First of all, I hope that everyone is doing wonderfully.
This week we got soo much food. I think we have like 8 meals worth of food in the fridge that have come from multiple people. It is crazy. We also got fed twice yesterday and on Thursday. We have to strategically plan our member meals, so we don't end up being fed too soon. Thursday night we literally ran to the church on the way to a dinner appointment with an investigator and picked up food from the members and then went to our dinner appointment. We are really taken care of here. It is soo nice.
So Tuesday night I went on a split (I switched areas and companions for a night). It was a weird feeling to be away from my sector for the first time. I got to spend the night though in the other missionary's house and they have an awesome view of the island Moorea. It was like better than the ocean front views we want on vacation. It threw me off soo bad waking up to the ocean like that. I loved it, though. It was beautiful.
During that split, the saddest thing ever happened. I was with my sister training leader, Sr. Moli and while we were doing our studies she got a call from the dad of a family, who were taking the lessons and progressing well. What ended up happening was like crazy. The whole family of 6 had a baptism date for the Saturday to follow, but he called to cancel everything. A whole bunch of things went down and it just felt so surreal for me, because I hadn't even met the family. That change our day, so at night we ended up going over to the ward mission leader's house and the family was there. They looked so burdened and downtrodden and not happy at all. The reason the called off the baptism, was because their family was threatening them to take away their care and house if the followed through. What do you do in a situation like that? Especially when you have never even met the family before. Well, we just bore testimony and tried to follow the spirit. We ended up praying with them on our knees, and then they had to leave. It was so sad. Then it was so real for me the opposition that comes right before you are about to do something good. That family looked burdened because to the fear of their family. Well, their day came for baptism came and went. Sometimes things are just so so sad. I know that was a little gloomy story, but I really learned from that a couple of things. The attack on the family is real. There is opposition right before people are about to do something good, but even more so for a whole family. I also learned it is so important to have during those times faith in God and that our faith is tried sometimes.
The Tipaerui ward got a new ward mission leader. We had our first coordination meeting with him Saturday. I am excited to work with him. He is very motivated.
We also had a Friday night dessert contest for the investigators here. Sr. Richards and I made better than anything cake for it. It was a miracle it turned out because we borrowed a cake pan and it was huge and so we ended up using 1.5 boxes of cake mix. The oven here doesn't have temperatures either, and we had never used it before. We said a prayer that the cake would turn out because we were 100% winging it and it did!! YAYAY. Everybody was happy. The cake was huge and we didn't return home with any of it. Something even better than that was that the activity turned out great and that there were a lot of people there.
I don't know what else to write. We continue to work with the investigators here they are pretty steady. We met with over 13 people last week. There is a lot of work to do. A mission is a lot of responsibility.
I have eaten more fried chicken here than I have in Georgia all my life.
Last night at our dinner/lesson with Noeline, she told us some Tahitian legends. I'll share one with you. It is called the legend of Hina. There once was a princess named Hina. She would often swim and wade in the river with her friends. There was a hohi (eel) in the river and whenever he saw her. The eel would try to kiss her because she was very beautiful. She though would always refuse. Well, another man found out about this eel bugging the beautiful Hina, so the man killed the eel and cut off its head. He then wrapped the head up in woven palm tree leaves and gave it to Hina with the order never to put it on the ground. One day, Hina saw her friends in the river and wanting to play with them put the eel's head on the ground without even thinking. The head turned into a coconut tree. Time passed and Hina continued to swim in the river with her friends. After a while, it got really hot and Hina and her friends were thirsty, so they cut the coconuts off the coconut tree and drank them. The eel's voice came back and told her, "now you have kissed me because you drank from one of my coconuts." Moral of the story, that is why coconuts look like they do. They look like eel's heads.
Transfers are on the 16 Feb. My companion has been in Tipaerui for 5 months already, so we think she will transfer out and I will stay. We should get a call today or tomorrow. They let us know a week in advance because of some transfer by boat, plane, or car here. It is complicated.
Hope everyone has a great week and keeps pressing onward! Love you all!
-Soeur Campbell
ps. and Happy Valentine's Day!! Show some love this week :)
This is sr Jarman and sr taputea. the two crazy kids we live with
The view from the split I went on. Personal study that morning was a struggle to focus... ohhhhh how I love the beach
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