I Am Growing in So Many Ways!

Sept. 19, 2016

Hey Everyone!

My companion was sick this week but she is healed! It took Monday - Friday for her to get better but she is completely fine now. We didn’t work like at all this week though! Only Saturday and Sunday night a tiny bit. I think it was a little bit of a good break for me and made me more anxious to get working again.

Mission Tour

On Friday we had a “Mission Tour” in Porto Alegre with our entire mission of 180 missionaries. All the missionaries together! Pretty crazy! Eler Rais, who is a member of the Seventy, and his wife were here and it was pretty good! It was fun to see my CTM group again and spend time with Sister Rosser and Hansen. Also, I met an elder from Springville that is going home in 2 months! Elder Hulet (Mom, I already told warned him you might contact him. Lol.) One of the things that Elder and Sister Rais talked a lot about is how we need to realize we are making a sacrifice here, which I thought was cool because sometimes I feel selfish feeling that way. They also talked about being strong and confident and really teaching about the Atonement and Repentance. It was all really good!

Catch Up Day

Saturday was catch up day. We had only taught 2 lessons this week with Sister Santana’s sickness so we had a lot of people to follow up with! Thankfully it was a sunny hot day, not a rainy miserable one because we walked a TON! Lunch was far away and we had so many people to visit that lived in different areas. We ended up teaching 10 lessons in 6 hours! It was great! I hadn’t used my Portuguese to teach all week so it was rough and it was a little hard to get back in the groove. Sister Santana and I also made a goal to smile and make it a good day which worked for the most part.

Member Growth

Sundays area always good days because we have the mornings to study and do things that we need to catch up on before church. President Neunes (the branch president) and his wife Elise always have lunch for us. I love them. They are so great. :) The classes in church were great! They helped me to reflect on my mission and bit and I realized that I have learned soo much already and I’m way more independent and strong and just a better person. It’s going to be amazing to see the change and I will be so much more prepared for the next steps of my life. We talked a lot about temples, which made me soo grateful that my family is sealed in the temple. We don’t have a single couple/family in Sao Chico that is sealed in the temple so Presidente Neunes was really trying to push that. Also, in the classes I saw real growth in our members. They did everything! We didn’t need to! And Dani was called as the new Relief Society president! So exciting. She’s only been a member for four months so she’s freaking out a little but she will do great.

After church the other sisters had a baptism so we did that whole service and then after the baptism headed out to work! We had to run home first to grab a coat because it was freezing again! Then we went to Eliane, Milena, and Paolo’s and while we were there we set a date for them to get married! Woohoo! Not this Saturday but the next (General ConferenceSaturday) and then Eliane and Milena will possibly be baptized the next day (Paolo still needs to stop smoking)…but I am so excited for them! They are the best and I wish we had more like them. I could see them being really strong in the gospel. Also, I love being around them because Paolo is always commenting on my Portuguese, which is really nice. He commented again today and said it’s very good. They are so sweet. J I remember visiting them on my first day in the field…oh boy…that was rough. So they have definitely gotten to see my growth! Also, there was a spider crawling across me and I grabbed it and threw it without freaking out. Go me! I am growing in so many ways, hahaha.

I thought a lot this week about the things that I have that I can use as a missionary since my language isn’t great yet. One thing I realized is that I am beating myself up too much about it. I need to take one step at a time, one word at a time, and have patience. I literally only have 2 months in the field and I’m expecting to be fluent or what?! Calma Cassie. In the meantime, I really can’t use my personality fully, but I can be happy and optimistic and bring the Spirit to people. I have realized too that these struggles have helped me and will continue to help me. It’s hard, but God always has a plan and knows what is best for us.

Love you all,

Sister Knapp

What Goes Up Must Come Down

September 12, 2016
I guess that’s true for missionaries too because I was so excited last week but this was a haaaarrrrd week. Lots of new changes and challenging things that made it a rough week. I have had days when my Portuguese was just awful, spent days in crazy wind and freezing cold, knocking on the same doors that have already been knocked on before, and I’m just so tired and exhausted. Sooo tired. And I don’t think I have literally ever been so cold with nothing to do about it in my whole life walking home some nights. The weather here is really bipolar! Also, with only Portuguese speaking roommates around me I have to focus so hard, which is hard because I’m exhausted. They talk so fast now that Sister Clark is gone and more people can understand. Ahh this is going to be rough getting used to. I want to understand and I want to help people! 

But there were good things this week too.

-We taught a lady that told us a story how sometimes she sees us around and she always knows it us because of how we are dressed. I thought it was a pretty cool story and, again, shows that we have all of our rules and that things are the way they are for a reason! We had a great lesson with her!

-We took a 2 hour bus ride to Novo Petropolis, which is so pretty! Also, I love bus rides because it is time to sleep, to sit and do nothing without feeling guilty, to get away from our area for a bit. It was really nice.

-We were in Novo Petropolis to watch a broadcast of Elder Anderson speaking just to our mission. We stayed with some other sisters in a nice apartment (very jealous) and though we thought we were going to have to sleep on the tile floor, a member ended up giving us his children’s mattresses. What?! Sooo nice!

-The devotional with Elder Anderson was good! He knows Portuguese but isn’t fluent so he would sometimes speak in Portuguese and sometimes in English. It was nice! I understood like 98% of the whole thing! My problem is that I understand gospel lingua in Portuguese but I have a hard time with normal things…but I don’t know how to study “normal things.” Haha, I’m trying.

-One thing Elder Anderson said that I thought was interesting was that we will know more about Christ than everyone we talk to. Very interesting because I feel under-qualified! So our purpose here is to help people increase in knowledge and faith of Christ and then repent and come to Him. Very special that we got to hear from an Apostle of the Lord directly for our mission.

Sao Chico Branch Conference

All good things, but overall, it was a rough week. I had some really hard days. In the midst of my sorrows though, I read my patriarchal blessing and the note I have from my setting apart blessing. It helped me to feel at peace and I through pouring my heart out to the Lord, He blessed me with one of the most comforting/spiritual experiences I have ever had. I know it will get better. One day at a time. One word at a time. Pray for me to understand more! And to be patient with myself!

Perfect quote for this week: "...the storm fronts that come into our lives will not last forever. We can surmount the drifts of difficulties and we can hold out if we maintain our perspective and faith. But while we are in the midst of all these things, the experiences that can be for our long-term good are very, very real. We may feel that such are simply more than we can bear. Yet if we have faith in an all-knowing and all-loving God, we understand He will not give us more than we can bear."

Love you all,

Sister Knapp

A New Start Week! Here We Go!

Sept. 5, 2016

Oi!
Last P-day started out awful. I think I was just kind of down and didn’t have the best attitude so after we emailed home I was feeling kinda sad and grumpy. But literally it was alike a flip of the switch. I DECIDED to be happy and I actually felt happy! I started talking to my companion about everything and we were having a ton of fun! So instead of taking naps we decided to make a cake for Milena’s birthday which was the next day​. Let me tell you, making cakes here is a struggle though, since we don’t have a machine or even a mixing spoon. Our first try we couldn’t get the batter to mix in and so we put it in the blender. Lol. Just a heads up…that doesn’t work. So we took that mistake and made our own cake from scratch just for fun to see how it would turn out. Not too bad but not much flavor and VERY dense. Lol. So we tried again and made it like Sister Copa does and it was rough! But it ended up turning out great! Beautiful chocolate cake. J All of this because I CHOSE to act happy and then I felt happy. So I decided to try to do that the whole week. One day after lunch we all came back to our apartment for a sec and we were all very tired and it was hard to have a good attitude and everyone had expressed feelings of being tired, not being excited, not wanting to leave. Although I had those feelings a little, I didn’t think about it much and had a positive attitude and actually was happy and excited. This time I was the one to say, “let’s goooo!” and try to make them excited too. It was a very good step. The whole week just felt better because even when things were hard I would try my best to push away negative thoughts and to smile and be happy. It wasn’t that hard things didn’t happen. I just didn’t dwell on the hard things. Sometimes you just have to plaster a fake smile on your face for a bit, but I promise it works. Most of all, it was just my attitude! So watch out world! This is my turn around! I am going to be happy here!


On Friday we went to Porto Alegre for training for all of the missionaries that had been out 6 or 12 weeks. We stayed in a house with like 30-40 sisters. It was crazy! It was so fun to see my CTM district. Ahhh seeing them was so happy. The three of us girls spent as much time as we could together talking about everything and we all agreed that it feels like we are childhood best friends or something. The training went great! We talked about working with members (Sister Santana and I were laughing the whole time during this part. I wanted to raise my hand and ask, “what if you don’t have members?” haha, but I didn’t.) We also talked about not being scared to talk about the Book of Mormon or to give invites. I think that’s something I really need to work on. During the last part with president he bore his testimony and let us ask questions and everything. I can’t even explain how much I love my president. I just feel so loved and happy with him and when he talks my whole heart is just filled with love. Ahh he’s so great.

The best news this week is that the President isn’t closing the branch. Today was transfers and I am staying here in Sao Chico with Sister Santana and Sister Santos will get a new companion ‘cause Sister Clark was transferred! We still have 4 sisters though! I feel like the last transfer was like... let’s warm her up and get her to like her mission a bit with extra help from the Copas and Sister Clark and being able to speak some English. Now both are gone so the the 2nd transfer we will get her working harder on her Portuguese and better with doing everything and being more diligent. No more English at all!!! It’ll be really good for me. Now I am used to a hard area and need to focus on the language and improving in everything! I think I will improve a lot this transfer and I am ready for it! It's like a new start!

Thanks for all your support!

Sister Knapp