TRANSFERS!

Transfers!!!!! Wow. haha My world has been flipped upside down! :) haha I don't know for good or bad! But I'm so excited for the new adventure I'll be facing! :)

 So, I will now be serving in Santa Marie, and my new companion is Sister B... I don't know her... haha but I'm excited to!! I hear she is super great! I'll be the senior companion finally!! AND I GET TO DRIVE!! :) I hope i haven't forgotten how.... I hear Santa Marie is a cute farming community! So maybe it will remind me of cute Grannyville :) I'm sad to leave Camarillo! It's the only thing I know!! But I'm excited for change :) 

I dyed my hair! Actually, I had my comp. Sister C, dye my hair haha she has never ever heard of hair dying.... so it was the most hilarious experience! :) 

This week was pretty great! We had SOOO many service projects! We  helped a new investigator move in. Cleaned an investigator's bathroom, cleaned another investigator's kitchen... hahaha I'm really HAPPY that I was a "Jan-ops Specialist" when I worked for dad!! Haha Because I was a cleaning animal! haha And it REALLY softens hearts out here when you clean :)

We had such a beautiful Sunday! Shaylind and Alieke now have temple recommends to go do baptisms for the dead! AND he has the Aaronic priesthood! It's so amazing to see people you love so much progress in the Gospel :) AND MIRACLE!!! RIGHT AFTER SHAYLIND GOT BAPTIZED HE GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!! He has been unemployed for a very long time! Miracles are happening left and right! 

I FINALLY am able to refuse desert at members homes.... hahaha it was so hard... But you would be so proud of me! :) Sorry this is so short!! BUT! THE MISSION IS GREAT! :) And I feel more and more blessed everyday!! LOVE YOU ALL! :D

Valentine's and Baptisms

BEVERLY FINALLY GOT BAPTIZED!!! IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! So we stopped by Friday.. you know to pump her up... and well she said she wasn't sure if she would show up or not... Well needless to say, SHE SHOWED UP!!!!!!!!! She was like super grouchy!! Like to the Max!  And was like " Why are there so many chairs?" "If the waters Cold I'm NOT getting in!" And HOLY smokes she was disgusted with the white suit... and wouldn't let us get a picture with her haha! BUT! As soon as the baptism started the WHOLE MOOD CHANGED!!! She was smiling and laughing and her grandson gave her a teddy bear! Which she tried to take with her in the baptismal font! HAHA! BUT! holy smokes... it was incredible! After she was Baptized she kept saying over and over, "Yes this is what I needed to do." isn't that incredible? Her heart was softened and she let us get some pictures after all!! haha but that was the neatest experience! Beverly has been through about 15 sets of missionaries. So I just kept thinking about all those missionaries who have tried so hard!! I'm sure they wouldn't believe she got baptized! Even the DAY of the baptism I wasn't sure if she would or not!! haha!! but wow. It was incredible!! And Beverly has been paying her tithing for 2 years now! hahaha funny huh!! But now she really is a member of the church <3 THIS is an experience I'll NEVER forget.

SHAYLIND AND ALIEKE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!! :)

The Spirit was so special at their baptism! Truly! It was incredible! They are the two in white, and the cool thing is that Shaylind's brother came! And he said he wants to take the missionary discussions!! He was drunk... So we will have to ask him again... BUT! He was all up for it then! haha! Shaylind cried the Whole time.. It was so special to see the changes!! We met Shaylind and Alieke outside their home tracting! He was having a garage sale. haha! He was atheist for 10 years and he said he felt the holy spirit that day at his garage sale, so he KNEW there was a god. And after the baptism he bore the most powerful testimony! Alieke gave me the BIGGEST HUG! I thought she was gonna snap in my arms because shes so tiny! BUT wow, they kept thanking us over and over, and you could just see their happiness! Shaylind has been without work for 10 years and finally got a job interview! And he said he knows God is blessing him!! :) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! This Saturday was such a special day! To feel the spirit really change peoples lives! The gospel of Jesus Christ it here as a gift from our Heavenly Father to truly bring us happiness!! :) Sunday they were confirmed and that was so cute :) Because they were just so in love and happy and teary eyed sighhhh :) it was special!!

I really love you all! I got your Valentines card! I am impressed with the oragamy money folding!! haha! And!!!! I LOVED the Nacho quotes :D I really miss you guys! It's pretty weird... I'm prolly gonna come home from my mission and never leave home again! So HA. you'll be stuck with me forever :) bahaha 

We were too happy this week!

Our Valentines Decor, kinda lame but cool.

Happy Valentines Day!!

...AND transfers are NEXT WEEK!! Isn't that cool!? It's funny because Tyler got transferred to a SUPER nice area in South Africa, it would be funny if I got moved to a ghetto part of Cali huh!! I'll let you know tomorrow :):)

Crazy like a Circus!

Its been a super great week! :) We have had so many miracles happen!! First off Shaylind, Alieke, and Beverly will all be getting baptized on Saturday!! :) I feel soo blessed that I am able to be a part of this journey of bringing these people closer to Christ! it has been such a special experience! :) Beverly had her baptismal interview!! And She PASSED!!! I never thought we would see the day! BUT! PRAYER and FASTING works!!!! :)

-Sunday we had 7 investigators come to church!  Two of them were new! One we didn't even know, just showed up! One was brought with a member! But then we had Becky, Shaylind, Alieke, Beverly, and Sybyl! Holy smokes I felt like I was in charge of a circus! Normally we have like 2 investigators each week at church, so it was pretty fun!! Sister C and I had to divide and conquer! "Within sight and sound", of course! :D But wow. I am blessed!!

- Pete and Deneice let us come over and do a service project for them.... THIS was pretty awkward... because, well they had me clean their bathroom... and Welp in ALL my years of being a janitor... welp... I THOUGHT I could use.... toilet bowl cleaner to get off the hard water... around the sink... welp I tried it... and it like BURNED THE SINk!!!!!! All the faucets like turned dark brown.... and were stained... so that was a really awkward moment... :)

-We painted Elle's home! BUT she did something that was... well not very intelligent. She got all the paint buckets, and paint brushes, and put them outside of her appt.  and then started dumping them in the gutter... and so then she was freaking out because she realized it would stain and paint them all!! So we spent the next hour running back and forth with buckets of water, making the white river run down to the drain! Hahaha! And when we left her apartment, the white river gutter was like 2 miles long..... yeah. it was pretty awkward.

 BUT!!! HEEYY!! Its been an amazing week, that's for sure! and I'm so grateful for all of your prayers and support. I really do love you all! :) Sorry it's so short but here's some pictures! :D

 "Asparagus field!" 

(Mom here, I'm thinking she's confused, they look a lot like artichokes! Haha! )

"Us and our cute investigator!"

A Week of Miracles

Hello!!! :) My week has been so full of miracles I feel so blessed to be a part of this work! So I guess I'll just tell you about my week! 

- We had Peggy (Beverly the pine cone lady's mom) show up at our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader on Sunday, and tell us BEVERLY WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHH! She is finally off the coffee!! So Feb. 15th will be her date! Pray for her :)

- Shaylind and Alieke came to church yesterday and we talked about baptism!! For Feb 15th!!!!! So we are praying!!! SO HARD! And Beverly wants to get baptized with other people so we don't waste the water on her! So we could have 3 in one day!!

-ANOTHER MIRACLE! Our whole area in Southern California were fasting and praying for rain!! And GUESS WHAT!! Right when Sister Cox and I ended our prayer, it started raining!!! Wow. I don't think I have ever seen the power of prayer AND FASTING WORK SO WELL!!!

-We cleaned a less active lady's whole home! She is a hoarder and we organized her home! And then she was just bawling!! It was so cute! Then at our next lesson she was praying, and she gave the most spiritual prayer in Spanish! BUT!!! IT WAS A MIRACLE!

-CHASE! he had the bishop give him a blessing before he went to try out for some major league baseball team! And had a miracle happen. He said he felt like someone was with him that whole day! And he even had some famous baseball player put in a really good word for him! Whose name is Willie, and he even got paired up with his actual catcher (he's a pitcher) which is unheard of! So indeed the priesthood works! And he was so blessed!

- BECKY! hahaha She is a lady we met when we knocked at her door. She lives next door to a member's home! And she was like " Oh hi! what do you want to teach me?!" hahaha! WHAT?! So we taught her about the restoration! And then at the end she was like "Well, I can't come to church with you this Sunday, but I'll come next Sunday" WHAT!?!! We didn't even invite her!!! And THEN!! She saw her member neighbors and she was like" do you know them?"  We said yes.... haha, and she was like "well go tell them I'm coming to church next week"!!! HOLY SMOKES!!!! So we did,  and yeah it was awesome, and we will be seeing her this next week!! 

I am just getting blown away with how God is blessing this area!

AND! When you work hard you truly are blessed! Its so incredible!

So yeah, that's been my amazing week! But I sure love you all and I LOVE hearing from all of you! :) Thanks so much mom for that CD you gave me! It gave me so much strength this week! You have NO idea how much good music motivates me to be the best missionary that I can be! And how deep I start thinking... you would ALL be amazed at how much I think before I speak out here on my mission! There was one time when my companion was like " Sister Collings are you OK? You seem sick" hahahahah! And I was like "Oh, I'm just trying hard to think deeply... it's a new thing for me!!" bahaha it's hilarious!! :) Well I love you all to death! And just keep being amazing!!