Doing Work in Estes (Estes Park wk#3)

Hi Everyone!

It is nice to have a full week of work since last week I was sidelined for a bit. It feels great to be with a companion who is ready to work and visit people and teach lessons all the time. While I'm "training" him right now, he is already a great missionary. I think the nicest thing is that he is always prepared at any time to teach the Gospel to someone. He is in the zone!

This week I'm starting to get the hang of where things are in Estes. Last night we were really close to our lesson goal for the week so we went on splits with members from the ward. This was the first time I drove in Estes to visit people without the help of Elder Schenk and I did it! We found the people we were looking for! It was awesome. We ended up basically hitting our goal. It felt pretty satisfying to be able to get around town fairly well without my navigator! Though we probably should get a map one of these days…

We had a pretty exciting service opportunity this week! The husband of a member who isn't coming to church currently was doing some landscaping at the townhouse complex he helps run. He is 69 and was planning to move tons of ~100lb rocks to a spot to prevent a concrete slab from sliding and caving. However, the rocks delivered were closer to 200 or 300lbs. My companion and I helped! It was crazy moving these super heavy rocks. We didn't have a scale, so we can't say how heavy they actually were. But they were extremely dense solid granite rocks. I couldn't believe that 69 yr old dude was doing such hard labor! He is pretty impressive to me!

In terms of work, we have been working with these 4 kids (10-14) who are preparing to be baptized. They are set for this Saturday, but we aren't sure if they will for sure be ready by then. It is really exciting to be teaching some people who are enthusiastic about being baptized! It is pretty awesome starting to slowly see changes in them as they start to accept our invitations to actually read from their scriptures on a daily basis and pray.

I had an opportunity to give the training this week at District Meeting and we talked generally about receiving revelation from God. That is one of the COOLEST topics ever in my opinion. I feel like it is THE MOST important thing for people to learn. It is TRUE that we can actually come to our Heavenly Father in prayer and receive counsel and answers to things in our lives that concern us. We had a discussion with all 8 of us there going through ways people receive revelation. 1 Elder said he fasts (24 hrs w/o food & water) in prayer to receive answers. 1 Sister said back home she would go to the Temple grounds with her scriptures & hymns in prayer to receive answers. Another sister prays at night with specific questions and receives answers in visions/dreams while she sleeps. Another Elder prays about it and then talks to trusted people about it to come up with answers. And there were more too. For me, when I am seeking revelation/guidance from Heavenly Father, I go off by myself in prayerful pondering. It is part out loud and part quiet inside and I just ask really specific questions on what to say in a talk or training or how to help my companionship or whatever other questions I have. Obviously there are more ways - like having questions going into church and receiving answers there or listening to talks by church leaders. I'm just SOOOO grateful to know that Heavenly Father loves us and communicates with us IF we do what Jesus says to do, in the Sermon on the Mount "7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." I know that if we ask, seek, and knock that we will truly receive, find, and have the door opened. We have a loving Heavenly Father who is truly concerned with our day to day lives because he is literally our Father! And He is the perfect Father who is able to help you up and allow you to fall. It is awesome. :)

We are going to be out of here pretty soon to go on a hike. I wish I was healthy enough last Monday to go because it was 37 and kinda snowing this morning here in Estes. BUT I gotta take advantage of the opportunity to go on a nice hike. And for my family - yes, I have a lot of warm clothes to wear for the hike in case it is super cold. :)

Have an amazing week!

I attached a picture of Elder Schenk and me, and epic sunset, and an average day in Estes with Elk doing whatever they want downtown. :)

A Cabin in the Woods (Estes Park wk#2)

Hi Everyone!

Who would have thought I would have the privilege of serving in Estes Park, Colorado (aka "the base camp for visiting Rocky Mountain National Park")!?! I'm excited. It's a little sad that it is about to be winter and pretty cold up here, but it has been very nice so far! We are living 2 miles outside of town on a dirt road in a 2 bed, 1 bath cabin. Pretty legit. AND the people who own it were just using it as a work office, so no one lives here with us! Pretty awesome.

But more than that, I have an AWESOME companion! We decided that we are pretty much the same person. Both played basketball and ran in high school. He plans to study engineering and I studied engineering. He is my same height, body type, and weight. He also likes to work out and we have already been on 3 runs. We both really want to be out here serving missions and intend on making these 2 years count. And there is more. He is turning 19 tomorrow, so he is definitely younger than me, but he is one of those just out of high school missionaries that are actually prepared. Moral: I'm excited and it has been great thus far.

As far as the work is concerned, the last missionary who was here was SUPER depressed to be leaving because they taught 168 lessons in the 6 weeks they were here. That's like 25/week and they didn't have anything to work with the first week or two! There are lots of people that we are teaching and reactivating. It's pretty exciting. AND they just started a branch here. Instead of having church in Lyons (20 miles, 30 minutes down the canyon), they meet up here. It seems like there is a LOT of excitement since this is the first time in 30 years that there has been church in Estes Park. It will be a lot easier for people to be able to come! It is so new that the only callings are in the branch presidency. It'll be exciting to work with the excited people up here to help build a strong church!

And it is exciting to be a District Leader. Three months ago, our mission instituted a nightly call in where the District Leader is supposed to call all the companionships in his district and then zone leaders call the District Leaders in the Zone and then Assistants call all the zone leaders. It was started because there were a lot of missionaries going home with depression and they wanted to try to talk to them sooner so that wouldn't happen. So now I have the opportunity to talking to some missionaries every day! And it is a lot of fun. It am getting to learn on the fly how to be loving and inspiring so that they want to work harder and don't feel like they are being beat up. Since it is a volunteer army, there isn't anything I can hold over their head to make them do more. I like it because that is definitely like real life, positional authority is not real authority/influence anyway. Like it says in our handbook, "A leader helps other missionaries most when they feel the leader's love. They should feel that the leader is motivated by a sincere concern for their welfare, not by his or her own interests." Now I have a chance to implement it.

Also, this District is pretty awesome. I was SUPER sick a few days ago and they all wanted to come up and try to help me with a blessing or soup! :) I'm not sure if they just wanted an excuse to drive up to Estes, but either way they wanted to help me and were concerned with my health - and I just met all of them a few days before! It's really cool to feel that kind of love from them!

The one other interesting thing is that this is the first time in months that I have been the new missionary in the ward. It is so weird!! The companion I'm "training" knows everyone and can do everything. The first couple days he basically taught all the people we visited because I didn't know anything about them! It is super humbling to be in a different area with someone who knows the area. I didn't realize how hard I probably made it on Elder Harper. It sucks a lot when your companion teaches everything and you don't have anything to say! And it's weird to be the driver in an area you have never driven in and you have never seen a map (still haven't)!

I for sure miss the area that I just was in, but when there is so much going on up here, you don't even have time to think about it! 

Hope all of you are doing awesome! 

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

The end of an era, TRANSFERS

Hi Everyone!

My days in the Bison Ridge Ward of the Loveland, CO Stake have come and gone. It was fun for sure. I had dinner last night at the Leonhardt's house (one of the awesome families in the ward). I will miss them and so many other families too. Many of them mentioned that this is the best ward they have ever lived in. Though I don't really have anything to compare it to, there are a large number of extremely devoted people and many amazing families. I am so blessed to have known many of them. Multiple families - the Eppersons, Houghtons, Weidas, Wrights, Mortensens, Bensons, Pratts, Kirkhams, Laytons, Andersons (and more)... are just phenomenal! I am glad to have seen them and SOOOO many families to learn how they operate. I have come to appreciate my parents and grandparents and extended family a lot more since being out here because I didn't know what other families looked like or did! I'm glad to have more insight on how to pattern my life!

So I'm rapidly running out of email time. I was distracted for the last hour or so because they didn't tell us where we were being transferred to until right now (usually they tell us Saturday night). So I'm going to the Estes Park ward to second transfer train Elder Schenk and be the District Leader there. It's kinda funny. Last transfer there was a trio companionship as zone leaders for part of the transfer in Loveland. One of them, Elder Greer, was moved to be a district leader trainer in Estes. Now he is back as Zone Leader in Loveland, and I'm taking over the training of his new missionary. Kinda funny (at least to me it is).

I can't remember any highlights in the short time I have left, I'm just glad I got to see so many of the people that I love in the last week I've been here. I hope you all have an amazing week! Can't believe it's already been a missionary for 9 months!

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

General Conference is the best! (Lvlnd wk #24)

Hi my favorite people! :)

Soooo this week! I'm starting my last week of my 4th transfer in Loveland in the Bison Ridge Ward. I've had an awesome run! Ever since I began training Elder Harper nearly 2.5 months ago, I've been anticipating leaving after this transfer. While it is technically possible I'll still be here, it's not super likely. The magnitude of what I just said didn't hit me until I thought more about what I just wrote. I REALLY need to make this week awesome as I may never see the people in this area again in my life after this week!

In terms of missionary work, the 2 top experiences this week was planning a time to go tracting and then only having time to attempt 2 doors when we found a friendly lady. The other was another day when we were going to go home early, but decided to try one more house and ultimately talked for 30 minutes to the nonmember teenage siblings of a recent convert who is a missionary in the Dominican Republic.

Moving on to my favorite part of the week, watching General Conference.