Dear Family and Friends-
First of all, Happy Birthday Jason (a day late, but I was thinking it all yesterday too!)!!! Hope you got my card and know that I love you tons! So much to tell it's been a busy week. Our area is a bit unique in the fact that it has a little bit of everything- trailer parks (which are our favorite to go knocking in) as well as mansions. Sometimes neighboring each other even! So far we find and teach people in the first kind of area, but I've met members from all different backgrounds in the ward. Not only that, but Houston itself is kind of a melting pot with people from all over. Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador (they make these really good things called papousas(?), Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia are some of the countries of the people I've met. Like I mentioned last week, we are working hard with the ward to assist less active members. Depending on the situation we are going in and reteaching lessons and finding out needs of each family and helping the ward meet those needs- sometimes by finding a family to befriend them, getting them home and visiting teachers (super important!), and an assignment or calling in the ward. Just before I arrived here, a less active family which the sisters had been working with was sealed in the temple. That has become a goal we set with our part member and less active families. We want them to enjoy all of the blessings of the gospel through in the temple. We are working right now with with Rosi and Julio as well as the Rivera family towards that goal. Yesterday was exciting as the missionaries were invited to participate in the ward council in which we made a ward mission plan. If you are hearing choirs of angels after reading that, then we're on the same page about how incredibly wonderful that it! We were able to share with the branch the goals of the mission as a whole and some of the goals of our area and together with the branch counsel came up with goals for Finding, Teaching, Baptizing, and Retention. One goal in particular is to pray and search for families who are ready to receive the gospel. Hna. Dement and I have been praying for a family since day one and this week we found two families!!! Nielsen and Dominga with their three little boys and Emma and her whole family. With both families in our first meetings with them, I felt a special spirit in their homes. They are open and searching for something more. I ask for prayers for them that we can teach them and they might receive it.
Just a fun note about the food here. Latino culture has lots of food. Lots of good food. Lots of fried food. And spicy food. One of our appointments gave us burgers, which had pickles on it. I didn't dare pick it off because I didn't want to be rude, so I ate pickles for the first time in over a decade! Only I found out after that Hna. Dement hates pickles too and she picked them off : ) Also, I decided that I'm going to need to get used to the spicy food here. Some people are nice and warn you. Others like to surprise the missionaries. So I'm trying to condition my tongue to handle it. I try every spicy salsa, every pepper, every spicy sauce (except the ones labeled Spicy Death) so far. There have been a few moments where I couldn't feel my tongue or my mouth, lol. But the people know that I'm trying to explore their culture and that I'm grateful for their hospitality. I'm sure I will have lots of fun with this through the mission.
I've found one of the challenges of the mission is to find the right balance. Between the sheer hard work, obedience, and diligence as well as listening to the Spirit, taking more time in a lesson as an investigator is opening up so you can answer their questions and help them, and doing all those things to show support and love to the members. Being a full time missionary, we are committed to doing the Lord's work 24/7. The key is being in tune with the Spirit to know what His work for us is for us today, this hour, with this investigator or member, and with the words He wants us to say. Part of that balance comes from our morning studies, but right now is a bit of an adjustment stage. I hope I'm explaining that all right.
I finished the Book of Mormon this week and my heart ached as I read the destruction of the Jaredite and Nephite nations more than it ever has before. I cried with Ether and Mormon and Moroni as they mourned the wickedness and destruction of their people. I'm not a prophet, but I'm a full-time servant of the Lord who loves the people of the Houston Mission, Oakcrest branch, with all of my heart. I mourn with them as they struggle with family problems, finding work, or holding onto their faith. I laugh with them at the simple joys and rejoice in their successes. Moroni 7:48 says that when we see Christ again, we will see him as He is, that we will be purified even as he is pure. It comes right after the discourse on charity. Verse 48 says we have faith to see Him as He is, a hope that this will happen, and a purification, and I think that it through charity. This love I feel for this people is beyond even my own capacity- it truly is the love of the Lord for this people. And the perfection of charity allows us to calm our fears, forgive faults, accept flaws, as well as humbles us and allows us to shift our focus towards others as the Savior does. I'm not even close tp perfect at this yet, but I know Heavenly Father is helping me. I send all my love and prayers your way,
Love, Hermana Koerner
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