每周信函2013年4​月15日

Happy 8 month mark.this week has been great and tough in the same wrap, but we're reassured things will be okay.

 

So this week was great in the fact that our investigators are progressing well, but sad the fact that some of our investigators are not very financially sound and could be forced to move to China at any moment.

 

 

So this week, we met with Sophie, and for some reason our appointments with her last forever, almost a 2 hour appointment, but since she was gone for like 3 weeks it was okay. She was really sad about her grandma and how everything that she used to know is getting old and how she's afraid of losing loved ones and things. We learned together more about the Plan of Salvation, she was touched by the spirit once again. We invited her 1. To go to the temple this past sunday and 2. set a new baptismal date. She said yes to the temple and yes to the date, that she wants to be baptized "before i leave" she said.. haha. She thinks i'm going to get transferred soon. So I told her I may get transferred May 14. So yep, we'll have a date tomorrow when we meet with her again. She said she really really missed meeting with us, that she felt something missing in her life when she left. So that's good (Sister Plummer said the same thing, too since she always accompanies our lessons)

 

 

So we went to the temple!!!!!!!!! With her, her husband, the Plummers, and all the kids. The Sisters at the visitors center helped so much and we fasted that it would be a good experience for their family. The Sisters that helped all spoke Chinese (I called in the the visitorscenter before hand to make sure it would work out.) So yes, we watched the Christus audio clip in the lobby and the sisters asked Sophies husband how did he feel and he responded "I feel really peaceful" and I was pretty astounded. I didn't think that could come out of his mouth but it did! Sophie let us know that her husband was OK with her being baptized! So it's just a matter of planning and reaffirming that she got all the lessons.

 

 

So on a good/bad note. The M's are progressing, but also they are not. We're not sure. Because, Bishop is concerned because he had an interview with them because they asked for one, the want to pay tithing, but they can't because of some technicalities. Bishop wants their intentions of joining to be real intentionals, but they do have real intent... it's up to President Watkins anyway.  they'll still be baptized on the 27th...

 

                                                                         M Family

Emily (Wan ting M)

 

The G's are working still... they really need to be motivated to get in gear, it's pretty hard work to meet with all of them once a week since their schedules change every week, I just know Darian is ready and so is Ryan... Brandon and Brenda are still working. It's hard work... just pray for them to stay motivated, they can be very passive sometimes.

 

 

Pray for 'em all! We're trying our best to keep them progressing!

 

 

 

Love, 

Elder Sanchez

                                                              Not too inspirational!!!!

Elder Sanchez meal that he cooked and Elder Giles enjoyed

Elder at his addiction (Apple Headquarters)

每周信函2013年4月8日

Hey everyone, another week to report on!

So this week was conference, and transfers, so we got 4 new Sisters in our zone, and Elder Giles moved from one ward to another ward within the zone, that's a big deal haha. We had to go down to transfers on Tuesday and Elder Giles got his call to the Bayside ward in Fremont and I saw "ooh man!" and President Watkins (you must understand he's incredibly sarcastic and loves to pick on missionaries) said "Elder Sanchez, we don't want your commentary!" haha really funny. Elder Giles couldn't help but laugh.

So this week Sophie came back from Taiwan, we heard the news that while she was getting on her flight that her grandma had just passed away, so we were really sorry to hear that. She got back on Thursday, and immediately went down to Irvine, CA to look for a house to buy (since they are moving in a few months) I got to call her yesterday, it was so good to hear from her. We were really worried about her, but she was fine, she was in the middle of dinner with her family at a restuarant and she still wanted to answer and talk to us, she kept asking us how we were and when we could meet, and she was happy like her good old self, so we were really relieved. We have an appointment with her on Friday at 1 pm, so we're excited to hopefully set her sights back on baptism. I think her husband is generally okay with her being baptized now so we're praying that he really is now.

The "G" Family moved their baptismal dates to May the 4th. We felt this was totally appropriate considering the whole circumstances right now, it has been pretty difficult to meet with them lately, so we haven't been able to fit in all the lessons we need right now. Brenda hasn't really taken it very seriously, but the male members are taking it pretty seriously, especially Ryan. He wants to be baptized this weekend, but he needs to get married first, so we're glad they pushed it back to let him have more time and all that.

Last, but not least at all, The Mao （毛） Family, they are doing fantastic, they are well well WELL on track for the 27th, they could be baptized today if they really wanted to. They only have tithing and some other things to go over and accept before then. We had dinner with them on Friday night, they invited us over, and we had Hunan 湖南 style hot pot mm, pretty good food, sooo much. Like wayy too much. It was seriously the best 2.5 hours of my life (long dinner appointment by missionary standards, but investigators justify it) we just talked and got to know them so much better. I talked to Wan-ting a lot too (their 10 year old daughter) so I gave her an English name a couple weeks back and asked her if she liked it, and she didn't really respond, but I could tell she wanted to accept it, but was kinda embarassed to admit it. Anyway during dinner her mom was talking about how she wanted Emily as her new name, and she was pretty embarassed, in a good way of course. She accepted it, but still hasn't 'used' it yet. So will, I keep calling her Aimeili 爱美丽(which is the chinese equivalent) which means Love and beauty. Anyway she's like a little sister, really great little gal. You'll meet them all some day, I promise!

Finally, this past week I might have told you about another new investigator that we received a referral from a Ward mission leader in Dublin, we taught her last Saturday and this past Thursday she actually signed up for dinner. She called us Wednesday and was like hey are we having dinner?! (and we responded as long as it was a restaurant since we can't go unless she has a man present) So she gave us an address and we went and it was in Newark, CA a restaurant called the English Rose Garden Cafe, we went in and she was like "Oh my goodness I just love the tea here so much, I wanted you guys to try the tea" and so we were nervous and basically just went with it, then she poured us a cup and we were like sorry we can't, and she was like wait both of you? Are you allergic? then we taught the word of wisdom right then and there, in a tea house, while she was drinking black tea. It was funny, but we had a really great dinner for sure.

So finally, general conference was great, there was a common theme: Obedience. I really enjoyed it a lot and all the speakers, Mao Bao Ping and his family went to 1 session on both Saturday and Sunday, which was really great. We watched 4/5 sessions in Chinese and I got nearly 400 new vocabulary words. So great.

Love you all,

Elder Sanchez

每周信函四月二号 April 2, 2013

So this week was transfer week, and I didnt get transferred! Pretty excited i'm still here, I did not want to leave Fremont!! So 6 more weeks, that means next transfer is May 14. Cool stuff.

This week has been pretty busy, most of Fremont got transferred this transfer so today we had to drive people around so much, we also got 4 sisters in Fremont. The first sisters in almost 2 years to be here. They are both in our district so this should be interesting.

All of our baptismal dates have been doing well, there's only one in the G family that wont make it really, that's Jacob,  Brenda's boyfriend. But that's okay. Everyone else is set to go for next Saturday. Sophie is coming back from Taiwan this Thursday so we'll hopefully see her this Saturday for General Conference. Sister P has been keeping in touch with her some over email while she has been in Taiwan. Bao Ping and his wife Selena are doing incredibly well, we had a pretty cool experience with them this past Sunday,

so we have a new investigator that was a referral from a member in Dublin, CA, her name is Yan and she is an accountant, we had her first lesson on Saturday and it went really well, we invited her to be baptized and she basically said sure but it's too soon because she's barely learning (no religious background at all) she came to church and she went to the wrong church meeting she went to Milpitas instead because they have the first parking lot from the high way so anyway we 'picked her up' from their sunday school and brought her to Chinese sunday school and Selena our investigator fellowshipped her! A non-member fellowshipping another... lol! She was like "You are learning more, that's great! Will you be baptized? This is how this works and that works and stuff like that" so super cool.

So yeah, we meet with her not this Sat, but next Saturday because her husband is coming home from China this weekend.

Pray for the work here and all the missionaries around the world, they need it!

Love you all,

Thank you for the emails, It's hard to respond to them all, so I apologize.

Elder Sanchez