Week 60: A new family and a baptism this Saturday, hopefully!

Hey 

So, we still have a baptism planned for this Saturday…the day before transfers. We really hope that M. gets baptized. She comes to church more often than many of the members sometimes. She accepts all the commandments and the book of mormon and everything. The only problem is that she does not want to commit herself completely. She has a fear that she wont be able to fufill what is required after she is baptized. And she uses the excuse alot that she doesnt know why she has to be baptized again, even though we have explained it 100 different times in 100 different ways. She just needs a little inspiration to know that it is the right thing to do. 

I love President Myers more and more. This week we had our zone conference with him and a lot of things have changed in the mission. First, we are not going to have zone meetings anymore, which were like zone conferences only without the president. And I believe that is because in this mission, sometimes when the zone leaders are in charge, things don't always get communicated properly. So that is all going to be solved with the president in every meeting. Also we are now allowed to drink soda again. Woooooooo! I am so happy about this because sometimes soda is all people have and it was really hard to turn down their kindness. Yeah, president Myers says that the soda rule is not important to him. He just doesnt want us to drink water from the tap (like all the missionaries do in mochis). He says that he doesnt want to make a rule for everything that we can and cant do. He wants us to use our agency and follow the promptings of the spirit. 

But our Zone Conference was super fun. In the morning we played water balloon volleyball. Me and my companion brought our matching shirts. Then we had our normal meeting. It was also cool because President Myers called Elder Ramirez and I up to the front because he wanted to tell everyone how he first met us. He told everyone about how Monday night he was in his counselor´s truck in 4 milpas, when his counselor said, "look there are the missionaries." then he saw Elder Ramirez and I racing by on our bikes because we had to pay our rent. Then his councelor called us over to his truck and Pres. Myers got out of the car and gave us a big hug. Then the president told everyone that he felt like we had just gotten out of the shower because we were so soaked in sweat. Pretty nasty. It was pretty funny. 

Well this week we found a family of investigators!!!! We almost could not believe it because Elder Ramirez and I have not taught an entire family in a while. They seem really awesome. They live right in front of the Catholic church. haha. But we are not to worried, we have the truth. :) We hope they progress because their family has 2 sons and they both are like 20 years old. So we are hoping to get some future priesthood here in the branch extention. 

Love you all,

Elder Snyder

Check out the neck tan line! haha!

Week 59: Never a calm week in 4 Milpas!

This picture is kind of blurry, but this is a huge bug in my hand.

Hey

So, this week was another interesting one. We can never have a calm week! So to start off we when to Mochis on our pday to buy food and to take out money from the bank. But they did not deposit all of our money, so we decided to wait for the zone meeting to take out all of our money. So we went to Walmart and Sams and bought our things with the money we had left over, and when we got back home we realized that we only had enought money to buy water and the bus ride back to mochis. But then the zone leaders called and said that we were not going to have the zone meeting this week. So we had to go almost the whole week without money. On Friday, we learned from our DL that there is an atm in Mochicauhi, so we went there because our landlord was bugging us for the rent and we needed money. So that was a little challenge we had. 

So this sunday many things happened. There were very few that attended church this week. There were 3 families that came, and 1 of the 3 are investigators. It was Trini and her family. She is pretty much more active than the members here. And it was testimony meeting and Trini and her mom (who is not a member either) both shared their testimonies haha. But we are pretty sure that Maria (trini´s mom) is going to get baptized this 20th of August. She does not have any major obsticles that keep her from getting baptized.

So then later that night, we found out that the branch president in Rosales wants to throw in the towel. That he asked president Myers if he can be released from his office. And it is really sad because there is no one else in Rosales that is qualified enough to be branch president. But we are going to see what happens. 

I would like to share the testimony of the district president that was in our meeting  here in 4 milpas. He told us that his whole life he has never had anything. That at age 9, he had to start working because their was no one in his family that could provide. And that many of his brothers and sisters have died. He said that without the gospel he would have absolutely nothing in his life. That he would never have been able to find his purpose and happiness in life if it had not been for the gospel, and that now he has a large family through the church. Then he started to name all of the little branches in the district and said that all of the members are his family and that he loves each and every one of them so much. 

And it is truly amazing that here in 4 Milpas, where the people have almost nothing, yet they feel so rich and happy with the gospel. I have seen how priceless it is to obtain knowledge in this life. And how this knowledge helps us so much to progress in this life. We have so many investigators that do not know how to read and it is really hard for them to pay attention. It really is an impeeding factor in their spiritual progress. I know that the promise in Matthew is fulfilled here, "where there are 2 or 3 gathered in my name, there I am."

Thanks so much for your letters and the pics 

Love you all so much

Elder Snyder