Monday, March 19, 2018

Hey Guys, today was crazy... in kind of a bad way 02/03/18










I finished and submitted my essays this week. I was so stressed before i submitted them and then it was such a relief to turn them in! The Sherman couple were so nice to review and edit my essays with ways to improve. I think they were great. I will attatch them to this email so you guys can take a look at what was submitted. I tried to find some kind of way to fit in a Puerto Rican quota, but i dont think BYU recognizes the Puerto Rico Nation as a legitament minority and foreign power. I also included a picture of the prompts that i had.

Well this week was great. I just feel such a need for Jesus Christ. Idk, there is so much darkness all around us and then there is so much available light that can come through Him! I need to repent and excersice more faith in Him. Here in our ward we go out with so many members. We only have like 4 hours to work each night and so we always split into two companionships and destroy. We have been going well with about 3-5 teaching opportunities per day! I love Elder Eggers and Elder Smith. We are the SPO office american dream team!! We have had the priveledge to meet many great members of the church here, meet some less active members that just need to feel loved to come back, and some awesome investigators. We are teaching Fatuma, she is from Kenya and is here studying infectious diseases. She is so cool and speaks english and portuguese so well. I mean english is here native tongue. It was cool to visit her. Pricila is really cool as well. She is 26 and is very much loving the Book of Mormon.

Today was crazy. We tried to go to a cool place that we found on the internet that is in our mission. It is called the Beco do Batman (Batman´s Ally) It is like an alleyway with a bunch of graffitti about super heroes. So we got all excited to go and even ate burgers today at this cool burger place called Stunt Burger. It is like comic book themed and everything. Then we went off. We almost got lost and also came to realize that this weekend and next are Carnival weekends and we were right in Downtown SP. So much sadness. So many people poorly dressed going to probably one of the largest parties in the world. We were passing through crowds and people men and women alike were calling to us from cars. I literally felt like it was the great and spacious building all around us.  The sad part is that there were teenagers there too, so young and already into this mess. We werent that distracted by the commotion, it only got it the way of a fun afternoon. We finally got the Batman place and it was filled with shady characters as well, the spirit was not there at all. So we found some places to quickly take some pictures that would not have any suggestive people in the backround and then we left. It was not a very fun day, but i learned that we need to be more careful and pay attention to where we are going and what will be happening around there. I am truely grateful to have been born with the knowledge of the true gospel of Jesus Christ and in a time with true prophets of God on the earth. Satan is so decieveing and has so much power and deceit over the hearts of so many people. While we were waiting for a bus to come back and as the crowds and crowds of skanky people were just passing by, my companion looked at me and said, "this makes me feel like we are losing". Its crazy how much wickedness exists today. I hope that i can fulfill my mission well and help others who are lost and dont know what Jesus Christ has done for them. Our king was beaten and murdered for our sake and every thought and feeling of his was felt on our behalf. He then rose, showing us who we can become. i love the way this is shown and sung in the song "Forever" by Nathan Pacheco. Here is the link to this awesome video!


Have a wonderful week, pics are coming after this email!
Love you,
Elder Sanchez