April 18th, 2011 Email From Sister Knutson

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Hey Everyone!

 The MTC is amazing! I love it so much. I have two companions and truly amazing district. I was called to be the Coordinating Sister for the zone and we are getting new sisters this week. It is basically the Relief Society President for the MTC. The spirit is so strong here. You can feel it all the time. There have been some great things I have been learning. President Packer said about Preach My Gospel that it was written on the other side of the veil and we (meaning the 12 Apostles) were able to bring it forth. I am apart of a pilot program for the MTC, the entire way of teaching is completely changing. We are completely focusing on the investigators almost to the point that we are not hardly using Preach My Gospel. Everything is done by the Spirit. We get to know an investigator, find out what their needs are, teach them the doctrine and then commit them. I am learning how to tell when someone wants to be commited to baptism and am learning how even on the first lesson.

 

Something funny, the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission (OTM) has a saying around here that it is the "Only True Mission" (OTM). I have a timer at the top of my screen and it is kind of stressing me out, so I think I will go back to my room and send you a letter. Next week I'll be more prepared with the good stuff. 

 

Spiritual experience: we have been doing a lot of role playing and one of them is to put yourself in the investigators shoes and someone else in your district teaches you one-on-one. This is so you can get experience and feel truly how the investigators feels and so that the "missionary" can get experience teaching by the Spirit. This one-on-one teaching is probably my favorite thing (we haven't done much companionship teaching yet) because the Spirit really is the one that teaches and it is all from the heart and testimony, not too much scripture and pushy-ness. I have found that I am able to communicate well with people and really ask them thought-provoking questions. I got an atheist to pray :) (or another missionary role playing as his atheist friend who apparently was really argumentative)

 

We also get to teach our teachers the discussions. They role play someone from their mission and we need to teach them. The elders had a hard time with one of the investigators, but us sisters were able to get him to open up (after testimony bearing and questions on his part).

 

I love being a missionary. I miss you all so much but please don't worry one bit about me. I haven't had any trouble with homesickness and actually the 10:30 to 6:30 sleep schedule is too much for me. I am usually waking up around 5 (its kind of a pain). I think I am losing weight and the food is really good. Jessie Williams lives on my hall and Mandy's classroom is right down the hall from mine so I get to see them pretty regularly.

 

We went to the temple this morning and it was amazing.

 

I love you and I got to go!!!!

 

Tons of love,

 

Sister Knutson

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Suddenly I Feel Overwhelmed...

So I knew that my date to leave was coming soon, 

but I had no idea that it was ... 

18 DAYS AWAY! 

Holy cow! I love cows. I hope I can own a cow someday. Or maybe a few hundred. Good thing I will be in cow country in just over a month...

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I need so much more time than 18 days! Not that I have that many things to get, but still. I am super excited and I can't wait! 

(even though I've waited for over 20 years...  that's beside the point)

I guess I better start cracking and checkin' off that good-ole-never-ending list.

But I am so ready to be in the MTC and be amongst so many wonderful missionary spirits. 

What's really exciting is that its 40 days away until I'll be in the wonderful state of Oklahoma.

I can't wait to see Oklahoma. The Lord sure knows what He's doing. He knew I always wanted to live in the South. Hopefully I'll pick up an accent while I'm there :)

18 months...that should be enough time to pick up a Southern drawl.

For now, I must get ready for the day.

Then plan a talk for my cousin's baptism tomorrow.

Then pack for a drive up to my Grandma and Grandpa's house in the mountains.

In the snow.

All I brought was a light BYU jacket.

And a rain coat.

Translation: no snow coat.

I'm so sad that BYU lost. There goes my bracket.

Jimmer is an amazing player.

He converted me to college basketball.

Well for this season.

I'm glad I got to see him before I live without sports for 18 months.

Not that its a big deal, because I lived without serious caring for college basketball for the first 20 years of my life.

Oh yeah...I have things to do.

Much love.

Yes, I realize its been over a month...

Why hello keyboard...

We haven't been together for a while.

Its not that I didn't have anything to say. I just didn't realize what I signed up for when I started a blog. I should have thought about my life and if I had time or enough interesting things to share with you.

Today is no different. Nothing interesting to say. Just missing you. So I decided to reconnect and tell you about my developing love.

This love started a long, long time ago.

Recently, I have rediscovered it and its growing stronger every day.

I want to own cowboy boots.

I want to hear cows mooing in the distance and 

watch the sunset and rise over my garden.

I want to own my own property.

I want to see my husband in his cowboy hat 

because it's his "work clothes."

I want to ride in the middle seat of his pickup truck.

I want to have many children to help with the ranch.

I want my children to learn the meaning of work.

I want to hear them say "Yes ma'am" and "Yes sir."

I want to be so dependent on the land that I pray always to the Lord.

Scratch that - I want to be so dependent on the Lord that I am praying to Him always.

It is people like this that give me the encouragement that some day my dreams can come true: 

(not the American Idol dream - the marrying someone like him dream)

And books like this that get me through the wait:

I read the complete 300 pages in 3 days. Little obsessed?

Twilight - Mooooooove Over!

I really hope I can get my head on the right path soon.

I leave in 36 days.

Cleaning out and reminiscing

Since I will be leaving shortly, I have decided that now would be a good time to get rid of things that I have been holding onto for way too long. Old school papers, drawings, and we even went through our family books.

I love getting rid of things and cleaning out.

I should have gone through my closet because I seriously don't think that I can fit another thing in...but I'm saving that for another rainy day.

My sister came in to piles and piles of papers and things to do and said that I should make a list. I then proceeded to point to the 2nd largest pile (1st largest pile being the trash pile :) ) and say that is my pile of lists. She said, "Oh, nevermind. Don't make another list."

Speaking of going back in time, I called my very dear friend that I met in 1st grade and we have kept in touch ever since. Since I got my mission call and she got married (a while ago) we spent some time catching up.

Just when I thought I wanted to move to the country and be self-sufficient so I didn't have to deal with people, I realized that it really is nice to have good friends. :)

Its Friday!

As I mentioned...its Friday! And its raining but that's ok because I like the rain :)

Also, I have been thinking about this lately....have you ever noticed that every week the conversation is the same? Maybe you wouldn't notice, if you didn't work the same hours every day of the week with the same people and the same customers...but the week goes something like this:

Monday: "Hi, how are you?" "Oh, alright for a Monday I guess. The weekend is just too short!"

Tuesday: "Hi, how are you?" "Good, we are one day closer to Friday" or "Good, at least it isn't Monday."

Wednesday: "Hi, how are you?" "Good, thank goodness we are one day closer to Friday." or "Good, at least we're half way through the week."

Thursday: "Hi, how are you?" "Good, thank goodness its almost Friday!"

Friday: "Hi, how are you?" "I'm so glad that it is Friday!"

(Please note: I help the same customers in 30 second increments for 2 1/2 hours every morning, so I hear this conversation probably 300 times a day - seriously)

Are we really all wishing our lives away? Or at least until "Friday." Are we all unhappy with our weeks that we can't be happy for whatever day it is? Or happy that we are even alive, well, have a car to drive (I work a drive thru), have homes, have families, the list goes on and on.

Now, I am always in for a good break (says the girl that has to force herself not to take a nap every single day) but I hope that I don't become someone that always wishes for Friday.

Anyway, sorry about it being two months since the last post...I could say that it was because we had a Nativity at our church (which took a week to set up), or that I went to Disney World for a week or drove, yes drove, to Utah and spent two weeks there. Or because I was sick...but really I think I was just lazy and overwhelmed with everything I wanted to write.

Please forgive me.