Tuesday:
We taught one of our less actives that has been starting to come back
to church and her boyfriends brother Fernando (he was one of the
investigators that came to church last week) She was really excited to
help us teach. It was fun to see her testimony grow while she was
helping us teach.
Thursday:
We had district meeting and President has made a goal for our mission
to get 40 baptisms this month, which would be the highest amount of
baptisms that we have ever gotten in this mission in a month! So we all
picked things we were going to sacrifice to get this goal. Our districts
goal is to fear no man and talk to everyone and have one moment of WOW
where we do something that seems scary to us. Haha as in talking to a
large group of people or something like that. Then Sister Gilbert and I
made a sacrifice to wake up 30 minutes earlier everyday to study more.
For those of you that know me... you know that is a huge sacrifice for
me because I love my sleep! Last year in the month of March they set a
goal to get 35 baptisms and they did it! So we are stepping it up this
year.
Friday: We had lunch at Marlino and Debora's house. They are
this young married couple in our ward. They both served missions and
they made a goal to give the missionaries lunch every week and so far
they have been pretty good! I love it though. They are awesome and
always tell us funny stories from their missions. Then we had an appointment with Joana. She is friends with the Cardoso family (the dad
is our branch president). They don't live in our area and so we got
permission to go to their house to teach Joana because she lives by them.
Joana is also one of the people that came to church because of one of
our members last Sunday. So we got on the train and while we were on our
way to Barcelos (where they live) we met this lady named Teresa. She
asked us how long we had been in Portugal and she was very impressed
with my Portuguese for only being here for three months! So that was
cool. Then Sister Gilbert told her that we were on our way to teach
someone a lesson and slyly asked her if we could teach her the lesson to
help me practice;) Good things come out of not knowing Portuguese!
haha. And of course she was willing and nice. So we started with a
prayer and once we opened our eyes she was crying. She told us that her
husband had passed away. So instead of practicing the first lesson we
taught her the second lesson about why we are here and where we are
going and that she will see her husband again. Then before the lesson
was over we were in Barcelos and we had to hurry and get off the
train!:( We didn't even get a chance to get her number! We were so
caught up in lesson we almost missed our stop. But we were able to
answer some of her questions, help her feel the spirit, and she has a
pass along card with our number. Then we taught a lesson to Joana at the
Cardoso's house. It was awesome. Joana is from Cape Verde and speaks
Creole.... So that was fun. Sister Cardoso helped her when she didn't
understand what we were saying:) We finished the lesson at 8:56 and we had to get to the train at 9:06,
but we made it! When we got to the train station we asked this lady
which train was going to Viana because two pulled up at the same time.
She told us it was the train on the other side. So we got on and when
the guy came around we asked him for two tickets to Viana... He looked
at us like we were crazy and told us that we were on our way to Porto!!!
WHAT! We were going the opposite direction... oops. haha that was the
last train of the night too... So the guy told us that we just had to go
all the way to Porto and then the train would turn around and go back
to Viana. He was really nice and didn't make us buy a ticket for Porto
he just had us buy one for Viana. So we had a nice 3 hour train ride to
get to know each other better haha. Not like Sister Gilbert and I don't
already know each other super well haha;) So we called the Zone Leaders
and they just told us to call them when we got back to our apartment.
We got home around 12! Woohoo. haha.
Saturday: We taught that same family we taught last Sunday! They only let us teach them on Saturday's
because that is the only day they are all together. So it kind of
stinks how far apart our appointments are, but the dad is awesome! He
read the Book of Mormon and he prayed and says he feels good about it.
The rest of them aren't as interested. So since the rest of the family
didn't do our invite from last week we decided to just read with them.
We invited them to church, but the daughters have rowing practice every Sunday morning... So that was a bummer, but they are letting us come back this week, so we will see what happens:)
Sunday:
I was a little sad this morning because we had worked so hard to get
people to church and kept inviting people, but everyone told us no. Then
we were sitting in church and this guy, Gonçalves, walked in! He was
this guy we met on the street Monday
night and invited him to church and he came! It was awesome! Then
Sister Gilbert and I were in charge of teaching the Gospel Principles
Class so that was awesome because we just taught him the first lesson
and got help from all the other people in that class... which was Mina:)
haha. Susana Pinto was there for part of it too. So we have a lesson
with him this week. Then after church we had CHOIR! BEST THING EVER! So
they called Sister Andersen to be the choir director and it is awesome!
Pretty much the whole ward went to choir. It was so fun. They were all
having a blast and joking around and President Cardoso was leading us.
He is a really good singer and he reminds me of my dad. It was so fun!
And Sister Andersen brought chocolate zucchini bread. The ward went
crazy! They loved that stuff! The Andersens have really strengthened
this ward! It has been really cool to watch. Then Sister Gilbert and I
got invited over to a members house for lunch and we got to teach the
first lesson to a less active, a recent convert, and a non member that
were there for lunch too and we got to teach it with Claudia, Kimberly,
and Debora. Those three are all returned missionaries and so we split up
the lesson between all of us and taught. It was fun to teach with
them.
TODAY!:) We went to Valença to this
Fort with the Andersen's. It was lots of fun! And their cute little boy
Sterling came and told us all about pokemon:) So fun!
Well, it was an awesome week! I know that when you show the Lord your faith
through your actions He always blesses you! I love this work and I love
these people!
Beijinhos! Tchau!
Com amor,
Sister Sampson:)
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| The Andersen's took us to Valenca which is up North on the border of Portugal and Spain |
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| We are pointing to Spain which is just on the other side of the river |
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