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July 18, 2025 - Week 3

 Hey everyone! 

This week has been a solid week with speaking only Spanish in class. I'm definitely noticing some progress in the language. It's still pretty hard for me to form my own sentences and talk to people, but I'm starting to understand a lot more when people are talking to me. 

We got some new neighbors next to us in the dorms. I miss the old people. They can't all be like Elder Wakamatsu. He was a chiller, but now he's in South Carolina in Charleston. They're lucky to have him. He's gonna be an amazing missionary. The new people aren't bad, but they're just not Elder Wakamatsu. 

Monday was a good start to the week. I felt confident in my Spanish and that's when I started seeing a little bit of progress. Tuesday was a lighter day as well because we got to listen to an awesome devotional given by Elder William K. Jackson and his wife. The devotional took the time for our second class for the day so we didn't have to do a lot mentally. Wednesday came around and I was so tired and so discouraged after the first class of the day. I fell asleep at the end of the class and then we went back to the dorm and slept before our night class. Something pretty cool happened after. 

I met an Elder named Elder Babcock last week while I was welcoming the new missionaries. He was on the same duty for the day and we ended up getting close while we were greeting the new missionaries. I saw him two times that day. The first time he dapped me up and didn't say anything. Then I saw him later in the day for the second time and he stopped me right when he saw me. He said, “man I had a feeling that I needed to talk to somebody to give them some encouragement and after thinking about it for 3 seconds your name popped into my head. I don't know why I didn't say anything when I saw you the first time today, but I'm glad I had the chance to see you again. I just wanted to tell you that God sees the effort that you're putting in, and He is so grateful for it. You're an amazing missionary and you can do so much good. I had a feeling I just needed to talk to you and tell you that.”

Man it hit me hard. I know that God sees me in my struggles, and today I saw how He works through people, missionaries especially, to spread His word, His love, His light, and His positivity. It is such good motivation for me to keep moving forward because I am now more aware that God knows me and my struggles. He sent Elder Babcock to me on the way to my second class of the day, and that was what I needed to have a better experience in my second class of the day. 

A message to everyone - God knows you personally. He loves each one of us personally, and He is totally capable of changing your life if you just start trusting in Him and His plan for you.

Another thing that happened this week was that a mama duck and three baby ducks walked from the street through the campus. They walked to a fountain in the middle of the campus, and one of the ducklings ended up falling in when the mama jumped over the little gap. (I’ll drop a picture of the ducks around the fountain so y’all can see) 

This reminded me of an important lesson about faith in Jesus Christ. I ended up being the duckling’s savior in this moment because I went and picked him up and helped him out of the fountain. The baby duck had the courage to take the first step with faith, jumping into the fountain, trusting that it would be helped back out. This is similar to our relationship with Jesus Christ. The first step of faith is to jump in and take action, not just expect everything to go our way. Jesus can’t catch us if we don’t take that first step. When we do, He is right there by our side through it all when we just put our trust in Him. 

I hope that message can be of good use for y'all back home. I know that as you put your trust in Jesus Christ, not only will He help you, but He will bless you in many aspects of your life. One of the most important things to do is make sure you leave a little time to strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ each day. Pray to Heavenly Father and read the scriptures, whether that's the Bible or the Book of Mormon. Prayer is how you can have a personal conversation with God, and reading the scriptures is how He can give you answers to your questions in prayer. 

I love and miss you all! 

See y’all next week!
Elder Collins





Comments

  1. Jeannie MAugust 2, 2025 at 4:44 PM

    Hello Boychik: I am sure that you are the only missionary trainee that has a Yiddish nickname. Your mother even referred to you as Boychik the other day. As your former tutor, I must nag you about your blog posts not being up to date. So, pullup your unterzagen and write! Love and Miss You!

    ReplyDelete

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