No letter this week...too busy traveling as a Zone Leader...

Martha taught me how to use a sewing machine, I don't know why Mom never taught me... haha 

A picture of my desk where I study, thanks for Kristian's graduation announcement Dad! =D that's so great

A picture from our Noche Mexicana (Mexican Night) last saturday, Porfirio and his wife did a cool dance where they tied a bow with their feet. And the temple president came to watch everything with his wife!

"Is that Black Friday in Mexico? Oh wait, no. That's the line of people waiting to get into the hospital at 7:00am to get treated.. No biggie, normal here."

1 Nephi 10:6

Mi querida familia,

     I tell you every week that its been a good one, don't I? I feel like every day here is just amazing, even when there are problems or tal vez (perhaps) things don't happen exactly how we want them to, we can't avoid seeing miracles every day.

Sounds like you guys too. So what are you driving now, Mom? That's gotta be weird having a different car, you had that Enclave for sooo long. I just love our family, I hope Caitlynn and Seth are doing great too, I worry about you all sometimes. But I know that our Heavenly Father is always watching over us. Haley, you just do what you know is right, Christ will never let us fall alone while we are following Him. Literally, when we follow Him, we obviously are always going to be with Him (or Him with us). It's inevitable. He loves us with an infinite love, which has NO limits. He expects every single one of us to do His will. Even when we don't know exactly what it is, we can follow the promptings provided by the Holy Ghost which are purely concentrated to just direct us to Him. When you follow His promptings, you cannot go wrong. Take the step, and have faith to continue. Reagan, you can do the same! Just follow what you know is right, always. You will not go wrong. You know what is right, because we have two incredible parents who have raised us in much wisdom. Speaking of Reagan, I was talking with the young men yesterday during the 3rd hour of church because their leader couldn't come to church. We talked about leaving the electronics (cell phones and computer) to strengthen our relationships with our family. I felt so grateful that I have such a great relationship with all of you. I shared the story of how I just loved going on midnight fast food runs with you all the time. Those are times I really treasure and remember enjoying with my sister. Its such a marvelous thought how little things can make such big impacts on our lives. I miss all my sisters so much. And my parents, my best examples.

     One thing I have especially learned this week is the power in sacrifice and pure dedication. I have never felt so tired yet so alive and satisfied than these last few days. Elder Marchant and I found one of our investigators drunk last Sunday, and it just broke my heart to see it. The Father of such a great family, not to mention such a great man. Satan really can turn the greatest men to make mistakes. We do not judge the people ever, I just feel so much love towards him, Marco, that we worry about him alot. We have seen the problems that alcohol brings into his life and the life of his family. It literally destroys families. It is one of the adversary's greatest and strongest instruments to destroy families these days. Because it is literally everywhere. "Everyone drinks; just a little doesn't do anything; Its only bad if you don't know how to control yourself; It helps me forget my problems; It would be rude to deny the invitation from a friend" Ahhh so many DUMB excuses to sin. Alcohol will destroy every particle of your life and your family, I promise you. Do not give into temptation, nobody can try to justify sinning. You just can't do it. 

     Anyways, after seeing him, we past by his home that next day. He was ashamed, sad, and knew that it was destroying his family. But we taught them clearly that day in this home that it would continue destroying their family if they didn't stop it. We then made goals with them. Especially with Marco. That he would pray every day before going to work, and every night before going to sleep. He leaves for work at 6:00 in the morning, because he's a mason. We wanted him to know that we weren't just saying things, and that this was the truth. When we pray, we receive power to resist temptations. We promised to help him. The next day we woke up early, and ran to his house to catch him before he went off to work, and we found him in the front room of his home with the Book of Mormon open, and him kneeling down praying. It made my heart jump! We talked with him like 2 minutes, and kneeled down again to say another prayer with him. And we've been doing so every day since. We even walked over Sunday morning to pray with him early in the morning too. Elder Marchant and I feel so tired sometimes, but then we just keep pushing forward and working, and the tiredness just goes away. Then we sleep, wake up the next morning and do it all over again. We went to Palenque and Tenosique the other day and it was soo hard, we were so tired in the combi. I totally fell asleep and almost fell over (Elder Marchant was just going to let me fall over too haha, I saw him just staring at me laughing haha) It was great.

It has really made me understand how much prayer can help us in our everyday lives. Marco used to drink daily, stopped drinking on weekdays 4 weeks ago, and hasn't drinken at all for a week. His prayers are so sincere when we pray with him too. He is so humble, and aware of what he needs to change in his life. He loves his family, and his family is so supportive, and so happy. Seeing them all in church this sunday together was so great! This whole week we have just been relying upon Christ to become better missionaries and see more miracles in our area. He is the only one who can provide such power in our lives to change ourselves, if we only permit Him to do so. With our faith and daily repentance, changing ourselves to becomes better persons through His Atonement. I found a perfect quote this morning in the hermana Atilana's house. Its by Hyrum L. Andrus (don't know him): "Man cannot be induced to reach up and acquire the goodness of God unless he realizes that in mortality he is in a fallen state and that he must rely upon Christ for mercy, truth, and power." If we are humble and recognize our faults, if we recognize that only Christ can help us, then we must depend on Him to help us make the changes necessary.

Sorry to get preachy, I just love sharing what I have learned this week. You are all amazing. I am growing so much here. Never thought so before. I just want to stay on the mission forever, but I know my time is running out. I will work the hardest I can, every force in my body should be gone, they're going to have to bring me back home in an ambulance. =) That would be okay with me. I'm not finishing the race walking, even if I have cramps, I'm running anyways... NI MODO (no way)

Con amor (with love), Elder Knight

-with a kid who didn't want to smile in a picture with me this week, but he warmed up to me and smiled

Mi querida familia,

Have I told you how much I just love sharing the gospel with all the people?
This week has been great. We had Zone Leader Council, divisions in Gaviotas, changes with Elder Marchant, Seminary trips again,

Lots of fun stuff. Quite the adventure I must say.

Even when things don't go how we would always like them to, we must know that the Lord is taking charge of everything

Whatever happens is obviously His will. And we don't necesarily need to fix everything that goes wrong, but more so find the way to go on.

Work with what life throws us. Certainly it is like Nefi says in 2 Nefi 2:24

"For behold, all things have been done according to the knowledge of Him who knows all things"

(I think thats what it says, I just translated it, maybe it'd be better look it up in the scriptures and rewrite it...)

Always know, God is at work in our lives. Everything that happens to us, He made it happen

And we must recognize that everything He does is for our good! So we must seriously look for the good in everything.

I love you all so much, try this week to look for the good in EVERYTHING

You will be so surprised with how much better you week goes when you just accept everything as the Lord makes it.

Love,

Elder Knight

-with Elder Garcia, he's a missionary in Gaviotas

-with the family we ate with, I guess they're like famous en Gaviotas with all the missionaries or something

-And a better picture of that church in Balancan haha

-Cool picture my companion took of me...I like the rusted fence- artistic don't you think?

My beloved family,

Felicidades to Chelsea and Danny! And especially to my sobrino (nephew) Connor Strong!! You go dude. When was he born? In August? That is the best month, after all... It is so good to hear that Chelsea is fine, I know God is taking care of our lovely family. Haley, let me know whats going down with your papers pleaseeeee. Caitlynn, I love you, but are you alive? And Reagan, You are awesome. I hope SMHS is a blast for you. Hope I didn't leave too many bad marks behind for the Knight's name haha.

This week has been great. I feel so revived really. Not in just this week, but I really love being in the mission. I honestly don't think there is anything better than to serve the Lord all day every day. My worries are His worries, my work is His work, my words are His words. When I got in the mission, I never imagined I would be so incredibly happy all the time. Even when something horrible happens, it doesn't really phase us because we know that it must be a part of His plan, and we should just go along with it, and make the best out of it as we can. Not to mention just how beautiful it is here, I love it so much. I took some pictures this week so that you can all know how beautiful it really is. Walking through the meadow to get to Ultimo Esfuerzo. Or just walking in the afternoon seeing an awesome sunset, I just had to take a picture. Reminds me of Dad alot, because I know you love nature and this kind of stuff. And its always around me, so I never forget about you. =)

We just got transfers last night, Elder Callejas is leaving. And Elder Marchant is coming in his place, we were in the same MTC zone together haha. I'm pretty stoked. But I'm also pretty sad too because Elder Callejas and I got along so well. But it will be the same with Elder Marchant. Speaking of which, he has convinced me to go with him to Comic-Con in 2013. He's way into comics and movies, but not in a nerdy way haha(what a miracle, eh). So we're thinking of taking a week vacation, hanging out in San Diego, going to Comic-Con, and then driving down to his house in Mexico afterwards so he can show me around. Its going to be legit.

We are just loving the area of Zapata lately. All of the members are just so excited and willing to help us with everything we need. Especially the hermana Adriana. She's the President's wife, and is always ready to accompany us to lessons, or help us to pass by for an investigator. In short terms, awesome. We call her our "secret weapon" because she is seriously such a great missionary. When Martha almost didn't get baptized last week, Elder Callejas and I stopped in the street and found a little corridor where we said a prayer to know what to do. We both felt certainly that we should call the hermana Adriana. So we called her and explained the situation and our prayer and she was more than willing to go and visit Martha. Long story short, Adriana showed up like the super hero with Martha for the baptism, and even had a talk prepared. She is just ONE of our many great members here in Zapata. I am so grateful for them, they really do understand the law of consecration, to the full level. Anything and everything for the Lord, and He certainly blesses us. (Picture of the family of Martha and Marco included)

In my studies this week, I have began to read the Book of Mormon over again, it gets better and better everytime you read it. I always find new things, even though I mark the crap out of my scriptures. This time, I even have a little chart that I fill out while I finish every chapter that says "Yo leí el Libro de Mormón" and my handy-dandy book of relatos of the Book of Mormon(haha). Its pretty cool, because while I read them together, I always think of ways we can teach the scriptures more simply and in ways that even kids can understand. And I always learn something amazing, siempre.

I wanted to share with you something that profoundly stuck out to me this week. I have been thinking about it alot. Especially since last week I did an activity in PmG about blessings we receive for living the gospel. It is found in chapter 11 under Promise Blessings..

"Sí, y también consideré que no podrían guardar los mandamientos del Señor según la ley de Moisés, a menos que tuvieran esa ley." -1 Ne 4:15

...it is so clear. First off, nobody can receive a blessing unless we keep the commandments (DyC 130:20-21). AND, nobody can keep the commandments, unless they first off KNOW them, or know what they are (1 Ne 4:15).

I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ, restored in its fulness, is upon the earth today. And it is true, it must be true. Our Heavenly Father has prepared His gospel within the organization of His church, so that we all might be able to enjoy the blessings that are available to us. Thanks to the gospel, modern day prophets, temples, and the Holy Priesthood we can all be blessed by His loving hands. This is certainly the great and marvelous work that He has prepared for us to participate in. Not only to stand by and watch, but PARTICIPATE! We can! As full-time missionaries, or if not possible, a ward missionary, or just a true disciple of Christ in everything you do. Everyone needs to KNOW the restored gospel is upon the face of the earth, so that they can all live God's laws and receive His blessings, including the eternal life. I love you all, do work.

Con amor,

Elder Knight

P.s. Don't even ask about the picture. All I know is that it is GREAT! John Smith, Pocahontus, Flounder, pelicans, Jesus.. Yep. It all goes together just great =)