Been an interesting week.

 Been learning to cook a couple of new things, just because I'm always looking for new ideas, and what's convenient to cook in the house . Learned this week to cook breakfast burritos with eggs, and ground beef. Oh by the way I've started to make Mexican eggs like Ryan always does, with peppers and onions and that kind of stuff, but I always add the ingredients for saltine eggs with it to. I always eat eggs like that now. Also make bean burritos with rice and ground beef at night.

We had the opportunity to substitute to teach some priesthood and seminary classes this week. Seminary was hard, as we had to search and plan the whole lesson out by our own personal study.  I cant image doing that every single day as a teacher, and having to go chapter per chapter. The classes for preparing youth for the Melchizedek Priesthood was good though, that we had a manual for, and I enjoyed that a lot more. Its different to see from an older perspective someone who is preparing to receive it when I was once one of them. Its inspiring to see people young as they are, even though basically some of them were my same age,(they just seem younger though) preparing to make these great commitments and talking about a life devoted to serving the lord. 

Guess the same goes for me though, it may seem like its a weird decision to send youth to preach the gospel, but A) its effective, and b) its sets them on a good path for the future.

Not always easy though, still struggling here on the mission. It feels like I've divided my head into two sides, one side that wants to stay here and keep trying, all the good side, and the other side that just wants to go home. Finds any excuse to think about going home and negate any positive reinforcement I've every thought about or written down. 

Its a simple but hard solution to "forget yourself and go to work" as it really is simple, and there is an solution simple to follow, do what you should be doing, and be obedient, and get to work teaching the people you should, but for some reason mental stuff keeps popping up.

Id say its pretty much always the negative part of my mind is active, and its just the other side will pop up every once and a while. I can see how missions really do take some getting use to.

That being said though I can see how important this is. We had a district conference for Guanacaste this last weekend, and it was super powerful to hear some of the people talk and President Wilkinson spoke 3 different times. Every time he spoke it was super powerful, inspiring, and motivating. I can see now how prophets in the Book of Mormon or other people would convert hundreds and hundreds of people. I feel like if President Wilkinson could be a missionary now with all the experience he has, he would have plenty and plenty of success. No wonder he is a mission president. I feel like one day he will be a general authority of a sort, 5 apostles have already come to Costa Rica while he was here to visit with him. Great person, it will be a different experience when he is gone and we have a new mission president in June.

When I was in the conference I was looking around at all the people and families and what not. I had a sense of glory come over me, thinking about the grandeur of everything and how everything fit together. All the people trying their hardest to live their lives, parents raising their children, and being a missionary the different mindset you have at these district conferences. I could feel a glimpse of what it is like for heavenly father looking down at all of us, billions of us, in our personal lives and the plan of salvation as a whole, Cool experience. 

oh ps I got my first kiss today. wish I got a picture of it, but my battery on my camera died so I couldn't take it. She was about 20 something years old, pretty tall for my height. She weighed a little bit more than I did, and ill be the first to admit she was probably in the uncomfortable range of "heavy". maybe like 500 pounds or something around there

I had a carrot in my mouth, and she came up and ate it out of my mouth. I didn't expect the tongue to stretch as long as it was, Giraffes got tongues up to around 8 inches or so. I don't have a video of myself, but I got one of some of the other elders feeding them before my battery died. good times, good times. guess I cant say I've never kissed a girl anymore? maybe?

Ya we went to a place called Africa Safari here, its super big and crazy cool. The tour we took casted about 80 dollars a person, but one of the missionaries was good friends with  one of the managers, and he is a member, and we dropped the price down to 8 bucks a person, for 14 of us to. we saw all kinds of animals, zebras, giraffes, and a bunch of other animals I don't know their names, cool times though. 

Anyways, till next week

Elder Campbell

Getting bigger...

Buenos Dias a todos

Got my first charley horse this week. I always thought I knew what one felt like, like a really bad cramp that hurt, but oh no. I woke up in the middle of the night this week and it was suuuppper painful. Never felt any kind of cramp like that, so I'm assuming that it's really a charley horse. Took like 3 days to die down to, the same day I got it, I was limping around everywhere, because it hurt to straighten my leg. Weird

So for the first time in a long time, I weight more, yay I'm getting fatter. I way 155 pounds now, compared to 140, and I am getting a little pot belly. I use to always laugh how I don't how muffin tops, but ya now I do, and a little pot belly. Ill be sure to send home a pregnancy photo at 9 months to show you its progress, its hauling by the way.

Always knew that guanacaste was a cheap area, but someone explained to me that lots of the neighborhoods were free houses given by the government about 10 years back. My area, which includes Corazon de Jesus, Las Brisas, Buenos Aires, y Hicaro, all were neighborhoods where all the houses were free to anyone, expect Hicaro. All the people moved in for free, and only have to pay the lights or the water. Not all areas in Costa Rica are like that, but it explains why my area is so poor. 

So many of the youth here seem so young, but when I ask turn out to be around 19 or 21. It's weird to see them from a perspective as a youth living in their house with their parents when I'm here as a missionary, compared to me being one of the youth. They think I'm about 24 or 25, but when they realize I'm only 18 it's a shocker to them to. Weird to think of them dropping their lives at that age and time of their life and going to some other country. I never understood completely why the lord sends missionaries at such a young age, but it's definitely a miracle that people this young can be so effective. 

So I always thought that the United States was a "god fearing country" but compared to Costa Rica, I can understand now when mom and dad say that the USA has drifted away from its moral standards being a Christian country. Here. Any person, religious or not, will go on and on talking about  Jesus Christ or how great heavenly father is and our purpose here on the earth, and hardly anyone in the US does that. Costa Rica definitely is a god fearing country. 

Mission is definitely ups and downs. This week hit another hard down for a couple days, Sunday was super hard, and then Sunday night got better. I still want to serve and mission, and ill continue to work hard, but mood swings still come super often. Guess I haven't finished my 6 months time bubble that most people say it takes to get use to a mission. 

There's one lesson that everyone always bears testimony about, that's hard to completely live, but I hear it all the time. I can't control everything. My companion, the investigators, everything is out of my control, except for myself. It's an easy lesson to learn, but a hard lesson to accept and live being on a mission. Guess I have plenty of time to let that soak in to. 

Reading scriptures and my P blessing, I know that this is a challenge that will help build me. I also know there isn't a challenge that I won't be able to handle, so I just have to hang in there.  

Trying to find ways here on the mission to let the savior step in and help me with my mentality. It's kind of vague to "let the savior step in", so I've been trying to do what I think would fit into that category. Praying, reading scriptures, studying, and serving with that idea specifically in mind. I've also been trying to follow the example of Christ for everything I do here, but it's a really slow progress. I'm curious what that phrase means for all you reading this letter. If you'd be willing to share your insights being a little clearer about how you have accessed the enabling power of Christ, I would love to hear your input. Thanks!

Had a good experience with an investigator named Luis? He is the boyfriend of a member and we have been teaching him the past couple weeks. He hasn't been progressing too rapidly, and we are still lacking a few themes to teach him. We had a branch night last week and invited them to come. Surprisingly they did. The theme was about gratitude and for part of the lesson; we went around in a circle and asked everyone to share one thing that they are grateful for. When it came to time for Luis to say something, he said I'm so grateful for the change that has recently started to come over my life. We didn't think that Luis was progressing or taking anything in, but after that comment, and the lesson we had with him the night after, I know understand how much talking and serving him has helped him change, even if we didn't see it very well at the start.

Anyways, things are going good, slowly learning, and hanging in there with everything I got. Till next week!

cookin' up a good time

Morning world! 

So of course missions have their ups and their downs, and I won't be the first to say the first couple transfers had some pretty hard downs that were hard to rebound. That being said sorry about the lack of a world letter last week, things were really tough. Needless to say though, things are a lot better, and I've learned a lot over the past two weeks

A week ago we had the day where 5 people had fechas for a baptism, and 4 went through. Crazy to see those kind of results!

Elder Soy got transfers to Limon, and so I got a new companion, Elder Zuniga, who is from Costa Rica. Honestly I am loving Zuniga in almost every way. He is really similar to myself in lots of ways, doesn't blow his money, is obedient, and actively is trying to work hard in the mission. One experience we had is when came (this was his 2nd time in this area) so he knew the area better than I did. His first response was to visit the members he worked with and start getting references from them. There were 5 members houses that were within eye sight of our cocineras house that I didn't even know where members, and now that we are working with them, we are getting really good references and investigators. Another member said she was sad to see last last 6 months worth of missionaries never stopped by her house or worked with her, so when Zuniga and I dropped by her house to talk about the obra missional, she was super excited to help us and give us references. Goes to show members are willing to help, we just need to talk with them. Also good to know and work with all the members in your area!

We are also working really hard for our morning studies and focusing them on our investigators. With Elder Soy we never really focused on investigators for studies, so it's amazing to see how effective and better prepared we are when all our morning studies are directed to help a certain investigator or lessons for the night. 

Im also trying to serve every one I can here and it is helping me a ton. It's not like I don't have my ups and my downs, they still come, and occasionally they still hit hard, but when im actively trying to help people out, there are lots of good experiences to fill in the gaps. This week we helped Hermana Wilkinson make lunch for all the new missionaries that were coming for their one month check up and we worked for about 2 to 3 hours. It felt great to put my efforts and service to the benefit of someone else, and see them all enjoy it. Im getting to the point where I don't want any reward in return, just to see other people happy is enough for me!

Speaking of which its been a bit hard the past couple of months to find good things to recharge myself, because seeing my investigators at the font is great and all, but im not feeling that super great joy. What I have found though was this week when we were working with the members, we met a member named Angie who Elder Zuniga baptized about 9 months back. Within that time she got a boyfriend who wasn't a member of the church and they are living together, so she can't go through the temple. All their kids are baptized except him, who hasn't gone to church at all. This last week we have been working with Luis, and when we are trying to baptize people that are part of a family, that just fills me with all kinds of joy. I have such a stronger desire and motivation to help Luis and baptize him because of the joy we can see in Angie when we are talking with him and the possibility of them two going to the temple together.

I can understand now why baptizing is important, but families are our main goal. I have such a stronger desire to find and baptize families and loving the new phase of life now when we are using references and finding people more.

Still have some people that get so close, like Roxanna who had her fecha and everything but fell through the day of, which tears my heart apart. I can understand a little of the pain our heavenly father feels when we get so close, and quit half way through (me on my mission for example, if I chose to go home), or people and their testimonies, which they drop for other worldly things. Just gives me more motivation to work harder with them though and do all I can to assist them with their testimony.

Learning to cook all kinds of food lately. Elder Zuniga is teaching me how to cook, this week ive learned arroz con leche, a few types of pastas, and with our cocinera we made donuts. They taste really good, and I think I can make fluffy French toast here. woot!

Anyways doing good, having good experiences, talk to you next week world!