Hey Mom!
I'm glad you had a great time at girl's camp! And thank you for sharing that story about Brightly Beams our Fathers Mercy. It is a beautiful song and it is so true. We can help people find the light of God's love!
I'll be able to go to Jared's baptism! I am speaking at it. He moved it back to July 28th because one of the main fellowshipers in the ward (his girlfriend's mom) is going to be out of town this weekend. But he is still getting baptized.
So I got transferred! I am now serving in Marysville. It's a small town west of Columbus. It borders the Bellefontaine area so I'm near my first area! And since Bellefontaine isn't in the mission anymore that means we are on the border of the mission too. I am the District Leader of this district. It's the largest district in the mission too so that has been a little stressful but it'll be okay. Marysville is a great place! It's still a small town but it is bigger than Johnstown! So that's pretty nice. My companion is Elder Gloschat (Prounounced glow shot). He is super awesome. He just got out of training. He is from Mesa, Arizona. We get along great and this week has been full of laughs and miracles. Also, another crazy thing is that I was serving in the New Albany 2nd ward last transfer and Sister Rolfson was in that ward and both of us got transferred and are now serving in the Marysville Ward. So that was kinda nice to know one person in this brand new district.
Also my new address is 270 Stocksdale Drive Marysville Ohio Apartment 2A.
Okay so before I get started I have a sweet miracle that literally just happened. So Elder Gloschat and I went to the church to email and shoot some hoops. We went outside to get the pump to pump up the basketball and quickly realize that we locked ourselves out of the church and locked all of our stuff in the church including our keys, wallets, phone, tablets, everything. So we decided to jog to a members house that is pretty far away. While we were running we saw a car with a Utah license plate and they pulled over! It was a summer sales guy and he's a member! He picked us up and took us to the members house. We were able to get keys to the church and then he took us back. It was so cool. The Lord really helped us out on that one. We made a mistake by forgetting the keys but he still provided a way for it to all work out!
Okay now for my week!
Thursday we had district council, I got to meet everyone in the district even though it was the first day of the transfer. That was a little stressful to plan but it all worked out. The district is great. The rest of the day was good, I was able to meet a lot of the people we are teaching and get used to the new area. And we had a Book of Mormon class with some recent converts and ward members and then had ward coordination. The Ward mission leader is Brother Birch and he is awesome. His wife is actually from Vancouver! She went to Skyview.
Friday we had the district leader training at the mission home. That was a good experience and cool to meet a lot of the missionaries that were in the Cleveland mission. We did service for the Marysville food pantry in the afternoon. I love the food pantry in Johnstown but boy this one blows it out of the water. It's huge!! It was a lot of fun to help out.
Saturday was an interesting day for sure. Just a lot of really weird things happened. It was fun though because we laughed a ton. That night we had a cool experience! We stopped by a person in area book named Paul that missionaries gave a pamphlet to in February. We stopped by and he let us sit down with him outside and we taught the entire restoration! It was so cool. He's such a great guy and he invited us back Monday to read the Book of Mormon with him.
Sunday was great to meet all of the ward members. I was asked to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting so that was a good experience. Shed a few tears. We went over to a returning member's home and read the Book of m
Mormon with him. He is awesome and has a real desire to go to the temple. We are going to start reading with him every week and helping him work towards going through the temple.
Monday was a good day as well. We went up to a small town called magnetic springs. It's a run down old town. We talked to this guy that was sitting outside the saloon and we were like "have you been enjoying your day?" And he responded "what do you mean I've been drinking today?" And we said "no, are you enjoying your day?" And he said "I've already had 20. I'm already drunk." It was about noon when that happened. It was a funny conversation but also really sad. But other than that the rest of the day went well. That evening we had such a powerful lesson with Paul. We read the Book of Mormon with him and the spirit was so strong. He told us that he can tell that we are happy and at peace in life and he wants that for himself. We testified of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how he can feel peace as well. We invited him to be baptized on August 18th and he accepted! We are so excited to keep working with him. We only met him on Saturday but I already love that man.
Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Watkins (different one than the one one as serving with in my last district) in the Polaris area. It was a great exchange. One ofnthe highlights was that we texted someone that was in their area book but they said it was the wrong number. We decided to keep texting this person and ended up having a really good conversation and she opened up about how she wants happiness in her life and she doesn't feel like she has any right now. We were able to testify of how God answers prayers. It was really powerful and I'm excited to hear about how it goes with those Elders!
It has been a good week. I can't believe tomorrow is my year mark. Time flies. This experience so far has been amazing. The people that I have met here and the changes I have seen in myself are incredible. I love Ohio and I love my Savior Jesus Christ.
I love you Mom! Thank you for everything.
Your son,
Elder Collier
Monday I went on exchanges with Elder Kamerath. We spent the day in Marysville. Elder Paul and Elder Gloschat were together and also in Marysville. It was a great day with Elder Kamerath. This is his 3rd transfer in the field and he is doing great. We met some awesome people. We went to dinner at Bob Evans that day and our waitress ended up being a less active member! We got talking to her and she said that she felt like seeing us was a nudge from God telling hee to come back to church and get her family to come back too. That was pretty cool! She lives in the Sisters area so they will help with that one. Latee on in the day we went up to a little town called Richwood. We were able to get in contact with this amazing family that wants to start coming back to church but they both just work all the time. We are going back on Friday to teach them. They are so awesome and I'm excited. Richwood has a sign when you enter and it says "Richwood: where the clock strikes hospitality" and I die laughing every time I see it. It's such a ridiculous slogan. Oh and Elder Gloschat and Elder Paul taught Paul that evening. He told them that he doesn't want to just be a Sunday Christian, he wants to live all the things we are teaching him. He is so prepared and has such a desire to change! I love that man!
