Hey
Thanks so much for your letter. I love hearing about what is going on at home. And believe it or not I was really interested in your washing machine story. Because I finally understand what it is like to have a crappy washing machine. We finally got our washing machine repaired. And it is not even ours, we rent it for 100 pesos each week. For the past 2 or 3 weeks the washing machine would not suck out the water, so every cycle we had to drop the hose, let gravity take out the water, then put the hose back in place and fill it up again. On top of that it still shocks us from time to time, but here in Mexico, we have limited options. :)
Oh and that picture I sent last week that you thought was "the District Presidents family" is actually a picture of another one of the families in the extension. The mom is a single mother of 5 children, 4 girls and 1 little boy. Her husband is in prision and never accepted the gospel. They are probably the poorest people I have ever met, but they are always so happy. Their house does not have power or water, half of the kids sleep on the floor, half of the house has no floor, and they feed us every saturday, even if their mom is at work. Also she is having a really hard time with her oldest daughter... So many trials for this poor little family, but they make the long 25 minute walk to the casa de oración in the hot sun every Sunday.
Also this week they released our branch president. Noooooo! We were so worried because the District president said they were thinking of putting us in charge of the branch and the extension. But we are very happy with the new results. They have called the district president's counselor to be the new branch president. It is kind of hard for the district president because now he does not have any counselors, but it works out for us. Because the new president already has ideas of how to help the branch (that is because he has lots of experience: he has been the branch president of rosales, the district president, the branch president of rosales again, then a counselor in the district presidency, and he is again branch president).
This week we did a lot of work with less actives. Because in the branches, the members can be active members one week and then inactive the next…so many surprises in the branches out here. We dont have too many investigators progressing right now, but we know that will all change. All the recent converts here have been references from members, and in this branch, I have never seen members so excited to invite their friends to listen to us or to give a book of mormon to someone. For people that have so little, they truly understand the importance of sharing the best thing they have: their happiness by living the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Other than that nothing too interesting happened this week. But I will give you a list of all the things that to us are kind of normal, but to everyone else is not.
They cut the water one day, so we had to shower with the water that we had saved in buckets.
We found an iguana at the house of one of the recent converts here in the area.
We found the world's largest toad!
And we chased a giant lizard to the edge of a dam and when it realized that it could not escape, it made an elegant swan dive into the water and disappeared.
But that is all. Love you all so much too. Elder Ramírez is getting ready to go home and it makes me start thinking what it is going to be like to get home... what it is going to be like to see everyone in the airport, and most of all I am looking forward to the moment when I see you mom, and I get to give you a great big hug. Miss you so much also. Maybe not as much as you miss me ;) but I still miss you a lot. Time really does go by fast in the mission. Already a year down and a little less than a year left. Pretty crazy.
Love you all so much!
Con Amor
Elder Snyder
P.S. If you want I can buy shirts here in mexico. They are cheaper here I think. But if not I would love some more long sleeve shirts. That way I dont have to worry about putting on sunscreen haha.
Also if it is possible, I was wondering if you could send me a bunch of the cheap CTR rings in spanish to give out to the kids here. Also they make wrist bands of CTR in spanish that are pretty cool. One of the missionaries here has them and we are always asking him for some so that we can give them out to people.
Did you see my shirt burning video?
