Love that smile

Thanks Sister Egbert for the cute little BofM (nice tie)

My little boy is doing good...

Sept. 30: hello. i sounds like all is well and everyone is having a good time. man how nice i would be to enjoy the utah weather right now the sun is still beatin hard but i think its supposed to get below the 100s from hear on. good to hear Riley is still tearing it up im excited to see the tape. good that the utes won as well that's a bummer that matt asiata is out. it was pretty cool last Sunday we were chilln at church greetin peeps as they came in and there was a big Polynesian couple that walked in so i started talkin to him he was quiet but he said he was from Provo and played football for east and i asked him what brought him to az and he said work. i asked what he did for work said he played football. it was pretty funny he plays for the Cardinals. it was Fui Vakapuna, byu's really good running back, he was really nice and huge. he's in one of the wards down here and he's going to feed us so thats pretty cool. good to hear the bengals pulled of the w over the steelers thats always wonderfuW to hear. boy is that crazy that wes just got home man i miss that kid you will definitely have to tell him hi for me. thats cool that Daniel had his farewell and that there were bag pipes that is pretty cool. we are going out with a missionary who just got back from England tonight. he said its pretty cool over there. thats fun you guys are going to have a fun uea weekend going up to the mtns. thats cool taht logan got to hang out with some of his mission buddies and that would be awesome if he went to hawaii. thats fun that the missionaries have been coming over and things and caught a little bit of the utah game. i havnt seen anything so thats a bummer but what can you do. things have been going really good training is going good my little boy is doing good he is coming along. we have stayed pretty busy. drews baptism was bumped back from this week to the 17th cuz his g ma is a member who lives up in slc and is coming down for it so thats neat but we are going over to his fellowships house this Sunday morning and watching conference those are the only plans we have set up. Sylvia is doing really good we had another lesson with her at the Egberts and i did know that their son was in Trents mission. theyre awesome sylvia is gettin babtized the 10th and she quit drinking coffee on her own so thats pretty sweet. we took jeff to a baptism last Saturday and it was really good he felt the spirit and knows he needs to get baptized and wants too but he just is struggling with the decision to get married or move out. then had a really good lesson with olivia we thought she wasnt doing as good but we called her fellowship and he said they had a really good talk and she is a believer so we had a really good lesson and she is praying about baptism and next lesson we should have her on date and at the lesson another kid brought his girl friend who has kind of been investigating the church for a while and she loved the lesson and is reading and praying and i think we will be able to baptize her too. so thats awesome. then we had a really neat experience that just turned sour on us yesterday but i will tell it anyway. we got a ref last transfer for a dude named chis that we have tried to contact forever and the other day we were with are ward mission leader and decided to stop by but didnt have his gate code. so i called him up and he invited us right up. he has stiffed us like 3 times and answered the door once and lied and gave us a bad name. so we were surprised he let us in. and he immediately apologized. and he let us now what was up. he was raised jehovas witness. but went through a rally bad divorce and got disfellowshipped and his family dis-owned him. so he came to az and met a mormon who was less active and they almost got married but didnt cuz he wouldnt get baptized and she was gettin active. so he's really depressed about that and his family and things and was praying really hard and then we called so he had to let us in and he said that he didnt believe in coincidences and that god had brought him to us so we taught him the first lesson he was going to read and pray and come to church and he was excited about meeting again but yesterday we got a text saying thats his x who was mormon and her family are the worst people he has ever met and he's not interested in meeting with us right now so that was a bummer we are trying to still work with him and find out whats up but... things are still going on i dont think i have and other good stories about hometeaching but i have heard so many conversion stories of part member families and things were the home teachers have been a huge part. and its so true you dont understand how important it is but were working with a less active lady and she wants home teachers so bad but they never come so we get on the ward every week and she finally got a call and they're visiting her and she's so happy its a great opportunity. but another story this ones a little funny we were going to an apartment complex the other night and it had a gate and we didnt have the code and a car was pulling in so i sped up and told my comp too so we could follow the car in and i flew in and he slowed down right at the end and it closed on him when he was in the middle it was hilarious he got a little banged up but he laughed it off. so everything is goin great lookin forward to conference hope everyone has a great week.
love elder knaphus

I almost got wiped out by a car...

Sept. 23rd: well hello family how are you all doing it seems like everyone is doing just great except for the crappy utes. that blows. but that is way cool that oly pulled of the w and awesome to hear that riley is tearing it up im excited to see the pics. its also good to hear that fill is doing good with softball and things hittin the big ones i cant wait to do that again havnt played softball for a while i think today were just going to play basketball but its true the weather the last few days has been nice i think its like 80 right now with wind so its really good it would be fun to play some football outside or something. its good to hear you guys are still watching the fights but not keeping me updated who is doing good and winning? but thats cool that alex came over you'll have to tell him hi for me and tell spencer young hi for me too its so crazy to think all the kids are working their way on home it goes by quick. i miss my puppy theres definitely no max's down here. but it has been a good week. everyone is doing good we have been working hard. we have a lesson with jeff so hopefully he has made up his mind and he wants to get married or move out and get baptized. we went to the mesa visitors center and watched the jo smith movie with sylvia last night with the eggberts that was good she is still excited for her baptism that is on the 10th and there was a good lookin sis missionary who like my brown suit. drew is doing really good had an awesome lesson last Saturday and he wanted to get baptized but he hadnt had the spiritual confirmation as strong as he wanted and so one of his friends who is on a mission told him he should go to the temple and pray and he did and it was neat he said as he pulled up to the temple and prayed he was overwhelmed with the spirit and he's excited to be baptized one the 3rd. then we had a lesson with olivia last Sunday we took her to a fireside that our mission presidency puts on and it was really good the president told a story about his neighbor came over and tried to save him from the mormon religion and he told everyone his experience of how he told her all the blessings he would lose if he walked away from the mormon church like having a prophet and revelation and book of mormon and temples and things and he told everyone in the room they should get baptized pretty much it was really good. and there are a few other really good potentials but we havnt been able to contact them for a while its been a little bit frustrating but things are going good the members are steppin up and helping us out a lot of fellowship and been gettin a good amount of referrals so thats always good. there was a pretty good story this week so we were riding home on the bikes one night and i almost got wiped out by a car. it was my fault though we were riding down the rode on the wrong side of the rode and a car was pulling out and i thought he saw me and so i drove in front of him and he started to pull out and he hit my back tire and bumped me but i rode it out and it didnt bend my tire or anything so that was pretty exciting. i dont think theres too much else exciting thats happened this week. and im not sure what else i need from my package the only might be a spiffy scripture case if you could find me one cuz the case i have been using wore out on me. but sis zeigler said she is buying me one i told her to buy the cheapest one out there but if you find something cool that would be nice and i think i mentioned earlier but i rather have things like jerkey and dried mango than candy the only other thing i could think of is maybe some more music if you could send me some really chill that doesnt swear that i could try to get approved that would be cool but i think that is about all i could ask for but i cant thank you enough i love you all so much thanks for all the support.
love edler knaphus

Knocked the skin off my knuckle...

Sept. 16th: thats fun that you guys had the missionaries over and
had a good time and fun that you talked to sis Egbert she is the
best she is providing fellowship for a few of our investigators and
she is incredible. but man im jealous of the weather you guys are
having i wish there were seasons here there is just summer and like
a month of a mild fall, but this week has been a little cooler i guess.
but next week i think its supposed to warm back up to like 107 so
thats a bummer. we have been working out quite a bit lately so thats
been good. i have been really working on my pullups we have a bar
so.. but before the miss i could do 7 and last week i could only do
1 so that wasnt acceptable, my goal is to be able to do 10 by the
end of the transfer i can do 3 now. Things have been going good we
have been staying pretty busy been teaching a few lessons a day so
tahts good for my comp. we taught one the night he got here but it
was just a little lesson. but his 2nd day we had his first real one
and it was pretty shaky but now we have taught over 5 and he's good.
we do a lot of practicing and stuff though so its all good. We had
a good lesson with jeff, we were planning on giving him a baptismal
date but he's not ready he is praying about getting married or not
this week and then next week we'll put him on date but he is awesome
really genuine he listens to conference cd's and is always reading
the book of mormon and sais how it makes him such a better person,
so its been neat to work with him. then we had a a few really good
lesson with sylvie, a mexican gal who we taught a few weeks ago
then she disappeared. but good old brother and sis egbert tracked
her down set up a lesson and we got her back on board and she came
to church was nervous but sis egbert comforted her she loved it so
we had another lesson with her monday and she is gettin baptized the
10th of October, so thats really awesome. and then there is drew we
had a good lesson with him last Saturday taught him some of the
commandments and he has been reading and enjoying things so we gave
him a baptism date for oct 3 so thats exciting as well. then we had a
really good lesson with Chad his wife is an incredible member and the
Egberts are his fellowship and he just isnt quite sure if he can
commit to baptism but we had a really good lesson and discussed the
importance of baptism and things and he is really praying and studying
it out hard and the egberts are taking him to conferecne so thats
really neat so hopefully we can give him a date. then there is the
new investigator Olivia and she is really good family friends with
some members and we had a great lesson with her she is excited to
read and pray and things and the members are awesome letting her
know whats up and explaining why their family is so good. so we have
been staying rather busy had some really good lessons and we have
also been working with some less actives so thats always a good
time getting back into the swing of things a few of them are gettin
ready to go to the temple so thats always neat. but i dont think
there is much else going on we have been having a good time went
tracting for a few hours knocked the skin of my knuckle and got
only one potential so its not very effective out here but its a
good time. the mission is the best so now its time to go play
some basketball my comp has never played basketball in his life
so it should be a good time but thank you for all the support
and love i got the stamps in the mail so i will write at least
one letter today but i love you all and have an amazing week.
love elder knaphus