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