On the Brink

Dear Friends and family,

  So much has happened this week, so many good things.

  First off, there was a transfer. Both Sr. Sommers and I are staying in Takapoto. But we found out during our district meeting over skype on Friday, that the island of AHE is being closed for a little moment. So in our district it will just be Sr. Sommers and I and the Elders of the neighboring atoll, Takaroa. 

  Also, sad/ happy news is that both my old companions, Sr. Richards from UT and Sr. Marrtet from Brisbane, finished their mission today!! I am so happy for them but will miss them and all the things I learned from them. 

  Other quick info. is that most the people here have left the atoll for a week to go participate in "challenges" at Takaroa. Challenges are a sports tournament for all the sports. All the little islands around here have gone to compete at Takaroa. They all took the boat this morning. They will compete in soccer, vaa (like kayaking), and basketball to name a few.

  That leaves us, the missionaries, room to get creative this next week since most of our amis are in Takaroa.

  On Friday we had a missionary night. My companion and I made a powerpoint explaining the importance of making and keeping covenants. Afterward we had a photo contest. The branch had a fun time. Our amis Yves, Gloria, and Lulu were also there. 

   The bread bakery has been closed here. So the only bread on the island has been coconut bread. We met the lady who makes it. It takes her 7 hours to make this bread. It is so good. It tastes like Mom's Thanksgiving rolls with coconut milk in it. yummy.

  My companion had to re-teach me how to make top ramen last night. I never bought or ate it in college, but now I do. 

   For the past three weeks, we haven't seen Eria, because his concubine made us stop the lessons. We respected that decision and didn't try to go see him at all. 

  Monday I came to the realization that God has really given us a miracle and even though we can't control the situation, He can. So Monday night Sr. Sommers and I prayed pouring out our souls to God, asking for the occasion to be able to do something about Eria's situation, but not knowing exactly how to go about it. I felt comforted after praying, knowing that God would answer our prayer.

  Tuesday night we went to go see Pierre. It was dark and as we approached his house we noticed he was standing outside talking to someone. Sure enough, Pierre was talking to Eria. Prayer answered. We were able to see him without "going to see him."  We got to talk to him and encourage him and hear his testimony how he would not stop even though he has a lot of opposition. I felt like I should tell him that even my family in America is praying for him and that they told me they were going too fast for him too. He was strengthened and so grateful for the support of everyone. The Spirit was so strong as we talked to him. 

  Then while still talking in the dark someone approached us on their bike and stopped about 20 yds away. Sure enough, it was his concubine to take Eria away. She wasn't happy at all. She stayed there and dropped her bike. It was like she couldn't move.  

  Fear came into my heart for a couple seconds, then I remembered who's errand we were on as missionaries. 

  Eria's wife just stood there. She couldn't come near us, because where we were standing was a holy place. 

  Eria left with her. She came back and brought us Eria's books and brochures we gave him.

  Sr. Sommers and I were just in awe of the situation and how God answered our prayers. 

  Saturday the branch president told us Eria got kicked out of his house. He stayed in one of the empty houses on the atoll Saturday night. 

  Sunday the miracle happened. Eria came to church for the first time. We walked in as I was playing the sacrament hymn. I couldn't help but feel the spirit as I played. It was truly wonderful.

 The rest of the sacrament program was given by Pres. MAA's family. They sang and talked about Jesus Christ. It was by far the best sacrament meeting I have been to here. I am sure Eria felt the Spirit too. 

  Sunday after church, Eria's concubine invited him back into the house. And this morning he left for Takaroa. 

  All this is evidence to me of God working a miracle here. For the last 6 weeks we have been praying and fasting and praying and things are starting to come in motion. I still can't see the whole picture, but we are being faithful to what we know. 

  Thursday we set up to have a lesson with Lulu. He is 38 and has had missionary lessons for years. He loves being with the members.  Recently he has been super intrigued with the Book of Mormon. We asked him to pray and ask if it was true but he hadn't. So Thursday as we set up an appointment I told him before the lesson Friday he needed to pray about the Book of Mormon. 

  Friday we had our lesson with Lulu at the chapel. And there was something different about him. He was happier. Within moments I knew he had done what we asked him to do. Later on in the lesson, he exclaimed, "Je fasait qu'est-ce que vous m'avez demande a faire!" or "I did what you asked me to do!" 

   Those words are the best words you can hear as a missionary. After Lulu shared his experience with us. Earlier that morning he had found a spot next to the runway and prayed and asked if the church was true. The spirit told his heart the church was true. He was sooo happy.

  Things here are going wonderfully. I am so grateful to be able to spend another couple of transfers her in Takapoto ( I hope). 

  Have a great week all y'all at home. peace and blessings! peace and blessings!

Souer Campbell

We Had a Bonfire Without Marshmallows

Cher friends and family,

  We had a huge Tahitian bonfire Saturday night for a missionary activity, to gather the branch together and the whole island. Our ward mission leader went out fishing and caught 40 fish for the night. We also had coconut milk rice. The bonfire was just next to the lagoon and the were many amis who came. It was wonderful to all be together listening to the ukulele and listening to the Tahitian songs as they cooked the fish. I also tried pahua for the first time. It was really good. I didn't really understand what it was, but I think it was soaked in coconut milk and it had a good texture. It comes from the ocean. In french, it is bentier. Ok, my companion just explained it is the thing that I sent a picture of the man extracting from the clam like thing.  

  We ate a lot of rice and fish this past week. I think I could argue we eat more rice than my sister in Japan. Everyone on the island has their favorite fish. If you ask, "Which fish is the best?" Everyone gives a different answer. All the fish tastes good, but I have yet to taste a difference in the kinds of fish. Since we eat fish a lot, I am adapting to pulling the tiny hair like fish bones out of my fish. It takes talent. 

   Sr. Sommers and I were happy the bonfire went well and for all the help of the people who put it on. We spent the night committing amis to go to church the next morning. It worked pretty well. 

  We started reading the Book of Mormon with a man this week. We started talking to him while he was stacking his coconuts. He told us that he didn't want the "missionary lessons," but we found out he had a Book of Mormon and that he didn't really know what it was. So we offered to help him understand where the Book of Mormon comes from. Friday we had our first lesson and he was super attentive. 

  We have a ton of coconuts in our fridge we need to drink/eat. The coconut water here is the best. 

  Saturday morning at 6:30, the boat came to the island with my package. We walked to the port, waiting for them to unload the crates, and claimed the package. Practically the whole island was down at the dock. It was pretty exciting. Thank you, family, Sr. Tareva, and Sr. Reyelts for helping me get that. I  was supper happy to receive American food, clothes, and the other stuff. Thank you. 

  Well, that is about it for this week. We continue to pray with our Branch President and are going to put on a fireside about covenants and covenant keeping Friday.  

  We also the conference issue of the Ensign and that has been a huge blessing to read and see my American people in.

  Love you all,

Soeur Campbell

Cooking the fish at the bonfire and Camille. They use coconuts as firewood #islandlife

After several months of traveling across the U.S.A., the package was finally delivered to the atoll of Takapoto

This is where we had the bonfire Saturday, it is in a member's backyard. Most of the backyards here are like that, everyone's house is by the lagoon.

There Goes 9 Months

Hi, everybody.

  Monday we had a huge family home evening with the branch. Sr. Sommers and I gave the lesson on Pres. Ochdorf's 4 priorities: first God, then family, then our fellowmen, and lastly ourselves. Pretty much if your life is prioritized according to that order, it will be easier to handle trials and hard times. 

  Tuesday we were supposed to have a lesson with Eria, but it got canceled, because his concubine absolutely doesn't want him to have lessons. So we have been praying and fasting for her. 

   Wednesday I wanted to go stick my head in the sand. We got rejected and bashed. My companion and I prayed for help on what to do. 

   Friday we had a miracle. During our personal study, there was a knock on the door. An inactive member bought us a ton of food and FRUIT!! The stores here almost never have fruit and to receive fruit like that was a huge blessing. The member had to have spent a good amount because everything here is expensive and there was a lot of food in that box. It was really a miracle. 

  Then after that, I feel like members knew we had a hard time Wednesday because then everyone was giving us a ton of food. Word spreads fast here. It is crazy.

  Friday we also had a miracle with Lulu. He is about 40 and has been taking the lessons for the last 6 months or so. We have been working with him to restart having his prayers and scripture study. This week  he decided to do that and has caught the excitement of reading the Book of Mormon. He told us he wanted to know if it was really true and how to find out if it is really true. ahhhhhhh. It was like music to our ears to have someone really have that desire. Then we got to testify of praying about the book to really know if it is true.  He left the lesson super excited to do that. 

   This week I also had the opportunity to read chapter 34 and 35 in Elder Talmage's Jesus the Christ. I learned so much about the incredibly wrong  accusation and in just trial Christ experienced, because of the wicked people who wanted to kill him. It was really sickening to read, yet Christ had the power to stop it all and avoid the trials and if he wanted to, the crucifixion on multiple occasions. But he didn't, because he had accomplished the work he needed to do and would finish it by giving his life. It was so wrong what happened to the most perfect being, yet the way he handled it was perfect. 

  So this week as I think of the things that happened, I can't help but be even more grateful and reminded of the Savior and his example of perfect diligence and humility under the horrible, underserved circumstances he experienced. He was the perfect and experience the worst of death a person could face. 

   This Wednesday will be nine months for me as a missionary. I won't say it is easy at all. The important things in life are never easy. But I love it. I love this gospel. I love the peace and happiness it brings me. I love the people here. I love to see them truly happy and how the gospel brings them that change. 

    Have a great week everybody. Stay firm in the faith. Don't forget the blessings will come. 

love,

Soeur Campbell

This is Loic, our ami, and one of the tuna fish he caught this week. I think we ate that tuna for lunch today.

Today, we went to Maire Lousie's house and learned how to make her famous cake. This family is so wonderful and an awesome example of faith. The mami sitting down is Gloria (Marie Lousie's mom) we teach her. The other man is her husband.

The 21 Day Promise

Hey everybody,

  So for the last 21 days, we have been praying morning and night for the missionary work here. The branch also joined us in the prayer. I didn't know what to expect out of it when we started. But in the last three weeks, Sr. Sommers and I have gotten to witness many great and small miracles. The Lord has helped us to start teaching a consistent amount of new investigators. You can just imagine trying to find new people to teach when all 400 people on the island already know who the missionaries are. The members also have been strengthened as they have exercised their own faith in praying. As I wrote about in last week's letter we found a golden investigator, Eria, as an answer to the numerous prayers the branch has prayed for. It goes to show God is still a God of miracles.

  One of the best things as a missionary is that we are literally on the front lines of seeing the impact of the gospel in people's lives. 

  We continued to marvel at the faith of Eria this week. Pres. Bonno is always there in the lessons with us and Saturday he stayed after a little with Eria and talked about how we were going too fast for his situation that day. After that Sunday we had a lesson with Eria and he told us he decided to fast too. We hadn't even taught him about fasting yet, but he has such great faith, he knew it would help him and went for it. Then during that same lesson on Sunday we were teaching about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and he told us he already started to do that. When his son asked him to go fishing last week Eria told him, "no, because it is the Sabbath Day." 

  Ahhhhhhhh. It is sooooooo goood to live these faith building experiences with the investigators.Saturday, we experienced some real island culture. We were waiting for an ami to show up for his lesson. We started talking to this man who was sitting there, just across from him was a little plastic tray with a raw fish. He was waiting for the neighbor's dog to come and eat it, so he could poison the dog and eat it later. I have never seen anything like that in my life. I felt super bad for the poor dog. Good thing the dog didn't come when we were there. They haven't fed me dog yet, but they did to the sister missionaries before us as a joke. There are a lot of dogs here and they are all super skinny. 

  Sunday we had a miracle. Loic, one of the new amis came to church. He told us Saturday he didn't know if he wanted to go to church, but Sunday he was there. 

  Another miracle we have seen happened Friday. At 5pm I was supposed to give a piano lesson to a member, but she wasn't there. We are on a small island and if you want to find someone it doesn't take much effort to find them, so we set out to go find the member to have her piano lesson. In walking around searching for this member, we saw a man carrying some groceries behind the mayor's office. For the past 3 days, we had been trying to find a man named Martin, but he hasn't been home and we just hadn't contacted him when we wanted to. Put simply we wanted to meet him but hadn't. Well, out of nowhere my companion just straight up asks this "random" man, "Hey are you Martin?" He responded yes. Then we started talking and invited him to English class that night at 7pm.  After I asked my companion why she asked him. Yeah, she was totally guided by the spirit. After we met Martin, we found our piano girl and had our piano lesson.

 Right after the piano lesson we had another lesson at the church with Lulu and Pres. MAA (pronounced ma-ah) (def:food in Tahitian) (of the branch pres). Well, in comes walking Martin early for English class. We didn't tell him he was early for eng class and just invited him to sit in for the lesson for Lulu. He enjoyed it and we set a return appointment. 

  Then at 7pm Friday night we had English. It went really well. I was worried it wouldn't go well and we had a lot of fun. I am learning just have fun. The people here love fun. Not like what I am used to work, work, work.

  Yeah so by the end of the week, I was just super grateful. I think about where I am, an ile in the sea and all the promises God has made to the people here about gathering them into Israel in Isaiah and the Book of Mormon. I can't help but be in awe that we get to be a part of this great work. Sunday, we did planning and drank coconuts. The coconuts here have the sweetest water in the world. yumm. 

   Shout out to my little sister Abbee, who turns 15 on June 10th! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Joyeux anniversaire! Mahana oaoa no oe! Good luck getting your permit and congrats on receiving your personal progress medallion! 

  Also, shout out to my dad. Happy Father's Day (I don't know when it is)! Love you tons! You example means a ton to me. 

  Have a great week everyone else! Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. God be with you.

  Love,

 Soeur Campbell

This is Sœur Campbell's investigator Maapo.  Yes, that is his house on the beach.

    

The Truth And A Miracle

Hey, te mau taata!

  I am going to start out being honest. This week was one of the hardest of my mission if not the hardest. I started the week out with a cold, yet was determined to work because we need a miracle.  

  Last week my companion and I came to the fact that we need to do everything we can to have a miracle here. The reason being is that the mission is loosing a lot of missionaries in June and some areas are going to have to be closed. 

  

  So we started praying for a miracle to have some baptism dates and to have a baptism before the end of June. Then Tuesday (May 26th) we fasted for the miracle to have someone accept the baptismal date. We weren't really sure who, but we were set on someone accepting by the end of the day. 

  10 am after our studies, we go over to Eria's (the man who came to the movie night last week) house. We started talking to him around his truck he was fixing. We talked about the movie and how either the things are true or false. Then we talked about the importance to have a way to connect man and God through covenants. I don't really know what happened after that, but I asked him, "When are you going to be ready to follow Jesus Christ?" He responded, "now." Then Sr. Sommers gave the baptismal invitation for June 20. He wasn't sure. We invited him to pray about it and helped him resolve some of his concerns. We also invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if the things we say are true. He said he would pray about it and read so we set an appointment for the next day. 

  We left his house and immediately said a prayer of gratitude and continued to work the rest of the day. 

  So every morning we pray with our branch president at 7 am after our exercise and we asked President to come with us to Eria's house because we have also been praying for Eria for the last 2 weeks.  

  At 10 am Wed morning we all went over there and Eria had his patio all set up with places for us to sit. He was so excited. We asked him if he prayed to know if the things we were saying were true and if 20 June was his date for baptism. He said he did get his answer and we could see it on his face. He was really happy, full of joy.  

  

That was a huge miracle for us. Eria said he had never prayed like that before. Literally, he changed over night.

 Thursday and Friday we taught the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. There was no question for Eria whether or not to follow the commandments. He told us "it is a commandment, so we need to follow them." That was another huge miracle. 

  Then Saturday we extended the invitation for Eria to come to church. He had already told his concubine he would to go church with her Sunday. We encouraged him to pray to know which church to go to Sunday morning. He did and got his answer. 

  Sunday morning his concubine was so mad at him and came over to the church demanding the branch president, "What had we done to Eria?" He just replied we asked him to pray. 

  There is the HUGE miracle we have been praying for, but it definitely has come at a price. There has been soo much opposition it is crazy. That is always how it goes. You pray for humility and you get trails that make you humble. You pray for patience and you get opportunities to practice patience.  You pray for a miracle and you get a chance to fight for a miracle. 

  We have literally entered into this fight where everything logic tells you, "nope, not a chance," but we keep going because we didn't leave our families or come this far to fail and we are a part of God's team, which is always the winning team in the end.

  Saturday the boat should be coming with yogurt and my real bike. Yogurt because today we went shopping and there is no more yogurt on the island and my bike because I have been using a mission bike but it needs a tune up, so they are sending my good bike. I am excited for that. I have never been so grateful for a good bike. 

  I have been slowly changing my studies from French to Tahitian. I have set a goal to read two pages in te Buka A Mormona everyday. I love reading in Tahitian because the meaning of the words are super simple. 

  My Tahitian has improved since being here in Takapoto and my French. 

 I am still in awe of the sacrifices the members make. Tuesday we were at the church getting ready to go see some in-actives with the branch and we could see across the street one sister literally running home as fast as she could to quickly put a skirt on after a days worth of hard work, to go visit people with us. 

  Thursday we got rejected a ton and Marie Louise, a sister who worked with us that day, had bought us Nutella and left it on our doorstep. That stuff is like gold here. When you are on a little atoll, just imagine the scarcity and the monopoly the stores have on price setting.  

  Wednesday my bike broke and Brother Maa fixed it and also put some tape on the handlebars (because they are old and get sticky and then it gets on my hands) without us even asking. 

  We also just talked to our Branch President and Eria came to see him today saying that nothing is going to stop him. Normally Pres. Bonno will have a family home evening with Eria tonight. 

  So there you go. Things are beautiful out here. The lagoon has the best water in the world. President fixed  our clothes line and is going to install a pipe so our water cylinders will receive more water because our roof is tiny and doesn't collect a ton of rain. I can't ask for much more. I am really grateful to be here, even if this week was hard. 

  Also just so my family knows, the members out here are praying for you. They always pray and ask "to bless the family of Sister Campbell." I love you guys! and for everyone else love you too! 

 Have a fantastic week.

 love,

Soeur Campbell 

ok from left to right. On the left, there is a lagoon just behind the coconut trees. The first two buildings are the church. The basketball court is where all the kids play before going to school and have their P.E. time. The third building is a shed for all of the cleaning supplies. The fourth building is our house, and the black cylinder is our water source. Our bikes are right next to it and we don't lock up our bikes here because if you steal the missionaries' bike everyone on the island will know.

This is our house the black thing next to it is our water cylinder

     This is our water collection pres. Bonno is going to install a pipe to