Tahitian Hats Made Out of Coconut Bark

Loraana Tout le Monde!!

Sr. Marrett and I started the week out with a Family home evening with an inactive family. It was in Tahitian. Not many of our lessons are in Tahitian, but we have made a goal to read the Book of Mormon in Tahitian as much as we can. It is quite an exercise to do that. I read Te Buka A Moromona with Sr. Richards and we always had to be really patient with ourselves, but it is interesting to see how much we have improved. We made a lot of improvement compared to the beginning, even if we only get through like 5 verses.

   One of my favorite parts of being a missionary is getting to learn how to follow the spirit. We had lessons this week where we ended up not following the original lesson plan because the people had other needs. I love the feeling you get when you know you are there in a lesson not to throw up information on someone, but because you care and you want to help someone with their real concerns.

  Sr. Marrett got sick this week. I am pretty sure I killed her. We had some super lesson packed busy days when she first got here. Well, that caught up with us and we ended up spending a good portion of Thursday and Friday at our little humble abode. She slept and tried to get better. In the meantime, I listened to like a ton of conferences talks and BYU devotionals. I now feel like super talk charged. It was good to hear some inspiring words.

  Saturday we had a survey with the other missionaries in the zone. The survey rotates locations each week, and this week it was ours. The survey asks questions about an English course we give, the plan of happiness, and genealogy. I was super nervous because my comp was sick and I am the one who knows the sector and we had to divide out everyone to go places and do the survey. We also didn't have our coordination meeting  because it got canceled. I prayed super hard everything would go alright. It was a super big blessing thing did go well. Instead of just missionaries at the church Saturday morning to do the survey, we had a good group of members and our ward mission leader helped a lot to assign out people where to go. We got a ton of people who responded to the survey, which is great because we needed to find people to teach and now we will be using our time to go contact those people who responded. I was on a split with another sister in the zone (my comp was at home sick) and we found some people and got 2 different return appointments. I have never gotten return appointments during a survey, so that was a huge good success thing. The ward even made sandwiches for everyone after and we never have food after a service project. I was so grateful things turned out ok. There is another example of how Heavenly Father takes care of our concerns.

  Saturday, Valentina got baptized. Valentina is 17 years old. She started taking the lessons in January. We had our last lesson with her on Friday before the baptism and I just marveled at how much she has changed since January. She was confident about her baptism the next day. She was ready to start a new spiritual life. She has a really hard story. Her parents both died a couple years ago and then was abused by her grandparents. What amazes me is how much she loves the gospel. She finds the comfort and love she needs in reading the Book of Mormon and being active in the Young Women's program. Her learning and living the gospel really has brought miracles into her life and I am lucky enough to get to see that.

   Saturday we also went to a marriage and baptism of someone Sr. Marrett taught. It was in Mahina. After being  on the island for two months I finally left the city of Papeete/Faaa. It was really pretty over there. The wedding was really simple but beautiful. They had a little Tahitian "marching band" and everything. They also had poission creu (raw fish with coconut and lots of lime) in the spread of food. That is what I went for. We also ended up doing the Tour of the island (going all the way around it) that night, because we had to drop off some other sisters. It takes like 2.5 hours to do that. It is weird to think I am on a little island that small, but then to think this is considered the bigger island in French Polynesia. It was good to do the tour de ile, but it was at night. I guess you just take what you get because you can't do the tour de ile as a missionary, just cause you want too on a p-day or something.

   Friday I got my Valentine's Day package. Shout out to my mom who was so kind to send me a package despite the ridiculousness of the cost. It was fun to get my first package in Tahiti.  Please don't send me a ton more, though, seriously I can survive and I don't want to be transferring around with a ton of stuff!

  Our investigator, Noeline wanted to teach us how to make the Tahitian hats out of coconut bark. So yesterday after our lesson we started to learn how. We used a piece of a coconut shell to grate the dirt off the bark. We just did a little, but the process takes a long time. We are going to learn little by little. Hopefully, in the end, we will have a hat that looks like the one in the picture of Sr. Richards.

   I hope that you all have a wonderful week. Thank you for all the prayers, and love!! We missionaries couldn't make it without all the people both in the field and out of the field supporting us. REALLY, THOUGH!! Love you all! Have a fantastic week! ~Sœur Campbell

                                              baptism from Saturday with Valentina

Chopsticking it up in Tahiti

This week has been super busy. Especially the past two days.

  Transfers are happening (that is when missionaries get changed around in the places they are serving. I am staying here in Tipaerui, but Sr. Richards is leaving to go to another town in Tahiti called Mahina. She leaves today :( and I get a new companion, who has been out the same amount of time as Sr. Richards and is from Australia.

  That means...MY TRAINING IS OVER!!! Six months later and all the "official training" is over. YEAHHHHH!

  Saturday Toimato and Kulani got baptized. They are a young couple with a baby who lives like suppperrr high up the mountain. We always climbed 200 stairs to get there. I am NOT exaggerating, but I like climbing the stairs. It is a good workout. The baptism was so inspiring to see. We made sure to invite the other investigators we teach to it. We packed the Relief Society room. I was happy when at 3 of the other investigators got to see that ordinance too.

  Saturday, we also started teaching an English Class for the community of Faaa. The church has signed a contract with them here to teach each week. We teach on Saturdays. I am excited to start that backup, but a little nervous, because with the transfer and everyone being changed out, I am the only one who speaks English and knows how things should run out of all the new missionaries that will be coming in.

   Yesterday we spent the day with Sr. Kimball, a missionary who served in this area like a year ago and also I grew up with her a little bit. We spent some time seeing people she used to teach and found some more amis. We were so busy, we didn't even eat until 8 pm at night...oopppppss. Wonder who planned that day??? It was good though because we needed to find more people to teach and now we do.

  We also had a lesson with a recent convert who Sr. Arbuckle and Sr. Kimball taught in Takapoto (a little island like 1.5 hr flight away). He is so diligent. He read all the Book of Mormon since December and I guess he got a hold of The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson book that we use for lessons on Sunday and read that whole book through. He wants more of those Teachings of Prophets books to read through. Oh yeah, I guess I should explain why he is here on Tahiti. His mom lives here and was threatening to kick him out if he got baptized, but he got baptized and his mom didn't kick him out. We are going to give him more to read. It is fun to teach an investigator that my MTC companion, Sr. Arbuckle, taught.

  We helped one of our investigator's clean house this week for a service. That was fun to do and something different. Normally everyone says no when we ask, "Is there anything we can do for you?" but I have gotten soo sneaky and just started asking, "What can we do for you?" and they still say no. Usually though if you keep talking though you can find something you can do for them.

  We have been working with a couple, Elvina, and Yves, who have a 19 yo daughter and who have been taking missionary lessons for the past two years. We started teaching them as a couple in December and since then they have made soo much progress like it is a miracle. Now we are trying to help them set up a baptism date for April. We asked them to pray about that and when we met with them Thursday Elvina had. We asked her how she felt after she prayed and this is what she said, "I felt..... BIZARRE!" haha. YES!! We then asked her to explain what she meant by "bizarre" and we found out it was a good thing. She felt a feeling of warmth and comfort, which is what we call the Holy Ghost. 

   I used chopsticks this week. It was soo funny because I have used chopsticks before, but obviously, I am not used to it. People use their hands to eat here and a piece of baguette to shove food on to their fork. We were at a members house and they made us this super nice traditional Chinese meal, where you like boil your own food to cook it on the table. It was like super fancy and a good culture experience and tasted good. The funny thing is though that was our meal right after we finished fasting and normally when you haven't eaten or 24 hours you just want to shovel down food. The chopsticks didn't help that, especially because I barely knew how to use them. I guess I could have asked for a fork, but I thought of my sister in Japan and how good of a culture experience this was, so I just tried my best to make the chopsticks work. Then I got full really fast because it was taking little bites.

   Yep, so that just about was my week. I started my 3rd journal since being on a mission.

  I am so happy to be here in this area. We can busy all day. It is the best thing ever. Even better is that people are progressing here as investigators that have been taking lessons for a long time. That is huge. I am soo grateful to be in a busy area.

  I hope everyone has a great week! You love all tons and are so grateful for the letters and prayers!!

Soeur Campbell

                               Baptism on Saturday sr Richards, toimato kulani, me and fr. sala who baptized

                                                        sr Kimball and I sat night at the baptism

                                                 sr Richards and noeline (our ami) yesterday at church

               Sr. Marrett from Brisbane, Australia. she has been on a mission since January 2014

Legion

HELLLOOOOO EVERYONE!


First of all, I hope that everyone is doing wonderfully.


This week we got soo much food. I think we have like 8 meals worth of food in the fridge that have come from multiple people. It is crazy. We also got fed twice yesterday and on Thursday. We have to strategically plan our member meals, so we don't end up being fed too soon. Thursday night we literally ran to the church on the way to a dinner appointment with an investigator and picked up food from the members and then went to our dinner appointment. We are really taken care of here. It is soo nice.


So Tuesday night I went on a split (I switched areas and companions for a night). It was a weird feeling to be away from my sector for the first time. I got to spend the night though in the other missionary's house and they have an awesome view of the island Moorea. It was like better than the ocean front views we want on vacation. It threw me off soo bad waking up to the ocean like that. I loved it, though. It was beautiful.


During that split, the saddest thing ever happened. I was with my sister training leader, Sr. Moli and while we were doing our studies she got a call from the dad of a family, who were taking the lessons and progressing well. What ended up happening was like crazy. The whole family of 6 had a baptism date for the Saturday to follow, but he called to cancel everything. A whole bunch of things went down and it just felt so surreal for me, because I hadn't even met the family. That change our day, so at night we ended up going over to the ward mission leader's house and the family was there. They looked so burdened and downtrodden and not happy at all. The reason the called off the baptism, was because their family was threatening them to take away their care and house if the followed through. What do you do in a situation like that? Especially when you have never even met the family before. Well, we just bore testimony and tried to follow the spirit. We ended up praying with them on our knees, and then they had to leave. It was so sad. Then it was so real for me the opposition that comes right before you are about to do something good. That family looked burdened because to the fear of their family. Well, their day came for baptism came and went. Sometimes things are just so so sad. I know that was a little gloomy story, but I really learned from that a couple of things. The attack on the family is real. There is opposition right before people are about to do something good, but even more so for a whole family. I also learned it is so important to have during those times faith in God and that our faith is tried sometimes.


The Tipaerui ward got a new ward mission leader. We had our first coordination meeting with him Saturday. I am excited to work with him. He is very motivated.


We also had a Friday night dessert contest for the investigators here. Sr. Richards and I made better than anything cake for it. It was a miracle it turned out because we borrowed a cake pan and it was huge and so we ended up using 1.5 boxes of cake mix. The oven here doesn't have temperatures either, and we had never used it before. We said a prayer that the cake would turn out because we were 100% winging it and it did!! YAYAY. Everybody was happy. The cake was huge and we didn't return home with any of it. Something even better than that was that the activity turned out great and that there were a lot of people there.


I don't know what else to write. We continue to work with the investigators here they are pretty steady. We met with over 13 people last week. There is a lot of work to do. A mission is a lot of responsibility.


I have eaten more fried chicken here than I have in Georgia all my life.


Last night at our dinner/lesson with Noeline, she told us some Tahitian legends. I'll share one with you. It is called the legend of Hina. There once was a princess named Hina. She would often swim and wade in the river with her friends. There was a hohi (eel) in the river and whenever he saw her. The eel would try to kiss her because she was very beautiful. She though would always refuse. Well, another man found out about this eel bugging the beautiful Hina, so the man killed the eel and cut off its head. He then wrapped the head up in woven palm tree leaves and gave it to Hina with the order never to put it on the ground. One day, Hina saw her friends in the river and wanting to play with them put the eel's head on the ground without even thinking. The head turned into a coconut tree. Time passed and Hina continued to swim in the river with her friends. After a while, it got really hot and Hina and her friends were thirsty, so they cut the coconuts off the coconut tree and drank them. The eel's voice came back and told her, "now you have kissed me because you drank from one of my coconuts." Moral of the story, that is why coconuts look like they do. They look like eel's heads.


Transfers are on the 16 Feb. My companion has been in Tipaerui for 5 months already, so we think she will transfer out and I will stay. We should get a call today or tomorrow. They let us know a week in advance because of some transfer by boat, plane, or car here. It is complicated.


Hope everyone has a great week and keeps pressing onward! Love you all!


-Soeur Campbell


ps. and Happy Valentine's Day!! Show some love this week :)

                                This is sr Jarman and sr taputea. the two crazy kids we live with

The view from the split I went on. Personal study that morning was a struggle to focus... ohhhhh how I love the beach

Us with our investigators at dinner with a big bowl of chow mien. Chow mien is very common here. oil and carbs. that is how we roll. we teach all three of these ladies. it is tauhia, chantal, and leilani, sr Richards, and moi

Peace and Blessins

These weeks are just flying by! I have just 2 more weeks of training. I am so excited to be done. 

Lets start out with what happened. Everyone in our district had to go to the mayor's offices because our President of the mission was signing a contract with the mayor to continue the English class the put on for the community each week. We all had no idea why we were really there, and we kind of just told we had to be there. We waiting and then when the mayor and mission president were done, we took a picture with them. Then they told us they prepared "a little cocktail" for us. I was thinking like "cocktail?? Don't they know we don't drink?" Well, there wasn't any alcohol, but there was a HUGEE like 3 tables with the banana leaves woven as platters. On there 18 in long banana leaf platters there was fresh pineapple, papaya, grapefruit, watermelon, taro (a purple starchy fruit, it also comes in green), uroo chips (uroo is breadfruit), steamed banana chunks, fried banana things, and fresh grated coconut. It was like real Tahitian-looking. I was so tempted to take a picture, but couldn't because it just would not have been appropriate. There were also cold coconuts with just a little hole cracked into them so we could drink right from the coconut. They also had my favorite poission creu (raw tuna in coconut milk and cucumber and carrot). mmmmhhhmmm. There weren't any plates or forks because it was traditional Tahitian. My favorites were the pineapple, poissson creu, and fried banana things. We got to take some banana leaf plates home so we filled up the fridge with that. It was so fun and exciting. I really felt I was in Tahiti. 

  I started answering the phone this week all by myself! Yay! There is my language progress update. I also taught a good part of the Gospel Essentials class, but I am not sure if anyone really understood me. My trainer didn't say anything against it, so we will just assume that went well. 

   This week we had another miracle. So we teach this family, Elvina, and Yves. Elvina has had the lessons for forever, but we just recently started making it a priority to teach them together. Yves progresses really well and reads the Book of Mormon daily. They want to have an eternal family, but it soon became apparent to us going  to church as a family for them was going to be a huge step and something to work towards. We found out the block. Yves had a horrible experience at church when he was young and since that he vowed he would never step into a church again. He has kept that vow for like 30 years. Tuesday we were in a lesson with them and I asked the question, "What can we do to help you get to church this Sunday?" Then my inspired companion answered with this idea, "Why don't we have the next lesson at the chapel?" They agreed! Thursday we gave the family a tour of the church and it went really well. Yves even asked us at the end, "Can we do every lesson at the church?" Wow, to hear that was awesome. He felt the peace and the God's love we could feel there. We committed them to come to church on Sunday, but we still knew that would be a huge step because we have committed them before. Sunday came and the man who vowed he would never step foot in a church again was there!!! It was a miracle. The whole family was there. I am so excited for them. 

  Church was great this week we had 8 people who we teach at church. The Gospel Essentials class was packed. We have been working hard since I got here to help amis come to church, because before no one was coming. It just goes to show if you focus on some things and rely on the Lord and make goals, it can happen.

   I shared my Dad's conversion story in a lesson for the first time. For those who don't know, my dad is a convert. My mom who was always super faithful in going to church, even as a child (she would walk by herself if she had to) and always said she would marry a RM in the temple, married my dad when he wasn't a member. It took 4 sets of sister missionaries and some stubborn persistence of their part before my dad just decided to try out the gospel and put his faith to the test. That simple decision to put his faith to the test has affected my family TREMENDOUSLY. My family is eternal, just because of that act of faith. I got to share that wonderful story in the lesson this week. I think it was one of the most powerful moments I have felt on a mission because my family has been changed because of faith and changed because to the gospel. I am so grateful for that. Without them, I couldn't be out here in Tahiti. I wouldn't have the support I have to fall back on. To me it is incredible so much can be affected by one person's actions, because my dad decided to try something out, my family is eternal. We are happy, surely not perfect, but happy.

  Being on a mission we ask people to make sacrifices, to give something of little value for something of greater worth. One of the investigators here is really starting to learn that. we showed up for a lesson and she told us she had stopped smoking. We didn't even ask her to, but she knew it was a good choice. She gave up her smoking (something of lesser value) to be a good example to her 4-year-old daughter and follow the commandments (a thing of greater worth). That was a miracle too. I am just amazed at the sacrifices and changes the Tahitian people are willing to make to have joy in their lives. 

   Yesterday night (Sunday) the best, ironic thing in the world happened. So there are four of us sisters who live in a house. The Soeurs of Heiri (Sr. Jarman and Sr. Taputea) and us. The Heiri sisters had their dinner dropped off at the house. I know that sounds weird, but it happens here all the time. Families just drop the missionaries off food as an opt out for having them over. We were driving back from a fireside and it was like 8pm. We were all in the car and pulled over to get the food from their member and they come back to the car with McDonald's. It was soo funny. We just started laughing. MacDonalds for the missionaries on the Sabbath. Then to make it better, the member bought 2 family meals for the 2 sisters. It was like 4 big macs, 6 cheeseburgers, 8 large cokes, 4 large fries, and 20 chicken nuggets. ohhh. my goodness. We did not eat it all. We had like 3 big macs left and 4 cokes and a frie and 4 cheeseburgers that we quickly ran over to the elders. The story of my life. Welcome to Tahiti. That food had to at least been like $50s too all for 2 sisters. Well, we fed the whole district with it on Sunday. 

    I hope everyone has a great week and isn't too cold. Enjoy the hot coco and what not. Be grateful you have 4 seasons and not one! I forget what month it is sometimes because the weather is all the same. Peace and blessings from Tahiti!

 - Soeur Campbell

                                                                    Eating at the Mission home

                                   Soeur Campbell at the celebration she talked about that had such good food.

                              Mission home

From Tipaerui to You!

Last week I wrote to my family about a mission couple who was lost at sea for two days asking them to pray for that couple. Well, I found out the story. The couple was out in the islands going by boat from a baptism to return home. It was a private boat and the man who owned the boat was actually the man who just performed the baptism. They got caught in a storm and were lost at sea for 2 days. Thankfully they had just gone to the store and had food on the boat. They were found last Monday. An interesting story is that Saturday night we got a call from the elders telling us about the situation and to pray for this couple. The three other sisters and I who live in the house all knelt down and prayed for this couple to be found. It was powerful. It was raining outside, and I could only imagine what it must have been like out at sea. Of course, God heard our prayer and many other's prayers and the boat lost at sea was found. The couple and boat driver are fine and I guess are continuing their mission. There is a miracle story for you!

  Other good new is, I think it was Thursday, we heard there was going to be a hurricane to hit Tahiti. We didn't get a call from the elders, so we just kept working. Sure enough, it was sunny all day. But even better news is that it has been raining off and on all week, because of the tropical storms and what not, but I don't think I even got soaked once this week! It would rain super hard when we were  in lessons, but when we had to get on our bikes it wouldn't be raining. We did get soaked Tuesday. We were probably out on our bikes for 4 mins. but that will do it. We had our interviews with President Bize and were in a hurry to get there and didn't have time to change. We totally ended up there soaked. But the rest of the week it was great. The timing to get places was just perfect for the rain. 

   Last Monday we went to Mac Do's (that is what they call MacDonald's here). I couldn't bring myself to eat a hamburger, but I got a small smoothie and small fry. It cost $7 for just that. MacDonald's is the only American fast food they have here. It felt soooo sooo soooo sooooooooo good to drink a smoothie. I hadn't had one since probably August. 

  Ok, I know everyone wants to hear about the people here. We really have a good sector here. We get to work with a lot of people. Here are a couple of highlights from the week. 

  We have been sharing messages on the side of the road with a lady named Noeline V. Her concubine's (they call boyfriends concubines!) brother just died and she has a  younger daughter. We told her about God and she is a daughter of Heavenly Father. I could see on her face that this was something new for her, but she felt the truthfulness of it. We asked her to pray and ask it she really was a daughter of God. Then she told us she had never prayed before in her life, so we taught her how to pray. We haven't followed up yet, but we will see her this week. I am excited for her. 

  We had lessons with Valentina (the orphaned 17-year-old) this week too. She is really smart and pretty much knows all the things we teach her. This week we put emphasis on the Book of Mormon. We went to read it with her. One of the visits, I bore testimony of it. I said, "this book was written for us by prophets who saw our day, they gave their lives for this book." I could tell words were being put into my mouth as I said this. I just kept opening my mouth and looked at Valentina with all the care and love I could as I testified. I saw her eyes start to water and lip start to quiver. She felt the spirit or the love of God. Best feeling in the world right there. It was such an interesting way to testify of the Book of Mormon, but I guess that is what she needed and Heavenly Father sure helped me to say it. After that visit she read 13 chapters in one night and the verse that really stuck out to her was I think 1 Ne 9:5, which is when Nephi is talking about how, "I don't know exactly the reason why I am writing these things, but I know it is a wise purpose and God knows that purpose." That was just a testimony builder to me that, Heavenly Father knew what I needed to bear testimony of. 

   My trainer told me this week, "I can tell when you are being inspired because your french gets a lot better." I have to agree with her. When there is a need for my French to help someone, it gets a lot better. That is what we call the gift of tongues. 

   Lelani asked Sr. Richards and I to pick a man to baptize her for her baptism. It is a huge honor for us because Lelani just wants her baptism to be perfect. The baptism will be on her birthday, which is also her son's birthday if things go as planned. It is 15 Feb. which is a Sunday. Church starts at 7:30 am, but she wants to be able to go to sacrament meeting after her baptism, so she wants to get baptized at 6 am. I am down for that. Whatever floats her boat. It is like her birthday, baptism and son's birthday so we can do that. We just have to ask our zone leaders for the ok. She also gave us a list of qualities the man who baptizes her must have like innovative, respectful, noble that was just a few. There was like 9 qualities he needs to have. Sr. Richards and I just laugh, because it is all on us to find this perfect priesthood holder. I feel like we are picking out a husband for her or something, good thing single wasn't a qualification. haha. 

    Today the city had a celebration for some reason. I thought it was the mayor's birthday, but now  I really don't know. It was really cool and authentic. They had the Tahitian dancers and everyone was in their local dresses and there  were all the island flowers and stuff. It was really cool. I totally felt like a tourist, though. It was a weird feeling. 

    Well, I don't know what else to say. I am going to try to send some pictures home. I hope everyone is loving their life. I found this quote this week and love it a lot so I will write it. "So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment." - President Thomas S Monson. I love that. That is life for you.  

~Sœur Campbell

    Me today after the celebration. My hair is down that was weird and hot

                    Seventeen dollars for those little nail polishes hoollyyy coowzzz

 We bought these at the little Costco it was great I was happy to get some American food

 At the celebration it was super cool and Tahitian:; every girl here is a Tahitian dancer

             

Tahiti Week 6

Hi guyyysssss!

   So I just want to start out by saying that missions are the bestest hardest thing ever. If you are planning on going, get pumped and ready to work! Also read PMG as much as you can. You will NOT regret it at all and just try. Enjoy seminary and religion classes and learn from them. Learn as much as you can, but more importantly, live what you learn. Pray and ask if things are true. Gain a testimony yourself, because that is exactly what you will be asking other people to do. It only makes sense to do it yourself too! Also if you plan on being an obedient missionary, start by being obedient now. Use the strength of the youth and follow it. Building that habit of obedience will make things much much much easier. kk Good luck!!

    So I sit here thinking of this week and am like wow, so much happened, but I don't really know what to write. 

  Lets start with a funny story. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday we were in a lesson with Elvina. Elvina has had the lessons for quite some time and she has a daughter who is a member. We are currently trying to work with her and her boyfriend (here we call them concubines, and it isn't rude, like that is what they call them too) to have a marriage date as a step to have an eternal family. I was trying to do a "follow-up" with the status of the marriage date and also how was her Book of Mormon reading, but we had to resolve some concerns first. We have been trying to emphasize to reach a big goal you have to make little goals and complete them to get there. I had the idea in the lesson to find the "by small and simple means" scripture in the BoM. I pulled out my nifty little 3x4in English BoM my mom gave me years ago that I keep in my backpack. I looked in the index to find the reference and found it as Alma 37:41. I just saw like the one line in the back of the book and that was what I wanted. Then we were all reading the verse and I saw the word "paressuex" or something like that, which is lazy in French. Then I looked up the whole verse in English and sure enough, it talks about by small and simple means and then how laziness prevents the small things from happening. I felt so bad, but everyone thought it was FUNNY. Oh it was a good laugh, but totally called out the amis. Good thing she is like suppppeerr down to earth and thought it was funny too. I tried to explain it was a sign. Then we tried to apply the scripture, which was perfectly applicable. That was probably like the best laugh I have had all week. 

  I definitely got food poisoning this week. A member bought us dinner and dropped it off and it was chicken from the little market. They will cook little meals and put them in plastic trays and sell them here, but they don't get refrigerated and don't stay warm. So I was really hungry and warmed up the food and ate the chicken and I am pretty sure that is what made me sick. I didn't eat much Friday and Saturday because you can't. Now I am okay, but don't really want to eat the chicken here anymore, but that is just TOOO bad because chicken is a staple. We had it at our dinner yesterday and I was fine, so there is hope!

  We rode our bikes a lot more this week, which I love because it means we get places faster and do more in one day. 

  We also received a little miracle with Leila (our ward mission leader's wife, who has been taking the lessons with the missionaries on and off for 14 years, but just recently started reading the LDM in Oct and she is already in Alma), we have been working with her to get an answer if the church is true. She has been praying. She asked us the question, "What if I am not getting an answer because I am not worthy." I was like no that is not the concern at all, because she is worthy of an answer, all of God's children are if they want it. I felt inspired to answer her question with a question of, "maybe you should ask this question to yourself, 'If I were to get an answer, would I be willing to act upon that answer?'" I think she really thought about that, because she really wants an answer. It was a miracle I was able to ask that and she understands. I tried like re-saying it to my companion after the lesson in French and she just didn't understand. It is crazy how God works like that. He will help me to accomplish His will, no exceptions, no obstacles. I know He will make it happen. As soon as we leave lessons and things like that it is soo much harder for me to understand French and stuff like that. 

  I don't know what else to write. I really like this area. It is considered like "in the city." But lets just make this clear: American city life is not Tahiti city life. Things are really relaxed for city life and there aren't any big skyscrapers. There are some factories in our area. We always see the cruise ships in their port. The cruise ships port really close to here. People don't have addresses here. There is one main road and they live in little streets off of it called "quartiers" which is a neighborhood in English, but they are more like little "one way" dirt roads with houses on the side of them.

  We did our sondage (survey) on Saturday and it was pouring rain. Soeur Richards and I got soaked. I was praying we could talk to at least 1 person, because usually when it rains people sleep. There was a lady who accepted us in our soaking clothes and it was just so nice to talk with someone. Then it was all worth it. I didn't really care if we got wet. 

  We read 3 Nephi 11 with Toimato and Kulani (they have a little baby and have a baptismal date for 14 Feb). As we read I really noticed that the Nephites didn't recognize the Savior at first either. 3 Nephi 11:8 says, "they thought they had seen an angel." It seems that all the people who were supposed to recognize Jesus Christ as their Savior didn't even in the Bible. The whole 400 or something pages before that event in the Book of Mormon are prophesies of that one event, yet they didn't recognize him. Ohhh so interesting. 

      I just saw my first poisonous centipede right here in the clerk's office. Ughhh. I didn't want to try to kill it because I knew the centipedes in GA are sooo HARD to kill and I didn't want to upset it. Sr. Taputea (who lives in the house with me) just killed it! Thank goodness. It was easier to kill than I thought! Now I can type in peace. 

     I think today we will go to Polynesian Trading Center and get some American cereal. I am soooo excited to get some fooooooddd! We ran out again of food this week. Good thing we got more money in our accounts!!! 

   Ok, that is all for now! Have a great week. Do your best! Remember who you are and that you can become. 

Love,

Soeur Campbell

The Worst Best Week Yet!

Last Monday was awesome. Sr. Richards and I were walking down to the world's only Black Pearl Musee located right in our sector when a lady who was just sitting on a bench stopped us. She had hurt her foot and had walked down from her neighborhood and was exhausted. She waved us over after we told her a casual "bonjour" and we ended up talking. We talked to her about her family, hurt foot, and coming unto Christ. It was awesome. We shared a verse in the Book of Mormon, Moroni 10:32, which talks about being perfected in Christ and ended up giving her the book. That was a little miracle of itself because usually on p-days I empty out my backpack of most the books I carry around, but I thought of how Pres. Harding (p-hardy) has the missionaries in ATL carry a blue Book of Mormon with them everywhere. I thought of that and decided to keep that book in my backpack on p-day. Of course, that good thought came from what we call the Holy Ghost. Anyways, we gave her that book and shared how it has helped us come unto Christ and feel peace in our lives. She was touched and asked us to sign it for her and everything. It was a good start to the week. The only thing I wanted to just top it off would be a letter. Sure enough, at the very end of the day, the elders came bearing glad tidings of good joy. MY FIRST LETTER!!!!! and it was from my mom and I was very very happy. After a month journey, it finally made it safe and sound. 

 So the rest of the week carried on. It was a little, not the best. We had two days in a row where 3 lessons canceled. Then we had a bunch of concerns come up with investigators we were already working with and things were getting slloooowwww. Friday came around and we had our zone meeting and our 3 baptismal dates had all fell through and I did not want to be in that meeting and report that. When we talked about the progression of our area I didn't even want to look up. I was praying for strength to make it through the day. Right after that meeting I had my first split. I stayed in my area and we worked all day. This is the part where things get good. We took the bikes out and went to our lessons and had some lessons cancel, but that was okay because I just learned that when a lesson cancels it means God wants you to be somewhere else at that moment. We ended up getting to see a lady we have been trying to see since the week I got here and would literally go over there 2-3 times a week and she was never there. Then we had a lesson and the investigator didn't have his Book of Mormon to do his reading we assigned him, but he completed it by calling his grandma and reading with her. We also committed him to be baptized. 

  After that, we went to Valentina's house whose parent's had died when she was young and she told us she wanted to be baptized because her parents were both members of the church. She had already taken some of the lessons but didn't have a Book of Mormon, so I gave her a Book of Mormon and told her about it and the promises and blessings of reading it. I asked her to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray to know it was true. Then I asked her by chance if she had a date she wanted to be baptized on and she was like, "yeah, my mom's birthday" and we were like, "when is that?" and she said "the 26th" and I said "of January?" and she said "yeah" and I looked down at my watch to see what day it was and it was already the 9th. Then we proceeded to tell her if she really wants that she needs to work with us and if she was willing to work with us we could do that. I asked her to read that chapter in the BoM, pray to know if it was true and if baptism was the right thing, and then ask her aunt about the baptism date. Then we set up an appointment for the next day. Sure enough, I go over there with Sr. Richards on Saturday and she prayed about baptism and read the chapter in the Book of Mormon and she said she had a good feeling about it and then right after that  she went to go ask her aunt about the date and she said yes! That was a huge miracle. Things are happening out here. Then we taught her and found out she already knows the Book of Mormon is true. We also got to testify to her about Jesus Christ and how her family can be reunited after this life because of what he did for us. It was the best thing in the world being able to help someone, who needs hope find that hope through Jesus Christ and his gospel. Also, this whole ordeal that went down was just a miracle to me that maybe God was just really pushing me earlier  this week so I would just really enjoy these the good moments and be grateful and recognize the miracles He gives. 

  Saturday we had a lesson that ended up falling through, but we already had the member with us, so we decided to go see Tauhina and Chantal, who are both trying to stop smoking. We are also working with them to come to church. The member with us was the Relief Society president and we didn't even have to say anything to her about what to do. She just was super inviting to Tuahina and Chantal and ready to help them with anything and everything and integrate them into the ward. That was a huge relief to me, to see the support of the ward in that lesson. We talked about fasting and the power of that and Sr. Parker (the RS pres.) was all down for fasting with our investigators. I forgot how much the ward is really behind us. 

   Then later that day (Saturday) we had a lesson with Moia. She is probably about 40 years old and has a boyfriend who comes down on weekends and he joins in the lessons.  We have been working with Moia since we got here, but she wasn't really understanding the lessons and didn't come to church and didn't read and understand the Book of Mormon. The past couple of weeks we have been helping her to read, understand, and apply the BoM. The last week we really focused on church and why it was important to go to church and also asked her to read a chap in the BoM. We found out she doesn't want to go to church because she was afraid of people being two faced and it was looking like she was going to go to church anytime soon. This Saturday, we brought a member with us who is her neighbor, who speaks Tahitian. You have to understand this lesson was in Tahitian, so I really struggled to understand what was going on, but Moia told us she read the chapter we asked her and that is really touched her...a lot. Yay, good new. So then we continued on in the lesson talking about coming unto Christ. I testified how God is a God of justice and mercy and how blessed we are that He is the two. The mercy comes because He loves us, but the justice is where we come in and need to show our love for Him. Then my companion joined in and testified and extended the invitation to come to church saying, "we have already asked you, but we would love to ask you again..." Earlier in the lesson, I couldn't understand the Tahitian, and I started thinking of Moia as a Sunday school teacher and her bf as a Young Men's president and just silently pleaded for God's help to get them to church. Well, to our surprise Moia said yes to go to church and then turned to the member present and asked for a ride to church. That. was. huge! Miracles are happening out here and my prayer was answered. So yesterday she was at church was a member by her side and I asked her how it was and she said she was really touched and that she LOVED it and wants to come back. yes. yes. yesssss!! Then she talked to me in Tahitian and I didn't really understand, so I just smiled and nodded like the penguins in Madagascar when they say, "just smile and wave boys, smile and wave!" haha. I did learn though that she was super excited to come to church and church starts at 7:30 am here and she got up at like 5am or something to make sure she was ready and she was all ready by 6:30 am! Oh is just feels sooo good to see her progress. 

  We also did a mini hike on Saturday to get so a house that was pretty high up the mountain. We climbed over 200 stairs to get there. What is interesting is that when people live that high up, the way they get their stuff up there is the same way we climbed up, which is by those 200 stairs. I just would NOT want to carry a fridge or a washing machine up 200 stairs. This lesson was good too. It was with a couple who already followed the lessons, but took a break because they had a baby, even though they were super close to being baptized. We just walked up there and they told us they had picked another baptism date. We taught them about the importance of coming to church and how it was something for our soul. It was great and a miracle, because all the 3 baptism dates we had lost earlier this week were made up. God really knew what He was doing and now I really trust that He has prepared people. 

   We taught an English class to our Saturday night people at the church. It was fun. I just love teaching English. 

   We also found out we have 2 members in our ward right now in the hospital, so we planned to go visit the Sunday. That was a fun experience. The hospitals here don't look anything like American ones. We just walked right into the room and shared our message. 

  Sunday after we got done at the hospital we didn't have much time before our dinner appointment. Sr. Richards and I had a list of people we needed to see. We had to prioritize, so we decided it would be best to go see Valentina. We just needed to make an appointment with her, but she lives like a super long walk away and we didn't have our bikes, so we started to make that walk. Then by a miracle we just saw her walking down the street and quickly talked with her and made the appt. Now we had time to go see Lelani. That worked out great. We got to Lelani's and found out she was not having a good day. Her ex-husband's family was blaming her child's sickness on her. We were there for her and shared some Bible verses with her Mat. 11:28-30. She really needed to know that right now, that she could find comfort in Christ. After finding that out, it was clear that God wanted us to be there. She had to quickly leave after our little message, but I am glad we could be there to help. 

  I also witnessed another miracle yesterday. Sr. Richards and I were walking to an appointment and there were to people on bikes getting ready to exit the neighborhood and get on to the main road, but cars were coming and the girl's breaks didn't work. She wasn't wearing a helmet and totally t-bumped into a car that was going fast on the main road. Literally, she was untouched. She wasn't wearing a helmet either and she was untouched not even a scratch. It was crazy. We got her bike out of the road, but it was a miracle to me how she was fine, her bike was fine. She fell just perfectly. It was a little shocking to see that happen too. You think we would have called  the ambulance or something, but the driver just had a huge dent in his car and saw the girl was alright, so he just drove off. No ambulances or anything was called. It was nothing like an American crash at all.

    By Sunday we were definitely out of food. No bread. No milk. No cereal. That meant no PB and Js and no cereal and milk... My staples were gone and I ate my last apple for breakfast. It was okay, though, because after our lesson Noeline gave us a huge lunch with poisson creu, and rice, and meat and potatoes. I honestly liked the raw fish the most.  Then we had dinner like 3 hours later. I found out the way you know the raw fish is still good is by the flies. If they are still attracted to it. It is still good. Also for dinner, I ate like barracuda. It was grilled and reminded me of like steak. It wasn't exactly barracuda, but  a local fish that is like 4 feet long and probably like 6 in diameter. It was soo good. I loved it and I guess it has the most of omega 3 in it.  

  Today we did a hike near Papeete. Our car got stuck in mud going up to the trailhead, so we had to go like 9 km to get to the trail head, but we only made it 6 km. I was kind of sad we didn't make it to the spot, but some other missionaries in our zone did. It was really pretty, though! I was trying to encourage people, but it just was NOT working. Oh well, sometimes you just got to work through it and enjoy the trail.    

  I also went to the store and had to buy deodorant. FYI: The girl deodorant here is not the same if you have a mission call to Tahiti and are a girl bring deodorant. I was in the store and only the men's kind was the good stick kind, so I went and put some in my cart and the Tahitian man standing by us, just totally looked at us weird. It was funny. I am going to smell like a man now, but people here really don't care honestly and I'll just sweat it off anyway!!! 

   Alright, my good friends. Have a great week!! and go get em!!

 With soo much love, Soeur Campbell

 

Me with the Livre de Mormon on the trail; my companion called me crazy I told her why and about the GAM rule!!

 This is that new year's thing I was talking about last week. It is lamb and cow; they sell these in the store

                         Us after a morning of work. It was only 7 am

Sometimes the members drop-off our dinners and this was hungry me one night with the awesome way they served it; we always have rice; those are fish patties.

                                     Some people on the stairs we climbed on Saturday

                                                         Car got stuck in the mud

                                Sr Garmin of Bountiful, Utah and I; happy campers are we

                                              Me with my Dora backpack on the trail

                                                 Comp and me walking on the trail

Our view from the hike

Old car on the trail; there are old cars like this everywhere in Tahiti; people don't get rid of them