"I WANNA BE WHERE THE LIGHTS ARE BRIGHT"- Valarie ☀️😇

 HOWDY YALLL!!! 

Monday: PDAYYYY!!! We went on a run on post and then we played exploding kittens with the elders and it was way fun!! We had a lesson lined up with our friend and we show up and their kid was like their at the neighbors and we made them go ask If they could still meet and we ended up doing a combo lesson with them and their neighbors and it was so bomb!!! 

Tuesday: ALL THE MEETINGS AND STUFF! Wowza Tuesday tested my attention span for sure lol! We had a LOT of meetings! We had zone conference and it was absolutely fire, meetings with people in the stake... let's just say I drank a lot of caffeine on Tuesday lol 

Wednesday: PLAN OF SALVATION! We taught valarie the plan of salvation and it was so good! When we were talking about the 3 degrees of glory she goes "I wanna be where the lights are bright" AMEN VALARIE I WANNA BE WHERE THE LIGHT ARE BRIGHT TOO! 

Thursday: FLOOD! We got an obsurd amount of rain. So much that there was srsly a flood! We tried to go Tract a few houses and got some rejection but mostly ppl were concerned that we were out in the rain lol... we do it all for Jesus ☔️🌊🏄‍♀️

Friday: NOT THE EDIBLES! We taught one of our friends a stop smoking workshop and now she's been clean and sober for 3 days so far! We got to pour out her beer ( a FAT case of it) and she smashed all her cigarettes! We asked her if she had anything else and she sighs and walks over to this stuffed cactus that she has by her TV and sticks her hand in the pot and pulls out edibles (marijuana)  💀 we had her toss all of it and she was both mad and excited by the end of it haha😂

Saturday: MEMBER REFFERALS ARE SO GOLDEN! We had a lesson with our friend who is best friends w/ one of the members, this man is soooo elect!! He's had all the discussions from his friend over the course of the past 30 years. His ex wife was super anti and he said that everything he read only grew his testimony. He shared some really cool experiences he's had over the past 3 months that prepared him to hear our message! We invited him to be baptized and he said absolutely yes so that's way cool!

Sunday:  THE BEST TESTIMONY MEETING OF MY LIFE!!

First off we had 4 friends at church!!! That might not seem like a lot but here getting people to come to church is like pulling teeth! 

Our friend we taught on Saturday actually got up and bore his testimony about how he got his answer that the Book of Mormon is true that morning and it was soo powerful!! Our friend and his son came and they ended up knowing  like half the people in the ward!! One of the youth brought their friend and we were able to find them and start teaching them!! Sundays as a missionary are sometimes the most stressful days of the week but ahhh this Sunday was BOMB!!! On top of that the weather was sooo nice!!

Invitation:  two part invite this week! 

1) write a list of questions you have and take it to general conference. Be all in with searching for the answers you receive! Take notes , write down the revelation you receive 

2) invite someone to watch General Conference either with you or send them the link! Think about the blessings you've received from watching General Conference and how you would want someone to invite you!

We do be chefs... made gf orange chicken from scratch

Valarrie's puppies

 

If you're area book doesn’t look like a jar of skittles you're missing out...🌈🦄😇

 HOWDY YALLL!! This week was crazy! Also for all the people who aren't missionaries who are confused at my title area book is the planning app we have as missionaries, they have lots of different colors that stand for different things like teaching appointments, contacts, meetings... we have lots of colors going on this week aka we were real busy lol

Monday: PDAYYYY! we went bowling and I remembered that im mega trash at it! But ya know in ether 12 it says God can make our weaknesses become strengths so maybe one day I'll be good at it lol! It was still so fun tho, we met this super cool girl on our way to go bowling and we were able to give her a bom! 

Tuesday: George! We went to the church to go plan stuff and we saw this guy outside and we felt like we needed to go talk to him so we did. George is so cool, he had been meeting with missionaries in a different area for a while and we were able to really have a lovingly bold conversation with him. We talked about baptism and why and how it would help him as well as the bom and how it will give him guidance. We spent a good hour answering his questions and it was by far one of the most spiritual lessons I've been in it was so cool! We made him pinky promise to reach out to his missionaries this week and he said he would so pray for George! 

Wednesday: MEMBER MINI MISH! We got to take our member out with us to go on a mini mission for the day, we were able to see so many miracles!! We met this one girl who didn't speak any English her daughter translated for us. as soon as she heard we were lds she wanted us to come and see her again it was so cool! We saw our friend who's been just having a super hard time lately and we showed her a video about why bad things happen to good people and the spirit was there so powerfully! I felt like I really learned what it means to mourn with those that mourn. Here's the link to the video yall should watch it because it's sooo good:

 https://www.facebook.com/brittha/videos/6417105184980946/?idorvanity=534352464165662&mibextid=NnVzG8

Thursday: ROAD TRIP! We made the massive trek from st rob to Bentonville, sister tayco and vlogged our journey if ya wanna give it a looksie you can see the magnificent film we made on my Google photos((: we got to stay in Roger's with lots of sisters and it was sooo fun!! Ahh I love them all so much🥰

Friday: T5 T6! Ahhh we had a training in Bentonville with all the missionaries who are in there 5th and 6th transfer and it was so amazing! President and Sister Collins are seriously so inspired, I just think it's so cool how the holy ghost works because I learned so many things that weren't even talked about, but because the holy ghost was there powerfully, I was able to receive so much revelation! It was such a fun day too I was able to see so many of my friends and 2 of my old comps! S/o to sis Halle and sis lacey I love yall to kolob and back! 🤍💫

Saturday: EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON! We had 8 lessons planned for Saturday and all but 3 bailed); but God had something else in store for us! Everything worked out exactly how it needed to and even though I wasn't able to see that in the moment it was cool to look back at how God's hand was in our work so much that day and everyday! I learned that I need to stop complaining when things don't work like we plan and start praying to know what god has planned. 

Sunday: NEWILL GOT BAPTIZED!!! Ahhh Newill is the sickest soldier ever, before he joined the army him and his family were investigating the church a bit (because his uncle is a bishop) and it's been so cool to hear about how much God prepared him to hear about the gospel! One thing that he said sold him was the family a proclamation to the world! The idea that family's can be together forever is life changing! It's been so rewarding watching him grow! 🥰

Invite: make heaven crowded! 

I've been thinking about this so much lately. As a zone we have set a goal to put people on date to be baptized and we are doing a 40 day fast (I'm fasting from distractions) to be able to achieve our goal. As we were setting this goal I was thinking about why we set number goals as missionaries and the answer I received was short, sweet but powerful. It's because we want to make heaven crowded. We pass so many people on the street, we talk to so many people in a day. All children of God and most of them have no idea what they are missing out on. We as missionaries invite people to make covenants or promises with God one being baptism. We as members of the church can sometimes forget how the covenant we made when we were 8 years old ( for some) changed our lives but it's so vital that we try to remember. It can be easy to shy away from helping our friend to learn more about the gospel and what making covenants can do for them out of fear. But my invitation for you this week is to put aside that fear and to do something to make heaven a little more crowded this week! There are hundreds of different directions you could take this so pray about it and follow the spirit. Heaven is not heaven if not all of us are there so let's try to get as many people there as we can! 

LOVE Sister Collins 

The District

One of My YSA from Carthage serving a service mission

Sister Halle

Valarie's Puppies

BEING SICK IS THE WORST

 HOWDY YALLL!! Yall are getting peaches and Pitts this week because I really procrastinated writing this email 

Peaches: THERE WERE SOO MANY PEACHES THIS WEEK!!! 

- SIX( one of the soldiers) GOT BAPTIZED!!! She's so sick and her baptism was amazing, the spirit was so strong, tons of the soldiers came up after and told us they want to be baptized too!!

- we were able to put our friend perlina on date, she told us she's been reading the bom and it makes her feel at peace when she reads. He talked about  the gift of the holy ghost and she was fr like wait I want that! It was so sick 

- we met this really cool guy when we were tracting and were teaching him now! 

- Bryan is down to 1 cigarette a day!!!! Prayer works and preisthood blessings are for real 

Pitts:

- the one pit this week was that we were sick, like so sick. For a few days but we were not about to stay inside so we bit the bullet and went out anyway. Being sick as a missionary is actually the worst but ya know nothing makes you appreciate being able to breathe more than not being able to lol 

- I have 0 time to tell yall about the rest of the peaches. I will try not to procrastinate writing my email next week lol. 

Invitation:

I had a member ask me a question at a dinner that I've been thinking about ever since. She asked me if you know someone hates you're guts do you give them space to diffuse the contention or do you try to get them to not hate you anymore?  As I was trying to answer her questions the spirit taught me something. When we pray to see people from Christ's point of view it's very hard and I would even say impossible to hate someone, when we put ourselves in others shoes we can only feel Christ's love for them. I asked her what she thought christ would do and she said love them anyway. I think  that's so beautiful, we can love our enemies even when it's hard, we can cast out our pride and our need to compare ourselves with one another and simply love gods children!  I want to invite you all to strive to view everyone the way christ sees them. Pray to have the eyes to see them that way, cast out judgment and replace it with love! 

P-Day with the Elders

Chilly morning runs

SIx's Baptism

Tongan bday parties are the best kind of bday parties!!!🥳🤌

 Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1gka56kjUTcATXt8

HOWDY YALLL!!  this week was bonkers... it was both soo long and soo short!! We got transfer calls and IM STAYING WITH SISTER TAYCO!!!! I'm soooo hyped I love her soo much, I would've been mega sad if she left! This is also her last transfer so I will be "killing her" ( sending her home from her Mish don't freak out lol) 

Monday: MULLER'S GRADUATION!! We went and watched muller ( one of the soldiers) graduate, it was so sick!! Then we planned for mlc, drove down to Springfield for mlc 

Tuesday: MLC! 

Took the road trip Springfield to Bentonville. MLC was bomb, I got so much revelation from it, ahh I love our mission president and his wife so much they are so amazing! We talked a lot about the parable of the 10 virgins and the difference between having a testimony and becoming converted.  Being converted is letting your testimony change you and help you become more like Christ! We also talked about the power of the Book of Mormon ( go to my invite for more stuff on that) 

Wednesday: MLC REVIEW! we planned mlc review on the fat road trip back to St. Robert. I'm telling you Wednesday I was running off pure energy crystal light and Jesus. I had no braincells left so everything I said in mlc review was straight what God wanted me to say because at that point I couldn't think clearly at all lol! But mlc review was bomb and the spirit was way strong! After we had a really good lesson with our friend addi, she brought her friend too so that was way sick! They had tons of good questions, our member was able to zoom in and help answer as well and share her testimony! 

Thursday: GOOD O'L WKLY PLANNING! We made the crispest wkly planning board I've ever seen lol! It was beautiful 🤌 then we had Chad's lesson and it was BOMB! It was a miracle that it even happened tho because he's homeless, doesn't have a car and it was pouring rain... God comes in clutch tho because somehow he was able to get to Panera and we taught him in Panera bread lol!

Friday: GODS HAND! We had a few lessons on Friday and we planned to get a member at every one of them but none of the members we texted were answering until we called one of the youth. She was able to come with us to our lesson but when we got there the girl we were teaching was like nah not right now😪 we prayed and felt like we needed to visit this less active with our member. We had a BOMB visit with her and she said she would start reading the bom again!! Then we called so many people for our next lesson and the last person we called answered. We didn't really know if she would click with our friend that we were teaching but they were able to connect so good! We had one of the most powerful lessons I've ever had! It humbled me real fast and made me realize God knows what needs to happen so I should quit complaining when it doesn't work out like we have planned. After our lesson the member started crying and told us that she really needed to come with us that day!🥰🥲

Saturday: We got invited to a Tongan bday party!!! Our Tongan friend bailed on our lesson but she invited us to a bday party! We were only able to stay for like 5 minutes before our next apt but we gave 3 people copies of the Book of Mormon!! 🥳

Sunday: 

I LOVE TESTIMONY MEETINGS!!! 

Listening to the soldiers bear they're testimonies is so sick though!! We always have TONS of meetings on Sundays but we got to have dinner with my favorite members ever and it was a party!

Invitation: real simple....  prayerfully & sincerely study the Book of Mormon each day this week! We did a comp study with the sisters this week and for some reason it hit me this week that for so much of my life I've taken the bom for granted. Hundreds and thousands of people have died for a book that we often complain/ make excuses for not reading. I feel like I owe it to those people who gave up so much to try my absolute hardest to share the bom with everyone! 

When you're reading this week answer some of these questions: 

What does the Book of Mormon mean to you? 

How has your life been changed because of it? 

Why do you read the Book of Mormon? 

Whenever you're " too tired" or have "too much going on" go back and look at your answers to these questions 

Also this video by Elder Holland is BOMB!!! https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2010-03-0008-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

LOVE YA LOTS!!🥰🤍

The actual happiest place on earth!

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President Blau is the Best!