I love you handsome buffalo

We were teaching this older couple in our ward this week whom we LOVE. They are a mix of all of my grandparents. S B told us she knows some Lao and then said a phrase and we asked what it meant and she said "i love you H1some buffalo" and S H2 and I were like uhhhhhhh.... Good times....

Honestly I'm getting so lazy at  writing emails because I want to spend all my time reading and replying to the emails I get. I really wish I could write longer responses but please know that I look forward to reading emails A LOT. At the same time though I do love telling y'all about my week. Have I mentioned that I have awesome family and friends? Cause I think that about 20 billion times a day.

I guess you could say Saturday was a pretty exciting day. M WAS BAPTIZED! Afterwards Elder B asked "how does it feel?" Basically I was just so happy and beaming the entire program. A lot of people from the ward came and also most of her family (they aren't members). Afterwards people gave her presents and a lady even gave her scriptures with her name on it! S B who we brought to almost all her lessons got her a cute necklace and a book for her kids. Elder G asked "Do you feel like you did anything?" and immediately I said no and he said "Those are the best ones :)" It really is true. She is so converted to this gospel which is something that can be hard to find in recent converts. She has the cutest little kids; R girl (4) and R boy (2) and they are always excited to pray and are now counting down the days till they can be baptized. R girl is so cute. Every time we are there she shouts "SISTERS" about 50 different times. The funniest is when we were sitting in Relief Society waiting for it to start and we hear outside "SISTERS" There is R announcing that she has entered the building and just assumes that if she shouts we will hear her. M is pretty sad that we wont be coming over as often but we are trying to start teaching her little sister so maybe we will be over there frequently again :) While visiting M before her baptism that evening she told us how she woke up, went into her mom's room and said, "Since I'm being born again today you might want to wish me happy birthday." haha! We were talking about baths in our lesson with her and S H2 said "Bath time! Best night of the week!!" Oh man, we laughed so hard. I'm glad S H2 gives our investigators the impression that we only bathe once a week.

Another funny moment- we were walking to an appointment and there was this older guy and a 20 year old guy out working so we went to talk to them. After chatting for a while the older guy said "Are you two married?" And I said "oh no- I'm only 19 and she's 20" and he said "I'm okay with that." This would be the second time an old man has brought up marriage with me. We gave him a mormon.org card and said adios.

On Tuesday we had zone conference. It was SO GOOD.I love that spiritual uplift. Guess what. President Toombs told us that our mission will end up being half and half, 125 sisters and 125 elders. SISTER POWER. We're taking over the world, watch out. After zone conference I went on exchanges with S H1 until Wednesday night becasue she is my STL :) Apparently STL's are going to be companions starting next transfer, just like Zone Leaders. It was fun being with S H1 again. I'm going to be sad if she gets transferred because we have enjoyed seeing each other almost everyday. We taught a super anti lady and brought the Relief Society President in S H1's ward and, holy cow, was the RS Pres bold. It got a little contentious.The lady told us about all this stuff her preacher had told her and The RS Pres said "Well, that's because your preacher doesn't want you to leave his church" oooo hooo.. The appointment even made S H1 cry afterwards and S H1 does NOT cry. I think it was mainly because they said some pretty incorrect things about agency and S H1 feels really strongly about agency so it bothered her. At the end of exchanges the older missionary always talks with us to see how things are going and I told her my favorite part of training is seeing how much people grow from day 1. She just smiled really big and told me how much I've grown and how proud of me she was :)

On Thursday we met with our investigator T and his less active mom, S. I don't remember if I've told you about them. When I first met them it was really hard for me to see the end result. Their house always reeks of smoke, it is never clean, you can't feel the spirit there, they are always sick, they don't have any money or a car and are living off the government, and are just all around living a really sad life. I've been praying a lot to be able to love them and see them as God sees them. This week there was finally a change. S read out of the BOM finally and she was so excited to tell us! She was smiling! She summarized the whole chapter to us and was really proud of herself. It was amazing to see her have some self-confidence. T didn't read but he expressed his desire to be baptized so we committed him to Sep 22. At the end of the lesson he said the prayer and was very sincere. It was awesome. Later in the week he called and asked what chapter they were supposed to read so I'm excited to see them tonight. We met another lesss active woman this week who I had the same feelings towards. It was so difficult for me to see how her life could get out of the situation it was in. I kept thinking "It will take years to turn this around." She's a hoarder and I've never seen that much stuff in my life, she also has no money or education. I'm so glad God is letting me meet these people because I'm really learning to have  faith in what God can do for them. I know that the gospel is the answer to any problem. As they feel the spirit, they will slowly but surely have the desire to do good things and change their circumstances. The talk "Redemption" by D Todd Christopherson gave me a lot of hope for them and what they can become. God loves them so much and he knows they have the strength to change their lives as long as they decide to turn to him.

Friday we went to see A the schizophrenic woman and it was kinda creepy becasue when we walked in she was whispering to the corner. I wonder about her so much. I wonder what she was like before her illness. She talks about her family but I don't know if they exist. I don't know how she found the church because she knows a good amount. 

Saturday- BAPTISM DAY. But also, there was a referral I got from a member the first week of my mission (I think that is the only member referral I've been able to get thus far). She told us never to give up. I lost count of how many times we knocked on her door but I think it was about 20. We have been trying to contact her since that first week of my mission. We went to try again one night and prayed really really hard that she would answer the door. Of course, she didn't answer like every other time. This time we wrote a note to leave on her door. While writing it I saw a mom and two boys across the road and so we walked over to talk to them. We chatted for a while and they weren't really interested but we left a BOM anyways. On the way back to the car there was a car pulling into K (referral)'s driveway. We wouldn't have made it in time but thankfully some neighbor stopped to talk with her so we were able to get to her before she pulled into the garage. She let us come and talk with her and basically we spent the whole hour listening to her teach us about her church. We didn't get to share a message because we had to go home. She seemed really against the church and laughed at anything we told her but agreed to let us come back Saturday. Honestly all week I was scared becasue I knew she would be prepping some crazy questions. I prayed and prayed to have faith that we would know what to say and how to help her. I found a quote in my MTC notes that said "feed your faith and your fears will starve to death" Long story short because I'm running out of time and I write way too long of emails- we went back and shared a little about the history of the BOM and answered some questions about what we believe and she sat and listened. When we were done she said "Are you sure you're Mormon? You really believe that? I am amazed and surprised. You two are just the sweetest girls. You really know what you're talking about." She made clear quite a few times that she was not joining the church but we are going back again to hopefully clear up some more misconceptions. Heavenly Father really answered our prayers and gave me faith to listen to the Spirit.

I better send pictures! I love you all so much and I'm sorry my emails are so dang long. I even wish I could tell you more!

One more funny story- You know how I said everyone in the ward knows I love potatoes so we eat them like every night? Well at church S H1 (their ward is right after ours) told me that at their Relief Society activity they had potatoes and she overheard a lady say "It's too bad that sister from the malley ward isn't here. She LOVES potatoes!" Wow- you know it's bad when even the women in the other ward know.....

Have a fantastic week! I truly love you all more than you know and think about you everyday!

Sister Knowlton

What to expect when you're not expecting

This week we met a teenage girl who didn't know she was pregnant for the entire 9 months and found out the night she was going into labor. Here is the crazy thing, She is short and super skinny! Don't ask me how that happens, apparently she had a back pregnancy? So anyways, Later the evening I told S H2 she should write a book called "What to expect when you're not expecting" and I laughed really hard at my own joke- like I was crying.

Another fantastic week as a missionary! Can you believe it's already a month into my second transfer?This one is going by faster that my first transfer.

2 P-days ago S H2 and I swore of Chick-fil-a because we don't want to gain weight but last P-day we decided it was okay and we would ignore our oath. As we were eating there S H2 said "I think we need to be at Chick-fil-a every Monday. These workers know us and soon they will be curious and want to join the church." We concluded that if we come back fat it is becasue the Holy Ghost prompted us to go places with really good food. Also we went home to take a 30 min nap and accidently woke up 2 hours later. 2 hours of precious P-day time gone :( We won't make that mistake again.

On Tuesday we were trying to see an investigator and there was a mom and daughter in their apartment cleanig so we offered to help and chatted for a little then they let us come in to share a message. As we were teaching the Restoration they said some pretty interesting things. They were telling us about all the signs of the second coming they had seen. They asked if we had heard 3 of the 4 trumpets becasue they had. I don't even know that sign but I was just like "mhm. awesome. cool." And then they showed us a picture of some puffy clouds and excitedly asked "What does that look like to you?" And S H2 and I looked at it blankly and said "um. I'm not sure..." And they went on to explain that one was Gods face and the other was a tiny little angel. And that no one would believe them that it was a sign. Good times as a missionary. Then it got awkward when we had taught about Joseph Smith but not the Book of Mormon yet and they start talking to us about all the religions that have other books "...and the mormons have a book...." And so I was just thinking, this is about to get really awkward because you haven't made the connection that we are mormon and we are going to give you that book. haha!

-side note- Ali Chumbley: When are you getting married? I want your announcement! If you don't read my emails, mom can you ask about that? Thanks!

Thursday was a slow day where all our appointments cancel and we can't teach a whole lot. After about 50 billion cancelations I just drove off epicly shouting "Onward Christian Soldiers!!" We were able to teach the gf of one of our investigators who is less active and I think the lesson was really helpful, she was able to open up more without her bf there. At night S H2 was really discouraged that we had only taught one lesson but I told her never to be disappointment in a hard day's work. Even if we didn't meet goals, we did our best to spend all day inviting people to come unto Christ. Goals are important and help motivate us but they aren't means to discourage us :) ALSO! Two things I do now that I never did before: run and floss. Sorry if me never flossing was gross but really, no one does it anyway. Also we run every single morning! excpet Sun and Mon. Not very far but we do it nonetheless. Mom and Dad- can I use money to buy a journal? Or should I use my own. Either way is cool with me just thought I'd ask :)

One Friday we did service at the Arts and Culture Center here is Thornton and the volunteer coordinator was asking tons of questions! I was with S H2 and S G (S H1's new greenie) and they did a great job answering her! She asked how we get to Colorado and S G told her about prophets and then later S H2 slips in "well we believe that this is the same gospel Jesus Christ had when he was on the earth..." I was such a proud mama ;) Later we committed M to live the law of tithing and even though she really has no money she said she would :) I always feel bad for S H2 becasue by now the whole ward knows I love potatoes so they ALWAYS feed us potatoes. It's awesome. Melanie- I still read out of that temple journal you gave me. It is really specail to me that you took notes on my baptism and confirmation. I love reading it and also you are such a good writer. I was reading it like "wow- that was poetic."

Saturday morning S H2 and I woke up and she said "do you want to-" and I said "not go running?" So glad we can read each other's minds. We still have to work out for 30 minutes so we decided to "stretch" and that turned into "yoga" which consisted of us laying on the ground in different positions and naming them so we felt like we were working out. Some examples were "ashamed dog, I want my back scratched dog", and many others. Emma Phipps!- Did you leave on your mission yet? I suppose I could check but if you haven't I want you to know that I use those stickers you sent me with my younger investigators :) We had dinner with S Peel and her daughter and grand kids came over and it was SO FUN. We love S Peel. I told her she has to call my mom after I leave her house ;) And she said "I never even thought of that!" Then she also told us that we are never allowed to leave or she will be making a phone call to the mission president.

Sunday was M's first time in the Malley Ward because she had been going to her brother's ward. She got up in sacrament meeting to bear her testimony- oh man talk about a missionary pay day. She told the ward how her whole life has changed within a month and when she was walking down the two ladies next to me were both like "wow..." People kept coming up and telling her they were coming to her baptism and it made her feel really special. We told her we try to see people getting baptized everyday the week of and she said "Are you kidding?! I've been trying to get you guys to come everyday this whole time!!" M's baptism is a gift from Heavenly Father to the Malley ward. We have been working a lot on helping the members do missionary work and I think this is getting them more excited. S H2 and I set up appointments all this coming week to teach the members the message of the Restoration. We already did it twice this weekend and it helped a ton! After we teach it we give them a BOM/Family Proclamation, have them pick a person (through the spirit they felt in the lesson), a day that they are going to give out the BOM, invite them to meet with us and then we follow up. I'm excited to see how it goes! We focus most of our studies on new ways to find and work with the members. We are trying to get a missionary choir going. Also I'm singing in Zone Conference tomorrow! I don't know what yet. And I'm singing with S H1, G, and H2 at M's baptism. Bishop also asked me and an Elder in our ward to sing in church so we will probably do that soon too :)

I had a cool experience with a lady we meet with. I've probably mentioned her before- her name is A and she lives in a nursing home. She suffers from schizophrenia but is the sweetest lady you'll ever meet. She has met with missionaries for a while and they always stop coming by eventually so she puts in a media referral so we come back and that's how we found her. If we don't sing in a lesson she says "Well are you going to sing me a song?" It's cute. We taught her the Plan of Salvation before (she's heard all the lessons but still acts like it's new information) but this time I had a special experience with it. Since she isn't accountable I've wondered if it is a good use of our time meeting with her weekly and decided that she needed love and visits so we should continue. When we were talking about the resurrection and how our bodies will be perfect the Spirit reminded me that A and I would meet after this life and she would no longer be mentally ill. As I looked at her with that thought I wanted to cry because I know that we will be good friends and she will appreciate the time we took to come talk with her about the Savior. It was a very memorable moment and I can't wait to meet her after this life :)

2 hours is not enough time!!! AHH can't I email all P-day?

Lately I'm obsessed with marriage and family. I find every excuse to bring it up in lessons, study about it, talk to S H2 about it. I don't know what it is, but I can't wait to have a family. S H2 and I have A LOT of fun together. We laugh so dang much. We absolutely love listening to our music and try to resist blasting it but sometimes I just can't. OKay I gotta send pictures! Did I mention I love taking pictures? I'm sorry I send them weekly I feel like I'M THE ONLY MISSIONARY THAT DOES BUT i CAN'T HELP IT! dang Caps. I'm too lazy to change it...

I love you all more than you can ever imagine and I think about you every single day! thank you for your prayers and letters. I thrive off of communication with y'all.

read the BOM, pray for missionary opportunities, I love you!!

Sister Collette Knowlton





"Denver, we have a problem"

Sister H2 thought of that email title and I thought it was really funny because it was after one of our investigators "dropped us like it's hot" as I like to call it. I will explain in detail later.

I LOVE email time. Mainly because I get to hear from people. Writing about my week is becoming less exciting because it is just so overwhelming to think of everything that happened. I feel like for my mental well-being on P-days I will start taking notes again. I can barely remember what was this week and what was the past two weeks. But honestly if all we did on P-days was email and then go work I'd be fine. I just thrive off of communication with you all :)

Sister H2 and I have been trying really hard to talk to every single person we see while walking to appointments and it's been a lot of fun. I was thinking about how sad it will be when I get home from my mission and it will be 10x weirder so I'm pretty sure I'll just put my name tag on and pretend I'm still a missionary. I always like when people are walking their dogs, it makes it less awkward to approach them because then I can say "OH! Cute dog! Can I pet it?" Then after small talking you sneak in a little "By the way- we're missionaries and we share a message about Jesus Christ and we know that it can bring you happiness no matter what you are going through. And we know that God loves us and so he has called a prophet to guide us......." deep deep down people enjoy our "pet-restoration message" approach.

One cool story- Remember that little boy N who asked us "How can I get missionaries to come to my house?" and we gave him a BOM and a pass along card? Well when we gave it to him we said "If you call this number you will get this DVD for free (Lamb of God DVD. I've never even seen it)" So this week Webster Lake ward had a baptism and all the missionaries try to go and support so there were some elders who came up and said "Did you guys give a little boy named N a pass a long card?" And we said "Um.. yes?" Apparently he did call the number and when they came to his house they were asking the Grandma who N was and he runs out and says "That's me!" And when they tried to give him a BOM he said "Oh I already have one of those, I want the Lamb of God DVD!" Haha. So now they are teaching his family!

M is still on fire. We next lesson we taught her after committed her to August 10th was AMAZING. We sat down and she looked like she was going to jump out of her chair she was so excited. She said "I have to tell you guys something. You told me to pray about the BOM and if I should be baptized so I did and when I finished my prayer I opened the book right to this page (3 Ne 11)" She continued by reading to us verse 24-32. She could barely get through them she was so excited. By the end she was crying and said "I KNOW this book is true and I can't wait to be baptized!" Later in the lesson she asked if we could come over for dinner and we set up August 9th and she said "That's the night before my baptism!!!" Wow. Being a missionary stinkin rules. She was able to come to the Webster Lake ward baptism and there she started crying againa and said "My brother (Who's a member) told me that you guys leave!!" She isn't very happy about that but we promised that we will be back in a year to go through the temple with her :) A member we brought to the lesson told her about FHE and she is super excited. She told us last night "Tomorrow for that Family thing, we are going to drive down to see the temple" I can't believe she is already doing FHE! Then she told us how she can't wait to bear her testimony next Sunday in church. She accepted the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. I can't even tell you how awesome she is. I almost feel bad counting her as a baptism because I honestly did nothing. We just are lucky enough to be the missionaries that get to watch the Spirit teach her.

G didn't come to church this week so we called around 9 to ask where he was and he said "I'm driving my son to the babysitter and then I will be there!" But he never showed up. So after church we stopped by his house twice and then later I said "Let's just try G one more time." He opened the door and had tears in his eyes. He explained that he took his son to his fiance (the mom) and she called the cops or something because she didn't get enough time with her son and now they have to go to court. He said "I'm so sorry I didn't go to church." I think the cops coming is a pretty good excuse so we let him off the hook ;) Then we talked to him about the Atonement and he just cried the whole time. He said "I am trying to do what God wants but these things still happen to me" We told him that this gospel will give him the chance to live with his son forever and no one will ever take him away. He said "I want to see my son grow up. I want to be there when he falls. I don't want him to fall but he will." I said "That's how Heavenly Father feels towards you!!!!" He is only in town on the weekends so we set up a time to come back and he said "I want to see my angels Friday, Saturday, and Sunday" So presh <3 He always calls us his angels.

J.......... The worst part of the week. We met with him this week and his ex-wife was there and I don't even want to get into that because I'll be too negative. So We don't make appointments when she's there because we don't want her there and we normally call to set on up. She we called and J said, "I'll be at church we can talk there." So he came to church on Sunday and we said "When can we come by?" and he said "I don't think I'll be coming anymore." I didn't even understand for a second. My heart really felt completely broken. I LOVE J. He was showing no signs of wanting to drop us. It was a complete shock. I didn't really know what to say so he just tried to explain that T (ex-wife) doesn't approve and he really cares about her. When he was done all I could say was "Well..... that's a bummer...." All of the members we brought to lessons were there and they were crushed. Brother L said "I respect your decision, we are always here if you ever need anything." After Sunday School B W was chatting with him in the hallway and telling him "We will sure miss you coming. Just keep reading your scriptures and listening to the Spirit." And J just looked at him and said "Yeah, I know, I'm just really lost right now.." It was heartbreaking. He is so confused because of the crazy things T says. I taught J for so long and absolutely love him and J. After Sacrament meeting we shook his hand goodbye and J comes up confused and asks "Are you not coming over anymore?" :'( I kept telling myself to get over it because there was work to do but then I felt bad because you can't just get over someone turning away from the gospel. I'm not "over it" but we did end up having a great day with a lot of happiness :) Heavenly Father helped us out.

Sister H2 and I spoke in Sacrament meeting about member missionary work. I was so happy to get them all in one place so I could tell them how important it is!! Also it was a kinda like my last little testimony to J. It went really well :) Did you know we are asked to get 3 member referrals a week?! yeah, I think I've gotten 3 in my whole 2 months so far. There is a lot of pressure to get members more involved now. Sometimes in lessons with members I feel like I need to just get on my knees and beg them to do missionary work because nothing else is working! After we spoke Bishop got up and said "We are so thankful to have wonderful sister missionaries in our ward" and it kinda hit Sister H2 and I- we are the sister missionaries!!!!! How cool is that??

Mom- your calling is Public Affairs right? We work with that committee a lot! I always think about you when we are with them :) I love that we do 10 hours of service a week. It is so much fun. Mom and Dad- are you going to pick me up from my mission? I know you have quite a while to think about it ;) but Sister P asked if you were because I was raving about you and told her she needs to meet you.

Funny moments- (I need to write them down more so I can remember)

-M has a dog she wants to get rid of so we told her we'd ask Sister P. So during weekly planning we walked into Sister P's office and said "Sister P? We have a question." She could see what was coming and said "...what...?" "Can we get a dog???" She started laughing and said "I've been looking for a dog! But that's why I got you two remember" She went to meet the dog but he was kinda spastic so she said doesn't want that one but it was still really funny.

-we sing at nursing homes and S H2 and I were the first ones there for about 10 minutes so she played the paino and I just sang some hymns by myself to them haha

-Quote from our Zone Leader Elder G"I'm telling you guys this because you're my homegirls- but I've got a mad crush on Abish from the Book of Mormon" hahahahaha what??? Who says that??

-"My God is a republican"- 91 year old man we taught

-"If Sacrament Meeting ends early, we'll be heroes!!"- B L (Ward Mission Leader)

Sad moments

-elders and sister are no longer allowed to hang out on P-days. I wanted to cry when I heard that. Our zone is really close and we love playing sports on P-days.... So we are going to try and do something fun with the Sisters today since the elders called the church to play basketball

-I got my first door that literally slammed in my face! We never go tracting really but we were visiting a part member family and both Sister H2 and I felt strongly that we needed to knock on a door so we did. An fatter, shorter, meaner Gandalf opened the door and said "What do you want." We cheerfully said "We are sharing a message about Jesus Christ!" He started at us and said "and your both fools." *slam* it wasn't really sad. It was actually a little funny. I can't wait to get to the other side and find out why we were supposed to knock on that door ;)

Well I love you all. Not a day goes by that I don't think about you! I love having all 5 of us kids on my planner to look at everyday. Siblings- I know you are all busy but you should write me every now and then ;) I love being a missionary. The church is true!! Now everyone go read the Book of Mormon and then after that go give one to somebody! Love you!

Sister Collette Knowlton :D

This work rocks my socks!

Sister H. is awesome and is totally pumped to work hard and be obedient! Being a trainer is probably one of the coolest and most humbling experiences ever. It almost is a good thing that both of us are so new because we are completely depending on Heavenly Father to help us out. Remember how I said I think Sister H1 (we will call first companion Sister H1 and new companion Sister H) always got the inspiration because she's driving? I think that is kind of true. Well and also, Sis H doesn't know the area so God just has to tell me where to go. It is a miracle how guided we are. I remember talking to my sister, K, and she said one thing she missed about her mission was working so closely with the spirit. I now know exactly what she's talking about.

Sister H and I get along super well! We have a pretty similar sense of humor so we laugh a lot. One night during planning we were laughing really hard and the next morning we apologized to Sister P (landlord) for being loud and she said, "Don't you ever apologize for laughing! That's exactly what I want to be woken up with!" I love Sister P so much. She really helped me out this week. She would come in while Sister H was showering and remind me that I can do anything with the Lord. She also asked every night when we came home how we were holding up. It's fun for Sister H and I to be able to talk about Women's Chorus songs and people we both knew at BYU. We were having "companionship inventory" and I asked what I can do to help her and be a better trainer. She said "You can stop getting so many dang letters!" That probably had to do with the fact that transfers put a hold on mail so I got 2 weeks worth in one day.

Speaking of letters- A your letters make me laugh really, really hard. In fact every letter I get makes me laugh super hard. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you taking the time to write me every week. I never get them on Sunday's because mail doesn't come but I still love that you wish me a Happy Sunday every time ;)

Cool experiences for the week

Tuesday we were meeting with a part member family. We met the less active daughter for the first time and taught the Restoration. At the end she said "I would like to come back to church but I have work." That is my least favorite excuse because it's the hardest to get around. But then she said "I'll start looking for a new job." SOLID! No LA ever says that haha.

2 Sunday's ago Sister H1 and I were asked to come talk to the 6 year old Primary class about missionary work. I asked them "Who can tell me what missionaries do?" One kid said "They go to people's houses to eat dinner!" "yes we do that, but what else do we do?" Another girl said "You buy food at the grocery store!" Super glad that everyone thinks all we do is eat all day....

This past Sunday Sister H and I taught the High Priest lesson on Relief Society. That was a little bit intimidating but I think it went as well as we could. At the beginning I said we were going to introduce the topic by singing "As Sisters in Zion" They all just looked at me with blank faces until I told them I was joking.

Wednesday evening it was getting close to time to go home and we had already used way too many miles that day so I decided we should just do some tracting because I couldn't use more miles. As we were knocking doors I kept feeling like we need to drive and visit the B family. I ignored it because we were super close to home and that was out of the way. Then finally the words just pretty much vomited out of my mouth "We need to go see the Bs." Sorry for that imagery. We drove to their house and of course they weren't there because they told us they were going out of town. As we turned to walk away and drive home I saw two houses across the street and I said  "we need to go knock on those doors." The first door was a man named G. He told us that he was having a hard time because his wife left and he didn't have a job. We let him know that the message we share can help him in any situation and Sis Hardy told him we would pray that he would get a job. After making an appointment he told us "You just made my day. Thank you so much." I don't remember the second house but we probably gave them a BOM and hopefully that will be a seed planted haha.

The topic of angels had been standing out a lot to me lately so I decided to make that part of my personal study on Thursday by reading as much as I could in the scriptures about angels. I read how you can identify them, what a ministering angel is, etc. Then that night we were meeting with a less active couple who likes to ask us a lot of little doctrinal questions. Guess what they asked? "I want to know more about angels. I heard people who don't get to the Celestial Kingdom are ministering angels. And how is it that we can identify an angel?" Talk about guided studies!! I would not have known the answers to those questions at all if I hadn't read it that morning.

Remember a month-ish ago when we met that one guy B and I thought he was super prepared and should get baptized? Well ever since then he never had time to meet with us and we kinda stopped going by. But as we were driving near his house I felt like maybe we should try him. When we knocked he was home! And we were able to set up a time! I thought he had gotten a hold of some anti-Mormon stuff after we met him but he just told us that he had been really busy the past month.

Friday was our appointment with G. Just starting into the first lesson he said "I want to know how I can be one of those sheep. (Referring to the fact that we are Christ's sheep) We then invited him to be baptized on August 3. He looked down and said, "That's in a couple weeks right? ....I think I'm ready" After teaching the rest of the lesson we asked if he would prefer to go to a Spanish or English ward. (I was a little sad thinking he probably would need to be passed off to Spanish missionaries) He told us that he wants to go to the English ward! YAY! So he asked if he could take notes on where the church was. When we were wrapping up he started to cry and saying, "Thank you, I am so happy. You are angels sent from God." I'm pretty sure that lesson was one of my favorites so far on the mission. He kept crying for a couple minutes thanking us.

Then I felt like we should visit one of the active members in our ward. She wasn't home but her YSA daughter was. We planned to teach the Plan of Salvation (We teach the first 2 lessons to our active members so Sister H can practice). After we were done she got a little teary and told us that she really needed to hear that today. So dang thankful for the spirit!

That night we gave J a tour of the church building so he would feel more comfortable coming to church. We have had a really hard time getting him to come. He kept talking about how wonderful it felt there. He said, "Right when I walked in the door I felt different." HIs granddaughter was running around playing with some kids her age in our ward. At the end of our tour the grand daughter said, "Can we PLEASEEEE come on Sunday?" And the 11 year old in our ward said, "Yeah! You can come to Primary with me!" It was so precious. My heart melted <3

On Sunday we called J to see if he was coming and he said he didn't think he felt like coming and I kept asking why and he wouldn't really give a reason so that was a little frustrating. Then I called G and he answered and said "I'm ready to go!" Ah- I stinkin love G. When we met with him after church he said he didn't like how loud the kids were but that he felt very comfortable. He said "So many people came up to say hi!" Then we met with J and I told him "Not gonna lie J, I was heartbroken when you said you weren't coming to church" How's that for a guilt trip? ;)

J such a diligent reader. He always reads more than we ask and writes down his questions and highlights what we read in lessons but there is something holding him back. He feels the Spirit, he describes it all the time but for some reason he will not commit to coming to church and his baptismal dates keep getting pushed back. At a lesson a few weeks ago he told me that when I talk my eyes remind him of shark eyes. I was like uhhhh thank you. But he said it wasn't a bad thing just that they are very piercing and he can feel that I know what I'm saying is true. So last night he said, "I found a scripture that describes your shark eyes! Matt 10:20" He said he feels like when I talk it is someone else talking through me. I try not to get frustrated because it's so obvious that he knows it's true and feels the spirit but he won't admit it. Keep him in your prayers if you can.

At church a lady came up to us who was obviously not a member and gave us her address and asked us to stop by. Hello?? Miracle?? She started crying and saying her husband was cheating on her and they were being evicted from their home. She said Elders had stopped by but she wants her kids to talk to Sisters. We gave her a hug- she really needed it :(

Then all during dinner an active member's name kept coming to mind but they weren't whom we planned to see but around 8:30 I decide we should go see them. His name is Brother D and he's 87. I absolutely LOVE going to his house because it's like chatting with my grandpa away from home. He has a less active daughter who is usually pretty cold to us and never sits in on lessons. Halfway through the lesson she came in and just sat right down on the couch to listen. As we kept teaching her eyes got really watery. I don't know what was going on but I know that we needed to be there.

We also had about 3 less actives at church. That was a great feeling.

I can't even express how much I love being a missionary. Sure it's hard, but it is so rewarding. Training is the best thing ever. I love Companionship Study. We are able to work together to become better teachers, set goals, and find ways to improve. Preach My Gospel is so endless. It's like a never ending well of wisdom. I've learned how important love and service are. When you are training you can never say anything negative, have a bad attitude, or be lazy. Charity is the absolute key to everything in missionary work.

I love hearing from you all SO MUCH. Thank you for the emails, I wish I were better at replying to them individually but please know I appreciate them. I look forward to reading them every week. I also appreciate people who take the time to read my epically long emails. It means a lot to have people care about what I'm doing :)

Family- you are the best. I don't say that enough. But I think it about 50x a day.

A- things I would want in a package: Thanks for asking!! I really want more family pictures and Sister H has a cute little portable photo album. CDs, anything in the missionary section at Deseret Book, skor bars, candy of course ;) I loved the pictures from your primary class. I was smiling from ear to ear. L's pictures every week are also really great.

I've done fairly well with not gaining weight so far! I try not to snack since we eat such big dinners.

I LOVE YOU ALL! Missionary work is so much fun! I laugh a lot, I wish I could talk about all the funny things that happen but I guess I try to focus on the spiritual

BYEEEEEEE

p.s. go give the missioanries a referral. Please. ;)

p.p.s. Sister P said "What the crud" this week and it was the funniest thing ever

New companion! July 9, 2013

Um so training is really scary. I can already tell I am going to need to grow a lot from this challenge. My companion is Sister H (new Sister H) and she was actually in Women's chorus with me at BYU! So we are already friends on facebook and everything. She's a year older than me. I don't even really have the energy to talk about last week or think about what happened, all the weeks are kind of a blur now haha. I picked up Sister H. She was a little homesick, but got over it quickly. We went tracting right away and she got engaged quickly. She did a great job! We got a couple potential investigators in the little time we had. We got home and planned. It was hard to set goals and plan because she doesn't know the people or the area and normally I had  my former companion Sister H to tell us what we should do. I couldn't sleep for a good hour and then kept waking up all night long worrying about everything. Companionship study was nice I guess. It was weird trying to be the one in charge and teach someone. We talked about how we can together learn to depend on the Savior and that God will provide for us.

Then I made some phone calls and we headed out to our appointment with a less active family. We taught them the Restoration and it went really well. The daughter said she wanted to come back to church and would look for a job that would give her weekends off! Wow! no one says that haha. then we had Subway and now we are here. So yeah............ I could use all the prayers I can get.

Training - July 8, 2013

Okay, I'm emailing about my week tomorrow because I will be able to get on email again because I have to take my "greenie" to email. Wait what? yeah. I'm picking up a brand new missionary to train later today.

I'm pretty nervous because I've only been on my mission for 6 weeks so I don't know what I'm doing but I have to somehow train a new missionary. 6 weeks ago, I was that missionary getting picked up by my trainer!! I found out on Friday. Sister H was called as a Sister Trainer Leader and she will be staying in my district so I'll still see her a ton. Thank goodness I can still ask her questions.

I know the next 6 weeks will be really challenging but it will definitely be a time that I can be humbled and depend everything on the Savior. I'm super scared to have to know where to go, who to see, how to teach, what phone calls to make, how to handle certain situations, but I know this is God's work and he will be there with me every step of the way. I know I'm not alone :) I can't wait to get my new missionary pumped up about missionary work! I think I'll wake her up tomorrow morning by jumping on her bed and shouting "Ready to be a missionary?? BEST DAY EVER!" I will work so hard every day to make her feel excited and happy :) She will most definitely be older than me I'm pretty sure so I hope that isn't awkward.....

T B IS MY DISTRICT LEADER! July 1 the missions split and we took two stakes from Denver South and one from Colorado Springs. When they announced who was coming into the area this transfer they said "The Malley District leader will be a missionary coming up from the Denver South mission named Elder B." I stood up really fast and shouted "I KNOW HIM! THATS MY FHE GRANDPA!" It was a little embarrassing but I couldn't contain my excitement. For those of you who don't know TB- he was an RA in my ward at BYU, in my FHE group, and just super awesome. He's also serving in the same ward as me so I will be seeing him all the time and he will be calling me every single night. Crazy, I think it is a tender mercy from the Lord to help me get through the next 6 weeks that I'm training.

Anyways- I can't stay my full 2 hours since I'll be emailing tomorrow but since you can reply and I'll see it within a day. Anyone have good finding ideas besides tracting and working with members? I need to get creative here, we need some solid investigators.

Training advice?

Mom can you send my contacts anytime soon? I also would be down to get some EFY CDs- Deseret Book had some good ones. Thank you if you can :)

Missionary work is crazy right now. It is the most exciting time to be a missionary. I'll find out a lot more about the newly changed mission on Wednesday but, Sister H, being a spiffy STL (Sister Training Leader) told me some inside scoops. She said iPads are coming really soon and the best news of all- we can go to the temple once a month now!!!!!!! I'm so happy. Everything is changing; missionary work is all anyone talks about. Okay, maybe I'm hardcore biased because I eat, sleep and breathe missionary work but it really is changing. The work is hastening.

Please- do me and the Lord a favor, pray about who you can share the gospel with. Who can you introduce to the missionaries? We desperately try to get the members involved and it can be difficult at times but we NEED them.

Malley Ward aka District 12 - letter from 7-1-13

My email title comes from Ward Conference at church yesterday. All the stake leaders came and taught the lessons and it reminded me of when the fancy Capitol people visit District 12 in Hunger Games. That is really the perfect way to describe it. I was pretty impressed with my accurate comparison ;)

Another wonderful week in the mission field! Highlight: we were able to teach a ton! We got 29 lessons this week and this coming week we're hoping for 30. We are really working at getting lessons with members, that helps so much. Lowlight: N,  S, and N's mom got cold feet on Friday and they backed out of their baptism. Honestly, I was somewhat expecting that. They back out of their baptism a couple moths ago with some other elders. We are planning on S and N getting baptized this coming Sunday. N will have to wait a little bit longer.  I know that S and N are ready but it will take a miracle for their to be able to realize that and make that commitment. Please keep them in your prayers this week.

It amazes me how little I do as a missionary. I feel like we are literally just lead to those people who are prepared (with the help of the members). God knows where his children who are searching are and he just takes us there! And once we are there, we do our best to teach effectively so they understand, but it is only through God that they can come to know the truth. I really do nothing. Every lesson we are able to teach is a blessing the God gives us, every person we are able to meet is from God. It is SO DANG COOL.

On Monday we were trying to contact a Less Active, T, who lived by our dinner (another LA, surprise surprise ;) and we could not find her apartment so we finally went to dinner. After dinner we were walking to the car and we hadn't invited anyone to be baptized that day. I really didn't want to remind Sister H because she had forgotten and I was getting so tired of walking up to people and inviting them. But it kept bothering me and I finally reminded her. She pointed out a guy outside and we went over to talk to him. When we invited him and he told us that his girlfriend was Mormon. We asked "Is your girlfriend T??" And he said "Yeah!" and showed us where his apartment was and now we are going to try and meet with them! Like I said, God just guides us to people!
That night we went to have a lesson with an active member and they are this adorable old couple in the ward who houses the elders. She was telling about one missionary who was sick and kept moaning and groaning and being so loud. She says "I wanted to yell at him, shut up! I've had 6 babies and I never made that much noise!" hahahahaha.
We also had a lesson with S, N, and N.   N's friend Awas there too (J's son) and when we were talking about baptism he said "My dad and I are getting baptized at the end of July!" He had overheard us setting his dad with a baptismal date and assumed it was for him too! It's cool when we can set people with a date without even asking ;) I don't know that the end of July will actually happen because Jis not really committed to quitting smoking but we are trying really hard to help him find the strength to do it.

Wednesday we met with a potential investigator, B. She's 27 and lives with her 10 year old daughter. She told us how she is really confused because there are so many churches and she doesn't know which one to join. She is so prepared to hear the gospel! She was excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out for herself if it is true.
Then we had to go and teach N. and S. about the law of chastity. I don't know about you but I've never had to teach a 9 and 10 year old about the law of chastity. It was soooo funny. I started out "So, the law of chastity." and just kind of stopped then Sister  Htook over and said some very vague things trying to avoid actually saying anything. I was laughing to myself so badly. Finally I just said "the law of Chastity means you don't have sex until after you're married" and then of course explained because it is a sacred thing from God and all that good stuff. But I'll never forget that moment. Shows how immature we are.... But you would all be laughing too. So no hating.

Thursday we found a new investigator named S, her dad is a recent convert but he's pretty much less active already. She is 27 and has been through the worst life ever. Her mom was murdered, she fell into drugs and had to give up her daughter, got divorced, etc. This being said, she is now one of the happiest people. She has somehow found the power to forgive everyone who has wronged her in her life. She let it all go and is such an example to me. She is a pretty solid investigator, because she LOVES the church, just knows nothing about it!

Friday we had a lesson with our investigators J and his granddaughter J. We brought the Bishop with us to this lesson and thank goodness we did because J's ex wife was there and she was... I don't even know how to describe it. Let's just say that when we got out of the lesson Bishop said, "Was she drunk?" J is adorable she always answers the door with her Book of Mormon in her hand and runs to the table to eagerly tell us what she had read. This week she had put book marks in every section she liked and written down all of the verses in a little notebook. I was just beaming, she read way more than J haha. She said, "I have a question, did Jesus actually die for us?" And of course that is a precious question and we were so excited to answer but J's ex wife jumps in "No. It was all political." Ug. -_- That was hard to hear. But somehow we were able to feel the spirit in that lesson even with the ex wife inserting comments like that the whole time. She liked a lot of the things we said and we tried to find some common ground with her but some of her ideas were just so far out there..... When we explained that the age people are baptized is 8, J silently motioned to J, pointing to herself then flashing all her fingers mouthing "I'm 10!!" So adorable :)
That morning we did volunteering at the retirement home. SO FUN! Do you know what we did? We played a game called At the Horse Races with about 8 old people. I'll take a picture of it next time. It is a long piece of cloth with a start, finish, and 6 stand up horses. Every takes turn rolling the dice and moving whatever horses are rolled until a horse reaches the finish line. Absolutely the lamest game in the world but we had so much fun. Sister Hand I tried to make it exciting by getting super into it. My Horse won once. Best tasting Butterfinger ever. No greater reward.

Saturday we contacted a media referral of a woman who lives at a different retirement home we volunteer at. We taught her (A) the first lesson and she is preparing to be baptized and quit smoking. She told me how there was one time when she was really angry and threw a chair at the wall and said the Lord's name in vain and she seemed so upset and guilty from that. She looked at me with worried eyes and asked "A Jehovah's witness book I read said God will not forgive the wicked. Is that true?" And I reassuringly told her that God loved her and he will forgive her of anything she seeks forgiveness of. She sighed a huge sigh of relief and laughed and smiled, so grateful that she can be baptized and forgiven of her sins :)

Sunday we had another lesson with J where we brought a man in the ward named Brother R. He talked so much and totally dominated the conversation but it was GREAT! He's a former Bishop and he really pushed J to finally commit to coming to church. We'll see how that goes Sunday. We met with A again and brought Sister P. it was really helpful because A was too embarrassed to come to church because she has a walker and Parkinson's Disease so she shakes all the time. Sister P was able to reassure her that there were a lot of members in wheelchairs and no one would judge her. Also, she is already making huge progress with the smoking issue!
We were at dinner and the member, Sister M said to me "Are you as hot as you look?" Afterwards I told Sister H, "I should've just said nothing and winked ;)" We have a lot of funny quotes that we always write down.

Look up the Mormon messages video "Having children in faith" I think that is the title. The African American guy, 2 AfAm kids and his wife is a young family in our ward. They are perfect in every single way but they just moved :( All the cute young couples are only here for the summer and keep moving! Sister H and I love them. We talk about marriage basically everyday. I can't wait to have my own cute little family!!!! AHHHH <3

Like usual I wish I could tell more and more and that you all could just be here experiencing this with me. Missions are incredible. There is no way to describe my experiences everyday. One of my favorite parts of the day is the hour of personal study we have every morning. I am more and more grateful for my family everyday and that God has given us families so we can have safety and security in this crazy world. Mom, you know that 9 page letter you wrote on prayer to all the kids in 2009? You're going to hate me for this but I finally read it this morning! It was amazing and made me so proud to be your daughter :) I don't know how I was so lucky to be born into the family I was born into. I don't think I deserve the amazing life I have but I will forever be grateful for it. I love you all. This church is true. When we were meeting with J he always talks about how much he is searching and studying with every religion. He mentioned that God has spared him from death 3 times I finally said "J, I can boldly tell you that you can stop searching. God has spared you so you could find the truth. the message that we share is the truth, I know without a doubt in my mind that this is Christ's church." He then mentioned how he was amazed because no other church has ever asked him to be baptized and I told him that's because this isn't just feel good stuff we are teaching. We are trying to teach you how to return to Heavenly Father and that there are steps he has asked us to take to do that. Thank goodness for the spirit and that people can find out for themselves this is true.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARYYYYY! Why is life so awesome? Thank you for keeping me in your prayers, I keep you all in mine. You are amazing children of God and I know he loves you.

Love Sister Knowlton