So first off this week gotta give a shout out to the Aggies! Yeah! That is sweet, I saw like one play on Thursday night because we were in downtown San Antonio. I heard they won though. Good Work!
Well this week was different because of Christmas! It was a "lazy" week as a missionary that is for sure, we really didn't do a whole lot which kinda was a bummer, we just chilled out because we weren't supposed to work on Monday through Wednesday. The Legendary 3 day P day.
Monday we went and Brother Eckhardt who is a pilot, took us to Outback steakhouse and bought us some sweet belts! They were 70 bucks! He said that we needed to look like Texas missionaries. I agree, now I just have to get some new boots to go with it. So that is probably going to be coming in somewhere down the line. We played some B Ball and yeah.. That was pretty much Monday, Then on Tuesday we walked around some stores just for fun and to see if we could find anything to buy. I bought a 6 dollar pair of sunglasses that makes me look the guy on Burn Notice. They are so sweet. We went to the Gortons and they went all out for us! They had a ham, a turkey and tons of Filipiano food. Jared will know. The loaded us up again. I had some Milkfish. I guess it is like their countries fish or something. It wasn't to bad, it just tasted like fish. It was neat though to be there because Brother Gorton invited a bunch of non members over and shared his testimony with them all and then I watched Ephriam's Rescue with them while Elder Le Sueur skyped his mom in Australia. It was sooo good. I really recomend it! It was amazing how much that reminded me of Ryan and I. The spirit was really strong and we built some solid friendships with them.
Christmas day! So we walked over to the Zl's and had a bit of a party because the Cibolo elders stayed over and we woke up and opened presents. One of the Elder's dad bought him a sniper nerf gun that shoots 100 feet. We played with that for a few hours straight and it was so fun! While everyone else was in their apartments with their families we were running the parking lot playing like kids in a candy store. I think one of the Elder's dented the roof of a car with a football... Which was bad, but hey it wasn't me at least. That night for dinner we went over to the Cullen's and had prime rib. The Dad is less active and so it was really good to be able to go spend time with them. My physic's skills are probably the best out of anyone that I know of, so after we finished eating their son was telling me that if you put water in a coke bottle and slap it really hard that the bottom would break out. The parents totally doubted our flawed logic, so we experimented! We went out he tried a few times, basically to just bruise his hand, then he gave it to me and bam. On the third time I got it. The parents were pretty surprised, well I think we all were, that was probably the highlight of the dinner, because then I shared a thought about diligence and the dad compared that into it and it worked pretty well. No matter what anybody says.. Anything is possible.
Finally on Thursday we went back to work. Well sorta. Nobody is really home right now so that has made it tough. The Funk Family has been wanting to do something with us for forever and we finally said yes. So Thursday night they took us downtown to the river walk. It was super! It is crazy worldly though. We went and had dinner at this over-priced Italian Restaurant where I got a shrimp pizza. Granted in hind site, a Shrimp pizza doesn't really sound like it has a lot of potential, but it really was pretty terrible. So after we did that they took us on a boat ride down the river walk. It was soo pretty! Ryan was totally right, I didn't think that I would get to see it on my mission but it was one of those things that I will never forget for sure. We got alot of pics but they are all on Elder Le Sueurs camera so I will get them later to ya.
Alright... So I learned a lesson the hard way this week. After the dishes pile up so bad and your comp leaves a ban soaking in the sink for a week and a half it's pretty bad to clean it all up. I don't really enjoy it. So after laboring for a solid 10 minutes to put everything in the dishwasher a thought crossed my mind.. "Hey if I want extra clean dishes the trick is to put some extra hand soap in with them, because it will be extra bubbly!" Terrible Idea. Absolutely the worst Idea I had all week. What happened was that we actually had a White Christmas in the UC kitchen. Yep. Bubbles were everywhere! That was a major project to clean up. Took me like a solid 45 minutes of just waiting for the cycle to finish and the bubbles to come out. There is no short cuts in cleaning the dishes, their really is no short cut in anything.
We talked about repentance yesterday in Church after a 20 minute sacrament meeting talk about a HAM radio or something... Whatever, not the point. And we went through all the steps and I have been able to watch our Investigator Nick go through them one at a time. He came to church again but he is going through a terrible time, his GF is kicking him out and hates that he is meeting with us. It's really to bad. But he is doing the right thing! He cleaned his house up for 10 hours, because he wanted to do the right thing and try and make it all better. He is reading everytime that he gets mad and feels like something is drawing him to God. It is so amazing to watch the spirit work with people. I know that he can help us all change and become the people that we were meant to be.
Speaking of which. One of the sweetest moments that I have ever had in my life happened this week. Elder Le Sueur just got down teaching a lesson and he turned to me as we started to bike away, and said "Elder Funk, I don't mean to brag." "What is that?" He said, "Well I feel like I have changed alot this last little bit, It feels like I have a little tree that is growing inside of me." I laughed and said "Well that's because you have!" He then turned to me and said, "I was reading a book this morning that talked about a missionary that had a tough time at the beginning of his mission, then turned it around completely and became an awesome Zone Leader, I think that is like me. The Elder talked about how his companion was one of the biggest influences in his life. You've done good work Buddy, Thank you." That moment made every single time that I wanted to strangle him worth it all. Golly. I'm crying again.
I know that the Savior is the biggest influence in our lives and that he wants us to change and to grow, I think that sometimes when we are right in the thick of things that we don't see what is really happening. No we aren't perfect, we aren't baptizing every week. We are biking hard, testifying strong, and working hard. That's the best thing that we can do. I know and testify of the power of Repentence. That is my new goal. To repent, to learn, to grow, and to change. I suppose that is always the aim, but now I can really set my sights on it and make it happen. Well I suppose the next time I email I can saw that I am coming home this year. Time goes by too fast. It really does.
Elder Funk
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
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