Ok, so Christmas as a missionary is simple. We share the real meaning of Christmas, which is awesome. My companion and I have started sharing a Christmas message with people and singing a Christmas song with them. It is such a sweet feeling to go around doing this and just share a little taste of Jesus Christ's gift for them.
Speaking of taste (see what I did there) there are these things here called casse croutes. They are probably the unhealthiest thing in the worlds, but they are like classic Tahitian. What it a baguette and meat (or an omelet) and fries. They also throw in a little piece of lettuce, but with all the other carbs and fat it just doesn't do the sandwich any justice. I just think it is funny how unhealthy they are, but everyone LOVES them. I don't know if I already talked about that, but we get one like every p-day.
Sunday, we had our fatamaraa (our dinner appt) at a restaurant. It got approved by our zone leaders and everything. haha no jk. Some members in our ward have a restaurant in Papeete and it is closed on Sunday, but we went there and had like a little private dinner. It was really cool and we spoke English like the whole time. It was weird, but I could actually express myself and talk. That was a miracle for me because this was right after church. Church for me in French is a huge brain exercise. Preach My Gospel wants us to actively listen and that take so much brain power and it gets tiring and frustrating. Staying awake in Sacrament meeting is a struggle. I have never ever had such a hard time trying to stay awake, but it is the perfect temperature in the chapel, because we don't have AC and there is a little island breeze going on and it is soo hard to listen and try to comprehend and just way to easy to tune out the French. Then all the members want to talk to us and I don't really know exactly what they are saying and yeah.
One of the best things ever here is Rotui juice. It comes from another island and is like dole fruit juice, but more real. YUMM. Also, I don't know if I have written home about the ice cream here, but it is so soo good. Before the mission, I never really would have tried coconut ice cream, but oh my goodness, it is the best thing ever here. Members feed it to us sometimes and yummy. It is just so refreshing.
We were out contacting and sharing our Christmas message this week when we saw a man making coconut milk for the poisson creu (the raw fish). He was scraping out the meat of the coconut on the sides and took the gratings and put them in a linen and squeezed it to get the milk out. It was a really cool culture experience. Of course, they thought nothing of it, but I silently thought"huuhh."
The members here are amazing!! One of these days they just handed us like a whole vine of bananas. It was literally like 40 bananas. They are my favorite, so I was super happy. I think between us four sisters in the house we have eaten at least half of them. I probably average like 5 a day. They are super small so it works out great. I also received my first robe local (aka Tahitian moo moo). These people just give and give and they don't judge. It is soo great.
So that ice cream I was talking about that I love is like $15 USD for a .5 gallon at the store!! HOLY COW!
Also here the church doesn't have hymnbooks. Every family has their own hymnbook that they bring to church everySunday. So I carry a big green hymnbook everywhere I go because they don't have small hymnbooks for Tahitian.
Saturday my companion and I went to a funeral. The story is pretty tragic. One of the sisters in our ward, who always goes out with us, brother died suddenly. He was hit by a drunk driver on his street. We were so sad for her, but that funeral was so faith filled. All of the talks were full of hope and the importance of the gospel in our lives. It is amazing to see the hope and joy of the atonement of Jesus Christ in action. They also wore white instead of black. I don't know the symbolism behind it, but I thought it was interesting.
Sunday after our dinner appt, we went to a concert de Noel (Christmas concert) put on by the stake Relief society. The choir was made up of all sister and they all wore traditional bright red Tahitian dresses. They were just so beautiful with their pearls. The Christmas concert was so good. They sang some songs in Tahitian and some songs in French. I think the best part was just feeling what they sang. I couldn't understand many of the words, but when they sang they really meant it. During the program they would have parts for solos/duets and almost every time the singer would just be overcome with joy and emotion where they would start weeping and would try their hardest to sing out their part, but just couldn't. It was the sincerest thing ever. So when the soloist couldn't sing anymore, the choir behind them would just help them out and sing for them. There was so much love in that chapel and I could feel it. I am so grateful I get to be among some of the most loving people in the world for Christmas. They just love and love, and act upon their feelings and impressions more than they act upon what we Americans would call "knowledge."
Well, that was probably a long read, but I hope everybody is having a wonderful Christmas and enjoying the wonderful spirit of love that comes with this time of year and especially enjoying the time with your family. "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person be loved" - Pres. Thomas S. Monson
Make it a great week!
love, Soeur Campbell
this is a cockroach that decided to be our friend last night
This is that vine of bananas. I look really bad, but its ok. And that is our little tree.
At a members home. That valley is our area
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