Monday, October 28th, 2013 - Can Mormons Wear Make-Up and Eat Chocolate?

This week we were able to have dinner and Family Home Evening at one of the part-member families house in one of our wards. The non-member husband comes to church every Sunday and has taken the missionary lessons twice. In the past years during football season he wouldn't come to church because he would be watching all of the games. This year it's amazing to see him at church during the season. We are not currently teaching him right now since we are waiting to see if he wants to take the lessons again. They are an amazing family and we love them so much! We can tell his heart has been softening and we hope for the best in the near future! The ward he's in has been catching the missionary spirit more and more which is really exciting to hear.

We were also able to teach Brad three times this week. One of the lessons was at our Ward Mission Leader's house for a BBQ. We were late to it because right after we had gotten done with our dinner with the Stake President we saw his next door neighbor across the street. We went over to go talk with him. As we were talking with him, he started to tell us about his daughter who put herself in drug rehab just the other day and his struggles with her. We were able to have a powerful lesson right there on his driveway. Carlos accepted a Book of Mormon, a Finding Faith in Christ DVD, and our pass-a-long card with our number on it. He said he would read the Book of Mormon and that we could check up on him. We weren't able to set up an exact return appointment there, but we told our Stake President and he's going to continue fellowshipping Carlos.

So back to Brad. It was really nice to talk with Brad in a more casual setting and he seemed a lot more comfortable talking with us. He's starting to really like coming to church and developing friendships with the ward members. Two days later we were able to meet with him again. They only had 15 minutes to give us so we talked about prophets and Jesus Christ's ministry (because we had to start over at the very beginning a week ago because our teaching record from the Elder's before was very misleading...). At the end we invited him to be baptized. He said he wanted to, but he is living with his fiance (who was just recently less-active and is coming back to church). They have their wedding date set for next June and they're planning on being married in Hawaii. He can't be baptized until either he moves out or they get married. So at this time they are not ready to make either decision. We knew this was a problem, but it was nice to hear it from him. We invited them to pray about their decision and assured them we would still be there for them and would continue teaching Brad. He has progressed so much since we started teaching him. He has started to pray and is recognizing the answers to his prayers. It's going to be a slow process teaching him because he doesn't really have any religious background, which is fine. At least we're getting them to come to church every week now instead of every other week! By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. We love teaching them.

We went over to one of our potential investigator's homes we had never tried to go by before. When we got there she was outside! We started to talk with her and she wanted us to come in right away. Nikki's very friendly and it turns out her dad is Mormon, but he hasn't been actively going to church since he got married to his wife, who is Catholic. Her brother, who she was really close to, had died earlier this year when he was only 19. She has had a really hard time with his passing. Nikki and her husband are Agnostic and just had their first child. We had a very good conversation about the Plan of Salvation. She's open to an extent and she believes a lot what we believe. She's a very spiritual person. While we were in the lesson, I kept on praying to know what she needed to hear. At the end of our conversation I had the impression we needed to give her a Book of Mormon. I didn't have a Book of Mormon in my purse though at the moment. At this point, Sister Huefner was giving her President Monson's General Conference talk to look up on lds.org from this past conference. She was very receptive to looking this talk up and said maybe this was the reason why we needed to stop by her house that day. She said before we came she had actually been pondering about our religion and missing her brother. I was trying to figure out how I could weave in asking her if she wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon in our conversation while we gravitated towards the door. The chance to ask her never came. As we were walking to the car, I had the distinct impression again we needed to give her the Book of Mormon. We got to the car and I said to Sister Huefner, I feel like we need to give her the Book of Mormon. She said she had been feeling the same way. I got the Book of Mormon out and we prayed about what we should mark for her to read. I kept on flipping to Moroni 7 and 8, we both felt good about it and we marked Moroni 7. I wrote a short testimony about the Book of Mormon on a mormon.org card and we went back to her house. We knocked on the door and she seemed a little surprised to see us again so quickly. I simply handed her the Book of Mormon and said we had both felt impressed we needed to give her this book. This is the source of true peace and comfort because it is the word of God. She said thank you and was really excited to read it since she hadn't received a Book of Mormon before. We don't know if she's read it yet, but I just hope it's given her peace and comfort and has helped her at this time.

This week we had two Fall Festivals to go to. One of them we were only able to stay for 10 minutes because we had appointments. Also it wasn't put on by the ward, but the community. So it was really big and we hardly saw anyone we recognized in the short time we were there. The other ward's Fall Festival was a lot of fun. We were able to meet a lot of people in the ward and also their friends they had brought. This one lady, Julie, came to the activity because a girl in the ward cut her hair and mentioned the Fall Festival. It turns out she just moved here from Nebraska (Sister Huefner's neighborhood) two weeks ago. She's been Internet dating one of the members in our ward who's just recently started to come back to church. We were able to meet her and she was so sweet. She started by asking us if Mormons ate chocolate and wore make-up. We assured her we can do both and she felt more comfortable. She then asked us some more questions about what we believe in and we were able to teach her a little bit right there under the pavilion while the circuit breaker kept on shutting off. She was so excited to talk with us because she said she has been searching for a church. She had told the lady who cut her hair she wanted to join our church and how does she go about doing it? Miracles! She trying to find a house in our area and a job since she's living with her daughter out of our area. Also the family who has been coming back to church, Montana and Mike, were the D.J.s at the party and their entire family came. It was great to see some of the less-actives at the party feel comfortable. We had someone ask us if being missionaries was our costume or if we were really missionaries. Fun times, fun times.

Yesterday a member brought one of her friends to church, Jill. She had given us Jill as a referral two weeks ago and we hadn't been able to catch her at home. It was amazing that she came to church. She really seemed to love it and felt the Spirit. We had to run out of Relief Society early since we had an appointment with Brad so we weren't able to see when she wanted to set up an appointment since she had expressed to her friend she would be interested. We're hoping we can contact her tonight.

I'm so excited for the Gilbert Open House. We're having a training this Tuesday with members about how we are going to work together to bring people to Christ through the Open House. We're going to be presenting a 15 minute video presentation to the member's friends who want to learn about the Temple. The mission has made a DVD with four, four minute, videos on it about Temples. They are great videos and I can't wait to start sharing them with everyone! It will be a great tool for finding people who want something more. Having the Gilbert Open House in January just doesn't seem real yet. Excitement on excitement! I know how much the Temple has blessed my life. I feel God's love in His Holy House. I feel closer to Him and I receive answers to prayers more often in the Temple. I know my family is sealed together for eternity and how much comfort this knowledge brings me. The Gospel gives me answers to the questions of my soul. I know God answers my prayers every day. I see the miracles which are happening around me. I feel His love and I am grateful for the knowledge I have.

 

Love, 

Sister Collins

We found a random fridge outside one night. We couldn't resist taking a picture by it. :)

Montana and Mike

We were able to go to the Temple this week!

Recent Converts in one of our ward- We love them!

Monday, October 21, 2013 - Good News & Celebrity Status

We received great news this past Saturday afternoon. The Gilbert Temple Open House and Dedication have been announced!! The open house will be January 18-February 15. The Cultural Celebration will be March 1st and the Dedication will be March 2nd. I'm so excited to be able to participate in the Open House and Cultural Celebration. The Gilbert Temple will be even more so a catalyst for missionary work. Everyone has been waiting to take people to the Open House. It's such a great time to be a missionary in the Arizona Gilbert Mission. I'm so happy that I'll still be here when this is all going on!

This past Monday was an eventful night. Three out of the four appointments we had scheduled fell through so we commenced with following our back-up plans. We were able to follow-up with a potential investigator we had met on the street a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Connie and her husband is Ed. They are an older couple and very devote Catholic. Ed has been recovering from brain surgery these past few months. We went over there to offer service and see if we could help them in any way. We get there and they welcome us in and Ed starts singing "Love at Home." We were very confused. He then said, "Come over on Sunday mornings and we can watch Music and the Spoken Word together!" Yes, he's Catholic and he watches the Music and the Spoken Word every Sunday. They were very nice and they didn't need any service, but we were able to leave them with a short spiritual thought.

We were then able to meet a referral we received from a member, Jill. She wasn't feeling very well, so she didn't let us in, but she said to come by on Monday's since she has the day off. Tonight we're going to go back and hopefully she's feeling better! When then stopped by a less-active, part members house. We were able to share a short message and to set up an appointment forWednesday to meet with them. Miracle after miracle was happening. And these people so far I've mentioned were only in the first hour after our P-Day. We went to our one appointment that hadn't canceled on us, a member family in one of our wards. We had a great visit and committed them to pray to know with whom to speak with Elder Andersen's promise. We succeed when we all work together.

We were then able to visit another potential investigator we had met on the street, Anthony, and we were following up on our commitment we left with him. We were able to share a message with him on the doorstep where the spirit was powerful in that short 10 minute interaction. The words just came to both of us and my entire body was tingling with the Holy Ghost. He said he needs to talk with his wife, since she wasn't there, about when we could come back and share more of what we teach about. We were then able to go again last night and again his wife was not there and we shared another power message about how God is our loving Heavenly Father. It was not a coincidence we ran into him outside twice these past couple of weeks. We're praying his wife will want to take the lessons as well. It was a night full of miracles. Our appointments were supposed to fall through because the Lord had a much better plan for our night.

The next night we were able to talk with Ivonne again. We love her so much! She's an incredible woman who has gone through so much in her life. She loves us coming by and talking with her and she said she wanted us to come back! We had a powerful lesson about the power of prayer in our lives so we can develop that relationship with Heavenly Father. We were able to set up another appointment for tonight and we're excited for that lesson! We are now going to be teaching her! Miracles after miracles! It turns out several missionaries have approached her about taking the lessons and she has always said no she wasn't interested. It's always in the Lord's time and in His own way.

Later in the week we were going by some potential investigators and we had put Irene in our plans. We knock on the door and her husband, Rico, answers and welcomes us in. He doesn't even let us say who we are or even talk. We walk in the house and we go into the kitchen where Irene is. We said hello and she said, "You're here to pick some pomegranates?" Sister Huefner started to say no and I said yes at the same time. During this short exchange she had produced plastic bags seemingly out of nowhere. Irene told us to follow Rico out into the back yard to pick the fruit. Before we went outside we said, "We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Irene just said, "Of course we know that. We have one Mormon son who went on a mission years ago." So we picked pomegranates and limes and we went back inside. They started to tell us about their "Mormon son" (who we never got the name of because they just referred to him as "The Mormon") and we found out they are Lutheran and are Dutch Filipinos. She's white and he's Filipino and they immigrated here years ago. They were very nice, but they said they were not interested. We were able to share a short message with them (to which Irene said "the Mormons don't know who to do brief") and they invited us over for lunch party there were having with all of their Dutch Filipino friends. We went there on Saturday and the food was...questionable, but we were able to develop more the a relationship and they were very kind to us. We were also able to meet The Mormon son, Ernst at the lunch-in.

This past Sunday the less-active family came and the husband actually stayed for all three meetings. It was great to see them there! We also had a family home evening with them last night and their kids are just soaking it up.

We had also been asked to come visit the primary in one ward and also teach Elders Quorum in the same ward. We were running back and forth. When we went to primary that kids were all excited and waving at us. It was like we were celebrities to the little kids. I have to say it was a first for me to teach Elders Quorum. I can now say I have witnessed the scene in the RM about the stark difference between Elders Quorum and Relief Society. It was almost comical, but the lesson went great and we hopefully got them excited to participate in missionary work (the lesson was on missionary work). Good things are happening in the area where I'm serving. There is power in the members inviting and sharing the Gospel. Missionaries can not work alone. There is hardly any success when the missionaries are doing everything themselves. In the Brother Christensen's book, The Power of the Everyday Missionary, he talks about what successful missionary work is. It's when we invite. We can't base success on someone else's agency, it's only what we personally can do. I thought that was great. There is true lasting joy in sharing the Good News with those around us. All we need to invite. They're not saying no to the gospel, just the invitation. I know the true lasting happiness that participation in this gospel gives me. It changes lives. Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We can do all things through Him.

Love,

Sister Collins

Monday, October 14, 2013 - The Lost Sheep

What an eventful weekend it's been. I say weekend because everyone in Arizona last week was in either Rocky Point, Mexico or California for fall break. The town of Gilbert started to come back to life on Saturday as everyone was coming back into town. Let's just say we knocked a lot of doors this week with no answer. But, the weekend totally made up for the rest of the week. I'm sure fasting totally made a difference since our Sunday was crazy. In a good way. There's just not enough hours in the day to get everything done that we want to.

 

We were able to meet with Brad twice this week. Hurrah! We just have to stop by and try to catch them because they're so busy and don't really see the need yet of meeting with us very often. We found out a lot from the lesson about Brad and his concerns which was fantastic. He was definitely not where he thought he was in his progression with the gospel. Yesterday we had a great lesson with Brad. We think he's finally seeing the need for the gospel. We are now able to meet with him on a more regular basis. His girlfriend who was less-active is kind of holding him back which can be frustrating, but we think she's finally seeing the need for us to come more than just once a week. For fast Sunday we had been fasting so he would see the need to change and meet with us more often. Our prayers were answered and we were able to have a powerful, but short lesson about the power of prayer and how it can help us with our families and every day life. We found out he's really interested in the church because he wants to learn how to be a better father and he's not really drawn to the doctrine. We also finally were able to get him to read the Book of Mormon. They really want to read and pray as a family and we're hoping they'll keep that commitment. Good things are happening with that family!

 

We were also able to meet with Carl this week and we were also able to address his concerns and find out more than just the surface level concerns. He has a lot to work through though. We also are pretty sure he has aspbergers which makes it kind of difficult to talk to him about the gospel.We're trying to see if we can help him find a job and see the need to come to church. The ward he resides in as no mid-singles; all are 30 something with 2.5 kids or 60 something empty- nesters. It's really too bad he doesn't live in either of the other two wards boundaries so we could help him find someone like him- single 40 year-old. We're still working with him.

 

The area is starting to finally come to life after 2 months of us being in the area. The members are really starting to catch the vision of missionary work and are inviting their friends and family. It's been great to hear how everyone is doing in our follow up appointments. There are so many people we're working with who are so close to taking the discussions. We're excited for what this next week brings! Hopefully many more miracles. We have had 2 referrals this week. One was from one of our Bishops to one of his neighbors, Wesley. We went on Saturday and set up an appointment with Wesley for Sunday after church. We were like sweet! Hopefully we'll have a new investigator! It turns out Wesley had been baptized years and years ago in Michigan and we don't have his records. He now goes to a non-denominational Christian church because he was offended years ago. He's African American and he thinks there's racism toward colored people. We really wished we had an iPad so we could show him Edward Dube's talk from this last General Conference. We have another appointment set up with him next Saturday which should hopefully go well.

 

We also received a referral from a member for a lady who's kids she watches in her daycare. She happens to live in the ward boundaries which is amazing and she is really drawn to the church because of the unity of the ward members. We knocked on her door yesterday after church as well, but she wasn't home. We're hoping to talk with her tonight and the member said she'd set up an appointment for us as well. We're excited to meet Jill as well!

 

If you can't tell already that after being in church from 10:30-5, our Sunday was pretty well packed. We had 4 appointments that night not including dinner. We were only able to be at dinner for 10 minutes because of all of our appointments and Wesley changing his appointment for during dinner. Luckily our Ward Mission Leader was feeding us and he totally understood. Sorry to dine and dash! lol We have been having powerful member visits as well. The Lord is truly helping us discern every one's needs.

 

Now to the best part of our day. A less-active family we had finally been able to contact last week came to church yesterday! All of them! It's kind of a long story about all of their background. Here's the readers digest version: there are 3 families all living in one house and they're all related to each other. Mike and Montana are married. Montana is a convert and hasn't been to church in 2 years, Mike a lot longer. Laura (Mike's sister) hasn't been to church in over 5 years. Montana's non-member parents live with them with their non-member girls. We had met Laura a couple of weeks ago and really hit it off with her. We had invited her to church, but she said she really wasn't ready. We had been trying to meet with Montana and Mike since we've gotten to the area. The Friday before General Conference we were just coming from Montana's neighbor's house(who's a member) and were outside when they pulled up! We were like sweet! Thank you Heavenly Father for putting them into our path! Montana and Mike had been asked to help out with our Fall Festival and they had said yes. We go over there and ask if we can share a message with them. Montana says yes, right now would work! We go into the house and end up sharing a message with Montana and Laura. Montana said she had been thinking about coming back to church since they had invited her to help out with the Fall Festival. We invited them to church and had a very powerful lesson with them. We set up a time every week to come and have Family Home Evening with them and to have the Scripture of the Day sent to them each day. They said they'd come to church the next week! And they came to church. All of them. Even Mike who really didn't want anything to do with the church these past couple of years. And even Laura who didn't really want to come to church. And even Montana's non-member little sisters came. It was a great day. Montana said she's coming back for good because she's missed it so much. Miracles!!! Mike and Laura only stayed for Sacrament Meeting, but it's a good start. I'm so happy for them! Heavenly Father truly cares about each one of us and he will help those who have strayed come back into the fold.

 

These past couple days I've been studying about sanctification. I went through the Topical Guide and looked up all of the scriptures relating to the word sanctify because as a mission we're really working on sanctifying ourselves. It was very enlightening to really find out what it means to become holy or clean and what we have to do in order to become like our Savior. I know the power of the Atonement and righteous living will have a sanctifying effect on our lives. We will be happier because we will be coming more like our Savior. I'm so grateful for this opportunity for 18 months to sanctify myself and become closer to my Savior through prayer and scripture study. There's nothing like being able to spend hours studying the gospel. I love this gospel and the effect it has had on my life for the better.

 

Love, 

Sister Collins

 

P.S. How are you doing on the commitment I gave you last week?

Monday, October 7, 2013 - General Conference!

I am so excited it's cooling down. I dream of leaves changing and the crisp fall air. I think I'm definitely okay with living in the Midwest with all four seasons. 

This week was wonderful. General Conference was such a treat to watch on Saturday and Sunday. I'm so thankful we have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today to lead and guide us. There were just so many good talks. I received so many revelations for myself, investigators, and area. General Conference is truly a blessing to be able to listen to.

One of my favorite talks was Edward Dube. His theme was to "look ahead and believe." It was a great reminder for me to focus on the future and all that it holds. We must endure to the end for the prize is Eternal Life. He talked about how Christ says unto all of us, "Come unto me"  (Matt 11:28-30. It's one of my favorite scriptures). We must have faith and trust in Him.  During Edward Dube's talk I thought of the talk by Hugh B. Brown about the currant bush. God is The Gardner and He knows our potential.

The other talk I enjoyed was S. Gifford Nielson's talk about missionary work. I hope everyone if fired up about missionary work after this conference. We as full-time missionaries can not do this work alone. This is His or and His glory, but He needs us to be His instruments. S. Gifford Nielson asked us to do three things:

          1. Pray for the missionaries serving in your ward by name

          2. Pray who specifically you can share the Gospel with

          3. Invite those who come into your mind with a specific invitation

Will you pray for the missionaries and those you can share the gospel with? Then will you invite? Ok, good. :) I'll be following up in two weeks to see how it's going.

There was a lot about in conference how we can protect ourselves from the dangers of the world by being converted to the gospel. There's so much more and I enjoyed listening to it. I know I can't wait for the November ensign to come out so I can review and read the talks. I am determined to study the talks throughout the year so I can remember what they said and the revelation I received so I can become more who Heavenly Father wants me to be. President Nattress also asked us to find all of the Apostolic Promises in General Conference. It was neat to see who promised what and what the blessings were.

Here's a few highlight's of the week. When we went to dinner Tuesday night, they had one of their friends over who wasn't a member, Nick. We were able to talk with him and he was actually very curious about the church. Unfortunately he doesn't live here in Arizona, but he will be visiting off an one for the next month. He accepted a Book of Mormon and he said he is willing to meet with us. We're hoping he gets the job here in the Gilbert Fire Department so we can officially teach him. It was fantastic to start to see the members being more missionary minded and willing to share the gospel. We've been working a lot with the members to help them trust us and feel comfortable with sharing the gospel.

Transfers were also this Wednesday. Nothing has changed with us. We still have all three of our wards and we're staying together. We were also able to paint walls this week for a part member family! It took us about 5 hours to paint, but it was well worth it. We can tell the husband's heart is softening. They were very appreciative. I am indeed thankful I learned how to paint walls correctly before the mission- thanks Dad!

We did have a funny experience this week. There was this "Help Us" sign outside of this house in one of the neighborhoods. It was too hard to resist.  So we went and knocked on their door and said, "We saw your sign outside and we're here to help! We're missionaries!" The man didn't think we were serious, but we assured him we were very serious. He started asking us questions about what we believed. It was too bad he wasn't really into hearing our answers, but was just looking to bible bash. We ended the conversation as quickly as we could and bid him good night.

The work is hastening and I'm so thankful to be a part of it at this time as a full-time missionary!

Love,

Sister Collins

The Arizona Gilbert Mission has a blog:

http://arizonagilbertmission.blogspot.com/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!!

Texas Roadhouse!

Bouncy House

Help Us Sign

Purple, Sparkly, Shiny Truck?!

General Conference is coming!

I think we need haircuts?!

Monday, September 30, 2013 - Transfers

This Wednesday is transfers. It's incredible to believe how much time has flown by. In this next transfer, I will be hitting my one year mark. I am staying in the same place with Sister Huefner for at least the next 6 weeks. We will be losing a ward, but we won't know until transfers which ward that will be. I love all of our wards and I don't want to lose any of them. Whatever is the Lord's will, I will be okay with whatever the outcome. 

 Thank you for the birthday wishes I received this week from some of you. I had a nice 22nd birthday. It's weird to now say I'm 22 instead of 21. I'm so old compared to most of the other sisters who are all 19. Since we didn't have a dinner that night (the ward in charge of feeding us had a ward camp out) we decided to go to Texas Roadhouse. It was great and they sang to me and had to sit on a saddle. Never had that experience that's for sure. For P-Day last Monday our zone leaders had a bouncy house. Yes, a bouncy house. Another Elder and I had our birthday's this past week, so the zone leaders got a bouncy house. 22 years old and getting a bouncy house for the birthday. lol. We were shocked to say the least with they opened the gym doors. It was a great day though. We had cake and they sang to both of us. We also played basketball as a zone. Fun times for sure. 

This week we saw many miracles. Here's some of the highlights: One of which was a referral by a member. Her name is Ivonne and the text said to teach about the Plan of Salvation and eternal families. We went over to talk with her and she was so friendly! Her husband had walked out of the family and went back to Mexico a couple of years ago. She said she had had a lot of trials in her life. Currently she is out of a job and is looking for one. We said we could get her connected with an employment specialist in the ward to help her get a job. She was very appreciative.  We taught her a lesson that night about the plan of salvation and we related her to Nephi. The spirit was very strong. When we first started talking with her she said I'm Catholic, but by the end she agreed to hear more of what we had to say. I'm looking forward to teaching her more! 

We have still been teaching a lot of part-member families. It's been going well, but of course everyone has their particular challenges. We've been praying and praying to find new investigators so we can build up our teaching pool. I think this transfer we will start seeing the fruit of our labors. We weren't able to meet with Carl or Brad this week- our two investigators. We're trying to address their concerns and help them to progress. 

We do have fun and work hard. We run into a lot of crazies and oh so interesting people. Everyone is unique. The other day a less-active old man in one of our wards opened the door with just a towel on! We were like what the?! Really? Is that necessary? lol. Good thing there was a storm/security door, so I just closed that right up and then we couldn't see him any more. One of the most terrifying 3 seconds of my life. 

On Saturday was the Relief Society Broadcast and it was great to hear from the General Relief Society Presidency and President Monson. The talks were on keeping and making covenants. I can't wait for General Conference this weekend! What a blessing it is that we are able to hear from our prophet and apostles twice a year. They really do speak directly what the Lord would have us know. We can receive answers to our questions when we listen to them. I would encourage you to prepare some questions before General Conference and see what revelation you do receive. Before Elder Andersen came to our mission, President Nattress counseled us to draw a line in the middle of our piece of paper. One side for the notes from what he actually said and the other side for the revelation we received. I have started to do that with all of my notes that I take. It means so much more to me than just writing down what he exactly said. We must always strive to be obedient and worthy to receive that revelation. 

I'm happy to be here and all that comes with serving a mission. No one said it would be easy. I love the talk by Elder Holland, Missionary Work and the Atonement. He said, "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy... The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him葉he Way, the Truth, and the Life." Christ knows what we're all going through. He has already paved the way for us. He knows us individually. When life gets hard, just know you can use Christ's Atonement in your own life. I have a strong testimony of the Atonement and it's healing power. "God loved us so He sent His only Begotten Son." The love they have for us is incredible, it's sometimes incomprehensible. I love my Savior and my Redeemer. He carries all of us at some point or another in our lives. He just wants us to become who He knows we can become. We must align our will with God's. 

Love, 

Sister Collins 

P.S. I forgot my camera cord, so I will send this week's pictures next week.