Ioranna!
My MTC spirit is still going strong. Every day we work harder and play harder. I just want to take this time to email what I learned this week. This week I learned a ton and things just keep getting better.
I learned that "If I don't do it, who will?" - Our floor in the residence has been collecting dirt for some time. It needed a vacuum and believe it or not, no one really wants to vacuum. Yesterday night, before I got ready for bed I had the thought, "if I don't do it who will?" so I vacuumed. This principle is so applicable to many circumstances here at the MTC or in life. As a result, our whole room had a huge makeover. Just a simple thing of cleaning the floor impacted my attitude the rest of the night. The rest of the night we "faired une fete" (franglish for had a party). Yesterday was so good because we did work hard.
My companion and I made goals for November and committed to reading the Livre de Mormon every day. It has been a huge miracle to see the blessings of reading out loud. In one week my French has gotten so much better. I know that nothing but good can come from reading the Book of Mormon.
The MTC is super fun and hard work. Since we have been here 7 weeks and have a month to go, so many people try to convince us we don't like it here. Well, boy do we have new for them! WE LOVE IT HERE. There is no other place in the world like this and when other people try to convince you to have a bad attitude about something, don't give in. It would not be worth it at all for us to mope around and not take advantage of the time we have here to prepare for Tahiti.
We got to go to the BYU devotional today and it was super cool to see Elder Evans, who is over the church missionary department talk about Nagoya Japan, where my sister Erin is serving a mission. Missionaries have never before attended a BYU devotional and that little event was evidence to me of a God who has a hand in our lives. It was great to be back on BYU campus and hear stories about the mission where my sister is serving and make BYU devotional history. I loved it. I haven't left the MTC for the 7 weeks I have been here, and it was sure nice to see the mountains from a different angle.
Tuahine Arbuckle and I had some of the best lessons ever this week. I think it has to do with the fact of last Tuesday night, Sister Wixom ( the primary general president) came and talked to us about being a better disciple of Jesus Christ and doing things like He would. So after that great talk, we worked overtime to recommitting. Change and recommit, that is like our little motto every day. I don't want to be the same person I was before I left, I don't even want to be the same missionary I was the day before. As my Book of Mormon teacher, Brother Griffen would say, "try a little harder to be a little better." So that is what we did and have been booking it ever since.
We have been trying for more "member present lessons" and have seen awesome things come from those lessons. I am not going to lie, going into a lesson where everyone in it knows French super well is intimidating, but I have learned this week I just have to try. Try. It is a short little word with some huge principles attached to it. I love it.
The whole MTC west cafeteria crew moved over here because they closed the West campus. My old boos over there, Chris Justice, is now the new boss over here. It is so fun to see home every day. He gave us weather updates yesterday and it is just great. I bumped into Erin Solomon on Monday morning. She was working. Oh, what fun to see someone I know.
Another little miracle has been the devotionals this week. We always have a devo every Tuesday and Sunday night and they have been men each time for the past 7 weeks. Their wives always give a little address before, but I was wondering if they were ever going to have a woman keynote speaker and it happened this week, not once BUT TWICE!! Oh boy, and they were like super good devotionals. One was Elder Nelson's wife, Wendy Nelson, and I always wondered who were the women behind those men. She talked about what would a disciple do?? It went hand in hand with the Tuesday night devotional of Sister Wixom. It was cool to hear Sister Wixom, because the Saturday before I left to the MTC, my sisters Kadee and Abbee went up to ATL to hear her and met her. It was way cool to have that little connection and listen. What are the chances of there being a woman speaker, let alone her?? I was super excited and it definitely wasn't a coincidence.
Also, this week was full of fun times (see pictures below) and full of packages. A HUGE SHOUTOUT to Whitney and Stephanie Ellis, Molly Jensen, and Anne Marie for thinking of me. Thank you so much. Every time I get a little "you have a package" slip, Tuahine Arbuckle, says to me excitedly, "YOU HAVE A PACKAGE" squeezes my arm, jumps up and down, and gets super excited!... Now I get super excited, but she does too. It is just great and adds to this MTC experience in ways I can't write. Thanks from the both of us!!
Ok, lastly I am going to answer some questions. I didn't see the CES devotional. I will have to watch it on Sunday during my hour of computer time. That is the only amount of time we get on lds.org. I haven't seen Meet the Mormons. I thought they were going to show it to the whole MTC a couple of weeks ago, but I guess they have to get permission from people for rights or something. My district is pretty close and we laugh a lot, but work a lot too. It is pretty great. I do have lots of fun, but also have work to do. Everyone said a mission would be fun and it is, but no one said it wouldn't be hard. Just because it is fun doesn't mean that is has it's hard moments. Our day is divided into three parts: the time between breakfast and lunch, the time between lunch and dinner, and the time between dinner and gym. In between those times we are in class, 2/3 of those times we have a teacher and during that block, we have lessons with them (where we teach an investigator with one companionship at a time). Usually, when other companions are in lessons Tuahine Arbuckle and I will do our Livre de Mormon Reading or plan/evaluate lessons. I am learning French the missionary way aka pretty much by the spirit and the Book of Mormon. We have conjugated a couple of verbs, and gone over some grammar, but I have no idea what the imperfect tense is. I have a lot to learn.
Ok, I think that is everything. I still wrote a lot. Hope you have a fantastic week. Love you all!!!
-Tuahine/Soeur Campbell
We switched clothes on Thursday. I wore sister Arbuckle's clothes and her mine. It was super fun and I didn't have to pick out an outfit!
Sister Stevens wearing the necklace and sweater she got from a package Sister Giles gave her! I love sister stevens!!!
Sister Arbuckle and I with our tortillas from Texas this week!! Thank you, cousin ann Marie!! No tortillas beat the ones from Texas!
BYU devotional today!
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