All Caught Up Now With Elder Knapp

So! Sunday we didn't do much. We went to churhc and took a lot a lot a lot of pictures because so many missionaries are leaving Prague. Other than that, Elder Sewell and I did some weekly planning, then we went ot pick up Elder Boysen, my new comp! He is big. 6'8" or so, English. I don't know why so many of my companions have been so tall. But he's a good guy, I like him a lot. He's the same age as Elder Prymak, and he was trained in Ostrava when I was there training, and he was in my district when I was DL in Prague.

Monday we began the craziness. We got a bunch of missionaries on trains, got a few more off trains, had office meeting, taught four lessons, met with President, trained Elder Boysen a bit, and went to FHE. First week is always so nuts. It was good though. We've been really trying to touch base with as many people as we can before Elder Sewell left, so we had some good meetings.

Tuesday we did all our studies and things, Elder Sewell packed, we did some cleaning, then we met President for lunch. It was good. I love him tons. I love being around him and drinking from his wisdom. After lunch we went back the the building, met Sister McConkie, and...drove to the airport to pick up new missionaries!!! I love doing that it is absolutely the greatest. I love seeing them come out of the tunnel with all of their stuff, excited, nervous, and totally unaware of what awaits them. I love 'em! We get a lot of opportunity to chat with them one-on-one while we tour Prague with them, and this group is going to be great, really great. It's good to see, because I've had the feeling of 'what are we going to do without all of these amazing missionaries who are going home?!' but recently I just felt, God is going to take care of this mission. New ones will come in who will be great, and the ones who are here will step up and become the next leaders. This group has many of the future leaders of the mission.

Wednesday we paired them with their trainers, and sent them off to their new areas! We have one of the new sisters in Prague, and she is great, fearless. We had good lessons with Maxim and Tomas, we were able to meet Patrik and have a nice lesson about the 10 commandments, taught Isabel and Drahomir, Michal, and Viktor! A busy busy day. We finished with the departing missionary dinner at the McConkies. It was a lot of fun, but also sad obviously. So many great missionaries. I did the math, and more than half of my mission, not including the MTC, I served with missionaries that went home this week. It was a blow.

Thursday was a very sad morning. We got up early, 4:30, which is the first sad part, and then drove to the airport. It was an emotional time for all present. Elder Clyde, Elder De Angelis, and Elder Sewell all went home. I love those guys so much. Elder De Angelis was possibly the saddest departure for me, because unlike with the others, I don't know when I'm going to see him again. I talked to President about it after wards, asked him how he was feeling, and he said, "You know what? This is dumb. This is really really dumb. I hate this." But, life goes on, the millenium approaches. That afternoon we had District Meeting, taught Vera, Pavel, and Maxim, and practiced for our concert coming up this week. I'm doing another solo, O Holy Night.

Friday we had a busy day. We taught six lessons, had a singing display, practiced for our concert, and drove to Brno. Sorry for lack of details, but I'm running out of time.

We were in a town called Uherske Hradiste today for a volleyball tournament that the branch there puts on each year. We are not good volleyball players. It's not that we're not good, but rather that we have no experience playing together. We had the most athletic team by far, including three people who played vb in High school, one sister who played at BYU, we just didn't have good coordination and stuff. We went 1-5. But, we came back safely even though it was snowing, taught a new investigator named Martin, and that's been the day!

I love you all tons, if you want to skype, fine, if not, also fine. It would be nice to talk to everyone individually, and there is something about being able to say that we literally haven't seen each other for two years. It's up to you, I'll send possible times for a call/skype next week. Love you all so very much,

Elder Knapp

Draha rodino,

Sunday we had a pretty normal day. Taught a bit after church, did some planning and things after that, then met with President. They were in brno this weekend, so we met them in their house to give President a little surprise. I don't really know how do describe it. It's a glass cube with my and Elder Sewell's faces engraved on the inside. I don't know how they do it, but it had President laughing for a good 10-15 minutes. Every time he looked at it he just lost it again and again. He's not usually like that, so it means we done good.

Monday We had a nice lesson with Ary before we went to FHE. We also had athe opportunity to give a YSA girl here a blessing, which is always a nice thing. We had some good meetings with President earlier in the day, discussing transfers and such. It's tonight we make the calls, I'm so excited! I love doing this.

Tuesday we had a conference here in Prague. It went really well. We talked about the importance of planning and preparation, specifically in getting ready for Christmas because the mission historically goes through a dip around this time of year. I love listening to President McConkie. He has such vision, and is so inspired. I wish we all had a similar vision to him, because the mission would explode. I think that we often don't realize how willing the Lord is to bless us, and how many of His children are prepared. If we all could grasp that, and the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion, we would baptize hundreds, all over the world. We also had some really good lessons, one with Elianora, our Italian, one with Artur, one of our Russians, a way cool new guy named Pavel, and Maxim! Maxim is so great. His baptism is today. He's in, he's going to do it. I love the guy so much. Pavel is going to be awesome. He's a successful man, and is just cool. He's going to really embrace the message I think. Also after the conference President called the new AP, but I can't say yet, hehe.

Wednesday morning I had my transferly interview with President, which I was very excited for. It was great. I love to learn from wise men. We had a great talk, just chatting about different things. I am determined to learn as much as I can from him. We met later with another cool new guy, his name is Tomas. He works just across the street from the building, and I have a lot of hope for him as well. We had a good lesson with a youong guy named Ondrej, answered a bunch of his questions and talked more about the Restoration. It went well. We also had a good lesson with Drahomir, Isabel, a slightly struggling sister named named Jitka, and then visited Viktor at his work. He had gotten the sauna all ready for us and was going to give us a free session in the sauna. We didn't feel comfortable with that, called President and received confirmation that we should avoid that. I felt bad because Viktor tried hard to do something special for us and we couldn't. He's such a good guy, he was actually called to the YM presidency here last Sunday.

Thursday was awesome. We helped Isabel move a little bit, payed some dental bills for Elder Sewell, then started teaching. Maxim had his interview, and then we taught him a short message, then had a great lesson with Mirek and Lukas. We were talking about baptism and the Holy Ghost, and at the end we asked if they had questions, and Lukas said, "No, I don't. Well, maybe a small one. I've never been baptized, could I get baptized?" Yes Lukas. You can. You have to understand folks, these two are not believers, or rather, weren't. We have been very sneaky with them how we've taught them, but you know what? The Holy Ghost is REAL. And they have felt it. We're so stoked for them. Both 23, both cool, smart guys. We refer to these sort as kingdom builders. We also had a really good lesson with Patrik, who has recently returned from Mali and Afghanistan on Army assignments. He's such a good guy. He is going to be baptized. Really. Pray for him though. We also visited a member family that night, the Matejckovi, and had dinner and shared a thought of course. We also looked at a bunch of stuff from Bro Matejcek's mission in Arizona. Good times. Happy Thanksgiving.

Friday we met our investigator Vera after a long pause, and it was great. She's coming to church this week, and we're excited to start teaching her again. We went to a really good burger joint, then sang some songs on the street. WE found a really cool mom, we'll start teaching her next week. Added bonus, her husband is Nigerian. We had such a good lesson with Pet'a! She is going to start the Book of Mormon for the third time and try praying and studying again. Please pray for her!!! SHe is so great, once she's baptized she'll be a great member. We had a Czech lesson with a member, then taught Ary a good lesson, he may go on a mission! We'll talk with him more about that later of course. Then we went and had end-of-transfer-we-love-the-office-missionaries-and-APs-dinner at the McConkies. It was of course enjoyable.

Today we had a turkey bowl.  It was a way fun time and now we're getting prepped for a feast, and two baptisms. We have six through the mission this weekend, some real miracles. This is the greatest work! I love you all, keep strong.

Love,

Starsi Knapp