It was a great week!

It was one of those weeks that felt so long, but it was so good! I just love being a missionary! 

First I am going to answer all of your questions mom. It is a little quiet without the other two sisters here (there were 4 sisters in their apartment and one finished her mission and they transferred the other sister so it is just her and Sister Foote in the apartment now). They are missed for sure;( I will go to Porto with sister Foote and then I will go on a divisions with the other sisters that have a companion as a STL. And yep we are still teaching J-, but we didn't have a chance to teach him this week:( we had 5 investigators at church. 

Since our area is back down just two sisters we picked up all of the others sisters investigators so this week has been super busy with lots of work to do! But one of my favorite parts was sister Foote and I started teaching T- and she is awesome! She loves the Book of Mormon and the restoration. We showed her the 15 min Joseph Smith video and she loved it and went on line and watched the hour one after. Well, we ran into her with her friend and she told him all about the Book of Mormon and made us give him one. Then we got to teach them again and she wanted us to teach about the plan of salvation and she kept trying to help us. It was awesome to see her so excited about our message. 

Then my other favorite part was one night all of our plans fell through #lifeofamissionary and we decided to visit one of our members that hadn't been to church in a while. When we got there she was so happy to see and told us that she had this question about the gospel and had prayed for an answer, but felt dumb asking someone at church. She also had a hard week and we could tell it was good for her to be reminded that she is loved. It was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father loves us and is aware of our circumstances and always answers our prayers. I mean hers was so simple. She just wanted an answer to a question, but He doesn't forget about our little needs. He will always send someone our way and always remind us that we are loved. 

Well, that is it for this week folks:) Remember that Heavenly Father loves you and He answers your prayers!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson:)

Sister Sampson Stays!

Another great week in Leiria and I am staying! I will just hit the big things that happened this week-

First off all, I already told you this, but J- is not getting baptized. It was a little sad, but I know he is going to, just not yet. I know that everything happens according to the Lord's timing and so we are just going to keep helping him and praying for him:) 

We found this girl named B-. She is living with her aunt and her cousin L-. They are super cool! We taught L- and B- and after the lesson was over before we could ask if we could come back she was like, "are you going to come back?" and we were like.... of course! haha. She is super cool and has a really strong belief in God. We are hoping to teach them tonight and get the aunt there too!

We had zone conference.  It was great as usual.  I usually sit there scared out of my mind that President will call on me to go up and do a Pracitca in front of everyone, but lucky for us we didn't get called on. President talked about the parable of the talents and how we need to use our talents to build the Kingdom of God here in Portugal. It really got me thinking about how important it is for us to realize our talents and gifts and use them to help others. I know that the Lord gives each of us different gifts to help those around us and we all have so much worth. The more we use our gifts to help others the more the Lord will bless and help us. Then he talked about how important it is for us to "abrir nossa boca" (open our mouths)! I know that as missionaries and members of this church it is our calling to always open our mouths. When ever we feel that prompting we need to act on it.  I know that the Lord will always fill our mouths with what we need to say as we act righteously:)

We said goodbye to Sister Fortunato. She is going back to Brazil! She served an awesome mission! Sister Hunstman is getting transferred to Foz de Douro! So sad that she is leaving us. I am excited though cuz I get to be with Sister Foote for her last transfer!:)

All in all, it was a great week! We had lots of laughs, cries, and more. 

 

Eu amo voces! Tem uma boa semana e ficam firme!   Tchau for now:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson:)

Happy Mother's Day

This week was the bomb! haha. I am just going to hit a few of the highlights!

First of all I got to meet the awesome Foote family! That was fun to see her skype her family and since you guys were partying it up in Israel on Mother's Day I am excited to skype you next week!:)

Sister Foote and Sister Fortunato went to Coimbra and so Sister Huntsman and I got to teach J- the ten commandments by ourselves! It was a blast and his daughter who just got baptized was helping us the whole time. She is super cute. His baptism is still this Saturday!:)

The lady I talked about last week her name is V-. She is a student here in Leiria and she let us come back and teach her the first lesson. She accepted The Book of Mormon and told us we can come back this week. She is super cool and is really interested in our lesson. So I am excited to go back and see her again!

It was Elder Holdsworth's birthday and we threw him a surprise party! It was great! Also, there was a huge benfica(soccer) party happening and everyone was going crazy Saturday night. Honking their horns and dancing to really loud music in the street. It was crazy!

I have taught the Blue Haired Lady song to the Sisters in my house and it is a hit! Haha. Always stuck in our heads! Well

Happy (american) Mother's Day! Have a great week! Thanks for the package mom! I loved it! Made my week!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson​

We've Been Crazy Busy!

I feel like I haven't talk to you all in forever! It has been busy busy busy and we haven't had a ton of email time! Anyways, this week was AWESOME! But let´s be real. Every week is awesome when you are serving the Lord. 

So last pday we went on this crazy adventure. We got to go to obidios, caldes da rainha, martino do porto, nazare, and praia são pedro do moel! Our little friend the taxi driver took us all around and told us all about the places and took pictures for us. It was a blast! It was like 4 pdays in one!

Then the rest of the week was great! I have seen miracles everyday! We have been finding and teaching lots of people! 

We were able to teach the lady we had a picnic in the backyard with again. We got there and we started to teach her about the Plan of Salvation, but she wouldn't let us talk at all. Haha she kept interrupting us and talking to us about other things. So we got out of there and barely were able to get a word in... So we decided we are going to try her one more time. She told us all about the BOM and what she read and so we left her a chapter that goes along with the Plan of Salvation. So hopefully next time we will be able to talk:)

One of my favorite lessons we taught this week was just at this lady's door. We knocked on her door and asked her if we could share a message with her and she was like, "Why not?" So we had this cool little game that teaches the whole Plan of Salvation and she loved it and kept agreeing with us and told us that she believes the same thing. She was just soaking it all in. Then she told us that her father passed away. We told her all about how he is waiting in the spirit world and that she will be able to see him again! I could just see the light in her eyes get even brighter and I was able to share my testimony of how I love the Plan of Salvation and how I know that because of it I will be able to see my little brother again! I love being able to connect with people and share with them the joy that this gospel brings! 

We also taught J- about tithing and he accepted it! His baptism is the May 20th so we are still working with him and getting him ready!

In church a miracle happened! This family just showed up and told us that the dad is friend with a member and wanted to come. Then we asked the dad if he was a member because he seems to know a lot and he said yeah, but I haven't been baptized yet. hahaha. So we got there info and are going to try to teach them this week!

Anyways, I love it here in Leiria! The members are awesome! The people here have been so prepared by the Lord! I love serving with Sister Foote! Sister Fortunato and Sister Huntsman are awesome too! I love being a missionary! Have a great week! Keep smiling:)

Tchau for now!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson

P.S. Happy mothers day to all the awesome mom's out there! You are amazing! This last Sunday was mother's day in Portugal so yeah:)