Thursday, September 26, 2013

                              Happy 19th Birthday Elder Cammack.  We love and miss you.






September 23, 2013

Hey mom!  I love you!  Thank you so much for the birthday wishes, I can't believe I'm going to be 19.  Time really flies.  Oh and you should probably know that today during the time when we were playing soccer I sliced my finger open from the tip of my middle finger to the first knuckle.  The soccer ball got stuck on a ledge of a wall about 10 feet tall.  I am the only one who can climb it so whenever the ball gets stuck I go and get it.  But this time when I was jumping down my finger got caught on something sharp and got cut open.  It's a really big cut but I don't think it's too deep.  I don't know if I need stitches.  President said I could go to the emergency room to have it checked out but I didn't get a chance.  The wound is starting to close so I'm just going to use super glue on it in place of stitches.  I know you are probably freaking out but don't worry I promise I am fine.  President was the one that said I could use super glue haha.  I'm really fine I promise, don't call the mission office about it president knows and everything is ok.  It's just a cut and I'm taking good care of it.  I got a whole lot of emails from the ward tell them thanks!  I hope Mark Stewart feels better, I know how he feels with the stomach problems.  Some recipes would be good, they just need to be really simple.  I'm really happy to hear your staying strong with your prayers and scriptures, thats awesome.  I know it's really hard for you right now because I'm gone for a little bit, but it's only for a short while.  When I get back we will have lots of fun together!  I love that Braylei is going to be baptised on my birthday.  I am doing pretty well.  Just dealing with the struggles of being a missionary, but it's fun.  I'm just trying to figure out how I can be more humble and follow the spirit better.  I really struggle recognizing the spirit because I don't know how to, but I know I will learn!  Our investigators are all good.  We hope to have 2 more this week because we got 2 references and we contacted them and they seem interested.  Things are kind of slow and we are working on picking things up!  We get Sister missionaries from America in Novemeber.  Right now it's only Latino Sisters in the mission.  Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts.  I really appreciate it.  I love how I'm changing and it's so much better than I was before.  I hope to continue to progress and be better.  My week was normal, we didn't have anything but a lot of rain.  Thank you so much for the birthday pictures, I really enjoyed them.  I love you so much Mom and Dad, thank you for all you do.  I am really going to have a lot to tell you when I get back, it will probably take weeks.  Keep staying strong and remember life is meant to be enjoyed, even in the hard times!  Stand strong and do your best.  I love you both so much.

Love
Elder Cammack

Friday, September 20, 2013


            Pictures of flooding in Tampico Mexico, Hurricane Ingrid September 16, 2013
P-DAY DELAYED BECAUSE OF HURRICANE INGRID

September 18, 2013

Everything and everyone is fine down here!  We only got the very edge of the storm so it was just a lot of rain.  The water was up to our waist, we waded through it all day.  We were really wet and cold but I loved it and it meant a lot to the people that we came out during a bad storm. I was a pretty soggy missionary.  There were literally rivers and lakes in the street.  I almost got swept away down the street because of the current.  I made it through my first change here.  I will keep an eye out for the package, I always share with my companion anything I get, and I've been making him dinner at night too!  I've found that serving him helps me love him more.  I've noticed a lot of the Latin Elders don't have much so I'll keep my eyes open and let you know if there is something you can send them.  My meeting last week was great and we learned a lot.  President talked about the mission and likened it too launching planes from an aircraft carrier.  It was great!  The missionaries are like the flight crew and the president is like the watchman in the tower and he can see everything that we can't so if something is wrong and he tells us to do something we need to obey immediately.  Thank you for everything mom.  I love you and dad so much!  You are dearly loved and missed too mommy! 

Love you
Elder Cammack

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September 9, 2013

Hey Mom and Dad

I am definitely growing from this experience and it's totally awesome!  I know I am doing the right thing.  I have used my coat once and it was perfect.  It pretty much dries itself too and it's great.  I don't use it so much now because it's really hot but if it's cold I will.  I met with the mission president once when I first arrived in Mexico but I haven' had another interview with him yet.  I was supposed to have one with him a few weeks ago but I was super sick so we left our district meeting early and I didn't get a chance to have a meeting with him.  The food in la casa de mission is fantastic!  No we don't have a water heater so all our showers are cold but that's fine with me because it's always hot.  We always eat lunch at a members, its the biggest meal here.  I can't believe I have been in Mexico for a month!!!  Time flies so fast out here.  I've felt the spirit so strong in my lessons and I've really learned a lot.  I love teaching people here.  I think one of the spiritual gifts Heavenly Father has given me is the power to bear powerful testimony and invite the spirit.  I've really noticed that in our lessons.  In a few hours we are gong to have 5 new investigators!  I'm so excited!  I've given out over 10 Book of Mormon's now.  I love talking to everyone here and sharing the gospel with them!  It is really a lot of fun.  I love you so so so so much!

Love you for Eternity
Elder Cammack
September 2, 2013

Hey Mom and Dad

I love you lots!  You think you have rain, you should see it here.  We have rivers and lakes in the street.  You could easily go wake boarding in the street.  It was storming so hard here we have a really huge tree across the street from us and it was really firm in the ground and had cement around it.  In the morning I looked out the window and all I see is green, so I thought to myself this isn't normal.  I went and looked outside and the tree across the street had uprooted the cement and fallen across the street.  It was only like a foot away from hitting our house exactly where our heads were that night when it fell.  It was crazy and awesome.  It's been raining for 5 days straight, I think we got more rain in one day here than Arizona gets in a year.  The language is going ok, it's coming pretty slow but I'm trying to learn.  It's just really hard to understand the people here and to know what they are saying but it gets easier with time and I'll just keep working at it. I get called a gringo a lot but it's all right people don't say it to be mean.  I'm like the whitest person here and so everyone like automatically knows I'm from the U.S.   I am feeling great!  Today was the first time in 12 years that we could play soccer in the mission and it was so much fun.  It was a great way to relieve stress and I loved it.  On our P-day we  have a tradition of going to Little Caesars to eat which I think is really ironic.  You don't need to apologize for the conditions at all honestly they don't bother me.  I have a lot to be thankful for and this is all I need.  I'm really happy with it and I love it.  I have a bed, a fridge, a sink, a burner for a stove, a microwave, a place to study, a shower with cold water and a bathroom.  What more do I need here?  It's honestly really humbling and I've learned to appreciate what I have back home!  Especially a loving Mom and Dad like you guys. I write in my journal every night, I love recording my thoughts and feelings.  I think my longest entry so far is 5 pages.  This mission has been wonderful for me and I've really reflected on who I am and who I should be.  I've seen my priorities change and it's so awesome!  Before I never really wanted to read my scriptures but now I can't get enough of them!  My investigators are doing great.  The people here really take care of me so don't worry I'm in good hands.  The missionaries here too are amazing, I know without a doubt they are all here for me!  So many of them called me when I was sick and checked on me it was really nice.  Remember I love you and always will.

Love
Elder Cammack 
August 26, 2013

Hey Mom

I love you! I think of you and Dad a lot too, I sure do love you guys.  That is so awesome that they have missionaries in Pakistan, how cool!  This week in one day we received 3 future investigators, 1 reference for another area, and we received a new investigator yesterday.  Things are starting to pick up and I love working here! I learned a lot, my zone leader  really taught me a lot on how attitude is everything and how time is always moving forward.  I learned that I should live in the now and enjoy it, have plans for the future and remember the past but to mainly focus on the now.  It was great advice, I've really grown so much!  I love the scriptures and I'm really connecting with Nephi.  I'd really rather study my scriptures than sleep.  The food here is pretty good, it's mostly just rice, beans, and tortillas and some kind of meat with every meal.  For breakfast I eat cereal and at dinner I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  So I still keep a little American tradition with me. I have lost weight though and I do exercise at night so all is well.  Well there definitely have been struggles, it's mostly the language, and sometimes I don't like how the other missionaries don't take this seriously.  It's really hard for me to understand people and what they say because they talk differently and really fast and so it's really hard for me to know what to say and how to help them.  I know I can only do it with Heavenly Fathers help, but I'm trying the best I can and I know he'll make up the rest!  Thank you so much for being my mom and for all of your support and love!  I  love you so much and I'm truly blessed to be your son!

Love
Elder Cammack    
August 19, 2013

Hey Mommy!

It's a lot of hard work out here but I love it and I'm blessed and happy to be here and I only want to come home when I'm finished!!!  I am in Tampico city but on the outskirts kind of by the airport.  It's all really urban where I am.  There's lots of houses, hilly parts, and messed up streets but it's great!  Yes I have gotten sick haha.  I got a parasite like right after I sent my last letter.  I had stomach pains, the worst fever and migraine I've ever had. Also diarrhea and vomiting, but it's all past now.  I'm perfectly ok!  It definitely hurt a lot but it's good that I got one this early because it will strengthen my immune system and make it really hard for me to get more.  It was a blessing to me and it's completely normal to get a parasite here so don't worry to much. I figured that out about the filters on the water bottles the hard way because I think that's how I got sick.  I don't use it anymore we have purified water now so we're ok.  Oh and yes I've been taking medicine to kill the parasites in me.  It's always super hot and humid here.  I just might come back looking like a Mexican because I'll be so dark. Things with my companion are great!  We have like 30 minutes to exercise each day but we do so much walking and sweat so much that I don't do much exercising.  I'm usually really tired in the mornings and at night but I do it when I can to stay fit. 

During these first 6 weeks I'm going to finish the whole Book of Mormon.  I'm in 2 Nephi right now and I've really loved reading about Nephi.  I feel really close to him and that I relate to him a lot!  In the front of my journal I have written a saying that Nephi used when her was talking about the plates.  Like Nephi of old here I write the things of my soul and the things of God.  I love delving into the scriptures and seeing what I can learn!!!  The August 2013 edition of Liahona was also really good.  It has a great talk about revelation by Dallin H. Oaks.  One of the recent converts here said I have the spirit with me really strong and that its easy to see, so that was great.  Right now we mostly teach recent converts and less active members but we have a few investigators and we are hoping to pick up more!  Every time we have a baptism I'll let you know, we don't do the baptizing a member does.   I hope all is well mom!  I love you so much!  Thank you for being such a wonderful loving mother!

Love
Elder Cammack


Hey Daddy!

I'm so happy to hear the temple is even more busy!  I love the temple, not being able to go as much really has shown me how much I appreciate and need it. I can go but it's like once every other month or so and that's only if you are in an area close to the temple which we are right now.  I know that I have at least one trip there guaranteed.  It is all in Spanish too so that's going to be way different because I don't know it in Spanish at all.  But I'm excited to go in the temple!  We can also go whenever our converts go through for their own endowments or to be sealed as a family, so its way cool!!  My companion started in Peru and yes he is Peruvian.  He has been on his mission for 9 months and 2 in Tampico.  I have seen the temple and it is very beautiful.  There is so much city around it that its so surprising when you see it there and it's really distinguished.  We have 4 missionaries in our ward and it's not extremely big but it's a good size.  We have a mix of youth and younger and older people.  The area in which I live I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. I wouldn't describe it as nice by our standards but I guess it's nice to them.  The houses are super close together and some are nice and others are run down but every house is concrete.  None of the houses have carpet, it is all tile and concrete.  There is also no AC here either but we have a small unit and fans.  Something about all of this here just seems fun and exciting, so I'm fine.  We do have purified water now but we have to but more when we run out.  It's all in huge jugs.  We have a fridge and a freezer almost exactly like the one in your laundry room. Thank goodness we don't have an outside toilet. We don't have a stove, we have a portable single electric burner and that's it.  But we have a microwave so that's ok.  Each month we get about 1250 pesos to live on.  I also have a spare 60 American dollars with me for emergencies.  I love you Dad stay safe and strong and I will too!

Love
Elder Cammack