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.