Sorry for the delayed email!!! I was waiting to send you this pic

So... I'm still getting over my cold. Not feeling 100% but I'm working on it. These last 2 weeks have been kinda weird. 2 Monday's ago president called us and said that me and Elder Tomlinson were being transferred, last minute. He told us to pack all of our things and meet him at the mission office Tuesday morning. We did as he said and met him there at 11 am. The new greenies came in and and he spent all day with them. We waited and waited for further instruction. Well, he told us that he wasn't sure where he was going to put us yet, but to stay on standby. We stayed the night in a vacant missionary apartment.

Wednesday rolled around, and president still didn't tell us where he wanted us. So we waited all Wednesday and still nothing. Wednesday night came and president told us to go back to our area for the time being, and that we would be transferred next Tuesday. Well that didn't happen, so one week after that we are still here in Olivehurst/ Wheatland.

So something super exciting happened 2 days ago....

Cassandra was baptized by Elder Tomlinson, and David was baptized by me. It was an awesome experience and the spirit was so strong there.

Those 2 kids have been waiting to be baptized for years. I am so glad that I was able to be a part of bringing them into this wonderful church.

So spiritual thought for this week:  in sacrament yesterday a lady talked about listening to the spirit. She talked about how we have to tune our hearts to listen to when, and what the spirit speaks to us. I thought of a time in my life that I have had to tune to something in order to listen to it. I thought of my truck. I love music and I had loud speakers. It was nice to be able to listen to music while driving to my destination, yet it was distracting. I thought to when I rolled my truck and after I had it back on the road again. I never put speakers back in and I drove it without music for a good few months.

For those few months, I didn't have the luxury of listening to music, but I had the blessing of being able to listen to every sound my truck would make. Good and bad. I was "in tune" with all aspects of my truck. I then was able to hear things that needed my attention and fix them. The same is true in our lives with many things. When we remove distractions like music, and are able to be "in tune" with the spirit.

We are able to listen to the spirit and what it has to tell us. Both good and bad. After that, we are able to make adjustments to our lives for the better.

Love, Elder Funley

 

Elder Tomlinson, Cassandra, David, and ME!

The Martinez Family

 

Active teenagers, never able to be baptised until today:  truly the hand of the Lord working miracles and blessing lives.

February 22, 2016: 2 Pictures = 2000 Words

Hey guys! I've been sick this past week and I don't feel like writing :( I still love you all and pray for each and every one of you. They say that pictures are worth 1000 words. So here are 2000 words.

                                  This is a picture of a rainbow we saw in our area!

                                This is us with a few other missionaries on Beal Air Force Base


Love, Elder Funley

A Message from President Marsten

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Dear Missionaries:

This week we invite each of you to begin to read the Book of Mormon daily starting on February 10 and to finish reading the entire book by April 10.  The next day Monday, April 11^th we have planned an all-mission temple morning (three sessions) at the Sacramento Temple.  This reading assignment will help lift us and prepare us for that wonderful experience together.   Reading the Book of Mormon in sixty days will mean reading about 9 pages per day.   A personalized copy of the Book of Mormon will be given to you by your zone leaders at your zone meeting this week.  Inside the front cover is a reading schedule as well as quotes from President Ezra Taft Benson concerning the power of reading the Book of Mormon.  As you read, we invite you to find and mark in red every reference to Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  

The authors of the Book of Mormon wanted its readers to receive a witness of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer.  The Book of Mormon came forth with the intent to convince Jews and Gentiles that JESUS is the CHRIST.  The Book of Mormon is “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.”

In August 2005 President Gordon B. Hinckley invited everyone to read or re-read the Book of Mormon by Christmas.  In issuing that invitation, President Hinckley made this promise:  “Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program . . . there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.”  I believe in these promises.  As we read the Book of Mormon together, we will see miracles in our missionary service.

Sister Marston and I are excited to embark on this wonderful program with you and to feel the power of the Book of Mormon blessing our lives and yours.

We love you and pray for you.

Much of the Christian world today rejects the divinity of the Savior. They question His miraculous birth, His perfect life, and the reality of His glorious resurrection. The Book of Mormon teaches in plain and unmistakable terms about the truth of all of those. It also provides the most complete explanation of the doctrine of the Atonement. Truly, this divinely inspired book is a keystone in bearing witness to the world that Jesus is the Christ” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson [2014], 129–30). 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland identified Twenty Teachings in the Book of Mormon on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  In your reading this week look for Number 1:  Nephi’s record of the “God of Nature” suffering and the first of Isaiah’s testimonies of the Messiah (1 Nephi 19, 21)

Best regards,

President Michael F. Marston
California Roseville Mission

I had to pack up and move.....been busy! February 8, 2016

Hey everyone!!! Sorry I was not able to email last week! I had a ton of stuff to pack up and clean. We had to move out of our beautiful home and into a little apartment in Wheatland California. We did so much service this week and it was great!

So we received a referral this week and have tried contacting her at least 8 times. Each time she answers, she tells us she's busy. That's missionary work I guess!! We've been working with many less active members these past 2 weeks and are trying our hardest to help them kale and keep commitments i.e. Church attendance... I feel that less active members are just as important as investigators.

We had a huge miracle present itself to us last Wednesday! The bishop of the Olivehurst ward called us up and told us about a family I have never met before. The Martinez family. She has 2 kids in their early teens. Neither are baptized, but both actively attend church/ mutual, and have been for quite a few years. The mother is divorced and the father has partial custody of the kids. He does not want them getting baptized. But recently, he has not been paying child support and the mother is working on full custody so that the kids can be baptized!!!

Things have been way hectic these past few weeks. We had to move out of our apartment in Olivehurst down into Wheatland. We are now living in the southern most part of the whole zone. We are so far away from everyone now haha.

All is well here in the California Roseville mission. I apologize for not being able to email any of you more recently. I love you all and keep you all in my prayers.

 

Elder Funley

January 18, 2016

Wow what a week!!! Planning a baptism was much more stressful than I imagined. II didn't realize how many things actually go into a baptism! I didn't want to talk a lot about it last week because everything was going so smoothly and I didn't want to jinx anything!

But let me tell you, the baptism went very smooth!! (Except for the little fiasco with Jose) Elder Fife came down from Chico and hung out with us for a little before the baptism. He preformed the ordinance and it was great!

Yesterday, Sunday I had the privilege to confirm Donna in sacrament meeting. It was so spiritual and wonderful. I blessed her for a few things, like her health and then when we took our hands off her head she was crying. I know that she was feeling the spirit as strongly as I was. It is so comforting knowing that Donna is making important covenants with our Heavenly Father.

We did a little work in Wheatland last Wednesday and met one of the only investigators in the area. Her name is Maryellen and she's an awesome old lady. She's been investigating for years, has been taught all the lessons, and has been waiting for her husband to pass away to get baptized.  Her husband passed in October, so now me and Tomlinson are coming in to finish the job! She has a funny parrot named lulu that loves the missionaries (except for when you don't share your candy with her. Then she gets mad and bites at you.........) she loves giving people kisses and is a super funny bird.

Well, I kinda did my email backwards where I bore my testimony first haha. I love you all and pray for you continually! Take care and be safe!

Elder Funley

Another week goes by in the Mission Field in NOCAL

Donna is solid! If you don't remember Donna, she's our newly found investigator as of like a month ago. Her baptism is set for this Friday and everything is good good knock knock! We almost had a huge snafu with donnas friend who is a member! His name is Jose and he's really close friends with Donna.

On to the story!! We were teaching Donna and Jose rolled up about 15 minutes into the lesson. We both thought "awesome! Jose is here! It'll be a member present lesson!" Well Jose comes in and says that he has to tell us something. We ask him what's going on and he tells us.

He said that he had some revelation in a dream the other night. In his dream he saw God and God told him that he wants him to go back to his old church, the Catholic Church. We sat there and tried to help him understand that it was not revelation from God and that he was in the right church and God didn't want him to leave.

Well, we continued the lesson with Donna and she's still on date for baptism this Friday! It's funny because Donna fells the same way that we do about Jose leaving the church. She's just as confused as we are and equally as sad.

This week ahead been so stressful planning for the baptism. It feels like I'm doing everything all by myself. Me and my companion are both super excited for the baptism. Not a whole lot has happened this week, so I'm keeping it short. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!

 

Elder Funley

                         When us elders are workin hard; but when you da driver......so you gotta stay awake!

2016, here we are!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! I know I sure did!

Thank you to everyone who sent me either a letter, or a package for the holidays! I received a total of 13 lbs of candy for Christmas and New Years! I'm gonna get soo fat!! Haha.

So, there are a total of like 7 Hmong missionaries in the whole mission, and 3 Hmong areas. One of those are in my zone (yuba zone) For some reason, the Hmong area in my zone has a Hmong elder and an English elder. The other 2 areas each have a brand new missionary being trained by 2 seasoned missionaries as a trio. One of those greenies was not getting along with his trainers. So he called president and told him. President thought long and hard and came to a conclusion. He was going to stick him in the only Hmong branch in the mission, in yuba. He wanted him to be trained like a normal missionary, not in a trio. So he took out the English elder and stuck him with us! So for the past 2 weeks, I have been in a trio companionship!

We received transfer updates last night and elder Fife is leaving us to go to Chico :( I'll miss him a lot :( we became really good friends and have a lot in common. I understand that this is heavenly fathers work and not mine and that he needs to go to Chico for a reason. Also!

The Wheatland area adjacent to my area is being shut down! President has asked us to double cover our area and Wheatland. I'm stoked because the Wheatland apartment has a lava lamp!!

Our investigator on date, Donna, is doing super awesome! Her baptism is set for the 15th of this month! Last visit, we went through the interview questions and she passed with flying colors! Since Fife is leaving, it's left up to me to plan out the whole baptism. Scheduling the time, who's going to talk, and pray, and who's going to preform the baptism! I think Fife would like to come down to do it.

 Tuesday I had the opportunity to go to the temple! It was awesome! We went with a family who lives in antelope, close to Sacramento and some sister missionaries. We attended a session at the Sacramento temple and it was beautiful! Here's a pic of the crew