10 Months! Where did the time go?!?!?

Hey look parents I am writing a group email this week:) We had another great week here in Leiria. IT is crazy how fast the weeks go by here in the mission! I am just going to start from the beginning.

Monday night after pday we went to J-´s and had a family night! It was super fun cuz Sister Shipp and I made no bake cookies with J- and I- and then while they were hardening we had our lesson and we talked about the recipe of showing Heavenly Father we love Him. Then we related the peanut butter to saying our prayers, the sugar to going to church, and the oatmeal to reading the scriptures. Then we talked about how the cookies don't turn out the same if we don't have every one of the ingredients and same with our testimonies:)

Tuesday we had Zone Meeting in Coimbra! Sister Shipp gave the spiritual thought and she did such a great job! Second transfer and she already speaks Portuguese fluently. The Zone Meeting was awesome and talked a lot about the importance of preparation and how we can be better tools in the Lord´s hands when we prepare. 

On Thursday Sister Shipp hit three months in the mission!!! So that called for some ice cream. We also met this lady named G-a from the area book and taught her. She was really cute and is just so full of faith. Also, we heard this people yell, "Hey Sisters!!" turned around and this cute young American couple came walking up to us. Turns out the girl served her mission here a few years ago and came back to visit with her husband. They were super cute and were staying at one of the ward members house.

Friday.... Sister Shipp and I accidentally matched dresses... I guess that happens when you live with someone for so long. You just start becoming the same person. It was really funny though we got a lot more weird looks on the street than we normally do. haha. We have an activity coming up in September and the Elders put us in charge of making the invitation and so we did and if I do say so myself it looks pretty good. Also, it was the 25th (#4months until Christmas) so in honor of that Sister Shipp and I sang Christmas songs all day long.

We knocked  A LOT of doors that day and found some really cool people that seemed to have some interest and I also saw the biggest spider of my life!!! It literally was the size of my fist... I know that is wimpy compared to the people serving in South America and stuff, but it really was HUGE! hahaha. 

Saturday we had a lesson with O-a and we taught with Irmã G-i! The lesson was so great and the spirit was so strong. Ward members really have such a strong testimony and bring the spirit into the lessons and testify and help the investigators in a way that the missionaries can't! We also had a lesson with Irmão J-o and he helped us teach A-a. Irmão J-o served a mission in Canada like 3 years ago and speaks perfect English. He helps a ton in our lessons! 

Church was so good this Sunday. And J- and I- were there! In sacrament they talked about how important the BoM is in our religion and how we need it. It got me thinking about how important it really is and could you imagine not having it!? We wouldn't have the full truth! I am so grateful for the restoration and that we have the BoM. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be able to share this with these people that don't have the full truth:)

That is all for this week I love you all and hope you have a great week! The mission is awesome and you learn a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know. 

Sister Shipp and I found out that we are basically master chefs and we have made a lot of good food this week thanks to Grandma Sampson and sending us yummy Sampson seasoning:)

Tchau for now!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson

It's not about you...

So this week was great but my computer is being really slow and so it is really hard to email, but Sister Shipp´s email sums up our week really great! So here is my week in the eyes of Sister Shipp:)

Its not about you is the title of a youth song that was basically our theme song for the week!! Its this great song that talks about how everything in life isn't about you... its about the people you serve and the difference you make in the life of those around you. Every time we feel hot or tired or hungry or want to complain about our circumstances we sing its not about you ohhhhhh hahah. This week was also the trial of our faith week! We studied the Christlike attribute faith and then this week we had to use more faith than i ever have in my life so it was pretty cool that we had just studied it! We were trying to work as hard as we could and really fast from the things on our lists do everything that we could and we were just not having any success. We were knocking and knocking and knocking and talking and talking all week and not finding anyone! But... we just had to have faith that we were doing our part and we cant take away peoples agency! We had to have faith in Heavenly Fathers plan for each one of His children and trust that this truly is His work! Even though it was a hard week, I was able to see so many tender mercies and miracles and it was one of the happiest weeks yet!(: 

Sister Sampson insert: Also when things are hard we play this game where we say everything we are grateful for and it is pretty great and helped us stay happy. I highly suggest it if you are ever having a bad day.

So we have this one lady named is E- and she used to be an investigator and one day a few weeks ago she called and asked to meet with us, but after she said she couldn't meet with us anymore cause she lives with her son and he wont let her( this makes me really angry cause why in the world is the son controlling his moms life) BUT anyway she started calling us a few times a week and we just sing her a hymn and pray and share a scripture with her. It is such a simple thing but I can tell that every time it helps her feel so much better and the Spirit is always so strong. I'm so grateful for the simple ways in which we share the light of the gospel with others. Its times like that when i really feel like i am helping people come unto Christ and I'm so grateful that me and Sister Sampson can be there to help her(: 

On Wednesday we knocked a million doors I think and did 100 contacts! Me and sister sampson do this thing where we pick a hymn and then click it out on our pen and the other person tries to guess what hymn it is... we are so weird but when the days are long it is the funnest thing ever! I realized i have a hidden talent of being able to guess hymns by hearing them clicked out with a pen! We met with a less active member named J- that afternoon and we are having a noite familiar with her and her 2 daughters tonight! We also got to go to ward council and we were so happy cause we got tons of members set up to come to our lessons! Members truly are amazing tools in teaching the gospel!! 

We had district meeting on Thursday and we talked about Presidents letter and it focused a lot on how the little decisions that we make every day will shape how we feel at the end of our mission! I'm trying to make little choices every day and every week that will eventually make a big difference in the end! We had a desafio this week to do one baptismal convite every day and it was 9:10 and we still hadn't found anyone to invite and we were walking back to our apartment looking everywhere but there was no one out! Then out of nowhere we saw 2 ladies walking down the hill and we ran up to them and invited them to be baptized(: Afterwards sister sampson said she had said a prayer that we would find someone to invite... I know Heavenly Father truly hears and answers our prayers! 

The rest of the week we just worked super super hard! We found a really cool lady last night and talked about the Book of Mormon, we survived 110 degree weather (Sister Sampson insert: We were dying of heat on Sunday, but this nice man let us in the apartment building and so sister Shipp and I sat in the dark stair way to cool off a little and drink some water. It was so funny, but #tendermercy), ate some amazing ice cream (Portugal has the best ice cream), and knocked a lot of doors! I'm so grateful for the things i am learning here and I know that Heavenly Father is helping me become the missionary He needs me to be! I love this Gospel with all my heart and I love being a missionary! I hope everyone enjoys the solar eclipse thingy and have a great week! 

Com Amor, 

Sister Shipp 

Sister Sampson insert: I just want to tell you all that I love you and I know Heavenly Father loves you too! If there are two things that I learned this week it is that gratitude really does make for a better life and that it's not about me! With those two things my week was the best! Talk to you next week!

com amor,

Sister Sampson

I'm Staying:)!!!!

Hey fam! This is going to be a quick today, but I am staying here! Yay!:) I am so happy and so excited for this next transfer! 

This week we had divisions and I got to work with Sister Costa again in Coimbra.  It was a lot of fun and I love her! She is just the cutest. I asked her about how Emelia was doing? This lady that Sister Shepard, her, and I taught at the very beginning of last transfer when I was waiting for Sister Shipp to arrive. We taught Emelia about the Restoration and I invited her to baptism and she accepted. Well, Sister Costa told me she was just baptized last Saturday! How cool is that!?!?! I am grateful that I got to be a small part of helping Emelia come unto Christ:) 

We get challenges from our mission president every week and this week was to find 5 new investigators, invite two people to baptism, use two new ways to find people, and have two investigators in church. We worked super hard this week to accomplish these goals, but when Saturday night came we had them all except two people confirmed for church the next day. Everyone had told us no or that they were going to be gone or they did answer our phone calls. We were so sad, but then we remembered, "hey this is the Lord´s work. Let´s ask Him for help." So we kneeled down that night and asked that two of our investigators would come to church. And when we got to church the next day I- was there!!! We were soooo happy. And J- came too! This really is the Lord´s work and if we ask Him for help He will always provide:)

Also, happy birthday mom! I love you! have the greatest day ever!:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Mission life is great!

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME! I love Leiria and I love the people here and I love Sister Shipp! The mission life is just so great:)

SO last week on Monday we had the chance to go to the Monastery with the elders in our district! It was tons of fun and we also went to this american restaurant that had pizza. It was so nice! I miss american pizza!

Tuesday we found this really nice lady named S- and her husband. We shared a message at their doorstep and they told us we could come back... in September... haha they are going on holidays. Everyone and their dog here gets a summer break and they all going on vacations for like 3 weeks... and for everyone it is different and so everyone is leaving. haha. So we will go back in a few weeks. It was super funny cuz we were knocking this apartment building and these little boys started yelling at us and we had to go into stealth mode to get away from them. We probably looked hilarious hugging the apartment building trying not to be seen. haha.

We taught I- and M- again. They love to talk and we almost made it through the whole lesson without them going off about their cats, but it still happened. Haha this time was better than last time. So progress:) they really are so cute though. We invited them to come to church and M- said she wants to still go to the catholic church and I- said maybe next week. So we are working on getting them to church. 

Thursday we had a lesson with this lady that we found late last Sunday night! Her name is C- and we taught her all about the restoration! It was such a powerful lesson and the spirit was so strong during it. She is very catholic, but was very willing to listen to us and was very receptive and willing to read the BoM. We have another lesson with her this week and I am excited to see her progress.

Friday we did Listão with one of our members C-. Listão is a way we do member missionary work in our mission. SO we sit down with them and we make the biggest list of people that the member knows. We ask about work, school, facebook, hair cutters, etc. Then we return and with the list they pray and we pick 5 names that the feel need the gospel and then we make plans with them. It is super cool. We had dinner at N- and P- house. Members that feed the missionaries every week and are soo awesome. They both speak english and so they always talk to us in english. 

Saturday we had another lesson with O-! She is GREAT! I love her sooo much! She is just the nicest and respects us so much and has so much faith. She is leaving though:( she is going on holidays too. She will be back at the end of August. 

Sunday! P- came to church!! She didn't seem like she was progressing as much so we were going to take it a little slower with her and really focus on her needs and then we invited her to church and she was more than happy to come and one of our awesome members S- gave her a ride:) It was great and she couldn't have come to a better fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong there. Every testimony that was born was straight from the heart and testified of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have such a strong testimony of baring testimony. It brings the spirit and that is the way we learn of truth and not only doesn't it strengthen our testimonies, but everyone listening. I love it:) 

After church we met a family from america! They live in Pennsylvania and the wife is from Portugal and the dad is from America and so they come back for the summer and they were so cute! Apparently years ago when the mom and husband had just gotten married they lived in Portugal and the missionaries always visited them, but then they stopped coming and she hadn't seen missionaries since. That was in 2005. So she was so excited to see us. We gave them a BoM and the daughter who is 18 was super excited about it, but they are going back to America this week. It was exciting to talk to them. 

Well that is all folks:)

LOVE YA!

com amor,

Sister Sampson