September 16, 2013

Hey Fam,

We got our moves calls last night. There's a bit of a change up. Sister Shead is being transferred to Scotland. I'm staying. (Yay!) I'm getting a new companion, Sister Morgan, who is coming from Scotland, and they haven't figured out yet where Sister Lewis will be so she'll continue to stay with Sister Morgan and I for the time being. It'll be fun. We'll miss Sister Shead, but we're excited to have Sister Morgan and get to know her. I am soo happy I get to stay in Dublin! I think I'll be stressed every moves call from now on because I won't want to leave this area! I feel bad for Sister Lewis because being with us for the time being means she has to continue to get dropped off a lot to be with the other sisters in Dublin while we travel to the other areas in Ireland for exchanges. We love having her, but I'm sure she'll be happy once she's setteld in her own area with her actual companion(s). But we've been having a lot of fun with her. It's been so great to get a fresh view from someone that has come from a different mission! We're learning a lot from her and what she knows from serving in France.

It's been a pretty good week for us. We were in Limerick for a couple of days to blitz the sisters' area there. We had a ward activity- a murder mystery dinner. That was really well done and one of our investigators, Ray, who came to that just loved it. Ray is an older Irish man and has been coming to church and church functions regularly for the past month now but just seems to be at a stand still right now and not progressing towards baptism. We're working on creating a break through with him. Keep him in your prayers if you could. He's the nicest man ever. You would like him.

We have a handful of investigators we're working with right now- a mix of Irish and Africans. It's good fun. We're hopings things will start to pick up with them more, but I really love all of them a lot. It's amazing how much love you feel for these people who you hardly know really!

Thanks for your support. You're all the best!

Love,
Sister Knab

Lindy and Yolanda's Baptism

To my Disneyland Dwelling Family,

I can't believe you're at Disneyland... It doesn't seem real to me! You're all so good to email me, even with being in California! I wasn't expecting to hear from each of you. You're amazing. Thanks for taking the time. I expect many pictures as always :)

Yesterday was one of the best days ever. It was Lindy and Yolanda's baptism! It was a huge turn out and everything went smoothly. When Lindy and Yolanda came out in their whites, it was such a sweet sight. I love that! It was so fun to help them in the bathroom after they were baptized too. They were soaking and absolutely glowing. Biggest smiles ever. Yolanda, Lindy's daughter, said she felt so great she wanted to do it again. Haha. Lindy bore her testimony once they had changed and that was the highlight of the day for me. I thought I knew what happiness was before my mission, but I've been able to experience a whole new level of happiness out here and I felt it again while Lindy bore her simple, sincere testimony to the congregation and stated that she knows that she just made the right decision and how good it feels and how happy she is. Lets just say, I was not a brick as Dad calls it, while she was bearing her testimony. There might have been many tears. My word. I love them so much!!!! I was so happy in that moment, I really thought my heart was going to burst. The closest feelings I have had to those moments only come when I am in the temple. It's the most pure and light hearted joy that comes over me. This gospel is real! And Lindy and Yolanda's lives have been changed because of their faith and willingness to act on our message. I am so blessed to have been a part of teaching them and witnessing their growth and conversion. They are so special to me. I kept giving them big, squishy hugs throughout the day. They probably think I'm crazy. :)

I know you're reading this from the Disney house you've rented, so I'll keep it brief so you can head out for the day! Hope you have so much in Disneyland!

Love you lots!

-Sister Knab

PS- I attached pictures of the baptism. Hopefully it works. The last picture is of the Jwambie Family. They were the ones who introduced us to Lindy and Yolanda :)

September 2, 2013

2 September 2013

It's been a full week for Sister Shead and I. We were training in the Belfast zone on Tuesday, in the Limerick zone on Wednesday, and then in the Dublin zone (ours) on Thursday. It was good fun though. We road tripped across Ireland with President Brown and the assistants to get to these conferences and that was a lot of fun. I felt like we were a family on a road trip together. President and Sister Brown would take us and the assistants out to eat for our meals so it was fun to spend personal time with them. Friday was our mission leadership council in Edinburgh- where we had the new set of Sister Training Leaders there (Sister Ryan and Sister Passey). It was so good to see Sister Passey again!!! I love that girl and she updated me on everything in Irvine. I found out that Kathleen went to the temple for her first time last weekend!!!! And Jon is loving having the Priesthood and his mom is coming to church now! Also, a less active family, the Quayles, who we had contacted and started to teach have started to come back to church every Sunday! I am so happy! And one of our investigators we had found and started teaching, Stephanie, is working towards her baptism right now. Ah, that is the best feeling in the world to hear about the people I love so much and their progress. Missionary work is the most rewarding thing ever.

On to other things- Sister Shead and I are doing a third companion. Haha. There's a sister in the France mission who is having visa issues and so she is being transferred to our mission for the rest of her time. All we know is that her name is Sister Lewis, she's been out for 7 months, and she'll be staying in our mission from now on. Pretty crazy. Poor girl. So she's being added to our companionship until the end of transfers. We're turning our living room into a bedroom like I had to do with my Bathgate companions. This will be my 3rd trio if you include the MTC! Haha. We're looking forward to having her. We both have had good trio experiences.
Lindy and Yolanda, our investigators that we started teaching about 2 months ago are being baptized this upcoming Sunday!! We are so excited! I'll send you pictures on Monday. They are so amazing. Yolanda has been set for it pretty early on but her mom, Lindy, took a little while longer to get a witness. But it's happening! We're so happy!
I'm going to attach a ton of pictures for you. I realized I haven't at all since being in Dublin so it's catch up time. I can only attach 4 at a time so I will attach several emails with 4 pictures each in them. Sorry it has to be that way.

Love you!
-Sister Knab

 

 

Does anybody know why I can't get her vertical pictures to stay vertical. I have no problem with that on my personal blog. However, even when I save her pictures into my folder and correct the orientation it reverts back when I put it in the blog.

August 26, 2013

Hey my family :)

We've had a busy week. For part of our week, we packed up our trusty air mattresses and road triped to Northern Ireland to stay and work with the different sisters in that zone. I always love the chance to be with the sisters. It's such a blessing. I know our assignment is to help them and train them, but wow, they help me in so many ways! I learn so much on every exchange. The sisters here are inspiring! They are doing amazing work and are so humble.

Our teaching pool is starting to increase which keeps us busy for the days we are in our area. Our days in Terenure are packed with appointments to catch up with our investigators! We're teaching a few Irish people and then the rest are people from different parts of Africa. People from Africa amaze me. They are so open to learning more about the word of God and how they can come closer to God- such humble people. I love the Irish as well- they are so friendly here- not quite as receptive to the word of God but really good people.

This past week was a miracle week for the Terenure ward. Together with the elders in our ward, we really set high goals of pushing for member present lessons. Our combined efforts came to an end result of getting 31 joint teaches last week! It was an absolute miracle. Especially considering that our ward is about 60 active members. It took a lot of coordiation and planning and finding but wow- it felt so good!! The longer I've been on my mission, the more I've realized that our job is merely just being on the sidelines of things- it's really about bringing our investigators together with the members. Like last night, we were teaching one of our Irish investigators named Ray and we had Sister Long with us as a joint teach. He felt so comfortable with her and just opened up his feelings with her and just told her how he's enjoying coming to teach and he feels good, but he just doesn't believe that God and Jesus Christ would appear to Joseph Smith. Sister Long told him she understood how he felt because she was Catholic as well before joining the church and she continued to bear her testimony about how she came to know that Joseph Smith's experience was real and true. Sister Shead and I just sat there watching them conversing back and forth about it and we were just so happy. It was such a ground breaking lesson with Ray. We needed Sister Long! She was the key. And Sister Long ended up inviting Ray over to have dinner with us and her husband for our next appointment. So perfect. There is just a real power behind member invovlement. That was just one of the many member situations that went well this past week. With the African people we teach, we bring African members and they always bear testimony of moving to Ireland and looking for truth and how they tried out many different churches and then met missionaries and they bear their testimony of how they came to know the chruch is true. And our African investigators just love it. They soak up everything the members tell them- it's just so relatable for them. Ahhh I love it. I love missionary work!!! I need to go, we have a lot of things we need to type up and prepare for this week. It's going to be another busy week. It's zone conference week and President has asked us to train with him and the assistants so we'll be travelling to the different zone conferences in Ireland to train and then on Friday we'll be flying to Edinburgh for our monthly meeting. We won't be back to our area till Saturday. Busy, busy. Being a missionary is the best thing ever :)

Love you all!

Sister Knab

We didn't get an email from Tiff on the 19th. We got little short personal responses to our emails, but not a mass one.