Life as a zone leader!

So this week started off with an exchange with Elder Crowley a Spanish missionary (he is one of the district leaders). We tracked most of the day. He has never really been tracting and kinda was not looking forward to the afternoon of tracting. We tracted a pretty long street. He said he had fun and loved going tracting that day, he said he just felt good the whole time we were tracting and it was nice to know he could do hard things. Then we had dinner with the Jarvis's Then we tried to visit this part member family and this time he was home and he is open to us coming over and sharing some lessons. Then we had our little pow wow with the district leader to talk about howthe missionaries are doing and how the work is going and anything we need to tell the ap's when transfers come. Wednesday we were planning on tracting again because all of work has gone down the pooper but to our surprise we had a little problem with missionaries not getting along so we had to try to fix a few things. Pride can cause so many problems. I am hoping I can control my temper and be a good example. That took care of Wednesday because they live a long way from us. Thursday we took a depressed missionary to a doctors appointment .....you know what it is like to be around a depressed missionary for five hours? IT IS DEPRESSING! The days really suck when it start like that. Friday we took another missionary to the doctors in the morning. We tracted the rest of the day.

The ward is putting on the play Joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat. The bishop asked if we could be the ushers. It was really fun. Saturday we had correlation meeting with the ward mission leader and we had breakfast there. Then we finished weekly plannning. Sunday we had our 6 hours of church and had dinner at the Manwells. Sister Manwell served her mission in alabama the same time dad served his mission ther. Her name was sister Shumway.

I am trying to do this thing where I go though each day of the week so I have more to write about but I don't think that I like it because it is really depressing. Ha Ha Ha. But I'm doing fine. Let the hard time's come. I'll endure them and I'll try my best to endure them well. but we get fed well and I want you to know the ward is always looking out for us. We have people telling us when storms are coming. They make sure we have good chairs. This is the first week I've had all 0's on my letter to the president so that was a stab in the heart, but it is not like we saked out out in our apartment ... just busy fixing missionaries but president knows that anyway. Love ya family. I hope your week was better than mine =) but don't worry I'm happy and doing great. 

John Doty's friend is a great guy.   Love Ya, Elder Campbell

Pray for our zone!

So I need to ask you a special favor. Would you pray for our zone? Some of our elders are really struggling and they can use the extra prayers. You don't have to worry about me getting swept away by a tornado the members are looking out for us, they have us on call if there is a bad storm. Yesterday we were at a members home with a basement and they were checking the weather on their phones. Chesterfield has sirens so we are covered =) Nice and safe here in Chesterfield! I am a little sick but you don't need to send anything it will be better by tonight.

Our area is really struggling we are doing out best but it looks like times are going to be rough for the next little while. I have a strong desire to work hard and I'm on page 330 in The Book of Mormon. I know you are trying to finish the D & C so don't worry about the race. We had some rough days but I love having Elder Hinton as my companion because if there is a sad time it is not too much longer and we are laughing and doing great.

If you get some papers sent to you from the Manchester police department don't worry worry I didn't do anything wrong. We got rear ended and they might send something to the home address but don't worry everything is taken care of =) me and the car coordinator are best friends by now.

My goal as zone leader is to help the zone reach its baptismal goals, it is a tricky balance. I think I am gonna email you some of my favorite talks. I've come across on my mission.

Can you send some peanut butter and honey? Peanut butter and honey are the best thing ever. (Apparently they don't sell Peanut butter or Tuna in Missouri.) Lynn is going to come out and have lunch with us soon. There ins't too much rain here not even close to the rain in Fredericktown. I'm pretty good at looking for tornado's too. When I come back we are going to go on hikes and stuff just to make sure you are in shape. I love getting your emails by the way emailing is something I actually don't mind any more. I'm sorry if I don't share too many spiritual things I promise I've learned a lot. I'll just have to to share insights every morning during scripture study with the fam. Love ya, Mail ya next week.

Even more pictures!

Elder Hinton at the temple.

Part of the zone.

The turtle pinata before.

                                                 The turtle pinata after.

When I got up this morning there was another email from Alex. For some reason it didn't come though until 1:21 am when he sent it  before the others.






Elder Hinton and the turtle easter basket.

SO YUP!!! AND PICTURES

So Yup my birthday was just a normal day out in the mission field, just the way I wanted it. =) I guess it feels neat to have bean out a year but it more or less just feels like I've been doing this my whole life! I am so super excited right now because we have a family that is doing really well! A FAMILY!!! I've been super blessed to be able to work with a lot of families on my mission. We just got a new ward mission leader, Brother Voils. I am super excited because he is an ex bishop so things are gonna start happening like crazy and we got 4 referrals this week!!!! It looks like the ward is starting to love me and Elder Hinton.

It always makes me sad to hear about and have struggling missionaries in the zone and mission and so forth. It turns out that Fredericktown's missionary work is basically slowed down to a stop but I guess areas and missionaries have their ups and downs. I know Fredericktown is a great area! I am going to try to do everything I can think of to help the missionaries that are struggling. Thank you so much for the family support. It makes a huge difference in a missionaries progress and mental and emotional health to have a good family supporting them. So Thank you so much for all you do Mom and family... I can't fully thank you until I get home but just know how much I appreciate all you do.

                       
 Any one who knows Alex knows you better run or hit the ground if you see this look, because you are
                                                                about to get tackled.

I have been trying to progress but it is not an easy road, we slip up and fall down or make a wrong choice. It says in the white hand book that I am supposed to share spiritual experiences with my family... even thought I have them all the time I can't really explain spiritual experiences even in person correctly and clearly so I don't know how I can do it via email. So I just found the spell check so my emails might make more sense now. Tell Sarah thank and that I'm really sorry I don't send more hand written letter. When I do write letters they are usually to missionaries and converts. I do love the family I'll just see you all the time back home and hopefully be stuck with you in the celestial kingdom but everyone will be equal family there. But, you gotta work for it you slackers! ( I can call you slackers cuz I am a missionary). What are  you and Dad going to do when all the kids are out of the house? You are just gonna be lame old people! Anyway I miss you old lame people. I miss Max and I kinda miss Sarah >.<

LOVE YA MOM, LOVE YA DAD, LOVE MAX, LOVE YA SARAH, NOW BE A HAPPY FAMILY AND HAVE SOME FUN TIMES!  
         

LOVE, ELDER CAMPBELL

Then a few minutes later I received a wonderful email from the sweetest sister in Alex's ward. And she sent pictures too.

Dear Carol

Okay, these have to be the sweetest elders we've ever known. They came for Easter dinner last night and we put them on the spot. We all asked them questions for about an hour. You would have loved to hear their answers. They talked about the family, their prep for missions, their mission experiences ( highs and Lows), their companionship  and their testimonies. They are good, good, good young men. You would be SOOO PROUD. I WISH WE HAD RECORDED THEIR ANSWERS FOR YOU. JUST KNOW THAT THEY ARE AMONG THE FINEST! THE BEST OF THE BEST.  The purest of the pure!

I had them stop by this morning to catch a few shots of them for you. As you can see they are a great team. They are unified. They are equally yoked. Our own son leaves for the Philippines in just a few short months. I can only pray that he will be like these two young men. I hope with all my heart that he will be blessed with a companionship like this one.

I send you their love and mine too,

Jeanette Mahaffey

I wish I could climb through the computer and hug this wonderful sister she has no idea how much the sweet letter and pictures mean to me.

     Thank you for the great email! Conference was great! Elder Perry's talk was my favorite, it was truly an answer to a prayer. So I have not gotten any packages yet. I am staying in Chesterfield and so is Elder Hinton. =) I forgot my camera I was going to send some pictures home. Elder Newby goes home this week. I am going to miss him. He has been a huge inspiration to me. I did get Sarah's package. I Love it! will you thank her for me. I really will write her soon I have just been Sooooooo busy.  Elder Rudd and Elder Woodbury are coming into the zone. I am really excited to see them again.
     I am really sleepy today which should make playing sports and planning interesting. Thank Zach for the email those always make me so happy. I really need to get busy and loose some weight! Lynn's wonderful cooking and all of the great cooks here in Chesterfield are making me FAT! I NEED NEW SHOES!!!!!
ECHOS ARE THE BEST!
     I had a huge list of things to email about but I left it in the apartment.... I'll send some pictures and bring my list next week. I have a family I am working with and hope to baptize soon! Thanks for Everything.
                                                                   Love, Elder Campbell

SURPRISE PICTURES FROM ALEX!!!!

     Cute picture of Alex and Elder HInton and unknown young missionary. I LOVE this picture.

    Alex and Elder Beatty in Fredericktown. I am sure Elder Beatty will be thrilled that I posted this. Alex Loves Elder Beatty and I am so grateful that he was Alex's trainer.