Paducah Spanish is the best :-)

Hola! 

Domingo and Santa got baptized on Saturday!!!!!!! My companion Sister Ihler and I stood at the water's edge and I was just in tears during the baptism. I feel so so so so lucky to be a part of this work. I have no idea how I could ever be worthy of all of this but I am so grateful for my Savior and Heavenly Father for blessing me with this really sweet and sacred experience. I hope all of you that are planning to serve will work hard to make your mission sweet and sacred. It really is such an incredible and unique opportunity. We set a new date with Manuel in July and are hoping that he will prepare himself along with his cousin Jose and we are hoping that Domingo will have the priesthood by that time so he can baptize them! The work is really moving along here and I am just so excited to see what's next!

The magical trio!

Guess what? We got a third! We got a call Thursday night from President asking us if we were ready for change and we said of course! He sent Hermana Idso (I was with her in the MTC) over to Paducah and we are so excited! She is so incredible and brings such a powerful spirit to the work. She is exactly what we needed!

We had the beautiful opportunity last night to listen to the Leaders of the Church speak to us during  the Mission Broadcast last night. I really hope that all of you made the time to go to that. It was truly inspiring and it is very very very clear that the Lord needs ALL of our help in this work. What are you doing to share the gospel with others? When are you going to invite the Missionaries over  to teach someone that you love and care about? Do you have the faith to be a tool in the Lord's hands? Are you expecting miracles? Are you exercising your faith? To those that are not members, I strongly encourage you to invite the missionaries at least one time to share the message of the Restoration with you. I promise that this is something that will help your family and this will help you to be forever with your family. This message is life changing if you open your heart and truly listen you will feel the love of your Heavenly Father in a very powerful way.

 Domingo was pointing to us because he wanted his kids in Guatemala to know who taught them about the gospel, so sweet!

Me and the McCrady's little boy Jacob- they help us sooo much- Brother McCrady baptized the pastor family

I love you all so much. I want you to know how much I love this gospel. I want you to know that I know that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet. He truly saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and because he had the courage to tell the truth at the age of 14, he helped restore Christ's true church to the earth through the power of God. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is more than a church, it is the true and only way back to our Heavenly Father and to our heavenly home with our families forever. I know that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and it is only through Him that we can receive all of the blessings that our Heavenly Father has in store for us and our families. I leave these things with you as a true representative of our Savior and say these things in His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

Hermana Knight

Sister Ihler cleaning out the nasty font that was covered with like 10 creepy crawly spiders we had to kill!

Domingo & Santa the day of their baptism

In Metropolis with Superman

(not me huh?....)

Hola! Spanish work is the BEST!!

Hello my beloved friends and family!

Not much time but I want you to know how much I love this work! Hermana Ihler and I thank our lucky stars everyday that we get to do Spanish work. It's the greatest! We are seeing so many miracles here! Santa and Domingo married AND interviewed for their baptisms last week! Their son Manuel didn't show up to the interview because they're all really worried about paying tithing. Keep him in your prayers. We're going to do our best to prepare him for this weekend because we want their whole family here to be baptized together! The ward is so amazing here and they are so amazing at fellowshipping the Pastor family! Hermana Ihler and I sent down missionaries to their other children in Guatemala so pray that those missionaries find them soon so they can begin to be a forever family! We had a soccer game/ mini fiesta for their marriage on Saturday night and it was super fun! I'll send pictures of that next week! Domingo was so cute and had Sister Anderson take pictures of all of us- he really wanted a picture of his family with Hermana Ihler and I. Pray that we get to stay here another transfer- we never want to leave! Paducah Spanish is the best are in all of the Tennessee Nashville Mission!

Hermana Ihler is the best! I love her so much and I am so grateful the Lord called both of us to do this work at this time. I get a little mama bear when it comes to her sometimes, I have to protect my young! We always have the best time and we both love the people that we are teaching SOOO much! That's the most important thing you can do for a person, especially those that you are sharing the gospel with- just love them!

Two weeks ago we were teaching a man David outside when his neighbor walked up and started listening near the end of the lesson. We gave this man Louis a Book of Mormon and set up a time for us to come back. We returned last Monday and somehow taught the Restoration AND Plan of Salvation! (Probably not the best thing to do but after teaching the Restoration we felt so strongly that he needed to hear the Plan of Salvation) We invited him to baptism and he accepted! He has a date on July 6th and we're hoping he can get work off this Sunday to come to church! The crazy part of this experience is that as we were leaving he mentioned he had a friend that was a mormon- he used to date one of our less active members. Well, we were at her house about a month ago with her brother and he said a prayer for us, specifically asking Heavenly Father to bless that his sister's boyfriend Louise would have the opportunity to hear our message! Heavenly Father is so amazing and His hand in this work is SO real!

I don't have much time but I love y'all so much! Your letters and amazing packages full of precious treats and parts of your love mean so much to me! I don't think I have ever felt so loved and so supported by my Savior and Heavenly Father AND all of my loved ones here on earth with me :) I love y'all to the moon and back!

Hermana Knight

Sister Ihler, me, and Sister Turner

Eating crinkle fries and thinking of my Dad

Bird nest above the Pastor Family's front door

The baby birds

My companion Hermana Ihler and me

The Pastor Family from Guatemala

Sister Knight and her companion with the Pastor Family.  Had a great night celebrating their official marriage and now they will be baptized soon.  What a sweet family to have us in their home and treat us to some yummy food. We are looking forward to their upcoming baptism.

This is their daughter Anna:

Shotgun weddings and way too many miracles!

Oh my goodness, I feel like I'm going to faint! So the Pastor family has been so amazing! We set a baptismal date with them for the 22nd next week! President told Hermana Ihler that next weekend we would be baptizing the Branch President of this area- meaning that this is the first huge step to us starting a Spanish Branch out here. Crazy! These past two weeks Hermana Ihler and I have been calling people all over the place and having members do research to help us figure out how we can get Santa and Domingo married before their baptism next week. Some side notes that will help you understand why we needed a miracle so badly- Domingo works everyday and can only have work off if it's raining because he does construction. For reasons I won't go into the only place they can receive their marriage license is in Nashville Tennessee- 2.5 hours away There are a few things that have made it a bit more complicated then it could be so Sister Ihler and I fasted and prayed yesterday and asked Heavenly Father that if it was His will that he would provide a way for them to be married this week. . Okay, that's enough preface, now onto the story:

 We woke up this morning stoked for Pday and played some sports with the Elders and later in the morning we went to help the McCrady's because they had to move out of their house because of the water damage. While we were packing up their kitchen Sister Ihler looked at me with her eyes as big as Boo's from Monster's Inc and said that it was raining outside. We got the craziest feeling to call Domingo and he quickly answered and told us that he was NOT working today! We scrambled to call President McKee but he was in a meeting and did not answer right away. We called any member we could think of to see if they could take the Pastor family to Nashville last second. Well, no one answered or they said no! Hermana McCrady was listening and watching us run around trying to figure things and she so so kindly volunteered to drive them even though she was in the middle of moving! We got a hold of our Bishop and he was so incredibly kind enough to pay for their marriage license and the gas money to get them there and back! Then President called us back and told us to find a Bishop or Branch President there in Nashville who could marry them right after they got their license! We called the Assistants who found a Bishop who said he could meet them at 5 and perform the ceremony! So Sister Ihler and I met Sister McCrady at 12:15, filled out some of the paperwork for the marriage license, collected the family's photo IDs and birth certificates necessary and set up our GPS to hook up to Hermana McCrady's car so she could find her way there! We waved goodbye to Santa, Domingo, Anna, Manuel and Sister McCrady holding our breaths saying a million prayers that everything would go smoothly. Oh and I forgot to mention that Hermana McCrady is from Costa Rica and is terrified of driving a car! We just got a call an hour ago that by some wonderful miracle they didn't have any trouble at the court house and they received their Marriage License!!!! They should be at the church as I type being married now! Wah! Miracle miracle miracle miracle!! This was the biggest challenge we were facing with their baptism and somehow on some random Monday with literally 32 phone calls and a billion texts and people donating their time and money we somehow have managed- well with the help of the Lord- to get Santa and Domingo married! We're going to have a huge fiesta with them tomorrow to celebrate!

It is such an incredible feeling to be a part of helping families become eternal and truly building up the Kingdom of God here on the earth! I feel so lucky to be a part of this work at this time and in this place! Who knew Paducah was full of so many miracles! We just put together a shot gun wedding! Wahoo! Or as Hermana Ihler would say- Booyah! We know that this is only a small step for this family and we cannot wait until next week when they make such an important and special covenant with their Heavenly Father through baptism. My heart yearns for the day that they will be able to enter the temple and be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. This has been a very overwhelming experience because I feel that this is not only an incredible blessing and very important step for this family but for this area of the Lord's kingdom. We will only continue to see miracles from here. The Lord has great plans for the Hispanic people here in Paducah.

This has not been easy but it has been so so worth it. We've been having a bit of a hard time as well because the Sisters that we live with are......interesting and they make it hard for us sometimes to feel the Spirit and to always be happy in this work. I have learned an important lesson this week that we really need to do our best to not let other's effect our happiness. It's been a struggle to get past some manipulative and sneaky experiences that we've had with the Sisters but the Lord knows our hearts and knows that we're doing our best. We've definitely had to do some repenting and we've come so much closer to our Savior and to our own personal purpose in this work at this time. We can't control how others are and we can't worry about their intentions but we can choose to be genuine in all that we do and choose to treat others as Christ like as we possibly can no matter what. If we let other's moods or decisions or words effect us then we are going to be just as miserable as they are. Choose to be happy and choose to love everything and everyone! You will find so much peace when you come to the Lord and ask him for the strength to rise above these kind of situations in your life. I know that the power of the Atonement is so real and we can use it in every part of our lives!

We had an English class this week that no one showed up to BUT a miracle happened. Remember Venencio? Well we thought he dropped us because we hadn't heard from him in over 3 weeks but he randomly showed up at the church Wednesday night while we were supposed to have English class! Miracle! An RM Tyler Harper in the ward is home for the summer and he helped us teach the plan of salvation to Venencio and it was so amazing! We can't wait to see Venencio again next week- he is up to the end of Mosiah now and we only gave him the Book of Mormon 5 weeks ago and he works 65+ hours a week! This man is amazing!

I love you all so much and wish I had more time to write you individually!

I sure do appreciate y'all!

Sister Knight

Lightning, Aztecs, & Miracles!

Hola mi loved ones! Como estan?

Did any of y'all see Paducah on the National News?? We had crazy flash floods on Friday night/Saturday- it was insane! We got 5-6 inches of rain within a few short hours. I woke up Saturday morning at 3:30 am because of a bright light- I opened up our blinds and it was the craziest coolest thing I've ever seen! There was bright lightning flashing literally every 5-10 seconds for like 10 minutes straight! I just sat on the floor watching in amazement! I felt like I was in a photo booth and Heavenly Father was taking hundreds of pictures of me! Some of the members house's in the ward had their houses flood so we'll be going over today to help clean up the mess.

This week has been so so incredible. Sister Ihler and I are just loving life because Heavenly Father has blessed us with sooooo many miracles! On Tuesday night we went to an apartment complex that we had felt prompted to go knock the night before. We said a prayer and as we were walking to the first door we saw a girl getting out of her car and we started talking to her. Turns out she is friends with a member in the ward and she actually received a Priesthood Blessing from some other members the Friday before! It was no coincidence that the Lord inspired us to be there at that time and meet Lauren. We are planning to start teaching her soon! Last night we didn't really have any set plans but we felt prompted to go to several places and so as we followed the Spirit we kept finding the people that we wanted to see weren't home. We decided to go visit a family that was just a block away from where we were and as we pulled up a Hispanic man walked by. We quickly jumped out of the car and started talking to him. Lio began to tell us that he had just moved to Paducah from Georgia 3 days ago because he felt that God told him he needed to be here. He began to bear testimony of his faith in Jesus Christ and Hermana Ihler and I got goosebumps. We both assured him that the Lord had planned for us to all meet at that time and that place outside of the apartments. Lio is from Mexico and is from Aztec descent and speaks their native tongue. How do we keep finding these Lamanites? Miracle! Who knew there would be so many Lamanites here in little old Paducah? Lio also shared with us that the Mexican cartel killed his family when he was 4 years old and he's been on his own ever since. He is such an incredible person and he said he works everyday from 10-10 but that he would come to church with us this Sunday! Miracle! We've never met anyone who wants to come to church with us after the second they meet us!

Last night was such a humbling experience for me. We had an amazing fast Sunday with the Pastor family. We had two people in the ward get up and bear their testimonies about us and the work that we are doing and it just made Sister Ihler and I feel so good because sometimes we feel like our ward is wondering why in the world they sent Spanish speaking Sisters here. Sister Ihler and I both felt prompted to share our testimonies as well (in fact we both stood up at the same time) and the Spirit was so strong. The Spanish work here is so real and we know that Heavenly Father has brought his children here to hear the gospel. We know that it was no fluke when President McKee felt inspired to send Spanish Missionaries here. It's been a really incredible experience being the ones called to start the work here to find those that have never had the opportunity before now to hear the gospel in their own tongue and language.

I encourage all of you that have your Patriarchal Blessings to read over them this week. Those are very specific blessings and guidance for you and only you from your Heavenly Father. I am starting to see so many of the things spoken of in mine coming to life on my mission. Prayerfully read it and ask Heavenly Father what more you can be doing to use your talents and receive the very specific blessings that he has in store for you.

I love you all so incredibly much! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Heavenly Father's way of showing his love for us and providing us with the way that we can return to Him and be with our families forever. Many people here in the South have a hard time believing that Heavenly Father has laid out a specific path for us to return to Him. I can promise you as a representative of Jesus Christ that God loves us so much and wants us to return to Him so badly that he has prepared a very specific and personal way for us and that he has revealed those things in our days through the resoration of his Son's true church. God has indeed called a prophet in our day, Thomas S Monson, and I know for myself that he is a man of God. Never forget the beauty of this miracle and please never take it for granted. You ARE a child of God and he wants nothing more than you to return to Him, be with your family forever and be truly happy. This gospel is how we can have true and everlasting happiness. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.

Hermana Knight