November 17, 2014

Start off with Scotty boy hahahahahahaha are you serious!? the kid is barely out of diapers and he is already checking out for good qualities in a girlfriend! that is hilarious!!! I guess he learned a little too much from me when i would talk to him about girls ahahah oops;)

well for my week, first of all i sent a letter to Dad and one For the Preist Quorem. Open the one with the preist quorem please:)

Okay, For some cultural things that i just think are hilarious! so Zumba here is litterally life. Everyone does zumba and people get in fights over who is a better zumba dancer and there are these people we know that travel the world doing zumba and stuff.....its absolutely hilarious! like in the parks at night there are hundreds of people just going hard doing it!! i love it soo much!!! hahahahahaha

another funny thing is you know how you sent me all those smarties, yeah so i taught like my whole zone how to smoke smarties and they think it is the funniest thing ha so when people come to our pension they always ask for some smarties to practice haha im still the champ, thanks to brian and me practicing all growing up haha

and an interesting story.....so we were doing our studies on friday and at like 12 hermana Leon(a Menos Activo) called us and told us she needed our help with something and my comp wouldnt tell me what it was so we jsut went and then she started explaining how we are going to help bathe her husband....(he is super sick and has been for 10 years and cant barely move himself and is bed ridden) so elder silva and i had to pick up a naked man and carry him accross the house so she could bathe him then afterwards take him back and stuff. It was unconfortable at first and stuff, but after i realized that she couldnt to it without us and it was service it was a humbling experience. afterwards we sung to him and then left but we are going to do this every friday from now on! The spirit of service is the same no matter the type!

So all of our investigaters that are progressing are all doing super good and all should be able to be baptized by their dates this next month!!! super excited!! also, everytime we meet with Jaqueline she reminds me sooo much of Whama!! just the looks she gives and they way she talks and idk just a lot of similarities!! i love it:)

We did divisions this week two separate times, so one was with Elder Workman and i went to his ward and it was cool, he is a cool guy thats from Spring City. He has a Nappy Unibrow tho....hahahaa he teaches really good! im just glad that my comp is Latino because when i was with him it was hard to talk in spanish because we just kept forgetting and stuff....so im so grateful for Elder Silva:) haha THe other Division was with Elder Vasquez from Lima Peru, he is one of our zone leaders. He is one of my favorite people in the world!!! He is such a hard worker and also we were talking about our plans after the mission and stuff and he has a plan and all these goals that he is determined to do! he is going to work in peru until he can afford to fly to utah and he wants to work for a year there and then go to BYU. He was talking how he wants to work in a restaurant or something and so i told him about Costa and he Wants to work there! so maybe in the next 6 months or year he will be in provo working at costa!! he is one of the hardest workers ive ever met! i hope he goes to work for costa, they need him!! hahaa but yeah i love doing divisions! its so cool to work with different people to see how they do things differently:)

So this week was the last week of my first Change in the Feild!! today is the first day of the next change!! this time is flying so fast!!!!!!! Our zone changed a little bit but not much, all that matters is me and elder silva are still together and killin it:)

we met this elder yesterday that just got home from the mission in argentina where the mission president was kidnapped!! he told us the whole story and stuff, was crazy!!!

Well this was me week!!! The spanish is getting better everyday and i hope that i can continue to get better so i can really express my feellings in spanish! I absolutely love it out here and that isnt a exageration!!! Its the greatest!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

Love you all!!!

Elder Collins

oh shoot! i already went out today and bought shoes.......well i guess i will just have two pairs haha! so i used some money off of my card to buy them. to let you know. and i should get the package the 25th because thats when they deliver the mail to us haha so i will let  you know:)

November 10, 2014

ummmmmmmmmm about the shirts, i could probably buy them here, but i just dont know where...so maybe its better you send some unless thatll be expensive, cuz i could probably just find some somewhere idk. ha what ever works:)

okay about the adress, the one that i sent you last time is the one to use. the other one will not work pretty soon, so make sure to change to the new one:)

the turners!!! dang i am sad that i never was able to say goodbye to them:( give them my love!!

Congrats Rach!!! except im pretty sure i got 100% as well but we can give her the glory if she wants;) 

WOW!!! i cant even imagine how amazing that temple is!!! i want to go now! but i guess i get to go to the temple this wednesday so thats still cool:) haha after my mission and when i am old and loaded with $$ i want to travel the world and go to everytemple in my lifetime!! i think that would be the cooooooooolest experience:) (Washington DC temple)

oh and the thing about dad answering tracy`s moms questions, litterally once or twice a day i will think of some weird doctrinal question that i want to know and want to ask dad but i just gotta ask a couple young dumb missionaries;) haha i need to start writing them down to ask him!! one of them is this, so with adam and eve, God gave them two commandments right? to multiply and replenish the earth, and also to not partake of the fruit. so he gave two commandments that they could not keep. it says in the book of mormon that god doesnt give any commandent that we cannot keep. So all of us elders have tried to come with anwers for it and i thought i had one but today when Elder Russel M. Nelson visited us, in his talk it proved my theory wrong......so Run this question by him and let me know what he has to say about it:)

Speaking of Elder Nelson, today i had the amazing opportunity to shake his hand listen to a prophet of god talk about pure doctrine. Easily one of the coolest experiences that i have ever had. The spirit that was in that room was incredible and also its funny because we often look at him like he isnt like us, but he is the same. like he was joking around and all this stuff it was sweet!! so when he first walked in we were standing and i was on like the 4th row and he turns and sees all of us 456 missionaries and said "¡oh my goodness!" like he litterally was in shock and taken back by it haha. it was amazing!!!!! also after the whole thing ended when he was walking out (this was quite becasue he didnt have the microphone so only us in the front heard it) but he said to his wife, "oh....i really dont want to leave......."then he turns around and said to us "I Love you guys" and walked out. when he said that.....i nearly broke into tears. i guess i never before understood that he litterally loves me. and i jsut had a moment where i could feel his christlike love for me personally. Super special. AMAZING way to start off my day!!!!

Also another thing that happened crazy this week on a less spiritual note.....our pension got robbed while we were sleeping.............Nuts right!!!! its actually kinda funny because i had a dream that we got robbed and there were four guys in our pension and stuff but i just thought that it was a dream...but aparently it was real! i had woken up and seen them and tried talking to them half asleep and that probably scared them and they left! but they didnt get very much. pretty dumb criminals. so all they took were my nike freerunners:( and Elder workmans 3 soccor jersies and a plant ha if they were smart they would have taken my money and camera that were on my desk, elder stewarts GoPro Hero3 that was on his desk and like idk anything more! but yeah we got robbed while sleeping so now i set up a ghetto security system haha but nothing has happened since, so we will see! anyways so since i dont have anyshoes anymore, i am going to have to buy some more this next week. so if its possible to see if i have money on my card that would be great:)

anyways about the spanish, so i have a question for dad. when he was here did the people always add "po" to the end of everything and also not pronounce "s"? so appàrently chili is known for their bad spanish haha and apparetnly peru is known for their perfect spanish haha so looks like i am going to talk like a gangster and braeden is going to talk like a proper latino haha 

so this work is going super good and i am loving everyday more and more! im glad to be out here doing this for the lord. and i can tell already that he has prepared me long before the mission for the things that i am going through and will be going through. like only after 4 weeks im basically the senior comp and doing all our planning and our area book and keeping us going haha but i was born to do this and take the lead when it needs to be done (thanks to dads high expectations:)) 

I love this so much and am so excited to each up coming week!!!

Obediencia con Exactitud.

Elder Collins

October 27, 2014

Hello my dear sweet mother:) and family of course;) To start with anwering your email, so about the family pics, just a size that could fit in a picture book. and i kinda would like a picture book sometime in the future cuz itd be nice to see the fam at times and people always ask to see pics and i dont have any! 

second, I am soooo jealous that you guys get to enjoy this cabin!!! i want to gooooo ahah but this work here is more important for me to be doing so its all good:) looks good though!!!! 

SCOTTTTTTTTT look at you!!! you are a natural!! already goin to championships?! i remember when i got to those and they were so cool!! scott when you are out there just think of me and you will play better;) hahaha

 Wait, rachael had to get braces?!?!?!?!?! why have i not seen pics???????????? why would she need them??? you gotta let me know! thats coo how they are not see able! 

oh the manti temple is my faaaaavvvvv i am sad i wasnt able to go before the mish! but  ill have to go afterwards:) sounds super cool!! 

30 years......30 years young!;)

 thanks nina!!!!!

hah yeah i am working on keeping it and yeah my pants are getting loose!! speaking of pants, so in my first two weeks almost all of the hemming came undone on all my pants and so i only have 3 pairs of pants i can wear....so i am getting them fixed finaly because i found a guy to do it but yeah maybe let adam know about that.

oh speaking of jaqueline.....we invited her to this baptism (the story to just inviting her is incredible but no time to write it..) but she came and afterwards she said to us, "elders, i have made a decision. december is the month" i was going nuts!! we were so shocked!! but are so proud of her that she has recieved her answer. all that needs to happen is she needs to give up a couple habits and she will be good!! soooo pumped:) And another investigater, rosa(the mom of fernanda, the girl being baptized in december) we invited her to an other baptism yesterday and she came and afterwards she to said she now feels like she wants to be baptized!!!!! one thing is she and jorge arent married...so we will need to talk to them about that tommorow. but such a great week:)

food package!? you just know how to please me mother:) yeah that is going to be perfect!! so we have an oven, stove, microwave......thats about it.....so what ever can be made with those options id be willing to try!!!:)

Yeah this is just second nature, i absulutely love everysingle day!!! you may thing im overexaderating, but for reals. it really is just so amazing. I love every aspect of the misson so far and cant believe its been two months!!!!!! its already going fast!!! anyways. i love you and pray for you guys every night. i hope that you are all doing well! keep it real. 

Elder Collins (the one and only)

ps. our WML has a grandson and he was called to the boston massacheusettes mission!! 

p.s.s. which years was dad here? and what areas did he serve? because there are a couple people that think they may have served with him. like bishop Arevelo. idk let me know:)

p.s.s.s. I truly miss costa and all the missionaries tell me everyday how much they loved it and to tell pops thanks;) really though some sweet pork right now......soooo good:)

okay bye:)

October 13, 2014

Alrighty then!!

Hola mi familia en los Estados Unidos! 

Sunds like you guys are having a great time like always! Cruises and stuff, while im down here working my tail off to bring people the salvation of their souls;) haha estoy Bromiendo, Let me start off with explaining my teacher situation, so she told me that she was going to do it and stuff but then after i had written you guys and couldnt tell you guys differently, she tells me that they created a new rule where they cant deliver mail for us.......so i still have them in my possesion....sorry about the confusion! oh and stephanie,,,,thats crazy.....hope she is better now! and USU? thats so cool!! i cant wait till she gets married, i know that she wants it so bad and i am praying for her to find the right man for her that will be her perfect other half. Awesome:)

Well havent these last 10 days flown right by!! i feel like i wrote you guys yesterday!! wierd how thats how the mission is going to be! so yeah im no longer in the CCM. and am officially in the feild teaching the people of chile the gospel of Jesus Christ. Im gonna start off telling how my last week went in the CCM. so First it was a normal week until thursday, we went out street contactin, and that was sooo hard because i only know spanish about the gospel and my comp doesnt know any spanish so it was an awful 2 hours....but the next day we were able to go outon splits!!! we went to the south mission and i was hoping that i could be paired up with corbin, but nope....i was with a latino and he has been out for 13 months. we did tons of street contacting and it was AMAZING! it made me soooo pumped for the field! 

It was kinda hard to say goodbye to all the people that i had become so close with and would never see again! but its all worth it because now its not about us at all. its solely about the lord. 

Alright, conference. one word "UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE" i was able to watch it in english and every single talk was just soooo perfect for teaching me little things that i need everyday out here in the field! I have to say that my Favorite talk over all was Bednars. He was talking directly to me, and the people that i am going to teach in just a few days and i just felt the spirit soo strong that whole two days! i wish that we could have that on a weekly basis! but hey in november Russel M. Nelson is coming to chile to talk to us! so thats suuper sick!!!:) 

Okay, now for the new stuff. THE FIELD! Oh my gosh i love it sooooo much!! it is so much better than the CCM and is so much better than anyone ever said! My comp is Elder Silva from brazil, he doesnt speak any english which is good! because now i am literally forced to learn spanish or just be mute haha The gift of tongues is really coming and i can feel it when i am talki8ng to people. oh and Pres. wright, he is THE BEST!! i had the oportunity on my first day to do a practice lesson with him being the investtigator! i Learned tons, but it was hard because i was nervous...but it was good:)  He is awesome and his wife aswell! 

On My first day we went to visit a family for the first time. Neither of us knew them. It consists of Jorge(Less active) Rosa(Non member) and their two daughters Fernanda(9) and Violeta(1). They are so amazing! we had a great lesson even though there was tons of distractions.....kids crying, ice cream flying, soap opera blaring, neighbors screaming, ETC. But the spirit was still there. They told us that they want fernanda to be baptized and she told us she wanted to be also. They asked if i could baptize her! of course i was stoked to say yes! but in the end i hope that we can make it work out to where Jorge could baptize her, and also that Rosa will be ready also. She has shown interest. I feel that she will be ready aswell:) The work is reall and has only just begun!!! 

So everyday we have a lunch with a different family in theward. they give us soooo much food! but it is super good! even though its a lot of food, its like the perfect amount with how much walking we do it is a perfect balance so we have energy the rest of the day:) The people are so amazing and i already love each person i meet, i just see such great potential in all ofthem! i want each person to accept the gospel!! haha funny story, so we were visiting this member family and got talking about music and she asked if i liked Queen and of course i said yes! so she puts her CD in and is blaring Bohemian Rhapsody, Fat Bottom Girls, Another One Bites The Dust, Bycicle race, etc it was awesome:) 

Our house is pretty cool, its decent in size but is sooo cold. there is onlyone window that brings in light and its solid concrete everything, freezing! and its so dirty.......nappy gross. I am loving it here and am so glad that all is going well at home and you guys are being the amazing family that you have always been:) thank you for your support and know i pray for each and everyone of youeach day. I lover you so much. until next week!

Elder Collins

sorry i didnt adress some of your questions, my mission office is 20 minutes away haha but yea his spanish is super good! but no english... haha oh well! He is the DL but is really sluggish and i am having to get us going and stuff but it will get better! I will send pics of my apartment next week and my area is pretty small its called Alicahue and there is 1200 members, but only about 80 are active.... lots of reactivation!!! no one plays the piano.....if i practiced a little i could be able to but i just dont have any time......

SCOTT!!!! I LOVE CHIPOTLE!!!! hahahahahahaha i started laughing sooooo hard!!!!! love you man!! look up kendama tricks on youtube to see cool stuff:) 

Thell the marines that im busy;) 

oh good!! the letter got there!! the other one for lyss will probably never get there... so dont worry about it haha 

BRETS GOING TO MICHIIGAN!? THats AWESOME!!!!!!!!! Tell him kthat i am soooooo stoked for him and that he is going to LOVE it!!! love him tons!!

yeah that package will get to me, but here is a better one

Misiòn Chile Santiago Este

Cristòbal Colòn 6824

Casilla 27.144 Las Condes

Region Metropolitana

Santiago Chile

its the misson homes direct adress:) either one works though:)

 

November 3, 2014

Goll those pics of the sabatical are soo sweet!!! that marlin is huge!!!!!! i miss the sabbatical haha its weird to see all the benifets that i enjoyed and took for granted growing up, and now to see what everyone else in the world does. its really a whole different world. An eye opener, i love it. makes me appreciate everything so much more:) WHALE SHARKS?¡ thats sooooooo cool! i will have to do that when i get back, if i can remeber how to scuba dive;) hahaha 

Congrats scotty boy!! im glad that you are now enjoying football! hopefully he will like to do it every year, and he can get as good as i never was;) haha i hope he realized that all those days of practice he hated was worth it in the end when he won that championship and all the games make it worth it! 

Wow those braces are super cool!!!!!!! wish i could have had those instead of my lame normal kind ha maybe i would have had more girlfriends in middleschool;) hahaha they are super cool tho!

Yeah i have a menos activo that said he will do my hemming on all my pants for like a total of $25 and he is tailoring them to be more of a euro style. im gonna look flyyyyy;) hhaha I need to buy some more short sleeved shirts soon, because i only have the 3 and thats not enough ha 

im lookingforward for the food package! so are all my roomates so i can start cookin for them. everyone kind of mooches off me. kinda annoying but its whateves haha 

yeah its the ward mission leaders(general authority) grandson. he thinks its spanish speaking but isnt sure. itd be super cool if they met the same people! small world

thanks for dads info, i will ask the people if they served with him haha that would be super cool!!!

Rachael looks like a wierdo...hahaha i wish i could have made fun of her for that;) scott looks like a straight boss!! good job scott:) (Halloween costumes)

Hunter Dahl......are you serious.....yeah i knew him. we had talked a couple of times...he was a laccrosse player and was pretty cool. that hurts me to hear that....his family will be in my prayers...its lauras son right? soo sad...but there is a plan, and this is part of it. we dont know the reasons, but its part of it.

okay 

for my week, 

so first the misson office came out and told us the address to send mail to. so here is the one that they offically told us:

6824 Cristobal Colon

Las Condes, Santiago

Region Metropolitana

Chile

now for some funny things that happened, so i dont know if i ever told you this but i had forgotten to bring a towell on my mission from home, so i went the first 2 months without a towell and using just a little hand towell haha fun fact;)

also we had halloween this week and its not like the same here as it is in the US but we still have it. but our ward had a party in the chapel(litterally the chapel, they took the chairs out) we had a DJ hired and there was this sick light show and smoke machines and everything. like no joke, this was a full on party that is like what me and my buds would go to in the states, so it was a dance party that had some super sick bumpin toons and i wanted to dance sooo bad!!! but the rules are rules.....haha i just sang to a couple of songs, i think this kid in my ward filmed a bit and tagged me in it on facebook. so maybe look to see if he did! but there were quite a bit of bad words that were said in the English songs but none of the people could understand what they were so they just danced haha weird!! but halloween was sweet:) ooooh and thanks for the halloween package!!! its was perfect! i love the ring, and the batteries were very needed! thank you thank you! and the skeleton is hung up in our door way and we are always putting it in weird formations and stuff haha its funny:) we love it! and all the candy!!!!! i have barely even touched the candy but i give it to little kids during the days and stuff because they dont have smarties here and they love them:) oh and the blessing, i was meening to ask for that for a while, you just read my mind:) thanks:)

Okay we have gone on divisions twice now and they are so fun to do! first i went with our zone leader Elder Mamani from peru, and he is so cool and the way he does things is so sick! he is an incredible missonary. learned tons from him. but when we finished divisions we had to take the bus back to my area and we accidentally got on the wrong bus and ended up in the heart of santiago like an hour away from where i live haha so we didnt get back to the pension till loke an hour late at 1130 haha it was super funny:) also i went on divisions with elder stewart, we are both new to the mission at the same time. my comp(district leader) said he was going with elder workman and that us newbies would be together haha so i lead our sector and it was actually a good day! we set up a family night with jaqueline and set everything up for it and the night went perfect. it helped her with alot of her fears and doubts. but it was cool to be leading my sector and that my comp would trust me to do that! haha 

so an update on our investigators, so the soto family, fernanda is still getting baptized on december 7th and her mom is going to be baptized aswell, dont know what day for her yet because they need to get married first but we are workign on it! and for jaqueline she accepted the day of 20th of december!!! that day is extra special because its an activity our whole zone is doing where everyone is having people on that day and having a big massive spiritual baptism service called "blanca navidad" its gonna be super special:)

thats pretty much this week. everyday my spanish is improving and the work is getting better and better!! love you guys:)

Elder Collins

October 20, 2014

Goll you guys just decide to have the times of your lives right after i leave dont you;) haha its cool i guess;) I wish that it was cold here!! it is hotter than haites down here!! Its so hot that its like impossible to get through the day without dripping in sweat!!!!!! all of this walking and heat has made me lose a few pounds...............your never gonna believe this....but i have lost 20 pounds....i weigh like 185 right now.....I am just watching my muscle slowly diminish and i am trying so hard to work out to keep it all but its just not possible!! im gonna end up like brian;( hahaha Anyways yeah i sent the letter to you guys its in a yellow envelope and has letters and stuff in it! Well jake and steph are cooled down...thats really surprising to me! but im glad that she is making the tough decisions. 

Oh yeah Elder silva is great! except like he doesnt teach me how to do things so i am teaching myself how to do most things, like for our first week we didnt even touch our area book and i didnt know why then i decided to just look in it and figured out all this stuff that we have to fill out so i am doing that all now he has been out for 8 months now and is pretty funny. We cleaned the pension today so its really good now:) ill send some pics haha Oh but yeah the date for her baptism is December 7!!! so pumped:) Oh i would love to recieve their letters that would be great! Hey i miss mine and rachaels little night talks about life..:( but we will continue after the mish:) 

Alright about this week, So first of all our area. It is called Alicahue and our ward is Tobalaba 2. My sector is suuuuuper ghetto. There are so many "Flites" (Gangsters) and they are pretty insane!! but it is nothing like i was told it would be like, yeah there is one part of our whole mission that is rich and nice but the rest is super ghetto!! like my shoes if i shine them in the morning they wont last 10 minutes till they look like crap.... But the ward is absolutely amazing!!!!!! i love all the people!! Our ward mission leader was a General Authority! he has cool storys:) 

Also we decided to buy this food called a Churrasco and its like a burger but with flank steak as the meat, its super good! but the one we bought was the size of a basketball!!! it was crazy!!!!! also completos are pretty good too:) Oh i had mate! i dont know why but it is super good!! you gotta add a little sugar though, but i enjoy it:) Speaking of food, if its possible, could you guys send me some recipes of stuff because im getting tired of the same thing of cereal or eggs...itd be nice to have some recipes:) 

Okay soccer, it is life down here. There are these two teams Colocolo and La U, and its like BYU and Utah on steroids!! They played eachother on sunday and there were fireworks everywhere people running around shooting shots in the air and just screaming and fighting and it was nuts!! super funny to see though:) 

So for a cool experience this week, we were teaching one of our investigadores Jaqueline and she has been meeting with missionaries for the last 10 months and isnt progressing so i told my comp that we should just start over and treat her like a new invesitgador to find out what her doubts are about the church so we went in and started talking about the restoration and how josé recieved his answer and she said "elders, how do i recieve an answer? what is going to happen?" i was shocked! after 10 months of missionaries no one taught her how to recieve an answer!? also we found out that she prays, but in the way of catholics....that no one taught her how we pray! so we taught her and hopefully now she will be able to get her answer and accept this gospel in her life.

I am loving this sooo much and it truly feels like i have been doing this my whole life. like idk why...but it feels so natural:) i cant wait for the future and to see all that is in store:) love you guys and am so glad youre all doing great:) 

"Si en su búsqueda, usted hace su mejor. Él señor es ahí hacer al resto."

Nos Vemos, Cuidase

Elder Collins

October 7, 2014 picture of Corbin's group:)

October 7, 2014...Enters mission field:)

Dear Collins Family,

Your son arrived safely today to the Chile Santiago East Mission. We are happy to have him here and all is well! Attached is a small letter from him to you!

Atte.

Elder Shaw

Secretario

Misión Chile Santiago Este

2013444@ldachurch.org

October 1, 2014

AHHHH you guys went on the harley ride again!!! that was honestly one of the funnest things i have ever done! so jeaulous!!!!! 

anyways for this week we got all new teachers and one of them is Hermana Gatica, and she was comps with Meghan smith!!!!! we talked a lot about her and her family and it was just super chill!!:) also Hermano Rossi knows Mason Smith, i am not sure how he knows him but he said he did and we talked about him a little bit too:) 

Another cool thing that happened was i was sitting here in the CCM and all of the sudden an Hermana walked by and i swear i recognized her so i went up and said, "hey are you from Alpine??" and she was like yeah how did you know that and it turns out she is Hermana Castleton in our stake! we talked for a bit and i had known her little sister but it was nice to talk to someone from the wonderful place of alpine:)

Oh so now that we are in our last week we do things differently, so on sunday when we have family night instead of doing an activity we go and teach english to the latinos! i didnt realize how hard english was until i was teaching it!! but it was super fun! i taught Hermana Morenho from brazil and she had already a little bit of english but not really, she is super chill and we just talked in spanglish for the whole time about everything:) There is this hermana from Argentina that speaks absolutely perfect english!! she said that when she was 4 her mom sent her to this private sschool and she was there for 11 years and theyl learned english there. so she is completely fluent! not fair!!;) 

We lost our soccor ball this week so we have played volleyball tons, and i forgot how fun it was! i absolutley loved playing volley ball with the homies back home and its not the same playing with people here:( still fun tho:) 

umm i realized that when i got down here that i wasnt really familiar with the scriptures and didnt know when to use them or anything, it was rough and now i am getting better on knowing when to use certain scriptures to answer questions. i wish i would have studied them more before!! dang! 

thats pretty much it for this week, but this is the last time i am going to write for 11 days.....because we leave this tuesday and then dont get a pday until the following monday. so this is it for two weeks!!! i love you all and hope all is well in the land of the Free;)

Love you

Elder Collins

p.s. so one of my teachers is flying up to salt lake for conference and she said she will take you guys these letters i want to send! so i have given her moms and dads and the home phone number, so you guys can meet up with her and get the mail:) this way it wont take over a month to send!! hopefully it all works out!! there are two packages, one for you gys and one for alyssa, the one for you guys also has a letter for brian and kinsie so if you guys can figurel out a way to send those to them:) thanks!! oh her name is Hermana Alfaro! PEACE!

September 23, 2014

killer week as usual for you guys!!! thats crazy that there was a hurricane?! i never would have imagined that happening!!!! the jeep looks so sweet!!!!!!!!!! im sitting here showing everyone it and they all love it:) yeah i knew that his birthday was this week but i didnt have his email and i dont have enough time to send one so i will write him a letter this week and if you can just send me his adress that would be perfect:) so the letter that i sent to you guys for alyssa should be getting there sometime this week....hopefully it works!!! i also sent one for rachael this last week so itll be a week or two till that one gets there:) anyways.

LAst pday we got to have the pday in the morning and then the temple the rest of the day! it was so unbelievably awesome!!!! the temple was extra cool because this time i got to do the last part with the temple president and he wanted me to do it in spanish....(that was super rough) but afterwards he pulled me aside in the changing room and was telling me how i did super good and had great pronunciation. he then gave me advice on how ways that i can practice my spanish in my free time that helped him tons. Super cool:) oh and the names at the temple that we did were all found by a lady from alpine!! her name is Jasmine Bennet who, it was a pleasant surprise to be chilling in the chapel and looking at the card and seeing Alpíne utah! you guys should try to see if anyone knows her:) Representing Utah down here in the southern hemisphere;)

So this week is crazy becaue it is independance day. and its a 6 day celebration that everyone is just going crazy and parties all of the time! so on thursday they let us go to this park where there was a carnival to see the people and get the culture down and to just practice our spanish wiht people! it was an awesome experience, we handed out pass along cards and stuff. awesome:) oh and on that day alot of our teachers took it off so we had a sub and his name was hermano Leiva and he served in the Houston Texas East mission with levi gifford and parker olsen!! he said he knew both of them and had gone on a couple exchanges with him!!!! it is such a small world in the church:)

On friday our schedules had a 6 hour break of just nothing and we all were confused on what it was and stuff...so this is what it was, a full on party. non stop dancing and eating soooooo much good food!!! they had ribs and brisket and chicken and i dont even remember but it was soooo amazing!!! we were able to wear our normal clothes too and that felt super weird....but nice to change things up for a bit:) we played all these games that were ones we played as little kids and they are all these adult going all out and stuff. super funny to watchh and do:) we played musical chairs and out of the 60 of us missionaries i finished number 4! so close!! this little brazilian girl just was so quick and i think she cheated;) jk it was fun though:)

a sad event also happened... an hermana from our district went home... Hermana Zobrist. she had problems with her knee and needed surgery. She didnt tell anyone that she was leaving untill she just disapeared... I wish i could have said good bye! she was sooo chill and super hipster and idk a super cool girl. she also felt that she couldnt speak spanish(she was the 2nd best in our class behind a brizilian) and it stressed her out and you could just tell that she was going through a really rrough time. I hope that she will be able to go back out on maybe a english mission because she would be an amazing missionary!! she is in our prayers.

On sunday we watched a devotional that president scott gave last tuesday the provo ccm. it waas so powerfull and i felt as if he was talking directly to me. i have had tons of questions on my mind and he answered all of them. so amazing how the lord works. my testimony is growing so much everysingle day. one of the questions that he had answered was "why did it seem like the last few weeks before i left that everyone told me to be exactly obedient no matter what?" and i had found a reason why. so my district is called the "party" district because there are tons of kids that just are here like its a party or something. i am always several times a day telling people that they shouldnt be doing something because its against the rules or that we are representitives of jesus christ and stuff. i have become this stubborn kid to them bevause they just dont understand the importance of following rules. even though they rarely listen to me, i know that they are still learning because if i do my best to help them, then the lord is going to do the rest. 

i cant wait to be actually out in the feild and am super stoked to be on my mission:) love you all!!! keep it real;)

Elder Collins

September 16, 2014

HALO familia!!!

Sounds like eveything is going so great at home!!!! I love hearing about all the cool things that are happeneing!! so exciting!!!!:)

so my week is a little like this

so to start out, this last week was september 11 and here in chile it is a super sketchy and scary day....because in like 1973 a dictator orverturned the government and even still today people go crazy and try to kill cops and cause havoc! here in the CCM it is safe, we are in the safe part of town but aparenntly there were bombs going off and crazy stuff down in corbins mission! 

A new district came to the ccm this week and its a completely latino group and only sisters. It is super good practice for my spanish but it makes me realize that i know a lot less than i thought i knew!! but since it is just sisters a lot of us had to move rooms so i had to leave my poolside estate and move into the "crackerbox" the smallest room and had to share it with these two kids that i dont necesaritly like.... but its okay! i have realized that all things happen for a reason so i better make the best of the experience!!!!!

So since we are now in our third and fourth week here we get all new teachers, these teachers teach almost no english....so the learning jsut got a lot harder. but baptism by fire is the way to go! one of them we were teaching them as their fake investigator and the lesson was incredible. my spanish just flowed from my mouth and was able to commit her to do tons because i was able to talk with the spirit:) But on the contrary, we had our worst lesson right after that....we were about to go in and teach but then Presidente Doll came over and said that he wanted to join us! (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! The president of the CCM!!) so we go in and i just got so nervous and so did my comp and we just taught the worst one we have done...but it was good because afterwards we were able to be coached on how to make it better, so we learned a lot on how to handle those situations that we are going to be thrown in often on the mish. super great learning experience!!

I have a whole new testimony on patriarchal blessing lately, i have been reading mine every day and oh my word, it is like every time i read it a new thing sticks out and answers a question i had!! i love the power that they hold and i cherish mine so much:)

OH! so i was sitting in class the other day and all of the sudden someone came in and told me that an elder from alpine utah was here, so i went out there and it was this kid that i used to play baseball wiht back in the day, Casey Lundquiste! he has been out for about a year and knows corbin!!! it was super cool to talk to him about sterling and braeden bevcause he was tight with them but it was cool:) Also i was looking at the pictures of all the groups that have came out of the CCM in the last 2 years and corbin was in there!!! i found the picture of him:) super cool!

On sunday we had the honor to have Hermano Zeballos of the first quorem of the seventy come talk to us, and wow, that was such an amazing meeting. with what i understood it was spectacualr. and the spirtit that he brought was beyond explanation!! the lord has called some great men to lead his church!!:)

i love all of you guys and am super excited to be here serving the lord even though it is really hard but comepletly worth it!! keep it reall, Peace out!!

Elder Collins

ps. i havent gained any weigvht! i have actually stayed the same weight but gotten stronger!! Doing 150 pushups a day and that ab roller is really helpin out:) i will be just completely jacked when i come home;)

September 9, 2014

Halo!!! Mi familia en las estados unidos, i love being able to hear all that you guys are up to!! The fourwheeling looks so sweet!!! my fourwheeler is still running:) so you wanted the story mom why im supposed to be here, so there are tons of peolple here that i kinda knew through friends back home and there is this one elder that is from salt lake and he had originally got his call to serve in guatemalla but then they changed it to argentina then again to my mission....remember how i had those dreams that i was going to go to guatemalla.....CRAZY! him and i have got pretty tight. So yeah my companion and i are getting along well and hopeffully we will continue to get better:) 

I was sitting at church on sunday and then it hit me that it was stephanies birthday!! shes the big 24!! tell her i love her and hope that she continues to have an amazing time with work friends, oh and of course jake;) haha But there is a guy from cali that was in the pennocks stake! he said he knew chelsey! its Elder Cleggerrs or something like that. 

So this week this is what happened, one day my companion and another companionship were running and we were going to this massive tower that is supposed to be the biggest tower in all of south america, and we got to it and its about 2 miles away then on the way back we decided to go a different way we had never gone! and my comps shin has these problems so he couldnt run anymore so we started walking and the other guys just kept going and we had no idea where to go!! so we just kept walking and then we hit the FREEWAY!! thats no where close to where we live and so i just went up to this guy and asked him where Alcantra Ave. is but i couldnt remember how to say street!!! so he just gave us directions that i barely understood so we were pretty much on our own then we just walked along the freeway and saw a street and felt good about it then turned and it took us right to this super sick park that we had gone to a few days earlier!! it was super cool:) The lord will take care of us in everyway! 

This sunday was fast sunday and so we started our fast saturday at lunch and so i did then when sunday lunch came i just felt like i should continue to fast until dinner and as hard as it was i realized that if there is any promptings then i may as well follow them! i still dont know why but i just still did it!! The power for reading the scriptures here is incredible! everytime i open the book questions are answered, i love this spiritual high i get here:) 

So we were all sitting in class and talking about the difference of the CCM and the mission field and i made this connection that we are in a hypothetical "spirtitual prison". let me explain, so in spiritual prison we are there to learn and teach so that we can become better to go to paradise, and thats what we are! we are here to learn and grow so that we can be ready to be in the field! kinda dumb connection but everyone loved it and wrote it down:) 

Everyone loves dad, because i am always saying little quotes and sayings that he has told us all our lives and people had never heard them just worshop them! so im starting to write them all down so that i can have the "book of Dad" haha the humor is very odd here..

Today we were out shopping and we passed these teenagers that were just high out of their minds and were stone drunk, they came up to us and were offering me beer and stuff! i had never realized how common that all of those things are outside of mormon central utah. Really an eye opener..

I love you all and hope you are having an amazing time, because i am having such a sick time!!!!! love this, love the opportunity i have to be here!!! peace out till next week:)

Elder Collins

From Maca...:)

I'm glad you liked the video! I just posted 2 pictures on FB too, and here's the mission home! 

It's a beautiful German-style home.

I rode back to the city with Jared and 3 other missionaries. It was great! When we arrived to the mission home, they invited me in, but I only walked with Jared into the home and left because I wanted him to get all settled and enjoy his first minutes as a missionary.  

I couldn't believe it when I saw him, I feel so blessed for having been there to welcome him to Chile. He was so happy and excited, and had that amazing and contagious energy! Today is cold, but since Spring is coming soon we're getting warmer days. 

I know he will be a wonderful missionary! Jared is so kind and committed. Everyone will love him in Chile and I'm so happy I will be around. I gave him my cell and home number, so he can call me whenever he needs anything or has questions, etc. 

Love you!!!

Maca

I thought you guys might wanna have this picture. I remember it was a year we stayed at the Sahara and we went to Wet n' Wild water park too. It was sooo fun!
I'm so happy you guys are part of my life after all these years. Love you all and I'll email you in the morning to send you pictures of his arrival!
♥,
Maca

September 2, 2014

Hola!! 

This has been a CRAZZYYYY week!! so much that happend but so little time to tell you all about it! so i will kind of be quick on the stories, So we got here and the CCM es soo cool but it is really chill like you can pretty much do anything all the time. Not like the provo where you are like in prison!;) Anyways we are staying in this house about diez minutos away from the CCM called Alcantra(thats the street its on). It is soo pretty i will send pictures if i have time to upload all of them. First off let me tell you about the food, it is always a question whether or not it is going to get us sick but it just tastes marginal....but the BREAD!!! oh my goodness it is a gift from god every bite you take! everyone is calling the bread Tapón(Plugs) because it clogs your whole body up....if you know what i mean...My companion still hasnt gone to the bathroom and its been 8 days!! Everyone is giving him a lot of crap;) So our district is Districto 8, there are 24 of us and 3 of them are sisters. We are such a fun group of kids, and we are all pretty close like we act like we all grew up with each other. The teachers here are absolutely amazing, they are all return missionaries that have good stories and teach us soo good! i love them, my favorite is Hermano Ruitor, he served his mission in Argentina and idk he reminds me of Jared Holgreen(ask braeden about who that is) In our room, which is in the pool house there are 8 of us between 2 rooms. In our room its elder De St Jeor from california who will never stop talking about his girlfriend!! it gets rrreeeeeaaalllyyy old. then there is Elder Duncan, he is from cholo arizona and was a hardcore gamer that has the oddest humor but here in the CCM anything is hilarious:) On our first day here we were able to go to the temple and wow, that was really different from anything at home, the temple is the size of like the LP basketball gym, its crazy small but the same spirit and feeling is in it:) 

So yesterday i recieved these "mentors" Elder Despain and Elder Roper, they just bounce off of eachothers humor like pros, i have never laughed so hard after talking with them!!(laughing emoji) one story they had was we were having family night and playing pictionary and elder despáin was sick of losing so he is telling us the answers and telling us to cheat and elder roper looks at him and being dead serious says "cheaters go to hell, Bro, i cant afford to go to hell.....I dont know enough spanish!" oh my word, i was on the floor laughing so hard for 10 minutes straight!!!:) i love them so much. 

Braedens talk sounds like is was super good! i am sad that i wasnt able to be there to listen to it....but i was thinkin about him and praying he would do well(ïts true ask my companion). I miss him a lot and wish i could just sit with him and talk about the adventure that he is about to go on. cuz this is completely different from what anyone taught me. Its like having to relearn the gospel from the begining because its a new language.

SCOTTY Boiiiii! i wish i could have been there for more of your games to see if you really have what it takes to be a hansome manly football player like me;) good job tho!!! proud of you and wish i could play catch with you, but we will play in 2:)

The spanish is coming along great! i wish i would have payed more attention in spanish class and really devoted myself to it but i didnt and now i am suffering that. but i realize that i do know alot more than i thought i did! through the lord all things can come to your remembrance:) We are teaching these investegators(teachers that are acting like people they had on their missions) and this is really deficil. the teachers dont teach you then you prepare a lesson and go teach them then afterwards they dont eaven tell you what you did good or bad.....kind of annoying but whatever. I will still learn it, just in a different way than i thought i would! 

The lord is blessing me countless times and i feel the spirit almost all of the time. I love this gospel and couldnt imagine doing anything other than this. I am stoked to be a Missionary para la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias:)

Love you all, (peace emoji)

Chao

Elder Collins 

August 27, 2014

¡Hola!

I am doing great!! the trip was really long but it was cool to get to know the guys i will be serving with. So there is a group of us with like 12 of us i think, my companion is Elder Pile, He is the red headed kid. He is from alaska and is kinda awkward but he really can jam out on the Harmonica!!:) The elder that i sat next on the first flight was elder Stewart, he is from richfield. He reminds me soooo much of benson lewis!! They could honestly be brothers. Its funny because everyone here thinks i am the funniest kid ever, i dont even know why! All that i have done is comment on all of the dumb things people say and they just think its histarical!!:) We have already had some pretty funny experiences with the whole flight over that i will have to tell you about when i have more time but i got some pictures that will explain them. The group im in is kind of a bunch of goobers....I love them! we keep making fun of each other and its just hilarious:) When we got here and Maca was there that was soooo sweet!! she looked so good, she not only got to talk with me there but she also came with us in the car ride to the CCM! It was cool to drive through santiago and having her give us a play by play of what we are seeing and stuff. With the CCM, we dont actually live there, We live in this victorian style house thats about 10 minutes away. We have what i imagine is a mamita and her name is Silvia. She doesnt speak a lick of english but she will only communicate with me for some reason! i love it:) i have got pretty good relationships with everyone so far. 

 I am so excited to be here and start the work. i miss you all and want you all to know that there is no place id rather be than here with the people i am with. I will explain why i know that to be true but lets say that its a really small world! 

Te quiero mucho!!!!

Elder  Collins