Best Holiday Week Ever! (Windsor wk#16)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

This was a great week. Probably one of my favorites as a missionary. Tuesday I had a great exchange in Loveland (I got to go back to the Twin Peaks YSA I served in before). Wednesday was a Christmas Devotional in Laramie followed by exchanges with Greeley til Thursday night. Christmas Day Friday and etc topped it off.

I'll start with exchanges... It was AWESOME! :) Definitely in the top 5 exchanges that I've been on (and I've probably been on 50 by now). It was a nice change of pace to start Monday night with planning. We (Elder Blackburn and myself) had a series of awesome experiences. It was so good I had to make a video journal entry - it would have taken too long to write all of the miracles. Haha. The short of it... After DLC we visited an awesome family near the Trilby building. We had a great lesson and they gave us some lunch! Then we caught a guy named David at home. He worked 7 days a week for the past 4 months with about 8 days off, but he 'happened' to be home Tuesday. Perfect Timing! Then we drove to Firestone and I got to see Amber. Elder McConeghey and I started teaching her last January (she hadn't been to church for a year or two). This month she received her patriarchal blessing and is preparing to serve a mission! Super fulfilling to know someone you served and loved and helped is moving in the right direction! I'm excited for her. Then we taught one of Elle's friends at her house (Dylan). Elle introduced Dylan to me at church my last Sunday in the ward. He hadn't been taught yet. Elle invited him over and we taught him an awesome first lesson. He gave a really sincere kneeling prayer at the end and was willing to be baptized if this is true. We scheduled a return appointment for the next day and Elder Blackburn with Elder Lete set him with a baptismal date! Pumped. After dinner we went to institute and met one of Elle's other friends named Carmen. The most fulfilling part of the day was hearing from Elle later how good she felt being an instrument in the hands of the Lord reaching out to her friends. I could go on and on about this day. Every one of these experiences were pretty miraculous in their own right. It was great seeing a handful of awesome people I served with there (like Bishop Depew, the Turners and the Seyfi's), to serve for a day with Elder Blackburn, and to really help people come closer to Christ.

The Christmas Devotional in Laramie was awesome. I have really experienced the fulfillment of a promise in the scriptures recently. It says to "treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour [what to say]." My training with Elder Snelders has been different each time. This time we spoke earlier in the meeting and my normal segue wouldn't have worked. I praying fervently to know what to say and I thought of an experience in the MTC I had... Haha. It worked our awesome. I experienced the promise being fulfilled as I bore testimony differently at each of the four as well. Each time I fervently prayed to bear testimony in a fluid way that touches people. I related different experiences each time, but they were all true! Moral, I am grateful for the confidence I am receiving in that promise. It feels GREAT! :)

On the next exchanges, the best part was an appointment with Cat. She is a member who is coming back to church. Since I expected to be teaching her, I told Elder Noh before the meeting, "We will be teaching the second half of the Plan of Salvation." When we got inside, Ronnette (Cat's nonmember roommate) joined us for the first time. We have been on-and-off working with Ronnette for the past month or two, but she hadn't joined when we taught Cat. Because of that, after the prayer I said, "Today we will talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Haha. Elder Noh probably was confused, but it was awesome. :) ALSO, halfway into the lesson Ronnette's fiancé Terry joined us. It was a VERY powerful lesson of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Ronnette and Terry even allowed us to visit them again on Christmas Day (which was awesome)! I can definitely see them growing a lot in the Gospel. I am excited for them!

On Christmas Eve, I got to visit the Khans! That was sweet. They are awesome and got me a few presents. :) At the end of the day, we stayed the night with President and Sister Brown. They didn't have any family visiting on Christmas so Elder Snelders and I got to be their family! :) They even got us some pajama pants to wear to bed! Haha. It was definitely a blessing to spend Christmas morning with President and Sister Brown. They are awesome! I could definitely feel their love. Skyping my family was awesome too. I took a cool screenshot I attached. It'll be cool to see them again in about three weeks!

For the rest of Christmas, we visited a handful of people. We got to spend time with two or three families during their family Christmas gathering. I am SOOOOO grateful for their hospitality on Christmas Day! One of them was the Laymans! It was the one year anniversary. Last year on Christmas Day, the assistants tracted into them! They have been baptized for a little more than three months now. Who would have thought that you can find people on Christmas Day by Tracting!

Saturday we contacted a bunch of people while helping them shovel their walks. I really love to street contact, especially by doing service. We simply drove looking for people who just started shoveling their snow and stopped to shovel with them! I have found that most people won't accept you helping them if you ask, so we just started helping. Half of the people had friends or family that are members of the church. It was a lot of fun.

Last night, I got to wish goodbye to my amigos Elder Sell and Elder Empey. It was surreal. They were in the same District as me in the MTC and are enroute to their home right now! They are starting school at BYU and BYU-I respectively on January 4th. *sigh. It is weird to know I won't see them again as a missionary. I love them a lot! I am definitely a short-timer here now.

I love this Gospel. I love sharing it with people. I love telling people that the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers EVERYTHING in their life. No matter how far gone they are or how many tragedies they have experienced, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal them. It can mend broken hearts. Jesus Christ can transform us if we let Him. While I don't understand how He suffered for everything for billions and billions of people, I know it is true for me. As I have sought to be healed and changed by Christ, I have been changed. I know that I am not unique, everyone can experience this change. I have been with many people as they sought healing by Christ and seen them change too! I know that this is truly the most compelling work that there is!

Have a Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Campbell :)

Christmas Devotionals (Windsor wk#15)

Hi everyone!

The week was a blur of meetings and cancelled meetings and teaching some people in our free time. Maybe that's what "normal life" feels like. You finish the week and wonder what just happened in that week!

Zone Conferences have been awesome (other than postponing the one in Laramie twice). I really enjoyed the comments made in this last one on Thursday in Boulder during our training. We were talking about challenges being a missionary at this time of year and then asked them what blessings their family back home has seen from them being a missionary. WOW! It was inspiring to hear the personal stories of missionaries. One missionary said 10 relatives have passed away since she has been a missionary. Her testimony of the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ have grown dramatically. She can truly testify now that families can be together forever. Another missionary's parents came back to church and starting living the Gospel in their lives. He was just transferred down to Boulder so he could be with his parents as their are sealed together and he with them in the Denver Temple tomorrow. Another's dad lost his job. He fasted and his dad got a new job! There were so many missionaries (20) who shared deeply personal testimonies of why they are glad to be serving Jesus Christ right now.

There are so many people that struggle over the holidays. One person I know hates the holidays because it reminds him of a few years ago this time of year when his daughter was taken from him. There are tons of people who don't have family or can't see their family. I know for us, we are trying to get things set up so we can visit a lot of families this week and share with them Christ's love. It is the best time of year to reach out and lend a hand to those who are struggling.

Miracles... The Torres family came to the Christmas party at church. We caught the Toroks at home and talked with them for about an hour after not seeing them for two months. One of the most memorable days was Saturday when we didn't have a lot of set plans, but dropped by at just the right time to visit people. Feeling led and guided is the best feeling!

Lastly some things I'm learning... I've been reading towards the end of Alma in the Book of Mormon, the war chapters! I was pondering about why the wars were happening. It hit me this morning that nearly all of the hatred and wars in the Book of Mormon originated in the same place. Laman and Lemuel rebelled in the beginning. They sought to kill their younger brother Nephi multiple times. Ever since the sibling issues in their family, their posterity have struggled against each other. For about 1000 years, the issues between the original siblings are brought up as a reason to fight to the death. Families are so important! The relationships are so crucial because they truly impact generations upon generations.

Constantly I am seeing the huge importance of strong families. The example in the Book of Mormon this morning was just one of them. The Prophet and Apostles today know this and has been emphasizing to keep the Sabbath Day Holy. There are many positive things that comes from that (i.e. Stronger faith in Christ, stronger testimony, etc), but growing family bonds is one of the biggest! We are reminded regularly that the world is not likely going to become a more Christ-centered place. Our families need to become strong to become a refuge from the world.

Good week. Crazy it's Christmas in only a few days and that I have less than a month left. Crazier that the last two in my MTC district are heading home in a week so they can be back in time for school. It was unique to read their last group emails!

Love you! And Have an amazing week!

Elder Campbell

Sent from my iPad

Miracles and Meetings (Windsor wk#14)

Hi Everyone!

This week I had a larger event each day. We had transfer day on Tuesday including picking up the new missionaries at the airport and going out teaching with them at night. Wednesday we had trainer's meeting and I moved to a new house (we have to finish today). Thursday we had our Mission Leadership Council Meeting then drove with President Brown to Casper after. Friday we had zone conference in Casper and got back to Windsor pretty late. Saturday we had Transfer Breakfast in Windsor and Sunday was church (and I was somewhat sick for the past two days). Lots of stuff!

Tuesday night was the most missionary-eventful day of the week as I went out teaching with a new missionary for a couple hours. I was SUPER nervous because I was unable to set up any appointments! Here I am, one who should be an example missionary, and I'm unprepared!  Naturally, after I picked up Elder Underwood, we prayed. We pleaded with the Lord for miracles. More than usual, I needed the Lord's help and guidance. I still didn't really know where we should go for the evening, but had a couple people in mind we could visit. I made some "random" turns to take side roads that inspired a new plan! We dropped by the Jensons and see if we could take their 19-year-old son to visit single sisters. Since he wasn't there, I asked Sister Jenson who she has been concerned about that we could visit (she used to be the Relief Society President). Unfortunately none of the people felt like the one we should visit that night. Still unsure of what to do, we went toward our car. I remembered the Young Women's President lives across the street. Perhaps she would have some ideas! Of course, she wasn't there either! But, the miracle we were looking for happened!! As her husband let us in, we found one of our investigators at their home!! Haha. I hadn't seen Ricky Clarke for about two months. He showed up to their house unannounced earlier in the evening and we happened to show up unannounced too! It couldn't have worked out more perfectly!

I never would have considered visiting Ricky on Tuesday night. I am so grateful I started driving and deviating to find where to go and what to do. It was a great testimony builder for me to remember that God will lead us to people as we lean on Him. As far as the lesson went, Ricky continues to feel unforgivable because of his past. We testified to him of God's love. Elder Underwood was excited to have an opportunity to testify to a real person about the reality of the Restored Gospel. He'll be a good missionary! He invited Ricky to REALLY read the Book of Mormon because that is how he felt the Spirit and why he was baptized (he was baptized about four years ago). I likewise shared from personal experience. I was scared to talk with God about my sins (aka repent), but as I have done that more frequently I have felt His love more in my life. I invited Ricky to pray and really ask God for help and to apologize for mistakes he has made. In true Ricky fashion, he didn't accept any invitation I left with him. Haha. I pray that he will do it anyway! One thing I learned this week from watching the church's "A Savior Is Born" videos, is that the Atonement of Jesus Christ takes away excuses. No one is ever too far gone. Repentance and God's love is always there if we are willing to open up our heart to God.

The other things from this week... I was reminded how critical it is to use the Training Model. I have fallen into the trap of talking more than demonstrating and practicing. But as we 1: Explain 2: Demonstrate 3: Practice 4: Evaluate 5: Repractice, we can truly learn and become better. We did this in Trainer's Mtg this week and a little at MLC and Zone Conference. It was sweet. Elder Dilworth demonstrated helping a missionary overcome pride. One of the questions he asked changed the spirit of the room. It was so awesome. All of us could feel that he had asked an inspired question! That wouldn't have happened if we had talked about theoretical ways of helping the missionary. We just need to practice/demonstrate doing it!

Lastly, I am super grateful for the opportunity to spend so much time with President and Sister Brown. We were in the car with them for about 4 hours on Thursday and 5 hours of Friday. We will travel with them more this upcoming week too. It is amazing to see his commitment and personality first hand. As missionaries we see only a glimpse of who he is because of our limited interaction. He showed a little of his personality this week at MLC telling a joke or two. I am grateful to have received counsel and guidance from him. One little experience... We realized that I forgot a bag at the Casper Stake Center after having driven an hour towards Windsor. He didn't react negatively at all. He didn't ask, "Elder Campbell, why didn't you remember it?" Or "What's wrong with you?" Or anything like that. He didn't think twice about the extra two hours we would have to be in the car. He just immediately turned the car around!

I am grateful to be a missionary here in Windsor! Just a few weeks left now. We have a lot to do, but I am excited!

Have an amazing week!

Elder Campbell

Last Transfer Day! (Windsor wk#13)

Hi everyone!! :)

It is the beginning of my last transfer. Super weird. I'm staying in Windsor with Elder Snelders. It will be an adventure for sure, and probably will go by extremely fast.

Things from this week... Three days ago, I changed how I write in my journal. I generally use my journal to think on paper or reflect on things or vent. So I switched to addressing each entry to God (Dear Heavenly Father). It has definitely helped put things in better perspective. I am asking more questions and receiving more answers and recognizing more blessings. Asking, "How have I seen Thy hand in my life?" And saying thank your for it has been sweet! I feel a lot better about what I am writing now and it seems like it will be more valuable to reread later now.

We went to a wedding. A girl that was baptized a few months ago in Fort Collins (Elder Snelders taught her) was married at the church. It was cool. I haven't been to many weddings. I liked the advice the Bishop gave during it. That they should look back on their wedding day as the day that they loved each other the least. And that love isn't staring at each other all day, but standing side by side looking in the same direction. Lastly, that there will be disagreements that will require you to compromise (he defined compromise as when you both share your ideas and agree to stand together on the decision to follow the wife's idea). Good stuff.

We watched President Brown do transfers. I was a lot less involved than last time. He started on Wednesday and we were there with him for a few hours helping. Thursday when we came back he was entering it in online! When we prayed at the end it was interesting. We didn't ask if it was perfect or anything like that. It was, "Is something wrong on the board?" I realized that you can spend hours and hours moving missionaries around and not get that much of a gain. Instead he seeks to get something good and ask if there is something that NEEDS to change. I feel like that is good advice for life because I like things more perfect than is realistic a lot of times. There it won't be perfect, but it can be right and inspired.

Last night we watched the Christmas Devotional at President Brown's house. It was nice. I has been a pleasure getting to know President Brown better. He is full of lots of good counsel. I am super blessed for this opportunity for my last 18 weeks to closely work with him.

It won't be a walk in the park this last transfer with lots of stuff going on. But I am excited for it! We have some families we are working with (it continues to take longer than I want it to. Why can't people keep their appointments all the time and become engaged in the process of learning and becoming?). We have been constantly dropping by the same families in hopes that they will move forward! They are happy to see us, just have yet to take action. If you don't meet with them enough, they never get moving! We are going to do all that we can to help the women get to the Relief Society Christmas Party this week and the whole families to the Ward Christmas Party next week.

It is weird that this is the last group of new missionaries I will meet! And that some of my companions and favorite missionaries are going home tomorrow! And that my turn is next. *exhale. Time to make it count!

Elder Campbell :)

December is almost here! (Windsor wk#12)

Hi everyone!!

Sometimes I have to run errands instead of emailing! (like today)

I had a good week... I think... I'm almost certain I taught people the Gospel and did some sporadic service, but it's now super late on Monday and I don't remember a lot.

We have continued to try to help some part member families move forward. The Bates, Sinclairs, Bacas, and now the Schmidts. It consistently is harder than it initially seems. It takes a lot of time to build momentum or consistently meeting with us and helping people actually learn and grow on their own. It is really awesome though! Most of the lessons I taught this week were practically taught by the members that we brought. So that was pretty sweet. After all, they will be in the ward a lot longer than me!

I went on exchanges with Elder Guy this week. He is the man. He came out the same time as me and was actually the first person I met that was heading to this mission! He is so relaxed. I took deep breaths. It was nice. :) I like people like him that help me to be more present and less tense. I never realize how stressed I am until I'm with someone like him.

Missionary work is definitely the best. I've been gaining good insights and perspectives. One thing I will miss the most is the opportunity to spend time with so many families. We went to FHE tonight with the Jensens. They do it every week. And it was sweet. I'm pumped to do that. I really appreciated the lesson and scripture reading and family prayer!

Have an amazing week! I hope your Thanksgiving was awesome! (For those that wondered, we had it with the Jensens and it was good!).

Elder Campbell

Happy Thanksgiving! (Windsor wk #11)

Happy Monday before Thanksgiving!!

The weeks continue to fly by. Every Sunday an awesome dude from church with Down-Syndrome announces how many days there are until Christmas. At first it was 90 days or so. But now it's 32... what the heck!? I think I just need to accept that it will just keep getting faster forever.

So this week! We had lots of driving as it was exchanges with Cheyenne and Casper. My drive through Cheyenne was crazy on Wednesday!! It was like a semi truck graveyard. We passed about 10 of them on the side of the road having blown over in the storm! I had never seen that before! I had to keep both hands on the wheel for 20+ minutes straight because of the wind beating on the car. Wyoming weather in the winter is serious! It was funny because it was just as I was leaving Colorado that it started.

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Schenk this week!!! It was awesome to spend some time with him. We kinda wanted to cancel all of our plans in Windsor and drive to Estes Park and visit some families we taught there. :) We aren't the same person, but he is definitely one of the people that is most like me that I know! We hadn't been companions in Estes Park since January. I'm glad that we were able to do some teaching and talking. It is a little sad that the exchange with Casper was so short because we had to drive 4 hrs to do it. He helped me recommit to legit living the Gospel in my life. I have made some good strides since then and am grateful for him!

This Sunday School class was pretty scary... so Sister Bates was able to come to church for the 3rd time and stayed for class. The man who taught it had offended her 2 weeks previous (he has never taught the class since I have been here; the teacher was out of town). And then he went off on a super confusing tangent... I was SO excited for the lesson; it was going to be on repentance. But then it was derailed for like the entire time. *sigh. I prayed the whole time that she wouldn't be offended again. And it didn't appear that she was! That was a miracle. I am grateful. Sister Bates is super close. She started reading the Book of Mormon on her own! Huge Miracle! We are visiting her again tonight.

Best part for me personally was going to the Denver Temple!!! YAY!! It was awesome. Last time I made it was in January. Elder Snelders hadn't gone for his year-mark trip, so I got to go with him!! I saw multiple people that I knew there. haha. Brother LaMarr and Brother Hunt (I lived at both of their houses in Loveland) and Brother Brien (in Estes Park) and Sister Quist (also Loveland) and Bishop Knechtel (Bishop in Longmont in Long's Peak, next to the Estes Park Branch and Left-Hand Creek wards that I served in). Bishop Livingston (Elder Snelders favorite Bishop that he served with in Laramie) asked me if I knew everyone. haha. I guess there are a lot of people that I know that attend the Temple every Friday!!

Uplifting closing thoughts... I hope they make sense! Awesome Gospel discussions are one of my favorite things as a missionary. Yesterday after church we had one of those with Brother Stott. He is awesome. It was on the purpose of life. He wondered if someday we would get advanced enough as a society to be able to put a computer chip in our brain and download various knowledge/skills. However, we were realizing if there wasn't any effort to gain the knowledge, what would be the point? We tried to imagine a world where that was a reality. For a while, it would be sweet, but we didn't feel like it would be awesome. Brother Stott came up with a video game analogy to explain why. A video game (or sport) is only fun if you struggle to win. He said in a first-person shooter game a friend of his gave him a cheat code that gave him an unstoppable weapon. So he destroyed everyone while playing against people online. It was SUPER fun for a while. Winning just feels good! However after a while, the challenge went away. He felt he had to choose to stop playing the game or and stop using that weapon. It just wasn't as worthwhile without the challenge! I have had the same experience in different video games. After beating the game, what do you do? You have to move on to another game with more challenge. These concepts are so true for life. The purpose of life is to learn and grow from experience. We have trials and difficulties to learn to trust God more fully.

The adversary tries to persuade us that there are ways that we can get the results we want without sacrificing and changing to receive them. Quick fixes don't exist!! If they did, the purposes of God would be frustrated. We were put on this earth to experience this process of becoming. The Gospel is about heart-change. Becoming something different and better. In the Gospel, we are told to pray daily, study the scriptures daily, attend church weekly, and serve others. If we don't do these things, we may still experience a lot of joy and happiness... for a while. But long-term we cannot have a fullness of joy by skipping these steps! We won't be able to receive the blessings God wants to bestow upon us. We simply need to humble ourselves and submit to the process. So let's do it! Not try to look for the easiest way, but the way that will produce true results.

I hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving week!

Elder Jeff Campbell

Exchanges and Pondering about YSAs (Windsor wk#10)

Hi everyone!

*exhale. This morning I wrote my mission president for an hour. I didn't have the chance to write him last week about the exchanges I went on week two of the transfer so I wrote my normal email and reports on the 5 exchanges I have gone on this transfer. It was SWEET! I feel like I am in the most blessed spot in the mission since I have the opportunity to work primarily with missionaries that really want to do their best and help people come into Christ AND they are good at it. It is sometimes stressful and a hassle to get the exchanges to happen, but it is always a good experience.

One thing I have not appreciated as much as I should is the amount of high quality people that I have been able to spend time with as a missionary. From my companions to the Ward leaders to people who are changing their lives to follow Jesus Christ to President Brown. It is amazing to see the charity and dedication in so many people!

My exchange in Boulder was particularly impactful because of the young single adults we were able to spend time with; they remind me of parts of myself. We taught a girl who had been home from her mission for about 2 years. She loved her time serving Spanish speaking in Central America. She hasn't done anything that bad since she has been home, but doesn't feel the joy of the Gospel in her life as she did as a missionary. We did our best to remind her of the love that she had for people she taught. She saw their potential and who they could be, not the sins and temptations that dragged them down. We helped her know that God doesn't see her for the mistakes that she has made, but His daughter who He loves.

Next we taught a girl who was raised in a Christian home, but saw lots of hypocrisy in 'Christian' people as well as lots of wonderful people who follow other faith traditions. Naturally, she is confused about what is true! That is so common in so many people! I remember in college about 4 years ago I was feeling the same thing! I was in the Multi-Faith Living Community seeing people from all these faith backgrounds that are awesome people. The idea that some are 'wrong' felt mean. With my new understanding, I know that all that is TRUE is from God. There are so many common beliefs and sentiments in different religions because they are all trying to tell the same story. I know that everyone has pieces of the truth and a, grateful to have the fullness of the Gospel now!

Then... We taught a guy who is 23 starting a PhD program in Materials Science. Again, like me in our similar course of study. I remember feeling like him. He has a weekly Bible study at his house. He is a pretty solid Christian. However I could feel that God's love hasn't penetrated their heart. And that's one of the biggest things that have changed in these last 3+ years. My amigo Elder Farnsworth said in his email today, "One thing that I've noticed about my mission is that it's made me a lot more prone to feel emotions haha. Before my mission, I was always very stoic. My highs and lows were almost the same thing. But now, I'm more emotionally engaged in the things I'm doing." I don't know if I would describe myself in the same way, but I have WAYYYY more feeling and am far more emotionally engaged in my life now and in these past couple years than ever before! I'm just pumped a lot. And I feel like I have experienced God's love for me more and it has filled me and it has been awesome.

Lastly the next morning we taught a lady that was significantly overweight who has adopted a lot of her own ideas into her own personal religion. While that isn't terrible, it is if they are false! She didn't feel like attending church wasn't important or reading the scriptures and she also has started breaking other commandments. I don't think that all happened at once, but slowly started to happen over time. When she became lax of some commandments, it started creeping into all of them! It just reminded me of the importance of not becoming lax on any of the commandments, especially the most basic of reading and praying and attending church. It seems that falling away typically begins with neglecting those things. I had a lot of reflections on that 24 hr exchange!

Lastly, Sister Bates! She is doing well. Because of meeting with us and our Elders Quorum President, she now believes a lot of the restored doctrines of the church (we studied all of these individually in the Bible and later in the Book of Mormon and etc): We lived with God before we came to the earth, Authority Is required to become a baptized member of God's church, God's authority is given by someone who already has His Authority, God chooses you to have that Authority not the other way around, the Bible true and correct and of God, the Bible is not perfect or incapable of being corrupted, and more. It has been awesome to see her growth (and mine since our Elders Quorum President is doing the heavily lifting in appointments). She is definitely close! She just needs to recognize her spiritual witness from God that the Gospel has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

I apologize if this was wordy! I like pondering and reflecting and this email gives me a great spot to do that! I hope you have an awesome week! I am grateful for God's love in my life and seeing it change the lives of others.

Elder Jeff Campbell

More from Colorado (Windsor wk#9)

Hey everyone!

Being a missionary is great. We got caught up figuring out meeting stuff and doing other office related activities today. And I had to take a nap (recovering from cold-like symptoms). So I really didn't get the time to write this week.

Sister Bates came to church without her husband (he had to work), which was a miracle. She has been doing pretty well. Sister Whitehat (a less-active) came to church too this week. It was pretty sweet!

We went on 3 exchanges and got to go to 2 zone meetings. WOW. We have some amazing zone leaders. I could not have done what they did in those two meetings. Definitely blessed! They are a huge part of why we are moving forward as a mission (along with lots of amazing trainers!).

I read an email today from a sister missionary serving in Mexico. I forget how serious e struggles are for other people! She visited a family who had nothing. No fridge, no bed, no food. I can't imagine that. Also, a young man returned from serving a two-year mission in Russia and spoke on Sunday. It is not the safest place out there! And not that many people that are enthusiastic to join the church. He definitely gained a deep appreciation for the simple things of prayer, church attendance, and reading the scriptures.

I love being a missionary here. It is such a blessing. It is an adventure. I am so glad to have had those reminders this week that my trials aren't that significant in the grand scheme of things! We have people to teach. We have great accommodations. We have lots of blessings!

Have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Jeff Campbell

The Work Presses On (Windsor wk#8)

Happy Monday Everyone!

Lots of exciting stuff this week.

Let's start with Tuesday... Transfers were successful. We got to pick up the new missionaries from the airport on Tuesday. They are pretty solid! The best part of Tuesday was the evening devotional. So if you still have last week's email with the baptismal picture, the 4 non-missionaries in it (Dan & Lindsay + Jim & Colleen) came to the dinner and devotional along with Chantelle and Hot Rod. It was SWEET! It was powerful to hear the conversions of Dan & Lindsay again and see the repercussions of little decisions. The missionaries here tracted on Christmas Day to find them! They had a process of about 9 months before being baptized. They have stopped drinking and smoking and more. And NOW Lindsay's mom has been baptized too! Lindsay's dad (Jim) was kinda listening when his family was talking, but when Chantelle and Hot Rod shared their experiences he became really engaged. Hot Rod had never felt welcome in any church's (he has a full sleeve of tattoos on both arms, and they aren't all appropriate) and is just an intimidating looking guy! Both of he and his wife had really bad habits they have broken. He said, "I did it Hot Rod's way for over 40 years and it didn't get me anywhere. I have lived it. I was ready to change and I have left it behind. I now do it God's way." Jim laughed a lot and really enjoyed himself that night. His experiences lined up so well with Hot Rod's experiences. I am hopeful that he will give the church a chance!

We had trainers meeting and service Wednesday, planning Thursday and Mission Leader Council on Friday. They were pretty sweet. It is awesome to see the missionaries that have been asked to build the mission this week - the new trainers and zone leaders. It's weird that I am the missionary who has been at the mission leadership council longest now. (And at the Stake President's breakfast on Saturday morning he had the missionary who had been in the field longest give the closing prayer - in that group, it that was me). We are definitely pumped with where we are going! We had two of our best weeks as a mission to end the month of October. It's looking up!

Lastly, the best parts of the week were doing missionary work. Sister Bates is really starting to make progress. She is opening her heart little by little to the message and wants to give this another shot. We met with her... Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and Sunday (and ate dinner with them Saturday). I am praying a lot that this can be the time where she makes the leap of faith to join. We have had President Bagley (our Elders Quorum President) there most of the times. He is an amazing teacher - though it is more like missionaries present than a member present with him. Haha. So he has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting to help Sister Bates understand some stuff. I am always surprised to hear the things that people don't understand even when they have been associated with the church for eight years. We are starting to identify them and help her learn. She even came to church this weekend! Her husband didn't think that she could get back to this point again. We are optimistic! :)

We also found a new investigator and are working with some new people to help them come back to church. I have said it before, but will say it again, it is one of the best feelings in the world to see someone's life be changed. The First Presidency said in the introduction to Preach My Gospel, "There is no more compelling work than this, nor any which brings greater satisfaction... More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children." I can definitely testify that is true! It is so satisfying to help someone recognize their relationship with their Father in Heaven. To help people understand how they can communicate with Him and receive answers to prayer. To help people experience the changing power of Christ's Atonement. To see people have a change of heart and truly become a different person! I love it!

Love,

Elder Jeff Campbell

Transfers! :)

HI EVERYONE! I LOVE YOU!

Transfers are here and I am staying in Windsor and more than likely I will stay here for the remaining of my time as a full-time missionary. Elder Winter is being transferred to Scottsbluff, Nebraska. He is pretty pumped to train his last transfer before he goes home. My new companion is Elder Snelders. I still remember when he was a new missionary because I met him then. He came out the same time as Elder Harper (who I trained back in the day). It should be good. I feel pretty confident in the Windsor ward and as an Assistant to be the 'senior' one (even though there isn't a senior or junior assistant).

It was super cool this week to spend time with President and Sister Brown doing transfers. The questions that he asks, "who will bless this missionary?" and whatnot. It is powerful to see how much he truly cares about the missionaries and wants to bless them now and for the rest of their life. It is also really cool to see him in a more relax setting. It is also focused on receiving direction from God. One of the other best things is calling missionaries Saturday night and letting them know of their future assignments (like asking if they will train a new missionary or be a new district leader or zone leader). I love hearing people who are willing and excited to serve. It is just a lot more fun to make phone calls to people that are positive!

With the email going out pretty late, you can tell I don't have a lot of time with transfers happening tomorrow and the new missionaries arriving. The last thing is that Sister Bates is starting to do pretty well. We played Disc Golf with them last week and today with Brother Bates. She has just really started to open up. The Spirit has definitely been working on her and she is starting to have noticeable spiritual experiences.

It is really weird... I was at the mission office this morning and our secretary was requesting flights for all of the missionaries going home in January. Later in the day my mom emailed me my flight plans... it's getting real! But there is still time to make more strides forward! The mission has been doing well with miracles happening all over the place. I'm excited to have the opportunity to help focus and miracles continue to increase. It's the best.

Have an amazing day!

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

Baptisms and 3 months left (Windsor wk#6)

Happy Monday Everyone!!

To start off, it's October 19th 2015... I go home January 19th 2016. Wow. That's like 3 months away! Super weird. Time continues rolling forward, that's for sure. The time is not far hence! This next week, the last member remaining of my first district goes home. Elder Sanders is the best and had just finished being trained when I got to the field in Laramie. I feel like every day I am reminded how my clock is ticking! But back to the good stuff...

If you recall, at the end of last week's email I mentioned miracles that are happening throughout the mission. Lots of missionaries have been feeling like they are truly representatives of Jesus Christ and an instrument in the hands of the Lord. So that happened to us! A few hours after sending the email, we called while walking out of dinner. It ended up being the most memorable phone call I have received as a missionary. It was Sister Bates (her husband joined the church 3 years ago, she is not a member, and hasn't allowed her 14-year-old daughter to be baptized). She asked, "Some of our friends are coming in town this weekend, can my daughter be baptized on Saturday?" I stammered, "Sure! We can make that happened!" That for sure caught me off guard! So this week we met a couple times with them to make that happen. I found out later that Zoie has wanted to be baptized since she was about 8 years old! She was prepared to be baptized even before her father was baptized. She didn't need to be taught anything by us (it is pretty weird having a convert baptized in the ward without you teaching them). So ya! It was pretty cool.

Ironically, by not allowing Zoie to be baptized for six year, the requirements Sister Bates put on her daughter has made her a WAYYYY strong young woman. She has read the entirety of the Bible (I have read a lot of it, but not 100% of it) and the Book of Mormon. Both of the two men who spoke at her baptism said she knows the scriptures better than they do. In testimonies during the baptism, many shared stories meeting the Bates family for the first time in 2007. Zoie got a ride to school from their Mormon neighbors, the Morgans. She started coming earlier and earlier to their house in the morning to participate in reading the Book of Mormon for 10 minutes and having morning family prayer. The Morgans and Bates had family night each week together not for 30 minutes, but for 3-4 hours focused on the Gospel. It was amazing to hear all of the love that has been shown to the Bates family.

On Sunday after she was confirmed at church, the Bishop presented Zoie with her Young Women's medallion. The Spirit was so strong in the chapel. You could feel her Spirit too. I was emotional and I feel like a lot of other people were. It almost never happens for a young woman to be confirmed and receive her Young Women's medallion in the same day. I just looked through a personal progress book and it is INTENSE! It takes a serious amount of dedication overtime to achieve that. I could see Sister Bates wiping away tears. She loves her daughter a ton. Because of her, Zoie will be a light at church already!

Last Monday before dinner, we played Disc Golf because Elder Winter loves it. We told the Bates family about it and they LOVE disc golf too (really? lol). So we are going to play with them in a few hours! It is amazing... the more time that we spend together, the more connections we make!!

The other miracle... we were able to visit a part-member family this week after trying for the last four weeks. The second time we dropped by on Saturday, we were able to catch them just long enough to invite them to church, and they came (the visiting grandparents from Utah probably helped with that). We dropped by and visited with them Sunday afternoon. It was so cool to actually be able to go inside their house! lol. They are really nice. Though it took over an hour to persuade the boys to go to church, all three of them really enjoyed it  (I would consider that a miracle). AND Sister Sinclair met Sister Despain who has boys the same ages as she does! I am so pumped that other the Bates and Sinclairs took such big steps forward this weekend.

Being a missionary is the best. I have grown so much it is unreal. Still weird that it is quickly coming to a close, but it has been good! There is still time left for some more miracles!!

I hope you have the best week of your life!! :) This last week was definitely up there for me.

Elder Jeff Campbell

Sent from my iPad

Sister Morgan made a cool instagram photo that she shared with me. Top left is the Bates family (with a cousin and grandma in there). Brother Morgan baptized Zoie (he was the one who baptized Brother Bates). The bottom right has all the kids in the Bates and Morgan family. It is so cute... the littlest Morgan boy and littlest Bates girl hold hands a lot. There is already speculation they will be married even though they are only about 6. Haha.

Miracles Abound! (Windsor wk#5)

Hi everyone!

This week was awesome!! I am really loving being a missionary more and more by the day! I love both helping the mission be more unified on Our Purpose and teaching people in our area.

We finally got the Area Book Planner App this week. It takes some getting used to, but it is a very powerful tool. We are putting in our Area Book information into online teaching records that the ward council can easily access from their LDS.org account. Wow... it is so nice! I still don't really know how to use it, but it is sweet. I even already emailed the support people to see if they can add a few more features to it! :)

Last week we had a couple promising referrals we were able to contact this week! Elder Winter contacted a family on Tuesday while I was on exchanges. Hopefully I will get to meet them soon, but they are interested in the Gospel!

While he was on exchanges, I was in Greeley with Elder Blackburn. It was awesome. He is a great missionary. During dinner at Wendy's we found a potential investigator by talking to the cashier named Ashley. She doesn't have a religious background, but we got her phone number and the elders met with her on Saturday. Hopefully it goes well! Their investigator Travis was interviewed to be baptized (I got to go to it on Saturday!) and we got to teach an Institute class (about 6 people there). The Spirit was present as we shared the Restoration and discussed it. It is so amazing to me that whenever the First Vision is shared, the Spirit testifies that it is true. I can feel it over and over again.

The next day I was on exchanges in Windsor with Elder Snelders. We ended up visiting a lady I found tracting almost 3 weeks ago named LaNisa. She is moving to Loveland. Elder Snelders and I shared a message answering a lot of her questions about Prophets. We also explained why we talk about the Book of Mormon so much - it is the convincing evidence of the Restoration. Then we were able to help her move to Loveland. I can't believe how well it worked out. A lot of times when we do service, it doesn't seem to have any significant benefit. This time it did. LaNisa really had no idea how she could possibly move her stuff the ~10 miles to Loveland because she can't afford a moving company. We helped her load stuff into her car and put 2 beds in our truck. We texted the sisters in the area that she is moving to and elders in a nearby area; they were both able to come at 3:30pm to help unload, which took only 30 minutes. It was amazing. Moving people is always an ordeal that happens when we should be teaching people, but this was during the day! Moreover, the sisters set up a return appointment with LaNisa. It couldn't have been a more perfect handoff! We are going to help her move her last stuff tomorrow with some members from the ward.

The other awesome thing in the exchange was visiting the other referral family from last week, the Bates. They just moved in from Johnstown. After our weekly coordination meeting ended at 8:40pm, I almost decided to call it a night and go home. We ended up going to their house and it was great! Brother Bates was baptized just over 3 years ago, Sister Bates isn't currently interested, and their oldest daughter (14-years-old) wants to be baptized. I feel like we connected a lot and I am optimistic about them. On Saturday we were able to help them move a desk into their couch for about 30 minutes. It was another example of simple service that I feel like is going a long way to soften hearts. I'm glad we were able to help! Brother bates and the 3 daughters made it to church yesterday. The oldest daughter shared a one minute testimony and included the words, "I know this church is true." That is pretty awesome!

Other things from the week... we visited a man this week that was SUPER humbling to visit him. He has been a member his whole life (I think), but made some mistakes. He shared bits of his testimony of God's love for him and that the process of repentance is worth it. I could really feel that he truly has a "broken heart and contrite spirit." He has been brought to the depths of humility in this process. I am privileged to hear parts of the change of heart he has been experiencing. I feel like he is one of the spiritually strongest men I've ever met.

But ya. The Gospel is true!! Each week, the zone leaders have been reporting on which companionships in their zone would be good for me to call and hear about the miracles happening in their area. WOW. That is one of the most faith promoting things I have ever gotten to do! I have heard miracles tracting (i.e. a family of five preparing to be baptized), referrals from out of nowhere (i.e. from Utah or a visitor from Missouri), people coming up to the missionaries (i.e. three people came up to some missionaries while they were eating at Subway), and so many more. As some of them have been describing these miracles, I can hear the change that is happening in their hearts! New missionaries are finding joy in the work by praying for the needs of others. Other missionaries are seeing the Lord's hand in the work for perhaps the first time. It's so awesome!

My testimony is growing, particularly that scriptures like Ether 12:12 are true. It says, "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith." As my faith and the faith of other missionaries has increased, we have seen miracles. We have seen "the Lord [make] bear his holy arm" (Isaiah 52:10 & Abinadi quoting Isaiah in Mosiah 12:24) in people's lives. Miracles abound as we have faith. I know that is true.

Have an amazing week!

Elder Jeff Campbell

Sent from my iPad

- I drew this on my tablet during one of the talks in General Conference about keeping the commandments. A barrier was put out in a cove in Australia, but some surfers visiting wanted to ride the bigger waves outside the barrier. When given binoculars by a local, they found out that there were sharks just on the other side of the barrier. So the barriers (commandments of God) are there to protect us from being "devoured." :)

Traversing the Mission, Checking out Casper (Windsor wk#4)

Hi Everyone!! I hope this email finds you well.

Another week I feel like I have forgotten in its entirety... it is really weird how fast Mondays come. Let's see... what did I do this week???

I have been learning recently I really enjoy administrative stuff. It is kinda unexpected to me because most of the time I hate being bogged down with details. I just like making it happen. But it turns out I love details when I believe that if I solve some administrative issues that everything will go more smoothly. I probably would have really enjoyed writing programs for software because that is essentially what I seem to like to do. Identifying a problem and creating a system that simplifies life and solves it. One little example is formatting a directory of all the missionaries that we make at the beginning of each transfer. We had to type out the same thing three times (one for the zone leaders, one for us, and one for the mission office). That was really annoying. So we formatted it with excel so that we only have to do it once and it is done three times. That was awesome. We have done other things like that too in an attempt to help the Fort Collins Colorado Mission be more focused on Our Purpose.

But I super love missionary work too! On Tuesday I was in Windsor with Elder Dutton. After teaching a lesson than ended right before our 5pm dinner, we found out dinner was actually at 5:30pm. Soooo we ended up going to an apartment complex looking for someone to talk to. We ended up seeing a guy pulling up with a large couch to one of them. "Perfect!" we thought, "We can help them move the couch!" But if you have ever offered to help a random person do stuff, more than 9 times out of 10 they say no, which is what happened. Soooooo, I helped anyway! :) They appreciated it. And we ended up talking to a cool named Ryan for 10 minutes that lives in that apartment. Hopefully we will see him tomorrow. After dinner we went tracting in a different complex. We found this really nice family that only speaks Spanish. It was quite exciting trying to teach the Gospel in Spanish... The wife read the introduction to the Book of Mormon in Spanish that I had on my iPad. It was really fun and really hard because I don't know Spanish very well. We did set up a return appointment for two days later and sent the Spanish Elders. :)

I got to go up to Casper on Wednesday. I decided to drive the whole way. I am weak. Driving for four hours is not awesome... and yet we have had missionaries drive 4 hours and 5 hours one way to a meeting and then had them drive back after... that is less awesome. A 10 hour day of driving!! Fortunately I was able to get back the next day so I could sleep in Windsor in preparation for a meeting on Friday morning. Ironically on Friday morning the missionaries who made it first to the 9am meeting arrived at 8am and drove in from Casper... I think they left at 4:45am.

Other missionary work... we contacted two families this week and received a referral of a family. We are excited to work with them! One has an unbaptized 14 year old daughter who already finished her personal progress (usually is completed shortly before age 18). I am impressed! We are optimistic.

The Semi-Annual General Conference happened this last weekend too... I learned a lot from conference. I had a chance to watch the Saturday Afternoon Session with President and Sister Brown where the three new Apostles (Elder Rasband, Elder Stevenson, and Elder Renlund) were sustained. That was the first time I have ever witnessed that! It was awesome. The one thing that sticks out most from that session is that the leaders of the church are human like me. When I spent the time with President and Sister Brown, I was reminded of their humanness - they have a family they love and desire to learn from General Conference like me. Also, Elder Martino (who visited our mission a few months ago) spoke during that session. The biggest difference in the leaders of the church made 'decisions [that] determined their destiny' and they have been called by God to lead today. They aren't people I worship or put on a pedestal. They are simply people who are walking the path to the Kingdom of God! Pretty sweet experience!

Lastly, I had an opportunity to talk with one of my favorite missionaries (Elder Sullivan) a few days ago. He finishes being a full-time missionary in 3 weeks. He said how happy/grateful he is of the growth our mission has experienced since he first got here. I agree. I am SUPER happy that the commonplace struggles that once permeated our mission are slowly fading away. We have grown a lot. While doing a mission tour two months ago with her husband, Sister Zeballos told us that we are serving in the best mission in the world because it is our mission. I have never personally said, "The Colorado Fort Collins Mission is the best mission in the world" because I have never honestly believed it. I have been frustrated at times with where we are at. But I agree with Elder Sullivan. It feels SUPER good to be a part of a mission with positive trajectory. Our mission leadership council on Friday was one of the best that we have had with some awesome engaged and enthusiastic missionaries. I am now proud to call the Colorado Fort Collins Mission my own. I am grateful that I was called here; I wouldn't change it for anything.

Have an amazingly awesome week!

Elder Jeff Campbell :)

Pictures...

- you know you have been a missionary for a while when you drive to a new town (Wheatland, Wyoming) and you locate the church building to take pictures in front of it... haha.

- and when you are sharing a shake with another Elder who you met 24 hours ago. haha.

- and a member let me hold one of his AR-10s. I got a picture so I could show Elder Brazell. I still know almost nothing about guns. But I did get to hold one! :)