Open the flood gates!

What a week.  We set so many baptismal dates.  There are so many people here who are ready for the gospel.  We are going to start baptizing weekly soon.  It is going to be amazing!

 

We were eating dinner at what we thought was the home of a recent convert, Yesenia.  We were sharing the story of Abish, and how she was a great member missionary, we invited them to invite their friends to noche de hogar, and then Yesenia told us, but Hermanas, I'm not even baptized yet.  Hermanas Gomez and Olander white-washed this area 3 months ago, and some of the important details were lost in the switch.  So needless to say, Yesenia will be getting baptized super pronto, because she is practically a member already.  :D

 

On Wednesday, we had a woman, Alma, call us up on the phone and ask us to come and pray with her.  Of course, we were like, claro que si.  Nos encanta orar.  :D  So we go and meet Alma and her very large family.  There are 6 children, 3 of them over the age of 8! :D  We find out that Alma and her family have met with the missionaries before.  Then Alma was at the store, and met a mormon, and decided that she needed to see the missionaries again, so she called us. Then we taught them and taught them and taught them some more, and ojala que they are going to be baptized soon.

 

And then there is Jose and Lindsey.  Lindsey is a member in one of the english wards, and is married to Jose, who speaks more spanish than English and is not yet a member.  We just happened to run into them, and now we are teaching them too.  They can come to the Spanish Ward, and Jose can get baptized!

 

Don't forget about Jose and Fidelia.  They came to church last week, and we set a baptismal date with Jose.

 

And then there is Maria Rodriguez.  Hermanas Gomez and Olander were teaching her for a while, but we haven't seen her for a few weeks.  We stopped by and she had been reading from the Book of Mormon, and guess what?  We set another baptismal date. :D

 

Oh, don't forget about Ruben.  His wife, Lourdes, is a member, and he has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but he is worried that he doesn't have enough faith, so we just need to fan the fire a little bit, and then we will have another baptism.

 

Oh, and there is an amazing family who lives in our apartment complex.  We see them almost every other day or so, and last night we were reading from 3 Nephi 11, and you will never guess!  We set another baptismal date.

 

Then, there is Marta.  She is Lourdes's sister.  And she has read the Book of Mormon twice.  As soon as she figures out the law of chastity issues (She wants to leave her esposo, we think, but she just needs to find someplace to live and work out the issues with her children. Her esposo is still married in Mexico and he doesn't want to get divorced.), she will be baptized soon.

 

Basically, it is a great time to be a missionary!

 

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

 

 

The Stephenville Moo-la cow

 

Transfers!

 

Interesting Stuff at the Gran Plaza (the local mall here)

  

There are parts of the Gran Plaza that are just like Mexico.  It is super chido!

  

Hastening the Work

Fort Worth is the best.  There are so many people to teach and find.  I love it.  We had 3 investigators at church, and I am sure that we are going to get many more to come to church as well.

 

On Tuesday we met our new mission president, President Ames.  I am super excited.  He said lots of cool t hings.  Like this time when the Lord is hastening his work is comparable to the 1st vision, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and all males getting the priesthood. 

 

I've been thinking about this and I feel super blessed to be out here.  I've always wanted to go on a mission.  The question has always been, when?.  Sometimes I would think that I would have my 21st birthday in the MTC, but then I would think and pray some more and I always felt like, not now.  I needed to be in school then.  And so I always thought that I would finish my degree before I came out on a mission.

 

But then it all changed in an instant (literally).  I was just walking across the quad at Utah State to get to class, when I knew that I needed to serve a mission right then.  So, I started talking with my parents and my bishop, and before I knew it, I had finished the papers and was just waiting for my call.

 

I entered the MTC when I was 21 and 8 months.  So not, very off from my desire to have my 21st birthday in the MTC, but if that had happened, I would be home now.  I wouldn't have the last 7 months of my mission here with president Ames at this time.  I probably would have returned home just as the first effects of "the hastening of the work" hit the mission field.  And if I had waited to finish my degree until coming out, I would probably still be at Utah State finishing up, and not even out in the mission field as the Lord hastens his work.

 

Instead in the Lord's timetable, I am still a missionary, and I am so grateful for the Lord's timing.  I am able to be a seasoned missionary and help out the Lord's work as much as I possibly can.  Really, I feel super blessed and I feel that the Lord trusts me. :D

 

President Ames said that we were all foreordained to be here in this mission at this time.    I've said my whole mission that God's timing is perfect, but it really hit me again.  God knew what would happen and he blessed me to go out on a mission at precisely the right time so that I could be here at this time when the Lord hastened his work.  Que maravillosa!

 

I am also super blessed to be serving in Fort Worth.  We have an all spanish district, and it is such a blessing to be able to speak more and more spanish.  I know that my spanish is going to get stupendiously better.  I'm excited. 

 

Then we had the 4th of July here.  We ate Mexican food.   Most of the day was planning day, but during the evening, we rode our bikes all around to some the parks here, and we met lots of people.  Then we did our nightly planning outside and watched some fireworks. 

 

On Saturday, we went to contact a referral in Joshua, a little town about 25 miles south.  It reminded me of Stephenville a little bit.  :D  We definitely cover a much larger area (in terms of people) then we did while I was in Stephenville.  (When a small town like Stephenville, is the small far-away of our area, instead of the main center of our efforts.)  We also cover Burleson, Crowley, and Benbrook. 

 

Sunday, we had 3 investigators come to church.  There are definitely some very good things happening here in Fort Worth.  :D

 

Gracias por todo,

Hermana Sanchez

 

Hector - member missionary work at its prime!

People, people everywhere!

Hello from the Big City!

 

I love Fort Worth!  There are so many people here.  It is so wonderful to meet so many different people.  We are going to be able to contact so many people every day.  It is so wonderful to be surrounded by people instead of cows and goats.  :D

 

In addition to there being so many people here, there are also so many hispanics.  As spanish missionaries we are really good at picking out which houses are hispanic.  You can just look at many houses and know if the people who live there are spanish or not.  In all of my other areas, there would only be 1 or 2 spanish houses in a street.  Here there are some areas where all of the houses are spanish, with only one or two english houses.  And even the neighborhoods that are slightly less hispanic, still have many more spanish people than in Denton or Stephenville.  Stephenville may be God's country, but Fort Worth is the land of the righteous saints.  :D

 

My new companion is Hermana Gomez, and she is super amazing.  She is already super good at spanish and she is a really great missionary.  We teach together really well.  Hermana Gomez is from Toole (sounds like tawilla, but I can't remember how to spell it).  She is 19.  She went to BYU for a year and is majoring in BioChemistry.  She loves Harry Potter, has run a marathon and loves the gospel.  I am so excited to serve with her.

 

Our area here is gigantic.  (Well, geographically Stephenville and Denton and Waco were far bigger, but we really only worked within city limits)  We cover everything south of the 820 loop and west of the 35W, more or less.  I am pretty sure that Stephenville was only the size of 2 of the grids on our map, and Dublin was probably only half a grid.  I think that the civilized part of my area is 20 to 30 times bigger than Stephenville is.  Sometimes, I say things, and I feel like such a country bumpkin.  Like Fort Worth is my first area where sidewalks have been invented.  Or being excited to see a Valero, or when I told my companion that I wanted to rope during our morning exercise sometimes. 

 

There are so many people here to find, teach and baptize.  I am so excited.  And the ward is so big!  There are so many families.  I don't know how I am going to get to know everyone and keep them all straight.  And we don't even have a ward list right now, because the zone leaders are currently working on fixing the ward list.  But I love this ward.  Everyone here is so nice and friendly.  Really it is going to be amazing to serve here.  This spanish ward is far bigger than Stephenville both english and spanish.  There is so much work to do. 

 

There are 4 companionships in this ward.  2 elders and 2 hermanas.  One set of elders have a visa waiter, and the other hermanas have a visa waiter as well.  (They are both waiting for their visa to come so that they can come to Peru, but until then they get to serve in Fort Worth!!!

 

I am starting to get to know our investigators.  There is the Sanchez family, which makes me really happy because we share the same name.  They are catholic but they want to know if the Book of Mormon is true.  And then there is Yolanda.  She is the sweetest abuelita (grandma) ever.  She came to church this sunday, and we are really excited for her.  There are a lot more, but I haven't really gotten to know them yet. 

 

I think that the one of the best parts of serving here is that we work only in houses and neighborhoods.  I asked my companion if she had ever gone tracting in a trailer park and she said no.  She doesn't even know if there are any trailer parks in our area.  I remember working in Denton and trying so hard to find investigators who lived in houses and no having much success.  And in Stephenville we would work so hard just to find anyone who spoke spanish, regardless of where they lived.  (Don't get me wrong the gospel is for everyone, and I have no problem teaching people who live in trailers, but I have found that generally families who live in a trailer park or an apartment complex will make commitments easy, but they will never remember to keep them, whereas families that live in houses are a little bit more hesitant to make commitments, but once they have made a commitment, they are far more likely to keep it.  This truly is a golden area, with all of the spanish people living in houses.

 

We taught primary on Sunday, which was more or less a disaster.  But at least the children didn't kill each other.  On the fifth sundays, they have a special combined class for all of the adults, so they got the missionaries to teach the other classes.  Both of the hermanas taught Primary.  The elders taught Young Women. 

 

Estoy super emocionada para servir aqui!

 

Nos vemos,

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

 

 

The City Mouse returns home after an extended visit to the country

It is transfers, and I am going to Fort Worth!  That's right.  Big city here I come.  I am so excited!  This is going to be an amazing transfer.  

I will be in serving in the Fort Worth 7th ward, in the Fort Worth Stake.

My address is:

2504 Railridge Circle North #203

Fort Worth, TX 76133

My new companion is Hermana Gomez.  Hermana Hunter is going to Denton.  Her companion will be Hermana Jarvis (who just happens to be her MTC companion as well.)

Don't get me wrong. I love Stephenville with all of my heart!  The people here are wonderful and it truly is God's Country.  I have loved seeing the cows, and the goats, and the horses, and the chickens, and everything else.  I love the country roads, and the wide open spaces.  I have loved roping practice and Tarleton.  Stephenville is a special place! 

Love, 

Hermana Sanchez

 

 

My District

 

 

The statue in the Center Square of Stephenville.

 

 Mission generations.

Me, Hermana Valdez, and Hermana Hunter (me, my trainer's trainer, and my trainee)

 

 

 

Feliz Dia de los Padres!

We taught Lindsey again this week.  We took Sister McKinley with us, and she was the perfect fellowshipper for Lindsey.  Sister McKinley has gone through many of the same challenges and trials that Lindsey is now going through.  It was so wonderful!  Unfortunately, Lindsey is going to be moving north of Weatherford soon, so we won't be able to keep teaching her, but the missionaries in Weatherford are going to be real excited to get a new investigator!

As missionaries we have to meet everyone to find the elect, and we have definitely been running into some strange people lately.  

One of these was a real sweet old lady.  We went and knocked on her door and immediately she invited us in, before we even told her who we were.  We started talking and getting to know her and doing how to begin teaching and stuff.  We were communicating real well, even though our spanish isn't perfect, she understood us and it was good.  We found out that she thought that we were Jehovah's Witnesses and that was why she invited us in.  But, she said that she likes to listen to anyone who talks about God

Then we started teaching.  It was all good until we got to the savior's earthly ministry.  Then it was like there was a wall between us.  She couldn't understand a single word we said.  We might have well been speaking in Japanese for all the good we were doing.  It was really weird.  She literally couldn't understand anything we were saying.  

She blamed it on our spanish, but I know that wasn't the case, because we were communicating just fine a few minutes before.  I think that it is because she simply isn't ready to hear the gospel.  Someday, though, when the missionaries stop by, she will be ready and then she will understand.  

"He who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Mark 4:9  I never before realized that when Christ said this at the end of many of his parables, he was talking literally as well as figuratively.  There are some people in the world whose ears can't hear the gospel.

Then there was another guy, named Manuel.  Sister Potter and I actually tracted into him awhile ago, and we decided that we wouldn't go back.  But then the elders referred us there, and I didn't realize it was the same house until we sat down to start teaching, and then I realized that I had been here before in the almost exact same situation.  Deja vu?

Manuel is super smart and has read the bible many times.  The only problem is that he won't let us teach.  Before we can say anything, he just starts spouting off scriptures and rattling them off. Many of the scriptures that he shares with us are actually Preach My Gospel scriptures and many of the points that he makes are principles from Preach My Gospel as well.  

He is super friendly but he can't stop talking long enough for us to get a word in edgewise.  

But you have to find the crazies to find the elect.  That is just how it works.  

I spoke in Spanish Sacrament.  There was only one family there, and our investigator.  We definitely have some work to do to help build up God's kingdom.  

I shared one of my favorite mormon messages: Earthly Father, Heavenly Father.  Here is my translation:

Padre Terrenal, Padre Celestial

"Paternidad noble nos dio un vislumbre del divino." -James E. Faust

Estoy despierto.  Recuerdo de El.  Miro sobre ellos antes de salir.  Estan en su cama, no estan al corriente de que miro.  Yo salgo, ellos duermen.  La casita que proveo es su mundo.  Ellos juegan, exploran, apreden de moverse, de sentir, de ver, de conocer, no piensan como todo llego a existir.  

Creyones, juguestes, libros, todos son para ellos.  El refrigerador abre, la despensa abre, ellos esperan que hay comida.  Ningun pensamiento, ningun duda, solo hambre.  Cereal, leche, yogurt, dedos sucios, caras sucias.  Son llenos.

Ahorita es tiempo para los siestas.  A mi esposa le gustan las siestas.  Otra vez, estan en los comodos que proveemos.  Mientras que trabajo, estoy lejos pero cerca; siempre pienso de ellos.

Mi celular llama al timbre, solament escucho el respirar.  Sonreo; el celular de mi esposa ya esta perdido. 

Hago todo para ellos.  Trabajo para que pueden crecer.  Confian en mi; yo quiero hacer el mismo.  Ven poquito de como todo llego a ser, no hagan preguntas, solamente confian.  

Regreso a mi casa, brazos.  Ahorita soy un caballo.  Cenamos.  Nos cepillamos los dientes.  Tiempo para las pijamas.  Finalmente, es tiempo para dormir.  Otra vez, duermen en las camas que proveemos.

Sera su protector, sera su amigo amiable.  Sera el conyuge fiel de mi esposa.  Soy un padre, tambien soy un hijo.  Y mientras no entiendo todo que El me hago; se que todo que soy y todo que tengo es por que El es un Padre para mi.  Estoy al corriente de que todo llego a existir.  

"De todos lo titulos de respeto y honor y admiracion para Dios, El nos pido a dirigirle como Padre." -el Quorum de los Doce Apostoles

I then read Abraham 1:2 and talked about the connection between fathers and the priesthood, shared some examples of righteous fathers from the scriptures.  {Adam, Jethro, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Lehi, Jacob, Alma the older, Alma the younger, Joseph - the husband of Mary, etc}.  It is interesting that the Book of Mormon begins with a tribute to a righteous father.  I talked about how Parents should teach their children, and talked about my righteous father and all that he has done for me.  Then I connected it all back to our Heavenly Father and bore my testimony.

I am so grateful for the righteous fathers in my life: tanto mi padre terrenal como mi Padre Celestial.  (both my earthly father and my Heavenly Father, it sounds better in spanish). 

-Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

Exchanges

So, we have been doing some double exchanges lately.  Hermana Hunter goes to a members house and teach them the gospel, while I go with another member and preach the gospel.  

While I was out with one of the members, we found a new investigator, Alfredo.  He seemed super prepared for the gospel, so we set up a return appointment, and we went back with another member.  He has lived in Utah and he loves mormons, he even committed to being baptized.

Then we went back with Hermana Hunter later this week, and Alfredo wouldn't stop flirting with her.  He told her that she had pretty eyes, and that he thinks that he needs to marry a mormon before he gets baptized, and that he would do anything for her.  

Needless to say, we left just about as quick as we came.  But, before we could get away, he kissed her hand goodbye.  And now, we will let the elders teach Alfredo.  We will definitely not be going back.  

I have started reading Jesus the Christ again, and I am about halfway.

-Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez

Granbury Tornado

Hola todos,

Well, Hermana Hunter's Migraine continues.

I copied the phone book this week onto little cards we can take with us when we go tracting.  I found everyone in the phone book that has a spanish last name, and copied them down.  Every street has their own card.  I figure that we are supposed to look for clues when we go tracting, and I figure that having a spanish name in the phone book is just as good a clue as, say, a mop on their porch.  I also went through and put all of our potential investigators and former investigators and members on those cards as well.  So now whenever we get to a street, we can just pull out the right card, and know a lot about the people on the street.   I have definitely spent a lot of time in the apartment, to decide that copying the phone book would be a good idea, but the cards are great, and I am sure that they will be super useful to me, and also to the missionaries that come along after me.  :D

On Saturday, we went and helped out with the Tornado Cleanup in Granbury.  It was my first time being around a natural disaster.  It was crazy to see everything that it did and all the damage.  Entire houses were gone and other houses were literally torn apart.

We were cleaning up an area where there used to be a construction sire for habitat for humanity.  They want to get it cleaned up and rebuilt so that they can use it as a base of operations for the clean up.  

So, where we were working, was a place that has been worked on before by other volunteers, but it was still really bad.  There was debri and glass and nails and ripped apart walls and roofs and housing stuff everywhere.  

And the end of the day, we went and walked to some of the other houses where other volunteers were working and it was so much worse.  

They said that there were 20 acres of houses just like the one we were cleaning up.

We got to wear the helping hands vests and everything.  It was a great day.  It felt like the missionary version of Lagoon day or something like that.  It was wonderful!

Best Wishes,

Hermana Sanchez

 

My MTC district (those who are in the Fort Worth Mission, we are all serving in the same zone right now.  Elder Jensen in the District Leader in the other Weatherford zone, and Elder Black is in Cleburne)

Team Stephenville

 

 

 You know you are in Texas, when at the Tornado cleanup you find...

Tornado damage