Holy Cow. Thank you sooo
much for all the mail! I have 25 emails to read so I'm really sorry if I don't
have time to read/reply right now. Also, thank you to everyone who wrote
letters, it helped me so incredibly much this week, I really needed those!
Shout out to Laura ;) your letter is in the mail, as is yours Izzie. Cheyenne-
wow. that might've been one of the best letters ever. I will write you back :)
This week I have learned
so dang much! We started TRC which is kind of like the teaching experience I
mentioned in my last letter except it's just you and your companion
teaching.Sis O and I got a woman named Belinda, the only really background we
had was that she was from Singapore and didn't believe in God. So we went in
and started talking to her, she was totally cheerful while we were getting to
know her but once we asked about her family it all went downhill. Apparently
her dad was killed by a robber last year and when I asked about her mom she
said "She died giving birht to me so basically I killed her" WOW what
do you say to that? We tried to follow the spirit throughout the lesson and
tell her the things she needed to here but it was pretty tricky. She wouldn't
have it when we bore our testimony and said we knew God lived, she refused to
pray, oh and also when she answered the door to let her in I eagerly stuck out
my hand and said "Hi! I'm Sister Knowlton!" and she said "I
don't shake hands..." awkward........... After that lesson we only had one
more and weren't expdecting much out of it but let me tell you how the second
lesson ended, we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! Okay, I bet
you're wondering how that happened. Sis O and I can't really take much credit
for that. We came back and she said she read the entire Book of Mormon! And
also we were nervous about asking to pray but she said yes! Anyways I'm pretty
sure she was LDS because she said her favorite scripture was 1Nephi 3:7 hahaha.
dead give away Belinda. Then I noticed she had a Restoration pamphlet and asked
how she felt about Joseph Smith and she said "I think it's amazing".
Well cool! So we invited her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be
baptized! I learned a lot from that experience, when we were in that first
lesson I was trying to be super basic and just convince her God exists which
was hard to do with our approach. She kept asking for evidence and I'm thinking
"If we had evidence there would be no faith!" Then I realized what
the evidence was, THE BOOK OF MORMON and the fact that Joseph Smith saw God and
Jesus Christ! Why did I not think of that. I guess because I've only been a
missionary for a week. I know have so much more faith in the power of the Book
of Mormon, not just in my own life but in the lives of those I will be
teaching. That book is amazing- everyone go read it right after you finish this
email.
Our second investigator,
Jess was also committed to baptism. I'm really excited to teach him about the
Law of Chastity tonight. Except not. I'm going to make this shorter so I have
time to put up pictures so I'll wrap it up with some funnies.
I absolutely love my
roommates. I'm especially close with Sister Carpenter and Sister Hunter. Sister
C and I decided to begin praying that we would someday be companions haha ;)
She is absolutely hilarious. Also, Sis R has this hilarious thing about scams. She
thinks everything is a scam. grass, soaps, something about child birth, you
name it, Sis R thinks it's a scam. SO FUNNY. One thing Sis C overheard was
a sister missionary in distress saying, "You can't just send someone
a gatorhead!" (Funny because didn't Clark get a gatorhead in the
mail?) I wish I could remember everything funny that happens. A lot of
people I know came to the MTC Wednesday, Kelsey Foutz, JUSTIN MCBETH (it was so
hard not to hug), Brady Nelson, Dallin Low, Aaron Potter, Tawni Barrett, etc, I
can't think there were so many. Speaking of new missionaries, being the Sister
Trainer Leader had to have been one of the biggest highlights of the week. I
loved talking to all the new people and taking them on little tours, I get to
check on every room of sisters each night, whip them into obedient shape ;) I'm
pretty renown in my zone for the whole obedience thing. Our district has a hard
time using time wisely and it sort of drives me crazy and I have to not say
anything. But really, those 20 minutes you just wasted studying is 20 minutes
further away someone just got from recieving the gospel because you aren't
prepared.(I don't know if my grammar was correct in that sentence, sorry
Melanie;)) I love study time :) Don't worry they all still like me ;) I
got to see Brandon Herring in the choir! I wasn't able to be in it
unfortunately because I had leadership training during rehearsal. so sad.
So I leave early early
Monday morning for Denver!!! (around 4 I think) I can not wait to go. I've
enjoyed the MTC but I'm ready to leave. When I hear about people staying here
for 9 weeks I die a little bit inside. 10 days was long enough for me.
Yesterday they told us how when we get to the Salt Lake City airport we have to
started talking to people about the gospel right away! WHAAAAAA-oh I just
remembered something- when we were practicing sitting down and talking to
someone I sat next to this elder, did my thing and committed him to read and
pray about the Book of Mormon. After that he started small talking with me
which is fine but then he said, "I know we aren't allowed to flirt at the
MTC but this is as close as it gets right?" and I was like
"ha.............. yeah. bye." What the heck? Who does that? I told
"Elder McBeth" about it and he was very upset. Okay about calling
from the airport I haven't really looked into it because I don't think I could
handle a phone call home. I'm really sorry if this makes you super mad mom but
please know that I'm just too sensitive to homesickness right now to make a call.
Sis C told me an
interesting statistic a teacher told her. 90% of America believes in Satan and
only 60% believe in God. Who knows how accurate that is but I would put my
money on it. How sad :( God is real, he lives and so does Jesus Christ. I'm not
on a mission just to convert people to Mormonism but to convert people to the
gospel of Jesus Christ restored on the earth today (That is why we are The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) because I am a part of the same
gospel that Jesus Christ taught. Wow! How cool is that? I know some people
won't believe me but I also know that there will be people who will. I have no
doubt that the Lord is on my side. I have no doubt that this is Christ's work
and that I am doing the right thing. I know because I can feel how strongly
Satan doesn't want me here which means this is exactly where I'm supposed to
be. I know the Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God. I know Joseph
Smith really saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. (I forgot a scripture I wanted
to share here. darn....) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.
Sorry I'll try and send
pictures later I never have time. I Love you and miss you all! Thanks again for
the letters and don't forget to go read the Book of Mormon right now!!!!!
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