crazy cows

Well hello Mandy. Thus far you are the only email i have to reply too. so.. that is pretty crazy that Masha is engaged. Who is she marrying. That is a bummer that Musclehawk has lost again. cant be havin that. that is amazing that the jazz are up 3 to one i hope they can pull it off. thats not good that the weather is gettin bad up there. down here it has been real nice. today is a little windy. but yesterday was 75. so things are really nice here. the work is going a long pretty steady. troy is gettin baptized this thursday and is way excited. so that should be a good time. the machado family is doin really good we had a lesson last night and taught the plan of salvation. they loved it but, dont feel confident enough in the book of mormon's truth so they didnt except baptism yet but this friday im sure they will. they havnt came to church yet so i wont get to see them get baptized but they way solid. the harris fam diidnt come to church ms harris got sick but we have a lesson tomorrow we might be able to get them to be baptized the week i go home. and roni has finally came back in town and she is ready to get on board and we found out she went to stake conference the other week and really liked it so she could go before i leave too. but a few of our investigators are slippin away its interesting to see how some peoples hearts arent soft enough but as they are continuously exposed to the church and people who live they way they should in the church they end up joining the church. the best news of the week though. we went to church and my favorite lady monique was sittin there and she told us that she has been healed and she is 100 percent better so thats awesome. we had a lesson with her yesterday and things are going real good with her she is going to go back to france and pay her family a visit so thats cool. we had a funny lesson with a recent convert and his fam and his lil sister is 6. probably the cutest girl i've met. her name is zoey and to start the lesson she had to tell us that satan told her to do something really bad. and she proceeded to say that she was eating dinner and her mom told her to finish her food and she just walked over to the garbage and threw it away and she said that satan told her to do that and now she's in big trouble. so that was a good time and later in the lesson with a sad face she asked if we could stop talking about Jesus cuz when we do it makes her think that he is going to die again so her grandpa told her he will never die again. the only other exciting stuff i can think to write about are the crazy cows we live with. we live on like 10 acres of land and there's 2 cows and just on the other side of the fence is like 10 cows and the the last 2 mornings our 2 cows have been going crazy i think its mating season or something but we have been trying to study and they run around and moo the whole time. they sound like dinosaurs. its pretty crazy. but this morning i called them right up to our window it was pretty crazy. so thats provided us with some quality entertainment. but i think that is about all i have to write. i did receive the envelope of pics and im sending them back today. i have one request. the pic of the blacktism. that means the girl that is black that got baptized if you could send me a pic or 2 of that they didnt have a camera and i forgot to print some copies for them. that would be much appreciated. i think that is all i need thought thank you for all the love. have a great week. love elder knaphus

Coming Home May 19th

April 21 email:
hello everybody. that's pretty crazy i haven't got my itinerary yet so sorry i wasn't able to let you know when i get home but that's cool i get home at 10:10. little America would be an awesome breakfast haha. but i have been making some pretty mean omelettes. some members give us free eggs from their chickens so that's been pretty good. to make sure i answer mandy's questions my comp is a pretty good guy cant complain. i haven't got the cds approved yet. but this weekend i will so... but it seems like everyone is having a great time back home. that's a bummer that team musclehawk lost game one, cant be having that. that's good to hear that the jazz are 1 and 1 with the nuggets they better win so i can see them play. thats cool that dad got to go to the open house of the vancouver temple there is one just opening down here the hila valley one but we don't get to go to far away i think. and the dedication is just after i go home so.. but things are going good here we are still staying busy having a grand time. troy is still doin great the lord has taken the desire to chew away and the marriage is saturday and baptism will be on thursday so that will be awesome. roni is having some family problems in cali so she has been down there for a while but we should be able to get her back on track hopefully get her baptized this transfer. the harris fam has some family emergencies too had to go the the valley for a few days but hopefully we will get them back on track get them on board for this transfer too. then we picked up a new family the machado fam. way nice people no husband but the kids are 12 13 and 16 and the 16 yr old kid loves the gospel already and has a great understanding for the book of mormon and they all love the lesson really appreciative so maybe they will be baptized too. daphne adams came up with some interesting concerns last week but came to steak conference and the pres laid it down said that the book of mormon resolves all concerns and it seemed like she liked it we teach her tomorrow so... we are teaching a few other people too but not as close to baptism and also a few less active peeps too so its been fun. i cant think of any crazy stories that have happened the last little while but my comp is waiting on me so i wouldnt want to frustrate him so i got to go

love you all so much and thanks for the support

love elder knaphus

Birthday Boy

April 15 email:
well hello sorry i didnt email yesterday. we were out with the patriarch. the guy we live with, he took us out to his ranch and saw some cool indian stuff. but it seems like all is going well. back home, preppin my room and stuff. that sounds exciting. dad hasnt emailed for the last 2 weeks whats up with that. i guess thats a good sign meaning he's busy. i did get my package and i think the watch is awesome. thanks so much for the b day package and letter. kinda crazy taht im 21. now i can go to concerts in bars. thats going to be exciting. it was a good b day. everything is going great here dont have a lot of time. we are going to go to some more service for good old jay lebow. he has givin us quite the collection of things. last time he gave me a painting and today we get another one. so i will have to hang them in my room they are pretty cool. he gave me an old school pack of b ball cards too. and so on. he's awesome. the couple at wal mart are troy and megan. we have had a few lessons with them. theyre doing great. gettin married the 24th and baptized the 29th and he is doin really good with quittin chew. monique is not doin good. we are supposed to have a lesson today but she went to the doc the other day and he said she doesnt have very long to live so thats sad but good thing she has the gospel. last night was pretty cool we picked up a family of 4 but no dad the machado fam. the spanish missionaries found them and they speak english so the lesson went great they were all open and accepting. then the harris fam another fam of 4 but the dad is stubborn. came to church and all seems like they are really progresssing so that was awesome. daphne adams is kinda struggling. it lookas like she is looking for excuses to not commit to baptism but. we will keep layin the spirit on her. then had a way good lesson with a 15 yr old named layne. really good kid. his 2 sisterrs are members and mom said she would make a good member so they should be coming to chuch and have onther lesson sunday so that looks real good too. so things are going great staying busy having a fantastic time. hope all is well back home. thats pretty crazy it snowed. yesterday out at the ranch it was 70 and my neck got way sunburned so i can barely move haha. but oh well. love you guys so much. have a great week.
love elder knaphus

last transfer

April 8 email:
well hello. things are good here is arizona. talked to you guys a lil bit yesterday but my new comp arrived and his name is elder barker. he is a pretty cool kid from kaysville utah. i guess dad might know his dad chris barker he is i think a building designer who works for the church now so... he only has 4 months left on his mission so we are kind of in the same boat. but once again seems like all is well back home. you guys are having a good time staying busy and all. we are doin good i think its going to be a really good transfer i cant believe its my last one its not real to me. but the work is going good. roni is no longer gettin baptized on the 17th of april cuz of the word of wisdom but she has a good desire to quit and get baptized so hopefully it wont take as long as monique and she'll get baptized before i go. she's a neat lady. then we had a really cool experience at wal mart yesterday. one of our investagators. lives with his girl and we have taught him 2 lessons they went alright but he walked up to me and said they last night they had made some big decisions and that they were gettin married the 24 of april and baptized the 1st week of may and he wanted to make sure i was going to be there for it all so that was super cool. and everyone else is doing pretty good we are staying busy doing a good amount of teaching i feel good so far about this transfer we should be able to stay busy and have some fun. but we have a crazy schedule today we have a lot to do and not enough time to do it so i hope you guys keep enjoyin life. i definitely am and thanks for all the love.
love elder knaphus

Staying In Show Low!

April 7 email:
well hello i did not get transferred. my comp did so i will get a new comp tonight. so thats pretty exciting. show low is my last area. i will be emailing tomorrow so i will just keep it short. but it seems like you guys are having a great time. thats awesome that you can pray in spanish i wish i could. and i agree conference was amazing our prophet is the best. i really liked uchtdorfs talks as well. it blows my mind that they can give like 3 or 4 talks like that in one weekend. god always provides a way though. thats sweet that you guys have airfare too. man spain is going to be blast. thats is kind of a bummer that pepper is coming in july. yeah hopefully there will be some cool concerts in spain. easter was good. i got my package candy is great and i did a quick preview on the cd's sounds liike they are pretty good we go to the valley for a zone leader council friday hopefully the misson pres's wife will approve them. but thank you guys for sending that. awesome to hear the jazz are tearin it up. hopefully they will keep it up. and thats sweet that theyre makin a movie on my boy millsap. but things are great here in az its been crazy windy but good hearin from you love you guys and will email more tomorrow afternoon. elder knaphus

yeah matisyahu is my hero im praying that it will get approved. yeah its a bummer no more jay. we will help him pack all his stuff but it was funny i told him im going to spain and he says that i need to take pics of everything specifcally every meal i eat and then come back and show him it was funny. he's afraid to go on the plain so... go jazz !

"My Word"

This came in a letter from Garr this week:

"It is pretty crazy to think that the mission is coming to an end. It's funny to hear missionaries say they don't want to go home, but I think it's exciting to experience change. I even wouldn't mind getting transferred next week. That's probably the greatest lesson I've learned. That we shouldn't fear. If we're doing what is right we are going to have opportunities to learn and grow and experience Joy. Or we can let fear get to us and accomplish little. So that's my word"

you are not supposed to have any fun sometimes

March 31st email:
well hello it is super windy today as well. we have been doin some service all morning for our investigator Roni. she a pretty funny old lady. we have a lesson on friday and she is going to feed us after and we are going to give her a date to be baptized so that will be a good day. but it kind of sucks doing service on p day but thats how it goes. your not supposed to have any fun sometimes. thats fun that mom is re living the cruise experience that would be fun but there probably wont be the karaoke specialist. rob i think was his name haha. thats would be cool if dad did some of the work on those temples. yeah i agree that it will be kind of a bummer that i leave like a week after im home but its only a few months. and i hope you didnt get my arrival date wrong buts its the 19th i think you put the 16th. and it doesnt matter what sunday its all good whenever works best for everyone. yeah its pretty crazy transfers are next week. president said he thinks there is going to be a change made so.. it should be really interesting to see what happens. but things have been goin pretty good this last week. it was kindof hard with spring break but we are still staying busy teaching a few lessons a day so that is good and the wards are giving us a lot of support so thats cool. its neat to see members get fired up. but most peeps are scared. but we have a pretty big teaching pool right now we should start seein a good amount of progression so that will be good and a few baptisms should come for next transfer. but its hard to narrow it down to any specifics right now. sad news with are good friend jay lebow. we have a lesson with him tomorrow so that will be good. then he's moving down to the valley and is going to be there for like 6 montsh and is going to meet the missionaries down there so thats sad cuz im selfish and want to see him get baptized up here. he would go down as probably the coolest baptism but.. what can you do. maybe i will get transferred and he will move into my area haha. well once again i think everything has been pretty normal around here. but its pretty cool that it is easter weekend and we have conference. thats always a good time for missionaries. i wonder if anything crazy will be said i always hope so but... well i hope you guys all enjoy you week oh and for softball shirt i wear a 2xl thanks for all the love you guys have shown me how to share the love with others. have a happy easter love elder knaphus