Sunday, March 15, 2015

Updated photos from last couple of months













What a week

HOLA! madre mia, its been a good week! Full of some struggles and also some miracles, and a LOT of hours on buses! 

monday- normally its our pday, but all the trainers headed down to the mission home for a trainers training, so i said goodbye to my sweet comp in the morning and headed out on the treacherous 9 hour trip from Cartagena to Fuengirola. But it was a fun adventure! and we had a great training, with some cafe rio burritos from hermana Deere! Then we headed back to Malaga to sleep at the Hermanas piso, and we got lost on the way. 
Tuesday- Basically we had nothing to do until 6 when we went to pick up our hijos, so president let us have a pday since we couldnt monday. So we used that time and went and saw my old district in Fuen, ate some kebab, visited Andrea (my favorite investigator!) and Rafael (my recent convert).. so it was awesome! then we went to the mission home, and got paired up with our companions! I am training Hermana Swenson!! She is 20, from Sandy, Utah, has 3 siblings, is into theater, and is a vegetarian! (which now means that the members dont give us meat when they feed us. :( sad!!) she is GREAT!! the best! she also doesnt know much spanish, but claro i didnt know anything when i started either. So it has pushed my spanish skills a lot. But hey! i realized that my spanish is actually a lot better than i thought it was.. i am able to understand everything, and am able to communicate what i want to say! POR FIN!!  
Wednesday- We went and ate some lunch in the malaga train station (some good ole burger king. its like a little taste of home) then started the long bus ride back home. and got home at about 9:30, so that was all for that day! 
thursday- weekly planning! then we taught Juan Pedro, and some other investigators and had a noche de hogar. 
Friday- spent most of the day walking around. No one was home!! and talked to a lot of people in the street. But we had our NDH with my favorite member and his son! He always, without fail, feeds us sandwhiches, popcorn in a casserole dish, with two plates of chips, and coke. Its the best. 
Saturday-We cleaned the church buildings, taught a few lessons, walked around a lot again, and had correlation.
Sunday- Juan Pedro got confirmed a member of the church! and also received the priesthood! :) and a member of the 70 came and spoke to us. it was so spiritual! and then we had lunch at our bishops house which ended in a pushup contest haha:) and we found a great new investigator that we are meeting with again tonight!!:) 

This week was good! it had some rough points, but it was a great week:) and i have my great new HIJA! which has been such a blessing. she is so motivated and so willing to work. 
thanks for all the love and support! love you all! 
Hermana Knowles

I'm going to be a mom


Well... this has been quite the week! Honestly probably one of the craziest that i have had on the mission. let me begin...

Tuesday, we had interviews with president.He started by asking me ifi had any questions, and i said no, so he said he´d start with a question.. and he asked me how i handled stress. so here i am.. all clueless, saying prayer.. sciptures.. etc. and then he says "Oh good, because you are going to be  doing some pretty hard things coming up. You are going to be training a brand new missionary." and then i panicked. hahaha we were not expecting that! but, i can say that i feel very humbled that the Lord trusts me with this. Of course i am nervous, especially cuz my spanish is nowhere near perfect, and i dont have much experience, but i know that the Lord will always be there to help me through everything. And i am feeling not as stressed about it anymore.. but that may be because i have now hada week to process it;)

So.. that was crazy.. and then we had to start packing up all of my companions things and deep cleaning the piso!! (that was well needed) and my comp wasnt very excited to leave. we weresure there would be no changes because she had only been there for 2 tranfers, so it was hard for her. i sure am going to miss hermana Benavides! 

And then.. it was hna benavides´s BIRTHDAY! so we made sure to make that special for her!! 
and well, we got permission to move our baptism up, because he wnted my companion to be there as well. So instead of having it this coming saturday, we had it sunday night! WE HAD A BAPTISM!!:) 

Let me explain about him for a little. Juan Pedro was just a little miracle for us. We found him week 3 of this transfer, and he got baptized week 6!! He loved all of the discussions, and tells us how this gospel makes him feel complete again. He has had some problems in his life, but the gospel hasbeen able to help him feel this void. We were also able to help him quit smoking! We taught him the word of wisdom right away, and the elders came to give him a blessing to help him. and right after the blessing he threw  his packet of cigarretes on the table, and has not smoked since:) ahh! he is the best!! and he got BAPTIZED!!:) 

And well now, i am in Malaga. we had about a 9 hour trip yesterday from cartagena to get here, and had trainers training last night. So today is sort of our pday, because we pick up our hijos at 6! i am so excited!!:) 

anyways.. wish me luck! talk to yall next week:) 
les quiero!! 
Hermana Knowles