Week 34: Hamburger Party and Transfers

Hey family!! :) 

I am so happy that I get to email you today!!

Monday we had our Hamburger party with the young single adults and the hamburgers turned out really good. Br. And Zuster Kat said that we (the sisters) made the hamburgers but the truth is we just cut up the tomatoes and lettuce. haha Zuster Kat put in all of the herbs and we helped her mix it up and cook it. I really had a lot of fun with them. We enjoyed spending time with the jovos (young single adults) and had a really good spiritual thought. You should watch Arnold Schworsinager( I REALLY HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO SPELL HIS NAME..SORRY) giving a motivational speech. It is not just him speaking though....there is a film thing going on too. He talks about six rules of life..or something. It's good. So ya!

The Hamburger Party

Tuesday we visited with Magnolia again and this time she was super happy to see us! It was a really good visit! Then, since Zuster Rosenlof was leaving, we went and visited the members that she really liked. So that was fun. We had a really good talk with Zuster Herrebrugh about life and the ward. She also talked to me a lot about her experiences in the hospital. And you know how I want to go into the medical field? Well she totally motivated me to continue studying that. She told me that there were so many nurses who just treated her so badly. As as she was telling me story, after story, after story or being treated bad, I got this feeling that I can be one of the people who helps that patients have a good experience..not just good, an AMAZING experience. It was a great feeling. So we will see how that goes. :)

Then Wednesday was transfers! We left pretty early to meet up in Leiden. I secretly love transfers because I get to see all of my missionary friends. It is good stuff. The Zone Leaders in Amsterdam are my best friends and I only get to see them every 6 weeks so we just talk each others ears off when we see each other. It is nice. I thought I was going to be able to see my trainer, Zr Rigdon, when she came through Leiden to get to the mission home.....cuz she is dying....I mean going home. But I wasn't able to see her. But it was nice picking up Zuster Taylor! She is so cool. I will try to send some pictures today. If not, definitely next week. We then helped the Relief Society sew some hearts for Zuster Helderman's daughter's wedding. That was fun!

Thursday! We did lots of look ups..sadly no one was really interested. We did talk to a lot of people, but didn't find anyone interested:(  Haha there was this Muslim guy who tried to convert us to the Islam religion. It didn't work but he did talk to us for like 30 min...it was awful. haha We then had a wonderful meal with Familie August. Super cool people and then we had a lesson with Johann and Adrienna. He is a member but she isn't. It was a really good lesson but could have been better if he would stop talking...but he doesn't. I think she could totally get baptized if he would step up his game and go to church. But ya..we'll keep working with them. :)

Friday we had weekly and transfer planning! OH BOY, do we have tons to do here. All of the investigators we currently have were either flaky or they weren't making progress. The only one kinda making progress is Judith. Please pray that she will have a softer heart and will listen to our message. She did come to the single adult activity! We watched the movie God of Wonders. It is a great one and it strengthened my testimony of God and His Wonders. :) Anyways, we made really high goals for this transfer and plan on doing our best to follow through. It is going to be a great one. :) Then we had dinner with Zuster Rigdon, her mom and her sister!!! That was fun! OH MAN I LOVE SISTER RIGDON! SHE IS THE BEST EVER!!  She is my bestie.

Saturday we helped in Zuster Louren's garden!! That was super fun! But now my back hurts and so do my legs..haha It was super funny. Haha But I was really great. Pretty much the rest of the day we were walking around and never had the chance to sit so now my legs are even more tired. But we had a great time. AND WE FOUND A POTENTIAL! Her name is Santi and we have an appointment with her for Wednesday! So pray that that goes through! :) YAY!  We had tons more go on but I am running out of time! I love you guys sooo much and miss you like crazy. I LOVE YOU.

You guys are wonderful. Keep the good work! haha I LOVE YOU BE SAFE AND I MISS YOU!

Love Zr. Kohlert

Week 33: Testing God

Hey family!! How is everyone doing??

Yet again...the week just flew by! I don't understand how that happens! It is insane. Wanna hear something sad? Zuster Rigdon is going home this week. :( She is done. I can remember the day she picked me up and we just had the best three transfers together..and now she is going home. Ah. Time is going to fly faster and faster and I don't know how I feel about it.. Okay I just had to vent. I think I do this every week but I am serious each week that my mind is blown.

Zuster Rosenlof and I at Zone Conference

Well too much stuff happened..but highlights!

1. We moved three fridges in one day. Yes, you should be proud! It was for Zuster Helderman, who is mostly blind. Really fun.

2. We had a Zone Conference in Zoetemeer! That was great! The building there is just as big as one in Utah and it is SO nice. Everything is gorgeous. Kinda jealous. But we learned about how through small things, great things come to past. The smallest seeds we plant can make a huge difference in someone's life. And the small and simple things we do in our life are sooo important! Read your scriptures, PRAYYYYYY!!!, Go to church and BE a good person. Remember that the Lord is always there for you!

Zone Conference - I'm in the front row light blue w/gray sweater near the middle.

3. We finished painting Madelon's room! It looks really cool..I dont know why I didnt take a picture though...sorry. She is one of the new members. All of her family is nonmembers. So we chatted with them while the Olympics was going on. We watched the speed skating..I think and dutch girls got silver and bronze. That was fun.

4. We visited Bizu again..she seems to not be getting much better..She did have a guitar so we were playing and singing songs together. I tried to play that "somewhere over the Rainbow" song but I couldn't remember the 3rd and 4th cords..so that was awkward!

5. We had a wonderful Valentine's Dinner with Familie Pantophlet! They are amazing cooks and super nice people. We then went to a baptism from the Hilversum Elders...haha And guess what? the Baptismal font wasn't filling up fast enough so Zuster Rosenlof, Elder Giles, Elder Hulet and I started boiling water on the stove and just filling up everything that we could see so that we could get that baby full. We missed the opening part of the baptism BUT the font got filled and it went really well. It was exciting! haha

6. We made cute Valentines using the stickers you sent me for all of the members and they LOVED THEM! :) So thanks!

7. We stopped by a potential's house, Brigette who is 83, and she was home. She is from Germany, and she is old so her accent was really hard to understand. I did catch somethings and she pretty much has no one. She said she doesn't even want to live anymore! I shared my testimony and they spirit was there. I think she really liked it but I am not sure how open she is to change. I guess we will see.

8. One night we decided to test God and just pick a language and find someone who spoke that language and give them a BOM. So we picked Twee (from Ghana because there are more people here from Ghana than some of the other languages haha) And we just worked really hard to contact all the people we could. AND we ran after this guy...and he was from Ghana! So we gave him the book and got his info!

9. Zr Rosenlof is getting transferred to Den Bosch and I am getting Sister Taylor as my new comp!! Super sad to see her go, but I am excited for a new comp! I will let you know how that goes next week! haha Now we have to cancel 2 appointments just because we have to do transfers...so bummed. So many other things happened but I cant write them all..as usual. But Heavenly Father really blesses you when you do what's right. He loves us so much! In my letter I have a little more detail about what happened. Sorry I am getting worse at writing letters...forgive me! Haha

I love you guys! Thanks for all of your support and love.

LOVE YOU! 

Zuster Kohlert

Week 32: Happy Valentines Day

Hello everyone! How are you doing?

Well this week went by SUPER fast! Haha But it was a really good week. After we emailed on Monday, we had our calm P-DAY and then we had FHE with Familie Brouwer. It was really cool to hang out with them. They are my family away from home.  haha She is really cool. 

I have a theme for this week...it's "Heavenly Father, Earthly Father". Have you guys ever seen that mormon message before? Wellllll if you haven't, you should watch it. It was super cool because we visited Familie Kat and showed it to them. He really loved it and was even crying. I was crying like a baby..because I realized how much my Heavenly Father loves me but also how much my earthly father loves me. Thanks dad for everything that you do. And the love that you show me. :) I love you. The video also helped me realize how awesome MY FAMILY IS! I love you guys so much! I think it is awesome that we have the chance to grow closer to each other even though we are so far apart. Love ya.

There is a sister in our ward who unfortunately has a brain tumor..and she has been getting progressively worse. But we were so blessed and we were able to look after her on Wednesday and also on Saturday. She loves when we sing for her so that's what we did! We sung hymns for 2 hours and the spirit was so strong and just warm. It was really cool. We get to hang out with her on Saturday of this week too so I am excited.

We also had some REALLY good lessons this week! Sofia, we taught her about the law of chastity. haha that was exciting but it went really well. She loves the idea of families working together and growing together. Abdul, I think we told you about him before but we met with him again this week. Our joint teach, Chaya, did such an awesome job. He is super smart and is just a sweetheart. Petra: She is the lady that we found last week when I was on exchanges with Sister Reeder. We met with her on the street because her husband doesn't want us inside his house. Chaya and Sister Reeder just talked a lot..and Chaya answered all of her questions. Most of the time we try to stick with the Restoration on the first lesson..but this one didn't work out that way. Petra just had too many questions. So Chaya just talked with her and answered questions..and ended up going through law of chasity, word of wisdom and ten commandments. Haha Can we count this lesson as three member presents please? haha ;but it went well. Rosemary: Remember her? well we had a great lesson with her about the restoration and watched the video with her. The spirit was strong and she wants to learn more. The funniest thing was that at the end of our lesson she just said "I want my son to be baptized and also my sister's children" She was straight up serious. We were suprized but we has were cautious because people need to be baptized for the right reasons. haha

Other things that went on this week..We finally got to meet with an inactive, Magnolia and her son who is also a member. She has some problems with the church that she doesn't want to explain to us so we just keep things light and uplifting. We asked her son, William, if we wanted to come back to church and he said yes! So on Sunday we picked him up and took him to the church! It was cool. He's about 11 years old. 

Zr Rosenlof taught Self Denfense to the young women on friday night! So that was fun! I think they really liked it! Haha and we taught a lesson in Relief Societ! AHH scary but it went well. haha It was just over the plan of salvation so it didn't go too bad. haha

Remember when I told you about the member who set up an appointment for us to meet with her neighbor? Well we had that lesson today! And it went really good! Her name is Judith and she has been visiting and learning about many churches her whole life but she has never been able to find one that she wants to stay at...NOT YET that is. haha She was really interested in what we had to say and she definitely put her input and asked questions. It was really a good lesson. We are actually going to meet with her tomorrow so I will let you know how that goes next week.

 I love you guys so much and miss you like crazy! Enjoy the Olympics!!!   I love this gospel and the joy that it brings to me! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Ik hou van jullie! Je t'aime! I love you! - Zuster Kohlert

Week 31: Hoi eidereen! Hoe gaat het?

This week was a good week. Nothing too special but still really good. I can't believe that the transfer is more than half way done...How does this happen? I have no idea. Time is just flying.

This week I got an awesome package from Aunt Amy! THANK YOU SOO MUCH! I wrote you and Henry a letter today and will be sending it out soon! It totally made my day. I think I read it like 15 times to my comp....she was probably so annoyed. oh well. haha

We had interviews this week with Presdient and SIster Robinson! It was really great seeing them and just chatting with them about life and how the mission is going to change once we get this Facebook stuff going. I am excited for the work to move forward! Last time I had interviews it was September or October and all I remember was me crying the whole time because I felt like such a failure. This time went 100 billion times better. I didn't cry one bit. WOOT. Haha I think it's because I feel good about what I am doing here and just really enjoying my mission.

We are also trying another form of prayer..remember when I told you about the vision prayers..well I don't think we were feeling that so we decided to try something else out. We pray and then at the end of the prayer we try to follow the spirit and figure out a number of people we will find that will become potential investigators. The first time we did it..I thought two people and Zuster Rosenlof said four. So we went for four. We went out and contacted. We were talking to lots of people and giving out TONS of cards but not that many real potentials. But close to the end we had found two..so we kept going. Then we contacted this lady and guess what? She was a member of the church who has been inactive for years! And she said we should visit her! So we are pretty excited. In the end we said that we were meant to find two potentials but if we hadn't gone for four then we wouldn't have talked to that other lady!  I thought that was a real blessing..I don't know about you guys.

Another blessing this week was we got a call from a sister in our ward on Thursday. She told us about how she was talking to her neighbor and her neighbor agreed to have us over! So she set up an appointment with her then called us to see if we could make it. NOW THAT IS AWESOME! THAT IS HOW MISSIONARY WORK IS SUPPOSED TO WORK! YES! Haha That was an answer to my prayers for sure.

Man, Heavenly Father loves me so much. He will give me everything I want..dead serious. It's crazy! You know what is cool? There is a piano here in the library and some person is playing "The River Flows in You". It is beautiful. This world is amazing. Can you tell I am just in awe right now? Well I am. :) haha

We are still working lots with the members and inactive members. It is really fun! I LOVE IT. Life is good.

Saturday was a really fun day because we helped Madelon paint her room..ish thing. And it was just so fun to talk to her. She is sooo talented and just amazing. She told us her conversion story and it just blows my mind. She also asked her parents if we could come over for dinner and they said yes! WOOT. Awesome huh? We are getting them to open up a little! Then we help Zuster Walle clean out her closet and sort things. That was fun! And she made us lekker dinner. We ate with her son's nonmember girlfriend which was fun! It's nice to narrow that gap between the missionaries and regular people....because missionaries are awkward. haha :)

Zuster Heldeman, my bestie

Sunday was awesome! Two random Indonesian ladies came so it was cool having them there! The elder set up an appointment with them and they said they'll come back to church next week! We also said we'd go to their church next week after ours. That will be super cool. Not quite sure which religion they are from. haha

Nicolina....She's bomb!

Welll.......I got my hair permed! Haha I like it so far. But I guess I haven't really looked at it though..haha If I don't like it..then I will just shave my head....Just kidding. haha I don't really care! But yeah. Today is a good day. Life is beautiful.

My New Perm

Thanks for ALL that you guys do for me. I love you soo much and MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY. Cant wait to be with you again. How is life going? Okay now I am just rambling on because I have nothing else to say.

Be safe. Be missionaries. and Most important BE YOU! I love you!

Zuster Kohlert