April 30 back to work!

Man, this week was awesome haha.  So, I was with Elder C until Thursday, and Elder K stayed with us a couple of days (His name in German means Cancer)  They were both going home.  We didn´t really get to get out and do much work or anything because Elder C still had a TON of stuff to pack and we had to do some other things to prepare him to go home.  But the last 2 days were way awesome because Elder K only speaks German, he is from Switzerland.  It got me used to only speaking German again, so, now with my new companion we are only speaking German again haha.  On transfer day, the Office bought the wrong tickets for some of the Elders, so when I sent Elder C and Elder K away on a train, I ended up alone for a couple of hours haha.  It was funny to think about, before my mission I wouldn´t care or anything, but, I´ve been out for over a year and always had someone right next to me, it was way super weird being alone for a couple of hours haha.

    Now I am serving with Elder Ho, I put a picture up there for ya, he´s the one in the apron.  He´s way awesome, I knew him in the MTC.  He just barely finished training, and Elder Ha, the Elder I just trained is actually going up to serve with his old companion, so my Son is serving with his Son, and the Dads come together haha.  Elder Ho is way awesome, he´s a solid worker and great at basically everything, it´ll be fun to serve with him.

   This week we had a street preach.  A bunch of Elders and Sisters and some members got together in a town called Wuppertal to sing, play some music and talk to people on the street.  About 10 minutes into it, some police came up to us and told us we weren´t allowed to do that because it was disturbing people in the City-Hall.... The City-Hall isn´t open on Saturday and there was a band right next to us being like 5X as loud... but, whatever.  It was awesome to finally get to work way hard, the last couple of weeks I haven´t had so much time to work.  We also got a random call right before that, my 1st zone leader, Elder A, called up.  He is in a group that studies around Europe from BYU.  He was visiting Düsseldorf for the weekend, so he came to the Street Preach.  He is also the one that trained my Trainer, so technically I am  his Grandson.  We actually went up and talked to people on the street together, it was cool because last time I couldn´t say a word haha. 

    Now that we can finally get out and do lots of work, its been awesome to see the miracles again haha.  On Saturday, we ended up making 7 lessons out for this coming week, and we found a family of 8 from Macedonia.  We taught the family yesterday and we get to meet with them again today.  No idea how old the mom and dad are, but their kids are 17,15,13,11, 9 and 2. They are way awesome, and they like basketball, so I´m going to bring them to the Church and play some ball with them all =)  

    The work is going great and I´m having a blast!  So mother´s day is in 2 weeks!  Guess we should start planning everything right now then.  If you call at 11.00 your time then that would be great, my address is:

Elder

Karl-Anton Str.18

40211 Düsseldorf

Germany

    Thanks for everything, you´re all awesome!

Elder Collings

April 16th and 23rd

April 16th

 

Wow, this was probably the slowest week on my mission haha.  Elder C was sick the WHOLE week.  He threw up a TON and was basically just feeling terrible the whole week.  He lost all appetite and ended up only eating 1.5 bananas and half a yogurt and a couple of mouthfulls of food in 4 days.  He has lost 15 pounds, but, now he is doing better =)  I can´t really say anything happened last week haha, I just read, ate and worked out all day every day, not much else I could have done.  This is Elder C´s very last week in Germany, luckily he is feeling much better, we´ll be getting some calls this week to find out who I will be working with this next transfer. 

    I don´t know if I told you how this area was when I came in, but, it was basically as dead as every other area I have been moved into, this last week we weren´t able to teach anyone because of the sickness, but, last night we made a ton of calls to get this last week going good.  We are expecting more than 20 lessons =) it was a way big change in just 5 weeks.

    Anyway, I´m doing great, thanks for everything, I´ll get ya some sweet pictures next week!

Elder Collings

 

 

 

 April 23rd

Hey Family!

    This week was pretty awesome.  It was actually pretty weird haha.  Elder C leaves this week, so he has been packing, doing paper work, and saying goodbye to all of the members and people he has met.  So this last week we met with TONS of people.  We also had a couple of awesome miracles.  There have actually been 2 people baptized the last 2 weeks by the sisters in this ward, and one of the ladies that was baptized loves doing missionary work.  She asked if she could go out and do doors with the sisters.  She can´t speak any German, but she really wanted to do her best to tell people about the gospel.  They sat on a train and some guy apparently smiled at them.  This girl looked at the sisters and said, "He smiled over at us.... I´m going to give him a card"  so she just walked over and tried to say something in German and give him a card, he actually spoke English and gave them his number haha.  So he came to the baptism on Saturday and we got to meet him.  He is like 6 foot 4, like 220 pounds, and it´s like solid muscle haha.  He worked for the special forces in Egypt for a long time.  He is way open and told us he knows Christianity is the truth (He was born and raised Muslim)  He liked the baptism, came to Church the next day, and wants to learn more.  Our Mission President came to  our ward and talked to him.  A is way nice and said he would love to help with anything possible, apparently he has a bunch of connections, so people can travel easily to Egypt and stuff.  President Schwartz asked him what talents he had to see how he could help out, A said, "Well..... I don´t think you need anyone killed, but, I can do that"  He laughed a bunch, but.... I believe it haha.  So, we´ll be meeting with him Tuesday, I´m excited =)

    We also had a great lesson right before the Baptism with Herr F.  We found him a little while  ago and haven´t met with him too much.  But we taught him about prayer and scripture study and it was an AMAZING lesson.  At the end he offered a kneeling prayer and in his prayer he told God that he thinks he has found the right path for his life.  Then at Church our members were super awesome and nice and talked to both of them for about an hour after all of the meetings.  I´m way excited =)  We have been seeing a lot of cool miracles, we had a random guy come up to us and basically say he loved coming to church 5 years ago and now wants to learn more, but now he´s married with a kid.  So, good things will be happening in Düsseldorf =)

    I am doing great, I´ve only been working in Düsseldorf 5 weeks, and one week was spent in the house haha, but I´m excited to take it over.  My new companion is also a new Zone Leader, it will be his first transfer as a zone leader.  I actually already know him from the MTC, he is VERY quiet, but a spiritual giant.  It will be fun to work with him.  Things are going great and I´m having a blast.

    Thanks for everything you do!
Elder Collings

April 10th FINALLY!

Hey Family!

    Wow, it was a crazy week.  We basically were way busy every day, until Saturday came around.  We had a split last Monday, were in Frankfurt on Tuesday and Wednesday, another Split Thursday and another split Friday.  To make it even more crazy, none of the travel plans really worked out well, so the earliest we got to bed was around midnight, and we  had to wake up around 5 every day.  It was super crazy, and it had its toll, Elder C got sick =(  He has been sick since Saturday.  They say he has a virus and could be out of it until Friday.  The doctor said to take it easy and don´t leave the house for more than an hour.  So, he has been sleeping, throwing up, etc. all day, and I have just been trying to keep myself busy.  But, things are good haha.  I don´t really know what I will do the rest of the week..... But, I´ll figure it out. 

    Although we were really busy the whole week, we were still blessed with much success.  We found 4 more people to teach and got some of the other areas really excited.  We actually even got interviewed by these 2 guys in Iran who have a youtube channel haha.  Anyway, I am doing great, hopefully I don´t get sick.  Gotta go now before Elder C throws up!

 

Love ya lots!

Elder Collings

April 2, 2012

Hey family!

    Wow the weeks fly by.  I was only in Düsseldorf for 3 days of the week because there are currently a lot of problems in the zone and we get to go and meet with missionaries and encourage them.  It is so crazy, even though we are always gone doing something, the Lord still blesses us with success and new people to teach!  We are still having tons of success and seeing lots of miracles.

    This week will be amazing, so we just had General Conference, then today we work with the Assistants for the Day, tomorrow we drive down to Frankfurt to go through the temple (about 3 hours away)  Then we spend the night in Frankfurt (Maybe Offenbach) and then all day Wednesday we have a meeting to with President to talk about the zone and our plans, then we get back Thursday night and go on a split with some Elders, and then Friday night we go on one more, and then we have time Saturday and Sunday to work =)  Lots of work! 

    Elder C only has 3 weeks left on his mission, he is doing very well, but, he has a lot of anxiety so the last couple of days he has woken up really sick.  He´s a trooper and working way hard, mornings are just tough and Mondays are way rough because of all the contact with family and what not.  He's doing great though!

    So, I´d love to write that letter for Dad, I´ll be on the computer again on Friday doing some  graphs and stuff, if you want it done this week let me know by then and I can write in on Friday, if I have time, I´ll write it next Monday, but, right now we get to go and move all of the furniture and paint the apartment and kill all of the mold in the bathroom (this place has sent about 6 Elders home in the last year.... it´s pretty thrashed).

    I´m doing great, thanks for your love and support
Elder Collings