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