Feliz Natal!

Well I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We had a great Christmas here in Coimbra! This week was full of adventures. I loved having the opportunity to be a representative of Jesus Christ at this time of the year. 

We found this mom named B-z and her daughter Me-a during this week and they are incredible. They were a reference from the Elders and they opened the doors and let us right in. When we started to talk about Jesus Christ the spirit was so strong and you could feel the love the Savior had for this cute little family. We also had lots of activities with the elders where we sang for people and gave out calendars and gave presents to people like Book of Mormon:) It was a great experience! 

Sister Guerra and I were asked to speak in church. We spoke about being a light. Then we went Christmas caroling and delivered cookies to investigators and members or less actives that we knew didn't have family to be with this year. We visit one sister who´s husband is sick and sang to them and she told us we were a present from heaven. Then the elders gave the husband a blessing and it was so incredible I loved being able to do what Christ would do if He were here. 
We had special permission from our mission president to eat dinner at a members house from 9 to 11 on Christmas eve and so we spent it at the Cruz´s. 

It was a great Christmas and I loved talking to my family!:) Thank you for all of your love and support and happy new year to you all:)

Remember that Jesus is the light of the world and He is lighting the path back to our Heavenly Father. Because He was born and because He lives we can have eternal life. Remember that He didn't just light the way, but He is by your side every step of the way. Love you:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson 

Christmas in Coimbra

Well, I am staying here in Coimbra with cute Sister Guerra:) We are super excited for this transfer, it is going to be awesome! We had a great week this week and lots of awesome things happened! 

Monday: We had a lot of things planned for the night and teach a ton of lessons, but everything fell through and I was a little bummed, but in the end A-ia needed help moving more things from her house and so we got to help her and the elders. I learned that day that if things don't go as you planned it is because Heavenly Father planned something else for you. Haha:)  We were able to help A-ia because she was super stressed that day.

Tuesday: We taught T-ia and L-a the message of the restoration and it was awesome! At the end of the lesson T-ia was like, "thats it? don't you have more? I wasn't ready for it to be over." T-ia is a huge blessing to us and an answer to my prayers. I just kept praying that we would find someone who really had the desire to learn what we were teaching and was truly prepared. I love teaching people that really are willing to learn and have that desire to gain a testimony. After that we got to help A-ia some more. That was also fun:)

Wednesday: We got to teach T-ia and L-a again! We also had a member named F-na that came and I just love having members in our lessons. She bore her testimony about the atonement and it was just so sincere and real and you could tell that her testimony really touched T-ia. 

Thursday: We had ZONE CONFERENCE!! It was great as usual. We talked a lot about how blessed we are to be missionaries sharing a message about Christ at this time of the year. I also got to see Sister Shipp:) so that was great! We had a yummy Christmas lunch tool Then that night I had divisions with Sister Cabanas (who is currently on her way home cuz she finished her mission:(). We went over to see T-ia again just to talk to her because L-a couldn't meet with us that night. And we just wanted to see if she had any questions... and did she have questions! She told us she didn't want to ask us cuz L-a was there. But she goes off asking about tithing and polygamy and me and sister Cabanas look at each other like oh no. But we answered her questions with confidence and while we were talking to her about polygamy S-ra (our other investigator) walks in and bares her testimony on the importance of family and how that is why she is joining the church and that she knows it is true. And man it was so cool hearing an investigator bare her testimony to another investigator! Then she left. After we explained everything to T-ia she completely agreed to everything we had shared and said that she wants us to keep helping her gain her own testimony that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world just like us. It was awesome! Then we helped A-ia more with moving.

Saturday: We had our ward Christmas Party and it was a BLAST! We did 2 skits as the missionaries and the ward loved them. Sister Guerra will try to send the videos.

Sunday: Was great, but I am out of time...

Love you all and I promise my email next week will be better! Have a great Christmas and remember the Savior and everything He has done for you! I know He loves you!

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Another great week!

This week was great, well from what I can remember. The weeks just keep going by so fast and so much happens. I feel like it is a blur. Here are a few things that happened this week.

Monday: We were able to visit F-pa and her family. They haven't been progressing as much, but it was good to visit them and see how they were doing. They are super funny and they have this crazy dog named Ferious. We talked about light the world and invited them to participate.  The kids loved the video and told us that they are excited to be apart:)

Tuesday: We had a leadership meeting with President. Then we found this really cool lady named El-e! She is so awesome! She told us about a lot of difficulties she has had in her life and how she has felt that someone is always helping her and she knows that God has to exist. I think it is incredible how much faith she has. 

Wednesday: We did divisions with the other sisters! It was great! I was with sister Gomes! She was the first sister that I have ever done a division with and I did the last transfer with her because she goes home next week!

Thursday: We helped this cute lady in our ward move:) I love doing service. 

Friday: We had a family night in our chapel and it was SO FUN! All the ward members brought food and we had games and a spiritual part. Elder Bortolo talked about the importance of the Holy Ghost. It was great. Al-e was able to come and she had so much fun. 

Saturday: #throwbacktoleiria I got to go to Leiria! We did a zone activity like we did last week and we did it in Leiria:) It was so great to go back there.

Sunday: At church our stake president spoke and he talked about how we can be the light of the world when we choose to do the best thing. He talked about how everyday we have a choice to do the good, better, or best and how sometimes we forget what the best things are because we get distracted by the good things. And it is so true and exactly what I need to hear:) Also T-ia came to church!

Well, that is all! I love you and don't forget to do the best things:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson

#sejaaluzdomundo

FELIZ NATAL!!!!! #sejaaluzdomundo

I just love Christmas time and I hope that all of you are participating in Light the World. I just think it is so incredible that all of us all over the world are celebrating Christ´s birth through service. Our mission president gave us tons of material like calendars and pamphlets so that we can get everyone over here in Portugal involved! It is so fun singing hymns and talking about Jesus Christ at this time of the year! I love being a missionary at Christmas time.

Wow this week flew by.. It was a great week!

We talked to S-a about her baptism!! She said that she will be baptized on the 6th or the 13th of January. And then we made all of these plans to help her reach her goal. She wants us to teach L-a and since she has work we are going to start teaching her at their neighbors house, T-ia, who is also really interested in the church! S-a has already talked to T-ia all about the church, she is the best nonmember missionary! Then in church on Sunday T-ia came with S-a and she was soooo interested!! She tooks notes the whole time:) 

Also, we had a zone activity in the Baixa and we had our banners and sang christmas songs for everyone and handed out calendars. It was super fun and A-w the man we met at the store was there to look around and he was so excited to see the missionaries! It was hilarious he wanted a picture with us and stayed there listening. He told us that we were angels. And dad you would be so proud cuz I had to lead all the missionaries to sing. haha. Just thought you would like to know;)

Anyways, I am out of time! I love you all and hope you have week! Remember the Savior and be a light to the world!!

com amor,

Sister Sampson:)

This was part of her email from last week that I never posted:

Friday (24) HAPPY BDAY DAD! 

We did our weekly planning and we also had correlation with our ward mission leader and the elders. Then we visited F-a and her family. She was super sick and so Sister Guerra did her dishes for her.

Saturday (25): We contacted this lady our first week of the transfer and finally got an appointment with her! Her name is T-ha and she already has talked to the sisters. She has a lot of questions and she remembers a lot from the other sisters.

Sunday (26): So on pday sister Guerra and I were at the store doing our groceries and this old man comes up to me and asks me if I am from Poland (with an awesome english accent). Then he sat and talked to us for about 20 minutes about how he is from Germany, but then when he was like 14 went to New York and then moved to France and some how he ended up in Portugal two days ago. Well he was really interested in what we do and we invited him to church. Well, he came! And he loved it and one of our elders sat with him the whole time and spoke english with him. They are going to try to teach him. So that was really cool. 

We also found out that one of the families we found a while ago the mom had her baby on the 24th! Then later Sunday night we were walking by one of our investigators house, T-is, and Sister Guerra felt like we needed to visit her even though we thought she was out of town, but she wasn't and she was actually sick and so we were able to share a scripture with her to make her feel better:) 

Well that was my week! It was quite the week. Almost all of our appointments fell through, but Heavenly Father still sent us tender mercies and ways to serve people:) All in all it was a great week and I am grateful for all of you. Also, I read 1 Nephi 16:29 this week: Remember that by the small things God brings about great things. Keep doing the small things everyday in your life like saying your prayers and reading your scriptures, and serving those around you and Heavenly Father will bring miracles your way:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson

BEM VINDO SISTER GUERRA

I got my new comp this week! She is from El Salvador and she knows how to cook! I love her! There is something so special about new missionaries.  She notices all the small incredible miracles that happen everyday. One day as we were walking she turned to me and told me... I can feel someone walking by us. We aren't walking alone. 
It reminded me that we are never walking alone. The Savior is always by our side.

 I don't have a lot of time this week, but I will tell you few things-

I got my new comp in Porto on Wednesday and I had to do a part in the training meeting!

We met with Sandra and we showed her how she can listen to the BoM on the LDS application. She thought it was the BEST thing ever! haha

We had a funeral for a member in our ward. The missionaries took turns staying at the viewing.

We found this really cool girl name Th-s that lived in Arizona for four months and went to the temple grounds there! She was like my friends are Mormon! She let us teach her about the restoration.

Well I love you all!!!

com amor,

Sister Sampson

#tchau tchau bacalhau

Well sorry this one is going to be a short! But this week really was awesome! I think my favorite part was we found two awesome families!!! A few weeks ago we were heart attacking A-e and Sister Marshall contacted this man name R-o and he was with his two little boys. He told us that his wife was about to have a baby. Well, one of our appointments fell through that was right by R-o´s apartment building. We were about to leave the area when we both felt prompted to go talk to this family. We rang their doorbell and they let us in. THE FAMILY IS ADORABLE!!! We asked the dad why he let us in and he told us that he isn´t really religious but decided that two young girls that could be doing anything else with their time but are here to share a message there has to be something great with this message. We shared the restoration with them.  It was so awesome. The mom is really pregnant and could have the baby at anytime, but we are going to visit them this week if she doesn't have the baby. 

We also found this other really cool family that has already had the missionaries visit them before and have already been to church:) A mom, a dad, and a 12 year old boy. We are so excited to teach them too. 

We also had a nice visit from Sister Shipp:) It was so great to get to see her. Her companion had to do stuff for her residency and so she stayed with us for a night:) It rained a little bit last week too.

The elders also had a baptism on Saturday. Her name is M-e and she is incredible. She bore her testimony on Sunday about how she always knew the church was true, but never wanted to except. She saw the missionaries all the time. On the street, on the bus and they always contacted her and she always gave them an excuse why she couldn't talk to them, but then two months ago they knocked on her door and nothing could come to mind of why to tell them no. She said these two young men could be doing anything right now, but they chose to come to my house to share a message. And now she is baptized:)

Really though don't forget how incredible this message is and how blessed we are to have it in our lives. I love you all! 

Oh yeah about transfers! Sister Marshall is leaving:( #tchautchaubacalhau! My new comp is going to get here on Wednesday.  I don't know who it is cuz I am training again!!!

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Attachments area

Roses and Thorns

This week was just full of learning experiences, but that is just how life is right?!?! That is why we are here:) We are always learning. I love it. 
Anyways, the Holy Ghost really is the best teacher! One of my favorite learning experiences this week was when Sister Marshall and I were walking past a bus stop and as we were walking by we decided to talk to this lady that was waiting for the bus. As we approached her I started handing her a pass along card she started signaling to us that she is deaf. She couldn't hear us. So we grab a Book of Mormon out of our bags. Sister Marshall started to write a note for her in the cover and I sat next to her and started passing her notes asking her name and getting to know her. As we handed her the Book of Mormon she looked so happy that we didn't let words be the reason we didn't share the message with her. I have never felt the spirit so strong as I did when we were with her. We walked away crying because we knew that the spirit taught her something better than we could have with our words.

I hit one year this week! I can't believe it! Feels like such a small amount of time, but like so much has happened. We were in Santarém for our divisions. The sisters decorated with some balloons to celebrate my one year in the mission. 

On wednesday and Thursday I got to work with Sister Marcedo. It was great to learn from her and find out ways I can be a better missionary and help my area here in Coimbra.  

This week all of our appointments with A-e fell through and so we went over to her house and heart attacked her door! And we got to see her at church:)

So the time change happened here on Saturday night. SO GUESS WHAT THAT MEANS! Our mission President surprised us and let us stay out one more hour to work! Sister Marshall and I had a great day and found two more awesome families to teach and so we were so excited to have one more hour to find one more person to teach. We tried to call to see if we could meet with this girl named C-a that we talked to a while ago and right when she answered her phone our phone died! It was 10 at night and we really so badly wanted to make the most of the hour. We prayed and decided to ask these people if we could use their phone. They told us no, I guess we come across a little sketchy;) haha. Then we saw this man looking for something in the grass and we started helping him. He was really cool but we weren't able to help him find his keys, but he let us use his phone. We called C-a but she was busy:( 

After that, we decided it was time to go home. As we were walking we saw this lady on a bench. We sat next to her and started talking to her. She had had a really rough day and we were able to testify to her that she has a Savior that knows what she is going through and is there by her side. It was neat to have that experience and once again reminded me of the love that Heavenly Father has for His children and the confidence He has in His missionaries trusting us enough to share the good news. 

Something that Sister Marshall taught me this week is something that her family does. What is your rose and your thorn from the day? So one good thing and one bad thing, but as we started doing this every night we started to realize that we are sooo blessed and we have a lot more roses and not very many thorns, but our thorns make us more grateful for the roses that we have. 

Bye! Love you! What are your roses?:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson