October 22, 2012

Well here we are again.  So we had changes today, but all is basically the same with me.  I am still in the same area and Elder Metcalf is still my companion, but we are also in a trio with Elder Soto!  Woo! Elder Soto will be my companion in 4 days when Elder Metcalf leaves. :(  But Elder Soto is awesome and I am glad he will be my companion.  We already know each other because he was in the other companionship that lived in the house with us.  I am sad to see Elder Metcalf leave because I have really enjoyed being his companion, but I am just grateful that I was able to be his companion at all.  It wasn't a normal thing that we were put together because it cut my training and the training of another missionary in half.  (If you didn't know, after the MTC there is a program in the mission field where your companion teaches you for another 12 weeks, or 2 transfers, for 1 hour every day.)  I will still be finishing this, but with Elder Soto, normally you do it all with one missionary.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that Elder Bednar was coming to the mission and was going to have a conference with us.  He came on Saturday and we had a 3 or 4 hour conference with him.  It was absolutely amazing!  It was kinda funny because everyone was exhausted after the conference because the Spirit was so strong.  It really takes it's toll on you.  I just want to share one experience from that.  First, the whole conference was basically on the importance or action of faith, and faith in prayer.  Elder Bednar gave us 2 talks to study beforehand, one of them was, "Ask with Faith".  It is an absolutely amazing talk on faith in prayer.  I highly recommend that you read it.  One experience that we had during the conference was when a missionary said that she had received an answer to a question that wasn't even talked about in the conference.  Elder Bednar then asked us to raise our hands if we had received an answer in the same way.  Almost every single missionary raised their hand.  Elder Bednar then said that this manifestation of the Spirit is more powerful than even the parting of the Red Sea.  For a moment I thought, "No, how could this be more powerful that that.  That was mind blowing, this is just an answer to a question."  I didn't believe what he said, but as I thought about it I came to realize that what he had said was true.  Almost every person in that room had received revelation, personal revelation, to a question that they had.  How amazing is that!?  As I thought about the phrase, "seeing is not believing", I realized that this experience we had was so much more powerful than the parting of the Red Sea.  Laman and Lemuel both continually rebelled after see angels and miracles in so many moments, because they only saw with their eyes.  It is these moments of the Spirit that build our testimony and help us to continue forward.  We don't have to see something in order to believe it, or know it is true.  I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  I know that it is true, because I have felt it for myself.

Okay, my mom wanted more info on the earthquake.  It was really small, only like 5.9 or something like that and lasted like 15 or 20 seconds.  There was absolutely no damage from it.  Anywhere.  Yeah, that is basically all.  It freaked me out at first because, well because it was an earthquake, but other than the adrenaline it really wasn't anything, I'm not scared of earthquakes now or anything.

As for the cats, I forgot to say that they moved.  The mom took the kittens one by one and moved them.  It was actually really fascinating to watch.  I also have a video but I doubt I will be able to send it through email.  So we don't have them anymore.  It's for the best cause I would have been really sad if they had died.  It's better that I don't know anymore.

Other than that, not really much to report here.  Hope you all are safe and well!

¬Elder Michael Knapp