ok, I'm a slacker

Bad Mom!  Not really.  Some letters just aren't worthy of a post - or rather, the content doesn't warrant the rest of the world being informed.  So there you have it.  Anywho, news from Elder Campbell!  Part of this is in response to my last email, describing Jack's thoughtful prayers:  Your brother Jack is quite the spiritual little fella.  His dinner prayer last night went something like this: “…Please bless Vince to have a good mission and to be safe, and that the Holy Spirit will keep us safe.” 

Dear Mom,

It might be more reasonable to buy my winter gear out here in the field. So that I can try on the different items and not have to go through the hassle of returning things to get the right size. I'd say four or five pairs of thermals would be pretty substantial. 

Jack sounds like he could be the prophet someday. Definitely has more potential than I do. I miss him a lot. Let him know that I'll be sending him something for his birthday, and for dad as well. Ran out of time last week to buy a card, so I'll send something more worthwhile to make up for it. 

One message for Isabelle: WRITE ME BACK.

Good luck with your school. You'll nail it. So should I be expecting anything, not including the birthday package, this week? By the way, if you want things to get to me sooner, send it to Sister Roby. The mission office is SO slow. I just barely got a letter that Carly sent on the last day of August. 

The good news is that I am happy. We're not really working with any progressing investigators, and we're not seeing a lot of success with door knocking, but I know that the gospel has been restored and I'm eager to share those restored truths with others. I'm now on my fourth time reading the Book of Mormon. My testimony of its divinity grows and my love of its content expands each time I read through it. On Aaron's birthday we had a mission conference where all 184 of the missionaries in the mission gather together and we hear President Fenn and his wife talk. He talked about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, both from a historical and doctrinal standpoint. He's so much like his father in-law, Bruce R. McConkie. So wise and powerful a speaker he is. I've recorded almost all of the talks he's given since I've been on a mission, so I'll have to send them so you can enjoy them as well. Just don't put them on the Internet. That was the only warnings gave me when I asked if I could record him. At the conference he gave us an assignment to mark every mention of covenants and the house of Israel in blue, every mention of being born again or change in people in red, and examples of good teaching in yellow. Before he had us mark missionary work in blue, the doctrine of Christ in yellow, and the plan of salvation/atonement/mercy in red. I invite you to do the latter challenge in your personal scripture study. You'll come to a greater love and knowledge of the magnitude of the Savior's love for us if you take up this challenge. 

Well, sure love Ya! I'll include some photos as well. We went to a Japanese garden today, so that'll explain a few of the pictures. 

Man, I love that kid!

Life back on the farm...

Here are a couple of pictures of Elder Campbell, hard at work in a garden.  Cabbages?  He certainly didn't get that veggie served growing up!  Not much actual news to report, but here it is:

Hello. Ever since meeting with Brother Oliver, my week improved tremendously. I've been so impatient with myself that when I haven't met my unreasonable expectations, I give up. But he's helped me realize that I've had unrealistic standards, and that I need to be satisfied with the incremental improvements I make, and that I can take life one day at a time. I hope Grandpa doesn't think I'm a wimp.  I don't know what he felt while he was on his mission, but looking at him now, I can see him being confident even then. I don't know. A lifetime of experience probably helps a lot.

I'm glad all is well at home. I'm starting to forget about home more and more. I don't want things at home to have changed too much by the time I come home.  Anyway, things are getting better. We don't have any progressing investigators at the moment, AND no one is on date to be baptized, but this Sunday we had two less active families finally come to church.  One only stayed for sacrament, but one surprisingly stayed for gospel principles. I would call that a tender mercy of the Lord.  We'll have to spend a lot of time tracting, since the members don't give us referrals. You can support me by giving the missionaries people to teach! That'd help a lot.  Love you mom. A lot. I really miss ya. Enjoy some pictures.

Transfers!

Well, Elder Campbell made it through another transfer, however his companion did not.  Elder Noho will be heading off to Peoria, but I am told that Elder Campbell is excited about getting a new companion.  No letter this week, but he sent me a picture.  Elder Davis (holding sign) is going home to Montana this month.

July 14th, 2014

Dear Family,

These past weeks have grown brighter and brighter until it feels like we live in perfect days. Even amid the sirens of ambulances and squad cars, the world is not devoid of light and truth, for we live in a world created by gods. One important update to make note of is that we have someone on date to be baptized on August 16th! She's so great! We found her in late June I believe. We were knocking doors on her street, and at every house we met rejection and disinterest. We were about to return to the truck and drive to our next destination when we felt impressed to knock one more house. She lived in this last house!  She used to be married to a less active Mormon, so she has a couple copies of the Book of Mormon. She later told us that in the days prior to our meeting, she'd seen the Book of Mormon everywhere in her house.
She'd knelt down to pray for someone to help her in her life and we knocked on her door. What was amazing was when we showed her the Bible video of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist. She's never been baptized or even seen one happen. After she watched it, the Spirit was powerful beyond earthly happiness, it was the love of God. When we invited her to be baptized, she was ready to accept. Those little moments are what I live for now.

President Fenn says that a mission is a series of disappointments occasionally interrupted by perfect moments of indescribable joy.  That's about as true as one feels while on a mission, and our entire lives. We just have to learn how we can invite the Holy Ghost to make these interruptions. Charity, I feel, is at the core of it. There is a section in Preach My Gospel where it talks about the teaching skill of listening, and it also quotes some words I love from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He says that “More important than speaking is listening.
These people are not lifeless objects disguised as a baptismal statistic. They are children of God, our brothers and sisters, and they need what we have. Be genuine. Reach out sincerely. Ask these friends what matters most to them. What do they cherish, and what do they hold dear? And then listen. If the setting is right, you might ask what their fears are, what they yearn for, or what they feel is missing in their lives. I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a truth of the gospel about which you can bear
testimony and about which you can then offer more. . . . If we listen with love, we won’t need to wonder what to say. It will be given to us—by the Spirit and by our friends." I have a testimony of the principle of listening. As we sincerely love others, we'll ask them inspired questions which will always highlight a truth of the gospel.  We then discern their needs, and teach the truth which will hopefully meet their concern, and we promise them blessings. We end with something essential: we testify. I testify that this gospel is true.
Jesus Christ is our Savior. He died for every person who has lived or will live, because He loves us with a love that we cannot understand.  As we embrace His gospel, we will be able to make covenants which will seal our family for time and all eternity. This is the destiny for our family. I've felt the Holy Ghost testify to me that this will happen while we are on earth. May we all follow Christ and make the changes necessary to have the blessings of a sealed family! I love you all so much and pray for you every day!

Finally, an update!

Hey all!
This last week was successful yet worried me at the same time. I've
forgotten to mention in the last few emails about something which has
been pretty exciting. For the last several weeks we were planning a missionary fireside for the ward. Unlike our stake, which has firesides pretty regularly, the Rockford stake has not had one
apparently in years, if that. So at first the members weren't sure it would draw a crowd. The theme of the fireside was the blessings of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, which we thought would be perfect for those with little knowledge about the church. The next idea we had was to have a convert tell their conversion story and how the Restored
Gospel blessed their life. Then we asked our mission president if he could speak and he accepted. What was nice was that he spoke at stake conference a couple weeks ago and people were so impressed that they became excited to come to the fireside. Then we made flyers and just handed them out like crazy to members and non members. It was
scheduled for last night, and so this last week we were stressing out about people coming. But people came! Word spread and missionaries from the entire stake came and brought their members, and our members came and brought their friends. Something silly that happened was that as I was helping someone bring some vegetable trays inside I dropped one in front of President Fenn. It was a great night for everyone. The talks were awesome and we filled the chapel. We even had a translator
for a Spanish family who came. Afterward we had refreshments and President Fenn told me that he was impressed by the number of people who came, which was nice to hear from him.

Now onto to your questions. Three weeks from tomorrow will be transfers. Elder Noho has been in the Rockford 1st ward for six months, so he thinks he'll go and I'll stay. Which is kind of scary since I'm still new to the area, but I welcome the opportunity. I do have allergies here, but I've been taking some medication which has been helping a lot. And there are actually a lot of kids in the ward.
There's also a lot of dream couples like Jared and Brittney and Andrew and Jessica. It's nice to feel an extension of home.

We've been knocking on doors a lot in order to find people, but success is slowly coming. We've found a couple of women who seem I nterested but it's been hard to meet with them since they're gone on the day we schedule to see them a lot. A member did refer us to one of her friends who already took the lessons and was ready to be baptized,
but was not married to the man she was living with at the time. Now she is, so she might be able to be baptized this Saturday if she's worthy and has kept the faith. And we found a woman who lives two houses from us. So we hope for two baptisms in June!

Well I love all of you! P.S. Dad, respond to my last email, and you too Carly!

Never give up.

Kids, never give up. Repeat that to yourself whenever something seems too hard; whenever you lose an interest in finishing a task; whenever you feel hopeless; whenever you feel that you are not important, repeat this in your head (maybe even better out loud): NEVER GIVE UP.  Heavenly Father did not allow us to be born just to fail. In fact, the odds are in our favor. We have been saved through Our Savior and Redeemer, The Lord Jesus Christ. We shall all receive immortality.  There is no possible debate in regards to this. The deed was done. He suffered, bled, and died. Yet he rose on the third day. The same shall we inherit. But eternal life on the other hand, that requires a transformation. Eternal life means exaltation; it means that we shall live in the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and shall be united with our families everlastingly. This will be our reward, if we shall press forward with a steadfastness in Christ. NEVER GIVE UP.  Pray for help, ask for blessings, live in order to bless others, have faith. Heavenly Father changes lives when we expect it from him. Pray every day, and get to know your Heavenly Father.

We found a couple of people last week that we have return appointments with this week. Tracting has been our main resource as of late for finding new investigators. The members are stepping up though. We planned a missionary fireside for the ward, and it's happening on the 29th. A member will tell their conversion story, and President Fenn will speak on the blessings of the restored Gospel. We're really excited. Members will be coming, and hopefully they will bring their friends. There is no doubt that President Fenn will astound all who are present at the meeting. Well no duh. He was taught personally by his wife's father, Bruce R. McConkie, an all impressive apostle. President Fenn is an amazing example of integrity. Something I have somehow failed to mention is the state of his health. First of all, he's deathly allergic to peanuts, and second, he has a clogged artery.  He discovered this following an allergic reaction, in which he also suffered a minor heart attack. This was just before my arrival to the field. Since learning of his heart problem, he resigned himself to intense physical exercise, so he began biking miles and miles during the day. He's an example of someone who, when they want to do something, they dedicate their whole self to the work. On Thursday he went in for surgery to correct the clogged artery, but the operation failed. He's a bit disappointed, but he knows that he much yet to accomplish in the field. He's met so many challenges during his service as a mission president. Along with his health issues, his father passed away the same week he suffered that heart attack. While he had the opportunity to the leave the mission and attend his father's funeral, he knew he could leave the call he had been given by The Lord. I greatly admire this man. I'm nowhere near his level, but neither was he at my age. Incremental consecration and conversion is what brought him to where he is now.

Well, I love all of you!  Do something as a family tonight.  Please.
Have a wonderful day!

Helping others feel the spirit

This letter talks about how we can, in our everyday lives, help others feel the spirit and open their hearts to understanding.

First, a couple of references: Alma 37:35-37. Also check out this talk by Richard G. Scott:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/10/learning-to-recognize-answers-to-prayer?lang=eng&cid=email-shared

As we ask our Father in faith, with real intent, we can be assured that as we endeavor to exercise our complete efforts, He will compensate for our infirmities and bring to pass miracles. Most often it is our own definitions of miracles which cloud our minds with sorrow and discontent. Though some people may seem to be impenetrable, each opportunity they have to feel the Spirit, every friend from the church who reaches out to them, and every mention of the blessings of the Gospel, the efforts have been made valiantly. The Spirit can only come unto their heart. It cannot force its way inside. But what I can suggest, and what I exhort the family to do is to take ten minutes this evening to bear testimony of the blessings of the Restoration of the Gospel. As President Fenn continually reiterates, and as I have sensed first hand, is that the Spirit is abundant as we testify of the Restoration. I promise you that if each of you succeed to expose your testimonies of Joseph Smith and priesthood power, they will not be able to deny the Spirit which will approach them. Another measure I recommend taking is, after bearing testimony, ask them how they feel.  Remember that the "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance” (Galatians 5:22–23). Explain that they do not need a dramatic spiritual manifestation to recognize truth. The Spirit speaks most often in impressions and feelings. As you take the care to help them recognize the Spirit, that they will know that what you say is true, and that they will have inched their toes onto the narrow path to the kingdom of God. Then get them to read the Book of Mormon.

Preach My Gospel talks about how members are usually afraid to invite people to church/read the Book of Mormon/meet with the missionaries.  But all you have to do is be sincere and assure the person that your relationship won't change, but that you wanted to share something you cherish to them. 

Anyway, the cookies arrived intact, but are a touch on the stale side.  They're still delicious, and I have two other witnesses to this. Being in a trio, I'm learning double the amount and at double the rate, which is no bother to me. Missionary work is thankfully becoming second nature, and the apprehension which originally ailed me has
dissolved considerably, allowing my desires to trump my fears to yield my joy. I am happy now.

I'll leave you with this quote from Lorenzo Snow, which has truly reformed my personal expectations: "Do not expect to be perfect all at once. If you do, you will be disappointed."

I love you!