6 Weeks Left!

This week is one that I will Never Forget!

(This is a fun picture that I found on the Ventura Mission facebook page: Mom)

I realize I am down to 6 weeks left... and I always hear "Oh, you should do the six weeks to sexy program and lose all the weight you have gained!" But I have decided to start my own group "six weeks to saggy!"

We had SO MANY things happening, it's crazy! We had Sarah come to a baptism to see what it is like, and HOLY smokes... She was amazing! She kept saying how sacred it was because we have it on a special day, and it's all about baptism, and we even wear different clothes! She felt the spirit so strongly, and she said "It's so crazy! You know that feeling when you have so many emotions build up inside of you and then you are about to cry but it's just bottling up inside you? THAT'S how I have been feeling all week as I have been praying about whether or not I should be baptized!" Wow. I love Sarah and her example. She is diving in 100% and she helps me to increase my faith!! 

We did a lot of service this week. Holy Smokes I am So thankful! 

JUDY!: She is an elderly lady we teach, she was having apartment inspections and we offered to help her clean! We cleaned out mold from the sink and threw away old food for about 2 hours! She has been so sick for 1 whole month. I would imagine it was because she had mold growing everywhere! As we were cleaning, we had the window open and Sister B and I started singing Hymns! Well, what we didn't know was a bunch of elderly people were gathering around the window to listen to us sing! We found out when we finished "Nearer my God to Thee", and an old lady popped her head through the window and said "YOU TWO ARE SOO CUTE!" Judy was so thankful and her heart was softened! She invited us back so that we could teach her more! And I am thankful all the elderly people were able to listen and feel the spirit even if it was just through a window ;)

GENE MARIE!! We helped her clean out her rain gutter and she offered to make us a delicious sandwich! Well... She wanted tomatoes on it but they were all moldy.. And Guess what!!! I think she wanted to kill us because she put the moldy tomatoes on our sandwiches, but not hers!! Oh it was horrid. I kept praying and had to bite around the mold... :( Don't worry prayers kept us safe! :)

I'm sorry you keep getting my poems but they describe my week much better then anything else! So I figured what the heck! Here's another one I wrote this week :)

Endure

My Father sent his Son to suffer and die for me

He even saw my face while enduring Gethsemane

He knew that I would stumble, He knew that I would fall

Into his grace filled arms, only with Him can I stand tall

He beckons, "Come Follow Me" with pleading in his voice

He cautions us to obey God's rules and always make the right choice

"I was blind but now I see" A song we often hear

Our Savior changes hearts and takes away our fears

I trust my Brother, my Savior and Friend

And if I listen closely I too can endure to the end!

I'm excited to see what miracles will be coming this next week! I LOVE being a missionary!!

Love, Sister Kaylea Collings

Sweet Plan of Salvation Lesson

What a week it has been here in Simi! Transfers happened and I will be staying With Sister B! We will still be Sister training leaders! This week was an interesting one. Turns out that ending a mission is more stressful than i EVER thought it could be! I threw up for 2 days... I'm pretty sure out of stress and now my eye ball is Swollen! It kinda looks like a spider bite... but really, I'm not sure at all! I'm short on time but i have a poem i wrote a long time ago that encompasses how I'm feeling right now on my mission!:

Diligence

I will not give up
I will not cool down
The Kingdom is at hand
I want to wear the Crown

When I am Exhausted
When Push comes to Shove
I want to show my father that
My heart is full of love

I'll Show him by my joy
I'll show him in the work I'll do
He'll know I'm a disciple
He'll see it in my attitude.

I'll lift up my head
I'll turn my voice on loud
the kingdom is at hand
I hope my father's proud

We are seeing so many miracles here in Simi! We just got an incredible new investigator! Brother Lang, a member of the ward, thought about one of his friends while he was in the temple! And so he called them and asked them if they would listen to a message from the missionaries! It was incredible! We stopped by with he Langs and taught the plan of salvation! And turns out the man's wife is dying of cancer. It was breast cancer but now it's in her spine. Her pigment is all gone from her face and she is bald, but her spirit was so bright! There were so many tears shed as they looked at my hand drawn plan of salvation pieces. They had hope that even though she was dying, they would be together again! It was such a spiritual experience! I LOVE being a missionary and I love teaching this uplifting and incredible message! I do feel incredible stress, but I also have even more joy!! So it's all worth it!! :) I Love you all!!

Love Sister Kaylea Collings!!!

Plant Killer

We all hello!! This week was another tiring but wonderful week!! :)

We did a lot of service! It was fun, we serve one of our investigators, Gene Marie who is like a glorified tree hugger! She has different water to water each of her plants, because they like different ones... and it makes them happy... apparently!  As I was applying miracle grow to her rose bush, I was telling her about when I watered plants in Provo, and when I forgot to water them they pretty much died, and as soon as I put miracle grow on the plants they came back to life!! I thought that was an impressive story. I thought I would share it with her to prove I knew the power of miracle grow... Well, turns out it's offended her so badly that I had killed a plant... And she turned her wheelchair facing me and said, "Sister Collings that hurts me" and she didn't say a word to me the rest of the day... So... note to self.. no more telling stories about killing plants.

We also cleaned a hoarders home.. We have been working on it for an hour a week in just one room! Week 1 we finally got enough room to open the door! SUCCESS!! Week 2/3 we made a hallway out of all the stuff, and this week we cleared off a desk!!! She has SOOO MUCH stuff! But it's incredible what a difference we are making in that room! Plus, seeing her face after we clean is priceless! :) She is so grateful! And she always says the nicest prayers in our behalf,  just thanking Heavenly Father for her "angels."

Lots of spiritual experiences this week :) I will summarize and it may not make sense... but I can explain it great detail later :)

We taught Sarah, and we read "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence!" And it was insane how strong the spirit was! A member we brought with us had a VERY similar past as Sarah, and they were all in tears sharing their experiences. At the end of it all, Sarah told us that she knew God brought her and this member together to get strength from one another! BUT She could definitely use some prayers!!

We also taught watched the restoration DVD with Michelle! And sang a song about Joseph Smith, and I was able to bare my testimony about how I came to know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. It brought me to tears and strengthened my testimony even more. I am So thankful for the opportunity I get to bear my testimony so often! I can feel my faith growing!

We have 2 Return Missionary Sisters in the ward, and I took one of them tracting with me, and Sister Woods took another to all the lessons. These girls are incredible! And it was such a fun day! We found an undercover less active, and a new investigator who is 80, and wants to know more about the plan of salvation! Before we left he said "Thank you for your work of salvation in my behalf!" It was adorable! And very refreshing to meet a man so humble to learn more and such an old age!

Prayer has played a huge role this week :) I have felt Heavenly Father's love so much! It's what gets me through the day!!

I love being a missionary!

MORE QUESTIONS:

Tell us one thing that has impressed you about your mission president and his wife: They have so much light. It motivates me to grow in light and they just make you want to be around them because you feel close to Christ.

Has Sister Felix helped you become a better missionary? If so what has she done? Yes! She is incredible! Honestly, I love how devoted she is to president Felix! She loves him with a pure love. It's motivating and she radiates! Makes me want to work as hard as I can to become that Christlike and selfless!

Does she do any training?  Does she participate in all the zone conferences? If so, what does she do? She speaks at a lot of different meetings and we call them once a week and talk about how we are doing and how our exchanges went.

How many baptisms have you had? I have lost count... I have it written down 15 people I have taught have been baptized, but I have only been to about 8 baptisms :)

What advice would you give to future sister missionaries? To get their personal progress done! I am doing mine again, and everything in there is what I do as a missionary! It's awesome.


Love, Sister Collings!

Kaylea's a POET!

Hello! One thing I love about mission life is that you ALWAYS need to expect the unexpected! So this week was a Roller Coaster! Incredible highs, and incredible LOWS... Lots of praying and lots of frozen yogurt! One thing I know is that Christ is my Savior, and I reflected on that over and over this whole week through incredible personal experiences, and also powerful lessons with my investigators.  So I wrote a poem this week! I have written poems throughout my whole mission!

This is poem #20

How can we know that the living Christ lives?
That we may live again, through his mercy gives.
I was not in Bethlehem or on Calvary
But somehow in someway it's He who sets me free.
I know He lives! I can feel it in my heart,
His love lifts me up when I fall apart.
I know He lives! I can feel it on my knees
When forgiveness is asked, I'm healed through my pleas.
I know He lives! When my fuel is on low
He aids me with motivation for my harvest to sow.
I know He lives! Because when I'm rejected it's Him who carries me,
Helps me to feel the gospel's worth that others cannot see.
I know He lives! Because he took a girl like me
And changed me  into something more than I ever thought I'd be.
I know He lives! Because when I testify
I get all choked up, and my tears begin to fly.
I know He lives! He doesn't just change me,
But offers himself to anyone  who will just believe.
We can all know that the living Christ lives.
We will all live again, His mercy He freely gives!


I am doing great! I am recognizing the Lord's hand in this work more and more! I was able to take a Sister on exchanges this week and we walked ALL day long! In our mission, we try to get 5 new investigators a week! As we hit the pavement and went to work, we were able to teach 10 other lessons and get 5 new investigators! We saw miracles the whole day! From praying with an Atheist, to  getting into less actives homes that were supposed to be"impossible". We walked under highways, up driveways and out in the sun all day! In this area we have 14 people in our teaching pool! And they are all doing great! We are dealing with alcohol problems, and it seems like Satan's getting in the way,  but!! we keep working and praying! We were able to go to a devotional that was SWEET! A man from Texas has Hyrum, Joesph, and Samuel Smith's original copies of the Book of Mormon!! He does devotionals all over the place, but he read us different things they had written in their scriptures it was sweet!!

Mom here, Kaylea asked me to send her some questions to answer, so here goes...

You are a sister training leader, how many days a week do you usually spend visiting the other sisters? We call them everyday! To uplift them and inspire them! Then we normally go on 1-2 exchanges a week where we switch companions for a day and work with them :)

How often do you have leadership meetings you have to attend? We have 2 a month! One for all the leadership in the mission, and then one with all the sister training leaders, where we plan what inspired message we will share with the sisters we go on exchanges with that month to help them to enjoy the work and to work hard!

What is your latest apartment like?  We use to have another set of hermanas living with us, but they got transferred! It's 2 bedroom 2 bathroom!! Which is awesome because we can get ready at the SAME time!! And not take turns to shower... We are teaching someone in our same apartment complex! So it's funny, we run into her a lot! But we leave lots of sticky notes on her door :)

Is it just you and your companion at your apartment? Yes :)

Do you cook, or are you mostly fed? We have dinner with a member every single night! And before we leave we share a message with the family to encourage them to do missionary work! In fact, we try and visit 3 ward members a day to get them to give us referrals, and also to support them and share messages to have them share the gospel!

What is your favorite thing about California? Its so green and BEAUTIFUL! Especially with all the rain we have been getting! And the sunsets and sun rises... are incredible!!! The sky here is 5x's bigger than in Utah!

Any new foods you've had on your mission? Favorite food, and least favorite food. We had a lady make homemade goat cheese cake and cow tongue tacos... And in most areas, everyone is pretty professional at cooking. Every meal is a 6 course dinner! So I like them all!! But we get dessert EVERY night... So that's where I can blame my weight gain ;)

How is your "Mermaid" hair? Well..... I let a member cut it :( And...its about the length it was when I left but no split ends!! Which is good ;) But I only cry in the morning while doing it! Other than that, I love it!

Do you run? Every morning!! :) In fact, I',m down to 130 pounds again!! Which is nice!!! :) We even have a pull up bar on the running trail we go on and we do pull ups... So I'm getting ripped! I even put Conman to shame with my muscles :)

What has been your favorite day on your mission? Probably... Every morning when I wake up and I realize I'm still a missionary! Its a HUGE relief.  Every day's my favorite! You will hear all my stories soon enough  :)

What is something that has surprised you the most about being away for 18 months? Hmm... first thing I thought of was.. I am shocked how many atheists there are! It blows my mind! And I never realized how modest Mormons are until I got to see California's nudity haha!

Do you know I love you!!!? yes :)

Short and Sweet

Hello! This week was such a blessing! We were able to feel the spirit so much this week! I went on 2 exchanges one with Sister B, and then with Sister H!!!

With Sister B it was incredible because at the end of the exchange she told me that she has been praying for weeks about different questions and concerns she had, and she said that during our day together, I helped address ALL of her concerns, through my example and the things the spirit told me to say! It was SO cool to be able to follow the spirit to help her!

And Sister H is a power house. She is doing incredible! Seriously from when I trained her, she is a new person! We were able to have a BUSY day! And taught lots of lessons!

We had our investigator, Sarah, try to drop us this week and we felt impressed to stop by and see what's been happening! We taught her, and she felt the spirit and said she wants to keep meeting with us... and SHE CAME TO CHURCH THIS WEEK!

I am just so grateful for this mission.


I LOVE you ALL!

love, Sister Kaylea Collings!

List of things I've learned on my Mission

What a week it has been!! We taught our investigator Sarah the plan of salvation and she was in tears!! She just had her mom's boyfriend die, so we were able to bring her a lot of peace! We also taught Danny and now he wants to stop drinking alcohol! :) At the missionary leadership council this week, I have a few favorite quotes! :D

"Magnify your calling don't just tend it"

"Work smarter not harder"

I was able to go on exchanges with Sister B which was SUPER fun :) We worked SO hard! Had a productive day! We were able to receive 4 awesome referrals and teach 7 other lessons, AND sing love songs at a retirement home with the Activity Day Girls for Valentine's Day! I felt REALLY awkward, but it was nice when we sang "Love one another".

I am thankful for this mission and the things I have been able to learn. The list goes on and on, but here is a small preview:

1. I trust Father in heaven!

2. I know how to rely on the Savior and use the atonement daily.

3. I am not an exception

4. I know my worth

5. I am able to be guided by the Holy Ghost

6. I know how to receive personal revelation

7. I know what's expected of me to obtain eternal life in the Celestial Kingdom

8. I know that GOD speaks to me personally through the Book of Mormon and the Bible

9. I know how to progress

10. I know how to be happy

11. I know how to repent and change

12. I know how to receive light

13. I know how to let go of pride

14. I know how to help others

15. I know how to show Heavenly Father I love him

I am being stretched a lot this transfer! And I feel overwhelmed with the timing of everything! I was on the verge of tears all week, not because things were bad, I just never want to leave this mission! It's been a huge refiners fire, and I will never be able to repay Father in Heaven for everything he has done for me! I Love this mission :)

Love, Sister Collings 

 Kitty photo bomb!

 Teaching Ronald Reagan

 Ronald Reagan Library

 How I teach people in California! It was broadcast!

 Walking with President Reagan!

 HaHa!

 Fun at the apartment

 My companion did my makeup... haha! Show stoppin'

 How i really felt with all that makeup! hahah I'm so homely now.... 

Exchanges in Thousand Oaks!

Wearing an investigator's wig!

I should be a plumber!

The work is overwhelming in this area, we have so many investigators and so many less actives we are teaching!! It's incredible! A lot of them have crazy stories! And I found myself feeling.... overwhelmed... just so much compassion fatigue! We have 3 new investigators! Danny, Reuben and Sarah! All of them we taught and testified our little hearts out, and it was just incredible the spirit we felt as we taught them! Sarah kept saying how amazing the timing has been! 2 sister missionaries gave her a momron.org card, and then she went on and requested us to come visit her! And we did, and she was SO excited! She said she just had a friend that told her to go on a spiritual journey! She wasn't expecting that the journey would just come knocking on her door!! :)

 We had members ask us if we would teach them about forgiveness! I felt prompted to tell them about my God box that I made while I was in Goleta! I have a box that when I need extra help from God, I write him a note, and after all I can do, I put it in the box and believe it or not, He takes care of it for me :) So really it's a box full of miracles! We asked them to make one together, and the other night they came running to us saying they made one out of a shoe box, and how it's been helping them :) It's a simple thing, but I could see their burdens already getting lighter!

We have one progressing investigator who has a problem with men. So she doesn't like that the church is run by men! Well it was incredible because we testified that the whole purpose of apostles is to testify of Christ, and to invite us to come closer to him. And we watched " hope you know we had a hard time" Mormon message, and read the Living Christ together! The spirit was powerful and I could see her opinion change about the apostles.

We did some service for our investigators, we used a snake to unclog the rain gutters! And it was so satisfying to clean it out! And to see flowing water with out junk pouring out of the gutter! I think I am considering being a plumber! :)

On a cool note, we are teaching Brother W who is the bass player for a band! They are so great! We are trying to get them to the temple! :)

This quote screamed out my name this week "If you want to talk to God, pray. If you want God to talk to you, read your scriptures."

I'm obsessed! That's how my week has been! I just constantly want to  pray all the time, all day and night for the welfare of anyone and everyone I see! Maybe I'm getting into crazy mode, but my favorite thing to do while we drive is to pray for the people that pass me in their cars. Sigh... I just LOVE prayer!! And I was feeling overwhelmed with all the CRAZY stories of everyone we teach. Then i read Moroni 9:25,  I don't need to be weighed down by what the people here are going through! But be grateful that they have Christ to lift them up, and that He can help them :) And the hope of his glory and eternal life is resting in my mind forever. So I am at peace once again! :) Such a good week!!!

Love you ALL!!!

Love, Sister Kaylea Collings!!