We were at Chantal's house earlier this week for a lesson. She is about 40 years old and has been smoking since she was a kid, but now she is trying to quit. Last week we gave her a calendar to pace out some goals to eliminate and to keep track of how many cigarettes she smokes a day. We went there this week and she felt so bad because she hadn't filled out the calendar. She told us this time she was really done with smoking that she had had enough and today was her last day. I was amazed by her renewed desires to quit smoking. We had been working with her to stop smoking for like months, but all the sudden she had a mighty change of heart, where that day was going to be the last day. My day was made with that! It is a huge miracle. We went back the next day and sure enough, Chantal hadn't smoked. She had taken the cigarette she had left and broke them and threw them away!! I am so happy for her. She was so proud of herself. That experience for me was, wow. If someone really wants to do something they will do it and also an answer to our prayers. We had been praying for Chantal to stop smoking for a while. There is nothing that makes a missionary's day more than when they see investigators progressing.
Wednesday we were at the church and everyone in the ward here is getting ready for a huge Easter concert the stake will have. We were there for the last part of the practice and found out there is a girl in the ward who was supposed to play a violin part, but she didn't know how to. I offered to help her. They gave me the violin to take home and play it through and the whole house of sister missionaries were so happy to have a violin in the house. I am not great at playing the violin, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to help this girl. The part is just the melody of a primary song but is in the key of F, where the violin is normally played in the key of D. So I got a little musical training in French. They don't use letters to named the notes, but solfege (like do, ray, mi, instead of C D E). We had a lesson for violin on Friday to help me here learn the song. It was really fun. Who ever thought I would be using that skill on a mission. All those years my parents gave me lessons being used for something. Here is French Polynesia, next to no one plays the violin. It is really uncommon, but people love the violin. It is a great missionary tool. So if Vanessa, the girl I am helping learn the song, doesn't feel comfortable playing it still, they asked me if I could play it. I agreed. That is for you family. My long last talent of playing the violin is surfacing again, and I do feel guilty for not developing that talent more when I was home.
Ok, now I want to talk about one of my favorite parts of the day. I am very grateful to have a companion who goes running with me every morning. That is extremely a blessing because there are many missionaries who don't even exercise in the morning. We go to this little track that is just beautiful. It is just a track, but there is always all these men who get up at like 5 am to play soccer. You can see the ocean and Moorea from this track and the city and the lush green mountains. I really like it. Everyone says the city is not pretty, but I really think it is. We always sprint home when we are done. It feels so good starting a day like that.
I was reading this week in the Book of Mormon at the end of Alma of Helaman and thought it was interesting how many verses were spent on the fact that the Nephites kept records. One thing that breaks my heart here is that Tahitians are an oral culture. The people who first settled here never kept records, so we don't really know exactly the history of the people in Tahiti. It breaks my heart that we can't know more about the ancient Tahitians. It would be so interesting to know. So I thought of how we can help our investigators to keep their own records, especially of the spiritual experiences they are having, these experience that have moved them to change. We have started giving them little journals. They don't really have journals you can buy here, so I just decorated a composition notebook I bought at Carrefour (like target). Many of them have never kept one before, but are excited to start. I am excited for them because I know in them keeping a journal they will be blessed and they are breaking the culture of not keeping written records.
I have another miracle story to share. Elvina, who has been also smoking for like 40 years, has almost stopped. She used to smoke 50 cigarettes, but in preparation for baptism, we asked her to stop smoking. With her prayer and our prayers and her desires, she is now down to only smoking like 5 a day!! I am so happy for her. That is huge. We have been working with her for a while and she is almost done. When we first committed her not to smoke, she went three days straight without touching a cigarette. We know God is a God of miracles and if you believe you can do something, with Him you can do it. That message is true and the evidence of it is found in the progression investigators have made and also in the Bible and the scriptures.
To change a prepare for baptism is not an easy task compared to the world's standards. I was looking back in my MTC journal and found notes from an Elder Holland talk. He says, "Why is the work of salvation and the road to baptism and keeping commandments so hard?" He concludes, "because salvation is not a cheap experience, it never was for Jesus Christ either."What we are doing is not a temporal work. It is a spiritual work. It is a work that when done right, it will bring blessings that will last forever. It isn't cheap at all. It costs a price. Missionary work is the same. It takes hard effort on our side, the investigator's side, and Christ's side (which he already accomplished when he suffered for us). I know this work is hard but is worth it. It is a lasting work, it brings joy, not fleeting happiness.
Love you all!! We made banana pancakes this morning!! Life is great! Faaitotio (good luck) teie hebidomia (this week)!
Love,
Soeur Campbell
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