Monday, February 23, 2015

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


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