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 :)