Hi!

Hi friends and family,

   So last week I said we were super busy. Well, I kind of want to take that back a little because THIS week we were super busy. 

   We had our interviews with President Bize (our mission president). He literally told Sr. Marrett and I to celebrate, because last week we taught a whole bunch. So when the mission president tells us to celebrate, we are obedient and celebrate. Thursday night we had some super good timtam slams. Timtam slams are the best thing in the world. You have a chocolate cookie covered in chocolate and use it to drink milo, which is like hot chocolate. This week we literally had like no time to eat some days. We worked like crazy and taught 35 lessons. It is not all about numbers, but still crazy. That is a busy week. It is a miracle what is happening here in this sector. Things are booming as far as finding people, teaching, and progressing amis. 

   We started teaching this 19-year-old girl a couple weeks ago. We have been going to visit her and when we were up there (because she lives on the mountain), we just talked about what we do as missionaries. We had a member with us and by divine design, the member already knew our ami, Merita. So the member bore her testimony about her conversion and how she prayed to know if the things the missionaries taught were true and then she felt really good after she prayed. Then we asked Merita to do the same after we left. Well, we went back up there and Merita prayed, and got an answer! Now she knows she wants to be baptized and we just need to help her prepare. 

   Awesome things happened this week with Leila. She has been praying to know if her baptism date was the right one, AND she got her answer! Everyone in the ward here is just blown away that she is getting baptized because she has taken missionary lessons on and off for the last 10 years. Seriously, though, watching and seeing her conversion over the past 5 months has been a huge blessing. She had taken all the missionary lessons before but had never read the Book of Mormon. When I got here she had just started reading and was in 2 Nephi. One time I asked her a question about God and prayer and she wasn't sure if there even was a God to answer her prayers. Now she is in Helaman in the Book of Mormon and talks about God answering her prayers without us even bringing it up. The changes she has made are just. WOW! It goes to show if you study the Book of Mormon you can overcome your doubts. 

  We also started teaching a man  named Hiomai. He is 23 years old and is free during the day. He wants to be baptized, and since he is free during the day, we are going to go over there as much as we can to help him progress. Also, we had our first lesson with Mami Louise this week with both Sr. Marrett and I. We tried to give it in Tahitian. It was about the Plan of Salvation. We got to her house and she was reading the gospel principles book and then she practically taught us the lesson. We didn't even have to bring up praying about the things we talked about because she told us she was going to do that the next day. Ohhh the best was when she was telling us that she needed to stop skipping out on church. I was like "yesssss, that would be a good thing." We weren't even planning on talking to her about the church, because for the most part, she is there 90% of the time. 

  We were with another ami and he doesn't see a need to go to church when he can just pray at home. I was trying to explain to him that if he never goes at least once, he will never know if the church is good. So I asked him his favorite food. He told me pork. Then I asked him before he ate pork what was your favorite type of food. He said, "chein." Sr. Marrett and I was like, "what, isn't that illegal??" Then he said it is English, "dog." We just laughed with him. Every time we go over there we just come back saying, "life is cool" and throwing up a hang loose sign. We have yet to see him at church, but we are starting with baby steps.

  Sunday we ate maa Tahiti (Tahitian food). We had fish, raw fish, taro, sweet potato, some kind of banana thing and put it all in warm coconut milk. It was really good. Now it is Monday morning and I am still full from the taro (it is like a starchy potato that is purple or green).

  Also, I saw Sr. Arbuckle today for the first time since the MTC. It was great.

    Ok well, there is some things that happened this week. I fell like Mormon in "The Words of Mormon" when he writes, "not even a hundredth part of the things are written on this record." Ditto that, so much happens every week, where I can't write it all, plus all the backstory and emotions, that will just never happen. So I hope you have a great week and good luck.   

Love, Sœur Campbell

The Miracles Just Keep Getting Bigger

Hi family and friends,

  So this week has been miracle after miracle and hard work and slammed packed. Since Thursday we have just go go go. 

    Lets start out with Monday. It is our pday, but usually, at the end of the day we end up at a family home evening. We have been encouraging members to invite investigators to their FHEs and it has been pretty effective. Sr. Marrett ended up at one house and me at another, so we did a split. I went to the TEATOs, which is a convert family of 1 year, but they have been doing missionary work like crazy. The father who got baptized is trying to share the gospel with all his family. His mom, Mami Louise (who we crashed her birthday party and made cookies for) has been super active in the church going to activities and everything but hasn't wanted the missionary lessons yet. Missionaries have been asking her for at least a year. Well, her son told me a couple months ago that she would tell us when she wanted the lessons and just to lay off. That is what we did, but honestly, it was super hard for me personally, because I have had this super big "ami crush" on Mami. I just love  her so much and wanted to start the lessons with her, but couldn't. Ok. One other thing last Thursday we were planning and I told Sr. Marrett that we were going to make Mami more of a priority, even if she didn't want the lessons, we were going to do something for her this week. Now back to Monday night. I was over there and miracles happen. Mami asked for the lessons!!!!!!!! I was soooo excited like literally, it has been my little dream to start the lessons with her because she is just awesome. These miracles just keep getting better and better. Who ever knew that would happen. I know that is part of the reason I stayed here another transfer. 

    At that same FHE, there was another mother who was looking for comfort in her life and found it through the example of Fr. Teato. Now she too wants the missionary lessons and the gospel. Voila. Two new investigators Monday night and a split. It was a perfect way to start the week and not only that is was Mami Louise! So excited. 

   Also last Friday (9 April) during weekly planning, Sr. Marrett had the idea to go give out some Book of Mormons to find people. We blocked out some hours of this week to go do that as a finding intuitive and went this Thursday (April 16). Lets be honest we needed to give a little bit more love to finding, because we teach so much we can easily book ourselves with people we already know will accept us and personal study, companionship study, and langue study, and do all that stuff and call it a day. Thursday we went out with our goal to give out 3 copies ofhTe Book of Mormon. We made a plan to go to two places. 1. a little neighborhood where they keep all the Tahiti Tour buses 2. the apartment building right next to the chapel that we walk past all the time. Then we headed out. We started with the neighborhood. It was typical tracting here in Tahiti. People would hear you trying to get their attention and ignore. Then we talked to a lady and gave her a book, but she didn't want to fix a time for us to come back. So we set off the apartment. We were walking there and were like a block away and I saw this little neon yellow thing and had a thought/impression/determination that we were going to go there. I didn't say anything to Sr. Marrett, but just took the lead and went. So the yellow thing was at the top level of the apt. building and there was a little spiral staircase that led up to it. We knocked on the door, no answer. People were there but didn't want to answer. Ok. The stairs only led to one door on each floor, so we descended. Still, knock and no answer. Descend, knock and after a good effort of knocking a lady openings the door covered in sweat, but so excited to see us. Then started with< "I am a huge catholic." Then proceeded to tell us her experiences with how no one can answer her question< "how do I know if a church is really God's church?" Perfect, we knew how to help her. She also had a lot of other questions, so we pulled out the Book of Mormon telling her she could find the answers inside. She recognized the book and told us, "I have that book!" Then we asked her how. Come to find out 3weeks ago her drunk nephew knocked on her door at 1 am to give her one. She thought it was like a Bible, but we told her she could read it and pray. It was amazing how God prepares people. It also gave me lots of determination, because I also thought those finding stories were rare and for special missionaries because up to my mission I haven't experienced that. We got a return appointment for the next day, but she wasn't there. We found time to see her yesterday and gave her the restoration pamphlet and talked abut faith. 

   Now Pres. Bize wants us to find 15 new investigators in the next three weeks, so we are making finding more of a priority to do that, but holy cow we are packed. Next week is already booked with appointments and we have to find people too. Thankfully, though, we did the survey with the ward. We asked people 13 questions and at the end if the want the missionaries to come over and talk about the things more. Like one of the questions is "would you like to have a free Book of Mormon?" We already have 4 appointments fix from that. 

  Next crazy thing that happened this week was Saturday. We had a lesson at the chapel with a recent convert. He is 17 and the only member in his family that he lives with. His dad is a member but lives on another island. His commitment is incredible. We asked him how his scripture study is going and he read 40 sections in Doctrine and Covenants. He started Tuesday and we asked him Saturday. He is not trying to show off of anything too. Then he started asking us about fasting like "is it okay to fast more than 24 hours?" We told him no and asked, "why do you ask?" Then come to find out he fasted 3 days, from Tuesday to Saturday morn! No food or water and he had a purpose and everything for it. I was blown away. I have never heard of anyone doing that, but this humble recent convert did.

   Also Saturday we taught our English class for the city and then went to the little visitor's center at the temple with the ward and investigators. We had 7 investigators there and they enjoyed it. We had a little program too. I ended up playing piano for a youth in our ward to sing. That was a little crazy because I had to sight read the whole thing. Anyways there was an investigator there I didn't know and asked him if he wanted to learn more about what they talked about in the visitor's center and he said yes. We fixed an appointment and got a member to be there in the lesson too. 

  This area is having a finding turnover and it is really a miracle. Like I said before we could teach people we already have all day, no problem, but this week things have changed finding is booming and the ward is right behind us. I am just overly grateful to be here.  

  I hope you all are doing well too.

Love,

Soeur Campbell 

We saw a turtle and a miracle on the mission

Hi good people I know,

   This week was great. Lots of good things happened.  

  After 20 years of living together, Elvina and Yves got married!! Their daughter saved up her money and bought them wedding bands. Saturday morning they went down to the mayor's office and made it official. Sr. Marrett and I didn't go, because they didn't want it to be a big deal. Sunday, we had stake conference and they were there. (side note: Stake conference was packkkkeeedd. There was not that much parking and they had a shuttle picking people up to take them to their cars. Then the overflow was huge and literally every chair in the building was being used.) Elvina and Yves got good seats because they are amis de l'eglise (investigators). There were some powerful testimonies borne during the conference and they were really touched, especially by the youth. After the conference, we went over to their house all ready to talk about the lesson we had been planning on sharing and have abandoned for one reason or another the last couple of days. We abandoned the lesson plan again and just talked about baptism and the conference and their thoughts. We have gone back and forth with a baptismal date with them, but they were moved by the spirit during conference. They picked a date, just like that. Saturday we are going to fast with them to accomplish that goal. 

  Something similar happened with Leila this week. Tuesday we were over there for one of our visits during the week. We have been asking for months if she had prayed about baptism. Finally, we decided to give her a little break. So when we were doing the follow-up, I wanted to ask, but didn't, because I knew when the time came she would tell us. We had the lesson and it went well (I can't even remember what we talked about my memory is just shot these days). At the end, Leila asked me to give the prayer. I gave the prayer and prayed for God to help her find her date. Then, right after we said "amen," the day we had been waiting for came. She told us she picked a date to really pray to be ready for!!! That was like the quickest answer to a prayer ever. What happened was Monday, she just  said the prayer and pulled out the calendar and thought about it and chose a date. Yyayayayayay! I am stinking excited for her. That act right there is like one of the greatest miracles of this mission.  

  So there y'all have it. Two miracle stories that have been in the works since I got here. Both Leila, Elvina, and Yves, we have seen multiple times a week  since I have got here in December and had baptismal dates that we tried to make work, but weren't right. Now we have some good goals. 

  Saturday night the stake did an open house. The seminary was in charge and the youth did different themed rooms like, The Plan of Salvation, temples, prayer, and study the scriptures. Each room had so much creativity in it. The Plan of Salvation was life size. They took chalk and colored the gym floor and we walked through the plan. It was amazing to see the power of the youth in action. They all bore powerful testimony and put a lot of effort into the open house. I was so grateful they did that, so the nonmembers could hear the good word from the youth. Afterward they had refreshments. Holy cow. I literally could have timed. There had to have been like 8 tables of food and within less them 4 minutes, there was absolutely nothing left.

  Things in the ward are going well. We started having our splits and it went really well. The thing is the word "split" here has various meanings because it is English and everyone thinks it means different things. Like just going to a lesson with the missionaries. We defined it as the missionaries separating and going with members to see two different people at the same time. Tuesday that happened and the members had a great time and we  saw some people. It just felt great to be doing what the mission president has asked us to do. 

   Sr. Marrett and I have started to ask the classic question, "Do you have a Book of Mormon?" to people. It works here in Tahiti. People LOVEEE free stuff and when we pull one out of our bag for someone who we have never talked to before, the just feel so loved. It works on both sides because we love doing it too. The Book of Mormon is so powerful for conversion and is a great way to share the gospel without asking the dull "Do you want the missionary lessons?" question. I love it and hope to finish it in French this week and start reading it seriously in Tahitian. I have learned so much by reading it in French.  

  Ok, time for adventure. Today we woke up at like 5:30 to go to the presque ile (little island) and we saw a turtle that is in a magical botanical garden. It was pretty cool and right next to the ocean. The ocean looked awesome and the water was clear. After that we saw some cool caves and did some of the suppppeerrrr touristy stuff. It was fun. 

  I hope everyone has a great week and tries their best! 

Love,

Soeur Campbell

 Sister Marrett and I today on the boardwalk with the presque ile in the background

 Some of our zone on the dock

 Us trying to watch the women's conference in English a few weeks back.. in the end, it didn't really work,.

                                            This is right next to the track where we run

 This is a fish (oeo) ducks beak in English. that our old DMP caught last weekend. I took this picture to show y'all the fish here. I think they already ate it

 Me, sr ekerson, sr tau (waiting for a visa), and sr taputea.   these 3 other sisters serve in Heiri (an area like a 10 min drive a way). they are in the house with us

 One of the waterfalls we saw today, that is me, sr. Erickson (from the MTC) and sr. marrett (my companion)

This is Tahiti. We drove like an hour to get there

Easter Week

Hello family and friends, and Happy late Easter,

  There has been so much good that has happened this week. I'll start with a miracle. 

Saturday and Sunday we had general conference (it is a huge deal because it is when the church leaders speak and it only happens 2 times a year), so Sr. Marrett and I had been making our proper efforts to explain the importance and good opportunity to go to the conference to the investigators here. We have been talking about it for a while with some of our amis like Tauhia. She has been taking the lessons for a  while but hasn't been able to go to church or come to activities because her concubine won't let her.Thursday we were over there and she wanted to go so bad but didn't  know if she could because she hadn't asked yet. We gave her the church website in hopes maybe she could watch it online, but she doesn't have the internet. We continued to pray for her.Saturday morning at 6am we had the first session of general conference and she wasn't there at the chapel. Like a half an hour before the next session, she still hadn't asked her tane(man) yet, so her sister who is a member said a prayer for her tane to let her go. After that, she begged him.

 The Saturday 10am session we got a phone call that she was coming!! She came and was soo grateful to have been able to go and found the peace and felt the spirit there. She even told us the songs the Mormon Tabernacle choir songs were two of the songs we had sung that week in her lessons. 

  The general conference sessions here were at 6 am and 10 am. We got up at 4:45 Saturday and Sunday to be on time. We didn't even take a nap. We watched the Sat morn session in French, but I only understood like 30 percent of it, so we watched the rest in English. Sunday we watched it at a member's house (the Reyelts). They were so kind to us and fed us a nice Easter lunch afterward. We got back at like 1:50 and then went back out to work at 2 and worked the rest of the day. I really thought I was not going to make it through the day, but somehow we did. We saw a lot of people yesterday, so that was good.

  

General Conference really works miracles. A lot of the investigators here went and have renewed desires to act. I am soo grateful for that. We had a good amount of people in the last week tell us they didn't want to get baptized this month, but with general conference, they have a renewed desire to refix a date. Thank goodness.  

  Thursday morning we went to the store after our run and a car drove up waving us down. It was Sr. Tareva and her mom. They were off to the market to sell pork they cooked traditionally on a bamboo stick. They gave us one to take home and eat. It was huge like 3ft long bamboo with 2 in in diameter. 

 Thursday night we made cookies for a Mami who was having a birthday. She turned 62. We had a lot of things to do but somehow we made time to make the cookies and by the time we got around to delivering them it was 7 at night. We went over there to drop them off and her whole family was there having the birthday party. She insisted on us staying and eating aka crashing her party. So Thursday night we crashed Mami Louise's birthday. Then we were trying to get out the door after we finished eating the cake fast and they handed us a huge ice cream cone. Then we had to eat the ice cream fast and then we left. I was surprised they gave us a piece of cake before Mami Louise even got a cake and it was her birthday.

 I found out this week Sr. Stevens, who was in the MTC with me and is from Vanuatu, her family is ok in Vanuatu. They finally got a hold of them. 

  Another miracle happened this week with Tatiana. She wants to get baptized May 16 but wants her husband to baptize her. He is inactive and as of last week he wanted nothing to do with going to church or missionary lessons, but last Sunday (before gen conf) he came...and LOVED it. The third hour was on family history and Tatiana and him set up an appt. with the ward family history person. We went to see TatianaTuesday and her husband, Moroni, had a total change of heart. He started reading the Book of Mormon and before he never wanted to be there when the missionaries came over, and now we are going to have lessons with the two of them. Tatiana was so excited. I was too because we teach a lot of woman who loves the gospel and often they have trouble progression, because their husband/concubine won't let them. On the other hand, if the couple is on board with the gospel and they both take the lessons. They are much stronger together.  

  Other MTC news is Sister Arbuckle is back on the islannddddd!!! She is not in my zone, but not far either. And Sister Erickson is now in the house with us. We lost Sr. Chapman (who was waiting for her visa) because she got her visa and is now on her way to Australia.

 Alright, have a great week everyone. I am exhausted, hoping I can get a nap today and recover from the conference hours!!

Transfers, Car Adventures and Everything In Between

So I didn't get a transfer call!! I get to stay here in Tipaerui. That isn't normal - that is for this mission. I'm pretty sure everyone else I came out with from the MTC has gotten transferred, either this transfer or last transfer. Regardless, I am excited to stay and work here. 

  Tuesday night we had dinner at one of our ward member's homes. They have a handicapped daughter and are going to Los Angeles for her to have therapy for 6 weeks. Last month when we were at their house they were in search of housing for those 6 weeks in America. That is hard to do when you don't know the area. I had a thought than to give them my super awesome mom's contact info because my mom is good at that kind of stuff. I didn't give it to them then. 

Thankfully there is something called second chances - once in a while and we were over there again and they still hadn't found housing, so I gave them the contact info. I guess my mom helped them and just like that they have a place to stay. Because of that act of service, the parents (who are going with her to America, the grandparents of the daughter getting therapy, and aren't members of the church) of the member invited us, the missionaries, over for dinner. Who knows what will happen, but surely service and love breaks down barriers.

  Yesterday Sunday we had a little miracle. We did contact a man whose wife actually wanted a Book of Mormon. You have to climb up maybe 20 stairs to get to their house. We always pass their house on the way up to another recent convert's (Tiomato and Kuluni's) house. We always pass and say "Iaorana" or "bonjour" and continue our way up the ton of stairs (like 2 times more than the RB stairs at BYU) to get to Toimato and Kulani's. We came and started talking with this man and gave him a Book of Mormon and engaged him to read 3 Nephi 11. He said he would do it yesterday. Later on this week will we be going back over there to follow up. I am excited. 

  Saturday night Sr. Reyelts took us to the restaurant. I have literally not been in a restaurant for 6 months. It was really nice to get out. I feel like I have forgotten table manners since I got here, though. 

  Also Sat. we went to the stake center to watch the women's conference. Some other sister missionaries and I ended up in the bishop's office trying to watch it in English. The internet  connection wasn't that good,  so we got through half of it, but I have never been so grateful to listen to conference in English and the speaker's real voice in my life. I'll probably watch the other sessions in English if I can too, because if not I may just fall asleep. Oh yeah, here we watch general conference live. That means the sessions are at 6am and 10am. We will be going to both Sat and Sun 6am sessions and going hopefully to the stake center to watch it. We have been committing investigators to go to conference for like three weeks now. I really hope they come and see it.    

  It has been summer here since like February and March. Those are the really hot months. I hope we are coming out of summer, into like a small cooler change in temperature one day, but Tahiti's temp like never changes. 

  Yeah, Easter here is not a huge thing. They just sell chocolate in the stores. We have no plans for Easter. I don't really know when Easter is here. They have like the Friday before and Monday after all holidays, but IDK really why. Everyone is off from school right now. 

   My mom asked me if people do family history here and the answer is a HUGE YES YES YESS!! They have this initiative going on where they want each member to find their 3 generation grandparents. That is a huge start because it is not cultured here to keep records really. They call that intuitive the "15 on 15," because including you and your grandparents in makes 15 people you need to find. All of our recent converts are active in the family history and have taken their family names or will take the names to the temple. We were at Toimato and Kulani's this week and I offered to help them input info on FamilySearch because they don't know how to work it, but Sunday they just had a huge 3rd hour about how to do that. Idk if they still need help yet, but I will be following up, because it is a good thing to help and it would be fun to do missionary work in that aspect a little. 

  Today we did a service project. We helped clean out a shed for an old Mami (granny). We did it with our zone and it was fun to get out and serve. 

   And we totally had an adventure with our manual car today. We started the day with it being out of battery. We manually jumped it by putting it in 2nd gear and just pushing it really fast. It worked, no jumper cables or anything. Then our driver (Sr Jarman)  got transferred so my comp, Sr. Marrett took the wheel. It had been forever since she had driven but she made it work. Normally we are on bikes, but we need the car to do like anything on P-day (as in go to the store, the post office, or the distribution center). Yeah, discover new things each day.

   Ok y'alll. Best of luck this week. I guess it is Easter, so happy Easter. Enjoy conference and if you don't know what that is everyone can watch you just go on lds.org. LOVEE YOUU!! BIZUUEESSS! (Kisses from cheek to cheek)