Fun Experiences

So this week has been good.  We found out a few hours before zone conference that it is postponed until this coming friday because President Oliveria had to do something else.  

We had a baptism with Tony planned for Saturday, but there was a lot of rain and the person who was supposed to baptize him couldn't make it back from Sao Filipe so it got postponed until Sunday morning.  He was okay with it but all our investigators that showed up Sat. Night didn't come Sunday morning and didn't come to church.  The only non members there were one that won't get baptized that I actually haven't met.  Her husband won't get married or something, and the other was a catholic girl that has some big position in the catholic church here, kind of like a missionary.  I don't know why she was there but she sat in on part of a lesson with someone else the other day, and we made an appointment with her.  

Our chapel is an actual chapel.  All of them are as far as I know.  They are pretty decent.  Not like chapels in America though.  I will try to send pictures eventually.  There is an electric piano in the chapel that no one knows how to use pretty much.  Church has no accompanist because no one can play and the branch pres doesn't know I play yet.  I played a tad for a member the other day though while we were stuck there because of rain.  When it rains, it rains really hard for a short time and then is gone.  The chapel itself can fit 200 people easy.  I hope that happens some time.

CONGRATS TO KAITLYN BEARD!!!  Someone that knows her tell her congrats for me.  That is so awesome.  One of my good friends from the MTC, Sister Rhodes, who got re-assigned to St George, is from Vancouver Washington.  It is sweet that my friends that are girls are getting to go on missions.  Kaitlyn will get home like a month before me which is strange.  I can't wait until there are sisters here that are younger than me because a lot of them look it even though they aren't.

We do all of our own cooking pretty much.  We usually buy bread in the morning which is pretty good.  Elder Pires who is a Cape Verde Native who is serving with our zone leader, Elder Halblieb (from highland) makes lunch usually.  Something usually vegetable based and completely different every day, but also pretty the same because there aren't a lot of options for food here.

I don't know how conference is going to work.  I will talk about that later after it happens.

All of our speaking and teaching is in Portuguese.  We never study Portuguese.  Pretty much everyone understands it.  Creole is pretty much taking slang and simplified and shortened words for everything.  You don't really conjugate in creole.  You speak more like in English where I walk, you walk, they walk, we walk, etc... uses the same word, "walk" instead of conjugating walk differently depending on what you are talking about.

So, I am missing some stuff, but some fun experiences so far.

1. So the picture I sent home first of Tony at our baptism, right before we took the picture this massive spider significantly bigger than my fist shot down from the ceiling and hid behind the picture of Christ we are next too.  I tried to get a picture but that didn't happen.

2. So I sat on a goat in a car for a while the other day.  We were coming back from Sao Filipe with the food and stuff we can't buy here, and some people got in and brought their goat and shoved the goat into a 2x2x4 foot hole under my seat where it barely fit.  That is normal.  I would forget about it and then every so often it would make a noise and I would remember it was there.

We taught a bunch of people and it was good I guess this week.  No.  For sure was good.  We are teaching this guy named Carlos who is 17 and is more well off than most of the other people here.  we had a 2 hour lesson with him yesterday where the spirit was super strong the whole time trying to help him get a testimony of his own.

Have to go.

Love,

Elder Sampson

Picture attempt 3

Subject: Picture Attempt 3

This is pretty normal around here.  I took this in Sao Filipe outside the Zone Leaders house when we went there for p-day to buy stuff because we can't get much here.

DSCN0251.JPG 3668K   View   Share   Download

Attempt a second picture

Subject: Attempt at a 2nd Picture

It looks like the first one sent.  

Here is a picture of Fogo the volcano we live on.  I took this from our apartment.

Love, Elder Sampson

DSCN0252.JPG 3467K   View   Share   Download

Attempt a picture

Subject: Attempt at a Picture

This is a picture of our Baptism yesterday.  His name is Tony (Actually, it isn't but I don't know his legal name).  I will try to send this and others but it takes a while.

Love,

Elder Sampson

DSCN0254.JPG 3334K   View   Share   Download

Just Kidding

Note from Kristin, Elder Sampson's Mom:

There was actually one other email that came first:  "Power about to be shut down on the island for a few hours.  Will try to write next week.  I hope this makes it in time.

Love Elder Sampson"

Not funny to a mother who has just sent her son to a third world country and gets three sentences per week!  I guess Jared is still trying to let his personality shine through =).

But, I have learned their computer time will be limited.  If you want to send him something via pouch mail, that would be awesome.  His address is

Elder Jared Sampson

Cape Verde Praia Mission

P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City,  UT  84130

Remember that pouch mail means no envelopes or pictures -- just the one piece of paper folded into thirds with the letter on the inside.

Thanks for your support and prayers!

Hey everyone!  I´m sorry to anyone that thought I wasn´t writing this week.  ´Twas a joke. I´m not really good at portuguese jokes, so this was the next best thing. 

For those who don´t know, I left the MTC tuesday morning last week at 4:30 in the morning after dropping pretty much everything useful and 1st worldish and taking only the bare nessecitys because of weight restrictions on baggage.  We took the Frontrunner up which was great and I was in the same train as Ryley Hogan who marched Troopers a few years back with Brad.  Small world.  We got up to the aiport and checked in and got on our flight.  I sat next to the head of missionary media who happened to be going to Boston as well.  In Boston, I got to call home after spending like $60 trying to get the pay phones to work.  They didn´t even have a very good connection at all (those I talked to probably noticed that).  The keyboards are different here and I donºt want to run out of time trying to figure out this new thing, so if there is a weird mistake, that is why.  That and the spell check is in portuguese so everything is spelled wrong. 

We were supposed to have a 7 hour layover in boston, but we ended up staying an extra 4 hours because of a fuel fire so all the planes had to go re-fuel somewhere else.  There were about 150 cape verdians on our flight so we talked with them a little and helped some non-english speaking portuguese people get help. 

For those who didn´t know, most of the people here speak creol which is not very similar to portuguese.  I mostly cant understand anything anyone is saying except for the people who know portuguese which is not very many.  It is like a super super bad version of portuguese.  Fun!

Our flight finally left at like early o-clock. like 3 maybe or 4, then we went to rhode island to fuel, then we flew to cape verde.  The flight was okay.  We landed in the Praia airport on the island of santiago and we got our bags (the 12 of us coming out together) and met the APs and President and sister Olivera.  They are awesome.  We dropped off our bags at the APs house then went and ate at the Oliveras.  It was really really good.  We had training at the mission home which was good but we were falling asleep because we missed the nap time they usually give jet-lagged missionaries because our flight got in at like 1 instead of 9.  We then went back to the APs, got some food and stuff, and spent the night there.  While at the mission home too, we got our assignments.  More about that later.  Our flight off Santiago wasn´t until the afternoon the next day, so we just kind of chilled and tried to recover the first part of the morning before our flight.  There were three of us going to the Island I got assigned to, and so we flew out together.

I have been assigned to the the Island of Fogo.  It is the medium sized one in the south-west corner next to brava, the really small island.  I am serving in Cova Figueria which is on the south east side of the island, opposite Sao Filipe which is the largest city on Fogo which is in the South-west corner.  It is about a 45 min ride over some sketchey cobble stone roads to get there.  It is really green right now.  Rainy season which are the only 2 months it ever rains here, is almost over, so everything is green.  This is the wettest it has been in years and years and years.  It is super sweet.  I will try to send pictures.

I spent the rest of the day in Sao Filipe after my flight got in with the zone leaders.  Elder Coleman who came over with me is serving in sao filipe so he just went with his comp, elder wells who is huge, and elder rivera who also came over with me went on splits with one of the zone leaders while I went on splits with the other and taught my first lesson (ish.).  We got up the next morning and played some soccer and got some bread, and so forth and then we suddied until the hiace (yawss) which is like a van they cram people into came and took us to our areas.

My companion is elder Jensen.  He is from payson and is awesome.  He knows the Hales and the Pecks and the Brimleys I think.  He has been out for 5 months.  He was our for a transfer 2 years ago and then had to go home for a year and a half and now he is back.  He is really good. There are only 4 elders here in cova figueira.  It is pretty small.  We have, elder jensen estimated, 800 people in our area.  About half or so are members, but we don´t have many that are super solid.  We had 89 at chuch on sunday which was super huge compared to what we usually have (60 or so) but most in cape verde usually have about 120 come every week.  We have been teaching lots of people and were supposed to have 2 baptisms this week, but one didn´t make it to church, so she won´t be baptized for another week.  The other is super solid and will be baptized this saturday.  His name is Tony. Maybe more about him later it I have time, but probably not.  Next week probably.

It is a pretty small town here so everyone is related, the power and water go out pretty frequently, and there isn´t much you can buy here.  Stuff from the US is like gold.  It is also like the coolest area in the mission which is sweet.  It was windy yesterday and so I wore me sweater because it is probably the only day in the only place that would be cool enough to get away with a sweater.  It was still a tad hot with it on, but at least I used it once. 

Today for p-day, we went to sao filipe because we had to get stuff you can´t buy here which is a lot.  It ran into Sister Roberts who if you don´t know, I went to MVHS 2 years with.  There was actually a pretty bad chance of me ever seeing her but I just so happen to be in the same zone as her.  Because it is too expensive, we never have full mission conferences.  There is a good chance that I could never meet people that I served at the same time with for 20 months because if we aren´t on the same island, we won´t meet.  You pretty much know everyone´s names though.  Word gets around really fast somehow.  We bought food and stuffs in sao filipe but didn´t get everything we needed which is okay because we are going back on thursday for zone conference which I am excited for.  Also, our appartment here is like the only one in the mission that has hot water which is a blessing.  It is hard going without things and not having access to lots of different things, but I will adjust and it will get better.  We actually have some food now since we bought some. We were almost out.  We also don´t have a microwave which everyone should not take for granted.  Actually, don´t take anything for granted.  We have a lot more here than most of the africans so we are pretty well off as well, but those of you in america, be thankful.  all the time. :) 

There aren´t addresses here so we get mail 1-2 times a transfer when someone comes to our island and they can bring it.  I will probably get whatever was sent a while ago when president comes on thursday for Zone conference.  Mail gets to praia pretty quick and then it takes forever from there.  I can send things home pretty easy and fast though because we have addresses in the US.  This is another reason a trainer that is familiar with the area is important.  These african names are hard to remember, most of them, and all the references, you just have to figure out where they live based on the houses you already.

I am about out of time but I will try to write more next week. No time to respond to individuals but I will try to send some pictures really fast.

Love you all.  Send paper letters or short emails or both.  Emails are good.  Paper letters, also good.

Elder Sampson

Cape Verde Pictures Week 1

1. The view out of our appartment in Cova Figueira.  You can see the volcano a bit in the back.  All the beaches here are black but we are pretty far from it so I haven´t seen any up close.

The internet is really slow with pictures so I don´t know what I will be able to send.  I will send one at a time until I am kicked off.

While this loads I will write more.  So everyone here is black.  And if you didn´t understand before, pretty much none of them speak portuguese and so they are super hard to understand.  Its good though.  I will catch on enough to get the just of what they are saying if I am here long enough.  I don´t know how long I will.  Could be 1 transfer, could be 8-9 months.  Probably somewhere in the middle.

We aren´t really aloud to eat at members houses but we ate at the branch presidents house this week becuase they know that they have to prepare our food a certain way.  It was really good. Rice, beans, chicken, a bit of potatoes.  It was good.  We don´t have dinner here.  We get up, eat breakfast, study, then go out for a bit, come home for two hours from like 1-3 and make lunch and then stay out until 9 or 9;30 and maybe have time to make a snack before sleeping.  I´ve been passing out pretty much as soon as we are don´t planning the first few days becuase we missed sleeping the two nights we were traveling, and we walk a lot all over up and down and side to side because we live on the side of a volcano.  All the rocks are black and stuff.

I for sure will only be able to send this one picture because it takes forever.  Sorry I´m not in it. Next week hopefully I will be able to send 2 or 3 because I will just start off sending it while I write the text elsewhere and then send it after the picture sends.

So, the picture failed after 7 mins of loading, so I will try again next week I am out of time.  It was a great picture though.

Love Elder Sampson

I'm not dead

Dear family, 

 

I am now in Cabo Verde and am not dead.  Our flight was delayed until about 1 and so we got to Cabo Verde 4 hours late, and just ate at the mission presidents house which was great.  It is hot and humid and fantastic.

Love,

Elder Sampson

***Elder Sampson's Pouch Address for His Whole Mission***

***Elder Sampson's Pouch Address for His Whole Mission***

Elder Jared Sampson
Cape Verde Praia Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT  84130

Pouch mail means you can only use one sheet of paper, and no envelope.  Just write your letter and then fold your paper into thirds and tape it closed.  Use the back of your paper for the address and stamp.  No pictures or other paper accepted.

Alternatively, you can write to him at

jared.sampson@myldsmail.net

I know he would love to hear from you!

Pictures

1. All the Elders in my District but one outside my room.

2. My package record breaking packages.

3. My Best Friend, Elder Lundeen.

Out of Here

Hello Family, Friends and fellow countrymen.

This was my last full week here at the Missionary Training Center.

If you are reading this, you were just asked to give a referal to your local missionaries!  You should feel like your life is lacking drive and meaning until you do so, then you will feel better.

This last week was nice.  I got me some travel plans a week ago on Friday.  I leave Tuesday morning at 4:30 in the morning.  I get into Boston at about 2:20 our time, and have a 7 hour layover in which I will call.  I will probably just call our house and Brad.  I have a decent chunk of calling capabilities and so I will call home and after I talk to people, I will try to call Dad and Brad so if you can find out their schedule if they aren't at our house.  i get to Cape Verde at like 9:00 Wednesday morning in Cape Verde time.

So on Saturday I was coming back from gymn and stopped and I heard the snares playing shots during something at the BYU game.  I assume that that was Brad.

I also ran into Justin Liu on sunday which was awesome since we overlapped like 3 weeks at home but I never saw him.

Sunday I had my musical number in sacrament meeting and in one of the departing devotionals.  In the morning I talked to my accompanist, Brother Wilson of my Branch Presidency, and the person who said they were going to call him and tell him when the musical number was didn't and so he had no idea and couldn't make it because of a previous commitment, so I went and talked to my MTC-long friend, sister Nally who is the MTC Relief Society President, and Wife of the MTC president.  On my way there was when I ran into Justin Liu.  Also while I was in there, I talked to Sister Mack who is in the 3rd ward I think who was there showing something to Sister Nally.

I ate at the temple this week which was not even that good of food, but compared to MTC food it was incredible.  It was the best worst cheese cake I have ever had. 

Classes and such are pretty much normal.

We had infield orientation all day yesterday which was good.  We were in meetings from 8-5:30 with like 2 small breaks.  They talked about a bunch of missionary stuff.  Imagine that.

Most of my friends got their re-assignments yesterday because they are waiting on visas.  Only a few of us are actually going to the mission we were called to next week.  They are going to the following places: New York South, California Redlands, California Something Else, Atlanta Georgia, St George Utah, Tallahassee Florida, Something else, and something else.  They are all excited, and we are all excited to leave.

I got the 16 packages which by far broke the MTC package record.  They put my picture up and I went back today to take a picture of it and it was gone, and they don't know what happened to it.  :(  I am going to go ask again once the people working there change.

Also, the subject last week was Zarabatana.  That was on purpose.  It does mean blowgun.  This weeks fun word in Portuguese is fofo (foh-foh or foh-foo depending on where you are in the world).  It means fluffy, of soft (referring to fabric), or sweet (referring to a person)

Well, that is pretty much it I think.

Summer: No, I am not excited to leave the MTC.  This has become my home and I want to stay here the whole mission.  Just kidding.  I am super excited.  This place isn't designed to keep people happy here any longer than they are supposed to.  It is kind of like if you had school 2 times every day every day of the week with 5 times as many rules.  

Ryan: I am doing great.  It's cool that Mrs Billings is using computers for points and stuff.  I am fluent enough to be able to understand my companion most of the time. There are lots of fun things to say.  Estam muitos coisas divertido para dizer. I am excited to go to a remote island.  Someone was saying they just got hit by a hurricane.  Maybe you can look it up and tell me what you learned if it did happen.  Did you sing at the fireside?

Kelsey: I would love to share with my companion all of your embarrassing stories!  Thanks for writing me and telling me to.  If you hadn't written, I wouldn't have known that I was supposed to do that.  I know some good ones like the time you stowed away without shoes.

Lindsey: Sounds like fun in French.  We also have 2 are verbs in Portuguese whereas in English we only have one. Ser and Estar.  The people that speak portuguese don't even think of the two verbs as connected or related at all, and so we have to be super careful to use the right verb because it can change completely what we are saying.  For example, "Eu estou com soúde" means I am sick, while "Eu sou com soúde" Means I am mentally ill.  Good luck with your SBC. (At least I think that is what it was called. Sponge bath certification right?). Three weeks is a long time to do one thing.  Haha. Yes I know Megan Mitchell.  We talked about that before I left remember!  That's sweet that Ethan and Davin are in your math class.  I love them.  My companion and I are investigators for other missionaries in our district, and I am using Davin's name because it is so sweet.  What are you doing to be a missionary?

Dad: My companion and I think it's fantastic that you are taking classes.  I'm glad to hear that people are coming over.  Have we had any missionary discussions at our house or at anyone else's house in our ward?  That could be a great option to help investigators.  Also, My companion's ward had missionary sunday every so often when everyone would bring a non-member to church and all the talks would be about the missionary discussion, or be the missionary discussions.  Maybe our ward can try that.

Mom: Pay tithing on whatever comes.  There should be probably 4 more work checks coming.  They will probably get here in like November or something.  They will probably have conference ensigns when I get there.  It sounds like Mr Taylor is doing a fantastic job.  Tell him I'm proud of him next time you see him.  It's good to hear that I can be ensure for the foreseeable future!  Good work on reporting.  You and Summer and I guess indirectly Dad were the only ones I think that reported on being missionaries.

I have heard from the following friends: Jill Hughes, Jeff Rawlins, Clay Adair.  If that isn't your name, feel free to send me an email or paper letter.  I'm sure anyone older than 5 can show you how!

Love,

Elder Sampson

Visa Arrived/Leaving the MTC 9/17/13

9/6/2013

Dear Family (and a bit the Laurels),

Thank you for the packages.  My picture is (humbly) proudly displayed in the mailroom!

I am sending this because I got my flight plans today which means the visa is good and I am not getting reassigned.  (Everyone else going to Brazil will get their reassignment next Friday).  I leave on Tuesday the 17th at 5:00 or so in the morning.  I fly to Boston at 9:40 and then have a six hour layover before we take a seven hour flight to Cape Verde.  I will be able to call during that time I think (the layover).  I am super excited.

En eston unito animado porque em una semana e quatro dias, eu vou estar em Cabo Verde.  Eu sei que ele vai ser muito deficil, sao Deus vai ajuda me.

I will still be able to email next Friday.

Love,
Elder Sampson

Zarabatana= ( -8

Hello Family, Friends and Fellow Countrymen,

What are you doing to be a missionary this week?

All is still well at the Center for the Training of Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I am coming into the end of my stay here which is nice.

Portuguese is coming along nicely.  It is super helpful to have a almost fluent companion.  

All of our schedule changed on Tuesday because BYU classes started and so the teachers were swapped around a bit as were the schedules to accommodate class times of the teachers.  We lost one of our teachers and got a new one.  His name is Irmão Orr.  He is pretty sweet.  That means that we lost an investigator and got a new one (our teachers are our investigators because no one else speaks Portuguese).  We also got two new investigators that are people acting in our District and we also because investigators which is fun.  We have learned almost every major grammar principle now but still have a long way to go before we can actually remember how to do everything.  

Last week on Tuesday we had another general authority come to the devotional (2nd in 8 months, both while I have been here).  It was Elder Anderson. He is really good.  We had a member of the 70 this week, Elder Evans. He was fantastic too.  

I have been drumming a bit since I got my sticks which is fun, and am playing recorder in a devotional on Sunday but don't tell anyone because I technically haven't been told yet (he says as he broadcasts it into the internet).  I am probably going to play some flute for fun next week before I go.  

There are a bunch of people I have seen that I know, but I have yet to see Elder Heaton.  Elder Keele saw him the day he got here but I haven't seen him yet which is strange.  I saw Elder Haws (most of you probably don't know him.) who is going to the same mission who got here the same day, but I haven't seen Elder Heaton. Is is possible that he got transferred to the West MTC.

Some of you have been asking about the food.  The food here is pretty good ish, but there it too much of it and it doesn't make our tumblies feel fantastic all the time.  I know I have gained some weight while here but haven't weighed myself.  I hate being fat (relatively) and out of shape but the food causes problems because there is always so much of it.

I feel like there is more I was going to say but I am not currently remembering.  I bought a new watch.  It is white and rather large and weighs way too much but it is good.  If someone tries to attack me I can just back hand them with it and they will be out for sure. :)

Sorry if I didn't respond to something specific.  I have letters all over and we had a surprise room inspection today and so my stuff was cleaned to all over by the other elders in our room.

Summer:  2 Field Trips seems like lots of fun.  I am glad you are enjoying your teacher and school.  I see Elder Chun all the time.  I am learning Portuguese slowly but surely.

Ryan: Soccer sounds great.  I play a decent bit of soccer here.  It is lots of fun.  I am still pretty okay at soccer.  I am not the best but not nearly the worst.  I saw Sister Douma the day I got to the MTC and have not seen her since.  I do have a friend I was in ALL with who works in the Book Store here.

Kelsey: Have you had any volleyball games yet?  I hope you have gotten Willey's and school figured out. If you just remember that there are always plenty of things you can learn even if it isn't what would normally be intended to learn from that situation.

Dad: How is not teaching and work stuff? Cape Verde does have a bunch of ties with most portuguese speaking countries.  There are more cape verdians outside of Cape Verde because as soon as they can get enough money, most leave because there aren't many opportunities on a island that has no water.

Mom: Thanks for checking on the bible and hymn book.  I should be getting a decent chunk of money from work.  Probably 5 or so more checks of various amounts.  Probably a bit more than 2000.   I paid the copay for my toe which was $10 and insurance should cover the rest.  It seems like our family is doing a good job with missionary work.

Well, there are plenty of other things that I could talk probably but I am falling into study time, so until next week, Tchau.

Elder Sampson

P-Day not until Friday

My P-day has been moved to Friday so I will write you on Friday.  Sorry for the wait. I will write this Friday, Next Friday, then you won't hear from me for the whole next week except maybe if I can call at the airport, and then you can hear from me in Cape Verde on the Monday after that.

Love,

Elder Sampson

P.S. Ask Lindsey and Kelsey for random Items for each box?  Or you don't have to do it at all.