April 27th I'm Not Going Anywhere:)

HEY!!!

Well, this week was the last week of this transfer and there is some good news! I will get to be here for the baptism of Ramon! :) (Spanish is having a bad influence on my English....) I am so excited! 

Story about him from this week... We were in the chapel for some interviews my comp was doing (he's district leader if I haven't told you already) and we had planned that Ramon was going to be there so we could teach him while I waited (I was going to teach him with the elders of the people that were getting interviewed like in a trio). He was supposed to get there at 3:30 but... by 4 o'clock he still wasn't there... so I send him a text, "hey, aren't you going to come over to the church so we can teach you a bit?" and he responds... "nope sorry! I went with the other ward on their Temple trip to Tampico and won't get back for a few hours!" That's right, he went on a 4 hour bus ride just to see the temple! I was OK with the fact that he didn't show up to the lesson we had planned... :) and I have a pic of him so you can all "meet" him :) He's a great guy and is already thinking about serving a mission :)

Mari didn't show up to church and we might have to change her date a little but she is still doing good :) When we talked about the Word of Wisdom and all that and when we asked her if she would keep that commandment she said "The first time I went to church with you guys I made a promise to the Lord that I would be obedient to the commandments" she seemed pretty committed to keep it so it's all good :) we also talked about Tithing and the fast so that was good too.

That's all I've got for now! :) I hope you like the pics! (maybe Claire will recognize one of the Elders here... :) ) Love y'all :)

-Elder Sampson :)

 

April 20th 3 Investigators at Church!

Hola!!!

  Well this week was pretty good by way of investigators at church. Ramón, Mari and Carlos showed up. It is always kind of a surprise to see Carlos because we haven't been visiting him... we pass by his house from time to time but we can never find him but then he randomly shows up to church... it's fine, we are going to see if he is ready to accept a baptismal date.

Things have been going great with Mari. She told us yesterday that she wants to get baptized in the church (she had some doubts about that because she was already baptized in the other church she was going to but now she is just happy to be able to get baptized in the true church!) She was kinda guilt tripping us one day... we had a meeting with the Mission Leader and after we had an appointment with them but the meeting went way over-time and we couldn't get to the appointment so we sent them a text saying that we aren't going to make it. The next day she was getting on our tails because her son, Francisco, was totally waiting for us and wanted to listen but then we didn't show up... she was telling us how sad she was to see the disappointment in his eyes... she made me feel pretty bad... but we let them know how important they are to us and she kinda let it go a bit... but everything is great with them :) We just finished teaching the Gospel of Christ and we are going to start on the Word of Wisdom and Chastity (we left the pamphlets with them, I think she is going to have some questions about not drinking coffee... It's gonna be great! :) )

Ramon is still doing great! He was telling us he wants to accompany us to appointments like one of his friends that is a member was doing... I think that shows a little bit about how sure he is :) He has told us several times that he has prayed and felt that the church is true.

Lizbeth has been kinda busy lately and so we haven't been able to teach her very much... and she hasn't come to church for a few weeks but we are going to keep trying to catch her in her free time and get her to come to church :)

As of right now those are still the ones that have the most potential and that I am the most excited about. We were able to teach and find some new people and we are going to see how it goes with them. You will have to ask Charles about something that happened when we were teaching a lesson this week... it's funny... at least everyone there thought so... ;)

It is so weird to me to hear that Claire is going to be going to college!!!! I'm still geeking out about it! :)

Anyways... That's this week in a really small little tiny chiquito email :) Hope y'all are doing well :) Adiós!

-Elder Sampson

April 13th Zone Goal..1000 Contacts!

Tengo una pregunta para todos los que han servido una misión, Is 1000 contacts for a zone of 8 companionships in a week a lofty goal? for my mission I would say it's a lot but I only know my mission and I don't know very much about others but that is the goal that our zone leaders put and... we are trying to achieve it :)

So that's a little bit about what's going on in the zone... We had a conference and president talked about setting goals and seeing with the eye of faith and not trusting on our own knowledge or our own "reality" you could say and that we have to trust in the Lord and make goals that might be impossible for us by ourselves but with the Lord we can achieve... It is kinda hard but that's what we are going to do and it's gonna be great! :)

This week we had 2 people come to church with us, R_ and M_ . 

 

A short story about R_. We wanted to change his baptism date from the 9th of May to the 2nd so he could get baptized sooner and so we commented something about that to him and he was thinking about it but didn't confirm nor deny if we could and so the next time we went he says to us " I don't know if we can change the date to the 2nd because.... I already invited a lot of my friends and stuff, do we have to change it?" We told him we didn't have to... wow he is so ready!!!! He has already invited people to his baptism!  It's great :) we are going to keep working with him.

With L_... she got a job so now we haven't even been able to talk to her for a whole week and wasn't able to go to church... we will do what we can to get her back on track and help her get back to going to church and listening to the Restored Gospel and all the stuff that will help her eternally.

With M_ and her kids, well D_ got a new job as well and so he couldn't go to church but M_ is excited about the church again. Like twice she has tried to tell us that she doesn't want to keep listening to us an that she is going to go to the church that she was going to before but she knows the church is true.  She just gets negative feed back from outside sources but with a short lesson and the testimony of a great member and feeling the Spirit she gets back on track :) So all is just fine, we have just had some rough moments with her but then it is all good :)

That's just a little bit about this week :) The Church is true!  I know that Christ is our Savior and that if we trust in him we can do all things the Lord requires. By the way, I read Doctrine and Covenants all the way through for the first time in Spanish :) I know that D and C is true and it is just another evidence that Joseph Smith was a true modern prophet!  I hope you are all great and that you can have an amazing week this week and share the Gospel with someone new :)

-Elder Sampson

April

April 6th Conference and Easter...What a great day!

¡¡¡Hola!!! 

  Yup well as you all know, this week was a pretty great one just for the fact that we had Easter Sunday and General Conference all mixed into one! :) I really enjoyed it, anyone else? ... that's what I thought, Everybody loved it! (at least I hope they did ) 

 

About the week mission-wise.... a little disappointing on Sunday when a few of the investigators we were really hoping would show up didn't... but C_ was there... kind of a surprise... but it's fine by me, if he wants to show up to church I am not going to complain... :) We were really hoping that L_ and R_ would show up but.... they didn't... (maybe R_ went to a different building with his friends but we can't be sure...)

So here's a story, about a little guy who lives in a nice house. And all day and all night everything he... (well you can keep making it up if you want but I am just going to tell you about R_ for a little bit because trying to get that all to fit with the tune of the song is just taking too much time... :) ) But like I said he has a pretty nice house. R_ actually went to church last week but went to a different ward and we had never talked with him so I didn't have anything to say about him last week but I have some really high hopes that he is going to get baptized :) He has this friend that is a recent convert of a different ward and she invited him to go to church and he went (we didn't know about this until after we taught him the first time) we saw him at the church and a youth who knows him comes up to us and starts to tell us that he is an investigator and lives in our area. That's just perfect! so we set up an appointment and and we are excited to teach him.... so on tuesday we go to visit him like we had planned and we show up at the house and we are thinking... "it would be really great to have a member present but there isn't anyone who can help us out" (we had already checked...) whatever, we will just have to do without... so we knock on the door and... nobody's home! perfect... so we call him up. " Hey! where are you?" " sorry I will get there in 5 minutes" ah bueno... está bien. He shows up with a friend and so we are thinking great, two new investigators :) NOPE! she's his recent convert friend! :) well that's ok too, so we teach him the lesson and he is like way excited and wants to get baptized and everything, it's great :) in the lesson we were going to give him his own copy of the book of Mormon but when we mentioned a scripture he whipped out the one he already had :) also at the end we were just talking a bit and trying to figure out when we would visit him next and well he couldn't do it one day because he was going to go to institute that day.... What? he has already been going to institute for 2 weeks? Who knew?! So ya, that's just a little bit about R_...

About the conference,  I was listening to the talk from Holland and I thought about you Charley, that's right,  I totally did :) and I almost cried... I don't know exactly why but I think I just felt really good and knew that the Savior is there just waiting to grab us and pull us up over the ledge when we can't make it :) There were so many talks that were so uplifting and inspiring.  They really strengthened my faith and gave me hope :) we just need to be patient and loving and things always work out:) Well... I would talk a lot more about the conference but I left my notes in the house and I kinda don't have time but... ya, I really loved it!  It was such a great spiritual boost and I hope you all have something special to share with me from what you heard and felt :)

Also, this week we cut a tree down and I got some sweet blisters and we got to paint a little bit (that's what the blue jumpsuit is for in the picture, but I was sweatin' buckets in that baby! ;) )

I love you all and hope you could remember your Savior on such a special day and give him thanks by the way you are living,  I know He would really appreciate it :) You are all great! :) BYE!

-Elder Sampson