Well this week was Christmas and it was really nice talking to the whole family this week. The hour goes by pretty quick, and it's really quite crazy to think that I will have one more call home.
Christmas Eve and Christmas were all a lot of fun. For Christmas Eve we had the Christmas Breakfast and Devotional hosted by President Watkins himself. The Breakfast was a steak breakfast with all of the other typical american fare you can think of. I wasn't that hungry so I really didn't eat all that much but I had a good time talking to everyone and being able to reconnect with all my old friends and associates here in the mission. I was able to see Sister Li. Sister Li is the sister of the other Sister Li at the temple. Every time I've brought investigators to the temple visitors center in Oakland it's been Sister Li, she's from Hong Kong and so I've gotten to know her really well. Well Sister Li (her sister) is in our mission for 3 transfers, she is a temple square sister, and Temple Square sisters get a chance to come to another mission for 2-3 transfers. She came up to me and she said "So YOU'RE the Elder Sanchez my sister was telling me about..." It's weird because they look the same, except the Sister in our mission just looks younger.
I got to see everyone I used to see, all the Chinese missionaries, and my old zone, it was really fun. Our zone (Menlo Park) did a little gift exchange. My gift was a picture frame. It was a white elephant gift exchange so you didn't know what you were going to get. My picture frame was snatched up by Elder Call. I got Elder Peal's present which was 2 half pound reese's cups. I like Reese's quite a lot so that was good. It was just too much so I gave a lot of pieces to other missionaries.
The Devotional was really great, we all sat down, and heard special musical numbers by other missionaries, and then we had a chance to hear from Sister Packer the wife of the area authority here in the north California. Elder Packer then spoke, and his testimony is always really powerful. I've been able to hear from Elder Packer a lot in the past few months because he's been in the Saratoga stake twice while I was there. Really awesome guy.
President Watkins spoke about how important the work is here, and specifically talking about bringing a light and spirit into our families the following day through our phone calls and skyping home. He told a story about his own life, and in which President Watkins was nearly crying the whole time. He said "What limb would I have to give up? What check would I have to write? What would I have to do to go back to this day?" He related this story to making our parents proud and making sure we realize that we need not and should not waste a moment to be good to our parents, and our families. President Watkins did not want to go on a mission when he was younger but since he had so much pressure with the family and the people around him since his dad was a patriarch and all of this, he put his mission papers into Salt Lake, and he received his call to go to the Mexico Mexico City mission. He told us about him and his mom boarded a plane to Salt Lake City and the whole time he was just full of dread and regret of going on a mission and just didn't want to go. They got to the MTC and He just had a bad attitude. Him and his mother went into the MTC and still had this bad attitude and look on his face. His mom grabbed him, and brought him to a section of hallway where no one was able to see. She pushed him up against the wall, and said "Elder Watkins, you need to be obedient and you need to work hard" and he responded with and as he mentioned with a typical eye roll and not making eye contact "Alright, I get it..." and then she repeated "You need to be obedient, and you need to work hard" and he said "alright mom, mom I get it. I get it" and then she said "This will be the last time you will see me in mortality, now you better work hard, and be obedient" and he responded with "Okay mom, isn't this hard enough?" and she walked away right when he said that. President Watkins mom died a little over a year later. He expressed how much he regretted that day, and how he would do anything to change that day. It was really touching.
Wednesday was another really great day of my mission, and I had a ton of fun. We woke up and opened our presents. I got a new Citizen Watch that is just plain handsome. A ton of candy too. We went to the Ruiz's house for a brunch. Brother Ruiz is a famous caterer here in the Bay Area and he loves food. He treats food pretty sacred. He has never ever been to a fast food restaurant or any commercial restaurant in 20 years +. He is the man, and so Elder Phillips and I sat with 4 sister missionaries for brunch and had a good time. Sister Billings, Sister Baird, Sister Ikegami, and Sister Schank. We had a wonderful brunch, and it was delicious, and then afterwards we got to call home. It was wonderful to talk to everyone, and be able to see everyone again as well.
After that we did more planning and studies, and went to dinner to a Polynesian family in the Menlo Park ward named the Navarros. It was good but I was still full from the Brunch. We then had a gift exchange which was a secret santa. I got Sister Sotele, which I served with in Saratoga when she first came out. She's Tongan from Utah. I got her a picture frame from Ikea with a cheesy picture of me and my testimony in it, and a bamboo plant in a decorative vase, it was nice, and I hope she liked it. I received a tie from Elder Strauss, which was really nice. Elder Strauss turns out used to go to the Nazareth ward for around 3 years back in 2001-2004. I don't remember him at all though?
We met with Members all week, and tried visiting with investigators too. We had a better week for sure. We had one of the AP's with us on Saturday, Elder Alvarez from Guatemala, and he helped us a lot with the area, since he served here for 5 transfers. Helped us get all the resources to gather all the people in this goldmine of an area. The highlight of that exchange was teaching my first "lesson 1" to a non-member in spanish. it went okay, my spanish definitely not as good as my Chinese. But that was awesome.
Sunday was a great day as well, as I got to teach Christina!! It was awesome being back and teaching in Chinese again. I was on exchanges with Elder Zollinger, and he's brand new Chinese missionary to the field, only been here like 2 months. I love that family.
It has been an awesome week.
It's been weird to think that the entire year of 2013 I have spent serving. 2014 is 8 months and that's it. I am on the downhill, and it's a fast one.
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