Hola everyone!

Hola!

  I could just cry right now thinking about how hard this week has been. I could just cry thinking about how amazing this week has been. I found out early- missions are hard. Really hard. BUT miracles are real. Very real.

This week Sister Clark and I were on a split and were knocking doors and we knocked on Angel's door. Angel immediately let us in and started bearing testimony of her love of Christ. She also shared with us all of the things she has been going through in her life. Angel has had a rough life. Really rough. She had to hit rock bottom a couple months ago to come unto her Heavenly Father and Christ. We just sat in her kitchen for over an hour as her and I took turns sharing our experiences and our testimony of Christ while completely balling our eyes out. I don't know if I have ever felt so connected to someone within 10 minutes. She is just so broken and every time I think or pray about her I just know that of all things right now, she needs the constant companion of the Holy Ghost so badly. Last night I bore testimony that I know wasn't coming from me-as I was speaking to her with tears running down my face I just knew that through the Spirit, her brother Christ was speaking to her asking her to come unto Him. I feel the love that Christ has for her so much that it hurts and I just hurt so badly for her and the things that she has been put through in her life. But there is SO much joy because I know that I can share with her exactly what she needs. We talked of baptism and the Holy Ghost last night and she said she just felt so much peace as we were praying about those things together. Keep Angel in your prayers. We visit with her again on Wednesday.

Sister Miner and Sister Hendrickson were knocking doors the same time Sister Clark and I were that day and they met Rosie and Donald- the cutest old Catholic couple who weren't very receptive at first but the second the Sisters stepped into their home they just opened right up I guess! Sister Miner went on a split last night to visit them and guess what? Donald read the entire Book of Mormon since they had been there Wednesday! I always hear of those things happening but never believe them! I get to meet them on Wednesday and I'm so excited! So keep Rosie and Donald in your prayers too! Especially Donald because his health hasn't been so great lately.

Brothers and Sisters, the Atonement is real. The love our Savior has for us is truly infinite, I have the amazing blessing of feeling this love that He has for each and every person I come across and it is overwhelming. "I know that my Redeemer lives, what COMFORT this sweet sentence gives."  There is so much comfort, so much joy, so much peace and so much hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This gospel is true. Why are we not sharing it with every single person we come across every day? Why would we not share it with those that we love? Share this knowledge and love with everyone through your actions and through your testimony. Never be afraid to share your testimony to others- it is something so powerful that the Lord needs you to share.

I love all of you SO SO much and I feel your love and support everyday.

Sister Haley Knight

P.S. I'm getting a lot of my hair cut off right now- don't get mad dad- It'll grow back by the time I get back. Also we are going to have a fierce of dodge ball and four square today! I'm so excited! pray that I don't get hit in the head because that ALWAYS seems to happen!

Hi, I am in love with Tennessee and Chickys....

Us before walking to the library

Us after walking in the rain to the library- ha ha

Hola! This week has been so crazy! We got a call Monday night from one of the assistants telling us that we were getting a new companion! Sister Miner is waiting for her visa to go to Argentina and I love her so much! I freaked out when I saw her because we were totally four square friends in the MTC and she is hilarious and loves to laugh just as much as I do. We laugh all the time about absolutely nothing and it feels so good. We had to give the car to the Elders this week so we may or may not have walked 3 miles in the rain to get to the library and I was laughing so hard because Sister Miner doesn't have a hood and she was just soaking wet and didn't even care because we stopped to get donuts and everything is okay in her world if she has a donut in her hand.  I never want her to leave and I want to be companions with her and Hermana Hendrickson forever and ever. Good thing we still have 4 more weeks!

 

We have done a lot of work with the non active members in our ward and branch this week and it's so amazing. They have the most amazing and humble spirits and it just makes my heart hurt that they don't have the desire to come back yet. We visited a member who hasn't been to church in 4 years on Saturday night. He lives with his sister and their family who are really strong members. They're all from Guatemala. He was super welcoming and kept telling us that he would always listen to the missionaries because he served and knows how amazing missionaries are. He told us that we were the only people in 4 years to ever visit him. I got the impression that other people in the ward had tried to visit him but he wasn't as welcoming to them. We had an amazing conversation with him for about an hour-I was crying half the time because he has had the craziest last few years and has been through some really tough situations. BUT his testimony is SO strong still- he doesn't think it is but it really is. You could see that he was fighting a battle within himself. Before we left I asked him if he would pray about coming to church and that if he felt prompted that he would listen and act upon what the Spirit was telling him. Yesterday when I walked into the chapel for the Spanish Branch my heart lept out of my chest when I saw him sitting with the rest of his family! Such a miracle! His brother-in-law is my favorite person ever because he always gives us Chickys whenever we're over and they are our favorite treats ever. They're these little biscuit cookies covered in chocolate or strawberry from Guatemala and I just want to eat them all the time. Good thing we're walking this week ;) There are some non active members who keep promising us they'll come to church and then every week they don't come, it breaks my heart. We're having Noche de Hogar (FHE-Family Home Evening) tonight with one of the families and I am really excited.

 

We're meeting with the Adeeb family again this week because they missed our appointment last night. Keep them in your prayers- they are so ready for the gospel. Keep Vicky in your prayers too- she's having a really hard time believing that we have a prophet on the earth now. We might have to say bye to her this week :( because she isn't following through with any of the commitments we've been leaving with her.) Keep her in her prayers- pray that she'll take the time to read in the Book of Mormon on her own. The Book of Mormon is the most important thing we have to share with others. I challenge all of you to hand out one BOM by the end of the month. Prayerfully think of someone you can share it with or pray for an opportunity to be guided by the Spirit and share it with a stranger. I'll go more into why the Book of Mormon is such a power in conversion next week but right now my computer is telling me my time is up.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!! Danny, I am SO excited for you! You are going to LOVE being a missionary! Trevor- don't be weird or awkward and please grow your hair out! I'm so happy you're home!

 

 

Looooooove,

 Hermana Knight!

 

P.S. if any of you have time send me treats please!!!! We could always use more treats!

Aunt Julie, thank you for the beautiful cards, I love them so much!!!!!!!!

ALSO: They just officially changed the rules and I am allowed to email ANYONE now as long as it's not an Elder in my area! yay!

p.s. the pics are of me and hermana knecht on valentines day eating a valentines donut and then that's my class and my teachers- my district in the mtc that I miss so much!!!!

Hola and Hello from Tennessee!!

Oh my goodness, this week has been so crazy but SO amazing!!! There's a lot to share and so I hope it all makes sense somehow!

Last Tuesday during Transfer Meeting they had each of the new missionaries stand up one at a time and open their cute little envelope that had their call and I was called to serve in the Madison SP area( West of Nashville) with Hermana Hendrickson who just happens to be from La Mesa in San Diego! Then as we were leaving I found out that Hermana Hendrickson had only been here one transfer and we have been called to open a new area for the Sisters....wait what? Oh and we don't have an apartment yet! So the Elders in our area were so nice and gave us their apartment until we find our own. They are living with the Zone Leaders down the street. We have actually been called to serve in the Madison Branch and the White House Ward, so we will be speaking Spanish and English this transfer. I guess eventually our area will be a "Spanglish" area and they might have one Sister who speaks English and one Sister who speaks Spanish. We are "white washing" the area, which means we have a fresh new Area Book that hasn't been touched so a lot of the first few days were spent tocando (knocking). Our fellow Elders in the Madison Branch were so kind to give us some referrals they had received so we had a little bit to start with. We knocked a lot around these trailers 5 minutes away, where a lot of the Hispanic community live. I LOVE the Hispanic community because no matter what they will invite you into their home and talk with you. I love being in their homes but let's be honest...I only pick up like 10% of what they are saying! But it's so amazing how I can know what they are saying not by their words but by the Spirit. I won't understand a word they are saying but then I will feel the Spirit of their words and 9/10 times my promptings are correct and I can contribute what I can to the discussion. Keep me in your prayers because I have a long ways to go with this language! The White House ward is incredible, they made a goal as a ward to hand out a 1000 Books of Mormon this year and they are just on fire! Sister Wolferts who is my favorite person ever has already handed out 16 and I'm pretty sure she was called as a ward missionary because of it! Both our Bishop and Branch President are so humble and so helpful. We are so lucky to be where we are! We're living in Madison right now but we're trying to find a place to live in White House, we think we've found somewhere but we'll see what happens. We share a car with the Elders in the White House ward but since we're not in the same area we get to keep the car 24/7 right now :) Thanks Elders! It's kind of crazy because there are two sets of missionaries in the White House ward and THREE sets of missionaries in the Madison Branch because the area is just so spread out- we have so much work here! Since we're in both we get to go to 5 hours of church, which I absolutely love! We were at church for 7 hours yesterday which is kind of crazy! All of the Elders here are so amazing and are super helpful and are so much fun to work with.

I am having a hard time finding the words to say because there's just so much going on here and in my mind! I'll just share two miracles that I am so grateful for this week:

Miracle 1: We felt prompted to stop on May St on our way home Thursday evening and we started walking up to the fist house we felt drawn to and Hermana Hendrickson mentioned she wanted to sing a hymn, How Great Thou Art, and so I went back and grabbed my hymn book and when we knocked this nice woman named Vicky answered and said that she had company over but that we could visit another time. We asked if we could leave her a song and she replied "Is it going to take long?" and we said no, we'll just sing one verse! So we sang her the hymn and afterwards she was quiet for a moment and she said "That was my mother's favorite hymn and we just lost her in 09." We know that we were prompted to go to that house and sing that song. We returned Saturday and she welcomed us with open arms and we sat and talked to her for a little over an hour. During that time she revealed to us that not only had she lost her mother, but that she had lost her husband in 07. She had been dating a man for 3 years, they lived together for over a year and they had just broken up last month. She said that she felt that she needed the Lord more than ever in her life (She's Christian) and that she really felt like He led us to her house and that she needed us. I am so grateful that she was able to recognize and feel that miracle. The Spirit was so strong. We talked a little of the Plan of Salvation and a little of the Restoration. She told us that she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. The faith of Christ is so strong in this woman, even as she was smoking her cigarette as we were teaching (uhhhhhhh) we felt the Spirit touch her heart and it was amazing to witness her heart open more and more to what we were sharing. We are seeing her again tomorrow and I cannot wait. I am so grateful to have witnessed the truth that the Lord truly does prepare the hearts of the people and he prepared people specifically for us. I know that he prepared me specifically for her. I related to so many things that she had been feeling and going through recently. She had two little adorable dogs(Pretty and Mio) and so we bonded over our love for our dogs too :) 

Miracle 2:

We prayed that the Lord would guide us last night on our way home from our dinner apt and we were led to a little side street off the main road by where we live. The first house we knocked was hilarious because the woman opened her blinds, looked us in the eyes and sat back down on her couch and continued watching tv haha. (I'm so grateful for the sense of humor the Lord has blessed me with!) Then we both felt like we needed to go to her neighbors and when we knocked a teenage boy answered the door and I started talking to him in Spanish and then when he opened the door I realized that he was not Hispanic! Ha, his family was actually from Egypt! The Adeeb family is so amazing. They had moved here in 07. The mother was so warm and so inviting. She was holding her 3 month old son Steven and asked us to please sit down. Soon her husband, two daughters, her two sons and her were surrounded around us on the couch. They told us that they were Catholics and they had to leave Egypt because it became more and more (as we see now) unsafe for them to be there because of the Muslims and their acts against the Christians. Everything we said would be interpreted to the father who only spoke Arabic and then they would translate his response for us and he would just have the most incredible things to say to us- he would always just find ways to build on top of what we were sharing and make our message even more powerful. He said that he and his family would listen to anyone who spoke in the name of Christ and that he really appreciated us for coming into their home to speak of Christ. We had a really interesting and beautiful discussion about the Book of Mormon and the father said that they would definitely read from this book and find out for themselves if it is of the word of God. We showed him how to get onto LDS.org and translate the scriptures into Arabic and we also promised that we would bring him an Arabic hard copy soon. I just felt the Spirit so strongly in their home and the faith that they had in Christ was incredible. They had given up so much for their faith in Christ. They asked us to pray for the people in Egypt, especially the father's brother who is still there and trying to get out to America to get away from the violence. They allowed us to leave them with a prayer and there was just such a powerful and sweet Spirit and I have such a respect and love for this family. They invited us to come back this week and share more with them. I will never be able to express the Spirit that was there in that home, in that family.

I kind of felt like I was dropped into the shark tank at first- such a crazy experience my first few days here. I wouldn't have it any other way though. I was so blessed to find joy in every moment. I feel so blessed that the Lord trusted Hermana Hendrickson and I to open this area and to get the ball rolling for Sisters here. The Lord knew I would need to be put into this situation to really grow and to really rely on Him. I feel the Lord everywhere I go, I feel him on the doorsteps where we knock and in the homes that we teach. I see Him in the children we meet. I see Him in Vicky and in the Adeeb family. The second I looked down from the airplane and saw Tennessee, I had a feeling that I was home. This is my home. I know that this is where the Lord has been preparing me for- for probably my whole life. We are teaching a woman referred to us from the Elders- Telma. The moment we walked up to Telma's door last week, I recognized her house. I dreamed of this house 2 or 3 years ago. A little two story pink town house with Lions at the bottom of the stairs. I was filled with so much peace because the Lord testified to me through that dream and in that moment that I was exactly where I needed to be. I am so grateful for the faith that the Lord has in me. I feel so blessed to be here and I am loving every single moment of it. I even loved when a crazy cat lady slammed the door while I was in mid-sentence!(We walked away singing There is Sunshine In My Soul) I have been humbled so much in this last week but the Lord has helped me to grow so much. I feel that the Lord has prepared great work for me here and I find so much joy in that. 

I can't believe it's been TWO YEARS!!! I can't believe he'll be stepping off of the plane in just a few hours! Everyone back home give Trevor the biggest hug for me! 

My dear dear dear brother,

I don't think I had a clue what your mission would be and would mean to me. Because of your example I found myself back in the fold of our Savior. I found myself answering the call to follow in His footsteps. You are a huge part of why I have the testimony that I have and why I'm here on a mission. I just want to thank you for your example of faith and your example of courage and joy in this work.

I love all of you so much! You're all in my thoughts and prayers daily and I hope that you are finding ways to come closer to Christ and come closer to the children of God that you have been created to be.

With so much love and so much joy,

   Hermana Knight

P.S. Thank you so much Rocky for sending me the program from our ward! I feel so special to be featured on the back! And I love that I have a picture of my MTC zone to look at everyday now! My address here in TN is:

Sister Haley Elizabeth Knight

Tennessee Nashville Mission

105 Westpark Dr Ste 190

Brentwood, TN

37027

Also I get to go to the Temple on Friday and I'm sooooo excited! It is such a little temple because I guess the people here made it really hard to build but it is so beautiful!!!! 

Bon Voyage MTC!

Hola loved ones!

     How did I last 6 weeks here? What's happening? Is this real life? Well, according to Elder Holland, this is the realest my life will ever get. We watched a talk Elder Holland gave in the MTC a couple months ago and he is just one of the greatest people ever. EVER. He said that often times we as missionaries feel like this isn't real life and we can't wait to get back into the real world, but he said that this IS the real world, this is what life should be like and we are so lucky to have these 18 months or 2 years. We will NEVER be more like Christ or closer to God. I feel so lucky to be serving the Lord at this time in my life, I know that I will never ever have this opportunity again and that makes me want to work so much harder.

     One tender mercy this week was because I chipped my tooth on the weird cafeteria food and had to go to the dentist. I finally got an appointment for Tuesday and as I was filling out paper work I saw the date and was like oh my goodness, it's my Pop's birthday! Then right before they started to work on my mouth I asked if they were going to call my pops to let him know what they did and the nice dentist man told me that I got to call him!! So I got to call him and wish him a happy birthday and that I had a filling replaced :) I felt like the luckiest Sister in the world!

    Let's be honest, I can't wait to fly out on Monday! The only part of the MTC I'm going to miss is having Devotionals and Firesides weekly and my teachers. My teachers are so incredible and I feel so lucky that our district was blessed with them. They are so passionate in the Lord's work and are so good at pushing us to be better in a very loving way. They have humbled me so much and have taught me to have such a fire within my soul for this work.

    We had a lovely Devotional this week, Elder Christensen of the Seventy and his wife spoke. I was especially impressed with Sister Christensen's words. She said that we need to think of humble and obedient as being one word- they go hand in hand. Christ came to this earth and He knew that ALL things would come unto him if He was truly humble and obedient. Brothers and sisters, I want to share Sister Christensen's observation with you: WE are "all things." Christ did what he did because He knew that if he was completely humble and obedient to our Heavenly Father that all things (we) would come unto him again. How great is this work that I get to be a part of. That I get to help all things come unto the Savior. That I get to feel myself come closer and closer to Him. The only way we can come closer to Christ is if we lived as he did, if we are ALWAYS serving others and sharing the love of God in all things that we do and say. It is my testimony that all things are possible with Christ. All things. IF we have the faith and the trust in Him. Trust that He can perform miracles on our behalf but also trust in His and Heavenly Father's will. As long as we keep an eternal perspective and remember that all will be made right through the Atonement after this life, nothing can really seem that bad or that sorrowful. So have hope, have joy, have faith and have trust in your Savior.

    I love you all so much and next time I write I'll be in Tennessee!!!!!

Con Amor,

      Hermana Knight

P.S. Now is the time to send me dear elders before I leave!! I LOVE hearing from all of you so much so try and find some time to send me a little note before Saturday ;)

Happy Valentine's Day Precious People!

(Happy Valentine's Day in Spanish)

Dear family and friends,

We started our day off in the temple at 7am so our day can't get TOO much better! Except I woke up at 5 am to take a shower and it never warmed up so I had a beautiful cold shower. Gotta love the MTC! Also, I am SO sick of the food here...last night they only had steak and mashed potatoes at every food bar. I'm 98% sure they put pink dye in the steak to make it look good and the mashed potatoes looked like play-doh. Sooo I just had 2 bowls of fruit loops and 2 bowls of captain berry crunch. I had a huge stomach ache during class after but it was the best I could do. My poor body. I think I'm most excited to get out into the field so I can buy my own organic, local and fresh food. Everything here comes from cans or it's not ripe or too ripe. And can anyone say mystery meat? Okay I'm done complaining. As Caitlynn would LOLZ. I feel so loved by your beautiful letters and I can't even tell you how excited I get when I get a package slip! Aunt Jill you are AMAZING! I almost died when I saw that you had sent me celestial brownies! Here at the MTC we call anything homemade and fresh celestial! I am in love with my moustache mug mom, how did you know it would make my life complete? Chelsea Nicole Knight Hertig, I was beyond happy when I got those yummy valentine's day cookies and the cutest valentines in the whole entire world- I put them up around my bed :) I'm saving the martinelli's for our last night here ;) Which is in ten days!!

Oh my goodness, I am so scared but so excited to get to Tennessee! I'm only scared because I probably won't know what anyone is saying the first little bit I'm there. My language has already improved so much this week. Hermano Zuzunaga has been drilling into our head that we're not learning Spanish for ourselves, we're learning it for the people we'll be teaching and it finally hit me last week and it makes learning so much more meaningful. I did a language fast yesterday where I didn't speak one sentance of english until dinner time and I was nervous but I actually did it and I was able to communicate all day! I have so much more faith now in my ability to learn and LOVE this language. Hermana Olson and I had such a beautiful lesson with our investigator Mario yesterday. He actually spoke the words "I believe in the Book of Mormon" and my heart lept! He tried to turn us away so many times before because his Pastor told him he wasn't allowed to listen to us. I love being able to see the change in our investigators and being able to see Jesus Christ in them more and more everytime we see them! Our teachers are REALLY good at playing true to these investigators, at first it was really really awkward for me but then Hermano Zuzunaga and Hermano Llund explained that these are real people they taught in their missions or some of them are people in their family. They're really good at making it really difficult for us, which I was really mad about at first but now I am so grateful. I've learned so so much these past few weeks, it's crazy how much the Lord blesses us with in such a short amount of time as a missionary.

Have I told you that I love my Disrict? Because I LOVE THEM. On Sunday we just went around the room and everyone shared why they're here on a mission and the Spirit was so strong and we all have such a greater understanding of one another and a deeper love. Then we went around and everyone explained who they're favorite Disney character was a child and why and then they had to relate it to the Gospel and it was so incredible! Mine of course was Kermit from the Muppets. Kermit is so Christ like and he always helps everyone stay on the straight and narrow and my favorite song is The Rainbow Connection because I feel like the rainbow connection, for me, is just the love of Christ and the Gospel.

(I was the "sorting hat" character for Harry Potter day)

We had Harry Potter Monday this week and we had to dress up as something from the first day at Hogwarts. Everyone thought I was Professor McGeez but I was actually the sorting hat! Hermana Knecht was the Hogwarts Express because she's the cutest. I always hear about how people meet some of their best friends on their mission and I feel so lucky because I've alread met one of mine. Hermana Knecht is one of my favorite people ever. She's super weird and funny and cute and sometimes I feel like we're twins but not really. We sit in my fort/bed sometimes at night and eat treats and talk or read our letters to each other and I just love her! We always talk about how we want to be companions when we get to Tennessee but we know that we would just goof around and never get anything done. I want her to marry Trevor so we can be best friend slash sisters forever! Everyone do whatever they possibly can to keep Trevor single until we get back. Thanks :)

I don't have a whole lot of time because the computer literally keeps freezing every 30 seconds and it's litereally taken me 35 minutes just to write this much! Our devotional was so so good this week. Elder Schwitzer of the Seventy spoke and something that really stood out to me was how The Lord carries his sheep back to the flock. He said that the Lord doesn't chase or scare them back into the flock, he picks each sheep up and places them gently on his shoulder and then he carefully puts the sheep in the MIDDLE of the flock. Brothers and Sisters, are we putting these lost sheep in the middle of our flocks? Are we helping those that are new to the Church or less active feel surrounded by our love and support? Members in the ward are the most important part of missionary work- you are the ones that help those sheep to feel loved and to feel like the Church is somewhere they can grow and develop. Somewhere they feel comfortable and needed. The most important thing we can share with others is our love for them and of the Savior. Love is what helps us to have a converted heart. I want you to know that I love all of you so so much. You are constantly in my prayers. I hope that you are finding ways to constantly have the Spirit in your lives. Make sure you are continually converting your heart to the Lord daily. Thank you for your prayers and love!!! I feel it everyday!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hermana Knight

P.S. at first it was strange to hear everyone call me Hermana instead of Sister but now I cannot ever imagine it being any other way. I feel so blessed to be an Hermana.   

Thank you Connor and Porter for the Valentines!  I love my nephews!

Thank you Uncle Rod & Aunt Jill & sister Chelsea for the goodies!

Thank you mom for sending my moustache mug

Elder Harris and I

Elder Hjelms, now in Indiana

Elder Golladge, now also in Indiana

Elder Lloyd (favorite), now in Texas

Elder Hunsaker who reminds me of cousin Sawyer

Elders Jensen, Spears, & Young

More of my favorite elders who have already left for their areas: Elders O'Hara, Parker, Walker, & Kelly

Elders Lloyd with his companion Elder Brinkerhoff

Elders Ellison & Mills both now in Guatamala

This is from the day we dressed up like characters from Pixar movies, I was "Edna" from the Incredibles (this is about all we can do here at the MTC lol)

Another Disney day at the MTC

California Adventure Day from Disneyland - I dressed up as "Ursula" from the Little Mermaid

Disney Princess day- such as it can me.  I was as close to "Snow White" as I could get and Hermana Knecht was Pocahontas.

This is me in my bunk bed with my nephew Connor's and Porter's Valentines on the back wall.

 Happy Valentine's Day! - again and bye for now....

Hi Haley

We just sent you a care package, keep you eyes open for it.  Is that a picture of John Lennon on your desk?

rod and jill

Halfway through the MTC...

Well hey there!

     This week has gone by so incredibly fast! We're halfway through the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and I'm freaking out because I don't know the language that well and I'm also way excited because I just want to be out in the real world! Sometimes we joke about how we're probably in some big dome stadium like in Hunger Games and it just looks like there's mountains around us and that the sky is fake. I chipped my back molar while eating the chips in the cafeteria so that's really cool. At least now I get to go to a real dentist and go out into the real world for a couple hours! Last night I was eating dinner and I saw an older woman at one of the food carts and I thought I knew her but I was like, no way that couldn't be her, so then I walked over to where she was and pretended to get food so I could get a better look at her and then I told her she looked really familiar and she said "well I'm Kathy Marler?" and then I said "CAN I PLEASE HAVE A HUG??" and then she hugged me and then she remembered who I was and then she ate dinner with me and it was SO nice to see a familiar and friendly face here. Her husband has been called as a Mission President and so she's here to learn Spanish because they've been called in a Spanish speaking mission! Although I don't think they find out where they're actually going until March. I also just barely ran into Kim Bennet and gave her a giant hug too- I'm really into giving people hugs because they have this no touching policy right now and so if I ever have the smallest excuse to hug someone I just get so excited. The Elders from one of out districts in our zone left this week and it was sooo sad and I cried when we all sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again because they were just SO happy and excited to get into the field and it's just such an overwhelming feeling to be united in so great a cause. All of the Elders who leave have journals that they have everyone sign and it's kind of like a yearbook, it's really cute. We've already planned a zone camping trip and Disneyland adventure for when we get back. Oh and me and some of the Hermanas from my mission are going to start a band, we already have a manager and we discuss our future plans during meal times. I'm going to play the banjo and harmonica.

Serious Time: This week Elder Clarke of the Seventy spoke at our devotinal and it was incredible! It was like a second wind for me, it was just what I needed to continue full force through these next few weeks. The most powerful moment in the meeting was when he asked if there were any missionaries here that had family or loved ones that had fallen away from the gospel, he then asked us to all stand up. Over 90% of the missionaries stood up. He then made us a very powerful promise- If we take the time to worry about someone else's loved one, The Lord will find someone to take the time to worry about ours. I'm pretty sure that every person standing or sitting had tears in their eyes and we all felt the spirit so strong and knew that this man of God spoke absolute truth. I encourage all to go out and find someone to serve, worry about another's loved one, find ways to touch the heart of those around you who are struggling with their faith. I feel so honored to be able to serve at this time and I hope that I will have the opportunity to worry about someone else's loved one. I know that there are countless families who pray DAILY for their loved ones, please make the effort to help the Lord answer their prayers. Be that instrument for The Lord. I know that this promise was true because I am an example of the power of prayer and the power of having a brother serve The Lord. I know that my family prayed for a really long time for me, years, and I know that the Lord answered their prayers through others around me in Salt Lake City who followed the spirit and helped me return to the fold. I know that my brother's service to The Lord played a huge part in that. The Gospel is real brothers and sisters, it is true. I know that our Savior loves each and every one of us in the most personal way. I know that through Him, not only can we be forgiven of past transgressions, but that he can carry our sorrows and our worries away. We don't have to suffer as He did because of his great and neverending love for us. I have felt that this week. I have had a hard time putting some things out of my mind that are distracting me and my Redeemer has carried these thoughts and sorrows away and my heart feels so light. I LOVE this gospel, I LOVE this church and I LOVE my Heavenly Father and His Son, our brother, Jesus Christ. One more thing that Elder Clarke said was that there are countless numbers of people praying daily for us as missionaries and that we need to live up to those prayers. I feel all of your prayers, and I thank you so so much. I promise that I will do my best to live up to those prayers. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

With Great Love,

     Hermana Knight

P.S. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your lovely Dear Elders, they make this experience so much greater and it means so much to me that you take the time to write! So keep them coming por favor :)
I love you all!!!  (write to me at www.dearelder.com )