May 18th Ramon is doing great!

Well, you know what they say... a picture is worth a thousand words and so... I am already sending you all like a 1500 word email so there won't be any complaining, kapeesh? ;) (I have no idea how that word is spelled....)

This week was a hard one... We had interchanges as a zone and then interviews with president so we didn't have that much time to be working in the area.

Dora is doing great, she is still reading the BOM but she didn't go to church... she read more than what we left with her so it seems like a good sign :) Ramon is still going strong!  This week he had his interview to receive the priesthood


(I had a plan going so he would be able to bless the sacrament this up coming week but we will see how it goes because he had to go to work and wasn't able to receive it this week, he passed his interview and all but couldn't make it to our meetings, he went to an earlier ward to catch the classes and partake of the sacrament) and he is already inviting his friends to go to church and institute and all that jazz :)

So... we weren't able to find very many new investigators this week... but one of the investigators that we had kinda surprised us (mostly my comp). We passed by her house one day (her name is Olga) and my comp said that he saw her hide when we showed up so he thought that she didn't want anything to do with us. That was last week... and this week I said I wanted to visit her and see what we can do to teach her and so we show up and she is there with her son and some of her grandkids and we walk up and she kinda asked why we hadn't passed by for a bit and that one of the days we went to the house she was trying to get outside but we left too soon and we were already gone by the time she could stick her head out the door... so we talked to them a little about the BOM and then we left because it was late and we have to get to the house on time. But she seems really interested and wants to learn more. We just have to figure out why she didn't come to church and help her overcome whatever it is that is stopping her. 

We also found an investigator that has like 9 years investigating the church... Her name is Dulce and she wants to get baptized but she might be living with someone with whom she is not married so... we are going to see what we can do,  but she seems really interested also.  We just have to keep working on getting people to go to church, that is the big hold up we always have...

The interviews with president were pretty great.   We talked for like 40 or 50 minutes, it was fun. We talked about how I am doing as a missionary, why I have had some of the companions I've had and other stuff like that, he made me feel pretty good about myself :) I think I might be rather hard on myself and he helped me see what I have done and pointed out a few things that I hadn't thought of... but it was enjoyable for me to be able to talk with him about all that I had going on in my head... :)

But there you have it, a little bit about this week.  I love you all!

-Elder Sampson

PS on my birthday we had a district meeting and they brought a cake for me :) you'll just want to be careful because here they have a tradition of taking a little bite (mordida) of the cake before they cut it but there is also a tradition of shoving the face of the person who's birthday it is when they go to take the first bite... :)
And this is a pic of the gifts the Walkers sent me for my birthday.  Thank you so much!

PPS It was sad to hear about great grandma but she was waiting for that for a really long time, I know she is a lot happier where she is now :)

May 11th Ramon was confirmed a member of the Church

Well... I kinda talked to you guys yesterday but... what's up? It was really great talking to you all and being able to see your bright smiling (maybe a little grogy/sleepy) faces :)

I don't have a whole lot to say because I said a lot of it yesterday and I don't want to be repeating  everything like like like a broken record ;) but I do want to talk about Ramon's confirmation :) he almost didn't make it...  he went to pick up his friend that lives kinda far away and showed up kinda late... but its okay he was still able to get confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost and all the really important things to complete his baptism by water and spirit :) 

The only thing that made me kinda sad was that he wasn't able to pick up an investigator that was going to come with us... he went for his friend pretty early and then didn't have time to pass by the lady's house and she felt kinda stood up... :( We went by her house later to ask her forgiveness and she let us know that she was kinda waiting for the ride the whole morning... normally she sells clothing on Sunday mornings but this week she didn't so she could go to church... and then Ramon didn't ever show up so... ya... at least we helped her keep the Sabbath day holy :) but maybe we kinda tricked her into doing it even though we weren't trying to... :) but she was pretty cool about it and said that she would go with us this week and we promised her we would pass by her house personally :) Her name is Dora, by the way, she was a prior investigator that I taught a few times with E. Naylor and then we dropped her because she wouldn't go to church (because she was selling clothes). Then with E. Mendez we were walking up the street that she lives on and the brother that was accompanying us said "there is someone on this street that you guys visited before right?" because he had gone with us to visit her once or twice. I told him that we had and then Elder Mendez wanted to visit her again so a couple days later we visited her and she told us that she had gone to Texas to visit her daughter for a while and had taken the BOM with her to read and that she had left it there and wanted a new one, how great is that?  So we started to teach her again and it looks like she is ready to progress :)

But that's all I've got for now! Hope you all have a great week and all that good stuff....love y'all :)

-Elder Sampson :) 

May 4th Played the Piano in Church!

Hey!!! What's been goin' on?

I just want to share a little bit about what happened this week in church... only Ramon showed up... but he totally shared his testimony in the fast and testimony meeting!!! it was awesome :) and actually he brought a friend with him... she lives in the ward boundaries of some other elders so we won't get to teach her but it was still cool.  He also sang in the men's choir (we sang "Venid los que tenéis de Dios el Sacerdocio") and so did Elder Mendez and Elder Powell and Elder Nixon (the other elders in the ward with us) and I actually didn't sing... I played the piano! That's right! well... I actually only played the right hand but they told me like 20 minutes before the meeting started so I practiced a little bit and then played it... it was alright but hey! it's something :) but then they wanted me to play in priesthood meeting as well but didn't give me any time to practice so it was a little rougher that time... :) but ya, anyways... Ramon is doing great.  We talked with some of his young single adult friends and they are going to organize a special surprise choir for his baptism.  It's gonna be sweet :)

A little bit about this week... We have a new Zone leader who is an ex-assistant to the president who happens to be from Colombia who was my second district leader (way back in my first area....) and well... we put the goal of 1000 contacts in the street in a week again,  but this time for the whole change!  Elder Mendez and I have had up to 22 contacts in one day... maybe that isn't a ton for some people but for me it's a whole bunch! The elders in the district have been doing pretty good with that so we'll see how it goes:)

We had a special conference this week with the mission president and his wife and also a 70 and his wife... it was cool.  The 70 that came to visit was Elder Lester Johnson from the 4th (I think) quorum of the Seventies and it was only the two zones here in Victoria and the 70 and president and their wives :) We got to ask him questions and everything.  It was really cool :) He taught us about the Sabbath day and how we can teach it because sometimes as missionaries we teach the Sabbath just so the people go to church and sometimes we don't really teach them what it's all about... yes we need to go to church on Sunday but there is more to that when it comes to keeping the Sabbath day holy... so it was a cool experience :) I learned about how we shouldn't make a list of do's and don't's (that was mentioned in conference) but that we should think about everything we do and see if it brings us closer to God or if it pushes us away from Him. We receive so many blessing if we can put to one side our will and do the will of God for at least one day a week.  I invite you all to think about how we can keep the Sabbath day more holy this week and then keep doing that every week :) You will be able to feel a difference, I know will. 

A little bit about Mari... I don't know why she didn't come to church this week... she promised us she would on Saturday but then didn't show up Sunday...and didn't answer her phone so we haven't been able to talk to her but we are going to head over there today... she is always so excited when we are there with her but then she doesn't show up... we are going to have to talk to her a bit about that... but we'll see how it goes :)

From the contacts we had this week we are going to follow up on a bunch and see who is ready to progress so we can help 'em out.

With the land owner (Oscar) we had a little grilling party today.... we were able to use some seasoning that Oscar had and they turned out pretty dang good :)  I will send a pic :)

Well that's all I've got for this week. I hope you are all doing well and that you can all be ready for Mothers day! Can't wait to see y'all :) Love ya!

-Elder Sampson