February 13, 2017 – BEcome Welcoming of Guidance (:

Hiya! 

So, this week we saw some incredible miracles. A few weeks ago, I was wondering what I could do to improve my missionary work. The spirit whispered, "Invite more", and at that moment I got this huge desire to invite people to read, study, come to church, pray. Anything and everything, I had a desire to invite someone to do it. I have no doubt that that extra little bit of fire under my feet came from the Lord. Ever since then, we have been able to teach a lot of people. A LOT. I know that inviting others to ACT helps them to recognize the Holy Ghost in their lives and it helps them to grow closer to God. I love being a disciple of Jesus Christ (: 

One quick story about sincerity of heart: We are teaching a young man right now that is seeking to understand God and his plan. We taught him about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to pray about what we had taught. The next time we met we were inspired to ask a question that led to him telling us a simple, but powerful story. He went home that night and prayed about what we had taught. He asked God to give him a sign. The next day he was out playing football with his friends. There was an edge that the football almost bounced off of, but instead it hit the edge just right and bounced back to them. He said it was no coincidence and he fell to his knees out of amazement. He linked that to being a sign from God. HOW COOL! If we are seeking for an answer to our prayers, we will find one, but we have to really be looking. Then, God will speak to us and he will relate it to us in a way that we can be sure it is from him. 

These past 3 months have been some of the hardest months of my entire life. Yet, I have really been shaped and molded by the spirit. I feel like I am truly learning to follow the Lord with less reservation and more assurance. Something life changing I learned this week was to take correction and guidance from others willingly. We had stake conference this weekend (I LOVED IT) and it was the theme of stake conference for me. I get so sad when someone tells me something I can do better. I feel like a total failure. But the Lord taught me this weekend that the leaders and examples he has given me should not be taken for granted. He is preparing me through the advice and small corrections given by those around me. And sometimes, I am too busy being prideful to appreciate them and incorporate them. I find myself earnestly seeking for suggestions rather than trying to reach perfection in everything I do right away and on my own. I have changed this and I feel so free and happy. A new light has come into my life. 

I know that God lives! I am not out here because this is easy, but I am here because it is Joyful. That Joy doesn't come on a platter, but it DOES COME (: 

I LOVE MY CALLING. I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

​The Lord is real, his enabling power is real, and the love he lets us feel for others is real.

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

January 30, 2017 – Our Amount of Gratitude Affects Our Attitude

WOW! 

A year ago yesterday I boarded a flight for West Virginia….but really I ended up here in Roanoke VA because of snow! Haha, here we are a year later. I have learned so much in the past year it is insane. 367 days ago I sat in my mission president’s office and told him all of my hopes and dreams for my mission. It is a good feeling to know that I am still working hard to accomplish them. 

Our area is still doing really well! This week we picked up a family that I am in love with! They are so interested in the gospel (: 

This week I have made it a point to be grateful and I was so happy! Imagine that our amount of gratitude affects our attitude. I know that Christ like love can make anything work! 

I love my calling! I know that serving the people around us is the most important work we could be doing! 

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

January 23, 2017 – BEcome a Better You and Work Hard for It

My favorites:

Wow! It has been too long. 

How are you? I hope wherever you are reading this at whatever time you feel my love for you and my desire to serve you. If there is ever anything I can do for you….PLEASE let me know (: 

So, an update on life as a missionary: 

We are soaked(: It has rained, and rained, and rained some more. I used to not love rain, but Sister Cutler's love for rain somehow sunk into me….so I have actually really enjoyed the last few days! 

We have had lots of adventures and teaching opportunities. We had a GREAT conference with our mission president where he spoke about the importance of planning by the spirit in all things-well he talked on a lot more, but that is what I got out of it. I HIT MY YEAR MARK! WHAT? On my year mark, funny enough, I was with my MTC companion Sister Huntington! She can still make me laugh really hard and she is an AMAZING teacher. I loved being able to talk with her and evaluate the growth that we have had. She has a special place in my heart. 

​We have seen so many miracles. That is the truth. My favorite miracle was the night we followed up with someone we were teaching on something we had committed them to do. ​They were struggling with keeping the commitment. We were on the other side of town, but we got a strong prompting to head to her home. When we got there, I knew it was exactly where the Lord needed us to be. 

I am so being humbled right now and I LOVE IT. I cannot get through one hour without the Lord. I need him a.l.w.a.y.s. 

A better me is worth working hard for (: 

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

January 3, 2017 - MY FOCUS IS JESUS CHRIST

HI! 

So, my new companion is GREAT! You tell her a topic, she tells you a scripture. You tell her a scripture, she tells you the background. IT IS SO HELPFUL. She is ready to work hard and we are seeing miracles(: She is from Hayden, ID. So, same state but really far away! 

This week has been trying, but my testimony in Christ being my rock has grown. We were at this woman's house and she was telling us that she felt like she just couldn't be everyone's rock anymore and that she didn't have enough strength. It reminded me that I do not have to be anyone's rock. I just need to build upon the surest rock there is, Christ! Then I can help the people I love build their foundation on him as well. 

So, my goal for this year is to always have my focus on Christ. When I am focused on him, I find peace and joy, not perfection, but peace and joy that lasts. When I focus on ANYTHING else I have a rough time staying just above water. 

I took my mission president’s invitation to ponder who I have become and to make goals about who I desire to become. This past year I focused my effort on always improving myself and becoming who I was meant to be. I think the biggest change I have seen this year is the location of my name tag. I am grateful for the black one on my clothing, but I am most grateful for the one engraved on my heart! I am a missionary always because the gospel makes up who I am. The joy that comes from building God's kingdom can't be beat and it keeps on coming. I find that I don't just do missionary work when I "have to". We met a woman at a baptism and taught her the Restoration. We invited her to meet with missionaries because she was interested, but she wouldn't. I asked her to email me the picture we had taken together. She traveled back later that week to her hometown in Kentucky and I kept in touch with her each week during my email time. Short story, her heart softened and we promised God would send her the right missionaries to teach her. She agreed to meet with them and then a few short days later the Lord led them to her in the parking lot of a grocery store. NICE (: I find so much happiness in sharing the gospel with others. Working, learning, searching, and praying are what bring me happiness in my life. I like to share that (: 

Sister Compton stopped smoking this week! Please pray for her and Dale to be able to live the word of wisdom!! 

I love my calling! 

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

December 28, 2016 - BEcome a "Wise Man"

OH! HEY!!!!!! 

So, Christmas on a mission was GREAT and warm (: 

We made Christmas gifts filled with all of the extra candy we had and used it as a way to meet people in our area. We felt impressed to go to a less active’s home. We PLANNED what we wanted to use as our approach to get in the home and teach them. Service came to mind. We got to the house that day and the mom answered. We gave her the gift and told her that we had a few minutes and wanted to do something for her. She told us that her husband and two boys were outside moving wood. We went and helped move the wood and then after we were done we asked to teach a brief (10 min) lesson. They didn't let us in, but we got to teach the whole family outside! It was great to see how much the family’s heart softened all because we followed our mission president's counsel to be like Ammon in the Book of Mormon and serve!  

Mama Campbell and the crew sent us matching Christmas jammies so that was exciting. 

We had a fun Christmas eve dinner appointment and we got to play in a white elephant gift exchange and sing Christmas carols. It was great! 

Christmas morning we woke up, opened presents ( THANK YOU (: ) and made pancakes and took them to a man who couldn't be with his family Christmas morning. Except….he wasn't home so we left them on the porch. 

Our Sacrament meeting service was STELLAR. It was a music program and our ward knows how to sing! (: A man in our ward wrote a song called "He Came Here Just For Me". The kids sang it and It was amazing. It talks about how Christ came and suffered for each of us. It is a good reminder of how much he loves us! 

We got to go to Sister Compton's (we are teaching her) for lunch and meet her family. Dale is her boyfriend and I just love him! He has been warming up to us. We got to pray before lunch with most of their family and it was cool to feel the spirit enter the room as we did. 

Then we went to the Kasmer’s and skyped/ate some snacks. WE LOVE THEM. They have two girls that make us laugh constantly. 

We got to go to the Lubeck's for dinner. This family is AMAZING and truly have the desire to serve the people around them and share the gospel. They invited a neighbor to church and he came on Christmas! Then, we went caroling with them after dinner and while caroling we got to see him and set up a time for dinner and a lesson this week. (: I have never gone caroling on Christmas, but it WAS SO FUN! 

Side note: I love eating with people. We were with a family in the ward setting a teaching appointment up and the mom says, "We have to eat with them. If you want to get to know someone you have to eat with them." It really isn't a terrible rule of thumb (: 

My challenge this week is to BEcome a "wise man". I have thought about this topic a ton during the Christmas season. When we were at families’ homes on Christmas we showed the video I showed my family during my Skype home. It shows modern people in our world seeking the spirit of Christ to guide them to an opportunity to serve and give of themselves.

The dad asks his daughter: why where they called wise men? 

her: Because they knew about the star 

him:  Who were they listening to to know about the star? Were they reading magazines or were they reading their scriptures? 

her: the scriptures. 

him: Yeah! They were wise because they listened to the prophets and read scriptures. 

I testify that we become wise by serving our Maker, reading scripture and praying DAILY, and listening then obeying with exactness the counsel given by God's servants - prophets and apostles.   

Transfer information: Sister Merrifield is going to Huntington, WV and I will find out who my new companion is tomorrow! She is brand new in the mission and I am so excited! 

LOVE YOU LOTS (: 

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

December 19, 2016 - BEcome More Like Christ

HEY! 

So, MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

We still have no snow on the ground, yet I feel like it is the whitest Christmas yet! Not snow white, but PURE white! It has been so cool to be able to help others progress towards baptism and towards the temple! 

Speaking of, Sister Rhodes was baptized this Saturday. Watching her conversion strengthened my faith. This woman loves Christ. 

I got to go on exchanges (a 24-hour companion switch for training purposes) WITH SISTER CUTLER THIS WEEK. Yup, my trainer. Don't judge an exchange by its picture, because the actual exchange was much better than the quality of the picture. I learned so much from her and we have so much fun doing missionary work. I was reminded that one of the biggest blessings of my mission is meeting some of my best friends. We saw so many cool things happen that day. 

​Sister Merrifield and I are seeing great things happen in this area! GREAT! 

A lesson we had in church this week had a part that said this: Christ truly is our best gift! 

MERRY CHRISTmas. My challenge to you is to pick one action from the quote that you want to do more in your life. (: 

Only Christ can be our ideal, our “bright and morning star” (Rev. 22:16). Only he can say without any reservation, “Follow me, learn of me, [and] do the things you have seen me do. Drink of my water and eat of my bread. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the law and the light. Look unto me and ye shall live. Love one another as I have loved you” (see Matt.11:29; 16:24;John 4:13–14; 6:35, 51; 7:37; 13:34; 14:6; 3 Ne. 15:9;27:21).

I love my calling! 

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

December 12, 2016 – BEcome a Journal Keeper

Hi family and friends!

This week was really, really good. So, something that I learned this week was that everything ties back to Christ and everything ties back to the fact that Christ brought back part of his gospel. That’s important and that’s the message that we are called of him to teach and to declare, that part of his gospel, and to teach people that it is back on the earth and that they can have everlasting life.

So, this week we were teaching this super awesome family. We were just teaching the mom that night in her home and I felt like I needed to show her a video even though we had planned to teach her the first message that we teach which is the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we were sitting there I felt like I should show her this random video on mormon.org. So, I followed the prompting and we showed it to her and I was like okay, I don’t know how this is going to tie into the restoration, but we will figure it out. In it there was a quote from President Monson, from the prophet today, and she asked who is that? It was a perfect transition to be able to talk about how we believe that we have a modern-day prophet on the earth today. So, my testimony grew in the fact that truly everything ties back to the restoration and that’s the message that we are called to share. And after we get to share that, people understand why we share more and what the Book of Mormon is and that’s why it is important for people to listen to the missionaries and to be reminded of Joseph Smith and of how Jesus Christ used him as a prophet on the earth.

Something else that was really cool is this week we were walking down a street that we had been told to go to by a member. We were ready to go in and I felt like we should just knock one last door and so I said, “Sister Merrifield, I feel like we need to knock one last door.” She was like “okay, let’s knock this one.” So, we walk up and we knock it and it is this lady who is so prepared for the gospel. She had actually watched a video in her own church about the Mormon religion and she wanted to know more about it, but she had just never really done any searching or anything like that, but she had always had kind of an interest in it. So, we were able to teach her right then and there and she was so grateful that her questions had been answered. We get to go back and teach her tomorrow and I’m so excited! So, that will be really cool.

This week I have learned a lot about how important it is to think about Christ but also to think about him with pen and paper, to just really write down the feelings that we have and to be able to go back and look at them later and to think about how we felt, especially when times are rough. I thought that was really cool and so this week I wanted to challenge everybody to BEcome and journal keeper, even if it is a small journal and we just write down one thing that we learned that day or one reason we felt like we needed to be on earth that day or something like that. I just think it’s so important that we keep that journal and as I go back and I look each week, when I come to write my emails it is so helpful to be able to remember all of the spiritual experiences that I had……or at least some of them because if I wrote everything down, that would be a really long journal! But I write some of them down so that’s good(:

Well, I love my calling and one of my favorite scriptures that our mission president always has us recite is 3 Nephi 5:13. It says “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.” That is such a true statement. I know that I really am called to be a representative of Jesus Christ right now. It’s the best calling in the entire world and I am so grateful for it.

I love you all!

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

December 5, 2016 - HERE FOR A REASON (:

Oh, Hi there! I hope that you are having a fantastic week. (: 

SO...this week was great and we saw some m.a.j.o.r. miracles. Let's begin: 

I finished the Book of Mormon right on track ​with our mission! (shout out to momma Campbell she read it with me in the two month span)​ and IT FELT SO GOOD to be unified and accomplish something that I have had a goal to do for a very long time. When I finished, I got on my knees and I pondered about what I had just done. I felt the spirit bear truth to me that I know -nothing wavering-  that every word of that book of scripture is true and I have a testimony that God speaks to ME through reading it. I used to believe this, and it did happen, but since the challenge​ of reading the whole Book of Mormon in 2 months​ I received revelation every time I picked up that book. Just what I needed in that very moment. I have a more solid understanding of what kind of power the scriptures bring into my life. ​I KNOW that I am sharing truth with God's children.

We were talking with a woman the other day. Her and her husband aren't interested, but they prayed for us and are very sweet! She was saying how her pastor was mentioning that being dedicated to living and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing a young adult could be doing. So often young adults will push off religion and "live life in the moment" as they procrastinate developing a stronger relationship with God until later on in their life. He said that he had studied the life of many of the Disciples in the Bible and he said that a good amount of the young fishermen who Christ called to be his Disciples were in fact young adults still living under the household of their fathers. ​I thought about that statement a lot this past little bit. These men turned out to BE AMAZING and so blessed. I am thankful that out of all of the things that I could have been choosing to do in my life right now I chose to serve God. To drop my net, and become a fisher of men (: I know that IT IS IN FACT never too early to turn our hearts and our will to our Father in Heaven. I testify that we are rewarded beyond measure for our earnest desire to be a consecrated follower of Christ. 

​Speaking of being a fisher of men….I​ LOVE this area. We saw so much progress in the last 7 days there is no way it could be anything short of a miracle. 

ULZII​ WAS A MIRACLE. She is a Mongolian woman who lives here with her husband and son (they have been driving truck so we haven't picked them up yet). They converted to Christianity in Mongolia and moved to the U.S. 6 years ago. We met her while we were working the area in an apartment complex. She walked by us and we started to talk with her. She had to go that day, but we asked for a return appointment a few days later. When we went back she opens up the door and says, "I need the address to your church! I am coming Sunday. " NICE! She came (:  She told us that she has been asking people for 4 years now about a church to go to, but no one ever really said anything. She had explainable amounts of joy on her face. In Relief Society she looked over at me and said, "This is good. Thank you. I am so happy here." AHHHH(: I love my calling. We can trust that God knows why he put us in an area. ​I know that I am supposed to be HERE. ​She was talking with us and she said to me, "You look familiar. I think I have met you before". Which is funny because I felt a connection with her too. I told her it was probably because we knew each other in heaven. ​My challenge to you is to pray and ask God who you need to reach out to. There are people that need our light. If we ask, God will show us why we are where we are. 

​We are so well taken care of here in this area. I love the members that we live next to and I love our ward. Someone did a sweet secret act of kindness and gave us this cute advent calendar with a gift for every day leading up to Christmas. We are grateful for them! 

Funny story, this week was crazy. Sister M. got sick and so we went on a quick split. I got to go out and teach with a few members of the ward. They both taught me so much and It was a fun experience. 

No snow yet!  

This season is truly the best time to spread God's good news (: ​

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

The closest thing I will get to a temple on my mission (: 

I talked to this nice man at the gas station. I gave him a light the world card, he gave me this. Being friendly pays off. This thing is cool! 

I gave her G's picture she sent to give out and a spud! Sister Compton!

No words......too excited (:

November 28, 2016 – #LightTheWorld (:

HI!

So this week was so good. It still hasn't snowed here and it has been beautiful (shut out to a warm Thanksgiving)! Our area is a bunch of windy roads and some of the best humans alive live on them. 

We are teaching a woman whose husband joined the church a few years ago. I loved getting to teach her this week because we shared with her the plan of salvation and she almost flew out of her seat she was so excited to hear how perfect it was. (: 

Thanksgiving turned out to be a blast. There is this young couple in our ward and we spent time with them doing service. They had a friend that wasn't a member tag along and we got to go on a nature walk with her before dinner so it was fun! We had lots of good food and then we taught the rest of the night. 

My challenge this week is to light the world. I am p.u.m.p.e.d. for this Christmas season because we as missionaries get to share the message about the greatest light we have: Christ! Please go to www.lds.org and go to the #lighttheworld page! Watch the kick off video then look at the advent calendar. For each day of December there is an idea for service. I can't wait to hear your stories and see pictures about how you are lighting the world where you are (: And I will do the same! Share this with everyone you know and #lighttheworld (:

I LOVE CHRIST. HE IS the light of the world and I know that sharing our testimony of the Savior with others by word or through service will brighten lives! 

I love my calling and I am thankful for all of the support that you give me!  

-- 

Sister Justina Campbell

West Virginia Charleston Mission

Thanksgiving day service and fun with great people!

Sister Merrifield got deer poo on her shoe and it was the funniest thing to watch her reaction. She keeps me laughing (:

Zone conference with Elder and Sister Meurs of the Seventy. It was so fun to get to be taught by him about sharing the gospel! He is an amazing man and I know that he is called of God.