The Adventure Begins: The Island is Out of Power

Dear friends and family, 

   This week has had its challenges. Good grief! haha.

  We will just cut right to it. My companion and I have gone into camping status.

  The island's electrical generator is very broken. We have been surviving for the last 6 days with no running water or electricity in our house.

  Most of the Takapoto has found a way to generate their own houses without the community generator, but there are others who don't have their own generators. Those "others" include me and my companion.

  The great thing is though is my companion comes from Montana and has been camping a lot. So we have been using her knowledge to figure out a lot of our problems. 

  I will explain why we don't have running water in our house. Our water pump is electrical, so with no power, we have no water. 

   Tuesday and Wednesday we went without a shower. Those days were super hard making the adaptation. We sang "Count Your Many Blessings" in French and Tahitian so many times.

   Thursday we decided we needed to find a way to make a shower happen. So at 6:25 am Thursday morning, we had a knock on our door. Our branch president had connected a pipe to our water cylinder and told us we could use that to put water in a bucket and take a shower.

  Sr. Stosich also figured out how to flush the toilet with no running water. We have also been brushing our teeth under the stars. And Saturday night we washed our hair under the stars. We have really been getting creative. 

  Today we even cleaned the house with no running water. We just went outside and filled our buckets.

  Ok. So that is our rough it status. It makes me think how I could have used a little bit more camping experience before coming on a mission. Those of you who know my family  should be laughing right now. hahaha. 

  And for those of our who have running water and electricity, this is a call to be grateful! There are too many things in life we take for granted.

  Well, that whole crisis happened Tuesday and then Thursday I came to the realization that some things just don't really matter. The light and water are important, but people and their salvation and spiritual growth is way more important. 

  I have seen more people read the Book of Mormon since the power has been out. It is amazing and a miracle for a missionary to see. 

  We don't know when the generator will be fixed. People say all sorts of things. This morning they were saying they are going to get a whole new generator shipped from Tahiti. If the boat comes here directly from Tahiti that will mean 2 days, but I think they are still trying to figure out exactly the problem. 

  This morning we got up and did some cophra. Pretty much Sr. Stosich and I pried open coconuts and stacked them on top of each other. The coconuts will stay there to dry out a couple of days and then the insides of the coconut will be taken out in a process they call "pita." We were helping out one of our recent converts, Mauhuta. I actually taught him in Tahiti. It was some nice work but didn't really seem to bad, because we were doing it right in front of the lagoon.

  This week has been full of blessings because so many people have given us fruit. We have received bananas, pineapple, grapes, oranges and apples. I was especially excited to eat the grapes and pineapple because it has been 3 months since I have had fruit like that. 

  We also have seen miracles with the people we teach this week. We have committed Gloria to pray about a specific baptism day. We found out why she was hesitant. That took us some time to figure out. Communicating in Tahitian really takes patience and persistence. I love Mami Gloria though. we keep on inviting her to all the little church activities we do (like English class and music class) and she comes to every one of them. It is really good for her because otherwise, she would just stay at home. 

   I also love speaking in Tahitian. It is like a puzzle because a lot of the times you describe a word because there isn't a word for it. 

  We also had a miracle Friday. Friday there was a new cargo boat coming to the island. So the whole island was waiting for this boat for like 4 hours, meaning our lessons got canceled and we ended up at the dock with the rest of the island. While we were there one of the ladies were used to teach, Mahina, came up to me and asked if we could teach her English at her house. I was thrilled and Sr. Stosich and I are happy to have a new opportunity to serve.   

  Well, I just have to say how much I love this island and these people and the language. This week has really helped me to realize that and to have a little glimpse of how God loves His children.

  I hope you all have a great week! Don't forget to count your blessings.

Love,

 Tuahine Campbell