Hi Everyone!
I wasn't able to write an email last week - I updated my
iPad to iOS9 and it froze my iPad. I haven't had time to get the pictures off
it before I wipe it and reinstall an operating system. Sorry! And if I haven't
emailed you back, sorry! I'm not trying to not email you personally. I don't
have as much time as I need to do that sometimes...
When I first started this email, I was wayyyy stressed. But
after writing it, I remembered all of the awesome stuff this week! Ya, it was
intense with back to back exchanges and a handful of meetings, but it was a
really action-packed week! It is an adventure being out here in Windsor as one
of the Assistants, but it has been going fairly well overall. We are gearing up
for another week of back to back exchanges and a all-day Friday meeting. Let's
do it!
There were a LOT of cool stuff from this week. I don't think
I have really ever given a day by day breakdown of the week, but there were
exciting/interesting things each day of this week! So I will today.
Last Monday and today I went to the Chiropractor. It was
AWESOME. I feel better. Elder Winter does too.
Tuesday Elder Winter was in Laramie and I was in Windsor
with Elder Farnes. It was sweet. I still don't know much about the area and we
had no appointments for an hour so we went tracting. First door we picked up a
new investigator! So that was pretty sweet. We are visiting her tomorrow. He is
an awesome Elder for sure.
On Wednesday we drove back up to Laramie to exchange back.
At noon at the Laramie Institute they have $1 lunch. And I got to see a bunch
of people that I knew from over a year ago when I served in Laramie! It was
really awesome. And funny... they said, "Elder Campbell!! What are you
doing here?!?!" Every single one of them. Not a, "It's so awesome to
see you!!" But that's ok. It was awesome to see them and I still
remembered their names, so that was sweet. I also got to see Grandma Thompson
in Laramie and eat at my favorite burrito place Almanzas. All in about an hour.
It was nice.
Then Wednesday night I spent it in the Loveland/Longmont
YSA. That was awesome! I think Elder Shawcroft (who had been in the area for
~10 days) planned a "visit the people who want to see Elder Campbell"
day. Haha. So we visited Ruth McGaughey first. It was awesome to see her now
six months after she was baptized. She recently recommitted to serving a
mission for the church. Which REALLY pumps me up. She said she wanted to be a missionary
before she was baptized, but I'm glad the fire is still there six months later.
She is awesome and has been going to the Temple for Temple Baptisms about every
single week... by herself! That's pretty impressive. The YSA goes as a group,
but it is always at night when she is working somewhere. So she has been going
by herself to the Temple. Also, I got to see a couple cool people for dinner
too! Mike Boehm, Anthony Cairns, and Brendan Casey w/ Lindsay. Super sweet to
see them. Lastly we taught Preston at the Berthoud building. We forgot that
Wednesday night is activity night for the ward there. A bunch of the Khans
ambushed me (3-4 of the kids were at the church and SUPER EXCITED to see me)!
It was sweet. While I was in the YSA I went to their house about every week on
Sunday for mission prep. Probably for five months straight.
It is really interesting to note the differences between the
impact I have made in different places I have served. I feel like it has gotten
better with every area because I have better understood what I'm doing as a
missionary. In Laramie and my first time in Loveland, it was good. In Estes
Park I learned and grew a lot helping families there. Then this year serving in
the YSA in Loveland/Longmont and in the Left-Hand Creek ward in Longmont, I
feel like I got my stride. We were able to really focus in and help some
individuals and families in those wards. It is really fulfilling to see the
continued growth in some people's lives!
For example, a couple of the Khan children are excited to
serve missions (when they weren't before) and one of them has committed to
going to seminary every day when she wasn't before. That. Is. So. Cool. Since I
was baptized in college and then served a mission, I have had a goal of
facilitating that in others. It was A LOT of fun working with the Khans and
Ruth and others in the YSA to help them have a desire to serve a mission. I'm
excited for them to go!
Then... Friday! (I don't remember Thursday). Trainer's
Meeting! It was exciting. All the missionaries who have been out for 1/2 week
and 7/8 weeks came to the mission office for extra training. It was awesome to
see all of them. I was looking through the mission and there are 35
companionships that have a newer missionary in them (that's a lot, about 1/3 of
the mission)! So I have been able to meet a lot of the missionaries. President
Brown had me share my conversion story at the end of the first one. It was
awesome. Sometimes when I talk about it, I digress a lot (ok, I do that every
time) or focus too much on irrelevant facts. I felt really good about it
because the Spirit was really present. It was awesome. The Second meeting was
great too. Elder Winter and I weren't really told what we should do or prepare
to do during the meeting so the first one was hard. Since we
"practiced" in the first meeting, the second one went a lot smoother.
My personal highlight was getting everyone (all 50 missionaries) to participate
in a roleplay when I came up with it by inspiration in the minute. It was
sweet. I really enjoyed facilitating parts of the meeting. I looked over while
we did this role play for ~6 minutes and President Brown was sitting with
Sister Brown looking really proud. He doesn't give a lot of verbal complements,
so that was a complement for me!
Saturday and part of Sunday Elder Winter and I stayed home.
He lost his voice and was sick for the second half of the week and finally took
a break. It was nice to relax a little bit and organized our stuff while he
slept. He is doing better now.
Lastly, Sunday! Adam Lister was an Assistant to President
Brown my first five transfers as a missionary. He was in town this week for Hot
Rod and Chantelle's Temple Sealing (they were baptized when he was here). He
was at church this Sunday with his wife. It is cool/weird. A number of the
missionaries that were here when I became a missionary are married. He has been
home for about 13 months now. Crazy how time flies.
I am really enjoying being a missionary. It is weird that
time is kinda winding down pretty quick. Elder Winter is in single digit weeks
now and I am not far behind him. I am excited for the time I have left! If you
didn't notice, I didn't mention a lot of missionary work happening in our ward.
It is harder than expected to get stuff going while we are in a lot of meetings
and in exchanges. But that is just excuses. We kinda need to get it going by
praying with more faith to find more people that are prepared by the Lord to
accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm excited to finish strong!
Sincerely,
Elder Jeff Campbell
CO Fort Collins Mission
500 Hillspire Dr
Windsor, CO 80550
P.S. If you want to write, the mission office address is the
best. I didn't get any pictures from my exchange in Loveland, but I have some
from Laramie!
- me with Hailey
- me with Casey, someone, Ben, Hyrum
- me with Lisa and someone
- me at Almanza's Mexican Food
- me with Elder Winter and Grandma Thompson
