It was a great week out here in Texas and coming home finally became real. I received my flight plans the week before, but so far they are just papers. This week we had Zone Conference, our all day training with several zones and President. It is always filled with good training and at the end they have the missionaries that are ending their missions bear their testimonies. I knew that and so I was prepared. But after lunch, when we still had some more training workshops, I started to get really nervous. I mean, sick to my stomach, seriously nervous. I didn't realize before how big of a deal it was for me. I am ending my full-time mission and I am so overwhelmingly grateful for the opportunities and growth Heavenly Father has blessed with me. And I didn't want to get up and ramble or preach. So I was praying so hard for the help to know what to say and how to say it. Nerve-racking. I know Heavenly Father filled my mouth and I bore testimony of miracles. This mission has a special focus on miracles. I thought when I came to the mission, I understood what a miracle was. But I didn't. The Bible Dictionary says that miracles are also called works because they are the natural result of the Lord's presence. The mission has been miraculous because the Lord has been with me every single day, every moment of every day. While on the mission I have seen the miracle of the youth responding to the prophet's call to arise and serve. When I entered the MTC there were about 54000 missionaries and now there are over 80000. But to break that down a bit more. When I came to Houston there were 16 Spanish sisters. I knew them all. Now we have over 50 Spanish sisters. Before the announcement, 700 mission calls were issued each week- now it is 1200 every week. But the largest increase was in the number of sisters, with 8000 before and nearly 20000 now- an 142% increase. It is remarkable. Our entire message as missionaries is miraculous from the account of Joseph Smith receiving an answer from Heavenly Father as a young 14 year old boy all the way to the greatest miracle known to mankind- the Atonement of our Savior. I am grateful that I was able to share my testimony with my fellow missionaries, but it made it all very real.
I have been slacking with my investigator updates so here you go: We have been teaching one of our investigators, Doris, the plan of salvation this week and every new principle we shared caused her to just light up. Every new piece of the plan made her excited and it was humbling for us to remember how many do not know these precious truths. Our investigator Sandra is progressing well and she loves reading the Book of Mormon. She came to general conference and then to church this past week. She has been so prepared and she is introducing us to all of her family. Speaking of family, one investigator that we have been teaching for a couple months now has slowly introduced us to her entire extended family and now we are teaching three of her cousins, an aunt, and a sister-in-law all separately! And the group of workers that we teach every Wednesday are starting to progress and read the Book of Mormon. Wonderful things happening here in Westgreen.
Yesterday we were so excited because between the companionships, there were six investigators at church! We have been struggling so hard to help people come to church and for three of them it was their first time. Things did not go as planned however. Sacrament meeting was the primary program and I love the program dearly, but the microphones caused static, there was lots of movement of children in and out of sacrament meeting, and it was from an investigator's standpoint, unorganized. Remember, I have worked with the Primary and done two Primary programs before as a teacher/music director. But looking at it from a visitor's perspective, it was confusing. So we hoped the classes would be a little calmer, but our teacher for the second class was late so another brother stepped in and taught a mix of the Restoration, plan, and gospel all in one class- from the veil to Joseph Smith. Good doctrine, tough composition. Now, our Relief Society is wonderful so I was excited to bring the investigators to Relief Society. Instead, we had a combined meeting on...family history!! Yeah! We have been working so hard with family history and we asked for the stake to come down and do a training. What happened was the stake coordinator came from the stake and chastised the ward for not working harder in this and when they asked questions she just seemed to tell them to go to the stake center and she would answer questions there. All in all it was a tough Sunday, but....the key word...I was full of joy all day. From the time I woke up, through church, through all the craziness, I could not top smiling from ear to ear. Heavenly Father has just filled with me joy for this work. Mosiah 3:4 says," For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy." My greatest desire as a missionary is that other may also be filled with the joy that the gospel brings.
I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and support. Go out and frustrate Satan.
Les quiero,
Hermana Kristi Koerner
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