So many trees, so few people

someone texted this picture to Mom on Memorial Day

So I live in the attic of an OLD farm house with an 85 year old lady, who we call Grandma Rekow. She is known around town for making interesting food, the first thing I ate when I got here last Wednesday was chicken giblets. I have realized that I took a LOT of things for granted in Sheboygan, and in life :) Gresham has 584 people or something like that, and they are ALL related. 300 of them are Mormon, and about 150 of them are active. The other 284 people already know all about Mormons, so we can't really tract here, but we cover a billion other tiny towns that are anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes away, the closest missionaries to us are an hour away, which is very different from Sheboygan. My area actually covers two different wards, which are in two different stakes, or zones. We have the Gresham ward, in Wausau, and the Shawano ward in Green bay. We also cover the Menominee Indian reservation, but we can't go there without a priesthood holder. 

There are a lot of trees, and wildlife, so far I have seen 2 frogs, a snake, 5 turtles, a four foot crane, bear tracks, and a bunch of other random things. I am definitely not in Sheboygan anymore. It just takes some getting used to. Especially since the only thing I know how to do is tract, and we basically can't do that much anymore, so I will have to try really hard to figure out other ways to find people. My comp, Sister Jenson, is from Boise, she is nice and we get along, but I really miss the fire that Sister Naughton had about the work. I think that when missionaries get sent to Gresham they just assume that there is no missionary work to do here, so then they don't work as hard or try as hard, but I am pretty determined not to fall into that trap, I know that miracles happen when we are obedient, and diligent. 

I have mostly just been getting to know the members, because there are a lot of them. On Saturday morning the Gresham ward had a breakfast and then we went to Gresham's church on Sunday so I got to know that ward pretty well. Then last night the Shawano ward had a Luau and so I got to know some of them, the Luau was really fun and it was nice to see that a lot of people invited their friends. We also got to do the hukilau dance with the relief society so that was pretty fun. 

So basically it has been a decent week and this area is probably going to be pretty hard and it is really going to test me, but the mission field is all about the atonement so I'll just rely on my savior.

I love you all! 

Sister Koyle

P.S. Congrats Ethan and Jeni!! I am really excited for you two. I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow, take lots of pictures for me :)

​We went to Bookworm gardens last p-day in Sheboygan, it is the cutest little garden, we had a lot of fun there.

Transfer omelets at the Bingham's, my last day in Sheboygan. 

​Driving to transfer point, six suit cases, four sisters, all in one car.

a painter turtle on the side of the road, apparently if we catch a snapper in July grandma will make turtle soup. 

 ​So many trees, so few houses. This is what a vast majority of my area looks like.

 This is our dog Roxy, she was weekly planning with us.

This is my closet!!! Isn't it huge!

Where in the world is Gresham?

So I don't have much time today, but this week has been amazing and this transfer has been even better, I have loved Sister Naughton so much and all that she has taught me, but it looks like I am going to Gresham in Wausau, I have heard mostly good things about it, but I am a little concerned about my companion, but all I can do it hope for the best, I think the worst thing about getting transferred is packing everything and realizing how much stuff I have accumulated. 

Something really cool that happened yesterday is that we had 4 investigators at church, that is the most I have ever had during my whole mission. But also we were walking down the street yesterday and there was a lady sitting on the curb and we just started talking to her, and of course our conversation led to the gospel and she was genuinely interested and we set up an appointment with her and we gave her our number, but we forgot to ask for hers, but then like an hour later she texted us (that NEVER happens) and was like this is the lady that you just met, I am excited for out meeting tomorrow, so then we had her number and we are really excited to meet with her today because she seems pretty solid. 

Also for some reason this week we have been receiving a lot of marriage and family advice, everyone just keeps telling us all of these things, it is kinda weird. But one thing that I liked was from a less active member and she said that if you are going to have children then you need to pay attention to them. And I really liked that because 1. It's true and 2. We are all Heavenly Father's children and he pays attention to us. He is very involved in all of our lives and he is always there for us whenever we need anything, he always wants the best for us and he always listens. 

So wish me luck in my new area, I will miss Sheboygan a lot, I have really grown to love the people and the place, but I guess I am on to new adventures. Have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Koyle

​Last week for P-day we hung out at the park, it was super fun. 

​We had out last district meeting of the transfer. #TeachRepentanceBaptizeConverts 

We had exchanges with Sister Quist and Sister Schlosser 

And we got to see little Elkhart Lake in all of it's glory . . . so pretty

These are some of my favorite people from Sheboygan:

the first is Ariel who I was teaching, and her good friend Sister Pollock

This is Grandma Marsha from Sheboygan, she makes the best cake!! and we didn't even match on purpose.

This is Brother Klunk the ward mission leader in Sheboygan, He always does that thing with his hands because he says that he was born when pterodactyls roamed the earth.

This is Elissa Berg, I was teaching her in Sheboygan, she is great and she is getting baptized on June 11th, I am so happy for her.

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 :)