Miracles!!!

Hola todos

 

Kenny is amazing.  I love teaching him, because he brings the spirit.  He has a strong testimony of God and repentance.  The only thing he is struggling with is authority.  He had an amazing repentance experience in the baptist church, and is struggling to understand that there can be more.  But there is plenty of hope, because Kenny is studying the Book of Mormon and he loves it.  When we showed up for our appointment on Tuesday, his Book of Mormon was open on top of his study journal.  It made me super happy! 

 

We always read many scriptures during our lessons with Kenny, because he has a deep knowledge of the scriptures.  Many times when we are teaching him, he will tell us that something reminds him of a verse in the Bible.  Kenny is great at scripture chains, and connecting different ideas in the scriptures.  So, we were reading a scripture in Galatians about prayer, when it reminded Kenny of his lectura in the Book of Mormon, and so we turned to 2 Nephi 29.  It is so cool that Kenny is starting to connect to the Book of Mormon scriptures the same way he connects to the Bible. 

 

Carlos came to the church for one of our appointments and it was great.  He met the bishop and now he knows how to get to church.  Carlos always does his reading assignments, but the last time we went over, he had looked up mormons on the internet, and he found some weird anti-mormon stuff.  Anti stuff is so weird.  The church has to be true, because the anti-mormon material is so absurd.  The only problem is that sometimes people believes it.  But as long as Carlos asks God in prayer with a sincere heart, real intent and having faith in Christ, God will answer his questions, and he will come to know what is truth and what is not. 

 

We had scheduled both of our return appointments with Carlos and Kenny for Thursday night, right after our Ward Mission Leader meeting, and we even found an exchange.  During our meeting with the WML, he (the WML) randomly thought of some guy that was taught several years ago and told us that we should go find him.  He lives on a dairy about 10 miles out of town.  He couldn't remember his name, but he knew that he had a nickname of Pepe or something. 

 

We found his teaching record.  His name is Guillermo, and his nickname is Memo.  We also found a teaching record for Manuela who lives in the same trailers.

 

During dinner both of our appointments called us and rescheduled for another day, and our exchange called us and told us that she couldn't come out with us.  We figured that God had cleared our schedule for us, so that we could go out to that diary and try to find Guillermo, and so that is what we did. 

 

We got to the dairy, and found 6 trailers, all of them hispanic, but we don't know which trailer is whose, so we picked one, and met Lorenzo outside in his truck.  He is super nice, and invites us in to teach him and his wife.  Their dog just gave birth to some puppies right next to the door, and she didn't want to let us anywhere near the door, but once we got around the dog, everything else was smooth sailing.   Lorenzo and his wife are super awesome and we taught them the first lesson, and it was super powerful.  The spirit was super strong.  They directed us to Guillermo's trailer.

 

We knocked on Guillermo's trailer, and he opened.  He remembers being taught, and he knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet.  Cool, so we set up a return appointment with him, for another day.

 

And we have time to knock one last trailer.  We start to approach the one that we think is Manuela's, but then their porch light turns off.  We decided to wait to knock this trailer for another day, we turned around and go to the only trailer that still has a porch light on, and we found Manuela.  She actually doesn't live her anymore, but was just visiting her parents for a few days.  We taught Manuela and her parents a lesson, and told Manuela how to ask for the missionaries come by her new house.

 

Anyways, one day, lots of miracles. I can't even count them, but there were a ton of miracles relating to that dairy. 

 

On Saturday, one of the ward member's eight year old girl was baptized.  There were a whole bunch of non-members who showed up, both english and spanish.  Since the baptismal service was in Spanish, I translated the talks into English.  Someday I will be able to translate like a pro, but until then, practice makes perfect, right?

 

Nos vemos!

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

Is the parking brake on?

We have been working out in Dublin a lot.  Dublin is an even smaller town really close to Stephenville.  There is a lot of potential out there, and we are starting to find some new investigators out there. 

 

 

Stephenville and Dublin are so small.  I am really in the country right now.  Last night, as I was looking at the stars, they were so bright and clear.  I am definitely a city girl through and through, but I love the country sky.  It is spectacular.  I saw Leo the Lion last night, which is a sure sign that Spring is coming (or it is here!)  I love Texas Weather!  It is so nice right now.  We still need our jackets in the evening, but the days are beautiful!  I love it!

 

 

We have a lot of potential baptisms right now, which could all happen really soon.  

 

The first is Lindsey.  She is engaged to a member, who is also a Rodeo-er ( is that a word?). They have a large ranch, and raise horses.  Lindsey is amazing.  She reads and understands the Book of Mormon better than any one I know, especially considering that this is her first time reading the Book of Mormon and she doesn't have a background in the church.

 

 

Then there is Terja.  She has been investigating the church for years, and could be baptized any day, if she makes that commitment to herself.

 

 

There is also Priscilla.  I love Priscilla.  She is more active than most of the members, and she has even come on exchanges with us! :D  The only thing keeping her back from being baptized is the law of chastity.  Her "esposo" is married in Mexico, and his divorce has to go through before they can get married.  We have heard exciting news about the divorce, so it could possibly go through sooner than later, and she could be married and baptized really soon.

 

 

Hermana Potter and I have so much fun together.  We are always talking about gospel doctrine, mathematics, star trek, rodeos, people, or something else fun. 

 

 

On Saturday there was a huge thunderstorm.  At 6 pm it started raining. At 6:10, we arrived at our destination.  We were parked next to an empty field, by an abanoned factory, and there was a railroad.  There were also some pretty sketchy houses.  It was a great place to be on a dark and stormy night!   We ran out of the car into the pouring rain.  (Imagine the water dumping bucket at Oquirrh Park, except it is pouring continously and everywhere.)  We were out in the rain for 40 seconds max, between walking to the house and walking back to the car.  (We stopped under the porch for a few minutes to talk to the people in the house).  But in those few seconds, we were drenched.  I could literally wring my skirt out it was so wet.  

 

Best wishes,

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

Bucket with holes on both sides

Hola Todos,

 

 

Our primary focus right now is helping the members here in Stephenville to keep their covenants.  We need to help the members be strong and active in the gospel.  We are a little bit worried about inviting investigators to church, when the investigator may be the only one present at the meeting.  So, we have decided to make a teaching record for every member.

 

 

We are finding a few people to teach, but here, we are really working on the members.  It is hard to add water into a bucket with holes in the bottom.  They will slip right back out.  Our primary focus right now is to fill those holes for the members.  Every single member is a recent convert or less active, and they don't come to church regularly.   Which means that right now, I am more fully involved in the rescue.  :D

 

We have been teaching Kenny, and he is really cool!  He feels the spirit during our lessons, and lets us know by saying, "Wow."

 

 

On Sunday, I translated for the first time.  We have two sacrament meetings, English and Spanish.  But some of the Spanish members come to English Sacrament, and we translate the meeting for them.  Translating is really hard, but it wasn't a train wreck either.

 

 

This is a really short email, I know.  Maybe I'll do a better job next week. :D

 

 

Tenga un buen dia.

Hermana Sanchez

 

 

Hermana Sanchez and Hermana Potter