28 Mar 2011

So this last week has been kind of rough.  We had a couple drop us (alma and alberto).  He got baptized into a pentacostal church while the sisters were teaching them, and when we talked to them last week, we asked what they thought about getting baptized on the 2nd and she says "My husband, no.  Me, I don't know.  I doubt it.  Why do you want us to get married before we get baptized?  It doesn't say that in the new testament.  It just says repent and be baptized.  Alberto asked the pastor at the pentacostal church if us not being married was a problem, and he said no."  Then 3 days later they dropped us.  They didn't understand what fornication was I guess.  It's way sad to see that 'fornicating' has become part of the main stream culture.  People say "Oh, i'm moving in with this person."  When they should really be saying "We're going to fornicate."  It's ridiculous.  But it's not like the Lord didn't tell us that this was going to happen in the last days :( Our investigator pool is really shallow (like, 3 people), but we've started working with the RC's here a lot, teaching them how to do missionary work.  They're awesome guys and we're definitely going to be seeing miracles with them.  

  So on Saturday, we went to another baptism in VA Beach(2nd saturday in a row), and it's cool because with both of these baptisms, 2 of my converts were involved.  The first one was a 17 year old girl named Ana Vilcherres from Peru.  She was found by my convert Jaime.  Then on saturday, I got to see Teo baptize his nephew David.  It was way cool to see that.  I've gotten to see a few of the fruits of my efforts already.  It's a great feeling.  But finding people has been really tough lately because the sisters here before us did a ton of knocking all the time, so this place has been sufficiently knocked, and I'm just exhausted/tired/fed up with knocking, because it just isn't effective.  I heard about this study that the church did that found that the people who get baptized and stay active the longest are those who have a professional career.  It also found that they are never found knocking.  Why?  Because they are at work during the day.  They can only be found with member referrals.  Now, I know, not a ton of hispanics have professional careers, but the same logic still applies.  The hardest thing now is that our nights are full from 5-9 usually, but it's all that time before 5 that we have to fill up with something effective, and it's DANG HARD! haha  Any ideas?  What would you do to find hispanics during the day?  We sometimes stand outside the hispanic stores and talk to people as they come out, but we can only do that for so long.  What are some other ideas you could think of?  We're doing english classes and playing soccer afterwards, so we'll see how that turns out.  I just don't really know what else we could do.  So that's where the members are coming in.  I hope you can now see the importance of members in missionary work.  If we want the church to GROW and for members to be "hot members" and not "luke warm", the missionaries need your help.  So talk to your co-workers.  Make new friends.  Don't worry if you get rejected.  Pres. Perry was teaching us how we will be blessed more for following a spiritual prompting but screwing it up than for not following it at all and missing an opportunity.  

   Anywho.  I'm fitting more into my pants lately.  Which is sweet :) about time! hahaha  I'm trying to eat in as much as I can, but Elder Allen LOVES to eat out.  He's going home in 8 days, so my next companion better buy a lunch box as well.  Now we just need a weight set and we'll be alright! hhahaha working out in the apartment at 6:30 in the morning is the worst thing ever!  It sucks!  it's too cold outside to go run, but we don't have any workout equipment inside.  Lets just say that couches are very very tempting in the morning.  Having a gym would be a huge blessing!

 So have you heard that VCU is going to the final 4?  Crazy right!?  I heard BYU got hosed in their last game.  Everyone just bodied up on Ferdette and just shut him down.  Our ward mission leaders wife is all too eager to talk about the tournament with us :) haha I won't complain.

   We went to a fireside last night in VA Beach, a missionary fire side.  The whole thing was based around Jesus Christ and testimonies of him, but it kind of turned into the Hna. Vazquez farewell show.  She had a bunch of people from Chesapeake and Henrico come to it and she shared her testimony.  It was good, but I think it kind of lost the focus of Jesus Christ.  

   BTW-  I got bit by some bug on my forehead, and I have this lump the size of a quarter on there.  It sucks.  Everyone stares at me.  I thought it was a gnarley zit at first, so I tried popping it and it just started bleeding.  Now it lookes even gnarlier.  Someone told me to take some benadryl.  Hope that works.  

   Well, I think that's about all I got.  If I think about anything else I missed, you probably wont hear about it.  And yes, I'm SUPER STOKED for general conference.  I can't believe it's been 6 months already.  I'm freaking out.  These 6 weeks have been the fastest of my mission.  LIke, once you hit the year mark, it just starts hitting mach speed and there's nothing you can do to slow it down :(

    Love you all, take care, do missionary work, find people to  baptize

            Elder Campbell

 

 is it really only a month and a half til I talk to you again?  Crazy

21 Mar 2011

So I guess this week I'll just do a big update for everyone.  The coolest news is that on Friday night, Elder Wheatley and Elder Andrade-Estrada(my son) came down from Richmond  and stayed the night with us so that my son could baptize some 17 year old girl in the beach on Saturday.  They inform me that Maria(the lady that I found in Richmond) was getting baptized on Sunday, and she wanted me to confirm her.  So I was like, "Oh man, we're supposed to have a baptism on sunday!" I was freaking out!  So it turns out that Erenia didn't get baptized on Sunday, but that's ok.  On Saturday, I'm making all these calls to get a ride up to richmond so that I can confirm Maria, and everyone is just like "uhhh, I don't know...." In their defense, it's like a 2 hour drive up there.So as a last resort, I call Sergio, a recent convert, and ask him for a ride. He goes "Thats an answer to my prayers.  My company called me yesterday and wants me to work on Sunday, but I don't want to work on Sunday and I didn't want to come up with an excuse and lie. But now I don't have to."  So right after church we 3 pile into his red convertible mustang and we took off.  In Newport News we decided to put the top down, so we cruised up to Richmond with the wind blowing through our hair :) it was sick! haha

   So we get there and all these members are like "Woah, you're back?"  It was fun.  But then we pulled Maria out of Relief Society a few minutes early for her to change, and when she walked out and saw me, she almost passed out from surprise!  She was like "oh my gosh, you didn't tell me that he was coming!!!!"  she started crying and it was way sweet.  Her adorable daughters were there too and they were soooooo cute.  So she gets all changed into white and we're taking pictures and she looks at me and goes "I'm so nervous!"  I was like "Don't be, Elder Andrade-Estrada is really good at baptizing."  She smiles and goes "I'm not worried about that.  The dress is see through!"  It was way funny.  Well the baptism went well and then I confirmed her and it was AWESOME!  Confirming people is the coolest thing ever I think.  I'm also way stoked because she's the very first person I've found on my mission that got baptized.  POR FIN!

   In other news, Erenia, our awesome sister with a baptismal date, her truck got stolen last night.  She's talking with her friend on wednesday about their relationship because she REALLY REALLY wants to get baptized.  So we're seeing a ton of opposition with her.  It's about time. Everything was going super smoothly with her, I was wondering/worrying about when the opposition would start.  

  The time is just flying by here in Deep Creek.  With Elder ALlen going home, it seems like it's flying even faster.  We've been talking alot and reflecting on our missions and it's interesting to see.  It's funny to see how much we've changed since we came out.  Especially me and Elder Wheatley.  Having him here on Friday was like we were back in the MTC.  At the baptism on Saturday, about 5 minutes before it started, the VA Beach Elders say "Hey, the three of you are giving a message in the interlude."  We were like "Thanks for the heads up!"  So we just walk up there without any idea about what to do, and we just went for it, and the spirit was just super strong and it worked out great.  We get done and a few people say "Wow, you were all super unified and it sounded great!" it was sweet.  It's just so awesome how much the spirit can work through you when you've been out for a while.  Like, it's just normal.  I think a lot of times as missionaries we take that for granted, just how much the Spirit really works through us.  It's incredible, but after so long, it just kind of feels normal.  That's one of the things I think I'm going to miss the most after my mission, so I'm going to live it up while I can!

  It's hard being here in Deep Creek, because the hispanics are concentrated in like, 3 areas, and so those three areas have been knocked again and again and again.  So we're going to start looking through the phone book and stalking that way.  Should be pretty fun.  Had some success with it in Charlottesville.  Any other ideas on what we could do to find hispanics?  

  I also got chewed out by a lady in North Carolina.  We were calling all over trying to see where would be the easiest to get a marriage license for illegals (I didn't tell her it was for illegals), and this lady in North Carolina lit me up after she asked me some retarded questions.  SHe asked me where I was and I was like "Portsmouth" and she goes in this nasty voice "Then WHY don't you just get it in Portsmouth?"  I was pissed.  Sometimes I just wish I could light people up too.  One of the benefits of not  being a missionary :) haha

    So congrats on the new car.  I tell the story sometimes about how Grandpa Campbell messed me up in my perception of how you get a new car.  I remember when he had just bought the Crown Vic, and he got a flat, so he just took it to the dealer and got a  new car.  So for a long time, that's what I thought you do.  I just figured that when you get a flat tire, you got a new car.   I should be getting a new car down here in Deep Creek soon.  The church rotates them out every 50000, and our is at 50168 or something.  So maybe before I go home, if I'm still here in Chesapeake,  I'll be rolling around in a brand new car :)  That would be cool.  So hows the traverse?  I saw one the other day, and they look like a giant jelly bean on wheels.  I don't know what Chevy has been thinking lately.  I think their cars are kind of ugly.  The new Lexus Hybrid is SWEET though!  Seen a few of those rolling around here.  But the most popular car with the population here (70% blacks) is the Chrysler 300 or the Dodge Charger.  

   We're going to play ball today on a college-ish size court. Should be way sweet.  I'll hopefully be sending you some pictures of the baptism today(Marias). It was sweet.  Wish you could have been there.  I also got to see Teo and Mercedes on Saturday.  They're prepping to go to the temple :))))))))))))))))))  HOW SWEET IS THAT!!!!!  I love them so much!  They're awesome! 

  Well, think thats it for the week.  Take care.

    Hand out pass along cards to hispanics

 Elder Campbell

14 Mar 2011

So.  What a week.  They're just FLYING by.  I can't believe I've been here almost 3 weeks already.  It's insane.  But, we had an AWESOME church yesterday.  So we had a lesson with 2 of our investigators on Saturday night, Alma and Alberto.  We committed them to church.  He had to work, but she said yes.  Then like, 1 hour later, we get a call from her and she says "I can't go to church tomorrow.  I'm going to be too busy."  I was super fed up at that point.  Maybe it was my pride combined with the fact that the day hadn't gone well at all, but I just sat there for a few seconds and then started asking her "Do you think that God wants you to come to church tomorrow?  Do you want to feel the same peace and tranquility that you do when we're over?"  and I kind of guilt tripped her, but she said "ok, I'll be there."  And she showed up!  And we had Erenia there and then 3 less actives! and our 3 regulars!  It was the most hispanics we've ever had at our ward!  And the coolest part?  Jay E. Jensen spoke.  Don't know why.  He just decided about 3 weeks ago that he was going to come speak at our ward.  And it was sick.  He didn't really share one cohesive message, he just talked.  But it was great! 

   We're scrambling to get Erenia baptized this saturday.  She wants to get  baptized so bad, so we're trying to teach her everything before saturday, but it's really hard when she's working 15 hour days 6 days a week :(  but she's a trooper.  We've had to start teaching her over the phone on her lunch breaks.  I taught her about Joseph Smith and the first vision today.  It was way tough.  But we have faith that it's going to work.

  So my pants are finally back from missionary mall.  Not sure if I told you. My blue suit pants ripped in the crotch back in december.  So I've been down to just one suit since then.  I don't know how, but I lost my other pair of blue suit pants back in december of 09.  So I don't know how I'm managing.  

    We've been getting fed dinner about 3 times a week here, the members are awesome.  My goal is to not eat out for the rest of the month.  I have an excuse for the chili's bills :)  We went on exchanges and our district leader wanted to go to chili's and then saturday was my comp's b-day.  So.  But I bought a lot of vegetables and fruit last week, and I"m going to live the word of wisdom how it says to!  That's the goal at least.  We had a member text us on saturday at like, 8:40 in the morning and she said "going shopping soon.  what do you want?"  we thought maybe she texted it to her husband, so we were like "Sorry, this is the missionaries." and she was like "Yeah, I know.  What do you want?"  We were like "Oh no, we're good for now, but thank you."  And so she texts back and says "TP?  Laundry detergent? Paper towels? Snacks? Milk?"  so we were like "well, we would appreciate any of the following: fruitsnacks, granola bars and chips, and then laundry detergent would be awesome :)" and so she showed up at 4 in the afternoon with a box full of pretzels, chips, dip, fruitsnacks, granola bars and a big bottle of laundry detergent.  It was sweet!  Our ward is legit!  

    Man, what is going on with the world.  I heard bits and pieces about the earthquake in Japan. Something about a nuclear power plant exploding or somethign?  I don't know.

  In other news.  One of my recent converts, Jaime, flew back to Peru on Friday.  Supposedly he's coming back in like, May or something.  I had no idea he was even leaving.  I'm kind of glad he did though, because his family treated him like a slave.  They would just leave him at home all day to take care of the kids while they went out and did whatever.  So I'm glad he's back at his home and can finally enjoy life again! haha

   Well, you're all awesome.  Love you mucho.  Take care 

         Elder Campbell

7 Mar 2011

Skyler James Campbell to Jeff, me


show details 10:34 AM (4 hours ago)



So we had a total miracle last week. We visited this former investigator, and we started teaching him and he wasn't really interested, but his aunt sat in on the lesson with us and we invited them to church and she said yes. So she came and then two days later we're talking with her and she goes "I loved church. I felt so good there, peaceful and tranquil. I want to go spread the gospel like you two do. I want to help people. And I decided that this is the church that I'm going to go to from now on." So we set her for baptism and she was super excited! She's the coolest! Her name is Erenia and she's from Nicaragua. Way legit. We shared Mosiah 18:7, 8 and 10 with her(I think) and said "these people had the same desires as you. You want to help people, you want to be a witness to God, and you want to be clean. Then this is the way to do it. Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the authority of God?" and she just looks at me and smiles and then says "Yes. I will." It was SOOOOOOOO sweet. She's so awesome. The whole ward already loves her. She's had a really hard life and she's just such an amazing person.

So yeah, I'm in Chesapeake stake only this time. When I was in VB, we covered VA Beach stake and Chesapeake stake, but when I got transferrred to Chesterfield to train, they threw Hna. Brewer and Hna. Pitchforth in here to open the area. And now I took it over :) And it's awesome :) My companion is sick. We teach so well together and we've got eachothers back in everything. I feel like I finally have a companion who can back me up when I'm teaching or finding. Not that my other companions weren't good, but I just feel like I can really trust Elder Allen when we're teaching. It's legit. He's from Orem, UT and goes home in 4 weeks :( I'm finally going to bury a companion... We've got 3 people with pretty solid baptismal dates and we're working with another 2 who have kind of fluffy baptismal dates. But it's aight. This last week has been insane. I've just been so unbelievably tired. I can't remember the last time that I woke up and could hardly walk because I'm so tired. I can't see straight or stand up straight. I guess that means we're working hard? We're working our tails off down here.

I wrote on a lot of those photos right? I thought almost all of them were captioned... Luckily I'll remember enough for the first few weeks that I'm home to be able to caption those that aren't. Wow, so you finally got your trunky papers? Mine luckily won't be here until about 3 weeks before I get home. Still gives me time. SO yesterday in church, they passed around a meal calendar for us. First time in my entire mission. People just love spanish missionaries. It's way funny. This one lady signed up 3 weeks in a row. She thinks we're awesome. It's way funny. THe ward takes pretty good care of us down here. It's a lot different than some of my other areas. The families here seem to actually like one another. They talk to eachother and know what's going on with everyone else. It's how a ward family SHOULD be.

Soooo, what else is there? I'm sure there's something else to tell you, but I don't remember. Doing laundry at a laundromat is actually pretty fun. 2nd time doing it since the MTC(does that even count as a laundromat?) Who knows. Umm, well, I think the GMC Terrain is cooler than the traverse. But I don't nkow how many people it seats. But it looks a lot cooler. And sounds cooler. Terrain. Say it with me. But in a manly voice.

Well, I htink that's about all I got so far. My area is awesome. The church is true. The story of David and Goliath is sweet (check out David's pump up speech to Goliath right before he sinks a rock into his forehead. 1 Samuel 17. Legit)

Love ya mucho

Elder Campbell

28 Feb 2011

SO, my new address is

 

 

1153 Hodges Ferry Rd.

Portsmouth, VA 23701

 

Our apartment is super girly because sisters opened it up and the ward was SUPER STOKED to have them, so they really  helped them girly it up!  They left us a ton of sticky notes all over with little notes of encouragement.  It's pretty funny.  I'm with Elder Spencer Allen from  Orem, UT.  He goes home in 6 weeeks.  But we have a goal to baptize 5 people before he goes home.  We have 3 people set with baptismal dates, adn we're going to set 2 today I think.  SHould be really sweet.  I've been able to see a few of the people that I saw when I was in VA beach before.  Like my very first baptism, Jose Manuel Ruiz.  We stopped by them last night and when I walked in, he didn't really remember me, but his dad Gilasio immediately goes "Hey!  Elder Campbell!"  and then Jose comes up and goes "Is it really you?"  it was way funny.  I guess they were going a little bit less active, so we're going to help them reactivate themselves completely.  There's a little bit of drama going on between the VA Beach branch and our ward out here, because the VA beach branch used to cover both VA Beach stake and Chesapeake stake.  But since we are now open out here, the members who live in Chesapeake area are suupposed to come out here, but the branch president in VA Beach just keeps giving callings to the members here to try to keep them there.  Even after he was told by the stake president to release all Chesapeake members from their callings.  So it's kind of interesting. 

   But it's going really good here.  We're seeing some good success.  We had an investigator at church yesterday and she loved it.  We had to go into Relief Society to translate for her, because there's no sisters in the ward who can translate.  But it was funny. 

  July 10-15?  Well, I haven't really been able to make a ton of plans for after my mission, so as far as  I know, I should be able to attend.  And after I get home, you can totally all come with me to visit Virginia!  That would  be SWEET! 

  No snow here, but we've had lots of rain lately.  And wind. I forgot about the weather being right on the ocean! 

     Well, I think I'm alright for now.  I'm going to buy a new pillow today, because the ones here are junk and I can't sleep at night. 

  

Dad- How's the new job?  Anything fun or exciting?

 

 Love you all.  Have a great week.

   Elder Campbell

22 Feb 2011 Scratch that last post title!

OK, I got a little excited and moved up Elder Campbell's coming home date by a couple weeks. The correct time is 16 weeks from today. 

FYI- My exit date is on June 28th.  So, Anywho. 

   That's awesome that Bailey loves the book of mormon!  Me too! 

      Things are picking up here in Charlottesville.  WE have one lady set for baptism and she came to church on sunday and LOVED it.  We don't really know how to help her though.  SHe's way tough.  Her name is blanca.  We've also got this family that we're starting to work with.  THey're cousins of this recent convert family.  Way sweet people.  Turns out that the dad called in for a book of mormon like, 8 years ago in Arizona, but themissionaries just knocked on his door and handed him the book and left.  Weird.  But they're AWESOME! 

   My camera arrived and I almost haven't put it down since!  Oh, before I forget...

    I'm getting transferred on Thursday.  Down to Chesapeake.  Deep Creek.  We're going to be in a group, but it's gonna be SWEET!  I covered that area when I served in VA Beach, so I pretty much already know my way around.  Don't know my address yet, but I'll know next week :)  My companion is going to be Elder Allen, who goes home in 6 weeks!  haha He's going to trunk me out so much! 

  So are you going to go to England?  Only $1,000 on the spot!?  Not a bad deal...

 Haha 

  So who's molly's fiancee?  I'm so lost on this whole thing I have no idea what's happening.

   So cool story, last week we were on bikes for 3 days, and we saw so many miracles.  We were at this corner of a street waiting to cross, and this recently returned missionary rides up to us and says "Where are you going?"  we told him we were going to knock, and he says "Can I come with you?"  so we asked where he served and he says "In LA..."  and we were like "HECK YEAH YOU CAN KNOCK WITH US!"  It was sick!  Then we ran into like,  3 people we had been trying to contact forever.  It was just awesome.  In other news, my trainee from back in Chesterfield, well he's down in VA Beach right now.  He got in a huge fight with this member family, and so they called Pres. Perry and told him they weren't coming back to church until he got transferred out.  Ridiculous, right?  I couldn't believe him!

   Well, everything is going good, next time you hear from me, I'll be in Chesapeake.  So.  Love you all a ton.

          Elder Campbell

PS-  What's Jackie Barden's address?  I want to write her back, but I lost her address...