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!

March 1, 2015

Hi family! J

I’M TRAINING!!!!!!

Sorry to start off my email this week like that but that’s all I can think about! So yesterday, President Hudson came to our ward to interview Kyliegh for her baptismal interview, and while he was there he pulled me aside to talk to me and ask how I was going. Then he told me that next transfer (which is next Wednesday) I will be training a new missionary! I’m just now finishing training for myself this week and now next week I’ll be doing it for someone else! I’m SO excited but I’m also really, really nervous. That means that I’ll be in Feilding until June.

On Saturday we had Jades Baptism! Everything went really well and her baptism was so amazing. After she got baptised we met her in the changing room to congratulate her, she gave us a hug and said “That was the best swim I ever had!” Haha J I love Jade so much and I’m so happy that I was able to teach her and be there for her baptism. She also got confirmed the following Sunday, which was also so amazing. She bore her testimony afterwards during Sacrament meeting which was so cool to watch, because when we first started teaching her she didn’t even know what the word ‘testimony’ meant! J She’s really grown so much and it makes me so happy.

What was also cool was after Jades baptism, Sister Shaw and I went to the Mataki’s home, the family that let us teach Jade in her home. They told Sister Shaw and I how grateful they were to have missionaries like us. They said that they had had a lot of missionaries in their home before but there was something different about us. They also told us that their family had been struggling a lot this past month, and having us over 2-3 times a week really helped their family so much during this time. They also asked me how much longer until I went home, and when I told them that I was still in training they were shocked, they said they thought I was almost done with my mission! That made me pretty happy, I try really hard to not act like a greenie missionary. J

We had exchanges this week with the Sister in Palmy, but this time Sister Shaw went to Palmy and I stayed in Feilding, which was my first time leading the area. I was really stressed about having to lead the area by myself for 3 days, but honestly it was really fun! I really liked this exchange, but I was so happy to have Sister Shaw come back. Having her away all week made me really sad because this is what it’s going to be like when she leaves soon!

On Saturday night we went to the Walker family’s home in Marton. They had invited a non member family over for some dinner, games and a small message. It was really fun and it was a great way to get to know potential investigators. It’s a lot more effective then just door knocking. The night went really well and the family had a really fun time!

Well other than that, that’s my week! It was a pretty good one! J Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you all! J

Brittany 

Sister Collins and Sister Shaw at Jade's baptism

This pic is with Honey Sononu, she comes to lessons with us a lot :)

Notice that Brittany is behind the wheel driving!

You can only get Wendy's in Pamly, so we got some after our Zone Conference! 

Zone Conference March 2015