Feb 17, 2014: Canyon Lakes Area: I HAVE A BABY!!!

 Hermana Jensen from Sandy, UT

Hola hola!!

    This week has been awesome and sort of crazy!!!! I AM TRAINING!

So we normally get transfer calls on Sunday night and then if you are training they call you on Monday night and they didn't call me so I was like eh whatever. But Hermana Crandall was going to come be in my area with me until she got her baby... WELLLLL we go to transfer meeting early Tuesday morning... I look on the paper to see who my companion is who I'm about to go run off with and it has a bright red T.R.! AHHHH I screamed and then cried... haha classic. Anyway so the next two days were like the best days of my life because I got to be with Hermana Crandall who is my soul mate... It turns out I'm starting to have a lot of those haha but she really is like the same person as me... its weird!! We love each other haha so it was SUUUPER fun! Then we went to training training on Thursday morning! where we picked up our new missionaries!!! Hermana Carbajal went with Hermana Crandall!! Perfect and I love both of them!! and then I got HERMANA JENSEN!!!! SHE IS SO DARLING!! She is so humble and sweet and her spanish is really good!!! It must be a Mexico MTC thing! It was so awesome and it has been so fun so far! It's kind of hard and it kind of stresses me out because the way you are trained and the habits you make now shape your whole mission soo.... better not ruin her ahha just kidding the Lord wouldn't let that happen!! Who am I to think I have that kind of power!! Haha

Anyway this week really has been awesome :) We have had lots of fun and seen lots of miracles! Hermana J is NOT afraid to talk! I mean she gets nervous but she just jumps right in! The first day she got here I asked her if you wanted to do the lesson and share her favorite scripture and bear her testimony (mean trainer mom) and she totally did it!! With a whole background story and everything!! it was awesome! :) All I did was add my kaboos testimony and wala! The Lord brought the spirit! It was really an amazing lesson!

Oh another miracle to go along with that!!! I do not have a GPS and I didn't know that we had a key maps and I had no idea where I was going to the bishops house because I have gone like once and we were on fry and I didn't know what to do so we called his mother-in-law and she was going to text it to us but of course it didn't come on time so all I knew is that she told me to turn on one street so I did! And then I just went with what I felt for a few different turns and sure enough! right there! bishops house!!! THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKS TO US IF WE WILL LISTEN :) I know that! I love this gospel. I love that I know that I have a constant friend and comforter. That no matter what I can tell myself it will be ok because WHATEVER I am going through was and is God's plan! I know that all good things come from Him and if we allow it He will inspire us!

Something cool, after we had all of our training and such we were eating lunch and the president came up to Hermana Jensen and I and he said that when he was interviewing her that immediately I popped into his mind! I am so happy and so excited! Life is hard :) but so good when you are on the errand of the Lord. Do His will and you will have His blessings to get you through!! I LOVE YOU ALL!! I Love you so much :) I am so blessed to be a missionary.

Hermana Koch!

ps: want to know an update on my spanish? well.... Hermana Rowe one day told me that I yelled in my sleep in spanish that's nice and exciting.... Umm the other day someone asked me where I was from and said california and she looked at me weird and said oh their are a lot of hispanics there that's why you already speak spanish and I said nope! I learned it here... and then she stared at me more and said is your family part hispanic? and I said ummm noooooo. and she was like you talk like a mexican..... YA I WAS KIND OF EXCITED........ OH WAIT. 5 hours later in another lesson… can't say ANYTYHING WRITE!!! (right) I was mixin up words all over the place!!! MORAL OF THE STORY..... IT'S A GIFT FROM GOD. Sometimes you get it and sometimes it's not as prominent. It's all because of Him. and that's why we rely on Him :)

#1 hermana Jensen!! first day!!

#2 hermana jensen second day! with hermana crandall hermana carbajal and elder snow!

#3 hermana crandall!

Goodbye dear Hermana Rowe

Feb 10, 2014: Canyon Lake Area: SHE'S GOING HOME!

Hola hola! buenas tardes!

      SO THIS WEEK WAS GREAT! All of the weeks are great! haha We have seen so many miracles lately! Just fantastic miracles!

GRANDMA HART!!!! HAPPPPPY BIRTHDAYYYYY!!!!! I love you so so so so so much! I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck! a hug around the neck and a barrel and a heep a barrel and a heep and im talking in my sleep about you! <3 (Grandma's song for Lizzie)

AND HERMANA B!!!!!!!! Happy birthday to my dearest Hermana Burnham as well :) oh how I  miss my soul mate <3

So I accidently forgot my old planner in the apartment..... which is full of my last week! and now I have a new planner because it is a new transfer! :) So this email is inevitabley going to be as rough as my spelling. So Hermana Rowe row row your boat is going home!!! D: ahhhh. I cant believe it! I am going to be taking over the area and I've only been here for 6 weeks and I am SCARED! ah. And tonight I find out if I train... trane? no train. and I am taking a huge guess I will not be. I'm pretty positive :) and I feel pretty good about that haha. I will miss my Hermana Rowe so much!  
(Side note, I got a text from Lizzie's former Gulfbank bishop telling me that YES, she is training). So that answered her questions!

Ok so in all honesty though this week was so amazing and full of sooo many miracles!! BUT I REALLY CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING!!! mi mente! se fue! ahhh It's so hard to remember things already just because everyday is full and I don't have my planner but I will do my best to write down some miracles.

miracle #1: We went to an hermana's house who is just awesome and I love her! and She is best friends with a mom and daughter who have been investigators for like five years off and on and we got to meet them!! They are so incredibly amazing. They have such strong faith and such an incredible amount of knowledge regarding religion! They invited us over for lunch the next day and it was the BEST FOOD EVER!! ahh it was sooo yummy. I seriously love them! We had a really awesome discussion about Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us :) Their cousin is also living with them and has such incredible faith! They all came to church on Sunday!! haha they are just super hilarious. Super opinionated it's really incredible that they are searching and fighting for the answers! She said to Hermana Rowe as we left their house you can come back for my baptism ahha it was so funny we all laughed.

miracle #2: Ok SO hermana Rowe had a baptism in her last area to go to this week!! So what we did was she went and then a family picked me up and we went out together! :) It was really awesome! Kind of REALLY weird to be without my companion ahhaha anyway. So I went with an awesome family in our ward to another ward member who hasn't been able to come to church in a while and has had a few tragities in life :/ He is so amazing and really really humble :) We sat there and taught them the restoration again and it was awesome! It was kind of really hard being the only full time missionary! I was testifying and then all the sudden really aware that I didn't have anyone to fluidly start talking right after me! AHH but it was awesome and the testimonies of members are so inspiring! I encourage EVERYONE! to call up the missionaries and ask them when they need them for a lesson! Please do it!! They will be sooo incredibly grateful. And from a missionaries point of view, you could be an answer to their prayers! And the perfect person for that investigator! :)
OH huge miracle! right when we got to their house before we started the lesson I met the daughter of this family who is not a member and is so darling! I had never met her before and Hermana Rowe had a few times but we didn't have her number and she was only sometimes living there! Before I could think about what I was doing I got so excited and blurted out! Hi! I haven't met you! I have been wanting to meet you! I've heard so much about you! She was so super sweet and gave me her number :) We are going to go over there sometime soon!

Well there are SO MANY MORE MIRACLES! SO MANY MANY MORE! really amazing ones. But I dont have much time and I cant remember all of them. But I just want to testify of testifying :) The times when I learn the most and feel the closest to my Savior, is when I open my heart to someone and share with them what I know to be true. There is such a sweet power in sharing your knowlegde with someone else because you love and care for them. Returning to live with our Father in Heaven is an individual battle, but we can help each other get there! I know that Our Savior lives and that He is there holding our hand. That as we strengthen the people around us our love and understanding of Him grows!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Hermana Koch

Hidden Gem

I found this gem on one of Lizzie's mission friends facebook today and thought I had to put it on.  :) My mommy heart melts!

Marisol Cruz

November 15, 2013 near Aldine, TX

Have u ever felt like ur world was shattering all around u. Letting it slip throw ur fingers. Then u see ur best friends walking towards u start to smile  — with Lizzie Koch and Sariah Knappen.

Feb 3, 2014: Canyon Lakes Area: Woohoo

hola hola hola!

    Ok so I literally have no time... This missionary thing is pretty tough and there is never enough time to do anything else! haha but I did get my hair cut and talk to a cute lady from Vietnam (sp check) about being a missionary and got her card and gave her ours! (picture of Jesus with our number hehe) it was awesome.

    THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!!! Life is so good :) I really love being a missionary! I really don't know what to share but to just say that I love my Savior!!! I am so grateful for this experience!! All of the lessons this week we had were really powerful and focused on making sure that the children of God know that He loves them and that is why He gives them this wonderful gift of the gospel. I am so happy to be able to testify to people as a servant of Jesus Christ that God loves them and feel such a burning power in my heart. I encourage you family to do it! haha It sounds kind of weird and out of the ordinary but I promise, if you pray and you keep your eyes opened and care about the people around you God will give you a chance to tell the people around you that God loves them and mean it. 

  This week we were able to go to the temple TWICE!!! We went the first time for our normal temple trip, but the second time was to go with some recent converts to do baptisms for the first time!!!! IT WAS A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE!!! so wonderful :) I loved it!! It is so amazing to me, that we know and have the power and authority here on earth to act in God's name! That through the priesthood power that a worthy man of God holds, someone who has passed away without being able to have the chance to be baptized by someone who has that authority, can be baptized! Can be baptized and recieve it. Wow that is so incredible. That is so amazing to me!

    I have to run but I just really quickly want to share with you my testimony of the atonement. This morning Hermana Rowe and I were talking about the process of repentance and that even though we have done something that is not the will of God, He still helps us along the way. He still holds our hand and helps us repent and come unto Him. We were talking and one of my favorite stories, mom maybe you can find it :), I think it was told in conference, it is the story of the little school and the little boy who stole the lunch had to be punished and the bigger boy stood up and took the punishement for him. I just REALLY love that story. I cry everytime... because it is so amazing to me what our perfect older brother Jesus Christ did for us. He stood up and He took the pain and suffering because he LOVES us. Because he loves us. I love him so I am going to use what he gave me and not just except the answer of, oh I'm saved. That's not how it works. It just isnt. We are all resurrected because of that, but if we do not utilize the gift he gave us, we can't return to Him showing Him how thankful we REALLY are...

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

I know that Christ lives and that He is there. I know this is His church, directed by Him.

Hermana Koch

This is the story that Lizzie referenced in her email. It has always been a favorite of mine. If you would like to read the whole talk that I found it in you can go to this site: it is such a beautiful talk: The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope Pres. James E Faust (Gen Conf Oct 2001)

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/11/the-atonement-our-greatest-hope?lang=eng

Some years ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley told “something of a parable” about “a one room school house in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough no teacher had been able to handle them.

“Then one day an inexperienced young teacher applied. He was told that every teacher had received an awful beating, but the teacher accepted the risk. The first day of school the teacher asked the boys to establish their own rules and the penalty for breaking the rules. The class came up with 10 rules, which were written on the blackboard. Then the teacher asked, ‘What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’

“‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response.

“A day or so later, … the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen. ‘The thief was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old.’

“As Little Jim came up to take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on. ‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’

“The boy took off the coat. He had no shirt and revealed a bony little crippled body. As the teacher hesitated with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet and volunteered to take the boy’s licking.

“‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you all agreed?’ the teacher asked.

“After five strokes across Tom’s back, the rod broke. The class was sobbing. ‘Little Jim had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. “Tom, I’m sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!”’” ⁸