This is from a couple of weeks ago, but it's great and  I wanted to share it.

Draha rodino,

This week has been unbelievable. I didn't get a chance to record anything this week, for which I humbly apologize and repent, but I'll do better next week. This week was really incredible though. I'll get to it in just a second. First off, thanks so much for the update on all the missionaries! I was just thinking about some of them recently, so I didn't have to even ask. Thanks! Really, that's all. No other special requests or anything like that.

Monday was a good start to the week. We had a lesson after all the Pday stuff with a cool less active kid named Petr. He has just let some things, work, take priority in his life, and he's having a hard time getting it back to what it's supposed to be. As we learned in a recent general conference, it's easier to keep the commandments 100% of the time than 98% of the time. Don't forget that. We also taught a really good lesson to our investigator Ludek about hte sacrament, because the one thing he doesn't do is go to church, and it has killed his progress. If he would do it, he would get baptized. But, right now he's being difficult and he really isn't progressing. The lesson was good though, had a member there who did a great job, and...SPOILER ALERT...he still didn't come to church. We feel like we are just beating our heads against a wall with this kid. But, I love him. Two lessons.

Tuesday. No district meeting today because we have a secret mission-wide meeting on Friday. It really is top secret. Nobody knows what's going on. But, no district meeting today which is a bummer because I love district meetings, but whatevs. The highlight of the day was English class. We only had two students there, but it's the couple that we want to teach, very badly, so we got to focus an entire spiritual thought on them. It was great. We actually met with the husband by himself last week, sent a Book of Mormon home for his wife, and she expressed how she has already found comfort in the book. I love the Book of Mormon so much, I cannot express it. More on that later. Three lessons.

Wednesday. We taught another one of our baptismal dates today, Sarka. We taught the Restoration and it went sooo well. All in all, we taught the Restoration a ton this week, and Elder Sewell and I both expressed how our testimonies of Joseph Smith and everything associated with the Restoration have been strengthed because of it this week. It's been great. Anyway, Sarka is on date for the 1st of March, and she is just so humble, and open, and willing to learn, it is a delight to teach her. After the lesson the member we had with us asked if we would teach with her next time we hada meeting set up with Sarka. That is great. That's wphat we want. We want hte members having good experiences while teaching with us because then they are more willing to work with us, as well as share the Gospel with their friends. It was super. WE had very interesting English class today though. The spiritual thought was also the Restoration, and it was going great. the problem is that one of the students in our Wednesday class is a less active member with very interesting ideas. Just as we were testifying of Joseph Smith and so forth, she jumped in. "But it's an American church. Joseph Smith was a prophet. For America. Here in Europe we have the Pope, and he's a prophet too, right?" Uhh, no. Wrong. We did our best to move on, but we worry about hte effect it had on the rest of the class. For example, there is a young Catholic girl there who we really wnat to teach. It probably wasn't good for her to hear someone testify of Joseph Smith and the Pope at the same time. Four lessons.

Thursday was amazing! We had five lessons on plan today. One of them dropped, then we had two people call us, CALL US, and ask to meet. One of whom was the wife in the couple that we want to teach. It was crazy. The Lord blessed us so much. We met with one kid, Jiri, who talked about since the missionaries met him, about 6 months ago, he has just been pondering about the message they shared. In those six months he has gone from athiest to wanting to spread the love of God across the whole world. We had a sweet lesson with him, alos the Restoration. WE also taught a professional hockey player, a girl named Iveta, in the food court of this shopping center called AFI. All of the members in this town except one are out of town this week, and we couldn't get anyone to teach with us, and obviously we can't teach her by ourselves. So, we do it in public. Missionaries have taught in AFI for years. We got kicked out on Thursday. We think that the security thought we were proselyting in there, so they told us to leave. It was a bummer, but we finished the lesson and Iveta loved it. We'll see how to continue from here with that. Six lessons.

Friday. The day. The secret conference day. It was one of the most amazing days of my life. First off, it was great to see everyone, all my buddies from across the mission. But that was nothing. The first real amazing part was an announcement by President irwin. He said that he received word from the Missionary Department that as of the 8th of February he was allowed to tell us...the name of his replacement as Mission President. Friday was feb 8th. As for who it will be, I would recommend you look in the Feb 23rd edition of the Church News. His name will be there. It was cool to hear who it will be and hear about him and stuff, but it was also very sad. But The Spirit was there as President testified that the new President will be, or rather is, called of God. He expressed his love for us, not to much because as he said, he would get too emotional. For some reason it was just powerful. Powerful in that we could see so clearly how the Lord directs His work. It's a marvelous work, and a wonder. Shortly thereafter was a miracle, or rather the culmination of many miracles. I don't know what this will mean to you, but for Mom and Dad, and certainly Kaitlin as a recently returned missionary, it will mean something. President unveiled the newly printed Book of Mormon in Slovak. For years missionaries there have labored without the Book of Mormon, having to use the Czech one. As of this week, they will have full access to the Book of Mormon in Slovak. The Spirit that came into that room as we discussed, contemplated, and marvelled at the miracle and possibilities that this book will bring to the work in this mission will never be forgotten. WE closed the meeting by singing the Mission song altogether, standing. In that moment, I had impressed upon me the magnitude and privilege of this call as a missionary more forcefully than ever before. It was difficult to control my emotions, especially when I glanced at President Irwin and could see him struggling with the same thing. I love him, so much. I love this work. And, as I said, I love the Book of Mormon. Anyone who doesn't know if it's true, must. It is the key. To everything. Peace, happiness, and growth in this life, and exaltation in the life to come. As I said, I struggled throught that song. The third verse starts like this, "The seeds are sown, the field is white in Czech and Slovak tongue." From that line to the end of the song I could not sing. I couldn't. I was overcome. I have never felt like that before, and want that feeling forever.

We also taught one lesson that day.

Saturday we weekly planned, and had another really good lesson with Sarka. She's doing great. WE also taught Vlasta, another of our baptismal dates. he's a good kid. WE have to postpone, but he'll get there. He's a great kid, 21, and is really making progress to baptism. His date is now the 1st of March as well. Three lessons.

Sunday was good, another lesson with Sarka and also the less active kid, Petr. Both went well. I also did calls that night, and our zone is doing great. WE're all working hard and really seeing progress and growth. Two lessons.

I should explain the lesson thing. About a year ago, then Elder Causse, now Bishop Causse, conducted a mission tour. One of the things he trained on was teaching 21 lessons a week. He promised that baptisms would double, DOUBLE, if we strove to teach 21 a week. If you've been keeping track, we taught 21 this week. We were stoked. Teaching is the best thing. It's what we are called to do, and there is no other thing I would rather do than teach people the message of Christ, His Atonement, and the Restoration of His Church.

What a privilege and blessing. I am so grateful that I have had this opportunity. Tanner, Hunter, continue to prepare. Savannah and Emily, if it is what the Lord wants, do it. You will never regret it. I love you all, keep the letters and emails coming, and I will try to do the same.

Starsi Knapp

From Prague to Pardubice

Taylor has been transferred from Prague to Pardubice. (pronunciation: Par-DOO-beechay). He is now about 70 miles from Prague. Here are some segments of this weeks' email...

WHat a week! This new area is wonderful. I do miss Prague, but Pardubice is awesome. AS far as size go, it is the second smallest city we have missionaries in in the Czech Republic. I don't know the exact figures. This week has been great though.

Okay! So MOnday. We only taught one lesson that day, but it was to a kid named Ludek, 25, in school and working, way cool kid. He's the type that has about 10,000 questions, so the struggle is to not try and answer every question, but rather just teach him the saving doctrines.

Tuesday, we taught 5 lessons. I don't know, nor do I wnat to know, how many were normally taught in Paraguay, but let me tell you 5 is great for us. They were all nice lessons, but the real miracle was when we were contacting. We didn't have a lot of time to do so, but we found the coolest young kid. His name is Filip, he's 19, and he is my dream investigator. My goal before going home is to baptize a future missionary. Filip is going to be the one. We stopped him, and he kind of wanted to just keep going, didn't really want to talk to us. But, we talked a little about our message and so forth, and he said he'd met missionaries three times already, but was a little curious. We set up with him, and taught him on Wednesday. He's great. We also taught English tonight. It was good. We don't have a very big class, but a family comes to it, the Zlesakovi. They are going to become investigators tomorrow. They're so cool. Jana, Petr, and their four year old daughter Eliska.

Wednesday was also a good day, another five lessons.  We taught one of our baptismal dates today, Ondrej. He's a nice guy, really close to baptism, just needs to kick smoking. He's so close. We meet with him about four times a week.

Thursday we taught four lessons. One was to the branch President and his family of 8. They are great. WE also had the first district meeting of the transfer. I don't know if I told you this, but our district leader is Elder Coleman, who has been AP for the past 8 months. He's amazing. And slightly intimidating. It's great though. The first was really inspiring, and I cannot even tell you how pumped I am to learn everything from him that I can. He's a supermissionary. That is supposed to be one word.

Friday four again. Elder Sewell and I also went to the hospital to get his stitches out. He cut his head last week and got stitches. WE taught Ondrej again and also this less active lady named Sister Evansova. She speaks perfect English and married an English man.

Saturday we had many lessons fall through. But it's okay. We did get to teach our other baptismal date, a young kid named Vlasta. He's been sick, but we visited him at his house and had a nice lesson with him about the plan of salvation and repentance. He's a good kid with a sincere desire to follow Christ, so he'll make it.

Sunday. We don't actually have a branch here. We og to nearby Hradec Kralove to church. It was for me one of the most spiritual sacrament meetings I've ever been in. Answers and other things of a spiritual nature like crazy. It was great. We taught Ondrej again afterwards. He's so close to quitting smoking! Ahhh  That night we were studying, and had some serious revelation. The Book of Mormon. All of our investigators need to start reading the Book of Mormon more intensely. It is the key for them all. They won't go anywhere if they don't. 

 

Love you tons, keep pressing forward. This Gospel means more than any of us know, but as we live according to the knowledge we have, Our Father, in His mercy, reveals just a little more. It is a sweet process of growth and gratitude.

Starsi Knapp

Another week in the life of our missionary..

Monday. Sort of an exciting day. Not because of actual missionary stuff, but because we had to go to the foreign police and start the renewal process for my visa. It took a long time, but there was good group there, so we had a nice chat. Other than that, we just studied and planned because we didn't get a chance to on Sunday. Then, we went to FHE. That's that.

Tuesday was a nice day, last district meeting of the transfer. It was good, but a little sad. I've really liked being District Leader. It's almost like the difference between being a seminary teacher and being an institute director. As a District Leader, I have daily close contact with the members of my district. They're awesome. As Zone Leader, which President has already told me I will be, I'm sure there are great things about it, but I'm going to miss the association with the individual missionaries. We also sang on Tuesday, and taught our golden investigator, Marie. It was great. After that we taught Kamila about the Plan of Salvation and preparation for the temple, and promised that we would do what we needed to to get a date when she can go to the temple for the first time. Then I started an exchange! With Elder Boysen, the talllll British Elder.

So, Wednesday was exchange day. It was fun. Elder Boysen is a party all by himself. We contacted quite a bit, then taught a lesson to their most difficult, and consistent, investigator, Martin. He's young, extremely intelligent, and refuses to pray. The reason? Elder Tenney, who found him and taught him for quite awhile, says that Martin is scared to pray because he knows he'll receive an answer. Which means he will have to change his life. I agree one hundred percent. It's a very interesting situation.

Thursday we all went to lunch for Elder Mullen's birthday, courtesy of his parents. It was real good. After that we sang again, then hurried back to the building to teach a lesson. the lesson we had on plan was with a verrrrry old man, Mojmir. He's great, I really like the guy, but he got confused and thought that we were scheduled for next week. So he didn't come. But we set up for Friday! We contacted for a bit after Mojmir didn't show, then taught a super cool Italian! His name's Alessio, and he is so cool. He's 35, and teaches Italian here in private schools. I love him už. 

 

Friday we went to lunch with the Bohnes, who leave in a week and a half. It's sad. But, we helped them move last week, so they took us to my favorite restaurant EVER. Someday I'll have to take you guys to it. We then taught Lada, the handicapped member, then Mojmir was scheduled at 3. He didn't show. I called him and asked where he was, and he said the meeting was scheduled at 4. Oh well. We keep trying with him. We're set up for Tuesday now. We shall see haha. That night we ate dinner at a member's house with two other Elders, then had Polar Bear.We had a blast!

Today we went on a trip! I'll send some pics. But more importantly, we taught Marie again, and gave her a baptismal date. She is just amazing. As we were leaving, she thanked us over and over again for the meeting, then said, "Every time I come here, it's wonderful. It's like a rock for me, something I can stand on. Our trip was to a church made mostly of...bones. Enjoy.

I love you all so very much,

Love,

 

Starsi Knapp

 

P.S.

Taylor really does know how to spell. He types fast so as to maximize the amount of time he has to email so there are errors. I suppose I could take the time to fix them all...or not.

A few days in the life of Starsi Knapp

 Here is an excerpt from Taylor's last email. He is doing great. He enjoyed Christmas in Prague and we all enjoyed talking with him for a few short minutes. Our allotted time went by too fast. He is happy and faithful.

 

Wednesday was great. We didn't actually teach any lessons, we had none on plan and a bunch of office work to do, but our contactin was grrrrreat! We found some really cool people, three acutally. One was a lady named Lenka, one was a yound kid from India named Alok, and our miracle Potential, Jana. Also young, and so prepared. She knew us before, not us specifically, but misionaries, and has a book of Mormon, and is excited to meet with us. We haven't set up yet because she doesn't know her next week's schedule yet, but we will. We were contacting on the metro, heading for a place called Jiriho z podebrad, but because we were talking to people we missed our stop. As we walked from the stop we got off at to the stop we planned to go to, we found her. That is not a coincidence! Do what you're supposed to, and the Lord blesses.

Thursday was a good day too. We bought three new cars for the mission, a process that has been going on since before I came to Prague, and everything went smoothly. That morning we taught a man, Jarda, and his wife. Whose name I don't know. but that's a family! They are very sweet people, and it was their first lesson and it went well. WE also taught a lesson that night, to an ooooollllld man. He's hilarious. His name is Mojmir. the lesson wasn't great because he took two phone calls during it, and that took up most of the time, but at the end he had us and the member with us sign his Book of Mormon we gave him. He's a nice guy, and felt bad about wasting the time. We're meeting iwth him again next week.

Friday was good too. This whole week was. We taught a guy named Jan Kristek who has been an investigator for almost, no over, two years. The lesson was about repentance, and it went really well. He liked it. He's been taught everything, but we thought that maybe there were a few things we could focus on, simple blessings of the Gospel, that would touch him. Repentance was one of our ideas, and it seemed to go well! I also had the privilege of conducting a baptismal interview. The APs have been teaching a Jitka as well, btw ours is still out of town, and her baptism was this morning,, so last night I interviewed her. It was wonderful. She's a great lady and has been well prepared for baptism. She has come to church every week for over two months.

So, a baptism this morning. It was a beautiful service. Elder Mullen and I sang Lord, I Would Follow Thee, and it went great. The talks were wonderful, the baptism of course was great, and we had three investigators there! Chris from Greece came, Jan Kristek, and Marie. They all really enjoyed it. One of President Irwin's ideas for this year is to emphasize exposure to the ordinances of the Gospel for everyone, new, less active members, and investigators. There's a reason for that. The Spirit is present, so people learn. We saw it today with all three of them, but especially Marie. It was great. she was talking after to Elder clyde, and said things like, "I've never felt like that before. I don't remember my baptism as a child at all, it's so much different as an adult. How long does it take to prepare someone for baptism?" She is totally in. She'll come to church tomorrow for the third week in a row, and be on date this week! Exciting.

Well, I love you all. Those emails didn't make me homesick at all, because there is no place I would rather be than right where I am. This is the place for me, for at least the next 13 months, maybe the next 70 years, who knows :) Send in your questions so I can write accordingly in my letter, the Church is true. 

s laskou,

Okey doke, the week. We had such a week on plan! Why do people misuse their agency? It was still a good week, but not as good as I would have liked.

Monday we had office meeting and stuff like that, then worked like crazy on the Christmas slideshow. We got the first stage done, all that's left is fixing anything that President doesn't like. Which is namely all the silly stuff we put in quoting him. He watched it and laughed in all the right places, but did ask us to take out one picture of him. It was of him holding a stuffed turkey, and we added text to it, quoting him saying, "The question is, which one is the turkey?" He laughed, but said Sis Irwin wouldn't like it. He said, "My wife always tells me I need to be more dignified. She says I need to act more like the President of a mission." I thought it sounded a lot like things that you say, Dad. It made me laugh. We had a kid that was going to come to FHE, but he didn't come because he had to leave town. He sounds so cool, he's a referral, and he's going to let us know as soon as he gets back in Prague. So, that immediately changed our plans for lessons this week. His name's Martin.

Tuesday was a nice day. We had district meeting, and it was good. It was on the Book of Mormon, which is my favorite topic. It's nice to teach about something you love, and know well. So, even though it was hard to plan for a little, it went well because the Spirit was present. One of my most recent goals is to use the Book of Mormon in every situation more, finding, teaching, study and planning, everything. That book has power, and the proper use of it will lead people to Christ. WE also started an exchange, us and the zone leaders. I was with Elder Gabrielsen, Elder Clyde's trainer actually, and he's great. We talked to some great people, including set up an appointment at this guy's house that we met on the street. We also taught Kamila, and of course it went well. 

Wednesday was traveled back to Plzen, where Elder Clyde was with Elder Osterloh, the other zone leader. We had five lessons on plan! That is an amazing day. Three fell through. But we taught this former, Jan Kristek, a really nice guy. We are going to baptize this man. We have to! We also met with an inactive guy named Philip, he's from Nigeria. He's great! He works a lot, but said that he was in the process of working out his schedule so that he can be free on Sundays. We're happy about that. The man we met on the street, who invited us to visit him, wasn't home, and his phone was off. Shoot.

Thursday was fun. We went to Bratislava again! This time to sing. We performed our various Christmas numbers for the branch there, and it was great. It was a little tough, because the space we were supposed to stand was smaller than we were, but oh well. WE sounded quite nice.

Friday, Jitka cancelled on us again, but promised to come to church. We're super worried about her. She just got fired, and we think she might be moving. She can't! She needs to stay here, because if she moves, she'll probably go live with one of her daughters, neither of which live that close to a branch. We're a little scared. But we also taught some good lessons. Two of the elders in the district are leaving early so they are home for Christmas, so they are figuring out who to give all their investigators to. We taught two lessons with them Friday to people they want to give to us, but one of them said that one meeting was good enough for him for now. But, we're teaching another one tonight. The one that's meeting with us is named Pavel, and we're meeting with Mario tonight.

For Pday, we just went around and looked at all the nice Christmas things that are everywhere. Prague at Christmas is quite pretty. I'll send you a picture I took last week. 

that's about it folks, I love you! I can't wait to hear from you soon. Remember what I said up top about the Book of Mormon. One of the most powerful talks, no two of them, were given about the Book of Mormon in the same conference, one by Elder Holland, one by Elder Callister. That book is true. It is, and must be personally, the basis of testimony. It is the testament of Christ, and the testament of His latter-day work. I know it to be true.

I love you all again,

Starsi Knapp

Missionary Update

 Here are a few pieces of Taylor's email. He was called to be the district leader, as you will read. For those who don't know, as district leader he will help teach and train the other missionaries in his district and have other leadership responsibilities.

Anyway, the week. It's been a good one, an interesting one, and one where I've grown a lot. As I surely hope you know now, you should have received a letter, I am the district leader. It's quite an experience. Prague district is the biggest one in the mission by far, and it's quite the responsibility. It's given me a lot more to do, but I've had some grrreat experiences, especially in studies while preparing for district meetings. That's my favorite part. 

Tuesday was my second district meeting of the transfer. It went okay, we talked about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. There was one really cool part of it, for me at least. I had separated the role of the Holy Ghost into three parts: What role He should have with the missionaries in preparation, His role in the lessons, and His role with investigators between lessons. I faced a problem. I asked three different missionaries to each talk about one of those, but also had some things I wanted to say. I was worried that they would give their bit, then it would seem like the district leader was saying, "that's nice, that's nice, but I'm going to say what's right." But, the Lord knows. It was so cool to hear how each of their things fit so perfectly with what I had had in mind to say, that we didn't contradict each other at all, but just supported each other in all of it. It was awesome. We then had a singing display, and we got six numbers! In case you don't know, that is a ridiculous amount in one display. We were pretty pumped up.

Friday was a good day, but also a little frustrating. We had a fantastic lesson with Jitka, all about baptism and what it is and why it's important and why she wants it, and it went soo well. She says for her, remission of sins is the most important. She says she knows that baptism cleanses us, and that's what she wants. She also said she was almost afraid of being baptized because she doesn't wnat to be clean, then make mistakes and be dirty again. Which was great because our plan was to talk about the sacrament and how the promises are the same and we can experience the blessings of baptism every week when we partake of the sacrament and renew that covenant with God. The Spirit was there. Now, she did say that she wants more time to prepare spiritually, so she wants to wait until the 15th. We weren't stoked on that idea, but it is her baptism, and it does no good to try and force her. But, since we know she is ready, we won't let her postpone again. More time for temptation, and we don't want that. It was a little frustrating, because both lessons with new people fell through. We received more potentials this week than any other week in my mission, and by far more than any other companionship in the district, and we got exactly nothing from it so far. Oh well. It happens.

That is about the run of it. We went to this monument/park/cool view of Prague thingy today, and I have no pictures. My camera is dead! But, I'll be getting pictures eventually from other missionaries, so you'll see them someday. Also, a cool moment in studies today. I was again preparing for district meeting, and I had had tons of good ideas, but wasn't sure how to connect them all. The topic is Revelation through Prayer. The cool thing was just that I was lead to some things in Preach My Gospel and in the Fundamentals booklet (Kaitlin, do you know that) I got when being trained and when training that let everything just fall into place so beautifully, it was awesome! I love studies.

I also love all of you, keep the emails coming, and letters if you feel so inclined

The Church is true, the Lord is it's Head and our Savior. Love you guys,

Starší Knapp

P.S. In the pictures, the small one in white is Kamila, the older, bigger one is Jitka, and the tiny little guy by Kamila baptized her. He's 29. Yep, I know. Unbelievable, right? 

 
 And in the above picture, far right, is Taylor's former companion Elder DeAngelis. He is from Italy. They got along great. He even recorded an Italian tongue-twister for us!