Monday, January 16, 2012

15 de janeiro de 2012

hello again!
another week has come and gone and another week closer to 6 months on the mission! the time is going by so fast! i am really enjoying the life as a missionary and i have reached the point where i dont really want it to end. this week was pretty good for us and we had some pretty cool experiences! so a couple of weeks ago we found a 16 kid named Gustavo, and we marked a visit with him for tues, but he ended up not being at home. so we went back on thurs and we found him at home! we explained about the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism. and at the end of the lesson we set a goal for the 11th of feb with him! then as we were leaving he said that he was greatful that there were people like us to help people learn about the truth and that he is going to search out the truth with us and that he is going to ask Heavenly Father if the things were are saying are true! elder petersen and i were so excited leaving his house!! we couldnt believe what had just happened, but this experience shows that there are people prepared to recieve the fulness of the gospel, we just have to find them. and satan tries to keep us from opening our mouths and talking about the gospel to our friends and family because he knows that if we dont even open our mouths we will never know when someone is ready. OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE TRUE! i know that this is the Lord's work and that we are here to serve Him. i am continually learning about our responsibilities as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, listen to the sacrament prayers, and listen for the things we are covenanting to do and then, think of how you can really show that you are fulfilling that covenant! i know that as we continually strive to keep our covenants of baptism and the temple we will be blessed. i promise that as you seek out ways to help those around you learn more about the gospel, our own live will be better, our testimonies will be strengthened and we will have the joy to see our friends and family join the gospel!
today we had a zone activity and it was pretty sweet! we had a bbq and we played capture the flag! and i also got some pretty SWEET pic! oh, i don~t remember if i said last week, but i sent my card and trevors Christmas present last week, so it is on its way!
the language is going great! i can understand almost everything that people are saying! sometimes it is still hard when the people talk REALLY fast, but it is getting better! i am so greatful for my blessings and for the oportunity that i have to learn portuguese! i am really excited to come home and be able to talk to everyone that i can in portuguese so you better tell bro Hodnet to freshen up on his portuguese!
i love you all and thank you for the prayers and all the emails!
Love
Elder Knudson

Sunday, January 15, 2012

9 de janeiro de 2012

hello family!!!!!!!!!!!!
this was a pretty good week! nothing extremely exciting happened but it was a good week of work. there is always those little miracles that happen every day that there really is no way to describe. but one experience was pretty cool this week that demonstrates blessings that come from willingness to serve, we were walking and it started to rain, really hard (those of you who have served or lived here know how it is), and there was a vw bug stopped on the side of the road and me and my companion asked if they needed a push to get the car going, he said no, just a part that takes a little to get going. so we continued to walk down the road. then when he got the car going he pulled up to us and asked if we would like a ride. of coarse we accepted! it is amazing how fast the blessing come when we are willing to follow the Lords commandments to serve our fellow man! so the challenge for the week is just that, seek out someone, anyone, that you can give an act of service. and afterwards pay atention to how you feel. remember that the Savior said, when you are in the service of you fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God. the Lord will use you to bless the lives of His children when we are simply WILLING to give loving service to others.
daniel got baptized! woo hoo!! so daniel you need to write me and tell me all about it, how you felt and what was your favorite part! and dont forget to write down how the baptism was in a journal! i still have my journal from my baptism when i wrote in it and it is really cool to remember how it was! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!
so how was the winter break for everyone? missionaries dont have holidays or breaks! but thats ok, it will just be that much nicer when i come home!
so on thursday this week we had a really hard time, it is what we call on the mission "the day of NO" which simply means that every appointment fell through. and that is exactly what happend, we taught 1 lesson in the whole day. it just goes to show that we need to have our difficult times to show our faith, because if it was always easy then it wouldnt really be nessissary to show owr faith. the trials that we have in our lives are to show that we trust in the lord, even when it isnt goiing too good.
so mom i had a thought this week that you should teach about the restoration in seminary. we learn in Preach My Gospel that we should teach this to the members to help them remember the feelings that they had when they became converted to the gospel. i know that there are probably some kids that dont have a very strong testimony about the restoration or maybe dont even really know how it happened. and i am sure that it will help too! maybe you could invite the missionaries in the ward to come and teach it to them for you!! that would be so great!
so i got an email frrom the elmers this week about a spiritual experience that she had! it was really cool! but im still waiting for the rest of you! your all back in school now so it should be pretty easy now!
i love you all!
Elder Knudson

Monday, January 2, 2012

2 de janeiro de 2!0!1!2!

hey family!
i felt really special when i got on the computer today! i had 18 emails!!! wow! thank you everyone for the emails and the love! so, it sounds like you guys had a pretty good christmas! hehe! (its ok macie, you can laugh) adam felt a little left out there for a little huh? the pictures were great! i loved it! i missed being home for christmas but the work must be done! but it was good here too, new years was absolutly crazy, t here was a lot of drunk people on the streets. it was weird having to be at the house at 5 in the afternoon. we had hot dogs and chips and 7 liters of soda! woo hoo! but we havent drinken them all yet! we played uno for almost 2 hours and then the craziness happened, we didnt get to sleep till almost 2 in the morning, its weird to think that that was only 8 oclock there! but it was fun!
the work is moving along, this week was a little sad and the at tendance at church was much less than good... but everyone here goes to the beach on new years, so hopefully everyone is back on sunday! i am starting to understand more about the love that Christ has for us and the agony that he feels when we are doing self destructive behavior. the feels of love that He has for us is more than we can comprehend, but when our only focus is others, we are able to understand a little better that love.
we are seeing many many blessings in the work, this week was really hard to find people in their house, but right now we have 10 people marked for baptism for the month of january. so we have a lot of work ahead of us to help these people enter the waters of baptism! but i am excited to start the new year and devote all of 2012 in the service of my Savior!
this week was pretty cool! we visited a budhist temple! it was SO cool! i took a lot of pictures and i am working on sending it asap! we couldnt take pictures inside but it was pretty sweet! i felt like i was in Kung Fu Panda! hahahahaha! it was pretty sweet!
i love you all!
so all you kids with NEW ipods that can send email! send me some of you missionary experiences that you have during the week, try to talk about a scripture that you read recently with you friends, introduce the Book of Mormon to someone! and then i want to hear about it!
love
Elder Knudson