Week 6 in Uruguay!

9/18/17-9/26/17

Hola a todos!!!

Tuesday-Wednesday

Well, we have found Maria. I have really been trying to act upon the spiritual promptings given to me. This week I had the feeling to go and find the lady (Maria) that went missing for the last 2 weeks. Now she has a baptism set for the 30th, we used my birthday as a push haha. For lunch, I had tuna and wow I’m not 100% sure I’m sold on it. It smelled and did not looked cooked, bad fish haha. After our weird experience with tuna, we taught Chicito Carlos. He is a stud. He told me my Spanish is a lot better than the first time we met him. I straight up asked him if he would get baptized in two weeks. He said “No thanks.”lol. He is super close just not ready yet. My comp told me later that when he looks at me he sees someone with a strong testimony and someone close to family and Heavenly Father. He told me to never lose that and that people all over can see that. Ahh, that made me so happy. That night we taught Annabelle and Michael. It was my turn to share so I talked about one of the best chapters in the Book of Mormon, Alma 32. The spirit was so strong. We had to catch an uber because we were going to be so late getting home. That next morning the tuna did not sit well with me or my comp and we slept in lol and my comp forgot his meds so we went back and got them. We knocked on like 10 houses but no one wanted to hear us so went to our last charla. I gave the baptismal interview to Maicol, the kid that smokes. He is so ready and I am so excited.

Thursday – Friday
Today was so funny. There is this guy that thinks he is a traffic guard. He has a whistle and vest, and so he went off on us because he said he saw God and Satan. He said he cast Satan down to hell and he is made king over a world. So funny, we were like well, that is fantastic, thank you. He told us that we don’t need to go around preaching anymore. I have been rereading Alma 32 a lot. Faith is  first believing, than acting upon the promptings given. The Book of Mormon is so amazing and my testimony grows more and more about it. Also, Alma 36, so good! I had a prompting to go to one of our investigator’s house and it turned out she wanted to kill herself. Wow, the spirit helped me out. I told her we are here for her salvation. She changed and she is now coming to church and we are close to setting a baptism date with her. I am so excited and thankful I get to grow and love the people here. 

Saturday-Sunday
I had a feeling to call the kid who smokes and he has stopped smoking. He wanted to join us for the last charla. The spirit works in so many ways, it’s amazing and all we have to do is listen. We set a baptism for a guy that is already ready. He is so perfect for baptism. I am excited! In church, I was feeling the spirit so strong and it was amazing but 2 seconds later a phone goes off, kid starts crying, and this mom right in front of us slaps her kid so hard on the mouth. It was crazy haha! Well, that’s about it. Hope all is well back in the states. Miss you all!

Love Elder Knelly

PS I finally played ball with people here. They thought it was the coolest thing ever that I could make a shot. haha

Week 5 in Uruguay

9/12/17-9/18/17

Hola familia y amigos!

Tuesday – Wednesday
Well P-day was Tuesday so emailing was the best thing ever.  The day went by so fast!   Later that night we were asked to go give a blessing, ahhh it was awesome!  I was so nervous like sweating so much lol.  I anointed the mom and son.  The son had like 6 different names lol.  After the blessing, the little boy jumped up and gave me a hug, ahh it was so cute!  Wednesday we had another blessing to give and it was so spiritual :) We then taught the first lesson to Maicol, the kid that smokes.  I started it and the spirit was so strong!  We were fasting and every time we do something or some trials happens.  I was down because Spanish was just hard and I tried to contact, but no one would listen!  So in this charla/lesson, it was powerful.  I felt the words just coming, Spanish words haha.  When we finished, my comp said bro, that was the best lesson!  Like your Spanish bro, awesome haha.  Ahhh Fasting works! I have the strongest testimony of fasting and how important and powerful it is.

Thursday – Friday
We ate at a member’s house and I asked if they had a basketball or watch basketball.  They had NBA TV.  Oh my gosh, I miss playing.  I was watching the plays from last year!!  I got so excited to come back and play.  I can’t wait.  I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Also, we had tooth picks made of bamboo, so much better.  Friday was good.  We went to a meeting and had mashed potatoes! Oh I miss those.  Then we had a talk from Pres. Eddy about baptizing.  Our goal is to baptize! We teach repentance and baptize converts.  Such a good talk.  Later, I started the lesson for Maicol again.  I brought mints for him to help stop smoking.  I talked about the Book of Mormon so he can gain a testimony.  Wow, the spirit was so strong.  I wish you could feel how strong the spirit was. I know I was talking through the spirit no doubt!  I gave the little boy m&m’s, lol Julio, I’m such a sucker for him.

Saturday – Sunday
Today we had a service project from 8am to 4pm, 8 hours!!!.  We painted, power washed, laid concrete and did yard work for an elementary school.  It was fun!  I love servicing others, it’s the best.  I got all the kids to take a video of us saying “Cougar Nation” haha.  They don’t know English but it was awesome!  Later we had a lesson with Miss Uruguay.  She doesn’t believe in God but I know we will baptize her.  She speaks English.  I love talking English!  The spirit was amazing.  We got Maicol and a guy named Daniel to come to church.  Daniel has a dog that waits for him at a certain spot every day.  Just like “Hachi”.  Sacrament was awesome!  We had 32 people there instead of the 17 we’ve had.  Later that night, we taught Michael, Annabelle and their cute little girl Mia.  They have been inactive and had been talking about getting a divorce.  So we are teaching them and we sing hymns, even though they laugh at us, the spirit is so strong.  They have been coming to church and Michael talked to us at the service project and told us that they are not getting a divorce now.  He said ever since you Elder have come into our lives we feel the spirit and have wanted to make this work.  He said they are also working on getting to the Temple.  Their little girl, Mia is adorable. She legit has a crush on me.  She keeps trying to kiss me, so funny.  Well, I love you all.  Thanks for all your love, support and prayers.

Elder Knelly

Week 4 in Uruguay

9/4/17-9/12/17
Hola mi familia y amigos,

Tuesday-Wednesday
So I had to clean our bathroom this week. Ok people, it’s the nastiest bathroom you have ever seen lol…like porta potty action! Yeah, I was gagging a little! Not fun. There was mold and all sorts of gross stuff everywhere haha.  For lunch, we went to Elder Wankier’s house. He is the second counselor to the President. He made enchiladas and I don’t know if he forgot the recipe or what but they were so HOT!!! I ate a little too much. It was the first spicy food I ate in 2 months! I was so full! I do not recommend eating that much haha! Later we taught the Andreas family. She has a 17-year-old son who smokes a lot! We were able to teach him. I was able to say a prayer before I taught and the craziest thing happened, I understood for the most part what they were saying. I explained the word of wisdom and made a chart for him on days he smokes and doesn’t to check his progress. I filled a cup of water and put a cigarette in it. I told him he has to drink it if he doesn’t progress this week. He said ok ;) They also have a 4-year-old boy, super cute! He started to cuddle up and tried to fall asleep on my arm. The best!

Thursday- Friday
Well, today was one of the hardest days during the mission. I practiced lesson one and it was difficult.  So he said to do it in English.  So I did it in English.  Then my comp asked me if I believed this is where I am supposed to be and if I believed God will help me. He said God called you to teach in Spanish and he will help me if I believe.  I know without a doubt this is where I am supposed to be. I ended up doing lesson one and contacting multiple people on the street. The spirit was with me. I just needed the faith.  Later, the Argentina Elder cut my comp’s hair. It looked like a lawn mower cut it lol…so bad! Then we hit up McD’s! Better believe I got a 20 piece nugget and mcflurry. When we got home one Elder was gassy so we put a flame to it. It definitely works! Don’t try it at home haha! The next night I got the best compliment from a less active person that said how much I’m improving and how my Spanish is becoming more clear. It was such a good feeling to hear that because I have been struggling so much with the language here. Afterwards they gave us rice and milk, which is a dessert here. Also, if you guys haven’t pulled out your patriarchal blessings recently, I want you to do it. My blessing has helped me a lot this week!

Saturday-Sunday
Well, it has been raining nonstop! It’s been so cold and wet. We were late to curfew and rolled in at 10pm…. So bad! My tire on my bike had popped again…so stupid. I am over bikes! My comp was not happy. He is so obedient that we had to run a mile so we wouldn’t be late but ended up late anyway. The Argentine elders call me “Clark Kent” because he thinks I look like super man so I run with it haha. He always calls me it because my hair has a curl when I wake up. It’s pretty funny. We had meetings with the President, ahh, he is so cool and has a rock solid testimony, it’s awesome! He gives me sports updates every once in awhile. Well, that’s about it. Our area might flood so pray for us. Remember this…

“Work as hard as you play, play as hard as you work.” “work first, play later”

Love you all

Elder Knelly

Elder Trevin Knell
Misión Uruguay Montevideo
Dalmiro Costa 4635 Bis
C.P. 11400 Montevideo
Uruguay 

Week 3 in Uruguay (2 Months Out)

8/28/17-9/4/17

Hola mi familia y amigos!
Tuesday –Wednesday
     Today was an adventure! We were in a rainstorm. It was raining so hard and there was no power. Many houses were flooding everywhere. It was so sad to see. We forgot our umbrellas because we were late for a meeting. After our meeting we went on a trek, hiking through a campo(field) that was flooded. It was so muddy and we were drenched! We ate there at a members house and guess what we had for dessert, oranges haha , it’s awesome! We then made the trek back to our bikes and the flooding was worse. It was actually pretty fun but I trashed my shoes and my pants but hey it’s missionary work. We went back to our bikes and they were definitely broken so we rode the bus back. This person asked me where I was from and I thought he asked how long have I been on my misson. My answer was dos semanas( two weeks) I was so embarrassed!
     I saw a frog play real “frogger” on the street, it was awesome! I have hit my head on my door more than I have days on the mission. Haha! We taught a lesson to an inactive member and I bore my testimony to him. He told me he is thinking about coming back and when he does he is going to say “it was the TALL Elder Knell with his broken Spanish than when he bore his testimony I felt the spirit so strong.” It was the best thing to hear. The spirit is real, it’s not our words, it’s the spirit! Heavenly Father lives and answers our prayers! Don’t forget that!!! 2 Timothy 2 says we are all soldiers of Christ. We had an awesome charla with this family with the cutest little girl. They are getting a divorce which is so sad. We sang a hymn and then I just started belting it out! I sang so loud lol trying to lift their spirits. It was awesome. The guy is almost ready to come back. It’s so close! We then were going to be late to another meeting so we ran in suits for 2-3 miles because our bikes were broke. We made it on time. I also had the chance to bare my testimony again. I talked about Jose’ Smith and why  would he suffered so much if it wasn’t true. It was awesome to feel the spirit.

Thursday and Friday
     Today, I went on a intercombo with an Argentine Elder, he only speaks Spanish. I really need to learn this language lol, but it was fun!! We found this guy who grows marijuana , so funny! It was hilarious! He is not a member in case you didn’t already know. We ended up watching Argentina and Uruguay play each other in soccer with him. Two things I learned, Uruguay people love their soccer and the second one is don’t tell an Argentina dude to leave or that we need to go during a game lol, he was not a happy person. Well, Friday I was fasting and not feeling very well. I wanted to go back to our home but something keep telling me a little longer so we kept on going on through the night getting the door slammed in our face when I told my companion to talk to this guy walking. This guy spoke English, so happy! How cool! He talked about how he almost got killed by a guy and how his life isn’t the best. I asked him if I could explain the Book of Mormon to him in English. He said please. My comp didn’t know how to in English so I did the whole lesson. I bore my testimony and said a prayer with him. His name is Fernando. When I finished, I knew he was an answer to my prayer. I prayed throughout the day to have a change of heart and to help someone in their life and then I met him. The guy then told us he was waiting for me, waiting to hear those exact words from me. Ahh, the spirit was so strong! I have never felt the spirit so strong. I know if we last a little longer we will be blessed! We will see people change! Ahh, it was so good! My experience changed my outlook on the mission. I love it!

Saturday and Sunday
     Well, I had cow kidney! It smells like pee and you can see where/how it would filter everything out. It was so dang chewy! It was the nastiest thing ever LOL, I now know the Spanish word for cow kidney so I don’t have to say si haha to it again! We had asado that night with this military man that cooked for us. It is ribs/steak and they cook right in front of their house. It is a huge slab of meat with bones and so much fat but it was good though. This lad had 5 slices of cake haha he ate half of it. We were all cheering him on.
     We went to the store/doctors house to get a prescription for my comp because he has ADD. He is either go go go or no no no lol, He is cool though and super obedient so it helps me roll out of bed right when that alarm hits 6: 30am. We work out every morning and today was chest and back. I am really sore!
     We also went to a baptism and got this lady to accept a baptismal date!! She finally accepted after 2 years!!! Lets go! Sunday my comp woke up sick, it was probably the asado the night before. All that yummy fat stuff! Well, this week was pretty good. Everyone pronounces my name as Knesh lol. The misson is hard but it’s supposed to be. D&C 10:5 Always remember to pray always! Funny Story for the week… we were teaching a dude and he loves the church! We asked him to be baptized and he said “no” because he doesn’t want to name call all his sons “elders” haha! Thats about it for this week, thank you for all your letters and for all your love and support!


Elder Knelly