Hermana Lizzie Koch: Gulfbank 8/19/13: THE jalapeno week

Although she didn't say anything about it, they got to go to the Houston Temple

on the 14th which she was very excited about.

There is never enough time for them to write everything they do.

What beautiful bright missionaries. I am so grateful for such loving companions and trainers that Lizzie has been so fortunate to have. They have really been a blessing for her as she has started off her mission in the field. They are very special young ladies. I love them.

(I think I won't go through and add capitals or punctuation this time around. Sometimes I do a little editting but I love this too much and want it to be all Lizzie. Haha I did split up some paragraphs for those who feel overwhelmed at the length and lack of separation.)

(I also bolded a few really neat things she said at the end of the letter so I could find it easily again.)

Hola Hola

Well it is really hard to remember what to write in emails! haha everything blurs together!!! We had another lesson with Ana this week! We taught her and Eddenilson the restoration and we watched the restoration movie. It was so powerful she said she felt "bien y gozo aqui" while touching her hurt it was really sweet and we explained to her that that was the spirit. She and Eddenilson said they would pray to know if it was true :) it was awesome! I seriously LOVE THEM!!!! We stopped in the middle to ask if they have any questions and we talked about something and they weren't saying anything but we could tell that she had something, so I asked again and she wanted to know who Joseph Smith was! haha we are like well perfect because that's what we are about to tell you!! Heavenly Father is so awesome. I love Him. He totally prepares us!!

She has a member friend that she has been talking to!! didn't even know that! so that's amazing! haha She didn't show up for church :( but I think its because she has work at night sometimes so she has to sleep during the day!

ummm Omar is awesome! So is Alex! but Alex is now taking on his forth job because he has gotten into some trouble but that's another story, but he doesn't really have time to meet which is really sad. We love Omar and he keeps introducing us to new members of his band that we are totally going to teach!!

We had dinner with them at subway on Saturday and he is so cool, he was already planning on going to church and was going to make his friend come again, but he doesn't really know Spanish. He does, but he hates it and doesn't really know a ton, so he asked if there was an English one he could go to! ummm well duh there is... and thank goodness he loves the religion enough to go to another ward that's at 9! except.... he didn't end up going, and we texted him to see if he was coming to ours and he called us in the middle of sacrament meeting and felt SO BAD because he wanted to go so bad and he felt bad for disappointing us! so nice haha he had a show the night before though so apparently things must have gotten CRAZY!! Yould think that he wouldn't be able to talk from all that screaming.... scream-o however you spell that.... its probably really therapeutic.. hahaha such a lovely thing music and being able to express yourself is. That mixed with agency is preeeeetttty dangerous haha I love the people of Houston.

Yesterday we were teaching our menos activo best friend Pedro, who we love but hna Parry loves more than all of us combined... she loves so much its amazing. Anyways so we were reading the Book of Mormon with him and there really isn't anything to this story I don't know where I am going with this!! haha sorry bout that.... ummm oh! Everytime we go we sit outside his door and drink agua de cocoa..... coconut water. Its my favorite thing in the entire world. not just coconut water but agua de cocoa brand name, Goya best stuff ever. refrigerate and then enjoy I dare you. Youll be addicted. So Pedro is the best, he buys us fruit every week and we accidently bail on him sometimes because the lessons we are in have people that talk more than me which I thought was not possible. but ya so we are the worst but we are meeting with him today to get fruit :) he is the sweetest.

OH!!!! JALAPENO IN MY EYE!!!!!

ok well this is a slightly embarrassing story about how stupid I am. SOOOO hna Parry and I wanted to make this breakfast we had eaten at these investigators house that was amazing! Hna B doesn't like eggs so she was just getting ready. So I am making these yummy eggs full of deliciousness, and I am cutting some jalapenos which aren't even hot...but the seeds are little devils. Anyway, so I dump all the seeds in the sink, and as you all probably know... hopefully not from experience because I am about to tell you how I know from experience and I will probably be cringing while writing. anyways... ya so i start cutting them up and im like wow this is great, lizzie aint gonna get nothing in her eye!! and then with out thinking but kind of because i thought i hadn't touched anything with my right hand.... I lightly touched the tip of my tiny finger! to the lid of my eye!!!! and didn't think about it... but slowly... it started creeping..... my eye lid felt a little bit warm...... and then it felt a little tingly like you just saw someone you had a crush on... and then it felt like a little kiss from the sun and THEN IT FELT LIKE BURNING HOT WOODEN STEPS WALKING DOWN TO THREE ARCH WITH NO SHOES. AND THEN IT WAS SO AWFUL THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE!!!!!!!!!!

I went running into our closet where Hna B was gracefully doing something, because she is always doing something gracefully, and just talked to her like normal because i wasn't freaking out yet because it was just on top of my eye..... oh just wait. i say hna B i just touched my eye with jalapeno on my fingers and she informs me that that was dumb and refers back to the point that she did not have sympathy for her ex boyfriend for doing the same thing... so i just rub my eye out of a natural human instinct SECOND DUMB THING PERFORMED BY ME. ALL OF THE SUDDEN I CANT OPEN MY EYE!!!

I did not know what to do. it literally felt like someone had stuck a little fire work in my eye! ahhhhh i couldn't even open it!!! i just was like o my gosh i don't even know what to do with myself! i like had a panic attack!!! I RAN TO THE BATHROOM AND TRIED TO SPRAY WATER IN MY EYE WHILE SCREAMING HNA B! HNA B! HELP ME!!!!! she comes in like all ehhhh what do i do! and im like help me!! so i try to hold my eye open(impossible) while she tries to splash the water into my eye completely failing. like failing harder than you think possible... as in the only thing that is hitting my eye is the faint wind from her fingers and the whimsical memory of the magical healing water that just barely slipped through her fingers EVERY TIME SHE ATTEMPTED.

So quickly i gave up on her and asked her to hold MY EYE open as i tried to spray! it worked better when i did it but it was definitely an odd sensation having someone else hold my eye open. Shes going to be such a great mom. and i am still freaking out saying, " I THINK THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE!" Shes like no i think its just really hot.. which she was right about as always. and then i just pretty much gave up, the burn went down just barely and i was pretty sure i was going blind. like i was legitamently like, im going blind! hna b can i go blind! she assured me i was fine and then forced me to allow her to put eye drops in my eye which was another funny story of me cringing and her trying to keep my eye open while dropping a foreign liquid into my eye...that actually helped.... and then i just sat in my pity party puddle on the couch and questioned the universe if this awful pain would go away. and slowly it did but i really do mean SLOWLY and then Hna Parry and i just made fun of my face and took pictures of my eyes hahhaa i had a hot pink circle around my right one :)

I will send a picture but it isn't very visible because my camera obviously thought it had to edit my unfortunateness.. anyways :) all is well! it was hilarious and the lesson we learned from this experience was that hna p is going to cut the peppers from now on :) and i will stay away as i was reminded for a few days after since every time i touched something it would feel like my fingers had little heating pads in them. probably similar to hna b's ouchy running glands that make it so she can only run for like 5 minutes(lucky). and that ends my unfortunate story that was way too long sorry ahha.

Ok so now we are going to calm it down a little with a slow jam. We felt prompted that we should go and see Armando, we pulled up and he was working out so we decided against it for various reasons but decided to tract the little area right past his house that had like two houses. So normally we cant because there are two huge german shepards who want to eat us but because the day was SO HOT they were panting in the shade. so we knocked both. The last house a mom named Audriana answered and we got to teach her a little bit and asked her a little bit about her life and if there was another day that we could come by and teach her and we set up a day and she was so nice! she asked us if we wanted water and we said yes please!! it was so so hot. and she came out and brought out four drinks.... three waters and one red bull and we were like oh that's ok thank you we will just have the waters!! we went back to the car and started driving and Hna B said, isn't it interesting that she brought us four drinks? maybe she saw someone we didn't. I know that Heavenly Father sends His angels to us, and that He loves us so much and that He protects us as well as supports us and gives us power through His angels.

The last thing I think I'll write about is a scripture I found this week that has become my motto. John 17:4. I read this scripture during personally study because dad told me to in one of my notes and it really really stuck out to me. Christ is praying to Heavenly Father and the whole thing is amazing so you should read it all, but this is what i really needed to here. it says,

" I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." it is so simple and short but i love it. It became my motto. I realized that if I can say that to God every night when I go to bed each night " I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do [TODAY]." Then I can have peace. Then I can know that Heavenly Father is proud of me and I can be proud of myself.

I just love this scripture because it says it all. I don't really know how to explain it. This week I just had many experiences that have shown to me how much God loves us, and how real His love is. I know He loves ME individually, just like he loves every one of His children. I know that He is there, waiting for us to reach out for Him, waiting for us to reach out and hold His son's hand. He gave us a savior, and how ungrateful would we be if we didn't trust Him and lean on Him. Yikes. I just can feel it!!! and I hope that everyone can too. His love is real. Its undeniable. It's incredible. I love it :) I love this gospel and I know its true. I know. and I love it.

If you haven't had a priesthood blessing I hope you ask for one because they are amazing. I had a pretty scarey night and we ended up getting blessings and in my blessing it said something that I just wanted to share really fast because it just really stuck out to me. He said that He is counting my tears. That was a moment for me that I will never forget. He is so aware of everyone of us. He is there and ready to comfort us and ready to put His arms around us so I plead with you, don't push Him away. Live your life worthy enough that you can feel that peace and that love in times of trouble. He loves us! Allow Him to show you! That was something I struggled with this week just feeling like I was being heard in my prayers and my prayers were answered. I love my savior and I love our Heavenly Father, we are all His children and I know that we have a home that our souls and spirits are home sick for, we just have to try to remember and come closer to Him everyday :) LES AMO!!!!!!!! <3 write me a letter or something so I know everyone is alive!

Love,

Hermana Koch

ps: at night the sky here is as purple as the fake sky behind the white house at the end of the movie First Daughter. no joke.

pss: i made up a joke :) its English!!! SO preferably the person doesn't know you are telling them

a joke (sorry it sent without me finishing :) gotta tell my joke!) and you say, hey what did noah do??? ( and they look at you like your dumb like hna b did to me) and they say, ummm built an arc. and you say NOE!!!! which is Spanish for Noah which is pronounced NO-AH which sounds like no way :) the end! this time i mean it when i say love you all!

What a silly girl. I don't really get the joke but she wanted to share it. Her new language.