore haha Biking is really fun (when we don't crash) though because you can talk to more people that way. 

On Wednesday we got a phone call from a man who works at the local VA hospital and requested 10 Books of Mormon so we wrote our numbers in all of them and then delivered them. Nothing has happened yet but we keep hoping we get another phone call or something! We have been struggling in our finding efforts. It seems like everyone is way to busy for Christ. It is a really sad thing because when you look at the eternal big perspective of things nothing is more important than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Alma 7:7 it talks about that. Go read it :) So anyways we try and talk to everyone we see so that by some miracle we can find someone who is prepared and interested. On Thursday the Hermanas called us and told us that they had a service opportunity for us so we took it! All four of us went to a members home in their area and stained her hardwood floor in her living room. I had no experience doing this and neither did Sister Starnes or the Hermanas so in the end it looked pretty....well pretty bad and we all felt so dumb but the lady was so grateful and assured us that she loved it and thanked us like a hundred times. Haha maybe with a few couches and a rug it will look better. Hahaha This weekend we did exchanges and I knew it was going to be a hard weekend with Andrews birthday so I wasn't very excited about it but they ended up being really awesome! I went to Carmichael with Sister Wright and Sister Calton came to Cordova with Sister Starnes. I got to do some YSA work and I loved it. It was a lot less nerve racking teaching people closer to my age. We taught some awesome lessons and I met some cool people. We even got to go to a baptism for a YSA girl and at the baptism 2 of Sister Wright and Sister Caltons investigators showed up! AND so did one of my Dads Aunts Uva! 

It was so cool to see her :) 

On Sunday we had a really awesome regional conference. It was seriously so dang good! The speakers were Elder Grow from the 70 and he talked about being true to the faith, Bonnie L. Oscarson and she talked about being true disciples of Christ, James J. Hamula who talked about not having fear but faith in the last days, and finally the new apostle Dale G. Renlund who talked about how everything begins with the Atonement. They were all fantastic talks and I loved it because they were all very blunt and straight to the point. Kevin and Sheri were there and they really liked it :) I took tons of notes! So so good :) plus the weather here has been amazing! I think they are having an early spring!! Hooray :) 

It was a pretty good week and I can not believe transfers are this weekend! That flew by so fast!! Well I love you all and hope your week is awesome and full of missionary moments :) look for them and pray for them because missionary work rocks!

Love,

Sister Munk

Plan of Happiness

This week not too much happened. We have been trying to clean up our area book which also means we are doing a lot of dropping unfortunately. But also a lot of finding! Every night we get home we are so tired we can barely plan. So far nothing amazing has happened but I am a firm believer that when we work hard the Lord will meet us half way and the blessings will come. We had a zone training this week and it was super good! Our zone leaders are Elder West and Elder Poulton (he went to bhs. Small world) they did a really good job! We talked a lot about how we have to see every single person we meet with an eternal perspective. We are all brothers and sisters and we all have the potential to be amazing people and accomplish amazing things through the gospel. It is something I have found sort of difficult but it is definitely something I am striving to become better at. 

Church this Sunday was really nice :) I love partaking of the sacrament each week. It is such an awesome blessing we have been given. We had kind of a cool miracle happen at church. One of the recent converts in the Ward brought her mom to church. Her mom is older and has Alzheimer's which makes her unaccountable so even if she wanted to be taught the lessons and be baptized she wouldn't be able to. But it was still really cool to see her at church and watch her as she listened to the testimonies of the Ward members. Recently a women in the Anatolia Ward passed away from cancer and her husband bore his testimony on the plan of salvation. It was a really powerful testimony and up until my mission and my cousin Andrew passing away I never had a super personal experience with death and with the plan of salvation. The more I teach it to people and study it the more my testimony of it grows. I am so grateful to know that my loving Heavenly Father has created a perfect plan so that I can be with my family for eternity. What an incredible thing! I love you all and hope your week is a great one! 

Love, 

Sister Munk 

 Happy Superbowl Sunday

 We found HAPPY lane....

Not the real Charlie, but good enough for now.

Taiti got Baptized

Hello everyone :) 

So this week was a really good one! It started off with interviews with President Jardine and Sister Jardine. They went really well! My mission president is the best! In my interview he told me that it was refreshing to meet with a sister who was "real" and honest. Haha sometimes too honest.... Oh well :) Then we went to the food bank and did some service! We do a lot of service in this mission and I love it. It is a really good way to meet people and it has opened my eyes to how blessed and fortunate I am. You should all go find the closest food bank or something and volunteer! Anyways, I'm not sure if I already told y'all this but on Sunday this lady just showed up to church and asked if we could say a prayer with her. She ended up staying for most of church and loved it. So this week we dropped by her house to see her again and teach her. She is the sweetest lady and she is hilarious! Her 11 year old daughter is on Americas Got Talent you guys!! Apparently she can sing so I will have to find out her name and you will have to let me know if that is a real thing. You never know out here people are crazy. We went on a blitz with our district leaders and they met a man who claimed to be Jesus Christ....like I said people are crazy. 

My favorite part of the week was being able to use my talent while doing missionary work! I was able to give Jamie a haircut (Jeffs wife) it was just a trim but it allowed us to get to know her better and we even slipped in some church talk haha I also gave the hermanas that we live with trims and Sister Starnes a trim. Fun stuff!! The more I have gotten to know Sister Starnes the more I have realized that we are the same person. It's creepy. Lol for example the other day we heard something and looked at each other and at the same time we both busted out into the same song. We do it all the time! You know your good friends when you just look at each other and know what each other is thinking. Love her!! 

Oh ya and..... TAITI GOT BAPTIZED!!! That is #2 for me not that I'm counting or anything. Her baptism was so awesome and she is Tongan so literally everyone she knew or was related to was there. It was so sweet! She has Autism in fact the exact thing Hayden has but she is lower functioning. She was so happy and excited and she looked so darn cute! She really does have the sweetest spirit about her and I am so glad she chose to follow her family's example and her savior so example to be baptized. She didn't need to be baptized because she technically isn't accountable mentally but she wanted to and that is the best part about all of it. She really really wanted to. :) 

This week ended with Stake Conference. The talks were all awesome and based on two main topics. First was Keeping the sabbath day holy. That seems to be a huge push right now! Second was temple and family history work. If y'all haven't participated in doing temple work for ancestors what the heck are you even doing with your life?? You have people on the other side of the veil just sitting there waiting for YOU to help them achieve exaltation. Go do it!! 

I love you and miss you all! Hope you have a fantastic week :) hope you enjoy the pictures!! 

Ps. Happy Birthday Shout out to Uncle Jason, Aunt Kimber, and little Leighton love you guys!!! 

Love,

Sister Munk 👊🏻

Bike Crash

Hey everyone :)

So this week has been quite an adventure! This week started with a

minor bike accident...but don't worry we are both ok! 

Here is the story.

We were riding our bikes to Kevin and Sheri's house and on the way we

saw these two ladies so we rode up to them and started talking to

them. They cut us off and told us they weren't interested so we rode

on and here in California the curbs are called soft shoulder curbs and

so you can just ride right onto the sidewalk and we always do but it

had been raining a ton earlier and there was mud everywhere. I don't

know how it happened, maybe it was the angle..., I don't know! But we

simultaneously rode up and our bikes skidded out from under us and we

went sliding face first on the sidewalk. Sister Starnes hit her head/

face hard and has a bruise on her chin and banged up her knee really

bad and all her fingers got bloody and cut. I stopped my self from

hitting my face with my arm and hurt my wrist and hit my head really

hard. I also hurt my knee but not as bad as Sister Starnes. The best

part of the story is that the ladies definitely saw us and walked the

other way. They didn't even help us!! So we both just payed there for

a second in shock and embarrassment. Then my wrist started to throb

and Sister Starnes started crying and then I started crying. We are a

mess hahaha we called the Hermanas that we live with came and got us

and took us home. We called the nurse and my wrist is just sprained so

no worries :)

I also witnessed my first legit drug deal in the park. It was in the

richer part of my mission too! I have to constantly remind Sister

Starnes that I have lived in the bountiful bubble my whole life so I

don't know things that happen in the ghetto part of town. Haha she

asked me what the ghetto part of bountiful was and I laughed and said

there isn't one! I love bountiful :)

Also we had a miracle on Sunday! A lady just walked into the church

building because something told her that she needed to. She told us

that she was going through a hard time and needed something in her

life. We prayed with her and she actually stayed for sacrament and

gospel principles. She cried the whole time and told us that she felt

so good. She was the sweetest and most sincere lady in the universe so

hopefully we will be able to teach her and baptize her :)

Taiti is getting baptized on the 30!! She is super excited and so are

we! And Kevin came to church with Sheri. He has come lots before but

it was her first time and she loved it :) it was a really good week.

Sister Starnes and I are getting along really well! We are really good

friends and we teach in unison which is great :) We are working hard

and patiently waiting for some more miracles!! I love you all and hope

you have a good week!

Enjoy the pictures :)

Love Sister Munk ✌

Happy 2 months to me!!

Hello everyone!! This week has flown by so fast and it has been awesome :) Just to clarify I guess I technically didn't get transferred because I am in the same area but I got a new companion who was transferred here. Her name is Sister Starnes. She is seriously FABULOUS and we have been getting along so well :) The biggest thing I have learned from her so far is that missionary work is supposed to be hard work but it is ok to have a little fun while doing it. She is the most patient person and it is a good thing because well I'm not... but hey I am working on it :) 

Nothing new has happened with a Jamie (Jeffs wife) but he has his home teachers and is really excited to start doing family history so that he can go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. We are trying to help Jamie the best we can but we can only do so much for people. Ultimately it is all up to them whether or not they want to put forth effort or not. Kevin and Sheri were supposed to come to church but they were running late and when they got to the church building the chapel doors were closed because we were taking the sacrament and they didn't want people to stare at them while they walked in so they just left.... Oh ya! I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting at the Mather ward. I definitely forgot all about it until Saturday night around 6pm... LOL but the topic was how the Book of Mormon has brought me closer to Christ so I found a few quotes and scriptures and shared some stories and BOOM a 10 min. talk haha Sister Starnes was laughing (we do a lot of that) so hard at me because I was a literal stress case while writing it. Anyways... The work has been slow as of late but Sister Starnes and I are getting the hang of things so hopefully something amazing happens soon! Taiti is going to be baptized on the 30th :) She is super excited and formally invited me to come to her "Baptism party on the 30th" hahaha Love her! Sister Wright is now in the YSA Carmichael zone. She is loving it and she is now my STL 

(sister training leader)  

Hermana Stevens turned 20 on Saturday so we all went to Chilis for dinner and it reminded me of when I would go to Chilis with my musical buds after shows. We had a lot of fun and we wore birthday crowns (pictures will come soon) 

I am running out of time like usual so I love you all and miss you tons! Say your prayers!

Love

Sister Munk

Baptism & a Transfer

Jeff got baptized!!!!! It was a struggle and a rocky journey for him

but he made it and he was baptized. It was an amazing feeling knowing

that the Lord used ME to help Jeff. His wife and friend came to the

baptism along with Ward members and President and Sister Jardine. Some

of the Missionaries in our zone even came and brought their

investigators. The only issue was that he got baptized right after

they finished up with stake baptisms for the 8 year olds so the water

was really low hahaha and he is a taller guy so when Bishop Fink

baptized him they had to really dunk him under lol but he was so happy

afterwards and you could see a change of light in his eyes and

demeanor. He bore his testimony and it was powerful :) I really hope

and pray that we can start working with Jamie his wife because they

HAVE to get married in the temple!!!! Anyways it was a cool experience

and he got the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday during sacrament and

tons of the Ward members welcomed him to the Ward and were really nice

to him. It is things like that and people like Jeff that keep me out

here. It's hard and exhausting and stressful and I have learned a lot

about myself.  But seeing Jeff get baptized was amazing and I want

that again for someone else. I keep thinking back to my farewell talk

"finding the one" and there is no doubt in my mind Jeff was the "one"

I was supposed to find. There will hopefully be more though but if

there aren't I found Jeff and that is perfectly ok.

Also I got transferred. President Jardine felt like I was doing well

enough to end my 12 week training early at 6 weeks..... LOL I still

have zero idea what I am doing. My new companion is Sister Starnes.

She is from North Carolina and she is 23. She has been on her mission

for 13 months. She has an awesome little accent and she is super

sweet. I am not only done being trained but I am leading the area.

Basically that means that Sister Starnes has never ever been to this

part of the mission and I have to take the lead. The only problem is I

am challenged hard core when it comes to directions.... So let's just

say there has been a whole lot of praying and praying for help. I have

never been this stressed or exhausted in my life hahaha thank goodness

Sister Starnes is patient and kind. Miss you guys and love you lots!!

Have a good rest of the week :)

Rats, Weed and Happy New Year!!

How is that for a fun subject line??

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I can't believe it is 2016 already. Mission time

flies people! My month 2 mark is coming up and it is so weird to think

about. I feel like I just got here like last week. Crazy! I hope

everyone had a safe and happy New Years! Don't worry we were safe and

inside our apartments early :) this new year is going to be a really

good one I can feel it! My New Years resolutions are to stop drinking

soda and to finish reading through and studying PMG. If you don't know

what Preach My Gospel is find out and go get one even if you aren't

going on a mission. It is an awesome study book :)

Ok now I should explain the subject line haha so one of the Hermanas

we live with brought this plastic rat with her don't ask me why....

Anyway and we have been hiding it in random places (I think I have

already told you about him) His name is Ralph haha so Saturday night

we got home and went to our room to start planning and I opened the

door and Ralph came flying into my face! They attached him to a string

so when you opened the door he would fall in front of you hahaha it

was really funny and totally caught us both off guard.

I don't remember what night it was but we came home around 9:00pm to

start planning and the second we walked into our apartment the smell

of weed hit us in the face. Like really bad strong weed. It was

disgusting. It was so bad that we thought someone was in our apartment

smoking it or something so we called the Hermanas and they came home

and we started investigating. We never figured out where the smell was

coming from (we think it was the people underneath us) it lasted all

night long and by the morning time it was almost gone. I totally got a

headache and my companion was worried we were going to get high! Lol

we didn't though don't worry! Funny stuff happens when you live in

ghetto apartments in the ghetto part of Sacramento! :)

Well I don't have much time but I promise my next letter will be

better! I love you all and hope you have a good week and a good new

year!!

Love Sister Munk