Week 55: Life Got a Bit More Real

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry, this email will be a short one, kinda had to plan my life a bit... aka BYU classes for fall, so I kinda used my email time to do that. Sorry, I promise next week will be better. But this week, we have the LOVELY family! they are SOOOO golden! they will be getting baptized on the 26th of this month, if all goes well with jacquelina not giving birth. They came to church two Sundays in a row and went to a baptism with us, and they always want us to stop by everyday. 

Sister Dorgan had completely convinced me that the people from the island of Fogo are special, that they truely have been prepared. AND ITS ALL TRUE! the family is from Fogo, and im pretty sure that like half of the cabo verdeans serving here are from Fogo. So now i want to go end my mission there. It'd be lovely.

And just a random side thought, one of our members sons was wearing a Provo shirt!

And i had a sandwich today that was SOOOO good, so everyone needs to try to make it. its a panini with chicken, cheese, and banana on it! SOOOO good!

Love you all! Till next week,

Sister Kohlert

Week 54: O Teto Ceiu

Dear Family and Friends,

Oh what a lovely week! Well first of all, I learned the stresses of bring a sister leader... we had a new sister come in on monday night at midnight/Tuesday morning. So we woke up at like 11:50 and they called us and said they wouldn't be arriving till later, so we stayed up since it was the mission president and his wife that would be dropping her off. And they didn't arrive till about 1:30 am. Then she came and wanted to take a shower, and so we did'nt get to go to bed till about 2.30. then the next day was counsel. So we did that all day Tuesday till 7:30 at night then had to keep track of about 6 sisters and where they needed to be and organize divisions. Then on Thursday we had zone meeting, where we gave a training. It went pretty well, but it was pretty stressful. Glad that was over. Then we get to pass by Jayson, our baptism. We show up at his house and he´s in a wheelchair with a cast on his foot! Ahhh! We asked him what happened and he explained the the CEILING FELL ON HIS FOOT! and now his toe is fractured. So we replanned his baptism for the next week because he couldn't get the cast wet. BUT THEN.... on Saturday morning, he tells us that he is going to get baptized anyways and just take off the cast because it wasn't doing anything (it really wasn't, it was just like wrapped in gauze... let's just say they haven't quite gotten the purpose of a cast down yet). So he did just that. So he was baptized! Crazy, huh!?!

We also had some funny contacts in the street. Can I just say that there is a reason for the Word of Wisdom? Anyway, this drunk man on the street stops us (about 8.50 pm) and tells us that its not safe to walk around here at night. He continues going on about who knows what, and introduces us to his son and daughter who are clearly annoyed with their father. He proceeds to pull out a piece of hair(a nice size chunk, too) and telling us ´Look at the truth! This is real! Take it, take this to remember me! Look at the truth!` Anyways, it was very entertaining. I wish I had that on video.

And I would just like to say that I love my companion, Sister Dorgan. during our companion study,we were discussing if the church advertises, and she said ´I don't think that we publically preach.` and then she proceeded to think about what she said as I was just laughing my head off. We have lots of fun together.

Anyway, I did actually learn something this week, about our progression. We were not created perfect. We were created with potential. And we are here to reach that potential. In counsel, Sister Mathews had a quote that was pretty cool, so I thought that I'd share it with you all! ´Hell will be when we meet the person that we could have been.´ So... achieve your potential!

But here´s a quote just to end off this letter nicely (thanks Tasi for sending this one to me when I was in the MTC). `Do not expect to be perfect at once. If you do, you will be disappointed. Be better today than you were yesterday, and be better tomorrow than you are today.´ -Lorenzo Snow

Love you guys! Till next week,

Síster Kohlert

Week 53: The Neighborhood!

Just getting to know the area over here, and this week was just a lot of fun! Some times I just wonder what I am doing with my life. Which you will understand by the time you finish reading this email.

So we started off Monday by heading to this MASSIVE market place where they sell just about everything you can dream of. I now understand where everyone gets anything here. Its like walking into Narnia. But anyway, we went out to teach that night, and about an hour in the power went out, and we decided really quickly that we didn't want to be there after the sun went down. So we "used our intelligence" (as Pres. Mathews would say) and went home.

I had my first division, with Sister Friaça (past companion in sal). That was pretty funny, truely learned that I do not know our area yet, but we made it through without getting lost. And it would just amaze you at how many times people stop and tell us that we should not be walking in our area at night. At least 5 times a week. Like on Saturday, when in the middle of the day a man stops in his car and blocks the entire road to tell us that we need to be careful walking around there. Then on Sunday morning, on our way to church at 8 am, we are alerted by a member that the thuggies really were in a war (at that very moment) and that we should avoid that zone, but we had to go there to get to church! so of course we went. As we were waiting to take one of our investigators, a few of the thuggies were running down the alley way we were in, so we just ran into our investigators house and closed the door. Later that night we found out that no one died. Bahaha but that isn´t even everything that happened on Sunday! The stories have just begun.

During church, they were talking about how missionaries are protected, and a member, Fernando (55 ish), says `The sisters are out in Tira Chapéu, and I wont even walk around there and night and I´m from here!´ They just kill me! I love the members, especially because that same member, after church, gave us a referral for a young man who had gone to prison 4 times and just got out 5 days ago! Hahah, so we went and talked to him and he´s actually really cool.

Anyway, that is why I sometimes wonder what I am doing here, but I love it! (sorry dad, i cant take pictures of my area because i won't bring my camera there, as you can probably imagine why, but maybe one day ill take a picture)

So that´s just about all! I´ll be giving my very first training this week in zone conference, so pray for me! Ahhh!

Love you all!

Síster Kohlert

Week 52: So This is Praia

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry, super fast email this week.... kinda lost track of time. but im here in Praia now, as the new sister training leader with Sister Dorgan. I already love her sooo much! We are going to have so much fun here. 

We are serving in Tira Chapéu (translate that into english and you´ll just know that our area is the coolest out here). And I love it here! And the people in our area are the MOST PREPARED people I have seen yet on the mission. It's so crazy here! No wonder they baptize like crazy! Our numbers are INSANE! For example, this week we had one baptism, 6 people at church, we taught 15 lessons with members and 29 others.... and 4 with less actives. So crazy. and because we do divisions with all the sisters here (aka im going to die with the 6 divisions we have to do every transfer, but we don't do them the first or last week of the transfer, so we have to do them in 4 weeks...) and we have to do the divisions in our area, so our numbers get doubled on those days. It's so crazy here. But I already love it.

Oh, and I'm probably serving in one of the sketchiest areas in Praia, but were friends with all the thugs so you don't have to worry about me haha...

 Love you all!Sister Kohlert