Hey my Fam,
It was good to hear from everyone as always. I love hearing about what's going on for everyone! This was a busy week for us with an all Scotland conference up in Edinburgh where Elder Kerr addressed us on member work which was really inspiring and gave us a lot of ideas to implement in our work and then we had exchanges with the Pollock sisters the next 2 days after that. We're keeping busy with the people we are teaching right now - things are going pretty well for us! I briefly mentioned last week about an Irish man that we met on the streets. We taught him the Restoration on Saturday and it was in the top 5 first lessons I've been in since being here. It was amazing. This man is prepared!! He's staying in Irvine for 3 months for business. He's a very business professional type man, and probably in his 40's. When we were teaching him, I felt like we should have had a projector set up with slideshows of graphs and figures for him or something. But even though he's kind of intimidating, he's really a nice guy. It was a great lesson we had with him. He told us how he works with a man who's a Mormon and he's always noticed how happy he is and how this Mormon friend of his is the only person he knows that looks forward to going to his church on Sundays and is satisfied with his church. John's been a Catholic all his life but he was telling us that he's not getting out of it what he would like to be and that he's open to change. (So prepared. I'm telling you- it's crazy.) So anyways, he's reading the Book of Mormon and for the next 6 weeks he will be in Dumfriese, Scotland and so we are passing him on to the elders in Dumfriese for the next 6 weeks until he makes it back to Irvine. So he's attending church in Dumfriese and will continue to be taught there for now! It was just amazing to me how much influence members have on their friends. This member friend of his, has no idea right now that his coworker is investigating the church simply because he has expressed how much he loves the church and looks forward to going every Sunday. A simple example like that can go a long way! You just never know who will be prepared to hear the gospel. I love this work so much. Life is good with Sister Passey! It's freezing in Scotland right now- the coldest wind I've ever felt in my life- but we're surviving it! I hope everyone has a good week!
Love,
Sister Knab
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
March 18, 2013
Hi my Family!
Happy St. Patrick's Day yesterday! (Although we didn't really see any celebrations going on. It's really only Ireland that celebrates it.) The most St. Patrick's Day- ish thing that happened to us was we met a man from Ireland on the streets and his accent was so fun to hear! So much different than the Irvine accent. It's very sing songy. I thought he was just putting on a silly voice when we first started talking to him but he was serious. It's a pretty neat accent.
Sister Passey and I are doing well! We're keeping busy these days. A lot of good stuff is happening that we're excited about. Sister Passey is a dream companion. We get along so well. You would never guess she is only 19- between her height and her maturity! She's great. A new addition to the mission is that we are able to text people now! Before we were only able to receive texts, but now we are allowed to reply back. It has been so nice for the work! I'm glad we're slowly getting more in tune with the technological age. It helps a lot, especiallly when it comes to just needing to confirm a appointment or remind someone about reading the Book of Mormon daily if they want a reminder, or whatever it is! It's so nice to send a quick, wee text. We've found that investigators are more comfortable with texting than phoning so they are in contact with us more often now which is really good. We're excited to have it. It's nice too with coordinating with missionaries so we can easily figure out meeting times or quick questions about phone numbers or what not. It seems kind of funny to be texting out here though. It makes me feel normal. It's kind of weird, but it's really nice to have!
A lot happens each week and it's so hard to squeeze it into just one email- so I just want to share one experience this week that was a big highlight for me! Back when I was with Sister Tylka, we met and taught a man named Jon. He was so solid and he had so much potential! He had some doubts about the Plan of Salvation but he prayed about it like we asked and he said his doubts were wiped away. Then we was having some doubts about Jospeh Smith but he said that as he read the Book of Mormon that those doubts went away as well. He was able to resolve on his own all of the conerns he was having! He was so good. Then we lost contact with him and anytime we tried calling, his phone was doing something funky and we didn't have his home address to try by him! We tried calling for about 3 weeks before we gave up. It really broke my heart. We would find ourselves kind of keeping my eye open for Jon as we were walking through town, hoping we would run into him! And we were praying we would. Well, a couple of months went by and I would still find myself thinking about him and how sad I was that we lost contact. With most of the investigators we have that don't end up going anywhere, I usually feel fine moving forward because it seems right, but with Jon, I just felt like it wasn't finished with him. It has really bothered me. Anyways, last week, 5 months later, we crossed paths with him!!! I was so excited! We talked about what had happened when we lost contact and I asked if he would be interested in being taught again. He said he would and that he had been thinking about us the past couple of months actually. We taught him right then in the library and then set a return appointment. In the return appointment, we asked him at the end if he would pray about the Book of Mormon and he asked us if he still needs to pray even if he thinks it's true. He is just solid. We asked him if he would come to church this Sunday (yesterday) and he said probably not and when we asked him if he could next Sunday, he said probably not. So I was really confused! It didn't match up with how well the lesson went and much he's been reading and enjoying the Book of Mormon. Well Sunday rolled around and we were greeting our investigator, Eric, at the door, and over Eric's shoulders, I see Jon walking towards the building!!! He came!! Best sight ever. He didn't even tell us so he had walked there and he was absoultey soaked and freezing, but he sacraficed and came! He never came to church the last time we taught him so this was a big step for him. I'm happy our investiagors Eric and Joseph came to church as well, but Jon's was just so unexpected! We were planning on Eric and Joseph, but Jon was a nice surprise. Ah. Best feeling in the world seeing investigators walking towards the church! I love it. Being a missionary is so fun. Those moments are so worth all of the tiring days, the freezing days, and the not so successful days.
I love being out here. I really do. Missionary life gets better and more fun for me every day.
I hope you have a good week!
Love,
Sister Knab
Sunday, March 17, 2013
March 11, 2013
11 March 2013
My Fam,
Hope everyone had a good week! This was Sister Passey's first week in the mission field. I have been so amazed by her! She is so solid and completely prepared. We've had a lot of fun together already this past week too. We connected really quickly which is such a blessing. I don't know why, maybe because we are pretty similar and have a lot in common, but we already feel really comfortable around each other. And we have a lot of the same views on things as far as missionary work and how to use our time and other things so that really helps with unity. This is just going to be the best 3 months! I'm excited.
Yesterday was Joseph''s third time at church! He expressed his desire to us to be baptized but he needs to overcome his drinking and smoking first and so once his lifestyle is in line with being worthy than he'll be set. The Feriovas are still helping us with translating some of the lesson. They are a great help.
We got a new investigator this week named Eric. He is a 63-year-old man that I had met here with another sister on exchanges here in Irvine. So we were finally able to contact him this week and he is really nice!! We've taught him twice now and he's coming to our Family Home Evening this Tuesday. He loves CDs and DVDs and music and so last week as one of our commitments for him, we committed him to watch the Book of Mormon DVD. When we came to our second appointment with him yesterday, he had watched the DVD and had taken notes on his feelings and impressions while watching it. I thought that was so neat. We hadn't even asked him to do that! But he was really moved and touched by the testimonies born about the Book of Mormon on the DVD. He was telling us how he normally doesn't accept religious visits but that for some reason he let us in and he told us yesterday 'You've really inspired something in me that I didn't know I had' . I thought that was a neat statement about how the spirit feels for people who have never felt it before. Eric is the cutest old man. He always sends us nice texts thanking us for our visits and how much he looks forward to seeing us again. When we came yesterday he had a giant bag of old DVDs and CDs he wanted to give to us. He's such a good person. You can tell he has lived a good, charitable life. We love him!
So another highlight from this week- on Saturday, all of our afternoon plans fell through, which was disappointing, but we headed out to contact some less actives on our ward list (We have about 500 less active in the ward/ 130 active so there's a lot of less active work we do here) Anyways, we were doing some less active finding and we met a man on the streets named Mark. He told us that he had gotten a Book of Mormon from some missionaries a while ago and that he was actually reading from it last night! We taught him on the street for about 20 minutes and he wants us to come back in 2 weeks when he's back from his holiday to Ireland. It was the most amazing experience. Then we met 3 more people in short amount of time that we were able to have really good street lessons with! We were feeling so giddy and blown away. It was one of those moments where we were able to understand why our plans had fallen through. Heavenly Father had a different plan in store for us. We were supposed to meet Mark, Joanna, and Hugh!
Another thing similar to that happened to us yesterday. We had met a lady while chapping doors a couple of weeks ago and she said to try by in the afternoons so we've been popping by while in the area to try and contact her. Yesterday was our third time dropping by and each time, her daughter Angela (in her 30's maybe?) always answers the door because she's staying at her mom's right now and so we always just have a wee chat with her. This time though, she took us in because she wanted to show us some pictures on the wall to go along with something we were talking about. We ended up talking to her for a while and she was showing us her family's tartan and started to tell us about her ancestry line and how she was trying to find out some things about them. So we casually just told her about a family history center nearby that she could go to to get help with her family history and how we know a lady in our church who could help her with it and she got really excited and said she'd be interested!! So even though we weren't able to teach any lessons right then, we are coming back to set her up with our family history consultant and have that be her introduction to the gospel! So even though our plans were to be teaching her mom, Betty. I'm thinking now that we were meant to meet her daughter, Angela and begin teaching her.
So it's pretty neat how the Lord works! Sometimes our plans fall through, but I know it's because Heavenly Father has something else in store for us. I'm more than fine with that. :)
I love you! Hope you have a good week!
My Fam,
Hope everyone had a good week! This was Sister Passey's first week in the mission field. I have been so amazed by her! She is so solid and completely prepared. We've had a lot of fun together already this past week too. We connected really quickly which is such a blessing. I don't know why, maybe because we are pretty similar and have a lot in common, but we already feel really comfortable around each other. And we have a lot of the same views on things as far as missionary work and how to use our time and other things so that really helps with unity. This is just going to be the best 3 months! I'm excited.
Yesterday was Joseph''s third time at church! He expressed his desire to us to be baptized but he needs to overcome his drinking and smoking first and so once his lifestyle is in line with being worthy than he'll be set. The Feriovas are still helping us with translating some of the lesson. They are a great help.
We got a new investigator this week named Eric. He is a 63-year-old man that I had met here with another sister on exchanges here in Irvine. So we were finally able to contact him this week and he is really nice!! We've taught him twice now and he's coming to our Family Home Evening this Tuesday. He loves CDs and DVDs and music and so last week as one of our commitments for him, we committed him to watch the Book of Mormon DVD. When we came to our second appointment with him yesterday, he had watched the DVD and had taken notes on his feelings and impressions while watching it. I thought that was so neat. We hadn't even asked him to do that! But he was really moved and touched by the testimonies born about the Book of Mormon on the DVD. He was telling us how he normally doesn't accept religious visits but that for some reason he let us in and he told us yesterday 'You've really inspired something in me that I didn't know I had' . I thought that was a neat statement about how the spirit feels for people who have never felt it before. Eric is the cutest old man. He always sends us nice texts thanking us for our visits and how much he looks forward to seeing us again. When we came yesterday he had a giant bag of old DVDs and CDs he wanted to give to us. He's such a good person. You can tell he has lived a good, charitable life. We love him!
So another highlight from this week- on Saturday, all of our afternoon plans fell through, which was disappointing, but we headed out to contact some less actives on our ward list (We have about 500 less active in the ward/ 130 active so there's a lot of less active work we do here) Anyways, we were doing some less active finding and we met a man on the streets named Mark. He told us that he had gotten a Book of Mormon from some missionaries a while ago and that he was actually reading from it last night! We taught him on the street for about 20 minutes and he wants us to come back in 2 weeks when he's back from his holiday to Ireland. It was the most amazing experience. Then we met 3 more people in short amount of time that we were able to have really good street lessons with! We were feeling so giddy and blown away. It was one of those moments where we were able to understand why our plans had fallen through. Heavenly Father had a different plan in store for us. We were supposed to meet Mark, Joanna, and Hugh!
Another thing similar to that happened to us yesterday. We had met a lady while chapping doors a couple of weeks ago and she said to try by in the afternoons so we've been popping by while in the area to try and contact her. Yesterday was our third time dropping by and each time, her daughter Angela (in her 30's maybe?) always answers the door because she's staying at her mom's right now and so we always just have a wee chat with her. This time though, she took us in because she wanted to show us some pictures on the wall to go along with something we were talking about. We ended up talking to her for a while and she was showing us her family's tartan and started to tell us about her ancestry line and how she was trying to find out some things about them. So we casually just told her about a family history center nearby that she could go to to get help with her family history and how we know a lady in our church who could help her with it and she got really excited and said she'd be interested!! So even though we weren't able to teach any lessons right then, we are coming back to set her up with our family history consultant and have that be her introduction to the gospel! So even though our plans were to be teaching her mom, Betty. I'm thinking now that we were meant to meet her daughter, Angela and begin teaching her.
So it's pretty neat how the Lord works! Sometimes our plans fall through, but I know it's because Heavenly Father has something else in store for us. I'm more than fine with that. :)
I love you! Hope you have a good week!
Monday, March 4, 2013
March 4th, 2013
My Family,
I attached some pictures for ya of Kathleen and Anne (Muslim husband) :)
This has been a crazy, fun week for me. I told you I was up in Bridge of Don with Sister Ryan for the week waiting for our companions to come from the MTC. We ended up getting the car for the full week! So I've been driving for the past while. It was such a treat. We were lovin every minute of it. I'm definitely converted to driving in Scotland and using roundabouts and driving on cobble streets. It was so much fun :) and so nice to have. We drove to Edinburgh on Saturday morning where we spent the full day in the mission home for our training meetings and then the new missionaries arrived and we climbed Pratt's hill. It was so weird for me. Part of me felt like I was just hiking Pratt's hill and the other part of me feels like it was forever ago. Mission time is so strange. I think overall though, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was the newbie climbing the hill. We had really good, sunny weather while we were hiking which was so nice! We were able to see all of Edinburgh perfectly. When I came, it was cloudy and rainy so we couldn't see too much so it was beautiful to be able to see it on a sunny, clear day! It was fun chatting with the new sisters and answering all of their questions they had about the mission and about Scotland. It reminded me of what I was like my first day- loads of questions and excitement! Haha. I think the answer they were most excited about was that I haven't gained any weight on my mission. Haha. Their MTC teachers told them they would blow up like balloons in this mission so they were so relieved to hear that. Haha. We came back and had more meetings and then they announced who each of us would be training.
My new companion is..... Sister Passey!! Guess where she's from? Bear Lake, Idaho! Haha and she's 19! These girls are the first 19 year sisters to come to the mission so it was a historic day on Saturday for us! Sister Passey is so good. She's got the greenie fire, is confident, but is also really teachable. She's the most humble girl- we've only really had one proselyting day together and she was constantly asking for my correction on every little thing she does. She has a great desire to learn and improve herself. She's a farm girl so I can already tell she's a hard worker just from this past day! I'm super excited! This is going to be a really really good 3 months with the work ethic she has! She's really nice and easy going too. The crazy thing is that she is so much taller than me! She's got to be about 6'2 or 6'3. I feel like a total shrimp. It's really weird for me. I'm usually the taller sister. Sister Passey played Volleyball and Basketball in high school as well. (She just graduated from high school last May. I feel ancient!) But I've got good vibes for these next 12 weeks together. It's gonna be good :)
Yesterday we were able to teach the Restoration to one of our new investigators, Joseph. It was Sister Passey's first time. Joseph is the boyfriend of a single sister in the ward- Sister McClaughlin. When we were in the library last week printing Kathleen's baptismal programs, we ran into Sister McCluaghlin and Joseph. We invited them to come to Kathleen's baptism and they came! Joseph really enjoyed it and he came to church the next day as well. We were able to teach him last week for a little bit. He's from the Czech Republic so Sister Jedlickova taught him in Czech. Yesterday was his second day at church and we were able to teach him again. He's related to the Feriovas- who are a less active family in our area. So we teach him at the Feriovas and they help us translate certain things. It's SUCH a bummer that Sister Jedlickova left RIGHT when we got a Czech investigator!! Goodness! But - I think it will really help the Feriovas because they are very involved in helping us teach him and I think it will help re-kindle their own testimonies. In fact, Rado, the husband, came back to church yesterday for the first time in ages! So we're hoping by this situation, that it will bring Joseph in and bring the Feriovas back! That's the plan :)
Kathleen, Sister Durning, is doing amazing. :) We are having her in a different member's homes twice a week so she can start to become more integared than she already is and develop closer friendships. Yesterday she asked us what we were going to do after church and we told her we would be chapping a street that we planned for and she asked us if she could come with us. Haha. She's loving everything about the church and what we do as missionaries. It's so great.
I love you all! Take care!
I attached some pictures for ya of Kathleen and Anne (Muslim husband) :)
This has been a crazy, fun week for me. I told you I was up in Bridge of Don with Sister Ryan for the week waiting for our companions to come from the MTC. We ended up getting the car for the full week! So I've been driving for the past while. It was such a treat. We were lovin every minute of it. I'm definitely converted to driving in Scotland and using roundabouts and driving on cobble streets. It was so much fun :) and so nice to have. We drove to Edinburgh on Saturday morning where we spent the full day in the mission home for our training meetings and then the new missionaries arrived and we climbed Pratt's hill. It was so weird for me. Part of me felt like I was just hiking Pratt's hill and the other part of me feels like it was forever ago. Mission time is so strange. I think overall though, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was the newbie climbing the hill. We had really good, sunny weather while we were hiking which was so nice! We were able to see all of Edinburgh perfectly. When I came, it was cloudy and rainy so we couldn't see too much so it was beautiful to be able to see it on a sunny, clear day! It was fun chatting with the new sisters and answering all of their questions they had about the mission and about Scotland. It reminded me of what I was like my first day- loads of questions and excitement! Haha. I think the answer they were most excited about was that I haven't gained any weight on my mission. Haha. Their MTC teachers told them they would blow up like balloons in this mission so they were so relieved to hear that. Haha. We came back and had more meetings and then they announced who each of us would be training.
My new companion is..... Sister Passey!! Guess where she's from? Bear Lake, Idaho! Haha and she's 19! These girls are the first 19 year sisters to come to the mission so it was a historic day on Saturday for us! Sister Passey is so good. She's got the greenie fire, is confident, but is also really teachable. She's the most humble girl- we've only really had one proselyting day together and she was constantly asking for my correction on every little thing she does. She has a great desire to learn and improve herself. She's a farm girl so I can already tell she's a hard worker just from this past day! I'm super excited! This is going to be a really really good 3 months with the work ethic she has! She's really nice and easy going too. The crazy thing is that she is so much taller than me! She's got to be about 6'2 or 6'3. I feel like a total shrimp. It's really weird for me. I'm usually the taller sister. Sister Passey played Volleyball and Basketball in high school as well. (She just graduated from high school last May. I feel ancient!) But I've got good vibes for these next 12 weeks together. It's gonna be good :)
Yesterday we were able to teach the Restoration to one of our new investigators, Joseph. It was Sister Passey's first time. Joseph is the boyfriend of a single sister in the ward- Sister McClaughlin. When we were in the library last week printing Kathleen's baptismal programs, we ran into Sister McCluaghlin and Joseph. We invited them to come to Kathleen's baptism and they came! Joseph really enjoyed it and he came to church the next day as well. We were able to teach him last week for a little bit. He's from the Czech Republic so Sister Jedlickova taught him in Czech. Yesterday was his second day at church and we were able to teach him again. He's related to the Feriovas- who are a less active family in our area. So we teach him at the Feriovas and they help us translate certain things. It's SUCH a bummer that Sister Jedlickova left RIGHT when we got a Czech investigator!! Goodness! But - I think it will really help the Feriovas because they are very involved in helping us teach him and I think it will help re-kindle their own testimonies. In fact, Rado, the husband, came back to church yesterday for the first time in ages! So we're hoping by this situation, that it will bring Joseph in and bring the Feriovas back! That's the plan :)
Kathleen, Sister Durning, is doing amazing. :) We are having her in a different member's homes twice a week so she can start to become more integared than she already is and develop closer friendships. Yesterday she asked us what we were going to do after church and we told her we would be chapping a street that we planned for and she asked us if she could come with us. Haha. She's loving everything about the church and what we do as missionaries. It's so great.
I love you all! Take care!
Anne
Kathleen
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