7 Weeks to Home!

Man what a week. I got transferred again. What a week. 

Well... I felt like the old days. we literally had nothing in this area. It has been so dead. So we went a knockin. The closest thing that we got to success was that we were able to talk to a drunk guy for like 20 minutes. We talked about everything from Ebola to the war to who knows what else. He was cool though. 

I feel like I learned alot. I went from teaching 25 lessons a week. to teaching literally 0 lessons in a week. Even though I was trying my very hardest. Probably harder than I have in the the last few months to try and get something going in the area. Talking with everyone and calling people. 

It really humbled me. Being with Elder eubanks the last two weeks has been really good too. He is a really simple kid that tries his very best. He really doesn't have the ability to talk to people that others do and really not to many obvious talents. So it honestly was inspiring and humbling to watch him work. 

What a great kid.

We also got to meet a couple of 70's this week. They came and talked about comp study and planning and talking with everyone. It was really, really good. I learned alot. Elder Hamula also talked about putting down our weapons of rebellion and becoming saints through the atonement of christ. Yep. I have a hecka lot of those. So I set some goals and everything. Should be good.

Also I got my scriptures back. My scriptures are my most valuable possesion. I was sooo excited when I got them back. My Preach my gospel is also on the way I heard. So that is good. 

I have gotten through the first 200 pages in the book of mormon the last couple of weeks. The promises of a Savior and the restoration are beautiful. They really are. I can't believe how great the Lord is to the people when they just listen to what he has asked them to do. Even when people are unrepentant and don't want to change most often he will beckon them all back before he does anything to threaten them to repent. So great. I love the promises of the Lord and I know they are true. Even when you have a week where you don't teach a soul.

A different 70 came because we had Stake Conference. He did a follow up on Holland's talk. It was really cool for him to tell storys of saints in Ghana giving up a of what they have so that they could donate to the poor saints in utah. The entire congregation was floored by that. 

So I guess a week with nothing taught me more than a really busy week. weird how that works out I guess. 

I am so grateful to be a missionary. I love the Lord. Because guess what. I really, really don't like being transferred around like this, and if I didn't know the church was true. I'd be WAY more of a jerk than I already am. But I guess you just let come what may and love it right? Well I love the mission. I'm going to miss it so much. 

Remember who you are and what he stands for.

Elder Paul Funk

8 Weeks

Welll... Hey. 

This week was kinda a different one. 

P day was way sweet. I got to go and play flag football with savon and everybody, so that was pretty cool. He's so flippin good. I guess that's what you get when you play with one of the highest recruited college athletes right? 

Then at 10:25pm they called me and told me I was being Et'ed to go down to Austin because some elder wrecked his shoulder and couldn't bike. So mad. All I wanted was to just stay and finish my mission down in Alamo 2nd. Then the Ap told me that I was supposed to be there at 9am the next morning. 

Yep. I took my time packing and I had to go say goodbye to Savon. That was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. I don't know why either. It's not like he is dying or anything. We just became really, really tight. So after I said bye I just bawled my eyes out all the way to stone oak to do the transfer. I was like 2 hours late and no one was really happy with me, but I wasn't really happy with anyone else either. 

Then I had to say bye to Elder Mccombs, hargraves, and snow. That's probably the last time I will get to see them on my mission. So yep. Waterworks again. As trunky as I might have thought that I was to go home, I want to stay here so bad. I love the people. There is honestly nothing like serving and just falling in love with everything here. I think it would be easier if yall just came to Texas and lived here, then I never have to come home. Plan? Sounds good. 

So my comp's name is Elder Eubanks. Real simple kid from SLC he wants to be obedient and just do anything that is asked of him. So that is really neat. I like him alot. 

As far as investigators here go... Yeah we don't have anything. Kinda sad. Oh well we can start from scratch I guess. 

All we did this week was knock on doors. The first 2 doors that we knocked on we got into, so I was feeling pretty confident in my abilities again and thinking that I still had it in me. Yep. Then the lord humbled me and we haven't gotten into a door in 3 days. So yep! 

Austin is alot different. I don't think that the people are as nice here. They seem to be a little meaner maybe? Idk. Austin's big thing is that it is weird. Like Portland or something. Whatever that is supposed to mean.

Oh! I left my mission scriptures and pmg in the car when I got transferred up here. Nice Funk. Nice. So we have a 70 coming up here and I only have a book of mormon. I'm for sure going to be the kid that he calls on to talk and stuff. Ugh haha not excited. 

The ward seems pretty cool. The bishop asked me where I came from and how long I'd been out. and after he realized I've been out a long time he said "Oh, I bet you were wanting to stay out and finish your mission there. and then the mission president transferred ya up here. Bummer. I guess it happens." But that's ok. I just told him that I was glad to be here and he said he was happy to have me.

Well I guess that's about it for this week. We are just going to keep on working and doing our thing until Dec 10th! 51 days... But who's counting. Trunky Trio lives on. 

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk

Border Run Pictures!

Future's so bright he's got to wear shades

Food for the ride

What Elder Funk loves about Texas

Emergency Transfer

Elder Funk was transferred to Austin on Tuesday October 14th.  A missionary in the Austin area is unable to ride a bike so Elder Funk is switching places with him.  Updates with a new address will follow as soon as I know!

Getting Sick

Well hey. 

This week pretty much sucked, pretty bad. I'm pretty much over it. haha

P day was pretty good as usual. Nothing to crazy. I think that we just played basketball and stuff I don't really remember. 

Probably the best part was zone meeting. So hargraves and I booked it out to valero (gas station) 5 minutes before the meeting and went to get a gallon of soda to try and survive the meeting. Then we saw a member that bought us super good tacos and the soda. So we rolled into the meeting late with tacos and a giant soda. It was hilarious. And super good. I honestly didn't get much outta the meeting. I'm kinda over hearing "Talk with Everyone" repeated a million times over. 

Thursday Ebola struck. Ok that was really overdramatic, but we all got real sick. Hargraves went down first, then McCombs with a flailing entrance to his porcelain kingdom and followed quickly by a swan dive into the land of pillows by myself. #TrunkyTrioDown.

We spent Thursday friday and saturday and sunday in bed. I tried to go out on saturday with savon but felt terrible after. Luckily we know some members in Parkwood that hooked us up with some meds that possible saved our pday. Not that much fun haha

Sunday we had lesson about how our home teaching sucks. That was good... 

Oh! Rasan is going to get baptized on Saturday. He is so dope. Has a good simple testimony and everything just makes sense to him.

Also Mike S came back to church. Boom. That was cool. He hadn't come back since his confirmation. So that was really great. I hope one day he gains his testimony back. He was doing so great. 

We have another 70 coming to visit with the mission. I'm praying that he brings Ipads with him. Probably not but we can hope right?

Anyway. Sorry it's a downer of a letter. But have fun, be safe! Love you!

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk

#ThanksfortheletterUncleBrandon

But seriously. Thanks to all those who wrote me:) Letters are gold to missionary's. You never know how much they can help someone. 

Conference Weekend

Well.. Hey. 

So I guess this week really wasn't all that exciting to be honest. We had quite a few recent convert lessons and spent most of the week trying to explain what General Conference was to all of them. It's crazy how much of the mormon lingo we have in the church. For real. 

I had to go to the doctor this week which was a pretty big bummer. I hate the dr. more than just about anything else. So I didn't do anything on Wednesday really.. McCombs also had to get an ingrown toenail taken care of...

We had district meeting this week. In honor of Derek Jeter, I talked about Hero's and made plenty of Derek Jeter references. I wonder at what point I am going to get fired from the District Leader thing, but for now it seems to be working out pretty well I guess. It was a really good meeting I think, though.

I though conference was pretty good. I was really tired to be honest and almost fell asleep... I thought that Elder Holland's talk was good, as always, and so was Elder Bednar's. He was pretty funny. He asked us what we thought about hearing a talk to non members in general conference when he came earlier in the year. So we all saw it coming. It was cool. 

Well Sorry this is a really lame email. Nothing honestly really happened. 

Sue got a new mercedes benz. It's pretty cool.... Rich kids;) and No one wants to play me in ping pong anymore... Sad day.

P day should be fun though:)

Remember who you are what He stands for!

Elder Funk

Ping Pong Wizard

Well. Here we go once again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember who you are and what He stands for!

Elder Funk