November 30, 2015- week 65- Received transfer to Capivari, Brazil!

Olá família!

Well, sadly the past week was my last week to be here in Piracicaba. Transfers came in today, and I will be moving to a city called Capivari. I've been to the bus station there once when I was coming to Piracicaba from Monte Mor. Elder Maxwell (my second companion and member of my group) recently left from there and he said that there are lots of receptive people there. 

My new companion will be Elder Lloyd. Another American! I met him in Hortolandia and he seems pretty cool. Let us see. But, I'm actually pretty sad that I'm leaving. We were having a lot of success. We had 2 more baptisms this past Saturday! A boy named Wesley and a girl named Debora. 

Last Tuesday, we had a Noite Familiar (Family Home Evening) with several families and lots of recent converts and members. We taught about the Doctrine of Christ and focused on baptism. We then invited the family to be baptized. We had been working a lot with the boy from this family-Wesley- but his mom said he needed to change some things first. We decided to not only invite him to be baptized, but everyone. The Spirit was really strong when everyone started bearing their testimonies. We also brought Bruno, the youth that will be leaving for his mission on Wednesday. It was his sister that was baptized this Saturday along with Wesley. Slowly, his family is accepting the church. His parents are not baptized, but I was working hard on trying to bring his mom to church, and last week she went.

Anyways, I'm grateful for this transfer. My area was actually closed. There aren't as many missionaries coming in as there are leaving the mission. But I'm still not sure why they closed my area, which was having success. We had 8 people at church again. 

Well, this reminds me that Elder Holder-my first companion and trainer- has now completed his full-time mission here in Piracicaba. I'll miss him. He was a good missionary and a good friend. I'll have to meet up with him some time after the mish. Although it made me pretty darn trunky, it was cool to get to see him on his last transfer and then say goodbye to him.

Well, that's this week for all you guys. Thanks for the emails! I know how it is to be without internet and the frustration that comes with it, but sometimes staying unplugged from the cyber world is good. Unless it's to email me, then internet should definitely be used. haha

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Collins

PICS

Wesley's baptism.

Wesley's family.

Debora's baptism.

Yeah! 2 baptisms!

Good bye Elder Meira (now Henrique).

He saw me when I was born, and now I'm watching him die...

Good bye Elder Holder (now David).

November 23, 2015- week 64- P-day in Piracicaba, Brazil!

Hello Family!

Well, only one more week left in this transfer! Which also means one more week until Elder Holder goes home. It's so weird, but whatever. Also, this past sunday was pretty cool- 8 investigators at church! We're working a lot with incomplete families so there's lot of work to be done. We might have a baptism this week or the next. It all depends, but we're gonna work hard this last week. 

I didn't really have any challenges this week except maybe writing in my journal. It's been pretty hard these past weeks, but I'm still trying. haha The biggest success was the 8 people in church. This past Sunday was the Primary presentation, and we had an investigator who participated so that was cool. He's been going to church for a while, but we're waiting for his mom to give the okay. She went last Sunday, but this Sunday, just her Husband, this son, and two daughters went. One of their daughters is already baptized. 

Also, something cool that happened this past week was the baptism of a kid. The other Elders taught him. The cousin of this kid was on a mission and recently returned. He got back home this past Tuesday, and later that night he baptized his cousin. It was really cool to see that. 

There is also a youth named Bruno in my ward who will be leaving in a week to go on a mission. This past week he had his going away party. At his party, there was a swimming pool and the only thing we missionaries could do was just stare at the water haha. It was a good lunch though- churrasco. We went to his house a couple days afterwards and there was still lots of meat left, so he had a mini-churrasco with us haha. 

Sounds like everything is going well over there in Italy! Hope you all have another great week!

Love you all,

Elder Collins

Photo

Me, Elder Gomes, and Elder Holder.

November 16, 2015- week 63- New shoes in Piracicaba, Brazil!

Bom Dia Tudo Mundo!

Well, this past week went by really fast, as usual. It rained some more and the wind was really strong. I even had to wash my clothes several times because the wind blew my clothes off of the clothes line. UGH. The stress of having to dry clothes manually. 

Also, my companion's birthday was this past week. He turned 20! And here I am, the same 19 year old I was last week. 

So, I've actually been looking into this and I saw that my return date, if nothing changes in the transfers, is probably gonna be the 8th of August. If a transfer of 5 weeks happens next year, then I will be home the 1st of August. We had a transfer of 5 earlier this year. Last year, there were no changes. I'm hoping that a transfer of 5 weeks happens because I want to be home for my birthday, but if not then I guess I'll be coming home as a 20 year old. I dunno. 

Also! I got some new shoes this week! Thanks to a lovely package from Amazon in the mail! Woohoo! It's so nice to have new shoes. Thank you! I attached some comparison pictures for you guys to see haha. 

My companion asked if he could use my old shoes so I gave them to him. The new shoes keep my feet warm and toasty even when walking into puddles, which is a good change from having to come home every night with wet and damp socks. 

Well, not much to say this week. Have a great one everybody!

Love,
Elder Collins

Photos

District Meeting with Elder Holder.

That's a box.

New shoe vs old shoe.

New shoe vs old shoe.

November 9, 2015- week 62- Rainy days in Piracicaba, Brazil!

Hey Family!

So, this week of 5 days went by really fast. It rained a ton. Too much, I'd say. My Bible got soaked. Ugh This is my third Bible that has been soaked by rain. The members here will be going to the temple the next week, so I'll give some money to one of the members to go and buy a new Bible, a Book of Mormon, and some other stuff. But seriously. Man. 

Anyways, besides the wet days here, we've been able to teach a lot of people. We're still searching for the elect. There's a lot of people here who go to church, but we're gonna have to work harder. Also, as we are from the same ward and eat lunch together everyday, I see Elder Holder pretty much every day. Every time we see him, we tell him how many days he has left. I think it's so weird that when I got on the mission he had like 8 months. Now, he has almost 2 years. Time sure does fly by.

Also, not to scare you guys or anything, but I'm pretty sure I've contracted athlete's foot or ringworm or something like that. I had to stay in house on Saturday because I couldn't walk much. Don't worry though, it's healing and going away. It was weird though. I woke up one day and it was there. Kinda like from "The Other Side of Heaven" when the guy wakes up and his feet are bleeding. I was just like "WHAT IS THIS??" Well, just another experience to my awesome mission in Brasil.

Okay, so to answer your question as well as Melissa's- Something I'm needing is a usb and another sd card. You see, with more than 1,500 photos and videos I don't have any more space on my card. I was thinking of getting a usb and then placing all the photos on that or maybe just sending you guys the card with all the photos on it. Maybe I could send a letter or something. I dunno. But yeah, the usbs and sd cards here are expensive and I don't have enough money to buy one and then keep on with two weeks on low funds. Just a thought. Also, I loved the pop-tarts you sent me.

Well, thanks for the emails! Hope you all have another great week! I'm already half-way through with my first transfer here in Piracicaba. I was actually thinking about how many transfers I have left. Everyone has 17 transfers on the mission. After this transfer, I only have 5 more. Wow. Time goes by so darn fast.

Love,
Elder Collins

Photos

November 3, 2015- week 61- P-day in Piracicaba, Brazil!

Hey Fam,

So this week was longer than the last, as you've probably noticed haha. Yesterday was a holiday here, so nothing was open- therefore we couldn't talk. Yes, we all went to the cemeteries yesterday to talk to the people. There was a lot of people. We only stayed until about noon, then we ate lunch and it started pouring hard core. Yup, it's the season of rain here. Gotta love it. It's a nice switch from blazing hot to cool and wet. We talked to more than a thousand people between 9:00 and 12:00.

Anyways, there's not much news. I'm still in the same 'ol schedule. We did find a cool family of 6 this past week. We had a really spiritual lesson with them. As we were getting to know them, we asked if they believed in God, the mom started crying, then the three daughters started crying too. We could tell that they had something that happened in their life to make them doubt their faith. They were all very attentive during the entire lesson and we could feel the Spirit. They asked questions and understood well. They all said they wanted to go to church and would also prepare themselves to be baptized.

In the coming weeks, it is very likely that some other people will be baptized as well. We're working hard here in Piracicaba.

To answer your question, I got three packages- two from you guys delivered by Brother Kraft and one from the Streeters. It was greatly appreciated, and is still being appreciated everyday haha.

Thank you all for your emails!

Love,
Elder Collins

Photos

Division with Elder Vilas Boas.

Tasty little chickenses.

This ridiculous donkey at a member's house.

Water gets in pretty easily...

Yeah I need new shoes.

Big spider on the road.