Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Feb 24, 2010

So how's everyone doing this week? Sounds like things are picking up a little bit. A job interview in Georgia? That would be a trip! And a forestry division job in Carlin? The armpit of AMerica? Fun fun!


So yeah, the weather has calmed down and we're just getting wind and we got pounded with rain two days ago, but other than that it's been alright. So big news.... I know we're not supposed to go for numbers and what not, but this last week was awesome. WE were working really hard, and we ended up getting 34 lessons, the highest in the zone. And we had 9 people at church. And this one Hno. gave us 5 referrals, and when we went over there, there were 3 more people in the house, so we got 8 new investigators from one lesson! Things have really been picking up. WE got 26 new investigators last week, and 13 of those were from 2 lessons, so teh blessings were really just pouring in last week, and they haven't stopped! I was starting to wonder if I'd ever see a miracle on my mission, and I've seen about 10 in the past week! So the work of the Lord is going strong down here. Just proof that he really guides us in ways that we cant imagine.Two months ago, Elder Lusk and Elder Zobrist talked to some guy up in NEwport news and sent us the referral. Elder Darbro and I taught him and he got really fluffy, so we left him and haven't been back since. WEll Elder Zobrist and I were in the area yesterday, and I just got the thought to go see him, so we go over there, but no one was hoem. We waited about 3 minutes and a van pulls up and this guy I'd never seen gets out. He looks at Elder Zobrist and says "You look like my brother. Identical. He's also a Mormon. He got baptized threee years ago in Honduras and just went to the temple in Guatemala 4 months ago." And Elder Zobrist asked "Have you seen a change in your brother since he got baptized?" and the guy just went off about how much of a better person his brother is. So he's coming to church on Sunday, and we're going to teach him. Also, the baptism of Teo got moved to Sunday, but he's still good to go and super stoked. He passed his baptismal interview, which almost didnt' go down, but I'll have to tell ;you that story some other time.
That's sweet Darren got his call! What part of Brazil? I can't believe so many people are going to be going on their missions now! IT's so crazy! Can you believe I've been out 8 months now? it's so crazy to think about! It really is going by a lot faster than I thought it would, but it's not like that's a surprise or anythign!
Thank you for the purple pens, I'm sure I'll like them. And the memory card. I need to send you mine becuase I have about 3 1/2 months worth of photos on it. And I'd freak if I lost those. SO thank you for the card. So I don't think there's much more exciting news to tell you. Other than I made Arroz con Leche the other night and it was really good. Yeah, who knew I could cook like a mexican? haha
Anyway, love ya all, but not enough to come home. only 16 months left until I get to see your mugs again! ahaha miss ya, hope you're all doing great!

-Skyler, or to everyone else, Elder Campbell

Monday, February 22, 2010

Feb 17

So yeah, we set Teo for the 27th and he's getting married at 6:30 and then dunked at 7:00 that same night! And he wants me to dunk him. So I'm really excited and really nervous, because all the planning responsibility just fell on me with a lot of other junk and bad news at Church that I didn't think I'd have to deal with for a LONG time. But the Lord always provides the strength. I didn't think I was ready to be senior companion, I thought my spanish wasn't good enough and I didn't know how to work yet, but sure enough, the Lord has provided. My spanish has been amazing lately, I can understand even the most difficult people now. It's amazing how much the spirit blesses us when we really need it. The whole gift of the interpretation of tongues is alive and kicking in Va Beach! So Elder Zobrist is awesome. His first day here, we found 7 new investigators, and we haven't stopped. On Sunday we set another baptismal date for the 17th of April, but we'll get him sooner than that. This guy has been coming to church for the past 3 months and loves reading the book of mormon and gospel principles book and the liahona, so we finally got a date set with him, so we're way way excited. And we've got this whole thing planned, "Project Pinargote" to show the president that we're working and try to get him to help us out and help out the branch as much as possible. We realized that we're in his area, and we're supposed to serve him, so we're going to give that a shot and see how it turns out. It can't get any worse at this point, so things can only get better, right? That's what we'er hoping.


Sorry to hear about the babies, that's no fun. I'll be praying for them.

So how did Dad damage his LCL? And what is the LCL? I know it's like the ACL, but that's all. Anyway, sorry to hear about that too. So an update on soccer teams. I've apparently become an addict of the team Cruz Azul, so, yeah. Who knows. I don't even know where the addiction came from. It jsut appeared suddenly, but I swear it's not my fault. It's a disease, and I can stop when I want to. So some info on Cruz Azul would be awesome.

So how's everything else going back home? Anything exciting? I can't believe the Saints won the superbowl. That's so crazy. Since when did they get good? And I just saw this morning in the gym that the winter olympics started. THat's depressing. But luckily hispanics don't watch the olympics, so I won't hear much of that anymore! haha

So wow, I don't know much else to write about. I think that's all I've got for right now.

Don't worry about missing valentines' day, i'm a missionary, I don't have valentines. It's actually prohibited in the white handbook. No, just kidding, but I totally forgot it was valentine's day until I showed up to church and the YSA elders were all wearing pink ties and one of them said "Where is your pink for Valentine's day?" And the only thought I had was "How depressing it must be to be a YSA elder." But yeah, that's all for now. If I need anything else, I'll let you know next week, I hope.

- Show quoted text -

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Feb. 10, 2010

Yes, I'm pretty sure I told you about the only baptism I've had. That's what I told molly about. Yeah, we're getting slammed with snow right now, but we'll see if it sticks. Just in companion study, the heavens opened and just started DUMPING snow on us! It was crazy. But it's not sticking to the roads, so that's good.


So the big news of the week is, well, there's two things. First off is, we have another baptism set! Teo Mencias. He's from Honduras and he's living with this less active member named Mercedes. So we talked about them getting married and baptized, and he agreed. So we have a wedding to plan in a week, I don't even know what to do! And then we're thinking the 21st or the 27th for his baptism! We wanted to do it the 20th, but the branch is goign to the temple, if there's even a branch left at that point! The president is sure working hard to make sure that happens bien pronto!

The next big news is! Duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh duh duh!!!!!!!!!! Transfers came in last night. Any guesses? Well, I'm staying in VA Beach. Edler Darbro is going back up to his birthplace of Henrico (North Side of Richmond) with Elder Hernandez and Elder Wheatley. The weird thing is, I'm going Sr. companion now. How scary is that? 7 months out and I'm senior? That's about the time of an english missionary! I've never heard of a spanish missionary going senior that fast, so I'm freaking out! But I'm getting Elder Zobrist. He's Elder Lusk's greenie from 2 transfers ago(Elder Lusk beign the elder that baptizes every other week), so he knows what he's doing and he has a really good work ethic, so that'll be nice. So we'll see how that goes, but I could definitely use some prayers now! The plus side is, I get to drive now! I'm so excited!? hahaha

Thank you for the oatmeal. It's pretty good, but I always forget that I have it because a bagel and smoothie has been my everyday thing for the past 3 months! So I just make the smoothie and bagel, and then I realize that I have the oatmeal!

So last Friday Elder Darbro got really sick. We ate with this less active, and he gave us this soup with meatballs in it, and the insides were completely raw. And he got really really sick. So we stayed inside all Friday and it was SO boring! Sunday, we had 7 investigators in church, but when it came time for PEC, nobody even cared. They looked at the sisters paper which had like, 6 Less actives on it and a few investigators, and everyone goes "Oh, elders, you need to get to work, look at your competition!" so I just looked at them and said calmly, "I don't care, we're all on the same team, aren't we?" and everyone goes "well, yeah, but, we were just making a joke, it's not like it matters or anything". Im way sick of the people only caring about numbers here. it's really getting old. And then the President pretty much called us liars in PEC, so I almost got in a fight with him, and the members afterwards told me they wished I would have socked him. haha, can you imagine if that woud have happened?

ALright, well, I can't think of much else to tell you. I think that's about it. If I think of anything else, I'll write it down to email you next week. HOep you're all good. Love you

- Skyler

Feb. 3, 2010

Hey, so how's everyone doing? Yeah, I had a pretty sweet birthday. I got the package on Monday and then yesterday we were listening to those CD's all day. We went out to Chili's for lunch, then we went to an appointemnt in this trailer park with this guy we found last week. Turns out he gave us the wrong address and doesn't have a phone, but when we knocked on the door, this lady opened nad we talked a little bit in english, but then I started talking to her in spanish and it turns out she is from Brazil. Elder Darbro knows a few sentences in Portugues and she thought that was totally awesome, so we're going back to teach her tomorrow. It was way sweet. Then we helped this Recent Convert of 7 months translate her massive stack of papers for her divorce from her husband in Texas. She wanted to know what EVERYTHING said. It was crazy! But then we went to English class and played this hilarious game to get everyone to act out command words, then we played soccer, and the Hermanas brought Root Beer floats and had everyone sing happy birthday to me. It was hilarious. SO yeah, pretty good birthday. ANd today, we're going to Nauticus, it's this battle ship museum in Downtown Norfolk. So it should be pretty good.


I hated biking so much. I lilke just riding, but not on clunky mountain bikes in full suits with flat back tires. The back tire wouldn't hold air for anything, so it was flat most of the week until I could find some patches. We logged about 200 miles I would say, and we saw some really awesome parts of the cities. So that was sweet.
The verb book that mallory sent is good, but I bought almost the exact same one in the MTC :/ Hahaha, I was like "Awesome! Now I have two!"  I've been studying out of it everyday for spanish study! :)
SOrry, I got a ton of Birthday emails, so I don't have a ton of time to respond. But I hope everyone is having a great time and enjoying the freezing weather! THings should start looking up soon, and I've only got about 16 months left! How crazy is that! And yes, I'll probably want my Futon when I get back. And we'll see about college. I gotta keep my marriage options open, right? hahahaha anyway, I'll talk to ya'll next week. Adios mi familia

SKyler

January 27th, 2010

Hey hey hey


Wow, what a week. So we had zone conference last week like you know. THen we got home on Wednesday night and the ZL's called us to tell say "There's a huge mile shortage in the mission. A lot of the english companionships have gone over their miles, so you need to start budgeting miles at whatever cost, and it's mandatory that you come in 20 miles under your total alotment." So because English elders can't budget miles adn Elder Lusk wouldn't split miles with us to go up to Richmond, we've been on bikes since Thursday and for the rest of the month. I wouldn't mind bikes if we had an area the size of the english missionaries, but when we cover a 5 city area, it starts to suck. On sunday we did a 25 mile round trip from teh church to an appointment with a progressing investigator in Chesapeake. It was a good appointment, but it was the only one we were able to get all of sunday because of the distance. And so I was kind of mad and to top it off, one of the english zone leaders said "That's all you did with your entire day?" Oh man I was fuming! I almost wanted to yell "It's because your stupid elders don't know how to budget miles that we have to be put on bikes for 2 weeks!" I was way mad. It's just been crazy here. Since the sisters came, pretty much none of the members want to invite us over for appointments or come with us because they all want to have the sisters over and go with them to appointments, so that's been super frustrating as well. Don't get me wrong, I think the sisters are great! They're awesome, but the effects of having them here with the members just sucks.
Anyway. So that's been my week. Nothing much more to report. Biking sucks and is ineffective. Our investigators are all failing with their committments. The branch president is just offending more people, so we don't even have enough active families in the ward to start a Member Lesson Series, and the counselors and president always just say it's a lack of faith on the member's parts. It's just super frustrating. Sorry for all the complaining in this letter, I just really need to vent a little bit.
But how's everything going back in the homefront?
Oh, funny story, I just found out that one of the elders in Virginia Beach is from Elko. Elder SHelley, he graduated with Paige Ellefson. Small world, huh? I thought it was interesting the questions that Elder Kikuchi had the elders in Vegas ask. I thought it was especialy interesting that he says to ask if they have time, whereas in PMG it specifically says don't ask if they have time. I want to try out those questions and see what happens. Also, with the rearranging the morning schedule, he wrote an article about that in the August Liahona, something like "Para que los cielos se abran". It talks about going to a quiet place every morning and saying your prayers in voz alta to have exactly what you said, a "sacred grove" experience. I've started doing that since I got here to Virginia Beach. WHile I haven't had any marvelous experiences from it, I think it is just a nice time to get away from everything and just pray. But I think every mission should institute that as a part of the morning activitiy, the only problem is lack of space in the apartments.
Elder Hernandez was telling me last week about all the guys that have proposed to the sisters up in Richmond. Apparently the Hermanas get a proposal on average about once every 3 weeks to a month. Haha, how crazy is that? One of the best things about the hermanas is that they're SO good at showing love to the investigators, bt they really need to be careful about how they do it. Most of the hispanic guys see a cute white girl that speaks spanish as a chance to get some papers if you know what I mean.
Ok, well that's all for this week I guess. If you need anything from me, well that's too bad. Cause I'm STILL HERE! hahaha Os quiero mucho y espero que tengais una semana fabulosa y que todo os salga bien! No, I don't actually use vosotros with anybody, but I think it's fun and funny! haha


- Your favorite Elder
Hey hey hey


So this week, WOW! I went on exchanges with Elder Lusk, the bestmissionary in the mission. He's up in Newport NEws, and he usually baptizes about every other week, but usually with 2-3 people each time. SO  I got to do exchanges with him on Friday, and it blew my mind! We were teaching some investigators who weren't really progressing, and I didn't know what to do. I shared the first vision, and they said they didn't feel the holy ghost at all. THey then said it was because they were dead to the things of God. I was super
stumped. I was like, "Well ok, that sucks." But elder Lusk said "Well then the thing you need to do is get baptized, but first comes faith and repentance." That simple little phrase has completely changed my entire mission. I look at teaching an entirely different way now. It's crazy. We hadn't had a progressing investigator since I got here, but we do now, and we have 4 people we want to set for baptisms this week! It's so awesome! So that is the biggest thing I've learned so far, is to TALK about baptism with the investigators!
IT seems so simple, but so many people try to hide it until the end, and then the investigators get all freaked out and panic and drop. So yeah, that was exciting, thought I'd share that. yeah, we have a lot of investigators, but we've been cycling through them, becasue Elder Lusk was telling us "You can't be wasting
tons of time on people. Within the first few appointments, you have to decide whether they're going to get baptized, or if they're just taking time away from someone else." And it's completely true. YOu still have to be patient with them, but you can't take a TON of time with them.
The shoes are perfect now, feel WONDERFUL! And they're waterproof, which is great! No more blisters, and I loook GOOD! Also, update with Elder Romney- He came out of the coma, and he's
up and moving now, with the aid of crutches. We saw him yesterday in zone conference and he's doing great. HE has such a great attitude about what happened, becasue he said that since it happened, a lot of the  investigators have been progressing a lot more, and even a few less actives have started coming back to church. So he's got a great attitude and an even greater testimony now. I can't believe my little girls are all growing up now! Walking and talking! It's crazy! Be sure you're recording a ton of them, I want to catch up on all 2 years when I get home!
Dad- Glad to hear your talk went well. It really is amazing to think that we can have a member of the Godhead with us. I found something interesting in the introduction of the Book of Mormon not too long ago. It pretty much declares that when we receive an answer about the Book of Mormon, it comes through all three members of the Godhead. The message is so important, that all 3 of them are working together to help us know and learn about it. Isn't that amazing?
Other than that, I'm doing super down here. My toothbrush is working wonders, and i love it! So thank you again for that.
Love you all (Les quiero much)

Skyler