Elder Collins

Mom, you should probably learn how to phrase bad news in a better way so i dont read the first line and have my stomach drop. I am glad that myles is ok and will live. Also he probably should find friends that dont throw rocks at him. Well this was a really good week. Im seeing a lot of blessing from the lord lately. We have 3 families with baptism dates and also two other people with baptism dates all for august. Im just praying every night that they all work out. I have been working hard to find new people and now i got to work even harder because now that we have dates set i got to find more for next month. We had interviews this week with President. Its always a good time being able to talk to president one on one. He said that Brandon got to go to dinner with Nick. LUCKY. He is an awesome president and im way grateful that he is my president. So one of our families that is super awesome the dad has a problem with drinking every Saturday night but wants to be able to stop. I prayed a lot this week for him not to have the temptation and well the lord answers prayers in mysterious ways..This Saturday he was sick at home with a fever. I just started laughing and said a prayer in my head thanking the Lord. Well I hope your all doing great and having fun. Probably shouldnt bridge jump anymore. Read your scriptures! Love reg!

Elder Crump

Happy birthday Dad!!!!!!  I hope it was the best day ever!!! So one question... how old are you?  haha, im sorry i cant really remember!!!  I know its close to 50 or less, but i dont quite remember!! haha sorry !! love you!!  So i have some news...I didnt get transfered...But fonseca did... so i have a new companion.... lets just say mom dad you dont have to wait for shay to have her baby to be grandparents again....I have a my first son!!!!!!!!!  IM TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How crazy is that!!! Haha and kind of ironic, i have been out for 9 months... haha!! His name is Elder Flores from Chile!! Haha i keep getting chilenos!! haha  But he is awesome!!! I am so excited for this opportunity!! but nervous!! haha but its so great!! This change, im the only gringo in Lima training!!!  Im freaking out!! haha but its good! He already is a great missionary, and is ready to work!!!

 

SO i am so so so happy for Corinne and Bradford!!! I have been praying day and night for you two!!! Haha August 28th... i like it!  Fast!!! haha how great is that for them!! You two both are amazing, and Brady i have already thought of you as my brother! Welcome to the family!!! 

 

SO this week was great!!! We met with Daniel a few more times and he had an interview with president bluncks counsler, and he told him he needs to wait like 6 months... so like december, or january....  he was sad... but he knows that he needs to buckle down.  He needs to work hard and prepare for this date!! We we had a lesson with him, it was so powerful.  He was crying, i was in tears, and it just shows us that satan is real... we cannot deny it... or hide it, but we can defeat him.  Daniel is ready, i know that these next couple of months are gonna be rough... but he will fully understand the love of God, and the power of the atonement!!!

 

So Doila!!  She is set! she came to church on Sunday, and that means her date is set for the 11 of August!!! im so happy!! Her life has been hard, but this is what she has been waiting for, and praying for all her life!!!

So Leo... he still won't commit to a date that we set, and is saying that he recived a revalation from God that he needs to be baptized on December 15.... ya... so we had to let him go.  We explained to him that were happy he wants to be baptized, but we need to find others who are ready now to make covenants with God, and obey him.  It was pretty direct, but really good for him to hear.  I was devistated.  It was the hardest thing for me to do in the mission so far, but i know its for the good. 

 

Hey guys i love you so much!! Im excited to hear about the wedding, the new baby and the the Summer Games!!! Whooa Peru!! haha just kidding of course....USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Whooa!!! haha i love you guys so so much!!!

 

All my Love,

ELDER NICOLAS COLLINS CRUMP

 

Elder Collins

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!! Hello family, Well its Transfers today. My Gringo friends left but its ok ill probably learn better spanish now. I dont no anything yet actually i do. I know im going to get a new comp. My comp is like 90 percent sure he is going to lima but Bylund told me he is just going to another area in Pucallpa. I dont know who my new comp will be but im pretty sure that im staying in my area. Well i was blessed this week. We recieved a family that is super awesome and loved attending the church. The family Aricara Taricuarima. I hope that we will baptize them by aug 11. Also we found a two new investigators to teach that are awesome. It was funny because we went back to our house 30 min early for dinner so i was like lets go contact. My comp did not want to go but i made us go so he was in a bad mood. We just decided to contact our street and he said he had already contacted the whole street and there is nothing there. During the contacts for like two of the houses that are literally like our neighbors i would say hows going have you seen us around before? Were your neighbors. Haha since my comp was in a bad mood he whips out his handbook and goes to the page that says dont give out your address to people. I just started laughing so hard but he was dead serious. Well long story short we have 2 new investigators on that street. I know that im blessed because i was praying for more people to teach because i was worried i would have a new comp come in and we wouldnt have any awesome investigators. We also had a baptism saturday. His name is Segundo and he is the son of the last family we baptized so the family is almost complete just missing one son who is in the military base and has been reading the Book of Mormon.

Well love you all hope you have a fantasitcal week! love REG

Pictures are of the baptism we had this week and

haha we are re acting the part in dumb in dumber "i hate goodbyes"..

Elder Crump

Hey family!!

Ok first off, yes mom i got the card!  No worries!! haha  When can i use it?  I'll just wait till next p day!  So this week was so so so great!! I loved it!! We had a baptism!!!! With James!!!!!!!!! It was so great!!  He was so excited as well as his family!  They are all members, but really inactive!  Only one of Jame´s brothers is active.  So we really have been working with them!  So all went good for the baptism.  In the morning we went to the church to fill up the font. So we turned it on and started to clean up the chapel, and about 20 min later, i looked in to see how the water was coming, and the water was YELLOW!!  I was like what the!!  So we turned off the water, and of course Elder Crump is the one who has to jump in the water to clean it out!! haha it wasn't too bad this time it didnt have bugs!  Haha but we fixed the pipe and the water came out normal! haha it was a little stressful but we got it all worked out!!  So we had the baptism in the night, and it was great because we had a bunch of members from the ward there, along with his family, and Leo and Doila (Doyla) came! We invited them to come and see the baptism, and they both loved it!! We invited both to be baptized and Doila is preparing for the 11th of August, and we still are working with Leo for the 4th of August! He wants to be baptized, but just has something stopping him from officially setting a date!! Thank you for your prayers please continue to pray for him!!! 

So I have so bad news...Daniel cant get baptized on the 28th... he fell into temptation.  He had had some problems in the past, with chastity, and he fell into it again.  It was so sad to see him.  He was in tears. He has been working so so hard these past three months, and to come so close and fall...was absolutely devastating.  He is such a great guy, and i have never been so proud of him and his progress.  This just shows that Satan is powerful.  He has and influence on us, and knows are weaknesses.  But as we know Heavenly Father is more powerful.  Satan doesn't stand a chance.  And Daniel knows this.  He is set, and wants to do all he can to be baptized and clean.  He is really struggling right now, and we really dont know when he will be ready, but i will keep you updated.  As sad as i am, i know that He can do it.  This was just a little step back, and through this challenge through this temptation, he will become stronger. And he will come to fully understand the love of the Atonement.  This week was great.  I will not take that back!  I am so grateful to be here.  This is real.  Real People, and their salvation.  I am so happy to be here, serving our Lord, and helping others come back to him.

SO changes are today... and i still dont know yet!!! I'm dying to know!!! i want the jungle, but really i am loving being here and we have some awesome people and their baptisms coming up!! haha i want to join reg so bad!! haha thats right there is like no gringos here anymore!! 11 go home today!!!  My first Zone Leader Elder Purvis, second Zone Leader Elder Divis, and Elder Bylund!!!!  So crazy! Im gonna miss them!!!

Hey so how are things going, any great news...haha

Dad im sorry to hear about your Kidney Stone!!!  That sounds terrible!!!  I hope all is ok and you are feeling better!!!  I'm guessing Shay is still pregnant! But as soon as that baby comes, i need a letter, with pictures!!! 

Keep me updated!! Hey look out for the package!! Its coming!!!

I love you guys so much!! Thank you for all you do!!

All my Love,

ELDER NICOLAS COLLINS CRUMP

Elder Collins

Hey family,
  Well apart from my comp jumping in the shower at 1045 when we should already be emailing we had a pretty good week. I worked really hard this week. I had an exchange with bylund this week for a day. It was a lot of fun and i learned a ton from him. I call him the God of the missionary's here. I realized though that a lot of our investigators were just not progressing while i was with him so we had to leave like 3 families this week which was hard to do because i had to work extra hard to find more families that actually can progress. Luckily..actually blessedly i was talking to a member at church and he showed gave us an awesome reference! Ya so its the last week in the change so im not sure what will happen. I am hoping that crump will come up here finally. Im thinking im going to be getting a new comp but who knows. Its going to weird for me when Bylund goes home because him and purvis are my only gringo friends so ill be alone for a little but hopefully president will send me another gringo! Well super glad your all in California and decided to go as a family after Elder left, its not like im the only life of the party or anything. Haha no jokes eat some Balboa bars for me and ill eat some rice. Love you! have a fun week!

Party with Elder Bylund

Elder Crump

Hey, how is everyone doing!  I hope everything is going great!! Im glad you had a good time in lake powell, Boy do i miss it!! That's too bad you couldnt take it out of the slip.  I think lake powell misses me, thats why no one could come down, it just isnt the same without me! haha Dad im glad you destroyed at cards, Ive taught you well!  Haha so we play speed uno here, but i call it rapido one!  haha the latins dont like it! haha but dont worry im still the champ!! haha
So this week has been so so great!! Im officially sending your the package this week!! Dont worrry haha!  So this week we found 11 new investigators and one new family!! It was so great! And we commited 3 of the new investigators to be baptized on the 4th of August!! It was awesome!! They all accepted, but now they just need to attend!!  SO James came to church, and his date is officially set to be baptized July 21!! im stoked!! Its so good for his family because through us teaching james his dad has started to come back to church! Now we just need to get his mom!! So Leo is doing good! We were having some problems with him commiting to a date!! He wants to be baptized, there is no doubt about that, but wants to wait till like december!!  We have had so many lessons, powerful, spiritual lessons, but there is always something there that is keeping him from commiting to a date.  So the other day we had a lesson with him, but honestly we didnt know what to teach.  We have taught him everything a person needs to know before their baptism, and more.  So we have been praying, and praying.  And right before we went in i got the strong impression to be very direct with him.  We always respect him and are really nice.  But i felt like i need to push him.  It was amazing!  The spirit was there!  And when i say there, it was THERE!  I have never been filled more with the love of our Heavenly Father then in that night!!  We were direct and blunt with him.  It kind of took him off guard.  It showed him that were not only just his friends, but we truly want what is best for him, and that's baptism.  He still is scared, but he set a goal for the 4th of August!  Please please pray for him!  This lesson taught me that seriously heavenly father knows the hearts of everyone of us.  He knows what things have an impact, and if were worthy as missionaries he will tell us what to do.  Im so grateful the Holy Ghost told me to do that.  Now for the first time ever he is truly progressing!
So the other day we were contacting and we came across this lady with her 3 year old daughter.  We started talking and we invited her to church!  She was really open and was like ya ok.  So it was a quick but good contact.  We got her information, and told her we would wait for her outside on sunday!  Sunday came and she wasn't there.  We were sad, but right when the sacrament ended she came in with one of the members.  She came and sat down with us and listen to the rest of the meeting.  So this is the really cool story...  We had a lesson with her later that day after church, and asked how was it, did you like it. She said she loved it and thought is was beautiful.  She then told us how she found her way to church that day.  Saturday night she had to work all night until 5 in the morning.  She had told herself she wants to come to church, but with her work and all she might not be able to.  So she said a pray before work, And asked heavenly father if i need to go to this church i know you will find a way for me to go.  So she went to work got done at 5 am and went to sleep.   At about 7:30, her little girl got up and was like mommy i need to go to the bathroom.  And she dragged her mom out of bed.  So after she went to the bathroom she looked at the clock and noticed it was before 8 am,  so right there she got up, got dressed and headed to church.  She took it as an answer!  So when she got to the church no one was outside, because it was 8:10 by this time, and we were in the sacrament.  So she was nervous, and because she didnt see us was about to leave when her little girl said come on!! and pushed her inside! haha then right then one of the members came out and was like are you looking for someone.  She is like yeah, the elders.  So the sister brought her in and had her sit down with us.  It was perfect!  She told us that all of her prayers were answered.  SHe also had prayed for someone to be there to bring her in!  She said that God found a way for her to come.  There must be something about this church.  It was incredible.  We invited her to be baptized and she said yes, but wants make sure its right with God.  But she says honestly i know this is the church.  I know this is true.  Its what i have been waiting to hear.  And she said it all began when she had said a prayer one day, asking Heavenly Father to send the truth to her.  That day we knocked on her door.  Wow... i am holding back tears writing this!  I am so filled with joy to know of these things and to be apart of her life.  Heavenly Father PREPARES PEOPLE FOR US!!! Never forget that!! He knows us inside and out and if we listen we will be directed!!
This week like i said was so awesome!! This work is so great, and i love every minute of it!!
Hey guys i love you so much!  I hope all is well!! Your so amazing!!!

All my Love,
ELDER NICOLAS COLLINS CRUMP

Ps. Emma from France, i got your letter and i thank you!  Your words and support are inspiring.  I'm glad you enjoy the blog and i hope it finds you well whenever you need it!  And always remember your invited to church, and if you ever get the chance to talk with missionaries listen to them!  Thank you so much!!

Elder Crump

Family how is everyone doing!!  I hope all is well with all of you!!  So to answer some questions...mom i found my usb thing to send pictures!! the elder i thought that stole it, and is now in bolivia left it in his apartment, and i found it the other day while i was doing a work visit!! haha man i was so mad when i thought he stole it!! haha anyway so dont worry about the usb thing!! all is good!! So really this week was way good!! The only sad thing is we didnt have a crazy come into church!!  i know right bummer!! haha no but it was great, because Angel and Nancy both came to church yesterday!!  They are one of the families that we found last week.  Plus we had a lesson with them, on friday, and committed them to get married!! They have the date set and everything!! August 17th!!  They are una familia de oro!!!  Plus they have their 10 year old old son and a 5 year old daughter!!  But it was way funny we went to go see if they were there on Thursday, but we had just missed them, but the brother of nancy came out, and was like....ELDERS!! how are you??  We were a little confused, but we just went along with it! haha we found out that he had taken all of the missionary discussions when he was 16, and he used to always hang out with the missionaries!!  When they committed him to a date, of course he said yes, but then got drafted into the army!!  Satan... haha but he was sad to leave, but when he returned the missionaries were gone, and got really busy.  But he said its been like 25 years since then, but i know with all my heart your church is true.  I know the book of mormon is true, Joseph smith is a prophet, everything you teach and believe in is true.  I have just been waiting for you guys to find me again!!   WHAT THE!  Was flowing through my mind!! haha  he then said that he has 4 kids, a wife, and his dream is to get his whole family to the church, and have them be baptized and sealed for all time and eternity!!  Ya... this was just a contact....my mind was spinning!! It was so cool!!  He then said please will you teach and baptize us??  HOLY COW this is so great!!  So we set a date to come visit him, but when we went he got called into work, but we met his other sister!  And her boyfriend was there, and we taught them, they dont live together which is awesome, and rare! haha but our lesson was amazing!! The spirit was incredible, and they both committed to be baptized on Aug. 4!!  All of this because of one reference from a recent convert!!  Three Families!!! Plus all the same family!! A Brother, and two sisters!!!!!!!!  Does heavenly father have his hand in all things or what!!!??? Haha it was such a great week!!!

So funny story... we were in our gospel principles class and they were teaching about baptism, and the teacher asked if Elder Fonseca and I can show how we do our baptism.  So i was the person baptizing, and fonseca was the person being baptized.  So we said the prayer, showed how the hands go, and then i dipped him back, but i thought we were just going to do a little because it was just a practice, but no fonseca just throws his whole body back, and because i had no idea, and he is a little on the chuncky side, i dropped him on the floor!! haha he was so mad!! But everyone was laughing!!  It was so funny!! he says he now doesnt have trust in me!! haha  oh man great now we have scared all of our investigators of baptisms!! haha

So i am super jealous that you are going to Lake Powell...the promised land!!  I miss it!! But hey when i get home we´ll go down in November Right?? haha  Hey i havent gotten that package yet, but ill keep my eye out!! 

Oh yeah i keep forgetting to tell you, but we have another baptism set for the 21st of July!  His name is James.  He is 10 and all of his family are members, but very inactive!! But we are working with them, and we are gonna get him baptized!!!

So good to hear Federer is in the finals... thats how it should be!! haha and the best part, Nadal LOST!!! Yes!!!  But the Heat won!!

Ugh i feel sick.  Haha of course they picked up another allstar!! haha 

Hey guys i love you so much!! Today we dont have p day because we are going to the temple thursday!!!  I will let you know how it goes!! The package is coming... im sending it....soon!! haha dont worry monday i promise!!!

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!! I HAD MY OWN LITTLE CELEBRATION HERE!!!  Haha go USA.  Plus it was cool, we had a conference for all the zone leaders, and the district leaders in Lima, and President Blunck and His wife had all this stuff for us to celebrate!! Gotta love them!!

All my Love,

ELDER NICOLAS COLLINS CRUMP

Elder Collins

Hey family! Wow its cold today! Its only like 65 or 70 degrees but its rainy and im actually a bit chilled. Well this week was pretty good. We had the baptism of of the Hoyos Family on saturday and it all went well. They are a really cool family and are very humble. Its just a single mom and her 5 kids. Yep, that spider was in my house, i named him satan and then i killed him. Probably the bravest thing ive ever done. I had to give a talk in church yesterday, i really did terrible. One of these days i will give a beautiful talk and everyone will start to cry. Well this week i got my comp to be a little more obedient. I tricked him into studying a little more by asking him questions that he would have to look up in the bible or something to help find answers. Well everything is good hope your all well. Got me some packages today, gonna have a little party with myself. Actually Bylund will probably take half of whatever it is. Love you! reg
P.S.
 Mom Bylund keeps teasing me that hes going to go to lunch with you when he gets back. Well i love you mom and family!!! be safe love reg

Elder Collins

Hey Family! So this week was pretty good. I worked my butt off. I kind of just got spiritually juiced and was fed up with not having baptisms being in the jungle. We had 8 investigatores come to church yesterday and are baptizing a family this saturday! We had a conference with president wed and it was way fun and i learned a lot. E. Bylund told me the day before that im giving a training lesson infront of everyone and had to base it off helaman 5. I feel like i did a pretty good job. It was only like 8min so it wasnt terrible. So I think my comp doesnt want to be with me anymore, i was reading his planner looking for some numbers from the week and he was writing little notes to himself about me that were just super duper! Whatever though its fine with me. I think he really wants to go back to Lima! I have really learned to just let things go instead of bottling it up and then just exploding. But as long as he is with me we are going to work and have success. Well, not much more happened. Love you! reg 

P.S.

Ok. so here are some pictures sorry last week my computer was being a jerk and I couldnt send them so this week I have a picture of........

My worst fear

The family that we are going to baptize this week

Elder Hauqui is the new assistant

Elder Crump

Hey how is everything going!! Always so good to hear from you guys!!  Wow this week went by so fast!!  Is so crazy!!  This past week was incredible!!  I love fast sundays!!  SO many blessings!!!  So In the past couple of weeks we were doing great on our contacts always getting a hundred or more, but a lot of our lessons were falling through!!  So we have been praying so hard, and through our fast we double our number of lessons this week, compared to last week!! It was amazing!!  So like i said before we have been working with the ward, and they all had a goal to find us references, and more importantly FAMILIES!!  This week we gained 3 new families!!!  2 of them being references from the ward!!!  It was so great!! All have the desires to be baptized, and two of the families are married, and the other were going to help them get married, then baptized!!!

So one of the families are Juan & Ericka.  They have two small kids and have been taught by the missionaries before, but were always too busy.  So we have been meeting with them this past week and it has been so amazing.  We talked about the doctrine of Christ, and when we invited them to be baptized Ericka went silent, and said yes we need to do this.  She then told us a story about what happened to her 3 year old son.  About 3 months ago he fell down the stairs, and they only have concrete stairs...  he was knocked out, and she was alone and crying and didnt know what to do.  So she knelt down and said a prayer, begging Heavenly Father to help her son.  She said if everything was alright she would change her life, and do what she needs to do.  And here we are 3 months later, and everything is alright with her son.  He had no injuries, and everything is perfectly fine.  The doctors were astonished!!  She knew what she needed to do, but what church?  And here we came knocking on her door, teaching about the TRUE CHURCH, and what we can do to change our lives, and follow God.  They both said yes, but still want to think about the date.  Pray for them please!! They are incredible.  How amazing that Heavenly Father sent us to her, and was preparing her!!

So Daniel had his final interview, and his date is officially set!!!! 28th of JULY!!!!!  Dads birthday!! What a great day!!  He is so amazing!!! We are waiting because he needs to turn 18, because his family doesnt want him to be baptized, but he doesnt care he is ready and wants it!!  And yesterday, he officially told us that he wants to serve a mission, and wants to go as soon as he can!!!!  The power of repentance is powerful and so true.  He has gone through so much, and look where he is today.  I am so proud of him, and all he has been through.  Through true repentance, we can be cleansed of our sins, and God will remember them NO MORE!!!!  What a blessing!! 

So one of the families that we met with is named Juan Carlos, and Susana.  They have problems, but both want to change their lives and accept the gospel.  They fight, and dont have much love for each other.  It really is sad.  But during our lesson with them i was able to bear a POWERFUL testimony of marriage.  I explained i dont know how marriage is, im not married, but i know how marriage should be, and its through my parents i know of this.  There marriage isnt perfect, but its amazing, and filled with love!!  Their marriage is the example to all, because no matter what fight, no matter what challenge, it didnt matter, because they always have a strong love for each other!!  Mom, Dad, Thank you so much for your example to me.  I know exactly how i want my marriage to be through you two!!!  You both are so amazing and have so much love, not only for each other, and your children, but for your Heavenly Father!  Thank you again for everything.  They loved my testimony, and now believe that marriage is possible, because of you two!!

So funny story, we had another crazy in the church again.  This time a lady.  She came at 8 and didnt leave til 1  she stayed for both wards and all the meetings!! Ugh... During the testimonies she would clap after each one!  And when i say clap i mean out of your seat, overly excited, and a little crazy!!  Plus during all the classes she was really loud and would ask questions, and yell wait please i want to write that down!! haha  And when the teacher asked her if she could read a scripture, she said yeah... i learned how to read in my school when i was a kid... haha i busted up laughing!  She said no but seriously i want you all to know that i can read!! haha then she read it, then repeated it, then again then got up and said yes we all need to do this! REPENT!!!!!! Lets do it now!!! haha oh man i was dying!!!  Then after she went in to the relief society...haha and when one of the ladies handed her he B of M to read she threw it back at her and said no i want my own copy!! haha so i gave her a copy!! haha oh man gotta love the crazies!! Im just glad she didnt bear her testimony!!

So to answer some questions.

My favorite food is Ceviche de Pollo!  Dont worry its not ceviche with fish, and were aloud to eat it, also arroz con pollo!!!  is soo good!!  Pizza here is pretty much the same but the burgers arent too good!!  Oh yeah and good news we ended up playing volleyball last p day, so i got to play!! haha  Also i got the package, but i need the usb i can plug my memory card in to send pictures.  If you want i can send the other back.  The memory card converter is what i need, because i cant send pictures.  But today i will borrow one from someone to send.

Hey i love love love  you guys!!  Thats so great about spence!! I havent heard anything from korb im still waiting on a letter, or should i write one? Plus tell everyone dont worry letters are coming to them!!  and to others im still waiting for their letters...You know who you are!!! haha  hey stay safe!! Thanks for the sports update!! Your all amazing!!!

All my Love,

ELDER NICOLAS COLLINS CRUMP