Mar. 25, 2013
Wow.
This week has been amazing! We had zone conference on Monday and it was awesome.
I was in charge of the musical number because they found out I can play the
piano and put me in charge of the music stuff. not a good idea, but I tried to
get someone in my district to sing or something and everyone claimed to have no
musical ability. So they all sang, haha. It was an awesome day and President
Evans gave us some good advice about enjoying our missions and some other good
stuff. But then we all had our interviews with President and I found out I'll
be training next transfer. In May. Way too soon. I'm terrified. I know it's
all going to be okay, but I'm nervous just thinking about it. I guess it gives
me some extra motivation for this transfer though. To be a better teacher,
learn the language, and learn everything I can from Sister Pace.
After
zone conference we were pumped up for the week, and then the next couple of days
were kind of disappointing. We had lots of appointments fall through and our
potential investigators are all on vacation for the next week and a half for
Påske (Easter). It's a really big deal here, everyone is out of school and has
work off for a week and a half and they leave the city. I'm not sure what they
do... but they're not here and we can't meet with them for a while. which
stinks. So Wednesday we had no appointments and had this big 3 hour block of
contacting planned. But we were super pumped and excited to find people. We
had only been out for an hour and we found this girl that was interested. We
asked when we could meet with her and she said, "I'm free today." so we went to
her apartment and taught her! And scheduled another appointment. She's
Filipino, but she's lived here for a long time. We've taught people from
everywhere, Ghana, Nigeria, Portugal, Peru, Sweden, Poland, India, Iraq, and
Iran. everywhere. Her name's Percy, and she was our first miracle this week.
Our next one was sunday. The last day of the week and we needed one more new
investigator to meet the mission goal. We were doing everything we could do to
get that last one, calling old numbers on our phone, and then we went out
contacting before dinner. But then Sister Pace decided to text the man she met
on the trykk on the way to church that morning and see if he could meet today.
He said he could come after work. He came, we had an awesome teach, and
scheduled another appointment. We got our last investigator the very end of the
day, the last day of the week. Miracle. So what I learned this week is that
the church is true, and miracles happen! and a lot of other good stuff. I'm
learning new stuff everyday. I love it. Being a missionary is the
best.
Jeg er glad i dere,
Søster Knapp
April 1, 2013
Happy Easter! thats awesome that everyone was home. I had to give a talk in
church easter sunday. That was a little scary, but i did it! just a short 5
minute one. But I had to write everything down because I knew i would blank out
and not be able to say anything in norwegian haha. We speak norwegian most of
the time, but some people don't speak it so then we just speak english. And
sometimes when I talk to people in norwegian they can tell that i'm american so
then they start speaking english, and I have to tell them no, i've got to speak
norwegian! Haha, ya i really am the only one that plays the piano. Even in the
ward, there's one woman who plays the organ and the piano for everything. And i
asked her on sunday if she could play for the baptism meeting on saturday, but
she can't, and she's sick of being the only one that can play, so i'm probably
playing for that too because there really isn't anyone else. haha. good thing
you made me learn it. thanks mom:)
funny story of the week: me and Sister Pace have a problem, we fall down
every day. every day. There's still lots of ice on the sidewalks, so that's
usually the cause of it. but the other day we were running home because we were
going to be late. We were running across an intersection and all the sudden
Sister Pace completely belly flops in the middle of the street. all the way
down. there wasn't any ice, she just tripped, and ate it. so hard. haha. And
since then we've been falling daily. Stairs have been hard for me, I'm just too
clumsy. But no one has given me a hard time for being a blonde! People are
just nicer here, no hating on blondes.
We have 2 baptisms on saturday. Carla and Maria del Pilar, Carla is from
Portugal and doesn't speak norwegian so we've been teaching her in english.
They started teaching her before i got here, but teaching her has been amazing.
She just wants to do everything right and has changed her life so much. She's
had a hard time trying to find a better job so that she can bring her son to
norway this summer, and she just got out of a bad divorce, and life's been hard
for her but she's so much happier now. Maria del Pilar is from Peru and has
been living here for a couple months with her cousin who is a member. We taught
her for the first time my first day here. She only speaks spanish, so we speak
norwegian and her cousin translates to spanish for her. 2 languages that I
can't understand! haha, that's how i felt the first day. but Sister Pace told
me to give her the baptismal commitment, so i tried to say it and stumbled
through it and she didn't understand and i tried to get through it again and
somehow finally got the question across and Maria just smiled and said "Si."
She's the coolest woman. She's had an incredibly hard life and she's been
searching for the gospel for so long. And she knew this was it the very first
teach. Her life is so different than it was just a couple months ago and it's
amazing to see how happy she is. The gospel is true, and when you figure that
out it can change your life. I knew it was true before i came out here, but
it's strengthened my testimony so much. Being a missionary is the best:)
Love, Søster Knapp
P.S. The pictures are from last p-day when we went to Frogner park. It's
one of the most famous places in Oslo. It's a park with lots of statues, and
they're not very modest... So we just hurried and walked through it to say we'd
been there and didn't look at them too much haha. But it was pretty cool. We
wanted a picture of the whole district and it didn't work out too well.
April 8, 2013
This has been the best week. So much good stuff. Tuesday we went to zone
leadership training, its usally just the zone leaders and the APs so as sisters
it was kind of weird to go but President wanted someone to represent the sisters
because we have so many coming in next transfer. I'm really glad we got to go
though. I learned a lot and it was cool to what the leaders in the mission are
doing. They work really hard to improve the mission, to find any way we can do
the work better. A huge problem we have here is that people will get baptized
and then go inactive within a few months and we focused a lot on that. The ward
here in Oslo has hundreds of inactive members that they have to worry about and
we don't want to give them any more. But it was a really good meeting, I didn't
say much, I was the youngest and the most inexperienced person there so i didn't
feel like i had much to contribute. but I learned a ton. We have some good
missionaries here.
Then we had our 2 baptisms on saturday! It was the most incredible meeting.
Both our baptisms speak spanish so we wanted it to be special for them. All
the spanish members came, but many of the norwegians too so we had a translator
from spanish to norwegian. so i didn't understand hardly any of what was said,
but the spirit there was incredible and Maria and Carla were so happy. We found
out the hour before the meeting started that we were doing the musical number.
Our district had to sing How Great Thou Art in spanish, most of us took it in
high school, but after learning norwegian it is impossible to pronounce spanish
words. haha, I know it sounded awful but at the same time it was great. Bishop
Muren got up at the end of the meeting to give his closing remarks. And he
started speaking in spanish. He can't speak it, but he had translated his talk
and it was the sweetest thing in the world the way he welcomed them into the
ward.
General Conference was this weekend too! I have never enjoyed conference as
much as I did this time, and I got so much out of it. President Evans talked to
me a lot about training on monday so that was what was on my mind all during
conference and so many of the talks addressed all my worries exactly. Especially
Sister Dalton and Elder Holland. He said, "don't hyperventilate" which is
exactly what President Evans said to me haha, i guess i needed to hear it twice.
But it was sooo good. The best weekend, and I'm looking forward to another
great week!
love, Sister Knapp
Kay, I'll start with the funny story of the week: I sat by an older woman that
was sitting alone in relief society. We talked a little before the meeting
started, I told her I was from Idaho and she was so excited because she has
family there. (So many people that I talked to this week had connections to
Idaho, which is weird, because usually people have never heard of it before).
So anyways, we talked for a little bit and then the lesson started. Normally I
don't really participate in the lesson because I'm not even sure what it's
about. I can understand most of the words people say, but it's hard to connect
everything and follow what the point of the lesson is. But the teacher asked
for a volunteer to read a paragraph from the book. The old woman next to me
quickly raised her hand and then pointed to me and handed me her book while
whispering, "stå opp!" So I stood up and read the paragraph, thankfully I
wasn't asked to share my thoughts after, I just hurried and sat down and hoped
that she wouldn't force me to do anything else. well... she did. we had to
split up and discuss how we could help other woman in the relief society or
something like that. so we talked about it and then the teacher asked for what
we came up with. So this woman started elbowing me again, "dele, dele" "share
our answers!" and then she raised her hand and pointed to me again. So I said
"vi kan besøke dem!" (we can visit them), so original. But then she kept
elbowing me, "say the other one too!" so i hurried and added, "and we need to
find out what they need." haha. Afterwards my companion told me she was so
proud that I participated in relief society and then I told her what really
happened, i was forced. haha
April 15, 2013
It was another good week! they're all so good:) We had dinner with a woman
in the ward. We took Unnur, an investigator from the Elders. She's getting
baptized this weekend. Her parents, her boyfriend, and almost everyone she
knows is completely against everything and it's been difficult, so we wanted her
to meet this woman because her story is amazing and we wanted her to share it
with Unnur. She was an exchange student in Jerome in high school and she found
out about the church there. (so she loves Idaho!) When she came back to Norway
she eventually contacted the missionaries. She kept seeing them on the street
but was nervous to talk to them, then finally she decided if I see them one more
time i'll talk to them. Then she saw them in a cafe and ran in and told them
that she needed to talk to them. (thats my dream, to have someone run up to me
and ask to be taught) wow. So she joined the church, married a return
missionary, and had a son. And then her husband left her for another woman.
But she decided that she had to stay in the church. And she's so strong. And
Unnur loved it, she was so inspired.
Also, we got a baptismal date this week from Filipe! He's a referral from
Carla- the one that just got baptized. He's really cool and we're excited for
him. Him and Carla have been dating so our vision is that they're gonna go to
the temple and this is gonna be an eternal family right here. :) So it's been
another amazing week!
Jer er gled i dere!
Søster Knapp
April 22, 2013
It was a good week again. Unnur got baptized saturday and it was a great
meeting. We've been teaching two guys that are 7th day adventists. He was one
of the first people i contacted my first week in Oslo and we've been meeting
with him and his friend for a while. They're both open to finding more truth
and they've been studying the Book of Mormon really hard. The problem is that
they're studying it against the Bible to make sure it doesn't contradict and
we're having a hard time making them understand that if they want to find out
that it's true they've got to pray about it. So they've been reading the Book
of Mormon like crazy but they're not going to find out if it's true. A couple
weeks ago we had Unnur on a teach with them and they found out she was getting
baptized and wanted to come. So one came and brought some friends and it was
great. But he brought Unnur a present, a book from their prophet- Ellen White.
The elders that teach Unnur are worried that they're going to try to convert
her. So it's kind of a funny situation. But it's frustrating because we really
don't know how we can teach them if they don't get a testimony about the Book of
Mormon. They can't accept anything we teach if they don't have that. So it's
hard to know what to do. They really are searching for more truth, and it's
right here. They would see it if they could just soften their hearts.
Also, we met with Filipe this week and he told us he doesn't want to get
baptized and he doesn't want to meet anymore. He believes the Book of Mormon
and he feels like he needs to get baptized eventually but he wants to be more
prepared. The problem is that he hadn't prayed about the Book of Mormon yet and
we don't know what he's waiting for. I don't think he knows either. But we had
a really good teach with him. We read about Alma the Younger, talked about
baptism and commited him to pray about the Book of Mormon that night. It's was
a really good teach, the spirit was strong and there was a lot of silence, just
letting him think about things. And before he left he said he really wants to
keep meeting, but he's still not ready to be baptized and he's not going to come
to church. So we're kind of at a stand still right now.
We visited an inactive family this week. She's a single mom with 3 kids
and the oldest is 8 and could be baptized. So we taught the kids about the
stripling warriors and being obedient to their mom. We showed them pictures and
they absolutely loved it. They wanted more stories and didn't want us to leave.
It was so fun to teach little kids. We told them about primary and got them
super excited about it, and then they didn't come. But we're going to keep
visiting them and get them active again!
So moral of the story its: you just got to have a testimony of the Book of
Mormon to be truly converted. It was kind of a hard week considering our
investigators that aren't progressing, but we got lots of new investigators and
have return appointments with some of them this week. So things are looking up.
It's going to be a good week!
Jeg er glad i dere,
Søster Knapp
April 29, 2013
Tuesday we had some time to go out contacting and we split up. When we try
to stop people most of them just say "sorry, no time" or "ikke interesert" but I
stopped one man and he had time to talk, we started talking about Christ and he
told me an interesting theory that he had discovered. He said the only way
Christ could've had so much self control and been so calm when the soldiers took
him was because... wait for it... Christ and his apostles were known to go out
in the wilderness to fast and do warrior yoga. Ah, it was so hard to keep a
straight face, I laughed a little (I couldn't hold it all in) and then asked,
"where did that come from?" Then preceded to explain how Christ was perfect,
but then somehow the conversation topic turned into reincarnation. i could
understand most of what he was saying, but he kept saying "kat" so i had to ask
what it meant and he meowwed. he really did. So from what I understood he
wants to come back to this life as a cat. He was really nice, just really
confused. poor guy.
We met with Filipe again last week. He's doing really good, he knows the
book of mormon is ture, just still not wanting to get baptized yet. He said I
will be baptized I just want to wait 3 or 6 months, don't you guys think thats
okay? And we didn't really think that was okay, so I pulled out Alma 7:15 on
him and said, "I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty specific." We
commited him to pray about it and we're meeting with him again tomorrow, so
we'll see.
Things are going good. I love being a missionary! And Norway is the best
place to be a missionary. I love it here:)
Love, Søster Knapp
May 6, 2013
Haha, sounds like you had a fun day friday. It's been kind of nice not having a
car. We just take public transportation everywhere, but I had to go get my
driver's license this morning. They took away my american one and i'll get my
norwegian one soon.
It's been a little warmer this week and really sunny. So everyone's
outisde in their shorts, and we're still wearing layers and jackets. Haha, I
guess it's warm, but i'm still freezing. I'm waiting for summer, but i'm
thinking maybe this is as warm as it gets. of-da
It's been a good week, but kind of interesting. Sister Pace and I both got
proposed to by a man in the ward. He couldn't choose between us so he asked
both of us. But he did it over text so it was pretty easy to say no.
We also had another zone leader meeting, except now it's called missionary
leader council because Sister Pace and another sister are sister training
leaders. Which means they have to fly all over norway and go on splits with the
other sisters, just like the zone leaders do with the elders. So I was just
there because my compaion had to be there. We split up in companionships to do a
practical on the first vision part of the first teach. But there was three of
us sisters so President Evans decided I got to do it with him. That was a
little intimidating, but i've been out of my comfort zone so much the past 2
months, and you just do it. It was pretty cool to do a practical with him, got
some one on one time and some great advice.
It's been a little slower the past couple weeks because we only have one
solid progressing investigator and things are going super slow with her. But
she's awesome, and she always comes to church. She has a 3 year old boy and I
sat by them on sunday and we colored and played games so his mom could listen.
it was pretty fun:) little kids are the best.
Sister Pace and I had a really powerful experience on sunday. I'll have to
tell you about it next year, but what I realized after all of it is that the
Holy Ghost is real, and in D&C 84:88 the Lord says he'll be on our right, on
our left, in our hearts, and His angels will be round about us, to bear us up.
That's real, and I like to think my brother is one of those angels. I'm pretty
sure he's watching out for me:) I love you guys, I have the best family in the
world! Happy Mother's day mom!
love, Søster Knapp
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