Last Day at the MTC!

Family,
 
Today is my last day at the MTC! It's not a preparation day so they are giving us even less time to email. I can't believe it's here already!!! That flew by! There are 14 of us going to Scotland/Ireland and we are leaving tomorrow morning at 4 AM. (Yes, 4 AM, that was not a typo haha) We are taking a bus and it will only be about a 3 1/2 hour drive. They told us to keep tennis shoes with us in our personal bags because my mission president and his wife are taking us on a hike to the top of a hill where we will overlook all of Edinburgh, Scotland. Sooo excited for that. I'm feeling really, really ancy. I am ready to get out and going. You all said I would feel that way and it's true. I'm very ready. Haha. Also, verrrrrrry nervous about meeting my first companion. That's my only fear right now haha.
 
We were able to go street contacting again this week. Lets just say last week's street contacting was a dream compared to this week's. But that's okay. We had 2 hours of rejection pretty much. We got called 'homophobics' (because they know we don't believe in homosexuality) and I had one guy ask me where my husband and his wives were at. One guy told me to not waste my time doing what I'm doing because 'Manchester is a godless place'. Haha. BUT, the last 30 minutes we were able to get a couple of referrals.
 
Faith is something that has been on my mind this week. We were told that faith is the only thing standing in between us and the people who are prepared for us. I know that the Lord is 'able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him. Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.' (1 Nephi 7:12) I know that if we first exercise faith that the Lord can make all things possible, then he will make it known unto us. It reminded me of when Christ was on the earth ministering among the people and he would ask them if they had the faith to be healed, and if they said yes, then he would heal them. (Matthew 9:28-29: 'Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea Lord. Then thouched he their eyes, saying, according your faith be it unto you).  I know the same is with me and with all of you. As we first put our faith in Him, then He will bring to pass what we are needing or hoping for. It also reminded me of when Dad and I were talking about faith one time and he said 'It'll be amazing if the day comes when we look outside our front window and see that the Little Cottonwood Canyon has disappeared because someone had enough faith to move it.' Haha.
 
Well, I love you all so much. I'm off to the land of the Scots and kilts and fish & chips and rain and foregin language! I'm so excited.
 
Hope you all have a great week,
 
Sister Knab

PS Just plan on sending things to my mission home until I get the address of our first flat

Since Tiff's email was short and she didn't get to send any pictures this week, I decided to just post some of the ones that the MTC people took.


The Relief Society group



Companions



I liked this one in front of the temple because of how Tiff is soaking in the sun. She was so worried about not seeing the sun for the next 18 months. :)



Sister Knab's district with their instructors

Group picture while out touring the area



Another district photo



Practicing singing in small groups



I think this was a group photo in front of the apartment President Hinckley stayed in when he was a misisonary

Street Contacting in Manchester

Tuesday, August 21, 2012.

My Family,

What a week for you!! I first want to say a big WELCOME to baby E.! She is such a cutie! Congrats. Thank you for sending pics. I am kind of dying to hold her right now. Bah! She is adorable! Give her my love :) Also, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Miss N. and S. Boy last week! I hope they had fun birthdays and had great days. I sent them birthday notes in the beginning of last week, so I hope they got them okay. Let those two cuties know that I was thinking of them on their birthdays and wish I could've been there to celebrate with everyone!

Well this week was great. I love the MTC programs they do here. Like they have each of the teachers (who have just recently got off their missions) pretend to be investiagors and we have been teaching these investigators and progressing each of them while we have been here. The cool part is though, that the teachers are acting as investigators that they had on their missions. So they ask questions that their investigators would ask, act like they would be, respond as their investiagors would respond to them. So it really gives us a real experience. I think it's the greatest idea ever. I had heard people say that in the Provo MTC they could feel the spirit when teaching 'investigators' and I have really found that to be true. Even though they are acting, the spirit is just so strong when you are testifying to them of the truths. I've really noticed a difference in my lessons when I am telling about what we believe verses when I testify of what I believe. Testifying always brings an added spirit.


Okay, well, one cool thing we got to do last week was go street contacting in Manchester! Last Friday, they loaded us onto a bus and took us to a train station and sent us on our way to the city of Manchester and let us loose. So we all dispersed for two hours to contact people on the street. The night before and morning of, I was freaking out. I was so nervous for some reason. I had never done that before! But, once we started, I was just fine. It was so neat to get out on the streets and start talking with people. We did get quite a few funny reasons for why people couldn't talk to us, some of them being, 'Sorry, I can't talk right now. My coffee will get cold' or a woman rubbing her preganant belly, 'Sorry, I'm pregnant. I'm in too much pain to listen'. ?? Haha we were laughing at some of the things people would say. BUT, we did get 3 people interested to receive missionary lessons!! They were:

 

• Fitwe. We saw Fitwe standing by the road with a stroller and approached him. We quickly learned that he knew just a bit of english. He told us he just recently moved from South Africa. We bore a simple testimony to him and tried to use simple words. We bore our testimony to him and then asked if he would like a Book of Mormon. He accepted it (which we learned doesn't happen all the time) and then told him that we could get him in touch with other missionaries to learn more. He wanted to!!! So we got his contact information and told him how we would tell the missionaries to get the Book of Mormon in his native language and he was happy to hear that. Although I don't know if he understood everything we said, Sister H. and I were talking later how we felt the spirit while we were talking to him so we hope he felt that as well.
• Laurence. We saw Laurence sitting by the bus stop by himself, staring at the ground. He looked really lonely, we went and talked to him and he was so receptive. He's originally a Scot, and moved to Manchester a while ago but has been living alone for some time. We bore testimony that we know Heavenly Father loves him and has a plan for him and talked to him for about 30 minutes. I think he was so happy to have some people giving him the time of day. I sense he is a really lonely man. He accepted the Book of Mormon and is interested in receiving lessons from the Manchester missioaries as well!!! Gosh, it makes me sooo happy to hear those words. When we were done talking to him, we got up and turned to leave, then he grasped my arm (which scared me to death at first to be honest), but I turned around and saw that his eyes were very soft and he said 'I just want you to know that I will never forget this day... What day is it? OH! August 17th. I want you to know that I will never forget this 17th of August that I met you two girls. I look forward to having your visitors come by my home.' I can't even tell you how that made me feel! It meant so much to me to see the sincerity in his eyes and that he would express that. I will never forget that.
• Zhang. We ran into Zhang as we were headed back to the train to go back to the MTC. His english was REALLY broken up; he is chinese. Sister H. started talking to him in Chinese and his face just lit up when he realized she knew his language. So for about 15 minutes, they conversed with each other while I just stood there smiling like a goon. No idea what they were talking about. But then Sister H. goes Sister Knab! Quick! Get th address book! So I frantically looked through my bag to get our address book because he was interested in having the missionaies over. It was so great! Sister H. handled that one all on her own. It was so cool.

So, how it works, is we give these referrals we found to the missionaries in Manchester. (Lucky dogs- that means every 3 weeks they are given a batch of referrals like candy from the England MTC!!) To bo honest, it was hard for me to pass along these people to them. I'm sad I won't get to teach these people we found and we won't ever see them again! But we put our contact info next to their names so they will keep us updated on their progress. I really hope they receive the missionary discussions well. It's crazy how I feel like I love these people, but I really don't even know them! So we will see how everything goes with them.

On Sunday, we spent the day doing a church tour through Lancashire, England. Neatest thing ever! We got to see where missionaries first started off in England and where the first baptism in England occured and so forth. It was so much fun. There was one instance though that really hit home to me. Sister Walker (who is our MTC Presiden's wife is President Hinckley's daughter) so she took us through the streets where her dad (Pres. Hinckely) served and shared stories that he had told her. She took us to the apartment where Pres. Hinckley lived on his mission. She talked about the story of 'Forget yourselft and go to work'. I have heard this story/quote 102 times in my life, but it was never had that kind of meaning to me before. I was standing there and it hit me so strongly all of the sudden and I just thought 'Wow. I am standing here, in England, on a tiny cobblestone street called Wadham, in front of the apartment where Pres Hinckley lived, listening to his daughter talk about how her grandpa had written her dad to foget himeself and go to work.' It really just overwhelmed me and that quote has a whole new meaning to m.

After the tour, we were able to watch the braodcast of President Monson's Birthday celebration. How cute was that? Were any of you able to attend/watch? I thought it was amazing. Watching an overview of our prophet's life of devotion to the Lord added to the experience I had at President Hinckley's apatment and hearing his mission stories. I sat there listening and watching how President Monson has devoted his life to the Lord by devoting his time to people. Taking care of the sick, seeing to the people who are unrecognized and making them feel important, travelling the world to help others and influence lives. Wow. I decided right then and there that I will devote my life to the Lord. The examples of President Hinckly and President Monson overwhelmed me that day and I resolved that night to be about the Lord's business for the rest of my life by giving my time to His people. So, what does this mean to you guys? It means as my family, you have the privelage of slapping me if you see me at a point in my life where I am being selfish of my time and energy. You can say 'Tiff, remember that Sunday on your MTC when you had the experience of having the biggest desire to devote yourself to the Lord?' And then I will snap out of it because I will remember the feelings I had that day. It was a pivotal moment for me. I've never felt that before. I want to devote all of my time and energy the rest of my life to the Lord and watching out for His people.

Well I'm excited because we get to go to the temple again today! (It's basically in our parking lot). We went last P-day too. President Walker and Sister Walker were temple patrons in the Salt Lake Temple for a few years so they prepare us on how to teach before we actually go in. It's amazing and I have learned so much and have had a great experience with the temple here.

Oh, and yes, I am in a trio. I have two companions but things have been great! We get along well and I recognize that that isn't the case all of the time, so I feel grateful. We went to an LDS bookstore today ( or the mormon shop as sister graf calls it) and they just LOVED it. The've been dying to go our whole MTC stay. (And it was the tiniest thing I have ever seen. Probably half of the size of my Condo Row apartment. I told them about our Distribution Centers back home and they couldn't believe it. They love hearing me talk about how many temples are around me and what it's like to go to General Conference and what temple square is like. It has been both of their dreams since they were little to go to Utah. I'm realizing how blessed we really are back home. I've really taken for granted what we have. They're already planning a trip to come and visit me after the mission. Haha.

I need to go, our time is up, but I am happy and doing well. I love just learning about the gospel everyday and being fed every meal. But don't worry, I'm not oblivious to the fact that it won't be this way out in the field. I'm really going to be sad when we leave NEXT WEEK. I've become attached to England. I really like it here. Haha I'm sure I will feel the same about Scotland/Ireland though. I'm exicted to get out to the field and get going!

I love you all so much. Thank you for the emails. We only have 30 minutes for emails a day so know that I love hearing from you, even if I don't get the chance to reply. You're the best.

Take care!

Sister Knab

P.S. I play the piano for our meetings/devotionals/church here ect. and there's a button for the organ. I LOVE it. We should have such a button on our pianos in Utah then I don't have to learn the organ. Haha. It's so nice!!

When sister Walker was talking about her dad, Pres Hinckley

A church that we toured in England

A beautiful river on the tour

Where the first baptism in England occured

On the streets of Lancashire

The Ammon District from last P-Day that I fogot to upload

First Official Letter

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Hello my favorite family!

Okay, first of all, I love you guys so much. Holy cow. I got to the MTC and the next day I had a package and many letters from you that came. Only you would think to send me packages and letters before I had even left so it would be there for me when I arrived! Haha. You guys are amazing. Thanks so much. I understand now why missionaries get so excited about letters. It is the best thing ever.  You made all of the other missionarie so jealous! Haha.

So my flight over was not bad at all. So I made the subject of my last letter 'Your Jet Lagged Sister Missionary' because I was assuming it would happen to me when I sent that email. But... I actually never got it. Is that normal? Kinda weird. But I adjusted to the time pretty well. (I think it was because I used the travel pillow and ear plugs on the flight from Chicago to Manchester and just passed out the whole time so I started sleeping at 7PM our time but it was really bedtime in Manchester. That helped so much. I never experienced any excessive tiredness or jet lag so that was nice!

A little about my flight-

• When I was going through security, the guy checked my license and then said, 'Enjoy your flight to Arizona!' Which made me naturally look straight down at my boarding pass in panic, to which he said, 'Hahaha made you look'. Goodness. Gave me a heart attack.
• In Salt Lake was when I felt like a celebrity. People bought us cookies and gave us encouragment and cheered us on. (Chicago was a different story though ha)
• I sat next to a 14 year old girl named Tatyana flying alone from Salt Lake to Chicago. She wasn't opened to talking to me at first but soon she was comfortable and we talked most of the plane ride. She's going through some rough things right now with her parents getting divorced and her dad wanting nothing to do with her. It broke my heart. But we bonded and had a good time together. We even got into a discussion of the difference between Catholics and Mormons becuase her dad had told her that they were the same thing so I was able to bear testimony of what we believe and it was great! I gave her my pass along card that the travel office gave me and I wrote a message on it. When I explained to her what missionary work is, she was most impressed that I would get on a plane for 8 hours, not leave for a year and a half or move to another country. Haha. (she hates flying) Anways, that was a fun little starter experience. When we got off the plane, I noticed had a little shadow. She wanted to walk with me and the elders to find the baggage claim. Haha it was so cute.

This week has FLOWN by. People either seem to be haters or lovers of the MTC and I happen to be a lover. A few things about the England MTC stay so far-

• All of the teachers and about 80% of the missionaries here have an English accent. It's hilarious! The first couple of days I had the hardest time taking them seriously when they would teach lessons because I just felt like they were Americans mimicking Harry Potter characters or something. But I've gotten used to it. Too used to it actually, now I've caught myself a few times reading with and English accent in my head. And then I catch myself. That's always weird.
• They let youth groups come through and tour the MTC to encourage English young boys to serve missions, which is an AWESOME idea I think, but it means that we have people peering into our classrooms every day. I feel like putting up a sign that says, 'Please do not disturb the missionaries in their natural habitat'. I really do fee like it's a zoo haha but it's okay. On top of that, the view from our classroom is AMAZING. It overlooks a pond and it's gorgeous.
• A few of you have asked me if I am going through phone withdrawls. The answer is, not really. The only problem I've been having is there's been 3-4 times where I was in serious panic trying to find my phone until I realized I don't have it with me.
• In the beginning before missionaries learned my name, I was known as the 'sister with the american accent' haha because i'm the only sister from america and there are only a handful of elders from america. (the ones who flew across with me)
• I found a sister missionary who likes to go running so we got permission for her and I to go jogging every morning. One of my favorite things ever!! I love the crisp, morning England air. I can actually breathe when I run and it is BEAUTIFUL. It starts my day off right. (Especially since we have to sit ALL DAY LONG.)
• My companions are Sister H. (From Taiwon) and Sister G. (From Germany). I seriously think they are so great and we get along really well. Our challenges are language barriers becuase they both know little english so I have to talk in very simple terms. Sister G. and I are getting good at figuring each other out though. She will describe a word she is looking for and then I try and figure it out. It's kind of like catch phrase! Haha. We're getting better though.
• We are a part of the Ammon District :) Haha. So my information says: Sister Knab/Ammon Haha love it.
• Our boundary is a 2 mile radius around the MTC. Which is super nice because it gives us somewhat of freedom.

Oh, so the day we got to the MTC, President Walker called me into his office, which was surprising. That was unexpected. He called me to be the Sister's Coordinator for the MTC. That was even more surprising! I didn't know sisters got callings? Anyways, he shared with me an experience about being impressed to call me to this position. He got emotional, which got me emotional and then we talked for like an hour. Haha. We really connect!!! I love him and his wife! So I really feel so blessed to have this calling because it gives me a chance to do personal one on one mini interviews with each of the sisters. I find out how they are doing, how their companionships are going, and what struggles they are having. It has really bonded me with each of the sisters. They are such great girls and I can already say that I love them SOO much. They are amazing girls. Anyways, we had our first leadership council meeting with the District Leaders and Zone Leaders and the President. Those meetings are so spiritual as we try to plan everything out and make sure everyone is happy. It's a great opportunity.

Oh one experience with that- I had been praying for a way we could all bond more as sisers and had the idea to have a testmiony meeting. Well, during Reflief Socety, we went around and introduced ourselves and all of the girls just started opening up and sharing why they are here, which led to a testimony meeting!!! I was thrilled. It really brought us together. Afterwards, I apologized to the teacher and said that it was probably my fault that she didn't have time because I had been praying for that kind of opportunity. Ha. But it was just what we needed and we all feel really connected now.


Well, I'm doing well. No need to worry about me! I love it here, I love the missionaries and leaders and teachers. I survived the first week. I have never felt the spirit for such an extended lenght of time. I feel like the MTC is going to be lifted into heaven! (Especially on Sundays) It's amazing and I can see transformations happening all over the place.

I know the gospel is true and I am getting more and more pumped to get out there and serve!!!

Have a great week!

- Your sister missionary :)



Sisters at the cafeteria. Country of origin from left to right, Canada (French speaking), Scottland, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, America and Sister Knab mentioned the last girls name, but not where she is from.



Me, Sister H., Sister G.



Pointing to our missions ha (The day I represented Scotland hehe)



The view out of our classroom!



The England MTC



A taste of what we see when we go on evening walks/morning runs

She has arrived!

When Tiff arrived to the Preston MTC, she was allowed to write a quick email home to let everyone know she was safe.

Hello my cute parents,

I have arrived safely to the Preston, England MTC! They got rid of the whole send a postcard that would get to you in a week and half later to tell you I have made it safely. Haha. Yay for catching up with the times. I only have a minute, but I'm supposed to tell you three things:
I have arrived safely.
My P-Days here will be Tuesdays. So look for my emails then.
You will be receiving an invitation to a Picasa Web Album today that will have pictures of me and the other elders/sisters at the MTC. So look for that in your email. (It might show up in your spam mail). They need you to let me know when you have accessed the site and have seen the pictures
Everything with flights and luggage went smoothly! What a relief. At the Salt Lake Airport, I have never been so excited to see elders in my whole life!! I looked up from reading over my flight information and saw a line of 6 elders heading towards me with huge smiles. (I guess my name tag gave me away that I was one of them ha) and I just screamed, ELDERS!!!! It was an instant bond. No process of friendship was needed with us. Haha. I think we all needed each other. We were all going through the same thing, and going to the same mission so we all felt close together instantly. We shuffled around like penguins in one big clump throughout the airports. It reminded me of what little boys look like when they are on soccer teams. One big clump around the ball. Haha.

Wearing a name tag, you are either a celebrity or a freak. Members in the airport would take us under their wings and buy us cookies or just chat with us and cheer us on. In Salt Lake, I would hear whisperings like "Look mom! There's a sister missionary!" OR getting dirty looks like who the heck are you. It's been interesting. No one warned me how many stares I would get haha.

Anyways, I will write more on Tuesday. The MTC here is what I like to call a Private MTC- Cute England Cottage building with only about 50 of us. The sisters and elders in my MTC are awesome. The sisters here are from Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, Scotland (!!), and Canada. Oh, and Sandy, Utah. Haha. So it's cute because they all have strong accents and we're trying to understand each other and sometimes it's a struggle.

I have to go, but I love you both! Please tell the fam that my email address is (if you want Tiff's address please send me an email or leave a comment on this blog of how you know her. Since this is a public blog I don't want to openly post her email) I can send and receive emails from family members in the MTC. As far as friends rules, friends can email me in the MTC, but I will have to write them a letter. Pass along that info for me? Thank you!

Love you so much!

Sister Knab

  The MTC took pictures of the arriving missionaries and sent them to the families. These are the ones with Sister Knab in them.

Walking into the MTC

Orientation Meeting



Emailing home

First meeting the morning after they get to there. All 7 sisters at the MTC.

Preston MTC

She's Leaving On a Jet Plane....

Hello everyone! I am Sister Tiffany Knab's sister, Heather. I will be doing her blog while she is serving a mission in Ireland/Scotland. I will be uploading the pictures and letters she sends us. I normally won't be writing anything, but thought I would do a quick intro to her blog. Her flight left at 11:00 AM on Wednesday August 8th. She had a 3 hour layover in Chicago and then flew to Manchester, England. It was hard to watch her leave, but we are excited for this new adventure in her life.

Sister Knab about to say goodbye



Group shot with her niece and 5 nephews. It will be interesting to see the difference in these kids in 18 months.

Brother J.P. with his wife Jessica and their boys (also soon-to-be baby girl)

Sister Heather with her two boys



Tiff took this picture of her nephew trying to sneak into her luggage while she packed and asked me to post it on the blog.

Oops, the following pictures turned out fuzzy when they were emailed to me. I will try to get better copies and post them.