Mark your calendar!

Well how is everyone doing today things are going pretty good here in Tempe. That’s a bummer that team Musclehawk went defeated, that’s a struggle, but there’s always next year. seems like everyone is busy with work and all. one request, if you haven’t sent the package yet, could you throw in a few more pairs of garments, double x larges, that would be swell. hah yeah i might have to send some ties home, but I don’t know. The pres. hasn’t seen my collection, he's not the biggest fan of the polyester tie, but most the mission wears them so.. that’s funny that logan broke his camera again I have had no problems with mine. and i feel bad cuz I haven’t sent the pics home yet but I will do it today I promise. I’m mad cuz my camera ran out of battery and I couldn’t find my charger and this week there has been some awesome dust storms and thunder storms it even rained 2 days so that has been fun, but hopefully there will be more and ill get some pics. things have been going a little better this week. it was awesome, Matt finally made up his mind and he and his wife got married, so he's getting baptized Saturday, so that’s super cool. we got the family with 3 kids, who need to be baptized, to come to church, but then we were supposed to have a lesson with them yesterday and they weren’t there, so that’s frustrating. but i think things are on the change we have quite a few lessons set up for this week. We have a few new people that we are teaching who seem pretty promising, Jimmy and Ben, jimmy is a funny guy we talked to who met with missionaries before and has a quad, talks kinda funny but he's a good guy hopefully he will progress. then Ben works with a member in the university ward and is really interested. he is supposed to go to a different ward but the missionaries there didn’t contact him, so he is going to our ward. but it will be better that way, cuz his friend is in this ward. but we still have a few people like Penny Sarah and Paul that are still MIA so thats irritating, but we are working hard trying to fight through the summer. we have some funny stories this week the first one I wasn’t there for, but my comp was on x change with another missionary and they were trying to contact a former investigator, who lives with the 2 Rastafarian dudes, who are pretty crazy and your supposed to call first before you go, and they didn’t so when they knocked on the door one of the dudes opened the door with a gun and yelled at them cuz he is a music performer and sleeps during the day. so he kinda yelled at them for a little bit and he's actually a member of the church but he's gone crazy supposedly he's a nice guy as long as you call first so next time we'll have to do that. Then I was on x change with another missionary in his area and we went to this 25 yr old indian dudes house who was really funny. he is not all the way there and he was saying all sorts of funny things but he said that the holy ghost told him that Joe Smith and Brigham Young are going to show up at the salt lake temple on December 8 so you might want to check that out. but I think that is pretty much it for this week, I got your package with the salsa and it is scrumptious thank you so much. this is the last week of the transfer so it will be interesting to see what happens, I think I will probably stay here, but you never know. I love you guys so much thanks for all the support and have a great week,
love elder knap

Gnarly tie trades...

hello. things are going good how is everyone doing is slc.  it is warming up
here it has been 115 the last few days. the worst part is when you have an
appointment cancel during the day so you have to stay out and contact
people but what do you do. thats fun that mom and dad are in in Canada.
i bet that is awesome i would like to see what Canada is like i have
served with and around some cool missionaries from Canada, it will be
cool to go up there. man that is crazy that Spencer gets home in 2 weeks,
it goes so fast.  yesterday was my 14 month mark. Things have been
going pretty good here, we were able to have a decent week but things
are still up and down.  summer is just a hard time of year here in Tempe,
everyone is on the move and changing jobs and schools and stuff, so
its hard for people to settle down for something. but
we are working hard. Malinda went to church, but it was actually one
of the wards that is in my last area and it is the most boring ward ever and
she didn't really like it, but she said she would come over to our ward and
see what its like, but none of her friends were able to come to church. we
have another lesson set up for Saturday, so hopefully it goes good.  then
there is Matt who issupposed to be getting married Saturday and baptized
the next week, but they're really shaky with everything so its almost most
certain they wont be gettin married. but our ward mission leader went over
last night and had a good talk i guess and Matt really wants to get
baptized, so maybe he will move out or something and we will still baptize
him next Saturday. but then penny the cool black lady we finally got a
hold of her and we might have a lesson with her and hopefully she is doing
good and we will be able to give her a baptismal date asap.  then Sarah
has been really busy with summer crap so we havent been able to have
a lesson with her and she hasnt been able to come to church and we still
havnt been able to contact the Jewish dude Paul. so we are still shootin
a lot of blanks. but we are starting to do some tracting and a lot of finding
and we have some lessons set up with some new peeps and we got a
new dude yesterday; an old mexican, who is meeting with the jw'sbut
he really liked our message so.. things are still moving forward.  we had
a good lesson with a kid named Nick  who is kinda weird but he's
changing his life around and we came by at a good time for him and we
taught him what he needed to know so he's still pretty stand offish
but he's might come to church.  we have been talking to a lot
of people who are opposed to the church lately thats kind of funny
and we talked to one who was a hilarious drunk indian who pulled out his
guitar and played us neil young. i got a little bit of video of it on my
camera which i will be sending home today! what else. i have been having
some gnarly tie trades. there is a dude in one of my wards who has a
whole wall tie rack full of poly ties and i traded 10 ties to him and got
13 from him it was awesome he was impressed with my collection. then
i have been trading with missionaries quite a bit i have an incredible
amount of ties, too much for missionary to keep around, but its and
addiction i think, i always want more.  i will probably have to make
some sort of wall tie rack like this guy had when i get home. but i
think thatsabout all for today thanks for all the support and love,
love elder knaphus

A Plethora of Investigators...

hello everybody. its seems that everyone is having a good time. things are going good here. it is sure warming up though and to top things off are a c went out in are car yesterday so thats not cool it gets fixed tomorrow. but that is awesome to hear logan finally did the dreads im excited to see pics maybe there is some on his blog or something ill have to check haha i think he can have dreads and be responsible and get a girl at the same time. thats fun that riley is off boating for a few days that would be a good time. and fill and logan went to joes valley that would be neat. the other day we were walking and i saw some good potential for rock climbing right by the asu stadium it was when we were actually looking for a place to watch the fireworks, our pres gave us permission to stay out late and watch them, so that was cool. we ended up going up a big parking structure and watching them, it was neat we had a pretty good view. but that's about all we did for the fourth. thats awesome that the snow machine is such a big hit hopefully its still working for when i get home. logan and fill are planning a phillippines trip? sign me up! and thats funny fill using his nintendo coaching skills to put together his softball team that will be fun when me and my friends get home and can play. i heard from Scott Smith the other day, he is doing good with all the big black Guatemalans he says. that is fun that mon and mandy had fun with making a little project in our extra room, seems like its a pretty cool room. seems like mom had a really good lesson in rs too the John Moyle story is cool, i remember from a
conference talk i think that funny though that she dogged on michael jackson and by the way i hope you guys tevo'd his funeral i heard it was pretty funny. i wonder who is going to die next, that's crazy to hear about Steve McNair. tahts pretty crazy to that lance is back i would like to see that. you will have to let me know how he does. seems like mandy and fill are having fun went camping and went to lonestar man i miss taht place! and thats cool that mandy has been seeing erin you wil have to tell her i say hi and if she's ever in tempe to holler. but everything is going good here it was a pretty rough week last week most of our lessons fell through a few people dropped us and only one investigator came to church. but we regrouped and have gotten off to a good start this week. were reestablishing and gettin things going, hopefully by the end of the week everyone will be back on board, and we will have a plethora of investigators come to church. we had a pretty cool lesson with a girl named Malinda, we had taught her before and then were never able to have another lesson,and she never came to church but we showed up and she had 6 of her neighbors at her house and they all enjoyed the lesson, accepted books of mormon and stuff, so that was cool. we had a really good fellowship who is going to do everything he can to get them to church. that is always awesome. we taught a Muslim yesterday that was kind of interesting but he didnt really except anything just wanted to learn. we also taught some good looking russian girls yesterday that was pretty cool. but we still had a few lessons fall through; one being a lesson with this way cool Jewish dude we taught and he is really interested and said he was coming to church the morning of and all then didint show up and wont answer his phone, so thats frustrating. and then the 3 kids who need to get baptized, their mom is being a pain and didnt bring them to church and cancels the appointments, so thats not cool. but we are really pushing for things and we have one person who should be gettin baptized the 25 as long as his girl friend will marry him still the week before. then we have 2 others that we will hopefully be able to put on date for the 25,too. one is a 17 yr old girl who is just afraid of commitment and the other is Penny the sweet black lady who had to go out of town, but she is solid, so hopefully it works out with them this week. other than that things are going good there are definitely more people around on campus and stuff, we have been setting up quite a few lesson and handing out books of mormon so its been cool, just hot. but i appreciate all the support it was fun to get your letters and pics and stuff. i will send some pics home this week sorry its taken so long. im excited to get the salsa. i cant remember if there's anything else i should say but love you all and have a wonderful week. love elder knaphus