January 2016

Everyone is getting married hahha!! 

Didn't have a ton this week.. just the missionary grind! I had three less active families who I've been working with ever since I got here to come back to church!! On  Sunday all of them showed up! So I finally saw some of the fruits of my labor for them hahaha! 

On Sunday I gave 15 minute talk and it was no big deal! But when I stood up to go give my talk at the pulpit I opened up my binder to grab my talk and everything I had prepared was gone... hahaha! So I ended up just winging it up there! I ended up just baring my testimony and talking about Missionary work and some of my experiences! But man, when I saw it was gone my heart dropped a little bit hahaha!!

Me and my comp worked super hard this week and led our zone in almost everything! So that was really cool.  I'm sorry I'm going to write a short message! But I promise next week I'll tell you guys a lot about whats been happening! 

Love you and hope you have an amazing week! And thank you!! Love you !

Elder Collings

After 3 weeks of no letters... YAY!!

I'll try the best I can to write a long letter.. haha! It's so hard.. But we get to go to Pearl Harbor every couple of months for service! So they took us and gave us a short tour and then we helped them clean the ship and re-wire some things! It was super cool and we met a lot of members there!! 

The weeks just fly by.. I feel like I get to talk to you guys a lot more than just Mondays because how much joy I am having out here and I'm keeping myself as busy as possible, so the days just go by soo fast.. haha!

I've been introducing a family missionary plan that we came up with! So we visit all of our members and less actives once a week and go over a plan with them! the goal is to read, pray about missionary work and invite someone to a ward function every day for 28 days! And when we're not doing that, we are either tracting out our area or meeting with our investigators! 

The start of this transfer they split one of our wards to bring in more missionaries because the work has been increasing so much! When we only covered one ward we almost tracted the whole area and in one week. But found around 14 new investigators who told us we could come back and have lessons with them. The feeling of doing missionary working and helping bring others unto Christ is by far the best feeling that I've ever had in my life, and I wish I could be doing this for so much more than 2 years haha! 

For new years we went to a members house and that gave us soo much food haha! I think that was the first time I've gotten sick since I've been out here! The picture he sent home was only the beginning of the feast! I had like 3 more servings of just that and then a ton of dessert... It was horrible haha!! But that night our zone got together after and played basketball and watched movies, etc. at the church, so I was able to work off some of the weight :)

One other thing I've been trying to do ( I should really stop because it's making me broke every month.. hahaha!!) But Hawaii has a ton of homeless people... So every time we come across someone we give them food and cash that we keep out every month just for them. They have the sweetest hearts and I wish I could give them so much more.. 

Also!! Something that I am SUPER excited about is that Elder Holland is coming to Hawaii to talk to the elders and meet each of them individually! He is also having a fireside with the members that we get to go to!  I couldn't be more excited! I feel like this is a once in a lifetime thing!! I'm trying my hardest to keep as busy as I know I can, so that I can further progress the Lord's work here in Hawaii. I can feel the Lord's hand in my life so strong and I know that as I further study, fast, and pray, I'll be able to continue to bring more souls unto this perfect gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope everything is well.