Roping

Hola y'all,

We went roping last Monday with the McKinleys.  I really enjoy roping.  I will be getting my own rope soon, so that I can practice at home. :D

On Tuesday, we went on Exchanges.  Hermana Hunter went to Azle, and Sister Loveland came down to Stephenville.  It was a great day! 

Tuesday night, we had planned to go find a couple of former investigators, Juany and Carlos.  Their address was head out of town (on a certain road) 6 miles.  But we really felt like we were supposed to see them, so we tried it.  

When we were about 6 miles out of town, we found a little country road that we had knocked before, so we figured that this might be it.  We drove to the end of the road, parked our car, and figured that we would ask for directions.  The house that we had parked in front of had two people outside, and so as soon as we left our car, we told them, "Creo que estamos un poco perdidas.  Estamos buscando a Juany y a Carlos.  I think that we are a little lost.  We are looking for Juany and Carlos."

The woman said, "Somos nosotros. That's us."  We thought that it was pretty cool that the very first people we talked to on the street in the middle of nowhere was the people that we were looking for. 

But even cooler, is that Juany and Carlos don't live in that house anymore.  They have a house much closer to town.  They were only out there because of all of the tornados, they were worried about the house, and wanted to make sure that everything was alright.  They were only there at that house for less than an hour.  

It is a miracle to us that God would lead them and us to the same place at the same time, so that we could meet!  Que chido!

Wednesday was Zone Conference, and it was really long.  I learned a lot about faith, repentance, miracles, and the atonement.  I learned that I need to make sure that Jesus is at the center of everything I teach.  

Sister Hunter got a bad migraine on Wednesday, and she has had it ever since.  She can't function real well, and has spent most of the time (with a few exceptions, like meetings, and church) inside our bedroom, which has all of the light blocked out of it. (blankets in front of the window, towels in front of the gap between the door and the floor).  So, I have been stuck in the apartment all week long.  

I have read the Book of Mormon up to 3 Nephi, moved all the furniture in our apartment around, taken two old skirts and sewed them together to make a new skirt, read a lot of Preach my Gospel, watched Testaments more times than I can count, and other videos as well, and read most of Job and Psalms.  I can't wait until Hermana Hunter gets better and we can go out to work.

On Saturday, we are going to help with the Granbury cleanup.  We will get to wearing the mormon helping hands vests and everything.

Best Wishes,

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

 

Roping Practice

 

 

Hola todos!

This has been a fabulous week!  

The most exciting part was that Joslyn got baptized on Saturday!  We are so excited for her!  I love attending baptismal services! 

We have also been receiving a ton of referrals.  We may have figured out how to better work with the members in helping them with their missionary work.  We ask for referrals all the time, but we never get any.  But after watching some PMG videos, we have come up with a method that we like, and it seems to be working.  

Our mission president has set a goal for us to be baptizing weekly, so we really need to up our efforts, and tracting may not be the best use of our time, so we are trying hard to discover other ways of finding.  

It is a great time to be a missionary!

Les quiero!

Hermanita Sanchez

 

 

The really cool lightning storm, which was the same night as the tornadoes.  

The sky was amazing.  There were a few flashes of lightning every second or so.  Literally the whole sky was lit up by the lightning all the time!

At Joslyn's baptism!

Apostolic blessing fulfilled!

It has been a fabulous week!  

On Monday we had a miracle.  When Elder Cook came, he left us with a blessing that the righteous desires of our hearts would be fulfilled.  

Every Monday night, the spanish members in our ward get together and have a noche de hogar (family home evening).  Normally, we only have 2 to 3 families there, and different families every week.  This last Monday, there were 8 families!  It was amazing.  One of the Spanish Members taught about the temples (she was just reading straight out of Preach My Gospel), but all of the members were utterly engaged in the lesson.  Normally the children run around wild during Noche de Hogar, but all of the children were seated and listening quietly.  

During the night, I turned at looked at my companion, and asked her if this was one of the righteous desires of her heart, because it sure was one of mine.  It was really neat to see such results so quickly from the blessing left on us by Elder Cook.  

The most exciting thing this week is that Joslyn is going to be baptized on Saturday!  Joslyn is a 12 year old girl that we met on 19 abril, and she will be getting baptized on Saturday, 18 mayo, which is less than a month from when we met her!  She is so excited about being baptized, it is all that she can talk about.  She counts down the days to her baptism, and she just can't wait to learn more!  

Mother's day was great too, I got to call home and talk to Mom and Dad, and it was great to be able to talk to them, but honestly it feels like I just called them about a week ago.  Time sure flies on the mission!

Best Wishes,

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

 

My trainee, me, and my trainer

I found the intersection of Sanchez and Sanchez.  I thought it was pretty sweet!

Truck in Dublin City Park!

Hermana Hunter, me, Hermana Snow, Hermana Jarvis

Hermana Hunter and Hermana Jarvis were MTC companions

 

Notes from when Elder Cook came!

Elder Villarreal

Mosiah 28:2-3 They were only trying to accomplish 1 thing, which was to bring them to a knowledge of the Lord their God.

He then told a story about how when he was a mission president in Bogota, Columbia, they would have him talk at the MTC every week.  One week an elder came up to him, and told him that Elder Villarreal's daughter had baptized him on his mission, and that he had promised her that he would serve a mission.  The elder then asked Elder Villarreal to tell his daughter that he had kept his promise.  

Elder Villarreal did call his daughter, but first he called the missionary who had baptized him.  He told him, "I met one of your converts today."  The missionary who had baptized Elder Villarreal did not recognize the young elder's name.  Then Elder Villarreall said, "You baptized me, I baptized my daughter, she baptized this young man, and now he is going to go to Ecuador and you are going to have converts there."

We don't often get the opportunity in this life to hear all of the stories, but when you get to heaven you will hear them all and meet all of the people that you have influenced in some way or another, and then you will see how far your efforts will reach.  

The living prophet does nothing that is not approved by the Lord.

Elder Valenzuela

This was his second talk in English!

Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach.

D&C 123:12

When you find someone to teach, teach them by the spirit and try to find more people to teach.

Elder Suares

It is a great privilege to be in the royal army of God.

Open your hearts and allow the new mission president to love and teach and embrace you.  Don't compare.  Just learn everything you can from everyone.

You are called by the Lord to be a missionary right now in this very historic moment. (the change in the age of missionary => the increased number of missionaries)

The Lord is hastening his work, what a great opportunity to serve at this time.

We are a gift to the church right now, so we need to better coordinate our efforts with the wards in which we serve.

What can we do to really to this work better?

Moses 3: introduction, verses 4-5

Planning

God is perfect and he took the time to create everything spiritually first.

It we don't plan, we plan to fail.

PMG page 147 Once you have set goals decide how you will achieve them.  We can not do anything unless we plan how to do it.  As you follow your plans, pray and ask for guidance.  Ask yourself what more can I do, after you have done everything on your side.

Accomplish the plans, even the plans that aren't planned by you, but that are planned by God.

Don't ask the Lord to help you, unless you do everything from your side.

Plan well to be more effective in your work.

Elder Cook

There used to be about 2 members of the 12 assigning about 250 missionaries each per week. (So about 500 total assigned each week.) Now there are between 5 to 6 members of the 12 assigning about 300 missionaries every week. (So about 1500 total per week).  I love that there are so many more missionaries.  This is so cool!

D&C 31

-verse 3

This is an incredible time in the history of the church.  The work is being hastened.  This is the greatest influx of missionaries the church has ever had.

This is the time to get rid of any foolishness.  Don't pass it on to the next wave of missionaries.  Hold on to the best practices so you can pass it on more quickly.

-verse 4

We teach Joseph Smith is the prophet.  In Chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel, there are all of the principles that have been taught from the beginning of this dispensation.

There are 2 new things that are in Preach My Gospel that weren't in the previous missionary lessons (but were taught by the first missionaries of this dispensation):  Dispensations, and the Garden of Eden

-verse 7

God will establish the church by our hands.  The Lord can do his work, but he needs your hands to accomplish it.

Help the Lord establish his church.

You need to move the ward or branch to a higher level.  

You are not just the marketing arm of the church.

-help reactivate people

-encourage young people to go on missions

-help the mission

-help the leaders in their callings

Missionaries are by assignment warm.  They open their mouths and smile.  Being an ambassador for the savior is the be warm and gracious and loving.

-verse 11

It shall be given you by the Comforter what you shall do and whither you shall go.

The Holy Ghost will direct your efforts if you will stay close to the Lord.

D&C 112

-verse 11

-verse 14

That is what missionaries do.  You feed his sheep and build up the church.  

-verse 19

that's us

-verse 28

We need to have pure hearts

-verse 30

-read verses 31-34 and realize how serious this work is that we are trying to accomplish.

Make the Joseph Smith account of the first vision powerful and strong, so that it will testify to them.  Because that is what they will remember.  

When they worked on PMG, Pres. Hinckley did not want those lessons to be memorized.  Now you have your own plan.  Put in an invitation to make a commitment in every lesson.

Because you invited commitments, and they follow, they will get an answer from heaven.  

Making commitments is repentance, but also leads to an opportunity to get an answer from heaven.  

We are doing what we ought to be doing.

Remember that there was a lot of rejection to the savior.  There has always been rejection.  

Promise from Elder Cook to us:

What you are doing at this time is not just important for you (and it is) but that you are blessing all the people you love.

-family

-future spouses and children and grandchildren

This is where you ought to be.  You are doing what you ought to be doing.

Our responsibility:

Be a witness of the Savior. Especially the atonement, and his peace.  On those that are worthy leave a blessing, leave your peace.  

Blessing from Elder Cook to us:

If you continue to be valiant  you will be inspired and guided by the spirit.  

Your relationships at home will be fine.

And a special blessing that your righteous desires of your heart will be achieved.

There's a meeting for that

Hola todos.  This has been a week full of meetings.  

We had a new missionary meeting on Tuesday in Hurst.  We drove our car, and put the GPS on shortest miles (somehow the highway avoidance box got checked, too, oops), so it took us straight through the heart of Fort Worth.  It was fabulous!  I loved seeing all of the tall buildings and whatnot.  

We also had our district meeting in Granbury on Wednesday.  

On Thursday, we met with our ward mission leader.  (And it was planning day)

On Friday, we had breakfast with the bishop.

And on Saturday, we went to Lewisville to learn from Elder Cook.  It was amazing!  He talked about how the Lord is hastening his work, and that there is no better time to be a missionary than now.  I will write more about this next week, because I didn't bring my study journal with me today.  

On top of that our car had a flat tire, and no one seems to be able to fix it.  We have been to 4 different shops at four different times.  Each one claiming to have fixed the tire, but in about two days, the tire is flat again.  

So, between all of our meetings and our car, we haven't had a ton of time to do missionary work.  But the work that we have done is amazing.  We have two super solid investigators right now who are both going to be baptized on May 18th.  It was both of their second time at church, and we are super excited for them.

The first one is Joslyn.  She is a spunky 12 year old.  She is actually a referral from a member and we have only taught her at the church or at the member's home.  Which is super cool!  :D  Joslyn wants nothing more than to be baptized, and has gotten a witness that Joseph Smith is a prophet.  

The other one is Anabel.  She is amazing.  She is super sensitive to the spirit and wants to make sure that she is ready for baptism, because she is afraid that she won't be perfect.  We keep emphasizing that baptism is just the door, and that the Lord doesn't expect us to be perfect, just to do our best, and repent when needed.  She loves the church and the bonds she feels there.  She has 2 little girls who love primary.

On Saturday, our ward had a Cinco de Mayo Party.  Both Anabel and Joslyn came.  Anabel loved it. I think she loves being around good people, and soon they will be her ward family!

Pues,  fue un semana buena.  Tenga un buen dia!

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez