Email - February 24

Living with the waxed old and stricken in years...
   So this week has been pretty slow and all but a few things that stand out.

First of all, Ever since I have been here I have been teaching a family. The Rodriguez family. The are an English-speaking family. The mom is a less active member and she is wayyyyyyyy cool!! She is on border patrol and she is way fit! It is fun to talk to her! Her husband is not a member and she has two kids (Esteban 14 or 15 and large in stature. And Sylvia who I always call Sophia...embarrasing and she just turned 12). And missionaries in the past have always been trying to teach their family but they are super busy with their weird schedules and the kids play lots of sports.  Anyway, the miracle... The last week I am in the ward they all of a sudden show up to church, not the dad but the mom and three kids!! So that was so cool! I was so happy! :) I guess Sylvia woke up and said "I want to go to young women's today!" So they came.

    One of the Relief Society Presidents here (Sister Zinn) gave us a vinyl saying that says "Nothing is impossible, the word it self says I'M POSSIBLE" I thought that was clever :) She is so cute! I am going to miss her!

   I guess Sister White (Sadie) is coming to Yuma for Stake conference at the end of March. Everyone is excited about that!

   Yesterday, in the Mesa Del Sol ward we had a Break the Fast after church, I felt like it was my farewell dinner, again. I feel like I am leaving home, again haha. I am going to miss a lot of people! Thank goodness for facebook!

   And... I am leaving, Sister Funke is staying. This is weird. I am excited though! I will see where I am going on Wednesday though :) New beginnings...

Email - February 18

    Lou got baptized on Friday morning, Valentines day. The spirit was felt by every single person in the room. I wish we had an investigator or less active there to feel that strong spirit but all the members even said how beautiful the baptism was and said that everyone in the ward should of been there. Lou cried and cried during the opening song "How Great Thou Art" it was the cutest thing ever! I was leading the music and that song is so hard to lead, it gets me confused every time. But life goes on. Haha. Lou took us out to Applebees Monday night (yesterday) he is so funny! At church on Sunday he came up to us and said "Sister Funke, thank you for singing at my baptism, now I will serenade you both at Applebees tomorrow night because I only fear God" haha good thing he didn't sing too much at Applebees, that would have been embarrassing, well for him haha but he did sing a little bit, it was funny. 

    I found a new word for old people in 1st Nephi and that is "stricken in years" so now I call all our neighbors my friends that are stricken in years. haha :) 

   Uhm... yesterday we went to San Luis and played sports and ate Carne Asada. That was fun. I am really bad at naturally every sport, so that is cool. Except I am alright at basketball (thanks Pops for teaching me well). There was one elder who is way nice and was teaching me how to hit a baseball because I gave up. I think it has to do a lot with my messed up eye balls and my depth perception. But he was impressed with how much I knew about baseball. I can watch it but playing it is another story. 

   I went on an exchange with Sister Rawlings, from California. I like her, she's really cool. We went out to Wellton and contacted this former investigator that Sister Arellano and I taught. He came to church twice while we were teaching him. But he has been so busy and it was hard for us to come out to Wellton, but it was really cool because his family is still way interested. Sister Rawlings prayed and the mom said she felt the spirit so strongly and had tears in her eyes. This was all in Spanish. Yeah, it was good.

   We taught mission prep on Sunday and that was fun. There was like 6 people there. It was for  the whole stake haha. I wish I was more prepared before my mission. Remember how I only went to like 4 classes of mission prep and 2 temple prep classes. Oops.

Email - February 10

  On Wednesday. we had Zone Meeting. We trained the missionaries in our zone and so did the Zone Leaders. Our new goal, as a mission is to read the Book of Mormon, again. About 8 pages a day, so we will end by the end of next transfer. Which is I think is Shay's birthday, April 2nd. I am only in 1 Nephi 16. But I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!! Hopefully I can keep up with the group this time. It takes me like an hour to read 8 pages. I like to search, study, and mark.

   This morning we went on a hike with our district and zone leaders, Telegraph Pass again. Oh I am sick with a cold, but my comp couldn't make it all the way up so we waited for the rest of the elders to get back and we walked back down with them. We almost made it to the top, but not quite. My comp almost threw up. When we visit Yuma together, we will definitely hike this as a family, it is awesome!! So steep! I started getting sick on Saturday night, I was letting go too much of my germaphobia. This is only the third time I have been sick on my mission... AMAZING! Heavenly Father has blessed me! Oh, but this morning on the hike I fell! It was so funny! I fell on my butt, sliding down the rocks and it is so weird because in normal life, everyone would laugh, but all the missionaries are just like "are you okay?" and then move on. It was way funny, but me and my comp were the only ones laughing. I guess they are afraid to hurt feelings, but whateves. 

   Lou, our Filipino investigator is getting baptized on Valentines Day. It will be exciting! He is so funny! He is 70 and he likes to sing songs to us and calls us his 'angels'. He is funny! He went to the open house on Friday and he called us after and said "I am ready to be baptized and am proud to be a LDS. " It is funny the way he says it. He is a cute little old man!! 

Me on the hike to Telegraph Pass

Email - February 3

   So. this week we went up to MLC (missionary leadership council). It was good. It is amazing how much our mission is changing and continuing to change so much!! But it is apparently good changes because our numbers are going up more and more. Highlight of the week, Wednesday I was standing on a rolly, spinny chair, checking out my outfit. I was stepping down and I totally ate it. It was so funny but, I was the only one to see it because my companion was in the shower. She told me that she heard it and that I shook the whole house haha! It was one of the funnest things I have done! It got me in a really good mood the rest of the day. 

   Last week I forgot to tell you this but these little kids asked me if I could sleep over at there house. I told them I couldn't because I didn't have my pajamas. They said "Just call your mom and have her bring them, And ask your mom if you can sleepover" haha it was funny!