Never Give Up

Elder Garr before the mission...

Everything is going really well here

Well, well, I didn’t get transferred and my awesome companion did get transferred so I’m pretty bummed. My new comp is pretty new he is an air force dude he seems pretty cool it should be a good transfer. He seems like a hard worker. He is from Iowa by the way. to anwser some quick questions: yeah you guys can send mail to me at my same adress if you need it again its 7311 E southern ave #1082 mesa az 85208 so hopefully that works right and you can send everything off ok. everything is going really well here. We are working with
a lot of people and we have 4 on date for baptism for the 25 and then the 2nd so that’s cool; and we have a few others that hopefully we will get this transfer but you never what’s going to happen. David Greene is getting baptize the 25 and he is doing super good we gave him a plan and he's stopping chewing and stuff and reading and praying so things are good there. the 2 little Brady boys are studs. They’re getting baptized the 25, too, and they’re dad is starting to come to church so that is awesome. it was funny their lessons are so funny. they says funny things. Jeffrey is 10 and he is excited cuz he found out the age to his puberty starts at 10 so he's excited to start growing hair and having a low voice. Then Ryan the 11 yr old asked us if it was bad if there was something he really wanted to do before his baptism. So we had to make sure he wasn’t going to do anything bad it was just funny the way he said it. The older couple that we met on the street have fallen of the radar i dont know if I told you but we believe she is schizophrenic or something. she thinks the whole world is out to ruin her life, including us, so thats tuff but, maybe she will snap out of it. Then we put Sarah Layman on date and she is ready. she just needs to make it out to church 3 times and that will be cool but there are some other good peeps but none have progressed where we need them to yet but it will come. this transfer should be good. its crazy how fast time is going I cant believe its almost my b day but everything going well my bike actually broke a part on the crank, so I will take that in to get fixed tomorrow probably. I barrowed a members bike so I’m fine. I think that is about all for now its good hearing from you'all thanks for everything and keep up the good work. love you, Elder Knaphus
love elder knaphus

March 18 email

well it sounds like everyone is doing just
fantastic.  we had a dinner last night with
a big hunter and it made me want to go hunting
we will have to do some when i get home.  everything
here is just the same we have been doing really
good.  its crazy how fast this transfer has
gone by. the last day is next wednesday and
chances are i will be leaving. the work has
been going good. the one couple that we found on
the street is doing pretty good now. but she is
kind of interesting and thinks the world is
out to get her so there is a lot of drama that
we dont want to deal with but he is awesome
and wants to get babtized but its just hard
to have lessons with them sometimes but they
will still get married and babtized on the 28
and their daughter wants to get babtized too
but we havnt been able to set up a lesson
with her yet.  and the 10 yr old and his bro
are still studs but they went out of town for
spring break so theyre gone all week but we have
a lesson with them sunday and are looking to
give them a baptismal date then.  then we taught
a girl who has been taught before and gave her
a date in april so that was cool too she is just
really shy and its hard for her to come to church
and stuff but were pushin her so.. then we
also got david greene on date for late april
as well and he is being more serious this
time he is reading the book of mormon and is
quitting chew and coming to church so things are
looking good.  then yesterday was pretty crazy
first of all it was way hot it got 90 and all
are lessons fell through so we just biked
around all day trying to talk to people and
visit people then we were going to visit
a ward mission leader and his neighbor was
walking down the street and said he needed
to talk to us and asked us when he could get
babtized so that was neat he is kind of
interesting he said he needs to change his
life around so hopefully that all works out and
we can teach him and all but he said he was
going to come to church and do it as soon as
possible so that was cool.  but i think that
is about it for now so love you all and thanks
for everything. 
love elder knaphus

Normans

well what is going on i will just let everyone
know how the week has been. its been good. 
have had some success.  except we were supposed to
have like 10 investigators show up for church and
only 2 did so that was a bummer. and we have had
quite a few appointments cancel this week so that
sucks too.  but its going to be a good 2nd half of
the week.  we had a really good lesson with jeffry
the 10 yr olds who thinks he's a member already.
he has 3 brothers that aren't baptized either
so we set up dinner and lesson with them.
they're all computer world of war craft goones
but theyre pretty cool except the oldest kid we
tried to teach he's a punk but then jeffery who
is 10 and his older bro who is 11 are amazing they
loved the lesson and are coming to church but they
cant get baptized unless they're
parents come and theyre mom has to work for a
few sundays cuz she just got a job and the dad
has 2 under the age of 3 that he thinks would be
to hard to take care of at church but he might come
so its kind of tuff situation but they will get
baptized. and then christy and lee the cool older
couple are doin really good but and we are going
to start teaching her daughter too she wants to
get babtized so thats awesome but it kind of sucks
lee might not get baptized tell the 28 cuz
they want all their family to be there so it
doesnt suck but i probably will be gone. 
then we are trying to teach a family of 7
that the ward has been really working with all
the boys come to scouts and everything the
parents are way cool but they keep having stuff
come up and have to cancel the lessons but we
will get them. talked to a returned missionary
who has fallen away from the church cuz he said
he was in iraq and had a mystical experience
that forced him to leave the church he was kind
of a nut case. we talked to a funny
lady who called us normans instead or mormans.
the funny jeffry was talking about how there
was a hot chic at church and his 11 yr old bro
said dude you dont talk like that in gods crib
it was pretty funny missionary work is awesome
meeting and talking with crazy peeps and i finally
had my first crash on my bike it was right after
we got anti'd by some idiot
christian i was riding a curb and just slipped off
 and landed on my butt it was pretty funny but
didnt hurt and luckily no one saw. i love the
mission we are having a fun time and workin hard
thanks for all your support and examples its
all appreciated highly love everyone.
love elder knaphus

Another Address Correction

Britton has a hard time sending us his correct address when he moves to a new apartment. So if you want to send him a letter check for the updated address. Last time he had to change it twice for us... so I hope this is really the right one!!

Tempe pics

The Mesa Temple all lit up for Christmas

"We made this hammock with some climbing rope we found"... looks comfy!

Things are happening...

Family, things are still going really good here still finding new peeps to teach everyday and having fun biking we have been going in the drainage canals that are like half pipes its way fun. We have been teaching those one peeps and they came to church they pay their tithing they are getting their marriage cert this week and we are going to set up a same day marriage babtism for them Saturday so that is sick nasty. Then another cool story we contacted a family that have 3 kids who need to get baptized and the parents are stupid and wont come to church and dont really care what their kids do but one of the kids, who is 10, is a pimp and really wanted to go, so we forced the mom to say she would take him and Saturday he called us up and wanted to know what time church was. he said he was going to ride his bike over a mile to church cuz his mom wouldn’t come. so our ward mission leader picked him up and he came struttin in lookin sharp with a white shirt a tie, scriptures and all and so did his friend he brought who wanted to see how the Mormons “do things” quote. and so they sat in the pues by themselves and the 10 yr old bore his testimony and said how he prays every night to get him through the next day and it helps him with stress and how he loves the church and he's not a member. so that was awesome but its a tough situation cuz the bishop doesn’t want to baptize him unless his parents will come to church so we will have to really work hard with them and see what we can do. things are happening. its been a really good transfer. keep enjoyin everything, its good hearing from youalls, love everyone
love elder knaphus