A Service of Love: This Week and a Trip to Amanu (an island with only 200 inhabitants)

Last week I received a total of three emails with my travel itinerary to go home, one from mom (she beat the church in sending me my travel plans), one from the church as my official travel plans, and one from my dad.

I talked to Pres. Bize Monday night and he gave me my ecclesiastical endorsement for BYU!! I just thought to myself how crazy that was, we talked for like 20 seconds on the phone because I am a three-hour flight away from the mission home and then he endorsed me.

Friday afternoon, Sr. Xowi, Pres. Chong (the district president here), his family, 6 other members here in HAO, and I got in a motor boat to go to the neighboring island of Amanu to have a little district conference there.

The boat ride was an hour long. It was Sr. Xowi's first and she did a good job, as the ocean was little rough and the boat bounced a little,. We took our seats in the back of the boat sitting on the ground with the kids who also came with us because the back of the boat bounces less. It was really really fun. I LOVEEE boat rides. As soon as the boat started bouncing I felt like it was going to be a fun hour and started laughing. That boat ride had to have been one of the most fun moments of my mission. No one got sick going there. We had 6 adults in the boat and 3 kids. I felt super Tahitian.

There is a little group of members that meet in Amanu, about 10 members on average who attend sacrament meeting each week. They meet in a house that the church rents.

On the island of Amanu, there are about 200 people who live there. They just recently built a road and are in the process of building a hurricane shelter for the community. There are two little concession stand stores there and everyone gets around on foot or bike if you really want to get somewhere fast. Sr. Xowi and I walked through the village in about 20 mins taking our time.

For the spiritual side of the trip, we went there and had a fireside Saturday afternoon and a conference Sunday morning. We sang for both of the meetings and I spoke and bore testimony for both of the meetings.

Sr. Xowi and I prayed and fasted that we would be able to do the work we needed to do there in the short amount of time we had. Well, we were busy going with the members from HAO and did splits to go see the people and teach the gospel.

We were the first sister missionaries ever to go there. I know why. Hehe. We totally took bucket showers. It was a great experience.

The people were so kind and receptive to us. They killed the pig for us and we had a big Tahitian feast, with food they had cooked in the ground. We ate coconut bread, coconuts, chicken, pig, and cooked banana. They also had a little fareireiraa (party) for us, where they showered us with shell necklaces. It was just perfect and we were really touched by their kindness.

I spoke a lot in Tahitian being there and core testimony about The Book of Mormon and eternal families. It was just a dream to be able to do that. I really felt the spirit as I did so.

We also helped an inactive lady who had forgotten most of the teachings in the church as it has been 30 years. We only had an hour with her and she wanted us to teach her the base of the gospel. There was no way we could do that in an hour!! I felt prompted though to just encourage her to read the Book of Mormon, as all the doctrine and plan of salvation can be found in it. My companion and I passed the hour sharing testimony and experiences of that wonderful book.

The weekend trip to Amanu was super tiring. At night we were just whipped but it was weird to not be in our little house all alone. We shared a house with 14 other members including kids. There was 1 bathroom and no running water. I just felt like we were a part of a nice ward camping trip. It went really well though and a great experience to bond with the members from here in Hao. How do missionaries get to have an experience like that??

Sunday we came back from Amanu and the boat ride was a lot less calm, but one of the little girls sitting next to me did get sea sick. I stayed clean, though.

Needless to say last night, Sunday, I had one of the best night's sleep of my mission. It felt so good to be back in my bed and clean.

Well, love you all so much. I almost want to cry every day knowing that this is coming quickly to an end. Have a great week and I'll see you in a few of those!

Love.

Tuahine Campbell