What a great week

Time is fleeting like the dews of heaven flee from before the roaring dandilions.   or... Something like that.

This week went by really fast.

So Elder Jarvis showed up this week!  Our mission is great because you can be in the same mission as someone for 2 years and never ever see them.  I have met around half the people that are here in the mission.  We got a letter today with all the missionary birthdays this month.  I know 2 of the 9 people or so.  It was great to not only have Elder Jarvis here, but I also spent two days with him on divisions while Elder Willes showed Elder Barrus all of their area.

Miracle of the week!
The church was first opened on this island 17 years ago.  It stayed for 2 years or so and then was destroyed.  We dont know exactly why, and have tried to find out a bit, but to no avail.  The man who was the branch president back then lives in the other elders area.  When the church was put back here a year and a half ago, they went to him first, and he wanted nothing to do with the church.  6 months or so ago he threatened the Elders to call the police if they came to his house again.  This last tuesday, the Elders tracted into his 9 year old son.  They told him to go get his dad just for a min, and his dad said no, but they insisted, and so they went in and talked to this guy for a few mins, and found out by the end that he was the old branch president.  While he was branch president here, there were like 40-45 people who came every week, and was growing super well.  The Elders just took it slow with him, and checked for a testimony which he still had.  Elder Barrus went up there on saturday, and he said on his own that he would make an effort to come to church, and... He showed up!  What a miracle!  after 17 years.  The spirit got him at the right time.  He is awesome!  I was the only one who hadnt met him yet, but met him in church yesterday.  We are hoping and praying that this will be the turning point for this area.

We take the whole area tomorrow, as the elders are going to Tarrafal to open the area.  Pray for them!
We also thought we got our first media referal ever today, then it turned out that it was just one of the members who had been messing around on the church website.

When I first got here it was a struggle to teach 10 lessons a week, and this last week, we taught at least 3 lessons a day.  It has been growing slowly but steadily.  We havent seen tons of success, but we are still loving the work!

We had 1 investigator in church yesterday too! What a blessing!

The Lord is Blessing us a ton.  We have so much potential, and He is helping us to share the gospel with everyone.

I know the church is true, and that this work is true!!!

Love you all!!!

Elder Sampson