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New companion Sister Bray

6/29/2015

This really was a wonderful week! Last week stressed me out like crazy
but we actually saw some fruits from last week's efforts this week.
-Monday night completely fell out but we were able to contact a really
cool woman from Romania and she gladly accepted a Book of Mormon
-We had some time on Tuesday to do a bit of dooring. I had just felt
like we needed to door two buildings close to our house. We had an
experience I sure will never forget! An Asian lady let us inside the
building and then cracked her door open so we talked with her in the
door way. I can hardly remember what we even said because all we could
think about was the HORRIBLE smell coming from her apartment! She was
wearing gloves and a shower cap? We just had to get out of there
before we died, so I said we will come back later!
-We traveled on a bus to Frankfurt and back on Thursday. And I picked
up Sister Bray! I'm so excited to be serving with her. We have already
seen lots of miracles and have set some great goals together. She used
to live in NC and turns out we were at the ECU youth conference
together!
-We got an awesome referral this week from someone I don't even know.
That is a miracle in and of itself!
-We are in contact with Ilona again. I am so grateful for that and
excited to see what happens

I think my favorite part of the week happened last night. A few weeks
ago I contacted a lady and her son on the street. She is from the
Congo. She said we could come visit but then we couldn't figure out
her address. We ended up dooring two buildings to try to track her
down and finally found her family but she wasn't home. We were finally
able to teach her last night! Turns out her German is a lot more
limited than we thought, so I called Sister Pettitt to say a few
things in French. Then we had her read the last two paragraphs in the
introduction to the Book of Mormon. She could not stop smiling and
just kept putting her hand on her heart and saying "my heart, my
heart." It was so cool because the spirit really did communicate to
her what we couldn't. It strengthened my testimony of the role of the
spirit a lot. I also think that the Book of Mormon has become one of
the strongest points of my testimony!

Love you tons!
Sister Funk

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Marcia was baptized on Friday

6/22/2015

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April 30th. Sister Parker and I hit our half way mark!

Last pday in Köln! We played capture the flag with flour and socks

Another transfer has already gone by!And Sister Oliphant and I got to end it well with Marcia's baptism. It didn't exactly go according to plan, but it all worked out in the end! The church is about to be renovated and so a lot of the building is cleared out. It took a while to find what we need and set it all up. And then there was a problem with the trains so one of the members who was giving a talk had to take a taxi...but Bishop didn't wait for her so everything was just cut short! Probably the funniest thing was when Marcia insisted on wearing a bright yellow swim cap which obviously doesn't quite work. but we got creative and she tied a white shirt over it and got baptized. Thankfully she just laughed and was a good sport about it!
Then we panicked a bit because we couldn't get ahold of her just to make sure everything was good for her confirmation, but she came and everything was great. She told me she felt something and was very at peace with her decision. We are way happy for her! Sister Becks was super thoughtful and wrote down Marcia's confirmation and that really touched her.
I've been a little frustrated lately because I felt like I didn't have the connection with this ward like I did in Köln but that totally changed yesterday! Sister Oliphant and I taught Sunday school and as soon as we started the lesson one of the greatest members ever started getting all teary and said she could feel our spirit already. She is a convert and has one of the strongest testimonies and what's really cool is that she truly lives it. I have also been able to get close to the young women in the ward. After sacrament yesterday I had one hugging me and another braiding my hair while we talked about how we want to play a duet together. They are so cute and I hope we can set good examples for them!
We had quite a blank week...and that always stresses me out a ton. But we were able to do some great contacting, find lots of potentials, and a new investigator. We have also been able to see how the Lord has been working on some of our less actives and investigators which always reminds me that this is not my work!
We were able to meet with Caroline yesterday after a couple of weeks of no contact. She is doing so great! We talked a lot about Christ and i feel like His role finally just clicked with her. She said she wants to prepare for baptism:)
Sister Oliphant and elder Boam are going home! Turns out I will actually go to Frankfurt with them to pick up my new comp, Sister Bray, and elder Gerratt's new comp. I'm excited to work with her! I have been on a split with her before. I kind of feel like I have been going through the motions a bit lately, so I'm ready for a new transfer and new comp to start over again. I feel like we have been seeing lots of small miracles in our area that is showing me that God is preparing people on His own time. I'm so grateful for that and for the opportunity to be here right now.
I read a lot of general conference talks the other day and was reminded again of what a blessing it is to receive modern revelation from our prophets and apostles. I read a story about a lady who paid her tithing and donated $2 even though she hardly had anything. It made me realize how lucky I am to be able to spend this time here and how small of a sacrifice it is.
I'm so glad you had fun at lake powell! It sounds like you have a busy week ahead. I hope Parker and Jacob have fun together. I can't wait to hear about Andrea's trip. I'm a little jealous! Tell Landon hi for me and the whole Funk family! Love you!
Sister Funk

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Great Week!

6/15/2015

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My district in Dusseldorf on Pday

Went on a split to Duisburg with Sister Parker. We taught Emily. She will be getting baptized soon!

It has been an interesting week! We somehow ended up teaching a lot of lessons on the streets! A lot of our appointments fell out, so we did quite a bit of street contacting and had some cool experiences! We met a lady from the Congo and she gave us her address and we made an appointment. But when we got to the building we couldn't find her name! It is an apartment complex for immigrants kind of. We ended up just dooring the whole buidling and the one next to it and finally found hers! But she wasn't home. It was a fun experience because we met people from all over the place and they were so friendly and offered us drinks but most of them were Muslim. Dooring just normally doesn't go like that for us!
We had a lot of meetings this week.
Zone Conference was just exactly what I needed. The topic was the Atonement and all the speakers and activities were great. It was really fun to hear from President and Sister Stoddard! We also got our ipads and this is an interesting adjustment!
We also got to attend the stake primary activity and help out a bit. It turned out really well! We did lots of crafts. We also had a meeting with bishop and then attended the stake relief society conference. It was so fun because I got to see a lot of members from Köln! I think Köln will always hold a special place in my heart because I just felt like I was home!
Marcia had her baptism interview this past week and it went great! She is just so ready and we are so excited for her. Her baptism will be on Friday.
We are going to Köln today for a big zone pday, so that should be fun!
I hope you are having an awesome time at Lake Powell. I love you all!
Sister Funk

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Continually Learning

6/8/2015

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I have learned a good lesson this week! I have been really trying to figure out what God wants me to learn from these past two transfers.As a mission we are studying 3 Nephi. These scriptures really stood out to me earlier this week:

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged;and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thybrother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thineown eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother: Let me pull themote out of thine eye—and behold, a beam is in thine owneye?

5 Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye;and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thybrother’s eye.

I am grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. It is only through Him that we can overcome our imperfections and weaknesses. I am also grateful that we can repent from all of our many mistakes!
We were able to teach Caroline a few days ago about the Plan of Salvation. We always talk about how Christ is the center of this plan and the truth of that statement really hit me as we taught her. Our mission president shared something from Elder Renlund with us in an email this week: "My invitation to all of us is to evaluate our lives, repent, and keep on trying. If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try, we’re just latter day hypocrites. As we try, persevere, and help others to do the same, we are true Latter-day Saints. We will find that God indeed cares a lot more about who we are and about who we are becoming than about who we once were. He cares that we keep on trying.”
All that Christ asks is that we follow Him and draw upon His atoning sacrifice. When we do that, we will become what He would have us be!
I love you very much!
Sister Funk

a few additional notes from Mallory: Marcia will be getting baptized about a week earlier, so that is exciting.
We are meeting with a new ward member or family weekly and I think that is helping them get to know us better
I feel like I am learning a lot from the ward members here! Sacrament meeting was so great yesterday as they bore their testimonies. I am learning from their examples!
We helped Sister Becks (the one moving) again this week. I just talked with her a lot and have gained so much respect for her. She told me all about her mission and her marriage and all of her wise counsel
I still feel very strongly that I need to help that woman, Ilona, that I met on the train. She is so lost and scared and frantic about her situation in life right now. I pray that I will be able to help her in some way.
The weather got really really warm!
I was able to talk to a cute chinese woman on a train. She really is looking for some kind of miracle. I told her about the priesthood and gave her a BoM. She seems very interested. She just wouldn't give us any contact information, but I guess I did my part the best I could!
We have zone conference tomorrow, so we get to travel to Dortmund. I am really looking forward to that. I need to learn more and feel the spirit! We will also get our ipads tomorrow

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Contacting on the train

6/1/2015

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We had a much better week work-wise than last week! And I am super thankful for that.I keep seeing a bit of a pattern lately. The work goes pretty well, then it doesn't and I get discouraged, then right before I'm completely frustrated but not ready to give up, the Lord gives us a great little miracle and then I'm totally happy again. He gave us a lot of miracles this week!
On Monday night we had planned to go by on a less active because we couldn't get in contact with her. But we changed our plans last minute and decided to visit someone else. On our way there we somehow managed to get in the wrong train and ride it for a good 15 minutes. I contacted someone on the train and so I figured maybe that was the reason why that needed to happen. But then as we were about to get on the right train, I saw this less active that we wanted to go by on! We basically stalked her down the whole train platform and then sat next to her and had a great conversation. She had been having a rough day and was so happy to see us. We visited her the next day and actually just ran into her again about 1 hour ago:)
On Wednesday we were so excited for this great Restoration lesson we were going to have with Vera. We had a member coming, studied a lot, and were just ready to go. And then we got to the church and talked with the member until Vera came. She was probably in the building for a total of 60 seconds! She said she talked to some of her Christian friends and they told her to stay away because we will ruin her Christian progression haha. She gave us her Book of Mormon back and also gave us a nice envelope of quotes, so that was at least kind. We ended up having a great lesson with the member who came though!
We taught an investigator later that day and the lesson wasn't very good. And then no one I was contacting would even listen to me and I was feeling really frustrated and tired. We got on our train to head back to the city and I was just praying in my head that we could find SOMEONE. When we sat down on the train I decided I would talk to the lady sitting across from us but had really just ran out of ideas on how to start a conversation. I ended up asking her how to say the word zipper in German and we got a great conversation going! She said she wants to believe in God and knows that she needs someone's help because she can't do things alone anymore. We were able to tell her that we have a plan in this life and that she is a child of God. We met with her a couple of days ago and it was an awesome lesson. I am so happy for her because I know she has found what she is looking for! And I am really grateful that God helped us find her.
We have set some new transfer goals as a district. We really want to be constantly contacting and getting a certain amount per day. So we have set up a system where our district leader calls us each night to record how many contacts we have. We have only been doing it a week, but apparently there has already been a big improvement in our numbers! We were able to get quite a few new potentials this past week, so that was really exciting!
A few other things we did this week:
-YSA Missionary Weekend. The elders kind of got put in charge, so we helped! We got to give some talks, do some role plays, and we had a street display. Sister Parker went around on the streets for a while using her ipad to share the Because of Him video. It just made me love my calling even more!
-We got to go to primary yesterday
-Sister Oliphant and I ended up helping with a service project today. A family in the ward is moving and so we helped clean the new house a little. I am in love with this new house. It is huge and it is over 100 years old and they are pretty sure it used to house animals.
I'm grateful to be here and to be an instrument in the work. I think I am finally learning a little more how to rely on the Lord and it sure makes a difference!
I hope you are all having a great summer so far. 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

New companion Sister Bray

Marcia was baptized on Friday

Great Week!

Continually Learning

Contacting on the train

About Me

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