6.06.2016

Week 67: Til Next Week

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry I burned all my time, had to do somethings for a training I´m giving tomorrow, so the pictures will have to suffice for this week... but it was a good week! But the parties of sao joao are starting and everyone is gone at night! Thats okay because we´ll just find those who are TRULY seeking and thirsting for the gospel. Blessings on blessings.





Love you all!
Sister Kohlert

 p.s. thought i´d just make it aware to everyone that I have offically hit 16 months on the mish! 2 months left... but I love this work and my heart is already breaking knowing that my time is running out. I love these people and I know this is the work of God, that this work is directed by the hand of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I know its true and I love it!

Week 66: Oh, Those Less Actives

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I would just like to let everyone know, that I love working with the less actives. They´re my favorite. When the members wont teach with you, the less actives are always more than willing to help. When you can´t get referrals, go to the less actives and they´ll give you twenty. When you want to have a family night, you can set up one every day with any less active. You might even get one to come to church!

I think Sister M. Santos and I have discovered the key to working with the less active members this week, we´re just praying that it will all pay off when they start coming to church!

This week, we had a family night with a less active and her son, and some of their friends. We decided to talk about the atonement of Christ for our spiritual thought, and have her son do push ups to pay for a peice of cake for each person that was there. It was very entertaining and it was cool to see them understand a little bit more of Christ´s suffering, especially when we do not want the cake that was already paid for. (Im hoping that this kind of is making sense...)

We have another recent convert\less active that we have been working with, and he has changed so much! First, he started reading and praying again, then he took out his earring, then he came to church! then after church, we asked him to teach with us, but he didnt want to, but then 10 minutes later he calls us telling us he wanted to. And he came! ... but then our appointment fell through. We all know that God just wanted to see if he was willing. It´s a good thing that he sugguested teaching with us on Tuesday, too!

But maybe we just had to go to that appointment that fell through so that we could find an amazing potential investigator! It was a pretty funny contact because he stopped us in the street and asked if we we´re going to invite him to church haha. So then we talked with him to set up a time that we could pass by and talk to him. He soon informed us that he wasn´t going to be here for very long because he was going to Luxembourg.... bummer... but not till the end of August! It´s a good thing that it wont take 3 months to share our message. haha. This island is amazing. Its so prepared. I havent seem so many prepared people since.... since... a year ago when I was in the same place!

I love my mission. I love these people. I love the gospel and the changes it makes in me and in these people. And.... I love you all!

Till next week,
Sister Kohlert

Week 65: Zone Conference and Missing the Boat!

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week we were off to mindelo for zone conference, lovely as always. But this time the sea was REALLY bad, even I felt a little bit sick to the stomach. Luckily, we all made it though, until we got on dry land and a few hours later we heard that our district leader was sick. whoops. Then, we were praying for good seas on the way back, but we had to such luck because we missed the boat... the last one for the day. So we were stuck in Mindelo till the next morning when we had to get the morning boat... and the sea was even worse. But we survived.



Then on Saturday, Aldivino was baptized, and it went so well! Blessings! And he was confirmed on Sunday without any problems. I dont know when the last time that I had a baptism that didnt have any problems... oh wait... this was the first.

We did find a family as we were knocking doors after the baptism because our previous appointment fell through. We were about to give up and go back to investigators houses, but we decided to knock on one more door,I chose the door, and the woman that answered was so welcoming and let us in without us even saying anything! It turns out that her daughter is a member in the Netherlands, and she loves the church! We think... and are praying... that they are already married and they live with their two teenage daughters, who are amazing! We are hoping that something will happen with them, and that we can keep talking to them because Sister M. Santos said that she had knocked on that door several times and no one was ever home. That was the miracle that we were waiting for, que bênção.

Unfortunately, we will be having 2 weeks of stake conference, and we won't be able to have baptisms till the 11th of June... but we will have a few prepared for that day! So glad to be back in the Porto!

Till next week,
Sister Kohlert

Week 64: Talk About Flashback

Dear Family and Friends,

Well its nice to see that Porto Novo is exactly how i left it, expect for the fact that half the members moved to another island and the other half went inactive... well just some of them. It is amazing to see how many names i remember though! I feel like I know a lot of people, not as many as in the other area, but a decent amount.


This week was pretty normal. I am still trying to get down the area, but we have sooo many members here! Almost all of our lessons are with members, and everyone almost always has an automatic fellowshipper. My companion is sister M. Santos, from brazil. Shes amazing. And she has the privilege of being my first native companion! haha ill be brushing up my portuguese in these next 5 weeks. She started her mission here 5 months ago, but will soon be leaving(assumption). I did forget what heat was, untill I was on the boat over here. And yes, it is getting hot once again, so let the prayers and sorvette begin.

Coming back here has really helped me see how amazing this island really is. The people here are so prepared. Anyone will let you in and actually progress, well at least a little bit! And everyone is always at home here! Oh how I have missed the creole here, too. I had a hard time understanding the first day, but now its as if i had never left! Truly the best creole of all the islands (and i can say that since i have heard just about all of them).

This upcoming week we have zone conference so we will be heading on the boat over to sao vicente, so there should be lots of good pictures to send! Love you all!

Till next week,
Síster Kohlert

Week 63: Alright, It´s Time to Tira Chapeu

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, its been a lovely time in Tira Chapeu, and transfers have come once again. I knew my next area would be my last, but I didnt know that it´d also be my first! so im heading back to where i started, back to Santo Antao! I'm more than excited, the people on that island are prepared. I will get part of my old area, and also a large part that i have never worked in. So ill be able to visit a lot of my recent converts, and that will be a huge blessing! Maybe i´ll even be able to take advantage of the ex-investigators in that area and baptize them!

Tira Chapeu
But anyways, this week was a good one, a rough one, but good. We basically decided to drop all of our investigators because everyone stopped progressing. But we did find a couple who are MARRIED, and dont have a religion! The husband is looking for a church to save his marriage, so we have high hopes for them! 
Basically.....the stick form of pillow mints!
We also made it through another successful zone meeting (luckily it went A LOT better than last time). Our training was pretty good, thanks to sister mathews(mission president´s wife). We did have a wonderful lesson with Carminda about having hope, until your companion doesnt know that ai in portuguese means woe, and reads the following scripture: `Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!´ thinking that its saying blessed is he who saith all is well. haha that was a good moment. It just brings back the memories of the MTC, i just thought that those moments were long gone. But im truly goping to miss praia, the ice cream, the sketchy bread, and of course the chocolate break and bifanas from arlinda, and lets be real, i am going to slighty miss all the drunk men on the streets. Farewell, oh Babilonia.

With much love,
Sister Kohlert

Week 62: Festa de Sao Joao

Nha Familia,

Well yesterday was the Festa of Sao Joao, and Tira Chapeu was CRAZY! Everyone and their dog was drunk, and no one was home, but it was quite entertaining to watch the people. We did hear 14 blank shots (3 in a row means its a festa) the other two were just kinda randomly in the mix of the triplas. So that was fun. I'm not sure that they´re actually blanks, but we´ll just pretend they were. And lets just say the turn out for church wasn't so great... at least we had two investigators. Who we thought would be getting baptized this week... until she told us that she has still be drinking coffee. And she´s being a stickler about stopping, but its a work in progress.

Divisions
Sometimes You Have to get Creative
We finished divisions for this transfer, so we celebrated by making cake and eating mangos and coconut. I was able to buy the newest sister from america her very first sorvette. so good. that new found knowledge will get her through any summer in cabo verde. que bençao.



Vovo Fati!
Sketchy bread place, best bread in all of Praia

Coconut!!


Shucking peas(?) aka cascar feijao
WE LOVE PUPPIES!
On Tuesday, we had our first mission lock down! There was a shooting about 30 minutes by car from us. Don't know if anyone heard about that, but 11 people were killed. There are no missionaries serving in that city, but we all went home early just to be safe. And while we were home, we ate some more mangos.
We have been finding lots of new people, but for some reason everything seems to be at a holt. Im not quite sure why, but we´ll just keep on working. This whole transfer no one seems to be making any progress, but Heavenly Father has a plan for His children, some just might need a bit more time. But I still love it here in Tira Chapeu, the work will go forth.

Love you all!
Sister Kohlert

Week 61: Early Celebrations

Dear Family and Friends,

Just another lovely week here in Praia, so close to finishing divisions, just one more left! Woot woot! We celebrating by having a TON of FHEs and bring brownies to all of them. They were SOOOO good. All I needed was ice cream and my life would be complete. 

Family Night #1

Family Night #2

Family Night #3
We did find out some sad news... the family that we LOVE and I was convinced would be getting baptized while I was here, moved JUST BARELY outside of our area and into the area of the AP´s. It´s literally across the other side of the street from our area. It was so sad. So we had to pass them over to the elders. They were supposed to be baptized this coming saturday, but she still hasn't had her baby and she´s overdue... so we just hope that we can get be there for their baptism!

We also hit out 100 days left (well ish... because we will probably go home on a wednesday so we´ll hit 100 days left on wednesday) but we celebrated early and got a Bifana from a recent convert. One day I'll explain all the cabo verdean foods, but I don't have time for that today... sorry.
District Activity: Hike to the top of Monte Vermelho
We had a great night yesterday, as a drunk man couldnt stop talking to us from our investigators door, we have some videos of it, he just kept leaving and coming back. One of the times he came back with an english restoration pamphlet. that was interesting. Other than that, the week was pretty normal. Last week just had all the crazy stories. Maybe next week will be good too.

Till then...
Sister Kohlert

Week 60: Sooo... you´ll get the stories next week

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry, i managed time bad today, but ill make sure to get all the stories that happened into a few lines....

So here´s a summary:

- 2 divisions, one of which was VERY interesting
- More gun shots, but thats normal
- How our member explained brownies (they´re his favorite family night treat) 'theyre kinda like pizza'
- The drunk man with a blow dryer pretending like it was a speed gun-thing, and checking the speed of the cops, with sound effects.
- We witnessed a robbery, well a man stole a womans phone and money right in front of us, like a run by-ish. idk. it was so weird.
- AND.... I found out that my convert in Santo Antao is putting in his mission papers in a month! I bawled my eyes out when he told me. That was the highlight of the week.

Sorry for the short email, but it was a good week.
Sister Kohlert

and ill send pics next week...sorry!

Love 
Sister Kohlert

Week 59: Por Favor, Tira Chapéu

Dear Family and Friends,

Oh my area! If only I could tell all the things that happen in this area. Its like belonging to a secret club, no one knows what really goes on in Tira Chapéu till you walk these streets everyday. The things you see, it just kills me! You wouldnt believe everything that went on, and its just the usual out here. You just have a lot of good stories to take home, if i remember them all.

It cracks me up when talking about the gun shots in relief society is a completely normal thing. Same with the massive amount of drunk people walking in the streets. For example, we went to teach the plan of salvation to one of our new investigators, but when we showed up, him and his friends we´re all throughly drunk. They tried to tell us that it was just juice, until we asked if we could have some, in which they quickly responded ´NO!´ haha it was pretty entertaining. So we decided not to talk about the plan of salvation, and instead talked a little bit about reading and praying and for them not to drink or smoke before our next visit. Hopefully they´ll be just as accepting and willing sober as they are drunk. It was nice to have three women in there who were all pregnant so they at least were sober and hopefully got something out of that lesson. 


´papa de abobora´ (mashed squash, flour, and water cooked over the stove, with milk)​ I promise it was good, my face just doesnt show it very well...
CACHUPA! this time with squash and tuna
We did have a fun time at Sukapeira today, you can get custom fit dresses for $5, you just have to buy the fabric. So I probably should have just started my mission in Praia and only brought like 4 skirts from America and gotten the rest made! Yeah, so Cabo Verde is pretty cool. Sorry that I dont have a TON of stroies that I can write in an email, but after the mission you´ll get all the stories from this week.
Gatorade from the american store, picture taken in the MASSIVE market place called Sukapeira

Love,
Síster Kohlert