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

每周信函2014年6​月23

To update you guys on some of our investigators:

So lately we have been teaching Ellie and Ritta still, lately they have been going through some hard times, and we felt like Ellie had a problem with the Book of Mormon because some of her comments in Gospel Principals class, but in fact she doesnt have a problem with it, but actually believes it true. She just feels like it has a big difference that the Bible. Which is true, they were written in two different places and started at totally different times, but that's okay we understand the questions and doubts she has about it. We met with her right before she goes to China (which is in about a week from today) and she will be there until August with Ritta as well. They will be fine, and they will be baptized, maybe they won't before I leave for Pennsylvania, but I know they will eventually. I'm excited for them.

Angela has been kind of a struggle lately, because she hasn't been able to come to church as much as she used to. She has been doing other things besides church. She also has been delaying baptism a lot, and influencing Sherry a lot too. We are just hoping that she decides that baptism is important for her. She still is really friendly with a lot of the members of the branch and still keeps in contact with all of them.

Sherry has also been kind of a struggle, with sort of negative influences from some people its been kind of difficult. She was so excited at first and had a baptismal date right off bat but now she doesnt want to set a date at all, so it's been difficult to even meet with her because she doesn't understand the importance of meeting with us, so we met with her finally and let her know.

Sorry still applying for classes this week so this week has been busy!

Will post pictures of Mason's baptism next week! 

每周信函2014年6​月17日

Hey everyone!

Mason is getting baptized, he is so excited.

Peter is doing well, he has some things to work on with the Word of Wisdom, but other than that he is trying his best to prepare himself for baptism.

I am writing this as a very short email this week since it's took so long to apply for classes this fall, I have to get off and go to a lesson now. Will definitely write more next week.

So long,

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年6​月9日

This week has been a short one for sure, it just zoomed right on past me. I don't know how it keeps doing this, but I think the good news is is that everything is doing a lot better than last week.

Thank you for the prayers for those people we are having troubles with. Ellie and Ritta are still have some problems, but with Angela and Sherry, we are doing a lot better with them and have set appointments with them as well now, so we're happy about that.

My companion is adjusting well to this new environment here in the US. He is still getting used to American style desserts though, it's pretty sweet for him still, but he will learn to love them ;) anyway we had a week full of great successes because now we have 2 new baptismal dates, one with Mason, which is the 21 of June and another with Peter, which is the same day. Peter has been progressing really well, but we feel like he may need to wait a couple weeks in order to properly prepare for that.

Mason loves the branch and has really been integrated well here, and he has grown to love the gospel, we went to lunch with him in Mountain View, and we got tea and he 'shooed" the tea away  saying we don't drink that. So that was great!

Other successes this week was we were able to go up to the temple with Tiffany and Barrett. She liked it a lot and said she believed the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. It was a good moment, she didn't want to set a baptismal date quite yet. She is leaving for China for the summer at the end of this month. She won't be back until September, we'll see how Elder Liew handles all these students coming back in September. 

Other than that it's been great, we are in week 3 of this transfer already, I can't really believe that at all, how fast this time has gone. 

I also had my last interview with President Watkins, it was about 10 minutes, and we just talked about school, life, etc. It was good, he said "It's been a pleasure having you here, I haven't had a single problem with you these past 22 months, and I'm glad to be able to say that"

Keep praying for those investigators, and we will talk to you next week!

Elder Sanchez

每周信函2014年6​月2日

Hello everyone! Welcome Elder Jia Jun Liew to the mission and to California for the first time.

Elder Liew is from Ipoh, Malaysia, and his mother tongue is Cantonese (good for me! I get to learn Cantonese woohoo!)

This first week has been great, and we indeed see miracles.

I think the highlight of this week was Mason.

Mason is one of our most progressing investigators, and is really awesome. I think we have told you a little bit about him before. We took him up to the temple, with the Thompson Family of course, and we had a chance also to go to Christina McQuinn's sealing to her parents at the same time. This experience for me was one of the most important experiences of my mission for sure, it was very moving.

Mason loved the temple, and took lots of pictures up there since he's a reporter and a photographer. Sister Thompson asked him when he wanted to be baptized and he said whenever possible. He is doing absolutely super well.

We didn't meet our specific goals this week, but we did meet our standards of excellence. We are working hard, and doing everything that we can. It's been a lot of fun, he's a fun missionary and we have done a lot of SYL since his mandarin isn't totally native yet, and my Cantonese, well yes my Cantonese isn't that good either. So we're working on it.

Tiffany is also doing well, she didn't come to church this week though, sad day. Barrett our recent convert is working really closing with us and her before he goes back to China for the summer. She is a very spiritually sensitive investigator, as is all of our girl investigators.

If you all could pray for Sherry, Angela, Ellie and Ritta that would great, they are all having a lot of issues right now.

Everything is going well, I can't believe time is running so thin here. It's really kind of crazy.

Have a great and wonderful week!

Elder Sanchez