irritating week

Buenas Mundo.

This week has been one of the most irritating weeks of my life, and i cant think of much else for what im gonna talk about, but ill still finish with that last.

This last Saturday was the relief society general broadcast, we all meet in the chapel and watch it on a projector, but its in Spanish so i really cant follow it. With my Spanish, i can understand words and sometimes sentences, but normally not. My Spanish is getting progressively better, whats best is just the practice of hearing it in context with the lessons, but ill just need time with that. Often people cant understand me, i think im speaking perfect Spanish, but between my american accent, and im translating directly from English some of the times, which the phrases don't exist in Spanish, i often have to repeat myself or have someone else explain what im trying to say. So as far as general conference, i can hear a couple words, but i sort of know what its talking about, but not really. So when priesthood session and the real general conference comes up, i wont be taking notes or anything, because i really wont have any idea what anyone is saying. Its like when i read the scriptures in Spanish, i sort of know what they are talking about and the context, but i cant really exactly understand how they are saying it. so explaining scriptures when people have questions, or knowing whether it is a good scripture or not is hard to know. So ill wait a few months till they release the talks in the Ensigns, and maybe ill be in an area where i can buy one or pick it up form the mission office. 

We have had some record storms here these past few weeks. 2 weeks ago was the record for most rain in one day for Costa Rica, San Jose was a disaster, and here was miserable to. Last week the street outside of our apartment was completely flooded, and we had to cross the street and there was no other way, so we had to cross through 6 inches of water. It doesn't really matter if i waterproof my shoes here or not, they aren't tall enough, Im thinking im going to buy some boots while im here, especially since my feet are soaked and Guanacaste is one of the driest areas in San Jose. Elder Soy bought some boots for 30 bucks, and they are actually pretty nice and keep his feet dry when mine are soaked.

Got a care package from my family, that was crazy nice. Had a backpack in it, a couple household things, and some american food. stuff like zingers, starcrunch, nutter butter bars, and then 2 things of Campbell's chicken noodle, a can of roast beef, and 20 bags of instant oatmeal. I wish they sold instant oatmeal here, we are always starving.

Guanacaste is super poor, everyone is broke, a house is cheap here, because the land is crap, but renting is crazy expensive and supplies are even more expensive because they have to ship everything from San Jose or east coast. because of that, we really just don't have money to buy much food. We have to pay for so much stuff like our rent, cocineras, the lady who washes our clothes, internet, taxis, buses, and what not that we only get like 40 bucks a month to spend on food. and its not cheap to buy stuff. Basically i can have an egg sandwhich for breakfast and a hotdog sandwhich for dinner 3/4 days, and they are no where near enough to fill me up. and thats on the super airy bread to. Our cocinera makes a huge plate of rice and beans and occasionally a nasty piece of Costa Rican cheese with mayo, but rice and beans just don't do your stomach justice. Lots of the missionaries saved crap tons of money to spend during their mission, like 50 to 100 bucks a month personal to spend, so they are fine, but they rest of us just suffer. depends on the areas to, Liberia the missionaries hardly walk, but in San Roque the 3 companionships walk forever. for our cociner its about 30 minutes, church is 30 minutes, and our area is huge, and hot. bleehhhh, ill get use to it eventually, or transfer

as far as that goes i dont have changes this time, or elder soy. out of the 4 in our appartment, only elder parker is leaving, but that's because he had some problem with president. okay, about why i said this week was super irritating. elder soy always wastes time, and that bugs me because i want to work hard, but this week its been on a new level. we have been at members houses for 4 to 5 hours, or because he is the district leader, he really doesn't have any accountability for his daily numbers. he calls everyone else and gets mad at them if they have even a single 0 for their daily numbers (lessons with member, lessons without member, references received, references contacted, new investigators, or members with a recent convert or less active) but with us we always have some 0. this past Sunday, everything was a 0, that was just terrible. Especially during our study blog in the morning, he wont start his personal study until an hour later or so, and after companion study, if we do have it, he just sits and does nothing. we are suppose to leave the house no later than 12 but we always leave at 1 or later.

when elder soy was with elder parker, that was a recipe for wasting time, so maybe its a good thing that he left, hopefully it will jumpstart soy. Last week elder parker and soy called president wilkinson about some sort of problem, and they told me that president was mad, but they didnt elaborate with that. but i think it was this. Even after that call though, the next day we worked hard, but the day after that we fell back into our regular routine.

Its not that im getting bored because we talk to people every day about the same things, its that we never talk to people, or never meet new people. we are suppose to have 20 LPAs a day, which are basically talking to someone and sharing a short principle of the gospel and asking for a reference outside of your normal schedule, but we normally do 0, never more than 5. On that note, i have never knocked on a gate (equivalent of door) and asked to visit and do a lesson with soy my entire 6 weeks. I think 3 to 4 times we have knocked and asked if we can come later, and we actually do, but then we never follow up on them, or do 1 lesson and never return. We have been hiding behind our good numbers with church attendance and baptisms, so its just hard that way.

It doesn't really matter what my opinion is, or what i want to do, 80 percent of the time elder soy will take lead anyways, making it hard for me to ever speak up. i guess ya part of our slackerness is my problem to, i can push harder and stand my ground more, but its hard to have that mental strive. Im an introvert and so with times like this, i need help with someone pushing me out of my bubble, but soy never pushes me, so i guess ill just learn that once im with someone else or a trainer and have to teach my self.

Soy is still a really good missionary, but he is also a really hardcore slacker. He gets the numbers, its just the way that he does it is definitely not how preach my gospel, the handbook, or how president would like. The past 5 days have been super hard emotionally, and today has been a little bit better, ive been able to numb a lot of those emotions, but ya im staying with soy for the next 6 weeks, so we will see how things change or turn out. 

Ya thats been this week, and pretty much this last transfer, so ill be praying for this next transfer with soy. He will be my only trainer, so ill have to teach my self the other essentials by my self or by being with another companion in the future. 

Cant really think of anything else, ill call that good for the week.

Elder Campbell

There's only 2 things i want to get while I'm here at Costa Rica to take home. the scripture cases, and jerseys. these are some that i've gotten while i'm here

extra notes to family

 None of the youth here ever go to the temple, ya i guess its different for the people here in guanacaste, because its a 4 hour drive to the temple and costs 16 dollars round trip, but no one ever ever goes here. And because of that, no one gets their endowments here either, its rare, but there are plenty of people who have been members for years and havent got it yet because they cant afford it. I can see now how amazing it is in utah for groups of youth to go to the temple to do baptismal work, especially those that go every week

 talk  about food,  man are we just starving, even anything to eat would be great, 

Okay about that package. I received the package last wednesday, and surprisingly, everything was still in it and it wasnt even opened. So either the pictures idea really does work, or i just lucked out, either way i was super greatful i got everything. The junk food was amazing, but that goes down quick, and seeing as im always hungry i eat more of them then i should, and am still hungry, and after eating, okay ill just tell the story. Last night i ate my breakfast. a peice of toast and 3 packets of that oatmeal, everything else is gone, and after that i thought ill have one star crunch, that will tidy me over. after that, naahh maybe i just need one more starcrunch and il lbe full. 4 starcrunches in total i realized, these are never gonna fill me the rest of the way, crap, i just wasted 4 starcrunches. the roast beef thing was great, mac and cheeses are gone, and chicken noodle soups are gone. super nice to have american food though. Those oatmeal things are my favorite though, too bad they dont sell them here. They sell oatmeal with no flavour or sugar or nothing, quite disgusting, but even if i add cinamon or brown sugar or vanilla, its no where near the same, those packets are heavenly, thank you!

Im using the towels daily, thanks, and the sheets ill save till im in the east or south coast, thats the worst for bugs. you were right though. i finally have the Costa Rican smell or something, because i don't get nearly as many bug bites, although i still get crap times every day on my arms, and they still swell big, well, nothing i can do about that. Backpack is super super super useful, more space then my satchel. Its half water proof, half not, so it gets most the water out, but still a decent amount gets in, enough to fill a little layer in the bottom of my backpack so i have to plastic bag everything. the first time my scriptures got waterlogged on the bottom, oops. Sunday the bag started tearing on one of the seams thats holding the foam lining, ha. Well, it was cheapish quality, but beggars cant be choosers. ill wear that thing to the ground though, maybe Christmas time if im in San Jose they might sell some decent bags that are overpriced, don't know though, that's just the hope. super thankful for that. 

9-22-14

Pura Vida!

Life really does change every single week. The basic life style is the same, but what happens every day really changes a lot. And talking with some of the elders who are serving in different parts of Costa Rica, honestly every area is going to be really different with how we contact, or how the companionship runs.

My companionship is really easy going though, so there arent really any stories there,

Okay a few things this week. last time i talked about my desire to learn, and i think thats why i loved learning juggling the past few months before i left. Its nice to learn, but have something thats still new and challenging every time. with juggling, it would take me a lot of practice to learn a new juggle, and there are always new ones to learn. ive started juggling here during my morning exercise some times if my legs are super sore, 

my daily exercise is basically stretching my legs. i do a lot of tricking or kicks down here. well not alot, but occasionally, so i want to keep my flexibility. last week i tried my first kick the moon, basically a gainer, on cement, and that tore a little bit in my leg, so im working slowly to re strengthen and loosen out my legs. 

i always liked being alone back at home, well not that i didnt like people, but i just liked my alone time to play games and what not, take it easy and rest for a while. Its been weird how the lords worked with me on that though. My MTC companion was super quiet, he never said anything, never pitched in to help, only with one of the other elders, and it wasnt normal conversation. dont know how to explain it, but it was pretty much him making fun of how things happen, or talking about their favorite rap artists. that same companion, left for home last week, and that shows you how he was as a missionary, and he was my comp for the MTC. Now with Elder Soy, he is super talkative, but its a different type of social. he can talk with the investigators for hours, and mess around with Elder Parker and Cuevas, but its messing around. Still dont have a good social relationship with elder soy. thats one thing ill probably learn from the mission as a whole, how to make real friendships with people that i dont naturally click with.

I think one of the reasons i dont get along with people too well, is because im use to good close relationships being like ones in the family. Take corby and cj for example with a good relationship. the things you talk about are jokes or fun quotes or being witty with stuff. same thing with the other family members, talking and spending time is close, loving, building relationships. on the other hand, all the relationships here with missionaries or elder soy with some people are just making fun of stuff, or doing nothing productive or bonding. just talking garbage. its not quite that way, i dont know how to describe it though, its different though, ill get use to it eventually, maybe

We went to the beach today, playa de coco. we played beach volleyball with all the guys, and that lasted about 2 hours. pretty intense, the net was pretty low to. with my hand in the air, it was only about 3 inches higher than my fingers, so you could get some pretty mad spikes on this court. tried throwing some flips in that sand, worked well till i tried throwing a corkscrew, and landed on the side of my face. ha. should have had a video.

we are able to go into the ocean, about to wading levels, but not hop in. the general guide line was not to get your pants wet, so mostly just rinse off our legs from playing beach volleyball.

The beach in costa rica is beautiful, but honestly after living here, all the beauty just numbs. so in utah looking at beaches and stuff was crazy awesome, but after being here so long in just looks normal. i can understand now why people in california dont always care for the beach or go often, its like people in utah. does everyone in utah go snowboarding even though we have some of the best resorts in america ? nah.

 i didnt get lots of opportunities to throw flips at the beach though. that was nostalgic. my favorite was the video where i flipped over the bar, it was times like that that livened up my parkour. that was fun, felt airborn again.

had another baptism this week. This one, Juan Carlos, we met for the first time a few weeks ago, so everything in his baptism progression i was a part of, not like my 2 baptisms a while ago where i did basically nothing. here the rule is if someone you convert goes to the temple a year later and you are still in the field, no matter where you are, pres will bus you back to san jose so you can attend their session. Juan Carlos´s girlfriend is a strong member, so i have no doubt ill be seeing him again in a year at the temple

emotional life is still a problem. id say that this week out of the 7 days. 4 were good and i was upbeat, but 3 were bad and i was having hard times coping. Its really hard when im down, because i try to rationalize everything, but times like that i really just cant pinpoint why im sad, or what i can do to keep my hopes up. often i still think about whether or not i want to be here, but even when im feeling sad i know this is where i need to be, so im going to stay. it feels like im living p day to p day. as i always feel better on p days, and as the days go on my sorrows just stack and stack. probably why we have a p day to, to release from all our work. im having some intense mood swings here, but ill keep working through it. 

I know theres so much i can learn from the mission, its just super hard at times to keep upbeat. Not everything that happens in your day you want to do, or at times i get to the feeling where i dont want to teach lessons or contact buses, but other times im so pumped to teach lessons or contact buses. it really is different every day, hope ill get to a point where it stays about the same. I never can tell what emotions the next day are going to have.

Everyone always talks about how crazy things are after their mission, and ive realized that 1. its probably because yes it is new and cool. but primarily 2. its because youve been missing that thing for 2 years.

for example with technology, smart phones are going to be amazing because ive never had one before, but also because i havent used anything more than a brick phone for two years, so it will be nice. the same thing with food. i didnt really like brownies before, but now i love love love them because of their rich taste. so after one baptism, me and elder soy decided to blow 10 dollars on a chocolate bun cake and icecream that we shared with two members. ohhhhh that was soooo nice. probably because we are always hungry and food here is bland, so the occasional opportunities we have to eat something rich like that, or when we go to san jose and eat subway or taco bell or something. man thats amazing. i miss america, but that will have to wait 2 years.

Cant thing of much else to write this week, so ill call it there, see you next week!

Elder Campbell

Random photos

Every now and again I get random emails from people in 
Costa Rica.  They include great shots like these.   
Obviously Mason is still enjoying Parkour!

9-15-14 lots of great photos

Al Mundo!

As always, i want to talk to you about a couple of stuffs i learned, but i want to be more personal in this letter with how im doing, ill update those things at the end though. 

first up. moved into our new appartment a few weeks ago, just clarifying that up if anyone is still confused. keep in mind, this is a really really really really good appartment. it is better than the zone leaders and the secretaries to the president. this was newly built, and it 260mil for the 4 of us. so 520 dollars a month for the place. we do have to pay electricity and water after, so it will probably be another 40 dollars, but we did luck out with this. just wait tell my next transfer, and my living conditions will stink.

i realized, or at least i think ive realized, why there isnt any chocolate down here in costa rica. All chocolate melts in warm conditions like your hand, right? i saw a toblerone bar here in the store and freaked out, because its sweet and nothing here tastes sweet besides bread and sugar, so i bought 3 of them. turned out they were all somewhat melted, and they were kept in a store that was air conditioned. So ya, chocolate is hard to keep solid here.

I tend to get along with kids. Members of my family know this, that im good with kids, but i really can see it here. Ya i can connect with adults and youth, and trying to learn to connect with investigadors to, but in reality its the kids 12 and under that i really connect with. I can play with them, and im actually happy with them. Ill talk a bit more about happiness later, but its one of the few times, when im playing ball with the little kids, that im actually happy. I dont really know why i was given that gift, but i hope sometime in my future ill be able to find out. might not be in my mission, possibly not till i have kids of my own, but the lord gives us talents for a reason, and i just havent discovered that reason.

Any meal ideas for what i can buy. Its down to a egg sandwhich every morning, and sometimes a hotdog sandwhich (bread with mayo, mustard, and ketchup, with two hot dogs cut in half) for dinner about once every 3 days. so im finally getting to the point where im eating, but they dont fill me up at all. i cant buy too many things down here, resources are limited, but i can be creative when i have the money for next month. so send me all sorts of meal ideas that are possibly for a college student type situation, but with less resources and skills.

being starved with everything, you learn what your desires are. ive learned i miss music a ton. i always listened to music before, with homework, driving, parkour, everything basically except sleep and scripture study, so i really miss music. i also miss school. studying was really a nice work out for my mind. i mean ya i can study spanish, but i mean knowledge type stuff, science, mathematics, literature, memorizing words in spanish isnt really the same. 

everyone hates cats here. and its not like in america where people just generally dont like cats and like dogs better. but they hate cats. their are always stray animals, normally people just shew away dogs or kick at them if they get to close, but there are less cats here and people throw rocks at them. if a house has a cat, the kids will kick and chase after it to smack it with something. poor cats. ill still love you, even if the world doesnt respect you. 

Football is awesome, american that is. i enjoyed it in america, wasnt a huge fan but i enjoyed it. but here since everything is normal football, a football americano is awesome, and i actually have the skill to throw and catch it, unlike a soccerball. i love throwing the little nerf sized footballs with the kids. wish i had a mini plastic football of myown, but they dont send those here. pssh football americanos in costa rica, who would sell such a thing?

food is food. i use to hate brownies, everyone can attest to that, but constantly being starved, it doesnt matter what you put on my plate, ill eat it. so i love brownies now, dont love onions, but ill eat them, and all other kinds of stuff. i can understand how peoples tastes changed post mission. ohh and bread. bread here is super airy. i thing im going to pull a cj when i get home and make fresh wheat bread when i get back. that sounds so amazing. and i love bread. good times.

okay, my emotional levels. for the past 3 weeks or so my emotion levels have been really fluctuating. last week, i was getting to the point where i didnt know if i wanted to be in the mission anymore. It was just hard coping with all the demands on my body and my mind, and i wasnt able to understand the language either. i knew that the mission would require much out of me, but my emotions just wouldnt listen to the logic, i understood the concept of turning outward like christ when things get hard, which i was, but i was still depressed. when things got hard i would just work and serve harder, but my emotions were still low. i got to the point where i made a list of all the things that made me happy, and all the things that were making me sad, as well as reasons to go home, and reasons to stay. with one more category of what i would actually do when i got home compared to here. basically what i learned from that, was that the only things that were really digging at me here was that i missed listening to music, and missed playing board games with my family or games on the computer. when i got home, really all i could think of that i would actually do is listen to music, play games, work as a lifeguard since its in the middle of a school semester, and thats about it. nothing productive. on the other hand, being here is super productive, im learning plenty of life lessons, and i know that the gospel is true, so everything im doing progresses the lords work, after that, everything started to get easier for me. my emotions started to get better, and i was finding joy in my depression here because i knew it was all for a better cause. keep in mind this was a week ago. and every day after that just got better and better. 

yesterday i was blessed with an increase in understanding with the language to. what i mean by that is i was thinking to myself, wow, i can actually understand a lot of the language. im about at the point of my understanding as i was at the end of the mtc, but mtc people spoke clearer and slower. so my emotions are much better now, and its great because i can focus harder on what is most important here in the mission and not worry about my self since im over that hump.

we also had the 1 month meeting with president today, and that just helped strengthen my motivation to be here and my happiness. I also found out today that my mtc companion went home last week, he couldnt take it, that was sad to here, but i was feeling the same way just a few weeks ago. 

Hope i can continue to feel good being here. i know its where i want to be, i want to serve a two year mission, but ya missions are hard. and for those of you who havent served a mission, i mean hard as in your mind is your worst enemy. you physical desires get pulled to the limits, and then on top of that lessons and progress from investigators can be really slow sometimes and it feels like you arent doing any progress, but you have to remember everything is in the lords time. 

but ya, as of now, loving the mission, actually mean it this time, and doing good. i guess you could say what i was having homesickness, and i still have a little, but im trying to put my focus on my mission, and not myself. anyways, tell next time

Elder Campbell


PHOTOS



Really there is only McDonald's and overpriced pizza hut here, so we took 5 of the youth in our area and bought them McDonald's. stuffed all of us in the same taxi, good times.

So we were giving service to this one lady, and she had us help dig her a whole for poop basically. The whole was about 1 1/2 meters when we got there, and we dug another 1 meter, the video and the pictures are at about 2 meters give or take. And since it was so far down, it was hard to dig. we basically used a 30 pound metal rod to break up the dirt, shovel it in a bucket, and lift it above our heads to our companion. Nearly impossible after 2 meters when soy was in the ground, because he had to jump to give me the bucket. so i basically shoveled the last half meter, that was wretched! 

So basically liberia is the city, for what you would consider a city in the outskirts of costa rica, and san roque is the houses outside the city. In our house in Utah. we have the house, a back yard, and behind the backyard is a park. here. we have investigators homes, their puny backyard, i have pictures, and then a jungle, pictures are as follows

we have also been working on building a fence for a service project here. Everything in guanacaste is brick or cement walls, dirt or cement floor, and lamina for roof, lamina is like tin sheets. For the fences you find a random stick in the woods, bring it to the house, dig a whole for it, and nail some nails in the wood to some lamina, the following are the pictures, and i also sent a video. we didnt build the shed, but we put all the fence on

this is a super light rain in guanacaste. Its still raining often, almost daily, which is still super rare, dont know what it means, but probably not a hurricane or something. the picture with the water in the road is 5 minutes after a rain storm. camera died after that

appartment pictures! keep in mind, this is a really really really really good appartment. it is better than the zone leaders and the secretaries to the president. this was newly built, and it 260mil for the 4 of us. so 520 dollars a month for the place. we do have to pay electricity and water after, so it will probably be another 40 dollars, but we did luck out with this. just wait tell my next transfer, and my living conditions will stink

the only patch of grass in san roque. dangit i want to go tricking and do flip,s by the way not sure if i said it earlier, but president wilkinson gave me permission to do flips anytime anywhere, even in church attire. so i only do sideflips and backflips elsewhere. i would do more but there isnt any grass, so im not comfortable. sad panda, guanacaste

walking with some of the members after one of the youth received the aaronic priesthood. and then a picture of a football field. normally people play in the streets, but this is a really nice field we found, the equivalent of gangs hang around this field, but less violent then the american connotation. but this field is where you can buy drugs, but also where you can watch some mean field soccer taking place!

Dear Mom, 

Thanks for the care package, hope it comes sometime soon, as in the next 4 weeks. 

 i miss rasberry jam. things that are sweet are super expensive here. for example, the same size rasberry jam jar here is 12 dollars. ridiculous i know, its a luxury to have a pbj&J

 i miss little kids from utah. little kids here still play, but its with dirt and cochroaches, i miss good old clean play, like pillow fights. ill talk a bit more about kids in my letter to the world.

and yes things will be different when i return, i can already feel my desires change, i hope i dont play as many computer games or stay on the computer as long. after seeing what a family means here, im so glad i have my family back home, and ill want to connect with them more.

Well, more details are in the world letter, this one will be long and personal. Until next week

Elder Campbell