Hi super awesome people!!
I know I said a couple weeks ago that it was my best week as
a missionary, but this week was at least as awesome if not more!!
The most exciting parts of this week were on exchanges (when
I'm with a different missionary for 24 hours). On Tuesday, I had the
opportunity to go out with Elder K Campbell to his area in Stetson Creek.
LEGIT. We worked arguably harder in that day than I ever have before as a
missionary! We walked for 9 miles (he usually walks 15 in a day). I was kinda
dying... haha. BUT we really talked to everyone. We started at 2pm, talked to
the neighbor across the street a little, a guy flagged us down because he had
questions (he saw E K Campbell walking by his house almost every day for 3 months),
and we talked to 2 girls who just graduated from High School. That was all in
the first 1 hour. The 2 girls had awesome questions and we shared the Plan of
Salvation with them. It is so much fun to meet new people and share truth with
them in a way that connects with them! Later, We dropped by a less-active lady
whose son and friend we shared the Restoration with - new investigators! It was
a bit miraculous because we almost left when we found out that the lady was too
busy, but we engaged in small talk and asked if we could share a short video.
Frequently since I have a car, I don't just go out and talk to people on the
street. I was reminded this day how fulfilling and AWESOME it is to just open
your mouth and talk with people. When you are sincerely seeking to be an
instrument in the hands of the Lord, there will be prepared people that you
come in contact with that have quesitons!
On Wednesday, I went out with a brand new missionary (Elder
Minor) to his area in Lakeside. Fortunately I came off working really hard so I
decided to make it continue! After having some appointments and stuff for the
first couple hours, we started going out of our way to talk to people. We got
on a spiritual roll after teaching a powerful lesson on God's pattern and love
to a young less-active family. When we arrived at the door of our next appt in
an apartment complex, a lady came outside the adjacent door to smoke. We nearly
went straight to our appointment, but decided to talk with her. After asking
some questions about her family, we shared powerful principles of Christ's love
for her. Ultimately, I offered to leave her with a prayer. It was definitely one
of the most bold/clear/unscripted prayers I have ever said. She was in tears
after. I found myself with watery eyes too; I already loved someone I had only
know for 20 minutes! After that conversation, Elder Minor mentioned how he
wanted to talk to everyone more. While I was spouting off random stories of
talking to everyone, I let a young couple pass us by in the complex without
saying anything! Luckily they were still sitting in their car after we
unsuccessfully knocked on our last
planned door in the complex. We walked by their car and I knocked on their car
window to see if they were interested in having the Gospel of Jesus Christ more
in their life. While they said no, I was happy I at least gave them the
opportunity! :) From my experience, I get depressed if I felt like talking to
someone without saying anything and feel great regardless of the outcome when I
open my mouth. After having a couple more sweet Gospel conversations with
random people, we pulled up at the house at 8:50pm. As the driver and knowing
we should stay out until 9pm, I decided to drive and find someone else to talk
to. We drove for a minute and found a guy doing something outside in his
garage. We parked one house down and walked over to talk to him! Though he
wasn't interested, he was nice and said he'd tell his Mormon coworker that we
stopped by!
AND on Thursday, I had another great experience! After
teaching a lesson with Elder Proffit in our area, a discouraged companionship
asked what they could do from 4pm until their dinner appointment. We picked
them up and went on splits, myself going with Elder Parkinson. We had 1 hour
and decided to go on a walk down the street to find someone to teach. After
about 5 minutes, we found someone doing yard work and had a 30-45 minute conversation
with them. He hadn't gone to church for 12 years since he served in the
military in the Middle East shortly after September 11th, 2001. After talking
with him, he felt the desire to come to church with us the following week (he
was helping a friend yesterday). Turns out his neighbors are members and, from
this lesson, he planned to talk to them about the church.
I forgot how AWESOME it is to just go out and talk to people
about the Gospel. Fortunately in America, a lot of people are still pretty receptive
to at least talking with us. Yes, I talked to some people that didn't give us
the time of day, but it was still a great experience. We even found out the
Lakeside missionaries went on splits with another set of missionaries to help
them find new people to teach on Saturday! So awesome to have this type of work
happening.
I finally feel like I'm getting a hang of being a leader and
helping others do missionary work. This is some seriously fulfilling work! To
cap it all off, on Saturday Kellen was baptized! It's weird to me that people
tell us "congratulations on having a baptism" because it wasn't us!
We were just privileged to be here when Kellen was ready to come into the
church. He is funny... we found out in the last week that he had absolutely no
desire to join the church the first day he showed up. In the last year, he even
laughed seeing the Book of Mormon musical and regularly made fun of Mormons!
Yet, he now is a baptized member!
I love the Gospel. I was reminded of one key principle this
week in my studies. In our society, we want to 'know' a lot of things, but we
don't really do them. There are lots of 'experts' who have never done what they
teach! However, that is not the Gospel. Christ was not only our Savior, but
also our Exemplar. He never told us, "Do what I say and not what I
do." Rather, He invites us to "Follow me," to "go and do
likewise," and to "love one another as I have loved you." In
personal application, I was reminded that I can't "progress" to a
higher level if I'm not diligently doing the little things. I want to learn the
mysteries of God!! And I have a more sure knowledge today that I can't learn
those if I don't do the simple things (i.e. read scriptures, pray, go to
church, and serve others). Soooo let's do them and never feel bad when someone
from the pulpit asks us to do those things because we are doing them now!
Hopefully this was as edifying for you to read as it was for
me to write! I hope I didn't digress too much. Suffice to say, the Gospel is
rolling forth out here as we diligently preach it and that I was reminded to be
a "doer of the word and not a hearer only."
AMEN! :)
Have the best week ever!
Elder Jeff Campbell
Sent from my iPad
Me, (Bishop Depew), Kellen, Elder Proffit
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