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