Nothing Can Beat a Testimony!

Hey Mom!

This week was slow on lessons, but it went by really fast! Before I knew it, it was Sunday! But the best part was being able to hear from Elder Mervyn B. Arnold at our mission Conference yesterday. We woke up at 5:30 so that we could leave the apartment by 6:30 and drive to the Virginia Beach stake center. The conference had all the missionaries from the Newport News stake, the Chesapeake Stake, and the Virginia Beach Stake. Elder Arnold is really cool and he gave us a lot of really awesome ideas. I talked to him for a bit afterward, but I didn't have enough time to get a picture with him! One thing he kept saying was, "Who's not going to get embarrassed today?" and then we would all raise our hands haha! He would say that because he was really bold when he would tell us to do things, so I'm going to try my best to do the things that he has told us to do! At the end of the conference he said that we should all be out of the parking lot in 5 minutes so that we don't waste any time!

Yesterday I also got to see almost everyone from my zone at the MTC! I got a picture with the Elders that I saw, but not with the sisters because I think it's against mission rules... But the only people that were gone was an Elder and a Sister that are both down in the stakes in North Carolina! It made me really happy to see that they are all doing well. 

Jonny's zone from the MTC

It's getting colder! Yikes!

Jonny's desk... I love the lamp!

You got to see Mack Daddy?? Tell him that I said hi, and that I hope everything is going well in his job! I wish I could have gone on that trip again, it was always so much fun. You'll have to tell me how the clinic and the performances went. 

Service is a great way to show love for people. We helped this woman wash her dishes on Saturday. She had a lot of dishes. I had my hands in the water for about an hour and a half, and we had to go and we weren't even done! But she said that she would go to church this upcoming week to repay us, so hopefully that works out! We're going to help her out again tomorrow. She loves when we come over, but also loves being Catholic so doesn't really accept the Spirit when it testifies even though it is there. We're going to keep working with her!

On Sunday we were walking down the street in a trailer park and we saw this little kid throwing rocks up into a tree. We decided to help him and for the longest time we were throwing things at it, but it wouldn't budge. We decided that the best thing for us to do would be to say a prayer. The little kid wasn't convinced, but he decided to join in anyway. I asked for help that we could come up with an idea to get the ball down! It didn't take long, and I realized that one of the branches that was hanging low enough for me to reach it (and let me tell you that's pretty low) was branching off of the big branch that the ball was stuck in! I started tugging at it, and eventually the ball came down! The kid said thank you and ran off with the ball, so hopefully we planted  little seed there. I know prayer works! 

Then another story, about 10 minutes later we walked down the street and talked to these guys with megaphones that were preaching about their religion in Spanish. We talked to the one that wasn't yelling in the megaphone and were talking to him about Joseph Smith and the fact that we had a modern prophet, and he couldn't get over the fact that it wasn't in the Bible. He kept saying that revelation ended with the Bible, and that we needed to have a confirmation from the Holy Ghost, and started preaching to us. But then I said, "I have received confirmation from the Holy Ghost that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is true. And I can promise you that you can find out for yourself." And he realized that he couldn't argue with that. He didn't really know what to say. Eventually he told us he had to go and him and his friend with the megaphone left. But it just really stood out to me that nothing can beat a testimony of the gospel. People can argue with us all they want, but I KNOW that the church is true, and there is nothing that will change my mind about that. My job is just to help out everyone so they can come to know "by the same power" what I know. 

"For I am called to speak after this manner, according to the holy order of God, which is in Christ Jesus; yea, I am commanded to stand and testify unto this people the things which have been spoken by our fathers concerning the things which are to come." (Alma 5:44) 

That's my ponderizing scripture for the week and I know that I am called to preach just like how Alma was called to preach and testify. I know that I can have the Spirit with me, and my job is to be as obedient as possible and to help people have that same conversion experience that I have had.

Those are just my thoughts for the week! I hope you have a fantastic week this week. For thanksgiving we are actually going over to that same family's house, the Piggot's! You probably will get a lot of pictures... haha! 

I'll talk to you next week, and I'll keep working hard! 

Love your son,

Elder Collier