Week 41: HOI, Hoe gaat het??

Hey awesome, brilliantly amazing and charming people! How are you guys doing?? Like usual...I am running short on time so I will try to get in the best parts of this week. I will be sending pictures..I just realized that it has been over 2 months since I have sent pictures.. Maybe that's a good thing though because I sure am getting a little chubbier...

Anyways. haha Life here is going really good! I just love it. If you have been thinking about going on a mission but you're not sure...Just do it. It will be hard but it will be totally worth it!

Zuster Taylor and I

We sadly dropped 2 of our investigators this week. One of them was our baptismal date..so that was depressing. But it's okay. It's sometimes sooo frustrating putting your heart and soul into helping someone be the happiest that they can be and they don't do anything for themseleves. That is exactly why agency is so important to Heavenly Father's plan. We all need to CHOOSE HIM. Just like my favorite scripture says, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." I am so glad to hear that you guys are reading in PMG! I have been trying to but I have been failing. I did read some really great stuff in Chapter 4 about recognizing the spirit. And then I looked at how my prayers have been and how I can make them more personal and more of a conversation with my Heavenly Father. I really have seen a difference when I take the time to put the effort into my prayers.

Speaking of Prayers, Wee had SUCH a wonderful lesson with Aji and Henry. At first I thought we had maybe lost control of the lesson because they LOVE to talk but once we got talking about prayers and how they are something more personal than reciting some words, the whole mood of the lesson changed. The spirit was so strong and they both agreed to say prayers that come from their heart. I love those two. They are like my besties. haha

HAPPY LATE KINGS DAY! Haha on Saturday was kings day which is the celebration of King Alexander's birthday so the whole country pretty much has a yard sale in the centrum of cities and whatnot. Everyone is drinking and wearing orange and the flag colors. It was insane. We did our own table and it was awesome!  We were able to spread the name of the church and we got many potential investigators! So that is super exciting!

My King, Brother Van Vliet

Victoria and Kimberly helping out with our King's Day Table.

What else happened? Haha WE went out to lunch with our investigator Adrienne! That was fun! Oh I got to go on exchanges with my MTC companion, Zuster Heilner!! I don't know if you remember but WE GOT A LONG REALLY WELL. And so this was such a fun experience. I love that girl. We are just besties. haha I guess everyone is my bestie huh?

Oh yeah we did LOTS of garden work this week!

Funny little facts I thought you'd like to know:

1. I no longer want any animals. haha I have been in too many houses with animals that make the house nasty...I think I can do some fish but I don't want a dog or cat. They are so nasty.

2. Fries are now something that make me want to barf.

3. I have been doing really good at not biting my nails for the past month! (:

Okay anyways, I love you guys so much. And I miss you like crazy! WE GET TO TALK TO EACH OTHER IN 2 WEEKS! (: Woohoo.

Luke 5 - Story about Jesus making Peter a fisher of men. This is a really cool story if you think about it. What does Jesus really mean when he says "I will make you fishers of men?"

ALSO, No one tells me how the BOM read is going? Is anyone even doing it with me? :(

I LOVE YOU TONS!!!!!!!

Zuster Kohlert

Week 42: Humility

Hello Family!! It is pretty weird being here in the library on a Tuesday and writing emails...but okay! For those of you who don't know, the Netherlands actually celebrates Easter and the day after Easter so everything on Monday was pretty much closed. That is why we get to email you today! Woohoo. I had such a wonderful Easter. This year it really hit me how important Jesus Christ is in our lives and in our salvation. Heavenly Father's plan for us is SO AWESOME. I will tell you about things that have happened this week! haha

For district meeting we learned about Humility. What do you think about when you think of Humility? Not being prideful is what I used to think of..haha but humility has so many different "qualities". One thing that I noticed that I need to work on is not comparing myself to other people. Comparing yourself to someone is just as bad as being prideful because comparing mostly intails that you are talking yourself down which is not good. After learning this in District meeting we had a lesson with Johanna, one of the less actives and she asked us a question about humility. It was cool to see that we could use the things we had just learned in our lesson with her but what was even cooler was that the things I was saying out of my mouth were not my words, they were the words of the Lord. They were not only directed towards her but mainly for me. Heavenly Father knew that I needed a second lesson to really hammer Humility into my head. I have been working on having positive feelings towards myself and working on my humility. I can totally see the difference.

Guess what I did? I ate a fish whole..BLEH. Haha Actually it wasn't too bad because it was fried crispy so it pretty much tasted like oil. haha I haven't yet had the famous harring..maybe on my year mark we will do that? We'll see.

Eating Fish!

Things with our investigators are going really slow...Sofia has been dropping our lessons and same with some other people so it's been pretty dragging. BUT we have been working with Christiana and Cassandra! We will also meet with Aji and Henry soon. It's been hard with the holidays. This upcoming saturday is Kings day and it's HUGE here in the Netherlands. I can't wait to get pictures and show you guys! We will be doing a booth and hopefully we will be seeing lots of success with that.

Zuster Heilner and I on Exchanges

The biggest miracle for me this week would have to be this: While in Den Haag on exchanges we taught a man the plan of salvation and he was questioning whether Adam and Eve were real or just some story the prophets made up to get a point across. At the time I had no idea what to say to him...But the next day in my studies I got to 2 Nephi 9 and I had only gotten 2 or 3 verses in when it just hit me. There would be no need for the Atonement if Adam and Eve were just a fictional story. Because the Atonement DID happen, then Adam and Eve had to have been our first parents and so forth. That chapter is AMAZING btw. It really just comfirmed to me that God's hands are in our lives. And that the scriptures answer our questions. What was even cooler about this scripture was that it went perfectly with Easter. On Sunday we walked into the investigator's class and sat down. A member gets up and get the Because of Him film thing ready and then starts the class. Guess who he said was teaching the lesson? The sister missionaries. HA. WHAT? So I started freaking out inside. After the film I stood up and just flipped to 2 Nephi 9 and we all started reading it together as a class. The spirit was so strong and it just worked perfectly with the Lesson. Goes to show that Heavenly Father prepares us for things we don't even know were going to occur! GO HEAVENLY FATHER. I am so grateful for Him and that He sent His Only Begotten Son to the Earth so that we can overcome sin and death. What an amazing gift. Christ lives and because he lives, we will live also.

Easter Dinner with the Seel Family

I am almost out of time but I love you guys soo much and am so grateful for you! I have the best family ever. (:

Don't forget to read BOM and PMG! (:

LOVE YOU!

Zuster Kohlert

Week 41: Burned

HEY FAMILY(: Oh how I love you guys. You are amazing! Thanks for all of the emails that just brighten up my day!

Everything is going really well here! :) The reason that my email is title "burned"is because I think I burned my hands 4 times this week on different things..haha I just thought is was funny. my hands are going to have scars everywhere by the time I get back ;0 ha (They really aren't that bad so don't worry)

This week was full of service projects and it was SO much fun! On Tuesday we got a call from a member asking us to go help with another member move. So that is exactly what we did the whole day. They had to be out of the house by the next morning :( and we got there around 2pm and they didn't have anything started. So we got down to work and spent the day packing and moving and loading. Ah it was crazy. haha (Read handwritten letter for more details;)) But it was cool to be able to help out this family. They didn't even know where they were going to sleep the next day.

Wednesday was the funeral of Sister Van Vliet. It was a great service. Totally perfect for her and the way she lived her life. There was some craziness that happened with Bizu during it so I took her out and took care of her for almost the whole thing. It is a really good story but probably not good for putting it online. Which is fine. I'll write more about it. We then helped with the food and the cleaning up! By that time it was 3:45pm so we ran to our lesson with Cassandra which went pretty well. We asked her to be baptized but she said she isn't ready to think about baptism. So pray for her!! 

We were totally blessed with 2 new investigators this week! Pretty fun stories actually! One of them was that lady (Margarita) who asked us to come to a BBQ the first time we talked to her on the street. She doesn't speak the best Dutch so it was hard to communicate. Luckily Chaya was there so she could understand more..haha Her son and her asked us how old we were and when we told them they were all surprised! They sayed we were "big". UH WHAT? Am I really that fat? I know I gained weight but I can still fit into all of my clothes perfectly. Whatever. haha It was pretty funny. We will hopefully be meeting with her this week. And the second new investigator is Sonja! We were giving a lesson to Christiana outside on some benches and Sonja came up and asked if she could join us. So we ended up teaching her the last little bit of our lesson! She goes to two other churches now but she said she will come to our next lesson! So we exchanged information! WHAT??? THE LORD JUST PUTS PEOPLE IN OUR LESSONS? How can that be?? He is wonderful and loving and amazing.

Heidi, Iris, and Chaya

Saturday was so awesome! We did a little bliz with the elders in this one area and we ended up getting 3 potentials! And also a service project:) haha This cute lady from Spain was doing her yard work and we asked her if we could help and she said that we could come back next week. She also said we should help with her neighbors because he is widowed and old. So We are excited for that! (: We then had dinner with Zr. Walle! She is amazing...AS USUAL. Last week we had asked her to pray about sharing the gospel with someone and guess what? Someone came to her mind and now she is planning a way to get her introduced to us! WOOOHOOO.

Sister Walle said something profound to us (which is also very normal for her) she said: "People always worry about their jobs. Getting to meetings on time and making sure that projects are done but they never worry about giving their children time or making time with for their spouse. Before I joined the church, I was like this. Only focused on work, but after joining the church I realized how important familys are. No longer do I put my children aside to focus on work. I will now put my work aside to focus on them."  - The Prophet is such a good example of this. I am reading last years March or so ensign and there is a Seventy who talked about "Follow the Prophet" Read it! It is soo good. 

We also talked a lot about the "desire to forgive". I don't have time to write more but I will tell you when I get home! It's sooo important that we FORGIVE OTHERS. D&C 64:9-11

Let us focus on the important things in life: FAMILY, FRIENDS AND THE LORD. It will make us soo much better people. I know that I also need to work on that too! 

I love you guys sooo much! If there is anything that I learned on my mission it's that the Lord loves us and that the family is SO IMPORTANT to eternal happiness! I am so blessed to have an amazing family like you. :) Thank you for all that you do! I hope that I can raise children strong in the gospel just like you did, mom and dad! 

I love you sooo much! :) BE SAFE! 

Love, Zuster Colie Kohlert  

Week 40: "The gospel is not weight, it's wings!"

Hey family and friends! Life is SO good. What did everyone think of Conference? Amazing huh? I wish I could just watch it over and over again..but I should probably do some missionary work instead. haha I hope that you got answers to your questions because I sure did. I loved listening to Sister Stevens and Elder Zwick (READ ASAP. it will change your life!) along with the other leaders of the church.

 

This week has been really good. Today we were taking a good bike ride and decided to play on this seasaw thing and as we were playing on it I was taking pictures...haha And fell off. haha it was hilarious. Zuster Taylor a couple of minutes later also fell off. haha It was a great way to start off the day, with a huge laugh.

 

Gezinsavond (FHE) was really fun last week. We are still working on our mosaics. I'll send pictures when I have them. haha The rest of the week of FULL of sunlight and it was awesome. We met with SO many people. We picked up a new investigator, Christiana. She is from Ghana and is very religious and super sweet. She gave us both roses and soda when we first met with her. She even came to one of the sessions of conference and she really liked it. (:

 

Sofia is still doing good. We met with her once this week but very shortly..She has to move again by the end of this month;/ We hope that something more permanent for her will show up. Keep her in your prayers. We also met with Daniella and her husband again..They are very knowledgable about the bible...so it was really hard to say anything because the second we would try to say our point they would go off about something. But it's okay. Zuster Taylor said when we walked out that we good drop-kicked out of there...I think she is right. Who knows, maybe they will want to meet again. We'll check up on them in a couple of weeks. haha We also met with Wilma again this week...interesting. She is sadly not really willing to keep commitments so we will probably have to drop her. But that's okay.. Her time will also come! Aji and Henry, on the other hand, are doing great! They tried reading the book of mormon together and they only got through the first page. So when we met with them we continued reading a little with them and explaining things. The spirit was definitely there. And he said such a great prayer. I love having lessons with them.

 

We helped a less active clean and organize one of her rooms and really helped her out. We then had dinner together and then watched conference. On our way home from the church we were asking her if she learned anything...and she was like "no, I already knew all of those things.."and we were like "oh..okay.." then later she brough up the talk about the tornado and the house landing on the neighbors house and how she learned that sometimes we think we are in one place when we really are in another. She then explained some things that she learned. It was super cool. It's awesome to see that EVERYONE can learn something from conference.

 

This week we heard that Zuster Van Vliet passed away..She was the sweet lady who had a brain tumor/cancer and we would go sing to her almost every week. Ya, she passed away on Friday so on Wednesday we will be going to the funeral to help and support them. Sister Taylor is also playing the organ. Mom, can I take piano lessons when I get home? I really would love to learn how to play. It is something that can bring everyone joy. (:

 

Bizu is doing a lot better. She was able to stay over at her house on Friday as a sort of "test run" to see if she could handle being at home. I think everything went really well so hopefully she can leave that hospital place soon. Pray for her(:

 

Well..What else happened? not much. We did make an appointment with a guy we talked with on the street. His name is Lloyd. So hopefully our appointment with go through on saturday.

 

Life is great. The Lord is amazing and He answers prayers! (: I love Him and am SO grateful for the opportunities that WE have to help those around us. Lets take advantage of our 4 minutes!

 

LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU TONS!

 

Zuster Kohlert