July 21 Giovani accepted!

Well just to answer some of the questions from Mom. I am still close to Tampico, although we have to cross the River Panaco to get here and we are actually in a different state here, we are in Vera Cruz. I get along really well with Elder Escobar and we try to get a lot done. We are in a branch and well there are a bunch of members but most of them are inactive, you could say the branch is kinda struggling but we are doing what we can, we are going to have an activity this Friday and we will see how that goes. Elder Escobar has been out the same amount of time I have left and in case you didn't realize... I have been a missionary for 6 months now! It is so crazy right? I only have a year and a half left to serve the Lord like this, it is just flying by! Well for me at least... we are pretty close to other missionaries because there are 4 here in the branch so we see them a lot.

Well I am going to tell y'all about Giovani :) He is an investigator that they had before I got here and he went to the church and stuff several times but he never accepted a bautismal date because he still hadn't received an answer and he doesn't want to mess around with God and just go with whatever church you know? He is like 19 I think and is very serious about stuff related to God. Well we were talking to him and well teaching him of course and we were teaching about the priesthood and stuff like that. He was going to a baptist church before I think and was baptized with them and well he was telling us about how he was talking to some of the people from his church and they were talking about Los Mormones and were saying stuff that wasn't true or whatever and he totally defended our beliefs and what we teach and I thought that was pretty cool. and well, since we were talking about the priesthood I asked him, "do you believe that Joseph Smith received the proper authority of God and that we have that authority in this church?" and he said "From what I have seen... yes" so then we asked if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and he accepted and was excited about it so that was pretty awesome. We are pretty sure he is going to get baptized and be a strong member of the branch so we are pretty excited :)

Well that was the cool experience for the week :) I just want to let you know that it is super hot here :) we recently started the 40 hottest days of the year here and like three days ago some guy died from the heat in Tampico just to give you all a taste of how hot it is, I don't know what degree it gets to but the sun with the heat and the humidity is just killer... But don't worry, we will make it just fine :) I love you all and here are some pics :)

-Elder Sampson

July 14 Anahuac, my new area

Hola todos!

Como están? todo bien? que bueno :) debería escribir este correo en español? nah... no quiero hacerlo :) 

Well, here I am in Anahuac, there are TONS of mosquitoes here but don't worry mom, I don't have any repellent so I can't use any and I don't know where to buy some so ya... I am getting used to having large itchy lumps all over my body ;) don't worry it's not that bad :)

Well there is a lot of stuff going on here in this little branch and we have a lot of work to do but it is great, walking through the lodo (swampy areas, or in other words, all the streets) and dodging charcos (puddles). There are some really great people here, a recent convert who reminds me of Gomer from the Andy Griffith Show and the Branch President and his family are great :) I get along really well with Elder Escobar and we are working here but he does like to spend a little time more than necessary in the houses of members so I'm going to see if I can get that little habit out of him, but he likes to work and is a good teacher and all is going well. I already gave a talk here in the branch and I didn't feel like it went very well but like a good companion he told me it wasn't too bad so I guess it was alright, I had a list of scriptures I was going to share but I left it at the house so that might have been part of why it didn't go so well but whatever I will be fine :) I have some pictures I want to send you all but this cyber doesn't have a place to put and sd card so I  can't send them right now.

We had a couple run ins with some JW's or testigos as they are called here, we were teaching one and he basically said to us "well you guys are still young, you can still be forgiven and join the true church" ha ha it was pretty funny to me :)

Some things that I have eaten here that are interesting, Moronga and Ceviche. I ate Moronga in the other area but I forgot to tell you about it, want to know what it is? :) well even if you don't I am going to tell you :) it's cooked pig blood! how crazy is that? who even came up with that is my question... it really isn't that bad, with a little salsa and a tortilla it is quite enjoyable :) and the Ceviche is just raw fish in lime juice I think they had that in Charles' mission too...

Hey Lauren I forgot to tell you something, I met an Elder Guzman, well he isn't Elder anymore but he was in your mission and knows you :) He is the grandson of the landlady from my first area, I was going to tell you earlier but I kept forgetting... but isn't that crazy!? :)

Well I love you all and I hope you have a good week :)

-Elder Sampson

July 7 Transfers! Short post

Hey!

Sorry but this is going to be kinda short because we had changes today and the cyber is kinda full so we don't have time.

I got transferred! but I'm still in the same Zone/Stake so it is kinda weird huh? I am now in Anahuac with Elder Escobar. he is from El Salvador. I will tell you more next week when I have time but here it is a branch and we are on a peninsula that is basically an island and it is definitely not the city so I am excited, but there are like a billion mosquitoes here. I have some pictures to send but I will do that next week. Sorry it is so short but we really just don't have much time... I love you all and hope you have a great week! :)

-Elder Sampson

July 3....¡Fuimos al Templo! por fin!!!

¡Hola!

¡Fuimos al Templo! por fin!!! fue bien padre y me gustó un buen! fue un poquito raro para hacer todo eso en español pero todavía me gustó mucho :) The Temple is just really great and you can feel the Spirit so strong there, I love it! We changed P-day to today so we could go,  so that's why I didn't write yesterday.

Don't worry, I am feeling better this week and it went pretty well :) the struggle this week was that the members didn't want to help us out, nobody answered their phones when we called to see if they could accompany us and if they did answer (which was really rare...) they were busy... The work goes a lot better if we have their help but we did have some success this week, We had 4 investigators at church! How great is that? :) it was pretty cool and I was happy :)

A cool experience we had this week was a noche de hogar we had with some members and investigators. We taught about repentance, like the steps there are and also we had a good example to help them understand and everything. It just went really well and I felt really good about it so it made me happy and I think it helped Juan Manuel get more excited about the church and stuff.

That is cool that you all got to hang out in California.  I got the invite to the wedding and thought about just showing up, but I already had plans... ;) haha :) could you tell Mckay Felizidades por mi? :)

Well that's all I've got... Well that's not true, I have some pictures too :)

I love you all!

-Elder Sampson