Pictures found on the Texas Houston Mission Blog

Master Teaching and MLC training 

Zone Conference

Aug. 18, 2014: Conroe: A WEEK IN CONROE THE EXCHANGES START

Hola hola

This week was great!! I, like usual, these days have like no time but I love you all and I miss you!!! I hope everyone is well!! We had a great week. We don't have a lot of people progressing right now because we are still finding a lot and teaching a lot of people the restoration! It is so awesome!! We are meeting so many new people!!! Mauricio and Paula didn't come to church this week :( so we are going to push their baptism back a little bit but it's ok, everything happens for a reason. I love you all. I hope that everyone is well and happy!!! 

This is the second to last week of this transfer!!!!! THAT MEANS IN TWO WEEKS MY SECOND TO LAST TRANSFER STARTS!!!!! THAT IS INSANE!!! I can't believe... and thus I won't! hahaha 

We had our first exchanges this week and we had 2 of them!!! Hermana Coronado, hermana knappen's companion came with me first and then later in the week Hermana Miller! It was so fun and I am learning so much! I love getting to be with the hermanas and help them reach their goals! It's awesome hahah I'm pretty sure I am learning way more than they are from all of them! It's so fun :) I love it! This week coming up should be busy! Tonight I have an exchange with hermana Knappen and then we have zone conference this week yayyyy!!! :)

This week we ran into a sign that says, "The fastest way to talk to God is pray, but tresspassing on this property is faster".... it was pretty scarey hahaha oh well :) We have found a few new.. well a lot of new people to teach this week so next week we will see if they are going to want to listen more!! yayy :) 

This is the miracle I shared with the mission president: 

Tuvimos muchos milagros la semana pasada! Pero me gustaria compartir el de una mujer se llama maria! Ella era una referencia de otros misionaros! y la primera vez que tocamos en su puerta no contesto pero fuimos otra vez! y ella estuvo, nos dejo pasar y tuvimos una leccion muy especial, solo preguntabamos preguntas y ella compartio su testimonio con nosotras, compartimos un mensage sobre los mandamientos y ella hablaba de la culpa que siente porque sabe que esta pecando en algunas maneras, hablamos con ella sobre el libro de mormon y que es y fijamos una cita con ella para regresar, antes que salimos preguntamos si ella conoce alguien quien podria beneficiar de este mensage y nos dijo que queria que visitamos sus hermanos!!! Y tenemos una cita para ir con ella! Ya somos muy amigas. Entonces fuimos otra vez durante la semana y ella leyo el capitulo que le dimos a ella para leer sobre jesucristo visitando las americas y tambien leyo mucho mas adelante en 3 nefi!!!! estuvimos bien soprendidas! :D y intentamos a ensenarla como "master teaching" y la leccion sobre la restauracion fue algo muy diferente y maravillosa. Ella compartio su testimonio con nosotras sobre el amor que Dios tiene para nosotros entonces tiene sentido que las personas en las americas tienen registros tambien. Me gusto mucho la leccion con ella y siento muy bendecida. yo se que cuando contactamos las referencias que recicbimos imediatamente y cuando nos esforsamos ensenar como Jesucristo, las lecciones son lecciones cuando todos aprendan y entiendan lo que necesitan.

I am adding this to my email because it's my testimony of the week! We had a lot of people trying to convince us of different things this week and I am so glad I am where I am. 

Ok I'm so sorry I didn't reply to this last week (family study of Preach My Gospel) because I didn't have time :/ But I was really receiving the same revelation as Tommy and Amanda. I really hadn't even thought about how the root of all sadness in my opinion is the destorted and corrupt view people have of the nature of God. What we believe to be so simple and understandable, that God is our Father, that He has a body, and that Jesus Christ is our brother and He Himself has a seperate body from God is sooooooooo hard for people to believe. People are so set in their ways and their interpretation of the bible that they close their hearts and don't allow themselves to feel the spirit, touch their spirit, to tell them that they are children of God (Romans 8:16). I feel like such a crucial part of being able to understand if a portion of the love that God has for us is being able to understand that He sent His son to atone for our sins and provide us with a way to return to our eternal home in Heaven. 

I went on exchanges this week and I was with Hermana Miller who came out with me and we got into talking about going home soon and how we don't want to be one of those missionaries in hysterics. That we are going to be happy that we completed what the Lord asks and now we are going back to the greatest gift God has given us which is our families founded in the gospel. She said that someone once said to her that in this life sometimes we feel really sad and lonely and we don't know why. But it's because our spirits miss our heavenly home and we miss our Heavenly Family, when we were all together. That's why I'm here. To make sure that I can help as many of my brothers and sisters get back so that they don't have to feel home sick for those they love for eternity. 

Homesickness is a horrible feeling really ;) hahaha I LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

I know that the gospel was restored by our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith! and I know that that was necessary because there was an apostasy! But God loves us and ALWAYS calls prophets to direct us. Oh how grateful I am for Thomas S. Monson!

I LOVE YOU ALLL HAVE A WONDDERFUL WEEK!!! 

LOVE

HERMANA KOCH!

PS: I'M REALLY SORRY but this computer is not my friend today and won't send any of the pictures that I am trying to send... so I don't know which one you are getting... I'll try again next week. love you

This was sent from Hermano Barrera this week on Pday!

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.

Aug 4, 2014: Conroe Area: WHAT A WEEK!! :) The Mission is THE BEST!

Training Hermana Marlowe from Idaho!

Hermana Koch and Hermana Carter= Sister Training Leaders.

 Hello cuteness! haha That's funny, it sounds like Katniss.

Hola HOla HOLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!! Did you miss me?!!! BECAUSE I MISSED YOU!!! :) 

    

    BEFORE I START RAMBLING........ MCKAYLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY!!! I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH.....

ANDREW. GESSEL. HAPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY BIRRRRRRRRTHDAY TOOOOOOOOOODAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. :) 29 years ago... I was not a live... but I'm sure it was a fabulous day when you were born haha.

THIS WEEK WAS CRAZYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! HERMANA BUNO LEFT AND IT WAS SOOOO SAD!!!!! I MISS HER SO MUCH!! But it's ok, because the Lord has her where He needs her and now dearest Conroe needs my little miss Hermana Marlowe! So all the happenings are a little bit crazy!!!!

SO MONDAY NIGHT, Hermana Buno was last minute packing, I was making a planner for my favorite Elder Abadillo and then I get a phone call and to sum it up it went like this, in the sincere and hilarious voice of Elder Hillebrant our AP, on behalf of the mission president we would like to extend the invitation to you to train. My response, AHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSS. And then later in the conversation we would also like to extend an invitation to you to be SISTER TRAINING LEADER! My response... even longer scream with a dramatic pause. hahha I am really happy it was kind of shocking haha but I get to be sister training leader with Hermana Carter as well and I just love her so much. It's going to be great. I've always decided that I was going to be so happy and excited if the Lord wanted me to be Sister Training Leader because that means I get to go on exchanges with the Hermanas in our zone and my calling as a leader is to uplift, encourage, inspire and bless! I love to do that! hahah and I get to learn so many new things of how to be a better missionary by getting to do exchanges with them...

NOT TO MENTION I GET TO GO ON EXCHANGES WITH HERMANA SARIAH KNAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY HEART LITERALLY LEAPED FOR JOY WHEN I FIGURED THAT OUT AND YOU BET SHE WAS THE PERSON I CALLED.

haha anyway so then on Tuesday hermana Buno left me :( guess where she went............... CANYON LAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REMEMBER HOW I GOT TO TRAIN HERMANA JENSEN AND THEN HER COMPANION AFTER ME WAS HERMANA BURNHAM AND THEN AFTER HERMANA BURNHAM MY OTHER COMPANION JUST WENT TO HER HAHAHA HERMANA BUNO! So it's just a fun time. Canyon Lakes just gets a bunch of us besties :)
So then from there I got to have hermana Carter with me because she as well is receiving a new hermana! :) Then all that stuff with the ER happened, it was pretty fun. They just hooked me up to the IV and stuff but the Barrera's are just angels and they showed up and then we were all laughing and just havin a hoot of a time haha we were definitely the party room. You know how I get at the doctors hahah but obviously it wasn't a coincidence that we were there because the nurse that was mine just so happened to be the son of a return missionary and we got to joke with him and talk about stuff and then the darling registration girl that came in to get my information ended up being SUUUUUUPER interested in the Book of Mormon!! and we got to teach her about it and then the next day bring her one!

THURSDAY I GOT HERMANA MARLOWE!!!!!!! SINCE THEN IT HAS JUST BEEN A JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Marlowe = a dream come true. You all know that I was really worried about hermana Buno leaving me but the Lord knows me and my struggles and so He gave me hermana Marlowe, who is just like her, also different so it's all good. She is so darling. FROM BOISE IDAHO! 19! Went a YEAR AT BYU-I. Literally the most humble and kind person I have ever met. Same taste in everything as me. Her spanish ROCKS THIS WORLD. She's incredible, everyone has been so shocked by her in our ward they can't believe she only has 6 weeks speaking... and of course she thinks she is horrible at it. President Mortensen gave us an amazing trainers training and said some really sweet things about how the trainers are so important that the Lord has now had them pick the trainers even before the leadership positions. I feel really incredibly blessed. I am honored that the Lord trusted me to be the companion of someone so pure and genuine. Love it! She is the oldest so she is a Kati, and totally has some of her atributes! Such a go getter and diligent. I love it, it brings lots of peace to have a Kati with me hehehe. She knew she was going to go on a mission her whole life. UMMMM que mas?? no se! ella es increible!!!

Ok this is the miracle I sent this week to my mission president!!! Sorry it is in spanish but I really don't want to translate it so you can just try to use google translate or something... but my spanish isn't perfect hahah so I don't even know if it will work!!

(m) MILAGROS! siempre hay muchos y soy muy mala para escoger pero, creo que me gustaria compartir el poder que hay cuando Dios manda una nueva misionera a una nueva area! Estamos ensenando un hombre se llama Francisco y hace poco nos dimos cuenta de que el es el primo de jose! el converso recente del senor! Entonces estabamos ensenandolo y decidiamos que realmente el no estaba listo porque entendia todo lo que estabamos ensenando pero no tenia ganas ni deseo para actuar. Entonces no lo habiamos visitado en algunas semanas, pero hermana Marlowe me ayudo planear una leccion tan bonita para jose, y fuimos a la casa de el y alla afuera estuvo Francisco! Y Les ensenamos a los dos de ellos! El espiritu era increible y yo sabia que la leccion que hubo preparado la hermana Marlowe, combinado con lo que ella trae, su espiritu puro y humilde, el cambio su corazon, y pudiamos ver en sus ojos el deseo de leer el libro de mormon y traer un espiritu bueno en su vida aun cuando no estemos alla. Ay que maravillosa era la leccion. yo se que Dios nos guia, y que el tiene su tiempo. Se que hay un tiempo por un misionero y por un investigador. Dios sabe lo que esta haciendo entonces hay que confiar en el. Este es el testimonio que yo tengo en el nombre de Jesucristo.

This week has really been awesome. Full of miracles and all that jazz! Not really any news sorry :/ We got ELDER WILDMAN!!!! He is the new elder in our ward because elder Hamelau finished his mission! soooo ya! Elder Wildman went to the MTC with SAVY!!!!! He is super awesome... he and one of the other elders who was in the MTC with her, elder Dias are the Zone Leaders so I get to plan zone meeting with them! Exciting. We really have just been doing a lot of contacting and finding this week!!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL THE CHURCH IS TRUE! PRAY FOR THE CONROE HERMANAS! But most importantly pray that we will find the prepared people in little Conroe! It's wonderful here. I can't wait until you can see it :)

LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!!!!! Stay strong. Don't miss a day reading the Book of Mormon, we break our covenants if we do!

CON TODO EL AMOR QUE HAY EN MI CORAZON!

HERMANITA KOCH

 Hospital lovin with Hermana Carter, new Sister Training Leaders together.
Yeah this is what they gave me to cure me.... nasea pills so I can eat.
(She also was given fluids through IV for dehydration)

Hermanita Zabriski!!!

My favorite Hawaiin! Elder Hamelau!

 Hermana Buno :(

 My ALL-Y-pop!

 Goodbye for 4 months!

The Barerra Family!

Hna Marlowe, newest member of the clan! :)

July 28, 2014: Conroe area: Ella se va. Me quedo con bendito Conroe

Jose Alfredo!

JOSE GOT BAPTIZED

Hna Buno and I are so unified we even accidently matched when we were away 

from each other on exchanges.

Hola Hola Hows it going everybody!!! 

Ok I have to say.... I LOVED ALLLL THE PICTURES FROM THE LAKE HOUSE!!!!!!! but.......... I knew what was coming when I heard that the boys were dancing and I clicked on that picture so hopeful... and there he was in the back! SIR THOMAS SMITH WHIPPIN OUT MY FAVORITE DANCE MOVE OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even tell you how much I miss that!!!! hehehe I busted up in laughter just so happy to see Tommy's classic move. love it. I love him. 

JOSE GOT BAPTIZED WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHAT WHAT. So happy such an incredible MIRACLE!!! It was so like last minute and it worked out just beautifully. Our ward is so wonderful and supportive :) Sorry this week I don't have hard core details about every day! I don't have a ton of time! But this week was mainly weeding and such :) We went to the temple and had specialized training that was awesome! We also had exchanges! :)

So this week we did a lot of finding! A little less teaching because we were contacting a lot and trying to find the prepared!! :) Exchanges were fun, I love hermana Carter :) She is darling! She goes home next transfer and goes to BYU so she will start school again the semester before me :) We found some new people! One woman named Vilma let us in and she is darling! We asked her if she knew of anyone who would like to hear a message and she said her neighbor downstairs! SOOO we went to her and she said to come back the next day! We had a beautiful lesson with her about the restoration and she shared a lot with us about her hard life! She really wants to know if this is true! If we have a living prophet! :) She is so sweet and her name is Laydi and she is from El Salvador!!! I don't know what it is but everyone we find and I am drawn to are from El Salvador! I love that country! Well the people from there. 

The temple was beautiful as usual and I want to go back. It's so tough because I keep getting early morning sessions and so I can't go and do baptisms for all my peeps that need to be baptized! The training was just incredible and we learned so much about being obedient and taking the lead in things. The president said some things that I really needed to hear in the interview :) He is just wonderful! :) He is really inspiring. 

Ok so the baptism! :) 

We didn't know if it was going to happen! Things had been a little bit iffy so we hadn't secured the day with the church! WELLLL JOSE PASSED HIS INTERVIEW AND HE WAS READY! So we had to figure everything out like...... 2 days before the baptism hahah luckily we have a wonderful, wonderful ward. And everyone is so dedicated!! It helps that like over half of them or even 3 quarters are converts to the church so they are so pumped and supportive!! Our miracle was really that we got a spot in the calender! We found out that the bishop from another ward had booked the whole Saturday until late at night and we could do the baptism and so the only time we could was Sunday after church so Jose would have to wait until like the next Sunday to recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost! and that is noooooooooo bueno. So we just kept trying for earlier so we said Friday and they said that was booked too... and so then we were trying for Thursday and then they called us and by miracle we got Friday!! :) Jose was baptized and it was so beautiful. The talks were sweet and simple and 3 people shared their testimonies :) One of them being me... hehe and it was just really awesome! Hermana Buno and Kayliegh and I sang Lead Kindly Light and it was just I don't even know! The spirit was so strong :) Then afterwards the ward had prepared a whole meal!! Like almost a feast! for Jose! It was so awesome :) I asked him how he felt and he said he felt like the spirit touched him inside and he felt so good! The next day we came to visit him and he offered the most beautiful prayer thanking Heavenly Father for accepting him :) AHHHHH IT WAS SOOO SWEET!!! Sunday he was confirmed by Elvin Romero, Kayleigh's husband and he is officially a member!!! 

OH! ALSO!!! The Toro's like one of my favorite families on the planet who are from the Canyon Lakes ward, Laura's brother and two nieces showed up at our ward this Sunday as a surprise to say hi to me!! That was so sweet! I love them! :) 

YES HERMANA BUNO IS LEAVING. YES I AM SO SAD. YES HERMANA BURNHAM IS GOING HOME AND HERMANA PARRY IS ALREADY HOME AND HERMANA KNAPPEN LEAVES NEXT TRANSFER. The time flies!!! only 3 more transfers people! AHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOO. IT GOES TOOOOO FAST!!!!! :**( 

I love my mission. It is so wonderful. I know the Lord loves us because He gives us the privilege to help one another and grow from it!! Everyday I grow more and more :) And it is so rewarding to see God's children grow as you help them understand the principles of the gospel!!! Not just by teaching but by being an example! :) Reach out to everyone!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!! HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!!!! <33333

HERMANA kOCH 

Beautiful trees outside temple.

Hermana Buno y yo.

Surprise visit! Nick, Iley and Inessa!

 Exchanges.

We all signed this banner like Moroni.

July 21, 2014: A WEEK IN CONROE

I got this hello kitty ring from Hales in the mail forever ago!!! haha but on it's way here from Japan it broke!! I FINALLY SUPER GLUED IT BACK TOGETHER!!!! LOVE YOU HALES!!! 

 TEXAS SKY!

Hola!

    This week was great! It was hard but sooo great! It was a little bit slower this week. haha The mission always has unexpected curve balls, haha especially when you are teaching people who have just moved here from other countries and randomly move or get a new phone and then your stress level shoots up and your sleep level decreases.  haha  I can only imagine what it is like for them! 

Well mom has asked for some updates on certain people and I will do that!  As well as, because it takes me soooooo long to type up everything that happened during the week.... I decided to just write it down each night on a piece of paper each night and then send yall a picture and you can read it off there if you'ld like haha :) SO BEFORE I GET TOOO CARRIED AWAY...

KATE AND IAN!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY 7TH ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe you have been married since I was.... 13? or just turned 14? I don't know haha anyway! crazy!! and IANNNNNN HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOODAYYYYYYYYYY! I LOVE YOU! YOU'RE AMAZING.

Ok so this week! I didn't get to finish on the paper!

Sunday: Jenni came to church! and we had a good lesson with Jose!

Fransisca: texted us and told us that she is going to go with her aunt to her church.

Pablo: haven't seen him all week but he's still super awesome. He is so kind to us and always tells us what good we are doing for other people!

Elena: Loves us! But thinks that the Lord wants her in the church that she was born into

Flor: moved... haven't heard from her.

Will: looking for a place to live and sleeping on someone's couch.. but we have off and on communication on the telefano.

Jose: getting baptized!!! maybe on thursday??

Paula and Mauricio: didn't come to church and I want to cry because we know that Paula wants to but she can't do anything about it.... we are thinking of just visiitng her during the day and having the elders give it a try teaching him. 

THIS WEEK WAS WONDERFUL!!! I love studying PMG TOGETHER!! You all inspire me sooo much! This week of emails was soo inspiring :) You all sent me the discussion and I loved it and then Haley du sent me an email about her health going on and about submitting to the Lord and it was wonderful. I am so so so happy and blessed. I can see the Lord spiritually strengthening all of us. Preparing His children no matter where they are in life! I learned a lot from what we studied but I don't have much time to write it all, but the quote by Brigham Young really hit me this time.

" No hay hombre o mujer en esta iglesia que no cumpla una mision......" we all will complete a mission. There isn't one of us who wont! It doesn't matter if we are a misionero de tiempo completo or if we are a member missionary or if we are a mom a dad a friend a brother or sister!!! WE WERE ALL SENT HERE to bless someone else. Christ came here to bless us. He gave His life for us. Not just physically on the cross, but also His WHOLE life. Not a minute of it did He spend not serving one of His brothers and sisters. We need to follow that example. SERVE SOMEONE THIS WEEK!! I love you all!!! Have a great week! <3

Con mucho amor,

Hermanita Koch

FOR GRANDMA AND GRANDPA HART!!!! WE STOPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD TO TAKE THIS PICTURE!!! HEHEHE LOOOOOVE YOU!!! a bushel and a peck <3

The necklace our Relief Society president gave to me!!! I get to look all stylin for church :) 

Our response to Fransisca's text... haha Kayleigh in the back. 

But we were really sad. haha seriously. 

July 14, 2014: Conroe area: A WEEK LLENA DE MILAGROS

Morning run! Repin' my El Salvador jersey that I bought at fiesta hahaha

Hola Hola Queridos mios <3

    How is life?!! HERE IT IS FABULOUS AND HOT!!! We had a crazy and amazing week! SO full of miracles I can't believe how fast time is moving! The Lord truly blessed us here in Conroe and I can't wait to tell you about it as fast as I can!! Because we are going to Kayleigh's and watching some church movies haha!

First I have to start off by saying this whole week we made it a goal to contact 25 people everyday! Which is always a goal... but we wanted to be 100% the whole week. We didn't quite make it but we were SUUUUUUUPER CLOSE! and because we were trying to accomplish our righteous desires, the Lord gave us miracle after miracle! So I am going to point out the most exciting thing of each day!

Monday: 

   We were on our way back to our car to head to a different area/ go home because we weren't having any success and it was about time to return. Well on our way back to the car we saw in our main stairway, that we are always teaching people, a girl we had contacted that lives in the same apartment as all of our other investigators! haha Her name is Flor! She is so darling and from El Salvador! Well she looked sad so we decided to go cheer her up by telling her that God loves her! Looooong story short we taught her in the stairwell and people gathered haha so we ended up teaching a lesson to 3 people in the stairwell all of us just sitting there, it was awesome! Afterwards one of the guys that listened to us, who is a minster said that if we can prove to him that everything is in the bible he will convert. haha He is 27 and so we have been teaching him throughout the week! He has some different beliefs! He is so kind and supportive of our missionary efforts. And then of course because it was like the end of the night we ran into Will!!! and we taught him the Word of Wisdom! He loves the pamphlets so we give them to him and then he reads! He told us that he was going to read the Plan of Salvation one and then 2 pages in the Book of Mormon each day after that. He is a rock star I love him.

Tuesday:

     Awesome lesson with Paula! She is so strong! We read her chapters 2-4 in the Book of Mormon because she didn't want us to stop! Then we taught her the restoration again and she said she knows it's true!! We went over the baptismal interview questions with Jose and he agrees with everything and loves the church! We just aren't sure he really understands it... so we will see.

Wednesday:

    Ok I don't even know how to explain this day... I might have to take a picture of my journal and send it home because we saw sooo many miracles!!! Early in the day we met a woman named Elena who told us to come over to her house at like 5 and teach her. Then we met a woman named Francisca (also from El Savlador!!! I love the El Salvadorenians) and she was in so much pain and told us to come in! We immediately taught her about the priesthood and about how the hermanos could come give her a healing blessing and she excepted immediately! She told us to come back at 7. We then went to Paula's and picked up Kayliegh and we had an awesome lesson with her and then Mauricio came home! yayyy!!! He loved Kayleigh and it was awesome. Then we went back to Elena's! Where we had the most beautiful restoration lesson! We told her about the first vision and told her the words of Joseph Smith and asked her to close her eyes and imagine God and Jesus Christ coming to her. We then asked her how she felt and she just started crying!!!! and said that she felt something touched the top of her head! It was incredible! and we are going to visit her tonight! Then we went to Francisca's and she got a blessing and in it it said to be obedient to what the missionaries teach you and later we taught her and her daughter named Sandra the Restoration! Sandra said the prayer at the end after we taught her and she burst into tears!!! It was so sweet and special and we explained the spirit to her <3 We then went and talked with Pablo! He believes in Paul's ministry and that it is different than Christ's ministry. We talked and told him our purpose as missionaries and he decided he wants to study The Book of Mormon. It was a WONDERFUL NIGHT!!!!! The amount of new people we had to teach totaled up that night was 10!!!!!!!!! And obviously numbers don't matter but these numbers have faces and lives and families and I just felt an enormous amount of love that God has enough confidence in us to allow us to teach that many more of His children!!

Thursday: 

     We did weekly planning and taught Flor about the Plan of Salvation and talked to Pablo some more!

Friday: 

     We got to see Will! We went over the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the things we have to do in this life to live with God again! It was awesome! He had an incredible spiritual experience while reading the pamphlets and he asked for more :) He is so spritually in tune! I hope someday he would be able to go on a mission! Then we had exchanges and Hermana Mcleary came to me and Hermana Buno went to the Woodlands area.

Saturday: 

     We taught 3 fairly new people that we are teaching and they were sweet lessons. Kayleigh came with us! :) It was awesome to see the difference in the lessons we teach... becuase no matter how many times you teach the restoration during the day, I can promise you that every lesson will be different if you are teaching by the spirit! It's WONDERFUL!!!!! :) I got hna Buno back! We are really nervous about exchanges... my stress level went up like a thousand realizing that I won't be with hna Buno and I will soon be going home. Not going to talk about it.

Sunday:

    No one came to church even though they all told us they would. Jose came, we found him a ride but no one else did. I am really happy he did! He is so awesome. But we are going to have the elders start teaching him because we feel a little bit uncomfortable even though he is awesome. Anyway, ya but no one came and I just cried hahah. Which is funny because I've had my whole mission with majority of the time no one comes... but I cried. I really feel like I have given everything I have emotionally and spiritually to the people we are teaching here! I think about them ALLL THE TIME, and just want them to be happy. So clearly when they didn't come to church to get the blessings the Lord had sitting there waiting for them, I cried. Pleaded with the Lord a bit and came to the conclusion that it hurts so bad, and we sometimes get a little glimps of what Jesus went through. Even now when we all know what He did for us, we deny Him in lot's of different ways. Clearly I don't know the amount of pain and never will, but I understood a little bit more that I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and loving someone so much that it hurts is an honor.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!! I READ AN AMAZING TALK THIS MORNING CALLED THE TONGUE OF ANGELS!!! Everyone read it. It will be good for you. It's my Elder Holland!!! Have a wonderful week!!!

Abrazos,

Hermanita Koch

 Paula's ring!! It has her and Mauricios names on it <3333

 Pollitos!

My motivational picture wall!! Pictures sent from home and ones from the mission!