Mother and Father,
(I received some pictures and videos from a Brother John in Firestone, CO! It made me SOOO happy!) You are correct, Brother John is a very kind man. He has two sons o missions, one in one of the Buenos Aires missions and one in
Nagoya, Japan. For work he and his father do some sort of oil and gas business. In his words it is really boring. They have five kids, altogether. His wife is a stay-at-home Mom, and they live in...Firestone? I don't know how else to describe it.
My psychologist is Brother Jacobs, and he is awesome! (It's always good to think your psychologist is AWESOME!! HA!) He says I have textbook anxiety, and the only abnormality is that I sleep well. In fact, I am exhausted every night, and sleep the whole night through. He says that is very rare, but it is a sign that I am working hard enough to out-exhaust my anxiety. (Wish I could sleep all the way through the night!!)
This week, Brother Ashby, our ward mission leader, challenged us to teach everyone we meet, especially the ones who don't want to be taught, and to set goals on how many people we WILL teach. Which, of course, is what we are supposed to do, but don't always do well. So, tracting has become a fun experience of how many people will be taught by us, not how many people will accept our invitation to teach. We've gained several potential investigators, and have taught more lessons. The people of Firestone are being taught for as long as they keep their doors open. This too, is what Preach My Gospel tells us to do, but we have always shied away from doing it.
Our mission has had a focus on the "Three Buckets" technique, which is the three different forms of finding. They are finding through working with less-active's and part-member families, finding through referrals, and finding through personal contacting (tracting, etc.). Right now I am on a personal contacting drive, and need to humble myself and rely on all three buckets to find success. You have to be an excellent missionary in order to utilize all three. Saddleback has about a 70% activity rate, which means you have to work even harder to
get in with less-actives. (Wow, that's a high rate!) Anyway, Brother Ashby has been trying to get me to invite ALL to come unto Christ, not just the ones I want to. I am grateful for repentance.
You are right about Sierra, she is a minor and her parents are not fans of religion. It is situations like these where I would choose to sit back and let things play out. Brother Ashby wants us to be aware 100% of the time of what we can do RIGHT NOW to bring people closer to Christ. This is not a gospel of sitting back. We taught a lesson last night about trusting Jesus Christ. Not jus believing in him, but really trusting that he is at the helm. It is a lesson that I need to
learn, just as well as teach.
President Brown announced a rule change this week. He says we are now allowed to listen to any music where we can feel the spirit while listening to it. This is just me speaking, but there wasn't any music I would listen to before my mission that I felt would not be inviting to the spirit. I am still unsure how I would like to go about changing my listening habits. (He always listened to uplifting music. He was an easy teenager to have around!)
I just downloaded the Skype app on my iPad. My username is________. I think the morning will be good. Just tell me when and where. I will let you know next week if your time works out, and if there is a better one. (Now that's specific....NOT! I am so excited about our Skype visit. YEAH!!) Oh yeah, last week's picture was a zone picture. We are on a new transfer now. It is weird that most of the missionaries in the zone have been out less time than I. I'm getting old! (Ancient!) I am really grateful for your support of my mission experience and helping me significantly in being out here. (Couldn't be any more proud!!)
Love,
Elder Andrew Campbell
(I received some pictures and videos from a Brother John in Firestone, CO! It made me SOOO happy!) You are correct, Brother John is a very kind man. He has two sons o missions, one in one of the Buenos Aires missions and one in
Nagoya, Japan. For work he and his father do some sort of oil and gas business. In his words it is really boring. They have five kids, altogether. His wife is a stay-at-home Mom, and they live in...Firestone? I don't know how else to describe it.
My psychologist is Brother Jacobs, and he is awesome! (It's always good to think your psychologist is AWESOME!! HA!) He says I have textbook anxiety, and the only abnormality is that I sleep well. In fact, I am exhausted every night, and sleep the whole night through. He says that is very rare, but it is a sign that I am working hard enough to out-exhaust my anxiety. (Wish I could sleep all the way through the night!!)
This week, Brother Ashby, our ward mission leader, challenged us to teach everyone we meet, especially the ones who don't want to be taught, and to set goals on how many people we WILL teach. Which, of course, is what we are supposed to do, but don't always do well. So, tracting has become a fun experience of how many people will be taught by us, not how many people will accept our invitation to teach. We've gained several potential investigators, and have taught more lessons. The people of Firestone are being taught for as long as they keep their doors open. This too, is what Preach My Gospel tells us to do, but we have always shied away from doing it.
Our mission has had a focus on the "Three Buckets" technique, which is the three different forms of finding. They are finding through working with less-active's and part-member families, finding through referrals, and finding through personal contacting (tracting, etc.). Right now I am on a personal contacting drive, and need to humble myself and rely on all three buckets to find success. You have to be an excellent missionary in order to utilize all three. Saddleback has about a 70% activity rate, which means you have to work even harder to
get in with less-actives. (Wow, that's a high rate!) Anyway, Brother Ashby has been trying to get me to invite ALL to come unto Christ, not just the ones I want to. I am grateful for repentance.
You are right about Sierra, she is a minor and her parents are not fans of religion. It is situations like these where I would choose to sit back and let things play out. Brother Ashby wants us to be aware 100% of the time of what we can do RIGHT NOW to bring people closer to Christ. This is not a gospel of sitting back. We taught a lesson last night about trusting Jesus Christ. Not jus believing in him, but really trusting that he is at the helm. It is a lesson that I need to
learn, just as well as teach.
President Brown announced a rule change this week. He says we are now allowed to listen to any music where we can feel the spirit while listening to it. This is just me speaking, but there wasn't any music I would listen to before my mission that I felt would not be inviting to the spirit. I am still unsure how I would like to go about changing my listening habits. (He always listened to uplifting music. He was an easy teenager to have around!)
I just downloaded the Skype app on my iPad. My username is________. I think the morning will be good. Just tell me when and where. I will let you know next week if your time works out, and if there is a better one. (Now that's specific....NOT! I am so excited about our Skype visit. YEAH!!) Oh yeah, last week's picture was a zone picture. We are on a new transfer now. It is weird that most of the missionaries in the zone have been out less time than I. I'm getting old! (Ancient!) I am really grateful for your support of my mission experience and helping me significantly in being out here. (Couldn't be any more proud!!)
Love,
Elder Andrew Campbell
(I'm attaching his gingerbread house creating pictures from the sweet John Family!)
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