Transfer News from Fall River/Palo Cedro

November 23, 2015

Hey guys! Well today is my first sad day in the mission. Saturday, we
got transfer previews and found out that both me and elder Kelly are
being transferred out of our area. The Fall River/ palo Cedro areas
are both being shut down due to the lack of new missionaries coming
into the field. It has been the saddest 3 days I've had in a while. I
had to say goodbye to all my favorite families and pack up all my
stuff :( I've been busy all day today saying bye to people in Fall
River.

Elder Funley

                                     Elder Kelly, Theron and Elder Nunley and Mike Wright

                            Us Elders saying our last farewells to some great friends

Zone Conference November 2015 Christlike Attributes

Faith
—leads to action, it is the foundation for other attributes and for testimony. We exercise faith as we do missionary work. Everything is possible with faith as we align our will to God’s will. As a missionary, we have to have faith. When we act in faith and are diligent, we will find prepared people. Faith enables us to act and drives us to obedience. We can increase our faith by diligent study, prayer, dedicated service. Studying and learning about Jesus Christ increases faith.

Missionaries who spoke on Faith— Sister Watson, Elder Willis, Elder Fife, Sister Cozzens, Sister Taylor, Elder Sarki

Hope
—is an abiding trust that God will keep His prom-ises to you. Hope in Christ is not like worldly "wanting". Christ-like hope is trust in the Lord. Hope is believing and expecting that something will occur. When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good. It helps you conquer discouragement.

Missionaries who spoke on Hope—Sister Smith, Sister B. Taylor, Elder Cornelison, Sister Roundy

Charity and Love
—Missionary work is all about charity. Missionary work is about loving God, our neighbors and ourselves. Loving others is the most important attribute. It encompasses all other attributes. Forget yourself and go to work. Follow Christ’s example and He always stopped to make others whole. When we have charity we will be good missionaries and we will increase in charity. When we have charity we do not judge others. Be a Christ-like missionary, do not just do missionary work. We must pray for charity, it is a gift. The Savior did what was natural for Him; He went about doing good. We have loved the people we have served. Christ, the Shepherd, goes looking for the one, yet he knows the ninety and nine.

Missionaries who spoke on Charity and Love—Elder R. Kelly, Elder Costner, Sister Duncan, Sister Oliver, Sister Hechavarria, Elder J. Taylor, Sister C. Taylor, Elder Tout, Elder Lewis, Elder Tomlinson, Sister Johnson, Sister Willis, Sister Arntsen

Developing Attributes

—Pray for attributes, they are gifts. Attributes do not come by will and self-determination, they come from God. We need to use faith and hope.

Missionaries who spoke on developing attributes—Elder Kirby, Elder K. Kelly

Patience—
comes from trials and adversity. We show patience when we accept God’s timing. Pa-tience is a Christ-like capacity to endure delay. To be patient we focus on the good and positive things that come while we are delayed. We see that we have been given extra time to prepare and discover new ideas. Patience is to hold up under patience calmly. We are patient as we "look forward to the fruit" (Alma 31:42). With patience we look past immediate problems. "Trust in the Lord, wait pa-tiently for Him." Patience is the capacity to endure trouble.

Missionaries who spoke on Patience—Elder Johnson, Elder England, Sister Williams, Elder Hodson, Elder Colburn
Diligence
—is an expression of love for God. It is steady, consistent, effective effort. Diligence is work. It is giving all our time, effort, talent to the Lord. Diligent work is a remedy for homesickness. We must apply diligence in developing the attributes of Christ.

Missionaries who spoke on Diligence—Sister Seely, Elder Krie

Knowledge
—to obtain knowledge and to gain a testimony we need the Holy Ghost. Knowledge comes line upon line and precept upon precept. The more we receive and use, the more we are given. It takes diligence to gain knowledge. The more we study the life of Christ the more we gain knowledge of His at-tributes and can become like him. We need to take learning seriously.

Missionaries who spoke on Knowledge—Sister Morrison, Elder Garner, Elder Sarki, Elder Harris, Sister Sorenson
Obedience
—leads us to Christ, helps us to know him. Through obedience we show love for God. By obedience we leave behind the sins of omission. Have an "I will go and do atti-tude." Christ obeyed the Father in all things.

Missionaries who spoke on Obedience—Elder Duce, Elder B. Smith

 

"THE DISCIPLINE CONTAINED IN DAILY OBEDIENCE AND CLEAN LIVING AND WHOLESOME LIVES BUILDS AN AR-MOR OF PROTECTION AND SAFETY FROM THE TEMPTA-TIONS THAT BESET YOU AS YOU PROCEED THROUGH MORTALITY. " —

Elder L. Tom Perry

The Character of Christ Character: "the sum of the moral and mental qualities which distinguish an individual
 AS CHRIST THOUGHT . . . As Christ admonished us to "look to Him in every thought," He looked to the Father. His thoughts were His Father’s thoughts. He took time to think, ponder, pray and prepare for the work he was called to do.

AS CHRIST TAUGHT . . . "Be ye, therefore, perfect." He taught the higher law in the Sermon on the Mount.
He taught in parables so that those who had ears to hear could understand. He taught the great truths of eternity.
He taught the doctrine of the Father. He spoke the words His Father told Him to speAS CHRIST TESTIFIED . . .
He always testified of the Father. If ye have seen me, ye have seen the Father. His every action was a testimony of the character of God the Father. The Father and I are one. He came to do the will of the Father.

AS CHRIST TRIUMPHED . . .
He rose on the third day. He stands today on the right-hand of the Father. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, . . To receive power, and riches, and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. (Revelation 5:12).

"Come Ye After Me, and I will Make You to Become Fishers of Men"

Matthew 4:19

 

                                          Redding, Anderson, Chico Zone in Anderson
(that's me in the middle top row, the shortest one in that row, or maybe all the rows for that matter!)

                                        Antelope, Roseville, Citrus Heights in Antelope

                                             Lincoln, Rocklin, Auburn Zone in Lincoln

                              Gridley and Yuba City Zone Conference November 2015      

We had snow!

November 16, 2015

Wow this week has gone by so fast!! I played a super fun new game last P-Day called ultimate football. It's like ultimate frisbee, but with a football! It's super fast paced and a lot of fun! Most of the zone ate at subway instead of Taco Bell on Monday.

Tuesday we had zone conference.. Yayyy... It was super long. It started at 8 and ended at 4:30. Although it was long, it was super awesome! Lots and lots of amazing talks were given. The theme for this zone conference was Christlike attributes. Faith, hope, charity, love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence, and obedience. Elder Kelly quoted "All of Me" by John Legend and it was super funny. He was talking about charity and how that's one of the Christlike attributes he sees in me. And he said "elder Nunley, all of me, loves all of you"

everyone started cracking up and it was really funny.

Wednesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. This was my first time taking over the palo cedro area all by my self. Elder Wilding was my companion for the day. We had lots of fun. In the morning we watched a church produced interview between a bunch of youth, and the piano guys. It was super awesome! The piano guys are really great men with very strong testimonies.

We picked up a new investigator this last week. Her name is abbey and she's 7 years old. She goes to church with Her grandma and knows the gospel very well for being so young. Her grandma wants her to hear the missionary lessons before she turns 8 next month and before she's baptized. She loves food, both eating and cooking. She's super funny and is very smart.

 

Elder Funley

A Letter Home...But I will share it with you

Hey family!!! I just wanted to let you all know how much I love you all! I think I've finally adjusted to mission life! Things are going smoothly and very well! Mom, you say that I never say anything about my trainer/companion, so here's some info on elder Kelly!

He goes home in January and that's kinda sad. But he grew up in Aurora Colorado with 5 sisters! 4 older and one younger! He's 6' 1" and played football all throughout high school. He did track a few years and wrestled for one. He's super funny and we always have a good time.

His plans for after the mission is to go to school somewhere in Utah for engineering.. In his free time he likes to shoot hoops and watch videos of his nieces and nephew. He has one sister on a mission in Virginia and that's the only sister who has served a mission. His parents are both converts to the church but they raised their family in the church. He's a great trainer and a great person. He's just as goofy as I am so we get along super well.

 

Hello Elder Nunley's family! This is his companion, Elder Kelly.

Thanks for raising a great son who works hard and has fun at the same time! He's a great kid and has a wonderful testimony of the gospel. We have a lot of fun together and, more importantly, are able to feel the spirit amongst all our goofiness. I hope you are all doing well. He has many great things to say about all of you and I'm sure someday in the future I'll get to meet you eventually. Have a great week!

 

I'm sorry that I haven't written a personal one in a while, but things have been busy and I haven't had a lot to say! I wanted to tell you that I'm thankful for the restored church and the gospel of Jesus Christ restored through Joseph Smith. A couple days ago, we were at dinner at the Hastings house. They're active members who's children are all grown up and left home. But anyways, he goes to a bible study group on Monday evenings hosted by some other church. And he said that he doesn't want to go anymore because he said that there's too much false doctrine being taught. He said that they don't have all the truth and you can tell, that many people are still looking for more.

It just makes me want to attend the class to teach them what they do not have.

I also wanted to tell you about the Scoubes family! They're an older couple with one kid left at home. He is about 26 and mentally struggles very much.. He's a sweet kid and brother Scoubes is super funny. He's very blunt about things and it's really funny. But she drives a nice new little Honda Accord. And he has an 85 pickup.

Gorgeous little gem that only needs a paint job. He loves it, because everyone loves Toyotas. But she hates the thing and said that when I'm finished with the mission to come back and take it home!

I've been writing down the names, numbers, and addresses of all my favorite families so that when we come back to visit I'll know where they are!

Thank you for family prayers each morning. There was a question asked yesterday in Sunday school. "How can we develop greater harmony in our homes?" I said that each and every morning without fail, that our family said prayers together.

 

Elder Funley

 

November 9, 2015

First of all I just want to say that I love you all. Each and every one of you is on my email list for a reason. Each one of you helped me in ways you may never have thought of. You have all shaped me into the person I am today whether you think so or not. I am eternally grateful for each and every one of you.

 I really like it up here for a lot of reasons. One of which is that people heat their houses with wood burning stoves! It's getting into winter now, especially in Fall River, and lots of people have fires burning in their home and each one smells wonderful from the wood being burned. I've been told that the best wood to burn is lodgepole pine. It's easy to cut, it's easy to split, it burns cleaner than most wood, and it just burns really well.

 

I had my first second interview with president Marston on Tuesday and it went really well! He said that my two areas are much overdue for a baptism. So hopefully we'll be able to find a new investigator in the near future! So far we have only 1 investigator between both areas. His name is Doug and we have a hard time finding a time to sit down with him and have a conversation. It's mostly just doorstep conversations because he's just about to leave to pick up his kids. But that's ok. If he doesn't investigate, at least we can plant a seed for the next missionaries!

 It seems like in the past 2 days, it has been brought up many times, the seriousness of anti Mormon literature. No one should read it just because. No one should seek it out. It is all logical and makes sense because we are all simple minded humans. Our small minds cannot grasp the things that God can do. We have to have faith that God knows us, and does everything for a reason. We cannot rely on other men to tell us what our beliefs should or should not be. That's what's so great about this church. YOU pray to know the answers of things. You don't ask another man for the answer of whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. Or whether the church is true. We teach to pray to God for those answers. And God does answer our prayers

Elder Funley

Some Exciting News I've been waiting for....

On Monday November 2, 2015, my best friend Chance Peterson received his call to serve in the Riverside, California mission.  He drove up to my parents home, called them up on the phone and asked them to come to the front door because he was outside.

My mom said that her and dad ran down the stairs and out into the driveway and grabbed the papers out of his hand and quickly scanned to see where he was going, when mom couldn't read it in the dark, she went into the house and said "Chance, where is that?"  He said he had already googled it and that it was 7 hours away from Kiefer.

I was so excited when I heard about it.  I wrote him a long email, and got a few other elders to share some of their feelings with him, and some of their excitement for him.

Here is the email:


Bro Im so excited for you!!! I have friends in the mission next to you!!! Most of my roommates from the MTC are in the Redlands mission. I think it's north east of yours! Anyways.. I don't know what to say! I'm so ecstatic for you!!! Man I'm so excited for you! I love you so much bro! It's so exciting on a mission!

Hello this is elder Pirir, I wish you a success in the your mission, have fun and change the life of the people, and leave your mark on the world!!!👍👻

those are wise words from elder Pirir! He's a super cool Spanish/English missionary. I could go on and on about how great the mission is, but in 5 weeks you'll see exactly what I'm talking about! The MTC is super cool, you feel the spirit every minute of every day there.! It's an amazing experience that I would not trade for the world! (P.s there's nothing wrong with the orange juice in the MTC.) get used to shaving every day, (I don't have to cause I can't grow any hair lol.) and get used to waking up at 6-6:30!

hello chance congrats on the mission call riverside sounds pretty cool good luck on your mission have fun.

That was elder Bergener, elder Pirir's companion. He is home town best friends with my companion, elder Kelly. They grew up together and got sent to the same mission!! Anyways, there's a few things that I need to send home, and two of those items are for you. I hope you enjoy them and find good use for each of them! If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask me or my mother! I know my mother, and I know she will want to help you out in every way she can. So I apologize in advance if it seems like too much, but she just likes to help people.!

A few things I would suggest, is to bring out an extra $150 cash just I case something happens and you have to buy new clothes because you left a whole drawer full of service/ P-Day clothes in the MTC!!! Also, an electric shaver will do you well because razor burns and nicks suck!! You also won't have to spend money on new blades and shaving cream every month. Also, is your mission an iPad mission? If it isn't, I have a really nice camera that I'm not using because I have an iPad now.. So let me know if you'll be getting an iPad in your mission or not! Also, bring a spiral notebook for notes in the MTC.

Hey Chance, this is Elder Kelly, your good friends comp. Congratulations on receiving your mission call to the good state of California. The mission is a great experience so make the most f it and learn all that you can, but always try to relax and have fun as well. Muscles preform better when they are relaxed, and as humans we do good when we are relaxed so don't stress and have a good time. That is my council to you good sir. Have fun in Riverside!

So, just to wrap things up, Ilove you. I'm super stoked for you and know that you'll love SoCal! That's exactly where you're supposed to be at this time in your life. Get to know your district and your zone as soon as you can. God puts you in the zone, district, and with your companion for a reason! Get to know them personally and adapt to their weird quarks! Be friendly and open up to them! They're in the same place as you for a reason! They have the same major goals in life that you do. Those goals are marriage in the temple, gospel, strong families, and ultimately eternal life in the presence of Heavenly Father! My final word of advice to you is probably the most important. And it is this; "HAVE FUN EVERY DAY!" The mission can be stressful if you let it get to you, and if you let it all build up! So, have fun often, it really relieves the stress. It also keeps you on good terms with your companion. Well, I have to get going now. I love you a ton, take care and be safe.

Never let your faith waiver in the presence of evil! Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith elder Chance Peterson!

Elder Funley

Elder Chance Peterson will enter the MTC on Wednesday December 9, 2015.

Happy Halloween 2015

Hello all!! How was all of your halloweens?! I hope you all partied hard and got lots of candy!! Haha. But seriously. Email me back. I feel like my emails go out to no one...... Anyways! I had a great week! Last Sunday I taught my first investigator! Yay! Sister Christensen has a dance studio in Redding. And she hired a dude named Dan as an intern doing promotions and stuff for the studio. Dan is about 23-24 and moved to Redding with his friends after going to college in Minnesota. His friends go to Bethel and when he attended with them, he found many loop holes and flaws. Sister Christensen invited him to come pick apart our church, so he did.! He had a great time watching the primary program, which is always so so cute! We had lunch at the Christensens and were able to teach Dan a little more about our church, and answer some questions that he had. It was super cool. Because that Sunday was the primary program and he really liked it! It touched on all the points of the restoration and went through some articles of faith!

My favorite part of the week was Monday because I got to work on a Toyota! Zaq, a really cool young 17 year old member, texted us and told us that his leaf springs had come in the mail, and asked if I could give him a hand. We headed over after He had been working on them for a good few hours and hadn't gotten very far. I got there and finished up everything in about 3 hours. He was super stoked and I was ecstatic to get my hands greasy on a Toyota!!! He bought old man emu springs for the rear btw.

 

On Friday, we were up in Fall River and we went to the Oilers for dinner. As usual, it was super fun. We were there for a good 2.5 hours. We ate dinner, and carved pumpkins! The oilers gave us pumpkins to carve since we were there for dinner. But didn't know what to carve. Then Sister Oiler had the idea of cutting leg holes in a pumpkin and putting her baby inside! So, like any good missionary would do, I cut a pumpkin for the baby to sit inside! it was pretty funny, here's a pic!

                                                 Here we are in our new P-day shirts!