A Good Week:)

GOOD WEEK! We had some crazy things happen. Our power went out for a day and our water stopped working for a day too! Now it is all working, but we don't have hot water,  haha it was nice though cuz we got a visit from our cute senior couple! The Lamm´s! I love them! 

P- We taught her once this week, but she still didn't come to church.

 

L and her family left on another trip last week and so hopefully we will see them this week.

This week I- came. She is this lady that has been coming to church like all the time and every time we try to teach her she cancels on us, but she said it really will happen this week! hahah. SO we have faith it will happen:)

J- is still going to church! We are going to visit them and see how all the wedding things are going. 

We found this guy named M-. He was out working in his yard and he had a lot of doubts and we talked to him a little bit about faith and asked if we could come back and teach him and his wife. He said of course! He seems to have a lot of potential and said he already has talked to the missionaries and so we are super excited to talk to him next week:) 

It was a great week.  Sister Shipp and I are working hard and having a blast:) It is great here in Portugal! and we feel like it should be Christmas time so we sing Christmas songs all the time, haha. That's all love you mom and dad:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson:)

You are the Miracle!

Well it was another great week here in Portugal! I will just start from the beginning:)

Tuesday: We had a lesson with this lady that Sister Foote had taught and she had this crazy dog that literally was attacking me the whole entire lesson trying to get to Sister Shipp.  I got bit and slobbered on, but the lesson was really good and the spirit was there. When we left we had a good laugh:) 

Then we found this awesome lady with her new born baby! It was great!

Wednesday: We were walking down the street and got attacked by these caterpillars! haha. So it might just be the season for caterpillars here, but they hang down from the trees attached to these webs and if you are walking under the trees you run into millions of them. 

We had a rough day with some rough lessons, but then we got to visit L- because they had just gotten home from their trip and cute Lil- was soo excited to see us and it made the whole day worth it:)

Thursday: Zone Conference.  It was so good. I learned a lot! We watched this video about this guy named Nick who was born without arms and legs. He talked about how he always prayed and asked God to change his situation or give him a miracle, but then he said something that really hit me. He said, "If God didn't give you a miracle, you are the miracle." That made me think about life and our struggles, trials, and difficulties. I thought about how we sometimes pray to be out of a situation or to change a situation or ask for our situation to be easier and sometimes things don´t go as we hope, but Heavenly Father doesn´t change it because you are HIS MIRACLE and He will use you to help His work grow and you can be the miracle for others. He will only give us what we can handle and as we fight our fight we will be changed into the person He wants us to be and He will use us to help others see miracles. 

Friday: Nothing too crazy happened. We sat on a bench to make some phone calls and this HUGE spider crawled on my arm. We also did some missionary work with one of our members.

Saturday: It was Jorge's baptism.  The elders have been working with this guy Jorge for so long and he was baptized! It was awesome:) It was so cool to watch the Atonement of Jesus Christ really change his life and help him. He is awesome.  Then at 7:30 our zone leaders called us and challenged us to find 2 new investigators before the end of the night. So we said a prayer and promised the Lord that we would do everything to find 2 new investigators and asked for His help. Then we worked super hard and we were able to find 2 people that really were interested in our message and are letting us come back. I know that when we really put our faith in the Lord and do everything we can to show our faith the Lord will bless us and help us. 

Well I got to go, but it was a great week! Thanks for all the love and support:) Remember you are a MIRACLE:) 

com amor,

Sister Sampson

 

I got my new "Shipp" ment

Hey everyone! This week was soooo great! I LOVE MY NEW COMPANION! She is super cute! She is from Kansas (there is no place like home) and her name is Sister Shipp.

Monday: I worked with Sister Costa and Sister Shepard. It was super great to be with them. They are awesome missionaries!

Tuesday: Happy Fourth! I was still in Coimbra with the other sisters. We ate KFC for lunch because ya know it was America´s birthday:) Then president gave us this challenge this week to give pass along cards to cars stopped at red lights. IT was quite the adrenaline rush, but we did that during the afternoon. Then we had a lesson with one of their investigators and we had an awesome lesson and marked her for baptism. It is fun working in another area helping the work grow there:)

Wednesday: We went to the training meeting in Porto to pick up our new companions! We had the training meeting until about 4. Then we caught our a three hour bus ride to Leiria and had plenty of time to get to know each other:) We had like a half hour to work once we got to Leiria and so we went and contacted people and she did awesome wasn't even afraid! 

Thursday: My favorite part of the day was we went over to this old investigators house. Her name is S- and when we got there she told us about how mad she was at us and with some people. I felt so worried. I didn't know what to tell her and then I remembered that the Lord would help me through the situation and I was just praying so hard in my heart that I would know what to say. Then we asked if she had been reading the BOM and she said no because she was mad at us. So we asked if we could pray and read and she said sure. After we prayed and read Sister Shipp and I bore our testimonies about the BOM and her heart completely changed and she told us that is will read again. I think it is just so awesome how the holy ghost can change someones heart.

Friday: Had an appointment with P-! We talked about Faith, Repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. It was awesome. We talked about the importance of church. We invited her to church and invited her to be baptized again. She said that she switched jobs so that she can come to church on Sunday and she told us she wants to be baptized the 22nd. It was a great lesson and it was awesome cuz Sister Shipp got to teach in English:)

Saturday: We worked hard. That is all I remember haha.

Sunday: P- came to church! It was great! Then we were knocking doors and contacting everyone, but no one wanted to listen. Then finally we knocked this door and this lady C- answered and let us teach her. She was so nice and the spirit was so strong there. Sister Shipp and I struggled through our Portuguese, but we were all in tears and I can't even remember what was said, but I knew the Lord was using us to answer her prayers and our prayers and that moment made the whole rest of the day worth it:) Because I know she knew that her Heavenly Father loves her and the Savior is there to help her through the tough times

It was a great week! I love you all!  Tchau for now:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Sister Foote has left her "FOOTE" print here in Portugal

Hey:) I am sorry I didn't have time to write last week! It was crazy and we didn't really get to email. But this week was great and my last one with Sister Foote! She is on her way back to the good old Utah! I gave her a hug to give to you mom! Anyways, I will start from the beginning of the week!

Monday- We had pday with President and we got to watch finding dory and we played a Brazilian version of dodge ball! It was super fun! That night we had dinner at a members house and had a great family night with them too!

Tuesday- We had district meeting and worked then later that day we had to leave for porto because sister foote had leadership meeting the next day. We stayed with the sisters in Gaia! they are super cute. it was fun! 

Wednesday- Dropped Sister Foote off at the leadership meeting and I got to see SISTER GILBERT and SISTER KUNZ!! Made my day!! I miss those sisters so much! Then Sister Sonntagg worked around the chapel because we had to go back for lunch time. We talked to lots of people on the street and knocked doors it was great. Then we got lunch with all the leaders and then we stayed for the rest of the meeting because Sister Sonntagg was asked to do a practice with her comps for the meeting. Then a three hour bus ride back to Leiria. haha. We had time to work a little bit that night.

I forgot my journal and so I can't remember exactly what happened the rest of the week... 

L- and her family went out of town for the summer so we weren't able to visit them at all and P- was super busy this week. But we found a lot of new people to teach. It was a great week!:) 

Sister Foote and I got on a bus for Coimbra Sunday night and she left me there with Sister Shepard and Sister Costa! Then she went to Porto for her last day! We got the transfer calls last night and it was huge news for all of us, but I will be training! So I will get my companion on Wednesday.  I am freaking out, but I am super excited! I know the Lord knows what He is doing, but pray for me and my new companion please:)?

I love being a missionary! thanks for the prayers and support! and HAPPY FOURTH!! I love AMERICA!:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson