My First White Christmas! (Estes Park wk#12)

HI Everyone! 

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year this week! Crazy that 2014 has come and gone. I saw an email earlier today about making New Year's resolutions. I somehow didn't think of doing that yet even though I hear nearly all of them are given up on after a month. 

Christmas was great! This was my first White Christmas (as far as I remember). It started snowing at ~10am and was steady the whole day. I love it when it snows here because usually that means it isn't crazy windy. I had a great breakfast and dinner with two families from church. I am so blessed that it worked out! I was very well fed. Also, I had the opportunity to Skype my family! It was really awesome and nice to talk to them kinda in person and hear that they are doing well!

We have been meeting with this young couple (Camden & Amanda) 23 and 24 years old for nearly 2 months. He hasn't come much to church for a while and she is an investigator. A few weeks ago we finally were able to persuade Amanda to close in prayer. She literally said, "this is dumb" in the middle of the prayer! It finished and turned out to be an ok prayer. It was real at least! Then a few days ago we were teaching a lesson at their house again and invited her to pray to close. It was AMAZING! It was ~5 minutes of genuine real prayer. It was one of the best prayers that I have heard! They have been praying together before bed a few days a week recently. I even found out that she had a prayer in this past week that brought Camden to tears! That is extremely exciting to really be helping people develop a prayer relationship with their Father in Heaven. It is the best!!!

Merry Christmas! (Estes Park wk#11)

Hi everyone!! :)

Another week as a missionary has come and gone! When I left for the library today it looked like it was going to be a beautiful bright sun shining day (with 2 inches of snow on the ground). Then it blizzard for a bit while being in the library. And now it is just very lightly snowing. It has been fun to learn how to drive in the snow! Elder Schenk being from Idaho has been nervous a good amount, but we haven't died! AND at this time it looks like I'll be having a White Christmas! I don't think I have ever had one before! I'm excited.

So a couple of things for the week. First, I got to go to Theodore's baptism a few days ago on Saturday! I was a part of teaching him when I was in the Bison Ridge ward a few months ago. It was pretty sweet to be there for that as well as see a couple people form that area. It was also exciting that Brother Mortensen (Ward Mission Leader) notified me a bit before the service that I was going to be briefly sharing something during the "intermission" part where the people in the baptismal font (Theodore and the one baptizing him) get dried off and changed. He didn't tell me until he introduced me what I would be talking about. It is always a somewhat nerve-racking to talk without any real notification, but it tends to work itself out. He asked me to share part of my conversion story/testimony/feelings about the baptism. 

I have to say, I LOVE the Holy Spirit. It is the most amazing thing ever. I love being able to be called upon to share and actually feeling thoughts/feelings/impressions come to me. I can REALLY feel my words guided and directed my the Spirit. I recalled things others had said and added my testimony to what they said and added some of the things that have been on my heart recently. The best part was that after I talked to this young couple who are living in Laramie, Wy. They drove Elder Harper down with his comp from Laramie because Elder Harper was asked to baptize Theodore. It turns out that she is not a member of the church and he is and is a return missionary. They both really appreciated what I said. I know that God is behind that. It may seem "coincidental" that they just moved into the Spring Creek ward in Laramie or that Elder Harper is serving there or that I got permission to go to the baptism or that they happened to be the ones willing and able to give the missionaries a ride from Laramie, but I know that it isn't. It is God's hand in our lives enabling people to be placed in the lives of others at just the right moment!

The other thing that REALLY hit me this week that I never TRULY considered was the amount of people who have nowhere to go or no family that loves them or no family at all for the holiday season. There are two ladies in their 60s that we talked to yesterday who both expressed SERIOUS concerns about their Christmas/holiday season. One asked us, "do you know if anyone is visiting people on Christmas from church?" because she will be by herself for the first time on Christmas. The other has expressed multiple times about really sad situations in her life that has caused her to be quite broke and without family/friends. It made me think of a scripture, James 1:27 "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." I am understanding that more as a missionary. I have noticed that even more in this area as we spend time with widows in this area or with others who have no/little family. It is EXTREMELY sad to me to hear the life situations of some of these people who can't afford to see their family or don't have family that wants to see them. Whatever we can do to reach out to them and let them know that they are loved and that our Heavenly Father knows and loves them personally helps. Last week I was REALLY nervous about Christmas, we had no idea where we would go! But this week as I have realized that others are in that same situation and that we can be each other's family on Christmas! :) 

I hope you all have a Merry Chirstmas! I REALLY invite you to reach out to someone this season. It will likely help more than you know! You can bring a lot of joy to others this time of year as you think especially of those who don't have family or many friends. 

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

Christmas is in the air! (Estes Park wk#10)

Hi Everyone!

First, I can't believe we are already halfway through another transfer. When we were planning for week 4, Elder Schenk and I looked at each other in disbelief. Time sure flies by. I thought earlier today… "What have I done this year? Serve a mission… serve a mission… yep." I can see how if people work a job for a years that they just fly by! I'll be 24 in less than 3 months!! That's so weird. But ya. Definitely enjoying the time, it just goes by fast!

I don't think I mentioned the Christmas miracle that we had a bit ago! Though it may even get better… we shall see. Elder Schenk a few weeks ago was saying how he wanted a Christmas tree and to decorate for Christmas. All my years in college, I never really put any effort into decorating my room since I was just going to my parent's house for Christmas. Probably, my house wouldn't be decorated at all as a missionary. But Elder Schenk wanted it! And lo and behold a few days later we were having dinner with a family from church and I mentioned about trying to figure out a Christmas tree. She said her mom passed away and left her with the Christmas tree! So she went to get it in the garage and came back with a black plastic bag. The tree was 2 feet tall! So… not exactly what we were hoping for. BUT we did get a little Christmas tree. :)

THEN I mentioned how we got this little Christmas tree and Elder Schenk would really like a bigger one to this other family from church 3-5 days later. None of their family is visiting them for Christmas; they are traveling to their children's house. They are in their 70s and decided not to bring out their big Christmas tree, but instead brought out their 3-4ft tall tree. After a discussion about this tree that they had (and them saying how much effort it would take to put it together) we persuaded them to let us have their 7 ft tree this holiday season! It is awesome! I attached a picture of the two trees. We haven't decorated it yet… hopefully we will today! It was a lot easier to put together than we were told; it only took about 15 minutes. 

THEN I mentioned this story at dinner a few days ago and the husband said he can go cut one down on some property in Estes and drop it off at our house! So we might end up getting a real tree! We will see what happens. Elder Schenk and I never got on our knees and prayed for God to manifest a Christmas tree in our life. However, we did have that prayer in our heart. I was the one to bring up the idea of the tree even though it wasn't something I really wanted that much. But I knew that Elder Schenk did so we were trying to figure it out. Some of you remember the story I told before about Tostitos and how they appeared in my life after I really wanted to buy them from a store, but resisted. They actually reappeared! A couple from church gave us 2 bags and salsa because we ate at a restaurant once together and I ate SOOOOOO much chips and salsa it was crazy. I definitely have a sure testimony that our Heavenly Father loves us and cares about us. He continues to show Himself to me in the little things. He cares even about the little things in our lives. I am so blessed to know that He comes through and helps us. :)

In terms of missionary work this week, all the people we have been working with - Marie, Amanda, Sabrina, Chris, John, Jayson, and Evin - are all moving forward to some degree. It is really awesome to be working with people that actually are interested in knowing for themselves if this is true and are interested in changing their lives for the better! The best missionary experience for the week was in teaching Marie and the Smith's home. Wow. The Spirit was among the strongest it has ever been in a lesson. Marie said herself that she knew she was being taught by the Spirit and Sister Smith said this was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences she has had in a lesson (she is in her 60s and has been a member of the Chruch her whole life, so she has heard this message before!). It was most powerful when Elder Schenk shared the First Vision, when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ when he was asking which church to be baptized into. Marie visibly was affected by it. I am SOOOO grateful that we have the Spirit; how else could 18-27 year olds (the majority younger than 21) be charged with growing the church? The Spirit is the real teacher. It is our responsibility to be worthy and willing to allow the Spirit to teach the people the Gospel. It is awesome. :)

I hope you have an awesome Christmas! It's only 10 days away! Coming up fast. We have a calendar we sing songs and read scripture from every day in December before Christmas. It is crazy to see the days go by. 

Elder Jeff Campbell

--> One other cool thing, the Aidyn and Owen were ordained to the Aaronic priesthood yesterday at church! They are growing well in the Gospel since they were baptized 4 weeks ago.

Everything is Clicking (Estes Park wk#9)

Hi everyone!!

I don't know if you have experienced this before (I hope you have), but this week everything just seemed to click. Specifically what I'm talking about is the results at the end of the week. Since Elder Schenk got here just over 3 months ago, there has been a LOT of hard work being put in here. The results are really starting to come! We had about 15 people that we are working with that are either not members or less-active members of the church that made it to church this week!! We were ridiculously excited for that.

The biggest miracle of that was that 3 specific people came that we had been working hard to facilitate coming for 1-2 months. Two of them are Camden and Amanda. They have been meaning to come for a couple of weeks and we were finally able to facilitate them coming! The other one is Marcy who has a SUPER bad back and is on oxygen. Every week for months she hasn't been able to come for one reason or another, but she came!! We helped her get into her wheelchair and get to church and take her home. AND she came to our dinner that night with her fellowshipper friends the Hiney's. This was the most I have seen her out of her house and it was AWESOME! (We watched a video "Only a Stonecutter" with her on Saturday. That might have helped. It is about a guy who was called to be a stonecutter on the Salt Lake Temple who walked 22 miles to get there Mondays and 22 miles back on Fridays. After a number of years of doing this, he broke his left leg below the knee, got it amputated, and a year later resumed his calling - walking 22 miles 2x/wk with a peg leg to work on the Temple). I felt inspired as well in that video! 

Definitely my favorite thing as a missionary is helping people really make progress in their life. It is EXTREMELY fulfilling to have people really start to grow and change and move forward in their lives as a result of your help. Obviously it isn't all about me, and as I've learned since I've been out here, very little is about me! Most any missionary could be here and meet with people and have the same things happen here. I just happen to be one of the two that are here right now when people are ready to hear the Gospel. But I love playing that small role that we are given - to teach and invite people to take action in their live in love. 

It is crazy though that I spent about 6 months in the same ward in Loveland without this progress. I felt like we were working hard, but not many people made any significant improvement with our help in the Gospel. I don't know exactly what we are doing differently, maybe focusing more on really helping people take action? But I'm just humbled to really be seeing changes in people's lives!

Also, I found out who my great-great grandparents are! My dad's mom's dad's parents. It took quite a while to finally find a record that connects my great grandfather to his parents. The record was indexed improperly - it had him as a unique entry even though he was 15 years old and right below his parents on the census! I haven't had a chance to research much - only 1x or so per month for maybe an hour. But I'm excited that I'm starting to learn a little about my ancestors. (Although it is pretty likely that someone I'm related to already knows this stuff and I just need to find the research that has already been done instead of doing it myself!)

It's sure exciting out here to be working with people that are excited about missionary work and building up a new branch in Estes! Being with Elder Schenk is still a blast.

Have an awesome week! Check out christmas.mormon.org for a short 3 minute video about how HE is the gift this holiday season. It isn't about the presents, it is about THE present of Christmas. :)

Elder Jeff Campbell

Happy Thanksgiving! (Estes Park wk#8)

Hi Everyone!

I had a couple things from this week I wanted to share. Something I learned about myself, something I learned from the scriptures, and some of the missionary work that's happening. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! (I attached a photo of it).

There was one thing that I learned (or was reminded of) this week that I really didn't anticipate learning, that I don't like to lose! Through a series of awesome events last week, we met a nice girl who hooked us up with board games. This week we played Sequence. And Elder Schenk beat me 4x in a row in a day (and I still haven't beaten him). I was not excited about this… especially since in one of the games I was sooooooo close to winning. I punched the extra mattress in the other room to get out some frustration and then in another game after he beat me I just flipped the board over at him. Not really a Christ-like way to play a game!! So I have prayed and reflected a lot about this. The thing that I learned from this experience (that somehow escaped me before) is that I'm not entirely control over the outcome of things in my life! In this case, it relates to competitions or games. In board or card or video or sport games, if you are competing against someone else, you are not in 100% control over the outcome. They have their free-will that you can't control. Maybe they are really good at the game! Maybe they got lucky! Either way, we aren't in total control. For some reason I was under the impression that I should win every game/competition I'm in. Turns out even if I do everything right, I could still lose! So I refocused. All I can control is that I do the best that I can with what I'm given. I will play to win, but am now accepting the fact that I can't control the final outcome! So that was a good thing to learn - now I actually have to implement it! Didn't realize how much of my emotions rested upon winning random things!

Other thing I learned this week from reading the Book of Mormon. Alma 49&50 records Captain Moroni leading the Nephites in battle against the Lamanites. It is very interesting when you liken it to yourself and see us as the Nephites and Satan as the Lamanites. Satan likes to attack us in ways that he has succeeded before. In the scriptures, the Lamanites chosen leaders of their armies who were Nephi-dissenters because they knew the historical weaknesses of the Nephities the best. However, Captain Moroni knew they would attack their weakest points so they fortified like crazy the cities that had been captured before. The Lamanites were shocked when they saw that the former weaknesses were now strengths! In a battle at one of those cities, over 1000 Lamanites died whereas zero Nephites died. Then after that war, the Lamanites retreated. However, Captain Moroni was not satisfied with simply a victory. He took his army across the plains and expelled all the Lamanities from the areas that were Nephi lands. He "cut off all the strongholds of the Lamanites… [and] did seek to cut off the strength and power of the Lamanites from off the lands of their possessions, that they should have no power upon the lands of their possession." In likening it to ourselves, there are strongholds of the enemy in our lives - mistakes or tendencies that we have that are not Christlike. While we aren't negatively affected often by these small character defects in our lives, they will come back and be attacked if we don't fortify them now! I love to read the scriptures and have the unfolded for me so that I can see how the counsel can be applied to my life!

In terms of missionary work this week, we multiple positive member present lessons this week. We are finally gaining traction with Camden and Amanda (who we met 3 weeks ago) and even have a new investigator. I love to work with people who have a sincere heart (what to know the truth) and have real intent (will act on the answer they receive). We talked to Amanda this week about that and she said, "yes! I have that." And I Chris is still excited to be baptized and coming every week to church. That's great. We thought that it would be a walk in the park teaching Evin (an 11 yr old brother of Owen & Aidyn) because he claimed to want to be baptized. Then he told us how God is boring and how what he watched in the "Finding Faith in Christ" movie (depicting the biblical account of Jesus Christ) was impossible. And he thinks praying is dumb. Haha. I forgot how challenging it can be to work with barely interested kids! It is humbling - and I needed that more than I thought I did.

Have a great week!

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

Another 6 in Estes Park! (Estes Park wk#7)

Hi Everyone!!! :)

Transfer day is tomorrow and somehow a miracle has occurred!! Elder Schenk and I made a pie chart about what we thought would happen in Estes Park. 40% we both go. 30% I go. 25% he goes. 5% we both stay. I think the problem with my logic was that I have been training him for the last 6 weeks and he is now done with being trained and I didn't expect that it is very often that a trainer and trainee stay together after training! Yet here we are and it happened. We are both going to be here through the end of the year. We are excited for sure!

The baptism happened! Exciting. It's been a while since someone I have personally taught was baptized when I was there. It was fun to be there for the baptism of Aidyn and Owen Scott. Their brother Jayson will be baptized some other time as he is not yet ready. But ya! It was the best. They were both quite excited to be baptized. It was definitely a trek to help them join the church and the baptism went well (other than not remembering to tell them they need a towel and extra underwear…).

The best part of this week was definitely Wednesday Night. We had a Youth Activity that was AWESOME! 2.5 weeks ago we were at an MTC night put on by the Long's Peak Ward (the ward that the Estes Park Branch split off from, we still do some things together). Basically, the youth got into groups and attempted to teach people the Gospel as missionaries do. They taught for a couple minutes different people who pretended to have different backgrounds (other religions or people who haven't come to church for a while, etc). Then this Wednesday night we split up into 4 groups in Estes Park and went out visiting real people! 3 of them were less-active and 1 was our Branch Mission Leader. There were 2-3 youth in each group that taught our first missionary lesson - the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I loved it! The coolest part is that 4 of the 10 youth there weren't even members of the church (2 were just baptized and 2 will be in the next month or two). I had a chance to be with Owen Scott. He was asked, "how do we learn about the Gosepl?" The answer we were looking for was "from a prophet," but he proceeded to talk about how he learned the Gospel. He said that missionaries had been coming over 1-2 times a week for the last 2 months, that he was reading from the Book of Mormon, and that he prayed asking God if the 'Church of Latter-Day Saints' was true. He received an answer for himself that it is true, and he doesn't even know the full name of the church! He is awesome. It was so powerful for me to hear his testimony shared to a nice lady who hasn't been at church for a long time. He wants to go out teaching more and he is only 13!

I hope all of you have an AMAZING THANKSGIVING! It will definitely be weird to not be home with my family; I miss them and will be missing them more over the holidays for sure. But I love being a missionary and am excited to spend another transfer with Elder Schenk out here preaching the Gospel in Estes Park!!

Elder Jeff Campbell

--> a picture from the baptism, me riding a dinosaur thing from Transformers movie, and the District! They are awesome missionaries too. :)

Winter has arrived! (Estes Park wk#6)

Hi Everyone!!

Every week is a great week being a missionary! But I am a little sad... this is the last week of the transfer and it's almost guaranteed that Elder Schenk and I won't be companions anymore. It's been a good time for sure! He is one of my best friends now. We have handled it whenever we have had struggles together. It's been awesome. This week was also the coldest week of my life! It hit a low of -21 F that I saw. I've even had the opportunity to drive in the snow! It's been exciting since I had driven less than 5 times in the snow until now. And we haven't gotten in an accident or anything! The awesome guy I mentioned last week about giving us mixed signals has come back! He even made it to church this weekend after last week saying how he doesn't want to be Mormon anymore. I had hope and am excited it has turned around; we once again talk to him and see him regularly.

One of the nicest things about being a missionary is that the counsel the Savior gives to us really is true! The counsel he gives in the latter part of Matthew 6 and towards the start of Matthew 10 is true! He talks about not considering what we shall eat or drink tomorrow, but to seek first the kingdom of God. Additionally when sending out his disciples, he tells them not to take a second coat or second pair of shoes (fortunately we can do that, but we don't have much stuff for sure!) and to stay and be fed where people accept us and that message. I know that counsel was for missionaries specifically and that it has proven true! There are so many amazing families that we meet all over the place. This one family has fed us 2 lunches and they were unreal - the first was an epic rack of ribs on Elder Schenk's birthday and this last week was deep fried Halibut. Wow. This week they are getting us hooked up with another great meal. And that's just part of it. I'm so humbled to have the opportunity to seriously just focus on serving God and have everything else work itself out! It really does when you give your all to Preach the Gospel!

Top miracle of the week was a new person (Chris) we were referred to and have begun teaching the Gospel to. We taught him 4 times this week and he is seriously progressing. It is wonderful teaching someone who is humble. He readily admits he was compelled to be humble - doctors have told him he should be dead because of alcohol abuse. But he isn't and is ready to change his life and turn it over to the Lord. It feels so great to be teaching someone who is really engaged, asking questions, and desiring what we have. He reconnected with his friend Dan (our branch mission leader) at the gym in Longmont 4 months ago and has now accepted Dan's invitation to learn more about the Gospel. Last night when we taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ he told us at the end that he felt peace. He hasn't felt at peace for decades. He could truly feel the Spirit of God coming into His heart. He said he also felt that at church. He can barely ever sit still, but was able to sit and be present for all 3 parts of church!

Lastly, we reset the three Scott boys for baptism on this coming Saturday. It seems like it'll come together nicely. We have a little more to teach them, but they are pretty ready. It'll be exciting for sure! It's going to be interesting... this Wednesday night we have a youth activity where they are going out with us as missionaries! There was a prep activity 2 weeks ago and the Scott boys came, we are hoping/anticipating them coming out with us to teach some families from church about the Gospel! That will be awesome.

In terms of spiritual learning stuff, we had a Mission Tour on Saturday meaning a member of the Church General Authority (Elder Baxter) came and spoke to us. For the bulk of his time talking he talked about 1 thing, the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He went into depth about how God REALLY does love us. One of the most powerful things was he invited us to read scriptures with our name in it to feel that Christ is talking to us (because He is). I had a chance to read a sentence out loud with my name in it from our missionary manual. "Jeffrey Campbell. All that is unfair about your life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." He had me read that about 10x out loud in front of the 70+ missionaries and a few others that were there. It was powerful. And I really do know that the sentence I read is true. The atonement (Jesus Christ's perfect life; suffering in Gethsemane for all our pains, sicknesses, temptations, trials, and sins; sacrifice on the cross at Calvary; and Resurrection) is the great equalizer of life. He invites all men to come unto Him. There are no restrictions on past sins, on current issues, on gender, on age, on ethnicity, on anything. He invites all of us, no matter if we had a abusive past, if we are alcoholic, if we have a terribly bad back, or anything. He just wants us to come to Him. He is inviting us to be exalted - to have eternal joy with Him and His Father in the Celestial Kingdom. He loves us. He really does. It says in a variety of places in the scriptures that even through all of our sins and mistakes "His hand is outstretched still." I testify that it is. I have seen the act of coming to Jesus and relying wholly upon his merits, mercies, and grace change lives out here and my own life. If you have not yet, I invite you to!

Have an amazing week!

Sincerely,

Elder Jeff Campbell

Ups, Downs, Miracles, and Lessons (Estes Park wk#5)

Hi Everyone!

Once again it is 20 degrees colder on Monday than the rest of the week, except today it is snowing pretty solidly right now too. Looks like Winter has finally come to Estes Park after holding off a good amount of time (it was in the mid 50s most of the week).

This week I had an opportunity to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders for a day. It was pretty interesting. I was not looking forward to it as much because the Zone Leaders have had a third companion who was sent there in the middle of the transfer basically so they could babysit him before he finishes his mission. I heard not the best reviews about him, but when I was with them, he was AWESOME! I decided to ask him why he had such a bad reputation. He said that he makes a lot of really terrible decisions... haha. And he also has a sense of humor that some people don't appreciate very much. And I share this to illustrate a point that it is so easy to judge people. I am always surprised how much that happens - that I negatively judge others. Usually (not 100% of the time), after getting to know them better I am pleasantly surprised by how awesome they are! After the exchange I took a picture with him since I might never see him again as he finishes his mission tomorrow. But ya, that was a great experience this week. Even the zone leader I got to spend time with told me he loves him a lot. He did mention a couple of the bad decisions (and they definitely were bad decisions), but he still is a good guy that I like and respect a lot more now than before I even spent time with him!

Other exciting things... one of the most awesome people we are working with (he joined the church over the summer) is going through some hard times. We found out on Friday that he had been trying to tell us he doesn't want to be a part of the church anymore. AND his mom called us telling us that if we tried anything that she'd call the cops. So that was extremely disheartening. However, the next day he spent time with a guy from church that he really likes and then yesterday he went again with him to have dinner. We later saw him visiting a less-active guy from church too with his friend. Today while on the computer, my companion talked to him on the phone and he apologized. So I have no idea what is happening with him right now. Haha. He does have seasonal depression type stuff so maybe it was just mental issues. But ya, it is an adventure working with people sometimes because at the drop of a hat they can disappear or cancel everything! (And now... he is here in the library with us and everything seems to be going well).

Lastly, we had an awesome experience last week on Monday night. The couple we met last Sunday, Camden and Amanda, came with us to dinner at the Hartzog's house! It is awesome because they are all about the same age (my age actually - 22, 23, 23, and 24). Both couples have a young child and are living in Estes with primarily older friends. The best part was talking about "small and simple things bring to pass that which is great." Amanda shared part of her story of how she ended up in Estes and end up with her son (it's actually her younger brother's son). And how she has seen the hand of God in her life. She talked about being in the flood last year and all the miracles that happened to help her and her family make it through. They didn't have any way of communicating with the outside world during the flood since there was no service at their house. The day of the flood she was in pajamas, with her son, and Camden going to his work. On their way, roads were closed and they were driving through roads covered in water still not realizing anything. They weren't able to get back to their house for 3 months. Miraculously Camden brought his wallet with him and they were able to get a place to stay and some clothes. But they didn't have enough money. Miraculously money came through and so much more. She didn't really care at all about religion when she moved to Estes a few years ago because her family wasn't the best and were "Christian." She thought, if this is what it means to be Christian, I don't want to be a part of it! But now, she has a testimony of God in her life. That He knows her and cares about her personally.

One last thing that I learned this week... I have been thinking about my testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I have been thinking about it because I read the other day some extremely persuasive stuff a historian wrote about the likelihood of stuff in the Bible happening. One thing that I came to the conclusion about is that no one can disprove or prove in a way that is satisfying to everyone that Jesus is the Christ or that the New Testament is the Word of God. Similarly no one can do that for the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. There is no way to REALLY prove without a shadow of a doubt either of those. People can write or say whatever they feel can be proved or studied or whatever, but no one alive now can really know what actually happened, they can only speculate from the best resources available. In order to know satisfactorily, we can't rely solely on physical researched proof. The only proof is from God. And I do know that we can know things from God. I have a testimony of a lot of things - I can feel the Spirit as I share that testimony with people and I know in my heart that it is true. I really do. And that's the truth that we can rely on.

Have an awesome week!

Elder Jeff Campbell

Epic Miracle Week (Estes Park wk#4)

This week was pretty awesome again. So many great things going on! We had miracles, a virtual day off, and the hardest working day I've had as a missionary!

Friday this week was our virtual day off. We had a breakfast in Longmont (~45 mins away) at 7am in the morning. Then had our studies and went to a meeting in Fort Collins from 1:30-3:30pm only getting back to Estes at 6pm when we were supposed to go home for Halloween. At that meeting (trainer's meeting) we wore matching ties that our Mission President pointed out during the meeting. We are a unified companionship!!! It's awesome.

Next day (Saturday) we decide we have to STEP IT UP. So we planned to teach 10 lessons in 1 day and DID IT!!! That was pretty awesome. AND we didn't even teach a lesson during lunch and had one appt take 1.5-2 hrs, but the rest of the day we put in work! My favorite part is that all of the lessons we taught actually related to our key indicators. So we taught 6 lessons to less-active or recent converts and 3 other lessons and got 2 referrals from dinner with members. We were SUPER tired at the end of the day! But it felt really great to go from appt to appt the whole day! We even met a new nonmember at one of our appts. So that was a lot of fun!

Next day (Sunday) we drove around to last minute re-invite people to church. We stop at one of our investigators home (12 yr old Sabrina). She hasn't come to church yet because she wants her dad to come with her. But after visiting for about 15 minutes, she decided she would come to church even though her dad would only be dropping her off! AND she actually came. So that was a miracle! She is progressing now towards being baptized.

THEN we dropped by another house only to have them not home. While we were walking to our car, a car stopped and the guy (24 yrs old) got out and said he is an inactive member and that we should come over to his house 1 block away! How miraculous! We visited with them for 45 mins or so and taught a little about Heavenly Father and prayer to him and girlfriend. Super awesome! They are planning to come eat dinner with us tonight at a young couple's house in Estes from church. We are super excited!

THEN at church a random kid named James showed up and said his friend Alyssa invited him (we have never met Alyssa). She ends up coming. Both of them end up bearing their testimonies at Testimony meeting. Alyssa joined the church in Texas a year and a half ago and James hasn't been to church before. It was amazing that people we haven't even met and aren't currently coming to church are bringing people!

Lots of awesome experiences this week. I've even been trying to pick up more Spanish since a lot of people speak Spanish that we have met. It's really fulfilling to be a missionary!

I studied/pondered about the scriptures showing that we have a loving Heavenly Father this week. So many are really good. One of my favorites is 3 Nephi 14:9-11 (also Mat 7:9-11 is the same). It is actually right after the part I shared last week:
"9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
The reason why I love this scripture is because it really helps me understand how much God loves us and wants to answer our prayers. If we asked our earthly father for something, he will probably give it to us! And we are imperfect people who make mistakes all the time and aren't always nice. When we ask Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can know, OF COURSE He will hear and answer and help us!

And about the hike last week... so it snowed the night before. We kinda got lost on the last 0.7 miles to the top as you can see with my companion and no actual trail. But we made it to the top! I took a lot of videos, but don't have any good picture of myself at the top of the mountain. It was a nice view! And the last picture is of us and Richard - he sadly is moving to Rawlins so he will have to be taught by the missionaries there (we will also miss his pit bull).

Have a great week!

Sincerely,
Elder Jeff Campbell

Doing Work in Estes (Estes Park wk#3)

Hi Everyone!

It is nice to have a full week of work since last week I was sidelined for a bit. It feels great to be with a companion who is ready to work and visit people and teach lessons all the time. While I'm "training" him right now, he is already a great missionary. I think the nicest thing is that he is always prepared at any time to teach the Gospel to someone. He is in the zone!

This week I'm starting to get the hang of where things are in Estes. Last night we were really close to our lesson goal for the week so we went on splits with members from the ward. This was the first time I drove in Estes to visit people without the help of Elder Schenk and I did it! We found the people we were looking for! It was awesome. We ended up basically hitting our goal. It felt pretty satisfying to be able to get around town fairly well without my navigator! Though we probably should get a map one of these days…

We had a pretty exciting service opportunity this week! The husband of a member who isn't coming to church currently was doing some landscaping at the townhouse complex he helps run. He is 69 and was planning to move tons of ~100lb rocks to a spot to prevent a concrete slab from sliding and caving. However, the rocks delivered were closer to 200 or 300lbs. My companion and I helped! It was crazy moving these super heavy rocks. We didn't have a scale, so we can't say how heavy they actually were. But they were extremely dense solid granite rocks. I couldn't believe that 69 yr old dude was doing such hard labor! He is pretty impressive to me!

In terms of work, we have been working with these 4 kids (10-14) who are preparing to be baptized. They are set for this Saturday, but we aren't sure if they will for sure be ready by then. It is really exciting to be teaching some people who are enthusiastic about being baptized! It is pretty awesome starting to slowly see changes in them as they start to accept our invitations to actually read from their scriptures on a daily basis and pray.

I had an opportunity to give the training this week at District Meeting and we talked generally about receiving revelation from God. That is one of the COOLEST topics ever in my opinion. I feel like it is THE MOST important thing for people to learn. It is TRUE that we can actually come to our Heavenly Father in prayer and receive counsel and answers to things in our lives that concern us. We had a discussion with all 8 of us there going through ways people receive revelation. 1 Elder said he fasts (24 hrs w/o food & water) in prayer to receive answers. 1 Sister said back home she would go to the Temple grounds with her scriptures & hymns in prayer to receive answers. Another sister prays at night with specific questions and receives answers in visions/dreams while she sleeps. Another Elder prays about it and then talks to trusted people about it to come up with answers. And there were more too. For me, when I am seeking revelation/guidance from Heavenly Father, I go off by myself in prayerful pondering. It is part out loud and part quiet inside and I just ask really specific questions on what to say in a talk or training or how to help my companionship or whatever other questions I have. Obviously there are more ways - like having questions going into church and receiving answers there or listening to talks by church leaders. I'm just SOOOO grateful to know that Heavenly Father loves us and communicates with us IF we do what Jesus says to do, in the Sermon on the Mount "7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." I know that if we ask, seek, and knock that we will truly receive, find, and have the door opened. We have a loving Heavenly Father who is truly concerned with our day to day lives because he is literally our Father! And He is the perfect Father who is able to help you up and allow you to fall. It is awesome. :)

We are going to be out of here pretty soon to go on a hike. I wish I was healthy enough last Monday to go because it was 37 and kinda snowing this morning here in Estes. BUT I gotta take advantage of the opportunity to go on a nice hike. And for my family - yes, I have a lot of warm clothes to wear for the hike in case it is super cold. :)

Have an amazing week!

I attached a picture of Elder Schenk and me, and epic sunset, and an average day in Estes with Elk doing whatever they want downtown. :)

A Cabin in the Woods (Estes Park wk#2)

Hi Everyone!

Who would have thought I would have the privilege of serving in Estes Park, Colorado (aka "the base camp for visiting Rocky Mountain National Park")!?! I'm excited. It's a little sad that it is about to be winter and pretty cold up here, but it has been very nice so far! We are living 2 miles outside of town on a dirt road in a 2 bed, 1 bath cabin. Pretty legit. AND the people who own it were just using it as a work office, so no one lives here with us! Pretty awesome.

But more than that, I have an AWESOME companion! We decided that we are pretty much the same person. Both played basketball and ran in high school. He plans to study engineering and I studied engineering. He is my same height, body type, and weight. He also likes to work out and we have already been on 3 runs. We both really want to be out here serving missions and intend on making these 2 years count. And there is more. He is turning 19 tomorrow, so he is definitely younger than me, but he is one of those just out of high school missionaries that are actually prepared. Moral: I'm excited and it has been great thus far.

As far as the work is concerned, the last missionary who was here was SUPER depressed to be leaving because they taught 168 lessons in the 6 weeks they were here. That's like 25/week and they didn't have anything to work with the first week or two! There are lots of people that we are teaching and reactivating. It's pretty exciting. AND they just started a branch here. Instead of having church in Lyons (20 miles, 30 minutes down the canyon), they meet up here. It seems like there is a LOT of excitement since this is the first time in 30 years that there has been church in Estes Park. It will be a lot easier for people to be able to come! It is so new that the only callings are in the branch presidency. It'll be exciting to work with the excited people up here to help build a strong church!

And it is exciting to be a District Leader. Three months ago, our mission instituted a nightly call in where the District Leader is supposed to call all the companionships in his district and then zone leaders call the District Leaders in the Zone and then Assistants call all the zone leaders. It was started because there were a lot of missionaries going home with depression and they wanted to try to talk to them sooner so that wouldn't happen. So now I have the opportunity to talking to some missionaries every day! And it is a lot of fun. It am getting to learn on the fly how to be loving and inspiring so that they want to work harder and don't feel like they are being beat up. Since it is a volunteer army, there isn't anything I can hold over their head to make them do more. I like it because that is definitely like real life, positional authority is not real authority/influence anyway. Like it says in our handbook, "A leader helps other missionaries most when they feel the leader's love. They should feel that the leader is motivated by a sincere concern for their welfare, not by his or her own interests." Now I have a chance to implement it.

Also, this District is pretty awesome. I was SUPER sick a few days ago and they all wanted to come up and try to help me with a blessing or soup! :) I'm not sure if they just wanted an excuse to drive up to Estes, but either way they wanted to help me and were concerned with my health - and I just met all of them a few days before! It's really cool to feel that kind of love from them!

The one other interesting thing is that this is the first time in months that I have been the new missionary in the ward. It is so weird!! The companion I'm "training" knows everyone and can do everything. The first couple days he basically taught all the people we visited because I didn't know anything about them! It is super humbling to be in a different area with someone who knows the area. I didn't realize how hard I probably made it on Elder Harper. It sucks a lot when your companion teaches everything and you don't have anything to say! And it's weird to be the driver in an area you have never driven in and you have never seen a map (still haven't)!

I for sure miss the area that I just was in, but when there is so much going on up here, you don't even have time to think about it! 

Hope all of you are doing awesome! 

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

The end of an era, TRANSFERS

Hi Everyone!

My days in the Bison Ridge Ward of the Loveland, CO Stake have come and gone. It was fun for sure. I had dinner last night at the Leonhardt's house (one of the awesome families in the ward). I will miss them and so many other families too. Many of them mentioned that this is the best ward they have ever lived in. Though I don't really have anything to compare it to, there are a large number of extremely devoted people and many amazing families. I am so blessed to have known many of them. Multiple families - the Eppersons, Houghtons, Weidas, Wrights, Mortensens, Bensons, Pratts, Kirkhams, Laytons, Andersons (and more)... are just phenomenal! I am glad to have seen them and SOOOO many families to learn how they operate. I have come to appreciate my parents and grandparents and extended family a lot more since being out here because I didn't know what other families looked like or did! I'm glad to have more insight on how to pattern my life!

So I'm rapidly running out of email time. I was distracted for the last hour or so because they didn't tell us where we were being transferred to until right now (usually they tell us Saturday night). So I'm going to the Estes Park ward to second transfer train Elder Schenk and be the District Leader there. It's kinda funny. Last transfer there was a trio companionship as zone leaders for part of the transfer in Loveland. One of them, Elder Greer, was moved to be a district leader trainer in Estes. Now he is back as Zone Leader in Loveland, and I'm taking over the training of his new missionary. Kinda funny (at least to me it is).

I can't remember any highlights in the short time I have left, I'm just glad I got to see so many of the people that I love in the last week I've been here. I hope you all have an amazing week! Can't believe it's already been a missionary for 9 months!

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

General Conference is the best! (Lvlnd wk #24)

Hi my favorite people! :)

Soooo this week! I'm starting my last week of my 4th transfer in Loveland in the Bison Ridge Ward. I've had an awesome run! Ever since I began training Elder Harper nearly 2.5 months ago, I've been anticipating leaving after this transfer. While it is technically possible I'll still be here, it's not super likely. The magnitude of what I just said didn't hit me until I thought more about what I just wrote. I REALLY need to make this week awesome as I may never see the people in this area again in my life after this week!

In terms of missionary work, the 2 top experiences this week was planning a time to go tracting and then only having time to attempt 2 doors when we found a friendly lady. The other was another day when we were going to go home early, but decided to try one more house and ultimately talked for 30 minutes to the nonmember teenage siblings of a recent convert who is a missionary in the Dominican Republic.

Moving on to my favorite part of the week, watching General Conference.

We saw a Movie!! (Lvlnd wk#23)

Hi Everyone! :)

Sooooo if you don't know missionary rules, basically we can't partake in popular entertainment culture - sports, tv, movies, music, etc because it seriously distracts from our focus as servants of God. I can testify to that for sure. When we are at home and the family we are with are watching NCIS or a football game, it is not conducive to me doing missionary work! Or when we visit someone and they are watching the awesome battle scenes of Return of the King it is hard to stay focused!

That being said, we saw a movie this week!

An undeniable miracle and more! (Lvlnd wk #22)

Hi!

I hope this email finds you well. Another week has come and gone. First, I have a miracle to share (3 paragraphs) and then a couple other thoughts. 

A miracle happened this week that I had a tiny part in! For our ward, there is a lady who is in charge of coordinating dinners for us as missionaries. She wasn't given a "Do not Contact" list and was just calling people to feed us for this month. She called a family who was on that list and somehow set up an appt with them for the Saturday Sept 20th. I was very confused/nervous when I saw it there. When the day before came around, we attempted to call their number to no avail. Then we decided to drop by their house, but the promptly said "just leave" and closed the door on us. We were confused. We were confused already because the first names didn't match up the people who we attempted to coordinate the dinner with. So our dinner calendar lady set up a different dinner for Saturday.

However, Saturday morning she got 3 missed calls and 2 voice-mails about the dinner for that night!

No more Lake House! (Lvlnd wk #21)

Hi Everyone!! :)

Another week has come and gone. It is kinda cool being only able to be online 1x/wk. It definitely helps you notice the weeks coming and going.

A couple cool experiences from the week:

1. We are moving today! Out of the lake house and into the basement! I'm fairly excited for the move. Elder Harper is so funny... he has only lived in the lake house and has been excited for the last month or more to move into this new place. There are pros and cons to every place, but it is really hard to go wrong with such a private great and spacious building. I wonder how he will like it... Elder Blackham on the other hand has lived in over 10 locations as a missionary and therefore understands how BLESSED we were at this lake house. I am excited for a change of scenery. It was awesome, but too much for me. The couch that has been downstairs for the last month has been my Achilles heal. Dramatically has reduced my productivity... So this should be good.

Elder Cook came! (Lvlnd wk #20)

Hi everyone!

Hope this email finds you well!

The most exciting thing about this week was that I had the opportunity on Saturday and Sunday this week to hear from leaders in the church! Elder Quentin L Cook of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles visited the Mission with Elder Craig C Christiansen and Elder Davis S Baxter. Saturday morning was the first time this mission has ever gotten together at one time to hear from all of them. It was pretty sweet. We all got to shake hands with each of them before they began. I was hoping they would deliver the news that we are getting iPads, but that didn't happen. Sad day. I'm holding out on getting a GPS because I am hoping we actually get them someday. Nonetheless, it was a great meeting. I had never been in such a small group before listening to the words of an apostle. The best thing I heard was when he shared about his personal knowledge of the Savior. I could feel it deep within me that what he was saying was true. I could feel his conviction; he really does know the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is one of his witnesses on the earth. I'm glad to be there to hear that.

Transfers Again! (part 5)

Hi Everyone!

First, it has been 6 weeks already and transfers are in! I'm staying in the same area with Elder Harper. However, we are also getting another companion Elder Blackham. I have met him a few times, but don't know anything about him really. I served near him when I was in Laramie my first transfer. So I know he has been out at least 1 year, perhaps 1.5 years. If things go as I expect, I'll be transferred after 6 weeks to a new area because I will have been here for about 6 months!

Miracles Everywhere​! (Lvlnd Wk #18)

First, can't believe next time I'll be emailing that I will learn where I will be next transfer. This time, I REALLY hope it is this same area and that my companionship will last one more transfer. I believe that will be the case since I'm training Elder Harper and many missionaries have stayed in this ward for 6 months.

Also, I finally consciously recognized why Elder Harper and I get along so well, he has a complementary personality to me! I can't relax too long. While I can take maybe a day off and really chill, I start getting stir crazy after that. It hurts me on the inside when I am not moving forward to achieving goals. I feel the need to be doing something more often than not. And I have a system for everything. It has been hard sometimes when I have companions who think my system is dumb or when they have their own. Elder Harper on the other hand is a very go-with-the-flow, flexible, relaxed, content guy. It is the best. He goes along with my plans, listens to my theories and strategies, and isn't easily offended. I definitely have appreciated this time we have been together thus far.

As for the miracles, it's been awesome!

What is a textbook missionary day? (Lvlnd wk #17)

Hi family and friends and awesome people (it's ok to fall into more than one category). I hope this email finds you well! And I apologize if you feel that I overuse the word "awesome" (and sometimes "amazing") I do. I wish I liked other synonyms as much as the word awesome. But wonderful, fantastic, magnificent, terrific, fantabulous, etc just have never cut it for me.

Finally!!! I had like a textbook missionary day (Saturday). It had a little bit of everything in it. It started off super awesome. We had the opportunity to meet with Theodore in the morning with another kid his age from church that he likes. The lesson couldn't have gone better. He was super engaged, absorbed a lot of the lesson that we shared, and more. Before we started we asked him about his expectations and what he was looking to get out of meeting with us and he said after a little prodding to be baptized. Elder Harper was able to invite him at the end of the lesson - which he accepted. So that was awesome, probably couldn't have had the day start on any better note - and it was only 1pm!

Another Unique Loveland, CO Week! (#16)

Hi Everyone!

I don't quite remember how unique my weeks were back before I came out to the mission field, but every week out here has definitely been unique!

First, we finally got 10 hours of community service this week. I haven't done that much for a couple months now because there aren't any organizations to do service for in the area I'm assigned to. But this week, I trimmed hedges for 3 hrs on Tuesday, pulled weeds for 3 hrs on Wednesday, washed windows for 3 hrs on Thursday, and did 1 hr of odd jobs for an investigator on Friday. It was a nice change of pace to our days to add some service. I doubt we will get near that this week since all those were planned 2 weeks ago and we didn't plan more service opportunities for this week.

Wk 15 in Loveland, CO (I think I need a new title)

Hi everyone!!

Oh the small world that we live in! There were a lot of great experiences this week. The first of which was on Tuesday night when I went out to dinner with the Elder's Quorum President, Blaine Southam. His wife was busy doing stuff so he took us out to Buffalo Wild Wings. He paid with a First Tech Fed card (that company used to be part of HP, but then broke off) which is the card I have because my mom works for HP! After attempting to describe what part of HP my mom works in and what she does (I should really know that better), he said... "Campbell... the only one I know is Carolyn." I was like... that's my mom!!! Craziness. In the church people LOVE to play the, "who do you know game." Though the world is small, it is not too regular that people actually know someone you know. It was exciting that out of a 300k company they knew each other!

As for missionary work, there were a couple worth-sharing experiences. On Wednesday we visited Vince and invited him to live the Word of Wisdom. For the first 30+ mins we talked about it and shared stories/experiences about it and tried to inspire him to quit drinking. Ultimately, I was more bold than I really had ever been before telling him that he needs to quit for himself, his family, and God. I know that is true. Drinking has not helped anything in his life and has created substantial problems with the law. This was one of the first times I had been bold, yet loving at the same time. I really love Vince. And it was awesome to know that I wasn't inviting him to do something for me or because I was supposed to, but because I care and it is something he really needs to do.

Beautiful Loveland, CO Week 14!

Lots and lots of cool stuff this week. It is fun to be a missionary!!

I had an AWESOME experience on Tuesday this week. I found out two days before that I would be in a trio for about a day until we would get our new companion. Our mission president now has the new missionaries come on Tuesday and spend the day with him before he introduces them to their trainers the next day. So on Tuesday I was with Elder Torres and Elder Winter in the evening. I met them not much sooner than we went to dinner and shared a lesson. WOW. That was one of the best lessons I have ever been a part of. We taught in unity together the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a husband&wife with their 2 friends (both widows) that are members. I felt the Spirit so strong testifying in the truth of the Gospel message. It was amazing. Working together to teach a message was amazing. I still can't believe how powerful it was to me when we had never practiced what we were going to say! *sigh. Being a missionary with other experienced missionaries is awesome!

Then the next day I met my companion!

Transfers Again!!!

Hi Everyone!

It is amazing how quickly transfers come and go out here. Tomorrow marks 6 months since I reported to the training center! It is pretty crazy!

And... I'm staying in Loveland in the Bison Ridge Ward for another transfer. Elder Clark is transferring to another ward in Loveland. However, this time I REALLY don't know who my companion will be. I believe today is his last day at the MTC. There are about 12 Elder missionaries who are coming to the mission and one of them will be my companion. It'll be interesting. One of the two new missionaries in my District this transfer only would eat meat and bread for dinner. The only things he would buy at the store are coco puffs, microwavable mac & cheese, and pop tarts. He said he has never eaten a piece of fruit in his life and doesn't like/eat vegetables. I don't know how he made it to 22 years of age and isn't dead of malnutrition! I know that new missionaries are a little crazy and on fire when they come from the MTC (that's what I was like). I am excited and hopeful for this transfer with the opportunity to train.

Transfer 4 Pictures

Some of the best pictures of my 4th Transfer (Bison Ridge Ward in the Loveland, CO Stake)

Myself with my companion Elder Clark after a dinner appointment at the Brandts.

Week 12 in Loveland, CO

Hi Everyone!

I'm going to start with a fun & humbling story first before I share a more personal one. :) "Life is better at the Houghton Lake House."

This week we moved! And I am extremely humbled by the amazing accommodations we have right now. After asking 15+ couples in the ward if they could house the missionaries, nothing was working. Everyone was answering, "we would like to, but..." with whatever excuse they had. Ultimately someone had to step up. Bishop Houghton just finished building his second house on a lake about 3 weeks ago. Because he is a surgeon he can't live very far from where he is on call so his second house is still in our ward boundaries. No one has lived in this brand new house yet and he had us move in!! Moreover, his wife was out of town last week and he was going out of town too. We moved in to his house while neither of them were even there! It was such an incredible example to me of being consecrated. His wife wasn't even phased that we were living in this house she had spent the last couple years designing - a house that isn't even furnished yet. I can hardly believe they are letting us live there/here. I was expecting all these rules that we need to be terrified of messing anything up, yet she asked us this morning to let her know what else we need in the house to be effective! 

 

Week 11 in Loveland, CO

Hi Everyone!!

On Tuesday, the dad of one of our investigators was in the hospital and not doing very well. We had met him once on Father's Day when we dropped by Bonnie and Gabe's house and Bonnie's parents were there. Bonnie is in her mid 50s. We have been over a bunch and prayed and shared the Gospel with their family. Bonnie asked us if we could visit him in the hospital and give him a blessing that evening. Fortunately we were able to rearrange our schedule a bit and get there. He hadn't been able to eat for nearly 2 days and had all these wires attached to his heart. I had given a blessing in a hospital a few weeks ago and felt like I could improve and be a lot more humble, so after praying in my heart to God to give me the inspiration and guidance and Spirit to give a blessing, we proceeded. I could really feel the Spirit this time leading me to thoughts/feelings that I never would have thought of on my own. It was powerful. 

 

Week 10 in Loveland, CO

Hi Everyone!!

I think I'm at the point in my mission where you can get lulled to security. I have lost my initial enthusiasm (how long can that last anyway?) and am starting to get re-engaged at a higher level to missionary work. I was feeling super burnt out recently because of changes that happened 2 months ago to our mission in Fort Collins that we no longer get together as groups of missionaries on our Preparation Day to hang out and play. I neglected to go out of my way to refuel myself with fun mini days off of having fun so I felt like I did the same thing everyday and felt stuck. Hopefully this is making sense.

Week 9 in Loveland, CO

It is definitely an adventure to be a missionary! It is exciting. You really can never predict exactly how investigators will respond to your message!

I don't know why it hit me this time, but I was sharing a message based on the scripture I included in the email last week (Mosiah 4:17-22 and more after that) and discussed the idea of service. When asking for ideas or thoughts about what I had shared, the wife mentioned something about asking the question, "who can I serve? What can I do today for someone? Who can I reach out to and help? What can I do for my companion today to help him?" I had been struggling with daily prayers for a while because I wasn't really praying for anything that I could actually receive and answer for and do something. I was more praying in thanksgiving and for God to help people change. But in that conversation I learned (and am working to implement) clear specific prayers that I can act on in service of others. It really has helped me already just thinking about it because sometimes I feel like doing things that will annoy/frustrate people in authority - like a mission president or zone leader or whatever. But that question has helped me remember that they are people like me that have a lot on their plate. Trying to think of what I can do to help them or my bishop or etc has done a lot to help me remember we are on the same team and work together better.

Week 8, Another Loveland Colorado Transfer

Hi everyone!! I hope this letter finds you well!

I'm blessed! It is funny, I heard a lot of sarcastic "good luck" remarks to me when I told people who my companion was going to be. I was a little nervous that it would be a harder experience than ideal. However, he is pretty awesome! I'm glad that I have been focusing more recently on being more and more obedient to the mission rules because he is very obedient and noticeably dislikes anything that looks like disobedience. Overall, I'm excited for this transfer with Elder Clark. If this week was any indication, then we will be continuing with the positive trend that I finished last transfer on. So, I'm excited to be his companion and serving the people in the Bison Ridge Ward boundaries in Loveland, CO.

The 4th Transfer Begins!

Hi Everyone! I hope this finds you well and that you are all doing awesome! :)

Transfers are tomorrow! This is the first one thus far I haven't had the opportunity to see where everyone in the mission is going since I am not living with the zone leaders, so I don't know that much except for the zone I am in. I think it is a pretty weird transfer... Because I am staying and my companion is leaving. He is becoming a new district leader, training a new missionary for the first time, being swept in to a new area, and is in a bike area. But the weirdest thing is that he is just moving 5 miles away! He is staying in the same District and will be my District Leader. I think that is weird since there are about 80 places he could have been put across northern Colorado and small parts of Wyoming and Nebraska, but he was put just down the street. He kinda prayed to Heavenly Father to ask for this because he is now in the most inconvenient position to receive his visa to go to Brazil. We figured that he would only get his visa when he is in a leadership position in a bike area with a new missionary. It would be very inconvenient to have to adjust the mission for that. So maybe he will get it in the next month or two!

I'm kinda saddened that he won't be my companion.

Transfer 3 Pictures

Some of the best pictures of my 3rd Transfer serving in the Bison Ridge Ward of the Loveland, CO Stake.

Pretty much every day there is an epic Colorado sunset like this. Even though my camera is not the best, it still looks amazing!

Week 6 in Loveland, CO

Don't have much time today...

I wanted to share 2 brief things. (ok, 2 became 3).

First, we finally had the opportunity to meet an investigator! She has attended church for a month or two, but we never were able to sit down with her. And, she is doing great! We taught her the lesson of the Restoration of the Gospel yesterday and invited her to truly read and pray to know that it is true. She texted us later that day to tell us that she read Alma 32 (as we left it with her to read) and felt like it really applied to her! Awesome! We are going to meet with her tomorrow morning. She is definitely seeking to know the truth. It is AWESOME to meet people like that. Most of the issues with the other investigators we are teaching is a lack of desire to know for themselves right now. I am privileged to be working with her to grow and change. It is funny that we have put in a lot more effort in finding than I had before and the most promising current investigator is our only referral. Haha. Maybe there is a lesson in there!

Week 5 in Beautiful Loveland, CO

This was a growing week for sure! We ended up succeeding in visiting people maybe 2 times out of 20 this week. Haha. So definitely didn't go as planned. However, it was still a great week. I learned a lot!

I had an opportunity to be in a leadership training on Thursday with Elder Stephen B Allen who was in town training my mission president (who is still in his first year as the mission president). Elder Allen is the managing director of the church's Missionary Department and was a huge part of the filming of the District and District 2 - reality missionary DVDs designed to help missionaries improve. It was AWESOME. I learned so much! All the missionaries there (except about 5) were current zone leaders, district leaders, or trainers. So I REALLY need to master what he taught us because it appears that I will have more responsibilities in the near future. (I'll say more about this later)

Week 4 in Loveland... now it is 80 degrees

Another great day in Colorado!

It is amazing how when you are in the hunt that you feel so good regardless of what the results are! What I mean specifically for me is that every week myself and Elder Hendrix, my companion, are going out and finding more people to teach. We developed a new key indicator for us to track how we are doing in finding called "new potential investigator." In the last area I was in, we got really caught up focusing on doing 10 hrs of service every week and teaching 20 lessons every week. I didn't realize it at the time, but that didn't really stretch us very much - we were very complacent. This last week we found 4/5 of these NPI's and converted some NPI's into investigators and some investigators into progressing investigators. We are definitely getting some traction out here! And it feels good to really have stuff happening.

Week 3 in Loveland... Snowing on Mother's Day?

Hope all the mothers and your mothers had a great Mother's Day yesterday! It was definitely nice for sure. I got to Skype home! It was exciting to talk to my mom, dad, and brother about what I've been up to and whatnot. It was so weird though that it snowed here!! It was supposed to be 80 a couple days ago - didn't happen - and instead ended up snowing by the end of the week. I'm glad I didn't put all my jackets away so I could wear one. Pretty funny that on Christmas where I was in California, it was about 70 degrees with mostly clear skies. And this Mother's Day here in Colorado it snowed!

This last week has been great. We had a number of really exciting experiences. It has been a lot of fun to teach new people that we have been finding. We haven't really tracted yet, but gone on walks in the evening during the week or during the day on the weekend to find people to engage. While it is really hit or miss if you will find someone that will talk to you, we have found a lot more people willing to talk with us than I originally expected. Turns out that when God says, "The field is white already to harvest" he actually means it! Who would have thought that the 15-20 references in the scripture - primarily Doctrine and Covenants - meant that the field is actually white! So, we are excited to continue to do more finding this week and teaching those who we have already found.

Turns out my last week has been the closest to a "Standard of Excellence" week since I have been out here. We had 10 hrs of service and most not at Goodwill! Not that Goodwill isn't awesome, I just would rather not be a part-time employee! We helped 2 members move, 1 of our investigators work on his yard, moved a huge TV (It felt like 600lbs, but probably more like 200 or 300), and helped with the USPS food drive for the food bank in the county. It was so nice to feel like I'm doing more relevant service to the community here.

Also, we taught 19 lessons and had 4 new investigators! Super exciting. We met a guy studying to be a military chaplain for the Christian denomination "Calvary Chapel." He is pretty awesome. The wife of our investigator Gabe is now fairly interested in the church. We took them to do a church tour last Wednesday and shared the Gospel from pictures in the hallway and talked a bunch about the Gospel. One thing we learned was to stop "talking" about the Gospel, but TESTIFY! That really brought the Spirit at the end. Finally, we dropped by Angie's house on Saturday night. We met her husband Steve and had a great conversation and then Gospel talk. Right when we got inside their daughters grabbed my arm and wanted to show me their rooms upstairs! These are the 6 yr old twins I ran through the sprinklers with last week. It is hilarious. They said, "come back any time!"

Moral of the story, being a missionary is amazing. I love it so much. This area has had higher highs and lower lows than the last area. But it is SOOOOO worth it to be frustrated at times to be able to have positive experiences teaching the Gospel to nonmembers. Honestly, the reason why it wasn't as high in the last area is because here we don't teach many members other than during dinner. So in order to get any lessons we have to find people to teach - which produces highs and lows depending on the day! But ya, it is amazing to be out here sharing the Gospel and following promptings of who to talk to.

Just after emailing last week I gained a testimony that I am on the Lord's errand 24/7, not 24/6. Our prep day is not a day off, for we met a lady last Monday whose day we might have made. She is a young mother of 2 young children with her husband facing felony charges and living without an income. We helped her with her groceries and are trying to get back to her to do more service for her helping her move. We just have to keep our eyes and heart open to serve people!

Have an amazing week!

Sincerely,

Elder Jeff Campbell

Week 2 Loveland, CO

Here I am in Loveland, CO!

First, a couple things about the area. There are lakes everywhere here! It is like everywhere you go there is another lake. AND there are people building houses everywhere. It's pretty crazy. In the place I'm at there is construction in the subdivision and all the neighboring ones and in lots of other subdivisions around the area. AND they are really nice places. Clearly, it is not in California because I saw a sign that said new homes (or 5-6 yr old) selling in the $300,000s and they are all 2-3 story with ample space and more. Not a bad area to live! Though I am here at the end of the spring and not in the winter or middle of the summer. I wonder what my opinion of the weather and more will be at that time. The area kinda reminds me of where I grew up or in the outskirts of San Jose due to the very low density suburbia. Laramie on the other hand was a lot closer to Davis where it is a concentrated development surrounded by space. I'm not sure which one I like more.

I'm Transferring outta Here!!!

So it is definitely bittersweet to have just had my last full day in Laramie, Wyoming yesterday.

I knew in the middle of this transfer that there wouldn't be any missionaries serving in the ward that I just finished serving in anymore due to summer. There were 3 YSA wards, but they will only have one meeting time over summer and 2 sets of missionaries instead of the 3 right now. So I wasn't sad at all - actually quite happy when I found out I was being transferred.

I guess I'll start with everything I know about next transfer -

Transfer 2 Pictures

Here are some of the best pictures from my 2nd transfer.

A picture of me, Elder Nash, Mark Burton, and his fiancé Ty. We were teaching Ty.

12th Week in Laramie aka 3 months today!

Guess What!! It has been 3 months to the day since I reported to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT! Can't believe how fast the time flies! Lots of time left obviously, but it's sure going fast out here!

First, one of the guys who went to Davis as a freshman is in a video on the homepage of lds.org right now about hastening of the work in Asia! Elder Vikram Ravi is shown for 1-2 seconds at about 2:22 into the video. When I checked it was the big one on the left hand side with Jeffrey R Holland describing the work going forth there. I'm super excited! I just had a chance to reach out to him a few weeks ago and he is doing awesome in the Bangalore, India Mission. He was super excited to hear from me too since he left on his mission nearly 2 years ago now just a little after I joined the church. But ya, that was very exciting to see him in that video.

I finished that devotional an hour or so ago today. I feel like it was pretty good. It was about "trusting in God." I thought it was quite funny that this was the first scripture reference: John 14:26-27: "26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." I talked about how today before the devotional started, I was pretty nervous and afraid when I was supposed to be talking about not being that! It is so funny when I am scared that I am not totally ready or something because it literally says that the Spirit will bring all things to my remembrance, meaning I will remember what to say!

Laramie, Wyoming Week 11

Hey everyone! First a couple random things: it was 60+ degrees on Saturday, then snowed and was 20 on Sunday here... what's up with that? Now it is nice again. This weather is still weird. But I love it here! This email, the first main part is about an awesome 5 min training I gave last week at Zone Meeting and the last part was about this last weekend - the baptism and me getting frustrated then better.

I had an opportunity last Thursday to give a mini training on a Christlike Attribute at our Zone Meeting. Some number of months a friend of mine sent me the audio book "Believing Christ" by Stephen Robinson, a Religion teacher at BYU. Of the books I have read/listened to, it is definitely one of my favorites. He talks first about the 'Great Dilemma' which is illustrated by D&C 1:31: "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance" and Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Clearly, we are in trouble! If that was all there was, no one could ever enter the kingdom of God! For, Adam & Eve - for one small transgression of eating a piece of fruit - were kicked out of God's presence.

Baptism Pictures

Here are some pictures from Chris Tomlin's baptism! As previously mentioned, it was great!

 Here is me taking a picture with the baptismal font filling up. I was excited.

 Myself and my companion Elder Nash with Chris Tomlin. 

Chris with Bishop Fowler who baptized him. 

Lastly, my companion and Chris doing a chest bump after his baptismal service. 

 It was pretty sweet!

Elder Jeff Campbell

10th Week in Lovely Laramie!

Hey everyone! I'm just going to jump in to some experiences this week. First is our awesome progressing investigator. Next is an experience and subsequent pondering from Friday talking to a pastor of another church. Lastly, is something I learned from General Conference about remembering who you are and leaving a righteous legacy.

I am super pumped for Saturday! One of our investigators is SUPER pumped to be baptized. As I have mentioned in previous emails about him, it was definitely not because of my awesome teaching skills or anything like that. He was prepared. Every subsequent meeting with him - there have been 5 now - has continued to prove it to be true. He is ready. He has lived an adventure of a life up to this point, because of which he has felt unworthy to be even inside of a church building. He told us he feels like he could be smited on the spot upon walking inside! However, he is prepared to change and is doing it at an amazing rate! We taught him the law of chastity and word of wisdom the other day. Literally the next day he was offered 3 beers for dinner and an x-gf sought to persuade him to break the law of chastity! But he held strong. He also immediately stopped drinking coffee in the morning after learning that we shouldn't drink it. WOW. I am so humbled by this guy - he even introduces himself as a Mormon when people ask him about his religious beliefs!

Laramie Week 9

It is prettty crazy this is the 9th week I have been here! The weather has gotten pretty nice. It is funny when it randomly snows, then melts, then gets hot again. I have 3 parts to this email today. 1st is personal revelation I received from a recent church conference talk, 2nd is an experience teaching an investigator, and 3rd is from church.

(Part 1) One of the best things about being on a mission is that you get trials on a regular basis that you need to ask God for help about! I had two questions - 1. Sometimes I question my faith, so I was looking to be spiritually uplifted and feel more confident. And 2. I was getting pretty annoyed with the new missionary here. Haha. Living with another companionship is awesome most of the time, but sometimes I wish they would stop telling random stories all the time when we should be working out, studying, or planning the next day. BUT the moral of this is that I sought God for help because I needed help and needed to change. I knew that me thinking this about other missionaries was not good. I checked out a General Conference talk from a year ago by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland entitled, "Lord, I Believe." Pretty much every talk I have heard from him is AMAZING, but this one was the perfect one for me to hear at that time. Turns out if you listen with specific questions that you receive specific answers.

Laramie Week 8

Whoot! Hello from good 'ole Laramie, Wyoming! I hope this email finds you well!

I am short on time but want to share one experience from the week and one thing I learned this week studying 'Faith' in the scriptures.

First, this is definitely the Lord's work and not mine. I am a teeny tiny cog in His masterpiece. That isn't to say I'm not important - all of us are extremely important to our Heavenly Father. It is just amazing that we didn't really have much going for us in terms of appointments with people that aren't members, and now we do. Seemingly out of nowhere four people that aren't members want to meet with us and learn about the Gospel. The most miraculous of which occurred last Sunday. In the 3rd hour of church of of the guys created a 20 min video (he spent 8 hrs putting it together) of a "best of General Conference." Essentially, he emailed lots of friends and family to send him the moments of General Conference that touched them the most. Wow. It was one of the best videos I had ever seen. He was trying to help us get prepared for the semi-annual General Conference of the church that is happening on the first weekend of April (the 5th and 6th). It is where all the the prophet, his 2 counselors, the 12 apostles, and other general authorities of the church deliver messages to the church. They basically call us to repentance and change our lives to be more in tune with what the Savior Jesus Christ asks of us. After this video, I met a girl in our ward and her nonmember boyfriend who during that video felt the Spirit and desired to be baptized this upcoming weekend! We have never met with him before - we will be shortly this evening.

Transfer Number 2 Begins!

So transfers are today! And.... I'm staying in the same area with the same companion! Whoot! Still in the Laramie River YSA (young single adults) for another 6 weeks in Laramie, Wyoming. We both thought that would be the case. We are looking forward to an exciting and productive transfer. We anticipate both leaving the area and having no missionaries to replace us because the 6 week transfer period ends 2 weeks before the school year. There are 3 YSA wards during the school year, but only 1 or perhaps 2 over the summer because so many residents are gone (kinda like how half of the Davis, CA population is students so the city shrinks in half when school is out). Either way, we believe our ward will for sure be done over the summer. This last thing I learned the other day about this area blew me away. There are 9 zones in the mission (for example, I am in the Laramie Zone) and ~100 companionships (~200 missionaries) in the mission. Of them, only 9 of them cover YSA wards. And among those covering them, 5 of them are zone leader companionships (they oversee the whole zone while covering the YSA ward). Then, 3 of the companionships are sister missionaries, leaving only 1 other available companionship spot for elders that aren't zone leaders to serve in a YSA. I happened to be assigned on my first transfer to be in that spot AND stay another transfer in that spot. What I'm getting at is that this is HIGHLY unlikely. It almost never happens that a missionary is trained in a YSA ward. The missionary in my district (Elder Murray) who goes home today never served in a YSA his entire 2-year mission! I am blessed for sure! It is awesome being here.

Transfer 1 Pictures

12 Pictures from the first transfer in Laramie, Wy of the Colorado Fort Collins Mission:

The picture of the 11 of us missionaries arriving in the Denver airport on Feb 4th with the Mission President and his wife.

Laramie Week 6!

More stories to share! It is crazy that it is week 6 here! And for those who are wondering, I will find out this Saturday where I will be the next 6 weeks. I personally believe it will be the same place, but it is always possible that I move!

I had a really simple but awesome experience yesterday. While shopping at Wal-Mart, I went past a giant display of Tostitos, salsa, and queso dip. I thought about buying that so much. For some reason, I love eating chips and salsa. I think it is one of the most delicious things ever. But, I decided to hold back and not 'waste' my money on unhealthy food. Later last night, I went to FHE with the ward. Lo and behold, the snack/treat after the lesson and activity was Tostitos with salsa & queso!!! Even more than that, this morning I found out that one of the other Elder Zone Leaders living with me bought some Tostitos chips too! I had some this morning with my queso dip and salsa leftovers that I got to take home from last night! He hadn't bought them once this transfer until yesterday. Haha. God rocks. It is EVIDENCE again that God loves me and is involved in the little things in my life. I love it when I have a deep desire or question that I'm trying to figure out in my head - I didn't actually get on my knees and pray to God for chips & salsa - and God comes through answering my unspoken prayer. God is just so amazing!!! :) I love Him so much, especially when He reads my mind and gives me what I was looking for without asking Him. This was not the first time this has happened and certainly not the last! What I love most about this small experience is that God cares about the simple inconsequential things in my life. I love that we have a God who cares about me having chips & salsa - something that really doesn't matter a whole lot - just to remind me that he cares, he knows me, and he is listening to me.

I had my birthday this last week on March 6th and have what I think are 2 funny stories from it that I hope will translate via typing.