Olá! Tudo bem!!??

Okay this week started pretty interesting! On Monday night Sister Gilbert and I had an appointment in the chapel with a member with someone we found in the area book. After our Pday was over we started on our way and as we turned this corner we saw these two men and just like we do with everyone we said, "Boa noite!" and they responded, "Olá meninas!" and then they started to follow us! At first I just thought they happened to be going the same way as us, but after walking for ten minutes and crossing the street a few times and them still behind us... I started to get a little freaked out. Sister Gilbert was telling me a story and she didn´t notice so I leaned over to her and told her and asked her what we should do because we were almost to the chapel and we didn't want them to follow us into the chapel. So we decided to walk to the members house and get a ride with her to the chapel to our appointment! As we started to go a different direction the two men stopped in front of the chapel! We got to the members and told her what happened as we pulled up to the chapel the two men were still there, but they had a friend! Hahaha... turns out that the friend was who we had an appointment with and the others came cuz they are all friends! So we all had a good laugh about that! We had ran away from our investigators! The lesson went pretty well and one of the three came to church on Sunday:)

We had this one day when we were knocking doors and we didn't know where to go next because no one was answering and so Sister Gilbert said, "Vamos orar!" and so we prayed for help to know what to do and then we opened our eyes and there was this lady that walked into her house right then! So Sister Gilbert and I headed over there to talk to her! We rang her doorbell and she came out! Her name was Ana and she was so nice and she started talking to us in English! She speaks English really well! We started talking to her and she told us that she had a lot of trials in her life, but she know that God is always with her. Then she told about how two days after her son was born her husband passed away. We were able to bare testimony to her that because of this gospel we can live with our families again and see those again that have passed away! The spirit was so strong and there were tears in all of our eyes! I am so grateful for this gospel and for the knowledge that we have that we can live with our families again! It brings me so much joy to know that I will be able to see my little brother again and I love being able to share my testimony with others so that they can know the same thing! I know that we go through trials to strengthen our testimonies, but also to help and strengthen the testimonies of others!

We are continuing to teach Jose, but he isn´t progressing as much, but he is still coming to church. He really wants to get an answer for himself that baptism is right. We have been praying for him and for ourselves to know how we can help him. So we will see what happens with him this week!

I know that we go through trials to strengthen our testimonies, but also to help and strengthen the testimonies of others.  I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and is always guiding us.  I know that this is the Lord´s work and everything happens according to His will and His timing! I love being a missionary and I love seeing miracles happen every day.  I have learned so much this week and I am excited to keep learning more!:)

Com amor,

Sister Sampson:)

Fun Fact about Portugal! So apparently in Porto Portugal in a cafe is where JK Rowling got her idea for Harry Potter. So literally I feel like I am in Harry Potter all the time! The Catholic students have these uniforms that are cloaks and they walk around at night #theylooklikewizards and the trees all look like the whomping willow tree! It is awesome! haha. 

It was pouring rain and we got soaked!

                                                                                                               

First week of my second transfer!

I got my new companion this week! Sister Gilbert! She is amazing! She is from Hawaii and has been out for 7 months! I love her and I am so grateful the Lord blessed me to have her as a companion! She is such a happy person and connects so well with the people! She has such a strong testimony of prayer and I love the example she has already set for me! There is so much work to be done here in Viana do Castelo and I am so excited to being doing it with her! The tender mercies of this week started with this Tuesday! I got my new companion and while we were on the train back to Viana from Porto this man was in front of us and could tell that I was American! He asked us if he could speak English with us. He is from Portugal and learned English and wanted to practice and so we shared with him the first lesson! It was awesome! It was a tender mercy for me because I was actually able to say everything I felt prompted to say and could express my feelings completely! Heavenly Father knew I needed that! The man wasn't interested to hear more, but we gave him a pass along card and I am grateful we were able to help him feel the love God has for him and I know some day he will want to learn more:)

Another tender mercy that happened was on Wednesday when I took my new comp over to meet the Pinto family and I was feeling stressed because I had to show Sister Gilbert this area and the people and I still felt so new and like I didn't know anything and then I looked around at their family, Ana (she came with us because she was teaching with us), and my companion and I saw the love that they had for me and I knew that the Lord blessed me with them to help me and He is there for me and I have so many people and Him to help me! It was great!

One other tender mercy was this week was I all of a sudden just gained this love for Portuguese! This has blessed me with more dedication to learn and study the language and it has made it easier to not get frustrated with myself when I don't know things, but has given me more of a desire to learn! And because of this I have been able to understand a lot more!

My testimony of the love God has for each of His children has really grown this week! He loves each and everyone of us and He answers our prayers! Keep being awesome! I love you all! You are in my prayers!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson:)​
 

New companion!

I think she was pretty excited to get a package!

Loving the family calendar

They got Baptized!!!

I don't even know where to begin! This week has been so amazing and so full of miracles! I will just hit the highlights of this week!

Mina and Ana are incredible! They were baptized this Saturday and it was beautiful! They were glowing and you could just tell they were so happy. I think the reason that it was so amazing was because I know how much they gave up and how much they changed to join the church. Mina is a completely different person and has so much joy in her life now. I was able to see the change. I saw her before the gospel was in her life and then after when she really developed a testimony. She also loves telling everyone about how the Gospel has helped her! She is already a missionary! Mina and Ana both bore their testimonies at their baptism and you could feel the spirit so strong. They talked about how hard it was, but how the have been blessed by following the commandments. Then Mina and Ana received the Holy Ghost on Sunday and just when I thought they couldn't get any happier they did. They looked like angels! This branch needs Mina and Ana and Mina and Ana need them! 

One of my favorite moments from this week was we were sitting in our Gospel Principles Class at church. It was Sister Cook, Me, Eva (recent convert), Mina (recent convert), Jose (investigator), and the teacher. Jose was asking about the holy ghost and how he could feel it. And it was the most amazing thing to watch Eva and Mina answer his questions and talk about their baptisms and about how they felt when they received the Holy Ghost! It was AWESOME! Sister Cook, the teacher, and I didn't have to say anything because Eva and Mina were teaching Jose our investigator!

On Tuesday Beatriz came teaching with us. She is 11 and wants to serve a mission. We taught her all the ways of a missionary. We taught her how to contact and we even taught her the rejection dance! She loved it! Then she helped us teach the first lesson to this family and she invited them to church! It was so fun to watch her light up as she talked about Joseph Smith and tell them what she knows is true! It made me so happy and just reminded me how great it is to be a missionary! 

I haven't talked very much about our investigator Jose, but we were out knocking doors weeks ago and we knocked on his door and gave him a pamphlet of The Restoration. That was it. It was late and we weren't able to teach him. Then last week we called him and asked him if he would come to church and he said yes. Then this week we taught him twice and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He has a date set for February 3! So we will be working with him to prepare him for baptism! So keep him in your prayers!:) But the most amazing part is he is a member of another church, but he was so interested with the Holy Ghost and he kept wanting to know how he can receive and answer and feel the Holy Ghost. He said he never really felt that good feeling that everyone is talking about, but the moment that we asked him to be baptized the spirit was soo strong and he got all choked up as he was saying yes! Then on Sunday we talked to him and asked him how he felt when he said yes to baptism. He told us that he felt good and we helped him realize that it was the Holy Ghost! He was so excited! I am so happy for him! He is awesome! 

This week was awesome! I love you guys and hope you have the best week ever! I pray for all of you and thank you for your prayers!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson:)

Another great week here in Portugal!

Man this place is amazing and I love it here! Something I learned this week is the Lord is ALWAYS guiding us when we are doing what's right! Everything happens for a reason! I can not tell you how many times this week the Lord directed Sister Cook and I to a person we needed to talk to or a person we needed to teach! 

One day sister Cook and I felt like we really needed to teach a certain family who lived about 30 minutes and when we got to the house and knocked on the door they weren't there... but then we walked around the corner and we remembered someone else that lived right by them! We had contacted the husband a week ago, but every time we went back they weren't home, but this time they were home and we were able to them the first lesson! So even though we weren't planning on teaching them the Lord always has a plan in mind! That is just one example that happened this week. 

Another awesome experience was Ana (our investigator) wanted to come teach with us this week! She is incredible and has such a strong testimony! So she came and I could tell she was scared and so she sat by me in the lesson and held my hand. At first she was scared to talk, but then after I shared something she was more willing to speak and I think it is because she knows how hard it is for me to speak Portuguese and so it gave her more courage to talk. The spirit was so strong during that lesson just three girls talking about the Savior. Then after the lesson she turned to Sister Cook and I and told us that she wants to get baptized on Sunday and not wait for her mom! But then when she told her mom that her mom was like no we are both getting baptized next Saturday


! So we have been working really hard with them this week trying to help get ready for their baptism this Saturday! Please pray for Mina and Ana this week and that all will go well:)

Then this Sunday Eva received the gift of The Holy Ghost! It was amazing! I felt the spirit soo strong! She received a gift that will bless her the rest of her life! He will be there to guide her, comfort her, and help her to know what is true! One of the greatest gifts of all! In PMG it says, "This gift is a foretaste of eternal joy and a promise of eternal life." We are so blessed to have to Holy Ghost! Then we gave her a picture we printed out of her from her baptism and she went around and showed everyone it! It made me so happy to see her so happy!:)

I love this gospel and I know this church is true! I love the Savior and I know that He suffered for each and everyone of us so that we can return Home to our Heavenly Father! I love being a missionary! Have a great week and don't forget to say your prayers! Beijinhos!:)

                                                                        Com amor,

Sister Sampson

Happy New Year!

This week was AWESOME! I love every week here, but this one was one for the books! I like to call it the week of tender mercies! The Lord really does bless us with tender mercies everyday we just have to look for them!

First Tender Mercy:

 

Eva's Baptism! It was perfect! Everything worked out! Somehow we fit 11 people in a 9 person van and got to Povoa for the baptism on time. Then the font was the perfect temperature and full. The last recent convert that had the baptism clothes showed up just in time for Eva to use them, which was awesome cuz the recent convert was feeling sick that day and almost didn't bring the clothes, but she brought them anyways and decided to stay for the whole thing. Irmao and Irma Pinto spoke and then Eva was baptized! She was glowing! I am so happy for her.

Next Tender Mercy:

We had a really long day one day. We were knocking doors and going to appointments and everyone was rejecting us! Sadly that happens sometimes, but to make our day better Sister Cook and I made up a rejection dance. It is great, something that can make us smile even when people are rejecting us, but then we saw this guy walking his dog and we gave him a pass along card and asked him if he was married. He told us that his wife is Maria (a lady that Sister Cook and I contacted the other day on the street and set up an appointment with, but didn't make it to the appointment because that day had been crazy!). We asked if we could share a message with him sometime and he said, "Yeah! Right now!" So we went inside and taught him and his wife! They are awesome and I hope we get to teach them some more!

Third Tender Mercy:

We had to run to the store one day during lunch because we had ran out of eggs and while we were standing there this cute old lady came up to us and gave us the biggest hug! She said that she loved us so much and that we are very beautiful. If an random old lady giving you a hug in the store in Portugal doesn't make your day then I don't know what will. It was awesome!

Fourth Tender Mercy:

Sister Cook and I were walking to go teach a lesson on New Years Eve's night and as we were walking we walked passed this young women sitting on the steps of her apartment both of us were prompted to go to her. Without saying anything to each other we walked to her and right as we got there we saw that she was crying. She looked up and just gave Sister Cook a big hug. We sat there for a second and comforted her and put our arms around her. Then we asked her if she was okay and she told us that her parents are going through a divorce and it has been a really hard time for her family. We told her that God loves her and gave her a pass along card with Christ. We asked her if we could come talk to her again and then we got her name, number, and address. She gave us one more big hug and then we walked away. As we were walking away it hit me again that we really are representatives of Christ. We are sharing and loving these people as He would. When we were sitting next to her I could feel that the Savior really loves her and that is what He would have done. I am so grateful for this Calling and I can't wait for this next year to learn and become the best missionary I can be.

Fifth Tender Mercy:

Last week we decided to take a break from this family we had been teaching (they had been marked for baptism), but they were no longer progressing. It was really sad. They were really struggling with the commandments, but then this Friday the mom called us and told us that she wanted to come to church! So Mina, Ana, and Lara all came to church! It was awesome! Then in the last meeting we were talking about goals and mina (the mom) got up in front of everyone and wrote on the board her goal and it was baptism! Then she wrote down all of her plans to get there.... repentance, keeping the word of wisdom, keeping the law of chastityand all of that fun stuff. It was awesome! The ward members were loving it and Sister Cook and I were dying because she has changed so much! It was great!:) Hopefully she will keep this fire that is going inside of her! I have faith she can do it!

Well that is all for this week! There really are so many tender mercies in our everyday lives! I love being a missionary! I love Portugal! And I love the people here! Bom ano! Beijinhos!:)

Love,

Sister Sampson:)