Basketball!!

Hey Mom! It was a super busy and great week! I haven't gotten a GPS yet. I probably won't until Elder Ames leaves. He leaves the morning of November 2nd and I most likely will stay in Bellefontaine. I hope so because I am starting to love it here and this week we found a new investigator that I am convinced he is the reason I was sent here! But I'll talk more about that later on. 

So Tuesday I had exchanges with Elder Henrie! It is always a blast to be with him again. We were in the Piqua area all day! We got two new investigators and that was awesome! And we helped someone mow his lawn. And we tracted a lot but we didn't have much success but it was super fun to be with Elder Henrie! I also met a member in the Piqua ward that used to live in Vancouver! He was in the Fisher's landing ward! His name is Brother Kice. He said he moved from there in like 2001. But that was awesome to talk to him about that! His daughter painted a picture of Multnomah Falls and it was on his wall and that was really nice to see. Made me feel like I was home for a bit. 

On Wednesday we had district meeting which is always fun! And then we helped an investigator put in concrete. That took up most of our day but it was pretty fun! 

On Thursday I went to Piqua again and had an exchange with Elder Belnap! I biked for the first time on my mission! We did service and then went street contacting and tracting. We met a lot of really interesting people. One of them wasn't very interested at all and was kind of making fun of us but he bought us muffins so that was cool haha! I prayed that morning before my personal study that I would be able to use the things I studied somehow throughout the day to help someone and I was able to! Someone we street contacted said something that led right into me sharing what I had learned during personal study! It was so cool. We also visited Piqua's deaf investigator. That was really hard to teach him but he is really cool and on date to be baptized! We don't have any ASL missionaries in this mission so the way they teach him is by typing things on their tablet and showing him and then he types back. 

Not too much happened on Friday. Just the usual day of a missionary. We did go to dinner with Adam again though. He will get baptized eventually. 

Saturday was great! We visited some potential investigators in the morning but no one answered and then we went to help sister Achor set up the party and then we set up the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt kinda blew up. The kids decided to just look for papers instead of figuring out the clues so it was just chaos, but they had fun so that's all that matters haha! Later in the day is when I met the new investigator that I think I was sent to Bellefontaine for. He was at the park playing basketball by himself so I went up to him and challenged him to a game of one on one. I told him that we were missionaries and that if I won we would share a message with him. He said that even if I lost we could still share a message. So we played and I played so well. He was super good and somehow I kept up with him in my dress shoes and slacks and everything. I was balling. I ended up losing 11-8 but it was super fun and then we got to teach him the first lesson! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he couldn't come to church yesterday but we are gonna play him and teach him again this week! Me and him really hit it off and I think he's why I'm here. I finally found someone in Bellefontaine that I can relate to. 

Sunday was good like always! No one came to church again but that's just how things roll. We had dinner at the Coleman's again and me and Mitch talked about basketball the whole time. He is way cool. He is actually gonna come play basketball with our investigator this week! It's nice to be able to relate to people here it makes the work a lot more enjoyable and easier. We tried to visit people later in the day with limited success, but it was a good day! And a good week!

I'm starting to get better at talking and everything and this week was a good confidence booster for me! I love you mom thank you for everything!

Your son,

Elder Collier 

2nd Zone Conference!!

Hey Mom! I'm doing well, I love missionary work! And I have been getting better at talking to people. I realized that it all starts with having good relationships with the members and I've been getting better at talking to them and so that leads to me getting better at talking to strangers. It's still really tough though I'm not gonna lie. It kinda drains my energy each day. But it's okay I'll get better as time goes on. 

This week was really good! 

We met with Sister Achor again on Tuesday and those lessons keep getting better. She is really increasing her faith and that's nice to see. Later that day we ate dinner at the Wahl's and Brother Wahl goes "Elder Collier all I see on Facebook is a bunch of pictures of babies. Your family is obsessed" I thought that was so funny hahaha! You all must have had a great time in Utah! 

Wednesday sister Achor needed help with making a scavenger hunt for her grandkids' Halloween party so we tried our best to help out with that. Hopefully it turns out well! We had a lesson with Bryson where we were reviewing the baptismal interview questions and that went great. He's so excited to be baptized and I am so happy for him! Then we went and contacted some more people without too much success. 

Thursday was Zone conference! It was extra long so it took up our whole day after driving. I sang for everyone! I sang How Great Thou Art. It was nice to sing again and I was nervous but I'm glad the Zone leaders asked me to! Zone conference was so great. I love President Stratford. He is so knowledgeable and so loving to all of us! We learned a lot. We learned about how important the sacrament is and how we need to emphasize that with our investigators. And he talked about how obedience is more important than the things that we have sacrificed already. He read a scripture 1 Samuel 15:22 that talks about that. I was really grateful for zone conference. It was much needed!

Friday not too much happened. We just tried to contact some people and helped clean the church! That was fun.

Saturday we had a funny experience tracting. We got a new investigator on the street so that was good but later on we knocked this door and 3 little girls opened the door and I said "hi, is your mom home?" And one of them went to get her but their mom didn't come back and he little girl rain back and said "shut the door, shut the door, they don't like God." And so they shut the door. That's one that I haven't heard before but I am here to tell you that we do like God. We like Him very much! Then we helped a family move in. They had a piano that we had to move! I was really nervous moving it because I know that if I hurt it somehow then it would make you very upset, haha I love you mom!

Then Sunday was great! The talks were really great. We had dinner with the Escue's and that was fun. They are such a great family. And then we tried to contact people with some luck but not too much. 

Overall it was a pretty good week! 

I love you mom!

Your son,

Elder Collier 

My Week!

Hey mom! Thank you for the package that was great! I really appreciated it and don't worry I did share with Elder Ames! And I liked the Pez dispenser! 

This week was pretty good! 

Tuesday we had exchanges with the Zone leaders so I was in Huber Heights all day! I went with Elder Traughber and that was good. We had dinner with a family in their ward and the wife's aunt is Sister Cronan the seminary teacher! That was cool! Not much happened though. No one was really interested and we had some people yell and cuss at us but them it's okay because you can laugh about it later! Apparently people in Ohio go to bed at 7:30 at night because they tell you it's too late for you to be outside. And we just say "sir it's 7:30" and then they slam the door. It's actually pretty funny afterwards hahaha! 

Wednesday we had interviews and district meeting in Huber heights! I love President Stratford. He is an amazing President and you can really tell that he truly cares about each of us. After that we had district meeting and that is always fun! I love my district and it's gonna be sad when we get split up next transfer! After all of that we had a lesson with Bryson that night! It was our last lesson with him before we start reviewing the baptismal interview questions! It's super cool!

Thursday we had a lesson with Sister Achor! That is always fun. She's doing a lot better! Later in the day we did service at the soup kitchen again. That's always a good time. And we saw Christian that night!

Friday was weekly planning and then we had a lesson with Bryson again! He's really excited to be baptized! After that we went and invited Christian and some other people to the branch Chili Cook off! That was pretty fun although only two people brought chili and one brought chicken noodle soup hahaha! It was really fun though! I like the Branch they are great people! 

Saturday we went and saw Dawn and we are going to help her paint her house this week! She's doing well and hopefully once things aren't as busy in her life we can teach her! We went to lunch at waffle house after that and Elder Ames felt really sick so we had to stay in the apartment for a couple of hours until he didn't feel nauseous. But after that we got to go visit some less active members and it was good! 

Sunday was good! After church we had lunch at the Coleman's. They are such a cool family. Their son Mitch reminds me a lot of myself. We can talk about basketball and stuff like that. Their dog's name is Jimmer and that is the best thing ever. After thay we went and visited a less active family and they were the nicest people I've ever met. They talked to us for like an hour and they said they are gonna start to come back to church. And they said that they went on a road trip two years ago to Washington! They went down the Columbia river gorge and they loved it. That was fun to talk to them about! Except they say "Warshington" hahahaha. After that we met with an investigator but he was really busy. So yeah that was my week! I love being out here!

I love you mom thank you for everything!

Your son,

Elder Collier 

General Conference was Amazing!

Hey Mom! 

Thank you so much for the package! That was really nice! The week has been pretty good! Better than last week! So the rest of last Monday was good! We hung out with the Sidney Elders in Piqua! We played basketball and football. That was way fun! And then we met with some people that night.

Tuesday a lot of lessons cancelled but that's okay! We still had two lessons! We met with Sister Achor and that was really good! And then later in the day we tried contacting a referral but she doesn't live there anymore. Then we had a lesson with the Poindexters! They are really cool. They aren't really interested in being baptized but they read the Book of Mormon every day and they know it is true! And they are better member missionaries than most members haha! They have gotten their friends and Sister Poindexter has gotten her brother to meet with the missionaries in other areas! It's really funny but so cool! They'll get baptized eventually. 

Wednesday we went and saw Dawn and invited her to general conference! She said that she would come (she didn't end up watching) but that's alright. Then we got to talk to tiffany over Facebook and answer some of her questions so that was good! And then we met with some more people that night and invited them to conference!

Thursday we had district meeting in Piqua! The zone leaders gave the trainings and it was really helpful! It was about how to use Facebook and your tablets more effectively. Something I really need to get better at! Then we tried meeting with some people that night but no one answered but we got to talk to tiffany over Facebook again and answer some more questions. The one frustrating thing about Facebook is that the only place we have Wi-Fi is the church so if we are gonna talk to someone we have to drive all the way to the church and then we have to wait there for their response when we could be out doing something but you don't want to just leave and not answer their questions. So it takes up more time than we would like. Some areas have Wi-Fi in their apartment so hopefully I get to go to one of those areas eventually haha! 

Friday we mainly did service. We helped someone put Christmas lights up. Yes... We put Christmas lights up in September. It was nice to help her out though! The  we had weekly planning and then we did service at the soup kitchen again! It's fun to help out at the soup kitchen! Then we walked to Christians and we always seem to get there at the worst time for him but I think that's a good thing because he knows that no matter what he is going through that there's at least two people in Bellefontaine that care about Him and hopefully he makes the connection that God loves him as well!

Saturday was conference. Holy smokes it was amazing. I have really taken general conference for granted in my previous 18 years of life. We get to hear from living Apostles of our Savior Jesus Christ every 6 months!! How cool is that? And their messages are directly for us to guide us in our day. They can be applied so easily to our lives! I am so thankful for the inspired leaders in this church and I know for a fact that they are called of God! I have decided that I am going to read at least one conference talk every day from here on out because I have totally taken them for granted in my life! We should study them and learn from them each day! It's such a great blessing! Anyway, I loved conference! We didn't have any investigators watch with us but we had some that watched by themselves!

Sunday was amazing too! I think my favorite talk was Tad R Callister's. I knew as soon as they said he was gonna speak that he was gonna throw down and boy did he deliver! He gave a great talk about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon! I know that that book is true and no matter how many people try to prove that it is wrong they can't because it is true! And millions of people have now testified that they know it is true. It is the word of God and everyone should read and ask God if it is true!  

I love you! Thank you for everything!

Your son,

Elder Collier