Another one bites the dust - January 23, 2017

Yooooo so it's super crazy that this week I will hit 10 months on mission! It feels super weird to be this old because it still feels like just yesterday that I left home.

This week was another great one just like all my weeks in Molweni have been. Things are going great here, we have tons of people to teach, tons of people coming to church (we had 9 this week) and tons of people ready to be baptized! My companion and I are getting along great and I could not ask for things to be better!

Today we went on a sweet hike and had a braai (bbq) it was so much fun, it was just the 6 missionaries in my district who went so we had a blast spending time together.

This week we had exchanges with my district leader who is Elder Smith - my former companion! It was great to be with him again for a day, it actually was more than that because we swapped comps on Monday night and didn't swap back until Wednesday morning.

I'm sorry I don't have much to say today, just know that I am super happy and I love being on mission!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder K

 

 

Life's Good - January 16, 2017

So as you can guess from the subject, life is good right now. Things are going as well right now as they have been my whole mission. We have people to teach, people coming to church, and people ready to be baptized.

My companionship is great, Elder Agabu and I are getting along great, probably as well as I have gotten along with any companion so far. It's a bummer he goes home at the end of this transfer so I will lose a friend I've made.

The members here are awesome, they are giving us people to teach and love for us to come and visit them. They always are so kind to us and we have a great time with them.

Church attendance is improving, this week we had 47 people there compared to 34 last week. Also we had 8 investigators at church which was super exciting, everyone is being fellow shipped and loves coming each week. We should be having 3 or 4 people getting baptized on February 5th, which is always super exciting.

I want to thank everyone who wrote me letters for my Christmas box, opening and reading them was so special to me, I miss you all and love the kind words you wrote to me.

I love you all and hope you have a great week

Elder K

 

Attached are some of the views here in Molweini.

 

 

Happy New Year - January 2, 2017

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday!

So the new area is awesome! I have an awesome comp, an awesome house, and an house branch! I'm super happy right now, I think the happiest I have been for my whole mission right now. Life is just great.

Molweni is an awesome place, its super small but its actually kind of nice. It's not nearly as busy and loud as Umlazi. Its up on top of the huge hills/mountains. Its super beautiful. I have to try to take some pictures of the views.

Molweni is a smaller branch of about 40 people. We meet in a school. It's a great place though an the area is really ready to have some great missionary work done.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Elder K

 Me with my new comp - Elder Agabu

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - December 26, 2016

I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas, I know I did because I got to FaceTime my family! It was so cool to see them since it has been 8 months since I last called. It's crazy that I am now half way done with my calls home. Next year at this time I will be 21 months and just have a little left.

Christmas here is a lot different, no trees, lights or presents really - just family time and a nice meal. We got 3 huge meals back to back to back. I didn't think i would be able to finish it all but I did, we even had a 4th appt scheduled but we ran out of time, so they packed a container full of food for us.

So tomorrow I will be leaving Umlazi. It's crazy that have been here since the middle of August, I love it so much but it's time for me to head to my new area which is Molweni. It's a township about 45 minutes more inland, so still hot and humid, and I can't see the ocean every single day. That area is a small branch so there is a lot of work to be done there. Our Mission President called me this morning and told me he is putting one of the senior couple missionaries in that area and really wants me to work with them to help get things going there. It will be a challenge for sure but I'm super excited.

I love you all and hope you have a great new years.

Elder K

1 week left - December 19, 2016

It's so crazy that this Sunday is Christmas! It seems like just yesterday I had just gotten my misison call and was just starting to prepare to leave, now I have been out for almost 9 months, my how time flies!

This last week went rather fast, missionary work has been pretty tough lately because December here is the party month, people are always going to the beach or out of town so it has been tough to nail down appointments with people. this week we are changing our tactics and are doing a bunch of service this week, we did some this morning and have more planned for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Hopefully it will help people feel of our and our Saviors love for them.

On Saturday we had our huge mission Christmas party, there was about 50 missionaries there, it was a ton of fun to see some of the friends I have made on mission. because our mission is so big they have to have a second party tomorrow for the rest of the missionaries on the other side of the mission so I didn't get to see some people. If you would like to see pictures you can go to ldssouthafricadurban.blogspot.com , It's blog run by our mission president and his wife and they post pictures there all the time so it makes up for my lack of sending pictures home.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas,

I love you all

Elder Knutsen