Dear Sister Emery Collins

  Hey everyone! It has been a crazy, wet week! We've had lots and lots of rain here and when it rains, it pours. The coolest thing about the rain storms is actually right before it rains. Sister Miller and I call it suspended rain because it literally feels like we're walking through floating rain drops. I love it.  Now for the crazy part of the week. We were in Bentonville Monday through Wednesday on an exchange. It was't like a normal exchange though. Sister Miller's MTC companion was honorably sent home early, so we got permission to do it before she left. We got to go to the mission home Wednesday morning for her departure breakfast/devotional. And while I was in Bentonville, I got to go to the Walmart museum😂 What a place that was haha. Richard is doing awesome! He has kept the Word of Wisdom for about 2 weeks now, and just committed to keep the Law of Chastity after telling us he was ready for it on his own. He's pretty solid. His main concern is ...

Hello everyone! I've been out for two months now! That is so crazy to me. I'm loving life over here in Arkansas so far. Also, for some reason my phone keyboard switched to German... everything wants to auto correct to german words haha. So I apologize for any mistakes. Funny story about Sister Miller. We got a ride from the Prairie Grove Sisters to interviews with President Strong and they had bought us donuts. Sister Miller and I couldn't decide which kind we both wanted, so we decided to both eat a half of one, then switch. I ate my half and was waiting for her to give me the other half of hers, but she ended up eating her whole donut and half of mine without even realizing it. What the heck?! I didn't say anything about it, then hours later, she said "Did I eat my whole donut? Because I'm replaying it in my head and I can only see myself eating the whole thing." It was way funny. She was so embarrassed and felt so bad haha. Interviews with Pres...

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,...

  Hey everyone! I hope you had a great week! Mine was super long, but so many cool things happened! I went on exchanges again, back to Prairie Grove with Sister Flinders this time. She's actually from the Navoo Temple Mission, but they get sent to surrounding missions for a few months to experience teaching and prostelyting. Kinda cool. Funny story from being on exchanges with her. She noticed before going to bed one night, that her phone clock was way off, but she didn't change it. Well, her alarm went off at 6:30am, according to her phone. It was actually only 2:30am, but she had gotten up, studied, and ate breakfast before she realized she didn't need to be awake yet😂 Who needs sleep as a missionary, right? We met with Richard again this week. He is the best and is progressing so quick! We taught him the restoration and had him teach it back to us like we were five year olds (I thought of Michael from The Office, but that's just me). The spirit was so stro...

Hi everyone! The subject line is something my comp so lovingly said to me when a member wanted to take us out to eat at some catfish restaurant. If you know me, you know I don't do fish very well or anything weird. So luckily, that did not end up happening because I was not prepared for that so soon.  Every Monday night, we have family home evening with our ward. Last Monday, we played laser tag at our institute building. I guess there's a couple in our stake who has collected nerf laser tag guns over the years just for fun (If that's not couple goals then I dont know what is) and they let people use them for activities. Well, let me tell you, playing laser tag when you have to stay within sight and sound of another person is not so fun😂 That's okay though. I went on my first exchanges this week! It was a very last minute decision, I wasn't expecting it, and I was not mentally prepared for it haha. However it turned out to be great. I was in ...