Keep Trying!

Hello Family!

So I had a pretty cool thing happen to me the other day; So I was on a split- I´ve been on so many splits, it´s insane- and we were in my area, Krefeld. I didn´t really know where anything was, or anyone lived, so when we planned what we were going to do for the day I had absolutely no idea. We didn´t have any appointments, so we would normally pick some inactive members and potential investigators to go by, but like I said, I have no idea where anything was, so we just contacted like all day.

I decided to set a goal on how many pamphlets and cards to hand out before the day ended. We talked to SO many people it was crazy, and we got to hand out a bunch of stuff, no one wanted to make appointments or anything, but they were accepting cards and pamphlets which is better than nothing. So the end of the day came and I had one more left in my pocket, I had just picked up my companion and returned from Duisberg to Krefeld and I was wondering who I was going to give my last pamphlet to. Then, this guy was awkwardly staring at me (which is actually normal haha) and so I went to talk to him, but, before I said anything he asked if I was a mormon missionary, he then talked about how much respect he had for the missionaries and all that they did, then he looked down and saw my pamphlet hanging out, he asked for it, I probably giggled like a little school girl and gave it to him haha, and then we talked a little more. He was going back to France where he lived, so we told him how to get in touch with the missionaries there, but it was way awesome how I was blessed to accomplish my goal!

So we had a zone conference , and it was all about Finding People. It was perfect because I´ve been trying really hard getting my companion to talk to people. We are still working on it, but things are getting better which is awesome! He has been kinda down because we are like never teaching and when we have a lesson planned something normally happens so we don´t get to meet with them, so I told him some things like confirming appointments and daily contact with investigators and stuff, but then he said experience has taught him that those things don´t work which was a lame answer in my opinion because Preach My Gospel and our White Handbook was revelation and went through the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles before we were allowed to use it, so it obviously works. I showed him the stuff in Preach My Gospel and The White Handbook and he still wasn´t really taking it to heart, but then our District Leader called. He asked how things were going and my companion said terrible, so our District Leader asked what we can do better, I have what I thought we could do and Elder Mayle said the same stuff he told me to the District Leader, then our District Leader brought out the same exact stuff from Preach My Gospel and The Handbook that I had. It was pretty awesome because right after that my companion was willing to make some new goals revolving around those principles.

I´m glad to hear everyone is doing good, Kaylea super awesome job in school! Con-Man, you know what is right, "O be wise, what can I say more" -Jacob 6:12

Have a great week!

-Elder Collings

Germany

Hello Family!

First of all, I can´t believe Dad got rid of his truck! That thing was amazing! But that´s so awesome that he got a car for you Mom =) and a phone haha.

Not much has really happened here, we haven´t found any new investigators, but i´m mainly trying to get Elder Mayle more comfortable with talking to everyone. We studied Chapter 9 in Preach My Gospel today which is all about Finding People. After we studied it I took away his agency and made him set goals to apply it haha. He seems to understand that we need to talk to people to teach... I don´t see how that wouldn't make sense haha, I just really want to start teaching people, my German is still... improving haha so I can´t really understand the people and when I speak my grammar is all messed up, but his is way good so with his help I know we can start having success out here, I just have to keep helping him to speak.

So I got that other debit card you sent me, but, if it won´t last 2 years go ahead and send the other one, I don´t know how long it will take to send that, but hopefully not too long. Elder Mayle just barely got his Christmas package, it was in the mail for 2 months! Some other Elders still haven´t gotten their Christmas stuff, but those were packages, the card shouldn't take that long.

That´s awesome that stake conference went well, if Kaylea and Conner want to serve missions, best choice ever in my opinion, read the Book of Mormon EVERY day, and study Preach My Gospel. If you are familiar with those 2 books, you´ll know all you need to know to go on a mission and do very well. One of the things it talks about in Preach My Gospel is goal setting. It says unles you write out a goal and measure how you are doing to accomplish that goal regularly you will not do so well with it. So, if you set a goal right now, right it down, and then put it somewhere you can see if every day so you won´t forget what you want to do, you´ll start accomplishing that goal! And of course it works, Preach My Gospel is revelation like the Book of Mormon is, so the promises are the same. =)

Anyway, I´m happy to be on a mission, I can´t wait until I can actually speak to people and start seeing some more success out here in Krefeld.

Tschüs!

-Elder Collings

Have you ever watched "The Best Two Years"?

Hello Family!

So it's my first official P-Day in Germany. So Germany is awesome, I love the food, they have these things called Döner Kebabs which are absolutely amazing, I could probably eat them all day. The only weird thing is the stuff they drink. They hate tap water, so they have this carbonated soda water stuff, it tastes way funky and not like water so it's going to take some time to get used to it, but everyone drinks it so I don't have much of a choice haha.

I had my first split, it was a three day split, and I was with an Elder who had only been out 6 weeks, I knew him in the MTC his name is Elder Schwendiman, but both of our German is bad, so it was kind of a super rare split. We taught 5 lessons in one day in his area, and all of them went way good, then the next day we took a 2 hour train ride for an appointment, but, the person forgot and wasn't there.... so then we took another 2 hours train ride back which took up most of the day, we had another lesson that night which went super well and I got to see what it was like to actually teach and have a schedule with investigators.

On Wednesday we went back to my area in Krefeld, and since we have no investigators me and Elder Schwendiman contacted for 6 hours straight, we handed out a lot of pamphlets and some cards, but nobody really was really interested which was a shame, so me and my companion Elder Mayle still have no investigators.

I've been trying my best to speak to people so we can actually start teaching people out here, which hasn't really been a problem, I've been like the Elder from Best Two Years and talked to literally everyone, but I never know what they say back, so I just smile and keep saying stuff haha. I've committed my companion to only speak German around me so I can learn faster, and I've been trying to be an example to him and actually talk to people, because he hates to do that. He's a good Elder and he's really smart, he just isn't comfortable with contacting.

So that's basically how it has been in Germany so far, just trying to get investigators all day, and they will come I just have to have faith that my Father in Heaven will lead me to those who are ready to receive the gospel.

So all of the Holidays out here are basically just excuses for people to get drunk, and I'm not even joking, everyone out here drinks and smokes. The people can legally smoke here at the age of 16, so I see kids who look like they're as old as Conner walking down the street smoking, but anyway, we just barely found out today that they have a Holiday called Karnival, I honestly have no idea what they are celebrating, but from what I heard if you wear a tie on that day the girls out here will walk up to you, cut your tie and then kiss you. So, our mission president said that on Karnival we will be staying inside all day which means I'll be cleaning my lovely apartment.

My apartment is super duper small, we never know if we are going to have a super hot shower or a super cold shower, it's always a surprise I look forward too haha. The place is really quite gross, so we set a goal to clean it a little at a time... it will take a long time.

That's basically everything that is going on right now, hope everyone is doing good and enjoyed their Valentines day, I forgot about Valentines day, and it's not really super big out here anyway, so I didn't do much haha. Anyway, they are changing P-Day back to Mondays starting on Monday, so you'll get another E-Mail super fast!

Bis Montag!

Elder Collings

First letter from Germany

So I am in Germany now. I have my new companion, Elder Mayle, pronounced mail, and it's pretty cool here. I don't really understand the people at all, but I'm speaking a lot, so hopefully I learn fast. My comp is afraid of speaking to people, so we don't really have like any investigators right now, but, that will change, he just has to teach me how to talk ha ha. I made him set a goal to contact at least 2 people a day... he's working on it ha ha. So my P Days are still Thursdays, but they just barely made them Thursdays today, so since this is the first Thursday P Day they decided all I get to do today is write a 5 minute email, so I'll tell you about Germany more next week, and I'll read the emails you sent me ha ha, I don't have enough time to read them. Anyway, I'll write next week for sure!

Elder Collings

He made it!!

He made it! Here is a letter and picture I received today from his mission president.

Dear Brother and Sister Collings,

Sister Ninow and I wanted to let you know that your son, Elder Collings has arrived safely in the Germany Frankfurt Mission. Sister Ninow and I enjoyed spending the day with him which included some orientation to the mission and then he and the other missionaries went into the center of Frankfurt for a Street Preach where the missionaries sang hymns and did some street contacting. It was a beautiful day and there were many people for the missionaries to talk to. Elder Collings then came to the Mission Home and I was able to conduct our first interview. This is a special time for me as I can feel the love our Heavenly Father has for each of his chosen missionaries. Your son is a great young man and Sister Ninow and I are looking forward to serving with him. We will do everything that we can to help him feel the joy and success of his mission and to deepen his testimony of his Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our office will be sending a more thorough letter with information about Elder Colling's first area but we wanted to send this email to you as we remember waiting anxiously for word from our missionary sons. We hope you will experience the blessings that come with having a missionary in the field.

Kind regards,

Kevin J. Ninow

President

Germany Frankfurt Mission

UH OH!

Dear Family,

So I wrote an email, and I thought that I sent it, but I got a Dear Elder today that said you didn't get any email...so, I will write this letter instead.

So in the email, I asked what our telephone number was so I could call you at the airport, but it's Saturday now, so I wouldn't get the dear elder until Monday evening, so that won't work too well. (We didn't get a phone call today...)

So I sent you some pictures that I have taken, you're probably wondering what happened to my eye ha ha. I was playing basketball, I was guarding this Elder with the ball, and he like jumped backwards to try and shoot backwards...or something like that, he tried to explain what he was doing but it made no sense to me.

So I got a black eye, but, it wasn't that bad. I put some ice on it and figured I'd have a little shiner for a couple of days.

My companion and I went to our room after gym so I could put my glasses on since my contact fell out. After my glasses had been on for about a minute, I felt them moving...My eye started to swell so fast I could look in the mirror and watch it get bigger. By the time I left the room my eye had closed. I couldn't see out of it, and I couldn't get my glasses over it either. I went to the clinic, and they loved the thing. I spent like 30 minutes taking pictures with the nurses in the clinic and explaining what had happened. They then decided I should probably go to the ER to get it drained...so I did.

At the ER I waited another like 30 minutes for the doctor to come look at me and then another 30 for him to poke it with a needle...and drain it...and then stitch it up. He then said it would bleed for a while, so he gave me an eye patch. It ended up bleeding for an entire day, 22 hours to be exact.

So yeah, I'm going to Germany on Monday with a nasty eye, but that's okay, it's a good conversation starter, Right??

I've told you about my companion and some of the problems, but there was a pretty cool thing that happened. So we were going to the temple, and he had prayed to see what we should do. He told me he felt like we should do sealings, so that was the plan. As we started to change into our temple clothes, I had the strongest feeling like we should go through the endowment session instead, so I told him, he was quiet for a bit, but then he agreed. So we went through and did all of that cool stuff, but later that night my companion wanted to talk to me. This was his story.

So when I told him we should do a session instead of sealings, he said he felt the Spirit so strong, he said it felt like he had been punched in the heart. But, almost immediately after, he got angry, he wondered why I would be prompted to do something different than him. He said for the rest of the session he watched everything I did, and would try instantly to think of something I was doing wrong, or what I could do better, and was basically glorifying himself.

Then in the celestial room, I was praying, and he said he was watching, and then he started to pray. As he started, he said he actually heard a voice say to him, "Don't compare yourself to your companion." He said he actually heard those exact words.

He then for some reason, started to compare how we teach and stuff which was...ironic and I had to remind him to stop. But ever since then... 2 or 3 days... He has been a lot more happy and hasn't been losing his temper, so I thought it was a pretty cool story!

Anyway, I'm happy, feeling great, and I can't wait to go to Germany!

Tschus!
Elder Collings

(Grandma Wright, you probably don't want to look... Steve actually sent me a photo copy of when his eye was at its worst. I couldn't get it posted, but it looks unnatural!!! Tracy)




Right after gym.
Little bit after gym.
My eye patch (bled through it)
About 5 hours after gym (Drained)
Next Morning.
Later next day.
Everyone going to Germany... I look way creepy!

Finally, Pictures!!!

These are pictures Steve sent us, I'll write what he wrote on the back of them. The top one says, My district.


Defying gravity is a daily thing in the MTC.
Yup, I did that.
Me and Elder G.
Yup, you guessed it... New Years.
Always Drempt...if that's a word, about being a Jedi.