Family and Friends,
Jared is home =). We had a wonderful reunion at the airport yesterday. Here are a few pictures I wanted to share.
4 Attachments
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
Dear Everyone
Dear Everyone,
What a great week.
The work was a bit slower because of all the parties that were going on this week, but it was still great.
I had a great division with Elder Gervais who is brand new. He is a boss. It was awesome to work with him for a day.
Yeah. Thats pretty much it.
I LOVE being a missionary. One of the greatest things in the world. I am gong to miss being a full time preacher of the peace and love of our Savior and Redeemer.
I Love Cape Verde. This is the best place on earth.
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, August 10, 2015
Re-create yourself every day
Hey Everyone!
This week was a great week. A million times better than the week before too!!!
Some highlights of the week:
Baptism! I´d forgotten a bit about baptisms because it has been a while since I have had one. Melanie was baptised this saturday and confirmed on sunday. She is just a tad older than Kelsey (16). She was found and taught by other elders, and then I showed up, and there were some complications with her baptism, and then, she was finally baptised. She is super sweet. She speaks fluent english. Her dad lives in america, and she is moving there at the end of next week. It was a bit weird because I have never taught her. But, somehow, I never felt any question about her rediness to be baptised. Because of other problems, she couldnt come to church the two weeks that I have been there, although she had been there like 5 times before that. It was a miracle for her to get permission from her mom and dad, and to finally see her baptised. The elder that baptised here (the one standing next to her in the picture) was the one who found her and then got transfered to a different part of mindelo.
So I was reading through some of the coucil that I recieved when I was set apart, and some of it I really liked and have been thinking about this week. One of the things was about recreating yourself every day. Taking all the knowledge and experience you have gained up until that point and then. BAM. starting over at the beginning of every day. Work it out with the Lord and evaluate at night, then hit the day fresh. There are still so many things to learn while I am here, and I need to be on top of it if I can get the most out of it.
I also forgot how to teach with a greenie that doesnt speak the language, but we had a good time this week. I got to teach 2 lessons with Elder Gervais this week while Elder Gilbert went to do the interview of Melanie. And... Both lessons were the law of chastisty. It was great to help him figure out how to teach that and what to say for the first time. Haha.
I also went on a divisoin with Elder Gilbert this week. That was a blast! He is a super good guy. We found a bunch of new less actives and one of them came to church! It was awesome. Learnin´ every day.
I know that this is the Lord´s work, and I am so greatful for everything that The Lord has given me!
Like D&C 3 says: If you dont want to do the Lords work the Lords way, He will keep going without you.
The Lord Knows.
I Love Him and His Son Jesus Christ.
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, August 3, 2015
I love my Mom
Dear Everyone,
This was a week full of adventures here in Mindelo!
It was a bit of a challange for us both as Elder Adams passed through the aniverasry of one year since President Mathews came to assomada with the news that his mother had passed away. I struggled a bit to know how to succor. But, we are through, and just need to keep going and the Lord will do his work. I am grateful for my mother and all of my family. I have the best family in the world!
This week we had some great experiences.
One of those was teaching a man who we contacted last Sunday and got to teach this last saturday. He is probably about 50 and is married and has 2 kids. He had been taught in the past but not much and didnt remember anything. He still had the book of Mormon though. His copy was really old. A style not printed anymore.
We left him a part to read, and he read a bit before our lesson. He had read about eat drink and be merry. He started off about how people reject the prophets and told us about a cycle he has seen in the history of the bible of rejection and prophets and stuff. He pretty much just taught the restoration to us up until he had nothing after the great appostasty. He talked about gospel principles that arent really lived in his church, and that he sees in other churches. He said he has never gone to church and felt like they were living what Christ taught in the bible. He said he has always longed to feel that he was living with others the true teachings of Christ. I was able to testify of the restoration and give him the oportunity to learn for himself. It was an amazing experience. That doesnt mean he just picked up everything super fast though and is already on board. We still have some work to help this brother gain his own testimony, but It was a great start!
This Sunday too, Hivandro, who is the group leader from São Nicolau, came out on his way to EFY in Santo Antão. He went out to teach with us, and though it has only been a week and a half since I saw him, it was super awesome to be with an old friend again. Also in this ward live the 2 mini-missionaries that were with me in Santo Antão a year and a half ago. One is still a strong worthy melchezidic preisthood holder, and the other, who was my comp, left 4 weeks ago to Portugal to serve his full time mission. What a blessing!!!
I also love the other members here. Testimony meeting was full of people that bore their testimonys, instead of only haveing 7 people to start out with and only 4 will bear their testimonys. That is a pretty quick meeting. But, here is was a great meeting.
I went into sacrament really needing a new start. To be clensed. I begged the Lord. As the sacrament prayer was going on, I was praying it along with them. However it became:
Oh God, the eternal Father, I beg thee in the name of thy Son to bless this bread to my soul... that I may always have Thy spirit with me. (or kind of like that. I was praying in portuguese)
There was a great change in me from that moment until the end of church, as many open wounds were miracuously healed.
Also, we got to teach a lot with our ward mission leader too. Helton. He is awesome. He is about to be able to start his papers. A true and valiant member. A great example to me.
I love the Lord.
I love you all too!
Elder Sampson
Monday, July 27, 2015
Moving out on the Kriola
Dear Everyone,
By the grace of God, I was permitted to stay until Friday in Sao Nicolau, which was a huge blessing. I think graced is really the only word that describes the blessing I recieved to serve a few more days there. During those days we saw the continuation of many miracles.
One of those was with our group leader, who has been discovering the loneliness of leadership coupled with being on a secluded island with no help and no trainings or anything. He was ready to be done. We went to talk to him to try to help him out, and he was bad. He wouldnt pray with us or read with us. He stood up in the middle a few times to walk out and we told him to sit down. We were not overbearing, but felt multiple times that he needed to stay so that we could help him. We kept him in the church by force 2 different times. He was mostly lethargic and didnt really struggle much. We tryed everything we could think of to help him, until Kevin showed up. Kevin passed through something similar last week, and they had some things that needed to be resolved. We sang a hymn standing in the stairs, then got Kevin and our group leader together, and we got them talking. The spirit took over, and our group leader felt the companionship of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He said the closing prayer, and is doing much better. I am so grateful for the power of the atonement and the holy Ghost.
I took a beautiful boat ride that was pretty miserable but I didnt get too sick. It was about 2 hours long to get to mindelo.
I am serving, like I said last week, with Elder Adams. I have known him pretty well for a while. He is black, but is from Lehi. His dad moved to orem while he was out here though, so we will be going home to the same city. He has been out around 19 months, so he teaches well. It is great having a black comp. We had someone complain about how the preisthood was withheld from blacks for a while, and it is very difficult for me to testify of that, but he bore a powerful testimony and the man stopped talking about it. haha. He has a super strong love for the prophets and apostles. It is contagious. It is going to be super good for me to serve with him.
It is really weird serving somewhere where there are funtioning organizations and stuff. Where the church is not dependent on the missionaries for survival. It was weird to just make normal comments in Elders Quorum. Actually, having Elders Quorum was a bit weird. It was only Elders. Not even Elders and young men. And there were a decent amount of people there. We had 107 people at church. That is a bit higher than our goal of 17 in Sao Nicolau for this week. haha. Actually, 3 hours of church was a suprise too. I forgot that church is usually 3 hours instead of just 2. Lots of new things going on.
Our area is really small. Lots of people, but a very small area. I am starting to get to know people. We are in need of some new investigators though. We are working on that. We are walking too much right now and teaching not enough. Life is always better when you teach a lot. So, we are doing better with that.
The members here are really good too. Most of the members dont live in our area, but the ward mission leader does, and he helps alot. His name is Helton and has been a member for about 9 months. He teaches a lot with us.
We were supposed to have a baptism on last saturday, but that had to be put off until the 8th. So as far as baptising soon, we have some way to go. But, we are marking some good people for baptism and stuff.
One important thing I learned this past week is about the importance of being God-minded and not man-minded. Everyone has different talents and abilities. The hand can not say that they dont need the foot because they are not a hand. We are all part of the body of Christ´s church. So. Dont judge others because they have fortes in different areas than you.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
Love,
Elder Sampson
By the grace of God, I was permitted to stay until Friday in Sao Nicolau, which was a huge blessing. I think graced is really the only word that describes the blessing I recieved to serve a few more days there. During those days we saw the continuation of many miracles.
One of those was with our group leader, who has been discovering the loneliness of leadership coupled with being on a secluded island with no help and no trainings or anything. He was ready to be done. We went to talk to him to try to help him out, and he was bad. He wouldnt pray with us or read with us. He stood up in the middle a few times to walk out and we told him to sit down. We were not overbearing, but felt multiple times that he needed to stay so that we could help him. We kept him in the church by force 2 different times. He was mostly lethargic and didnt really struggle much. We tryed everything we could think of to help him, until Kevin showed up. Kevin passed through something similar last week, and they had some things that needed to be resolved. We sang a hymn standing in the stairs, then got Kevin and our group leader together, and we got them talking. The spirit took over, and our group leader felt the companionship of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He said the closing prayer, and is doing much better. I am so grateful for the power of the atonement and the holy Ghost.
I took a beautiful boat ride that was pretty miserable but I didnt get too sick. It was about 2 hours long to get to mindelo.
I am serving, like I said last week, with Elder Adams. I have known him pretty well for a while. He is black, but is from Lehi. His dad moved to orem while he was out here though, so we will be going home to the same city. He has been out around 19 months, so he teaches well. It is great having a black comp. We had someone complain about how the preisthood was withheld from blacks for a while, and it is very difficult for me to testify of that, but he bore a powerful testimony and the man stopped talking about it. haha. He has a super strong love for the prophets and apostles. It is contagious. It is going to be super good for me to serve with him.
It is really weird serving somewhere where there are funtioning organizations and stuff. Where the church is not dependent on the missionaries for survival. It was weird to just make normal comments in Elders Quorum. Actually, having Elders Quorum was a bit weird. It was only Elders. Not even Elders and young men. And there were a decent amount of people there. We had 107 people at church. That is a bit higher than our goal of 17 in Sao Nicolau for this week. haha. Actually, 3 hours of church was a suprise too. I forgot that church is usually 3 hours instead of just 2. Lots of new things going on.
Our area is really small. Lots of people, but a very small area. I am starting to get to know people. We are in need of some new investigators though. We are working on that. We are walking too much right now and teaching not enough. Life is always better when you teach a lot. So, we are doing better with that.
The members here are really good too. Most of the members dont live in our area, but the ward mission leader does, and he helps alot. His name is Helton and has been a member for about 9 months. He teaches a lot with us.
We were supposed to have a baptism on last saturday, but that had to be put off until the 8th. So as far as baptising soon, we have some way to go. But, we are marking some good people for baptism and stuff.
One important thing I learned this past week is about the importance of being God-minded and not man-minded. Everyone has different talents and abilities. The hand can not say that they dont need the foot because they are not a hand. We are all part of the body of Christ´s church. So. Dont judge others because they have fortes in different areas than you.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, July 20, 2015
I've seen rotisary chicken, but rotisary pig... Now that's new!
Dear Everyone,
I just wanted to wish happy birthday to the best mother on the planet!!!
This week there was a giant fair here to celebrate the coming of her birthday. There were animals and things to sell, and food, and lots and lots of people. It was super fun, except we didnt have time to go take a look, although we did cut through it a few times. One highlight was a large rod about 10 feet long with a whole roasted pig on it. Beautiful.
This week was full of miracles.
One of those was with Kevin, who has been strugging a lot recently. We went to talk to him yesterday, (actually to talk to his brother, but he was gone and kevin was there) and we sang a hymn and prayed and then had no idea what to do. At all. Kevin was super lethargic. He said he just feels mentally sick all the time. Everything is going bad, not just gospel stuff. We prayed and begged God that he put words into our mouths. The only impression was, wherever you go, make sure that you go with your companion as one. So we went, and over about an hour, there was a huge transformation in him that could not be caused by anything except for a miracle. He walked out of his house with us on his way to visit the widows and the fatherless, to show the Love of Jesus Christ.
Elder Barrus and I are finally teaching super well together. It really started yesterday morning. We were excited too, because the afternoon passed and we recieved no phone call, then in the early evening, President Mathews called and transfered me. You can´t do that. :(
But! huge blessing. For whatever reason, I have to stay here until Friday, so I get another half a week to live on this fountain of miracles.
I am going to Mindelo which is where the second of the stakes was made. Big city. I will have about 4 weeks of mission time in the big city with a ward and fully funtioning organizations. It will be a blast. I will be serving with Elder Adams, who I know really well. He is from Lehi. I am super excited. I will still be in the same zone, so if zone conference is early next month, I may be able to see Elder Barrus before I get transfered out.
The Lord answers our prayers and our fasts. He gives us what we need.
Last week we found a lady who has been, unbeknognst to us (is that a word?), reading the book of mormon for a while. Her 4 year old daughter has a strange desease, and she has been reading and praying to show God that she wants his help. She hasnt felt like she has recieved any yet though. We got to testify that God has heard her prayers. The Book of Mormon also gave her many answers. I fasted to prepare for the blessing we were going to give her daughter. We went over and talked about the plan of salvation first, and then she asked us, How does the baptism thing work. We started to teach and testify, and then President Mathews interupted our teaching, so Elder Barrus left to the hall, and I taught about a new birth through baptism, then we switched, and not knowing what I had taught, he taught about how it is a promise with God, then I walked back in, not knowing even what was happening exactly, and invited her to be baptised because it felt right. She accepted, and in her prayer prommised God that if He will pull her though this trial of her daughter, she will keep all his Commandments and be baptised. She is going to Mindelo this week to see some better doctors. Pray for her. Her name is Laricia. I dont remember her daughters name. The fasting also payed off, as Elder Barrus was inspired to profer a blessing of healing to her daughter, and then we gave her a blessing of comfort.
I am so grateful for this work and Prayer and Fasting, and the Holy Preisthood that I have been blessed to hold.
Please, please, please do not undervalue the power of the Holy Ghost and the Resored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love you all,
Elder Sampson
Monday, July 13, 2015
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Dear everyone,
This last week was a great blessing. We were trying hard to teach at least 20 lessons to investigators, which we didnt achieve, but there were still tons of good things happening. We started off our day today trying to make up for it teaching some other lessons. That is one thing that I am trying super hard to get closer to mastering this week. Achieving goals. It does no good if you make a goal and then dont try to achieve it. And if you make a goal, and dont achieve it, and there is nothing to help you do better next time, then there is no point either. But, if you act diferently to achieve a goal, and rely on the Lord, then you make progress. As President Mathews says, you need three things, and if you have these three things, you can achieve everything the Lord wants you to.
1. Good Planning
2. Faith
3. Hard Work
When you find that you arent achieving, that means that there is something lacking in one of those three spots.
Goals. Important. Very Important.
If we dont learn to make and achieve goals, we can get to the end of our lives and look back and see that we achieved very little of our full potential.
We are children of God. We have devine potential. Goals help us get that!
So this week we broke the reacord for the most investigators in church in 1 week in the last long time. 3. With 15 people in total which was a huge blessing. We only had 9 last week, so that is 6 more. Given, last week was the 5th of July (independence day) and there was a massive party that stole away some members, but it is still a huge blessing to have ourselves and 13 others at church.
One of those is Brother Antunes´s son, Isaías (Isaiah). He is 12 and loves the gospel already. He ate the leahona we gave him, and started the book of mormon. He is going to be a great preisthood holder one day.
Another Huge blessing is that we got into the exgroup leader´s house this week. It has been a long time since that has happened. They accepted to let us have family night with them tonight, so I made a cake. We will go over in an hour or so. The Lord is really blessing us here, even though the work still is very arduous.
I love you all and know that this work is true. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives. He really and truely lives. By the power of the Holy Ghost, and through sincere study and prayer, you can know that too.
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, July 6, 2015
What a Wonderful Week
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
What a week!
Dear Family and Friends,
To those who noticed, which may have only been my dear mother, it is tuesday, not monday. Yesterday
there was a huge party in my city. Everyone was out on the street, and for the last week almost non stop
there have been drummers playing in the street. Constant noise for 8 days or so. They just play the same
beat of 4 seconds on loop for days. I am happy that part is over. There were horse races and stuff. Way
to much alchool, but other than that a pretty family friendly party, except that they were also technically `
worshiping` Saint Peter which is a big no no. Everything was closed except the chinese stores, so we
couldnt email. I love the chinese. The Chinese here in sao nicolau are better than in all the other islands
because their isnt a huge seperation between them and the natives. You dont really ever see the chinese
and cape verdians just chatting in front of a store on any other island. I love them.
So, just a reminder, Please do not be materialistic. The things you have doesnt matter nearly as much as
who you are. Dont let what you have get in the way of changing who you are through the atonement of
Christ.
Another thing. Prioritys. How far are you willing to go? Are you willing to go the extra mile to help one
in need. The Lord answers our prayers. Are you ready to go when he commands?
So this week we have been trying to keep everything from falling to the ground. Like in high school when
I was building a toothipick bridge. The hardest part is getting a strong foundation. Once it is built, it is way
easier to get more and build higher. Please pray for us. We are still not solid, but if we are patient The
Lord will do his work in his time. There are so few people right now fighting for the right. One of them is
Alexandro. On Wednesday, our group leader forgot to designate someone to teach institute, and didn't
show up, but Alexandro jumped up to it. He doesnt understand the scriptures super well, but he just puts
his weaknesses behind him, and just goes for it. What a man of faith.
He is also helping our only progressing investigator, Adilson, who has huge addiction problems. He has
some mental scars that come from years of bad choices and depression, and he is learning how to beat
his addictions and to forgive. Alexhandro is helping a ton, and he seeks to do stuff without being asked
which is amazing. He goes beyond the basic because of the changes that have happened in his life.
Our church was pretty normal, just without the other elders who opened tarrafal. We dropped 2 people, f
rom 13 to 11 which is expectable because 2 left.
but,
Tarrafal was a huge success!!! We helped them move down on tuesday and get their house set up.
The first sacrament meeting happened with 31 people! They could bearly cram them into this tiny room
in their house. One of the members that is less active that came was a man I rescued in one of my other
areas who moved back here. We are super excited. They have the first baptism on saturday and Elder
Barrus just fininshed his interview. Pray for them too!!!
I know the church is true. It is a fight. But, Those who are with us are more those who are with them.
Love,
Elder Sampson
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