每周信函2014年4​月28日

Wow, where did the month of April go? Feels like it's only been a week since april started, now it's ending and here comes may, May is a good month for missionary work, and for me, I get to call home in 2 weeks time (1 week and 6 days) that will be awesome, and all sorts of good stuff.

This week we set goals that were super duper high, the missions standards of excellence are as follows

20 lessons

140 contacts

3 baptismal invites

1 new investigator

Well this week we hit all of those, at least double for the lessons, that was pretty cool. We got 40 lessons, 33 of which were non members lessons, so it was pretty cool.

We hit up De Anza College for about 12 hours total this week, because it really is a goldmine when it comes to talking to new Chinese students, and it was no exception this week, it was a lot of fun getting all those lessons and talking to everyone that we met. Elder Zollinger and I are really pushing and pushing so we can find new investigators, since we dropped a few last week, we need to make up for it and show The Lord that we are ready for new, so we got 3 new investigators, 1 of which has accepted baptism.

One of the people that I really enjoyed meeting this week was a girl named Mengyin (it's pronounced mung yeen) She's 19 years old from the "Spice belt" of China, meaning the places that love to eat spicy food. So she is considered a 辣妹子 a term that means "spicy gal" in a way, it was a termed coined and made popular by a song in China. Anyway she is really interested in meeting with us, and has been texting us asking where we are and asking where our church is and what time our meetings start. It's really cool. She doesn't have any religious background whatsoever, so that kind of will be an interesting thing to get over.

Another investigator we got was a referral from the Fremont Chinese elders, said this lady had a son that was really interested in the Gospel, and so we set up a time to go over, and this lady let us in to meet her 17 year old son, his name is Allen, and he is a senior in highschool, he seems to be really interested in joining a church, we taught him the first lesson, and he accepted the invitation to baptism, which was really awesome. Like I said, The Lord makes up for the things that we lack.

Angela Wu is doing really well, we finally met with her this week after a 2 week period where she couldn't meet with us, but we met with her, and taught about Temples, and talked about baptism again to keep it fresh in her mind, and she said she definitely wants to be baptized, she just wants to hear other peoples conversion stories and mission stories while they were on their missions, and also she is kind of scared of being baptized just by herself. So we reassured her things would be fine, and asked her to set a date again for a goal.

Sherry is also doing a lot better than a few weeks ago, where she got super upset with pretty much everyone because of the pressure she seemingly feels for baptism, it's something I think is just a combination of a lot of factors, which 15 credits at school with all sorts of other stressors in her life. It's pretty hard for her. Anyway I think she will be fine, she is really trying to figure out her life so that she can get baptized as soon as possible. She is a sweet girl, and has a sincere desire to follow God.

Christina McQuinn is doing really well, we met with her this week, and she is doing awesome! We taught about Priesthood, and how important that was in the restoration of the gospel, she has become really familiar with us missionaries, often she comes up to us at church and pats us on the shoulder and says "你好单先生" or Hello Mr Shan (my chinese surname is Shan) and then in english says in a thick chinese accent "How are youuuu?"

It was a great week, in missionary work, busy-ness is happiness, and this week was sure busy, never been more tired that this.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年4 21

Hey everyone,

I forgot to write in my journal this morning somehow, so I will have to write everything by hand right now sending to all of you,

This week has been a pretty great week, we set our goal of 23 lessons, and ended up getting 24. That was great, we were really excited about that.

Another goal that we have set this week is being more focused on those who need focusing and 'unfocusing' on those who don't want to progress in the gospel. So we dropped 2 investigators this week to allow us time to make more investigators and help them keep commitments.

We dropped Wu Tao, one of my favorite investigators of all time, it was about time for him to be dropped anyway, he wasn't doing anything about anything. He just enjoyed our company, he had accepted the gospel before and was going to be baptized, but now that his wife and family are against him he just doesn't want to progress anymore. It's sad, we told him if he didn't come to stake conference that we would not be able to come by anymore until he was ready to go to church again. We told him that and we made him promise he was going to come to church, and he said he would.

Sunday morning rolled around, and we called Wu Tao to remind him that we had to come to conference. He answered the phone blatantly pretending that he was sick, and was saying things like "我会一命呜呼" which is a literary term in Chinese that you can compare to the English term of "I am giving up the ghost" found in the bible.. anyway at that moment we knew that Wu Tao was not ready to the gospel to progress anymore, so we decided, and I have not done this much on my mission, we had to drop him as an investigator.

The other one we dropped was Simon Luo, Simon is a 23 year old student at DeAnza, and he has been keeping his commitments (very lightly keeping them I might add) except coming to church, we have been trying to get him to come to church for the whole time I have been serving here, he has been twice before. Anyway Saturday to make a long story short we got to his house in order to talk to him about why he doesn't want to come to church, and basically the spirit told Elder Zollinger and I that he was just making up any old excuse to tell us he didn't want to go "I don't like socializing with people"... "I don't have a job and everyone there has a job, so I don't have anything to talk to them about"/.... "I don't really like the atmosphere that much"..... the list goes on, anyway we felt pretty upset about all of these lame excuses, and we made him a promise directly from the Lord that if he went to Stake conference, he would have a desire to come to church more, anyway, he had told us "no no no" everytime up until we said the promise was from God, and not us. He solemnly agreed to go, and was determined to go, and the next morning, when stake conference came around, he told us he was not going, and right then and there, we dropped him. It was long overdue, I think.

But I know all of this sounds oh so depressing, and bad news, but in the Lord's work, he makes up for it, he never wants us to falter in this work, so this past weekend, we got 6 referrals for Chinese people, including 2 lessons with people we hadn't been able to meet with in a long time, or at all before. Plus we have 2 non member lessons planned for today, both are "first" or "preliminary lessons" so we have at least 9 people that are brand new or are coming out of the woodwork with our area right now, we just need to buckle down, be that much more obedient, that much more hard working, and that much more faithful to show God that we can be entrusted with these people. On top of that we have around 6 investigators that are continuing to progress, namely. Sherry, Angela, Ellie, Ritta, Puzhongyao, Cindy.

To all those that might be doing missionary work right now, refocus your efforts on those who ARE progressing and WANT to progress, and cut off those who don't want to. The Lord really will bless.

This past week has been a testimony to me, that I need to be more obedient, work that little bit harder every day, and continue to improve. I don't have much time left.

Your prayers are requested for this area, and for this work. Especially for Sherry, Angela, Ellie, Ritta, Puzhong Yao, and Cindy.

Love,

Elder Nathan Sanchez

每周信函2014年4​月14日

It's a new transfer, and we got phone calls on Saturday, no one is moving here in the seven springs branch, this past week has been really crazy, a lot of things happened that I didn't expect. Let me explain.

So on this week, Monday we had a lesson with our progressing investigator, Sherry. We met with her and talked to her about the Ten Commandments, and it was really good, we explained all of that, and what we need to do to be happier people in our lives and more love showing to God and of our fellow men. After that we brought up baptism with her, because she had a baptismal date before, at the beginning of March, and now it's almost the middle of April. We talked about how important Baptism is and how it's a commandment, brought up 2 Nephi 31: 6 about how we need to be baptized in this life. We committed her to choose a date and she said she would in the next few days. Anyway, it was a really really good lesson. On Wednesday, she texted us back with "I can't commit to a date right now" and we were really sad because we know that baptism is an exercise of faith, and that unless we put our faith in a date, most of the time things don't work out the way they should.

We got a new investigator on Tuesday, someone that Sister Yu referred to us, he's a waiter at one of her favorite chinese restaurants. His name is Randy, and he is from Mainland China. We met with him before work at Starbucks right next to where he works, and got to know him a little bit better. We taught and explained the Restoration of the Gospel. He had a lot of good questions, and seemed to understand everything we taught when we asked him 'understanding questions' back. So that was really good. He's in his 40's and a father of two children with his wife staying at home taking care of the children. It was a really great lesson, and we have another tentative appointment with him tomorrow morning.

Wednesday we went on exchanges with Elder Baldwin, since he's in a tri-panionship, three elders, he just came with Elder Zollinger and I into our own area, it was a kind of weird day, we didn't have much success, and it was hard to get a hold of people and get people to answer their doors. But we ended off with 2 lessons, one with a non-member, and another with an active member.

Thursday was a really good day, I think sanchez loves mcallister and sonenstahl and cant wait to be renuited with us in the hereafter <-- that was other elders, anyway. Thursday we had a great day, we met with our English class after our training meeting, and then we met with an investigator thats moving to Texas named Aimin, his family is the Xiong family, they are wonderful, he is trying to find work in Houston before he leaves here, so I had Elder Zollinger call people I knew in Texas for Aimin on his phone, to help find job opportunities, and so we eventually got a hold of Julee, I didn't talk to her at all, it was just Elder Zollinger. It was funny haha. I couldn't talk to her at all. We got some information for Aimin and then we shared a lesson and left.

The highlight I think of the week was going to the Oakland Temple on Saturday, we went there with our branch, and we got permission to go up with our branch instead of the mission on April 4, so we went and planned, got there around 10, and did an english endowment, then did lunch and initiatories, then we had a chance for a chapel session with  most of the branch members, then we headed up with our Chinese language endowment, it was really awesome, I understood probably 95% of what was said and presented, it was a great great day. Right after we had a potluck in the interstake center next to the temple, and it was just a great day.

The next day we had church and found out that our branch presidency was being reorganized, so that was really interesting. I will miss Pres Law as our Branch President.

That was our week generally, we are starting to see miracles happen, and things are changing rapidly, not only in the work, but in our own lives as well.

Happy 20 month mark everyone, I can't believe it's been this long.

Love,

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年4​月7日

4/7/14

This week has been a little slow, because of Conference all weekend we didn't have a lot of chances to work this weekend, at least to the point that we usually do, so we ended up a little bit short of our goals. This transfer has gone by lightning fast, and I can't believe that we are on week 6 of 6 already. I'm 100% sure I won't be transferred, and also pretty sure that I might finish my mission here in Cupertino. Pretty excited about that.

This past week was my companions birthday on Sunday, and so on Sunday we had an interesting day, our dinner cancelled, the family was sick and wasn't able to have us, so instead after our lesson with Cindy, I asked to see if any of my old ward members from Redwood City could have us over (since our lesson with Cindy was in Menlo Park) so we got our usual dinner on Sunday nights to have us over, and we had a great time up there, and I got to see all of my old missionary friends up there that I worked with in the Spanish ward, that was really great. Our lesson with Cindy by the way was really good. We taught her about the Ten Commandments and it seemed to be pretty natural for her to do. She is hard to get to church because she works sometimes on Sunday with her research at Stanford University. So this next week we are going to get her to come to church, because she wasn't able to watch Conference with us. We have a Chinese fellowshipper from the English ward that she lives in ready for her this next week.

On Monday, we had a great day, it was a rainy rainy p-day, pretty much pouring all day long, but we got everything that we needed to get done, all done. We even had time at the end of the day to go and be at the stake center with all the other missionaries. I said bye to all of the temple square sisters that are serving in our zone, Sister Jarrett and Sister Ranama. So Temple square sisters get to go and serve as a "real missionaries" for 3 transfers. Anyway our p-day after that was good, Elder Zollinger and I didn't have a dinner so he wanted to (and per his parents request) go out to eat for dinner, so we went to a Chinese restaurant called "Nutrition Restaurant" (the chinese name is totally different, the english name is a bit weird) anyway it was really good we got 3 dishes and a noodle, plus rice. It was really great.

Tuesday, we got 2 new investigators, well just about at least. We had a meeting with a referral from our branch mission leaders wife, her name is Jiang Hui 江慧 and it was a really good (but long) meeting with her, she is a 23 year old Chinese gal, she is currently going to DeAnza College for Elementary Education. She lived in King of Prussia before, she had an exchange student or something other program over there in PA. She belongs to another Christian church, that is English speaking. We taught her the first lesson, and she had a lot of off-topic (but relevant) questions that she would ask between the points of the lesson. She really didn't understand the flow of the lesson, and then at the point of the "First Vision" part, then she understood how everything fit together. She said after we had finished that what we had said at the end was really "heavy for her" and that "she needed time to digest it mentally and spiritually" so we asked her if we could meet again, and she said maybe, that she needs a few weeks, and then she will get back to us. She was a little bit scared by the spirit a bit.

Then we met a referral from Temple Square at his house, he lives rather close to us, in San Jose, anyway we met him and he's a 24 year old graduate looking for a new job here, he is from Dallas, and just moved from there, he said it was too boring for him and not enough Chinese people there, so he said that he had friends here, and so he just drove up. Anyway, he toured Salt Lake, and was looking for a church to join, and investigate some, so he gladly let the sisters have his information, and so now he is one of our new investigators! We taught him the first lesson, and he was like "I already knew all of this stuff, I think it's true but I need to pray about it and find my own answer" so he's really awesome. We tried to get him to come to conference, and he said he would, but we totally forgot to remind him to come, so he didn't show up. Our mistake for sure, he got lost through the cracks of having 10 people to invite besides him.

Wednesday wednesday, that was a crazy day, we talked to a lady named Nancy Chung, she doesn't go to our branch, but the English ward that meets in our same building, anyway, she asked me and Elder Zollinger to go and help her with "some help in her garage" is how she stated it, and so we showed up, and there were probably 100+ moving boxes full of clothing, and later we come to find out, boxes full of food as well. So let's do the math here, boxes full of food like spaghetti and cereal, and things like this plus in a garage that is very poorly sealed off from the outside world... what does that equal? Rats.

Yes, rats. The evidence of their existence was ever so prevalent. We did some deep cleaning, and removing each box and item one by one into her driveway, sweeping and wiping down as we went. No sign of an actual rat though. We realized at around 2 pm, after working for almost 2 hours, that we could not finish this project by ourselves, either we got help or we would not even make a dent in this project we deemed and named "Rat Eradication" so we called our good friends and elders. Elders Sonenstahl, McAllister, Featherstone, Ayotte, and Morgan. Elder Sonenstahl is a hunter, and so is Elder Featherstone, so they were more than willing to come out for the 'fight' so we finished one side of the garage without a single sign of any rats. But the other side was a lot more treacherous. We got to the middle of the tower and pile of boxes and realized that there were tons of holes in the boxes as if it were a network of delicious food tunnels for these vermin. One by one we removed and shook and hit eat box as if to provoke them out of their "Ritz Carlton" for rats, or should I say "Rats Carlton"? One by one, they came out in a frenzy, only to meet their demise by the head of a golf club or other blunt device. I know this seems quite morbid, but these vermin were causing much trouble for this single woman who is deathly afraid of vermin of this sort. In total after cleaning, and inspecting each and every box, the count of vermin was 18 in total. Yes 18. We reorganized her garage in such a way that no rats would be able to lounge in the boxes, and also threw away all of the food items. Set about 8 more traps just in case, and called it a night. It was an adventure of sorts, but a little bit too much for an average missionary to handle in one day.

The rest of the week was pretty slow, but we are still working with investigators, we weren't abel to meet with many other investigators, but we had a new investigator (other than who I talked about) come to conference named Sophie, and then also Angela came too! Even though her dad doesnt want her to be baptized.

I think that's about it from this week, I really enjoyed the talk from Conference about "Spiritual Bits" how we need to be willing to change the course of our actions when The Lord moved the "spiritual bits" in our mouth.

Hope everyone has a good week, 

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014 4 1

Hey everyone!

We are in a hurry today, we couldn't email yesterday because all the libraries were closed due to Cesar Chavez day, it's a state holiday here, so everything was closed.

It's really hard to me to right what has happened this past week in just a few minutes.

Angela our investigator is postponing her baptism for right now, her dad is opposed to the baptism, so we are waiting that out.

Sherry is pretty on track for baptism, she is still trying to figure a day that will be good for her, probably sometime this month hopefully.

Also, Owen is doing well, we are just struggling to get him to church. We met with Simon Luo this week, and we had a great lesson with him on the law of Chastity. It was really good. He is starting to humble himself a lot more.

Sorry that I can't really write much this week, we will talk to more next week.

Until then,

Elder Sanchez