Week 48: Another one bites the dust.....

Well this transfer FLEW by. It was crazy. I swear sister brophy and I just got here...but nope it's already been 6 weeks. So weird. But this transfer has no doubt been one of the most eventful ones of my mission! I am so grateful for the blessings that the Lord has given us. It's insane. We set 3 baptismal dates this transfer and next transfer 2 of them with get baptized! So excited.

So I don't remember much about what happened this week..BUT Usha and Serenity are doing really good. We had two lessons with them this week and they are amazing. We assign them readings in the childrens BOM thing and they read it like3 times. And then Usha rewrote it all. It is so cute. They have been going to church faithfully since we have been meeting with them and their mom, Clara is amazing. She has been totally participating in the lessons at church and even helping us out with investigators. It was great. We are totally seeing wonderful progress in all three of them.

On Top of the Only Mountain in the Netherlands

Iris is doing very good. We talked with her this week...well she talked with us this week and really just vented about how she was feeling. We ended up having a great spiritual lesson and totally bonded. It was great to see. Sadly she didn't make it to church.. :( But hopefully soon. Otherwise she won't be able to get baptized on the 16th of August.

Family Martes had their baby this week! (: I am so excited to see him. They are just an amazing family in the ward. They have just taken us under their wings. Mom, she is from Germany...did you serve in Disseldorf? Her maiden name is Hartzheim. Maybe you know them!

Elder Alfaro's Going Away Party

With the Elder's Investigator...He Loves Us More Than Them!

So ya! We also met with Ronda and we taught her the restoration. She so great. Love her. She even looked up the Book of Mormon videos so that she could watch them. Hopefully they are not any anti movies..haha But she's cool.

Anne and Oma. We didnt have a lesson with them this week but Oma came to church again! She is great...even though she sleeps during half of it. haha We finally found out what her name was..It's Vernice. haha We have just been calling her Oma (Grandma) this whole time..haha But we are planning on meeting with them on thursday.

We also had some really awesome lessons with less active members! They are totally great. Lieke is one of them..she did an exchange program in utah and stayed with members and then 2 years later got baptized. She is planning on coming back. Sidenote..would it be weird to name my future kid Lieke? It's SUCH a cute Dutch name. Anyways...haha

The Elders stopped a lady on the street the other day and she turned out to be a member! So They got her info and we met with her this week. She was baptized like 20 years ago and then she moved here and never went back. She is from Cape Verde (?). So we're meeting with her again to pretty much give her the lessons. Pray that she will be open to it!

I want to show you how cut my hair is!

Well. The Lord really has blessed us this week!! I am so grateful for EVERYTHING that he does for me. He is always there for us. It's crazy cuz I was reading in my journal entry from a year ago and it's crazy how much I have grown And the cool experiences that I had in the MTC. It was definitely an eye opener for me.

For Pday we all went to Den Haag and played sports with the other zone. It was great. I dont have the pictures with me though so I'll have to send them next week. The weather has been soo great!

I hope the Netherlands beats Chile tonight. (: I hear US tied with Portugal? hmm I hope we do better! I think I know more about the World cup here, on my mission, then I would if I was at home. It's so fun!

Anyways! I love you so much and I am so blessed to have such wonderful people that support me and love me. I love you guys! 

Zuster Kohlert

Week 47: Chillin' in our Crib...and Making Banana Bread

Hey family! 

This week was SUCH a good week. Maybe not as amazing as last week but still, it was amazing none the less. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRIS! I can't believe you are already 22..this past year just flew by. I love you! Have a wonderful day!

Chillin in our crib.

Like usual..I am trying to remember what actually happened. haha so let me just tell you what is going on.

So Thursday was our year mark and by far one of the best days of this week. We woke up and made a lekker breakfast (banana pancakes and bacon pancakes) and we hurry and got ready. We then did weekly planning because we didn't have time the rest of the week. haha and then we were going to have a lunch and lesson with an investigator, Ronda, but that fell through so instead we had lunch with Tahira who was going to go on joint teach with us for that lesson. We just talked and had a wonderful time.

We then were walking out of the mall place and we saw a Herring Stall thing...And I haven't had herring yet..so I decided to eat raw fish on my year mark. haha It was pretty nasty. You watch them gut the fish right before your eyes...and then they just slap it onto a plate, put some onions on it and call it good. IT WAS NASTY. It wasn't the taste that got me though...it was the slimy...gross texture that got me. haha I almost threw up 2 times. I can't wait to show you the video. But it was totally worth doing on my year mark! (: We then headed over to our dinner appointment...and we had the wrong address...we were on the whole other side of town. So we biked to the nearest station, hopped on with our bikes and road it to the closest halte and then biked our bums off to get to their house...30 minutes late. Luckily they are an awesome family and they didn't care...haha Their kids LOVED US. They invited us back. haha 

The problem with being late to our dinner appointment was that it then made us late to our appointment with our investigatpr, Iris. We were supposed to be there at 8 and we got out of our dinner at 8..and we still had to ride what should have been a 30ish minute bike ride...We called her up and she was totally okay with it. So we just bike SO HARD. SO HARD. And with help from angels we got there in 10 minutes. WHAT????? That does not just happen. There has to be a God. Anyways. We get in with our joint teach and we start reading from jacob 4. Our joint teach was amazing. To make a long story short she was doing great a helping Iris see that SHE has to make the steps so that God can do the rest..She even brought up baptism. And after she did, I jumped in and asked her to be baptized on the 16th of August. The second those words came out of my mouth, the room was FILLED with the spirit. SO STRONG. Undeniable. And it totally confirmed that the 16th is the perfect date for her. She said yes! And the cool thing is is that she is totally free that weekend to be able to take time to enjoy it for herself. HOW AWESOME! And when she was talking afterwards about how she was excited to be baptized Zuster Brophy and I just felt SO much love for her. No doubt the love of the Savior for her. It was amazing and the bast way to celebrate our year mark. Goes to show how far I have come in a year. The Lord loves and blesses His children. He understands the tiny details in our lives. I am so grateful that I can be here to serve and bless His children. It might be hard, but it's worth it.

Sunday we had 4 investigators at church...After some sweat and tears. It was insane. I cried my eyes out on Saturday because I was so stressed about some things. But the Lord helped us. 4 investigators at church?? that is the most I have ever had on my mission. haha

Some of My Besties!

In a sentence or two. Life is Good. I love the Lord. (: And we made a LOT of banana bread for members. It was great.

I love you guys so much! have fun in China Lauren. You are going to have a blast. Dad, I hope you had a great fathers day!! I love you!! Miss you. before we know it we will be together again. I love you!

Zuster Kohlert

Week 46: Have you ever tried achteroping and ghostriding at the same time...We have(:

HEYYY FAMILY! HOE GAAT HET MET JULLIE? IK MIS JE ZO VEEL. HET IS GEK. MAAR DE HEER HEEFT ONS ZEKER DEZE WEEK GEZEGEND!

This week was amazing! We ended up getting 6 new investigators this week...ALL thanks to the Lord. Three of them are a referrals from members and other missionaries and it was awesome. We are seriously SO Blessed. I wish I had more time to tell you about them but I really don't..but I will tell you about our baptismal dates!

Serenity and Usha are daughters on a member that just moved here from another place in Rotterdam. Serenity is 8 and Usha is 11 and they are the cutes girls ever. Their mom was baptized only a couple of years ago and is separated from their dad. They have been dying to get baptized so they are super excited to take the lessons. They know sooo much more about christ and the church than I did when i was their age..I am so excited for them. They will be baptized on the 19th of July.

We had an awesome dinner with Shabnam and Tahira (an awesome young single adult) on Friday! It was fun to just talk about Heavenly Father's plan for us and how much HE loves every single one of his children. This is where the quote of the week comes in. Heavenly Father loves us dearly.

My tire got a hole in it this week...again. haha So sister Brophy and I had to (once again) achterop and ghost ride at the same time. That intails me sitting on the back of the bike...while she rides and I hole my back at the same time. it's pretty fun and totally something I would have never experienced if I wasn't on a mission. haha Missions are great.

We had an awesome Stake Conference this weekend. Uchtdorf and Anderson talked to us! (: But my favorite talk with from our stake president! And he talked about how we can find the most happiness in our lives. And he started by reading in Alma 37 starting with verse 35 almost to the end. I hope you get the time to read it cuz it's GOOD but here are a couple of verses.

35 O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God. 36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
 37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.
Then he pulls out of there a few things to do in order to find more happiness. A couple of them are 1. Every evening after or before prayers take 2 minutes to write down how you saw the Lord's hand in your life THAT DAY SPECIFICALLY. "Counsel with the Lord in all they doings and he will direct thee for good"! and 2. In the morning after or before prayers write down 3 things that you are grateful for. (They shouldn't be the same things everyday) "when thou risest in the morning let they heart be full of thanks unto God." And if we do these things, we "shall be lifted up at the last day." Who doesn't want to be lifted up? I sure want to be lifted up. But yeah. I just thought that was such a wonderful thing and a simple thing to do in order to receive blessings from God. I have seen the difference it makes. I have been failing at writing three things I am grateful for in the morning..BUT I am working on it!

We got to go to a new investigators house and he has horses so we hung out with horses for a little and then talked to him about how he can stop smoking. He has already been to church twice but I don't know exactly how he is feeling...i feel like he is going for this lady in our ward:\ sadly. But we will see.

Hangin' with a horse!

 Other than that..I can't think of anything. But this week was great. I love you guys and I miss you like crazy. This week is my year mark...WHAT? haha a year from today I gave my farewell talk. I will give someone chocolate if they can remember what I talked about! And what song I quoted. haha I LOVE YOU!

"The scriptures are the little notes that Heavenly Father puts in our lunchboxes." - Quote of the week

This old couple is GREAT. but the reason I am sending this is because we reminds me SO MUCH of Kyler. Like it's insane. haha i wish I could explain. Kyler, this is you in the futre. You should be proud. haha 

This old guy reminds me of Kyler

More Europe!

Week 46: Nickelodeon...GOLDFISH!

Hey family! 

 

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST FRIEND AND LITTLE BRO TYLER! YOU ARE SO OLD! HAHA AND CONGRATS TO LINDSEY WHO IS GETTING MARRIED(: I love you guys!

 

This week...almost all of our appiontments fell through...so that was fun. Haha the people we made appointments on Saturday with..also fell through and they then told us not to come back. Sad but oh well. It's got to happen in order to find the people that ARE open to hear the truth.

 

We are finally moved into our apartment! THANK YOU! haha it's been so nice not having to travel back and forth to Den Haag almost everyday. And the shower looks a lot better. A LOT BETTER. And we haven't seen mice poop for a while. So that is good.

 

We have been working with a new convert of just a couple weeks, her name is Shabnam, and she is awesome. WE had a great lesson with her on Friday and then on Sunday she bore her testimony and it was BEAUTIFUL. She is such a great example to all of us. The ward just loves her. And on thursday so is going to the temple for the first time! we are so excited for her. We just became best friends, no bigs.  She is great.

 

On saturday we helped a family have a birthday party/bbq and they invited their friends who are nonmembers. At first we had no idea why we were there but then we started talking to them and ended up talking to a nonmember and an investigator for a whole hour about church. We exchanged numbers so that was cool. We really hope to begin teaching them.

 

Sunday was amazing. The spirit was strong. SO STRONG. And luckly a couple members brought nonmember friends to church so that they could also enjoy the spirit. It was so great. I just can't explain the love and emotions that I felt. This church is true. Following the principles of the gospel will bring us the most happiness in life. NO DOUBT. I see it every day. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have.

 

After church we then had lunch with a less active and her nonmember husband and it was great. They are old. haha And he can't hear (almost like grandpa) and so it was fun yelling as we talked. We then played trouble with them and just had a wonderful time. (:

 

We then had Dinner with another less active and her friend who is visiting from Brazil (not a member.) So it was SO fun. We shared the Mountains to Climb video with them and they loved it. I just love this work. It's so great.

 

The Lord loves you. HE LOVES YOU SO MUCH. NEVER give up. Never. There is always someone there for you. Open your mouth and ask for help and you WILL get helped. I know it.

 

I love you guys so much! MMISS YOU LIKE CRAZY!

 

Zuster Kohlert