It doesn't matter if you have the truth, it matters what you do with it.

That moment when you walk out to the garage and there are two dead chickens laying on the car with blood dripping from them. Just another day at Grandma Rekow's house. On Friday night we had fresh chicken for dinner though, it was walking around that morning, but by dinner time it had been fried and was ready to eat. 

Well we tracted a lot. I shared the first vision with more people this week than I ever have before. We found this one lady who was super prepared, so we are excited about her. The 16 year old girl that we are teaching is getting baptized this Friday, it is a long story, we made a lot of phone calls and talked to a lot of people and we did a lot of praying and fasting, and she is getting baptized. So we are excited about that. I think she is more excited than anyone though. This is something that she wants so badly, it is so cool to see that conviction within someone who is so young. 

Someone gave a talk in church yesterday and he was talking about Elder Cook's talk called See Yourself in the Temple and in that talk he says, "Church leaders organize stakes, wards, quorums, Church auxiliaries, missions, and so forth in our chapels and other buildings. The Lord organizes eternal families only in temples." And I just thought that was so awesome. Families are so important and eternal families are of the utmost importance that they can only be organized in the House of the Lord. Thank you all so much for all that you have done, thank you for reading my emails each week. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Love,

Sister Koyle

We actually took a few pictures this week :)

We saw this sweet sign on the way to Tigerton. 

Grandma's son got twelve little chicks, they are so cute. 

Tracting in the rain.

Alma 29:9-10

So we were tracting, as usual, and this lady came out of her house to let her dog out. And we started talking to her and she was so prepared for the gospel, she seemed like our best friend and she seemed really genuinely interested in the gospel, she has been going through some hard times and she was just the perfect investigator, we gave her a Book of Mormon and she told us to come back the next week. So we came back the next week, and just as we were walking up to the house her husband came out of the house to let the dog out and we talked to him and taught him the first vision and gave him a Book of Mormon. He seemed even more interested than she was and we set up an appointment to come back and teach them. We showed up for our appointment and Sister van Overbeek says "How crazy would it be if they let their dog out again when we show up" And sure enough just as we approach the house the lady lets her dog out, and then she turns and sees us, and she yells at her dog to come back in and she goes back inside and closes the door. But we still went and knocked on the door and rang the doorbell twice and she never answered. That my friends is why everyone needs to share the gospel with their friends so that the missionaries can actually have people to teach, because when someone has a friend in the gospel they are way more likely to meet with missionaries and if they have questions then they have a friend to ask their questions to. That is why we should all be praying that we can have missionary opportunities, and looking for missionary opportunities and acting upon them when they arise. Because there is a better way to do missionary work than knocking on doors all day and that is through your friends. We have the truth, the means to salvation, we need to share it with those around us.  

On a lighter note, the 16 year old girl that we are teaching is supposed to be getting baptized on September 16th, but it is kind of up to her Dad, so we will see if he allows her to be baptized. 

On Sunday the spirit was like hey you should go see that one potential investigator. So we did and turns out that they wanted to come to church that day but they weren't sure where it was at or what to wear. So they are planning on coming to church next week and we set up an appointment with them to teach them. They are a cute native couple with a little boy and I have high hopes for them. She already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Priesthood because some elders in the past gave her little boy a blessing a while ago when he was really sick.

Labor day was just a regular proselyting day, so we tracted a lot, and the ward had a picnic for lunch, so we went to that and that was pretty fun. We have had 3 new families move into the Shawano ward in the past month, so basically the ward doubled, which is great! 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

Life in Gresham . . . nothing too exciting

 This is where we go running every morning

 Roxy

and pigs . . .

3 Members of the Seventy in 3 days

Well Friday and Saturday and Sunday were really great! We went to Green Bay on Friday for a mission tour with Elder Ringwood and Elder Cordon of the seventy. Elder Ringwood is Russell M. Nelson's son in law so that was pretty cool and Elder Cordon is from Guatemala. Everything that they said was just super good, they are very inspired men. We basically had a Q&A with them for about 2 hours, it was so cool. There was this one question that someone asked and Elder Ringwood said "well I'm a general authority, which means that generally I know what I'm talking about, but I'll let President Williams take that question." 

Then Saturday night and Sunday morning was Wausau Stake conference and Elder Ringwood and Elder Sinclair of the seventy were there, because Wausau got a new stake presidency. And me and my comp got to sing in the choir so that was pretty fun to be able to do that. Something that really amazed me all weekend was that these three members of the seventy had to give several different talks, and they had to speak several different times, and yet each time they didn't have any papers in front of them. They used personal experiences and they used scripture, but most of the time they didn't even open their scriptures they just quoted it off of the top of their heads and explained all of the different aspects of the different scripture stories without looking at them. It was pretty amazing. You could easily tell that when they spoke they spoke by the spirit to say the perfect things that would touch the hearts of the different people that were all there. There were many things that touched my heart, I wish that I could share everything with all of you. 

Somethings that really stood out to me was Elder Ringwood said that he had studied compassion a lot and in every instance that Christ had compassion that there was a miracle that happened, someone was healed or something. Except in Matthew 9:36-38. Then he said that he comes to these mission tours and sees all of these missionaries and realizes that we are the miracle that it is talking about in those verses, that missionary work is full of miracles and that we are so blessed to be part of this great work. I am so grateful for this gospel and for the Lord's church on the earth today and for all of the order that is in this marvelous church and gospel. Christ himself really is leading and guiding his church on the earth today.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Have fun at school! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

P.S. if you sent me an individual email or letter and I don't respond to you, I am sincerely sorry, but there really isn't much time for anything except for missionary work when you are a missionary :) I only get this chance once in my life, but I still love all of you!

 Three generations :) Sister van Overbeek, Sister Koyle, Sister Carlini

 These are a few of the sisters that I came out to the field with. Two of them were in my district at the MTC.

​Sun-drop

Training :)

Well this week was interesting to say the least. There were a series of different events that happened. For one I got to drive to Pewaukee and drop off Sister Jenson, and then I went down to Milwaukee and picked up my new trainee, Sister van Overbeek. She is from California and went to BYU for a year and now she is here, she is super awesome and she is a super great missionary. I seriously don't even feel like I am training because she is just so prepared, and so ready.

Also when we went down to Milwaukee we got a new car, they gave me the keys and there wasn't actually a key, you just push a button to start it. So that is kind of fun, I am still getting used to it, and it has a back up camera, so we were joking about not having to back each other anymore since that is one of our rules, but of course my comp still backs me. #obedience

We had some crazy things happen between some people whom we are teaching and some members and people's parents not giving them permission to be baptized or taught. So it was pretty rough due to that, but we had some great learning experiences from it, and we are starting to get things figured out. The 19 year old who got baptized last week passed the sacrament on Sunday and his friend came to one of his lessons this week, so that was awesome!! He is already being a missionary.

Nothing super exciting happened this week, all is going relatively well here, I think my comp was pretty surprised when she found out where she was going and where she is living, but she has adjusted very well to it and to grandma's cooking. We have also been challenged to read the Book of Mormon in her first 6 weeks, so about 13 pages a day and so far we are doing good, we read it out loud to each other every day. And we are praying to gain a testimony of it, just like Moroni's challenge. The Book of Mormon is amazing, it is definitely for our day and I am so grateful for it. Read it!

Love,

Sister Koyle

This is my trainee, Sister van Overbeek, from El Dorado Hills California, She is AWESOME! And also President and Sister Williams, my mission president and his wife. 

 Also this week I got to see Elder Low, we served together for my first 6 months and we were training at the same time, and we haven't seen each other for 4 months. It was so good to see him again.

And CORN + the Book of Mormon = mission life in Wisconsin

I love the sound of water running in the church

      My subject is the words to one of the many mission songs that we like to listen to. So the 19 year old that we have been teaching got baptized on Saturday the 13th. It was a really nice baptism. He actually invited a lot of his family and friends, AND they actually came. So that was a super cool, now they know a little bit about what he is doing and why he is doing it. He was also confirmed on Sunday, but we weren't able to be there for his confirmation because we had to go to Green Bay Stake conference. Which by the way was super great! and I was able to see my trainer, Sister Carlini, she is now the Green Bay Sister Training Leader. 

Transfers are this Wednesday and Sister Jenson is leaving and I am going to be TRAINING. I am SOO excited, my whole mission I have really wanted to train someone. Now since it is actually happening I am freaking out a tiny bit because of course I want to be the best trainer ever and raise the most spectacular mission daughter ever. But we will see what happens. 

A lot of things happened this week, I guess to start off, last P-day we went to Antigo for P-day and we were able to actually spend some time with our district for once. We had lunch and we washed our cars in the church parking lot which of course led to a water fight. I scrubbed the elders trucks so hard, they were pretty dirty, but it was a super fun P-day. Then on Tuesday we went to Wausau for a zone training, and the guy who got baptized on Saturday was there for his baptismal interview and I think he was a little overwhelmed with all of the missionaries every where. One of the sisters told him that this would be him in a year, or that he will be on a mission in a year. Hopefully that didn't scare him too bad, he still got baptized 4 days later so I guess he was alright with it. 

We also caught the bat!! AKA Sister Jenson screamed at the top of her lungs and bolted under her desk, and I caught the bat. It came into our house last week, but we didn't have anything to catch it with, so it ended up getting lost and we didn't know where it went, but then Thursday night it came swooping into our study room again, and after a series of events I eventually caught it and we let it go outside by the barn. 

Also last week we were street contacting and we met this 15 year old boy who was playing basketball and it ended up that he was good friends with a bunch of the Mormons, so we set up an appointment with him for Sunday, AND he actually showed up!!! AND we committed him to be baptized on October 15th and he said yes! Miracle!!! I am so happy to be a missionary, it is really great being able to meet new people and to help them to come unto Christ, through baptism. I am so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge that I have and I am so blessed to have been raised in this church and to have been taught these principles from the time that I was born. There have been a LOT of miracles since we got a new mission president, this is an exciting time to be doing the Lords work, and the great thing is that we can ALL be a part of it.  

Love,

Sister Koyle

P.S.This past week was wonderful and this future week should be interesting, wish me luck!

P-day in Antigo. Elder Velasquez, Elder Melle, Elder Wilcock, Elder Shepard, Sister Jenson and me. 

Wausau Zone training. Sister Katz, Sister Lamprecht, Sister Peterson, Sister Christensen, Sister Koyle, Sister Jenson, with elders photo bombing in the back ground :) 

It is really hard to take pictures of a bat, it kept crawling around all over the place. 

 This is Killian, he is awesome, he got baptized on Saturday.

 My trainer and I at stake conference in Green Bay.

This is one of the baby chickens that lives at our house, well actually in the barn behind our house. I meant to get a picture of them when they were tiny and actually cute and fluffy, but oh well.

A bat was flying around our house the other night . . . we don't know where it went

Someone texted this picture to Mom.  With this message:

"We were blessed to have your Daughter in our home tonight.  What a blessing to have her serving in Shawano. Thank you for sharing her with us."

Hello All! 

So super cool thing, one of our investigators is going to the Philadelphia Pennsylvania temple open house with his parents, we are praying so hard that his parent's hearts will be softened by going to the temple. Our other investigator is set to be baptized on Saturday at 4. So I am super stoked about that! 

We were tracting in Whitenberg on Tuesday and we were knocking some doors and we weren't having too much success, so I thought "where are we supposed to be right now", and I looked over across the street and saw this little blue house and I automatically new that was the house we were supposed to be at. So we went and it was this super nice lady, she invited us to sit down and she likes to talk a lot, but everything she was saying just made me think more and more that this lady needs the gospel and that it would help her so much. She is meeting with the JW's but she said that they won't be able to come for 2 weeks, so we are totally going to sweep in steal their investigator. We were able to share the first vision with her and the Book of Mormon and she totally agreed with it all and said that she would read it and pray about it, we will be seeing her again tomorrow. 

Also Yesterday we were street contacting in Shawano and this young kid was playing basketball so we went up and talked to him and turns out that he is friends with three super solid LDS boys, and he asked one of them for a Book of Mormon, but he never gave it to him so we gave him one and he said that he would read it, and we set up and appointment with him for next Sunday. It is so cool when the Lord really leads us to the people who he has prepared for the gospel, it is nice to know that we are being led by the spirit and that the Lord really has people for us to teach, we just have to go find them. 

We also went on exchanges this week, I went to Wausau with Sister Christensen so that was super fun. And today for P-day we are in Antigo with our district because it is Elder Wilcock's last P-day of his mission, so he wanted to do something fun.

Also there is a super awesome video that the church put out at the beginning of the year, you should totally watch it. https://www.lds.org/youth/theme/2016?lang=eng 

I hope everyone is doing well and I hope you all have a great week! 

Love you bunches! 

Sister Koyle

Exchanges!! Sister Jenson, Katz, Christensen, and Me. Sister Katz goes home in about a week :'( 

​I've been here for 9 months, but this sign is still awesome. 

Mom sent some apricot leather to Naomi

Where in the world did August come from?

I can't believe it is here, I feel like time is flying by. I never thought I would say that. When I was first being trained I would pray every day that the time would go by faster. I think Heavenly Father is just now answering my prayer. 

This week has been pretty great. We will have a Baptism on August 13th and I am SOO excited for it. This 19 year old kid that we are teaching has been so prepared by his member friends. It is amazing to see. We taught him about families and temple this week and his Mom passed away when he was 11 and he just can't wait to have his Mom baptized in the temple. During his prayer at the end of the lesson he started getting choked up. I always love it when the spirit brings grown men to tears. We also taught him law of chastity this week, that was interesting teaching someone my own age, but it actually went alright, the member couple that we were with bore hard core testimony :) thank you members! 

And the 16 year old girl that we are teaching set a baptismal date for September 16th. It is so cool when people set baptismal dates and they actually know what they are doing and are prepared for it. She was just so happy and smiley after she decided on a date. Now she just needs her Dad's permission. So if anyone wants to pray for that that would be awesome. 

I also found out this week that a 19 year old guy in Sheboygan that Sister Naughton and I tracted into when I was there got baptized recently. So that was pretty exciting, he is Hmong and so we referred him to the Hmong elders there and they could never get in contact with him, but after I left they were able to contact him and teach him, and now they are teaching his Mom.

This week it was raining pretty hard and I was driving and there were frogs jumping all over the road, I don't think I hit too many of them though, but it was super weird, I have never seen anything like that before. Wisconsin is really beautiful and green, and there are red barns all over, it is kind of nice. The gospel is true, the book is also true, so read it, and it will help you. Have a great week.

Love,

Sister Koyle

 I guess we played dress up . . . Grandma has been housing missionaries for ten years, for 7 of those years she had Elders, so in the depths of her house we found these old suit coats, and a fedora.

 So I tried on Grandma's wedding dress from 65 years ago, it actually fit pretty well. She told me she would let me borrow it for my wedding, hahaha she is a funny lady.

This road is called lovers lane, #TotesAdorbs