Blog Archives

Elder Bednar visited the mission!

4/27/2015

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First ICE ride (Bullet train) to Frankfurt

Dusseldorf

MTC reunion at our mission conference

Time flies! I hit 9 months this week and feel very in denial. My comp will be hitting her year mark though, so I won't complain!We had set some pretty high goals for this week and fell very very short of them because nothing ever goes as planned! But that's okay because it was still a good week.
The highlight of the week was definitely going to hear from Elder Bednar. We got to wake up at 4 am and then travel to Frankfurt. It was fun because all of us missionaries in the northern part of the mission pretty much filled up a whole train car and had it all to ourselves. Sister Pettitt even brought crepes for everyone!
The first thing Elder Bendar said to us was that he was not here to talk about ipads! We actually won't even be getting ipads for a couple of weeks. The time was mostly used for a big question and answer type of discussion. We answered questions he asked and he answered questions we asked. We talked a lot about our ability to choose, repentance, forgiveness, pride, and a change of heart. It was so amazing to hear answers about some pretty big doctrinal topics from an Apostle of the Lord. It really strengthened my testimony that we do have a prophet and apostles on the earth today! As I have studied my notes fromFriday, I have been able to set some great goals missionary wise and also for after the mission. I feel like I am learning so many things that I'm going to need later on in my life and I'm grateful for all of these experiences!
We also set a baptismal date with Richmond this week! I met Richmond in a train my second day in Düsseldorf. I sat next to him and he smiled at me and then we just started talking right then! He is from Nigeria but has been here for quite a while. He said he wants to get closer to Christ again and I told him we could definitely help him do that! He has already read some in the Book of Mormon and is determined to keep on reading because he knows that is how we will find the truth. We are a little bit concerned because we haven't been able to contact him for a few days..but we will keep praying!
We had some more great contacting experiences this week. We got kind of stuck in a tiny town last monday night and freaked out a bit because we couldn't find a bus stop! But we finally found one and it didn't come for a while, so we decided we would do some street contacting except that the streets were basically deserted. I said that we should just talk to every person we see and we started walking. After a while we saw a girl on the street and talked to her and she said she would love to meet with us! It was so cool because I am realizing how much God will bless us when we give some effort.
We were also having a very slow day on Saturday. We decided to go by on a couple of people and no one was home or had interest, but on our way home I started talking to a guy sitting across from me. Turns out he is from Ukraine and has struggled to figure out his faith. He was so incredibly polite and we just had a great conversation the whole way home! I was able to give him a Book of Mormon and he said he would try it out.
The longest contact of my life occurred on Friday on our way home from Frankfurt. It was a whole 3 hour conversation. I sat next to a business man and he was incredibly friendly and sat a little too close to me, but that's okay! I ended up telling him all about our lives as missionaries and also explained a lot about the Mormons. He said we were the nicest people and he was so impressed with our work and with our values! I was able to give him a Book of Mormon as well. He said he didn't want to meet with us, but he gladly gave me his business card in case I ever needed anything haha.
I guess I would just have to say that I love being a missionary.
I love you!
Sister Funk

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Not much time to write

4/20/2015

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sorry I just realized i completely forgot to write a mass email...and we have to go now. But you can say I am doing well! We taught some really cool lessons and met a new family who all became investigators. Spring is super beautiful and we are loving the weather. District meeting was hilarious with a toothpaste object lesson, I gave a talk, I learned a lot from a new convert who told us her life story about being homeless multiple times and I am so grateful for what we have, and we had lots of cool contacts on the streets, by the Rhein, and in the trains! I love you, mom!

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Pday with our zone, climbing the Dome in Koln

4/13/2015

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Sister Nowak (a member in Koln Germany) and her family drove to Cologne at time to meet the district on their Pday to climb the dome. "It was a HUGE group of 24 missionaries, some I know, some were new ... they climb up the Cologne Cathedral ... 533 steps until the top and 533 steps back. After that we lost some of the group and the other went with me to a special train bridge called "Hohenzollern Brücke".

Our District

View of the Rhine river from the Dome

Entrance to the Dome

With my new companion Sister Oliphant

Sister Nowak and Sister Funk

This is the train bridge "Hohenzollern Brücke" ... you can find thousend of keylocks with names on it. It's tradition to put the names from person in love on it with the date who married or engaged or fall in love than you lock it and throw the key into the River Rhine

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Transfer to Düsseldorf

4/13/2015

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I survived my first transfer! It felt so weird not to be in Köln anymore! It was a little harder than I had expected, but things are getting better. I knew Köln so well after 7 months and it was hard for me to accept that I knew basically nothing about Düsseldorf when I got here! My new comp, Sister Oliphant, has only been here for a transfer though, so we are learning things together. I feel like the transportation system here is much easier than in Köln though, so that's a plus. It was great getting to know the ward more yesterday. There are about 60 active members, so it's about the same size as Köln. The new Elder, Elder Boam, and I got to bear our testimonies and we also get to give talks next week! It was really cool because Sister Young, my first Sister Training Leader who served in Düsseldorf for forever, was visiting yesterday! We are working with some really cool people. Damarys is one of our investigators and we meet with her often. Her mom is taking the lessons in Spain and she referred her daughter! She came to part of church yesterday and it progressing really well. We also had a way cool experience on Saturday! We met with a Woman named Marcia that we found in our area book. She was baptized in 2001 but somehow didn't get confirmed! We talked with her and she brought up baptism right away and said she knew she needed to do it again and that she was ready! So we set a date for the 27th of June. We will teach her all the lessons again and help her stop drinking coffee. I also went through and called all the potentials in the area book and we have quite a few appointments with them, so that will be good. I think we will do lots of contacting this week!
Today we are actually going to Köln to climb the dome with a bunch of the zone, so that should be fun! We also have splits this weekend and I get to Duisburg with Sister Haywood.
I have been reading a lot in the New Testament this week and I am almost done! My love for the scriptures just grows every day. I am so grateful that we can read and learn so many new things and also simply feel peace.
I love you! Have a great week
Sister Funk

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My last week in Köln

4/6/2015

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Me and Sister Pettitt

My District at Zone training

Schwester Kriwanek

Breakfast with the district

Manzke family!

Sister Manzke and I ended up with matching Easter dresses!

I feel like I haven't written emails in forever! And a lot has happened lately.
Transfer calls were on Saturday! We got up super early and traveled to Solingen to meet our district for a big breakfast and then we listened to the call together. Exciting news is that our mission is getting ipads on the 24th! Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us and they will introduce the whole program, so we are way excited! It will be super different having them but also very helpful to look up train times and directions etc etc. And I am being transferred a whole 20 minute train ride north to Düsseldorf! I have been there quite a few times on splits and of course for all our zone meetings, but it will be a good change! I'm going from the biggest city in the mission to the 3rd biggest! Sister Oliphant will be my new comp. She is two transfers older than me. And Sister Pettitt will be training!!! I am so happy for her. I am going to be a grandmother in the mission how haha.
We had zone training this past week. The topic was the Book of Mormon and the theme was Welcome to the MTC! It was funny because they really did make everything like the MTC. We did a great role play where we saw reading the BoM from an investigator's point of view. It is so clear to us why it is important and how to read it, but for them it is totally new! It was perfect because we taught a lesson the very next day about the BoM and were able to very clearly explain it and we began reading it with him. This investigators name is Abraham and he is wonderful! He actually has been coming to church for the past year and we FINALLY got him to meet with us. He firmly believes that when we learn something, we have to really apply it to life, so he is keeping all of his commitments! He even came to all of the General Conference sessions.
Sad news is that we quit teaching Anita. She believes that a lot of our commandments are just commandments from the church rather than from God and she isn't willing to pray about it to really see if it is true. She only believes what is in the Bible and isn't quite ready to accept new information. We will check up on her later though!
The weather this week has been pretty awful, so that means the trains of course had to completely fall out for an entire day. So Sister Pettitt and I were stuck in Leverkusen for an entire day in the pouring rain! We did some street contacting but that wasn't very effective since it was raining and we ended up going home on a bus to organize our area book and call a bunch of people in it. It was really cool though because we called a few people who have interest again and we should be meeting with them this week!
We have been doing a lot of contacting lately with the Because He Lives initiative and it is wonderful! What we normally do is just street contact with the cards and ask people what Easter means to them. A lot of people just say a day off of work, but we have been able to have some great conversations about Christ and his resurrection. A few days ago we were on our way home and we got off our train to switch to a bus that left in two minutes but I really felt like we should contact and each give out 4 cards before we went home. So we started right there and talked to a couple of people who had no interest at all. But then we talked to a girl who actually talked with us and said she would love to meet with us! We got her contact information and then stopped another girl who talked with us too! She also said she would like to meet with us. I was just so grateful for the promptings of the Spirit and that we followed them. We were able to get 2 potentials in 10 minutes!
We only got to listen to two sessions of General Conference, so I am excited to hear the rest of it throughout this week when we have time. We were able to watch it in English with Abraham, so that was really great. It seems like everything was about the family!
I am excited for some change. It's crazy that I have been in Köln for 7 months! But I am really going to miss the ward here and especially Sister Pettitt. She is such an awesome missionary and I have had so much fun with her! She keeps pulling little pranks on me while I get ready for bed. For example, she moved my bed to the hallway last night, turned music on in the dark, hid my blankets and a bunch of other weird things. She is going to be an awesome trainer! I've learned a lot from her. We have been able to teach a lot about Jesus Christ lately with members, less actives, and investigators for Easter. It is such a joyful message to know that He leaves and I know that as we come closer to Him, we will see so many blessings.
I hope you had a great Easter! It looks like you guys had tons of fun. I want to go camping there when I get home!
I love you!
Sister Funk

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About Me

I've been called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Germany Frankfurt mission.

Companions

Sister Godwin - Frankfurt
Sister Knutson - Frankfurt
Sister Bray- Dusseldorf
Sister Oliphant - Dusseldorf
Sister Pettitt - Koln
Sister Wadsworth - Koln
Sister Hyatt - MTC