Sep. 29th Finally! Investigator came to Church!!!!

Hello...

We didn't have investigators in the chapel... BUT! we did have AN investigator! ¡¡¡Por FIN!!!  We finally had an investigator in the church :) a good way to end the cambio :) This week we really didn't have very many lessons, but a lot of lessons aren't good for anything if the people don't do anything and don't come to church so I am satisfied with the work we did, we really focused on the people and it helped them have a little change in their lives. We saw small changes in the way the people listened to us and how they responded and little by little I think they are changing for the better.

A little bit about the investigator that came to church this week. His name is Francisco Hernandez and about 14 years ago he met the missionaries and was going to church with them and all that good stuff but then the missionaries got transferred or something and he lost contact with the church. This week the elders in the other side of the branch contacted him in the street then gave us his address and we went by to visit him. He really liked that we went by to visit him and that we could teach him, he is going to una iglesia adventista ( I can't remember how to say that correctly in English right now) but wants to know why there are so many churches and which one is the church of God, we figured we could help him with that ;) so we invited him to church and all that and he came!

It was really great to see someone actually do something they said they were going to do!

Well that was good... I hope we will start having more success here :)

Oh by the way, I am still here in Anahuac, I am now with Elder Cortez, un chaparro de El Salvador... interesting isn't it? I was just here with one of those... :) he also has the same amount of time in the mission as Elder Escobar, They got here at the same time, how crazy is that? I don't know, I think it is kinda crazy... but anyways, we will see what we can do here and try to have a great cambio! Well that is about all I have got for now, I will see if I can make a recording or take some photos or something but for now...  I love you all and have a great week :)

-Elder Sampson 

Sep. 22nd We have a Branch Mission Leader finally!

Hey y'all!

Well we had another disappointing week with investigators in the chapel... that's right... another week with nobody.... That makes 9 weeks in a row. I feel bad for the people that are missing out on all these blessings the Lord is just waiting to give them but I can't make them show up so I don't know how to help them. But I actually feel worse for my companion. This whole thing has been really hard on him... He actually cried yesterday because he felt so bad for the people and that they were missing out and not coming to church. Also he feels like a failure because with so much time in the mission, people expect him to have a lot of success and stuff like that and he expects it as well and really wants it and feels bad because it just hasn't happened. He says that all of this has been teaching him humility. I want to be able to help him not be so down, but I think the only thing that will help him with that is having people in the church.... anyways, that is a lot of what has been going on since yesterday.

Actually, I have some good news about yesterday. We finally have a branch mission leader! We haven't had one this whole time and that means it is kinda hard to work well with the branch. But now we have one, he is a recently returned missionary so he knows how all the mission stuff works so hopefully we will be able to have some success.

I made a recording that is in three parts that I will send (it is all in Spanish by the way so I hope you can understand or at least have someone tell you what it says, I don't know, it is getting kinda hard to talk in English sometimes...). In it I talk about someone that we were going to visit on Saturday but just to let you know he wasn't there when we went because he had work, just so you know what's going on with him. We are going to look for him this week and see how things work out.

This week was a little better than the past couple that we have had but by way of people in the church it was the same... I am really hoping the work this week pays off and we will get to see some of the fruit of the labor start to appear. Not only for the people here but for my companion and I.  It has been a little hard on us.

I am so sorry about Claudette.  I don't really know what to say about all that happened. I am with mom on this whole death thing... it would be good if it just took a break for a long while... I don't know, it seems that so much has happened at home since I have been in the mission and it will be weird when I get back, not that that is anytime soon but still...

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week and all that good stuff :) You are all very amazing people and I am blessed to have you in my life :)

-Elder Sampson

PS I am going to invite you all to guess what it is that we ate with some of the members ;)

PSS

If you couldn't tell what they are... they are chapolines! (they are like grasshoppers :) ) We ate a bunch of those fried in tacos :) they are actually pretty " tasty;)"  go very well with a little salsa lemon and salt; and have a nice crunch :)

Sep 8th Él escribe en Español

Hola todos! :) 

La conferencia de Zona fue bien padre la verdad! Presidente nos enseñó mucho del bautismo y como podemos ayudar a las personas a entender la importancia de este convenio. 

Un poco acerca de Alejandra, pues ella todavía tiene interés y todo pero casi nunca esta y es muy difícil encontrarla entonces no hemos tenido mucho éxito con ayudándola a progresar y no ha asistido.  

Esas dos hermanas, Mari y Gladis han escuchado y todo pero otra vez no vivieron a la capilla entonces no hemos visto progreso con ellas tampoco pero vamos a seguir tratando de ayudarlas.  

Un experiencia que tuvimos que fue buena pero no increíble fue con un hermano que se llama Francisco.  Al principio él no quería recibirnos en su casa ni nada pero después nos permitió entrar y enseñamos a él. La próxima vez que fuimos, le encontramos leyendo el Libro de mormón que dejamos y todo fue muy bueno eso. El único problema  él tiene es su trabajo. Pero, él estaba pensando en cambiarlo para poder asistir.  él nos dijo, " espérenme un poquito, me gusta todo eso pero necesito un poco de tiempo." El problema es que no quiero esperar pero es lo que me toca entonces voy a hacerlo... :)

 No se preocupen por el agua, siempre podemos encontrarla, viene y se va pero no es un problema muy grave, solo me molesta un poco.

No sé, quise escribir este correo en Español :) La verdad, tardo un poco en escribir en español entonces quizás es corto pero espero que les gusten :)

Les amo a todos ustedes mucho! Tengan una buena semana :)

-Élder Sampson

 

Translation for non Spanish speakers

 

The Zone Conference was in truth really great! President taught us a lot about baptism and how we can help the people understand the importance of this covenant.

A little bit about Alejandra, well she still is interested and all but she is almost never there and is very difficult to find her so we haven't had much success with helping her progress and she hasn't come to church.

Then there's the two sisters, Mari and Gladys, they listen and all but once again they did not come to church so we haven't seen progress with them either but we're going to continue trying to help them.

An experience that we had that was good but not incredible was with a brother named Francisco.  At the beginning he did not want to have us come in his house or anything but then he let us come in and teach him.  The next time we went we found him reading the Book of Mormon that we left and he was really great with all of it.  The only problem that he has is his work.  But he is thinking about changing it so he could attend.  He told us..."Be patient with me a little bit, I like all of this but I need a little time."  The problem is that I don't want to wait but if that's what I have to do then I will do it...:)

Don't worry about the water, we can always find some, it comes and goes but it's not a big deal,  it only bugs me a little.

I don't know, I just wanted to write this email in Spanish:)  In truth I'm a little slow at writing in Spanish that's why it's short but I hope you enjoyed it :)  

I love you all very much!  Have a great week :)

Sep 1st Doing all that we can

Hola todos! Como están? bien? Bien bien :)

Well I feel like we have been cursed with the worst church assistance ever... We have gone a whole cambio without investigators... I don't understand them... we invite them to come, they say they will, we send messages to remind them, we call them, we pass by their houses but they just won't come even though at least ten promised they would... it is really weird to us but oh well there isn't anything we can do but just keep working. We taught more lessons, contacted more in the street, taught the members to work with us and everything else we could think of but they still don't come...

That family I talked about is doing pretty well, there are these two sisters and they listen and have good questions and everything and they say they will come to church, the only problem is that they don't show up...

We are finding a lot of new people all the time but we still haven't found the people that will make the effort. We teach all the people how important it is to go to church but they just don't seem to understand that they need to actually do it...

Alejandra is still interested but she still hasn't come to church, this week it might be that her kids were sick but we will find out what happened there.

We don't have water right now... it came back for a little during the week but then ran out again... we shower with buckets that we fill with water from a tank the neighbor has and we actually went to the house of the recently released branch president to wash our clothes today because they have some pretty big tanks of water and a washing machine so that was fun :) it isn't too bad, it is just a pain to wash the dishes so we end up eating things that don 't require them like crackers and such :)

Well that's about all I've got for now, we are going to keep working hard this week and see if we can have some more success with the investigators. Tomorrow we have a zone conference so that should be great :) I love you all and have a great week! :)

-Elder Sampson