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!