February 22, 2014 Got my Travel Plans

Hola Todos,

Well this week was pretty great, I got my travel plans for Mexico yesterday if anyone is interested... I leave in 9 days or so... that might be a little crazy I know but that's just how things go. Hey mom, I stop in the Houston Airport on the way down I just thought you might be interested in that a little... :) ...... Oh my... I am going to be in Mexico in less than two weeks!!!! I am so excited!!!! I can't wait!!  I need to learn more Spanish..... I need to learn more about the Gospel..... well I've got a week to cram it all in! ;) or I will just have to learn the rest when I get there....

  Anyways some other good things from this week... Gabriel agreed to get baptized! He needs to wait until after we leave for that but it's still pretty dang awesome right?! He may or may not be an actual investigator... we don't know..... but either way I am really excited :) Unfortunately we don't meet with him anymore... he is going to start getting taught by some other missionaries now or something, but he is really awesome.

   I made a goal to read through the whole Book of Mormon again before I leave and I made that goal about a week ago so I am trying to read it in two weeks... I know that's a little crazy but I think it's something that will help me grow spiritually and strengthen my testimony a lot so I'm gonna do it! I have to read about 50 pages a day in order to make it in that time and that's what I have been trying to do and I have been doing pretty well keeping up that pace so that's good right? It is crazy some of the things you notice when you go through it like that. A couple days ago I read through Jacob 5... Ya I know that usually takes people a couple days to get through ;) but that was only a small bit of what I read that day. Anyways, I got something really cool out of it when I read it. When it was the last time the Master and his Servant went to the vineyard to see if they could do anything to preserve some fruit against the season, the Master told his servant to go gather more servants to work in the vineyard with him. I related it to this final dispensation and the Master is God and the original Servant is Christ and the servants that the Master sends for are all the missionaries with the hastening of the work and stuff so I felt that that chapter applied directly to me and what I am doing right now. I thought it was really awesome.

   But anyways I am out of time until next week so I'll talk to you later. Love you all!

- Elder Sampson

February 15, 2014 Valentines in the MTC... Sharing the Love

Hey!

   This week was pretty good. Valentines was pretty good :) I got your package and really liked the ties and the treats :) I got a package from Greg and Susan of some home made chocolates and I am super excited for those, Ashley sent me a valentines package and I really liked it :) I didn't get a pic in the tie from Ashley but I have already worn it twice :)

   A cool experience I had this week was when Elder Hunt and I went to teach a lesson to an investigator someone else was teaching him so we started talking to this lady that was there and she is catholic. Then she asked what my favorite thing about the church was and I told her it was families. She was volunteering at the MTC because she had a little brother that died when he was young and she really wants to be with him again and in the catholic church that isn't what the teach so she was looking into our church. Then I shared with her the story about Nathan and it was just really great to talk about that kind of stuff so it can help other people. Well then we had to go to our lesson but I really hope she accepts the church so she can be with her brother. (by the way the whole conversation was in Spanish).

   Well that was probably the highlight of the week because it just reminded me of how great the Gospel is for me and that it can help other people in the same way.

   I am still healthy and happy, no more trips for me except the one to Mexico in a couple weeks. My Spanish is coming along well I think but I definitely have a lot more to learn!

   That's great Claire is going to prom:) I am kinda sad to be missing the Olympics but I have better stuff to do ;) well I love you all and hope you had a great valentines!

February 8, 2014 Mormon Missionaries take Vegas!

Well this week was pretty good. Just speakin in the ol' espanol all the time ;) well kinda, we are working on it. Things are going pretty well for me, it seems like everyone else has gotten a cold at least for a little bit but I have been just fine :) I am definitely learning a lot of stuff and I really like my district, we all get along really well.

I will tell about Vegas because that was the most different thing all week. So we had to get up at 3:50 wednesday morning (there were 10 of us missionaries traveling together, me and Elder Hunt and this sister from our district and then 7 missionaries from another zone) to get all ready and then catch a bus for the airport at 5:00 (but it didn't leave till 5:20) so we catch our flight to Vegas after waiting around the airport for a few hours and have people offer us money and food. It was the weirdest thing, I'm just standing there and this very nice man literally drags me into the line at a McDonalds and shoves $10 in my hand and says " just give me the change." I tried to resist but it was no good. Anyway, when we get to Vegas a service missionary (an old fellow named Elder Greer) picks us up from the airport and takes us to the local institute to kill some more time until we went to the Mexican consulate. He told us some things that would help us not get sick and stuff a while we were in Mexico, but basically he was just a nice old man with time to kill and stories to tell so that's what he did. After he was kinda done (two hours later) he said we could wander around the institute and they had a ping pong table! unfortunately he said we couldn't play... :( then it was time for the consulate. Guess what we did there, sit there and get a picture taken and have our fingers scanned. A whole trip to Vegas just for that... ridiculous... anyways back to the airport it was to wait for the flight! The whole day was full of waiting... this nice lady tried to just hand us money, this other man tried to hand us at least $200 to buy food and this other man just went ahead and bought us food so all we could do to be nice was to eat it... and we helped this older lady with some stuff because she was in a wheel chair and she tried to give us money... it was just crazy. It is finally time to get on  the plane and we all get loaded when they find a hole int the wing... That's right a hole! so we all had to get off while they figure out what to do. and that also means... more waiting! yay... It wasn't that bad though, Elder Hunt started talking to this man and swung the conversation toward the gospel so he could teach him, so I tried to help him out when I figured out what he was up to. The man was catholic and wasn't interested in becoming Mormon but it was a good experience :) He wouldn't even take a BOM but that's probably good because Elder Hunt was going to give him his really nice one because he didn't have one of the cheep paperback ones with him... ha ha that Elder... (we aren't supposed to use the word guy) He's the best. I think all the people that fly from Vegas to Salt lake are Mormon because a lot of the people we talked to while we were waiting around were. Anyways, the faith of those people strengthened me because when we got off of the plane they came up to us and told us that they weren't worried about the flight because we were on board or that they found the hole because of us and it was just a really neat experience. so they finished fixing the plane by taping some sheet metal over the hole and we made it back safely :) and we didn't get to bed until like... 11:30... it was a really looooooong day but it was good to know all the stuff for my visa is finalized and I get to go to Mexico!!!

Well that's about all I have time for I hope you liked the story I hope everything is well it's nice to hear about home :) Love you all!

Elder Sampson

February 1, 2014 Going on Week #2

Hey,

   We were out in front of the temple and a really nice lady walked up and asked if we remembered our mom's cell phone numbers'. She said she has been doing that for years so it was great :) The shirts are just fine and are working nicely. My spanish is coming along pretty good I am about as good as this other elder in my district who has had some experience with spanish.  My companion did have a year of spanish and is doing really well. We had a really cool devotional where James B. Martino and his wife spoke. It was about getting the members involved and stuff it was really cool :) we also watch a talk that Elder Bednar gave a few years ago called the Character of Christ, it is really amazing and helped my realize I need to be more loving for others like the Savior so I can be a good teacher, because if we don't love the people, we won't have the desire to bring them to a knowledge of the truth and bring them closer to Christ. We do have a branch president and he is really great, a really straight arrow kinda guy and it's awesome.

  I did get your package thank you! :) I really like having the mini PMG's, it's nice and the Fastbreaks were amazing :) I like the watch too, it's a necessity when you don't have a phone... You could send me some more ties...

   That's cool that Wyatt is going to Mexico, when does he leave?

  Things are going pretty great here and I heard about Ashley putting her papers in, I am excited to hear where she goes. Well I got to go! feel free to send as many letters and packages as you want! ;)

District in the MTC

Elder Sampson and Elder Hunt

Angel Moroni

Elder Sampson