Saturday, September 19, 2009

Picture from the Baptism


What a week!

Dear Family,
Thank you for all your support and prayers! They are really helping out here. Its really cool being a missionary because its like your in this bubble with the Savior and the guidence of the spirit everywhere you go. I had the opportunity to baptise one of our investigaters this week. It was the ten year old boy who has the mother who was inactive for 20 years but is coming back to church now. It was so cool. It wasn't the baptism that was so cool though it was the events that led up to it. This kid is EXTREMELY hyper and everytime we teach we can't get him to listen and so I was a little hesitent about the baptism but I talked to the mission president and he said to baptise him and so we kept working for the baptismal date. Anyway Later that week he was interview by another elder to be baptised. After the interview i was talking to the elder and he told me how eddi had explained tithing to him and how he should treat his body and what things are bad and he explained how the law of chastity is to not kiss a girl untill he is married ha ha It was SO cool to see are hard work pay off even when we didn't think it was. At first Eddie wouldn't pray but I Would whisper in his ear the prayer and he would say it ususally. The cool thing is throughout this time of getting Eddi ready for baptism his father would never pray at any of the lessons. Anyway Eddi would always tell his dad to say it but he never would. This last week before his baptism his dad finally prayed because eddie went over to his father, Folded his fathers arms, Shut his fathers Eyes and bowed his fathers head and whispered the words into his fathers ear. That was so cool to see. This kid is going to be an awesome example for his father and now all we need to do is help his father be baptised now.
The baptism was pretty crazy. Like I said this kid is really hyper. Well I got into the water and he followed but he stood on one of the steps and stayed stiff as a board and just fell into the water!!!! Then he swam a lap and I finally grabbed him and but him in the middle to say the pray and baptise him. After he was baptised it was a struggle getting him out of the water!! He was splashing and yelling like he was in a full size pool and nobody was watching. The witnesses finally just closed the doors on the font so not everyone was watching and I grabed him and made him get our ha ha it was crazy!
The Lord is really blessing my companion and I. The Families we found are struggling a little but now we have time to concentrate on them. So those are just of few of the sweet experiences this week. I dont have time to share them all.
BYU is number 7!!!!!!!!!! Thats awesome. Make sure and Update me on this upcoming game. It sounds like this one is the tester. '54-3 wow thats a statement right!! I only have one thing to say raw raw rawrawraw raw raw rawrawraw goooooooooo cougers ha ha My comp thinks its weird when I start singing that song at our apartment and he even went to BYU!!
I have been playing the piano a little bit for church here and that has been fun. Anyway how is everyone at home? Patrice got her van, thats cool. Jared is taring it up in Hendersen and Chris is saling some houses what else?! Anyway everyone write me and give me an update on your life! The weather is heating up... it feels like but its okay. So I heard 24 has started back up!! They have it in spanish too i guess. And we usually get more lunch appointments than anything!
Hey mom or dad will you get the reference form steve hoskins. he said before I left that he had a reference for me but I never got it.
Anyway everything is good and thanks for all you do. Have a good week and I'll hear form you next monday!
Love Elder Knudsen>>

Hello, Hello, Hello

Dear Family,
BYU WON?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Thats awesome!! They had been preparing for that game for a long time! The had a count down calendar in the locker room when my Old Comp was playing for them!! That must have been quite a game 14-13! Pretty close! Thats so cool. What is BYU ranked?! Its a good thing I wore my Sweet BYU shirt for our P-Day activity!! Keep me updated on all the BYU stuff!
So this week has been pretty good. A member just returned from a mission so that got the ward a little more animated and we should have a baptism this saturday so that should help as well. I'm Really loving it out hear and yeah time is going by way fast.
We Found another family this week! I love teaching families! And we are teaching an older guy who came to church on his own a few weeks back. He has came now for three weeks in a row and his wife came this last week and she wansn't interested at first but I think she liked church and so hopefully we have some success with them.
Mom, you bore your testimony?! Good work! How'd it go?! Did you cry ha ha its okay crying is good. Oh and my talk last week went really well! I talked on faith in Christ and shared and analogy and then tried to motivate the members to help the misson work more with an article in the Liahona. The Article talked about how the missionaries baptize about 1 in every 1000 homes they contact but if they get a 400 or 600 (I can't remember the amount exactly) in every 1000 people that are through the members. I think everyone understood me ha ha The language is rough. Its slowly slowly coming but honestly it is coming SLOWLY.
Oh yeah I got my debit card and the addresses thanks so much for getting those for me. Ha ha dad that was a pretty sneaky way to give me my PIN number. Thanks for the little notes you wrote as well. Oh yeah and you gave me Devins email but I'm not suppose to email anyone but family... Are you guys trying to tempt me? No just kidding anyway sorry I ask you guys to do so much but will someone email him for me and as him for his physical address. (he can email whoever) DevinIHerdmpm@myldsmail.net Thank you so much. oh and thanks so much for the i-pod i can't wait to have some music finally!!!
Did you guys get that letter from elder Rolston? thanks for forwarding that to me!! It was really cool to hear from him!
Anyway thanks so much for everything I love you all and thanks for your support. Stay strong in this gospel! Its true! We know it is. We need to remember our blessings and spiritual experiences! Check out D and C 6:22-23.
Have a great week and talk to you next week!>Love Elder Knudsen>

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Crazy week

Hey family.
Hows everyone doing?! Okay well this week was a little crazy! Especially the last part! To start off we had to drop one of our baptismal dates because he was lying to use and was having trouble with the word of wisdom. So to answer your question dad yeah we have had some trouble with the word of wisdom. But they have this sweet stop smoking lesson that we use that really works if they follow all the steps. And we taught him that lesson and we took his cigarette boxes and covered them with pictures of the savior and sayings and then we filled the boxes with rolled up pieces of paper that had motivational sayings on them and then gave it back to him so he could carry it everywhere with him for support but I guess he was a little unstable in the mind and was using other kind of drugs so we had to change his baptismal date.
We still have the other one and man i love going over to this families house and teaching them. I can feel the family love. The family unit is definately ordained of God.
So this week was transferres and I got Called to labor...... in the islands!!! To help you understand how big of a deal this is let me explain. Going to the islands is like a different mission call. You have to learn 2 new languages, new culture, new money and once you go to the islands you are there for awhile. like a year or so. And the Mail takes a lot longer. So as you can Imagen when I got the Call to go down there I was a little stressed out knowing I would have to learn 2 new languages when I dont even know the first. So after about 24 hours of getting ready to go and stressing i got another call telling me that there had been some changes and they closed an area in the Islands so I will actually be here in Ponce for the next six weeks. And that is fine by me. I really just want to get the spanish down good. But the funny thing is i gave a talk in church and said by to loads of people and stuff and then ended up staying ha ha oh well now i will be able to see our investigator Eddie Manuel be baptised. ( Oh yeah Micheal Alisa is in the island, he is the one grandma and grandpa know, so I haven't been able to talk to him yet but if I get called down there next Transfere i will be able to talk to him).
Also it was my Companions birthday this week and I made him a Chocolate on chocolate cake with TANG powder writing. I tried to make that day exciting but it just wasn't too exciting ha ha. i think birthdays might be pretty hard on the mission. So did I tell you how my comp likes to eat weird things like bread cereal and tortillas with speggetti sauce and stuff. Well anyway I keep reminding him of Justins companion in the MTC who made a PB and J sandwhich with M and M's on it and then left the MTC. I tell him he better be careful. My companion and I are really getting along now.
Mom I got the Letter and the shirt!!!!! Thanks so much thats sweet! Educational week sounds awesome. Are you guys taking classes or anything?! Oh yeah so I'm at my apartment for another 6 weeks so if you send anything physical send it to my apt. address which is:
Cond. Las Americas
2197 Ave. Las Americas
Apt 703
Ponce, Pr 00717-0727
We Also Found 2 sweet families this week who will be really fun to teach! I'm really excited for them. One of them had a keyboard hooked up to some sweet speakers so I got to show off a little bit on the piano.
Do you all Read the church magazines?! They are sweet!!! I love them! I never realized it before but they are so spiritual and have such great messages. Anyway I should go. I came prepared today to study some stuff while my companion finishes his emails.
I love you some much family! Thank you for all your love and support. I'll be sending a video sometime soon so you can all hear and see me sort of but mainly for the Sobrinas and the Sobrino so they can know me a little better.
This church is true! I know it without a doubt. Remeber before you read the scriptures or study the gospel SAY A PRAYER. It makes a HUGE HUGE diference. It invites the spirit and everything! Love you and have a good week!>Love Elder Knudsen

8/24/09

Dear family,
Hows it going?! You all sound good! Okay to start off the work has slowed down a little since last week. We only had one investigator in church yesterday. But its okay, we got 7 new investigators this week and we still have our others tambein. Joselito is working to over come some of his problems and we're working along side him. Eddie Manuel is still a hyper 10 year old but he wants to be baptised still and we're teaching him all about the gospel. Tonight we are having a family night with him and his family. This week we rode our bikes to a members house that was way up in the mountains. It was like riding form mom and dads house all the way up to snowbird. It was so cool! It was like going on a bike ride at home and when we finally got there the food was amazing. I love those members. They are an older couple that are so happy and content. Anyway the views up there are awesome! Its beautiful. The members gave us a menos activo name and so we figured on our way back we would visit him. so we were running late and way tired from ridding all the way up there and when we got to the menos activos street we saw that his house was further up the mountain. So we took serious consideration to just keep going and not visit him but I decided why not lets do it. Am i glad we did. He has a super strong testimony still and is really spiritual. he is older and really really stuck in his ways but he admitted to smoking and said that maybe now is the time he needs to start coming back to church. It was an amazing experience! The mission is full of little experiences like this. I wish I had time to write them all! Anyway I love this work. Its way hard but i love it. The words of my brothers are always in my head, "the mission is awesome but you have to work HARDER THAN YOU EVER HAVE IN YOUR LIFE" I love this mission, I love the people here, I love being a servent of the lord. I love this gospel.
So you guys got me an i-pod?! WOW you really went all out. Thanks so much that'll be so nice to have. Because i havent heard music in so long its normal for me to pick up my hymn book whenever we're home and just start singing hymns. I love the Hymns. Dad, I now understand why you like "a poor way faring man of greif" so much!! I read that song the other day and it is so spiritual! But thank you so much for the package. I havent gotten it yet but thank you anyway!
Okay so whats the big idea about my scripture on my plaque ha ha I have hear that it is... Interesting. Isn't it cool?! I love those verses! Its like saying BRING IT!!! Its like saying give me hard times and trials and all kinds of problems because the Lord is on my side and my strength will only grow in him through trials.
So it sounds like you guys are doing a little too much golfing... Maybe that time would be used better studying the scriptures or something... ha ha okay nevermind golf as much has possible! You guys are practicing a lot but from the scores justin gave me it sounds about the same. Dad first, then.... justin and chris somewhere behind ha ha no just kiddin. But family I love you so much. thanks for all your support. And if anyone ever wants to share some of there mission experience with me or just spiritual experiences I'd love to hear them.
Mom and dad hows the classes at BYU? How is the home and my dog and my room?!... be honest. Oh and thanks for catching that with my card! i dont know what happened. When the office called me and said that he just talked to my mom my jaw dropped and i was like WHAT?! My mom, Robin Knudsen really, you just talked to her, What did she say ha ha it was kinda a different experience.
So the spanish is coming slowly. I understood a whole conversation this week and answered and everythinig and i have to give a 10 minute talk this sunday so we'll see how it goes. We're advertising it to our investigaters as come what me make a fool of myself, it'll be really fun!
Anyway thanks so much for everything you do gor me i love you all so much and it was great hearing from you!!!> Love Elder Knudsen>