New area, Dos Vientos!

This week was one full of HARD work!! :) We just talked to everyone we saw and I really felt the spirit with us in the work! 

Me and my new companion, Sister D!

Dos Vientos is beautiful and I know I am here for a reason! I cannot believe how CRAZY your week was back at home!!! haha I feel like when I don't have enough time to email, that pictures make up for it, right!?!?! :):) 

Well one thing tragic happened... we had dinner at a members and when we were about to give the dinner message, one of the little kids poured water in them... so they were SOAKING WET!!!! :(

I wanted to ask your help with something!!! So before the end of my mission, I want to study the Christ like attributes. So I have picked one for each month for the rest of my mission! This month I am studying faith in Jesus Christ, so if you could help me study that it would be GREAT! Send talks poems quotes or anything you like about that attribute and how I can apply it. I want to know what each of you are studying also!!  Let me know :):)

I sure love you all!!! :):) have a great week!!! :):)

This is my home in Dos Vientos. We live in a guest house at a member's home.

My front yard! CRAZY place!!

Inside our apartment

Picture Frenzy!

LOOK WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL THIS WEEK!!!!!!!  I must say my new sister-in-law to be is just beautiful!!!!!! I LOVE this picture so so much!!! I wish I could be there!! You'll be in my thoughts :) 

gross kissing...

hahaha This is what I find every night after planning :)

          Our apartment was SOOOOO HOT!! So we got creative :):) Felt nice for about 5 minutes :)

This week has been a good one that's for sure! We were able to have Elder Malm from the 70 come by and inspire us! He is from Sweden! So we have zone conference with him!! This is us all dressed up in our spiffy blazers! 

This is us on our drive home!! It was sooo fun because we were able to see the TERRAZES!!!!!! Yup my mother away from home with he happy healing hugs! It was so much fun :)

We were out tracting and a FROG jumped up my skirt!!! haha!So I got a picture with this cutie :)

OHHH and guess what!?! TRANSFERS HAPPENED!!!!! I AM GETTING TRANSFERRED!!! I will be leaving to Dos Vientos, which is in Newbury Park, and I will be with Sister D. She is hilarious... she doesn't have a finger and she is from Alabama :) I'm so excited!!

Trials

Hello!! 

Wow, I cant believe what happened to Kendal :( That breaks my heart. I will definitely include her in my prayers! But I know God's plan for her is  perfect :) And that everything will work out! it doesn't make it any easier, that's for sure. I had to hold back tears when I saw the pictures Danelle sent me of Kendal :( BUT! Thank you for informing me! 

(Mom here, Kaylea's friend Kendal was serving a mission in Australia and was hit by a car. She is in a coma right now. We're waiting to hear how she's doing. Our prayers are with her and her family.)

I cannot believe that Stevie is getting married! I decorated his wedding day on my calender! It includes cute stick figures of Sarah, Steve, and the temple! haha! I'm so excited to get another sister :)

This week is one that has been full of miracles, and one that was full of hard work! We didn't give up or slow down. The trials didn't cease either. For whatever reason, Satan really worked hard on me this week! A personal attack from the inside! But I have never seen prayer heal me so fast! I prayed all week and finally, not till this morning, did my burden become so light I literally felt as if Heavenly Father took it away from me! We were able to contact less actives that we have been trying so hard to see, and one really special experience we had was a man named Carlos just walked up to us! He asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses, and we then told him who we were and taught him the whole restoration! I have never seen anyone my whole mission listen so intently to our lessons!

We also taught a less active who had become very Anti! This was one of Sister H's first experiences with that. But through that hard lesson where our faith was being tugged... our feet were FIRMLY planted. And my testimony increased in leaps and bounds! We asked him if he was happier now that he found out all that he did, and he honestly told us how miserable he was. I know there is a reason that the gospel brings true happiness! It's because it's TRUE. Although the world may have claimed we left empty handed, I feel as though me and Sister H left with full hearts, and compassion for that man, and sorrow for the path he was now on. And with a firm testimony of Jesus Christ's precious gospel.

Dad always told me that times like these are when Satan is working hard because God has something big planned for me. I don't know what it is, but I have strong faith that if I keep going and following after Christ's example, that I will be able to notice what he does have in store, and witness his hand in my life and in this work. 

How grateful I am for my mission that is beautifully designed for me to fall, only so I can decide to get back up and follow Christ more fully! Thank you so much for all you do!! Thank you for your prayers and your example!

Sister H is on fire! She LOVES this work, and is more and more confident each day! Her desire to be obedient is incredible. She is so humble and always finding ways that she can improve. I sure love her. And I know that she's like a little sister to me :) Only because of age.... In every other aspect of life she much greater than me :) And I am so thankful I have her to help me grow! I know I was put with her for a special reason! 

 Studying in a coat because it's a chilly 70 degrees!

 Built a blanket fort for planning in....

I love you all!! 

Love, Sister Collings!

Lots of Miracles

Dear Family,

My week was interesting! We did a lot of service! 10 hours actually! Full of cleaning, and helping people move! 

Our investigator, Christy, we were finally able to talk about baptism with her, and Sister H was so impressive! Christy is in her 40's and she had a brain condition that really messed her up for about 2 years. She was able to overcome it, and now she wants a family so badly! She said she cries at night because she is all alone, and she wants to know what it's like to have children. Sister H spoke POWERFULLY by the spirit, and said something along the lines of "Christy don't take this the wrong way, but God wants you to become a member of his church, and have a firm foundation before you can have your own family!" The spirit was overwhelming, and she thought a lot about that, and her reply was "maybe so..." But you could see her wheels turning! So I just PRAY she will have a softened heart!  It broke my heart to see her so sad, because let's be honest, who doesn't want a family?! I know that's my only real dream!  I love training Sister H. Seeing her act upon the spirit is inspiring! She even told me after, " Sister Collings, I was fighting with the spirit, and when he told me to tell Christy that, I thought 'NO! I can't do that, she will get offended!'" (she does take offence easily) She fought with the spirit, and it kept telling her to just open her mouth! She even said "Just give that impression to Sister Collings, I don't want to say it!" hahaha Well.... The spirit DID not give it to me, and she trusted Heavenly Father, and listened to his words, and I know she spoke by the spirit because of the overwhelming feeling that was in the room! 

Another miracle we had, was we have an investigator named Mario, and he has been super duper hard to get a hold of. So we decided to text him and plan a time to meet with him. He texted back and said "How about today in 15 minutes!!" haha MIRACLE!!!!!! It was amazing because we have been trying so hard to meet with him, and we had a really great lesson! :) 

Third miracle this week was INCREDIBLE! Susan is the one that is recovering from the flesh eating parasite, and she told us " I look forward to the day I can be baptized into your church, we just need a miracle, and I expect miracles to happen." So we fasted for Susan, that she could have the strength to make it to church and that she could recover! So we will see! We just have to wait for God's precious timing :) 

This week was a great one! We also had zone conference which was in Ventura! And it was incredible!! We were moved by all the talks and all the inspiration! I love the story of Peter in the New Testament. We talked about how he denied Christ 3 times, and then was able to make an amazing recovery. He was able to repent and change and serve him faithfully after that. We listened to Elder Uchtdorf talk about that, and he said in a way we are all like Peter! I love it :) 

PETE, DONICE, AND BROOKE came and took me and Sster H to lunch!! It was so much fun! :) He told me about his baptism and how he came to know the church was true!! I feel so blessed that I was able to teach him :) His WHOLE family is just completely different now!  They are just radiating!! Pete told me he really loves you dad!! I'm thankful that you were able to give them really good advice regarding the temple! :)

Needless to say, it's been a great week :) And I am loving my mission! It's hard, and it kills me to see what people have to go through! But how grateful I am that I get to share the Gospel with them and send some light into their lives :):)

I Love you ALL!!

Love, Sister Kaylea Collings