Baptism of a friend

So I had an amazing week. The man who I told you about that I met on the plane was baptized and confirmed this week. I've been so grateful to be part of his journey to the church! I truly feel like he was one of my close friends before this life and I had the privilege to teach him the gospel while we were here. So this week was really special to me. 

This transfer has been full of miracles and blessings from the Lord haha! 

We got transfer news this week and we'll both be staying! So I'm really happy about that! I'm looking forward to this next transfer. I hope everything is going great in Uganda Love you :) 

Elder Collings

Sick companion

So I don't have much to write about this week.. my companion was sick with a stomach flu.. So we were locked up most the time. This coming week is going to be awesome! We should have three baptisms. So I'm really excited for that! and we have a couple of solid investigators who we're hoping are ready to take the steps to be baptized. So we'll see how it goes! A lot of the people we meet and teach are Chuukese who live in the low income housing over here.. So I've been learning how to speak a little bit haha! But Kinnisou swabwun! Ai tong ngonuk. Sipwapw chu!! 
Elder Collings

Baptism!

So we had a great week! We had a baptism for Narleen Ekeik her story was that she used to meet with missionaries a long time ago but for some reason she just never saw them. A couple weeks ago she was picking bread fruit at someones home and it just so happened the missionaries from Kaneohe showed up and started to talk to her! She was so excited to start to be taught again. Since she has been taught, she has had so many tragic things happen to her and her family.. she has had 4 of her family members pass away in just over a month. But she knew if she relied on the Lord, He would help her out of the wilderness she was in.  

13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, 
if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. 1 Nephi 17:13

She had so much faith going through these trials. She always told us the she prays and asks the Lord for council every day. We also promised her about eternal families, and how she can see her loved ones again. The spirit was very strong. She is going to be an awesome member of the church! Now we're working with her husband!

Also this week we set 6 people with a baptismal date. So we're very excited to be working with them and help them on their journey to baptism! But I love you guys and I'll try to send pictures as soon as possible.

Christmas

It was nice talking to you guys! Christmas is a little weird without snow huh? hahahaha  But we had a great week. We decided one night when we were street contacting that we would say a prayer and ask for a very specific person we could teach the gospel too.. So in the prayer we asked that we would find someone wearing a yellow shirt that would let us teach him! So we walked down some alleys and streets for awhile and we found someone wearing a yellow shirt! So we jumped on it and started talking to him haha! But it was crazy! He knew exactly where the church was. His boss has been inviting him to come to church and he said he has been searching for a church as well! So we invited him to come to our Christmas Sunday Sacrament Meeting! It was so cool how we acted on that little particle of faith and the Lord blessed us with someone to teach his gospel too. 

We had a awesome christmas! Lots of people had us to their homes and the fed us plenty haha! The Light the World challenge was amazing as well. Each day we would send out a mass text to all of our investigators, less actives, and anyone in the ward or zone that wanted to hear what the challenge was for the day! Almost everyone talked about amazing experiences that they had while trying to Light the World. 

I love ya'll and Mele Kalikimaka!!!

Three weeks of letters

December 5:

This week was real good! The family I told you about last week we met with them yesterday! Turns out one of them has been baptized already! But the other kid has not been. So we're excited to be teaching them! She has a baptismal date for the end of December! But this week while we did a lot of street contacting and passing out all of the #LightTheWorld pass along cards, we had a lot of success! It was really cool because while we were doing it, we even had some people come up to us and wanted to meet with us! Then others asked for Book of Mormons and some other things! It was real fun. 

So we ran into a problem while doing laundry.. me and my companion put our clothes in together and he left some gum and chapstick in his pants! So I have two pairs of pants that I can't wear anymore :/ So for Christmas or something I could use a couple dollars to go buy pants from Ross or something! haha I love you guys! Hope you had a great week. Love Elder Collings 

December 12:

We had a pretty fun week! our area flooded .. so we were locked up for most of the time.. and on Monday I  had to go to the doctors to get some stitches.. hahaha I was hiking and some bamboo got the best of my hand.. but don't worry I'm totally fine. :) 

December 19:

The flood was ok! In Kihei it normally only rains about 2-3 times a year! It's just normally really hot and crazy! But when it flooded, it rained the whole week! So by Sunday almost all of the roads were shut down! We live right by the ocean so we had to sleep at the zone leaders home, since the water was getting close haha! But it wasn't bad.. there was a guy kayaking down the road hahha!!

My finger was a pretty good cut ha! We were hiking on P-day and broke a piece of Bamboo.. And bamboo is really sharp when you break it! It cut my pointer finger pretty good! I had to get stitches and get part of it glued.. but I'm totally ok! It's more just annoying having my finger wrapped up and trying to type or write things down hahaha! It doesn't hurt and is healing just ok so no need to worry :)

I was told I can call you on Christmas eve! I can plan on calling around 6:30am Hawaii time, and if we can find someone to FaceTime, I'll FaceTime you guys! But if not I'll just give you a call :)

So we had a crazy week! There was some things going on in Kihei and we got whitewashed out.. So I am now back on Oahu! Serving in Moanalua Samoan ward! haha I'll be there at least until this transfer ends or maybe stay. I'll just have to see when transfers come! My new companions are Elders Alalatoa from Western Samoa and Elder Ball from Alberta Canada haha! It's been a real good time! But for now I'm just learning the area and meeting all of the investigators here! We teach a lot of Samoan people, so me and Elder Ball have no idea what's going on during the lessons since it's all in Samoan haha! But the spirit is always there.

Sorry for the short emails we've just been really busy! I love you and can't wait to call this week! Alofa atu ma manuia le aso!!! 

 

Steven Tyler and trials

I hope I get to see the gorillas when I come! :) we had a good week! Neither of us are getting transferred so I'll be finishing Elder Lokotui's training! So kinda funny.. we were meeting with one of our investigators at her pizza stand! And then a car rolled up and started to talk to us! The man in the car happened to be Steven Tyler hahaha! It was crazy! But I'll write more soon. We have some lessons we gotta teach today so I'll email back when I can! Love you!

This week was very blessed! This whole week we didn't have anyone talk with us, or any lessons so it was really hard.. But we just kept on working and visiting people! This lasted all the way until Saturday.  I was getting really frustrated because I wasn't sure what was going on.. But me and my companion kept working and praying we could find people. Finally we came across a part member family, and he told us we could teach his two kids who haven't been baptized yet. This really grew my testimony on how if we're diligent the Lord will bless us. And that when the adversary is tempting us and making life  hard on us, as long as we push through and faithfully endure, we will always be blessed from the trials we go through. The Lord gives us trials so we have an opportunity for growth, and to learn. I have such a solid testimony of that. I was reading in my personal study and came upon this passage that is my favorite story from the Book of Mormon now. This is right after the Lord touched the stones for the brother of Jared.

 5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the  face of the waters,towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

 6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried inthe depths of the sea, because of the mountain waveswhich broke upon them, and also the great and terribletempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

 7 And it came to pass that when they were buried in thedeep there was no water that could hurt them, theirvessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they weretight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they wereencompassed about by many waters they did cry unto theLord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top ofthe waters.

 8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease toblow towards the promised land while they were upon thewaters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

 9 And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, thebrother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he didthank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when thenight came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.

 10 And thus they were driven forth; and no monster ofthe sea could break them, neither whale that could marthem; and they did have light continually, whether it wasabove the water or under the water.

 11 And thus they were driven forth, three hundred andforty and four days upon the water.

 12 And they did land upon the shore of the promisedland. And when they had set their feet upon the shores ofthe promised land they bowed themselves down upon theface of the land, and did humble themselves before theLord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because ofthe multitude of his tender mercies over them.

I love this because it gives a perfect example of how when we go through these mountain waves and furious strorms "sin temptaion and the adversary" we may not know why all these bad things are happening to us. But if we apply this scripture to our lives, then it shows us the Lord tests us and tries us with all of these things, because they are pushing us forward to the promised land, making us better men or women of god. But more importantly, better disciples of Christ. I love you all and hope that you had a fantastic Thanksgiving! 

I miss you and hope all is well! 

Elder Collings