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