Giggling like a school girl

Hello Family!

It was another super awesome week in Germany! I had a pretty cool experience this week, I was on a split with another Elder from Gladbach, we were in my place of Krefeld. We basically had an entire day of contacting ahead of us, but that was fine haha. As we planned the day out the night before, I felt like we should go through this park that is about 20 minutes away from our house. When we got there the next day, there was only like 4 people in this entire huge park. We contacted this guy, he was really stressed out and had a lot of things going wrong in his life. We started to talk about the gospel and we ended up teaching him all about the plan of salvation and the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.

When we told him he could pray to know all of this was true he said, "I think you two were sent from God to help me, I don´t even know why I came, I just felt like I should." He ended up saying that if he prayed about the Book of Mormon and found out is was true, he would do everything in his power to follow the example of Jesus Christ and he would get baptized. I was like giggling like a little school girl on the inside at this point because I was so excited haha. We found out he was going back home to Greece in 2 days which was a bummer, but, he would be back in a month and he really wanted to meet with us, so.... I guess we´ll see what comes out of that haha.

Other than that this place is the same, except for my companion, he gets a little more lazy every day. He takes like an hour long shower every morning so we get out to do missionary work about 45 minutes late. He doesn´t contact anyone unless I tell him to, and even then I can tell he is not doing it with faith, he´s just doing it to do it. I honestly thought that he would slowly get better, not worse, but, I am doing everything I am supposed to do and I am trying to be an example for him so I am still happy.

I am really short on time because we have an appointment with a Bishop of another Church haha, his name is Brother Aaron, I accidently scheduled the appointment during our P-Day but that´s okay. I´ll write an extra long e-mail next time!

Conman I´m proud of you, keep reading in the Book of Mormon, Kaylea I didn´t get to see your prom pictures but I will next time, I´m sure were amazing, Jessica I still can´t believe you are having a baby haha. I hope Dad decides to take me on a "business" trip in Alaska when I get back haha.

Elder Collings

AAH!!

We found out that Jessica is having a girl. She sent Steve a picture of the ultrasound and told him the baby's name will be Avery Ann Hoskins. Jessica thought his reply was so funny, she told me I could post it.

Hello Jessica!

It´s so nice to hear from you. I honestly can´t believe I am going to be an uncle. =) By the way, when I read your daughter´s future name, I laughed. Did you know her initials are AAH!? haha I figured that´s perfect for her because you randomly scream for no reason all of the time and she´ll probably pick up that habit too. =)

That picture is way cool by the way, I can totally see her little head and her little thumb and her little nose, and I can´t believe that all of that stuff is in your belly! I want to see how big your belly is because you´ve always been so small haha.

Anyway, it´s good to hear from you!

Elder Collings

Naturally Awesome

Hello Family!

This week was pretty awesome, I was on that split with the Elder that just barely got to Germany right? We just went crazy contacting like everyone we saw, we had some good conversations, but everything always ended with people saying they are Catholic and they don´t need to do anything else in their life to be happy... Which isn´t so cool, because, it´s wrong, but, we had a way good feeling about doing some doors in a place we call Shönest Nachbarshaft which means The most beautiful neighborhood, so at like 7 in the evening we headed over there. Like nobody wanted to talk to us, but, we both knew that there was a reason we were there, so, we kept doing doors. It was getting way late and most of the lights in peoples houses were off and we weren´t really sure where to go, but we saw this one house with the lights still on, so we rang the doorbell. The guy was way super interested and we ended up teaching him all about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he invited us to come back. It was an awesome way to end the day and showed how God blesses us through Diligence!

Other than that little experience there wasn´t really much that happened.... We got to watch General Conference, we didn´t get to see the last session though because it wouldn´t start until midnight here, so I´ll have to read it later. That is naturally awesome haha. We got one of our Investigators to come and watch, she really enjoyed it, and then right after she said she liked it, she talked about Elder Bednar´s talk and said she´s pretty sure her testimony is going to come like the Sunrise, we´ll just have to try and help her Sunrise come a little faster haha.

This week I also gave myself a haircut for the first time EVER! I took some picture to show it off because I am quite proud actually. My companion did his own and he missed some spots and the hair on the back of his neck slopes hardcore because his hand twitched or something weird like that. I don´t really know how I am going to send the pictures, but, I have quite a few and I will send them eventually haha.

Anyway, I´m happy to be in Germany, and I am seeing blessings from the Lord all around me. It´s crazy to believe I have already been out for 4 months, which is like 1/6 of my mission already gone, I feel like I just got here haha. The Church is true!

Elder Collings

Golden Split

Hello Family!

This week was pretty amazing, we ended up teaching the most lessons Krefeld has seen ever haha. We taught a total of 13 lessons and we found 5 investigators which was awesome. We haven´t been able to get a hold of 4 of them, but there is this lady named Maja DerNulc who is awesome. Basically Elder Mayle had gone by her before with his last companion and she said she never wanted to see him again, but, while we were planning one of our days out, I felt like we should go by her, so we did. She let us in, and by the time we left she called us her Sons. We met with her again a couple of days later, and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She liked it a lot, and told us she wanted to teach it to her friend. So, as we left, she instantly called her friend, and now on Wednesday we will be teaching Maja, her friend, and her friend´s husband. So, i´m pretty excited to see how this all goes down.

I am currently on a "Golden Split". That means I have only been here one transfer (6 weeks) and the person I am on a split with has been here less than a week haha. My companion is at a training meeting for senior companions, so half the mission is doing splits right now. It´s pretty cool, I got to plan everything and I get to speak as much German as I want, I don´t have a fluent German to rely on, so I´m excited to see how these next 2 days work out.

I have not gotten my debit card yet, but, that´s because you sent it to the mission home, so I will be able to get it once we have zone conference next week. So, if anyone has sent me mail since I got here I haven´t received it yet haha.

It´s good to hear from all of you, and I´m glad you´re all doing well. I´m super happy to be on my mission, I´m learning and growing every day, and I never know how the Lord is going to bless me.

Elder Collings

Germany is prepared to receive the Gospel

Hello Family!

It was another wonderful week to be a missionary. We got transfer calls yesterday, and I am staying in Krefeld with my companion. We were able to double the lessons taught last transfer, and triple the lessons taught 2 transfers ago. Krefeld is definately growing, just a little bit at a time haha.

So to start off, I had a pretty cool experience that my companion is actually kinda mad about which is a shame, but, we were having a lesson with one of our investigators, this was the lady that I felt like we could totally get a baptism with. She hadn´t been praying and was reading everything except the Book of Mormon and we have taught her everything, so we really just needed her to start exercising faith to pray for an answer. So the entire lesson I felt like I needed to make her a promise, but I didn´t want to because it was a super amazing promise haha, but, it got to the point where I literally couldn´t help it, I had to. I promised her that if she would read and pray every day this week, this Sunday, so yesterday, she would recieve an answer that the Church was true. I could feel the spirit way strong, and I actually said it in perfect German which was even cooler.

It just so happens my companion did not agree however. He didn´t want to lose an investigator, so I told him after, how can he expect her to receive an answer when he doesn´t believe she can? Sunday came, and Frau Wever decided to not read or pray, at all. She of course did not get an answer to her prayer, because she didn´t pray. It was a shame, and it also turns out she lost her job and is way stressed out right now and doesn´t want to meet with us anymore. She said she will still come to Church though which is awesome. Oh, another thing, the Sunday the talks were PERFECT! They were all about getting answers to prayers and exercising faith and it was totally amazing. So, it would have been totally awesome if she had believed the promise, and gone through with it, but, I have no regrets because I know I did what the Lord wanted me to do, I can´t take away someones agency.

Other than that experience right there, things are basically the same. I am doing great and happy to be here, this place will have so much success once Elder Mayle and I are both on the same page and doing all the the Lord requires of us. My companion is kinda down right now because his best friend on the mission goes home on Wednesday, his 2 years are over. He went on a split with him on Friday, and they decided to mess around instead of going to the 2 lessons we had planned.... and now one of those people doesn´t want us to come back.... So there are things we can both improve on haha but Germany is prepared to receive the gospel.

Elder Collings

Peace Out!

Hello Family!

It was another great week in the mission field!

So this week was actually like all the other weeks, except, I took the initiative and instead of constantly badgering my companion to contact people, I went ahead and just started doing it. I shouldn´t have to remind him of his duty as a servant of the Lord, and we were missing out on opportunities to share the gospel when he decided last second he wasn´t going to speak to them because "He didn´t think they spoke German". So, I spoke to EVERYONE. We ended up finding 3 new investigators this week which is awesome, and this coming week we have almost 20 lessons planned which is 4 times our average, so we´ll see how the week goes =)

I´m so jealous you guys got to go see BYU play, my district leader is going home soon, and he is teaching someone that gives him updates on how BYU is doing, so he calls us whenever he gets some good stuff. I also can´t believe Conman got an I-Pod touch, and Kaylea wrecked the car! Well, I can believe Kaylea wrecked the car to be honest haha. It sounds like everything is going good though, and that´s awesome.

This week we get transfer calls, so my companion or I might be getting sent to a new area. If I do end up getting a new companion, I hope I have helped my companion find ways to become a better missionary like he has done for me. It´s cool to realize how 2 people can benefit one another, he obviously has helped me with my German since he is fluent in it, and he has also helped me with some teaching ideas because I´m not the best teacher haha. In fact, I´m a terrible teacher, Kaylea probably knows that best. I just know that the companion my companion had before I got here didn´t want to do anything, and my companion doesn´t like to contact, so the area was in really bad shape when I arrived. We had an entire zone conference on finding, and speaking to people, and I have done my best to be an example and explain what we need to be doing, so hopefully he chooses to make those changes, because as soon as he gets people in a lesson we got ém haha.

Anyway, I´m happy here in Germany and learning more every day... even if I don´t realize it haha. How about I share an awesome scripture I read earlier this week:

Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that love us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in the Christ Jesus our Lord.

I just thought that scripture was super awesome when I read it and felt like sharing it with you, it really puts the love of Christ in perspective. With all those things it lists, it says "...in all these things we are more than conquerors..." and isn´t that super cool?

Anyway, the church is true and Germany is awesome haha

Friede Aus! (Germans don´t say that.... but I do)

Elder Collings

Hiding from the Crazy People

Hello Family!

So I am writing today because we were in Düsseldorf hiding from all of the crazy people. So remember that holiday I think I told you about, but maybe I didn´t haha. Well, it´s called Karnival and for about 4 days everyone dresses up, and like 80% of the people in our town were drunk and ladies carry around a pair of scissors to cut ties and give the guy a kiss. So I don´t really know why they celebrate it, and most of them probably don´t either, but, this week was definitely crazy because of it.

While my companion and I were constantly trying to avoid large crowds of people we also still had the Lord´s work to do. We actually taught the most lessons taught in Krefeld for over a year which is awesome, but we also lost 3 of our 5 investigators. Two are moving to Berlin, and the other one´s husband said if we ever came back he would sue us, which was a shame because she wants to be baptized.... Our other 2 investigators have been taugt everything basically, and both are still praying for an answer about if the Church is true. Both said once they got their answer they would be baptized. So Conman, I will try my hardest to help the investigators realize the Church is true and have a desire to be baptized =) By the way, Happy Birthday tomorrow haha, and how dare you not tell me what you are getting.

So other than all of that crazy stuff, I had a pretty cool experience with President Ninnow, our mission President. He was doing interviews for our district, and he always pauses for like 2 minutes at the end of an interview and says "Give me a minute, I just want to think about you for a second" He always does that and then says something super profound and awesome, we have a "President Ninnow quote book" haha. But this time he looked at me and said,"Elder Collings, you are a great missionary, you know what you need to be doing and you're doing it. Keep that up. The Lord has big plans for you, and you are going to be an amazing missionary." Needless to say, that made me feel quite happy inside haha. I would have loved to have heard a way to help my German get better faster, but the Lord is constantly blessing me with the gift of tongues, so I can´t complain.

Anyway, life is good, and I´m happy!

Tschüs!

Elder Collings