June 21st Letter - Announcement of mission changes

Hello fam fam,

This past week was a hard-ish one.. haha Did I say that last time?  I felt like I did.  But it was a very slowwwwwwwww week and it felt like everyone cancelled on us or dropped us.  Not our favorite week.  But we did have many great meetings this week which helped me feel better and more excited to serve and jump in to working with the member in the ward. 

Well Monday we went to the Charlotte Speedway for a zone activity.  It was fun!  We were all in a big van.  There were so many missionaries that we had three vans! ha.  I loved that.  I took lots of pictures and a few videos.. but I am really bad at sending the via email..  I'm trying to get better!

We've met a lot with Nautykah this past week.  She is progressing!  I love her sweet spirit and fun personality!  She made that week a lot better!! 

Well we had a trainers/trainee meeting on Friday.  I've been to everyone of those meetings since I've been out on my mission. But I love getting to go to them because every time I learn something new about being a better companion and trainer.  I love when we get all together as missionaries too!  Its the best!!  I got to see Sister Lewis!  She was my other companion in the MTC with Sister Iczkowski.  I love her and miss her!!!  And I saw Sister Chandler!!!  She gave me the update on Stateville! Ha  it just made me miss it 100xs more!!  I loved my Statesville!!!  But I am loving Charlotte too.  The University City ward is amazing, so its all good(;

So for the broadcast Sister Reid and I had dinner at the Roisum's house (a family in our ward) and then watched the broadcast with them.  First I want to say, they are the cutest family ever!  They made me excited for my future one day (; ha.

The broadcast was amazing!!  Sister Reid and I were waiting for them to announce all the "big" news so I could finally tell y'all!  So you know how they mentioned missionaries using the internet?  Well our mission is one out of 5 missions that will start using iPad/iPhone/tablets etc!!  Elder Evans announced that a month ago during our conference here in Charlotte.  But now I can finally tell!! YAY! The plan for the iPads are to replace our planners and area books pretty much.  They will have updated maps and ward lists so missionaries will know where members live and who is who and investigators teaching records.  We are all so excited!!!!  We don't know what area will get them first.  Rumor going around that it's the Charlotte areas... (: but I'm not sure.  How exciting though!!  And having the church s open is something we are excited about too!!!  So many great things are happening in this amazing work!  I am so grateful to be apart of it!!  I saw Val in the choir too!!!  I was freaking out a bit!!! hahaha  I'm so proud of her for going on a mission.

I was thinking about Saturday morning breakfast too dad!!  I miss those days..  But can't wait to have them again!! (: yummy German pancakes!! mmm mm! :p

I got Haley's letter!! and cute graduation announcement!  I'll write her back today! (:

Oh! and tell Louisa that a boy in my ward here (University City) just got called to her same mission and he reports to the MTC the SAME day!!!! CRAZY!!! His name is James Adams!

I love you all soooo much!!!

Love,

Sister Knell

June 17th Letter!

Hello Family and Friends!!

This past week has been an interesting one!  My companion and I are still learning the area which makes for lots of going around in circles and getting lost... and wasting 20 miles! maybe even close to 40... ha. sad sad day!  We will be biking lots by the end of this month!!  Oh joy! (;

Well we started off this week by almost dying like I mentioned last Monday from that crazy rain storm!  And we were an hour late to our dinner appt. :s but the dinner was yummy and a cute kids thing.  Its Spaghetti Tacos from the show iCARLY.  It's spaghetti in taco shells.. haha simple and her kids love it!  Sister Reid and I loved it (: We are kids a heart big time!

Sister Reid and I get a long so well!!!  I love her!!  we actually made up a song!  She loves to sing and so now I sing like all the time.  She has a beautiful voice!  I'll try to attach the video! (:  It's from the song off of Pitch Perfect during her audition with the cup. (:  We wrote it one night when we felt music deprived. haha.

Also, I am turning into Marissa and I LOVE fruit snacks!!!  Luckily Sister Reid loves them too!! haha We bough two HUGE boxes and last week ate the one whole box and half the other!!  So bad!! haha.

Tuesday we taught a new investigator.  His name is Ben.  He has a cute little boy named Tyler who is 4 yrs old.  It was a really good lesson.  The spirit was so strong and I could feel it leading the lesson.  This past week we've been focusing on teaching people, not lessons.  In that lesson I could really feel the spirit helping us teach to Ben's needs.  We are hopeful that he will continue to progress.  We had a Sister in our ward come with us and she said afterwards that she had never been to a lesson where she could feel the spirit that strong and the investigator so interested too.  She's a ward missionary in our ward, she use to go out with the ther sisters before us.  It made Sister Reid and I feel like we were doing something right. (:

On Wednesdays we teach a Missionary Prep class with the elders in our area.  Last week we only had one come but this past week we had three there!!  YAY!! (: ha

The ward here is great! We love them!!  They are always so willing to help us out whenever we need it! (:  I am so grateful for their love and support!

OH! and Sunday we had another new investigator at church!!  Her name is Nautykah!  She is 15 yrs old!!  She is the funniest, sweetest and my favoritest girl ever!!!  She has a baptismal ate of July 6th!! Woot woot!!!  (: hehehe  I am excited for her!!!  But there is still a lot that we need to teach her and help her understand a little bit more (:

We taught in Relief Society Sunday.  It was good!  But really last minute so we felt funny the whole time.. ha.

I got my bike tire fixed!!!  YAYY!!!!!!!!

I heard Louisa is going to Colorado!!!!  YAY!!!!!  SOO PROUD OF HER!!!!!!  She is going to be a great missionary!!

Dee asked, "How's the new area? Is being a trainer cool?"

The new area is beautiful and green!!  But not country at all like Statesville was.  I miss the country!  It's harder to bike because the roads are small and crazy busy!!!  But I love being close to Target and lots of other stores!! haha.  It makes me so happy!!  OH!! and today we have a zone activity!!  We get to go to the Charlotte Speedway!!  I'm WAY excited!!!  I'll send pictures next week!! (: We aren't right next to the main downtown of Charlotte but we are close!  We got lost and ended kinda by it the other day and took some pictures! hahaha.  There are a lot bugs here!!!  Surprisingly.  We HATE them!!! haha Sister Reid and I are big babies when it come to bugs!!  But that is because they are not normal bugs here!!  They are like nasty icky kind!!! haha. 

Being a trainer is a lot of fun!!  I love it!!!  Sister Reid is a great trainee so that makes it a lot better!!  We have fun everyday!! (:  She is hilarious!!   Its stressful though!!  Because I want to make sure I am teaching her all that I know and all that she needs to know too.  But she makes it very easy and fun!  (:  I am grateful for the calling!  She has taught me so much too!!

Well I am running out of time!! I love you all so much!!! and am grateful for all the wonderful examples I have had to look up to!! 

I invite you to all share your testimony to a friend that you know that may not be a member or who may be struggling with their testimony.  That is what we are challenging all of our ward families when we eat dinner at their house.  We leave them with a member missionary bag.  It has different types of church media in it and we invite them to give it away and we follow up in two weeks.  Its been great!!

I love yall!!

Love,

Sister Knell

The Mission so Far!

Friends and Family - We are so sorry on the delay in getting the blog going. Sister Knell has been adjusting to a mission and writing letters within a short timeframe but we will do our best from here on out to give you all a weekly update.

Here are some updates from Sister Knell!

From April 1, 2013

We have a sweet young woman named April that lives below us in our apartment complex. She got baptized two years ago but went in active shortly after because she's the only member in her family. Sister Chandler and I have been working with her every week. She has such a sweet spirit and knows so much! She wants to come to church but her family is always busy and she doesn't have a ride ever or she goes out of town to visit her brother. Anywho.. Saturday we invited her to the YW president's home to watch the YW broadcast with us and the other YW. and SHE CAME!!! Sister Chandler and I were so HAPPY!!!! It was a great start we felt like because not very many people came and so most of the attention was on April in a good way. Not too overwhelming or leaving her out in any way. At first she was nervous and pretty much clinged to sister Chandler and I but throughout the evening she felt more comfortable. It was seriously the BEST!! We've been working with her since the first week we got her. Then this Sunday, we got her a ride and went to her bedroom window and knocked on it until she woke up.. haha.. She wasn't too happy about it but in the end we know she was glad we woke her up. When we got to church I was looking all over for her. Ha.. I just wanted to make sure she was okay. I felt like I needed to hold her hand. haha. I was so worried about her all day in her classes.

Sister Chandler and I taught the lesson in YW about Easter, the Atonement, & the Resurrection. So that was great to see April and how she interacted with the other YW. And OF COURSE they loved her!! (: It was amazing to see her enjoying herself with the YW and the ward members. I know that they will take care of her when we leave. She is so sweet.

For dinner we went to a member's home and had s'mores and hotdogs over a fire. It was probably one of our best dinners/nights. It reminded me of home and of girls camp. The weather was crazy last night and Sister Chandler and I switched the car with the elders and then got SOAKED and needed to walk to the hospital to visit a member but the elders felt bad a called a ward member to come pick us up. ha. The rain is seriously intense here. HUGE raindrops! I wear my bright pink raincoat and everyone laughs at me.. hahaha but I LOVE IT!! It keeps me dry! well from the knees up (:

From April 22, 2013

So we got another companion! Sister Mouritsen from South Jordan, UT! She's great! And I'm kind of training her.. haha with the help of my trainer I guess. I don't quite understand how it all works. I like being in a trio again. Its fun having another companion and it helps balance us all out!

Transfers were crazy! So President Craven had us "trainers go up to the front of the chapel and then the "new missionaries" to the other side and he's making assignments and Sister Chandler and I got a sweet sister named Sister Cowley and then half way through he stopes and says, "Elders and Sisters this is not right, assistance to my office!" and then they were gone for like 15 minutes!!! Then they cam back and we started all over and Sister Chandler and I got Sister Mouritsen. CRAZY HUH?!!

We love her so it truly was inspired(:

From April 29, 2013

Well, we had our first investigator at church this Sunday!! so happy!!!!! This week has been so great!! His name is Bryan. April's brother. The YW i mentioned awhile ago.

We have met a lot of new people.

We met a lady named Mindy on Tuesday and when we got to her door i barely mentioned who we were and she let us right in! It was crazy! because normally it takes a lot of convincing! ha.. And then I was the one who said the prayer... it was one of the most spiritual prayers I had ever said. Afterwards she was just overwhelmed by the spirit. She said she had been to many different churches trying to find the right one and NONE of them have ever made her feel the way she did after the blessing. It was so neat so see her already touched by the spirit in the fisrt 10 mintues of meeting her. We've been able to meet with her another time and her and her family were going to come to church but they didn't.. She was cleaning and lost track of time and felt bad and didn't want to come late... but we are seeing her again sometime this week and next week she said she would come to church! So pray for her!!!(:

The spirit has been leading my companions and I so much this week. It is amazing. We have been so blessed. The work is starting to pick up here is Statesville (: happy day!

From May 3, 2013

Well, the work is up and down. We have had many great spiritual experiences in some lessons and then complete confusion in others. ha. My favorite so far is reactivating families! I love talking with less-actives and seeing how their life has taken them and then seeing them want to come back or some not so much. Most the time people are just lazy which gets frustrating.. but then we know they are not the elect and we move on. Which I am noticing I get attached to people pretty fast which is good and bad haha. We had three investigators come to church yesterday! YAY! That was neat, but then the one we were really hoping for didn't come.. which was a downer.

We taught the lesson in YW about missionary work and examples and I felt the spirit so strong as I was teaching. I know that this past week has humbled me so that I can be more intune with the spirit.

Oh some news about the mission, it is splitting in July. Some parts are going to be part of Tennessee now. I'm a bit nervous about it but excited to see the changes. Hopefully I get to stay with the Cravens and this mission. I love the Cravens. They are amazing people. We have had a lot of rain which the weather has killed my mood. 

We met a sweet lady named Felicia through tracting last week and she has the sweetest spirit. She said that she doesn't normally let people in but there was something about us and she said we were glowing and that she was curious about us. It was a really neat experience. We also are starting to teach a former named Beverly and she reminds me of your side of the family hahaha. She's a hoot. I love her.

June 3rd - University City

I am still in my mission!  Do you remember my first night here I slept at another set of sisters appt.?  Well I am now serving in that area!  University City ward!  It is located in Charlotte, NC!  It's so pretty here!  I love all the buildings and greenery!  I am training Sister Reid.  She is from Sandy, UT.  She is super sweet!!  I am so blessed to have her as my companion!!  I know we are going to do great things here!!

This past week we had Elder Evens and Elder Nielsen from the seventy come and speak to us on Thursday.  It was AMAZING!!!!  He talked about the whole age change process and all the new changes that were the outcome of the age change and then some new things that will be coming out too for missionaries!!!  But we can't share them yet (; its a secret he said.  But it's exciting!!  The missionary work is growing so fast!!!!  I am so grateful to be here on my mission and be a part of this great time of missionary work.

The ward here is great!!  They are taking such great care of us!!  We live in a new apt from the one the other sisters use to live in and the scenery is soooooooooo pretty!!!!  Sister Reid and I saw out FIRST fireflies!!!!!  It was so fun!!  We tried to make videos... didn't turn out too great!  but it was fun!!  The ward has 600 members only 250 come on avg.  So we will be working with less actives.  They don't want us to really knock on doors anymore.  That's one thing Elder Evans said.  He said they are hoping to get rid of it completely and to work fully through the members of the ward. 

The city is a lot harder to drive in..  I;m the driver now and I keep getting lost haha.  We are driving a brand new 2013 Chevy.  Its nice!!!  I love it! hahaha.

Training isn't too bad right now but it's a lot of pressure.  Please pray for me to know what Sister Reid needs and how I can best serve her.  Now I'm the example... lots of responsibility...  freaks me out a bit!

I love you!!!

Love,

Sister Knell

Sister Knell is about to transfer...

So please be sure to change your address book! 

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