Learning!!

This week I learned so so much! Seriously woah!

I had the oppertunity to work with some sisters in other areas and man I learned tons from them. Every sister is super different in teaching, in working, and has such different talents and gifts. It is amazing that all this is brought together for buliding the kingdom of God here on earth. First on Tuesday a sister joined me in my area and man oh man did I learn humiity. At the end of the day I asked her what she had learned and she said nothing. Broke my heart, I tried so hard to listen to The Spirit and to be super diligent. Then she told me a list of things that I needed to improve on, yikes. She sure did humble me. But I am super grateful for this experience, you know after this day with her I found myself asking The Lord why I was called to be a sister training leader, and a thought came to mind to read a general conference talk. So I picked up a Lilahona from 2012 and read a talk about the Preisthood that Elder David A. Bednar gave. He said that 'Oridinary men are given the atuhority of the preisethood. That Worthiness and willingness and experience, expertise, or education aer not the qualifications for the priesthood oridation.' Answered to my prayer, that I wasnt called because I am a expertise in being a missionary or have more experience but I have been called because I am worthy and because I am willing. My mission president in the beginning of this month came to our zone meeting because of a lot of missionaries in that zone were complaing about one of our zone leaders. His words so powerful, he told us that our leaders have been called by God not by him. That we shold respect and follow their advise because they are given revelation to guide us. He warned us that if we critize or talk negatively about our leaders in front of our own kids that they are destined to fall away from the church. Being a leader is not easy, a lot of sisters put us on pedestules, and let me tell ya I am not perfect. But I am confident that I have been called of God to help these sisters and most important learn from them. I love serving The Lord.

 This area has a lot of inactive whom we are working with. I have been blessed so much with the oppertunity to bear testimony time after time that life is not easy but that The Lord has prepared a way for us which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That there is nothing more pleasing than living the gospel. I know this true and have felt it since the first time I attended church. Share your testimony more with others, because I am sure that if we dont share it, we will forget it. 

Also I havent been sleeping well at all. My companion has a condition were in the night she forgets to breath and well lets just say that she freaks me out about 4 times per night because she wakes up gasping for air and panicing. haha

Hermana Sanchez  

Picture of baptism! 

9 months!!!

So Hermana Angel and I are now in San Buenaventura, Ixtapaluca now due to some safety issues in Milpa Alta. Nothing dramatic happened, dont worry about it.  This area was my first area on the mission, it is weird to come back after almost 9 months. I love that we already know our way around. Changing area is hard, especially when the missionaries before dont leave a lot to work with. 

This last week I have really been striving to have more charity. Seriosly on the mission you learn to love so many different people, for who they are. We have like 3 days in this area but it is an awesome area with lots of work. My companion only has 3 months till she goes home. We always have a good time together. I am really striving to have more charity. 

Hermana Sanchez

Yo Yo

Yo Yo

My companion always says yo yo. She says that she is practicing her english haha. This week was wow incredible, we saw so many tender mercies. This area is all up hill climb and few members. The second day here we had 2 baptisms and we are teaching some awesome people. First off there is this family that recently joined the church and they are super awesome. Seriously just some humble people, they sell jello and they are going to teach me how to make flan. Super excited for that! haha Anyways so all of them are members except for their 15 year old son Javier. He is super super like super smart, and know about everything except for aliens. haha yeah I asked him. He has a history of making sister cry and well we decided to be his friends over all. So that is what we did, and guess wahat? One day he was walking us to the door and he told us that he wants to be baptized, just like that. We were in shock and asked him if he was serious. haha We started screaming and jumping when he left, but seriously The Lord is so great! This is all his timing and I am so grateful to be apart of it. Also there is an investigator who has attended church for a year now and well he has problems with the word of wisdom but really wants to be baptized. We are working super hard with him all the other missionaries havent really been diligent with him but seriously he hasnt drank in one week. Seriuosly I have learned so much by helping him. We have to uplift him often and when he falls we have to remind him but with an attitude of encouragement. I tend to be really hard with myself but helping him has really changed the way I think. Also this week we found a ton of families to teach in a pueblo, seriously there is something so special about teaching whole families of 10!!! 

I know that is this is the most important work on the earth and I know that God lives and directs His church today. I have never worked so hard in my life but I know with a surety that all I do here is for a great purpose. I am so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter-day Saints. I have so many weaknesses but I know that the grace of The Lord is sufficient and as I turn my heart over to Him that I can reach my potential as a missionary and a daughter of God. 

Hermana Sanchez

Have a great week. 

Lots of cactus here!

Colombian style yo yo 

Our area is all uphill mountain stuff

Cool Christmas tree in the center of mills Alta

Contracting......

The family we ate Christmas Eve dinner with 

Watching a movie with the elders 

Our house is so tiny

My favorite person in the world Hermana San Roman

Happy new year!

Happy New Year!

It is so crazy to believe that this year is wrapping up. First because there is no snow here and second because the time flew by. Seriously what a year, most of it spent in Mexico. Where the best food in the world is, where the roads are so small and so are the sidewalks, where there is no such things as garbage cans, and where there is more dogs than people on the streets. haha I look back on these eight months I have had here in Mexico and just am super grateful to my Father in Heaven for this oppertunity to learn and to grow. 

One of the biggest lessons I have learned here is to love. Love The Lord overall, love my companion, love my area, and to love those people who are so hard to love. haha But really I started my mission I was obidient for blessings. For the blessings that my investigators needed, for the blessing that my family needed, and obidient so that I could tell my mission president that I was obidient. A couple months ago I read the talk If you love me keep my commandments. He talks about the three different types of obidience, first is the type of obidience that comes from fearing God and his pushiments. The second is obidience for something in return, in my case seeing my investigators progress. The third type of obidience is for love of The Savior and his inifinite sacrifice. Seriously this changed not just my mission but my life for sure. Instead of studying for knowledge, I know study because I love Jesus and I want to be more like Him. You know there came a point in my mission where I didn´t baptize. That was super hard for me, I thought I was doing something wrong. Really this mission I am serving has nothing to do with me, what pride one must have to think that the mission is about a baptismal number. I have learned lots and cannot believe that I am almost half way done. This coming year I hope that you can all strive to be more obidient for love of The Savior. 

Have a good one

Hermana Sanchez

Milpa Alta

Hello All!

I am now in Milpa Alta. You know I always whined when we walked all day in my other areas and now I am in an area where it is all up hill. haha But really it is pretty crazy, I am super sore right now. This area is super Catholic. We have like 5 pueblos and each have like 2 HUGE catholic churches. They are super pretty but terribly annoying, seriously. They wake us up at 6 am with their prayers. They blast it so all the pueblo can hear it. My companion is fun. She is super crazy because she is Columbian but we get along super well. 

This week I read the talk Forget Me Not by Dieter F. Ucktdorf and it changed my life. But really it is an awesome talk. It talks about how God is fully aware that we are not perfect and He also knows that the people that we think are perfect are not perfect. Yikes! It is so true, on my mission I have found times where I have always compared my weakness with others strengths. I have learned that The Lord has called me, Natalie Sanchez from the best town in Utah, Springville. With all my imperctions and strengths, all I have to do is His will and not mine and the Lord will shape me into the person He desires me to be. Comparing ourselves with others makes us create impossible expectations. The hardest thing for me to accept is probably that changing some weaknesses into strengths are a life time thing, a long term process. Elder Ucktdorf says that "It is OK that we are not quite there yet, Stop punishing ourself." Yikes. He gives the advice to "Open our eyes to the simple and elegant moments. That is what makes up a rick well-lived life." and Mission!! I know this is true!. I love my Savior with all my heart, His grace time after time has lifted me and carried me. I have seen lives change as they accept Him as their Savior and Redeemer. As they accept Him as the only being that will help heal their wounds. I know He lives. I hope you all have a great Christmas! Love you all!!!

Hermana Sanchez

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Transfers

I'm going to miss her so much!

Ward Christmas party 

Some good looking members 

An awesome couple, we always have a good time with  these two

Christmas trees with investigators

​So old but super happy!

This week was crazy. I have transfers again, Hermana San Roman and I saw it coming! I have been with her for 4 months and two weeks, seriously I LOVE THAT WOMAN. I have never laughed and worked so hard in my entire life. I am going to miss her so so so much. She has really taught me how to enjoy the mission. There were a couple of times when we talked in a Columbian accent to spice up our street contacts, and now guess what? I am going to be with a Columbian sister. I am beyond excited!!!! Her name is Hermana Angel.

This week was super awesome, we worked super hard and really saw The Lord bless us. This area is really Catholilc and well it has been pretty hard to find investigators but one day we said a super super potente prayer and read in Preach my Gospel about how there are so many people who are searching for our message, who don't even know that they are searching for it. Then there are those really special cases where they really are searching for it but don't know where to find it. We were super just focused and super ready to get to work that day, and that night we helped some lady pick up some boxes. Seriously the lady has problem, she is bipolar and has major depresssion. She told us that after like 10 minutes of talking to her. Her name is Jovita and man a bunch of crazy stuff happened this week with her. Her daughter is not a good student so everyday we went and helped her daughter with her homework, and through out the week she would introduce us to people who were also trying to help her. Well now we are teaching a whole family and some other 3 woman that we met through Jovita. Serously The Lord blesses us as we sacrifice a little more and show more dedication to him. Sadly, Jovita is aggressive and for safety precautions we can't visit her anymore. But that family is super super prepared and even came to church yesterday. I am going to miss this area, the members are super awesome and sweet. A sweet sister also passed away yesterday, we visited her a lot and sang a ton of Hymns to her, she'd been sick for a while. You really live everything in the mission. 

Hermana Sanchez 

pS love you all have a great week!

Picture post!!!

Natalie wrote one sentence that she  didn't have time to write but she sent pictures!!!!