December 9, 2013

We just had the best weekend! Jonathan and Phillip's baptism was on Saturday afternoon. It was the neatest experience having it at a lake! There was a special spirit as we stood by the side of this beautiful little lake. We had the majority of the program at our church and then travelled to the lake where us and the elders sang 'I Know that My Redeemer Lives' right before they entered the water and while we were singing, a robyn bird came and landed on a tree branch near us. Robyns here in Ireland are a symbol of Jesus Christ so while we kept on singing in oblivion, some of the members gasped and a few even became emotional by the appearance of a robyn, symbolizing Jesus Christ, while we were singing 'I know that my Redeemer lives'. Pretty neat.

So Phillip and Jonathan did it- they braved the freezing water and were baptized! They were a little shocked at just how cold the water was- later explaining to us that Africa lakes are much warmer than Ireland lakes haha. Poor guys, but they survived and they fulfilled their dream of being baptized in a lake rather than in a font. Sister Henkel and I had been praying all week that the weather would be nice for the baptism. The afternoon of the baptism was SO beautiful! It was sunny and dry for us- so warm that some people were only wearing a light sweater. It was more like September weather, rather than December weather. Then a couple of hours after the baptism, the clouds rolled in and it became dark and started pouring. Heavenly Father was so good to us to allow a window of time for sunny weather! It made the experiene so enjoyable. I attached some pictures of the baptism from Sister Henkel's camera so hopefully you can view them without any problems. It was a great day.

Moves calls were last night and Sister Henkel and I will be staying in Waterford. Woot woot! We're excited to stay here together.

We got a new branch mission leader becuase ours left for his own mission. Our new mission leader is a 55 year old Irish man who was just baptized 5 months ago! He is so great. He conducted the baptism program this weekend for his first time and he was so nervous but he did great, making only a few minor mistakes. We're excited to work with him.

This past transfer has just been absolutely incredible. I have never seen so many miralces than being here with Sister Henkel in Waterford these past 6 weeks. I am so happy. The gospel and being a missionary brings me so much joy. Pure joy that you can only experience when you are invovled with helping Heavenly Father with His great work. I love Him and I want to serve Him all of my days.

I love you! You are all the best!

December 2, 2013

Hey Fam,

It's December! Waterford is just turning into the cutest city ever with all of the Christmas lights and christmas festivities happening. Santa Claus arrived by a viking ship last week and there's a popular Winterval Festival going on here that is drawing thousands of people to our city. They have horse drawn carriages, an ice rink, a Polar express street train, a caroussel set up, and a big christmas market with all sorts of christmas shops. It's so fun. It's pretty crazy but it makes for good finding opportunities for us.

Jonathan and Phillip's baptism is this Saturday in the lake! We went and scoped out the lake this past week with the senior couple and it is such a small, beautiful, still lake in the middle of no where. The branch calls it their private lake. I will be sure to show you the pictures. We also felt the water...yep...they are going to freeze to death. We ask them in every lesson if they still want to be baptized in the lake and they won't back down - they just really want to be baptized there so we're going with it! It'll be fun to experience.

Our investigators are doing great. We are so blessed to be working with some amazing people right now. Manue, the guy we met in the library last week has gone from only wanting to come to church to get help with learning to english to asking for the missionary lessons, giving up tea and coffee becuase of our sunday school lesson last week, and talking about wanting to go to the Madrid Temple and the Salt Lake Temple and....he wants to go to BYU! Haha. We haven't even talked to him about BYU or the temple but he has somehow found out about those things and it is just his dream to experience BYU and he is just so intrigued by the temple. He's never been into drinking or drugs or any of that and so he loves the idea of attending BYU because of its standards and honor code. He calls it the mormon university. I've never met someone so excited about BYU and the temple after only learning about the church for a week. He's so cool. Things are looking promising with him.

Keep Natalie in your prayers- she's going through a hard time with the big change of breaking up with her boyfriend and moving out. Her family doesn't seem to be supportive of her decision and normally her mom would watch her baby girl while Natalie goes to work but her mom has refused to help anymore so natalie lost her job. She's going through a tough time, but we know she will experience sooo many blessings for the sacrfices and changes she is making right now in her life! She's amazing.

Waterford is great. I'm so happy I'm here. Sister Henkel is such a fun companion and we are working with just the best people ever! We are making friends for life over here. It's just the best thing ever. The gospel really does bring so much happiness and this world needs it!

Love you all!

Sister Knab

November 25, 2013

25 November 2013

Happy Thanksgiving this week!

To be honest, I forgot it was Thanksgiving. Our senior couple here had to remind us yesterday. We are having dinner with them, the elders and a couple of members. Should be a fun little dinner hour to celebrate!

This week has been so great. I have to start off right away by telling you about our big miracle! I told you last Monday that last week would be the week to teach Natalie the Law of Chastity. We knew it would be a big lesson because she is living with her boyfriend and their 2 year old little girl. We were so anxious to teach it by the spirit and to teach it at the right time and felt last week was time to do it. So Sister Henkel and I held a special fast for Natalie and we prayed for her in every single one of our prayers (which is many as a missionary!) Well we had a couple of appointments last week with her and she had to cancel both of them so we were really worried about what was going on. But we were able to see her briefly over the weekend and she explained what was going on. She told us that she has been praying like we taught her how to and while praying this week she said she felt very strongly that she needed to break up with her boyfriend and move out. And....she did it!!! She broke up with her boyfriend and is moving out and into her parent's home! We haven't even taught anything about the Law of Chastity but the spirit guided her so strongly in her prayers on what to do! She said it was the hardest thing to do but that she feels so happy and relieved and good inside. She knows she made the right decision. Wow. We are blown away. Sister Henkel and I are two very very happy girls right now. Teaching her the Law of chastity tonight will be a breeze now. Heavenly Father is amazing.

Jonathan and Phillip are also doing so so good. Their baptism is not this weekend, but next! They are so strong and in tune with the spirit. We teach them a commandment and they immediately begin to live it. They have received their witnesses of the church being true and help each other along the way. They have a great frienship. The branch members just love them becasue they are so easy going and fun to be around. It's interesting planning a lake baptism...we have never seen one, let alone plan one! But the branch members are very familiar with how it goes because most members here were baptized in the lake because the nearest font to us is 3 hours away. So the branch is helping us a lot with preparing for their baptism.

So something pretty neat that happened- we were teaching Jonathan and Phillip in the library one day last week because we couldn't find a woman to teach them with us so we had to teach them in public. So we were sitting in the nice lounge of the library and there was a guy on a nearby computer that I noticed kept on looking over at us and listening to our lesson. After the lesson, we shook hands with Jonathan and Phillip and they left and then as soon as they left, this guy came over to us with a big smile, introduced himself, and shook our hands. He said he is from Spain and recognized our badges because there's a mormon church on his street back home. He (Manuel) has since moved here to Ireland and asked if we could help him learn english. (He remembered missionaries in spain holding free english classes in his neighborhood). We told him we'd love to and also invited him to church. He said probably not. But then later that night, he texted us and said he decided he wants to come to church so he can practice his english with people at church. So Manuel came to church with the sole purpose of practicing his english but by the end of church, he leaned over to me and pointing to the Sunday school board, said, 'Actually, I'm interensted in you coming and teaching me about these church things.' (I love the spirit! It works wonders!) So now because he loved church so much, we are teaching him english and also teaching him the gospel. He's our library miracle!

We have such a fun teaching pool right now. We have Jonathan (29 years old, from Ghana), Phillip (33 years old, from Nigeria), Solange (28 years old, from Spain), Manuel (29 years old, from Spain), and Natalie (21 years old, from Ireland). They are such amazing people. We love each of them so much!

Our attendance in the branch this week was 78. (Farewell haha). So we're still on track for earning a building here in Waterford! Our branch is the cutest. It continues to grow and it's so fun to see. Waterford has all of its christmas lights coming out now and christmas fairs and an ice rink coming in. The big talk right now is Santa Claus coming to Waterford on a viking ship! Haha too cute. I love the history of our city. It's fun.

Love you all! Happy THanksgiving!

Love,

Sister Knab

November 18th

This has been an AMAZING week! We have seen miracles this past week with our investigators' progression!

Jonathan and Phillip, our African investigators, are doing so well. They are working towards being baptized on December 7th....in a lake!!!! The branch doesn't have a baptismal font, so we talked with them about being baptized in a baptismal font in Cork (3 hours away) or in a hotel swimming pool or in the lake. They loved the idea of being baptized in the lake (yes, we told them it's going to be FREEZING but they said that in the moment of being baptized, they won't care). They want to be baptized in the lake because Jesus Christ was baptized in the river and they want to have it be similar to that. So, the lake it is! Haha it'll be fun. They are still working to overcome some word of wisdom issues, so pray for them that they will make their date of Dec 7th!

Natalie, our Irish investigator, is doing really well too. She is coming to church and this past week she received her witness that the Book of Mormon is true! Yay! And, she prays with us in our lessons now. She wasn't willing for a while. She also has accepted to be baptized. This week we will be teaching her the law of chastity and how she will need to move out from living with her boyfriend and get married. Please, please keep us and her in your prayers this week. That will be a big lesson.....

We received a referral from the branch of a Brazillian girl named Solange and she became a new investigator for us this week! Her English is broken but she has come to church a lot in the past. One of those 'eternal investigators'. So we are hoping to see a miracle with her taking a leap of faith.

We're so grateful for our 4 investigators. We only have 4, but all 4 of them are progressing and coming to church. And 3 of them are working towards being baptized so we are so blessed to be working with such prepared people!!

I love our little branch so much. The members here are amazing. They are so fun to get to know and feel of their desires. For them to get a buliding, there needs to be 60 coming out on a regular basis. Well, last week we had 62 and yesterday we had 63!! So if we can keep up the consistency of that kind of attendance then this branch can get an actual building for themselves in 6 months! We want them to get a building so bad. They deserve it.

This week was a highlight of my mission. I am so happy. Seeing people change and accept the gospel is the most amazing feeling in the world. The church is true.

Love you!

Sister Knab