MTC Week 6: Aug. 22, 2012

Well, this week was pretty awesome. Sadly I forgot to write in my journal this week so I don't really remember what happened those days, cause writing in my journal is the only way I am able to actually tell you all that is going on here. But I have everything from the other days and it is some awesome stuff so buckle up. Actually it probably was only awesome to me and you will just be really bored... So buckle up! ha-ha.

On Friday of last week I wrote this is my journal:  So today was proabaly the best day in the MTC that I have had so far. It started off with an amazing class with Hermana Breedlove. She is one of my teachers, she served in Panama and is basically awesome. Sadly she will be leaving us after this week to go to a different district because her hours got changed because of school :( so now we are losing both our teachers. But she was so much fun that day. Usually she just seemed annoyed with us when we goofed around, but that day she was laughing and making jokes with us. It was great! (I think it may be because she got a boyfriend or something.... but who knows. maybe she just finally decided she likes us.) Well, after that class we had class with Hermano Sheide, where we beat the top record in this game we have been playing with him the whole time we have been here. As his final district, after teaching here for three years, we have the top score. That's alot of districts that we were able to beat. After that we had one of our zone resource teachers, who was also our first investigator, come teach a lesson to one of the investigators we have now. It was AMAZING. That is the kind of missionary that I want to be. She invited the spirit so easy and cunstructed the lesson perfectly for the investigator, and she did it all right on the spot. It was awesome.

On Saturday I started getting sick, that has been no fun. I have a nasty cough but that's pretty much all I still have.

Lets see.... today is our last day with Hermano Sheide. It is very sad but at the same time I am so grateful that I was able to have him as a teacher. He has definately changed who I am, and will be as a missionary and a person. So now on to talk about yesterday. You know how I wrote that Friday was the best day I have had in the MTC? Well I would have to say that, that has now changed. Yesterday I cannot even really describe how amazing it was. I learned yesterday how much the Spirit can teach you. I think this is one of the most important things that I have learned while being here, how to recognize the spirit and follow those promptings. Yesterday I especially learned that. Yesterday I also had the opportunity to hear from an Apostle. Neil A. Anderson came and spoke. It is the first time so far in the MTC that one has come. It was really cool. I was able to be in the 4th row and it really was amazing. I will mention some of the points he gave in his talk.

1) Follow the prophet
2) Do your duty
3) Trust in the Lord so that He can make you an instrument in His hand
4) Let the Lord shape your back
         -Whom the Lord calls the Lord qualifies
         -The Lord will shape the back to bear the burden set upon it
5) Smile, enjoy yourself
6) Love the people you serve
7) Never ignore a prompting from the Spirit
8) Become converted to The Lord Jesus Christ

"I know that I am weak, but in Him I can be made strong."

I will never let my mind doubt that this gospel is true, that Christ lives and is the Savior of the world. It is true.

-Elder Michael Knapp

MTC Week 5: Aug. 8, 2012

So... another week has come and gone. Well I guess I will first just start by saying I'm sorry if I ever sound negative or sad or anything in these letters, cause I'm really not. This place is amazing, and this time has been the most amazing and uplifting time in my life, but because it's always amazing it becomes the norm. So because of that, the bad things or my struggles are the only real "new" things in my life, so I tend to talk about them more in my letters. I will be more positive from now on though.  :D

With that being said, my district is awesome. It's really interesting because normally I would never be friends with probably most of them if not all of them, but we have bonded so much that I don't think it would be possible to stop being friends even if I tried. We are able to have a lot of fun together now.

So in each room there are enough beds for 6 people right? But there are only 4 desks and 4 closets. Up to this point we have only had 4 people in our room so it hasn't been a problem... I'm sure you can guess where this is going, ha ha. So we are getting new roomates today. It kinda stinks that we will be crowded in there but I'm not all that bummed out about it. It will be fun to get to know some new people. It will be really funny though because they aren't going to know any Spanish and we are going to be only speaking Spanish. I guess that will help them learn faster, but they are definately going to hate it for at least the first week if not the whole rest of the time we are here.

It is amazing how this place has become my home. I never really thought that I would feel this way here. I guess I always just expected it to be like those first couple of weeks. I think one of the biggest reasons why is because of the amazing people that I am surrounded with. Two of those people are our teachers, Hermano Sheidi and Hermana Breadlove. Hermano Sheidi went to Lone Peak and his dad is actually football coach at Lone Peak. It's kind of a funny coincidence. He is one of the most amazing people I have ever met and probably the best teacher I have ever had. It's weird how close and attached I have become to my teachers and my districts. It is going to be really hard when we leave. But Hermano Sheidi is leaving (not teaching here anymore) next Wednesday. He has taught me so much about missionary work and the gospel. I will always be thankful for what he has taught me. But enough about that.

So on Sunday we went to a video of the talk called, "The Character of Christ". It was a really cool talk and made me really want to study about Christ's life more. I would encourage you to do the same. To really study the life of Christ and think about what you can do to become more like him. During the devotional yesterday I had a really cool experience. There is a painting that the speaker showed, it is called "The Rescue" by Joseph Turner. The speaker applied this painting to missionary work which was perfect. But I think that it can apply to more than that. Before he spoke his wife said a few words and she talked a little bit about the importance of member missionary work. This painting applied to that almost even better. If you see the painting you will notice that it a small boat going to try and rescue a rather large ship. Even if you don't think that you can do much, that you're just one person, what can you possibly do. With the help of the Lord and with the testimony you have you can resue them. After the devotional, one of the elders in my district talked about the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 (the speaker also spoke of it as well as the parable of the lost coin and the prodical son). The elder said that we are the sheep (as most people think), but as the shepherd goes to look for that one lost sheep, what do the other sheep do? Do they sit there and do nothing? Do they even realize that there is a lost sheep out there? Do they even go and look for lost sheep? I promise there are many more opportunities out there to help others than you think. Do all you can for the people around you and I know you will be blessed.

Through the strength of the lord we can do all things.

--Elder Michael Knapp

MTC Week 4: Aug. 8, 2012

Hey everyone, so I have officially been in the MTC for one month now. It's so weird because it only feels like I have been here for like a week at most, or more like a day. But really it does only feel like I just barely got here.  Hmm....that seemed a little redundant...oh well. So there isn't really much new with me here. Every day here is pretty much the exact same, wake up - study - eat - teach/study - eat - teach/study - eat - study - sleep. It's probably not a good thing that I am only half way through my time here and I already really want to go out to Chile and teach people. It would probably help to know Spanish first though... haha.
No my Spanish is improving incredibly fast. Not to mention that our teacher is pushing us super hard. We have already learned as much as the district that is leaving in 5 days. We don't have quite as much practice with it obviously, but we have learned it all.  Now we just need to practice speaking it more. We have been still playing the game where we can only speak Spanish, but it has been getting much easier. We can basically say anything we want to now, even if we may have to do it in a very round about way sometimes.

Lets see... things with my companion are going well I guess. They could be better but it has definately improved some. He is very socially awkward and has a really hard time with Spanish. Last week I kind of blew up on him, not yelling or anything because it takes alot to get me to that point, but I was just done with him and was a little harsh with him. Since then though I have been better at dealing with things with him. I think I just needed to release some of the built up anger and frustration. He has been improving quite a bit with his Spanish and has been actually able to teach parts of our lessons now. It has made an amazing difference. I think my companion has finally broken out of his shell because he has been being really weird/crazy lately.  It's kinda freaking me out a little bit... but I guess thats better than him not saying anything all the time.

Last week we were in TRC (where we teach members lessons) and we had this lady that was from Chile and she was so hard to understand.  It kind of freaked me out because of how little we were able to understand, but I guess that's why we have 4 more weeks here. She just spoke so fast.

Oh, I forgot to say I was talking to one of our zone teachers and she went on her mission to Santiago North too, so I was asking her tons of questions about the weather and stuff. She said that it rains a ton during the winter but otherwise has about the same weather as Utah does.

Well I think that is all for now...

"Your testimony has the power to defeat the adversary, so DON'T BACK DOWN." (quote from the devotional last night.)

-Elder Michael Knapp

MTC Week 3: Aug. 8, 2012

So first of all yes I was able to go to the temple last p-day.  I thought I had written about it but maybe not.  Anyway, I will write about it again.  Both today and last week we got to start off the day with the temple and I have to say that there isn't any other way to start off the day then being in the house of the Lord.  It is truly an amazing experience.  Did you know the temple has a cafeteria in the basement of it?  Well it does and it has absolutely amazing food.  So much better than here at the mtc anyway.

So last week after p-day wasn't very great.  Thursday I was feeling pretty sick and so it was really hard to have a good atitude.  We also started playing this game to learn Spanish, that has been horrible.  So this game is that we aren't allowed to speak any English all day.  We start off with 5 cards, and for every English word that we accidentally say we lose a card.  Now it wouldn't have been all that bad but some of the guys in the district were just being really annoying about it.  So we have been playing this game for almost a week now.  At first it was just kind of annoying, but as it continued for those first couple of days I can't even describe how it made you feel not being able to speak English to anyone.  The only way I can really explain it is that I felt lonely.  I think the worst part of that was that I felt lonely but I was always surrounded by people, people I couldn't communicate with.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced in my life.  Also one of the hardest aspects of it was that I couldn't sing.  For those of you who have been around me a lot, I am constantly singing.  but now I couldn't.

Then Sunday rolled around and everything changed.  The day started off with some amazing personal study,  sacrament meeting and priesthood, then I went to choir with 2 guys from my district.  It was ablsolutetly amazing.  I have truly missed singing in a choir, being able to make such beautiful music with a bunch of people that I have never met. It is the love for music and what we are singing about that brings us together.  It was truly amazing to be able to experience that again.

Yesterday for devotional we listened to a pretty awesome talk.  He talked alot about trusting the Lord.  God has an eternal perspective on our lives and knows what is best for us.  When we trust in Him and follow Him he will lead us where we need to be and to what is best for us.  At the end of his talk he quoted Pres. Monson, "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies."  This reminds me of when in 1 Nephi, Nephi says that God doesn't ask man to do anything that he does not give him the strength to do.  I know that we can accomplish all things when we trust in the Lord.

Go forward with faith,

Elder Michael Knapp