Week 4!!

My Family!!

 

First off; I'm super sorry for my lack of letter writing. apparently you're not even supposed to write letters except for p-days, and I've been so busy lately I haven't even been able to think about breaking that rule. So to everyone who's been writing me- thank you so much. you don't know what it means to me when I go to check the mail after lunch and there's something waiting for me. I've got a bit of down time today and I'm going to try and reply to them all!

Oh, and the dear elder thing is awesome. keep up the love!

Ok, couple things I've absolutely gotta mention in this email, and hopefully I remember more in a second:

We got to hear from Richard G. Scott on Tuesday! he came for our devotional and gave us such a good message. After 3500 missionaries finished singing the opening song, he got up crying and started telling us basically how awesome we are. He spoke on communication with our Father in Heaven, and I realized how poorly I'd been utilizing the gift of prayer all my life. It really just opened my mind to what exactly I'm doing, and since then I've started trying to build my connection with the one who can give me enough support to keep me out here. I'm actually having a lot of fun. it's still kinda hard sometimes, but there are so many amazing people here, and everything's becoming so much more enjoyable. I took notes on almost everything Elder Scott said, so if anyone needs some questions answered about prayer I've got some good materiel for ya.. ;) 

K. My two favorite words and phrases in Romanian are probably Gugustiuc (Sounds way cool when you say it right and it means pigeon) and- "Oaia aia e a ei" which basically means "hey! that sheep is hers!" I'm going to look for every possible opportunity in Romanian to say those phrases ;D 

My shoulders are golden! Just had my last physical therapy appointment yesterday and he says I'm good to go. I need to avoid over the head swings like volley ball and punching and that kind of thing. other than that I'm good to start bulking up again! 

I'm getting pretty excited to get out there, but at the same time I'm kinda freaked about getting out in the real world with real people, speaking a language I don't know. My native Romanian teacher kinda has me scared too. Telling me about all the homeless kids on the street, all the people who have it sooo rough. And I'm not even allowed to give money or anything like that. And then moldova's even worse. I had no idea- but apparently it's still under communism (very loosely or else we wouldn't be allowed in there) and we're not allowed to distribute any kind of religious material. 

Wooh! it's gonna be awesome, but it's going to be so different from the life I've had so far. 

My companions are getting antsy so I've got to get.

Thank you all so much for all your love and support. Thank you for the encouragement and letters, and thank you for finally writing me dad!! haha ;) 

Love you all, 23 months to go and the adventures just about to begin! 

Elder Collison