On a scale from one to ten my happiness level went from a 3 to like a 25. Heavenly Father loves me and sent me a happy person that I love and adore! We clicked within 24 hours and feel like we've been friends all along. Her name is Sister Linton and she is from Wyoming! She came out at the same time as me and is 20 years old. She is so good at making people smile and has already been such a blessing in my life. I know we will be lasting friends.

Transfer meeting on Wednesday was sad because it was President and Sister Clark's last meeting and a lot of really amazing missionaries I have come to love and admire went home. BUT the Lord is at the head of this work and if you watched the Missionary Broadcast last night, you know how exciting the future is for missionary work. I'm sure President and Sister Morgan were there at the conference being filled with the spirit and we are excited for them to get here July 1st.

The work is going great! We have two baptismal dates set with Mieisha and Alexia. Two friends who have come to church and want to follow Jesus Christ. Tonight we are teaching them with Mieisha's MOM! We are so excited to get to know her and hope that she will desire to partake of the blessings of this gospel as well.

Donna's son Brandon is now meeting with us and even tried to come to church with her yesterday but he got sick and couldn't make it. We also taught his best friend Nigel and they both said they want to get baptized. MAN this work is fun! I really hope we get to meet with them again soon so we can set dates.

Ian is a 13-year-old we have been teaching who knows A LOT about religion for someone his age. He is intrigued by our religion and now desires to be a part of it as well. He is progressing and we are excited to help his family to come to know the truth as well. The Lord loves his children and wants all to be active in reaping the blessings that come from his perfect gospel.

As we learned from apostles of the Lord last night, "This is the most important work that can be done." How great it was to see all of those missionaries and the Sisters! Did you see all those beautiful Sister Missionaries? What a sight to see. I feel so blessed to be serving at this special time when the work is going forth like it never has before. I know this gospel is true and that families can be together forever! All we have to do is what our loving Father in Heaven asks of us.

Thank you to my amazing extended family who all wrote me notes at our Reay Reunion. I can't tell you how much I appreciate hearing from you and feeling of your love and support. I am humbled by the blessings of having such a great family. I miss and love you all! Keep the faith!

Love,

Sister Collett

Our first day tracting.

A cool tree carving.

Lightening bugs!

Street contacting at a car show.

Hey everyone I hope you got my last email. This last week was good. We found ten new investigators, had five come to church and baptized two! The baptisms were great and both were so grateful and thanked us with kind words and gifts. Change is happening though on Wednesday with transfers. I am staying here in Webster Groves and the other two Sisters are leaving. I'm getting a new Sister and am excited for the change. This transfer was successful but also very challenging for us as a companionship. It helped a lot to get letters in the mail so thank you to everyone who has written me. Being a missionary can be rough and getting a letter in the mail really motivates you to keep going.

I don't have a lot of stories for this week I just want to say how much I love my Dad. Father's Day was good and I hope that he enjoyed it. I am so grateful that my father taught me the importance of hard work. His example and encouragement has made me the missionary I am and I'm so grateful for him and all that he does for me.

I'm also so grateful for my Heavenly Father. His patience and perfect love is so essential to my life and I'm grateful for his Plan- the Plan of Happiness. The BEST way to show our Heavenly Father that we love him is to keep His commandments. I love this gospel and seeing it bless the lives of others. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Collett

I don't know Zac's email so can someone please tell him I said "Happy Birthday" and I love him like crazy!!

thanks ;)

Exciting things are happening over here! Remember John? Well... HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! He finally decided to act and he's goin' all the way! He's pretty nervous but there's no way he's backing out. He's such a solid guy. We are super excited! I can't wait to be able to send you pictures of him dressed in white! And Jez! The guy with the cute little family- he's getting baptized the same day so we are just going to have a double baptism! Pretty sweet huh? Jez's mom, who's not a member, is visiting and came to church and is super supportive of his discussion and is excited that they are all going to church! A little miracle happened with that family that I want to talk about. 

So the last lesson we taught this family was on Tithing and Fasting. The lesson went well but they were really afraid to obey this commandment because they are struggling financially. But we explained the blessings that come from paying that ten percent and we left the lesson not knowing if he would still get baptized. Then we called them on Sunday before church to see how they felt about it. They said they had talked and prayed about it and that "if it's what God wants- we'll do it!" Such an awesome attitude!!! We were so happy to hear that they had made this decision. It's hard to pay tithing but I know that as they keep the covenants and promises they make- their little family will be so blessed! I can't wait to send you pictures of them! 

This week is going to be great! Brian is doing well but it's a slow process. I really wish we could be there for his baptism but he doesn't feel ready yet and transfers are next week.

So this week is a short transfer with the new Mission President coming in. I am probably going to a different area so if you want to send me anything just send it to the mission home and I will pick it up next Wednesday at transfer meeting. 

Cool story number two! ALL of the missionaries that are supposed to go to Denmark with Sister Rigby got their visas and are gone. Except for her. She's the only one left and we know exactly why. We met up with John and she asked him if he had been praying that she would be here for his baptism. He was like, "Yeah, why?" and we were like, "Well, God answers prayers!" We still don't know how long Sister Rigby will be in St. Louis but we know it's long enough to see John get baptized. I love this work and being a part of it as it is being hastened. Thank you for your prayers, I know they are being answered as well. 

Have a great week everyone! 

Oh and here are some pictures of my area to give you an idea of what it's like. Love it.

Love,

Sister Collett

(More pictures to come as we figure out formatting of a new camera)

When I first got to this area Sister Adamson and I were not teaching very many people so we knocked on doors a lot. It also tended to rain when we would be out trying to find people to teach and this weekend we saw the fruits of our labors. One of the first people we tracted into was Donna. She sat us down and told us how important her salvation is to her and that she would do whatever it takes to serve the Lord. Saturday she took the biggest spiritual step she has ever taken and was baptized! She's such a character. We walked her to the font and at the top of the stairs she was acting like she was getting ready to dive in. "No Donna, you gotta take the stairs" I laughed as she entered into the water. The three of us Sister Missionaries stood with the towels and put our arms around each other with tear-filled eyes as we watched all of her sins get washed away. When she came up out of the water the gave a big "YES!" with a fist pump and tears in her eyes! "I did it! I did it!" She exclaimed as we put the towels around her and shed tears of joy. I can say that I have never in my life experienced that amount of joy. She looked like a completely different person. She was glowing! I love to look back to when we first met her and she felt like there was so much more to life than what she knew and that the Lord had a work for her to do. She has chosen to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ and serve him till the end. Sunday she was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was also testimony meeting and the ward gave her such a warm welcome. 

Mr. Houston came to church as well! He's Donna's neighbor that we have been teaching along with his wife and four kids. They are reading the Book of Mormon and the girls have said they want to get baptized. I want nothing more than for this family to enter into the waters of baptism and then work towards being sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. The Church is on the earth to get families and individuals back to our Father in Heaven. I feel more than honored to be a part of this work that the Lord is hastening. Mr. Houston said he really enjoyed church and hopes to bring his family next week. We will be teaching them again on Wednesday! 

Brian and CJ also came to church on Sunday! Brian was taught the no-smoke program last week and has not smoked since. He even fasted on Sunday in hopes that he would receive an answer to his prayers. He really wants to be a member of this Church. He studies a lot and is diligent in striving to gain a witness that these things are true. We will meet with him again this week as well and will hopefully set a baptismal date for him. 

John came to church again but only stayed for about 45 minutes because he had to go to band practice. But we met with him last night and he said that he talked to the band about moving practice to another day. John is a Franciscan and has been struggling because he would have to withdraw from the spiritual commitments he has already made. Understanding where he is coming from has really helped us see why it's been hard for him to set a baptismal date. He knows that this is right and he has told us that he wants to be baptized, he just needs to do some things before he feels like he can commit to a date- which is understandable. Transfers are coming up though and we have all grown to care about John a lot and we all hope to see him enter into a covenant with God that will bring him lasting happiness. 

Jennifer didn't come to church and we are trying to help her to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She has some hangups about the church (political stuff) and so we are trying to get her realize that this is Christ's Church and that everything is done under the direction of God. But she's been taught everything and we hope to build her testimony so she can receive all of the blessings that the Gospel has to offer. 

Today is Zone P-Day and we are going to the City Museum with our entire zone! This is a HUGE jungle gym for adults and should be pretty sweet. There's a seven story slide and lots of fun places to explore. Should be pretty awesome! 

Oh and I wanted to tell a cool story! Really quick. Last week after emailing we were walking to the car and we passed a guy exchanging friendly "how are you" and he was just nice. After passing him I felt like I should talk to him. The Sisters encouraged me to but I looked back and he was already so far away and I was not wanting to run after a guy in a pencil skirt. "Gah, I know I need to but I don't want to fine I'll go!" took off after this guy and caught up to him right before he entered the library. "Excuse me sir, can I ask you a question?" He responded with a friendly "Sure!" Then I asked, "Have you ever heard about the Mormon Church?"

"Yeah, I worked with a lady who is Mormon and we'd talk about it all the time! I know you guys are way into service and families.." In my head I'm freaking out. I told him what we do as missionaries, gave him a brief explanation on the Book of Mormon, gave it to him and said to read and pray just after setting up a time to meet and learn more. LOVE it when I act on the spiritual promptings the Lord gives me! Man, this is fun!!!

Love,

Sister Collett

Oh and P.S. I was at a members home when the tornados came around so we were in a safe basement. No damage where I live- totally fine :) No worries! Love you all!

Donna had to move her baptism to THIS weekend because she couldn't get work off. She was sad because she is SO excited to get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. So it is definitely happening this weekend and we are all excited. We are inviting a lot of our investigato.. wait. Donna doesn't like being called an "investigator" she wants us to call them "seekers". Haha! Love her.

We have been teaching a part member family for a while now. The mom, Brindi, was less-active and married a non-member. They have four adorable little kids and she wants the gospel in her life and in her families lives. She invited us to teach her daughter because she is seven and is preparing to get baptized but now we are teaching her father Jez. We have taught them a lot and we committed Jez to be baptized on the 15th of this month!! Then after he is confirmed on Sunday and when he gets the priesthood he is going to baptize his daughter! When he said he would get baptized his wife was crying and the spirit was so strong that he started to cry. Then the whole little family was just hugging and smiling together because we told them that they could be an eternal family! They are striving to do all they can to get to the temple to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. 

That is what the Church is all about! Bringing families and individuals back into the presence of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It's about true and everlasting happiness. I am so grateful for my parents and that they taught me the gospel in our home. I love this Church and I'm so grateful for our Savior who made it this all possible. 

Guess who finally came to church this week!!! John! Oh my gosh, that was a wonderful day. We had a lot of "seekers" there and it was really exciting. He's finally moving forward and tonight we are going to meet with him and set a baptismal date for the 15th as well. We have taught him everything and met with him a lot. Now he needs to act and ask God if this is right. He's had a hard time praying and we hope that Sunday made some things change for him. We will see though! I really hope he says yes!

We taught Brian yesterday and he is really making progress. He reads and studies a lot and always has questions for us. I love how much effort he is putting in to find the truth for himself. We found out that he smokes... funny we never realized that. I have no idea how they hid that from us. But he wants to quit and I know that with the Lord's help he can do anything! We tried to set a date for the 22nd and he wasn't comfortable with it and wanted to talk to his wife first. But he wants this. I know he wants to be a member and he wants to have a testimony of his own. We taught him about fasting and he said that he is going to fast and come to church on Sunday in hopes that he will receive his answer that this church is true. I am so excited for him to receive revelation for himself. Today he called me and said, "I made my first highlight in the Book of Mormon today!" It was so fun to hear him excited about Alma 32:21, which talks about faith. He is an incredible seeker and will definitely "find".

Jennifer is another person we are teaching. She has had all the lessons and has read the Gospel Principles book. She is a good family friend to a young family in the ward and she loves the spirit that she feels in their home. She wants the blessings of the gospel and keeps all of her commitments! She prays and reads and comes to church and I am so excited for her to have a date set for her to be cleansed from all her sins and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Lord loves his children so much. I am so excited when we can all live together again "in a state of never-ending happiness."

Now to tell you about my new little Dane :) Our new missionary waiting for her visa for Denmark is awesome. Such a blessing to have in this companionship and I love having more help with all these people we are teaching. 

We keep finding more to teach and I didn't even tell you about the Houston family! Gah! We are busy! But that's how it should be. ;) 

Thanks for all the prayers! As you can tell from what I just wrote- they are definitely working! 

"Let go and let God"

St. Louis Missouri Temple 

So remember how we all thought it was crazy that after being a missionary for six weeks I was made a trainer? Well here comes baby number two! Wednesday is Transfers and Sister Adamson is going to have a little sister! Oh and Sister Adamson wants to say something to everyone "Your daughter or sister or friend is an amazing missionary and I am so grateful for her. I know the lord is giving her another baby missionary :D because she is such a wonderful trainer and i love her... well thats about it..." 

Awe what a sweetheart! :') She's growing up so fast! I love her!!!! But our new missionary is going to be a visa-waiter... she's really going to Denmark on her mission so we have no idea how long we will have her for. It could be months and it could be days. Only the Lord knows!

Here's an update on our crazy missionary adventure! Our teaching pool fluctuates all the time and now is bigger than ever! (Definition of teaching pool- all of the people that are current investigators that we are teaching.. not including potential investigators) I am actually really excited to get another missionary because then we can go on splits and teach more people! We will divide and conquer! I am determined to baptize the Hell out of this town! Literally!

(Credit for that hilarious joke goes to Alicia Sturges)

Speaking of which, we are having a baptism for Donna Beavers this weekend on Saturday! My first baptism from tracting! Donna is such a strong investigator. She always comes to church and is just so eager to serve God. She builds our testimonies whenever we get to teach her. The ward LOVES her. 

We teach and we find and we teach and we find and when we find we teach and when we teach we find! (man, I love P-days!) We are so blessed and are just trying to get people to keep their commitments. 

One of my favorite people that is having a hard time keeping commitments is John. Oh how I love this guy. We have taught him all the lessons and this week we had him sit in on a lesson with Donna. She just told him straight up that he has to try to come to church haha she's awesome. Later that day Sister Adamson and I were sitting in the car planning while waiting for an appointment and all of the sudden I had this weird feeling. I told Sister Adamson I felt weird and she was like, "Yeah, I feel super weird." Both of us felt strange but we could not figure out why! We knew it was the spirit but we couldn't figure out what it wanted us to do. We called John to see if he was okay and he said he was and that he appreciated us asking. 

The feeling didn't go away and we knew we needed to do something we just didn't know what. So I started to drive home. At this point we were freaking out because the spirit was telling us we needed to be somewhere but we didn't know where. We called John again and asked him where he was and told him we wanted to talk to him. He said he was at the library and that he would be back soon. We hung up the phone but the feeling was getting so strong we couldn't sit still. So we parked the car and started to walk to the library really fast... This was so weird because we had no idea why we felt this way or what was going on but we felt like the Lord was guiding us. 

We couldn't find John at the library and we started to wonder why we walked all the way up there. Then when we turned the corner we saw John walking down the street and was very surprised to see us. We told him we felt like we needed to talk to him and he let us sit down with him at a picnic table to talk. He finally opened up to us and told us about some hard stuff he's been going through and that he didn't know if he could spiritually keep going. He was lacking faith and told us that he had said a little prayer saying "it would be nice to have someone to talk to" and then we showed up. 

His prayers were answered and we talked and learned and prayed. John said the most beautiful and sincere prayer I have ever heard and asked God if he was his son. The spirit was so strong and I told John that we knew each other before we came here and that I promised him I would find him. Sister Adamson and I both bore testimony to him and we all felt the spirit. John is making progress and I have full faith he will rebuild his relationship with his Heavenly Father and he will receive true peace and happiness in this life and eternal life as he strives to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

God cares SO much about all of His children individually and listens to EVERY cry, every plead and every mutter of "please help." He loves us and always wants to help us. He is there and wants us to let Him bless us! All we have to do is obey.

Love,

Sister Collett