August 19th Letter - Leaving University City ):

Hello Family! (:

First off, I am getting transferred ): sadly!!  I leave tomorrow!  I am not a fan of packing! haha

--hold any letters!!  I'll send my next address next week! --

Well, this week was slower...like very slow... which made it kind of rough.  But I know God is in charge and great things are going to happen!

A little random funny from this week:

The other day sister Reid and I got caught in a rainstorm as we were biking to an appt.  Well our appt. fell through so we were biking back and we passed by this cute white house.  I had a feeling we needed to stop there.  But I ignored it.. and kept riding on.  But then the feeling was even stronger!  So, I yelled to sister Reid to stop and turn back because we needed to knock on this door.  Also, I needed to go to the bathroom so I thought, "perfect! I can use the bathroom and then sister Reid and talk to them!" ha.  We get to the door and a lady says, hello and then we ask to use her restroom and that we are far from our apt.  She hesitates but then lets us come in.  We were soaked!!!  So, when I came out of the bathroom sister Reid was laughing at something.  She seemed nervous having us there so we said thank you left her a Mormon.org card with our name and number and left.  As we were leaving sister Reid said the little boy turned to his mother and said,  "Mom, do we always have to be nice to hobos?" hahahaha I was dying!!  We must have looked awful!  I have no idea why we needed to stop there but maybe something will come out of it (:

Randomisms:

*We celebrated sister Reid's 3 month mark by ordering Chinese take-out!!  So yummy!!! (: --it reminded me of home and all the fun times my friends and I ordered Chinese take-out (: happy days!

*My 6 month mark is tomorrow!!  Crazy Sauce!

*The past week has been amazing fall weather!!  So hopefully fall is coming soon here in North Carolina!

*I dyed sister Reid's hair.  It looks good! (: 

*Our apt. will now have Hilliard sisters!!  They will be working with the Zone Leaders in the YSA ward.  We don't know who they will be yet, well tomorrow (: sister Reid keeps joking that I'll be a Hilliard sister and pack up my stuff just to unpack in the next rooms closet.. haha I'd die!! (;

*Best surprise!  Etta called us from Michigan to tell us she made it safely there!  I love her!!  Made my day.  She will get baptized one day!!  I just know it!!

All is well!

I love y'all!!

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 8th Letter - Baptisms & a Seventy!

This past week has been GREAT!!!  The baptism was AMAZING!!!!  I had never felt the spirit so strong!!  We had Nautykah getting baptized and then the elders in our area also had a baptism-the Valley family (4).  So there were 5 baptisms!  And over 100 people showed up!  It was beautiful!  Nautykah was just glowing!  Her mom and little sister came and now her mom is curious to learn more!  Sister Reid and I feel so blessed!  It was truly amazing!  Elder Parker from the seventy was there because he helped work with the Vallery family, he is one of the main reasons they got baptized.  When he heard they were going through with getting baptized, he changed his whole schedule to be there.  He also said so many amazing and powerful things!  he said that when you are released from your calling of being a Seventy your journals during that time period are put into church history.  He then said that, that night he was going to write about this baptism and that Nautykah and the Vallery family were going to be a bit of church history, which we all thought was pretty neat!  He then said toward Nautykah, "Nautykah, you will travel the world telling people about the gospel and through your example many of your family members will be baptized as well."  I thought that was amazing!!!  Many great things are going to happen in her life!  I am very excited for her!  And grateful I got to be a part of it.  President and Sister Craven came as well and President came up to Sister Reid and I and told us that he was very pleased with the work we were doing in University City and that we get to stay there and stay together(b/c it was transfer calls)!!! HAPPY DAY!!  It was a great finish to an amazing day!  OH! and President told us that Thursday we will be having a meeting for my district to introduce the IPADS!!! Our district is the one that gets to try them out!!!  WOOHOOO!! (:  SIster REid and I are super DUPER EXCITED!! ha (:

 

Then Sunday was just as beautiful!  The Vallerys and Nautykah got confirmed!  And her little sister and cousin came to that.  They sat behind us and it was so sweet to hear Nautykah teaching them about the hymns and sacrament.  It touched sister Reid and I.  We could already see her being that example.  After church we ate with our favorite family.  The Roisums!  Then later went to a Fiesta for the Spanish branch.  A YM was going to leave for his mission and that was his goodbye party I guess and they wanted us to sing with the Spanish elders Called to Serve.  It was a lot of fun!  It made me wish I new Spanish.. hahaha.  I love that culture!

 

The Lord is blessing this area and I feel so blessed to be here.

 

I love you!!

 

Love,

 

Sister Knell (:

-- 

July 3rd - University City Ward!

Dad,

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

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