Teaching and Studying, Beans and Rice

I'll start this off by saying THANK YOU for all of the letters I've received lately, and a big thanks in advance for all those letters and packages that are still on the way! I await them with felicitous, giddy eagerness. And I'm very glad that the letters and tapes I've sent are well-received and enjoyed. I enjoy writing them!

I'm glad to hear that the family is doing well and is anxiously engaged in good causes!

Ok, now a word about the work. Our investigator Angel (the Ecuadorian would-be American) is progressing well! We've met with him several times and he's attended church. He's keeping his commitments and does all the reading we assign to him. We've set as a goal with him the 17th of October for baptism. We'll do the best we can with him and see how things go! Also, Alfredo has been in Madrid the last couple of days but he still meets with us and we're meeting his needs well. We continue to look for more, but those are the two big bright spots lately.

I thought this time I'd include a little blurb about my studies. As missionaries, we get a whole hour every day to ourselves to study the scriptures, Preach my Gospel, and other approved reading. I love it! I've been working on a goal to read through all the standard works. I finished the Book of Mormon first, then I started the Old Testament at Genesis and started going through that. When I got to Psalms, I started reading through Doctrine and Covenants simultaneously. I've been thinking of stopping the D&C and reading Our Heritage first because I'm told it will enrich my understanding of the aforementioned book. Today I just finished Isaiah. It's not as bad as everyone always says it is!!! I've enjoyed it a great, great deal and have marked it up top to bottom. I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to understand better the prophesies of Christ and the gathering of Israel, and the Millenium.

Traveling costs have been very heavy lately, so I ate VERY cheaply this last week, making beans and rice every day. I was able to stay under 10 Euro on my grocery bill. Pretty good, eh?

Well, I need to get going now. Take care everyone! I love you all and thank you for your continued love and support. Hasta luego!

-Elder Knorr

Tape from Elder Knorr - First Area - Madrid Barrio 1

This part is a full slideshow now, with lots of news:

Mejia family

A typical day in the life

Local ward

Funny story - "I Am The One"

Rambling pastor

New investigators!

Tape from Elder Knorr - Part 1 - Madrid MTC

Highlights from this audio slideshow:

Special Musical Number by "4 Ordained"

Contacting in the park

Pondering and preparing for entrance to the mission field

_________________________________________

There are 3 more parts to come - watch for:

First area - Madrid Barrio 1, part A

Madrid Barrio 1, part B

Current area - Segovia

Bits and Pieces from older letters

July 22

"We have an appointment this preparation day to go over to Hermana Loli's house, (the wife of the branch president, just had heart surgery a year ago and is a wonderful, happy 75 year old lady) and she's going to teach us how to make tortilla patata, which is basically potatoes, eggs, milk, cheese and bits of ham all mixed together and cooked in a pan until it's kind of solid. Then you eat it. We want to see how a real-life Spanish woman cooks it so that we can learn how to make it for ourselves. Then, some other day, she said she'd teach us how to make flan de huevo, which is basically a yummy egg-based custard."


July 29

"I'm still getting used to "pueblo life." The Spain Madrid Mission has city areas, which is where I was before, and pueblo areas, which is where I am now. Pueblos are kind of like miniature cities. They have all of the same modern conveniences, they just have less of them. And there are way less members. Here, we're attached to a little "rama" (branch) and we get 13-16 people out to sacrament meeting every week, tops. Also, we only have a president (branch equivalent of the bishop) and a 1st counselor. That's it as far as Priesthood goes. Yeah, we're small. But we're like a small family."


August 26

"So I read a sweet article out of the Liahona (our Ensign) "Our Refined Heavenly Home." It was a good article. It was all about how we can make our home more like heaven. My companion and I have been freakin' out about it for weeks!" If you'd like to read the article, click here.

"We needed to get to an appointment in a different part of the city that takes a while to get to because you have to go around all this wilderness and hills. But my companion told me about a legendary trail that we could take that would take us right there. We looked for it and...we found it! The secret trail is real! We hiked a bit and it even had a sweet view of the cathedral at sunset. We named it "Dead Man's Pass" just to make it sound cool."

Lots of news, including...another Angel!

First thing to say: I am truly shocked and saddened to hear about the passing of Ryan Alder. He was truly one of the best and brightest people I have ever known, and I always looked up to him as a near-perfect example of what a young man should do and should be. In many ways, Ryan has been my role-model throughout a good part of my life. And I am extremely glad to hear about the protection and survival of Kate and their child. I am sure they will be well cared for by their loving and supportive families. Wow, I just... don't know what else to say. My sincerest love and comfort to the Alder family in this time of difficulty.

Secondly, I FOUND ELDER OGDEN AGAIN! Today for preparation day we decided to come to the temple here in Madrid, and he has recently been transferred here to serve as a district leader, so we gave him a call and arranged to be at the temple at the same time. It was a wonderful, refulgent experience to meet him there and share a bit of time together. It felt so complete! I'm so glad for the blessings of the temple and for the blessings of missionary work. I truly felt that my joy was full today. As a matter of fact, he's sitting only a few computers down from me right now, writing his email to HIS family.

The fact that I'm content with where I'm at right now is also helped along by the fact that our area is suddenly doing amazing! Segovia, and I think missionary work in general, is a true rollercoaster. Sometimes people listen and sometimes they don't. Sometimes people follow through on their commitments and sometimes they don't. And, well, in the past couple of days, some people have been listening!!!

First, a man named Alfredo, who has come to sacrament meeting twice already on his own will, has really begun to investigate the Church. He meets with us often and reads all the scriptures and things that we ask him to before every lesson. He's a quieter, more serious, thoughtful person, but he's very interested in the Gospel and he will be blessed. Elder Zollinger and I both feel very good about him and his potential to get baptized.

The other new investigator is a whole subject in himself. His name is Angel, a 50 year old Ecuadorian man with a grown up family of 4 children. He's currently living here in Segovia with his wife and working towards getting a professional truck driver's license so he can work. Oh, and one other thing: HE LOVES AMERICA. And I don't mean a fleeting fancy either, this man is a red-white-and-blue fanatic! At our second meeting he brought in a bag a full size official American Flag and gave it to us as a gift. I don't really know what to do with it so it's currently in our apartment properly folded up and tucked away. Because of his love of the USA, we were afraid that he only wanted to meet with us so much because we're Americans, but he's actually shown a lot of real interest in the message of the restoration as well and has done the reading we've asked him and is on his way to getting a great testimony. We taught them both yesterday, back to back, and got a bit of long-overdue relief! :)

So, things are all butterflies and roses in Segovia right now as we work to keep these two amazing men working towards the goal of baptism and conversion to the Gospel. I thank you all for the prayers that you've offered that have helped me along and kept me working hard even when things weren't looking so great.

Yes, yes, I'll come right out and say that I have put on exactly 10 pounds ever since my entrance into the MTC. So it's mostly still just the MTC food that I haven't worked off yet. I can see it a bit around my neck (I can now make one or two more chins than I used to be able to make when pretending to be a whale or something at the public pool). My companion and I walk all day but I don't think that does a whole lot to burn fat, honestly. The runs we do in the morning are better. And I have been cooking a lot for myself, a lot of chicken and rice, and I make a lot of pure fruit smoothies as well.

Glad to hear that BYU beat that team! I was told by my sports-savvy companion Elder Zollinger that they were in for a hard time against Oklahoma but it looks like the ol' blue and white won the fight!

I'm sorry I've been leaving things out of certain letters to certain people. I'm not doing it on purpose, it's just that I have a rather hard time remembering what I've written to who and who I've written to what and where and when and why! So I'm sorry about that and I hope that parties with unique information that they feel comfortable sharing will come forward and share it so that no one misses anything they don't want to miss.

I sent the tapes last week! I sent one to Kristen and one for the family. I sent them both to Kristen to save on postage so expect those soon! (assuming that they don't disappear forever into the mail system) I've got to go now, but I love you all! Thank you for the news, both good and bad, and know that the Lord knows.

-Elder Knorr

"I got shot at!"

Ok, ok, alright, I'll describe the subject line! A few nights ago some teenagers drove by and shot at us with airsoft pistols from inside the car. At first we were walking along and we just heard the impact of some of the bb's behind us on the wall we were walking by. I thought it was gravel or something or maybe they were throwing little stones. But then I heard the extremely familiar sounds of single-action airsoft pistols going off and I knew what was going on. We just kept walking like normal and ignored them. Frankly, having a broad and detailed knowledge of airsoft weapons as I do, I was disappointed by the weakness and cheapness of their guns (in Spain, to say "Cheap" we say "Chapuza"). They didn't even leave any good marks on us! So it was more of a lame story than a cool one, but it still made Elder Zollinger and I laugh really hard and it was definitely our happy thought for the day! :) And Mom, I'm sorry if the subject line scared you or anything. I'm just learning a different sense of humor, mostly from my companion Elder Zollinger.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention that I haven't said much about Elder Zollinger. I'll take some time today to tell you about him: Elder Greg Zollinger is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He's a half an inch shorter than me, but he is stronger. He's a very fun, very funny guy, as well as a very sedulous [diligent] and focused missionary. His favorite thing is baseball, and he's taught me a ton about it in our time here together in Segovia. I never knew there was so much to it! He was on his high school's baseball and football teams and worked overtime for a long time before the mission. In turn I've taught him a lot about music and other interests. He enjoys shooting clay pigeons with shotguns for target practice. He also really loves reading. Before the mission he was a big reader and he also loved audiobooks. He has been on the mission for over a year and a half. He has plans to attend BYU-Idaho when he returns, and thinks he might want to get a degree in Biology.

Elder Zollinger and I get along great! We have a lot of fun together, we know how to work hard together and we've begun to understand each other well. If there's one thing that I'm starting to learn from my companions it's that there is ALWAYS a mountain of things that you can learn. First off, every companion is different so you have to learn how to adapt and work in unity with them. That's something that I've noticed has come with time spent together, as well as the desire to learn and understand the other person. Secondly, we all have different interests and areas of knowledge which we can share with each other and learn. Every person is a world in themselves from which can be learned a wealth of things, and I'm grateful for these opportunities I've been given.

The time has finally come: I'm going to send the audio tapes today! I know I've talked about it before, but this time I'm serious. We've planned it all out and everything. I'll be going to the mail center here in Segovia to get the proper packaging so that I can ensure that the tapes arrive safely and in good condition. As for the CD with pictures, I still don't feel like I have enough to justify burning a disc. I take a few more every preparation day, but I admit it's a slow process. Also, since my first camera bit the dust, I haven't been able to find a good, reliable way to take the rest of the pictures off of the old memory card, so I think I'll just end up sending it (the memory card) along with the CD when I burn it. I know that this has been advised against, but you already have almost everything that's on it, and if it's sent in tandem with a CD I think it will be safer. Please send me your thoughts on this and tell me what you think.

It's good to hear that my cousins who have successfully completed their missions are doing well! And it sounds like Matthew's living the good life now! That's all great.

I was amused by the description of the doggie obstacle course and Max's completion of it! I can only imagine how fun that would be to watch! I miss that little black dog. I can still remember playing with him in Rocky Mountain Park, getting a good head start and then trying to outrun him across the field. Fun times! As always, it was good to hear how the family is doing and recent developments in things.

I'll have you all know that we are going to go to the buffet here in town again and I hardly ate any breakfast so that I will be ready to really get my money's worth of egg flan, pudding and jello. :)

I love you all and thanks so much for the letters and the emails and the love that you send! We'll keep plugging away here in Segovia and hoping for things to take an upward swing!

-Elder Knorr