Monday, April 29, 2013

Hola Todos!

We have been doing a lot of finding this week.  Many of our appointments have punched on us, and so we have been having a lot of time to find new people to teach.  And we have been finding a lot of cool people as well.  Tracting is a great thing!
 
We had interviews with President this week.  I love meeting with him, I always come out of interviews ready to take on the world!
 
We also taught Anabel.  She has been doing her reading, and she had lots of questions about the atonement, so we tried to answer her questions.  I love talking about the atonement!
 
Pedro and Carlos came to church!  It was great to have some Spanish investigators at church!
 
Today, we went and saw all of Lindsey's horses.  (Well at least some of them, they have at least 130 horses).  The sad news is that Lindsey and Austin are going to be moving to Oklahoma soon, so we won't get to see her get baptized.  But we are still going to be friends for the rest of forever.
 
Nos vemos,
Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

Monday, April 22, 2013

Baptists at our Barbeque

We have been doing a lot of tracting and finding a lot of good people. 
 
One of the people that we found this week is Annabelle.  She is an amazing women with a lot of faith.  We taught her the plan of salvation and she came to church!  She loved her experience at church, and really wants to learn more.
 
On Wednesday, we did a bike day, and we rode our bikes all over town.  It was a lot of fun!  We met the minister for the baptist church version of institute, something called Paradigm, and he wanted to bash with us so badly.  We were teaching two girls, telling them about the Book of Mormon and stuff, when he came up.  (They are in his congregation).  He asked us what we were talking about, and he told him.  I tried asking him some inspired questions, but he wouldn't answer any of them, but just turned them around, and asked the same question to me.  He was trying so hard to get me to say something that he could bash about, so we quickly excused ourselves, and left. 
 
We also met a great large hispanic family.  We met one of the daughter's on campus a few weeks ago, and we were just following up, and we met some more of her family.  There are 9 of them (only 2 younger than eight years), and there is a lot of potential.
 
We had to drop Crystal's baptism date, because she doesn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith.  :(
 
Tengan un buen semana!
Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

Monday, April 15, 2013

Why have you not been baptized?

Hola todos!
 
We've been having a great week!  We met an amazing woman named Crystal on Tuesday night.  She is a college student in her last semester at Tarleton.  She has been wanting to come back to a church for a while, and she has been going with some of her friends and family to different churches, but nothing has felt right.  She has been praying and asking God for guidance, and that is where we come in!  :D
 
It was late Tuesday night (8:40 pm), and we had gone through all of our plans and backup plans and back up for our backups.  It had been one of those days. :|  So, we pulled over and prayed and asked God where we needed to go to find his elect.  We felt inspired to go and try to contact a referal we had gotten from a member.  But when we get to the referral's apartment complex, we decided to try a different door than the one we were looking for. 
 
So we knock on the door, and Crystal opens the door.  We start talking to her, and start teaching her.  It is a super powerful doorstep lesson, and everything is going great!  Crystal tells us her story, and we tell her ours, and the spirit was super strong.  I know that God answers prayers, both those of the missionaries, and those of the people looking for the truth.
 
We have met with Crystal 2 more times, and even though we haven't done everything right, Crystal is amazing.  We even forgot to bring an English Book of Mormon for her, so she didn't get her Book of Mormon until her 3rd lesson, and at that point she was practically begging for one.  She has been reading on mormon.org and reading the pamphlet we left her, and she can't wait to read this book!
 
She came to church, and brought her boyfriend, and she loved it!  We have set a baptismal date for Crystal, and she should be entering the waters of baptism soon. :D :D :D
 
Priscilla is also working towards baptism.  She is living the law of chastity now, so we should be setting a baptismal date with her soon.  She has been investigating the church for over 2 years, and has been trying to live the law of chastity for a really long time.  Her esposo is married in Mexico, and the divorce process has been taking many many months with tons of problems.  Right now, her esposo has moved 5 hours away to get another job.  Eventually Priscilla will be joining him, but right now she is completely ready for baptism.  It is only a temporary solution, and as soon as his divorce is finalized they will get married, but it means that Priscilla can finally get baptized!  We are so excited for her!
 
It has been a great week!  We know that the Lord is preparing more the hearts of more people to accept the gospel, and we are going to find them all!
 
Les quiero,
Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

Monday, April 8, 2013

The Lord is hastening his work!

Howdy Y'all!
 
Spring has arrived, and everything is perfect!
 
Along with Spring, came my new companion.  Her name is Hermana Hunter.  She is straight out of the MTC, and super excited for the work.  She is from Saint George, UT, and graduated with an associate's in Culinary Arts.  She is 21 years old, although, there are some 19 year old missionaries out in the field as well.  She is super excited and super enthusiastic to be out on a mission. 
 
I had my first full-length dream in Spanish about a week and a half ago, and Spanish is coming along nicely.  I feel like I can finally communicate with the people we are teaching, and not just try really hard, and half-communicate.  There are still struggles, and I don't understand everything yet, but it is nice not to have to think about Spanish (most of the time).
 
Hermana Hunter and I have been having a lot of success in the last few days.  It is amazing how much a fresh set of eyes can change an area and help it grow.  There are people everywhere, and we are finding lots of people to teach.  It is a very exciting time to be a missionary.  I know that the Lord is hastening his work, and I am ready to see the miracles.  There is going to be so much growth here in little Stephenville, and I am so excited to be a part of it!
 
During dinner on our first day, we ate with Priscilla and Edna.  We got there a few minutes early to help Priscilla finish cooking and preparing everything.  We had Pasole!  My favorite.  And Priscilla doesn't serve hers with the bones still in, which is good!  But, even more exciting was that Priscilla had invited her boss and her husband, Francisca and Luis, over to dinner.  They aren't members, and we had a great first lesson.  They have a ton of potential!  I love it when members introduce us to their friends who are ready for the gospel, it is the best!  The only problem is that Luis works on a dairy, and they just changed his schedule so that he has to work Sundays, which means that it is going to be hard to get them to come to church. 
 
Hermana Hunter is amazing.  We went to campus on Friday, and we had 3 lessons, 2 new investigators, and 1 baptismal commitment within 10 minutes.  It was a great experience!  
 
We had to drop Kenny this week, because he has chosen his Baptist church and I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry!  He is amazing and I know that one day he will get baptized.  But now is not his time.    He has such a strong testimony of repentance and of Jesus Christ, and it breaks my heart that he can not see past his repentance experience of a year ago with the Baptist Church (which was real) and realize that God is preparing  him for more.  There is so much more for him, and all I want is for him to partake of the fruit of the tree of life.
 
The exciting news is that Priscilla is probably going to be baptized soon.  Isaias moved out (it is a temporary arrangement, but I think that we can make it work), and it means that Priscilla is now living the law of chastity!
 
Missionary work is the best.  One of my favorite talk's was from Elder Anderson.  I really love his promise. "I promise you as you pray to know with whom to speak, names and faces will come into your mind. Words to speak will be given in the very moment you need them. Opportunities will open to you. Faith will overcome doubt and the Lord will bless you with your very own miracles."  Elder Neil L Andersen Its a Miracle  I know that this promise is true and that missionary work moves on the best when members invite their friends to come and see.  If every member of the church would apply this promise and seek the Lord's help in sharing the gospel with their friends, missionaries like me will not have to tract door to door.  (I don't mind tracting door to door, but there are far less fruits from tracting, then there are from member referrals.)
 
Y'all have a blessed day now,
Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez


Hermana Hunter and me.

 Generations of Missionaries.  Hermana Martinez trained me and Hermana Hansen!  Now we are each training as well!


Monday, April 1, 2013

Hola todos!

We finally got in contact with Allie.  She is a 14 year old, and she shows up on Ward Records, even though she has never been baptized.  We also met her friend, Tabby. We set a baptismal date with them, and are going to be helping them work towards it.  The hardest part is probably going to be getting parental permission for both of them. 

The most exciting news right now is that I am going to be training this week.  There is a flood of sister missionaries coming out in the field right now, and not enough sister missionaries to train them all, it is going to be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.  

We helped one of our members build a large dog pen for her dogs.  They keep getting out of their dogcage, and the neighbors have threatened to shoot them.  So, we helped her make a large pen, and hopefully the dogs won't be able to get out of it.  

We also helped another member plant her garden.  She has never gardened before, but she is super excited for her tomatoes and herbs and stuff.

Everything is going great!

Nos vemos,
Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez
 
 
Team Stephenville
  

 
  My District
 
Hermana Hansen.  She is my mission sister, because she was also trained by Hermana Martinez.