Man.... what a week!

HEY FAMILY!!

Soooo this week was pretty great!!! Loved it! But first I cant believe school is starting soon! That's crazy, I hope Sam does good at Summit, does that mean my brothers going to wear a uniform to school? whaaaat? hahah, and Max at Corner Canyon, I probably would of gone to Corner Canyon too haha. And Anna at Indian Hills! haha your all going to schools that I never went to haha! And Reg off at college of course, I'm praying for you all to have a great start. Looks like you guys had a good week, mine was pretty good too! haha

Well where to start, we just had a good week of work, and we had a baptism again on Saturday! It was sweet, we combined with our zone leaders for the service and baptized 7 in one day! 2 (john Marquez and Aaron Cruz) from us, and 5 from them. Yes I had the opportunity to dunk my man John France! He's a great kid, I love teaching future missionaries, I hope that's something I get to see 4 years from now, is them serving missions. That's my joy. My testimony strengthens so much every time I see someone take those imperfect steps to the Savior to become perfect in him. This area was rough at first, but we never lost faith and the fruits came. We also got another family hopefully to baptize in September, so now I don't wanna leave haha! Another great spiritual experience we had is that about three weeks ago we were having a rough day, we just couldn't get anyone to let us in, so we sat under this tree to rest in the hot sun. We were pretty beat up and the day wasn't half over haha. We started talking to this little boy who looked homeless but knew the missionaries, he asked if we could teach his lola (grandma) we had nothin to do and the spirit told us to go. We followed this kid in to this far back alley to this small home. The grandma immediately saw us and said "no no no, I cant go to church!"haha We talked to her, turns out she was baptized in 1973 and has been less active for 30 years! We taught her and she immediately felt the spirit. And she prayed for the first time in a while. She still couldn't promise us she would come to church, well.... for the last three weeks she has came to church! What great faith, the lord knew she just needed to be visited and to feel the spirit again. Also she has fiery orange hair! haha. Well the last thing that happened is I got to spend the day with President Tye! We finally got an appointment to get Elder Leaupepeteles head checked out. Pres.Tye drove us up to Alabang Cavite, or pretty much Manila to the hospital. Well it turned into a whole day and we ended up being able to eat lunch at the mission home! :) Good day and I had a good time with President Tye! It was a great week!

 Love, Elder M C
                                                                   All In White

Family Home Evening at a members house

Yeah we got matchun ties!

                                       

Im 19.....WHAT?

HEY FAM!!! First of all, I want to thank everybody for the emails, and on the way packages and presents! You guys are the best, im very blessed! Also for the video, I think I teared up a bit, haha I loved it! Well....... IM 19! its crazy! haha I thought id be 18 forever. Its also so crazy to think that my next birthday will be spent at home with all you! Where has the time gone????!! Having a birthday on the mission is kind of hard because your so far away from your family, but I dont think ive felt closer to my Heavenly Father before. I love being a missionary, and honestly the best present I had on my birthday was a good Sunday of fasting, and sacrament sounds wierd right, last year I would of been pretty mad if my birthday was Sunday but I loved it. We had 8 investigators at church yesterday, and 7 less actives. It was great. This week we have picked up a couple more baptismal dates too. We found a family who's father died, and mother is working in Hong Kong, the missionaries in Hong Kong baptized the mom. and now the mom wants us to baptize the family! Its awesome! We also have another baptsim this week!! Well another two, but ones only 8 years old! Bro. John France Marquez is being baptized. He is 16  and his father works on a cruise ship so he only comes home every 9 months. Even though this kid is 16, he has made some bad choices in his life. He got hooked to like gangster stuff, and started following the example of his idol, Wiz Khalifa haha. But it was amazing to see the repentance process with this young man. Who I know will be a missionary some day. So we are so excited for him! Overall its been a great week. I love being a missionary. Its crazy where the times gone, I guess you guys were right, looking back on my first area and now, things have changed, and I dont remember the bad times anymore.

Thank you so much for everything! What a great birthday!

 Love, Elder Myles Collins

               In Samoa its a tradition to trash your best friend with eggs and flour on his birthday?

                              The nail salon in our area put my name up, they are awesome!!!!!

We had ourselves a baptism!!!!!!

Hey HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!! How old are you now? ha ha How was it? It was Wednesday right? I hope it was good! You know I love you and all!! :)

Well This was a great one! Everything is good here now after the Typhoon. The electricity and water came back on finally! People are just working hard putting their cardboard or wood or scrap metal roofs back up.

Well you all know why this week was so good. We had ourselves a baptism! It was great! Sister Juliet was baptized on Saturday. It went really well, not the biggest attendance but man the spirit was there. From the moment we taught this lady we knew she was going to be baptized. No matter how many times she said she didn't want to. haha We knew she was chosen of god at this time. She has been through some rough things but President Tye interviewed her and was very impressed. She boar her testimony at the end and we were touched. She was very diligent in reading the Book of Mormon, which is a weakness in most Filipino investigators. She is about to finish the book and understands everything! She boar her testimony on the scripture that changed her life and feelings towards baptism. She read alma 16:17 " That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word with joy, and as a branch be grafted into true vine, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God." What a scripture right? One that I haven't even really noticed. haha But it touched my heart. sometimes we harden our hearts and we don't even realize it. If we open our hearts to him just like we promised her and the Lord promises us. "I will not Fail thee, Nor forsake thee." Good week!
Love, Elder MC

It typhooned, and everything is wet... and broken...

HEY family! So yeah as you have already heard, we had a typhoon here in Cavite, signal 3. And that bad boy was strong!! haha It was crazy to watch. It started Tuesday night and ended Wednesday like noon. Luckily we were just fine, but most of our areas here were beat up, Like every other house had there roof torn off, lots of trees fell, and some floods. So we spent most of our week trying to serve people. Also the power was out and the water all week in most of Cavite. So we werent allowed to go out at night because it would get like pitch black and we had to walk out to the boonies to get deep well water to use and we would shower and wash clothes there. But as of today everything is back to normal. But hey... what a cool expirience for me, It just stinks to see some people here that were affected. Some houses were like gone! Transfers were messed up to. I didnt get transferred, and neiher did my companion, haha were going one more round.... Its chill with me, haha.

   Well on the good side we have a baptism this week!! Its been a little while so it feels good after two rough transfers! Sister Juliet will be baptized! Im stoked, I also had a really good experience in church. So yesterday in church we had no power, it was kind of dark, and super hot. But it was great to see these smiling saints coming in to renew their covenants. Well we were able to get a generator going there just to have a few lights and the microphone to work. The second counselor of the branch gave a great talk on our pioneers and what they went through, and in the middle of his talk the power went out, and the microphone went off, but he just kept going and the spirit was so strong in that Sacrament hall. It was dark ,it was hot, and silent, but God was there. He mentioned the hymn 30 Come Come Ye Saints. That  is what the pioneers would sing every night. I looked at the lyrics in my studies and pondered about those words, it almost brought me to tears. They were able to say, "All is well, All is well" Even when times were not well, and they were not okay, They had the courage, the patience and the love of god, to say all is well. Even when it was not. Really humbling experience for us! Great week!

Love, Elder MC

PS. The power was out so I couldnt charge my camera, so I dont have any pictures of the damage, until after it was cleaned up.

                                 The wind and rain was so strong it was hard to get good pics!

This is how a real man washes his clothes!

Oh hey....your back......

Oh hey..... your back....

 What's up?! How was Powell!?! Still a little jealous you know, but its fair because I went to Powell 2 times last year! How many people went? looks like a ton of Reggie's friends were there! Pictures were sick! Well this week has been a pretty chill one. Not much changed! The only part that was rough is our two baptisms got moved back to the 26th! it stinks but its for the better.... She hasn't gotten her paperwork done for her certificate of no marriage, kind of like a divorce haha. Well im still looking forward to it. It will be a nice reward for having to shotgun two transfers in a row! haha. Well yes this week is transfer day. I have not heard anything yet so I honestly don't know. The zone leaders should call me to let me know within the next few hours where everyone one is going, Me and elder Pepe are both chill if we stayed another one, and chill if we leave. We wanna stay because of our 2 baptisms but whoever does come to this area next has a nice harvest hahaha. 

Well our spiritual experience this week was because this might of been our last week together we made a goal even though our area is tough to get our mission standards of excellence on everything this week, well through our hard work we ended up getting like 12 new investigators, and like 40 lessons haha it was a pretty good week of work. Well I missed you last week! Glad your all home safe and the lord watched over my family and friends!  

 Love, Elder MC

Cavite mission birthday party 

Zone Conference

Getting ready for zone conference  

Myles friend from the MTC Elder Christensen 

Email from July 7th

HEY MOMMA! Are you online? if not its okay. My email wont be that big because you guys are in Lake Powell and probably wont get this for awhile! But this week was a good one! We hope to truly have this baptism on the 19th! which scares me because the transfers are on the 16th! But its okay! whatever happens happens! Im just happy I was a part of salvation for someone in Naic. Right now im kind of neutral I dont care if I stay or go, I would do anything! hahaha but transfers are always hard so maybe ill just stay! haha Well my spiritual experience this week was because of fast Sunday. So I really took this fasting seriously and I just fasted and prayed with all my heart for many things to get better. I cant really explain it, but things were just rough. Well... fasting is amazing and my testimony was strengthened so much that he truly is there, things just started to come around and everything is better. The district is straightening up and everything! Heavenly Father is there, he's there every second, he's just waiting for leaps of faith.

Well today we have a big party for the Cavite mission, because we hit 1 year as a mission on July 1st! So we are having a bunch of fun and games as a whole mission in Dasma! close to my old area! I'm super excited to see everyone and party! Well I love you! Hope all is good in Powell, dont have to much fun with out me huh? and I want some pics sent to me!!

MAAAAM!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! MAHAL KITA!

HEY! well first off...... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I LOVE YOU!!! I made you a little present here That you will see in the picture below. It seems my comp was pretty excited for you too hahah! He said he wants us to put together a package for you with lava lavas and stuff from his country and send it!hahah Ill let you know how that goes! Well I love you mom and I hope my present can just be me out here sweating my butt off! haha

  Well this week has been normal. We are just working hard. You know to be honest, these past two transfers have been the hardest transfers of my mission. Things have been rough for many reasons, but so rewarding. I feel I was given this new area and assignment to make me grow especially. Although things suck sometimes, I love every minute of it:) We hopefully will have 2 baptisms this July and I'm super excited for it. One of course Juliet, the one I told you about, and then the 14 year old kid I told you about last week. He is awesome and they are both doing great! Transfer day is coming up to in about 2 weeks! We will see what happens. We also had a zone conference this week, we got lucky and didn't have to travel far because it was at our chapel. President Tye gave some really good training. My favorite of what he said is that when he was training to be a Mission President, every General Authority told him the same thing, "Teach the doctrine of Christ" and he testified of that truthfulness. Some times we worry about lack of knowlegde or faith when doing missionary work. But its just simple we need to teach the doctrine of Christ. Thats what gives people peace and comfort. Helps them make sacred ordinances of salvation, and ultimately prepare them for the second coming of our Lord and Savior. Which is just around the corner. Love you all! Happy birthday for the 18th time mom, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!! alma 56:48 and 57:21

Elder MC

PS Heres my present, we took a little time out of our busy sunday schedule to make this! haha sorry were not to creative