October 26th I Got To Baptize!

Sorry for last week and not writing a whole lot... My companion had planned the week before with some investigators that we would make some cupcakes and stuff with them and so we were doing that and then we helped them make empanadas that they sell so it was like a service project and it took longer than we thought and so we finished pretty late...

But... I baptized someone for the first time in my life! It was pretty special :) but it was a little interesting because there wasn't any water here in the little church so we couldn't fill the font so... we called a guy and he brought a tank and filled it up to about 3 inches below the knees and was going to fill it up more... but the second trip was never made and I had to baptize Rubicel in a very small amount of water... But I did! haha it was pretty crazy but I did it on the first intent! haha it was great! he was really happy and is rather committed to coming to church.  Yesterday he was already paying his tithing!  He is pretty great :)

This week was a good week:) we were able to achieve our goals with lessons and stuff like that. We still need to improve on finding new investigators,  but it is going quite well here :)

We are the only missionaries because we are pretty far away from the city and the branch here is pretty small, and I am in charge of the meetings like... I have to plan it and we get together with the other elders in the district (just two) and the four of us have a little class and then we go back to area, or sometimes they come over here, we take turns.

We haven't been able to see a whole lot of nature except in the bus ride to and from here, but we are going to see if we can go to some ruins this next week... :) I am excited! :)

The branch is pretty tiny but there are more that usually go and more came this week but there really aren't a whole lot but it's all good :)

Well I hope you enjoyed your week! :D I gotta go but I love you all! :) BYE!

-Elder Sampson

These two pictures are from the two baptisms.   The first one is Mateo and the second Rubicel. and my comp ;)

Oct. 19th We had a Baptism!

Well, I got no time! as you can see because we are writing super late... but let me tell you a little about the week. Please forget about all typos or other such errors that you may find:)

So this week there was a baptism here in Tanquian! Mateo got baptized and well,  before there was a rule that the missionaries couldn't baptize but for October president said that we could :) so my comp baptized him! :D And this week we have another baptism! and I am going to get to baptize ! :) First time in my whole life! :) so cool! I will baptize Rubicel on Saturday :) Mateo is an older guy but is super great, he used to be a carpenter but lost two of his fingers in an accident (he is almost like Stavi;) ) and Rubicel is a young guy, he's 28. It is going to be super cool :)

In Tanquian there aren't a whole lot of members... like there were 13 on Sunday... and 4 were investigators... but it is definitely a small little town out in the middle of nowhere. The closest elders are an hour and a half away and that is also a little town, they are actually the other two missionaries in the district, the others in the zone are in a city called Valles, like an hour away from the other elders. 

 

This Sunday was rather interesting, my comp and I were the speakers in sacrament, my comp gave the second class and the guy that was presiding the meeting also blessed the sacrament and I passed it... and my comp and I also gave the last class, but to everyone, there wasn't any separating into classes or anything... so it was a little different but it's great :)

That's all I have time for right now for everyone but I love you all and will try to say more next week about Tanquian! :) it's pretty great here :) I love you all! BYE

-Elder Sampson

PS My return date was finalized today in the morning... I will be coming home the 21st!

Oct. 12th I Got Transfered

Bueno... Well I am out of the offices and into the real world! I am now... with Elder Juarez in a little town called Tanquian de Escobedo.  It is in San Luis Potosí (that is the state :) ) I don't have much time but... it seems like we get along pretty well because we had a 3 and a half hour bus ride and we talked pretty good the whole time :) 

He is from Puebla, he is the oldest of four kids, he likes basketball, wants to study physical therapy or business and broke his arm once when he fell of a horse when he was like 4 or 5 years old ;)

But anyways, he told me we have a baptism this weekend and next week! :) I am also District Leader again (I failed to mention that I was district leader the last three changes as well... :P) 

 

I will write more next week but for now... ain't nobody got time for dat! :) haha I love you all!  

Have an amazing week, remember... we are members of the true Church! :)  How great is that?!?!? :)

-Elder Sampson

Oct. 10th New Baptismal Date

Well, This week was pretty good :) we were able to work more with the members and stuff like that be we still have struggled with finding new investigators but things have gone well with a few that we have like Ivan. Yesterday we had super divisions in the zone and I went with Elder Mercedes (he got here at the same time I did, but will go home a change later because he didn't have a change in the MTC, he is from the Dominican Republic) to visit Ivan. We got to the part of the Plan of Salvation that he had a lot of questions about we talked about the Spirit World and the Resurrection and the Kingdoms of Glory. It went really well and we put a new baptismal date with him because the other fell through because he didn't go to conference because his mom got sick. But it was cool because we asked him what he thought he should do to prepare himself to get baptized and he said that he should pray and read and keep listing to us and all that and it was a special experience, he only didn't mention church attendance but we mentioned it and he said he wanted to go this Sunday and he said "Voy a ir, es segurísimo!" and so... we are waiting for that :) it will be great :)

Well, this week I will probably have transfers so... if I write on Monday too don't freak out, because I will be back out in the field not in the office anymore so my pdays will be Mondays again.  I have liked being in the offices but it will be good to get back out for this last little bit.  They haven't said that it is for sure but... I am almost positive I will be leaving but if not that's fine too but we will know soon enough :)

I really enjoyed the conference! I decided to ponderize Jacob 6:11-12 because it is great! I like 12, sweet, simple and to the point.  Are you all ponderizing? haha it is a funny new word :) I felt like it talked a whole lot about faith in this conference and I loved it!  I liked how they explained how to receive more faith and how to utilize it in our lives :) I know that we are in the only true church that has leaders truly called of God to guide His church in these days. I know that the prophet and the apostles are who God has called to make His will known :) I am grateful to have the opportunity to hear from them and try to apply their counsels to my life :)

I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week!  BYE! :)

-Elder Sampson

Oct. 3rd You Gotta Love Conference

HEY!!! Is everybody loving conference so far? I know I am :)   

Well just to talk a little about this week (I kinda am low on time) This week was better than the last, last week was pretty hard to be honest but things are looking a lot better this week  and right now is conference! :D but we did have a little more success with finding people and we put a baptismal date with Ivan! :) I don't know if I have talked about him... he is the son a less active but he is just barely living with his dad. I think his parents got separated when he was rather young and until now he has been with his mom (he is like 22 or something) and isn't a member. He has a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation and is really interested in that stuff, he asks us when he has questions and makes comments so it shows that he is paying attention and wants to learn and he is going to go to priesthood session! We are going to pass by to pick him up :)

This week we had several training meetings and a leaders conference and Elder Naylor and I had to talk about the records and referrals to the new missionaries that are in their training and all the zone leaders. Then we got to go to the mission home for lunch and it was pretty sweet :)

We have still been struggling with finding new investigators but it is going a bit better :) something that is pretty great this week was that we got a referral from some other elders for a less active sister and her non-member husband :) They found them outside of the chapel in their area and the family asked when the meetings were so they could go on Sunday! :) So we went and met the sister and we are going to visit them on Monday! It will be great :)

But ya... I gotta get back to see the second session of conference! I love you all :)

-Elder Sampson