Elder Tyler Kohlert's Blog

This week we had multizona. We received a ton of revelation from President Strong. He talked to us about the importance of English and how it's a commandment, so he was putting a focus on the latinos so that they can learn English. He and the church having been opening English Connect classes in all the missions. We will be starting English classes every week here in a little bit so that the people here can learn English and be self sufficient also. Saturday, we had the baptism of Luis! I don't know what it is about the baptisms here but they stress me out so much hahaha. It's probably because they always show up late. It was funny cause for the baptism of Esther, she showed up 40 late to her baptism because she was buying a cake, and this time with Luis, he showed up 20 minutes late cause he was buying a cake also. Plus, they never answer the phones so we are always thinking that they just disappeared hahaha. Luis is super excited to be a member of the c...

Well if ya'll haven't found out by now, I'll be spamming the fam with video chats every so often now haha. Its seems super weird to me right now but hopefully it will be cool. I feel like when I get home its going to feel like I never left cause I will see my family every so often via skype or call. It will be nice, cause honestly, sometimes theres so many things in the week that happen that I can't talk about all of them. Last Saturday we didn't have the opportunity to baptize Luis because he received a call saying that he had to work all day Saturday but he changed it to be for this Saturday! He is honestly the best. Super funny and wants to come help in the appointments and stuff like that but he can't till he is a member. This week he went to an activity in the stake center without us and also signed up for institute haha. We didn't have a ton of time to knock doors, which was great, but also bad because we didn't find that man...

Saturday we had 2 the baptisms of Esther and her daughter Ariandna! She had been receiving the lessons from the missionaries for over 2 years now. Its super funny cause I came here and the first day I saw here registry and wanted to visit her. Elder Gonzalez told me that she never progressed, she would always accept an appointment to teach her but was never there during the appointment. I also heard a ton of other things about her but I still wanted to go. My first night we went and knocked her door and she was there. We entered and just listened to the spirit and her! After teaching about obedience and the amor for God and doing a preinterview she accepted a baptismal date. It was honestly one of the most spiritual lessons I had ever participated in. From there on she read, prayed, and attended church until her baptism this Saturday. I learned something really important from this experience from her, that all it takes is one super spiritual lesson and anyone will do ...

Queridos Amigos! There was so many things that happened this week but I literally can't write about all of them. So I only chose 1 haha.  Sunday we arrived at the chapel with 6 investies and some members ran up to us saying that there was a family of 5 that came to the chapel without an invitation and also 1 more brother. I talked with the family, it turns out that only 1 one them lives in our area and the other 4 live in some city that is so small that they have never seen missionaries and the nearest chapel is 5 hours from their house ahaha. But the other guy that came without an invitation is super awesome! Luis! He has a Book of Mormon from his friend and has attended various wards in Peru. He wants to be baptized and accepted a baptismal date for this 16 of Feb. He is super chill and told us that if he would have known about the church before he turned 25 he would have served a mission. We ate this some members with weekend and we ate probably 2 kilos...

Cambios!! This week I was hit like a brick with the phone call that I was going to leave my birthplace of Escardo and transfer to Bello Horizonte. I arrived here Tuesday and met my new comp Elder Gonzales from Argentina! This guy its super awesome! I couldn't asked for a better comp at this point in the my mission. The Last night with my Converts   I was super worried when I arrived cause there was only 2 people in the teaching pool but I told Elder Gonzales we had to work like donkeys here to make it better. Well, After 6 days of hard work we found some miracles. We grew the teaching pool to 11, and we have 5 with baptismal dates for this month... First La Abuela! She is 88 years old, and has a daughter that is a member. She also has a Book of <ormon from 1960! I took a picture of it but from some reason it won't upload. I don't know if she will be baptized but she is super awesome. I also found Fatima and Eliseo. Mother and son. He partner is a me...

Today is my last day with Elder Oliveira! I'm freaking sad but I know that there is more to come! I know I won't stay with him because Friday we received a call that he will be training this next transfer. Ya'll are lucky cause a lot happened this week hahah. After about a week without contact with Ana and Luisana we finally touched base! We found them and taught them the rest of the lessons in 1 visit. They are ready and just need to do their interviews. I'm super sad though cause i probably won't be here to see their baptisms. Tuesday we went to the temple which was super nice! I felt super awkward having nothing to do and sitting in complete silence. I kinda wanted to cry cause it was so peaceful hahah.  We've been working with Nancy, Janeth, and Andres a lot. They are all progressing well and just need more spiritual experiences. Nancy has 2 attendances and lacks a little bit a faith. But with a little shove into the font she will ma...

I don't have much to mention to you guys this week... again. It's been really slow here in Maranga. Even though its felt super fast, the proselyting has been really slow. So I decided want to give account of one missionary here in Lima. I don't remember his name but president strong told us his story and its super inspiring.  This Elder, Elder Sanchez, not really his name but we are going to call him that, came here to the mission a little of a year ago. He left his family, friends, and his studies like all the missionaries here. When he had about 8 months in the mission Elder Sanchez received a call from the mission president. This call changed his life forever. He found out that his mother had died from cancer. As hard as this would have been for Elder Sanchez, he remembered the promise he had made to the Lord to serve his 2 years here in Lima.  I don't even want to imagine how that next month was for him. Walking around all day in the heat, being...

Well sorry to disappoint ya'll but this week wasn't very exciting. We were super busy all week with interviews, baptisms, and zone meetings. Monday We met with Ana and Luisana from Venezuela. They accepted a baptismal date for this 19th of January. They are super cool and just lack lessons. they have work from 11 to 9 so its almost impossible to meet with them. But we are trying our best! Family in Callao Tuesday Nothing much happened, we found 2 investigators that told us that they wanted the church in their lives but it turned out like 2 days latter they told us no. The story on how we found them was pretty cool though hahaha. We were walking around at night knocking doors and I remembered a lady that I contacted like 3 months ago. We went to her house and her brother invited us in and we drank hot coco and ate paneton for like 30 minutes. Then we shared a message with them. They are super cool friends but they don't want to progress. ...

Well I have now passed whatIi believe to be the first a finally stone marker in my mission, Christmas! This was definitely one Christmas I'll never forget! It was so unusual, so different, but at the same time so awesome!  Monday we had a mission activity, all 200 missioneros were here in our zone! President strong planned out an entire day for us to be together as a mission! His family came from Utah and we sang songs, played games, made gingerbread houses, and had a spiritual meeting as well!  Plus in this meeting we found out that our mission will split in July 2019! Part of the missionaries will go to this other mission with a new president and all! I'm really hoping I don't go cause I love president strong and his wife. They are so loving and were literally crying when they told us this news! This all happened from 8am until 8pm! Then after we went to family arroyo! This family is literally the best! Every time we eat t...

Well tomorrow I will be passing my first Christmas here in Peru! I super excited but a little nervous. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all here cause there isn't any snow or Christmas trees in the houses haha. This week was one of the better weeks here in the mission. We had some super awesome spiritual experiences. I wish i could write about all of them but this week we only have 50 minutes to write this week!  Overview. This week we found 9 new investigators! Our goal is 10 every week so we were so close. We had 8 Saturday night and Sunday we had like 5 appointments with possible new investigators! But all the appointments fell through expect 1 with a father of a family that are members.  We had 5 attend church! HA! The passed 6 weeks we only had 5 people attend church and just this week we had 5! None of them have a baptismal date but we are working on that hahah. Thanks for the prayers, thats the only reason I think we had 5 people at...

This week we had cambios! What a relief! My comp Elder Torres went to LimaTambo which is the super super rich area and my new comp Elder Oliveira came from Calloa which is the dirt poor area. Well after about a week of prayer for a comp that could really help this area and also me, heavenly father didn't disappoint me! Elder Oliveira is from Bolivia and is super energetic and ready to work! He is contantly thinking about how we can improve and what we need to do with the people we are teaching and the members! Though we don't have anyone with a baptismal date and we are working hard to baptize a part member family right now. he could baptize any day now. He is fulfilling all the commandments and is attending church every Sunday with his family. He told us he knows the church is true and that Joseph smith was a prophet. But he doesn't want to be baptized yet! haha. Ese Pata! (slang for old man). Hopefully we will be able to cop some baptisms this month and the ...

Well after reading a bunch of emails from other missionaries it seems like it has been a slow week for all the missionaries down here in South America. We found 5 new investigators but all of them don't really want to listen anymore. We will still work with them. I did find an old guy that i gave my first blessing to! He is super chill and wants to attend church and listen to us but he is in the hospital every single day except Sundays. So he will attend hopefully and listen to us every Sunday for 3 weeks and then be baptized! He was a referencia from Chile Santiago West mission i think. The reference said that he wanted a blessing. So thats what we did. Eldre Torres and I The only thing super awesome that happened this week is on Friday we had a zone activity! We went to a water show park thing in the night!  There were a ton of fountains and lights and videos that would play on a wall of mist. I don't know if that makes sense but it was super awesome!...