Hermana Lizzie Koch: Nov. 3: 2014: Woodlands Area: Another glorious week in the woods!

Jocelyn entered the temple! :)

The peace sign is to represent the peace in the temple... yes I know it's cheesy haha

Hey Family :)

Ok so I am truly sorry for all the the hectic no emailingness but fortunately that is over. Ok so a little bit of info... Hermana Hill is from all over. haha She has lived in lots of places. She is darling and I just adore her and love being with her. She is such a crack up and just gets me and so she master teaches me and all of my problems that go on in my little freaking out head of mine.

This week was awesome! The area I am in is Woodlands north. We just switched around and made new areas in the ward so all of us companionships (the south hermanas, hna Carbajal and Medeiros and elders Christensen and Perez) are white washing new areas basically. haha I have never white washed before and I have to say it is a fun adventure, en serio. I love it :) So this week we don't have a ton to report because we are just trying to find people to visit! But I do have a few miracles I can share :)

#1 We had MLC on Tuesday and afterwards president Mortensen expressed a little bit of concern about the movement of the Spanish program in the mission. Afterwards hermana Hill and I were really contemplating and thinking on that and we were really confused as well. We thought a lot about how all of our missionaries are obedient amazing missionaries! How everyone is so loving and dedicated but not everything was adding up. We have lots and lots of people investigating the church and enjoying of the blessings but we have found that the large majority of them are not enjoying of the greatest and most relieving gifts of all, which is that of baptisms, being cleansed of our sins and really being able to repent. So hermana Hill and I were just really bothered by this and it had been on our minds for a while and we were just talking and praying about it and then I was texting sister Mortensen about something silly but as we were saying bye to her she told us to have a great day in the work of the Lord and I don't know what came over me but I was like before we text her back we have to make a goal!!! And hna Hill kept just loving me and telling me how amazing this last 4 weeks is going to be haha so we just said out of nowhere.... LETS INVITE AT LEAST ONE PERSON TO BE BAPTIZED EVERYDAY! and so we told sister Mortensen our goal and moved on with our day.... Anyway long story short we had all member lessons planned that day but our goal was in our mind and sister Mortensen said to trust that the Lord will put them in our path and that is what we did! We saw a huge miracle!! One of our less active wonderful members had a friend over named Mireya and she never had been interested before but we asked her if she would like to listen and she did! WE TAUGHT HER THE RESTORATION AND SHE SAID THAT SHE WANTED TO KNOW FOR HERSELF AND WE INVITED HER TO BE BAPTIZED AND SHE SAID YES!!!!!!! IT WAS AWESOMMMMMME!!!! Then the president called us and we were like ooo we are in trouble haha just kidding but anyway we called him back and then the first thing we told him was everything we just told you and he was so excited and I asked why he called and he said because sister Mortensen told him about what we said and he said that he called all the ZLs and STLs and challenged them to do it too! He said that we recieved revelation and that it is going to change the Texas Houston Mission and he said lots of other good stuff and we were so happy when we hung up the phone we just were baffled and were like.. I think that just made my whole mission.... and we have both been out for a long time haha. He told us something really special, he said that we will effect more lives that we can comprehend and will ever know. I just wanted to cry. And then I felt silly for thinking that goal/thought came out of no where :) The Lord works in mysterious ways :)

#2 We made a phone call to a number in our area book trying to contact old friends who had been recieving the lessons from the missionaries and we called this number and it just happened to be a young man who lives in Orange County!!! and he is having a hard time because his dad has cancer and he said that he really wants to talk to the missionaries especially because all of his family has been baptized and he hasn't and wants to be... it was super cool :)

#3 We got to go to the temple with Jocelyn, a future missionary in our ward! She is going to California!! I am so excited :) It was beautiful! and the whole thing was in Spanish and I understood it all and realized that I can receive so much more revelation in both languages. hahah

This is to the president, the m is miracle and the p is personal

(m) We had lots of miracles this week! You already know some of them :) pero algo que me toco muy fuerte was when Hermana Carbajal came to do exchanges with me. Tuvimos una leccion muy especial con una de las hermanas en el barrio quien esta pasando por un tiempo un poco dificil con su hija mayor. Y realmente fue un milagro que la hermana carbajal estaba alli. Porque ella paso por las mismas cosas de la hija de esta mujer y cuando ella compartio su testimonio a este hermana desanimada, econtro una esperanza nueva. Me toco fuerte porque me di cuenta de que Dios existe y esta muy consiente de las necesidades de sus hijas quien son madres. Que El no queria dejarle a esta hermana en un estado de tristeza. Yo se que Dios esta en cada parte de La Obra, es Suya y yo se que hay MUCHAS razones que tenemos los intercambios pero mas que todo yo pienso que aunque sentimos que son para los misioneros, yo creo que son para las personas, Dios nos ponga cada uno de nosotros en el camino de algien quien esta sufriendo.

(p) I don't partically want to talk about me... I feel weird and stuff and really heart broken but it's been great because it has added a new fire and desire to my work. I know miracles are real and I know that the Lord knows that I am trying my best and so He is going to do the rest. President Vasquez came and met with the missionaries in our ward and our WML and he repeated like seven times "You will have a beautiful life" and it was really powerful, it made us all want to work even harder which even though sometimes it doesn't feel like you can give more, you always can. I know the Lord is going to bless me in my endeavors but I know most importantly that if I behave myself ;) he can bless everyone around me. I want to bless the life of everyone put in my path, so therefore my missionary work won't end in a month, it'll go on for the eternities. I will always be a representative of Jesus Christ.

Anyway there are lots of things to say and not enough time but just know that the Lord loves you. He protects us and cares about us. Read your patriarchal blessing :) Love it and appreciate it because we are made up of what He is made up of. We are all special! I love you all a million times a million times infinity! The work is real and you have the choice to participate or not, but life is much happier when you decide to :) I know that Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that and I will never deny it. I will never be able to deny that God does answer our prayers. Every single one of us no matter how insignificant we feel. He exists. Don't ever let the intelligence of man block your vision of the glory of God. He created us and knows every one of us more perfectly than we can imagine :)

Sincerely,

hermana Koch