July 28, 2015- week 47- New companion in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

Heya fam!

This past week went by super fast for me. Also, two missionaries in my zone went home and a lot of my friends have finished their missions. One included is Elder Murray. Remember the American Elder that was with me in Sumaré? Also, we had Multizona on Tuesday of last week. Holy cow.

The bad things about living in the farthest area of the mission: you have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning for conferences with the President. It was cool though. I took lots of pictures and made sure to get our morning journey on camera. You'll have to see it when I get back. I'll have to slap on subtitles for you guys too haha.

At the multizona, President talked a lot about doing even more contacts with people. We bumped up our efforts and the past two weeks, we've been able to talk with more than 600 people just my comp and I. We taught lots of lessons, but one more thing that President talked about at the conference was about learning to teach short lessons.

I really liked the multizona and got to see some of my buds again. I made sure to take pictures with them. Anyways, besides that, the week was pretty regular as far as working goes. We also had our last district meeting before the Transfers- WHICH IS TOMORROW.

So, the results have come in. Elder Chipana is going away to Piracicaba along with Elder Portilho (the Brasilian that lives with us). I will be companions with this guy named Elder Stone!! I don't know if I ever told you about him. He was in the same District as I in Hortolandia and I've already done a divison with him. I really liked it, as it was one of my favorite splits that I've done. I'm really excited to be his companion. We'll see how the transfer goes.

As for our investigators, we're coming along with progress. We've have at least one that's committed to being baptized the week of my birthday. I'll tell you more about him later on the next week.

Anyways, that was my week for you all. I've attached some photos for you guys. Have a great week and talk to you the next one!

Love,
Elder Collins

PS My birthday is coming up on August 5th, would love to get any emails, letters, or packages! hint, hint :)

Photos

July 20, 2015- week 46- P-day in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

HEY FAM BAM!

So, this week went by super fast. It's getting kinda ridiculous haha. Thanks for all the emails and pictures! John, Melissa, and Sarah are all growing up! John's almost at Dad's hight!! That's so crazy! And Melissa has already passed you now Mom! Haha, I don't even have a clue as to my height. I haven't had the chance to get my height, and even if I did, it would not be in the American measurements that I know so well.

Anyways, thank you so much for the birthday present! I got myself a really nice camera that I will be using for a long long time. Even after the mission. The photos are high quality and they said it was "semi-professional". Nice. I've still got quite a bit of the money you sent me, so I'll be sure to use it all wisely. The past week I've been taking really good care of my money haha. I can't have it all disappear on me again. I'm not planning on getting into my personal bank account for a while, so let's see how that goes haha. Well, as excited as I was to get a new camera, I took over 60 pictures doing the week! haha I'm not gonna be able to send them all to you, but I'll send you some of the best ones.

Well, this week, I finally did another division with an Elder named Elder Portilho. He lives in our house, so it wasn't as long as the other divisions I did with people in different cities. In my district, there are only 4 Elders (including my comp and I) and then some 6 Sisters. Agh, I keep forgetting to ask Elder Moss to send me the pic he took of the zone. I didn't take any pictures because I forgot to bring my camera with me to the zone meeting. I'll have to ask him next week.

So, this is the last week of the transfer. Tomorrow, we will be having our Multizona with two other Zones about an hour and a half away from here and then Wednesday or Thursday we'll be having our District meeting. Only one last Sunday in this transfer then on Monday we will find out the results of the transfer. I am pretty sure that my comp Elder Chipana will be leaving. He's been in this area for almost 6 months now. Also, in this transfer, a lot of leaders will be leaving. I think that a new District Leader will be my companion. Well, we'll see next week! Then, next week will be Mission Tour where Elder Costa of the Seventy will be visiting us for two days. Pretty exciting!

I hope all of you have another great week of summer! Until next week!

Love you all,
Elder Collins

PICTURES!!

Division- Me, Elder Portilo, and a member.

Fogo- Well, the mountain caught fire.

City view- Poços de Morros

A member- She gave us the reference of Adrien.

This one river in the middle of the city.

July 14, 2015- week 45- P-day in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

Hey Family!

How's it going? So, this week for me was pretty busy. On Wednesday, we went to a city about an hour away called São João for Zone meeting. Another 25 Reals gone. It was good though and they got us hyped for working hard the next several weeks. 

Then, on Friday, we went back to São João for interviews with President Canuto. It was really nice to talk to him again. It's been about three months, but we got to talk about how my mission was going and all that great stuff. The only bad part was that my body decided it wasn't going to like the cookies and bananas that I ate that morning on the bus. I got to the city feeling really bad with a terrible stomach ache. I couldn't focus on anything. After a while, I had to go to the bathroom where I proceeded to throw up what I had eaten that morning. Ugh. 5 minutes after that, I was called in for my interview. haha great timing. My comp and LZ gave me a blessing though so I started to feel better. I even went to Burger King for lunch afterwards. One of the missionaries gave me some coupons for BK, so I decided to give myself a present. It was pretty good. 

Anyways, besides having to go slow during the week for recooperation, it was pretty good. This week, the other Elders of Poços de Caldas had a baptism. It was this one guy who had come from Peru to be here with his girlfriend (who is a member). This dude is legit. He speaks 5 languages (unfortunately, Portuguese is not included haha, he's learning though) and has lived in countries all over the world. This upcoming week might bring some fruits. There is this one boy that we're teaching who's brother is a member. He's already gone to church several times and knows everything, but he doesn't feel super prepared. We're gonna have his baptismal interview this week, and hopefully he will say yes to baptism this Sunday. We shall see.

Thank you for sending me off a birthday package! Also, thank you for the money. Poços de Caldas is a tourist city, so everything is a little more expensive here.

Sounds like you all are having a great time over in Utah and now Idaho. Haha, wow Dad, you saying that you can't wait to take me to BYU next year is making me kind of trunky, haha. Can't wait to be with all you next year, but until then I'm having a blast here in Brasil speaking PORTUGUESE with BRASILIANS! Have a great week all!

Love,
Elder Collins

PHOTOS

Kite Flying

This ball I bought

That's Poços alright

This Bolivian dude

The entrance

The chapel at São João

July 6, 2015- week 44- P-day in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

Heya!

Well, another week here in Poços de Caldas done! Woo! Also, to my delight, we were able to baptize one more person on Sunday! His name is Adrien and he's 8 years old! He's really smart and understood really well the gospel and had the desire to be baptized. His mom is not a member, but is good friends with one of the members here in the Ward. She gave us this reference and we went over to their house and taught him and his family. He had already gone to church many times with this member, but never talked with the missionaries. It was a cool experience. And, he wanted me to baptize him, so I said okay! haha That was really neat. My first time baptizing someone, but hopefully not my last time.

We're getting pretty close with a lot of other people and baptism, but I don't know if we are going to have a baptism this week or the next. This week is gonna be super busy. Tomorrow, we have Zone meeting over in São João de Boa Vista, which is another city about an hour or so away from here. Then, on Thursday, we have interviews with the President in this same city again.

Man, I really don't have much money. I'm gonna have to take some money out of my personal account. I sent off my reimbursement letter, but I'm gonna have to wait until the next week (the earliest) to get it with my bi-weekly money. And, on top of that, my camera has broken. I was messing with my bag and it fell out onto the floor. Well, I never liked that camera anyways. It always ate up the batteries ridiculously fast and it wasn't very good quality.

Anyways, on Friday, I celebrated my 10 months on the mission! Woohoo! Only two more months until one whole year on the mission! Man, that's so crazy. For this celebration, I bought some pizza for my house. That night, the Zone Leaders stayed at our house because it was too late for them to go back to São João. That was the day they interviewed Adrien.

Well, I hope everything is going well over there in Utah! Tell everyone that I miss them and wish that I could be there! Until the next week!

Love,
Elder Collins

Photos

Baptism of Adrien

Baptism of Adrien