Ping Pong Wizard

Well. Here we go once again.

P day was pretty great. Played some more basketball. I felt like I did really well again. It's like the bane of my existence to be good at it, so yeah. Also I was looking at pictures from before the mission this week and I think I have grown an inch or two. And just a side note, I have only gained like 10ish pounds from when I left. I think I exchanged some fat for some muscle... But only 10 up. I for sure told everyone that I wasn't going to gain more then 10... Goal setting. That's what I'm talking about.

Did I tell ya they built a kneaders down here? So good. I love it. So we went twice this week. Once a member paid for us and then another one gave us a gift card. But the gift card didn't work. That was a bummer. I did get to see some of the people for UC ward there. I lost my mind when I saw Sister Lavulo. She is my favorite. She is the one that has my boots and flag and stuff and is going to send it home to me in November or December. I think she is one lady that I will keep in contact with the rest of my life. She is like my Mum. She's from England by the way. Oh man! I'm seriously like freaking out so excited as I'm typing. She like made my entire week. 

Wednesday we had just a normal day. We had institute but we had to get Sue interviewed for her baptism on Saturday. So we asked Jonsey to do it. He was supposed to be there at 7 but didn't end up getting there til almost 8. So when he finally showed up, that little devil on my shoulder kicked in and I turned to Carlie (The member Fellowshipper) and asked her to go in to the interview. So she did and totally faked it, while we sat out in the hall. Jones did really good. He just treated it like a normal interview and everything... She was just messin with him the whole time. Then I told McCombs to bust into the interview and say, "Carlie! We forgot to tell you about tithing! It's 10%. When he asks you if you want to commit to pay it, just say yes." And then walk out. He did it, but then broke character and told Elder Jones we were messing with him. He lost it. hahaha it was sooo funny. I felt kinda bad about it. I might buy that kid ice cream at some point to make up for it. 

Sue went in after that and passed so it was all good. 

Long story... But it was funny. So. Last week we had to fill up with gas on Saturday. We taught Joseph, the Recent convert that if  you didn't fill up with gas on Sunday and really, really needed too. that you could. But, you should always keep the Sabbath day holy when you can. So we taught him this Saturday. Then of course, naturally, we would forget to fill up the car with gas.... Go figure. So we had to fill up on Sunday. Not a big deal, no way I'm filling it up with water and using the Priesthood to fix it;) 

Then, I lost the gas card the next day.... KARMA. Then I had to call the office and stuff. So he looked up the last purchases... So we had to come in and when we went to get the new gas card, I was the laughing stock of the entire mission office. Yeah. Especially after I told them that about the lesson on Saturday. 

So Elder Presser had some trucks that he bought for the mission. I asked if we could go and pick them up with him. And he told us that we could. It was so much fun to drive with him. He's hilarious. We drove 20 or 30 minutes to the dealer and sat down at this table. I felt like a total boss not going to lie. Then the dealer came and dropped three sets of keys on the table, and another lady that worked there, was like "Yall bought a new car each today??" I just looked and her and said, Yep! It was cool. 

Then we all got to drive in separate cars off the lot. Nothing like driving a new car off the lot. We filled up with gas and had to fight traffic back to the mission office. Here is the thing about San Antonio. Traffic is absolutely crazy. So crazy. And I am the only one that knows my way around it outta us 3. So when we left the dealership we all got separated. Hargraves went the total wrong way, McCombs jumped on one road and I jumped on another... it was a mess. Eventually I drove up and found McCombs on a bridge and it was cool. Both of us made it there in one but... We lost Hargraves... He didn't have the phone of the GPS. 

After like a half hour he finally called us and we had to go find him at a random restaurant. It was hilarious. He is the funniest kid I have ever met in my life. 

After all was said and done it was a 4 hour adventure stuck in traffic. LOOOOLL.

Sue's baptism went really well. She has a really neat story. She gave up a ton to get to where she is at now. Shes great. And super fun to be around. We gave her a mock baptism interview and she rambled on about how she was on parole because her Mexican tradition was to steal a car and she got caught because she couldn't get away. She told the story for 10 minutes and all of us were freaking out. It was super funny. Of course she told us that she was just kidding. She does stuff like that all the time. haha. 

Also. We have the ping pong table still the apt. I have gotten SOO good. we just rally back and forth every possible time that we can. Me, Snow and McCombs. We are going back and forth for who is the best right now... We all have suck different playing styles. But I won't waste yalls time explaining that McCombs has the best backhand and Snow has the best serve and I have the best placement... You have have more important stuff to do. 

Well. I do know that the gospel is true. I do know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. And I do know that Jesus is the Christ. It really is the greatest blessing to know all that. Even though, I'm still just a goof ball. Have a fantastic week. I love you. 

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk

#TrunkyTrio

September 22, 2014

Well Hey.

So I guess this week was pretty eventfulish. 

Savon hooked me up with a really nice pair of basketball shoes so I am able to start to play again. It's pretty fun. He tapes me up and we go! He can't really run either because he has to wait to heal after falling off of that cliff, but other then that it's pretty cool. We just play on the same team. He gets rebounds and I shoot threes. We destroyed a couple of times last week.

Also we got the ping pong table downstairs finally. Had to tear it all apart once again. It was kinda sucky but at the same time.. I'll take playing in the AC for just about any price. 

We had some good lessons this week. All the Recent converts are doing well that we are working with. All 4 of them, Jonah, Joseph, Esmerelda, and George are doing well coming to church and tons of activities. It's neat to watch the testimonies grow over time. I really enjoy it. It's kinda cool to watch stuff click in their head for the first time and realize that the gospel is truer and truer.

We had another couple lessons with Rasan this week. He is doing really well. He retains about as good as I have ever seen anyone retain. We had a lesson about the Plan of Salvation and Eternal Marriage and how it all fits together. (What a lesson that was...) But he took out all the fluff about getting married in the Singles ward and was able to just put the whole doctrine of the Plan together. Way cool to watch. He wasn't able to come to church because he was in Housten, but still going to come and play basketball with us today. 

We went on the Border run again this week. Not nearly as eventful as last time. We drank a ton of Mt. Dew. and Redbull and yeah... Pretty cool I guess. I liked it. It was really hot down on the Border.. Really hot. I feel kinda bad for all the poor souls that have to serve down there. God bless em.

Thursday was transfers. We got Elder Hargraves. He goes home in 5 and a half weeks with McCombs and reminds me of that fact every single day. Everyday. #TrunkyTrio. He nicknamed us that the first day that he got here. He is probably the funniest person that I have ever met in my entire life. It's weird I feel like I used to be the funny guy in the group, but with him there it's no comparison at all. Seriously love the kid to death. He was comps with Elder Steggell for a bit and Steggell would tell me stories. Just so funny. 

We had a ward party this week. It was pretty cool too. They had me dress up in a toilet paper suit like I was getting married or something for some competition. I only took second which kinda sucked but whatever haha. 

Sunday was pretty good. I was stoked to hear that the Eagles won again... Chip Kelly has a really good system working out there sounds like. I was however disappointed to hear that the Yankee's got eliminated..... God Bless Derek Jeter. 

Oh. Probably the biggest miracle of the week. 

We went bowling this morning and I smoked everyone. I bowled a 148. That's no type-o. 148. It was the best game that I have ever had. I figured out the trick. Throw it really hard and hit alot of pins. It also helps that there is country music going on in the background to motivate me. Nothing like a guy singing about his big green tractor to bring out the best in you. I think they should approve it for our mission... But that's why I don't make the calls on that kinda stuff. 

The real biggest miracle that we saw this week was with Sue and is still in the process. She went home to visit her family and texted us and told us that she wasn't being allowed to be baptized. So that was a really terrible text to get... But we just kinda told her it would work out. Then she came to church and the Speakers were two recent converts. Crystal and also Savon. Both of which totally killed their talks. I don't think that it could have been better if Elder Holland and Rosa Parks had spoken. After Sue said that she still had a 50% chance of being baptized. It's great. God really does work in the most simple of ways. It's fantastic. He really is a God of so much common sense. Which in itself is weird, because we are created in his image, which would beg the question, why is there so many people without common sense? Idk. Working on it. God is great, the Gospel is true and everything is going well here!

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk

#TrunkyTrio

12 more….

Well howdy once again.

I can't believe how fast everything really goes..

All of it is a blur! I think one of my highlights this week is that we got to do service like every day. WE spent most of one day painting a homeless man's house. No.. It wasn't a card board box. It was his Ex Wife's house. She let him live on the porch and in exchange he had to help her clean up the inside so that she could sell it. The inside was nasty. We were walking in Cat pee and just all kinds of garbage. Really kinda sucked actually. Not that much fun... But I had an allergic reaction before we went over there to some chemical on some palm leafs and broke out into hives. I downed a thing of benadryl and kept on going. Yeah. I was pretty loopy because to couinteract the sleepiness I downed a giant mt dew. Yeah. It was cool.. The Trim looked really good that I painted... The lady said I had a really steady hand. I think that's because I was feeling loopy...

Our investigators are doing pretty well. We have another dude named Rasan that showed up to play some basketball with us last week. He has been to like everything for a week. So dope. He is hilarious too. 

I am so glad that I got to spend the last transfer with McCombs and Snow. They are my best friends. I am so blessed to have them:) So great. We have like a million and a half inside jokes going on. I got to talk to Van Oene, Low,  and Hughes last night too. I love my comps haha most of them anyway. I am a super lucky guy to get these guys. Now in saying this I know that my next one is probably going to be a loon. Oh well.

Oh by the way we are getting really good at ping pong. I think that is in the only time we ever got into a little bit of a fight. It wasn't even that big... haha.

Oh we had Stake conference this week. It was pretty good. Everyone did a really good job. We sang a song with our choir. It was cool. Not sure how it sounded though. Whatever works right?

I miss my viola on a random side note. Glad that Katie is keepin it warm for me. 

Sorry it's short. But then again. So is time... 12 Weeks!

Love ya!

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk

Elder McCombs    Elder Funk    Elder Snow
Having dinner at a member's home

September…Crazy!

Well hey.
This week was another pretty good one. Honest to goodness I don't remember what happened. Like at all. It just went by wayyy to quick. P day I just sat out on the sideline for awhile Til I was watching one team get destroyed and stepped in and hit a couple of shots to make it more even. It was pretty sweet. Other then that just pretty much chillin'. :)
We went bowling this morning. We found out that a member owns a bowling ally and that we can go for free. This will be a shocker. 1. I didn't lose. 2. I actually got an 89. What? Mission really does change a person.
As far as actually missionary work.
We are teaching another girl named Sue. I think I mentioned her last week. She is really, really prepared. We are going over to have Pizza and a lesson tonight then go over to FHE for the night. She wants to get baptized so she will probably get baptized in the next couple of weeks. Pretty exciting. It's so neat to be able to watch people change and grow in such a short period of time. So cool.
Bethany kinda dropped off for now. Haven't really heard anything from her. Hope she is doing well. She will text us a little bit but other then that we haven't even seen her in like a week or so.
Monty another one of our investigator's didn't show up to church yesterday, but hopefully he will be showing up here pretty quick to get baptized... I think he is really cool.
We also picked up another couple of investigators, one dude that we came and played basketball with us showed up and came to church. I think he really liked it until we had a hard core lesson on Eternal Marriage. I just sit there... and maybe this is wrong. But I'm like how hard could it possibly be to actually get married? Really you just have to give up what you want and learn to do what's better for both of you. How do I know this? I really don't haha. We just have a ton of time to think and talk. On paper everything is 10 times easier.
We went to a musical fireside yesterday. Really, really cool. There was one girl that probably should have been paid to come and sing. She killed it! Then one of the guys that Sister Staker and Haight baptized named Shawn went up there and sang a song and it was so beautiful.I love that guy a ton. If I get transferred out of this area I might possibly die.
Oh by the way transfer calls are this week. Only 2 more after this! It's all happening way to fast... But yeah. I really, really, really, don't want to get transferred. We are watching this area just explode right now. The Lord really, really is hastening the work. It is so neat to be able to watch Him do the work and we get to be a part of it. I realize how much more and more every day that He is the one that is actually doing all of the stuff. If it weren't dependent upon me being Perfect, good at teaching, or really anything else. This whole thing would probably be a flop. I'm so grateful that He lets me be a part of it and we get to watch miracles happen. It's incredible.
One neat experience that we had this week.
So District Meeting. I love to be able to put those together and come up with trainings and look at stuff a little bit differently. It's been really great to be a District Leader. So for the last couple of weeks I have been trying to come up with some ideas on what we need to train on, especially because we just got a district of all sisters now. Well... Nothing at all came to my mind to train on. Seriously nothing.
So I just got up there and said, basically that I had put a lot of thought and everything into it, but had pretty much come up with a whole lot of nothing and just wanted to talk about what they wanted to talk about. It seemed pretty good:) A couple of Sisters asked about managing stress and we also talked about finding ideas... So hopefully all the areas will start to just blossom now too. I think it probably ended up being exactly the meeting that it needed to be. Kinda a weird one, but I guess sometimes it's just like that.
Savon is doing ok by the way after his little accident. I'll tell ya more about it later. He really shouldn't be alive, but God needs him for bigger and better things so yep. Savon can survive anything and everything probably.
Hmm... Anything else? Yeah let's see...  Thanks for everything. I really am so blessed to have all the support that I do to be able to do this. I'm a really lucky guy! Thanks for the letters and the thoughts and especially the prayers.

I slacked on emailing back to the primary.
I got all of your letters! Thank you so much. Y'all are doing really great things. I know that the gospel is true. That Joseph Smith really did do the most marvelous work that has been done on this earth. He was inspired by God to do so. He really did see exactly what he said that he saw that day in 1820. Keep on keepin' on! That's the key to life! Thanks again!
Well. I guess that's it for this week. Love y'all!

Remember who you are and what He stands for! 

Mormon in Training

Well Hey Family...

This week was crazy hectic. 

We basically spent all week working on a baptism trying to get everything planned out for it and stuff. Not to bad, not to bad at all. 

Jonah and Joseph got baptized which was super sweet. They both gave really great testimonys at the end and just overall it was really spiritual. Nothing like a baptism or 2 to brighten up your week! 

Honest to goodness. Nothing to crazy this week, I'll try and stretch it to make it seem like more happened but really, nothing to much at all. 

Hmm... So Monday we had basketball and I destroyed my ankle way worse then before, I had trouble standing on it for a few days and still am limping around on it quite a bit. The mission President's wife said that I should just take it easy. I guess I am retiring from P day sports... Long live the Funk. I did have quite a bit of fun while it lasted I guess:)

Wednesday was really cool. We taught this girl that lives out of the zone and stuff but the some of the members came to us at FHE on monday and asked us to teach her. She is SO golden. Probably the most I have ever seen. No joke. We taught her the Restoration and it all clicked like she had heard it all before. We are probably going to teach her next week again. When she came to institute this week right after we had taught her, she introduced herself as a "Mormon in Training". Gonna get baptized!

Oh yeah. We had Zone Meeting this week. It was pretty cool, I gave a training on comments because I was getting frustrated with two people running the whole show in the meetings and saying stupid stuff. Yeah.. So it was kinda a call out, but overall I think that it helped everyone. Not to sure of what the assistants thought of it, but it was fun:) I feel like it went really well, I actually really enjoy getting up and training. I have trained in sooo many meetings. One time I might actually get it right.. 

Hmm... Bethany. She is doing well! She got really sick this week and ended up going to the hospital. Soo... We didn't teach her at all this week, but we should be getting to teach her tonight and having FHE with her at Peter's house. Gonna be sweet. 

Sorry this Email is pretty lame. Imma work on sending some pictures. We are going to have some breakfast pretty soon, so that'll be good I guess... 

The rest of P day I'll probably spend trying to convince Jones to go to school with me and McCombs. That should be good. :)

Well have a great week!

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk