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.
It feels really good to have a lot of people that we are working with. I don't know how the experiences of other people are, but I still think it is crazy how much who is progressing fluctuates. One week 5 people were doing amazing. Two weeks later they were all not doing well and 4 others were doing amazing. And the cycle continues because we weren't able to meet with what I thought were our most progressing investigators and instead met with multiple others and now they are more progressing! I don't get it. I guess you just kinda have to not let the emotional rollercoaster get you off track. Having a lot of people to work with is one of the best things so that you can still serve/help/teach people when the people you originally planned on working with fall through!
There wasn't any amazingly unique miraculous event out here this week. But there were a number of really positive experiences this week. An investigator who came to church during the week a month ago we finally met with again and brought him to the church during the week to pray for 20-30 minutes. That was awesome since we had been struggling to meet with him at all and he finally kept an appointment with us. Another investigator we also see irregularly said he would be baptized if he understood the priesthood and believed that we had the authority. And another investigator has been working on smoking less and he has been doing well still and is relatively receptive of our messages each week. And 2 less-actives we have tried to visit in the past were actually home and available this week when we dropped by. So I guess there were some pretty awesome experiences!
The one thing I have been pondering about is what Christ-like attributes are the most urgent for me to change and develop. I listened to a talk by President Gordon B Hinckley from a number of years ago when he was alive and the Prophet of the Church. He talked about 6 qualities for Young Adults to develop now and after thinking about it, the 3 I struggle with are interrelated. Be humble, be grateful, and be prayerful. I think they are related because why would you ever be any of those if you knew you were the master of your own universe and all the blessings in your life were because of your own efforts? Therefore, when we cultivate a thankful/grateful attitude or disposition, all of them start to work. So one thing I have been working on is trying to be a lot more conscious of the blessings in my life, particularly in daily prayer. I have found that to help me a lot, but I still for sure have a long way to go!
I was reading in Mosiah 4 of the Book of Mormon this morning. Chapters 1-6 are amazing. An extremely righteous king preached to his people shortly before his death. I don't think I can really do it justice by summarizing how King Benjamin transitioned to talking about the importance of giving to others because we are nothing and nothing we own is truly ours, but it is God's. Soooo I will just copy it here! :)
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
Verses 19 and 22 hit me the most. I regularly get too attached to stuff and am surprised to hear people really saying that they would give all they have if God needed them to. I needed to hear that today to become more consecrated to God and the work.
One other thing. Today June 16, 2014 marks 2 years since I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Pretty pumped. Everyday it is one day more than the day before! I'm glad to be here and grateful for the knowledge that the passage of scripture I shared from the Book of Mormon is the word of God.
Have an amazing week! Keep being awesome!
Sincerely,
Elder Jeff Campbell
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