Week 9 - Adios Arizona, Hola Ecuador

Hello family and friend!! I love you all so much and am always praying for you! This week was good! I dont have my journal with me so itll be a rough email hahaha.... Tuesday - Friday: everything was so good! the work in Liahona 4 is so good!! we have so many people that are so ready to hear the gospel it is amazing! Tito is going to be giving a poem this next friday for a talent show and boy he is going to do so good!! Tito was going to come to church this past sunday but it was stake conference and it was somewhere else and I gave him the wrong address... whoops on my part i felt super bad. But hopéfully he went this sunday!! Goodbyes were hard this week too but also made me super excited to get to go back in 18 months! I will forever love Arizona and I will forever love the people i met there especially my missionary friends!!!! Saturday : We woke up at 5:50 and was on the plane by 10:00! better to be early than to be late... We flew to Atlanta Georgia and had an hour layover there and met up with the other visa waiters around the states! We then flew for 5 hours to Quito and may i just say i saw the prettiest sunset i have ever seen. I didnt have my camera on had but its kind of better becuase it wouldnt have done it justice. It was beautiful. We landed in ecuador and drove the the Sister Training Leaders house and they dropped me off because i was the only sister. I missed my companion a lot during the day. We walked inside i didnt even know there names and we were asleep.  Sunday : Church was so fun and ECUADOR IS BEAUTIFUL I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS PLACE YOU DONT EVEN KNOW. I AM NEVER LEAVING. What a beautiful place. I met my companion today and we are staying in Inaquito for the night to see elder bendar tomorrow and then i head out to San Pablo where they speak Qichua!! Wish me luck! I got to go but wow do i love this place and I have felt the spirit so strong these past few days. I know this church is true and I know that missionary work is so important. Never stop spreading the gospel, and if you dont have it in your life... GO FIND IT. IT WILL BE THE BEST THING YOU HAVE EVER FOUND. Treasure the gospel always and never let it go. its the greatest gift we have ever been given! Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo Hermana Campbell

Week 8 - Cow Stomach and Cow Hoove

Wednesday : We had district council and hahaha I serve with some of the funniest people ever. But we ate with our friend Julia and she fed us Menudo.... it's the stomach liner of the cow so it has all the muscle on it and then cow hoove looks like a grape without its skin, moves like jello, and then tastes like fat. Elder Christiansen dry heaved a few times, Elder Worley ate the whole thing and Hermana Jenkins ate a few bites. I ate half of it hahaha it was so weird and kinda good but kinda gross. Moises is doing so good! He is killing it in his trucking classes but hes so stressed but hes working on getting the priesthood and then we can go to the temple with him!! Thursday : today we found Jesus!! The managers in the trailer park help us out a lot and we had a Jesus Amondero that was a referral but it didn't have a trailer number. So the manager lady searched and searched and we found a Jesus Camondero! So we went to his house and hadn't been able to find him but his mom said "were catholic and jesus is catholic but you can come back at 1 on Thursday" so that's what we did and HE WAS THERE! but then he had work so we scheduled to come back Friday at 10. Friday : we went to Jesus's and he didn't answer. All our appointments fell through that day but hey that's alright we had a busy day full of choir practice and weekly planning and good times as a missionary! Woot woot! Saturday : we had exchanges today and I was laughing basically all day. Don't worry I'm good at controlling my laughing when were in lessons and finding people. I was with Hermana Johnson and we walked a lot and found a few people but THEYRE BASICALLY ALL ENGLISH. WHY CANT YOU SPEAK SPANISH?? Well the one I'm referring to she speaks both but get this... were talking with her uncle who's holding her cute baby and he had met with the missionaries before but doesn't have a desire to live it and as were talking to him, the babies mom comes up and listens and then after we finish talking to the uncle she goes "what church are you from" and we introduced ourselves and what we do and she goes "I've just had this hole in my heart and nothing in the world can fill it. I've been going to different churches trying to fill it but I haven't found the right one and I feel like yours is what I'm looking for" HERMANA WE HAVE THAT FOR YOU OH MY WE CAN HELP YOU FILL THAT HOLE!! she then goes "wait do you speak english?" Hahaha HOW COOL IS THAT. She thought we didn't speak English. Hahaha it made us feel pretty good about our Spanish. But she prefers english... so that's sad because I really enjoyed talking to her. As long as she gets the gospel I will had her to any missionary! She has had such a crazy life but it's amazing how strong her testimony already is. I then got to drive for the first time in 6 weeks and hit a curb and almost got backed in to... oh boy . hermana Campbell is done driving for a bit! Sunday : we had stake conference today and holy whack I feel bad for translators! They struggled getting it sounding good and so it was sort of a mess... like my English, so sorry. At one point the translator goes "so sorry I don't know what these words are" and we just sat in silence hahaha it was alright. We then had a Charla Fogonera (fireside) and we sang and it was so cute and I love seeing all our cute friends and all of the missionaries in my zone! It's like a family reunion and it's just so fun! VISA UPDATE : I am sitting in the Consulate office waiting for my Visa papers! My mission president wants us quito north missionaries in quito on Saturday so.... there is a great possibility that I will be in Ecuador in 5 days! Ahhh it's crazy I'm stressing but relaxed and excited and pumped and scared and woah all of the emotions! I've been reading in 1 nephi chapter 20-21 and they're Isaiah chapters and woah pray for me Haha but I read chapter 20:21 and it made perfect sense! Not sure if it's actually what it means but it talks about how even when we are in the desert, we won't have thirst or hunger. And that's what this gospel provides! We may not actually be in a desert but no matter what "desert" were in in life, the gospel can fill us up. Make us whole and that comes from the love and mercy of Jesus Christ. He gave everything he had for us and because of that we can always find joy and peace no matter where we are. We can find whatever we are looking for in the book of mormon. This gospel is everything we need! Ahh it's so amazing and I challenge you all to pray for help directly to Heavenly Father and then find the gospel in your life and take hold of it and never let it go!! You are all amazing and I LOVE YOU ALL HAVE SUCH AN AMAZING WEEK!! Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo Hermana Campbell <3

Week 7 - What a week...

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL THE MOTHERS AND WOMEN OUT THERE! On Sunday in relief society a sister shared a dream she had. All of a sudden the world started to shake and things were breaking and falling and everyone was running everywhere. She was told to go to the mountain and anyone who believed in Christ was running to the mountain and everyone who doesn't have the gospel were lost and scared. Before she went to the mountain she was frantically looking for her children but couldn't find them. She ran into the primary president who then told her that all the kids were heading to the mountain and they were safe! After she told her dream it really made me appreciate all the wonderful mother figures that I have had in my life at school at church at work and in all aspects of my life. I have been so blessed to have so many amazing people in my life who have watched out for me and helped me become who I am. I want all you mothers to know that you are doing amazing. Life gets crazy and we have our agency but we will never forget what we learn from our mothers. It will be something we will have for the rest of our lives. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ARE ALL AMAZING! Tuesday : we had a teaching academy class that was super fun and I got to see all my mtc buddies that I flew with! Then hermana Jenkins and I felt like death and we ended up going to the doctor for strep but it came back negative but we both felt really bleh... but we finished the day strong and Daniela is on date for baptism!! She mentioned how at peace and happy she felt after she chose her date! Were so happy for her!!  Wednesday : well this day was fun... quick recap - I woke up at 2:30am that night and wasnt back in bed until 5:00am. Those hours consisted of a migraine and the bathroom hehehe enjoy. Then I woke up, went back to sleep, then got a blessing from the Zone Leaders (so grateful for the priesthood) then took medicine and slept all day. Literally. I was probably awake for 3-4 hours total... BUT IM OKAY Thursday : we took this day pretty slow... we took a few naps in between studies and went to the lessons we had planned but for the most part we stayed inside.. no fever or headache or super sickness this day so that was a blessing! Friday : We woke up at got outside for exercise! We took a nice walk, came home and got ready, went to lunch with the people we live with and then when we got home we died. Hahaha both of us felt miserable and so we took a cute lil nap and felt better and went to our lessons that night and they went great!! Saturday : WERE BACKISH.... Haha today we are mostly back to normal and worked out and walked around and had a good day! We were walking around this neighborhood and weren't really finding anyone and then we saw our cute friends melanie and Madison who are 6 and 7 years old but love the missionaries! Neither of there families are interested but Madison ended up walking around with us and wanted to talk to people so she would walk up to a house and say "these people speak spanish" then she'd walkto the door and knock, they'd open and then she'd look at us because she doesn't speak Spanish! Hahaha it was so cute! We found a really solid guy but he's English and already meeting with the English elders but it was super fun! Good day overall! Sunday : mothers day!! I loved getting to talk to my family and celebrate mothers! We gave Kim some chocolates for mothers day and she loved them! She was so cute about it.. shes never had kids and never housed sister missionaries... only elders and she didn't want sisters but she loves us.. hahaha!   Monday : basically a normal day as a missionary which consisted of tracting, studying, lessons, and 12 children following us around.. okay not 12 but quite a few. We had a cute bike gang that went around contacting with us and then we ended up teaching them all the plan of salvation with chalk before our lesson! Lloxi and Dana are on date for September 27! We like to plan ahead Haha Lloxi wants it sooner so we'll see where she's at when everything is taught and hopefully move that up for her!  Today we got to go to the temple and it was so good! I'm so grateful for temples and for the opportunity I had to go here in arizona!  VISA UPDATE : Us Visa waiters are meeting with the consulate next week and our mission president in Quito North wants us there on the 25th of May! So it's a little bittersweet but I am down to 11 days here in Mesa and it's been the best first transfer ever and I'm so grateful for this experience! I'll give you for sures on everything next week!  I love you all so much and I love the support and prayers you give me! You're all amazing and have a great week!!  Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo Hermana Campbell

Week 6 - Baptism in a POOL!!!

What a week! I hope everyone has had such an amazing week! This week flew by!!  Tuesday : hahahaha I'm brilliant. Not really but I decided i want a little book to write all my favorite scriptures in so I made my "good scripture book" and let me tell ya it's kind of fun hahahaha I've added good quotes too but its still my good scripture book. So I think I told you guys about Moises but HES GETTING BAPTIZED! Hes this 440lbs man that rides a Harley and has the craziest past but has the sweetest heart! We also prayed that we could find people to find in white shirts and when we started tracting legit the first 3 people we saw were wearing white shirts. So we talked to them all and this one gentleman locked himself out of the house but also asked for our names 3 times.... we ended up giving him a book of mormon and read with him bc he didn't havehis glasses either.. we haven't heard from him but it was a fun experience hahaha  Wednesday : we had a day full of lessons but some fell through and so we decided to go by a referral and found this lady named Cleo on the phone who motioned for us to come over. She ended up getting off the phone and just ranted to us about her day and everything going on in her life. We then shared a scripture with her and tried to give her a book of mormon but she wanted it in english... which we had in the car. she wanted us to come back and help her son find friends but we haven't been able to find her again... were still trying with her... I'll keep you updated  Thursday: we taught this 8 year old girl named Jackie and shes going to get baptized in July or August! And her family is coming back to church which is so good! We then taught this cute family and they're also working towards picking a date for there baptism. We've taught them everything they're just want to be ready for such a big commitment. We had this referral from Phoenix and when we got to there trailer and they welcomed us and gave us fruit and we had such an incredible lesson and Lloxi the mom is just waiting on a few things so she can get baptized and the daughter is already going around telling people she's getting baptized and shes a member!! The dad is a member already we just have to work with them on a few things but they're so cute and such a blessing! They also gave us half a watermelon!! It was such a good day honestly hna Jenkins and I were so grateful that day for all the miracles and blessing that we had throughout the day!  Friday : we had zone conference today and it was so good!! I got to see my elders from the MTC who are also Visa waiting with me and it was so good! They're honestly like family. The conference was so motivational and i got a lot to work on!  Saturday : we had a lesson with Daniela and she picked a date for her baptism!! After she picked the day she said she felt happy and a lot more peace! I'm so happy for her!! Oh earlier that day as well we were walking and said hi to these two gentleman working on a chair and said hi to them and they invited us over and we told them who we were and they were so interested in our message! We shared a scripture with them and gave them a book of mormon and invited them to church! And a return appointment! SO GOOD!! TODAY IS THE DAY OUR BIG (440lbs) GUY MOISES IS BAPTIZED! we found a members pool where moises and 3 guys baptized him (we only needed 2) but moises said it was the best day of his life and hes so happy!! So many people came to support him (or see someone be baptized in a pool) but hes such a "good dawg"!  Sunday : Lloxi and Luis came to church!! Nilberto and Tito didn't come to church but we went to there house after and they got busy with mechanic stuff.. anyway we Tito was super sad he didn't come to church when we explained what we did at church and said he only read a little of the book of mormon... HE READ UNTIL 1 NEFI 13! Just a little! We had such an amazing lesson with him and were taking him on a chapel tour this Tuesday so he can feel more comfortable at church! Ahhhhhh hes so cool and so open to learning! We had another lesson with Lloxi and Dana and it was such a good lesson and they also are so open to learning!! God is so good and is leading this work! Its amazing!  wow this week was a crazy one but full of miracles and good stuff! I can definitely feel all your prayers and can feel Gods hand in this work! I've never been this happy and this tired hahahahaha it's such an amazing experience to be so full of energy and enthusiasm for the work and then as soon as you get inside at the end of the day you feel so ready for bed. Hahah it's so good and I wouldn't want it any other way! I love this work and I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ! The gospel truly changes lives for the better and you're never too far off the path. Always thank the Lord and find the good in your life because He's blessing you always. I love you all and have an amazing week!!  Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo!  Hermana Campbell