Well this week has been pretty great! Last week for P day we went to the stake center and played basketball and "scatterball" I had no idea what that was, so I had them explain it to me. It's basically glorified dodgeball. I was like.. Ok. Well I'll try it. I basically destroyed everyone. It was funny. I don't think I got out the entire time. It was awesome. Elder Dayton and I also played some pretty sweet basketball. I think that is probably what we will end up doing today too.
Tuesday was good. We went over to a member's house and had a service project. He had it detailed to every minute of what we were going to do. Even to where we were going to put the tools to move them. He was so excited to have the missionaries come over to his home. It was amazing to see. He showed us his family history work that he does. He does it for 8 hours a day at least. He has done over 1/2 million names over the last couple years. I couldn't believe it. He just really has a calling in this life. It was so neat to see his dedication to the work and how much he really loves the Savior. He was so appreciative. I even got to use a Hedge trimmer for the first time. Man did those hedges look good to. I think I should possibly go into that for a career! I could maybe do Texas shaped things it would be awesome!
Wednesday was good. I forgot I had do give a training so I kinda put one together last second. It was a story of a man named Paul Ity. He was awesome. Had everything that he would ever need. Even his family was well off. He was super popular in High school and really just a fantastic guy overall. But there was always a void in his life. Something that he couldn't fill no matter what he did. So he went to his usual thinking place, the Chinese Restaurant down the street. Very Seinfeld-esque he would eat his food rant about his problems, then get on with life. Today however he opened his cookie and it said:
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man.
He recorded it into his Journal and though alot about it. (1Cor. 11:11.) He found it to be so true. So he decided that we would follow after this thought. He picked his girl her name was Char (french so it's pronounced Shar). She was beautiful. Paul was very perticular when it came to his grooming habits. You can read all about it in his Journal (1 Cor. 11) Long story short though, he really fell in love with Char. So much so that he would do the teenage girl thing and write her name on everything, but he imagined her that she was already his. Char Ity he thought. How special she would be.
He even went so far as to write down exactly what he thought of her. In his own twitterpatted way he says:
Char Ity suffereth long, and is kind; Char Ity denvieth not; Char Ity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in ainiquity, but rejoiceth in the btruth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Char Ity never afaileth.
He really loved her. As you can probably guess. Who wouldn't? So he cunningly devised a plan to get her. What does every girl want? Chocolates and flowers. That's the key to her heart. Or so he thought. I won't even begin to insult him with the ideas that he probably must have tried, it sufficeth me to say it in his own words:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
He realized that probably wasn't going to work.. After much heart ache and suffering he finally must have had an epiphany sometime during the night because he writes in his next Journal entry:
Follow after Char Ity, and desire spiritual bgifts,
His buddy Moroni had alot of similar problems and gave him a whole list right before he passed away. In Moroni 10. I would invite you to read that chapter, identify a spiritual gift, and then seek to use it for Char Ity.
Basically it was a pretty boss training. You should have seen the Zl's face.. I don't know if they enjoyed it as much as I did but heck it was fun. I tried to teach it to a 15 year old sunday school class yesterday and it bombed... So there was my humble pie. haha.
We also had exchanges this week. It was so sweet. Elder Ballard came here, he has been out about 2 and a half months, so we went to work! It was great. We biked to every edge of our area. Proabably about 30 miles that day. It was brutal... But we taught three lessons!
One of the greatest things that happened that day was when we were knocking on some doors there were these four 16 year old love birds, chasing each other around in the sprinklers in front of probably one of their parents houses. It started to get a little crazier as we went down the street. They were chasing each other through the house now. Heathens.. So anyway God loves us, I know he does, because we were at the house across the street and no one was home so we were waiting and the girl comes flying around the corner, leaps in the front door and shuts it right behind her. Somehow getting it shut and locked super quick. Her Bf comes flying right behind her like a cheetah behind a gazelle and BAM! Face first into the door! (It was so lound that Elder Ballard jumped.) He immediatly backs away grabs his face, stunned and falls into the fetal position. His girlfriend opens the door to see her now bawling 16 year old Bf. It brings to mind that scripture "Wickedness never was happiness" but I guess it depends on for who.. It made me incredibly happy. I laughed Hysterically all the way down the street. (NOW... before you judge me. The kid was ok. He wasn't seriously hurt, we made sure to watch him long enough that we was laughing about it after, while holding a punch of paper towels to his nose. He thought it was good too.)
We biked down to the next spot and had a nice little adventure. There was a dog wandering around in the rich people hood and so just as Preach My Gospel says There are many ways to find. I decided to catch the dog. So... After acquiring the dog. I was checking out the tag and a car drives up, a lady walks out, and snatches the dog and takes it back, says Thanks and gets in the car. So much for that idea.. Nevertheless.. We went on. So we knock like three more doors. Are having a nice conversation with this man and his phone goes off. He says, "well it's hot out there, just come in for a sec." So we get in the door. While we are waiting the front door opens again and the dog shows up! Right behind it the lady! Immediately I start laughing and so does she. It was funny. Finally the man gets off the phone and Elder Ballard says "Well when would be another time that we could come back and share a message?" In my head every signal goes off.. Mayday, mayday! I didn't even know how to soften that blow, so I just said "What he meant there was, we would love to sit down and share a message with you." So... We did! They loved the Book of Mormon and are going to read it! We have an appointment this week. The family loved me. I am taking the sons on a bike ride this week and the 2 year old daughter came up and gave me a hug and then stood looking up at me with her lips pursed looking for a kiss. I had to turn that one down unfortunately. ;)
Saturday we had a Philippians meets Texas night. We invited a PM family over to a families house for dinner who is the same way. The ladies are both 40ish year old and from the Philippians and the husbands are 60's and white as snow. Perfect. So the member went all out and cooked tons of tradtional food for us. It was Awesome. If that's what Jared [Elder Jared Walker is one of Paul's best friends and is currently serving his mission in the Phillipinnes] gets, he is going to have to start applying for the biggest loser now! What else was even better is for some reason they decided there also had to be a brisket and baked beans. I don't know why.. But I don't ask questions... It was so great. The ladies talked Tagalog the whole time, and then spent a half hour telling us about how good the Elders have it over there, with maids and they are super rich.. They also tried to convince us to go over there and pick up a wife. They told us that girls love the foreign guys. It was so great. The came to church the next day and the member who has the non-member husband came up to us and said " I will give you a call. I want my husband baptized, now!" I couldn't help but do the Tiger Woods fist pump in the middle of the chapel.
Overall it was a great week. Incredible hot and even harder, but I had fun. This morning I was studying in the the Book of John (2) and discovered something that I had never heard before. When Jesus Clears the temples from all of the desecrators of his Father's house, he leaves with them all a message. After the group of Jews gather around him, the begin to ask how they can know. Asking for a sign. The must have surely wondered, as he claimed that this was "His Father's house" It was the house the Almighty God. Asking for sign he says to them:
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this atemple, and in three days I will braise it up.
They however did not understand it by saying:
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this atemple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
Christ however was not talking about the temple but much rather his body. Early on asserting the fact that he knew his divine purpose. The thing that hit me this morning was that this was the very same charge that is referenced in both the Matthew and Mark accounts of his "Trial" if it could be called that.. Amongst the Jews that had witnessed the Love that he had for their sacred temple there were two of them that betrayed him saying they had heard him say this. Christ did not deny that he had said this, for in fact he had. It was a statement so hard to comprehend that not even the disciples knew what it meant until after the resurrection. Truly through the ordeal that he went through, the very Atonement itself he did not only have none with Him, but so very many of His people were against him.
I know for a fact that Jesus is the Christ. I love inviting people everywhere to come and to know him. Through the restored gospel. I know he doesn't want me anywhere else. I truly do Love this work, this people. Keep having a great week. Or start now. Know that those that are against you are far outweighed by those that are for you.
Remember who you are and what He stands for.
Elder Paul Funk
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