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