Week 18: Uhhh 6 months in Rennes.. can you believe it?

Well well, we just go the transfer email:) And yupppp Im still here in Rennes. By the end of this transfer I will have spent 1/3 of my mission here! Pretty cool. Ha, the ward is just going to have to love me cause they get 6 more weeks of me. I am very happy about it. Not only do I LOVE my companion and we are having a good time, but we now have 4 BAPTISMAL DATES for the month of July. We have the three that I told you about earlier: Gladys, Lucy, and Mandal, and also Shaina (Sh _ eye _ nah). She is an 8 year_old who comes to church with her grandma. Her parents are not members; and therefore, she is an investigator. She is so stinking cute and she just loves us. Her mother sits in on her lessons sometimes so maybe there is potential ther, I am not sure yet. But how cool is that! Our mission has a goal to have 100 baptisms before the month of Septembre when Elder Oaks is coming, and I really pray that all 4 of ours goes through so that we can contribute.

This week was semi hard. We were tired. Its been really rainy and yucky and we were just having a hard time getting ourselves up and going. But we have been really working together and trying to motivate one another.

We had the music festival this friday. Ha it was HILARIOUS. The members crack me up. Hearing french people sing american songs and dancing is just hilarious. I cant wait to show you that video when we get home. The violin songs all ended up going well. I think. I dont think anyone really cared how they sounded; just that we played. But it was a good time and Gladys came so that was cool. We were semi frustrated because only Shaina came to church... we knew lucy wasnt going to come, but as for mandal and gladys who knows. I was pretty dissappointed.

But we're still pretty busy over here. We're teaching lots of lessons and we're trying to find new investigators. Its kinda stressful getting 4 people ready for baptism, but its a good stress. I just hope and pray that no unexpected problems come up.

That is cool that you got to see Nicole at that missionary thing. I hope she is doing well. it sounds like she likes her companion and having lots of fun.

Well sorry that this week wasnt the most exciting. Ha... still just doing missionary work over here.

Love you all,

Soeur Kohlert

Week 17: What a Wonderful Birthday Surprise

Hello family and friends:)

Thanks so so much for the birthday package. I just loved it. Unfortunately the DVD didn't work in our player even though it is american.. Im really bummed... maybe in our next area it will work.

How was dropping Nicole off at the MTC? Did you go through the temple with Naomi? Will you please send me Nicoles farewell talk?? 

So I just love my companion. Im just so grateful for her and I just had to tell everyone that really quick ha!

Okay, but the week started off sooo great. We set another baptismal date for July 20th. Her name is Gladys. She is a 22 year old from Congo. She has no idea where her family is right now and she came here because of her ex-husband that was like evil and she was forced to marry him in the first place. She is so awesome, she just believes everything that we say. Its so cool. And she was like.. uh, ya sure, I'll be baptized. Ha, she even came to church regardless of the CRAZY amount of time it took her to get there with the annoying sunday bus schedule. I love her. So pray for Lucy, Mandal, and Gladys and their baptisms on July 20th.

The rest of the week was kinda disappointing... we had lots of lots of lessons where the people didn't show.... oh well, we still had a great week. OKAY TWO STORIES.....

Some background, my companion is like super healthy and only eats vegetables and cant handle very much food. She cried when she realiwed how much we had to eat when we went to a members house for her first time. So On Wednesday we went to lunch at a members house. They were so kind but of course they fed us a pretty hefty meal. We were careful not to eat slowly because we after we were going to go help another member pack to move and she was going to feed us dinner. but of course we were WAY full after lunch... we each ate like a quarter of a pie and  two scoops of ice cream after eating a 3 course lunch. So we get to the next members house and she had decided that we were going to eat FIRST....BEFORE we packed... HAHAH the table was set and everything. She had made stuffed turkey and potoatoes, bacon and salad, bread and cheese of course. So we tried our best and be polite and of course she served us seconds. My companion was litterally dying. She got up to go to the bathroom in the middle.. later on I had found out that she had thrown up. THEN they brought out the strawberry cake and told us we had to eat it all. I convinced them that we would eat more cake after we packed because we seriously couldnt eat anymore right now.

Ha, so that's what we did. Soeur Hilton took the SMALLEST peice of cake I have ever seen. Then we went to another members house to help her son prepare for the music party the ward is putting on the Friday. he is going to play the violin and they asked us to help him.... not happy about that because helping him isn't really adding to our key indicators.. But we did it to show our support for the ward and their missionary efforts. Anyways we get there and desite the fact  that I told her we were ONLY going to help him, she had made us dinner......... ya, our third huge meal of the day. I had told her we just ate like 30 min ago, but she didn't care. She fed us galettes with cheese and egg ham and onions. my comp didn't finish hers so the host ate it for her... AND THEN she brought out the crepes with bananas and honey. While she wasnt looking I took my comps crepe off her plate and ate it for her. HAAHHAHA, oh my gosh we were dying. litterally. Then we had to RUN for the bus to get home on time with our violins and our sacks in our skirts with stomachs so full that we can't think... it was ridiculous. Soeur Hilton threw up again when we got home and I just laid on the ground for like an hour. I got up and I weighed myself.. I had gained 6.6 pounds... I didnt eat anything the next day. haha.

Now for the spiritual side of the week. On my birthday we ate lunch with a member and her nonmember friend. It didn't go very well despite my best efforts and so when we got on the bus to get home I wasn't in the mood to talk to people and so I just tried to stick a smile on my face till we got home. But guess what??? People came up to us!!!!! Ya we were traveling for 45 min and 15 people talked to US and I only talked to one. It was ridiculous. At one point I was talking to a family of 4 and Soeur Hilton was talking to a family of 3 simultaniously.... and they came up to us.  They were so interested...they like swarmed us. Then we get to the next bus stop and Soeur Hilton said, lets just sit on this bus stop.  I think people will come to us...AND THEY DID. like 9 people. THEY TALKED TO US FIRST. We gave away a book of mormon to a man who said he would read it  and was really impressed by us and the title of the church. It was AMAZING. Never have I have gotten so many contacts of people who are so sincerely interested. I was shocked. 

God blesses us with many many miracles. Sometimes, I simply just don't know why. I think its because He loves His children and He prompted them to talk to us.

I LOVE YOU. I hope the summer is so fun for yall. Were starting to see bits of sun here and there :)

Sœur Kohlert

HEY :)

Happy Fathers day daddy. You're the best dad anyone could ever ask for. You work so hard to give us a life that I didn't even know was pretty much perfect. Thanks for your example and for always being so loving and patient with me. One day this week I just cried like half the day. I had a good talk with Tugsuu and she just told me how she feels like no one in the ward likes her because she speaks English and not French. I felt so sad... like I hadn't done my job in getting her integrated. And had also given her a journal and she started crying because she wanted to write in a study journal like the prophets have asked us to, but she didn't have any paper. She was sooo grateful. Then she continued on in telling me how horrible life is in Mongolia. I felt like the most spoiled person in the world listening to her tell me what those people go through. Thank you for teaching me to work hard and to save money and to be self sufficient. I hope that I can use my blessings and the extra time that I am blessed with to help God's children who cant help themselves.

NICOLEEEEE YOU LEAVE IN LIKE 2 DAYS!!! You're going to do great. I just know it. Keep on going. Don't give up and know that I love you and pray for you. I hope your farewell was great. Please remember to send it to me.

Ha so that lady that we met when we missed the bus last Sunday... we ran into her again and her son's name is Ammon... how perfect is that. she is busy till the 21st so well see what happens then.

Fatima, the muslim lady, we went to go teach her and her husband was there....AND HE IS SO GREAT. He really thinks about life and religion but isn't believing and his wife doesn't really think about life but loves religion and thinks with her heart. They are perfect for each other and for the lessons. She even told him that he needs to pray to God to find out if he exists.. he said that he already did when he was a kid and did the recited prayers... she said NO. Pray like these sisters are asking you to. They are going to come to church simply out of curiosity this week and I am sticking the most friendly family in the ward in them so that they cant not feel loved and not want to come back ha.

Well on Friday it was BURNING HOT. Like really not that hot but it was hot for us. It was gross and sticky like when we were in Rome on the bus. So of course we didn't have our coats that day. That night we were porting ...sorry knocking doors... and it just started to pour like there was no tomorrow. We were completely drenched from head to foot! it could have counted as my shower. people thought we were so weird, without umbrellas or coats... but we continued anyway. This nice old couple let us in simply because we were drenched. They gave us a towel and some tea and they are atheist but we had a good discussion and they seem curious as to why two young girls in their 20s who cant speak french are here for 18 months knocking doors. they invited us to come back.. well see what happens. I am excited to have a classic missionary story to tell now ha.

  Well I love you all. I miss you so much! I can't believe that its already my birthday week. We are going to have a meal at my favorite members house AND she is inviting a friend who is going to come to church and then to dinner with us. It will be my first lesson with a member and their investigator. IM SO EXCITED. Best birthday ever.

Work hard.. love the lord

Sœur Kohlert

Week 15: The Sweetest Phone Call

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all of your lovely emails and letters. I really really do enjoy hearing from you all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER. Youre getting old. Before you know it youll be out here too. Love you. Do fun things.

To answer dads question.. on June 21st here in France is the Festival of Music. Everyone puts on concerts all over France and everyone like concert hops. Its a huge deal. So the Relief Society president asked me and Soeur Hilton to play the violin for the concert that they are going to put on that the members can invite their friends to. Of course I said yes but I was thinking that it would be like a song or too and wed just practice with the choir like a week or two before for a couple hours and call it good... but no. There are like infinite songs and they have practices all the time and I  have the hardest time saying no because we really cant spend three hours a week practicing with the choir.... oh well. I try my hardest to decide how my time is okay to spend with them. It will be over in a few weeks thank goodness.

My companion plugged in my toothbrush to the wrong voltage.. blew that out... I think I might buy a base here for my birthday.. ha awesome birthday present right?

Well GUESS WHAT???

President came to our district meeting this week and he really told us that we need to be bold. Not just to be bold in the way that we go up and talk to random people, but bold in following the spirit. He related us to Lehi and his dream how he saw an angel and was asked to follow him and then he was in darkness and eventually saw the "vision" of the tree of life and the field. We missionaries are spiritually edified in the morning with our studies and we follow the spirit by leaving the apartment and then we are out in the dark and we need to pray and keep working until we find the "vision."

Anyways I really took that to heart this week. We have been teaching Lucy, a peruvian, for like a year or so now. And she told me that she was thinking about baptism but that SHED tell us when she was ready. I kept having the idea come into my head about commiting her to a baptismal date, but shes told me everytime I ask her that its too early and that shell tell me. but the spirit kept telling me to pick a date. So we did. It was really cool as we were praying for a date, we both just felt wrong about it. Then we like LANDED on the right date. 27th of July. We both felt good about it. So we were bold in the spirit and asked her to be baptized. ha of course she said yes.. I dont know why I was worried, but the funny thing was, was that she was totally out of town on the 27th but that shed like to do it on the 20th. I have no idea why the spirit told us that date, but he did and we did exactly what he told us to do even though it didnt work out like we thought it would. Maybe if we would have said the 20th, like we had originally planned, she would have said no.... who knows.

But then we also set a baptismal date with MANDAL. Tugsuu's friend from the hospital. Its just like my first transfer. About this same time we had a baptismal date with raymonde who knew the church for about a year and Tugsuu, a mongolian that just found the church! Ha its so perfrect and were so excited.

Family Home Evening

Speaking of Tugsuu.. I was just kinda down this week. I think I was just tired or something but I realized that I wasn't smiling and that I was being super serious and that it was rubbing off on Tugsuu. She actually almost got kicked out of her home and that is a story in itself... ha me trying to find a place for her to live in France... just try to imagine my panic and the broken phone calls I made... luckily she worked things out with her brother... but she was all down and I had decided to be happy for her and I told her to go home and just read the BOM.... and she did!! She called me and she said... SISTER KOHLERT. I KNOW ITS TRUE. All of the sudden I am happy. All of a sudden I feel this joy. I am never going to be sad again. THANK YOU SISTER KOHLERT for giving me this mormon book. Thank you for teaching me. I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't found you. Thank you.....



Marie's Birthday Party....hoping to get new contacts.


That phone call right there made my mission worth it. I also got to explain to her that she IS going to be sad again because that is just life, but that she can always find joy in reading the Book of Mormon. It was probably the best ewperience to date of my mission.


Well I love you all! Stay awesome and work hard. I love you.

Sœur Kohlert