Hello Everyone!
The Church is true!
So this week we almost felt the rains down in africa, but that will probably happen this week or next. It was blowing water this morning, but it hasn´t started to rain yet. The rainy season is almost here though.
This week was full of many experiences.
The first is that we are working to prepare 2 men for baptism. One struggles with coffee and alchool, and isn´t married and his women that he has a kid with who lives on another island is visiting him, and lives in his house, so he is working hard to never break the work of wisdom and law of chastity, but is winning! Please pray for him. His name is Nilson.
The other is a guy named Santinho. He has a gift. He doesn´t speak portuguese, and can´t read, but he has a gift of speaking. He is the most eloquent speaker I have ever heard that doesn´t try to speak eloquently. It is incredible. I wish I understood every thing he says, but I understand most of it.
So this week, President Mathews came to visit us. He is reminding us of mission rules, and adding some other ones and a lot of missionaries aren´t super happy, but it is going to be a great experience to seek revelation in the near future, to be able to do the same kind of stuff we were doing before with a few more restrictions! I´m glad that I have a bit of creative juices in me.
Also, President Mathews came out this week to our meeting to let on of my friends and fellow missionaries know that his mom passed away on Saturday. After he found out, he talked to his dad and had some alone time for 2 hours, and every single person in the whole zone, even those who had to get a car to go back to their area an hour or 2 away stayed to be with him and support him. Please pray for him. I love you all, especially my family. What a blessing the plan of salvation is.
So we had the most people in church yesterday since I got here in this area. 39!!! It used to be in the 50s, but right before I got here the branch invested 5 young men to missionary service, and so the number of people dropped. We are hoping for 42 next week. Give me your ideas about how to help more people come to church!
Well, that was pretty much this week. Not super eventful. We have a zone conference this week, so the week should go by really fast.
This week´s spiritual thought comes from the Sermon on the Mount that I was studying this morning.
Everyone is invited to read the sermon on the mount this week in conjunction with chapter 16 of Jesus the Christ which talkes about the sermon on the mount. I love reading the responses of Christ, because the way he does everything is so powerful. Every answer to every persecution. He truely is a perfect being. I like 3rd Nephi 13:12 which mostly says (during the Lord´s Prayer) (mostly because I am translating it from portugese and don´t know for sure what the english verse says) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (okay, I looked it up in english). When we pray for help to avoid sin, like we should sincerely, and not vainly repetitous, we MUST do everything we can to avoid things and situations that lead us to sin. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out! It is better to live without than with sin, and we must act to avoid sin, not just to be rid of it.
That´s it.
Avoid Sin
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, August 4, 2014
Well, the Week Flew By! (7/28/14)
So, this last week was a good week all in all!
First
off, Sónia was baptised this week and confirmed. Satan tried really
hard to stop it, but we won! God is more powerful than satan. She and
another member were teaching a lesson yesterday, and I can feel that she
now has the Holy Ghost. I believe that I would be able to tell when
someone recieved the holy ghost even without knowing because, every
time, there is such a diference between before and after. Even if they
have a hard time recognizing it, I can feel a difference! I attacned
some pictures of the baptism, and of a spider that I took that is not
related to the baptism, but it is a sweet picture. We have those all
over our house, especially in our garage, but we only go into the garage
when we need to fix our water pump which happens all to often, but
hasn't happened in a few weeks which is a blessing.
Another miracle of this week is with the mom of a young man. Lito
who is 14 is always with the Elders Quorum president. They work, and do
everything together. Lito has been coming to church for a while now,
but we won't baptise a 14 year old kid alone, even if he has the support
of this member, because in 2 years or so, when he isn't always with
this member, he can easily fall. We taught his mom 9 weeks ago, and in
the area book I have writen, She is catholic and refuses to change. The
Lord however has been changing her, and on sunday
when we went back after a long long time of not talking to her, I
forgot we had asked before, and asked about her religion, and she said
that she doesn't have one but would like to know about the true one! We
marked her a date for baptism, and invited her to pray about Joseph
Smith. We will see how that goes this week! It was a real blessing.
So, some people it appears are confused about my companion. Elder
Pires got his visa, but he doesn't leave until the 13th. We still have 2
more weeks together which is good! Keep praying for us!
Also,
congrats to everyone that is almost or already out on missions as of
recent! Good luck to you all! The Lord is ready to bless you more than
you have ever been blessed before!
This week, also we had a great time doing a division with the
Assistants. I learned a lot of things, and was really blessed to do
that division!
Oh Man, time is sooooo short today.
I love you all, and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Sampson
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Thursday, July 31, 2014
Keep it Up (July 14, 2014)
Dear Everyone,
Thank you so much for you prayers for me and my comp. I literally have felt them during this week. I had no doubt that when I showed up here that I would find that you have been praying for us becuase the Spirit told me that you were. Thank you. Please don´t stop. Please realize that the Lord answers prayers, and that He is answering right now. Please take this opportunity to learn to pray more fervently, knowing that He is responding and helping according to your faith. Thank you.
So this week was pretty good.
One of our investigators, Sónia, finally came to church! She said afterward that it was the best day of her life. We had talked to her last week about why she hasn´t been coming to church, and she said that she is always sleeping and so never comes to church, because church starts at 9 and she gets up at like 9:30 every day, and we didn´t believe that it was something so simple that was keeping her from coming to church, so we talked about repentance and that she can repent by coming to church in the future, and one way to show the Lord her desire to repent is to get up earlier every day, so she got up at 8 every day this last week, and then showed up to church super early which was stellar, and... Had the best day of her life. The Church is True. `nuf said.
So on another day this week we had a super powerful experience. We had marked to go out and teach with a preist in the branch, and as we were walking we ran into another member who decided to go teach with us too. We went out to the area, and started passing our appointments, but weren´t teaching anything. We ended up at the work (construction work) of a member and an investigator, and the investigator left, but we stayed with the member and were just sitting there and everyone was joking around and stuff, and not doing missionary work. And I kept thinking: well, I´m here in Cape Verde to teach the gospel. I can chill with people in America, but I am here to be a missionary, so I finally told everyone that we were leaving, and so all 5 of us, Me, My comp, and 3 members, started walking, and everyone else was all joking around and not really focused in the work, and (my voice has been almost gone all week, but it´s life!) I managed to sing a little bit of called to serve, and that helped everyone pay attention to the work of the Lord, and the we went off the side of the road, and we said a prayer, and started going to really teach and the spirit was with us. We taught one lesson, and it was inspired, and then we followed the spirit to another house, even though we knew that the person wasn´t home, and the spirit said to sing a hymn, so we sang a hymn for the persons dad, and he started to cry, and the spirit was super strong, then we went to try to find someone else, and it was getting late, and it takes 45 mins to walk home, and so if we don´t get lucky and find a car to take us, we have to leave at like 8:35 to get home, but as it hit about 8:40 and we were walking home, full of the spirit, I recieved a revelation of things that were to come. Through the Holy Ghost I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we would find a car to get home faster. It came super powerfully, and I was so confident that it was true because I knew that it came from the Holy Ghost. Right after this, the Spirit prompted us to enter the house of someone we could never find during the last 6 weeks, and so, knowing that we would get a car home, we were able to follow the spirit and enter, and re-establish contact with these people that are not progressing super well. Right after we left the visit there, we got a car to take us home, and were able to follow the spirit, and make a big difference in the lives of people, and fulfil all of the mission rules and commandments.
I testify that when we follow the Spirit, the Spirit will show us the way to make miracles happen while following the commandments, and rules that have been justly set.
I know that this is the True Church.
We were also blessed with a miracle yesterday in finding a man who is a strong member who lives far from our area, but passes it every day that is able to help with the needs of a specific investigator. It was a real blessing and miracle.
Last thing.
So we hold a night of miracles every monday night at the house of one of our members. We talk about miricles from the scriptures, from our lives, and how we will make miracles happen in our lives during the next week. I invite everyone for FHE to hold a night of miracles, and to talk about how they happen, and what you can do to make miracles happen in your life and in the life of other people.
Love,
Elder Sampson
Thank you so much for you prayers for me and my comp. I literally have felt them during this week. I had no doubt that when I showed up here that I would find that you have been praying for us becuase the Spirit told me that you were. Thank you. Please don´t stop. Please realize that the Lord answers prayers, and that He is answering right now. Please take this opportunity to learn to pray more fervently, knowing that He is responding and helping according to your faith. Thank you.
So this week was pretty good.
One of our investigators, Sónia, finally came to church! She said afterward that it was the best day of her life. We had talked to her last week about why she hasn´t been coming to church, and she said that she is always sleeping and so never comes to church, because church starts at 9 and she gets up at like 9:30 every day, and we didn´t believe that it was something so simple that was keeping her from coming to church, so we talked about repentance and that she can repent by coming to church in the future, and one way to show the Lord her desire to repent is to get up earlier every day, so she got up at 8 every day this last week, and then showed up to church super early which was stellar, and... Had the best day of her life. The Church is True. `nuf said.
So on another day this week we had a super powerful experience. We had marked to go out and teach with a preist in the branch, and as we were walking we ran into another member who decided to go teach with us too. We went out to the area, and started passing our appointments, but weren´t teaching anything. We ended up at the work (construction work) of a member and an investigator, and the investigator left, but we stayed with the member and were just sitting there and everyone was joking around and stuff, and not doing missionary work. And I kept thinking: well, I´m here in Cape Verde to teach the gospel. I can chill with people in America, but I am here to be a missionary, so I finally told everyone that we were leaving, and so all 5 of us, Me, My comp, and 3 members, started walking, and everyone else was all joking around and not really focused in the work, and (my voice has been almost gone all week, but it´s life!) I managed to sing a little bit of called to serve, and that helped everyone pay attention to the work of the Lord, and the we went off the side of the road, and we said a prayer, and started going to really teach and the spirit was with us. We taught one lesson, and it was inspired, and then we followed the spirit to another house, even though we knew that the person wasn´t home, and the spirit said to sing a hymn, so we sang a hymn for the persons dad, and he started to cry, and the spirit was super strong, then we went to try to find someone else, and it was getting late, and it takes 45 mins to walk home, and so if we don´t get lucky and find a car to take us, we have to leave at like 8:35 to get home, but as it hit about 8:40 and we were walking home, full of the spirit, I recieved a revelation of things that were to come. Through the Holy Ghost I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we would find a car to get home faster. It came super powerfully, and I was so confident that it was true because I knew that it came from the Holy Ghost. Right after this, the Spirit prompted us to enter the house of someone we could never find during the last 6 weeks, and so, knowing that we would get a car home, we were able to follow the spirit and enter, and re-establish contact with these people that are not progressing super well. Right after we left the visit there, we got a car to take us home, and were able to follow the spirit, and make a big difference in the lives of people, and fulfil all of the mission rules and commandments.
I testify that when we follow the Spirit, the Spirit will show us the way to make miracles happen while following the commandments, and rules that have been justly set.
I know that this is the True Church.
We were also blessed with a miracle yesterday in finding a man who is a strong member who lives far from our area, but passes it every day that is able to help with the needs of a specific investigator. It was a real blessing and miracle.
Last thing.
So we hold a night of miracles every monday night at the house of one of our members. We talk about miricles from the scriptures, from our lives, and how we will make miracles happen in our lives during the next week. I invite everyone for FHE to hold a night of miracles, and to talk about how they happen, and what you can do to make miracles happen in your life and in the life of other people.
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, July 21, 2014
It was the best of times, it was the best of times, even though it isn't always easy!
Dear Everyone,
IT IS MY DEAR MOTHER´S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!
I have the greatest mother that has ever lived. Thank you so much for teaching me and being an example to me of charity, and gratitude, and patience, and peace, and of living the gospel!
So this week was interesting and good and stuff. Unfortunately because of time, this will be briefer.
So this week I was able to see real progress. We have been making progress, but when I got here we were at nothing, and so it has been hard to see the slow progress that has been made, but this week, we have gotten so far that I really can see the difference that is being made here. Things are getting better with my comp, and with our investigators, and with the area, and with the branch.
Thank you for your prayers in my behalf. I felt them again this week. It is a different but good feeling to know by the spirit during the week that people are praying for you. Thank you for your faith.
So this week Sónia is getting baptised. It has been a grand journey that is starting with her. She is really becoming converted. The last thing this branch and the church need are some flakey recent converts, and sometimes, especially here where it is so easy to baptise, missionaries baptise people that aren´t really ready and solid, but Sónia is really changing and she will be a great help the the Lord´s work, especially in this branch.
This week there have been a bunch of parties in our areas, and we have walked a ton ton ton ton ton. On the bright side, I am loosing some of the fat that comes from eating cape verdian food that is all cooked with lots of oil every day. I hope this week will be better. I have faith that it will. I am ready to act in accordance with that faith to win this week, and to make a difference.
This week´s spiritual though is about making a difference.
When we have desires to make a difference, the Lord will help us when:
It is something just.
We want it to glorify Him, and not ourselves.
We are willing to act.
So, think about how you want to make a difference and go for it. Life is about making a difference. Be it Big or Small.
Love you all!!!
Elder Sampson
Also, attached is a picture of me and my comp!
Editor's note: Sorry -- I couldn't get this picture to copy :/
IT IS MY DEAR MOTHER´S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!
I have the greatest mother that has ever lived. Thank you so much for teaching me and being an example to me of charity, and gratitude, and patience, and peace, and of living the gospel!
So this week was interesting and good and stuff. Unfortunately because of time, this will be briefer.
So this week I was able to see real progress. We have been making progress, but when I got here we were at nothing, and so it has been hard to see the slow progress that has been made, but this week, we have gotten so far that I really can see the difference that is being made here. Things are getting better with my comp, and with our investigators, and with the area, and with the branch.
Thank you for your prayers in my behalf. I felt them again this week. It is a different but good feeling to know by the spirit during the week that people are praying for you. Thank you for your faith.
So this week Sónia is getting baptised. It has been a grand journey that is starting with her. She is really becoming converted. The last thing this branch and the church need are some flakey recent converts, and sometimes, especially here where it is so easy to baptise, missionaries baptise people that aren´t really ready and solid, but Sónia is really changing and she will be a great help the the Lord´s work, especially in this branch.
This week there have been a bunch of parties in our areas, and we have walked a ton ton ton ton ton. On the bright side, I am loosing some of the fat that comes from eating cape verdian food that is all cooked with lots of oil every day. I hope this week will be better. I have faith that it will. I am ready to act in accordance with that faith to win this week, and to make a difference.
This week´s spiritual though is about making a difference.
When we have desires to make a difference, the Lord will help us when:
It is something just.
We want it to glorify Him, and not ourselves.
We are willing to act.
So, think about how you want to make a difference and go for it. Life is about making a difference. Be it Big or Small.
Love you all!!!
Elder Sampson
Also, attached is a picture of me and my comp!
Editor's note: Sorry -- I couldn't get this picture to copy :/
Monday, July 7, 2014
Week of Struggles, but as always, Love and Patience Win!!!
So this week... Was a week a little bit different.
Also this week we had a grand lesson with a less active, where
we ended up talking about the Atonement. Every time we are there, his
mom herds some chickens that are outside into the house for the night so
they can be protected from the dogs and stuff outside. Some of them
enter easily, but others have to be chased down to get them into the
safety of the house for the night. While we were there we compared this
to the gospel and the atonement to help José. The door is always open
for José to enter into the safety of Christ´s church. Because of Christ
it doesn´t matter how many times that he comes in and then goes out,
the door will always be open for him to come into the safety of the
house. The Lord loves him, and just like his mom was helping the
chickens enter, God sent us, the missionaries, to help him enter again
into the safety of Christ´s fold. It was a great example for me of the
Love that our Savior has for us in all things. I hope and pray that
José can come back and be the strong member that he was that this branch
needs.
So, also this week were some comp learning experiences.
There were a lot of things that happened that you all don´t really need
to know about leading up to the point where (not because of worthiness
issues but because of other issues), my comp almost got sent home, and I
was fasting and praying for him, and doing every type of service that I
could think of for him, and trying to help him understand that I love
him, and a lot of super hard stuff, that I never would have gotten even
close to encountering without the Lord. I fell like I don´t have
terrible patience, but this week I got to demonstrate even more than I
have at any other point in my life. Anyways, it was decided that he was
going home, and I asked for one more day to try to figure stuff out,
and the said no, and then with the help of another Elder, we managed to
get some stuff figured out so that my comp wasn´t going home, and we
could keep working together. It was a true answer to my prayers because
I know he didn´t want to go home really, and that it would put a
downward turn on his life. I am so grateful that we are still serving
together, even though it is still rough, I am learning a lot and have
the opertunity to change and change and change and change to become more
like Chirst and to use the atonement in my life. In the middle of all
of this, at the hardest part, I was praying, and was filled with the
Spirit in a way that nothing could make me unhappy, and that I was led
to do the stuff that I needed. I was litterally lifted up from misery
to the most perfect happiness that I have experienced here in a way that
no power of Satan or man could affect me (or effect me?).
So, Pray for my comp and for me!
The Gospel of
Christ and the Atonement of Christ are useless without Repentance.
Repentance=Change. We. HAVE. TO. CHANGE. Just doing stuff doesn´t
work. We have to be changed to recieve eternal life.
I know this is the Lords Church and I am so Grateful for the Atonement.
I know I have weaknesses, but I have no doubt that the Lord has forgiven me as I change and forgive others.
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, June 30, 2014
Well, We Tried
.
So this week had some stellar stuff and some "well... that´s life" stuff.
So the more or less stuff:
We tried to find Nuno all week. We dropped a ton of lessons every day to go to the area he lives in to try to find him, to no avail. So, in the end he wasn´t baptised and didn´t come to church.
We also found out that the girl who was supposed to get baptised this week didn´t actually go to church last week alone and didn´t come this week. Great.
Also, Elder Gilbert, who lived in my house, went to america, and so I was in a trio for 2 days which shafted both of them.
Also, we found out that one of our less actives who lives with another man who is not a member and they aren´t married is actually married to someone else right now. Man, big commandment breaking.
The Good News, is that they want to live the commandment, and She is going to work this week to get divorced with this guy that lives in Portugal, and then get married to this other guy so they can live the commandments. They didn´t come to church, but their 9 year old daughter came alone, and she is sweet!
Also good that happened this week is that we got to see President Oliveira one last time. They came out to do house inspections 2 days before they went home, but didn´t have time, and so we just had a small zone meeting which was awesome and we talked about the future. Pretty much all of the transfers that were supposed to happen this sunday already happened. The only things that will change will be giving greenies comps when they come in next week.
We talked about miracles in that meeting, and the spirit was super strong.
We had a meeting with 2 of our 5 members that are active in our 2 areas, about miracles, and the spirit was super strong. We made plans based out of Moroni 7:31 which talks about covenants and miracles.
Our plan has 3 parts:
1. Personal Worthiness to Covenants
2. Help others Make or Return to living covenants
3. Night of Miracles which will take place every week to help us talk about and see the miracles that are happening and make plans to have miracles happen.
Everyone wants to see miracles. We just need to have enough faith to make them happen.
So, find more faith this week!!!
Love,
Elder Sampson
So this week had some stellar stuff and some "well... that´s life" stuff.
So the more or less stuff:
We tried to find Nuno all week. We dropped a ton of lessons every day to go to the area he lives in to try to find him, to no avail. So, in the end he wasn´t baptised and didn´t come to church.
We also found out that the girl who was supposed to get baptised this week didn´t actually go to church last week alone and didn´t come this week. Great.
Also, Elder Gilbert, who lived in my house, went to america, and so I was in a trio for 2 days which shafted both of them.
Also, we found out that one of our less actives who lives with another man who is not a member and they aren´t married is actually married to someone else right now. Man, big commandment breaking.
The Good News, is that they want to live the commandment, and She is going to work this week to get divorced with this guy that lives in Portugal, and then get married to this other guy so they can live the commandments. They didn´t come to church, but their 9 year old daughter came alone, and she is sweet!
Also good that happened this week is that we got to see President Oliveira one last time. They came out to do house inspections 2 days before they went home, but didn´t have time, and so we just had a small zone meeting which was awesome and we talked about the future. Pretty much all of the transfers that were supposed to happen this sunday already happened. The only things that will change will be giving greenies comps when they come in next week.
We talked about miracles in that meeting, and the spirit was super strong.
We had a meeting with 2 of our 5 members that are active in our 2 areas, about miracles, and the spirit was super strong. We made plans based out of Moroni 7:31 which talks about covenants and miracles.
Our plan has 3 parts:
1. Personal Worthiness to Covenants
2. Help others Make or Return to living covenants
3. Night of Miracles which will take place every week to help us talk about and see the miracles that are happening and make plans to have miracles happen.
Everyone wants to see miracles. We just need to have enough faith to make them happen.
So, find more faith this week!!!
Love,
Elder Sampson
Monday, June 23, 2014
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
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
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