Miracles

Dear All,

This week was a great week here!  We are definately being blessed.

The first blessing is that we found out that an investigator that we started teaching this week, Wilker, 

who was taught in Praia a while ago went to conference in Assomada last week.  We had him marked 

for baptism next week, and then while we were talking on thursday, he said he would be out of town 

next Saturday, and wanted to know if he could be baptised this week, so he was baptised and 

confirmed this week, and bore a great testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting.  

Also, this week they started construction in our church, and so we now have the second floor, and 

the first floor is being opened up to have a large place to have sacrament meeting.  It is going to be

good.  I will try to send pictures.  I attached a picture of our current sacrament meeting room that is 

on the second floor.

So this week I was not in my area that much.  On Tuesday, I went into Assomada to do a division 

with the Zone leaders, Elder Coleman and Elder Paredes.  Elder Paredes went with Elder Wallace 

in my area, and I was with Elder Coleman.  We are from the same group at the MTC. He is awesome.  

It was a great day.  We taught some really solid lessons.  What a blessing.

On Friday, I went to Calheta for the day to teach with Elder Conway who is new and came in with 

Elder Wallace, while is comp, Elder Dorff, came to do Wilker's baptisimal interview.  We also taught 

some great lessons.  I love teaching.  I was really really tired all of this week, but it was still great.  

We taught some great lessons this week.

We also started teaching an english class this week.  We just talked about basic greeting stuff and 

whatever, and it was great.  There weren't a ton of people, so we are going to try to do it again this 

week at a different time to see if we can get some people to show up.  It was a good experience though.

It also rained a lot this week.  There was one day that we went out to teach before lunch, and I was 

completely drenched when we came back.  It was good though.  They really need the rain here.  

But, because of the rain, lots of people were in the fields which made it harder to find people.  It's 

good though.

So, I don't exactly what more to write as far as stuff is going on here.  

I really know that we Children of Our Heavenly Father.  He Loves Us.  As His children, we have 

many rights and privelges.  We need to really live up to them though.  There are lots of times that 

we put ourselves down, but we have the solem responsibility to live up to the charge that we have 

as His children.  We all should be representatives of Him.  Then He will bless us.  Anything That is 

Good comes from Him.  Anything that is Bad comes from Satan.  Sometimes it is hard, but we must 

do everything we can to do the right.  No matter what.  The Lord prepares us.  When we want to do 

His will, He will tell us exactly what to say and how to do it.  It is His work.

I love you all, but even more, I love Him.

I hope that I can love Him more.  

Christ showed that he loved his Father Following Him, Keeping His Commandments, and Giving the

Glory to the Father.

Do we strive to give the Glory to the Father?

Love,

Elder Sampson

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A much more energetic week

Dear Family, Friends, and Etc's,

So, first, Conference

Conference was awesome.  We only missed one talk, which was the first talk of the Sunday afternoon 

session because we went to get an investigators, and in the haice on the way back, someone threw up, 

and then they made us sit where he had thrown up, and then the haice was clearly completely full, and

 then they tried to add 3 more people, and like a lot of stuff, but it was a'ight.  I watched the Saturday

Morning, and Priesthood sessions in Portuguese, and the others in English.  I also watched the talk that 

was origionally in portuguese in portuguese which was great!  I liked a lot of talks.  A lot.  I was taking 

notes, and though, okay, I will mark this one to come back to.  Then the same thing with the next one.  

So I decided that it won't work to mark all of them, so i will just study them all in a few months when we 

get the conference leahona.

I liked a lot the talk from Elder Oaks, about showing love to everyone.  That. is. important.  We need 

to follow that.

Also i love the talk from the one person (I don't have my notes here) on saturday about the 6 things

 we can apply in our lives.  I am working to apply them all.  

Also, José got baptised this week.  We got an invite on tuesday to find someone to be baptised.  We 

started working with him and he wanted to, but I just had a restraining feeling.  He was interviewed 

and passed, but I wasn't feeling super comfortable.  We got to Sunday morning and it was still up in 

the air.  We didn't want to do something against the will of the Lord, but also didn't want to fall short of 

what we were capable of doing.  After the first saturday session, I had some restraining feelings, and 

so we talked with some of the branch council members, and as we talked, the talk from Elder Wong 

stood out about how one person can't pull everything.  José lacked member support.  So, we made 

some plans to get José integrated better, and we started to work.  José came to the preisthood 

session on sunday morning, and during the session I felt better.  We went after the session with a 

member, Claudio, and prayed about what should be done, and asked for a spritual confirmation that 

he should be baptised, after talking about it, and as we prayed we truely recieved that confirmation.  

Attached is a picture of the baptism.  I am grateful for the power of prayer.  I know the Lord answers 

My prayers.  

So also this week, to make the interview happen, i went and spent the day in Calheta which is like 

30 mins away by the ocean, with Elder Conway after our zone meeting.  It was an awesome day.  

There was some great stuff going on, and we found some new investigators for them and stuff.

Also, Elder Wallace is awesome.  He picks up on everything soooo fast.  He alreay speaks super 

well, and teaches super well, and is going to be a great missionary.

I also learned that I have a grandson serving in Brazil, who is the son of Elder De Pina that I trained 

in Santo Antao.

Many of the speakers in conference talked about challanges and changes and stuff.  My challange 

for this week is in support of theirs.  It is to make a live evaluation based off of the spirit, prayer, 

and the scriptures, espeicailly conference talks.  I know that will make a difference.

I know that prayer really is a powerful tool, and that the supreme father of all of us wants to hear

 from you, and if you don't talk to him, he will not hear you.

Christ showed his love for his Father being obedient and giving the glory to Him.  We must do 

the same.

Love you all!!!

Elder Sampson

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Altidi's Baptism

Dear All,

This week was full of many learning experiences that helped me be very much ready and excited for this week!

So firstly, Altidi was baptised this week.  He is a boss.  I am so grateful to be able to know him.  He is going to be a big help to this branch., and is changing his live every day.  He is really converted to the book of mormon, and is very excited to come to conference this week.  I attached a picture of his baptism.  Unfortunately not a lot of people showed up to the baptism.  Everyone that was supposed to give talks didn't end up making it, because one was still working, and the other lost three cows, which is a ton of money if he doesn't find them.  Three cows could sustain his family for the whole year.  He was out until dark trying to find them, then sat there sunday, and then first thing this morning went out again to try to find them.  The only other member that showed up for the baptism that isn't the ward mission leader, gave a talk on baptism, and then it was announced that I would be giving a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was spontanious, but the talk turned out really good.  I talked about the miracle that happened with the deciples of Chist the day that they recieved the gift of the holy ghost on the day of penticost in Acts 2, and how all 3000 of those converts were strong forever, and that He was recieving the same gift, that we all can use if we have the faith enough!

So transfers happened yesterday.  I was pretty sure that I was staying as well as Elder Wallace, and Elder Lee.  We knew Elder Oliveira was going home because his mini-mission was over (see the other picture).  However, instead of getting a new companion in our area, Elder Lee was taken out, so now it is just us.  Our area is like a third of the biggest island in Cabo verde.  I think the only area that could potentially be bigger is the area I was in in Santo Antao.  To walk from one end of our area to the other would take probably about 4 hours or so, just from south to north.  We will be walking a ton.  I am really excited though.  We really need to work better with all of the members and stuff now that there are only Elder Wallace and I here.  Please Pray for me, and For Elder Wallace, and for us, that we can work together, and then that we can work together with the branch, and know how to best use our time and focus our efforts.  It is going to be an adventure.

Also, IT'S ALMOST GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!   I am so excited!  I literally can't wait.  This week is going to pass super slowly just because I can't wait for it to get here.  I hope we all can prepare.

So this weeks spiritual though is about Religion, or to tie back to God.  When we live religion, we understand that everything ties back to God, and in turn to Christ, and in turn to Christ's perfect atonement.  We can not comprihend what he felt and suffered, but every blessed time we have to suffer, we must also realize that we can't make it back without Christ and understanding his atoneing sacrifice.  It is completely nessicary.  Without suffering, we could never understand the atonement to the same level.  Suffering is atonement school.  When we give talks, when we talk with others, when we share our testimonies, all these things are tied to Christ.  If we forget Him, we have nothing to go off of.  The most powerful talks and stuff all realize that we must tie it back to Christ.
I know that the church is true, and Christ Acts Now.  This is His work.

Love,
Elder Sampson
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Of all the weeks, this was not the one

So...

This week in the Secluded Islands under the sun was very not the greatest week of my mission, and I am hoping for an upward growth.

So, first of all, Altidi wasnt baptized.  He will be baptized this week I am praying.  We taught him every day this week.

So this week I learned a lot and did a lot of self searching.

I was blessed this week to go on a spontaneous division with Elder Heagney who is from Australia and is one of the Assistants to the President, and will be going home in 2 weeks.  He is a very good teacher of people.  We went out to find people, and ended up finding that our appointment was giving a tattoo to someone, so we went to try to find someone else only to find out through his neighbor that he had moved.  We were leaving and felt inspired to return and talk to that guy.  His is like 23 and was on facebook on his bed without a shirt on and didnt really want to let us come in, but Elder Heagney spoke through the spirit to him, getting us 5 minutes to talk to him about the restoration.

We taught, and I felt like the greenie because it was sooooo powerful, and I just felt like I didnt want to ruin it, and that I was completely overwhelmed, because we have been lacking power in our teaching recently.  We stayed 15 mins with him, and spoke his thoughts and desires to him before he expressed them.  It was an experience that will definately change the way that I teach and live.  I know that this is the true church.

I also learned this week about the power of Liahonas.  For those of you who never really understood what the liahona is, most of the world doesnt have the friend, ensign, and new era.  Actually, I saw a new era for the first time in a year and was baffled today.  I forgot they existed.  The Liahona is like those 3 compiled into one.  Anyways, I learned some many great things this week from them.  One of those was about how when we have the opportunity to teach, we can be powerful if we are motivated by live, conversion is the goal, we teach based on the doctrines of Christ, and we invite others to live gospel principles better.

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Strengthen when you put out, and Be Strengthened when you take in

So, The theme of this week is

Strengthen when you put out, and be strengthened when you take in.

That means when you do something, to make sure that you are stregnthening others, and when you revieve things, to remember to be strengthened.  It doesn´t make sense to read or study, or go to classes when you aren´t going to be stregnthened. Like wise, we must stregnthen others in every thing we do!

If you think about how much bad in the world, we deffinately have a lot to do!

We have the blessing as members of the church to do everything possible to become like Christ, and WE CAN NOT BE LIKE HIM IF WE DO NOT STREGNTHEN OTHERS.  That was his way, his ministry.  If you think about President Monson, I am sure that he has struggles and stuff, but i am sure also that the situation around him is different because just with his presence, many things change.  I don´t think anyone would knowingly do wrong to another in the presence of the prophet.

We can become the kinds of people that change everything around us because of our standards and faith.

So.... Zé didn´t come to church, but Altidi did!  So, he can be baptised this week!!!

I am sooo excited.  He is progressing and commented that he can see how much he has changed since the day that we found him.

Our branch could use some prayers though.  Please pray for it!  That is important.

Other than that, the week was pretty really rough.

We walked a lot and stuff, and taught not as much.  We did start teaching a few new good faces though.

We also had 4 whole investigators in church.  Only 6 more until we are up to par!

I feel like I don´t really have that much to say this week.   I feel like I already started with the most important thing I had to say.

The week was pretty uneventful.  Full of personal trials and stuff which is always good.  I love learning.

So, that will be it for today.

Love,
Elder Sampson

The Power We Have

Dear Family Members, Friends, and Others,

This past week was a rather normal week.  It went by really fast.

 

We are still struggling to baptise here mostly because it is very difficult to get people to church.  

President Mathews has established some standards of Excelence (pretty much goals for our key indicators that need to become the norm) for us though, and so we are going to have to make some big changes so we can fulfil what we need to do.

 

We will be working to have at the very least 10 people in church every week.  I am excited to see these big changes that will happen to achieve this.  I know we will get it though working more effectively and with the members.

 

This week we started a Book of Mormon study night which is great.  We do it in the house of an investigator in one of our areas.  There were only three people that showed up this week, but hopefully this coming week will be better.  One of those three was a new investigator named Já.  We were talking, and got into some inspired questions and backed them up with the scriptures.  A lot of people here are just used to using the same answer that they learned when they were little about why things are important and what they mean, but there is less of a understanding of the true and basic gospel doctrines.  So, as we talked I asked them to prove it.  They would say something, and I would say prove it, and then when they couldn't I would help them learn the truth through the scriptures.  Já, this new investigator, by the end was trying to find answers, and we left him with a copy of the book of Mormon, and showed him how to use the foot notes and the GEE (Guia de Estudo das Escrituras=The Scipture Study Guide) which we don't have in english.  It is like a mix of the index and dictionary.  For every word there is a definition, and then scriptures about it, and related words.  It is pretty awesome.  We left him with a question to answer and a fixed deterimination to find the answer to that question.  The question we left him with is What is required to repent so that you are truely forgiven?  That is a question that you all are invited to respond too.  But, if you have an answer, you'd better be able to PROVE IT.

 

I hope that we can all study the scriptures in a way that we study and find, seek and ponder, feast and savour.  Just reading is great but not enough after a bit.  

 

One of our investigators that Did finally come to chruch is Altidi.  He is about 27 or so.  He is a teacher, and will start teaching again next week when school starts here.  Last week he came to church but he got there late and was afraid to come in, so he stayed outside and helped out with some people that were carrying stuff instead.  He is awesome.  We have been working on and off with him for 3 months or so.  We contacted him on the street like my 3 week here.  He is finally progressing, and I am super excited to work with him every week.  He is working on beating alchool.  Pray for him.

 

So, I don't know if you remember, but we work in 2 different areas that are about 2 hours apart, and then the other elders work in the area in the middle.  Very impractical frankly.  Anyways, so we used to be working Sunday monday wednesday friday in Ribeirao Manuel, and Tuesday thursday saturday in Achada Lém, but now we have started working in Achada Lém more because the people are more receptive there.  We work there tuesday wednesday, friday and saturday.  It is a blast every day, and even though we didn't teach tons this week, I had the desire to stay out longer every night.

So, that was this uneventful week.  

It was a great week though.  I am excited for this week.

Also Some People asked about EFY.  It happens every other year.  Usually there is the north islands session and the south islands.  It isn't like in America where there are a thousand sessions.  It is a great thing though.  It is run by the members of the church.  Our branch had 2 councelors and 4 youth that went.  It was in Fogo this year.  The years that don't have EFY have a young single adult encampment.

Love You All!!!

Elder Sampson

The Spirit Brings Feelings of Love for our Brothers and Sisters

Congrats and a Big Tree

Congratulations to Brad and Leslie!!!

I am glad that they are waiting to November 25th, 2015 to get married so I can get home in August and have a few months to get used to normal life again.  A year and a little is a long time to wait, but I am grateful for the sacrifice on their part for a poor, struggling servant of the Lord on a little african island in the middle of the ocean.

So this last week was alright.  It went by really fast.  There were a few highlights.
Oh.  And I forgot that today is tuesday.  Yesterday we had a conference with an area 70 so P day is today.  More about that later.

So today at the beginning of P day we went to the big tree.  It is a big tree.  A really big tree.  It is the biggest tree that I have ever seen.  I climbed up it a bit.  I attached 2 pictures that show part of the tree, and another with me and Elder Wallace in front of the tree.  We were there with Elder Lee and Elder (that got here today and will stay for 4 weeks, a mini missionary from tarrafal) Oliveira.  It is very hot right now.  Very hot.

So this last week no one showed up at church again.  It is very frustrating when people are sure that they will come, and then, as it sometimes feels like, lieing through their clenched teeth.  JUST KEEP YOUR WORD. IS HONESTY SO HARD!?!?!?!?!   Anyways.  That is very difficult.  The youth didn't get back from EFY too so our church frequency dropped like 10 people from 45s to 35s.  But, keep pressing forward.

So we had a conference yesterday with Elder Morreiro from the 70 who is doing a mission tour here.  It was fantastic.

We had a training from Sister Mathews about The Plan of Salvation.  “There are two types of missionaries, those who know the Plan of Salvation, and those for whom the Plan of Salvation has become the eyes through which they see the world.”  President Eyring.  She talked about Peter, who denied the Christ 3 times.  He had fear because he didn't see the world throught the plan of salvation.  However, because of this experience, he changed, and became so powerful that people hoped that just his shadow whould pass over them.  He was put into prison because of it.
We talked about the importance of families and finding and baptising families.
We also talked about the importance of real love.

Then Elder Morreiro talked to us for a looooong time.  But it was awesome.  My favorite quote that he shared was from Elder Bednar.  We preach the gospel to make the uncomfortable comfortable, and the comfortable uncomfortable.  That is true wisdom that we need to apply in every thing that we do.  We need to be powerful missionaries, to know the scriptures, and to excercise faith to act and to change ourselves.  The past was good, but we can not stay there.  It we do not get better, quickly, we will lose.  It is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of Man.  If we choose to not give our all to the work of the Lord, the work will not fall, but we have such a potential to change things if we do so, like king Benjamin in the last 2 verses of words of Mormon.

I am working harder.  I am giving my all now.  Please pray that I can do better than I am doing right now, and do your part to further the work.  Especially, where and to whom is applicable, using social media.

I love you all, and wish a good week to everyone.

Elder Sampson
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