Sorry I din't get a chance to email yesterday. Elder Rudd's back has been really bad. We have been going to doctors all over!!! It looks like he is doing better , he can walk o.k. now. This week I have spent a lot of time up in farmington with Elder Mason and Christensen, we had a great time together. The Ortons are doing really well and their son, Matt, who is Max's age has been on fire this last week. He never cared about the gospel and would always leave when the lesson would start but now something has changed and he is doing really great. The Boatwrights still haven't made it to church but they still love us a ton! Keep praying for the Boatwirghts and the Ortons. Brother Orton has gotten really sick he really needs your prayers.
    I'm not looking forward to tonight I have to dig a hole to bury a member's dog in... it has been his only friend for 13 years and now the dog  is in too much pain. So I will dig the hole and then the member will have to shoot the dog, then I will bury it. Not looking forward to this service but the member really needs the support and help. =(
    Oh I am pro at giving myself haircuts now. =) I've stopped losing weight so I started exercising more in the morning. Let's see if that helps.  Brother Houghton is off to repair damage the Hurricane caused on the East Coast. We will all miss him.
     The best missionary story I have this week happened in the middle of no where, we had been to this house about 5 times and no one had ever answered the door. We knew a less active man lived there. This time he came to the door he looked really sad. Before long he started to cry and told us his wife had started using drugs and other terrible thing that go along with hardcore drugs. They had been married for 16 years and now it was over.... he talked about how hard it was to watch his wife destroy her life and her eternal life while he tried to do everything he could to help her. I am sure heavenly father feels that way with us sometimes. He said he would come to church next Sunday, that he is ready to change his life for the better and fix his life... It was a really heart wrenching meeting!
    Oh I got a letter from Teej!!!! I write him every week =) umm lets see I also got a letter from my new fiance. (I really am not sure who he is referring to, I am wondering what I have missed in his letters) Oh I loved my email from Max and Aunt Gayle. Oh and I got a letter from Coleen =) Oh and I got my camera back so don't worry about that. I can't believe how fast time is going. I am hitting the 5 month mark and I need 1 more baptism to keep my goal of double the standard of excellence! I hope to get 3 really soon.
=) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =)
I'll know next Monday if I am getting transferred. ??????????????   Love, Elder Campbelll

 

No Letter today! So Sad =(

Alex's Address

Elder Alex Campbell
Missouri St. Louis Mission
745 Craig Road Ste306
 Creve Couer, MO 
                   63641-7122

Want to stay??????? Want to go??????????

   We found the Boatwrights! They are doing super well. They are praying and reading he Book of Mormon They just haven't made it to church. We have even taken them on a church tour...We need to set a new baptism date for them. If I get transferred I won't get to see them get baptized. I love them so much they are a great family. Baptizing the Boatwrights would make my mission, but maybe I'm supposed to go somewhere else and let someone else enjoy the blessings of baptizing someone. I would also miss the Orten's baptism which we just set for September 11, kind of a weird day for a baptism but at least it is a date. I would love to see all of them baptized, so I really don't want to leave Fredericktown but at the same time I really want to leave. This place is wearing me out.... It is super stressful trying to plan for this area and find work... It is hard to stay busy and if you don't stay busy then things start to get really hard. I'll get to spend two days up in Farmington with Elder Mason and Elder Christensen so that will be a nice break for me. Last week I spent two days in Farmington and one in Jackson that was really fun. One thing for sure the meeting house will have to be enlarged because if the Boatwrights do come to church they will have to stand because the church is at full capacity. So if I stay I will have spent 1/4th of my mission in Fredericktwon! THAT IS SO CRAZY THAT I AM SUPER CLOSE TO BEING 1/4 DONE WITH MY MISSION! When you have 25 investigators time flies. I feel like I'm serving a South American mission in Missouri. So if I may I would like to ask the family to pray for the Boatwrights, in the family prayer in the morning. Would you also pray for the Orton's? That would be wonderful. Oh, I know where my camera is I just have to wait for it to come in the mail from St. Louis.  I'll send you some more pictures when I get it back! I'll get some more crazy stories for next week.

Love,
Elder Campbell

Spiders and Bugs

     So this week was interesting........ I've been here 4 months and me and Elder Beatty worked the place over. Elder Beatty was a super hard worker and we contacted everyone we saw and wasted no time. I've met almost everyone in town. Now the people love me here. People are always waving at us and smiling and talking to us because they saw me and Elder Beatty all the time. The Boatwrights have vanished off the face of the earth the last 2 days so they were not at church.  The Ortens came to church though!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so happy to see them there. 

      Thank you for the package. all the other missionaries are jealous but don't worry I share with everyone.   

By the way I love the ties the 3 green ones are fantastic.!!! I will use the Pizza Hut card just not here in Fredericktown the Pizza Hut has a really really bad bug problem. In fact all of downtown Fredericktown is closed down right now (all six buildings) because the bugs were so bad. Some of the kids that lived there had to be placed with family services because the bugs were so bad. I think the worst bug experience I had was I when I was giving a blessing and the bugs started to crawl out of the ladies hair and onto my arms. I will never forget that day! Well bugs don't bother me much anymore. Oh, the spiders out here are so big. There is this black and yellow orbit spider that is huge and the guys wife will not let him kill it, and I can't even tell you how many spiders I have found tearing off the siding of the Vacca's house. 

     Well, I should probably get to the good stories of the week. First up is "gospel basher lady and husband" so we were out tracting on College St. when a vey nice lady let us in and gave us a glass of water and let us sit on her couch then she started yelling at us about Joseph Smith being a false prophet. We just tried to be polite and tried to excuse ourselves and get out with out her becoming anymore upset. So as we were trying to leave she is still yelling at us and then she invites us over for dinner. =)  Anyways on to another story and this one is great. It was about 9:30 at night and it was very dark we were riding home from an appointment we were on our bikes.  I was riding with one hand and carrying a box of raisin bran in the other hand Brother Orton works for a cereal company and he had given us a box of raisin bran. So I hit a little bump and yelled to Elder Rudd that this Raisin Bran was really throwing off my balance. Then I hit a big ditch and went down. I ate the road like a champ. Elder Rudd hears the sound of metal scraping against the road. He gets off his bike and runs back to me and finds me laying in a pool of liquid around my head. It looked like I was mortally wounded. But, have no fear Elder Campbell is a Tank and nothing can hurt him!  The liquid all over the road was a bottle of syrup I had in my back pack and the sound of metal scraping the asphalt was from some butter knives I had used in the lesson I was teaching. I think Elder Rudd almost had a heart attack when he first saw me laying there in the road. I always wear my helmet so no need to worry mom. =) Elder Campbell is safe and his ankle is doing wonderful! It is bigger than my other ankle but very little pain and I have full movement. 

     Max, good job! way to get your learner permit. I can't wait to come home and beat you at everything again! =) Do good in school. How is Sarah? I have not heard from her in a while. I hope everything is great for her. She is probably just busy. Oh and I have a million more stories to tell you about Fredericktown!    Love,   Elder  Campbell

THE BRONZE GOD OF MISSOURI (OLEX)

     I thought I had sent you some pictures of the apartment. I will send them soon =) My Camara is kind of missing =( I think it is in South Saint Louis in an elders apartment). It has been really stormy here lately but it has cooled down 20 degrees so I'm not complaining even though I like biking around when it is 115 degrees outside. Oh, by the way, I am down another belt size! That is really cool, so basically I have turned into the Bronze god of Missouri. I can bike forever now and I am in super good shape. I like the thunder storms now because it doesn't really look like a tornado could pop out of them at any moment.
    The Catholic academy is in the middle of the forest. Fredericktown is surrounded on 3 sides by the Mark Twain national forest. So I am in the most beautiful part of Missouri. I love it out here! I love sweating so much that I drink five bottles of water a day. I love working hard! I had another baptism this week so now I have four. I am trying really hard to double the standards of excellence. I'll keep doing my best and hopefully I'll get there. I really want to baptize the Boatright family before I get transferred. I Love them so much. I will probably be leaving Fredericktown soon. I know everyone in town and I think they are getting sick of me. I have more fans than foes in Fredericktown. Everyone might not join the church but everyone can love Elder Campbell! I would really love to serve in East Saint Louis because the people love missionaries there. ( I have heard East Saint Louis is one of the poorest places in the United States, so of course that is where Alex would want to serve.) Fredericktown has 20 different churches. Every corner has a Pasteur that lives on it.
    I did hear someone yell Campbell when we were walking to the zoo so that must of been Elder Beatty. Elder Rudd is from Sugar City, Idaho. We get along great. He was into Speech and Drama in high school. I don't think I have told you about Elder Mason. He is a missionary in my district. There are only four of us so we are really close. Elder Mason and I are the best of friends he is like Teej and Brad all rolled into one. He is from Ephraim, Utah. He has talked me into going to Snow College for two years when I get back. The super activity was a blast. Elder Mason and I spent the whole time at the zoo.
    So no one has yelled at us lately, oh never mind, some one yelled," the devil loves You," not too long ago. So my Fredericktown story of the week goes to the Orton's this week. We were over at their house house and the father has just told us that a police officer had just shot a deer that had come into town and had broken it's two front legs. Just a few minutes later his son came in with two unskined deer legs, dripping with blood. Now comes the best part, he said, " do you want these in the sink or the tub"? Gahh, I started laughing so hard. So Elder Rudd is the driver right now and he is a really good driver he just  drives a little slower than most people.When we were going to Cape, which is an hour away, we got passed on a one lane highway by a log truck. It gets better though on the way home we got passed like twenty times. We were on a curvy road with a double yellow line when a little old grandma with puffy hair flies past us.
    My foot is doing really well. I am able to walk on it all day. I don't have to wear the boot anymore which is really nice. You guys better be getting in better shape so we can do fun stuff when I get home.
    Oh, and I love the family history please send more. ( I couldn't get him to read family history if I paid him before his mission). Oh and I need more money!  Love,  Elder Campbell
 

Call from Elder Beatty!

   Alex's companion, Elder Beatty, called today! It was so fun to talk to him. He was the perfect first companion for Alex. He was released last week and has been enjoying Missouri with his parents.What a great young man. I can't wait to meet him.

No Letter from Alex today because of the super activity! =(

Pictures and a Letter!!!!

     This week has been really great! We taught 13 lessons this week, 5 member present lessons and 8 others. I see that other missionaries talk about the people that they are teaching so I guess I should start too. Nick will be baptized this Sunday, he just moved in to the the Bass's ranch, out in the country. It is a 200 acre ranch and it is really beauatiful. His mom, Candice, was really against the Mormon religion but over the last month or so she has warmed up to it and is now letting her son get baptized and she is reading thee book of Mormon. The Boatwrights are a family we are teaching. I love them, they are going to make me chocolate gravy for me. They have six kids all within 8 years of each other and they are all well behaved!!!
The Vaccas are another family that I love, they came to church last week, that is a miracle because they are super active in their own church but are slowly converting to the Gospel. There is a bunch of other people but I don't really like to talk about the people I'm teaching and the first presidency told missionaries not to write too much about the people they are teaching.
     Thank you for all the Tuna!!! I don't think you'll have to send anymore because we have a ton. Thank you so much for all for all of the stuff. Thank you for the new bike tube. How did you know mine went flat again? I didn't think I told you. Tell Zach thank you so much for the package! =) That made me so happy. I'll have to send my I-pod back so you can put some new stuff on it. I neat to send a lot of stuff home before I get transferred because I have too much stuff.
     It has been super hot here and this stupid boot I have to wear does not help. Tearing ligaments in your leg is not Cool but it is healing well. The Catholic academy is huge! It is 200 years old! The restaurant  is really nice, they were super busy last time we went there, which is super good because they really need the business. I am blessed to be in this area, I love Fredericktown, even though it is covered in drugs and sinful things we are extremely blessed. I have been able to have 3 baptisms which doesn't sound like a lot compared to other missions but the standards of excellence for this area is twelve baptisms for their whole mission. I am so happy I get to stay in Fredericktown hopefully the Boatwrights will be baptized soon.
      It was really stressful for Elder Beatty to leave. I will miss him a lot. I am sure he will call you sometime. I really like Elder Rudd. He is a really great teacher. It turns out that some of his cousins went to Brighton so I knew a few of them.
      There are some really messed up people out here and they make for great stories. Witch lady is one of them. She told us that witches break into her house when ever she leave. While she was telling us this I noticed she had drawn crosses all over her house and door. Then we notices pages of a book were taped up all over the windows of her house. We noticed they were pages from the Book of Mormon.
She said these worked the best to keep the witches out..... A normal day in Fredericktown, yet again.
     THE SUPER ACTIVITY IS NEXT WEEK!!! We earned it by handing out 1800 Book of Mormons. Elder Beatty and I pulled our weight helping with this. We are always low on Book of Mormons. It is going to be sweet. We get two days off to pl.ay. We are going to forest park in St. Louis! The entire mission is going. Oh and by the  way cous cous is amazing and fast which is Missionary friendly. Oh my new favorite thing to say is from the movie "Joseph Smith, The Prophet of the Restoration" It is a line from when they are here in Missouri, 'Missouri proved to be the refiners fire: hahaha, I love to say it when someone slams the door in our face.   Love Ya, Elder Campbell