Monday, December 23, 2013


Hello everyone! What an exciting week it has been! I was really excited to meet my new companion, Sister Smith because I heard she was great. The last week of being with her has confirmed that she definitely is. Sister Smith is from Grants Pass, Oregon (which is really funny because we have a mutual friend). She is 20 years old and has four brothers, is also a black belt in Taekwondo. Don't know how my last two companions have been black belts.... maybe God wants me to learn Taekwondo? :) 
Sister Smith is very sweet and I love how forward she is. She's not afraid to tell you how it is, which is AWESOME. I love it when people are like that. She's gorgeous and a total tom-boy. Super humble and full of the spirit. We have a lot of similar interests and basically hit it off the first day. Then after figuring out how we know each other through our mutual friend we bonded a ton. We live in such a small world. 

Getting to this new area didn't start out very happy though. In fact it was pretty scary. Upon arriving we found out that Sister Smith's previous companion had a head full of lice. That's right. LICE. The worst part about it was that they didn't know she had it for TWO WHOLE TRANSFERS! That's like three months of bugs living on your scalp. Apparently she was really itchy but didn't say anything to Sister Smith till one day a bug fell out of her head. Sister Smith checked her head and found lots and lots of lice and eggs. Uhh.. just talking about it makes me queasy. I found out that I have a phobia of things happening like this. I teared up a couple times when ever we would talk about it because it freaked me out so much. 
So they didn't find it till two nights before I got transferred in. So when I got there they had everything packed up and she had just sprayed the beds and couch with RID stuff. Walking into that apartment I immediately began cleaning vigorously. Oh I was so freaked out. I vacuumed every square inch of that apartment. And wiped everything down. It took me a couple of days to finally unpack. But luckily I never got lice and our apartment is now totally lice-free. But MAN that was scary! 

So I am serving at the University of Missouri in Colombia, Missouri. The collage is also known as Mizzou. It's a pretty big school and their mascot is a tiger, which is pretty sweet. I am currently the senior companion of the companionship and am follow-up training Sister Smith. We live close to campus in a funny little apartment that is actually in the basement of a frat house. Good thing I am really good at sleeping and hopefully won't have too much trouble with it being really loud upstairs when the students come back. Mizzou is a really big party school. 

The first two days were full of cleaning and organizing. Sister Smith just finished being trained but didn't know how to use the area book... So we went over that and did some updating. We got to meet the Branch President who is really awesome. But for last Sunday and this Sunday our YSA Branch will not be meeting for church because everyone is out of town. It's really strange to come to an area where you don't have your own ward for the first two weeks. We went to church at another ward and I found my friends sister that looks exactly like her. It was really weird but I was glad I went to that ward. I loved hearing the Christmas music and being able to reflect on the gift of Christ. 

We got to meet with an investigator named Jamie. She's from St. Louis and is dating a guy in Utah. She is Catholic but believes absolutely everything she has been taught. If she hadn't left town to go see her boyfriend in Utah we totally would have had her get baptized this weekend. But her time will come. I am so excited for her to have the gospel in her life. 

We got a new investigator named Natalie who is a school teacher at an elementary school. She's has a strong faith in Christ and considers herself Lutheran but is really open to other religions. She already had a Book of Mormon and had a lot of good questions. She said that when she comes to know that these things are true for herself, she will be baptized. I'm really excited for her to come back into town so we can teach her again. 

For Christmas we have some pretty exciting plans, which is awesome because I thought we'd be staying in our basement apartment. Christmas Eve we are free to do what we want (within mission rules) from 5 p.m. to all of Christmas day! We are allowed to watch DISNEY MOVIES! And I am soooooo happy about that! That was something I was really hoping for. Tuesday night our zone will be playing sports at the stake center and Christmas morning will be spent at a members home. We'll go over there for breakfast and then have lunch at someone else' house. We will watch movies and skype our families and eat lots of food. :) I am pretty excited. 

Great news is that Jerry (my investigator in my last area) got baptized this last weekend! I'm so proud of him and hope that their family will do all they can to go to the temple in a year from now. 

I'm running out of time but I want all of you to know that I have a testimony of Christ as our Savior. I love him so much and I am so grateful that he came to this world to pass through all the things we must pass through in order for us to gain eternal life. I know that the only way to true happiness is through living this gospel and doing all we can to be like Christ. The Church is true and I love all of you! Have a very Merry Christmas!!!!

Monday, December 16, 2013


Woah! Sister Lowther got her visa and is now on her way to Brazil! Right now! And I am getting transferred to Columbia, Missouri to a university ward! I'm SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love serving at universities! The Lord really loves me. :) I just can't believe I am getting transferred! I thought for sure I would stay in Sandy Creek for at least two transfers. And I can't believe Sister Lowther got her visa! So crazy and exciting. I am so happy for her! She will do so great there. 
Now you might be wondering who my companion is right now... cuz missionaries can't be alone. I am with Sisters Scott and Herdman who are the sisters serving in Arnold. We get to see them just about every day since we live in the same complex and now we are in a tri-panionship until transfers on Wednesday. Which is AWESOME because I seriously love these two. They are amazing.

Tuesday we got to teach a new investigator named Felicia who is totally ready for this gospel. She has a seven-year-old daughter and really wants to know what church is right. She wants her daughter to know God and she really wants to be freed from the guilt that is caused by mistakes. We promised her she can feel that relief through Jesus Christ. She's baptist but never felt comfortable at the church she was attending. The lesson went great and she was excited for us to come back. I felt God's love for her and was so excited to help her access the atonement. 

Then we saw this lady who was not really liking what we taught... but she said she would pray about it! :) And I know the Lord will help her feel that it is true. It is all in his own time. :)

Tommy is doing awesome. She believes everything that we have taught her... man, now that I'm getting transferred I won't get to see her progress. Man, that's rough. But the Lord has a plan! And I am sooo down with whatever he wants to happen! 

Jerry is doing great and is totally getting baptized this weekend. :) I won't get to be there but I have loved to see how this gospel has changed him. His wife said that he has been better with the kids and she can tell he is really trying to apply what we have taught him. It's pretty awesome. 

Sister Huppi told me that Rayman got the Aaronic Priesthood!!!! I am so so so proud of him and so happy he has chosen to follow Jesus Christ's example. So awesome.

Remember Christian? The guy in a wheelchair we were teaching? He totally got baptized. :D His parents finally gave him the okay! She hasn't told me anything about it yet but I wish I could have been there. I'm so so so happy for him! I can only imagine how awesome his testimony was when he shared it after being baptized. Ugh. I love my life. 

Angela is doing awesome and will hopefully be okay without us... I haven't told her I'm leaving yet because I hate goodbyes.. :( Good thing the Lord knows what he's doing! 

In Columbia I will be follow-up training Sister Smith. Don't know her but President says she's great. I'm so excited and can't wait! This is going to be awesome. I love everyone!!!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!

Sister Collett

p.s. Please send me letters!!

Sister Alexa Collett
1850 Craigshire Dr. Ste 205
Maryland Heights, MO 63146
(314) 598-0191

Monday, December 9, 2013


Missouri is so beautiful when it snows! And all the houses are covered in Christmas lights. It looks so cute and festive. I love this season and the spirit of giving! We started off the week with Zone Conference which was wonderful. President Pully of the Stake Presidency came and gave us a training along with President and Sister Morgan. We also received trainings from our Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and Assistants to the President. It was a great learning experience and I really enjoyed feeling the spirit. The Sister Training Leaders gave a beautiful training on our relationship with Christ that really touched my heart and motivated me more to change. I love the power and love that Christ has and that we can have as we let him into our lives more. 



We had another exchange with the Sister Training Leaders but this time I went to Oakville with Sister Minyard (who was in my district in Webster Groves). She is such an amazing missionary and person. I LOVED getting to spend the day with her! The first lady we tried to teach wasn't home and so we went to go see an older, less-active woman. She had very interesting stories of her life that sounded more like something from Bonnie and Clyde. It was really entertaining but lasted waaay too long. By the time we got out of there it was dark (the sun sets at 4pm) and we walked away with gifts. Dried roses and copies of a book that she wrote. Haha, the things you gain on your mission. :)


I'm running out of time but we got a new investigator who is a lady named Tommy. Her husband is a member and has terminal lung cancer. They both have amazing faith and she is so ready for this gospel. We taught her the restoration and when I invited her to pray to know if it is true she said, "What if I already know it is?" I was pretty excited to get that answer. We invited her to consider baptism and her husband said she would once she knows more. She said a beautiful closing prayer and then gave us cupcakes! It was great! 

Saturday I had the wonderful privilege of attending the temple. That will be the only time I get to go to the temple for the rest of my mission. The policy is that missionaries can go if they really need to and it can only be either in the middle of their mission or at the end. And since I'm in the middle I decided to take it. I love the temple so much and will go as much as possible when I am home. Oh it's so wonderful. I could live there! 


Because of the snow there were very few people at church. BUT an awesome member in his four-wheel drive car took us up with GIANT hill to Angela's house to pick her up for church since her car couldn't make it. The road she lives on is steep and there was no way she could drive. So we prayed and the Lord provided a way for her to come. It really was a miracle and It was great having her there. She said she really enjoyed it. Jerry came to church as well with his wife and he is doing great. I'm out of time but happy and well. Love you all!!