hey everyone! i feel like i just talked to you all! oh wait, i did! HA HA HA (happy macie (; )
so how is everything going? how was everyones Natal? it was just starting when i talked to you! and mine was just ending. it is so weird that there is a 6 hour difference between us! so everyone needs to write me and tell me what they got!
i got a lot of candy and i can~t wait to eat it alll! we were going to go fishing today, but it rained so that didn~t happen... good wether fishers i guess! but only when we are fishing for REAL fish! so my new companion is Elder Petersen. he is really neat and is a great missionary! the funny thing is that we have the exact same time on the mission! we both started on the 3 or august. he was born in utah, but when he was about 1 and a half him and his family move to brazil. and they lived here till he was about 15. so to say the least he knows how to speak portuguese pretty good! so this is why i didn~t see him in the CTM because he only stayed there for 3 weeks. but we are getting along really well! i am still trying to improve everyday with portuguese and being the best missionary possible. i think i need to learn to not be embarrassed about my language skills... but it is hard. i really want to be able to talk perfectly but i need to have patients, and i have to make a few mistakes to get there. just like sports i guess!
so this morning we did a deep clean of our house! it took us about 2 and a half hours and in total we killed (murdered) 4 cockroaches, 6 spiders, and some weird centipide looking thing that my companion said was pretty dangerous. so our morning was pretty eventful! haha! but mom you would be so proud of how the house looks now! haha! the problem is that other missionaries think that they will only be there for a little and that it is not that important to clean the house, but when the floor is not mopped for more that 7 months it gets pretty bad... so the house is looking great, the floor is back to the normal color and we call feel the nice clean air!
so it is about time to get back to work, we haven~t done anything for like 2 days now with christmas and now p-day. but hey its all good!
it was pretty neat in church on sunday, we got to give a talk, we blessed the sacrament, and we helped sing in the chior (don~t know how to spell) coral in portuguese!
thank you for the emails Adria! ( so you know that i am getting them!)
christmas here was a little weird to be honest, it is so different! it was hot, away from home, fireworks, just different! hehe! but we got an email this week saying that on the 31 we have to be in the house at 5 o'clock for safety, i guess it gets pretty crazy here on new years! haha!
I LOVE YOU ALL! and have a happy new year! the next time i write to you it will be 2012! so crazy! (i wonder what it will be like here on 12-12-12)
ok have a great week!
Elder Knudson
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
19 de dezember de 2011
hey everyone!
another week has past and one more week till i will be talking with you! i am pretty excited about it! this lask week was a pretty good week! i am starting to feel more comfortable teaching the people and talking with them. i still have difficulties understanding everything sometime, i have to focus a lot! which is hard after lunch and it is hot and you are fighting to not fall asleep! hehe! we didn~t have any of our investigators at church again this week... we are having a really hard time with that, so far in this transfer we have had a total of 4 investigators at the church... not a good number... but we need to work more with the members to have them have friends that are at the church too. it is a little more difficult becasue hardly anyone has a car and they have to pay to use the bus, but i think that hardest part is that it is christmas season and everyone is busy with other things. i~ll let you know how it all goes and how we are trying to cope with all the challenges.
this morning was pretty cool, i don~t know why but i just had this feeling when i was talking with elder vasconcelos that the lord has something big in store for me here in brasil. but i also feel like that will come with a better mastery of the language. i want to bad to be able to help all of these people learn and recieve the blessings of the gospel. Mosiah 28:3, i am definatiely starting to feel that very stongly. and i get the most frustrated when i cant help someone because i dont know very much of the language, but i am ttrying to be patient. it is amazing the strength that we can get throught the scriptures! every time i am feeling that i cant go any further i read the Book of Mormon and i feel so much better about everything, i feel rejuvinated and i know that i can go a little bit further. our mission president said something pretty cool, he said that the lord can only guide our feet it they are moving. we have to put in our part first before the lord can do anything! my testimiony is growing so much, i dont know how to describe how i feel about the church and everything that happens, but i am learning more aobut myself and about my savior every day! i know that this is the only true church on the earth today and that we have live with our heavenly father again!
so the big news for the week! my companion was got a call last night and is being transfered tomorrow... oh boy! normally it would only be next week but there are missionaries going home this week so it is an emergency transfer. but he also got called to be a zone leader. we~ll find out tomorrow where he will go and who will be my new companion! i am pretty nervous about it all but i think everything will be fine. and i will try not to get us lost! that is the main thing that i worry about... for example, we were talking with someone and i wrote down his adress, and i wrote "estado por" and when i told elder vasconcelos that he didn~t know where it was but then he thought for a little and he said "estrado do porta?" yup, that was it... hehe! names of streets are this hardest to learn. imagine a maze, and then give a name to every turn, thats about how it is here! crazy... but oh well! hehe!
i love you all! ill talk to you soon!
merry Christmas! or Feliz Natal!
Elder Knudson
another week has past and one more week till i will be talking with you! i am pretty excited about it! this lask week was a pretty good week! i am starting to feel more comfortable teaching the people and talking with them. i still have difficulties understanding everything sometime, i have to focus a lot! which is hard after lunch and it is hot and you are fighting to not fall asleep! hehe! we didn~t have any of our investigators at church again this week... we are having a really hard time with that, so far in this transfer we have had a total of 4 investigators at the church... not a good number... but we need to work more with the members to have them have friends that are at the church too. it is a little more difficult becasue hardly anyone has a car and they have to pay to use the bus, but i think that hardest part is that it is christmas season and everyone is busy with other things. i~ll let you know how it all goes and how we are trying to cope with all the challenges.
this morning was pretty cool, i don~t know why but i just had this feeling when i was talking with elder vasconcelos that the lord has something big in store for me here in brasil. but i also feel like that will come with a better mastery of the language. i want to bad to be able to help all of these people learn and recieve the blessings of the gospel. Mosiah 28:3, i am definatiely starting to feel that very stongly. and i get the most frustrated when i cant help someone because i dont know very much of the language, but i am ttrying to be patient. it is amazing the strength that we can get throught the scriptures! every time i am feeling that i cant go any further i read the Book of Mormon and i feel so much better about everything, i feel rejuvinated and i know that i can go a little bit further. our mission president said something pretty cool, he said that the lord can only guide our feet it they are moving. we have to put in our part first before the lord can do anything! my testimiony is growing so much, i dont know how to describe how i feel about the church and everything that happens, but i am learning more aobut myself and about my savior every day! i know that this is the only true church on the earth today and that we have live with our heavenly father again!
so the big news for the week! my companion was got a call last night and is being transfered tomorrow... oh boy! normally it would only be next week but there are missionaries going home this week so it is an emergency transfer. but he also got called to be a zone leader. we~ll find out tomorrow where he will go and who will be my new companion! i am pretty nervous about it all but i think everything will be fine. and i will try not to get us lost! that is the main thing that i worry about... for example, we were talking with someone and i wrote down his adress, and i wrote "estado por" and when i told elder vasconcelos that he didn~t know where it was but then he thought for a little and he said "estrado do porta?" yup, that was it... hehe! names of streets are this hardest to learn. imagine a maze, and then give a name to every turn, thats about how it is here! crazy... but oh well! hehe!
i love you all! ill talk to you soon!
merry Christmas! or Feliz Natal!
Elder Knudson
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Week 19, 12 de dezember de 2011
hey família!
mais uma semana veio e foi! this week was pretty cool but also pretty crazy! but first! PARABÉNS MACIE!! it is really weird being gone for everyones birthdays! so macie you will have to tell me how was your bday! do you feel old yet?
so this last week started out pretty rough, it was very hard to find people at their house. and on quinta-feira(i cant think of the day in english...) we had a meet at the mission office for new missionaries, and it takes about 2 hours to get there. we have to take a bus, then the train, then another bus to get there. the meeting was way cool! we learned a lot about the importance of planning. and i say the last elder that we were waiting for to come here, elder lloyd got his visa! woo hoo! so now we have all of the missionaries here that are coming to this misision! i dont know about elder curtis or elder combs but i hope they have gotten theirs also! ok, so to finish my story about the meeting, after it finished i asked if there were any packages for me, and it turned out that i had 3!!!!!!! i wasnt expecting to have more than one at the office right now! and i also had 4 letters!!! make sure you tell the arandas thank you for me!!!!! i got a package and a letter from them too! i was pretty happy about that! but i felt pretty good leaving the office because i was carrying 3 packages and i had 4 letters! (pretty much the best day every for a missionary) ok now the crazzy part, it started to rain... and we had to take the train... and when it rains here EVERYONE takes the train... so we arrived at the station at 5:15 and there was NO way we were going to get on the train with 3 packages and 2 new fans (elder vasconcelos was carrying them). so you know those comercials about the people on black friday? when the people rip the doors to the stoor open and FIGHT to get in? yeah... that is more calm than how the train station was! hehe! and the hour that we FINALLY got on the train was 8:45. it was a pretty crazy day. we didn~t get to the house until 10 oclock! BUT on friday we taught 8 lessons and on satuday we taught 9! the lord really blessed us this week! and we finished the week with 20 new investigators and we taught 32 lessons this week in total! so cool! and friday night when we were planning, i had a thought that we should study ch 5 of Preach My Gospel where it talks about how the book of mormon answers the questions of the soul, and we study about "why the lord lets suffering happen" and on saturday we were teach a woman and she asked that EXACT question! i almost fell out of the chair when i realized what had happened! the spirit is so amazing! we need to seek the promptings of the spirit!
we are having a hard time still with investigators in sacrament meeting, yesterday we had only one, but we are doing all we can.
so how are things going back home? i am going crazy to open my packages! all three, Adria's, Aranda's, and yours! hehe! i~m pretty excited, but it is really weird to be away from home during the holiday season... i am really missing everyone, it is pretty hard sometimes, but it is a lot easier when we are working so hard to help other people!
so scripture for this week is the book of Jonas in the bible, we had a lesson on it in elders quorum, he related it to home teaching and asked "are we fleeing our responsibility to help those we are supposed to visit" but it can be applied to many things, what things are we fleeing that we need to be doing?
i love you all! happy birthday macie! have a great week!
Elder Knudson
mais uma semana veio e foi! this week was pretty cool but also pretty crazy! but first! PARABÉNS MACIE!! it is really weird being gone for everyones birthdays! so macie you will have to tell me how was your bday! do you feel old yet?
so this last week started out pretty rough, it was very hard to find people at their house. and on quinta-feira(i cant think of the day in english...) we had a meet at the mission office for new missionaries, and it takes about 2 hours to get there. we have to take a bus, then the train, then another bus to get there. the meeting was way cool! we learned a lot about the importance of planning. and i say the last elder that we were waiting for to come here, elder lloyd got his visa! woo hoo! so now we have all of the missionaries here that are coming to this misision! i dont know about elder curtis or elder combs but i hope they have gotten theirs also! ok, so to finish my story about the meeting, after it finished i asked if there were any packages for me, and it turned out that i had 3!!!!!!! i wasnt expecting to have more than one at the office right now! and i also had 4 letters!!! make sure you tell the arandas thank you for me!!!!! i got a package and a letter from them too! i was pretty happy about that! but i felt pretty good leaving the office because i was carrying 3 packages and i had 4 letters! (pretty much the best day every for a missionary) ok now the crazzy part, it started to rain... and we had to take the train... and when it rains here EVERYONE takes the train... so we arrived at the station at 5:15 and there was NO way we were going to get on the train with 3 packages and 2 new fans (elder vasconcelos was carrying them). so you know those comercials about the people on black friday? when the people rip the doors to the stoor open and FIGHT to get in? yeah... that is more calm than how the train station was! hehe! and the hour that we FINALLY got on the train was 8:45. it was a pretty crazy day. we didn~t get to the house until 10 oclock! BUT on friday we taught 8 lessons and on satuday we taught 9! the lord really blessed us this week! and we finished the week with 20 new investigators and we taught 32 lessons this week in total! so cool! and friday night when we were planning, i had a thought that we should study ch 5 of Preach My Gospel where it talks about how the book of mormon answers the questions of the soul, and we study about "why the lord lets suffering happen" and on saturday we were teach a woman and she asked that EXACT question! i almost fell out of the chair when i realized what had happened! the spirit is so amazing! we need to seek the promptings of the spirit!
we are having a hard time still with investigators in sacrament meeting, yesterday we had only one, but we are doing all we can.
so how are things going back home? i am going crazy to open my packages! all three, Adria's, Aranda's, and yours! hehe! i~m pretty excited, but it is really weird to be away from home during the holiday season... i am really missing everyone, it is pretty hard sometimes, but it is a lot easier when we are working so hard to help other people!
so scripture for this week is the book of Jonas in the bible, we had a lesson on it in elders quorum, he related it to home teaching and asked "are we fleeing our responsibility to help those we are supposed to visit" but it can be applied to many things, what things are we fleeing that we need to be doing?
i love you all! happy birthday macie! have a great week!
Elder Knudson
Week 18, 5 de dezembro de 2011
hello again family!
it is true, the weeks and the days are truely blurning, running, and mushing together! and it is hard to pull the details from yesterday, let alone last week! hehe! this week was difficult for us, we were hit with a little bit of laziness after wed, when it was around 38 degrees celcius. and it made everything very rushed! but we managed to pull out and we have made plans to stay strong and attain our goals for the week!
i am really beginning to have a hard time with english! i really have to think about the words sometimes! so i'm sure that there will be a few words in portuguese! but while i am doing so much better with the language, i still get frustrated sometimes. i really cant express myself well at all, and this is something i want to do. but the cool thing is how the Lord shows us that everything is ok, yesterday was stake conference and one of the members of our ward came up to me and told me that a different member, that was in one of our lessons, said that i teach very good and very clearly. i didnt really believe her but it made me feel a lot better and was definately a blessing! today we have a zone activity and President Pinho came to it, it was way cool! we played a little soccer and basketball and then he played volleyball with us! we played americans against brazilians, americans won! hehe! but it was great! we had a bbq also! way good! one thing i will look for when i come home, guaraná! if you can find it there, try it! it is great! we have it like everyday here!
dads experience sunday is way cool! and it is way more satisfying when we act on the promptings we get! it is funny that you compared it to inviting people to be baptized! and it truely is nerve wracking! but it feels SO GOOD when they say YES! and if you see him at work during the week, ask him how he felt during church and help him recognize the spirit that he felt at church. the feelings that we have there are so hard to describe and if you dont know how to recognize them, then they are impossible to act on! and that is why it is so important for us members of the church to help our friends and co-workers with these feelings! we have such a great opportunity to help so many people to understand more about the turth!
during the conference yesterday an area 70 was there, and he said something that i like so much and i think it mom should use it in seminary to help the kids live the standards. he said: IT IS BETTER TO BE WORTHY THAN LOVED!! when he said that it hit me so hard and i have to share it. it is so true and we have to be examples to the ones we are around, because if we, the members of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, dont show a good example to the world then we are leaving room for the enemy of all righteousness to work with the hearts of those we could have influenced for good. my companion has a phrase that he says a lot, "the devil works 25 hours a day". and it is true. we have to do all we can to help everyone come unto Christ! we HAVE to be good examples!
and Elder Varly, i think i know him! if he is the elder i think he is, he has the same time in the mission that i have and i we spent time in the MTC together! he is really cool! and that will be way exciting if he lives so close! we will definately get together and talk after the mission!
Daniel is going to be BAPTIZED! that is the favorite word for missionaries! hehe! daniel you will have to tell me all about it ok? it will be amazing! and you will remember how you feel when you are baptized for the rest of your live! i love you! dont forget to read your scriptures ok?
i dont know how calling home will work yet but i will do my best to find out for you!!!!!!! i am way excited! but be prepared because i will have a hard time speaking english at first! hehe! the other day i forgot the word for "devolope" like develope photos, here it is "revelar" and i spent almost 2 days thinking of it, and finally i just looked it up in my dictionary because if was bugging me.
p-day is so great, a lot of the time is spent resting! because during the week is so SO rushed! no there are no bikes here, if we did they would get robbed so fast and honestly it isnt very safe either. and with all the hills we would be walking them a lot of the time anyway! hehe! just walking and the bus! on p-day we buy food for the week, i dont have to much food of substance in the house, mostly snacks because we eat lunch with the members and when we get home at 9 o clock all i want to do after planning is crash! so i eat something small and go to bed! hehe!
when we do laundry we have to hang it outside, we dont have a dryer. it is a little tricky sometimes with all of the rain! and yes, i get pretty soaked a lot of the time! but thats ok!
i love you all so much and i think about you a lot! always remember CPR: Church, Prayer, Read the scriptures! 3 things that will NEVER lead you astray!
love
Elder Knudson
it is true, the weeks and the days are truely blurning, running, and mushing together! and it is hard to pull the details from yesterday, let alone last week! hehe! this week was difficult for us, we were hit with a little bit of laziness after wed, when it was around 38 degrees celcius. and it made everything very rushed! but we managed to pull out and we have made plans to stay strong and attain our goals for the week!
i am really beginning to have a hard time with english! i really have to think about the words sometimes! so i'm sure that there will be a few words in portuguese! but while i am doing so much better with the language, i still get frustrated sometimes. i really cant express myself well at all, and this is something i want to do. but the cool thing is how the Lord shows us that everything is ok, yesterday was stake conference and one of the members of our ward came up to me and told me that a different member, that was in one of our lessons, said that i teach very good and very clearly. i didnt really believe her but it made me feel a lot better and was definately a blessing! today we have a zone activity and President Pinho came to it, it was way cool! we played a little soccer and basketball and then he played volleyball with us! we played americans against brazilians, americans won! hehe! but it was great! we had a bbq also! way good! one thing i will look for when i come home, guaraná! if you can find it there, try it! it is great! we have it like everyday here!
dads experience sunday is way cool! and it is way more satisfying when we act on the promptings we get! it is funny that you compared it to inviting people to be baptized! and it truely is nerve wracking! but it feels SO GOOD when they say YES! and if you see him at work during the week, ask him how he felt during church and help him recognize the spirit that he felt at church. the feelings that we have there are so hard to describe and if you dont know how to recognize them, then they are impossible to act on! and that is why it is so important for us members of the church to help our friends and co-workers with these feelings! we have such a great opportunity to help so many people to understand more about the turth!
during the conference yesterday an area 70 was there, and he said something that i like so much and i think it mom should use it in seminary to help the kids live the standards. he said: IT IS BETTER TO BE WORTHY THAN LOVED!! when he said that it hit me so hard and i have to share it. it is so true and we have to be examples to the ones we are around, because if we, the members of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, dont show a good example to the world then we are leaving room for the enemy of all righteousness to work with the hearts of those we could have influenced for good. my companion has a phrase that he says a lot, "the devil works 25 hours a day". and it is true. we have to do all we can to help everyone come unto Christ! we HAVE to be good examples!
and Elder Varly, i think i know him! if he is the elder i think he is, he has the same time in the mission that i have and i we spent time in the MTC together! he is really cool! and that will be way exciting if he lives so close! we will definately get together and talk after the mission!
Daniel is going to be BAPTIZED! that is the favorite word for missionaries! hehe! daniel you will have to tell me all about it ok? it will be amazing! and you will remember how you feel when you are baptized for the rest of your live! i love you! dont forget to read your scriptures ok?
i dont know how calling home will work yet but i will do my best to find out for you!!!!!!! i am way excited! but be prepared because i will have a hard time speaking english at first! hehe! the other day i forgot the word for "devolope" like develope photos, here it is "revelar" and i spent almost 2 days thinking of it, and finally i just looked it up in my dictionary because if was bugging me.
p-day is so great, a lot of the time is spent resting! because during the week is so SO rushed! no there are no bikes here, if we did they would get robbed so fast and honestly it isnt very safe either. and with all the hills we would be walking them a lot of the time anyway! hehe! just walking and the bus! on p-day we buy food for the week, i dont have to much food of substance in the house, mostly snacks because we eat lunch with the members and when we get home at 9 o clock all i want to do after planning is crash! so i eat something small and go to bed! hehe!
when we do laundry we have to hang it outside, we dont have a dryer. it is a little tricky sometimes with all of the rain! and yes, i get pretty soaked a lot of the time! but thats ok!
i love you all so much and i think about you a lot! always remember CPR: Church, Prayer, Read the scriptures! 3 things that will NEVER lead you astray!
love
Elder Knudson
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Week 17, November 28, 2011
hey família!
sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week last week! and i am pretty jealous of all the food! but i guess ill have to wait on that one! hehe! this week was pretty busy! like every week! but the work is starting to get easier, well not easier, but im getting used to it! this week we taught a lot of people! we teach around 32 lessons a week and walk a ton! this week we had a amazing experience! we talked with a woman on the street and she said we could visit her later on in the week, but when we went there she wasn~t home... but her neihbor was! :D and she is amazing! the lord truely prepared her for us! and on the second visit (the first was us talking in the doorway) she accepted a baptismal date! we are preparing her for the 24 of dec! we are working on making december a "natal branco" hehe! i~m working on making up for the lack of snow with people dressed in white! right now we have 6 people to be baptized in december but we will be talking with someone tomorrow that we will mark for the 17 or 24 too! and maybe more! the lord is truely preparing the people for us, we just have to find them! the portuguese is progressing quite nicely! i am beginnning to think in portuguese and it is a little hard to write in english too, so please forgive the spelling errors! hehe! i am almost finished with the book of mormon in english, i will finish this week for sure! i can~t believe i read it in 4 months! my love for the scriptures has grown SO much these for months! it is pretty amazing!
so macie, you want to know what they eat most here? every day, without fail, we have rice and beans. and it is always acompanied with meat of some kind, normally chicken or beef. but we also eat lots of spaghetti too. and i cant wait for the skittles! hehe!
thank you so much for the scriptures! i love to study them and to see how they can help in our everyday life, but for me, everything is being applied to a mission and how it can help here, it is funny because we find scriptures where the prophets and missionaries did street contacts too! it is cool! but alma 17:11-12 are the scriptures that i left with bishop for my plaque, did that ever make it there? it truely is an amazing scripture!
21 pound turkey! that is huge! i cant even imagine eating that much! hehe! and i will work on the christmas traditions around here, i do know that everyone buys trees here, because they don~t have real christmas trees here, wrong climate for pine trees! hehe! but today i will be buying myself a little one and putting it up in the house! i~m pretty excited!
we didn~t do anything special on thankgiving, honestly i almost forgot it was thanksgiving! hehe! but that~s ok! dad take pictures of the snow for me when you go up to get the tree!
so how are things going back there? it is weird to think that it is getting hotter here as it is getting colder there! it is funny bc i completely skipped winter this year! hehe! summer, a little bit of fall in the US then spring here and now Summer! it is a little wierd but its cool!
tell tom i said "hi" too!
i love you all!
Elder Knudson
sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week last week! and i am pretty jealous of all the food! but i guess ill have to wait on that one! hehe! this week was pretty busy! like every week! but the work is starting to get easier, well not easier, but im getting used to it! this week we taught a lot of people! we teach around 32 lessons a week and walk a ton! this week we had a amazing experience! we talked with a woman on the street and she said we could visit her later on in the week, but when we went there she wasn~t home... but her neihbor was! :D and she is amazing! the lord truely prepared her for us! and on the second visit (the first was us talking in the doorway) she accepted a baptismal date! we are preparing her for the 24 of dec! we are working on making december a "natal branco" hehe! i~m working on making up for the lack of snow with people dressed in white! right now we have 6 people to be baptized in december but we will be talking with someone tomorrow that we will mark for the 17 or 24 too! and maybe more! the lord is truely preparing the people for us, we just have to find them! the portuguese is progressing quite nicely! i am beginnning to think in portuguese and it is a little hard to write in english too, so please forgive the spelling errors! hehe! i am almost finished with the book of mormon in english, i will finish this week for sure! i can~t believe i read it in 4 months! my love for the scriptures has grown SO much these for months! it is pretty amazing!
so macie, you want to know what they eat most here? every day, without fail, we have rice and beans. and it is always acompanied with meat of some kind, normally chicken or beef. but we also eat lots of spaghetti too. and i cant wait for the skittles! hehe!
thank you so much for the scriptures! i love to study them and to see how they can help in our everyday life, but for me, everything is being applied to a mission and how it can help here, it is funny because we find scriptures where the prophets and missionaries did street contacts too! it is cool! but alma 17:11-12 are the scriptures that i left with bishop for my plaque, did that ever make it there? it truely is an amazing scripture!
21 pound turkey! that is huge! i cant even imagine eating that much! hehe! and i will work on the christmas traditions around here, i do know that everyone buys trees here, because they don~t have real christmas trees here, wrong climate for pine trees! hehe! but today i will be buying myself a little one and putting it up in the house! i~m pretty excited!
we didn~t do anything special on thankgiving, honestly i almost forgot it was thanksgiving! hehe! but that~s ok! dad take pictures of the snow for me when you go up to get the tree!
so how are things going back there? it is weird to think that it is getting hotter here as it is getting colder there! it is funny bc i completely skipped winter this year! hehe! summer, a little bit of fall in the US then spring here and now Summer! it is a little wierd but its cool!
tell tom i said "hi" too!
i love you all!
Elder Knudson
WEEK 16 November 21, 2011
hello again my wonderful family!
this week was pretty hard and very very busy!!! we had 2 different times this week that we did exchanges, one on wed were i went to Parelheiros and one on fri when elder vasconcelos had a meeting for district leaders, and i stayed in my area with 2 other elders, one of them had only been in the field for 4 days! i felt good not being the "youngest" in the field anymore! but he is pretty cool and he is speaking really well too! this saturday we had a baptism for Luís Carlos, and i got to confirm him! it was pretty nerve wracking! hehe! but so very cool! i really felt like my portuguese got a lot better this week, i am becoming more and more comfortable talking with people, but i still have a hard time expressing myself and talking about things not very related to missionary work, but its coming! and i am very happy about that! i made a video with my companion on saturday and you will see that i am starting to have a hard time with english! prettty crazy! i can only imagine how it will be after 2 years.
it is really weird to think that i wont be there for thanksgiving, and no they dont have a holiday like it here, that i know of. i will miss all the turkey and mashed potatoes. take pictures for me!
the work here is going good, but it is so very different from the work there in the US, we find a lot of people to teach but we have such a hard time getting them to read and pray and understand why it is so important, all of the religions here have really distorted how the gospel should be. and it is SO hard to get them to come to church, this week we had none of our investigators there... and we have 7 people marked for baptism in december, they have to come to church before we can baptize them...
about stuff that i need, i forgot to bring my priesthood line of authority with me so if you could send that to me in the package too that would be great! i would like to do the names this year for christmas but by now the gift wouldnt get there until after christmas, because youd have to tell me who i have nxt week, but if they are fine with getting a gift a little late then put me in! :D
so i've been thinking about christmas alot lately and how i may not even have a tree... hehe! i think i will try to find a little tree about 2 feet tall or something like that, so i can at least feel like it is almost christmas, it is really strange, because it is getting hotter here instead of colder... and that feeling i get every year about the snow is coming too! i will definately be spending some (a lot) time in the snow when i come back! but ill send a picture of my christmas tree when i finally get it!
I love you all!
thank you for all the prayers and support!
Elder Knudson
this week was pretty hard and very very busy!!! we had 2 different times this week that we did exchanges, one on wed were i went to Parelheiros and one on fri when elder vasconcelos had a meeting for district leaders, and i stayed in my area with 2 other elders, one of them had only been in the field for 4 days! i felt good not being the "youngest" in the field anymore! but he is pretty cool and he is speaking really well too! this saturday we had a baptism for Luís Carlos, and i got to confirm him! it was pretty nerve wracking! hehe! but so very cool! i really felt like my portuguese got a lot better this week, i am becoming more and more comfortable talking with people, but i still have a hard time expressing myself and talking about things not very related to missionary work, but its coming! and i am very happy about that! i made a video with my companion on saturday and you will see that i am starting to have a hard time with english! prettty crazy! i can only imagine how it will be after 2 years.
it is really weird to think that i wont be there for thanksgiving, and no they dont have a holiday like it here, that i know of. i will miss all the turkey and mashed potatoes. take pictures for me!
the work here is going good, but it is so very different from the work there in the US, we find a lot of people to teach but we have such a hard time getting them to read and pray and understand why it is so important, all of the religions here have really distorted how the gospel should be. and it is SO hard to get them to come to church, this week we had none of our investigators there... and we have 7 people marked for baptism in december, they have to come to church before we can baptize them...
about stuff that i need, i forgot to bring my priesthood line of authority with me so if you could send that to me in the package too that would be great! i would like to do the names this year for christmas but by now the gift wouldnt get there until after christmas, because youd have to tell me who i have nxt week, but if they are fine with getting a gift a little late then put me in! :D
so i've been thinking about christmas alot lately and how i may not even have a tree... hehe! i think i will try to find a little tree about 2 feet tall or something like that, so i can at least feel like it is almost christmas, it is really strange, because it is getting hotter here instead of colder... and that feeling i get every year about the snow is coming too! i will definately be spending some (a lot) time in the snow when i come back! but ill send a picture of my christmas tree when i finally get it!
I love you all!
thank you for all the prayers and support!
Elder Knudson
Week 15 November 14, 2011
hello familly!!!!!!!
so the space bar is kinda freakin out on me so if there are a ton of extra spaces you know why!
another week has flown by!!!! so each week we send a letter to the president, this week he responded and said i will turn into a great leader in the mission, and when i told my companion he laughed and said i will become assistant to the president. oh, boy... hehe! i think it would be pretty cool though, to be able to work alongside the president every day! talk about spiritual!
the work is continually progressing! we just passed the first transfer sunday! luckily both of us are staying here for another transfer! it is so crazy how fast the time flies! i had a pretty cool experience is personal study today! i was ready ether 6, and i read vs 3 were it talks about the rocks that christ touch and they were able to privide light, and the thought came to my mind, "what kind of rock am i? am i shining to show the people the way to "the promised land"(fulness of the gospel)?" all of us that are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been touched by Christ! we know the path that leads back to our Father in Heaven, and we can be like these rocks, we can light the way for others to come to this knowledge also. but a rock can also be a stumbling block if we are not careful, we need to be sure we are a "rock that lights the way" not a "stumbling block".
we are working with a lot of people and a lot of families here! it is crazy the difference between here and the missionary work in the US, elder combs said he had 4 new investigators this week, to show you the difference, we had 21 new investigators this week. but also the difference is that some people here just say yes to us because of the difference of religion here. there are so many churches! there are litterally almost 15 different churches in about a 1/2 a mile of road... not in every area but in some. the people here really need to know the truth, it makes me think of Joseph Smith, how he was so confused about all the different churches, and i can see why he was so confused. i am so greatful to have the fulness of the gospel in my life! and the knowledge that this is the path that will lead me back to my father in heaven!
thank you bishop and tina for the emails! you don~t have any idea how happy i am to hear about justin and dylan, i pray for dylan a lot! make sure he is getting my emails !
the portuguese is coming along! everyone says that after 6 months you are finally comfortable with everything, speaking and all, but i don~t know if that is 6 months in the field or in the mission... oh well, i~ll just keep studying! dad, what i did when i first started to read the BOM in portuguese i would highlight the words i didn~t know and write the word in english above it, it is very slow moving at first but after time you will notice that you aren~t highlighting very much and you are understanding! about the pronuciacion, you will have to have some one coach you on that... hehe! i~m sure the sanchezes would love you help! you could even suggest having a spanish class at the church and you could have the missionaries invite people to, idk, we try to do english classes here but there are probably a lot more people here that want to learn english then there are that want to learn spanish there...
i love you all so much!!!!!! thank you for all the prayers! this is truely the Lords church! share that knowledge with everyone!
Elder Knudson
so the space bar is kinda freakin out on me so if there are a ton of extra spaces you know why!
another week has flown by!!!! so each week we send a letter to the president, this week he responded and said i will turn into a great leader in the mission, and when i told my companion he laughed and said i will become assistant to the president. oh, boy... hehe! i think it would be pretty cool though, to be able to work alongside the president every day! talk about spiritual!
the work is continually progressing! we just passed the first transfer sunday! luckily both of us are staying here for another transfer! it is so crazy how fast the time flies! i had a pretty cool experience is personal study today! i was ready ether 6, and i read vs 3 were it talks about the rocks that christ touch and they were able to privide light, and the thought came to my mind, "what kind of rock am i? am i shining to show the people the way to "the promised land"(fulness of the gospel)?" all of us that are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been touched by Christ! we know the path that leads back to our Father in Heaven, and we can be like these rocks, we can light the way for others to come to this knowledge also. but a rock can also be a stumbling block if we are not careful, we need to be sure we are a "rock that lights the way" not a "stumbling block".
we are working with a lot of people and a lot of families here! it is crazy the difference between here and the missionary work in the US, elder combs said he had 4 new investigators this week, to show you the difference, we had 21 new investigators this week. but also the difference is that some people here just say yes to us because of the difference of religion here. there are so many churches! there are litterally almost 15 different churches in about a 1/2 a mile of road... not in every area but in some. the people here really need to know the truth, it makes me think of Joseph Smith, how he was so confused about all the different churches, and i can see why he was so confused. i am so greatful to have the fulness of the gospel in my life! and the knowledge that this is the path that will lead me back to my father in heaven!
thank you bishop and tina for the emails! you don~t have any idea how happy i am to hear about justin and dylan, i pray for dylan a lot! make sure he is getting my emails !
the portuguese is coming along! everyone says that after 6 months you are finally comfortable with everything, speaking and all, but i don~t know if that is 6 months in the field or in the mission... oh well, i~ll just keep studying! dad, what i did when i first started to read the BOM in portuguese i would highlight the words i didn~t know and write the word in english above it, it is very slow moving at first but after time you will notice that you aren~t highlighting very much and you are understanding! about the pronuciacion, you will have to have some one coach you on that... hehe! i~m sure the sanchezes would love you help! you could even suggest having a spanish class at the church and you could have the missionaries invite people to, idk, we try to do english classes here but there are probably a lot more people here that want to learn english then there are that want to learn spanish there...
i love you all so much!!!!!! thank you for all the prayers! this is truely the Lords church! share that knowledge with everyone!
Elder Knudson
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