November 26, 2012

Hello Family!

    So, I´m in the new Distrikt now, and I´m pretty excited.  We are already up to a super great start.  I got there Thursday evening, and Elder M and his old companion had had a rough week.  They had only taught 2 lessons.  We worked way hard the last couple of days of the week, and we found 4 new investigators, taught 8 lessons and even set up about 10 lessons for this coming week.  We were so blessed, we turned this place around in just 3 days haha.  There is a family that has been taught for the last year or so, the husband was baptized a year ago, and the wife and 4 kids haven´t cared too much about the Church.  Apparently the last couple of weeks, the family has really started making progress.  The wife and her daughter came to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it, they stayed for all 3 hours.  We should be meeting with them a couple of times this week, we´ll see if we can get them baptized before I leave =)

    The Distrikt is really cool, there are a lot of young Elders.  One of them is Elder G, as I was in Düsseldorf, he was in the Stake and came to institute every week, so I had gotten to know him way good, in the picture, he´s the guy that has his arm around me and looks a little creepy.  It was just a bad picture though haha, he´s a way awesome guy.  All of the Elders seem excited to work and get stuff done, they just don´t really know how.  Most of them don´t have any investigators.  One companionship doesn´t really want to do anything, and they apparently stay inside most of the time.  I tried to make a split with them, and they said they didn´t want to.  So.... we´ll probably have to be the mean guys and surprise them at the door for a split (they´re serving in my old area of Würzburg so I know that place good haha)  So there are a few problems, but not too many.

    I´m doing way good actually, I´m like super bummed to leave Düsseldorf still, but I have a lot of stuff to do here in Bamberg.  I will basically never be home, President has asked me to work a lot with the other Missionaries, so I am actually going to be on splits 4 of the days of the week, and then the other 3 days I am working here in Bamberg.  Hopefully we can help the others see some sweet success too! 

    Anyway, everything is going super duper, I´m happy and excited!  Thanks for everything that you do!

Elder Collings

November 19, 2012

 I got transfered =(  haha.  Sadly, it happened, but.... it happens haha.  I´m going down to Bamberg, that´s over by where Tera lives.  President said he had a special assignment for my last transfer, it will be tough haha.  So, President said it has become "cool" to be trunky in this District.  Trunky basically means they are unmotivated and distracted.  So, President combined 2 Districts and another Area into one super huge district.  So, my district has Bamberg, Schweinfurt, Coburg, Würzburg and Bayreuth.  President said I should have a lot of travel time, and I should help the missionaries to get focused again.  It will be fun.

    I´m basically super sad to be leaving, we had a super week to end the transfer.  We taught 16 lessons, found 6 new people, and had 6 people come to church.  It was hard giving my testimony on Sunday, I just had so many feelings come up haha, it was more emotional than my farewell... I didn´t really feel anything then haha.  But anyway, that´s just kinda how it is haha.

    So the place I´m going to isn´t nearly as big as Düsseldorf, so, I´m going to take out some money and buy a nice suit, mine are 100% destroyed.  It will actually be cheap compared to America, less than $ 200 but, if that´s okay, I´m going to do it while I have some stores to do it.  Things are going super, thanks for everything!

Elder Collings

November 12, 2012

Hey Family!

    I´m doing super good!  This week we were basically all over the place, but, we had a great week.  We ended it off even better, we found a Romanian Family of 10!  We´re bringing all of them to the Church this evening.  So, this is the last week of the Transfer, we get the Transfer Calls on Saturday.  If I stay, that means Düsseldorf is my last area, (I really hope I stay) I only have one more transfer to go.  This Ward is just so awesome, we got a call from one of the members Friday morning, she asked where our address was, and she came and gave us 3 bags full of food!  There wasn´t any special reason, she just decided to do it.  We also got invited by a couple of other members to come and teach their friends, and on Sunday, we taught one of the friends of a member.  Isn´t that just awesome?

    So, we have been praying for this lady named Heidi S for the last 2 weeks, we fasted for her too.  The member has been talking a lot with her about the Gospel, and she said that she would come to church that day.  The member said her friend is really shy, and really closed up with her feelings.  She wanted us to all pray way hard that her friend would feel the Spirit.  The friend came for all 3 hours, and every topic that was spoken about was just perfect for her.  Everything was about learning to follow the Spirit, or how to feel the Spirit, or preparing ourselves so that we can feel the Spirit.  When we met with her after the meetings, she said that she loved everything, and even believed it was all true.  We taught her about the Restoration, and what that meant, and then we sang her the song, Oh how lovely was the Morning.  Afterward, this lady asked us if we would give her a blessing to help her find God, and know what to do.  She asked me to give her a blessing, and when it was done, she just sat there and said, she felt wonderful.  She said she felt super good and peaceful.  After that, the other member (Not the friend, the guy we brought along) said that he had been going through some health problems the last while, and asked us to give him a blessing of the sick.  So, this lady got a blessing of comfort and counsel, and she also saw a blessing of the sick.  It was basically a super lesson =)  

    So, things are going super awesome, I get to say goodbye to my MTC group this week, they are all leaving me =(  But I´m super excited for this coming week!  Thanks for everything.

Elder Collings

November 5, 2012

  Hey Family!
        So, I kinda gotta keep this like super duper short, only have about 10 minutes!  Anyway, we had a super week and got to visit most of the Distrikt Meetings in the Zone.  I was way super impressed with how amazing the Missionaries of this zone are.  They are doing their best and helping so many people.  We had a super amazing day at Church.  The Ward was in a way super good mood, and there was a constant flow of people to give their testimonies.  After the meeting, our Bishop asked if he could meet with us really quick.  We met with him, and he gave us 10 names of inactive members he wants us to start working with.  We´ve been asking for that stuff since I got here, and we finally got it! 
    I´m doing like super great, and I get to go back to Frankfurt this week, and to Aachen, and to Köln.  I´ll be going everywhere again, so this will basically fly by like all of the others haha.  Thanks for everything you do for me!
Elder Collings