Week 18 - Pig Skin is so Good

Wowie I love the mission. I love this gospel. I love what the Lord has given me and what i have to share with everyone here in San Pablo 2!!!! There is so much joy in this world and when you are filled with the spirit you can see all the joys that there is. I really hope that made sense. Not everyday is easy but everyday is more than worth it!! I know that i have never been happier and it just keeps growing. I dont have words that can explain how grateful i am for my life, for my family and friends, and for this opportunity i have to spread the gospel everyday!! Monday : Kinda strange to see Americans in Otavalo (lots of tourists) but to see one of your best friends is a little more strange! hahaha it was so fun to see Mikell and she got to eat lunch with a lot of my hermanas here in my zone and NOW SHES HEADED TO MADRID SPAIN IN DECEMBER!!!!! wohooooo congrats kell Tuesday : FELIZ CUMPLEANOS PAPI!! okay one of the hermanos that were teaching, andres, is one of the funniest people i have ever met. We passed by there house and i told them it was my birthday so hed play happy birthday on the guitar but he wouldnt so then karina brought down her puppet that she made and andres sang happy birthday to my father because it was actually his birthday and not mine... pero it was super funny.  Wednsday : We had intercambios... i really dont know what the translation is but i went to the are of my hermana lider and spent the day with her and it was so fun!!! I love talking to random strangers and playing jump rope with children in the street!!! We also ate waffles and wow its been awhile and you should try ice cream with waffles. so good.  Thursday : We had interviews with the new mission president and he is the best!!! So funny and he loves to talk and has some amazing stories about missionary work without a nametag! Its possible people and we should all be sharing the gospel tag or notag!!!!  Friday : I ate pig skin, and i liked it. I love the food here and its so strange. But all our lessons fell through and so we contacted a lot and then i realized something. If you make homemade syrup, without mapelin or however you spell it... and then you put it on popcorn, its basically carmel corn. but just sugar and popcorn. and its so good. and cheep. Im learning lots of life hacks here in the mission. Saturday : We had classes for english and it was the funniest thing ever. Andres whos like 34 was learning too and he hadnt written everything down and tried copying the paper from a little girl and she wouldnt let him copy and he kept asking to copy her paper and yeah it was so funny.  Sunday : Santiago Ipiales has his baptismal date set for the 10 of august and then we had a family night with the family he works with and when we asked about his baptism Rosa flipped because they have a family party the 10th and so she was like why on earth did you choose that date?! so then we talked about it and told him we coud do it a week earlier or a week later and he replied with, well i think its better if im baptized a week earlier. So we are working hard to help him be prepared for his interview!!! SO GOOD THAT SANTIAGO!!! that doesnt make sense in english but in spanish it does. i think. But this gospel is so good!!!!!!! I LOVE IT ALMA 29:14 wow this scripture is so good. and so true. go read alma all of it. ITS THE BEST!!! True happiness comes from this gospel and comes from others. Not our own succuss but the success of others. I LOVE YOU ALL AND HAVE SUCH A GOOD WEEK Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo Hermana Campbell

Week 17 – What a Week Full of Love and Miracles

wow. i love the mission. Not just because Im in ecuador eating really good food all the time and talking to amazing people all the time but because of my purpose. I get to talk to everyone about the only thing in this world that can bring us joy in the worst of situations. I have seen this gospel save families, and bring happiness to the saddest of situations. Ive seen people with no knowledge to read, read the Book of Mormon, the one book that contains all of our answers. I have seen the gospel change lives and it is beautiful. Pues, We had some really good lessons this week and have a lot of great people that are super ready for the gospel!!! I dont really know what to say. This week went by super fast. but here is a lot of what happened in the past 2 days. Saturday we had a baptism for the cutest abuelita in this world!! She barely understands us but the first time she came to church with her granddaughter she said she wanted to be baptized in this church. Saturday comes around and we are filling up the font and the water is so cold and she really wanted warm water so we called everyone we knew and the closest person with keys to the gas tanks to warm the water lives in quito, 1.5 hours away or somwthing like that. We keep filling it up but i said a prayer that the water can be warm so that magdalena can have a baptism that she will remember and love. Literally 5 min later this hermano was outside with keys and fixed the tanks. Not sure who he is and neither does hermana lovell but all i know is that God answers our prayers. He hears everything!!! I then forget our phone in the house and the hermana that was supposed to pick up magdalena wasnt picking her up and Viviana the granddaughter was trying to call us and freaking out and we finally got ahold of her and paid for a taxi to pick them up. But wow as stressful as that was, the moment magdalena came out of the water you could see the pure joy she felt. Such a spiritual experience!!! Also this week we had zone conference and we talked a lot about he love we show people. How that should be our main focus. And let me tell ya, we focused on that the next day and we have someone were teaching that is struggling right now and we just passed by and talked. he didnt want to schedule lessons but we talked about the atonement and how we are here to help them. Never to pressure them but to help them obtain all the blessings god has planned for them. When we were finishing up talking we asked if we could pass by again and you could see the change in him and he accepted. When we show love for the people there hearts will soften and they will feel the love that God has for them. T That is my challenge for all of you. Read Moroni 7 : 45- end of the chapter and pray for charity and act. I love you all and thank you for everything!!!! Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo Hermana Campbell

Week 16 - The Book of Mormon is the best thing in this world

Wooohoooo ANOTHER WEEK OF MIRICALES AND THE LORDS WORK!!!! Monday : We watched the restauracion during a lesson and wow i will always cry watching it. Jose Smith truly is the Profet of God who restored this church. The things he sacrificed for us to have the gospel is beyond words. If you havent watched it GO WATCH IT ITS ON YOUTUBE!!! IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE Tuesday : So the elder that can read souls reallly wants to know my seceret on how to be happy... He then told me that he had a dream where a troll told him my seceret... here it goes, i paint my nails red. Thats what he was told. so there you go friends thats my trick to being happy hahaha. ahh pero the family that is on date for this saturday, ya they now want to get married in the catholic church first and then get baptized.. Wednsday : Wow okay we set a goal to use the book of mormon more in our lessons. Like completely teach our lesson using the book of mormon and wow it is so powerful. you literally can teach everything using that one powerful book. Theres also a new chips ahoy ice cream... i highly recomend it. So good! PLEASE READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY DAY IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!! Thursday : We are teaching a hombre who is so ready to find the joy the gospel brings. We have had a few lessons with him and he reads the book of mormon always and has a bunch of questions too!! He then asks What do i need to do to follow jesus christ? WELL LET ME TELL YA!! Hes so good. Friday : Okay funny story. I can read music and sort of play the piano and so we started helping the youth with the notes they need to hit. Easy right? Then the young womens leader then asks me to play the whole thing so they can sing... i am not that good i can barely play the piano.. Well i tried and then she asked one of the youth to play instead and we just laughed and left.. Wonderful experience. Saturday : WE love the book of mormon. We usually carry palos, sticks to protect us from the dogs but a member who served in guatemala used the book of mormon and so thats what we did and IT WORKED. We legit were surrounded by dogs but the book of mormon was in the middle of us saving us from dying by dogs. Sunday : All of our lessons fell through because there were parties all day long because of a confermation in the catholic church. We were tempted to join the party and just preach to all of them because all of our families we had lessons with were there!! But because of the faling through of our lessons we had time to find a girl named carla and wow she is amazing. She also asked how can she do the 3 things in the intro, Leer Meditar and Orar. well let us give you an overview of the book of mormon. S o good so great and i love this work. No where else id rather be. LEGIT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE GREATEST TOOL WE HAVE IN THIS WORLD. USE IT IN EVERYTHING!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!! Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo Hermana Campbell

Week 15 - First call home

(Today's email is a little more disjointed and confusing because ashlyn video chatted with us today!!! First time since being in Ecuador! It did my heart so good to see and hear my beautiful daughter! She's truly as happy as she sounds in her emails. I will try to add a little to her email to fill in some of the missing information since she whipped this out in our last 10 min of talking. )  Monday we woke up so early and went on a hike to NEVADO!!!! Pues not Nevada but close! hahaha but it was super cold but super fun! We hiked for a long time and the pictures from last week were from that hike, mother can add a few more if she pleases. haha super fun day  (They woke at 3 a.m., got ready, and had to catch a bus to meet up with the other missionaries. She said it was a little unsettling to be out at that time. Lots of people are up heading to work at that hour. Once they met up with the other missionaries, they called a taxi to get them up the mountain. The truck/ taxi couldn't go as far up the mountain as usual because the snow had been melting and the roads were extremely muddy and hard to drive in. So their hike up the mountain was longer than expected. They were tired, hungry, cold and needed a bathroom but once they made it to the top they said it was totally worth it!)  Tuesday I met the new mission president!! Presidente Chacon! He knows a couple that was in the branch in the mtc and so he saw a picture of me and was looking for me in each zone conference and when i said Hermana Campbell he was like ahh we found you!!! it was a little awkward but super cool!!! They are such a great couple and I am so excited to get to know them more!!!  (Ok, so while ashlyn was in the mtc, she met a senior couple who knows president and sister chacon from Venezuela. When the couple found out ashlyn would be in the chacon's mission, they got a picture of her and sent it to the chacon's and told them to watch for her. So once president and sister chacon got to Ecuador they started watching for her in the different zones. When they saw her that's when they said they had been watching for her and finally found her! She said they are so nice and loving!)  Wednsday: We had the lesson with the lady from the amish cult and holy she is so good!! She only goes to that church because its close! She is So amazing and i am excited to meet with them more!!  BUT AMAZING NEWS!!! Familia Bonilla accepted there baptismal date for the 20th of July!!! Wohoooooo1!!! So excited for them!!!  OH ALSO WOHOOO HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!! I LOVE MY COUNTRY  Thursday Wow today was a crazy day. full of lots of lessons and ahhh its crazy. you can totally tell. If people are willing to act they will receive answers and grow. If not they will be full of doubts.  Friday : I LOVE THIS WORK. LOTS OF HIKING AND TEACHING LESSONS!!  Saturday : The elders had a baptism and he is so full of light and happiness!!!! wohooo  Sunday! Wow what a blessing we had so many investigators attend church and they all want to learn more!!!  WHOOOOOOOOO  Great week and the truth of it all was Thrusday. If we are willing to act... read, pray and attend church we will always be growing our testimony. IF not we are losing the best thing we have ever been given. Love the Lord and love Him enough to share what he has given us. This gospel. It is the answer to everything.  (I loved hearing ashlyn speak. She's already developing an accent, and she struggled to think and speak in Spanish. I loved it!  She truly loves the people there. So many people are seeking truth, so they have appointments all the time! The members are so good to work with them and make visits with them. She suggested that if we ever have the missionaries over for dinner to ask them to share something they would teach an investigator. She feels like those of us who have grown up with the gospel would benefit from hearing the principles taught that way. The gospel is truth, is light, is everything! I'm grateful my daughter is getting this amazing opportunity to teach others of the one who provides that all, who IS that all, our Savior Jesus Christ. ) Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo  Hermana Campbell

Week 14 - Who knows what just happened

Well this week was super good!!!! We have a few people preparring for baptism and we have a lot of potential!!! Heavenly Father wants us to come back to him and for us to be able to do that we must have a testimony! In church the bishop was saying how a lot of the teens say they dont have a strong testimony. He used the analogy of if you have a cake and you know the kid is just going to throw it away you wont give them the cake even if they ask. But if you know they will eat it all then youd be willing to give it to them. Thats Heavenly Father with us, if we ask with faith and the desire to act, he will bless us with the knowlegde we search. If we have no desire to act but ask, He wont give us the answer. My challenge for everyone is to ACT dont be an object be an agent!! Be willing to act on the thoughts you receive!!! I can promise you will receive your answers and you will receive more blessings than you can even imagine!! Well alrighty.. The funniest thing about this week was we had an activity on tuesday with a big book of mormon and we contacted people while they all shopped for fruit! We met this family that was super sweet and so open to hearing about the gospel!! Weplanned a lesson with them for saturday at 12:30 and on saturday we were running a little late and called to reschedule for 1:30 and they said that was perfect! We started walking up the mountain to there house and we see a bunch of people in robes and playing in the street and then we saw a man dressed we think like Jesus playing with the little kids. When they saw us all the kids ran up to us and gave us hugs and said they had been waiting for us for an hour... Guess that was the family. We found the mom and she said they have been waiting and everyone is waiting for us.. what. She starts pushing us to there church behind their house and theres smoke coming out of the building and some really interesting music. I literally felt so uncomfortable. We got out of the big crowd and was able to call the elders to ask was to do because they wanted us to preach to them!!! Which wed love to do but we cant go into their church! We called the elders and decided to teach some of them outside there church. Hna Lovell and I taughttwo lessons. The lesson i taught to these three gentleman started off great and then one started bible bashing me the whole time and told me that i cant use my own words. only the words of the bible. textual only. and then he just went off about how the book of mormon only talks about joseph smith... Ya i just ended up bearing my testimony because you cant bash a testimony, but yet again he just told me i cant use my own words.. I just nodded told them to pray and we left. Hna Lovell had a good lesson with a mom in that group and we have a lesson with her on wednsday!! It was quite an experience!!! Yarina and Tamia are the cutest of sisters and were baptized this week!!! We got to the church an hour early and the font wasnt filled!!! We just found a bunch of trash cans and began filling them up with water and filling the font!! We prayed for help and we were able to fill it in time!! The water was cold but we had water!! Tamia is so cute and so little and the first time her feet flew out of the water!! and the elder baptizing her pronounced her name wrong... so after she had changed and everything she had to go rechange into cold wet clothes becasue we didnt have extra and go back into the cold water!! We gave her cookies to help and one of the members was wearing a white shirt so after the third time she left the water but her foot came up and the witnesses didnt say anything so he gave her his white shirt so she could have dry clothes to help. The fourth time we did it everybody. all the prayers were answered and tamia was baptized!!! The next day she was smiling and happy about it but not during thats for sure... I love you all and thank you for your prayers!!! Fe en Dios incluye Fe en Su tiempo Hermana Campbell