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