Another week gone in a snap! Where does the time go??

Monday was crazy. Tuesday was even crazier because we went to the CARDINALS GAME!

Oh it was so much fun! I got to see so many people from my old areas because it was Mormon night and there were just a lot of people there. It was awesome! Seeing my friends was definitely my favorite part since the Cardinals played horribly and totally lost to the Rays. What the heck?

Then after the game the family that took us there took us to get Ted Drews- which is the best ice cream eva! But we didn't get home until midnight. Which is REALLY late for missionaries who are used to always going to bed by 10:30 and we still had to of course wake up at 6:30 the next morning. Oh we were so tired. Sister Masino and I were laughing all day because we were totally delusional and nothing we said made any sense.

We've been teaching the Smith Family and they are doing awesome! The mom and dad came to church yesterday and really want to be baptized. Their daughter who is 12 wants to be baptized as well and her little brother who is seven is so cute. Oh I just love this family. They have been meeting with missionaries for a while now and are really trying to get baptized before they move to Texas at the end of the month. We are praying and hoping that everything goes the way they want it to. We've had some really good lessons with them.

I love teaching with Sister Masino. We are so unified and always on the same page. Our lessons are powerful and really generate the Spirit. We are also teaching a sweet old lady named Jean who has been taking the lessons for a while as well. We talked with her about the Book of Mormon and she is really enjoying reading it. She will be coming to church next Sunday. :)

Sister Masino got really sick on Thursday and so we worked it out so that she could stay home with one of the other sister missionaries in our district while I went out and taught with her companion. Poor Sister Masino was feeling horrible. She got to sleep and I was happy to be able to still meet with our investigators.

Franchesca is a girl we are teaching in the Gilberts home. She is an amazing individual and is really searching for truth. She grew up Catholic and is in her last year of college. We taught her the restoration and she was very open and receptive to it. She is a very spiritual person and gave a beautiful prayer at the end of our discussion. She was really talking to our Heavenly Father and asking for direction. I can't wait to meet with her again. She said she will be baptized when she knows it's true.

That night we also went to teach Sarah and Andrew. They are open to all religions and are just awesome people. I would honestly hang out with them outside of being a missionary. They currently go to a Baptist church but are always searching for more truth. They had so many questions that we were there for almost two hours... probably the longest lesson I have ever had on my mission. But it was really good! We will meet with them every Thursday.

Oh! We also had zone conference for the St. Louis zone! That was awesome. We helped our investigator Sandy pack up her house. Planned for Columbia's zone conference. Saw other people. It's just been an awesome week! Lot's of miracles happening! I wish I could tell you all everything but my fingers hurt from typing so fast and so much haha!

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

I am so happy.

Sister Masino and I get along perfectly. We are so alike and are always on the same page. We say the same thing all the time and are really unified. I am so lucky to have her as my companion!

The ward is awesome. Area is beautiful. We have a pretty big teaching pool. I love the apartment and my bed is so comfy!

Being an STL is great but we spend a lot of time planning and going to meetings. We are over six sister companionships and will be going on exchanges about twice a week and I'm so excited! It's going to be awesome!

Tomorrow is Mormon Night at the Cardinals stadium and about half our mission is going! I am so stoked!!! If you guys want to turn on the game, you might see me on TV!

It's really fun to be involved in planning zone conferences and trainings and all that stuff. The ward is great and we are working hard. This is my first time in my mission I have not been senior companion! We are co-senior and we can switch off driving and just do everything together. It's so fun to finally be with an experienced missionary. Totally different. This is going to be the best transfer and definitely the fastest.

We got a less active to church! And we got a new investigator on our first day together. Awesome. Love you all!!!!!!

Sister Collett

Totally thought that I would end out my mission in Jacksonville... Nope! Wrong-o! I have been called to be the new Sister Training Leader for the North St. Louis Zone! Just in case you are reading this and have no idea what it means to be a Sister Training Leader... the mission is split up into zones that consist of districts which are small groups of missionaries in an area. There are Zone Leaders (elders) and Sister Training Leaders who are responsible for each zone. My job will be to go on exchanges with all of the sisters in that zone as well as go to the meetings and give trainings at zone conference. I'm pretty stoked. And I will be serving in O'Fallon with Sister Masino! I hear from everyone that O'Fallon is awesome- that the members are great and always willing to help. Some missionaries have told me it was their favorite area to serve in.

I'm also going to be in a really nice apartment, which is a huge plus! I can't even tell you how blessed I feel. I often sit and just reflect on how much the Lord loves me. I really don't even understand why he loves me so much and why I have had such a perfect mission. It's not over yet, but so far it has been exactly what I needed and wanted. I love everything about my mission and am so excited to finish out this last transfer with a bang. I'm going to give my absolute all and make sure that I come home completely exhausted.

Sister Sims is getting a sister named Sister Fernandez and she is awesome. Sister Sims is nervous and I'm going to miss her but I know they will do great together. There are a lot of people here in Jacksonville that I have come to know and love and will definitely miss. I am so grateful for the Jacksonville ward and all the things I have learned here. Here are some pictures to highlight my time here.

The last one is of Teresa who is getting baptized in August!

I'm so bad at emailing now.... I think I'm just going to send pictures now :)

I don't have time to write today!

Sorry... Maybe this will give Ell a chance to catch up on my blog posts ;)

Love you all!

Favorite thing this week was volunteering at the 175th birthday of ISD (Illinois School for the Deaf). 
Signing is so fun!

Second favorite was holding a baby bunny.

Least favorite- no mail…

The war is over.... we won :)

Last Monday was Zone P-day and it was awesome! Our Zone Leaders planned this whole Olympic games thing for us and it was so fun! Our district got some face paint and put hand prints on our faces to unify us... we did awesome. We metaled in every even and took gold in quite a few events. The last even was my favorite because we played Ninja with everyone and I won! Good times. 

Now that it's summer time we have the opportunity to do a lot of service and help people with yard work, moving, cleaning, basically anything people need help with. One evening we were at the park doing some planting and mulching when a lady walked by and jokingly said, "Hey, if I give you my address will you come do my yard?" The four of us missionaries looked at each other and were like, "Actually, yeah!" She was like, "Really? Who do you guys work for?" We then explained how we are missionaries for our church and just like to do service and that we'd love to help her out with whatever she needs. 

"Then, I just donate to your church or what?" She asked. 

I then told her our job as missionaries and how we teach people about the gospel and invite them to improve their lives and yata yata. And she was like "Great!" 

She gave me her address and phone number and the next day when we texted her to set up when we would come she said that she is really excited to hear the message we have to share. :D So we'll be seeing her on Tuesday and we are excited. 

Another example of missionary work through service is how we came in contact with our newest investigator named Joseph who lives in our building. He is from the Philippines and is a physical therapist here. I actually met him before Sister Sims got here when Sister Richardson and I came home one night and it was raining. He was trying to bring in groceries from outside and it was coming down pretty hard. We offered to help him with his groceries because he really needed it. We helped carry his groceries up to his floor and he was so grateful. We gave him a mormon.org card with our number on it and told him to let us know if he ever needed anything. We would see him around after that and would say hi. Then Sister Sims got here her first day and met him in the hall on our way to drop off her luggage and she asked him if he was from the Philippines cuz she was just serving there. After a couple of weeks of just saying hi in passing he decided to text us one night and ask where and when our church is so that he could attend. We set up a time to show him around the church and had an awesome lesson with him. 

Sister Sims said that he is like all Filipinos- super open and receptive. She said it was hard for her to come and be a missionary in the states because everyone in the Philippines wants to hear your message and will do anything you say and here people run away from you. Haha! Joseph is married and has a little boy that live in Texas. He is here for work and hasn't seen them in a long time. Hopefully one day they can be an eternal family. Fingers crossed!

A lady named Sheryl requested a missionary visit online and we finally got to meet with her this week. She works a lot and so we had to wait until she was not working to meet with her. She's an older lady and she said that her son was recently baptized into the Mormon church and he wanted her to learn more. She was very open and receptive. She's had a lot of different churches in her life and wants to know the truth. She works a TON so we won't get to see her again till Thursday but man, I love teaching people that want to be taught! 

Saturday there was a huge Civil War reenactment at the park in the middle of Jacksonville. It was so cool! Tents everywhere, carriages and authentic costumes! Then we watched them have their battle and it was pretty intense. Gun powder explosions made it really real. After the battle we got to hear Abe Lincoln give his address for a little before we had to go and have something to eat before Brenda's baptism.

Her baptism was perfect. She was so excited and so happy! The Bishop baptized her and then afterwards when she was changing in the stall and we were waiting for her we asked her how she felt and she said she felt good, really good! Then she said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" haha :) 

When I told her she just made some pretty big promises she said she's gonna make sure she keeps them! After the service she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. We went in the other room for refreshments and she told me she felt "Super good!" and that she was "filled with the Holy Ghost!" :) She was so happy. I love seeing people filled with true joy. I'm so proud of her and the great lengths she took to get where she is today. There was also a great turn out from members of the ward. I know this Church is Christ's church. There are too many witnesses to deny it. I love serving my God and bringing this beautiful message to his children. 

Last night there was a missionary fireside where members of the ward that had served missions did presentations on where they served and little stories and things that they experienced. It was really powerful to hear all their testimonies in their native language. I love missionary work and am so grateful for it! Love you all!

Sister Collett

Civil War Reenactment!

The lady in the last picture I sent was a random person we met who is from Sweden and she's a convert to the church. So rad.

Brenda got bapetized! (that's how she pronounces 'baptized')

Remember last week when I sent a picture of us in the corn field? 

This is the same corn and now it's taller than us! LOOK HOW FAST IT GROWS!

This is the lake we drive by whenever we go to the church.

Oh and the corn field is right by the church too.. Carn and beans beans and carn! (hick accent)

What a beautiful week!

Monday was fun Tuesday we had Exchanges and I got to spend the day with one of my favorite missionaries- Sister Scott. She's awesome. We tracted most of the day and then found some new investigators the next day when it was pouring rain! The Lord blesses you when you work hard in the rain. ;) We had so much fun together just laughing and being silly. I love that sister. We had President interviews on Wednesday... President had to mention that it was my last interview with him. :( So sad. I love my mission president. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

Speaking of wonderful people...

One night we came home and were planning, when the elders called us and said that they needed the miles on our car and that it was an emergency. We were so confused and didn't want to have to go all the way downstairs but he said the zone leaders needed it. So we went down to our car to find it covered in pass-along cards from the 90's. They had used sticky tack to put them all over our windows. They got us. We thought it was pretty funny but wanted to get them back.

So a few days later we chalked their windows and had a blast doing it. We had some other ideas of things we could do but didn't want it to be too mean. We wrote on the window "this means war!" Then this morning they invited us to come to breakfast with the Pittsfield elders and when we came outside our car was written on and covered in string... I was laughing so hard and Sister Sims was saying stuff like, "I'm gonna kill them!!" She was so mad haha :) Now they are going to really get it. :)

I'm so excited for Brenda to get baptized this weekend!!! Life's great. I love being a missionary.

Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!

Sister Collett

So we had this genius idea to put smelly hand sanitizer on our upper lip to mask the strange smells of people's homes. So funny #missionarylife

Playing Ninja in the Azkaban parking lot.

Elderly beauty pageant for our friend Mary!  We love her.

Using the sugar scrub Elliot made for us.