Monday, February 4, 2013

The Light of my Week!

What a good good week!  Luz got baptized! 
 
On Tuesday, it rained and rained.  There was a ton of lightning, and the rain was super heavy.  It was a lot of fun to drive in! :D
 
We set a marriage date and then a baptismal date.  We were so super excited for Tara and Victor.  Tara only speaks English and Victor only speaks Spanish, so when we teach them we have to teach everything twice, so that they can both understand.  This lesson, we divided into two mini lessons:  Hermana Powell taught Victor in Spanish for a bit, while I taught Tara in English for a bit.  Then we joined together and commited them to live the law of Chastity, and they agreed to get married on Feb 14 and baptized on Feb 16!  We were super excited.
 
But all good things have an end, and later on this week, Tara told us that they aren't ready to get married right now.  So, we will have to see what happens.  But Tara did come to church!
 
We have been tracting around our apartment complex a lot, and we have met a ton of Arabs and some Germans as well.  Who'd have thought that there would be so many poeple here who don't speak English or Spanish.  I have loved being able to communicate with almost everyone I meet.  It is really strange not to be able to communicate with the people.  I definitely love being bilingual.  It is great to be able to communicate with so many different people.
 
On Friday, I went to ZMCs (Zone Mission Council, I think).  Because Zone Leaders are always elders, they always invited two sisters to attend each month, and this month it was my turn.  Que chido!  President Sagers talked about a lot of cool things.  I felt like I was at a water fountain of gospel knowledge.  It was a really cool opportunity to attend.  There are 28 new missionaries coming out and only 6 leaving.  Our mission is really going to start growing soon.  We talked alot about setting goals and using the Book of Mormon.  The mission focus for the next month is going to be revelation through prayer, the Book of Mormon and Church attendance. 
 
Saturday Luz got baptized!   And Vanessa too!  Vanessa was one of the Spanish Elder's investigators, and I have gotten really close to her as well.  She definitely has a very special place in my heart.  The YSA sisters had a baptism as well, which means that everyone in our district had a baptism this week!  Que chido!
 
Luz and Vanessa's baptism was very special.  Both Luz and Vanessa have been coming to church very regularly for the past several months, and many of the ward members were there to support them both.  It was the most well-attended baptism I have been to so far.  I am so happy for Luz!  She glowed at the baptism, and I know that Heavenly Father is very pleased with her.  It has been such a privilege to teach Luz and help her decide to make the commitment to get baptized!  I am so very happy for her!  :D :D :D 
 
But with Luz's baptism, we have kinda run out of investigators.  Almost all of our investigators have been dropped these last two weeks, so we are kinda starting off this next week with a clean slate.  We are going to have to work very hard to find quality new investigators.  But I am expecting miracles this week, and we are going to work our hardest to do everything we can to acheive them!
 
Tara did come to church this Sunday.  Fortunately Sacrament Meeting is translated, so Tara understood that.   Then during Sunday School and Relief Society, I sat next to her, and translated everything into English for her.  It was really cool to see how much I understood.  Although, I have a confession to make, when I didn't understand everything, I started making stuff up.  Especially in Relief Society.  The maestra was very good at getting class participation, but it is hard to go back and forth between different people and different accents really rapidly and still understand what is going on, so I started making up some of the comments. :D 
 
In Sunday School we talked about the Creation, and that was fairly easy to translate, because the creation is one of my favorite subjects in the gospel, and the foundation of my testimony.  In Relief Society, we talked about Pioneers, which was a little bit harder, especially in some of the stories and such.  I don't know the stories of the Pioneers as well as I know the creation, and so it was a lot harder to fill in the gaps of the things that I didn't understand.  Oh, well, I hope that Tara got the gist of the meeting, and felt the spirit.  And that is all that really matters, anyways.  :D
 
Today is Hermana Powell's birthday, and she is very very excited.  She turns 22 today, and we are going to have a blast. We are going to go bowling and get frozen yogurt!  She is very happy that her birthday fell on a P-day!
 
Tenga un buen dia!
 
Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez
 
P.S.  Moroni 7:20-21 How can you have every good thing?
 
 
 
Hermana Powell and I, Luz and Favian, Victor, Vanessa and her children, Elder Van Dusen, Elder Brueggeman, and Elder Petersen
 
Two baptisms, one baptismal service!

Me and Hermana Powell.


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