Mother's Day is Coming Up!!

Jonny's Church Building

The Trailer Park!

Jonny's New Home!

Hey Mom!

Mother's Day is next week! It's come up so quick... it's weird! I'm so excited though. It's going to be so cool to see you again! That's kinda crazy that Jordan only gets three phone calls! Some of the missionaries here are going to get 5 phone calls because of the extra week that we all got! They should give one of those to Jordan haha! 

My new area is awesome! It's HUGE but it's been a lot of fun. We don't have a lot of miles though so that got to be pretty stressful at the end of last month, but hey we get more miles now haha! We have to get driven to our district meeting every other week because we just don't have the miles for it! It takes about an hour to get to the Nag's Head chapel from our trailer! It's crazy!

This last Friday we also did exchanges with the Nag's Head English Elders and I went to Nag's Head for the day. That was so cool! IT WOULD'VE been a lot cooler except... the Elder I was exchanging with didn't grab the car keys from his companion... and we didn't notice until we got all the way back to Nag's Head, an hour away. So we had no car! We walked around and got driven by members the whole day so that was pretty fun. We also went out to eat with some members and I tried soft shell crab... it was kinda weird haha! I probably won't get it again, but it wasn't bad! Also when I was there, I looked through the area book and the 3rd teaching record I saw had an Elder Rigby on it from 2008! That was Steven Rigby! I thought that was pretty cool. Overall it was a fun exchange, and we will now make sure that we have the car keys before we leave haha!

And yeah our new mission president comes in July. IT's super weird to think about! But I'll definitely talk about the change when it happens. We did a mission wide fast for President and Sister Weed the new mission president and wife for there transition. It was kinda cool to do that!

I think that's so funny that someone is sitting in Dad's spot... haha! Dad ALWAYS sits there! It'll get figured out soon hahaha!

Also one day we went out tracting and I was feeling kinda down! We had gotten so many like rude responses from doors. Not just "No we aren't interested, " but like people slamming the door! I couldn't believe it haha! But the whole time I was just thinking, "at least we're out working," and then a member drove by us. He saw us, turned around and said, "Hey, you have anything else planned except tracting?" and we were like, "Nope." and he said, "Want to come home teaching with me?" so we went with him and had a really good time! WE went and saw this SUPER old less active man, but we were able to have a good conversation with him. Not quite sure if he remembers much about it, but it was good. He said that he was feeling down and prayed for comfort that morning, and we were there to see him that night! And the only way that could have happened was if we were out working and the member saw us on his way to home teaching! Heavenly Father really has this thing under control. He knows every single one of us and what we need.

I had another really cool experience this week too. I finished the Book of Mormon on Thursday April 28th, for the third time on my mission. I prayed about it and I was able to get a confirming witness that it was true. It doesn't matter how many times you've read it, as long as you read, ponder, and pray about that book, the Holy Ghost will tell you it's true if you ask with real intent. I was able to sit and just reflect a bit on how lucky I've been to have a testimony of this gospel most of my life! I wrote down a lot of my experiences that I've had where I've come to know that the church is true. So many times! And I didn't even write down all of them, I probably don't even remember all of them. But this church is so true and I love being apart of it. On a mission I have been able to strengthen my own testimony so much. And the only way that comes is through sharing it with others!

Not much else to report this week. It's been a good week. Just like every week. Life has it's ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Not a thing. My ponderizing scripture for the week is Moroni 7:33 "And Christ hath said: if ye shall have faith in me, ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." I know that this promise is true! If we have enough faith, if it be the Lord's will, miracles can occur.

Thanks so much for your love and support and I can't wait to talk to you this Sunday!

I love you so much Mom, and I'll talk to you soon. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Collier