Thursday, April 7, 2016

Week 41: Conferencia! Lots of Teaching, and April Fools

Hola!
I hope everyone had a great conference weekend because everyone here did. It was so great to get to listen to all of our church leaders and that we can recieve revelation through them. Thanks for all the pictures that you sent. I really enjoy seeing everyone. I did not realize that matthew was so tall. When I first saw the picture I thought it was Josh. haha! 

Well this week was one of our best weeks of teaching lessons. We were able to teach alot of our investigators and many members were able to come with us to teach them. The sad thing was that we had to drop a few of our investigators because they were not progressing. We had to drop one guy that we were teaching and it was really sad because he was about to finish 1 Nephi in the book of mormon, but he would not come to church with us because he would go to mass every Sunday and he was not willing to go to our church. Then we asked him that if he recieved an answer from God would he be willing to come and see. And he still said no. 

But this week many of the missionaries played April fools jokes that are all pretty funny. So I would like to tell a few. First, so one of the district leaders called one of the companionships in his district. He then told the missionary he was talking with to change the name that was saved in their phone for the DL to President Munive. So the hermana changed the name of the district leader to the name of our mission president. Then 10 minutes later The DL called back and the other sister thought it was the president calling. Then the district leader's companion (who has a very good President Munive impression) began to speak with the hermana. He then told her that she would be having a special transfer and that her companion would be going to obregon the next day. Then still using his president munive impression, he told the sister that there was someone else he wanted her to talk to before he hung up. He then passed the phone to his companion, and his companion then said April Fools and then hung up. :)

The other April fools joke happened in the other zone. One of the Zone leaders was going to pull a prank on one of his district leaders. He then told the district leader that one of the sisters in his district had a really bad experience and she wanted to end her mission and go home and that she does not want to talk to anyone. The district leader was then all surprised and said that he would call the ZL back in 10 minutes. He then called the Zone leader back and told him that he just finished talking with our mission president and that the president was going to go to the sister's house and talk to her. He said that the president was in a nearby city and was going to hurry to Los Mochis to talk to her. The zone leader then started to freak out because he was like, "oh great! now I have to call the President and explain all of this to him." But then the district leader said April fools. haha! The district leader countered his prank. The hermana that was supposed to be the person who was going to go home early from her mission called the district leader 10 minutes before the zone leader and asked, "Did the zone leaders do the prank yet?" haha! So the district leader was ready and had prepared a prank for the zone leaders.

And General Conference was the highlight of my week. All of the American missionaries went into a room to watch conference in English, and there turned out to be 12 of us in all. I really liked the priesthood session, Elder Uchtdorf was super funny. It was also funny because my companion and I arrived late because we were bringing an investigator with us. So I walked into the english room where conference was on the television screen, sat down, got out my note pad, got ready to take notes then I realized that it was in Spanish. Then the same thing happened with a zone leader that arrived late. He sat down, got out his notes, he even started to write down notes, then he also realized, "wait, its in spanish." We ended up watching the whole priesthood session in spanish because we could not figure out how to change it back to english. 

Then sunday morning when the conference started we still could not get it back to english. So the members and the workers were trying to get it back into english and they thought they had fixed it…And we were all waiting for the opening prayer and then when the prayer started, it was in french!! Ahhh! We all started laughing because now we really could not understand anything. Then they switched it back to spanish and we heard all of Pres. Monson's talk in spanish, then after he finished speaking they got it back to english. So I got to hear the prophet speak in spanish this conference! 

But I absolutely loved everything that was said. I especially liked what was said in the sunday morning of conference. Everyone gave such great talks. It was funny towards the very end of the sunday sessions, everyone in the english room started to chant very quietly, "Holland, Holland, holland" then the choir began to sing, and everyone was like there is just enough time left for Elder Holland to speak. And we all started cheering when they announced that he was going to speak. He gave such a great talk. The way he started we all thought he was going to planch us. (planch is what all the missionaries say when someone gets roasted, or chewed out.) But no, he ended the conference so perfectly. I really love the way that he speaks and that he is so direct with everyone. 

I am so happy to know that we have living prophets today. That we are part of the same church that Christ established so many years ago. And that this is the only church that has the priesthood authority to preform saving ordinances.

Well that was my week.

Love you all so much
Elder Snyder