Happy Easter from Leiria!

THIS WEEK WAS GREAT!! HAPPY EASTER!:)

I love my new area and my new companion! Her name is Sister Foote and she is from Utah #thefactory. That is what they say here if you are the typical missionary from Utah. Haha, but Sister Foote is awesome! She has been out for a year and four months... so she is pretty experienced. I have already learned so much from her. She went to cottonwood high school and is literally my twin. We are so similar it is crazy.  I love her!

We are living in a house with two other sister missionaries and it is a blast, but it is awesome because we have more hands to do the work. Sister Fortunanto is from Brazil and this is her last transfer.  She is great and she speaks really good English that she has pretty much just learned on her mission. Then Sister Huntsman is from San Diego and she came on the mission just one transfer after me and so we are pretty much at the same spot. It is great!

Tuesday I left the good old Viana and was on my way to Leiria. It was a five hour bus ride from Viana to Leiria with an hour wait in Porto to switch buses... man it was weird being alone as a missionary haha.  I am used to having someone glued to my side, but it was fun though.

The ward here is awesome.  They have a super cute chapel that I will have to take pictures of and send next week.  The ward is so happy to have six missionaries! Everyone that talks to us talk about how happy they are to have us and how excited they are to work with us. From what I can tell and what I have heard this ward is awesome with missionary work!

The highlight of the week was Sister Foote and I were helping this couple in our ward with a their reception because they just got married in the Madrid temple, but wanted to have a reception in the chapel to invite all of their non member friends to get to know the church and see them all dressed up. Then they had this idea to have the missionaries there to meet their friends and as they were leaving give them The Family Proclamation. So we had a little ceremony. One of the counselors in the bishopric gave a talk and right as we were all walking out of the room the fire alarm went off!! Yep the wedding reception was LITerally LIT,  hahaha. One of the decorations caught on fire from a candle and it burnt a huge hole in the table cloth. But we got the fire out and the decorations were okay and we still had a great time:) 

 

Then we were able to teach one of the investigators that Sister Foote has been teaching. We taught him the word of wisdom and he totally agrees to live it! This investigator has been going to church for year and a half now because his daughter loves it and just got baptized, but now he wants to be baptized. So I am excited to be able to help teach him:)

Saying good bye to some dear friends

This week was Easter and I just want to express the gratitude I have for my Savior! I know that He lives and because He lives I can live again.  I know that because of Him I can be forgiven of my sins and return home to live with my Father in Heaven after this life. I know that because of Him I am never alone. He is always there for me to help me with whatever struggle I am going through and He is there to rejoice with me when I am happy! I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and I am so grateful to be a missionary and be able to teach others about this Gospel!!

Anyways, have a great week!:) Tchau for now!:)

Com amor,

Sister Sampson

Her District in Viana

Her 5 hour bus ride on her way to her new area, all by herself!

The 4 sisters

Sister Sampson and her new companion

This is the view from her apartment:)

Just a castle that she sees out her window