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!
Then we helped a single grandma in the ward move a couch and talked to her a bit about her children and whatnot (so we got a little service in). Then we attempted to visit about... 5 people none of whom were there. One of the houses is on a street has multiple dogs that bark a ton at us whenever we are one it (doesn't make me like dogs very much). We ended up finding one less-active lady in the ward and shared a lesson with her.
Next we dropped by a family I really like who were referrals from a family in the ward. At this time they frankly aren't that interested in the Gospel, being strong Protestants. This is the ~3rd time we have dropped by and talked to them about the Gospel. We were just planning on doing service to help their neighbor, but we ended up going inside because it was hot outside and we were thirsty. We got to the subject of religion and he said how he had done some research (though hasn't opened up the Book of Mormon) online since last time. He asked really direct questions against the possibility of the Book of Mormon being the word of God and I attempted to share some scriptures with him from the bible pointing to the restoration to no avail. Fortunately there wasn't any animosity there, but the Holy Spirit was definitely not present testifying of anything! I wish I could have been more present and listening during this situation and others like it. Sometimes it is really hard to stay focused and share a simple testimony of what I have come to know to be true. We will stop by another time and try again!
Next we had a dinner that was delicious! Breakfast for dinner with lots of bacon and waffles and strawberries. That family, the Shakespeares, are super nice! I love having dinners planned because it is great to meet with families from church who love the Gospel and are living it, especially after experiencing challenges during the day. We shared a brief message with them and ended up staying a bit longer than planned, which happens way too often for us at dinners. Though most often it is my fault for talking WAYYYY too much. Sometimes, I talk a lot...
After we visited a family who recently moved into the ward. When we tried visiting them Thursday, we had a brief interchange from across the street and he said that he was busy. When we visited on Saturday he was extremely angry with what I had said/done on Thursday and said to never come back again (turns out I made a really bad assumption of what to say/do on that Thursday!). Pretty disheartening.
I drove super slow and was semi dazed to the next house of one of my favorite families, Angie & Steve Pardue. We were parked down the street for a couple minutes - it took just a few minutes to get there and I was trying to refocus before we visited - when Angie drove by... (I don't know how, but I do a lot of things that I really think make sense at the time, but don't later... haha). After I mentioned briefly what just happened, she invited us to accompany her and her daughters and niece to get ice cream! Soooo she took us out to Dairy Queen. :) I was extremely grateful for her willingness to help us after a long emotional rollercoaster of a day! She is the best!
I think it was a textbook day because it had such a spectrum of emotions packed into one day. Highest of highs with the perfect lesson and pretty low with probably my toughest rejection. It hurt at the time, but looking back that night I was really proud of myself for really doing my best the whole day and trying to do missionary work. I hope to have some more days like that! You win some and you lose some, just gotta go out and do more!
--> on a side note, on Friday we did service at a Food Bank! That was exciting. Hopefully we will be able to go back on a weekly basis. It is a much nicer place to do service than a thrift store because I felt like we were actually helping people and working with other people who do what they do specifically to serve.
So that was my week! It is sure exciting to be a missionary in Fort Collins, CO! I'm super privileged to have the opportunity to grow and change and be in the service of the Lord full-time.
Have an amazing week!
Elder Jeff Campbell
No comments:
Post a Comment