KNOXVILLE HERMANA: February 17, 2014 -- New Start in Rocky Face!

Service project Saturday morning

Querida Familia~

Hola!! Sounds like y'all are doing dandy. Thank you for all your sweet emails and letters -- I love them! And the package a few weeks back Mom - gracias! I can't believe Emily died, I thought those Rabbits would live on FOREVER. How sad! Next time I see a dead rabbit on the road (which happens pretty often) I'll probably think of her.

Hermana Winters brings winter!

So this week has been great. On Wednesda, we went up to Knoxville and I got my new companion Hermana Winters! As soon as we came out of the transfer meeting it started snowing HUGE snowflakes. So Hermana Winters brought winter with her, ha ha. She is from South Jordan (and in the same ward as the Pipe family, Mom), is going to be in the army after her mission, and is super sweet and has a strong desire to do the work of the Lord! She is awesome and I am so excited to be working with her.

Our first day we had weekly planning, then we went out for a bit and met a man named George, who wrote down our number to call us. The next day was Valentine's day and we were contemplating on how we won't be doing anything very Valentine-y that day, and then we recieved a voicemail from George saying, "Hello! Just wanted to wish you two ladies a Happy Valentine's Day, hope we can keep in touch!" Although we're not sure we'll keep in touch, it was nice to have a valentine :) bromas.

At the baptism of Jesse with Presidente and Hermana Irion

On Saturday, we helped the English sisters prepare for a baptism, and then had Rafael come. It was so great to have him there, although he was a little frightened when Jesse had to be baptized twice because the person doing it had no idea how to. Rafael leaned over to me after and told me he wanted someone very strong to do his! But he liked it overall, and is excited. He also came to church yesterday, but Jesus didn't, sadly. We have moved their baptismal date, this time for the last time hopefully, to March 8th. I believe it'll happen! As long as we get Jesus to church.

So we found an address in the Area Book of some former investigators, and decided to go find this family on Saturday night. Their names are Sal and Rebecca, they are young and have a beautiful house. We got to know them, then shared the message of the Restoration with them. The Spirit was so powerful as we testified in unity to them. We asked them after what they thought of it, and Sal said that it made a lot more sense and was much clearer. On the way home, we recieved a text from them saying something to the effect of, "Thank you for praying with us, drive safe!:)" It was the COOLEST moment, and we are super excited to keep teaching them.

I was amazed at how much my testimony grew while teaching them the truths of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. It is amazing how sharing what we know with the Spirit builds our testimony!

The talk that I read this morning, "To My Grandchildren," posed the question: What choices will lead me to happiness? There are many answers for this but there's one over-arching: Keep God's Commandments, and His first commandments are Love God and Love others. So I encourage you all to really try to love and serve others. This has been my focus recently and it has helped me a lot!

I am enjoying the people and the area and my companion right now. Thank you for all your support, hope y'all have a great fabulous week!

I love the Savior so much, and our Heavenly Father.

Love,

Hermanita Collier