Don't have a lot of time :/

I'm not sure why but I think they smashed an egg on Sister Scott's head

I think this is saying....16 months down!

#salvarocabelodesistersampson

This week was a great one! Full of adventures like always!! I will hit the highlights!

Monday: We were able to teach N-ba and M-ho the message of the restoration. We found them a few weeks ago on a Sunday night and helped N-ba make dinner and then shared a scripture with them and taught them about prayer. We also missed our bus to get home and so we had to run to this other bus stop which was very far away, but luckily we made it home that night. It was crazy.  

Tuesday: We missionaries did a family night in the chapel and a lot of our members came and our investigator F-a and her daughter came! It turned out really good. We had a spiritual thought and then lots of games like sack races, musical chairs, and smashing whipped cream in peoples faces:)

Wednesday: We had divisions and I was with Sister Scott and Sister Gregor! Sister Gregor just got in the mission this transfer, but she served a transfer in Logan Utah. It was super fun. We heart attacked one of our families that are less active (thanks for the hearts mom!). Then we were standing outside of an apartment building where we had just knocked trying to figure out where to go next when the spirit told us to contact this girl. So we did and she was just walking home from school. She is a college student and she is from Mozambique. We asked her if we could walk with her and share a message with her and she said sure. We walked to her house and we met her roommate and taught  the both of them. It was so awesome:) I just love how much the spirit plays a role in our lives. We saw tons of people that day and in the moment that we contacted that girl there were like four other people walking by that we could have contacted, but the spirit prompted us to talk to her. 

This week was great, but I have to go so I guess you don't get to hear about the rest of it:) Oh real quick, we had zone conference and we had a fun challenges between the sisters and the elders in our zone to see who could find the most people to teach on Saturday and whoever won got to pick a challenge for the others to do. The elders made this joke that they get to cut my hair and so every time one of the sisters found someone to teach they would send us a text message that said #savesistersampsonshair. Luckily, the sisters won;)

I love you all! Keep being awesome!! Listen to the spirit always!

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Loving my New Area!

Answer to mom's questions:

Right now we don't have a whole lot of progressing investigators. It was kind of hard coming here in that sense cuz I felt like we worked so hard and we finally had people that were progressing and had a lot of potential and then I came here and we have found a lot of people to teach, but no one that is progressing like in my other area. We were able to teach the girl on the bus that I told you about last week and it was really cool because we also taught her friend:) 

We are also teaching this lady named C-na and her friend N-ni and they came to church this Sunday which was very cool:)

 

The ward is really awesome. I like the ward members a lot! We had the chance to go to ward council after church on Sunday and it was crazy,  these members are hilarious and they are super willing to work with the missionaries or at least from what I have seen so far. 

I love being in the trio. 

Our apartment is huge. This are is different in that it is more houses than apartment buildings and we are on the other side of the river so we can look back at Coimbra and it is really pretty!!! 

We are going to heart attack people this week:) we are super excited! (thank you mom!)

It was a good week and full of adventures.

 On Monday we had the chance to teach the girl we talked to on the bus and her friend. They really like missionary work and asked us all about how they could be missionaries. 

Getting ready to go give some one a "Heart Attack"

Tuesday we had our district meeting and that evening we were knocking doors and Sister Pastana really had to use the bathroom and so we asked this lady, who was super nice, and she told Sister Pastana no and that she could just go in the field by her house...Haha, we thought it was super funny.  Then we knocked this girls door and she let Sister Pastana use the bathroom. She also let us teach her and her friends. They are studying here in Coimbra and they are super nice! So even though that other lady didn't let us use the bathroom we found tons of great people to teach:) 

Wednesday we had divisions with Sister Jones and Sister Cardenas. I got to work with Sister Jones and Sister Scott. We found this really awesome girl name N-ne. She had been taught all the lessons by the sisters in the past and she accepted baptism. Then something happened and the sisters lost contact with her, but we taught her the first lesson and she loved it. 

Thursday we taught this boy name L-is and his friend I-es. Sister Pastana found them on her division and and we taught them the first lesson. Apparently she crashed a birthday party they were having that day. One of the boys there talked about how he has a Book of Mormon and how he believes in it and how it answers all of his questions. It made all of the friends super curious. Anyways, at the end of the lesson L-is prayed for the first time! 

Saturday we had a lesson with X-na and M-da. They are so cool! M-da was super excited to meet with us again and was excited to learn about everything. She also decided that she was going to do everything in her power to get to church (even pouring water on her mom to wake her up). I love 8 year olds that want to go to church :) 

After that we had lunch and tried some people who said we could come back another day. Also we passed by V-ia (a girl that we taught last week) to see how she was doing. She said that her and her brother have been reading the Book of Mormon and they love it! Especially her brother who is 10 and refused to play with his friends because he just wanted to read! We invited them to church, but their mom had another compromisso Sunday morning and didn't want to send them to church alone (understandable). But we're just excited that they are reading the Book of Mormon and loving it! 

Sunday we were the first ones to get to church and right after we arrived in the chapel we received a message from N-ni (one of the people we are teaching) that they had missed their bus and the next bus wouldn't pass until 10 (church starts at 9:30) So we start frantically calling for all of the members that live close to them to try and find someone to give them a ride, but all the members either didn't answer or were already arriving at the chapel. So we called N-ni and told her to get on the bus at 10 because she would just miss the first hour, but could make it for the other two. N-ni and C-na arrived in the middle of the closing hymn. They felt bad that they were late, but the members were super nice to them and they really enjoyed the classes. It was a really good day :) 

Well there you go! That was my week. It was really great:) I love it here and I am so happy that I have the chance everyday to represent our Savior Jesus Christ! I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all the love and support and happy valentines day:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Students of Coimbra University look like they are from Hogwarts

Had a visit from her first Trainee, Sister Shipp and her comp

First Week in Coimbra 2

Well maybe some of you have heard, but our mission is combining with the Lisbon mission. That is the buzz around here, but won't happen until July, so I won't really see any change.  

This week was great! I love this new area and ward and my new companions! Sister Scott is from Texas and she has been on the mission for about 8 months and then Sister Pastana is from Brazil and has about 6 months on the mission. 

This week we had a lot of meals with the members! We also found a lot of awesome people. This Sunday was Stake Conference and so I had the chance to see all the members from Leiria, Coimbra 1, and Coimbra 2! I loved being able to see all the people from my old areas. They are doing great! 

I don't have a lot to say today, but I have one experience that I would like to share that happened this week. My companions and I were getting on the bus one day when this girl that was sitting on the bus flagged me down and started talking to me. She told me that she had seen missionaries before and she noticed something different about them. She said they looked happy, but a different happy and so she said that she wanted to talk to them the next time she saw them. When she told me that it made me think about how as members of the church the way that we live our lives makes us different from others. We have a different light to us and a different happiness that other people notice. It made think about how important it is that we are an example and the live the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And let our light shine for those around us because we never know who is watching. And tonight we have an appointment with this girl! 

Anyways, have a great week and let your light shine! I love you all!

com amor,

Sister Sampson

A Beautiful Baptism and I got Transferred...well kinda

This week was great!! First things first! T-ia got baptized on Saturday and it was beautiful! She has such a strong desire to follow Jesus Christ. 
We had divisions with the sisters from Coimbra 2. Sister Scott and Sister Pastana and they were great. We actually had a baptism that Tuesday night in our chapel from an area that doesn't have a baptismal font. It was a baptism of a little girl. It was super cute and G-a invited her cousin, I-a, to come and she came and then the next day we were able to teach I-a with G-a. 

The next day we had divisions with Sisters from Castelo Branco. Sister Shipp and Sister Bastos! I love those sisters! We had another nice lice experience. 

Then on Friday we had the family night and a ton of our investigators and our ward members came! It was a blast we had food, games, and a spiritual part of course! 

Well, my time is up! I love you all and oh yeah, I am being transferred to Coimbra 2! haha we have two wards in Coimbra and I am just moving next door to the other ward. I will be in a trio with Sister Scott and Sister Pastana. I am super excited! 

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Last Week in Coimbra!!!

Wow! So many miracles everyday:) This week was really great. I feel like it went by soo fast! I can't believe this transfer is already coming to an end. I feel like it just started.

This week we had some great appointments with T-ia! We went back after we invited her to baptism to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she was just so excited to tell us about what had happened to her. She told us that after we left last time she did what we asked and she said a prayer to ask Heavenly Father if being baptized on the 27th was the right thing to do. She told us that she already knew it was right, but she just wanted a confirmation. Then she told us the next morning her friend from Brazil called and told her about a dream she had about her. She dreamt that T-ia was walking down a path and that a man told her to not look back, to not look to one side or the other, but to continue on the path she is on and to keep moving forward! She was so happy cuz it was just a confirmation to her that she is doing what is right. 

Then we also had an appointment with A-ra and we had the chance to talk to her whole family! We taught her mom and dad. It was greatl. The dad is super catholic and at first he wasn't really interested in what we were saying and was super objective, but as we used scriptures from the bible to teach him the plan of salvation and by the end he was paying attention and he told us that he wants to come to church to see what it is like. It was incredible because we had the chance to testify how we know that we have life after death and that families can be together forever. They lost their first son when he was two years old and the dad is still struggling with it, but I was able to testify that I know that he will have the chance to see his son again and that I too will be able to see my little brother. 

Also, last Sunday Sister Guerra had a goal to find two new people to teach and it was about 8 at night and we still hadn't found anyone. We just kept praying and praying. Well, Sister Guerra felt prompted to find this lady that she had contacted on the street about a week before. We had a general idea where the street was, but didn't know for sure. So we just started walking and before we knew it we ended up on the street and then the first house that was on the street was her house! We knocked on the door and we asked if A-ra lived there, but the lady that answered said she lived in a house behind her house and she told us to come inside and she would go get her. Well when we walked inside we saw a picture of L-na! I don't know if you remember the family that we were teaching, but L-na is the mom! Turns out the lady that let us in is L-na's mom!! And A-ra is her cousin! We taught A-ra, An-io (son of A-ra), and Cl-a (mom of L-na)! We then marked a day to go back, but then the next day L-na called us and invited us to have dinner at her house with the whole entire FAMILY and that we could share a message with them after. So, this week we went over to L-na and J-e´s house and we were able to teach the whole family. It was great:)

And this week at church so many of our investigators came! S-ra, L-a, T-ia and her husband, A-ra, A-a, and A-ne. I love when people make the time to come to church and feel the love of their Savior there. It makes me so happy. And I know that Heavenly Father is even more happy than me. 

Well I love you all! Have a great week and

stay tuned to find out what happens with transfers:)

com amor,

Sister Sampson

Pouring down Blessings....and Rain!

Wow. I just loved this week. I would probably say I learned the most this week than I have any other week in my mission. I don't have a lot of time today and even if I had all the time I needed I don't think I would be able to write it all.  So, I will just share the best parts. 

First it started out that on Monday after pday I had to go to Porto for a leadership meeting. Sister Guerra stayed here with the other sisters and went with the Zone Leaders to Porto. We got there late, but I got to stay in the house of Sister Huntsman my long lost sister! I was so happy to see her cuz I haven't seen her since we were living in Leiria together! 

Tuesday morning we had our lovely Leadership Meeting. It was great! We made lots of goals for our mission and we talked a lot about President Monson and the example he left for us and how we are going to apply his example in our work as missionaries. My favorite thing about him is how he was such a great friend to all those he talked to and he really cared about each person individually. And he was always happy. Through the good times and the rough times. Then lucky me got picked to do a practice in front of everyone by myself. After the meeting we headed back to Coimbra.

Thursday we had Zone Meeting and basically we talked to our Zone about all our goals for this year. It was great. That night Sister Guerra and I had an appointment with T-ia. It was great! We watched the video finding faith in Christ and we talked about how important He is in God´s Plan and how He is central. Through Him we can return to Heavenly Father´s presence. In the end she bore her own testimony that she believes that He is the Savior of the world. It was incredible! And she excepted baptism! She is going to be baptized the 27th. 

Afterwards we had an appointment with S-ra who lives right next door. We talked about faith and the story of Peter walking on water. She wants to be baptized, but she is afraid to talk to her mom. We talked about how she can do it and she told us the next time she goes to her mom´s house she will talk to her. Then after that appointment Sister Guerra had a really strong impression that we needed to go see A-ra. We got there and she told us that she had been praying for us to come and that she really needed us then. It is incredible how the spirit works. She is doing soooo good with stopping to smoke! She said that the schedule is helping and that she has completely stopped. Now she just needs to continue! 

Well, my time is up, but so many more miracles happened this week! Heavenly Father just keeps pouring down blessings (and rain) on us over here. I love it here in Portugal:) Love you all and have a great week!

com amor,

Sister Sampson