18 months already! (LHC wk#6)

Hi Everyone!

I don't usually remember much at the end of the week these days. So much and so little seems to happen!

Some big things... Mindy was interviewed to be baptized this week and she passed! We weren't sure or not that she would, so we were super excited. She is getting ready to be baptized on August 8th.

Michelle is doing really well too. It's been really exciting to continue to be teaching the majority of our lessons at the home of church members. We are working on helping her to read consistently from the Book of Mormon.

And the other awesome thing is that we are working with a new family! It's awesome. It took about 5 weeks to get it together with drop-in's and appointments, but now we are starting to meet with them! Christina is the only member in her family and has been less-active for a while. But they are super awesome. One of my favorite families now in the area! We had dinner with them and watched the 'Because of Him' video and talked about Jesus. :) I think we have become somewhat like able and for ourselves invited over again.

I can't remember much right now. All I know is that we are starting to make sure that the people we are working with are actually moving forward. It's exciting to have people legit preparing to be baptized.

Lastly, we met for the last time with Katerina on Saturday. She read the scripture in 1 Nephi 10:19, "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." And she wanted to know how to do that. How do you really come to know the things of God?

So we tried to answer! We shared this scripture in 2 Nephi 28:30 "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

Then we tried to teach about applying this scripture: 1 Nephi 19:23 "And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning."

To summarize... You can really learn the things of God and it isn't complicated. You are taught line upon line, precept upon precept, meaning one thing at a time. You learn by reading the scriptures (at least that is the simplest first way) and asking, 'how can I liken this unto myself?' Aka 'How can I apply this in my own life?' I demonstrated by reading Ether 12:27 and asking myself that question. I learned a lot! The trick is to them apply it and then do it again!

So now you know! When people say or imply that you can't learn the things of God, I know that is wrong. God is not an unknowable being. You can't know Him perfectly because He is infinite, but you can know a lot more things than most people believe. All you gotta do is really apply what Jesus said, "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." And now you know the process. :)

Have the best week of your life! :)

Elder Campbell

Sent from my iPad

It's all Greek to me (LHC wk#5)

Hey Everyone!

This week I don't have a lot of time, but can share a little about Katarina and what we are teaching her.

So the Monday two weeks ago we had dinner with the Fendersons who have a Greek foreign exchange student living there. That was the first day we met Katarina and have met up probably five total times now. She has taken English for 7 years so she is pretty good (though it is a little comical to us when she says the wrong word like 'learn' instead of 'teach'). We were able to share part of the Restoration with her and help her learn a bit about the Gospel. It was really cool earlier this week she wrote me and Elder Welch a note. She thanked us for talking with her about God because she has been going through challenging things in her life. We were able to get her a copy of the Book of Mormon in Greek last week and read some of it with her. She could really feel the Spirit when we taught about Jesus Christ. We shared our favorite scripture on Christ's atonement with her, Alma 7:11-13. If you haven't read it recently, you should! I don't know if I would hold it up at a sports game like John 3:16, but it is as powerful.

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

It doesn't really roll off the tongue, but the message is AWESOME. :) usually when people think about what Jesus Christ has done for them, 'dying for my sins' is their answer. That is true as it says in 13, that he blots out their transgressions and took upon himself their sins. But that isn't where it stops! Have you noticed that not all the hardships in your life come from sins? We experience pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities that aren't associates with sins. What about those? Are we meant to go through those by ourselves or does Jesus help us with those too? He does! :) Isn't that awesome? We can receive strength from Christ if we had a broken bone, if a loved one has cancer, if you lost your job, if you are tempted to do something wrong, and more. He suffered for everything so that he can 'succor us' or provide us the strength and nourishment we need to endure and triumph over all of our experiences.

I love the Gospel. We believe that God is behind the 'coincidence' of Katarina staying at the Fenderson's home with the opportunity to learn about how faith in Jesus Christ can bless an change her life. She was supposed to spend her six weeks in America in another part of Colorado. But they couldn't have her for the first three weeks so she has been here. God surely does love His children and provides a way for them to learn about Him!

Have the best week ever!

Elder Jeff Campbell

Katerina is the one next to me.

It doesn't get better than this! (LHC wk#4)

Awesome week! What can I say more?

Probably the most exciting thing about these last few weeks in this ward is the wide variety of experiences we have had. For example, three baptismal dates were set in the first two days. Yesterday a lady threatened to kick us out of her house (She is a fairly active member... lol). We received an awesome referral that is ready to receive the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught another guy who started describing stuff about satanic and pagan rituals. You never know what you are going to get in a given day! It's exciting. Even in one day we have seriously contradictory experiences. It's a great adventure!

I can't write everything that happened this week (Elder Welch did and it was about 4 pages long - he was preparing it day by day for the whole week), but I can include the most miraculous part of the week! Specifically, that was a person that we are now teaching. We experienced the BEST way for a person to be introduced to the missionaries this week. Literally, it is almost impossible to imagine a better way to introduce someone to the missionaries and be taught the Gospel. Here we go:

The lady's name is Michelle. She is a cosmetologist/beautician. For the last ~15 years, Sister Dix has gone from just a client, to a client and friend, to a friend who happens to be a client. They have talked about religion and the church consistently for that time with Sister Dix helping Michelle grow in her own relationship with Jesus Christ. Two weeks ago Michelle had a crazy thought while camping in the mountains: "Fire your housekeeper and join the Mormon Church." She was kinda freaked out because she has never had something like that happen to her, much less receive a text message from her housekeeper saying she quit two hours later! Talk about a "coincidence!" Haha. She talked to Sister Dix about wanting to meet with the missionaries. We coordinated a meeting with Sister Dix for Tuesday this week to talk about Michelle. My goal going in (in addition to learning about Michelle and how to help her best) was to set up a lesson in a member's home. Michelle lives in our ward boundary, but her friend Sister Dix does not. After contacting two awesome families that live in our ward that couldn't do it this week, we felt that having the first lesson at Sister Dix's home would be the best. Sister Dix set up the appointment with Michelle for the next night (Wednesday) at her house. We coordinated with a lady from our ward to come as well to the appointment. Sister Wheelwright is the nicest most loving person I have ever met in my life. But we found out later she was the perfect person to come for two other reasons. She has gone through hard things and has a solid testimony; and she was just called to work with the singles older than 30 (Michelle is in that category). We had an AMAZING lesson with Michelle, Sister Wheelwright, and Brother & Sister Dix. We invited Michelle to come to church - Sister Wheelwright volunteered to meet Michelle at her house so she could follow Sister Wheelwright to the church. We also scheduled the next appointment for Michelle's next available day: Saturday. We set it up (a BBQ + lesson) to be at the Wheelwright's home with Brother & Sister Dix coming. Sister Dix forgot about a prior commitment so she sent a friend of hers to come in her place. This lesson was AWESOME too. So good for Michelle to come without her friend! Sister Dix volunteered to go with Michelle to church, but Michelle wanted to not rely on her friend during this learning process! Instead, she sat next to the Sister Wheelwright at church. She actually told Sister Wheelwright she has never felt that much love and inclusion at her first time at church! The Sunday School lesson "coincidentally" was on baptism. Katie and Riley shared some of their experiences being baptized two weeks ago. That was PERFECT for us because we weren't able to invite her to be baptized yet (the lessons have been interesting with so many members present). Suffice to say, it's going pretty perfect thus far!

I asked Elder Welch, "Have you ever met someone like this to start teaching them the Gospel?" "Nope!" I agree. I have had a series of GREAT first lessons with people in the recent months, but this was definitely the best. Being taught in a member's home is SOOOOO helpful for conversion. We were able to bring the right member to the first lesson so we could have the second lesson taught in that member's home. The other lady we are teaching - Mindy - was taught two times this week in a member's home as well. They have been learning and growing at such an awesome rate! We are truly excited for both of them. I really LOVE doing missionary work the way that it was designed - for the missionaries to do the teaching in a member's home with the members becoming real friends with the people. :)

There are lots of other exciting things going on that I don't have time to go into right now. We are teaching a Greek foreign exchange student the Gospel who is staying in a member's home for two weeks (just finished week one). We are having TONS of miracles happening throughout the Longmont Stake. We had interviews with the mission president. We are helping Mindy prepare to be baptized. Etc.

I have been learning so much out here! Have a super awesome amazing week! :)

Elder Campbell

P.S. Referring to the title... Yes, it can be better than this week.

But this week was particularly awesome. I am excited for this upcoming

week to be even better! :)

The Fourth of July! (LHC wk#3)

Hey Everyone!

So this week... the main thing I learned from this week is the importance of having unstructured time with others so as to build a real relationship with them. In thinking about the missionaries, we want to help them become more converted in the Gospel and grow. However, we can't do that only in meetings! We have to actually care and love them so that they desire to change. We have seen some missionaries REALLY grow recently because of the love they felt from Elder Welch over the last three months serving with him in the Longmont area. We didn't realize how important this principle was until we were at a meeting before church on Sunday where they talked about the struggles with the Young Women from church. They all go to different schools and don't spend any time with each other outside of church activities or church itself. If they only spend time with one another at meetings, they won't really form strong friendships and be able to help each other out. We saw that we need to do that with the leaders from church and the missionaries to help them be able to really grow. I would invite you to consider the people that you work with (family, church, work, school, sports, etc) and strive to develop a REAL relationship by spending time with them outside of structured time in practice or work. That's what we are going to do our best to do out her in Longmont!

I'll close with a lengthy experience related to the 4th of July. We had a ward breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage at a local park. After the breakfast, a couple people shared their feelings of patriotism from parts of their lives. They were intense and I cried for some of them. Here is what I remember from the three that impacted me the most:

The first man talked about being in the military and serving in Korea. He saw TERRIBLE devastation and destruction and tragedy while he was there. It brought him to tears and to his knees when on his ship he came back to America and saw the first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. He felt so much gratitude for being an American and seeing that symbol of freedom in our country.

A lady talked about her dad who served in the Vietnam war. He never really opened up about much of that part of his life. Not long ago, Southwest Airlines had this Vietnam Veterans promotion since so many of the veterans were very poorly received. Southwest Airlines got a lot of the Colorado Vietnam Veterans together and took them to DC. They were there for three days checking out the Vietnam Memorial, reconnecting with others who they served with, and bringing back memories from their service. After this powerful experience, they were flown back to the Denver International Airport. The most amazing thing was planned for them. All of their friends and family were brought to the runway. Fire trucks sprayed water on their plane and lots of other awesome welcoming things were done for them! The lady was very emotional talking about it. I could only imagine what it would be like to have my buried memories of a war come back up and have the most amazing welcome home ever! I could imagine seeing my family and friends and being in tears of joy to see them. It was so awesome to hear that story and how the lady's dad has subsequently opened up more about it and done his best to help other veterans have a similar experience as he has had.

I also loved what the last person shared. At work, they would rotate who would get to go to the Colorado Rockies baseball game with the four tickets from work. He persuaded his three young children to come with him while his wife was going to stay home. They had amazing tickets just below the press box. He pumped his kids up because during the 7th inning stretch they would throw peanuts and cracker jacks to them from the press box. It just so happened that the tickets were for the first home game a few days after September 11th, 2001. When they were there, he got his kids somehow to be somewhat enthusiastic and pay attention by focusing them on the peanuts and cracker jacks. However, right before they would usually sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," they announced that they were doing something a little different. Lee Greenwood was there and sang, "God Bless the USA." It brought tears to this man's eyes as he related the story and I could almost place myself there imagining hearing that awesome song at that time performed.

I was really grateful to hear those stories - hopefully they make sense to you and you can feel it too. Ya there are lots of crazy stressful and challenging things that are going on in our own country and in the world. But we still are VERY blessed to be living in the USA. As a missionary, we go out and seek to bring others to come unto Christ. We seek to strengthen their families and relationships with others. We seek to help them experience true joy and happiness in their lives. I am happy that the thing this country needs - stronger families and truer disciples of Christ - is what I am spending my time doing out here in the mission field of Colorado! :)

Have an amazing week!

Elder Campbell