October 26, 2015- week 60- First P-day in new area- Piracicaba, Brazil!

Hey Family!

So, as you all know, I was transferred to Piracicaba 8 to be comps with Elder Rodrigues. He's super chill. I have a feeling that this transfer will be awesome haha. Anyways, I always wanted to serve here in Piracicaba, but now that I'm here I realized it's a whole lot different than I imagined haha. 

The accent here is really strong haha. I don't know if I already told you, but the accent here is a lot like a hill billy accent. It's kinda funny. Also, there is almost nothing in our area. The closest grocery store is about 40 minutes away, all the mini stores are SUPER expensive, the LAN house is almost an hour away, we live 30 minutes from our area, and so on. 

But we have lots of investigators who are going to church and preparing to be baptized. Like, a lot. Let's see what we can do here in the next couple of weeks. I'm still excited to be here. Also, guess who are the other Elders in our ward? A Brasilian named Elder Gomez and...Elder Holder!!! I still can't believe it. This is his last transfer on the mission and I'm going to see him die. He saw me when I was born and I'll see him when he dies. 

We have lunch with the other Elders everyday at the members' houses, but we don't live with them. Actually, we live with 4 other missionaries who go to a different ward. So basically, there is a house in front, and then going to the back, there's a different house- that would be my house. I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense, I'm confused too.

We also had interviews with the President on Wednesday. President Canuto said dad talked with him? I dunno, anyways it was really cool to talk with President again. 

Well, that's about all that happened this week. Thanks for all the emails and PACKAGES TOO!!! I finally got them. Also, shoutout to the Streeter Family! Thank you so much for the package! I loved it! Especially the tie!

Have a great week y'all!

Love,
Elder Collins

Fotos

Reunion with the peeps at the bus station in Piracicaba.

Elder Francato and Elder Pereira.

Goodbye comp.

This guy is too much.

So that was my face on the bus leaving Poços de Caldas...I was sad.

#myfavoritearea

What a lovely present! Thanks Streeter family!

I love this tie!

That's Piracicaba!

This is also Piracicaba.

October 19, 2015- week 59- Received transfer to Piracicaba, Brazil!

Hey family!

Well, Transfers have come through and I am now going to Piracicaba! Also, my neck hurts- sunburn. Well, it's been a great three transfers here in Poços de Caldas. I will definitely miss this place, and the people, and the sights. This will definitely be a city I will return to after the mish. Anyways, it's time for me to leave, and I've always wanted to go to Piracicaba. My comp will be another Brasilian! YES. His name is Elder Rodriguez. I've already met him at multizonas, but I'm pretty excited. 

So, good news. We had another baptism this week! His name is Natanael. This is the guy that we met a week and a half ago. It was a really neat experience. My companion Elder Pereira baptized him. After he was baptized, we asked him his feelings and he commented: "Now, I feel like I'm a part of a family that I never had".

We had originally planned for the baptism to be on Sunday, but there was an activity for the Elders Quorum where we hiked to a waterfall here in Poços. It was awesome, but unfortunately I did not bring my camera. Also, it got up to 40 degrees celsius. Whatever that is in Fahrenheit. But it was hot and my whole neck, face, and arms were burnt to a plump red. It hurts to move my neck. Oh well. 

Anyways, when we got back from the hike, we all had a churrasco. Pretty delish. Natanael was there too and one of the members asked us why the baptism wasn't going to be then and there. We thought about it, asked Natanael, then we baptized him right there. On Sunday, I confirmed him a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

I guess I'll end my email here. There isn't much to say. I'm pretty excited for this upcoming transfer! Thank you all for the emails. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Collins

Photos

What's he looking at?

That's a giant head.

Paleta Mexicanas are delish.

This dude.

Natanael right next to a red hot chili pepper...(that's me)

5 Baptisms in Poços!

Esses gatos esperando para LAN house abrir.

October 13, 2015- week 58- Children's Day holiday was yesterday in Brazil!

Hey fam bam!

What!? Seriously?! That's so awesome that Peter or I guess Elder McCollaum is serving in the Caserta ward haha. I would have never guessed that he would go there. But sweet! I think that would be so weird for me since it wouldn't feel like he's a missionary serving in my ward there, just a friend at church with a plaque.

Anyways, this past week for me was pretty good. On Tuesday, we had multizona at a city called São Carlos. It's about three hours away from Poços so we left early in the morning again. I really do not like waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning, but it was definitely worth it to go to the multizona. It was my favorite of all of them so far. Really spiritual. Also, a lot of things that we're doing in the mission are changing. We are now changing our mentality to quality instead of quantity. The amount of lessons are going down, but the amount of people we are contacting is going up. I think I already told you that. 

Also, unfortunately, there wasn't enough space in the car of President for packages, so I'll have to wait until next week when transfers happen. I'm so anxious to get my packages!!! AGGHH

So, there might be another baptism this Sunday. This is the last week of the transfer btw. It was really cool how we found him. On Friday, we were walking in a plaza when he called us over. He said he had gone to the church up in Brasilia (the capital of Brasil) and liked it a lot. He said he was passing through some difficulties. We said he could go to church with us on Sunday, so we took down his number to call him. On Saturday, while we were doing contacts in this one park, we found him again. We decided to take advantage of this opportunity and we taught him the Restoration. He liked it a lot and we also invited him to be baptized. He accepted! 

On Sunday, he came to church with us. Here comes the cool part. When we arrived at church, he was immediately greeted by two members who both hugged him. These members had gotten to know him on Friday when they climbed up to the Cristo here. This guy happened to be there too. The members invited him to climb up with them, so he accepted. One of the members became really good friends with him and even wanted to share a little of the gospel with him, but he didn't because of fear. That night, the member prayed for him. The next day, we found him. Oh, the power of prayer. We've already taught him two times and he is definitely ready to be baptized and follow Christ. He said he's been looking for the right path for many years, but couldn't find it. He said he finally found it. How great it is to be a missionary.

Also, sorry for not emailing you guys yesterday; P-Day was moved to today because of the holiday yesterday (Children's day). Literally nothing was open yesterday so I was okay with that. Anyway, we had our last District meeting of the transfer. Two Sisters will be going home next week, so we had a party after the meeting. I have some photos attached of the week.

Thank you all for the emails.

Love y'all!
Elder Collins

Photos

The best district ever with our cool t-shirts.

Sister Menezes!

American sisters!

Is it someone's birthday?

Well, I got a present for my b-day.

Just some of the Elders from my group.

Elder Carter is gonna go home!

Elder Sanchez is so ugly.

Even my father is going home!

Elder Tarver, from my first district going home too...

October 5, 2015- week 57- P-day in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

Hello Family and Friends!

So, this email is going to be short this week because not much happened. On Monday, I left with my companion Elder Pereira to São João and stayed there overnight. On Tuesday, there was the Leadership conference of the mission that, for the first time ever, was done via Skype. It was quite interesting. We talked about a lot of things that we need to change in the mission. Over the next couple of months, the form of work will be changing. Instead of lots of lessons and average number of contacts, we will be doing crazy amounts of contacts with a low number of the best lessons we can teach. Quite interesting indeed. Anyways, later that day, I did a split with Elder Stone! Woohoo for reuniting past companions! 

On Wednesday, we had a Zone meeting over in São João. After the meeting, all the guys went and ate at Burger King for lunch. There was this weird special burger for Halloween which will be happening over where you guys live in about a month. I miss eating lots of candy...When we got back Wednesday night, we had a meeting with our Ward mission leader. 

All day Thursday I was busy doing baptismal interviews for 4 Sisters. Friday was probably my only day to work. We knocked doors and taught some lessons. Nothing heavy. Saturday and Sunday were both GENERAL CONFERENCE!! YEAH!! I loved it! I've been able to watch General Conference on the mission three times now! And, it's crazy to think that I only have one more General Conference left on the mission...Welp! Some of my favorite talks included Robert D. Hales, James B. Martino, Jeffery R. Holland, and Devin G. Durrant. Of course I loved hearing every one of the inspired men and women who talked, but these ones really stood out to me. Gotta love Robert D. Hales plainness on what we need to do and Jeffery R. Holland's heartfelt testimony on the divine and sacred calling of mothers. I love you mom! :)

This upcoming Tuesday (tomorrow) we will be going to a city called São Carlos for a Multizona with the President! It's gonna be awesome! Also, they will have mail there. I haven't gotten any packages or letters for a while, so I'm sure that tomorrow I will have some. At least I hope haha. 

Also, for the past 3 days, we haven't had any water in our house. Someone forgot to pay the bill back in March of this year! Having to take showers with a bucket of water from the neighbors isn't too much fun. I don't know if I told you too, but a couple of weeks they cut the electricity too. I think I prefer without electricity. *sigh* oh the wonderful experiences of the mission haha. #noregrets All those who will be going out on missions- you'll love these times haha. 

Well, thank you all for the emails! I wish all of you "uma semana belíssima"
Tchau para todos!

Com amor,
Elder Collins

Photos

Remember this dude?

That's a big hot dog... 

This dude is with me now.

Elder Carter is dying! 2 weeks left!

Part of the Zone.

Burger King Lunch!

Either that burger is burnt or it's one of those weird Halloween buns.

September 28, 2015- week 56- P-day in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

Hey family!

So yeah, this past week I was still a little sick and all. I'm still coughing some, but at least I'm not in the hospital haha. This week went by pretty fast as well.

So, on Tuesday after the District meeting, I did a split with the Zone Leader Elder Carter (who will be going home in some 3 weeks). It was pretty cool to work with him. Anyways, we found this really cool family too. We were knocking on doors and entered this one house. We found out that the dude was an inactive member of our church and that he also went on a mission. Actually, he went to the CTM (Missionary Training Center) and then one day before he went out into the mission field, he had to go back home to help his dad that later passed away. Some stupid people said some stupid stuff, and he stopped going to church. He helped the missionaries a lot when he was active, but then for some 15 years didn't do anything with the church. My comp and I knocked on his door and said that we were an answer to his prayers. He told us he had been talking with his wife about baptizing his son, because he hadn't been baptized yet. The next day we knocked on their door. Nice. Also, this dude is an opera singer. He's so cool. I like him a lot. On Sunday he went to church for the first time in 15 years. It was really neat to see him there. We'll be working with him these next couple of weeks.

The rest of the week went by really fast. We knocked lots of doors and met lots of new people. And, it was really hot this whole week right until Sunday when it started to rain and cool down a lot.

Something I was thinking. It's gonna be really weird for me to do laundry when I get back to the States. Here, they don't have dryers (or they do, but it's super expensive because of the initial cost for the machine but also for electricity) so we have to hand dry our clothes on clothes lines. I'm so used to doing it. There was also a time when our washing machine broke so I had to hand wash and dry wash my clothes. Ah, the experiences of the mission.

Also, I am SUPER excited for Aaron having gotten his mission call to California- Vietnamese speaking! I've been waiting for a while to hear this haha. It's too bad I won't be able to see him for some time though.

Well, there's not much else to the week. Thanks for all the emails. I hope you all have another great week!

Love,
Elder Collins

Photos

Lunch at a member's house.

District Meeting!!

Poços de Caldas

That's a sweet view.

That's the city.

Brasilian sunset.

September 21, 2015- week 55- Dog bite and hospital visit in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

Para a minha querida familia,

So, this week was something different. I wasn't able to work as much as I wanted to, but hopefully this week will be better for me. So, on Tuesday I had my first District meeting as the District Leader! Woohoo!! That was fun. I think I did pretty well. I dunno. Everyone seemed to like my training. We'll see how tomorrow goes too! The Zone Leaders are gonna come to the meeting and then do splits with us afterwards.

Also, I decided to buy Tereré and a bomba (this metal straw that keeps the herbs out). I don't know if you guys know what that is, but it's a type of drink that they have here. Actually, it's a flavouring herb. You see, you dump these herbs in a cup, fill it with lemonade and then drink out of the fancy metal straw. It's super good.

Also, I think I've already told you, but we found this awesome family that loved when we went over to their house and shared our message with them. They all (the mom and two sons) want to be baptized, so we're working with them. We visited them on Tuesday too. On Wednesday, it got real hot. Also, we were went to visit one of our investigators, so we knocked their door waiting for them to come out when their two fluffy cute dogs came running out barking at us. They're about regular sized dogs. Not BIG, but also not small. I went out to pet one of them when the dog latched out and bit my finger. Ouch. It started bleeding a lot and that just ruined my day because 1, the investigators weren't even at home, and 2, my hand hurt for the rest of the day.

On Thursday, things got even worse when walking to our lunch I had a bad stomach ache. After eating lunch, it only got worse and the pain spread to my chest. It got real hard to breath, so they took me to the hospital. Once I got to the hospital, I had an attack of some sort. I'm not sure if it was like a panic attack or whatever. Basically, I had difficulty breathing and my body started going numb. My hands clenched up and I couldn't do anything. I felt so hopeless and scared. And the pain in the chest and stomach was still there. After some 10 or 15 minutes, I calmed down and went back to just the pain in the stomach and chest. They did some tests on me including attaching some wires to my chest, ankles, and arms. They diagnosed me with "gastrite nervousa". I'm not sure what that is in English, but basically its inflammation of the stomach. I talked with Sister Canuto and she told me that I can drink little or no soda, that I have to eat breakfast everyday, and that I have to take this one medication everyday. She's gonna mark a consolation with the Doctor the next week or so for me. So yeah...

That incident pretty much destroyed my week. I couldn't work anymore on Thursday, but on Friday and Saturday I went back to work. We weren't able to visit this awesome family and Thursday when we had marked, so that meant we couldn't talk to them more the past week, and they ended up not going to church...

Hopefully this week will be better. Thank you all for writing me emails. I love you all and pray for you all.

Your brother, son, and friend,

Elder Collins

Photos (sorry, I wasn't able to take many photos, but this week I will)

All Brasilians.

Yeah, it kinda hurts to get bit by a dog...

Septermber 14, 2015- week 54- new Brazilian companion in Poços de Caldas, Brazil!

Hey Fam bam!

How's it going? Well, not much has happened, since I just emailed you guys like 4 days ago. Also, is my English grammar really falling behind? Man. haha Well, now that I have a Brasilian companion, I can finally improve my Portuguese! Haha FINALLY! I've been waiting so long for this chance! Haha, he must be pretty annoyed with all the questions I ask about how to improve my Portuguese and what I can say better to sound more like a native speaker. As an exchange, I also help him with his English. He actually speaks English really well. I almost didn't even hear his accent. Every day starting at 8:30, we only speak English for the rest of the day including our daily planning session. I feel like we're both progressing pretty well.

Anyways, I think the only big thing that happened this past week was another baptism! Yeah! Her name is Maristela (Estela). Actually, lots of Elders have taught her. Her two children were both baptized 5 years ago, so missionaries have been going there for quite some time now. I guess the Lord prepares people for the right time. Estela was ready when I got here. I taught her with three different missionaries. My last companion, Elder Stone, was pretty sad to have left right before her baptism. We held the baptismal service on Saturday, then on Sunday she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Overall, one of my favorite baptisms.

I still think it's kind of weird that the Caserta Ward in Italy has Sisters now. I don't think we've ever had Sisters in our ward before, so that's cool. How much time do the missionaries over there have on the mission? Is one of the Elders the DL? Tell them I said hi from Brasil and wish them all the luck over there in Italy. Also tell the Sister missionaries that they're lucky that they get to eat with you. I wish I had that opportunity haha.

Also, something that's so strange to me. Lots of the missionaries that I knew are going home. This past week, Elder Augusto went back home. He was my comp for some 2 weeks, but we lived in the same house. It's really weird to know that he's probably sleeping in every day and hanging with his friends. Elder Holder goes home this December. It felt like it was yesterday that we were both companions teaching people I couldn't even understand a little bit. Well, I guess this is the way of a missionary. One goes home, and another takes his place.

Well! Thank you so much for the email you guys all sent to me! Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any packages from you guys yet. Just two more weeks and then more mail will arrive. I've got my fingers crossed. haha Have a wonderful week all of you!

Love,
Elder Collins

Photos

These guys.

This guy is the best!

Birthday of Eduardo

Maristela's baptism

Such a great day.

Our neighbors/members from Haiti!!!