Week 25

Hey y'all!

Transfer calls came bright and early this morning and I will be leaving the City of Gold tonight! It was a bittersweet call but I could not be more excited as to what is in store next! 

This week was a really cool and spiritual week! On Saturday we were able to travel to Jackson Mississippi as an entire mission and meet Elder Jeffrey R. Holland! He truly is an apostle of the Lord! He is also very passionate about missionary work. And his testimony of it is incredible! It was such an amazing and spiritually uplifting experience I will never forget it!  

Also this week we had some amazing progress with a cute couple! Their names are Dustyn and Dakoda and they are just the coolest people ever! We started teaching them about a month ago and this week we talked a lot about baptism but they said they wanted to pray about it and see if it was right for them. Well On Saturday night they took us out to eat and said they were feeling good about it but wanted a little more time to pray and really make sure. On Sunday they came to church and I told them I was leaving. They told me that I had to come back for their baptisms which I think took us all at surprise, because they had received their answers! It was the coolest! So hopefully this week they will have a date set and I will be able to figure out a way to make it back for that. (:  

Remember that the Lord ALWAYS answers your prayers, even if it's not exactly the way you thought he would. He is so mindful of us and cares and loves each of us so dearly! 

Have a Blessed week! Don't forget to pray!

-Sister DeCamp

Week 24

Hey y'all!

So this week was a really good and busy week. We have been working really hard and it is slowly starting to pay off! This week we were able to find a lot of new investigators. One was a miracle/ tender mercy of the Lord. We have an investigator named Dustyn and he was progressing really really well, then all of a sudden we hit a wall where he was always telling us he was too busy to meet with us and couldn't make our appointments because he would have to go to Louisiana. We were getting really confused. So we decided to just text him and see if he would have time to meet with us for 30 minutes and the ice cream shop in town. He said that would work great and he could do it. Well when we walk up we see him and a girl. We were excited to meet her and found out that is was his girlfriend who he had been helping move here from Louisiana who is really interested in the gospel and has actually taken lessons before! The Lord is great! 

 We also had a pretty neat experience this week with a family! We went tracting and decided to knock on a really pretty house, usually nobody is home or they aren't very accepting, but hey why not try. Well we knocked and they told us to come back is a few days. Usually means no in a kind way. Well we went back and were welcomed in. We got to talking and he said that he had a weird experience when we knocked on his door, That morning he had been looking at moving to Utah of all places and as he was googling it, he happened upon the Church's website and was looking at it. Then we showed up on his front porch! So that was pretty neat! We are now teaching them and they are a really awesome family!

Yesterday we had zone conference and it was such an uplifting day! It's always good to get those nice spiritual boosts!  We were talking about how we can find our answers through the Book of Mormon and it is true. You really can! So if you have a question pray about it read your scriptures write down your answer, pray read some more, revise your answer and apply it to you life. The Lord is mindful of us all and is waiting to bless us! And he will!! 

Have a blessed week! Love y'all!

-Sister DeCamp

Week 23

Hey Y'all!

So this week was a week of highs and a week of lows. But it was also a week of learning. We had interviews with President Olson and those always go great, and then we went on exchanges. I was down in Monroe with Sister Saunders and we got the cops called on us! That was really funny. And it has never happened to me yet. We ended up waiting for a while for them to come and they never did so we just left. We went to see one of their recent converts and she is AWESOME! Her name is Chelle. Probably one of the coolest people I've met and she told me that I needed to come down and be one of her missionaries. So that was exciting.   One of our elders ended up going home which is really sad but on the bright side we got a new one yesterday. He seems like he will do good for the area. 

It snowed here! And it was FREEZING! Humidity in the winter is not my favorite thing in the world. Ha. One super cool thing that happened this week was on Saturday both Sister Gunther and I were having bad days and we were at salvation army doing some service and we ran into Dianne! The lady that we met in the store at the beginning of December. Well she ended up telling us just how much we have influenced her life for the better and how because of what we did for her, her whole perspective has changed. And the crazy thing is that you could see the change! 

We were also walking down the street home and some random ward member from a different stake stopped us and gave us 20$ and told us to g get lunch, and then another ward member form our ward saw us walking and gave us a ride. It was a day of blessings. And we both really needed to see that the Lord loved us as much as he does. 

The church is true! The Lord is so mindful of all of us and he really does love each one of us and knows our needs. He hears our prayers! 

Remember to Trust Jesus- Jeffrey R. Holland.

Have a blessed week y'all! 

-Sister DeCamp

Week 22

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 

This year I celebrated in the New Year by going to some ward members house and watching them launch fireworks. It was a fun time with good company. In Relief Society we talked a lot about goals that we all set at the beginning of the year and how sometimes by 2 weeks we forget them or have already ruined them. It is so important to set realistic goals! So this year my goals were something that I thought would be challenging and still something I could do and if I mess up then I can restart on them. 

  Something great and exciting this week is that we set Dustin with a date! He is so cool! We have been meeting with him for about a month now and we asked him this last week how he felt when he prayed and read from the Book of Mormon- with tears in his eyes he said that he felt Joy. And it was a feeling that he wanted to keep and wanted in his life. It was such a cool experience.

 Also this past week we met with one of our investigators named Tat ( like tater tot) She is super cool. She is so sincere and just wants to improve her life. She says that every time we come over we bring happiness to her life. And then we have another lady we are teaching named Doris she is older and loves the Book of Mormon, we asked her if she had prayed about the Book of Mormon and she had and she said that she knew that it was true. She is also always talking about our light that we have. This past week so many people have pointed out the light that we have and that we are sharing with others. It is so amazing to hear because we are just being us. We are examples of Christ. So we are radiating with his light. We need to make sure that we are always setting a good example to others so we don't draw them away from the church. I was reading in Alma chapters 3-4 yesterday and it talked about how the pride of the people of the church made it a stumbling block for those not of the church. It was because they were not setting forth a good example. We never know who is watching us so we need to make sure that we are always being a good example even when we think that no one is watching. 

I hope y'all have the best week and make sure to set a good example to everyone you see! You never know who is watching you!  

-Sister DeCamp

Week 21

Hey Y'all! 

It was so good to talk yesterday! It sounds like everyone is doing awesome and that makes me really happy! 

So this week we had a few cool experiences that I saved to share, 

1) We had an appointment on the clear other side of town and we didn't have the car- and it was too far to bike, so we ended up getting a ride out there with a member but our ride back fell through. So we just decided that we would tract all the way back to the area we had planned to go tracting in. Well we never made it to the area we wanted, but we were able to teach a lot of other lessons and get 2 new investigators. One of them is name David- he's really cool. We talked to him about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and he said he would look into it a little more and ask us questions when we met with him next. So on Saturday we went over to his house and him and his Wife had a billion questions some we could answer and some were to confusing that even they get messed up on their words. But after bearing our testimony of the Book of Mormon he said that he wanted to read it and find out for himself and that we had touched his heart and made their Christmas. It was a really neat and spiritual experience.

2)On Christmas eve we also met a lady named Taura- she's super cool. We were going to see some appointments and they fell through and she was walking out of her house so we decided to talk to her again ( we had met her the same day we met David earlier this week) She ended up asking us to come and teach her and explain why we were so happy. As we bore our testimonies to her tears brimmed her eyes and she said that she knew what we had would be able to help her heal and help her be happy again. 

3)Also on Christmas eve we went to see Carlene again - I just love her. She has a memory problem and can't remember very much. But we decided that we wanted to read for Luke 2 with her. As we did that she quoted some of the scriptures and told us about how much she loved these scriptures. When we finished talking about why we all loved those verses- she forgot everything and went to talking about how she didn't like her shoes. It was really amazing to see that for just 3 minutes she was actually there with us. The Gospel is true folks!

Thanks for the presents and taco bell card- Sister G and I had some good tacos Christmas eve and a fun morning on Christmas. I won't lie though, I did not have one complaint about it being 74' on Christmas and  It was fun being able to share some of our traditions with each other. I love you all and hope you have a marvelous week! 

Remember how blessed y'all! Count your blessings! You probably have more than you think!

Love

-Sister DeCamp

Week 20

Hey Y'all

So this week was awesome! We were able to do a lot of service and meet some awesome people while tracting! We also got a new district plus 2 elders. They are some pretty funny fellas. 

Also this week we got flashed by an 87 year old lady! It was so funny! But It's okay because we still love her. 

Also another funny story is when we were tracting a lady slammed the door in out face and yelled at us through the door that we were Mormon.. We yelled back yes that we were.. It was so funny. She didn't seem amused though. 

Oh one last crazy thing that happened. We were looking for a referrals house and it was a liquor store address... so we went and knocked on a liquor store door. the guy opened it up so confused and we asked if he was our investigator and he laughed at us and said no and then said he lives like 20 more miles away! So we tried to teach the liquor store guy but he wasn't super interested, It was quite funny! 

Well I hope y'all have a great week! I'm excited to talk to ya Sunday! Wahoo! 

Have a blessed week whisker biscuits

-Sister DeCamp

Caroling at a local care center

Week 19

Hey Y'all!

This week was a really fun week! We had a lot of appointments and most of them went through! It was a happy day! Also something cool that happened! Elder Mervyn Arnold of the seventy came to our zone conference and it was so spiritual! He is a really cool guy. He talked a lot about finding and planning and how important it is. He also talked about that we shouldn't look back, because the past is in the past. It was a really great meeting and experience. 

Transfer calls came this morning and I will be staying in El Dorado. My home until the end of January and then who knows. I will also be staying with Sister Gunther and finishing her training we are excited for that!

Something out of the ordinary this week. We went to a family fiesta type thing with one of our less-active members named Sarah and WE WERE THE ONLY WHITE PEOPLE THERE!! It was SO funny to see peoples faces when we walked in. It was awesome though because they were doing a lot of their cultural dances!  

-Sister DeCamp

Week 18

This week was full of trating and finding. Our zone set a goal to find for 11 hours this week with numerous activities besides tracting so we did those as well. Turns out El Dorado is leading the zone in finding and baptizing. So that's pretty nifty.  On Saturday we went out tracting in the POURING rain for about 4 hours. Man am I sure grateful for rain gear and kind ladies in the ward who see us and bring us hot cocoa.  so blessed. 

So a cool story about this week and our 11 hours of finding. 

Sister Gunther and I did not have the car this week so there is sadly not much we can do at night because there are no sidewalks so it's dangerous to be out tracting. We decided to go to Walmart and talk to people and do some AI-ing. Well we also wanted to print off 1 picture. So we go to the photo lab and grab a kiosk real quick and print the picture..... or didn't turns out the one we picked was a 1 hour print. We were a little frustrated but hey we were still going to be there so we walked around and talked to  a few people here and there. No one was really interested.. kind of normal.. well our picture was being close to done so we went and there was a HUGE line ( it was people waiting for layaway? Dont ask me why they were in the photo lab?) so we decided oh well and got in line and that we would talk to people. Well this lady got behind us and I was like I need to talk to her- she seemed to be having a rough day. As I turned around to approach her she got mad at the line and threw her pictures and walked away. I was like uhhh... So i gathered her pictures up and took them to the front. Just when we got to the front of the line the ladys son came up and was being a little stink to the workers saying his mom wanted the pictures and she wanted them now. The workers weren't impressed and said she needed to wait unitl they were done with us. Well we ended up having to move to the electronics checkout for some weird reason and the lady was just glaring and seemed so unhappy. I wasn't about to ruin her day! So I simply asked the workers if I could pay for hers as well as mine. It was like a whole dollar. haha not a big deal. Well I turned around to give the lady her pictures and she was in tears. I was stunned for a few seconds and then began to talk and figure out if I could help in some way. This sweet lady told me that nobody ever does anything nice for her. She said that she felt so unloved right now and much more... I was heart broken to say the least and ended up crying with her in the middle of walmart. But I was able to bare my testimony of God's love for her and of the love that I had for this lady who I didn't even know... Something so simple as buying this ladys pictures helped me help her and share something that she needed to know. 

I have such a testimony of God's timing. He knows everyone of us and he knows exactly what we need. God puts us in the most perfect places at the most perfect times. 

I love being a missionary! I hope y'all have a blessed week! 

Don't forget to # Light The World!!

Week 17

Happy late Thanksgiving!! 

This week was a really good week! We were able to go on exchanges and I went with Sister Saunders. she is awesome, I sure love her! We had a real fun time. I also was able to learn how to play 1 song on the piano this week! I'm super proud of myself haha. 

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day full of good food and good people. We had 2 dinner appointments- one was with the Watkins family and they live about an hour out so they came and drove us out to the country and we had a lovely meal with them and we discussed the blessings we have been able to see since being out on our missions. I  said that I feel a lot closer to my Heavenly Father- I know for a fact that he is there and that he loves me and knows me and what I need at certain times in my life. Something that I don't think I 100% knew before. 

After that we went over to the Smith's. It was really fun! There were 2 non-members, 2 less-actives, 2 new-converts and the Loggins (another family in the ward) It was so much fun! We were able to really talk to everyone there and just become friends which always helps to open the doorways. 

On Sunday we went tracting and met and taught a really awesome lady named Tot. She said that she used to go to church but didn't anymore. As we were teaching her the restoration i had a thought- why did she stop going to church? So I ashed her. And she said because she didn't like thta church was about the people and how the church was full of hypocrites. I was able to bare my testimony to here that even if the people are perfect that God's love as and his gospel was. That Christ's church was for everyone. And that I had been in her shoes. But I was able to learn that the Gospel isn't about the people. It's about the Savior and our Heavenly Father and our relationships with them... The spirit was really strong and it made me happy to have learned that the Church is true even if sometimes the people aren't. Everyone has weaknesses and makes mistakes- and sometimes we don't see that. It was pretty cool. Even though my description of what happened sounds totally weird. The spirit was so strong. We are excited to see her tomorrow. And she was really happy when we left. It was cool to see the change happen so quickly. God's love is so powerful! I'm so grateful that I have to opportunity to share his love with others and help them come closer to Christ. 

The Church is true! 

Also I got chased by a turkey tracting and then got to pet another one

-Sister DeCamp

Week 16

Hey y'all

This week was so great! Bill and Kathy got baptized! It was probably one of the BEST days I have ever had. I love them so much! It was such a happy day for everyone. We also were the ones who got to clean the font-which was super gross so it took lots of soap and cleaners and a lot of laughing. It was a great day! On Sunday they were confirmed and their blessings were amazing, and then Bill also received the Priesthood. Such a spiritual day. It reminded me of my baptism and confirmation days

 I also found a turtle named Frank on the side of the road, but since we were tracting I wasn't able to keep him.. 

Today we have exchanges and I am looking forward to that! I'm also excited to say that another one of our investigators, Asha is on date for baptism is January! And Hopefully will be able to progress toward that day! 

Sister Gunther is a pretty great missionary, and it is really fun to train. 

The Lord is so mindful our our needs and our prayers! I'm grateful to be a missionary! I Love my mission so much! 

I hope y'all have a blessed week! And HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

-Sister DeCamp

Week 15

So this week was a weird week. A lot happened but it wasn't a very productive week which is kind of a bummer. I was able to get my new companion, Sister Gunther. She is so cute! I love her already. She is from North Logan and a cute little blonde. She is also really funny. 

Bill and Kathy had their baptism interviews and are all set to get baptized on Saturday. You could say I'm extremely happy about that! They were truly prepared by the Lord! 

We also went to Louisiana for ZTM this week. Not even in our zone but thats because we were asked to go to the SAU campus and teach about our church at a religious seminar. It was pretty cool. and weird too.

WE also while in Louisiana went to a place called the board walk and saw some of the families that the elders had taught. That was pretty fun. 

We also have an investigator named Asha that we were able to set with a date! It was exciting! We are looking forward to that as well. She is a really solid investigator.

Well thats all for now folks. Have a blessed week

-Sister DeCamp

Week 14

Hey y'all! Hope this week has been great for all of you, it has been a great one for me!

I think I should first explain the title of this email. So as most of you know we are having transfers this week. We also have Bill and Kathy's baptism next week. And nobody knew what was going to happen and we were awaiting a call from the ZLs. Well last night President Olson called us and talked to each of us. Sister Abril is being transferred which we are really bummed about. But the humbling part is that he has asked me to TRAIN a new missionary. It is so rare that this happens and I am looking forward to this growing experience. I know that the Savior has so much faith in me and has a lot planned for me! I am so looking forward to this!

Also this week we decided to fast for more investigators so we could grow our teaching pool. As we both fasted on different days our prayers were answered. We now have a really busy week ahead of us with new lessons and people that look really promising. I know that the Lord was mindful of our prayers and as he saw our diligence he answered them.

With elections coming up tomorrow I would like to share a quick thought from President Olson, No matter who rules or what happens, remember that "all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God." D&C 101:16. Let us be positive, cheerful and obedient, and He will provide for us all that He sees is best for us.

I love being a missionary! It is the best decision I could have ever made. I am so happy to be where I am and who I am. The gospel is true! And our Heavenly Father is so mindful of each of us and our needs and concerns. 

Have a blessed week!

-Sister DeCamp

Week 13

Hey y'all! 

This week was quite entertaining! On Monday our STLs came out for PDay and hung out with us! They are some really funny people! And then the missionaries went over to Bishops for a meeting about a new ward mission planand dinner, I LOVE me some southern cooking! Well at least all the cooking I've had thus far. So yummy! And the meeting was really good too!

On Tuesday- it was a strange strange day.. We helped our investigator Pam set up for Christmas! Yeah.. way before Thanksgiving and even before Christmas. But it was fun and quite a day to remember! Then we met with Bill and Kathy! They are awesome! We talked a lot about temples and Kathy said that she wanted to be a temple worker when she grew up! It was so cool!!

On Wednesday we found a new investigator and have actually met with her a few ties this week! She is great! Her name is Sharicia and just a super happy, busy mom! She is a really great person to teach and we see a lot of potential with her! 

On Thursday we had every single one of our appointments keep their appointments! That hardly ever happens so we were busy busy all day! It was so great! And such a blessing from God with how well everyone was progressing! We went to see a less-active member and her daughters( who are not members) and her daughter asked us if we would teach her! She was an answer to our prayers! 

Saturday was our ward Fall Fest! It was a good time and lucky me- I got to be the dessert taste tester to give out prizes. It was a good job to have. There were still some very interesting desserts but not as interesting as some of the chilis that they had... lucked out on my part I guess (;  

It was a good week and I can see the Lord's hand in all things! I definitely felt blessed this week!

I know this church is true and I know that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us so much! And I love them!  I was reading Russell M. Nelson's talk this week and there was a quote I really liked about missionary work- that we are out here not to baptize but to bring joy to others! I know that true joy comes from the gospel!

Have a blessed week!!

-Sister DeCamp

Week 12

So I lied about the title of this email. There isn't much of a cool story. We had a good week though! We met about 4 new potential investigators and we have return appointments for all of them so that is really exciting! 

We also had the primary program this week and Bill and Kathy were there! They said they could feel the spirit there and it was really a neat experience to see. Little kids are great and have an awesome spirit about them! It made me so grateful to be able to know that my nieces and nephews also have that spirit about them! Families are so great!

Bill and Kathy are also still on date for this next week so hopefully that goes through! 

Say your prayers and remember "TRUST JESUS" - Jeffrey R. Holland

Love ya whisker biscuits 

-Sister DeCamp

Week 11

Hey y'all! So this week was a really strange week. A lot happened but at the same time not a lot happened. On Tuesday we met with Bill and Kathy and they asked Brother Smith to baptize them! But they also are wanting to move their baptism forward they just haven't decided on their date yet. So that was super exciting! 

On Wednesday we had ZTM in Monroe and so on the way down we stopped in West Monroe and we got to see where Willie (from duck dynasty) lives and next time we go down we get to stop at their shop! pretty pumped about that! We also stopped across the street from Willies house at a store called the Rebel store. Oh my goodness it is such a funny shop. I definitely live in the south! A good time for sure! After ZTM I went on exchanges with Sister Marble. She's super cool so I got to stay in Louisiana for 2 days! It's a lot bigger of a city than where I am! While I was there I got to paint one of their investigators house purple- like 6 different shades of purple. She was thrilled with it, I would never let a room in my house look like that but hey I don't live there! (: 

Saturday we had a Fish Fry for the ward and that was fun! They fry everything down here.. but I don't mind. It still tastes good! 

We also did a lot of tracting this week. One cool thing that happened is we were in the store doing some good ol AI work and we got chased down and this lady wanted us to teach her and her family so we have been teaching her and her family- we go over twice a week. ( I might have mentioned that last week) Well we decided to do it again because that was pretty cool to have something like that happen and we ended up teaching 4 people in the middle of Walmart! It was so cool! 

Well that was my week... Keep being good!

-Sister DeCamp

Week 10

Hey y'all!

 I hope everyone was able to watch General Conference this past weekend! If not go watch it. It was so good! I had to opportunity to watch it at Brother and Sister Smith's home with Bill and Kathy and a few other members of the ward. It was a good weekend. We also were out just doing some finding in Walmart and ended up getting chased down by a lady (named Sara)asking if we were the new sisters and if we would come and teach her and her family. Come to find out this lady is a member but doesn't attend and her husband has never really been interested until we came along. So that has been a blessing! We already love her and her family. 

This week it was pretty cold. It got down to like 78* and we were wearing cardigans. 

Bill and Kathy are still progressing amazingly. Oh we got a new DL. He reminds me so much of Tyler Payne! Like looks and personality. It's pretty funny. 

Also we lost our key to the computers so we had to break in to email. It's a pretty cramped space.

Well I hope y'all have a blessed week. 

-Sister DeCamp

Week 9

Hey y'all! This week was so good! And so busy! We were able to set up a booth at the county fair this week to see if it would help us teach more lessons and get our name out there. AND IT WORKED!! We were able to teach over 22 lessons this week! It was stellar! We had so much fun, taught a lot, laughed a lot more, and also got 3 pages of people to contact! It was such a cool experience! Since we were there so much we got to talk to a lot of the other people that were having booths, although a lot of them weren't really interested in our church they were interested in us and why we chose to serve missions and so even those conversations were good testifying opportunities and we got a LOT of free things out of it lol. Sister Abril and I both got 4 t-shirts 3 bracelets, a lot of candy, free meals, and had people offer to give us rides if we ever needed it. The blessings of being a missionary (; But the cool thing too was that we made some really good friends who we probably will call for rides because those are good teaching opportunities! (: 

Bill and Kathy (our gators who are getting baptized) asked if there was a baptism close that they could go and see what happens and see what they would wear. Y'all they are the coolest people! I love them so much! 

Funny story! So apparently over in Utah and Wyoming it's a little bit chilly with wind and snow and rain and stuff. Well here it was still in the 90s- like this week was insane! ANYWAY so on Saturday night at the Women's Broadcast (SOOO GOOD!!) it was ridiculously hot and we turned on the A/C and it never got any cooler and so we were dying of heat right? Well on Sunday we got picked up for church and they said that the A/C was broken so church was only got to be 45 minutes. It was so weird! But it was one of the best meetings I've had in a while. It was fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was really strong! So good! 

Welllll that was my week in a nutshell. Oh we have transfers tomorrow and have no fear because Sister Abril and I are staying together in the promised land!!

-Sister DeCamp