Mawwaige is what bwings us togeva today

Ahhh That's so awesome! So excited for those events that have been taking place! That whole day Saturday was kind of distracting. I kept looking at the temple magazine and a picture of the Salt Lake sealing room, and kept thinking, They're probably in there right now! That's good. I'm happy and looking forward to meeting everyone.

Today starts a new transfer. I am finally being taken out of Rwanda. I leave on Thurs. and it probably wont be easy. This has been my home for the last nine months and I love it and the people so much. But I'm going to a place in Uganda called Mbale. I will be reopening an area that had been closed for a bit. And I will be training. I don't know anything about who it is yet. But do you know what that means? Reopening, white-washing again, training, and all in a foreign country for the both of us. This is gonna be big. Also Elder Er, whose training I just finished is going to be training here as well. We had a good transfer. We worked hard and didn't get to see a whole lot happen this transfer but really prepared the area for this new transfer. We've met some great, prepared people.  

Besides all this, I went to church alone yesterday. Elder Em was sick, so my companion had to take him to the hospital. So I was with one of the members all day. I also gave a talk again. Just before we were walking out the door I got a call saying the person that was supposed to talk that day couldn't make it, so they asked me. Talked about prophets and it went well and I was the time-filler at the end so I had to extend to like 20 minutes. But it's becoming easier. Just wrote down a couple scripture references while I was waiting, then just spoke. 
 

Love you!

-Elder Collison

 

 August 31, 2015

 A few short things to hit on this week...

We had the monthly service day Saturday. All the three branches came together as a Mormon helping hands group and shoveled weeds out of the ditches. It was really good to see everyone from the other branches again. Also last night we went over to Mama Cecile's for dinner. I just love that woman. In this new branch we've been fed a lot! I think I'm already past the amount of dinner appointments from my last five transfers total. I'm enjoying it :)

The new missionary finally came. Elder A. Elder N is training him. The transfer is already two weeks over but he was waiting for his visa stuff. He's a good kid and super excited to work. A good addition to Rwanda.

I gave a talk again on Sunday.

So a whole white family came to church yesterday. I guess they just moved here for four years now. They came late and left early so I didn't get to talk to them much, but there's a little boy who is exactly like Gabe. At least the Gabe I know from back then. Same age, looks similar, and sounds the same too. Love you Gabey! Don't change!

As we were walking around one day last week, we ended up walking next to a little girl and felt like we needed to talk to her. Asked if she had a family and if she'd mind taking us to meet her parents. So she led us for a little bit until we came to this house we had knocked on a few days before and set up a return time which fell through. The mama we had talked to last time wasn't there but we talked to maybe a daughter and we're going back this week. But she said she had no idea who the girl was that led us there. So we asked her about that and she took us to a different home and disappeared. So we knocked and they didn't know any little girl like that either. But that other family spoke English as well and we're going to go back this week too. So we don't know who it was. Maybe just felt creeped out and was trying to ditch us, but she did guide us well I believe!

Love you all!

-Elder Collison

September 7, 2015

Well, the rainy season has begun again. Back to being super soaked all the time now. It actually feels really nice though. It gets really cool and windy.

We had a really good week. We met several awesome people and had some really powerful lessons. The Chatfields came down for Zone Conference last week. That was super great. It was mainly focused on faith. One of my favorite thing that he said about that was, "Did Moses go up to the water and say I hope the Red Sea parts? No! He commanded it!" This is the Lord's work and we need to believe that when we do our part, things will happen. It was a really great and spiritual conference and every time we have them, missionary work becomes totally different and is a lot better.

I've been washing all my clothes by hand lately. I have a washer at my new place but the problem is the power is always going out. And every p-day now we haven't had any power. But I actually kind of enjoy it and everything gets a lot cleaner.

Love,

Elder Collison

Today starts off my 6th transfer. I'm getting moved... to K1! I was totally not expecting to stay in Rwanda. I was sure I was Uganda bound. But I'm super glad to stay. I passed around my journal Sunday for people to write in. Really glad I did. I'm just going to the other side of Kigali, a few miles away, but it will still be hard to ever see the people from my other two branches. I'll be with Elder Ercanbrack and finishing his training. I've stayed in the same house for the last almost eight months. It's going to be weird leaving. But I am excited. I'll be the first missionary to serve in all three branches of the church in Rwanda. I really love the people here. I've only had to say goodbyes twice now on mission and I'm still very near and see many of the people often but it always makes me realize how grateful I am for the Plan of Salvation. It's hard to say goodbyes but it comforts me that I know I'll be able to see everyone again some day. Especially my family.
Love you all!

-Elder Collison

A few years ago, Elder Holland came and dedicated Rwanda for missionary work. Today our zone went up to the hill he went to to look over the country to do it. It was a pretty neat experience. Last week the Chatfields came down for interviews/trainings. The Chatfields are super awesome. As he was doing interviews, she was doing role plays with us teaching the restoration as a companionship one sentance at a time. Role plays are hard for me. I can never take them seriously. Something happened and we all started laughing and I started crying and couldn't control myself. We've got a really awesome zone. 

Love you!

-Elder Collison

 

 

 June 15

Welcome to my new cousin Aleah! 

The conference with Elder Carl B. Cook was really awesome.  He's a powerful guy. Something he said that touched me was about what it would be like to be one of the first missionaries to go to England almost 200 years ago. That's the same as we're doing in Rwanda. (I think there have only been like 20 missionaries in the country before me.) How we're the builders of the foundation of the church in Rwanda. 

 We had a baptism yesterday! Justin's brother is a member and Justin started coming to church with him. He met with the other missionaries a few times, then they left and I came. Taught him a lot more and now he's baptized! He's a good kid.

I came pretty close to death this week... You know the pedal-bodas I mentioned before? Now that I'm in this branch we use them a lot more whenever we go to Batsinda. On Saturday we were coming back from there and we decided to tell the drivers to sit in the back and we would drive and race each other.  The seat was really high, handlebars messed up, brakes like a foot away from the bars. And we were starting off at the top of a steep bumpy hill. I try to start off and get going out of control, wobbling down the hill. Towards the road. I'm squeezing the crappy brakes and sliding my feet and finally come to a stop just before colliding with a bus. Kinda scary. All the people were pointing and laughing at the "stupid mzungu!" I felt pretty embarrassed and pedaled out of there pretty quickly. :) 

Oh yeah. Something we hear a lot, 'I don't know French.'. It's just what a lot of people say when we try to speak with them. In English.

Love, Elder Collison

 

June 22

We're going to Mama Cecile's for lunch after emailing! It's been over a month since I've seen her. I'm excited. This has been a really good week! Nothing too close to death this time. Went on a pretty cool African adventure. Going from one appt. to the next we decided to take a "shortcut."  It wasn't that short. Instead of staying on the main roads on the hills we tried cutting through the valley. Turned out being a lot farther than we thought and all through the fields and swamp lands. I miss-jumped some stream spots a few times and got my pants and shoes soaked for the rest of the day.

We broke some of our records this week. We met 12 new investigators and set a bunch of baptism dates. We met some awesome and prepared people.

We had another baptism Sunday! It's a kid named Cedric. He always reminds me a lot of Raymond.

Ok. Love you!

-Elder Collison

 

 

 

 June 29

Another good week. We've still been meeting with a lot of cool new families. Missionary work becomes a lot more exciting when you focus on them and get to see the gospel blessing them as a whole family. Not too much to say this week. One of the families I had been teaching a lot in K2 just got baptized yesterday. I didn't get to go but it was awesome to hear about. Our mission is discontinuing the wearing of suits. Sunday will be the last time we wear them. I'll just try to find a member the same size as me. I gave a talk Sunday. You know.. Teaching and talking to people all day every day makes it a bit easier to get up and speak. I spoke about missionary work. I went up with a sticky note with a few thoughts written to guide, and I made eye contact with people the whole time. Glad I'm drifting away from the 'get up, read quickly the small things I had prepared without looking up, close, and rush back to my seat'. 

 Mission is weird. Since I left in the middle of winter, every time I think about home I imagine it as winter. Then I remember it's summer and even hotter than here right now. I really miss being able to work hard outside. Like wood hauling wood, digging, and just any outdoor farm work really. We'll occasionally get some service in but nothing really fun like that. So I guess you can expect plenty of help getting wood in a couple winters.

We were walking past a big wall fence last night on the way home and some dogs were going crazy on the other side. My companion hates dogs so he picked up the pace and went to the opposite side. as we get closer we realize the dogs weren't on the other side but on top of the wall. They were nasty and angry looking things. barking and howling and snapping at us. We just walked past and nothing happened. So not really an exciting story at all. 

Well I think that's pretty much the week. Love ya!

-Elder Collison   

 

 

 

July 6

Transfer number five begins today! My companion and I are both staying here together. This is a big deal for the Kigali 3 Branch. It got white-washed three times in a row but I think we've broken the chain now. :) So all the members are excited about that. And for the first time since I've been here our whole house is staying the same. Which I'm glad about. It's an awesome group. And one of the K1 elders who has been here a transfer longer than me is getting moved so that means I am the missionary that has been in Rwanda the longest with the current group. Other than this, not a lot has happened out of the ordinary. On Saturday Elder Empey and I sang all the American songs together. Also on the 4th was Rwanda's Liberation Day. It was a bit harder to find work to do that day. But that's pretty much it.

Love ya!

-Elder Collison

 

July 13

So this week was... an interesting week. One of the K1 Elders got moved to Uganda this transfer and a new one came. A brand new one from Utah. Elder Ercanbrak or something. He's a good kid. Haven't been able to get to know him too well yet. We got fed like 6 times last week. Our feedings come in spurts like that. Weeks without, and then nonstop for a week. It was nice. Ate a lot of rice. And my companion has been making me posho. It's interesting. Another exciting thing- iron chest... I have learned a good lesson this week. That is; don't' ask someone to iron your shirt for you. While you're wearing it. I think this was on Thursday. Not gonna say who, but he put it against my chest and pressed the steam button. It was hot. It turned red and painful right away and I kept a wet rag on my chest during my studying. Now it's still red and blistery. My shirts are turning yellower in the same spot there from the blisters popping. It feels fine now. It's a fun story.

We had a baptism yesterday! Her name is Angelique. She's a shy but super smart girl. She understands everything really well and always keeps commitments. Whenever we would leave a reading assignment she would come back with notes and summarize the chapter and explain what she learned from it. She's really awesome and I'm really glad to have been a part of her conversion.

That's all for now. Love ya!

-Elder Collison  

On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 10:52 AM, Caleb Collison <caleb.collison@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Didn't really get as much talking time and it was a bit sketchy but I really enjoyed it. It was really good to see and hear you guys.  

Saturday was actually my record for lessons taught in a day. We got 9 lessons and had to do splits all day.

It's the culture here to offer the guests a drink. It's mainly pop, but we do sometimes get hot water, after just being boiled to clean it. I think all the hill climbing here is whats keeping me from gaining. So I think I might chunk up a little in Uganda.

It hasn't been too hot lately. I've actually been waking up pretty cold because it cools down and with a fan on me all night... So for a while in the mornings I have my blanket wrapped around me. And in town we have all the tall buildings shading us when it isn't raining.

I guess I look really young here. Everyone's always asking if I'm my companions younger brother. saying I look around 15. That ones the most common. I have also gotten pretty much everything between 13 to 28.

One last thing. Another gross food. Well, drink. Ikivuguto. It's rotten milk. It's this sour, cold, thick, almost sourcreamy or yogurty tasting. It's not good.

Ok. Love you all!!

-Elder Collison

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 9:45 AM, Caleb Collison <caleb.collison@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Yesterday we had two more baptisms! Claver and Junior. Junior just turned 8.  He wanted me to baptize him so that was neat. His mom guards at the church during the day so we play around a lot while we're there waiting. Then Claver. I got to baptize him as well. I first found him like 3 months ago outside of Bank of Kigali while we were street contacting. We've met a lot since then and he's been really accepting and understanding of everything and he's really gonna help the branch here. The baptisms went well and I'm really excited about them.

Today we went bowling as a district/zone/all the missionaries in Rwanda. (It's all the same now.) There's actually a pretty nice place here. And I won. Surprisingly. After bowling we went out for some Ethiopian food. It's some sort of thin, fluffy bread thing and you use it to pick up different sauces and foods. It was pretty interesting.It's a fun group of Elders and we had a good time.

That's pretty much my week. Love y'all,

Elder Collison

Thanks for the pics! I miss cool weather. And grass. This is my favorite time of year back home! 

 

It's been a good week. Not the best for working though. This week is the genocide memorial week. Tuesday the 7th it started and everything was shut down. Even all the people we called said it would be impossible to meet with them and we shouldn't even bother getting out. I guess everyone gathers to their sector to share stories and cry. 

 

I think things should be getting back to normal this week. But we did find a few awesome families with a bunch of cute little kids. Transfers are today. Elder K and I are still together here. This is his last one. K3 is getting white-washed again so I'll be the youngest missionary in the house here again. :/ I've been spoiled with a fan my whole mission until last week. One night the power went off for a while then came back. The fan never did.  :(

The memorial place was sad and sick. The hardest part was the children section. The walls were covered with their smiling pictures and there were plaques with info about them. Some of their favorite things, then their last words, like "I love you" or "when is someone gonna come save us?", then the cause of death, which I don't even want to get into. It was a really disturbing and powerful place. But it's amazing to see how Rwanda has improved so much now.

Love and miss you guys!

-Elder Collison

Mwiriwe! Or I guess for you it's Mwaramutse..
We had another baptism yesterday! There's a guy named Francis who was baptized just before I got here. It was his wife Esther. We started teaching her my first day here. She doesn't know English so Francis has been our translator and has been helping her a lot. The Claudine that was baptized last week is engaged to Francis and Esther's son who is in France. Delphine is friends with a few of the young women in my branch and she's been coming to church for several months. We started to teach her shortly after I got here and she was really excited to finally be baptized. It was a really neat experience.

Last week on Palm Sunday everyone in town was carrying around palm leaves.  This week our zone got together and had a passover feast. It was really cool to eat and discuss all the symbolism.

Last night we went over to the Palmers for our Fast Sunday dinner. She makes some good food. And we got to watch a few of the priesthood session talks. I think we'll be able to watch the rest of conference with our branch towards the end of the month. I really liked what I heard though.

Alright. Love ya'll lots!

-Elder Collison

Sorry. It's gotta be quick today. We just got done at the genocide memorial and we have fhe at 6. The memorial was really touching. The part about the children most of all. I can explain a bit more another week hopefully. This weeks been great! We had two baptisms yesterday! Claudine and Delphine. Again, I'll explain more later. Elder K baptized Claudine and I baptized Delphine. It was great!

Love you lots!!

-Elder Collison

Yesterday was a long day. We went to Akagera! The other four missionaries came over to my place Sunday night so we could leave by 6. It was about a 3 hour drive and then we drove around the park for about 7 hours. Then 3 hours back. I can't stand sitting that long. (Haha, that's kind of a funny sentence.) But it was really neat. Since it's the end of the dry season, everything was all yellow and dead, so it actually looked like what you would expect from Africa. We got to see a bunch of animals. The zebras were the best. They were standing right by the path we were driving on. We were hoping to see an elephant but it didn't happen. Probably for the best... I guess the last time some missionaries came to this park they were chased by an elephant. But we did get to see a lot of giraffes and cape buffalo and antelope and hippos and baboons.  It was great!

Sorry it's short today. Love ya all!

-Elder Collison

Email from March 9, 2015

 Welcome home Andrew! So happy for you guys!

Wednesday was a little tough... I had to just keep checking my watch all day, imagining what was happening there.

I have a few unhappy people... The other day we stopped this guy on the street and started talking about the church. He was fine at first and then he just snapped. Started shouting at us about how he was already born again. Stuff like that happens every once in a while. But mostly people are kind and accepting.

Man. Syrup season is my favorite! I'm really gonna miss that this year!

P-days we're mostly just waiting around the house. Our whole apartment place has one washer so we mostly just do a lot of waiting for it by playing cards or now Catan. 

I think next week we might go to Akagara. It's some sort of animal preserve. I'm excited about that! And some week soon we'll probably play some soccer with the members since everyone here is obsessed with "football".

For sacrament meetings we use translators for everything except prayers. So half of the time is just a repeat so there's usually only one speaker.

We've run a few times but now we've started this Insanity workout. It really is insane. Its like an 8 week course and our whole zone is kinda having a competition to see who can have the best looking six-pack by the end of it. :)

The new guy is Elder M from Zimbabwe. He got here on Sat. and it feels nice to not be the newest guy anymore! :)

The weather actually feels quite nice lately.  The rainy season is coming so its been really windy. That's my favorite. On a hot day when the cool, strong wind comes  and you can just smell the storm coming :)

Here's one of my cool teaching/spiritual experiences. So there's this guy I contacted on the streets. His name is Claver. We've met with him several times and he's even come to church for a couple weeks and he's super interested and always cheerful and grinny. The other day we were teaching him the Word of Wisdom. When we tell him about no coffee and tea he starts freaking out. In a good way. He said that just the day before he and his wife were talking about that and decide they wouldnt take coffee and tea anymore because they just didnt feel right about it.. We're planning for his baptism this month. He's a great guy and he's been really prepared for this and everything we teach him he accepts with an open mouth and slow nod like everything we say makes so much sense. And it does! The church is true!!

Love you all! And I want to see more pictures of you all together!

-Elder Collison
 

Hello! 

I did something stupid this week. So it's the end of the day and Elder K and I are at the little shop near our home getting some breakfast for the morning. He sees a container full of a bunch of little fish. I think they're called mukene in Uganda. But in Uganda they're just like an inch or two. These ones were like 5-6 inches. So he told me that if I eat them all, he'd buy me some Nutella. I of course accepted. So we get home and I dump them and a bunch of BBQ sauce and ketchup on my plate, then I popped the first one in my mouth. It was super tough and took so long to chew. And it tasted disgusting too. Man. One of those things might have been worth the Nutella. But then it became more than just the Nutella. I am not a quitter. And hey, it'll be a fun mission story. So after an hour of suffering, I finally finished them all! Crunching through bones, looking at them watching me, picking the scales out of my teeth, almost barfing several times... So terrible. My stomach felt so gross that next day and I had to wake up a few times that night to brush my teeth. Never again.

Now for a good food story! Mama Cecile is one of the best people on this earth. She's pretty much the funniest and sweetest lady ever.  Elder S (don't know if I've talked about him and Elder R yet... They're in the Kigali 3 Branch and work around Kagugu. We stay in the same apartment and we're all pretty dang close) is going home next week.  Just like you, Andrew!  So Cecile wanted to feed him before he left and when she feeds missionaries she goes all out. There was so much noodles and rice and soup and chips and fruit and soda and chicken. And she can cook well. Of couse we all had to see who could eat the most and just about ate to death. We just had to lay on the couches for a while until we were able to wobble the long way to the taxi stop.

I spoke in church this week on gratitude. I'm not a big fan of having to use a translator. I have to go a few words at a time and wait for him to translate it to Kinyarwanda for the group. It gets really confusing.

Well... Love you guys!

-Elder C. Collison

 


​

Trying to do the pics took up a bit of time so I have to be quick and hopefully you can make sense of this. I think we have the nicest apartment in the mission. It's pretty much like a good apartment from home. We have 3 bathrooms and 2 showers for the 4 of us and a filter for drinking water. Our place even has an excersize room and a washing machine. We have rope all over our flat to dry our clothes. But the best thing is the maids. We dont have to wash dishes or clean our floors or anything. :) We have mosquito nets over the beds but they arent really bad here. I got "born" in the spoiled place. Everyone's always jealous of the 8 missionaries that get to go to Rwanda :) My companion started running with me. We've gone a few times. Just working on going farther in the 20 min. we have. There's a girl in my branch that just got her mission call to England. It hasn't actually been too hot lately. I think the stormy season might be coming up. Crazy wind and some heavy rain every couple days. It's still quite warm and sticky though. And from walking all day my clothes are always soaked with sweat by the end of it. The Chatfields came to Rwanda last week. We had our Zone Conference Fri. and yesterday we had our tri-branch conference, where the whole church in Rwanda (about 180 people) got together. It was so great. I love all the people here and the Chatfields. Ok. If you still want the answers to the questions I missed just remind me next week. And dont worry  about how long your emails are. I like hearing more details about home :) Love you all so much!!

-Elder C. Collison

Email  February 9, 2015

The power here in the internet cafe keeps going out so that ate up a good chunk of time.. And the pictures still aren't working yet!

Mom. The bats. So there's like a huge cluster of bats that are always swarming around. I think they like change their place around every year. Now they're right by the president's house so I couldn't get a picture (not like I'd be able to send it anyways! grrr). But these bats are huge! All folded up they're about the size of a football. And flying they're like big eagles! Reminds me of Gregor.  :) 

The food's actually pretty good. I was a little nervous at first because of the differentness and unsanitariness, but I'm over that now. We pretty much have to do our shopping daily for the stuff that needs to be refrigerated. Never know how long the powers been out when we're gone during the day. We have a small shop right by us that we get pretty much everything at. I eat a lot of samosas. Kinda like an eggroll, meat and veggies in some sort of triangular wrapper. And there's a big store here in the city where you can find almost anything. A lot of American food, but it costs quite a bit. And when members feed you (it's happened once so far) you get a big plate of rice and beans. Also near us is a restaurant where you just fill you your plate as full as you can for 1200 RWF. I don't even want to know what a lot of it is.. so I mostly get a lot of rice, beans and chips(fries).

One last thing.. After the kids have all shouted Mzungu a lot, they'll all come up and shake your hand and say good morning. No matter what time of day it is. It's pretty cute.  

Love you guys!!

-Elder Collison

Email  Monday, February 2, 2015

Hi Family!

Every fast Sunday the Palmers have the 8 missionaries in Rwanda over for dinner. We went last night and had a good time and ate some real food :)

 Forgot to mention last week... Did you get an email from a random person? Elder K has some distant cousin that was in Rwanda for the LDS wheelchair donation thing. She took us out to dinner the other day and got a picture with us to send to you.

 

My apartment is in Kagugu and we work in the city -forgot the name of it.  So I have to take a taxi everyday for 200 Francs. I think that's just over a quarter? Sometimes it's a small bus and you have a little room but usually we get stuck in a van smaller than ours. It has seats for like 12 people but they fit in over 20. You're wedged into the bench and there's people pretty much sitting on your lap. And it's hot and everyone is sweaty and stinky. Pretty uncomfortable. And sometimes if we have to go a shorter distance we'll pay to be transported on a pedal boda. Just a bike with a seat on the back. That's actually kinda fun.   And we do a lot of walking.

 

All the missionaries' places here have running water and filters.

 

I'm not so picky with ties now. Having worn every tie like 4 times already, I've kinda given up :P

 

Hope ya'll get better! Love ya'll!! (Man what's happening to me? My companion is a big country fella. Think he's starting to wear off on me.)  Haha, Love you all.

 

-Elder Collison-the-Caleb-one 

Email Monday, January 26th, 2015

Family! It's been a long couple of weeks.

So we left the MTC Tues. morning. We had to get up at 4 so that we could be there by 6. Not sure why because the plane left at like 3 pm. But all the airport and flying stuff is a lot better in a group. We got to Uganda that night and drove to the mission home. Man, driving in Uganda is INSANE! I wanted to get a video of it but started to feel a bit sick. You should try to find a video of it somewhere. Maybe not you mom. I think you'd die just watching it. 

 

We stayed in the mission home for a couple nights then I flew out again. This time I could only take one thing of luggage. Somehow I was able to get mostly everything in it though. I got here and my companion is sick. So I switched off with the other set for the first couple of days. My apartment is super nice! I think the best in the mission.  Pretty much just like staying in a nice hotel suite. The other houses around aren't the best though. Some are like small huts with almost nothing and lizards crawling around the walls. I used an outhouse the other day! Just a tiny building with a hole in the ground and bricks on either side to sit on. Thankfully I just had to pee...

 

Church was really confusing. The speaker would say something and there would be someone else up there to translate it to French and Kinyarwanda. I think that's the main language here. I mostly hear a lot of just one word when I'm walking around. Mzungu It means white person. We'll be passing a group of kids running around and they'll see us and stop and stare, whispering it. And whenever we pass by someone you can hear them muttering it to each other. But the people here are great. Really open to the church. We even just set a baptism date with someone last night. The church has only been here for like 4 years.

I'm actually looking forward to hauling lots of wood when I get back. Maybe by then I'll be able to carry the logs on my head. The people here carry everything like that. There is no limit to how much they can fit on their noggins.