Monday, August 25, 2014

First week in Heroes

Hello all!!!

Well I am now in Heroes, Ixtapaluca.  Its the city and there are tons of poeple and dogs, of course. Our area is small but has so much work,  the ward is great in helping us. There are 3 pairs of missionaries in our ward, I love it because eating is so much more fun now! My companion is Hermana San Roman from Vera Cruz, they have the weirdest slang there. haha She is really sweet and just super excited to work, love that about her. Our house is pretty big and nice. This week was the most stressful week of my life, both me and my trainee were getting to know the streets and just going off a ward list in finding and meeting members. Plus our house was super dirty, and we do not have time to clean until Monday. AND GUESS WHAT? There is a track like half a block away from my house, running helped a ton with the stress. 

We found some super prepared people who are planning on getting married and baptized soon. They are Angel y Laura, they have suffered so much but love the feeling that comes from reading the Book of Mormon.....again super prepared. Super excited about this area.

Sorry about this lame e-mail I promise I will do better next week :)

Hermana (bad at writing) Sanchez

Monday, August 18, 2014

Transfer! Again!!!

Guess who is getting transferred again?? Yeah can you believe it, my fourth transfer in the 4 months I've been here. Yikes!! But this time I will be training a missionary who I believe is Mexcian, straight out of the CCM. I am beyond scared and oh man I didn't sleep a lot last night. Most of all though I am excited, we will be opening an area and just be liiving the missionary life. I totally thought I was going to stay here in Amecameca but thank the heavens I am leaving. hahah No, but really I learned tons and tons here. I learned that Love truley is the essence of the gospel, I washed so many dishes and did a lot of service in this area to gain their confidence, to show them that I loved them!! Seriously I learned to love people for who they are and saw how through our love the Spirit testified to these people. 

I also learned so much about true conversion, my district lider was so amazing in helping us in that area. This is his last cycle, yikes! But he taught me so much in how to be a successful missonary. Seriously it's amazing how he with all his heart accepts his calling and lives it. I had divisions this week and worked with a sister who only has 7 months left on the misson in my last area, Tecalco. She kept talking about how excited she was to go home, to listen to real music, to hug her fiance.... yeah. It really reminded me how important this time is for me to be truely converted. Missions are amazing when we let The Lord shape us into who he needs us to be. But oh man did I love going back to Tecalco and visiting the people that I had the oppertunity to teach and love. Patricio has the priesthood and passes the sacrament now! He is planning on serving a mission and just doing awesome. So crazy to think not to long ago we were fasting and praying for him to even accept a baptismal date. Love that kid.

This area was mad hard, no joke I have never fasted and prayed and walked as much as I have here. We couldn't find people to teach for like 3 weeks and man was it hard to keep that firm faith that there was people here prepared for us. I just thought that hard work would bring the blessings that we needed. Sometimes in life we are just so focused on getting through trials that we miss oppertunitites that The Lord gives us to learn and that is exactly what happened. As I look back I see so many lessons that The Lord was trying to teach me but I was so blind focusing on the blessings that we needed. We are given so many experiences everyday to learn, I challenge all of you to recognize what The Lord is trying to teach you. Like a corny Young Womans songs says: "We were born to reach eternal life. " We are here to learn heaven. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Hermana Sanchez

I painted this cute girl's nails!

The active valcano 
A ward party where we played some Mexican game! It looks kind of ackward! Lol 

The bridges we cross

Monday, August 11, 2014

Miracles

There can be miracles when we BELIEVE!!

This week was so great. Seriously the ward is starting to unite and helping all the less actives, we have seen so many miracles here. The ward went from never letting us enter their homes and not feeding us to now giving us references. The 5 weeks I have been here the challenge was to find new poeple to teach, but now that the ward is starting to reactivate its self we are receiving tons of references. Now let me tell you these people are golden! I am learning to have patience here in this area. 

Veronica Rodriguez is a less active whom we reactivated and seriously it is amazing to see the change in her. She is a convert of 6 years but 3 years inactive. She is 21 years old and just started reading The Book of Mormon and it is just incredible what that book does to people. She is now activating her husband and has given us 4 references who have dates to be baptized. All because she decided to take our challenge to read a chapter everyday. Also we have an investigator named Rita who we have been visiting for 4 weeks but she finally decided to read The Book of Mormon. When we met with her this week  she just started crying and said that she didnt get anything from that book at first but as she had that desire to change her life, she understood the book more and more. She is preparing to be baptized and is just super excited! I love The Book of Mormon it seriously has tanto poder!! I love sharing my experience when I read it and when my companion shares her testimony as well. The missionaries said that if she had faith in God that he would help her to learn how to read through that book. Sister Sanchez is bomb. I challenge you all to read atleast a chapter everyday! The blessings are worth those 5 mintures! Sometimes we get so caught up in life and we think that if we just complete with what is expected of our callings and that we are just fine. But we need to be converted to The Lords Gospel not his church!!

SHOUTOUT TO MY SISTER MIREYA!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INTRODUCING OUR FAMILY TO THE GOSPEL. YOU ARE AMAZING. 

Love you all so much!
Hermana Sanchez 

Monday, August 4, 2014

Sick week!

Que Tal?

This week was terrible!! I was so so sick the whole week, but what can you do when you are on the mission except work! haha Seriously it was terrible, I CANNOT CONTROL WHAT PEOPLE FEED ME. There have been so many American missionaries that have gone home from my mission due to illness. I was so discouraged seriously, I was so sick and was so tired. Plus we weren't finding anyone home, and investigators are being so lame right now! I seriously couldn't have made it through this week without the help of the Savior. Missionary work is NOT easy. I learned so much this week. I learned that everytime that when I am too lazy to contact another person on the street, everytime that I just want to sit down and rest for a minute, everytime I put my needs before the people of Amecameca- I need to remember Him. The Savior's experience helps me press on. I learned this week that missionary work requires something our souls. Today we watched a talk by Elder Holland and he said that the atonement will carry us, in moments where I just think am I making any difference in this area, in times when I pray so hard for someone to change and come unto christ but they don't. He told us that there will be many of these times but that we will be shoulder to shoulder with the Savior, with the greatest missionary that ever lived. Missions are hard, life is hard, but as we look to the Savior for comfort and help we can become more like him. 

I love this work, and I rejoice in my Savior for all the experiences and all that I've learned here on the mission. This is the church of Jesus Christ and as we strive to learn and be more like him we will see his hand in our lives. 


Hermana Sanchez

In Amecameca with some like member girl.

Hermana Sanchez and Hermana Sanchez in a VC Taxi with the Virgen Mary in back. 
One of the many Catholic churches in my area.