September 19th We saw Ramon at the Temple!

Well... I kinda already wrote a little bit to everyone so this is going to be a little short because I don't have much time.

This week we have still been battling with finding new investigators and all that but we keep on working so it's all good :) 

 

We went to the temple on Tuesday, had a zone conference and a training meeting yesterday and it was great (well both experiences :) ), and also today we happened to be passing in front of the temple and... we ran into Ramon! The recent convert from Victoria! It was so awesome to see him! He came in a temple excursion to do baptisms! It was great to see him and talk to him for a bit :) He told me that he is now planning on serving a mission when he completes a year as a member! :) I was super excited to hear that because before he was kinda ify about it and didn't really want to... but he said that it is now his plan! It was great :) 

 

Also we had the re dedication of the temple and it was really special!  We got to hear from President Eyring and Elder Holland and some other speakers.  They were all really great :) but that's about all the time I've got so I am going to end it here but I love you all and... felicidades a Lauren... and Gavin too! :) It is really weird for me that whole her being married thing... haha :)

-Elder Sampson :)

September 12th More to do in the office and Re dedicating the Mexico City Temple

Well... This week went quite well, not like the best of all time but good :) We had a few investigators in church but the worst part was... that Jorge didn't go... and his date fell through... we will have to wait until Oct. to baptize him... :'( pero... ni modo. He is still doing very well and is ready to progress and all that :) 

The struggle we have been having this week is finding new people to teach, the ones that we had are all kinda burning out and we need new ones, so we spend a lot of time looking for new people and all that but we haven't been able to find any with desires to progress but we are going to keep looking and try to get with the members to have more referrals and stuff like that, it is going to be good :)

Another interesting thing that happened this week is that my comp. and I are going to be assigned to the records as well! We are going to take the place of a senior couple that goes home soon that were in charge of the records so now we are going to have more to do here in the offices...  yesterday they were teaching some of the new stuff we have to do.  It will be good :)

Today there is going to be a cultural event that will be broadcast from Mexico City as a celebration of the re dedication of the Mexico City temple! So we can go to that broadcast and then tomorrow we don't have regular meetings, we just have to go to the re dedication and I am super excited! :) It is going to be cool :) and then next week we are going to the temple here again so it is the best!

This week we were talking to Ana (eternal investigator) about her marriage and divorce and all that and we set some goals for when she can get baptized! She should be able to get divorced in like 2 months and then get married and then baptized! But we probably won't visit her a whole lot because she can't progress until she gets that all figured out but we have the goal set and so we will be checking up on her so that it can all work out and she can get baptized soon!  

 

There is also another family where the parents aren't members because they can't get married and we visited them and we are going to do a fast with them to find the way to get the divorce all worked out. But those are just a few things that have been going on around here.

I have been reading in the old testament and I am at the part when Moses is preparing the house of Israel to go into the promised land and in that part it talks a lot about why God gives us commandments and what we get if we obey or disobey them. It is interesting because God is always saying (through his prophet Moses) that he wants to bless his people but he can't some times because they are aren't obeying the commandments but as I was reading that part it mentions over and over that God just wants to bless us, we just have to receive the blessings by striving to be obedient. A lot of people don't understand that but I am grateful for the Spirit and the Gospel and everything that the Lord has given me (and everyone) to help us understand that He truly is a LOVING Heavenly Father and he is waiting for every opportunity to pour blessings into our lives. I know He loves me and everyone else in this world and that has restored His Gospel to let us really know it :) Share it with everyone so they may know it too!! :)

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Sampson 

September 5th David got Baptized!!!!!!

Well... I am not going to say anything about my companion this week... I am just going to send a picture of him and you all have to guess what he is like just based on the picture of him, I know there will be some hard core judging going on but it will just be a little bit of fun ;) haha :) I can't wait to see what you all say about him... :) 

 

So... David did get baptized... YES!!!! A girl from the college he is going to spoke ( I don't remember her name) and also Hermano Torres (he's in the bishopric) and then at the end another friend from school gave his testimony and then David did too! It was good :) Afterwards we had the activity! and... well it was good but not a whole ton went considering that it was a stake activity but it was alright :) Everybody that went said they really liked it.  Oh, Roberto, David's friend was the person that baptized him and Elder Marsden confirmed him so it was pretty cool and all the missionaries in the zone sang a special number (the one about looking for rainbows after rain) 

Jorge went to the baptism and the activity and to church the next day so he is doing well :) This week was good, we are getting to know some more of the members in the area of the sisters and also some of their investigators.

My comp will also serve in the offices, I am now doing what my comp did and I taught my new comp what I did and so that's what's going down with all that.

Ya... so it seems like we won't be able to have 5 in September but we will definitely have one with Jorge with how things have been going with him :) So that's great!

An experience that we had yesterday was pretty interesting.... My comp was going through the teaching records of the sisters to find some more people to visit in the area of the sisters because we don't know very many people on that side of the ward and he wrote down a few addresses and the names of the people and we headed out to work. So we start looking for these people and we go to the house of someone named Laura... and we yell "Buenas tardes!" and someone asked, "who are you looking for?" "Laura Valles." So then a lady gets up from her seat (she was in her house but the door was open, they almost always just leave the door open because it is so hot all the time!) and she walks out and we see that she has a problem with her feet but she uses a crutch and can walk. We start talking to her and she says that she started going to another church because she really needed God and the sisters stopped going and she didn't know what to do... She told us that she had read the part of the book of Mormon that they left and had just been waiting for the sisters to come back and talk about it and all that... we felt really bad and explained why the sisters hadn't gone and she said we could go back and keep teaching her! She really has a lot of potential and has a desire to know God, especially in these moments of her life (because we always need Him, all the time) and so we are going to visit her on Tuesday and I hope we can help her to find God but in the true church and not just the closest place to her house... But I want to help her find the truth and help her be able to accept it :)

 

Sounds like a bunch of crazy stuff has been going on back there in Utah...

 

Well that's pretty much what's been going on these days.  I hope you can get everything ready for the big day!!!  That's so weird to think that in a little less than two weeks... Lauren is going to get married... and also it is pretty weird to think of all the things that have already happened in the family...  I feel like it will be rather different when I get home...

And also, if you could give Logan my email and tell him to email that would be great :)

Well, I love you all a bunch! Have a great week!! :)

-Elder Sampson