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

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

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!

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.

 

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