Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Week 11 - The Burning of the Shirt!


This week Elder Lowry had his mission B-day where he completed one year of his mission. So, yes, we burned a shirt in honor of his one year mark, but it was so much better than we could have ever imagined. So we went to a member's house to do it, and we dropped the shirt off in the middle of the day and Elder Lowry gave Carlos and Lolita 15 pesos to buy a liter of gasoline. We invited the hermanas in our ward to join us as well. So when we got back to the house at night to commence with the burning, the hermanas and Carlos and Lolita had put the shirt on a broom stick and had stuffed the shirt with newspaper. And it got all decorated like you saw in the picture.  We then poured a bit of gas on the shirt and made a little trail that lead to the shirt so that we could light it. Then when we lit the gas, the most magnificent thing happened. Instead of the shirt just burning, it exploded!! It was literally gone within seconds! 

Also this week, we found a man named Javier. He was sitting in a chair on the corner of a block and we decided to talk to him. He wanted to know if he would be able to see his mother who had passed away again, so we left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and set up an appointment for the next day. The only problem was that he said that his wife is very catholic and that she does not like any other church. But he said that we could meet with him the next day because his wife would be visiting her mom. So we then had a great lesson with him the next day. He asked a bunch of great questions and when we finished our lesson we asked him if he would pray to know if these things are true. He then said, no, that he doesnt need to because he KNOWS these thing that we taught were true. It was so awesome. We then talked a little about the restoration of the gospel and gave him a pamphlet to read. But when we tried to set up another appointment with him, he told us that he didnt want to meet because he didnt want to upset his wife. We then asked him if he would want to meet somewhere else, but he concluded that he would call us when we could teach again if his wife was out. We were both like dang... we were so close. 

I wish that I had more to tell you, but that was basically it. I am so happy that Uncle Chris and family came for a visit. It's about time!!  haha! Thanks so much for the pictures. I loved seeing all the pictures of the family and especially the one of the sunset on the ocean. It just makes me smile for some reason.  It wasnt until I got here and started teaching the plan of salvation that I realized what an amazing gift the plan of happiness is for us. That we can live with our families forever and the happiness and hope it brings us. I just wish that I could say things like this in Spanish when I'm teaching lessons. I hope to be able to communicate my emotions with the people soon because now I just feel like I am saying words and they just nod their head saying yup like they dont really care what I have to say. But I am still trying really hard to learn the language. And I am hoping that it will come with time and prayer.

I hope that everything is going well back home. Tell everyone that I love them so much.

Love
Elder Snyder