Time For Snow and Christmas Music

Hello to whomever may read this,

Thanksgiving was great, we had so many appointments to go to all day we were just running from place to place, and then for our last appointment we had dinner at the Devenish's house, they are young empty nesters and they are soo cool. They met on their mission, so they told us a bunch of good stories and showed us pictures from that. When she first met her husband on her mission as she was shaking his hand for the first time the spirit told her that she was going to marry him, or else she wouldn't get married, so that was pretty alarming. Sister Devenish is a convert so she told us her conversion story and it is AMAZING. But anyways so it was nice to be able to just sit and chill for a bit and not think about what I was going to do or say next. On Friday we had a family home evening with Holly and Bennett at this awesome families home, so that was a pretty good experience. And sometime last week we were able to start teaching one of my favorite people, her name is Amber and her husband is inactive, and they have the cutest little boy. Things are going pretty good here. We got the transfer text on Saturday and Elder Miller, my stellar district leader is going to a different area. But sister Carlini is staying, by the time this next transfer is over she will have been in her first area, Sheboygan, for half of her mission . . . crazy! 

Everyone keeps telling me that there is a ton of snow in Idaho and Utah, I wish there was some here, but all I see is green grass. I'll just keep praying for some, Sister Carlini hates the snow, she is from Arizona, but it makes me so happy! Also check out the new Christmas video atchristmas.mormon.org, and share it with your friends! Do it, I dare you. I hope ya'll have a great week ya know! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

Isn't this the coolest sign ever!? They also have signs like this here with snowmobiles and tractors on them.

Thanksgiving at the Devenish's with the district

Our last district meeting of the transfer

The elders like to mess with our car and put pamphlets on it from the 80's

Just some surfers and paddle boarders on Lake Michigan on November 24th . . . no big deal.

I Have A Lot Of Thanks To Give!

Hello everyone!! 

Happy Thanksgiving, I get to go to like three or four Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday so that should be fun. But anyways this week was seriously the best week ever. So many great things happened. We had a lesson with a member referral at the members house, so that was amazing and we are going to see her again on Thursday actually, so we are excited about that because when investigators have friends who are members it makes all the difference in the world. Her name is Sharrea and she is a friend of the Pollock family who I LOVE dearly. Brother Pollock was just baptized last year, but they have actually been inactive recently, but they just started coming back to church, and now they had this great missionary opportunity. Also on Friday we had a mission tour in Green bay (yes Mom I drove) and Brother and Sister Schweitzer (sp?) of the seventy came to our mission and talked to us and it was so great, the most important message that I learned from them was that I need to teach conversion not theology. We can teach what our church believes all we want, but if they don't find out for themselves that it is true than it doesn't matter. That pretty much took up all of Friday, but before we left Green bay my district and I decided that we had to go to Lambeau Field where the Packers play, so we got some pictures there. On Saturday we had Stake Conference in Nina and we had a member drive us there so that was nice. Stake Conference was so good, all of the missionaries in the Stake sang, which is a lot of missionaries, we made up a good sized choir. We sang As I have Loved you in Hmong, Spanish, and English it was pretty cool. On Sunday we actually went to Bennett's church at 8 for kicks and giggles. He did a sermon for everyone, which doesn't usually happen, so he invited us. It was actually really good he read from Habakkuk in the bible and he talked about how happiness and joy are different. We aren't going to be happy all of the time or else we would be robots. But we can feel joy all of the time. Joy is much greater than happiness, we are able to feel joy even during our trials. Joy is basically having the faith and the knowledge that everything will be okay and that God is with us at all times and will not forsake us. After Bennett's church was ran into a guy there that we had met before named Jay, and he invited us over for dinner, so that was awesome. Then we had our church and after church we visited some people. Tristan didn't come to church again, so we stopped by her house and she wasn't home, but her two boys were and the little boy is 7 and so cute, as we were leaving he yelled out the door "I LOVE YOU GUYS" haha it made me so happy. We had dinner with the bishop and some of his friends who are not members, and we had a really good dinner and a really good lesson with them, the spirit was strong so that was good. Then we had another dinner with Jay and Bennett and their families and Jay and his wife and kids are SOO nice and hospitable as soon as we walked in the girl took our bags and coats and the son asked what we wanted to drink. They have such strong values it is awesome to see people of other faiths that still see the importance of having strong families, we just need to figure out a way to help them understand that there is so much more. So it has been a wonderful week! I just wanted to thank everyone who emails me, and I am sorry if I don't email you back, I really do appreciate all of the support and emails and words of wisdom that I have received from you all. Have a great week! and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Sister Koyle

​They have pretty sunsets here too.

​My attempt at a snow angel.

This is basically the celestial kingdom of bathrooms, at the Kohler Design center. Kohler is a big deal here, like half of the people in Sheboygan work at Kohler, there are actually a bunch of their workers on strike right now, so that is fun.

 Super blurry picture of me at Lambeau field!

 ​I might as well be a cheese head.

My first tears in the field have been shed.

Until Friday this week was pretty boring, I did make some apple sauce on Thursday, which was awesome. On Friday we had 3 to 6 week training in Oshkosh, so that was a blast! I was able to see Sister Roskelley and Elder Riley Lott (from Logan), which was so exciting, we conversed and told each other mission stories. Then we had a lesson in Sheboygan at 5 and after that we had to drive back to Fond Du Lac for exchanges. I went on exchanges with Sister Hansen from Salt Lake, she is so sweet and adorable and we had such a great day on Saturday, we were able to visit quite a lot of people. Saturday night we exchanged back and I got Sister Carlini back. Sunday Tristan didn't come to church, I have no idea why, but it seriously broke my heart.

A couple of weeks ago we met a guy, who just happened to be a pastor, that was watching the world series so he didn't want to talk to us right then, but he begged us to come back later. So Sunday night one of our lessons fell through, so I was like hey lets go visit that pastor that we met that one time. So we did. I voluntarily knocked on his door and shook his hand and went into his gorgeous house and sat on his perfect white couch and met is wonderful wife and his tiny dog named Lucy . . . and then he tore us apart limb from limb. And Sister Carlini was a complete champ and she was so Christlike and loving and she explained everything wonderfully. But I just sat there, literally, visibly, shaking. I felt exactly like Joseph did in Joseph Smith History verse 15. I had so many emotions going on inside of me, I was scared and mad and confused and I had so many verses I wanted to yell at him and my heart was pounding, but I just sat there. When we left I was so mad at myself that I didn't say anything, I was so disappointed with myself. I felt like I didn't do my part as a missionary, like I let my savior down by not defending his church. But I learned from this experience, that I must always bear my testimony. Hopefully I won't ever come across someone as heartless as that pastor, but if I do I know exactly what to do. Anyone can try to disprove the doctrine of this church, but nobody can tell me what I do or do not know. And I know that a fourteen year old boy had a question about which church to join and I know that he received an answer because Heavenly Father is the same yesterday today and forever and if he talked to his children yesterday then that means he talks to them today and he will continue to talk to them. I know that Joseph was a prophet of God and he restored the original church of Jesus Christ along with the priesthood power of God. And people have doubts about this, that is why I know the Lord provided evidence of this, and that evidence is the Book of Mormon. I know the Book of Mormon is the most true book on the earth, and that it can bring great peace to those who read it. I invite you all to read it and to pray to know if it is true, with the intent to act on the answer that you receive, and you will receive an answer that it is true. Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Koyle

Just a sign with lights that spell Sheboygan, so I had to take a picture by it.

This is Sister Hansen, and she is awesome!

​This is one of the many typical red barns that are found EVERYWHERE in Wisconsin. . . also silos. 

What on earth is Hardee's?!! . . . It is called Carl's Jr.

Taking the SIN out of WisconSIN

Hello everyone! I am starting to get the word of wisdom lesson down pretty well. It is weird because apparently this is beer country and there is a bar on every corner that there isn't a church, but we keep running into people who smoke, I haven't had anyone with a drinking problem yet, but everyone here smokes. It is a really hard thing to work with because they are so reliant on it and I know that if they will just read the scriptures and pray for help and go to church and show some faith that the Lord will help them get over their addiction, but they just don't believe me. 

We got an Evangelical Pastor to step inside of our church yesterday so that was super exciting! His name is Bennett and his wife's name is Holly and they were both born and raised in Sheboygan, they have a 4 year old and 2 year old and a 2 month old and they are thee cutest little family and I just want them so badly to be eternal. Someday they will be, but it might take a while. The sisters before me tracted into them and they were interested in learning about what we believe, so we have been teaching them ever since. They are the sweetest people and they are actually pretty open to our church, he basically told us that if he knew that Joseph Smith was really a prophet then he would be baptized. They have been keeping all of their commitments even when we asked them to live the word of wisdom and not drink coffee, they said they would give it a try, which is super hard for them because they live off of their coffee since they have a 2 month old who is always awake during the night. 

Also Tristan is a single Mom with 7 and 9 year old boys and she is so cute and genuine and she really wants God in her life I love her so much, we have a lot of hope for her, she has a smoking problem as well, but before we even taught her the word of wisdom she has been trying to cut down on it and stop smoking so that is good. 

Things are good here in Sheboygan, the weather has been surprisingly nice, and so have the people. Have a great week! 

With love from Wisconsin!

Sister Koyle

A lot of the street names are named after states, but I haven't found Idaho yet, so I guess Wisconsin is second best. Also I have only driven the wrong way on a one way street twice since I have been here. 

Apparently the thing that I am standing on is like the Hmong symbol. Hmong is an Asian culture, there are a ton of them here! So many that we even have Hmong missionaries.

 Here are some pretty fall trees . . . enjoy!

Happy Halloween and time change

Hello Everyone! 

This week has been great, I am starting to get the hang of things a little bit more. Of course Monday is Pday, and every Tuesday we have district meetings, every Wednesday we volunteer at Bethesda, it is kind of like a goodwill or DI, we just put clothes on the racks, it is pretty fun. on Thursdays we do our weekly planning, Friday we volunteer at Above and Beyond, which is a children's museum, it is so much fun, and the rest of the time we study and sleep and teach and tract. It is so cool to see how the Lord leads us exactly where he wants us to meet the right people. I have seen that basically everyday that I have been here, when we go somewhere to see a referral or a less active and they aren't home so we knock doors around there or talk to someone on the street and that is when we find the people that the Lord has sent us here for. He leads us right to them. We hardly ever reach our goals for the day, but that doesn't really matter as long as you are following the spirit and going and doing what the Lord wants you to. An experience from this week is that we found this 60 ish year old lady tracting named Lauralee, I actually just knocked on her door because I thought her house was cute (there are so many cute houses here) anyways and it turns out she has been to some of the church sites in Nauvoo a she said that she felt a good feeling there we gave her a book, and we agreed on a return appointment, well she cancelled on us, like they all do, but later on in the week we happened to be over on her street contacting someone else and we saw her outside of her house and she let us in and we taught her the restoration and committed her to baptism. So that was super awesome, now we just have to get her to quit smoking . . . we will see what happens. The time changed on Sunday and Sister Carlini is from Arizona and knew nothing about it so that was kinda funny, I was confused why she was so confused about it and then I remembered that they don't do that in Arizona. Also Sister Carlini did something to her shin or ankle or something and it hurt for her to run, but she claims that she MUST RUN, so she ran on it even though it hurt and so then it hurt worse, and yesterday she could barely walk, but she said that it feels a bit better today so that is good. Halloween here is weird, Everyone decorates their houses, but nobody is very good at dressing up. Also the town of Sheboygan set a time frame for trick or treating, which I thought was interesting, so the kiddos could only go between 4 pm and 7pm, it was still light outside. So that just made me happy that I didn't grow up here, because of course you have to go trick or treating in the dark. I hope everyone is doing well and I hope you all had a great Halloween! Happy November! The gospel is true!

Love Sister Koyle

At Above and Beyond they have a giant pinscreen, so of course we had to leave our mark.

This is basically a members front yard, two week ago those trees were full of leaves of all different colors.

Jesus Prepper Preparing for the Return of Jesus Christ. This was on someones front stairs, and I thought it was pretty interesting, I think it is a legit religion here though. There are so many religions here and so many churches, I had never heard a church bell until I came here and now there are at least three of them every hour.

 This is the tiny light house that we can run to if the waves aren't crashing over us. It is so pretty! 

The light house is red, the sky is pretty, and I was running.

No worries it is just Sprechers Root Beer, apparently it is a big deal here.

 This is my apartment building it faces the harbor so we have a pretty good view of the lake. It always smells like smoke inside, but I have gotten used to it, especially since everyone here smokes.

Sometimes on nice days we study in the park.