Everyone should know Jill will be coming home on July 24th and she will speak in our Sacrament Meeting on July 27th at 1:00pm

Dear Family,

It's been rainy this week.  But not cold.  It looks like it should be cold, but then we walk outside and suddenly we're drowning in the humidity and we just want it to rain even harder so that we can cool off.  

I'll tell you the random things first and the good stuff later.  Thursday we met Captain Hook.  He's a Jehovah's Witness.  We had a sort of nice conversation and then he shook our hands with his hook and told us to look up jw.org.  we said no thanks.   

Also! We met the manager of Imagine Dragons.  (They're in Arendal for a big music festival) She recognized who we were and said, "it's okay I already know about you guys because I work for a mormon based band."  But she was really nice and said she would check out our website.  So we're leaving it in the band's hands.  They'll teach her the gospel   

Saturday we finally got to do some service for some members!! We were so excited to pull some weeds!  But she only let us work for about 5 minutes and then made us come inside out of the rain and fed us pancakes.  She's from Korea, so they were vegetable pancakes.   

Here's the miracle: On wendesday we were walking through the city to catch our bus and we stopped this girl named Josefine and started talking to her about Christ.  Suddenly these kids come running around the corner towards us, a girl about 13 and a boy about 11.  They get to us and start talking to this girl, they needed to get her number or something.  And then she asks the kids if they know us, because we're christian too.  So they start talking to us and they tell us this amazing story.  They were at the store and they felt like they needed to buy a coke that had the name Solveig on it. (I don't know if it is the same in the states, but here coke is doing a promotion where they put names on coke bottles, so you can get a coke with your name on it if that makes you happy) These kids didn't know anyone named solveig but they felt like they needed to find someone who knew solveig and could give her the coke.  So they go out in the city and start asking people if they know a Solveig.  They finally get to Josefine and ask her, "Do you know anyone named Solveig? Because we need you to give her this coke and tell her that we're praying for her." And it turns our that Josefine's little sister is named Solveig and has cancer.  So they gave her the coke to give to her sister.  So cool! This little 11 year old boy was crying as he told us this story.  And Josefine told us she'd been feeling like she'd lost her connection with God.  But we told her, "Hey, God wants you to know He's there and He cares about you.  This is how he talks to us most of the time, through other people.  Through these little miracles. 

I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Love, 

Søster Knapp

June 23

The work never stops.  Baling hay at midnight.  It's funny that I get more sleep as a missionary than I did when I was at home.  I've been sleeping in until 6:30.  But! I did have to get up at 5 on friday because we had to drive 3 hours to Stavanger for our Zone Conference.  It was the PRETTIEST drive of my life.  Norway is magical.  

Monday evening we took the bus out to a neighboring city to go knock on doors, and then we walked back to the bus stop to catch the 8:20 bus back to Arendal.  We waited at the stop for a couple of minutes until the bus came.  It came, but it didn't stop, it just kept driving past us.  The next bus wasn't coming until after 9:30 so we started walking.  After walking a while we saw a sign that said 6 kilometers to Arendal.  We had no idea how we were going to make it back before 9:30 but all we could do was keep walking.  After almost an hour of walking a member was driving by and stopped to pick us up, and then drove us home.  And we made it right on time!  Tender mercy. 

On wednesday the sister training leaders flew in from Bergen to come on splits with us.  We had a busy day planned with as many appointments as we could since we had 2 companionships to work in our area. So me and Sister Mourik thought we had a full schedule until all the appointments cancelled right before, so the back up plan was knocking on doors!  And that's what we did.  All day.  The thing about knocking on doors in Arendal is that to get to each door requires climbing a mountain or a whole bunch of stairs, or both.  So we were dead tired by the end of it, but it was awesome because while knocking we met this man who was blind from an accident when he was younger, but he's always been Christian and we just had a really incredible conversation with him about God's plan and about the Book of Mormon.  But of course we couldn't just give him a book of mormon because he can't read it, and there's no audio book in norwegian online, but Sister Mourik knew about a bishop in Skien, another area she'd served in who had made his own recording of the book of mormon in norwegian, so she told him about that, and it turns out this man is just visiting family in Arendal and actually lives in the ward boundaries of this bishop in Skien. So he gave us his number and address and wants to meet with the missionaries down there.  So cool!

Friday we went to Zone Conference in Stavanger.  it was amazing! one of the best zone conferences ever.  The theme was the Book of Mormon.  We talked mainly about using the book of mormon to answer questions of the soul.  I love the Book of Mormon!! 

We also had "burnimonies" where all the departing missionaries share their testimonies.  Which is kind of difficult because after a year and a half of incredible life changing experiences and life lessons what do you say? I decided to just share a simple experience from the beginning of my mission, I'm sure I've already mentioned it in an email, but it was over a year ago so I'll just repeat it.  It was my first transfer with Sister Pace in Oslo.  We went to mlc with the zone leaders and assistants at president's house.  I was a little greenie amongst experienced leaders of the mission and when it was time for our practical we were odd numbers, so I had to go with president and practice teaching him the restoration.  I was kind of intimidated, but I taught him about Joseph Smith and at the end he gave me some feedback.  I thought he would give me some language advice or some teaching skill tips, but instead he talked about eye contact. He said to look my investigators in the eyes while I teach them, and especially as I testify of the restoration. I've never forgotten that advice my whole mission.  It's pretty simple, but there's so much power in you're teaching when you're able to look your investigators in the eyes and tell them that you know this church is true, that joseph smith is a prophet, and that the book of mormon is true.  And so I'm grateful for the testimony that I have, that I am so sure this is true and am able to bear my testimony to people with confidence.

Jeg er glad i dere! 

love, Søster Knapp

June 30
Thanks for the birthday wishes!!! It was a great day! The relief society had an activity and we ate lots of cake!! 

also! We taught a women with alzheimers this week! She was 94!!! She was ancient!!!  we didn't realize how old she was or that she had alzheimers because when she answered the door she didn't actually come down and open the door, she just yelled at us from her deck, and told us to come around to the back door.  And she was one of the first nice people to talk to us all day.  so we came in and tried to teach her, but she ended up just telling us her life story about 3 times... because she'd forgotten that she'd already told us.  And then she kept asking us who we were and couldn't hear or understand us, all we could get across to her was that we were from America, and then she would forget and ask us again, and get excited all over again! We realized that she might just have to wait until the next life to hear our message so we said a prayer with her to end it and during the prayer she forgot everything we had just talked about, so as we slowly, slowly, walked with her to the door she told us her life story one more time and made us introduce ourselves again, haha.  But she was really sweet and so grateful for our visit! 

But the miracle of the week is that a man who we'd given a card to called us back the same day and said he'd looked at the website and felt that we were really positive, so he wanted to get a Book of Mormon! We met with him and he has struggled with some things but realizes it's time for him to get his life in order and fix things with his family- his wife and children.  And he knows this can help!! 

We were really blessed this week! lots of good things happened!  Arendal is a magical place. 

Jeg er glad i dere!

Love, Søster Knapp