Last update from Rockwell - on to Peoria!

Greetings from Rockford, IL! Well, I'm still alive. I've not only survived six months in Illinois, but I've cherished those months. Naturally, at the beginning of the mission, the typical feelings of homesickness and inadequacy can easily prevail. You're scared of most things, particularly two things: the people whose doors you knock, and their dogs. Everyone around here seems to own only a select variety of dogs. They either have pit bulls, German shepherds, Rottweilers, Dobermans, or chihuahuas. But, after a thousand plus doors, you begin to acclimate to the barking and gnashing of teeth. You begin to acclimate, and you begin to desire the eternal welfare of all whom you come into contact with, but your effectiveness is solely dictated by the presence of the Spirit, which you must be worthy of. We had a member of the first quorum of the Seventy tour our mission recently. He spoke of many things, but what has remained impressed upon my mind is one simple request he made: "Don't get in the way."  

Don't let your shortcomings hinder the eternal welfare of anyone. Don't allow disobedience to have a negative impact on the work of salvation. In a way, that is the course we take as members of the restored church of God. We use the atonement to put off the natural man, so that the blessings of God may be poured out upon us and our families. We try to get out of God's way, in so many words. The Lord will hasten his work. But we are his hands. So, please, support the Lord by harvesting the field which has ripened. Go out with the missionaries. Let's help each other light the way for our brothers and sisters. For we know we cannot become perfect without them. God bless all of you. I know that through Jesus Christ all things are possible. Walk as He walked, and serve others for their happiness. Be true and faithful. Therein lies joy. Onward, ever onward.

No letter yet, but...

Here are a bunch of awesome pictures I was just sent from the Elder.  Without a letter of course.

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!