Fort Wingate, New Mexico: Elder Collins Sunday Linger Longer

Well, this was a great week. We had a ton of lessons. There is a member in our branch who recently had a death in her family. She lost a son and a daughter six months ago and then lost a cousin two weeks ago and then another one of her sons died last week. She was really upset about all those deaths in her family. A friend of hers called us and asked us to go visit her and also give her a blessing. The friend did warn us though that she had thrown away her scriptures and anything that had to do with the church in the trash and didn't want anything to do with the church. After we heard that, we drove straight over. It was around 9 pm and before we went in we said a prayer. When we visited with her she was a lot calmer and regretted what she did. We talked for a little while and I read one of my favorite scriptures to her. She really appreciated the scripture. We then gave her a blessing. A great feeling of peace came into the home afterward. It was a great experience.

This Sunday we had a ton of people at church. We had over 60 people. On average we get about 30 to 40 so we had a lot. There were so many we had to bring more chairs into the classroom we were in for Sunday School. A lot of the people that showed up were inactives that we had been teaching. After church the Relief Society put together a “linger longer” or a lunch after church. It was good we had a lot of food and it seemed like the branch was able to get to know each other a little bit more and build that friendship. It was great and so was the food.

It was a good week. Hope all is well. Have a good day.

Elder Collins

Fort Wingate, New Mexico: Elder Collins Crazy Saturday

Well, this week started out slow. Butterfield was sick all day Tuesday and half the day Wednesday, but we had a good week in spite of that. Saturday was crazy. We did service all day. At 8 in the morning we helped the branch members clean the church. At 9 we had to go help someone chop wood and we were doing that for about 4 hours. After that we were helping our branch president put insulation into a widow’s ceiling and underneath her house and we were moving the whole time. At 4 we had to go home get cleaned up and go to the church in Gallup to fill up the font as we had a baptism for two people. It wasn't until 9 o’clock that I could actually sit down and relax. The only problem was my mind was still going so I couldn't fall asleep until midnight. But it was an awesome day. I have never felt so much charity for others. Everything I did that day didn't help me in anyway other than how I feel and the Navajo taco that was given to us for putting in insulation. Anyway, the day was awesome and the week was great. It was a good week. I am happy and can’t wait to see what happens this week. Hope you are all doing well.

Elder Collins

Fort Wingate, New Mexico: Elder Collins

Got to make this quick. We had a pretty slow week. Not too many people were home this week; it seemed like everyone was out of town or something, but we worked hard. We spent a large portion of our time knocking on doors. We have a few potentials so we will see what happens. One of the guys we met said he wasn't a member, but he met Boyd K. Packer at the Window Rock fair. He told him he needed to wise up and get baptized. So that's pretty cool. This guy said he also worked on the Albuquerque temple. Anyway, all is well. We’ve got a baptism this weekend so that will be good. We are very excited for that. Our mission president congratulated us for our hard work and the success we have been having. Last week I saw a bunch of people in passing from my old areas, people I taught and loved. I was able to see a man who adopted me as his grandfather. He wants me to call him Chee which means grandfather. Pretty cool. All is well and loving it out here. Hope all is well.

Elder Collins