Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Week 12 - Mexico City Temple Rededication and an Earthquake



¡Hola gracias por tus cartas!

Well I have officially finished my primer cambia (first transfer). Me and Elder Lowry are both staying here in Los Mochis Barrio Macapule. I am grateful that I still have more time to train and hopefully I will be able to understand everything by the time it is over.

On sunday it was awesome because we got to see the rededication of the Mexico City temple. It was so awesome because two of my favorite apostles were there, Eyring and Holland. And because they dont speak spanish I got to hear their talks both in spanish and english. It was really awesome. My favorite part was when Elder Holland bore his testimony in Spanish. It was very simple but powerful. It consisted of the spanish that you learn your first week in the CCM. "Sé que Jesucristo vive y esta Iglesia es verdadera..." and a little more but I dont remember. (And he said it with a complete gringo accent so it was pretty cute too.) But I just loved how even an apostle can have a testimony as simple as that and it can still be powerful. It was also really funny at the end when President Eyring was thanking a certain stake in Mexico and right before he was going to say the name of the stake he just stopped and smiled then looked at the translator. Then the translator said the name for him and he just said "gracias" and everyone just started to laugh. 

So this week was a little sad because hermana Pech was finishing her mission and going back home to Yucatan, Mexico. She was one of the sisters in our ward and she was just such a great missionary. She always helped me with my Español and she always had a smile on her face. She would also always make jokes and was laughing all the time. So we became great friends through the district meetings and ward council. So I will miss her... she really was a great missionary. 

This week we have been teaching hermana Mirian. She has 4 kids and they are all very young.  The oldest is 9 I believe and she has already had the missionaries visit her before she moved here. So we have started teaching her, but it is really hard to teach her and involve her kids so that they dont start going crazy and distract her with whatever they are doing. So that is a little difficult. We didnt have sacrament meeting this week because of the temple rededication so she was not able to come to church. It is a little inconvient because here in Mexico the investigators have to attend sacrament meeting 5 times before they can be baptized. Alot of times the president allows them to be baptized after 4 if they are ready but it is really hard to get people to go to church. Especially because the building is so far away and most people dont have cars. So, for a family to go, they have to find a ride or try and get their whole family on a crazy bus to get to church. 

This week was the last district meeting before cambios so me and Elder Lowry decided to wake up early and make french toast for everyone in the district. We got to the church at like 6:30 and we forgot our spatula so we had to use a spoon to flip them all. But in the end it worked out great. Everyone was so grateful and it was so delicious. 

As for the earthquake here, I had no idea we even had one until the sisters told us in the morning. They told us that their beds were completely shaking. But ya, I had no idea. Elder Lowry also told me that all the thunder last night kept him up, and I was like, "uhh it was raining?"

Oh ya funny short story. Me and elder Lowry were taking the bus to the church building the other day and we both got air on the bus. We were sitting in the back of the bus when we hit a bump and I swear I got at least a foot of air from my seat. My legs completely left the ground and my butt was sore for a few minutes after because the landing on my seat was not soft. Mexican buses! 

So ya if you would like to study something this week for me please study the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy and the blessings that we recieve from it. Of course we study this for our investigators, but I would really appreciate your help with this one. :)

Love you all so much. Thanks for all your letters and pictures you send. It is one of the things I look forward to every week. To hear the words of all of you. Take care this week.
Love 
Elder Snyder

Making French Toast with a spoon


Goodbye Sister Pech