Family!!!

Hey Fam!

So I made a connection with an Elder in the MTC that I always forgot to tell/ask you guys about. I saw him at the Temple when we went last week and we remembered together that we need to find out how we are related! His name is Elder Roundy, but his grandparents are Richard Knudsen and Nancy Jack (Rick and Nancy...ironic right?!) and his parents are Leesa Knudsen and Ralph Roundy. Do you know if and how we might be related to them?

Yesterday was Sister Felipe´s Birthday! We had a little party/Family home evening with some members, The Moura Family, and Danilo, Benedita´s son and Francine´s boyfriend. It was fun!

So I had a really cool experience this week. Remember those two girls from the family that went to church last week? Well...the situation got ugly...in short they pretty much just wanted material help and after they got it the mom went a bit crazy and is avoiding us at every cost and got super upset at the fact that we invited her daughters to be baptized. Yeah...thats not the cool part, dont worry! So we both got very frustrated and upset at the situation when we went there on Wednesday night. It was a very bad night for us. Very very bad....BUT that night I really needed to feel better, so I opened up my Book of Mormon where I am reading and sat on my bed to read. I started in Alma 24 and it was good and all, but when I arrived in Alma 26 I knew that I was suppose to be reading in that chapter without a doubt. Specifically verses 22 and 27. Read them and you will see how they were perfect for me that night. I started to cry as I read those verses....knowing that even though those words were written by men 90 years before Christ was born, they were written with the purpose of helping me that night. Yes, they had many purposes, but one of those was to help me. I know that God exists. That he knows us and has blessed us with much more than we even realize. I know we are His children. I know that there is no limit to his love, mercy, and grace. I know that He send His Son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins because he loves us. I know that the plan of God is PERFECT. I know that we must live our lives aware of his love and influence and do all we can to receive the blessings of heaven that are waiting for us. We must be worthy. We must be alert. We must actively choose to follow him and not fall into the temptations of the devil...

Thanks for all your support love and prayers! I love you soooo much!

Erin

Happy Turkey Day!!

Hey Fam!

Happy Turkey day to you!!

The Temple today was amazing! Its the best place on Earth! I received a lot of direction and peace there today!

We are seeing lots of little miracles in our area this week! Karina, who needs to marry before she can be baptized was able to mark her wedding on Monday. Our leaders had found the right person to talk to in the Cartório, Keiko. We went with Karina and Altair to the office, and even though Altair has a problem with his RG (its a legal document here) and it won´t be resolved for more than 15 days, Keiko let them mark the wedding for the 10th of December. She told them that as soon as the new RG gets to them they have to bring it in or else she will annol the wedding! But she let them...MIRACLE! So Karina will be baptized that night!

Yesterday we were able to sit down and talk to two girls from a family who went to church with us on Sunday. The parents weren't home, but we taught the daughters in the street. They both want to be baptized and we marked with them for this Sunday after church! Now we just have to follow up with the fact that they aren't drinking coffee anymore and make sure the parents will let them be baptized! But I think they will allow without problem! They are really cute little girls and super smart. The gospel will really bless their lives! I will talk to you guys more about their family on Monday.

Love you all tons!

Sister Knudsen

Thanks for the email! Erik is a crack up! Love that boy! PHEW!

Enjoy all that amazing thanksgiving food for me! They dont celebrate it here, no. It will just be a normal day for me! haha! Next year...I will eat all that pie by myself! ;)

Thanks for sending me package! I am excited already!

FYI....Sister Winters goes home on the 8th of December and there is a package being sent to you guys from me with her...I´m not sure if her cousins (the Winters from AZ) will be going to her farewell talk or for Christmas but I just wanted to let you know beforehand to not give another surprise for Ashley if someone strange comes to the door! haha! ENJOY!! MERRY CHRISTMAS EARLY!

IT HAS ARRIVED......

Hello family!

I got the package this week! It was SO wonderful!! Thank you SO SO SO much!!! (See attached photos! haha!!) **the photos aren't downloading for some reason, I'll try again later** Those pretzel M&Ms are delicious! Very good idea! haha!! Thank you for the music book and the CD (love it!). LOVE the hand soap and bracelet and shirt! Everything was awesome! We ate pancakes from the mix today with maple and then for lunch made tacos and guacamole...its was a WONDERFUL day!!!

I´m not sure about the phone call thing...I think I can arrange with you both, but I will ask.

Aww...loved the story about Hailey thinking about me sleeping in her bed with her. How SWEEEEET! I love that girl! I want to see a photo of this Hermione Granger Turkey! haha! Ashley is a great sister!

The photos/file you attached isn´t opening for me. I don't think the computer has the program needed to open them. :(

Ohhh a Christmas Tree?!?!! How exciting!! You guys are so cute! love it!!

Other stuff for the package....
Did I ask for more chapstick yet? I am on my last one. That blue Chapstick brand kind. Moisturizer with SPF 15. More taco seasoning...so delicious!! haha! A recipe for re-fried beans.....(it seems like I only think about food....yikes!)

Brazil has time changes too. Its weird...in September they change to summer time and lose an hour (it was a terrible night because we lost an hour of sleep! haha!) But then in February they change back and we gain an hour--meaning one more hour to sleep...WOOOO! Other than that, they don't change. I think we are only 3 hours different right now then...not sure. Its almost 4pm right now here.

Thanks for the notes from the conference. Sounds like it was really good!

A few stories:

A new Bishop was finally called in our ward here in Nova Granada. Its been about 5 weeks since our Bishop was released and we were left without! The bittersweet part is that our Ward Mission Leader, Cassio, whom we love very dearly and was helping a lot, was called to be a counselor in the Bishopric and the other counselor who was called is a young man, returned missionary, who just moved to our ward. Him and his wife are RMs and always help us too. So if we were to lose Cassio, I would have wanted him as our Mission Leader but now he´s in the Bishopric too! haha! But I know the Lord knows what He is doing and that its even better with them in the Bishopric because they know how important missionary work is!

We are teaching an awesome girl, Karina and her boyfriend, Altair. He is a member whose been inactive for a while and Karina is a sister of a member in our ward. She always participated in young womans and everything as a girl but her dad authorize for her to be baptized. Then she fell away for awhile, met Altair, and they decided recently that they want to return and follow the Savior again. I´m attaching a photo of us with them in their cute little one room house! Next week we will mark her wedding. I think I already mentioned them before but we had to work out a few financials and now its all going well for them to mark the wedding and everything. They will most likely get married and in turn she will be baptized on the 11th of December!

Other important thing: Next week we are going to the Temple so our P-day will be Wednesday, not Monday. So dont get upset when I dont email on Monday....wait for Wednesday! haha!

Love you all very much!!

Sister Knudsen

PS: Photos: #1000594 is a Jaca Plant...that weird thing is a fruit called Jaca. Yeah...its funny! #1000590 is the wonderful shake and french toast and gift that Sister Felipe made for/gave to me for my 1 year on the mission mark! It was on the 11th...YIKES...can you believe a year has already passed?!?!?!?! I received the package the next day so its was great timing!!!

Hey!

Its crazy how long things can take to get here! Sometimes its faster though, so I am not sure when the christmas package should be sent. I´d say to give it a good 6 weeks...so the sooner the better...hahaha! We have transfers on the 8th of December, and then after that I dont know when anyone will be going to the office. But I can go on a P-day if necessary to pick it up. Plus I think we will all do some sort of ativity in the area of the office for Christmas...I dont know. So I could get it there too. Not sure!

I got a package from the primary there in your ward today! It made me smile! Its a bunch of fancy artwork from the kids! hahaha! Love it! I still havent looked at all of them but its very cute!

Fun news: I got a letter from Steffen FINALLY! He is going to BYU-Idaho studying music, and is engaged to a cute girl named Emily, who is also a music major. They are getting married the morning of new years if I remember correctly. Sounds like she is super perfect for him! I´m glad he is doing well. The mission was very good for him.

So the sad news is that our mission was having some problems with new investigators. So our President reinforced the fact that we need to be talking with people everyday. We are doing at least 10 contacts per day now and actually doing and not just saying we should do it like sometimes happens. It is going VERY well! I am sad that I got in the habit of not doing many contacts because now we are finding a lot of people who are interested. The Lord is waiting to help us find his elect but we have to open our mouths to find them! I am learning so much on the mission....that I need to trust so much in him! He is in control and he is GOD....so yeah...of course he knows what do it and I have no idea so I need HIM!

This week we had another amazing present. We randomly passed in the house of a member and while we were there, her sister in law was passing through the house and told this member to send us to her house. So we went there and found out that she is living with a less active member and already know everything about the church and wants to be baptized. We invited them to get married and he proposed to her in that moment and it was SUPER sweet and amazing! The next day we went to the office in the center of the city to mark the wedding, but they had to do a few things first so they should have gonet his morning to mark for good. I hope it went well. Her name is Karina and his name is Altair (al-tie-ir). They are awesome, but she needs lots of prayers because she feels like every time she starts to try and do what is right, that she feels a depression and urge to cry and give up. The devil works so hard to stop people from doing what is right....ugh! So your prayers in her behalf would be very appreciated. She is really an incredible person! I love her so much after less than one week!!

Alright. Times up, but I love you guys like crazy! Até mais!

Erin

I LOVE YOU!!!!

Isn't she a beauty!?

Hahahahaha...so a tank is a machine that swirls water with much force. You put in the clothes and the soap and fill the tank with water. Then you turn it on and its swirls and swirls for about 15 minutes. Then you let the water drain out and you rinse the clothes and wring they as best as you can so that they can dry faster! Its very common here. Only those who are a little weller off have washing machines. Makes you grateful, right? I feel very blessed for all we have in our house there in AZ! I´m sorry if I ever complained that we were poor and didnt have anything. We have what we need and much more!

Elder Bednar was amazing. He presented his "talk" (it was more of a discussion) in the same manner that we must teach. He had asked for us to read 2 talks of his. Then in his talk he asked us what we had learned. With every question he asked, "may I ask you a question?" He emphasized the importance of us giving agency to our investigatores. They need to have their own learning experiences to gain their own testimonies of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the gospel. It was very eye-opening.

Pictures from Conference:

Sister Santos and I

3 Generations

The elders from the MTC!

Times up!

LOVE YOU ALL!