A Trip to the Dentist

WOW! What a week! We had a crazy one, but it was super good and interesting!:) So the highlights first...

We got to teach this cute older couple Antonio and Maria. They are SUPER catholic. Haha, but everyone here is or says they are. So that wasn't new. They said we could come back and teach them this week so we will see what happens. They had missionaries over before a long time ago and told us how they were mad they never came back! So we will make them happy by returning:)

Second awesome thing we found a new investigator named Lilia. We found her in the area book. We called her up and she let us come over and teach her.  She is studying here in Portugal and is from Africa.  She is awesome.  We taught her about the restoration and the spirit was so strong.  This week I have gained such a love for the restoration of the Gospel, Joseph Smith, and The Book of Mormon.  We are so blessed to be living in the time that the Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth again and it will never leave.  It is here to STAY!

We had FHE with Mina and Ana and Sister Gilbert and I decided to change things up a bit. SO we acted out the story of Ammon and King Limhi while we read it. Mina and Ana really loved the part when I started chopping off Sister Gilberts arms. 

We had an FHE at another member's house. Her name is Clementina and it was with one of her friends that came to church on Sunday.  His name is Fernando and he has already had all of the lessons years ago, but he never got baptized. So we are going to teach him again and pray that the end result is different!:)

Every morning for exercise Sister Gilbert and I run to this outdoor basketball court that is about 10 minutes away and then we play basketball and it is super fun, but we always pass the same people and so now they know us and always say hi to us and laugh as we run by. But there is this one lady that when we see her later in the day she always yells run run run to us and then starts laughing. Haha, it's pretty funny.

Not so Highlights...

So last Sunday this old man in our ward passed away. He was so cute. Sister Gilbert and I loved him! That same day he passed away he was talking about how happy he was because he had done everything he needed in the church. He had been baptized, been through the temple, did the temple work for his wife that had passed away, and gotten his patriarchal blessing. He was ready! Well his funeral was on Wednesday and they asked us if we could go. So we went, but it was super sad because half the people there were all catholic and they don't have the knowledge that we have. Sister Neiva and Sister Pinto spoke about that we know where he is and we know he is happy and he is with his cute wife and we know that will see him again. I felt the spirit so strong there and I know that those people did too and they felt the peace that this gospel brings! I am so grateful that we have this knowledge.  I love being a missionary and being able to share this message with others! 

NOW THIS IS WHEN IT GETS A LITTLE CRAZY...

Poor Sister Gilbert has had a headache since Tuesday and so Saturday she just couldn't take it anymore and it was just getting worse and worse. So we called the mission office to ask what to do and the lady that is in charge of all the health things told us to go to the emergency room since it was Saturday and it was a pain in her head. So we got there and they had no idea what it was and just gave her some drugs and told her that if it doesn't go away to come back... So we left and the medicine helped her for a little bit, but she was in so much pain that night the worst she had felt yet! So the next morning it still hadn't gone away, but the most sensitive part was one of her wisdom teeth. She couldn't touch it and she couldn't sleep and couldn't eat because of the pain. So we called the lady again and told her the medication didn't help and she was still in a lot of pain. The lady told us to take Sister Gilbert to the emergency room again right after church. I don't know why they wouldn't just let us go to the dentist in the first place, but the medical here is weird and wanted us to go to the doctor first. So this doctor gave her a shot... and gave her more medicine and told her to go to the dentist in two days if the pain doesn't go away. The medicine they gave her made her really dizzy and so the medical lady told us that we couldn't work Sunday night. Sunday night we had a lot of time to study, which was nice, but I didn't like being in house.  Never mind about me... The pain still didn't go away! She still had a lot of pain in her tooth and so the lady scheduled an appointment with the dentist today... Well let's just say we went in there. The dentist hit Sister Gilberts tooth a million times... Poor thing... She was in soo much pain. The dentist told us that the doctor didn't know what they were talking about and she knows what will help the pain. 15 minutes later they had pulled out her wisdom tooth! We were like what!? So they gave her an ice pack and sent her on her way. They told us to come back on Friday to get the stitches removed! What!!?? Crazy! Way different than what they do in America. Let's just say Sister Gilbert is a solider! Hopefully she will feel better this week!:)

Well that's all folks! I hope you all have an awesome week! 

Quote of the week:

"We can't direct the wind but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude." -President Thomas S. Monson

I love you all! Beijinhos! Tchau!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite:)

Well this week was a good one, but it was also a hard one. I am not gonna lie:) haha. Sister Gilbert and I named it our Trial of Faith Week! First off I forgot to mention this little detail in my last email that I had been waking up with bug bites and turns out they were bed bugs! Woohoo! The saying good night sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite became so real to me this past week! haha. I counted about 46 bug bites!!! They were really itchy! It was quite the experience, but lucky for us our Stake President is an exterminator.  So he came and sprayed down our apartment to get kill the bugs and then we had to take our stuff to get washed at this laundry place and then we got some itch cream to help me.  So now they are all gone! Yay!:)

Yep so like I said this week was a rough one... every appointment we had fell through and no one wanted to listen to us and we knocked a LOT of doors! But still this week was great. We just kept working and every time I felt a little discouraged or sad that no one was talking to us I was reminded that there really is so much to be happy about and to grateful for:) I know that we are blessed when we just keep pushing through and show the Lord our faith through our hard work. We really have so much to be smiling about!:)

We started this game in our branch with the members. We have two teams and they get points when they invite people to church and things like that. Well they are loving this game and it has really been awesome and helped our relationship with the members and has helped us find investigators. And this Sunday we had 4 investigators at church all thanks to our members! So we will be teaching them this week:)

I love being a missionary and I love this work! Keep smiling and remember we have so much to be grateful for.  Love you all! Have a great week!

Favorite scripture of the week:

D&C 121:7

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;"

 

Sister Sampson

What?!?! This train isn't going to Viana?

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME! Haha. It really was a great week.  I just loved everything about it. I will hit the highlights:)

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:)

The Andersen's took us to Valenca which is up North on the border of Portugal and Spain

We are pointing to Spain which is just on the other side of the river

I'M A REAL MISSIONARY NOW!!!

Well it is transfers this week and Sister Gilbert and I are staying here in Viana!! Yay!! I love it here and there is so much work to be done.  Also I am done with training and so I am a real missionary now!;) 


It was another awesome week in Portugal.  Right now we don't really have any progressing investigators. And so our week was just full of finding people and trying to teach the people we have already taught.

About Jose... It was a really hard decision, but we have felt prompted to drop him for right now and just keep praying for him and praying for guidance on what more we can do.

Wednesday we had the Mission Tour and Elder Leimer and Sister Leimer came to speak to us missionaries in the Portugal Porto Mission and it was awesome.  The spirit was so strong there.  They talked a lot about using the ward members for missionary work and how helpful they are.  Then Sister Gilbert and I sent a text to all of our ward members to invite one of their friends to church this Sunday and it was so fun to talk to all the members about who they were inviting and see them get so excited about missionary work.  And this Sunday we had two investigators in church because of our ward members and have appointments this week to teach them.  So yay! Members really are key to missionary work.  I challenge you all to do something this week to help the missionaries:)

A miracle happened on Sunday. We decided (when I say we I am talking about the Holy Ghost) to go across the bridge over into Darque and try to teach some people that we had taught before, but weren't answering our calls anymore or our appointments with them kept falling through. And we knocked on this families door that Sister Cook and I had taught before, but hadn't been taught by Sister Gilbert and I, and they opened the door and let us teach them right then! It was awesome.

And another miracle happened on Sunday.  I gave a talk in church! Wait what!? Yep! I gave a talk haha and all of the ward members were like... she speaks Portuguese!!! It was so funny! And cute Mina came running up to me after Sacrament and gave me a huge hug and was like you made me cry! I don't know if they actually understood what I was saying, but the spirit was so strong there because the miracle they saw of a missionary arriving in their branch not being able to speak at all,  to someone that can somewhat speak! I really love these ward members so much. They are incredible and sacrifice so much to help this little branch here.

Oh and the Andersens took Sister Gilbert, Susana (our Relief Society President), and I up to the Santa Luzia Cathedral today.  It was really cool!

I love being a missionary!!

Keep being awesome and keep smiling:)

Beijinhos! Tchau!

Com amor,

Another great week!

Hey! 

So this week was awesome.  I loved every second of it.  Something I learned was the importance of practices.  On Valentines day we had our district meeting and we did a practice of the first lesson in one minute and then the whole rest of that day we kept having opportunities to do the first lesson in one minute.  It was crazy! We went to this couples house who told us that we could teach them, but when we got to their house they told us that they didn't have much time and so we got to teach them the lesson really fast and it was awesome because we were able to teach them everything that we knew was important and there was no stress because we had just practiced it.  It was great! It just goes to show that when you prepare yourself the Lord provides you with opportunities to use what you have learned.  Then we did tons of practices on the street as we were walking and then we kept having opportunities to apply what we had practiced.  It was cool.  

Valentines day was also fun cuz we had the ward members write letters to each other and their friends and we got to deliver them!:)  

On Wednesday I got a package from my mom! That was great:) Sister Gilbert and I have been enjoying the American brownies, ranch for our carrots, and peanut butter for our pb and js!

We also were walking down the street and we contacted this lady and we were asking her if she would be baptized, but before I even finished asking her the question she told us that her mom was baptized in this church in Brazil and that she wants us to come teach her and then she wants to be baptized.  It was crazy.  We got her number and have tried to call her this week, but she has been super busy. So hopefully she will find the time for us and we can teach her!:)  

On Friday we had the opportunity to teach Jóse the first lesson. The spirit was so strong in that lesson.  Probably one of the strongest times I felt the spirit on my mission, but Jóse still doesn't know for himself that the church is true, but he reads the bom everyday and he comes to church every week.  So we will see what happens this week.  I know that the Lord has a plan for everyone and everything happens for a reason.  Everything will happen according to the Lord's will.  

Then Sunday was great! I love church even when I have to keep leading the music, haha! When I am up there I just keep wishing that I would have paid more attention to my dad when he was leading the music.  Then the Andersens ( a family that just moved here from Idaho and only the dad speaks Portuguese) had us over for lunch.  It was so weird to be speaking English that whole time and know what everyone was saying:) 

This week was a special one because it was my little brother Nathan's birthday! I loved being here teaching everyone that family's can be together forever and being able to tell them that I know that I will see my little brother again.  This church is true! I know it.  I know that when we have hard times we have a Savior that is by our side.  I love you all,  beijinhos!!

Com amor,

Sister Sampson

District meeting, pictures for Mina's bday and emailing place

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well I learned the importance of writing in my journal. The past two weeks it has been really hard to send home an email because I hadn't been as good at writing in my journal as I should be and so I couldn´t remember what happened that week, BUT good news is... I have been better and I remember more this week. I will just tell you a few highlights:)

Monday- So Sister Gilbert's trainer challenged us to invite 5 people to baptism everyday! So after pday was over we started.  We prayed and asked the Lord for help to find people and then we started talking to everyone we saw and when someone would listen to us and we could feel the spirit we invited them to be baptized.  We talked about the BOM and then asked them that if they read the book and came to know that the book was true for themselves and know that the Church of Jesus Christ was true, would they follow Jesus Christ's example and be baptized? It was really cool.  I could feel the spirit so strong! It made my testimony of The Book of Mormon grow and my testimony of this church grow.  After we talked to someone we would pray and tell the Lord thank you! We only ended up inviting three people, but that is a start right!? Two people said yes and so now we have more investigators we get to teach.

Tuesday- I didn't write in my journal and so I don't really remember what happened this day...

Wednesday- We went on divisions.  So I was able to serve with Sister Maingot in Guimeraes ( I have know idea how to spell that)  It was a lot of fun and I loved being able to get to know the people there and that sister and see the joy she has for missionary work.  She really helped me talk more and she helped me see how well I really am doing with the language.  Sometimes we are just a little hard on ourselves!:)

Thursday- Don't remember... 

Friday- We taught José.  We taught him the word of wisdom and he accepted it like no problem and told us that he already doesn't drink or do any of those things.  Wow! That was easy! We also had a member there that was able to help and answer a lot of his question and bare his testimony.  It was awesome.  Then he told us that he wanted to go to the baptism of our branch president's daughter the next day. Perfect!

Saturday- We made it to the baptism.  All of the baptisms are in Povoa, which is an hour away by bus, because we don't have a font here. José got a ride with a member, but the member didn't have room for us so we took the bus.  When we got there the baptism was awesome and I could feel the spirit so strong! I asked José how he felt and he said, "Normal..." We don't know how to help him. He accepts everything, but then says he doesn't feel the spirit. After the baptism he took the bus home with us and it was quite funny cuz we almost missed it and so we started running! So there we were Sister Gilbert and I and our investigator running down the street! Don't worry we made it.  Sister Gilbert and I were able to talk to him more and get to know him more.  He really is awesome! He loves to dance! He said he has been dancing since he was five.  So we have a connection there.  Then we got to teach him on the bus ride home.

Domingo- They keep asking me to lead the music in Sacrament meeting, but I don't know how and I'm not that fluent in Portuguese and so it's a little bit hilarious, but I love being up there and seeing all of the ward members faces and seeing them all smile and make funny faces at me! It makes my day! Also we had been fasting and praying for help on how to help José and we got our answer! We are going to teach him the first lesson again this week to help his testimony grow.  Hopefully that will help him get an answer for baptism.  Pray for him please and pray for us to be able to help him:)

That is all for this week.  I love you all! Keep smiling:)  Remember you have a Heavenly Father that loves you!!

Love,

Sister Sampson​

These are my surroundings

Rain Rain Rain and more Rain!

This week was great!! And this week was wet! It rained a TON! I didn't know it could rain this much haha! Okay maybe I am exaggerating a little bit, but they weren't kidding when they told me it rained a lot here! Also, I am understanding a lot more now! I love being able to know what people are saying!:)

This week we had a lot of people over in Darque to go see and so we had to cross the bridge, but it was raining like crazy and soo windy! We had to hold on to the railing to walk straight and so we wouldn't get blown off the bridge;) My umbrella broke and Sister Gilbert's umbrella broke because of the wind.  It is crazy!

We are still working with Jose.  He chose another day to be baptized.  He wants to be baptized the 24th! We are trying our hardest to help him.  He has been to church 5 times and I know he knows this is the true church I just think he has a hard time seeing how much faith he really has.  He is awesome! 

We had a zone conference on Thursday. It was very inspiring! It made me want to keep trying to be better and strive to be the best missionary I can be. They kept calling on Sister Gilbert and I to do things.  They made us do the practice in front of everyone.  It was fun and we learned a lot! 

There are always miracles everyday.  One day it was pouring and Sister Gilbert and I were wet and cold and we decided to take our dinner break and change into dry clothes. Then we went back out into the rain to knock doors and no one was letting us in. I remember thinking... don't they know what we are going through to be here! Why don't they just let us in?!?!?!  We are cold and wet and we have the greatest message ever! Then after it was getting close for us to head home this one girl opened the door and let us in and we were able to teach her the whole first lesson.  She was so excited to read the book and pray! It was awesome:) It made the whole night worth it! Her name is Daniela and we are going to try to go teach her more this week.  And then the rest of this week as we have been working hard and been soaking wet and had a lot of doors slammed in our faces I couldn't help but smile because this work is awesome.  This church is the true church.  And these people need to hear this message!:) A line from PMG kept coming to my head, "More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children." I really just felt so happy. Have a great week.  I love you all!:) Keep smiling! Remember that God loves you:)

Com amor,

Sister Sampson

Beijinhos:)

 

Their cute recent converts have given them turtlenecks, boots and scarves to help them stay warm so they won't get sick:)