7 October 2014

Lorana (hello) family and friends!

    This week was filled with lots of learning and feeling and seeing God's place in my life for sure. To start things out I found that going to class here at the MTC (which is like 9 hours a day) is getting more enjoyable. I love my teachers and 6 other missionaries I get to be with. We are all going to Tahiti. There are two other classes going to Tahiti making a total of 20 elders and 6 sisters being sent there on December 1. So this week (from Wed on, because I count weeks in terms of p-days), we found out about some changes. My district is getting a new teacher. We are saying goodbye to Ormetua H (who is from Tahiti). He is moving on to teach the new missionaries who already know french. We are so sad to see him go, but c'est la vie. We will still see him in the building. He brought us brownies on Monday and it was so nice to have food, not from the cafeteria.    Somehow I managed to get a little sick this week, but it wasn't that bad. I still went to class and everything. I just wasn't 100% feeling well. 

    Here is a miracle for you. Sunday I woke up and was starting to get overwhelmed for how long we are here because we have been here 3 weeks and have fantastic 7 more to go! It is great, but Sunday morning I was wondering how that would be possible. So I prayed. I prayed that not only I could have a great day, but that it would be the best day I have had in the MTC! After I said that prayer in the morning I was really trying to change my attitude but needed God's help for sure. God answered my prayer and I am just loving it here more than before I had that little hump in my day. I sat through the morning session of conference and tried to listen to what I needed to do, but got nothing. UNTIL... the closing song by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They sang "How Firm a Foundation." The words "I'll strengthen Thee help thee and cause thee to stand" just uplifted my soul. I can feel the power of those words right now. God is there for me. He always has been. I felt the comfort and love I needed. Sure enough, events followed that resulted in a prayer being answered.  minutes after that I heard my first name in the cafeteria (which is unusual bc no one really knows it), sure enough, it was my roommate, Hermana Albach. I knew she was in the MTC but hadn't thought about bumping into her for a while. She was a like a big sister to me when I roomed with her. I just gave her a huge hug and thought about what a tender mercy that was. God is so good.      

Another highlight of the week was seeing one of my friends from GA, Herman Ashley Cain who is going to Washington and Hermana Kaitlyn Albach who was my roommate at BYU and is headed to Argentina. It is great how God puts people in our life sometimes just so we can feel joy. I have truly felt that. 

Tuahine Arbuckle and I assist (assist because the Holy Spirit really teaches) in teaching an "investigator" (it is really Oremtua H.) named Vetea. We went into our first lesson with him this week and had a member present and we were small talking in Tahitian and things were going ok. At one point though I realized the feeling in the room just got awkwarder and awkwarder. It is like we feel off a cliff at one point. Aita maitai (not good) for when you are trying to have the spirit to teach. Yeah. Well, this was the day I was sick and just in all honestly a part of me didn't even want to teach a lesson, even adding to the aita ino part. When the conversation had just about hit the breaking point, I had the thought, "when in doubt, just testify."  Well, that is what happened. I tried to share with Veata how much God loves him and his family and wants them to follow Jesus Christ, from that moment on that lesson, was on the uphill. We got another appointment and soft committed him to baptism and had the member present bare testimony. It was an ok lesson, but we both left super upset at ourselves. So frustrating. We got over it and learned. Come to find out our teacher, who role plays as the investigator, was about to just pause the lesson so we could figure out what we were doing. Another win for the holy ghost!! The next lesson we had with Veatea was much better. We only had 15 minutes and no notes, so we really had to rely on the Spirit. We went in there more focused on the person and the lesson had a huge difference from the first time. It was definitely because we went in there with not the focus of an agenda we had to fulfill. We really just wanted to show our love for Vetea and so we relied on the spirit. It was great. Tuahine Arbuckle and I were so happy afterwards and it was a good moment. 

     

    The Sunday night devotional to follow was amazing. Vai (which vai means to exist in Tahitian) Sikahema, who is a Tongan and NBC sports newscaster in PA, gave the devotional. It was soo relieving just to hear from someone funny. He didn't want us to take notes. I literally laughed a ton from it and it was a HUGE stress reliever. Sometimes you just need to laugh. He talked about member missionary work. Our efforts aren't in vain if they don't end up in a baptism. Keep going on, the world needs good people. You can be on of them. 

   On a more funny note. The phrase "a special treat" is so funny here in the MTC. Leaders use it to denote that something slightly out of the normal is going to happen. For example, we always sing prelude songs before a devotional and they are always from the hymn book. Well, last week we sang "A child's Prayer" which is a children's song. I love it, but they use that phrase to get us excited. haha. We are so in a routine anything gets us excited. Another example, my companion and I were going to gym last night and could see the moon over the walkway covering, so now we refer to that as a special treat. We find many special treats in our day. haha. You just got to love the MTC.

    Other new is that we are getting new roommates so we will have 6 sisters in one room. The sisters in my district and I were not thrilled about this. I love sister missionaries, but not sharing a room with a ton. Ok, so this is an opportunity for us. We decided to make their beds and put candy on them. We complain about 6 sisters in a room where the people in Tahiti don't even have rooms. Oh first world probs! As Sister Kofford always says, "we can do hard things... WITH A SMILE." It will be great. I think they are not from the US and going to Tahiti with us. I hope things are going well in all your lives. I love this work and am so honored to get to be a part of it. Thank you for your prayers and Dear Elders. I can't put into words how good it is to hear from loved ones. It adds a huge upliftment to my days here at the MTC!

Here is for another week as a missionary!!! YAYAY!! Thanks for your support and love. Really, though, I love all my family and friends sooooo much!!

QOW: "The decision to change is yours and yours alone." - Elder Katcher of the 70 (who my district actually got to meet last week. He severed a mission in Tahiti and just spoke in the LDS general Conference)

Tahitian Word of the Week: faaoaoahia It means party. "faa" means "to make" + oaoa means happy + hia means ness. So the word party in Tahitian actually means "to make happiness." 

-Tuahine Campbell

                                          They got their french and Tahitian name tags!

30 September 2014

Helloo outside world!

 Hope all is well out there! MTC is still going well. For those of you who don't know, I get to be here until Dec. 1. It is pretty much a spiritual haven. I am going to start this email by sharing an experience. I had the opportunity to sing for an apostle, M. Russell Ballard last Tuesday. In the MTC you have the opportunity to participate in a choir and I think it just may be my favorite part. Like a thousand young men and women come together to sing, all wearing a black name tag. We sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and let me tell you, it. was. powerful. The testimonies in that room were just radiant. There was a feeling of peace as I sang about God and Jesus Christ appearing to the 14-year-old boy. I am so grateful for that experience. Something Elder Ballard said in that meeting was that "simple prayers are powerful." Oh boy! Can I agree. I am constantly praying as I am adapting to this new environment. I have seen God answer prayers in the 2 weeks I have been at the MTC. I lost a water bottle and my MTC card (which gets me into all the buildings and lets me get food) this week. I prayed both times and lo and behold both items were found. God answers prayers. He answered Joseph Smith, he answers mine. Pretty cool.

    That was Tuesday night and Wednesday Tuahine Arbuckle and I gave a lesson in Tahitian without notes for the first time. Only Tahitian scriptures and our minds. It was quite the experience. Somehow we made it through. I am going to give that little triumph to prayer as well. 

   Tahitian is coming along. I learned the word faahanahanahia yesterday. It means glorified and is so fun to say. We had a lesson about passive and active sentences. It took me a while to get, I never really liked English, but am learning to love it now. 

   The ice cream here is awesome because it comes from BYU. It may just be the death of my compy and I. haha. 

   I want to give a shout out to Sister Stephanie Ellis who sent me my pillow. It is wonderful, maybe a little too good. It makes getting up at 6:30 am harder! 

So after Sister Arbuckle and I had taught like 5 lessons to our "investigator" Terri. We pretty much knew he was a fake, because what were the chances of some white person living in Provo who spoke Tahitian, which is a dying language. We told this to our teacher, Brother H., but he wouldn't admit to it. I jokingly said, "well, one of these days, Terri is going to come out and already be a member of the church." Sure enough, that happened Friday. To our relief, we didn't have to teach a lesson that day. 

   Next item, almost everyone at the MTC feels bad for us Tahitian missionaries for having to be here for 11 weeks (most missionaries are here 6). Well, our district was talking about this and someone finally gave us the reaction of, "I am so happy for you!" That was an awesome attitude. One of the Tuahines in our district always is telling us "we can do hard things.... WITH A SMILE!" haha. Love this motto. Also because we are here so long we get spoiled. I hear our group of missionaries is going to get a new classroom, like a nice renovated one! So that should be happening in October. We will change buildings, but I like this building because I get to see my friend Davy from my BYU ward, who works here and my friend Milet, from GA.

     Ohh another cool thing happened just on Monday (yesterday), a new teacher is coming in to teach the new missionaries, who already speaks French, Tahitian. She is super cool and lives where I used to live at BYU and knows all these people I know. That was a HUGE YAYAYAYA of yesterday. 

     K, our district has 4 super pretty sisters in it. I am just going to give some advice right now. Elders are so distracting. So many try to get our attention. Oh my goodness. My companion and I have are trying to figure out where to draw the line. I have heard elders use the phrase "MTC crush." We are like "WHAATTT??!!" This is not high school or EFY! We have black name tags on. Oh goodness. They put so much pressure on us sisters to appropriately support the elders. I just sure hope they are talking to the elders too!

      Sister Arbuckle and I were called as music coordinators for our branch. We got a list of everyone who can help out with playing piano and leading and are going to delegate out some jobs. One elder signed up as a joke. haha. We are going to get him to lead and teach him how. I am sure he will end up needing that skill in Tahiti. 

    Being here for just 2 weeks we have already seen a group of missionaries in our zone leave. They all went to France. It is kind of sad, but I can't really be. They get to go to FRANCE!! I hope the best for them. 

     I hope everything it going great and thanks for the dear elders and especially the prayers! I love hearing from everyone and my day is seriously made 10 times better when I get to hear from you! Sometimes that is the happiest moment of the day when your district leader hands you a letter from a loved one! I am so grateful for your support! Have an awesome week!!!! -Tuahine Campbell

23 September 2014 MTC MIRACLE TIME!

Hey, everybody!!! I am a missionary. The MTC has been very busy. There is so much to do. I have 3 elders and 4 sisters in my district and all of us are going to Tahiti. There is also another 8 elders all going to Tahiti with us. We are all learning Tahitian first for the first 5 weeks and then will switch to French. My companion is Tuahine/ Souer (sister) Arbuckle. She has a sister, Sister Lauren Arbuckle serving in my home stake in GA. It was a tender mercy to be her companion. We were hoping for it and it happened. We have already taught three lessons in "Tahitian." It is super broken Tahitian, but we usually sing a hymn and pray and things run pretty smoothly. The lessons are in bare beginnings, but it is great that we start somewhere, because things can only get better. It has been great to be at the MTC. Many miracles are happening on this mission. One miracle happened to me within minutes of entering the MTC. They give you a little packet with your name tag in it and room key, but also on the front of it says your companion's name. I read mine it said, "companion: Sister Ashely Arbuckle." I was thrilled!!!! Sister Arbuckle has a sister serving in the ATL mission and I totally have taken pictures with her. Also since my family had that connection, we met up the Arbuckles in SLC. I love that that happened. I'm sure it will be the first of many miracles here. 

So the in all honestly I was not myself in the MTC my first two days and that just didn't work out for me. Eventually, I needed to change, so things built up and eventually it took all that build up for me to chill out and be myself after that change took place thing were amazing. Everyone says the first couple of days are hard and I thought, "sure," but really they can be. For me, it took me just opening up to help with the transition. 

Another miracle happened. I bumped into my friend from BYU Davy! That was a huge day made thing! he teaches here and it is great to see someone you know. Gotta love those miracles. 

Part of MTC training is teaching lessons in the language. We are learning Tahitian, so Tuahine Arbuckle and I have taught three lessons in them. Seriously it takes a ton of faith to go in there not knowing anything, but with God, you can do anything, somehow our investigator's heart was touched every time. Tomorrow, we teach again, but with no note. We will be praying for yet another miracle. 

Last things. One of my dreams has been to sing in the General Conference choir. My compy and I went to choir rehearsal all to find out that we weren't, but thats ok. The elders will be singing in the priesthood session but had to be accepted. I am proud to say that three elders in my district made it in! So watch our for Elder Pruett, Stafford, and Tripp! 

So the theme has kind of been miracles. They are happening here everyday! I encourage you to look for one and dear elder me about it!. I love mail! Or tell someone! God is awesome, HE LOVES YOU! Make it a great week! - Tuahine Campbell

                    Tuahine Campbell's District

                   Souer Campbell and Souer Arbuckle as companions!!

LDS Mission Terminology (lets clear some jargon up)

I will use these terms and words frequently in posts, so I'm going to define some

mission - 18 months to two years of service in an area teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. This includes living a strict schedule and wearing church clothes during that whole time. No days off!

elder/sister- title that missionaries are given when starting their missionary service. People refer to them as Elder _lastname_ or Sister_lastname___, the entire time being a missionary. This title gets put on a black missionary name tag with the church's name on it. Missionaries are then supposed to wear this tag every where they go for their entire service.

this is my sister with her nametag

companion- that certain individual a missionary is always with. They are always supposed to be in the same room or within sight. Missionaries do not choose companions, they are assigned.

MTC (missionary training center)- The place where all missionaries go prior to entering the area they have been assigned to work in. There are multiple MTCs around the world, however the largest and most common MTC for missionaries to go to is the MTC in Provo, Utah.

the field- mormon jargon for the actual area they are assigned to serve. For me I will often interchange the term "field" for the land of Tahiti. Here is a common sentence missionaries use, "After three months in the MTC I will go into the field."

mission president aka the president- A man, who with his wife, leaves his job and home for three years to keep up the mission he is assigned over. My mission president name is Pierre Bize. He was a business CEO and has paused his career to run the mission in Tahiti (includes managing over 200 missionaries on over 20 islands in French Polynesia), which is a huge full time job!

P-Day (preparation day)- The one day people may consider a day off, MAYBE. This is one day a week set by each mission president for missionaries to do laundry, shop for groceries, and email home. The prior listed activities are meant for that day specifically, so they don't happen on any other day. It ends at 6pm and the morning routine is still apart of it, which is all  apart of the schedule!

investigator- a person who meets with the missionaries

potential investigator- one who may meet with the missionaries

PMG (Preach My Gospel)- a handbook written by the prophet and apostles for use by missionaries. Missionaries across the globe use this guide daily with in their studies and use it to help them teach.

area- is the place where a missionary has been assigned to labor by the mission president. Missionaries are supposed to stay within this designated boundary at all times, unless given permission by a leader to leave.

the discussions/lessons- 5 specific lessons as described in PMG about the gospel of Jesus Christ and his commandments each investigator is supposed to be taught by the missionaries


STL (sister training leader)- The sister who is over multiple sisters.

DL (district leader)- an elder over serval missionaries (about 8-12) which covers a certain area. Each night he calls the missionaries he is over at 9pm to make sure they are back at their assigned apartment.

ZL (zone leader)- over a couple of districts of missionaries. District leaders reports numbers to him.

exchanges- When a missionary and his/her companion is temporarily exchanged it is usually for just one night

assistants- two elders who assist the mission president in keeping the missionaries in line. They go on many exchanges to do this.

the handbook aka the white Bible- a little white book about 80 pages long with the missionary rules in it. Missionaries all over the world are advised to be obedient to that which is in it. It covers everything from what entertainment is allowed to relationships with companions. For me in Tahiti this means no swimming!

ward- congregation

branch-smaller congregation (not big enough to be a ward)

The Call (and other things that may interest you regarding a mission in Tahiti)

   

      I got my call in the mail on Thursday June 28 in Provo, UT. I kind of surprised my family. They thought that my call was being sent to GA, but they were on vacation in FL. Thursday night I left for the Salt Lake City airport and barely got on the flight to go to Florida. While at the airport, I decided to tell my dad what I was coming with, so he could help me get the family together.  As soon as I landed all I wanted to do was open it with my family. Since they were on vacation Dad and I formed a plan to get everyone down to the beach. It barely worked. No one was really cooperating. We sang a couple of hymns and while doing so I burst out the envelope. They were pretty surprised. Then I  opened it and we were even more surprised. All my family thought I would serve in Europe and I kind of did too. It was just so surreal to know that I am going somewhere that is NOT going to be anything like what I know. My sisters and I went to Guam last month and I left the island thinking, "well, that was nice for a week, but I could NEVER live on an island." And we were staying in one of the nicest parts of the islands.
      After I opened my call I made a bunch of calls. Everyone's reaction was so different. That was fun to do. One person thought I was joking with him. Another was like that is going to be a hard mission. My good friend was like that is great. My uncle thought I was going to France for sure and was super surprised I was going there. Another person was like well aren’t you glad you decided to serve a mission, and then I went on to tell him how I would be at a beach with no beach for 15 months. All my  family was like, “lucky! You are going to have so much fun at the beach,” then I would explain to them how that is not the case.  I think everyone was surprised, including myself.
      I cannot tell you how many times in the past when I have said I was going to serve a mission when people told me, "oh, you'll go somewhere foreign for sure!" I didn't want to set myself on it, but still kind of did. After seeing how hard the missionaries work where I live, I knew that I could go anywhere and have a "refiner's fire" experience.
      I thought I would go foreign, but not middle of nowhere foreign. I was really at the point where if I got called stateside, I would have been fine. I wanted to have a hard experience, like my whole life, but now that I have my call I am just like, “I am going to learn A LOT! Heavenly Father, you are too funny, knowing I LOVE the beach and sending me to an island where I cannot just go relax at the beach.”
Everyone thinks I am going to paradise, but I cannot do whatever I want on a mission. I have heard that the housing can be dirty like people fining rats, birds, and roaches in them. I also heard that some areas don’t even have a grocery store. I will be eating whatever is given to me and rumor has it that, that includes lots of mystery meat. On top of it all, no one speaks english, they all speak French, so I have to learn French, but I was called to speak Tahitian, which is nothing like French. I am going to be learning two languages. Good thing Heavenly Father blesses his missionaries. So overall, I am so excited for this experience, but lets just be honest it is definitely not going to be what people think is an island paradise. I am going to have to adapt, work, and have faith.
I am grateful Heavenly Father trusts me to do his work and that obviously he knows I can go to Tahiti and be successful. I saw this quote that was like, “If your desire is to be successful, then Heavenly Father will help you be so, because He cares about what you want. Going into a mission the only thing I want to do is to do my very best and God knew that before I got my call, so He must know that I can be successful even under some rough circumstances.
      Now for the other things regarding a mission in Tahiti. There is only one mission that covers all of French Polynesia. There are 7 stakes (groups of about 10 congregations) on the island of Tahiti. It is a biking mission. There is a temple in Tahiti. French Polynesia, which is all the islands combined, is owned by France, sooo everyone speaks French, but my call was for Tahitian, so I will learn French and Tahitian in the MTC. I will be in the MTC for 3 months of the 18 month mission learning French and Tahitian (that means living in a one mile radius and never leaving... HELPPPP). Apparently, the Tahitian missionaries get to go on a day trip to San Francisco to get their visas. I am already excited for that! Tahiti has poisonous centipedes and I have read stories about other missionaries coming home to birds and mice in their apartments. One of the girls I know serving there killed a rat in her apartment. The people there eat tons of fish and meats. It is super hot and humid ALL the time (that is one thing I learned in Guam, that GA humidity isn't really that bad). In July there is a huge dance festival throughout all the islands. I hear that I will probably be playing piano a lot and accompanying for church meetings. The best thing of all thought is that the people love missionaries and I already love them too!
      OHHHH, here is something cool, so Bora Bora is in my mission and I have always wanted to go there, but didn't think of it as reality, because it is super expensive and where the rich and famous go to vacation, but now I actually will be there (pretty much).

Why I Want to be a Missionary

One of the missionaries (Sister Christensen) who served in our congregation the summer before I left for BYU.

I just want to write how I came to know I wanted to be a missionary. When we got sister missionaries in our ward (congregation) around when I was 16, I loved going out with them and really just wanted to help with the work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and be a missionary. That was the summer before the age change for sister missionaries to serve at 19 instead of 21 was announced. I was super excited when that happened and just wanted to go right then and there. Then I continued to be super involved with the missionaries in Georgia. Then I went to college. I worked in the MTC ( the missionary training center), where missionaries learn to teach the gospel, and really enjoyed my time there, but it wasn’t the same kind of missionary interaction I had back home. After fall semester that excitement I had felt like all my life had died down. I think it was because I was so caught up in school and ward member-missionary interaction in Provo is so small. So winter semester I decided to change my interaction with the missionaries. I got the sister missionaries number and went out with them to teach people about the church. The first time was just soo goood. I was in tears at like every appointment I went to. Then, I knew I had forgotten what I wanted to do. I still prayed about it and never got a super crazy experience, but I decided I just needed to go forward and do what I wanted. I did. Ever since sometimes when people are speaking and everything I can get a prompting of mission. It is awesome.  Also my sister Erin being on a mission in Japan has just made it that much more real to me of wanting to go. Her example of being a missionary makes me want to become better in the efforts I make. This is such an exciting time to be out in the field telling people about Jesus Christ and his gospel. That is what Heavenly Father has asked us as members of the church to do. I want everyone in the world to have the knowledge about faith, Jesus Christ, his suffering, and how they can feel joy. 
The most important reason I want to serve a mission is to serve my Lord and help others come unto him through faith, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I know that by putting 18 months of life up for him I will grow to love him more. I expect those months will be some of the hardest of my life, but I will come out so much different and better than before. 
I have been called to serve in Tahiti. I want to help the Tahitians know what I know and gain joy because of  the good principles of the gospel.               
I want to show my Father in Heaven that He can trust me with the truth I know. I want to help his children and be a part of the restoration of the same gospel he established in Jesus’s day and the gathering of his people.  
                   

My sister, Erin and I at Cafe Rio before we dropped her off at the Missionary Training Center in January.

                  

Well It Has Been Awhile

So things are defiantly changing, seeing that I haven't blogged in a couple months that shouldn't be too surprising. :)
First of all my older sister Erin has received her mission call to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 18 months. She will go about doing good and serving God for this time leaving me and the rest of my family for people of another country she will learn to love. If you want to know where she is going you will have to ask her. She leaves January 22 and it will be quite a change considering she has been my roommate and is my bffl. What I will do with out her, I don't know, but she is pretty exemplary sacrificing 18 months of her life for her #1.
Since I haven't been so current with this blog, I'll just have to fill in all the gaps I never have posted, like I have been working at the Missionary Training Center  (MTC) in the cafeteria for the last six months. Its been fun. The best part of the job is defiantly seeing hundreds of missionaries, like my sister will be,  regularly. Provo is weird in the way it has two MTCs with thousands of missionaries in them, but I am closer to the missionaries in Georgia serving in my ward (congregation). Anywho working in the cafeteria has been real and we get fed for FREE every shift, but today I put in my two week notice because I got another job that pays more and Erin will be reporting to the other MTC in Provo. I'll probably follow her there.
OK lets just be honest, the end of the semester is stinkin 1 month away!! That will be the best change ever!! And it also means CHRISTMAS! which I am super duper excited for. I love everything about it and do not care about the whole listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, so I have already started.
Alrighty so I figure if you are taking precious time to read this you must want to be enlighten by some kind of story about me and my oh so exciting life (btw I do have a great life). So today me and my roomie Monica wen to the gym and came home and decided to be all healthy and make some tilapia. It was super easy just put some parmesan on the fish and stuck in the oven which was on broil. We were sittin there just having a good ole time cutting up the tomatoes and lemon to put on the fish and Monica was like "it smells like hair" (you know like when you burn your hair straightening it). I thought "better check the oven." So I did ANNNNDDD the parmesan surrounding the fish caught on fire. I blew it out like the fire on  birthday candles. Thankfully the fish was not effected by the flames. We then proceeded to eat the fish with pesto and lemon and it was super healthy and tasty and we felt great.
Well thanks for reading my blog and hope everyone has a great week with lots of peace and blessings.

This is what we made, but ours didn't really look like that!

Me and my roomies.