January 7, 2013

Monday, 7 January 2013

My Fam,

This week has been a really good week for Sister Jedlickova and me. Especially yesterday! One of our investigators, Kathleen, came to church for her first time. She enjoyed it and I even overheard her telling a member that she used to be Roman Catholic until we met her in the streets. That's got to be a good sign, right? It went pretty well with her at church. She fell asleep a few times, but that's okay. Three hours is a big change for these people- they aren't used to staying at church for that length of time. So the thing about Kathleen, she's a heavier woman with really short hair and doesn't wear make up so she's often mistaken for being a man. And yesterday she wore jeans to church, which doesn't matter in my mind for now, but the problem is- some of the members thought she was a guy! So when we were sitting in Relief Society, the bishop's wife came up to Kathleen and said 'Ohh! Decided to stay with the ladies in Relief Society huh? You're more than welcome to if that's what makes you comfortable!' ... Whoops. Haha. A couple of other things like that happened too like referring to us and Kathleen as 'ladies and gentleman' which made me feel SO bad but then again, Kathleen must get it often. But besides that, everything seemed to go well with her and she knew three members which is really good! She can sit with them at church.

A couple of other highlights from yesterday- we had two investigator lessons. One with Etta and the other with Ann. They went really well. Ann is a newer one we are teaching and we got to know her more yesterday. The amazing thing is that she can recognize feelings of the spirit and her Christian beliefs are right in line with what we believe. She's amazing. I see so much potential with her and she has an adorable family of three little girls. She would make a great asset to Relief Society. Things are looking good with her!

Probably my favorite moment this week though was with Etta. We taught Etta last night and she told us about an experience she had on Friday night. She said she was in bed and was feeling pretty unsettled and anxious for no good reason. She was tossing around in her bed and turned on her side and saw the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we had left with her. She decided to read it and she told us that she read it and all of the unsettled feelings and anxiety she was having were completely wiped away and she felt calm and at peace. She said she woke up feeling really happy and really good and was amazed at what she read in 'the wee book' as she calls it. She has read it a few more times since then and even told her friend about it (the friend who we had tried talking to on the streets with her) and that friend wants a copy of the pamphlet! So obviously, Sister Jed and I were super excited to tell her that what she was feeling that night was the spirit and the it was comforting her and testifying to her that what she was reading is true. It was a perfect opportunity to teach her about the Holy Ghost more because she had her first experience with it and could relate to what we were saying!! Anyways, she's going in for eye operation soon so she can't read the Book of Mormon because the print is too small so we are working on getting her a larger print of the Book of Mormon. But we are so happy she was at least able to read about the Plan of Salvation and had such a strong experience with the spirit. We gave her the Restoration pamphlet to read next. She's looking forward to it. When she was telling us about her Friday night experience, she kept saying 'I swear on my life that I'm not lying to you!' or 'I promise this really did happen!' Almost as if she would be worried what we would think of her when she told us about it. I think she was surprised by our super happy and excited expressions after she told us! Haha. Etta has committed to come to church with us this Sunday :) I'm excited. (If you haven't noticed already, I get really really excited about little things like this haha because the work is pretty tough out here.)

But the spirit really is the key to conversion. I love when we can see it working on people! We're not doing anything, we just teach what we know and invite people and the spirit does it all. Like with Caroline telling me last week that looking into my face she knew she had the strength to overcome her problems. That had nothing to do with me- I don't have a magical face. That was simply the spirit testifying to her that the words we were sharing is true. And now with Etta- we didn't do anything. We just gave her a pamphlet and she had that amazing experience on her own with the spirit. The spirit is just amazing and it's some of the happiest moments out here when people can feel it and recognize that it's a different sense of peace than they've ever had before.

That's it for now. I know I don't share a ton about the week. I'll try to start to include the not so nice moments of the mission so you can hear about both :) Haha because we have plenty of stories about what happens to us on the streets of Irvine. Never a dull moment over here... haha. Like being referred to as 'Jesus People' or 'The two virgins' or being called Jehovah's Witnesses. We have to explain all the time to people that we aren't Jehovah's Witnesses. Haha. Oh goodness.

Anyways, I love you guys. Hope you had a fun New Years!

Love,
Sister Knab

Happy New Year :)

2 January 2012

Hi my cute Family,

I LOVED being able to skype with you all. That was the best thing ever. I was wondering how I would react- if I would be sad and homesick or what. But it just made me really happy to be able to see and talk to you guys. And I liked how when each of you were talking to me individually that you did it in my room. It seemed so natual to just be chatting with you in my room as if I was there. Haha. Skype is amazing. It was so so good to see you all :) I have the best family in the world. You guys are amazing.

So the reason we're emailing today instead of on Monday is because transfers were this week so emailing time was switched to Wednesday this week. Sister Jedlickova and I will be staying in Irvine! I'm happy because I don't feel like my work here is finished so I'm grateful I'm not moving somewhere else. We still don't have any new sisters to the mission yet. I told you I would let you know when that happens. But we are having a tidal wave of 12 new sisters hitting us in April. 12!!!! That might not sound like a lot to you, but we only have 18 sisters total in the mission so it'll be a big increase for us- as it will everywhere else in the world. So exciting! It'll be really fun to have that happen.

Also- my winter coat you sent me is incredible! I don't even need to wear fleece lining with it or anything. I just wear my normal clothes underneath and I'm super warm in it. And it's very very waterproof which is a blessing. Before we come inside, I can shake off the raindrops off my coat- that's how waterproof it is. So thank you so much. It's amazing and came at a much needed time because the wet, dreaded winter that people have been warning us about is here! Haha but I'm staying warm because of you. Thank you thank you.

This past week has been so different from the norm. We had off: Christmas Eve, Christmas, the day after Christmas, New Years Eve, and New Years Day. So it's been a lot of play time and hanging out this past week which has felt so weird. It's been nice, but I'm happy we're back to our schedule and being able to proselyte. It was weird to have so much free time on our hands- it made me feel like we were being lazy and rebellious. I'm glad to be back on the streets now! But it was a really fun break.

So right now we are working with 4 investigators - Etta, Nicola, Kathleen, and Ann. We were actually able to have a neat experience yesterday on one of our days off. (New Years Day) You'll never believe this! We were hanging out with a recent convert, Margaret Howard, because it was another non-proselyting day, and Margaret had some vistors come by while we were at her house. One of the women that came through the door made eye contact with me and she gasped and her eyes went big. I recognized her and realized Sister Tylka and I had talked to her on the streets about 2 months ago maybe. She came over and sat near me and her and I got into a discussion about how she's been doing and she told me that when she had met me that day that she was going through a difficult time coping with the loss of her baby boy. She told me that she clearly remembers my face and she said that by looking at my face that day when we talked to her that she was able to feel that she has the strength to overcome what she was going through. I was really taken back by this when she told me, because I had no idea that it had that kind of impact on her. She said she doesn't really know how to explain it but that when she looked into my eyes on the streets while I was talking to her, that she could see by looking at my face that she had the strength to get through this hard time. This happened yesterday and I've been thinking about it all day. My only explanation I have for what she said to me was that she was probably able to feel the spirit testify to her while we talked to her about what we believe. The spirit probably helped her to feel that she would get through this and that she had the strength to overcome this trial. It was a really neat moment for me because as a missionary, you have no idea sometimes if people are taking to heart what you have to say. Caroline had started to tell me all about this after I told her she looked really happy and seemed to be doing well! She then told me about that experience she had and she told me how she's beginning to beleive that there is a God and that even though she lost her baby boy, that God still has preserved her other two beautiful wee-ins. I was amazed at what we were hearing! (I definitely wasn't expecting to hear all of those things as a result of me telling her that she's looking good and happy! Haha I was thrilled) So anyways, she got a phone call from her husband and had to run off but said she wanted to come back and continue talking to me but we had to get going so I asked for her phone number. So we will hopefully be in touch with her soon! So there's a potential for us- on a day we weren't even working! How amazing is that? We're excited!

So that's us. We're happy we're staying together and this is Sister Jedlickova's last 8 weeks of her mission so I'll be killing her off and we're putting forth our faith to see miracles in these next 8 weeks with the investigators that we're working with!

Oh random thing about this week so far- I lost my voice yesterday. I woke up and went to say something to Sister Jedlickova and only air came out. I have no idea why I lost my voice but for that full day yesterday, I couldn't talk hardly! I had to whisper for my voice to function. Weird huh? So while I was talking to Caroline (the lady talked about above), I didn't have my voice. So that's why she had to come and sit close to me so we could talk and she could hear me but it was still a struggle for her to understand me. Losing your voice is the strangest feeling. That has never happened to me before. But I woke up this morning and my voice is about 80% back so I'm really really grateful for that because having a voice is kind of nice to have to do missionary work haha. But things are going well. We had a good holiday and we're back in gear now! I love you guys. Thanks for all the love and support.

You're the best!!!! Happy New Year!

Love,

Sister Knab