December 17, 2012

        Hello Family!

    Things are going pretty super awesome.  I don´t really have my own area, I work in 5 areas haha.  And all 5 areas are doing pretty good.  We seem to always have lots and lots of success when we are on splits.    I was on a split in Schweinfurt and we found 2 new people, and taught 5 lessons, I was then in Bayreut, and in one hour we got 4 numbers and made out an appointment with someone else, it was amazing, but, by the end of the week, all of the companionships were kinda bumbed, because that doesn´t happen with their own companion.  That even happens here in Bamberg, we have been finding TONS of people to teach, but, the missionaries don´t seem to teach anyone.  So.... that´s pretty annoying, President told me he wanted me to work with all of the companionships and show them how to work. When I am there, it doesn´t seem like I need to show them everything, but, when I´m not there, they don´t seem to have any success, does that mean they aren´t working when I'm there?  No idea haha.  Anyway, I´ve just been making plans on how to get them to see success by themselves, got a couple more weeks to help them!

    This week we had the opportunity to teach an excommunicated member.  He studied Theology, and basically knows everything, he can read Greek, and Hebrew, and he is a free mason.  He was offended, and left the church.  Now, he spends his free time searching for ways to prove that the church is wrong.  We got to hear him speak for 40 minutes non-stop, throwing off dates and scriptures and facts about why the church isn´t true.  Then we asked what church he belonged to now.  He said he´s catholic.  So........ I asked him what made his church true, and he said it was the oldest haha.  This guy has been so twisted by his anger he doesn´t even know what he believes anymore.  He was always searching for ways to bring our church down, and he accepted a church that was commonly accepted in society.  It was completely obvious that he no longer was looking to do the will of God, he accepted what brought social acceptance, and then looked for ways to turn words and statements from past Prophets to prove they weren´t really called of God.  I told him he was acting like the (I don´t know how to spell this) Pharisees at the time of Christ, and he should accept that the only perfect person who ever lived was our Savior Jesus Christ, and he then said the prophets of old never made any mistakes, and all we needed was in the bible........So, I read Ex 33:11 with him, then John 1:18 and then John 6:46 and asked if man can see God.  Then read John 3:22 and John 4:2 and asked if Jesus baptized, and then we read Acts 9:7 and Acts 22:9 and asked if the others heard a voice.  We then told him again he needed to accept that people make mistakes, and that he can choose to forgive  and come back.  But, he ignored everything we said and said it was time to eat.....  It was sad to see that he was so closed up, that he would just search for faults in the Church and the Leaders.

    Anyway, there was quite a bit of snow.... like 4 inches, but, now it has all melted and it´s raining again haha, so I´m super warm, my socks are just always wet.  My old pair of shoes still has holes in them.... and my new pair does too.  I don´t want to use money on a new pair of shoes either haha, just have a few more weeks.  

 

   Thanks for everything!

Elder Collings                             

                    

December 3, 2012

Hello Family!

    This was a pretty cool week, so, I think I already told you I wasn´t going to be able to work in Bamberg like at all during the week because I need to go on so many splits, well.... those Elders  called and said that they were sick the day of our split, so I had a lot of time to work in Bamberg!  It was way awesome, we have been seeing tons of Miracles here, we are teaching about 8 students now at the University, we´re teaching someone from Mexico, Slovakia, Canada, America, India and Camaroon, and then some Germans of course.  We´re hoping to get them all to institute this week (Normally only 2 people come to institute, so it would be super having more investigators than members haha)  

    I got to work with some Elders in Bayreuth this week, that area is the closest area to where Tera lives other than her Church, and it has been closed most of my mission because of some apostasy stuff haha.  The Elders that are working there now are way super awesome, we had so much success in a little time.  We were at some student apartments knocking on doors, and in less than an hour, we got 7 numbers, made out about 3 appointments and even taught one guy for about 20 minutes.  Basically things are going super here =)

   Anyway, we´ll still be able to talk on Christmas, I´m excited, hopefully you can understand me this time!  Thanks for everything!

Elder Collings

November 26, 2012

Hello Family!

    So, I´m in the new Distrikt now, and I´m pretty excited.  We are already up to a super great start.  I got there Thursday evening, and Elder M and his old companion had had a rough week.  They had only taught 2 lessons.  We worked way hard the last couple of days of the week, and we found 4 new investigators, taught 8 lessons and even set up about 10 lessons for this coming week.  We were so blessed, we turned this place around in just 3 days haha.  There is a family that has been taught for the last year or so, the husband was baptized a year ago, and the wife and 4 kids haven´t cared too much about the Church.  Apparently the last couple of weeks, the family has really started making progress.  The wife and her daughter came to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it, they stayed for all 3 hours.  We should be meeting with them a couple of times this week, we´ll see if we can get them baptized before I leave =)

    The Distrikt is really cool, there are a lot of young Elders.  One of them is Elder G, as I was in Düsseldorf, he was in the Stake and came to institute every week, so I had gotten to know him way good, in the picture, he´s the guy that has his arm around me and looks a little creepy.  It was just a bad picture though haha, he´s a way awesome guy.  All of the Elders seem excited to work and get stuff done, they just don´t really know how.  Most of them don´t have any investigators.  One companionship doesn´t really want to do anything, and they apparently stay inside most of the time.  I tried to make a split with them, and they said they didn´t want to.  So.... we´ll probably have to be the mean guys and surprise them at the door for a split (they´re serving in my old area of Würzburg so I know that place good haha)  So there are a few problems, but not too many.

    I´m doing way good actually, I´m like super bummed to leave Düsseldorf still, but I have a lot of stuff to do here in Bamberg.  I will basically never be home, President has asked me to work a lot with the other Missionaries, so I am actually going to be on splits 4 of the days of the week, and then the other 3 days I am working here in Bamberg.  Hopefully we can help the others see some sweet success too! 

    Anyway, everything is going super duper, I´m happy and excited!  Thanks for everything that you do!

Elder Collings

November 19, 2012

 I got transfered =(  haha.  Sadly, it happened, but.... it happens haha.  I´m going down to Bamberg, that´s over by where Tera lives.  President said he had a special assignment for my last transfer, it will be tough haha.  So, President said it has become "cool" to be trunky in this District.  Trunky basically means they are unmotivated and distracted.  So, President combined 2 Districts and another Area into one super huge district.  So, my district has Bamberg, Schweinfurt, Coburg, Würzburg and Bayreuth.  President said I should have a lot of travel time, and I should help the missionaries to get focused again.  It will be fun.

    I´m basically super sad to be leaving, we had a super week to end the transfer.  We taught 16 lessons, found 6 new people, and had 6 people come to church.  It was hard giving my testimony on Sunday, I just had so many feelings come up haha, it was more emotional than my farewell... I didn´t really feel anything then haha.  But anyway, that´s just kinda how it is haha.

    So the place I´m going to isn´t nearly as big as Düsseldorf, so, I´m going to take out some money and buy a nice suit, mine are 100% destroyed.  It will actually be cheap compared to America, less than $ 200 but, if that´s okay, I´m going to do it while I have some stores to do it.  Things are going super, thanks for everything!

Elder Collings

November 12, 2012

Hey Family!

    I´m doing super good!  This week we were basically all over the place, but, we had a great week.  We ended it off even better, we found a Romanian Family of 10!  We´re bringing all of them to the Church this evening.  So, this is the last week of the Transfer, we get the Transfer Calls on Saturday.  If I stay, that means Düsseldorf is my last area, (I really hope I stay) I only have one more transfer to go.  This Ward is just so awesome, we got a call from one of the members Friday morning, she asked where our address was, and she came and gave us 3 bags full of food!  There wasn´t any special reason, she just decided to do it.  We also got invited by a couple of other members to come and teach their friends, and on Sunday, we taught one of the friends of a member.  Isn´t that just awesome?

    So, we have been praying for this lady named Heidi S for the last 2 weeks, we fasted for her too.  The member has been talking a lot with her about the Gospel, and she said that she would come to church that day.  The member said her friend is really shy, and really closed up with her feelings.  She wanted us to all pray way hard that her friend would feel the Spirit.  The friend came for all 3 hours, and every topic that was spoken about was just perfect for her.  Everything was about learning to follow the Spirit, or how to feel the Spirit, or preparing ourselves so that we can feel the Spirit.  When we met with her after the meetings, she said that she loved everything, and even believed it was all true.  We taught her about the Restoration, and what that meant, and then we sang her the song, Oh how lovely was the Morning.  Afterward, this lady asked us if we would give her a blessing to help her find God, and know what to do.  She asked me to give her a blessing, and when it was done, she just sat there and said, she felt wonderful.  She said she felt super good and peaceful.  After that, the other member (Not the friend, the guy we brought along) said that he had been going through some health problems the last while, and asked us to give him a blessing of the sick.  So, this lady got a blessing of comfort and counsel, and she also saw a blessing of the sick.  It was basically a super lesson =)  

    So, things are going super awesome, I get to say goodbye to my MTC group this week, they are all leaving me =(  But I´m super excited for this coming week!  Thanks for everything.

Elder Collings

November 5, 2012

  Hey Family!
        So, I kinda gotta keep this like super duper short, only have about 10 minutes!  Anyway, we had a super week and got to visit most of the Distrikt Meetings in the Zone.  I was way super impressed with how amazing the Missionaries of this zone are.  They are doing their best and helping so many people.  We had a super amazing day at Church.  The Ward was in a way super good mood, and there was a constant flow of people to give their testimonies.  After the meeting, our Bishop asked if he could meet with us really quick.  We met with him, and he gave us 10 names of inactive members he wants us to start working with.  We´ve been asking for that stuff since I got here, and we finally got it! 
    I´m doing like super great, and I get to go back to Frankfurt this week, and to Aachen, and to Köln.  I´ll be going everywhere again, so this will basically fly by like all of the others haha.  Thanks for everything you do for me!
Elder Collings

October 29, 2012

Man, this week just flew by!  So, this week we had Zone Conference, and 4 Splits and a Church activity, it went by in the Blink of an eye.  So, I guess I can just start out with Monday evening.  We had made out an appointment with a chinese girl for monday night, I had spoken with her a little about the restoration, and she was interested enough to make out an appointment.  We showed up to the appointment, and it started out okay and everything, but...... then she got like way super creepy.  She talked about this temple that she visits, and the people, "Can see you behind!  And not just your behind, they can see your everything!"  I actually laughed when she said that, and told her that sounds a little revealing haha.  She talked a lot about the end of the world, and out of body experiences, and evil spirits haunting her, and she invited us to come to her temple to experience it all... so, great way to start the week... but, after that, we prayed with her, and started walking away, and we ran into President Schwartz and Elder Schütze from the 70.  We got to speak with them for a while, it was way awesome.

    The next day we had Zone Conference, and Elder Schütze took a liking to using me as an example for everything haha.  But, he spoke a lot about how the Missionaries need to help the Members to find people to teach.  At this point, in our Mission we rarely ever get referrals from members, I think I have only gotten a couple since I have been in germany, so he told us we need to share stories of success that the members can accomplish too.  He said, it is always great to talk about the miracle contact on the street, but, if we talk about the conversation on the bus where you got a number, and they later became an investigator, the members can relate to it more and be moved to do it themselves.  I thought it was a great thing to bring up, because most of the missionaries don´t talk to people in the Buses anyway haha, when I go on splits, the missionaries seem astonished when I just have a conversation with the person I´m sitting next to.  Hopefully that will get the Members more involved, and the missionaries more excited!

    So, I kinda need to tell ya´ll something.  You´re probably wondering why i´m taking so long to send in my application to BYU, and why i´m procrastinating.  Well, i´ve actually had everything done for over a month, but, I keep having thoughts about coming back to Germany to study.  I personally wouldn´t think twice about studying here, because the people are nicer in America, living conditions are better, jobs are easier to find, the schooling is better, and the weather is much nicer haha, but I just keep having these thoughts come up that I should study here.  So...... I´m still praying about it and everything, but could you possibly help me find out what opportunities there are to study in Germany?  Probably a big shock, but, I gotta say it eventually =D

    Anyway, now that I got that out in the air, can I just say this Ward is super amazing, i´ve never felt so welcomed, or loved.  Members invite me to sit next to them now, they bring us food, and every week they invite us over.  The ward has really opened up to us.  We had a member come up to us on Sunday after Stake Conference, she said that she had been praying and had a very strong feeling that we should start teaching her husband the missionary lessons.  Her husband has always been against the Church, it took her 20 years to get baptized because of him!  But, she feels that his heart has been softened, and she is going to invite us over next week to share out testimonies of the Book of Mormon.  This same member also told her friend about how much missionaries had helped her, so her friend asked if we could come and teach her what we believed, and give her a priesthood blessing.  We then had another member call us up and said they hand a friend from Sri Lanka that wants to learn more, and we had another friend ask us if we could give a church tour to about 30 of his friends on the 18th of November (Happy birthday KK =D  )  Isn´t that incredible?  I´ve never had so many referrals from Members haha.

    This week I was on a split with a brand new Elder, I told him we were going to go and work on the University.  We have a member who is studying there, so I had planned on going by on her, praying with her real quick, and then do some work in the student houses by her.  When we got the the door, I told him that it was a potential investigator  that understands English.  He started to talk to her, and then I saw an actual Potential Investigator that was in Utah for a foreign exchange thing, she visited church every week, and wanted to learn more.  I started to talk to her, and I heard the Elder speaking, "I´m missionary from the Mormon church, and I talk about the book of Mormon, ever heard of that?"  She told him she had read the entire thing, the Elder got pretty excited and asked if she wanted to maybe learn more, and she told him she was already baptized and invited him in.  He was way super confused and didn´t know what was going on, but he turned to me and told me she wanted us to go up and teach her more haha.   We prayed with her, and ended up finding 3 people that had been in America on foreign exchange and met the church, and we made out a couple of awesome appointments, we got a total of 3 new investigators so far.  

    Anway, i´m doing well, it was pretty strange going to the testimony meeting and seeing all of my MTC group give their last testimony, i´m the only one that extended.  Things are going great though, and I´m loving the work!

    Thanks for all of your love and support, and thanks for the Present!

Elder Collings