Letter From Scotland Bishop

Hi there, I would like to take this opportunity to than you for you family for giving us the blessing of having your daughter serving the saints over here in Scotland.

We want you to know what a first class missionary Sister Knab is and she has served faithfully here in the Irvine Ward for the past nine months and as she prepares  to move to Livingstone our loss will be their gain.

We have grown to love and respect Sister Knab so this short emails is to say thank you for your sacrifices and for allowing  us to be  blessed what a kind and loving daughter you  have and may the Lords Choices  Blessings be yours again thank you so much.

Yours
Bishop G Bradfoot  of the Irvine Ward

July 22, 2013

Hey my family,

It has been such a great week here in Terenure. The sun is still shining- we have beatuiful weather here right now. We're teaching some pretty amazing people too.

We met with one of our investigators, Osa, from Nigeria and he really opened up with us on Saturday. He told us how normally he wouldn't give the time of day to 'people like us' but since the last couple of visits that we have had with him, he said he's been making a lot of changes to his life and he has started to pray to be able to find another job so he can come to church on Sundays. Amazing! In the mean time, he wants to come to as many church functions throughout the week as he can. He's so good. He carries the Book of Mormon with him in his bag too. I love that. He has such a strong faith in the Lord and trusting Him.

We're also teaching John, who is from Nigeria as well. He's not quite as open to the Book of Mormon but in our last visit with him, we focused on teaching him the importance of it and he committed himself to start reading from it. He's really intelligent and has so many factual/historical questions about the Book of Mormon. The questions he asks really shows how much he comprehends what we are teaching him. It blows my mind. He's planning on coming to church this upcoming Sunday.

We're continuing to teach Lindy and her children- the ones from South Africa. Yolanda, one of the girls, LOVED girl's camp. It was so much fun talking to her about her experiences there. She bore her first testimony at their campfire testimony meeting! And she keeps telling us how excited she is to be a Laurel. She's progressing so much. Her mom, Lindy, is doing pretty well too. She's regularly reading the Book of Mormon but hasn't been able to make it to church yet. Yolanda has though and loves it. She is setting such a great example to her mom and other sibilings. We're working towards Yolanada's baptism right now :) She's so great!! The young women are really taking her under their wings too. We hope we can have their whole family baptised on the same day though. We'll say how it all pans out. But they're such a great family. I love them so much.

We had some pretty neat less active experiences this week too. We got in contact with a less active member, Iwona, from Poland. When we first got in, she told us right off that she lost all desire to come back to church and to not bother. But by the end of our visit with her and sharing a lesson, she was in tears and told us she needs to come back to church and called her son, alan, to come into the room and told him she wants the two of them to come back to church. He said it'd be awkward since it's been a while but she reassured him of it. I'm so grateful for the spirit that softens people's hearts out here. It's only because of the spirit that Iwona had that change of heart.

Family history continues to be a focus for us. We were at the chapel on Thursday dropping some things off and we saw a man parked in his car in the parking lot. We didn't know who it was so we went over and said hello. Turns out he's not a member but was waiting for the family history center to open up. He was 2 hours early for it. He knew that but he had wanted to avoid traffic so he left work early to be there early for it. He's been using familysearch.org for the past few years and noticed online that he could get help with his family history in the church. The church was open and members were doing things inside so we were able to offer him a church tour and he was interested. We gave him a tour and he had loads of questions and I could really feel the spirit as we walked through the church- especially when we were in the chapel. We ended up exchanging contact information too because he overlooks a care center and they are looking for volunteers so we are going to offer a couple of hours of service for him each week. We're excited! He's a great man. Good things are coming.

I love our life right now. Things are going so well. It's such a blessing being able to exchange so much with the sisters in Ireland. They amaze me and it's the best calling in the world being able to spend time with them.

I love you all. I got the word that you're all going to DISNEYLAND in September! ... I'll forgive you ;) You'll have to send me pictures so I can live vicarioulsy through you :) That's so fun!

Love ya,

July 15, 2013

Hey Fam,

It's been a really good member week for us here. We've been able to visit more of the members here in the ward in between our exchanges and it's been really good. We were visiting a member named Helen and her family from South Africa. After about 10 minutes of visiting with her, we were helping her chop vegetables for the dinner she was making us and she decided to invite her friend Lindy (who is also from South Africa) along her kids over to the house to meet us and have a lesson. So she threw more food together and called her friend's family over. We ended up having dinner with Lindy and her friends and we were able to teach them the Restoration and Lindy loved it. She wants to come to church! And her daughter is going to girl's camp with Helen's daughter. It was one of the most amazing lessons I've expereinced on my mission. It was so fun having both Helen's kids and Lindy's kids to teach. We taught the Restoration primary style - with pictures and interaction and things - it was so fun. I love teaching kids. And I was blown away at how intelligent their kids are with some of the answers they gave us.

We also went to a member's home (Sister Kelly) on Saturday and we gardened for her. Sister Kelly's friend, Iris, was over and came out and helped us. So we ended up teaching Iris after we gardened. It was pretty neat.

I feel like the missinary broadcast has done a lot of good for the members. We are noticing a differnece in the members here with inviting their friends to listen. I'm so grateful for that inspired broadcast that is blessing our lives as missionaries! We can't do this without the help of members....they make such a difference. On that note, there is a group of people here from BYU opening a Qualtrics office here in Dublin and they have moved together into our ward. They are all fired up about missionary work and inviting people they are meeting to come to church and also to play football with them on Saturdays. They are helping us out so much! With getting people to church...fellowshipping..inviting our investigators places...it's amazing. I guess because they've served their own missions, they are pumped to be on the other end of things...being the type of member that looks, invites, and fellowships. I think a lot of good will start to happen in our ward with their help. It's a great scenario to work with.

I love Dublin. I'm already attached. It's a massive area- much much bigger than I am used to. It's a city life- which I am also not used to. But it's so fun. It's a fun change and I'm happy to be here.

This church is true and I feel so grateful to have all day every day working on helping people come to know that for themselves. It is so rewarding when we can sit in front of someone who has an open heart and wants to learn. It makes all of the difficult work worth it.

I love you all! Thanks for you support!

-Tiff

Sunshiiiii​iiiiiiiiii​iiine!!!!!​!!

My family,

It is BEAUTIFUL right now in Dublin. We are loving life. It has been so warm this past week and looks like it will be the same the rest of this week! I don't have much time to email today because we are going to the beach to be with our zone for P-day! I love seeing people's behavior here when it's sunny outside. The sidewalks are loaded with people just sitting around soaking it in - particuarly where all of the pubs are. The people from the pubs just come outside to sit in the sun so the streets are lined right now with people just enjoying the summer we are experiencing right now. I love it!

It's been a really good week for Sister Shead and I. Like I told you, we flew in on Wednesday to Edinburgh for our meetings. We had to wake up at 3:00AM for that travel time. Pretty crazy, but it all worked out. It was strange to be at an airport in the middle of my mission! I had some issues arriving back into the Republic of Ireland because I haven't gone to get a Garda card yet that is required to be here. Whoops. Luckily the guy trusted me and let me through- maybe it was the look of terror on my face or the badge that I'm wearing - whatever reason it was, I was cleared. I need to get a Garda card this week. But anyways it was a really neat experience being a part of the mission leadership council and seeing the inner workings of our mission and the revelation that comes to President Brown. He is just amazing. I love him and Sister Brown so much! It was good being there. Although most of the day I felt like we were intruding on their meetings or something. One of the elders told me that's how he felt when he first became a zone leader so that was good to hear. Maybe soon I'll feel more like I belong there! Haha it was really good though. Revelation is so cool. President Brown is so in tune with the spirit.

We were on exchanges this past week with the Baldoyle sisters (who also live in Dublin). This week we are travelling to Belfast, Ireland to be with the sisters there for a couple of days. They are about a 3 hour drive away. Some missionaries are starting to just call us the travelling sisters. Haha. That's not far off.

We're instructing for a portion of the Dublin zone meeting tomorrow for our first time. We're excited about the topic we're doing. It'll be fun, I'm just a little nervous since it's our first time.

We're working on getting the ball rolling in our own area. We're teaching a Catholic family of 4 from India. They've been Christians all their lives and moved here 10 years ago. They are so gracious and such a good family with good, strong values that we have in the church. They have family dinner every night, attend church every week, and read and pray together. We're teaching them again this week. They are so great!

We have another man we have started to teach named John. (I swear- I've only ever taught Johns or Jons on my mission I am pretty sure!) But he actually attended our church for a year back in the 90's but fell away from it. We are working with him to come back to it. He's originally from South Africa.

Last night we had an experience that really impacted me. We were crossing the street and a man on the other side approached us and said hello- clearly wanting to talk. We spoke with him; his name's Barrie. He's really at a low point in his life with choices that he has made recently and he's really seeking for direction in his life. We taught him for a while and helped him to understand the power of the atonement and also prayer. We taught him to pray and we had him say a prayer with us right now. He prayed vocally and sincerely for what he was needing and thanked Heavenly Father for allowing him to meet us. When he closed his heartfelt prayer, he immediately put his face in his hands and began softly weeping. It broke my heart. I felt so much love for him in that moment. I could truly feel of Heavenly Father's love for Barrie as he stood there in despair from the choices he made and the peace he felt when he had prayed. We were almost in tears watching Barrie cry- a grown, sober man. But it was such a good feeling inside to know that we have what he needs- what everyone needs. The gospel is the key to change around his life. I'm just so grateful to be a missionary! There are so many lost people. We're teaching Barrie and John tonight.

We need to run, but I'm loving being in Dublin. It's a completely different world than I was in in Irvine and Bathgate. When I have time, I will tell you more!

This gospel is true and it truly has the power to change and uplift lives!

I love you!

Sister Knab
Hi Everyone, we are so excited for all the great things Tiffany is getting to experience. She always includes her address at the bottom of her emails, but I don't feel comfortable putting that information on the blog. If you would like to send her a letter then leave a comment and I will get you her address. Thanks!

July 1, 2013

Hey my Family,

It's been a busy week for us. Monday and Tuesday I was finishing up in Bathgate. Wednesday and Thursday we spent in the mission home for meetings and leadership training. Friday we spent travelling by bus and ferry from 6:30AM - 7:00PM. It was a long run, but the ferry was beautiful inside! It had several floors of shops, restaurants, lounges, and such with beautiful marble flooring and glass ceilings. I wasnt expecting that at all. I pictured us on a run-down, small ferry rocking along the Irish Sea. I was far off. It was a very fancy ferry- almost a crusie ship.

So Saturday was really our only full day of proselyting time. We were able to get a handful of potentials to start working with - all of which talked with us because of their interest in Family History Work. That's a big focus in the mission right now - using family history as our approaches on the street. There was one particular street in Terenure where every person we talked to was interested except for one guy. It continues to amaze me how much people are interested in their geneology! Ireland is even starting something called 'The Gathering' where they are calling out for people everywhere to come to Ireland to trace their roots back to their ancestors. I think a lot of it is for commerical and tourist reasons but Sister Shead and I are going to look into getting a connection with 'The Gathering' and see if we can get involved somehow with these people who are interested in doing their family history. Oh, speaking of Sister Shead! She is from Chorely, England, right near the Preston MTC and has been out for about the same time as me. We're enjoying getting to know each other and figuring out our area. We DO have a car - which I decided is definitely the way to live. I absolutley love it. It's so nice to have a GPS to find places, as well as not having to deal with buses. Instead we get to drive between the areas we are working in.

We were able to meet our ward yesterday! It's a ward of about 65 active. Ten of those active are actually Irish. Our ward has a lot of different nationalities - it's so fun! There's also a couple of young families that have moved here from being at BYU. The husbands work for the same company so they were moved here for work just a few weeks ago. Our Ward Mission Leader has come from BYU as well. It's a really mixed kind of ward - I really like it! They are excited about missionary work and to have sisters in the ward. They haven't had sisters since 2003 so all of the ladies are really excited haha it's cute.

We were able to watch the missionary broadcast last night!! Wow! I was blown away. After the broadcast, our stake president stood up to say some remarks but couldn't speak for a few minutes because he was overcome with emotion. (He wasn't the only one- the rest of us were sniffling as well). He stated a few profound statements and then the meeting closed. The amazing thing was, no one moved from their seats. We all sat there in silence for a good few minutes. The spirit was unbeilievably strong! .... Things are changing. The Lord is truly hastening His work. And He's gathering the members to join the missionaries in this great cause. I have really come to love missionary work and especially now more than ever, with all of this excitement and vision and new age missionary techniques. I love the church!!! This gospel is true and I love the opportunity to be involed in this work each and every day.

Tomorrow we have our first district meeting with our new district. We are being flown to Edinburgh on Wednesday for more meetings and then doing exchanges with the Baldoyle sisters on Thursday. We're looking at another busy, great week.

I love you all!

My new address is below. All of my letters will need to be sent straight to that flat address, instead of to the mission home. Also, packages will need to be sent to a different place here in Ireland as well. I'll let you know the address of that if needed.

Love,

--

Sister Knab