Hello friends and family!!!!!
Sounds like all is well at home..... minus the tons and tons of snow. It´s been so hot this week i wanna die haha. Summer is getting monotinous (can´t spell that one) none the less i guess i´ll take it over the snow. I kinda miss it to tell ya the truth! We´ve had a very productive week, taught a lot a lot of lessons. And looks like in the next 2 weeks Carmen´s best friend is going to get baptised! WOo!! We´re teaching her 16 year old daughter as well. The temperature is going up here, and weirdly.... the clothes are coming off. It´s semi awkward haha. Most of the men here are shirtless.... i´d say 85% of them. In stores, on the streets, in house, ni importa. They are just so european here and relaxed beyond belief!!
This week has been a lot better for me with the spanish, i felt like i got over a little plateu, and it´s been because i´m living it, in all shapes and forms. Living with three latins, it´s spanish or die! I´m not dreamin in spanish yet but i am starting to understand jokes which most say is a breakthrough! Working with our recent converts has really helped lately. It looks like we´ll have a baptism here shortly if all goes well. Ive gotta go because we have no time but i love you all. Read 1 Thes 5: (forgot the verses but it´s about lifing one another, great scripture for the family) Love much, remember what this Christmas season is really all about. The greatest gift one can give is the gift of oneself. Show your love for someone tomorrow in some form! Love you all!รง
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
November Photos
eddy- 2 happy missionaries 1 happy member 1 happy convert!(kind of a little side note, we really try to get our investigators in with the members. Pres Hinckley always said that a new convert needs 3 things 1. a friend 2. a calling 3. be nourished by the good word. We really try if we can to have a member baptise our converts to build that relationship so they can make an easy transfer into being an active member forever)
Eddy and his family with us!
our room in the new pench (just a bit nicer right?)
Me and Miguel Funes and his wife. He´s got a date for the 12th.
Happy Thanksgiving
Sounds like you had a very fun thanksgiving weekend! I have to tell you the honest truth... i totally forgot about thanksgiving! No joke, i´ll tell you the reason it was so easy to forget..... I´m living in an apartment with 3 Latinos! Yes, Chesley left to San Juan and i´m still here in Trapiche with my new Columbian companion Elder Gutierrez. He doesn´t speak a lick of english, nor do the other two in our pench. It´s been a bit tough for me, i´ve been feelin a lil lonely but not near as bad as i was fearing when i found out! I´ve learned a lot of spanish this week that is for sure. I´m thinking by the end of this transfer my spanish is going to be pretty good haha. I´ve had a couple nights being sad but i´ve been good the last few! Elder Gutierrez is pretty cool, its so much different with a latin. We´re definately respected a bit more. The pibes (pronounced pee´bays) (basically boys in the range of 17-24) dont make smart comments about the states anymore haha.
Another exciting note. Trapiche welcomed in another member into their barrio this week!!!! Eddie Rivera a peruvian proffessional soccer player. He was unbelievably prepared by the lord. Can´t believe how prepared he was. Truely witnessing miracles out here. We´re working with a few of his friends, and another family, as well as 1 of Carmen´s sons. We´re staying busy, and working hard. I´m having a tough time because i can´t understand everything, but Saturday has put me on a high. There is nothing like witnessing a person get baptised. Seeing them from the first step, and to just see the light start to appear in their eyes. Me and Eddy shared a long tearful hug after his baptism, we´ve become very close. I was sad that Chesley couldn´t share the moment with me, but it was a good way to start off with elder gutierrez. To add on to my happyness from the baptism i got to the office today to see 2 packages waiting for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Wooooooooooooooooooooooo! You did a wonderful job hiding things. I didn´t pay one freaking peso for the box! Not a thing! The other bag i ended up paying 43 peso´s but not bad at all!! Thank you for everything it made my day! Made my christmas! I didn´t open the package, i´m going to wait till Christmas!
Oh also the other miguel that me and chesley were teaching lives in estansuela that has now been taken over by the other elders. He has a date for baptism the 12th! We really changed this area, and the members have been receptive to us. They´ve been feeding us more and wow its funny how just working hard can really earn you respect. I can´t believe that i leave and the vikes are going to win it all... So depressing for me! I´m loving you all, and praying for you every night! I´m going to write a bit more and send some pictures, i don´t have many new ones but i do have the pictures of the baptism! Keep me in your prayers for the next little bit as i struggle through this period of really learning the language! I´ll send another email in just a sec.
Another exciting note. Trapiche welcomed in another member into their barrio this week!!!! Eddie Rivera a peruvian proffessional soccer player. He was unbelievably prepared by the lord. Can´t believe how prepared he was. Truely witnessing miracles out here. We´re working with a few of his friends, and another family, as well as 1 of Carmen´s sons. We´re staying busy, and working hard. I´m having a tough time because i can´t understand everything, but Saturday has put me on a high. There is nothing like witnessing a person get baptised. Seeing them from the first step, and to just see the light start to appear in their eyes. Me and Eddy shared a long tearful hug after his baptism, we´ve become very close. I was sad that Chesley couldn´t share the moment with me, but it was a good way to start off with elder gutierrez. To add on to my happyness from the baptism i got to the office today to see 2 packages waiting for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Wooooooooooooooooooooooo! You did a wonderful job hiding things. I didn´t pay one freaking peso for the box! Not a thing! The other bag i ended up paying 43 peso´s but not bad at all!! Thank you for everything it made my day! Made my christmas! I didn´t open the package, i´m going to wait till Christmas!
Oh also the other miguel that me and chesley were teaching lives in estansuela that has now been taken over by the other elders. He has a date for baptism the 12th! We really changed this area, and the members have been receptive to us. They´ve been feeding us more and wow its funny how just working hard can really earn you respect. I can´t believe that i leave and the vikes are going to win it all... So depressing for me! I´m loving you all, and praying for you every night! I´m going to write a bit more and send some pictures, i don´t have many new ones but i do have the pictures of the baptism! Keep me in your prayers for the next little bit as i struggle through this period of really learning the language! I´ll send another email in just a sec.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
December 7, 2009 Email
Hello hello. It´s been a week of searching and searching. We´ve walked a ton a ton and have had mild success. We have two families we´re working with, and a friend of Carmen (my first convert) who is really interested in the church. We´re hoping to bring all of them closer to Christ and this next week is going to be very important to us. We´re living in the new pench that Chesley and I found. Me, my comp Gutierrez, Rogel (from el salvador), and manqui (from chile). None of them are speaking any english anytime soon. It´s still been really tough for me. I´m frustrated alot but i know its a trial i need. My spanish has probably doubled in these last 3 weeks. Id say im still far from fluent but there really isn´t a choice but to speak spanish all the time haha. If i want to say something i really have to work sometimes to say it, use my study books in some cases to get what i want to say to them accross. For the most part i can speak to them. Rogel speaks so fast its ridiculous, the other two i can understand most of the time. Gutierrez has patience with me which i´m truely grateful for! We have zone conference tomorrow, which i always look forward to. A chance to sit down with president one on one is something i love! Today we took a 3 hour bus through the Andes Mtn´s to a place called Punta de Inca. It´s an old ruin of a prison but what is unique is the river in the canyon. Its got some special mineral that petrofies anything you put in it over 2 months. There were a lot of venders selling petrofied shoes and other things. Totally cool. The rocks and stuff are all covered in the mineral setiment. Up the road 2 kilometers we got to see the coveted Aconcagua. it´s amazing, huge, these mountains in the route from mendoza to chile are UNREAL!!!! Gorgeous, towering mountains. Anyone that doesn´t believe god exsists needs to take that drive we took today. Truely can see his hand. It´s summer and the mountains were snow capped (your going to be very frustrated that i forgot my camera on the hike to see aconcagua. Maybe when i finish we can go see it. Some funny notes. We bought lunch today at our favorite place downtown. I got a hamburgesa and a pancho for 7 pesos (basically 2 bucks) for a huge meal. The exchange rate really works to our advantage here with argentine products. Imports from the states however..... fah so expensive. All in all it´s been a good week, today was a lot of fun going up and seeing those mountains. They´re world famous for a reason, wow. Now it´s back to work for another week.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Email Nov. 23, 2009
We´ve had an adventurous week that is for sure. And experienced a miracle. We were in our priesthood mtg we hold every tuesday night with the bishop and leaders of the ward. As we were sitting there talking about the work in the area we heard a knock on the door... Unusual for a tuesday night around 9 30 in a chapel. The elders q. pres went to the door and opened it. In walked two young men from Peru. (you could totally tell they were peruvians they all look a bit different than argentines.) Honestly as the one started talking i felt the spirit. He started to explain that he had just moved to mendoza a week ago, and that he felt really alone. His mom was a member living in chile, and since he had basically moved here alone he wanted to find the chapel. He said he´d been searching and searching for the missionaries or the chapel, and that he was finally at peace to find it. Then he paused and said... ´´ive been living with my girlfriend in chile so i couldn´t get baptised, i knew it wasn´t right but i had no choice because i had no money to afford my own home. I know this church is true without a doubt in my mind, i moved here to be good with god, to repent, and to be baptised.´´ FAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It was crazy! The whole room was just in awe. I didn´t know what to say, and finally i was said ´´can you come to the chapel tomorrow for a lesson´´ haha. Really amazing. We´ve taught him everyday this week, but really i wouldn´t call it teaching. He knows everything, he´s read the BOM. Sunday he was the star of the show in priesthood, answering all the questions. He played professional soccer in chile but the club never paid him because they were so corrupt. He moved here and wants to try out for tomba next year. In the mean time we´ve found him a job with one of the members, he´s trying to get out of his 3 bedroom house he is living in right now with...........22 other peruvians. yeah 22.. Count your blessings back home. He´s set to be baptised saturday, and is hoping he can save enough money for transportation and a legal marriage for his gf. So amazing. the lord is truely working miracles through us.
We finally got the deal closed on the new pench and moved in saturday. Its like a million dollar mansion compaired to our old pench haha. The toilet actually works, there is no gas leak, theres even hot water :). We get about 120 dollars a month here. Equals around 400 pesos. We shop for ourselves at the local kioskos, and shopping places. They don´t eat dinner here. Weird right?? We eat a small breakfast usually ceral or an egg or something. Then they just have a huge´normously´large lunch! We eat lunch with the members about 5 times a week. They just eat and eat and eat! Then sleep from 2-5 or 6 But that lasts the rest of the day. The living here is different. The houses are very very close together basically just one big block of brick all put together. Pretty neat. I´m going to try and send some pictures. Im so pumped about nay coming to ARGENTINA!! I heard Rosario is beautiful! We´ll be able to send mail back and forth cheap cheap cheap :) I find out tonight if i´m staying in trapiche or going. Or if i´ll be with chesley or not. Kinda trippin out. I hope i don´t move because we just unpakced everything in the new pench! Plus we found it and did all the work to get a nice place. We want to enjoy the fruit of our labor :) Anyways i think thats about it. Don´t have too much time to write today, keep strong. Live like you believe!!!!!!! Simple as that. Oh one last thing. We listened to a live broadcast of elder bednar adressing the argentine people. He gave a powerful fireside, we all left uplifted. We took Carmen with us, all she does is talk about you mom. All she wants to do is meet you haha. She says your beautiful, and is always asking to see our family picture over and over haha. Anyways Love you!!!!!!
Elder Campbell
We finally got the deal closed on the new pench and moved in saturday. Its like a million dollar mansion compaired to our old pench haha. The toilet actually works, there is no gas leak, theres even hot water :). We get about 120 dollars a month here. Equals around 400 pesos. We shop for ourselves at the local kioskos, and shopping places. They don´t eat dinner here. Weird right?? We eat a small breakfast usually ceral or an egg or something. Then they just have a huge´normously´large lunch! We eat lunch with the members about 5 times a week. They just eat and eat and eat! Then sleep from 2-5 or 6 But that lasts the rest of the day. The living here is different. The houses are very very close together basically just one big block of brick all put together. Pretty neat. I´m going to try and send some pictures. Im so pumped about nay coming to ARGENTINA!! I heard Rosario is beautiful! We´ll be able to send mail back and forth cheap cheap cheap :) I find out tonight if i´m staying in trapiche or going. Or if i´ll be with chesley or not. Kinda trippin out. I hope i don´t move because we just unpakced everything in the new pench! Plus we found it and did all the work to get a nice place. We want to enjoy the fruit of our labor :) Anyways i think thats about it. Don´t have too much time to write today, keep strong. Live like you believe!!!!!!! Simple as that. Oh one last thing. We listened to a live broadcast of elder bednar adressing the argentine people. He gave a powerful fireside, we all left uplifted. We took Carmen with us, all she does is talk about you mom. All she wants to do is meet you haha. She says your beautiful, and is always asking to see our family picture over and over haha. Anyways Love you!!!!!!
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
November 16, 2009
(On a side note here....Mom did send him an email....stayed up until 2am writing it!!!)
No email from the family this week kinda disappointing! I got the opportunity to step into the waters of baptism this week. I can´t explain how cool it was... One experience i´ll never forget. I told you the story of Miguel Casanova 2 weeks ago. The man we were led to find in Campo Papa (the really dangerous area we aren´t supposed to enter). He was baptized Saturday and asked me to baptize him. It was only 15 days since we had found him. How prepared by the lord he was! The whole experience with Miguel i´ll never forget. They are a very humble family, that live in even more of a humble circumstance. They live in a little ruin with a tin roof and dirt floors. Me and Chesley bought them a new copy of the bible in spanish and a BOM for him. They almost passed out when they saw it. It was like 2 diamonds to them. I was really worried about saying the prayer right and everything but the second i stepped in the water i was so relaxed and it just felt so right! In the dirtiest of dirty estansuela water Miguel came out clean and a new. ( really the water was so gross you couldn´t even see the bottom of the font, to think we´ve been drinking that. no wonder chesley was so deathly ill. haha.) Transfers are the 25th, so we´ll see if i get a new comp and if i stay in Trapiche or not. Kinda nervous about that! I sure had a lot of questions about some personal stuff last week that i didn´t get answered you´ll have to give me an update i was waiting all week to find out about scott, and especially andrew, and also if PJ came out ok. Its starting to get really hot here. The siesta has increased another hour because of how hot it is outside. Even the kids get out of school mid day then go back at night. We however, work through it :) Not the funnest, and like no one is outside to talk to and no one wants to open their doors during those 4 hours! We got together with the zone today in our pench and ate some authentic Peruvian food. Our disrict leader is from Peru and cooked us up a delicious dish haha. I lost another kilo last week. In all 6 kilos now... i dunno what that equates to in LBS anymore. Anyways i hope all is good. Some elders got some packages this week without paying! I guess the guy at the post office was in a real good mood. Pres Lindahl is in Buenas Aires with Elder Bednar right now! Kinda cool! He´s giving a special address to the people of argentina this week via satillite. The members are real excited, some members in our ward actually went through a session in the santigo temple with him. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh, another weird crazy cool coincedence. Ask Mike if he remembers an old companion of his Elder Garcia. We found a guy and started talking to him, turns out he´s a member and served in Bajia Blanca. Then to my crazy shock said he was companions with an Elder Nielsen in Bajia Blanca,and described Mike perfectly!!!!!! Same years too, crazy small world. Mike will have to email me! He was asking so many questions about mike, but how crazy. The opposite end of the earth and i find someone that knows my family. Crazy crazy! Anyways i suppose i´ll get going. I´m going to send a picture of the baptism, and me in my whites :) Love you all very much, stay safe and email me even if your in Disneyland.... im more important than Mickey Mouse..... :) Bye!
ElderCampbell
No email from the family this week kinda disappointing! I got the opportunity to step into the waters of baptism this week. I can´t explain how cool it was... One experience i´ll never forget. I told you the story of Miguel Casanova 2 weeks ago. The man we were led to find in Campo Papa (the really dangerous area we aren´t supposed to enter). He was baptized Saturday and asked me to baptize him. It was only 15 days since we had found him. How prepared by the lord he was! The whole experience with Miguel i´ll never forget. They are a very humble family, that live in even more of a humble circumstance. They live in a little ruin with a tin roof and dirt floors. Me and Chesley bought them a new copy of the bible in spanish and a BOM for him. They almost passed out when they saw it. It was like 2 diamonds to them. I was really worried about saying the prayer right and everything but the second i stepped in the water i was so relaxed and it just felt so right! In the dirtiest of dirty estansuela water Miguel came out clean and a new. ( really the water was so gross you couldn´t even see the bottom of the font, to think we´ve been drinking that. no wonder chesley was so deathly ill. haha.) Transfers are the 25th, so we´ll see if i get a new comp and if i stay in Trapiche or not. Kinda nervous about that! I sure had a lot of questions about some personal stuff last week that i didn´t get answered you´ll have to give me an update i was waiting all week to find out about scott, and especially andrew, and also if PJ came out ok. Its starting to get really hot here. The siesta has increased another hour because of how hot it is outside. Even the kids get out of school mid day then go back at night. We however, work through it :) Not the funnest, and like no one is outside to talk to and no one wants to open their doors during those 4 hours! We got together with the zone today in our pench and ate some authentic Peruvian food. Our disrict leader is from Peru and cooked us up a delicious dish haha. I lost another kilo last week. In all 6 kilos now... i dunno what that equates to in LBS anymore. Anyways i hope all is good. Some elders got some packages this week without paying! I guess the guy at the post office was in a real good mood. Pres Lindahl is in Buenas Aires with Elder Bednar right now! Kinda cool! He´s giving a special address to the people of argentina this week via satillite. The members are real excited, some members in our ward actually went through a session in the santigo temple with him. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh, another weird crazy cool coincedence. Ask Mike if he remembers an old companion of his Elder Garcia. We found a guy and started talking to him, turns out he´s a member and served in Bajia Blanca. Then to my crazy shock said he was companions with an Elder Nielsen in Bajia Blanca,and described Mike perfectly!!!!!! Same years too, crazy small world. Mike will have to email me! He was asking so many questions about mike, but how crazy. The opposite end of the earth and i find someone that knows my family. Crazy crazy! Anyways i suppose i´ll get going. I´m going to send a picture of the baptism, and me in my whites :) Love you all very much, stay safe and email me even if your in Disneyland.... im more important than Mickey Mouse..... :) Bye!
ElderCampbell
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Pictures of Elder Campbell
Just ballin´and striking a pose.
Forever live TOMBA. C.D.G.C.A.T stands for Club Deportivo Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba (Antonio Tomba is the owner of the club)
Anyone seen WALL-E? This has to be what they copied for all of that stuff on the show. This is the shopping center in our area. Its nothing short of huge, but its not just all one huge stores it has a mini strip mall inside. This is where we email from usually!
Ballin!
Picture of the birthday goodies.
Pictures of Carmen
The most beautiful chapel in all the land. We live a block away from this one. At the top of the hills overlooking all of Mendoza
Elder Chesley using his ninja skills to clean the mirror above the font.
Cleaning the font before Carmens baptism!
THE BEST PICTURE EVER, forgive Carmen for not smiling its a latin thing :)
Me and Carmen on my 20th! She gave us goodies and as always this vanilla cake thing thats pretty bomb :)
Pictures from Mendoza
This is a house of a member family. Pretty humble yeah? They have a family of 4.
Our favorite stray :) she wanders into our house frequently, she fits through those bars poor dog. Shes one of 50 billion and 60 strays in Mendoza.
Mmmmmmm want a lil pork for dindin?!?!?!
The beautiful Andes, our mountains take the cake but they are beautiful.
Halloween Party Chesley and I organized for the ward
November 9, 2009
We had one crazy busy week this week but very good, very successful. I got to see a miracle friday, as Carmen was baptised. Every baptism i´ve decided is nothing short of a miracle. To think that a month ago Carmen was just living her life when two young men in white shirts came up to her outside of the grocery store and told her they had a message that would change her life. The rest is history. She´s a great woman. Seriously mom she reminds me so much of you it´s crazy. Carmen is the mother of 3 boys and 1 7 yr old girl. The family isn´t really receptive yet but Carmen was prepared by the lord months before we found her. She´s really funny, has a quirky sense of humour and really is the glue that holds her family together. She was really nervous to get baptised and we had to postpone her baptism a week but as friday came closer she was more sure and more sure this is what god wanted for her in her life. We have been searching for new investigators to teach and are really encouraged with two others we´re teaching. Miguel and Miguel haha. Two different guys same name. I can´t believe the first transfer is getting close to being over. We have transfers the 24th. Kinda scary to think i could be getting a companion that doesn´t speak any english. My spanish is really really improved the past 2 weeks but i still struggle with a lot (can´t expect to be fluent in 5 weeks here). I can´t tell you how much i appreciate Pres Lindahl. We had our interview a bit back and he just randomly looked at me and said he felt a promting he needed to call dad, i was like... whhhhattt.. it was completely random but i trust him. He´s a very smart man. And i know he´s had an apostle lay hands on his head to give him his calling straight from god.
TOMBA won yesterday 3-1. Made for a nice day, everyone was real friendly :) We can´t watch the games but we know when they score, the streets go crazy and everyone runs outside just yelling haha. I love getting the sports updates, keep them coming! I was hoping you hadn´t sent packages yet cause i really really need some dr schols insoles. They don´t have insoles here its aweful my feet are in pretty bad shape i just limp around everywhere haha but it´s ok all in the work of the lord. I can definately make it till you can send some. Another great thing to have would be plastic baggies (ziplock) cause they don´t have them here and preserving food is difficult haha. Maybe some chapstick too. That for the future! If you can´t get it out for a while that is ok. I´m doing just fine! We have ANOTHER BAPTISM Saturday! (me and chesley are tearing it up) actually i take that back the lord is tearing it up! Just using us to do it, how blessed am i to get to see these miracles!? So scary to hear about PJ..... i was trippin! I´m glad he is ok. Sounds just like those guys to be doin what they were doin haha. I laughed when you told me about dad and his jalepenios. So dad... haha. Anyways i love you all very much and give you a charge to read your patriartrical blessings this week. Remember the scripture in John 15. We´re not his servants, he´s called us friends. And he´s laid down his life for his friends. You haven´t chosen him but he´s chosen you to carry his name. A lot of responsibility with that, but even more blessings. Walk in his light! Love you alll. Can i get Nancy´s email? Let her know he money helped me buy the new spanish bible the church just released. I´m forever greatful!
TOMBA won yesterday 3-1. Made for a nice day, everyone was real friendly :) We can´t watch the games but we know when they score, the streets go crazy and everyone runs outside just yelling haha. I love getting the sports updates, keep them coming! I was hoping you hadn´t sent packages yet cause i really really need some dr schols insoles. They don´t have insoles here its aweful my feet are in pretty bad shape i just limp around everywhere haha but it´s ok all in the work of the lord. I can definately make it till you can send some. Another great thing to have would be plastic baggies (ziplock) cause they don´t have them here and preserving food is difficult haha. Maybe some chapstick too. That for the future! If you can´t get it out for a while that is ok. I´m doing just fine! We have ANOTHER BAPTISM Saturday! (me and chesley are tearing it up) actually i take that back the lord is tearing it up! Just using us to do it, how blessed am i to get to see these miracles!? So scary to hear about PJ..... i was trippin! I´m glad he is ok. Sounds just like those guys to be doin what they were doin haha. I laughed when you told me about dad and his jalepenios. So dad... haha. Anyways i love you all very much and give you a charge to read your patriartrical blessings this week. Remember the scripture in John 15. We´re not his servants, he´s called us friends. And he´s laid down his life for his friends. You haven´t chosen him but he´s chosen you to carry his name. A lot of responsibility with that, but even more blessings. Walk in his light! Love you alll. Can i get Nancy´s email? Let her know he money helped me buy the new spanish bible the church just released. I´m forever greatful!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Monday November 2, 2009
Hola familia!!
So first of all i thought i´d copy and paste a bit of my email to Katie about a few very spiritual experiences i had this week. I don´t think i´ll soon forget this week for as long as i live and past it!
Soooooo basically we´ve had the craziest week ever. A lot of ups and lots of downs but it ended up really good. We were supposed to have a baptism friday so we went to our investigators house the day before to let her know about the program and who was speaking and all of that and she like freaked out... And just like got really scared and backed out of the baptism the night before. We left with the most terrible feeling. Like honestly i have come to love this lady like my own family and it just hurt so bad. We came back the next day and had the most spiritual experience of my entire mission. I can´t even tell you what we said but by the end we were just all crying and the feelings in that room were amazing. She told us she doesn´t want to live another day in her life without the spirit she felt and she´s going to be baptized this friday now for sure. So amazing.. Then the other day we were walking through our area we´re living in (a different area than the area we´re working in) because we didn´t have any appointments. We were just talking to people in the street and what not when we looked up and saw we were on the boarder of the most dangerous neighborhoods in all of Argentina. It´s called Campo Papa, it´s been shut off from missionary work for years because of how bad it is in there. A few years ago they shot down a police helicopter from inside, and another gang in there stole the steeple from our chaple when it was being built and it´s just sitting on top of his house haha. Anyways yeah we´ve been told not to go in no matter what, but for some reason we both had a very strong impression that we needed to go knock a door in there. So we went in two streets, the feeling was kinda scary but strangely enough we just felt like nothing could hurt us. The poverty in there... i can´t even describe, i´ve never seen anything like i saw in there. We got to the house we felt like we needed to knock on and they opened the door smiling ear to ear. The woman was the President of the relief society in the branch in campo papa, who has a husband who isn´t a member and 3 kids. She said ´´the angels are here miguel, the angels are here´´. Miguel is her husband. We entered in and her husband walked in the room and looked a bit shocked to see us. He got teared up and told us he prayed for 3 hours last night for a sign from god if the church was true. And we showed up on his porch the next morning. It´d been years since missionaries had been in the area. I just get chills writing about it.. this work is led!! I can´t explain the feelings that we felt! We taught him the first lesson in the chapel yesterday after church, and we´re going to teach him all the lessons this week. They won´t let us go back to their house because they told us they don´t want us kidnapped haha, so we´re going to be teaching him in the chapel everyday after work. He´s set to be baptised the 14th :)
I just wanted to let you all know how this work really is led! Amazing, how we´ve just seen miracle after miracle this week. I´m so blessed to be a part of it! It´s been a very very hard week, but those few experiences make it all worth it! So about the packages. I´d really love a few different things namely socks, PEANUT BUTTER!, more garments, maybe ties or whatever else you think. Now the secret with the packages is this. Don´t mark the actual amount you paid. They kind of know the worth of things but in all reality the men charging don´t know how much garments cost, or other things in the states. You don´t have to list everythin in the box if you can get away with hiding the stuff in other packages. Maybe a cereal box par´se, dump some cereal out and put some socks in there. Make sure the package doesn´t look tampered with, use some double sided tape and close it back up and mark that its just a box of cereal that cost you 3.50 or something. Get creative! Haha, i need my pin number for my card so i can´t buy you TOMBA jerseys. What sizes?? Blue or white?? Just to let you all know TOMBA is life here. We don´t even dare to knock doors when their playing. We´d be facing death, i´m not exaggerating that. Death. They´re nuts about futbol.. completely nuts. They´ve lost 2 weeks in a row which makes tracting in the streets difficult cause everyone is just pissed off cause TOMBA can´t win. Haha, oh man so funny these peoples. We threw a Halloween part y for the barrio on the 31st it was fun, i´ll send some pictures next week. We´ve got the baptism friday (it´s going to happen this time), and a lot of lessons with miguel, but other than that nothing so we´ll be out ´´opening the mouth´´ to people in the street. (which happens to be my least favorite thing to do) I love the Lindahl´s with all my heart. President is an amazing man, they truely are wonderful people. Their like our parents here. I´ll actually be leaving the same transfer they do and they said they want to go site seeing after we´re done together, and take the same flight home. Cool right?? Haha, you´ll have to see if the family can come down and join. It´ll be cold in july though :(, that´s still 20 months away and the furthest thing in my mind so we´ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyways things are good here. Carmin baked like 4 cakes for me and Chesley for our birthdays! They sung me happy birthday in spanish and we ate the little argentine cakes with pepsi for our birthdays! Chesley turned 21 on the 30th. Kinda cool right?? Anyways I love you all very much! Can you get that pin number to me asap?? Thankyou :) Scripture for today is......... 3 Nephi 13:31-33.
Moroni 8:3
Love
Elder Carson Campbell
So first of all i thought i´d copy and paste a bit of my email to Katie about a few very spiritual experiences i had this week. I don´t think i´ll soon forget this week for as long as i live and past it!
Soooooo basically we´ve had the craziest week ever. A lot of ups and lots of downs but it ended up really good. We were supposed to have a baptism friday so we went to our investigators house the day before to let her know about the program and who was speaking and all of that and she like freaked out... And just like got really scared and backed out of the baptism the night before. We left with the most terrible feeling. Like honestly i have come to love this lady like my own family and it just hurt so bad. We came back the next day and had the most spiritual experience of my entire mission. I can´t even tell you what we said but by the end we were just all crying and the feelings in that room were amazing. She told us she doesn´t want to live another day in her life without the spirit she felt and she´s going to be baptized this friday now for sure. So amazing.. Then the other day we were walking through our area we´re living in (a different area than the area we´re working in) because we didn´t have any appointments. We were just talking to people in the street and what not when we looked up and saw we were on the boarder of the most dangerous neighborhoods in all of Argentina. It´s called Campo Papa, it´s been shut off from missionary work for years because of how bad it is in there. A few years ago they shot down a police helicopter from inside, and another gang in there stole the steeple from our chaple when it was being built and it´s just sitting on top of his house haha. Anyways yeah we´ve been told not to go in no matter what, but for some reason we both had a very strong impression that we needed to go knock a door in there. So we went in two streets, the feeling was kinda scary but strangely enough we just felt like nothing could hurt us. The poverty in there... i can´t even describe, i´ve never seen anything like i saw in there. We got to the house we felt like we needed to knock on and they opened the door smiling ear to ear. The woman was the President of the relief society in the branch in campo papa, who has a husband who isn´t a member and 3 kids. She said ´´the angels are here miguel, the angels are here´´. Miguel is her husband. We entered in and her husband walked in the room and looked a bit shocked to see us. He got teared up and told us he prayed for 3 hours last night for a sign from god if the church was true. And we showed up on his porch the next morning. It´d been years since missionaries had been in the area. I just get chills writing about it.. this work is led!! I can´t explain the feelings that we felt! We taught him the first lesson in the chapel yesterday after church, and we´re going to teach him all the lessons this week. They won´t let us go back to their house because they told us they don´t want us kidnapped haha, so we´re going to be teaching him in the chapel everyday after work. He´s set to be baptised the 14th :)
I just wanted to let you all know how this work really is led! Amazing, how we´ve just seen miracle after miracle this week. I´m so blessed to be a part of it! It´s been a very very hard week, but those few experiences make it all worth it! So about the packages. I´d really love a few different things namely socks, PEANUT BUTTER!, more garments, maybe ties or whatever else you think. Now the secret with the packages is this. Don´t mark the actual amount you paid. They kind of know the worth of things but in all reality the men charging don´t know how much garments cost, or other things in the states. You don´t have to list everythin in the box if you can get away with hiding the stuff in other packages. Maybe a cereal box par´se, dump some cereal out and put some socks in there. Make sure the package doesn´t look tampered with, use some double sided tape and close it back up and mark that its just a box of cereal that cost you 3.50 or something. Get creative! Haha, i need my pin number for my card so i can´t buy you TOMBA jerseys. What sizes?? Blue or white?? Just to let you all know TOMBA is life here. We don´t even dare to knock doors when their playing. We´d be facing death, i´m not exaggerating that. Death. They´re nuts about futbol.. completely nuts. They´ve lost 2 weeks in a row which makes tracting in the streets difficult cause everyone is just pissed off cause TOMBA can´t win. Haha, oh man so funny these peoples. We threw a Halloween part y for the barrio on the 31st it was fun, i´ll send some pictures next week. We´ve got the baptism friday (it´s going to happen this time), and a lot of lessons with miguel, but other than that nothing so we´ll be out ´´opening the mouth´´ to people in the street. (which happens to be my least favorite thing to do) I love the Lindahl´s with all my heart. President is an amazing man, they truely are wonderful people. Their like our parents here. I´ll actually be leaving the same transfer they do and they said they want to go site seeing after we´re done together, and take the same flight home. Cool right?? Haha, you´ll have to see if the family can come down and join. It´ll be cold in july though :(, that´s still 20 months away and the furthest thing in my mind so we´ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyways things are good here. Carmin baked like 4 cakes for me and Chesley for our birthdays! They sung me happy birthday in spanish and we ate the little argentine cakes with pepsi for our birthdays! Chesley turned 21 on the 30th. Kinda cool right?? Anyways I love you all very much! Can you get that pin number to me asap?? Thankyou :) Scripture for today is......... 3 Nephi 13:31-33.
Moroni 8:3
Love
Elder Carson Campbell
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
October 26th 2009
Hello family. Sorry the email was so dang short last week. I didn´t have anytime after i had erased my whole email. The first 2 weeks have been great here in Argentina. Very very hard, very very challenging, yet good. You always learn to find the good in things out here! Looks like we´ve finally found a new pench (apartment). Paperwork is getting finished up and hopefully we´ll move this week into a lot better pench. It can´t come quick enough. Our pench we´re in now is known as the worst in the mission. It´s got a few..... lets say issues haha. Bad gas leak, non functional toilet, and as we found out this week BAD WATER. Elder Chesley was deathly ill for like 3 days this week. The 3 longest days of my life. I just had to sit and study alllll dayyyy longgggg. I did read the book of luke in 3 and a half hours haha. They determined he got it from the water up there in estanzuela. Hes the 3rd elder to get sick in this apartment so yeah their getting us out. I´ve been drinking the water but no problems for me. No worries i´ve stopped now. As we were sitting in the pench yesterday we had our dueno (landlord) try to break in as we were in there haha. I started screaming in English and i think he crapped his pants. He ran out the gate so fast! He brought over empanadas later that night, i don´t think he knows i knew it was him trying to rob us haha. Little rat.. Good timing to get into Trapiche where we´re actually working! Lets seee..... other questions you wanted answered.... Oh the people. The people for the most part are very very nice. You don´t walk anywhere without saying buendia or buenas tardes. Everyone says hi to everyone. They don´t believe in brushing teeth here, most people after their 60´s are rotting their teeth, kinda gross but hey i love them! Another big piece of news... is........................................ looks like barrio trapiche is going to have their first baptism in over a year :) It´s true. I´ll leave it at that till next week and give you details once it actually happens. Just know that we´re very excited as is the barrio. sorry barrio means ward, but also means neighborhood. I´ll try and give you translations when i accidentally type in spanish. My spanish is still very gringo, everyone tells me it´s very very good, but i´m a skeptic. The couple days in the pench actually really helped me with the spanish i think. I studied so much and yesterday i felt a lot more comfortable and talked to a lot more people by myself. I have a lot more work to do though. I told you a bit about elder chesley in my last letter. He´s from Dallas TX, from a family of 8. He´s is muy muy flaco! Verry verry skinny. 6´1 140. I know i wish i could throw some more of my weight on to him. I´m still slimmin´down a bit. Your probably noticed in my pictures from georgia i had a pretty full face. Kinda hard not to when your in a car all day eating mexican and southern food. Here is different. We eat a big meal at lunch with a member usually and thats it other than a small breakfast. The seista is big here. The streets are empty for about 3 hours during midday. No one wants to be bugged, no one wants to talk. They just want to sleep and be lazy haha. All the shops shut down everything. It´s a ghost town. Its the same every week either on saturday or sunday depending what time TOMBA (the soccer club here in mendoza) is playing. If we´re tracting durning that time. Forget it haha. Anyways i think that was answers to the questions to this week. I´m working hard, trying to enjoy myself. Its been really hard for me the last two weeks here, kinda homesick and what not but i´m sure it will pass as it did in atlanta. The 3 days in the pench made me think about home too much haha. I hope everything is well there. I am so proud of Nic, so proud of the program. It wouldn´t be ogden high without drama in the coaching staff haha. Im´so pumped for the cats football. Por favor keep me updated on the sports. You can send me letters and things to the mission office address, as well as dearelders. I´ll be able to get them every 6 weeks at zone conference. So send those picture cards with stuff :) hopefully i can hold on to my belongings before we switch penchs! We just go out and work and trust in the lord that everything will work out. We talk to everyone, we get denied more than we get accepted. On a large scale. It´s tough to open my mouth sometimes. Im so used to being good with words and it´s so hard to not be able to say what i want to say and not to be able to say it well. But overall things are good and the most important thing is that Carmin is getting baptized FRIDAY!!! Woooo!! Oh yeah almost forgot, happy birthday me tomorrow right?? So weird i´m 20. I´m like a grandpa..... :) I love you all Moroni 8:3. Haz lo justo. You haven´t chosen him, be he´s chosen you to carry his name. Do it in all that you do! You´ll be so blessed, and you´ll find a new purpose in everything you do. When things get hard to stand, kneel. Thats all there is to it. Cuidense (take care of yourself).
All my love,
Elder Campbell
ps. We played futbol today for a zone p day it was so fun and i met a lot of the other elders.
All my love,
Elder Campbell
ps. We played futbol today for a zone p day it was so fun and i met a lot of the other elders.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Important mail info from Mendoza
October 21, 2009
Dear Parents,
As Christmas time approaches we would like to remind you that packages mailed from the states need to be in the mail by November 1st to guarantee that the package will arrive in time for the holidays.
We have encouraged parents to only send two packages a year (Christmas and birthday), and encourage you to put extra money on your missionaries debit card so that they can just purchase what they need here in the mission. We know that this is hard for some mothers to accept and so we just give you the following information so you understand our position.
The mail system in Argentina is much different from the other countries in South America. When a package arrives in Mendoza, your missionary will pay up to 50% customs fee based on the value of the package. If you insure your package, the fee will be based on the insured value even if you only spent $25 on the contents. Remember insuring a package only insures the package until it leaves the US, then when it arrives in Argentina there are no longer guarantees. Keep the value of your packages as low as possible. The Argentine customs official looks at the green customs slip (you fill out) and opens the package to see if it is valued correctly. The package is opened in front of our mission secretary, but there have been times when a package has been already opened and something has been missing. It is wise to put a list of the contents in your package so your missionary will know if something is missing. The mission secretary must pay the financial fee and then charge this fee to your missionary when he receives the package at zone conference. We receive many packages from your missionaries ward members that is full of candy and items that are non mission essentials which end up costing your missionary a lot of money. We ask that you caution your ward members.
We have found that the small parcels sent in bubble envelopes rarely incur a small duty unless the contents are valued over $25. Keeping the package small and light is the key. When you send valuable items like photo cards or debit cards, remember to hide them in your package. One idea is to tape them between two photographs. When sending something new like a camera, remove the packaging and wrap it in bubble wrap with lots of tape wound around it to make it difficult to see inside. Remember that all packages need to be sent to the address below, with your missionaries name as the sender. This is because our office staff can not pick up a package addressed to your missionary. This causes great delays.
Example:
(return address)
Elder Carson Campbell
3098 Circle Way
Ogden, Ut 84403
(Mail to:)
Mision Argentina Mendoza
Casilla de Correro 631
5500 Mendoza
MZA ARGENTINA
Please remember that placing religious stickers on packaging does not help your package here in a country of Europeans, it may help in Mexico, but here they find it offensive.
Also, please note that sending packages to the mission office causes additional delay as our postman delivers on a bicycle not a truck, and the branch post office which delivers to the street address lies in the opposite direction from the main post office where the P.O. Box is.
We are concerned about the content of our missionary’s e-mails from home. Please be sure that the letters from family and friends only contains upbeat and encouraging news!!! If there is serious news of a family death or illness, we would like you to communicate with us directly so that we can place a personal phone call or visit to your missionary.
One last item, the Church does not currently promote having parents pick up their missionary from the mission field. But if you plan on coming to Argentina, the mission secretary must know of these plans six months before your missionaries release date. You may contact our secretary by e-mail at 2012677@ldschurch.org.
Dear Parents,
As Christmas time approaches we would like to remind you that packages mailed from the states need to be in the mail by November 1st to guarantee that the package will arrive in time for the holidays.
We have encouraged parents to only send two packages a year (Christmas and birthday), and encourage you to put extra money on your missionaries debit card so that they can just purchase what they need here in the mission. We know that this is hard for some mothers to accept and so we just give you the following information so you understand our position.
The mail system in Argentina is much different from the other countries in South America. When a package arrives in Mendoza, your missionary will pay up to 50% customs fee based on the value of the package. If you insure your package, the fee will be based on the insured value even if you only spent $25 on the contents. Remember insuring a package only insures the package until it leaves the US, then when it arrives in Argentina there are no longer guarantees. Keep the value of your packages as low as possible. The Argentine customs official looks at the green customs slip (you fill out) and opens the package to see if it is valued correctly. The package is opened in front of our mission secretary, but there have been times when a package has been already opened and something has been missing. It is wise to put a list of the contents in your package so your missionary will know if something is missing. The mission secretary must pay the financial fee and then charge this fee to your missionary when he receives the package at zone conference. We receive many packages from your missionaries ward members that is full of candy and items that are non mission essentials which end up costing your missionary a lot of money. We ask that you caution your ward members.
We have found that the small parcels sent in bubble envelopes rarely incur a small duty unless the contents are valued over $25. Keeping the package small and light is the key. When you send valuable items like photo cards or debit cards, remember to hide them in your package. One idea is to tape them between two photographs. When sending something new like a camera, remove the packaging and wrap it in bubble wrap with lots of tape wound around it to make it difficult to see inside. Remember that all packages need to be sent to the address below, with your missionaries name as the sender. This is because our office staff can not pick up a package addressed to your missionary. This causes great delays.
Example:
(return address)
Elder Carson Campbell
3098 Circle Way
Ogden, Ut 84403
(Mail to:)
Mision Argentina Mendoza
Casilla de Correro 631
5500 Mendoza
MZA ARGENTINA
Please remember that placing religious stickers on packaging does not help your package here in a country of Europeans, it may help in Mexico, but here they find it offensive.
Also, please note that sending packages to the mission office causes additional delay as our postman delivers on a bicycle not a truck, and the branch post office which delivers to the street address lies in the opposite direction from the main post office where the P.O. Box is.
We are concerned about the content of our missionary’s e-mails from home. Please be sure that the letters from family and friends only contains upbeat and encouraging news!!! If there is serious news of a family death or illness, we would like you to communicate with us directly so that we can place a personal phone call or visit to your missionary.
One last item, the Church does not currently promote having parents pick up their missionary from the mission field. But if you plan on coming to Argentina, the mission secretary must know of these plans six months before your missionaries release date. You may contact our secretary by e-mail at 2012677@ldschurch.org.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
1st email from Mendoza October 19, 2009
So i just wrote an entire forever long email that got deleted... Im here! Safe! The journey started at 1pm in atlanta and ended 8pm the next day in mendoza. we ended up getting sent to miami and then on a flight to buenos aires around 11pm. I turned my head to the tvs for a second in miami and saw braylon edwards make the most ridiculous catch i´ve ever seen in my life on the miami monday nighter. Good last american football play to see! We got delayed 5 hours in atlanta then we were late to buenos aires so some guy drove us in his little car to the temple. We were without our bags for 4 days as they were bounced around the world. Lets just put it this way... the clothes i wore for 4 days straight.... im feelin bad for the member that agreed to wash our clothes yesterday haha. My companion is Elder Chesley. He´s a cool guy from dallas texas. big cowboys fan (no one is perfect even gods army). he´s been out 20 months so only 2 more transfers left for him! I´m serving right here in Mendoza! In a neighborhood named Trapiche. It´s an area that hasn´t baptised in a year and half. Which for amission that averages 90 a month is really really bad. But me and Chesley are going to change that. The people are so sweet, they don´t even speak spanish it´s so different. I´ve kind of had to start from scartch. They don´t even call it spanish here. They all tell me my ´´castejano´´ is good for being here a week. The meat is amazing, the fruits are great. My feet are torn to shreds but hey what can you expect i sat in a car for 6 weeks. I´m guessing i´ve lost close to 10 pounds this week, we walk ALOT. Everwhere to be exact. We are searching for a new apartment because we don´t even live in our area. We live in estansuela, and it´s basically the ghetto of mendoza. We told some members yesterday where we lived and they grimiced and asked how we were alive haha. It´s kinda scary at night but during the day it´s totally fine. Hopefully we can find something new before the end of the transfer. I feel at home here. We were flying in and in our final decent we made a big turn and the mountains came into view. Its so much better to be a missionary here. The temptations of the states are gone. There isn´t american music playing everywhere, no football games on the tv´s. Its just very humble and a better place to be able to be in tune. I wanna challenge you all to read john chapter 15 this week. Don´t just read it study it! I´ve been studying it for about 4 days now and i feel like my life is changed. Weird i know! Anyways i only have and hour to write on mondays and we have to come find and internet cafe. Mail is more corrupt than ever here, so the office doesn´t forward mail anymore. That means i´ll be getting mail every 6 weeks so emails are going to be best for communicating! I love you all very much. Moroni 8:3.
If your judging someone you have no time to love them - Mother Teresa.
Paz y Amor
Elder Campbell
If your judging someone you have no time to love them - Mother Teresa.
Paz y Amor
Elder Campbell
Sunday, October 18, 2009
From the Mendoza Mission home
Elder Campbell arrived safely!!!
What a delightful young man you have entrusted in our care. His companion is Elder Chesley who is now training your son. He will compliment your son's talents. We spoke with them today and they are reaching their goals and are very happy. There is nothing that makes a missionary happier than when he or she is being strictly obedient and making their goals a reality. We expect a lot from our missionaries just like we did with our own children, but we also extend love and compassion to each of them. We extend to you our thanks for bringing up such a fine young man. We look forward to getting to know him better as the months go by. If at any time you feel concerned about your son please feel free to call the mission office here in Argentina. We want this mission experience to bless the lives of the entire Campbell family. We know the Lord will bless your family during the next 22 months because of all the sacrifices being made. May we also add that we have a personal testimony of the strength of a mother's prayer. We believe that the Lord answers those prayers with impressions. We encourage you to empower him with your enthusiasm and belief in him. We know a mission is hard, but we know that he can accomplish this hard thing and it will allow him to understand in a small way the sacrifices that have been made by those who have come before him and paved the way in the church.
Thank you again for sending us a wonderful missionary with a strong testimony.
With Much Thanks,
President and Hermana Lindahl
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Elder Campbell Arrives in Mendoza
October 13, 2009
Dear Parents
We announce the Arrival of nineteen missionaries to the mission just three hours ago at 20:00 hours ----Plumerillo International Airport, Mendoza Argentina.
The missionaries were taken directly to the mission offices to begin processing their documents. They were fed Pizza, three kinds of empanadas, soft drink, and ice cream.
They were taken to an apartment nearby to sleep at 10:40 pm. They will have a full day of training tomorrow and by 2 pm will meet their first companions and then will be sent to the areas of their assigned duty on a bus. President and Sister Lindahl pray that the Lord will continue to bless you for supporting a full time missionary in the field.
As you can see by the attached photos, your missionary arrived looking healthy and happy.
Kelly B. Jarvis
First Counselor and Secretary
Argentina Mendoza Mission
Monday, October 12, 2009
Leaving Georgia for Argentina
Dear Miller's and Campbell's!
Well, they're headed to the south... Unfortunately, it looks like
their plane left Atlanta several hours late (bad rains earlier today--
many arrivals were running off-schedule), so we're not sure what time
they'll arrive...but they WILL get to Argentina!
We loved having them in our mission for a day shy of 6-weeks. Their
companions loved them...so did the Spanish branch members where they
served...and so do we!
We only wish them the best as they take their new skills and preach
the Gospel in another wonderful place!
Thanks for sharing them with us--they're marvelous missionaries!
Love,
President & Sister King
Georgia Atlanta North Mission
Sunday, October 11, 2009
October 5th Email
Hey'lo familia!
So this week has been good. Especially getting the news about my visa! Wednesday was really really cool we had interviews with Pres King, but Pres King likes to do things unorthodox so instead of having office interviews he paid to get us all into Stone Mtn Park and we had our interviews and trainings on the mountain! It was so neat and just reminded me of home being on the only half mountain around. I took lots of pictures and will be sending the cards before i leave! I got some major sunburns especially where the white shirt usually covers that a regular tee doesn't. All worth it though it was a fun day. Then i came back to a package from you mom! The digital picture frame?! Genius! I love it so much, and you should have seen me running around the apartment yelling after i watched the vikings clip. If there is anything i could ask for more it'd be more videos of the fam, the vikes, etc. So sweet! Thankyou so so much. Then a few days later i got a package from Katie, i mean honest what a week for me :) I love you all. Conference was amazing!!!!!! I love conference so much now, so weird how that happens. I used to dispise watching it but now i just can't wait! Uchtdorf and Elder Holland's talks were definately my favorites. If it's any indicator how much i love conference i took 18 pages of notes. Yah, i love it! We had the Guzmans come to the sunday morning session. (They are two investigators who had 2 of their teenage boys baptised about a year ago into the english ward. They couldn't understand English so they didn't get taught. Over time they have been so impressed with the change in their young boys that they started coming to the spanish branch. And then asked us to teach them) So we taught them about prophets last week and told them about the opportunity to hear from a living prophet today. They were shocked to know they could have the opportunity. As pres monson came to the pulpit to talk Mr. Guzman leaned over to me and asked ''El es el profeta!?'' I told him yes and he excitedly told his wife. They didn't blink during the whole talk and i could tell they really felt it. I'm so sad i can't be here to see them get baptised! :( But that is ok! My Spanish to me is terrible, but my comps tell me i'm leaps and bounds ahead of where they were at a month. I'm nervous to get to Argentina and not have the choice to speak english! Yet i think that it's going to help me learn so much faster. I'm to a point where i can say anything i want to say and be understood, but there are still a lot of words i don't know, and my grammer needs a lot of work. I totally sound like a gringo too but that will come with time! I just need to get to Argentina to truely start sounding hispanic. I'm sure i'll need a lot more vocab once i get there too. I just know all the mexican words down here haha. Anyways I love you all very very much. I'm done with the BOM for the 2nd time on the mish, and i'm reading the new testament right now. I just read John Chapter 15 and wow it's like my favorite chapter in the whole bible so far. You should read it this week. In fact read it 2wice on two different days. You'll get so much out of it! Anyways i love ya. I'll be calling either around 12noon from ATL or around 3-4ish from Dallas on the 12th so keep the phone close. I wish i could give you a better estimate so everyone could be around the phone especially Katie but it's the best i can do! Love you! Moroni 8:3~
Elder Campbell
So this week has been good. Especially getting the news about my visa! Wednesday was really really cool we had interviews with Pres King, but Pres King likes to do things unorthodox so instead of having office interviews he paid to get us all into Stone Mtn Park and we had our interviews and trainings on the mountain! It was so neat and just reminded me of home being on the only half mountain around. I took lots of pictures and will be sending the cards before i leave! I got some major sunburns especially where the white shirt usually covers that a regular tee doesn't. All worth it though it was a fun day. Then i came back to a package from you mom! The digital picture frame?! Genius! I love it so much, and you should have seen me running around the apartment yelling after i watched the vikings clip. If there is anything i could ask for more it'd be more videos of the fam, the vikes, etc. So sweet! Thankyou so so much. Then a few days later i got a package from Katie, i mean honest what a week for me :) I love you all. Conference was amazing!!!!!! I love conference so much now, so weird how that happens. I used to dispise watching it but now i just can't wait! Uchtdorf and Elder Holland's talks were definately my favorites. If it's any indicator how much i love conference i took 18 pages of notes. Yah, i love it! We had the Guzmans come to the sunday morning session. (They are two investigators who had 2 of their teenage boys baptised about a year ago into the english ward. They couldn't understand English so they didn't get taught. Over time they have been so impressed with the change in their young boys that they started coming to the spanish branch. And then asked us to teach them) So we taught them about prophets last week and told them about the opportunity to hear from a living prophet today. They were shocked to know they could have the opportunity. As pres monson came to the pulpit to talk Mr. Guzman leaned over to me and asked ''El es el profeta!?'' I told him yes and he excitedly told his wife. They didn't blink during the whole talk and i could tell they really felt it. I'm so sad i can't be here to see them get baptised! :( But that is ok! My Spanish to me is terrible, but my comps tell me i'm leaps and bounds ahead of where they were at a month. I'm nervous to get to Argentina and not have the choice to speak english! Yet i think that it's going to help me learn so much faster. I'm to a point where i can say anything i want to say and be understood, but there are still a lot of words i don't know, and my grammer needs a lot of work. I totally sound like a gringo too but that will come with time! I just need to get to Argentina to truely start sounding hispanic. I'm sure i'll need a lot more vocab once i get there too. I just know all the mexican words down here haha. Anyways I love you all very very much. I'm done with the BOM for the 2nd time on the mish, and i'm reading the new testament right now. I just read John Chapter 15 and wow it's like my favorite chapter in the whole bible so far. You should read it this week. In fact read it 2wice on two different days. You'll get so much out of it! Anyways i love ya. I'll be calling either around 12noon from ATL or around 3-4ish from Dallas on the 12th so keep the phone close. I wish i could give you a better estimate so everyone could be around the phone especially Katie but it's the best i can do! Love you! Moroni 8:3~
Elder Campbell
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Email from Mission President
Dear families of our Georgia Atlanta North missionaries...
We hope you are all doing well! Along with attaching our missionary newsletter to keep you up-to-date, I thought I'd share a few other things that may interest you:
*Clean-up following the flooding here continues--especially work shoring up bridges and cleaning out basements. Gwinnett and Cherokee counties were the two areas of our mission most affected by flooding. I read that this is being called a flood that you'd only see once in 500-years...no one was prepared for such a thing. Ten people died and the damages total over 250-million dollars. Very sad and difficult for many homeowners in the area--especially in the neighboring Atlanta Mission. We're grateful for any service the missionaries were able to render. (See Mormon Times article below.) There's been so much suffering...with the other natural disasters occurring worldwide this week.
*The "sick calls" are subsiding a bit in the mission. At least 1/3 of the missionaries called me with similiar symptoms...but most are well now. Please encourage them--as I always do--to carry hand sanitizer and to get their seasonal flu shots right away. Thank you for your support! We'll hear soon as to what Missionary Medical wants us to do regarding the H1N1 vaccine...then let you know.
*The weather here is gorgeous! Brisk mornings and evenings...with an average temperature of 75-degrees during the day! "Maybe" it makes up for the hot, humid summer!
*Nancy and Dale Murphy (former Atlanta Braves star) were here to do a fireside for our mission area. They spoke first to the missionaries...then to members and their friends not of our faith--and many wanted to "know more" afterward. The highlight for me was our 131 missionaries singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth"--it was an amazing few moments that brought tears to many eyes. (I attached a write-up on the event from the Mormon Times.) Nancy Murphy told them that their family motto is, "I can do hard things"...and that's true for missionaries, too, as missionary work holds many challenges as well as blessings.
President King is doing something different with the zone interviews this week (Athens, Lilburn East and West, Marietta) and next week (Roswell & Sugar Hill). They're outside--and so is the training! You'll have to ask your missionaries to tell you where they were held...plus what they did and learned... Spanish Council for all Spanish-speaking missionaries is also next week.
We appreciate you writing your missionaries weekly--they love positive, uplifting news from home as much as you love hearing from them!
"The missionaries need our faith and prayers. Pray fervently every day for their safety and protection, for this is one very important way we all can support them in accomplishing their essential assignment of proclaiming the gospel to all the world." ~Elder M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, July 2003. We are grateful for all of your prayers offered in behalf of these fine missionaries whom we love...and their investigators.
Best wishes to you and your families...
Sister King
We hope you are all doing well! Along with attaching our missionary newsletter to keep you up-to-date, I thought I'd share a few other things that may interest you:
*Clean-up following the flooding here continues--especially work shoring up bridges and cleaning out basements. Gwinnett and Cherokee counties were the two areas of our mission most affected by flooding. I read that this is being called a flood that you'd only see once in 500-years...no one was prepared for such a thing. Ten people died and the damages total over 250-million dollars. Very sad and difficult for many homeowners in the area--especially in the neighboring Atlanta Mission. We're grateful for any service the missionaries were able to render. (See Mormon Times article below.) There's been so much suffering...with the other natural disasters occurring worldwide this week.
*The "sick calls" are subsiding a bit in the mission. At least 1/3 of the missionaries called me with similiar symptoms...but most are well now. Please encourage them--as I always do--to carry hand sanitizer and to get their seasonal flu shots right away. Thank you for your support! We'll hear soon as to what Missionary Medical wants us to do regarding the H1N1 vaccine...then let you know.
*The weather here is gorgeous! Brisk mornings and evenings...with an average temperature of 75-degrees during the day! "Maybe" it makes up for the hot, humid summer!
*Nancy and Dale Murphy (former Atlanta Braves star) were here to do a fireside for our mission area. They spoke first to the missionaries...then to members and their friends not of our faith--and many wanted to "know more" afterward. The highlight for me was our 131 missionaries singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth"--it was an amazing few moments that brought tears to many eyes. (I attached a write-up on the event from the Mormon Times.) Nancy Murphy told them that their family motto is, "I can do hard things"...and that's true for missionaries, too, as missionary work holds many challenges as well as blessings.
President King is doing something different with the zone interviews this week (Athens, Lilburn East and West, Marietta) and next week (Roswell & Sugar Hill). They're outside--and so is the training! You'll have to ask your missionaries to tell you where they were held...plus what they did and learned... Spanish Council for all Spanish-speaking missionaries is also next week.
We appreciate you writing your missionaries weekly--they love positive, uplifting news from home as much as you love hearing from them!
"The missionaries need our faith and prayers. Pray fervently every day for their safety and protection, for this is one very important way we all can support them in accomplishing their essential assignment of proclaiming the gospel to all the world." ~Elder M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, July 2003. We are grateful for all of your prayers offered in behalf of these fine missionaries whom we love...and their investigators.
Best wishes to you and your families...
Sister King
October 1, 2009
Mom + Dad,
No time to write but i'm droppin' off mail and just got word my visa got signed last night. Their getting in touch with the Lindhals and as soon as he needs me I'll be leaving. I think their transfer is Oct. 14th so I'd think me leaving on Monday the 12th or Tuesday the 13th would make sense. Who knows maybe he won't take us until next transfer (6 more weeks). Anyways thought I'd tell ya.
Love ya,
Elder Campbell
No time to write but i'm droppin' off mail and just got word my visa got signed last night. Their getting in touch with the Lindhals and as soon as he needs me I'll be leaving. I think their transfer is Oct. 14th so I'd think me leaving on Monday the 12th or Tuesday the 13th would make sense. Who knows maybe he won't take us until next transfer (6 more weeks). Anyways thought I'd tell ya.
Love ya,
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Email Monday Sept. 28 2009
Hey yalll's, how yals doin today?
Things are finally getting back to normal here. There are some roads that are going to be closed for months that make things difficult but for the most part the storm crap is finally over. I haven't made it to get my flu shot yet. We've been really busy. This is basically the first P'day in 2 weeks for us because of the storm last week. It's definitely cooled down a bit. It's 85 around there most of the time, combined with the humidity makes it feel like 95 but a lot better. Most of the trees don't change colors here but there is this wild vine that grows here called kutzoo that grows up the tree's and just completely covers it and then spreads to others so some parts are just complete canopy's of kutzoo and that vine turns an ugly brown dirt color that looks really ugly. The other times of the year it's actually really really cool, makes the tree's look like people trying to break out of molds or something, but it's starting to get ugly. The people hate it cause it kills everything it touches after 4-5 years. We're done doing all the disaster clean up. We helped a man named Ray Simmons on Tuesday clean out his garage the was filled to neck high water. He lost everything in it including his 08 Dodge truck and his wife's Honda. Ray was like 70 ish, and was a good ole' country boy. Spoke with the thickest accent I've heard around here. He was so funny, not knowing he was funny. Just his stories he told us bout' dem good ole' days were to just too much for me. He promised to let the English elders in when they came next time. That garage was just unbelievably bad, took us some time. He told us when we left 'I sure 'preeciate yall marmin boyz dune all dis fer meh, woulda taken me n my wife weeks ta du all dat. N'it sure does lookalot gooder dan it dit before.' Good ole' country Ray. I won't soon forget that guy. Out investigators keep getting closer. We have two w/ dates at the end of the month for baptism. And we have to couples that have committed to get married, hopefully dates for the marriage and baptisms this week. Dunno if I'll be here to see them but man I've come to love these people we're teaching! I just want them to have this so bad! Anyways, take care love you all. I'll be on for a sec here. BTW Laurie richey sent me a package with some stuff. She's fetchin awesome! No news on the visa... weird i really thought i would have by now. You think you want to know when i'm going? Think about me... I'm just in limbo over here. Oh well, my comps are sweet and i have nothing to complain about so I'm taking it day by day. Moroni 8:3! Love you!
Elder Campbell
Things are finally getting back to normal here. There are some roads that are going to be closed for months that make things difficult but for the most part the storm crap is finally over. I haven't made it to get my flu shot yet. We've been really busy. This is basically the first P'day in 2 weeks for us because of the storm last week. It's definitely cooled down a bit. It's 85 around there most of the time, combined with the humidity makes it feel like 95 but a lot better. Most of the trees don't change colors here but there is this wild vine that grows here called kutzoo that grows up the tree's and just completely covers it and then spreads to others so some parts are just complete canopy's of kutzoo and that vine turns an ugly brown dirt color that looks really ugly. The other times of the year it's actually really really cool, makes the tree's look like people trying to break out of molds or something, but it's starting to get ugly. The people hate it cause it kills everything it touches after 4-5 years. We're done doing all the disaster clean up. We helped a man named Ray Simmons on Tuesday clean out his garage the was filled to neck high water. He lost everything in it including his 08 Dodge truck and his wife's Honda. Ray was like 70 ish, and was a good ole' country boy. Spoke with the thickest accent I've heard around here. He was so funny, not knowing he was funny. Just his stories he told us bout' dem good ole' days were to just too much for me. He promised to let the English elders in when they came next time. That garage was just unbelievably bad, took us some time. He told us when we left 'I sure 'preeciate yall marmin boyz dune all dis fer meh, woulda taken me n my wife weeks ta du all dat. N'it sure does lookalot gooder dan it dit before.' Good ole' country Ray. I won't soon forget that guy. Out investigators keep getting closer. We have two w/ dates at the end of the month for baptism. And we have to couples that have committed to get married, hopefully dates for the marriage and baptisms this week. Dunno if I'll be here to see them but man I've come to love these people we're teaching! I just want them to have this so bad! Anyways, take care love you all. I'll be on for a sec here. BTW Laurie richey sent me a package with some stuff. She's fetchin awesome! No news on the visa... weird i really thought i would have by now. You think you want to know when i'm going? Think about me... I'm just in limbo over here. Oh well, my comps are sweet and i have nothing to complain about so I'm taking it day by day. Moroni 8:3! Love you!
Elder Campbell
Pictures in Georgia
Outside our apartment
Humphreys, me, Carnley at the Hindu temple
Sunday dinner at member Juan Carlos's. Humphreys making sopas
Avacado shakes!!
Lilburn fair
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Yeah, an Email!!!
Family!
I'm alive, just so you all know. The weather has been ubsurd here! It's seriously just reminded me of Katrina. I know its not near that bad but the roads have been closed and the internet down for days. I got special permission to write today from the mission pres thanks to your email to them yesterday. We've been doing some disaster clean up help the past few days. A lot of people we've talked to say they haven't seen a storm like that in 20 years here. We went to a members trailor monday and he was very lucky to get everything saved. I have pictures i'm going to try and send! Houses completely up to the roof in water! So sad! I have so much i want to write but we're at the public library and under a 30 minute rule again. Seems like the mtc. Monday i'll have a lot more time. Looks like you should be good to send me letters in the mail if they get here by next week. I am thinking i should be able to call once i get my visa but i'm not completely sure. Just kind of in limbo here.! We've found a few new investigators and have had some really really good lessons. I hope i'll be here to see a baptism because there are about 5-6 or six that we have got lined up since i've been here. Just an fyi, the day the storm hit we lost our car to repairs. We we're walking the streets when it hit, water up to our knees everything in my backpack completely 100% ruined. Scriptures and all. Really depressing! Better scriptures than our house! (which happens to be flooded but still livable). Be thankful what you have back home. If you think you have it bad think of what these people are going through here! No house, no job, no where to go. It's sad, and we're trying our best to give them the one thing that can save them! As for some little details yes we cook breakfast and lunch on our own. Dinner is always with a member. We have washer and a dryer for our laundry. I'm sending a package home with a bunch of things including my xd card (i found my other one) still cant seem to loose that habit of loosing everything. I love you all, read Moroni 8:3. I have a lot more to write you back about but it'll have to be Monday! Love ya all
Elder Campbell
I'm alive, just so you all know. The weather has been ubsurd here! It's seriously just reminded me of Katrina. I know its not near that bad but the roads have been closed and the internet down for days. I got special permission to write today from the mission pres thanks to your email to them yesterday. We've been doing some disaster clean up help the past few days. A lot of people we've talked to say they haven't seen a storm like that in 20 years here. We went to a members trailor monday and he was very lucky to get everything saved. I have pictures i'm going to try and send! Houses completely up to the roof in water! So sad! I have so much i want to write but we're at the public library and under a 30 minute rule again. Seems like the mtc. Monday i'll have a lot more time. Looks like you should be good to send me letters in the mail if they get here by next week. I am thinking i should be able to call once i get my visa but i'm not completely sure. Just kind of in limbo here.! We've found a few new investigators and have had some really really good lessons. I hope i'll be here to see a baptism because there are about 5-6 or six that we have got lined up since i've been here. Just an fyi, the day the storm hit we lost our car to repairs. We we're walking the streets when it hit, water up to our knees everything in my backpack completely 100% ruined. Scriptures and all. Really depressing! Better scriptures than our house! (which happens to be flooded but still livable). Be thankful what you have back home. If you think you have it bad think of what these people are going through here! No house, no job, no where to go. It's sad, and we're trying our best to give them the one thing that can save them! As for some little details yes we cook breakfast and lunch on our own. Dinner is always with a member. We have washer and a dryer for our laundry. I'm sending a package home with a bunch of things including my xd card (i found my other one) still cant seem to loose that habit of loosing everything. I love you all, read Moroni 8:3. I have a lot more to write you back about but it'll have to be Monday! Love ya all
Elder Campbell
Didn't get an email Monday????
I have been worried since I haven't heard from Carson in over a week. I've prayed and know that he is OK but as a mom I had to send an email to the Pres. wife just to know he was OK..... this was her reply.....
He's fine. I just called him on the phone and he said the mission office emails were down Monday...and, today, they went to the library to email home but the wait was 1-1/2 hours, and they couldn't waste that much time. We've had lots of flooding here the past few days...schools have been out for 2 days because of it...and tomorrow should be better. He said look for an email sometime tomorrow.
Visa has not come through yet...he'll let you know...
No worries...but I understand what you're going through! Usually, there's a good reason, unless they've fallen into a pattern of not writing home...which we need to know about!
Thanks for the email...take care...you're no bother...
Sister King
He's fine. I just called him on the phone and he said the mission office emails were down Monday...and, today, they went to the library to email home but the wait was 1-1/2 hours, and they couldn't waste that much time. We've had lots of flooding here the past few days...schools have been out for 2 days because of it...and tomorrow should be better. He said look for an email sometime tomorrow.
Visa has not come through yet...he'll let you know...
No worries...but I understand what you're going through! Usually, there's a good reason, unless they've fallen into a pattern of not writing home...which we need to know about!
Thanks for the email...take care...you're no bother...
Sister King
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Email Monday Sept. 14 2009
Hellllllooo!
So another week come and gone. Weeks go by so fast out here it is ridiculous.... I've never experienced time going to fast no joke. Days however seem like eternity, waking up @ 6:30, working alll day then finally going to bed by 10:30 (if we're lucky). A normal day goes a little like this
6:30-7:30 Wake up, Work Out and Prep
7:30-8 Breakfast
8-10 Comp and Personal Study
10-11 Language Study
11-12 Lunch
12-6 Out the Door, Prosylite (can't spell it lo siento)
6-7 Dinner Apt
7-9 Prosylite
9-10:30 Shower, Plan for next day
P-day is different obviously i'll write about that next time. For anyone else that wants to write me i'd say email is probably the safest AFTER this week. I got an email from headquarters saying that my 'promisa' is in and they are sending it to me to sign it. It's the last document they need for the visa. After i sign it they send it to Argentina, then they send the visa back. So looks like i'm about 2-3 weeks out. We don't have a time limit here on the computers. I'm serving in the closest area to the mission office and home. I'm in the Stone Mtn- Spanish Speaking Area. We cover Lilburn, Snellville, Norcross, Lawrenceville areas. Basically three english speaking districts cover our one spanish speaking. Thats why we have a car. It's about..... 30-40 minutes end to end. We had a pretty good week. We have found 2 new investigators and have 2 families that are progressing. The one still has the whole marriage epidemic they are deciding on. The mom really loves the church and they have come every sunday for the last month. Ugh, i wish they'd just tie the knot! We go out and give blessings probably every other day, there are a lot of members in our small branch struggling financially, and health wise. You think it's bad back home economicly? Think again. The main employer of our area was a GM assembly plant. It's huge, covers 10-20 square miles of land i'd guess. It closed last month. You'd think it'd really help with the missionary work but we're not seeing it quite yet. We have a lot of single women and their kids that are interested in the church and want to be baptised but they have their former legally wed husband back in mexico that they haven't seen in 10 years and don't know their where'abouts. It's crushing.... but we can't baptise them. We get fed every night for dinner. We have a small struggling spanish branch here but out of the 8 or 9 really super active familes, they all just want to feed us. Allll the time haha. They compete for who has the best meals, like when we leave they always ask if it was better than the night before so they can brag at church. It's great. Hispanics for the most part are so humble! They live so much different than we do, it's neat to see things from other peoples perspective. It's funny to see how ridiculous of a language English is now that i'm learning Spanish. We don't make sense, and it's so hard to Hispanics to learn. We teach a few families English lessons. Good way to get in the house and gain their trust. We also are told by Pres King to play as much soccer as our investigators want to play. We're totally happy with that! It really is interesting though how we can find a field full of Hispanics playing, join them and really just have them accept us! We're finding investigators that way a lot. We go every saturday night. Anyways we live in Norcross officially. We're really closer to Lilburn. If you go on Google Earth you can type in Parkview High school and the church is right next to the school. Oh another note speaking of their high schools. They're fetchin hugeeeeee!!!!!! Their sports facilities just kill me. I'd have killed a man to have their facilities. They basically all play in Stewart Stadium. luxury press boxes, kentucky blue grass, huge megatrons on both sides of the field. Bowl seating on some. it's just ridiculous. Parkview has the number 1 ranked girls soccer program in america. (i thought mike and tash would be interested in this.) They have 8 kentucky blue grass, beautifully manicured soccer fields on their school campus. The sinners always have huge tourneys every sunday but wow what a spectical. I'll take some pictures. They're all lit too. Anways i'm good, luckly haven't been sick! I'll get the flu shot. Love you all, stay safe and say your prayers. If your feeling like your having a tough time go ahead and read D&C 121:7-8.
Elder Campbell
P.S - I lost on of my xd cards so i don't dare send it home. i'm going to try and attach some pics!
I sent a letter to you today about some other stuff. my shoes got ripped, well one did and they are about done anyways. Those black nikes that i've had for a few years. So i need to get some, dunno if i should wait till Argentina or get some quality ones here. Also dunno what i should do about the whole xd card deal......
So another week come and gone. Weeks go by so fast out here it is ridiculous.... I've never experienced time going to fast no joke. Days however seem like eternity, waking up @ 6:30, working alll day then finally going to bed by 10:30 (if we're lucky). A normal day goes a little like this
6:30-7:30 Wake up, Work Out and Prep
7:30-8 Breakfast
8-10 Comp and Personal Study
10-11 Language Study
11-12 Lunch
12-6 Out the Door, Prosylite (can't spell it lo siento)
6-7 Dinner Apt
7-9 Prosylite
9-10:30 Shower, Plan for next day
P-day is different obviously i'll write about that next time. For anyone else that wants to write me i'd say email is probably the safest AFTER this week. I got an email from headquarters saying that my 'promisa' is in and they are sending it to me to sign it. It's the last document they need for the visa. After i sign it they send it to Argentina, then they send the visa back. So looks like i'm about 2-3 weeks out. We don't have a time limit here on the computers. I'm serving in the closest area to the mission office and home. I'm in the Stone Mtn- Spanish Speaking Area. We cover Lilburn, Snellville, Norcross, Lawrenceville areas. Basically three english speaking districts cover our one spanish speaking. Thats why we have a car. It's about..... 30-40 minutes end to end. We had a pretty good week. We have found 2 new investigators and have 2 families that are progressing. The one still has the whole marriage epidemic they are deciding on. The mom really loves the church and they have come every sunday for the last month. Ugh, i wish they'd just tie the knot! We go out and give blessings probably every other day, there are a lot of members in our small branch struggling financially, and health wise. You think it's bad back home economicly? Think again. The main employer of our area was a GM assembly plant. It's huge, covers 10-20 square miles of land i'd guess. It closed last month. You'd think it'd really help with the missionary work but we're not seeing it quite yet. We have a lot of single women and their kids that are interested in the church and want to be baptised but they have their former legally wed husband back in mexico that they haven't seen in 10 years and don't know their where'abouts. It's crushing.... but we can't baptise them. We get fed every night for dinner. We have a small struggling spanish branch here but out of the 8 or 9 really super active familes, they all just want to feed us. Allll the time haha. They compete for who has the best meals, like when we leave they always ask if it was better than the night before so they can brag at church. It's great. Hispanics for the most part are so humble! They live so much different than we do, it's neat to see things from other peoples perspective. It's funny to see how ridiculous of a language English is now that i'm learning Spanish. We don't make sense, and it's so hard to Hispanics to learn. We teach a few families English lessons. Good way to get in the house and gain their trust. We also are told by Pres King to play as much soccer as our investigators want to play. We're totally happy with that! It really is interesting though how we can find a field full of Hispanics playing, join them and really just have them accept us! We're finding investigators that way a lot. We go every saturday night. Anyways we live in Norcross officially. We're really closer to Lilburn. If you go on Google Earth you can type in Parkview High school and the church is right next to the school. Oh another note speaking of their high schools. They're fetchin hugeeeeee!!!!!! Their sports facilities just kill me. I'd have killed a man to have their facilities. They basically all play in Stewart Stadium. luxury press boxes, kentucky blue grass, huge megatrons on both sides of the field. Bowl seating on some. it's just ridiculous. Parkview has the number 1 ranked girls soccer program in america. (i thought mike and tash would be interested in this.) They have 8 kentucky blue grass, beautifully manicured soccer fields on their school campus. The sinners always have huge tourneys every sunday but wow what a spectical. I'll take some pictures. They're all lit too. Anways i'm good, luckly haven't been sick! I'll get the flu shot. Love you all, stay safe and say your prayers. If your feeling like your having a tough time go ahead and read D&C 121:7-8.
Elder Campbell
P.S - I lost on of my xd cards so i don't dare send it home. i'm going to try and attach some pics!
I sent a letter to you today about some other stuff. my shoes got ripped, well one did and they are about done anyways. Those black nikes that i've had for a few years. So i need to get some, dunno if i should wait till Argentina or get some quality ones here. Also dunno what i should do about the whole xd card deal......
Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday September 7, 2009
Holllllllllaaaaaa!!!!!!
I feel like i haven't heard from you all in so so sos so forever long. I'm trying to get used to not getting the dear elders everyday it's been tough! It makes it a little easier to focus on the work so i suppose it's good but i do miss you all twice as bad unfortunately.
So the airport was a fiasco!! We get on the 6 50 flight to Denver and @ 6 45 some security guys come on the plane all angry and say we need passenger Campbell off the plane immediately, we've found something in your bag we need to discuss. So they pull us off the plane and we watch our flight take off. I asked the guy "Is it illegal to carry scriptures or white shirts cause thats all i got man." he laughed and said he didn't know anything just that i needed to be off the plane and brought to the front counter of Delta. So we walk up and they tell them who i am. The lady covers her face and says "I said we need passenger Gamble, not passenger Campbell." Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... my bags went to Denver w/o me!! As did Elder Millers. They apologized a million times and put us on a direct to atlanta like an hour later. They called Denver International and got our luggage re-directed and it ended up beating us there. We had to call church headquarters but everything turned out well. Just a little hecktic yeah! I've decided i don't believe in coincedences though. On the flights we were schedualed on me and elder miller sat together, and on the direct to atlanta we were separated. I had the opportunity to talk for about 3 hours to a lady from Hawaii who'd never heard of our church before. She totally just told me about her whole family situation before we even spoke about the gospel. She was sad because he family had moved away and she didn't know what she had to do in this life to keep her family together. If your thinking what i was thinking, perfect segway into our message right?! Haha it was totally sweet, and low and behold the only pass a long card i got in my church travel itinerary was in bold letters accross the front 'Strengthening Your Family' and a free offer for a dvd on it. Totally from up high, it was almost unreal!
I told you all about the train story so i won't write about that. We came back that night and spent a night at the Kings (mish pres), then the next morning we had the transfer meeting and got to meet my new companions! Yes plural, in case i need to leave mid week they are keeping me in a three man companionship. Elder Humphries (Bear Lake, ID) has been out 11 monthes, and Elder Carnley (South Jordan, UT). Awesome guys, we have so much fun with each other. And we work hard. I never imagined the mission being this fun, yet i had never imagined it being this hard. Everyday goes minute by minute as far as your mood and phyche go. One minute what we think to be a golden investigator flakes on us never to be seen, and as we walk out of the apartment complex we meet 3 new people. It seriously is hard on the mente! (mind) But it's all good. This mission is different for the spanish speakers because we have to weed through the english speakers to find the hispanics. When we find them about 90 percent are illegal (which is ok they can still join the church), but they almost all are seemingly just bunked up with their so called 'esposa' (spouse), and 3-6 kids. The problem is that they aren't actually legally 'esposas'. So frustrating! You have to be married if your living with someone to be baptised. It's hard for them to understand because thats just how it is for them ya know? They're not dating, seeing other people. Most of them have been together since they were 14 but we just cant do it unless they are willing to get married. We are teaching a family names the Ortiz's. A family of four, and they love what we teach them. Our two lessons last week were so good. So spiritual, and they've come to church the last 3 weeks. They want to be baptised, and we found out sunday that they are not really married. Such a downer, but we're working with them and i truely believe they'll be willing to do paperwork for marriage. I pray they will, we'll see them wednesday. Last night was a night i'll never forget. We went to a boy names Erik's house. He is 17 an was baptised 3-4 weeks ago. He hasn't come to church the last 2 weeks because his mom won't bring him. (he is the only member in the family) So we went over to see what was up. As we sat there on their completely broken couch, in this completely old apartment that 6 people are living in I looked around and saw Elder Humphries sitting with Erik talking to him in deep conversation, I looked over at Elder Carnely and he was talking to Laticia (eriks mom), and i was sitting on the floor talking to Brenda (Eriks 10 yr old sister). 3 lessons happening at the same time in that little tiney apartment, and the spirit in the room was like ground shaking!!!!! I thought to myself wow..... this is what it's all about. Laticia was listening to everything Elder Carnely was saying like really intently, she's going to come to church next week as is Brenda. She said she thinks she wants to be baptised but i told her she needed to pray and i taught her how. We'll see how it goes but i don't think i'll ever forget the feeling in that room last night. It was incredible. I have a few other stories, but not enough time to write em. They include watching the Salvadors (investigators) catching two rabbits in their backyard, killing them, and roasting them over their grill. Right in the middle of our soccer game we were playing with them mind you. Mid game they saw them and chased em down. Talk about living off the land yeah?! They're so happy and have so little, we have nothing to complain about! Anyways I love you all, keep readin your scriptures! The good book is true! Talk to ya next week, send some cartas! (letters)
Te Quiero!
Elder Campbell
I feel like i haven't heard from you all in so so sos so forever long. I'm trying to get used to not getting the dear elders everyday it's been tough! It makes it a little easier to focus on the work so i suppose it's good but i do miss you all twice as bad unfortunately.
So the airport was a fiasco!! We get on the 6 50 flight to Denver and @ 6 45 some security guys come on the plane all angry and say we need passenger Campbell off the plane immediately, we've found something in your bag we need to discuss. So they pull us off the plane and we watch our flight take off. I asked the guy "Is it illegal to carry scriptures or white shirts cause thats all i got man." he laughed and said he didn't know anything just that i needed to be off the plane and brought to the front counter of Delta. So we walk up and they tell them who i am. The lady covers her face and says "I said we need passenger Gamble, not passenger Campbell." Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... my bags went to Denver w/o me!! As did Elder Millers. They apologized a million times and put us on a direct to atlanta like an hour later. They called Denver International and got our luggage re-directed and it ended up beating us there. We had to call church headquarters but everything turned out well. Just a little hecktic yeah! I've decided i don't believe in coincedences though. On the flights we were schedualed on me and elder miller sat together, and on the direct to atlanta we were separated. I had the opportunity to talk for about 3 hours to a lady from Hawaii who'd never heard of our church before. She totally just told me about her whole family situation before we even spoke about the gospel. She was sad because he family had moved away and she didn't know what she had to do in this life to keep her family together. If your thinking what i was thinking, perfect segway into our message right?! Haha it was totally sweet, and low and behold the only pass a long card i got in my church travel itinerary was in bold letters accross the front 'Strengthening Your Family' and a free offer for a dvd on it. Totally from up high, it was almost unreal!
I told you all about the train story so i won't write about that. We came back that night and spent a night at the Kings (mish pres), then the next morning we had the transfer meeting and got to meet my new companions! Yes plural, in case i need to leave mid week they are keeping me in a three man companionship. Elder Humphries (Bear Lake, ID) has been out 11 monthes, and Elder Carnley (South Jordan, UT). Awesome guys, we have so much fun with each other. And we work hard. I never imagined the mission being this fun, yet i had never imagined it being this hard. Everyday goes minute by minute as far as your mood and phyche go. One minute what we think to be a golden investigator flakes on us never to be seen, and as we walk out of the apartment complex we meet 3 new people. It seriously is hard on the mente! (mind) But it's all good. This mission is different for the spanish speakers because we have to weed through the english speakers to find the hispanics. When we find them about 90 percent are illegal (which is ok they can still join the church), but they almost all are seemingly just bunked up with their so called 'esposa' (spouse), and 3-6 kids. The problem is that they aren't actually legally 'esposas'. So frustrating! You have to be married if your living with someone to be baptised. It's hard for them to understand because thats just how it is for them ya know? They're not dating, seeing other people. Most of them have been together since they were 14 but we just cant do it unless they are willing to get married. We are teaching a family names the Ortiz's. A family of four, and they love what we teach them. Our two lessons last week were so good. So spiritual, and they've come to church the last 3 weeks. They want to be baptised, and we found out sunday that they are not really married. Such a downer, but we're working with them and i truely believe they'll be willing to do paperwork for marriage. I pray they will, we'll see them wednesday. Last night was a night i'll never forget. We went to a boy names Erik's house. He is 17 an was baptised 3-4 weeks ago. He hasn't come to church the last 2 weeks because his mom won't bring him. (he is the only member in the family) So we went over to see what was up. As we sat there on their completely broken couch, in this completely old apartment that 6 people are living in I looked around and saw Elder Humphries sitting with Erik talking to him in deep conversation, I looked over at Elder Carnely and he was talking to Laticia (eriks mom), and i was sitting on the floor talking to Brenda (Eriks 10 yr old sister). 3 lessons happening at the same time in that little tiney apartment, and the spirit in the room was like ground shaking!!!!! I thought to myself wow..... this is what it's all about. Laticia was listening to everything Elder Carnely was saying like really intently, she's going to come to church next week as is Brenda. She said she thinks she wants to be baptised but i told her she needed to pray and i taught her how. We'll see how it goes but i don't think i'll ever forget the feeling in that room last night. It was incredible. I have a few other stories, but not enough time to write em. They include watching the Salvadors (investigators) catching two rabbits in their backyard, killing them, and roasting them over their grill. Right in the middle of our soccer game we were playing with them mind you. Mid game they saw them and chased em down. Talk about living off the land yeah?! They're so happy and have so little, we have nothing to complain about! Anyways I love you all, keep readin your scriptures! The good book is true! Talk to ya next week, send some cartas! (letters)
Te Quiero!
Elder Campbell
Saturday, September 5, 2009
I've arrived in the Gerogia Atlanta North Mission
Sept 1, 2009
Wow, after a fiasco @ the airport we're finally here. I'll write you more about it next week on p-day. It's super humid I haven't stopped sweatin. We got our luggage and met Pres & Sister King. Wonderful people! As we put our luggage in the trailor Pres took us back into the airport to the train station. He popped open a box of BOM's & pamphlets & pass a long cards W/ a one way ticket to the end of line. He said "Don't come back w/ any of this, I'll meet you on the other side of town". Holy crap, I about crapped my pants! 15 min off the the plane and on to the train talking to real people! The first 2 stops I was too nervous, then an older Elder came to me and said, "If I don't see a book of mormon gone by the next stop we're not friends." I just let my worries go! I handed out 2 english BOM's and had a full conversation about the gospel in Spanish W/ a lady and gave her a Spanish BOM! It was so cool you guys! I just talked to them, bore my testimony, found out about their lives. I got cussed out twice and told I was wasting my time preaching nonsense! Sweet huh? :-)Any ways I got the Spanish lady's info and hope to visit w/ her next week. Full Spanish! She didn't speak a lick of English! Sweetness! Love ya all!
Elder Campbell
Wow, after a fiasco @ the airport we're finally here. I'll write you more about it next week on p-day. It's super humid I haven't stopped sweatin. We got our luggage and met Pres & Sister King. Wonderful people! As we put our luggage in the trailor Pres took us back into the airport to the train station. He popped open a box of BOM's & pamphlets & pass a long cards W/ a one way ticket to the end of line. He said "Don't come back w/ any of this, I'll meet you on the other side of town". Holy crap, I about crapped my pants! 15 min off the the plane and on to the train talking to real people! The first 2 stops I was too nervous, then an older Elder came to me and said, "If I don't see a book of mormon gone by the next stop we're not friends." I just let my worries go! I handed out 2 english BOM's and had a full conversation about the gospel in Spanish W/ a lady and gave her a Spanish BOM! It was so cool you guys! I just talked to them, bore my testimony, found out about their lives. I got cussed out twice and told I was wasting my time preaching nonsense! Sweet huh? :-)Any ways I got the Spanish lady's info and hope to visit w/ her next week. Full Spanish! She didn't speak a lick of English! Sweetness! Love ya all!
Elder Campbell
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Email received from President King
Hello, parents of these wonderful new missionaries! Don't they look fantastic! Thought you'd like to see for yourselves! Just wanted you to know they arrived safely this afternoon at the Atlanta Airport (and the weather was "cooler" than usual--yay!) They began proselyting immediately and had a great experience on the MARTA trains (but a lot LONGER experience than any of our other incoming groups have had--they'll explain when they write you!). They talked to everyone they saw and handed out copies of the Book of Mormon, Truth Restored/mormon.org cards and Church pamphlets. We enjoyed dinner (they were starving!), a testimony meeting and introductions to the mission and each other. Each one is having a personal interview with President King tonight and tomorrow morning...plus they wrote their testimonies and opened your wonderful letters (thank you!). It was a great evening. You'll be receiving two letters shortly--one from your missionary and another from us with a printed picture for their scrapbooks. Thank you for training up such wonderful young people. They come to us well prepared, happy and optimistic...with deep testimonies. Please be sure to write them an encouraging letter every week...and they will also write you. There will be many marvelous experiences to share...Any questions or concerns, please let us know!
Best wishes,
President and Sister King (and 16-year old Connor)
Georgia Atlanta North Mission
PS--Sorry the picture is a little dark--it was later than usual when we shot it, and it was a bit trickier with such a big group. The other photo you will soon receive in the mail is plenty bright!
Off to Atlanta Georgia North Mission
After a day of having trouble using his debit card it was OK'd by the Mission President to meet Carson at the airport to give him cash. At 4:30am here he is "glowing" and talking on mom's cell phone to the family back at our home. Mom and Dad got to hug him and see how he shined. 16 other Elders were flying with them to the Atlanta Georgia Mission. Carson and Elder Miller were the only ones waiting for Visas. We were told it could be any where from 2 weeks to 2 months. Carson is just excited to get out in the field.
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