Dear Mission President

Hello President,

This past transfer I have learned a lot about diligence. A lot about diligence, my patience, and my ability to endure. On paper my first transfer in the field doesn't look too successful, but to myself I was successful. I was more diligent then I have ever been, more patient, and more faithful. The opportunity to see myself do things I have never been able to do is priceless. I was truly able to see the Lords atonement carry me, hold me up, and show me the way. I learned with the Lord I can do anything. I believe that only once we know this we can accomplish our purpose as missionaries.

This week my father wrote me and said "I have found that our prayers don't usually produce an easily discernible miracle. It is designed that way. We live by faith and we are required to work for good things. Our prayers usually don't take away our problems or pain and they almost never produce increadible happenings. Rather, they help us to endure, give us better prospective, give us the spirit, help us to feel grateful, strengthen us, and gently assist us over the finish line. As far as I can tell, miracles always leave room for us to stretch and grow, they are not intended to take away our challenges. They are usually private and pounded in the heart or expressed as a testimony. They are rarely discerned by others."
I realized I am truly witnessing miracles everyday out here in the mission field, for myself as I am given the opportunity to grow, my investagators as they find joy in the Book of Mormon, or even hit a stumbling block that requires them to grow.

This week, with only a few minutes left before it was time to go home, we decided to go visit someone whose record we had pulled from the area book. We knocked, and he didn't answer. So we decided to knock on two more. We usually do this and knock one on each side of the door we had originally come to knock. But that night for some reason we knocked two right next to each other. The lady who answered the second door was older and seemed sick. Her house was filled with all things catholic. I thought I had never seen a more catholic home or women in my life. We prayed with her and invited her to be baptized. She said no. Of course she said no, I thought. Look at this house. Shes baptized and she is catholic. But we invited her again. Same answer, so we invited her to church, same answer. She said she never really leaves her house because she is too sick. We decided to give her a church card anyways. My companion then felt inspired to give her a Book of Mormon. When she saw the book her eyes lit up. She said "I had a feeling you were Mormon. I was baptized Mormon many years ago in Spain,and this is a very beautiful book."

This week I started the Book of Mormon again. I am focusing on the character of Christ and how He blesses us. I am only in 1Nephi 19 but I have already learned so much. I have learned about the Lords patterns. He loves us so much that He gives us instruction and preparation for everything He asks us to do. And as we do as He asks, He promises to deliver and bless us. All we have to do is use the instruction and have faith. In the MTC my teacher brought up the point that Lehi wandered in the darkness for so long before he thought to pray? (During his dream about the tree of life). Why is that? He had the preparation and the instruction. How often are we wandering in the darkness before we think to pray?
Excited to see what this transfer has in store for us.

 Sister Koutz