New Companionships

Hello Family!
    Well.... this was definitely the most interesting week so far.  So
basically Elder S. is home now =\ 

He left, and then I got a new companion, 

Elder Z.  Elder Z is German, but he is called to
serve in Ukraine.  He has some Visa Problems, so he is staying with me
until Wednesday.  And then on Wednesday I need another new companion,
but nobody knows who.  I am most likely going to have to be split
between 4 different companionships until transfers, working in my area
and their area.  It will definitely be fun haha.

Getting baptized on Dec 31st!

 I put another picture up of our baptismal date, Hanich.  He is the
one that didn´t believe in God, but now he does.  He is way awesome,
we had a Christmas party on Saturday, and he came and played his 

guitar for the entire Ward.  The Ward really loves him, and he hasn't yet
missed a Sunday since we  met him, so we are super excited for him.
So, for Chritmas calls, I have no idea what my schedule is going to be
like, so, I think the best thing would be if you called up on
Christmas Eve.  So, I would just be waking up Christmas morning, it
would be before we have to do anything so, since I don´t know the
schedule I think that would be best.  If you called at like 9.00 your
time in the Evening it would be 5.00 here in Germany.  I´ll be able to
Check my e-mail another time before Christmas, but for now that is the
plan haha. 

    So, this week I got to go to the temple, it was super awesome, and
we also had a huge concert.  All of the missionaries had a mission
choir and we sang in front of a huge group of people, it was awesome.
Afterwards a bunch of other people sang some stuff, and then all the
missionaries gave people Book of Mormons and other free stuff.  In
like 5 minutes I had given out 10 Book of Mormons and like 20 DVDs, it
was incredible!
   Well, there was a couple of other things that happened, but, I can
tell you about it on Christmas haha, talk to you later!
 
Elder Collings

God guides us through life

Hello Family!
    This week was another week of miracles and awesomeness and stuff
=)  So, I can´t remember if I told you about Rudolf H, but,
basically he is an 82 year old Croatian who didn´t beleive in God.  He
has been through a lot of wars and literally seen his entire family
get shot and his entire home town get lined up and gunned down.  He
said that if we went through what he went through we would know that
there was no God.  Well..... He beleives in God now and is getting
baptized in 2 weeks =)  We got him to Pray and read in the Book of
Mormon.   He told us that whenever he prayed he started to feel
important.  Then, one night, he said after he prayed everything was
very clear; he said he could look back on his life and see how God had
saved him and guided him through all of the terrible experiences that
he went through.  He said he now knows that there is a God.  After he
had that amazing experience, he went to bed, while he was sleeping, he
had a dream, guess what he dreamt about?  Baptism =)  He said that in
his dream I baptized him, so, now he wants to get baptized.  He is
getting baptized on the 31st of December, we´re way super pumped.
    This week we also had an AMAZING lesson with Wolfgang.  We had the
entire branch Presidency with us.  We ended up committing him to get
baptized this Saturday and gave him a blessing so that he could
accomplish it.  In the blessing, he was promised that if he didn´t
lose track of his goal for baptism, read and pray, he would have no
desire to smoke and he would be able to be baptized.  He told us he
was going to make it this time.... Then the next morning he had
received a bill in the mail he wasn´t expecting and it was too
stressfull for him so he smoked almost the entire day......  I just
want him to get baptized already haha.  One of these days he will do
it... but, it won´t be this Saturday =(
    Other than that, most of the other people we are meeting with are
the same.  My companion decided that he wants to go home.   We´ve been
seeing so many miracles, I can´t beleive he wants to go.  Anyway, he
is leaving on either Wednesday or Thursday.     This is the
Lord´s work, and we are still seeing miracles.  Thanks for everything
you do for me!
 
Elder Collings
 

Basically Awesome Week

Hello Family!
    This week was basically awesome!  We are really rocking the
Offenbach area with all sorts of righteousness and stuff =)  We got
more than one investigator to come to Church for the first time in my
entire mission haha, we had 4 =)  We´ve got about 3 people that are
progressing really well right now and we are super excited to keep
working with them and help them come unto Christ.  We still have
contact with Wolfgang, he still calls me his Holy Godsent Messenger
haha, and he know he needs to be baptized, but..... he´s going through
a way hard time.  He has cancer, and just started a new treatment for
it, he has been sick and in bed the last week and a half, he still is
smoking and he is going downhill pretty fast.  He keeps telling us
that he knows he needs to be baptized, and then he always says "But, I
need to wait until I get everything in order before I do it."  And
yeah... he has slowly been going downhill since then, but, he´ll come
back =)
   We had like 3 super awesome lessons this week, one with Dr.
H, one with Jad, and one with Hanich, and, all of them made it
to Church =)  Dr. H started asking a lot about baptism, and we
ended up showing him the baptismal font, he then said he wanted to
prepare for baptism, again haha.  So, we're helping him to quit
smoking, Jad is born and raised Muslim, but knows that it is not the
right truth, so, he´s looking for it.  He said that no matter what
question he asks, we always seem to have an answer for him that makes
sense, even if it´s not the answer that he wants.  He made it to
Church and all he could say was that it feels good.  Hanich still
doesn´t believe that there is a God, but, he said that if there was a
God and if there was a true Church, it would definitely be this
church.  He then said, I hope there is a God, and I hope you two can
help me find him because I need something in my life.  Those are
always good words to hear haha.  He came to Church, he can´t hear a
word in Sacrament meeting because he´s almost deaf, but, he likes the
feeling in the Church, so he comes and just reads in the Book of
Mormon the whole time.
    Things are going great in Offenbach, I´m super happy and doing
well, thanks for everything you do for me, my camera is 100% broken now
just so you know.  It has slowly gotten worse and worse and now it
just doesn´t even work, so.... I´d like to buy another one haha, mind
giving me a budget?  Anyways, have an awesome week!
 
Elder Collings

A huge teaching pool

Hello Family!
    This week was basically super awesome just like every other week
=)  We had a zone conference, and the area President, President
Kopishke really stressed finding and asking inspired questions.  He
invited us at the beginning of the meeting to write down personal
questions on a piece of paper and then he said if we really tried to
focus on these questions that the Holy Ghost would reveal the answers
through the meeting.  Basically the meeting was awesome and he was
right haha.  So, we decided to put that to practice and really focus
on individuals and invite them to do awesome stuff like that.  We
ended up finding 4 new investigators this week.  We have such a huge
teaching pool now, it´s amazing to see how much this area has changed.
    Its been fun working with Elder S, his German is really
good and getting better every day, I can tell he is feeling more and
more confident as he speaks to me in German.  Thanks for sending that
package, I actually got it on Wednesday and I already opened
it... but you can send another if you want me to open it for Christmas
haha.
    Well, things are going great, thanks for all of your love and support!
Elder Collings

New companion

Hello Family!
    This week was the best week I´ve had in a long time haha.  On
Tuesday, I got to go and stay in a super nice hotel with all of the
new missionaries, and then the next morning, I got my new companion,
Elder S.  He´s really awesome, and his German is very good.
He´s working really hard, and we´re going to have a ton of success
this transfer.  Basically when we got to Offenbach Wednesday evening,
we hadn´t taught many lessons, and didn´t really have any lessons
planned out, I was kinda bummed that he wasn´t going to have the
opportunity to teach much his first week, but, in 2 days we ended up
having 9 lessons and finding 2 new investigators so things turned out
really well =)
    It´s been pretty cool training, I remember my trainer and how I
learned so much from his example and how he worked, a lot of what I
did was influenced by what he did.  I have been trying to be a good
example for Elder S so that he knows how to work hard =)  He is
a little shy and doesn´t like talking to people on the street, but....
he´s going to do it haha.  I already had him take the lead in 2 of our
lessons.  I can tell he doesn´t really like how I am giving him so
much to do, but, he is fully capable of it and it is stretching his
abilities making him basically the best missionary in the world haha.
    I´m doing great and really enjoying the work, we´ve got a TON of
lessons set up this week, and I´m really excited to meet with some of
these people. We´re lookin´ to have a white Christmas in Offenbach =)
    Thanks for everything you do for me, I´ll
probably be spending a little money this week on winter clothes, it
hasn´t even snowed yet and I am really cold when I go outside haha.
Elder Collings

Trainer

Hello Family!
    This week was pretty dang awesome, this was the first week this
transfer when most of our lessons went through, every other week we
had atleast 7 fallen out appointments, this week, only 3 =)  We got
our transfer calls this week, Elder H will be going to Duisburg,
it is right by Krefeld, my first area, and I will be staying in
Offenbach, and I am training.  Isn´t that crazy?  It seemed like
yesterday I was trained by Elder M haha.  We are expecting a lot
of miracles this next transfer, I´m really excited to get out and do
some awesome work.  Elder H has been here for 4 transfers, this
was his first area, and he is pretty nervous to be transferred for the
first time.   But, I am
way excited to train, I´m terrible at teaching stuff, so, I don´t know
how I am going to teach German grammar... I just know it, I don´t know
how to explain why it is the way it is.... it just is that way.  I
guess I better learn how to teach it.
    Wolfgang is still doing good and wants to be baptized, he still
has a probem with smoking...  I am really excited for him for once he
finally makes it and quits smoking.  He is down to like 2 a day, on
Sunday, he only smoked 3/4 of a Cigarette, then we knocked on his door
and threw it out the window haha.  Anyway, I don´t really have a lot
of time, I´m taking Elder H by a bunch of the families today to
say goodbye, so we gotta go fast.
    Thanks for everything you do for me, I´m doing great!
Elder Collings

A Visit from President Uchtdorf

Hello Family!
    This week was really awesome, guess who decided to come to
Offenbach?  President Uchtdorf =)  It was way cool to hear him speak
in German, afterwards he took the time to give everyone a handshake,
all 500+ people.  It was so cool, and he knew a bunch of the people
right by me personally, so, he gave them a hug, and I just happened to
be in the way, so, he basically got on top of me to hug his friends. I
felt more loved than them all haha. 

This week I also got to interview
someone for baptism, his name is Erik A.  He talks SO much!
Basically every question in the interview had a 30 minute answer to
it.  He was way awesome, and had a solid testimony, he just got
baptized on Saturday.  When he came up out of the water, he looked
around and then smiled SO big, it was awesome.  I talked to him
afterwards, and he couldn´t explain what he had felt, he just said
that it was right. 

Wolfgang also made it to the baptism, he said he
just wanted to jump into the water right then and there to get
baptized haha, he´s trying so hard to quit smoking, we actually had to
move his baptismal date back because he´s having troubles with it.
Hopefully I can stay and see him get baptized, we get our transfer
calls this Saturday, I´ve never stayed anywhere for more than 2
transfers, so.... this could be a first =)

    This week also had more fallen out appointments than I have ever
seen before.  Basically we planned out the most epic week ever, we
were expecting around 23 lessons.  I would like you to know, that 23
lessons is a lot haha, the mission average is 6.  Almost all of our
appointments fell out, we had 6 lessons this week haha, and 2 of them
weren´t even planned.  We called everyone the day before our
appointment to make sure they were okay, and like everyone said that
the appointment would work, until we got to there doorstep, then
something had come up and they had to cancel.  All I can say is that
it happens haha.

    Things are going good, I´m excited to see what happens for this
next transfer, I never know what to expect.  Thanks for all that you
do!
 
Elder Collings
 

Finding Legit People

Hey Family!
    This week was pretty dang awesome just like every other week.
Wolfgang is preparing himself for Baptism, he bore his testimony to us
on the Book of Mormon and the Restoration the other night, he also
told us that he found out his niece is married to a member of our
Church.  He felt comforted knowing that he wasn´t "Alone".   He´s
basically awesome, we are meeting with him every day this week, and
taking him on a temple tour this Saturday, and he also gets to see
someone else's baptism on Saturday and then on Sunday he gets to hear
from President Uchtdorf =)  We´ve got a killed week planned for him
haha.
    We also met an awesome family this week.  Vladamir and his wife (I
can´t pronounce her name) and then they have a one year old daughter
Miya, and the wife is pregnant.  Basically they are progressing super
well.  They invited us over for dinner tonight, we´re hoping by the
end of the week to have a baptismal commitment with them =)  We also
have another lesson planned out with this guy named Veca.  We haven´t
met with him yet, but he also has a wife and several kids.  He seemed
way interested when we talked to him, he showed us where he lived and
called us up yesterday to schedule an appointment, so.... we´re
naturally excited =)
     The work is going well in Offenbach we´re finding legit people
and seeing lots of progress!  I haven´t been sending any pictures
because I haven´t really taken any... Offenbach is a really ugly place
haha, but.... when I take some I´ll send them to ya =)  Thanks for
everything you do, you´re awesome!
 
Elder Collings

Another Baptism

Hello Family!

    Thanks for the package, I live like 10 minutes from the office,
so, they brought it over to me right when it came.  This week was
awesome, we set a baptismal date with Wolfgang.  He is way
super excited.  When we asked him if he wanted to be baptized, he told
us that he definitely wanted to, he said that he thought he had to
do something special before he could be baptized.  He pulled out his
calendar and asked when he could get baptized. We told him whenever he
wanted, so, he picked out November the 12th.  After that he asked to
go and stand in the Baptismal Font.  He stood in there and then looked
around and said, "3 weeks and I´ll be a member of the Chuch of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints."  He was so happy. Right after that,
Pepper called us.  She´s the one that was baptized like 4 weeks ago.
She said she wanted to meet Wolfgang, so she came over to the Church
and talked to him for like 45 minutes.  He told her how he was worried
he wouldn´t be able to give up smoking (He used to smoke a couple of
packs a day, now he only smokes 1 cigarette a day) Pepper told him
that he could easily do it, she told him how she used to smoke
Marijuana with her friends every week and she said that as long as he
read and prayed every day he would be able to stop smoking.  It was
way cool to see them talk to one another.  Pepper also told us that
she´s planning on going on a mission.  She said that every time she
thinks about it, it just feels right, so she scheduled a meeting with
our Branch President to see what she needs to do to prepare to be a
missionary.  It´s so cool seeing how much the gospel has changed both
of their lives.
   Other than that awesome experience, not much happened this week.
It´s starting to get cold... and I hate the cold, so, I guess
we need to find a bunch of investigators so that we teach the entire
winter haha.  The work is going well here, thanks for everything that you

have done for me!  I´m doing awesome and having a blast!

Elder Collings

Preaching to a Preacher

Hello Family!

     Things are going very good in Offenbach.  We have a couple of way
cool investigators that we are excited about, one of them really likes
me so he has bought me a couple of gifts =) We have talked with him a
lot about baptism and we´re pretty sure he will accept the committment
any day now.  He came to a baptism and made so many friends with the
members, it was awesome.  

We also had a way cool experience.  So,basically Elder H and I were 

just walking home from an eating
appointment with our Ward Mission Leader, we were crossing a street,
and I saw this guy walking.  I told Elder H we were going to talk
to him, there was really no reason, I just felt like saying it haha.
We spoke to him, and... basically he is awesome. This guy is a
preacher, he has been to a bunch of places all over the world
preaching stuff.  He told us that he had seen our Church in every
place that he had preached.  We started telling him about our Church,
and he started to get really excited.  He was asking what we did
around here to have success because he wasn´t having any, so, we told
him a few things and then we ended up  telling him about the gospel of
Christ, Faith, Repentence, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and right after we
told him that he just looked at us and yelled, "That´s the way it´s
supposed to BE brother!"  We then took him to the Church, he really
liked it, and then he started asking different questions, "So what
would I need to do to start a ministry for this Mormon Church?"

    We decided to show him the Restoration movie, and we had a lot of
technical problems.  So, I had him read Moroni 10:3-5 while Elder
H tried to fix it up.  I then asked him what he thought about it
and he said something like this, "So what I gotta do is pray to the
almighty one if I really want to know if this holy scripture is true
and then through the divine grace and glory of the holy one´s holy
spirit I will know if this is true."  I figured he understood it
pretty well, so then I told him that if he was really a christian, and
if he really beleived in Christ, if he read a certain Chapter in the
Book of Mormon and prayed about it, he would know it was holy
scripture.  So, I had him read 3 Nephi 11.  After that he was so loud,
he went on about how it had to come from God because it spoke so much
about Jesus.  Then, we got the movie working.  At the end of the
movie, he was so happy, he yelled and hollerd some pretty funny stuff,
but, I can´t really remember it all.  Then at the end, I told him that
we wouldn´t be the ones teaching him, we teach the German speaking
people in Offenbach, and there are 2 sisters who teach the English
speaking people.  So, I asked him if he wanted to talk to them right
now.  He said yes.  I called them up and explained what had just
happened, so, they talked to him.  He asked them what he had to do to
get baptized in this Church, when they could meet so he could learn
everything in the Book of Mormon, and how long it would take before he
could go and start his ministry in Africa somewhere haha.  He kept
yelling, "Those African people are RELIGIOUS!  They breathe Faith!
They walk by Faith!  They basically are faith!"

    Then, while we were walking home, he showed us a video of him in
Honduras preaching.  He was preaching about dispensations of all
things.  He said, "These people didn´t know that a dispensation is
when a prophet is on the Earth!"  Then I reminded him that there are
prophets on the Earth right now.  And then I told him he was living in
a dispensation.  Then he yelled, "I KNOW brotha!  The last
dispensation!"
    So, this guy is basically way cool, but...... We won´t be teaching
him haha.  Other than that, this week was pretty normal.  But, things
are going well, I´m happy and enjoying the work!

Elder Collings

Just rocking the mission

Hello Family!   

      This week was pretty dang awesome.  Our Baptismal date with Steffan fell out, not because we doesn´t want to get baptized or anything, but, because he got in a car wreck.... But, he still wants to be baptized, we just need to meet with him, so, yeah that´s on hold.  Then our other Baptismal date, Sister K, has been sick the last week.  She hates taking medicine, so, when she got sick, she didn´t take her pills.  Then, she got sicker, so they gave her other pills...and she didn´t want to take those either... now she´s really sick and decided she better take these pills that they gave her.  So.... we haven´t met with her this last week either haha.  She´s like way old, and not doing too well with health.... we need her to get better so we can meet with her and let her see why she should get baptized now instead of waiting.... but, can´t do much about that yet haha.  Norbert is doing good.  He wants to get baptized still and believes our Church is true.  We also had a couple of termines with this guy named Wolfgang.  He has had a bunch of spiritual experiences and has talked to us a bunch about baptism.  Basically he already believes everything is true, he just wants to get a spiritual confirmation through a personal prayer.  He said that all of his spiritual experiences have been with us, he wants to have one of them alone before he sets a fest date.  He´s doing way good, and has met a bunch of people in the Ward.  He has come to Church the last 2 weeks and told us he plans on coming back.  The other person we are way excited about is Rilana.  She prayed about the Book of Mormon and said she knows it´s true, we made out a meeting... and then she got sick haha.  So..... we´re waiting for her to get better.

    Other than that, nothing has really changed. (I've cut out this paragraph, Steve is really struggling with his companion, I don't want to publish the problems, but prayers in his direction would be appreciated.)

    Although that is difficult, I am happy and doing well.  We are still seeing miracles out here, especially in our zone.  Our zone set 5 baptismal dates last week and is basically just rocking the mission.  Thanks for all that you do!

 

Elder Collings

A week of miracles

Hello Family!

    Well, this week was probably the legitest week so far since I got out here, and I´m not even joking.  Basically this week was awesome =)  And basically, I have nothing but good to write.  I don´t really know where to start, but, I guess I´ll start out with a story; so, basically Elder H is the worst bike rider I have ever seen in my life.  From the very first week I told him he shouldn´t ride in the middle of the road because it makes people mad, and I told him he shouldn´t ride in the middle of the road going the wrong way on a one way street.  But, Elder H is one of those people that just really doesn´t have a care in the world, so, he did it anyway.  He almost got hit by 2 cars, and this week... He did get hit by a car.  It was on that one way street that I always told him not to ride in the road on.  Another car turned onto the one way street, they only looked to the right to see if another car was coming, there was nobody there, so, they pulled out onto the road right as Elder H rode in front of them.  Elder H was perfectly fine, but, he scratched up the car a lot and put a couple of little dents in it.  The worst news about it was that the car he hit was a brand new Jaguar, they are even more expensive in Germany.  Elder H was 100% at fault and our President isn´t sure if our insurance covers that accident, so......He might be paying for it.  The guy took it to a shop already, and the estimated cost is 2,000€-2,500€.  I tried to warn him before, he just never listened.

    Anyway, this week was not super awesome because my companion got hit by a car, it was super awesome because we set 2 more baptismal dates =)  The first one was with that lady that I found in the contacts list on the phone.  Basically I called all of the people we didn´t know and she said she wanted to meet with us and be baptized.  We met with her for the first time, she´s way legit, she already planned out her baptism and sent geneology work into the temple to get her parents sealed together, and she wants to be sealed to her family.  The only thing, is that she is 84 years old and not in the best of health.  She wants to tell her entire family in person that she is joining our Church, but, she won´t be meeting with them until Christmas.  So, he baptism is scheduled for January.  We don´t even know if she is going to live that long haha.  So, we are meeting with her and seeing if he can help her decide to do it a little faster, but, she will get baptized either way =)

    The next guy that we set a baptismal date with was actually this morning... about 4 hours ago.  We found him by going through the area book of old investigators and calling everyone up to see who had interest.  The missionaries stopped meeting with him because he was really busy all the time.  He never lost interest.  When the missionaries stopped meeting with him, he started investigating other Churches.... when he investigated one religion, for some reason they thought that he worked for the NSA.  He said that he didn´t, they didn´t beleive him, so they hooked him up to a lie detector haha.  That obviously didn´t go down well with him, so, he stopped investigating them and said he was going to sue them, but, they forked over 800€ instead so now he just sends anit-information against that religion to everyone he knows (He asked us to give some of the information to President Monson haha)  He wasn´t really a super legit investigator, but, he came to General Conference, felt the spirit, and now he wants to be baptized.  He asked a ton of questions this morning, and he is 100% okay with everything, except, he is worried about tithing.  He said that he is in debt right now and that he doesn´t have a lot of money... if any.  And the economy in Germany isn´t looking too good.  He said he wants to join our Church really bad, but, he doesn´t want to join it if he can´t keep a sacred commandment.  So he said if he can´t afford to pay tithing he would rather not get baptized, so that he can still be good friends with the Church... Obviously there´s a little misunderstanding in here, but, we´ll help him overcome his concern and he said that for now the date we set for him is good =)

    We also had 2 other miracles happen.  We had 2 lessons fall through one night (Same night Elder H ended up getting hit)  As we walked outside of the Church from the second missed appointment, we contacted this guy right outside of the Church.  We invited him inside.  We showed him the Church and he loved it.  We showed him the Restoration and he felt the spirit.  He wants to find out if what we are sharing is true, and he said he wants it to be true.  He came to General Conference and loved it.  He has read in the Book of Mormon and said that it always makes him feel good when he reads.  He is basically way legit, we meet with him tonight, and we are planning on setting another baptismal date =)

    At conference one of our members, Sister Höch brought her neice along.   (Sister Höch has a way cool conversion story, she saw an angel!)  Anyway, basically Sister Höch is the most missionary minded member I have ever seen.  She brought her Neice with, her neice really enjoyed conference and felt the spirit.  She told me she believes that our Church is true, she has been reading in the Book of Mormon regularly for the last couple of weeks and praying with her Aunt.  We invited her to pray alone to know if the Book of Mormon is true, and we are planning on also inviting her to baptism very soon =)

    Things are definitely going well in Offenbach, I´ve never seen so much success.  We had a zone conference not too long ago, and President Schwartz showed about 4 different prophecies of Germany.  All of them basically said that the day will come when Germany will be opened up to the Gospel, and a work greater than any other on the planet will go forth.  President Schwartz said the time is now.  Basically 3 weeks ago our entire mission had a total of 20 baptismal dates, as of today, our zone alone (There are 6 zones) has 14 baptismal dates!  The other zones haven´t exploded in the same way, but, they will =)  Everyone said Germany was a tough mission before I came out here, but.... I am still seeing a lot of success, I think people are just coming out with the wrong expectations in mind.  Ever since I decided to look for Baptisms instead of just a good street contact, we are finding baptisms, and that seems to be the same story with the other Elders here in the zone.

    Everything is going awesome, I´m excited for this next transfer, just like every transfer haha.  Hopefully I can write so many success stories every week, and hopefully next week I can write about some more baptisms =)  And by the way, you should pray for our baptismal dates:  Sister Koch, Steffen, Brother Hoffmann.  And we actually had to delay Steffen´s baptismal date because he got in a car wreck....... but he´s okay and still wants to be baptized =)

 

Elder Collings

A Baptism

Cleaning the font

Baptism with Pepper



A Barbecue with some elders in our District


Hello Family!
    This week was basically amazing.  The baptism went Great with Pepper, well, that's not her actual name. Everything went very smooth and it was awesome.  Pepper actually caught a train at 4 in the morning to make it to her baptism, she was way super excited, we kept the phone by our bed just in case she needed to call because of fear or something weird like that, but, instead we got like 5 text messages during the night with her saying she couldn´t sleep because she was too excited haha.  I actually got to do the confirmation for her, it was awesome.  I had been helping Elder H. practice the Baptismal prayer all week, I assumed our Branch President would confirm her, but, he came up to me in sacrament meeting and said he wanted me to do it, so, I memorized the correct words in 5 minutes and it went great!  It was such a spiritual experience, and I don´t really know what else I can say about it haha.
    We also had a miracle happen this week, are you ready for it?  We set another Baptismal date for October 15th =)  At the baptism, we noticed this one guy there that we had never met before, his name is Steffan.  He had met with missionaries 6 years ago, and wanted to get baptized, but, his parents wouldn´t let him.  The missionaries stopped meeting with him, and shortly after, he stopped going to Church and lost contact with basically everyone.  Then, 3 years later, some missionaries started to meet with him again.  He wanted to get baptized, and right when he made that decision, he started having problems with his wife, they ended up getting a divorce, and with his work and schooling.  He was really stressed out and couldn´t meet with the missionaries.  The missionaries ended up dropping him as an investigator, and then nobody really heard from him again until this baptism.  One of our members logged onto Facebook right before the baptism, she told me she rarely gets on Facebook, but, for whatever reason she logged on.  Steffan started to talk to her, and she invited him to the Baptism with her.  He came and felt the spirit WAY strong.  After talking to him for about 5 minutes, I felt like we should set a baptismal date with him, right as we asked him if he wanted to be baptized, our mission President, President Schwartz just happened to come and stand by us haha.  He told us that he felt the spirit, that he always felt good when he came into the Church, and he said that nothing would make him happier than to join this Church.  Then President Schwartz gave his testimony and walked away and spread the word to our entire Ward haha.  As we were cleaning everything up, he told me that he wanted to be the next person baptized in  this ward, and then he went over and stared at the font.  IS THAT COOL OR WHAT!?
   So, we now have another baptismal date and he is super legit, and just like the other ones, he was found through Member missionary work, not through something we have done.  Kevin learned about the Church from his best friend, Andre´ through his best friend, Pepper through a blood drive, and then Steffan from a good friend.  Our transfer calls come this next week, and, like normal I really hope I can stay haha.  My branch President went up to President Schwartz and demanded that we stay, he said he doesn´t care how,  just make it happen.  So, I guess we´ll see what happens.  So far whenever it seems like an area has just started taking off I get transferred =( but, it´s not my work it´s the Lords.  By the way, I found out 2 of the investigators that Elder M and I found in Krefeld now have a baptismal date, one that Elder J and I found in Coburg has a baptismal date, and Massimo still has his baptismal date in Würzburg, but, he is having trouble with smoking. 
    Anyway, I am super happy and doing great!  Sorry to hear Conman had a rough week, and won´t be playing anymore football for a while, buuuut..... it happens haha, hope you enjoyed those enspiring words.  Thanks for all of you prayers and for everything you do for me!

Elder Collings

Basketball!!

Hello Family!
    This week was way awesome, just like every week, I really don´t know how else to start my letters, but, I think that works.  This week was way cool we worked hard, and were blessed with success, imagine how that works out haha.  But, basically, I changed a little bit of what I do, and things have been working better.  I will not lie, I was nervous every time we went into a lesson because I had no idea what Elder H would say.   I just stopped worrying about what he was going to say and just focused on what I could say to help these people, and, we have had more success.  This week we found 2 really cool investigators.  The first one is 17 years old.  His name is Rafaelo, and he comes from Romania.  He said that he has wanted to be baptized Christian for a really long time, but, his parents wont let him for some reason.  We sat down on a bench and taught him the restoration.  At the end he asked me what he could do to really know this was true, he didn´t know how to pray, he had never done it before.  We prayed with him on the bench in the park, after that, he waited for like 10 seconds, looked up and said that it felt good.  He already felt the spirit, and he really wants to pray for himself now.  We should be meeting with him for the second time today, and i´m pretty excited.
    The second guy is also young, he is 19.  I have no idea how to pronounce his name, so, he said it doesn´t matter, I can call him whatever I want haha.  He has told me a couple of times that I am his hero, he also called me an angel sent from God and he said he wanted to be just like me.  He has had a rough life, when he was 14 he made a mistake and basically every one in his high school made fun of him.  He then got a disease in his stomach and he was in a coma... except it isn´t a coma, he said it´s like a coma, (I really don´t know what it is) for 3 years.  He is healthy now, but, he doesn´t really have any friends, all of his old friends don´t want anything to do with him.  So, we doored in on him Sunday Night, as we were leaving, I saw that he had a basketball by the door.  I asked if he played, and he said that he wants to be in the NBA when he grows up.  I told him I really like to play ball too,  and I told him I´d invite him to come play at the Church sometime.  The next day was P-Day (We didn´t have time yesterday, that´s why I´m e-mailing today) and right in the middle of the day he called us up to see when we could play some basketball.  We went to his house, he lives across the street from us, and gave him an Albanian Book of Mormon, his Mom had asked for one because she can´t speak German or English, then she asked for a German one for her husband... and an English one for her Son.... anyway, we invited him to play basketball 6.30 the next morning (Today) He was there waiting for us outside our apartment, we jogged to the Church (yes I jogged haha) and played some basketball.... and I won 44-18 haha.  This guy is really cool, we are hoping his Mom and Dad will have more interest because he is pretty slow, he doesn´t have any mental disabilities, he is just a really slow learner, he thought of the Book of Mormon like a Genie lamp when he read the promise from Moroni haha, he asked if he could pray after and get himself a wife.  So, yeah, we´re looking forward to helping him come closer to Christ.
    This week.... starting on Wednesday, we decided we were going to give out as many Books of Mormon as we could.  Every time we talked to someone it was about the Book of Mormon, or quickly bringing the Book of Mormon into it.  From Wednesday to Sunday, we gave out 25 Books of Mormon, and on Wednesday we gave out 11.  Sometimes I kinda forget about how much good the Book of Mormon will do when we let it get out there, so, it makes me feel good knowing that I´m handing a lot more out.  This week we also talked to President Schwartz, Elder H wanted permission to buy a guitar and play it in his free time, and I wanted to ask if I could plan a time once a week for us to play basketball in the Church with anyone who wants to come, he said it was okay, so, we´re going to invite everyone now.  We´ve already got about 7 people that said they want to come, none of them are investigators or members, just people that we have talked to by the other hoops around town.
    So yeah, things are going well.  We have the baptism for Pepper this week,  we got it all planned out, we´re meeting with her every day until her baptism on Saturday.  She´s really excited, her aunt was just baptized last week... or maybe the week before, I´m not sure, but, her aunt said it was an amazing experience, and then sent us some marshmallows haha.  I´m way excited and looking forward to it!
    Anyway, that´s basically everything, things are going awesome, and I am happy =)
Elder Collings

News from Offenbach

First, some pictures. 

One of them is a picture of every companion I have had until Elder H, he wasn´t there for the picture

    The other is a picture of our old MTC group, we´re just missing the 2 Elders that went to Berlin
     It took a while, but, I found a place in Offenbach that actually looked pretty, so that´s the only pretty side of Offenbach haha

Hey Family!
    This week was way awesome, and I don´t really know where to begin, so, I´ll just start.  So, I wasn´t exactly sure what to do with Offenbach for a while.  Elder H. knew what he wanted to do, our Ward Mission Leader knew what he wanted to do, and I was really wondering what the Lord wanted done haha.  So, I decided to fast about it.  While I was fasting, we had a mission conference, and Elder Bednar showed up.  One of the Elders asked him what he did on his mission to become a disciple of Christ.  He told us that he already knew what he had to do, just like we already know what we have to do, he just decided to ask our Father in Heaven for the Strength to do it, and then he did it, and by doing it, he became a disciple of Christ.  As he told his little story to go along with it, I realized I already knew what had to be done with Offenbach; everything that I had already done in the 3 places I had already served.  So, that´s what I did.  I know that Elder H. is a good guy and everything... but he has some really weird ideas about missionary work, I was willing to try them at first.... but, now I'm leading him in another direction.  Sometimes Elder H. gets kinda upset, he hates finding time, but, I like it, and we don´t really have a lot of time to work with, so we did a LOT of it.  The week before, he always found something else to do, but, this time I told him it can all wait until P-Day, and we did end up finding time.  We ended up teaching over twice as many lessons as we did the week before, we found some way cool investigators, and I have a way cool story to go along with that.
    So, our District Leader told me a story of this other Elder that used to be in the mission.  Apparently his entire mission was spent going to areas that were not having success, turning them around, and then getting sent to a new place with no success, haha.  This Elder didn´t know what to do at first, and then President Ninnow told him to make phone calls, because making phone calls is still finding time and just as important as everything else.  When he said that, I couldn´t stop thinking about it.  I had our cell phone, I had organized the numbers into different categories, Investigators, Former Investigators, Members, Inactive members, Potential investigators, and then there were about 60 Numbers that we had no idea who they were.  So, that night when we ended the split, we still had about an hour and a half before the day ended, I decided we were going to start making phone calls.  Elder H. started cooking something, and I started going through the list of names.  We ended up calling 7 people that said they would still like to meet with us, and one lady that wants to get baptized =)  Her story is that 3 years ago, she met with the missionaries.  She already had member friends living in Sacramento, so she kinda knew a little of the Church, but not a lot.  The Missionaries met with her 2 times before she got sick and went to the hospital, and then the missionaries didn´t keep in contact.  Another set of missionaries decided to call her 2 years later, they met with her once, and at this time she had learned enough about the Church from her friends and the 2 visits from the other missionaries that she had started to think about being baptized, but then she had to move.  She lost contact with the missionaries again, but 2 weeks ago, she moved back.  When I called her, she was so happy, she told me right on the phone that she had wanted to call us, but didn´t know what our phone number was anymore.  She also told me that she had made up her mind and she wants to be baptized.  We still haven´t met with her, but we have an appointment with her in one week.  Pretty cool right!?
    The work is still going good in Offenbach =)  I will not lie, I am having trouble with my companion, he is a cool guy and everything, but, he is just really distracted with other things, and I really have to push to get him to do the more effective work, and make the better decisions.  I also am kinda afraid to be in lessons with him sometimes, I have no idea what he is going to say, he is very unpredictable.  We were visiting with a less active member, her husband and her son are both non members, Elder H. said that he wanted to give the spiritual thought.  I thought that was cool, so I let him do it.  He ended up reading the last bit of the last chapter in Psalms (I think it´s Psalms, whichever comes second, Psalms or Proverbs) this scripture talks about a Virtuous Woman, and what she is.  As he read it, Sister K looked so confused, and she looked like she didn´t know what to think, her husband looked about the same way... and I was wondering how I was going to bring the spirit back to a spiritual thought haha.  After he read it, he looked at Sister Klitz and said, "Sister K., you are a Virtuous woman."  There was an awkward moment in the room for like 15 seconds haha.  So, yeah, I could tell A LOT more stories, but, he really is a good guy, I just haven´t worked with anyone like him before, so I have to make some changes.
    Anyway, things are going great, thanks for everything that you do.  I´m happy and enjoying the work!
Elder Collings

New area, New companion, New address

 me eating like the most tasty bacon wrapped on a stick that I have ever eaten before

 We´ve got my last picture of Würzburg

 Elder H infront of a funky car

a picture of me infront of my new City

a picture of me and Elder H

Hello Family!


I am now in Offenbach with Elder H. This area 500% different from all of my other areas, it is a massive huge city, and everbody is Muslim. We have 2 investigators, and like 45 less active families in this ward. Elder H is very new on his mission, he just started his 3rd transfer and he is a really good missionary. He is not afraid to speak German, he might even say too much every now and then haha, and he wants to improve which is awesome. I have only been here about 2 days and one thing is sure, things have to change haha. They have been doing TONS of work with less active, and meeting with members about 4 times a week, which is way cool, but, all of these people that they are meeting with live over an hour a way. We basically need to use the time more effectively. These last couple of days have been the first days when I have come back to our apartment feeling like we we haven´t done a lot of work in a long time, we are outside, but, the days are poorly planned so we don´t get a lot done. Hopefully I can learn this area fast so I can help with our planning and make it a little more productive!

We do have a baptismal date in three weeks. This lady, Peppe, was found at a blood drive that the Church held. She had interest and wanted to learn more. They set a baptismal date with her over a month ago and then she disappeared. Apparently right before I got here they finally got contact with her. We have met with her 2 times since I got here, and she still wants to be baptized. We got her to come to Church for the very first time, and she loved it. After Church she talked to members for about 30 minutes. She told me that she believes the book of Mormon is the Word of God that that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. She has no problems with the Word of Wisdom which is way rare in Germany, and she seems pretty golden. Basically all that we really have to do with her is make sure she has a testimony. I think everything makes sense to her (She went to Oxford for school) and she says she feels warm inside when she meets with us, so, we´ll just help her on her way haha.

Other than that there´s not much to say. The couple of days I have been here has been riding our bike somewhere... Our bikes breaking half way.... Walking back, Elder H saying we have to fix them.... 30 minutes of fixing, riding back to where we want to work, bike breaks again..... repeat..... then going and waiting forever for a train.... But, today I told him the first thing we are doing is getting our bikes professionaly repaired, we are buying a map so he doesn´t need to come back to our Apartment to find out where to go, and I told him we will only be coming back to the apartment for Lunch, and then we aren´t coming back until 9. He´s a way cool guy and wants to work hard, he´s just new out here and doesn´t really know how the plan an effective day yet.

So yeah, that´s a little bit about the new area, all the missionaries out here call it Turk town because everyone is Turkish, but, I don´t care who´s here, the Lord prepares everyone, and they´re all my Brothers and Sisters =) By the way, I gave you the wrong address for my new apartment, it is



Elder Steve Collings

Glocken Gasse 40

63065

Offenback

But the whole Cornelius Str. address still works. That´s the mission office, and the Mission office is in my district now, so I think I can still get my mail there.

Anyway, thanks for everything, you guys are awesome. I´m glad you´re all having a blast, but, I´m having more fun =) thanks for the address!

Elder Collings

Week of Miracles

Hello Family!
This week was a week of miracles =) We had so much success, it
was amazing. To start it off, we found about 5 really legit
investigators, 2 of them are families, one of them with 9 people in it
(That doesn´t happen in Germany). All of them are so cool and so
willing to meet. We found one guy, Jones in a way cool way. So, last
week the assistants challenged us to have one hour of Consecrated
finding time each day. Basically we prayerfully pick a street, once
we get there, we consecrated the hour to the Lord and pray
specifically for Charity, Faith, and Virtue. Then, we start dooring
haha. So, we had decided to go to a Dwarf that we hadn´t been to
since my very first Sunday in Würzburg. We had found a couple of
potential investigators, so, we decided to go by on all of our
potential investigators and then have our Consecrated finding time
there. We went by this Jones guy, he is 20 years old, but, his Mom
said that he was sleeping and didn´t want to wake up. So, we went by
on all of our other people. Then, right as we started our Consecrated
finding time someone drove by on a motorcycle, pulled over and then
just watched us. It was really awkward. After about 2 houses he was
still there, watching us, so, we went and talked to him. We asked him
what was up and he said, "I was just out looking for you guys." We
didn´t know what to think, nobody goes looking for the missionaries.
He knew who we were, but, we really had no idea who he was. It ended
up being Jones, when he found out we had come by, he had remembered us
from 11 weeks ago and was way interested still, so he got on his
motorcycle and started looking for us. The place where he found us
happened to be the only place in this town with a bench to sit
on. The lesson went way good, and we have another lesson made out for
Tuesday. Oh, and at the very end of our lesson when we were praying,
a dog came running up to Elder Chambers and licked his face during the
prayer haha.
We also had a referral from a random member from Provo who was
visiting Würzburg. We just happened to see her on the street and she
came running up to us and gave us the address for someone that wanted
a book of mormon. We went by on this lady, she lives in a castle, and
she has a ton of interest. Apparently her Grandfather was a member of
the Church and she wants to know what we really believe. And she
lives in a castle, and that is way cool haha.
I know I´m forgetting some of the stories, there were so many
crazy cool things that happened this week, but, one thing I do know is
that I am getting transfered =( I am going to be going to Offenbach
serving with Elder H, nobody really knows
how to spell his name haha. He is just starting his third transfer,
so he is pretty young and I guess I´m kinda old now haha. It will be
way fun, Offenbach is right across the river from Frankfurt and I
heard the Ward is way big, I heard there are actually 2 wards, I
really have no idea haha. It will be sad leaving the Bayern area
because it´s so beautiful, I am going back to the big cities, but
that´s okay I´ll have fun with the work and love the people so it´s
all good. Oh, and if we ever end up visiting Germany, basically
everyone in the Ward in Würzburg offered us their beds to sleep on
haha. I´ll miss the ward out here, they are all way awesome.
So yeah, time for some more change, my new address is:
Elder Collings
Gloeken Gasse 40
63065 Offenbach
Germany
I´m excited for the new transfer, hopefully I´ll hear that the
baptism goes through for Massimo on the tenth! Anyway, I´m doing
great, thanks for everything you do. I´m doing great and having a
blast. Oh, and another birthday idea, I haven´t had a watch in 6
months, don´t need one, because I have a cell phone, but there´s
another idea haha.
Elder Collings

Flamin Hot Cheetos, what more could I need?

Hey Family!
    This week was way awesome, I don´t really know where I should
begin, so, I´ll start off by talking about the Leavitt family.  They
are the family that found out about the Church through family history,
and basically know our Church history inside and out.  They got back
from their vacation around Church historical sights a couple of weeks
ago, and it has been REALLY hard to meet with them because they have
been so busy.  We found out they were helping their son work on his
apartment, so, we offered to help.  Last week we spent about 5 hours
helping him put up wall-paper.  He basically talked about our church,
and his vacation the ENTIRE time.  He has nothing negative to say
about our Church at all.  When we finished helping him, he and his
wife took us to dinner, the cheapest thing there was around 10€, which
is like 13$ I think, but, I´m not so sure.  Then, they had also gone
to the American base and bought us a ton of American chips, and Ramen
Noodles,  you have no idea how awesome it felt to eat a bunch of
junk food =) They also tried to pay us 40€ more, but, we wouldn´t take
it.  They were so thankful for what we had done, and we are way good
friends now.  They are still way busy, we are going to help them out
with the apartment this week again, and they said they want to hear
what we believe, they just don´t have a lot of time.  Hopefully we can
get meeting with them soon.
    This week we also set another baptismal date =)  I don´t remember
if I told you about Massimo, but, he was basically WAY hard to get a
lesson with because a ton of random things kept happening that
prevented us from meeting with him.  So this week we had a zone leader
split, every zone leader split I have had we have set a baptismal date
whether it was for our area or theirs.  Massimo is so open to
everything, and whenever we teach him anything he always says "I
believe in that, it says it in the Bible."  So, we set a baptismal
date with him for September 10, we have stressed how important it is
for him to pray and read (he hasn´t read in the Book of Mormon yet).
We´re excited for our next appointment with him, we will be teaching
the Word of Wisdom, he smokes.  We have a cool smoking program that we
are going to give him, we will be at a members house so that he can
meet some more members, and then after the lesson we are going to
leave, and he will have dinner with them and get to know them.
    Those are definitely the highlights, I have always been addicted
to flaming hot cheetos, it felt so good to eat a bunch haha.  Other
than that, not much has changed.  Although, my shoes are pretty
thrashed, I think i´m going to have to get them repaired next week...
but, that´s not important.
    Things are going great out here in Würzburg, this is the last week
of the transfer, we get calls on Saturday.  Elder Chambers has been
here for 3 transfers and I´ve been here 2, so odds are one of us will
be going somewhere else (I hope I stay) We´ll just have to wait
and see.

My address is:
    Elder Collings
    Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
    Talweg 6
    Würzburg 97076
    Germany
 
    Ideas for gifts..... I don´t really need anything, but, somethings
would be nice to have, I would love some music.  Elder Mayle always
had music going and he really helps me focus, Elder Chambers has music
now, but, a lot of it is pretty upbeat stuff that are we most likely
shouldn´t have out here (So we don´t listen to it) Other than that,
winter is coming... I HATE the cold, anything you can send to help me
keep warm, Thermals,  gloves, hat, whatever haha I wish it would just
stay warm haha.  I really can´t think of anything else that would be
nice to have.  So, hope those ideas are good =)
    Anyway, thanks for everything you guys do for me and for all of
your prayers!  I´m doing great, I´m happy, and I´ve got a bunch of
flamin hot cheetos, what more could I need? haha

Elder Collings

Same as usual

Hello Family!
    This week was, like every week haha.  The Schweinfurt Elders had a
baptism, and there is no baptismal font in their Church, so they held
the Baptism in our Church.  We learned how important it is to plan
everything, the other Elders had not planned a thing.  They got to the
Church about 45 minutes early, the first thing one of the Elders said
was, "I have 45 minutes to write a Program."  So, he ran down to the
computer to start working on the program, then, the other Elder
started to work on his talk that he hadn´t thought about, then they
both had to decide who was going to give the other talk on the Holy
Ghost, since the baptism started in 45 minutes, the Elder writing the
Program ended up giving the talk.  Then, it was time to start, and
only 1 family was there, the Schweinfurt is on an American military
base, so they have over 100 members (That´s big in Germany haha) and
they were expecting a lot.  They started calling all the Ward Members,
and everyone thought that it started in an hour, so, we waited for an
hour....  And then only 2 more families ended up coming.  Jason still
ended up getting baptized, but, it was pretty embarrassing to see how
everything was planned.
    Other than that, this week was the same; nothing out of the usual.
    I get to go on 3 Splits with
missionaries this week, so, I´ll get to work with a lot of different
missionaries, it´ll be fun.
    Thanks for everything you guys do, you´re awesome!
Elder Collings

Randomness

Hello Family!

    It sounded like a way busy week last week!  That´s way cool that Jessica had her baby, Avery, and Amber is married now, that´s way cool!   I´m way excited for you guys.  There wasn´t anything out of the ordinary that happened this week, we talked to our strongest investigator about baptism, but, she just believes she isn't ready, we asked if we could set a goal for her, but, she wasn´t willing to do that.  She said that she is too stressed out and doesn´t want anything more on her mind than she already has.  This lady, Frau DeWolf is way awesome.  She has cried every time we meet with her, and the spirit is so strong every time.  She´s said that she has felt the spirit many times, and she loves everything that we have shared with her, but, she isn´t willing to go any further yet.  We´ve taught her everything, so now we have to help her build her faith to be baptized.

    That´s probably the story of the week haha, we don´t really know what´s going on, but, all of our investigators basically disappeared off the face of the Earth over night.  So, that has made things really weird, and then Elder Chambers has been feeling sick since I got here, he finally decided to call someone about it because it was bugging him so bad.  They thought that it maybe had something to do with what he had been eating, but, we eat way healthy, we have whole wheat bread lots of fruits and veggies every day.  The Doctor was impressed and said that he might be eating TOO healthy, so he gave us a list of things to eat... but, it is basically what we already eat, so I don´t know what changes we should make haha.  He prescribed a pill, but, it hasn´t changed anything, Elder Chambers still feels sick in his stomach every day, but, we still work good haha.  Hopefully we figure out what's wrong soon.

    So, I said this past week has been different, this week was also the very first time I have ever seen a missionary forget to put on his tie haha.  We had our lunch at home, we left, walked to the bus and waited for a while.  Then, as we were getting on the bus Elder Chambers yelled, "We need to go back!"  I thought he forgot his ticket.  As we started to go back, I noticed he had forgotten his tie.  So, he put his tie on, and we went back to catch another bus, then right as we were about to  get to the area we planned on working in, Elder Chambers got a bloody nose.  He got blood all over his shirt and tie, so, we had to go back, again.  By the time we were finally back doing work it was like 4:30.  There has been something random that has happened every day to make the day seem odd.  But, we´re still working as hard as we can!  And I know that as long as we keep trying our best we´ll be blessed with success.

    That is basically everything that has happened, well, I started reading Jesus the Christ in the spare time that I have right before bed and during lunch breaks.  I must say, Talmage knows his stuff haha.  I´ve learned so much, I can´t even explain how much I have enjoyed reading it.  I highly recommend it =)  Anyway, I am happy and doing great, I wish you all the best!

    Elder Collings

  Oh, and that Leavitt family just got back from their vacation around the United States visiting every LDS history sight there is haha.  We are meeting with them this Saturday =)

News from Würzburg

Hello Family!
    We had a way weird but awesome week this last week.  It started
off with a phone call from basically every investigator we have saying
that either they were sick, their Dog was sick, or their Child was
sick.  So, in one day we lost every planned lesson that we had for the
week.  So, that meant an entire week of contacting haha.  The week
actually ended up pretty awesome.  We found 3 new investigators this
week, one comes from India, he is Buddhist, but, he
believes in Jesus Christ also. He´s probably the nicest guy I´ve met in 

Germany.  He had a life changing experience
when he had a blood clot, or something like that in his head 

Now he cant feel anything on the left side of his body, and has a real
hard time moving around.  He ended up losing his job which was going
well for him, and he divorced his wife, and basically everything
changed way quick.  Now, he´s like the nicest guy ever.  He invites
people to come and eat with him all the time, and he has offered us so
many things it´s crazy.
    Another new investigator is named Patrick, he is going to College
in Würzburg, he´s 23 and he´s basically just searching for truth in
this life.
    The last guy we are most excited for.  We were actually
contacting on the street a couple of weeks ago when we saw this guy.
We contacted someone else on the street, the guy said he had no
interest, we asked if he knew someone that would have interest, he
said yes, went into a bar and brought out his friend (our new
investigator is the friend)  We talked to him for about 5 minutes and
he gave us his number and said that he´d be willing to learn more.  We
actually forgot about the number, then a week and a half later, we saw
him on the street and he asked us why we hadn´t called him yet.  We
apologized and then called him that evening haha.  For some reason,
every appointment we planned out with him didn´t go through.  The
first appointment, the buses were all messed up so we ended up being
an hour late and he had no time, the second time the zone leaders
called us and we had to go to another town at the same time we planned
on meeting with him, and then the third time we had another random
thing with the Ward pop up, but, we rescheduled it the same day and
made sure we were there an hour and a half early so to be 100% sure
with everything haha.
    Our first lesson with him was awesome, his name is Mossimo, he is
35.  He has actually investigated a lot of Churches and actively
studies the Bible.  He really liked the message of the restoration, we
ended up making out 3 lessons with him this week, we´re way excited!
    And then one more guy that isn´t a new investigator yet, but, we
are also way excited about is named Christian.  We had a lesson
with him, but didn´t set a time for the next lesson, so, that´s
why he´s not considered an investigator yet.  Our lesson with him was
way awesome, he knows a lot about the Bible, and he is not a member of
any Church currently because they all have believes against the Bible.
 He actually said that he hates the other Churches. He said, "It´s
like the Devil has taken these Churches and written their History." He
then went off for like 30 minutes about his believes... I didn´t hear
a single thing that was against what we believe haha.  As we started
talking about what our Church believes he said, "When we sat down I
would have never guessed that we had so many Believes in common... We
will definately be seeing eachother again."  He is way busy, so, it´s
hard to know when we can meet with him, he actively travels to MANY
countries delivering medicine and clothes, and he works for the
college also.  He said that it is very rare for us to find him home.
    So, this week was weird because we didn´t meet with any of the
normal people, but, we ended up finding 3 new investigators which was
awesome.  So, I guess I haven´t explained my companion at all.  His
name is Elder Scott Chambers, he comes from Hooper Utah. 
He´s apparently way good at soccer, I´ve never seen
him play, but, I´ve heard from a lot of the other missionaries that
he´s way talented, he´s a really hard worker and a cool guy.
      When he speaks German, he randomly throws English words in, even
though he doesn´t realize it, so, it´s funny to watch our
investigators faces, a lot of them know English pretty well, so when
he randomly says an  English word they always smile.
      But he is also one of the most Charitable people I´ve met.  I can
tell that he really loves the people that we teach,  he thinks really
hard on how we can help them best. He´s also a way good worker, he knows 

what needs to be done, and
we get it done.  So, that´s my companion.
   Anyway, things are going way good in Germany  Everything out here
in Germany is going pretty awesome.  We just set up an awesome plan
with the Ward to help build Unity, and the emphasis on member
missionary work.  The area President out here randomly came to
Würzburg after the last General Conference, at the
end of the meeting he asked for 10 minutes to speak to the Ward.  That
Sunday there were a lot of visitors, and the Chapel was about half
full, he looked around and he Promised the Ward that if every member
prayed for opportunities to share the gospel and then acted when the
opportunities were given to them, the entire Chapel would be filled
exactly one year to that day when he comes to visit again after
General Conference.
   I was pretty happy when I found out about this nifty promise haha,
but, the Ward really hasn´t been doing that much. So, we are having a
continuous 31 day fast for this month.  Every day this month someone
will be fasting in our Ward.  They are fasting for the opportunity to
share the gospel, and we also talked a lot about
how they have to actually do more than just pray for the opportunity,
they have to have works with their faith.  The Ward was actually way
interested in this, well, most of the ward, like 97%, they agreed to
do it, and it starts today with Sister Braun haha.
    So, we´re way excited to see how the fast goes through, we´re
expecting some awesome stories from the ward.  Anyway, I´m happy and
i´m doing great in Germany, every day is a good day.  Thanks for all
of your help and prayers!
Elder Collings
 

A baptism!

 

Add Elder Chambers me and Andre´, Andre´ is the guy that just got baptized 

picture of the Baptismal Font... with pass a long cards in it, Elder Chambers was leaning over to feel how warm the water was while we were filling it up, and all of his cards fell out of his pocket into the font.

district picture, Elder Chambers, Elder Jensen, me and Elder Woodall, he´s going home in 2 days.

me giving a book of Mormon to Al Capone

Hello Family!

    This week was pretty much weird and awesome at the same time, we were so busy with planning stuff that it felt like we didn´t have any time to actually go and do the normal work we are used to haha.  

We had 2 splits this week, and one of them was terrible.  The Elder that I was with has no desire to do anything.... including taking a shower....It was so hard to get him to get outside and do some work, and then when he was outside he would walk SO slow, we missed like 3 buses because he just didn´t care. That was not a lot of fun, but, we made it through the day. Then I went on another split with the Zone Leaders in Nürnberg, it was pretty cool. The first hour I was there we set a baptismal date with a guy that they had been teaching, he actually basically asked us what he needed to do to get baptized haha.  But, the coolest thing this week was the baptism that we had in Würzburg.  Andre´got baptized and confirmed this week which was basically amazing.  He is way cool, he called us up and he had already planned everything out.  He knew which songs he wanted to be sang, he knew who he wanted to talk and baptize him and everything. The only thing he didn´t plan was who the witnesses were because he didn´t know about them.  I talked to him after the baptism about how he felt, he of course said that it was awesome, but, he said that as he walked into the water he had like 1,000 thoughts going through his head, but then as he was immersed, everything was just clear, he said he felt warm everywhere (probably because we worked so hard getting the water the right temperature haha) and he said everything just felt right.  Then during the confirmation, the spirit was so strong, he stood up afterward and had tears in his eyes, he was speechless and couldn´t explain what he had felt.  So that was basically super amazing awesome haha.

    This week we also found out Friday evening, that we were going to be giving talks in Church.  We had no idea, and I guess they basically didn´t know either until they saw us walk into the Church to clean the Baptismal Font. They just figured they´d have us speak, so, we were already way busy, and then we were a little busier haha.  But, the talks went way good, at the end of Sacrament meeting we had 6 different families invite us to dinner.  I think the Ward has started to warm up to us, they didn´t really like the missionaries that were here before, but, I think they like us now =)

    Not much happened other than that, our 2 most legit investigators were both sick this week, and then another one had a son that needed surgery, so,  hopefully all gets better for this week so we can keep helping them come close to Christ =)  And, that´s just about everything, Elder Chambers and I are both staying for another transfer, this transfer is only 5 weeks instead of 6 though... I don´t really know why, but, things are looking good, so hopefully we can keep having success.

   Thanks for all of your help with everything, I'm happy and doing great!
Elder Collings

They came to church!

July 18,2011

Hello Family!
    This week was pretty crazy, and didn´t really turn out how we thought it would haha.  Basically none of our plans fell through, but, we got this guy named Werner Martini to Church for the first time in the 8 months he has been investigating the Church, and we had a guy that we contacted on the street 2 weeks ago come to Church with his friend which was awesome.  Our Bishop asked the visitors to introduce themselves in Priesthood and Werner told everyone that he is searching for the truth and the path that God wants him to follow, I think he found it, he just hasn´t realized it yet.  The other 2 guys ended up having so many questions after Sacrament, we ended up meeting with them after sacrament and gave them the restoration lesson, they liked it, so we meet with them again in about 4 hours =)
    This week we have Andre´s baptism, I´m way excited for it.  We have been going through the commandments with him, and he has absolutely no problems with anything, he ended up basically bearing his testimony to us at the end of our last lesson on basically everything that our Church believes in.  He´s like way prepared for his baptism this Saturday.
    Other than that, not much has happened, we are really looking forward to this week, we have a ton of appointments planned out, so we will be pretty busy.  Transfer calls come this Saturday, I really hope I get to stay.  This place has really changed and I´d like to help it keep changing =) so, I guess we´ll see what happens haha.
    Everything is going great, thanks for your help with everything!
Elder Collings

Teacher and Translator

Hello Family,

    This week was awesome like usual, I´ve gotta keep this one kinda short, sorry, but last week I said we had more success in Würzburg than it has had in a LONG time, well, this week was even better haha.  We are pretty confident we are going to get another baptismal date this coming week which is always awesome.  We are being blessed with so much success, it is wonderful.  I ended up teaching Elders quorum for the first time, and it ended up being the easiest lesson ever haha.  I don´t know why, but, everyone had so much to say in our lesson.  The lesson was about Eternal Families, I probably only spoke for 5 minutes and asked about 4 questions, and then the rest of the time was everyone discussing the topic, it went way well, and super easy haha.  I also ended up translating for someone in Church for the first time.  Someone from the States was visiting and he couldn´t speak any German, he asked if I would be willing to translate for him, I tried my best.  It is so hard to listen to what is being said and then try and tell someone what they said, while the person in still speaking, so, I don´t know how much he got out of it, but, I understood almost every word which was awesome haha.

    Anyway, sorry to keep it short!  Thanks for everything!

Elder Collings

The one where we are all wet was a couple of days ago.  We walked outside and it was raining a little bit, that happens way often in Germany, it rains so little that it´s almost like it isn´t raining, and then it stops after a couple of minutes.... but, this time it didn´t stop.  We didn´t grab our umbrellas because we thought it would stop. Like 5 minutes later it started pouring, and it didn´t stop for 2 hours, and we were outside the entire time haha

The one with the cookies were some cookies we tried to make but ended up being terrible.  I didn´t really think much about what I was doing, so when I put them into the cooking thing I had the scoops all different sizes, some were big, some were small... So, after a couple of minutes some were burning, so we took them out, the big ones were like not even close to being finished, so when we took them out they all kinda oozed together, except for the ones that were burnt, they just stayed as they were haha.  The cookies did not taste good haha

The Elder with me in the other picture is Elder Woodall, he is probably the biggest BYU fan I have ever met.  Everything he owns is BYU, he knows absolutely everything about BYU, I can´t even begin to explain how much stuff he knows, because he knows everything.  He goes home in about 2 weeks.

The picture with the creepy guy holding a picture of Jimmer is Elder Woodall, the BYU fan.  That is his planner that he modified haha.

And then the last picture is just a random picture Elder Chambers took of me and I figured you´d love to see my pretty face, so I put it up for you =)

Another Great Week in Würzburg

Hey Guess what?  It was another great week in Würzburg, like every
week haha.  This week was way cool, we set a baptismal date and we
taught more lessons this week than this area has seen in a LONG time.
The cycle before had a total of 27 lessons in 6 weeks with 1 new
investigator.  We´re on week three with 26 lessons and 5 new
investigators =)  So, things are going up and not down like they
should be haha.
    We got our new mission President this week, President Schwarz.
For the first time we had an entire zone conference in German, and, I
actually understood almost all of it (almost, not quite) he compared
Germany´s growth of the Church with Chile´s growth of the Church,
Chile is growing like 100X faster than Germany, but, he is positive
that Germany is ready to basically explode with righteousness, and I
think I´ll help haha.
    So we set one baptismal date this week, and, we really hope to set
another one this week, we have an investigator that has been
investigating for about 6 months, while we were reading his teaching
record, we noticed he had never been taught the commandments, and
after he had been taught the first three lessons, the missionaries
have only been reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon with him 2
times a week, so, he loves the Book of Mormon which is good, but,
since he has only been taught the first three lessons that 1 time 6
months ago, he has forgotten a lot of it, and he has no idea what the
commandments are.
    We saw that, and we decided that wasn´t right, so we decided to
re-teach stuff so he remembers it, and now we just started moving on to
the commandments.  He has told us he wants to know if it is true, so,
why not show him the commandments so he can choose to follow them and
get more blessings?  That´s what we did, and our last lesson with him,
we spoke about baptism, after 6 months he is starting to progress, and
so, hopefully after this week we will help him prepare for baptism.
    Andre is the person whose baptismal date we set.  He´s the 25 year

old that has been coming to church for the last 2 months and
already knows everything haha, we just have to go through the lessons
with him.  We had a little ward party last Thursday, and I ended up
talking to him for a long time, and he actually has already started
thinking about serving a mission, he is 25 right now, which means
technically he can´t, but, we have heard of some people still being
able to go at 26, but, it is way cool that even though he isn´t
baptized yet, and he doesn´t know everything about the Church yet, he
knows that it is good and has thought about serving a mission.  I
invited him to come on joint teaches with us, and he actually wants to
haha, so, we don´t really have a lot of worries about him, he´s
basically amazing.
       Everything is going good, I´m happy and doing awesome, thanks for
all of your support!
Elder Collings

Pictures and a Golden Investigator

Hello Family!

     

    This week was awesome, we had our last zone conference with President Ninnow, we get a new mission President in like 2 days.  It will be cool to see what changes happen with a new mission President, I have no idea what to expect, so, I guess I´ll just have to wait and see haha.

    We worked way hard this week and found a couple of new people to teach, and then we dropped one of them haha.  So, we found one new investigator this week, with TONS of potential investigators.  We also have had a guy that has come to Church every week for the last 2 months, and has been going to institute and stuff.  He has never wanted to meet with the missionaries, but, he wants to meet with us now.  He actually basically asked,"Hey, can I learn the baptism lessons?"  So, he has been reading in the Book of Mormon already and basically knows everything, we just need to make sure he knows everything, we are planning on baptizing him next Saturday.  It was quite a surprise haha.

    We also had a way weird, but super awesome lesson.  It was mostly awesome.  The only reason it was weird was because one of the first things we saw when we came into this guys house was 'Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith' sitting on his table.  His name is Samuel Leavitt, he comes from America, his wife is German.  They got into genealogy really big a little while ago and found out that a bunch of their ancestors are LDS.  So, they started learning all about the Church, I´m not going to lie, I think he knew more about the history of the Church than I did.  He even kinda challenged me on something, he said,"I bet my ancestors were Mormon before your ancestors were Mormon."  I think he might have us beat haha.  He and his wife were really open with everything and they both said that they wanted to learn more, they both said that they had absolutely nothing against the Church.  The wife spoke more bad about her Catholic Church than the LDS Church, and the man has never belonged to a Church.  The man actually stood up in front of a huge committee of just about every church in Europe, he was a translator for this committee, and he asked why the Mormon religion wasn´t part of the committee (The committee was attempting to find a way to join all of their religions into one big religion....kinda weird)  The head of the committee stood up and said they would never do work with our religion because "They don´t believe in the Bible."  Samuel Leavitt then called him out and basically put him in his place haha.  He actually had about 5 stories like that, he says he hates it when people spread lies and most the lies are about our Church so he calls people out on them. 

    So, we were pretty excited to meet with them, we asked for a return appointment and they said the first of August, we asked if we could have one before that since it was like forever away and then we found out they are traveling to America.  They are visiting Carthage, Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, and Salt Lake City haha.  Their family history is basically all in our religion so they decided to plan a trip and check it all out, they know all of the stories to these places already, dates and everything, pretty amazing.  So, we won´t get to meet with them for a long time, but, that´s okay haha.  Pretty cool investigators right?

    That´s just about everything haha,   I´m having a blast in Würzburg, I´m happy and doing great, thanks for all that you guys do!

Elder Collings