9/29/2014 Robert got baptized!

I am so happy for Robert.  He is the most prepared investigator I've ever taught. He did everything we asked him to do.  He asked us a lot of questions, and since church last week, he has been confident that he is ready to be baptized. He had his interview this week, and normally investigators are really nervous for their baptismal interview. But when we asked him if he was nervous, he said, "No, I'm excited!" He is such a great kid! This baptism was a really big deal to him.  His mom came and was so happy and grateful.  She wants to learn now too! She was nervous that if she got involved before that Robert would back out. She cried during the baptism.  Robert has told us he is interested in going on a mission, and he asked us about seminary and if he could go. I can definitely see him serving a mission.  I'm so proud of him.

   

  I got to go to Port Isabel on an exchange this week with Sister Nail! It was so fun.  For morning exercise we played volleyball in a parking lot viewing the beach and the water and bridge to South Padre Island.  It was soooo beautiful. I have a funny story though. We were walking at like 8:30 at night on a lakeside road and I glanced down an shrieked and jumped back when I saw a square-foot sized white crab a few feet away from me.  Then I burst out laughing. As we drove away we saw probably 5 more coming out onto the road. 

   I also got to go on an exchange with a sister who is having a lot of pain in her back.  She gives it her all, but is in a lot of pain. We saw a lot of miracles though.  A family gave us some chicken they were barbecuing then gave us a referral for the next door neighbors.  We found a young couple who at the beginning of the lesson, didn't seem too interested, but then by the end as they prayed felt the spirit confirm that this is the only true church on the earth and agreed to become part of it. 

    Also this week we got to be trained on family history!  

   Elias's family is doing well, the girls went to the women's conference, so that was awesome!

    I loved what I got to see of the women's conference.  The signal was down for quite a bit of it, but I'm so excited for general conference this week! 

Love,

Hermana Campbell

The other sisters in the apartment made cheese-cake, and during district meeting they told me for my birthday I had to take a "mordita" as a Mexican tradition.  Mordita means little bite. So when I did, they shoved my face into the cheesecake. I should have known, they were all giddy and laughing when they were introducing it to me.  It was super funny.

 

9/22/2014 I had the greatest birthday ever!

Sunday, September 21st was one of the best days of my mission. This whole week has been wonderful.

     We are still teaching Elpidio. He is 81 and really stuck in his ways, so it is a little difficult teaching him, but he is making progress slowly.  We are going to pray for a miracle that he can get baptized this sunday. the biggest miracle that touched my heart on Sunday when Elpidio had to leave early to move some furniture. One of the ward members came up to him, introduced himself, and offered to help him.  Unconditionally, he left church with Elpidio and helped him move furniture. That may have been the answer that Elpidio needed.

      Robert is progressing so well!  We had some pretty important lessons to teach him and he has so many great questions.  He is a really deep thinker too, but he is super humble. We fasted this week that specifically Robert would be able to find his answer as he attended church this Sunday. After church we texted him to ask how he liked services, and he told us that he had come to church with some doubts, but that one of the talks had really touched him, and his doubts were swept away.  When we received that we knew it was an answer to our fasting and prayer.

    We met a really cool father named Elias this week who has 2 daughters.  He was walking home when we met him.  Just in introducing the lesson, he was touched by the spirit and wanted to come to church. We called him right before church and he told us that he was really disappointed that he couldn't come because he didn't have enough gas or money. We promised him that if he had the faith to come anyways that God would provide a way so that he could pay the bill and have enough gas. He took that leap of faith and came! About an hour or two later he texted us saying that he had received a miracle and was going to be able to pay the bill. 

   These three experiences strengthened my testimony so much this week about prayer, fasting, and miracles. 

   I had a wonderful birthday.

Love,

Hermana Campbell

9/15/2014 Rainy Week

I have so much to say and so little time! so I'm going to say it in short sentences

    1. Robert and Elpidio came to church, and they are awesome!

  2. Robert wants to serve a mission even though he has only been to church once.

   3. We found a wonderful woman in Rio Hondo who after her prayer, grabbed my hand crying, "It's true! I know it's true!"  Pray for Maria

   4. Two exchanges!  Both so fun and awesome!

   5. On the first exchange I got to go back to my old area Riverbend!!!!!!  We went back to Edith, an investigator that had been dropped after I left and they started teaching her again.  I got to see all the members of the Casa Linda branch at the branch RS activity! It was SO WONDERFUL!  I love them so much!

   6. The second exchange we were stuck on bikes in a huge rainstorm.  So we had to stay at our apartment complex for a few hours, so we taught the man in the apartment below, even though he was drinking a little the spirit still touched him. 

    7.  We were driving down to Brownsville for an exchange and saw some sisters on their bikes far from their apartment around 9:00 who got caught in a bad rainstorm, so we saved them and took them home.  That was God's hand!

love,

Hermana Campbell

 Q: How do you ride a bike with a skirt? 
 A: of course! It is important to have a good skirt that isn't either too tight nor too loose, and long enough, but not too long.  I always wear black legging/spandex underneath, and when I'm pedaling I tuck the end of my skirt into the end of my shorts to keep it down. Sometimes my skirt gets caught in the tire, but it isn't too bad. I modestly get my leg over with the dog-peeing on a fire hydrant/breaststroke technique. :)

9/8/2014 Great Week

So this week was awesome!  It is a little bit crazy, but I'm beginning to learn that there really isn't a normal week out here.  We had a monthly training on Thursday, and learned a lot about working with our members more effectively.  President is an incredible teacher--he loves you and inspires you to repent, a lot. It's great.   Even though we didn't have a ton of time to work in our area, God still blessed us a lot.  God really set things up for us so that we could accomplish a lot in just a little amount of time.  I feel like I'm becoming the missionary I want to be here. Sister Wonnacott is a great example. She is so loving towards all of the sisters we serve, and she is really obedient for the right reasons. We get along super well. I have never attended church for 8 hours before, and it is a little draining, but it was such a successful Sunday.  I made a list of all of the presidencies of the branches and wards and we made every effort to meet them all, so that made sunday really fun.  We attended a ward that we never have before for the Rio Hondo area, and it was perfect because they needed us to play the piano and lead the music, so we kind of have new callings. :) My favorite miracle of this week, was I think on Saturday.  We didn't have a ton of time, but we talked to a man outside who was having some struggles with his family.  He told us not to go to the house next door, so we took that as a sign that they probably needed the gospel referral and checked it out. They also happened to be outside, back behind some trees, and a little girl got her mom to come talk to us.  They were looking for God's help and are under the most humble circumstances.  Can't wait to teach them more.

Love,

Hermana Campbell

9/2/2014 Rio Hondo, Here I am!

Sorry I couldn't email yesterday because of Labor Day. I got transferred!  So Sunday morning I found out I was leaving, and Monday morning I found out I was going to Rio Hondo in Harlingen to serve as a sister training leader. 

My new address is:

 1000 E Stenger St.

 Harlingen, TX 78586

  That means I get to go on exchanges in my old area in Riverbend, Brownsville!  I'm so excited!  My companion is Sister Wonnacott, who is a boss, and she likes to run, so that's awesome. There are 5 sister companionships that I will serve with. Our area just got split so that 2 new sisters could start an area, who will be living in our apartment. My area is like 40 miles from top to bottom.  We have a little bit of San Benito, then lots of country, then a little pueblo of Rio Hondo. I will serve in 2 branches, 1 English and 1 Spanish and a Spanish ward.  I love serving in branches, we already met the relief society of the Treasure Hills branch and they asked for ideas on how to strengthen the sisters, and it is just so awesome to see members ready to work unified to build God's kingdom!

   

Patty and Ariana are doing great still, they really feel fellowshipped in the ward, so hopefully I will find out what happens to them.  Sister Quintero will be finished trained by Sister Tippetts, the sister that I finished trained!  Sister Stradling is training too.  Man! Life is so great, and I'm so excited for this transfer!

Love,

Hermana Campbell