Thursday, December 4, 2014

Pumped to be a SOLDIER!

Hello Family!!! This week has been such a good one that's for sure! I feel like I say that every week, but I'm not fibbing :) I think the thing I hate the MOST about emailing, is that there is no way for you to REALLY understand or comprehend what I am experiencing out here, haha but I decided to just list off what I did this week, and maybe the Spirit can tell you how I felt. But the work is going REALLY well!  A Scripture that just pumped me up more than ever is this: 2 Timothy 2:3 "Thou therefore  endure hardness  as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" Isn't that something! I'm not saying this in a "This week is so hard, let me complain" kind of way but more of just being pumped up, thinking of me as a soldier :) ha.

Monday Was a GREAT day! We had Sister H's trainer come up, and we spent the day getting great advice and enjoying Avila beach! Then after p-day was over, at 6:00 we taught a family home evening lesson in a member's home, and taught the restoration! After that we headed over to our investigator, Kim's home. She is the one that is a caregiver for one of our members.Well she FINALLY told us what her concerns were.That it was hard to believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet because she couldn't see God giving all his power to just one man. Because that always leads to bad things. We explained to her how the church is set up with the prophet, his two counselors,  12 apostles, and the 2 quorums of the 70, stake presidents, bishops, and so on. She was much more at ease after the spirit told her that was true :) We had a member at the lesson with us who had just recently joined the church, and holy smokes, the spirit was SO strong! This member's name is Haley. she just graduated BYU  in humanities. I think I want to do that :) It would be SO fun to study anthropology! Maybe that's what I'll do with my life. I have this secret goal that I want to get a degree in humanities, and then work for the churches humanitarian efforts! I don't know how that will work, or if it's possible, but it's definitely a dream of mine! Then we drove off to Lompoc for an exchange!

Tuesday I went on exchanges with Sister E! She is fantastic! She is finishing her mission in December, and Heavenly Father gave us the day from Heaven together! We were able to teach 8 lessons! 2 lessons were really fun! We had a man call up his pastor, "Pastor Star", to chat with us! I was ALL for it! So we talked with him and even prayed with him over the phone! But pastor star wants to meet with missionaries! So It was a really fun experience! Who knew we could teach over the phone! Then we taught a woman named Gloria who is fantastic! She has a problem worshiping idols, and we had a powerful lesson testifying of Joseph Smith, and Christ's church, and she said she wanted to pray to know that was true, and that she would stop worshiping idols if it was! It was pretty great :) during her prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for "Sister Loco", which I guess was me...  haha She said it's a compliment, that when she dances people call her loco, and so I teach with so much expression and light that I can be loco too.  She said that it's a compliment hispanic women give to other hispanic women. hahah!! I'm not too sure about that, but it was fun to teach her :) Then we went to an interfaith thanksgiving celebration that was incredible! They had all faiths here sharing messages of thanks! We had a bishop from our church speak, qur'an singers, bahai's buddist speakers as well! It was so fun! It was cool to feel a different spirit from the bishop than the other speakers! I JUST LOVE OUR CHURCH. Then we drove to Solvang for ANOTHER exchange!


Wednesday  I went on an exchange with Sister C, and GUESS WHO I MET!!! I met one of Abbey Beazer's special friends! one that she met when she lived in Cali, who worked at Del SOL!!!! CRAZY! I was able to add things of mine to a package he was sending Abbey, and write her a note! It was so neat! He had been struggling because he just got home from his mission and me and Sister Cox were able to just minister our little hearts out to him! It was so fun exchanging stories about Abbey! It's crazy how small this world really is! But it was such a fun exchange!


Thursday We had thanksgiving!! We spent it with a less active family and they took us to IHOP! That's the first time I have ever gone out to eat for thanksgiving dinner, but no complaints, we were spoiled!  Then we spent that whole day sharing thanksgiving messages with people we knew didn't have anyone to celebrate thanksgiving with! On our way back form an appointment we saw a caregiver for a lady in a wheelchair outside in the dark, and she was so upset because they had gone to the store, and the keys to her apartment had gotten lost, and had fallen off. We offered to walk (7 blocks) so quite a distance, to find them for her since she needed to care for the lady in the wheelchair! We prayed and looked so hard, with only the light of our phone to find these keys! Well, about 30 mins rolled around, and my companion had a strong feeling to look in a bush and SHE FOUND THEM!!! crazy right?! So we literally ran back to the lady and gave her the keys, and she was nearly in tears! the cool part about this, was the caregiver who lost the keys was someone we had tried to teach once and she wasn't the nicest to us... So after we returned the keys her heart softened right up! I'm so thankful for the spirit, and how it can literally speak to us!!

Friday Was by far my favorite day!!! We had our ward mission leader drive us 7 hours to go to the temple!!! It's 6 hours round trip, but we got stuck in traffic! And it's the BEST experience I have ever had in the temple.  I was able to receive HUGE answers to my prayers! I'm SO thankful for the revelations you can have in the house of the Lord! So we had a SUPER special day in LA, and  guess WHAT!! We got home at around 7 pm, and we saw a man walking in the parking lot of the church. Well, he was in his 20's and he said he had been praying to find  guidance!!! AND THERE WE WERE!! We taught him the special message of the restored gospel, and he said he KNEW it was true, and wanted to get baptized!! AHH!! It was incredible, the spirit was strong! Sadly, we had to refer him to the YSA elders.. BUT! I am so thankful that Heavenly Father let us be a part of an incredibly FAST conversion!! :)


Saturday was great because we finally had a full day in our area! And man it was packed. We were running from appointment to appointment! We had 8 other lessons, and taught a grouchy man who was a beach bum, whose heart was softened, and wanted us to come back and teach him more. We also found and incredible girl! She was walking down the street and told us she had just gotten married, and that she had been looking for a church!! And she said she was going to drive the car to the store, but she felt like she should walk instead! As we taught her she said that she knew God put her in our path! So I am SO excited to teach Kasaundra!! :)


Sunday I renewed my covenants and taught a TON of less actives haha I could go into more detail but I'm running out of time :)

This week was just AMAZING :) And today we will be hiking Bishop's Peak! I'm SUPER excited for that! I have never been more exhausted, but I have NEVER loved this Gospel more!! It's been an incredible week, and I'm so thankful to be a missionary!! Thanks for sending me the thanksgiving pictures, those looked so fun! :) And thanks again for the birthday package :) I loved the pedometer! Yesterday I took 4,000 steps! cool right :) I Love you all and I hope your week is amazing!!!

Love Sister Kaylea Collings!
my badge is the only things that really gets to experience the sand hahaha!

We dressed up for thanksgiving as pilgrims and indians! 

Our faces when we drove to the temple in LA traffic!!
pday beaches :) I feel amish next to the worlds nudity!  
I had to refrain HARD to not go tracting in my pilgrim outfit :)

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