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

 

Elder Crump

Hey its so good to hear from you guys!!!  Im so so glad that dad had a good fathers day!!  So this past week has been great!!  Being District Leader is stressful, but a great experience!!  What i do is about 5 times a week i call and get the numbers from my district, as well as the names of their investigators, their families, and how they are progressing!  Then after i call the zone leaders and re explain everything to them.  Haha and sometimes they aren't to happy with the numbers for example 2 elders in my district only had 85 contacts and they were like why, what happened, what can you do to help them, and all that jazz haha so i take a lot of heat, but not too bad!! haha  because our district is awesome, and we are all doing great!! haha every Tuesday i have to do a training on how we can improve and i teach lessons form PMG and from the 8 principles of the mission!  My first one went great i taught about how we need to use the holy ghost in our teaching.  How we can prepare to receive the holy ghost, how we obtain it, and furthermore teach with it.  also the importance of teaching what is the holy ghost, so that your investigators know that what they are feeling is the answer from god, the holy ghost.  It went great, then we did some practices, in asking questions, and listening to the holy ghost.  It turned out to be ok!  Heavenly Father defiantly was helping me out there!! I was so nervous, but i was comforted and all went well!!

So things are going great!  Daniel is rocking it!! He is more and more like a missionary everyday!!  Cant wait for the 28th of July!!!  Dayanna´s family is doing great because her family lives in another area, we set up for other missionaries to teach them!!  So This week Leo came to church, before the sacrament this time!!!!  It was awesome!!  But we are seriously having problems with committing him to a date.  We keep setting goals but he says he needs to wait.  So we have been really praying about him, and we teach what we think he needs to know, and he always comes up with another excuse!!  So we asked him to pray about the 14 of july and when we returned, he said he received his answer, and the 14 is the right day, but then said that god told him to wait.  He is so ready, i just think he is afraid.  Please pray for him to commit to a date.  He wants to be baptized so bad, and has gone through his repentance and has passed his interviews.  He needs help right now in knowing that this is the right decision, and he doesnt need to have fear.

So this week we have been working with the ward like crazy and we are getting tons of references!! Its so great!!  We had a bunch of ward activities in the ward contisuyo, and through it we gained some more contacts!!  Plus because we had ward conference, we had 100 people in the chapel on sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so great!!!! haha thats 10 times more than my first day here!! haha

So mom here are some answers,

Yes i understand all about the credit card thing, go a head and send it.  I got the package with the DVDs thank you so much.  A combi is a van, that serves as a bus.  You can pack like 15 people in it!! haha I am getting your weekly letters they make my day! I seriously love them.  ps im sending a package home in a week so look out for it!!  We only attend 2 sacrament meetings haha were in the church for like 5 hours!!  P days are pretty normal, today we are playing soccer, everyone except me that is...boring!! haha my knee is doing awesome!! I have no pain!! what a blessing!!

Hey sorry i dont have to much time left but know that i love love love you!! 

Ill send more pics when i can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All my Love,

ELDER NICOLAS COLLINS CRUMP

 

 Questions that he was answering:

-Is a combi a bus?
-You said you love the food, what is your favorite food. Also, have you gained any weight?  The pics you send look the same.
-Are you getting my weekly letters?
-Do you attend 2 sacrament meetings now instead of 3?
-What other responsibilities do you have as District leader?
-What is a typical P-day like for you?
-How's the knee?  Are you still doing physical therapy?
-Send a pic of your apartment.  I know that's not a question, but just thought I would ask for one:)  For that matter, keep the pics coming.  They make me soooo happy!!