Hola :) Como estan?
This week HENSEL CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! Also I'm pretty positive that's not how you spell his name. oh well haha anyway he came to church!!! Which made us so so happy and he is going to start coming back, coming back and he said he started thinking about a mission and I just about had a heart attack as I jumped up and down encouraging him ahha let's just say he knows where I stand on missions haha. It was awesome and he came without anyone in his family, he just went. and then later his younger siblings showed up, he is going to be such a great example. I love it.
Um we also had an awesome lesson with Carmen! She said that if the Lord answered her prayers and told her what to do she would obviously follow it. So that's great news so she is praying about if this is the only true church, which it is, so she will get an answer I am positive :)
Also our chirstmas party was this week!!! the ward one!! it was so so fun :) we all did acts.
It was a talent show! and we did one haha and I taped it so you can see it when you get my SD card sometime. haha but what we did was, we had a table that had table cloth on it and then we had big sweaters and Elder Blad, Elder Quezada and I were Alvin, Simon, and Theodor ( yes kati will die that we were the chipmunks haha) and the music came on we danced, but we were on the table with the big sweaters and we had our hands in the shoes on the table and then our companions behind us in the sleeves of our shirts.... I'm not explaining very well anyway.... we danced to the song and then Elder Blad yelled the equivalent to "bring us some figgy pudding" in spanish and they brought out gerbers baby food and started feeding us and it was distgusting and all over me! So that was exciting ahha and then I went running at all the little primary kids with it on my face and they all freaked out ahaha it was pretty funny. anyway ya! and Maria participated in the singles performance and it was super fun and she was so cute with them and they are all friends so it just makes me happy! and we made the ginger bread cookies for the thing! it was awesome :)
SOOOOO BAPTISM!!! Wow it was so so amazing. Maria was a little nervous before but this day she was just beaming :) She was just smiling and looked sooo peaceful and happy. This was her day and no one was going to take it from her. Her cousin came! Which was really good for her to have some support. Also President Huntsman (he's in our mission presidency) came as well :) He was the one that gave Maria her baptismal interview and he came with his wife and two youngest kids to support her! It was so so awesome :) He works all over the world so it was just a blessing that he could make it. The baptism was so beautiful and so spiritual! Elder Quezada baptized her and Hermana Knappen and I also got to share our testimonies and sing a special musical number for her "Divina Luz" and I just cried through sharing my testimony ahha I just love her so much and I am so so happy for her. Before the end President Huntsman got to go up and welcome her along with the other leaders in the ward, and it was such a wonderful spiritual experience. He spoke in spanish which was super cool, he served his mission in Spain. He was soo kind and just admired her and told her what amazing step she took and how he is so honored to know her and how she is so special and he was so impressed with her when they had their interview, how he is so honored to be in the same church as a TRUE LATTER-DAY SAINT. He told her that we will forever be her missionaries, her hermanas and that we will be her family forever and will always share this experience and that someday we will be happy in heaven together and other stuff like that and I just cried and felt bad that I was crying so much haha Maria was like "lizzie..." and wiped my tears and I felt bad haha I was like ehhh sorrrrry. She's always like, "you guys have turned me into this, I am so weepy! I didn't used to be like this!" haha. President Huntsman testified with such power to her and then he made her such a beautiful promise, he promised her that if she stayed faithful and stuck to what she has learned and relied on her Savior and was an example to her family, that they would change their hearts and some of the members of her family would be baptized. JAW DROPPED. I just cried because I lOVE her family. We are so close to them but they don't agree and support. The spirit was so strong and it was just an amazing experience. When it was over we all talked and Maria was so so happy :) Sister Huntsman was so kind and told me that she has such a sweet spirit and you can tell she is meant to do a lot of work. It is so true Maria is just one of the most amazing people I know. It was fun to talk to her because she is the daughter of Elder Ballard and is just like so sweet it was awesome. Maria was just so happy and she is so incredible! The next day, yesterday she received the Holy Ghost in sacrament and it said some beautiful things that she really needed to hear and she is the newest member of our ward! She is so awesome and totally on fire. She is so cool. We hopefully christmas week are going to go do baptisms with her at the temple! that will be so happy :) I am so proud of her and the person that she is. I am so grateful to know her and be a part of her life.
I know that what changes everything is the Book of Mormon, I was talking to Hermana Villanueva who is about to leave to go home!! We were on transfers and I asked her what her favorite experience has been, or what she has loved the most? I don't know some question haha anyway, her response was to see the change in people. I talked to her a little bit more and I thought about it and told her that what I have learned and loved so far the most is the change that the Book of Mormon makes in peoples lives. That it all weighs on the Book of Mormon and nothing gets someone to change and feel the love of God more than that beautiful gift He gave us. I know it is the word of God and that no one can get closer to Him than through reading the Book of Mormon. It is so real. It is so real and it changes hearts. It all lies on the Book of Mormon and if you don't really believe it you are missing a chunk of the love of God, the truth of God! I just love the Book of Mormon so much and it has been such a blessing to be here and gain my own testimony of it. I love this church and I lOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! I feel so at home when I feel lonely and I read it. I feel at home. I love you all!!! talk to ya next week!
Love,
Hermana Koch
HAHAHA I can't wait to see that video. Liz is the cutest. I miss her so much. But I'm glad she's having a blast.
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