Hermana Lizzie Koch: Jan 6, 2014: Canyon Lake Area: 6 STEPS ON THE ROAD TO ETERNAL PROGRESSION

New companion, new area, new address. Happy New Years and new beginnings!

Meet Hermana Rowe!

Hi Hi Hi

Ok soooo everyone in their emails asked me all about my new area and my new companion so I will start with all that jazz!!! Just get ready though for a whole lot of happy obsession because I LOVE HERMANA ROWE!!! Seriously love her so much!! She is from West Jordan Utah and she is the best. She is 25 and was a kindergarten teacher (clearly perfect for me ;)) THIS IS HER LAST TRANSFER! So apparently in mission lingo I am "killing her" or I am her "murderer". I am still not used to that and I really don't like it so I don't think I will succumb to the peer pressure, but ya!!! sooooo I'm a little bit nervous for that because, 1. that means I am left to take over the area for only 6 weeks here and 2. I will have to part with her!!! and that will stink!!

But this week has been really amazing. I honestly hit my point of focus the second I got into the car with Hermana Rowe. It was so crazy... which lead to one of the most spiritual weeks of my life, which lead to me really actually feeling eternal progression happening! The area here is amazing. It is beautiful and the neighborhoods sometimes look like Utah so you kind of have to get used to it... I am definitely not in Gulfbank anymore... I have not seen one dog. Except at an investigators house haha and the houses here are really nice and really big and most of the people in the ward speak a little bit of English if not fluently so that's different as well! Everyone told me that my area is like DISNEYLAND!! haha and I kept saying.. ok but I lived by Disneyland so I really know what that is like so I highly doubt it.... but then I got here.... THAT WAS THE FIRST THING I SAID! haha this place is like Disneyland! ahha but it's really amazing to be here actually because Hermana Mcleary, Hermana before me was allergic to like gluten and chicken and turkey and all this different stuff so everyone was used to it! so I just had to make a little bit of a modification and they are all good with feeding me so it is such a blessing!!

I already love the people here they are really really amazing. We taught an investigator the other night and his friend ended up coming out at the end and we told him a brief summary of our message and gave him a Book of Mormon and he and Cesar ended up telling Hermana Rowe and I that we are fluent and that we could pass like we were from Monterey and that we talk as fast as them! So Hermana Rowe and I have been speaking it together and my Spanish has really increased!!! But she is fluent, I am not. I am definitely not ahaha the next day my Spanish was back to where it was... I just think we really had the spirit super strong so it was good at that point.. then again it's really the past tense that really messes me up and I didn't do any of that so that's probably why they thought that haha.

The Lord is blessing me left and right! I feel like Malachi 3:10. I'm getting blessings left and right, I don't have enough room to receive them! All I can do is cry which I do! Hermana Rowe and I just always have these deep conversations about doctrine and scriptures and investigators and mission life, we just keep talking about how we can feel the Lord guiding our discussions! We have spoken so much about self mastery since we have been together and that is a goal we both have. I am so grateful for her, I know that she has had a HUGE impact on my eternal progression. Every day we learn new things together, I can feel myself turning into the person the Lord wants me to be, I get antsy to leave the house! I love this work and I love being here. I have been setting goals and keeping them! All my New Years goals are still met haha (that's amazing... old Lizzie... no way this far into January ;)) ahhaha.

I don't have too much to report on investigators and such and about the days because it's been a lot of getting used to and kind of overwhelming but it is amazing... and I feel like I got here and hit the ground running!!! I love this work so much and I feel like I've hit a height here that when I don't feel I'm there I know where I need to be and I am going to push harder to be there. I feel like everytime we fall a little bit or go down on the escalator of progression it is a hundred times harder to get back to where we were because we know what it's like and how important it is. And so in order to stretch us and to help our progression it is harder to get there.

My testimony has grown so much since I've gotten here! So much talk of self mastery and progression everywhere we go! Every in-depth conversation we have always relates to someone we talk to! I love it! We had some really awesome experiences this week and I met some really amazing people! Hermano Guillan is one of them and he is from Peru! and I love him! So I need some pictures so I can show them to him!! The members here are so mission oriented! It's awesome :) I met a woman who I love who is pretty sure knows aunt Kristine from her mission! So that would be pretty incredible!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL, THERE IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT AND SO MUCH PROGRESSION AND SO MUCH GREATNESS! I love this church. I LOVE my God.

I know He is mindful of me and mindful of you.

Love,

Hermana Koch

I am in the Canyon Lakes Ward :) that is my area and my ward name!

Hello new friend!