Week 99: 1 more Month!

Zone Activity

Hola!

It was so great to talk to you guys yesterday. I loved being able to see the family. I still cant believe that we are going to see each other in a month. 

Well, I told you pretty much everything that was going on so I am going to be a little brief. Juan is going to get baptized this saturday. We just have to teach him 2 more commandments and then he will be ready for his interview. Then we had Jesus (who was drunk all last week) and his wife Lupita go to church yesterday. We had a pretty interesting lesson with them on saturday. We talked to them about baptism and Jesus said that he would do it but Lupita was kind of hard hearted because she has been going to one church for the past year and she has been preparing to get baptized in that church but for some reason still does not feel ready. And when we invited her to go to church with us she said that she didnt want to go because she has been going to her church and she doesnt want to go to a different one, even after we explained the blessing that she will receive after taking the sacrament. That was when I decided that it was time to be a little more direct with my words. She and Jesus have been having problems for the past few months and I told her that if she does not do something different her problems will never go away. That attending church and taking the sacrament is what is going help her receive the help that she desperately needs. The next day I was honestly really surprised that they both came to church early but they both end up really liking church. It also helped having the mission presidente there to make things a little more spiritual. 

Then we had Victor come to church. He is planning on getting baptized my last day in the mission. 

Also today we had a zone activity where we filled up 200 water balloons and had a big water balloon fight. I also bought a bunch of elastic band to make a giant sling shot with the goal posts. The sling shot was super awesome. It would launch the water balloons so far. It had to launch some of them at least 100 meters. 

Also to prepare for Juan's baptism...The font has still not been emptied since the last missionaries baptized, and we could not get the pump to work, so we ended up taking out the rest of the water in buckets.

Also I had intercambios with the elders in my district because they were going to baptize 2 people. But it was super sad because both of them did not end up getting baptized. The first one, we got to his house to do the interview, but when we saw the guy, he was completely drunk. It was super sad the other missionary that had been teaching him also got really discouraged seeing him like that. Then I went to the other guys house and I was able to interview him. Everything was going super well. This guy was so excited to get baptized on saturday, also the rest of his family was going to get baptized in 2 weeks. I was getting to the end of the interview when I learned that this guy still needs to work on obeying the word of wisdom. I was so sad because I wanted so bad for this guy to get baptized but I knew that I could not give him the green light. I told him that it would be better if he could wait to be baptized because that way he could get baptized together with his family and it would give him 2 weeks to keep preparing. He was disappointed but said that he was going to keep preparing. But the elders in my district told me that now this guy is just super sad and doesnt even want to receive the missionaries anymore. They told me that it seems like he is hiding from them. I feel really sad because this guy was so excited to get baptized and now a drastic change has happened. It was also sad because he and his family didnt got to church even though they go every sunday. I really hope that he can get excited again about the gospel.

Anyways I love you all so much. See you in a month

Elder Snyder

Cleaning the Font

My Water balloon launcher

Week 98: Kind of a rough week

My Companion, Elder Martinez, made this poster for our church building

Hola

Hey I am super excited to talk with you guys this sunday. I was thinking about calling at 4 so let me know as soon as you can if that works out or if you need me to call later or something. 

This week we had kind of a rough week. We struggled a lot more to find new investigators but our plan is to start working with the members more in order to have more people to teach that start to progress. Juan is super awesome. He is so ready to be baptized and he has all the support from his wife and from his in-laws. They have been helping a lot but he is all set and commited for his baptismal date may 20th. Our only problem right now is finding baptismal clothes that will fit him. He is kind of a big dude but we are going to figure it all out this week so that it all works out. 

As for Jesus we were not able to teach him this week. For the first few days he was never home. Then on Saturday we finally found him but he was completely drunk. His family told us that he has problems drinking and that he has been drinking this entire week and that was why we could not find him. We also went yesterday but he was still drunk. It was really sad because we want to help him but we cant do anything when he is drunk. 

Also this sunday it was super interesting because my companion tried to "kill" me. So there we were, riding our bikes to go visit someone. And we were riding our bikes side by side so that we could talk along the way, when all of a sudden, bam!!! Elder Martinez slams right into me. There was honestly nothing that I could do to save myself from falling so I did the only thing I could and jumped from my bike to avoid getting smashed in between the ground and my companion. I was able to catch myself with my hands but I still ended up laying down on the ground. I am not going to lie,  I was pretty upset at my companion because it was not the first time that he has not been careful and crashed into me, but this was the first time that he has knocked me over. So I get up and went to brush the dirt off of my shirt but then saw that it had a few drops of blood on it. and I was like, "oh great my elbow is bleeding also" but when I went to lift my sleeve I realized that it was my palms that were filled with blood and a bunch of dirt. At this point I was just ignoring everything that my companion was saying to me because I was just really mad that he knocked me over and that I was the one that had to pay the consequences. So then I got on my bike and was like, "lets got to the pharmacy," because I wanted to buy bandages and alcohol to clean myself up. But then when i got on my bike, I realized that my pedal was bent so much that it was hitting the bike frame and it could not turn all the way around. So then we had to go walking and we were kind of far away from everything. But it turned out that the closest house to us was our investigator Juan. So we went to his house and I was able to wash my hands. Then we left our bikes at his house and we walked to the red cross because it was super close to his house. But I was very disappointed in their service because they did not help me at all. They just sprayed water mixed with disinfectant spray and didnt even give me a bandage. I was like, "you are not going to wash the dirt out or anything?" they then told me that I can go home and wash my hands with soap and that would get the dirt out. I then asked them if I could just wash my hands at one of their sinks and they told me that they didnt have any. I dont understand how the red cross does not have a sink but I just left and went back to juans house. Then he and his wife helped me out. They gave me alcohol and a bandage. Alot more than the red cross did for me. But yeah that was the exciting thing that happened yesterday.

Today we went to Huatabampo to hang out with the missionaries in my district. We bought a pizza and hung out with some of the members in Huatabampo. It was pretty funny because we did not have bikes to get around, so I had to use my mexican skills that I have been aquiring for the past 2 years. I had one of the missionaries from Huatabampo sit on my handbars and I sat on the seat and was stearing the bike. It looked pretty funny but that is what it comes too. 

I love you all so much. I am so happy that I will be able to speak with you next sunday. Time flies so fast. 

con amor

Elder Snyder

p.s. they sent me my flight plan. I am going to forward it to you. :)