Hello everybody! How is everything back home? I absolutely LOVE being a missionary. I never thought I would say those words, but this week at the Missionary Training Center has really changed my life. I feel so different. It is such a blessing to be able to be a representative of Christ. It has filled my heart with so much joy. En serio!
The missionary drop-off is always so hard. I really don't remember what happened, just that little Mario was squeezing me pretty hard. Dad was tearing up (which never happens). Mackenzie was watching me with her loving eyes and mom was crying and watching me walk away telling me to "never look back." I was bittersweet.
My host missionary took me to the bookstore to get my books and they placed my badge on me and it was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. I am a missionary, a representative of Christ. I feel so blessed to say that! They took me to my apartment and then we walked over to our classroom, which should really be called "the apartment" because we spend more time in our chairs than we do in our bed. SACRIFICE. After, we waited until the whole district arrived and we all got to know each other. Elder Gogna and Elder Lopez are going to Quito, Ecuador! Elder Cruz is going to Bolivia, Santa Cruz. Hermana McKnight and Hermana Pinargote are going to Lima, Peru West and my companion Hermana Cain is going to Washington Kennewikc. They are an amazing group of missionaries. We laugh 24/7... . It's probably unhealthy how much we laugh, but it makes those stressful days so much better. Then we met with our zone and our zone leaders and sister training leaders. They tell us here to HSI "Habla su idioma" so we hardly speak in English. It's pretty awesome. My Spanish is getting so much better. I know the first vision, my purpose, and some scriptures memorized and it really impacts the investigators when you can say it all by memory.
Day 2 felt like FOREVER. English words slipped my mind. I couldn't even write lesson because I kept writing leccion! Ha, ha. We are in our classrooms for about 16 hours a day and it can get pretty brutal, but we teach them, our "fake" investigators and it makes the time go by faster. Oh, did I mention we laugh a lot? Yeah ... ha, ha. There's another Elder named Elder Sanchez in my zona and we tell people we're related. He's going to Rosario, Argentina. We had a meeting with our branch presidency this day and they interviewed each of us. While I was waiting to be interviewed, I was talking to the STL, sister training leaders and then they told me, "Hermana, we love how humble you are. You are so nice to everyone and you always have a smile on your face. We really hope you and your companion will be the ones replacing us because you will do such a good job." Me? What? I'm so new here. I couldn't believe that they actually thought that I was the one who should be replacing them. I was thinking in my head, "well, yeah, that's a possibility but the chances of that happening are so rare." Then Bother Jeffs called me into his office to interview me. He asked me about my testimony of the Savior and I started CRYING. It's so hard to talk about the Savior without crying. I felt the Spirit so strongly and then the interview was over. Later, when the meeting was ended, Bother Jeffs called me and my companion over and he told us that we are being called as the new sister training leaders. TOTALLY INSPIRED. I was touched. The Lord works in amazing ways and He definitely has a sense of humor. (; It was so great. Our new batch of missionaries come in tomorrow and we get to welcome them. I AM SO EXCITED. We're pretty much veterans here, right now. I feel like I have been here for three months. Our zone is so close and I just know that it is inspired.
Yesterday a district from our zone left to their missions and we all almost started crying. You get so close and then everyone has to leave but we all promised we're going to have an MTC reunion when we finish, and we got everyone's emails, so that's good.
Sunday was probably the best day so far. We had meetings for our new callings in the morning and then we went to Relief Society which was broadcast to us from the main campus. It was a great meeting. After that, we had Sacrament Meeting where we all bore our testimonies. Then, we went back to our classrooms where we had a lesson by Brother Nielsson, a member of the Presidency who is an AMAZING speaker. He interviewed me and made me cry. He told me that the Spirit was telling him to tell me that I am so loved and that I will successfully complete my mission. I felt the Spirit so strongly and am BLESSED to be in such an amazing branch.
We have three investigators so far. Ivan, FROM PERU! Rolando, from Guatemala and Maribel from Mexico. Ivan is getting baptized on Oct. 13! We're still working on Rolando and we taught Maribel about the Restoration yesterday. It was amazing.
My companion is basically my best friend. I love her SO much. We were placed with the Spirit and I truly believe that.
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| We're pointing to where The Lord has called us! Love the mission! |
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| The hermanas and elders from our zona. |
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| Give me some push-ups, elder. No time for sleeping. |
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| Las hermanas de mis distrito. La hermana a la derecha es la Hna. Cain. |
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| Hermana Sanchez and Hermana Cain. |
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| Los Elderes. |
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| Los misioneros de mi distrito. |
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| Hermana Cain y Hermana Sanchez at the Provo Temple. |
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| Hermana Sanchez y Hermana Cain at the Provo Temple. |
Hermana Sanchez
