The Parau API

Hello My dear friends and family,

    I bet you are all wondering what we did for Christmas on an island.  The tradition here for the people is to eat a lot of seafood, mussels,  cow heart, BBQ, and crab. Then they do fireworks too. For others here, the tradition is to get wasted and party. 

   Sr. Bluker and I taught about the real meaning of Christmas on Christmas day to a family. Then our zone got together and went Christmas caroling to Pres. and Sr. Bize. We also dropped Sr. Teore and Sr. Tarati off at the airport so they could go open up a new area on a little island in the TUAMOTUS. 

   Christmas morning, we didn't open up presents. We played soccer with the other missionaries and some amis. It is funny, because we weren't home at all Christmas day, so we opened up presents the 26th. Most of our presents were chocolate. haha. It makes sense. What can you really give a missionary? We also went to  a baptism Christmas day. 

   The  best part of Christmas as a missionary has definitely just been caroling nonstop. People LOVE to hear us sing. The last week has just been sing sing sing. We made like 100 cookies with the other 2 companionships in the house and delivered them to our amis. There were some kids who wanted to join in with us, but we could take them in the car. We gave them some candy we had though in the car. We also gave some of the less fortunate kids the toys my family had sent me a while back. That was definitely one of the highlights of my week.

    THE BIGGEST highlight of my week was talking to my dear wonderful family. We shared testimony and sang and laughed. I love them so much. AND I got to hear their wonderful talents with Abbee on the violin and Mom and Erin on the piano. 

    It is official I will be finishing in Papeete. I have really been trying here, but do not at all feel great about what I am doing as I have in my other areas. So I fasted Sunday and am really just trying. This will be my second companion in a row that I am finishing with and then I finish.  Surely it will all work out in the end. Your prayers are appreciated. 

    Well, I love you all. And my dad wanted me to write who is my favorite scripture hero. Right now I'll say it is Nephi because he had a lot of faith and did what the Lord asked him to do, even if his brothers didn't support him.   

Faaitoito

Love,

TUAHINE Campbell

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël

Joyeux NOELLLLLL!!!!!

It is time.

GREAT NEWS

I stepped in dog poop this week and killed two cockroaches. We also woke up to maggots who invaded our garage. 

LITCHIS

There is a fruit that grows on a little island called TUBUAI. They are red a super good, but to buy them here in Tahiti they are expensive. One of the elders in our zone is from that island and gave us a whole Walmart bag of litchis. They were so good. If we were to buy the Walmart bag's worth of litchis it would have cost us like 50 dollars. 

MIKE 

Mike is our ami, who is getting ready to be baptized. Yesterday he sang in the Christmas choir.  My companion and I were super proud of him. I know it helped him strengthen his testimony. 

ANITA

We fasted with Anitia this week.  She is trying to quit smoking. Saturday after the ward Christmas party we fasted with her. And it went really well. Then we broke our fast with some sea food that Brother Makeroto had caught. We ate crab and clam and cigale (a flat crab-like animal).  

SISTERS PASSING THROUGH

Sister Bluker and I have worked with two different sisters this week as they were being transferred out in the islands and needed a place to stay. We were assigned to do it too. Sr. TUPEA was with us only one day before she went out to HUAHINE (an island not far from BORA). Then Friday we receive Sr. TEORE who will be with us until the end of December. She will go to an island not far where I served in TAKAPOTO called AHE. 

Sr. Bluker and I continue to stay tight through it all. 

3 COWS

For our ward Christmas party, they roasted 3 baby cows. It was awesome. I felt like I was in Johnny Lingo.  

FOOD DRIVE

There is a part of the island that was flooded and people have not had water or electricity and there were houses destroyed. Sunday we gathered up our extra food in the house and donated it. I am not sure of all the details, but it felt great to help them out. especially during Christmas.

SHOUT OUT TO DAD

Happy birthday! I love you lots. I can't wait to skype with you Friday. You are truly incredible and my number one man! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I know the letter was short, but I hope ya'll stay warm this Christmas and remember the real reason for the season. 

Love,

Soeur Campbell

Cookies in Tahiti

Merry Christmas Friends and Family (I think we are close enough to it to say that),

CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Cookies aren't really a Tahitian thing, but we made it one this week. Monday I spent like my extra money in the mission account to buy the "exotic" ingredients necessary. It was $22 to buy a Costco sized bag of kisses. Anywho, it went well all the sisters had a fun time in the house and we gave some to our investigators and the couple missionaries. There is our Christmas spirit this year. 

The zone also put ornaments on the Christmas tree next to the temple. the 23rd the mission is having a big party where we will have a gift exchange. 

I really want this Christmas is to be able to share the spirit of Christ. 

TRANSFERS

Our whole zone is staying the same. The assistants are in our zone and kept looking at me all week. I thought I would be transferred, but I guess that was a joke. haha, So good news is I love my companion. I am helping her learn English. We laugh a ton together. 

She finishes at the end of January, so most likely I will be finishing my mission here in Papeete. 

MIRACLES

Our amis are progressing. Anita and Mike picked a date to get baptized this week. I am so happy for them.

We literally have testified time and time again about the power of miracles. Faith first of course. 

TAHIARII

We have started teaching Tahiarii that I talked about last week. He is super smart and has a ton of potential. 

WHY I LOVE THIS AREA

Pretty much Fautaua is a huge blessing. Before it was the assistant's area and the members have  huge respect for the missionaries. They are always ready to help us out. We don't have a car and walk around a lot, but there have literally been times when 5 different members have stopped and asked us for a ride, but there was already someone else coming to pick us up. It doesn't matter whose house you go to they always give you something to take home and eat. They just love us. And I am so grateful for that HUGE blessing. Also, we talk to like everyone and everyone tells us we can come back and teach. It is awesome. 

KK! Joyeux Noel!

Love,

 TUAHINE Campbell

Getting Back on Track and Welcoming the BEST Month of the Year

Laorana friends and family,
DECEMBER
Here we are in December again. I love this month. The  2nd was my 1-year mark in French Polynesia. There are also the good things to with Christmas to come. We have started listening to Christmas music and people have started putting up their trees. I love it.

TRIAL OF FAITH
  This week I was studying in Preach My Gospel and learned that we have to have a trial of our faith, to have the spirit. Faith is to have a hope for a better world. That is exactly how I felt and all I wanted last week  as I was sick. Then you can't work and the area suffers and it is a huge snowball effect for a missionary. After all that from the other week, this week was different. Things have changed. Just keep reading.
LEADERSHIP MEETING
 All the zone leaders and sister training leaders meet at President's house Thursday. We ate lunch and gave the report about the work that is happening in our zones. The biggest thing for me was being there and being edified from the other missionaries' testimonies. I left that meeting different and more motivated.
SINGING FOR THE PRESIDENT
 Saturday all the missionaries and  a dozen other religious youth groups sang for a concert in the park. Among the audience was the President of French Polynesia. He addressed us in Tahitian. It was pretty cool because I could actually understand what he was saying. Major improvement from a year ago!! We sang "Glorious" and "O Come, O Come Emanuel" in French. We also sang a traditional Tahitian song of course in Tahitian. My voice did crack a couple of times on stage.....oops. There you go. I am not fully recovered from bronchitis.
SUNDAY MORNING
Bishop asked Sr. Bluker and I to sing again in Tahitian for a prelude. haha. We couldn't say no. Our voices were almost "pohe" or dead.  haha. We sang anyways. I thought I would fall asleep up there.

BAPTISM
Saturday we had a baptism. Manutea is 19 and has been taking the lessons for 2 months about. He was ready and happy to have been cleaned from all his past sins. He even invited his friend Tahianii to the baptism. We talked to his friend and he came to church Sunday to see Manutea receive the Holy Ghost. After church, we went over to Manutea's house to have a lesson with him and Tahiarii.
  Pretty much his baptism is a snowball effect. It is awesome!! It is truly a miracle. We are going to use our recent convert to help his friend learn about the gospel.

FAMILY MIRACLE
Another study I did this week was how the gospel blesses families and I thought to myself "wow I have never taught a whole family. I need to start praying for that." I told that to my companion and then prayed for it. Sunday at church there was an amis with a member and I started talking to them and the ami is going to take the lessons with his family. His daughter is on another island and already takes the lessons. That was a huge miracle to me. Prayer answered and the members are on our side.

FUNNY STORY
We were teaching an inactive and the spirit told me to start teaching in Tahitian so  I did. The next time we went back there the inactive, who is a grandma, was like, "My grandkids and are are blown away that you speak Tahitian better than they do."

LOVE YOU ALL
Have a great week and love this season of Christmas for me, please!!!


Tuahine Campbell

Leadership Meeting 

The Concert With Sr. Bamba

Manutea's Baptism

News

Hi my friends and family,

FIRST off. I love you all!!

LETTERS

So I received a letter from my sister Abbee that she sent in June this week. It was sent to Guyana first. I have no idea where that is, but it was a nice letter and I was so happy to receive it even if it meant a 6-month delay,

SICK

I fell sick this week. It was my first time on a mission to keeping to the missionary schedule because I was in bed. We went to the doctor's, It is nothing like America here. I was whisked in and out and the doctor told me I had bronchitis. Then they gave a piece of paper with the names of some antibiotics and we walked over to the pharmacies where they gave me the medication. It was like 6 pills a day.

After that, I spent a couple of days with a senior missionary couple, The Caldwells. I love them. They were so kind to me, making me soup and even a little Turkey Thursday. 

My companion, Sr. Bluker was a champion and continued to work with the members. While I was with the couple. 

PRIMARY PIANIST

  One of the wards here, Erima, didn't have a pianist to play for their primary program Sunday. I volunteered. It was the funniest thing ever. We didn't have much practice together, but the children were hilarious. One of the songs was follow the prophet and there were like 9 verses sung as solos. About at verse 5, the kid decided to speed his solo up, so i just followed him. haha. The whole ward and I were just laughing. Nothing beats a little service.

TODAY's STUDY

I studied today in Ether 12 about faith. I though it was super interesting how Moroni starts his teaching on faith after explaining that the people in Ether's time didn't understand his wonderful prophecies (see verse 5). I felt like Mormoni wants us to be able to have the faith to understand and listen to the words of prophets today. I love the Book of Mormon!

NEXT WEEK

We have leadership counsel again, so my companion and I are busy making our calls to the awesome sisters in the islands to know how they are doing. 

Dec 5 we are also going to sing in an interfaith choir. It is going to be huge. I just hope my voice will hold up!!

Ok, a little news for you from Tahiti!!   Keep the faith!

Love,

Soeur Campbell

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

   Here we are again, I am sending out my second and last Thanksgiving week email on a mission.

  I used want to start out and express my gratitude for everything, from a great family to the last 14 months I have experienced on a mission, and also for all the love and support from my loved ones out in America, also for the wonderful people here in French Polynesia and all their love and things they have taught me. Most importantly I want to let you know how grateful I am for a Heavenly Father who has blessed my life from the beginning. Voila, a piece of the things I am grateful for this year. 

  My wish that this week you will do the same and meditate about the people and blessings you are grateful for too. I would love to hear about them. My other hope is that you "tamaa maitai"or eat well Thursday. 

  I just remembered last week I totally thought it was Thanksgiving in my email. Thankfully one of the senior couples in our district, the Caldwells, set me on track that Thanksgiving is this week. Oh mission life!

   Sr. Bluker and I worked hard this week. We are starting to see changes in our amis as they prepare for baptism. 

  This week was booked with firesides for the amis. Friday the temple President came and spoke to our amis right next to the temple. He encouraged them to pray and ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet and prepare to have an eternal family. Then Saturday night the two senior couples in our zone, the Caldwells (from Utah) and the Jones (from England), put on a fireside about the importance of marriage for our amis. Getting married is one of the biggest blocks for amis progressing here. I know our amis Maina and Mike, who were there were touched by the incredible example of marriage and family from our couple missionaries.

Sunday night there was another fireside about family history work and fulfilling our duty to help our ancestors through temple work. 

  Serving is Tahiti is wonderful because there is always something to invite amis to. 

  Saturday we fasted  and worked with the ward counsel all day working on reactivation. We had a little miracle because we went to go see a couple who wasn't married. While there we invited them to the fireside and it was like 4 in the afternoon and the fireside was at 6. Well, the lady ended up coming. It was a miracle for me to see how you always have to invite no matter the  circumstances or your doubts.

  Another miracle happened in Sunday School, as Mike who is thinking about baptism, started asking questions about baptism. The miracle is he is getting more serious about it. 

   Today we have another big p-day planned. We got up at 4am to take Sister Tidjine from New Caledonia to the airport, She got transferred  to an island called TUBUAI and it is where the first LDS missionaries came to French Polynesia. Then we came home and cleaned house and now we are doing our email and we have yet to get a spa treatment from one of our members. Then another member is going to make dresses with us (our members love to spoil us here, our next couple p-days are booked with things they want to do with us). Then we also have to go grocery shopping, because last week we didn't go, because we drove around the whole island. Yeah, life is good.  

   I love you all and Happy Thanksgiving!!

 Love,

 Tuahine Campbell

Leadership Council and Car Adventure

To'u mau utuafare herehia,

   E here vau ia outou. Aita vau ite eaha ia papai i roto i teie rata. 

  This week was full of fun and adventure and spirituality.

  For the fun and adventure, I started to learn how to drive a manual car. It had been a while since I have driven (like 2 years), but the experience went well. Elder Cadwell, one of the couple missionaries, is teaching me how to. 

  This week we spent a lot of time working with our ward mission leader, Bro. ROOMATOROA. He pretty much just speaks Tahitian, and fast. That means I got to do a lot of Tahitian practice this week. I love our DMP and the members here. They work hard with us and have a lot of respect for the missionaries. 

  This week was the primary program in church and it was a wonderful experience to all the amis who came.  I know they were touched by the children's simple testimony of eternal families and the example of our Savoir. It was the first time at church for Anita, one of our amis who is a mother. When she found out church was three hours long, she doubted if she could make it through. After the wonderful primary program and the other 2 classes, she was surprised that it ended so quickly. 

  We started teaching Anita, because we were teaching her daughter and invited her to join in on a lesson. She was hesitant that day to join in on a lesson. As the spirit has been in the lessons she has come to love them more and more. She is starting to understand the gospel in a new way and loves it. 

   This week we had leadership counsel at the president's house. We talked a lot about obedience for the missionaries and how the missionary morning schedule makes a huge difference for the missionaries throughout the day. I was all for it, as being obedient brings blessings. 

  President Bize also told us how we need to make the sacrifices so we can call down the miracles from heaven. I was really touched as he spoke about that.

  At the end of the reunion, we all knelt in prayer. The spirit was super strong as we did that. We also sang "Abide With Me," and as we sang the 2nd verse about how quickly time goes by, I couldn't help but start to cry. 

   This mission is just like a dream. There are still people to find though and teach and bring to the Lord. 

  I live you all. Take care. and HAPPY THANKSGIVING (we don't celebrate that here, so have fun eating for me). They feed us really well, though, we could say Thanksgiving is like every day for missionaries in TAHITI!!

  Love 

Soeur Campbell