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.