Member work is the bomb

Well all of the sudden we have been doing quite a bit of member work and it is awesome!! The only problem is two of our solid investigators are on probation or parole or whatever that is called, and one of them is under 18, and we haven't talked to her parents yet, so we can't really set baptismal dates with any of them yet.

This week was great though, we had zone training in Oshkosh on Tuesday and I got to see some of my homies, and learn how to use the family proclamation more in my finding. And on Friday we had interviews with the mission president, it was our last interviews with him, because we are getting a new president in July. 

We had a really cool thing happen, for mutual the young woman had us come and teach them the first lesson, and they invited all of their nonmember friends. So there was this one girl who was really interested and so we have started teaching her, she is awesome, and such a cute girl.

Shirley called us last week and told us that her husband Roy broke his femur, so he had surgery and now he is in a nursing home for a month, which means that we can teach him in the nursing home and he just gets to listen because he can't go anywhere :) 

We also did a lot of service this week, which is really fun, we helped this man fix a fence and he said that he would come to church next week. And then we helped a part member family with their garden and we were completely covered in dirt, so that was fun. Our other investigator gets off of house arrest this wednesday so he said that he will come to church this coming Sunday so that is super great. 

And almost everyone that I love was at church on Sunday it was the best sunday ever, and we had a munch and mingle afterwards so that was great! 

Also there is this family in our ward here with 9 kids and between the 11 of them they play the piano, cello, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and the harp. So they just held a family recital yesterday after church and all of the pews were packed and about half of the people were nonmembers, so we were all over that. It was a wonderful time and we met a lot of cool people. 

This may or may not be my last week in Sheboygan, we will find out on Sunday. Remember that Christ lives and that he loves you and that Heavenly Father doesn't expect perfection, only progress. 

Love,

Sister Koyle

Magnolia trees are blooming 

 All of the sisters in my zone, My trainer is with Sister Naughton's MTC companion and my MTC companion is with Sister Naughton's trainer, confusing I know.

A korean lady in our ward gave us this Korean tea and when she gave it to us she said that some people think that it tastes like dirt, but it is really good for you. So I was like I bet if I put three spoonfuls of sugar in it it won't taste bad, well I was wrong, it definitely tastes like you are drinking dirt, so I just downed it really fast.

Shirley was Baptized

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. This week has been pretty awesome. Shirley was baptized on Saturday and her husband even came to watch it. He is such a nice old man, and he gave me a hug which was super weird, my first hug from a man in like 7 months, but I couldn't tell him no because he is just so frail. But anywho Elder Phillips baptized Shirley, and she went all the way under the water on the first try, so that was great. And she insisted that I give the talk on baptism, so I did, and I just think that it is so cool that we are able to partake of the sacrament each week and renew those covenants that we made at baptism, because obviously we are all human and we all mess up. The power of the atonement and repentance is real. But Shirley looked very happy, I was very excited for her, and we had some treats afterward which was nice. Also after her baptism we had two super solid lessons, there are a lot of good things happening in Sheboygan.

Also this week we had an awesome miracle when we had dinner with a member family who also invited their friend to dinner. And their friend has been through a lot of crazy things in life but she has definitely been prepared for the gospel. She has a lot of questions and is very open, and so I am very excited to teach her, we set up an appointment with her this week so that should be great. She came to church this week and she also wants to get her baby boy blessed, so they are going to do that next week.

We have a lot of great people who we are teaching, there are soo many less actives here so we are trying to get to know some of them better. There is this one part member famliy, she is a member and he is not and we are going to have a family home evening with them today so we are pretty excited about that. 

We met this really nice man this week who is a war vet and he has a lot of yard work to do, he is friends with some of the members. He also told me and Sister Naughton that we made him wish that he was 20 again, so I'm not quite sure what that means, but I just took it as a compliment. But us and the spanish elders were able to help him out this week with some of the yard work, it was really fun to wear pants, pick up a shovel, and get a little dirty. 

Also Mothers Day was great, of course I was able to talk to my family and say hi to all of them, which was awesome. It has been a really wonderful week. 

Love,

Sister Koyle

Shirley's baptism :) 

Sister Naughton 

One of the members tried to shave their cat, but it woke up half way through . . . Sorry cat.

The Gospel Unites Families Forever

We had a pretty good week, met some pretty promising people and also our investigator got married!! which is so awesome. Me and Sister Naughton were half joking half serious about coming out here next Summer for their sealing in the temple. #FamiliesAreForever She also said that she prayed about being baptized and she feels really good about this religion. She said that it wasn't a very hard decision so that is awesome. So we are really excited for them. 

Also Shirley is actually getting baptized like for real this time. This Saturday at 4 o clock. She passed her baptismal interview and she hasn't smoked for at least 2 and a half weeks, maybe three, I can't remember. We are really excited about her. She also finished reading the book of mormon this week. Some how we got on the topic of her 50th anniversary which is in about 2 years and we asked her what she would like to do for it and she said well I would like to get married in the temple. #FamiliesAreForever So we will have to work really hard on her husband Roy, he is really nice, just not really into religion. She also started on her family history this week so that was pretty exciting.

As we all know yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and this little boy got up to bear his testimony yesterday and he said "My brother tried to throw a ball at me and it didn't hit me and that's how I know that God is real" of course we were all rolling laughing, but then he said that he also knows that God is real because he prayed and he felt a good feeling inside. It is really cool that the holy ghost can testify of the reality of God to a little boy, just as well as anyone else. It doesn't matter how old or young or what race or gender you are, you can receive answers just like anyone else and it is though subtle feelings and thoughts. God loves all of his children so he sends his spirit to speak to us all, as long as we are willing to let the spirit in.

Love,

Sister Koyle

 P.S. Also we get to skype on Sunday so woohoo.

This is a picture of the Berg family after the wedding. The lady in the middle holding the baby is our investigator. 

Washing windows at Above and Beyond 

Drinking Mello Yello

You have so much truth. Why are you with the Mormons?

So we met a guy this week, who claims to be a know it all, apparently he has even read the Book of Mormon. He kept asking us all of these questions expecting that we wouldn't know the answers, I was like dude they don't just send us out here without teaching us first. Anyways so he was actually pretty nice for the most part, he was super old and he gave us a book that he wrote, about seeing God (which we gave to Goodwill since we can't read it anyways). At the end of our conversation he said you have a lot of truth, why are you with the Mormons? I was just thinking, where do you think I got it all from? It is sad when people are so close to the truth, when it is right in front of them, but they don't accept it. 

Anywho, our week was great! Long, but great! We asked a less active member if we could "practice" teaching her the lessons and she kindly agreed, then when we showed up to her house she had her non member friend there with her and so we were able to teach both of them and invite both of them to church and to read the Book of Mormon, it was super cool. There is definitely power in the Book of Mormon that you can't find anywhere else. I am so grateful for that book. 

So there is this former investigator who we are always trying to meet with, but he is always so busy. But we texted him about church, and he texted us back and said, "I can't come to church I'm on house arrest for thirty days". So we said back, "do you have a book of mormon to read?" and he said "ya I have the app" and we said, "when would be a good time for us to stop by to see if you have any questions" and he said, "well I guess anytime". Since he is on house arrest he can't really go anywhere, so that is super nice for us because we can just visit him whenever. So we visited him that evening and he is super cool, he said that he wants to change his life, plus he is a DJ so that is pretty legit. 

My week has been pretty good, nothing too exciting. I'm just trying to be the best missionary that I can be, it is pretty hard sometimes, but it can be fun too. I think the key is just laughing at everything. Me and my comp laugh a lot!! especially since she is hilarious. Make it a great week! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

The Beach 

Chicago dog in Sheboygan? 

They never texted us back... #MissionaryWork

Apparently there is something about redheads that gets me

So my new comp is legit, probably because she is a redhead, or it might be because she is from upstate NewYork, either way I love her. So her name is actually Sister Naughton, and we actually came out to the field together, but I came out with like 25 other missionaries (that is a lot), so I didn't actually know her. This week has been long and crazy, but super good. We have already been through quite a bit together, last Tuesday we were tracting in Sheboygan after we got back from Milwaukee and we met this man who was totally against religion and God. It was actually really funny because he said that he didn't believe in God, but then he went off ranting about God and I said so you do believe in God, and he said No! and I said well it sounds like it, sounds like you are just mad at Him. Then we bore hard core testimony to him, but he was just so hardened, but weirdly enough it really strengthened me and Sister Naughtons bond with each other. So ever since the first day we have really just clicked. 

Also this week we set a baptismal date with this awesome lady, who is engaged to a less active member. We are really excited about her. Her and her fiance also moved their wedding date way up, so they are getting married in two weeks, which means that she can get baptized sooner woohoo! I was so excited when they told us that I could hardly contain myself. 

Shirley is still awesome, she hasn't smoked for over a week now so that is really awesome! Also this week we were able to help a member move, it was actually really fun to be able to wear pants and to move boxes and run up and down stairs, super good exercise and I am still sore from doing it. It was really hot that day too and I was able to experience humidity :) It has been soo nice the past couple of days we have been able to wear short sleeves and we can beach contact now since people are outside. 

In other news Sister Naughton is awesome, she just has a fire about her. When we left President's house last Tuesday he told us that we are going to be a powerful team and boy was he right. She has so many good new ideas about how to push the work further along. And she is super obedient, like I thought I was obedient before, but I guess I was wrong. Also she basically already knows all of the active members after going to church once. She asked me about every single member that was at church. 

I am so happy to be here, and so be able to wear Christ's name on my chest, I hope that it will be written on my heart by this time next year. I know that His atonement is real and that because of Him hearts can be healed and softened. It is so cool to see that his work will go on with or without us, so we might as well help it along. I hope everyone is doing well. Have a fantastic week! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

 Of course we had to run to the light house :) Also (Robin) I love Sheboygan and I am super happy to stay here, because the people are great and so is the view and now that it is getting warm it is just starting to get good. But my mission president told me that he isn't going to keep me here forever.

 Me and my comp.

Boys will be boys, or in other words, Elders will be boys. No worries, the silly string came right off :)

I think I have been out for 6 months... weird

So we are headed to Milwaukee today, I will meet my new comp tonight and we will drive back to Sheboygan tomorrow morning, I think her name is Sister Naught, but I'm not really sure #NoPunIntended 

We had a pretty great week this week, Shirley hasn't had a cigarette in about 4 days or so, so she is on her way to baptism. It was so cool we took a member with us who used to smoke, and Shirley was saying how she wants to stop and she has better things to move onto like getting baptized and going to the temple, and the member that was with us said "You know Shirley if you were really serious about this then you would give me your smokes right now" And Shirley said I won't give them to you, you don't need that temptation, but I'll give them to the sisters" So she gave them to us and they are hanging from our ceiling fan as our trophy :) we are pretty proud of her. 

Obviously since I am a missionary I don't exactly keep up on politics, but I asked my ward mission leader how the election is going and he said he would rather vote for Hitler at this point, so apparently it isn't looking to good, but then again he is from German decent so it's not that surprising. 

Sister Butler and I were discussing the pre-earth life, because it fascinates me and she said "I hope me and Jesus were tight in the pre-earth life" I was laughing pretty hard. But in all seriousness, obviously we don't know how close we were to Christ before this life, but we can always become closer to Him while we are in this life, we can continually learn of Him and try to become like Him and as we do that we will become closer to Him. 

Have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

​The Sheboygan district at zone training last Tuesday, Elder Keisker takes page 33 very seriously 

All of my companions and I at zone training 

Shirley's Cigarettes 

Hahaha district lunch eating Pho . . . So good

General Conference was Legit

So General Conference was awesome! I think that my favorite talk was Henry B. Eyring's just because it was so powerful, and it made me realize that I need to bear powerful testimony a lot more often. 

Sunday was such a great day. We watched conference at Marsha's house, she is like the grandma of the Sheboygan ward and she is always taking care of us. So of course she gave us lunch afterward and we also watched the afternoon session there as well. Then we had an awesome FHE with the VanAsten's we talked about commandments, I think they are starting to warm up to us, we had a lot of fun with them yesterday. Then we had a solid lesson with this big intimidating/nice black man. He has been in the military for 20 years and he has been on 4 tours (I think that's what they are called) and he knows his bible pretty well. He asked a lot of good questions. And he is genuinely searching for the truth, so I think he has a lot of potential. I am excited about him. 

Our week has been pretty great, we had a little bit of snow, but it is melted and we had a lot of rain this week. Next week we will be driving to Milwaukee to drop off Sister Butler to fly back to Nauvoo, so we get to sleep in the mission home for a night or two, and I will find out who my new companion will be. I am kinda excited, but of course I am also sad. Sister Butler has been a great companion and we have become great friends. I think the key to a good companionship/relationship is communication, we just tell each other nicely when something annoys us. So I will miss her a lot, but I know she did what she was supposed to do here in Sheboygan.

My whole mission is doing an atonement study of the Book of Mormon and we are all reading it in about three months. At first when I learned that we were going to do this I was actually pretty upset because I am right in the middle of Alma at the good part and now I have to start all over again. But then the Lord kinda humbled me, and I guess I am starting to like it. So if anyone wants to join I will attach the document with the reading on it. I know that reading the Book of Mormon has definitely strengthened my faith in Christ and his Atonement, and that if can do the same for you as well. Have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

Sister Butler found a light saber, notice there are three more behind her :)

We tract in the snow. #SnowSelfie . . . again :)

 We went to the light house last week for P-day because some of the Elders had never been. Don't they look awesome? I'm proud of my picture taking skills :)