15 July 2013

"Great to see the temple progression!! Dan Parker's beard has never been bigger or better! Thats great to hear about your missionary experiences at home. .......This week was pretty exciting! It wasnt perfect but we had some really cool stuff happen. First off, I really like my new companion. Hes from the south part of Brazil where Jonathan Solomon served his mission. Hes got about 8 months on the mission and we're getting along really well so thats great. Also, we met some new families this week. There were 2 kids at church yesterday that are Americans and there mom is Brazilian. Theyre visiting family here and it was cool to talk to them in english. They're from North Carolina. Last week, we went to a ladys house who is gonna have surgery today. I got to bless the sacrament for the first time in Portuguese. I didnt sing in church yesterday but I think it'll be next week. I'm gonna sing with a member of my ward. I'm doing well and feeling good. Its not too hot here this part of the year. We are gonna do just a small service project with a member who is doing some work on his house. Ive been reading the talks from General Conference and have read so many good talks. I especially liked the talk by Elder L Whitney Clayton about marriage. One principle that he spoke of really hit me and can be applied in any relation.

Humility is the essence of repentance. Humility is selfless, not selfish. It doesn’t demand its own way or speak with moral superiority. Instead, humility answers softly ² and listens kindly for understanding, not vindication. Humility recognizes that no one can change someone else, but with faith, effort, and the help of God, we can undergo our own mighty change of heart. ³  Experiencing the mighty change of heart causes us to treat others, especially our spouses, with meekness. ⁴ Humility means that both husbands and wives seek to bless, help, and lift each other, putting the other first in every decision.   

I love that he said that its basically impossible to change other people but we can and should change and improve ourselves. I love this idea of truly having a "change of heart". There were several other things that I read and liked but unfortunately dont have a bunch of time to share it all together. I really hope you're doing well. I miss you. I love you. Continue to look and pray for opportunities to share the gospel and to bless and serve others. There are hundreds of people that need your help. You have special gifts and talents. Use these gifts from God to bless His children. I know that as you strive and desire to serve others, God will inspire others to serve and bless you. God's love is infinite and powerful. "

These are the pictures that he was referring to:

8 July 2013

So many things going on so I'll be brief and clear. Tomorrow is the transfer and my current companion, Elder Motta will be returning home. Hes a great guy and I'm excited to hear about his adventures back at home. I'll get my new companion at the Rodoviaria tomorrow. The Rodoviaria is a huge, central bus station where we meet to get our new companions and then return to our areas. My new companion is a Brazilian and his name is Elder Maciel. I'm excited to be staying in Sulacap and working with the Madureira Stake. We will have 2 baptisms next Sunday in my ward for two young men. Matheus (Matthew) who is 10 and Daniel that is 13. They're excited for baptism and I'm glad that I'll be staying here to help them. We have several missionaries in my zone (stake) that are going home or to other areas but I'm excited to train and help these new missionaries and leaders that will be arriving tomorrow. ...... I might be singing with a member of our ward, Fabiano, at church this Sunday. Its great when I get to sing but I dont have all that many opportunities to do so. Its funny that simple things make such big differences. I'm doing well. I bought new shoe inserts so that helped a bunch! We're walking a lot but thats nothing new. You get used to walking really quickly. I thought that walking 10+ miles would be a TON but its really not all that bad haha. 

I told some sisters at church that you made 10 cakes and they thought that was sooo much food! Must have taken forever. I ate this soup yesterday that is called dobradinho. I think thats how you spell it. They use white beans, carrots, potatoes, sausage, other vegetables and.... cow stomach. Its pretty good. I've eaten it a couple times. I also ate pig tail a couple weeks ago. It was pretty good but just had a lot of fat on the meat but its good when you just cut off most of the fat. 

Well for a spiritual part real quick, I read an amazing talk by Pres Uchtdorf this morning from this past conference. Its from the priesthood session but you can apply it to any person or member of the church. Its called "Four Titles" and I encourage you to read it and ponder on the amazing things that Pres Uchtdorf says. I loved when he said, 

"It can be discouraging at times to know what it means to be a son of God and yet come up short. The adversary likes to take advantage of these feelings. Satan would rather that you define yourself by your sins instead of your divine potential. Brethren, don’t listen to him.

We have all seen a toddler learn to walk. He takes a small step and totters. He falls. Do we scold such an attempt? Of course not. What father would punish a toddler for stumbling? We encourage, we applaud, and we praise because with every small step, the child is becoming more like his parents.

Now, brethren, compared to the perfection of God, we mortals are scarcely more than awkward, faltering toddlers. But our loving Heavenly Father wants us to become more like Him, and, dear brethren, that should be our eternal goal too. God understands that we get there not in an instant but by taking one step at a time.

I do not believe in a God who would set up rules and commandments only to wait for us to fail so He could punish us. I believe in a Heavenly Father who is loving and caring and who rejoices in our every effort to stand tall and walk toward Him. Even when we stumble, He urges us not to be discouraged—never to give up or flee our allotted field of service—but to take courage, find our faith, and keep trying.   

I loved this part and know that it can be frustrating sometimes but just as a child falls and gets back up again, we must also. Heavenly Father will always lift us up. I love you and will talk to you soon!

1 July 2013

I got Jordan's email and responded already. His senior pics were great. I almost cant believe that Eric's birthday was this week. Seems like such a long time ago that he passed away. I miss him and love him. I love everyone in our family and miss you all. I'm so excited about your experiences with school and Aunt Jill and FCCLA and the temple! I'm so glad that youre keeping busy and doing so many great things! The Lord is richly blessing you and that makes me very happy. You truly deserve the Lord's blessings. It is incredible how fast Jordan is growing up. Hes not a kid anymore. I dont like it haha! I'm glad hes doing well. It was great to hear from him. I really hope Adam is doing alright. I havent heard from him in a long time........ 

I just wish I could help more. I have so much desire but sometimes you just cant get everything done. Just gotta be patient and do your best. The Lord will do the rest if we obey and work to do His will. I'm growing so much. My priorities and desires and understanding are growing and being enhanced by the spritual truths I'm learning. I'm impressed by my own personal growth and am excited for the future. I just need to focus while I'm here and do everything I can to use my last 10 months the best I can. The time has gone by so so fast. Did you enjoy the letters that I sent last week? Its been  a while since I've sent pics so I sent a ton when I could. Well I dont think this email will be quite as inspiring as others but I'll share a little thought. I've been thinking and studying recently about what we should pray and ask the Lord to help us with and what is our responsibility and should use our own common sense and free agency to choose. The first line in Alma 37:37 says to counsel with the Lord in all things. But then there are other scriptures and references like D and C 9:8 that says that we must think it out first in our minds and then after, ask the Lord if it be right. Its an interesting concept and principle to think about. The Lord has blessed us with the capacity to choose and make our own decisions but He also wants us to counsel with Him. I'll do some more studying about this. I gotta go soon. Next week is the transfer and my companion is going home. I'll probly be staying here and I'll get a new companion. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll get my new companion next Tuesday. Well I love you Mom. I think of you often and hope that you're well. I'm thankful that the Lord is blessing us. Always remember to be grateful. Thank the Lord for everyone we have. Elder Bednar gave a talk called "Pray Always". He talks about 3 points of prayer. Theyre all great but read the second point. There is a little story that is great! you'll love it. Well have a great week and have a good 4th of July!......

17 June 2013 (this post is out of order....sorry)

In my new ward. We have a new Bishop and hes really great. Hes been the stake president before so he has a lot of experience and hes excited to work and help out. We're gonna have lunch with him tomorrow. We have lunch and sometimes dinner with the memebers every day except on Monday. We usually get some money though to buy food. My companion knows how to cook decently so I'm getting over my fear of cooking and breaking/burning everything in the kitchen. Our house is nice and I'll send you some pics of it when I can. We dont live in our area but its only like 10-15 minutes walking. The Relief Society made a care package for us yesterday and they put some basic food stuff in it for our house. I'm not sure what we're gonna do for lunch but whatever it is should be good. The time is going by really really quickly. This week was pretty good though. Sometimes I feel like I'm learning more than I'm teaching. You grow a lot personally and realize whats really important and think about your priorities. Yesterday at church was really interesting! The family that was supposed to give the first 2 talks in sacrament meeting got sick and right before sacrament meeting, they asked me and my companion to give the talks! It was a complete surprise. Luckily my companion went first haha. I wasnt really sure what I would talk about until 30 seconds before I stood up. President Lima (the mission president) had talked a lot about one of President Monson's talks from General Conference. I felt inspired to talk about that talk, focusing on the 4 principles that help us to be "more useful servants". Dilligent scripture study, teaching with testimony, planning your life with purpose and serving with love. I talked about these 4 points and gave some personal experiences and other stories that I remembered from other GC talks in the past. It went really well and had some members that said they really enjoyed it. I just stood up and talked for about 15 minutes and the Lord helped and guided me. After church, I had some members that asked me to sing for them and that was fun. I just sang a couple church hymns but they really liked it. Felt good to sing. I really dont have too many opportunities like I would like to. I read and studied a lot this week about some other talks from General Conference recently and also in the past. I feel inspired to be better and to help others grow when I read the experiences of the prophet and apostles. I especially enjoyed this promise/counsel from President Eyring when he said, "My promise to you who pray and serve the Lord cannot be that you will have every blessing you may wish for yourself and your family. But I can promise you that the Savior will draw close to you and bless you and your family with what is best.    Sometimes we feel as if we deserve blessings just because we are faithful and obedient. Sometimes it is difficult for us to comprehend that life isnt always fair. We know that it isnt always fair but especially in the moments of trials and difficulties, we begin to doubt and question. We rationalize our complaints and lack of faith because we may feel that "maybe God doesnt love me". This is common and unfortunately it is easy to fall into this trap. I am glad to say and find peace in the principle of hope. Hope is powerful. We can all be sure, as I am, that truly, Heavenly Father does love us. President Eyring promised us that we may not recieve exactly what we want or what we feel we deserve, but that we will be blessed "with what is best". I know this is true. We can find great peace and comfort in the knowledge that even though we cant see future, we can have hope that the future will be bright, independent of the problems and difficulties we will have. 

Job, who had many problems, was counseled by a dear friend when she said, "Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; 7 Yet man is born unto trouble" (Job 5: 6-7)   

Trust in God. He love us. Mom, I love you and am grateful that we can have hope in the Savior. He is the light of the world (John 8:12)

25 June 2013 with LOTS of pictures

from Elder Knotts 25 June: I did get to see the training and I even watched it in English! It was really great! I'm super excited to see all the new missionaries and new things changing. At the meeting there were probably over 200 people that watched the meeting at our stake center. It was great. I loved that Boyd K Packer talked that the most important teaching is done by mothers. I loved that part. There were tons of great things and I took notes but I just dont have them with me right now. ...... I've been working a lot on improving my Portuguese. Its getting there. Some missionaries from my group and I went to the air port yesterday to renew our visas. We ate a buffet and I'll send you some pics. (pictures are below) At the air port I had a really great experience. While I was waiting for everyone to finish, a man came up to us. His name is Stuart and he is a member of the church from Scotland. His accent was awesome by the way. Hes been in Brazil for a couple months and speaks a little Portuguese. To make a long story short, he needed some help to talk with people and explain some stuff. I worked as his translator and helped him figure some stuff out. .......it was great to help him and translate with English and Portuguese. It was a really cool experience. This week was good though. We've been visiting a lot of families and are trying to help some less active families to return to church. My companion only has a couple weeks left on the mission but we're really trying to work together and meet our goals. So, I'm sending you a bunch of photos so you can put those on fbook and on the blog. And please share all of the great experiences you're having. I'm excited to hear about whats going on at home and how (everyone) and the family are doing. ........

Elder Jared Knotts

3 June 2013

My first week here (in Madureira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) went pretty well. We visited a bunch of members and the first Sunday here was really nice. We had almost 100 people at church and was glad to meet even more people. Well my new area is a about 3 main areas that are all pretty close together. This new area is much smaller than Irajá which is good because Irajá is huge. My new area is about 30 minutes away from Irajá. The first week has been good. I met a lot of members and the Bishop and some other local leaders. Sunday was pretty good. Church attendance was a little smaller than average this week with 96 people. Usually its about 110 or so. Its a nice area and has tons of people who live here. My companion, Elder Motta is on his last transfer and then he goes home to São Paulo. Hes a nice guy and we get along pretty well. Hes an incredible artist. He sketches and draws super well. I havent had the opportunity to sing here yet but I'm excited for sometime in church when I'll have the chance. We've been working hard and teaching more. Its good to have some change. We dont use the bus very often here. Tomorrow I'll go to my first Mission Counsel. Its once a month when all of the ZoneLeaders and the Assistants and President Lima get together and we recieve a special training and then pass the training on to our Zone the next day. Today is my first PDay here and we're gonna clean the house and maybe go to the church with the some other missionaries. I'm feeling good and glad to be making a difference. I've been reading a lot of talks from General Conference and am grateful for inspired leaders that are so experienced....... Its great to see pics of Jordan's graduation. Seems like mine wasnt that long ago. I love the scriptures and pray for understanding and wisdom so that I can understand and apply the lessons I'm learning........ The weather here right now is really nice. Its been raining a little bit but its been in the high 70s. I'll try to send pics next week. Its been a while since I've sent any for you. Sometimes I just forget my memory card at the house but I'll send some next week. .......I read a great talk this morning by President Boyd K Packer and he said, "I have come to know that faith is a real power, not just an expression of belief. There are few things more powerful than the faithful prayers of a righteous mother."

.......

from 27 May 2013

Well tomorrow is the transfer and I'm leaving Irajá!!!! I will sincerely miss it here but I'm going to another area SUPER CLOSE! Its a different Stake but its really close so I know that some of the members here will come visit me haha. There are leaders in the mission. And there are 15 stakes in our mission. Each Stake has 5 or more companships of missionaries. One of these companships are the Zone Leaders and then the Senior companions of 2 other groups are District Leaders. I was the District Leader in Irajá for about 4 months. Now I will be going to my new area which is in the city of Madureira. My area will be Sulacap. Madureira is pronounced Mah-doo-ray-ruh. Irajá is pronounced Ear-uh-jah. I hope that helps a little bit haha. I'm a little sad about the transfer but I'm also SUPER excited! I've been here for almost 11 months. .......   I have a lot of friends that will be going to the other mission because our mission is gonna split. Its kinda sad and I'll miss them but I'm glad to be staying in Rio. Sincerely, I'm doing really good. We had a week or two that were kinda tough because we didnt have many investigators to teach but this week we visited TONS of people and we also had a baptism for this 12 year girl named Natália which would be Natalie in english. We helped reactivate her mom after being inactive for more than 15 years. I love so many people in this ward ....