Email - March 31

    This week has been kind of crazy and one of the most uplifting weeks of my mission! Holy Moly! So on Tuesday we had Zone Conference, it was our zone, the Gilbert Zone, and the Chandler Zone. Us, as Spanish missionaries cover both zones in our large area. At zone conference we talked a lot about conversion, consecration, and the doctrine of Christ. Our assistants and the Mission President taught us, it was way awesome!! Luckily, we sister training leaders and zone leaders didn't have to train. It scares the daylights out of me haha, but I learn a lot as well from being able to study and train other missionaries! We watched the video about John Tanner, I love this video! We talked about how consecrated he was to the Lord. Very uplifting! We then had district meeting Wednesday. Then on Thursday we had Missionary Leadership Council. It was good, we talked about diligence, how to plan more effectively, and how to use Facebook and online proselyting better. President Toone promised us that if we, as a mission, are diligent in all we do, especially planning, then we can double our baptisms per month by the time of the dead heat of the summer. That is a pretty giant promise!! But we will be diligent!

   On Friday, we had a regular planning meeting and on Saturday, you know, THE GENERAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE!!! Holy Cow! (Santa baca!) I loved it! The spirit was so so strong! I was tearing up in just the first song! Oh man, it was amazing! When all the children sang "Teach Me to Walk in the Light", that was so sweet and I kept imagining Bloom being able to attend this conference in just a year or two! I asked this 8 year old how she enjoyed it after and she just shook her hand like 'mmm so-so" haha. I loved how they talked about judging others is not Christ-like or finding differences in each other. I liked how Sister Burton talked about perfection because that is something I definitely struggle with and I know so do a lot of woman. P.S. Bonnie L. Oscarson is one of my first Zone Leader's and now an assistant's, aunt. So that is cool. The talk from President Eyring was very powerful! I think a lot about before we came down to earth. I think about having to prepare and leave my Father's arms with hope and with faith, that all would be well in this life. I think about what I knew before I came to earth and the fear I may have had that I might not make the right choices on earth to return to live with Heavenly Father. I think of the empathy I had before this life for those people that knew they would not be sent to a home that had the gospel already planted in it, or that came here knowing of the abuse or disasters they would be in. Everything that President Eyring said and explained have been the exact thoughts of my mind. We are not taught about this too often. It is thoughts that I had in my mind that the Holy Ghost gave to me and President Eyring testified of these truths of my thoughts. At the end of his talk he said, "the Holy Ghost testifies of truth, and we all felt it here tonight" this was simple, but so true. I knew just like I did before that I was prepared from a young age to serve a mission at this time. The Lord protected me and prepared me to be here now, and I love it!

   You should read the talk Good, Better, Best. This month we are studying about diligence, and this is a great talk for anyone in any calling to read, even a parent!

   So on Monday night, we taught a man named Armando and his wife, who is a member, Nancy. It was our first lesson with them and so we just did an introduction lesson of what we teach and who we are and set expectations. My Spanish is still not perfect but I do know how to testify and I can't remember exactly what I was talking about at this moment in the lesson but I think I was testifying of how much the gospel will bless their lives. The spirit was so strong, usually the spirit is around us so I feel like we are more immune to the spirit, but at this time the spirit was so strong everyone in the room could feel it. Armando grabbed his wife's hand and laid back on the couch. It was really neat to see how much my ability to speak another language can affect someone's life. I love being able to speak Spanish. It truly is a blessing to learn it! Especially with the Lord helping me so much!

   Everyone tells us how animated we are, and not just boring and strict. We have a lot of fun and we show the members that we love missionary work! I am even learning how to crack some jokes in Spanish :)

2 Nephi 5:27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.

Email - March 24

   So this week has kind of been a blur. It has been a hard week, not in the normal things that usually make it hard but motivation wise! My companion and I go home the same time, so we are both pretty old missionaries and we can see how our motivation is weakening. The whole week we just felt like we were dragging ourselves. We started trying new things. We biked two days, it was really fun! But also in Spanish work, it is really hard because the people are super nice, too nice to say they are not interested. And too nice where they say they will go to church, but they never show up. Most everyone lets us in their house, but they have no desire to learn or anything. So it makes the work super disappointing when they don't keep their commitments. This week it just seemed everything was falling through but we just kept pushing on and decided to write down the little miracles we have each day to have more umph and excitement in the work. Something we noticed is that we have been starting to think more about home because it really is shocking we only have 6 months left, time flies by!!  And this has made it harder for us to focus on our purpose as missionaries. We are going to improve that this week and stop thinking of home, or where we will be in 6 months and stuff like that. LIVE IN THE PRESENT! Because I don't want to ever go home knowing that I could of done more on my mission, that I could of worked harder or talked to more people, or changed more lives. I want to leave with feeling that I accomplished the will that the Lord had for me at the time I served.

   My companion and I laugh a lot, a little too much! Sometimes we have a really hard time praying because funny things happen too much! We are like best friends, and I love her to death! The other day I noticed that I have not thought not even one bad thought about her. Pretty amazing right!

   I will tell you one of the miracles that happened really quickly. So one day we were super tired and drained and were so done with the day. We didn't know any one to visit and we lost all hope. We were about to turn home, even though we had probably about an hour more to work. We decided to visit one of our investigators that isn't progressing very much because we didn't know who else to visit. We parked across from his house and a car pulls out of the driveway of the house we were parked by. They drive up to our window and it ended up it was a person that has definite potential to be baptized, but we lost their contact information! We didn't know where they lived or their phone, so there would have been no way to find them. They told us that they will be at church on Sunday and we can come by on Monday night. It was such a miracle. God knows what He is doing!

   And we put someone on date this week for baptism on April 12th. Her name is Estrella which means star and she is 10. She is adorable!

Email - March 10

Some people call me a wedding planner...

   This week was crazy!! My comp and I planned a wedding and baptism in just a week and a half.. loco!  The wedding was so beautiful! The colors were purple and white, we hung Christmas lights and it was so beautiful! The baptism was great as well! I am the WORST leader of music, let me tell you! But somehow I always get wound up doing it at baptisms! So Pedro and Ana got married on Friday. Ana was less active before and then Pedro got baptized on Saturday. They had to get married for him to be baptized because they were living together. They have been together for 9 years and was still not married!! Holy moly! They are super excited to be sealed in the temple in one year! Pedro is super strong, they will do well! Ana is only a year older than me, and Pedro is a few years older, so quite a young couple compared to the foothills!! They are so awesome!! So it was so funny in the baptism... While Pedro and the person that baptized him were changing, my companion and I taught a little lesson of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pedro came back in and we finished up our presentation (this was all in Spanish.. oh man). We were going to sit down and this lady (investigator of other missionaries and Native American) says "this is how we show our emotion" or something like that and sticks our her arm and like yells/screams! I don't know what to call it but super loud where it hurt everyone's ears and it lasted for like 20 seconds. Ya know in Native American movies where they do that yell thing? I don't know how to explain it and she moved her voice up and down it was crazy!! Haha I was trying so hard to not bust up laughing and I looked around and everyone else was trying not too, as well haha it was so great!! Haha we talked about it all ward council the next day.

   My companion is seriously the best!! I love her so much! I was seriously depressed for a long time and not myself but I finally feel like myself again and she is just so nice and cute and funny!! She says I should be a comedian haha, so at least she laughs at my dumb jokes! 
   I have gained so much knowledge from my mission and so much experience because I have met so many people and I love it. I know how to accomplish the world and I know I am being prepared for everything in my life, right now. There is this other girl we are teaching, she is only 15 and I really feel that she just wants some one to care for her and give her attention. She is seeking acceptance and is trying to find her place in the world. But she is so cute and she wants to know the truth so bad!. I wrote a poem in the MTC about a girl that was lost and had a desire to change. I forgot about it. We were at her house giving a lesson, (she speaks English, her mom doesn't really). I felt like I needed to share a poem that I wrote with her. I pulled out my notebook that has poems in it and I was trying to find a different poem I wrote then I turned to that one. I knew in the MTC when I wrote this poem that I would find the girl I wrote this poem for, but I didn't exactly know why I was writing it then. I read the poem to her and I knew it was for her. The spirit was strong and she said she wants to know more, she wants to change, she wants to go to church, she wants to be baptized, hopefully. This family has a lot of small issues but Heavenly Father is definitely guiding us to keep working with them. Also, when I told her I wanted to share a poem with her I said "I am lame and I like to write poems" and she said that she writes poems too it was cool! She was the one that was lost.
   I ate the NASTIESSSSST thing last Monday ewwww! K, so we went to our ward mission leader's home to talk to him about the baptism and he asks if we would like a dessert, we say sure. Bad idea!!! It was like mushy bread with prunes and coconut with 3 milks. Just way mushy and nasty!!!! We both wanted to puke because we practically ate puke. yuck!! 

   My Spanish has been getting so much better it is insane!! I thought we spoke English one time when we contacted someone because I understood everything perfectly! It was awesome but I still am way bad haha but it is getting better little by little! My comp helps me a lot!!

   So I forgot to tell you what one of the members said in my last area when I was leaving. His name is Kevin Smith and I was pretty close with his family, he is the 2nd counselor and his wife is the RS president. It was so touching what he said!! He said to me "I know you are a humble person but you are living proof that one person can make a difference." I am thankful people saw my love for the work and the Lord. I have always wanted to make a difference in other's lives, and now is my time to do that. 

Pedro's wedding

Pedro's baptism

Email - March 3

   I am in Gilbert, AZ!!! From border of mission to other border of the mission! I am in a Spanish ward with my very very cute companion (Hermana Segura) and two Elders, Elder Vorkink (served with him in Yuma, so I know him pretty well and he is my district leader now) and Elder Whitted. Sister Segura is from Colombia, but has lived in Mesa, AZ since she has been 6. She is a native Spanish speaker and the cutest little thing ever!! Our ward is way cool! It is called Ray 5th Barrio(ward).Do I miss Yuma? Not so much but I do miss the people there a ton!! It is nice to be able to see them on facebook and stuff! I serve in both Gilbert and Chandler with the Spanish work. I don't have any English work anymore, just Spanish :) It is awesome... except the food. blah.. I don't really like Mexican food. Some things are good and it depends who cooks, but it is a lot of fat and grease. And they feed you more than you can ever imagine! And you can't say no or they get offended! My first two dinners here were actually pasta haha and then I had Venezuelan food. It was really good and not fatty or anything. But I swear I gained like 5 pounds that night because they just kept feeding me and I couldn't say no especially because they are our investigators!! Instead of tortillas they have arepas and  you put beans and meat in it. TASTY!! but I was going to die because I ate too much!! Then I had pazole. It is a type of soup and the meat in it is pig spine. They leave the bones in it and fat up the wazoo, yuck! It is good minus all the fatty meat and bones. I couldn't finish it and then she gave me more!! I told her my stomach just isn't prepared for eating so much, yet. Then she gave us rice pudding. She was nice about it and didn't seem too offended. We had dinner at the bishop's last night. He is so cool!! He is from Spain and speaks perfect English. His wife is American and went on a mission to Texas Spanish speaking. We had homemade Cafe Rio it was so delicious!! That is my kind of mexican food!! haha

    So the Gilbert Temple Culture Celebration was on Saturday. It was AMAZING!! A little cheesy but so GREAT!! It was so neat to see so many youth together and unified. There are a lot of members here!! I love it here, it is so nice and looks a lot like St. George! It is very different than Yuma haha I am glad I went to Yuma first because if I went here then Yuma it would be a lot more depressing haha. I am actually in Sister Funke's old area and she told me tons of stories about the people here so I am trying to remember everything. But she told me a lot, so I forget! I would live here, it is nice! But anyway on Saturday it was RAINING like POURING! It never rains here and of course, the day of the OUTSIDE Culture Celebration, it rains!! It was really cold! I don't know how those youth did it!! It was at 7 pm when it started! WOW! It was so neat though! They had such good attitudes and everything! The Prophet I guess was looking a little sick, so that isn't good! President Eyring came with him and he is so cute, cheering on the youth! I watched the dedication yesterday in Spanish haha. Ask me what I understood... nada!! Haha jk well I understood it if I was paying full attention, using all brain power in the world! haha But that got me exhausted so sometimes I started dozing off, but I tried really hard! It was really cool to see it in Spanish though! President Eyring mentioned the Draper Temple, I don't know what about it, but he mentioned it haha! With the Tucson and Phoenix Temples coming soon, there will be 6 temples in AZ. There are 400,000 members in AZ. It is cool to think that I have been a part of helping bring some of those 400,000 to the gospel. 

   The main investigator we have is Pedro. He is getting baptized this Saturday and married this Friday. Yeah, take that friends! I get to go to a wedding, too! And I get to plan it a little, so that is cool! I will send pics! And the Venezualian Family, they are super chevre! 

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.