Getting close to the end of a great adventure....

Howdy howdy howdy Everyone!

I love being a missionary!!! Last Monday we had an FHE at Centennial
Park with some members in our ward and Elvin and his friend Lupe. It
was a blast! I got to know Hna Kimber a lot better- she's Hna Paty's
lil sis- and I just love her so much! She cleans Jessie Baylin's
house! The cute lil musician that's married to the guy from Kings of
Leon! And his brother who's married to a Victoria Secret model! Hna
Kimber is almost famous by association! I had no idea so many
musicians really lived here! We had snacks at the end of the activity
and I over ate AGAIN and almost lost my cookies. It's so hard not to
over eat when people place amazing authentic Mexican food in front of
me!

Tuesday was a doozy! I was not feeling that well and I had many
moments where I thought I was going to pass out because of my health
and the dang heat but the Savior completely carried me through the
day. We had our last lesson with Carminia :( she told us that she
believes everything we teach her, she's just worried about the people
that she preaches to on Facebook- what she does as a stay at home mom-
will think she's not staying true to her beliefs if she decides to
accept the teachings of the restored gospel. It made me so sad that
she was more concerned about what people thought of her than what her
Savior thinks of her. I know that some day she'll figure it out! I
have complete faith in that. I just love her so much and it was hard
to say goodbye. We've been teaching Sergio's mom Alicia who just got
here from Mexico and she is so amazing! She is totally catholic but is
super open to learning more and loves us being in their home. We had a
way cool miracle happen that night- we planned to have dinner with Hna
Kimber and have another member Byron give us a ride- well dinner time
rolled around and Byron's phone wasn't working and he was no where to
be found after waiting around for 30 minutes. As we were on the phone
with Hna Kimber frantically trying to figure out what to do because
she was still in the middle of cooking and couldn't get us, this car
pulls up outside of Goodwill and this sweet girl asks us if we needed
a ride! She was a member in the green hills ward and she was such an
answer to our prayers! It turns out that I actually met her a year ago
bc she manages a really cute shop downtown and I ran into her when we
were there for a baseball game last summer. Small world! Hna Kimber
was so excited and kept telling us that it was such a miracle that we
got there! Since we didn't have a ride back, Hna Torres and I ducked
down sitting on the floor in the back with Hna Kimber's three boys. So
illegal but so fun! We ended our night with Elvin and I just love that
guy! We talked about the scriptures and modern day prophets and ended
up on the subject of baptism. He said that he would get baptized
someday, but not soon, so we talked about how today is the day to
prepare to meet God and afterward he just sat and thought. After some
golden silence, he asked us for our Bishop's number and said he wanted
to ask him some questions if he was going to get baptized into this
church! We happily gave him the number and I can't even imagine what
he wanted to ask him. Haha Elvin is the best.

Tuesday night I couldn't sleep and I finally witnessed for myself that
Hna Torres sleep talks! I died laughing when she turned to me and
laughed and just said, "I know!" And then snoozed off again. She's the
cutest thing ever!

Wednesday was a weird day! We left early to stop by la tienda mexicana
to get a surprise for Elder Cottam and Elder Peterson! We had a
contest with them the week before and they lost so we got to pick
something out for them to eat! We chose chilies of course! We chose
some really little but hot ones! So we rode the bus there and had
enough time before the meeting started to watch them suffer! We gave
them 6 little chilies each to eat and Elder Cottam tried to play it
cool but you could tell he was dying.....Elder Peterson on the other
hand haha! He did not hide anything and we died watching him walk
around in circles with his tongue sticking out and eyes watering! He
made the funniest noises and when he went to grab for the water and we
told him that it would just make it worse he said, "What kind if devil
food is this??" 

 Elder Cottam played it cool and Elder Peterson lost it!

He is such a character. After the meeting we jumped
back on the bus and went into a part of town that we never go into-
it's pretty ghetto and I'll admit I was a tad bit scared even though
it was day light! So we took the bus forever bc our friend Adrian said
he'd be there but when he got there all we found were cats! So after I
played with the kitten that reminds me of Minnie we left to get back
on the bus. We spent ALL of our day on the bus and then that night we
went finding but didn't find anyone that interested. It was a strange
strange day BUT we ran into Hermana Paty and her kids at the park and
she had us teach her how to give away a BOM! I am so proud of her! She
has started to get this fire in her to share the gospel, I love it!


Thursday was Zone Conference.....my last one. We got a ride with the
Bellevue Sisters and when we got to the Green Hills building all of
the office angels were there checking everyone's cars and I got to see
my sweet little Sister Crawford who's the same size as me. Well at
8:45 our ZLs walk in and tell us that the assistants just called and
the whole Franklin Zone and President are waiting for us at the
Franklin building! Whoops! Major miscommunication! We finally got to
Franklin a little late and it was a wonderful meeting! I learned so
much and was so inspired to carry on with this great work for 3 more
weeks and after my mission as well! The end of the meeting was the
worst part though....I had to give my departing testimony :/ I will
attach what I said at the end. We had a beautiful dinner with the
Donaldsons that night and Elder D had plenty of marriage advice for
us! He cracks me up. They leave in a week and I'm so sad to see them
go back to St George! We met some cool people that night- good day!

On Friday we had a good weekly planning session and just as we were
getting ready to leave the house, the hot burning sun disappeared and
it began to pour! Literally within minutes! It was the strangest thing
ever and it was raining so hard! Sister D picked us up and we went on
a hunt for ponchos but by the time we found some it stopped pouring so
we gave up! We saw Alicia again and were able to teach part of the
plan of salvation, it was so amazing. She started recognizing that we
really are different and there really is more for all of us. We made
it to Alex Javier's that night and had such an amazing lesson with
him! He showed us his little notebook that he's been keeping and he
had written down some scriptures from the BOM that he liked- so cool!
He's really just diving right in. It blows my mind that two months ago
he didn't even believe in God! He's a funny guy, we were talking about
the resurrection and final judgment and he just looks at us and asks,
"..but what about the animals?" I told him we wouldn't be able to
answer that one! I love how his mind works!

Saturday was jam packed with fun times! We started at the pantry as
always and had a blast with everyone there. Hockett always cracks me
up! I love that we are like best friends with felons, people's pasts
mean nothing! I love those guys! We had an awesome missionary
correlation and got to ride in Hno Linare's super cool red space can
again! Guess what we did afterwards?? Are you ready? We met Elvin's
girlfriend and daughter!! Corina and Yasmin just got here on Thursday!
They made it across the borders from Honduras safely! Corina is the
cutest thing ever and is sooo nice! Yasmin is only 4 and super nervous
around us still, but she'll open up! Afterwards we went over to Flor's
and the Kimbers picked us up for dinner! Hna Kimber made mole rojo and
yummy rice and chicken! And Flor brought tons of yummy left overs from
her work! Flor had a blast and it was so fun to see her being social
and loving being with the members! It was just nice being with the
members, especially Hna Kimber and Hna Paty, they're like family to me
and I love them so much!

Sunday was awesome! Elvin, Corina, Yasmin and their friend made it to
sacrament and Corina made a lot of new friends with the woman! Alex
made it too and stayed for second hour. Our lesson was about the
sabbath day and it was so nest seeing every thing click for him and
listening to his awesome comments! In the middle of church, Hna Torres
and I received blessings from Elder Loveless, our ZL, he's like a
patriarch! We received the most beautiful blessings, it was exactly
what we needed to hear from our Heavenly Father. The priesthood is
here! And it's organized exactly the way God needs it to be right now!
We are so lucky to have it here on earth. After church we headed to
another member's house for lunch and the Kimbers and Hna Paty were
there too! Sister Corrillo is from Guatemala and made us yummy sopa,
just like the kind that Santa made me in Paducah! It was such a tender
mercy because that day just happened to be the one hear anniversary
from when Domingo and Santa were baptized! It was so humbling to look
back and see their conversion and how I got to be a part of it. We had
an awkward door contact that night- we were talking to a woman and I
looked at Hna Torres and stared at her so she would say something and
she got nervous and started laughing and then I started laughing- it
was horrible! Haha, we have a problem, we always laugh at each other.
Despite the laughter, the woman Ruby was super cool and invited us to
come in Tuesday!

This morning I got to go to my old stomping grounds in Madison and see
Dr Thompson again. He is a homeopathic chiropractor and I feel so much
better! He was able to tell me exactly what's wrong with me and made
me a homeopathic remedy, I am SO grateful for him! When you read about
the gifts if the Spirit- he totally has the gift of healing! It is
incredible!

Anyways, this week we made a goal to sacrifice sleep and be up at 5
everyday to have more time to find and teach. Wish us luck!

I love all of you! Here's some of my departing testimony:

Departing Testimony
What do I know?
I know that the power of the gospel can change lives and change people
through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I look back just 4 years ago
and I see a broken, misguided and rebellious girl and I truly stand
all amazed as I see who I've become in this short amount of time and I
am truly humbled wearing this tag with my Savior's name, knowing that
iris only through Him that I am worthy to wear it and to have this
calling at this time, it is only through Him that I am the daughter of
God that I am at this time.

I know that what we share as missionaries is far more powerful and so
much more than having Christ's true church on the earth and having a
prophet to lead and guide us- those are extremely important things,
but what it really comes down to is that we have the way back home to
our Father in Heaven. All that our father wants, is for His children
to come back to Him and to be happy and to be the people He created
them to be, and this can only be done through the restored gospel. I
know that when we are inviting others to come unto Christ through
faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to
the end, we are inviting them to return to their Heavenly Father.

I know that the Book of Mormon is the most powerful book on this earth
at this time. That's a really bold statement that is said in the
introduction but it is true. I know that the Book of Mormon was
specifically saved by God for thousands of years for us in our day. I
know that it was revealed through a modern day prophet, Joseph Smith,
to testify to all the world that the heavens are not closed and that
God still lives and loves us, and He still speaks. The Book of Mormon
has completely changed my life and was what gave me the hope and the
strength to change. The Book of Mormon is what caused me to repent and
come to personally know who my Savior is. The story of Alma the
Younger saved my life.

Brothers and Sisters, I know that Jesus Christ is the savior of the
world. I know that He is our redeemer and that He suffered for each
and everyone of us personally. I know that the work that we are doing
now, as His representatives is a continuation of the work that He did
when He was here on the earth. His work didn't stop with His
resurrection, it continued the second He and our Heavenly Father
answered a young boys prayer and we get to be a part of it right now.
We are so privileged to be here.

I know all of these things to be true! My mission has changed me forever!

Hermana Knight

Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!.

Whoa! This week has been so busy! I don't think I've ever worked so hard on my mission! Tuesday we were fasting and had appointments and lessons from 8 in the morning until 9 at night! It was never ending miracles! We met new people to teach and were able to have such powerful lessons with people that we love! We were able to visit a woman from Cancun that a member is friends with and she was so awesome! We're hoping to see her again this week! We were leaving her neighborhood to another appointment and drove past a whole street of Dr Seuss paintings on the road walls, I was freaking out! My childhood all on one street! 

We were able to visit a woman we had met the week before and as we were teaching her and her family, it started raining REALLY hard but the spirit was so strong as they intently listened to us share the message of how God restored a prophet and all of His truth to the earth. The even cooler thin about that appointment was at the beginning the father said the prayer and it was way intense and the spirit definitely was not there and his daughter was in the kitchen on her phone not even paying attention to what he was saying- well we all felt prompted to sing after his prayer so we sang "More Holiness Give Me" and within the first verse their daughter came into the living room and sat beside us and we all just felt this overwhelming peace. The power of hymns is real my friends. We also knocked on one of their neighbor's doors and met Adrian and he is super cool! We taught his mom a few days later and they are so excited to read the BOM! Adrian's little sister Daisy is super shy and never talks when we ask her questions but she always gives us the biggest hugs when we come and go and won't let go of us for like 20 seconds! I love that family! Tuesday was a true example to me of how powerful our fasts can be when we have a purpose and what we can do and accomplish when The Lord sees that we're doing our best and blesses us. Also, we taught a woman that day who said that she doesn't feel comfortable in any church she's been to and at this point she doesn't know where she needs to be with her kids- I was able to share my grandmother's conversion story with her, about how she prayed and prayed to know what church to raise her boys in and had the missionaries knock on her door, and knew that it was her answer and that she had found Christ's true church. I was able to testify to Carminia that God has a place for her, that He has His true church on the earth. It was a very special experience. That night we taught our two favorite people Jose and Flor and had so much fun bc they literally tried to feed us everything in their kitchen, including Abuelita and pan, which I was more than happy to accept! Flor doesn't work Sunday and said she would come to church-yay!

Wednesday was a fun District Meeting and even though we have a lot of new faces this transfer, I really love my district. Later that day we had a crazy thing happen. We had a member call us, Francis- he's a little intense, and ask us to take him to the front office of some apartments he wants to move into so we could translate for him because he only speaks Spanish. Well as we're getting out of our car we see one of our investigators that we haven't seen in forever get home from work and so we went to see him after we helped our friend and not only was he home finally, but he immediately let us in! We taught the restoration and it was a really neat experience. His name is Jose and he's a single dad of the cutest little girl and needs the gospel. We had an incredible lesson later that night with Alex, one of our member's sons, who wasn't interested in the gospel before. When we first met him, he said he didn't believe in God, and then this past week he's begun praying and reading and has a belief in God now! It is so neat to see such an incredible change in him!

Thursday was a pretty intense day. That morning we got a text from Carminia saying that she felt like she didn't need to meet with us anymore because not everything matches up to what she was taught in her last church. My heart was so sad because just two days earlier we read the Book Of Mormon together after I shared my grandmother's experience and when we were done she told us that she felt like God was speaking to her whenever she read the Book of Mormon. It's hard to understand sometimes just how tricky the adversary us and how hard he will work on people to make them feel like this isn't God's true church- even after they've received witnesses that it is. He's such a tricky guy that Satan! Carminia said we could come see her one more time, tomorrow, so keep her in your prayers! That night we split up with Hermana Santiago and her daughter Mayra. Hermana Schmit and Hernana Torres went off with Mayra and I was all by myself with Hermana Santiago.  It was super weird not being with my companions and Hermana Santiago is so cute and little but she's a little intimidating! (Now I know how people feel when they meet me!) Well, it didn't help that all of our appointments fell through and that the less active we went to see ran in her house when we pulled up and hid- even though her toddler son was still out by himself! But we ended up talking with a woman we had met before.

Patricia. Paty, and Hermana Santiago totally hit it off and I just felt like the odd man out. I tried sharing something about the gospel and Hermana cut me off and said what I wanted to say because she didn't feel like I could express myself well enough in Spanish I guess :/ well, I almost started to cry, feeling like Hermana had no faith in me and my ability to teach, and I even thought to myself that I should just walk away and cry in the car. BUT, that is not what Christ would do. I sucked up my pride and prayed to Heavenly Father to please make my hurt feelings better and help me to know what I could do to bring the Spirit to Paty before we left. I didn't get to participate in anymore of the conversation but before we left I felt like I needed to sing a song.

So I pulled out my iPad and looked up "Asombro Me Da" (I Stand All Amazed) and Hermana Santiago gave me a weird look when I told her we were going to sing but as we sang, I noticed Paty put her head down and started wiping her eyes, then my eyes started to fill with tears and you could just feel the love of our Savior so strongly in the room. I promised Paty that the things that we teach will help her to always have that feeling of love in her home and she asked us to come back this Wednesday. I am so grateful for the Lord's help that evening and that I was still able to be used as an instrument in His hand in the way that I could. Once again, the power of hymns is real.

We had a trainer/trainee meeting on Friday with President and Sister Andersen and the APs (assistants to the Mission President) and it was so fun! We separated as trainers and trainees and I was so grateful because at one point they ask us what we're struggling with as a trainer and Hermana Schmit and I couldn't think of one thing! Hermana Torres is perfect! I love that Hermana so much!

Before we left, I was taking to my cute missionary friend Sister King and my heart began to break as I realized that it would be the last time that I would see her as a missionary :( I HATE goodbyes! We had a fun Friday night teaching- especially teaching a referral from the Elders, Victor. He used to be heavy into drugs and almost died, he's only 20 and is really changing his life around. He introduced us to his older brother Marco who is mentally challenged and I felt so honored to meet him. It has become even clearer to me on my mission how special handicapped people are and how they are truly the most valiant and pure in heart spirits.

Saturday was great- started out at the Pantry again and I just love how everyone is like our family now. There's a huge black guy named Hockett who did time for like 8 years but he's the biggest teddy bear!

He always tells us that he's got our back and him and a Jay call me "Sweet 16" because they can't believe I'm as old as I am. I love how everyone in the Pantry, those who are serving and those who are being served, are just trying to be better and have better lives. It's so amazing to see people for who they can become. There is a man who used to live under the bridge and go to the pantry for food every week, he was a musician and played on the streets. Well someone from Sweden was visiting and liked his stuff and now he's in Sweden playing sold out concerts! I love that we all have the ability to change and be the people we want to be. Dreams really can come true! After we finished helping at the pantry, we walked over to McDonalds with out friend Jay who also just got out if prison. We've been teaching him a little but for the past few weeks here and there and we sat down and talked about the plan of salvation. He had so many good questions and has a true desire to change. He said he knows that what we teach is true purely because of the examples that we are and the way he feels when he sees us, he said he just sees light whenever we enter the pantry- that was a really powerful thing to hear. He decided to get baptized on July 5th and we are so excited for him!! He really has such a humble and good heart. We had a sweet lesson with Elvin that night as well and planned on fasting with him the next day together to help him feel more prepared for baptism and have a date set.

Sunday was such an incredible day! Our hard work payed off and a lot of our friends came to church with us! Flor was there and loved every second of it! She was just beaming and some already knew some of the members! Elvin also came and brought a friend. The biggest miracle was that Alex Javier came- the member's son- and everyone was like "whoa!

How did you get him here?" And we just explained that we started teaching him and he wanted to come himself! I guess he's been super against the church in the past. We feel so lucky that we get to teach him now! We had such a fun time at a Father's Day lunch with our ward mission leader and his family- the Linares'- and the Requelmes. They are so much fun and Hna Linares taught us how to make Papusas from El Salvador and Hna Requelme made this incredible chicken pie from Chile.

I ate so much that I literally felt like I was going to burst! We went to the going away dinner later that night for Nestor who's leaving for his mission to st George Utah. We have been kind of teaching one of his best friends on Facebook and were able to teach him about Joseph Smith's first vision in the chapel after the dinner, it was a really neat experience.

Welp, if you're wondering why I write so much- it's because I don't write in my journal- this practically is my journal! Last week was incredible and I finally feel like I'm putting all of my heart and soul into the Lord's work here. I'm going to keep working like there's no end. It's the only way I don't break down and cry every second. I love my mission with every piece of my heart and have never been so grateful for anything in my life. I am excited to see what miracles await us these next 4 weeks and how much more I will change to be the best person I can be.

I love all of you. I hope you know that!

Hermana Knight

*** P.S.  If anyone wants to write me, now is your chance! Time is running out!

If you told me you would write me but haven't yet- you have one more month!!!

Hermana Haley Knight

6430 Charlotte Pike

Apt 410

Nashville, TN

37209

Robin Hood tires, I would not be surprised if they were true to their name and steal tires from rich people to give to the poor- it's in the ghetto.

Because of Him...

 The 3 Amigas

Mis hermanos y hermanas, hola!

This week has been super amazing!! First, I will start with a funny story....

So on Monday, we has cleaned out our entire apartment and found tons of Elder's old clothes, so we thought we would give it to the Elders that love nearby before they leave in case they could use any of it.  Well, 6 pm rolled around and we started on our way to an appointment and decided to drop off the clothes for the Elders at their door since it was on the way. Well as we approached the Elder's house, the door and screen door were wide open! So we went to the front door and I peaked my head in first and dropped the clothes in the doorway and look up and what do I see? One of the Elders, mid scramble, not completely clothed! He was in no way naked but .....Wah! I was so stunned as I hurried and turned away that I didn't have time to warn Hermana Schmit as she did exactly what I had done and saw exactly what I saw. The poor Elder just put his arms up at that point and didn't know what to do either. Hermana Schmit quickly turned away as I had and we bolted for the street. I couldn't help but start laughing uncontrollably. This Elder is like our little brother, and if we weren't missionaries, it probably wouldn't have been so awkward- but we are missionaries- and it was super funny and awkward! We had an hour walk to our appointment and I couldn't stop myself from laughing the entire time! We text and told him not to worry and that we weren't laughing at him personally. He wrote back apologizing profusely and said that he was cleaning and didn't want his nice clothes to get dirty! So lesson learned, never ever ever peak into an Elder's place!  -Even if the door is wide open!

Tuesday was super exciting!! Hermana Schmit and I arrived early to transfer meeting for the trainer meeting and when we walked into the room where all the trainees were I began making my guess as to who would be with us! There were three Hermanas and one of them looked Hispanic, was super adorable and has amazing style- so naturally I felt like she would be with us! Well transfer meeting starts and first the missionaries going home gave their departing advice and that was sad to see them and realize that next meeting, that will be me!

Afterwards they had all of the new missionaries stand up and introduce themselves and then one by one they read their calls of where they would be serving and who they would be with. Well the first two Hermanas went and they weren't with us......cute little Hermana Torres went up to the mic and announced her call and we came running from both sides and gave her the biggest hug! Hermana Torres is incredible!

First of all, she is from Monterrey Mexico but grew up in Texas so she speaks perfect Spanish and perfect English! A dream come true! She is such a natural teacher and doesn't even need to be trained! She knows exactly what she's doing! But she is SUPER humble and always eager to learn from us! Anywho, after the meeting ended we had a blast getting to see all of our missionary friends and catch up! The energy that is in a transfer meeting is unreal! When I get back home I want to go to all of the transfer meetings in my area and just feel the spirit of the work still. My temple recommend expired so I had to get interviewed by President Andersen for a new one after the meeting, and as I answered the interview questions I just was overwhelmed by the spirit as I answered with an honest heart. Being found worthy to enter into the Lord's house is an incredible blessing. I am stoked to have a temple recommend for the next two years that says my stake is the Tennessee Nashville Mission!

Tuesday after we dropped off Hna Torres' belongings, we got to work!

We went and taught the Restoration to Sergio's mom and it was incredible! Hermana Torres was just hours into the mission and she taught so powerfully and so naturally! I just love her! We've been crazy busy ever since then. I don't feel like I've had time at all to just sit down and breath but it's been amazing! We had several amazing lessons with Elvin and he gave us his coffee the night we taught him about the word of wisdom! He's incredible! He took us out to eat for lunch on Saturday to this super yummy vegetarian Indian place! I was in heaven and ate so much! We were so full afterward that it hurt out stomachs to walk! Probably the only time I'll get Indian food in the south!

There are a lot of really amazing things that happened last week but I just want to share something that I was thinking about this morning as I was writing my dear Aunt Jenny...

A few years ago, I was in a pretty bad place in my life. I had no goals, I didn't have the best friends and I spent all of my free time either sleeping or partying. I never cared about anything- I just lived moment to moment. Well, in the midst of this cycle of bad choices, I was working at Wingers in Downtown Salt Lake. I was working the lunch shift and wasn't feeling very good from the night before...

Then, to my surprise, my humongous teddy bear uncle JD walked in with a bunch of other business men! I was so excited to see someone from home and I was also a little embarrassed. We talked about how my cousin Jaxon was just born and he explains that they had to use a crane to get him out of my aunt! It was a nice short visit, and I was just grateful to have seen him for those 45 minutes.

Well, my Aunt Jenny wrote today about how Jaxon is getting ready to go to kindergarten after the summer and I looked back at who I was when he was born, and who I am now, just a few years later. I am living proof that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that it has the power to cleanse us and give us a new beginning. Five years ago I was confused, unhappy, hopeless and had no future with the way I was living life. Today I have peace, joy, guidance, purpose and hope. The gospel changes lives. I think of one of my favorite hymns, I Stand All Amazed, and see that song with new eyes. I truly am amazed at the person I have been able to become in such a short time. I am amazed that I no longer feel the guilt or pains of my past. I am amazed that I have had this last year to be an instrument in God's hands. I am amazed that I finally have purpose and that I finally have a hope for the future. No person can look at my life and tell me that the power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement isn't real.

I know, with all of my heart, that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He is your Savior. Because of Him, we can have a peace of mind with our past, we can have new beginnings, we can see the hope in all things, we can be happy and we can live again with our families. This world is not perfect, we are not perfect, there's a lot of crazy things going on in our lives and all around us BUT, all can and WILL be made right someday through Jesus Christ. That is the promise that each of us have if we just accept Him and let Him work within our hearts and our lives. I promise you that nothing and nobody else can give you the happiness and peace that He can.

So, look forward with faith. Trust God. Trust in Jesus Christ. Love those that are in your life. Be kind. Share the hope and light that you have. Stay true to the child of God that you are. Know and understand that there are so many unimaginable blessings and promises waiting for us in this life, and after, if we but stay faithful.

I leave these things with you in the name of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Hermana Knight

"Because of Him"
Please click on the following for an awesome short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

 Hermana Torres got her mission call

 The Parthenon- I think that's what it's called- downtown Nashville

 Sister Daines on her birthday!

Elvin gave up coffee this week!!!

Two of my favorite Elders! Elder McCray- I served with him in my first area- Madison-

-and Elder Schnell- he's just a cool guy and we geek out over filmmaking together

Me and Hermana Knecht of course

 Saying goodbye to my mom Hermana Hendrickson

...more of Me and Hermana Knecht...

Pennies from Heaven

 Temple pics after stake conference!

 Saying goodbye to cute Abby-the daughter of one of our investigators- she's going to El Salvador for the summer!

G'day!

This past week has been such a blessing! During this last transfer, we had a lot of people kind of phase out of our lives and it was heart breaking but this past week some of them have come back AND we've met some incredible new people as well!

Last Monday we were hurrying, before P-Day ended, at Walmart and met a really cool guy named Avelino! He said he had met with the missionaries a year ago and pretty much recited the first vision to us! He was super excited to see us and we're going over tomorrow to teach his family! Miracle! 

My favorite Elders! Left to right- Elder Leavitt, Elder Harris-from Hawaii, Elder Cottam and Eldee Randall! They're all leaving except Elder Cottam!

We also went bowling last Monday and the Elders just happened to be there too! It was a crazy coincidence and such a tender mercy because we had so much fun bowling our cares away and getting to know the Elders better- who 3 out of the 4 are leaving this transfer! I either really suck at bowling or I have incredible luck and everyone was laughing at me when the ball slipped out of my fingers and went flying behind me- whoops! I am the official dork of my district but I love it- I'm just adorkable! We also had time to stop by the Hindu temple here and it was interesting to see the similarities in our faiths and also the differences. I love that temples are so sacred to them as well. I love truly seeing how there really are parts of the truth in almost every other faith or church and how lucky we are to have ALL of those precious truths in one place. We had an FHE that night with Elvin in the Santiago's home and Hermano S was incredible and pretty much taught the restoration again but through the Bible and with perfect Spanish! It was exactly what Elvin needed and we all enjoyed leche con arroz after! Yum yum! The work truly does push forward with more power when the missionaries and members work together!

                                                     Elvin's new haircut for his bday!

The Hindu Temple

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to give a training during District meeting on Weekly Planning- something that I kind if dread every week!

Weekly Planning is when we take 3 hours on Friday every week to plan out the next week with people we will be seeing and what we feel like we need to teach them, how we'll find new people, involve the ward and etc etc. It was such a cool experience because as I studied and prepared I had my eyes opened to how important it really is and that we can enjoy doing it! In my preparation for it I read some scriptures in the BOM that blew my mind. They talked about how the adversary is always making plans and that he is diligent in his work- uhhhhhh whoa!

If the adversary is constantly planning and scheming and if he is diligent- then how much more important should it be as missionaries, and Saints, to be constantly planning to follow God's will for His work and for our personal lives and be persistent and diligent in doing all we can do to play our part of His great plan? It's SO important people!! If you're not planning to do great things and keep moving forward on your path to eternal life, than the adversary will be diligent in having you follow his plan for you instead- stay focused folks! Anywho, I shared that and some other thoughts in my training and suggested that we wear costumes or have some kind of theme during weekly planning so that it's fun and enjoyable. So I made a slide show of me with different makeup on- like a puppy, Harry Potter, a Lamanite and fun stuff like that. I couldn't sleep the night before so I went into the closet and used my giant eyeliner from my mom to paint my face. I'm so weird, but it was so fun.

Thursday I was feeling sick and slept in and when we were leaving the apartment for the day we just felt like we had no energy. Well, we went and taught such an incredible lesson to our friend Camilia. We taught the last half if the plan if salvation and she loved it and said she believed everything we told her! She also said she believe Joseph Smith had a vision and saw HF and JC! Well we walked out of the lesson walking on cloud nine and Hermana Schmit found a penny. And then I found a penny. And then we realized that the sidewalk was showered with old pennies and we just went crazy picking them all up!  I was in Heaven! I have had a weird knack for finding pennies my entire mission and taught Hna Schmit about it. That day I experienced the song "Pennies from Heaven!" Heavenly Father must have been really pleased with us after that lesson! That night we had dinner with the Santiago family and they grilled yummy salmon and then their daughter Mayra came out with us and we had a miracle happen!!!

So remember those two young boys we met in the street like two months ago? Angel and Miguel? And then we met their mom Ana and she was so amazing! Well Miguel randomly text us and said that Ana didn't want us to come back and talk to Angel so we were super confused and heart broken and didn't try to go back over. Well, we planned to go over and just see how they were doing and the second we walked up Ana was at the door welcoming us in and asked where the heck we had been! She said she had been thinking of us that morning and wondering why we never came back. We told her what Miguel said- who's not really her

son- and she said that he was kind if a liar and that she never said that. He also moved a month ago without telling her- so he's kind of crazy. Anyways, she told us that she had been waiting for us to come back forever! We sat at her cute kitchen table with her son Angel and taught the Restoration and Mayra bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and how she personally came to know it was true. It was so amazing and I'm sad that we didn't go over sooner! Ana wants to read the Book of Mormon with Angel and she's really excited to find out for herself if these things are true or not! Keep them in your prayers please! Such special people!

Friday we had an amazing weekly planning session :) and at the end we just had this overwhelming love for one another and started to cry at the thought of one if us leaving for transfers. We really were hoping to stay together this transfer and team train a new missionary to keep focused and stay on fire. So, being the obnoxious missionaries that we are, we text President Andersen and said, "hey President! We just wanted to let you know that we received revelation that we will be staying together this next transfer and we'll be team training. Sure do love you! Have a blessed day! We'll see you Tuesday when we pick up our new trainee!" Well, we didn't hear back from him all day! That night we went to what we thought was dinner at the Kimbers and ended up being a birthday party for Brother Kimber and ended up staying all night as they grilled the food, had a piñata, ate cake and made us snow cones! But it was awesome because a)we love all of them- Hna Kimber is sisters with Hna Juarez who is our favorite so it was a blast being with all of them, I felt like I was at home with my family. B) their other sister Isabelle who isn't a member was there and she was so talkative with us the whole time! I guess she's taken all of the lessons but doesn't want to leave the Catholic Church but she did invite us to eat dinner with her sometime so we're hoping that by small and simple visits we will be able to help her gain a testimony of the restored gospel! We're excited!

Birthday treat with Elvin for his Bday! 

Anywho, as we were leaving the bday fiesta, I looked at the phone and noticed that President called twice and text us asking us to call him back! Gasp! We called him back ASAP but didn't answer! So then we text him telling to call us back because he was giving us anxiety! Well, Hermana Kimber drove us home finally and as we were about to get out of the car, President called! I quickly answered and the first thing he said was,"I want to know how you knew!" And I was like whaaaat??  And then he said that he received the same revelation and that Hermana Schmit and I would be staying together for our last transfer and training! We were crying and asked him if he was serious and when he said yes we just screamed! We hurried and told Hna Kimber and she so sweetly said that this was a huge blessing for her and the members and that they would be thanking Heavenly Father that night. My heart is just so full of love for the members here and the people we teach and I am so so excited to stay and be with my best friend Hna Schmit and have the exciting opportunity to also serve with a brand new

missionary- fresh off the boat! We will find out who she is tomorrow and are super excited! I love trios! I started in a trio and now I'm going to end in a trio!

We had an amazing spirit at Stake Conference this weekend. Saturday night session was all about hastening the work and the spirit was so strong. I received so much insight for the kind of member missionary I want to be when I go home, I never want to be separated from this great work! President Watson, the stake president, is such a funny man and I just love him. He brings such a funny and powerful tone into the meetings. After the Saturday session, the Donaldsons- our favorite senior couple- took us out for ice cream. The next morning in Sunday, they made breakfast for us and the Elders and it was such a treat just getting to sit and talk for a while with all of them. The missionaries that I serve with are absolutely incredible. Each missionary has such an amazing story and such a love for the work. Sunday stake conference was excellent as well and it was cool to see the whole stake and feel the power of our unity as Latter-Day Saints- especially as we sang the Spirit of God. We had an amazing lesson with Elvin that night as we read from 2 Nephi 31 and let him learn for himself the importance of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said he'll get baptized "someday" and we invited him to read from the Book of Mormon everyday this week and we know that "someday" will be soon if he truly reads.

I just want to share my testimony if the Book of Mormon. Everything that I believe hangs on that book. All one has to do is simply pick it up and read it to understand just how powerful it is. That book taught me that I have a Savior. That book taught me that through my Savior, I could start over new and have a fresh new page everyday. That book has testified to me that the heavens are once again open and that God speaks to His children in our day. I can confidently say that this book will change every single person's life as it has mine, if they will only take the time to sincerely read from it, with true intentions to be a better person and come closer to God. I invite you all to take time this week to remind yourself of why you love that book. I invite all who have not felt the power and love of that book yet to pick it up and read and pay attention to the way that it makes you feel. I promise it will being you peace, love and hope into your life.

I love all of you with all my heart. Keep me in your prayers as I embark on this last part of my journey here. I shall surely keep you all in my prayers as well.

Hermana Knight

The Nashville Temple

Hermana Paty

 Catherine eating a jalepeno

Lunch after getting caught in the rain

The Kimber Family & the Juarez family

Hermana Kimber's homemade piñata! It worked perfectly! 

-trying to get a pic with Abby's brother Carmelo!

A rainbow cloud- just above the trees in the center

The following are of me trying to bowl :-)