Transfers

Mom's note: Elder Knaupp is considered "trained" now that he's been in country for 12 weeks. 

So Elder Isaksen is going down to Sint Niklaas which is in Belguim and my new companion is Elder Wright who is one transfer older than me, but we've both been in the Netherlands the same amount of time because he had to wait on his visa. So we're both really green. Elder Croft says he's a cool guy though. So that's exciting! We taught a couple really cool first lessons this week, one with a 23 year old (I think) young man who's a serious christian. We gave him a book of mormon last week and made an appointment for this week and he had read some of it, mostly the introduciary pages and then some random selections I guess. But the first lesson went really well, he understood all of the points, especially that the Holy Ghost will testify if the book of mormon is true if he does his part. He was very calm and listened well and we were able to deliver all the points to him and invite him to be baptized by priesthood authority! Usually inviting people to baptism is when things go downhill, most people don't understand the importance of joining a church. I can understand why, a lot of people here say the churches only exist to make money and that you don't need to attend them, you can believe whatever you want and just stay home. Anyways, we explained to  why he would need to get re-baptized and he seemed to agree that if the BoM is true that it would mean that priesthood authority is on the earth. We asked him to close the appointment with prayer and he gave a really good prayer where he asked that the Holy Spirit would testify of the truth as he begins to read the book of mormon. He even closed in the name of Jesus Christ, which is rare here. So we're excited to see him again and follow up.

We had another first lesson last night with a really nice guy.. He's better with english so that's what we taught him in. He is super open and sincere and basically accepted everything we taught! He has some Christian knowledge and he says he believes that Jesus Chirst is the son of God sent for us. Beyond that, he was open to hear what we believe about him! Again we were able to teach him all the points and he understood and agreed with them and when we invited him to be re-baptized and explained why, he also agreed! (I could explain the points in the restoration lesson later but the main ones are God's plan, Christ's church and priesthood, the Great Apostasy, and the first vision. We have the order down pretty good, but it could still use more fine tuning. I just love how if you keep it simple, everything just comes together and the honest seeker of truth will learn the reason the restoration is necessary and what they need to do about it) Anyways, both lessons were really great and both investigators are young single guys which is perfect! We had another lesson where we taught about the book of mormon to another young man. He's a little tougher because he's not really sure there's a God, but then again, it doesn't matter if these people are "believers" or not, they just need to be willing to ask in faith. Plenty of Christians can't get an answer because they think they're already set. An investigator came to church again for the fifth time in a row, he's doing great, we need to get a baptismal date for him! So hopefully this week or the next we'll get someone to commit to a date.

Without Elder Isaksen I'll be responsible to take care of everyone here, he's been trying to teach me what that's like. I'm excited for the challenge, I think it'll motivate me to be more focused on what's important. I've learned a lot from Elder Isaksen, he's a good example of a lot of things and best of all he's helped me see where I'm lacking. It's hard for us to see our own flaws, we are so good at covering them and ignoring them even to the point where we don't see them. One thing I've noticed though is that if you aren't happy or just have times where you feel like something is missing, those feelings are most likely coming because you need to work something out and repent. I read a really cool talk, Beware of Pride by Ezra Taft Benson and among lots of good applications and things I really liked how it said that Love of God and doing his will will develop self esteem. I've found that to be very true, my self esteem is strongest and I'm most at peace when I've been obedient and done my best to do what the Lord expects of me. Okay I wish I could write more but I need to move on.

Sounds like lots of good fun stuff back home! It's cool getting a weekly summary. My feet just hurt on the bottoms, just the skin and pads basically. I think it's just because I'm used to wearing thicker socks. I think I'll just get used to it, the shoes should be fine. Shoe and suit fashion here is a bit different, the suits and pants are a lot tigher and the shoes are leather and usually just look old fashioned but cool. Maybe next year I'll buy one, or when they have sales.

I'm super excited about the music and package and stuff!

Love,

Elder Knaupp