Arkansas Week 2

-
Wow, it has been a crazy busy week! Everyday kinda blurs together and I'm exhausted by the time we get back to the apartment at night, but I love what I'm doing!

We have a really cool and effective way of finding people to teach on the UofA campus. Every Tuesday and Friday we get to set up a booth for about 4 hours. We do either a Book of Mormon experiment or a restoration board/game. It's fun and a great way to have conversations with lots of people.

We had our first lesson with Richard, who we actually found at a booth. He's awesome and has so many questions. He grew up southern Baptist but stopped going when he was told God didn't love him because he's gay. We testified that God loves all His children, that we could feel Gods love for him then, and that he isn't alone. He showed us a video about what "mormons believe" and wanted us to tell him what was true or not. It was horrible and completely anti lol. He felt bad for making us watch it, but was happy to hear it was all wrong. We discussed some of the things we DO believe and he was very receptive. We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with him and invited him to start reading it so he can come to know God and feel His love for him on his own.

Panpan canceled his lesson with us this week because he forgot he was "taking a travel" to Hawaii! What the heck? Who forgets that? Haha. He said he was going to bring us back a "memory gift"😂 On the flip side, even though we haven't met with him, he's still keeping his commitments. He's the best lol.

We had zone conference on Thursday. That was probably the longest freaking day of my whole life, but it was good too. I got to see all the missionaries in my zone which was cool. It was all about strengthening our own personal conversion. In one of the workshops we had, we talked about "burning our ships". Meaning, we all have something holding us back from reaching our full potential or conversion. The idea is to figure out what those things are, then get rid of them. So I invite all of you to write down on a piece of paper everything that's keeping you from being fully converted or from just being happy, then burn it (or rip it up and throw it away for a safer option😁). After that, don't just go back to the way things were. Make the necessary changes you need in order to "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ." (2 Nephi 31:20) I know that as you do, you will feel more love, hope, and peace in your life!

I hope all is well for y'all! Feel free to send me stuff using the address below😁 Kidding... kinda lol. I love and miss you all!
Sister Emery Collins

970 S. Sports Fan Dr. Apt. #204
Fayetteville, AR 72703

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Mission Guidelines for Communication

-
The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recently approved updates to the missionary communication policy. Effective immediately, missionaries are authorized to communicate with their families each week on preparation day via text messages, online messaging, phone calls, and video chat in addition to letters and emails. Missionaries are encouraged to communicate with their families using the approved method that works best for them and their families.  The means of communication may vary depending on the circumstances, location, and schedule of the missionary and family. If a missionary’s parents live in different locations, the missionary may contact each parent separately. It is not expected that missionaries will call or video chat with their parents every week.  In addition to communicating weekly on preparation day, missionaries also are encouraged to communicate with their families on special occasions such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day,...
Read more

It's Time ~ Setting Apart

-
Image
After a busy week of final preparations, it was finally time for Emery to be set apart as an official full time missionary.  She was ready!  I'm not sure about the rest of us though.  We were so grateful Grandma and Grandpa Collins could be with us during this special time.  All of us feel so much love for Emery and excited for her future.   
Read more

Service with a :)

-
Image
  Hey y'all!! This week was spring break out here in Arkansas & thankfully it went by pretty quick!! So we'll be back into our normal routine on campus this week.  Sister Miller makes everything fun! So while we struggled with finding & teaching this week, we did lots & lots of service (28 hours!!) & had a blast!! We went to the animal shelter of course (which is so much fun in the pouring rain😂), but we also did a service project as a district. All 15 of us missionaries went to this little farm & planted onions & kale for about 4 hours. The cool thing about the farm is that they donate 50% of what they grow to charities. It was a kinda cloudy & wet day, so we got pretty muddy, but it was so fun & so worth it!! I cut Sister Miller's hair!! She wanted it significantly shorter so I cut a good couple of inches off. That was one of the most stressful things ever😂 but I did not screw up her hair!! I did pretty good and it looks super c...
Read more