Great week in Zwolle!

Eating oliebollen (Dutch donuts they only eat in December) with Elder Perry

(courtesy of Elder Perry's blog)

The lady that prayed ended up being a dud, great experience though! We went back and she brought her pastor, who turned out to be an inactive member who we had heard of. He talked a lot about dreams and other confusing irrelevant experiences he's had and plenty of other anti mormon doctrine, and the lady just went along with him. She said she had had some more dreams that he'd interpreted as meaning that the church wasn't true.  We just testified and left, there was not much we could say. It was a good experience though, it just made the gospel more precious to me and made me want to share it more in it's shining truth. 

Person of the week would be Jeffery R Holland. It's hard to determine exactly who, every day is different. But, I heard a talk from Elder Holland this week (actually a few) that helped me understand how to apply the atonement to take away my unnecessary daily burdens. I believe it was called "Remember Lot's Wife". 

It's always good to hear about the branch, I loved being in it.

That quote is so true, sometimes I wonder if I'll ever learn something valuable without having made a large mistake. That's what makes the atonement so amazing! We are encouraged to make choices and do our best even though in order to progress those choices will often do some damage. I realized this week that we shouldn't be worried about making the wrong choice, or even vainly rack our brains over what the perfect choice would be, we are commanded to simply make a choice with OUR best judgement, and the atonement will make up for our poor choices. 

Transfers are on the 27th. This week I felt particularly blessed, I had lots of experiences with people we talked to that were positive and even wanted to learn more, or were at least willing to have a friendly conversation with us about what they believe. This week I really got the feeling and saw examples of how the restored gospel truths are true and so valuable is the world today with it's widespread winds and mists of false doctrines . Also that the Lord is preparing a select few to be introduced to the restored gospel. 

I love being able to learn "by study and by faith" the principles of the gospel from the spirit. I know that what the spirit can teach us is of the greatest worth and is worth our effort to receive. I love what I'm learning here and I'm so grateful for it. I love to study the scriptures, and I'm so grateful that I also get to learn dutch because it's helping me expand my intellectual, learning, and reading comprehension abilities. I'm so excited to go to BYU and learn more. It's so great that learning of God through the Spirit expands your mind and knowledge. We are so blessed to be able to learn of the Character of God, what Christ and our Heavenly Father do. Studying Christ and trying to like him brings the most happiness.

I called Bert Winkel this morning, he sounded nice and excited to hear from me, and I'm calling him back tonight, hopefully I'll be able to meet with him before transfers, if not, Ill get another chance.

Thank you for your prayers, I feel so blessed I know it must come from you.

Love, Elder Knaupp