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!