Monday, May 27th, 2013 - Miracle Week!

This has been one incredible week. There are just so many tender mercies from the Lord that we have seen (1 Nephi 1:20). We have taught at least 2 lessons every day this week. We had 15 teaching opportunities. This is the highest number of lessons that we could see that the area has ever had in a long time. I keep on thinking of the very first week we had when we only had three teaching opportunities.

On Monday we stopped by Jennifer's house and taught her a lesson and invited her and her family to our Bishop's house to have a BBQ. They said that they would come. Bishop was inviting people that know how to speak Spanish, so that we could have people who could actually communicate with the family there. We also invited the Spanish Elders to come to the dinner since they are teaching the grandparents and parents of Jennifer.

On Tuesday we contacted a lot of people and actually shared a message with a less-active woman who had literally just gotten home from work (the Lord's perfect timing). Her husband is not a member, but he wouldn't come down stairs to meet us.

In one of our wards there is only one former investigator. Since we've gotten here, we had been trying to get into contact with her and it just seemed like we could never catch her at home. Well, this past Wednesday was when it all changed. It was almost the end of the day, about 8:15, and I had an impression to go try Roberta's house even though she wasn't in our plans. No one answered the door, so we were just biking out of her driveway when she pulls up. We start talking to her and she tells us her religious background and how she does want to take the lessons again. We taught her right there on her driveway  She said that she wasn't going to be as busy since it was summer and set up a time to meet with us. Since she hadn't been taught for 6 months, she counted as a new investigator. 

We also taught a less-active couple who we're helping come back to church and have him prepare to receive the priesthood. Also we read the scriptures with a lady, Sherry, who came back to the church about two years ago. She's had a rough life and needed some missionary support. Her two boys are not members of the church and the one boy who lives with her runs away into his room whenever someone from the church comes to her house. We actually got to meet him and talk with him, to which Sherry said he has never done. Sherry had just been called to be the Relief Society secretary and felt very overwhelmed. While we were talking with her and getting to know her, I felt impressed to read Ether 12:27. She just starts bawling and the spirit was super strong in the room. I had just read the scripture earlier that day. We also taught Rae, the lady with alzheimer's, about keeping the sabbath day holy, baptism, and following the prophet. This really has been great to see her change her knowledge increase. Also this has been great for Sister Holcomb to practice the lessons and really know how to teach each of the lessons. I've seen a great improvement in her teaching ability since we started teaching Rae.

Also it was nearing the end of the night and Sister Holcomb had to go to the bathroom. We were near our ward mission leader's house, but I was determined to have this bathroom break turn into a teaching opportunity. The Moores, recent converts, live right next to our ward mission leader. Luckily Sister Moore was home and we were able to get to know her better and share a message. They're really a great family. They've been members since last September and they are solid in the gospel. 

The next day, Thursday, we again taught Rae. This time we taught her about the 10 Commandments and the Law of Chastity. While we were riding around Sister Holcomb had to go to the bathroom. Just like the other night, I was looking for a way to turn this into a teaching opportunity. It's great to ask active members, but it's a little less productive. I was looking in our plans and this less-active family who we were going to go by at that time kept on coming back to my mind. We went over to their house and the wife answered. From the very moment she opened the door we could tell she wasn't having a very good day. She said this isn't a good time and was shutting the door, when we asked if we could at least use the restroom. She then let us in and while Sister Holcomb was using the bathroom I chatted with her. She has three little kids and all of their friends over and she just kept saying how she was just having her "me" time. While we were talking the scripture I had read in my personal study kept on coming into my mind. We asked if we could share a scripture with her before we left and she agreed. As I started reading Ether 12:4, about hope, she started crying. She said, "This is exactly what I needed to hear. You must have been inspired to come to my house today." The spirit again was really strong. We asked if there was anything we could do for her (her house was a mess with 2 little boys and a baby girl), but she wouldn't let us help her clean. We didn't want to be overbearing and just start cleaning. After we left, Sister Holcomb and I promised each other that next time when someone said no, even though they really did need help, that we would just do it anyways. 

Later that night, we were in one of our investigators neighborhood's, Sarah, trying to find a potential investigator's house. We soon realized that we were in the wrong neighborhood (the streets are wacked here. The streets don't connect, but it's the same street. So you have to know where the house number falls to know which of the streets it's on). I had this thought that we were in this neighborhood for a reason, so let's not go to the other neighborhood to follow our plans. Sister Holcomb had this impression to go to Sarah's house. We had been trying to contact her for 2 weeks since we had actually first met her. We could just never catch her. Sarah's mom, Jan, opened the door and told us Sarah wasn't available. We start talking with her and she invites us in so she can get us waters. As we're about to leave, Sarah walks down the stairs having just got out of the shower. We started talking and answering their questions. Jan is not very open, but Sarah is very opened minded and really wants to hear what we have to say. Apparently, she had dropped her phone in the toliet 2 weeks ago, so that's why she hadn't been replying to any of our messages. It was a great lesson and Jan agreed to listen to what we had to say! We set up another appointment for today (Monday). We had another new investigator. 

Friday we had weekly planning and we had a lesson with Jennifer. We had had a lesson set up with Yaqueline and Paco, but they canceled last minute. We taught Jennifer half of the Plan of Salvation and invited her to be baptized. She didn't accept the invitation, but she did agree to pray about it and to continue to read. We then went to the Bishop's house for dinner and waited for Jennifer and her family to come. They came 45 minutes late!!! I was so embarrassed that they would be that late. Only Jennifer and her mother came to the dinner. Como se awkward. The Spanish Elders really didn't talk with the mom. They were too busy talking with the Bishop's kids. I kept on trying to make eye-contact to get the Elders over to talk with Jennifer's mom. There was only one other member there who spoke Spanish (a RM who had just gotten back), who would talk with the mother and translate for us. It was pretty bad. We all felt uncomfortable. The dinner really didn't go as planned. We tried to talk with the mother, but it wasn't the same with having Jennifer translate for us. We did teach a lesson to them with the Spanish Elders. The lesson went well- the spirit was present. This was only the second time teaching the family. We have to decide what's best for the family and if the Spanish Elders really can make the time to meet with the family. What a mess. We have another lesson set up with Jennifer for this Tuesday. 

Saturday. Oh, Saturday. What a funny day. We like to refer to this day as The Underwear Day. Saturday is the day when we deliver all of our progress records to our Bishops, ward mission leaders, and high councilman over missionary work. We were just biking, minding our own business, and see this teenage boy (about 16) mowing his lawn in just his briefs. Yes, briefs. Nothing else. Okkkkkkkk. Didn't need to see that. Then we went to one of our Bishop's house and while we were waiting for Bishop to come down, his son (who's leaving for his mission on this Thursday) was in the kitchen walking around in his underwear! WHHHHAAAATTTT?! Definitely didn't need to see that. Scarred for life. The Bishop came down the stairs, saw him and exclaimed, "Get some clothes on! The Sisters are here." We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We ended up just laughing hysterically. He then ushered us outside to hear our update. At least the day got better from there. We finally contacted another former investigator and ended up teaching him a lesson. We weren't able to set up another appointment, but he did say he was still interested in learning. He's from the Phillipines and lives with his son. His family isn't very supportive of him learning. That's why he had stopped learning. We hope to go over again later this week.

Sunday was good. Jennifer, Yaqueline, and Sarah were going to come to church, but all three bailed at the last minute. We were so close to having them come to church. One of the Bishops approached me before sacrament meeting and asked me to bear my testimony because the youth speaker was sick. Yikes! Luckily they didn't need to fill the time since there was a baby blessing and other business. It was funny that what the sacrament meeting was on, that I was going to bear my testimony on those same topics.

This week has been a testimony builder for me. When we open our mouths, He really does fill them. I have really refined my personal study to let Him direct me to help those we are going to talk with that day. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I'm excited for this area and how well it's doing. We have been trying our best, and we have been seeing the results of our hard work. I hope that we keep on seeing miracles and tender mercies of the Lord. I have really been making an effort to thank the Lord for every blessing that I see that the Lord has given me. Being grateful in our prayers really pays off.  I know Christ lives and He's our Redeemer. I have been reading 3 Nephi when Christ came to the America's. He really visited the people in America.

Love, 

Sis. Collins

Monday, May 20th, 2013 - A Full Week of Missionary Work!

We actually had a full week of missionary work with no sickness or ER visits. Hallelujah!!!

First off, the young man, Dearien, who we had first taught when we got here to this area was baptized yesterday! We weren't able to go because none of our investigators could come. I'm so glad we were able to be part of his conversion in some small way. It really seems like we're here in this area to find other people for the other missionaries. Oh well, it's the same work. 

We have a new investigator named Jessica. She's actually the mother of Diamond who we've been teaching (trying to meet with her recently). Her husband is inactive and we have been visiting with them for the past two weeks. They have surprisingly let us in both times. We've been getting to know them better and sharing a message. Jessica has really opened up to us. The missionaries before have been visiting them for years. Maybe this is the right time and we happen to be the missionaries here. We're excited to see how teachings progress. I really hope we can help this family come back to church (3 out of the 5 children are baptized) and have the blessings of Eternal Life, so they can be forever as a family.

We are still teaching Rae, who has alzheimers. We taught her the rest of the gospel- baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End. We also have started teaching her the Commandments- obedience, pray always, and read the scriptures. It's amazing how she's now remembering our lessons that we've had. Her memory has been improving, which is a miracle in itself  She makes her own commitments. It's been amazing to see her change and how much her faith has increased.  We found out she doesn't have a Book of Mormon or a Bible, so we gave one to her on Sunday. It's like she's an investigator because she really doesn't know anything about the Gospel, so it's been an incredible experience to be teaching her and helping her come closer to Christ.

We went on exchanges this week! The first ever for me. It was with the new Sister Training Leaders. I exchanged with Sister Lemon, she's actually a spanish speaking missionary. I got to have language study instead of training for an hour. Too bad I know nada Spanish. Guten Tag? lol They're actually in my old area! The area just got whitewashed this past transfer. It was so neat to go back to see people I taught and see how they're progressing. Also I knew my way around, so we didn't have to use a GPS like they had been! lol. It was also funny to see people's reactions when they saw me. They'd do a double take and be like, "are you back now for good? and it's so great to see you!!" I wasn't able to see Sherry, but we did try to stop by, but she wasn't home. It was incredible to see how it's the same and how's it's also different from when I was there. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to go back to my old area. Sister Holcomb did a great job leading in our area that day. It was nice to also be in a car for one day! I actually did though miss being on a bike because we had to pass so many people because we were in a car.

Last week we talked with some members and they told us about their cleaning lady who's met with the missionaries before, but something's holding her back. She said to stop by on Monday (today) and we could meet her and hopefully teach her a lesson. We stopped by earlier today, even though it was our P-Day, and met Sam! She's around 40 years old and we shared 1 Nephi 17:13. I had been praying on what we should share with her and this scripture came into my mind. After she had read the scripture, she was silent and said, "this is ironic that you'd have me read this scripture today because I've been having many trials this past week." From there she opened up and we found out why she hasn't been baptized yet (Joseph Smith and some other questions). We ended up having a discussion for 45 minutes answering questions and testifying. She actually said she's meeting with the missionaries where she lives. She lives way out of our boundaries, but she cleans a lot of our members houses. She's such a sweet lady and I'm so glad I got to talk with her and help her come closer to Christ. She thanked us and thanked us for sharing that message with her and how she can gain a testimony about Joseph Smith and the other concerns she had. She's sooo prepared!

In my personal study this week, I was reading in 3 Nephi 5:13. I love the declaration Mormon says about missionary work. This is my anthem for my mission: "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been ^acalled of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." I LOVE THIS SCRIPTURE! I love being a missionary. I'm so blessed to have this opportunity to dedicate 18 months of my life to God. It's the best feeling. I don't ever want to go back to the "old" Lauren. I hope to keep the growth I've had so far and to continue to progress. I've definitely been noticing more and more my weaknesses, but it's through the Savior that I can overcome them. I wish I could be perfect in a second, but we never will on this Earth. The Atonement is real. Repentance is real. Repenting isn't just forsaking our sins, it's becoming more Christlike everyday. It's changing our will to God's will. This church really does have the fullness of the Gospel. 

Love, 

Sister Collins

Monday, May 13th, 2013 - Welcome to Sunnyville!!

So happy to be able to talk with you all yesterday!! I love technology where we could Facetime!! What a great Mother's Day! I can't believe it had already been 5 months since we had talked at Christmas. Time flies by for sure!! The next 7 months will also fly by until we get to talk again.

 

This week was again interesting. It is never a dull moment for sure. Sister Holcomb woke up sick Tuesday morning with a fever and she said her stomach hurt her. The nurse said to just go to District Meeting anyways, so we went to that until about 12:30. We got home and it is really apparent that Sister Holcomb really is sick. She goes to sleep. We have 7 appointments set for Tuesday. Now I'm frantically calling people trying to arrange somewhere for Sister Holcomb to go rest at a member's house while I have different people come to appointments with me. I finally get things situated after about an hour and half worth of phone calls.

We have a great appointment with a less active couple we're teaching the lessons to because they are just starting to come back and they want to go to the Temple. They really have no knowledge of the Gospel, so it really is starting at square one with them. During this lesson my stomach started to hurt, but I brushed it off because I had another appointment scheduled immediately after with Yaquelin.

The member who went with me to the appointment dropped me off and other members were there for Yaquelin's appointment. We had planned to start over with the Restoration with Yaquelin because she has been looking into the church for a year. I started off talking about the Restoration, but it didn't feel right. We ended up talking about faith and how important faith was. It was a powerful lesson with the members really having great insight. I could see the Spirit working within Yaquelin. She committed to start reading the Book of Mormon every day and to start getting more involved with coming to church (YES!) and coming to Relief Society activities. 

Meanwhile during the lesson, my stomach had really started to feel queasy. After the lesson was done the member that came drove me home to go pick up Sister Holcomb so we could eat dinner before our next appointment at 6. By this time it was around 5:20. As we were driving home all I could think about was how what I was going to do if I threw up. Roll down the window? Ask her to stop the car on the road then jump out? It was a painful 5 minute car ride. We pick up Sister Holcomb and go home. Luckily I didn't throw up in her car. That would have been the worst. We get home and the wave of nausea seems to have passed so I think I'm ok. We have 5 more appointments- I can't be sick. I really didn't want to have to reschedule them. Especially since some of the appointments we had been trying to see them for a couple of weeks. We had another member coming to pick Sister Holcomb up so she could stay at her house and we're waiting for my ride to come so I can go to another appointment. We've been waiting in the car for about 10 minutes for my ride to come when I have this sudden wave of nausea. I have to step out of the car and I barely make it to the gravel and proceed to throw up. I go back to the car where the member and Sister Holcomb are and say, "I can't do this." I then had to call our appointments and members who were going to go with me to cancel. What an eventful day.

I was sick for the next three days. Sister Holcomb didn't seem to get it as bad as me. Boy, it is not fun to be sick on the mission! I really just started eating regular food again. Luckily members and the Zone Leaders brought us soup and medicine during our time of sickness.

Friday rolls around and we're now able to get out of the house! YAY! And we can ride bikes because Sister Holcomb's knee and ankle are better. We planned that morning and then we went out and worked! During our planning we had a less active text us and ask us when church started. Awesome! We set up a time to meet with him for this coming week. We then had one of our investigators, Sarah, who we have been trying to get a hold of text us. We talked with her and tried to set up an appointment to meet with her. We also went to a New Missionary Training Meeting because Sister Holcomb has been out 6 weeks. It was a great training and I received a lot of insight on how to become a better missionary. It was the best day. We had so many miracles that day. They had been stock piling during our sick days. We taught an excommunicated member who we just ran into and she invited us in. We also had two people say they are interested in learning more and set up return appointments with them!

This transfer was crazy town! There are sisters who are training when they've only been out for 6 weeks! They hadn't even completed their own training yet!! The number of sisters has now doubled since 6 weeks ago. The work is definitely hastening. They are getting prepared for the splitting of the missions here on July 1st. You really have to learn to adjust quickly to change while you're on a mission.

I love being out here on a mission!! I'm so blessed. I have been realizing how imperfect I really am. I really have so much to work on to become more Christlike. It really takes a lot of work. I have been trying to become better while studying the Christlike Attributes in Preach My Gospel. This is why we're on this Earth- to learn and grow. To become someone better- like Christ.

 

Love,

Sister Collins

 

Monday, May 6th, 2013 - Lotion and Headbands!

I am now a full fledged chapstick and lotion addict. I have never used so much lotion and chapstick in my entire life. I have also gotten into the practice of wearing headbands. I know I promised I wouldn't become "one of those headband wearing missionaries", BUT I caved in because of the heat.  I will repent after my mission by never wearing a headband again.

This beginning of this week went by super fast. One day we had completed all of our plans for a certain amount of time and so we were like "great, now what do we do? We've done everything in our plans." We decided to track the street we were on (which we hardly ever do because it's not an effective use of our time). The first door we knocked on a man answered and said "Come on in! Do you need water?" We were surprised and thought maybe we knocked into members? We tried to look for signs of if they were members and we didn't find any. We asked if they're interested in learning more about the gospel. It turns out she's inactive and her husband is not a member and they are not in the ward directory. She has all of her family who are active in the church and even a brother out on a mission right now. Miracle! We're going to be hopefully working with them soon.

Saturday is when the week kind of got crazy. It was about 8:40 PM and we were going to visit one of our investigators. As we were biking there, Sister Holcomb hit the curb wrong and fell off her bike. There was a man down the street with his son who came running. I got to Sister Holcomb first, her knee and ankle were killing her, so we ended up going to the Urgent Care. Her ankle and knee were just badly sprained. Luckily no breakage. The Zone Leaders ended up having to take us there and we were luckily only there until about 10:30PM. It's always an adventure! I've now been to the Hospital more on my mission in the past 6 weeks than in my entire life. :) We don't have a car and we can't bike, so this week should be interesting! The members have been great so far getting us to appointments!

We taught the Spanish family last night. They are super prepared and we are working with the Elders on teaching them. Jennifer, the daughter we had talked to, told us she learns better in English. The rest of the family doesn't speak English, so it's a little complicated. I will update you more on them next week. The spirit was so strong in our lesson last night with the family. It's amazing how the Lord directs you in His work to find the elect. 

This week I have really been studying faith. The topic of faith has been coming up in my personal studies every day. Every principle of the gospel can be related to faith. I really enjoyed studying Faith in the Bible Dictionary. So many nuggets of knowledge regarding Faith in there! I encourage you to read it!

Love,

Sister Collins

Yikes - Headbands!!

Monday, April 29, 2013 -- AZ Really is Hotter than Hell!!

It's finally about to break a 100 here today in sunny Arizona. It's been quite interesting, a challenge, with being on a bike and having appointments when it's so hot. I just feel bad for those we meet! When we go to dinner we have to immediately go dab off our faces and try to cool down. I can't wait until it's 120! :]

I loved the videos of Leo! He's gotten so big in just a couple of weeks! I can't believe how green it is! I had forgotten what actual green grass looks like along with real trees. The grass looked unreal. Everyone here has the fake grass and rocks. A lot of people don't even bother with trying to have grass so they just have rocks for a yard. 

This week we had a lesson with Yaquelin (who's been investigating the church for over a year now). We read 2 Nephi 31:4-11 and invited her to be baptized. She wants to be baptized, but she is not living the Law of Chastity. Her boyfriend, Paco, doesn't want to get married because he's been divorced 3 times. He's 15 years older than her and she will only have children if she's married. And she wants children and to be married. It's sad that he's holding her back. We also read 1 Nephi 3:7. We talked about having faith that the Lord will provide because "He gives no commandment saves He provides a way to accomplish that thing that He has command." The lesson was powerful and the spirit was present. She needs the blessings that the gospel can provide! We hope we can help her progress and we have another lesson tomorrow with her.

The spanish family that we gave the Elders are totally prepared and we're so excited for them!! We might be teaching the daughter because she said she understands English better. We'll have to see! We're excited if we do get to start teaching her! The Elders are teaching both her parents and grandparents! You have no idea how much I wish I could speak Spanish right now!!! It's okay, it's all the same work. But we'll find a family soon :] 

This week we've done a lot of knocking doors trying to contact people who have talked with the missionaries before. We knocked on one door and the mom answered and said to come back after 7 any day next week! So we're going back tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to start teaching that family! Also we decided to go tracking because we had 30 minutes before dinner and we had already contacted everyone in our plans for that day. We tracked into this nice Catholic man. He had a lot of questions, but was really trying to convert us. It's always interesting when people try to convert us. We just nod when they say something we agree with and smile. 

There's a lady in one of our wards who has Alzheimer's. She has just come back to church the last couple of months. She was very against the church, but after she got Alzheimer's she forgot why she had hated the church! Isn't that something? She now goes to church every week and loves it! She feels the spirit which is the most important thing. We have started teaching her the lessons because she really doesn't know anything about the church. She had been inactive since she was a teenager. We're teaching her the second lesson this Thursday. When taught about the First Vision, she just started crying. She has such a sweet spirit about her. One of the ward missionaries, who was her visiting teacher for years and couldn't get in, had the lesson at her house. Also her ancestors are from Sweden also! So we had a great conversation about Sweden and all of the traditions. She had a dolahest! Brought back memories of all of our traditions  especially around Christmas! 

I can't believe that I have less than a year left and I've only been out for 5 months out in the field. Time has just been flying by. The days are long and the weeks are short. I love being a missionary! I forget that this is not "real life". It feels like I've been a missionary my whole life. I love being immersed in the gospel every single day all day long. I wish everyone could go on a mission and I'm excited that more are going on missions because of the age change. Yesterday we were able to be at the opening of a guy's mission call in one of our wards. He's going to Chili! When he opened his call, all of the memories of when I opened my call came rushing back. I for the chills. The spirit was so strong while he read his call. There was about 150 people there! Crazy!!!

I have been studying the Christlike Attributes in Preach My Gospel. I've been studying virtue and patience. What has really stood out to me is that without Faith you really can't develop the other Christlike Attributes. Faith is the first principle of the gospel. Without faith we really are nothing. When we have faith we can do all things. I love this promise that the Lord gives us that when we ask Him in Faith we will receive answers. I've really been contemplating this concept this week. I've been reading the Book of Mormon, the New Testament, and Doctrine and Covenants every day. I love reading Doctrine and Covenants as a missionary because it's all about missionaries and missionary work!!! It applies so literally. I especially love section 8 and 9 which I read today. 

I've decided that my anthem for my mission is Mosiah 28:3. This is truly how I feel! 

Thank your for your continued support, prayers, letters, and love!!! I pray about you everyday!

Love,

Sister Collins 

Sis. Holcomb and Sis. Collins

Zone Conference

The Two Sistas!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Hello!!

Thanks for the video of Leo! He looks really cute!!! How did you guys decide on Leo as his name? Is he short haired like a lab and the personality of a golden? 

This week has been one of the most interesting weeks of my mission by far. In the beginning of the week we had our District Meeting, which was very inspirational. I don't know if I told you that when you're training you go an hour and a half earlier than when the District Meeting starts (District Meeting starts at 10:30). This is where the Zone Leaders train the trainees and basically check up on us trainers to see how we're doing on training them. When you're new to the mission you go to be trained for the first 12 weeks of your mission. The church really has a great program for training missionaries. I'm so glad that I have a training manual that guides me in the training process-- and while I was being trained also. Such a blessing. We train every day except Mondays and Fridays (P-Day and Weekly Planning Day). 

Earlier this week we tried contacting people and hardly anyone was home or didn't answer. Bummer. Then on Wednesday we went to the Temple! We are so blessed to be able to attend the Temple every 6 weeks. It gives me that rejuvenating boost that I need. :) We took Zone pictures afterwards and then we were able to go to Deseret Book. It's always nice to get a CD since I only have like 3 and I'm already getting sick of them. lol

So Thursday was when it got crazy. At about 1AM Sister Holcomb woke up with the most severe pain she had ever felt in her right side and back. We thought it might be her appendix or bad cramps, but we weren't really sure what to do since it was the middle of the night. I had her stand up and slam down on her heels and it seemed like it wasn't her appendix so I gave her some midol. Since I was so exhausted because by this point it was like 2:30AM, I fell right back asleep. By 6:30AM, the pain wasn't going away so we called the mission nurse. She had us go to the Doctor that very morning to see what was going on. She couldn't really tell if it was her appendix either. So off we went to the Doctor and there he ordered blood work and a Ct Scan. We had to go to another place to do the Ct Scan and then we went home and wait for the results. The result came back negative on the appendix, but she was still in a lot of pain so they didn't know the cause of it. That night we had to stay inside and Sister Holcomb just slept. 

Friday morning comes and she's still in a lot of pain, so again at 6:30AM we call the mission nurse and she tells us to go back to the Doctor. So off we go again to the Doctor and he still doesn't know what's going on, but he wanted an ultrasound done. The place where we were going to go didn't have an ultrasound, so the mission nurse told us to go to the ER because the family physician didn't know what was wrong. Yeah, fun times. 

Then this starts the longest day of my mission so far. We check into the ER at about noon the entire process lasts about 6 hours. Let's just say that people are very interesting in the ER. There was a lady there and when she saw we were missionaries starting talking with me and asking me questions. I ended up teaching the first lesson to her and got her information to have the missionaries come to her house to learn more. She kept on saying there was a reason why we had to meet that day. That was the highlight of my day- teaching The Gospel. I have a strong testimony of teach when you find and find when you teach. The doctors basically said they don't know what's the cause of her pain, but they diagnosed something and had her get medication for the pain. During this entire day, I've stayed in contact with the mission nurse and President's wife along with what it seemed like half of the wards we cover. The members are awesome here! They such great care of us and checking in on us to make sure we were ok. We go home and basically go right to sleep even though it's only 7:30 (Sister Howes gave us permission to go to sleep early :] )

I slept for 11 hours and Sister Holcomb basically slept like 20 hours. Saturday we just stayed inside the entire day. Sunday morning comes and Sister Holcomb's pain was intensified and had also moved. We call the mission nurse again to see what we should do and she tells us to go back to the ER. Off we go again and this time the Doctors are inspired and figured out what was causing the pain. This time the trip only took about 5 hours and we were blessed to have great members who brought us over dinner and took us to the doctor and hospital. Today she has no pain and feels a lot better! I'm so happy for her that everything worked out okay and that she's doing better. Poor Sister Holcomb to have to go through this in her first transfer. We are now able to get out of the house and be missionaries :)

I'm excited for this next week and hopefully we'll be able to teach a lot of people this week! I love teaching this Gospel and how much joy and happiness it brings to me. We're teaching at 14 year-old girl that I mentioned last week and she seems super prepared. I'm excited for her and what the next weeks will bring. I can't believe that almost 6 weeks have gone by-- transfers are next week. We have a Sisters Training this Wednesday for the new leadership position. Crazy, eh?

Sister Collins

You can now email her at lauren.collins@myldsmail.net

Sis. Holcomb and Sis. Collins Mesa Temple

Missionaries in the Zone

Sis. Holcomb in ER

Monday, April 15th, 2013

HELLO!!

This week has been a great week! So many miracles!

We have been working hard and we have seen blessings. We had zone conference this last Wednesday and it was an inspiring training. It was the last piece to the puzzle which we had been missing. President Howes and the Assistants to the President inspired and motivated us. We were pumped up to go and do everything we possibly could to help this area progress in this area. We did have to drive our car to the meeting and the assistants took it. So we no longer have a car. BUMMER. It's been so hot since we have to bike everywhere. The members have been really great with giving us rides, but we always feel bad since we have so many meetings where we can't bike to. So we're getting fit and tan! We work out at the gym in the morning and then bike all day. Anyways, at zone conference President gave an announcement about sisters. 

SISTERS CAN NOW BE SISTER TRAINING LEADERS (STLs). It's like being a zone leader- there won't be any sister only zones, but it's like zone leaders where both in the companionship are called and are leaders over other sisters in the area. As of now, sisters haven't been able to go on exchanges really with other sisters. This will be effective this next transfer since we're getting so many sisters. This is mission standard (all of the missions)-- I think it's like when you were a traveling sister, mom. Crazy, right?  This opens up a whole new responsibility for sisters that I never thought we'd have. 

So about our miracles. We have a day set apart for each of our wards so we can put a fair amount of time in each to really work each area fairly. We were working the whole day in one of our wards. This area hadn't really been progressing for awhile (there's hardly any former investigators and potential investigators), so we have been determined to have a new investigator that day. We have been trying to contact one of our investigators since we got here, but we don't have his exact address and we've tried calling him several times. We had just 2 doors down from a less active. So we biked over there in the morning and no one was home. We were in the area later that day and we saw a car there. We knocked and this teenage girl answered. We asked if he lived there and she said Jose did not live at this house. We then asked if she would be interested in learning more. She said yes! She stepped outside and we started teaching her right there on their porch. Her parents drive up after about 10 minutes. They came up and they didn't speak english very well, so she had to translate to ask if they wanted to learn. We have a lesson set up for Saturday! We're going to give them over to the Spanish Elders if the parents are really interested. 

Then we were again biking around and talked to a teenage girl outside. At first she was like, no I'm not interested, but then her heart was softened. We again started teaching her part of the Restoration right on the street. She said she'd have to ask her parents if they'd also like to learn. 

We were again heading to an appointment for a member visit and we saw a girl and woman in a pavilion. We started talking to them and it turns out the girl's sisters have been going to church. She had been thinking about going, but hadn't yet. We again taught her the Restoration and set up an appointment for Tuesday. 

By the end of the day we had two new investigators.We hardly followed our written plans that day because it wasn't the people written down we needed to see. The Holy Ghost guides us and the Lord put those people in our path. The miracles have just continued since that day. We bore our testimonies on Sunday to introduce ourselves. We had to run from meetings to meetings the entire day, so in the ward were we had had an amazing Thursday, we had to bear our testimonies and run to a meeting. The Bishop who was conducting said more about missionary work and some of our miracles this week. Apparently after we had left, our ward mission leader and his wife bore their testimonies about missionary work and how much they love us being in the ward. We feel very blessed to be in this area and just doing the work. 

It's kind of sad because the sisters before us for the past couple of transfers haven't really been working that hard. So we have a lot of work ahead of us. It's been fun though!!!

We had a funny experience just the other day. We were biking down the road and we stop to talk to some people at a bus stop. As I'm testifying and asking if they'd be interested in learning more, this guy says, "That was beautiful and you're beautiful" I didn't know what to say so I kept on going and testifying. Then he says, "Do you like me, because I like you."  I just said "I'm a missionary." Then we finished and biked away! lol

Such funny experiences. A mission is so worth it! I love basically every minute of it. It's so rewarding. I love this Gospel and especially when I get to recite the First Vision. Every time, the Holy Ghost manifests to me that Joseph Smith really did God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know he did. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love starting out my day with reading the scriptures. 

Love, 

Sister Collins
lauren.collins@myldsmail.net

P.S. How much is like a 6GB ipod or MP3? Ebay? I'm really suffering with hardly any music! Thanks!