Good to hear that the whole Knorr family is still alive after their various and sundry adventures. I'm glad to hear that the natural gas adventure was a success! An RC plane? That sounds really fun! Good to hear that Dad and Ethan are having some good quality time together. Speaking of hobbies, has Dad been using my airsoft gun? He's totally allowed to if he wants. The plans for the coming weeks sound like fun ones! I always really enjoyed family visits. And EFY was fun for me the one time that I went.
Good luck on the Timpanogos hike! That's one thing that I really wish I could have done more: hike Timpanogos. Oh well, the mountain will still be there when I get back! Night hikes are the way to go on that.I'm very grateful for the support that I've been given so far as a missionary. I have all kinds of people back home who I know love me, including, apparently, Brielle Giles, Kristen's 3-year-old sister, who I've been told is set on marrying me when I get home. :) As for letters, I've received lots so far from a wide spread of people.
I'm glad to hear that the blog is getting lots of attention! Looks like it will continue to be a reliable way of letting people know what's going on.
TODAY IS THE DAY that we are going to do pictures. I have pictures on the old camera (broken), pictures on Elder Parry's camera, and pictures on my own, new camera. We'll try and get it all sorted out and mailed by the end of today or tomorrow. Not sure what kind of crazy format everything will be in, but I think it will all work out. Have you been posting the pictures on the blog?Ok, time to answer some questions:
Our typical day goes like this. We wake up at 7, go jogging for 15 minutes, come home and I do push ups and crunches for another 15 minutes. At 7:30 we start taking turns in the showers and eating breakfast so that everyone can be fed and showered by 8:30, when we begin an hour of personal study in the scriptures (which always goes by too fast. I love reading the scriptures! I'm currently in the book of Psalms, the Book of Ether, and reading topically in Preach My Gospel). At 9:30 we have companion study, which involves sharing insights we gained during personal study and also planning for and practicing for lessons that we'll teach that day.
At 10:30 we begin a 30 minute language study, which is when I usually read out loud from the Libro de Mormon to work on my pronunciation and then I usually conjugate a few verbs. On that note, my Spanish is starting to increase a lot in fluidity, which is good. At 11, we leave the piso for la calle and start to go to our appointments and contact people on the way. We work until 2:30, which is when mediodia starts, which is basically a Spanish tradition of taking a break smack-dab in the middle of the day. That's when we eat our main meal of the day and do a bit more language study if we can. At 4:30 it's back to the streets, going to appointments and contacting. The rule about being home is that we should be home by 9:30, unless we're in a lesson, in which case it's extended to 10. As soon as we get home we go back into the study room and prayerfully plan the next day. After that, we do what we need to do to be ready for bed by 11 and then it's lights out!As for finding people, we usually find on our own efforts. The members in our ward haven't quite caught the fire, but we're working on it. They treat us very kindly, but we don't eat a whole lot with them like in some other areas here. Mostly, we view our meetings with them as a chance to practice our teaching skills and also get them excited about missionary work. Right now, we meet with the Silva family and the Bersosa family, who are both from Ecuador, as well as with Hestrobel from the Dominican Republic, who is our ward mission leader.
My health is great! My health philosophy right now is to get my food groups, including fruits and veggies, and also drink lots of water. Also, I try to avoid eating sugar before bed, seeing as how that tends to ruin my sleep. I haven't noticed the weight go away, but I figure it doesn't matter too much as long as I'm doing my best to keep a healthy lifestyle.
I have plenty of money to eat decently. We shop at a grocery store called Mercadona, where a somewhat lacking variety of foods are sold.
They just don't have the same scope of variety as does the United States, but it's ok. I usually buy some fruit, a bag of fresh spinach, a loaf of bread, some hamburger, bacon and eggs, a box of corn flakes, some premade pizzas, milk and yogurt. Pretty basic. I've still got tons of rice and pasta left over from the previous person who lived in my place, so I buy those only when I run out. I also usually buy a liter and a half of Caribe Juice, and then use that bottle for Kool-Aid for the next week.My clothes situation is really good. In fact, all of my equipment has left me satisfied and not wanting or distracted, which is all very good.
The work goes well here! We've been trying to find new investigators and work with the ones we already have. The big thing that I'm working on right now is learning the area, seeing as Elder Parry leaves next week and I'll have to teach this area to another missionary. It's a lot of pressure! But I know that if I work hard that I'll be able to keep things moving here, with the Lord's help of course.
I love you all! Take care and keep the letters coming!
Your favorite Elder (if that isn't too presumptuous) -Elder Knorr
