JUNE!

Well Hey family.
So Lets see... P day was so epic. I think I probably mentioned because we were emailing at the Miller's house and they loaded us up with Bacon and tons and tons of other food. It was seriously sooo good. I loved it. So great.

I don't know if yall heard about the Tornado that happened in Texas, but I just so happened to be on exchanges in the round about area of the tornado with another Zone Leader. We got a extreme tornado warning and stayed inside for cover. It was predicted to head right for us and have golf ball sized hail and everything, pretty nuts right? We made a decision to stay in for the night from about 6 to 9. It was nuts, the sky started to get darker and darker and then we realized that it was 9 o clock and time to go to bed. Yep. Tornado didn't even come close to us. It didn't even rain, the weather was beautiful. Just one of those perks for missionaries not having any contact with the world. We figured we were all going to die, and everyone that was still running around outside was in trouble too. Nope. Nothing at all.

We picked up a couple of sweet new investigators this week. Mike was a referral from Tessa this girl that is getting ready to go on a mission. He has tons and tons of questions about the gospel and has the sweetest intent in the world. I think we should be able to get him baptized in the upcoming month or two. It's gonna be great. We have been instructed that we are supposed to teach with the pamphlets, I don't know if you already got this rant or not, but we show them all the pictures and ask, "What do you see?" Sorta a spiritual interrogation of sorts. No one ever gets all the pictures right, but mike nailed them! It was pretty cool, he even explained priesthood to us and it was so great. Gonna get baptized.

Meg is kinda falling off of the deep end. She lost two jobs in basically two days. Just not showing up or something like that, I don't get it. Just show up and fake it or something. So she has been dealing with that and complaining to us a whole bunch. She is so close to getting baptized, she knows it is all true, she just isn't ready to commit yet.

We got another Investigator this week that has been taking the lessons since probably march or so in Indiana. The missionaries over there are either completely inspired or terrible. She said all the lessons that they have they go on walks. Because she asked them if they could wear normal clothes and they said they could only do it if they had something that required it. So they suggested going Hiking. Umm.. No. Bad idea, she wanted us to go hiking with her and we said no. She asked us if we ever just get to hang out with our investigators like they do over there, and we were like... No...? Luckily they were bold enough to teach her the Law of chastity. Oh how you might ask? Playing Ping pong. People tick me off sometimes. So we have her lesson and she says, "I know not getting baptized because my Boyfriend isn't interested is a dumb idea, and I should just do it.." I just told "Yes that is a stupid idea. And yes you should just do it." I really can't wait to get home and use my social skills. It is honestly kind of crazy to watch girls again do things just to get attention. I lose my mind.

For example. yesterday, we had a girl come up to us and start talking to us because she just got off of her mission a month ago, Flirting super hard core with us, we kept trying to retreat, but nothing seemed to work. Our Ward mission leader even came over stuck out his hand, she didn't see it, he shrugged and walked away. So funny. Then she came and sat with us and the Linger longer after church. Luckily Elder Steggell is super kind. When we got home I was still ranting about this girl to Elder Steggell, even Elder Steggell was like what the heck?? which is nuts because is the optimistic person in the world. I start telling the Elders we live with about her and they met her too! She went to their dinner appointment too and flirted with one of them super hard core and then rebuked the other and told him to cut his hair. Uh. P day is the next day crazy girl. We all just ranted about women for an hour before going to bed. Oh I do make sure to do Top 5 at 10:05. Kinda like sportscenter but missionary style. This week Highlighted a Devastingly disappointing tornado that never hit and a couple of missionary's picking up a message chair in a move. Miracles. Miracles.

Oh so at this linger longer, which makes church 4 hours instead of 3, we were eating and a girl had a seizure and passed out. A member at our table said that it happens all the time and that she just needs a minute to get up and going again. I think during that minute, 4 or 5 people called the ambulance and she was carted off in a stretcher. I felt really terrible for her.. That must be pretty hard.

At church though we had Mike and he was sitting by himself so I jumped up and sat with him and Elder Steggell was across the chapel, then his fellowship came Tessa and sat on the other side of me. One thing about single's wards it seems, is that it is basically a extension of a High School Lunch room. So everyone sits with there group of friends. Well Mike had to leave and that left me and Tessa sitting together. So Weird. I mean I didn't really feel awkward, just it was bizarre. I made sure to slide like 4 feet away. I'm not taking any chances at getting Emergency transferred out of this place! I love it.
Plus we got a new bishopric this week and the bishop is a guys dad that I love in Universal City! Instant connection. We are going to baptize the world.

Elder Steggell and I have been working really hard. We really didn't have many or any people when we got together and are working to build it up. We got three to church yesterday which was so great, but we want to always improve. We have a goal this transfer to baptize 13 people and have 4 weeks left to do it. Our philosphy has become "If you want to accomplish something that has never been done, you have to do things that you have never done!" So we instituted that idea this week and tried to talk to absolutely every single person. When we were driving away from an apartment complex there was a guy walking around and we rolled down the window and I said "Hey we have a message about Jesus!" He turned around, yep totally the same guy that the day before chewed us out for soliciting. He took a picture of our license plate and proceeded to chew us out for 20 minutes. I argued with him for a bit, and he said he took the BAR exam or something I told him that we were basically going to do what we were going to do and that was that. He said he was reporting us and that we might get fined and up to 6 weeks in jail or something. That would be one crazy transfer. It is what it is.

I also had another exchange this week with Elder Condie. We went and baptized a guy over on the east side of San Antonio and then went to a super fancy restaurant in Tim Duncan's neck of the woods. Of course, Timmy has bigger things to do then eat out this time of the year, but he goes to BJ's all the time to eat. I had a Bison Burger and Wings. So good for real.

However that was pretty neat, the greatest thing to happen on the exchange was that we went to dinner in his area we walked for an hour to get there and when we showed up this guy answered the door and let us in. We sat down and had dinner, his sister showed up and talked to us for a bit, she was kinda weird, the guy said he wasn't a member but grew up in Ogden so I pretty much taught him the Restoration. Apparently, the guy had just had his records removed and hated the church. Whoops, So Elder Condie and I were like dang... He is going to hate the pushy missionary's now and his family is going to be ticked. Then we got a Phone call from his sister and she told us how much she appreciated what we did and how much he actually had enjoyed it and that it meant alot to him. It was the first time anyone had been able to talk to him about the gospel in a really long time. All out of complete obliviousness. Miracles really do happen. The spirit is such a powerful thing. It has the power to penetrate the smallest of crevasses if we are willing to allow our hearts to be opened. I know that the spirit is what converts and that our personalities and love for others is what can allow them to open the door to the spirit. That is why it is so important to balance both of them together. Miracles do still happen!

Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Paul Funk