Week 52: Milking Cows and a Walk Back in Time to Eléonore

Hey family :)

This past week was simply amazing! Sorry for the late email by the way, we had some lessons yesterday so we just moved half of P-day! 

So this week just started out wonderfully! We finished P-day by seeing some caves that soldiers from World War I and II stayed in. They are right by Marie's house and there are all sorts of cool carvings and remnants from the war: shoes, tanks, tires, and chains. The first African-American troop was actually stationed there and they engraved their troop number on the walls. It was a blast and you know how much I love history so it was too rad. Then we went to teach Marie's non-member grandma. The spirit was so strong as she shared an experience that Marie had never heard. She then fed us way too well and we got to saw her museum-like home! She is an incredible painter and every inch of her walls are covered in her work. Breathe taking.

Cave Where Soldiers Stayed in WWI and WWII

Maria's Grandma's House....Look, I'm an Artist

On Tuesday we did finding ALL DAY LONG. It was pretty rough cause it started to really rain and be cold, but Soeur Vance made it easy to have a great attitude and we ended up having fun and finding some awesome potentials, one of which became an investigator later in the week AND whose friend was there for the lesson. It turned out that the friend is actually more interested than her! Love how God works. We did get to have dinner with the awesomest couple in St Quentin. The Lamours. They used to own a french restaurant in SLC so we fine dined. They were hilarious and it was a great and yummy ending to a rough day.

Wednesday we said goodbye to Georgette :( She is going on vacation till after transfers and so we were so sad to have to say goodbye to the woman who has taught us so much about french cuisine. She is amazing! We also visited the same old grumpy less active that we visit every week.... BUT GUESS WHAT? She was happy to see us this time! She participated in the lesson and smiled and told US that we better come back! Definitely a mircale. Its insane how the spirit changes people. We did more finding that night and knocked into a athiest couple with 4 children. Of course, not interested at first but after talking to them a bit... it turns out they are and didnt know it! We talked to them for like 45 min and then set up a RDV for a few days later. We returned and they were sitting there waiting for us. When asked if they read the brochure we left them the dad replied, "i cant lie..." we thought he was going to say he didn't read it but thennnnn he said "I just read it a half hour ago and I don't know if I understand it all... but it remarked me that the fall was necessary and that Adam and Eve HAD to have eaten the fruit for us to know good and evil and to exist".... my mouth dropped. Holy Cow. The RDV was filled with loads of questions and their desire to learn. They have such great family values and I know that the Lord prepared them. JB and Sheona.

We turned one-year-old in the mission on Thursday.. it was a blast. we started out with district meeting where we had a wonderful nutella speculous cheesecake made by us and after doing some porting in a TINSY little town, WE WENT AND MILKED COWS! HOLY COW ha. They were huge! After fearfully rounding the cows, we cleaned the utters, started squirting the milk by hand, attached the pumps, and disinfected afterwards. We cleaned TONS of poo and fed the baby cows. It was SO FUN! We drank the milk after and it was weird to think about, but it actually tastes more like our milk in the states. It was a whole new world for Soeur Vance and I and we took more pictures than imaginable ha.

Happy One-Year OUT!

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Time to Milk the Cows!

Sorry, this is starting to get really long but I HAVE to tell you about this weekend. We had stake conference in Lille on Saturday and Sunday. So Sister Vance had a pen pal in high school that she refound while on her mission and visited them frequently when she served near Lille. We got to go visit them before conference on Saturday night and it was so cool to meet them! They were so nice! The conference was wonderful and Sister Vance had a hay day because she got to see all of her converts and members from her 1st ville.

A Beautiful Little Ville

I had regained contact earlier in the week with the dad of the foreign exchange family that I had stayed with in France in 2007. He accidently left his phone and computer at work in the Netherlands so I had lost contact right before we were going up to Lille for the conference, where they are from. Luckily mom and dad had also sent me the mom's number, so I called on Saturday night and they said that we could see them after the conference on Sunday! IT WAS SOO WEIRD TO SEE THEM AGAIN. The whole family was there, which is uncommon since Sara studies in Paris, and we went to visit Eléonore at her work. We talked lots about the church and Sara said she'd love to go to a youth activity in Paris! We have to go to Paris next week for leglity and she said we can meet up with her then!! SO COOL!

Eleonore, my exchange student and I

I love how the lord works. Its amazing. He always puts the poeple in the places that he needs them to be in so that His work can go forward! 

I love youu all and must go!

Soeur Kohlert

Week 51: You are His Valentin

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Fun Fact of the week: If you are a girl, then i hope that your valentine is a boy. Ha therefore you would use the masculine form of the word and he would be "your valentin" instead of valentinE. So will you please be my valentine/valentin?(: Merci!

Heavenly Father's love was ever so felt this week.

Well of course we had to do SOMETHING for Valentine's day :) I was super blessed to have received some cute letters from family and friends to make it super wonderful. Thanks! But we decided to heart attack our neighbor's door. Genious idea of Soeur Vance ha. We could hear Logan's reaction as he found it and he was HILARIOUS. Ha he like screamed and ran upstairs to grab his mom and they took like 1000 pictures. They said thank you in a beautiful text and we invited them to the ward Valentine's Day activity (which was sooo fun by the way. There were so many people that they had to set up another table!) They were unable to come but it was a great way to show them how much we truly do care for them.

Alexandra and Logan's Door

Oh update... the Niamké mom decided that she doesn't want the kids to be baptized or come to church :( sad day. The boys were so sad, but we still have hope and we know that the Lord has a plan that we just simply can't see!

Zone Conference in Paris

My First Croque Monsieur

This week we were able to go to Paris for interviews, conference, and legality. It was a blast and for our dinner break we were able to stop by an old church and we stayed with some sisters who live right next to the Grand Arch. Pretty cool and way too fun. While we were waiting in line at the Préfecture, we were able to talk to two BEAUTIFUL families and hand their info over to the Versaille missionaries. Heavenly Father really does love us and it was definitely a blessing but I JUST WANT TO GO SERVE IN VERSAILLE NOW! Ha!

More Friends at Zone Conference

More Friends at Zone Conference

So I had a first this week. I have talked with a many french athiest people, but I have NEVER been able to fix a return lesson.. ever. WELL I CAN'T SAY THAT ANYMORE! Classic Soeur Kohlert story, we started talking to this athiest dad and through a series of questions we were able to be bold and testify with the spirit. And at the end when we asked him if we could come back and teach him and his family.. he said YES! WHAA?? Ha I was just blown away. I know that I always just have to accept Heavenly Father's will, but I REALLY enjoyed His will at that moment in time!

Cool Picture

Saturday afternoon we were called and asked to teach the Relief Socitey lesson. We debated on whether or not to take some time to prepare for it instead of porting. Soeur Vance and I thought that we should. So we did and we were able to find some quotes to accompany the lesson of "Strengthening and Preserving the Family" from the Joseph Fielding Smith manual. We were also able to relate the family to the mission and our brains started turning a bit. Well on Sunday we taught the lesson and because of the discussion we had previously had, I asked a question that I would have not otherwise thought of. And an incredible discussion was sparked. The spirit was strong as the mothers were sharing their worries and their joys about being a mother. May of these women have children who have decided to not follow the gospel and their thoughts and emotions were moving. But then a disagreement arrived. Sister Vance nor I knew what to say, but we both knew without communicating exactly which quote to share and who should read it. I thought I'd share it with you:

“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never taught more comforting doctrine—that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God.”^{8 Orson F Whitney}

What a blessing that is. Heavenly Father loves us. He is working on us and will ever continue working even after we have chosen to not follow. I'm grateful for the temple and for the fact that I am sealed to my parents. I hope that we can all work hard now so that Heavenly Father HAS to keep his promise and that we WILL all live together again. Its up to us! Are you in?

You are His Valentin/Valentine! Is He yours?

Sister Kohlert

Week 50: Teaching a Lesson on the Front Row

Hello family! I just adore you all and just get so excited every week to get to hear from you!!

So the week started off wonderfully. We found 2 new amis.. but for the elders! Ha one of which was a super old man. The elders went to the rendez vous and he wasn't there. They think he's dead because he is ALWAYS there. Poor guy

We started our exchange on Tuesday with Sister Finneran (a girl who I took a french class with at BYU) and Sister Wade. All 4 of us went into the MTC together so that was just too fun. We found a woman that was really just angry and not interested at first.. but of course like the classic missionary story, after talking for like 45 minutes and sharing our testimonies with her, we were able to pray with her and leave her with a BOM. It was crazy because right when she started to hold the book, her countenance just like changed. It was seriously a miracle. She believes that we need to believe more in men than in some superficial God... it comes to find out that she has a handicapped daughter whom we were able to pray for.

The Exchange Crew

Great Way to Contact.....Sing and Play in the Street

The next day we were on the bus and we started by contacting this older woman... then another older lady started talking to me. So we were both talking to someone. THEN this arab man got on and just started STARING at me.. Like super creeperly.... and he came up and in english asked if we taught english. I said no because we don't do that anymore. He said no, no, not for me for my sons, they are at school right now and I know how important it is form them to learn English... Well I figured it couldn't hurt to serve them and I noticed that his wife was sitting next to him with their daughter, whom I couldn't see before. So I gave them my info and started talking again to the former lady. But then he came up AGAIN and this time the lady got off and in my head I'm thinking "there goes my new investigator..." ha but he was like " you're mormon right? You do geneology? Can you help me find my ancestors???" Well it was just kind of a crazy bus ride and I gave him our info and he said he'd talk to his wife and call me.. But it was just super bizzare! Geneology is a GREAT missionary tool and I need to use it more often!

My Companion Looks Like an Arab

Our one progressing investigators decided to go to Italy for two weeks.. so sad. She said that she never lets people come talk to her about religion but just felt something really good with us.. thats the holy ghost folks. It was interesting because something similar happened last night with another woman who said she was so excited to see missionaries because in Ghana she remembered the missionaries coming to teach her family. Those missionaries may never know that their efforts lead to us teaching her now!

Alexandra, the neighbor, is doing well. We haven't been able to teach her but she said that she prayed to God and told him how blessed she feels to have met us. Keep praying for her.

Well Saturday night, after a fun missionary youth activity of ping pong, we started thinking about using those basketball tickets that Darnell Williams gave us the previous Monday (i think i told you about him). When we talked to him he was with his mom who was super friendly and we talked to them about the church. Well he said that there would be two tickets at the desk under our names and that he wasnt sure if he could get us seats next to his mom, but hed try. Well we felt like we should go and at least see if we can even see the mom, and if not, just leave. We trusted the spirit would let us know. WELLL the tickets were for the FRONT row and guess who was sitting there waiting for us.. THE MOM! We walked up and she was like "OH (talking to the wives of all the players) THESE ARE THE SISTER MISSIONARIES that I was telling you all about." We were SO glad that we went because they were seriously expecting us! We were able to talk to 3 families and invite them to the ward activity. We got Darnell's wife's number and were able to share a bit about our message. Ha it was amazing and we really felt good about being there. It was weird because I expected to feel uneasy, but it wasn't like that at all. Such an amazing miracle to me! Ha so it was fun to go to a professional basketball game, even though we didnt watch any of it cause we were too busy talking to everyone.

Also, the family Niamké is doing well! The dad isn't progessing but the boys are so excited. They said that they want to be baptized and the dad said they could!!! Were just working on the mama who seems uneasy about letting them come to church alone. Pray for them as well!

Well I read an article that moved me to tears this week in the Liahona. I've attached an expert from it that I changed to apply more to me. Its from Elder Eyring's "Preparing Gifts for your Future Families". I hope you all can read it:

"There is yet another gift some of you may want to give that takes starting early. I saw it started once when I was a bishop. A young woman sat across my desk from me. She talked about mistakes she had made. And she talked about how much she wanted the children she might have someday to have a mom who could recieve personal revelation and to whom they could be sealed forever. She said she knew that the price and pain of repentance might be great. And then she said something I will not forget: “Bishop, I am coming back. I will do whatever it takes. I am coming back.” She felt sorrow. And she had faith in Christ. And still it took months of painful effort.

And so somewhere there is a family with a righteous mother standing next to a righteous priesthood bearer at its head. They have eternal hopes and peace on earth. She’ll probably give her family all sorts of gifts wrapped brightly, but nothing will matter quite so much as the one he started a long time ago in my office and has never stopped giving. She felt then the needs of children she had only dreamed of, and she gave early and freely. She sacrificed her pride and sloth and numbed feelings. I am sure it doesn’t seem like sacrifice now.

She could give that gift because of another one given long ago. God the Father gave His Son, and Jesus Christ gave us the Atonement, the greatest of all gifts and all giving. The Savior somehow felt all the pain and sorrow of sin that would fall on all of us and everyone else who would ever live (see Hebrews 4:14–16)."

I am grateful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. I now that my mission his helping me to become the mother that He wants me to be. I am preparing to give gifts to my future family and Im so grateful for this trying time and that is shaping me.

I love YOU so much!

Soeur Kohlert

Week 49: The Miracles Seen After the Trial of our Faith

Hello family:)

I miss you all and love you very much! I had a rough moment this week and just wanted to let you know how much I care about each and everyone of you!

We just got back from a butterfly museum that was SO COOL. Who knew there were so many beautiful yet disgusting BUGS! God's creations are so cool. Ha just before that we went to a copy center to ask where the museum was and ran into a professional basketball player named Darnell from San Jose. He gave us free tickets to his basketball game! BALLIN'.

Well as you know Monday night was the big day! Dropping the family Josse... BAH. In the car we rehearsed a little bit what we were going to say because we did not have sufficient time to practice beforehand and needless to say WE WERE NERVOUS! Well, we got there and had a wonderful birthday dinner with them :) I made them an american cake and they ate it but no one commented... awkward ha. Not sure they liked it too much. The little boy just said it was "Beuf" not even sure how to spell that. Ha but we made sure to take lots of pictures because we knew what was coming. 

The lesson went well. They responded exactly how we had imagined. They hadn't kept their engagements and so we tried to help them understand WHY we give them engagements! Well, after talking about sacrifice and DIGGING for our testimonies, we left them with three options. 1) Keep the commitments and open up to us 2) Prepare Virginie to be baptized (i dont think they had EVER thought of that option before) and 3) Taking a pause. We told them that we loved them and that we wanted them to create the spirit in their homes for themselves. Well, they told Marie that they were going to take a pause from the missionaries and the church....but we have already heard that they've been doing more research on their own! So that's good. Mickael ALSO said that he knows the church is true and he has gotten answers, just not the ones he wants.. BOOO. So sad. It was cool because we all felt really calm and peaceful and I really felt as though we were telling them the Lord's words.

Josse Family

We did lots and lots of finding at the beginning of the week in the freezing cold. I was sick and it was rough. Just hard. BUT, there is always a but, on Wednesday we visited a TON of less actives and one investigator (who is super cool but not super interested). It was a great day and 7 less actives/recent converts that we teach ended up coming to church! WAHOOO. MIRACLE.

On Thursday we woke up nice and early to go to Versaille for the conference to hear Elder Kearon speak. He was amazing and told some extremely touching stories and was so loving. He really motivated me to be positive and to work on myself during my mission, IT'S THE BEST TIME! Pres gave me a hint that Sister Vance and I will probably be separated BOOO. I love my comp. We have made good goals together and she is really helping me becoming the best me.

Sister Vance and I at a Conference to Hear Elder Kearon of the First Quorum of the Seventies

So after the conference on Thursday, we got home pretty late and the water in our toilet wasn't flowing and I HAD TO GO. Like bad and it was like 9:30 or 10:00 p.m.. So we decided to ask our neighbor, the one that knocked on our door and has the interested son, if we could use her toilet. Well, Alexandra brought the church up by herself! We answered the son's questions, offered to have an FHE and teach them! They said yes! We taught them about prayer and asked if we could say a kneeling one together. They agreed and we kneeled in a circle. I offered the prayer and the spirit was so strong. I prayed for their needs, one of which was Logan's desire to always love his mom... SO CUTE. We asked them how they felt and they said warm and like God was so close. Logan said that he could see Jesus. How adorable and moving. I was tearing up. Well the next morning before we could get our toilet fixed we went back and they said that they had both said their personal prayers to thank God for sending us! Beautiful!

We told the ward on Friday about the family Josse. They were all very understanding and kind about. They are still inviting them to their homes and the church activities. :) Love this ward.

Saturday was another day of finding in the cold but guess what???? WE FOUND! One new investigator on our own and then another is a friend of a recent convert, Elizabeth, in the ward. Her name is Isabelle and you're going to die laughing at this story. We were teaching Isabelle and her kids are just crazy and loud and everywhere. They boy that is 4 dropped his pen and started screaming. Sister Vance, not wanting to spoil the child and in the nicest voice ever, showed him where the pen was and told him to pick it up. Well he wouldn't bend his knees to pick it up and it was frustrating Sister Vance so she pushed the pen closer to him so he could reach it. It struggled and was still screaming but finally picked it up on his own. A little later Isabelle was saying that her son is out of school for 2 weeks because he was circumcised that day.... AHHAHAHAHAH that's why the poor boy couldn't bend down and was screaming. Oh man, Sister Vance's face was priceless after she realized. Never Judge Right?

Well after showing our faith and dropping the most beautiful family, Heavenly Father blessed us by doubling our lessons this week and WE GOT 4 NEW INVESTIGATORS! The miracle always comes. Patience is the key.

I love you all and I'm so proud of you! Thanks for all of the support that you've given me and give me today!

Love,

Soeur Kohlert

Keeping a Positive Attitude!