Royal Knights

First, some last photos from the MTC:

 Saying goodbye to MTC friends

"The Map"

And now for this week's letter:

Greetings from Royal City, Washington!!

The last week has been insane as you can imagine! Tuesday morning I woke up at 2:30 in the morning to go catch a shuttle to the airport and fly to Seattle. I was supposed to be able to call my family but ended up getting caught in security for a long, long, looooong time. I even got a pat down! Because, you know, missionaries are very dangerous people! Then my bag and one of my friends' bags got checked and then the line for baggage was seriously long. We ended up almost missing boarding for the flight because all the security took like three hours. One cool thing though, was I was being super nice and patient the whole time, and one of the employees was impressed so he upgraded my seat to First Class free of charge! So that was pretty sweet. I got a window seat, a huge chair, and the whole row to myself.

I ended up getting a few more hours of sleep because the plane had a problem and the maintenance crew had to come and fix it. So we were sitting in the plane for about an hour and a half before we even took off. Then the flight was a little longer than expected because of weather. So by the time we got to Seattle we only had about 20 minutes before our flight to Yakima, so I hurried and called my mom really quick and got to talk to her for about 15 minutes. It was really awesome and I didn't even cry.

Then we got on this teeny tiny plane and flew to Yakima. The pilot spoke over the speaker "I wanted to extend a special welcome to the 20 missionaries we have on board with us today. It's an honor to fly you!" It was so cool! Then he came back and shook each one of our hands, looked us in the eye and said "Thank you for your service. God bless you."

The mission president, his wife, and 3 APs (Assistant to the President) came and picked us all up, and we went to the mission home. Sis. Lewis was taking tons and tons of pictures! Check out the mission blog to see them! Then we went to the mission home, which is gorgeous by the way, and we got to have a delicious home-made lunch (yay for no more cafeteria food!!) Then we went out on splits with local missionaries that have been here for a while. The sisters I went out with were very surprised at how good my Spanish was, so that was awesome. Then we went back to the home and had orientation about our mission cars, debit cards, p-day, schedules, etc. It was so hard to stay awake! I guess everyone else looked as tired as I did because then they let us take a nap. 

 The van they picked us up at the airport in (and also my sister, Libbie's dream car! HA!)

 Me with President and Sister Lewis (Boy do I look tired!)

The sisters I went on splits with the first day

After my nap I started to feel a lot of anxiety. Not for any particular reason, I think I was mostly just exhausted and realizing, oh my gosh I'm a missionary... this is real life! So I went to Pres. Lewis and he gave me a blessing. It was amazing as soon as he was done I felt this amazing peace wash over me. Then we ate dinner (which was also delicious) and had some time to write a note home to our parents saying we got here okay, and some time to get to know each other a little better. There were a lot of new missionaries that are musicians, and the Lewises have a piano and guitar at their house, so we were all jamming. I felt 10,000 times better after that. There's something about music that just amplifies the spirit in the room so much.

The next day we had a delicious breakfast, which I got to help cook. (I love to cook and missed it so much at the MTC) Then we had some time to do personal study. Then we had a little more orientation about all the different areas and zones of the mission, and we all packed up and went to the stake center in Yakima for our first transfer meeting.

 MTC friends, reunited in Yakima!

Hermanas Luevano and Knight

My new companion is Hermana Luevano. She is the cutest, sweetest, nicest girl ever. She always laughs at my dumb jokes, and she's really nice about correcting my Spanish or giving suggestions about where we should go. I have been really blessed. I love my trainer! She was born in Mexico but grew up in southern California, and her family has four daughters too! But she's number three. We have a lot in common, but also a lot of differences that really complement each other. We’ve already had some great teaching experiences and I can't wait for the rest of the next six weeks.

So I was put into Royal City, Washington, which is literally out in the boonies. The only store we have is Walmart, and it takes 40 minutes to get there!! Anyway, apparently the high school mascot here is the Knights, and we were in the state championship game this weekend for football (we won by the way!!) So everyone was already so stoked for that when I introduced myself. Everyone has been like "Oh you are so perfect for our town!!!"  ha ha 

Our Apartment 

We live in "downtown" Royal!

In our area there are two sets of sister companionships. We have two English wards and one Spanish branch. The other sisters cover the 1st ward, we cover the 2nd ward, and we share the branch. It's nice to be able to use my English a lot, but it is also super, super hard trying to switch back and forth all the time. 

On Sunday we go to English Sacrament Meeting, Spanish Sunday School, English Relief Society, and then Spanish Sacrament. It was exhausting! The other two hermanas that aren't native speakers like Hermana Luevano said that I will be able to switch pretty easily in about a week though, so let's hope they are right!

 Hermanas Luevano and Knight

Hermanas Luevano, Knight, Hall and Hirsche

The first night here we went to dinner at the Christensen’s house. There's about a million Christensens here, so we actually are four for four for Christensen dinners. Ha ha!  And we go to another Christensen’s for laundry! I'm pretty sure I've met 7-8 Christensen families by now, but I can't remember for sure. Pretty much everyone here goes by their first name because they all have the same last name!

Hermanas Knight and Luevano at the Christensen's house for dinner

Anyway, at the first dinner, we get there and it's baked potatoes and rolls... so it was kind of awkward because I couldn't eat anything (a rare occurrence--usually I can eat something that is served) and then the sister called everyone in the ward and told them. The members here are so kind and sweet they all have been doing research on glycemic indexes and sugar levels of food! They have been so nice about preparing things they know I can eat, and giving us so much help! I love this small town feel because everyone is so humble and nice and we can just stop by randomly any time and they will invite us in and give us water, a treat, a warm towel, and let us use their bathroom! They literally drop everything and run to help us. It's so awesome! Also it's a farming town, so most people are pretty poor but SO humble and so prepared to hear our message! Even the owners who are really well-off are very humble and kind though, so I just love it here.

Wednesday night I got to play the Bishop's guitar! It was amazing. I almost wanted to cry because I had missed it so much. And then last night at dinner we were talking to this couple (bet you can't guess their last name!) and we really just felt like something was missing, like we needed to do something special to invite the spirit into their home. So then Hermana Luevano asked if I could play something on the piano for them. It was kind of crazy because she didn't even know I play the piano but she just felt really prompted to ask me for that. So I went over to their piano and played a really pretty song called "Liz on top of the world" the spirit was so strong after that! The sister actually started tearing up a bit. It turns out their daughter used to play that piano all the time, and now she's grown and moved out. She said her house has always seemed so quiet and lonely since. It was one of the greatest lessons we have had so far. It was so awesome for me to get to share my talents in this way. That's the whole point of being a musician. Not for attention, or acknowledgement, but to express emotions, invite the spirit, and comfort people in a way that nothing else can. It is my favorite way to bear my testimony. 

On a different note, my comp doesn't drive, and it's been snowing here a ton, so that was a little scary at first. But I'm getting better at it. It also gets dark here super early! About 3 pm the sun starts to set! We named our car Ruthie. We figured she's a missionary car, so she should have a strong Bible name!

Oh! (A little note for my Texas peeps,) Jeremy Fielding's brother is the branch president of the Spanish branch, so that’s cool! His voice sounds EXACTLY the same. It's so weird! Kind of cool though. A little piece of Texas all the way out here. 

Friday Hermana Luevano and I were out knocking on some doors trying to get to know the people in the community and almost knocked on the door of a naked man!! It was scary. Ha ha! Then we had a cool experience where we lost our phone and couldn't find it anywhere and were getting really concerned, so we prayed.  Then suddenly, it just talked! It was on speaker phone and said "we're sorry but your call cannot be completed as dialed" it was right there on the ground covered in some snow! We picked it up and wiped it off. It wasn't even in the middle of a phone call and wasn't set to speaker phone mode either. God is so cool. We now lovingly refer to that experience as the "phone miracle". 

A funny experience--one night we were teaching a guy named Jonny, a recent convert, and he is completely fluent in Spanish and English. But the lesson was at a Spanish member’s house, so Jonny and Hermana L were speaking back and forth in Spanish. Then all of the sudden Jonny started saying things in Spanish, then repeating it in English, then Spanish, then repeat in English. I was just like "?Por que usted hablando en espanol y despues ingles?" I thought he was just like, practicing or something, but he was totally shocked for a second and just looked at me funny. Then Hermana L said, "She speaks Spanish," and we all started laughing (including the members whos house it was)! It was so funny! I guess he thought I couldn't understand so he was translating for me. Ha ha! Anyway, so now it's gotten around the branch that I'm a solid Spanish speaker. 

I've taught about ten lessons since getting here and knocked on a ton of doors, got two new investigators, and one person is set for a baptismal date! It's crazy how much the Lord is helping us out here. Even in the middle of no where.

 Hermanas being silly

Decorating with the roommates 

Hermana Hirsche

Last Days at the Missionary Training Center

The card reader she has been using accidentally got packed before they could email this week, so unfortunately no pictures. But here is the exciting conclusion to her stay at the MTC:

Hi friends and family! 

I seriously cannot believe I am leaving the MTC tomorrow. I will finally be going to Yakima! I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so excited. I thought I would be more nervous, but I'm really not! I'm mostly just excited. I didn't go on a mission for the MTC, I went for Washington. 

So first off this week I got a package from my ma with a couple shirts and things I asked for from home and it was so funny because I opened it and they all smelled like home! My roommates were making fun of me, because I just kept sitting there on my bed smelling my sweatshirt. I didn't even want to take them out of the box because I wanted to keep the home smell on them. Ha ha! I guess I'm just weird. But I just loved it.

Random funny this week- my teacher Hermana McBride randomly started talking in a stitch voice in class a couple of days ago. It was so weird and out of character but so funny. We were all having a hard time paying attention but that snapped us right back into focus!

Wednesday we had in-field orientation, which was surprisingly not as bad as everyone told me it was going to be. It was nine hours, so we were all really exhausted afterwards, but they did a good job of keeping us entertained. They even did a "play" for us. It was an insult to the theater and Hannah would definitely not approve, but it was so funny and I really loved it.

So Thanksgiving was pretty weird. Really good but really weird, too. We had so many devotionals! I guess that’s all they could think of to entertain us. In the morning we had a devotional with Elder Dallin H. Oaks. His address was good, but my favorite part was when a bunch of his grandkids all got up and played the most beautiful version of "Love is Spoken Here". There was a pianist who looked about 11, three violinists, probably all teenagers and older, two cellists, probably 8 or 9 and 13 or 14, and a guitarist who was probably 8! It was impressive, beautiful and totally my family goals! It really helped me feel the Spirit so strongly. They also played two other songs.

After the devotional with Elder Oaks, we had some study time, and then we went to lunch. We packed sack dinners (PB & J) and lunch was our Thanksgiving meal, so the cafeteria employees could go home and be with their families for the holiday. It was actually really delicious. Real turkey, real corn, real pie, even real cranberry sauce! I am told the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls were good too. It wasn't like home, but it was a ton better than I was expecting, so that was good. After our feast we went back to the classroom and had a district meeting to talk about what we were thankful for. It was really special, and also kind of hilarious because everyone was in a food coma.  I wish I could have taken a video.

So then after that we had another devotional to talk about our service project. The opening song was "Over the River and Through the Woods” and it was SO WEIRD. Everyone was like....uh, please, no. Ha ha! But we had fun with it and then we learned about our service project with "Feeding Children Everywhere". They basically taught us about the organization, shared some great Thanksgiving thoughts, and then we went to the cafeteria to do the service project. We got into teams of about 8-10 people and made bags of dehydrated meals. Each bag has spices, rice, veggies, and lentils and feeds six people! By the end of the day we made 367,900 meals!! I felt so awesome afterwards. I love doing service.

For a news story on this service project, click here or here.

Then after the service project we watched a film "17 Miracles" which I actually hated because it just made me cry the whole time... It's like, "All these people die in the end--what kind of movie is that?!” I'm just kidding, it's actually really inspirational but sad, and I don't like crying. 

After the movie we had... you guessed it... another devotional. This one was kind of just a series of Mormon messages, Thanksgiving scriptures, and special musical acts from all over the MTC. It was really fun, because it was way different than other devotionals at the MTC. There was a girl who yodeled! A girl who made duck noises?! A couple of elders who did improve blues piano! (I obviously loved that one) Then we went outside after the devotional, and the presidency surprised us with Christmas lights all over campus! It's so beautiful! A bunch of us broke out in Christmas carols and stood out in the cold singing for about a half hour. It was so fun and really got me in the Christmas mood.

Friday and Saturday one of the Hermanas in my zone was sick so we all took turns sitting in class with her companion, since they are the only girls in their district. It was so weird to be in class and remember what it was like at the very beginning of my MTC stay. That district has only been here a week and a half. I feel like people grow up so much here.

Saturday we had our last class all together with our whole district (Elders Rogers and Farley left this morning), and a zone meeting to say goodbye to my district since we are leaving this week. We all got up and bore our testimonies, and I even sang a song I wrote about being on a mission. 

Yesterday was our last Sunday here and was kind of sad. We did a musical number, which was fun. But it was also weird because we have our new branch president. I really like him though. Then we all went home and packed like crazy!

This morning at 3 am we took Elder Farley to the travel office to go to Ecuador, it was so sad, so cold, and so tiring, and I almost slipped on ice three times. But it was really good. We said one last district prayer together and even got some hot chocolate from the cafeteria in the middle of the night! Then at 6 am we took Elder Rogers to the office and he's going to Ecuador too, just the opposite side. It was really sad too, but I don't remember much of anything because I was so tired from waking up two times! I'm so tired today but it's worth it to support my friends. 

Today has been pretty good besides being tired and a little in denial! But I am seriously so stoked for tomorrow. And seriously looking forward to grocery shopping. Anyway I have to go eat dinner now and finish packing, but I love you all so much! Talk to my family tomorrow morning! 

"Fun" Week!

Can y'all believe I have already been on my mission for over a month?! Sometimes it seems like the time is flying by, and others I'm just like...I can't remember what it's like to not be here. It feels like forever. I miss my family a lot, but my homesickness is almost gone. Don't worry though, I'm still showing off my Texas pride all the time though. Ha Ha! :)

So tons of "fun" things happened this last week. First I got my nose cauterized on Tuesday, and then Thursday I chipped one of my two front teeth!! It was so weird and hurt my lip so bad because it was sharp! I went to the dentist and got it fixed though and you can hardly even tell. They were playing Christmas music in the waiting room and I was so excited, because "Merry Christmas, Darling" by the Carpenters came on and that's one of my momma's favorite songs by her favorite singer ever. It made me miss her, but not in a bad way.

 Going to the Dentist

Finding Nemo at the Dentist!

We like listening to Karen Carpenter!

My tooth is fixed!

Then on Sunday night Hermana Naulu ended up in the emergency room!! It was pretty scary because I was on a split with a couple of the other sisters, and my companion was on a split with Hermana Naula and Hermana Alexander. They were all three gone, and I didn't know what was going on. All I knew was that Elder Harman said Hermana Naulu got really sick and couldn't feel her hands. Then the Sister training leaders got a phone call from the front desk saying they sent them to the ER! We didn't know anything until about 10:30 that night when they finally got back, so my district was all praying together a bunch. Turns out the other day when we were playing volleyball Hermana Naulu got hit in the head by an elder's elbow on accident and got a concussion!! So she's been taking some naps, trying to take it easy in class, and we're all trying our best to help her when we can.

We've been playing the nativo game in my district this week. It’s where we have 10 slips of paper that we all draw from in the morning or the night before, and they all say something but only one says “nativo” on it. Then everyone has to talk like a native Spanish speaker all day and then at night we vote on who was the native. If the person who actually was the native wins, they get 2 points, and if the person who wins isn't the actual native they get 1 point. So far I have 0 points because I already talk in Spanish so much, my friends can't tell if I'm doing it for the game or not.

The New District

The District boys being silly

Random hilarious thing- Sunday night devotional the speaker asked a few people to come up and tell everyone something they sacrificed or gave up to be on a mission right now, just to help us realize that everyone is relatable and has problems. Most of them were like "being with my family" or "going to school" but then this one guy was like "spending time with my three cows". It was hilarious.

This week all the English-speaking Yakima missionaries got here. It's weird because they are traveling with us, but they just got here! The stay for English missionaries is so short! I got my travel plans. I have to go to the travel office next Tuesday Morning at 3:30 am!! It's crazy! I’m not looking forward to that but definitely looking forward to finally going to Washington.

I ran into some sisters from Mexico the other day and started talking to them. They are going to Tokyo, Japan, but they said my Spanish is really good. They were surprised when they found out I had only been here for 5 weeks. They said they would have expected 9 weeks with how well I was speaking. I was so happy to hear that. Also, we talked to a lady at the temple today who is from Peru. I love using the language! One of the teachers here, Hermana Boza is from peru and the other day my companion and I got to help her translate something so she can give a talk in church at her English ward this Sunday. It was really nice to be able to do service and help someone using both of my languages! I love Spanish so much. It just makes like 10,000 times more sense than English. And it's so much prettier!

I realized two weird things this week about being here at the MTC. First, that I will probably never again in my life spend this much time with a group of nine other people. Seriously! Even married people don't spend this much time together. I'm amazed we haven't had a fight or anything yet. (Knock on wood!) There's actually a few districts I've heard of around that are having feuds... That is so sad. The other thing I realized that's kind of weird, is that I know these kids so well but I don't know their social media personalities at all! 

P.S. Don't forget my address is changing in 6 days people! So if you want to write me please send it to Yakima, not the MTC.

Sister Alison Knight

Washington Yakima Mission

1006 S. 16th Ave.

Yakima, WA 98902

The last district that was here when we were here left this week. It was so sad, it feels like our zone died or something! We have a bunch of new missionaries that came this week and I really like them a lot, but it's just not the same. We're the oldest now, so it's really weird. Hermana Naulu and Hermana Alexander are the new sister training leaders, and Elders Cordon and Morrison are our zone leaders. Also, our branch president was released, so that was sad. I like the new one a lot though.

One of the Hermanas that just left this week is Hermana Taylor Clegg. I found out that she went to Lone Peak HS and is actually best friends with my friend’s little sister! Small world! It's really a shame that we didn’t' figure that out sooner, because we really had a good time reminiscing about Mama J and choir. 

 Hermanas Clegg and Knight

Hermanas Knight and Quintana

 Hermanas Staker and Knight

Hermanas Clegg, Quintana, Frost and Staker

All the Hermanas before they left

An hour ago when I was doing my laundry one of the counselors in the MTC presidency came in and asked us if we could help move some stuff for our Thanksgiving service project. So we did, and then we got to go to this weird place at the MTC where I have never seen before, and they were blasting the Beach Boys through these loud speakers! It was so weird, but I was excited about "Barbra Ann" (shout out to my pa). 

Anyway, I have to go so I can send pictures, but I love you all so much. Thank you for all the support. Shout out to Candi for her sweet Thanksgiving email. Thanks Candi! And thanks to my sister Emily for her letter. Love you, Em. Talk to ya’ll in a few days!  We are allowed to call before we get on the plane just to let them know what's going on. I'm looking forward to hearing my mom's voice. And maybe one or three of my sisters.  I miss you all so much. Love you. 

 My Mosiah pages are getting really colorful!

 The "Cream Soda Tree" smells so good!

One Month Down, 17 to Go!

Hello family and loved ones!

My teacher, Hermana McBride fell and hit her head on a shelf and got a concussion this week!! She's doing better now, but please keep her in your prayers!

My friends!

I'm playing volleyball a lot lately and I'm starting to get actually decent at it. At first I was awful because I had never played it before, but Hermana Alexander was on a team and so she gave me a lot of tips and helped me practice and now I'm slowly improving. I'm not really good at sports, but I love to play them. Gym time is one of the highlights of my day.

I noticed something really cool this week, I got here on 10/21 and I'm leaving the MTC 12/01! Interesting, huh?

Hermanas Knight and Hulme

Other exciting things this week were first of all, I got to teach Relief Society (women’s Sunday class), which was really great. The subject was on the Spirit's influence in our lives and trusting God's plan for us. I shared a personal story about my sister, Libbie, and it made me cry because I sure miss and love her so much. It was hard talking about her because I miss her so much, but it was worth it because it really brought the spirit into the lesson and several of the sisters came up to me afterwards and thanked me.

The second “exciting” thing that has been happening is that I have been having horrible, gushing nosebleeds every day for like 10 days now. I went to the clinic here to have them look at my nose, and the second he touched it, it started to bleed again!! It was crazy and it wouldn't stop for like an hour! So I actually got sent to an ENT here in Provo and got to leave campus for the afternoon. It was SO WEIRD and FUN. They were playing country songs in the lobby at the doctor’s office, and I was in heaven. I seriously almost cried tears of joy when "after the storm blows through" by Maddie and Tae came on. It was so refreshing and just the boost I needed, because right after that I had my nose cauterized!! THEY STUCK A FLAME UP MY NOSE. They had to get the veins shut though (sorry kind of gross) It hurt so, so, so bad and I was sneezing all the whole rest of the day. But now it’s been almost three days since my last nose bleed, so I think it's working. I also have to put Vaseline up my nose every morning and night. This dry air is killing me! So anyway, that was fun.

When we got on the shuttle to go back to the MTC, we met a pair of elders from Hungary! It was so cool. They both speak German, Hungarian, Italian, and English fluently. Impressive.

In other news, I wrote a song for my district this week! One of the other districts just left (sad), and they wrote a parody of the “cup song” about their district and sang it to us before they left. My district liked it so much they asked me to write one for us. It's to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," because that song is really fun to sing in Spanish, so we sing it every day. It's kind of our district’s theme song.

I wrote Elder Rogers a song, he drew me a picture!

Last night at choir practice the director said something that was really true and inspiring to me. He said that Love is the essence of life, and that when you think about it, it's so true because everything good that happens in the world is because somebody loves somebody else, and everything bad is because somebody is being selfish. Genius. 

Our investigator, Olga was sick this week, so unfortunately we didn't get to teach her, we did get to leave her a short video message on Skype though. It was actually really fun. Hermana Aldrich and I were being so dorky. We had fun with it though, and it was fun to use the computer.

Elders, being studly!

Before I go I want to tell an amazing story we were told at the devotional last night by Kim. B Clark of The Seventy. He said there was this man who grew up in Idaho Falls in a faithful Mormon family, who ran away from home when he was 14 and went down a dark path of life. He joined the Hell's angels and got heavily into drugs and alcohol. One day he was passed out in the front yard of the home the Hell's Angels have in L.A California (a place to dry out if you are too wasted to drive), and some Mormon missionaries came walking up their street. He started mocking them, because he used to be Mormon and thought these elders were so naive. They had two dogs in the yard that were trained to attack and kill anyone who tried to come into the yard, so he wasn't too worried about them trying to preach to him when they walked by. But then when they got to the end of the street, they talked for a minute and turned around and came back to the Hell's Angels house. The dogs started growling and acting like they were going to attack. But as soon as the Elders stepped foot on their sidewalk, the dogs walked away and laid down and went to sleep. Then one of the elders came up to the wasted man from Idaho, and said, "What's up?" The man said, “Oh, nothing,” and then the elder asked, "Where are you from?" and he said "Idaho Falls." Then the elder said, "No way! Me too! Do you happen to know the So-and-sos?" And then the wasted man said, "Yeah, they're my parents." Then the elder said something that changed both of their lives. "They're my parents, too."

It was the Hell's Angel's younger brother, all grown up and called to serve a mission in California. The elder said to his older brother he never knew what happened to him, but that he knows that God sent him there to bring him home. He ended up helping his brother turn his life around, go back to church, find Jesus again, move back home to Idaho, and reconnect with their parents. He ended up getting married in the temple five years later. The Hell's Angel ended up being in the Stake Presidency (local church leadership) with Kim B. Clark, which is where he learned the story from.

HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! God sure works in mysterious and amazing ways.

I love you all and I love my Father in Heaven. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to go out and help the people I know God needs me to help. Thanks for all the support. Please keep the letters coming! They are such an encouragement.

Much love, Hermana Alison Knight

My Zone

Elders in my Zone

View of the mountains

Is it Wednesday already?!

The time here is FLYING by. It's crazy. I seriously feel like it was just barely P-day!

Anyway, this week Elder Harman said something that was SO true. He said that he can't remember what it was like not knowing all of us in the district and that he can't imagine life without knowing us. Everyone was like "Yeah! That is so true!" and I was just thinking how always whenI move to a new place, that's how I know I have become adjusted- when I can't remember not knowing people. It's awesome. I'm so glad so many of the people in my district are going to Yakima, because I'm really going to miss these days. It's kind of like EFY all the time but like times 1000.

Another thing that I've noticed being here is that everyone is starting to look so much older! I was looking at some of our pictures from the first week and we looked like babies! And the new district that came this week all looked so young too! It's so crazy how much people mature in the MTC. Also, Elder Rogers is HILARIOUS. The other day at lunch he was telling us these stories about when he was going hunting with his dad and I thought I was going to throw up from laughing so hard!!

District Selfies!!!

Thank you family for my awesome letters! And also a few more people, but I can't remember exactly who...all the days are starting to blur together. Anyway, THANKS! Also, Elder Harman and Elder Rogers and I all three got word from our moms last week that all three of them are now friends on Facebook. It's pretty weird but awesome. It's fun to kind of have this little joke between us about our moms being besties. It's also really a weird thought though that we all three know each other, and we all three know our moms and our moms all three know each other and know us, but they don't know each other's kids.... if that makes sense. Ha ha! That’s just how my brain works. 

Another insight that was said this week by Hermana Aldrich was that it's so cool to think about how many people have been through this MTC. We have had people from at least every continent on Earth, and from hundreds of countries! This week alone I have met 4 British guys, a German guy, a Swedish guy, and a guy from Samoa. There's also an Elder from Georgia who keeps showing up everywhere I am and getting all excited when he sees me. The hermanas like to tease me about him having a crush on me. What can I say? I'm adorable. A couple of people have been calling me Texas which is awesome, because it was my nickname in high school. 

Okay, random hilarious thing- there's this tree right outside of the building where my classroom is and nobody knows why or how or who figured it out, but it smells like cream soda! There's this one particular spot on it that smells so strongly of cream soda and it is so weird. I was going to take a picture of it but I forgot. Next week! I just think it's hilarious, because people have apparently known it smells like cream soda for decades, but who figured that out? Were they just going around smelling all the trees on campus one day? It's so great.

 My name badge

 The back of my badge, with my "dork dot" (used to signify new missionaries the first week)

If anyone is wondering about the grace/works ratio for going to heaven, read John 15:11. It's so good! I love theology. Maybe I'll be a seminary teacher if I grow up.  I'm also trying to learn more about humility, because I've been really struggling with that lately. It’s so easy to get a little prideful at times, after we teach a really good lesson or something, and then God is like NOPE!! and has to bring me back down a little. It's good to have confidence but not be cocky. It's actually been very funny, because my journal entries the last week have been like that part in Tangled right after Rapunzel leaves the tower and she's running around like "This is awesome!" "I'm a horrible person..." "I love being free!" "I am the worst daughter ever". Ha ha!

Rainbow Trees!

 Christmas Lights!!!

Thursday night was really bad. We had the worst lesson ever with our “investigator” Olga. She wants to believe in God, but doesn't , and we were trying to help her see the blessings that He has given her and all the ways that he is involved in her life. She told us she had a lot of struggles and problems in her childhood. So I (in an attempt to level with her, seem empathetic, and give her some hope for the future) told her that I had some really hard trials in my childhood too, and that even though I don't wish they had happened, looking back I can understand the important life lessons I have learned because of it and how much the Gospel has helped me get past them. Then she got really upset and offended and told us that she was physically and sexually abused as a child and that she has PTSD and that she's not grateful for what we learned from it. My companion started crying, and I was overwhelmed with guilt. That was not at all the response I was going for.

Suddenly the pretend investigator Olga personality turned into the real Olga, and she said "You want to cry? Why?" and then I just burst into tears. I just felt like a failure. I told her my favorite thing to do is to help people and that I tend to be a perfectionist sometimes, and that now I not only didn't help, but I made her dig up all this deep nasty stuff from her past and feel like I was belittling her pain. I learned my lesson that I need to go way deeper when getting to know investigators and be extremely, extremely careful with the language, because I think I must have worded my Spanish wrong and that's why she got offended.

So anyway, my confidence was shot for a few days over the weekend. I got a couple of blessings and prayed and studied my scriptures more than ever before. I have been feeling a little lost. It's important to not think about myself too much and focus on serving others, so I won't feel homesick. But I'm starting to really miss Alison. Hermana Knight, is pretty awesome, but I really need to let Alison shine a little more. My companion and I share a lot of the same talents (music and Spanish are my only exceptions) so I haven't really had the opportunity to use these things I'm good at, or feel very needed.

On Monday night we had another lesson with Olga and went in with the simplest plan ever. First, apologize for making her feel unimportant or like her feelings aren’t important, Second, share our love for her, and third, tell her that we understand that she wants to feel God's love, and that we can bear our testimonies as much as we can, and we can share as many personal stories that we know, but the only way she's going to know for herself that He is here, and that He has always been here, is if she asks him. She needed to pray. AND IT WORKED. OLGA PRAYED HALLELUJA. It was amazing. AMAZING. I have never felt the spirit stronger. It took a little bit of convincing but she prayed and it was perfect. My companion was bawling her eyes out, and I was just laughing with joy. It was so sweet to see this amazing change that came upon her. After she finished we asked her how she felt and she said that she feels like her past is really hard still and her future is a little scary and unknown, but that she feels like, right now she can have peace, and that everything is okay. Then I shared the song "All is well with her" It was amazing. 

That night I went home and read all my old journal entries, and songs I have written from the last year or so, and it was so weird it was like coming home or something, like "oh yeah, this is who I am. This is Alison". I realized that the last few days the whole reason I had been struggling was because I was missing myself (if that makes sense). I want to continue focusing on others and their needs, and have a servant's heart, but I also want to make sure I am using my talents that are uniquely me. I am compassionate, I am stubborn (a talent!), I stick up for the underdog, I am a good listener. I have a lot to offer that I have been holding back. 

Elder Buchanan is a doll! 

 This is actually hilarious because the wall is half brown and half white and so is Hermana Naulu!

Trying to write on the chalkboard upside down

All of us missionaries in the district have started this awesome new idea, kind of like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, except it’s a journal. We bought a big journal and we are all bearing our testimonies in the front, and then we are all going to send it around to each other every p-day after we leave the MTC. Like a district journal! There are 8 of us in the states, (unfortunately we can't send it to Elders Rogers and Farley in Ecuador), so one of us will have it each week. Meaning, we will each get to write in it once every 8 weeks. I hope that makes sense... it's such a cool idea. Elder Harman came up with it. It's genius! We're each going to just write a recent spiritual experience, a little bit about our life right then, and our favorite scripture. I'm really excited about it!

Anyway, I have to go now so I have time to send pics. Love you all so, so much. SUPERAR!

Love, Hermana Alison Knight

 Hermanas Knight and Naulu

 Hermanas Aldrich and Knight

Goodbye, Hermana Laursen! 

 Goodbye, Hermana Allen!

Goodbye, Hermana Douglas!  

 Goodbye, Hermana Waterlyn!

Goodbye, Hermanas Calel, Connolly and Hulme!