Feb 27th

Hey Family!
    We basically tore it up this week and had lots of success and
stuff =)  Actually there really was a lot that happened this week that
was both super awesome and also kinda bad haha.  I´m not sure if I
told you about Herr P, but, he is a Buddhist but, he wants to
be Christian.  He likes the teachings of Jesus but he doesn´t like the
evil in Christianity, so he says he´s budhist and teaches from the
Bible... kinda weird.  But we had a super awesome lesson on Thursday,
Herr P had read through Jacob (2 weeks) and marked like every
page with tons of notes and it was basically just awesome.  We taught
him the second lesson with a member who taught way deeper than
necessary (He told all about the spirit world being here on earth and
the World becoming a Urim and Thummin in the last days and sons of
perdition and the three grades of glory in the celestrial kingdom...
and more haha) but, at the end Herr P said that everything he
has learned from us goes right in line with what he has studied
personally.  He said he has met with Jehovas Witness, Catholics,
Baptists, Protestant, Muslim, and Jew, and all of their faiths go
against them in some way, or contradict.  But, he couldn´t find
anything like that for us =)  So, we invited him to Baptism and he
said he would like to pray about it first.  Then, some members invited
him to breakfast on Saturday.  One of the members had a grudge on him
(His first week in Church Herr P made a comment that Jesus
was no God, that was before he had ever met with us or learned what we
beleive) This member was still mad about that even though it wasn´t a
problem anymore and started arguing with him about basically nothing
other than he didn´t like him.  So.... Now Herr P doesn´t want
to come to Church because of this member.... so, that wasn´t that
good, but, we´ve got repentence for that =)
    Other than that, we´ve basically been working our tails off trying to
get some baptisms for this ward we´ve been here 6 months, that´s way
super long, and we´d like a couple of new members =) I got those
packages by the way, do you know how long it´s been since I had
Flaming hot Cheetos?  That was so awesome, thanks a ton!  The cool
slipper things are awesome too, thanks a ton!  And that pooping deer
thing was awesome too haha.
    Now... I kinda have a confession... so you remember that camera I
just bought and I was super happy and taking lots of pictures...?
well, I haven´t been sending pictures because it got stolen a couple
of weeks ago...  We put up fliers and everything, but, the only thing
that we got back was a note that said," Viel Glück"  that means "Good
Luck".  So, here's what happened....It wasn´t even anything cool, like, there
was no knife or gun involved, it was just dumb.  Elder H and I were
15 minutes early to an appointment, so we decided to prepare a little
for the lesson, we took out all of our stuff and set it on a table by
us.  We both had our Book of Mormons out, and then this guy came in,
so we decided to talk to him, it had been like 20 minutes and then we
noticed we were late, so we ran upstairs to get to our lesson, and
then we realized we didn´t have any of our stuff with us, so we ran
back down stairs and everything was gone.  So basically all I can say
is poop, that was dumb, so now ya know, (I´ll refrain from using a
smiling face at the end of that sentence and put one here instead =) )
  So things are super awesome!  That´s so cool that you´re working and
stuff, I can´t think of anything funner than giving people shots in
their eyes, maybe tattoos, but I´d have to try it first to let ya
know.  Thanks for everything you do for me, you´re all awesome!
 
Elder Collings

February 20th

Hello Family!
    This week was super awesome, I actually wasn´t in Offenbach much
at all because I had to do a bunch of splits this week, but, it was so
awesome to have the opportunity to work with the other Elders.  We
have these 2 Elders in our District serving in Hanau, they have really
been struggling to get anything going, theý haven´t heard from their
only investigator in about 3 weeks.  I got to go there on a split, and
it was just super crazy how much success we had; we ended up getting 4
people's numbers, making out a bunch of lessons, and giving out a ton of
Book of Mormons.  It got that other Elder way excited, and now they
have a little more to work with!  Then, on another split, we went by a
member and had them write their testimony in the Book of Mormon so we
could find somebody super legit and give it away.  Like 10 minutes
after we got the Book of Mormon, we talked to this girl by the train
station and she had tons of interest, we gave her the Book of Mormon,
sat down and taught her a lesson, and made out another appointment with
her.  She isn't Christian but, she said that she feels like she has
been missing something in her life, so she has studied tons of
religion to figure it out, she said she already owns 3 Bibles.  And
then here in Offenbach we also found 5 new people to teach, 3 Romanian
Brothers and then a German Family.  The Romanians can´t seem to find a
difference between their religion and our religion..... They know the
Book of Mormon is different, but, other than that, they can´t seem to
put it together that our religions are different.  Another friend came
in during a lesson and asked what we believed, then the Romanian said
it was exactly the same as what he believed just with another name.
So..... we need to get over that, but, they are all super legit.
    We had the opportunity to meet with the Branch President this
week, he is very excited for the missionary work, for the ward mission
plan we set the goal for 12 baptisms, the rest of the ward council
looked at him like that was way too high (last year Pepper was the
only baptism) and then he said if the ward really worked their
hardest, we would get way more than that.   He is really excited and
supportive in everything that we do, it is such a difference from when
I first got here. I remember when I first got here we couldn´t get him
to come to lessons and I didn´t get to sit down and meet with him
until I had already been out here for a little over a month.
    Basically things are going good and should keep getting better.
Thanks for everything, you´re all awesome!
Elder Collings

February 13

Hello Family!
    It was basically another super awesome week like usual.  We´ve
been having tons of success, but, it has been hard to get people to
come to church.  So, we kinda thought about the last couple of people
that came to Church and realized our ward wasn´t very welcoming... at
all haha.  Basically nobody talked to him.  So, we decided we ought to
work with the Ward a little bit.  It must have payed off because we
had 5 people come to church.  Our branch president was way happy and
called up our mission president haha.  It was pretty awesome.
    If I were to describe this week any other way, it would be cold.
My shoes have holes in them, so, I wore 4 pairs of socks to keep my
toes from freezing haha. =)  It has been getting as low as -20 C, I
have no idea what that is in F, but... I know it was cold.  It was
cool that although it was cold and basically nobody wanted to be
outside, we were still able to see success and have a good time.
    I haven´t gotten any packages yet, but, that is only because I
haven´t been to the mission office the last 3 months.  The only time I
ever get mail at all is when we go to the mission office. So, I´m sure
they´re there waiting for me, and I´m  sure they are super awesome =)
    Thanks for everything you do and all your support!
Elder Collings

February 6, 2012

Hello Family!
It was another wonderful week, Elder H and I are still going to
be working with each other for the next 6 weeks in Offenbach. Things
are going great, we are working hard and finding lots of people. The
only weird thing is that with these new people we are finding, we can
only meet MAYBE once a week, so, although we have a ton of people,
they don´t make a ton of progress because it takes forever for them to
learn everything. But, at least we are teaching a lot of people =)
Don´t really know what we can do to get people have more time.... but,
we´ll find a way =)
Other than that, this week was the same stuff, we talked to
hundreds of people, we taught people, we gave out Books of Mormon, we
went to church, we studied, we ate, we slept, and then we talked to
some more people haha. That´s basically how every day goes =) And, I
don´t really know what else to tell ya haha.
Thanks for everything you do, you´re all super awesome!
Elder Collings