April 28th Letter - best week ever(;

hello my darlings!!

 

i am out of time!  so this will be short and probably on the sloppy side.. i apologize..

 

this week one of the best weeks ever!!!  we had the best numbers and great lessons and just pure happiness!!!  YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!  (:

 

we had a lesson with our peruvian family tuesday and it was amazing!!  we had sister delgado come with us-which made it so much better.  we will have to have a spanish speaker come with us every time for now on.  antonio and janilla both accepted a baptismal date for may 18th!!! :D so excited for them!!  The other two children weren't in the lesson but hopefully they will be there tomorrow night in our lesson.  they have so much potential and how we foud them is just a miracle in itself!  we are so grateful!!

 

we didnt have the car this week and i am still not able to bike.. so we walked everywhere this week!  which was actually helpful with finding!!  We talked to everyone we saw and taught lessons!  The weather was amazing all week long!  I felt so blessed!!!  (:

 

the other day while we were walking we met three teenagers who were "evangiling."  tommy, will & natalia. natalia was obviously the leader.  it was fun to talk to them and see how passionate they are about their faith and sharing it.  their beliefs are very different from ours.  sister hong hurt her back the other day running on the treadmill (i know I'm like bad luck or something) and natalia asks if she can give sister hong a healing blessing.  it was very interesting.  she put her hand on sister hong's shoulder and starts saying this prayer and then after is so excited and is jumping up and down asking if sister hong was healed.. unfortunately sister hong wasn't.. but it was sweet that natalia had that faith.  we offerred them copies of the book of mormon but they declined.  natalia's dad is a preacher at their church and she invited us over to talk with him.. well politly declined (: but it was an interesting discussion. they were only 14 years old. so crazy!  But it was a fun experience (:

 

we had transfer calls!  and both sister hong and i are staying!!  yay!!  i love my providence ward!!(:  i think i'll probably finish here, i'm okay with that(: the people here are amazing!!!

 

I love all y'all!!!

 

Love,

 

Sister Knell

September 9th Letter - Inspired Knocking!!

Hey Y'all!!!!!

This week has been amazing!!!!  We have seen so many miracles!!!  

I am running out of time again :S  but I'll give you a quick highlight for each day!  (:

Tuesday we got another new investigator!!  Her name is Debra Avery!!  We call her Sister Avery!!  She is the sweetest lady!!  After her appt. we had another appt. w/Chuck but he wasn't there so we decided we should get the bike pump from the elders (our bike tires were VERY low) and so we made plans to meet them at the church but on our way there we passed a cute little white house and I felt like we needed to stop and knock on the door.  A lady answered the door and then told us to hold on (normally this doesn't happen, they just say sorry not interested).  We hear a lot of shuffling around and then a man comes to the door (I was worried he was going to tell they weren't interested--in a nice stern voice "yelling").  he invited us in and shock our hands.  They apologized for their house being messy.  We could tell they changed their clothes and cleaned up the house.  Sister Blaney and I were in shock!!!  Then the man (David) started talking about religion!  We were really shocked!!  Long story short!  David has been looking for a church!!  He feels like all the churches he has gone to lately are very hypocritical and he doesn't want his children to be raised in a church like that.  We talked them about the church and what we believed.  He was very interested but their whole family was sick and so they wanted us to come back next week.  Hopefully we start working with them!!  They had the cutest little ones and I felt something in David.  His wife Sherry doesn't believe in God right now but I could see that change as well.  Meeting with them was a tender mercy from the Lord!  I am grateful I have been listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost!!  Sometimes I get nervous and think, "nah, next time" (especially when its pouring and I look like a hobo ;) but I am grateful I didn't do that with David and Sherry!!  I know they needed that in some way or another to let them know God is listening to them!  (:

The rest of the week was great!!  I wish I could share it all but I am really out of time.. eek!!

I love you all so much!!!!  I hope y'all have a blessed week!!!!

Love, 

Sister Knell

September 2nd Letter - Many Miracles!

HEY Y'ALL!!

Well, I need to be quick!!!

This week has been amazing!!  We have seen so many miracles!!  Especially just yesterday!!!  We got three new investigators! We had exchanges and both the High Point sisters came here!  It was truly amazing all the success we saw!!  And all in one day!!  Labor Day was probably my favorite day!!!  And they are all pretty solid!!! yay!!!  The work is moving forward in Danville!!!  (:

Tuesday we had interviews with President Craven.  i feel so blessed to be under his direction!  he is an amazing mission president!!  I know I am suppose to be here in Danville!  I love the people so much!!

Wednesday the ward had an open house for us sisters.  It was AMAZING!!!!  The ward got together and brought us everything we needed for our apartment and pantry.  Seriously EVERYTHING!!  Sister Blaney and I felt so loved!!  We know miracles are going to happen here!  It was also fun to get to see that text from mom through the bishopric!  Small world!!  i love doTERRA! ;) 

Thursday we got a new investigator named Jason.  He is actually our neighbor.  Dad, he's the one that told me about the BYU vs Virginia game.  We are trying to help him stop smoking.  He has the desire.  Just needs to do it now.  But we had an amazing lesson with him and a member yesterday.  He is progressing!!  I know he can do it!

Friday was a crazy interesting day!  But one funny thing that happened was that we visited a lady named Pat in the ward that collects coca cola everything and has a warehouse just full of coca cola stuff. anywho..  She offered us coca cola and I have learned here in the South, you do not turn down anything or the people here get offended.  I warned sister Blaney about it but she didn't listen.. haha.  So when Pat gave us one and sister Blaney said no, the whole atmosphere changed and Pat was so sad and offended!!  And then I became Pat's favorite! ha.  It was something you probably had to be there for.. but it was really funny!  Oh!  and she made me put salted peanuts in my coke!  It was actually pretty good! ha.  She said it was a "redneck southern thing" but none of members have heard about it.. so she was probably just pulling my leg.. oh well.. it was fun! (:

Lots more happened but I am out of time!!

I love you all and this work!!  The church is true!!!

Love, 

Sister Knell

July 29th - Facebook Mission!

Hello Family and friends!!

Well this past week has been amazing!!  We have been so very blessed!  Jen Kramer got baptized Friday and confirmed Sunday.  We had another double baptism with the elders in our area.  The work is growing in University City!  I am so grateful to be apart of it! 

We found Jen through a pestcontrol guy named Trey.  He knocked on her door and somehow they started talking about the Book of Mormon.  He invited her to church and that is how we found her.  We started teaching her since that day and Friday she got baptized.  She is an amazing woman.  I am so excited to see her go to the emple and do her husbands work.  He recently passed away.  I know God had been  preparing her to hear the gospel.  Her live has changed so much because of the gospel.  I have been so happy and feeled with because of working with her!

I am so sorry this letter is going to be pretty short..

Real quick some highlights!

We went on exchages with sisters Webber and Jameson.  Sister Jameson worked at doTERRA for a while in the call center.  Small world!  It was so much fun serving with her for the exchange!  SHe has such a sweet spirit and love for the gospel!

We had a BBQ on pioneer day as a ward and we were all stuck under a pavillion b/c is was raining so hard!! hah but it was so much fun.  After the rain settled  we played a little b-ball with Nautykah's little Sister Nyemah.  She is interested in the church.  She came Sunday.  She is so sweet!  and AMAZING at b-ball.  It was a super fun night!  Jen was telling everyone about her baptism!  haha and just beaming!!  The ward has been so great with her!!  I love this ward!!!

My mission is now a facebook mission so I will be on facebook a lot more.  Everyday actually.  so don't be surprised if I message you! haha.  and please message me back!!

AH!  THere is so much I want to share but I am running out of time :(

I love you all so so much!!!  Thank you for all you do!!!

Sister Shoemake!  I love you and miss Stateville!!  How are the new sisters? 

Love,

Sister Knell

July 22nd Letter - Only 13 Months Left?

Hello family and friends!! (: 

This week was hot, HOT, HOTT!!!  Sister Reid and I were dying!  Plus we were on the bikes this week.  We tried our hardest to get rides everywhere, we did pretty good! (:  But for some reason when ever we go visit this lovely lady in our ward we always think, "lets just go through campus, it'll be a lot faster!" (we live across from University of North Carolina - Charlotte) but every time we go through campus we get lost and it ends up taking us forever to get to our apt! haha its ridiculous!  You'd think we would learn by now not to go through campus.. well at least not walk through campus, biking isn't as bad.  Since we are piloting the iPads with only WiFi we always have to find places that have WiFi.  Our apt. complex has an office that if you sit outside of it you can get WiFi.  Well that's exactly what Sister Reid and I do like every night so we can sync our area books to each other and get on Facebook.  But its also near the pool which means mosquitoes! :S poor Sister Reid has 27 bites!!  I only have like 5 but it feels like millions!  I am always so itching from the bites..  We have this nasty bug spray that smells like mountain men in our apt. but we don't want to stink.. ha so I guess we deserved it.. today hopefully we'll buy yummy smelling kind.. if such a thing. haha

GUESS WHAT!  We have another baptism this weekend on Friday.  Jen Kramer!  And this morning we got the best text from her it said, "My baptism is going to be AWESOME! I'm so excited!"  Which just made my day!  We are super excited as well and feel so blessed to have been able to work with her!  Her husband died a year and a half and go and she has been having a really hard time but ever since we've been working with her, her countenance has changed and you can see the light of Christ in her glowing!  I just love her!

This past week has felt like one of the slowest weeks of my life.. hahaha...  Also, I have come to love "Pasta-Roni".. haha.  Sister Reid and I eat it A LOT!! haha

Sister Reid and I had dinner with Sister Roman a lady in our ward who we have been working with and just LOVE!!  haha.  She is so funny!! We live pretty close to her so we told her that we could just walk home but she was worried that we would die from the heat and so she gave us a ride home.  As we were driving home there was a man walking on the street and Sister Roman says, "Should I hit him?!" then, "I'm going to hit him!!!" (while sister Reid and I are just dying laughing) then she turns just in time to BARELY miss him.. haha oh wow.. and says, "Did you see how scared he looked!!!" Then she crazy laughed.. hahahaha so funny!!  We love her!  That was one of my highlights this week.. hahaha because this week was never ending!

We did have a Zone Conference this week!  It was GREAT!!  I love President and Sister Craven!!  They are so inspired and take such great care of us.  We learned: "How to Give a Talk" from Sister Craven.  Sister Craven is so sweet and proper.  I love learning from her!  She makes me want to be a better missionary and daughter of God. 

I love being a missionary!  I hit my 5 month mark the other day and it was so weird to think I only have 13 months left--that may not sound like a little but then next month will be only a year!! Crazy!!!  I am so blessed and grateful to be here in North Carolina!  The people here are amazing!  I feel the spirit of the Lord each and everyday!

We had a wonderful Sacrament meeting yesterday and one thing that stuck out to me was, "Are you just active in the church or are you active in the gospel?" I encourage all of us to always remember to read our scriptures and say our prayers daily!  I know that when we do these things it will help be active in the gospel and not just the actions of going to church every Sunday.

I love you all so much!!

Have a blessed day!

Love,

Sister Knell