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Hey Everyone!

So this week was a blast of rollercoaster rides!

1. This African Desease here has only killed about 7 or 8 people, but we are washing our hands and stuff.

2. The rain is here.  We walk wet!
The rainy season startes right now and that means that it rains frequently (4ish times a week for hours and hours).  In the not rainy season that starts in December or so, there is never rain... ever.

3. So on Wednesday this week Elder Pires went to Brazil.  I was told that I wasn´t going to get a mini missionary, so I planned and did divisions with members until saturday, when I got a call that I had 10 mins to go and meet my comp, a mini missionary from Tarrafal which is like 1 hour away to the north.  It is part of our zone.  His name is Elder Lopes.  He dosn´t know anything about missionary work, so he is learning everything the first time right, but he has a strong testimony, and good fire, and is super sincere.  He is sweet.  He will stay with me until thursday morning when my comp will get here.

4. So there was a funny experience that happened where a kid was scared of me because I was the first white person that he had seen up close.  I did a bit of magic for him, and now he isn´t afraid of white people.  Haha.  That isn´t normal.  Most people don´t think twice about white people really.  Also, I don´t do much magic here because if an elder does a lot of magic, every kid for the next few years will ask all of the missionaries for magic even if they don´t know how to do it because everyone loves magic.

5. So this week was a great learning experience.  The theme of this week was Turn To God.  Pretty much I love Elder Pires, but at the end especially, it was a bit rough for me because he was worried about leaving Cabo Verde, and people and stuff, but didn´t want to show it, and some other issues, anyways, so my fire was pretty much out by the time he left even though I will and do miss him.  I was studying by myself 3 hours every day, and stuff like that, but I didn´t have fire or energy for anything.  I decided that the theme of this week needed to be Turn To God, to use this hard part as a bounce board to a stronger conversion, and so I started studying and working and praying, but it still wasn´t good.  Finally, I got to friday morning where I had no desire to do weekly planning.  Weekly planning isn´t my favorite because it is like 2-3 hours of sitting there planning, but it is neccisary and helps a lot.  I was praying and praying, begging for help and energy, and stuff, and after a long prayer, started planning, and it started out bad.  But... slowly it got better, and by the end I wasn´t great, but I wasn´t bad and got some good revelation.  Then the next morning, becasue of that act of faith in doing weekly planning, I was blessed with exactly what the Lord knew I needed.  A comp that doesn´t know much, but that is super sincere, especially in his prayers, and has a great desire to help people and to be here.  Blessing.  The Lord knows what we need.

So, when you find trials, they are always great spring boards to Turn To God.
Take every opertunity to turn to God.

Love,
Elder Sampson

P.S. Point #1 isn´t actually truth.  It´s a lie.  No one died.  The disease isn´t here at all.  The Joys of Living on a secluded African Island in the middle of nowhere.  Actually though, a sack of cement fell on a small child the other day.  It´s okay though.  The sack was empty. :)