2/23/2015 Last Week in the Mission Field

And what a wonderful week it has been! There is not enough time to do everything that I need to.  Neither is there enough time to see everyone. We had the most incredible trainings this week.  I learned that obedience measures our faith.  President Malunda has been hinting a training on pre-ordination for the past few months, and everyone has been dying to hear it, and it finally happened and it was incredible.  I can't wait to show you notes.  We learned about the councils in heaven and learned about the intelligences, and light.  Oh, I just have to share later because it is super awesome and I can't explain it over email. 

The Zone leaders asked if we could do our musical number at 3 day training, so even though I felt super nervous, we did it! And wow, what a wonderful experience.  I think my voice had vibrato mainly because I was nervous.  It was a really great feeling though.  I was able to bear my testimony with the song and forget my fears, and it ended up sounding okay I think?

Then when we got back to our area, we worked with all our hearts. there were so many people to see and so little time.  I feel like each lesson we had was so important, and there were so many we needed to get to. I'm so grateful we get to see them again soon.

I had a most wonderful interview and blessing from President yesterday. They changed my interview to yesterday instead of today, so I had to miss the stake music fireside that I was going to sing in, but that is okay, and was a blessing in disguise that I got to sing it in 3-day training. The interview was really great.  We talked about my plans for the future, and then he gave me a blessing.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve my mission.  I feel like I have learned so much, still have a great deal to learn.  But I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me come here to serve Him.  My understanding and love for the Savior's sacrifice has grown.  I have learned how to love more, trust and have more faith in the Lord, and how obedience brings miracles. 

#missionary4life!

Love,

Sister Campbell

P.S. See you soon! :)

2/14/2015 Happy Valentines Day!

So next week is 3 day training in McAllen, and the library is closed on Monday, so they told us to do our emailing for next week today!

   Mom and Dad, thank you so much for sending the flowers and chocolate! They turned out beautiful and were a wonderful surprise!

    This week has gone by so fast!  Even though we didn't have meetings this week, I feel like we still didn't have very much time to work in our area.  But with the time that we did have, the Lord blessed us so much!

     We decided to visit a less active/recent convert family that we have never been to before, and they live in an area that we also have never been to. As soon as we got out of the car, some kids told us to go visit their parents, and we met Dalia, whose family is looking for the gospel.  We had a wonderful lesson with them, and they helped us find the less active family.  We walked all the way down the dirt road and found 3 vicious Rotwylers (idk how to spell) in our path.  The little girl from the house saved us and invited us to come visit her family.  She played with the dogs while we snuck next to the fence. When we walked through the door, the 5 daughters in the family gathered, looking so excited to see us.  We instantly felt a connection with them, and even though we didn't know each other we hugged, and excited started talking and introducing ourselves. The oldest daughter wasn't baptized before and wants to be, and the others all love the gospel and want to come back to church.  They are such a wonderful family! I'm so excited to go visit them again.  That was a highlight of the week and were visiting with 2 other less active/recent convert families.

     Oh yeah, next Sunday the missionaries in the Harlingen zone are putting together a music fireside and they asked me to sing a solo; I am a child of God while an elder plays the piano and another plays the flute. This will be quite a new experience for me, and I was shocked when they asked me, but am excited for the experience.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Campbell

Valentines day flowers from mom and dad

This is our gorgeous area!!

We convinced the Elders to do facial masks on P-Day! 

2/9/2015 Hearts for February!

Our zone has a new motto: The Pure in HeARtLINGEN for the month of February. It is so important in life that we do things because they come from the Heart.  It is a scary trap that is easy to fall into-to do things for the purpose of recognition or fear, or in other words pride and fear, which are both things that come from Satan.  Even though we can be doing good things, like helping people get baptized, if it does not come from the heart, then it has little converting power, not a lot of real change takes place. We are focusing in the mission and in the zone equally on reactivating and baptisms, also on focusing on conversion.  I feel like this is a good theme for what I learned this week personally and in meetings I attended.  This kind of attitude needs to be reflected towards everyone around us.  I learned that just as much as I need to think of what is really best for investigators, I need to think about was is really best for my companion.  It is wonderful.

    The Padilla family didn't come to church this week. :( And Omar is headed to Alaska, so maybe he will get baptized up there. We will have to make sure to get in contact with the missionaries up there.  We didn't have a ton of time to work in our area this week, but when we did, it was great, and the Lord blessed us a lot.  We went with a young woman to visit the Padilla family, who weren't there, but we ended up contacting and teaching someone on the street.  We focused on her needs and what would catch her attention to learn more about the gospel.  There were some times during the lesson that the spirit was very strong that I didn't want to say anything for fear of messing it up!  The testimony of the young woman that we brought was incredible.  The feeling of the spirit in helping someone see the light of Christ is the greatest joy I have had in my mission. these simple experiences happen all the time, and they are so sweet.  Never let the opportunity go by to share the joy that you feel with someone.  There are more people than we realize who need someone to notice them and care about them. 

    Love,

Sister Campbell

2/2/2015 Pink Washing Riverbend

So here is some exciting news: Sister Stradling and Sister Acosta are pink washing Riverbend, Brownsville today!  That means that they are taking over the area from Elders. And now we get to do exchanges with them! I am so excited!  There is so much to do!  This pastSaturday I went on an exchange with a sister from Breeze Lake and the goal for the day was to work on member work.  So we brainstormed ideas and learned and talked about member work all day, and I realized that there is so much that needs done in my area! It was awesome. We need a new ward list, and descriptions of the members.  I feel like I'm finally getting to the point where it is easier to discern whether people are prepared to hear the gospel or not. 

    The Padillas are doing great, it was just disappointing when they didn't come to church on Sunday.  The girls are progressing, but the father just has other priorities and it is so sad!  We have built a great relationship with them, to where they really really wanted to come to church.  We will see.  We are working with a lot of investigators right now, but not a lot of them are progressing. Omar came back from Japan and is ready to get baptized next Sunday, but he might leave again, so it is all up in the air.  Rosalinda is really suffering from nerve pain in her leg, please keep her in your prayers.  

   We were walking on a street we've never been on in Rio Hondo, and we saw 5 kids all playing together jumping on the trampoline.  So we waved and walked over, and they asked us who we were.  The parents came out, and the kids asked us if we could play with them.  We of course said yes, and that we would after we shared a lesson with them.  So all five of them gathered together and we sat down on the grass, and then the mom and grandpa came too, and it was so much fun.  There is something so special about teaching kids.  We helped them to understand that they can pray and receive answers through good feelings, and that Joseph Smith was given power. Hopefully this week we can help this family progress.

     

love,

Sister Campbell