Sweet Is The Work, Really Sweet

This week was insane! We taught so many lessons and did so much. We were so busy, but it was so good because we felt super productive. Busy missionaries are happy missionaries, that's for sure. 

We went to the temple on Tuesday with Sister Schott and that was amazing. I learned a lot this time because I came prepared with some questions and I made sure to really focus during the session to get some answers and I did. I loved being there with Sister McCleery because it was her first time in the Houston Temple and she loved it. I've grown to love the temple so much. I wish I could be there daily, but I'm excited to go back to school in Rexburg where I'll be so close that I can be there daily if I wanted to! 

This is the last week of the transfer, so next Monday we'll find out whether I'm staying or leaving. So many members of the ward want me to stay. Our ward mission leader told me that he'll call President Hall and ask him if I can stay, ha, ha, but I wouldn't let him do that because I want to do what the Lord inspires President Hall to do. But next transfer will be my 9th transfer out of 13 ... . I really don't know where the time is going and it's so crazy, but I love being here so much and I hope it never ends.

Steven, Symber and Emilio all came to church yesterday! They're doing great. We're working with Emilio to find out if this is really a desire of his to continue investigating and acting upon the commitments we give him. They're loving church, though. Yesterday was their second time and they brought their two daughters who LOVED Primary and want to come back next Sunday! Steven and Symber are going strong. Our plan is to get them married sometime this week and then to help them live the Word of Wisdom so on Sept. 13 we can baptize them and have a reception for them. The ward is already in, so it's going to be exciting! They're both reading the Book of Mormon and last we checked, they were in 2 Nephi! 

We also have two investigators from Hungary and they have a friend, Josh, who's investigating as well. They both tried to come to church yesterday, but couldn't find the church building, so they went back home. :( But we're going to get them a Hungarian Book of Mormon and continue to read with them. We just randomly contacted them on the street one day and turns out that they have previously had missionaries, but the missionaries had to stop coming because her husband didn't like them. She divorced him and now is married to someone who welcomes us, so that's good! They're so fun and loving. We have a great time with them.

Jade, our recent convert came back from her summer vacation and it's been forever since we've seen her! One thing I realized is that when we invite her to church, she always says no because she's so used to us and we're much older so she just doesn't want to go with people that aren't her age ... so we went to our less-actives' house, the Eustace Family, and they have a daughter that's less active, but is REALLY good friends with Jade, because we brought her to a couple of lessons before Jade got baptized. So we went to their house and asked them if Brissa could call Jade and invite her to church and then they could go pick her up ... and they said YES! Brissa called and Jade was so excited to go! They picked her up and they all came to church! It was awesome! We got our less actives AND recent converts to church by working with them together! It was a cool prompting that worked out so well!

Fern is getting her temple recommend this week! She's so excited. We're working with John to get his patriarchal blessing and work his way up to the Melchizedek Priesthood! He spoke yesterday at our investigator devotional and it was amazing. ALSO, I translated for the first time! Normally, I don't like translating because it seems so hard especially when the speaker speaks fast, but no one else could speak Spanish, so I did it and it was AWESOME!!! I went up to the Spanish speakers after the meeting and asked if they could understand me and they said yes, that it was great and it all made sense. IT WAS THE SPIRIT, NOT ME. Whoa, that was cool.

I read this amazing quote this week that really stood out to me. It's in a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland called "Lessons from Liberty Jail" and it says:

"When we promise to follow the Savior, to walk in His footsteps, and be His disciples, we are promising to go where that divine path leads us. And the path of Salvation has always led one way or another through Gethsemane. So if the Savior faced such injustices and discouragements, such persecutions, unrighteousness, and suffering, we cannot expect that we are not going to face some of that if we still intend to call ourselves His true disciples and faithful followers."

How cool is that? It really made me feel SO grateful for the trials of my life before my mission and even on my mission. 

I love you all. Keep on keepin' on. 

Hermana Sanchez

Sweet! Hey someone got a tan! And hair looks great!

My jeans still fit!

District picture!

First Day of School and I Get to Be a Missionary!

Man, the mission is so good. I love every second that I'm out here. It's the best thing I've ever done! We had a really great week. It rained a lot for one, that was a huge blessing. Sister McCleery and I both LOVE the rain so much, so it was fun for us to do our studies next to our window and listen to the rain. It was pretty soothing. It's crazy here how much the temperature drops from some rain! It was a good 20 degrees drop, so insane, but we loved it. 

We saw so many miracles this week, but the one that has just resonated with me was Steven! We went over to teach him Wednesday night and he had been pondering baptism because we had talked to him about it before in our previous lesson. He was having a really hard time deciding whether or not he was going to accept baptism. He was praying to find an answer. I remembered him telling us that he gets a lot of his answers in dreams, so I prayed REALLY hard that night that he would have a dream where he could recognize God answering him and he did! It was incredible. We went back the next day and Steven told us about his dream and how God told him to accept baptism, but to read the whole Book of Mormon before he does. Ever since then, we keep going back and every time he has read more and more of the Book of Mormon. It's so awesome to see the changes he's making. Today, Sister McCleery and I are planning on going to visit his wife and teach her the Restoration with our recent convert Kim. They're going to be great friends. We can already tell. They both also come to church on Sunday and Steven was participating so much in Gospel Principles class. He already knows who he wants to baptize him, we just need to make sure he isn't smoking and that he's continuing to keep the commandments. Pray for them. They're so close!

Sister McCleery and I have just had SO much fun this week. It's one of our companionship goals! We realized that as missionaries (especially as sisters) we get so caught up in the work. We forget that we're human and that we make mistakes! So we've just been laughing and taking crazy pictures. It's been fun. I'll include them in this post. (Thanks, mom)

I went on exchanges with some of the sisters that I make sure are doing okay. I went to their area, which is called Sunnyside in Houston. It's considered the top-6 most dangerous city in the United States ... IT WAS AWESOME! I loved being able to speak Spanish again and I loved how much fun we had. We saw so many crazy things ... but it was so fun! I felt right at home because San Jose isn't that much better, ha, ha. We taught their investigator, Jesus and he's awesome! We went over the Restoration and he agreed to come to church! We also talked to a bunch of random people on the street. Some of them wouldn't answer their front door, but we could hear them around back, so I said, "let's go sister!" We walked into their backyard and said ,"HOLA!" Ha, ha, ha, ha. It definitely caught them off guard, but we did our part!

I love, love, love, being here. I can't even put it in words. I've just been so grateful lately. Especially on the hard days. I owe everything to the Lord for even letting me be here. I'm like the last person the Lord should trust, but he does! And it has taught me so much! I also wanted to say that this week I've learned a lot about grace. I realized that the Lord doesn't just "meet us halfway, after all we can do" he's there with us the whole way. A lot of people fall off the path and think, "there's no way I can ever get back because I have strayed so much," but there's always a way back. ALWAYS. Christ paid the debt. It's already been done, so now we have to accept that and continue on. The Gospel just makes sense. I've seen how much I've grown now, compared to where I was before the mission and the change isn't small, it's drastic. I feel so different. Mom and Dad, thanks so much for supporting me and for providing a way for me to be out here. Like Christ, you've already paid the debt, so the only way I can repay you is to enjoy every minute of it and to use it to change me and I have. I love you both.

Take advantage of the Gospel. 

Sister Sanchez

#BacktoSchool dinner.

Tender ... MERCIES!

This week's blog post will be a short one, but this week was amazing!!

We had an awesome zone conference this week with President Hall and it was so good. We learned a lot about having faith not fear and about the importance of the Restoration. I loved it and I felt so spiritually edified afterwards. 

As soon as zone conference was over, we had Fern meet us at the church for her interview and she passed! She was really nervous, but she did great and was so excited for her baptism on Saturday. She was on cloud 9 that day. She was so excited. We got her fitted into her jumpsuit and her sister came to her baptism, too. 

Fern's sister is a non-member and, at first, didn't want to come, but she did and it really brought happiness to Fern. She was just sooooo happy. Our member, Sister Ellsworth, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and gave Fern a "gift" like the "gift" of the Holy Ghost and it was a BRAND new pair of scriptures with her name engraved on it. She was so touched, she started crying! It was amazing! 

We also taught Emilio, our other investigator this week. We have been praying really hard to know what we need to do to help him be able to progress even further and we felt prompted to invite John, our recent convert, to come with us. He was recently called as a ward missionary and he's on fire! He came and the lesson was wonderful. Emilio was engaged the whole time and so was his wife. The Spirit was strong and at the end of the lesson, we extended a baptismal date and .... HE ACCEPTED! He also came to church yesterday, Sunday! We were worried that he wouldn't come, but we prayed so hard and John did, too, and he came! I had the biggest smile on my face when he walked in. It was really cool. 

We also had a random lady walk in to the chapel yesterday. Her name is Jamie and she said she was watching TV and she saw a commercial that referred to the church, so she decided to come! She was welcomed SO WELL by our ward and now she's taking the discussions! Yay! My wonderful companion mentioned something to me that I really liked. She said that the Lord is blessing us so much because of our ward! It's so true. The Friendswood 2nd was is the best ward ever. They're so great at helping out with missionary work!

We also had a scary experience this week where we had to cast out some evil spirits. Our investigator, Steven, has been struggling for years with evil spirits and he hears voices and stuff. It really scared me at first, but eventually I was okay. We went over with the elders and they blessed both Steven and his wife, along with their 2-month-old baby and they cast them out. It was a crazy experience! 

So yes, it was a great week! This next week is going to be a really busy one, but I love this work!

Have a great week y'all!

Sister Sanchez

Fern's baptism! Lovely day! 

The amazing Sister McCleery and I! 

Sister McCleery, my new companion! 

I Lost Some Wisdom

This week was great. A little slower than most, but still really good. 

Going along with my blog title, I got my wisdom teeth out this week! It was the craziest adventure ever. They started hurting me about two weeks ago. At first I just dealt with the pain because I figured they would stop bothering me eventually. But as time went on and I felt more and more pain. I decided I would see the dentist. After days of waiting to hear about an appointment, I finally got one and I went in. 

Due to insurance reasons, the dentist didn't put me "under" and didn't give me the "happy gas" either. I just got numbed up really well and they pulled them out! It was harder for them to do it, especially because the bottom tooth was a little impacted, but it worked out well and I am feeling better! President Hall, our mission president, gave me a blessing before the procedure and that helped a lot, too. 

Glad to say that I'm up working again. It was nice to rest for a couple of days, but I was so bored! I told myself, "If this is what life is like when I go home, I never want to go home!" But I know at home I would at least kept myself more occupied, ha. ha. 

Our investigator, Fern, is set for her baptism this Saturday! She fractured her foot, but it's healed now and she's really excited. Yesterday, at church, so many people were telling her how excited they were for her and how they'll be there for her big day. She's such a blessing to us. She's always absorbing everything we teach her and she's so willing to keep learning. I love her so much!

Also at church yesterday, John, our recent convert, taught the Gospel Principles' class! Isn't that so cool!? He got assigned to do it and did such a great job. I remember during the class just looking at him in awe at the change he's made. I remember around April when we had to stop teaching him because he wasn't progressing and now he's preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and he's teaching others. It was really awesome. He volunteered to teach next week, too. AHH, so amazing. 

Anyways, we're seeing wonderful things. We just received two new potential investigators and we're going to stop by and see them this week. It's just great. 

Please pray for Minor and Nadine when you can. They just need a lot of guidance and help right now and I would really appreciate it. Love you guys tons! Have an fabulous week.

Funny Story:

We were shopping for food and Sister McCleery said we needed lettuce. So she went ahead and grabbed a different kind of lettuce that I had never seen before. When the cashier scanned it, it said "bok choy" on the monitor ... and I was confused but ignored it. Later we tried to eat it and it turned out to be Chinese cabbage! It was really bitter. So now we go around shouting "BOK CHOY" whenever something tastes bad, ha, ha.

Sister Sanchez

Horray for heat!

Keeping my 2 wisdom teeth! 

Post wisdom-teeth surgery. 

The Amazing Sister McCleery!

This week was so great! We had so much to do in a very short amount of time, but I'm so excited to tell y'all all about it and how special it was to me.

First and foremost, Sister Andersen went home. My heart ached as I said goodbye to my sweet mini missionary. She made the biggest impact on my mission life in just 6 short weeks. I already know she's going to be one of my closest life long friends. I miss her already writing this, but I'll see her again.

BUT, I got my new missionary companion who just got here from the MTC! I went to pick her up on Wednesday at transfer meeting. Her name is Sister McCleery and she's from West Bountiful, Utah. She's amazing! For being brand new, she's definitely got this missionary thing down. Since day one she's been so eager to get to work and to start off strong. I love her for that. She's taught me a lot already and we're working hard to teach, teach, teach and work, work, work! It's been great. 

Monday we had Savannah's baptism and John baptized her. Her mom, who's a non-member, came to the baptism and Savannah was so happy! John was so happy! He was in tears and it was so amazing to see him exercise his Priesthood and baptize his daughter. I loved being able to be a small part in that experience. I just love this work so much! Bringing families together under the proper authority is unlike anything else.

Saturday Jacob was baptized and his parents came, also! They weren't exactly the happiest when Jacob told them he was going to be baptized in the Mormon faith, but they came and it turned out so great. His mom was in tears a majority of the ordinance and his dad was enjoying it, too. The baptism was packed, too! So after it was over, almost ALL of the ward greeted his parents! His mom also came to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday to see his confirmation. I'm so happy that she was there. It was hard for Jacob to move forward with his decision knowing that they weren't exactly "happy" with his choice, but he did it anyway and it's paying off. Thanks for all your prayers of faith!

Fern fractured her foot this weekend, so her baptism is going to have to be pushed a week back, but she's doing amazing! She came to church on Sunday EVEN WITH A FRACTURED FOOT and she loved it like usual. She also met with the bishop to got to know him and that went well. The Friendswood 2nd ward is seeing so many miracles. It's just incredible!

This week I'll be getting my wisdom teeth removed ... when I say pain, that's an understatement! Yesterday, our members fed us steak ... the good stuff and let's just say that I'm so grateful it's only severe pain on one side because there was no way I wasn't eating that steak ... ha, ha. 

It's been such a great week. We're doing well and the Lord is so good. This week I've been pondering about my mission and how I'm so grateful to be here. A lot of times I think that the Lord is so special to me because He specifically got me to serve. There are days when I look at my tag and just stop and think that I'm actually a missionary ... (even though I've been one for 10 months). It still surprises me that I'm here, sometimes, but I love it. I love my Savior so much. He's a huge part of who I am and I love this Gospel. 

Thanks for all your support and love! Talk to you next week!

Sister Sanchez