Elder Dallin H. Oaks is comin to town.

Hey Family!

Well this week was fantastic! Many things to say but ill make it quick! Well this week we have continued to focus on getting people to church, last week was rough, this week was a blessing. We are teaching a Less Active woman and her Non Member family. They have so much potential, and I can see them in white temple clothes. The sister has been struggling because since she is a long time less active, she has also developed faith for the Jehovahs Witness Church. So with all respect but boldness in our hearts we testified of the blessings of church, and especially eternal families. Although it hit her good, we had no success until we brought a member with us to help. The member was amazing and helped her feel comfortable enough to go to church, with her WHOLE family! Such a blessing to have faithful members like that. And we had two other families come to church also! It was great. We also had a contest in our mission like before with finding new investigators, but this time it was gettung investigators to Sacrament. Which is supposed to be harder. So whatever zone can average the standards of excellence for a whole zone in one week gets to have dinner at the Tyes again. Well our zone got it within 2 weeks:) haha It took alot of work, but it was a big blessing to see President Tyes revelation work, and the Bacoor zone is doing well. 

Funny experience, we had an investigator here who brought his 5 year old son to church, and since they were pretty new to the gospel they still didnt know a lot of things. Well we are sitting in elders quorum and his little boy comes running in and trips a little on the door and just says, " ah Sh**!" haha I kinda laughed a little bit. his dad was a little embarrassed. 

      We were finding one day and we had talked to this guy on the street, he was in his like 50s and just came back from the hospital like a month ago on account of heart and lung problems. But he kindly let us share with him. When we started teaching, he told us that he had heard about a lot of religions but never really went with them, but he's always been searching for truth. He told us maybe this was what he was looking for, he said that he truly believed god had sent us to him. He is very weak but he wants to try when he gains his strength to go to church. We should always picture people in temple clothes because that is everyones potential. Whether in wayward children or old people, everyone has that potential. See them like our Heavenly Father sees them. And to top off the week! Elder Dallin H Oaks is coming to our mission tomorrow and we all get to listen to him and shake his hand! Man im stoked!!

Elder Collins

Same animal, different beast.

Hey FAM!!

Well this week was a great one as usual, no matter how many disappointments happen, it just always seems that we are happy. I love it. We have really been focusing as a mission and zone on getting people to church. like 90% of investigators that go to church get baptized. So of course theres a reward if we get a certain amount of people at church:) But we have a new little process that our mission is doing. That has been one of our biggest struggles in this area,is getting people to church, thats the struggle here in the Philippines! haha All of our disappointments have came from investigators cancelling last minute on Sunday morning. But we got high hopes these coming weeks! 

We had a pretty intense service project that we did for our stake president, we moved big rice bags filled with dirt, cement, and stone from his house to the stake patriarchs house. Man we were dead, I think we moved over 400 bgs! Great work out and we were just covered in sweat and dirt and sand and stuff. Then we just all showered of in the back of his house with a hose thing haha. It was a great memory.

Another spiritual experience this week is Saturday night we were walking down this road and I was walking in front of Elder Christensen and as we were walking I glanced at this lady coming out of her house, I felt this strong prompting to talk to this lady, so I turned around and saw Elder Christensen already doing it! It was a sweet confirmation that it was a prompting from God. Well we taught this lady who was super sweet, and we invited her to church the next morning. Well usually when we invite the first time they dont come. Well we were overjoyed to see her walk in the sacrament hall the next morning. Wearing a dress and everthing, it was so cool to see. Just like Joseph Smith said " When god commands, do it" and you wont regret it. Great week

Love you all,

Elder MC

Service Project

  

Me and my main man...

Hey family!!!!

Well this week has been pretty good! Its been a great learning experience this week for me. Helping Elder Christensen get started as a ZL. And leading in this still broken area. Man I'm so grateful for all the new opportunities I've been given, even though they are challenging I have learned so much. I grow in spirit, testimony and person every week. 

Well being companions with Elder Christensen has been awesome haha! Its great to be with someone that you get along with no matter what and you know each others strengths and weaknesses so you can just work your very best! It is such a blessing, and we can be great friends and be exactly obedient while doing it. We were walking down the street yesterday and we walked past this little girl and she gave us both high fives and then yelled in Tagalog, ( thinking we couldnt understand) " those are my boyfriends!" hahaha it was funny. 

We have had some struggles with this area, but we hope and pray things will pull through for us. we have been focusing hard on church attendance, if we get investigators to church, game over... they will be baptized.

General conference was amazing, just like Christmas haha. I really like Elder Christofersons talk, that guy can convert any one haha. But they were all amazing. I actually really liked a quote from one of the 70 talks. he said " Acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but dont be immobilized by them" So true, im going to apply that as much as I can here, and become better every day. Love the Lord and his work.
 Love, Elder Collins

Handsome Street!!  

Brothers dont shake hands, Brothers gotta hug!

Hey Family!!!!!

 Well I guess ill just start with what you all wanna hear.... TRANSFERS! Well to start Elder Zacarias is leaving me, he got called to be a ZL in Cavite! Im going to miss him, he was awesome and ive learned more from him than anyother comp, ive ever had! And something I found out today, Im going to be Zone Leader 1! I am training a new Zone Leader! I was like what??? But im stoked, whom the lord calls, the lord qualifies right. Well it gets better, youll never guess who im training.....(mom your gonna love this) ELDER CHRISTENSEN! haha I was so suprised, but im stoked! Can't wait to get started with my main man! He is a great missionary and a great friend! haha Well thats probably the biggest news this week. Im also excited for conference too.

 My spiritual experience this week is when we were looking for a potential investigator that we contacted the week before. Well the person wasnt home, but we found this older couple, and the wife has diabetes and had her leg cut off and stuff so she was is rough condition. But kindly invited us in and listened to our message of the plan of salvation. After the message she grabbed a 100 piso bill and tryed to hand it to us. We giggled and kindly told her our work is free and its for god. she said something like this if I translate it, " The money is not for the lesson you taught, but when I saw and heard your message, I knew you were men of god, and I wanted to make sure you had food." Man it touched my heart, well of course we didnt take the money, but I got something better than money from that experience, people notice missionaries who are doing what they are supposed to do, they know we are men and women of god cause they can see and feel a light, I love missionary work.

Elder Collins

where did september go?

Man!!!!!! Things are going by quick! Septembers already gone! Wheres the time going? Transfers are next week. Im a little nervous, Elder Zacarias has been here a while, I'm scared he might leave me. haha I want to be with him at least one more transfer! But we will see what happens. I dont really wanna think about it! Well this week was great! So many things happend, first we had zone conference up north close to Manila. Which was way sweet, I got to see Elder Christensen again, my homie. And the training from President Tye was great! I was so grateful for it.Then this last Saturday we held an open house in our chapel, and it was stake wide so a lot of people were there, they asked the missionaries to teach at each exhibit. Me and Elder Morales, (my kabahay) were able teach about the sacrament.The most important thing we do inside the church every Sunday. Man what an honor it was to teach and explain such a sacred thing to so many people. Helped to remind me of the blessings of the sacrament, to make every sin wash away, and every burden light. It was a great spiritual experience. And last I was able to go on exchanges with the APs. I was able to go with Elder Durfee, man it was wierd for the first time driving to an appointment instead of walking to it! haha But it was great, I learned so much from him. He's a great guy and helped me out a lot. But other than that we have been working hard, and lovin it. We are still hoping for that success we need and that promised blessing of obedience for this area. We hope to have baptisms this October, but life is good, No worries. Love you!

Elder collins
                                                                 A Hanging Bridge

         

That missionary life...

Hey Family!!! Hows everybody? Well this week was good! Pretty busy! Well dad wanted to know about our everyday life as a Filipino Missionary. Well we wake up work out, and wash our clothes by hand if we have extra time. Then study, after studies we usually have to do something with numbers or paper work and all that. Then we make lunch and go out to work. Lunch consists of rice, rice and more rice. Man the diet here is rough, I miss my moms spinach salad. haha Then we go do the work of the Lord. Here we get a lot of acceptance, but some just have a hard time following the commandments. The knowlege of some of the other churches is very twisted, so we just focus on building a testimony in their hearts. We will teach lesson one 5 times until they understand, because thats whats important.  We usually dont get home until exactly 9:30 because we are far away. So we dont usually eat dinner, haha. Its nice being in a big city because they have a big shopping mall and stuff, in Naic we had to travel 2 hours to find one haha. We get to do an activity today because we hit standards of exellence for work and our reward is that we get to plan an activity, so we are going bowling! haha its a ghetto place but im excited! haha So we have just been finding like crazy, and slowly we are seeing progress, man we have had so many spiritual experiences in this area its amazing.

I had my first zone meeting as a zone leader, it went really well. We also had interviews with president Tye! It was good, zone leaders have to plan it and conduct it all so our interviews with him were like 5 minutes each, haha we just talked for a bit. 

One experience we had this week was when we were finding people to teach, and we were not having to much success, so this boy was walking and he said hi to us and we started talking to him, and he says" hey wanna teach my mom?", and we were like yeah of course. haha so he takes us to his house and his mom was so suprised but being the Filipino she is, she kindly lets us in. We found out its just the two of them because the father left. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, and asked her to pray and ask God and that if she felt something in her heart, we asked her to come to church the next day. Well we prayed like crazy for them, and to our amazement she walked through the doors on Sunday! After just one lesson! It was great! Just one of the many experiences this week! I Love being a missionary!

Elder Collins

Hola~wait wrong language haha

Hey family! YESS you finally got my letter! 4 times the charm! Sorry its kind of an ugly one cause I didn't think it would make it haha. But I'm glad you got it! Well this week has been a good one, I'm back to the stage where im always tired! But its a good tired. We have just been working hard, my companion is awesome, and a great teacher so I have been learning a ton from him, he's like an Apostle haha. I got to go to my first MLC at the Tyes which was pretty sweet. It was great, it was so spiritual and it helped me out so much. And the food was pretty dang good too haha. I've learned so much these past 2 weeks, when your at MLC it just reminds you of the example you have to be to others through work and obedience. We have had a lot of pressure to find new investigators, thats been the mission focus. Our area was a little bit difficult but through long prayers with Elder Zacarias we have found people to teach, enough to hit the standard of excellence.I think I have made more improvements in myself in these couple weeks then I have in a while. I still don't fully know why I was called so early but I remember something that Joseph Smith said " When the Lord commands, do it" Thats what I go by.
We had an amazing experience this week we saw one of the investigators we found experience a real change of heart. She started out by really not wanting to listen to us.But We were teaching her neighbor at the time and as we started teaching and testifying, this woman slowly moved closer to listen to the lesson. She felt the spirit strong from what we taught and I could see her in the background with tears filling in her eyes. At the end of the lesson we felt really prompted to ask her to offer a prayer. As she offered the prayer she cryed like a baby, shes had a hard life and was so happy. Her whole countenance changed, as we walked away she said,"Hindi kayo nagkamali pumunta dito" (You didnt make a mistake coming here) she now is happy to see us everytime. Its crazy that a simple strong testimony of our Fathers love can change someone. Ill remember that day for a long time. Love you family.
Elder MC

                                                           couple of gwapos