This week has been a somewhat stressful adventure for sure!! But we had one of the best meetings I have been to in my entire life this week!! Elder Bednar (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) visited our mission and there is SOOOO much that I learned from him.
The best part of being with Elder Bednar was observing his teaching style. I had been pondering about that concept recently, especially after attending a Institute class. That teacher didn't have a specific thing that we were supposed to learn from the class. He had concepts and ideas and was able to create an environment where the Spirit was the teacher. He wasn't the teacher. That is exactly what Elder Bednar did too. He invited us to diligently study 3 talks that he had given about revelation and learning by the Spirit. At the meeting he told us that he was going to do 2 things. To write inspiration we received, not what he says. Also that we weren't going to play the game, "Guess what's in my head." When he said that, I had no idea what he meant by that game. He meant that we usually ask questions where there is a specific right answer. So for this meeting he asked us what we had learned from our studies and had some follow up questions to better understand our experiences applying/acting on what we learned. It is such a simple concept, but the way he demonstrated it was profound. He also did a GREAT job setting expectations so we knew exactly what we were talking about and what types of questions to ask. He made no quick judgments and made sure to completely answer questions during the Q&A. We all learned a lot by the Spirit - he did very little specific teaching or training. He was just trying to help us be agents and not objects.
My takeaway was essentially to strive to be more like him. He was a great conduit for the spirit. He created an environment where we learned by the Spirit - everyone had different takeaways. I sometimes end up causing people to focus more on me than the Gospel. It is a bad habit! I try hard not to be the big deal or have people focus on me or my story or stuff like that. But sometimes I get caught up and have people look to me instead of to God. That is what Elder Bednar did so well. He helped us learn that it wasn't him that was teaching; the Spirit was the teacher.
As for the work, it has been about a year since I was swept into an area (aka when both missionaries leave and two new missionaries come). It has been a little hard to figure out what we are exactly doing here in the YSA. It is a fairly good sized area. I think the hardest part of having this large area is that there are actually members and people in all the parts of it unlike the YSA in Laramie or the branch in Estes. While those covered large areas, we didn't go to the middle of nowhere places very much. In this area, everywhere is fair game! So we have to make sure we don't schedule back to back lessons with one in South Fort Collins and one in Fredrick! But it has been fun and we should have this figured out by the end of the week.
My companion Elder McConeghey is AWESOME. Wow. I have been working for the last 3 months at writing something about my companion that I like on a daily basis. I probably have something written for 80% of the days since then. I forgot until yesterday to start a list about him, and I wrote more things than the number of days that have passed! He has sought to serve more than any companion before. He gave me a back massage after noticing my shoulders have been hurting because of my missionary bag. He made breakfast for me. He has washed dishes multiple times at other people's houses. He is awesome.
Lastly, I got to go to Sabrina Rittner's Baptism. It was really nice to be there. It was pretty stressful at the beginning, but the Spirit was there and I felt refreshed. I love baptisms! Elder Schenk and I taught her the last 2+ months in Estes. She is awesome. I would send pictures, but I didn't bring my SD/USB adapter because the computers in Estes didn't need one!
Have an amazing week!
Elder Jeff Campbell
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