Send Jonny a Letter!


Send Jonny a letter!!

Elder Jonathan Collier
1015 Norwyk Ln.
Williamsburg, VA 23188

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Happy 4th of July!!

Hey Mom! 

Happy 4th of July! We're emailing a bit later today because we had to wait for the zone leaders to be done at the family history center in Elizabeth City since the libraries are closed! But at least I still get to do it today! I haven't gotten a package yet so it must be coming tomorrow! I'll be looking for it! 

I hope you all have a great 4 of July! Last year that fireworks are allowed to Vancouver?? Oh my gosh I thought it was already bad enough, but this year I bet will be crazy! Hopefully no one's house gets burned down! 

This week was a pretty good week. It's been pretty tough finding new investigators the past couple of weeks. Well let me rephrase that, it's been tough finding investigators that STAY investigators! We teach people, and then they set a return appointment and then they aren't there, or they cancel it and never return our phone calls! But we keep pressing forward. We've been doing a lot of tracting! I think we tracted for 25 hours ish this past week? That's a rough estimate but It's definitely the least effective way to find... So we're trying to come up with more creative ways to find people to teach! We want to work with the members more, and we've also been trying to contact old potentials and former investigators in our area book! that's been sending us to new areas that we haven't been to before! 

Earlier in the week we were low on miles so we put our bikes on our bike rack, drove about 10 miles south, and biked the rest of the way to one of the bigger cities in our area, Grandy. It was a lot of biking, but it definitely cut back on our miles! It was a big help. Although we are definitely going to save our miles a bit more so we won't have to do that again... haha! 

It's been really hot recently so we've been packing a lot of water! I am thankful that we have an air conditioned car. But the past couple of days it actually cooled down quite a bit! A storm came in yesterday and every once in a while it will pour down rain, and then it'll be calm and then pour down rain again! Yet it's still 80 degrees which baffles me haha! 

We met our new mission president on Thursday. President and Sister Weed are super cool! We had a big meeting in Portsmouth with all the Virginia missionaries, (since i'm in the Chesapeake stake we're included in there) and we all met him! He's a district attorney from Las Vegas. He said something really cool, he talked about how personalities are part of what makes this church run! So he encouraged us to use our personalities in our missionary work, because that was one of the reasons that we were called here. I really liked that. It's amazing how quickly you can feel love from your mission president and his wife.

The Greene's are still doing great! they weren't able to come to church yesterday, but we have a lesson still set up tonight, and they should be there next week! We may have to push back their baptismal date, but we'll see! I love them! I should probably get a picture with them soon... haha! 

So I had a really cool experience. Saturday through Sunday morning, it kinda felt like everything was going wrong at once. Lessons fell through, our investigators weren't going to be at church, we didn't know there was branch council, we couldn't get ahold of our zone leaders for a long time (because I have to do a baptismal interview for them because their district leader is in a trio with them), and I was getting kinda frustrated and it got to the point where I accidentally knocked a jar of thumbtacks all over the floor and I was kinda frustrated! haha! I was questioning to myself why all this was happening and then in my personal study I turned to 2 Nephi 4 where Nephi has also just had a lot of bad things go on at once. And he says the phrase, "Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." And that just hit me hard! Sometimes we have these experiences to humble us and realize that we can't do things on our own. I know I need the Lord to help me every day. This is His work, not mine! So as long as I put forth my best effort, He will make up the difference. And opposition is always for our growth, no matter what. We just have to trust Him! I know in whom I have trusted!

Anyway I hope you have a great day and week! Good luck with the garage! It's always a tough one... haha! And I did get your picture back! It was great to see you! 

My ponderizing scripture this week is Alma 26:12 "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength, I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." I love this because Ammon is one of the greatest missionaries ever, and he's still relying on his God for help. I hope I want to be like him. I know that this work is real! 

I love you so much Mom! Thank you for your emails every week! I love you and I hope you have a great week this week. I'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Collier

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