Letter 8-28-17

This WEEK was CRAZY!

Where to I begin with this week?! Well let’s start on Monday

Monday: Was the solar eclipse! It was so awesome! It got darker and it was cold! It was so awesome!!!!!

Tuesday: Was Gary's interview for baptism! It was SO exciting!!!!!! We were all excited!!!! And it was a zone conference with Elder Perkins and Elder Pingree from the 70's! (General Authority) :)

Wednesday: I went to Missionary Leadership Counsel with my companions because the President said I could also, with Elder Perkins and Elder Pingree.

Thursday: Gary got baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost because this past week was Stake Conference. We he was raised out of the water, he looked directly over to the three of us and fist raised the air and said Wow, Righto! :) We all smiled so big, including him! :) <3 Aw, what a lovely day! <3

Friday: Gary received the Aaronic Priesthood at 3, got his temple recommend at 3:30 and was at the temple are ready to do baptisms for the dead at 5! :) <3 Also, it was my birthday! :) I'm 20 now! crazy! :P Haha! Had an awesome package from my family! Got an awesome package from my Aunt Debra and Uncle Joe and Joy! :) Thank you! Thank you Grandma McKnight and Grandma and Grandpa Lofgreen and the Red Rock ward for the letters! :) <3

Saturday: Was adult session of Stake Conference with Elder Arnold from the 70 as well. (General Authority) so awesome! We had our five recent converts there! It was awesome! Also, two of them got called to go up there with him, and our hearts dropped, because that was one thing that we told them would never happen and it did, but one of them was told in advanced, and Gary, well he's so in tuned with the spirit, that the Spirit told him that he would get a chance to put in a word at the Stake Conference. Wow, he's such an amazing man! We all see that he could become a member of the 70's (General Authority). He's so awesome! :)

Sunday: At 8:30 in the morning we got a call from President (the earliest call for all of us about the upcoming transfer.....) We were told that Sister Miner is going to go to Richland and be a lone STL and train and be doubled in. Then Sister Cluff was going to get doubled in the Richland as well and I was to become an STL and stay in Connell. WOW! And we were told that we couldn't tell anyone until after dinner. :/

Good day and excited for the new journey but nervous. God knows what we all need and what we need to learn and how we need to GROW and STRETCH. Faith, that's all I have to say.... without faith, you'll be gone!

Wow, yeah, this week was good......

So yeah, I’m 20 years old now! Crazy! My trainer is engaged and will be married in November! People I know are getting married! It's crazy! :P haha I'm 9 1/2 months out.

Love you all! Have faith!
--
~Sister McKnight
Washington, Kennewick Mission

Zone Conference

Sorry for the poor quality of the video but this is saved from a text message to my phone.

Messages from Members

8-21-17 (Email)
My name is Jeff Garrett and I am the Bishop of the Snake River Ward where your daughter, Sister McKnight was serving until the last transfer. I just wanted you to know what a great missionary your daughter is and how much we miss her in our ward. She was loved by everyone in the ward and was always so kind to everybody.  I was able to be at a couple of lessons where she taught and she taught with the spirit and with great conviction. I know she has very high expectations for herself and a great desire to live up to those expectations.

My wife and I hope that she is doing well in Connell and that she is able to get the sleep that she needs. We were trying to help her with that while she was here and we still pray that she will be able to sleep and rest so that she can remain healthy.

Mostly, I just wanted you to know how much we learned to love you daughter in the short time she was in our ward. She is a wonderful young woman and an excellent missionary and you should be very proud of her.

Thank you for sharing her with all of the people here in Washington.

Sincerely,
Jeff Garrett

8-21-17
98% eclipse here, it got darker about 30 minutes ago

By the way---this is Sister Kelly. My husband is the bishop in Connell ward. We just love your three daughters! It was fun to have them over this morning for the eclipse, but even more fun to experience so many baptisms with them here! A time of miracles!

The great solar eclipse in Connell!

Our homemade eclipse viewers!

8-16- 17

We love our Sister Missionaries! Thanks for sharing your beautiful daughters.

Letter 8-21-17

The Highest of Highs and the Lowest of Lows, but all for a special reason

Wow, was this week crazy! I'll start off with the good thing that happened! :)

Things are going good with Sister Miner and Sister Cluff! :) We are having great laughs and continually finding new people to teach and baptizing converts. :) They say that I’m a STL in training. :P hahaha This transfer has been good for me. It has totally helped my testimony and faith grow in the gospel and in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.

(But first another medical problem...but now it's all better! I got a Sty in my right eye. It was not fun. :/ It made my eye swollen, but now it looks all normal! YAY!!!!! hahaha, So weird, embarrassing, but now it's over and now I know what to do and what not to do when your eye starts to swell for unknown reasons. :P ) I'm learning long life lessons that will help me both physically and spiritually for the rest of my life. :) My life must be going to get intense later on. :P haha

So anyways, back to more spiritual things. :P --->

So we have been teaching this man Gary, he knows the Bible better that anyone I’ve ever known. He's been to church for all three hours 9 times now, and is just amazing is finally getting baptized this Thursday!!!! :) And getting confirmed as well because of Stake Conference! :) It's so awesome!

Then a bad experience helped my faith grow was having Maria, who was on date for this last Saturday,  text us at 12 am, the day of her baptism, saying that she will not get baptized. We later found out it was because she got anti-ed for 5+ hours by her pastor and his wife. The pastor’s wife didn't say anything that hurt us or that questioned our faith, but it was just to see Maria, so sad and dark and not happy that killed us. But we will not give up the hope, she has felt the Spirit and has a testimony, she just needs to remember. :) So very sad, but we went to the Bishop after and he gave us
blessings and talked to us and was just amazing!

Bishop Kelly and his wife helped me realize that sometimes we go through bad things to help our testimonies grow, even if it's to testify of the truthfulness of the power of Satan, and to grow our roots deeper in the faith and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that I already have that way I know.  Heavenly Father knows what we each need to go through to make us stronger, even if it is not in the most comfortable way. :P

I know that God lives. That He loves us. That He knows what's best for us, to grow and help us and prepare us for what lies in the future for us. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. It leads us closer to Christ, and light, and truth. I know that a man can and will get nearer to God if you read, ponder, and act upon the things you learn from in the Book of Mormon. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he restored The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers every one of our prayers, in His timing and in His own way. What an amazing blessing it is that we have to be here on this earth and to be able to CHOOSE to follow Christ and be happy.

I love you all so very much and I thank you all for being in my life. :)
--
~Sister McKnight
Washington, Kennewick Mission

Letter 8-14-17

Wow!!!! That's all I have to say. It's crazy to think that I have made it this far! Nine months/half way. I wouldn't have made it this far without the help of all of your prayers and the help of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you all so very much!

This week was filled with miracles! :) Let me tell you!

1.) Saturday, Angie got baptized! And on Sunday she got to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost! <3 She was so happy and she was glowing! Her daughter and grandchildren (who just got baptized about a month ago) were so happy and were there to support her. :)

2.) We met a man named Manuel on his doorstep, right after he came home from working the graveyard shift and gave him a Restoration pamphlet and invited him to read it and we asked if we could come back the next day, and he said yes. So we showed up yesterday, Sunday, and we prayed with him and asked him how he felt, and he said that he felt warm inside and as if he were not alone. <3 He started to tear up as well. (what a powerful truth seeker!) Then we asked him what he remembered from the pamphlet we gave him to read, and he knew all of it! He really read and pondered it and wrote it on his heart! :) We then taught the lesson of the Restoration, going over some points in more detail. He's totally soaking it all up by the way. We then gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it, he smiled very big and said Thank you! :) We invited him to pray at the end, and he did! His prayer was so simple and powerful, he thanked us for what we shared, and then he asked if God could let him know if what we shared is true and if the Book of Mormon was true. He was choking up and tears coming to his eyes. <3 We asked him how he felt and he said, the same as when (I had said) the opening prayer, warmness, and comfort. What a lovely man!

3.) There is this man named Gary! Ah, he is a wonderful man! He KNOWS the Bible very well and he hasn't committed to a baptismal date yet. But three days ago we asked him what he was expecting God to answer him: quickly or him having to make a decision and then God will confirm it? Then he asked, "I know we just had fast Sunday, but would you be willing to fast with me to find out my answer?" (And we were all like YES! haha Now remind you, he's been to church 8 times now, goes for all three hours, participates, prays, he's just amazing!) So we did. And we went over Sunday night, and he shared his testimony. We listened for 2 hours to his testimony, So very powerful and beautiful. The Spirit just telling us to listen. Then at the end, Sister Miner said " Will you be baptized on August......24th?" When she said that the Spirit hit him all hard! So amazing! <3 He then said in 12 days? and we're like yep. :) We said, "will you take this day, for your baptism, pray about it, picture yourself getting baptized and we will come back to get a strong and confident answer. :) <3 Man, the Spirit was so thick and beautiful and strong! He's going to do it! <3

Anyways, I love you all so much! This was a miracle email! <3 God loves and knows each and every single one of you! Never forget that! Never forget that I love you! <3 Always keep fighting, always keep praying, and always keep reading.

Love you all, always and forever,
--
~Sister Rebecca McKnight
Washington, Kennewick Mission

Letter 8-7-17

This week was filled with miracles, even when it was homesick. :)

1.) Marsha got baptized this last Saturday, and I got to go!!! It was so amazing! She was SO happy and she was glowing! I also got to see my old companion and step mom Sister Passey! ☺  I also got to see some lovely people from 6th Ward, from where I served in my 2nd area on my mission. :)

2.) Last night we met with a woman and her boyfriend and child for a lesson. We didn't know what it was going to be like because Sister Miner (has been in this area my whole mission- almost 9 months) had talked to him in February and has talked to the women 3 times. But we went in, they BOTH felt the Spirit so strong! It truly was an amazing experience. We taught them the Plan of Salvation, and invited them to be baptized when they knew that this message that we have come to share is true and they both said yes.  Throughout the whole lesson they kept saying that they felt the Spirit and the message of the Plan of Salvation made them SO happy! :) AH, it was amazing! We gave them a BOM and they downloaded the Gospel Library app as well! It was a great ending to the night.

3.) I got to talk to (email) my family and my dear amazing best friend in the world, Jenna, today, and see pictures of them! <3 How lucky am I?!

4.) We taught Gospel Principles and it was about Charity and the things you need to do to have charity are:
         * Study the life of Christ and apply them to our lives
         * Pray for Charity
         * LOVE YOURSELF (the topic of which I was given to speak on, which I truly needed)

I love you all, the Lord loves you ALL as well. And with the strength of the Lord, we can do ALL things. :) <3

~Sister McKnight
Washington, Kennewick Mission

Pictures for July

Connell with Sister Cluff and Sister Miner

Our lovely chalk art! We hope it will find us an investigator!

Trying on hats because I can!

Temple trip with Juli

The Bishop teaching me to drive his tractor!

Hello Horsey!