May 3, 2015

Hi Family! :)

This past couple of weeks has been really crazy, as you know I've been going through some really hard times these past couple of weeks. But this past week happened to be one of the best weeks I've had on my mission! This past week it felt like all the members in the ward and everyone we work with decided to come out and tell me how much they love me and how much they love having me here!

This past week we've been working with our investigator Jude a lot. We barely got through the first half of the Restoration with her the last time we saw her, because she talks so much. But she's reading the Book of Mormon and loves it! One of her friends actually started telling her all of these horrible things about Mormons last week, and she totally defended us! Also right before we left her house last week, she said she had a surprise for me. She said "she had been waiting for an angel to give this too" and she pulled out her wedding dress and gave it to me! So now I have a wedding dress in my closet, and I'm not really sure what to do with it.

Mekyla is doing really awesome! She came to church yesterday and is getting ready for be baptized on May 16! 

That's about it for this week! We had a couple people tell us that there were a couple earthquakes in our area this last week, but Sister Albiston and I didn't feel them. I also hit my 5 month mark today! I can't believe I've been living in New Zealand and have been a missionary for 5 months now!

Love you all so much! 

Brittany

The moon was so full this week!

Jude's wedding dress! 

My favorite recent convert Meagan!

Getting our flu shots!

Me and a goat!

April 12, 2015

Hi mom!! :) My birthday was really good! I got your packages!! :) Thank you so much, I really loved them so much! :) I thought my birthday was going to be kind of depressing this year because it was really rainy and cold this week and sister Albiston was really sick all week so we were in our flat most of the week, but on Friday it was really sunny and sister albiston wasn't sick and the the elders from our area and 2 from another area and Maeghan came over and made me a cake and sang me happy birthday! Plus i got to open lots of presents so it was really fun :)

Your trip sounds really fun! I can't wait to be able to go with you guys again! I like to count my mission by Disneyland trips that i'm missing haha, so far I've missed 2 and i think i'll miss maybe 2 more until i get home ;)

I love you so much and i hope you made is back home safely! :) I'll send a better email in just a minute ;) love you!!!

Brittany

Hello fam,

This week was my Birthday week!! It actually ended up being a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I started off my birthday like how most 20 year olds do, by teaching someone the Law of Chastity. After that we went back to the flat and I opened all my packages J then right after that, Maeghan, the Elders in our area and the Elders from the town over, came and brought me a cake and sang to me! The rest of the day was pretty normal, but everyone was forced to be extra nice to me that day so I really enjoyed it. J

I got to watch Conference finally this weekend! It was so amazing, I really like watching Conference while on my mission because I feel like I get way more out of it than I've ever gotten out of it before. Plus Mekyla came to one of the sessions of Conference!

Speaking of Mekyla, she fed us on Thursday! It was really cool, she read to us her testimony that she had written down that she wants to read in Sacrament after she gets baptized! In her testimony she talked about how much she loves the Plan of Salvation and the Restored Gospel, she also talked about how much she loves Joseph Smith and President Thomas S. Monson. It’s so amazing to see how far she’s come in just a couple of months.

Well this week was really rainy and cold, and Sister Albiston got really sick, so we took most of this week pretty easy. We still went out quite a bit and taught a couple lessons, but we would also take breaks every few hours so that she could rest, so this week isn't as interesting as the others.  

That’s about my week! It’s starting to get dark at about 6:00 here now, so it’s really hard to find stuff to do at night now, plus now that we share the car with the Elders, we are biking in the rain in the dark a lot more.  Builds character. Side note, I started reading the Book of Mormon at the beginning of the year and I finished it this week! So in case you were wondering, the Book of Mormon is true. Love you all so much! Thanks for all the Birthday stuff you all sent me!

Kia Ora!

Brittany 

Birthday Package

Yay! It's my 20th Birthday

Girl Scout Cookies

2 new Pairs of Toms

Birthday cake

Best pizza in town

a little beauty treatment fun!

April 6, 2015

Hello again! J

This week was pretty good! We didn’t get to watch conference though, but we get to watch it in church this weekend! I got to watch the Womans Broadcast on Saturday in Palmy though, which was amazing of course. J

So this week we had Zone Conference in Palmy, it was really  good and lots of fun, but sadly, the Elders in our area got their car taken away from President, and now we have to share a car with them again….dang it. Oh well.

We were on exchanges this week, I was in Feilding with Sister Anderson again. We had a really long talk with Mekyla  about her baptism coming up in a couple weeks because she hasn’t come to church in a while. We told her that we were going to have to push her date back a couple weeks, and she was actually really, really sad about it. She told us how much she loves Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson, she could almost quote the first vision too! She’s progressed so much, we’re really sad about having to move her date back, but we feel it is best for her.

Kyleigh got baptised on Saturday!!! It was so amazing, she was so happy the whole time! Lots of people from the ward came to support her. It was so great, Kyleigh has waited a long time for this to happen, so I’m so happy to have been able to be here for it!

We also found Latisha!! I don’t know if any of you remember her she’s a 21 year old girl we found door knocking back in December, she had a baptism date and everything. She started to move around Feilding allot though and it was hard to catch her, then she was in the hospital for a month because of her heart. Anyway, we found her on Friday! And last night we had a lesson with her and we set a new baptism date with her!

Easter was like an ordinary day here, not much happened. Yesterday we couldn’t do anything for Pday because everything was closed. So we went over to the Elders and played Uno and Phase 10 on their front porch for 5 hours haha.

That was basically my week! I hope you all had a good Easter and enjoyed Conference!! J

Brittany

The best pancakes with Ice Cream on top!

Kyleigh's baptism day

Zone conference

Elder Loveless and Elder Lee

The liquor Store we live across the street from!

Peachies! The best soda ever!

March 31, 2015

Hello family! :)

The weather this week has been CRAZY! It's raining all the time, and when it rains here it rains really, really hard. The rain usually wakes us up in the middle of the night about 3 times because it gets so loud and crazy. It's been really fun though. :)

This week we've been getting Kyliegh ready for her baptism which is on Saturday! She's really excited that she can FINALLY get baptized! She's letting us plan everything though because she says she doesn't care what happens, so we've been getting her baptism all planned out and getting people to prepare talks for it. 

We've also been working on Mekyla a lot this week, she hasn't come to church is 2 weeks and her baptism is in 3 weeks. She's still reading an praying everyday but  she needs to come to church! We taught her Word of Wisdom on Friday with a convert member there with us, and the lesson went really well, she agreed to give up drinking alcohol! 

We also met a new investigator while cleaning out our area book, he name is Regina and shes from the Philippians.  At our first visit with her she started crying and telling us everything about her life. She's had a really hard life and she really needs the gospel, so we're hoping to work with her a lot and we're going to try and help her. 

We're also working with the Wiriungi kids still, they want to come to church! But they have netball practice all day Sunday, so we're trying to work with that.

Other than that, that's my week! I probably won't be able to email next Monday because it's Easter Monday and all the shops will be closed. But I will get on next Tuesday!

I love you all!

 Watch Because He Lives!!! :)

Brittany

 Beautiful New Zealand

 Bart Simpson visited Fielding!

 With all the rain, it's hard to stay dry

There's a rule that you cannot bring over baked items to the sister, so the Elders brought over this non-baked treat for Sister Collins and Sister Albiston!  

March 22, 2015

Hello family!

This week was really good, and a lot better then the ones I've had all month!

This week we worked a lot with Mekyla, our baptism date. She is progressing pretty well but she hasn't come to church in a couple weeks, she blames it on the rain. She is still reading te Book of Mormon and praying but we need her to come to church!

Also good news, Kyliegh got the OK from stake president to get re-baptized! Yay! :) We've been waiting for so long to get her baptized and now we're planning on doing it the first Saturday in April! She's really excited!

We've also been working with the Wiriungi kids, they were all baptized a year ago but now they are less active. We come to their house twice a week now and help them do Faith in God, they love it! Before we left during our last visit, they asked us if they could come to church on Sunday! We were really happy but then it turns out that they have netball all day on Sundays, but we're working on that!

Other than that, we cleaned up our Area Book and found some old investigators that were dropped but we contacted them and they want to be taught the lessons again!

We're also in the middle of a prank war with the Elders, so far they've hit us with water balloons, and put mustard on our flat door handle. Yesterday we were wrapping their car up with plastic wrap with Maegan but then they saw us. Anyway, it's been pretty fun!

That's about my week! Thank you for all that you do! It's been pretty rainy this past couple of days, and I love it! :) Hope you all have a good week!

Brittany

March 15, 2015

Hello Family!! J

It’s now the start of a new transfer and I officially have my new companion! Her name is Katelyn Albiston from American Fork! So she lives just around the corner from us!, She’s 22 and she’s really nice, we get along pretty well. J

Well this week we had a sleep over with the Wanganui Sisters which was pretty fun, but sadly the next day we dropped off Sister Shaw at the bus stop, I was completely fine until I gave her her last hug, then I was bawling my eyes out!

So this week we worked with Mekyla Rickus, she has a baptism date for the 18^th of April, we’ve been working with her since December, and she didn’t get comfortable with the idea of baptism until about last week. So now we’re re teaching her all the lessons again so she can have a better feel of everything.

On Saturday we did service for 3 different investigators with the Elders, so we mowed allot of lawns and picked heaps of weeds and I learned how to climb a cabbage tree and pick off the dead leaves off of that.

We also saw an investigator, Annette (the one with the pet goat). We’ve been trying to catch her for weeks and were finally able to on Sunday. She has some anxiety and depression problems so we are trying to help her find comfort from reading and praying. Our visit with her went really well yesterday, and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she said she would read and pray about it.

Other than that, this week we went to members houses and introduced Sister Albiston to them, and took her door knocking a couple times so that she could get a feel for that. That is basically my week! Thank you for all the love and support you all send me! Have a great week!

Brittany

Saying goodbye to Sister Shaw :(

Sister Collins the trainer with her new trainee Sister Albiston 

Door Knocking!

Sister Collins and Sister Albiston

Sister Collins with her District! 

March 8, 2015

Hello family! :)

Well this week went by really slow, I think it's because I've been waiting all week to see who my new companion will be, but now I know! Sister Albisten! I get to meet her on Wednesday! I'm really nervous to train but I'm also really excited!

Maeghan got baptized on Saturday! Sister Shaw and I taught Maeghan for a little bit but then we had to hand her over to the Elders because they were the ones who found her and they just all get along better, anyway i still love her so it was really awesome to see her get baptized!

Bad news, Kyeligh didn't get baptized on Saturday, long story short, because of bad communication and her lost records, she couldn't be baptized. But good news, they finally found her records! All it took was Sister Shaw and I calling our mission president and having him call SLC, but apparently her name had been removed from the records. We don't really know what that means yet but I guess we will soon!

We set a baptism date with Kira and Jytique, (Bishops grandkids) for May, so we're really excited about that! We also set a baptism date with Mekyla, but she's more into Jesus then she is in the Mormon faith, so we're trying to help her realize more what she is doing before she just jumps into baptism.

Also, I finished training yesterday! I'm officially no longer a greenie missionary! But now I'll be getting right back into training this week with my new companion. I feel like I'll be in training for the rest of my mission.

Well that's about my week! Last Monday Sister Shaw and I took a bus to Palmy to spend our P-day there, it was so fun! I miss big cities! I'm also really sad because this is my last week with Sister Shaw! Allot of changes will be happening this next week. Can't wait to see what happens!

Thanks for all that you all do for me! Have a great week!

Brittany

Sister Collins and Sister Shaw at Maeghan's baptism

All done with training! Now off to be a trainer!

Sister Collins with a package from home! This envelope is flat but I stuffed so much stuff in it, it looks more like a ball! But it all fit!