I am now serving in the Youngstown ward. My companion is Elder Dixon. He is 22 years old and has already served 4 years in the army. He's a great guy and we get along well. He is an amazing missionary and I've learned so much from him already. Being a Zone Leader is pretty stressful but I'll get used to it. I'm having a good time! 
Saying goodbye to Marysville was really really hard. Saying goodbye to Paul was one of the saddest moments of my mission. I love that man so much and he has impacted my life way more than he knows. Hopefully I can go back for the baptism next month. I also said goodbye to the Hiltschers who are such a great family in the Marysville Ward. I'm gonna miss them as well. 
Youngstown is nothing like central Ohio. This place is weird. The majority of my mission I have been in pretty well off rural towns. Youngstown and all the other towns we cover is nothing like that. It is the sketchiest area I've ever been in. I've seen some sketchy stuff on my mission but in this place that's just the norm. I've felt completely out of place my whole week here and it feels like I just arrived to a new mission. I now can relate to a lot of the experiences Zach had on his mission. But, I love it here! There's a lot of work to do and a lot of people to talk to and I'm excited to keep going. I'm just gonna say this about this area: I was pretty sheltered in life back home. I lived in a nice town, I went to a nice public school, I had good friends, I felt safe 90% of the time. I knew bad things were happening around the country but to me it just seemed like that was something on TV and it doesn't happen in real life. My eyes have been opened on my mission and I know that things like that happen in real life. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help these people though. Living a Christ like life and keeping the commandments will make the whole world better. I know that. I have experienced the benefits of the Gospel in my own life and I have seen the problems that occur when the Gospel isn't there for anyone. 
Anyway, it's been a good week! We had a lot of fun talking to lots of people and finding people to teach on top of zone leader duties. The missionaries in my zone are awesome and we have lots of miracles happening here. We have worked in Sharon, PA a few days now. That is a really interesting place. Really cool town though. I have not made a jumpshot in PA yet but I promise that will happen soon. On Monday I went on exchanges with Elder John the district leader of the Ashtabula district. We spent the day in Sharon and Greenville, PA. Good times. We got to knock this one street called Stateline road. One side of the street is PA one side is Ohio. That was pretty cool. 
We had a sweet miracle on Sunday evening. We met this man named Tyler. He has been searching for truth for so long. He was so thankful that we came by to talk to him. His friend has recently gotten baptized and he has seen such a big change in him and he wants that. The spirit was so strong when we taught him on his porch and he has such a strong desire to change and find God. I am so excited to meet with him again and help him on his journey back to our Father in Heaven. I already love Tyler.
I'm excited to keep working here in Youngstown. It is so different but I know the Lord will help me in this place. The people need the Gospel here really bad. And I'm going to try to bring it to them.
I love you mom! Thank you for everything!
Your son,
Elder Collier
No comments:
Post a Comment