I do not know anything ... Part 2 haha

This is my last week of my first transer in the field!! I had a pretty good week, but so much has happened in the last 72 hours that I dont really remember anything that happened until Christmas Eve haha.

Christmas Eve we made a fancy dinner that we were going to eat with our new investigator because she lives alone and didnt have any plans...but she wasnt home. We ended up singing Christmas songs to a bunch of people with our neighbor elders and eating our fancy dinner with them and a nice member, who was also alone for the night.

Christmas was a little bit crazy! At like 8am all of our plans for the day fell through. We didnt have a place to eat or skype with our families, so we ended up walking around for like 2 hours trying to find an open computer lab. We ran into a Ward member who has internet and a bunch of computers and he let us go to his house and talk to our families! It was great to see my family :) We didnt have a place for dinner, so we ate hamburgers and hot chocolate at a tiny restaurant that is like one step up from a Street taco stand because nothing else was really open and we didnt have a lot of money haha. At like 9:30 that night we got a call from the mission president´s assistants and my companion got transferred the next morning. I didn´t sleep at all that night because we had to pack all of her stuff and we took a bus super early in the morning to another city to meet our new companions. No one really know why we had these special transfers...real transfers arent until the end of this week.

I am pretty stressed out haha. I barely know whats going on...I dont really know the streets or spanish or the people and now I am showing a new person around. My new companion is really sweet, but she has only been on the mission for 5 months and she doesnt talk or take the lead on anything. I have been here for 5 weeks and I have to make all of the decisions and figure out where we are going haha. It is all good though. Everyone here is super nice and helpful; they offer their time, families and homes to me :)

I cant believe that it is almost 2016! So far on my mission i havnt helped anyone...everyone has helped me WAY more than I have helped them. I hope that next year will be different. I know that this crazy transfer experience will help me grow a lot and I will be a more competent missionary. The two things that I have learned for sure here in Mexico are:

1. God´s plan is always better than mine. If it was up to me I would probably still be at school or something, I would have wanted to go to the Provo MTC instead of the one in Mexico, and I would still be with my trainer haha. But I know that everything happens for a reason and God only does what is best for us.

2. Prayer and time can fix anything. I have learned to take things one day (sometimes just 10 minutes) at a time, and how to completely rely on the Lord.

I love and miss everyone!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Hermana Knudsen

Mosiah 24

Feliz Navidad!

This week was pretty sweet! We had our mission christmas party on Wednesday; we watched a movie, got flu shots, and I met a bunch of new missionaries. That night was also our ward christmas party and my comp, the elders and I sang a christmas song in Spanish and wore Santa hats. Here they also have these little christmas parties called Posadas in the streets. Every night the week before christmas people go around and sing and then have a bunch of food and piñatas! The parties are like the only things that feel Christmasy though haha. It´s pretty warm, we don´t have snow, decorations or christmas songs, so I can't really believe that it is christmas this week haha.

So this was probably the funnest and most stressful week of the mission so far. The parties were great and we found this lady to do our laundry for us!! She washes, dries and folds it all for like $2 haha!! It was stressful because at the mission christmas party my mission president took me aside and told me that my companion is going to be transferred, so I really need to learn the streets and people here so that I can show my next companion around. I don´t think that anyone here understands that I literally know nothing haha!!

My favorite part about mexico is the prices!! I can buy a giant donut and a tamale for breakfast for less than a buck!! They also have these awesome flea markets every week with the coolest stuff! I bought a cool soccer jersey and a sick Mexico hat for like $20!!

I am actually kind of excited to spend my first christmas here in Mexico! Not gonna lie...leaving in october is kind of hard. I spent halloween in the MTC, my first week in the field was during thanksgiving (they dont celebrate thanksgiving here haha), and now its christmas and I'm still not really comfortable. But...I know that the things we do in this church are eternal. Bringing souls unto Christ will bring them happiness for all eternity...18 months is nothing compared to eternity. Also, all of the knowledge, experiences and relationships I have made in the last 2 months will last a lifetime...so being here for two christmases is totally worth it!!

Love and miss everyone!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Hermana Knudsen

Missionaries and Hermana Lupita, who feeds them!! <3

Yay for P-day!

Wow, I am so grateful to be writing this email haha. The other missionaries convinced me that we didnt have P day today! They told me that every fourth P day of the transfer we dont get P day because we have to go to this other city and do a big service project. All of the other missionaries in my district are at least 2 years older than me, are catholic converts, and are from mexico...Im new, american, dont speak spanish, and dont know nothing about mexico or the catholic church...so they make fun of me allll the time hahahah. They have made me do and believe so many dumb things because I have no idea what is going on here haha. Its ok though, I still find ways to make fun of them too :P

I had my first meal that I couldnt handle haha. It was tortilla and some kind of meat...which would have been good...but then it got dumped in this nasty brown, chunky sauce and I could only eat half of it. I tried my best and said that I loved it and asked if I could take the rest home with me. Luckily they believed me and gave me more to take home haha. In these 3 weeks I have learned to like and try a lot of foods. I now like onions, avacados, tomatoes and orange juice. I still wish that I liked spicy foods, sour cream and the weird cheeses and desserts everyone here feeds us haha.

Our investigator who was the most excited to get baptized on the 19th, cant get baptized. :( Everyone was super sad about it, and were working with him so that he can get baptized later! It is crazy to me how much you can care about people you have only known for 3 weeks.

Yesterday we went to the Tijuana temple dedication. We stayed for all 3 sessions, so it was kind of a long day, but it was incredible! I really felt the spirit, my testimony grew, and I had a cool gift of tongues experience during the third session!

I havent slept well at all this week. Our cell phone with the alarm keeps dying in the night, so we switched to a regular clock to wake us up. It ticks really loud all night and drives me crazy haha. Also, the big Catholic church has had fireworks and bells ringing nonstop day and night-so im super tired all the time haha.

Spiritual Thought:

 (HA, no I am not becoming a church nerd...i just dont want you to think that all I do is mess around down here haha)

This week I think that I finally gained an unshakable testimony. I owe it all to the scriptures. I know Im a missionary...so I have to like reading the scriptures and stuff haha :P but honestly, scripture study has become my favorite part of the day! I promise that if you read the scriptures with a sincere heart and real intent, they will help you and bless your life. 

Scriptures of the week: Mosiah 2-5

Merry almost Christmas!!

Love,

Hermana Knudsen

Week 2 in San Miguel

Ay caray! I am so tired because I just whooped a bunch of Latinos at soccer haha :P

Last Monday I got my first contact!! I spoked to him in spanish and everything haha, it was awesome. He came to a ward activity on wednesday but we are not sure if he lives in our area or not...

On Tuesday we went to a zone conference and after we got to costco!! i have been eating like 3 giant muffins a day haha. The food has actually been pretty good! The weirdest thing I have eaten so far is cactus (nopales?) and it wasnt even bad haha. 

This week my comp left our keys inside, and we got locked out. Luckily our house is really easy to break into because our door is made out of glass and metal bars and there is a hole in the glass right by the handle hahaha so I just stuck my hand through the hole and opened the door. I get to be in charge of the keys now, so that's cool.

We were walking to an appointment and I saw like 10 cops/military guys all piled in the back of a truck. They all had giant guns, so i was staring at them and they waved at me haha. On our way back from the appointment a few of them were standing outside a building, so I asked for a picture with them. My comp thought i was crazy, but its a cool picture haha.

We have 3 investigators with baptismal dates for this month!! I am not sure how many of them count as baptisms for me, because my companion was working with them before i got here...but 2 of them didnt have baptismal dates until after they heard my testimony...so I feel kind of accomplished haha. I really feel like the Lord has blessed me and my compaion for our efforts. I am working so hard on being the best missionary i can be, even though i cant really talk to the people haha.

Our investigators are crazy. They all have crazy personal problems that i wouldnt be able to help them with even if i could understand them. One of them cant read, so teaching about the book of mormon is really hard haha. My companion is super patient and great though! Its actually suuuuper hard having a companion who doesnt speak english. i thought it would make it easier for me to learn spanish, but its actually really hard because she cant explain anything to me.

Overall, life is good. I walk a ton and Im super confused all of the time, but I am learning a lot! See you all in like 16 months haha

-Hermana Knudsen

Hermana Knudsen and Hermana Cruz

ha, never thought id be living in the middle of mexic wearing a hula skirt

The big cathdral of san miguel at night

I Do Not Know Anything haha

Hola from San Miguel!

My last week at the MTC was awesome! The last night we had a party, and saying goodbye was really hard. I left for my mission Monday morning and I thought that I would be able to sit with Elder Marshall on the bus and speak English, but they separated the elders and sisters. I was the only American/English speaker so that was my first taste of complete spanish haha. 

We spent the first two days training, meeting the mission president and saying goodbye to all of the missionaries finishing their missions. Not gonna lie, I was super jealous of them haha. Those first two days I had way too much time to think and I was stressing. I spent 70% of the time having no idea what was going on because everything was in spanish, 20% freaking out and missing everyone, 5% reassuring myself and 5% having fun. I feel quite a bit better now though, I probably have fun like 20% of the time haha.

I am in San Miguel and its pretty cool. I guess it is really touristy so when we go down town I see a lots of americans and europeans who speak english! My companion is really cool and nice, but she does not speak any english and communicating is hard sometimes. We are next door neighbors with some elders and one of them speaks about as much english as i do spanish, so its really fun to be with them!

The food has been better than i expected! we have chicken, rice and vegetables everyday haha. We have lunch with members everyday around 3 oclock. We have not had time to go to the store or anything yet, so for breakfast we eat this mushy cereal and then we dont really eat dinner. We walk a TON so I will probably come home nice and skinny haha.

Our ward mission leader speaks english! He is the nephew of President Lyons at the MTC, and he has a bunch of brothers who speak perfect english in the ward too. They all lived in the US for a few years and on saturday they invited us and the Elders to their house for thanksgiving!! It was delicious and it felt so good to hear people speaking only english haha.

We have to wash our clothes by hand, the roads are suuuuper rocky and hard to walk on, our house has cockroaches, and i can barely understand anyone...but other than that I love being out in the field!! I love and miss everyone!! VIVA MËXICO!

HERMANA KNUDSEN

Last night at MTC - Hermana Roberts

Last night at MTC with District C