July 19, 2010

How cool about mason and seeing all my friends again. I´m really happy for mase, he´s a good kid. That activity performance thing at Weber State sounded soooo cool. Sometimes i forget what it´s like to see the church functioning and organized 100 percent perfect like it is at home. We´re still young here (the church) and it´s different when these people for the most part haven´t been born into the church. What a blessing it is that we have young men who are willing to serve missions and help the church grown into it´s own here. Sunday was another adventure, i led the meeting, gave the first prayer, blessed the sacrament, and gave a talk. HAHA, i´m learning so much here. The responsibilities are abounding. Yet somehow every time my knees get feeble i feel a support. The Lord is truly with us out here. Day one of our 4 day training went well. Very long yet I have no doubts that once we learn this and can fully get to our potential we´re going to change the world even more than we´re changing it. It´s basically how to find the spirit and how to teach with it, it´s divine. With our calling we have the spirit but the little extra that we lacked is what we´re learning and it´s going to be great. Just a lot of work to make sure our missionaries all can learn and be edified together so that our investigators can do the same. Mom YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE ME. I brought my camera and cord and everything and left it in Presidents house today after lunch... I PROMISE next week i won´t forget!!!! Just know that it´s COLD here, there is still snow on the ground in our area and the people say it never happens! It´s subfreezing temperatures all day. Miserably cold. Anyways I love you all so much, know i´m out here doing my best. And that i´m praying for you all daily. Pray to understand, and learn more. We´re supposed to work to understand the mysteries of God. They don´t come easy, as with most of the things on this earth! LOVE YOU!!!!!!

July 12, 2010

Sounds like you had a fun time in hot hot arizona! We´ve had a good week here. We had a big ´viento sonda´ yesterday. You´ll have to look it up on the net as to what it exactly is but the way i had it explained to me is basically here in mendoza. We´re in an area where the air gets built up behind the andes on the chile side and after a while the air shoots over the top and just kicks up dirt everywhere. It´s horrible, just hot hot air flipping the dirt around. Afterwards our beds just had like a film of dirt over them, as well as everything in the pench. Anyways it hit sunday morning therefore our number of people in church was not good at all. All sacrament meeting it felt like the roof was ripping off. I have some great pictures i´m sending next week. I totally forgot my cord to send them :( please forgive me! I really want to do some reffing during the summer. Could you look into deadlines to get into training classes and stuff. I´d do like some basketball and preferably football reffing. It´s still a year away but i mean it´d be nice to see if it´s possible when i get home. Getting home in July would cut it short for football season, but maybe you could ask vigil if it´s possible. We´re going to Mendoza next week for a big 4 day conference, something big is going down we´re not sure what it is but they´re having all the zone leaders and district leaders go in for a big amount of days. I´m really sorry about pictures but yeah i´ll get it next week!!!! I love ya. Have a great week, forgive me for the lack of pictures i´ll send a bunch next week!!! Talk to ya later! Carson

July 5th 2010

A lot of out of the ordinary days this week! The 1st hitting the year mark, Argentina getting smashed, and the 4th being yesterday. The year mark passed just like a normal day, we didn´t really do anything because we don´t have anything to buy up in Cordon haha. It was good though, me and Frischknecht joked around a bit about how quickly it went. It truely is just downhill from here, thinking that the next 4th of July I´ll be at home with the family enjoying a bbq is........ an amazingly good thought haha! Not to say this isn´t where I want to be because it is! We had consejo at Presidents house this last week. I came out with a lot to think about personally. I had a really good heart to heart with president he gave me a lot of council of what he thinks i need to do when i go home and the majority of it was completely opposite of what I was planning! The thing is everything he was telling me made so much sense, and sounded right. But I´ve been doing a of praying about what he said and searching for some answers as to what I should do. I´ve still got a year....... well less to think about it but.... Anyways Argentina loosing sucked, the people here were sooooo bitter the rest of the week but what can ya do. At least it´ll be a lot easier to be fully focused, it was hard with all the craziness going on. The work is going good in Cordon del Plata, I directed the sacrament meeting and passed the sacrament this week haha. We´re just doing it all. I took some awesome pictures to send you of the chapel and this computer won´t work :( Next week will have to do! So anyways Elder Knight goes home in 3 weeks and he said he wanted to go to the house to take you some stuff if you guys wanted something from here. I´m feeling busy, very involved in the work of the lord. I´ve never worked this much in my entire life, we come back at night and can barely talk we´re so physically and mentally wearing with this area. It´s great! Just to come home and know you´ve given every ounce that you thought you didn´t even know you had left. Take care of Boozer for me, get him better! I´m prayin for him, as well as all the things at home to work out. Keep taking everything with a good attitude, the lord will support us! I love you so much, and I´m thinking about you daily! Honestly mean that!

June 28, 2010

Man! Sad email not going to lie. It shocked me to hear about Todd, I´m going to miss that guy. I saw him the week before I came out, i have a lot of memories with Todd playing football and sitting next to him on the bus always going to road games. I´m not going to lie i shed a few silent tears here when i saw that. Thank the Lord that we have the knowledge of the life after. Things have been crazy here. I´ve sure had a big responsibility put on me here. We had our first week in Cordon Del Plata, tiny tiny town up against the foot of the Andes Mtn´s. It can´t be a bigger population than 1,000 people. I´d say from 30th st to 32nd st is the size of our little pueblo. The chapel is an old mechanic shop that the church has rented out. Kind of a different, neat experience to have our sacrament mtg on broken cracked up concrete. To say the truth.. we run the branch basically. We prepare the sacrament meeting, assign talks, bless and pass the sacrament, direct the meetings, teach the gospel principles class. We went to church about 2 hours early before the sun came up to turn on the gas heaters in the chapel, then left to bring investigators to church. We got there right at 9 30 walked up to the pulpit and started the meeting without sitting down, haha. Then one of the assigned talks didn´t show so i gave a talk right there on the spot! A bit overwhelming, but we´re learning and growing! We had 7 investigators at church which was great. Our congregation was 49 in total, which was the high for the year. We pretty much packed the house :) I´ll send you pictures next week, we left yesterday to come to Mendoza for consejo and almost missed the bus so I forgot a lot of things (you miss the bus you don´t go till the next day). We travel to Tunuyan (my old area) which is about 30 minutes to use internet and to buy food usually, but like i said we´re in Mendoza today for this ´consejo´ with all of the zone leaders of the mission. Consejo is council. So it´s basically mission council. We´re going to celebrate my 1 year by going out and working! Anyways, i´m happy and super busy. I´m glad i have all of the responsibility. It helps me keep my head here and focused. It´s hard sometimes with everything going on but all that we´re doing helps. I love you so much, tell everyone hello for me! Talk to you next week!
Carson

June 21, 2010

So we had a good end of the week. Our missionaries here in Valle de Uco baptised 7 people. It was a really great spiritual weekend for us. We got transfer calls last night and like planned I´ll be going up to my new area back united with Elder Frischknecht (we have been separated the last few weeks dealing with the companions of some missionaries that had to go home). It all ended up being fine and I´m excited to go up the new area. It´s a litttttttle tiney place called Cordon Del Plata here in Valle de Uco. It´s basically up away from everyone, there I´ll be without a Grocery Store or Internet access. Everyone tells me it´s one of the poorest places in Mendoza. It´s tucked right up against the mountains and is about 85% or 90% Bolivians. Bolivians here are mostly all illegal. They escape from the poverty of Bolivia to live in their little mudbrick homes here in Argentina. (I can´t imagine what it must be like in Bolivia for the living conditions in Cordon to be good). None the less I´m really excited. It´s going to be a lot of work, Frisch told me we basically run the branch up there. We´re going to be the 1st and 2nd councilors, as well as continuing as Zone Leaders. You can ask Mike and Kirk what zone leader entails, i´m sure they remember. We´ve been doing good with our 12 missionaries here and actually just won a mission wide competition and won ties for all of us signed by president lindahl. The world cup has made it kind of hard to work but it´s been neat to see. We´ve gotten permission from President to see the Argentina games, and we´ve been in an investigators house the two times the states played and got to see a bit of both. These last two days all the people just talk to us about how bad we got screwed in our game last week. The people are all excited about how well Argentina is doing. Hopefully they win tomorrow. We´re going to a members house to watch the game. It´ll be kind of a sad day to say goodbye to all the members here after such a short time that i had here in Tunuyan. I hit the year mark in 10 days, crazy right?! Elder Knight goes home in 6 weeks and is willing to take some things home to you if you wanted something. Anyways things are good, I´m praying for you daily. California looked great, you´ll have to tell mel and scott hi for me!! Hasta luego!
Elder Carson Campbell

June 14 2010 pictures

My customized jersey!


Game Day!

June 14, 2010

We had a really good week here in Valle de Uco. As a zone we hit 96 percent of our goals, and have 14 baptisms lined up for the next two weeks. The last time we´ve had success here like that was before i came to the mission when they baptised 18 in one day. (i remember looking at president´s blog with you at the picture of it, remember??) Anyways the things are going great here. The game was awesome. We got a phone call from president telling us we had permission to watch it at the members houses if we got some good work done. It was great. We all wore our argentine jerseys above our white shirts and ties haha. I´ve got a picture for you, it was great. Transfers are next week and I´ll be leaving Tunuyan to a little tiney pueblo on the out skirts of town called Cordon Del Plata. My companion Frischknect has been there for a few weeks getting to know the members and i´ll be there next week. We´re excited for it. Should be crazy, we´re going to be the two councilors up there. So we´ll basically run the branch as well as the whole zone. A LOT of responsibility. Here in Tunuyan they called a newer member to be a councilor because it was a lot for us to handle but obviously president lindahl thinks we can handle it! He´s a great man, he stretches us till we´ve become taller. A led man that is for sure. Amazing how the lord really answers our prayers if they are worthy causes. After all is said and done and we talk about every commandment and every little thing we have to do here, we have to remember the biggest point of everything. It´s that we have a JUST and LOVING Heavenly Father. Who is the only one that can judge. Sometimes we get so caught up in every little detail that we forget really what gives us celestial glory. Which is... The desire of our hearts, the love we have for our God, ourselves, and our fellowman. THAT IS the most important thing. I´m really glad I´m out here. Learning all of this, and getting closer to my heavenly father. I´m grateful I can be a blessing and an example to the family. Here´s some pictures of this week, and my customized Argentine jersey. I love you all so much, enjoy the sunny California while i freeze to death! Haha, LOVE YOU!!
Carson

June 7, 2010

I totally wrote you last week! How did the email not go through!? Hopefully the phone call today made up for it. I went back into presidents office after our call, and told him how just at that moment you needed the call and we´re thinking about me. He started to tear up and just told me to tell you all he loves you. I don´t have a whole lot of time to write right now but today we went shopping a bit because i don´t have a hoodie or anything to keep me warm in the pench but everything is so expensive and i don´t have much money on my card anymore with all the things i had to replace the last few months. It´s below freezing everyday now here in the mountains and yeah..... we live in brick huts without heating haha so count your blessings for a central heating-air system in the house. All the houses here, nice or not are constructed with concrete and brick, they don't use wood like at home, so their just really cheap and cold in the winter, hot in the summer. The streets here in downtown Mendoza are crazy with blue and white in every window. These people sure have found a way to unite through those 20 men on their soccer team. I'm cheering hard for them to win. Happier people, ready to receive the gospel. We´re expecting the worst as far as missionary work during the games. But it´s only during the mornings so nights should be fine to work normally. Pictures will be sent next week that is a promise. Today talking on the phone when i was trying to call you i was thinking the first thing i was going to say was ¨Mom HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY¨ But after a second i forgot then i was sitting there and finally you called and i totally lost it because of all i wanted to talk to you about. But i did remember! It was Friday no? Because that was the day i was thinking about it, thursday as well. Saturday you were of course all on my mind a lot. So cool for ky and karly. Anyways I´m going to go get to work. We have to go take an hour bus back to Valle de Uco. I love you! Ciao!

June 1st 2010

Today we only got an email addressed to Kyler to be read the day of Karly's baptism!

May 24, 2010

Me and the old boys from Alvear getting our World Cup Prep on! (in the new pench i found in Alvear, so much nicer than that old nasty one we had) Elder Briceño (you talked to on the phone for 2 seconds), Me, Elder Hollinger, Elder Ahmad

PICTURES!!! (mom's favorite thing!)

consejo


Me, Wiest, Elders Knight and George at a family night we had for an inactive family. Eating ´chorizo´ (basically a hot dog but with Argentina sausage)


Me and Wiest (before consejo)

SNOW?!?!?! Just a little bit but apparently they don't get any in the valleys hardly ever.


Pictures of the mountains. Horrible pics I´ll try and take some good ones where you can see just how amazing and huge they really are!

May 24, 2010

So my world seems to be changing and changing daily here in the mission haha. Elder Wiest got a call Tuesday night before we had ´consejo´ at Presidents home (which by the way was absolutely amazing). Anyways the call was from President and he informed Wiest that he had been called to be the new assistant to him! So he packed his stuff and sadly after consejo we split up after only a week together, haha. I learned alot from him in the short week we were together. I met my new companion Wednesday. Elder Frischknecht from Provo, he is a stud. He played wide reciever for Timpview, and is a tall one! about 6´4ish, we get along great. He sold cars before the mission as well and is a football fanatic so we´re just two little peas in a pod :) It´s been a challange the last few days. I was expecting at least 6 weeks to be shown how to run an entire zone of missionaries as well as get to know my own area and members, and investigators but the Lord apparently had another plan haha. I´ve been feeling the responsibility... my back last night cramped up and i´ve been having really bad back spasms for the last day and a half. But it´s ok the stress will pass after we get feeling more settled in! We´ve also got a big conference with Elder Zivic next week (our president 70 here, he´s basically over pres lindahl and the other mission presidents in argentina). And we have to present how our zone has been doing the last 6 months and what goals we have to improve for him. Sooooooooo, along with trying to figure out the streets, and people in our area, along with running a zone and all the other missionaries, we have that as well. And a baptism to plan this saturday! The vacation has ended :) haha. Thats the saying in the mission when you get new responsibility. Overall I´m feeling the help of my heavenly father to be able to do all of this. Me and Frish feel good, we´re both new zone leaders as of this week but feel like we´re going to bring some excitement into this. Us two ttogether... we gottssss lots of energy and sarcastic comments :) I´m so excited for Ky to get to baptise KarKar. It´ll be a great experience for him. I´ll write him an email next week before the baptism. Maybe I´ll send it to you and you can print it off and give it to him saturday morning before the baptism. Is that ok? We had snow yesterday! Yeah what the heck right? It´s getting soooooooooooo cold. I couldn´t find my camera today and was having a panic attack because i know you want pictures! I still havent found the freaking thing so it´ll have to be next week! Sorry don´t hate me! So i´ve been thinking that every week from now on I´ll send you something random that happened during the week about the mission or Argentina that maybe you´d find interesting or maybe could help ya feel how the culture is here. This week: Every day at about 12 o clock as we walk back to the pench to eat you can walk by each little house and smell their food cooking, it always smells soooo goood!!! But anyways I love you, have a great week.

Love ya
Elder Campbell

May 17, 2010

Hey ma! So transfer day was kinda crazy i was sleepin on the bus from Alvear to here in Tunuyan when the attendant woke me up outta my sleep to tell me we were in Tunuyan and that i had to get off. I looked outside and was like uhhh..... can i get off at the terminal? And she said no that the bus was continuing to Mendoza and wouldn´t be passing by the terminal where Elder Wiest was waiting for me. So they dropped me off in some park... Me alone in some city I didn´t know haha. I had all my bags and everything (we don't pack normally we have our whole lives in our bags) so i kinda just sat there haha. It was during the siesta and no one was out but luckily a lady walked by and I stopped her and she really nicely let me use her cell phone. I had wisely wrote down the phone number here to find Wiest and he came and got me in a taxi. The week in and of itself has been kinda like that haha. As zone leaders we had to check all the apartments in our zone to see if everything was clean and all heaters were working properly, so we traveled a lot! We did get it all done and greatfully we´re done with that till next transfer. I´m really excited to be here in Tunuyan (the name of the city I'm in). It´s beautiful and the mountains are unbelievably high. It reminds me of home and I feel a lot more comfortable here with the mountains always on my side! I´ll be sure to send pictures next week!!! Don´t be mad for me not having them this week we´ve had a lot going on haha. Next week should be great, on wednesday we have mission council at Pres. Lindahl´s house. Were welcomed into their beautiful home here and Hna Lindahl cooks a big feast for the zone leaders. We do alot in consejo (council) like talking about the needs of the mission, things going on, changes, and meetings/conferences that are upcoming, and the preparation for all of that. We have Elder Zivic the area 70 coming for a conference in June that has the whole mission buzzing. It´s getting freezing cold here! Sooooo miserably cold! The mountains here all white as white from the storm that came through last week. I´m so happy for mitch and katelyn they deserve it! Tell everyone hello from me at church. I´d love a picture of it all re done! Tell Kar Kar happy birthday from me!! I love you all so much. Thank you for all the support your giving me. World Cup mania is getting bigger and bigger everyday! I´m going to have Elder Knight here leaving home in about 2 months so if there is anything you want from here i can send it home with him free of charge so think about that and let me know! Hasta luego, cuidense mucho!

Elder Campbell

May 10, 2010

Being able to talk yesterday was great even after allllllllllllll the headache trying to get that done. For next Christmas you´ll have to remember that card you bought, seems like the steal of a deal! We got power turned on in the apartment today so we wont be living under candle light for my last 2 nights here in alvear. We´re about to go up and play paddle, and some basketball in a sports club here with the whole zone. I got a few calls from ex companions last night congratulating me on being a zone leader. For many they feel a sense of accomplishment but for me I´m seeing it in a sense of responsibility, as well I think the Lord is putting me there in Valle de Uco to learn and grow. President keeps stretching me, he told me he was going to stretch, pull, and mold me to be the man that I want to be. I feel like at times its a little overwhelming with everything that is going on at home, in personal life, and the work here. But I know he is a led man, and that the Lord is working through him to mold me into the person I want to be. He´s doing the exact same for every missionary here, its amazing. Just to put things into perspective.... the next time we speak I´ll have a year and a half in the mission. And be receiving my ´trunky paper´, it´s the paper they send to you to fill out about your release date and what airport you fly home to. Crazy to think about, it still seems like i just got here. Thank you for letting me talk to Scott, there was definitely a reason we needed to talk. I love that kid, he´s a brother to me. Tell Carterror we´re talkin a lot more next time, i was thinking about how i hardly even talked to him!!! I just have to let you know how blessed I feel to be in a family that loves me and supports me. Yes, we´re passing through a rough time right now but the most important thing is that we still have each other. And a love amongst each other. Don´t ever stop to tell each other how much you care about each other. Every chance you get, i took it for granted. Now i wish i could tell you all how much a love ya and think about ya every day but I cant. So do that for me eh?? I love you! Anyways, I´ll make sure to take some pictures of the new area and Elder Weist and I. Love you so much, talk to ya next week!

Elder Campbell