The Pure Love of Christ!

Hey Mom! 

Are you getting the pictures that I'm sending? Cause last week I had a few, and I have a lot from this week.

Thanks for sending the music, and I'll let you know when it gets here! I don't know if there is anything I need right now, but I will let you know! 

Sammy made the Honor Choir again??? That's awesome!!! He's such a stud. And he's gonna have so much fun with all those guys again, plus Jason and Kolten! Can they do a 6 man room? haha! That makes me sad about the people who didn't make it though... but they are still going to have fun in choir this year! And yeah that time is so much better than last year's... What are the plans for Solo and Ensemble by the way?

It's so crazy that Synthia is leaving this week! She has been emailing me every week and we've been talking about mission stuff! I'm so excited for her! 

This week was super dry until today. It was super sunny and like perfect weather. It started pouring today and it doesn't look like it will stop any time soon. And we have less miles this month than we did last month, so it looks like we're gonna be biking in the rain! 

We had no investigators at church... And we seem to be losing investigators. But we are meeting with a lot of new people this week that can become investigators! We'll see how that goes. People here like talking with us, but they don't understand what our purpose is, which is to Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end. People don't understand that we are trying to help them grow closer to Christ by inviting them to keep commitments such as, Coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon, getting baptized. But we're still trying to work with it! I think I'm getting better at inviting others to make commitments. 

On Friday at district meeting I was able to give a training on the use of music as missionaries. It was super cool to be able to give that lesson! I used a lot from the Preface of the Hymn book, and I talked about how in Church meetings music is important because it helps bring the spirit, and investigators can feel that spirit. And it can help us grow closer to them. I said we can use it in our homes because we sing a hymn to start our companion study every morning, and it can help us grow closer together. And it invites the spirit. And I talked about using hymns in our daily lives to help us feel the spirit more and to keep our thoughts on good things! I know that music really does bring people closer together. Some of my best friends in high school I would have only met through music. There is just a special spirit around it that brings people together!

Then Halloween was actually pretty fun. We had run out of miles though so we could only bike that day! We found out that you can bike on to Fort Eustice, and it's a lot easier than driving cause they don't inspect the bikes! The guy at the gate was funny, he lifted up my bike looked underneath it and said, "You're good!" haha! But the people we were trying to see weren't home, so I had a great idea to go bike up to the north end of our area to see one of our less active members! Well it was a lot farther than I thought and it took us like 35 minutes to get up there, plus I'm pretty sure we biked on a freeway for a little bit. But anyway we got there right as she was leaving and we were able to talk to her for a bit! She's really nice, she just never comes to church so we're trying to work with her. Then it took us like 40 minutes to bike back... I have a greater appreciation for the car in our area! I hadn't realized how big it was! But we had to get back because Elder Nutter had to do a baptismal interview for Sita and her son Eric in the other Newport News Elder's area! They're getting baptized on Saturday and they are doing awesome. Then that night we had to be indoors by 7:00, so after we finished all our stuff with our area book, the other Elders in our area came over and we had some fun with our decorations. Elder Nutter had a red and white striped tie and put a piece of paper on his name tag that said he was "Elder Waldo". And I wore my mustache and sunglasses that I got, and Elder Rice taped a bag of Rice to his body. It was pretty fun that night!

Happy Halloween!

I want to share an experience I had last night. We were talking to this guy as we were biking through a neighborhood, and he kept saying the same thing, "Why would God let bad things happen to innocent people?" So we were trying to explain it to him, but he obviously didn't want an answer he just wanted to argue. Elder Nutter was trying to share the story of the people of Ammonihah who were burned while Alma and Amulek were imprisoned to show that the wicked would be judged for their actions but everyone that was hurt would be saved. But every time he started talking, the guy would say the phrase, "Why are you still trying?" After he had said that three times, a thought popped into my head. He said "Why are you still trying?" a fourth time and I said, "We're trying because we care about you." But after I said that he just said, "Goodnight," and walked away.

I know this event didn't end in a key indicator other than an I/O, but it was really special for me. I know we are taught to love our investigators and to show charity at all times. That is how we bring the spirit. But I hadn't noticed until this very moment that we are supposed to love everyone, not just our investigators. We are out here to be representatives of Jesus Christ, and He would love everyone that He would come in contact with. The reason why as missionaries we share our message with the world is because we care about the people's salvation. We want to help them. We don't just do this because we're trying to get more people baptized, but we're doing this because when they get baptized they are making special covenants that they need to make in order to make it back to our Heavenly Father. I want these people that I talk to, to be able to make it back. If we don't have charity, we are nothing (Moroni 7:44). We can't have the Spirit, and the people we talk to won't listen to us. 

Because of this I decided I'm going to Ponderize Moroni 7:45-47 this week,

 "And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all  things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." 

Thanks so much for your emails. Every thing in them brightens my day and is exactly what I need to hear. And I know that you know exactly what your Sunday school class needs to hear as well! Just keep listening to the promptings of the Spirit. As long as you do your best, the Lord will make up the rest.  Always remember to have that pure love of Christ for everyone around you! 

I love you so much Mom! Talk to you next week! 

Love, your son, 

Elder Collier