D&C 112:10

Dear Family!!


First of all, Happy Birthday Mom!!! You are the best! Anyone that sees my mom or can call her up- tell her happy birthday (Oct 17th). This week just flew by, probably because we were working so hard and we had lots going on. Following Elder Nelson's talk on "Ask a Missionary", we evaluated to make sure we know everything he said we know! We decided to brush up on our family history skills and spent some time this week getting more familiar with Family Search. I was able to help Hna. Latu start her family history which was really fun- we found that she has an Irish forefather several generations back and we found a name in my history that she said looks Tongan. So that's it- we're sisters for real. I'm adding her to my family tree (except the website might disagree a little :). It was great for us, but then throughout the week we had several opportunities to contact people with family history and to teach several members how to do it. We are planning a family history/missionary activity for the ward: we're going to have a night where we teach the youth, members, and friends (i.e. investigators) how to use family search to do their family history. Then we are going to help them find relatives and prepare them to take to the temple. After we take those to the temple, we are going to have a fireside talking about family history/missionary work. We're super excited! We've been working a lot in one complex in the southern tip of our area and so far, every person we've talked with has talked with missionaries before!! There has been lots of preparing done. It's good to keep in mind with those places where people will talk to us once or twice, but then no--one day they will be prepared for other missionaries. We've found several families: Maria and her three kids, and the Torres family. I love teaching whole families together!!! We get to teach lots of individuals, but it's really special when we are able to sit down and teach an entire family. Because this gospel is for families and about families. Even the less active families that have 1001 excuses... On the other hand, we've had some investigators that we're really hard to get return appointments or contact, so we had to move on and focus on other people. Like Karen. She likes talking about religion, she'll pray and read and come to church with her mom occasionally. But she's a busy teenager and doesn't make time for it. But I never want to give up on someone and we go visit her mom, who is less-active and working on reactivating herself, once a week or so. This last week we stopped by to follow up about conference, but they ended up telling us all about other things. Hna. Latu and her really connected and she invited us back this week. Tender mercies. We had a tri-mission conference this past Saturday with the other two Houston missions downtown (my first time going downtown!). Elder Tad Callister from the Presidency of the Seventy came along with Elder Stanley Ellis and Elder Echo Hawk (the one who just spoke in conference). Elder Echo Hawk shared his conversion story. Though he was baptized when his family joined the church, he didn't really become converted until high school. He was playing football and got a devastating eye injury. They told him he might lose the eye. He said that he prayed for the first time by himself and told Heavenly Father that if he didn't lose his eye, he would read the Book of Mormon. He kept his promise and started as a quarterback his senior year. He recieved a scholarship to BYU and played all four years- the first of his family to attend college. He went on to become the first Native American state attorney general in American history. In one part of his story his coach asked him "Do you want to play?" three times and I thought of Christ asking "Do you love me?" ...Then feed my sheep. Do we want to play for the Lord's team? Are we willing to play with all our heart, might, mind, and strength? Then we must do the work that Heavenly Father has asked of us. Elder Ellis shared the same story about obedience as when he gave the mission tour several weeks ago and then Elder Callister got up. He shared 5 tips to improve missionary work- one of which was to have a member present at every single lesson! That is a really hard thing to do with everyone's schedules and responsibilities, to have a member with us for every single lesson, but we are going to try harder to make it happen. Then he told us that President Monson said that when missionaries know the doctrine better, they can teach more effectively with the Spirit. He went through the Plan of Salvation doctrinally and using mostly scriptures from the Bible (knowing that we live in the Bible belt). It was fantastic!

One of the questions I took to conference was how to improve as a missionary among other things. Overwhelmingly I got, be humble and submissive, even as a little child (Mosiah 3:19). I've spent time in studies this past week focusing on humility and submissiveness. I love the explanation in True to the Faith and Preach my Gospel," To be humble is to recognize gratefully our dependence on the Lord—to understand that we have constant need for His support. Humility is an acknowledgment that our talents and abilities are gifts from God. It is not a sign of weakness, timidity, or fear; it is an indication that we know where our true strength lies. We can be both humble and fearless. We can be both humble and courageous." What a powerful trait to have as a missionary-to constantly rely on the Lord! I truly delighted in finding lots of humility and submission scriptures this week including : Helaman 3:35, DyC 136:32-33, Matt 18:4, Luke 22:42, 2 Nephi 9:28-29, Alma 5:26-29, Alma 26:12, and Mosiah 4:11-12. I think that that world would tell us that freedom comes from doing whatever you want when you want. But it's not true. Real freedom is gained through Heavenly Father's will, that we can have our agency forever. It's a process to align our will with Heavenly Father's, but one that is definitely worth it!

Happy Birthday again Mom!

All my love,

Hermana Kristi Koerner