Merry Christmas-Oh wait, it is May 12!

(note: due to the challenge of keeping track of changed names, I am going back to initials. Kirk)

It's snowing a lot! Darn Colorado, can't get it's seasons straight. Thankfully it isn't a brutally cold snow like it is in the winter.

Talking to you all yesterday was the best thing ever. At dinner the Cs said, "We'll be having rootbeer floats for dessert" and I said "Can this day get any better? If I have much more happiness I'll explode" I felt like cloud 9 getting to see my awesome family. I can't wait until I have unlimited time to talk to you all.

For my birthday Hna R. took my out to McDonalds for breakfast and then the Ds from Riverdale came over and took me out to Chilis for a birthday lunch. That was fun, we always laugh a lot together, they are a solid family. Then we did missionary work! Dinner was at the Rs (family she lives with) and I loved it, they made my favorite dinner and I had leftovers for lunch the next day. I had a couple cakes from different people because I told everyone I saw that it was my birthday soon ;) After dinner Sister R (companion) got pretty sick. We brought a recently returned sister missioanry with us to an appointment and Sister R fell asleep on the couch and the RM and I taught lesson one to A and L (The family we found last week). It went really well! They said they wanted to be baptized but wouldn't commit to a date. Overall it was a great day.

Thursday was Zone Meeting and it was such a wonderful time. The spirit was strong as we talked about how we can be better missioanries. I felt such an urgency to go out and work. I could barely contain myself I was so happy. One sister told me I reminded her of a Disney princess. Elder H said, "I wonder what it would be like if you and Sister B were companions" (She is another really bubbly/singy missionary who just got relased from being a sister trainer leader (STL)). That evening we had a lesson with a less active sister and we brought someone from the RS presidency. The member we borught asked her, "So when are you going to go back to the temple?" I was like you go girl! She told us about her difficult past and divorce and we testified to her that through Christ she can be forgiven. Then, she came to church on Sunday!

We had another lesson with A and L that went well, we brought a man from the ward which really helped A. They are so ready for this gospel, they just don't know it yet. A mentioned that he has too much fun partying to go to heaven... I know that through the BOM his heart and desires will change and his family will be able to have so many blessings.

Saturday we taught a less active named C. She is 25 and Sister R and Sister G found her tracting before I got here but they had never taught her. Guess what?? She is Ms (person that Collette taught in a previous ward) cousin! (Okay family I know I told you these things yesterday haha). And her little sister C wants to take the missionary lessons so we will be teaching her tomorrow! How crazy that I get to teach Ms cousins. C came to church yesterday and she loved it and is definitely coming back. She leaned over to me during sacrament and said "This is my favorite part" and I said "Mine too :)" 

Sunday, we are teaching a 22 year old girl named A with a slight learning disability so we have to go really slow and make sure she understands. We came by and she and her mom and written out a summary of the BOM chapter we left and each written their favorite verses. It was so wonderful to see her mom help her learn and grow in the gospel.

After dinner we went to teach a less active HIspanic woman who is going through a  hard time. She doesn't agree with the way that her daughter raises her grandchildren and she doesn't know what to do to help. At the end of the lesson she just started crying and said in her broken English, "I feel the spirit so strong when you girls are here." It was one of those small rewarding moments on the mission.

We taught an active family with a Less active son the story of Joseph Smith. The spirit was so strong and the mom was in tears and we asked how she felt and she said "It is true." Then we said to the son, you can bless your family in so many more ways if you will work towards getting the priesthood. The whole time we talked to him about the priesthood the mom was crying and he told us that he will start working towards it and join in family scripture study everyday.

Thanks again for everything. Thank you to S Owsley and Ev and Sisi and all my wonderful siblings for the packages. They made my birthday so special and I felt very loved. I'm happy to be serving the Lord and I wish you could all be out here with me. LOVE YOU

Playing mini-golf on P-day 

Birthday flowers from Dad and Mom 

Collette and her companion

No, it is not a sheep. Just a big dog. 

SUNDROPS, LOLLIPOPS AND RAINBOWS EVERYWHERE.......

(names have been changed)

A sister in the mission just forwarded her email home and the title made me laugh so I copied it.

Yeah so my heart is broken. Yesterday was an adventure for sure. S May and I are definitely the best friends of the mission but there is another set that is also best friends named S East and S Hanks. S Hanks and I have been out about the same time and S East and S May both went home today so S Hanks and I got to be companions after we dropped them off at the mission home last night. It was so funny becuase we were all four in the same boat. S May and I were standing outside talking and President comes out and says "I was wondering if you two were going to be separable!" After we gave our last hugs goodbye the door closed and both S Hanks and I freaked out haha. It was so good we had each other and knew exactly what the other was going through. So we get home at night and start planning and get a phone call from some sisters in S Hank's zone but it was actually S East and S May calling us haha. So we switched off talking to our companions until the phone ran out of battery.

Then this morning we get a phone call at 6:33, lights still off, we're both still saying our prayers, from one of the APs and guess who it was? Yep, S East and S May, on their way to the airport. We were laughing so hard. We talked to them, all 4 of us, for their whole ride to the airport. Are we all pathetic or what? Later S Hanshaw was like "That was the best 30 minutes of excersise time I've ever had." So right now S May is at home with her family. Crazy right??

My new companion is S Jackson! She is super nice :) She came out the transfer before me and was called as one of the brand new Sister Training Leaders. S May said "If you get one of the new STLs you should tell them, yeah, as STLs we go home at 8 instead of 9. We also get Sundays AND Mondays off." Hahaha I was laughing so hard.

This week we had Zone Meeting and I gave the training on repentance which I LOVED! I definitely needed it. I'm way too hard on myself, like most people and I loved being able to testify that God wants to forgive us. I was having kind of a hard day so I didn't feel fully prepared to train (actually I hadn't prepared at all). But I got up there and just said "I just want to tell all of you how much God loves you and please do more talking than me because there is someone in this room who needs to hear your testimony." And by someone I genuinely meant it because I meant me, but of course I'm way too prideful to admit I'm having a bad day.

I learned more this week about the Atonement than I have in a while. I learned that my Heavenly Father loves me so so so much and that my Savior knows where I am and how I feel. You know what is cool? I have learned to really appreciate the sacrament. As  missionary, we have to be clean and obedient to feel the spirit so we can teach with power and authority. By the time Sunday comes again, I NEED that sacrament so I can restart. I have no doubt that it works because it is a sacred ordinance of the Savior's gospel. That is what I love about being a missionary, that I am changing, truly changing! I want nothing more than to become like my Savior and I will go through whatever it takes to get there.

I miss S May a lot but I need to forget about myself. I know that S Jackson will be easy to love, what a blessing that we have to interact and love so many of God's precious children! If I can just lose myself in the work maybe my heart will stop being so broken. I would appreciate your prayers, change is never easy but it is always good! Also, can I get some more support from mi familia? I hear from 3 family members semi-consistently. Plus a couple other people the email me fairly regularly but I really love you guys and would appreciate talking to you more :)

Love you always!!!

Sister Knowlton

"How good do we look on a scale of 9-10"

(names have been changed)

Dearest Family,

I didn't hear from as many of you this week. You all still alive out there? ;) I've learned so much this week. I always share little experiences and such but ask me some questions so I can know what you want to hear about :)

Man sending your best friend home is emotional! Poor S May, she doesn't want to leave at all, I feel like both of our hearts were heavy this week and probably will only be heavier in this last week. We still are working as hard as we can to make every second count.

Update on investigators: Valerie was supposed to be baptized on the 8th but we taught her Word of Wisdom. We didn't see her at all this week but we are really trying to get back in contact with her. It breaks my heart because she knows that this is true and loves the Savior but Satan just threw all this junk at her right before her baptism. Keep her in your prayers if you can :)

Mary and Sonny were supposed to be baptized this coming Saturday but there were some setbacks. They are still so on board, converted, and fellowshipped, we just need to postpone it one or two more weeks. I can't remember if I told you this about them: They have a really hard time getting pregnant and finally last year they did and they had a miscarriage so teaching them the Plan of Salvation was the best feeling ever. They are so excited to now know that they can see their child and live with them forever. When we taught the law of Chastity Mary said, "I've always wondered if the reason we haven't been able to get pregnant is because we weren't quite doing it the way God wanted." I really thought about that and came to the conclusion that God wasn't punishing them, but now that they will be married and keeping God's commandments, think of the amazing miracles that will happen for them :)

Awesome things are happening in the Roanoke (not the name) ward, after about 3 months here it is starting to be a little bit more like M. Ward as far as member involvement. We have a member with us almost every single hour that we are out working. S May and I really wanted to get 40 lessons but we calculated that we only have 35 hours a week of actual working time because of all the meetings we have every week. technically we could do it if we did half hour lessons but that would be silly. Numbers are important but quality over quantity.

Every week I learn more and more about God's love. He loves us so incredibly much. If there is ever a moment when I am sad or stressed I know without a doubt that the answer is prayer. I can always turn to my Heavenly Father so I instantly fold my arms and bow my head at any moment of the day. I wish I could express how much I love being a missionary. I love getting up every morning at 6:30. I love kneeling down to pray and study everyday at 8. I love going out into the world to share the gospel and my testimony at 10 am. I love feeling the spirit which always tells us what to say. I love making mistakes and laughing at them. I just love laughing period! I love eating at 5pm, who doesn't love eating. I love my companion, doesn't matter what we are doing, we are happy and feeling the spirit. I love coming home at 9, planning until 9:30, talking nonstop until 10:20 then jumping in my PJs and kneeling down to pray again at 10:30. I love snuggling up in my blankets after a hard days work. Most importantly I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He lives and is my Redeemer. I have total faith that through Him I can be saved. Everyone listen up! No matter what you've done, Heavenly Father loves you and His grace is sufficient, He wants you back so have faith and repent :)

Please please please, share the gospel with boldness this week. And, again, I would love more questions so my emails can be more directed :)

<3Sister Knowlton

The Trunky life

(note: names have been changed)

For those of you who don't know what "trunky" means, it is referring to when a missionary is about to pack their trunks and go home. Usually it is used with a negative connotation when someone isn't focused. I'm not trunky at all and neither is S May. but I am definitely living the trunky life, sending home two people in a row. It's so hard not to make comments about it all the time. I always want to say "Can you believe you only have 3 weeks left on your mission??" etc. But I know that wouldn't be beneficial so I try not to say those things.

Great week again! We taught another 30 lessons and found a couple more investigators. But the best part of it was that we taught 12 lessons with a member present! That is my favorite key indicator by far. Member present lessons are the best way to get an investigator to progress. The most S M. and I had done before was 13 our last week in our previous area, so we have to try and top that again.

ON Monday all of our appointments cancelled. We had dinner with an investigator and they called sick and then everyone else cancelled. We had a member coming with us to 2 of our appointments and so since they cancelled we tried to visit a couple people. No one was home, we kept going from house to house until finally we went to visit a new investigator named Gary (not real name). He let us in and just like the first time we taught him, he made very clear that we "aren't going to save him" and he doesn't do religion. We sat down and began to teach him about the nature of God and the Restoration of Christ's gospel. It was hard to get past prophets because he kept telling us we were prophets but eventually he got the idea. The cool part of the lesson is that by the end of it, his heart was truly softened by the spirit. He wasn't trying to put up a fight and he just listened as the member we brought testified of the Book of Mormon. The spirit can change people!! Then we took the member to Valerie and taught her the plan of salvation. As we were leaving the member expressed what a wonderful experience she had. GO MEMBERS

Tuesday: So we have an investigator named Rhonda (60s) who has been meeting with missioanries for about a year. She has read all of the Bible, BOM, and D&C, believes it full heartedly and used to come to church weekly. Her only hold up is that she isn't married. A little while after I got to the area, her divorced was finalized so she would be able to marry her BF Courtney. When taht happened she just stopped coming to church. It has been a really touchy subject becasue I don't really know how to tell an older couple that has been divorced 3 times each, to get married. So we went into the lesson planning on reteaching the law of chastity and eternal marriage. I was sooooo nervous, I just didn't know how to tell them what they needed to do. As Sister May. said the opening prayer, I was saying a prayer in my own heart begging for the Spirit so I would be able to say the right thing. When it was my turn to talk I had a flood of thoughts enter and I testified to them that before they came here to the earth, they knew about everything they each would have to go through separately (many trials) but that they promised each other "It's okay, I'm going to find you and we will be able to live happily for all of eternity together. It will all be worth it."

Wed: Cici, the 15 year old girl we found last week, we taught her part of the Restoration with her best friend who is a member. It was kind of difficult because they weren't paying close attention so that is when having a member is counterproductive haha. But at the end he invited her to seminary and church all by himself so that was great! He said she came to seminary!

Thursday: We were on exchanges so I was in a different area. I wasn't feeling very well so it was hard because you have to be like 110% energy on exchanges. Sometimes they just wear me out. Actually all the time. This zone is harder because we have to do 2 a week since there are so many sisters. I realy do love getting to learn from all the other sisters though!

Friday: Weekly planning!!! Woot woot! Can you say party?? Then we did service at the Food bank with the Zone Leaders. That is always fun, the ZLs, who are also in our ward, think Siseter May. and I are ridiculous. They just laugh and shake their heads at us. The lady the runs the Food bank is always commenting "What is all this giggling about??" We have a great relationship with her, she really loves the missionaries.

That night we taught Valerie in a member's home about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.. She is so humble and excited to be baptized, we'll just see how the Word of Wisdom lesson goes tomorrow :/ But she is still set to be baptized next weekend!!

Saturday: We were on exchanges again and one of the spanish sisters came to our area with me. It was a SOLID day. We taught 8 lessons and 4 were member presents. One guy we taught the Restoration to on his doorstep. After that we were walking to another apartment and passed a group of 4 teenagers hanging out, they all looked like they were the kind who like to get themselves into trouble. We went over and shared a message with them outside. The 15 girl who was smoking said she was baptized Mormon and that her cousin is on a mission right now! So we found a less active. One of the girls had scars covering her arms and shared how terrible her life had been. It was somewhat difficult for them to believe in a loving Heavenly Father.

AHHH time is up. Mary and Sonny are still doing really well. They will be getting baptized the week after Valerie and they are being fellowshipped like crazy. Their neighbors the Jonses are starting to invite other members of the ward over for their lessons. We taught them the plan of salvation this week which was a sweet experience. They have been trying to have kids for 11 years and last year they finally got pregnant and ended up having a miscarriage. We were so happy to tell them "You will be able to live with your baby for all of eternity."

Sunday: Remember the teenage boy at the table last week? We went back and retaught the Restoration and invited them to be baptized March 29th and they said yes!

Good week!

Love you all so so much! This church is true and God loves you. Ask yourself, do I believe that through Christ I can be cleansed of my sins? Many people believe that that doctrine is true for others but don't truly believe it themselves.

Laughing out loud- all day, everyday!

(note: names have been changed) 

Another great week? yep, another great week!

I'm going to try and jam pack it into this email.

On Tuesday we were on exchanges and I was with a sister from Samoa, we came out the same day. We got an idea from some other STLs that before the exchange you have the sister you aren't exchanging with come into the car and say "OKay I'm about to spend a day with your companion. What should I watch out for? What does she need help with? what should I focus on?" It is so helpful! It's so much easier to pick up on their needs thoughout the day.

We taught a lesson to our investigators Jane (21) and Cindy (mom). At the end of the lesson Jane said, "You know I've been wondering about being baptized and getting my daughter baptized and then you guys showed up right after that. Isn't that funny?" It just shows how much God really does guide us. We found her because a month ago(?) we were going to an appointment and it was FREEZING outside (around 8 pm) but there was a guy outside scrapping his car. We offered to help and of course he said no but then I said, "We don't have an ice scraper, can we borrow yours?" So we scrapped our back window and then talked with him briefly. Later we were in the neighborhood, tried his house, and that's when we met Jane and Cindy!

Wednesday was Zone Conference and it was really cool, we had a lot of training on how to be more effective teachers and the mission totally caught on! Things have improved even within the week. S May (her Tongan companion three times) gave her departing testimony, I thought I would be sad but I really was just so proud to be her companion :) She is probably one of the most influential missionaries in the mission. Sometimes it's hard to be her companion just because it's easy to compare myself to her but she is humble and does a good job of boosting me up.

At ZC, President Toombs did a roleplay with his counselor and they were pretending to be missionaries planning and they said "I think we could get 10 lessons tomorrow" and all the missionaries looked at each other like "uhhhhh do they not know what missionary work is like? You don't get 10 lessons in one day" So we all chuckled a little like "silly President...." But the next day, We got 9 lessons! So close ;) At the beginning of the day it was kinda discouraging because we had planned for 4 member present lessons and they all cancelled. It was Thursday and we hadn't found any new investigators yet that week. I was only getting discouraged because I feel a lot of pressure from President, since he put us back together, I feel like he expects crazy miracles and success every week. I asked S May, "Are we allowed to have a bad week?" I wanted her to say, "yes of course, everyone has bad weeks!" But she said "Nope." Haha. The next house we tried was a potential (Donna) that we have been trying for 2 months. She was finally home and let us come in. We have been learning to always teach God's nature first, they need to understand that before they can understand the Restoration and the BOM. We testified to her and her husband about God and His love. We told them that He is her Father and that He has felt all of her pain and was there with them always. Donna's eyes were filled with tears as she listened to the Spirit. I walked out thankful that we didn't give up and that my companion had enough faith to know that we can see success every week.

Later that evening we found two more investigators from a lady that we had talked to outside a couple days earlier. We decided to see if she was home and she was! We taught her and her granddaughter.

Then after that we went to visit our investigator Yesi (was on date for baptism till she didn't come to church /:), while we were there, her two younger brothers joined in and said they would want to learn more so we ended up finding 6 investigators that day!

Saturday we were on exchanges again, I was with a Spanish sister who has been out for about 2 months. During her language study she helped me read the BOM in Spanish, she said I was pretty good! Thank goodness for living in Escondido and hearing the accent all the time ;) While we were planning the night before we included in our prayer "Heavenly Father, we are planning to see these people tomorrow, please prepare their hearts and help us find people to be baptized." In the morning we followed our plans and went to contact a referral a member gave us. Everytime we try we always try the apartment across the hall too. Neither of them have ever been home, but as we were knocking on the referral's neighbor a woman walks up the stairs carrying a 2 liter Dr Pepper and smoking a cigarette. I asked "Do you live here?? I love Dr Pepper!!" She let us come in, not to talk to her but she said we could talk to her daughter. Cici is 15 and she is going througha  really hard time. I'm pretty sure Cici sleeps on the couch. The entire lesson, we taught of God's nature and love, she would try to hold back her huge grin. Every now and then it would slip out as we told her "God has a plan for you. He is there for you to help you get through these trials" We asked how she felt and she said "I feel so comfortable." We asked, "have you been feeling that this whole time?" and she said "yes!" We testified that the feeling was the Holy Ghost telling her this message is true. We are coming back and bringing one of the Young Men who is her friend from school. I know that we would not have been at that apartment at the right time if we had not asked God to prepare these plans.

At the end of the day we had about an hour left and our appointment cancelled. We went to our scheduled backup and prayed "Please help us find those prepared to be baptized and help us know the opportunity when we see it" We tried a bunch of potentials in the complex and no one was answering so we went to try an investigator there. As we were walking we saw a boy sitting at a picnic table on his phone. I got teh distinct impression that that was who was put in our path. He started to walk away but we walk faster ;) His name is Andrew and he's 12 years old. He was really shy and didn't say much but we asked if we could walk with him to his apartment and pray with his family. He said yes so we went in and taught his mom and her boyfriend the message of the Restoration. The mom said she had mormon friends in highschool and they always broguht her to activities. (Thank you mormon friends from forever ago!)

On the way to exchange back Hermana Boston said "I don't want to leave!"

Sunday we had 3 investigators come to church. Valerie (I talked about her a couple weeks ago), went to a different ward because she can't make it to our time. She works Sunday and is trying to get it off so we told her in the mean time go to the other ward (which happens to be President Toombs's ward) He texted us letting us know that she was there and that he had a nice talk with her! She is set to be bpatized March 8th. Then our investigators Mary and Sonny came with their fellowshippers/neighbors. The ward was AWESOME everyone was talking to them and helping them feel loved. In our lesson that evening they said they felt so welcomed and they loved it! Melissa also showed us how she downloaded the scriptures on her phone! They will be getting bpatized March 15th.

Sorry this was so stinkin long, I just am sad you don't get to hear all the miracles we see every single day, literally. S May and I are still having the time of our lives. Did you know that I snort when I laugh? Well yeah, when I'm companions with S Mailau, I discover that. It's super embarrassing but it just makes me laugh harder. The Hansons who we live with call me "the giggle box." Their cleaning lady came down to our room while we were planning and said "I just wanted to say hi because your laughter fills the whole house!" haha oops...... I love you all so much and am tahnkful for your love and support. It helps me so much. I know without all of you I would not be enjoying my mission as much as I am.

Her Zone

A recent convert gave them the pillows for Valentine's Day

With a family she is teaching. Sad because her companion smashed a cupcake in her face

Love you!!!

Sister Knowlton

"baby it's cold outside!"

(names have been changed)

Miracle week! Well really, every week is a miracle week. That is one thing I love about being a missionary, I've learned to expect miracles. Mom, Dad, I am feeling a lot better. I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday but I couldn't stay in so we went out working anyways. It was hard because it was really really cold this week. S May kept telling me we should go home but I just couldn't do it and I know she didn't actually want to either. On Thursday I got a blessing from the Zone Leaders and it was so wonderful, I felt instatnly better. I think God knew that I wasn't going to take the time to rest and heal so He gave me extra help.

It is so great being back with S May (this is the third time that they are companions), we can laugh all day long but still feel the spirit and teach when the time comes. When we got out of our first teaching appointment she was like "yep, that's a familiar feeling." I was trying to describe what it's like when we are teaching and just came up with some analogies taht don't make sense: "It's like the room is filled we the spirit and we are just surfing on it! No, it's more like the spirit is in this flowy magical ball and it just gets tossed between us, the member, and the investigator." Does that make any sense? Probably not.

We found 9 new investigators this week. One evening our appointments cancelled so we prayed to know where to go. At around 8:40 we were driving to a LA, whenever I'm talking too much S May will jokingly turn the music up a little to hint she doesn't want to listen to me and I quickly turned it down and say "Shhh! I'm trying to listen to the spirit!" Then instantly we felt like we should go try a potential S West and I found. So we did, she opens the door and tells us that she was asleep and is sick but she let us come in and we shared a message with her about the nature of God and how He is her loving Heavenly Father. We'll be going back this week :)

The next morning we went to visit another potential and her 17 year old daughter answered. She let us come in and told us that she does not believe in God or a higher power, all she believes in is heaven and hell. (Don't ask me how that works). We shared a message with her and at the end invited her to say a prayer which she had never done before. It was such a sweet prayer, her heart was softened by the spirit and she prayed "Dear God, just let me know if you're there. I'm just wondering" We're going back tomorrow and bringing an 18 year old in the ward preparing for a mission :)

We had Missionary Leader Conference on Friday and oh my goodness I can't even tell you how many comments we got. When we walked in the APs just smiled and shook their heads.
"How are you two back together??"
"When I saw transfers I thought, now there's a dying wish"

"When we saw you two were together we screamed!"

"I did a little fist pump for you guys when I saw"

The best was President, "Who put you two back together? You don't know why I put you together because I haven't talked to you yet, but I'm going to have you train the whole mission" We still don't know what that means.... but hopefully he'll let us know this week.

Elder Best (my friend from BYU who is AP) came up and said "so do you want to know what went down when we were deciding transfers? President had said 'Nope, we are not putting them back together, I need them spread out.' so we had everyone transfered except we couldn't figure out where to put S May so President said 'Should we just do it?' " So that's the story of how we got put back together. And we are loving it :D

This mission is taking off. Everyone is getting really really good, with all this emphasis on planning for the past few trasnfers, the miracles are incredible. President Toombs will be getting released in July so he is at the end and he's just trying everything he can. It is so fun to be apart of this work at this time that it is hastening. We told the Ward Council yesterday, we really need help getting members at lessons because it can take up to 20 min of phone calls for just one member to come and we literally don't have time, we are teaching always. So the bishopric said, "So we need a new calling because the sisters are too busy!" Our ward is very supportive. Every member we take to lessons does a really good job witht he investigator. They all have wonderful testimonies. Mom and Dad, you both made comments about being in a new ward. I'm still in Roanoke (not the name), just finished my 2nd month here so yeah it is a little new but just in case you thought I got transferred again, I didn't :)

I love this work and I love the Savior. This week I have been really benefitting from the scripture Ether (actual name:))12:27. Often times it is very easy for me to feel inadequate and take note of the many many things I need to improve on but this scripture gives me so much comfort. I know that it's okay to have weaknesses because that is what makes us turn to the Savior. I know that He lives. I am grateful for the knowledge the Gospel gives me, that I will one day be able to see my Heavenly Father. His love is unconditional. He loves me when I'm keeping the commandments and He loves me even when I haven't done my best. That love is what makes me move everyday, He is the reason that I give this everything I have. People need to know their Savior and they will not come to that knowledge unless they read and pray about the BOM so go and share it! If you have the BOM in your life, you are accountable to make it known to the world.

Love always,

Sister Knowlton

Sister Knowlton and Sister May (not real name)

Worst Week Ever. October 14, 2013

Worst Week Ever     October 14, 2013  A few pictures thrown in.

JUST KIDDING! Sorry if I scared you. Just thought I'd shake things up. Are you tired of hearing how happy I am? Well that's too bad because I'm still happy. Yesterday I came out of the room and said "Sis.  P., I'm so sad we can't email today." She said "Is Collette sad? Because Sister Knowlton is never sad."

Seriously, are we allowed to have this much fun as a missionary? Sis.  M. and I have SO MUCH FUN. She really likes attacking me....... It must be a Tongan thing but she always is tackling me. I don't get it. She is super funny and I just laugh at her all day. You know what we figured out? When she was graduating High School, I was in 8th grade. Weird right?

IMPORTANTE Can someone please go on pintrest and print out a couple workouts I could do inside in the morning and then mail them to me? It's starting to get too cold to go outside. Speaking of cold- it snowed last Friday and I forgot to tell you all

  

Thursday we were on exchanges again and I was with the new missionary Sister G. She is an awesome missionary but is having a hard time adjusting to missionary life as most new missionaries do. Thankfully it wasn't too long ago that I was a new missionary so we did a lot of talking throughout the day about how to find joy in missionary service. Wednesday evening when we exchanged we had 10 minutes and I went to an apartment complex and we prayed that we could use these last 10 minutes effectively. We went to knock on a door and some shirtless guy in his 20s or 30s answered and long story short we found out he is a song writer and I said "Can we hear one of your songs???" and he says all confidently "oh yeah, it goes a little something like this:   “Baby girl you lookin so flyy (insert more romantic song lyrics)"   I was trying soooo hard not to bust up laughing. When he shut the door Sis. G. was like "wow, you just got serenaded." Then while walking back to the car there was a guy outside so we talked to him. Apparently he was a less active member. By the end of it I challenged him to pray about serving a mission and told him that through the Savior he can be forgiven of anything.

I have really enjoyed my studies lately. I have been trying to focus on being Christ like because if the Savior were teaching our investigators they would be able to understand,

feel loved, feel the spirit of God, and want to be baptized. As a representative of Jesus Christ it is my responsibility to repent and become more like the Savior so that God's children can come unto Christ. If I do my best to be Christ like, I will be able to teach with power and authority. I have also been trying to increase my faith because we set a goal to have 2 people baptized this transfer. Sis. M. is really helping me increase my "vision to baptize." There is one more person that is going to get baptized in the next 4 weeks. Since people have to come to church 3 times we need to figure out who that is fast. This morning I really felt like J. has to get baptized before I leave. He has come to church twice but he isn't our investigator any more. I know that faith is a power. I was wondering how can my faith make a difference if God's will is not for J. to be baptized? Sis. M. told me that God does take my will into consideration and faith really can make miracles happen. If everyone could please pray for J., I would greatly appreciate it!

I love this work. I need to start writing down funny moments again because there are so many. Sis. M. and I get along really well. She is teaching me how to hula and T. dance so now I'm a pro at shaking my hips! She also calls me Collette sometimes and it messes with my head haha. I don't know how I have been blessed with 3 awesome companions so far! 3/3! Let's keep it going!

Love you all and you are in my prayers!

Sister Knowlton

"With a Tongan Companion, Anything is Possible" October 7, 2013

With a Tongan Companion, Anything is Possible    October 7, 2013

Wow. What an incredible week. Emailing about my week is starting to overwhelm me because I just can't express what missionary life is like haha. So much to say!

So my new companion, Sister M. is a BOSS. She has been out for a year and is good at everything. She also is extremely funny so we spend a lot of time laughing. Sometimes I get a headache because I'm laughing so hard.

Wednesday was our first exchange! AHH! As Sister Trainer Leader's we have to go on an exchange with every sister in the zone. It was a little intimidating because a leader's area is supposed to be the example for other missionaries and obviously I don't know what I'm doing yet! I went with the brand new sister and Sis.  M. went with the trainer. Our zone consists of: Sis.  M. and I, Sis.  H. and her new missionary, and 2 other sisters and their new missionaries. Besides  Sis.  Har. and the new missionaries everyone has been out longer than me so I asked Sis.  M. if I could be with the new missionaries on exchanges ;) While we do exchanges we have to show them every aspect of work, finding, teaching, planning, working with members, etc. I went with the new Spanish missionary, from Ecuador, who speaks English but hasn't learned how to teach in English, and Gospel vocabulary is something you have to practice. Therefore, she was pretty quiet in lessons but I tried to help her talk as much as she could. I let her know that every time she spoke it was powerful because she phrased things in such a simple spiritual way. I learned a lot about teaching simply in that exchange! It really is powerful!

Friday was Mission Leader Council (MLCs). It was a little intimidating hearing about how good of missionaries we need to be and how we need to take care of the missionaries we are serving. I'm just barely getting used to taking care of myself and my investigators and ward! It's okay I know that God would not give me this calling unless he was planning on helping me and He knows I will be needing a lot of help! Of course Sis. M. is a great help as well. Everyone loves her!

That evening we had a good lesson with the P.'s,  a part member family. We talked about covenants and the Book of Mormon. I shared some verses from Enos and then bore testimony about how the Book of Mormon helps us to understand that through Jesus Christ we can be cleansed from our sins and that if we want to access the Atonement we must have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end.

  

I love this work and I know this church is Jesus Christ's church on the earth today with Christ at the head. I'm grateful that every single day I get to walk side by side with my Savior as I talk to God's precious children. I know my Savior lives and I want to do whatever I can to become like him. The Book of Mormon is true, so go read it and then go share it. Have you made a family mission plan? a personal mission plan? How are you going to head the teachings of the prophet and take someone by the hand and bring them to Christ? God knows how you can do it! So ask Him!

I love you all so muchhhhhhh!

Sister Knowlton

ps. we went to visit an active family with 6 little kids and they all were running out the door at us when we pulled up. One of the girls (4) was just freaking out she was so excited and finally she exclaimed while shaking her fists "I JUST LIKE YOU!!!!" <3

"4th Times a Charm? Transfer Doctrine!" September 30, 2013

4^th Times a charm?  Transfer Doctrine!    Sept 30

FAMILY! I love you! Here's the moment you've all been waiting for. I bet you have been holding your breath the whole week to find out more adventures of Sister Knowlton and what transfers will bring. I appreciate your concerns and thoughts but please be sure to carry on with your own lives instead of waiting by the computer every single day. Sorry, that was a failure of my goal to take sarcasm out of my language.

*I'm staying in Malley!* Wooohoooo going on 6 months in this ward. Obviously I need to figure out what I'm supposed to learn here because I haven't yet.

So Saturday was the trainer meeting for all who would be training next transfer. Because of that meeting you find out if you are training Friday night. Neither Sister Har. or I got a call from President that we were training which was a little bit odd because I always assumed I would train for the rest of my mission since that is what sisters do nowadays haha. We went on with our Saturday wondering what transfers would bring. Late into the afternoon (after the trainers meeting) we got a call from the President. He said he had transfers finished but he wanted to make a last minute change "S Har. we would like you to train a new missionary" (Sister Har. screams really excitedly ) "And Sister Knowlton, we would like to call you to be our new Sister Training Leader" uhhhhhhhhhhhh...... what?!? I've only been out for 3 transfers!! Needless to say, I have another very humbling calling ahead of me.

I am now one of the 14 STLs in the mission and youngest in age and time out on my mission. Guess who my companion is???? Sister M.!! You probably don't know who that is but she is my "grandma," Sister H.'s trainer. She is a straight up boss missionary. President  knew I needed a companion that could whip me into shape. I'm not sure exactly how long she's been out but it's over a year. You've seen pictures of her, she's the Tongan. So now I have to go on exchanges with all the sisters in my zone and attend Mission Leadership Councils once a month. I'm excited to get to see different areas and learn from all the other sisters in my zone.

S Har. is being swept into an area with her greenie. She's still in my zone so I will see her at least twice a week, thank goodness. She will be such an awesome trainer, she pretty much trained me! :) Elder G. is leaving the zone for his last transfer. That was really sad. He's been my ZL all 3 transfers and we are best friends.

We work with a less active 15 year old named S. who is really shy and has a lot of anxiety problems. I can picture exactly who she would be at my high school and know that she needs a lot of love. Since I thought I was leaving I gave her a bookmark with a Pres. Uchtdorf quote and wrote her a little note on the back, reminding her to always read her scriptures when she feels sad.

Yesterday we had about 10 minutes before an appointment so we quickly went to stop by a prospective elder's house. I've knocked on his door a fair amount of times and no one has answered even when I felt like people were home. This time someone actually opened the door! Him, his wife, and his little baby came outside to chat with us and the mosquitos. He kept saying how funny it is that we stopped by because he's been thinking about getting back to church. He told us, "I told her (his wife) about our beliefs and she's really interested" She said, "with our new son we have really been thinking about him and how we need to get to a church." Man, I love moments like that.

For zone awards this transfer I was deemed the award "Best White Girl Moves" I hope you are all proud.

   

Elder O. got permission from the  President to sing appropriate Broadway songs at the retirement homes so we are pretty excited about that.

Being a missionary is so amazing. I appreciate all of our prayers and will really need them as I go into this next transfer. I anticipate a lot of feelings of inadequacy but I know God is on my side so I will be fine. Who else is SO EXCITED for General Conference??????? We didn't get to see the RS Broadcast, I heard it was good. y'all are lucky. Thank you to Kimberly for emailing me and Amy for writing me, So far the only person who has emailed me weekly is the one and only: Aly Parco!! Izzie would've gotten that too but no email this week :( sad day. Do they still do missionary spotlights in Felicita Ward?

two other cool moments: At chick-fil - a couple weeks ago some guy gave us $20 to pay for our lunch. This week we were walking in (S Har. had lost her nametag) I said "Too bad you don't have our nametag because now no one will give us money. ;)" Right after I said that a lady came up and said "Are you sister missionaries? I'm buying you lunch. You have inspired my 10 year old daughter to serve a mission" I love moments like that.

The church is true. I know it, I live it, I love it. If it were not true, I would not be able to see miracles every single day. If it were not true this would be a total waste of my time. But it is! I never want to stop serving a mission!! Thank you Mom and Dad for all you have done for me. I feel so much gratitude for you everyday. Thanks to all those who read my letters, I really appreciate it :)

Love,

Sister Knowlton

"Oh no, Don't turn into Unicorns!" September 23, 2013

How is it already Monday again? I think I'm starting to get to that point when all the people at home vaguely remember that I'm on a mission but it's kind of this forgeign blob of distant information.

We pick up trash at a school for service and this week it was SUPER muddy. S Hardy and I got to a stream thing we had to jump across and she made it so I thought I of course could as well. When i landed on the other side I slipped and fell right into the mud and was COVERED. Thankfully Elder Guzman had his phone out and recorded the whole thing.

This week I got a cold/fever and Sis. Har. kept giving me drugs and kept asking me to ask for a blessing and I didn't because I didn't think it was that bad. Finally I told her "Sis.  Har. I'm like an Indian in the woods. The spirits of nature heal me." So for any who were concerned, I'm still weird. 

Being sick was sorta hard becasue I didn't sleep very well in the night and I had a headache most of the days. It's interesting how your health affects your ability to feel the Spirit. Comments in lessons didn't come as freely because I didn't feel good. That is why I'm so grateful for the Word of Wisdom! We have to take care of our bodies so we can, in turn, take care of our spirits. I'm still on the road to recovery but I get better everyday! Sis.  P. told me I could stay home and rest but she knows us better than to suggest that ;)

Wednesday we went to the temple!!! Man I just love the temple. Sis.  P. drove us so it was fun to be there with her. I also love being able to see Sis. H., she gives the best hugs in the whole world. No joke. We sat in the Celestial room for as long as we possibly could then got to go to Deseret book. I love the Celestial room so much, I feel so happy and can feel how much Heavenly Father loves me. Because I feel his love so strongly everyday it makes me want to make him proud so badly. I've never wanted to do his will more in my life. I don't care what it takes, I will do anything He needs so I can get back to him.

Sis.  Har. and I had a cool experience yesterday.   I told her she should ask the Zone Leaders for a blessing. They knew nothing about what she was getting a blessing for but it was exactly what she needed to hear. I felt like Elder Neppach was a mind reader or something. He very specifically addressed her concerns and answered the questions that she had. There is no possible way to deny that the blessing she received was from Heavenly Father. Therefore, there is no way to deny that the Zone Leaders hold the priesthood and the power of God which was Restored through the prophet Joseph Smith.

I love being a missionary with everything in me. Every Pday I study about families since we don't see as many investigators so I can be a little selfish. Sometimes I forget I'm on a mission because I put so much into preparing to have a family ;) I'll be saying my prayers about my family then have to remember that I'm supposed to be praying for help as a missionary haha. Teaching the Gospel is the greatest blessing. I love my Savior and Heavenly Father. I love studying their words in the scriptures and learning every truth I possibly can. The Book of Mormon is true. It doesn't matter if I know it, it's still true!

Siblings: you should email me more often because when I get an email from a sibling it makes my week 100000x better :)

I love you all so much!

Sister Knowlton

It's Raining, It's Pouring....... September 16, 2013

Yes- I am still above water ;) Obviously it's been pouring rain all week but we didn't let it affect our work. The gutters and sidewalks were pretty much rivers but we could still drive. The first morning of the floods Sis.  P. was watching the news and seeing all the flood and she said kept trying to convince us not to go out. She said, "Tom told his sisters that they weren't allowed to go outside and I asked him 'How do you tell them what to do??'" She knows that we wouldn't stop working anyways. Silly Sis. P.   A lot of people asked us what we were doing out in this weather but they still slammed the door in our face so no, the rain didn't really work to our advantage ;) haha. A couple basements of members flooded so we were helping clear them out and rip up carpets but that was the extent of our service opportunities so far.

We were starting to share a message with a young mother and asking how she was and she explained she was going through a lot of stress because her basement was flooding so we stopped the message right there and went down to help. We called Brother  L. and he got some other guys to come over and help out. It's awesome to see the ward work together to help others :)

On Wednesday we had the General Authority, Elder Corbridge, come talk to us from 9-3:30. It was AWESOME. He taught all about how to be better teachers and focus on the most important thing, the Atonement. Me and 5 other missionaries sang "Lead Kindly Light." I also sang with 3 other missionaries in a different ward this past Sunday. On Thursday we had a zone meeting. Especially in these meetings and in our morning studies, I am able to learn so much from the Spirit. I can't even explain how much I love truth and learning. I always think to write stuff down so I can tell you but I always think, "No way I'll forget this!"

Really I just want to be the best missionary I can possibly be. I want to be a good teacher, I want to be bolder in finding situations, I want to have greater charity, etc. It's always a good feeling to realize that I have 14 more months to learn and grow. I know that once I get close to mastering missionary work I'll be going home to learn and grow some more. Isn't it fantastic that we can always progress and be better?! Have I said that already? Because I've been obsessing with it lately. Like usual we work really hard and do our best but we don't baptize someone everyday. We don't even have anyone on date for baptism right now. I try not to let those things get me down. I know no effort is wasted and my goal for my mission is to make my Heavenly Father proud. I know that he loves me and is happy about the fact that I do my best. He is happy that I jump (not literally......) out of bed every morning, and take each day as a brand new chance to let His children know about His plan for them. He loves them so incredibly much and it's my job to help them understand that. S Hardy and I decided to treat everyday as if it is our only day to be a missionary. If you had one day to be a missionary you wouldn't walk past that man on the street, you would stop and tell him something meaningful.

I love being a missionary with all my heart and I just want you all to know I'm working hard. I'm not sure if you can tell that from the stories I tell so I want you to know! I'm so far from perfect and there are moments when I really just want to take a nap haha but I keep going and somehow God helps me! I will never lose my "greenie fire" :D

Love you all and I hope you haven't forgotten about me yet! ;) Crazy that I've been out for the amount of time I could've done a semester at BYU! BEING A MISSIONARY ROCKS!!!! :D (Sorry guys, I'm never coming home ;) Nothing against you)

ps. I still like letters a lot :)

Miracle Week and the return of K. and B. (dun du dun dun)......September 9, 2013

So I guess you could say this week was pretty fantastic. Similar to most other weeks on a mission. Guess how many new investigators we found? The most we've ever found in a week before is 4 I believe. This week? 13. Yippee! 10 of them were found using the prayer approach. I think I told y'all about that.

Monday- M. and her grandson E. We invited them to be baptized and they said yes but we haven't been able to meet with them again this week.

Tuesday- We brought the Bishop to our appointment with our excommunicated investigator which I think helped a lot because the Bishop was really nice to him and talked about how wonderful repentance is.

We had a lesson with the D. family (active husband who is very old and a spiritual giant and his less active wife). R., the wife, works on Sundays and we brought Sis  B., an awesome member. Sis B. basically shut her down like a boss. Here's how the conversation went

Sis D: I don't think I can go to church anymore girls. I'm too old to go to church and then work all day. I'm sure Sis B. understands how that feels *polite laughter*

Sis B: *no laughter* No. I don't. I go to church on Sundays and work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

oh man. It was pretty funny. Calling people to repentance turns out to be a lot harder than I imagined. I really want everyone to like us and know that we love them but no one likes to be told they are breaking the commandments. S Har. and I have been working on being bolder. In our lesson with the D. family it was getting near the end and Sis D. was not really having it (She usually loves us but that's when we teach nice fluffy stuff. We aren't there to teach nice fluffy stuff, we are there to invite others to Christ through faith and repentance.) I prayed really hard that I would know what the Savior wanted me to say because I had no idea. So I opened my mouth and promised blessings as a representative of Jesus Christ. Afterwards Bro D. said "The Lord has truly loosened your tongue." That was a cool answer to prayer :)

Wednesday- we finally got one of our less actives to tell us she doesn't want to come to church because she feels guilty about smoking. I've been teaching her for about 3 months and never even had a clue that she smoked. She still didn't come to church but she said the Saturday before she even went and bought a skirt so she's thinking about it!!

We did the prayer approach with M. and while doing so this dog runs up to us and obviously I'm excited because that's a super easy way to start talking to whoever the owner is but when I look up I see K...... Oh no.... S Har. knows about him but she didn't know what he looked like so she starts talking and asking if we can pray with him. He says no and when he was out of ear shot I whisper "Bible basher!!!" ON top of that we had M. with us. He goes on to tell us that if he prayed with us that would be like praying with a Muslim. "And many other things did he say unto us that I can not write at this time." (<---Haha funny scripture reference.) While walking away M. said "he's golden."

Later in the week, during companion study I said

"So when I read this scripture I was thinking about K.--"

S Har.- "Nooooo! In my prayer this morning I said, God if we need to go back and talk to K. have S Knowlton say his name during studies."

hahahahaha so- we're going back and we are going to boldly bare our testimonies that Joseph Smith is in fact a prophet.

Thursday- rough day. All our appointments before dinner fell through. But hey, that's because God needed us to be somewhere else so I'm not complaining!

Friday- we told SW that if she didn't start reading and coming to church we couldn't keep coming by. (nicely and with the spirit of course ;) )

We had dinner with T., R., D., and S. They're our investigators if you don't remember. It is really painful to teach them because I care about them so much and want it so badly for them and R. will not pray about the BOM. So we are teaching them tonight and hopefully things go well. We will be inviting him to be baptized for the 3rd time haha.

Saturday- 6 new investigators!

We found a family through the prayer approach. It's a mom, C. and her 3 kids, S., D., and T. We invited them to be baptized October 5th and they all said yes but we aren't counting them as on date yet because I don't think they understand well enough...

S Har. and I have really been trying to work on teaching clearly and simply. I feel a lot of times the people we teach don't fully understand the Restoration and that is something that everyone deserves to understand because it is amazing!!!!!

We also taught briefly about the BOM to a single mom named V. who we said a prayer for last week. She said she has been looking for a church and is willing to read. She mentioned a Mormon friend she had in High School who brought her to church a couple times. That friend has no idea how much she helped both us and V.!

We were 10 minutes late to ward correlation and Bro L. gave us a nice big talking to. That was not fun. Missionaries must be punctual! Lesson learned!

We had a good time in companion study. We decided to scripture chase to every scripture that we read together. S Har. beat me most of the time which was kind of upsetting.

Sunday- We sang in church. We told EVERYONE to come support us and no less actives or investigators came... That was the whole reason we sang haha. We sang I need thee every hour with the Webster Lake elders who are both really great singers.

Did I tell you about that wedding? I can't remember but anyways we taught them and picked them up as investigators. The husband is pretty interested.

Remember that family we helped move one night? We went and taught them. M. is REALLY interested. She kept saying how she has been thoroughly studying the Bible for 22 years and just feels like there is something missing. When we started talking about Joseph Smith she said "wait let me get something" and I was afraid it was going to be anti stuff but she came back with a pen and paper and started franticly taking notes on everything we said. When we gave her the BOM and asked her to read 3 Nephi 11 she said "That's what I just opened to!! I'm covered in goosebumps just holding this!"

Every Sunday Elder Mc. does "Malley district radio call-in" and he gives a challenge and the first companionship to call in with the answer and their weekly numbers gets a candy bar. 2/3 week that we won ;)

I forgot to mention some things last week and I have zero time.

1. I got a ticket for going 11 over last Monday............. First ticket ever :( Sorry Mom and dad! I don't know how to pay it so I'm using that emergency cash you gave. You can take it out of my bank account or something)

2. I gave another training in District Meeting. I don't know how after being out for 3 months I've managed to train 3 times.... I've had a new DL every transfer. Maybe I should let the new ones know that I already trained....

3. A general authority is coming to our mission on Tuesday and I was asked to sing!! I'll let you know how that goes :)

Love you all!! Congrats Aaron and Amy! you are the best!

p.s. shoutout to Aly and Izzie for that incredible package. S Har. and I LOVEEE the CDs I would tell you more specifics but I ran out of time. I will next week :)

p.p.s. S Har. and I have so much fun. We are really great friends and I will be really sad to not be her companion in 3 weeks :(