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