June 23, 2014 Being Honest

Hey,

Well I am going to be honest, I have been kinda down this week, I don't really know why but last night Elder Osorio and I were talking and he told me that he noticed I have been kinda down and we talked about that for a while. He said some pretty helpful stuff and I am feeling better and I hope this week will be a lot better than the last, like how I am feeling and stuff like that. I need to be happy to help the people so I am going to  figure out what the problem is and get up to full steam in the work and just help people like crazy! I am actually feeling pretty upbeat today and after the talk we had so I am looking forward to this week.

We had divisions with Elder Cruz and Elder Giraldo. I went over to the area of Elder Cruz and it went pretty well. They have a baptism this week and I got to teach the investigator and it was cool. He used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and now he has been able to quit, it was a struggle but  they managed to do it with aid from above.

None of the investigators came to church this week and we were hoping a lot more less actives came but we didn't have so much success. We were surprised when one of the less actives we met in the street showed up. He lived in Washington and was a member there but then he had a bad experience with the bishop or something and left the church and moved back here to Mexico. Elder Osorio thought he didn't want anything to do with the church but he showed up at church and is going to keep coming I think so that was cool.

I am feeling better about my Spanish. this one member would always ask me to pray during the lessons so I could practice my spanish but we went to his house and taught him and at the end he had me pray and after the prayer he said that I had perfected my Spanish, not that it is perfect, but it has gotten better so that is what counts right?

The yard looks way different! it's crazy but it is awesome. I like it.

Have a great week everyone and I love you all!

-Elder Sampson 

June 16, 2014 14 Less Actives at Church!!!

Hello!

So, the fact of the matter is, there are a ton of less or non active members in our area, we will contact someone in the street and they will say "oh ya, I am a member, I got baptized like 20 years ago" or something like that, we find new less actives like we find new investigators. Well, Elder Osorio wanted to meet all the non actives who's names are in the lists of the church. One day we walked around for hours trying to find these people, turns out most of them have moved away or just really don't want anything to do with us. We went to one house and yelled "buenas tardes" (because that's what you do here to get the people to come out of their houses) and this lady comes out, sees us standing there, says " eh... I am going to eat lunch" and goes back in her house, it was great! Well that day was tiring and we didn't even find very many people but I think the Lord blessed us for our efforts because we had 14 less actives at church, it was crazy and we had 1 investigator so it was alright :) We also had Ward Conference and actually a zone conference this week it was pretty great :) President taught us a lot about the Savior and we are going to focus more in Him at this time in the mission, at least that's what he said and that's fine by me because without Him we can't progress and this life would be a complete waste. I am grateful to know the plan God has for us and the role Christ plays in it.

With Ricardo and Elvira, I don't know if they are going to progress... We have tried to help but they just aren't doing their part.

I have a recording of a teaching experience that you can all listen to, hope you enjoy it, I was kinda struggling with my english though so I might sound funny or weird, just go easy on me ok? ;)

Well that's all for now, Love y'all :)

-Elder Sampson

June 9, 2014 5 Investigators Came to Church

Hello!

The past couple days is has been raining... yay!! :D well the thing is it rains in the morning until like 11 or 12 then the sun comes out and so it gets really hot and humid and it just makes for a lovely day... ;) ha ha it is alright I just end up sweating more so ya... but this week was pretty good. 

 

We have been talking to Ricardo Castillo and Elvira and they have been great and want to get baptized so we asked if they are married... turns out they aren't... we have been talking to them about them getting married civilly ( don't know how to spell that...) so they can get baptized, the only problem is that Ricardo never actually got a divorce with his first wife... ha ha we are working on it and they are willing to do it so it's all good :) but they didn't come to church yesterday so we are going to see what's going on there. 

 

We did have 5 investigators at church this week though! It was great!  All though two left after we took the sacrament and the others were busy and couldn't go to the classes. Oscar and his wife came with their son and they wanted to go to the classes but they had to go to work so they couldn't.  Ricardo Segura... I don't know what is going on with him, we were only able to find him once this week and he came to church, but he left right after the sacrament so we weren't able to talk to him I hope he still wants to change and accept the Gospel so he can have a better life.

Well that's all I can think of to write. I have some pictures Elder Osorio and I drew... they are quite amazing ;) I drew Elder Osorio and he drew me,  just so you know :)

Love you all

-Elder Sampson

 

June 2, 2014 My New Companion

Hey,

So a little bit about the new comp, Elder Osorio. Well he is pretty great, he is from Cholula, Puebla, México. He doesn't know exactly how much time he has here in the mission but it is somewhere around 10 months I think. He hardly knows any English so I am learning Spanish a lot faster now... before I always would try to talk in Spanish but if I didn't know how to say something I would switch to English, but I can't do that now and I just have to figure out how to say it in Spanish, so it's good :) He is a really hard worker and I think we will get a lot done, I kinda feel like this area needs something to get it going and progressing and Elder Osorio might be just the thing it needs :) we get along really well and we are going to work like crazy! :)

 Ok a bit about the investigators, with Elder Macias we just hadn't been having much success and we didn't have that many investigators so I didn't know what to tell you and would just tell you about the more memorable experiences. This week we were teaching Jorge Montez and things had always gone pretty well with him. Well Elder Osorio said something and Jorge got offended and tried to give his Book of Mormon back but we talked to him a little more and he pick it back up of his own free will and wanted to keep it so that was good, and he said we can visit him again so that is all good, I was a little nervous for a bit there, the only problem with him is he can't really walk right now or attend church, but we will see what we can do :) Also another experience, we have been teaching Oscar and his wife and well Oscar used to be a tough guy ( I don't really know how else to put it) He would get in like fights and stuff, worked with the people that sell drugs and a bunch of crazy stuff like that, but then he had experiences that turned his mind to God and he changed and started like studying all the time and he told us that he had the gift of sanitation or whatever, but he stopped being so involved in religion for like 4 years and kinda just turned to work and his family. We are the first people he has talked religion with in those four years and he thinks it might be a sign that God is sending him that he needs to let God have a bigger part in his life. We left a chapter in the book of Mormon to read and pray about so we will see how that goes :)

Oh I got the package! and a package from Ashley and a bunch of dear elders and letters! It was like Christmas! But better! ;) ha ha it was great, I like the shorts and the frisbee and the ties were really awesome, the orange one looks really great with Elder Osorio's suit :)

Well that's all I've got for now :) Love y'all bye!

-Elder Sampson