3/24/2014 What a Crazy Week!

Transfers is tomorrow, and my beloved sister Andersen is leaving me!  So last week was kind of tough because we dropped almost all of our investigators and only found one new investigator.  But the Lord blessed us so much this week.  We've been promised that if we open our mouths to everyone, that we will hit the standard of excellence for new investigators and this week we were blessed with 10 new investigators!  5 of them come from a wonderful family, the Paez family.  We were a little nervous to talk to them because the die-hard Catholic grandma got sent out to talk to us, but the spirit softened their hearts and the kids and mom want to be baptized.  The boys are 8 and 10 years old and they are sponges for the Gospel.  Our return appointment they were expecting us, peeking out the front window excited for us to come and give them Book of Mormons.  They will go to the Spanish branch, which will be wonderful for them.  When we left the 10 year old had a hard time putting down the book of mormon to say the closing prayer. 

      Rachel should be getting baptized this next Sunday, then her daughter Rachel will be the Conference Weekend.  I feel like I've known them for forever.  She is a coffee drinker so we made plans to help her stop and she is doing great, and she even stopped 2 days earlier than she was supposed to!  Every time we take her to church she finds out she knows more people there, and it's like she has more member friends than the members do.  Missionary work is so intense!  This will be my first time being senior companion and I'm a little nervous because I hope we can keep up all the good miracles that the Lord is blessing us with.  For some reason, the work always changes a lot when you get a new companion.  But, i know that if I keep praying and pleading to God for our investigators and for help, he will lead the way. 

       I'm loving my mission and am so grateful for miracles God is sending to hasten His work. 

Love,

Hermana Campbell

3/20/2014

Edgar & Edel's baptism on Feb. 28, 2014.  with mom Francis

HAVIER.  I AM GETTING AN OLOTE IN BROWNSVILLE IN FRONT OF RACHEL (OUR INVESTIGATOR'S HOUSE).  I STILL SEARCH FOR HAVIER TO PAY HIM BACK

 In Laredo with Sister Judd

 Sister Andersen and Mariah paint Huerta's cerca (fence)

3/17/2014

Three words to describe how we feel right now: burnt, sore, and itchy.  Saturday we biked from11:30 in the morning to 9:00 at night, and then for our break we got to dig a hole for a member's playground.  But it's always hard to complain because the Lord takes such good care of us and blesses us so much everyday.  To end our fast that day, we just prayed for food and it was prepared in two luch sacs all ready to go from the member we dug a hole for. This week was tough because we dropped a lot of investigators that just weren't progressing, which at the beginning of the week we wasted a lot of time on, then the second half of the week, we just find investigators in our area.  We found three people who wanted to be baptized in other areas though.  Shayla and Margarita asked God if we were his real messengers, and they received an answer from God that we were.  Experiencing that spiritual confirmation with investigators is the best feeling in the world!!

 We had zone conference on Wednesday which is always amazing because we get to hear from our beloved Presidente.  He has so much love and wisdom that whenever he speaks we are all ears and feel incredibly edified.  It's kind of like whatever he says is a commandment and we receive direct blessings if we obey.  One thing I realized at zone conference was how lucky I am to get to repent NOW. There were so many little things that President Malenda taught us, like how to be more effective missionaries by planning in more activities and working with members.  I don't have to wait to change all of those things.  I've been reading at the end of Alma, beginning of Helaman, and I see how important it is to never give up fighting.  Moroni rallied all of the Nephites and they repented and depended on God, and after the war, they prospered for a little while and a lot of people were baptized.  Then when the Lamanities came at them again and they let pride sneak in, they stopped caring and lost that incredible desire to fight for righteousness.  Never let yourself lose your desire to fight for righteousness.  We are in the middle of the best part of the battle, right before Christ comes, and we have to have the determination as the Nephites did under the direction of Moroni. I'm loving my mission!

Love,

Hermana Campbell

3/10/2014 Update on teaching changes

Dear family,

Changing the way you teach is not the easiest thing in the world.  Just two days after learning the new method, I felt myself with my companion slip back into old habits.  We had an all-sisters meeting which was super cool because we've never had one of those before.  In this meeting we talked a lot about self-confidence.  Our confidence needs to come from the Lord and I learned that fear weakens our confidence.  I realized a ton this week how much the Lord has qualified me for this calling of being a missionary.  I am nothing without Him.  But because I have Him, he gives me the capacity to accomplish things I never would've been able to on my own, and to do them without fearing at all.  We just can't let pride get in the way of our progress.  This Thursday we had exchanges with the STL's and we basically sat and went through the Restoration pamphlet once in 2 hours, something we are to teach in 7 mins.  It was really difficult for me to grasp the concept that we teach extremely little if anything.  I think it was so hard because I thought last Saturday that I understood how to do it, then I felt like I was doing everything wrong on Thursdayand like I had to learn it all over again, and I wasn't prepared for another change.  After the exchange it was a little hard for my companion and I to regain our unity teaching because we had just experienced another big change that was learned from two different teachers.  It has gotten better though, and the success that comes from letting the investigator teach themselves continues to produce a lot of success.  I've actually never had such a successful transfer.  We are continually being blessed with miracles and finding new people who want to be baptized. 

     One of those miracles is Miranda and Elvira.  Remember the kids we played kickball with?  Well they gave us a referral, then the friend who was at the house of the referral gave us another referral, and said, "Don't tell her who sent you there, just say that someone who really cares sent you."  I feel like I've already told this story, but I don't remember, so sorry if I have.  As soon as she gave us the referral the spirit was pretty strong so we knew we needed to visit her that night.  When we knocked on her door and she opened it, I felt like I just knew it was her so I said, "you're Miranda, right?" she said, "Yeah, who sent you?" then I said, "Someone who really cares about you." And she let us in and we taught her, and she wants to change her life and get baptized onApril 6th.

     Another one was Ruben.  We left the house on Saturday, got out of the car, and there he was just outside.  Missionaries in the past had helped him move stuff, and it was clear that their planting seeds opened his heart to listening for us.  Teaching people the way we do now lets them receive a spiritual confirmation and that start of a testimony extremely quickly, and even though it was pouring outside and we couldn't go in because there wasn't another woman home, Ruben still received that confirmation and also wants to be baptized on the 6th.  The whole dayon Saturday was like that.  God even knew we needed a quick dinner, so when talking to some people at a baby shower on our way to an appointment the hostess gave us a plate of food. 

     I wish I could tell you everything, but there really isn't time.

The work is going great, and I'm learning so much and have so much more to learn!

I love you, and want to thank you all for the letters and telling me about your family reunion at Beaver.  I love hearing from you and loved the stories that Makade, Alexa, Tegan, and Teyah, and Karen sent me.

Love,

Sister Campbell

3/3/14 What I learned this week changed my entire mission!

D&C 88:73, "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time."  This scripture is incorrect. --from President Packer.  For it to be correct it would have to say, "Behold, I am hastening my work now." 

Family,

THE ENTIRE WAY WE TEACH HAS BEEN CHANGED TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE!   This FridayBrother Donalson and Brother Hill from the Church headquarters came and had a meeting with all of the district leaders and zone leaders.  They asked all of us to leave everything, all the teaching techniques that we've learned on the mission behind and to embrace this new teaching method, and promised that our baptisms would double.  I felt like on Saturday when I was learning it, like I was going through the temple for the first time again.  Except instead everything was made a 10000000X simpler.  The spirit was so strong as we were learning and my mind was clear and the holy ghost was just plain helping me learn it.  We now teach the entire restoration in 7 minutes.  We don't use analogies and rarely even use scriptures.  We briefly explain our expectations and figure out from them and spirit how to teach to their needs, open with missionary saying the prayer, discover the pamphlet of the restoration with them, teach them to pray, they pray, then we ask them to be baptized, then we set a return appointment, ask for referrals, then get on mormon.org with them to show them where to find more.  The whole lesson is 20 minutes.  Immediately after we learned about this new method to teach we went out into the street we found 2 new investigators, a member brought his girlfriend to church, we taught her that night, so now we immediately have 3 new investigators who want to learn more and be baptized.  Jose, at the part right after the great apostacy, we ask him, "So what do you think needs to happen?"  and he immediately says, "God needs to come down and give someone that permission (priesthood) again and share it with everybody!"  The spirit led the whole lesson.  The whole feeling of the lesson has changed.  I've always had so much passion to share the gospel, but now it can be funneled in an effective direction.  I used to feel like I had to strive for people to understand how important this is, and force them to sit in an hour long lesson with them, but now I do even less and they are hooked, they immediately receive a spiritual confirmation, and THEY are the ones who want the return appointment and want to know more.  We don't have to commit them to read anything, they do it because they have tasted of a piece of the fruit and they want more.  I LOVE IT!  This is the best time to be a missionary!  We only learned how to do the first lesson, so on saturday we will learn more, and I can't wait!

 

EDGAR AND EDEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! This has been the most stressful and rewarding week of my mission!  We basically taught them everything in 5 days.  There were so many barriers that the Lord opened up the way for, like parent permission, and working with the ward, getting the baptismal font door open so we could fill it up, (Brother Richards saved us and broke in with his apartment key) The baptism was so incredible!  When Edgar stepped into the water I thought, "wow, he's my brother and I get to care for him spiritually for the rest of my life and eternity."  It made me so happy when the room was so full of people to support them that there wasn't enough space for chairs.  We will work on the rest of their family now.