I'm Almost 19!!

Hey Mom! 

Thank you for the birthday package, I have not opened it yet! I'll open it tomorrow. 

That is so exciting that Patrick got his mission call. I love that kid. He is gonna be an amazing missionary. I'm jealous of all his companions already haha!

Well honestly I don't really remember much that happened this week. All the days have kinda just blended together. But it was a good week! Not like last week haha! 

Let's see if I can remember what happened on what day... (I'm writing this on the bus and my journal is at the apartment so it can't help me haha)

Thursday was transfer day! And so all the OSU missionaries got to take the arriving missionaries out on campus so they could hand out their first Book of Mormon. I took Elder Farley out. He reminds me a lot of myself. He's very scared to talk to people. But he did a great job teaching about the Book of Mormon and he gave one out the first person he talked to! He is gonna be a great missionary I know it. It was cool to be on the other side of this experience because I remember how scared I was when I first got to the field and had to hand out a Book of Mormon on campus. It was interesting to see how much I have actually improved in talking to people. And I was able to confidently tell him that talking to people gets easier. So that was really cool. Later in the day we were able to have some great lessons with our progressing investigators. We met with Mason and let me tell ya, I love that kid. He is so cool and so solid. His best friend is on a mission right now in Brazil. We went to lunch with him before the lesson and just talked like normal people and then had such a great and spiritual lesson right after that. I genuinely consider him my friend and it is so cool to get to teach him. He wants to be baptized he just hasn't picked a date yet. So I am so excited for him. Later in he day we met with another one of our investigators and she really opened up to us and asked us questions for about 45 minutes after the lesson! It was great to be able to answer her questions and see her faith growing. It is always a good sign when people ask questions. Oh and because it was transfer day no one in the district left but we did get another set of sisters. So 3 sets of elders and 2 sets of sisters on OSU!

Friday we moved apartments! The new sisters moved into our apartment, We moved into Elder Williams and Elder Fowers' apartment and they moved into a different apartment that no missionaries and lived in for a few transfers. That took up a lot of our day but later in the day we had a great lesson with our investigator Di! She is so funny last time we met she comes in the institute and she says "I brought a friend!" And so we taught her and Sean. This week she came in and we ask if Sean is coming and she said yes and that she brought her roommate! So we taught 3 people haha! It's so fun to see how excited she is about learning that she wants her friends to come! It was a really good lesson. 

Not much happened on Saturday. We went out contacting for most of the day and had a lesson with a super awesome recent convert named Seth. He is working on his Duty to God with us so he teaches us and it is fun! And we had a really awesome weekly planning session that evening. It was great because there is a white board on the wall of our study room in this new apartment so we wrote all over that our goals and things like that. It made me super excited for this transfer.

Sunday was good. Sunday's are always good! Church was great, I enjoy going to 6 hours of church. It reenergizes me for the week. After that we went contacting for the rest of the evening. 

Monday we met some really cool people contacting but the best part was our great sit down lessons. We taught the restoration to one of our new investigators and it went great! And then the sister told us later in the day that they met her on campus and talked to her and they asked when a good time to meet would be and she said "oh, I'm already meeting with Elder Collier and Elder Morse and I'm meeting with them again this Friday!" We were so happy when they told us that because that means she is excited to keep learning more! That was a miracle for sure that they were able to run into her. And then we had another great lesson that evening.

Tuesday... long day! We woke up at 5:00 in the morning and left the apartment at 6:30 to meet up with this guy on campus at 7:15. He is only on campus from 6:00 AM to 7:30 AM. (It was a miracle that we ran I to him the one day that he was on campus later in the day) he didnt have much time so we gave him a Book of Mormon and testified of its truthfulness and showed him Moroni's promise. He didn't really want to meet but he wants to read the Book of Mormon so it was worth getting up so early! Later in the day we had a great lesson with another investigator! We have some great investigators right now. Super exciting stuff. 

Anyway, I love you mom! Thanks for the birthday wishes. It doesn't really feel like my birthday tomorrow but that's okay! I am sure it'll be great. I love OSU! Go Buckeyes! (But go cougs even more).

I love you!

Your son,

Elder Collier 

6 months down!

Hey Mom! 

This transfer has gone by so fast. I can't believe it's already the end! Elder Morse and I are staying for at least one more transfer! So I'm still gonna be on OSU.

I'm glad you liked the video that Elder Bennett posted. That was a lot of fun. There was one part of the tenor part that I just could not get. I couldn't hear it and I was having a hard time with it. But then I decided to sing it on Solfege and I was able to get it. Another reason why Iverson teaching us to sight read is so important. You can even tell the choir that! 

Thank you so much for the hats and scarf! They are super warm! Thank you! 

Well this week sure was interesting.  Elder Morse called it the worse best week of the mission. That interesting haha! But I still love being here. 

Thursday was the last district meeting of the transfer and the zone leaders came! Elder Muir and Elder Brinkerhoff. They are awesome. They gave great trainings on goal setting and planning. That's something that is really important and one that I need to work on still. I know when we set goals the Lord helps us achieve those goals when we are accountable to Him. We had a lesson with one of our investigators. That went pretty well, but I will talk more about that later on. 

Friday was a pretty good day. It was my 6 month mark! Crazy that I have been out for that long. It doesn't seem like it. Time flies. We had a great lesson with a bus driver! One of our bus drivers told us that he wants to meet with us so we taught him over Facebook! It was way cool. He is awesome. Later on in the we had an amazing lesson with an investigator named Li Li. He is from China and he is getting his PhD in computer science. He was telling us how stressful that is but when he walked into the institute building he immediately felt peaceful. And he noticed that me and Elder Morse were at peace as well and he wanted that. So he is excited to read the Book of Mormon and keep meeting with us. It was a really cool lesson. But then the lesson with another investigator after that was sad. He was on date to be baptized on February 24th. We taught the word of wisdom. He wasn't too happy about that. He didn't want to give up coffee and alcohol. But in the kesson he said he would live the word of wisdom. We promised him that he would be blessed with health and the ability to resist the temptations. But then he texted us after the lesson and said he doesn't want to meet with us anymore. It was really sad. That was the first of 4 progressing investigators that dropped us this week...

Saturday was an interesting day. Saturdays are always weird here because we do weekly planning. Everywhere else in the mission we do weekly planning on Fridays. But since it is a college campus we need to be out talking to people during the week so Saturday works better. We had a lesson scheduled for another progressing investigator at noon that day. He never showed up and never texted us. Later in the day he finally texted us and said he didn't want to meet with us anymore. Those are always great texts to receive. (Not really) but I we have been trying our best to not be discouraged. The nice thing about OSU is that you can always find more people haha! 

Sunday was great and much needed. Sitting in church reenergizes me. The YSA 2nd ward had ward conference that day so that was great to be able to sustain President Nelson for the first time. I know that he is called of God. He is a prophet of God. That meeting was amazing. Bishop Alpeter spoke and he did an amazing job. He talked about how we can always be happy by following the saviors example. And how when we humble ourselves and aren't prideful we truly are happier. And then President Richardson the Stake President of the Columbus Ohio stake spoke. He did an amazing job as well. He talked about sometimes in life it might seem like we are going the opposite way of the world but really we are going the right way because it all depends on where we want to end up. Obviously he did a better job at explaining that concept haha. It was a great talk. Definitely a much needed energy boost for the week. We went contacting that night and met Caitlin who is so cool. I'll talk about her later on. 

Monday was interesting. We had a very bold lesson with our investigator who we met with on Thursday. I have never given such a bold testimony of the Book of Mormon before. It is not like me to do that. I am usually timid. But this lesson called for it and it was definitely the spirit speaking through me. He had a lot of concerns and some of them I could tell he was just pulling from anti Mormon stuff online. And so me and Elder Morse were very clear about if the Book of Mormon is true then those concerns will go away. If the Book of Mormon is true then Joseph Smith was a prophet. If the Book of Mormon is true then the Lord leads and guides this church today. We invited him to read the entire book and humbly pray and ask God if it is true. He said that he is going to and that we can meet up in 3 or 4 weeks and he will tell us his answer. And he wants us to read the entire New Testament. So that is gonna be fun. I have already read all of it and I know that it is true but I am super excited to read it and really dig through it.  And then later on we contacted and then we sang the song for Facebook! That was a good way to end the night. 

Tuesday was pretty good. We had 7 lessons scheduled but only 1 happened but thats okay because the one that happened was solid! It was with Caitlin the girl we met on Sunday night. She is really interested and is gonna start reading the Book of Mormon! Later on in the day we tried to call our other investigator thay is on date but he won't respond so we are guessing he doesn't want to meet up. He answered the phone one day and immediately hung up. So things aren't very promising with that one. Pretty sad. And then another one of our investigators texted us and said he doesn't want to meet up. So that brings the grand total to 4 drops. And 5 if you count the 4 week break. 

So yeah it was a crazy week. We just need to keep going with faith that it will all work out. Our new investigators are pretty solid so I'm excited to work with them. It'll be a fun transfer! I'm still loving my mission, this week was hard but I still love it.

Love you mom! Have a great week! Oh and can you send me pictures or Rushmore? I miss him hahaha. 

Your son,

Elder Collier 

SmartPhones!!!

Hey Mom! 

We have lots of snow here. It is really fun actually. A lot of the people here are tired of it already but I hardly ever get snow so I am loving it haha! 

That is so crazy that Lexi and Woodson gave their farewell talks. They are both going to be great missionaries. I am hoping Patrick gets assigned to labor in the Ohio Columbus mission. And I want to be his trainer. Haha! That would be a dream come true. 

We did get to watch the announcement! It's really exciting that President Nelson is the new president of the church! I know that he is called of God and will lead us the way that Christ would have him to. I know that Christ is the actual head of this church and that even with a change of leadership it is still His church! 

That's exciting about the quartets! Is it really that time of year again? Time flies! 

Well this week was good! 

Thursday we had district meeting which is always good. It is still weird that we see each other every day. Most districts only see each other once a week. But it was a good meeting! After that we went out contacting quite a bit. We had 3 lessons scheduled that day but 2 didn't show up. Sadly that happens a lot. We had a great lesson that evening though with our investigator Mason. He is so cool. We met him for the first time because he is back from break! His best friend left on his mission 3 months ago and is in Brazil. So he is really interested and he loves the Book of Mormon. It was such a great lesson. He is excited to take the steps towards baptism!

Friday was quite the day! It started off with us getting on the bus. We got on the bus and before we even said anything to anyone or even sat down this lady asked us if she could have a pamphlet. And we said "yes of course!" And I handed her a pamphlet and we asked if she had talked to missionaries before and she said that she had been meeting with missionaries in New Jersey for about a year and then moved here and has been looking for missionaries! So we got her contact info and referred her to the Elders in her area! It was so cool that we were able to meet her. When we got to the institute we helped out with the relay race for new missionary follow-up training. So it was with all the trainees and trainers. It was weird to be on the other side of follow up training. I'm not a greenie anymore haha! After that we watched President Monson's funeral. I love that man. I know he was a prophet of God. So the day started out 57 degrees and rainy and by this point at like 4 in the afternoon it had dropped below freezing and was dumping snow. It was a crazy change! Even with the snow we had two lessons that evening! They were both really good!

Saturday was good. We shoveled a lot of snow in the morning because it snowed a lot Friday night. Then we had a two lessons! Both went really well. We had dinner with some members and our investigator Mason! That was a lot of fun, they went to the Volleyball game after and were saying OSU was gonna win but the cougs won. Heck yeah. This ward is really good at fellowshipping investigators it's great. After dinner we had weekly planning!

Sunday was a day of miracles. We had worked really hard all week and we set the goal to find 5 new investigators that week and we were at 3. And we had 6 hours of church so we didn't have too much time to contact. Me and Elder Morse decided that even though it was cold amd snowy that we weren't going to go back to the apartment to eat until we find 2 people to teach. On campus we have dinner from 8:00 to 9:00 so we have more time in the middle of the day to talk to people when they are actually outside. So we weren't gonna get dinner until we found people. So we are out for like 2 hours walking around and no one wants to talk to us.  And so we decided to say a prayer! And no joke the 3rd person we talked to after the prayer was interested and we had a great conversation with him! And we are gonna meet with him on Saturday. And then another hour and a half goes by and no one wants to talk to us again. And so we say another prayer! And like 5 minutes after we say a prayer we run into another guy that was interested! Those were small miracles but I know that the Lord has His hand in this work. If we weren't willing to work hard He wouldn't lead His children to us. We don't find people. It is the Lord that leads us to people or people to us. We just have to be willing to work hard and do our part and ,oat importantly trust in Him. So that was a cool experience. And then we get on the bus at like 8:15ish and the bus driver was interested in meeting with us!! Another miracle to end the day. Super cool. 

Monday was zone conference and we got Smart phones!! Samsung phones. They are so useful. We had lots of training on them and how we need to be obedient on them. The Lord trusts us a lot with these tools. And we need to use them as tools. President Stratford was very straightforward was us and told us how important it is to use these correctly. Later in the day we had a fantastic lesson with Mason about baptism!

Tuesday was just a regular day on campus full of contacting and rejection haha! But it was still good! And it was awesome to watch the announcement that President Nelson is the president of the church! I sustain him and I know he is a prophet of God! 

I love you mom! Have a great week! 

Your son,

Elder Collier 

The Semester Started!

Hey Mom! 

Congrats on being empty nesters! But you are right, Rushmore will keep you young for sure. Has he calmed down at all or is he still a doofus? Haha! It is so crazy that everyone is leaving on missions. They are gonna have a great experience. I'm sad that I don't get to hear everyone's farewell talks but I'll get to hear their homecoming ones so that will be cool! 

I'm so glad Jonny made the men's chorus and gets to be with Patrick! That will be so fun! 

They actually announced the Ohio State vs BYU game in church in both wards this Sunday haha! I wish I could go! Go cougs!

This week was good! Started slow and then it really picked up once the semester started!

Thursday we had district meeting! That's always a good time. And then I went on exchanges with Elder Williams who is the District Leader! He is from Fallon Nevada. Which was in Harrison's mission! I don't know if Harrison ever served there though. That was a pretty good day! He is a very good missionary and I learned a lot from him. I learned to be myself more in contacts. That day there was a girl wearing a Seahawks beanie and so I said "go Seahawks!" And told her I was from Vancouver and she said she was from Seattle and it really opened up the conversation! She wasn't interested but at least she knows that us missionaries aren't robots! The rest of the day was pretty good, I honestly can't remember much of it. All the days just blend together haha!

Friday I was back with Elder Morse! It was a normal day of missionary work and stuff. We decided to go to Blaze Pizza for dinner (pretty much exactly like MOD pizza) and there were three guys there having a bible study. We decided to join them! And I wasn't really surprised but they immediately started bashing us. They were trying to prove us wrong even though we honestly just wanted to study the bible with them! We tried very hard to not be argumentative because the Holy Ghost isn't present when you argue so we just testified and told them that we know the Book of Mormon is true and that if they read it they would come to know for themselves that it is true. We ended up getting a new investigator out of this situation! He was the nicest one of the three guys and he said that he would read the Book of Mormon and meet with us! So that was cool! 

Saturday was a slow day. No one was really on campus and then we had weekly planning! But it was still good!

Sunday was our first day of 6 hours of church! It was really nice though. I got to pass the sacrament in both sacrament meetings. The first time besides the MTC that I have done thay in like 3 years!  It was really cool. Then we had classes and I met Mitchel's friend! That was really cool! And there is another guy in thay ward that is Tyson Cook's cousin! So that was wild! It was cool to make connections like that. I told him that Zach served with Tyson in Pittsburgh! 

Monday was crazyyyyy. SO MANY PEOPLE! I have been used to campus being completely dead. And then we also had more lessons than usual on Monday and Tuesday since our investigators are finally back from break. So we were really busy. We had a lesson with the guy we met at Blaze and that went for an hour and a half because he had so many questions. It was an interesting lesson. And then we had another lesson with an investigator named DJ  and he accepted a baptismal date in February! I am excited about that!

Tuesday was crazy again. Lots of people and lessons. We had probably the best lesson that I have been a part of so far on my mission. I felt the spirit leading the discussion completely and I could tell that she could feel the spirit and she was having her questions answered. It was a really cool experience. I am thankful that we have the spirit to testify of truth and to help us out because we are young and inexperienced teachers!

That was my week!

I love you mom! Thank you for everything. You are the best!

Your son,

Elder Collier 

Happy New Year!

Hey mom! 

I can't believe it is 2018. Time flies! When I was in 2nd grade I remember my teacher telling my class that we graduate high school in the year 2017. I thought that year would never come. Now it is the year after and I'm almost 6 months into my mission. Crazy.

"Woodson sent me field notes
and Cactus Cooler! I love that guy!"

This week has been COLD. I have never been this cold before. Yesterday morning with wind chill and humidity it felt like -17 degrees. Very cold. But the Lord blesses us when we are still willing to go out and work! We have been able to have some good conversations with people this week. No new investigators, sadly. But we were able to give them the opportunity to accept or reject our message. That's all we can do, the rest is up to them (as frustrating as that may be). 

Thursday we had district meeting which is always a blast! We learned about how to use Facebook more effectively to find people. We have been messaging people more which is good. Hopefully we can find some people to teach that way. Facebook as a proselyting tool is still new to all of us so it takes a lot of trial and error but we are getting better! The rest of the day was just filled with contacting on campus. 

Friday we had exchanges! I was with Elder Fowers. He is from Hyrum Utah. Exchanges on campus is weird because you are technically in another area but you are still on campus. It's just that you are with a different companion and the people you talk to go in a different companionship's area book. That night the snow came down really hard. And me and Elder Morse were dragging suitcases because we were staying the night at Elder Williams and Elder Fowers' apartment. We went to the bus stop and it was 8:15. Elder Bennett and Elder Johnson had been waiting there in the snow since 7:25 for the 7:30 bus. We waited until  8:30 and the bus still didn't show up. So we walked all the way to their apartment from campus in a bunch of snow dragging our suitcases. It was about a 35 minute walk. It sounds terrible I know, but it was actually super fun! Those Elders are a blast so we were just laughing the whole time. In any other situation I would've been miserable doing that but since I'm on a mission Intruky believe that The Lord blessed us with optimism at that time and we were able to have fun! It was cool! 

Saturday we contacted in the morning, had weekly planning and then went to Xenia for a baptism! Two people that Elder Morse taught in Xenia got baptized and Elder Morse got to baptize one of them! It was really cool. I am so happy that they made the decision to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized. 

Sunday was New Years eve! We had church which is always good and then after that we went to the mission home for the evening! President Stratford advised the mission to be indoors (either in a members house, investigators house or their apartment) by 5:00 PM. But us OSU missionaries didn't have anywhere to go so President and Sister Stratford invited us over for dinner! So that was really fun. I love them! We also got to play Ping Pong. I won all 6 games I played that evening. (I think all the nights playing ping pong with Patrick, Woodson, Parker and Kent finally paid off haha). It was a really fun evening. I love President and Sister Stratford!

Monday was tough. It was sooooo cold and hardly anyone was on campus because of the holiday. And no buildings on campus were open because of the holiday so if we needed to go warm up we had to go back to the institute building. But we got a few potential investigators so that was good! 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Stratford! That was my 3rd time seeing him in 4 days haha! I always love having interviews with him, it is so obvious that he genuinely cares for all of us. After that we had a lesson at 12:30 and then we contacted the rest of the day! Got a few potentials. Hopefully we will find some new investigators this week! We just gotta keep working hard and we will be blessed. 

I love you Mom! Thank you for everything and thank you for the music! I will definitely use that. I love you!

Your son,

Elder Collier