Your missionary´s arrival at the Brazil MTC

Dear Parents,

We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come through the front door of the MTC for the first time. We promise to take good care of your missionary.

They now have companions and are settled into their rooms. They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study. The branch presidents and their wives, will soon give them a second greeting. These couples are rewarded in their callings through the love they always develop as they embrace and watch over the missionaries.

The MTC has a full time live-in physician to care for their health needs. He is assisted by his able wife. We are also happy to report that the Cafeteria food is abundant and very good.

Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple. This will be either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on individual assignments.

Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children.”

Please accept our love,

President Donald L Clark and Sister Zaza Clark

ADDITIONAL information . . .

DO not send packages to the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC and it arrives after your missionary has left for the field, please understand that the package can not be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you. The only other option is for us to open the package and forward the letters and photographs, giving the rest of the content of the package to the missionaries that are here.

WE Strongly eNCOURAGE sENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers. The cost to get this type of correspondence is exorbitant.

I don't think I have been more happy for Braden or emotional than when opened and read this wonderful news!

Wed 8/24/11 Letter & Photos from Elder Knudson

Ola minha familia!
Well here are the pictures I've taken thus far! There is also something small in here for each of you. (He sent us Armour of God cards) So Friday I have a big "in field orientation" I have to go to, but it is funny cause I'm not going into the field yet! So I may get to hear it again when I leave from the CTM in Brazil too.

Thank you all so very much for all the letters and prayers!! and Trevor, don't get to used to your own room cause when you get here you will get to share a room with 3 other missionaries.

I love you

Always Remember 2Nephi 25:26!

And we atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our cchildren may know to what source they may look for a dremission of their sins.

Elder Knudson

News from our Elder

Today Braden got on a plane in SLC to go to Brazil! He was able to call home from the airport in Texas. It was so fun to hear his voice! He is doing so great! I think It was a little weird for him at first to be talking on the phone! Sense the only communication we have had till now is letters and email. He can email once a week and write letters. We will talk to him on the phone on Christmas and Mothers Day!
He Is going to Brazil with one other Elder from his mission and 2 others from a different mission in Brazil. He said they felt like celebrities in the SLC airport, everyone was saying "Hi Elder!" and "Welcome back Elder!" They then explained they were not on their way home... a lot. He told us the MTC in Provo is a lot like being at Youth Conf. or EFY for a long time. It was great! The only time he really left campus was to go to the Provo Temple. We also got a letter in the mail today with a bunch of photos, so I will do another post with those attached. There are a lot of pictures of the temple! You can tell that is the only place he has been, besides the MTD. He loves all the letters and emails he gets, keep writing, or emailing him.
He says his Portuguese is going great! I wish we could have recorded him talking in the language. He told us the First Vision in Portuguese. It was was way awesome to hear!
He now has a 10 hour flight ahead of him. He is boarding the plane now 7:30pm in Texas and will get to Brazil at 7:40 am tomorrow (Brazil time). Brazil is 4 hours ahead of California time.
He is doing so great and is very happy! He is excited to get to Brazil and finish his last 5 weeks of training. Then off to work he goes!

Letter from Elder Knudson Week 4

Hello everyone!!!!!!
so to day is Monday! yup, our schedule got changed cause there is so many Portuguese missionaries.
So tonight is the last night I will sleep in the United states for 2 years! Crazy huh! Tomorrow I leave at 8 am and my flight leaves from salt lake at 1250 and I get to Sao Paulo at 740 am on wed.
I am pretty excited to leave and be in Brazil, but at the same time I am pretty nervous!
this weeks email is going to be pretty short cause all the time I've had to spend preparing to leave, but this week i learned the importance of humility! humility is the only way we can receive personal revelation and guidance from the Holy Ghost, because without it we wont listen to the promptings that we receive!
the Book of Mormon is True, read it, and read it often! then after you have read it, pray to know if it is true, and if you pray with a sincere heart, having faith that you will receive and answer, God will tell you by the power of the Holy Ghost that it is true! the book of Mormon brings such joy into our lives! and it is sitting right there for us to search and learn how to have that joy in our lives always!
I love you all!
Elder Knudson!

Braden will be leaving for Brazil on Tuesday August 30th!! Please start writing him there. His email wll be the same, here is his new address.

Elder Braden Knudson
Missão Brasil São Paulo Interlagos
Rua Eusébio de Souza, 121
Jardim Londrina
São Paulo, SP
05638-100
Brasil

Please write.

Week 3

Óla Everyone!
this has been a pretty awesome week! i don't even know where to start!
yes, all the elders in my district are going to brazil, and all but 3 are going to my area! i'm not sure about the stamps and envelops bc i don't know how all that is supposed to work down in brazil so we'll see about that one
we get to go to the temple once a week! it is awesome! i love it!
we have devotionals every sunday and tuesday evenings! on sunday we had a general authority speak on the importance of obedience and following the spirit, it was a great talk, he was a pretty funny guy too!
don't worry, my clothes still fit! hehe! but there is always SO MUCH FOOD here! it is very hard to portion sometimes! but the downside is that the food gives you pretty bad gas... and when you stick 11 Elders in a room together... you get the idea! hehe!

so this friday i found out i got my VISA!!!!!!!! i was so happy! so this is how it went!
our district leader got the mail for us around lunch and walk in for during our study time and said that 2 people got their visas and told us to guess. immediately my heart went to my throat and some one guessed me and one of my companions, he said one of them was right and since i knoew my comp was having a little trouble with his i knew it was me!!!!!!!!!! and the other one that will be comeing with me is Elder Nielson! so later that day i went to the travel office just to make sure that it was real and not some practical joke, so i went in and asked a ladie who was a little busy if my travel plans means that i got my visa, she said no, and that that could just be a optimistic thing, immidiately my heart sank and i almost felt like thowing up, but then i talked to a different guy who went and checked on the computer if i got it and he came back and said that i did have my visa! i felt like i was floating out of the office!!!!!
so i leave from SLC at 12:50p and get to dallas tx at 4:30p
then i leave from Dallas at 7:40p and get to Sao Paulo at 7:40 am... long flight!!!!!!!!! but i am so excited! i cannot wait to be in brazil! i am pretty nervous! 1 cause of the super long flight time 2 cause i haven't been out of the country before!

so my basic schedule here is
630 wake up
800 breakfast
1245 lunch
545 dinner
and between them i have and hour of gym, 2-3 hours of personal study, two 3 hour blocks of Classroom instruction, an hour of TALL (tech assisted language learning), and 30 min of daily plannig time

i am beggining to realize just how much our Heavenly Father loves us! the Book of Mormon is amazing! it has such potential to bring joy into our life! Scripture of the week! 2 Nephi 32:3

i love you all!!!!!!!!
Elder Knudson

VISA... AT LAST!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Querido Familia!

Hoje, I got my........VISA! It was a pretty crazy day and it is late so I can't write much, and you'll prob get my email before this too! But I leave on August 30th. 13 hours of flight time! I'm so excited and nervous all over again! I love you all so much! Thank you for all the Dear Elders and the package! Don't worry more info to come about the Visa!

I love you all!

Obrigado!

Elder Knudson!