A Service of Love: My First Week in Takapoto

Dear Family and Friends!

So last week when I said that being transferred was like a whole new mission call is sooo true. Things are so different here in Takapoto. People either do one of 3 things for work: fishing, cutting up coconuts to get the meat out and sell or creating a calm by putting a rope in the ocean to sell the calm after. It is super interesting to see how the economy says so much about the culture and then it effects the missionary work. For example this week we literally couldn't find any of our investigators because they had "gone fishing," but they literally were gone fishing. Then we found out that the boat that usually buys out the coconuts people sell for a living stopped buying the coconuts, so there are many people who don't have that source of income right now.

Another thing I am learning is life here revolves around when the "boat is going to come." There are 3 boats that drop off goods and then normally take the coconuts that people have prepared to sell off the island. Everyone talks about when the boat is going to come. It is like that movie The Other Side of Heaven. Then the airplane comes once a week and people literally will just go to greet the plane to see who is new on the island. It is just awesome.

I am learning pretty much if I can figure out fishing, the method people use for the coconut and clam businesses, I can use those analogies to help people learn the gospel. We have started doing service for people and went fishing today. We strung clams on a fishing line to put them into the lagoon and started talking to some people who were in the middle of taking out the meat of the coconut to sell.

So the work people do here is normally a huge process with many steps, which is great because that principle of small consistency is exactly like in the gospel. They say "by small and simple means are great things brought to pass." That is exactly what we are having to do here to as missionaries. Simple consistency. We have started an invite to pray with the branch president here every morning and with our ward mission leader every night. Since life is pretty chill here, everyone has time.

That is another thing I am learning, there will ALWAYS be an excuse why you can't do something. You decide to do something and just do it, if not it will never get done.

We have been talking a lot about goal setting with our amis here. They think I am crazy, but really life has a purpose and it is good to give yourself something to work for and especially to write things down. Simply put: Our lives will not change unless we exercise a little faith and change it. So we teach a lot of lessons by the beach.

Thursday we rode 30 km (18.6 miles) under the sun in sandals and a skirt to go to a service project for the branch. They were making a fish pond. I don't really understand how it works, but they placed rocks in a certain position to trap the fish who swim from the lagoon (inside then cheerio ring of the land) to the ocean. We were just there for a service project but the colors of water and the water was the best water I have ever seen in my life, yet everyone there didn't even go in it.

We started music lessons. 5 people came on Saturday. I thought it was a pretty good start. It is really nice to do English and things like that here because there isn't much else to do and people will come.

Sunday church pretty much got canceled. Church is at 8 am and we went there for sacrament meeting and found out there was supposed to be a regional broadcast at 11 am, so we weren't going to have Sunday School or 3rd hour because they were going to set up the computer for the broadcast. We went home and studied all to come back and find out that they couldn't get the broadcast to work, so we didn't have 2/3 of church.

We teach a lot of men, which is really different because in Tipaerui it was all women. We literally taught like 4 20-year-olds with them sitting on their scooters in their garage. We taught them about how this life is the time to prepare to meet God. It is good they will listen to us.

So today we went fishing with some members because President Bize told us we can go as long as we have life vests. We had like no success until we started catching fish left and right. I started calling to the fish in English by saying "fishy, come here." No one else in the boat understood what I was saying, but the method seemed to work pretty well because that is when I started to catch fish. We didn't even use a fishing poll. We were in the lagoon and just threw the fishing line and hook over the boat. I caught four fish and we used chicken as bait. The fish were like a foot long each. After we caught 14 fish we went to a little paradise spot and cooked the fish over an open fire (they use coconuts for fuel here) and ate the fish with our bare hands. They gave me a fork because I was the only American, but then I couldn't be the only one eating with a fork, so I used my hands. We also drank coconuts.

You are probably thinking I am joking, but seriously this is real life here in Takapoto. People fish and eat the fish they eat. People give us coconuts all the time to drink. Since we can drink the tap water (it comes from the rain) we drink a lot of coconuts and coke. I have drunk more coke here then when I was raised in ATL (where coke comes from).

As for the work, it is a nice process and we are praying for miracles.

I hope you all have a great week and are loving life and are grateful for all the wonderful blessings you have! Love you!

Soeur Campbell