This week has been revolutionary. One reason is because Saturday, the sisters in our district finally did something different for the gym. We went to the 2M gym. OH BOY! was it an upgrade. I can't even to begin. It was actually like taken care of and a gym with real machines and weights and everything. They played church movies so you can plug in and watch them. I have no idea why we waited this long to be adventurous. It was like my favorite thing ever when the Mormon message, "The Will of God" came on. I have watched that so many times, I am starting to memorize it. Donc (so) thanks to they new 2m gym, Tuahine Arbuckle's and my workouts got like 200 times more effective and efficient. I am like actually sore (it doesn't take much these days to do that).
Last week we were assigned as Sister Training Leaders. Sister Training Leaders help the new sisters coming in to the zone in the MTC and are supposed to set the example. Honestly I didn't write about it, because we don't have any new sisters coming in. Tuahine Arbuckle and I have the privilege of helping the 3 other girls in our zone, which are the other sisters going to Tahiti with us. At first I thought all we were going to do was have meetings, because we already room with the other three sisters and it is great. Well I learned that was not the case. Tuahine Arbuckle and I have taken multiple trips to the hospital this week to get tests done with Soeur Stevens to make sure everything is right before we leave the states. I guess previously no body had really asked, so we just barely found out. We don't really know exactly was is up, but have had a CTA scan on Saturday and an echocardiogram on Monday, and today we are going to see a lung specialist. It is nothing urgent, because they would have alerted us. I just want to make sure if there is anything up we know before we leave this awesome country of America, because I am betting Tahiti will not have all the medical thoroughness we do. Soeur Stevens is from Vanuatu (a small island) and has never seen medical care as we do it here. Honestly, I am kind of amazed by it. She has been so brave going into all these things like you would think she would get scared by the machines or them taking her blood. We were in the CTA scan with her and she went in laughing. Seriously this whole medical mystery thing was exactly what I needed. It has helped me a lot to not focus on me me me and how I am here an I need, and I want. By serving it has helped this week go by so fast.
Monday, November 17, we hit our two-month mark!!!! YAYAY. EVEN BETTER, there are only two weeks left exactly! We are just about going crazy. Saturday we have service each week and set up the chairs for Sunday's devotional. It is literally like 1000 chairs, the stadium bleachers, and the stage that we set up. They always have a ton of missionaries there to help and not enough things to do. The fab five (us sisters going to Tahiti) got stuck in that, "we are here but like everything is being taken care of." We literally were just laughing and joking around and one of the lady's in charge was like, "if you have nothing to do you can go" to us. WE GOT KICKED OUT OF SERVICE!! It was pretty bad and so funny at the same time. After that we went outside in the freezing weather and were trying to give Sister Stevens a group hug, well it ended up that us 4 white girls were trying to catch her and she out ran all of us. It was pretty sad, but she is super strong. Like in Venautu she would use a machete to cut grass in the fields, and I am not making that up.
Along with the whole, we have gone crazy thing, yesterday's lesson was une lutte (a struggle). Tuahine Arbuckle and I could NOT stop laughing. Two of our teachers were in their role playing as a "concubine" (yeah that is what they call each other in Tahiti when they are not married) with issues. Good grief. I am pretty sure they play it up just to make us laugh. They were accusing one another of smoking and drinking and we were teaching the Word of Wisdom (Parole de Sagesse) and it was like all the sudden we were marriage counselors, or in this case concubine counselors. I was trying to explain to them they could help one another with this a I couldn't think of the word for girlfriend in French and I turn to Sister Arbuckle and she wanted me to say concubine. I just couldn't, so I had to work around that. Anyways, we ended up just like laughing through the lesson so bad and saying two opening prayers. I am sure our teachers are like, "What is up with them two?" Well after that lesson I feel like we are just more friends then companions at this point. It is super fun like everything we do. At one point during this week we ended up on splits, because we were helping Sister Stevens and we both agreed that we went through withdrawals.
Erin Solomon got us Chick-fil-a on Friday. That was like the miracle of my life! Not really. haha. It was though sooo good. We stinking loved it and were super grateful for it. Each meal the food gets more and more hard to find. I find myself eating cold food like PBandJs, fruits, and veggies more than the entrees. This week I have been on a little soup spree.
Now time for the language update. French is coming along. This week I have made major improvements. In lessons, I would usually let my companion do all the talking because I didn't understand everything that was going on, but now things are shifting. I am able to participate more. Thanks for all the prayers for language help. A grace Dieu (thanks to God), this language is coming. As for Tahitian, I try to keep it up by reading in Te Buka A Mormona.
Sunday I played piano in church. I played Come Thou Fount. It was une petite lutte, parceque (a little struggle because) I haven't played piano in a long time.
Today was a miracle and a half. At breakfast, my old boss at MTC West Cafeteria, Chris Justice, who is now here at main MTC, introduced me to an elder room Tahiti. I started to talk English to him. That did not wok at all. He only spoke French, so I defaulted to using that language I have been learning for the las our weeks. It was a growing experience. I guess he understood somewhat of what I said. Soeur Stevens (who literally speaks baslama, french, English, and two other dialects from her island) was standing close and told me I did well afterward. Tuahine Arbuckle wasn't there because we have been on splits all day, but I missed relying on her to have french conversations with people. I defiantly was left to fend for myself.
Sister Stevens and I went to the pulmonary specialist. It was located like right where my ward at BYU always would play football, frisbee, and kickball. Yeah, it was weird being back there. They did some breathing tests on her and they think there is something in her throat. Later this week we are getting a broncosopy (they are putting a camera down her throat) to see what is up. It was good to know the CT scan and the echocardiogram were all normal. It is just hard to know if we are over playing or down playing the situation. I am grateful though it is nothing too urgent, but that we were cautious and there was something. It was way weird being there so close to University Villas. I could literally see the building where I used to live in.
While we were sitting at the doctor's office I go Sister Stevens talking about Vanuatu. Come to find our she would catch chickens with her bare hands to eat for dinner. She kept telling me, "you don't believe me sista, but I don't lie, you come to Vanuatu and see." Yeah, she is pretty boss. She told me she would always climb trees in Vanuatu to get the fruit. I believed her. She showed me how here in the MTC. We totally broke our quiet dignity. I don't know how I feel about that, though because it is soo normal to do that for her in her culture, but in America, we like to frown upon it. Also in the hospital today I found signs of Christmas. I LOVE IT!! We took a picture today by our first Christmas tree sighting this year.
After that, we went to the temple and were in the cafeteria and I had only brought ten dollars for both Sister Stevens and I assuming we would spend about 5 dollars a piece. Well, I totally forgot that dollars in like an average for breakfast, not lunch. I was like hopefully we have enough money and was digging around in my purse for extra. I let Sister Stevens go first so I would make sure I had enough for her meal. Then we were up at the cash register and this super kind old man told the cashier to put ten dollars he gave her to our meal. I worried for nothing. God always provides. It was just a little thing, but evidence that He has our backs.
Love Sœur Campbell
It took Sister Stevens 2 seconds to climb this tree! Yeah I was kind of iffy about it, but like that is her culture
This is us in a nutshell. oh boy, so fun
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