The cold never bothered me anyway

Oi familia e amigos!

So you might ask WHY the cold never bothered me? Because in less that 48 hours I will be IN SUMMER! (Two Frozen quotes in less than a minute. :) ) That is right, I GOT MY VISA! I leave tomorrow (hence the emailing today) for the Sao Paulo MTC. Tons of missionaries got their visas, so it's going to be a fun trip I believe. I have two weeks left at the MTC that I will be finishing up there, and then in the beginning of December I will start my mission in Teresina! WOW!! 

So receiving my visa was super exciting. I had pretty much been convinced that I would stay in Provo the whole time and possibly be reassigned, so I was super surprised. However, I KNOW that Heavenly Father has a plan with perfect timing, so I'm excited to see what I get to learn at the CTM!

Another really neat thing from this week was the events of Sunday. I think if the MTC gave awards for most participation in Sunday meetings I would probably win this week. I played the piano for sacrament meeting again AND gave a talk (all the missionaries prepare a 3 minute talk and then 2 or 3 are called up without previous notice to speak) in Portuguese. It was a great experience! Even though I really hate public speaking, it wasn't too bad! The rest of Sunday was pretty normal with meetings and such. Then for the evening devotional Elder Walker and I were able to do our musical number!! It was such an incredible experience. We arranged the piece ourselves so my music was a half a page of notes that pretty much only made sense to me. For the sound check, I was making mistakes like crazy and was terrified of how the performance would go. Before we went in, Elder Walker and I said a prayer with our companions. And wow, prayer sure does work! We played/sang better than we ever have and according to my companions everyone was crying. You could definitely feel the Spirit and it was so neat to bear our testimonies of the Savior through song. We finished and sat down and the speaker, Richard L. Heaton, thanked us and then said "Elder Walker, Sister Knapp, will you two please come up here?" I think I died a little bit. My brain said "What. I just performed. And now I have to be addressed in front of the whole MTC? I thought I was done!" We went up and he had us bear our testimonies about Jesus Christ. Remember how a minute ago I said I was scared of public speaking in front of my little branch? Yeah. So that's the story of how I spoke a bit in the devotional. :) BUT I am so thankful for that opportunity. It really strengthened my testimony that in our time of need, God will give us the words that need to be said. It was incredible to be able to tell my fellow missionaries of how much I love my Savior and how I know that it is only through His gospel that we receive eternal life and joy. 

Thank you all so much for your love and prayers and support! Watch out for my next email from Brazil!!!

Com amor,

Sister Knapp

At the airport