Monday, July 25, 2011



Querido familia,

  Sounds like an awesome week! I can't believe everyone is getting married! That's crazy. I hope you're all doing well.

  This week has been a great one. Full of just about everything! Elder de los Santos and I are getting along more and more every day. I've been thinking alot about how I can get the work moving here in our area. Its been a big change, this transfer. Elder Plummer and I were always literally running around every day trying to do as much as we possibly could in the short 11 hours of proselyting time in our day. And here its such a big change to be have only a few appointments every day, and spend so much time doing nothing. It has been a struggle for me to know what to do lately, to be honest.

I want to help my companion so that we can get more done. I really am not a happy missionary when I feel like I'm not doing anything. But I've been having to trust him because I do not know the area as well, and I do not want to undermine him while he is the senior companion. But we went on divisions last week to do baptismal interviews, and my zone leader, Elder Luna, gave me a lot of good insight and advice. I'm so glad to have such great leaders here in my mission, I want to be like them someday! I've been getting to know the area a lot more this week, so that I can know where we're going and the best ways we can get work done here.

  As for our investigators, they´re all awesome! We have been teaching this man named Agustín and his wife, Manuela, and they're getting married this week and baptized on Saturday! They were being taught before I got here, but it's still so inspiring to see how excited they are every time we come over. They´re both about 65 years old, but excited like little children. They remind me of how Christ said that we should all be like little children to be received into the Kingdom of God. They are so ready and willing to do what it takes to become baptized, like getting married. It is truly amazing.

  Shirley was baptized this week, as well as 3 other children of a member in the ward. Shirley also had been being taught before I got here, but it was so amazing to see the changes in her family as we continued teaching her in their home. Her mom, Martha, had gone to the church about 10 years ago but was never baptized, and goes to another church right now. She knows very much about the word of God, but I can see such a strong hunger she still has for more. I feel like she and I have really connected since I arrived here. She´s always asking me questions and listens to us while we're teaching Shirley. She came to the baptism on Friday night, but missed the confirmation of the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday in Sacrament meeting. They invited us over to eat breakfast with them this morning, and being our P-Day (And I don't have much food in our home) we gladly accepted haha! I was describing to Martha this morning, chapter 6 of Luke. And one thing that really stuck out to her was in verse 19 how when the people touched him, they could feel virtue leave him. In the spanish Reina-Valera version, it says 'poder' which means power. And she told me about what Shirley told her happened on Sunday. How during her confirmation, immediately when we put our hands on top of her head, she felt a power leave from our hands into her.

Shirley had not shared this with us, but it was so amazing to hear it from her mother, and how true her mother already knew it was. And as I continued to speak to her about the Priesthood, she asked me when I thought she should get baptized. I was almost star-struck, at how many missionaries had passed through her home, and she still had not understood completely or accepted the gospel. Needless to say we talked a bit about how she should feel before she is baptized, and the testimony she must have. I loved it! We were just eating breakfast and resting in their home, when I found the opportunity to share to gospel a bit more, and have this amazing experience today. I felt so blessed to be there when she asked that question, and I know that my Savior is blessing me with these opportunities because of my work and desires to serve Him.

I know that this gospel is the truly restored gospel of Jesus Christ. That the Priesthood that he gave to Paul, is again on the earth. This power to guide and direct His church, this rock, has been given to us again. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet today, that he is God's mouthpiece to guide us in these very days. I know that he is a true representative of Jesus Christ. That Christ lives, He speaks to us today through this prophet. Just as He did when He restored the church through the prophet Joseph Smith. Read the Book of Mormon, and you can receive a knowledge and testimony of all these things for yourself. Pray, and He will answer your doubts. He will answer you, because He loves you.

Love, Elder Knight

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