All Is Well-Drew

 This week has been amazing. I got a calling for Sunday, Collin (my Brother) get to greet people as they come into sacrament meeting that's awesome. My language is coming along great and i Know that we learn through our trials. I know that the more that we love other people and help them, the more that we feel the saviors love. This week when we taught Jose from Guatemala he had questions that id never thought about before, and also some that i have experienced in my life. I had words put into my mouth and new exactly what to say, and i know that these are blessing from heaven. We are God's children and he knows each and everyone of our thoughts and feelings. he knows what we are going through and what we are feeling.

I know that this week i have learned how to pray more sincerely and with real intent. talk to God as if you were speaking to a friend or parent. He will immediately comfort you and let you know what you need to do, or how to get through your trials. I know that we sacrifice much or even just a little, and the lord gives us blessings ten fold. He is looking for reasons to bless us and help us not take away blessings and leave us out to dry. He loves you as do i. Know that I pray for you all. God Speed.

Love Elder Hawkins

AKA the older

"Every Man In His Own Tongue" -Collin

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been GREAT! Our investigators have been progressing really well!! 

Vitalli:

Vitalli accepted our invitation to pray! We taught him how and after a few questions, he said a an amazing prayer. We invited him to also pray with his family and he agreed. IT was really amazing to see how The Spirit can soften the hearts and change the minds of our investigators. This has helped me to gain a greater testimony of The Holy Ghost. Vitalli will be out of town for Thanksgiving so we wont be able to teach him until next Tuesday...I am really sad about that.

Katya:

Katya is really receptive to our lessons and it also helps that she has had the missionaries before, they were just taken out of her area just before she could be baptized. She wants to know God and Jesus Christ better. We told her that through prayer and with real intent, she could know them better. We asked if we could give her some scriptures to read that would help her to understand The Father and The Son better. She said yes and then we taught her about the Book of Mormon. We taught her about how to use the scriptures to find truth. I told her my experience of how I came to know that the Book of Mormon is true and I bore my testimony of it. I then asked her if she would read the book and do as Moroni directs and pray to know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She agreed and committed to reading it every day. It made me so happy to tell her of the power of the Book of Mormon. I am so proud of her.  

On Friday we are going to teach Katya about baptism and ask if she will be baptized. Will you all keep both of my investigators in your prayers. They need the Spirit in their lives and I hope that we can bring it with us. This work is great and I love it!

As you all know, there are more languages at the MTC that English and Russian. This week I was able to bump into some spectacular people. I was able to speak to the French missionaries and answer question that they had about where to go or what to do as they were new to the MTC. I spoke to them for a while, and then went back to studying. Not 5 minutes later, there was a tap on my shoulder and when I turned around, the elder was signing to his companion. I caught the last half of the question and had his companion ask him to clarify. 

The deaf elder wanted to know what the order was for blessing the sick. He didn't know when to anoint the person. This was  an awesome experience for me because I could have just had him read the Missionary Handbook, but I tried to sign as best as I could,  He and I signed for a bit and he commended me on being able to sign. I was happy that I was able to use my little knowledge of sign to help somebody else.  Thank you mom for giving me a love for that language at such a young age! 

My companion are getting along better although there are still a few hiccups. Drew and I are closer than ever. Our relationship has grown and is growing more and more everyday! 

I need your addresses if you want to get a letter from me. I love getting letters and I want to write back, but I can't unless I have your addresses. 

I love you and can't describe how much of a blessing you all are in my life.

Elder Collin Hawkins

Russia, St. Petersburg Mission

Stand With Faith or Don't Stand at All - Collin

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was difficult for me. I had my ups and downs, but faith prevailed and I was able to make good things out of my trials. 

We didn't have any new investigators until Monday. Their names are, " катя" и "виталий".

Katya:

katya is an old investigator. The recordbook was lost for a year and a half so when the elders left the area, there was no one there to continue teaching her. She has some doubts, but was almost baptized. Right now she doesn't feel that God is answering her prayers and she is having trouble with that. Please pray that Elder R and I can be able to have the Spirit with us in order to touch her heart and be able to baptize her.

Vitalli:

Vitalli is a very stern man. He was introduced to the church and the missionaries by his friend Micheal. Vitalli has a wife and a little boy named, "Maxium". I love Vitalli, but it is hard for us to teach him about how important it is to pray to Heavenly Father. He doesn't distinguish the difference between praying on your knees with your own words and praying while reciting words out of a book. I am having trouble trying to convey that message, but that was my fault. I did not allow the Spirit time to come and touch his heart. I found out that one of my fears is that I don't like silence. I would much rather fill it with words trying to get my point across rather than letting the Spirit to take over. I was humbled by the Lord and I am working on improving on that aspect of my teaching abilities. 

On Monday, I was trying to prepare the lesson for Vitalli with Elder R. and I wasn't able to retain anything from class or any of the phrases that I needed to learn. I was very stressed and this made me question my ability to teach effectively. I decided instead of trying to memorize it then when I was stressed, I would work it in the morning. We went to dinner and I sat next to Drew and he noticed something was wrong. after he had finished and I had finished the little that I was able to, he said, "Let's go." We got up and walked to dump our trays. He asked what was wrong and I didn't want to tell him that I was struggling with the language because when I look at his district, they all just speak in Russian. He told me not to lie to him and tell him what was up. I told him about the lesson and my struggles with not being able to memorize phrases. He told me that he was having the same issues. We talked for a little bit longer and he said things like, "You're a Hawkins, buck up and get the job done", "We never do the easy jobs, we are Hawkins, we do it the hard way." He was able to get me focused on what I had to do. I love having him in the MTC and for him being able to be so close to me. It truly was a blessing.

Yesterday after our appointment with Vitalli, Brother Parson( from Brigham City) our teacher had us break up into little groups and invite the investigator to be baptized. Elder R and I were the missionaries and one missionary form a split Comp.ship was the Investigator. Elder Phelps was supposed to decline the invitation to be baptized and have a reason for it. We asked if he wanted to be baptized and he declined saying that he had sins and he couldn't commit because he didn't feel worthy enough. This brought real tears to my eyes, but joy to my heart. The Atonement is for every one no matter how much sin we have or how guilty we feel. I love this gospel because of that. After a long, but peaceful silence, I said, "That's fine right now, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be baptized and made clean. He sat and pondered this for a while and then agreed to be baptized. I couldn't stop smiling. I love how you can make an average 'role- play" situation and turn it into something special. Although it was a mock situation, I could feel the power that the Holy Ghost has in the conversion of our investigators as well as our own personal conversion. 

I have known that at anytime we don't teach lessons, we teach investigators for a while, but now that I have come the MTC, this has been cemented in my mind and in my heart, Everyday my love grows stronger for the language as well as for the people of Russia. 

this is what happened this week and I am grateful for it. 

I need peoples addressed if you want a letter from me. I need your mailing addresses. A really special thing is www.dearelder.com This is a mail service site that you can write to me or Drew on and we will get your letters the day you send them. Please use the site as well as hand written letters. I love them both. I cherish every letter that I get. 

Here are some pictures of my happenings here in the Promise Land:

Time of My Life/Growing So Much

It has been such an amazing experience coming her and i would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about it. I love it here so very much!! i never thought that id be able to learn a language this fast. I could pray, bear testimony, and teach a lesson by the third day.You learn so quickly here its crazy. My companion is 6' 3" tall and is almost the complete opposite of me, i love his still even though at times it is hard. ive never done anything this hard in my life, calculus is easier than this!! I enjoy it even though i don't always understand it. MY companion has had 4 years of Russian so i'm just a bit behind. I've never struggled with something so much in my life. I've been so humbled in here and have grown so much. I just want all of you to know that i love you and to thank you for supporting me in my efforts to do this. I hope to hear from all of you at some time or another. You again can send letters everyday to me on dearelder.com, and i'm going to the Moscow Russia mission. (Departure date Jan 5, 2016)

      I know that we all can do hard things and that Christ knows each of us individually and that he loves us.  I know that everyone has the right to choose what they do, but you also have the choice to do whats right. There is the ok thing to do then there is the right thing to do. I think of this always now as i go through my day and this helps me to study harder and get up earlier.  It helps me to learn the language and be kind to other. I know that we all have the capacity to do what is right. i love you all so very much and i know that this is where i'm meant to be and so i am here. This is where ive chosen to be to serve my God!! 

Yours Truly 

Elder Hawkins

Having Faith in the Holy Ghost

Dear family and friends,

This week has been a very humbling experience for me in many ways. My companion is a farm boy like me, he has thousands of acres of Mint fields...they send their extract to Wrigley's. I love my companion, Elder Rindlisbacher, so much. I wish that I could put it into words how much strength that he gives me. He may struggle with the language, but he makes up for it in knowing the scriptures. I wish that I could know where to find scriptures like he does. He and I have really liked working with each other. It is kind of like how Drew and I are, but He doesn't know me like that yet. I am so eager to learn this language. I love it and all I want to do is to speak in this language all day!

Our first investigator's name is наташа (Natasha) I love her to death, she is so fantastic. She is progressing so well. we started to teach her on Friday ( in complete Russian) It was hard to do even with the notes that I had. we have taught her 3 times and tonight we get to teach her for the last time, tonight we are going to ask her to be baptized. I am very hopeful that she will accept. She is so strong and I wish that I could have been as strong as her through school. The Holy Ghost really does bring all things to your remembrance. When I wake up in the morning, I get a flood of things that we learned the day before. 

Yesterday I was able to preform in the MTC Choir. We sang, "Nearer My God to Thee" but it was an arrangement made for President Holland. It really brought the Spirit. I could feel the impact that the words had when I sang it for the first time and when I preformed it. I am so lucky. While I am speaking about being lucky, I got to preform Initiatories (I don't know how to spell it. Sorry mom) at the temple this morning. I love it. When we started to go to back the Dome, we looked out over the valley and the snow had lightly covered it making it look so beautiful in the peaceful morning hours. 

I would like to bare my testimony:

  я знаю что бог жйв.  я знаю что джосеф смйт пророк бога.  я знаю что книга мормона истинна. я благадарю тебя за Евангелие и семью. Во имя Иисуса Христа аминь.э

Now you get to go find out what my testimony is. 

I love you all, Be great this week. I know that God loves you all and that he truly does care for us all. give Him your time and He will give you all that you desire.

Elder Collin Hawkins

Elder Drew Hawkins and Elder Collin Hawkins went into the MTC on November 4th, 2015. 

The Elders' addresses are as follows:

Elder Robert Drew Hawkins
JAN05  RUS-St Petersburg
2005 N 900 E Unit 104
Provo UT 84602

Elder Collin James Hawkins
JAN05  RUS-MOS
2005 N 900 E Unit 97
Provo UT 84602

Write them letters! They would really appreciate it :)