Week 9: It was Sunny in our Neighborho​od:)

Hey yoo everyone :)

Hows it goin'? We had sun for like 3 days this week unlike you guys... we were so happy. Ha, it really does make such a difference.

So after the baptisms things still went smoothly. We still have great lessons with both of them and the ward is really taking them in so im happy with that.


Raymond and her husband, the ward mission leader and Tugsuu


So do you remeber Mart? she is one of Tugsuu's friends that we showed the chapel to, the one who had "chills" in it. We have been testing her here and there trying to get her to meet with us/tell her that we care. One day she decided to meet with us. We prayed and decied to ask her to be baptised the week after transfers... we were sad because were pretty sure sister Stapley won't be here. But we had a good lesson with her about Joseph Smith and then baptism and asked her if she wanted to be baptized. SHE SAID YES. She said she was uneasy about meeting with us again but our texts just made her feel good even though she couldn't understand them because she can't speak English. We then asked her if may 17th would be good with her and she said.. How did you know? And we said.... how did we know what? She said that on that day she was planning on doing a mongolian tradition. She was planning on shaving her head as a symbol of getting rid of all of her sins. crazy cool. Ha she said "I think I'll just get baptized instead". Ha, how cool is that? We then asked her tro read a chapter or two in the Book Of Mormon, and she asked Tugsuu how we always know that those chapters answer questions that she has in her life. Soooo amazing. I love how God works.

The next tilme we met with her, we decided to teach the law of chastity. Tugsuu had told us that she is living with this man because she is a refugee and can't get work and has no money. So we were nervous to teach the law but we did... and she said that she wants to live it and will! she said, " I already decided that I will" She was worried cause she didn't know how to leave the man. Sister Stapley promised that if she reads these certain two chapters and prays, she will get an answer of what to do but she HAS to follow it. The next day she told us that her friend caled with a potential place for them to live.... Wow again! I hope she takes it. She said she was unsure if she wanted to because she hasn't seen it yet. Pray that she has the conviction to take the apartment and leave that man....p.s. This man sleeps with lots of monglian refugees. He is not good news.

Tugsuu is a great example to me. not only does she share the gospel with al her firends she pays her tithing. She can only work little jobs for the red cross here and there because she doesn't have her work papers yet but she said, "I made 60 Euros this month and I have to pay my tithing because I probably wont make anything next month." She is so sweet.

We also had th elders give a friend of hers in th hospital a blessing. In the blessing she was promised that she would overcme her sickness if she follows his gospel because heavenly father has a plan for her. The elder that gave her the beautful blessing that brought us to tears doesnt remember at all what he said.

I love the Lord
I love missionary work... its really hard though and sometimes I just really want to go home and see you guys, but I know there are more miracles for me to see next week if I'm obedient.

I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU

Sœur Kohlert

Week 8: They Did It!!!

I keep forgetting to tell you this but in french Kohlert is pronounced without the T....and it means angry. It is a bad name for a missionary, but I always make it into a joke by telling them that I'm always nice. They always laugh and think im funny. It's good cause I feel like I have no personality still.

Today is the first day of sun. IT FEELS SO GOOD. Sister Stapley and I are just happy. It's great. I want sun all the time. Lots of our investigators didn't show up for our appointments which was dissappointing, but its all good. On friday we met another one of Tugsuus friends at the préfecture. She was working on getting some papers from Mongolia to work and she needed some help translating. The line was too long for us to stay and help translate .... and it would have been 3-way, french to english through us and english to mongolian through Tugsuu to Mandal.... but we got to have a good chat with her and gave her a Book of Mormon ( which she has been reading and asking Tugsuu questions about). Her papers ended up going through and she said that Tugsuu should always bring the sisters to her important appointments because they never work out.. and when we came they did ha!

At the prefecture, mind you it was the day before Tugsuus baptism, Tugsuu noticed all the mongolians talking about her; they thought she was weird for being with us and she felt uneasy about things. She knew she still had to get baptized but she was just nervous. She went home and that night she had a dream that I don't have time to tell but she heard a firm voice say ... there is only one god, there is only one god, there is only one god... just like that, 3 times. It calmed tugsuu down and she felt peace. Also thought we lost Raymonde... they dont have a phone and they didn't show up at their rendez vous so we were getting nervous. we stopped by their house like four times before friday and they weren't there.  But the day of the baptism came, and guess what? They were both there and on time :) they looked so pure in their white dresses. raymonde came all decked out it this white dress.  Our mission leader has been sick for the past 3 weeks so we didn't really know what to do. It's both of our first baptism so we asked the entire ward how long before to fill up the font. We got estimates from 30 min to 2 hours; not helpful. So we get to the church and the day of the baptism and a ward member was filling it up. We asked him to stop becaue we thought it'd be cold. So he did and then filled it up a bit later. But unfortunately the water was FREEZING by the time the sisters got to it. Raymonde was first and she is afraid of water. She got about two steps in and said, "I can't do it, I can't. She was in tears. We kept enouraging her. She struggled for about 15 min... in and out of the steps to the font. We were all bawling. We knew that she knew she had to do it... but the water was so cold and she is like 60 years old poor lady. So she starts splashing water on herself saying .. okay it's done it's good I'm baptized. We had to reexplain that she HAD to do it by emmersion like Christ was baptized. And then like five minutes later she went in. And thanks to heavenly Father she was completely emergered the first time because she wouldn't have dont it again I dont think. It was so cold. She was so courageous. She knew she had to do it and she did! We were all in tears.

Tugsuu was up. she had just seen raymonde be traumitized. The ward members had boiled some water and poured it in the font. her skirt came up, then her arm and on the 3rd time it was done right! The man baptizing her was so skinny and could barely speak english so he was really nervous. Tugsuu said that her dream was what helped her keep being dunked into the freezing water. Each time she went in the water she heard the voice say... there is only one God....and she had heard it 3 times, just like the amount she was baptized.

While they were changing, I played my violin. THEY TOOK ETERNITY. I didn't know where all the hymns were in the french hymn book and so I was kinda frantic but it was okay. I played for like a half hour it felt like. They took so long because apparently they were purple from the cold water. The relf society secretary had made some hot juice for them to drink to warm them up. Thats why it took so long. Then I played a song with a boy in the ward on the violin. He played so fast it messed me up..ha.

We then feasted. Raymonde had brought like 5 cakes, Tugsuu made some yummy dumplings and the ward brought lots of food. Ha, so we didn't have any programs to had out for the baptism and so we called the mission leader and he was so mad at us.... come to find out he thought we meant that we didnt have any speakers and a musical number... that type of program. We all laughed after when we all got on the same page.
We were so exhausted after but so happy. We had an investigator there with her family, also from Monglia. She wants to be baptized fter she has her baby and her daughter kept asking her mom to take her to church.
An old ward member came up to me and said that he can't come to church meetings very often because of his health. But he said that he was extremely happy that he came to this one. He said that he literrally saw an angel as I was playing the violin. He calls me his angel now. Thanks mom.
Also a cambodian ward member told us that when she was baptized, she didn't understand a word that the missionaries said. She just saw the pictures and felt good and had a dream that I dont have time to tell you about. Tugsuu tells that story to all her friends that are meeting with us that can't understand us.
Then sunday came! The day of Recieving the Holy Ghost!! Tugsuu wore a skirt for the first time; she wore the one we bought her like four weeks ago. Even after she was baptized she changed into pants. She knew that yesterday was special. I couldn't hear much of the blessings because I was in the back, but I heard... "Tugsuu, you have come from far away but God wanted to find you".... later the man doing the confirmation told Tugsuu, "as i was giving you the Holy Ghost, I had an overwhelming feeling that you are a tool in Gods hands. He is so grateful for all that you did for his children in Mongolia, but you're work is not over yet. you will help so many more people here" (Tugsuu has dedicated most of her life to helping orphans in Mongolia... the man had no idea of her histroy in Mongolia and he also had no idea that she had invited three of her friends to meet with us) pretty cool if you ask me.
Our other invesigator is bringing two friends to meet with us this week :) We also did lots of work with the members and we're getting lots of referals. I feel like we are about to harvest :)
I love you all!! thanks for the emails :)
Oh and weve been praying for a nonmember who has been coming to church for the past like 30 years but isn't baptized. for the first time in her life she has accepted visiting teachers. Prayers work.

I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU

Sœur Kohlert

Week 7: A Taste of Hungry

Hey family and friends

I cried today when I opened up my email. I had so many emails and pictures and thoughts from so many people that I love so much. I was so overwhelmed. Thank you all of you. I can't respond to all of you right away, but I'll write you I promise. Pinky swear.

So this week we got to experience a little bit of being hungry. Last monday was a holiday called Lundi Paques or Easter Monday. It's realy cool actually, but no one told us about it. We go to the store and it was completely closed. We called the elders and they said...."well yeah its lundi paques".. and we were like uhhh... what? So we made a decision together to keep the rules and not go grocercy shopping until next pday. So we got creative. We made corn bread for breakfast and we were so blessed cause the lady we had Easter dinner with gave us leftovers that included german pancakes that we ate. We also made some awful crepes with flour and butter and water and an egg. Hahah I have never had to feel like we might not have food. it was stressful and scary, and I knew that I was going to get more food in only a few days. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have food in the cubboards. We went shopping today and we bought more food than ever. Ha oooppps. We were hungry as we were shopping and we just bought so much. We obviously didn't learn our lesson very well or else we wouldn't have bought so much. Oh also, on Saturday night we thought.. we better go to the store because we had promised our investigators that we would feed them if they came to general conference. So we went to the store...and they had clsed the doors 10 minutes early. Yah, God didn't want us to go to the store. The investigator came to conference and didn't stay to eat, so it was all good.

I teach this lady named Marie Annette. Her son is named Abdias and he is soooo much like Tyler. It makes me miss home so much. He takes a picture of us every time we go.

Wish list: Samoas, those are girl scout cookies so I know they're hard to get but the coconut dreams from Keebler also are awesome.

So Tugsu had a dream. We taught the doctrine of Christ by using a picture of steps and each step is like faith, repentece, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We are at the bottom and Christ is at the top in the celestial kingdom. Tugsu said she had a dream where she was at the bottom of white stairs and Sister Stapley and I were at the top dressed in white trying to help her climb up the steps. Cool right? She's awesome. Please pray for her and Raymonde. Their interviews are tomorrow and THEIR BAPTISMS ARE SATURDAY. Pray that it works out. We always tell them that satan is going to work hard against them. i know they can do it. ha Raymonde has a hard tme and says oh my god lots. We taught her to say holy cow. Ha it's funny cause she says it and then sticks out her tongue cause she says its not lady like to say cow. Haha.

I loved Eyrings talk. We got to watch conference at the church. the very last session started at 10:00 p.m. our time so we'll watch it for the rest of our pday after emails on the internet. but Eyrings talk was cool because it talked about you guys. I hope that you are being blessed and getting closer to god like he says you should be. I can tell from everyones letters that you are. I think that the family is getting closer and that we are all getting closer to God. I loved it. WE BECOME LIKE HIM AS WE SERVE HIM; thats my transfer moto and it was said like 3 times during conference; i love it.

I also thought I saw Hyrum Arneson and Jackie singing in the conference choir. so cool.

We had some great lessons today. I may not be able to speak French but I can ask questions. Rather than just teaching lessons to people. I asked them questions, then asked them why then asked them anotherquestion to get them to realize the answer. And then Stapley will finish it off with a bamb and teach according to the need we just found. It was great. I loved it.

I love you guys. Stay strong and remember to pray for my French. I love you. I pray for you eeerrryyyy day

Love Soeur Kohlert

Week 6: A Week of Miracles

This week was awesome. Lots to say. First I saw the Peterson’s friend, the Bellesa couple. They came up to me and said they knew me through Kim! Cool ha!  also I’m gaining weight so my shirts are getting shorter, so I’m adding skirt extenders to my wish list as well as zebra pens cause they are the best and are running out of ink (thank you Tasi for sending me off with them). I ate fish. Yes me, a whole fish. Mom you’d be so proud. It was covered in yummy white sauce so I asked for more to cover up the fishy flavor... Haha but I ate it none the less…wasn’t too bad. Wouldn’t choose it still; but surprisingly not bad.

My desk decorated with Easter Presents

A week of miracles! I was brought to tears so many times as I came to recognize the workings of the Lord.

Going Door to Door

Tugsuu asked us a long while ago to pray for her brother who has drinking problems. He drinks because they haven’t been able to have a child and have been trying for 5 years. We told Tugsuu we’d pray and we always ask every night that the Lords will will happen but that if it is his will, that they will get pregnant. I honestly thought this would be. God always answers our prayers but not always in the way we want... type of lesson for Tugsuu. But God so did prove me wrong. Yesterday, they found out that they were pregnant. Coincidence? I KNOW NOT!! I was so amazed and so grateful that God showed his mercy and his power to us and to Tugsuu as he is blessing that family with a child. Oh great He is.

We ate fish with this member family. They asked us to pray for their friend Santiago that he would read the BOM that they gave him and meet the missionaries. of course we did and sure enough. he read it and loved it and met with the missionaries a few days later. a coincidence, I KNOW NOT! Craziness

Tugsuu told us that she had a friend that wants to meet us. WE SAID YES! We met with her on Friday. She said that all of her friends have been inviting her to their churches and that she chose ours.  She can barely speak English or French so we work through tugsuu. She told us of how she felt shivers as she walked into the chapel. She said she believes it’s true.  We asked Tugsuu to bare her testimony of the Book of Mormon to her, which is incredible by the way. And she said she already had. I was amazed. As we knelt down in prayer together at the end of the lesson, I knew that God was using his faithful servant Tugsuu to bless His children’s lives. I knew that I had nothing to do with it. I knew he was there and that he loved us…every single one of us was in tears by the end.  We were so happy and so grateful. AND WE CAN BARELY UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER.  This woman’s name is Marte. She came to church and asked when she could be baptized.  She also asked us if we could meet her twice this week.  Not to mention SHE BROUGHT A FRIEND. Her friend can’t speak anything but Mongolian.  We gave her a Mongolian Book of Mormon... which Soeur Stapley was no doubt inspired to order last transfer... and she read it the whole sacrament meeting.  She asked? When can I be baptized? I know that I have to repent first because Moroni said so, but I think I want to be. Ha, we haven’t even taught her yet. We also had two other investigators at church.

We all went to a Swedish family’s house for Easter lunch. They fed us too well. We taught them how to pray and since the one sister can’t understand us AT ALL, Tugsuu translated and when Tugsuu wasn’t translating, she read the Book of Mormon. There was one point when we were waiting for dessert and she got up and got her Book of Mormon and brought it to the table so that she could read as she waited. She said she just wants to read more, more, more, more. I had an awesome gratitude prayer that night. Ha mom I made them let me do the dishes. I also showed them the pictures of my family. They said that mom looks like a Hollywood star. Ha, I laughed and agreed.  Gotta love Mongolians!! Oh, one other thing. that one lady that can’t understand is named Bolor.  She went to another friend’s church and they rejected her. How sad. I’m so glad we don’t do that.

Easter Lunch

Easter Lunch

Well, I’m definitely humbled in my French speaking this week. I struggle with the Africans.. Most of the people we speak with. Our accents really clash and they can’t understand me at all. I also am a horrible teacher. But I talk to people and bring an optimistic attitude I think! Ha I’m good for something I know!

Well I love you all I love hearing how you are doing and seeing the pictures; they are beautiful; I hope Easter was great. I wish I was there!

I know God lives and I know he had to die and live again for us to satisfy the demands of justice that God has to live by. Be good!!

You can send stuff to:
29, François Tanguy Prigent
35000, Rennes
FRANCE

for the next 6 weeks. but remember it takes a week or so to get here! but ill probably be here for another transfer after that! anything larger than a shoe box, send to the mission home cause it wont fit in our mailbox!

Love you all

Miss you

Sœur Kohlert