Elder Jonathan Collier

Hey Mom!

This week has been so good. it was Elder Dumont's last week, and it was like a story book ending! It was seriously such a good week this week.

It started off a bit slow, a few lessons fell through, but we wanted to lay it all out there for his last week! It's been super hot all week which has been nice! IT was raining for a few days in a row last week. Something we had been struggling with all transfer was just teaching total lessons, and this week we actually hit the standard of excellence for lessons taught in a week! We taught 15 which was so cool! And we found 6 new investigators. And 4 were at sacrament meeting! It was so great.

The 4 investigators we had at sacrament meeting were the Greene family! They are so cool. THey also came to our branch's memorial day breakfast this morning! The branch helped give them a ride which was such blessing, and they loved it! Joshua the Dad said, "You'll definitely see us here again!" It was great. We're going to have dinner with them and a member family this week so I'll let you know how that goes. There's 4 kids and three of them are above 8! The Mom wasn't at church, but she came to the breakfast this morning and we're going to teach them all this week. I'm so excited.

Elder Dumont and I both spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday too, so that was cool!

I was on an exchange on Thursday, and I couldn't find the place we were going to go tracting... so I just decided to go to a different place! We were walking and we saw a place with a really long driveway, so we easily could've passed it, but we went in. We were getting eaten alive by mosquitos the whole way, but eventually we got there and knocked on the door. We got there right at the right time because they needed help moving a TV! It was pretty cool. We taught Kathy (the Mom) the Restoration and she thought it was really cool! She wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon so next time we go over there that's what we're going to talk about. It was such cool thing though because so many things could've happened to make us not be there, but we were! It was definitely led by the Spirit.

So on Saturday we got a transfer call. I knew it was coming because Elder Dumont is going home, but I didn't know what was going to happen! I am now the District Leader of the Currituck district! So we'll see how this goes. My new companion is going to be Elder Ciminski.. I don't know much about him, so I'll let you know next week! I GET TO DRIVE! I'm just a little excited for that. My district includes my branch and the nag's head ward. They kept elders in there! We all thought that they were going to put Sister's in there but they didn't! So we'll still get to go on exchanges so that's going to be fun. I'm definitely really nervous to be a leader, but I know that if I trust in the Lord it will all work out.

So it's really weird that Elder Dumont is leaving. He's been a great companion! Being someone's last companion is really strange. I don't really know how to describe it, but let's just say I'm honestly glad I have plenty of time until the end of my mission. I absolutely love it out here.

That's so great that Sammy won state! That sounds like it was a great game to watch. I'm so happy for him!

My ponderizing scripture for this week is Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" I'm honestly so glad that I can go out every day and say with confidence, "God is our Father in Heaven. He loves us and He has a plan for us." and "The church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth through a modern day prophet." I know that this church is Jesus Christ's church. We have a prophet on the Earth today. and God cares about us and answers all of our prayers!

I love you so much Mom, and I'm glad that y'all are doing great! Ward conferences can be stressful it sounds like. And I can't believe that the school year is almost over! That summer break is coming! So crazy. Tell Jenna I'm happy for her and she's going to do great!

I hope y'all have a great week this week. I love you so much and I'll talk to you soon.

Love your son,

Elder Collier

PS Here are more pictures from Hatteras!

And our last district meeting picture!