June 17th

Well I am happy you made it to Elder Warners homecoming. Hes such a good kid. Haha the funny thing is is that hes lost a lot of his spanish haha. Like by the end he couldnt really speak it too well. He had gotten a lot slower and we all made fun of him about it haha. Like we gave him a spanish preach my gospel and it was just super funny.

I can recieve pictures in my email. All my friends send me pictures like every week. I dont really know what your talking about haha.

Well nothing really is new here. Didnt have anything too exciting that happened. Like the lady I told you about last week has been super busy and we havent been able to teach her too much. She hasnt been able to come to church yet either and its been super frustrating. This was probably the most discouraging week of my mission. Just nothing happened and like we have no investigators and now Cristina is going to start attending in Lexington and like I really dont know what to do. Like President wants us to start a branch here, but how are we going to be able to do that when everyone we teach start going to the lexington branch and all of our spanish members are starting to go there as well. I feel like I know everyone here in this area already and they all attend a church called "The house of the Restoration" Its the only spanish church in all of Georgetown so every person we meet tell us they go to that church and dont want to listen to us. And they have church services like 3 days a week and so its just super hard.... Like I dont know what to tell Elder Torrico cause he is always like "well, now what?" And I have no idea. We have knocked every door where spanish people live in our whole area and I am just starting my 2nd transfer here.  Its rough for sure.

This week was just a blur. Like we go to the exact same 3 places every day. Its like 15 miles that we ride every day as well. Were working hard, but man its hard.

Its so crazy how fast time is going now though. Like when I got with Elder Baker he was just starting his 10th transfer. I just started my 10th this week. And now Elder Baker has single digit P-days!!! LIKE WHAT!?!?! All my missionary friends are dying haha. Like Sister Pasquale will be going home in like 3 1/2 months.

I hope you all had a great fathers day and I hope dad had a good Birthday. I promise I didnt forget about it. I had it written in my planner and I was going to say something last week, but I totally forgot to write it. I also got the package and the package from Grandpa so thanks for that.

Love you all

Elder Knudsen

June 10th

Wow this week was so amazing I have no idea what happened. It is weeks like these that everything is worth it. So the baptism was so amazing of Cristina. She insisted that I baptized her, and so I had the wonderful privilage to do it. She was so amazing. We had a very big program and it went so well. It was so powerful to see her enter into the waters of baptism and to able to allow the full effect of the Atonement work in her life. It was super hard for her to walk into the font, and was almost in tears as she did. Then as I raised my arm to the square and baptized her, she was washed clean and she just broke down crying right there in the font. It was so powerful. She is so amazing. She also brought 2 of her friends and they really liked it, and a member named Frank got his whole family to come who are less active. And the daughter started crying afterward and told her husband she wants to start going to church again, and the husband is not a member so were going to start teaching him as well. And Franks sister came and shes not a member.

We had an amazing miracle this week. Like wow.... I really have no idea what to say. So we went to the trailers and it was like 1:00 pm and usually no one is home at that time. We just go to a street corner and just sit there wondering where we should go. We both decided we should knock doors. Elder Torrico asked me where and I had no idea, so I said a prayer in my heart to lead us to someone in need. We begin to ride and I feel like we need to knock this one street. Its a street that we had already knocked, but not many people answered. The first door we knocked a hispanic lady named Nancy opened up. (Like our tracting approach now is to offer to say a prayer to bring the peace and blessing of the Savior in their home) and so thats what we did and we asked her what we could pray for and she didnt really tell us anything. I offered the prayer and I honestly have no clue what I said. As I looked up tears were streaming down her face.  We then asked if we could teach her and she said yes. As we began to talk she told us she had been praying to find peace here on earth and havent been able to find it in years. She had just gotten back from the court and had prayed to God to send her something or to help her find peace. Within an hour we showed up at her door and she said she knew immediately it was an answer from God. She told us she had never felt so at peace in years and that she knew that we were sent from God to help her. She accepted to be baptized. We then went over on Saturday and set a baptismal date with her whole family. Shes single and has 3 sons whose ages are 14 10 and 9 and they are all going to be baptized at the beginning of July.... WHAT A MIRACLE!!! I dont know what is going on here. Like.... no clue...

So Elder Torrico confirmed Cristina on Sunday as well so that was really cool. Like I really dont know what else happened this week. I saw Elder Howard and Elder Singleton. They came out to do Cristinas baptism interview and they said she was the most ready person they have ever interviewed. Like just so penitent. It was super cool.

Oh ya I had saviche Saturday. So we go over and its the ward mission leaders house and he wanted to make it for Elder Torrico because thats his favorite thing. So they have fresh raw tilapia and they put it in lime juice for about 4 minutes with some cilantro and onion and then we ate it haha with some sweet potatoes. It was actually pretty darn good.

Thanks for the package it was great. I think thats about all for me. I dont got too much time today. Love you all

Elder Knudsen

June 3rd

Hey this week was pretty good. Cristina is for sure getting baptized this Saturday so thats really exciting. We had a really powerful lesson with her, cause like before she was just super iffy about it and stuff, but at the end of the lesson I was like so will you be baptized on that date and shes like, Yes I will. It was so legit. She has been so prepared and shes already been inviting her nonmember friends to come to her baptism on Saturday. She wants me to baptize her, but I want to have Elder Torrico do it, so we will see what happens. We have a lesson with her tonight and then we will find out for sure who is going to baptize her.

Ya its so crazy Elder Warner is going home. I talked to him last week cause the Zone Leaders told me to call him to see if he could come out to do the baptism interview just cause there arent any spanish leaders any where close and he said he was busy so to have the lousiville central zone leaders to come out and I was like man Elder Warner this means I will never see you again. And that was that haha. Its super crazy to think about.

So isnt it crazy to think I am officially under 10 months left. Ya I know exactly what day I am coming home, not going to tell you, but we are officially under 10 months haha. Like that is not a lot of time at all!

There wasnt really too much that happened this week though. Like I really dont even remember what we did. It absolutely rained a ton on Saturday. We got straight up drenched! It was super funny cause Elder Torrico was like freaking out haha it was a good time though.

Oh ya haha funniest thing ever. So we show up to our investigators house and we like walk up to his porch and we see a bucket in front of his door with something hanging out of it. So it was a huge snapping turtle that he had caught and put face down in the bucket and tied its tail. I didnt have my camera with me because of the rain, but man I really wanted to show it to you. It was like at least 3 feet long and just these huge spikes on his tail, it was like it was a dinosaur. Our investigator was going to kill it the next day and eat it haha. Only in Kentucky!!!

We found 2 really cool investigators this week that I feel like could be baptized in July. So we knocked on this mans door and offered to say a prayer with him and he invited us in and he said he really needed one cause his wife just had had a seasection and his mom was really sick in mexico and they had just moved into the house and so we prayed and taught the restoration and it went really well. Then we taught a guy last night that had some crazy weird questions and thoughts, but we committed him to read the BOM and he said yes, and we asked him when and he said right after we left, and then was like, how bout we just read it right now. So we started reading and like 7 verses in hes like wow this book is amazing. Can we stop and can I read it by myself because right now were going too fast and I just want to take my time and think about the story and how it will apply to me and all this stuff. It was super amazing!

So if grandpa hasnt sent out a package, if you could send me a new towel that would be super nice cause man they are pretty expensive, if not its ok.

I think thats about all. I am trying to really get in shape now haha. We have been waking up and going running or waking up early at like 545 and going to play basketball and i have been eating super healthy lately haha. I am hoping to shed a few lbs before I get home haha. I gotta look good if I want to find me a good wifey haha.

But thats about all from me. I hope dad feels better. Love yall

Elder Knudsen