The End!

Week 74: I look back, and only see a field of roses

Hey family.

I can't believe that this is my last email!!! I seriously can't believe it. My dear friend Soeur Linton and I were talking and we realized that it has taken us 21 years and 18 months of a mission to really understand the gospel. And I can tell you, after all of the miles walked, doors knocked and the tears shed, that this gospel is true.

I am sorry that this email is going to be short, I had to deal with a lots of logistics and time is running short. But I just had to tell you that I know that the church is true. My mission has been the toughest, yet most rewarding experience of my life I have seen the hand of God everyday. I KNOW that He is there and that He loves us. I know that His love changes lives. It has changed mine and I have seen it change others. I KNOW that trials are necessary to bring us closer together and closer to HIM. 

Escargo!

I know that He gives us commandments because He loves us and He WANTS us to be happy. His commandments are simply there for our protection and growth. I have seen how families are blessed as they live by them and I have also seen families who struggle because of a lack of simple effort. 

Ha I've learned that all I need is 3 suitcases, a violin, and the gospel. Truly anything is possible through the atonement.

Soeur Nielson shared a parable with me that I love and I can testify that its true. A mission is like walking through a field of roses. As you are crossing, it is full of pain from the thorns scraping your body, but as you get to the end and look back, all you see is a sea of beautiful, red roses. Its so true. As I look back I don't really remember the trials and heartaches. Yet the sweet moments, that seem to be always accompanied by the spirit, are so vivid and so full of joy. 

 

I love my mission. I would never do it again, but I don't regret a second of it. I love it. If it weren't for you all, I would never want to leave it.

I LOVE YOU and Ill see you next week!!

Soeur Kohlert

Week 73: Just one proud and grateful missionary

Hey there e'rybody!

What an amazing week. Time is not slowing down one bit and my emotions are seriously ALL OVER THE PLACE. My "last times" are starting and i cant seem to find the breaks for the tears either. 

Sisters in Our Zone Going Home this Month

so GRANDMA! I got to have dinner with Marie Joseph, the mom of Beatrice, the french lady that you met in Saint George and her daughter Matilde. The first time that I saw her the first thing she said was, "I don't want to be converted." Haha I reassured her by letting her know that I just wanted to get to know her because of the crazy small coincidence that we just experienced (which i believe was completely planned out by the Lord). Anyways as we were eating, she told me that her grandson was going to be married in the Redland, California temple on Saturday! Perfect gospel convo starter! Well it turns out that they didn't understand at all why they couldn't enter the temple! So we were able to explain and then they asked us all sorts of questions. We had a really great conversation and I really felt that they felt the spirit! I'll be sure to see them again during the next 2 weeks. Thank you grandma! For the referral!!

We were able to fix a baptismal date with a daughter of a partial member family! If all goes well she will be baptized on August 9th! :)

Sister Zane, my Companion

Our very intellectual investigator, Amélie, discovered that Joseph Smith had multiple wives this week which allowed me to dive into studying polygamy. As I was studying I hit multiple road blocks where things simply just didnt make sense to me. I got to experience what it is like to study and pray in order to truely understand the scriptures. The good news is that my testimony that Joseph Smith truely is a prophet of God was only strengthened while studying.

I had one of the sweetest moments of my mission this weekend. Fabienne, who was baptized about a month ago, bore her testimony to me during a lesson. As she spoke the spirit just testified to me that he was proud of my work and I was just SO grateful to have been able to be a TINSY part of Fabienne's conversion. In tears she explained to me how much she loves the Book of Mormon. She cited scriptures in 3rd Nephi and explained to me how they apply perfectly to her life. She told me how she is addicted to doing family history and that she just feels specifically attired to a specific ancestor (i have no doubt that its the spirit pulling her to research him, I think that she will come across something that will be really important). And she started sharing the gospel! She talked to her brother and dad and is sending the elders to see them! On saturday she is having a dinner with all of her friends and she is planning on annoucing her baptism to them. She said, "Sœur Kohlert, I know that they are going to think Im crazy and that I joined a cult, but I simply don't care. The church is true and I have to tell them. I have to tell them not only because I want them to have the same joy that I have, but because God wants me to do so." I bawled like a baby. I can't explain the happiness I felt and how humble I felt to see the power of God change a life.

I know that you know, but I just have to tell you again, I LOVE THIS WORK! I LOVE MY MISSION. The experiences as a missionary are just too sweet.

See you in 14 days, unreal.

Sœur Kohlert

Week 72: Please tell me you'll be here next week!

Soeur Nielson left me this week :( It was hard to say goodbye but I know that she is off to miraculous things in Toul (over by germany, congrats to damon by the way since the won the world cup!!). 

With Soeur Nielson sent off, I got to welcome my new companion. Soeur Tane. As I mentioned last week she is from Tahiti and she is just a ball of paradise. She is absolutely adorable and her smile is so bright. She wears extremely bright colors and braids her hair and always has a beautiful flower in it! She is teaching me tahitian dances and helping me with my french. Its been pretty cold here and Sister Tane is freezing. its the middle of july and she is wearing her snow coat, which she bought here of course. At the age of 24 she has never seen snow! We definitely dont come from the same part of the world!

So on Friday we received a call from the 2nd counselor of the bishopric... you know what the means, definitely giving a talk in church (it was nice to have a few days notice though!). I wasnt expecting to give my "farewell" talk so soon, but he said jokingly, kind of trying to persuade me to speak this week instead of later he said, "ya know what soeur kohlert, i think you should give your talk this week. maybe it will be so good and so spiritual that it will make the members want to work with you during your last 3 weeks." ha i laughed and agreed to speak.

I obviously wanted to do a good job and so i used every spare moment a could to prepare the talk, i even used my francophone companion to make my french made sense. I felt ready to go with what i thought was a strong departing talk! But of course, Heavenly Father had a different plan.

Right before I stood up to speak, i just felt sick about what i prepared and an experience from my mission kept coming to my head from the beginning of my mission, week 14 to be exact ha. So i set my notes aside and shared that experince and i felt good, like i had followed a spiritual prompting. That is definitely a feeling I have grown to love on my mission. 

After wards a ward member came up to me with tears in her eyes and expressed how much that story had touched her and how she had just been through a similar experience. She thanked me for the talk and we just went on our way. Then her husband approached me and said, "Soeur, your talk touched my wife so deeply that she just wants to have you over to teach this less active next sunday. Please oh please tell me that you will still be here." I was SO happy that i was able to say OUI!

Wow. I can honestly say that I'm trying to find the breaks to slow down the clock, but i cant seem to find them. Anyone got a hint? I am really not looking forward to the day when I am obliged to respond, "non". 

I just don't want my mission to end. 

I forgot my SD card so no pictures this week. Désolée. 

I love you all so much. Know that I think and pray for you often. à bientot!!

Soeur Kohlert

Week 71: "Mommy, I asked you that question yesterday!"

Thank you so much everyone for you emails! I love hearing from you! 

This week was a wonderful week! We started out by going to Brussels to meet our new President! President Babin and his wife are just WONDERFUL! I honestly felt their love for us as they spoke to us for the first time. They did a wonderful job at bringing the spirit. I truely did feel God's love for me. 

A little update on Sœur Nielson, after the death of her grand-father, things are going much better! She made it through the first difficult few days and she is stronger and more motivated than ever. 

Unfortunately this week is transfers and she will be leaving me to go south. I will be receiving a new companion on Wednesday. Her name is Soeur Tane (tan-ay). She is from Tahiti!! Their culture is extremely different from ours and so the last four weeks of my mission will be interesting!!! She speaks french and so I'll get to polish of my french right before I go home :)

This week Fabienne gave us a scare. We weren't able to get ahold of her all week and one time we saw her at the metro and she just waved and kept walking. We were so nervous that something had happened since her baptism. We waited for her by the door at chuch and she didnt came. We went to sit down as the meeting started. RIGHT before the opening hymn she walked in :) Such a blessing and relief. She had just had a busy week. We were able to start her family history and she is so excited about it! 

Speaking of family history we were able to use Sister Pack and her passion with family history to get one of our recent converts started on her family history from Africa. It was motivating and wonderful to listen to Sister Packs testimony. 

On the metro last week as we were going to a meeting, I was sitting next to a mother with her daughter on her lap. The daughter asked her mom what my plaque was... perfect oppurtunity. I explained who I was and got a little discussion started. I felt prompted to talk about the Plan of Salvation and gave them the PoS pamphlet. I told them that it talks about "Why we are where, where we came from, and where we are going." Right when I finished the sentance the girl gasped and looked at her mother. She said, "Mom, I asked you that question yesterday and you weren't able to respond!" The mom confirmed the daughters story and explained that they had lost their daughter in her early twenties about 8 months ago. Naturally her daughter posed her those questions and she admitted that she was not able to respond. She found it as a sign from God that I was there ready to answer them. We will see them on Tuesday.

I love this work. So many miracles happen daily. I love you all!

Have a wonderful week

Soeur Kohlert

Week 70: We like to move. We like, we like to move.

Um hey :)

Hi.

Salut.

This week has been definitely different but lovely! I have worn pants more this week than during my whole entire mission combined. Good thing some sister left some jeans that fit just right in the apartment because I have sure been using them all of the time!! There is a wonderful family in the ward that just needed help remodeling their new house and getting out of their old one! Us, along with the elders have spent loads of time painting and boxing and cleaning! It has been such a joy to do such wonderful service for a ward family that helps us so much. Giving back just simply feels so good! 

Remodeling

Other than that we have been doing lots of finding. 

And more finding

And more finding! 

We have been trying our best to keep our heads high as we've been relying wholly on the Lord; 

So Grandma Spilker gave us a refferal here in Villeneuve D'Ascq from a french girl that moved into her ward!! The girl is named Beatrice and her mom lives just down the street from our chapel. We went and stopped by and we were able to talk to Beatrice's sister, Matilde. We will be going back later this week to meet MJ, the mom. Tell Beatrice thank you for the referral. They were so kind and so surpised with the coincidence. 

We were getting ready for our baptism when an american family from Pleasant Grove walked in! They are here for 6 weeks doing geneogoly. Heather Pack is the mom and she has an incredible story. I highly recommend looking up her blog. I'm not sure how you'll find it. Maybe next week I'll have a link for you. The daughter is named Alice and is Stephanie's friend. Its been great to get to know them. Ive been translating and just chatting with them LOADS. Ha, getting me ready for home. 

Fabienne's baptism was just beautiful. We got to play a musical number and the elders sang as well. Fabienne hasnt been able to sleep all week because she is so excited; The baptism was flawless and an 18 year old boy in the ward was able to baptise her. It was his first one and he was really excited. Fabienne bore a strong testimony at her baptism and it just made me feel so happy and proud to be one of the Lord's missionaries. I dont think I'm ready to go home. 

We recieved some hard new yesterday morning. My companion's grandpa passed away. She was really close with him and so in order to keep her mind of things we have just been trying to keep REALLY busy. I just feel so bad for her. But she keeps going as if nothing every happened. She is so strong and I really admire her. Please pray for her!

I love you all and we're going to go meet the new president tomorrow! We got to talk to him a bit when he called Soeur Nielson, but I'm excited to talk face to face!

I hope you have a LOVELY week!

Soeur Kohlert

Week 69: Baptism. What more can you ask for?

What a beautiful week!

We started off by celebrating my birthday with Ashna and Diksha. They made some delicious Maurician food for us!! Mmmm Mmm good. She was so excited for her baptism as we taught her the last lesson.

Can't Believe I'm 22!

Happy Birthday 22!

Tuesday we took a trip up to Brussels for our last Zone Conference with President and Soeur Poznanski. As a gift to them 4 musical numbers were prepared as a surprise. I was lucky to be able to play a duet of I Know that My Redeemer Lives with Soeur Bennion on the flute. The poznanskis were really touched. It was so sad to say goodbye to them, but we are all excited for the new president to come this week. We are getting ready spiritually to accept any changes that may occur!

We got to profit a little bit in Belgium. We of course got some famous waffles and stopped by the Grand Place and Mannaken Pis. He was all dressed up in a Belge jersey for the world cup. That was our exciting non missionary related adventure of the week!

Soeur Dufossé, the one that Sister Nielson had the inspiration to call last week CAME TO CHURCH!!! For the first time in over a year. She normally needs help walking down the stairs of her appartment, so the RS president went to go pick her up with her 2 sons for church. When they got there the door was broken and they couldnt get in from the outside. But because Soeur Dufossé really wanted to go to church.. She braved the stairs by herself!!!! It was scary but I was impressed that she took such a risk to come to church!

Things are going smoothly with Fabienne! She is totally soaring and is ready for her baptism on the 28th. We taught her a little bit about baptims for the dead and she said, "Man, I really wish that we could do baptisms for the living." I think she really understands the importance.

Well because many of our investigators our being passed to the elders, we've had some finding time!! We didnt want to just go to some random place and knock doors for ours. So, we decided to rely on the Lord. We each took 20 minutes and prayed about where to go. We wrote the city down on seperate pieces of paper to show eachother after we'd finished. It was so nerve racking but we both had confidence that God would guide us... and if worse comes to worse than we would just have 2 cities to knock doors in. Well at the end of the 20 minutes we nervously exchanged papers... and guess what! THEY WERE THE SAME! Hem. Hem is the city we were supposed to go to! 

So we did! We found so many potentials and taught 3 lessons in about an hour and a half. We hope some more miracles will come of that this next week.

As for the baptism, it was just so wonderful. Diksha looked so bright and happy in her white dress. There were 2 other baptisms going on at the same time so there were so many members there to celebrate with us and support her. The night before the baptism, her nephew, Ashna's son, came down with the fever. She said that she prayed that it would go away and he woke up with as good of health as ever! 

Diksha's Baptism

I love this work and I love the Lord.

And I love you!

Soeur Kohlert

Week 68:And God Scores Again: He Always Fulfills Our Righteous Goals

Happy Father's day yesterday dad!! I love you so much and I hope that it was just wonderful!!

This week has been crazy and emotional! But it was full of wonderful family home evenings with members and investigators! 

Girls We Met on the Metro

Ha well, the week started out wonderfully with a FHE hosted by us because the member backed out last minute. We made pizza and cookies. It was with Fabienne and she is just soooo amazing! She understands the Plan of Salvation so well!! She understands and uses repentance better than I do! She was so excited and ready to accept the law of tithing when we taught her as well. She came to church and was just bawling during sacrament meeting as a sweet sister testified of the importance of her family and how much the gospel has blessed them. The spirit was so strong and fabienne is just so cute and sensitive to it. 

Remember how our mission has a goal of 125 baptisms before the new president comes on July 1st?? Well we are at 72 of the 125 and have over 40 dates set for the end of the month, one of which is Fabienne. Her brother ended up needing her help on the day of her baptism, June 28th, the last saturday before the goal deadline. As she was explaining the situation I was so sad.. of course I was happy that she would just be moving it back by one week. BUT as she continued the story she said, "I told my brother that I was busy on the 28th. I received a sign from God that I need to be baptized on the 28th of June and so I will just have to help him the next weekend!"

What a blessing. The Lord truely does help us achieve our goals as we set them and work for them sincerely!

Update on Diksha: She is just doing wonderfully! We got her program and everything all ready to go! She has had most of the major lessons and she just cant wait to be baptized. She touches my heart every time I see her as she thanks me fore putting her on the "bon chemin".. good path. She will be  baptized on Saturday the 21st. 

We had a little trial this week. Our zone leaders split our area between the three companionships of Villeneuve D'Ascq. President asked us to only work with the members and investigators in the new area. It was really hard to hear, especially since we are loosing all of our investigators and less actives except for 2 less actives. Our schedule is going to go from extremely packed to NOTHING. We are passing everyone and recieving 1 person. After discussing this a little longer, we all decided that we can continue teacher diksha and fabienne at least till their baptisms and one other investigator that is a single 22 year-old female to avoid any problems.Sister Nielson and I know that president is inspired and we are excited to face on this new challenge together! We know that we will see miracles as we focus on finding and starting from ground 0 with rebuilding up our teaching pool. Maybe we'll just be able to find a family and help the mission in obtaining our goal of 125! Pray for us?

We also had our cute Armenian family at church. The kids went and sang with the primary for Father's day. too adorable.

I just wanted to leave you with a tender experience that Sister Nielson and I had together this week. We were walking in an area and Sister Nielson had the thought to pass by. We didnt really have the time so we called. The Less Active answered: "Is this the sisters?? Ive been trying to get ahold of you all day!"

I love following the spirit

Went to the Zoo for P-Day on my Birthday

I love you all!

Week 67: Wow, that worked better than I thought it would!

Quoi de neuf???

Well another week here in France has come and gone! The weather is insane and we got to experience being fried and freezing. It was a blast let me tell ya...

Ha but Yesterday we had an awesome conference for our area of europe! Elders Uchtdorf and Nelson spoke to us. It was so wonderful and uplifting! I learned that we are planting and watering seeds and the Lord, He is harvesting! There are so many miracles happening and His work is moving forward everywhere!!

Lille included :)

We met with Ashna and Diksha. They are the sisters from the island Maurice. We felt the spirit so strong as we were teaching Diksha and we invited her to be baptised! She said no at first. After asking a few questions she came out and told us (mind you Diksha has kept the Word of Wisdom and the Laaw of Chastity her whole life), "Well I dont want to be baptised because I think that even after my baptism I'll want to go out and have fun." Ha she litterally thought that we don't go out and have fun. Well after we cleared up that problem she became SO EXCITED to be baptized. 

Ashna and Diksha

She fixed herself a date earlier than we had intended, the 21st of JUNE! And then she just was beaming! The spirit was so apparent in her and she like made her baptismal program right away. President has always asked us to fix dates with our members so that they can have a goal and a vision. He has promised that if we do it we will see miracles and i have throught out my mission... but with Diksha it was just so quick and so appartent!!! Everytime after we saw her she was just glowing. She started to understand so much better and she was STUDYING and really PRAYING! It was seriously a miracle. She gave me the cutest note the other day thanking me for putting her on the right path. 

We also had another miracle with an investigator named Amélie. She just wasn't progressing. We ended up sending her a REALLY bold text and she came to conference thanking us for the message. She was now ready to LEARN and she is progressing well. She said no to a baptismal date but I wouldn't be surprised if we fix one this week.

Fabienne is doing wonderfuly. The ward is incredible and are really helping her to overcome her fears with her family. We work with more than one member everyday! Fabienne is still on track for her baptism on the 28th.

Also Marie from St. Quentin ended up surprising me at stake conference! Her and Sister Kimball brought up my old investigator! So I got to see them all and it was so wondeful! And Colten's sister!

Sister Kimball and Colton's Sister at Conference

Marie at Conference

I hope that you all have an incredible week! I simply just wish that I had all of the time in the world to tell you all of the miracles I see every week! THERE IS JUST NOT ENOUGH TIME!!

Je vous aime tous!

Sœur Kohlert

Week 66: Are You Sure You're Fabienne?

Salut! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!! I just can't believe how old you are!! I hope the family spoils you and that you have way way way too much fun!!

So before I forget, MAKE SURE TO WRITE SOEUR Kohlert on my mail because my name is not on the box... so anything without the word SOEUR on it will not make it to me. If youre worried just send it to the mission home!

I also just had to tell everyone that Sister Brandenburg (Colten's sister) replaced me in St Quentin.. soooo cool. AND Elder Davis, another one of my friends from that ward in Seattle is our new AP! WAHOO

Okay so I just love Lille. Its so crazy to be back in the same place that I lived seven years ago. As we are walking around I keep remembering things that happened in these same places but in completely different circumstances. We are busy busy busy and it reminds me of the beginning of my mission in Rennes, RUNNING AROUND EVERYWHERE! I love it. Its so nice to have people to see!! And we have a metro again!! I LOVE THE METRO. Finding on the metro is one of my favorite things so im a happy camper.

My companion is a 19 year-old from Kaysville Utah. Her name is Sister Nielson and she is just wonderful. She is a civil engineering student at USU and we get along great! She is so good at french that I would have never have guessed that she just got done being trained last week! We live with two other sisters. Its the first time that I've lived in a four-man apartment, but I really like it alot.. except for I'm not sleeping as much; and therefore I'm exhausted! Just thought I'd tell you that!

Oh boy oh boy.... have we been seeing miracles. So you know how I've been trying to be healthy? Well I cracked. On day one we decided to get a Kebab and we started talking to this group of students. Well the conversation ended naturally when our food came out and we ate seperately. Then I heard one of the girls say to the group "Hey, Im going to go see the mormon church down the street, you can come if you want to."  Well of course I told her that we'd give her a tour cause she can't get in without us and our key! Ha so we showed her around and had an amazing first lesson with the whole group. We testified that if she would read and pray about the BOM she would receive an answer and know that this is Christs church.. she said "I sure do hope so". We're meeting with her again on Friday. Noria.

I met the ward and they are just wonderful!! We get invited very frequently and the ward really does take care of all of us 6 missionaries!!! There are 6 in our ward (Villeneuve D'Ascq) and 6 in the afternoon ward (Lille). AKA this place is a gold mine! Im excited to get to know them all better and its sooo fun because I know lots of them thanks to Soeur Vance!

Day number two was just wonderful! We taught an amie named Christelle! She is so adorable and we were able to set a date with her for August 23rd.. ya after my mission is over... but thats ok. Shell probably need to get married first. We set the date thanks to a member (ya i told you they were great) who compared the baptismal date to an exam date... you won't study until you know that they time is approaching! Christelle accepted the date!! Waho Wonderful Fabulous!

So after lots of fun and exciting work... which hopefully we will see the fruits of very soon, we got to go to church. Well we always like to get there a bit early and stand by the door to great the members as they come in. Well as we were doing so, an Excommunicated Polish Member (its capatalized because it is his official name considering he only speaks like 5 words of french and 5 words of english and so no one knows his real name) comes up to me and gives me a HUGE bouquet of flowers.... haha welcome to Villeneuve D'Ascq Soeur Kohlert... I felt soooo awkward walking around church with them. He ended up getting a little more creepy as he proceeds to take pictures nonstop of all of us missionaries.. from all angles... that was fun. Ill send some pictures.

Beautiful Floweres from the "Exommunicated Polish Member"

Ok well to finish off this GINORMOUS email.. I need to tell you about someone named Fabienne. So about twi weeks ago, the sisters here found a Fabienne in the park. They fixed a rendez vous forthis Saturday and like good missionaries we texted her to confirm. She called us back and changed it to Sunday. Sweet shes commited. So on Sunday we walk up and Sister Nielson didn't really recognize her.. she asked, "Are you Fabienne?" She said ya! So we gave her a church tour and she said "I know, I know, Ive been to church lots of times"... WHAT? Well it turns out that we had accidently called an old investigator named Fabienne. She was taught by my trainer a year and a half ago and had a date but backed out because of her family. While talking to her she expressed to us how AWFUL she felt after she left.. She took that as her answer. She knew it was true... And therefore she was sooo happy when we called her. It was her second chance. We fixed a date for the 28th of June. She will be one of the 125 if all goes well. What a miracle. Isn't God just funny?

I love you. I love my mission. Im so tired. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in the next two months as I give it my all!!

Soeur Kohlert

I'd love to hear from you all still!!!

Week 65: OUI! We HAVE to finish this!

Dear Family and Friends,

:) Um well this has been a very interesting week. Not only was the weather CRAZY (some days we were soaked and some days I came home a little toasted) but so was the work!

I did found out that I am being transfered on Wednesday!! I am going to LILLE!!! That is sooo cool!!!! That is where I did my study abroad 7 years ago! There are two wards because its a big city. I will be serving in Villeneuve D'Ascq.. Ville-nuh-v-dask. Hopefully that helps you know how to pronouce that! Sister Vance served there and so did my future roommate Sister Wynn. They both absolutely LOVED it and I am excited!! I will be serving with a Sister Amy Nelson. She is in her 3rd, so she is just finished with her training. My new address is:

Soeur Kohlert

105, boulevard Montebello D404

59000 Lille

FRANCE

So this week started off with SICKNESS! Not fun. I got food poinsoning for the second time in 2 weeks. I spent all day just trying to not be miserable. Im still suffering from the effects of it (sounds so dramatic when put like that) and its not too fun. But that's allright :)

We got to work lots with Sidonie's sister Assia. She is so adorable and really wants to learn and get to know God. We had set a date with her at one point, but as of now her mom wont let her be baptized. She came to church for all 3 hours and its becoming really good friends with the young woman. We're not sure how things will work out because she comes from a rough family, but she was definitely a miracle for us this week.

Assia and I

We also had some INCREDIBLE lessons with Alphonsine! She is really really progressing. She is reading and coming to church and learning and loving it. There was one point during one of our lessons with her where I got to experience the gift of tongues. The words fell so perfectly from my mouth. It was so soft, yet so powerful and the spirit was unmistakable. Incredible. I felt so blessed to experience that. Last time we talked with her about the atonement, we talked about justice and mercy and read the story with the creditor. If you dont know it I highly recommend it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdc8rKcc4t4. At the end we asked if we could come back sooner than we normally do. With tears in her eyes she said "yes yes, we MUST finish the plan of salvation." She is thinking about a baptismal date. :)

Family Membre'

Well I love you all! I must get going to pack!

Stay amazing!

Love,

Sister Kohlert

Week 64: I guess God prepares His missionaries

Hello family!! 

Its a beautiful day here in France! Like gorgeous. And Im excited to tell you about the wonderful week that I had!

Do you remember Sidonie? Marie's student? Well we were able to teach her again this week and it was again an incredible lesson! She remembered everything that we had taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she brought two of her friends! They are also Marie's students and they are twins. Normally that struggle sitting and listening and school.. but for the whole 45 minutes they were with us they were still and understood everything! They were loving it and they seem interested as well! Sidonie also come to church and brought her 12 year old sister who wants to "learn more about Jesus". We talked to them about baptism and they said that they would do it before the end of the summer! They even started to plan who they would invite! Miracles happening in St. Quentin!!

We taught Alphonsine 2x this week and it was incredible! We decided to go Extremely slowly throught the Plan of Salvation. We talked about each sentence in the brochure through the Fall. It was incredible. We found bible and BOM scriptures to go with each sentence. Her questions were so great and I learned while teaching HER! Her testimony is coming!

I am not sure if I told you, but I have an investigator that was raped earlier this year. In the coming days she has to talk about it in a room with only the violator and the police. Her parents are not allowed to be there at all to support her. She breaks down frequently because she doesn't think that she will be able to do it on her own. Normally, because im a fairly cold hearted person as those who know me know, I would probably be very unsympathetic. Im sure in my head i would be sying things like "just suck it up and tell what happened, you have to do it so just deal with it." Well I had an experince before my mission that softed me enough to be able to really sympathize with Jenny...

I was trying to sell my BYU housing contract so that I could leave on a mission. I had found a UVU student who was willing to buy it and I was so excited.. especially because of the age change, there were tons of girls selling their contracts. Well, even though I had boughten my contract from a UVU student, my landlord would not let me sell it to her because she did not go to BYU. I of course decided to take it to BYU mediation. I was to work the problem out with the Landlord (he would be speaking over the phone). Throughout the mediation I felt completely attacked by my landlord with so many lies. I found my self completely overwhelmed and sobbing to the point where it was difficult for me to think let alone talk! The landlord forbade my parents to speak so that sat at my sides passing me notes of what to say. It was one of the most stressful and painful experiences of my life. I remember saying a prayer with my parents during a 10 minute break.... 

And now, I can only think of my poor investigator. My mediation was over money.. and hers is over something much more precious... And she has to be in the same room as the man that stole this precious thing from her and she CANT have her parents at her side. I cant imagine and I feel so much for her. I pray so strongly that she will be able to find the strength that she needs in order to face what she needs to face. Of course, we told her to pray. Please keep her in your prayers even though I cant tell you her name!!!

Ah well there are so many more miracles from the week! The parents of a non active named Olivia moved in this week. The mom is a member and the dad is not! I dont have time to tell you what happened, but hopefully next week ill be able to tell you! We definitely think he will be baptized with in the next few months! Im just so sad that I won't be here to see all of this!!

This is an elder from Guatamala who was in my old Lux district at Zone Conference

Transfers are next week and I am pretty sure ill be moving. So if you send anything send it to the mission home and not to ST Q!

I love you all,

Sister Kohlert

Week 63: Bonne Fête des Mères

Hi family!! 

Happy mothers day mommy!! I love you so much and it was so wonderful and SO HARD to talk to you all yesterday! I just wanted to jump through the screen to be with you! I miss you all sooo much!!

So I already told you lots about this week yesterday so this email will be short and sweet! I attached a picture of our wonderful cow milking outfit and that fish that we saw being devouered in ways that I didn't know were possible on Saturday by the Niamké family. Ha, I forgot to tell you that just hours before the African FEAST we ate a Peruvian FEAST! They were both so delicious... but my stomach FLIPPED out this morning. It was a small price to pay :)

Lovely Cow Milking Outfit

Whole Fish with Skin and Eyes....Sick!!1

This week was just so wonderful. We saw SO MANY less actives and recent converts this week and we saw miracles with them!! One of them who is the most dearest to our hearts opened up and explained why she hasn't been coming to church. It was such a blessing because she really has a great connection with Sister Kimball. I know that we are placed where we are for a reason! Well to make a long story short... SHE CAME TO CHURCH! We were so happy we couldnt even contain ourselves. I love the mission and I love helping people come closer and learn more of how they can find, or refind, real true happiness in their lives. 

We also made some headway with Alphonsine! We were on an an exchange with the sister training leaders so unfortunately I wasn't able to be at the lesson.. But she came to church with her 7-year-old son Andi.. WHO LOVED IT and she said that if her family doesn't agree with her baptism by July, she will do it anyway!! :) Love her!!

We were also so blessed to have an amazing lesson with Sidonie and Jean-Claude.. One of Marie's students and her cousin. We asked them what they remembered from the last lesson.. and they only receited it perfectly back to us!! They said that they are started to believe more and more in God! Then we taught them the Plan of Salvation... And we got through the whole thing with much detail!! It was incredible! Their questions were sincere and they absolutely loved what we had to teach them about God and His plan! Then at the end we invited them to be baptized if they knew it was true... They said that they had already thought about it and they said YES!!!

I love being a missionary.

Thank you for everything that you have all done for me!! I love you soooo much!!

Sœur Kohlert

Week 62: Happy Baptism... 1 of the 125

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my most amazing sister NICOLE!!! 20 years old... getting old!!! I hope your birthday is wonderful. I love you and miss you!

This week started out crazily with a Paris P-day and a conference the next day in Paris. We talked lots about faith and being obedient so that we can call down the powers of heaven and reach our goal of 125 baptims in three months and before July 1st. As a mission we have 35 as of today so we have lots of work left to do! I am excited to work hard and experince this miracle during my last few months (three as of today to be exact.. Crazy) as a missionary.

Pday -A Kitty Drinking the Milk that We Just Milked

A Yummy Restaurant in Paris

This week we lived a many wonderful miracles and I would just LOVE to share some with you!

Isabela's baptism was beautfiful and so full of the spirit. She was so happy and just kept saying THANK YOU THANK YOU with a huge smile on her face! I love her. She said that the night after her baptism she slept sooo well... that is called spiritual exhaustion that I am learning LOTS about on my mission ha. She had a dream and saw someone dressed in white. She received the Holy Ghost the next day and was promised many blessings, for her and her 2 little children (who just love us by the way).

Isabela's Baptism

We had an amazing lesson with Alphonsine this week on obedience, authority, and eternal life.. random topics I KNOW but they all fit together so well and the spirit was SO STRONG. We were all in tears at different points throughout the lesson. She is still working on the coffee thing. She came to the baptism along with her son Andi and they loved it. Andi said... "Mom if you are baptized I am going to cry." Alphonsine reacted as though the day wouldn't be far off and we took the oppurtunity to explain to Andi that he was feeling the Holy Ghost.

After the baptism we decided to go past a lady that Sister Vance and I had found exactly three weeks earlier before Isabelle's baptism. When we had found her, we tried to figure out where she lived but we weren't sure.. So we fixed a rendez vous at the church and she never came. So SIster Kimball and I decided to go knock the road that we thought she might live on. Well, we were at the stop on our way and the bus driver stopped.. but left as we were walking up to the door... so not cool. So we decided to walk.. i mean she lives on the opposite side of St. Quentin but it's so small that it only took us like a half hour, if that. Well, we knocked two doors and then saw a big apartment building that we thought she might live in. We weren't sure how we'd get in but it just happened to be open... :) We look at the mailboxes and we see a VICTORIA CORBEAU.. that has to be her. We started to walk but the stairs to knock on her door and guess who walks out from another apartment and runs straight into us... Victoria. I am grateful for Heavenly Father and his timing. What a HUGE miracle. If we would have been any earlier or ANY later, we would have completely missed her! SO INCREDIBLE!

So I only have time to share one more miracle with you. On Easter we ate with a member family named the MEMBRés. I love them. We fixed a family missionary plan with them and they were to work with 4 families and we were to all pray every day for them. One of them is named Sophie. Bro Membré set up a lunch with her where he decided to just start asking personal questions. She ended up breaking down in tears and telling him how unhappy she is with life, living alone and just unhappy and she feels like she has missed her chance to live a happy life. She leaves to go smoke and calm down and brother membre is thinking.. "oh no, what have i done... i just made her break down." She comes back and says,

"ya know what I wanna be? I want to become Christian.

I want to have that love and light that the Christians have."

And Heavenly Father opens the door once again.

I know that we are not perfect but that Heavenly Father uses his spirit to turn our efforts to reach out to his children into exactly what is needed.

I love you. I love my mission. Only 13 weeks left and I cant wait to talk to you all on Mother's day!

I LOVE YOU ALL GROS BISOUS!