Week of January 19 2014: Mushroom

Hi guys!

As of this last Saturday, I officially have four months in the mission. It seems simultaneously like a lot and like very, very little. But I think that's generally the way time is on a mission--it feels like it's going super fast and SO SLOW at the same time. But such is the nature of life, I guess. 

Our main focus of this week was a family that the elders who were in the other part of our area before us found, the Perez-Gomez family. They're super special and we almost had to arrange an emergency wedding for them, because they want to get baptized, but they aren't married, and the dad, Candido, really doesn't want to get married (this is a trend for the men here. I cannot tell you why). BUT he had a kind of amazing change of heart this week and they told us that they wanted to get married this Saturday before their kids go back to school (here they start school in January, have a short vacation in June, and finish in October--it's kind of the opposite of the American school system). So we were calling all the LDS lawyers we know to see if they could help us, and if they could do it for free, and trying to get together clothes and flowers and food for this wedding, but then it turned out that they didn't have the documents they needed to get married, so they aren't going to get married until June when their kids come home. It was kind of a disappointment, but it was amazing just to see the changes that they've made in their lives and attitudes. I think that's one of the biggest privileges of missionary work--getting to see people change. It might not always been that they're going to get baptized, but even small changes mean they're coming closer to Christ.

Remember: Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls. (Alma 37:6-7). 

As for other news this week, we got new beds because apparently ours were super old. As they were taking apart my bed, the guy doing it goes "hay un hongo!!!" which means "there's a mushroom!!!!!" That's right, there was a BIG FAT MUSHROOM growing under my bed. There's always been a weird, mildewy smell in our apartment and I was always searching for the source, and I finally found it. So while you're sleeping in your beds tonight, be grateful that your lives are free of bed mushrooms (if anyone wants to use that as a band name, feel free). 

Tomorrow we have cambios, so my trainer will be leaving and I'll be getting a new compa! I'm a little terrified to be in charge of our area and all of our investigators, and I can't imagine my life without my companion (three months together is a LONG time), but whatever happens, it's revelation, so I can't really complain. 

I hope everyone has a good week, and that your bedrooms are free of fungi. 

Love, 

Hermana Campbell

December Letters: 12/22 and 12/29 (Mom was out of town w/o a computer!)

Hi guys, 

Merry almost Christmas! It doesn't super feel like Christmas still, but I did get two Christmas packages this week at our zone conference, and I'm waiting to open them until the 25th. I also have a MoTab Christmas CD, and we have  a tiny tree in our house, so maybe I'll open my packages with the music and the tree and feel a little bit of Christmas (or maybe I'll just cry a lot, which I've also been doing lately). 

We had our Christmas zone conference this week, in which we watched 'The Work and The Glory' and everyone went crazy because there's DRAMA and KISSING and HANDSOME MEN. We also had a turkey dinner for lunch, so that got us into the Christmas spirit a little more. My zone also sang 'Cantan Santos Angeles' (Angels We Have Heard on High), and they made me sing a solo, which was terrifying, but overall it went well. It then took us four hours to get home, because the traffic is INSANE right now because everyone is going out to buy Christmas presents and stuff, so the buses were jam-packed and we had to keep letting them pass because we physically couldn't have fit inside. 

We got back so late that we couldn't do anything, so on Thursday, we had zero lessons, contacts, new investigators, everything. On Friday, we got all psyched up to work really hard and find a ton of people and make up for the day we lost on Thursday. But by 6 o'clock, we hadn't had a single lesson or found a single new investigator. We had walked pretty much through our entire area, and visited all of our investigators and all of the members, but no one was home. We were so sad and discouraged, so I said 'Maybe we should pray?' kind of jokingly. But we found a little clearing of land (where there were a bunch of chickens, how spiritual) and said a prayer, and about five minutes later, we walked by a family decorating their house. We asked if we could leave one of the 'He is the Gift' cards with them, and then I decided to ask if we could watch the video with them, and THEY INVITED US INSIDE! This is super rare for our area, so we were incredibly excited. We went in, sang a Christmas hymn, and said a prayer, then watched the video with them (I don't know if all of you know about this thing, but hopefully you have heard of/seen it). After, we ended up teaching an entire lesson, and by the end, the mom was crying and she wanted to say the closing prayer. As we were leaving, with an appointment to come back the following week, she told us that we had contacted her almost a month ago, but she didn't want to listen to us, and she was really glad that we had found her again. 

I know this sounds like a story from the New Era or something, but I promise you it really happened. It was a super special and rare experience, and I'm just super grateful to be here and be serving a mission in this time of the year. It is hard, and sometimes I do just start crying because I think about everyone having Christmas together without me, but it's a privilege to be here and to learn a little bit more about the love God has for his children. 

One last thing about this week is that we found a TINY puppy walking next door to our house, and took pictures with it. That was another little miracle that occurred this week, but it's a miracle of the SQUEE type and less of the SPIRITUAL type. 

I hope everyone has a good week and the MERRIEST of Christmases. Please watch the Colbert Christmas Special in my honor, because that is probably the thing I miss the most about this Christmas season. 

Love, 

Sister Campbell

Hi friends and fam, 

This is my last email of 2014! Is it just me, or did this year feel like about five seconds? Is that something an old lady would say? Am I wearing a skirt that probably used to belong to an old lady that I bought in a paca? WHO CAN SAY. 

This week was a lot of fun and a lot of food. On the 24th, which is when everyone celebrates Christmas here, we went around visiting a lot of members and investigators. We got to help make tamales with one of our investigator families, and I got to hold a baby (which is technically against the mission rules, but what can you do when someone hands you a cute, chubby baby??). FYI, tamales are THE thing here for Christmas and New Years, and I ate probably eight of them in the course of two days. Also, everyone makes something called 'ponche,' which is a liquid cooked with fruit, except it's DRIED fruit, that they put in liquid, so it's like re-hydrated fruit? It's kind of horrible, but hey, whatever! Culture! 

The good news is that I officially only have one Christmas left in my mission! The bad news is that I was so sad on Christmas that I ate an entire bag of barbeque-flavored Tortrix (which is a brand of chip similar to Fritos that they only sell here). But more good news, we have great members in our ward and really nice investigators who invited us over for dinners and stuff, and that was really nice. 

It's been hard to find people to teach this week, because everyone is either sleeping or traveling. But one cool thing that happened is that we went to visit this family we contacted a while ago, who were never home when we came by to visit, but this time they were home and let us in and we taught them a whole lesson and they were super receptive and loving and it was just cool to see that even though some people aren't prepared right when you meet them, with time, they can change and be ready. Everything is the Lord's time, you know? 

This email is a little funky, I'm sorry. My zone is yelling at me to get off the computer so we can go to Taco Bell. BUT I hope that everyone has a happy new year and that you're enjoying cold weather for me (because I am sunburned and sweaty). 

Love you!

Hermana Campbell

Week of December 8 2014: El es la Dadiva

Happy Monday!

It's hard to believe that it's December, and I kind of refuse to accept it. The weather here is pretty much the same as summer in Seattle, yet somehow the sun is even hotter. The nights are pretty chilly, by which I mean it gets down to about 55 degrees, and everyone is always telling us we should be wearing sweaters and that we're going to get sick, but so far I haven't, so HA. 

My companion's birthday was yesterday, so earlier this week, we had a lot of gatherings and shennanigans to celebrate. Here, the 7th of December is the day of the devil, and to celebrate, everyone buys piñatas of the devil and burns them, instead of putting candy in them. We're not allowed to burn stuff, so we bought candy and had a good ol' time with the other hermanas in our district. I also asked them to buy a cake to surprise her, but we didn't have candles, so we stuck a bunch of matches in the top of the cake and they kind of exploded everywhere. But the cake survived, and it was pretty tasty. 

This week we had another baptism! Her name is Flory, and she's 15. She's the only member in her family, but her mom and aunts and uncles came, and it was really special. We sang Christmas hymns and ate cake (again). The sad thing is that she lives in the boundaries of a different ward, so she's not our convert anymore, but we snuck into the other ward's sacrament meeting to see her confirmation. She told us that she felt something really special while she was being confirmed, and I got all teary. Here is a photo if you want to see:

We as missionaries have been assigned to start working with a new church initiative that you've probably heard about/seen on the internet. It's called 'He is the Gift,' or, for me, 'Él es la Dádiva.' I think they have it on YouTube and everything, or you can go tochristmas.lds.org to watch it. We have little cards to give to people that have a picture of Mary and the baby Jesus, and so far we've given away about twenty. People are much more responsive when you're giving them stuff, for some reason. But, for obvious reasons, I've been thinking a lot about Christ lately (duh, but bear with me). I was reading in Mosiah 3 this morning, where an angel appears to King Benjamin and speaks to him, saying (and sorry if the formatting is a little weird):

"...Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy. For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy."

The angel then proceeds to tell King Benjamin about Christ, who will be born of Mary, and the work he will perform on the earth. 

I'm sure some/all of you have heard this before, but the meaning of the word 'gospel' is 'good news.' I love to think that by being a missionary, I'm bringing to people "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of hope, peace, and, most of all, joy. Through him, we have strength, purpose, and eternal life. I'm so grateful to have the chance to share the happiness that I've felt through this gospel, and I hope that all of you will be able to feel a bit of this happiness this week and this Christmas. 

Once again, I'm out of time. Have a good week, keep your chins up and watch some TV for me. 

Love, 

Hermana Campbell

Week of December 1 2014: Tiny Tree

Hi everyone, 

Happy December! It's getting pretty cold here (down into the 50s...brrrr), and everyone has up Christmas lights and trees and everything. We have a tiny tree in our apartment, and it's pretty cute/sad. We've also started singing Christmas hymns in church and in lessons, and it's weird to sing them in Spanish, but I'll get used to it (eventually). 

We have a baptism coming up next Saturday, I can't remember if I already wrote about her or not. Her name is Flory, she's 15, and is really excited to get baptized. We're going to try and make a cake to have after her baptism, but as we don't have an oven, it's going to be a pretty complicated venture. 

Here is the most striking memory I can give you of this week: we had a lesson with Juan Diego, who also has a baptismal date, but the church was locked, so we waited for half an hour to see if anyone would show up. No one did, so we walked down the block to a Burger King, and we sat and taught him about temples and family history while "Hello" by Lionel Richie played in the background. They also had a screen showing the music video, and I kept getting distracted because it's hilariously 80s and weird and makes no sense. 

This week for Thanksgiving, the other sisters in our district and my companion and I went to Domino's and bought a giant pizza. It's the end of the month, so we're all almost out of money, but we pooled our funds and had a feast (more or less). For dessert, we bought chocobananos. It was really fun and kind of depressing and a good representation of my life here in Guatemala. 

Some other things that happened this week: I finished almost a whole jar of peanut butter, I helped make tortillas yesterday (and apparently my skills are improving!), and I jumped out of the back of a moving bus because we were late for an appointment and the driver didn't want to stop. 

BUT more than anything, we're continuing to work and find people and somehow make it through every day. Thank you for your prayers and support; we've felt the spirits of many people in our work this week and we're really grateful. Everyone should read 3 Nefi 11, because it's great, and if anyone gets the chance, eat a burrito for me (that's one thing that I haven't yet found here). 

Love you all! Have a healthy, productive week.

Hermana Campbell

Week of November 24 2014: Out of body experience

Hi everyone, 

Sorry for the short email last week--the elders ahead of me went half an hour over their time, then shut off the computers because they wanted to leave (rude). Once again, however, I have very limited time, so I'm going to try to cram a bunch of stuff into this email. 

1) This week, we committed someone else to baptism! Her name is Flory and she's 15. She told us she felt like she hadn't gotten an answer about whether or not she should be baptized, then later she said that she had felt really inexplicably happy after praying about it, and we were like DUH that's your answer. So then she was like oh okay cool, can we have cake at my baptism? So she's preparing for the 6th of December!

2) On Tuesday we taught a lesson with a member, who's a recently returned missionary, and after, her family took us out to this taco truck to eat something called gringas (which is funny, because I am also a gringa, ha ha). It was maybe the best thing I've ever eaten--they're kind of like quesadillas, but with crispy fried corn tortillas and oh my GOSH the salsa bar was a work of magic. I had like 4 different sauces and they were all CRAZY spicy but so good. We drank Cokes from glass bottles and I was speaking Spanish and it felt totally normal. It was kind of an out of body experience, but pretty cool (and delicious). 

3) One of our investigators lives way up in the mountains almost, and she has a million animals, one of which is a TINY kitten named Luna, who I held and we took pictures with (grammar, sorry). I'll try to send them at some point, but it was probably one of the cutest things that's ever happened to me. 

4) Last week, we helped an investigator carry giant bags of maiz from the store up to her house, because she owns a tortilleria and we wanted to help her out. They're all over the place, and it's kind of cool, because it sounds kind of like music--it's like a bunch of people are clapping their hands and slapping drums. I also helped someone make tortillas this week, so now I know how!

Once again, I'm out of time, but I'll tell you something funny/sad--it's so humid here that all of my envelopes have self-adhesived. So that's a little view into my daily life. Also, I have a horrible watch/foot tanline. 

I love you all, and I hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving! (I won't be celebrating it, because it doesn't exist here, so eat a piece of pie for me.)

Love, 

Hermana Campbell

Week of November 16 2014: Two Months--Sweet Tan Lines

Hello!

Today is the official two-month mark of my mission! My companion made me a card that she left on my desk this morning, which was really nice. I kind of can't believe it's already been two months, yet at the same time it feels like I've been here for my whole life. I have some sweet tan lines already, from my watch, shoes, and on my collarbone and arms. I'm amazed they've developed so quickly, but I'm sure they're only going to get worse in the coming months. 

This week was my first baptism! Her name is Sandra and her husband is a member, but he was inactive, and then she started investigating, and now they're planning on going to the temple together! She got baptized on Saturday and it was really beautiful and she cried and I cried. There was also a cockroach in the baptismal font when we got there to set up, which our ward mission leader fished out with a broom (that's one holy cockroach!). Here's a picture, if it will load:

So that was fun. I also had divisions for the first time this week, and I went to another area with the sister training leader and it was terrifying but also fun! We had a recent convert with us, and her name is Maybe--all I could think was "her?" (50 points to Gryffindor if you understand that reference!!)

There's a lady we're teaching named Jaclyn who runs a little food business, and we have to buy something every time we teach her. We usually get chocobananos, which are maybe my favorite thing about Guatemala. They sell them everywhere, and we buy them from Jaclyn for 3 quetzales each (which is like 40 cents). They're basically just frozen bananas dipped in chocolate, but when it's hot outside (which it is, always, despite what all the Guatemalans say--apparently this is the "cold season"), they're like the best thing in the world. 

I'm out of time to write because I got started super late because this guy wouldn't get off the computer, but I'll write more next week! Love you all!

Hermana Campbell

Week of November 3 2014: Dia de los Muertos

Hi everyone, 

This is my first P-day in two weeks, and suffice it to say that it couldn´t have come any sooner. Hermana Campbell is finally out in the field, and BOY has it been tough! My area is called San Cristobal, and it´s infamously difficult. So far we only have two baptismal dates (and I didn´t do anything to procure them), but we have a lot of new investigators. Yesterday we were walking around in Balcones, which is a poorer part of our area, when we stumbled upon a huge family sitting outside their house (I say house, but it´s actually just a bunch of sheets of metal stacked together). We taught them the restoration, and they were really willing to listen and excited about everything we said. It was amazing. 

One of the crazy things about here is the huge variance in living conditions. We live in a little apartment behind a member´s house, and within a fenced-in area called Pinares. There are so many of those types of areas, kind of like gated communities, except not everyone that lives there is rich like you would expect in America. So our apartment is pretty okay, but just down the street lives a member family who live in a metal shack and they don't have electricity. I don´t know. 

One thing I do know is that the babies here are reeeeeal cute. On Wednesday, we went with a member to visit one of her friends and taught her a lesson, and the member brought her daughter Crystal, who's two and so smart. She held my hand the whole way there and she had maybe the worst smelling poopy diaper I've ever encountered.

It´s really, really hard to speak Spanish all the time. My trainer, Hermana Merlo, is from Nicaragua and can understand some English, but she can´t speak it, so I barely every speak English out loud these days. That's a big adjustment. It's also weird to go places like church and riding buses and have people try to talk to me and have zero idea of what they're saying. But whatever! I'm learning!

This is the cold and rainy season in Guatemala, which basically feels like Seattle in spring, except that the rain is waaaay heavier. On Thursday we were out teaching a lesson and it started pouring, and we had to walk home two miles in the rain. We were completely soaked. But it was a good educational experience, because now we always take our umbrellas. 

Saturday was Dia de los Muertos here, which is a pretty big deal. There were tons of people selling flowers on the street and in the cemetary, where we went tracting and taught the Plan of Salvation (clever, right?), which was cool. The members we live with, the Menas family, made us a traditional Guatemalan Dia de los Muertos dish called fiambre which consists of a LOT of different types of meat and a lot of beets. It was...new. Mostly I haven´'t had to eat anything too weird yet, but I'm still inside the city, so we'll see what happens when I get transferred. 

This week was mostly tough because 1) it was my first week and 2) my companion got some really bad news about her family on Thursday. So if you all could keep the Merlo family in your prayers, that would be great. 

I don´t really know what else to say and I´m running out of internet time, but I hope you're all happy and healthy and I would love to hear from any and all of you!

Much love, 

Hermana Campbell