February 17, 2015 -- The Delightfulness of Diligence

We went out for pizza with the Cobb family. This is their daughter Dekitta.   They are great :)

Dear family,

We had a great week here, a lot happened.  it's covered in about 5 inches of snow right now which is crazy!  For here :)

On Monday the sisters in Lafollette came up and we got to spend time together which was awesome .  The four of us are really great friends.  Sister Loper and Orton came in together, then Sister Rindlisbacher is going to leave the same day as me so that was great to have fun in Middlesboro together!  That night hermana loper and I went out for pizza with the Cobbs, they are so sweet, and are like our parents a little bit and dekitta is like our sister.    

Tuesday we had an appointment with Cathy - she had found anti material on how the bible and Book of Mormon differ.  She was mostly concerened about how we believe that the fall was part of God's "plan"  because she doesnt like that thought.  We tried to understand where she was coming from but it was hard!  Anyway, I thought it was a good lesson though because we asked questions and listened, and whenever we made a point very clear we could see it click with her, but then she'd sort of deny it.

We also had dinner with a less active, Reba who has taken to us.  She was baptized at 8 yrs old in the river neear Cumberland Gap, so she's like a true Appalachian mormon which is great!  She talked the entire hour we were there, we had an appointment right after and we got out of the door graciously just in time!  We taught Neveah, the 11 year old the Restoration that night and she really liked it.   Her parents are still a little wary but theyre accepting it.

So remember Chris Trent?  Sister Behunin and I met him at a catholic church in Oct.  He called us wanting to learn more,and so we finally met with him this week.  so what happened is in Dec, his parents antied him really bad and so our last lesson we had with him went horribly.  He just kept saying all these weird things and wasnt listening when we spoke, and he even thought Joseph Smith was a witch...?   So it surprised us when he told us he's been reading the JS history over and over and that is what is helping him come around.  so we tuaght him and we had the elders come since theyll be teaching him.  He was very humble and repentant and said he had been reading JS history over and over again and he truly loves it. He set his own baptismal date for April 4th and is really excited for it.  However, he still lives with his very anti parents so we'll see. 

We taught a family in Pineville and they were super excited.  We are getting a lot better at teaching in unity and for understanding, and I see what a huge difference it makes for the investigators!

Anyway we also taught Shanda this week, who lives through the tunnel in Tennessee.  We went with our friend/member Rachel White, and taught a great lesson. We were headed home and I realized that today was Lincoln's birthday so I mentined it and then Rachel said "You should get your picture by the statue of Lincoln at the college!" (which is Lincoln Memorial University, the local college) so we didn't have much time because it was almost curfew.  We got out of the car to take it, then the rebelious Hermana Collier came out and I was like, let's stand up on the pedestal next to Abe!  Hermana Loper was like "uh..." but of course I already had one foot on it, when the campus security guard drove right by.  I hopped off really fast and apologized to him, and he was laughing as we went off.  

We were snowed in for p-day yesterday which was probably good because we really needed to get some cleaning and packing done and got that done!  Then at the end of the day we visited our investigator, Tracy, who just lives a couple of streets away.  It was completely silent as everything was covered in snow and it continued to fall.

Saturday we ate lots of chocolate for Valentines!  We had zone conference and President and other missionaries gave some really inspired trainings.  The head of the missionary dpt came out recently and trained some of the missionaries on some more effective ways to proselyte, and one was likening The Book of Mormon to people's lives more.  We used what we'd learned that same night with our investigator, Tracey, and she comitted for baptism!  She is super excited, and said that she's always wanted to be baptized, so i just hope she understands the importantce of one true church :)

We are so excited to hear from Elder Christofferson tomorrow, it will be great!  It was sad to say goodbye to a lot of my close mission friends, I will miss them a lot!  

I'll try and send send some pictures sometime this week!

Ah, I am so grateful for all that I have learned and am learning on my mission.  I pray that I can really consecrate this last week to the Lord.  I am also very excited to see y'all!!

May the Lord bless you and keep you in every way! 

Love Hermana Collier