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.