Sister Mallory Funk
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Wonderful Christmas in Germany!

12/28/2015

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This was such a good week! We thought it was going to be really slow because of the three days that Germans celebrate for Christmas, but we saw tons of miracles yesterday!
Monday:
We enjoyed our last pday at the Christmas market! And we bought more stuff haha. We did a little split with the other sisters so we could buy our companions presents. It was just a beautiful night and we took some time to enjoy the fact that we are in this wonderful country.That night we went by a former investigator. We decided to try to get in contact with a bunch of people by bringing by joy to the world all wrapped up as a gift for Christmas. This lady let us in and we were able to share the Christmas imitative with her. She is going to a
health clinic soon and we made her promise that she would take the Book of Mormon with her!
Tuesday:
Way weird day. We split with the international sisters so that we could finish our split that we had started the week before and ended because I got sick. Sister Bakker and I did studies together and then went to the street display. We gave out a few Books of Mormon and got to talk to a super cute girl from China. Then we went to a church to do a service project. There is a church in Frankfurt that holds a giant feed the homeless activity on the 24th and the 25th and we were supposed to help early on the 25 to serve food. But they ended up not
needing us:( we did however get to help decorate this giant room for the feeding the homeless. And it took FOREVER. there were about 65 tables that we had to cover with paper to be table cloths and we had to wrap each table individually. Everything looked good on the end, but it was a lot of work. While we worked, I was able to talk to a girl about our church and religion in general. At first she was asking me all about regular life things and I just can't even talk about that anymore so I switched the topic to god haha... Later that night we did our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader. But we held the meeting at the Christmas market and he bought all of us wurst:) we did more eating than correlating but it was way fun. We are blessed with an awesome ward mission leader and councilors! Today I met a lot of cool people in the buses and trains. I met a
really nice lady from Romania and we are going to visit her this week! I think her daughter is interested too. I also ran into a previous investigator and a woman I had contacted a couple weeks earlier.
Wednesday:
Today we got a little bit of studies in and then headed to a coordination meeting to plan a zone training. We actually had to go to their apartment and sit on chairs in their hallway so that we could be obedient. We probably looked so weird! They had to be at their apartment for a gas pipe check type thing. This zone training is going to be so good! Then we had district meeting and I got to give a thema about charity and Christmas.
We traveled to Darmstadt to do a power split with the sisters and their district and we did a finding activity together. We went to their town square and then just started singing Christmas songs! People loved us. We also found 4 potentials for the sisters:) I love splits because they are such good learning opportunities for both of us! I was able to contact with a brand new sister. We met a really cool girl who couldn't believe that we wanted her to think more about God haha. But she was open and said she would give it a try. Wednesday night was wonderful. We visited the Turovski family and cooked Russian food with the mom and her niece. I absolutely love this family! They are part member and less active. This niece is also not a member. There were a ton of languages going on and we are teaching them English too:) it took us two hours to make this dish but it was so worth it. Sister Turovski said a prayer in Ukrainian again and cried again. It was wonderful!
Thursday:
Today we did studies and then baked a lot of cookies to give to the members who invited us over:) we visited a single sister who is less active to bring her a bit of Christmas cheer. We watched the Christmas devotional in German with the ward. And then we went to sister gessner's for Christmas Eve. She lives on the 19th floor of a high rise and has such a beautiful view of the skyline! I'm pretty sure she cooked all day for us. She fed us a three course meal with lamb and a ton of German foods. She is also a great story teller and she told us
all about her experiences with World War Two. She was 6 when the war ended and she remembers so much. She and her family had some way crazy experiences and we were fascinated. I just love the Germans!
The sisters slept over at our apartment because president gave us permission for a Christmas sleepover haha. We put 4 mattresses on the floor and sister Bakker played some Christmas songs for us on her guitar. Sister Parker and I may have stayed up way too late talking...I'm so grateful for her.
Friday:
Sister Parker and I went on a run together at 6:30 and the other sisters started baking for our Christmas breakfast with the Frankfurt missionaries. We opened presents together and then joined everyone
else at the church! We played white elephant with the missionaries and ate a lot. President and sister Stoddard stopped by and shared a sweet Christmas spiritual thought and then the went to their breakfast with
the senior missionary couples. Then we traveled to visit two single sisters who made lunch for us
together. We were not hungry, but we managed to eat it! It was just way weird celebrating Christmas not with families haha. Just different but still good! Sister Godwin and I were able to study for a while and then we got to skype with the family!
Saturday:
We started out the day with another zone training planning session for a different zone. This one is also going to be great! Then we went to a baptism and I got to play the piano again. I have to explain the story because it's so cool. So Muhammad is a refugee here and has been here for three months. He had heard somehow about the church before and referred himself by walking into the church. And he got baptized last week:) then he brought his friend to church and he got baptized on Saturday. And this friend brought his other friend to his baptism and he will be getting baptized next week. It's so amazing! There are so many refugees here and we are all pretty sure this part of hastening the work:)
We visited Schwester Hickathier today and brought her more Reese's and sang a few songs for her.Then all nine of us missionaries loaded up in what we call the family Frankfurt van and drove to the Hovizavi family for lunch. This wonderful woman invited all nine of us haha. I'm pretty sure she cooked 5 chickens and made pounds of rice. Everything was so good and it was fun to be with such a big group of people!
That night we tried to visit that Romanian girl  I wrote about, but she wasn't at home. But I met a cool guy on the way there and then we shared the Christmas video with a lady on the street.
Sunday:
MIRACLE DAY. I was honestly feeling pretty sad about the work for this week and was just praying that it could pick up these next four weeks! And it did. I had my going home interview before church..that came a lot sooner
than I had expected! It was really nice being able to talk to president Stoddard and I think we talked about marriage for a solid hour. Good thing I'm still a missionary! But I'm grateful for him and sister Stoddard and their advice and counsel! Then I did something absolutely terrifying and had to play the ORGAN in sacrament meeting. I have no clue how to play an organ but the bishop insisted that it had to be the organ and not the piano. It was rough, but we made it through! The gospel doctrines class was so good. A family from China brought two of their friends and they want to learn more and we get to teach them today! I love members.
Then brother Turovski came up to us and said he wants us to start preparing his 10 year old son for baptism:)
Then we went to dinner with a funny but cute couple. It was very German-pasta salad and wurst.
We finished the day with call ins and we were ready for bed haha Well I'm just so grateful. Life is good and the mission is great and I'm so thankful for this gospel. I just see every day how happy life is when you live it:)
Happy new year and I love you!...even though you didn't write me:)
Sister Funk


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It's Christmas Week 2015

12/21/2015

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with Sister Parker and Sister Pettit!
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Our funny group at zone Conference
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Smoothies with Sister Meyer
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The Christmas Markets in Germany are awesome!
FROHE WEIHNACHTEN!!!

I'm sorry but we don't have a ton of time this week either haha. And it wasn't the most eventful week!  We had mlc and zone conference. Elder Johnson spoke to us and I learned a ton!  We met with Paul and he is going to think about being baptized while he is in Florida and give us an answer when he gets back We went with  Agnieszka to her Catholic Church for some carols  I split with sister Meyer in Friedrichsdorf.  We did a lot of contacting! I gave a Book of Mormon to a guy who just got out of jail that day and told me he would like to change his life, we talked with a drunk man through his window, a lady let us in and watched the Christmas video, and then a lady told me "some people just don't want to be saved." That hit me pretty hard and it was a little sad. We did some go-bys and met weird people on buses and found scary apartment buildings. I split with sister Bakker for a couple of hours and we went to the YW Christmas party. Some YW brought their friends!
Then the next day I woke up fevered and really sick and we had to split back early and I had to stay inside for the first time on my mission. It was awful! We went to a baptism in the international ward and drank really weird chia drinks that are popular in Iran. Did some streets on a Saturday in a shopping center with way too many people, but we got a potential.  Ate pizza with some wonderful members And visited Bianca and talked about the temple. Christopher is sick, so we are hoping he gets better and we can keep working up to his baptism.
I finished the Book of Mormon in German this week and this scripture really stood out to me!
Moroni 9:25 My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever. I love the phrase, "may Christ lift thee up." Because I know he somehow always will!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND I CANT WAIT TO SKYPE YOU

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Making progress and enjoying every minute!

12/14/2015

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We had an interesting, great, and busy week in Frankfurt!  And I don't have much time today because we spent a little too much time at the Christmas markets... But here are the wonderful things that happened this week
-we got to do the street display with the new sisters who came to the mission! -three sisters going home spent the night at our house and we will sure miss them -we took one of the assistants suits to the dry cleaners. That was a new one for us -the assistants pranked me and made me think I was talking to the Köln elders for a referral but it was all made up!
-I played the piano for the choir and everything went perfectly this time
-Paul is making wonderful wonderful progress! He even went to 6 hours of church yesterday haha. Bless his heart. We are going to ask him to be baptized tonight!
-Monica came to the testimony meeting and LOVED it. We will meet with her on Thursday and ask her to be baptized too:)
-Christopher came to church yesterday and is on track for his baptism! We had an awesome joint teach help us with him and now they're great friends
-dory got baptized! She is the cousin of a part member family and has been working with the assistants. It was so fun because we had all the new missionaries and all the leaving missionaries and all the missionaries in Frankfurt there...she got lots of love and support! Paul also visited and felt the spirit
-we had the ward Christmas party! Paul came to that too. We got to sing a few American Christmas songs and three elders dressed up as the three wise men to give out the gifts
-we made pumpkin soup
-we discovered a new street to do street contacting
-we met with Paola today and I still just love her. She got her apartment all finished and is reading the scriptures
-I get to see Sister Pettitt tomorrow at MLC!!
-this week is also zone conference and someone from the 70 is visiting

I'm really excited for our investigators and the spiritual experiences they had this week. They're all so committed and making progress and it is so fun to watch! I'm so happy and grateful to be here.
Love you all!
Sister Funk

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Saw some Miracles this week!

12/7/2015

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District Picture! Transfers are tomorrow.
This was quite a week! But it was really good. 
My testimony of fasting was really strengthened because we saw a ton of miracles this week!

-On Monday night we did some street contacting and ran into a guy that I had met before on this street. And he told us he wants to come to church! And the miracle is that he actually did come to church! He loved it and already knows a ton about Mormons..he may have read a bit too much on google, but we will take care of that..And we will be teaching him on Tuesday!
-On Wednesday we got a call from Kai! He is a past investigator who didn't call us back for a while. I almost cried. I have so much hope for him and we just had to be patient. We will be meeting with him tomorrow:)
-We FINALLY met with Monika this week! She works at a day care type place for old people and sisters have been doing service there for like 2 years. And she is now investigating the church! She literally told me she is searching and thinks this church might be what she is looking for. 
-We doored into a really nice man on Friday. We had 9 minutes to knock on a few doors before the train came and we found him! We will be going back this week.
-One of our less actives is setting a goal to make it to the temple in the year of 2016:)

There were lots of little miracles too and I'm just so grateful for everything.

I also had a rather humbling experience this week. I feel like I swallowed a nice humble pill on Tuesday haha. We went to visit with an investigator and she told us a story about how her mom sent her cigarettes from Poland and she sent them back to her mom because she is trying to quit smoking. I really wanted to show her that I was excited for her and proud of her so I told her that and told her I thought she was doing awesome. Then she told me I wasn't listening to her... So I'm not sure if I misunderstood or if she misunderstood or if I need to work on my listening skills and deal with some more silence in our lessons. But it just really made me take a step back and reevaluate how I can be a better teacher. It is also very clear that she likes my companion better than she likes me haha. And honestly I think I needed to realize that too. It wasn't a fun experience in the moment, but I'm grateful that I can take it and learn from it.

I went on a split to Wiesbaden in the American area. We visited some awesome families and I learned a ton about how the military functions! We even made homemade fries too. We cleaned a sister's house, delivered dinner to someone, contacted in the buses, did p90x in the morning and I almost died, and worked on personal progress with a recently reactivated member.

We had a street display on Saturday right next to the christmas market in frankfurt. I'm not even kidding when I say no one would stop for two seconds haha. We were all a bit frusrated. So me, my companion, and the international sisters decided we would sing some christmas songs. We started singing and it made no difference haha. I think we need a guitar or something. We are going to figure something more effective out! 

We also had a very memorable service activity on Saturday. We offered to help out a benefit concert for this babysitting place for older people that I mentioned earlier. We took the international sisters with us. And they needed our help distributing tickets, showing people where to hang their coats, and serving the drinks that people bought. Turns out the choir was a lesbian choir and it was just a rather interesting experience. We will leave it at that:)

I was able to teach the gospel principles class yesterday. I decided I am really really going to miss teaching when I go home! I also played for the ward choir to sing in church and that was a funny experience. I accidentally put the pages in the wrong order and then my companion turned the pages wrong. So the choir had to sing without me for a few lines until we sorted everything out! 

Transfers are tomorrow and things sure got changed up in the Mission! We no longer do a giant conference call to announce who goes were. They just called individual people and we were all freaking out because we didn't know what was going on! people will also be going straight to their areas rather than meeting in frankfurt and then going. There will be three assistants instead of two and we are getting two new zone leaders in frankfurt rather than just one. Sister Pettitt is going to be a sister training leader in heidelberg, so I will get to see her a lot this transfer at meetings. I AM SO EXCITED. We are getting quite a few new sisters in the zones, so I am excited to meet them and go on splits with them!

I love you all and hope you have a good week!
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

    Archives

    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Dear Sister Funk:
    You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Germany Frankfurt Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the German language. 
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