Week 11 Last Day of 2018

Elder Pulu and Elder Knowlden -New Years Eve Day

Talking with the Fam on Christmas

Having a good laugh with the Family

Talking with the Family on Christmas

Week 11- Dec 30th 2018

This weeks letter will be pretty short. I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas, I sure did. I had the amazing opportunity to call and video chat home for an hour. Even though I've been gone less than 3 months I can tell so much has changed.  I love my family so much and I am always happy to see how they are all growing.  Sunday was great! We had 2 of our friends we're teaching surprise us and come to church! We can tell they have great progress coming along, Hopefully we can set a baptismal day up soon!   

Earlier this week I saw a video my high school wrestling coach made of a story about Ammon. It's on my Facebook page and I would invite all to go watch it.  Ammon went into the city of an enemy and all he wanted to do was serve the king. The king was a wicked man, but Ammon just wanted to serve him. As the king let him serve him he was astonished with the power Ammon had, because God had helped him in his doings.  The king later became baptized and he and Ammon became best of friends and the greatest of missionaries.

This weeks scripture is Alma 17:31

"And it came to pass that he flattered them by his words, saying: My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back unto the place of water; and thus we will preserve the flocks unto the king and he will not slay us."

As this New Year starts I hope I can be more like Ammon, and as I find these lost sheep, I hope I can guide them back to our Savior so they can know of his love that he has for each and everyone of us! As we all go into the New Year ask yourself how can I be more like Ammon and be in the service of our Lord.

Christmas Eve

Xaiver as the Grinch

Elder Hogkinson

African Grey Parrot named Turkey

Getting his eyebrows waxed

Sadie

Snowflake

December 24th 2018
It’s Christmas Eve!
    I hope everyone is doing well, and Merry Christmas! This week was really well and had lots of fun! It’s officially the second transfer in and its been great! Elder Pulu and I and are staying in the Madison ward!
     Last P-day we spent the day with the Cromwell Elders and played some basketball and it was really fun! Monday we had the opportunity to give brother LaRose a blessing, he has 3 tears in his retina and he was blind for 48 hours. Wednesday we had an amazing study session with Elder Hogkinson our service missionary companion.  We had a great 2 hours of roleplaying, asking questions to get to the root of the concern. Later that day we met up with Liz and had a lesson with her on following the spirit. We have been their 5 times and I just found out she has a beautiful African Grey Parrot named Turkey. That night we went to Keldon LaRoses wrestling match to support him, it was crazy he had his 100th win/72nd Pin!
     Thursday we had a couple appointments cancel on us but we had an opportunity to go up to the Yale Hospital to give a blessing to a member in the Waterford Ward who just had emergency brain surgery. Twice this week I witnessed the power of a priesthood blessing, it truly is amazing.
    Today we had a district service project and we all went up to the boys and girls club to help watch the kids for the Holiday party. I met Xavier who had his face painted as the grinch. He was a really cool kid. He told us all not to forget to wish Jesus a happy birthday.
     The young women had a Book of Mormon read-a-thon in under 24 hours! It was crazy insane.  Elder Pulu and I had a 3 chapter cameo with the 2000 stripling warriors, and how truly amazing it was because of their faith in God.

"Saturday night was fun we went to the Rodriguez family, it's a wonderful part member family who we are teaching. She does eyebrows so both Elder Pulu and I got our eyebrows waxed! They have 2 cute dogs Snowflake and Sadie. When we went to the pizza place I was walking by their youngest son who is 7 and a customer asked if he was my son haha it was a funny time"


The Sunday before Christmas is always amazing, this time it was a wonderful musical talent show from many members in the ward, and it was just so amazing to see all these beautiful songs of Christ.
                   
                       Alma 37:6-7
   6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
  7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

     Going into this New Year remember the small and simple steps you have made to where you are today. God is in every part of our lives. He works in all things the Big and Even the Small and simple things. I am grateful for all the small miracles I have seen in my life, each one is just a step closer to who God knows I can be. Merry Christmas to all and have a wonderful New Year.

Service Project raking leaves

Zone Conference

My Friend Duke 

Week 9 Dec 17th 2018
     I can’t believe it’s already been 2 months since I left home to start this amazing journey! I forgot my journal back at the house so this letter will be shorter than usual. This week has seen some ups and downs for sure. Monday was great we went to hang out with the Waterford Elders for p-day and had lots of fun playing volleyball, basketball, and chair soccer. There were 8 of us all together.
    Tuesday we had a great Zone Conference. President Mavromatis (my mission president) shared a great testimony on planting seeds even in the ones that are hard to get to. We had a great example for us and it helped me be prepared better for these situations.
   Three times this week our 3 big appointments, all got canceled 2 of appointments are our friends with baptismal dates, and the others we were gonna invite them to be baptized. Luckily we got to talk to one of them at church and we set up another day to meet with him.
   Wednesday we met with Elder Hogkinson and had a good study session. As we got to District Counsel we had a great lesson on gifts and how they take time and it had meaning in them. We got our transfer information and luckily Elder Pulu and I are staying together in Madison Connecticut area! The people I have met are so amazing.
   Sunday was great. In Sacrament we talked about Christ’s attributes and how amazing they are. As we follow Christ we can receive these as spiritual gifts. That night as we were coming home from our dinner appointment I had followed the spirit and Elder Pulu and I went to one of our friend’s house to see how they were doing. As we got there we had the promptings to ask to give them a blessing of comfort and both Elder Pulu and I gave blessings of comfort to the two of them. As we were about to leave one of them said the prayer and she said “Thanks for having us over there” because she said they truly needed it.
 As it is the Christmas season my scripture is
        Alma 26:8 "Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his Holy name, for He doth work righteousness forever.
 As we teach others about Christ it can be hard to understand at times, and I have seen how through music it can touch the soul. This holiday season share with others, songs that tell of Christ I promise it will mean a lot to you and the ones you teach!

Ugly bug

With other Missionaries

The Ocean in Connecticut

Lunch Time 

The beach at sunrise

Having some fun

Week 8.docx
Brayden Knowlden


Last P-day went great, we hung out with the Weaver family in their new house. They were also our dinner appointment, we all had a little time, and because I haven't been to the ocean in Connecticut we had a short 5 min walk to the beach. It was cold but so beautiful! For the Christmas party last week we had a portable service center (little information displays), another set of Elders last minute we had to take it all the way to Springfield Massachusetts. Lots of history in that city, even the Basketball Hall of Fame, I saw it as we passed by on the freeway.   

I hit day 50 this past week, it's so crazy to think I've been gone that long! That day we helped Kelly and Domingo (the couple we are teaching) deep clean and organize their basement. It looks so much better now, but still has a long way to go. I had interviews for the first time with President Mavromatis and I set some goals to work on for this next little bit to be a better missionary and to better fulfill my purpose. The Waterford elders and us went to Pops and Sweeties house for some wholesome fun while we waiting to go to dinner with others in our Zone. We all went to "99" an east coast restaurant. We celebrated Elder Pulus 99 days left in his mission on his actual 99.

Friday night we had planned to have dinner with a couple in the ward and with Kelly and Domingo so they could get to know them more, unfortunately Kelly broke a toe and wasn't able to make it. It was a wonderful bonding time with an amazing home cooked meal. Our short message was on “every member a missionary, how we take upon the name of Christ we should be ministers to all and Light the World. “

Saturday came and we helped finish up moving the Weavers out of their old house and officially in the new one. Elder Pulu and I along with brother Weaver took many things to the dump, we had a good conversation with one of the workers. He is a born again Christian, and he asked us if we were members of "The Church of Joseph Smith" it was funny! He said he really respected what we do as missionaries.

Sunday was wonderful, it was the primary program, and there are like 50 kids it's crazy! Even though they are young they still brought the spirit so much. That night was a Christmas musical fireside, all the songs were so wonderful! We ended up coming down to Waterford to spend P-day with 2 other companionships in our Zone to be with the Elder who leaves this week.

Finally
This weeks scripture is Alma 2:30 "And it came to pass that Alma, being a man of God, being exercised with much faith, cried, saying: O Lord, have mercy and spare my life, that I may be an instrument in thy hands to save and preserve this people."

This made me think as missionary how can I better be an instrument in thy hand. With the new home centered church supported program starting in January, this made me realize it's starting to be about self revelation, and as missionaries we are able to better understand how we personally receive answers to our questions we have for our Lord. One thing I can do, is to be an introvert  (I think he meant to say extrovert) In thy hand is to help others recognize how they can receive the answers they have. With this amazing new program coming I invite all of you to pray about how this can benefit you and listen closely to how it will help strengthen your relationship with God, and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Week 7 December 3, 2018- I will light the World

Activity Day Girls gave us Stockings at the Ward Christmas Party

Crazy picture with Christmas Sweater

Connecticut Temple

Connecticut Temple 

Ward Party -I will Light the World

Week 7
December 3-2018


Its finally December, I hope everyone has had an amazing week, I sure have and I am so excited for this week to come. With it being December LIGHT THE WORLD has started! This year is more about service, and it is great!

As I am getting to know the ward better we went to a family in our wards house for dinner. They made it a green meal, because I am a greenie in the mission field and it was great! Later on we had some fun times helping others move again, one time was with my old companion Elder Bond and his companion Elder Heness. Both times were really fun! That night we taught Liz again, this time it was “The Gospel of Jesus Christ. “

My first Zone conference was great! We had Elder Bennet a member of the quorum of the 70, It was amazing! One thing I learned is to go by faith and follow the spirit. As we follow the spirit we will have blessings. As we did more service this week I read Mosiah 2:17 "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God". I love how it says "only in the service of your God" as Jesus taught about love and helping others that's service! As we learn to love others for who they are, and helping them by love, we are following our Saviors example and we are serving our God.

District counsel was great and once again this week it was a lot about loving others and following the spirit. As we do those two simple things we will bless others and even ourselves. Our ward Christmas party was great! It was full of service activities! Elder Pulu and I rocked our ugly sweaters and had a room full of helping others find out what they can do to light the world! As we had dinner we had an awesome moment, the Activity Days girls made both of us stockings. It was awesome to see how they can make our day and the smiles they had.

Fast Sunday was awesome but even better it was the Christmas Devotional from the First Presidency of the Church, it made me think how can I prepare myself for eternal blessings not just ones here for our mortal life.

If you haven't guessed the biggest thing I learned this week was to love others and to follow the spirit. I want to say -I love each and every one of you. Anyone who has helped me to become the person I am today, growing and learning life experiences. Anyone who has made me laugh and smile, even those who gave me a hard time.

I LOVE YOU ALL, so thank you for all you have done for me.

Elder Knowlden