July 14 Anahuac, my new area

Hola todos!

Como están? todo bien? que bueno :) debería escribir este correo en español? nah... no quiero hacerlo :) 

Well, here I am in Anahuac, there are TONS of mosquitoes here but don't worry mom, I don't have any repellent so I can't use any and I don't know where to buy some so ya... I am getting used to having large itchy lumps all over my body ;) don't worry it's not that bad :)

Well there is a lot of stuff going on here in this little branch and we have a lot of work to do but it is great, walking through the lodo (swampy areas, or in other words, all the streets) and dodging charcos (puddles). There are some really great people here, a recent convert who reminds me of Gomer from the Andy Griffith Show and the Branch President and his family are great :) I get along really well with Elder Escobar and we are working here but he does like to spend a little time more than necessary in the houses of members so I'm going to see if I can get that little habit out of him, but he likes to work and is a good teacher and all is going well. I already gave a talk here in the branch and I didn't feel like it went very well but like a good companion he told me it wasn't too bad so I guess it was alright, I had a list of scriptures I was going to share but I left it at the house so that might have been part of why it didn't go so well but whatever I will be fine :) I have some pictures I want to send you all but this cyber doesn't have a place to put and sd card so I  can't send them right now.

We had a couple run ins with some JW's or testigos as they are called here, we were teaching one and he basically said to us "well you guys are still young, you can still be forgiven and join the true church" ha ha it was pretty funny to me :)

Some things that I have eaten here that are interesting, Moronga and Ceviche. I ate Moronga in the other area but I forgot to tell you about it, want to know what it is? :) well even if you don't I am going to tell you :) it's cooked pig blood! how crazy is that? who even came up with that is my question... it really isn't that bad, with a little salsa and a tortilla it is quite enjoyable :) and the Ceviche is just raw fish in lime juice I think they had that in Charles' mission too...

Hey Lauren I forgot to tell you something, I met an Elder Guzman, well he isn't Elder anymore but he was in your mission and knows you :) He is the grandson of the landlady from my first area, I was going to tell you earlier but I kept forgetting... but isn't that crazy!? :)

Well I love you all and I hope you have a good week :)

-Elder Sampson

July 7 Transfers! Short post

Hey!

Sorry but this is going to be kinda short because we had changes today and the cyber is kinda full so we don't have time.

I got transferred! but I'm still in the same Zone/Stake so it is kinda weird huh? I am now in Anahuac with Elder Escobar. he is from El Salvador. I will tell you more next week when I have time but here it is a branch and we are on a peninsula that is basically an island and it is definitely not the city so I am excited, but there are like a billion mosquitoes here. I have some pictures to send but I will do that next week. Sorry it is so short but we really just don't have much time... I love you all and hope you have a great week! :)

-Elder Sampson

July 3....¡Fuimos al Templo! por fin!!!

¡Hola!

¡Fuimos al Templo! por fin!!! fue bien padre y me gustó un buen! fue un poquito raro para hacer todo eso en español pero todavía me gustó mucho :) The Temple is just really great and you can feel the Spirit so strong there, I love it! We changed P-day to today so we could go,  so that's why I didn't write yesterday.

Don't worry, I am feeling better this week and it went pretty well :) the struggle this week was that the members didn't want to help us out, nobody answered their phones when we called to see if they could accompany us and if they did answer (which was really rare...) they were busy... The work goes a lot better if we have their help but we did have some success this week, We had 4 investigators at church! How great is that? :) it was pretty cool and I was happy :)

A cool experience we had this week was a noche de hogar we had with some members and investigators. We taught about repentance, like the steps there are and also we had a good example to help them understand and everything. It just went really well and I felt really good about it so it made me happy and I think it helped Juan Manuel get more excited about the church and stuff.

That is cool that you all got to hang out in California.  I got the invite to the wedding and thought about just showing up, but I already had plans... ;) haha :) could you tell Mckay Felizidades por mi? :)

Well that's all I've got... Well that's not true, I have some pictures too :)

I love you all!

-Elder Sampson

June 23, 2014 Being Honest

Hey,

Well I am going to be honest, I have been kinda down this week, I don't really know why but last night Elder Osorio and I were talking and he told me that he noticed I have been kinda down and we talked about that for a while. He said some pretty helpful stuff and I am feeling better and I hope this week will be a lot better than the last, like how I am feeling and stuff like that. I need to be happy to help the people so I am going to  figure out what the problem is and get up to full steam in the work and just help people like crazy! I am actually feeling pretty upbeat today and after the talk we had so I am looking forward to this week.

We had divisions with Elder Cruz and Elder Giraldo. I went over to the area of Elder Cruz and it went pretty well. They have a baptism this week and I got to teach the investigator and it was cool. He used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and now he has been able to quit, it was a struggle but  they managed to do it with aid from above.

None of the investigators came to church this week and we were hoping a lot more less actives came but we didn't have so much success. We were surprised when one of the less actives we met in the street showed up. He lived in Washington and was a member there but then he had a bad experience with the bishop or something and left the church and moved back here to Mexico. Elder Osorio thought he didn't want anything to do with the church but he showed up at church and is going to keep coming I think so that was cool.

I am feeling better about my Spanish. this one member would always ask me to pray during the lessons so I could practice my spanish but we went to his house and taught him and at the end he had me pray and after the prayer he said that I had perfected my Spanish, not that it is perfect, but it has gotten better so that is what counts right?

The yard looks way different! it's crazy but it is awesome. I like it.

Have a great week everyone and I love you all!

-Elder Sampson 

June 16, 2014 14 Less Actives at Church!!!

Hello!

So, the fact of the matter is, there are a ton of less or non active members in our area, we will contact someone in the street and they will say "oh ya, I am a member, I got baptized like 20 years ago" or something like that, we find new less actives like we find new investigators. Well, Elder Osorio wanted to meet all the non actives who's names are in the lists of the church. One day we walked around for hours trying to find these people, turns out most of them have moved away or just really don't want anything to do with us. We went to one house and yelled "buenas tardes" (because that's what you do here to get the people to come out of their houses) and this lady comes out, sees us standing there, says " eh... I am going to eat lunch" and goes back in her house, it was great! Well that day was tiring and we didn't even find very many people but I think the Lord blessed us for our efforts because we had 14 less actives at church, it was crazy and we had 1 investigator so it was alright :) We also had Ward Conference and actually a zone conference this week it was pretty great :) President taught us a lot about the Savior and we are going to focus more in Him at this time in the mission, at least that's what he said and that's fine by me because without Him we can't progress and this life would be a complete waste. I am grateful to know the plan God has for us and the role Christ plays in it.

With Ricardo and Elvira, I don't know if they are going to progress... We have tried to help but they just aren't doing their part.

I have a recording of a teaching experience that you can all listen to, hope you enjoy it, I was kinda struggling with my english though so I might sound funny or weird, just go easy on me ok? ;)

Well that's all for now, Love y'all :)

-Elder Sampson

June 9, 2014 5 Investigators Came to Church

Hello!

The past couple days is has been raining... yay!! :D well the thing is it rains in the morning until like 11 or 12 then the sun comes out and so it gets really hot and humid and it just makes for a lovely day... ;) ha ha it is alright I just end up sweating more so ya... but this week was pretty good. 

 

We have been talking to Ricardo Castillo and Elvira and they have been great and want to get baptized so we asked if they are married... turns out they aren't... we have been talking to them about them getting married civilly ( don't know how to spell that...) so they can get baptized, the only problem is that Ricardo never actually got a divorce with his first wife... ha ha we are working on it and they are willing to do it so it's all good :) but they didn't come to church yesterday so we are going to see what's going on there. 

 

We did have 5 investigators at church this week though! It was great!  All though two left after we took the sacrament and the others were busy and couldn't go to the classes. Oscar and his wife came with their son and they wanted to go to the classes but they had to go to work so they couldn't.  Ricardo Segura... I don't know what is going on with him, we were only able to find him once this week and he came to church, but he left right after the sacrament so we weren't able to talk to him I hope he still wants to change and accept the Gospel so he can have a better life.

Well that's all I can think of to write. I have some pictures Elder Osorio and I drew... they are quite amazing ;) I drew Elder Osorio and he drew me,  just so you know :)

Love you all

-Elder Sampson

 

June 2, 2014 My New Companion

Hey,

So a little bit about the new comp, Elder Osorio. Well he is pretty great, he is from Cholula, Puebla, México. He doesn't know exactly how much time he has here in the mission but it is somewhere around 10 months I think. He hardly knows any English so I am learning Spanish a lot faster now... before I always would try to talk in Spanish but if I didn't know how to say something I would switch to English, but I can't do that now and I just have to figure out how to say it in Spanish, so it's good :) He is a really hard worker and I think we will get a lot done, I kinda feel like this area needs something to get it going and progressing and Elder Osorio might be just the thing it needs :) we get along really well and we are going to work like crazy! :)

 Ok a bit about the investigators, with Elder Macias we just hadn't been having much success and we didn't have that many investigators so I didn't know what to tell you and would just tell you about the more memorable experiences. This week we were teaching Jorge Montez and things had always gone pretty well with him. Well Elder Osorio said something and Jorge got offended and tried to give his Book of Mormon back but we talked to him a little more and he pick it back up of his own free will and wanted to keep it so that was good, and he said we can visit him again so that is all good, I was a little nervous for a bit there, the only problem with him is he can't really walk right now or attend church, but we will see what we can do :) Also another experience, we have been teaching Oscar and his wife and well Oscar used to be a tough guy ( I don't really know how else to put it) He would get in like fights and stuff, worked with the people that sell drugs and a bunch of crazy stuff like that, but then he had experiences that turned his mind to God and he changed and started like studying all the time and he told us that he had the gift of sanitation or whatever, but he stopped being so involved in religion for like 4 years and kinda just turned to work and his family. We are the first people he has talked religion with in those four years and he thinks it might be a sign that God is sending him that he needs to let God have a bigger part in his life. We left a chapter in the book of Mormon to read and pray about so we will see how that goes :)

Oh I got the package! and a package from Ashley and a bunch of dear elders and letters! It was like Christmas! But better! ;) ha ha it was great, I like the shorts and the frisbee and the ties were really awesome, the orange one looks really great with Elder Osorio's suit :)

Well that's all I've got for now :) Love y'all bye!

-Elder Sampson