Boun Natale, Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!! I cant believe it is Christmas already! I hope you guys will enjoy your Christmas. We are not sure what we are doing for our Christmas. We do know that we will be watching a Disney movie, most likely finding Nemo. we are going to midnight mass which I am really excited for. Our president said we are allowed to go! So its going to be awesome! That's really it with our Christmas haha. this past week we haven't found anyone new, but that's OK. So next week I will find out if I get transferred or not. I feel like I will and I also don't feel like I will. I don't know. Vediamo. Yesterday we had our conference with all the missionaries in the zone and it was really fun! we acted out the nativity. We were all selected beforehand to play a certain part, I was chosen to be a sheep!! It was really awesome! It was funny. We also celebrated the birthdays that are coming up and so I got recognized for my birthday. Its weird to think I'm about to have my second birthday in the mission. We also were given a tie from the mission president. Its really cool because every missionary that is serving in Italy has this tie. Its a symbol for unity amongst all the missionaries in Italy. Its a really nice tie! It will fun to get to talk to all of you! Maybe this time I will speak a little more Italian to you, maybe I will even just speak only Italian so you guys can practice a little bit :) Don't worry about not be able to send anything its fine, I'm not really in need of anything except shoes of which I will buy right after Christmas because there will be huge sales everywhere so Ill get some nice shoes for a cheap price. Well I will hear from you guys on Tuesday! Talk to you then!!!!!!! Love you!

I didnt know Santa Spoke Italian....

Hello Everyone!!!! IT has gotten FREEEZZZINNNGGGG!!!! ITS SOO COLD! Last p-day I went and bought another hat, another set of gloves and I got a scarf. I'm looking good! Yes I wear a scarf, the Europeans convinced me, it keeps me warm. Comunque, I am doing very well. Our Investigator is doing really well. She wants to be baptized and she is doing great. We had to drop our other investigator because he started to ask us for money and he was not progressing so that really stunk. We are still looking for more investigators. So fooorrr Christmas this is how its going to go down. I can skype home just like time. Can you guys be around the computer around 10 am to 12 pm. I should skype sometime within that time. Can you also send me the skype email you will use. I will need that by next week so that we can be organized. This past week I got a free suit!! A missionary in Torino got 5 free suits from a member, and he gave me one. Im not sure If im allowed to wear it here, I will have to ask president. Its a nice light blue suit. I will have to send a picture next time. People are putting more and more stuff up here in Cuneo. They really do go all out for Christmas. Its a lot of fun. I did a scambio the other day and I was in Torino for a day. It was really nice to be in another city doing missionary work. I feel like a have been at Cuneo for a long time. It has come to the point where I can point out different people and tell my companion who they are. I'm not sure what will happen next transfer. Transfers will happen the week of Christmas so it will be interesting to see how things work out. I hope that you are all doing well! love you!

Cold....wet......rain...

Hello Everyone!!! The past week rained a lot. I don't think I remember a time when it wasn't raining. Luckily recently it started to get a little sunny. So this past week we got two new investigators so we are really excited about that! It has been nice to meet with people that want to talk to us. One of them is progressing really well. She wants to be baptized and everything. We are pretty excited about that. She already is friends with tons of the members which is awesome. She is really elect, cioè she really wants to be baptized and will do anything to do it. Other than that I was sick and what not. It sucks being sick while on a mission but I'm pretty used to it by now. My companion also got a little sick so we did a lot of sleeping in the past few days. Now we are good. I still have a little cough but that's OK. Our thanksgiving was reallllllyyyy goooooodddd!!! I think I might start making stuff from scratch for thanksgiving more often. IT was soooooo goood!! Unfortunately we didn't have any rolls, nor that salad stuff with coconut and mandarins and marshmallows. Claudio made a pumpkin pie completely from scratch. He started with a pumpkin, that's how from scratch it was. It was the BEST pumpkin I have ever had in my life. Words cant describe it. Today I am taking my comp for his first Kebab. It will be awesome. Other than all of that, everything else is pretty much the same. So that's fun. Cuneo really decks out for Christmas. They have put up decorations everywhere. They have a huge tree in centro, they have put lights all over town. It's fun. Love you all!

Sorry we are a bit late to emailing.....

Hello! We are celebrating thanksgiving today with some members today. We are very excited. We cooked yams. I will send you the pictures. This past week has been good. I have been a little sick in the past few days because it has been raining. I finally ran out of my american cough drops so I had to buy some Italian ones. Little did I know that the cough drops I got were black licorice flavor. They are soo nasty but I have to take them so I don't cough up a lung. Right now it is snowing. I feel like it will never end, the rain. . We have been finding people and getting appointments set up which is awesome. My comp is very good at being a missionary. Even though he just got here, sometimes I feel like he is better than me so it is good that he is helping me. We found out that there is a friend of a member who wants to meet with us so we are very excited about that. We haven't been able to meet with her yet because our schedules have not been in agreement but we will see each other soon. Last Sunday there was a stake conference. It was sooo good. All of the talks were really good. Most of them dealt with persevering in rough times. I felt like that was a very good topic because here, especially it has been very hard. There is a crisis going on and there is little to no work for anyone. We need to learn to hold on to the faith even when times get hard. We need to strengthen ourselves for when times do get hard so we don't fall. And we also have to be aware of the things that we put or faith in. One of the talks related this to water. We need water to live. We need to always have a reserve on us just in case there are hard times and there is no water. And we have to drink the right water because there is water that could harm us. I thought that was a very good message- I have seen the same in my life, especially now. Its been very hard for me to go out and talk to people everyday and see little success. But I know as I continue to be obedient and I do all that I can do I will be blessed and will be happy no matter the success I see. Christmas is coming soon. Its really cool. Here in Cuneo they have already put up tons of decorations. They really love Christmas here. I hope that you all are doing well!

First week of Training......

Hello everyone! I have my new companion. His name is Anziano Walker. He is from.........St. George, Utah...SURPRISE!! He is a really good missionary. He is my third comp from Utah. He is beating the arizionnians. I have had only 2 of them. This past week was an interesting one. I dont think I realized how much I would have to do while having a new companion. We did a lot of finding work and we got a few contacts. Other than that nothing really happened. in two weeks there will be a snail festival in town and I might try one..:) The only new news this week is that we had a really good lesson with a girl who is friends with some people in the branch. She has been coming to church for 3 weeks now. We finally got a lesson with her set up and she was really interested. We gave her a copy of the book of Mormon and she was really happy to get one. She even asked to write a dedica(those kind of things that you do in yearbooks, I don't know how to say it in English). I joked to her and said that in a few years my signature that I put in her book would be worth millions of dollars. She is really awesome. She has interest with meeting us so we are excited about that. I'm a little confused, is thanksgiving this week or next week? Anyways, Our ward mission leader, Claudio is going to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and thus we needed those recipes. HIs family is inviting us over next week to celebrate it. We are very excited!! He has already made pumpkin pie once for us and it was AMAZING(here in Italy you have to make pumpkin pie from scratch because it doesn't exist here) That's all of the news here. I CANT BELIEVE CARSON has finished.....Time flies. Sinceramente, Anziano Collins

Waiting for your call...

Hello!!! Well we found out about transfers on Monday. I already knew I was getting a new companion because mine is going home. Usually around this time we get a phone call from our leaders so its always a scary thing to hear the phone go off. Anyways My mission president called me and said that he was calling to tell me my new companion, and then said that he couldn't tell me his name because he didn't know who he was yet.....AKA I'M TRAINING!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I will be a "father". In missionary slang, when one is training he is the father and the person being trained is his son. My lineage will go on!!! haha. My new companion just got to Italy today and I will pick him up in Milano tomorrow. I am the capitano of Cuneo.....I will be teaching him everything I know....Its going to be a long transfer. I am very excited though. Its going to be a fun experience. This past week not much happened. We cleaned our apartment really well and continued or work with our less actives. Nothing really big happened this week. just another normal week at Cuneo. We are still looking for more people. We are going to do a lot of traveling next transfer because we are going to go to other cities in our area to find people. I cant believe that thanksgiving and Christmas are already here. I know Pop Pop will enjoy this. The other day while walking downtown we saw a store that was already decked out with Christmas stuff, It was crazy!!! I cant believe that Carson will be finishing his mission. It seems like just yesterday that he went on his mission. I cant believe time has flown by so fast. Its weird to see all these missionaries finish. before I know it, it will be me who is finishing. That will be weird. If everything goes as it should I be her in Cuneo until February. I hope you all are doing well! Until Next Time! Anziano Collins.

Un pò in ritardo....

Hello Everyone! Sorry for not emailing yesterday. We moved our p-day to today so we are emailing now. This week was fun. Lots of people would ask us this week, while we were walking around, who we thought would win the elections. From what I have seen it was pretty split here as well, there were lots who wanted Romney to win and there were many that wanted Obama to win. So we get rejected a lot of times this week but that is normal. Not a lot is happening with us. We are just working with a lot of less actives and what not. Not much has changed. We ended doing nothing for Halloween. Its not very big here. Something that is funny, is that the kids that go trick or treating do not go door to door because its a little hard to do that. So instead they go to all the stores in centro. It was really funny to see kids going into stores for trick or treating. This past week I perfected my Arancini (rice ball with a sauce inside that is fried). I got compliments from a southern Italian(They know how to cook) so that was cool. My companion is freaking out right now because he is about to leave Italy. I'm not really sure what else to say. A lot happened this week, but at the same time nothing really happened. I hope you are all well!

Sandy hit cuneo....?

Hello everyone! This week was yet another fun week here at Cuneo. So the weather has taken a dip south here. It was about 35 degrees yesterday. It was so cold. It has rained a ton here and there is snow on the mountains. Winter is here. Its raining right now and its FREEZING! We got hit by a big storm while out and we got SOAKING wet. While riding home it was the coldest my fingers have felt in a very long time. My companion ended getting sick from it and so we were inside for about 3 days. We even missed church. It was really weird. I despise being inside because there is not much that you can do. I ended building a fort out of my bed and watched church films. I also read a ton! Other than that we worked hard this week. We didn't find anyone this week but we are working with a ton of less active people of the church that are in the area. There are two people that we are working with in particular that are making tons of progress. At one point the girlfriend was about to be baptize but a ton of stuff happened and she ended up not being baptized. She has recently decided to go back on the track that she was doing towards baptism and hopes this will end well. They are making tons of progress and they seem so much happier now. The book of Mormon is so awesome because it brings that peace into peoples lives that we all look for. Its really cool to see them realize how happy they are despite their trails. Its been really weird lately because my companion is getting close to the end of his mission and he is freaking out. It's amazing to see how fast time flies by. I cant believe in a couple of weeks I will hit my year mark... that's weird!!! I hope you all are well! ENJOY HALLOWEEN!!!! (It doesn't really exist here....its really sad) p.s. SO last week we had the chestnut fair, and in the coming weeks its the festival of the snail. There are is a small town near by that is known for eating them and so they put giant plastic hollow snails all over town to celebrate it. My companion and I took pictures with us riding them and having lots fun with them, so I will send those in the future sometime.

Time flies when you're working hard.....

Hello everyone! This week was a little hard. We had tons of finding work and didn't find anyone. It was really cool though because here in Cuneo they had "La fiera di marone" (The chestnut fair). There were tons of people here so it was a great opportunity to find people. Unfortunately we didn't find anyone. At this chestnut fair, they had a huge market all over the center part of ton. It was really cool because they set up huge coal pits where people put huge pans and roasted chestnuts. I was so mesmerized by this that I ended by a ton of chestnuts. Little did I know, they are REALLLLYYYY GOOOD!!!!!! So that was something coool that happened this week. My companion and I cant believe how fast this transfer is going. Its amazing how fast time flies when you are working hard. He is very scared about going home. I don't blame him...its a very weird thing. He goes home a week before Carson. Yesterday we started up our English class and it was really cool. A ton of people came and it was a blast. We are hoping that we can find some people doing this. I'm not really sure what else to say. Its not that we are doing anything, its just that we aren't finding people that will accept us. Its crazy because we run into people all the time who really need the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives but they simply dont accept it. Its really frustrating some times. For example, we contacted a woman on the street and she was going through a really rough time, husband died, no work, no help from family, and the the gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly what she needed but she didn't want to accept it. But she will one day!!!! In our branch its really cool because we have 3 recently returned missionaries who are really fun and help us a lot. Two of them served in the Rome mission. I hope that you all are doing well. Until Next time!

Eravamo Bloccati.....

Buongiorno!!! This past week was crazy.( Like usually, I don't remember what a normal day is like anymore)- So Anziano Hutchinson and I are doing some good work here in Cuneo. We found a Brazilian family that lives about an hour from Cuneo. They are very faithful in God and they are looking to strengthen their faith in him. They are really kind and gentile(Italian word that I do not know how to translate into English because it has replaced the English word in my mind). They were really cool because they really tried to figure out or message and committed to read the book of Mormon. After that lesson we got stuck in that little town because another bus wasn't going to come for another 3 hours and it started to get windy and then it eventually rained. It was a lot of fun. Its got pretty cold here, winter is definitely here. We had to turn on our heaters the other day. Last pday I bought a football at a sports store so we are really excited to exercise in the morning because we just throw the ball around. On Sunday we did a mostra, that is, we set up a table in centro and had stuff ready to hand out and we talked to tons of people. It was a lot of fun. My companion loved it because he talked to tons of cool people, I however, was fortunate to have the Jehovah s witness, and Evangelists to come to talk to me and try to argue with me. Luckily they cant argue when I have the book of Mormon on my side! We still are looking for investigators, we still don't have any but that's okay, we are looking to improve and we are seeing cool little miracles all the time. Yesterday we went to a conference in Alessandria(A city near Torino) and we learned a lot of cool stuff. The main topic was desire. Our desires determine what we do, which determines who we are, then shapes who we will become. It was really cool to learn about this. We are searching to change our desires and focus more on this wonderful work! Its so weird to think that time has flown by so fast. Yesterday I completed 11 months in the mission! I feel like I have only been out for like 2 months! Its so insane! Whats even crazier that all of the anziani that have been my companions (Anziano Russo, Anziano Scheurn, and Anziano Boscia) all go home next transfer and my companion now goes home after this transfer. I wont know ANYONE! Its soo crazy. My group in a bit will be the biggest group in the mission.Its sooo weird! I hope you all are well that you keep enjoying yourselves! Have a great WEEK!

Freddo, Orzo, Lavoro

CIAO! Hello everyone, this week has been fun and crazy again. From the second my new companion, Anziano Hutchinson, came we have had crazy things happen. We are finding tons of people. We don't have investigators yet but the work is growing like crazy. Anziano Hutchinson and I get along really well. He is my second comp from.....the factory...Bountiful Utah. He will finish his mission here. We have been doing a lot of good work. SO the things that happened this week. We found a really awesome woman who is really elect so we are excited to get her as an investigator. Its starting to get cold her so we will be doing a lot of knocking on doors because no one will be outside soon. Conference was really good! We were excited that they changed the ages for the missionaries....looks like Robert and Josh can come out sooner. I feel like I might train one of these new young missionaries in the future. I really liked all of the talks. We got to watch all of it except the last session of conference. This past week we got a referral from our office to visit Japanese people in a hospital in a little town in our area. So that was a lot of fun. They didn't speak tons of English but at least they spoke it. They weren't members of the church but they had met the missionaries in Japan and were meeting with them, so they wanted us to say hi and help out if we could. It was an adventure to find them. We had to travel 40 minutes on bus then when we got to the town we had to find the hospital, it was a lot of fun. We found some good areas that we want go to to find people. We are going to be starting an English class here because tons of people have asked us if we have it, so that will be fun. Other than that, nothing else has changed. We are working hard and happy to do so. I hope all of you are well. Its weird to think its already October, time is flying by. Have a great week!!

Strike one, Strike two, Strike 3.......

Allora, We got the news of transfers this week. My companion Anziano Boscia will be going to Lugano!!(Svizzera) He is excited to finish his mission there. I will miss the kid. My new companion will be an old missionary..in the sense that he will finish his mission this next transfer...so im killing again! His name is Anziano Hutchinson(I think that is spelled right). I will most likely be here until the end of December. I will leave December 28 to another city(most likely). I will get another companion after Anziano Hutchinson and then I will be somewhere else. This transfer I will hit my year mark, time is flying by too fast!!!!!!! Its going to be weird to be with an American again. I asked president if I could be with another Italian but he couldn't do this transfer. I am excited for conference this week! I am not sure if we will watch it in Italian or English, I hope English because I don't like the voices of the translators in comparison to the voices of the real people! We have seen tons of cool miracles that have been happening in our area. The craziest miracle happened yesterday. We started off the day by finding a really cool man who wants to believe in god but for certain reasons.The other miracle happened later on in the day. We went to see a less active member,who is making tons of progress in the Gospel. The only time we can see her is when she has work off during the week around 4pm. She lives in a town about an hour from Cuneo, so it takes a lot of time out of schedule to teach her. Anyways, we went to her house and had a great lesson. After we left to catch our bus home, while waiting at the bus stop I got a feeling that our bus would not come. Feeling a little uneasy, we asked around and apparently there was a sciopero(Strike) going on and we had no way to get home. The way strikes work here is that some people actually come to work and thus there are some buses that are in service, but there is no guarantee of a bus going to your destination. After waiting for a awhile A bus finally came, but it was not headed in the direction that we needed to go, so we decided to ask the bus driver if he knew if there would be a bus to go back to Cuneo. He had no clue, but told us he could take us as far as he could to help us out a bit. Where we were left was about 25 km from Cuneo. "It just so happens" that there was a girl in the same situation as us, and while we were trying to figure out what we would do, she asked us how we would get to Cuneo. We told her on foot,(none of the members could give us a ride). She then said, if you want my boyfriend is going to pick me up and we can give you a ride. We immediately asked how old he was...and he was 25 years old! allora, we got a ride with them. We tried to teach the gospel to them, it didn't go amazingly but at least we helped them know who we were and that there is a true church on the earth. Anziano Boscia and I were shocked. When we got to Cuneo, we felt as though there had been no problem at all. God is truly a god of miracles! Love you all and hope all is going well!

Nice long normal week :)

Hello Everyone! This past week was nice and calm. We were able to follow a regular schedule and go out and talk to people. We had some cool miracles this past week. Since I have been here we have not been able to teach a lot of people while we are outside, mainly because no one really listen to us. This week we really wanted to go out and teach our message and we were able to teach two people. It was really cool because It really helped us. We also had a less active member of the church who had been wanting to come to church for a long time and for some reason every sunday was not able to come until this past sunday. She really loved church and she is continuing to grow in the gospel. Other than that, we are working hard. We have tons of things we want to improve and we are noticing that things are changing in our area. The changes arent very fast but we are seeing that work is growing here. We have been making a huge push to serve the members here in cuneo and we are seeing that we are finding tons of opportunities to serve these people. This past sunday, we got to church and saw that the chairs in the chapel were not set up and so we decided to set them up and the members here were really energized by what we did. So we are excited to do more service here. We will be painting a house tomorrow so that will be fun. Transfers are coming up soooooo fast! This past transfer has flown by. My comp and I are pretty sure that he will be going. Its sad because he has helped me a lot...especially in the language! I will probably be here until the end of the year. Its weird because in 2 transfers all of my companions that I have will die(finish their mission). Its soo weirdd. This past week I have learned a lot about dealing with difficulty and how to overcome it in the best way. We watched 2 mormon messages that are sooo good. The first was one called "Come what may and love it". It talks about the principles of overcoming difficulty. Then we watched a mormon message called "Forgiveness my burden was made light". It is a very intense video and its really powerful. Its amazing to see how much I have changed in these 10 months I have been out here in Italy. I cannot even immagine how I will be at the end of these 2 years. I love you all and hope you are doing well.

From Milano to Torino to Cuneo.....

Well I am tired :) This past week...especially the last three days we have been trveling a ton! We were in torino on monday...then milano on tuesday..and now torino again today. I havent been at home much. We are stuck in torino right now because there was a strike on the public transportation...we didnt know about it until we were one side of the city and it was too late. This week has been crazy!!!!!!!!!! This past week we had an interesting thing happen. Some people were fixing something in the back of our palazzo and we had to move our bikes, so we went to move them inside our apartment, as we were putting the bikes inside we had to walk into the palazzowith our bikes so I put my keys in my poclet...unfortunately they werent all the way and then the keys fell out of my pocket and fell through a grate that led to the basement. It was awful because we had not idea what to do and we couldnt get to the basement without keys.The first thing We needed to do was find out who owned the basement room so we could get them to open it up. We went to knock our own palazzo and we rang a few doors and nothing. Then we heard some talking on a balcony...so we went to the person. They were talking with someone so we waited for a second because we didnt want to be rude. Right as we waited our landlord called us(we had called him to find out who owned the basement but didnt know...so he went to find out and called us when he knew) and told us who owned the basement. At the point we decided instead of talking to the lady on the balcony we will find the apartment and knock that door...we started to walk up the stairs from where we were and the first door I saw had keys in door, and I saw the plaque of the door..It said her name and we realized at that moment that lady on the balcony was the lady we needed to talk to. We asked her if she could help us...and she did and we got our keys back. it was cool because we had no idea what we were doing and somehow we got our keys back. The day after this we went out to talk to people, and right when we got where we wanted to talk to people, we found a wallet on the ground with over 100 euro, tons of cards and tons of information in it. so we brought it to the police and left our information so the guy, when he would get his wallet, he could call us and thanks us. He called us and it was cool because we met up and thanked us. It was really cool. (I know what it feels like to lose a wallet.....:) ).. There are tons of more things that have happened this past week that I cant even write it all but if you all want to know..write me and I wil tell you :) We had cool miracle. We went knocking in doors in an area and we found a woman who was baptized in our church 25 years ago but lost contact of the church because her husband is hard core catholic and is against the church. It was a cool miracle because she was at the last apartment that we knocked. she still reads the book of mormon and wants to meet with us. We are excited about that. Other than her, we still have no investigators but we will find them this week :)! Its crazy that I have been out for over 10 months now. Its FLYING BY! I think I have writen more in this email than I have ever written on my mission. Anyways Im still doing well, just a little tired. I will sleep well tonight. I hope you are all well. UNtil next time Anziano Collins

Busy week.....

First of all I would like to start off with a shout out to Brian. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!! Well this week has gone by fast like all the others. We have yet another crazy week, which is ironic because we still dont have any investigators. This past week we visited a family from Santo domingo. They are very awesome. They had known the church in their country and eventually had left to italy and lost track of the church....until we found them. They were really receptive to us. The mom seemed the most promising of the family so we are really excited to go back there. This past week we did a lot of traveling this past week. We went to milano for a doctor a visit(which was a loooonnngggg trip), then we went to alessandria for a conference, and then we did a scambio in which I had to travel to torino from cuneo twice. It was a tiring week. I did a scambio with a missionary younger than me, in the sense of time on the mission, so it was a little weird being the capitano. It was a lot of fun though. So winter left and now autumn is here. Its really weird how the seasons are here. They change so suddnely. But we are excited that it hasnt rained in awhile. The rain kills missionary work. It was really cool to see this past week to see how a lot of the people we had talked to had known the missionaries in some shape way or form whether they were taught by the missionaries or had done an english class in the past. this was cool because it shows us that all the people that we meet, that dont continue on with us, will meet missionaries in the future and will remember all that we did with them and more importantly than that will have the chance to accept this redeeming message that we bring. this past week we had a conference, in which I had to translate the whole thing for my companion, which was really awesome. We learned about how important is prayer. Prayer is a gift that God has given us, that we can use to talk with him and build our relationship with him. There is power in prayer. God listens to all our prayers and answers them all. I hope all of you are doing well!! Until Next time Anziano collins

Raining cats and dogs.....

Well this week has been a nice and wet one. It has rained almost continually since friday. It has let up a bit today but there are still clouds everywhere. Missionary work in the rain doesnt really work. This past week, we had to continue with our adventure in getting a little pieice of paper that allows my companion to get a blood test, and boy was that an adventure. After searching in the dark(we had not idea what we were doing) we finally found out a way how to get this little piece of paper. We went to the emergency room and we explained everything and they gave us the sheet. It was really cool. We got the blood test done and now we are ready to do the doctors visit in Milano tomorrow. That was our cool little miracle of the week. Our investigator Gladys is still in torino so we have no investigators as of now. We have to keep looking. This will a big focus for this week. So the other day we did a scambio and it was an intesresting scambio. A scambio(exchange in english) is where you trade companions for a day with someone and you do missionary work. Its a good way to learn from others. Anyways, I stayed in cuneo with a missionary I knew from milano, and Anziano Boscia went to torino. When Anziano boscia left, he took our phone with him, so we did not have a phone for the whole day. Its less efficient to do missionary work without a phone because you cant call people and confirm your appointments. So we had to get in contact with Anziano Boscia but we didnt have their number, so we had to call the missionaries in milano to get their number. So we used a payphone outside. It was hilarious becauseyou put in a little money and call and once you start the call your money that you put runs out fast so we were yelling in the phone asking for their numbers from the other missionaries and they were so confused. It was very entertaining. So that was our week really. We are working hard but we arent seeing much of the fruit of our efforts right now. We are hoping to find some people soon. Vediamo. On the brightside we finally have a ward mission leader who is helping us out so much so we are excited about that. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Cuneo...Torino....Milano....?

HELLO EVERYONE! We had an interesting week. We had to do some stuff for my companion for his diabetes and we were running all over the place, especially yesterday, to get some stuff done for him. We are in milano right now. Its very weird because im at the internet point that I used to go to. Ok, this week, we helped a family move into an apartment which was alot of fun. They had needed of a strong man, so they called us :) ) We didnt have a lot of time to do finding work because of sickness, and doing stuff for my companion. But we did have some cool miracles. The other day we went out and started to talk to people. And everyone we talked we were reallly nice and actually stopped to think about what we were saying about the restoration of the church of jesus christ and they complately understood and wanted to learn more. It was amazing because most people dont even stop to think or listen to what we say and that night we had a great lesson with some members. Our investigator gladys is doing well, she is in torino for the week so there is nothing that we can do so we have to go out and find people. We are teaching another lady, who we found through a member from france. She used to live in genova and they are on vacation here and there have been some amazing miracles with them. In the end, the members mom, wanted to meet with us because she trusted us and decided to see what would happen this time as she met with the missionaries(She has met with missionaries in the past. So we are so excited about that. I am doing very well. I feel like Cuneo has helped me become a better missionary but beyond that more mature. Its been a great experience being here. Funny Story, the other night I saw lights in the distance, while sitting on our balcony, and shortly after seeing the lights I heard lound booms. My companion, being an italian, was a little concerned as to what was happening, even going as far to mention that maybe it was a bombing. The next day we day we found out that people go out near the mountains and go and party and set off mini bombs. We are in italy :) GOOD LUCK WITH SCHOOL EVERYONE :) For those who work year round, have a great normal work day :)

The show goes on....

1.OK FOR TRANSFERS......I will be staying in Cuneo with my companion Anziano boscia!! I will finally have a companion for more than one transfer! 2.Ok so in other news, I got sick yesterday because I wore myself out too much so I was told to sleep and slept for 12 hours!!!! It was beautiful! This past week we had a crazy week like always. Our investigator Gladys is awesome. She came to church this past sunday and really wants to learn more. Its funny to think that I wanted to serve in Africa but I get enough of it here in Italia! 3.We had a cool miracle this past week. No one was listening to us at all this past week and we werent finding anyone. We did a little scambio with some other missionaries and me and another missionarty went out and found another person who was interested, taught him and then got a return appointment with him. It was cool to finally find someone who was interested. we then found 2 other people who were interested and got appointments with them. It boosted us a ton! Not that we were down, but its nice to know that there are people that care. 4.This past week was a long week for me because we were very stressed about the work and it led to my sickness I think but I am doing a lot better now. Im not sure what else to say because I am a little out of my head right now. I hope everyone is doing great!!!! 5.If anyone gets the sublimale message going on wins a prize! hahah Until Next time! Anziano Collins!

500 Days of Summer.....Day...76

Hello EVERYONE! We are doing really well here in Cuneo. Heat.....I dont know what that is beccause it has been nice and cool here! I have enjoyed that very much. the hottest it has gotten was 30 degrees celcius. Which is not hot at all. I love it when I see people complaing about the heat here because they dont know what heat is. Anyways, we had a crazy week like always. We finally found someone who would listen to us!!! Her name is Gladys. She is from Nigeria. We went through all of the contacts, the people who we or other missionaries have talked to in this area, and started to call tons of people. We called Gladys and she agreed to meet us the next day. She then told us about her story. Aparently she met the sister missionaries about 9 months ago and was really excited about our church. however, she was about to go Nigeria so she couldnt come. So the sister missionatries got the address for the church in Nigeria. When Gladys was there she was robbed and lost everything and was stuck in Nigeria for awhile. And had no way to contact the church. She finally was able to return to italy and not been here for too long..about a month, when we called her and she was ready to meet with us. When we meet with her she asked us about baptism and how she was willing to be baptized and wanted to join our church. At that point we were pretty excited! So we have lots of work to do with her and we are pumped. other than that, we still have to find people. Something fun we have been doing is going around with a white board with a question written on it, which helps the people open up more. Its really fun and its a great way for us to talk to more people. Its also really funny to watch the people stare at us as we walk by. I dont have tons of time because we are using the computer in church right now and we can only go one at a time. the internet place we usually go to is closed to ferie. ferie is a time when EVERYONE goes on vacation and EVERYTHING closes. Its amazing how fast it happened. one day everything was normal and the next day everything was closed! I am doing great. We have transfers next week and there is a gopod chance that my companion could go which means I could get another companion. .....Again......Anyways...Love you all! Have a great week! P.S USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA Winning medals!!!!!

500 Days of summer.....Day 69

I got a little theme going on for the subject :) Hello everyone! This week was a cray(as laura would say...or should a say...as the cool kids would say) week. My companion is diabetic and has some type of painful fungus on his feet due to using the same insert for his shoe for too long. So we had to go out and buy new socks, find a store that makes custom inserts and custom shoes for diabetics, and we had to buy medicine. That took up a lot of time! We also had one of the senior couples come down and fix stuff in our apartment so we had to help out. The lesson I learned is that you dont know how to speak italian until you can explain how to build a bookshelf to an italian who has never built anything in his life. That was a lot of fun. I keep finding myself in the craziest positions where I have to explain how to do some crazy thing all in the italian langauge. I feel like it has helped me so much in the langauge. For example the other day I had to explain to my companion how to take care of his feet which was interesting. Other than that we are struggling to find new investigators. We are currently teaching no one. So this next week we will be working pretty hard! The cool thing about the work this week is that we have been given the opportunity to train the new leader of missonary work in our branch. This person is very important because he connects all that we do with the members in the branch. So we are pretty excited about that. Other than that, everything else is good. My companion and have found a good rythym and we are getting along a lot better. I am becoming a much better missionary which is good. We went to the alps last week! It was so beautiful! The MOUNTAINS ARE SO HUGE! I thought the mountains in utah were big....I was wrong. We were right next to france it was cool. If we climb over the mountain we were next to we would have been in france. Weird huh? Ill send pictures when I can, this computer wont let me so I will have to do it on another computer in the future! I hope all of you are doing great! Enjoy the week!

500 days of summer.....Day 62.....

Buongiorno tutti!! This past week has flown by sooooooooooo ffasssttt! I cant believe it is already AUGUST! It blows my mind So this past week we didnt have tons of success. The people were a little rough but thats okay. I had fun. Our miracle this week was crazy. So as missionaries we have a goal to teach 20 lessons each week. Its hard but possible. Anyways an apostle made a promise that if we teach 20 lessons each weekly our bapisms will double and we will become better teachers. So in the mission there has been a huge push the past few months for this. Sunday morning before church we had only taught 13 lessons and we needed 7 more which was a little daunting. We had no investigators in church which made it even harder. We had only 3 solid appointments set up for the day. So we called an audible and pulled a hail marry. We started calling tons of people and would get one lesson set up then do that lesson and call people immediately after that lesson to set up more. So we were just going as we did it. Which usually doesnt work. Anyways we did this all day and we were going all over town and by 8:30 we had taught 7 lessons. It was amazing because we had wanted it so bad and we finally got it. So that was awesome. My companion and I are getting along a lot better now but there is still a little friction because we think it two different ways. I hope you all enjoyed the beach! I miss the water. Its amazing how you dont want something when you have it and when you get it taken away you want it. My companion makes me laugh because he reminds me so much of laura The other day we were rushing home and I tossed him the keys to open the door and the keys hit his hand made a little scratch and he started freaking out how it could cut a vein. I laughed a little bit because it reminded me of laura, so now catch is banned from the companionship. Until next time!

Fresco, meglio, sucesso

Hell[o] everyone! This past week was a lot better! Anziano Boscia and I are learning better how to work together and everything. I also got to do a scambio in torino! It was nice to be in a big city again, even though it was only for a day. I did see where they had stuff for the olympics. I saw a baseball field! It was sooo weird!!! Even though I was in torino for a day, it did a lot of good for me. I even got to be in a car! Our zone leaders have a car so I got to be in it!! The past two days we have had great success. People were way more open with us and talked more. This past sunday we had an ex investigator come to church. It was really awesome because the missionaries before me tried to get a hold of him but couldnt so they stopped trying to contact him. Turns out his phone was broken and lost our number. This past sunday, he wasnt working and remembered about church and came. We now are meeting with him! It was so awesome because we had nothing. Now we have 2 investigators with baptismal dates. Other than that everything else is going much better. I cook all the time because my companion cant cook but thats ok. This email will be short because im running out of time. I hope everything is ok, I didnt hear about that shooting till today. Thats crazy! I will try to send pictures eventually, I cant now because this computer is terrible. But let me tell you, CUNEO is gorgeous! Yesterday, it was actually cold. I was sooooo suprised! I hope the weather isnt too hott :P Until next time! Anziano Collins

Fresh air in the mountains

Hello Everyone! I am here in Cuneo! It is very beautiful here! There is no humidity and there is an almost costant breeze. Its amazing! The mountains remind me of the appalachain mountains...just A LOT bigger. I will take lots of pictures so you can see the area. This area is a very hard area. There is a small branch of about 30 members. And the city is a lot smaller than milano. A lot smaller. There are hardly any forgeiners here, and if they are..they are most likely to be french. There are mostly Italians here. I think I went into a little shock because how my area shrunk. but thats ok. In the past few days we had done TONS of finding work and no one wanted to talk to us. We worked all day and finally it was about 4 minutes before we had to go in and we saw a family and decided to talk to them and if they werent interested we would just go inside. We talked to them and it turned out really well. They liked everything we talked about, which was about how families can be together forever. It was really nice just to have someone stop for us. They werent interested in meeting up with us but thats ok. We tried our best. The other day we had to go to another city because we needed to get another bike. Funny thing was the only way to get there was one of us would ride a bike and the other would get on the motorcycle with a member here and the biker would follow the motorcycle. So my companion and I both got to ride a motorcycle! IT was a lot of fun. Our mission president said it was ok! We went up near the mountains and it was beautiful. The only thing that slightly stunk was that on the way back we both had bikes and the hills were steeepppppp!!!!!! It was awful!!! But thats ok! I hope everyone is doing well! Enjoy the hot weather for me!!! sinceramente, Anziano Collins

Me ne vado....or in other words....PEACE OUT MILANO!

Well I received a call on monday from president telling me that I was leaving milano! I was soo sad! I am going to a city called Cuneo! It is a little city in the farthest west part of the mission. I will be near france! My new companion will be Anziano Boscia(I think thats how you spell it). He is from Siciil which means he is Italian. He does not speak any English. So I am going to learn Italian more than ever next transfer! I am so sad to leave! But unforunately e Cosi. It was funny because on monday we cleaned our whole apartment(it is a rule to do that during transfers week) and we were waiting to see if president would call us. It was so stressful because we thought he would call us but we didnt know for sure, We didnt get called until 4:30! We were freaking out all day, it was awful! My companion Anziano Scheurn will be training someone new here in milano! That new anziano is so lucky! Anziano Scheurn is a little stressed but that is ok. We had a great week. We found so many new people that are really cool! Eva's husband daniel has a cousin who has been coming to church and wants to meet with us! We are sooo excited to work with him! We also have been working with a less active named Alberto Mendoza. He is from peru! He is so cool. He is very hunble guy and loves to make jokes. I had taught him my first day in Italy and then he disappeared for awhile. I finally found him and we started to meet with him and he is so much happier. He wanted to start coming back to church but never had the little push he needed and the we came along and now he has been in church and is helping us teach our investigator Rolando. I am alittle scared to have an italian companion but I know it will help me so much with my Italian! It will be weird to leave Milano because I have been here since I came to ITaly so it will be a little shock to actually leave. I feel like I have been in bubble for 4 1/2 months, but thats okay because it has been amazing here! Here are some pictures that I took the other day. THe first picture is with carmen, miguel, christian and corianca. Anziano Meszaros and I baptized carmen and Christian. They are soo amazing! We went to lunch with them and then we said bye, it was said. The second picture is with some of the members that are in our ward and the third picture is with Alberto Mendoza who previously mentioned. Well im pretty sure this is the most I have ever written before so maybe I should stop! :) Anyways I hope everyone is ok! STay cool! I heard that it is sooo hot there! Drink lots of water!!! I will let you know how im doing next week! I think Cuneo is a bike city which SUCKS! I have evaded bikes till now!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! We will see how it goes! until next time Anziano Collins

Salutation from milano! HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! GO AMERICA!

Hello Everyone, I hope that everything is ok. I heard about the storm that went through. That is terrible! I hope everything will get better. We are doing pretty well here! The only crazy thing that happened here was when Italy played Spagna in the EURO and got destroyed unfortaunately. IT was crazy outside that night. Either we heard really loud fireworks or gun shots haha. As soon as my companion heard the loud noise we closed all of our windows. It was funny. It sounds like it is not as hot here as it is there! We still dont have another fan but we are alive. Transfers are coming up here! Next week I willl tell you if I am staying here in milano or if im leaving. My companion and are very scared because we both dont want to leave. HAppy fourth of July! We have a huge grill out with the missionaries in milano today. We will play football, calcio, ping pong, and fooseball. We are very excited. Thought Id tell you about my american breakfast I had today. I had 2 hamburgers, chocolate milk and a coke! It was good! This past saturday we had a talent show in our ward and it was soo fun! The parents helped the little kids coreograph a scene in grease where the song "you"re the one that I want ooh ooh ooooh" and it was SO AMAZING! So for things about this past week. It has been hard for us to find new people to teach and some of the people that we have been teaching are slowly fizzling out. That has been our biggest ostacolo. We are contacting tons of people but no one is listening. But we are still going strong. Yesterday we had a lot of success in contacting people so we are hoping that it will continue. Our 2 awesome investigators Rudy and Rolando are doing very well. Rudy is in Brescia for a couple of weeks for work and will return. We met with Rolando yesterday and we had an amazing lesson with him. We asked him how he felt about his baptism and his response was awesome. Its something he wants to do but wanted to feel ready for it which is what we want them to feel. He understands how important baptism is and is really working hard to get to it. Other than all of that I cant really think of what to say. A lot of stuff happened in the week but I cannot remember what happened right now. Im getting old. Alzheimers is kickin in huh.. I hope everyone has a great day! Celebrate the birth of America for me! Until next time! Anziano Collins

Ma scussa eh..

Ciao tutti! The best way to describe how our week is as follows REALLY HOT- No, sto scherzando. It wasnt that hot but it was very toasty. We spent a lot of time outside this week which was nice because we are usually below ground navigating throug the metro. The transfer is halfway over! Oh my goodness!! Its going by so fast which is not good because I could leave milano in 3 weeks which will be sad. Ok enough of that talk. This past week we got a referal from our main office and called the person. It turns out that a man named robert had just moved here from switzerland and had been recently baptized there. We set up an appointment and met up with him. We were not sure what to expect but we were hopeful. When we met with him we were shocked. He came with scriptures, makers, a notebook, and other church materials. We soon found out that he was from ghana and that he had grown up in christianity. His brother is a pastore in a church in ghana. Robert knew the bible like the back of his hand. He also could quote the book of mormon like it was nothing. He is so strong in the gospel. We are so excited because he can really help us out with the africans in our ward. Africans are hard for us to understand because we are of a different culture. So we are pretty excited about that. Funny story. So our apartment is on the botton floor of our apartment so we cannot leave our windows open at night. So it gets a little toasty in our apartment. We only have one fan because our other fan died. But luckily I am very smart. I started to put all my clothes in the freezer so they get cold so when I go to bed I can put them on. THen I make ice cubes and put them in a bag and put it on my head. Its so funny and ghetto but it works. I would also like to everyone know that thanks to living in milano I now love weiner dogs. Tons of people have them here and they grew on me. It became official when I saw a weiner dog mixed with a scotty dog. MY companion thinks its funny because he dislikes them so much but thats ok. We are doing very well here. The work is giong well but we stll have a lot to improve. I cant believe in 2 days I will have been in italy for four months now. Its flying bby sooo fast! I am glad I choose to do this. I am changing so much and am so happy! HOpe everyone is doing well! Until Next time Anziano Collins

Workin hard.....NO AC....Heat is a coming.....

Buongiorno!!! If you have notice the subject of the email, the reference is not to the saddening victory of the nba heat but to an actual heat that is consuming milano. Its just like in VA here except pollution traps the heat here and intensifies it and all we have is one fan and no ac. So that has put a damper on us but we are still happy!! This past week we worked our butts off and we are happy! We are still teaching Rudy, our philipino investigator and he is going so strong! He has already given up smoking and drinking and is reading the book of mormon. He is so awesome!!! I think one of the coolest things right now is that we have 4 solid investigators right now, one from the philipines, one from egypt, one from Nigeria, and one from peru. Ronaldo is the one from peru and he is so awesome! I have a very hard time understanding him because he speaks half spanish half italian which usually is not a problem for me but for some reason I can not understand him to save my life. He accepted the invitation to baptism so we were pretty excited for thhat!! I am doing super well other than for this heat. Wearing pants in this heat vigourously inhales. This past week we ate at this chinese restaraunt and it was soooo goooodddd!!! I ate too much thought. Our stomaches hurt sooooo bad! But it was soo worth it! Today we played some basketball with some missionaries and some phillipini that were at the court. Not to be prideful or anything but we destroyeeeedddd the phillipini! They played well but our American blood just took over. It was soo much fun. It is so hot out. I drank 2L of water in an hour and a half! It was insane! We have started to see more tourists here because of the summer. It had been fun to figure out where people are fun. We actually have a hotel in front of where we live and so we see them all the time. Im getting scared that I might get transfered next transfer which will kill me! I love milano sooo much! I have not been out of this city since I have been here! Other than doing a scambio in muggio which is 30 minutes out of the city which really isnt leaving the city. Well Im not sure really what else to write other than that time is flying by soooo fast! I have been out for 7 months now. Which Elder Corbett is almost done! THat is sooo crazy!! well I help everyone is well! Sinceramente Anziano Collins P.S. send my regards to Brandon. Im sorry for what happen. THat must have stunk!

Sickness + Coke + work = satisfaction...?

Salve! If you could not tell by the title I got sick this past week. It was awful. But that's ok because I am doing so much better now. I was only in for a day and a half. I had some type of stomach sickness because I had bad stomache pains and had a fever of 104.4! It was a little warm here in milano 2 last week. But I am doing better so that is ok. My companion is an awesome companion. He does an insane amount of working out....maybe I'll learn something eh..? Anyways, we had a great week this past week. We were able to set three baptismal dates with people. Which means that we met with three people who have accepted the invitation to baptism and are prepare for their baptism. So we have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks. Its pretty crazy because these three people are so diverse. We have Rudy and philipinian man, Peter a christian egyptian, and Obas an refugee from the Lybian war. All of our lessons are in English. Its so cool to have all this diversity but its even cooler that these people are making huge changes in their lives so that they can be more happy! Rudy is so awesome! He is always so excited to meet with us and is ready to do so much to change his life. I talked a little about him in my last email. He is still doing so well and is accepting the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ very well. Peter's story is so cool because he out of the blue called us and said that he was ready to be a member of our church and change his life. We met him the same day and he is so cool. Today, he read out of the book of mormon out loud in arabic, it was reallly cool. We are excited for him and the progress he is making. Today I saw one of the most impatient person I have ever seen in my life. It was sooo funny. We were at a ATM and this lady was in line to use it. She started to tell the people in front of her to hurry up so she could go and made some people mad. She then immediately went to the machine when it was free, and before the machine was ready for another transaction she shoved her card into the atm. It then rejected her card then she started to get upset. Fortunately there was another atm right next to it but someone was using it so she then told them to hurry up. She then did the same thing she did with the first machine and it didnt work. At this point she was very upset. With the help of a very patient man she was informed on how to use the atm. What was even funnier was after she tried using the first atm my companion went to it and got it to work. Got to love Italians :) My Italian has started to grown and has gotten so much better. Its so cool! Im getting to the point where Italian words come more easier than english words and at times I can only describe something in Italian. I hope everyone is doing very well! GO THUNDER! Anziano Collins Enjoy the pictures!

New Comp, same city, lots of work..

Buenas Tardes! Yep, my spanish is coming back. Its fun learning both Italian and spanish together. Anyways, I got a new companion and you all already know about him. Some how his mom got a hold of you all haha. He is from Arizona and is really awesome. We hit the ground running this transfer so its awesome. And that last statement is very true, we go running monday-saturdday morning for our excersize. Im not dead yet but I could die soon. Scherzo. We had a wonderful lesson with one our investigators Obas. He is from Lybia and is a refugee from the war. His story is soo crazy. He almost was killed and escaped on a boat and 4 days later was in Italy. He has a lot of faith in god and loves us(mainly because we speak english haha). Anyways, my companion really helped me see the power of faith this past week. I was ready to drop obas because he was not making progress and we went into the lesson and he committed to baptism. I was soooo shocked. It really built my testimony of the power faith and how you can do anything with it. We dont have tons of investigators right but we have some appointments set and we are hoping that we will have more soon. We are alittle to email today because we went and played basketball and FOOTBALL. IT was awesome to touch a pigskin again. I am doing very well. I might leave milano in 5 weeks which makes me very sad. I want atleast 6 more weeks and these five weeks and I will good. I really love it here. Especially the ward. We had a picnic with our ward and played a little calcio with them. It was soo fun. I hope everyone is ok and is ready for the summer break! Sinceramente, Anziano Collins.

Baptisms,sickness, transfers...

Salve tutti! We had an awesome past week! The mom and son( Carmen and Christian), that we had been teaching had their baptism this past saturday! They were soo excited for it and so were we. It was really cool to see how much they had changed these past few weeks. It was a wonderful growing for them as a family and we were excited that we were able to be apart of it. After the baptism they were just filled with joy and were smiling. They are an amazing family. What has made the experience even more interesting was that the husband miguel, does not speak any Italian. He can only speak Spanish so there was a lot of fun trying to understand what he was saying. I always love teaching this family because they are very sincere. So saturday morning I woke up and felt a sore throat and new I was getting sick, and after the baptism I was exhausted. On sunday my temperature got up to 103.3. IT was crazy, so after tonnnsss of sleep I am much better now! So tranfer news came andddd....I am staying in Milano! My new companion is Anziano Shern(I think thats how you spell it). I have no clue who he is so thats always fun. Im sad to see Anziano Meszaros leave but excited for him because he has so much ahead of him now. Who knows when I will be able to keep a companion for more than one transfer, maybe one day.... I am very excited to stay in Milano and do some more missionary work! To let everyone know, I did not feel any of the three earthquakes that happened yesterday. It was pretty crazy because we would find out that they happened through people and we were baffled that they happened. So we are all safe. From what I have heard there have been 15 deaths. Its been pretty scary for some people. Love you all. Anziano Collins

Baptisms and lots of tunfoolery(shenanigans)

Salve! I am doing very well! Eva was baptized and confirmed a member and is doing soooo great!!! We had lots of crazy stuff happen before her baptism but despite all of that, She got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was amazing! It was such a special experience for her and was able to bear her testimony at the end in front of everyone and it was raelly touching. It was interesting because her white clothes for the baptism went missing before the baptism and that was crazy. AFter many phonecalls, searching everywhere we found them! Not to move on but we have 2 more baptisms this weekend! Its all set in stone and we are SOO excited! The family is so bravo! We taught a lesson and surprised us with a birthday dinner because Christian who is being baptized had his birthday the same day and they had us celebrate with them and It was soooo fun! I also got to eat a lot of the food Anziano(eldér) Corbett is eating! I guess I get the best of both worlds, south american and Italian! We are emailing a bit late today because we have had a crazy day. We got invited to go teach a class in school and teach ragazzi about the church as well as us being missionaries and alll. It was a very interesting experience mainly because that would not fly in the us because of seperation of church and state and parents would have freaked out. It was really fun and we got invited to do it again for a different class next tuesday so we are pretty excited. Its a little nerve wrecking but at the end of it we were all smiling. Other Im not quite sure what to write because the past few days have FLOWN by and so much crazyness has happened. I hope everyone is well! Funny story today, we accidentally found our selves in a VERY expensive pizzeria but we didnt know it. We bought some pizza and is was AMAZING. a pizza was 28 euro there. We just got a deal with one piece with a coke for 5 euro. The peice was very big and very good. So that was pretty funny. Its crazy how fast this transfer has gone by. A week from tomorrow I will have a new companion! I cannot believe it! My goodness! I know that this gospel is true and is blessing the lives of many right now and I have the opportunity to be apart of it! I am very thankful for this opportunity to serve right now in Milano 2! Until next time! Sinceramente, Anziano Collins

Wedding, skype, food, work!

Salve! This past week was...wait for it......crazy! Where to start....soo We had a wedding this past saturday. It was so awesome! Eva is right on track for her baptism this saturday! It was so cool to see her with daniel at the alter and see them make big steps in their lives. So many small things had let to that event and my companion and I were just so ecstatic because how much the ward here showed them support! That could not have happened if were not for God. He was with them every step of the way and now they are very happy! There next move is Evas baptism this saturday which will be amazing. It was awesome to talk to you guys this past sunday! IT was only slightly weird due to the fact that I hadnt seen you all for 6 months! ITs so crazy that today is my 6th month mark! Time flies by so fast! I feel like i just left the other day! Next thing I know christmas will be here! This past week we contacted a referal we got and we were just astonished. The family we met was Darwin, rossi, and natalia. There are a family from salvador. The husband, darwin, is a less active member that wants to come back to church, the wife, rossi, is not a member that wants to learn more about us and follow her husband and Natalia, the daughter, is very interested as well and will follow her parents. We are so excited to work with them as they try to find that peace and happiness they want in their lives. Another awesome thing is that they live very close to Eva and Daniel!!! We are excited to get them involved! We have been working pretty hard. We have lots of improvements to make but we are doing well. My companion is running out of time and wants to get work done so the upcoming weeks we will do a lot of work! I hope all is well! Until next time! Sinceramente, Anziano Collins p.s. I attached some pictures of when we went on top of the duomo, as well from the wedding this past weekend. enjoy!

CRAZY!

CIAO! This past week was another crazy one and it will be crazy for awhile but that is ok! THe work is moving along here in Milano. My companion and I are figuring out better how to work with one another and how to work in this area! Right now we are teaching a peruvian family who is awesome! Carmen and her son Christian know that the book of mormon is true and are preparing to be baptized for the 26th of this month! It's crazy for us because there is a lot that has to get done before then so we are working hard to get them ready! We have to start finding more people now because once them and Eva are baptized, we are going to have a lot of time on our hands! This weekend is going to filled with events, we have a wedding this saturday and then sunday I get to call you guys! Its so weird to think that! Other than that, not much has changed. I am still doing well and losing some weight so that is awesome! I will share a quick story with you all! 2 days ago we did a scambio which is where missionaries switch with another coppia for a day to learn and what not. Anziano Gessel, who was in the mtc with me, was my companion for the day. Our cool little miracle was that we were looking really hard for someone to teach and we couldnt find anyone. After walking around forever and talking with crazy people we saw two hispanic looking people fishing in a little river near our house. We decided to talk to them. One of them was named Carlos, and he was pretty interested and we ended sitting on a bench near the river and taught him a little bit and he wanted to learn more. We were so excited because we have had a hard time finding new investigators to teach so it was a wonderful blessing! I hope you are well! Until next time! Sinceramente, Anziano Collins!

Weird stuff goes down in Milano....

Buongiorno tutti! Ci siete? We had a crazy week this past week. So many things happened that I cannot even explain all of what had happened. WE had some realllllyy weird experiences as well. So we are just hoping for a calmer up coming week. I am doing well! MY companion is really awesome and is showing me how to cook some amazing things and more importantly is showing me how to be a better missionary! This past week we ran into a few interesting situations where we had to faith walk, diciamo, in order to get to an appointment. MEaning we had not idea where we were, our map didnt cover the area we were in and somehow still found the places we needed to be. It is a very interesting situation to be in but God is always looking out for us! We were able to see a baptism this past sunday and got our friendly bulgarian investigator Eva to it. It was a wonderful experience! A mom and her son were baptized and there was a wonderful spirit there. Eva was excited because she got to see how a baptism goes and is super excited for her baptism! We are excited for these next three weeks with her because her marriage is next weekend with her baptism the following weekend. Eva time we teach her we see a miracle and it just amazes me how God had prepared her for this passage in her life. It baffles me completly! I had a pretty cool experience yesterday that showed me how blessed I am to be a missionary. We got invited to a lunch yesterday by a woman named Tina from the ward. We got there and it was such a cool experience. At the lunch there were 2 philipino people, 2 perivuans, a Ghanan, and 2 americans. We all had spoken atleast 2-3 languages. The only things we had in common were that we are members of the church and happen to be in the same city in Italy. I was just blown away how were were all brought together in such a way, it was such a cool experience. This is another cool fact, yesterday alone I heard the following langauges in conversations- Russian, bulgarian, french, spanish, ITalian, Arabic, English, Twee(African langauge), and two unrecognizable langauges. I am definately excited to be a missionary, expecially here in Milano!!!!!! I hope all is well! Sinceramente, Anziano Collins

Shenanigins and transfers!

Hello Everyone! All is doing well here in Milano. This past week was truly eventful with more sickness! My companion Anziano Russo just cant get over this sickness! But that is ok. We did get some missionary work done so that is good. Something that we are very excited about is a new convert named Jose. He was born in peru and then moved to the states and lived there for most of his life. After having problems he decided to leave and live with his dad in Peru. He did not have a great experience there. He joined the church there and then moved to Italy and is now waiting to get documents to go back to the States. He does not really trust peruvians because of the problems he had in peru. Our ward is mostly peruvian so that has been interesting. We have been trying to help him get friends and become more comfortable with the ward. The hard part is that he speaks english, little italian and no spanish. It has been hard but our efforts are finally paying off! He seems so much more happy and his hanging out with people from the ward and doesnt rely on us as much. So we are very excited for him. Eva and her boyfriend have finalized everything and they will be married may 12th and will have her baptism the following saturday may 19th. We ARE VERY excited about this. There is only one sad thing. The transfer is ending and I am getting a new companion!! Anziano Russo is going to Collegno, a little city outside of Torino, and he will be companions with Anziano Walsh. Anziano Walsh is from my group, so Im pretty excited for them. My new companion is Anziano Mesorosh(I dont know how to spell it). This will be his last transfer which means I will be killing him(term for a missionary who's companion is finishing his mission.) Which most likely means I wil be here in Milano 2 for another 12 weeks, which I am very excited about. I really like the ward here and its a wonderful city. I will get my new companion tomorrow. Im sad to see ANziano Russo go. It feels like I just keep a companion for more than one transfer haha. I will have had a new companion every transfer for my first 4 because my new companion will be done after this next transfer. This past week we went and ate with the Africans in our ward and it was really good! THe only bad part is that my companion and I almost barfed because they fed us WAY too much. I didnt want to offend them so I kept eating. *****IMPORTANT****************** This past week we had a conference and one thing they told us about is packages. The mission leaders discourage that people send us packages for the following reason. Italys custom charges are getting ridiculous. Its almost like they pick whatever price they want to charge. Anyways if I get sent a package I HAVE to pay the custom charge, and if I cant the package will be destroyed. So keep that in mind. Its very expensive and almost not worth it to send anything. Until next time! Sinceramente, Anziano Collins

Keep em' coming!

Buongiorno Tutti! Spero che abbiate avuto una buona pasqua! This past week we have had lots of ups and downs! To start with I hope all of you have had a wonderful easter! We got invited to Lussy's house, a new convert with her son daughter, grandma, aunt and uncle. IT was a wonderful time. We may have stayed way too long but we didnt know how to get out because the food kept coming! This may or may not surprise everyone but I put down about 3 1/2 plates of food. Their uncle was really awesome! He was from puglia(I think thats how you spell it) HE was missing some teeth and had a crazy accent and was really funny. IT was really cool because he actually was interested in hearing about the gospel so we were pretty excited about that.
Anziano Russo and I are so suprised because we are being so blessed with such wonderful people and a lot of the times we dont feel like we dont deserve them. Two weeks ago a man named Udilon, from congo, came to church and wanted to learn more. He was an old investigator of the church about 2 years ago. He is so awesome! He speaks english, italian and french, We had our second meeting with him yesterday and he is soo Amazing. HE really wants to do what is right and be a good person. We asked to pray at the end of the lesson and it was so surprising because he was thanking god for allowing him to meet with us and how thankful he was and it was really powerful.
This wouldnt be an Anziano Collins email if I did not mention more about food eh? SO the day after easter there was a picnic for our ward and we decided to go to get to know the members better and try to get investigators to come. SO....A little about our really fast...our ward is made of Italians, peruvians, and phillipinos. And if any knows about these three cultures, they love to eat a lot and if guests to eat a lot its offensive. So to gain more trust with the members I put down a total of 6 1/2 plates of food. I also ate rabbit. That was interesting. The things I am willing to do to gain trust and make friendships. Fyi I have not gained weight to my knowledge.
SO I will finish my email with a story of our investigator Eva. We see them about 3 times a week. They are going to be married and she will have her baptism the week after. Their story is a miracle. We found out the other day the way they were before the missionaries started meeting withm. I will be very brief, Daniel(boyfriend/ less active) and Eva werent having a great relationship and almost broke up until Daniel decided to go to church and went. The missionaries talked with him and now they are going to church every week and are reallly happy. Anziano Russo and I have done nothing, They(Daniel and Eva) have progressed through the help of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so awesome to see how they have changed and how they contiunue to change. Being a missionary is hard, but it is so wonderful to be one. I am grateful for this opportunity I have!
I hope all of you had a wonderful easter! Until next time..
Sinceramente,
Anziano Collin

Bidoni Sharks....​I love em!

Ciao Tutti! Come state? Tutto bene? Spero di si :D. So this past week was not crazy eventful. My companion got a little more sick and we were stuck inside for a day and a half. Im doing well despite the house arrest. He is much better now so we are ready for a very productive week. General Conference was really awesome this past weekend! I didnt learn a lot the first two sessions because we watched it in Italian, but we watched two in english and I LEARNED A ton. I really liked the talk by Elder Holland where he talked a little about how we shouldnt be jealous if good fortune happens to others. That definately applies to us missionaries when we see others having tons of success and we are having bidonis(people who set up appointments with us and flake) I think that applies tio my companion especially right now because we have not had tons of time to really work and we havent really had tons of succes. This past saturday, we got rejected by everyone. It was fun because people are very funny when they say no, but it was really frustrating to have that happen. Especially since, when I got here we would have atleast a few people stop and talk to us. We did have a miracle yesterday. We stopped a bunch of people and they all happened to be Jehovahs witnesses or Evangelists, and none of them tried to bach with us. It was crazy!
We have a good week set up so we are excited to work hard. We did have a guy come to church this past sunday and we are excited about him because we got an appointment set up and is very interested. We are pretty excited about that. We had a great lesson with this man named France. He is really humble and really earnestly trying to find more in his life. He is really awesome! He gave us some chocolate for Pasqua(easter)! He is such a great guy and he is realllllyyy honest. So we are pretty excited about him.
I would like to say that I have finally chosen my official soccer team here. I have chosen AC Milan as my team! They did however lose to Barcelonna yesterday. I dont really pay tons of time to that but it does help to use to break ice with people.
We only have 2 more weeks left of this transfer. I cant believe I have been in Italy for over a month! Its crazy how fast time past!
In the same talk that Elder Holland gave, I really liked when he talked about that we need not think about the bad things that have happened in our lives. If something bad happens, we should move on and try to continue doing good! I know that is very important, whenever we get rejected by people we just smile and shrugg it off and it really does make us better! I hope all of you have a great Easter! Enjoy Some good ole ham, deviled eggs a for me!
Sinceramente,
Anziano Collins

House arrest......not fun

Ciao tutti! I am doing well here in the wonderful city of Milano. Not a lot has changed since I last emailed. We have not worked too much this past week. My companion and I were doing half days last week because he was not feeling well and so last friday we went to the doctor and after waiting 2 and half hours to see the doctor we recieved a death sentence. He told my companion that we had to stay inside for 3 days........So we spent 3 long days inside reading....and eating what little food we had. It was a lot of fun. But we are very excited that we are going outside again! We recently had an investigator drop us which was very sad.
We did have a lesson with our investigator Eva who is raelly awesome. Like I have said before, she is getting married, and then we are having her baptism which is really exciting! So our miracle this week other than being that we could go outside was that my wallet was not lost. Let me explain. So I had my wallet when we got home and I was really tired and without thinking I took it of my pocket and put it on the table. MY companion, thinking it was his, put it in his backpack.....That was the scariest experience ever. We thought I had lost it at the bank. Then 20 minutes later my companion found it in his backpack but had no rocolection of putting it there.
MY Italian is really improving, I feel like my langauge confidence had alllowed me to really talk more with people which really helps
I have attached some pictures of more food I have eaten. The bread in the picture is called Focacia and its just really good bread with oil and salt. Its so addicting! Then there is some bread smothered in Nocciola or in other words Nuttella! The family in the picture are some new converts that we did some stuff with last pday. they are really awesome and they help us with a lot. Micheal, the 14 ragazzo in the picture even went street contcting with us! I hope to have more to say next week!
Ciao!
Sinceramente,
Anziano Collins

P.S. I made my companion philly cheese steak...and he was pretty excited about that!

Salve, il nostro tempo è prezioso..

Hello my friends! This past week has treated me well. We have had a lot of succes this week. My companion has been sick on and off but despite that we have 5 investigators who we teach weekly which is awesome. We havent had anytime to do any finding work because We have been teaching a lot which is always a good thing. Almost all of our investigators have accepted the invitation to be baptized which is pretty awesome!! We are pretty excited for them. The miracle for this week is that we are still alive. We happened to have investigators who live far away and thus we travel all over the city pretty much. There are 3 areas in Milano and ours happens to be the biggest...and it truly is HUGE. The other day we tons of food at our investigator EVas house. We then taught a lesson and then we had to book it to catch our train. My companion almost threw up, it was pretty funny. We run to cacth trains a lot......
IT never ceases to amaze me how many people are actually in this city.....its ridiculous...definately a big change from Missouri. I recently had a zone conference with some zones in ITaly and we learned a lot on how to do our missionary work better. We also learned how we can better budget our money, but the lesson we learned applies to almost everything we do in life. We need to plan out what we want to do, do whaat we want to do, then monitor to see how we are doing. As missionaries, we do this almost every hour of the day. We set goals of what we want to accomplish and how we are doing on the goals. It was a great meeting!
Last p-day we visited one of the oldest aquariums. It was pretty awesome. It was free so of course so it wasnt much but I really enjoyed it! Other exciting news, I cut my own hair on sunday...that was pretty scary. Its not very even in some spots because it was hard to see but for the most part its pretty good. We have become pretty well with the aquaintanted with the youth here. They are really bravo! I hope everyone is doing well! The work is going pretty good here, so we are pretty excited about that!
I have attacthed some pitures of things I have taken. The plate of pasta is food I made by myself!! Im finally learning how to cook!


CIAO
Anziano Collins
Tutti che possono leggere questo, Io so che ci sono errori, ma voglio dirvi che sono felice che potete comprendere questo!
Vi voglio bene!

Non voglio correre più......

We also got a letter in the mail today from Scott. He is LOVING the food. Okay well the pasta, pizza, and calzone type things. He doesn't like the water and the cereal. He's also afraid to drink the milk. He's also a big fan of the gelatto. Half of his letter was about food. He's enjoying the work though!

Salve from the Italia! This past week has been a good one. My companion has faced some bad health and the past couple of days we have spent inside because he was sick so that was fun...Anyways so I would like to say to everyone that I'm afraid to go to any appointments at night time because the people assume that we need to be fed....it was bad in the states...its worse here. Italians bring eating to a whole new level......at some of our appointments, I almost didn't make it. So our main Investigator right now is Eva. She is Bulgarian. She is dating another member in our ward here. She is pretty awesome! Every time we go to their house they feed us a plethura food...its awful. She is going to get baptized April 14! Her wedding will be the week before that so we are pretty excited about that!
I experienced my first real sunday as a missionary....it was crazy. We had 3 investigators there, 5 people who needed translation because they didnt understand Italian...and last but not least...I was not sure exactly what was going on most of the time. Our ward has a lot of hispanics and so they speak half italian half spanish really fast...and its very hard to understand. So I was a bit ruffled up.
We spend most of our time on the metro and one night I went to bed and felt like I was moving. Missionary work here is a lot different than it was in missuori. We talk to people on the metro, we go to parks and go talk to people. Going to peoples houses is a little difficult because everyone lives in aparment complexes and the only way to get to them is through the citofono which is kind of like the a buzzer and they can unlock the door for you. But since we live in a rich city most places have doornen and they dont like us too much so thats awlays fun. I have some pictures I will try to send that I took last pday. I hope everyone is doing well!

Salve from Italia!!

CIAO! Come STATE?? Allora..I am finally here in Italia! IS everyone ready to find out where I am serving in................................................MILANO! I am in there area of Milano 2. There are 3 areas in the city of milano and ours happens to be the biggest! We have what is called the duomo in our area and if you all get a chance to check out photos of this....do it. It is AWESOME! I love this city. Its like living in New york but in all Italian. The culture is way different here. Our ward here is awesome. We have tons of people to come. we have tons of peruvians so elder corbett and I are serving the same people! Anyways, I would like to let you all know that I have eaten a lot of pasta since I have been here. Yesterday, we had a "small meal" with an investigator...and I almost died...on the bright side we had a Great lesson with Eva(the investigator). She wanted to get baptized sooner than what we had on calender which kind of suprised us! Before her baptism she is getting married and sooo we are going to have a marriage in milano 2...which Im pretty excited about because we will get to go!!!! So lets hope that all pulls through eh....We got out of the appointment late and were running through a small city right outside of millano after eating tons of pasta, all in the rain, to catch a train but missed it. We got home around 10 45 it was crazy!
So Im not in a bike area thank goodness...I get to ride the metro all the time. Its crazy. We also ride buses. There arae tons of cultures here I cant believe it! The people are also very fashionable here go figure huh? I understand alot of whats going and whats said to me but when people start talking about food, I get a little lost but thats ok.
I got sick on the way here and had to stay inside all day friday and rest because I felt terrible but I feel tons better now!!!! Its a different life here but I realllly enjoy. Its great being a missionary. Except right now I have to pay a lot of attention to what people say because they say is very fast.. I cant understand children or old people...they talk crazy! I hope everyone is doing very well!!! HEre is my address
Send letters to the mission office
Anziano Scott Collins
Italy Millan Mission Office
Via Gramisci 13/4
20090 Opera MI Italy

Here is my address but If i leave and missionaries arent dilligent at getting to the offive I wont get it.
Anziano Scott Collins
Viale Monza 169
20127 milano Italia

1-Transfer​=Over

Hello Everyone!! My first transfer is over!!!!! Its pretty crazy to think that 6 weeks have gone by already!! So this week was pretty good. I taught my first lesson in the sense that I was the dominant person teaching so that was pretty crazy!! It went really well. This week has not been so good in the sense of finding new people to teach. Luckily no appointments fell through though :D.
So the other day when we were walking down to the south end of our area we saw some police breaking up a fight between tons of people....other than my first lesson that was the most exciting thing that has happened this week. I have been doing well. Alright so with transfers lots of crazy stuff goes down! So I know I will be transfered out of Saint Joseph with is pretty sad, I dont know where my next area will be and I dont know who my companion will be, but I do know that I WILL BEEEE INNNN ITALY!!!! After 35 weeks of waiting I finally got my visa! I found out this past wednesday and have been dying to let people know but I can only Email on mondays so thats a bummer. SO anyone that has written me recently, if the I dont get the letter by today I wont get it. So Ill have my companion send it back to you. I leave Tomorrow at 10:30am. the assistants are coming to pick me up. From what I have been told This is my flight schedule: Kansas City 1:20 to Chicago. 5:30 Chicago to London, 9:30am 2/29/12. Im pretty excited to head out! I am pretty sad about leaving the area, I really liked the people in the ward. But It is also exciting to go to the mission I was called to :D Other than that Im not sure what else to email about. Im doing really well. I have some work to do to get packed but Im pretty ready to head out. What's really cool is that I will meet up with the missionaries that came in at the MTC when I was there, I will meet with them when I am in Chicago. Im really excited about that.
I love being a missionary, its a different life and it definately changes you. Its pretty hard but its fun to do. I hope everyone is doing well! If you sent me a letter and I dont get it and it gets sent back to you, Im sorry but I will put my Italy Address here so everyone can have it :D
Elder Scott Andrew Collins
Italy Millan Mission
Via Antonio Gramsci 13/2
20090 Opera MI Italy
I hope everyone is well!
Sinceramente,
Anziano Collins

Crazzzyyy!!!

Hello everyone, I just read your emials, Im sorry but I do not have time to respond to them. We didnt get a chance to email beacuse the library was closed. Today we helped out at a food kitchen and served food for about an hour and a half to a lot of the homeless people in the area and that was pretty cool. This past week we did not have too much succes. Our 5 most promising appointments all fell through. So that was fun. We have been doing a lot of finding work and we have found 3 potential investigators so we are hoping that we will begin teaching soon. I went on exchanges with the zone leaders this past friday and that was a lot of fun. I went into parts of the suburbs of kansas city. And I finally did knocking on doors, no door slams but a lot of rejection but thats ok.
So I dont have any good spiritual stories to tell but I do have two crazy stories of our interaction with good ole people of St Joe and St Joe's FInest. So first story, My companion and I were walking down a street and came to an intersection where 3 polices cars were at with their lights on and the three policemen were surrounding a house. They had their taser guns drawn but at first we thought they were guns. So we kind of just stood still. There were people in the house that kept looking outside and one of the cops ran around the back. We thought a shoot out was going to happen. We started to walk down a street and saw a crowd of people who had been there before we got there so we asked them what happened and apparently the people whos house was surrounded by the cops had a pitbull that they had let outside. Within in an hour the dog jumped over a fence and literally ate a six week old dog that was next door. Apparently it was really gruesome...and when the owners tried to get the dog he turned on them and bit them. There are more details but I wont get into them. Needless to say it was CRAZY.
Second story, my companion and I went to knock on a house but saw some dogs in the yard and we decided not to so we proceded to walk down the street and talked to a man who was sitting outside of the house, at the time he was the only person outside on that strreet. He told us he was interested so we walk off and turned onto another streee, and literally 30 seconds later a sheriff police truck drove past turned on the street we were just one and we heard a screech from the truck stopping and my companion heard "Put your hands up" but we werent sure so we kept walking and got to our car which was only 2 minutes away. We then drove back to thr street we were just on and saw 5 cop cars on the street with their lights on and hand someone in custody. We are pretty sure the guy we had just talked to got arrested...so that was pretty crazy! I
Other than thsoe two stories we are working hard trying to find people to teach. Our schedule is pretty tight today so I have to get off SO I hope everyone is doing well!!!! Talk to you all next week!

No Car This Week

Hello Everybody!! Im am doing great here in Missouri. We didnt have the car this week so we did tons of walking. Our area is pretty big and its been cold so we havent had as many street contacts as much lately. The other day it was pretty cool, we had people that we wanted to go visit and really didnt see anybody on the street or anything and we were walking down an area of town where most buildings were abandoned and the businesses were pretty dead but we walked past a bar and some guy ran out pretty enthustiastcly to talk to us so that was pretty cool. We dont know what motivated him to come out but we talked to him about what we believe and gave him a Book of mormon. A few minutes after that we ran into a kid my age who started getting interested in religion because he really wanted to change his life so we talked to him for awhile and hope that he calls us.

sorry about that the email accidentaly sent. Anyways, other than that we havent had tons of success. We have been meeting with this woman Holly at a members house three times now. and we gave her the first three lessons and so we are hoping that she progresses, we are also teaching a little girl in a less active family who will be getting baptized hopefully at the beginnning of march. So thats pretty exciting. Its been pretty cold lately. Its currently snowing so that is always fun. Its only a couple of inches right now so thats not bad at all :D. So here is the mission address, if you want to send me stuff its actually supposed to go to this address and then they will forward it to me. They didnt tell me that till recently. Its also good to send it there in case I leave, since because its getting close to where I should get my visa according to what the travel office said but who knows, Here it is
517 W. Walnut. Independence, MO 64050
I hope everyone is doing great! Im doing pretty good. I have had to learn or atleast attempt to learn sewing to fix some things so thats good and now Im starting to cook more so thats goood.
ARRIVERCI! Ci Vediamo!
con molto Amore,
Anziano Collins.
Anche Ho sentito che fa fredissimo in Italia adesso! Fa caldo qui piu di la! :D

Car Week!!

CIAO TUTTI! This past week we had the car so I am not tired physically right now so that is exciting. As of right now we are teaching 2 people right now. They are fuin to teach and its nice to be doing something. A lot of the times(especially when we dont have a car) we walk for 2 hours talk to 2-3 people and then walk for another 2 hours home and that's it. SO the car is lovely ot have because we can get more done. SO last night we stayed in because of the super bowl there was litearlly no one out so we decided that it would be best to not go out and proselyte. this town really loves hte super bowl apparently ahah. I found a challenge of studying the language....I only get an hour a day to completely focus on the language so that is tough...I have been doing everything in Italian, writing notes, reading, and what else I can in Italian. I got a calendar the other..it was like $3 and its an Italian calendar. It has pictures of cities and areas in Italian so its fun ot look at. My old companion is in a town called Ravenna and another Anziano that I knew is in Genova and Im really jealous about that! It is a beautiful coastal city! My companion is good, he is the district leader and at times he reminds me alot of Jim Carry because of his crazy humor and sometimes weird screaming. So thats always an adventure. Today is our zone p-day and we will be playing basketballl!!! SO Im VERY excited aobut that. So today I bought 11 stamps in nickels and dimes...that was pretty fun. This town is nice, very old and lots of poverty but the people are really nice. There are a lot of people here who have never seen the ocean and lived their whole lives here in St Joseph so that was pretty crazy to hear about. Other than alll of that, everything is really good here. I have not heard anything from salt lake about my visa. But when I do I will have a 15 hours notice or so before I head out. THe ward I am in is very nice and they love to help out with missionary work. BOth of our investigators right now were referenced through members so thats really exciting. As of now I have yet to go tracting in the sense of knocking on doors and im pretty ecstatic about that! So I know this emails has tons of spelling errors but I dont have time to fix them but boy let me tell you. There are tons of grammar issues that I hear every day haah...after studying a language, you pay more attention to grammar, and man has it been hard. For example, the grammar issues are very basic such as there was some things going on down there. The "was" gets me but I dont say anything. SO I may not be Italia but it feels like it at times....members love to cook us spaghetti and lasagna or a mixture of both. In the past week I have have 5 meals consisting of of spaghetti or lasgna...is it a bad thing? No. We get fed tons!!!!! Well,
I hope everyone is doing great! Keep me updated on how you are doing!!
Sinceramente,
Anziano Collins

FIRST WEEK...in the field

I just recently finished my first week in the mission field!! We get the car this week and man am I excited for that!!!!!!! It seems that everyone we visit is on opposite ends of our area. Just yesterday and the day before that we spent 2 hours walking down to an area then going to the people we wanted to see and then there was no one home and then right after that we had to walk back because we were out of time. SO it was frustrating to spend 4 hours of our day walking and not doing much. We did run into a guy named mark. He was really cool, he seemed very religious and hopefully he will give us a call! We got a referral from a member and visited with her and taught the first lesson and now we have a return appointment for this Wednesday with her so that's awesome! So karma has hit me...so my companion has a thing called an ocarina...which is like a recorder/flute.....and there was a reason that was I not in band....and I have come close to anger because of that thing...but I keep it to myself. Our area is slightly poor....well not slightly...they are poor. THe people we meet are crazy!!!...well most of them...its fun to talk to people. Luckily we have had so many people to see that we have not had to track...which is awesome! So far not many people have been mean to us....we did get flipped off the other day but that wasn't really anything...we get honked at ALOT.....Its kind of weird....most of the time its non members...so I always kind of question why they do that. So we have been working with this guy Marvin, he is a member but is less active. We had been visiting him and he said he would come to church this past Sunday, we even had an appointment with him on Saturday but he cancelled on us and we didn't see him at church so that was disappointing. I did get a call this week from one of the workers in the mission for my passport stuff...but other than that no news on my visa...so that's slightly frustrating. From what I know I will have about the same amount of times notice as I did when I was in the MTC to leave to here. So that will be fun. The members here really like missionary work...and feed us TOO MUCH. I take as much as I can but sometimes its too much. Within 4 days we got 3 things of brownies, a cake, a fully cooked ham that needs to be baked and has glaze, 2 sauteed tenderloins and salsa.....soo much food! Its great though! I still haven't gotten the packages that I was supposed to get when I was in the MTC but I think I will get those when we have interviews with the mission president this Thursday. Other than all of that everything is going well...on p-days we go to this grocery store called "Sack N Save" its own by a member and has a diner like place in the back where you can order food and missionaries eat free! Its pretty sweet...so we will be going to that right after this. I hope everyone is doing well!!! Hope to talk to you soon! When I get the call saying my visa is good ill email or something to let you know that I'm leaving and going to Italy!
Sinceramente,
Anziano Collins