Where's the water?

This week was a rougher week full of scattered blessings.

First off, this week the water has been pretty much broken.  It started last week, when we ran out of water in our tank.  Right after, we called a water truck which brough us more water because our tank never refilled, which happens thursday and sunday.  The next day it was out again because our pump didn´t have power because the power was out.  Then we had water for 3 days, then our pump stopped working, it worked for 1 day, then it stopped.  We got a guy to come fix it, and it worked for 10 mins, we left, then it stopped, and we have been without water for 3 days, so he is supposed to come again at 4 today.  So, when we need water, we take a bucket on a string out to our tank, throw the bucket down into the tank and pull up water that is not drinkable, then we have to filter it by hand to drink which is about a cup of water every minuite.  It´s good though.  We learn appriciation.

This week we also did a lot of walking.  We had a lot of oppertunities to prove to the Lord that we will work hard even when life is not the greatest. In return, He has blessed us with a bunch of miracles.
On of those miracles is Nilson.  He is proof that money and worldly goods don´t bring happiness but families bring happiness.  He has been extremely miserable for the last 5 months or so after his baby and lady left him, and he suffers lots of stuff that his family doesn´t know about.  He has been invited to go to a few churches but said no, then we were passing him, and he asked if we could come to his house and help him.  We walked in, and he opened up everything.  He told us that God told him to stop us as we were passing him that day.

We also started teaching his dad who loves him a lot but is not very happy with how he has fallen into temptation and sin. His dad is 76, and has been married for 49 years which is crazy, and he immidiately accepted baptism.  It was incredible.  A true miracle.

The best thing to find here is families.  When you baptise a family, they immidiately have the help of their familiy members.  We have been blessed to find 3 men, who have big families, who have lots of desire to follow the true church, and are already married.  We are working with all of them.  They all also conveinently own cars which makes everything easier in these areas in the middle of nowhere.

The last of these three we found Saturday.  We have been teaching his son, and he is happy with the good principles his son is learning, and now wants them for himself and all of his family. Please pray for these three families, that we can be inspired what to do to help them all progress.

We are still struggling to have investigators and stuff in church, but our baptism for this week, Nuno, was at church, and so that was good.  No one else came.  We were especially sad about one of our investigators who has been progressing super well who wasn´t there.  We had a rough sunday, and then passed her house at the end of the day to find out that she wasn´t home but in Assomada at her sisters house.  Sad.  So we left, and then right after coincidently got a call from her which is a miracle in and of itself because no one ever calls us because it uses saldo (kind of like minutes) and no one will ever use saldo to call you so we never get calls.  She called us to say sorry, and to say that she was in Assomada, and that she had gone to church by herself in Assomada, and loved it!!!!!  That was a huge blessing after a very rough day of a lot of walking.

This week´s spiritual thought is about door knocking. Actually not really, but it is about following the spirit.  So I knocked my first door yesterday.  It was terrible.  I hate door knocking.  We do street contacts all the time, and that is pretty fruitful, and we will go knock on doors to ask where people live because there are no addresses, and then contact those people too, which is pretty fruitful, but knocking doors, is terrible.  I don´t know why I was prompted to do it, becasue the lady was very not happy with us, but at least now I have the clean concience that I followed the spirit, and will do what he tells me to do, especially after I am tired from walking 2 hours straight, and having no one be home at like 7 or 8 houses.  The Lord works miricles when we are obedient.  We have struggles to grow.  Man it is rough getting people to get to church, but because of all of these problems, I understand the doctrines of the sacriment and church so much better.

The church is true.  I had the oppertunity to learn a bit about another church this week through a strange experience, and it is so clear that their church is not true.  The members are still good people, but it brings me happiness to know that we have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love,
Elder Sampson