Christmas Miracles!!!!

What a week! Something I have learned is there are miracles everyday we just have to look for them!:) 

We taught one of our investigators Eva and she committed to be baptized January 1st! Hopefully everything goes as planned, but she seems so excited! We are so happy for her!

On Tuesday we had our District Meeting in Povoa. It is an hour away and we only have two other elders in our district. Haha we are tiny, but it was fun. 

( I just need to tell you that last week Claire sheepishly mentioned to us that she lost the brand new camera that we had just sent her in the MTC before she left.  She said when she was on the metro her very first day going to their apartment she lost it. She thought it fell out of her bag or something.  She felt terrible about it).

Wednesday a miracle happened! We went to Porto because Sister Cook is a Sister Training Leader and had a meeting. So, I went with another Sister, Sister Stewart for the day. We went to her area in Porto and it was cool to see more of the mission. We had some pretty good rejections that day, but my favorite one was this cute old lady walked out of her house to talk to us and the second we said we were missionaries she started yelling, "No no no!" and ran away as fast as she could! We have learned to laugh at these experiences or else we would be really sad haha. It was pretty funny. We just have this awesome message that can help their lives and we can´t wait to share with them and then they just run away from us. Then that night when Sister Cook and I were getting on the bus to go back to Viana the bus driver said to another man, "Are those the girls?" Sister Cook asked them what they were talking about and they asked us if one of us lost a camera last Wednesday night!? WHAT!! No way! They had my camera! The Lord answers prayers!:) That was as miracle!

Thursday was the day of rain! That is all I remember from this day! Haha. It has been really nice weather until thursday and it just rained and rained and rained and we were soaked and it was awesome! So fun! I love the new adventures each day brings!

Friday! We taught this investigator Luiza and her son Luis. Last time we were there we didn't even get to share our lesson because Luis asked question after question about our church and so after two hours we asked if we could come back to teach them.... haha so this time we asked if we could teach and then he ask his questions after and it totally worked. They were so interested in what we were saying! We taught them the first lesson! They were so curious! Then we invited them to read the BOM and come to church and to the Branch Christmas party and they were so excited to come! Except Luiza couldn´t come to church cuz she had work... They were so interested with missionary work and asked each of us why we chose to serve a mission. So we both were able to bare our testimony about why we sacrificed everything to come. I felt the spirit so strong and I loved being able to tell them that I sacrificed being away from my family so that I could serve and love them and bring this beautiful message about how families can be together forever and we can return home to our Heaven Father because of our Savior and the Atonement. It was amazing!:)

Saturday was the branch Christmas party and we pretty much had to plan it with the Pinto family and we had to pass out the invitations, decorate, bring some food, and get everyone there, oh and plan what we would be doing. So saturday was a whole lot of running around getting everyone to the party and improvising because the projector wasn´t there and so we couldn´t watch the Christmas Devotional. It turned out great though! We did the nativity scene and then we had a picture of Jesus and we all passed it around and said what we were going to give to Jesus this year and we played games and food and we had about 5 investigators there and a few inactives! So it worked out great and the spirit was so strong!:)

Sunday! Man, we have this joke now that instead of putting sunday shoes on our packing list for the mission we need running shoes... hahaha. We left at 8 and ran around until 9:30 trying to get everyone to church. We got Eva and her daughter there and then we ran to get ana there, but while we were running to get her we turned the corner and there was Luis walking down the street on his way to church! it was perfect timing! it was a miracle! He told us he was waiting for us to call, but then just decided to try to walk there even though he didn´t exactly know where it was... we were shocked! it was crazy. we told him where it was and ran to get ana, but she was sick and could´t come. then we ran back to the church. Luis loved church! during our gospel principles class he took the gospel principle book and read the whole thing. he stopped listening to the lesson and just read. he read all about baptism and then he took the book home with him so he could read more! it was insane! he is awesome! I cant wait to teach him more!

Well there was so much more that happened this week, but those were just a few of the highlights. This week I just felt my love for the Savior increase so much! He gave us the greatest gift of all! He loves us so much and I know that for a fact! Have a great week and a Merry Christmas! I love you all! Keep smiling! Don't forget to say your prayers! Bejinios!

Love,

Sister Sampson:)