Aug 25, 2014: Conroe: A WONDERFUL WEEK!

 In action shot for you mom... we made a pitbull friend!

HOLA HOLA!!!!

Sorry we don't have like anytime because we are going to the HUGE WOODLANDS MALL WITH THE BARRERAS!!! Sooo excited!! this week was wonderful!!!

We had zone conference all about teaching like the Master and then we went and did baptisms with TERE!! WHO I LOVE SO MUCH!! :) We taught so many wonderful people!!! (underneath is a teaching miracle I shared with the Mission President, poorly written because I have no time).

AND I WENT ON EXCHANGES WITH HERMANA KNAPPEN!!! And we made tortillas with one of our friends Vilma that we are teaching and I love her so much!!!!

Tuvimos la oportunidad a contactar una referencia y ensenarla! Se llama Marcie y tambien su hermana michelle estuvo alla. A penas sentamos y ella nos dijo, tengo el mismo libro y se fue a traer su libro de mormon! hablamos y ella nos dijo que ha visitado nuestra iglesia con una mujer se llama sara! Sara es la investigadora de los elderes y la suegra de marcie! Y Marcie ha visto como el libro de mormon ha combiado la vida de sara entonces ya tenia un  testimonio del libro. La leccion fue increible y usamos Master Teaching. No pudia creer las cosas que dijieron ellas y lo que sentimos. Yo se que si no hubimos ensenado con Master Teaching nunca habriamos sabido lo que ellas ya sabrian! Wow. aprendemos muchas cosas y tuvimos una experiencia con la primera vision inexplicable. Ellas estaban sin palabras y dijieron que si saben que Jose Smith fue un profeta y nos prometimos que iban a leer y orar. Les invitamos ser bautizadas y la hermana menor dijo que si inmediatamente y Marci tiene algunas dudas porque has visto personas hacer eso y dispues caer y hablamos con ella mas sobre eso. Pero el espiritu fue increible y estoy muy agradecida que el nos acompanaba. Yo se que Dios los ama. cada hijo que tiene.

Translation by Kevin Hawkins again. Thanks Kev.

(We had the opportunity to contact one of our referrals and teach her! Her name is Marcie and her sister Michelle was there also.  We had barely sat down when she told us, "I have the same book," and she went and grabbed her Book of Mormon! She told us that she had visited our church with a lady named Sara, who is one of the Elder's investigators and she is Marcie's mother-in-law. She told us that she had seen how the Book of Mormon had changed Sara's life so she already had somewhat of a testimony of it. The lesson went incredibly well and we used "Master Teaching." I could not believe the things that they said to us and what we felt there. I know that if we had not taught with "Master Teaching," we never would have figured out how much they already knew! Wow. We learned so many things and we had an experience with the First Vision which was inexplicable. They were speechless for a minute and then told us that they believe that JOseph Smith was a Prophet and thye promised us that they would read and pray.  WE invited them to be baptized and the younger sister said yes almost immediately. Marci has a few doubts because she has seen people do this and later fall but we spoke to her more about it. But the Spirit was incredible and I am so grateful that He accompanied us. I know that God loves each and every child that He has.)

This work is so real and so true! My heart aches so deeply for these people! This week 2 misisonaries came home to their home ward (Conroe) and spoke and I was able to talk to them and people keep talking about how I am going home soon and my heart feels like a part of me is dying but I just push forward and don't think about it but I did cry a bit! Haha Anyway though, the Elder who came home, his name is David and he seems like a super cool person! We talked to him a bit and he gave me some really good ideas and ways to be a better missionary so I'm excited!! I love you all so much this church is so true. It is more and more aparent to me everyday!!!

DON'T BE SELFISH! Share it. "Are you going to rob them of their salvation"- Hno Glock

LOVE YOU 

hermana Koch

Temple with Tere

 Tortillas with Vilma

 Exchanges with the wonderful Oakcrest hermanas and MY HERMANA KNAPPEN!!!!

From last week!

Fun found pictures

New Companions. Welcome Hermana Marlowe

Twinners X 10

Pictures found on the Texas Houston Mission Blog

Master Teaching and MLC training 

Zone Conference

Aug. 18, 2014: Conroe: A WEEK IN CONROE THE EXCHANGES START

Hola hola

This week was great!! I, like usual, these days have like no time but I love you all and I miss you!!! I hope everyone is well!! We had a great week. We don't have a lot of people progressing right now because we are still finding a lot and teaching a lot of people the restoration! It is so awesome!! We are meeting so many new people!!! Mauricio and Paula didn't come to church this week :( so we are going to push their baptism back a little bit but it's ok, everything happens for a reason. I love you all. I hope that everyone is well and happy!!! 

This is the second to last week of this transfer!!!!! THAT MEANS IN TWO WEEKS MY SECOND TO LAST TRANSFER STARTS!!!!! THAT IS INSANE!!! I can't believe... and thus I won't! hahaha 

We had our first exchanges this week and we had 2 of them!!! Hermana Coronado, hermana knappen's companion came with me first and then later in the week Hermana Miller! It was so fun and I am learning so much! I love getting to be with the hermanas and help them reach their goals! It's awesome hahah I'm pretty sure I am learning way more than they are from all of them! It's so fun :) I love it! This week coming up should be busy! Tonight I have an exchange with hermana Knappen and then we have zone conference this week yayyyy!!! :)

This week we ran into a sign that says, "The fastest way to talk to God is pray, but tresspassing on this property is faster".... it was pretty scarey hahaha oh well :) We have found a few new.. well a lot of new people to teach this week so next week we will see if they are going to want to listen more!! yayy :) 

This is the miracle I shared with the mission president: 

Tuvimos muchos milagros la semana pasada! Pero me gustaria compartir el de una mujer se llama maria! Ella era una referencia de otros misionaros! y la primera vez que tocamos en su puerta no contesto pero fuimos otra vez! y ella estuvo, nos dejo pasar y tuvimos una leccion muy especial, solo preguntabamos preguntas y ella compartio su testimonio con nosotras, compartimos un mensage sobre los mandamientos y ella hablaba de la culpa que siente porque sabe que esta pecando en algunas maneras, hablamos con ella sobre el libro de mormon y que es y fijamos una cita con ella para regresar, antes que salimos preguntamos si ella conoce alguien quien podria beneficiar de este mensage y nos dijo que queria que visitamos sus hermanos!!! Y tenemos una cita para ir con ella! Ya somos muy amigas. Entonces fuimos otra vez durante la semana y ella leyo el capitulo que le dimos a ella para leer sobre jesucristo visitando las americas y tambien leyo mucho mas adelante en 3 nefi!!!! estuvimos bien soprendidas! :D y intentamos a ensenarla como "master teaching" y la leccion sobre la restauracion fue algo muy diferente y maravillosa. Ella compartio su testimonio con nosotras sobre el amor que Dios tiene para nosotros entonces tiene sentido que las personas en las americas tienen registros tambien. Me gusto mucho la leccion con ella y siento muy bendecida. yo se que cuando contactamos las referencias que recicbimos imediatamente y cuando nos esforsamos ensenar como Jesucristo, las lecciones son lecciones cuando todos aprendan y entiendan lo que necesitan.

I am adding this to my email because it's my testimony of the week! We had a lot of people trying to convince us of different things this week and I am so glad I am where I am. 

Ok I'm so sorry I didn't reply to this last week (family study of Preach My Gospel) because I didn't have time :/ But I was really receiving the same revelation as Tommy and Amanda. I really hadn't even thought about how the root of all sadness in my opinion is the destorted and corrupt view people have of the nature of God. What we believe to be so simple and understandable, that God is our Father, that He has a body, and that Jesus Christ is our brother and He Himself has a seperate body from God is sooooooooo hard for people to believe. People are so set in their ways and their interpretation of the bible that they close their hearts and don't allow themselves to feel the spirit, touch their spirit, to tell them that they are children of God (Romans 8:16). I feel like such a crucial part of being able to understand if a portion of the love that God has for us is being able to understand that He sent His son to atone for our sins and provide us with a way to return to our eternal home in Heaven. 

I went on exchanges this week and I was with Hermana Miller who came out with me and we got into talking about going home soon and how we don't want to be one of those missionaries in hysterics. That we are going to be happy that we completed what the Lord asks and now we are going back to the greatest gift God has given us which is our families founded in the gospel. She said that someone once said to her that in this life sometimes we feel really sad and lonely and we don't know why. But it's because our spirits miss our heavenly home and we miss our Heavenly Family, when we were all together. That's why I'm here. To make sure that I can help as many of my brothers and sisters get back so that they don't have to feel home sick for those they love for eternity. 

Homesickness is a horrible feeling really ;) hahaha I LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

I know that the gospel was restored by our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith! and I know that that was necessary because there was an apostasy! But God loves us and ALWAYS calls prophets to direct us. Oh how grateful I am for Thomas S. Monson!

I LOVE YOU ALLL HAVE A WONDDERFUL WEEK!!! 

LOVE

HERMANA KOCH!

PS: I'M REALLY SORRY but this computer is not my friend today and won't send any of the pictures that I am trying to send... so I don't know which one you are getting... I'll try again next week. love you

This was sent from Hermano Barrera this week on Pday!

Aug 11, 2014: Conroe: IM RUNNING OUT OF TITLES.....

BUENO!

   How's it going family?! I hope wonderful! IF I HAVE IT RIGHT..... LOEY SHOULD BE GETTING MARRIED THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SOOOOO HAPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYY!!!!!!!! :) Give her all my loves and hugs PA-LEASE.

This week was really great. We are still going through a stage of finding! Of course we should always be finding! But we are still just weeding out and trying to find the prepared people! This week was wonderful though! It was hard and beautiful. Just the kinds of days where you get home and you are sweaty and your feet and legs kill and so does your throat because you've been talking so much and walking in the heat!! haha I really do love it. This is what missionary work is about, working hard through the slow times so that you can see the miracles God gives you if you push through with faith and diligence! It really works that way for everything in life. If He just answered our prayers without us really even asking with real intent, would we learn and grow? nooooo.... That is why we came here after all right? So if anyone is in a rough spot, just remind yourself, there are things we can't remember now that must have made it all worth it :) We are going to have a place waiting for us when we go Home :) 

(Enos 1:27) 

("And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I knwo that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, adn shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen")

Sorry that all just blubbed out hehehe ok. so. This week! We found some new people! And we, I am pretty sure found where Will now lives but we dont know! haha

SOOOO I will just say some highlights that happened!

Tuesday:

My first MLC! Missionary Leadership Council! And then after, we and the zone leaders for our zone, planned zone meeting! I was a little bit overwhelmed and did not feel qualified haha but that's ok! That's what makes us rely on the Lord! It was awesome though! Wow I was just mind blown by all the principles and doctrine we learn! And then, we take what they taught us and teach our zone at our zone meeting! SOOOO Friday was my first zone meeting! :) It was super awesome. I'll explain more later. When we got back (hna Carter and I) our companions who are both new missionaries had taught and contacted people! It was so awesome! Hermana Marlowe is just a stud!! She's so incredible! 

Jueves: A lesson with Paula and Mauricio! They accepted the baptismal date of the 30th of August! and now the elders are teaching them as well so we are going to help the Lord prepare them!!! :) They are sweet as usual! 

Viernes: We had a dinner lesson with them and the elders were invited as well. We ate papusas! They are an El Salvadorean (sp check) food! and sooo yummy! It sort of killed hermana Marlowe and I because there is a lot of melted cheese and grease involved and we are both lactose intolerant ahhah. 

Also lots of other stuff happened which was awesome like finding new interesting people! And testifying of Jesus! It's awesome!! One of the miracles I shared with the president but it's in Spanish.... not very well written Spanish because I'm kind of all over the place today but I have to go! "SO LITTLE TIME SO MUCH TO DO".

(m) Pues esta semana tuvimos muchos milagros, pero quiero compartir los del sabado. Entonces normalmente los sabados por algunas razones son muy dificil en nuestra area para encontrar personas en general. Usualmente nadie esta, pues intentamos muchas cosas trabajando todo el dia y no habiamos invitado casi nadie! Nadie estuvo. Entonces oramos y decidiamos a seguir nuestros planes que Dios nos dio, y fuimos a un vicindario para tocar puertas donde recibimos una referencia el dia anterior. Tocamos muchas puertas y todavia no pudiamos encontrar casi nadie y ya era como a las 7. Pues estuvimos en el fin de un calle y una mujer y su hijo caminaron en nuestro camino y empezamos hablar con ellas y tuvimos un milagro! Hicimos como empezar ensenar, ella nos dijo muchas cosas sobre de donde son y hablamos mucho de religion y quien es Dios y El Libro de Mormon! Caminamos con ellas hasta que llegamos afuera de su casa! Y nos invitaron a regresar en miercoles! Sentimos tan bonitas en nuestros corazones y que la razon porque estuvimos alla era por ellas :) Y decidimos salir como a las 8. todavia no habiamos invitado todas las personas quienes Dios escogio por nosotras en ese dia entonces oramos y fuimos a una area donde las dos de nosotras sentimos y pasamos tarjetas por las clases de ingles y tambien invitamos todos escuchar del evangelio de Jesucristo! Cuando salimos invitamos 28 en todo el dia. Sentimos tan agradecidas al Senor por guiarnos y protegernos. Tuvimos algunas lecciones tambien con algunas de las personas que invitamos! Estuvo un dia bien dificil que probo nuestra fe, pero Dios nos ayudo tener diligencia y en el fin Dios dio muchos milagros! Como el hermano de Jared! Los milagros llegan despues que mostramos nuestra fe! :) Amo mi Padre Celestial.

(Translation by Kevin Hawkins: Well this week we saw so many miracles but I want to share the ones from Saturday. Normally Saturdays are very difficult for finding people in our area. Usually, no one is home.  We tried several different things working hard all day long and we hadn't contacted hardly anyone!  No one was home.  So we prayed and decided to just keep following our plans that God had given us. We went to knock doors in a neighborhood where we had received a referral the day before.  We knocked a lot of doors and we still had not found hardly anyone and it was around 7pm. When we got to the end of the street, a woman and her son were walking towards us and we started talking to them and it was such a miracle! We started teaching her and she told us a lot about herself and where she was from and we talked about religion and who God is and the Book of Mormon.  We walked with them until we got to their house. Then they invited us to come back on Wednesday!  Our hearts were full and we knew that we had been directed to go there for this woman and her child.  So when we left their house it was like 8pm and we still hadn't invited all of the people that God had chosen for us to find on that day. So we prayed again and we both felt like we needed to go to a certain area and pass out flyers for English class and also invite everyone  to listen to the Gospel. By the time we had left, we had invited a total of 28 people that day! We were so grateful for the guidance of the Lord and for His protection.  WE had a few lesson with a few of the people that we invited as well.  It was such a hard day and it definitely tested our faith but God helped us to be diligent and blessed us with many miracles! Like the Brother of Jared said, the miracles come after we show our faith! I love my Heavenly Father. )

The main principle that we were taught this week in our meetings is called MASTER TEACHING. It is so beautiful and it is all about allowing the person being taught to teach themselves. That our job is to prepare, bring the spirit and ask inspired questions to allow them to testify to themselves of the things they know! :) It is so beautiful and very dificult and will take a lot of practicing and refining! I love it though! I feel like I really am trying my hardest to represent Jesus Christ!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WEEK!! :) 

LOVE,

hermana Koch

Ps: I totally met a missionary who served here like 2 years ago. His first area 4 years ago was Conroe, and he of course is really close with the Barreras and he came to visit! HE HAS BEEN TO ALL THE PLACES I HAVE BEEN LIKE PERU AND JERUSALEM!! Well then we keep talking and then guess what?!! HE WAS ROOMMATES WITH KEVI! hahah Except Kev was always with us instead of with them. haha But yeah so he grew up with my best friend and his brother and then a little later we figured out he knows all my besties from growing up like... MJ AND ERICA CRAZZZZZZZZZZZY his name is Sean McClellan. Super legit.

Aug 4, 2014: Conroe Area: WHAT A WEEK!! :) The Mission is THE BEST!

Training Hermana Marlowe from Idaho!

Hermana Koch and Hermana Carter= Sister Training Leaders.

 Hello cuteness! haha That's funny, it sounds like Katniss.

Hola HOla HOLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!! Did you miss me?!!! BECAUSE I MISSED YOU!!! :) 

    

    BEFORE I START RAMBLING........ MCKAYLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY!!! I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH.....

ANDREW. GESSEL. HAPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY BIRRRRRRRRTHDAY TOOOOOOOOOODAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. :) 29 years ago... I was not a live... but I'm sure it was a fabulous day when you were born haha.

THIS WEEK WAS CRAZYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! HERMANA BUNO LEFT AND IT WAS SOOOO SAD!!!!! I MISS HER SO MUCH!! But it's ok, because the Lord has her where He needs her and now dearest Conroe needs my little miss Hermana Marlowe! So all the happenings are a little bit crazy!!!!

SO MONDAY NIGHT, Hermana Buno was last minute packing, I was making a planner for my favorite Elder Abadillo and then I get a phone call and to sum it up it went like this, in the sincere and hilarious voice of Elder Hillebrant our AP, on behalf of the mission president we would like to extend the invitation to you to train. My response, AHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSS. And then later in the conversation we would also like to extend an invitation to you to be SISTER TRAINING LEADER! My response... even longer scream with a dramatic pause. hahha I am really happy it was kind of shocking haha but I get to be sister training leader with Hermana Carter as well and I just love her so much. It's going to be great. I've always decided that I was going to be so happy and excited if the Lord wanted me to be Sister Training Leader because that means I get to go on exchanges with the Hermanas in our zone and my calling as a leader is to uplift, encourage, inspire and bless! I love to do that! hahah and I get to learn so many new things of how to be a better missionary by getting to do exchanges with them...

NOT TO MENTION I GET TO GO ON EXCHANGES WITH HERMANA SARIAH KNAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY HEART LITERALLY LEAPED FOR JOY WHEN I FIGURED THAT OUT AND YOU BET SHE WAS THE PERSON I CALLED.

haha anyway so then on Tuesday hermana Buno left me :( guess where she went............... CANYON LAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REMEMBER HOW I GOT TO TRAIN HERMANA JENSEN AND THEN HER COMPANION AFTER ME WAS HERMANA BURNHAM AND THEN AFTER HERMANA BURNHAM MY OTHER COMPANION JUST WENT TO HER HAHAHA HERMANA BUNO! So it's just a fun time. Canyon Lakes just gets a bunch of us besties :)
So then from there I got to have hermana Carter with me because she as well is receiving a new hermana! :) Then all that stuff with the ER happened, it was pretty fun. They just hooked me up to the IV and stuff but the Barrera's are just angels and they showed up and then we were all laughing and just havin a hoot of a time haha we were definitely the party room. You know how I get at the doctors hahah but obviously it wasn't a coincidence that we were there because the nurse that was mine just so happened to be the son of a return missionary and we got to joke with him and talk about stuff and then the darling registration girl that came in to get my information ended up being SUUUUUUPER interested in the Book of Mormon!! and we got to teach her about it and then the next day bring her one!

THURSDAY I GOT HERMANA MARLOWE!!!!!!! SINCE THEN IT HAS JUST BEEN A JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Marlowe = a dream come true. You all know that I was really worried about hermana Buno leaving me but the Lord knows me and my struggles and so He gave me hermana Marlowe, who is just like her, also different so it's all good. She is so darling. FROM BOISE IDAHO! 19! Went a YEAR AT BYU-I. Literally the most humble and kind person I have ever met. Same taste in everything as me. Her spanish ROCKS THIS WORLD. She's incredible, everyone has been so shocked by her in our ward they can't believe she only has 6 weeks speaking... and of course she thinks she is horrible at it. President Mortensen gave us an amazing trainers training and said some really sweet things about how the trainers are so important that the Lord has now had them pick the trainers even before the leadership positions. I feel really incredibly blessed. I am honored that the Lord trusted me to be the companion of someone so pure and genuine. Love it! She is the oldest so she is a Kati, and totally has some of her atributes! Such a go getter and diligent. I love it, it brings lots of peace to have a Kati with me hehehe. She knew she was going to go on a mission her whole life. UMMMM que mas?? no se! ella es increible!!!

Ok this is the miracle I sent this week to my mission president!!! Sorry it is in spanish but I really don't want to translate it so you can just try to use google translate or something... but my spanish isn't perfect hahah so I don't even know if it will work!!

(m) MILAGROS! siempre hay muchos y soy muy mala para escoger pero, creo que me gustaria compartir el poder que hay cuando Dios manda una nueva misionera a una nueva area! Estamos ensenando un hombre se llama Francisco y hace poco nos dimos cuenta de que el es el primo de jose! el converso recente del senor! Entonces estabamos ensenandolo y decidiamos que realmente el no estaba listo porque entendia todo lo que estabamos ensenando pero no tenia ganas ni deseo para actuar. Entonces no lo habiamos visitado en algunas semanas, pero hermana Marlowe me ayudo planear una leccion tan bonita para jose, y fuimos a la casa de el y alla afuera estuvo Francisco! Y Les ensenamos a los dos de ellos! El espiritu era increible y yo sabia que la leccion que hubo preparado la hermana Marlowe, combinado con lo que ella trae, su espiritu puro y humilde, el cambio su corazon, y pudiamos ver en sus ojos el deseo de leer el libro de mormon y traer un espiritu bueno en su vida aun cuando no estemos alla. Ay que maravillosa era la leccion. yo se que Dios nos guia, y que el tiene su tiempo. Se que hay un tiempo por un misionero y por un investigador. Dios sabe lo que esta haciendo entonces hay que confiar en el. Este es el testimonio que yo tengo en el nombre de Jesucristo.

This week has really been awesome. Full of miracles and all that jazz! Not really any news sorry :/ We got ELDER WILDMAN!!!! He is the new elder in our ward because elder Hamelau finished his mission! soooo ya! Elder Wildman went to the MTC with SAVY!!!!! He is super awesome... he and one of the other elders who was in the MTC with her, elder Dias are the Zone Leaders so I get to plan zone meeting with them! Exciting. We really have just been doing a lot of contacting and finding this week!!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL THE CHURCH IS TRUE! PRAY FOR THE CONROE HERMANAS! But most importantly pray that we will find the prepared people in little Conroe! It's wonderful here. I can't wait until you can see it :)

LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!!!!! Stay strong. Don't miss a day reading the Book of Mormon, we break our covenants if we do!

CON TODO EL AMOR QUE HAY EN MI CORAZON!

HERMANITA KOCH

 Hospital lovin with Hermana Carter, new Sister Training Leaders together.
Yeah this is what they gave me to cure me.... nasea pills so I can eat.
(She also was given fluids through IV for dehydration)

Hermanita Zabriski!!!

My favorite Hawaiin! Elder Hamelau!

 Hermana Buno :(

 My ALL-Y-pop!

 Goodbye for 4 months!

The Barerra Family!

Hna Marlowe, newest member of the clan! :)