T'was a VERY Merry Christmas!

Oh boy, this week was incredible. Talk about miracles and family and the sweet Spirit of the Savior. It was great. 

Christmas time to me is the best time of the year. Yes, it's the most special season because of family and the hustle and bustle of the holiday, but mostly because of the spirit it brings. It's a spirit of giving and of remembering the reason we're all here, The Son. We can't forget it. We must not forget it. That belief needs to radiate from our hearts every day of every year. I invite you all to make Christmas a daily thing to continue to give and to love because that's how it should be.

We loved this week. Hermana Davis and I just cherished every minute of it. We saw some pretty amazing miracles that have just given us more love for the work, which we didn't think was possible, and an increased desire to continue to do His will and not our own. 

Christmas was incredible. We had a mission wide conference on the 22nd and the whole mission was in one building celebrating the birth of our dear Savior. President Crane and his wife (temple president and matron) were there and they gave us some really good instruction on reading and applying the scriptures to ourselves. President Hall and his wife also spoke and it was so good. The mission choir sang and we had various musical numbers that really brought the Spirit. It was the best. Christmas on the mission is the BEST. There's nothing like it. We also got to watch a movie! President Hall let us watch the new Disney movie, Inside Out! It was so cute and all the missionaries were laughing so hard. It was the first movie we have seen out on the mission in about 15 months! It was great! We then had a feast from the members around the Sugar Land area. We had cheesy potatoes, salad, tri-tip, chicken, sausage, brownies, rolls, bacon-wrapped asparagus. It was the best feast ever. I was SO FULL! We also had a talent show, a gift exchange and a mission slideshow! It was so awesome! We had a lot of fun and got the gifts from our parents! Such a joyful day!

Christmas was the best. We got to talk to our families. I missed hearing their voice and seeing their faces so much! My brother's voice has completely changed and that was the biggest shock of the year. Ha, ha. He's so different! My sister's belly is basically ready and we're excited to welcome baby Graham into the family! Mom is looking so good. I love my queen. Dad is still my sweet humble Father and I love him so much! Greg, the bro-in-law is super excited to be a dad! Grandma is letting her hair get white. That was different to see, but she's good. I miss her sweet soul. Can't wait to hug these folks. I'm so grateful to be a part of an eternal family sealed by our Heavenly Father. What a great blessing that is! We laughed, we cried and we said see you later. I love them and I love their support. Couldn't do it without them. They're every piece of my heart. 

We also went caroling on Christmas Day. That was so fun. We visited a lot of families and gave them some gifts. They appreciated the generosity so much. For some, it was their fist time being caroled to! I couldn't believe that and I was so glad that we went. (:

We also taught our sweet investigator, Russhine, this week and her 13-year-old niece, Dulce! They loved our lesson on faith and invited us back and asked us to prepare a lesson on baptism. I've actually never had an investigator ask me to prepare for a specific lesson, but it was so cool. We went back and it was powerful. Russhine started crying and they felt the Spirit so strong! Hermana Davis felt the Spirit and invited them to be baptized and they both said yes! It was really amazing. They both came to church yesterday and loved it. We also invited them to come watch a baptism after church. Our elders were having one and they came and loved it, too! We were laughing, feeling the Spirit and having a good time. I love those two! Russhine seems to be progressing really well. She's made so many friends in the ward and after the classes she stands up and says, "Okay, next class!" ... yesterday was her second time at church! She's already a member! We want this so bad for her because we know the happiness that it can bring her in her life! Pray for her! 

We also met someone else on the street the other day and we talked to him. He told us he was atheist ... and we still taught him. He said he was looking for his headphones and we offered to pray for him to find them. He said, "I don't believe in God" ... and we said, "That's okay. We can still pray because we know He will listen." So we prayed a simple prayer that he would find his headphones and we left. The next day we saw him with his headphones in and Hermana Davis says "HEY! Looks like you found your headphones!" He said "Yeah, actually just after you left, I found them." And we both smiled and said "God's there. He loves you." He didn't say anything but we know that it touched him, even if it was in a really small way. 

SUCH A GREAT WEEK!

I was studying about the Atonement this week and I have something I wanted to share. If someone approached you on the street and asked you what is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, what would you tell them?

Yes, that was a tough question for me, too, but I studied and was taught about It and I figured out It's four things. 

SAVE-REDEEM-GRACE-HEAL

SAVE- Because of the Resurrection, Christ can save us from death meaning we'll ALL return to God, but where we go once we're there depends on our actions in this life.

REDEEM- Through the Atonement and the Sacrament, we can be redeemed of our sins only on condition of faith, repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. 

GRACE- Christ can give us His grace, which is a divine means of help so we can overcome trial and come even closer unto him.

HEAL- Through his Atonement, and the fact that he suffered for EVERYTHING, He knows how to heal us, if we will let him.

I invite you all to come unto Christ more this new year. Set goals and write them upon your heart so that they don't just become a three-week goal and then fade away. Make goals that will allow you to become better disciples of our Savior. 

I love you all!

 

Sister Sanchez

Houston Texas LDS Temple President Brad L. Crane, his wife and Sis. Davis and Sis. Sanchez

Texas Houston South Mission conference on Dec. 22, 2015.

Texas Houston South Mission Christmas conference, Dec. 22, 2015.

Merry Christmas!

I'm so excited for this week! It's Christmas and it's even better when you're on a mission serving the Lord! How much better can it get? 

This week was wonderful. We have great miracles that happened and the Lord blessed us to bear with patience our afflictions and to continue to push on. I'm so grateful for how aware I have become that the Lord is in my life and in the lives of others. It's pretty cool when you realize how perfect God's plan is and how special we are to our Heavenly Father. 

This week we saw Russhine! She had left for Guatemala in November and she came back! So we invited her to the ward Christmas party on Saturday and she came! We asked the member who picked us up if we could pick her up, too, and she said yes. Well, turns out that the member is from the same tiny pueblo in Guatemala that Russhine is from! So incredible! Perfect plan, so perfect. Russhine LOVED the party and we gave her a church tour while we were there and she wants to keep coming! She came to church on Sunday and stayed all 3 hours with us and loved that, too. She's so cool. She said that the Lord really told her that she shouldn't just lean on Him when she needs something and she's really happy to be able to keep coming! We're excited to keep teaching her and are praying so hard that she'll be baptized when the time is right. 

We have also been working with a less-active for a while now. His name is Melvin and towards the beginning he really wasn't interested in coming back to church or even changing for that matter. As we have kept working with him and with a lot of prayer and fasting, he's changed so much! He didn't feel like coming back because he's felt like he was already too far off the path and it reminded me of that last conference that said "it's never too late and it's never too early." Well, on Sunday, he received the Melchizedek Priesthood and he has a calling in the bishopric! SO COOL. He kept saying "gracias, gracias, gracias." None of it was us. It was all Heavenly Father!

We met our new investigator, Alicia, this week. SHE'S AMAZING! Doesn't know too much about the church, but she knows it's good and she wants more. Pray for her!

Bishop told us an awesome story in Sacrament Meeting yesterday that I thought I would share. He said he interviewed someone from Equatorial Guinea and he said that the Gospel isn't allowed in that country. He said that she gets to travel the United States 2 times a year because of her job and that's the only time she gets to take the Sacrament. Bishop asked her, "How do you stay so strong without the Sacrament?" And she said that she has all the church books so she keeps herself studying and on the right path. What a testimony. She only gets the sacrament 2 times a year ... do we realize HOW blessed we are to take it every week? Yesterday, as I took it, I walked with the Savior to Gethsemane. I'm so grateful for Him and I hope that we realize the gift we have of taking the Sacrament every week. Never lose sight of that. 

I hope y'all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS. 

Lots of love from Texas :(

--

Sister Sanchez

 Service with Lily!

H1 District!

Melvin!

Hermano Garcia and Hermana Vivas

Russhine!

What Am I Grateful For?

Hermana Davis and I had an amazing week. We always have good weeks as missionaries! It's the best calling in the world! I love my mission.

So many adventures this week ... where do I begin? Well, first, Monday was awesome. We have this less-active we've been trying to visit and her parents aren't members. It's been really hard to see her, but the crazy thing is that as soon as we invite a member, the Lord allows it to happen! We invited Hermana Dávila from our ward and Itzel, who's the same age as our less-active and they were home! We all sat down around the Christmas tree and we shared a message about Christmas. It was really spiritual. TURNS OUT that Itzel, the member we brought was EFY companions with our less-active! So they knew each other! Inspiration. It was so nice. I felt the Spirit so strongly in their home, by the tree, feeling the Spirit of Christmas. I love this time of year and I love these people! Gaby really felt the need to come back to church and she said she's going to put forth the effort to start coming! Her mom even said that she's going to come, too! WOW! The Lord really guided us on that one!

On Wednesday we had some extra time so we went around an apartment complex before our next appointment and we were sharing the Christmas cards from the church with everyone! We shared one with this guy named Cristian. He's 18 and he was awesome! He believes in God. We didn't feel like he had too much knowledge about Him. We asked if we could share a message with him and he said yes, so we got to talking about the Gospel and how the Savior loves us and was born this time of year so that we can be free. He liked the message and said we could come back! He's from Honduras! So we planned to see him Saturday night, but he ended up canceling. We called him anyways and invited him to church on Sunday and he said sure! HE CAME! Our ward mission leader picked him up and brought him and he loved church! He knows who his teachers in his classes are and he kept asking so many questions about the Book of Mormon! It was really cool. He's never been baptized, but said that he would like to! So we're working with him now to get him on that path! It was an awesome miracle! We also taught a family of 6 after seeing him! Her name is Rosie and we taught her and her kids the Restoration! She was super intrigued! We went back to see her on Saturday and she had been reading! She said that the Book of Mormon was really interesting to her! So cool. Huge miracles!!

On Thursday we had a visit from Elder Donaldson and Elder Hill from the missionary department. They taught us so much. It was one of my favorite meetings I have had on the mission. They came to make sure our new mission president was doing well and guiding the mission and they said he's doing a FANTASTIC job and I completely agree. President Hall said ,"They also provided some feedback that can help improve our VISION and, in turn, move our focus and energies in the right direction. Their visit and an unexpected letter I received from Elder Corbridge confirmed the revelation I had received; do our missionaries have a VISION to BAPTIZE and do they understand why this is our purpose?" I have often felt over these last many months that we want to invite others to come unto Christ, help them understand the most important thing and see them at the waters of baptism, but is this truly the desire of our hearts? It was a really good meeting that changed my vision of missionary work and I wish I had that meeting in the beginning of my mission!

Thursday night was eventful. EVERYONE CANCELED. We got a little discouraged, but made some plans and went out to execute when ... MY TIRE POPPED. I was so frustrated! I was thinking "What else could go wrong?" AHH, it was so hard. But as we were walking our bikes to Target to buy a new tire, we thought of 5 things each that we're grateful for. It changed our attitude and we kept going. As we were walking to target, there was a lady putting stuff into her car, and I thought to myself "I'm going to share a Christmas card with her, despite my popped tire because there's a lot to be grateful for." So we did, AND IT WAS THE MOST INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE OF MY MISSION! Her name is Virgina. She's a recently converted Seventh-Day Adventist, but I could tell she was interested in our message. We talked about Christ and she then opened up and said that when she was converting, she was choosing between 3 churches, the Seventh-Day Adventist, the Jehovah's Witnesses and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said that she had gone to our church once and LOVED the spirit she felt. We shared a Book of Mormon with her and she grabbed it out of my hands so fast because she was so excited. Before we left she said "I know God put you in my path and I know there is a reason you were here." I AM SO GLAD MY TIRE POPPED! Whatever the outcome, we planted a seed and she needed the message we had to share about our Savior. It was really cool. I learned a lot about changing my attitude in a tough situation. What am I grateful for? That was my lesson this week. 

Saturday was the Pulga. We got permission from President Hall to set up a booth and play the Christmas video. Our ward mission leader, Relief Society and bishopric put it all together because we wanted it to be more the members rather than the missionaries. We had a sofa and a flat screen TV where the people that wanted to watch the video could sit and have free cookies! Many gave us their information and took copies of the Book of Mormon and pamphlets. We handed out over 600 Christmas cards! It was so awesome! Definitely a success. We have about 15 members show up and all of them were proselyting with us. THIS WARD IS AWESOME, I love it soooo much! Get the members involved, increase their desire to share the Gospel and the work will progress! Great idea, lots of success.

We got a call on Sunday about this investigator who lives in our area but went to the wrong church and she wants to learn more! So awesome! Be obedient, work hard and the Lord will provide. 

Did I mention I LOVE THIS WORK?

Have an amazing week!

Sister Sanchez

Cleaning the church bathroom!

Thomas, my favorite man at service on Wednesdays!

A dream for a biking missionary!

Popped tire!

Lunch with Hno. Carreón!

PULGA!

Hermana Davis!

SOOOO ...

Amazing week. It was one of the best yet! Wednesday we had transfer meeting and I picked up my new companion fresh from the CCM! She arrived here from Mexico on Tuesday and I met her on Wednesday. And we basically have the SAME life. She's the middle child and has an older sister and a younger brother ... Her mom's name is SHEILA, crazy ... and we love sports. She's the best. Her name is Hermana Davis from Park City, Utah and I love her soooo much! 

We have worked so hard these past couple of days and have been so exhausted, but it's been so fun! She's learning Spanish, so we speak it as often as we can. It's just been a blessed week and we already know we're going to have so much fun and see some amazing miracles in our area. I have been so blessed to have her. She's teaching me a lot. I'm so thankful. I just can't say it enough! I can see and feel the enthusiasm she has for the mission and her desire to work and love the people. She's also such a good sport with the language. Even though she has no idea what a lot of people are saying, she still loves them and does her best to reply! 

We had some amazing miracles this week. First, Norma and her husband came to church! It was incredible. She hasn't come in a while, but we went to teach her on Thursday and we stressed the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy and the things we need to do. We asked her, "Norma, what are some blessings you need in your life right now?" She listed a few off and then we asked her, "How and when does God bless us?" She replied, "When we do what's right and keep the commandments." Then we continued to teach her that if she keeps the commandments and comes to church and reads her scriptures, the Lord will bless her with the things that He already knows she needs. And she came! She really wants to get baptized, but her husband told her that "you don't get baptized twice" ... so we're working on trying to find a time to teach him about the Priesthood so she can be baptized. I know it's going to make her so happy, and we want that for her, but there's an obstacle. With faith it'll happen, I know it. However the Lord does it, Norma will be baptized. She wants to go to the temple to do baptisms for her daughter who passed away, so that's our goal! We're excited! Please pray for her! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!

We also saw our recently returned member, Hermano Reyna, this week and he's now worthy! He was so excited to tell us! It was a process, but he finally can take the Sacrament and teach! He went up to bear his testimony in Sacrament and it was really special. He also got a calling to be the Young Men's first counselor! He's so excited. He's on fire! We're now teaching his kids hoping they'll take the step and be baptized!

The 2015 First Presidency's Christmas Devotional was amazing last night, don't you think? We went with a group of our members and it was really fun. We loved it and I especially loved how Elder Bednar told the Christmas story from the American continent! How special and blessed we are to have 2 Christmas stories that testify of Christ and who He is! I love reading Luke, chapter 2 with 3 Nephi, chapter 1 and putting myself in the shoes of the people in the America's who saw the star but didn't see the Savior. What faith they must have had! We're so blessed. 

Have y'all checked out the church Christmas website? You should!

https://www.mormon.org/christmas

Share it on FB, Twitter, Insta, everything! Get the word out you member missionaries! You're a huge part of this work! 

I love this time of year. I love the spirit and the happiness. It's so great. It's my favorite time of year!

 

Sister Sanchez