Consejo and sick days (10 Aug 15)

Heyyyyyyy my friends! What is up? Well, it's sure been an interesting
week. Haha. Nothing new though right??

Well there's not too much to say! On Monday we went to consejo
(missionary leadership council). It's always a blast! I love consejo.
We got there early for pday, and just hung around the train station
with the other missionaries and ate some food, and then headed to the
mission home and started the consejo! It was really good, and a really
great spiritual experience. I learned a lot from it. And it's always
super fun to be with all the missionaries!

Then we got back Tuesday afternoon, and my comp started to feel a
little sick, but we went out and worked and talk an awesome lesson to
daiana and then to José and martín! And then Wednesday came around..
And my comp got really sick and we didn't leave that whole day, and
same thing Thursday. Except when we left to go to the doctor! But we
have awesome elders, that came and brought us kebab and ate with us on
the stairwell, and the other elders who brought us ice cream. I love
our district!

Friday we headed to Cádiz for zone meeting (even though my comp was
still sick) and we gave a taller talking about miracles! Zone meetings
are always great.. And funny. Especially cuz the zone leaders had
intercambios right before and one of them missed the train so they
were 1.5 hours late... Hahah. We learned a lot of good things about
setting fechas and how to better prepare our investigators for
baptism.

So then afterwards, we went back to piso because my comp was still
sick, but we were able to leave that night for our ward activity. So
that was good!

On Saturday, we did intercambios with the Hermanas from puerto de
Santa Maria. Hermana portas came with me here to Jerez! She's super
cool! Was born in Venezuela, grew up in NYC, and then moved to Spain,
and currently lives in London! She's in her training and is such a
great missionary! So we were able to visit a lot of people, and we got
a new investigator, Raquel, who is from Paraguay. We were walking by
her piso the other day, and she was sitting out on her patio drinking
terere  and said hi to us, and then invited us to come up but we had a
cita so we couldn't. The missionaries used to visit her before. So we
finally got to see her Saturday, and at the end we invited her to
baptism on the 29th and she said yes!! She went to go write it in her
calendar. We were so excited! Ahh! Miracles!

With Jose and Martin, we decided to move their baptism back two weeks
so that they could feel more prepared. Please pray for them!

I don't have much more time to write. But that's all for this week.
Love you all!

Con amor, hermana knowles

2 nephi 23: For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I
will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and
forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according
to their faith.

Bautismo (3 Aug 15)

Hello my favorites! It's been an awesome week! And crazy. I'm pretty
sure I say that about every week but it's because it's true! That's
the mission life.
 
Well a lot of big things have happened this week so I'll just say some
of the highlights! We had intercambios with the Jaén Hermanas this
week, so Hna Hurtado and I both went out there.. In a five hour
train.. And we did splits! It's always so fun! We saw some pretty cool
miracles there as well. Plus the place is BEAUTIFUL. It's all built on
a mountain so all these streets go straight up but it's super pretty
and really tiring. Haha it was great!
 
Then when we got back, we headed straight to see Daiana and she had
her baptismal interview!! And Friday, for medio dia we went to their
house and ate, and helped get everything ready for the  baptism and
the ward party afterwards. And then we had the most beautiful baptism
ever! It was so great. There was so much support from the ward. And
from her extended family! All her family came (basically they are all
investigators so it was awesome!) and Mirian, Daiana's mom, shared the
most beautiful testimony. Little miracles that I don't know if I
shared last week. But she is walking!! Mirian got in a really bad
accident a few months ago, and was in the hospital for a while and
then on bed rest for months.. She has just started physical therapy,
and has progressed super fast! It's been a miracle! Now she walks
around like its nothing:) ahh! What a beautiful day!
 
That night afterwards we had another awesome "diverviernes" ward
activity after the baptism. We had a lot of people that came!
 
We added a new investigator this week named Julio Cesar. He's the
boyfriend of an investigator that just moved back from Germany. They
are so cute! They're in their early 20s and have been together since
they were like 12 (crazy huh) and they want to get married. He's
listened to the missionaries before, but this is Marta's first time.
As we were teaching the plan of salvation she began to cry. She felt
the spirit testifying to her that this was the truth and that this is
what the Lord wants for her. What a miracle! We are super excited for
them.
 
Last night we had a lesson with José and Martín. They both had fechas
for this Saturday, but we decided to move it to next weekend so they
can be more prepared. José said yes yes! I'm ready for that day.
Martín wasn't sure if he was prepared, but he said he would pray to
know if that was his day. Ahhhh I'm super excited for them as well!
 
Now we are sitting at McDonald's in the train station in Malaga. We
have missionary leadership council or consejo with our president
today. It's always the best!! So I'll send more updates on that later.
 
Have a great week!! Love you all!
 
Con amor,
Hermana knowles

Amazing experiences (27 July 15)

> Mi querida familia! Madre mía, hemos visto un montón de milagros esta
> semana! Estoy tan animada!
>
> Pues.. We have seen a lot of really cool things this week! Ahhh. So
> many cool experiences. My companion and I set a really big goal to
> find as many new investigators as we could.. So we ran around like
> locas the whole week trying to find. And we saw some super cool
> miracles!
>
> I've found that service really does work as you are finding. There is
> a lady who lives in the same building as our less active that we
> visit, and we've tried contacting her before, and she always just said
> ooh maybe later, another day. Well, as we were leaving this building,
> we saw her struggling to take her bags up the stairs, and we offered
> to help. After we took them up the 3 flights of stairs, she invited us
> right in and we taught her a great lesson! Bam! Finding through
> service.
>
> So last week I don't think I included in my email our terrifying
> experience when a guy came to our piso in the middle of the night..
> Haha it was like 12:30 and we were sleeping, when we hear a pounding
> on the door. My comp goes over to see who it was but was just talking
> through the door. And it sounded like some drunk guy who just kept
> yelling "let me in! Open the door!" And obviously we were freaking
> out.. Then we come to find out it was our elderly neighbor who was
> telling us we were throwing rocks down the vents?? Anyways long story
> short.. We wouldn't open the door and he finally went away, but we
> were still freaking out hah. The next day we went to go talk to him,
> to tell him hey! You can't do that! But he answered apologetically,
> saying that he was mistaken and asked us for forgiveness. So we
> started chatting to him and his wife who was so sweet! So we shared a
> message and they said we could come back. Bam! Two more news.
>
> Funny side story for that.. While the guy was pounding at our door we
> didn't know what to do so we called the elders. This is the elder's
> version of our phone call.. "Hey, are you okay?" -me (I said awake..
> But he misunderstood haha) "yeahhh..." -elder "were you sleeping?"-me
> "yes, but not anymore" (claro) - elder "oh good. Well I'm glad you're
> okay cuz there's an ax murderer trying to get in our piso." Hahaha.
> It's so much better when he says it. Anyways we're safe no worries!
>
> We had a lot more amazing experiences.. Too many to count! But the
> biggest miracle of them all.......
> Daiana, our inv whose mother and brother are recent converts, has had
> a new fecha for the 31st of July, but she was still iffy about it, so
> we didn't know if it would really happy. But, Tuesday morning she
> called us, and asked what we were doing. We said oh, heading out to
> district meeting! And she said "oh cool, well Hermanas, I was just
> called to say that I'm for sure getting baptized on the 31st." We
> flipped out!! Oh my goodness!! DAIANA IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS
> FRIDAY!!:)
>
> We had the best ward activity on Friday night! We have the coolest
> ward. Our bishop is the bomb and we are having "diverviernes" every
> Friday this summer! We had a bbq and futbal and dancing. We were sad
> we had to leave early but the party went on until 1 am! Haha. This
> next Friday will be SUPER diverviernes with Daiana's baptism before!!
>
> We also had some great intercambios with our chiclana Hermanas. Both
> hermana Hurtado and I went there and did splits to help them find some
> new people, cuz they are opening a new area and didn't have too many
> people. But together we found 5 news!
>
> Yesterday at church was the best.. We had 4 inv at church(daiana, Jose
> and Martin, and our new Muslim friend. He's come to church twice!
> Haha), 4 of our recent converts, and two of our less actives! (One
> that we had to literally go drag out of bed. Bahaha so fun.)
>
> Well, now we have a lot of great people to teach and are seeing a lot
> of great miracles! Jose and Martin are still preparing for their
> baptisms for the 8th of August, and they are excited to see their
> cousin Daiana's baptism!:) ahhh I love the mission! I love my comp and
> my area.
>
> I'm so grateful to be here. I love the mission and I love my Heavenly
> Father. And I know he loves us. So much!
>
> Thanks for the prayers and support:) love you all! Have the best week!
> And read your scriptures and say your prayers!! :)
>
> Love, hermana knowles

Consejo, intercambios, entrevistas, reuniones, y 10 meses!! (20 Jul 15)

 ¿Qué tal mi querida familia?
> 
> It's been such a good week here in Jerez! And Malaga and fuengirola
> and San Fernando and Cadiz.. Haha we've been everywhere this week!
> And hey guess what.. I've completed 10 months!
> 
> This Monday to Tuesday all the sister training leaders and zone
> leaders headed up to fuengirola to the mission home for conciliejo.
> (It used to be called concilio but now it's consejo but i always get
> confused and usually end up mixing them together haha). It was the
> first one that we've have with our new president! It was great to be
> able to get to know him a little better, and to work together with him
> to better our mission here. Plus it's always super fun to see all the
> other missionaries from all over! We normally get to Malaga at 11 am
> on Monday, so we can have time for pday there. And then we head to the
> mission home at around 6, and they feed us, then we have the
> leadership counsel and talk about our mission and what things we are
> doing well and how we can do better. Then we end, eat some ice cream,
> and then head to bed. And the next morning we all get up, eat, and
> continue the meeting. Then it's a mad rush as they take us to the
> mission office and we run to get all the stuff for our zone, and then
> we have to run and catch the train to Málaga to take our train to our
> areas. Haha we had 3 minutes to get from one train to the next and we
> made it!
> 
> On Monday with our free time we headed to fuengirola to see some of
> our favorite people! Since me and hermana Hurtado both served there!
> So we went with the Hermanas who are serving there, our inv Andrea
> (who was finally able to get married and baptized!) and our less
> active member Ernesto that we would visit all the time. We ate some
> kebab and walked around the centro, and then went to visit my recent
> convert Rafael in his beach kiosk! Ahhh it was the best! They were all
> my favorite people ever!
> 
> Wednesday we had weekly planning, and also a very interesting
> intercambio with some of our Hermanas! I had a great time here in
> Jerez with Hna Judy, my fellow idahoan hermana! I'll just say I think
> it was good for them to have that break haha. It was so fun though.
> 
> And then on Thursday we went to San Fernando for the morning to have
> interviews with president Anderson. And on Friday we went to Cádiz for
> zone meeting, and my companion and I gave a taller about being a
> disciplined disciple. We talked about that in our consejo, and how we
> can grow to become true disciples of Christ through discipline.
> 
> Okay I've got some pretty funny stories from this week. Hahah okay.
> During our zone meeting, our zone leader elder Marchant was giving a
> super good taller, and apparently I was really hungry or something,
> because my stomach make the loudest, longest, most horrific growl.
> hahaha. Like no joke, the elder In front of me turned around and said
> what the heck?! And people like 3 rows back heard it haha. I was dying
> laughing but couldn't laugh cuz it was during a spiritual taller so it
> made it even worse haha. But afterwards, I had to apologize to elder
> Marchant for disrupting it, to which he then asked if he could cast
> out the demon that was inside my stomach. Oh man. Now it's just the
> biggest joke.
> The next day, we were trying to contact some old investigators,
> without having much luck. So we rang the doorbell of this guy, and he
> comes out on his porch and starts yelling at us, just covering himself
> up with a towel or something. Let's just say now I'm scarred for
> life..
> Basically a lot more happened that I can't remember now haha. It was
> just NOT my week.
> 
> Some great things happened this week though! We set fechas with two of
> our investigators this week. Their names are Jose and Martin and
> they're 14. They're both cousins, and related to some other members as
> well. We are super excited for them! They love the church, have come
> several times with their cousin, and want to receive the answer that
> it's true. so their fechas are for the 8th of August. Pray for them
> please!
> We were in a lesson with our new investigator named Marta, who is 19
> and the girlfriend of the son of our investigator. We had a member
> with us, and she was sharing her experience with the Book of Mormon
> and in the middle of her testimony, Marta got major goosebumps and
> showed them to us. She's like I know this is true! I can feel it! It
> was so awesome! I love the power of the testimonies of members. And
> also of the Book of Mormon. It is true!!
> 
> I'm so happy to be here on the mission. I'm learning a lot and
> becoming so much closer to my Heavenly Father. Sé con todo mi corazón
> que esta es la iglesia verdadera, que esto es el reino del Señor aquí
> en la tierra. Sé que dios nos ama, y nos conoce personalmente, y
> quiere que seamos felices. :)
> 
> Les quiero!
> Hermana Knowles

Hola familia (13 July 15)

 Holaaaaa familia!
> 
> Well, it's been another crazy week here in Jerez. It was transfers, my
> compie died, and now we are here in Malaga for concilio for the
> mission leaders. With our new mission pres!! Woo!
> 
> We have been seeing some Milagros here! Seriously all last transfer we
> didn't have much.. But in the last two weeks we have found a bunch of
> new investigators who are great! Ahhh I'm so excited for this
> transfer.
> 
> Monday- we paint air soft! Woo pday! Then we had a cita with our
> investigator Flor, and I, so obsessed with her and her granddaughter!
> They're from the Dominican Republic, and the baby is so cute. She's
> nine months old, and white with curly hair! So they call her my hija:)
> Tuesday, we literally ran around all of Jerez saying goodbye to
> everyone for hermana read! It was an insane day. And so hot. I don't
> understand how it's 10:15 at night, and we are in a piso still
> sweating cuz of the heat. Gosh.
> Wednesday I said goodbye to hermana read! And my new comp hermana
> Hurtado came! We went and visited some less active members and they
> invited us to stay for lunch, so we helped cook with them.
> Thursday we weekly planned, and then we met with Flor and set a
> baptismal fecha with her for the 1 of August! She is so awesome! Then
> we added a new inv named Jaime and set a fecha with him for the same
> day.
> Friday we had district meeting and then ke-baptized elder beans new
> comp! (He ate kebab for the first time hahah) then we taught English
> class, and met with our less active member shiguedy and his
> girlfriend, who is our new investigator. she is so cute and has a big
> desire to know that it's true! We set a fecha with her for the first
> as well! It's gonna be a great day then:)
> Saturday we met with some investigators, and then had a noche de hogar
> with our favorite family! And with set a new fecha with our
> investigator Daiana for the 2nd of August.:) also some freaking niños
> threw lemons at us in our super chungo area. But it's cool, everyone
> needs a few stories like that in their mission right?
> 
> It's been such a cool week! We are seeing a lot of miracles and I'm
> stoked for this transfer! My comp is a maquina, and I feel as if we
> teach really well together! Everyday we see amazing things! I love
> being his instruments in this work.
> 
> Love you all!!
> Love, hermana knowles
> 
> Sent from my iPad

Several new postings and photos

I've posted several new letters on the blog as I was quite delinquent. Here's a few photos too. Sorry for the delay. More to follow. 

A new transfer (6 Jun 15)

A new mission president and companion all in the same week plus a whole new teaching pool. Exciting stuff in Spain. Enjoy.

Begin forwarded message:

From: SHAUNA KNOWLES <sktaxes@msn.com>
Date: July 6, 2015 at 10:42:25 PM MDT
To: <msaaknowles@msn.com>
Subject: FW: A new transfer!

> From: alyssa.knowles@myldsmail.net
> Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 17:17:10 +0200
> Subject: A new transfer!
> To: sktaxes@msn.com
>
> I think this was the fastest transfer I've had. I have no idea how six
> weeks have already passed by! Nuts.
>
> It was a bit of a roller coaster week haha. Lots of ups and downs. I
> guess that's how the mission goes! But even through the downs, it's so
> good! And I'm so happy! It's weird. Haha
>
> Well anyways, here's for another weekly summary.
>
> Monday I already wrote about our bomb pday in the pueblo Arcos. Then
> there was a farewell party at the church for a member who was left
> this week for his mission in Argentina. It was so weird to think about
> how I felt during that whole beginning part. It's crazy to see how far
> I have come and how different things are!
>
> Tuesday we visited with some of my favorite people, and we also got
> two great news! They are Bolivian and family of our recent convert.
> They've listened to missionaries but it's been hard to get in contact
> with them, but we finally were able to! And they are golden! One of
> their sons comes to church all the time with his cousin, and wants to
> get baptized. Ahh miracles!
>
> Wednesday we found another new investigator, as we were searching for
> this potential investigator we contacted a while ago. The thing about
> this potential is that she had just moved here, but didn't remember
> her address, but just knew the street name. And she was golden! So we
> kinda feel like detectives because we go and try to find her and
> everytime we get clues and get closer to actually finding her haha.
> But anyways, this led us to this lady named Flor who is from the
> Dominican Republic. And she invited us right in! She as well had
> listened to the missionaries but lost contact because she moved. She
> is also golden!! She is searching for the truth, and loves learning
> more! She goes to a new church every few weeks, searching for one she
> likes. I know the Lord guided us to her on that day! There was no way
> that was just chance.
> Also this day, we had a dinner cita with a male member, that we set up
> weeks ago so we could make sure we had another woman to come with us
> (part of the mission rules.) well, last minute this girl bailed on us,
> so we are frantically calling people to see if they can come, but no
> one was answering/able to. and well with permission from the
> assistants to president, we could have had the elders come with us to
> eat. Which they normally have given. But when we called, they said
> no.. Haha so long story short. The elders stole our eating cita and
> ended up eating with him, and the APs gave us a challenge that if we
> talked to 45 people, we would see 2 miracles. And well, we talked to
> 47, got rejected by 44 of them, and are still waiting to see our
> miracles. Hahaha. I'm sure there's something to learn from this. But
> it did make it easier to talk to anyone and everyone! And we had some
> interesting conversations, like this guy who cursed us. Good times.
>
> Thursday.. We both were deathly sick, and hermana read couldn't even
> get out of bed. I actually started getting sick Monday night, and it
> kept getting worse. I just had a cold, but hermana read had that plus
> maybe the flu! We don't know. But we spent all day in piso, and we are
> still trying to recover!
>
> Friday we left early to go to Sevilla for a tri-zone conference to
> meet our new mission president! So we got to meet and get to know
> President and Hermana Anderson! They are awesome! They're from Idaho
> (Wooho Idaho!) and love snowmobiling, and all things outdoorsy, have 7
> kids, six of which are married and the youngest just got back from his
> mission. I'm super excited to have them here! Love them already, and I
> know they love us and that they are the ones who need to be here to
> help and guide us:)
>
> Saturday, we had a Fourth of July party in Puerto de Santa Maria with
> the missionaries from Jerez and from there. It was super fun! We made
> hot dogs and hamburgers, and the senior couple that are there brought
> us some root beer and dr pepper from the American base. We were a
> happy group of missionaries.
>
> Yesterday, we added two new investigators José and martín, the sons of
> the two women we added on Tuesday. I'm so excited for them! It really
> amazes me to know that Yes, there are people who are prepared! There
> are people who truly want to listen and are searching for the truth.
> The Lord is preparing these people, and he just leads us to them. I
> know this work is not something that we do alone. We are simply the
> instruments of the Lord. But how great is it to see and be part of
> these miracles? I love the mission!!
>
> And today, we went with our district and the puerto district to play
> air soft!! It was sick! And really really hot. And I've got some nice.
> Bruises now:)
>
> Oh, I forgot to mention. My comp is finishing her mission this week!
> I'm so grateful to have had her as my companion. She was such a great
> example and one of my best friends!
> Anddddd.. My new comp is going to be Hermana Hurtado! She's from Peru
> and is absolutely great! She's my sister in the mission (my trainer
> trained her as well, right before I got here!) I'm stoked!
>
> Lately, I'm been working really hard on being more charitable.
> Sometimes I get frustrated with people or I'm impatient, but I
> rediscovered the verse in the 1 Corinthians 13, that says charity
> never faileth. That is completely true. And have being trying to apply
> that, whether it be with certain elders who make me frustrated, or
> investigators that aren't progressing, that applies to everything.
> I've been trying to not react in ways I would have reacted before.
> It's a long process to change and become better, but I'm progressing:)
> Charity never faileth.
>
> Well that's all. It's been a great week, and I'm so happy to be here.
> I know I'm where at and with who I am with for a specific reason. I
> know there are certain things I am supposed to learn and people I am
> supposed to meet. It's all for a reason!
>
> Well, les quiero mucho! Gracias por su amor y por sus oraciones. Que
> tengan una buena semana!
>
> Con amor,
> Hermana Knowles
>
> 1 Corinthians 13:8
>