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

January 26, 2015

Hello again everyone :) 

This week was so great! We had exchanges with the sisters in Palmerston, and I was there for about 3 days. Those sisters are also in a 3-some so I got to be in a 3-some for a little bit! I was with Sister Anderson (the Sister that I met up with at the airport) and Sister Gilmore, who is our Sister Training Leader and she's from Scotland. It was so much fun to be in a big(ish) city for a little bit! I had my first Hungi, which is a Maori BBQ where they cook the food deep in the ground, and it was soooo good. Other than that though it was a pretty normal week. 

But, Sister Anderson had lost her carry on bag about a month ago when we first arrived in our mission areas, and it wasn't until this Wednesday that they called and said that they had finally found it, but as we were on our way to pick it up, Sister Anderson realized that she had lost her wallet...so we spent the rest of the day looking for her wallet because she was really stressed about it being gone, and we spent the rest of the next day also looking, but we still never found it. So that wasn't very fun.

I got back in Feilding on Thursday and we taught Latisha again, Latisha has a baptismal date but she lives in a really sketchy situation. We don't even teach her at her house because it's really scary. But on Thursday we went to pick her up at her house and to walk her to the chapel where we teach her, and she was crying, she told us that her boyfriend had just broken up with her and she was being kicked out of the house. We went on a walk with her and talked about it for a little bit, Sister Shaw and I are actually SUPER happy that they broke up because 1)they shouldn't be living together and 2) her boyfriend is a huge jerk. But we didn't have our lesson that day because she had to work.

On Saturday a ward member invited us over to teach their niece, her name is Jade and she's 15 and she's SO awesome! She's already doing Personal Progress and planning on going on the youth temple trip next week to see the temple, and she fasted yesterday to help her overcome her swearing habit. We get along with her really well too and she's so much fun so I'm super excited about teaching her. :) 

So, sadly, yesterday we stopped by Latisha's house to invite her to church, but she wasn't there. Her roommate was there, his name is Aaron, he's a really less active Maori who kind of has mental problems. Well, when she wasn't there, we went to church, and then about an hour later we realized that we had lost our phone.  After church we looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Then we remembered that Sister Shaw had it on her lap when we went to get Latisha, and it must of fallen off her lap and landed on the ground. But when we went back to her house it wasn't there anymore, and Aaron was gone too. Aaron is VERY known to find things and sell them for drug money, so basically our phone was stolen by our investigator's less active roommate, who sold it for drug money! Now we are phone less for now.

Well that's about it for this week! The transfer list came out today and Sister Shaw and I are both staying in Feilding. :) Thanks for all the emails and letters you guys send me! Have a good week! :)Sister Collins

Sister Collins while she was on her exchange in Palmerston

Sister Collins with the Bishops son

A lady Sister Collins teaches owns a goat that she keeps in her home! Britt says it jumps all over the furniture and pees everywhere! Yuck!

January 19, 2015

Hey family! Sorry about yesterday!  It was Wellington's Anniversary or something and everything was closed! There are a lot of Holidays on Mondays here so if I don't email you, just know that I will email you the next day! 

So right now I am in Palmerston on exchanges, and I'm with a set of sisters that are usually in a 3 some so there are 3 of us right now! And one of them is Sister Anderson from the airport, so that''s pretty cool! I'm here until Thursday so we'll see how this goes!

So we have an investigator that owns the mini gold course in Fielding and she let us go there for free yesterday, which was actually super awesome also because it's probably the funnest thing to do in Fielding. 

This week was really slow so there really isn't much to say, i'm really sorry! I'm also a little dazed right now because of my exchange and we're doing a lot today, we have a haungi tonight (i'm not sure how to spell it) but it's a huge Maori BBQ that they do by cooking food deep in the ground and I'm super excited for it.

Sorry about the lame email, it'll be better next week, I'm just super overwhelmed at the moment! See ya guys next week! :)

Love, Brittany

Hello again! :)

This week was really really slow when it came to teaching actual lessons, we mostly met a lot of new people and met referrals from ward members. 

So this week we had District Meeting in Thaihape, which is about an hour and a half drive away from where we are. After district meeting we stayed up there all day and did service with all the missionaries in our district which was so much fun! Mostly because there were 3 groups of sisters to hang out with. :)

So twice a week we drive to a town called Marton and meet with the ward members that live there (they're all Samoan) but ALL of the members there don't come to church because the chapel is too far away from them. They take up about half of our ward so without them there our ward is really small. So we try our best every week to encourage the Samoans to come to church and they always have an excuse to not come, so we're trying really hard to work with them.

If you can remember, about a week or so ago I told you about Maeghan, she's an investigator that the Elders found that works at subway about 4 months ago. She's really good friends with the missionaries and we try not to pressure her into taking the lessons but we try really hard to see her as much as we can and to be her friend. And last week she texted me and Sister Shaw and asked us to start teaching her! Our first lesson was so awesome and when I testified of Christ Maeghan and I started crying so hard, she felt the spirit so strong. Well, we were going to see her this week to continue doing the lessons when the Elders showed up to our flat on Saturday...the Elders told us that they felt really impressed that they should be the ones to teach Maeghan since they were the ones to find her and they said they felt they had a special connection with her...well we talked about it for an hour and a half and finally came to the conclusion that it would be best for Maeghan to be taught by the Elders. I honestly felt like I had just been dumped or something, I love Maeghan so much and I'm so sad that we aren't teaching her anymore. And then to make things worse, me and Sister Shaw were biking past Subway last night and we saw the Elders hanging out with Maeghan in there and I felt like I had caught her cheating on me or something haha, it was a really weird feeling but I know it's for the best that Maeghan is taught by the Elders.

Me and Sister Shaw were really sad about the Maeghan situation, but about 5 minutes after the Elders left our flat, we got a text from Kyeligh to come over to her house. Kyliegh is the ward member who was Less Active her whole life and then when she finally decided to come back to church she found out her records were missing. We went to her house and she told us that she wants to be re baptized! Me and Sister Shaw were SO excited because we LOVE Kyleigh and now we get to teach her all the lessons and help get her ready for baptism! We definitely needed something like this to happen to help us feel better about not teaching Maeghan anymore. 

Anyway other than that, not much happened this week. Kiwis are very laid back and especially since its summer time here, no one is ever around or ever wants us to come around.

 I gave a talk in sacrament yesterday and right after I gave my talk our Bishop asked me and all the other missionaries in our ward to sing next week in sacrament. 

Thanks for all the letters and Christmas cards that you all sent me! I also love getting emails from you and I'm sorry if i don't ever get time to email back, but know that I read them and I love you all so much! Have a good week! :)

Hello Whanau :) (family)

Wow this week went by crazy fast, I felt like I was just e-mailing you guys yesterday! 

This week was pretty good, it started with us meeting with Latisha. (she's white but with a black girl name) She's really cool and super interested in the gospel, but we met with her again on Tuesday this week and she was super super out of it (most likely really high) anyway it was like we were talking to a wall for an hour. But we met with her again a couple days later and taught her for real, and I asked her to be baptised and she said yes :) I was sooo happy, but she has allot of work to do before she can be baptised. So we're working with her allot.

Then we had Maeghan. The Elders met Maeghan at Subway where she works. They met up with her allot and became really good friends with her and so we decided to do the same. We would go to Subway a few times a week just so we could see her (we wouldn't always buy food) but we became really good friends with her. She surprised us this week by texting us and asked if we could meet at the chapel this Friday to start the discussions! So we met her at the chapel and the lesson went so good! She had so many questions and she talked about how badly she wanted to have a family like the families she sees go to our church because we look so happy. She then decided that she wants to be married in the Salt Lake Temple which was awesome haha. She said she wants to meet with us again very soon and we're really excited to meet with her more!

Kyleigh.....Oh Kyliegh, she was a member her whole life but then her records were lost and now she's really bitter about the church. We meet with her once a week just to catch up with her and try to help her in anyway that we can. She's really angry at the church for loosing her records and she refuses to be re baptised. We met with her this week and told her that she would only find peace in her life by turning to God and asking him for it and by living his commandments. And guess what happened? She met with the bishop this week and now she's planning on being re baptised. We're really happy about that! :)

Anyway we had New Years but nothing really happened, we had to be back in our flats by 7 and me and Sister Shaw just watched 17 Miracles and did a countdown to 10:30 which is our bedtime. 

Other than that, things are going pretty good! I passed my one month mark yesterday and me and Sister Shaw celebrated by having ice cream. We're having allot of fun and things are getting much better now that Holidays are over and now that people are done going on vacations. Have a great week!! :)

Sister Collins 

Sister Collins and Sister Shaw celebrating her one month mark!

Feilding is Sister Collins first area that she is serving in. 

Sister Collins is really enjoying the food in New Zealand!