Monday, December 27, 2010
27 Dec 2010
Hey, yeah, it was great talking to you all on Saturday. Can't believe how fast time goes by. Seems like just a few weeks ago that I was talking to you all on Mother's day. And now it's 7 months later! So it snowed like crazy on Saturday and all through the night, but oddly enough, it didn't stick to the streets. So we got put on lockdown in the morning and then at about 12:30 we were like "Ok, this is a joke, lets go work." But there was a total blessing in it. The Waynesboro Sisters had a baptism set up for Sunday, and when I called them on Sunday morning, everyone else had church cancelled, but when I called them they go "no, it's not really snowing here. We're still good for church and the baptism." So their guy got baptized and then right after the baptism, it started dumping up there. It was way sweet.
As for BYU info, I think I'm allowed to do that during my email time, so if you want to send me the link or whatnot, I can get that filled out. I don't think I took 24 credit hours. I think I only did like, 20 or something like that. Or maybe I did 24. I'm not sure at all. And I don't even remember the classes that I took. How sad is that? It's only been 1 year and the missionary veil has descended over me completely! haha
Oh, with the missionary mall stuff, I'll send it in and worry about that, but I don't know where to send it to! I don't have teh address or anything, so if you could send me that, I'd appreciate it. Actually, I can call sis. Henrie here and ask her to look it up for me. That would be easier. And one more thing. I lost the recipes that you sent me for Arroz Con leche and tres leches. Could you hook me up again? Thanks.
Love you mucho grande
Elder Campbell
PS- The MP3 player is SWEET! I've been listening to conference talks for 2 days straight now!
As for BYU info, I think I'm allowed to do that during my email time, so if you want to send me the link or whatnot, I can get that filled out. I don't think I took 24 credit hours. I think I only did like, 20 or something like that. Or maybe I did 24. I'm not sure at all. And I don't even remember the classes that I took. How sad is that? It's only been 1 year and the missionary veil has descended over me completely! haha
Oh, with the missionary mall stuff, I'll send it in and worry about that, but I don't know where to send it to! I don't have teh address or anything, so if you could send me that, I'd appreciate it. Actually, I can call sis. Henrie here and ask her to look it up for me. That would be easier. And one more thing. I lost the recipes that you sent me for Arroz Con leche and tres leches. Could you hook me up again? Thanks.
Love you mucho grande
Elder Campbell
PS- The MP3 player is SWEET! I've been listening to conference talks for 2 days straight now!
20 Dec 2010
Sooooo. This week. WEll, we got snowed in on thursday, so that sucked. ANd then yesterday, I got a combo of food poisoning/flu, so I was down for the count. I missed the christmas program at church, but that's alright. At least I'm still alive, right? Man, I can't believe Ryan Christensen is home, and Amanda Miller also! That's so nuts! I saw her in the MTC! It's insane! Oh, and in response to your last question last week mom, I am planning at just meeting you at the airport in Reno when I go home. I think it would be SWEET to just walk down the hall and you're all just standing there! That would be sweet, right?
SO we had our first district meeting on Wednesday and it went REALLY well. The 2 sisters in our district trained and did a WONDERFUL job. They've been seeing a lot of miracles lately, which is really cool. They're tearing it up right now. Our district has 9 people set for baptism! How sweet is that? I've got some of the best missionaries in the mission in my district! They make my job so easy!
SO we had a baptism on Saturday. Carlos Escobar. He's 18 and from Guatemala. He's actually from QuetzalTenango, where Andy Glenn is serving right now. And then funny story, I went on exchanges with our zone leaders on Tuesday, and I met Alex Stodmeister's trainer on his mission. Small world, right? Umm, what else is there in the news?
So as I'm sure you're all aware, I'm going to call on Saturday. Surprise surprise, right? haha I think I'll call at like, 3 our time? I don't know if that works for everyone else? ANd yes, we have a christmas eve dinner. You remember the family that I always told you about when I was here last time, the Aguilar? WEll, they invited us over for Christmas Eve and they're going to cook a whole pig for us. Just gonna slap it on the table and let us at it with some tortillas. Should be pretty fun.
Tomorrow we've got mission conference. I'm kind of excited. Last year they did a slide show of the pictures of ALL the missionaries in the mission on their first day. But I don't think they're going to this time. Too bad.
WEll, I don't think I have anything else to tell you. Hope you all have a great week.
Love you all,
Elder Campbell
SO we had our first district meeting on Wednesday and it went REALLY well. The 2 sisters in our district trained and did a WONDERFUL job. They've been seeing a lot of miracles lately, which is really cool. They're tearing it up right now. Our district has 9 people set for baptism! How sweet is that? I've got some of the best missionaries in the mission in my district! They make my job so easy!
SO we had a baptism on Saturday. Carlos Escobar. He's 18 and from Guatemala. He's actually from QuetzalTenango, where Andy Glenn is serving right now. And then funny story, I went on exchanges with our zone leaders on Tuesday, and I met Alex Stodmeister's trainer on his mission. Small world, right? Umm, what else is there in the news?
So as I'm sure you're all aware, I'm going to call on Saturday. Surprise surprise, right? haha I think I'll call at like, 3 our time? I don't know if that works for everyone else? ANd yes, we have a christmas eve dinner. You remember the family that I always told you about when I was here last time, the Aguilar? WEll, they invited us over for Christmas Eve and they're going to cook a whole pig for us. Just gonna slap it on the table and let us at it with some tortillas. Should be pretty fun.
Tomorrow we've got mission conference. I'm kind of excited. Last year they did a slide show of the pictures of ALL the missionaries in the mission on their first day. But I don't think they're going to this time. Too bad.
WEll, I don't think I have anything else to tell you. Hope you all have a great week.
Love you all,
Elder Campbell
Monday, December 13, 2010
13 Dec 2010
First off, no. People hardly feed us here anymore. And the problem is that our apartment is on the complete opposite side of town than the one we work in. So once we leave during the day, we don't come back to the apartment. We usually do breakfast and lunch at home, and then if we're lucky we'll have a dinner appointment. But we have only had one dinner appointment since we got here. Since we're in a spanish group, we don't get set up with appointments with the english members, and the hispanic members never feed us anymore either. So it's kind of tough. But we're making do. Loading up at lunch and then trying to keep it small at dinner. And I don't know what it is, I think it's because I've started lifting weights a lot in the morning, but at like, 3 oclock, I get WAY hungry! It's crazy. Like, I haven't felt like that since I hit puberty. It sucks.
That's way sweet about the boston story. Sounds like God has a plan in mind. He always does. Speaking of plans, the sisters in Waynesboro had a way sweet story this week. They've got this 17 year old named Cesar set for baptism. He lives with a recent convert up there. So he's having a way tough time because his family is NOT supportive. Then they found this guy last week named Eleazar and he's WAY solid. He absolutely LOVES what they're teaching him. SO they were talking with Cesar yesterday, and it turns out that Eleazar is the brother of Cesar's Mom's boyfriend. How crazy is that? They're like, surrounding the whole family with mormons! That whole family is going to get baptized! hahaha
So tomorrow I go on exchanges with the Zone leaders. They're having me work their area because I'm afraid of doing English work. I get way panicky when I talk to english people. I don't know if I told you about last week when I went with two of them to go find this less active recent convert. Turns out she works in a gynecologist office. So we just charge right into the office and the secretary goes "She'll be right out to see you. You can take a seat." SO we sit down in this gyno office for like, 15 minutes, and all these women are looking at us like "What are you doing here?" And I'm thinking "The gross thing is, I know EXACTLY what you're all doing here!" It was super awkward!
So we've visited a few people who I was teaching when I was here, Elder Agustin knows all of them. They all remember me, but the majority of them aren't interested. Kinda sad, but they weren't really that solid when I was here before, so. No biggie. I've had a few members come up to me and say "Elder Campbell, welcome back!" before they even announced that I h ad returned. SO that was pretty cool.
And speaking of losing suit jackets. I lost one of the pairs of pants to my blue suit. I actually lost that pair about a year ago. Not sure if I told you. And I'm going to need to use the warranty on my suit, because I ripped one of the pairs of pants. Right in the crotch. Don't know how. But it's way embarrassing. So if you could let me know what I need to do to get those sent back in and a new pair sent out, I'd love it.
Well, I think that's all I got for this week. Hope you're loving life. I sure am.
Talk to you all in like, 2 weeks or something. I hope I remember our phone number...
Elder Campbell
That's way sweet about the boston story. Sounds like God has a plan in mind. He always does. Speaking of plans, the sisters in Waynesboro had a way sweet story this week. They've got this 17 year old named Cesar set for baptism. He lives with a recent convert up there. So he's having a way tough time because his family is NOT supportive. Then they found this guy last week named Eleazar and he's WAY solid. He absolutely LOVES what they're teaching him. SO they were talking with Cesar yesterday, and it turns out that Eleazar is the brother of Cesar's Mom's boyfriend. How crazy is that? They're like, surrounding the whole family with mormons! That whole family is going to get baptized! hahaha
So tomorrow I go on exchanges with the Zone leaders. They're having me work their area because I'm afraid of doing English work. I get way panicky when I talk to english people. I don't know if I told you about last week when I went with two of them to go find this less active recent convert. Turns out she works in a gynecologist office. So we just charge right into the office and the secretary goes "She'll be right out to see you. You can take a seat." SO we sit down in this gyno office for like, 15 minutes, and all these women are looking at us like "What are you doing here?" And I'm thinking "The gross thing is, I know EXACTLY what you're all doing here!" It was super awkward!
So we've visited a few people who I was teaching when I was here, Elder Agustin knows all of them. They all remember me, but the majority of them aren't interested. Kinda sad, but they weren't really that solid when I was here before, so. No biggie. I've had a few members come up to me and say "Elder Campbell, welcome back!" before they even announced that I h ad returned. SO that was pretty cool.
And speaking of losing suit jackets. I lost one of the pairs of pants to my blue suit. I actually lost that pair about a year ago. Not sure if I told you. And I'm going to need to use the warranty on my suit, because I ripped one of the pairs of pants. Right in the crotch. Don't know how. But it's way embarrassing. So if you could let me know what I need to do to get those sent back in and a new pair sent out, I'd love it.
Well, I think that's all I got for this week. Hope you're loving life. I sure am.
Talk to you all in like, 2 weeks or something. I hope I remember our phone number...
Elder Campbell
Monday, November 29, 2010
29 Nov 2010
Note from Mom:
There was not letter the week before, just a short note to let us know he's alive and well- Zone P-day left not enough time to write. So this letter is the most recent.
In other news. Transfer calls last night. Elder Flores is getting zebra'd to Nags Head, North Carolina. He's not happy at all. He feels like he's going because he can't be trusted with spanish work. Which isn't true at all, he's a great elder, so that's why they put him there. They know he can take care of it on his own. Me on the other hand.... I'm going back to Charlottesville with Elder Agustin. he's from Puebla, Mexico and he doesn't speak english at all. How cool is that? I'm going to be District Leader of 2 other companionships. That should be fun. I don't know what the Lord was thinking calling me as taht. I have no idea what he was thinking. But he knows how it'll help me. This is nothing like district leader in the MTC. This actualy matters! haha
So I heard about the Boise State vs. UNR fracaso! hahaha poor Elder Lusk. My former DL in VA Beach plays Outside Strong Linebacker for Boise. He was the number one tackler in Utah before he went on his mission, but he got injured this year or pulled a muscle or something, so he red shirted from what I hear. Bet he's way upset. We actually ended up having 2 thanksgivings. We went with an english family down in Hopewell for lunch. They live in the middle of nowhere. Like, you-could-kill-someone-and-hide-a-body-and-no-one-would-ever-find-it nowhere. But it was way good. Then we had a dinner with some members from our ward on Fort Lee (He's a health inspector in the army) and they're both from Dominican Republic. She added me recently on Facebook. They're way sweet. Just got sealed in the temple. It was a way good dinner. Fried Yucca is AWESOME!
That's crazy about the money. The secret service gets involved with that? Like, The same secret service that protects our lovely and noble president? From what I hear, he's gonna need some protection soon, the way things are going in the real world!
Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. keep on keepin on. Don't let the devil grab ya by your underpants (I heard that or something like it recently. Wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to mean. But I liked it!)
Elder Campbell
PS- The Oreos and the sing-a-ma-jig were a huge hit. I named it Sally.
There was not letter the week before, just a short note to let us know he's alive and well- Zone P-day left not enough time to write. So this letter is the most recent.
In other news. Transfer calls last night. Elder Flores is getting zebra'd to Nags Head, North Carolina. He's not happy at all. He feels like he's going because he can't be trusted with spanish work. Which isn't true at all, he's a great elder, so that's why they put him there. They know he can take care of it on his own. Me on the other hand.... I'm going back to Charlottesville with Elder Agustin. he's from Puebla, Mexico and he doesn't speak english at all. How cool is that? I'm going to be District Leader of 2 other companionships. That should be fun. I don't know what the Lord was thinking calling me as taht. I have no idea what he was thinking. But he knows how it'll help me. This is nothing like district leader in the MTC. This actualy matters! haha
So I heard about the Boise State vs. UNR fracaso! hahaha poor Elder Lusk. My former DL in VA Beach plays Outside Strong Linebacker for Boise. He was the number one tackler in Utah before he went on his mission, but he got injured this year or pulled a muscle or something, so he red shirted from what I hear. Bet he's way upset. We actually ended up having 2 thanksgivings. We went with an english family down in Hopewell for lunch. They live in the middle of nowhere. Like, you-could-kill-someone-and-hide-a-body-and-no-one-would-ever-find-it nowhere. But it was way good. Then we had a dinner with some members from our ward on Fort Lee (He's a health inspector in the army) and they're both from Dominican Republic. She added me recently on Facebook. They're way sweet. Just got sealed in the temple. It was a way good dinner. Fried Yucca is AWESOME!
That's crazy about the money. The secret service gets involved with that? Like, The same secret service that protects our lovely and noble president? From what I hear, he's gonna need some protection soon, the way things are going in the real world!
Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. keep on keepin on. Don't let the devil grab ya by your underpants (I heard that or something like it recently. Wasn't quite sure what it was supposed to mean. But I liked it!)
Elder Campbell
PS- The Oreos and the sing-a-ma-jig were a huge hit. I named it Sally.
Monday, November 15, 2010
15 November 2010
No way!? Kristen C on a mission!? That's awesome! Missions are the BEST! Yeah, Sister Henrie called me to tell me about the connection story! haha how weird is that!? Sis. Henrie also told me that she wanted to show me the picture of the new Hermana missionary coming in, Hna. Sinclair, because I quote "She's absolutely gorgeous! Hey, who knows, maybe you'll meet a sister here and end up getting married!" hahahahaha I was like "Woahhhhhhhhhh..."
BTW, which Hna. were you saying is the cute one, because I don't think I had any pictures of Hna. Law on there. Tell me what picture it was and what they were wearing and I'll be able to tell you who it is.
Sounds like a party in the house! Just like my apartment! Its way fun over there. Elder Graham is a crack up, and me and Elder Bigler just have the weirdest conversations. It's great.
So, thsi week. What's new. Umm, We found these 2 sweet families that we're going to set for baptism. That's exciting. Gilberto moved back to connecticuit, but the missionaries are going to head over there and baptize him. Too bad we couldn't do it here, but The Lord has his plan in everything!
Pres. Perry is going to be training us on planning and what not, so our planning is going to be a lot better. He talked about how missionaries here just always put a "1" as the goal if they don't have anything set up, like "1 investigator baptized and confirmed", and they say it's as an act of faith, but Pres. Perry was like "if you don't have something set up, and you put 1, you're just setting yourself up for failure." So they way he's going to have us planning is giong to change the way we work. Like, they always say that goals should be meaningful, but because of how we've been planning and whatnot, they're just a number to me and I have'nt cared if I reach them or not. SO it'll be interesting. Umm, I don't need any more garments. I'm good with the ones I have. Just the scarf. And no, I don't have the tree. I had to leave it down in VA Beach when I got transferred, but I can ask Elder ZObrist to bring it up tomorrow when they come for leadership training. Also, We're getting texting on our phones. Weird, right? Hahaha
Anyway, Love you all and Hope you have a great week. My english is horrible now. I'm speaking like a mexican who just came from Tijuana. It's way bad.
Elder Campbell
BTW, which Hna. were you saying is the cute one, because I don't think I had any pictures of Hna. Law on there. Tell me what picture it was and what they were wearing and I'll be able to tell you who it is.
Sounds like a party in the house! Just like my apartment! Its way fun over there. Elder Graham is a crack up, and me and Elder Bigler just have the weirdest conversations. It's great.
So, thsi week. What's new. Umm, We found these 2 sweet families that we're going to set for baptism. That's exciting. Gilberto moved back to connecticuit, but the missionaries are going to head over there and baptize him. Too bad we couldn't do it here, but The Lord has his plan in everything!
Pres. Perry is going to be training us on planning and what not, so our planning is going to be a lot better. He talked about how missionaries here just always put a "1" as the goal if they don't have anything set up, like "1 investigator baptized and confirmed", and they say it's as an act of faith, but Pres. Perry was like "if you don't have something set up, and you put 1, you're just setting yourself up for failure." So they way he's going to have us planning is giong to change the way we work. Like, they always say that goals should be meaningful, but because of how we've been planning and whatnot, they're just a number to me and I have'nt cared if I reach them or not. SO it'll be interesting. Umm, I don't need any more garments. I'm good with the ones I have. Just the scarf. And no, I don't have the tree. I had to leave it down in VA Beach when I got transferred, but I can ask Elder ZObrist to bring it up tomorrow when they come for leadership training. Also, We're getting texting on our phones. Weird, right? Hahaha
Anyway, Love you all and Hope you have a great week. My english is horrible now. I'm speaking like a mexican who just came from Tijuana. It's way bad.
Elder Campbell
8 November 2010
So yeah, Ruben got baptized last night and I confirmed him. it was a way good baptism. Everything went well, but there weren't a ton of people there. I also baptized Synthia Luna on Saturday and then yesterday I also confirmed her. And the coolest part of that? We had Elder Gerard of the 70 and also russell Osgulthorpe, the geeral President of the Sunday School, in our sacrament meeting, so they both sat in on the confirmation and it was AWESOME! I sat down and was just like "Woah, that spirit was incredible!" So it was pretty sweet.
Umm, we had some bad news about Gilberto. he hasn't come to church for the past 2 weeks, and he hadn't been as excited this week about learning or anything, but he wouldn't tell us what was wrong and we couldn't figure it out, and we talked to his fellowshipper yesterday and he said that Gilberto told him he didn't want to get baptized anymroe. But we'll get him back. he's not too far gone to the point where he's gone forever, we justneed to get him stoked again. But if you could throw in some prayers for him that would be well appreciated. I guess the whold Chesterfield zone saw a lot of opposition this past week, lots of people dropping baptismal dates and the missionaries have seen a lot of opposition in the work this week. But I know why. At our zone meeting, we talked about how many baptisms we could acheive this month, and the zone total was at 47. We were all way fired up and ready to go work, and Satan knew we were going to get a ton in the fonts, so he really stepped up his game. like, 8 missionaries went home last week for a variety of reasons. So the adversary is really trying out here in Virginia, but it doesn't matter.
If you could send me one scarf and honestly, maybe my temple pants because I don't have white pants for baptisms. I don't know what size my temple pants are, hopefully they're like, 38, because I could barely squeeze into Elder Flores' 36 on Saturday. But those 2 things would be good, and I think I've got the rest covered. There's a blanket that I've been using, it's pretty small, but I sleep right next to the heater and i think my body temperature has been increasing even more lately, because the house is at like, 65 degrees and I'm still sweating. It's ridiculous. So I don't know. I've still got 2 pairs of thermals here, so I think I'm covered.
Get that woman baptized! She just said the key words! Get her in the water!
Well I think that's all the cool news for this week. Hope you're all doing well and that you have a great week. Love you mucho grande
Elder Campbell
Umm, we had some bad news about Gilberto. he hasn't come to church for the past 2 weeks, and he hadn't been as excited this week about learning or anything, but he wouldn't tell us what was wrong and we couldn't figure it out, and we talked to his fellowshipper yesterday and he said that Gilberto told him he didn't want to get baptized anymroe. But we'll get him back. he's not too far gone to the point where he's gone forever, we justneed to get him stoked again. But if you could throw in some prayers for him that would be well appreciated. I guess the whold Chesterfield zone saw a lot of opposition this past week, lots of people dropping baptismal dates and the missionaries have seen a lot of opposition in the work this week. But I know why. At our zone meeting, we talked about how many baptisms we could acheive this month, and the zone total was at 47. We were all way fired up and ready to go work, and Satan knew we were going to get a ton in the fonts, so he really stepped up his game. like, 8 missionaries went home last week for a variety of reasons. So the adversary is really trying out here in Virginia, but it doesn't matter.
If you could send me one scarf and honestly, maybe my temple pants because I don't have white pants for baptisms. I don't know what size my temple pants are, hopefully they're like, 38, because I could barely squeeze into Elder Flores' 36 on Saturday. But those 2 things would be good, and I think I've got the rest covered. There's a blanket that I've been using, it's pretty small, but I sleep right next to the heater and i think my body temperature has been increasing even more lately, because the house is at like, 65 degrees and I'm still sweating. It's ridiculous. So I don't know. I've still got 2 pairs of thermals here, so I think I'm covered.
Get that woman baptized! She just said the key words! Get her in the water!
Well I think that's all the cool news for this week. Hope you're all doing well and that you have a great week. Love you mucho grande
Elder Campbell
Monday, November 1, 2010
1 Nov 2010
Soooo, I think the coolest thing this week was when we sat down on Tuesday with Gilberto. We had left him Alma 32 to read, and so we sit down and I go "So how did the reading go?" and he just looked at me and there was something different in his eyes, like, he just looked like a different person right then. SO he looks at me and he goes "It went really well. It teaches exactly what faith is. Faith is something that you can't see, but you can feel, and you know its right." So then I asked him "So what do you feel about the gospel that we've been teaching you? Do you feel that it's right?" And he goes "well, I want to get baptized. I just know that this is the way that God wants me to follow." We were like "YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" It was amazing! He just had the conversion in his eyes, and he was explaining to us about how it makes sense that Joseph Smith restored the gospel and everything. It was great. And he wants to get baptized in a river, so we asked Pres. Perry if it's ok, he's still waiting to get back to us.
So yesterday at church, in PEC we were talking about these 3 primary kids that are getting baptized next saturday, all three of them 8 yrs old. One of the kid's dad is not a member, so they were talking about who was going to baptize her and then they go "well, we're going to have to ask her mom who she wants." So I'm walking through the hall after church and the girls mom comes up to me and says "I want you to baptize my daughter." I like, didn't know what to say at first, but then I was just like "Yeah, of course! I'd be happy to!" I mean, I have never said more than "Hola, como esta?" to this sister, so I don't know why she wants me to baptize her daughter, but I'm really excited.
Then we've got Ruben getting baptized this Sunday, so that's exciting. He passes his baptismal interview with flying colors. So things are going good here.
Yeah, I got the letters and I got the package. My new companion is SWEET, he's from Anaheim. We get along really well and we work well together. And one of the best parts- he LOVES the lakers like I LOVE the lakers! So we always end up talking about the lakers like, every day. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings (as I'm sure you saw) and we were just surrounded by TVs with ESPN, so we were both just flooded with updates and it was crazy! Lebron looks weird in a Heat Jersey!
We've found some good people to teach, but we've lost contact with a lot of the ones we were teaching just a little bit ago, so we're working on getting back in contact with them. But things are going good here. I'm rolling around in a 2010 Subaru Impreza AWD. It's way nice. Tiptronic transmission, MP3/CD deck. Handles like a rally car. Lets just say I'm in love on my mission. Shhhh, don't tell Pres. Chalice (Spelling?)!!! My apartment is nice, it's 3 stories. One of the english elders we live with is a CLEAN FREAK! Before we even have the chance to clean up our kitchen stuff, he's already in there scrubbing and sweeping, it's way weird.
The other english elder we live with got a $100 bill in the mail, and he said "I want to go party it up with this thing. Lets all go to lunch, I'm buying!" So we're going to Chilis today. We're also going on exchanges with our english district leader, so Elder Flores and I are pretty much going to be flying solo today, because the english elders didn't even take high school spanish.
Umm, in other news, we were the judges for the chili cook off at the harvest party. Hispanics don't make very good chili.
?Que Mas Hay? Umm, I think that's about it. I hope everything is going well back home and that you're all in good hands. Tell Gma and Gpa squared that I love them all and miss them. Take care y vayan con Dios
Elder Campbell
So yesterday at church, in PEC we were talking about these 3 primary kids that are getting baptized next saturday, all three of them 8 yrs old. One of the kid's dad is not a member, so they were talking about who was going to baptize her and then they go "well, we're going to have to ask her mom who she wants." So I'm walking through the hall after church and the girls mom comes up to me and says "I want you to baptize my daughter." I like, didn't know what to say at first, but then I was just like "Yeah, of course! I'd be happy to!" I mean, I have never said more than "Hola, como esta?" to this sister, so I don't know why she wants me to baptize her daughter, but I'm really excited.
Then we've got Ruben getting baptized this Sunday, so that's exciting. He passes his baptismal interview with flying colors. So things are going good here.
Yeah, I got the letters and I got the package. My new companion is SWEET, he's from Anaheim. We get along really well and we work well together. And one of the best parts- he LOVES the lakers like I LOVE the lakers! So we always end up talking about the lakers like, every day. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings (as I'm sure you saw) and we were just surrounded by TVs with ESPN, so we were both just flooded with updates and it was crazy! Lebron looks weird in a Heat Jersey!
We've found some good people to teach, but we've lost contact with a lot of the ones we were teaching just a little bit ago, so we're working on getting back in contact with them. But things are going good here. I'm rolling around in a 2010 Subaru Impreza AWD. It's way nice. Tiptronic transmission, MP3/CD deck. Handles like a rally car. Lets just say I'm in love on my mission. Shhhh, don't tell Pres. Chalice (Spelling?)!!! My apartment is nice, it's 3 stories. One of the english elders we live with is a CLEAN FREAK! Before we even have the chance to clean up our kitchen stuff, he's already in there scrubbing and sweeping, it's way weird.
The other english elder we live with got a $100 bill in the mail, and he said "I want to go party it up with this thing. Lets all go to lunch, I'm buying!" So we're going to Chilis today. We're also going on exchanges with our english district leader, so Elder Flores and I are pretty much going to be flying solo today, because the english elders didn't even take high school spanish.
Umm, in other news, we were the judges for the chili cook off at the harvest party. Hispanics don't make very good chili.
?Que Mas Hay? Umm, I think that's about it. I hope everything is going well back home and that you're all in good hands. Tell Gma and Gpa squared that I love them all and miss them. Take care y vayan con Dios
Elder Campbell
25 Oct 2010
Well howdy everyone! So first off, my new address is 4839 Whetstone Rd. Richmond, VA 23234. It's in the same apartment complex as before, but it's just up the road. So, this week. WEll, I got put with Elder Flores, as I'm sure you know. He's a stud. Him and Elder Schults were working with this guy Ruben to get him baptized, so we're working on him now. he's progressing well, but he just kind of disappears and his phone gets cut off and then he never returns our phone calls. Right before I got here, he sent this txt that said (translated)- "i desire with fervor the holy spirit, given by Father God to Nephi and Lehi. Baptize me tomorrow, brother Elder. Amen" It was way weird, but he's way legit and wants to get baptized. Then we've got this other guy named Gilberto. He's a member referral, and he LOVES what we're teaching him. He didn't quite get it until we were talking one day and he brought up Malachi 3:4-5 and said that for a church to be true, it had to have been visited by Malachi, so i went over DyC 110 and then I went back with Acts I think, where it talks about baptisms for the dead. he was like "I've never even heard a church talk about that, and it's in the bible. your church does that? that's AWESOME!" Then he told us he wants to get baptized in a river when he does get baptized. So that was pretty cool.
So the weather here has been really nice. Not too cold, but not hot at all. It's great. Oh man, I totally forgot that Bishop Welton was now the bishop. that's nuts. thats way cool though.
So last tuesday, I had to take Elder Schults to the mission home on his last day. That sucked. I was crying like a little girl. it was way traumatic. Like, I'm not supposed to be there for another 8 months and it was like the 6th sense, where you can see the dead people right? Because there were like, 10 missionaries there and none of them were smiling. It was like seeing dead people walking around. Sister Perry invited us to go in, and I was like "No! I'm not going in there! Its not my time yet!" So why are you going down to California? My companion is from Anaheim. His dad is mexican, and his mom is samoan. It's an interesting combo.
oh, speaking of combos. So there was this Hna. In the mtc with me in the district above me named sister brady. She came out here 6 weeks before me and I've served with her for the last 3ish transfers. So in her final transfer, she gets zebra'd to Waynesboro with two WEIRD sister missionaries. hahahaha and we found out before she did! We were worried she was going to hang herself! But apart from that, everything is going good here.
on thursday, we were leaving from soccer and there was this lady stopped in the church parking lot, so we stopped and asked how we could help her, and we saw that a part of the wheel well had gotten really sharp and gouged her tire and taken the tread completely off down to the steel. So I started grabbing stuff out of the back of our car and changing the tire. And you want to know where I learned how to change a tire? Mutual when I was 14! I always thought I was never going to need to learn that, but look at that!? Now, she's way stoked on the missionaries and she wanted to go visit Mormon.org and learn all about us and what not. So if you could say Thanks to Bro. Feldman for organizing that activity all those years ago, i'd appreciate it. yeah, isn't it crazy that Kevin will be home in like, 4 months!? And I've only got 8! Oh my goodness, I remember like it was yesterday when I was in the beach going "Man, I've got 16 months left! HOLY COW!" Yeah, how's that for a warped perspective?
Well, my fingers are tired and feel really weird. I've been having a really hard time sitting still lately, and my hands always feel like the muscles are getting really taut. I don't know, it's weird.
Anyway, love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Elder Campbell
So the weather here has been really nice. Not too cold, but not hot at all. It's great. Oh man, I totally forgot that Bishop Welton was now the bishop. that's nuts. thats way cool though.
So last tuesday, I had to take Elder Schults to the mission home on his last day. That sucked. I was crying like a little girl. it was way traumatic. Like, I'm not supposed to be there for another 8 months and it was like the 6th sense, where you can see the dead people right? Because there were like, 10 missionaries there and none of them were smiling. It was like seeing dead people walking around. Sister Perry invited us to go in, and I was like "No! I'm not going in there! Its not my time yet!" So why are you going down to California? My companion is from Anaheim. His dad is mexican, and his mom is samoan. It's an interesting combo.
oh, speaking of combos. So there was this Hna. In the mtc with me in the district above me named sister brady. She came out here 6 weeks before me and I've served with her for the last 3ish transfers. So in her final transfer, she gets zebra'd to Waynesboro with two WEIRD sister missionaries. hahahaha and we found out before she did! We were worried she was going to hang herself! But apart from that, everything is going good here.
on thursday, we were leaving from soccer and there was this lady stopped in the church parking lot, so we stopped and asked how we could help her, and we saw that a part of the wheel well had gotten really sharp and gouged her tire and taken the tread completely off down to the steel. So I started grabbing stuff out of the back of our car and changing the tire. And you want to know where I learned how to change a tire? Mutual when I was 14! I always thought I was never going to need to learn that, but look at that!? Now, she's way stoked on the missionaries and she wanted to go visit Mormon.org and learn all about us and what not. So if you could say Thanks to Bro. Feldman for organizing that activity all those years ago, i'd appreciate it. yeah, isn't it crazy that Kevin will be home in like, 4 months!? And I've only got 8! Oh my goodness, I remember like it was yesterday when I was in the beach going "Man, I've got 16 months left! HOLY COW!" Yeah, how's that for a warped perspective?
Well, my fingers are tired and feel really weird. I've been having a really hard time sitting still lately, and my hands always feel like the muscles are getting really taut. I don't know, it's weird.
Anyway, love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Elder Campbell
Monday, October 18, 2010
18 Oct 2010
Hey hey hey
So we got transfer calls last night. My greenie is going to..................... Virginia Beach!!!! How sweet is that!? He's kind of depressed, because he didn't get to baptize anyone here, but I'm pumping him up, because it's SWEET! They're combining me and the other companionship, so I get to step train Elder Flores. They've got someone on tap to get baptized next week, so that'll be exciting. Other than that, I dont' think there's really any big news lately. Just same old same old. We hit 20 lessons for the first time since I left Virginia Beach, so that was way nice!
Umm, foot amputation doesn't sound fun. I dont' know what I would do if I got home and my wife was just like "What's up?" with her foot missing. So is he going to get a prosthetic or what?
That's way cool that Michael got a signing bonus and did so well on his aptitude tests. So does the military have like, it's own newspapers or waht? I don't get it. And I didn't know that Kurt moved to California. That's interesting. Well.
I really don't know what else to write you. Umm, this week was really uneventful. It just kind of hit me last night that I only have 6 transfers left. It's nuts! Isn't that crazy!? That's only 8 months? ANd this next transfer really goes all the way up to December 6th. So then it's only like, 3 more weeks until I talk to you again. Oh man. It's just the MTC all over again! hahaha
SO we had 2 families in our ward get sealed on Saturday, that was awesome!
Ummmmmmm, what else is there. There's this book to my right right now that is titled "Naked in Dangerous places". I think it's this picture of this guy running through a pit full of snakes or something. Interesting. Well, I've got everything I need, I hope you're all well and safe. Love you all and hope you have a great week.
Elder Campbell
So we got transfer calls last night. My greenie is going to..................... Virginia Beach!!!! How sweet is that!? He's kind of depressed, because he didn't get to baptize anyone here, but I'm pumping him up, because it's SWEET! They're combining me and the other companionship, so I get to step train Elder Flores. They've got someone on tap to get baptized next week, so that'll be exciting. Other than that, I dont' think there's really any big news lately. Just same old same old. We hit 20 lessons for the first time since I left Virginia Beach, so that was way nice!
Umm, foot amputation doesn't sound fun. I dont' know what I would do if I got home and my wife was just like "What's up?" with her foot missing. So is he going to get a prosthetic or what?
That's way cool that Michael got a signing bonus and did so well on his aptitude tests. So does the military have like, it's own newspapers or waht? I don't get it. And I didn't know that Kurt moved to California. That's interesting. Well.
I really don't know what else to write you. Umm, this week was really uneventful. It just kind of hit me last night that I only have 6 transfers left. It's nuts! Isn't that crazy!? That's only 8 months? ANd this next transfer really goes all the way up to December 6th. So then it's only like, 3 more weeks until I talk to you again. Oh man. It's just the MTC all over again! hahaha
SO we had 2 families in our ward get sealed on Saturday, that was awesome!
Ummmmmmm, what else is there. There's this book to my right right now that is titled "Naked in Dangerous places". I think it's this picture of this guy running through a pit full of snakes or something. Interesting. Well, I've got everything I need, I hope you're all well and safe. Love you all and hope you have a great week.
Elder Campbell
Monday, October 11, 2010
11 Oct 2010
So yes, I got all the boxes, my triple and bible, the candies, I heard about John, I accidentally lost the absentee ballot request, I think that was everything.
Yes, I'm still working my tail off. The missionary next to me goes home next Tuesday and he has like, 9 emails in his inbox that say "8 days, 11.36 hours!!!!!!!!!!!" or something like that. Then the lady next to me is watching a youtube video on training cockatiels to talk. Oh the things that you see at the library. Soooo, in other newssss.....
Transfers are coming up next week and I have absolutely NO idea what's going on. It's crazy. I think my companion is going and I have no idea who I'm going to get, they have to move a lot of people, because 4 spanish elders are going home, and then 2 more have been in their areas for 9 months, so that's 6 that have to get moved, and we're only getting 2 more elders. So it's gonna be INSANE! But in good news, we had a ton of investigator lessons last week. Ok, it was really only like, 9, but that's up a lot more from what it was the last week. And most of them wanted return appointments. I've been learning a ton lately and I had my interview with Pres. Perry on Saturday and it was awesome, so I think things are looking up here, they should be getting better at least. We haven't been knocking as many doors, which is good, and we've been teaching more lessons. So now we just need to keep stepping it up. I think the weight gain has just about leveled off. I'm at like, 217, which isn't too bad, considering that this other spanish elder has gained 48 pounds n his mission. It's ridiculous. As long as I dont' hit that much, I'll be alright.
So this one guy yesterday starts telling us- "I cant do an appointment tomorrow because I have a doctors appointment tomorrow. I've got this skin tag on my testicles and they've gotta see what they can do for me. I had one on my toe, so I cut it off and it started bleeding EVERYWHERE! I mean everywhere. And it hurt like a mother! So they don't want to take this one off because it's in a bad location." Don't you just love how open hispanics are?
Umm, so do you all remember that one conference when we just started watching family videos from like, 17 years ago? So the other day we were teaching this less active lesson to a lady we just found who's brother died the week before, and I started talking about that day and the happiness it brought me and how much I remember that, and then I started talking about the atonement, and I honestly don't think I've ever been able to look into someone's eyes like that and see the Spirit working so hard on them. The spirit just filled the whole room and I started crying and she was crying and it was incredible and the feeling was just indescribable.
Well, I think that's it for this week. I'm going to get that card of pictures sent off today, I promise. I've got a ton to get to you. So.
Anyway, Love you all. Hope you have a great week. D&C 61:33 I think. Something along the lines of "I the Lord have not abandoned you and am aways with you." Or something like that. It's way cool.
Elder Campbell
Yes, I'm still working my tail off. The missionary next to me goes home next Tuesday and he has like, 9 emails in his inbox that say "8 days, 11.36 hours!!!!!!!!!!!" or something like that. Then the lady next to me is watching a youtube video on training cockatiels to talk. Oh the things that you see at the library. Soooo, in other newssss.....
Transfers are coming up next week and I have absolutely NO idea what's going on. It's crazy. I think my companion is going and I have no idea who I'm going to get, they have to move a lot of people, because 4 spanish elders are going home, and then 2 more have been in their areas for 9 months, so that's 6 that have to get moved, and we're only getting 2 more elders. So it's gonna be INSANE! But in good news, we had a ton of investigator lessons last week. Ok, it was really only like, 9, but that's up a lot more from what it was the last week. And most of them wanted return appointments. I've been learning a ton lately and I had my interview with Pres. Perry on Saturday and it was awesome, so I think things are looking up here, they should be getting better at least. We haven't been knocking as many doors, which is good, and we've been teaching more lessons. So now we just need to keep stepping it up. I think the weight gain has just about leveled off. I'm at like, 217, which isn't too bad, considering that this other spanish elder has gained 48 pounds n his mission. It's ridiculous. As long as I dont' hit that much, I'll be alright.
So this one guy yesterday starts telling us- "I cant do an appointment tomorrow because I have a doctors appointment tomorrow. I've got this skin tag on my testicles and they've gotta see what they can do for me. I had one on my toe, so I cut it off and it started bleeding EVERYWHERE! I mean everywhere. And it hurt like a mother! So they don't want to take this one off because it's in a bad location." Don't you just love how open hispanics are?
Umm, so do you all remember that one conference when we just started watching family videos from like, 17 years ago? So the other day we were teaching this less active lesson to a lady we just found who's brother died the week before, and I started talking about that day and the happiness it brought me and how much I remember that, and then I started talking about the atonement, and I honestly don't think I've ever been able to look into someone's eyes like that and see the Spirit working so hard on them. The spirit just filled the whole room and I started crying and she was crying and it was incredible and the feeling was just indescribable.
Well, I think that's it for this week. I'm going to get that card of pictures sent off today, I promise. I've got a ton to get to you. So.
Anyway, Love you all. Hope you have a great week. D&C 61:33 I think. Something along the lines of "I the Lord have not abandoned you and am aways with you." Or something like that. It's way cool.
Elder Campbell
Monday, October 4, 2010
4 Oct 2010
Soooo, whats up with you all? This week went by WAY fast, because I was looking forward to conference the entire week. We've had some really good lessons this week, but still nothing in the way of progressors or people actually getting baptized. But patience. I've been learning a TON this past week about how to teach people and what not, so we're putting a lot of things into practice. Oh man, HOW SWEET WAS CONFERENCE!??? Can I get a "greatest session EVARRRRRRRRRR!!!!" from the crowd? Yeah, I think so!
Priesthood session was SWEEET! Pres. Uchtdorf's smackdown on pride was the COOLEST! And Pres. Monson is just a powerhouse lately! It's awesome. I loved Elder Holland's shoutout to the members. This church really does have the greatest members ever. And aren't we so blessed to have a living prophet today? Man, there's a lot to be thankful for.
So, in other news, my companion and I got ahold of some of those exploding poppers that you throw and they go "BANG!" and we've been devising ways to scare the crap out of eachother. I've found that his most vulnerable time is right after he's coming out of the bathroom, but I just put one in the running track of the mirrors, so when he closes it, hes in for a surprise. Shhh, don't tell him! Finding hasn't really been that successful lately, and it seems like we can't get ANYONE to church, but the Lord has a plan. I just need to be patient.
So on Saturday, we had apartment inspections, and we made lunch for the office staff after the inspection: I made tortillas and my companion made carne con chile. They loved it. It was awesome. ANd today we have zone pday and we're playing volleyball and watching the awesome Joseph Smith movie. It should be sdweet. So it's gettiing way cold here in Virginia. It's like, 52 degrees as of time of wrting this, sorry, my english sucks. I should probably go back to school after the mission and take some basic english classes again. Lets just say Juliann shouldn't ask for me to sub her class when they're going over englsihs stuff.
Oh, so the office staff. Sister Henrie, the secretary, she keeps me updated on the UNR scores and whatnot. I think she's from Idaho, but she has a UNR sweatshirt, so me and her get along just fine :)
As for blankets, I'll be fine. I had to buy one down in Virginia Beach, but I couldn't bring it up here to richmond with me, so my companion is letting me borrow one of his blankets. But I think he's leaving this transfer, so I might be making another trip to wal mart....
Thank you for the pictures. They were awesome. I was thinking "Where did she take those from?" I almost didn't recognize nevada! Sad day, huh?
Well, I hope everything is goikng well for you. Have a wonderful week and I love you all mucho grande
Elder Campbell
Priesthood session was SWEEET! Pres. Uchtdorf's smackdown on pride was the COOLEST! And Pres. Monson is just a powerhouse lately! It's awesome. I loved Elder Holland's shoutout to the members. This church really does have the greatest members ever. And aren't we so blessed to have a living prophet today? Man, there's a lot to be thankful for.
So, in other news, my companion and I got ahold of some of those exploding poppers that you throw and they go "BANG!" and we've been devising ways to scare the crap out of eachother. I've found that his most vulnerable time is right after he's coming out of the bathroom, but I just put one in the running track of the mirrors, so when he closes it, hes in for a surprise. Shhh, don't tell him! Finding hasn't really been that successful lately, and it seems like we can't get ANYONE to church, but the Lord has a plan. I just need to be patient.
So on Saturday, we had apartment inspections, and we made lunch for the office staff after the inspection: I made tortillas and my companion made carne con chile. They loved it. It was awesome. ANd today we have zone pday and we're playing volleyball and watching the awesome Joseph Smith movie. It should be sdweet. So it's gettiing way cold here in Virginia. It's like, 52 degrees as of time of wrting this, sorry, my english sucks. I should probably go back to school after the mission and take some basic english classes again. Lets just say Juliann shouldn't ask for me to sub her class when they're going over englsihs stuff.
Oh, so the office staff. Sister Henrie, the secretary, she keeps me updated on the UNR scores and whatnot. I think she's from Idaho, but she has a UNR sweatshirt, so me and her get along just fine :)
As for blankets, I'll be fine. I had to buy one down in Virginia Beach, but I couldn't bring it up here to richmond with me, so my companion is letting me borrow one of his blankets. But I think he's leaving this transfer, so I might be making another trip to wal mart....
Thank you for the pictures. They were awesome. I was thinking "Where did she take those from?" I almost didn't recognize nevada! Sad day, huh?
Well, I hope everything is goikng well for you. Have a wonderful week and I love you all mucho grande
Elder Campbell
Monday, September 27, 2010
27 Sept 2010
So yeah, this week was pretty good. We didn't teach a ton of lessons. People just aren't showing up for their return appointments. But we've got a few that we're still working on right now. Maria is doing good. She jsut hasn't been able to come to church. We're hoping that we can get her to at least one session of general conference. We have two others set, Samuel and Isaura, so we're trying to get them to WANT to come to church. They only let us teach them once a week, so it's really hard and gives satan a lot of time to creep in and do some damage. But alls well in zion. Conference is coming up this weekend and I'm SOOOOO excited. I absolutely LVOE conference. Priesthood session is going to kick butt! I can't believe that it was six months ago that I watched conference in Virginia Beach. That was a funny saturday session. I'll have to tell you about that when I get back. So this week we did a lot of knocking without much success. We've decided to close this one HUGE apartment complex for awhile because we haven't had a single person pan out from there, and we were investing like, 3 hours a day in there, so we figured we'd rather spend our time elsewhere.
Umm, man, I can't believe it's been a whole week since I emailed you last. What's new? So, I'm guessing no one knows anything about John, Juli's old neighbor? umm, man, I honestly don't even know what to tell you. Same old same old. Knocking doors, spreading the gospel. Well, I heard about UNR beating BYU. Isn't that something? How's our defense doing this year? And has anyone heard anything about Luke Babbitt? Hows he doing up in Portland? In other news, I have a canker sore the size of Cuba on my lower lip and it SUCKS! Also, Elder Zobrist, my companion from Virginia Beach, got an offer from one of the less actives for an eternal marriage. She's the one that I think is on my facebook friends. Oh man, way crazy story. I'll definitely have to share that one when I get back too. I'm going to have way too many stories when I get back. Two years of stories is a lot! I hope you all like to sit down for story time for 8 hours a day. haha. Soo, what's new on that side of the country? I heard something about this law that Obama was trying to pass in where they'd give papers to illegals that want to go to college. To put it simply, my companion is loving Obama right now if they get it passed. I'm kind of indifferent. Oh, I also got sworn at by this little colombiano kid last night at a baptism. He then proceeded to make a very obscene gesture involving his hand and his crotch. He's 2 years old. Hispanic kids....
Well, I hope you have a great week. Love you all and I'm going to try to send off my memory card to you today. I've got like, 5 months of pictures on there. I'm still waiting for a picture of Reno and the family. None of my companions know what you all loook like, and I'm not going to lie, neither do I really! hahaha
Love you all. The gospel is true. Keep on truckin.
Elder Campbell
Umm, man, I can't believe it's been a whole week since I emailed you last. What's new? So, I'm guessing no one knows anything about John, Juli's old neighbor? umm, man, I honestly don't even know what to tell you. Same old same old. Knocking doors, spreading the gospel. Well, I heard about UNR beating BYU. Isn't that something? How's our defense doing this year? And has anyone heard anything about Luke Babbitt? Hows he doing up in Portland? In other news, I have a canker sore the size of Cuba on my lower lip and it SUCKS! Also, Elder Zobrist, my companion from Virginia Beach, got an offer from one of the less actives for an eternal marriage. She's the one that I think is on my facebook friends. Oh man, way crazy story. I'll definitely have to share that one when I get back too. I'm going to have way too many stories when I get back. Two years of stories is a lot! I hope you all like to sit down for story time for 8 hours a day. haha. Soo, what's new on that side of the country? I heard something about this law that Obama was trying to pass in where they'd give papers to illegals that want to go to college. To put it simply, my companion is loving Obama right now if they get it passed. I'm kind of indifferent. Oh, I also got sworn at by this little colombiano kid last night at a baptism. He then proceeded to make a very obscene gesture involving his hand and his crotch. He's 2 years old. Hispanic kids....
Well, I hope you have a great week. Love you all and I'm going to try to send off my memory card to you today. I've got like, 5 months of pictures on there. I'm still waiting for a picture of Reno and the family. None of my companions know what you all loook like, and I'm not going to lie, neither do I really! hahaha
Love you all. The gospel is true. Keep on truckin.
Elder Campbell
20 Sept 2010
So this week. Wow. Well, lets just say we did a TON of knocking and had a TON of appointments fall through. But we now have 3 people set for baptism. So taht's cool. Like, the first time I've had people set since like, May. It's crazy. So as for killing the zone. We were all in a spanish zone that covered the entire mission, and then the english elders were in their zones. We worked with the english zones, but were in ours. But then they killed our zone and put us all in the english zones that we're geographically located in. So our zone leaders were just ousted and Elder Wheatley got sent zebra in North Carolina. It's getting crazy around here. I can't believe I only have 9 months left.
SO with the journal, I don't think it will be that big of a problem. When I write, I get super lazy and a lot of times don't even write, plus I figure that I couls just transcribe it or get some voice recognition stuff and it can copy it for me. I don't even know what's going on in the technology world. So who knows, maybe they're making software just for that kind of thing!?
SO paul married them huh? Could you send me his address. I never had it and I want to write him and Jim. It's been like, 7 months since I wrote them. And what happened to Kurt and Austin? I know, it'll probably be better to ask Paul and Jim about that, but I haven't heard anything about that.
Umm, in good news, Maria is doing reallywell. she hasn't been able to come to church yet, but she came to this activity that we had on Saturday. And she LOVED it. SHe already refers to it as "Our church" like she's already a member and everything. And she's totally set on getting baptized. She just needs to come to church. SO we're praying real hard for that and we're going to teach her about fasting and prayer. She's WAY legit though. She LOVES to pray and read the book of mormon.
In other good news, I'm still alive? Tha'ts good, right?
SOrry, I'm feeling super lazy today. I don't know why I just don't have the ganas to think about what happened this last week. We had a mission conference with paul sybrowsky of the 2nd quorum of the 70. He tore some missionaries apart. I'll have to recount that in person.
And hey, I was just thinking the other day. Does anyone know anything about Juli's old neighbor John? How's he doing, if anyone knows? I just for some reason got the impression a couple days ago that I needed to ask you all.
So, umm, I get to talk to you all in like, 12 weeks exactly? Or something. That's cool. ANd general conference is in 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that's exciting.
Well I love you all. Hope everythig is good with you. Keep on keepin on. Lifes a garden, dig it.
Elder Campbell
SO with the journal, I don't think it will be that big of a problem. When I write, I get super lazy and a lot of times don't even write, plus I figure that I couls just transcribe it or get some voice recognition stuff and it can copy it for me. I don't even know what's going on in the technology world. So who knows, maybe they're making software just for that kind of thing!?
SO paul married them huh? Could you send me his address. I never had it and I want to write him and Jim. It's been like, 7 months since I wrote them. And what happened to Kurt and Austin? I know, it'll probably be better to ask Paul and Jim about that, but I haven't heard anything about that.
Umm, in good news, Maria is doing reallywell. she hasn't been able to come to church yet, but she came to this activity that we had on Saturday. And she LOVED it. SHe already refers to it as "Our church" like she's already a member and everything. And she's totally set on getting baptized. She just needs to come to church. SO we're praying real hard for that and we're going to teach her about fasting and prayer. She's WAY legit though. She LOVES to pray and read the book of mormon.
In other good news, I'm still alive? Tha'ts good, right?
SOrry, I'm feeling super lazy today. I don't know why I just don't have the ganas to think about what happened this last week. We had a mission conference with paul sybrowsky of the 2nd quorum of the 70. He tore some missionaries apart. I'll have to recount that in person.
And hey, I was just thinking the other day. Does anyone know anything about Juli's old neighbor John? How's he doing, if anyone knows? I just for some reason got the impression a couple days ago that I needed to ask you all.
So, umm, I get to talk to you all in like, 12 weeks exactly? Or something. That's cool. ANd general conference is in 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that's exciting.
Well I love you all. Hope everythig is good with you. Keep on keepin on. Lifes a garden, dig it.
Elder Campbell
Thursday, September 16, 2010
13 Sept 2010
Well hello everyone. What a week here in Richmond. Sounds like things are going pretty well over on your side of the country. Well, it seems like the scriptures are always right. The Lord has his own timetable for blessings, we just have to trust in him to see them fulfilled. Congrats on the baby(plural or what?). I hope Juliann is having a blast student teaching, I have a blast ?teaching? kids on the streets. We always play soccer or ride bikes or scooters with them. It's way sweet. We're like best friends with this gang of kids in this super ghetto part of the city, they're like, 7 years old and we're planning on baptizing all of them. hahaha Tell Michael I say congrats on the test. That's way impressive. Way cool.
So yes, I got all the scriptures. They're awesome. Thank you so much. We also just got a couch on Friday. It's wayyyyy sweet. My bishop is the best. So we didnt' have a ton of like, successes this week, but it definitely wasn't a b ad week. Yesterday I had this way cool experience. We had an appointment fall through, so I told my comp that I felt we needed to go knock in the back of this apartment complex, and he goes "We always knock there, we never knock up here." I just go "I feel like that's where we need to go." SO we start walking and we started contacting on the way and as we're walking past this building, I just got this WAY QUICK thought to go knock the doors. I almost said "No, we need to keep going" but decided to go do it. So we knock the doors and nobody answers, so we move upstairs, and as soon as we go up the stairs, this guy walks out and I saw him and just got this HUGE impression "Talk to him." So we did and he's way stoked. The missionaries visited him back in Honduras like, 7 years ago and he loved it, but he hasn't talked to them since then. So we're way excited with him. Then we found this way cool family who we invited to be baptized in the 1st lesson and they were like "we'll have to think about it, but keep visiting us and we'll see how we feel." So things are going pretty good. We had a sleepover at the other elder's apartment last night and we were up all night telling scary stories adn the rest of the elders were all freaking out and couldn't sleep, and then Elder Schults goes to check the door and it was open, so he started FREAKING OUT thinking "Oh man, the spirit told me to go check the door, that means that something bad is going to happen!" it was hilarious. Umm, what else is there. WE've got mission conference tomorrow. First one not as a spanish zone. We're all still going to sit together thought. Paul Sybrowski is coming to talk to us, it should be WAY sweet.
Umm, well I dont really think there's much more to tell this week. Thank you for the garmetns, I'll let you know when they get here. You're all the best. I love you very much and I hope everything is going wonderfully for you. Trust in the Lord and he'll take care of you. Joshua 1:9 has become one of my favorites. Thanks for being the best family I could have asked for.
Cuidense
Elder Campbell
So yes, I got all the scriptures. They're awesome. Thank you so much. We also just got a couch on Friday. It's wayyyyy sweet. My bishop is the best. So we didnt' have a ton of like, successes this week, but it definitely wasn't a b ad week. Yesterday I had this way cool experience. We had an appointment fall through, so I told my comp that I felt we needed to go knock in the back of this apartment complex, and he goes "We always knock there, we never knock up here." I just go "I feel like that's where we need to go." SO we start walking and we started contacting on the way and as we're walking past this building, I just got this WAY QUICK thought to go knock the doors. I almost said "No, we need to keep going" but decided to go do it. So we knock the doors and nobody answers, so we move upstairs, and as soon as we go up the stairs, this guy walks out and I saw him and just got this HUGE impression "Talk to him." So we did and he's way stoked. The missionaries visited him back in Honduras like, 7 years ago and he loved it, but he hasn't talked to them since then. So we're way excited with him. Then we found this way cool family who we invited to be baptized in the 1st lesson and they were like "we'll have to think about it, but keep visiting us and we'll see how we feel." So things are going pretty good. We had a sleepover at the other elder's apartment last night and we were up all night telling scary stories adn the rest of the elders were all freaking out and couldn't sleep, and then Elder Schults goes to check the door and it was open, so he started FREAKING OUT thinking "Oh man, the spirit told me to go check the door, that means that something bad is going to happen!" it was hilarious. Umm, what else is there. WE've got mission conference tomorrow. First one not as a spanish zone. We're all still going to sit together thought. Paul Sybrowski is coming to talk to us, it should be WAY sweet.
Umm, well I dont really think there's much more to tell this week. Thank you for the garmetns, I'll let you know when they get here. You're all the best. I love you very much and I hope everything is going wonderfully for you. Trust in the Lord and he'll take care of you. Joshua 1:9 has become one of my favorites. Thanks for being the best family I could have asked for.
Cuidense
Elder Campbell
7 Sept 2010
Wow, the girls sure do look different! All 4 of em! That's great though.
So, this week. well, let me just put it into perspective for you. This lady maria's husband was getting taught by the missionaries over a year ago. He didn't get baptized and he was way lazy and would steal Maria's money and leave her for days at a time, so she finally kicked him out. Well her friend is a less active named Hna. Pico. Hna. Pico has been praying for like, 2 years that Maria could get taught by the missionaries and baptized. Well last tuesday, wouldn't you know it that we're walking through this trailer park, and we meet maria. We teach her a little bit on her front porch and she loved it. We said a prayer and she started crying. So we set up a return appointment for Friday and on Friday, we stop by and this Hna. Pico is there, and it was the first time we met Hna. Pico. So we go inside and sit down and start teaching Maria and she absolutely LOVES it. She's talking about how she read 1 Nefi 8 and how it was way cool, but she didn't understand it completely. So we start talking about the plan of salvation and how it applies, and then we go "Maria, will you get baptized on October 9th?" and she goes "Yeah, I think so." So we went over again last night and she was like "Ever since you came by the first day, I haven't gotten sad. Everything has been better. Everything in life is going good." And she's way excited to learn more. We're going over tonight to teach the restoration, and I'm WAY excited. She's just SO prepared, it's amazing. I just hope she can get work off on sunday's because she works in housekeeping in a hotel, and they always have to work sundays :( So maybe some extra prayers could definitely help?
And then last wednesday, this one lady cancelled on us, so we're driving away and on the highway we see this car stalled down. So we stop and run out into the middle of the road and start pushing the car, and I look in the rear view mirror and see this one less active hermana. So we push her into the gas station and she jumps out of the car and runs over to give me a hug and then just goes "Elders, you're my angels!" So then the next night she had a lesson with the other elders and one of her friends in her house, and she started bearing her testimony and the other elder said it was the most powerful testimony he's ever heard in a less active. She was like "I haen't been to church in 10 years, and I know I haven't been a faithful member. But Eva, this is something I want for you. To have the happiness that I have now. I'm coming back to church, and I'm never leaving again." It was WAY solid! Things are going really well here.
The only bad news we received was on Thursday. They're killing our zone. There will no longer be a Pembroke zone made up of only spanish elders. They're disbanding us and putting us in the english zones in where we work. It's way depressing. Our mission president said "We're graduating the spanish elders." And then with transfers, Elder Wheatley, who was just called as zone leader 2 transfers ago, got exiled into zebra in Nags Head, North Carolina. He's way depressed. He's going to be donig a ton of english work. It's way sad. So I may never see him again in the mission. Elder Schults, the other zone leader, is training.
But yesterday we got to go to a baseball game! The Richmond Flying Squirrels. They're the affiliate team of the San Fran Giants. It was way cool. One of the Mission Presidency counselors didn't like that we were there, but we had permission from the APs, so. Whatev.
Umm, what else? Oh, we got this one less active back to church, and we're going to baptize his girlfriend. SHe had a baptismal date like, 8 months ago, but stopped coming to church because of the baby or something, but they came on sunday, so that was way cool. Also, my companion accidentally called their baby retarded. That was a mistake. hahaha, but she is WAY fat. LIke, she's freaking HUGE!
Haven't gotten the garments yet, but yeah the bible is SWEET and the new BOM is awesome. Thank you very much. I swear that should be the end of the requests for a little bit. Except maybe if you could throw in some mini cassettes for a voice recorder when you send me the next package. I record my journal now, but I can never ever find cassettes to buy. But thank you in advance.
Elder Andrade is doing good. He's still really impatient with the mail system here, but he's getting like, 2 letters a week. He's still in the whole shock phase about suddenly leaving everything, so I hear a lot of complaints about that, but he's doing relaly well. He's a stud and he teaches like he's been here for like, 6 months already. Just needs some refining and he'll be PERFECT! :)
Well, love you all. Hope everything is going great. Eat your vegetables. Be safe. Talk to you in like, 3 months! hahaha
Elder Campbell
So, this week. well, let me just put it into perspective for you. This lady maria's husband was getting taught by the missionaries over a year ago. He didn't get baptized and he was way lazy and would steal Maria's money and leave her for days at a time, so she finally kicked him out. Well her friend is a less active named Hna. Pico. Hna. Pico has been praying for like, 2 years that Maria could get taught by the missionaries and baptized. Well last tuesday, wouldn't you know it that we're walking through this trailer park, and we meet maria. We teach her a little bit on her front porch and she loved it. We said a prayer and she started crying. So we set up a return appointment for Friday and on Friday, we stop by and this Hna. Pico is there, and it was the first time we met Hna. Pico. So we go inside and sit down and start teaching Maria and she absolutely LOVES it. She's talking about how she read 1 Nefi 8 and how it was way cool, but she didn't understand it completely. So we start talking about the plan of salvation and how it applies, and then we go "Maria, will you get baptized on October 9th?" and she goes "Yeah, I think so." So we went over again last night and she was like "Ever since you came by the first day, I haven't gotten sad. Everything has been better. Everything in life is going good." And she's way excited to learn more. We're going over tonight to teach the restoration, and I'm WAY excited. She's just SO prepared, it's amazing. I just hope she can get work off on sunday's because she works in housekeeping in a hotel, and they always have to work sundays :( So maybe some extra prayers could definitely help?
And then last wednesday, this one lady cancelled on us, so we're driving away and on the highway we see this car stalled down. So we stop and run out into the middle of the road and start pushing the car, and I look in the rear view mirror and see this one less active hermana. So we push her into the gas station and she jumps out of the car and runs over to give me a hug and then just goes "Elders, you're my angels!" So then the next night she had a lesson with the other elders and one of her friends in her house, and she started bearing her testimony and the other elder said it was the most powerful testimony he's ever heard in a less active. She was like "I haen't been to church in 10 years, and I know I haven't been a faithful member. But Eva, this is something I want for you. To have the happiness that I have now. I'm coming back to church, and I'm never leaving again." It was WAY solid! Things are going really well here.
The only bad news we received was on Thursday. They're killing our zone. There will no longer be a Pembroke zone made up of only spanish elders. They're disbanding us and putting us in the english zones in where we work. It's way depressing. Our mission president said "We're graduating the spanish elders." And then with transfers, Elder Wheatley, who was just called as zone leader 2 transfers ago, got exiled into zebra in Nags Head, North Carolina. He's way depressed. He's going to be donig a ton of english work. It's way sad. So I may never see him again in the mission. Elder Schults, the other zone leader, is training.
But yesterday we got to go to a baseball game! The Richmond Flying Squirrels. They're the affiliate team of the San Fran Giants. It was way cool. One of the Mission Presidency counselors didn't like that we were there, but we had permission from the APs, so. Whatev.
Umm, what else? Oh, we got this one less active back to church, and we're going to baptize his girlfriend. SHe had a baptismal date like, 8 months ago, but stopped coming to church because of the baby or something, but they came on sunday, so that was way cool. Also, my companion accidentally called their baby retarded. That was a mistake. hahaha, but she is WAY fat. LIke, she's freaking HUGE!
Haven't gotten the garments yet, but yeah the bible is SWEET and the new BOM is awesome. Thank you very much. I swear that should be the end of the requests for a little bit. Except maybe if you could throw in some mini cassettes for a voice recorder when you send me the next package. I record my journal now, but I can never ever find cassettes to buy. But thank you in advance.
Elder Andrade is doing good. He's still really impatient with the mail system here, but he's getting like, 2 letters a week. He's still in the whole shock phase about suddenly leaving everything, so I hear a lot of complaints about that, but he's doing relaly well. He's a stud and he teaches like he's been here for like, 6 months already. Just needs some refining and he'll be PERFECT! :)
Well, love you all. Hope everything is going great. Eat your vegetables. Be safe. Talk to you in like, 3 months! hahaha
Elder Campbell
Monday, August 30, 2010
30 Aug 2010
Hey hey hey. This week was WAY up and down. As for the MP3, I think english talks would be better. I hate the voices of the translators :) And yeah, if you could get some motab, awesome. If not, don't worry too much. I know that lisa and Cole have/had a ton, maybe they could hook you up with some cds while you're up there or something?
So yeah, this week. The weekdays were really brutal. We were out tracting all day long and not getting any success. Just a few lessons here and there, nothing really great. Then on Friday we had a lesson set up with this one guy and we walk in and him and his buddy are drunk and his buddy sits down and starts trying to pull a Zeezrom on us and make us cross our words, but it didn't work. I wanted to punch him in the face though(and then I speedily repented). So we were just really burned out and at the end of our ropes. I was just really deflated. Then on saturday, we actually sat down and taught 7 lessons and got really close to setting this one guy for baptism. It was sweet. Really good day. We were running around we were so busy we didn't have enough time to do everything. SO that really helped out. We're just trying to get every day like taht! haha
Things are starting to look up, we had a person at church yesterday. We found him like, 5 weeks ago but he was just like "I'll call you and I'll come visit you someday" which is what every hispanic says when they're not interested. Well then this week we're driving out of his apartment complex and he comes sprinting out of his house and pounds on the car window and goes "I lost your phone number, I'm coming to church this sunday." so we give him our number and lo and behold, he showed up! It was sweet! So this next week is looking up real nice. The lady we were excited about was margarita. We haven't taught her in almost 4 weeks, but we got ahold of her and we've got a lesson set up for tonight. I haven't heard anything about Teo unfortunately, but I think this accident might speed up their return to Nicaragua. He's going to be out of work for a few months at least, and she doesn't get paid that much, so they're going to be real strapped for money. So we'll see. Umm, what else is there to say. That would be awesome if Uncle Steven came back to church. Wouldn't that be something? And Ashley was in the chapel with him? Isn't that interesting!? Man, the Lord works in mysterious ways, we just have to wait to see the end of His plan. Well I think that's everything. Thanks for the scriptures and what not. Love you all and hope you're all doing awesome. The church is true. Keep on keepin on.
Elder Campbell
So yeah, this week. The weekdays were really brutal. We were out tracting all day long and not getting any success. Just a few lessons here and there, nothing really great. Then on Friday we had a lesson set up with this one guy and we walk in and him and his buddy are drunk and his buddy sits down and starts trying to pull a Zeezrom on us and make us cross our words, but it didn't work. I wanted to punch him in the face though(and then I speedily repented). So we were just really burned out and at the end of our ropes. I was just really deflated. Then on saturday, we actually sat down and taught 7 lessons and got really close to setting this one guy for baptism. It was sweet. Really good day. We were running around we were so busy we didn't have enough time to do everything. SO that really helped out. We're just trying to get every day like taht! haha
Things are starting to look up, we had a person at church yesterday. We found him like, 5 weeks ago but he was just like "I'll call you and I'll come visit you someday" which is what every hispanic says when they're not interested. Well then this week we're driving out of his apartment complex and he comes sprinting out of his house and pounds on the car window and goes "I lost your phone number, I'm coming to church this sunday." so we give him our number and lo and behold, he showed up! It was sweet! So this next week is looking up real nice. The lady we were excited about was margarita. We haven't taught her in almost 4 weeks, but we got ahold of her and we've got a lesson set up for tonight. I haven't heard anything about Teo unfortunately, but I think this accident might speed up their return to Nicaragua. He's going to be out of work for a few months at least, and she doesn't get paid that much, so they're going to be real strapped for money. So we'll see. Umm, what else is there to say. That would be awesome if Uncle Steven came back to church. Wouldn't that be something? And Ashley was in the chapel with him? Isn't that interesting!? Man, the Lord works in mysterious ways, we just have to wait to see the end of His plan. Well I think that's everything. Thanks for the scriptures and what not. Love you all and hope you're all doing awesome. The church is true. Keep on keepin on.
Elder Campbell
Monday, August 23, 2010
23 Aug 2010
How's everyone doing!? Well, this week has been kind of tough. We've been finding a ton of poeple, but it seems that they all drop us after 1 appointment. Like, we have a good appointment, and then we just can never ever get ahold of them anymore. And then we teach some people and then all of a sudden, they turn super stubborn and hard of heart and don't want to listen anymore. It sucks, but we keep on working and trying.
SO about the bible. I appreciate it. But is there any way that I could get the medium hard cover one. Not the soft one, but not the hard one? Both the hard and soft cover weigh a TON and I already have a cover that would fit the medium one. SOrry to be picky. Also, I just realized that I'm down to 7 pairs of garments. I don't nkow where they all went. I was just looking through my bags the other day, and I only have 7 pairs of garments. It sucks. And 2 of them are rippping. (That means he's working hard!) So maybe a few pairs of garments? SOrry for the needs. And whatever happened to the Book of Mormon? Did it ever get to Virginia Beach or is it still backordered? Just wondering, I was thinking the other day that I never heard anything about it.
So, where to start. Well, we got to use a member's computer last night to go on and surf the new mormon.org and it is SWEET! Our president has been talking about it nonstop how it's going to become the greatest finding tool in all the church for missionary work and I can totally see that. It's not going to be huge for spanish work, but for english work or people that actually have computers, it will be SWEET! We watched some videos and read some stuff. It's way cool. A lot cooler than when I got out of th e MTC.
Soo, man, I don't even remember this week. I went on exchanges back up to Henrico and I had to go on an exchange on my exchange. SO that was weird. But we taught this CRAZY lady who just can't get over the law in Arizona, and we're still seeing a ton of repercussions from that. Me being white, people just LOVE to talk about all the "racismo" and stuff going on here. It's just hilarious, but it gives me an opportunity to practice my patience :)
Man, I don't remember if there's anything to tell you or not. Like, I really can't remember. I've been jump-roping for my morning exercise, but still waiting to see any results in weight-loss, due to the fact that the slim fast diet was a complete failure! haha I just hate having something tell me I can't eat! I can too!
I'm also pretty sure that I met the twin of Oscar from the office. maybe just a little blacker. He was way sweet and I taught him a mini first lesson and asked if he thought that could be true and he goes "yeah, I think, based on my readings of the bible, that that is pretty much how God would do it." So I asked if we could come back and he goes "Maybe in the future, I'm just reading generally right now, trying to study up on a few religions". So you know what I did? I gave him a mormon.org card. BAM! Insta-baptism! Well, we'll see. But what else, umm, I hit 14 months in 2 days. Weird, right? This last month has gone by kind of slow. They were flying by, and they've kind of slowed down. But after this next transfer, only 1 more elder in the spanish zone is older than me on the mission, so taht will be way weird.
So do you remember when you asked me what college I was going to? Well, could you send me a pamphlet on BYU or something? I also heard that Fresno and UNR and Boise jumped ships to Mountain West. That's cool! And Utah went Pac 10 or something? What is the world coming to!? Well, I don't know if there's anything else exciting to tell you today. I think that's about all the news I got.
Anyway, I love you all. Have a good week. Take care.
Elder Cmapbell
(Must be the modern spelling of our name, huh?)
SO about the bible. I appreciate it. But is there any way that I could get the medium hard cover one. Not the soft one, but not the hard one? Both the hard and soft cover weigh a TON and I already have a cover that would fit the medium one. SOrry to be picky. Also, I just realized that I'm down to 7 pairs of garments. I don't nkow where they all went. I was just looking through my bags the other day, and I only have 7 pairs of garments. It sucks. And 2 of them are rippping. (That means he's working hard!) So maybe a few pairs of garments? SOrry for the needs. And whatever happened to the Book of Mormon? Did it ever get to Virginia Beach or is it still backordered? Just wondering, I was thinking the other day that I never heard anything about it.
So, where to start. Well, we got to use a member's computer last night to go on and surf the new mormon.org and it is SWEET! Our president has been talking about it nonstop how it's going to become the greatest finding tool in all the church for missionary work and I can totally see that. It's not going to be huge for spanish work, but for english work or people that actually have computers, it will be SWEET! We watched some videos and read some stuff. It's way cool. A lot cooler than when I got out of th e MTC.
Soo, man, I don't even remember this week. I went on exchanges back up to Henrico and I had to go on an exchange on my exchange. SO that was weird. But we taught this CRAZY lady who just can't get over the law in Arizona, and we're still seeing a ton of repercussions from that. Me being white, people just LOVE to talk about all the "racismo" and stuff going on here. It's just hilarious, but it gives me an opportunity to practice my patience :)
Man, I don't remember if there's anything to tell you or not. Like, I really can't remember. I've been jump-roping for my morning exercise, but still waiting to see any results in weight-loss, due to the fact that the slim fast diet was a complete failure! haha I just hate having something tell me I can't eat! I can too!
I'm also pretty sure that I met the twin of Oscar from the office. maybe just a little blacker. He was way sweet and I taught him a mini first lesson and asked if he thought that could be true and he goes "yeah, I think, based on my readings of the bible, that that is pretty much how God would do it." So I asked if we could come back and he goes "Maybe in the future, I'm just reading generally right now, trying to study up on a few religions". So you know what I did? I gave him a mormon.org card. BAM! Insta-baptism! Well, we'll see. But what else, umm, I hit 14 months in 2 days. Weird, right? This last month has gone by kind of slow. They were flying by, and they've kind of slowed down. But after this next transfer, only 1 more elder in the spanish zone is older than me on the mission, so taht will be way weird.
So do you remember when you asked me what college I was going to? Well, could you send me a pamphlet on BYU or something? I also heard that Fresno and UNR and Boise jumped ships to Mountain West. That's cool! And Utah went Pac 10 or something? What is the world coming to!? Well, I don't know if there's anything else exciting to tell you today. I think that's about all the news I got.
Anyway, I love you all. Have a good week. Take care.
Elder Cmapbell
(Must be the modern spelling of our name, huh?)
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
16 Aug 2010
So this week was sweet! We've done a ton of finding and we've found some really sweeet people. We had I think the best zone conference of my mission on Saturday. The First Presidency and the Twelve are making this huge push to change how we teach people, and its AWESOME! They haven't really 'changed' anything, but they're focusing on some principles of PMG that really change everything when we teach. The big focus now is on making 'inspired questions' and then listening to diagnose needs. Pres. Perry related it to a medic. If someone's sick, you don't just start tossing medicine at them. You do some tests, you find the wound and you apply the appropriate medicine. Its like in the gospel, you find the need, and apply the appropriate part of the gospel to fix it. And they're also focusing on teaching "PURE DOCTRINE" instead of teching the application and hoping that it works. They've also made a bunch of changes to how we work. LIke before, baptismal candidates had to live word of wisdom and law of chastity for 2 weeks prior to getting baptized, but now, we as the missionaries have to feel that they have committed to live these and keep them after baptism. We also simplified the way we do numbers and pres. perry said that "PMG and the scriptures are everything that we need. Everything else is fluff, so we're cutting it out." He also said that we can now have I-Pod's in the mission as long as they have Gen. Conference talks, appropriate music and what not. So maybe you could load my MP3 player with some general conference sessions and some Motab and hymns and send it to me? That would be sweet. Like, as many as you can. But no rush.
So the weather has kind of cooled down, it's been really cloudy lately, so not QUITE as hot, but still freaking hot! We're finally getting to know the area, so that's nice. Umm, what else? OH, all my recent converts are still doing good! Grizselda, the one that moved back to New Mexico, well she's trying to convert her sister. She reads the book of mormon to her grandma and her sister and they both love it. It's awesome! Also, Teo, my first baptism, he had a bad accident at work on Friday. Some guy above him in the building frame was cutting with a circular saw and the saw dug in and fell on Teo, but hit him on his left arm. It cut straight through the bone and all the muscle and tendon and everything, almost took his arm straight off. But he's doing better now, still in the hospital and drugged up, but he's doing good. SO maybe some prayers for him!?
List of things I need- A new bible. I gave mine to a recent convert in Henrico. Medium-hard cover would be best. Umm, maybe some vitamins? And that's it. :) Thank you!
Well, I hope you have a great week, love you all.
Elder Campbell
So the weather has kind of cooled down, it's been really cloudy lately, so not QUITE as hot, but still freaking hot! We're finally getting to know the area, so that's nice. Umm, what else? OH, all my recent converts are still doing good! Grizselda, the one that moved back to New Mexico, well she's trying to convert her sister. She reads the book of mormon to her grandma and her sister and they both love it. It's awesome! Also, Teo, my first baptism, he had a bad accident at work on Friday. Some guy above him in the building frame was cutting with a circular saw and the saw dug in and fell on Teo, but hit him on his left arm. It cut straight through the bone and all the muscle and tendon and everything, almost took his arm straight off. But he's doing better now, still in the hospital and drugged up, but he's doing good. SO maybe some prayers for him!?
List of things I need- A new bible. I gave mine to a recent convert in Henrico. Medium-hard cover would be best. Umm, maybe some vitamins? And that's it. :) Thank you!
Well, I hope you have a great week, love you all.
Elder Campbell
Monday, August 9, 2010
Aug 9, 2010
So this week was interesting. We were told when we got here that our purpose was to work with the less actives in the ward and find new people. So we started doing that, and then the other companionships started getting mad at us because apparently they "were already working with some of the less actives" so then we had this "meeting" with the three of us and we had to set boundaries and limits on people and it was just ridiculous. then our progress record yesterday in church was nothing but less actives because we don't have investigators yet, and the High Councilman and the Bishop were worried about that, so they called the mission president and then I got a call from one of the AP's (the one I don't like) and he chewed me out for giving off the impression that I was there for something other than missionary work or something so I had to go and straighten that out with the bishop and High Councilman and it was way stupid. But it's good now. We found some sweet new people to teach last week, one of them is a really cool lady named Margarita and she told us that she wants her 4 year old son to be a missionary like us. We're way excited for her. Yeah, we're in a super ghetto area. The south side of Richmond is where all the crazy stuff goes down. Like, we live in a really nice area, but we go to the GHETTO parts. I told you about La Mancha. Dead Guatemalans turn up in there all the time. It's full of morenos and they start prowling around at about 6:30ish and they always rob the poor guatemalans. And a lot of times at night, the Guaties are drunk, so they don't understand even more and then they get jumped or something. It's way crazy. But we avoid all the bad places from about 5:45 onward. Don't worry about that. And yeah, the ward is taking care of us. We ate with a family yesterday and they just pulled a bunch of Silverware out of their drawer and gave it to us, then the mission office found a microwave and vacuum for us. I was sleeping on these little couch cushions for the first 3 nights, it was terrible! hahaha but it's way better now. The high councilman that called the mission president came over last night with a 12 piece set of un-opened steel pots and pans. Apparently an old wedding present that they never used, so he figured we could use it. I think it was also kind of a peace offering for the phone call from the AP. hahaha.
SO yeah, my companion is legit. It's frustrating at times, but I have to remember that he didn't go to the MTC like I did, so he's missing out on 9 weeks of training from the best of the best, ya know? SO I try to be really patient with him and help him when he does something wrong, try to help him not to make mistakes. It's way hard to know when to step in so he doesn't make a mistake and know when to just let it happen so that he can learn from the experience. Kind of like being a real parent, right!? haha But he's way sweet and he really loves being a missionary. He's dealing a lot with the first few weeks of home sickness, and I can tell that it was definitely revelation that we were put together because he's going through the exact same thing that I went through. Like, exactly. So I can offer him some advice on what I did and help him through it. It's a lot of pressure though! But it's really making me step up and make decisions like I hated to before!
Can I please have a mariachi at my wedding!? Please please please please! Elder Andrade and I did this street contact the other day that we had to pray afterwards. The spirit was so far gone it was terrible. We're talking to this lady on her porch and this like, 18 year old mexican girl comes outside and sits on the porch. Lets just say I never thought I'd see that much of a woman's chest outside of an adult theater. There are somethings about the hispanic culture that are still just echoes of Sodom and Gomorrah! haha
No, I haven't bought slacks or anything yet, we live really close to the house, so I'm holding off on getting any new clothes yet because I can just go and change right after church. And sorry to say, but I lost my watch. But it was also already broken. It was barely holding together, and when I finally lost it, I just bought a 12$ one at wal mart. Sorry. I was hoping that one would last me through my entire mission. But it's looking like I might actually be able to make it through this month on my MSF card. Elder Andrade Estrada and I don't eat out AT ALL!
Yeah, we're pretty close to the mission office, like, 6 miles away or something. We're there like, 3 times a week and I'm on the phone with Sis. Henrie just about everyday. I get to see Pres. Perry a lot, which is sweet. He's way awesome. The mission is going to have a lot of success under him. His spirit is way great but it's completely different than Pres. Millburn's, which I think is funny.
Well anyway, I love you all and I can't believe I'm about to hit 14 months. General Conference is right around the corner! have a good week!
Elder Campbell
SO yeah, my companion is legit. It's frustrating at times, but I have to remember that he didn't go to the MTC like I did, so he's missing out on 9 weeks of training from the best of the best, ya know? SO I try to be really patient with him and help him when he does something wrong, try to help him not to make mistakes. It's way hard to know when to step in so he doesn't make a mistake and know when to just let it happen so that he can learn from the experience. Kind of like being a real parent, right!? haha But he's way sweet and he really loves being a missionary. He's dealing a lot with the first few weeks of home sickness, and I can tell that it was definitely revelation that we were put together because he's going through the exact same thing that I went through. Like, exactly. So I can offer him some advice on what I did and help him through it. It's a lot of pressure though! But it's really making me step up and make decisions like I hated to before!
Can I please have a mariachi at my wedding!? Please please please please! Elder Andrade and I did this street contact the other day that we had to pray afterwards. The spirit was so far gone it was terrible. We're talking to this lady on her porch and this like, 18 year old mexican girl comes outside and sits on the porch. Lets just say I never thought I'd see that much of a woman's chest outside of an adult theater. There are somethings about the hispanic culture that are still just echoes of Sodom and Gomorrah! haha
No, I haven't bought slacks or anything yet, we live really close to the house, so I'm holding off on getting any new clothes yet because I can just go and change right after church. And sorry to say, but I lost my watch. But it was also already broken. It was barely holding together, and when I finally lost it, I just bought a 12$ one at wal mart. Sorry. I was hoping that one would last me through my entire mission. But it's looking like I might actually be able to make it through this month on my MSF card. Elder Andrade Estrada and I don't eat out AT ALL!
Yeah, we're pretty close to the mission office, like, 6 miles away or something. We're there like, 3 times a week and I'm on the phone with Sis. Henrie just about everyday. I get to see Pres. Perry a lot, which is sweet. He's way awesome. The mission is going to have a lot of success under him. His spirit is way great but it's completely different than Pres. Millburn's, which I think is funny.
Well anyway, I love you all and I can't believe I'm about to hit 14 months. General Conference is right around the corner! have a good week!
Elder Campbell
Monday, August 2, 2010
August 2, 2010
Ok, so my address is 5514 Gristmill Rd, Richmond or chesterfield, I don't know and I don't nkow what the zip is. SOrry. (note from mom- It is Richmond and the zip is 23234)
So my companion is Elder Andrade-Estrada. He was born in Michoacan, Mexico, but he's lived here for about 8 years. he's a stud. The only hard thing is that he didn't go to the mtc, so I'm pretty much training him from the very beginning. Absolutely no experience. He went out with the missionaries before, but it's still way different now that he's an elder. So there have been a few frustrating moments, but I just always have to remember that he didn't get any training like I did, so I'm trying to be very patient. But the area I'm in is SUPER GHETTO. Like, there's this place called "La Mancha" which means the stain, and I'm pretty sure its because of the blood in the place. It's way hardcore. Then there's just a ton of apartments LOADED with hispanics, its awesome. I'm serving in a ward, but there's a TON of less actives, like, over 3/4 of the ward. That's the whole reason they put us in here, to work with reactivation. And I'm really sorrry to do this 2 weeks in a row, but My companion's computer isn't working, so I'm going to let him use mine now. Sorry. I love you all. Have a great week. Talk to you soon.
Ok, well we worked it all out. SO, like I was saying. We got into the apartment on Thursday and it was completely empty. Not a single thing in there. But we took an extra bed from the zone leaders and some couch cushions and we set Elder Andrade up in the bed and I posted up on the couch cushions for a few nights. We have a total of 2 forks, 2 knives and 2 spoons, we didn't have plates or bowls or cups for the first few days and no lamps, but that's ok, because apparently we live in one of the few apartment complexes in virginia where they actually put lights on the celing, or in the apartment period. It's weird. SO our apartment is still completely bare and sad, but that's ok. There are a TON of hispanics here it's INSANE! Like, i'm pretty sure there are more hispanics here than there are white people!
Umm, I don't really know what else to say. Hope everything goes well for you this week!? We could really use some prayers for finding more people and getting investigators if you could spare some.
SO my trainer officially died last tuesday. He's back home and doing who knows what. Has yet to email me. What a chump.
Ok, well I love you all. Buh bye
So my companion is Elder Andrade-Estrada. He was born in Michoacan, Mexico, but he's lived here for about 8 years. he's a stud. The only hard thing is that he didn't go to the mtc, so I'm pretty much training him from the very beginning. Absolutely no experience. He went out with the missionaries before, but it's still way different now that he's an elder. So there have been a few frustrating moments, but I just always have to remember that he didn't get any training like I did, so I'm trying to be very patient. But the area I'm in is SUPER GHETTO. Like, there's this place called "La Mancha" which means the stain, and I'm pretty sure its because of the blood in the place. It's way hardcore. Then there's just a ton of apartments LOADED with hispanics, its awesome. I'm serving in a ward, but there's a TON of less actives, like, over 3/4 of the ward. That's the whole reason they put us in here, to work with reactivation. And I'm really sorrry to do this 2 weeks in a row, but My companion's computer isn't working, so I'm going to let him use mine now. Sorry. I love you all. Have a great week. Talk to you soon.
Ok, well we worked it all out. SO, like I was saying. We got into the apartment on Thursday and it was completely empty. Not a single thing in there. But we took an extra bed from the zone leaders and some couch cushions and we set Elder Andrade up in the bed and I posted up on the couch cushions for a few nights. We have a total of 2 forks, 2 knives and 2 spoons, we didn't have plates or bowls or cups for the first few days and no lamps, but that's ok, because apparently we live in one of the few apartment complexes in virginia where they actually put lights on the celing, or in the apartment period. It's weird. SO our apartment is still completely bare and sad, but that's ok. There are a TON of hispanics here it's INSANE! Like, i'm pretty sure there are more hispanics here than there are white people!
Umm, I don't really know what else to say. Hope everything goes well for you this week!? We could really use some prayers for finding more people and getting investigators if you could spare some.
SO my trainer officially died last tuesday. He's back home and doing who knows what. Has yet to email me. What a chump.
Ok, well I love you all. Buh bye
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
July 12
Yes, the cards were perfect. I'm just about to finish up my last set of ones from the MTC, so I'll be breaking into them soon :)
So sounds like everyone has been real busy lately! That's real good to hear. I'm not the only one! SOrry to hear about the babies, that doesn't seem like any fun. So I don't even know who this sister chapman is, but she was there as long as I was in the beach! That's good. I miss the beach a ton. I would go back in an instant. I like henrico here, but when I've spent a quarter of my mission in the beach and that's where I've had all my baptisms, i just really miss it. But it's ok. So today my old ZL is back in town visiting and we're going out to lunch with him. His name is now Jordan Bishop, that's going to be real weird. He's been going all around virginia visiting his places for like a week now, so he's stopping off here today. It's going to be weird to see him. Elder Nelson and I have a bet about what he's going to be wearing. I say khaki shorts, flip flops and a hollister t-shirt. It's pretty much a guarantee.
So yesterday we ended up teaching gospel principles and it was on the sacrament. It went SO good. Elder Nelson and I split it up and it went GREAT! The spirit was SO strong and people were crying and everyone's eyes were just GLUED to us, it was awesome. Then I translated sacrament meeting into english for a few white people that were there. We also went to a farewell on Saturday for elder Otto Leon. Yeah, he's gong to be Elder Lion. Isn't that sweet? He's gonig to Charlotte, NC because of the "questionable immigration" thing. But we tried to visit them yesterday and his mom just sent us home with a giant bag fulll of food it was great. She says "come visit me more often, I've always got food just sitting here for you in the refrigerator" so we might take her up on that offer.
So last night we all did a slumber party in the english elder's room. I tried to do a somersault bounce transfer flip onto Elder Gomez's bed, but just ended up landing on Elder Nelson's stomach. It was awesome.
That trip doesn't sound like a lot of fun. To Logan I mean. Don't worry though, when I get married, it'll probably be in the bogota, Colombia temple. HAHAHAHAHAHA is there even a temple down there? I need to start making plans now! I've only got 11 months left! Can you believe that? Elder Nelson has 3. It's weird. He's way trunky, but acts like he's not. It's funny.
Anyway, hope everyone has a wonderful week. Love you all, best of wishes, lovey dovey stuff, talk to you next week.
Elder Campbell
So sounds like everyone has been real busy lately! That's real good to hear. I'm not the only one! SOrry to hear about the babies, that doesn't seem like any fun. So I don't even know who this sister chapman is, but she was there as long as I was in the beach! That's good. I miss the beach a ton. I would go back in an instant. I like henrico here, but when I've spent a quarter of my mission in the beach and that's where I've had all my baptisms, i just really miss it. But it's ok. So today my old ZL is back in town visiting and we're going out to lunch with him. His name is now Jordan Bishop, that's going to be real weird. He's been going all around virginia visiting his places for like a week now, so he's stopping off here today. It's going to be weird to see him. Elder Nelson and I have a bet about what he's going to be wearing. I say khaki shorts, flip flops and a hollister t-shirt. It's pretty much a guarantee.
So yesterday we ended up teaching gospel principles and it was on the sacrament. It went SO good. Elder Nelson and I split it up and it went GREAT! The spirit was SO strong and people were crying and everyone's eyes were just GLUED to us, it was awesome. Then I translated sacrament meeting into english for a few white people that were there. We also went to a farewell on Saturday for elder Otto Leon. Yeah, he's gong to be Elder Lion. Isn't that sweet? He's gonig to Charlotte, NC because of the "questionable immigration" thing. But we tried to visit them yesterday and his mom just sent us home with a giant bag fulll of food it was great. She says "come visit me more often, I've always got food just sitting here for you in the refrigerator" so we might take her up on that offer.
So last night we all did a slumber party in the english elder's room. I tried to do a somersault bounce transfer flip onto Elder Gomez's bed, but just ended up landing on Elder Nelson's stomach. It was awesome.
That trip doesn't sound like a lot of fun. To Logan I mean. Don't worry though, when I get married, it'll probably be in the bogota, Colombia temple. HAHAHAHAHAHA is there even a temple down there? I need to start making plans now! I've only got 11 months left! Can you believe that? Elder Nelson has 3. It's weird. He's way trunky, but acts like he's not. It's funny.
Anyway, hope everyone has a wonderful week. Love you all, best of wishes, lovey dovey stuff, talk to you next week.
Elder Campbell
July 26
Note from mom- Skyler was soooo excited that he couldn't even spell his name right at the end of the letter !
Ok, so transfer calls last night. It's been my dream since day 1 of the mission to train. SO I'm in the bathroom, and I look at the phone, and it says Pres. Perry so I pick up and he's like "Elder Campbell, you're training!" So I'm super stoked and I get outside and I tell everyone and then the English elders tell me that it was a joke and they called. Turns out it was true. So I was super depressed last night and at like, 9:45, the phone rings again. And it says Pres. Perry on it. So I'm super confused adn I pick it up and Pres. Perry starts talking, for real this time. And he goes "Elder Campbell, since the day I met you, I just knew that I needed to have you training. So will you accept that?" I said of course and he goes "I guess I should tell you the interesting part. You'll be going to Chesterfield and opening up a new area. We're still looking for an apartment for you. We're not sure you'll have one by thursday, but we have faith." So yeah. I'm going to Chesterfield on Thursday and I'm getting a greenie :) I'm super stoked, but WAY nervous at the same time. This is somebody's life getting put into my hands. Is this how it feels when you have a child!? SO I don't know my address yet, but I will next week, so just all mail to the mission office for a little bit :) hahaha it's crazy. Yeah sorry I don't have much time, I'm using the Hermanas computer right now because for some reason I can't get on any other one in the library. Anyway, I'll talk to you next week. Love you all
Elder Cambell
Ok, so transfer calls last night. It's been my dream since day 1 of the mission to train. SO I'm in the bathroom, and I look at the phone, and it says Pres. Perry so I pick up and he's like "Elder Campbell, you're training!" So I'm super stoked and I get outside and I tell everyone and then the English elders tell me that it was a joke and they called. Turns out it was true. So I was super depressed last night and at like, 9:45, the phone rings again. And it says Pres. Perry on it. So I'm super confused adn I pick it up and Pres. Perry starts talking, for real this time. And he goes "Elder Campbell, since the day I met you, I just knew that I needed to have you training. So will you accept that?" I said of course and he goes "I guess I should tell you the interesting part. You'll be going to Chesterfield and opening up a new area. We're still looking for an apartment for you. We're not sure you'll have one by thursday, but we have faith." So yeah. I'm going to Chesterfield on Thursday and I'm getting a greenie :) I'm super stoked, but WAY nervous at the same time. This is somebody's life getting put into my hands. Is this how it feels when you have a child!? SO I don't know my address yet, but I will next week, so just all mail to the mission office for a little bit :) hahaha it's crazy. Yeah sorry I don't have much time, I'm using the Hermanas computer right now because for some reason I can't get on any other one in the library. Anyway, I'll talk to you next week. Love you all
Elder Cambell
July 19
Well hello from the opposite end of the country. It's really humid and hot.
We' haven't found a ton of new people, but we're finding a few. The two people that I was really excited about 2 weeks ago, well, one dropped us, and the other one has just disappeared off the face of the map! But it's ok, life is good and it goes on! We went and visited the kid who's going to NC on Wednesday. I was so excited for him. He was showing us all the stuff he got for his mission. He was showing us all his ties, his suitcases, his shoes, his first aid kit, his laundry hamper y todo. it was way sweet. He's going to be such a good elder.
I can only imagine how las vegas feels right now! I was just thinking the other day, "I don't remember what dry heat feels like!" When I get back to Nevada, my whole body is just going to dry out and my skin is just going to crack and shrivel up and die. That'll suck.
Bishop Woodman? That doesn't sound familiar... Does he live right across from the stake center!? If he does, we went over and did and FHE with them one night. I hardly even talked, so I don't know how he could like me so much. Oh man, I can't believe Adam and Morgan are home already! That's insane! Thats way cool. Tell Morgan I'm learning a little bit of portugese so I can talk to some brazilians here. Portugese is way sweet.
And yeah, I can't believe that I'll be home in 11 months. So crazy. Like, the mission actually ends! It's weird. There's actually life after the mish.
But thanks for everything. Love you all. HOpe you have a great week.
Elder Campbell
We' haven't found a ton of new people, but we're finding a few. The two people that I was really excited about 2 weeks ago, well, one dropped us, and the other one has just disappeared off the face of the map! But it's ok, life is good and it goes on! We went and visited the kid who's going to NC on Wednesday. I was so excited for him. He was showing us all the stuff he got for his mission. He was showing us all his ties, his suitcases, his shoes, his first aid kit, his laundry hamper y todo. it was way sweet. He's going to be such a good elder.
I can only imagine how las vegas feels right now! I was just thinking the other day, "I don't remember what dry heat feels like!" When I get back to Nevada, my whole body is just going to dry out and my skin is just going to crack and shrivel up and die. That'll suck.
Bishop Woodman? That doesn't sound familiar... Does he live right across from the stake center!? If he does, we went over and did and FHE with them one night. I hardly even talked, so I don't know how he could like me so much. Oh man, I can't believe Adam and Morgan are home already! That's insane! Thats way cool. Tell Morgan I'm learning a little bit of portugese so I can talk to some brazilians here. Portugese is way sweet.
And yeah, I can't believe that I'll be home in 11 months. So crazy. Like, the mission actually ends! It's weird. There's actually life after the mish.
But thanks for everything. Love you all. HOpe you have a great week.
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
July 7, 2010
Hello everyone. Glad to hear the 4th of July went well. Ours was VERY hot, and since we have to wear our suits to church, I had to walk around in my wool suit in 92 degree humid weather for 2 hours, but it's OK, it'll make for a great story when I get back :)
Man, that's so crazy that Adam and Morgan are going to finish the mish. It's weird to think that other people are going to be leaving before I get back. The ward will definitely look different when I get back!
Well, we've still got some really great people, particularly Ada and Pablo. They've been investigating for a year and want to get baptized, but they're both still married in Mexico, and they have to get divorced there first. Which is next to impossible. But luckily, the Lord specializes in impossible :) We're really praying for a miracle with those two, I don't know how much longer we can keep them pumped up and running on what they've got. Ada does missionary work all the time and studies Preach my Gospel, so she's awesome.
Then we found this guy Santos the other day. We set up an appointment with him and he goes, "meet me right here on this same street corner." We didn't think he was going to show, but he did, and I got the distinct impression to set him for baptism next appointment. he understands really well, and he reads and committed to come to church, so he's way prepared. Then we met this Guatemalan named Gerver. He seemed kind of fluffy at first, but showed up for his return appointment. We're talking to him and he's like "I want to change. I read the pamphlet you gave me, and I want to change. I want to be better." So we're in the process of committing him for baptism and his twin brother walks out of the house to where we were and the spirit just completely changed. it was super weird. So we backed out of setting him right then, and I think we're going to try tomorrow. So we're really excited about them. The area is Huge again, but it's different the layout. All the places we work in here are relatively close, so that's nice. we only really work in about 5 apartment complexes, there's no trailers here, so we know where everyone is. The only problem is that we talk to so m any people everyday, we're starting to run into the same people. So they're either there for a reason or it's just a coincidence. ha ha, yeah, right!
And yeah, we met Pres. Perry on Friday. He was dropping names left and right. "I was in a meeting with Pres. Uchtdorf, Pres. Eyring, Elders Packer, Ballard, Nelson, Oaks, Bednar, Hales...." and the list goes on and on. he was only baptized 30 years ago, but he was already a 70. Bet the missionary who baptized him was super pleased with that find! ha ha
He's making a few changes to the mission. MY PDAY IS NOW ON MONDAY we also now only have interviews and zone conferences quarterly, so that's going to be weird. In August, we're having a 3 day training camp for this new curriculum that the brethren are putting out for missionaries, 8 simplified lessons or something like that, but only trainers, district leaders and zone leaders get to go. I know it's wrong, but I hope I get to be in one of those positions :) hhahaha Other than that, everything here this week h as been extremely hot and humid, and pretty good. I'm starting a diet today, so I'll keep you posted on the results. Maybe my pants will start fitting again! I hope.
Anyway, love you all, you're the best, none of my companions know what you all look like, my trainer Elder Gleave is officially dead to me because I won't see him again on the mission, I hope you all have a great week, talk to you later.
Elder Campbell
Kickin it city life in Richmond since 2010
Man, that's so crazy that Adam and Morgan are going to finish the mish. It's weird to think that other people are going to be leaving before I get back. The ward will definitely look different when I get back!
Well, we've still got some really great people, particularly Ada and Pablo. They've been investigating for a year and want to get baptized, but they're both still married in Mexico, and they have to get divorced there first. Which is next to impossible. But luckily, the Lord specializes in impossible :) We're really praying for a miracle with those two, I don't know how much longer we can keep them pumped up and running on what they've got. Ada does missionary work all the time and studies Preach my Gospel, so she's awesome.
Then we found this guy Santos the other day. We set up an appointment with him and he goes, "meet me right here on this same street corner." We didn't think he was going to show, but he did, and I got the distinct impression to set him for baptism next appointment. he understands really well, and he reads and committed to come to church, so he's way prepared. Then we met this Guatemalan named Gerver. He seemed kind of fluffy at first, but showed up for his return appointment. We're talking to him and he's like "I want to change. I read the pamphlet you gave me, and I want to change. I want to be better." So we're in the process of committing him for baptism and his twin brother walks out of the house to where we were and the spirit just completely changed. it was super weird. So we backed out of setting him right then, and I think we're going to try tomorrow. So we're really excited about them. The area is Huge again, but it's different the layout. All the places we work in here are relatively close, so that's nice. we only really work in about 5 apartment complexes, there's no trailers here, so we know where everyone is. The only problem is that we talk to so m any people everyday, we're starting to run into the same people. So they're either there for a reason or it's just a coincidence. ha ha, yeah, right!
And yeah, we met Pres. Perry on Friday. He was dropping names left and right. "I was in a meeting with Pres. Uchtdorf, Pres. Eyring, Elders Packer, Ballard, Nelson, Oaks, Bednar, Hales...." and the list goes on and on. he was only baptized 30 years ago, but he was already a 70. Bet the missionary who baptized him was super pleased with that find! ha ha
He's making a few changes to the mission. MY PDAY IS NOW ON MONDAY we also now only have interviews and zone conferences quarterly, so that's going to be weird. In August, we're having a 3 day training camp for this new curriculum that the brethren are putting out for missionaries, 8 simplified lessons or something like that, but only trainers, district leaders and zone leaders get to go. I know it's wrong, but I hope I get to be in one of those positions :) hhahaha Other than that, everything here this week h as been extremely hot and humid, and pretty good. I'm starting a diet today, so I'll keep you posted on the results. Maybe my pants will start fitting again! I hope.
Anyway, love you all, you're the best, none of my companions know what you all look like, my trainer Elder Gleave is officially dead to me because I won't see him again on the mission, I hope you all have a great week, talk to you later.
Elder Campbell
Kickin it city life in Richmond since 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
June 30, 2010
I think Henrico and Richmond both work for my address, because I've gotten everything you've sent me so far, so it's all good. We're technically outside of Richmond city limits, but I've gotten things with richmond on them, so they both work :)
Yeah, the weather has been BRUTAL here this past week. in the 100's with TONS of humidity. It's really bad. ANd elder nelson and I have to find all new investigators because the one's that Elder Wheatley and Dulanto left us don't answer the phone or the door, so we're pretty much only sitting on 3 investigators, and we're lucky if we can visit them more than once a week. SO we're outside tracting all day in the scorching heat, but it's ok, my wife will just be hotter when I get back :) hahaha
Well, I think it's safe to say that being an idiot can now be classified as a hereditary gene. Seems to run well with some people :)
I didn't know that Uncle Steven made fudge. Since when does he do that?
I told Jim and Paul and all them like, 4 months ago that I'd try to write them all like, once a month, and I havent' since then. I just hate writing letters so much. it takes so long. But I'll drop them a line today. See what's going on. That's a bummer with Grandpa. DO they think he's going to be able to get it back?
SO yesterday Pres. Perry officially took over in the VRM. Pres. Millburn bounced and a new reign has started. Nothing has changed yet, but we have mission conference in 2 days, so I'll get to meet him then. It should be pretty cool.
I've been hearing a ton about the world cup lately. We stopped by to visit this less active on Monday and we were about to leave and he goes "Hey, do you want a drink?" So we said sure and he tells us to sit down so we do, then as we stand to get going he says "Hey, sit down and watch the game." He turns the game on and it's Brazil versus Chile. Right then, this other less active from Brazil walks in for the game, and we figured "Well, these two are impossible to get ahold of, and we've got them both right here. Let's teach em!" So we ended up watching about 12 minutes of the game. We had a few members absent from church because of the Mexico/Argentina game. Mexico got wiped off the map!!!
But other than that, there's not much exciting going on. Just talking to a ton of people and tryingn to spread the gospel. In the past week, I've met 2 egyptians, 1 afghanny(I don't know how to spell in english now), a few pakistanis and a few indians(like, curry and stuff) oh, and our ward mission leaders son was living in New York and knows Elder Davis, he has a picture with him. Thought that was sweet.
Anyway, hope everything is going well with you all. You're always in my prayers. If you need anything, write it down and I'll try to take care of it in 1 year! haha
Love you all
Elder Campbell
Yeah, the weather has been BRUTAL here this past week. in the 100's with TONS of humidity. It's really bad. ANd elder nelson and I have to find all new investigators because the one's that Elder Wheatley and Dulanto left us don't answer the phone or the door, so we're pretty much only sitting on 3 investigators, and we're lucky if we can visit them more than once a week. SO we're outside tracting all day in the scorching heat, but it's ok, my wife will just be hotter when I get back :) hahaha
Well, I think it's safe to say that being an idiot can now be classified as a hereditary gene. Seems to run well with some people :)
I didn't know that Uncle Steven made fudge. Since when does he do that?
I told Jim and Paul and all them like, 4 months ago that I'd try to write them all like, once a month, and I havent' since then. I just hate writing letters so much. it takes so long. But I'll drop them a line today. See what's going on. That's a bummer with Grandpa. DO they think he's going to be able to get it back?
SO yesterday Pres. Perry officially took over in the VRM. Pres. Millburn bounced and a new reign has started. Nothing has changed yet, but we have mission conference in 2 days, so I'll get to meet him then. It should be pretty cool.
I've been hearing a ton about the world cup lately. We stopped by to visit this less active on Monday and we were about to leave and he goes "Hey, do you want a drink?" So we said sure and he tells us to sit down so we do, then as we stand to get going he says "Hey, sit down and watch the game." He turns the game on and it's Brazil versus Chile. Right then, this other less active from Brazil walks in for the game, and we figured "Well, these two are impossible to get ahold of, and we've got them both right here. Let's teach em!" So we ended up watching about 12 minutes of the game. We had a few members absent from church because of the Mexico/Argentina game. Mexico got wiped off the map!!!
But other than that, there's not much exciting going on. Just talking to a ton of people and tryingn to spread the gospel. In the past week, I've met 2 egyptians, 1 afghanny(I don't know how to spell in english now), a few pakistanis and a few indians(like, curry and stuff) oh, and our ward mission leaders son was living in New York and knows Elder Davis, he has a picture with him. Thought that was sweet.
Anyway, hope everything is going well with you all. You're always in my prayers. If you need anything, write it down and I'll try to take care of it in 1 year! haha
Love you all
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
June 23, 2010
SO yeah, Henrico is sweet. It's wayyyyyy different than Virginia Beach. The biggest problem with getting shotgunned is that neither one of you knows the area, so we get lost quite a bit, even with my gps, but we're getting to know the area. The branch is sweet, they really want to work and help with missionary work, so I'm really excited about that. It's definitely interesting being with Elder Nelson again, but I like to think my 7 1/2 months in the beach was preparing me for this, so I'm pretty optimistic :) It's weird living with English elders again. all that time in the beach and I got used to just living 2 to an apartment and being able to spread out wherever, but not anymore :) One of them I live with is kind of a weirdy, but I'm also back with Elder Gomez, the english elder I lived with in Charlottesville. It's way weird!
SO yeah, there are lots of hispanics here. The only problem is that the Hermanas here are REALLY good, so we've already knocked into like, 4 of their investigators hahaha but that's ok. They're killing it up here.
I haven't gotten the CDs yet, I'll pick them up from the office today. Thank you so much! I don't know what things your talking about from Dad, so I'm going to say no....
So what was Dad doing to cut his fingers? I learned in the MTC the week before I left, "Do you want the spirit to be with you? Then don't do anything stupid!" That phrase was running through my head the entire time yesterday when ELder Nelson and I were at Buffalo Wild Wings to do the blazin' challenge. Before you start, y ou have to sign a waver that says "If you die, we're not responsible". I was thinking "What would PRes. Millburn think?" SO the challenge is 12 wings in 6 minutes, and they're really hot. They're REALLY spicy, but they also are hot physically, and that was the worst part. I think I ended up swalling about 2 whole wings because I only had like, 6 seconds left or something. SO I won and I got the T-Shirt. It was brutal. My lips were purple for like, 3 hours after that. Elder Nelson didn't get it and he was really mad yesterday. But it's ok.
So yeah, 1 year. Isn't that crazy. I still remember like it was yesterday going to Swensens and then driving to the airport. It seems like just last month that I was in the MTC and you think "Man, we're here forever, we're NEVER actually going to get to the mission field!" It's really trippy. But I've had lots of fun so far.
Man, when I heard dad applied for a job in Charlottesville, the first thing I thought was "Oh man, I gotta tell Pres. He can't transfer me up to Harrisonbburg!" But everything is all safe. Sorry I gotta go, I gotta email Jaime and Fernando still and President. But thank you for everything. I love you all and miss you(a little bit) and I'll talk to you next week!
Elder Campbell
SO yeah, there are lots of hispanics here. The only problem is that the Hermanas here are REALLY good, so we've already knocked into like, 4 of their investigators hahaha but that's ok. They're killing it up here.
I haven't gotten the CDs yet, I'll pick them up from the office today. Thank you so much! I don't know what things your talking about from Dad, so I'm going to say no....
So what was Dad doing to cut his fingers? I learned in the MTC the week before I left, "Do you want the spirit to be with you? Then don't do anything stupid!" That phrase was running through my head the entire time yesterday when ELder Nelson and I were at Buffalo Wild Wings to do the blazin' challenge. Before you start, y ou have to sign a waver that says "If you die, we're not responsible". I was thinking "What would PRes. Millburn think?" SO the challenge is 12 wings in 6 minutes, and they're really hot. They're REALLY spicy, but they also are hot physically, and that was the worst part. I think I ended up swalling about 2 whole wings because I only had like, 6 seconds left or something. SO I won and I got the T-Shirt. It was brutal. My lips were purple for like, 3 hours after that. Elder Nelson didn't get it and he was really mad yesterday. But it's ok.
So yeah, 1 year. Isn't that crazy. I still remember like it was yesterday going to Swensens and then driving to the airport. It seems like just last month that I was in the MTC and you think "Man, we're here forever, we're NEVER actually going to get to the mission field!" It's really trippy. But I've had lots of fun so far.
Man, when I heard dad applied for a job in Charlottesville, the first thing I thought was "Oh man, I gotta tell Pres. He can't transfer me up to Harrisonbburg!" But everything is all safe. Sorry I gotta go, I gotta email Jaime and Fernando still and President. But thank you for everything. I love you all and miss you(a little bit) and I'll talk to you next week!
Elder Campbell
June 16
So I got transferred last night! Ok, I actually just got the call last night at midnight. I'm getting shotgunned up to North Richmond, the area is called Henrico. And guess who my companion is!? Elder NELSON! Hahaha what are the odds!? But we'll be rolling around in a grey Mazda 3 in the rich part of Richmond, so that's cool right? I don't have the address right now, so safer bet is to send everything to the mission office for this week and I'll geti it all figured out next weeek. So Elder Zobrist is training, isn't that sweet!? He's way nervous, but he'll be great. Pres. Perry gets in today or tomorrow, and the new reign begins. These transfers were crazy! Elder Gleave got released from Zone Leader, whereas before, they were ZL until they died. Elder Wheatley took his place, and they shotgunned a ton of other areas in the english sector. Man, I don't know, it's crazy. The president change is going to be WEIRD! Umm, among other news, I have a big task for you today dad!
Here's Jaime's info, I need you to look up what ward or stake or whatever that he would be in, and I need you to find the number of the missionaries there, and I NEED you to call them. No one has gotten in contact with him and he needs the missionaries.
so here it is
Jaime Medina Ortega
60 Jane st
Patterson, New Jersey
973-224-9581
Please please please do whatever it takes to get that to the missionaries.
Other than that, I think everything is going good here. We went and played basketball today at 5:30 am. Elder ZObrist and I stayed up until 2:30 talking about life and stuff, so I'm dead tired. We are going to make carne asada today, see how that goes. So marsela got a new job right as we found her a house, and the job requires her to work on Sundays. SO yesterday we went over there and were talking with her about putting God first and the blessings that you can get from that, and she said "I'm not going to work on Sunday. I'm going to church." I was amazed. She's pretty much a dry mormon. It's great.
Dad, you mentioned something about a hump day package. I have 1 request. Some CD's of Jesus Adrian Romero. As many as you can do. That would be awesome. Other than that, whatever.
I hate packing, but I'm excited to go to Henrico. Poor Elder Gleave. He was born one transfer in Richmond So. then went up to charlottesville, up to harrisonburg, bak to charlottesville, back to harrisonburg, back to Richmond So. and now up to Waynesboro, which he used to cover when he was in Charlottesville. Poor guy. Elder Washburn is headed up to Harrisonburg to fill Elder Nelson's spot. These transfers were crazy.
Anyway, I love you all, don't have a lot of time, I have to email Jaime, Grizselda, Fernando and PRes, but I hope you're all doing great, hope the sisters learn to drive (good luck with that), and I'll talk to you next week. I'll also see you in in 56 weeks or so! hahaha isn't that insane!?
Here's Jaime's info, I need you to look up what ward or stake or whatever that he would be in, and I need you to find the number of the missionaries there, and I NEED you to call them. No one has gotten in contact with him and he needs the missionaries.
so here it is
Jaime Medina Ortega
60 Jane st
Patterson, New Jersey
973-224-9581
Please please please do whatever it takes to get that to the missionaries.
Other than that, I think everything is going good here. We went and played basketball today at 5:30 am. Elder ZObrist and I stayed up until 2:30 talking about life and stuff, so I'm dead tired. We are going to make carne asada today, see how that goes. So marsela got a new job right as we found her a house, and the job requires her to work on Sundays. SO yesterday we went over there and were talking with her about putting God first and the blessings that you can get from that, and she said "I'm not going to work on Sunday. I'm going to church." I was amazed. She's pretty much a dry mormon. It's great.
Dad, you mentioned something about a hump day package. I have 1 request. Some CD's of Jesus Adrian Romero. As many as you can do. That would be awesome. Other than that, whatever.
I hate packing, but I'm excited to go to Henrico. Poor Elder Gleave. He was born one transfer in Richmond So. then went up to charlottesville, up to harrisonburg, bak to charlottesville, back to harrisonburg, back to Richmond So. and now up to Waynesboro, which he used to cover when he was in Charlottesville. Poor guy. Elder Washburn is headed up to Harrisonburg to fill Elder Nelson's spot. These transfers were crazy.
Anyway, I love you all, don't have a lot of time, I have to email Jaime, Grizselda, Fernando and PRes, but I hope you're all doing great, hope the sisters learn to drive (good luck with that), and I'll talk to you next week. I'll also see you in in 56 weeks or so! hahaha isn't that insane!?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
June 9, 2010
Haha, it seems that we're both just getting shorter and shorter on the letters :) NOt much this week. Jaime got baptized on THursday and it went REALLLY well. He was super excited and the spirit was just amazing. His son Carlos got to baptize him, so that was also a really really good experience. And Carlos and Shannon just got baptized about 2 months ago, so they won't have to wait long to be able to go through the temple with him. Ins't that great!? I was just thinking on that the other day. I had a part in helping a child of God open the doors to the celestial kingdom. Now he's in New Jersey and he wants to get his daughter baptized. Then it will just keep moving on through the entire family. It's the same with Teo. We sent a referral of his daughter to the missionaries down in Honduras. Isn't it amazing how the Lord works through people to spread the Gospel? I was just thinking of the very few things that I do and how big of an impact it has on the lives of the rest of the people. Alma 37:7 By small and simple means does the Lord bring to pass his great and eternal designs. Or something like that. But you get the point!? So now the grandson of Jaime refuses to go to church unless he has his "future missionary" nametag on. It's hilarious. And sorry I didn't get the pictures of Fernando and Grizselda sent off last week. I'll try to get some sent off soon, but it might be until next week, but I'll definitely send some photos. Grizselda gave us a call yesterday when we were at mission conference, so we put Hna. Law on the phone and it was so sweet to see her face light up talking to Grizselda. This really is just the best work on the planet. Nothing else can make anyone as happy as this.
So transfers are looming and we still don't know what's going on. I think I'm going, but who knows. One of the members here predited that I was going to be in the beach for 1 year. It's completely possible. Elder Wheatley has been in Henrico since October 8th of 09, so who knows. He gave a really powerful testimony yesterday at mission conference and it was amazing to see how he's changed since the MTC, more so in just the past 3 months since he "got the call to mature" as he put it. He used to look like a little 14 year old, but he actually looks like a missionary now. It's incredible. I was just wondering how I'm changing and what the Lord thinks of the progress I've made. It's really humbling to think about that. Is the Lord happy with where I'm at? How much more does He expect of me and what is he planning to throw at me to push me in the direction that I need to be? I think so far the mission has been a great experience and I've still got a ways to go. But yesterday at Mission conference, I got really humbled and saw my defects and what I need to do, and I think I've got a pretty good idea now. But don't be surprised if you don't recognize me when I get home :) haha
Alright, well I think that's all for this week. Hope everything goes good for you all this week. Love you all and I'll see you in 54 weeks! hahahaha
Elder Campbell
So transfers are looming and we still don't know what's going on. I think I'm going, but who knows. One of the members here predited that I was going to be in the beach for 1 year. It's completely possible. Elder Wheatley has been in Henrico since October 8th of 09, so who knows. He gave a really powerful testimony yesterday at mission conference and it was amazing to see how he's changed since the MTC, more so in just the past 3 months since he "got the call to mature" as he put it. He used to look like a little 14 year old, but he actually looks like a missionary now. It's incredible. I was just wondering how I'm changing and what the Lord thinks of the progress I've made. It's really humbling to think about that. Is the Lord happy with where I'm at? How much more does He expect of me and what is he planning to throw at me to push me in the direction that I need to be? I think so far the mission has been a great experience and I've still got a ways to go. But yesterday at Mission conference, I got really humbled and saw my defects and what I need to do, and I think I've got a pretty good idea now. But don't be surprised if you don't recognize me when I get home :) haha
Alright, well I think that's all for this week. Hope everything goes good for you all this week. Love you all and I'll see you in 54 weeks! hahahaha
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
PS to 2 June 2010
And No, I didn't get transferred. Transfers are on the 17th, so I'll let you know on the 16th. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting moved to chesapeake, but we'll see.
June 2, 2010
Hey hey hey
So my email address is skyler.campbell@myldsmail, they switched over the mail servers about a month and a half ago and just remade everyone's email addresses, but all my stuff from the old one gets forwarded. Sorry I don't answer questions. I just go.
But yeah, there are stupid missionaries everywhere. I'll definitely have to tell you some stories when I get back (Elder Clayton, Elder Goates, Elder Lovelady, Elder Reynolds, the list goes on :) haha. Man, I don't know how some missionaries get away with some stuff. Like, I've heard some really crazy stories about what some elders do on their missions. It just amazes me! Sounds like the girls gave you the run around. You're getting the cat shaved? Wow, I'll definitely need some pics!
Oh, so the big huge news of the week. Jaime, the peruvian who was atheist 1 1/2 months ago, is getting baptized tomorrow. he passed his baptismal interview yesterday with flying colors. I got to sit in on it to translate, and his answers were the best I could have ever imagined! So yeah, we're really excitd abotu him. His son Carlos is going to do the baptism, and he only got baptized about 1 1/2 months ago! Isn't that sweet? And then this guy Roberto who we met the same day Teo got baptized has a baptismal date. Teo actually found him and invited him to church the same day he got confirmed, and when we popped the question he said "If you don't know how to swim, you've got to throw yourself in the water." We're not sure what exactly that means, but he's got a date for the 20th of June, so we're way excited! I think that's about it for this week. Not much exciting happened. Just went by like a blur and I really don't remember almost anything. Sorry. But we went to Wal Mart today and met like, 4 or 5 members, it was weird. And I'm going to send home a few pictures today, just 1 or 2 I think. But yeah. So yeah, that's all for this week. Sorry it's super short. I'll try harder next week :) Love you all. Have a great week.
Elder Campbell
PS- Can you believe I only have 12 months and 3 weeks left!? WHAT THE FREAK!?
So my email address is skyler.campbell@myldsmail, they switched over the mail servers about a month and a half ago and just remade everyone's email addresses, but all my stuff from the old one gets forwarded. Sorry I don't answer questions. I just go.
But yeah, there are stupid missionaries everywhere. I'll definitely have to tell you some stories when I get back (Elder Clayton, Elder Goates, Elder Lovelady, Elder Reynolds, the list goes on :) haha. Man, I don't know how some missionaries get away with some stuff. Like, I've heard some really crazy stories about what some elders do on their missions. It just amazes me! Sounds like the girls gave you the run around. You're getting the cat shaved? Wow, I'll definitely need some pics!
Oh, so the big huge news of the week. Jaime, the peruvian who was atheist 1 1/2 months ago, is getting baptized tomorrow. he passed his baptismal interview yesterday with flying colors. I got to sit in on it to translate, and his answers were the best I could have ever imagined! So yeah, we're really excitd abotu him. His son Carlos is going to do the baptism, and he only got baptized about 1 1/2 months ago! Isn't that sweet? And then this guy Roberto who we met the same day Teo got baptized has a baptismal date. Teo actually found him and invited him to church the same day he got confirmed, and when we popped the question he said "If you don't know how to swim, you've got to throw yourself in the water." We're not sure what exactly that means, but he's got a date for the 20th of June, so we're way excited! I think that's about it for this week. Not much exciting happened. Just went by like a blur and I really don't remember almost anything. Sorry. But we went to Wal Mart today and met like, 4 or 5 members, it was weird. And I'm going to send home a few pictures today, just 1 or 2 I think. But yeah. So yeah, that's all for this week. Sorry it's super short. I'll try harder next week :) Love you all. Have a great week.
Elder Campbell
PS- Can you believe I only have 12 months and 3 weeks left!? WHAT THE FREAK!?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
May 26, 2010
Oh man, this week was SUPER sweet! Elder Zobrist and I started to fill the font and when we came back at 6 o'clock, it was coming out at 130 degrees. So we were dumping cold water in the font with coolers we found for like, 10 minutes and Elder Zobrist goes "It's good." So we leave it and we're getting other stuff ready. So it's 15 minutes til 7 and the service starts at 7, so I call Grizselda and say "Can we help with anything?" and she goes "Umm, we decided not to come. We got scared." I go "Wait, what? You're just not coming?" and she says "Yeah, we just aren't going to come. Sorry." Well I'm FREAKING out and my heart was in my throat and I was about to cry and she starts laughing and goes "I'm just kidding, we just overslept on our nap, we'll be there soon." I was just speechless and I go "I was about to go lay down in traffic right there!" Oh man, it was the worst phone call I have ever received, even though it was a lie. But they showed up and we got pictures and then we started. So remember that 130* water? Well apparently Elder Zobrist isn't good at estimating how water cools down, so Fernando starts to get in the font and goes "Woah, that's WAY too hot!" So we're dumping more water in for about 15 mintues and then just said "You gotta suck it up man!" So they both got baptized and it was sweet. Then Elder Zobrist confirmed Fernando and then I confirmed Grizselda. Oh man, it was the COOLEST thing EVER! I had NEVER felt anything like that! I had absolutely no idea what to say, and the words were just coming out of my mouth before I could even think about them. But when I said "Recibe el espiritu santo" as soon as I finished the last "o", I could just feel the spirit jsut go WHOOSH right through my body down my arms and into her. It was incredible. I just imagine it as him just sitting there waiting to be able to make the move, and then just jumping at it, not even wasting any time. Oh man, it was amazing. I really wish you could have seen it, absolutely incredible. He was crying, she was crying, their kids were screaming. It was great. And now we're working to get Jaime baptized on the 3rd of June before he leaves to New Jersey on the 4th. He wants to get baptized so bad it's hilarious. And you know the best part? He was atheist two months ago! hahahahaha and now we got him! It's great! We're still working on finding Marsela a house so she can get baptized because she really wants to still. So that's what we're dealing with. And Dionisio is kind of jumping back on board, so we'll see what happens with him. Oh man, things are just going CRAZY around here. And yeah, I've almost been out for oen whole year!? Isn't taht insane! It just amazes me how fast these 11 months have gone by. I just thought "All those missionaries are liars, it can't go by that fast." Well, they were right.
But yeah, that's the big news for now. I'm just still super excited about Fernando and Grizselda, the only thing is taht I don't get to do the new member lessons with either of them. Oh, and their interveiw on Saturday, oh man, real bad. So Grizselda goes in for hers and then 35 minutes later comes out and Elder Frampton gives me the thumbs up. Then Fernando and he's in there for like, 40 minutes and he comes out and waves for Grizselda to come in. Elder Zobrsit and I are like "What the freak? That can't be good!" So we wait another 30 minutes and we're like "Oh my goodness, this is the worst thing EVER!" and they come out and Elder Frampton goes "I just felt like I needed to talk to them about the plan of salvation and temples and what not. It was all good." It was crazy. WE also got to play football on Saturday. Jaime's son and daughter in law just got baptized about a month ago and they invited us to go to a ward picnic with them, so we went to hang out with Jaime. Well they all go "Who want's to play football?" And jaime goes "Let's play!" because he doesn't know its football. SO we play and I almost lit a few people up, football instincts coming back from Freshman year, but we were playing flag football, so I couldn't tackle anyone, but it was crazy fun but my quads have never hurt so bad in my entire life. I almost couldn't walk the next day.
SO yeah, I got my spanish PMG last night and I broke it in today during studies, I was super excited. Thank you so much. I started carrying my PME with me in my backpack and it was gettting destroyed, so I was going to need a new one eventually. The tortilla making continues and we're getting better. Our latest undertaking is making pupusas, which are from El Salvador. They're way good, but they're a little challenging, but we're getting better.
I'll definitely point out all the people in the pictures when I get home. Can you believe only 13 montsh remain? That's insane! And Pres. Millburn bounces next transfer! That's whats crazy! But the thing I can't believe is that I've been in VA beach for 7 months now. that's a LONG TIEM!
Anyway, I think that's all I got for thsi week. Talk to you soon. Love you all.
Elder Campbell
But yeah, that's the big news for now. I'm just still super excited about Fernando and Grizselda, the only thing is taht I don't get to do the new member lessons with either of them. Oh, and their interveiw on Saturday, oh man, real bad. So Grizselda goes in for hers and then 35 minutes later comes out and Elder Frampton gives me the thumbs up. Then Fernando and he's in there for like, 40 minutes and he comes out and waves for Grizselda to come in. Elder Zobrsit and I are like "What the freak? That can't be good!" So we wait another 30 minutes and we're like "Oh my goodness, this is the worst thing EVER!" and they come out and Elder Frampton goes "I just felt like I needed to talk to them about the plan of salvation and temples and what not. It was all good." It was crazy. WE also got to play football on Saturday. Jaime's son and daughter in law just got baptized about a month ago and they invited us to go to a ward picnic with them, so we went to hang out with Jaime. Well they all go "Who want's to play football?" And jaime goes "Let's play!" because he doesn't know its football. SO we play and I almost lit a few people up, football instincts coming back from Freshman year, but we were playing flag football, so I couldn't tackle anyone, but it was crazy fun but my quads have never hurt so bad in my entire life. I almost couldn't walk the next day.
SO yeah, I got my spanish PMG last night and I broke it in today during studies, I was super excited. Thank you so much. I started carrying my PME with me in my backpack and it was gettting destroyed, so I was going to need a new one eventually. The tortilla making continues and we're getting better. Our latest undertaking is making pupusas, which are from El Salvador. They're way good, but they're a little challenging, but we're getting better.
I'll definitely point out all the people in the pictures when I get home. Can you believe only 13 montsh remain? That's insane! And Pres. Millburn bounces next transfer! That's whats crazy! But the thing I can't believe is that I've been in VA beach for 7 months now. that's a LONG TIEM!
Anyway, I think that's all I got for thsi week. Talk to you soon. Love you all.
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
May 19
Ok, before I forget, would you be able to send me my english PMG back as well? That would be nice. Maybe some more vitamins too? haha
Oh man, sounds like a good week you've all had. Us too! Last Thursday, we went over to visit Fernando and Griszelda and we had a killer lesson. We just bombarded them with everything we had to get them to feel the spirit. The thing is, the hermanas were going really slow with them, but she's leaving on the 28th to albuquerque or whatever, and he's getting deployed the 5th of June for 6 months. So we fasted with them and had them make their decision and tell us on Friday. I thought I was going to be really worried to make that phone call on Friday, but I was really calm and just felt really good. So I called her and she says "we got our answer. We're going to do it." So they're getting baptized on the 23rd and confirmed the same day. We were freaking out! Elder Zobrist and I had never hugged before that. It was insane. I didn't sleep at all that night I was so excited. But yeah, how great is that!? They're way excited, and we're freaking out. The only problem was that we had to go over the baptismal interview questions with them. The interview asks about Law of chastity, word of wisdom and tithing. He knew a little about the other two, but hadn't been committed to live them, so that was a big deal, and then hadn't heard a thing about tithing. That was hard. But luckily, I always remembered that story that you told me mom, about how the member in the ward brought over a ton of food for you when you paid your tithing. I've used that story everytime on the mish so far and it hasn't failed. Like the stripling warriors said "We never doubted that our mothers knew." So thanks for giving me a strong testimony of tithing from the beginning! So Fernando said he's going to do it and they're getting baptized.
Other than that, not too much this week. We've been just living on top of the world because last wednesday we bought a tortilla presss and we've been eating like hispanics everyday. making tortillas and beans and rice and chicken. We're going to move over into fish tacos and maybe some beef one day. Quien sabe. But Marsela taught us how to make really good tortillas yesterday, I got some pictures, so I'm excited to put my new skills to use. We're also going to learn how to make pupusas tomorrow, so that'll be really exciting.
So what's the news on this new law in Arizona? We heard about it but we're still in the dark on the repercussions. SO some news would be sweet. Yeah, can you believe Adam Tew is coiming back in July? That's crazy how fast that went! Mines going to go even faster! hahaha
And we don't even know if I'm going to open Chesapeake. WE dont' have any news on that, Pres. doesn't really keep us informed on anything that hes doing, but it's definitely going to be opened soon, but I don't know if I would open it or Elder Zobrist. Who knows. I think it would be really good for me because it would force me to take decisions, which I've never liked or been good at doing, so that would be good.
I'll be sure to send some pictures today I think. The card is doing alright, but I lost a ton since that last card mishap. But I'll definitely get some sent off now. I was jsut thinking about that the other day. I still don't have a picture of the fam, or of Reno! hahaha
That's cool about your team health challenge. I want to eat healthier, but when Pres. Millburn said we HAVE to accept food from people when they offer it, my chances of losing weight here just went down to -20%. So I might be a little bigger when I get back. We'll see. But the food is really good at least, so I'll be fat and happy, right!? Anywho, I think that's all I got for this week. My letters h ave been getting progressively shorter since the MTC, but it just feels like I have less to write each week, on account of I can't remember what happened in the last 3 days. But yeah.
Have a good week. Love you all.
Elder Campbell
Oh man, sounds like a good week you've all had. Us too! Last Thursday, we went over to visit Fernando and Griszelda and we had a killer lesson. We just bombarded them with everything we had to get them to feel the spirit. The thing is, the hermanas were going really slow with them, but she's leaving on the 28th to albuquerque or whatever, and he's getting deployed the 5th of June for 6 months. So we fasted with them and had them make their decision and tell us on Friday. I thought I was going to be really worried to make that phone call on Friday, but I was really calm and just felt really good. So I called her and she says "we got our answer. We're going to do it." So they're getting baptized on the 23rd and confirmed the same day. We were freaking out! Elder Zobrist and I had never hugged before that. It was insane. I didn't sleep at all that night I was so excited. But yeah, how great is that!? They're way excited, and we're freaking out. The only problem was that we had to go over the baptismal interview questions with them. The interview asks about Law of chastity, word of wisdom and tithing. He knew a little about the other two, but hadn't been committed to live them, so that was a big deal, and then hadn't heard a thing about tithing. That was hard. But luckily, I always remembered that story that you told me mom, about how the member in the ward brought over a ton of food for you when you paid your tithing. I've used that story everytime on the mish so far and it hasn't failed. Like the stripling warriors said "We never doubted that our mothers knew." So thanks for giving me a strong testimony of tithing from the beginning! So Fernando said he's going to do it and they're getting baptized.
Other than that, not too much this week. We've been just living on top of the world because last wednesday we bought a tortilla presss and we've been eating like hispanics everyday. making tortillas and beans and rice and chicken. We're going to move over into fish tacos and maybe some beef one day. Quien sabe. But Marsela taught us how to make really good tortillas yesterday, I got some pictures, so I'm excited to put my new skills to use. We're also going to learn how to make pupusas tomorrow, so that'll be really exciting.
So what's the news on this new law in Arizona? We heard about it but we're still in the dark on the repercussions. SO some news would be sweet. Yeah, can you believe Adam Tew is coiming back in July? That's crazy how fast that went! Mines going to go even faster! hahaha
And we don't even know if I'm going to open Chesapeake. WE dont' have any news on that, Pres. doesn't really keep us informed on anything that hes doing, but it's definitely going to be opened soon, but I don't know if I would open it or Elder Zobrist. Who knows. I think it would be really good for me because it would force me to take decisions, which I've never liked or been good at doing, so that would be good.
I'll be sure to send some pictures today I think. The card is doing alright, but I lost a ton since that last card mishap. But I'll definitely get some sent off now. I was jsut thinking about that the other day. I still don't have a picture of the fam, or of Reno! hahaha
That's cool about your team health challenge. I want to eat healthier, but when Pres. Millburn said we HAVE to accept food from people when they offer it, my chances of losing weight here just went down to -20%. So I might be a little bigger when I get back. We'll see. But the food is really good at least, so I'll be fat and happy, right!? Anywho, I think that's all I got for this week. My letters h ave been getting progressively shorter since the MTC, but it just feels like I have less to write each week, on account of I can't remember what happened in the last 3 days. But yeah.
Have a good week. Love you all.
Elder Campbell
May 12
So yeah, don't really know what's new to telly ou that I didnt' tell you on Sunday. Except now I don't think Dionisio is getting baptized. We went over on Monday night and he just started bringing up all these things again about him "falling" after his baptism and why should he get baptized if he's just going to fall and how that's like making a mockery of God and then told us that if his doctor's appointment goes well, he's going back to Mexico to be with all his women(if you had seen this guy, you'd know he doesn't have that many
women) and if it goes bad, he's going back to his pueblo to get smashed beyond belief and "enjoy" the little bit of life that he has left. So that's the biggest news of the week. Also, we need to start looking for a new place to live for Marsela. She decided she is going to move out so that they can both get baptized. Also had interviews on Monday, and we talked with Pres. Millburn about opening Chesapeake to spanish elders and how we would need to just send in 2 missionaries right off the bat instead of going in slowly and he said "Ok. Let's do it." So I will probably be the one opening up chesapeake next transfer or the transfer after. So that would be cool right? I'd be pretty worried, but it'd be sweet.So yeah, who knows. We're just trying to get Marsela and Isidro, Griszelda and Fernando and Jaime all baptized in this transfer, so we could definitely use some power packed prayers for that. Other than that I don't really know what to tell you. Hoep everything is going good for you. And sorry I forgot to tell you happy mother's Day. Can you believe that I'll only have 6
months left next time I hear from you and then next mother's day I'll have about 1 1/2 months! Crazy! So who is the third guy cardboard cutout in the picture? I recognize Brendan and Andy, but that's it. But that's sweet. I know Jim and Paul wer going to try to get a cardboard cutout of me to sit on their couch, maybe I need to tell them about that....
But anyway, I'll talk to you next week. Love you all very much.
Skyler
women) and if it goes bad, he's going back to his pueblo to get smashed beyond belief and "enjoy" the little bit of life that he has left. So that's the biggest news of the week. Also, we need to start looking for a new place to live for Marsela. She decided she is going to move out so that they can both get baptized. Also had interviews on Monday, and we talked with Pres. Millburn about opening Chesapeake to spanish elders and how we would need to just send in 2 missionaries right off the bat instead of going in slowly and he said "Ok. Let's do it." So I will probably be the one opening up chesapeake next transfer or the transfer after. So that would be cool right? I'd be pretty worried, but it'd be sweet.So yeah, who knows. We're just trying to get Marsela and Isidro, Griszelda and Fernando and Jaime all baptized in this transfer, so we could definitely use some power packed prayers for that. Other than that I don't really know what to tell you. Hoep everything is going good for you. And sorry I forgot to tell you happy mother's Day. Can you believe that I'll only have 6
months left next time I hear from you and then next mother's day I'll have about 1 1/2 months! Crazy! So who is the third guy cardboard cutout in the picture? I recognize Brendan and Andy, but that's it. But that's sweet. I know Jim and Paul wer going to try to get a cardboard cutout of me to sit on their couch, maybe I need to tell them about that....
But anyway, I'll talk to you next week. Love you all very much.
Skyler
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