This week in the UC....
What a week it was. Let me start kinda from the back end of the week and I will work my way forward. So this morning I got a call from Elder Hughes and he told me that Elder Dayton had to go home, because he got in a terrible bike wreck. I hope that he is doing alright, he is in a better place now.. Well not really but hey that's what they say.
Yesterday (sunday) was a dud. So we were supposed to have Nathan come and get interviewed for baptism during church. Well the problem with that was that he didn't come to church. Now I have gotten alot of excuses on my mission. What was it this time? His member fellowshippers decided that that they wanted to take the day off and go to the riverwalk. What the Heck. So that was super frustrating. Then we are trying to pull off this big joint baptism with the other Elders, and when we presented the plan in Ward council we looked like Idiots because the Zl's didn't schedule the building for us and there was a different baptism for a member. Ugh. So I called them up and told them to come over to church and we had a two hour Pow wow instead of going to the rest of church. It was good though.
I went to my First Funk Family Sealing this week! It was great! The Funks invited us I will send you a picture. I have never been to a sealing before, so it was kinda weird. The Kids SCREAMED the entire time, so bad that we couldn't even hear the sealer. Hopefully they are sealed... At least God has better hearing than I do.
I also went to a Quinciera this week. What in the world. So I started eating my food, and then thought I would be nice and went to grab some drinks for everyone at the table, when I got back I set down all the drinks and Elder Le Sueur went to town eating. I looked down and saw that the Elder Quorum President's wife was also eating.. Who's food? My food. I missed my chance to say anything and just had to sit there. Plus they did some flippin weird dances. Like with a doll. Oh another thing, they told us that there was going to be non members there! There were.. Guess what language they spoke. That's right, spanish. Way to think that one through Funk. Finding at a Mexican Birthday Party is up there right next to finding at a Funeral for the President of the school of the Deaf. Fail.
Lets see. We had exchanges this week. The Elder was from Mendon. He didn't say a word the entire exchange. I felt bad, he is a little socially awkward and so I wanted him to loosen up a bit and have some fun. So I took him down to the creek and we chucked some rocks for like 10 minutes. It's one of my favorite hobbies these days, relieves the stress... It was good til we got home and he rebuked me for wasting time and joking too much. What...? Whatever.
Bishop called us one day and told us about a referral. No joke her name is Cherry Pie. Yep. She is pretty cool we went and talked to her, hopefully going to baptize her. Not going to lie. Baptized Cherry Pie on my mission would be one of coolest stories ever.
Yeah. Let's see. I bashed a bit this week. It gets so frustrating. We are teaching this guy named Ed that is so intellectual, he knows alot, but God knows more.. He wants to prove Joseph Smith wrong. Heh, good luck!
Somedays.. life is terrible. I just get sick of it. We got transfer calls coming up and I don't know if I'm leaving. I'm pretty drained of this area, not going to lie. Ready for a new start and everything. I wonder sometimes what the Lord wants to teach me...
I'm so tired right now. Haha I think that every missionary in the world is tired all the time. I guess the Assistant to the ZL's was talking to President the other day and said that we aren't going to get facebook, Ipads, or Iphones for a really long time, because we turned it down and didn't want to be the pilot mission. So I don't think that I will see that on my mission. Kinda disappointing, but who knows that really is set doctrine right now.
We have Elder Golden coming this week from the 70. Pretty sure that we are getting rebuked. He is staying for a few days. I have no idea, just kinda has that vibe about it. Hopefully I'm wrong. I'll keep ya posted.
Nothin else really happened this week. Like I said we got some transfer calls coming up. I wanna get out, but we will see! I'm getting kinda burned out. Oh speaking of Burn out. It was freezing!! in the beginning of the week and I was so cold. I couldn't take it anymore and told the EQ president to take us to Ross, yeah went and spent a bit of money on gloves and a beanie. I don't think that my card is quite figured out yet, because it failed, but I had cash. What was the temperature the next day though? Like 90. Ridiculous. Texas weather nothing like it.
Well I guess that I have to go risk my life again pretty soon, getting in the car with the concussion sister.. what the heck... It may sound like I'm complaining alot, or that I hate my life. Reality is, I love it, just I relish in drama, or maybe there is alot of drama.. either way. That's my week!
Remember who you are and what He stands for!!!
Elder Funk
Monday, November 18, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Learning Lessons
Well.. Another week in the life of a Funk...
So not going to even pretend it was a good week. I think I may have finally cracked Elder Le Sueur. It was just bad.
First and the greatest lesson that I learned this week. Walking is good for the Sole.
So after his accident with the bike, Sister Slaughter told him that he has to stay off the bike for a bit. That makes working even more impractical than it already is. Still... We press on.. Dramatic music here.... So we walked and we walked. As a matter of fact we walked 7 miles each way on three separate occasions to try and go to appointments. Yep that's a solid two hour walk each way. Bummer.
I got so frustrated with him. He raps all the time. So I told him that if he would shut up I would turn on some country. I freakin cracked. We listened to country for like 3 days straight. I just couldn't take it anymore. During that time, we went over to a members house and she gave us this one drink, it's called something Ice. I have got it knocking doors before and it's soooo good. Like my favorite ever. So drank like half of it. Why is it so good? Oh that's because it's tea. I can't win sometimes. I found out that I love tea on my mission and can't ever have it again. Sometimes I wonder.
So Saturday was a bad day. But learned alot. I learned the hard way that if the phone is not on when you plug it into charge then guess what? The alarm doesn't go off. Yep found that out at 8 oclock. So I jumped outta bed turned on the phone and everyone and their dog was trying to call us. I was on the phone most of the morning trying to figure stuff out with the ZL's and some members. Our appointment canceled at 10 and basically everything else fell through. Crazy day.
K so I am emailing on a laptop and it really sucks so this is gonna be a shorter email.
Cool experience.
Elder Le Sueur had his cuz call him, she wanted to come see him. Which is like the biggest no no in history of missionary work. So I was like ummm no. (Side note: I don't know why I am tempted to swear all the time. I think it's something in the water.) So it simmered down for a few days and we were at the Zl's apartment on Sunday and she called him. He took the call and they were all over him about it. Finally I got some help.. That's when Elder Chipman and I went into the back room and I just told him how hard it had been and everything. Basically bawled for like an hour. He's awesome though. I forgave him and he forgave me too I think. Back to the story. We left and the cuz was planning on meeting us at this fireside that the candy bomber from world war 2 was going to be talking in. I have been looking forward to this for forever. But I knew the only way to stay obedient was to not go. So I prayed. I finally got up the strength to tell Elder Le Sueur that we weren't going to go, he wasn't happy and was planning to go anyway, but then... He got super sick and puked his guts out an hour before we were going to go. God works in mysterious ways, but hey. I'm not complaining.
I love this gospel with all my heart. I honestly do. I love doing it, even when it sucks. So Sorry this is a short email. But know that I am praying and learning alot out here and love yall so much! Hopefully Jared does alright. This is were I have to say to all the moms.... We were totally right to take Bachelor Camps. If it hadn't been for those camps, Jared would be probably pretty miserable not knowing what to do. I'm sure he is wearing his wife beater tank top, eating some ramen noodles and whittling a stick to write in his journal with. Shoot maybe not. Maybe he's digging someone's truck outta the mud. But. I'm still going to pray for him.
(Jared is one of Paul's best friends who is serving in the Philippines at the time of Typhoon Yolanda. )
Love yall. Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
So not going to even pretend it was a good week. I think I may have finally cracked Elder Le Sueur. It was just bad.
First and the greatest lesson that I learned this week. Walking is good for the Sole.
So after his accident with the bike, Sister Slaughter told him that he has to stay off the bike for a bit. That makes working even more impractical than it already is. Still... We press on.. Dramatic music here.... So we walked and we walked. As a matter of fact we walked 7 miles each way on three separate occasions to try and go to appointments. Yep that's a solid two hour walk each way. Bummer.
I got so frustrated with him. He raps all the time. So I told him that if he would shut up I would turn on some country. I freakin cracked. We listened to country for like 3 days straight. I just couldn't take it anymore. During that time, we went over to a members house and she gave us this one drink, it's called something Ice. I have got it knocking doors before and it's soooo good. Like my favorite ever. So drank like half of it. Why is it so good? Oh that's because it's tea. I can't win sometimes. I found out that I love tea on my mission and can't ever have it again. Sometimes I wonder.
So Saturday was a bad day. But learned alot. I learned the hard way that if the phone is not on when you plug it into charge then guess what? The alarm doesn't go off. Yep found that out at 8 oclock. So I jumped outta bed turned on the phone and everyone and their dog was trying to call us. I was on the phone most of the morning trying to figure stuff out with the ZL's and some members. Our appointment canceled at 10 and basically everything else fell through. Crazy day.
K so I am emailing on a laptop and it really sucks so this is gonna be a shorter email.
Cool experience.
Elder Le Sueur had his cuz call him, she wanted to come see him. Which is like the biggest no no in history of missionary work. So I was like ummm no. (Side note: I don't know why I am tempted to swear all the time. I think it's something in the water.) So it simmered down for a few days and we were at the Zl's apartment on Sunday and she called him. He took the call and they were all over him about it. Finally I got some help.. That's when Elder Chipman and I went into the back room and I just told him how hard it had been and everything. Basically bawled for like an hour. He's awesome though. I forgave him and he forgave me too I think. Back to the story. We left and the cuz was planning on meeting us at this fireside that the candy bomber from world war 2 was going to be talking in. I have been looking forward to this for forever. But I knew the only way to stay obedient was to not go. So I prayed. I finally got up the strength to tell Elder Le Sueur that we weren't going to go, he wasn't happy and was planning to go anyway, but then... He got super sick and puked his guts out an hour before we were going to go. God works in mysterious ways, but hey. I'm not complaining.
I love this gospel with all my heart. I honestly do. I love doing it, even when it sucks. So Sorry this is a short email. But know that I am praying and learning alot out here and love yall so much! Hopefully Jared does alright. This is were I have to say to all the moms.... We were totally right to take Bachelor Camps. If it hadn't been for those camps, Jared would be probably pretty miserable not knowing what to do. I'm sure he is wearing his wife beater tank top, eating some ramen noodles and whittling a stick to write in his journal with. Shoot maybe not. Maybe he's digging someone's truck outta the mud. But. I'm still going to pray for him.
(Jared is one of Paul's best friends who is serving in the Philippines at the time of Typhoon Yolanda. )
Love yall. Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
Monday, November 4, 2013
Wranglin' in Wranglers
Howdy Yall.
Well first and foremost I have to tell ya. I am truely becoming a Texas missionary. A member dropped off some sweet 70's wranglers that are 100% polyester. They are pretty dang tight. Both in the cool way and in the Nacho Libre way. I took some flack from the Zl's and the told me that I shouldn't be wearing them.. well. I needed something to match my cowboy boots. So long story short I gotta check on LDS.org for some info to make sure that I am not breaking rules...
This week was a doozy! Went by super quick. Maybe I can start from the beginning and that will help you keep up.
I had an awesome P day. It was great. I stole the book "Miracle of Forgiveness" from the shelf at home and so I decided that it would be a good time to read it! Holy cow. I have never understood the importance of Repentance before. He opened my eyes to things that I never understood. It really inspired me to do better. However I am extremely grateful that I was clean before I came out and continue to work at staying that way! Holy cow. Seriously that is the single most bold book that I have ever read in my life.
Elder Le Sueur has been doing a bit better. He studied a little bit more this week! Well sorta for the first time! I am grateful to be his companion. I am learning alot about kinda trying to lift him up and he has some good things to teach me. It's a different situation. But everyone is placed in a certain spot in a certain time for a reason. We just choose to love each other, even if that means that we don't always agree. He does like to rap every single thing that I say to him...
I had a lot of neat experiences with being prepared to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you".
The first was on Tuesday when I came across a neat scripture in Alma.
44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the aword of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.
I thought about how trusting the followers of Lehi and his family must have been when the first journeyed into the wilderness. They had never before been where they were destined to go. Surely they must have had a ton of fears and doubts. Well at least a couple of them did!
So I wrote that down in my study journal and kinda forgot about it. We went to teach Jacob Fisher, an RM but he wanted an active member lesson and so we began to teach him the restoration of the gospel. The I stopped in the middle and said "Ya know Jacob.. I want to share this with you." So I did. His reaction was different than what I thought. He teared up and the spirit was so strong. He was overwhelmed because he told us that his plans to go to BYU had fallen through and that he wasn't having any luck with life in general. He had been praying to know what he needed to do. He recieved his answer from that scripture. Yes. It is that easy. It is one of my favorite scriptures.
Next we went over to the Magana's with Brother Brashears. He had such a sweet testimony again. He is the best. I love him to death. We did our best to help them feel the spirit and to come closer to baptism... They aren't progressing super great but they are doing ok I guess.
Halloween! So we actually didn't do anything for Halloween! Well nothing different at least, we taught lessons. It was so great. We went over to the Beer's house and taught them we had a super powerful experience with Lita when she read Psalms 23. She is going to get baptized. I think that might be part of the reason that I am still here.
Nathan is gone.. He moved over to Helotis Ward. It was kinda funny because I called to pass off his info to the other Elder's and come to find out that it was an Elder I came into the field with. Love the kid to death. He has been having Neurological problems and has spasms. It has been really hard on him and they haven't been able to have alot of success over there with baptisms it sounded like. His companion was a kid I went to High School with! Elder Anthon. He was a punk back then. Well at least I though he was. I didn't believe my eyes when he was there! Such an awesome guy though. So I am grateful I got to know Nathan. He is a cool kid.
Well... Elder Le Sueur took a tumble on his bike. We were flying down a hill probably going like 20 or 25. I just like to keep up with the cars if I can.. Then I can measure it. And he tried to jump a curb. Yeah.. He ate it pretty dang hard. Not gonna lie. I turned around and saw it. I laughed a little. He was just fine, he is tough kid haha he just got up, was super embarrassed and we went off to the appointment. When we got there, we had to do some medical procedures. His pants were in shreds, and had some bad road rash, but other than that it was pretty good.
Glady's Knight concert was super sweet. I partied like it was 2014. Yep... It was really inspiring and dang that girl got some soul power! I think I may have a crush on her. Not gonna lie. One of the greatest things that I have ever seen! There was one guy that sung "Villa de la Rosa." It was the most B E A Utiful things that I have ever heard in my entire life. Hopefully we are going to get alot of refferals from it and start to pick up some new investigators.
So the best moment of the week I had to kinda babysit all day.. The ZL's dropped off their comp that they are with. He is a little disobedient but is a sweet kid. So it was just a tiring day. Not gonna lie, spend a couple hours in the apartment while they tried to fix up my bike with some sweet pedals. Didn't work. Still had go buy some but The bike guy is my BFF. So I was tired. Had no dinner appointment, but I had my lucky wranglers on. So nothing could happen. We walked by the golden Corral and lone and behold. Members "wrangled" us in. Super sweet.
So we went in and started to eat. I sat next to there 7 year old son, Austin, he and I started to get along great. We talked and talked, he wanted me to try basically everything. Everywhere that I went, he came along. So we sat down and he was eating a giant piece of friend chicken and I asked him "Austin, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Without even so much as a hesitation, he turned and replied, "A dad!" It was the single cutest thing that I had ever heard. I teared up in the middle of flippin' golden corral and said "Me too, Austin, me too." He gets it better than I do. He's 7.
So everything that I have learned, and am learning is really preparing me for that moment. To become a Dad. My kids are gonna read this and be like... Wow. So we cry all the time because of Dad!! yep. I love it all so much. The hard times, the fun times, the rewarding times. I don't ever want to look back and regret. I can't wait to be able to say this is done, because I am tired quite frankly. I know that I can make it though. I am doing the job that I am meant to do. Fulfilling my foredination. I love you and I am so grateful for all that yall do for me. I hope that you receive your blessings for being my support.
Remember who you are and what he stands for!
Elder Paul Funk
Well first and foremost I have to tell ya. I am truely becoming a Texas missionary. A member dropped off some sweet 70's wranglers that are 100% polyester. They are pretty dang tight. Both in the cool way and in the Nacho Libre way. I took some flack from the Zl's and the told me that I shouldn't be wearing them.. well. I needed something to match my cowboy boots. So long story short I gotta check on LDS.org for some info to make sure that I am not breaking rules...
This week was a doozy! Went by super quick. Maybe I can start from the beginning and that will help you keep up.
I had an awesome P day. It was great. I stole the book "Miracle of Forgiveness" from the shelf at home and so I decided that it would be a good time to read it! Holy cow. I have never understood the importance of Repentance before. He opened my eyes to things that I never understood. It really inspired me to do better. However I am extremely grateful that I was clean before I came out and continue to work at staying that way! Holy cow. Seriously that is the single most bold book that I have ever read in my life.
Elder Le Sueur has been doing a bit better. He studied a little bit more this week! Well sorta for the first time! I am grateful to be his companion. I am learning alot about kinda trying to lift him up and he has some good things to teach me. It's a different situation. But everyone is placed in a certain spot in a certain time for a reason. We just choose to love each other, even if that means that we don't always agree. He does like to rap every single thing that I say to him...
I had a lot of neat experiences with being prepared to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you".
The first was on Tuesday when I came across a neat scripture in Alma.
44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the aword of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.
I thought about how trusting the followers of Lehi and his family must have been when the first journeyed into the wilderness. They had never before been where they were destined to go. Surely they must have had a ton of fears and doubts. Well at least a couple of them did!
So I wrote that down in my study journal and kinda forgot about it. We went to teach Jacob Fisher, an RM but he wanted an active member lesson and so we began to teach him the restoration of the gospel. The I stopped in the middle and said "Ya know Jacob.. I want to share this with you." So I did. His reaction was different than what I thought. He teared up and the spirit was so strong. He was overwhelmed because he told us that his plans to go to BYU had fallen through and that he wasn't having any luck with life in general. He had been praying to know what he needed to do. He recieved his answer from that scripture. Yes. It is that easy. It is one of my favorite scriptures.
Next we went over to the Magana's with Brother Brashears. He had such a sweet testimony again. He is the best. I love him to death. We did our best to help them feel the spirit and to come closer to baptism... They aren't progressing super great but they are doing ok I guess.
Halloween! So we actually didn't do anything for Halloween! Well nothing different at least, we taught lessons. It was so great. We went over to the Beer's house and taught them we had a super powerful experience with Lita when she read Psalms 23. She is going to get baptized. I think that might be part of the reason that I am still here.
Nathan is gone.. He moved over to Helotis Ward. It was kinda funny because I called to pass off his info to the other Elder's and come to find out that it was an Elder I came into the field with. Love the kid to death. He has been having Neurological problems and has spasms. It has been really hard on him and they haven't been able to have alot of success over there with baptisms it sounded like. His companion was a kid I went to High School with! Elder Anthon. He was a punk back then. Well at least I though he was. I didn't believe my eyes when he was there! Such an awesome guy though. So I am grateful I got to know Nathan. He is a cool kid.
Well... Elder Le Sueur took a tumble on his bike. We were flying down a hill probably going like 20 or 25. I just like to keep up with the cars if I can.. Then I can measure it. And he tried to jump a curb. Yeah.. He ate it pretty dang hard. Not gonna lie. I turned around and saw it. I laughed a little. He was just fine, he is tough kid haha he just got up, was super embarrassed and we went off to the appointment. When we got there, we had to do some medical procedures. His pants were in shreds, and had some bad road rash, but other than that it was pretty good.
Glady's Knight concert was super sweet. I partied like it was 2014. Yep... It was really inspiring and dang that girl got some soul power! I think I may have a crush on her. Not gonna lie. One of the greatest things that I have ever seen! There was one guy that sung "Villa de la Rosa." It was the most B E A Utiful things that I have ever heard in my entire life. Hopefully we are going to get alot of refferals from it and start to pick up some new investigators.
So the best moment of the week I had to kinda babysit all day.. The ZL's dropped off their comp that they are with. He is a little disobedient but is a sweet kid. So it was just a tiring day. Not gonna lie, spend a couple hours in the apartment while they tried to fix up my bike with some sweet pedals. Didn't work. Still had go buy some but The bike guy is my BFF. So I was tired. Had no dinner appointment, but I had my lucky wranglers on. So nothing could happen. We walked by the golden Corral and lone and behold. Members "wrangled" us in. Super sweet.
So we went in and started to eat. I sat next to there 7 year old son, Austin, he and I started to get along great. We talked and talked, he wanted me to try basically everything. Everywhere that I went, he came along. So we sat down and he was eating a giant piece of friend chicken and I asked him "Austin, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Without even so much as a hesitation, he turned and replied, "A dad!" It was the single cutest thing that I had ever heard. I teared up in the middle of flippin' golden corral and said "Me too, Austin, me too." He gets it better than I do. He's 7.
So everything that I have learned, and am learning is really preparing me for that moment. To become a Dad. My kids are gonna read this and be like... Wow. So we cry all the time because of Dad!! yep. I love it all so much. The hard times, the fun times, the rewarding times. I don't ever want to look back and regret. I can't wait to be able to say this is done, because I am tired quite frankly. I know that I can make it though. I am doing the job that I am meant to do. Fulfilling my foredination. I love you and I am so grateful for all that yall do for me. I hope that you receive your blessings for being my support.
Remember who you are and what he stands for!
Elder Paul Funk
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
A Good Week to be Elder Funk
Hey Family!
Another week has already gone and past. I can't believe it! So fast. So basically here is my week!
We taught Nathan, again, but he really wanted to be taught the Law of Chastity for some reason. Whateve's it all has to get done so whatever works. So he told us we had to teach it with sock puppets but I said no way to that one. We pretty much laughed through the whole thing. Here is how elect he is. Before the lesson he told us a story about how he told his girlfriend a couple of days before that they couldn't do it anymore, because he was going to get baptized and change his life around. Awesome right! She punched him in the face, but he didn't give up! So he accepted that and he is probably going to have his date moved up to sooner rather than the 23rd of next month. So pumped!
Oh we also had a giant meeting about Gladys Knight. Basically to talk about why the church sucks at singing and why we don't have any soul in our services. Oh and how to talk to black people. It has been a little bit different finding like that.. Anyway that concert is this weekend and we get to go so I will have to give you an update about it next Monday! Gonna be sweet!
So we moved alot of people this week. We helped someone on Wednesday night that was moving to OKC. He gave us an Austin Powers card board cut out. Sweet right? So we put a badge on it and I gotta figure out how to send a picture and then yall can have it. He's like our third comp. Does about as much as Elder Le Sueur does sometimes haha. His words, not mine.
Another move that we did was helping the Brashears. Love those guys to death, they are so awesome. We went over and helped em move and so naturally I wore my cowboy boots. I was carrying this dang couch and it was pretty heavy. Elder Le Sueur was kinda annoying me in the moment and flicked my butt so I reacted and kicked him right in the shin. I totally forgot that I had my boots on so it killed him. I didn't even kick hard but it was pretty dang funny. He got over it. And he stopped annoying me.
Oh so last week we got in the car to go home with the sisters. The sister is a terrible driver. I tell yall that every week. But seriously. She is so bad. Worse than Ryan at Rainbow Road. (Boom Roasted) Jk. So I was talking to Staker and she told me that the other sister was the Senior comp. GOLD. So technically she is supposed to be driving. Now I just had to figure out a way to tell her that without causing a big problem. So when we got in the car, I super awkwardly said "Hey Sister Regen.. How long have you been out?" "Nine Months!" Sweet right? Because the other sister has only been out six! "Shouldn't you be driving?" Then all Hell broke loose. Whoops. I got my butt chewed out, because I don't even know why. Well ok I do, but still... So she ripped me a new one and then it was just like silence, man she made so many mean remarks. We don't get along. At all. So we rode our bike to the Library this week. Better part of that story. So I am ranting to the ZL's about this whole thing and they are with another comp and he says about Sister Regen "I think she is red-dotted" meaning... She is such a terrible driver that they didn't even want to giver her a chance because she had gotten to many wrecks and she can't drive anyway. So I looked like a moron again. Wait. It gets better, then my comp says "Oh yeah! I remember that! She was in my last district!!" Thanks Elder Le Sueur. Thanks alot.
We had some other pretty good lessons. We went over to the Huff's to teach her cousin and they started talking about this crazy investigator that makes all this missionaries cut the bamboo at her house. I know that investigator, I am teaching her. So I tell her that, she gets a little freaked out and tells us the bishop told the Elder's never to go back there because she is mentally crazy and cracks and she could accuse us of stuff. Nice work writing that one down missionaries in the past... Yeah. I'm not going back there again. Last time we went, she told us about how she had her extension cord stolen from her. Freakin nuts.
We played some sweet football at the Stake Center last week. My comp was on the other team and it was like us matched up against each other. I owned. So hopefully that helped out his pride a bit. It was pretty hilarious.
Nathan is still moving which is a bummer, but all is good. He is gonna get baptized here and we are still going to the Glady's Knight concert together so that will be fun. He decided that he was going to make us listen to his favorite song and music video.. Whatever I guess. It's called "Royal" By Lorde. I might have fallen in love. Whoops. It's like the best song ever, but I only heard it once and now I have to wait to listen to it for another year. Alma was right. Wickedness never was Happiness. But totally check it out. Awesome song.
Elder Le Sueur is different than my other companions for sure. We get along great. I just have to give up alot of what I want to do. I really have learned that Companionship Unity is super important. I really wish that we had the same desires for a mission, that would make the work alot more effective and everything more fulfilling. He said though that last week was the hardest working week that he has had on his mission. So I suppose that is a good thing. He slept in til like 8 or something this morning. He sleeps alot so I make calls and try to motivate him to get out the door. Kinda a trick sometimes. Monster Energy drinks help...
Really that was about it. I love to do personal study. If you don't have a great experience everytime that you read the Book of Mormon there is something not right. I'm studying it for the third time on my mission and I'm now in Alma, I just finished 34 today. I love how Amulek talks about the Atonement, and the importance of it. He lays it all out there.
I am grateful to be were I am at. I was talking to sister Huff again, and she was expressing that she could see a mission really change missionaries, and could see it in me. She pretty much knows everything that has happened, she just like to hear it all and helps me out. Love her to death. I don't know what it is, but Widows, and grandma's are the best people on the planet. I told her that If I had to give up even more I would do it all again. Every single hard day, the hot weather and just everything. I would do it all again. I may complain a bit, but I would be so grateful to have time to do it again. But I'm glad that I was diligent and don't have regrets in the work I have done.
Overall a good week to be a Funk. Especially Elder Funk! I learned alot, I am gratful for patience and hope to be able to endure the next week. If there is anything praiseworthy I will seek after that thing. Terrible. I just butchered the 13th article of faith...
God bless.
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
Another week has already gone and past. I can't believe it! So fast. So basically here is my week!
We taught Nathan, again, but he really wanted to be taught the Law of Chastity for some reason. Whateve's it all has to get done so whatever works. So he told us we had to teach it with sock puppets but I said no way to that one. We pretty much laughed through the whole thing. Here is how elect he is. Before the lesson he told us a story about how he told his girlfriend a couple of days before that they couldn't do it anymore, because he was going to get baptized and change his life around. Awesome right! She punched him in the face, but he didn't give up! So he accepted that and he is probably going to have his date moved up to sooner rather than the 23rd of next month. So pumped!
Oh we also had a giant meeting about Gladys Knight. Basically to talk about why the church sucks at singing and why we don't have any soul in our services. Oh and how to talk to black people. It has been a little bit different finding like that.. Anyway that concert is this weekend and we get to go so I will have to give you an update about it next Monday! Gonna be sweet!
So we moved alot of people this week. We helped someone on Wednesday night that was moving to OKC. He gave us an Austin Powers card board cut out. Sweet right? So we put a badge on it and I gotta figure out how to send a picture and then yall can have it. He's like our third comp. Does about as much as Elder Le Sueur does sometimes haha. His words, not mine.
Another move that we did was helping the Brashears. Love those guys to death, they are so awesome. We went over and helped em move and so naturally I wore my cowboy boots. I was carrying this dang couch and it was pretty heavy. Elder Le Sueur was kinda annoying me in the moment and flicked my butt so I reacted and kicked him right in the shin. I totally forgot that I had my boots on so it killed him. I didn't even kick hard but it was pretty dang funny. He got over it. And he stopped annoying me.
Oh so last week we got in the car to go home with the sisters. The sister is a terrible driver. I tell yall that every week. But seriously. She is so bad. Worse than Ryan at Rainbow Road. (Boom Roasted) Jk. So I was talking to Staker and she told me that the other sister was the Senior comp. GOLD. So technically she is supposed to be driving. Now I just had to figure out a way to tell her that without causing a big problem. So when we got in the car, I super awkwardly said "Hey Sister Regen.. How long have you been out?" "Nine Months!" Sweet right? Because the other sister has only been out six! "Shouldn't you be driving?" Then all Hell broke loose. Whoops. I got my butt chewed out, because I don't even know why. Well ok I do, but still... So she ripped me a new one and then it was just like silence, man she made so many mean remarks. We don't get along. At all. So we rode our bike to the Library this week. Better part of that story. So I am ranting to the ZL's about this whole thing and they are with another comp and he says about Sister Regen "I think she is red-dotted" meaning... She is such a terrible driver that they didn't even want to giver her a chance because she had gotten to many wrecks and she can't drive anyway. So I looked like a moron again. Wait. It gets better, then my comp says "Oh yeah! I remember that! She was in my last district!!" Thanks Elder Le Sueur. Thanks alot.
We had some other pretty good lessons. We went over to the Huff's to teach her cousin and they started talking about this crazy investigator that makes all this missionaries cut the bamboo at her house. I know that investigator, I am teaching her. So I tell her that, she gets a little freaked out and tells us the bishop told the Elder's never to go back there because she is mentally crazy and cracks and she could accuse us of stuff. Nice work writing that one down missionaries in the past... Yeah. I'm not going back there again. Last time we went, she told us about how she had her extension cord stolen from her. Freakin nuts.
We played some sweet football at the Stake Center last week. My comp was on the other team and it was like us matched up against each other. I owned. So hopefully that helped out his pride a bit. It was pretty hilarious.
Nathan is still moving which is a bummer, but all is good. He is gonna get baptized here and we are still going to the Glady's Knight concert together so that will be fun. He decided that he was going to make us listen to his favorite song and music video.. Whatever I guess. It's called "Royal" By Lorde. I might have fallen in love. Whoops. It's like the best song ever, but I only heard it once and now I have to wait to listen to it for another year. Alma was right. Wickedness never was Happiness. But totally check it out. Awesome song.
Elder Le Sueur is different than my other companions for sure. We get along great. I just have to give up alot of what I want to do. I really have learned that Companionship Unity is super important. I really wish that we had the same desires for a mission, that would make the work alot more effective and everything more fulfilling. He said though that last week was the hardest working week that he has had on his mission. So I suppose that is a good thing. He slept in til like 8 or something this morning. He sleeps alot so I make calls and try to motivate him to get out the door. Kinda a trick sometimes. Monster Energy drinks help...
Really that was about it. I love to do personal study. If you don't have a great experience everytime that you read the Book of Mormon there is something not right. I'm studying it for the third time on my mission and I'm now in Alma, I just finished 34 today. I love how Amulek talks about the Atonement, and the importance of it. He lays it all out there.
I am grateful to be were I am at. I was talking to sister Huff again, and she was expressing that she could see a mission really change missionaries, and could see it in me. She pretty much knows everything that has happened, she just like to hear it all and helps me out. Love her to death. I don't know what it is, but Widows, and grandma's are the best people on the planet. I told her that If I had to give up even more I would do it all again. Every single hard day, the hot weather and just everything. I would do it all again. I may complain a bit, but I would be so grateful to have time to do it again. But I'm glad that I was diligent and don't have regrets in the work I have done.
Overall a good week to be a Funk. Especially Elder Funk! I learned alot, I am gratful for patience and hope to be able to endure the next week. If there is anything praiseworthy I will seek after that thing. Terrible. I just butchered the 13th article of faith...
God bless.
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
Monday, October 21, 2013
A Week in the Life of a Funk
What a week in the life of a Funk. Actually nothing to big happened but I will try and over dramitize it so that you can get a laugh or something like that.
So basically the sister driver that we drive with everywhere depises me. (This is also the sister that was driving when he head was slammed in the car door a couple of weeks ago) So we drove down town last week and went to the Mexican Flee Market again. Man that is a cheap man's paradise. Just full of crap that you really don't need ever, but everything is super cool. She kinda just got mad at me, but ya know I really believe that Heavenly Father opened my eyes and I just can bear it now and realize it's probably something else and she is taking out on me. Yep I guess I'm sorry mom. I now understand what you felt with me.
That's basically what a mission is, just realizing how much you miss your mom and regretting every single bad thing that you ever did to her. That is what we talked about when I was over at member's house for dinner. He met his wife on his mission and basically is like my favorite person ever. Well besides the other 100 people that I say that about. We hung out with Nathan and taught him a couple of lessons that day too. He is just eating it all up! He wanted to call you mom and so I was sitting in the back seat when called and boy, he made me bawl! Like a sister after a baptism. Bad. That's basically what I did this week. Cry a whole lot.
Wednesday was good! We had breakfast with Bro Tiemann again, man is that guy awesome. Love him to death. He is on a cruise now so I won't see him for a bit. Just has the biggest heart out of everyone that I have ever met.
I left my old planner at home so I am trying to figure out what I did this week. Whoops. Oh Nathan is moving!!! Found that out last night. But he wants me to teach him so he is going to drive 45 minutes every week to come to church and then to have us teach him. I love that kid to death. He announced during Gospel Principles that I had to give him his next lesson about Chastity with Sock puppets. Honest to goodness he said that. I have no idea how to make that an appropriate visual aid. At all. Pray for me.
My new comp: Everything that Elder Dayton wasn't. Not in the best ways sometimes. He is pretty messy, but that's ok. One thing is he has gas like a petroleum plant. That. Is. My worst pet peave. We got into the car last night with one of my favorite members and he just let them rip. Not SBD but like leg lifters and just laughed. I apologized to the member and boy he got a good chewin out when we got into the apartment. He just has a too cool for everything attitude. But he is a good teacher. Just pray for him.
We had a guy the other day when we were walking home at 8:45 come zooming up in an electric wheel chair. Imagine Lt. Dan from forest gump, k got the picture? So he comes up and said "Hey yall J Ws?" so I said "Nah we are the Mormon Missionaries my friend!" He wanted to know the finer points of our doctrine but not then so he flys off his motorscooter wheelchair and does a flippin sweet 360 spin going up on two wheels and takes off again! He stops up ahead about a block so we ran up to him real quick and start talking to him again. He told us about how he was going to see his Girlfriend. She was working at Texas roadhouse. Now.. I have been there enough that I know that the waitresses there aren't in this guys league. So Elder Le Suere asked him "How old is she?" She was 25 and he was 63.. That was his dilemma, or that's what he told us. Love the guy to death. I think we are planning to go and teach him later this week. But the best part was, he put on his gloves and drove right off into the moonlight. Did another 360, and was gone. Romantic as they come. Cool guy though.
So I tried to impliment a new idea this week. I call it "Funeral Finding." We had a member pass away. But I'm gonna make ya wait for the idea and it's exectution while I tell ya this other story.
So we went to this nursing home with a member who is at least as old as the the Book of Mormon to see a member that was passing away soon. His name was Wally Bruce, So we showed up at the perfect time. 8:30 PM. Right when all the lights were off and everyone was asleep. However nothing deters the Elders and Bro Cooley so in we went! We found his room. But to our dismay and surprise, there was not one, but three men in the room! I had never seen Brother Bruce, Elder Hughes had never seen this guy and so we went off of faith, and Brother Cooleys vision. We went up the Brother Bruce and Brother Cooley started to softly say "Wally, Wally. We are here! We wanted to come see ya!" The guy didn't wake up so Brother Cooley starts to shake him. The man wakes up and looks us and is stunned, absolutely stunned. We sit there for a moment just staring at each other and Brother Cooley goes "Wait.. Your not wally." Yep. I would be shocked to if three guys in white shirts and ties were standing over me in my hospital bed. Whoops. Bet he thought he was dead. Hilarious though.
Sooo Brother Bruce passed away. A magnificent man. Tons of non member friends! So thus "Funeral Finding" was born. We showed up to the funeral and the member was the President of the San Antonio school of the deaf. SOO everyone there that was a non member was deaf basically. Fail. Epic fail. I gave alot of thumbs up to people and shook alot of hands. So hopefully we made a good impression. But going to a funeral full of deaf people is not the best way to find people to teach.
The spirit was so strong. I love the doctrine of the plan. That is the happiest thing that we have to hold on too. I know we can see family members again. I felt like a fool because I started bawling, again, I looked down the row and it was all the older women that were crying and then a little missionary. But It is so great to know this isn't the end. I love it. I know it's so true.
Sunday was the primary program and I sat next to the member that I watched conference with Andreas. Love the guy to death. The spirit was so strong. I love the sweet spirit that children have! I wish I were that cute again. They have such a sweet spirit about them.
I don't feel like this was a super uplifting email, but that was my week. I did a great study this week were I went and I wrote down all the names that Christ holds the standard works. It is Marvelous to do! He fills every single role of the salvation of my soul. I love him. He truly is Wonderful. I know with all my heart He lives. I have been on a poetry kick as of late and just love how the general authoritys use it in there talks here is one that I liked from President Monson.
“‘Father, where shall I work today?’
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then he pointed out a tiny spot
And said, ‘Tend that for me.’
I answered quickly, ‘Oh no, not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that little place for me.’
And the word he spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
‘Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
Art thou working for them or for me?
‘Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.’”
—Meade MacGuire
Whatever our skills are, whatever place we may need to be I know that the Lord will and has put me and us there. He loves us to much to let us not have every opportunity to live up to our greatest potential. In another talk I read this week Elder Hales said, speaking of the Saviors prayer to his Father concerning His will. "It is one thing to teach 'Thy will be done'. It is another to live it." I love you, and pray for you.
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
So basically the sister driver that we drive with everywhere depises me. (This is also the sister that was driving when he head was slammed in the car door a couple of weeks ago) So we drove down town last week and went to the Mexican Flee Market again. Man that is a cheap man's paradise. Just full of crap that you really don't need ever, but everything is super cool. She kinda just got mad at me, but ya know I really believe that Heavenly Father opened my eyes and I just can bear it now and realize it's probably something else and she is taking out on me. Yep I guess I'm sorry mom. I now understand what you felt with me.
That's basically what a mission is, just realizing how much you miss your mom and regretting every single bad thing that you ever did to her. That is what we talked about when I was over at member's house for dinner. He met his wife on his mission and basically is like my favorite person ever. Well besides the other 100 people that I say that about. We hung out with Nathan and taught him a couple of lessons that day too. He is just eating it all up! He wanted to call you mom and so I was sitting in the back seat when called and boy, he made me bawl! Like a sister after a baptism. Bad. That's basically what I did this week. Cry a whole lot.
Wednesday was good! We had breakfast with Bro Tiemann again, man is that guy awesome. Love him to death. He is on a cruise now so I won't see him for a bit. Just has the biggest heart out of everyone that I have ever met.
I left my old planner at home so I am trying to figure out what I did this week. Whoops. Oh Nathan is moving!!! Found that out last night. But he wants me to teach him so he is going to drive 45 minutes every week to come to church and then to have us teach him. I love that kid to death. He announced during Gospel Principles that I had to give him his next lesson about Chastity with Sock puppets. Honest to goodness he said that. I have no idea how to make that an appropriate visual aid. At all. Pray for me.
My new comp: Everything that Elder Dayton wasn't. Not in the best ways sometimes. He is pretty messy, but that's ok. One thing is he has gas like a petroleum plant. That. Is. My worst pet peave. We got into the car last night with one of my favorite members and he just let them rip. Not SBD but like leg lifters and just laughed. I apologized to the member and boy he got a good chewin out when we got into the apartment. He just has a too cool for everything attitude. But he is a good teacher. Just pray for him.
We had a guy the other day when we were walking home at 8:45 come zooming up in an electric wheel chair. Imagine Lt. Dan from forest gump, k got the picture? So he comes up and said "Hey yall J Ws?" so I said "Nah we are the Mormon Missionaries my friend!" He wanted to know the finer points of our doctrine but not then so he flys off his motorscooter wheelchair and does a flippin sweet 360 spin going up on two wheels and takes off again! He stops up ahead about a block so we ran up to him real quick and start talking to him again. He told us about how he was going to see his Girlfriend. She was working at Texas roadhouse. Now.. I have been there enough that I know that the waitresses there aren't in this guys league. So Elder Le Suere asked him "How old is she?" She was 25 and he was 63.. That was his dilemma, or that's what he told us. Love the guy to death. I think we are planning to go and teach him later this week. But the best part was, he put on his gloves and drove right off into the moonlight. Did another 360, and was gone. Romantic as they come. Cool guy though.
So I tried to impliment a new idea this week. I call it "Funeral Finding." We had a member pass away. But I'm gonna make ya wait for the idea and it's exectution while I tell ya this other story.
So we went to this nursing home with a member who is at least as old as the the Book of Mormon to see a member that was passing away soon. His name was Wally Bruce, So we showed up at the perfect time. 8:30 PM. Right when all the lights were off and everyone was asleep. However nothing deters the Elders and Bro Cooley so in we went! We found his room. But to our dismay and surprise, there was not one, but three men in the room! I had never seen Brother Bruce, Elder Hughes had never seen this guy and so we went off of faith, and Brother Cooleys vision. We went up the Brother Bruce and Brother Cooley started to softly say "Wally, Wally. We are here! We wanted to come see ya!" The guy didn't wake up so Brother Cooley starts to shake him. The man wakes up and looks us and is stunned, absolutely stunned. We sit there for a moment just staring at each other and Brother Cooley goes "Wait.. Your not wally." Yep. I would be shocked to if three guys in white shirts and ties were standing over me in my hospital bed. Whoops. Bet he thought he was dead. Hilarious though.
Sooo Brother Bruce passed away. A magnificent man. Tons of non member friends! So thus "Funeral Finding" was born. We showed up to the funeral and the member was the President of the San Antonio school of the deaf. SOO everyone there that was a non member was deaf basically. Fail. Epic fail. I gave alot of thumbs up to people and shook alot of hands. So hopefully we made a good impression. But going to a funeral full of deaf people is not the best way to find people to teach.
The spirit was so strong. I love the doctrine of the plan. That is the happiest thing that we have to hold on too. I know we can see family members again. I felt like a fool because I started bawling, again, I looked down the row and it was all the older women that were crying and then a little missionary. But It is so great to know this isn't the end. I love it. I know it's so true.
Sunday was the primary program and I sat next to the member that I watched conference with Andreas. Love the guy to death. The spirit was so strong. I love the sweet spirit that children have! I wish I were that cute again. They have such a sweet spirit about them.
I don't feel like this was a super uplifting email, but that was my week. I did a great study this week were I went and I wrote down all the names that Christ holds the standard works. It is Marvelous to do! He fills every single role of the salvation of my soul. I love him. He truly is Wonderful. I know with all my heart He lives. I have been on a poetry kick as of late and just love how the general authoritys use it in there talks here is one that I liked from President Monson.
“‘Father, where shall I work today?’
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then he pointed out a tiny spot
And said, ‘Tend that for me.’
I answered quickly, ‘Oh no, not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that little place for me.’
And the word he spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
‘Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
Art thou working for them or for me?
‘Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.’”
—Meade MacGuire
Whatever our skills are, whatever place we may need to be I know that the Lord will and has put me and us there. He loves us to much to let us not have every opportunity to live up to our greatest potential. In another talk I read this week Elder Hales said, speaking of the Saviors prayer to his Father concerning His will. "It is one thing to teach 'Thy will be done'. It is another to live it." I love you, and pray for you.
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
Staying in the UC
October 14
Paul didn't have much time to write, but here it is.
Hey! SO I literally have 15 minutes to email because of the dang government system. Like literally They have given me 12 minutes left... DA GUM.
This week was pretty good. I am staying here. I thought I was going to leave. Elder Dayton is leaving though so I will get a new comp. We get to pack and stuff with him today. Shoot.
So yeah Last night was funny. We had "Sunday Funday" at the Zls apartment that night. It was funny.
Service at the Tews was the bomb! Yeah so carpet was fun. I am going to learn how to do more so that I don't have to pay people. I think that transfers will be cool.
I am just like pushed for time I don't even know what to do! haha So we will see. If anything I will write a letter out this week to yall. Pres. Slaughter probably won't hear from me today...
Lets see. Nathan is doing good. He is going to get baptized next month. So yeah we are setting a date tonight. I love him!
Ummm.... WE also had a crazy investigator who bashed again. So sick of it. I am pretty good at bashing.. But I hate it so I don't do it.
This is basically my lamest email eva. Oh by the way played some Settlers of Catan in between sessions of conference with some members.
Life is good. Yep. Just chillin on a bike. It bike alot. Anyway guess I gotta go. So love ya lots.
Jk false alarm. This is like watching an episode of 24 trying to type and im sure read this email. 15 Minutes is not enough time to do that! hahaha
But for real now I do have no time.
So I love ya alot and send me letters because I am staying in the UC!
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
Paul didn't have much time to write, but here it is.
Hey! SO I literally have 15 minutes to email because of the dang government system. Like literally They have given me 12 minutes left... DA GUM.
This week was pretty good. I am staying here. I thought I was going to leave. Elder Dayton is leaving though so I will get a new comp. We get to pack and stuff with him today. Shoot.
So yeah Last night was funny. We had "Sunday Funday" at the Zls apartment that night. It was funny.
Service at the Tews was the bomb! Yeah so carpet was fun. I am going to learn how to do more so that I don't have to pay people. I think that transfers will be cool.
I am just like pushed for time I don't even know what to do! haha So we will see. If anything I will write a letter out this week to yall. Pres. Slaughter probably won't hear from me today...
Lets see. Nathan is doing good. He is going to get baptized next month. So yeah we are setting a date tonight. I love him!
Ummm.... WE also had a crazy investigator who bashed again. So sick of it. I am pretty good at bashing.. But I hate it so I don't do it.
This is basically my lamest email eva. Oh by the way played some Settlers of Catan in between sessions of conference with some members.
Life is good. Yep. Just chillin on a bike. It bike alot. Anyway guess I gotta go. So love ya lots.
Jk false alarm. This is like watching an episode of 24 trying to type and im sure read this email. 15 Minutes is not enough time to do that! hahaha
But for real now I do have no time.
So I love ya alot and send me letters because I am staying in the UC!
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk
Monday, October 7, 2013
Substitution can never take the place of PREPARATION
Hey Family!
What a great week it was in the TSAM! I loved, loved, loved conference. There is no doubt in my mind that at least a couple of the speakers were speaking straight up to me. I really hope that everyone got as much as I did out of it. I love and support the Prophet with all of my heart. I am so grateful for the chance that I got to sustain him and all of the Quorum of the Twelve while sitting on a couch in good ole' Schertz Texas. I will never forget this conference. I feel so much different.
The week started off terrible. I just had some rotten news and stuff so I did the only thing I knew what to do. Go to the refiner's fire. Or rather the BBQ pit at the ZL's apartment. It was great! Paper makes great fuel and just as Elder Dube of the 70 said "We must never look behind, only at what is to be done! It was an awesome day. A letting go of the past and having a brighter future. I am grateful for that. It was tough but hey, It wasn't all supposed to be easy. I also tried to BBQ some chicken.. I don't know how to cook... So I didn't cook the chicken quite long enough but everyone still ate it until one of them realized that it was kinda slimmy.. Whoops. Reminds me of another story that I heard this week and I think it applys perfectly to all Missionaries that are getting ready to enter the field! Ryan included... haha.
So there was a couple of sister missionaries that are in the mission that one Sunday morning realized that they had forgotten to fill up the car with Gasoline. Whoops. So as to not break the Sabbath they decided that they would resort to Faith. They went to the nearest hose from a house, turned it on and stuck it into the Gas tank! Cheapest fill up ever right? Not even Gas prices that are at $3.09 right now could beat that! Of course the Sisters knew that water could not make the car run. So they offered up a prayer to Heavenly Father, in faith, and asked that the water be turned into Gasoline. Off to church they went! Of course they got part way there and the car ran out of gas, and completely destroyed the engine on the car. I have no doubt that their faith wasn't lacking, it was probably much like Peter's when he walked on water, but no matter the faith that you have Substitution can never take the place of Preparation.
Tuesday was another day! We didn't teach a soul. Nope not one. I think that everything that could fall through did. It was tough. So to get to part of our area we have to cross this creek bed, which in itself is a terrible task. But whateve's, so it has rained alot and the creek was mostly full so we had to huddle along the bank. We reached a point that a lady who was walking past us deemed "Impassible." We got through before, but this time was a bit different. I had to leap like a gazelle and managed to make it most of the way before boom. Yep there I was in a big pile of mud. It was sorta gross and terrible. I was frustrated. So we walked back out and then Brother Sherrill called us and asked us to help with a move! Yes. That was inspired. I had to be careful not to get mud all over his truck but it was awesome. Oh and at the move I met Brother Nielsen's Sister!!! yeah. His Nephew is our ward! Marty Evans. I love them so much!! I couldn't believe it. Trunky moment. Yeah that was awesome.
Wednesday we had some sweet District Meeting, President Slaughter has encouraged us to listen not with our eyes but with "Our whole Soul" and I have really started to see a difference in myself. I love it.
Thursday I don't think like anything exciting happened. I was to pumped for General Conference. Oh wait. I lied... We were going to go to this lesson with Jordan, like my BFF here, and he wanted to bring his friend Nathan, the kid we taught at Taco Cabana, I think that possible could have been my first Non-member present ever, but the lesson fell through. So I forgot to mention when I first got to the house I just looked at Nathan and said "When are you going to get baptized? You have to do it before Jordan leaves!" The spirit hit him and now we are teaching him and setting him with a date tonight! Back to the story. So we went back to Jordan's house where his mom and dad had us stuffing some envelopes full of quicinera (15th Birthday for a mexican girl) invitations. I think I got high because I licked at least 100 envelopes. It was a good day.. I really love that family. Jordan took us home and whenever we get into the car we blast some good country music. Nothing quite like listening to country driving down the freeway with the windows down and looking up at the giant Texas sky. That is my guilty pleasure for the week.. Well one of them. Other than that I do good about being obedient.
Friday was just the day for prep before conference, we invited tons of people to come with us to conference and yeah. That was basically the extent of the day!
Saturday was one of the best days of my mission. I loved it. Ate it all up! I truly listened with my whole soul and was rewarded with some of the most exquisite feelings of peace that I have ever had! I loved it! I loved D. Todd Christofferson's talk on Womanhood. That is exactly what I feel and think about it! I couldn't believe how spiritual the entire conference was. I didn't miss a single breathe. I loved it. We got the Magana family to come with us to conference and the listened to Pres. Uchtdorf's why is anyone a member talk. I think that they really enjoyed it! I can't wait to have another lesson with them this week. I loved it all so much. Priesthood session was amazing. President Monson gave such a great talk. I just can't express how much love that I have for them!
Sunday was the crowning jewel of the week. We watched conference at Bro. Tiemann's house with his friend from the Air Force. He is a sweet member, his name is Andreais. We all just loved it. Elder Dayton only fell asleep once too on his couch. I can't believe what an amazing weekend that it was. These were truly some of the best days of my whole entire mission. I needed them so badly.
I love this work and I just want to finish with one miracle that happened to me a couple of weeks ago and the importance of once again following the spirit.
Last month was honestly the hardest month of my entire life. I just felt a constant grind. I don't know why. My mental state was just terrible. It was all so hard. I just wanted it all to go away and stop but it was relentless. There were just events after events that happened and nothing ever seemed to pull through.
Our fridge even went out! I may have mentioned that before. All the food in our fridge had to be thrown away and since we had no car, we really had no way to get anymore food! We didn't starve we had enough stuff to get us through the weekend and onto P-day. But it was the end of the month and we had literally no money between us on our cards. Our office Elder had promised to put on some money so that we could replace all that was in the fridge which was a welcome relief. When we arrived at the store we started to shop, assuming that we had money all the cards based on what the office Elder had said. We decided however that we needed to go and double check before we went to check out because it would be awful embarrassing to have no money to pay for our groceries.
When we went to check we realized that we had no money. The transaction had not yet gone through.. I was beyond frustrated. It really was just like the last straw. We had no investigators, it was hot, I was so tired, I was dealing with just a ton of stuff, it seemed like my world and life, quite frankly just sucked. So what did we do? We put our stuff back and wandered around the store aimlessly. I'm sure I did not have a good look on my face, none of that Happy smile that Dr. Perry fixes up for me, so I just stood there kinda day dreaming, Elder Dayton was off down the eisle looking at something when a lady all of the sudden came up to me.
"Are you a missionary?" She asked.
"Yes Ma'am, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." I said.
Just then she grabbed my hand in both of hers and said "Well. I feel like I need to give this to you." She pulled her hands away and to my surprise she left a 20 dollar bill in my hand. Of course I was a little shocked, I had no idea what to say, The only thing I could say was "How did you know?.." She shrugged and said "God bless you." and walked away. I knew that she wasn't a member of our faith, she had no knowledge of what I had been going through but she acted on a prompting from the Holy Ghost.
I ran over to Elder Dayton and held out the 20 dollar bill in my hands and explained what had just happened. We looked and looked for the Lady and her Husband but they were no where to be found.
That day was great! We got food for the next couple of days, and a few days later a member brought us over a ton of food that we are still eating. It wasn't until a couple of nights ago when I was up reading in the scriptures that I realized something much more inspiring had happened. That 20 dollars wasn't about giving me food to get by, it was God telling me that I was in His hands, that He has a purpose for me and that I'll be ok, I only have to believe.
That sweet lady has no idea the impression that she left on a 19 year old kid from Utah, and likely in this life won't ever. Man I feel like a fool, I'm just bawling in the middle of this library. But I won't ever forget that moment for as long as I live. I am filled with the Love of the Savior whenever I think about it.
That has been the greatest lesson that I have learned on my mission. To follow the spirit wherever you are, and whatever needs to be done. You may never know what you do, and may not even receive the blessings for it here, but once again I say, Please listen to the Spirit. Follow every single prompting. I hope that I can do that. If it seems like a good idea just do it. It may change the life of someone that needs the Saviors love.
This has been the best couple days of my entire mission. My eyes are alot clearer and I know that another storm probably is going to come but I love every second of it. Just enjoy the journey and find peace in the Savior.
And as Always,
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Paul Funk
What a great week it was in the TSAM! I loved, loved, loved conference. There is no doubt in my mind that at least a couple of the speakers were speaking straight up to me. I really hope that everyone got as much as I did out of it. I love and support the Prophet with all of my heart. I am so grateful for the chance that I got to sustain him and all of the Quorum of the Twelve while sitting on a couch in good ole' Schertz Texas. I will never forget this conference. I feel so much different.
The week started off terrible. I just had some rotten news and stuff so I did the only thing I knew what to do. Go to the refiner's fire. Or rather the BBQ pit at the ZL's apartment. It was great! Paper makes great fuel and just as Elder Dube of the 70 said "We must never look behind, only at what is to be done! It was an awesome day. A letting go of the past and having a brighter future. I am grateful for that. It was tough but hey, It wasn't all supposed to be easy. I also tried to BBQ some chicken.. I don't know how to cook... So I didn't cook the chicken quite long enough but everyone still ate it until one of them realized that it was kinda slimmy.. Whoops. Reminds me of another story that I heard this week and I think it applys perfectly to all Missionaries that are getting ready to enter the field! Ryan included... haha.
So there was a couple of sister missionaries that are in the mission that one Sunday morning realized that they had forgotten to fill up the car with Gasoline. Whoops. So as to not break the Sabbath they decided that they would resort to Faith. They went to the nearest hose from a house, turned it on and stuck it into the Gas tank! Cheapest fill up ever right? Not even Gas prices that are at $3.09 right now could beat that! Of course the Sisters knew that water could not make the car run. So they offered up a prayer to Heavenly Father, in faith, and asked that the water be turned into Gasoline. Off to church they went! Of course they got part way there and the car ran out of gas, and completely destroyed the engine on the car. I have no doubt that their faith wasn't lacking, it was probably much like Peter's when he walked on water, but no matter the faith that you have Substitution can never take the place of Preparation.
Tuesday was another day! We didn't teach a soul. Nope not one. I think that everything that could fall through did. It was tough. So to get to part of our area we have to cross this creek bed, which in itself is a terrible task. But whateve's, so it has rained alot and the creek was mostly full so we had to huddle along the bank. We reached a point that a lady who was walking past us deemed "Impassible." We got through before, but this time was a bit different. I had to leap like a gazelle and managed to make it most of the way before boom. Yep there I was in a big pile of mud. It was sorta gross and terrible. I was frustrated. So we walked back out and then Brother Sherrill called us and asked us to help with a move! Yes. That was inspired. I had to be careful not to get mud all over his truck but it was awesome. Oh and at the move I met Brother Nielsen's Sister!!! yeah. His Nephew is our ward! Marty Evans. I love them so much!! I couldn't believe it. Trunky moment. Yeah that was awesome.
Wednesday we had some sweet District Meeting, President Slaughter has encouraged us to listen not with our eyes but with "Our whole Soul" and I have really started to see a difference in myself. I love it.
Thursday I don't think like anything exciting happened. I was to pumped for General Conference. Oh wait. I lied... We were going to go to this lesson with Jordan, like my BFF here, and he wanted to bring his friend Nathan, the kid we taught at Taco Cabana, I think that possible could have been my first Non-member present ever, but the lesson fell through. So I forgot to mention when I first got to the house I just looked at Nathan and said "When are you going to get baptized? You have to do it before Jordan leaves!" The spirit hit him and now we are teaching him and setting him with a date tonight! Back to the story. So we went back to Jordan's house where his mom and dad had us stuffing some envelopes full of quicinera (15th Birthday for a mexican girl) invitations. I think I got high because I licked at least 100 envelopes. It was a good day.. I really love that family. Jordan took us home and whenever we get into the car we blast some good country music. Nothing quite like listening to country driving down the freeway with the windows down and looking up at the giant Texas sky. That is my guilty pleasure for the week.. Well one of them. Other than that I do good about being obedient.
Friday was just the day for prep before conference, we invited tons of people to come with us to conference and yeah. That was basically the extent of the day!
Saturday was one of the best days of my mission. I loved it. Ate it all up! I truly listened with my whole soul and was rewarded with some of the most exquisite feelings of peace that I have ever had! I loved it! I loved D. Todd Christofferson's talk on Womanhood. That is exactly what I feel and think about it! I couldn't believe how spiritual the entire conference was. I didn't miss a single breathe. I loved it. We got the Magana family to come with us to conference and the listened to Pres. Uchtdorf's why is anyone a member talk. I think that they really enjoyed it! I can't wait to have another lesson with them this week. I loved it all so much. Priesthood session was amazing. President Monson gave such a great talk. I just can't express how much love that I have for them!
Sunday was the crowning jewel of the week. We watched conference at Bro. Tiemann's house with his friend from the Air Force. He is a sweet member, his name is Andreais. We all just loved it. Elder Dayton only fell asleep once too on his couch. I can't believe what an amazing weekend that it was. These were truly some of the best days of my whole entire mission. I needed them so badly.
I love this work and I just want to finish with one miracle that happened to me a couple of weeks ago and the importance of once again following the spirit.
Last month was honestly the hardest month of my entire life. I just felt a constant grind. I don't know why. My mental state was just terrible. It was all so hard. I just wanted it all to go away and stop but it was relentless. There were just events after events that happened and nothing ever seemed to pull through.
Our fridge even went out! I may have mentioned that before. All the food in our fridge had to be thrown away and since we had no car, we really had no way to get anymore food! We didn't starve we had enough stuff to get us through the weekend and onto P-day. But it was the end of the month and we had literally no money between us on our cards. Our office Elder had promised to put on some money so that we could replace all that was in the fridge which was a welcome relief. When we arrived at the store we started to shop, assuming that we had money all the cards based on what the office Elder had said. We decided however that we needed to go and double check before we went to check out because it would be awful embarrassing to have no money to pay for our groceries.
When we went to check we realized that we had no money. The transaction had not yet gone through.. I was beyond frustrated. It really was just like the last straw. We had no investigators, it was hot, I was so tired, I was dealing with just a ton of stuff, it seemed like my world and life, quite frankly just sucked. So what did we do? We put our stuff back and wandered around the store aimlessly. I'm sure I did not have a good look on my face, none of that Happy smile that Dr. Perry fixes up for me, so I just stood there kinda day dreaming, Elder Dayton was off down the eisle looking at something when a lady all of the sudden came up to me.
"Are you a missionary?" She asked.
"Yes Ma'am, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." I said.
Just then she grabbed my hand in both of hers and said "Well. I feel like I need to give this to you." She pulled her hands away and to my surprise she left a 20 dollar bill in my hand. Of course I was a little shocked, I had no idea what to say, The only thing I could say was "How did you know?.." She shrugged and said "God bless you." and walked away. I knew that she wasn't a member of our faith, she had no knowledge of what I had been going through but she acted on a prompting from the Holy Ghost.
I ran over to Elder Dayton and held out the 20 dollar bill in my hands and explained what had just happened. We looked and looked for the Lady and her Husband but they were no where to be found.
That day was great! We got food for the next couple of days, and a few days later a member brought us over a ton of food that we are still eating. It wasn't until a couple of nights ago when I was up reading in the scriptures that I realized something much more inspiring had happened. That 20 dollars wasn't about giving me food to get by, it was God telling me that I was in His hands, that He has a purpose for me and that I'll be ok, I only have to believe.
That sweet lady has no idea the impression that she left on a 19 year old kid from Utah, and likely in this life won't ever. Man I feel like a fool, I'm just bawling in the middle of this library. But I won't ever forget that moment for as long as I live. I am filled with the Love of the Savior whenever I think about it.
That has been the greatest lesson that I have learned on my mission. To follow the spirit wherever you are, and whatever needs to be done. You may never know what you do, and may not even receive the blessings for it here, but once again I say, Please listen to the Spirit. Follow every single prompting. I hope that I can do that. If it seems like a good idea just do it. It may change the life of someone that needs the Saviors love.
This has been the best couple days of my entire mission. My eyes are alot clearer and I know that another storm probably is going to come but I love every second of it. Just enjoy the journey and find peace in the Savior.
And as Always,
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Paul Funk
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)