Liebe Familie Collings!
Hi! I'm Elder Mayle, Elder Collings' first companion in the field. I thought I'd write you a letter to let you know how he's doing.
I LOVED working with your son. He is a fantastic missionary, and I'm excited to see how he grows spiritually through his mission (since I'm not much older than him on my mission). He's a really funny guy, and a very hard worker. He was on fire the entire time I was with him. He loves street contacting more than anyone else I've met on the mission. He almost loves it more than he loves Doner. I hope he told you about Doner. And even though he struggled with the language at the beginning, he was fantastic at bearing his testimony at the right time. He always spoke from the heart, and I can tell that he loves Christ and is prepared to serve him for the next year and a half.
In my three months with Elder Collings, I learned a lot, and he claims he's learned a lot from me. I did what I could to be a good example, and rest assured that your son/ brother has been an example to me. I'm training another missionary this transfer, and I'm planning on becoming an even better missionary and applying what I have learned from my former companion.
I know that this Gospel is true, and that only through faith in Christ, repentance, and partaking of the sacrament, and keeping our covenants can we return to live with our Heavenly Father and Brother.
Elder Mayle
Scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 58:2-4
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
In the news
Hello Family!
It was another fun week in Germany! Thanks for the package, we ate everything in like.... 10 minutes haha, and I´m glad I can cut my own hair again, haircuts here are way expensive! It was also cool to see Tera, I
haven´t seen her in like forever. She came at the same time mail normally comes, so I just thought it was going to be another normal guy, when I saw Tera was there I was surprised!
That´s cool that you guys are traveling all over Europe now that I left the house haha. What parts of Germany have you visited? You said it was way beautiful, so you must have not gone up in my first area. Every city up there was pretty run down and gross haha. I think my favorite town I have seen so far is Würzberg, it´s not a huge town, but it´s got like 5 huge churches and a castle and a river and it looks like something you would see out of an old movie, it´s way awesome.
Last week was pretty crazy, we dropped 5 investigators because they were not progressing, and one of our investigators decided he liked his Girlfriend more than the gospel, and she said he can´t meet with us, so we lost him, and he was willing to be baptized as soon as he got an answer that this church was true. We also had another guy that would´t accept that the Book of Mormon was scripture. Last week we had like a way awesome lesson with him, talking about Jesus Christ, we used the Bible and the Book of Mormon. This guy felt the spirit way strong and ended up giving like a 10 minute closing prayer for us. But, the next time we met with him, as soon as we brought out the Book of Mormon he freaked out and said he wouldn´t accept it as scripture. We reminded him what he felt last time and that we had used it, but he denied it, he said we only used the Bible because the Bible is the only true word of God.... So, our teaching pool is now quite small. That´s okay though, because now we have more time to find the people that the Lord has prepared to receive the gospel =)
This week could end up being my last week in Coburg, I hope it´s not, but, it could be, transfer calls come on Saturday. The ward here is way awesome. The entire ward has a goal (Each person individually) to bring someone with them to Church, member, or nonmember, every Sunday for the rest of this month. Everyone fasted for it last Sunday, and, two of the families brought people to Church the very first Sunday. It was cool because one of the Families is like brand new to the Church. The Mom was baptized 4 months ago, the son about 9 and the daughter almost 2 years. They brought 2 people with them, and then our Branch President brought someone with them. Hopefully they got the rest of the ward motivated! Elder Johnson and I are meeting with every member in the Ward this month (If we both stay) to help them with this goal.
Anyway, everything is going good, and I am happy. Enjoy the rest of your vacation!
Elder Collings
I had the opportunity to participate in a Mormon Helping Hands service project. Here is the Newspaper Article, I don´t think you´ll understand much of it, but it says Elder Collings, and you can understand that haha.
(Steve is in a red shirt and is in two pictures below.)
It was another fun week in Germany! Thanks for the package, we ate everything in like.... 10 minutes haha, and I´m glad I can cut my own hair again, haircuts here are way expensive! It was also cool to see Tera, I
haven´t seen her in like forever. She came at the same time mail normally comes, so I just thought it was going to be another normal guy, when I saw Tera was there I was surprised!
That´s cool that you guys are traveling all over Europe now that I left the house haha. What parts of Germany have you visited? You said it was way beautiful, so you must have not gone up in my first area. Every city up there was pretty run down and gross haha. I think my favorite town I have seen so far is Würzberg, it´s not a huge town, but it´s got like 5 huge churches and a castle and a river and it looks like something you would see out of an old movie, it´s way awesome.
Last week was pretty crazy, we dropped 5 investigators because they were not progressing, and one of our investigators decided he liked his Girlfriend more than the gospel, and she said he can´t meet with us, so we lost him, and he was willing to be baptized as soon as he got an answer that this church was true. We also had another guy that would´t accept that the Book of Mormon was scripture. Last week we had like a way awesome lesson with him, talking about Jesus Christ, we used the Bible and the Book of Mormon. This guy felt the spirit way strong and ended up giving like a 10 minute closing prayer for us. But, the next time we met with him, as soon as we brought out the Book of Mormon he freaked out and said he wouldn´t accept it as scripture. We reminded him what he felt last time and that we had used it, but he denied it, he said we only used the Bible because the Bible is the only true word of God.... So, our teaching pool is now quite small. That´s okay though, because now we have more time to find the people that the Lord has prepared to receive the gospel =)
This week could end up being my last week in Coburg, I hope it´s not, but, it could be, transfer calls come on Saturday. The ward here is way awesome. The entire ward has a goal (Each person individually) to bring someone with them to Church, member, or nonmember, every Sunday for the rest of this month. Everyone fasted for it last Sunday, and, two of the families brought people to Church the very first Sunday. It was cool because one of the Families is like brand new to the Church. The Mom was baptized 4 months ago, the son about 9 and the daughter almost 2 years. They brought 2 people with them, and then our Branch President brought someone with them. Hopefully they got the rest of the ward motivated! Elder Johnson and I are meeting with every member in the Ward this month (If we both stay) to help them with this goal.
Anyway, everything is going good, and I am happy. Enjoy the rest of your vacation!
Elder Collings
I had the opportunity to participate in a Mormon Helping Hands service project. Here is the Newspaper Article, I don´t think you´ll understand much of it, but it says Elder Collings, and you can understand that haha.
(Steve is in a red shirt and is in two pictures below.)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Until next week!
Hello Family!
So, I know one of the missionaries serving in Tera´s ward, his name is Elder Schwendiman and I was actually in the MTC with him, and he was my first split in Germany. There is only one Church in between Coburg and Tera´s ward, but there are no missionaries there. Apparantly there is some apostate stuff that goes on there, so missionaries visit once a month or something like that. I honestly don´t have any Idea what´s going on down there, but, the missionaries don´t go there.
This week I had the opportunity to serve from Monday-Thursday with Elder Siebert. My companion was at a leadership training for the week, so I was in Würzburg for most of the week. Elder Siebert was born here in Germany, and doesn´t really speak any English, so it was fun. His area is pretty rough right now, they don´t really have any investigators so it was contacting all day. Würzberg is actually way awesome, I think over half of the people we talked to were Tourists, which kinda made things hard haha. There´s a whole bunch of awesome buildings in this town, and it is just super awesome, I can´t really explain it, you´ll just have to go and check it out! The coolest thing about serving with Elder Siebert was that he could actually understand my German haha. I could understand most of what he said too, so I was quite happy with the progress I have made in about 6 months =)
The rest of my week was of course back in Coburg. We had 15 appointments made out in the little time that we had, but 8 of them fell through, 3 of them yesterday. it would have been so cool if all of them went through, but, they didn´t, so that´s that haha. We actually met with this guy yesterday named G2, he has a real name but apparantly it is way super hard to say, so he tells us to just say G2. This kid is so super busy, he is 22 and going to school out here. When we went in his appartment he had piles of paper all over the place and he said he hadn´t slept like at all the last month. I don´t really know how to explain it, but, you could just tell he hadn´t slept and he was freaking out about tests and stuff, he was like... wired, he was super jumpy and he would repeat stuff like 50 times, it was kinda crazy. But, the wierdest thing was when we talked to him about prayer, we found out he has a "God" in his room. He is Hindu, and his "God" that his Mother gave him is a little porcelien frog that sits on a towel on his shelf... Apparently every now and then, when he feels like it, he prays to his "God"... "But not a lot because I am super busy with school and I don´t have the time to pray to God or anything, but that is my God and when I pray he is the one that I pray to and my Mother gave it to be but I don´t really pray to it much because I don´t pray man, I don´t pray." We heard that like 50 times. It´s weird how some people choose to worship something they created.
Other than that, we saw a couple of random, cool miracles this week. The coolest one was we were on a train coming back from Grub Am Forst going to Coburg, this guy comes into our Cart and says, "Come with me." We followed him, then like 2 carts later he said "I´m American" that was nice to know, but I still had no clue what the heck was going on. Then a couple of carts later he said "I´m a member." We sat down by him and his wife, apparently he had served in Coburg 4 years before, and he was coming back to visit because Coburg was his favorite place. We talked about a lot of random stuff, and then we left to go do some work. So later that evening we had an appointment at our Church. When we got there, this couple was there. Apparantly the Hotel they were going to use doesn´t exist anymore, and Hotels are not too common in Germany, so they remembered we said we had an appointment at 8:00 at the Church, so they had been waiting there for us so they could use the computer.
They used the computer and were able to find a place to sleep, but as Elder Johnson and I thought about it, they were way blessed to have seen us so that they would know when to go to the Church and find a place to sleep. Earlier that day, we were in Bad Staffelstein, and we had like 6 minutes before our Train left to Grub Am Forst, we were going to just stay, but, we randomly decided to run and catch the train. We ran as fast as we could, and it was not fun, I´ll tell you that haha, but, we barely made our train. And then, the couple was way lucky that they saw us when the train went by because we were back in a small corner checking out other train times for stuff. So we decided they must be living right... otherwise they would have had to sleep in a park or something like that because there are like no hotels out here.
Anyway, the work is going good out here, I´m having fun and enjoying it out here. I actually have a talk in Church on the 12th, so that will be fun haha.
Bis nächste woche!
Elder Collings
So, I know one of the missionaries serving in Tera´s ward, his name is Elder Schwendiman and I was actually in the MTC with him, and he was my first split in Germany. There is only one Church in between Coburg and Tera´s ward, but there are no missionaries there. Apparantly there is some apostate stuff that goes on there, so missionaries visit once a month or something like that. I honestly don´t have any Idea what´s going on down there, but, the missionaries don´t go there.
This week I had the opportunity to serve from Monday-Thursday with Elder Siebert. My companion was at a leadership training for the week, so I was in Würzburg for most of the week. Elder Siebert was born here in Germany, and doesn´t really speak any English, so it was fun. His area is pretty rough right now, they don´t really have any investigators so it was contacting all day. Würzberg is actually way awesome, I think over half of the people we talked to were Tourists, which kinda made things hard haha. There´s a whole bunch of awesome buildings in this town, and it is just super awesome, I can´t really explain it, you´ll just have to go and check it out! The coolest thing about serving with Elder Siebert was that he could actually understand my German haha. I could understand most of what he said too, so I was quite happy with the progress I have made in about 6 months =)
The rest of my week was of course back in Coburg. We had 15 appointments made out in the little time that we had, but 8 of them fell through, 3 of them yesterday. it would have been so cool if all of them went through, but, they didn´t, so that´s that haha. We actually met with this guy yesterday named G2, he has a real name but apparantly it is way super hard to say, so he tells us to just say G2. This kid is so super busy, he is 22 and going to school out here. When we went in his appartment he had piles of paper all over the place and he said he hadn´t slept like at all the last month. I don´t really know how to explain it, but, you could just tell he hadn´t slept and he was freaking out about tests and stuff, he was like... wired, he was super jumpy and he would repeat stuff like 50 times, it was kinda crazy. But, the wierdest thing was when we talked to him about prayer, we found out he has a "God" in his room. He is Hindu, and his "God" that his Mother gave him is a little porcelien frog that sits on a towel on his shelf... Apparently every now and then, when he feels like it, he prays to his "God"... "But not a lot because I am super busy with school and I don´t have the time to pray to God or anything, but that is my God and when I pray he is the one that I pray to and my Mother gave it to be but I don´t really pray to it much because I don´t pray man, I don´t pray." We heard that like 50 times. It´s weird how some people choose to worship something they created.
Other than that, we saw a couple of random, cool miracles this week. The coolest one was we were on a train coming back from Grub Am Forst going to Coburg, this guy comes into our Cart and says, "Come with me." We followed him, then like 2 carts later he said "I´m American" that was nice to know, but I still had no clue what the heck was going on. Then a couple of carts later he said "I´m a member." We sat down by him and his wife, apparently he had served in Coburg 4 years before, and he was coming back to visit because Coburg was his favorite place. We talked about a lot of random stuff, and then we left to go do some work. So later that evening we had an appointment at our Church. When we got there, this couple was there. Apparantly the Hotel they were going to use doesn´t exist anymore, and Hotels are not too common in Germany, so they remembered we said we had an appointment at 8:00 at the Church, so they had been waiting there for us so they could use the computer.
They used the computer and were able to find a place to sleep, but as Elder Johnson and I thought about it, they were way blessed to have seen us so that they would know when to go to the Church and find a place to sleep. Earlier that day, we were in Bad Staffelstein, and we had like 6 minutes before our Train left to Grub Am Forst, we were going to just stay, but, we randomly decided to run and catch the train. We ran as fast as we could, and it was not fun, I´ll tell you that haha, but, we barely made our train. And then, the couple was way lucky that they saw us when the train went by because we were back in a small corner checking out other train times for stuff. So we decided they must be living right... otherwise they would have had to sleep in a park or something like that because there are like no hotels out here.
Anyway, the work is going good out here, I´m having fun and enjoying it out here. I actually have a talk in Church on the 12th, so that will be fun haha.
Bis nächste woche!
Elder Collings
Monday, May 23, 2011
Fun Picture
A friend of mine here in our ward in Grantsville is from England. Her parents traveled from their home in England to Germany, and found out that Steve was from Grantsville too. He recognized them, because they have come to visit a few times. Anyway, they sent us our first picture of Steve since his arrival in Germany. It truly is a small world.
Awesome Week...like all of the others.
Hello Family!
This week was awesome just like all of the others ha ha. We met with one of our Investigators, Victor, he is about 22 years old, 6´4" has a huge mo-hawk which makes him look like he´s over 7´ tall, he has like 20 piercings in each ear, which he did himself, with safety pins, and he wears huge leather boots and chains and he´s basically got the whole punk rocker thing going on. We were surprised to see that in 2 weeks he had read half of the Book of Mormon and he had also prayed for the first time and said he felt real peaceful. We ended up a soft baptismal commitment out of him, he said that if he got an answer about the Book of Mormon, he would be baptized.
We then met with another guy named Paul Bell. He has been meeting with the missionaries for years and never made any progress. He was in the Army and just decided to stay here in Germany because he likes it... sometimes. The previous week we had given him a reading calendar for the Book of Mormon, when we met with him he was actually like 5 days ahead of what we had committed him to read. He said that the Book of Mormon is so interesting that when he reads it he can´t put it down, he wants to read more and more. He then told us some questions that he had... and then he answered them himself ha ha. He said one of the things he had noticed was a lot of the stuff that he had read talked about baptism, he said his first thoughts were we just wanted him to get baptized and he was pretty mad, but then he kept reading and the thought came to him that what he was reading was important. So he really started to pay attention to what he was reading and he realized we gave him these chapters because they really tell about the teachings of Christ. He then brought up baptism and said our Church is really good and he thinks it MIGHT be the Church for him. He is going to come to Church for the first time next week and we are way excited to keep helping him come closer to Christ.
We then met with another guy named Mauricio. Mauricio is about 20, he comes from Columbia and is going to school here in Coburg. Elder Johnson told me that Mauricio wasn´t really interested and in fact he had said at one point that he would never read the Book of Mormon and it was impossible for there to be a Holy Ghost, but, he has a 16 year old friend that seems way interested, but, his 16 year old friend wasn´t there. It was way cool though, we read The Living Christ with him, we then read some scriptures about Christ and kinda skimmed through his life in the scriptures. Right as we started reading some of the scriptures of Christ in the Book of Mormon, we could tell that the spirit was hitting him way strong. We bore testimony of Christ and the Book of Mormon testifying of Him, and then Mauricio was quiet for like 10 minutes, he didn´t say a word. He ended up saying a 10 minute closing prayer which was super awesome and then he even wanted to stay and talk to us for another 20 minutes. He felt the spirit way strong and we are excited to meet with him again, and hopefully he will bring his other friend also ha ha.
And then we had a lesson with Herr Mulack. He loves us so much. He always gives us a TON of food and he´s just super awesome. He lives in a HUGE house and has like 3 cars which is not common in Germany, and he lives a way good life. He had told us once he knows we (Elder Johnson and I) are on the right path because we are always so happy and help him out, and all of these random reasons. He then said he knew he was on the wrong path because his life is like a roller coaster. So, we brought a recent convert with us, she shared her conversion story, she then said the things she had to do to really know the Church was true. We then started reading out of Alma 32 to show how he can develop faith and find out what we are sharing really is true. He then said, "I am going to be honest, I do not want to change anything. I have everything I need, I don´t need anymore cars, I have a wife and kids, I have a nice house, there is absolutely nothing I need." We talked about how he had said he knew he was on the wrong path and he said, "I know I am on the wrong path, you guys have found the right path for you, but that doesn´t mean it is the right path for me." So, he basically didn´t want to change anything, he isn´t willing to read in the Book of Mormon because, "It is too hard to understand" and he won´t come to Church because he just doesn´t want too.
This guy is like so cool though, and he loves us and wants us to come and speak with him more, but, we are supposed to go and teach the people who are ready to accept the gospel, and he told us he isn´t going to change a thing, he just really likes us because we´re good people. It´s weird how some people just won´t do anything. I can´t really explain it, but this guy is such a good guy -one time, he said he wanted to give us a ride home, we weren´t really sure if he could since he wasn´t a member, so we said no, and then in his prayer he said, "Father please allow me to take the missionaries home, and if it isn´t your will let the missionaries know, but if it´s okay, I want to give them a ride." He then said at the end of the prayer, so, can I take you home? We decided it was okay ha ha- and it doesn´t make sense that he can see that what we are sharing is good, he knows that it is right but he won´t try it out because he has everything he needs. So... yeah, that guy is awesome, but, sadly we will only be meeting with him every couple of weeks now to see when he is ready to progress, he actually told us, "You two are not allowed to leave Coburg without coming and talking to me first. I really enjoy speaking with you, so you have to promise." Hopefully later on he realizes he really is missing something in his life and he´ll turn to the Church!
So, things are going way good here in Coburg, I am actually on a 4 day split starting tomorrow, so there will be no missionaries in Coburg for most of the week. We only have 3 days in Coburg, but, we have 15 lessons planned out which is super cool, we are hoping they will all go through!
Happy Birthday, well, unbirthday Dad! I will sing you a lovely song that you will not understand =)
Hura! Geburtstag, Freudentag! (Weird tongue click thingy) Jeder singt mit, weil er dich mag. (Another weird tongue click thingy) Bist gewachsen ein gutes Stück: (I think the last weird tongue click thingy) Zum Geburtstag viel Glück!
That´s awesome that Conman is doing high-jump, do plyometrics, it really helps =) One of the Elders that was in the MTC with me saw that I could touch the rim on a basketball hoop and he asked me what I did to be able to jump so high, so I told him it was plyometrics, he has been doing it ever since I showed him how to do them, he now jumps 7" higher than before and it has only been about 5 months, so you should do it, it really helps! Maybe you can beat my record, I have no idea how high it is, but on my phone, if that is still around in the house, there is a picture of me next to these weird blue things stacked almost to my shoulder. We were doing standing jumps in gym and had a competition and I was able to jump over that, or, you can find Trevor Howard, I jumped over him a couple of times at the Goodworth´s gym ha ha.
So the address for me here in Coburg is Kleinerosengasse 1 94560 which means small rose ally, and my address in Krefeld was Rosenstrasse which meant rose street, which is kinda weird, and I have no idea why I am even telling you that haha. By the way, what is the town Tera is living in? And what ward does she go to?
It´s good to hear everything is going great, I´m doing good out here, I have only spoken German with my companion for 3 weeks now and it has helped a TON, I went on a split with an Elder that was in my District at the MTC. I was surprised to see that he hadn´t really been studying German and he hadn´t really been participating in the lessons so his German had not improved. He could understand a ton more, but he could not speak. So, it motivated me to speak more, I can understand a lot, but, I need to keep speaking so that I can clearly share my thoughts.
Anyway life is great out here and I´m happy.
Elder Collings
This week was awesome just like all of the others ha ha. We met with one of our Investigators, Victor, he is about 22 years old, 6´4" has a huge mo-hawk which makes him look like he´s over 7´ tall, he has like 20 piercings in each ear, which he did himself, with safety pins, and he wears huge leather boots and chains and he´s basically got the whole punk rocker thing going on. We were surprised to see that in 2 weeks he had read half of the Book of Mormon and he had also prayed for the first time and said he felt real peaceful. We ended up a soft baptismal commitment out of him, he said that if he got an answer about the Book of Mormon, he would be baptized.
We then met with another guy named Paul Bell. He has been meeting with the missionaries for years and never made any progress. He was in the Army and just decided to stay here in Germany because he likes it... sometimes. The previous week we had given him a reading calendar for the Book of Mormon, when we met with him he was actually like 5 days ahead of what we had committed him to read. He said that the Book of Mormon is so interesting that when he reads it he can´t put it down, he wants to read more and more. He then told us some questions that he had... and then he answered them himself ha ha. He said one of the things he had noticed was a lot of the stuff that he had read talked about baptism, he said his first thoughts were we just wanted him to get baptized and he was pretty mad, but then he kept reading and the thought came to him that what he was reading was important. So he really started to pay attention to what he was reading and he realized we gave him these chapters because they really tell about the teachings of Christ. He then brought up baptism and said our Church is really good and he thinks it MIGHT be the Church for him. He is going to come to Church for the first time next week and we are way excited to keep helping him come closer to Christ.
We then met with another guy named Mauricio. Mauricio is about 20, he comes from Columbia and is going to school here in Coburg. Elder Johnson told me that Mauricio wasn´t really interested and in fact he had said at one point that he would never read the Book of Mormon and it was impossible for there to be a Holy Ghost, but, he has a 16 year old friend that seems way interested, but, his 16 year old friend wasn´t there. It was way cool though, we read The Living Christ with him, we then read some scriptures about Christ and kinda skimmed through his life in the scriptures. Right as we started reading some of the scriptures of Christ in the Book of Mormon, we could tell that the spirit was hitting him way strong. We bore testimony of Christ and the Book of Mormon testifying of Him, and then Mauricio was quiet for like 10 minutes, he didn´t say a word. He ended up saying a 10 minute closing prayer which was super awesome and then he even wanted to stay and talk to us for another 20 minutes. He felt the spirit way strong and we are excited to meet with him again, and hopefully he will bring his other friend also ha ha.
And then we had a lesson with Herr Mulack. He loves us so much. He always gives us a TON of food and he´s just super awesome. He lives in a HUGE house and has like 3 cars which is not common in Germany, and he lives a way good life. He had told us once he knows we (Elder Johnson and I) are on the right path because we are always so happy and help him out, and all of these random reasons. He then said he knew he was on the wrong path because his life is like a roller coaster. So, we brought a recent convert with us, she shared her conversion story, she then said the things she had to do to really know the Church was true. We then started reading out of Alma 32 to show how he can develop faith and find out what we are sharing really is true. He then said, "I am going to be honest, I do not want to change anything. I have everything I need, I don´t need anymore cars, I have a wife and kids, I have a nice house, there is absolutely nothing I need." We talked about how he had said he knew he was on the wrong path and he said, "I know I am on the wrong path, you guys have found the right path for you, but that doesn´t mean it is the right path for me." So, he basically didn´t want to change anything, he isn´t willing to read in the Book of Mormon because, "It is too hard to understand" and he won´t come to Church because he just doesn´t want too.
This guy is like so cool though, and he loves us and wants us to come and speak with him more, but, we are supposed to go and teach the people who are ready to accept the gospel, and he told us he isn´t going to change a thing, he just really likes us because we´re good people. It´s weird how some people just won´t do anything. I can´t really explain it, but this guy is such a good guy -one time, he said he wanted to give us a ride home, we weren´t really sure if he could since he wasn´t a member, so we said no, and then in his prayer he said, "Father please allow me to take the missionaries home, and if it isn´t your will let the missionaries know, but if it´s okay, I want to give them a ride." He then said at the end of the prayer, so, can I take you home? We decided it was okay ha ha- and it doesn´t make sense that he can see that what we are sharing is good, he knows that it is right but he won´t try it out because he has everything he needs. So... yeah, that guy is awesome, but, sadly we will only be meeting with him every couple of weeks now to see when he is ready to progress, he actually told us, "You two are not allowed to leave Coburg without coming and talking to me first. I really enjoy speaking with you, so you have to promise." Hopefully later on he realizes he really is missing something in his life and he´ll turn to the Church!
So, things are going way good here in Coburg, I am actually on a 4 day split starting tomorrow, so there will be no missionaries in Coburg for most of the week. We only have 3 days in Coburg, but, we have 15 lessons planned out which is super cool, we are hoping they will all go through!
Happy Birthday, well, unbirthday Dad! I will sing you a lovely song that you will not understand =)
Hura! Geburtstag, Freudentag! (Weird tongue click thingy) Jeder singt mit, weil er dich mag. (Another weird tongue click thingy) Bist gewachsen ein gutes Stück: (I think the last weird tongue click thingy) Zum Geburtstag viel Glück!
That´s awesome that Conman is doing high-jump, do plyometrics, it really helps =) One of the Elders that was in the MTC with me saw that I could touch the rim on a basketball hoop and he asked me what I did to be able to jump so high, so I told him it was plyometrics, he has been doing it ever since I showed him how to do them, he now jumps 7" higher than before and it has only been about 5 months, so you should do it, it really helps! Maybe you can beat my record, I have no idea how high it is, but on my phone, if that is still around in the house, there is a picture of me next to these weird blue things stacked almost to my shoulder. We were doing standing jumps in gym and had a competition and I was able to jump over that, or, you can find Trevor Howard, I jumped over him a couple of times at the Goodworth´s gym ha ha.
So the address for me here in Coburg is Kleinerosengasse 1 94560 which means small rose ally, and my address in Krefeld was Rosenstrasse which meant rose street, which is kinda weird, and I have no idea why I am even telling you that haha. By the way, what is the town Tera is living in? And what ward does she go to?
It´s good to hear everything is going great, I´m doing good out here, I have only spoken German with my companion for 3 weeks now and it has helped a TON, I went on a split with an Elder that was in my District at the MTC. I was surprised to see that he hadn´t really been studying German and he hadn´t really been participating in the lessons so his German had not improved. He could understand a ton more, but he could not speak. So, it motivated me to speak more, I can understand a lot, but, I need to keep speaking so that I can clearly share my thoughts.
Anyway life is great out here and I´m happy.
Elder Collings
Monday, May 16, 2011
Beautiful Coburg
Hello Family!
Coburg is doing super awesome! Elder Johnson and I have been having so much success, it is really awesome. We have a guy right now that wants to get baptized, we just had a baptism with a guy named Kevin and we have a whole bunch of other people. We are really being blessed out here, we are being led to the people that have been prepared and it´s so cool to see.
We have been trying really hard to talk to EVERY person that we see, and because of that, we found 4 new investigators last week and we have a bunch of lessons scheduled for this coming week. I am really excited to see how much Coburg progresses!
That´s cool that you are going to Germany, you should totally come check Coburg out, it is super awesome! It´s just like I´m living in a different world, like all of the houses out here are older than America, it has cobble stone streets, a bunch of statues a huge castle on the mountain, and it seriously looks like something from a movie. If you do come check it out though, make sure I know in advance so I can go work somewhere else haha, I´m not supposed to see you guys for 2 years =P
So things are going well, I don´t have a lot of time left, sorry this one is short, but, I am super happy and glad I have the opportunity to be on a mission!
Elder Collings
Coburg is doing super awesome! Elder Johnson and I have been having so much success, it is really awesome. We have a guy right now that wants to get baptized, we just had a baptism with a guy named Kevin and we have a whole bunch of other people. We are really being blessed out here, we are being led to the people that have been prepared and it´s so cool to see.
We have been trying really hard to talk to EVERY person that we see, and because of that, we found 4 new investigators last week and we have a bunch of lessons scheduled for this coming week. I am really excited to see how much Coburg progresses!
That´s cool that you are going to Germany, you should totally come check Coburg out, it is super awesome! It´s just like I´m living in a different world, like all of the houses out here are older than America, it has cobble stone streets, a bunch of statues a huge castle on the mountain, and it seriously looks like something from a movie. If you do come check it out though, make sure I know in advance so I can go work somewhere else haha, I´m not supposed to see you guys for 2 years =P
So things are going well, I don´t have a lot of time left, sorry this one is short, but, I am super happy and glad I have the opportunity to be on a mission!
Elder Collings
Monday, May 9, 2011
A new way to study the Book of Mormon
Hello Family!
So, I kinda spoke to you yesterday haha, but, I thought of something pretty cool to share. So, I sent this originally to my cousin Dallin, but I guess I´ll share it with everyone because it´s super cool.
This is something I started doing just a little while ago, it has been the most spiritual experience I have had with the Book of Mormon, and I have learned SO much from it.
Start the Book of Mormon from page one, have 4 different things to mark a book of Mormon with (you will want a new Book of Mormon, the free one without Doctrine and Covenants) with one color, mark every time it talks about Christ, including words such as Him, He, I, The Lamb, Savior, etc. Then with another color Mark every time The Savior or God is speaking (Thus saith the Lord: ) then with another one, mark Christlike attributes, this one is cool, because, sometimes one attribute is in an entire story. The Christlike attributes are Knowledge, Virtue, Faith, Obedience, Humility, Charity, Love, Virtue, Patience and Hope. And then with the last one, mark any doctrine or principles you come across while you read. The last one is all over the place, I use a pen for it, and underline, or box the stuff in and then write off to the side what I learned. It can be something as simple as the word Angel, that is something we believe in, or it can be an entire story about the Nephites going to war and tricking the Lamanites out of their stronghold. Why did the Lamanites leave? What can be learned from that story?
There is something to be learned in basically EVERY scripture, you read tons of times "I don´t write one hundredth part of what happened" these prophets saw our days, and they chose these specific stories to share with us instead of 100 other stories because they recognized that we can learn from them to help us out with what we are going through. This challenge takes for ever but it is super cool and one of the best things I have ever done, I am not done yet haha, and I won´t be for many months, but I love it. You will be surprised how so many little tiny things you can learn seem to be so cool for you. An example of that was when I read Laman and Lemuel say "Our Father is a Visionary man and we have WANDERED in the wilderness for many years...." I thought about Wandered for a little bit. They had the Liahona, why did they think they were wandering? Maybe we can learn how Satan temps us from what we just read, maybe he makes us question our believes such as our father being a prophet, then once we question that it is a little easier to question this divine object right in front of us leading the way (Liahona... or Book of Mormon for us) so what can be learned, instead of questioning our believes, why not question our doubts? Pretty cool huh?
Other than that, I actually thought of something that would be quite handy to have out here. I have been cutting my own hair, but, my new companion doesn´t have a set of clippers. I was going to just go buy a set of clippers, but if you want to, that would be cool too haha. And then another thing, where does Tera live again? There´s a bunch of Army bases out here, and depending on where she lives, she may see the Elders every day, and I might know the Elders which would be kinda cool, but anyway, it was nice talking to you guys yesterday, we will talk again next Christmas haha, that seems like forever, but it´s only 7 months, and I´ve been out 6, so it´s basically waiting the same amount I have already gone through... which has seemed like a week, anyway, Bis nächste woche!
Elder Collings
So, I kinda spoke to you yesterday haha, but, I thought of something pretty cool to share. So, I sent this originally to my cousin Dallin, but I guess I´ll share it with everyone because it´s super cool.
This is something I started doing just a little while ago, it has been the most spiritual experience I have had with the Book of Mormon, and I have learned SO much from it.
Start the Book of Mormon from page one, have 4 different things to mark a book of Mormon with (you will want a new Book of Mormon, the free one without Doctrine and Covenants) with one color, mark every time it talks about Christ, including words such as Him, He, I, The Lamb, Savior, etc. Then with another color Mark every time The Savior or God is speaking (Thus saith the Lord: ) then with another one, mark Christlike attributes, this one is cool, because, sometimes one attribute is in an entire story. The Christlike attributes are Knowledge, Virtue, Faith, Obedience, Humility, Charity, Love, Virtue, Patience and Hope. And then with the last one, mark any doctrine or principles you come across while you read. The last one is all over the place, I use a pen for it, and underline, or box the stuff in and then write off to the side what I learned. It can be something as simple as the word Angel, that is something we believe in, or it can be an entire story about the Nephites going to war and tricking the Lamanites out of their stronghold. Why did the Lamanites leave? What can be learned from that story?
There is something to be learned in basically EVERY scripture, you read tons of times "I don´t write one hundredth part of what happened" these prophets saw our days, and they chose these specific stories to share with us instead of 100 other stories because they recognized that we can learn from them to help us out with what we are going through. This challenge takes for ever but it is super cool and one of the best things I have ever done, I am not done yet haha, and I won´t be for many months, but I love it. You will be surprised how so many little tiny things you can learn seem to be so cool for you. An example of that was when I read Laman and Lemuel say "Our Father is a Visionary man and we have WANDERED in the wilderness for many years...." I thought about Wandered for a little bit. They had the Liahona, why did they think they were wandering? Maybe we can learn how Satan temps us from what we just read, maybe he makes us question our believes such as our father being a prophet, then once we question that it is a little easier to question this divine object right in front of us leading the way (Liahona... or Book of Mormon for us) so what can be learned, instead of questioning our believes, why not question our doubts? Pretty cool huh?
Other than that, I actually thought of something that would be quite handy to have out here. I have been cutting my own hair, but, my new companion doesn´t have a set of clippers. I was going to just go buy a set of clippers, but if you want to, that would be cool too haha. And then another thing, where does Tera live again? There´s a bunch of Army bases out here, and depending on where she lives, she may see the Elders every day, and I might know the Elders which would be kinda cool, but anyway, it was nice talking to you guys yesterday, we will talk again next Christmas haha, that seems like forever, but it´s only 7 months, and I´ve been out 6, so it´s basically waiting the same amount I have already gone through... which has seemed like a week, anyway, Bis nächste woche!
Elder Collings
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