 Beautiful weather! We are actually wearing scarfs in July! |  Great discussion with Frau Nowak. She even took us to lunch. |
 Wild blackberries are all over Germany. We love them.  Pranked by the Elder's. It was a fun surprise! |  Osagie's cute daughters  Sister Bray and I enjoying a little rain! |
We started this past week off really well with one of the best pdays ever! Familie Krause invited us and the elders to go to a place called Zons. It's a very small, old, and cute city. But the best part of this whole ordeal was that they gave us each a bike and we biked there! A lot of people in Germany travel with bikes and I never thought that that would be great, but we are all big fans now. We started the bike ride at their house and then rode through the prettiest forrest I've ever seen. There were a ton of trees, wild flowers, swamps, birds and it reminded me of the Bog Gardens in NC. I think we rode the bikes for about 45 minutes and then we took a quick ferry ride to this city. We saw the old church, fountains, and windmill in the city and just rode around and then rode back. And like usual we ate some cake and drank bubbly water in their fancy garden afterwards.
We had a great appointment this week with Guadalupe, the Sister in our ward from Peru. She invites us over often and she is like my grandma here in Germany. I feel like I just learn so many life lessons from her strong testimony and humble character. I think humility is one of the greatest attributes and it is something I want to have more of! Guadalupe also invited a friend to take the lessons a few months ago. Things kind of dropped off, but it's going again so we are excited to see how it goes!
We are continuing to teach Osagie. She is from Ghana and could talk about God all day long. She says she thinks God sent us to her for a special reason so she knows she should listen to us. The problem is that a lot of Africans love to hear the word of God, but they don't exactly think there is one true church. I really like teaching her though and hope she will read more in the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony.
I got to go on a split with Sister Heywood on Wednesday! She's one transfer older than me and I feel so grateful for all of her wisdom. I learned a lot from her on our split that I needed to learn. We were talking about our progression on the mission and everything we have learned so far and also about our studies. She made a good point that we have learned a lot of missionary work skills, but something we can always improve on is what is in our heart. That is what I needed to hear! I love to contact and study and teach, but something I could really work on is doing it with more love and understanding rather than just to do it. I'm really grateful I have 6 months to work on this more and study it out a lot more. On our split we had the opportunity to teach a woman named Angelika and her son, Simon. They found her while dooring a few days before and she is golden! We taught a lot about the Book of Mormon and she is simply so teachable and eager to learn this Gospel. Her son is only 10 and he is also completely onboard. The best part of our appointment is when she said her first prayer at the end. I've decided this is one of the sweetest experiences we get to have as missionaries. Investigators' first prayers are always so simple, heartfelt, sincere, and earnest. It is a good example for me and my prayers!
We are currently working with a less active who is about our age. She has a very strong testimony but is a busy mom and just needs a bit of a push to come to church. I have complete faith that she is coming next week! I just really love visiting her and discussing the gospel with her. She also surprised us with a referral! Her desire to do missionary work without fear is amazing. She called her friend up right in front of us and set up an appointment! Something I still need to learn a lot about is working with members, but this was a great start.
Frau Nowak is making progress in her home! Slowly but surely. She has not been making a ton of spiritual progress though. I just know that she needs to read in the Book of Mormon and then she will have a greater desire to learn. She is the sweetest lady and is so grateful for the help we have provided her. She even took us to lunch for our lesson on Saturday.
Marcia is working a ton and it is causing her to not be able to meet with us and not be able to come to church...so I called her up and we had a good 30 minute conversation and I got her to let us stop by with cookies Saturday night! She promised me she still has a testimony and we are praying that she stays strong.
Livia, the miracle from last week, came to church again! Our appointment last week fell out but we are meeting with her on Wednesday this week. We're so excited. Church today was fuller than normal because a neighboring ward had a problem with a pipe in their building and cancelled church, so a lot of members came to us! It was pretty fun having 8 missionaries in the ward. I feel blessed to be serving in this ward and to have built up relationships with these awesome members. I don't want to leave Düsseldorf! This is the last week of the transfer and I hope I can stay just one more.
We visited Caroline today and had a really good lesson. She knows what she needs to do to prepare for baptism and gain a testimony. We talked a lot about Christ's Atonement and how that truly changes everything. I can't imagine what it would be like to not know of his sacrifice and to understand that I don't have to be perfect and I don't have to live with guilt or sorrow!
We were on a strassenbahn going home yesterday and a cute family with two kids sat across from us. I really wanted to talk to them but then they all stood up to get off. But then the mom actually stayed on the train so I started talking to her right away! She said we could definitely come visit and we set up an appointment. We are really excited because this is a FAMILY.
The Elders pulled a nice prank on us this week. I'll send you pictures! They have keys to our apartment so they filed up our entire shower with balloons! We still haven't popped them all. We would really like to get them back but need to find their keys first.
Sister Bray and I are looking forward to this new week! We set some more great goals. We felt a little bit weird last week not having a set goal like our BoM goal, so we made up a new one. We want to talk with 100 Germans this week. It's really easy to talk with immigrants because they are actually nice and responsive, but we want to teach more Germans, so we need to talk to more Germans. We also have a ton of new health goals because we need to stop eating so much German chocolate.
I can't believe I have almost been a missionary for a year! I really didn't think I would ever get here and I don't even want to be at this point. I'm just grateful to know that I still have a solid amount of time to learn and grow some more.
I hope you have a good week and I love you!
Love, Sister Funk
We had a great appointment this week with Guadalupe, the Sister in our ward from Peru. She invites us over often and she is like my grandma here in Germany. I feel like I just learn so many life lessons from her strong testimony and humble character. I think humility is one of the greatest attributes and it is something I want to have more of! Guadalupe also invited a friend to take the lessons a few months ago. Things kind of dropped off, but it's going again so we are excited to see how it goes!
We are continuing to teach Osagie. She is from Ghana and could talk about God all day long. She says she thinks God sent us to her for a special reason so she knows she should listen to us. The problem is that a lot of Africans love to hear the word of God, but they don't exactly think there is one true church. I really like teaching her though and hope she will read more in the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony.
I got to go on a split with Sister Heywood on Wednesday! She's one transfer older than me and I feel so grateful for all of her wisdom. I learned a lot from her on our split that I needed to learn. We were talking about our progression on the mission and everything we have learned so far and also about our studies. She made a good point that we have learned a lot of missionary work skills, but something we can always improve on is what is in our heart. That is what I needed to hear! I love to contact and study and teach, but something I could really work on is doing it with more love and understanding rather than just to do it. I'm really grateful I have 6 months to work on this more and study it out a lot more. On our split we had the opportunity to teach a woman named Angelika and her son, Simon. They found her while dooring a few days before and she is golden! We taught a lot about the Book of Mormon and she is simply so teachable and eager to learn this Gospel. Her son is only 10 and he is also completely onboard. The best part of our appointment is when she said her first prayer at the end. I've decided this is one of the sweetest experiences we get to have as missionaries. Investigators' first prayers are always so simple, heartfelt, sincere, and earnest. It is a good example for me and my prayers!
We are currently working with a less active who is about our age. She has a very strong testimony but is a busy mom and just needs a bit of a push to come to church. I have complete faith that she is coming next week! I just really love visiting her and discussing the gospel with her. She also surprised us with a referral! Her desire to do missionary work without fear is amazing. She called her friend up right in front of us and set up an appointment! Something I still need to learn a lot about is working with members, but this was a great start.
Frau Nowak is making progress in her home! Slowly but surely. She has not been making a ton of spiritual progress though. I just know that she needs to read in the Book of Mormon and then she will have a greater desire to learn. She is the sweetest lady and is so grateful for the help we have provided her. She even took us to lunch for our lesson on Saturday.
Marcia is working a ton and it is causing her to not be able to meet with us and not be able to come to church...so I called her up and we had a good 30 minute conversation and I got her to let us stop by with cookies Saturday night! She promised me she still has a testimony and we are praying that she stays strong.
Livia, the miracle from last week, came to church again! Our appointment last week fell out but we are meeting with her on Wednesday this week. We're so excited. Church today was fuller than normal because a neighboring ward had a problem with a pipe in their building and cancelled church, so a lot of members came to us! It was pretty fun having 8 missionaries in the ward. I feel blessed to be serving in this ward and to have built up relationships with these awesome members. I don't want to leave Düsseldorf! This is the last week of the transfer and I hope I can stay just one more.
We visited Caroline today and had a really good lesson. She knows what she needs to do to prepare for baptism and gain a testimony. We talked a lot about Christ's Atonement and how that truly changes everything. I can't imagine what it would be like to not know of his sacrifice and to understand that I don't have to be perfect and I don't have to live with guilt or sorrow!
We were on a strassenbahn going home yesterday and a cute family with two kids sat across from us. I really wanted to talk to them but then they all stood up to get off. But then the mom actually stayed on the train so I started talking to her right away! She said we could definitely come visit and we set up an appointment. We are really excited because this is a FAMILY.
The Elders pulled a nice prank on us this week. I'll send you pictures! They have keys to our apartment so they filed up our entire shower with balloons! We still haven't popped them all. We would really like to get them back but need to find their keys first.
Sister Bray and I are looking forward to this new week! We set some more great goals. We felt a little bit weird last week not having a set goal like our BoM goal, so we made up a new one. We want to talk with 100 Germans this week. It's really easy to talk with immigrants because they are actually nice and responsive, but we want to teach more Germans, so we need to talk to more Germans. We also have a ton of new health goals because we need to stop eating so much German chocolate.
I can't believe I have almost been a missionary for a year! I really didn't think I would ever get here and I don't even want to be at this point. I'm just grateful to know that I still have a solid amount of time to learn and grow some more.
I hope you have a good week and I love you!
Love, Sister Funk
