Happy Monday Everyone!!
To start off, it's October 19th 2015... I go home January
19th 2016. Wow. That's like 3 months away! Super weird. Time continues rolling
forward, that's for sure. The time is not far hence! This next week, the last
member remaining of my first district goes home. Elder Sanders is the best and
had just finished being trained when I got to the field in Laramie. I feel like
every day I am reminded how my clock is ticking! But back to the good stuff...
If you recall, at the end of last week's email I mentioned
miracles that are happening throughout the mission. Lots of missionaries have
been feeling like they are truly representatives of Jesus Christ and an
instrument in the hands of the Lord. So that happened to us! A few hours after
sending the email, we called while walking out of dinner. It ended up being the
most memorable phone call I have received as a missionary. It was Sister Bates
(her husband joined the church 3 years ago, she is not a member, and hasn't
allowed her 14-year-old daughter to be baptized). She asked, "Some of our
friends are coming in town this weekend, can my daughter be baptized on
Saturday?" I stammered, "Sure! We can make that happened!" That
for sure caught me off guard! So this week we met a couple times with them to
make that happen. I found out later that Zoie has wanted to be baptized since
she was about 8 years old! She was prepared to be baptized even before her
father was baptized. She didn't need to be taught anything by us (it is pretty
weird having a convert baptized in the ward without you teaching them). So ya!
It was pretty cool.
Ironically, by not allowing Zoie to be baptized for six
year, the requirements Sister Bates put on her daughter has made her a WAYYYY
strong young woman. She has read the entirety of the Bible (I have read a lot
of it, but not 100% of it) and the Book of Mormon. Both of the two men who
spoke at her baptism said she knows the scriptures better than they do. In
testimonies during the baptism, many shared stories meeting the Bates family
for the first time in 2007. Zoie got a ride to school from their Mormon
neighbors, the Morgans. She started coming earlier and earlier to their house
in the morning to participate in reading the Book of Mormon for 10 minutes and
having morning family prayer. The Morgans and Bates had family night each week
together not for 30 minutes, but for 3-4 hours focused on the Gospel. It was
amazing to hear all of the love that has been shown to the Bates family.
On Sunday after she was confirmed at church, the Bishop
presented Zoie with her Young Women's medallion. The Spirit was so strong in
the chapel. You could feel her Spirit too. I was emotional and I feel like a
lot of other people were. It almost never happens for a young woman to be
confirmed and receive her Young Women's medallion in the same day. I just
looked through a personal progress book and it is INTENSE! It takes a serious
amount of dedication overtime to achieve that. I could see Sister Bates wiping
away tears. She loves her daughter a ton. Because of her, Zoie will be a light
at church already!
Last Monday before dinner, we played Disc Golf because Elder
Winter loves it. We told the Bates family about it and they LOVE disc golf too
(really? lol). So we are going to play with them in a few hours! It is
amazing... the more time that we spend together, the more connections we make!!
The other miracle... we were able to visit a part-member
family this week after trying for the last four weeks. The second time we
dropped by on Saturday, we were able to catch them just long enough to invite
them to church, and they came (the visiting grandparents from Utah probably
helped with that). We dropped by and visited with them Sunday afternoon. It was
so cool to actually be able to go inside their house! lol. They are really
nice. Though it took over an hour to persuade the boys to go to church, all
three of them really enjoyed it (I would
consider that a miracle). AND Sister Sinclair met Sister Despain who has boys
the same ages as she does! I am so pumped that other the Bates and Sinclairs
took such big steps forward this weekend.
Being a missionary is the best. I have grown so much it is
unreal. Still weird that it is quickly coming to a close, but it has been good!
There is still time left for some more miracles!!
I hope you have the best week of your life!! :) This last
week was definitely up there for me.
Elder Jeff Campbell
Sent from my iPad
Sister Morgan made a cool instagram photo that she shared
with me. Top left is the Bates family (with a cousin and grandma in there).
Brother Morgan baptized Zoie (he was the one who baptized Brother Bates). The
bottom right has all the kids in the Bates and Morgan family. It is so cute...
the littlest Morgan boy and littlest Bates girl hold hands a lot. There is
already speculation they will be married even though they are only about 6.
Haha.
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