Hi Everyone!
First, I can't believe we are already halfway through another transfer. When we were planning for week 4, Elder Schenk and I looked at each other in disbelief. Time sure flies by. I thought earlier today… "What have I done this year? Serve a mission… serve a mission… yep." I can see how if people work a job for a years that they just fly by! I'll be 24 in less than 3 months!! That's so weird. But ya. Definitely enjoying the time, it just goes by fast!
I don't think I mentioned the Christmas miracle that we had a bit ago! Though it may even get better… we shall see. Elder Schenk a few weeks ago was saying how he wanted a Christmas tree and to decorate for Christmas. All my years in college, I never really put any effort into decorating my room since I was just going to my parent's house for Christmas. Probably, my house wouldn't be decorated at all as a missionary. But Elder Schenk wanted it! And lo and behold a few days later we were having dinner with a family from church and I mentioned about trying to figure out a Christmas tree. She said her mom passed away and left her with the Christmas tree! So she went to get it in the garage and came back with a black plastic bag. The tree was 2 feet tall! So… not exactly what we were hoping for. BUT we did get a little Christmas tree. :)
THEN I mentioned how we got this little Christmas tree and Elder Schenk would really like a bigger one to this other family from church 3-5 days later. None of their family is visiting them for Christmas; they are traveling to their children's house. They are in their 70s and decided not to bring out their big Christmas tree, but instead brought out their 3-4ft tall tree. After a discussion about this tree that they had (and them saying how much effort it would take to put it together) we persuaded them to let us have their 7 ft tree this holiday season! It is awesome! I attached a picture of the two trees. We haven't decorated it yet… hopefully we will today! It was a lot easier to put together than we were told; it only took about 15 minutes.
THEN I mentioned this story at dinner a few days ago and the husband said he can go cut one down on some property in Estes and drop it off at our house! So we might end up getting a real tree! We will see what happens. Elder Schenk and I never got on our knees and prayed for God to manifest a Christmas tree in our life. However, we did have that prayer in our heart. I was the one to bring up the idea of the tree even though it wasn't something I really wanted that much. But I knew that Elder Schenk did so we were trying to figure it out. Some of you remember the story I told before about Tostitos and how they appeared in my life after I really wanted to buy them from a store, but resisted. They actually reappeared! A couple from church gave us 2 bags and salsa because we ate at a restaurant once together and I ate SOOOOOO much chips and salsa it was crazy. I definitely have a sure testimony that our Heavenly Father loves us and cares about us. He continues to show Himself to me in the little things. He cares even about the little things in our lives. I am so blessed to know that He comes through and helps us. :)
In terms of missionary work this week, all the people we have been working with - Marie, Amanda, Sabrina, Chris, John, Jayson, and Evin - are all moving forward to some degree. It is really awesome to be working with people that actually are interested in knowing for themselves if this is true and are interested in changing their lives for the better! The best missionary experience for the week was in teaching Marie and the Smith's home. Wow. The Spirit was among the strongest it has ever been in a lesson. Marie said herself that she knew she was being taught by the Spirit and Sister Smith said this was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences she has had in a lesson (she is in her 60s and has been a member of the Chruch her whole life, so she has heard this message before!). It was most powerful when Elder Schenk shared the First Vision, when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ when he was asking which church to be baptized into. Marie visibly was affected by it. I am SOOOO grateful that we have the Spirit; how else could 18-27 year olds (the majority younger than 21) be charged with growing the church? The Spirit is the real teacher. It is our responsibility to be worthy and willing to allow the Spirit to teach the people the Gospel. It is awesome. :)
I hope you have an awesome Christmas! It's only 10 days away! Coming up fast. We have a calendar we sing songs and read scripture from every day in December before Christmas. It is crazy to see the days go by.
Elder Jeff Campbell
--> One other cool thing, the Aidyn and Owen were ordained to the Aaronic priesthood yesterday at church! They are growing well in the Gospel since they were baptized 4 weeks ago.
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