Gulfbank Sept. 2, 2013: First week of the new transfer!! Goodbye Hermana Parry!

"Good to see you, good to hold you"- (ps: i love you), 

saying bye to Hna Parry with black mascara under my eyes

Hola hola!

       Sooooo as you probably know.. Hermana Parry was taken from us this week :( heart broken. quite literally. you will see in the pictures later! but ya that was rather tragic. But then we keep going because we are missionaries and that's what we do and we love it and that's the life. We cried way too much haha but now I am happy because I know I got to live with someone I knew before this life. She will forever be a soul sister (insert over played train song) as cheesy as that sounds. I love her, she's awesome and has taught me so much! and then on top of that though, I am still with Hna B,  who is quite possibly one of my favorite people in the entire world :) I love her guts. We just laugh and love life together in all kinds of weather, stinky and clever and i definitely stepped in dog poop this week that was a great experience. ANYWAY onto the substance of this week!

       So this week was awesome! It was suuuuuuuper productive! We have worked worked worked all day and a lot of it was finding, which was awesome! We had a handful of experiences where we were prompted by the spirit to talk to someone or go knock a couple houses on a certain street and we found some new investigators! It was awesome :) The highlight of the week would be our lesson with Emilio :) pretty much changed my life. haha he's SO AWESOME! ahhhh I just LOOOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!! anyways... sorry for that random blurt out. anyways Emilio :)

       (Look mom I am doing paragraphs now so you don't have to apologize for the people that get overwhelmed ;) hehehe) Ok so!! If you recall I wrote in my last email the experience with Emilio! Well we went back this week to teach him :) we had left him with The Book of Mormon and 3 Ne 11 to read :) We came over and sat down and started talking and asking how he was doing and we started talking about the scriptures and he was amazed that Christ allowed the people to touch Him and just all this different stuff. Well what ended up happening was Emilio told us his life story in how he ended up finding God. It was so beautiful and I don't even know how to explain it, it was so incredibly spiritual. Wow. O my gosh, I could just feel how much God loves him and is preparing him. The spirit in the room was SO strong you could cut it with a knife. He told us about him going to prison when he was 16 (which is really sad because he is an amazing person. He got in a car accident and the other person died and because of something unlucky i don't really know, he got sent to prison) and he was having a really hard time obviously. Long story short, he has an amazing story about finally going to church at prison and about God answering his prayers through scriptures and how he completely changed his life and decided to follow Christ. He even had this moment where he thought to himself about whether or not he wanted to follow Christ, that he thought that that meant he would never be able to have fun ever again and then he said to himself, what is fun though? He went through this whole thing about what fun really was to him and how he had been messing around and doing things that were labeled as "fun" that were meaningless and all these things and I am doing a horrible job explaining it. Anyways, he explained this beautiful story about how he knew that God was knocking on his door but he was just pushing Him away and he finally let Him in and it was amazing. 

Hna B and I were crying by the end of it and then we just probably had the  most amazing purpose lesson I've ever had. We started talking to him and Hna B talked to him about preparation and that God has been preparing him and how he will love the Book of Mormon and that it will change his life. I wish i could repeat exactly what she said, it was really incredible we were crying, she has such a beautiful strong testimony. And then I looked at him and said to him that throughout your story you keep talking about how the Lord was knocking at your door, we are representatives of God's son, Jesus Christ and we are literally knocking on your door. AHHHH it was such a testimony builder to me as we talked to him that this was true. AY! i love this gospel :) 

Anyway he then told us about the first time we knocked on the door and met him and then he told us he was watching a game and then we left and how he sat down and was like wow.... I just sent representatives of Him away because I'm sitting here idolizing football players (MINDBLOWN). The rest is history :) we talked to him about his life more and we gave him "homework" and are meeting with him soon and I have never been so happy to know someone. He is the most prepared person I have ever met! He's incredible. 

Hna B and I just had a moment of squeals as we shut the doors of the car and drove away! AHHHH life is so good. I love being a missionary! I wouldn't rather be anywhere else. This is so humbling and so great to be apart of something so great. I am honored to serve Him.

       Short little spiritual thought is one of my favorite scriptures, it's 1 Ne 7:10-12, go read it! It honestly is just so beautiful. It's Nephi talking to Laman and Lemuel. It literally just cuts me to the core. The repeated line throughout this passage is "How is it that ye have forgotten"?. This question is so applicable, to many situations. As I read those words it reminds me when I am feeling sorry for myself, or feel like I don't know the answer to something that I have prayed about or feel like I am not worthy to serve Him, what He has done for me. I remember the amazing quiet and soft feeling I have felt when the spirit confirms to me that things are true, I remind myself of the sacrifice Christ made for me and that I can only be forgiven of my mistakes through my faith in Him and what He can do. I remind myself of the confirmation of my questions and doubts and then I get over myself and do better things :) Sorry that was just really short, but that just cuts me SO deeply. and then just ends simply, "wherefore, let us be faithful to him" BOOM. that's it, so beautiful! UGH! i love the scriptures :) HOW CAN WE FORGET. Don't ever forget, don't ever forget what He has suffered so that we can return and live in never ending happiness :) When I want to be selfish and rest, or not follow a prompting because I feel awkward or am too tired to read my scriptures I think of Christ, and then move forward and do what I know is right :) I also think about Mosiah 2: 41 - I want that outcome! I want to dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness!
Therefore I gotta do what I gotta do :) So just this week, DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO :) Everything is better that way haha, just be happy, it's your choice. Te amo bastante.

Love,

Your slightly oblivious, total goober

Hermana Koch

(Once again I am stealing this info: A little side note from Hermana B's blog. 

Another thing Lizzie forgot to mention....ahhhhhh, Darling girls I hope I get to meet someday)

"Sometimes when you are a missionary you decide to get Chic-Fil-A after District Meeting. Sometimes people decide to get in fights in that said 

Chic-Fil-A.  Sometimes one of these people has a gun.  Sometimes you aren't allowed to leave the Chic-Fil-A because you might get shot. 

So . . . that happened."  

 "Is that chocolate or poop?! is that chocolate or poop?!... its chocolate :) ..... WHAT IF THAT HAD BEEN POOP?!"- baby mama.... my encounter with dog poop :)