Keeping Up with Sister Collett

This week went by in two seconds! So much has been going on that I have been falling asleep at 9:45 and waking up when my alarm goes off. Usually I go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 6:20. I have no idea why, but I usually wake up just before the alarm goes off. Not this week though- we were worked! Which is awesome.

The craziness all started with our exchanges on Tuesday. Usually exchanges last 24 hours but we had to make this one short because an older man in the ward died and his funeral was Wednesday morning- which is usually when we would exchange back.

So there were a lot of schedule changes so that we could be at the funeral to help out. The four of us missionaries were also asked to sing a song at the service. So we practiced at random times Monday and Tuesday.

Going on exchanges with Sister Masino was awesome. I've never been able to serve with her before, so it was great to get to know he and learn from her. She is a great teacher and has a rock solid testimony. The sisters in this mission never cease to amaze me.

Teaching with Sister Masino was great. We had a lot of appointments lined up and it was cool to work with a different companion. We taught Beth about the importance of church attendance because she is almost done with all the lessons and she hasn't been to church yet because she works... so we committed her to pray for the Lord to help her get work off. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet- which is AWESOME! Now she just needs to come to church so she can be ready for her baptismal date that is set for next month.

We had an awesome lesson with Molly about the Book of Mormon and got her reading it. Then she texted us on Thursday before our next appointment and said that she decided to stay Lutheran. We were super depressed because she said she loved church and we thought she was so ready! But she thanked us for everything and said she'd let us know if she changed her mind. I'm sure we will hear from her again.

Sign language class this week was really interesting. Our usual teacher was gone so she had two guys from the ward teach for her and they are completely deaf. It showed me how much we need to practice- I was doing so bad! So Sister Richardson and I didn't talk to each other for the rest of the night and the next morning... we signed everything!!! I felt like I was improving but when it came to planning lessons we decided to just talk because we were going waaaayyy too slow. But it's coming along!

Brenda is doing awesome! She has a mental handicap and so we teach really simply. We've been going through the baptismal interview questions and she is totally qualifying for baptism! We got her a Book of Mormon on tape since she can't read and she is doing great. Her only real set back has been coffee and we set up a plan for her to have coffee substitute. This morning we called her and she said she had it and that it's good. This is totally going to work. She is so excited to be baptized!

Rich came to church but is still struggling with his alcohol. BUT! The sister that took him home from church told us that he said he wants to keep coming to our church because what his church lacks that ours has is authority. :D So he understands!! He's actually getting stuff from what we teach!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, I'm so happy.

We are teaching a 14 year old girl named Donna now and she is awesome. I'm out of time and wish I could tell you more buuut I have to go.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This first one is a lady named Mary that is a recent convert. I LOVE HER. She loves puzzles and we bought her one for Mother's Day! We often visit her to teach her best friend Maxine who is the lady in blue below- she is a sweetheart. She's hard of hearing but she is reading the Book of Mormon!!