So we had a very long but fun p day. After spending the night in Elder Knights pench we went to a place outside of San Rafael named Valle Grande (Big Valley). It was outrageously beautiful. A definate tourist attraction. Tons of white water rafting and outdoor activities. At the very top was a beautiful dam and lake. We hiked up to the top peak and took some pictures. Absolutely beautiful up there. I´m going to send some pictures. We had lunch there and waited in San Rafael for Elder Williams to get here. Then waited another 2 hours playing cards in the chapel till our bus took us finally back home to Alvear. E´ Williams is pretty beat he has been traveling all day. I´m pretty beat as well. We slept terrible on the floor last night then hiked around all day so we´re beat haha. But i´m very excited to take on this great responsibility i´ve been given. I´d be lieing if i said i wasn´t a bit apprehensive but for the most part i feel very calm and am excited to see what i´m really made of. Love ya
Moroni 8:3
Friday, January 29, 2010
January 25, 2010
So we had a couple of minutes after conference today to get to the computers. We´ll have a bit of time tomorrow as well so you can write me back quickly if ya want. I just thought i´d let you in on some news that just rocked my world! First, we came into conference here in San Rafael and the assistants came up to me really quickly and told me I had to give a talk on the Atonement. Every conference 2 elders give short talks but it´s usually two that are leaving in the next transfer. Thinking little of it said ok and hurridly looked up some scriptures and put together a 5 minute talk in like 30 seconds haha. It went well i was a bit nervous in front of 3 zones being a bit new but no biggie.Anyways afterwards i had my interview with President and everything went good. He just told me that he had something coming for me sooner than i would have ever imagined and that i passed my one test he had set up for me (apparently my talk was to see if my spanish was as good as he heard it was, aparently someone told him i was doing good or something). Then said he had to interview my companion and he´d have the assistants come talk to me. So......... Elder Mendoza is leaving the area in 2 days to go be an extra assistant and I am....... TRAINING a newbie gringo! yeah not kidding! In the middle of the transfer! Haha.. aparently there was a trio companionship (3 missionaries) and president was looking for an elder to train the greenie that was in it. Aparently..... I´m ready? Haha, it´s hit me like a sack of bricks. I mean usually its protocol for a missionary to have close to a year in the mission to train the majority of the time a lot more. It´s going to be an adventure, i´ll have my own area. Senor Companion and Training in the snap of a finger. Sad that Elder Mendoza is leaving we got along really well but i guess the lord is always giving us new challenges. Always making us stretch. I´m not real nervous, but at the same time i just realize a giant responsibility. The trainer is a very big calling. Showing another missionary how to be a missionary, and not only that a missionary who hardly speaks. It´s always nice to have the latin companion to clarify what you say but now its me.. haha oh man! President has ALOT confidence in me! I don´t feel ready but when does anyone feel ready right? Love you very much I´ll be writing much more tomorrow but thought i´d let you know of these suddenly new events. Nuts. Craziness. here we go!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Jan 18, 2010 photos
Grapes we eat each day
This is for Grandpa Stan
I´m sure he remembers the old rusted out Citroen that we sold for 400 dollars before i left. Funny to know that it´s probably the most popular car here. There are thousands driving around still! From the 60´s! There is a giant tax on cars here so everyone would rather make their own parts for very old cars bought a long time ago. So enjoy the picture of a good old 60 Citroen just like we sold!
The vine that grows just outside our apartment
Elias in front y ward mission leader
Me Mendoza Marcelo y Rodrego
January 18 2010
The vikes are going to win it all and i´m not going to be home. I´ll cry.... not kidding. At all!
Familia!!!!
Thats the preface to my letter today haha. Hope you enjoyed it! I´m overjoyed to hear the vikes killed the cowgirls. Romo´s a homo and the vikes are the bomb diggity. We´ve had a good week here in Alvear. We baptized two on Saturday. It was a great experience, and I will never forget these two boys we found prepared by the lord. Little Rogrego is only 9 and Marcelo is 15. They are great kids, they came to church and loved it, they´ve made tons of friends in the church! The first time I saw Marcelo I could see the light in his eyes. My hope and dream is that he can go on a mission some day and work his way out of what is a pretty dire situation at home. They live out in the country in a very humble little shanty, but these kids just are so greatful for everything they have. There is a kid in our ward named Elias whose been a member for quite some time. He´s 19 and the young mens president in our little rama. He told us before he´s going to go on a mission in a year or two but wants to wait. Anyways Marcelo asked him if he´d baptise him, they´ve become the greatest of little friends. Elias agreed, and the ordinance was beautiful. What was even better about the whole baptism is afterward Elias came to me and Mendoza with tears streaming down his face, and told us he´s never felt the spirit like he did in that moment. He told us he doesn´t want to wait another minute to put his papers in, and that he was going to start this week. The lord truely puts things into place for a reason, it´s unbelievable. It was so awesome to see Elias´s face, and to hear him fight through tears to mutter those few sentances to us. He´s a great kid, going to be a great missionary!
Anyways to some questions you had asked! Our pench is kinda odd, we live in an apartment type deal. It´s one floor down stairs with the kitchen and bathroom, then above our heads are big logs that make a loft type of a deal for the upper level to sleep. Problem being that..... we have 4 missionaries and 2 beds haha. So the two other elders sleep upstairs on the beds and we pull out matresses and put them on the floor downstairs to sleep (it´s way to hot in that loft with 4 bodies!). When we wake up we put the matresses under the stairs to the loft and we´re all good! Kinda interesting! But we do have some nice vines outside the apartment and the grapes are delicious right now. Elder Hogland from Lindon has only been out 6 weeks more than me. Elder Mendoza has been out a year. And Elder Ramirez from Columbia has been here for about 10 and a half monthes!! Our area is giantic, it used to be 1 of 2 areas with bikes in the mission but an elder had an accident about a year back so they took them out. We walk quite a lotttt. And we have to plan really well where our appointments are which days so that we can work on one side of the area one day, and the other day the other side. Makes us have to be a bit more organized which is good. We´re working with a few people we found this week and hope that they can progress and realize the truth of the gospel. I´ve seen all over the news about this catastrophy in Haiti... so terrible. I feel so bad for those people i just want to cry. Keep praying for them. Think we´re getting some signs here from our father in heaven?? I do. Anyways I love you all very very much, I had a great scripture i was going to share today and i definately forgot it.... So be ready for that next week haha sorry! Here we go with trying pictures again! We´ll see what happens!!!
Elder Campbell
Familia!!!!
Thats the preface to my letter today haha. Hope you enjoyed it! I´m overjoyed to hear the vikes killed the cowgirls. Romo´s a homo and the vikes are the bomb diggity. We´ve had a good week here in Alvear. We baptized two on Saturday. It was a great experience, and I will never forget these two boys we found prepared by the lord. Little Rogrego is only 9 and Marcelo is 15. They are great kids, they came to church and loved it, they´ve made tons of friends in the church! The first time I saw Marcelo I could see the light in his eyes. My hope and dream is that he can go on a mission some day and work his way out of what is a pretty dire situation at home. They live out in the country in a very humble little shanty, but these kids just are so greatful for everything they have. There is a kid in our ward named Elias whose been a member for quite some time. He´s 19 and the young mens president in our little rama. He told us before he´s going to go on a mission in a year or two but wants to wait. Anyways Marcelo asked him if he´d baptise him, they´ve become the greatest of little friends. Elias agreed, and the ordinance was beautiful. What was even better about the whole baptism is afterward Elias came to me and Mendoza with tears streaming down his face, and told us he´s never felt the spirit like he did in that moment. He told us he doesn´t want to wait another minute to put his papers in, and that he was going to start this week. The lord truely puts things into place for a reason, it´s unbelievable. It was so awesome to see Elias´s face, and to hear him fight through tears to mutter those few sentances to us. He´s a great kid, going to be a great missionary!
Anyways to some questions you had asked! Our pench is kinda odd, we live in an apartment type deal. It´s one floor down stairs with the kitchen and bathroom, then above our heads are big logs that make a loft type of a deal for the upper level to sleep. Problem being that..... we have 4 missionaries and 2 beds haha. So the two other elders sleep upstairs on the beds and we pull out matresses and put them on the floor downstairs to sleep (it´s way to hot in that loft with 4 bodies!). When we wake up we put the matresses under the stairs to the loft and we´re all good! Kinda interesting! But we do have some nice vines outside the apartment and the grapes are delicious right now. Elder Hogland from Lindon has only been out 6 weeks more than me. Elder Mendoza has been out a year. And Elder Ramirez from Columbia has been here for about 10 and a half monthes!! Our area is giantic, it used to be 1 of 2 areas with bikes in the mission but an elder had an accident about a year back so they took them out. We walk quite a lotttt. And we have to plan really well where our appointments are which days so that we can work on one side of the area one day, and the other day the other side. Makes us have to be a bit more organized which is good. We´re working with a few people we found this week and hope that they can progress and realize the truth of the gospel. I´ve seen all over the news about this catastrophy in Haiti... so terrible. I feel so bad for those people i just want to cry. Keep praying for them. Think we´re getting some signs here from our father in heaven?? I do. Anyways I love you all very very much, I had a great scripture i was going to share today and i definately forgot it.... So be ready for that next week haha sorry! Here we go with trying pictures again! We´ll see what happens!!!
Elder Campbell
Monday, January 11, 2010
Monday Jan. 11, 2009
Hello family from.................................my 2nd area the great city of General Alvear! I got the transfer call Monday and i´m with my 3rd companion Elder Mendoza from Honduras! Alvear is gorgeous. I´m about 5 hours south of the city of Mendoza close to the furthest south point of the mission. It´s a lot smaller of a downtown as well as the city as a whole. We´re very close to all of the vineyards and fruit plantations. I can not tell you how delicious the inseason peaches are here. Straight from the tree, straight up tasty. The grapes are started to get ready. Right outside of our apartment there is a big vine that goes above our heads. Every day we eat a fresh grape from above our heads on our way out to work. I´ll send a picture of it. The climate luckily is a bit cooler, We hit about 90-95 as apposed to the usual 100 in Gody Cruz-Mendoza area. The nights are really nice. We´re a bit further from the mountains and can barely see them, thats´been really weird to adapt to. It´s been mountains my whole life! I honestly was really bummed to get the call to leave Trapiche because Elder Gutierrez is going to baptize all 4 of the investigators we had this week :( The important thing is that they´re making the change in their lives and their going to blessed forever, but i really wanted to be there! You get so attached to these people. From finding them in the streets and becoming best of friends, and to see them accept the gospel and make the changes in their life, you just start to become close. And it´s tough to leave! But thats ok, my first day here we found two young boys playing in the street and told them we wanted to share a lil message with their family. One is 15 the other 9, the mom doesn´t listen but the kids came to church sunday and loved it, made really good friends and want to be baptised! We have a service for the 16th for them. Hopefully mom will want to follow in the suit of her children sometime. We can only hope. Spanish is coming right along, me and elder mendoza get along great. I live in an apartment with two other elders . One from Lindon, UT, and the other from Cali, Columbia! Great elders. Sounds like things are just fine at home. For now i´m going to try and send a picture quickly, but know that I love you all very very much. I´m praying for you daily and hoping that everything is good at home. I´ll let you know when i get the package thank you so so so so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Campbell
Elder Campbell
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Jan 4, 2010
uvia´s (grapes)
Argentine Asado (BBQ)
The scenery
The Godoy Cruz Zone w. the scarecrow
The bed i´ll never forget
Hello hello hello from the cyber cafe in Argentina. I´m sitting here waiting for the email that tells me if i´m leaving Trapiche or not. Hasn´t come yet and my time is running short, so you night not know till next monday! I´ll find out today but who knows when. I never thought i´d say this but i couldn´t be more relieved that the holliday season is over. It was so hard to work these last two weeks. For tons of reasons, 1 your a lil home sick thinking about family and what not, 2 we had days we couldn´t work (christmas, new years, plus the christmas party), 3 all of our investigators don´t really want to have appointments and what not because their all with their families from different parts of the country, 4 everyone is busy!!!! It will be really good to be able to just have a normal week where we can get things done. I´m really hoping to stay here in Trapiche another 6 weeks, we have 3 investigators that are set to be baptised in the next two weeks and i really really want to be there. If not that's ok and i know the lord will call me where he needs me to go.
I had a new years i will never forget for the rest of my life. Quite the adventure! We went out to an area about 25 minutes away from Trapiche to a family that invited all the missionaries in Godoy Cruz. This family is from Paraguay and didn´t have family to pass the holiday. Whats great is..... they own a vineyard and live on it. It was gorgeous, beautiful scenery. We got there and ate the famous Argentine Asado (argentine bbq) complete with all different cuts of steak, chicken, real sausages, and the nasty blood sausage (yes i ate it, so gross haha) but for the most part it was sooooooooo delicious. We spent 2-3 hours preparing the meal and bringing table and chairs from the chapel to the vineyard (of course on foot). The meal was ridiculously good. And it was just beautiful as we ate outside in the vineyard overlooking the ginormous mountains here. After we ate waited for the new year to come by making a big scarecrow, a missionary scare crow! Apparently its a tradition in Peru (we have 3 Peruvians in our zone) to dress up a scarecrow like yourself and at the strike of midnight light it on fire. Signifying a new birth and a new year. In any case we dressed up a scarecrow in a shirt and tie, and even made a fake plaque for him :). At the strike of midnight we lit it up, as well as TONS of other fireworks. The city just lit up, there was a constant sound of fireworks, and the sky was bright for 10 minutes straight it seemed. Fireworks are huge here, and they have the big ´legal´ ones. It was quite the scene i´ll tell you. They also have these things called GLOBO¨S, it´s basically a small hot air balloon that they send into the sky. So for hours there were these mini orbs all over the sky. Kinda cool. Anyways, on new years everything shuts down. The buses, the cab services, everything. Supposedly we had it arranged that a member family who had a car was going to come pick us up and we were all going to sleep in the closest apartment to the area we were in. They showed and picked up 5 elders, left, and......... never came back. We were stranded... haha. In a vineyard, in argentina, on new years eve. We waited and waited till 2 in the morning and realized that they weren´t coming. We all paniced a little, i mean imagine 10 elders in missionary clothing just stranded... we could do nothing, and knew we couldn´t walk because of the distance yes but more because the streets are just downright dangerous. So turns out 8 of us slept in the garage in the vineyard on 4 terribly old ruined twin mattresses, and the other 2 slept in the dirt under the starts! Woke up at 6 00 and took the first bus home! My body is just covered in mosquito bites haha, but it was quite the adventure, something i´ll never ever ever forget haha. Anyways i hope everything is good at home. I was going to ask one other thing. I´ve seen Obama on the tv´s down here a lot while passing restaurants and stuff, and saw an airplane blow up or something. Whats going on with that?? You´ll have to let me know. Love you all, stay safe and use your father in heaven. If your worried about something if you need help, you have a father in heaven that is waiting to help. Pray! Use him! Love you!
Elder Campbell
Dec. 28, 2009
Me and Santa
Me and my companion Elder Gutierrez
Zona Godoy Cruz!
X´mas party. Random Elder, and then me w/ the three Latins I live with!
President Rossi, Me, and Gutierrez (we spent the 24th with the Rossi´s)
How crazy that Ben got his call to Finland. I heard that Finnish is the worlds number one hardest language to learn....... good luck Ben, be obedient and worthy of the gift of tongues cause your going to need it :) haha jk. I have been hearing about that Avitar movie for quite sometime down here every one is crazy about it. I´d sure love for you to keep me a list of movies i need to see when i get home. I asked ky but i´m guessing he hasn´t kept up on it haha. Sooo good to hear about the Minkevitch´s baby. they are such a great family i love them so so much. You´ll have to tell them all hello for me. The 25th we went to the chapel in a different area and met up with all of the Elders and Hermana´s in Godoy Cruz. We ended up making french toast and ham sandwichs :) how about that mixture?! With some fresh watermelon as well. You don´t eat pancakes or french toast with syrup here. Everything is with Dulce de Leche which is deliciously delicious! Being able to talk to you all was definately the best Christmas present i could have ever asked for! Honestly made me feel very good just to hear your voices and know your all doing great. We played a lot of soccer today and i forgot sun block and got TOASTED!!! As missionarys we have an awkward tan line at the neck from our shirts and i definately am going to have blisters right where my coller rubs all this week :) yummy right?! I´m hoping all is well at home, btw i found a 16GB memory card.... 300 pesos! like freakin 80bucks! Their way cheaper at home right?? Anyways let me know next week may be my last week to buy one i could be out in the desert living in a shack (transfers are next week) I love you much! Thank you for all the prayers!
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