Best week ever!

I feel like I think that every week was the best week ever, but this one really was!:) every week just keeps getting better and better!:)

Well family I hope that you had so much fun on Thanksgiving and on Dad's bday! Thank you so much for the package! It made my whole week great! And I loved all the dear elders I got from you guys too! Shout out to Tadd and Julie who sent me a package. I loved it! And so did Sister Bastian! I really appreciated it:) They are so nice!

This week was amazing! I will just talk about the highlights though. On Tuesday we had an amazing devotional. Sister Marcia Nielson spoke about how her husband was called as an Area Seventy and she always had to speak with him. She told us that she always felt nervous! She felt like she lived in fear and always felt nervous to speak. Then she talked about how one time she had this realization that we just need to trust Heavenly Father and how Heavenly Father has been training you your whole life for these moments of sharing the Gospel whether it be when teaching a lesson, giving a talk, or just talking to a friend about the Gospel. All we had to do is trust the spirit and we will be prompted to say what we need to. We are always having to do thing out of our comfort zone, but we can do anything with the Lord on our side:) Then her husband Brent H. Nielson spoke and he talked about how we can't have faith and fear at the same time. He also said, "There has never been a better time to be a member of this church." And that is so true! We are so blessed to have this knowledge! One last thing he told us was something President Monson says, "He who the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies." We have all been called to be members in this church and the Lord will bless us and help us with the things we need to accomplish His work! The Lord gives us so many resources, gifts, and talents so that we can do His work in our everyday lives!:)

Then Thanksgiving!:) Sorry family, but it was one of the best ones yet! I loved Thanksgiving! We had a devotional in the morning and Elder Neil L. Andersen came to speak to us.  He spoke about how we should be grateful for everything because everything we have is a gift. Our bodies and our talents are all gifts from God. They aren't really ours. Then he talked about even being grateful for our trials! That is such a hard one, but our trials really do make us stronger and we are so blessed from them. He was talking to a missionary who had had a really bad day and he told the missionary, "If you had a day like that you must have something great in your future." I loved that and I think that is something we should always remember when we are going through something hard. When we make it through those difficult times we will be blessed! We have something great ahead.  The bigger the trial the greater the reward:) We need to remember that and cherish every moment even when it is hard! Then we had a yummy Thanksgiving lunch and we actually had real potatoes!! That was awesome! Then we watched Ephraim's Rescue and did this great service project! We made 359,000 meals for families in Utah that don't have food. I loved being able to show my gratitude by serving others. Then we got to have another devotional and walk around and look at the Christmas lights. My companions, my roommates, and I had some yummy sparkling cider and celebrated Thanksgiving in our room:)

Flight Plans!

Also, WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS!!!yay:)

Happy Thanksgiving to us!

Next week I will be emailing you from Portugal!  Woot Woot!  

I am so excited to serve the people of Portugal!

I hope you all have an amazing week.

I will probably email again on Saturday... I think we get another pday so we can pack:)

Love you all and don't forget to say your prayers:)

Love,

Sister Sampson:)

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday Dad!

Wow... What a week!:)

Last week was an adventure! On Tuesday we had an awesome devotional Elder Gary E. Stevenson came and spoke about a Missionary Thanksgiving and how we should be grateful for Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Restoration. Then he talked about how the MTC is a manifestation of diverse spiritual gifts and that is so true. I have seen how Heavenly Father has blessed each and everyone of us with different gifts and with Christ's help we can develop gifts that we don't have. He has helped me with the language so much! 

    Tuesday night I got sick.... So two out of the three of us were fighting sickness. Sister Mavy was still going strong. Wednesday we found out that Sister Kunz had pink eye so we went to the pharmacy that was across the street! It was awesome getting out of those gates. Haha. 
On Wednesday we taught a lesson and I didn't look at my notes once to help me speak Portuguese! It was awesome! I was able to trust the spirit and He helped me to know what to say. The Gift of Tongues is soo real. 

Thursday was the best! My companions and I bought matching rings, it snowed, Elder Patterson accidentally ripped his pants, and class was so good all day! Actually, class is great everyday:) 

Then Friday night it hit Sister Mavy and she got sick too! Our whole district is diseased! Then we found out that I had lice... How lovely! 

Saturday morning Sister Mavy fainted in the bathroom!! It was scary, but she is doing so much better now. She had to lay in bed all morning so we went on splits so that Sister Kunz and I could go get the lice treatment for me... They had a driver drive us to Rite Aid to get Nix (the stuff to get rid of lice). We had to wash all of my clothes and my sheets. Then Sister Kunz sat there and brushed my hair for three hours getting all of the bugs and eggs out of my hair. She was so cute and nice. Both of my companions were so kind and helpful. We finally got all the lice out and then I got pink eye in both of my eyes! The sickness that has been going around has also been giving everyone pink eye... After we got rid of the lice Sister Mavy was feeling better and we were able to go to class. What a day though! 

Then Sunday we woke up and had an awesome day! In Sacrament Brother Platt talked about obedience and how we can chose to learn from our mistakes or other peoples mistakes, but if we chose to learn from others we can save ourselves from heart break. Then we had District meeting and Elder Hilton taught about how in lessons the spirit really is teaching and so we don't have to be worried if our Portuguese isn't perfect. If we are trying our best and have the Spirit, the Spirit will help them learn what they need. Then for the Devotional Sister Meredith talked about the importance of charity. I have to companions who have been sick, but have helped take care of me and my lice problems and I think that is a great example of charity! Charity makes everything easier. When you are focusing on others because you love them and not focusing on yourself that is when you feel true happiness and Heavenly Father blesses you and your burdens become lighter! I love this Gospel! I know that this church is true and I love serving the Lord everyday!:)

Happy Thanksgiving this week! Show someone you are grateful for them through serving them! I love you all and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!:)

Week 3 :)

Answers to moms questions:

We had Sister Joy D. Jones come this Tuesday! She was amazing and said everything I needed to hear. I will talk more about her later in the email! Then yesterday Brother Richard Heaton. He is hilarious, but he was amazing. More about him later too!

 

I am definitely getting better at the Portuguese:) Still not super good though haha. We get breakzinhos and we just go to the bathroom, but when we have personal, companion, and language study time we go walk around outside and quiz each other, or we take our scriptures outside and study. It is soo nice! We did an English fast the other day... it didn't last too long hahaha. In class we just speak Portuguese or try to:)

 I have done some running:) my knee aches sometimes. This week Sister Kunz and Sister Mavy have been sick... So they have been having a rough time. So for exercise time we haven't been able to go run or do anything too extreme.

 

We get to go to the temple every Monday:) 

 

About our teachers, Irma (sister) Schill. She is our first teacher.  She is amazing and served in Portugal! She has taught 6 other districts.   She only talks to us in Portuguese and our class consists of coaching, which is where they teach us how to be a better missionary and teach us things from PMG. Then we have grammar, which is where we learn more Portuguese.

 

Our other teacher is Irmao (brother) Lynn. He is also awesome! He served his mission in Mosabique! This is his first time teaching.

This week!

Spiritual:

Sister Joy D Jones came and spoke to us. She said everything I needed to hear, which was SMILE! I may be struggling with Portuguese and not that great at it, but I just need to remember to smile because I have the happiest message! And when I am in Portugal and not yet a pro at the language I can remember to smile because I have the Gospel! And smiling means the same thing in all languages:) So remember to smile because we know our purpose and we know we are all children of God:)

Something I learned for myself this week is to rely on the spirit. Brother Richard Heaton came to speak to us on Sunday. He talked about how we need to rely on the spirit and how sometimes we don't always recognize that the Lord is guiding us, but He is as long as we are doing what is right. Sometimes we don't see how the Holy Ghost prompted us to do something until after we do it. Something that my Branch President talked about on Sunday is we are promised that we will have the spirit to be with us when we are baptized or when we take the Sacrament, but what we have to remember is we are always making mistakes and so we have to remember to invite the spirit to be with us. We have to give him the invitation by our actions. Then Sister Dansie (the branch presidents wife) talked about how we need to show are gratitude by acting on the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I loved that. 

This week while I was teaching a lesson I felt prompted to share a personal experience. When I started to share the experience I was able to teach and say what I needed in Portuguese. It came out of my mouth and I didn't even really realize what I was saying. The spirit was so strong and my investigator started to cry because it was what she needed to hear. It taught me that my Portuguese may not be perfect, but the Spirit is perfect and will get the point across that is needed. All I need to do is trust in him:) 

Silly:

We were playing Volleyball and Elder Kartchner had this genius idea to slam dunk the volleyball on the other side of the net.  In the processes he ran straight into the net and got clothes lined. It was hilarious! He landed on his back and his sunglasses went flying! He is always keeping our district laughing.

That is all for this week! Remember to SMILE because we have the happiest news:) Remember to trust in the Lord! He is always guiding us:)

Love,

Sister Sampson

Nice Little Surprise!

Another amazing week in the MTC! I really do love this place! I am learning so much! 

For exercise time most of the people from our zone go outside and play volleyball and we want to take advantage of this nice weather so we have been playing volleyball. It is so fun. Our whole district played together and it was a blast! I love my district! 

Monday:Went to the temple! I feel at home when I go there and I love it! Got a cute Halloween package from my mom! That definitely made for a great Halloween! We taught our investigator that night and asked him to get baptized! He said yes! So that was exciting!:) 

Tuesday: My companions and I had the opportunity to go to the temple again because of one Sister in our district hadn't gone through yet. She is from Jamaica. It was such a great opportunity! I can't imagine doing that without your family there, but she was awesome! She has only been to the temple one other time than that. President Nelson came to speak to us! The spirit was so strong! He talked about how the one person that needs to be converted after the end of our missions is ourselves. My companions and I sang in the choir! We sang Praise to the Man. Choir practice is amazing cuz the choir director tells us all these amazing stories. So while we were practicing Praise to the Man we were learning all about Joseph Smith and my testimony grew so much! 

Wednesday: Nothing too exciting happened... All these new missionaries came in and it was so fun saying hi to them and welcoming them in:)

Thursday: Something that I learned was that we will be held accountable for every opportunity God gives us to share the Gospel. It is really important to always act on promptings:)

Friday: I learned that Heavenly Father loves me and is aware of my needs and answers my prayers. I was really struggling with the language on Thursday and I prayed that night that he would help me. Friday was great. I felt like I was understanding the language better and I could speak it better too. I know that I couldn't learn this language on my own. Heavenly Father is definitely helping me:) 

Saturday: Our investigator ended up being our other teacher! So now we have two teachers! It is awesome! He had us have a small testimony meeting in our class and it was so cool to hear all of the testimonies of the elders and sisters in my district. We all come from different backgrounds, but we are all here for the same purpose. They are all so strong in the gospel and have taught me so much already! We are already super close and get a long great!

Sunday: SUNDAYS ARE THE BEST! It was testimony meeting in sacrament and this one missionary bore his testimony about how we are called to speak the language in the language we will teach the Gospel best in and the language we can best communicate to Heavenly Father in. That was something I needed to hear:) 

Then I had a nice little surprise... I ran into my besties at the temple! Shout out to Kayla, Kenzie, and Velisity! I loved being able to see them. It made my day!:) It was an answer to my prayers! Then we had a devotional that night and Jenny Oaks Baker and her family spoke and played music! It is amazing how music can bare testimony to you stronger than words sometimes. She played Amazing Grace and it reminded me of my dad because his choir sang it and she played the violin for them:) It was one of the Elder's bday in our district so me and my companions got him tons of ice cream at dinner and sang him happy birthday:) It was fun!

Well, that is all for this week! I love this Gospel and I know that our Heavenly Father loves each one of us and is aware of our needs and answers our prayers.  Have a great week!:)