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 

Feb 15, 2015

Hello family! :)

This week was a little more boring than others, we've been working most of the time with our 2 baptism dates, Kyliegh and Jade. They're both doing really well and they're baptism dates are coming up! They're both really excited. :) 

This week we had district meeting in Wanagnui and President and Sister Hudson came to teach our lesson. They taught us a lot about the first visit that we will have with people and how important this visit has to be, and what stuff we should talk about with these people. What was really cool about that was right after our district meeting, Sister Shaw and I met with a girl for the first time that we've been trying to meet for a really long time, and we applied all the stuff we had learned in district meeting and our visit went GREAT! :) Her name is Steph and she's 18 and she's never  been religious or anything but recently she's wanted to know more about Christ, So we talked with her about what we do as missionaries and asked if she was interested and she asked us to come back this week! :) 

On Wednesday and Thursday, not a single person let us in to their homes. Everyone was either out or was too busy so they wouldn't let us in. So those days were really slow but that's ok, Sister Shaw and I have been having it pretty good lately so these days are bound to happen eventually. 

On Saturday we went back to Wanganui to help out with a baptism. The girl that was getting baptized is one of the Wanganui's sisters investigators, and she recently had a stroke and she can't do much on her own now. It was really touching to watch her be baptized because they had to be really careful dunking her in the water, and it was really sweet to be able to see that. 

Other than that not much happened this week! But it was a good week! :) Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Brittany

A cute photo shoot with the Sister Missionaires

So this is the Mataki Family and they are SO amazing. They're whole family got baptized in November and they're so strong in the gospel. We saw all the kids walking home from school and it was a hot day, so we told them to meet us at McDonald's and then we bought them all frozen fantas.  

Brittany loved the Boston shirt!

A sweet member named Alicia took these amazing shots of Brittany with her companion Sister Shaw! How lucky for us that she was willing to do these! 

February 08, 2014

Hello! :) This week I hit my 2 month mark!! Where is the time going? I felt like just yesterday I was stranded in the LA Airport and wanted to call mom and dad to come pick me up and take me home. ;)

This week was so great! On Monday night we went and visited a girl named Becky, she just got our of rehab because she has a really bad drinking problem, and she really loves learning more about Christ. So we were having a visit with her and she told us about a visit she had with her therapist this morning and how they were talking a lot about the Bible and God and how he helps us. She then said that they talked about a scripture that she really liked but she couldn't remember what it said or what it was about or where it was found. Anyway, later in the lesson she asked us to share a scripture, and I told her I would try to find one to share, and I flipped to Philippians 4:8-9 and shared that scripture, and when i finished she started laughing so hard, and said "that was the scripture!" She saw it as a sign from God and a miracle (which it is, because I'm horrible when it comes to Bible scriptures). So that was really cool. :)

Sadly, I was really sick all weekend but I kind of brushed it off, and then on Tuesday I was REALLY sick, so we decided to stay in the flat all day to make sure it doesn't get any worse. We basically just watched Mormon Messages and On His Errand all day.

We saw Jade 3 times this week :) Which was awesome. I love teaching her, she's really funny and has a lot of serious and innocent questions, her favorite one to ask is "does it cost money?" "does baptism cost money?" "how much does it cost to go to the temple?" "how much is a blessing?" Haha it's so funny, so she really enjoyed our lesson on tithing ;) But anyway, her lessons all went really well and she's so excited about being baptized on the 28th.

On Saturday we had a baptism here in Feilding for one of the Elders investigators, and there is a new rule that allows missionaries in our district to come to baptisms,so every missionary in our district came and our district covers a lot of New Zealand, so we had missionaries travel for 2 hours to come to this baptism, and it was so much fun to all get together. :)

Sister Collins sick meal made by her awesome companion Sister Shaw 

Celebrating 2 months in the field 

Also Sister Shaw and I found out about a really small town called Hunterville that's about an hours drive away from us, and it turns out that we cover that small town. So on Thursday we  went to see it and door knocked a little. It was really cool because these people had NEVER talked to missionaries before so it was fun to start a fresh start with people.

Other than that, that's it! This week was really fun and we did a lot.  Missions are a lot more fun when you have baptism dates! ;) Thanks for all the love and support you all send me. I love you guys!

Brittany

February 1, 2015

Hello again :)

So this week was pretty normal and a lot like the others, but on Friday I got to take my driving test with the senior couple in the area! They said I was one of the best American drivers they've ever driven with and I think it's mostly from my driving in Australia, but now I just have to wait for President Hudson to call me and give me the approval and then I can start driving!! And now that I have my licence they will probably start putting me with other sister missionary who can't drive, because there are a lot of sisters here that can't drive. So I'll be put with a lot of foreign sister missionaries so that will be fun!  Also something that is pretty funny is that Elder and Sister Morris ( the senior couple) served the first part of their missions in the Sydney South Mission, and guess where they served? In Orange!! We all talked about the Orange branch for a while and had some good laughs.

We met with Jade twice this week, once to help her with personal progress and the other to do a lesson. In the lesson with her we talked about possible baptism dates and she FREAKED out, she's so excited! She thought she would have to wait a couple years or something to be baptized and when we brought up the 28 of February she was so happy! So now we have 2 set baptism dates!

Also we dropped Paul this week, I talked about him forever ago, he got into some really really deep anti Mormon stuff and so we decided that he was too far gone for now, so on Thursday we had to drop him.

We also had another lesson with Annette, (the goat lady) and her goat was SO annoying. Satan was really in that goat or something because it was such a distracting to her during our lesson. It kept jumping all over the tables and on to all of ours laps. It was really frustrating but other than that Annette really enjoyed the lesson, because it was on the Plan of Salvation and she's lost so many people in her life. 

Oh also, they changed the rules and now you need to send ALL letters and packages to my flat address, which is 6C Bowen Street, Feilding, NZ 4702. Just try not to send me any letters or packages 1 week before transfers (which is every 6 weeks from this week) because I don't know if I'll be here after transfer week. Also if you've recently sent me a package or a letter and you sent it to the mission office address that's OK, they'll still give it to me, just from now on send it straight to me :) 

That's pretty much if for this week! It finally rained yesterday and today, which is good because it hasn't rained all month which is SUPER weird for New Zealand. Everything was dying and going yellow so hopefully it will be pretty and green again soon. We also get to watch Meet the Mormons this week at the chapel with some investigators and all the missionaries here are super jealous that I've already been able to watch it. Well that's it for now. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything! :) 

Sister Brittany Collins 

The girls out door knocking for days!

Doing personal progress with Jade

the girl on the top is Rhiannon (like the singer) and she's an investigator that's moving to Australia :( so we got a picture with her before she left this week

                 

getting serenaded by Fijians

chicken enchiladas kiwi style