I learned what a blizzard looks like! (Lvlnd pt2 wk#8)

Hey everyone!!

We had a snow day in the CO FoCo mission. It was blizzarding for a bit on Saturday. The visibility dropped from fairly descent to about 10 ft. It was SUPER white! I don't know where it came from! I don't know if it was a "real" blizzard because I'm not sure if it lasted long enough, but we did have a glimpse of it! Some church was cancelled out here (I think mostly in Denver) due to snow. There was about 1/4 the normal amount of people at church because of the weather.

The biggest miracle this week happened towards the beginning. Elder Moala said in his last area they would always put at least 1 new investigator as a goal even if they had no idea where they would come from. So our first night together on Tuesday we did that. While we were doing some planning the next day, we got a text from a 303 number saying this is Ruth and her friend Josh told her to text us. We didn't have plans that evening; we just knew we would be in Frederick after dinner. She lives in Frederick (without a car) and we arranged a time to meet at Josh's house that night. It was a GREAT first lesson! And we met with her on Friday at Bekah's house (she came with us to the first lesson). That went great too and she wants to be baptized! Then she stayed the night in Longmont and was snowed in. She didn't think she would be able to make it to church on Sunday and Bekah was scared to drive from Frederick to Longmont with the bad road conditions. Fortunately, Tim came with us to our lesson on Friday at Bekah's and was able to take her to church on Sunday! It was awesome! Referrals are definitely the best, especially when they are truly prepared to accept the Gospel! She is preparing to be baptized on March 14th.

It has been an adventure to be with Elder Moala in this area. It's been over 4 months since I have been the missionary staying in an area and getting a new companion there. We are still trying to work out teaching styles together and introducing him to the new area.

But overall it has been great! :) The insight I gained this week was a reiteration of one I had received before, but haven't successfully applied. It comes from a talk by Henry B Eyring at the April 2014 General Conference called The Priesthood Man:

"We all pray, but the [Christian] you want to be prays often and with real intent. In the evening you will get on your knees and thank God for the blessings of the day. You will thank Him for parents, for teachers, and for great examples to follow. You will describe in your prayers specifically who has blessed your life and how, during that day. That will take more than a few minutes and more than a little thought. It will surprise you and change you.

"As you pray for forgiveness, you will find yourself forgiving others. As you thank God for His kindness, you will think of others, by name, who need your kindness. Again, that experience will surprise you every day, and over time it will change you.

"One way you will be changed by such fervent prayer is, I promise you, that you will feel truly that you are a child of God. "

The parts that have stuck out to me are the ones I bolded. Praying for a period of time longer than just a few minutes and that EVERY DAY I will be surprised by doing that. I haven't done this consistently yet, but when I have it has been powerful.

Have an awesome week! :)

Sincerely,

Elder Jeff Campbell

CO Fort Collins Mission

500 Hillspire Dr

Windsor, CO 80550

-picture of my companion Elder Moala and myself

I love being a missionary! (Lvlnd pt2 wk#6)

Hi Everyone!

So this week has been great! I love being a missionary for sure! It is so weird to look back on my week in my planner and realize that the things I did this last week were so recently! Maybe I'm just really focused on each day because it feels like the lessons on Wednesday and Thursday this week were a long time ago! A LOT of things happened this week. I can relate to the prophet Mormon, "I cannot write the hundredth part of the things" this week.

First, funny part. My companion is sometimes totally ridiculous. It is great. For example, everyone in a class introduced themselves and Elder McConeghey said (in his best farm-boy drawl) "I'm from Iowa. I like to shuck corn and wrestle pigs." It was hilarious. Amber sat with us this week again at church and loved sacrament a ton. Elder McConeghey sings loudly and when he doesn't know the words says, "la la la la la la" to the beat of the song. Everyone around us starts laughing. It's great. There is a song called, "Called to Serve" that missionaries sing a lot. He sometimes sings it in that same melody with only two words: "Called to Called to Called to Called to Called to." It's great. I'm grateful for how fun he is!

Second, Interviews this week with the Mission President. It was great. He is awesome. Our mission has definitely gradually been improving since I became a missionary here. I am definitely hopeful of where we are headed and I have made some commitments (and re-commitments) to be a better missionary because of the interview.

Last couple days were the best part of the week by far. Friday night we had a lesson at Lillian's house with her friend Jen that was invited over for a dinner with the missionaries! It was awesome! She is interested at this time in her life as a result of a series of undesirable event. She had a lot of questions and was genuinely interested in learning the truth for herself. As I have mentioned before, it is so fulfilling to work with people who are interested in changing!! 

Yesterday we had a lesson with TJ who is still set for baptism on Feb 21st. It was EXTREMELY spirit-filled. She cried a couple times; two friends Derek and Chris were super emotional as well. She is in a rough family situation and is planning to move out to Kansas with her boyfriend who is in the military in a few weeks. But that is not in line with the law of chastity prohibiting cohabitation. She at first didn't believe she could do it, but after the spirit testifying that she could (and Josh sharing 1 Nephi 3:7 that the Lord prepares a way to accomplish His commandments), she took it home to seek inspiration from God what to do. It was the best! 

Lastly, we had a GREAT Sunday night family home evening at a family's house. Their 19-year-old daughter invited us for the last couple weeks to share a lesson with her family because her parents have been struggling (specifically her mom has been not coming to church for the last couple months because of a sin that she won't let go of - which is causing a rift in their marital relationship and may lead to divorce). It was AWESOME! We weren't sure what to share until we received inspiration on our way to the appointment (good thing it was at least 20 mins away from the appointment before). We learned that we needed to invite them to read the scriptures daily as a family. Then we learned a few minutes later that to do that, we would have each of them individually testify of the Book of Mormon's impact in their lives. Then we learned a few minutes later that we should introduce it using Alma 31:5 "And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God." We felt mostly prepared as we went in.

When we went in, the parents weren't even "feeling well enough" to join us! I was definitely disheartened. Fortunately they came when we shared the lesson after a game of dominoes. It is hard for me to imagine the lesson to go better. The daughter shared her testimony after I asked a brief question (that came to my mind while I was reading Alma 31:5 out loud). She was super emotional sharing the impact the Book of Mormon had on her. With that perfect introduction, we invited the rest of them (6) to shared their feelings about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was nearly tangible. The high school aged boy cried a LOT when he shared his feelings, and I could feel the sincerity in the conversion experiences of the others. The mom went last and shared how powerful it was for her to her the testimonies of her children. As they were growing up and they would read the scriptures and pray nightly as a family, she wondered if anything was getting in. But now she could see and feel that it DID make an impact in their lives. I couldn't believe how perfectly that led into the invitation to do that again as a family (as their children grew they had lost the habit)!! :) It is funny... since I didn't do that as a family when I grew up, I felt like that would be an impossible thing to go from nothing as a family to everyday for 10 minutes. Elder McConeghey said his family did it for the last number of years as he was growing up and the difference it made for him. But when the time for the invitation came, I knew it was just what they needed to do to save that family and their marriage. 

I know that the Word of God is THE key to change. The conversion that takes place when we read the scriptures with a prayer is nearly unbelievable. I have experienced it in my own life and seen it in the people we are working with all the time!

Hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Campbell

"The joy of being an instrument in the hands of the Lord" (Lvlnd pt2 wk#5)

Hi everyone!! 

Hope you are doing super awesome! If you get sad, you should stop being sad and be awesome instead! :) (I had a shirt that said something like that I got in college. It's pretty sweet!) Clearly, right now I'm feeling GREAT and excited for life. I hope this email finds you well!

So yesterday I had a morning meeting with the guy who is over missionary work in Loveland for the church. It was probably the best meeting we have had thus far. One interesting thing he mentioned was that when he sent his sons out to be missionaries, he told them to keep in their mind what they will write about for their homecoming talk (traditionally missionaries give a talk in church just before they leave to be missionaries and just after coming home from being a missionary full-time). He said it may help them get through hard times or be more focused on creating events and recording them that they could share, specifically miracles and times being an instrument in the Lord's hands. While at church later in the day, that was in the back of my mind and I came up with a title of that talk: "The joy of being an instrument in the hands of the Lord." On a side note, I feel like that should be the topic for probably every homecoming talk. So that's what I'll write about today!

I feel like I could prepare a talk from just the stuff from this week! It was awesome! 

First (the funny/fun part). We were texted last Monday after emailing, "Can you do me a huge favor?" We said, sure! "Can we pie you two in the face tonight for the carnival activity at FHE?" And we said yes... So a bunch of the people from church got to put whip cream on little plates and throw it at us! It was exciting. A couple times people somehow persuaded me to close my eyes and instead of throwing it from 10ft away, they walked up and put it perfectly in my face... It was good times. I think it all came out of my clothes (we also were wearing trash bags to protect our clothes).

So the miracle/instrument parts... I'll start with Amber. Amber is awesome. We met her 2 weeks ago at FHE. She was raised in the church, but hadn't been going for a number of months. She had gotten in not the best situation and was just not doing well. She decided to come back and we have met with her about 5x in those 2 weeks. Wow. She is awesome! The culminating part was yesterday at fast and testimony meeting. She felt inspired to go up in front at church and share her testimony. She said, "This is the first time I have been excited to go to church since I was a little girl." And lots more things expressing the same sentiment. She cried a bit up there because of the joy and happiness she has been feeling because she has been coming back to church. ACTUALLY when we met with her this week on Thursday, she told us that she was working on Sunday from 9-2 and would miss church (she has to work every other Sunday). She committed to at least asking if she can change shifts and to go to church, and it worked!!! I'm so proud of her progress. It is the best ever to be working with someone who is READY to change her life. We checked in last night to remind her to pray and that we wrote about her testimony in our journals. She said, "Yay!! I'm actually reading scriptures right now and praying after. It's become my nightly routine. You guys are awesome and have seriously blessed my life! Thank you!" It definitely makes all the stress and challenges (that happen daily) worth it when someone responds so well to your help! :)

Next, Hailey, Angele, and Reagan. They are best friends and we met with them individually about missionary work as they are all active members of the church. It was really awesome. I just felt EXTREMELY fulfilled because for each one of them though we had about the same plan - help them do missionary work - it was very different! They are all pretty shy and timid girls. It ended up that for Hailey we focused on inviting her to meet a new person at church (she wants to be a missionary so she should practice meeting new people!) and to place her name in the scriptures like I had done before, i.e. "Hailey, everything unfair about your life can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ." That was where she was at. Then Angele was a little bit further ahead of Hailey in some areas. We found out she also wants to be a missionary, but hasn't actually read the full Book of Mormon or specifically asked God if it is His Word. So we invited her to do that and met with her two days later to role play how she could invite her friend to a church-like thing. Reagan is a return missionary, so we just spent the time role playing with her how to invite her friend to learn about the Gospel. She thought a lot about her friend as a missionary, and is ready to extend a specific invitation to learn more. It was AWESOME to really feel like I was reaching them where they are at and giving them specific invitations that they believe they can accomplish!

Another person is Kat. We saw her on our list of church members (but we hadn't met her yet) and messaged her we would be in Longmont and we wanted to stop by. Turns out she just finished a three-week road trip a few days earlier. We had a very fun discussion. She talked a bit about her story. Wanting to be a missionary while attending BYU, then almost getting married, then moving to NY with her sister and then now recently coming back home to Colorado. She is a fitness instructor and has learned that a lot of Gospel concepts apply there too. Ultimately we challenged her to really read from the scriptures and pray everyday. The best part of this experience was later that night when she texted us: "How is it that every time I'm perfectly ready and brinking on being done with trying to believe in God, the missionaries find me somehow somewhere. What is this crazy magic?" We said, "That's a great question to ask Him in prayer tonight :)" She said, "Oh you two... Goodnight. And... thanks." It is SUPER fulfilling to have "coincidentally" have texted her and had time to meet her and help her in the exact timing she needed!!

Obviously, there are more people we are working with - like TJ (who is doing well, just gets easily overwhelmed. But she is excited for her baptism on Feb 21), Lauren (a struggling member who made it to church this weekend after we invited her this week!) Bekah (who is now super active and we are helping to do missionary work), and the Casey's (an awesome family, the parents are struggling a bit, but we could SEE a difference in them after our lesson last night!) - and it is THE BEST. To really feel like you are doing something that is actually helping people feel true joy and happiness, and also to share what they love with others. :)

I am so grateful to be a missionary. In the First Presidency Message at the beginning of Preach My Gospel (the guide for our missionary service) it says, "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." That is SO TRUE! Really becoming an instrument in the hands of the Lord is the most fulfilling work that there is. Really knowing that what you are offering people will help them. I have a SURE knowledge that the Gospel is the answer today. The joy, happiness, and peace in the Gospel is real. It will help anyone, anywhere no matter what their life situation is as they apply it. Even when real heartache and serious trials come upon us, the Gospel will be there to help us make it through. Time and time again I can feel the Spirit of God impress upon me that Heavenly Father really does know and love me. That Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and suffered for each one of us so that we can not only be saved and live with Him again, but can experience a mighty change of heart today that will cause greater peace, joy, and happiness than we have ever known.

I love this work very much. :) Have an awesome week! 

Love,

Elder Jeff Campbell :)