Weed Week

Hey y'all. 

Alright well I can't believe that it is the end of Feb! Crazy! I am going to be 20 years old next month, which basically means nothing other than that is the age that I am going home at! Can't believe how fast the mission is going, the harder you work, the faster the days go. 

The highlight of the week was definetly getting Felecity baptized for sure! She finally got it done, we went to Converse which was right next to my old area and she did it. She was SOO happy and it was awesome to see the light that she had, I almost wished that I could get baptized again. Her BF did the baptism and it was just an overall spiritually powerful moment and a neat one for their relationship. Now we have to teach them about the temple and get them through there!! 

I loved the letters I got from everyone. Alex and Alyssa's were such a sweet surprise and I love the ones from yall. Thank you! They are like rain on a summer's day. Or a Mt. Dew during a weekly planning session. (Rm's will totally understand...)

Yes, I actually take alot of time to play the piano, I am trying to really get to where I can play now, I can do some of the hymns and things so that has been pretty fun. Last week when we were in choir there was a lady that was supposed to be playing the Violin on this song and she was kinda struggling with it so I offered to play and switch her out because it would also improve the Tenor section if I shut my mouth, anyway I don't think that her mom took that super well. Her mom is the lady that talked about Pancho Villa in her testimony... So I get to play in sac. meeting in a few weeks again! I am excited!

Well as you know I think my ideas of finding people to teach are not exactly success stories most of the time... So here ya go.  now it came to pass that the Young Men's President did also back up the elders and make a basketball game. What I am trying to get at is that we play some basketball and invite non members to come play on Thursday night. We had one come. Total though we had a couple of less actives come so it was a productive night. We were playing and the other team got stacked but since they were all old, we ran circles around them. Until the one non member went up to take the game winning shot and I stuffed him so bad! Literally so bad that I dislocated his shoulder. Gosh. Dang. It. Everytime.... So we put his shoulder back into it's proper place and kept on going. I don't know how it happened but I ended up hurting his shoulder again. It was just bad news.  

Everyone of our investigators smokes weed! Seriously remember how I was talking about weeks taking on a theme? This week was weed. It's so bad. I just hate that they all smoke! Terrible.. The other bad side is that everytime that you leave you smell like it too. When we turned in the Progress Record to the bishop to tell him about all the people that we met he just laughed and laughed. PEC was a good meeting, I'm glad we can make it exciting. Problem is, ALL of Seguin is pretty much like that!  Love every single one of the though. 

We went back over to the food place again. We got to listen to a couple of sermons. I think Paster Don read some serious 1 Nephi 13 before he did his talk because he got up and RAILED on the Catholic church. Seriously laid down on all of the people that pray to the virgin mary and think they can pay their way out of sins. He laid down on it! Soooo awesome, not something that I would do or that I would teach like but it was cool. Alot of the people took offense because most of the population that comes to the place is Catholic Mexican. When we were walking into the back of the room to go start the food deal, he grabbed me and said "Brother Funk! Do you believe what I taught?" I said, "Yes, yes I do! Sounds like the Book of Mormon! Do you have one?" He laughed and said that he did. I'm pretty sure that one of these days he is going to become a Mormon. We are going to have to re paint his Heaven or Hell van to have the three kingdoms on it though. YOU CHOOSE!

We had a do or die lesson with Ron and Christine, we have been teaching them since we both got here and they are just not doing the things that we ask them to do. Not reading or coming to church so this was kinda the last step. We talked to them for a while and she started bragging about how she read this 400 page book in like 6 hours or something I don't remember, but I said well.. Why can't you do that with the Book of Mormon? She said she could. Then the member that was with us bet her a dinner and a movie that she couldn't do it in a week. She took it, so we will find out what happened tomorrow. 

I love doing this work, I honestly do. I get sick of some of the people and frustrated with the simple mundane things that comes along with being a missionary and stuff, but I do know the things that I know and live worthy of them! I do know the Book of Mormon is true, I am going to finish it for the fourth time this week and start it for the fifth. I have read it everyday for nearly a year now, and love it more than anything else. I have the utmost testimony that it can heal the broken heart and do amazing things that are beyond our capacity to understand. Every single time that I have read it, I have learned something profoundly different and cannot wait to see how it reads this time. If you aren't reading, just start! You don't need to prepare or make a big glamorous study of it, just read it. Seriously. I'll race ya to the end. Then we can re start. I love you! 

Remember who you are and what He stands for! All the time!

Elder Funk

Holding Down the Fort at the Single Guy Table

This week went by super slow... It was in one of those weeks where if something had a chance to choose whether it was going to go right or wrong it went wrong everytime. Yep.

Well last Monday I had some money left over from Christmas and I decided that I should actually use it to buy myself a present and I really didn't like my camera so I bought a new camera and it was super nice! I love to use that thing. I have taken quite a few pictures the last couple of days and I'll throw some on this email for yall.

Weeks seem to take on a theme in the mission sometimes it's Tithing like last week, this one was Pizza. I think that like 4 nights out of the week someone wanted to feed us Pizza Hut pizza. We had like 3 extra boxes in our fridge at one point. Also we helped a family move this week, they were less active but they really liked us and thought we were pretty funny, I think that in this area people either really like me or don't get my sarcasm at all and think that I am a terrible person. Well the bible does say to be hot or cold so it works right? Anyway, back to the story, the literally gave us all of their food. They were just going to chuck it but decided it would be good for us and we would enjoy some green beans that had been sitting in the back of their fridge for who knows how long, and a half pack of "White Castle Burgers". Well they were right about the White Castle burgers, those things are pretty good. I love em. That's why I am getting fat, oh and the fact that we sit in a truck like all day long.

Ricardo, the guy that paid Tithing last week, we got in contact with him again because we saw him walking down the street, he was homeless... That was a bummer because there really isn't anything that we can do to help that other then tell him God loves him. Which should be enough, but still, it was tough for the guy. Love him to death. It's been hard to try and find him though because we have no way to contact him.

Karma got me back so many times though. Felecity had to get passed off to the sister missionaries... It is the worst working with the sisters, the just never call us and anyway, I'll save the rant, but I just don't like it. Felecity didn't get baptized this week because of some complications with the sisters, so she should be getting baptized in the Converse ward next week. It'll all work out though.
I got to talk to President like 3 times this week on the phone trying to figure out this whole situation, and I brought up her member bf and how he is going to go on a mission and how it would be good to get her a sure foundation besides just him, even though she has a testimony of the gospel, and President started talking about Dear John letters and how he thinks "Every missionary should be able to get a dear John on his mission" I was like... Well... I got one! He didn't even pause and said, "and you're a better missionary because of it!" I'll take that as a compliment, I laughed for a few days about that one.

Well speaking of the love and Valentines day, we had a ward activity at the church this week for valentines. They wanted us to come and be apart of it. We got to hold down the fort at the Single Guy table, luckily Brother Tanner came and sat by us and so did another older man. So we did some good work. They decided it would be a good idea to play a whole bunch of love tunes and play name that tune. I was very fortunate that they played one of my "future wife's" songs. Yep "Love Story" I think Elder Van Oene and I were the only ones that knew it and could sing every single word of it. I hope missionariess find and baptize Taylor Swift, she could do some good covers of some hymns. The ward gave us a special gift basket full of dr pepper, queso, chips, and a what a burger gift card so that we could have a date night with each other or something because we are undateable people. Literally.
Well lets see... We really only taught like 5 lessons this week... Rough week. We taught one yesterday and the member kinda implied to the investogator that he didn't know Jesus, by the end of the lesson you could feel the tension in the air. It was not that great at all. The investigator, said the closing prayer which he hadn't done before,he prayed that "we would find the real Jesus and stop having our minds and all of our hearts blocked and be swayed" or something like that... We are going to try and patch over that relationship this week.

We had one of those weeks where you learn alot, but it doesn't seem like anything gets done... I learned something cool the other day though that maybe i'll share. I have heard it sooo many times when someone is going through a hard time someone says to them, "God won't give you anything you can't handle." Has anyone else heard that? I can't count how many times I have, even how many times I have said that to people without even thinking about it. I realized this week that of course God allows us many,many times things that are completely impossible for us to do. If God only gave us the things that we could handle we would really have no need at all for Jesus Christ. What's the point of Him? When we messed up we could just fix it ourselves because it would be something that we could handle or figure out ourselves. We would have no need for a Redeemer because we could in essence figure out all of the things ourselves. That is why he gives us situations that are beyond our capability to handle, we have to rely on the Savior to help lift our hope to new heights. There is things that we can't handle. The Savior can though, he knows the way and is the Way! I am so grateful to be apart of tough things, a mission is supposed to be hard and something that I can't do. It would be impossible for me, I am so grateful for the Savior that He already felt what I do, as he does for all of us. He loves us. I love Him! I hope yall have a great week! God Bless!

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

That is called "Bacon Explosion". It's bacon wrapped in sausage then wrapped again in bacon and wrapped again. It is exactly as unheathy as it looks. That was our dinner saturday. Texas, yep.

Utah boys in Texas snow

Well another week has already gone! I only have 10 months now. Holy cow the time really does go by faster and faster, and then faster. Unbelievable. 

In Redbud this week... Uh humm. I mean Seguin we had a pretty decent week. The whole town basically froze over, I read Kyle's (Elder Mohlman) emails and I feel pretty bad for complaining but it was probably in the upper 20's down here. Which if you didn't know is really, cold! Everyone basically freaked out and shut down the city. It was like a ghost town with two little Utah Mormon boys walking around in it. It "snowed" a couple of times this week. Basically it meant that someone in the sky unpacked their birthday present and some crushed Styrofoam balls fell on our doorstep, it was the biggest thing to the kids though. 

I suppose I will start with a miracle that happened this week. We got Megan back she is more golden than ever but she doesn't come to church yet. Anyway she wanted us to meet her Boyfriend and so she took us on a "date" and bought us some ice cream. So that was cool, I love Megan to death. She is so great, hopefully one of those friends that I get to keep after the mission. We had a lesson the next day and she brought her basher friend Mike, after I retired from bashing a few months ago, it completely makes me sick to do it. We started the lesson and we got to the part of baptism within the doctrine of Christ and boom. It all started up whether faith or something was enough. Elder Van Oene and I forsaw this and planned to split the lesson, so they went to one side of the Relief Society room and I went over to the other with Linda another student at TLU and Megan. We started talking and I taught her about the Word of Wisdom, she told me about how she believes it all and wants to pray about it and everything so she was set to live it. Then we went over tithing, she told me that she already pays it because her parents taught her to "pay 10 percent back to the Lord" Awesome! Ready for the kicker? To a different church, so I kindly explained what her tithing would go to and asked her if she would switch her tithing reciept to say the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. She said she totally would when she is baptized. Love it. People are prepared beyond anything we can do.

Mike and Elder Van Oene bashed for an hour and a half... Good golly we were at the church for 2 and a half hours after it was all said and down. I don't think I know an hour and half worth of doctrine on the Commandments in total let alone, just Tithing. So we ended up talking about alot of different things from Tim Mcgraw to The Book of Mormon, when we got to the Book of Mormon she showed me a verse that meant alot to her about how Nephi kills Laban. That was pretty awesome. Usually I have had people bring that up telling me that it contridicts God's laws, but it actually was an answer to her prayer. She told me about how she had been struggling with a certain issue and that one of my random tangents last week had actually been the exact thing that she had needed to hear. She cried and told me that she wasn't afraid of it anymore and it was another confirmation to me that "the spirit will give you in the very moment what things ye shall say." Love the Spirit.

We went and helped out Pastor Don this week (called him the wrong name last time) and it was pretty neat, it was freezing in the morning so not many people were able to get out and go pick up the food, which was sad but hopefully more people will come next week. They opened us with open arms when we came to help out, most of them were 80 year old women who were trying to lift big cases of food and when we came they didn't have to do that. I was able to do alot of the work and save them alot of energy, overall it was a neat experience to see exactly what the Gospel is all about. Taking care of the Poor and Needy. 

On Tuesday I felt this feeling that I needed to pray for a baptism, naturally you would think that I would be praying for that every single day, but sometimes it just seems like I don't mean it or sometimes I don't even say it. I felt like I needed to, so I humbled myself and prayed for the Lord to bless us with a baptism, we went on our way over the next couple of days and started teaching Felecity (a member's girlfriend) who has been coming to church for awhile, we were teaching her Tithing too, weird how sometimes your weeks have a theme, and when we got to the end, I asked her something that was about baptism and she told us the most amazing story about how Tuesday she had finally felt the need to pray and that when she did she was given her answer, despite Satan opposing her by trying to have her boyfriend call her right in the middle of the prayer... Twice. But nothing stopped her and now she is getting baptized on Saturday! Awesome!

Now... Here is the Irony. I have been poaching her! Where does she live, I know that yall are on the edges of your seats... Yep the Sister in Converse, now if you will remember that was the sisters that hated me, because they had to give us rides in UC, the very same sisters that I complained about alot... Da gum.. So now we get to pass it off to them... Not that the baptism is a big deal, but it's just sorta one of those things where now I have to talk to them again, and they hated me as it was. I think yesterday one of the sisters made a comment about how mean I was... What? Whatever, I don't really now. Anwyay. She is going to get baptized!! We are so excited for her. It will be an amazing experience. 

Probably the other best thing that happened this week, is that I got to milk a goat. Yep straight up. The members told us that we had some potential, so if ever I get stranded and I don't have anything to eat, and there is a goat nearby, I can at least get milk. Now that didn't really make sense probably, but I have skills is basically what I mean. Case and point. We got our truck back and I forgot to say that last week I think, but Elder Van Oene thought he was super man or something and saw a truck coming from a different way when I was backing up into the road (he thought I was doing something different than I was, so I was completely in the right) but when I gunned it to get into the busyish street, I heard a nice loud, Thud! and Looked back and he was limping away.. haha he was completely ok other than a nice bruise, but it was pretty dang funny. Backing people up is annoying, but we do it anyway!

Brother Tanner had us over again last night and I love to go there, he just bears his whole soul to us, he always talks bout answers that he has found for himself. I love that, never to stop searching. He is an amazing example to me of perserving even when all Hell seems to be going against you. He has such a sweet heart and will give you the shirt off his back. He lives in complete poverty and has nothing, other than the things that matter the most. 

So going with this Tithing kick to wrap up this week. The Bishopric got up and rebuked the entire congregation about Home Teaching and Tithing, seriously used the words "I call you to repentence this day." With his best Elder Holland voice, we were there with and Investigator that we found on the street the day before, he was an interesting case, has a ton of substance abuse problems but good guy, and he stood up and walked out again because he had anxiety, when he came back in during the middle of the next talk, he had a tithing envelope filled with all the money that he had in his pockets and said, "Thank you Jesus for giving me what I have, where do I give this Tithing." I was blown away! I couldn't believe it, he literally went and did what the Bishop asked and wasn't a member, had been inside a Mormon church for all of about 20 Minutes and had done what we struggle with for life times as members. I hope and pray that I can have that mentality when I get to pay tithing to the Lord, "Thank You Jesus, for giving me what I have, Now where can I help another." I love this Gospel with my whole heart and mind, and consequently my might and strength follow. I love the Lord and hope y'all have a wonderful week. I Love you.
Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Paul Funk

Diffusion of Responsibility

Well here we go for the week! I left my notes, I usually prepare for my email home, it may be weird but I like to know what I want to say to yall, because I only have a bit!

 

We started out with P day! I don't really remember anything that happened. I am pretty sure that we didnt really get anything done for that day except the usual. Shop email and write some letters. It was ok I guess. What was great was that night that we went back to work! So we started off with going to the Medina's house for dinner, when I checked on the Ward Roster I saw that the only person that was listed was their one year old daughter, which was weird but I thought that might be a mistake... When we showed up they greeted us super nice and we ate some sweet mexican food! It was good. Gall I really love the food down here I think that will be the biggest thing that I miss other than the people. Anyway after dinner we had a little thought and I shared with them one of my favorite scriptures in Alma 37:44 about the Liahona and guiding our lives through the words of living prophets. When I finished I asked them who they were sharing the gospel with... The husband looked over at his wife and said... Well. Her! Somehow everyone forgot to tell us that they weren't members and that they are active non members. He was excommunicated and is working his way back, he served a mission and everything then hit a rough patch, he is leading his whole family back though and they love it. They all want to get baptized together, so it may be awhile before they get baptized but it is amazing! Talk about checking the blindspots. 

 

Then when we got out it was about 7:30, we had nothing really to do but we had gotten a referral from Mormon.org, and it was in the dog gone boonies. Like 15 miles away from home. For some reason I felt like we should go and see them and so we went! When we got there, the gate was closed and the house was completely dark... Great right? Just wasted like a half hour for  nothing. Well... I look over and boom guess what? The house that is down the road about a quarter mile is beginning to erupt into flames. Trailor Fire! I learned a lesson from Mr. Jones in Pysch 1010 that talked about diffusion of responsibility that whenever you see a situation everyone atomatically think that someone else will have taken care of it especially if there are people around, so I have always made it my goal to act. Elder Van Oene was not for going over there, but heck, it was cool. so I ran over to the gate and unlocked it and walked up and there was this guy just standing there watching it all, and I asked him if we could help. (Actually I think I said "Hey, how is it going?" Yep.... Not a good way to start a conversation when someone's house is on fire.) The biggest problem with a house fire isn't the house itself, it is all the memories and herilooms that you lose. Well that is what normal people lose. Here in Texas the biggest thing is Ammo for guns. Yep so we had to wait while the gun ammo went off before we could really do anything. I saw the guy's truck up there and Finally after like 20 minutes one firefighter showed up in a car. (Seriously we were in the Boonies.) I walked over to the fire and saw a truck a few feet away from it so one guy  jumped in and myself and the fire fighter pushed the car out of the burning home. See... That would be a cool story, in reality the truck was like 15 feet away from the fire and we pushed it another 50 feet away... Soooo it was still kinda cool I guess. By then all the neighbors had come from far and wide, kinda like the shepards in from their fields and I walked over and started talking to them. Yep, Preaching at a Trailor Fire, I can go ahead and chalk that one up as another idea that does not work for finding people to teach. But it did give us a chance to talk to tons of folks in the country that had never gotten to hear from missionaries before in their lives. 

 

The rest of the week was a blur! We did teach one lesson the next day to Ron and Christine who are a little different... They want to know alot of stuff and before we knew it, Elder Van Oene was explaining the alter worship that Abraham did or something like that. I have no idea, I have never read the old testament and honestly don't forsee myself doing so in the near future... Anyway, we had a good long conversation about teaching simply and to the point after that lesson. He likes to give the investigators everything that he knows. Which is good, but maybe... Ah you get the point. 

 

I got to go to Zone Conference this week! and President talked about Repentence. Talk about the most mind  blowing doctine that there is. President has a way of taking something deep then turning it around so simply that I couldn't misunderstand. For part of the conference we broke up into groups and had three 45 minutes workshops. President came in to ours and stayed way longer than he was supposed to, which I won't complain about at all. I love learning from that man. It may be weird but whenever I talk to him or see him I feel like he is as close to what Joseph Smith was as I have ever seen anyone be. Just a funny, charismatic, loving man. He let us practice being non-confrontational when people accuse us of not being christian or something like that. By far I talked the most out of our group, pretty much everyone was shy, so President asked if someone would like to give him some tough situations and role play with him! Of course I got to do it. It was a little weird to try and bash with President, because he gave us alot of scenrios to show bad examples and it was just weird, but he taught us alot. And I feel like that is one of the things I have really been blessed to do, just be able to accept people for what they are, they all have a little bit of truth, no matter how small and help them to grow it. That's what President does with us, that's what the Lord does with us, I don't know all the truth, I have access to the Fulness of the gospel, I don't live it completely though. I have such a long way to go, but that is what the Lord does just like us as missionarys, takes the truths that we know and magnify's them to grow and to change us. It was such an amazing meeting as I had prepared before hand and heard things that were never said. 

 

We went to visit the Recent Convert Family the Wilson's who by the way.. Came to Church!!!!... They totally love m, they gave us some referrals and when went to go contact them it was a whole Bible study! It was awesome there was about 10 people and we all studied together, I wish that we did more little group things like that in the church, because it is amazing!! Their faith in Jesus Christ is so simple and they try immensly hard to folllow Him. I really believe that they have a place prepared for them in the Celestial Kingdom, One day when they allow their hearts to hear the message, from those that they love perhaps in the next life, they will accept the fulness of it.

 

Fast and Testimony meeting. We had one lady get up and talk about how she was in the temple, a solid start to a testimony, and saw "a Mexican man walk in that was exactly like Pancho Villa", (Mexcian Robin Hood) and that if she saw him outside the temple she would have thought some bad things about him and been really scared but that since it was the temple it was all good. I don't know... But I'm pretty sure that was just racism. It was neat that she learned a lesson from it, I didn't think that I would ever hear Pancho Villa talked about in a testimony but God Bless Texas!

 

Saturday was tough, we drove all over and 3 or 4 appointments fell through, everyone thinks that Saturdays are the best time to meet because they will have free time, but I think that sometimes they forget that thier wives or husbands, also relize that they will have free time so then it becomes a competition of time and we usually are the losers on that side of things. I get it, it's a different balance in the real world.. haha but anyway long way to where I was going with this, so we had to go back to knocking doors. In all honesty I love to knock doors because I love to talk to people, half of the time it usual ends up them telling me about stuff that I didn't ever need to know about themselves or their hobbies but I just love all of these people so much! So we were knocking doors around 8 o'clock and when I knocked someone said "Who is it?" I responded with my usual, "It's Elder Funk!" because nobody opens the door when you say "It's the missionarys!" But when you say Funk, people's curiousity gets the best of them, well this time the voice said, come in and I opened the door and it was a 20 year old kid named Stephen. He was a little bit different than the normal kid, he didn't have any hands and couldn't open the door. When we started to talk, he explained that he was having a hard day and I told him about a scripture that I read and wondered if I could share it with him, eventually he let us in. He told me about how his cousin had just passed away and that he was having a hard time with it and it had happened just the other day. The Spirit directed me to the Saviours teaching's on the Mount when he said "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." I told him that I told him of God's love for him, he told us at the beginning that his friends have told him to not talk to us, but now he wanted us to come back whenever we can. As we left I said, "I love you Stephen, I really do, can I give you a hug?" He gave me a hug and we just sat there for a minute, I know how much he needed it that day, and I was so grateful that we hadn't given up that day and called it early because he needed me. God needs us all to do things, and we get to choose if we want to do them. I love it. 

 

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Paul Funk

 

P.S. I got invited to the superbowl by a family, whom I love dearly. They are awesome. I told the Ward Mission Leader that and he said that it was a great idea, he always felt bad that we didn't get to watch the super bowl.. I bet you can guess where this story is going. Yep, instead of watching the super bowl we resisted and did 3 hours of planning and area book work. Super Bowl Sacrifice, the Lord will never be more proud of you then when you do things you really don't want to do!

A Hold Up, A Kidnapping and A "Crappy" Day

Well Another week has come and gone.. This is my very last January Email. What?!?? Crazy. Lets see.. So It was another one of those weeks were it is just like what in the world is going on? I wish that half of the stuff that we plan would work out, but I like just being able to fly by the seat of my pants sometimes and go a hundred miles an hour. When we are moving fast then I don't really feel the tired, but at the end of the night it is always nice because I sleep real good!
On P day last week we went up to Kyle and played some games at the stake center, it is like maybe a half hour or 45 minutes away so I had to organize this whole thing and we skipped our comp study and yeah.. Not a good choice but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do, We showed up only 15 minutes late and guess what! Turns out we were an hour early. Da gum. Things do work out if you do what you are supposed to. I guess I shoulda done comp study, but we still had some fun, we played scatterball which is like dodgeball but everyone on everyone. I totally owned until the last two people, then I got out like three times in a row. Lame, I was a first place loser.

Betty (the Nursing home lady) totally loves us and wanted to feed us that night, so we had some donuts and pizza and yeah even had a lesson in there! She loves, loves, loves the Book of Mormon and it is so exciting to see someone have such a passion for it! Now here is the bad news. Her sister got sick and so she decided that she needed to move to be closer to her. In West Texas. Not in our area!... So she moved on... That was tough because all she did was send us a text and it was kinda like a break up. But way, way worse. Everything in missionary work translates over to dating pretty well and I always like to compare it. I was thinking about re writing Preach my Gospel and call it Find My Companion. It's a work in progress. Seriously though such a  bummer to lose Betty! I really hope that she can go to some missionarys that can finish off the deal. I don't think at this point there is anything stopping her, she is probably one of the most elect people I have ever taught or seen. Hopefully I make the Celestial Kingdom cut so I can see her again.

That brings us to Megen, our 19 year old golden soccer star and future baptism. She is awesome. We met with her and shared the Plan and she ate it all up. Totally loved it all. I thought it was just super neat how well she took and applied it to her life and she talked about losing loved ones and I would ask here were they are and stuff and she could tell me. So sweet. I just love when people get what I am trying to teach to them. It makes it nice. Megen wanted to have us over and cook for us one night at Texas Lutheran University, which is cool, I like to eat so we said yes of course. We had to take a member with us and so we took this High school Senior named Ricky. It felt like a glorified hang out at the Man Cave or something. SOOO AWKWARD. I have totally lost the capabibility to communicate normally with anyone. Which is a good thing, because there was some of the one of the other soccer girls that came over and was trying to talk "Normal people" talk to us, it was awkward, somehow we transitioned it to talking about the gospel and ended up teaching her a first lesson so that was nice. Worked out good. It hit me how much I had actually given myself to the work when I had that happen. I was really grateful, if it came off like I just described a date, I really didn't go on one. It was like a buissness lunch or something...
We have a neat District Leader, he told us that he didn't want to train us to be good missionarys he wanted to train us to be good people. I am totally a stong advocate of that and so we talked about Gossiping! It was cool, I really enjoyed hearing him train, I have been really blessed to have good leaders on my mission, even if we didn't always get along with them the best, They are people too so yeah.. Anyway.

Texas got hit with an ice storm where were were, well it more just froze everything. People don't know how to function when it's cold, let alone, when there is actually some ice, so they shut the entire county down for the day, and we were told to stay inside. I wasn't about to make phone calls all day long, so we did the next best thing. Play Risk. I learned a real good lesson from that game. We didn't know how to play with just two people so instead we set up four teams and each of us played two of them. It was fun, in the beginning we both developed one team that was strong and the other was weak, Elder Van Oene decided that since his other team had to be elimanted eventually, he might as well do it now. So he slowly started to kill off his other team. I on the other hand looked like I was losing and was not doing to hot. However, I kept both of my teams and we kept on going. Eventually as the game got going into the second hour I started to take over with both of my teams and beat his team that he had left, even if both of my teams were weaker than his, they were stronger together. It's pretty true in life too. That we have to strengthen our relationships together, because if one seems to be dominating the one, it will fall eventually, Jesus taught "A house divided cannot stand". It put it into real perspective for me to actually see it work like that. Other than that game, not to much happened on friday.
Then everything that probably could go wrong did on Saturday. It was a good morning, we taught a great lesson to this member's girlfriend and she is doing well! She came to church, which was sweet, and she hopefully will get baptized here sooner or later. After we did that, we went to try and see some less actives, then Megan's lesson canceled on us and were surprised because she never cancels.. So we went back out and started to find some less actives. We drove 10 or so miles out into the country and found this really nice and fancy neighborhood with the gate unlocked. We went and saw one LA but they weren't there so we moved on to the next one. There was a kid in the front yard and I asked him If his dad was Jerry, and he said Yes. I asked him if he could go get him for us and he said Yeah. The kid was basically Spencer. Maybe just a little bit younger than he is now, but exactly how I remember Spencer. The Dad came out and he came up, he didn't look happy... So I said "Hey! My name is Elder Funk! How are you doing? Are you Jerry?" I stuck out my and he ignored it and said, "What do you want?" I responded, "Well we saw your name on the Ward Roster and wanted to share a message with you and your family." He then came back to say "Get off of my property in 30 seconds or else I will shoot you." I looked him in the eye, and said "Well, Jerry, have a great day." Turned and walked away, he in turn did the same, except he ran into the house grabbed his shotgun and cocked it and everything and checked his watch, we just walked out to the car and got in pretty casually, while the dad was in the house I even had time to tell Matthew to have a good day too. Ridiculous, he pointed it at us and followed us down the street, we still had a family to see on the street so I stopped a few houses down and we went to go see them. Elder Van Oene was kinda freaking out and didn't want to. But I figured he probably only had some Bird shot in the gun anyway... So it would be like a bb gun or something from that distance. We got in the car and drove off. Whatever, I just think how unfortunate it was that his kid had to see that. Pull a gun on us, shoot us, whatever, I really don't care to much because right now is probably the best shot I have had at the Celestial Kingdom, just don't do it in front of your kid! It makes me just want to be a better dad. (Don't worry mom. We are fine.) We went to our next house and when we got up to the door, Elder Van Oene looked over at my shirt and laughed a bit and told me I had something on the back. What would that something be? That's right, Bird poop. A Bird pooped on me. I was pretty much done for the day at that point so we went over a Recent Convert's house and watched him build a swing set and I told him about the gun and the bird poop and we played catch with his kids, and pushed them on the swing. He is sweet. We stayed for a about 45 minutes and then we got picked up for dinner by a member, He drove us way out into the country and cooked us some amazing stir fry. The only problem is that it was a three hour dinner appointment, and we really had no way out... So Saturday was A hold up, A kidnapping, and A very crappy day.

Then Megan stopped talked to us! She didn't come to church and she has ignored our text and phone calls since saturday... We are still trying to figure that one out. We are on sorta that bad luck wave for right now. But I think that it is pretty entertaining and probably means that we are in for some good blessings later on!

The best thing that happened this week actually came out of this week was when Megan cancelled on us. We have a 35 year old guy named Henry that has down syndrome, I don't think that he has gone out to a lesson before with missionaries or anything, but on Sunday he came up to me after my talk, because I had talked about where Preach My Gospel came from on a random tangent that I hadn't planned to say in the talk and he said. "Elder Funk, I have been studying Preach My Gospel my best that I can, and I like it alot." I just thought that was the neatest thing, that out of all the people that would be least likely to have opportunities to share, he was doing to the most he could to prepare. I told him how neat that was that he was doing that and asked him if he would like to come out with us. He said he would. So I talked to his mom and we set up to go see Megan on Saturday, of course the lesson fell through and we couldn't get ahold of Henry to tell him that it had cancelled. I didn't want to just flake out on him so we drove over to his house and knocked on his door, his mom answered and let us in, she told us Henry was just going to eat and that she would help him get ready. She then said that he had been studying all morning to prepare for the lesson. I was kinda sad that we didn't have a lesson at that point.. Henry then came out of the Kitchen and told us how excited he was for it, I had to tell him that it fell through, but when I looked over his Preach My Gospel and Scriptures were still open on the table. I said, "Well Henry, we don't have a lesson today, but why don't you teach us?" He went over to the table and taught us all about Faith and told us about the Good seed and the Bad seed. He even told us that he wanted to find a video to show at the lesson. I was so overwhelmed at how much he had given to try and do what is right, and prepare for a lesson. Truly the Savior meant what he said, "The first shall be last, and the last shall be first in the kingdom of God."
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk

Meeting new people

Well Howdy.
Dang it was a really long week this week. A ton seemed like happened and it actually seemed to go by pretty slow, for some reason. I guess cause we had a ton of new stuff to learn and everything.
Well we found some people to teach!!! And dang they are some of the most elect that I have ever taught on my entire mission. I'll tell ya first about Betty.

So she is a nursing home and can't really do much, the Elder's before us found her somehow and she calls us "her boys" she is in her 40's or so. She has had a really rough life and stuff and is sick all the time. She is going to get out of the nursing home soon though and move in on her own. She hasn't been to church yet because the nursing home is like a mini prison and you have to sign away a kidney to get out of there for a break. Luckily everyone is born with two kidneys so I think this next week we should be able to get her to church. She has a goal to read 5 chapters in the BofM every day. And she does it. Since last week she has read all the way from 1 Nephi something to the end of 2nd Nephi. She loves the Isiah chapters, which is cool, because half of the time I still have no idea what they are talking about. She has been talking to the Jehovah's Witnesses. We call em J dubs. and they have been trying to convert her to, she asked them yesterday why their bible was missing so much info... I think that kinda offended them, it is what it is though. Then they started to tell her about life after death and Betty said "Oh that's cool! let me tell you about the 3 circles!" Then she taught them the plan of salvation. They left and I don't think they are going to come back. She is super sweet. Love her to death. She is going to buy us pizza and have us over tonight. Boo Yah

The next is a 19 year old girl named Megan. She is a star soccer player at TLU (Texas Lutheran University) and sings and is just super sweet in general. She self referred herself to us and said her dad was a less-active RM that never really talked about the church to much but she wants to learn about it. We had a lesson with her and it was sooo powerful. She was in tears, I explained repentance to her as a Scar that is left so that we remember, but that is healed so that we don't hurt. She had never thought of it quite like that and burst into tears. We commited her to baptism and she is going to be baptized sometime in early feb. Probably the 2nd of Feb, baring any unseen changes. I called to talk to her last night about her Boyfriend and she told me that they had been dating for like 14 months and were "promised to each other" Whatever that means. Why don't people just make a commitment or get out? Whatever, I won't rant about relationships right now, but anyway she said she talked to her bf and gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to take the missionary lessons, because when they have kids she thinks that this is the church that they need to raise their kids in. Yep. Megan. You are totally right. She is going to have us over to cook for us sometime, she told me about the most amazing thing that I have ever heard. It was probably one of the times that I have found the most happiness in my life. Right next to the Smoreo. She said she makes this thing that has a layer of cookie dough on bottom, covered next with a layer of double stuff oreos then a brownie layer on top. Yep. I am excited to try it.

We did alot of driving this week. I destroyed the miles, we don't really have a limit this month, or at least that is what I tell myself to justify it because they wrecked our truck. We had an appointment the other day that was out in the middle of no where, with one road in, or so we thought.... Yep, some yahoo decided to wreck right in the intersection we needed to go in. So we took the long road around. It took us like 45 minutes of driving through dirt roads at 50 miles an hour but we made it to they appointment. I don't think the suspension on the car appreciated it, but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

We pounded down on some serious food this week. I think we had like 4 double dinners and we went back to back nights to a chinese buffet. Gotta love that. I think I can hear myself getting fatter. Whatever though. There is a work out plan in the mission called "6 Months to Sexy" Luckily I have 4 months to fatness before I have to start that.

We had alot of neat chances this week to help out the ward and to get to know them. We got to talk at a baptism on saturday, which was pretty cool and then ran off to another dinner. The spirit was really strong and there was a few less active members that were there so that was neat to get to meet them. It's a neat chance to come into the ward and meet people because I have no clue who is what, or who is less active so I can just treat everyone the same. I think a couple of people have been surprised when they are treated just like an active member, because I have no clue. I hope that is a skill that I can really develop more and more, especially when I know things about people in the future.
We also got to speak in sacrament meeting, They asked us to prepare a 10 minute talk and so we did, I was thinking oh we will be talking with someone else, Nah... We had a youth speaker that talked for 5 minutes and Elder Van Oene did his 10 minute talk. And if anyone is counting in Mormon time, that leaves me, the last speaker, with like 25 minutes. Gall. So I got up there and told some gospel stories about "Learning to listen to the Spirit" First about going to the wrong house because I wanted to have a spiritual experience and getting totally rebuked, then about the seatbelt ticket, then finally about the 20 dollar miracle. That has been three of the greatest lessons that I have learned. First that promptings come when the Lord is ready to give them, not when we are ready to recieve them. Second, that we need to listen to ALL of them, whether they are ridiculous or difficult. Third, that God does inspire those around us to hear his voice and through them we will see miracles. It turned out to be a good talk I think. At least people stayed awake, because that's what they told me. I got thanked for giving an entertaining talk, Hopefully there was some spiritual lessons learned, but I really don't like the sacrament meetings that feel like a funeral.

We also joined the choir this week. The Tenor section is soooo terrible. Why is that? Because there is only one person in it. Yep that would be me, Elder Funk. The instructor gave me a ton of crap for not being loud, haha she likes me alot. I can tell.

Well that was basically the week in the life of a Funk. We worked hard, played hard, and I even wrote in my journal every day. Elder Van Oene is a good guy that does alot of good things, he is kinda strict, I think if I had to assign him a disney character it would be Sid from Ice age. Pretty innocent, does a lot of good things. Well but he is kinda army. So if and when they get to Ice age 7 "The War of the World" and sid has to be a general in the army that would be him. We get along pretty good, he doesn't get mad at me, I get frustrated with him sometimes though. He really is a sweet gentle kid that wants to do the right thing. He has a girl waiting for him, and I just try and encourage him the best I can, it sounds like their relationship is solid and yeah. He really loves her. Talks about her alot, it's cool. haha I tell everyone Taylor Swift is waiting for me now. I want to be the guy that makes her write something other than a tragic break up song.

Well I love yall!
Remember who you are and what He stands for!
Elder Funk

Seguin Texas

What a whale of a week. I don't think that I will go quite in chronological order so bear with me, but I will do my best.

 

Well I learned a lesson this week. We shouldn't laugh at other's misfortunes... I was at my last dinner appointment in the UC on Wednesday night and the father came home from work and told us that early in the day he had seen some Elders that were standing out on the side of the road because they had rear ended someone with their truck. We figured it was the moving Elder's Truck and they were ok so it was all just pretty funny. Well... The next morning was transfers.

 

So anyway transfers rolled around and we got through all of the San Antonio Zones and I was like Heck Yeah! I'm going to Austin baby!! Then they said they were going to announce the last district the New Braunfels District which was really pretty close to the UC. The got all the way to the last ones the Seguin Elders. The AP said "Alright, we got a double in! Elder Funk and Elder Van Oene!" Yep... I suppose the Assistants forgot to tell me that we were going to get doubled in.(doubled in means both Elders are new to the area) They used to back in the day. It's cool. So Seguin is out in the middle of nowhere! We are basically in the boonies. I got a picture but I forgot to bring my camera today, so if you google it and nothing comes up, it's not because I made up this area, it might just be that out of the world. So we gathered our bags I hugged my precious Elder Le Sueur good bye and headed toward the car. Oh wait. This is where the two stories come together, that truck that the member had seen was our truck. The Seguin Elders... Funny how the world works like that sometimes. So I went to talk to the Assistants and the one just looked and me and said, "Oh your the one that got doubled into Seguin?... pause... Good luck!" That was comforting! Basically everyone wished us luck... We got a car a couple of days later and now we have an ancient ford fusion. All the way from 2010. I'm totally kidding, it is super sweet. I love it. Especially on the dirt roads. I'm going to catch some air if I'm not careful.

 

I'll tell you more in a sec but I guess I should wrap up the UC before I start something new. The "Lion's Den" turned out to be more like a petting zoo. It was one of the single most incredible experiences of my life. We walked in and we were like super stars. Everyone that was around us absolutely loved having us there. It was a little different to see real Catholic students and everything, it was basically like a seminary. We walked into class and the teacher without us knowing had given the students a packet called "What Catholics should know about Mormons" I was like great... So I asked him if I could have it real quick and read it all before class started. Luckily that was a skill that I practiced all through High School and it finally came in handy. Who says Procrastination was never beneficial? Anyway it was pretty accurate. It did highlight the point of us becoming Gods though, alot. We started with the 13 Articles of Faith and taught that for a 15 minutes and then opened up to the question and answer segment. The spirit was so incredibly strong and the students had prepared to listen. Every single one of the 30 of them had a question for us and we answered questions for 30 minutes or so. The kept wanting to know about the becoming a God idea, and I told them "Well Yes! Of course that is true. It's the best goal that we really can have, our Father wants us all to become like him." I also taught about original sin by saying that Dad wasn't responsible for what I do when I am here in Texas, and I am not responsible for what he does in Utah. They didn't ask anything about that... Probably the only thing weird was that they prayed the Lord's prayer at the beginning and added some stuff. It was different. And some of the girls in the back were staring at us as it was going on and I think they could feel how awkward we felt, so they giggled the whole time. Pretty neat experience. There was one kid in there named Mike, as soon as he walked in I could feel something about him, and as we got into the Q&A a bit more, he started answering the questions with the info that we had already talked about! I really feel in my heart that one day, he will be one that accepts the gospel. Jacob  (The Teacher) is an amazing man, and I am so grateful that I was given that opportunity.

 

As the UC wrapped up, I didn't go and say all the good bye's  I thought I might, we just went to work and did the small and simple things, because, I think that I will for sure go back there one day. I love those people. The hardest thing leaving was that there is a man named Wayne Breshears, he has a speech impediment, and he became one of my best friends in the whole ward. He is a hard working guy, he works in the oil fields and we did alot of stuff together. He took us to breakfast alot and we always did stuff, he was the one that took me to the temple. I love that guy to death. He called me from the Oil rig the night before I left and said that he was thinking about transfers (Which was weird because I never told him when it was) and wanted to say bye. He was the epitome of humility and love.. I hope that one day I can be like that. He really is one of my best friends out here. Such an amazing guy. That was an amazing ward. I am so grateful for all the experiences that I had while I was there. 

So now here were are in Seguin. It is working town. After we got doubled in we looked at the board and I don't want to say we have nothing... But we don't really have anything either, so one way or another we are going to have to get some stuff going here. We met the ward mission leader luckily the night we got here. We had to go by faith to find the church because the map they used possible was in the truck... Anyway we found it. He is the best!! I love that guy, basically a mix between Gary Thomas and Uncle Si from duck dynasty, the first thing that he did when he met us, was give us both some dr. peppers and a nice new pocket knife. Requisites to Texas missionary work. Whatever works right?

Well the next day we had Elder Bednar come! Two apostles, 4 members of the 70, on my mission so far! I am so blessed. He lectured for 3 hours and did a question and answer session it was so incredible. He answered questions that I don't even think I had before I got there. I loved it. He is super funny, he told us not to really quote him, he said some stuff that was mind boggling though! I will for sure tell you all about in 11 months. 

What a trip this one is going to be. The Lord has to give us harder and harder opportunities to learn and grow, so I guess this is another one of those! After this area I might only have one left! AH! It all goes by so quickly. By the way my comps name is Elder Van Oene (Una) he is from Utah too. Totally military and I am a total goofball, so I guess we will see, we work really well together so far. He puts up with me pretty good so I count that as a blessing. 

Well that is it for now! The Zone Leaders called and said they want us to give a training on "game-planning" for a new area. Super. I guess we should be experts on that... First off though we need to get a map of our area... We don't really have one of those yet... How did those Elders do it...? The world may never know... 

Oh one last side note.. I guess when you walk into a part member's house and Glee is on the TV the first thing you shouldn't do is to start naming the characters and talking to the member about it. I got a lotta gay jokes going my way the rest of the night. Hey. I like it for the songs.

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk