4/14/2014

Dear Family,

     Sister Tippetts and I are like vultures.  Whenever we spot anyone outside they become our prey to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So we walk up to a man moving speakers out of the trunk of his car and we explain who we are and immediately we runs to his car with a smile and tells us in Spanish that he has gifts for us.  He hands me a white necklace then asks us to wait and runs back inside his house and then comes back out to give Sister Tippetts a half gallon of Holy Water.  I'm learning so much about the Catholic church here!  A few days later I learned that he had given me a rosary.  So nice, but we're not quite sure what to do with our special gifts. 

     I have never felt so loved and so hated before in my life, and I've never felt so painfully sad and so joyfully happy in the same day.   For a brief moment I was disappointed that none of the people we had invited to come to church had come, but while playing the piano in Sacrament meeting in the Casa Linda branch I looked up and my heart was filled with gratitude for all of the people who had decided to come to church, and I felt so much love for them. 

    One of the miracles we saw this week happened around 8 when all our plans fell through and we didn't know what to do.  So what do you do?  Pray!  And a name of a less active member came to my mind.  We got out of the car, didn't have to walk very far when we saw two girls in their garage talking outside.  They wanted to know more.  Even though their were many distractions with children terrorizing their pet punny and guinnea pig, and the lesson really wasn't the best we've ever taught.  Tiffany and Michelle still felt the spirit and wanted to be baptized.  3 of their friends happened to walk by and she shouted, "Hey, come learn about God!"  And they came and we have some appointments with their families today.  We came back a few days later and she had already asked her mom, who had said yes!   What a great miracle!   Right now we are setting up a "minute to win it" activity to get mutual jump-started here in the branch again.  I feel like we are teaching like 5 groups of youth, so I hope we get a good turn out for the activity Thursday night.  I'm excited. 

       I learned a really good lesson this week on gratitude. Rather than looking at the lesson we shared with Tiffany and looking at all of the things that went wrong, my companion helped me see that we need to rely on God and first be grateful for the miracle that we received.

       I had a great week, and look forward to the coming one!

Love,

Sister Campbell

P.S. We are still teaching the Paez family, they just have been out of town so there isn't a lot of news from them. Keep them in your prayers!