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.