Saturday, October 29, 2016

"Marcia e Sandra realizou um grande passo na vida delas!"


Helping a family move!



Sister Isabel gave us the best Brigadeirão in the world!!


Cleaning mold off my ceiling.






Hey everybody! Man the mission is amazing. I dont know how to describe it. I had my first baptisms. They were awesome, i was so nervous about dropping them but i prayed and they felt as light as a feather! I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood and the grace of Jesus Christ. My friends, Marcia and Sandra, took a large and probably the most important step yesterday in their lives. All of their sins were erased and they made a covenant with the Lord to keep his commandments in this life. Through this covenant made by the priesthood power of God and because of the example of Jesus Christ we all will have the opportunity to return to our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father sent us here to this earth to obtain a body, to make covenents with him (like baptism), and to demonstrate our willingness to submit our will to His will so that we can esperience celestial joy now and in the future. If you would like to know more about this, go to www.Mormon.org or www.LDS.org or contact the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in your area and they will do all they can to help you!

Love all of you! You all are amazing people doing amazing things. Continue learning and growing, the time on this earth is short. Take advantage of it! I am especially grateful for my parents and the power of their example in my life. Stay strong and remember you are a Child of God. He loves you and knows your worries and supports all of your righteous desires!



Elder Sanchez​

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

2 Letters


Oxe!!! Uma grande Mudança e muitas beijas para todos vocês! 10/10/2016

So guys! I accidentally deleted all my photos (i need to develope patience with the computer haha)... but you guys already have most of the good ones. I´ll just have to start fresh again. And next week you will have some fresh pics of brasil.
A lot of things happened this week. Last week of the this transfer ended... i had a division with Elder Castro (the assistant to the president)! It was awesome, i slept in the mission office and learned soooo much with him. How to teach, how to contact, how to plan and more! We even did a bus contact, instead of just a few people on the bus we contacted the whole bus. He talked while i handed out pass along cards of the Book of Mormon! It was nerve racking drawing the attention of all the people on the bus but went well. Now i feel obliged to do it everytime i´m on the bus because i know how now! I only have two years to help people come unto Christ, gotta do whatever it takes!
I also had a division with Elder Uchtyl, he is american and is going home tomorrow. He is an awesome missionary. I taught with him on his last day of working. His testimony was so strong and he told everybody we talked to to take advantage of the opportunity to visit with the missionaries! It was an awesome experience, i want to be like him when i end my mission!
So tomorrow is transfer! We recieved word on the detailes yesterday! I will stay in Jardim Catanduva, Elder M. Silva will go to serve in Zona Osasco! And the scary part is that i will be a trainer starting tomorrow. I will recieve a greenie fresh from the CTM! Brazilian, at least i wont have to teach him Portuguese! But i am learning quick how much more i will need to trust in the Lord to fulfill my purpose in this area.
Right now the work is going well. We have two investigators that will be baptized this month on the 16th and 23rd. They are awesome and both very intelligent so its so cool to be a part of their conversion. Marcia and Sandra are their names! We found a family this week!!! An entire family and the parents are married and everything! the first lesson with them was awesome! It is rare to find a traditional family in São Paulo but we were blessed to come across one!
So if you are in brasil and walk through the exaust of a car and it smells like a burning bar, its because the driver is being economic haha. They use pure alcohal if they cant afford to pay for gas and it smells sooooo bad haha! I always wonded why some exhausts smelt worse than others but my comp finally told me it because the fill the tank with alcohal which is way cheaper.
I learned a lot from my trainer, I will miss him. I am still in my first area which is a good thing, i dont want to have to learn more street names yet haha. We got a missionary couple in our ward this sunday, Elder and Sister Anderson! They are from Texas. During the week they work with the church´s webcasting program and establishing it in Brasil but on the weeked they will help my ward with the less active members. I am going to help them by putting together lists of less active families for them to visit! They only have two months in Brasil! its wierd being out here longer than other people! This past saturday marked 4 months on the mission. The time is passing so fast! I love all of you guys! I know that God is real, and i know he hears and answers prayers. Not because i learned from other people but because it happens in my life. If you are not a praying person, your Father in Heaven is waiting to hear your concerns, needs and wants. There are many blessings that depend on our asking! Love all of you guys! My Americans!! If any of you have questions about Brasil or the work i do on my mission, please feel free to send me an email and i will try and answer in the best way i can!

Com Amor,
Elder Sanchez





This is my new companion fresh from the CTM! Elder Pittella! He is from the very south of brazil. Everyone calls him a Vaqueiro (brasilian cowboy) because of his accent haha. It is nothing like a cowboy accent in english but i understand it really well. He is freakin awesome! He served for a year as the executive secretary of his home ward before the mission and he has all the ideas to ramp up the Jardim Catanduva Ward! Yup, i´m still in Jardim Catanduva. I figured out that i will be here at least six months, two tranfers to be trained (already done) and two tranfers to train.




My companion´s first pizza on the mission!!! Chocolate Border and all!!!!

"Estou treinando um novinho!" I am training!! 10/17/2016

So this week was awesome!! My companion is soooo good, Elder Pittella! I swear he already served a mission, he basically knows how to do everything and teaches very well and by faith. We have been walking alot and it is starting to get pretty hot here in just the past week. We have two baptisms coming this weekend. Marcia and Sandra will be baptised on the 23rd after church! I am so happy for them and their progress! It is so cool to be a missionary. A large part of my happiness on the mission is from seeing the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ change other people and to learn more about the nature of our Heavenly Father. So many times we teach the first lesson about the Restauration of the Gospel to people and my favorite part is in the very beginning when we get to talk about the love of God and how he blesses families! The truths are simple but have so much power. I love to tell people that God is our Father and that we are His children and that he loves us more than we can imagine. Everytime i say it or my companion says it, the spirit confirms the truth of it in my heart and in the hearts of those we teach. Its freakin awesome!

I got so many emails from friends this week!! Thank you sooooo much! I read all of them and dont have a ton of time today to respond but i will soon enough dont worry! Things are changing here, all the differences in the brasilian culture are normal to me now and i´m forgetting all of the concepts  and commodities of your average american lifestyle. I love being a brasilian! I am also kind of glad that i am out of the country during this election. I hear it is a bunch of junk. It sounds like two pastors of different churches arguing about what the apostle Paul said in the bible regarding marraige. Good luck with that vote! I am exempt this time!! 

I read the testimony of the Prophet Abenadi in the Book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. He was the man. He was testifying before the wicked King Noah and his priests about their wickedness and how if they dont change then God will destroy them and how Jesus Christ will come and redeem the righteous and not the wicked. They tried to kill him in the middle of his testimony but by the power of God he commanded them to give him more time to finish relaying what God had to say and they stopped until he finished. Abenadi changed the heart of the King for a moment but the peer pressure of his priests hardened his heart in an instant and they burned the prophet of the Lord at the stake. The death of the prophet Abenadi serves as a witness that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that only through obedience to his comandments, we can live again with our Father in Heaven! I love this story and his sacrifice for Christ!

Love you guys!

Elder Sanchez!