Our God Is A God Of Miracles!

Hello everyone back home! This week has been wonderful. I don't have too much time to write today, but I just have a couple of things I want to update y'all on!

Minor got baptized this week! It was the most incredible baptism I have ever been at. I honestly felt the Spirit so strongly. The hardest part was that Minor's wife, Nadine (a member), didn't want to come to the baptism because she didn't feel like Minor was ready. She was crying and it was hard because we knew 100% that he was ready. He got interviewed for baptism on Thursday and passed with flying colors! But we still had the weight on our shoulders of him not being baptized because of his wife. Sister Robinson and I thought about it a lot and we decided that we were going to fast so that she would show up to his baptism. We did and it was hard, but guess what .... SHE CAME! She showed up with all their children and it was so special.

Minor is amazing. SO AMAZING. He was so ready, guys. Like more ready than anyone I have ever seen! After his baptism, he wanted to bear his testimony and we let him. One thing that he testified of was that he FELT the weight of his past sins lift off his shoulders and he said all this in tears. It was incredible. Literally the BEST DAY EVER. I couldn't stop smiling. He's now able to return to his Father and it's so wonderful to feel. THEN, his wife wanted to bear her testimony. She stood and told us that the only reason she wasn't going to come was because she was testing Minor to make sure that he was REALLY ready. She even told him before his baptism that he could still back out ... but he didn't and she cried saying that she has been waiting for this day for 14 years! WOW! She also thanked us as his missionaries for helping him take the steps to change his life. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. 

THEN, we had another one of the biggest miracles this week! We were weekly planning and the Spirit told us that we needed to call John to check up on him. We called him and we were talking and planning on the next time we will be seeing him. We set it all up and then out of nowhere, he says, "Sisters, the Lord has really pressed upon my heart this week that I need to be baptized. I know how God talks to me and He has really been talking to me this week. I know this is something I need to do. I want to be able to defend the Book of Mormon like I defend the Bible." It was incredible! Thank you for all your prayers of faith. He's amazing and so ready! We extended for March 28 and we're praying that he'll be ready that day! He's seriously so wonderful. Him and his daughter. They will be such amazing members. 

I fed birds this week in Galveston! I held bread up and they got it directly from my hands! It was awesome! I HAVE SO MUCH TEXAS PRIDE!

GOD IS SO GREAT. I love my mission with all of my heart. 

We got transfer calls the morning of Monday, March 23 and I'll be STAYING IN FRIENDSWOOD with Sister Robinson! We're so excited. She's my best friend!

I love you all. WRITE ME!

Sister Sanchez

Minor's baptism!

Asian buffet! It was so delicious!

Galveston Island!

Feeding the birds on board a Galveston ferry! 

I love my companion Sister Robinson!

Homeless

Hello friends and family! How is everyone doing? I have been wonderful as usual. There are never bad days on the mission, just hard ones. Ha, ha. Sorry I didn't email on Monday, we changed our p-day to Wednesday so we could do a temple session in Houston. We had so many crazy things happen to us this week, but first I want to start off with the miracles.

First and foremost, we saw Minor, our investigators, and his family again. They came to church and they loved it. The ward welcomed them with open arms and they were instantly a part of our incredible ward family. After church, Minor and his wife, Nadine, invited us over for lunch. We got there and she made some AMAZING Belizian food that reminded me so much of home. They eat rice with practically every meal, so I really did feel like I was home. I have been missing rice SO MUCH. We laughed and had a great time and then taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They ended up telling us their amazing stories. Nadine is such an amazing mother to her children and she is a great example to me. Minor is just awesome. The person he was is completely different from the person he is now. He has changed his life around to support his children and his wife and now he has the strongest desire to come unto Christ. We had originally invited him to be baptized on April 4, but as the Spirit directed, we changed his date to the 21 and he accepted. He will be baptized this weekend! We have an investigator devotional on Sunday night, where the missionaries bring their investigators and the recent converts bear their testimonies ... well, the Spirit told me to invite Minor to bear his testimony even though he hasn't been baptized yet and he said yes. His testimony was INCREDIBLE. He cried and expressed his deepest gratitude to the Lord for the blessings in his life. He even mentioned Sister Robinson and I and started crying, too. He's wonderful and his family is, also. We love being with them. I'm so blessed and FOREVER grateful to have had the opportunity to meet this wonderful family. MY FIRST FAMILY. 

We also attended a school event this week for John and his daughter, Savannah. She was in the school's "wax museum" and he invited us to come. It was really fun to be around other people and see all the little kids representing different famous people. I even met a little MESSI! He was awesome. John was very appreciative of us going. He teared up again and said that he's so grateful to have the support he has from us. We let him know that he's so loved not only by us, but by Heavenly Father. Please pray for him. He's the greatest dad and supporter to his daughter.

I DID FAMILY HISTORY THIS WEEK. A lot of it, actually! President Scott, our stake president, has taught us how to do it, not only correctly, but efficiently! He told us that if we're stuck, we need to move on to someone else and save as many people as we can in the short time we have. We only get 2 hours a week to so family history, so I took his advice. I found about 19 names this week! It was incredible! I also took my great grandma, Helen Bettina Jones, all the way through the temple, so that was a special experience for me. I sure hope that she's happy. 

On Saturday, we went to the PULGA! (Flea Market). The Spanish-language missionaries set up a booth there with a bunch of pamphlets, copies of the Book of Mormon, Proclamation to the Family, etc., and a flat-screen TV playing Spanish Mormon messages. We thought it would be fun to help since we're English-speaking missionaries and we can talk to people, too! It was so fun just to say hello and introduce who we were. We talked to a lot of people and for lunch we had an hour just to go shop! I felt like I was home!! Weekend with my family at the pulga. Awesome memories. It made my heart happy and so did that JUICY MANGO WITH CHILE!

Okay, so the crazy thing that happened was that we lost our keys! Sister Robinson had them and she said she was 100% positive she put them in her bag when we went biking one day. So around 8:30 at night, we had to back track our bike route with a member and flashlights! We looked forever and we couldn't find them anywhere. We couldn't move our car our even get into our apartment! So we ended up staying with the BayBrook sisters and we slept on their floor. We had to wear the same dirty clothes the next day and we were SOOOO exhausted! I remember praying that night PLEADING that we could find our keys and I had a dream! In the dream, I distinctly remember Heavenly Father telling me that the keys were in the trunk underneath our box of copies of the Book of Mormon. When I woke up, I told the sisters my dream, but everyone shrugged it off because Sister Robinson was positive that they were in her bag. One of the elders helped us get on star to come open our car and we popped open the trunk from the inside to double check and guess what happened ... I LIFTED THE BOX AND THEY WERE RIGHT UNDERNEATH. It was incredible! Such awesome revelation. I'm so happy and thankful that Heavenly Father watches over us daily.

Anyways, I'm doing so great. Transfer calls are on Monday and I am hoping I get to stay, but I know that I will always go where the Lord wants me to go. I love you all with ALL of my heart. Keep being the best enduring representative of Jesus Christ.

Sister Sanchez

Our stand at the pulga (flea market)!

Conejos (rabbits) at the PULGA (flea market)! 

I LOVE SISTER ROBINSON!

All the family names I found!

Having fun with Sister Anderson!

I made sushi!

District meetings!

Obedience Brings The Best Blessings!

EVERYONE, this week was the best week of my mission. That's rare for me to say because all days have been so amazing, but this week just blew those other days out of the water! We did so much and we were able to see so many miracles!

First off, the other elders in our district gave us a call saying that they had a media referral, but she was in our area. They had scheduled an appointment with her and they just told us that we could go and show up, so WE DID! She politely let us in and we introduced ourselves to her. Then she told her husband and children to come down. It turns out that their family JUST came here from Belize two weeks ago! Her husband is American and he applied for them to come to the U.S. and they were able to! Her name is Nadine and she has three children. Tyler, 23, Rannie, 18, and Zamir, 7. Zamir is really shy, but when I asked him is he played soccer, he said yes! Then I asked him what his favorite team was and he said REAL MADRID! AHHHH. We connected on that one and now we're going to play soccer together. Ha, ha. It was great. They're all members except for her husband, Minor, who was being taught by the missionaries in Belize, but then they moved. The missionaries there told them the missionaries here and so she did that. Those missionaries ended up being us! Minor told us that his ultimate goal is to be in the temple with his family, so we're so excited! He accepted a date and is 100 percent going to be baptized. It was a huge miracle! They speak Spanish, too!

Then, we were to go see our investigator Dan. He's doing well. We met him on the street and just started talking to him. We ended up teaching him the rest of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and he loved it. We invited him to church and then ... he said no. He has always been against church because he feels that the church is in us, rather than us having to go every Sunday. 

Sister Robinson and I stressed to Dan the importance of going to church every Sunday and taking the Sacrament. He seemed to understand it all. We just told him, "Try it once. If you don't like it, you don't have to come again, but just try it out." He agreed and we were so happy to hear that he was willing to come. TURNS OUT that Saturday came around and Dan calls us ... we were SO SCARED that he was going to say that he wasn't coming, but he ended up telling us that HE WAS COMING and he was bringing four people with him! WHAT?! Miracle! It was so amazing. Sister Robinson and I were so amazed. We were nearly in tears. Dan is so great. He's getting baptized!

Another miracle was that we ended up teaching John and his daughter in Bishop's home. He loved it. We taught him the Atonement and it touched him deeply. He was in tears and Bishop testified to him of the importance of the Gospel. We're praying that John can continue to progress and that he can have the desire to be baptized soon. Pray for him!

Last miracle ... we taught Tina and her sons. She has three sons, ages 14, 11, 8. They're so great. We all sat down at the table and talked about the Restoration. Her 14-year-old son was SO CURIOUS! He drilled us hard core with questions. Fortunately, the Spirit was with us, so we were able to answer them all. The Spirit was so strong. The boys asked us, "Do we need to be baptized to be saved?" We then read John 3:5 with them and they all want to be baptized along with Tina, their mom! It was incredible. She was a referral to us from a member and they're very prepared. We love being over there.

God has blessed us so much. I have been praying to find a family for the longest time now and God has blessed us with three families to teach. It's the greatest thing ever. Our teaching pool is increasing and it's because of our diligence and faith. God will never leave us alone. HE ALWAYS ANSWERS, not always in the way or time that we'd like, but always in the way that we need.

Rely on Him. I love y'all. I love my Savior.

Sister Sanchez

Senior center!

Jeri! She picked me up and she's 60!

Rancho's for lunch!

Sheldon!

Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept

Hey y'all, 

This week has been such a growth week for me! As many of you know, I was called as a Sister Training Leader a couple of weeks ago over another zone. I love the assignment. It's really fun to care about other sisters and make sure they're doing well in their areas. I went on an exchange with Sister Shumacher who serves in Silverlake and I stayed with her for 24 hours. They're in a bike area and that was a NEW experience for me, but it was fun. 

We visited some of their members and investigators and it was fun to learn from her and how they teach. We were on our way home from a lesson and we found a bird! It had a broken wing and Sister Schumacher wouldn't leave until we found it, so we knocked on a bunch of doors until we found the bird, ha, ha. Good proselyting excuse, too! We met some awesome people that I hope they can start to teach! It was really fun and I love these girls with all of my heart!

On the exchange, I was able to get some help with family history from one of their members. She helped me A LOT and I was able to find three new names on my tree that hadn't had any of their work done. It was so incredible. I'm now addicted to family history and wish I could do it all the time! 

We worked with Brayden this week, our recent convert, to help him find names. I used my new expertise and we were able to find him about three names as well from his close relatives for him to take to the temple! We went all together on Saturday for his first time and he loved it. I could tell being dunked seven times was a new experience for him, but it was really spiritual and I was able to be baptized as well. God is so good and the temple is so amazing. I love it. 

We are working with quite a few investigators and less-active members as well and it's really fun. Everyday I come to love this work more and more, which is hard to do but it happens! I never thought I could love being a missionary so much, but I really do and I feel like a changed person because of it. 

Jade is doing so great. We have planned her baptism for this weekend and we're hoping it all works out. She's so ready to be baptized and it's helping her less-active family become active again. I know that the gospel will change her life and she knows it, too. We love meeting with her.

Shevyn has also really impressed me this week. She's so strong and really knows who she is in the eyes of Heavenly Father. She bore her testimony to us this week about how happy the gospel has made her and how BADLY she wants to go back to the temple, ha, ha. It makes me happy to know that she truly knows this is the restored truth. She always tells us that she's going to serve a couples' mission. I will be best friends with her for the rest of my life!!

Anyways. God is good. I love Him and my Savior. One this I have been sharing with people is that while the Savior was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, the very capillaries of His circulatory system couldn't even contain themselves and they burst open. I can't even imagine the suffering He had to go through, but I'm so thankful that we have Him as our Redeemer and Savior. I cannot wait to see His face and my Father's face and be able to live with them again, for eternity. I know this is the truth and I will never deny it. 

Sister Sanchez

Exchanges with Sister Schumacher!

Jade, our 12-year-old investigator!

Temple with my amazing companion!

#Selfie with Shevyn!