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

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