Well this week was the week I was supposed to take over as senior companion just to see how much I have learned so that was kinda stressful, but it was a good indicator on how I am doing. Like I had to do all the planning and then I also had to initiate and plan for all of our lessons, but all went well haha nothing too disastrous. It’s crazy this is the last week of the transfer. It honestly could be me getting transferred. So pretty much it will be either... Elder Warner going to Shelbyville Indiana and then Elder Granodos here, or Elder Warner will stay here one more transfer, or I’ll be headed to Versailles or Clarksville Indiana. Those are probably the things that could happen, but we will just have to see. It’s not uncommon for the trainee to get sent out first, but who knows. I’m really nervous to work with Elder Granodos though. He’s originally from Guatemala and he was Elder Warner’s trainer and I guess he is just the hardest Elder in the mission to really get along with and also he’s really disobedient. Like when he was training Elder Warner he would sleep in until like 12 and then just wake up and be ready to leave while Elder Warner just did all of his studies by himself, needless to say I’m thankful for the trainer that I had. I’ll find out Saturday if I’m getting transferred or if Elder Warner is. Then I’ll just have to let you know on Monday. But ya stop giving people my 508 Markwell address because I might be getting transferred, and if I’m not, were still probably moving apartments just because it’s an awful one. It’s the most hood one in the mission haha but we will just have to wait and see. I guess Versailes is just out in the booneys of Kentucky. Like *Hick Country* for sure. Elder Simms (my zone leader now) that was his last area and I guess he just saw crazy things, like a man getting stabbed with a pitchfork, a guy getting shot outside his appartment, they ate rabbit every week, one time they caught a squirrel and then cooked it and ate it haha but I guess it’s really fun out there but who knows what will happen.
Um Elder Golden from the 1st quorum of the 70ty came this week. Pretty much the only words I can say is.... MIND BLOWING!!!! Like it really was ridiculous what he was teaching us. I’m not really sure how it will help us with our investigators, but like dang haha he’s actually from South Africa. I’ll just share a few of the things I had never thought of before that he told us. So the 3 kingdoms of glory ya know? So we know that our Heavenly Father ministers only in the Celestial Kingdom, Jesus Christ can minister in the Terrestrial Kingdom, and then the Holy Ghost is the one that can minister in the Celestial Kingdom. Many churches today are leaving out the father. They are thinking that Christ is God and that the trinity is one person, this is something that Satan has done that is sooooo devious. So let’s put it this way, if you get the Father out of the question, you also get rid of the Celestial Kingdom, because we know that everyone will receive what they want/deserve, many people will only receive the Terrestrial Kingdom because they only believe in Christ, so in essence Satan is getting rid of eternal families, true happiness, and just everything just by that little thing.
So he told us that when Christ was on the earth he was 100% human but also 100% God. He literally was so much like God, he would say, do, and think, the same exact things that God would. Also you would not be able to tell them apart if you saw them. They have the same physical features as well. And so with Christ being 100% God, he had no sense of time. That is why he knew exactly where the donkey was and told his disciples to bring it to him. Also that is why he knows each and every single one of us perfectly. While he was in the garden of Gethsemane, he pretty much lived out every single person’s life on this earth. Because when you think about it, the things he went through in the mortal body, honestly wasn’t uncommon. Crucifixion was something very common back then. And there are things that have happened to other people that are worse, and how would he know how it feels to have cancer or something like that. It’s because he has lived it and knows us perfectly. *MIND BLOWN* Um what else did he say that was just so profound. Like he pretty much was just using Romans (which is one of the hardest books to understand) and he was just talking about how he could prove any religion wrong using their own Bible. He was way cool haha. Pretty dang ridiculous to say the least. Oh one more thing he found. So he’s on like the scripture committee or like the head of it, and one of the Joseph Smith Translations of the Bible in John 2 (I think) Joseph Smith changes like 3 words and many people were saying that he was wrong by doing that and so he wasn’t a prophet, but...... they just found the oldest set of scriptures yet..... and it uses the same wording as Joseph Smith did!!! CRAZY RIGHT!!! And then he talked about how pain and sin work hand in hand. That many people sin because of pain. That’s also why Christ had to go through so much pain, just so know what it feel is like to go through something so hard and be so tempted to sin, but not.
What else happened this week? Haha ya... I crashed on my bike this week. Haha I’m totally fine I was just being kinda careless and wasn’t paying attention and just hit the edge of the curb, I was going way slow and so it didn’t hurt, just kinda embarrassing haha. I was trying to go my whole mission without a crash, but that didn’t last long haha oh well. Um Yesterday at church was probably the worst day of church you could possibly ask for. Um so Vicente and Ronal came yesterday and so we were happy about that, but Gospel Principles, ya is so being changed! So it’s the class that all the missionaries bring our investigators and a man named Joel teaches it. Were at the end of the book so were talking about kinda a little bit of weird stuff and then Joel even makes it weirder. Like yesterday we were just talking about Eternal Marriage. For Gospel Principles pretty much it should be like, marriage is a man and a woman, was like that since the beginning, we can be married forever in the temple through the priesthood, but.... no... that’s not what happened. The teacher started talking about becoming Gods and then that Angels are the people that aren’t married in the temple and just things like that (like a lot of our investigators aren’t married or their spouse isn’t interested) so that’s not what they should be talking about. Then a member perks up and is like I have a question, and she was like Well I know this answer, but I think it’s a common question and I want to know how the missionaries would answer it. SHE ASKS ABOUT POLYGAMY!!! Then like all our investigators are really confused and then another person pipes up and was like ya... I want more than 1 wife (just as a joke) but like it was really getting out of hand so either were teaching it from now on, or were making them start back from the beginning of the book and get to the basics that they can’t mess up. Members are just the best or the worst.
Then Ronal the whole time was just asking about the Book of Mormon and why we needed it. We had like 5 different people explain it to him, but we think he was just trying to make us doubt our religion. Like he’s never had a religion and so really he just wants to know, but he literally was asking questions all through Priesthood, Gospel Principles and then after church. He’s like the Bible has everything, the Book of Mormon doest talk about the creation and stuff (but really it does) and so were going have to really work with him. Then his friend Vicente ( soooo legit) is like RONAL.... You read the book of Mormon and pray about it that’s all they ask... then Ronal is like "Vicente don’t you have this same doubt" and Vicente is like "No!" haha so Vicente is pretty much ready to be baptized. The only thing now is him accepting which date. He honestly could be baptized this week if we taught him everything and got him interviewed by Sunday, which could happen. Like he was asking about what his duties are once he becomes a member and things like that. Even Ronal was asking about baptism too which makes me thing he likes it, but just wants to know.
We also had interviews with president this week. That was kinda fun. Like when we’re getting interviewed by him and Sister Woodbury the Assistants give us the training. It was really powerful. Like the mission is probably one of the hardest working missions, but we focus too much on working hard and not enough on the spirit, so they really just encouraged us to take more time in our planning and going by the spirit and just doing a lot more things and praying like a lot more just to know what you should teach them. Elder Warner and I took it to heart and really have started to apply it. We had our 2 most powerful lessons this week, one with Rolando and Yasmin. It was good, but like not at the same time. Yasmin pretty much told us she’s not going to get baptized just cause she’s been catholic so long, but Rolando said he really wants to know if it’s true so he’s going to read and pray (and if you get the head of the house doing it, she will do it too) so we were really excited about that. Like and Yasmin had said that before we really just brought in the dynamite (THE SPIRIT) like Elder Warner and shared some really powerful things and we were really teaching in unity. Like he said he almost cried while I was sharing my testimony. Like it was so strong and I know they felt it. The other one was Vicente and Ronal. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and it was really powerful. Vicente loved it and I think Ronal did too. After he watched it he went home and started to read the book of Mormon so that was really good! So were really trying to change all that we do.
President is really getting hard on Elder Warner and I because he knows how close we are to getting so many people in the water. Honestly he was getting on our whole zone, like our numbers are higher in everything else, just not baptisms and he wants to know why, but really there is only so much we can control, but who knows. Elder Warner and I are going to just work that much harder. We should have a few in the water next transfer. Um that’s pretty much all that has happened this week. Nothing really too exciting. I’m probably going to send off a package to you all today with the recorder and then with some clothes that I don’t really need. I really hope I don’t leave this area though. Like I love the people and our investigators, but I know it’s by revelation and so If I’m supposed to go somewhere else it’s because I’m supposed to go there, so all will be well, but we will just see what happens I guess next week.
Oh ya and we found one of our bikes. It was Elder Warner’s. We knew exactly where it was and then our investigator took a picture of a bike that was next to his appartment and then sent that pic to Vicente and then Vicente showed us. So we walked over there and stole it back haha. They had really trashed it. It might not be really worth fixing because they bent a lot of stuff and just really destroyed it. Hopefully we will be able to find mine this week. But it kinda looked bad when 2 missionaries were riding 3 bikes home haha everyone kept asking if we were stealing bikes and stuff, but there was no other way to get them home.
Well I hope all is well in the SOJO. All is well in Kentucky. It’s really cooling down that’s for sure. I hope it stays that way. I really don’t want it to get hot again haha, but then again, if it’s already getting cold, it might mean were going to have a really cold winter which I don’t want if I’m going to be on a bike all winter haha.
Elder Knudsen
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