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.