The Final Note of my Mission, August 18, 2014

Yes, family. It is true. In under 48 hours I will be on a plane heading back to Pennsylvania, this past week has truly been bittersweet, and very much my heart is filled that I have had the opportunity to serve with these people, at this very time. It truly does not feel like two years. These two years have past faster that I could have imagined, but they did past, and new doors are opening. I am thankful for the people here, and when I get home, I'll let you see some of the pictures of the people that really matter in my life. I love the Seven Springs Branch. I served there from May 2013 - Now. With a small stint in Menlo Park in between. I feel apart of them, and apart of the branch. I will deeply miss the people, and the opportunity to speak this language everyday, but I will continue to seek and find ways to come back here and live here. 

I have learned a lot on my mission, so I think it may be impossible to sum it up in just a few words or in a single email, but one of the biggest things I have learned is that change is a real, and that even though it's real, the change is so subtle, and so small day by day that we can get down, and forget that we are changing. 

Some of the bigger changes in my life, maybe a bit trivial but I'll start off with these.

Two years ago, I didn't really like to sing, well I did, but not in public

Now I sing in sacrament meetings, priesthood meetings, you name it.

Two years ago, people had to give me 100 dollars to eat a piece of fish

Now, I eat fish on a regular basis, including the weird stuff, raw fish, sashimi, raw squid, boiled squid, fish roe. You name it, i've probably eaten it sometime in the last two years.

Two years ago, I spoke a few word of Mandarin, a handful of phrases in Spanish such as 

你好，你好吗 etc. and in spanish vamos a comer!, and vamos todos al rancho! (papa rancho for those who are in on the joke)

Now, I speak, read, and test up to Mandarin Chinese on an HSK Level 4 - 5 Level (the highest is Level 6) and my spanish is enough to keep a conversation (I still a bad hispanic)

Two years ago, I could say I was a bit unorganized, and fulfilling tasks might have been hard to me to accomplish as a whole

Now, I feel like organization is really streamlined, and I understand what it means to remember things and just do them. Even though I am not going to continue to use missionary planners (they don't really work as well in 'real life') I have lots of Apps I can use to plan my days so I can be successful.

I have developed patience, through companions I have learned that others just have their own situations, their own things they are working on in their own lives, and that we can be helps for that. No matter what they are going through, we can help, and be patient with them. 

Humility, this is something I have learned at times when I know I cannot fully measure up, that we need to more fully rely on God for some of the things. Chinese is not an easy thing to learn, learning how to deal with people is not easy either. Being a missionary has the highest standards for any person I think on earth, and EVERYONE is watching you, I have learnt how to live up to that standard and be professional with everyone. I have developed so many great relationships, and even professional relationships. This is one thing that I am excited that is coming to an end, is that everyone watching me on the street.

This weekend my heart is full, we had a FHE for my outgoing sponsored by our branch president. I think more than half the branch was there, and it was such an amazing experience to feel all the love and friendship that have been cultivated for the past 14 months with these wonderful people. It was a great experience to be able to share my experiences from my mission with them, and to get photos with them. 

Sunday was also a very crazy day, not only did I only get 3-4 hours of sleep, but I had two talks, one spanning the time of 30 minutes. It was my last week at church, and I tried to pay special attention to how I felt, and just greeting and saying goodbye to everyone. It was bittersweet, but it definitely was a great time. My talk went well, and I was happy with it. I will miss these people.

The outgoing fireside was incredibly long due to the amount of missionaries going home, but it was very spiritual, and the spirit was felt. The last hymn, the whole congregation stood up with us and sang "The Spirit of God" and many tears were shed, as this very tender moment of ending our missions was coming to a close.

I am grateful for all of you and your support while I have been out here such a long way away. I am excited to go home and to see all of you in a few days, I hope my flights go well so that I don't have any delays. 

Love all of you, I still can't believe this day has come. My last email to be sent on my mission. Now it will be a lot easier to communicate.

Elder (soon to be Nathan) Sanchez

 Branch Farewell Family Home Evening

Christina and Me

Sarah and her husband (Investigators)

每周信函2014 8 13

Busy packing today! Sorry not much of an email this week, been really busy! But will see everyone soon. 

Expect a grand email next week.

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年8 4

Hey everyone.

Peter was baptized over the weekend. It was great! He has been a lot of fun to work with and see progress.

We are also working with Li Pan closely, he probably won't be baptized before I leave but that's okay. As long as he continues to progress.

We have seen a lot of the work progressing this week, with a new investigators. Her name is Song Qianqian or Chrissie for her English name. she just moved here from Pittsburgh, PA with her boyfriend. She is really interested in the gospel, and really wants to progress. We meet with her twice a week, one for a gospel discussion, and another for an English class.She has been really great so far, and is trying her best to keep our commitments.

Sherry is also progressing well, and we are hoping that she can be baptized soon. She has been investigating the church for about 6-7 months now, and so she has been to church many many times already. We are trying to set a baptismal date with her.

As I bring my mission to a close, I am still compiling and thinking about the things that I have learned, and I look forward to seeing all of you in a few weeks. Lunch in Houston sounds great!

I hope everyone has a great week and we will see you soon.

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年7​月21日

Hey everyone, another week has passed by and now I am in week 3 of 6 of my last transfer on my mission, what a weird statement that seems to be to say. I got my travel documents in the mail over the weekend.

My flight leaves San Jose on August 20, at 9:04 AM, and I go through LAX, DET, and finally to Allentown ABE.

I get home at 9:14 PM.

In other news Paul, (Li Pan) is doing super well, and we are really excited for him, we went to the temple together this past weekend, he spent the entire day with us and we honestly had a lot of time to get to know him, instead of using the mission car, we rode around in his BMW all day. It was a great day, and he said it was a true turning point in his life. He is also being fellowshipped greatly in church and has made at least 5 new friends at church. I love Li Pan, and he has truly become a friend of mine that I will keep for a lifetime. He wants to come visit us in Pennsylvania when its time go to back home. That would be great, he is a wonderful guy.

Peter postponed baptism a few more weeks again in order to make sure he is ready. His date is August 16 now, which will be my last Saturday in this mission, it's a real hard hit fo me to realize that that is my last weekend here. I can't believe it.

Sherry! She is such a wonderful gal, and we finally had a chance to meet with her this week for the first time for real since April. It was great. She has been coming to church pretty often and regularly but lately she has not wanted to meet with us, but this past week we had a chance to start the lessons over again. I am hoping she can be baptized by the time I finish this transfer up. Please pray for her!

I have been compiling a list of things I have learned on my mission, and some of my most choice experiences, and we will be getting that email from me in a few weeks. I am grateful for all of you.

See you soon,

Love Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年7​月14

This week has gone by quicker than last week, why does this seem to be a trend? I'm kind of boggled that i'm officially on week 100 of my mission out of 104.

This week we worked a lot with our investigators, and everything ended up okay. I'll highlight two of our investigators progress for this week.

PETER! So Peter has his baptismal date moved back once again, just because he feels like to wait a few more weeks. I hope Peter is not my last baptism before I leave my mission, I hope we are able to help one other go into the waters of baptism. He is doing really well despite some of the struggles that he has been having.

SISTER HOU:

She met with us for the first time this week, and it went really great. We had a member present and taught her the first lesson, she agreed to meet with us weekly on Sundays! She is around 60 years old and from Beijing.

LI PAN:

My favorite investigator I've ever had, he is just great. He agreed with meet with us this past Saturday every week, and came to church and loved it, stayed after church for like 45 minutes to talk to everyone.

I find it hard to find things to write about here, but maybe next week I will have better luck.

Love you all, see you in a few weeks.

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年7​月7日

Hey everyone, here's the longer journal entry you have been waiting for.

This week was really quite amazing, I loved it so much, it was the last week of the transfer, not onl did we get a new mission president, we got a totally new way of thinking now since he has come in.

We had a chance to do a meet and greet meeting with him on Wednesday and we had a great time getting to know him, he seems like a young buck but in reality he is 56, I thought he was in his 40's to be honest. But he is the big cheese for sure

It was great to get to know him, I won't get to know him all too well as today is the start of my last transfer here in the field, that's right, the sad news is here.

Anyway besides that we had a great week and had an opportunity to pick up a new investigator, her last name is Hou and she is from Beijing, she has come to church two weeks in a row, and has already accepted the missionary lessons from us.  

We also had a GREAT 4th of July. Pres Mella let us stay out later than usual to watch the fireworks with an investigator, so we also invited one of our other newer investigators Li Pan and he is the best, he is a newcomer here to the US and has only been here for about 1 month and is studying here. He is in his early 30's and loves meeting new people, he got acquainted with me over a conversation club that we did at his English Language school, I got his info and we have been in touch since then, he is really prepared. It was totally fun, we stayed at a members house for dinner and fireworks which were pretty much right above their house.

It's pretty unreal how fast these past transfers are going, and how fast this next one will go. I hope it doesn't go too fast. Hope everyone has a good week, still trying to do better on thelength of my emails home. Time is just so precious here.

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年6​月30日

Be ready for a long email next week, I'm working on a compilation of journal entries for the past few weeks to help everyone get up to speed. This week was great, Mason is doing great and coming out with us for mission work. It's been awesome.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Sanchez