My Brother had a 17th Birthday

My Brother Sawyer had a 17th birthday this week.  I was really thinking about him, missing him, and at the same time hoping that he is preparing for his mission, because it will make him that much better of a missionary; so much more prepared and able to do the Lord's work.  But I know my brother, he will be a great missionary, because he is diligent and smart,  and he is a disciplined student and it comes so naturally to him, yet he puts time into it.   That's a talent in itself, and he has so many skills and talents that I don't have.  He is an amazing photographer and artist and is able to capture things that I wouldn't even think of.  Yet I realize that we all have different talents, and the most important thing to use them for is to help others around us and to help our Heavenly Father spread the word about his gospel here on earth.  I want him to capture all the beautiful things that we have been given on this earth, so that people can easily see this-- through his skills with the camera, and his his movie making abilities, and his "drone" excursions.  I love my bruddah so much!!!!

9/21/15
P-day was great today! We had to take the truck in for new tires (too
many burnouts) and an oil change. We waited for 2.5 hrs. We walked up
the street to Ross and shopped around, and that took up an hour and 45
minutes..

9/22/15
We had a lesson with a less active named Derek. He's in his late 20s
and is in a wheelchair. He got a new horse a few days ago, and man is
it beautiful!!! We stopped at a thrift shop and me and elder Kelly
both found cool ties! We are at the Paris' house and she gave elder
Kelly a tie for his bday (on the 28th)

9/23/15
We went to district meeting today and talked about families and the
proclamation. We ate at Taco Bell and I had some really good
quesadillas! We went home and packed for Fall River, then left to go
do service at the Wentworth's home. We helped them dig a trench for a
water line and electricity to their goats. Brother Wentworth  is super
cool!!! His son builds toyotas and he built his dad a 98 extra cab!
Brother Wentworth also knows the owner of marlin crawler!!

I can't believe how  nice the members are up here! It's
incredible! I'm going to have a dish I used to have at home, made up
for me next month.   Everyone has chickens, so we get fresh eggs to take
home all the time. The Wentworths told us that if we need any gas,
they have 55 gal drums of gas that are available for us. Everyone is
so loving towards us, it's awesome!

9/24/15
We visited two potential investigators in the morning before lunch,
Bill and Doug. Bill is a crazy guy who reads too much about religion
and conspiracies on the Internet. Although he said that he wants to come our church, so we invited him.

9/25/15

We also helped the Nordstroms prep for a wedding for their daughter at the church.

9/26/15
We didn't do a whole lot today out of the ordinary, just a typical day in palo cedro doing our normal routines; we saw some people. Had dinner. Drove around. We drove 175 miles today. We average about 89-90 a day. The truck is at 41000 miles, and mission cars are retired at 50000. So our truck is pretty old

9/27/15
We visited with the Strattons today, and had dinner there. They have a daughter that went to BYU I for a semester, and she told me how much fun it was! Man I want to look into BYU I when I get home..there's a lot of church oriented things that go on there, a lot of wholesome activities too! We shared a spiritual message at the Pyles home (a part member family) and left them with a proclamation to the world.

I love you all and miss you.  Things are great here in Palo Cedro.  I am glad to be here in this spot of California.

Elder Funley

Photos of my area in Palo Cedro, CA. with Elder Kelly

September 21, 2015

9/17/15

There's really not a whole lot that goes on here in Palo Cedro/ Fall River.. The most exciting thing each day is dinner haha... Tonight we ate dinner at the Bowens house. We did some service for them for about 2 hours. Most people out here have a farm and/or ranch. We helped him harvest some potatoes, move things into storage, and helped him feed his chickens. We had a nice Japanese dish of noodles and some other goodies and a delicious ear pie!!! They gave us a bunch of eggs, some sausage, potatoes, and left over food.

 

9/18/15

We helped out at the library in Fall River mills. People donate furniture and other things to the library and every once in a while they sell the stuff to help the library stay in business. We helped clear out a house not far from the library.. They were going to throw out a bunch of Chinese lamps and I said that we would love to take them because our apartment has no lights! So now we have 5 lamps haha...

 

9/19/20

Today was not very eventful. We planned for the upcoming week (3 hrs) then drove around trying to find people (like usual) with not much luck. We talked with a really nice less active guy who has the cutest golden doodle. One man opened his door and we sat and talked for a good hour. His name is Leroy and he talked a lot about family history and genealogy. On that note, where is dads side from in Europe? And are poodles French?

 

9/20/15

Today we had a great sacrament meeting and learned about the offices of the priesthood.. We ate dinner at bishop Christoffersons house. The Stewart's (a new family in the ward) and the Christensens (we had dinner with them on the 13th). both families came over and we had a great spiritual thought at the end with the Christoffersons. We spoke about families and it made me really trunky (trunky means I'm missing home) anyways, tomorrow we have to go get new tires put on the truck and get the oil changed. We're going to throw our bikes in the bed of the truck and ride around while we wait for the truck to be finished. 

A care package from Elder Nunley?

September 17, 2015

Today the Nunley family received a care package from Elder Nunley.  It was a medium size box.  Its contents were interesting.  The first thing Carly pulled out was a tail of a squirrel in a gallon size Ziplock bag.  He said "road kill everywhere, this one went down".  Yuck!!

He also sent a giant pine cone.  It stands about 10" tall and 7" wide.  I can't imagine if one of those fell on your head.  How big do you think those pine trees stand?  And it weighs at least 3lb. 

He sent some great tourist pamphlets about some towns that he passes through, and other great memorabilia:  his first and second sacrament programs since arriving in California.  One program #2, he was one of the main speakers.

Kiefer has sent us a couple of these "mormon.org" cards.   I am guessing that these cards are to pass to investigators, with a message from the Elders.  Kiefer has used them to send messages to his family.  They are pretty special to receive.  We only hope that his investigators feel the love behind them that we feel when we read his words. 

He also sent two temple cards, showing his nearest temples:  The Sacramento, CA. Temple, and the Medford, OR. Temple.   Presently in Falls River, he is about 5 hours away from his mission home near Roseville, CA., and is almost as far north as he can be in his mission boundaries, near to the Oregon border.

 

It sure was fun to receive a care package today form California.  Our only hope is that he has as much fun receiving and opening the care packages we send to him.  It was full of surprises!  Thank you Elder Nunley

Messages from President Marston

September 12, 2015  Message from President Marston 

 

At our trainer/trainee meeting on Thursday we had the newly arrived missionaries identify a miracle that they had witnessed already in the mission field.

One of the best things to train a new missionary on is how to recognize miracles every day in their lives.

They had been here only ten days.  Last time when we sent out our miracle list we included some specific examples.

Today I want to categorize the way miracles were found.   We see miracles around us each day.

 

“---the kind of faith that produces a steady stream of tender mercies and even mighty miracles –goes hand in hand with personal confidence that you are striving to choose the right.”

Elder Jorg Klebingat, October 2014 Conference Address

 

Our wonderful new missionaries found miracles in their work through:

 

                HEALTH

                TESTIMONY

                PREPARATION

                DILIGENCE

                TIMING

                FINDING

                FAITH

                SERVICE

                PATIENCE

                PRAYER

                WARD MEMBERS

                GRATITUDE

                DETERMINATION

                PERSISTANCE

                CONFIDENCE

                ENTHUSIASM

                FAMILY

                CHURCH

                UNITY

                CONNECTING

                PRIESTHOOD

                PEACE

 

               

I asked each of them to examine their every day lives and to EXPECT MIRACLES and identify them.

I ask you all to do the same.

Thank our Father in Heaven that He gave you that miracle that day.

Acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

We all need miracles.

 

Our challenge for September.....distribution of "The Family"

 

 

 

 

During this month of September 2015, missionaries will be sharing with members and others the message about the

The Family:  A Proclamation to the World.

 

Each companionship will have 75 half-sheet copies of the proclamation with their contact information and

times for church services in their area.   We are doing this in conjunction with the 20^th anniversary issuing of the proclamation.

We have both English and Spanish copies

 

These copies will be distributed at this week’s zone meetings.  Missionaries will work with ward councils, ward mission leaders, districts and zones,

for the most effective distribution within each stake.   We are confident that this will help our mission – Finding Through Families

Our goal is to have over 6,500 copies given in our mission with a message about families over the next three to four weeks.

 

 

I have a new address

Elder Kiefer Nunley
8560 Leonard Drive
Palo Cedro, CA.  96073

Transfers are every 6 weeks, so if you send mail, please make sure it is before that landmark of time, or else I will not receive it.

Approximate Stay:
September 4, 2015-September 16, 2015

You can always email me:
kiefer.nunley@myldsmail.net

and of course you know my blogspot because you are here.......

Thank you for all your continued support.  I really appreciate it!

September 7, 2015

It's my first week in Cali, and I am in the Palo Cedro/Fall River area in the far northern part of the state and mission, which I am happy about.  I cover two wards that are 1.5 hrs. apart, so we have two apartments.  We mainly stay in Palo Cedro (Sat-Wed) and go to church there too.  But every second Sunday we go to the Fall River Ward.  For the past 5 nights I have slept in 5 different beds.  We live on a member's property in Pale Cedro and they have a golden retriever named Sadie!  She is so cute and loving and reminds me of our dogs.

I have been asked to speak for 20 minutes this coming Sunday at the Fall River ward.  You know how much I dislike this task.  I hope and pray to learn to do this with ease and without anxiety, someday soon.  So I guess that means I will learn to speak at the podium with the spirit right beside me, easing my pain and lifting my burdens.

We drive a Frontier, it's not a Toyota, but it's alright, I guess.  My first companion and trainer is Elder Kelly, he has been in the field for 20 months.  He is from Colorado and he is a nice guy and we get along pretty well. 

I'm getting used to talking to random people on the streets (street contacting).  We are allowed to listen to Disney music in the car, and I'm getting to know my Aladdin music pretty good.  WE are allowed to listen to music that invites the spirit, like Josh Groban.  Yes, Josh Groban and Christian Rock.  We went to the fair on Thursday in Fall River and met some of the members of the Fall River Ward (ward mission leaders and some really nice families).  It has already been an adventure.  I feel blessed to be here, in CA, in America, and to be in such wonderful weather.

I still have not been able to sign on to my "blog" account, and I thank my mother for posting pictures and short snipits of my emails home.

Thank you all for your prayers, letters and all your support.

I pray for all of you, for your safety, your health, and for you to have guidance.  I love you all so so very much.

Elder Nunley (aka Elder Funley)

MTC a "snapshot" on Skype of Elder Broderick (my companion) and I during studytime

A volunteer couple, the Fitzwater's from Payson, come to the MTC to do a variety of things, but what they did this day, was to speak with us and find out how we were doing, and report back to our parents at home about our overall status.

 For me, it was a great report "Your son looks great.  He is happy, smiling and learning!   His spirit is strong.    I hope this text will bring you comfort in knowing the Lord is aware.  He is watching over your Elder.  And your family.  He understands this sacrifice.   He is so grateful for how you have raised your sweet son. 

I cannot tell you all how much I loved this place.  The teachers were so amazing, my whole branch was an amazing group of people who taught me so much; I just love them all.

And I miss all of you a whole lot too!

We all arrived safe and sound on Tuesday Morning September 1, 2015 to Roseville, CA. Greeted by Pres. Marston and his wife.

We are all anxious to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to Roseville.  We have studied, prepared, prayed, and are ready to go forth.  I have already met so many many wonderful people at the MTC, we had to part ways, and that was so so hard and so so sad:(  sure hope we can meet again.  I am excited to meet many more great and wonderful new people and friends. The gospel is true, and also so wonderful, at the very same time.