Week 101: Lots of Birthday Surprises!

How about that firework birthday candle?!! Good thing there is a fire extinguisher behind me. haha!

Hola

Thank you to everyone for your birthday letters. I opened my inbox to see that it was full of bday letters :)

Well I have really enjoyed my birthday this year because to start my companion organized a surprise birthday/going away party with our branch. So on sunday after all the services, all the members brought out the tables and all the food that they had prepared and we started to eat and celebrate. :) It was really awesome. I was so thankful for all that the members did. 

Then in the morning my district planned a birthday breakfast. We made pancakes and they bought me a 3 leches cake (there is the mexican cake that you wanted mom! haha!) Then in the afternoon my companion took me out to eat sushi. It turned out to be a birthday way better than last year. Last year my birthday was on sunday and it was the day of transfers and they closed my area and none of the members remembered. So this year made up for the last year. 

Time is going by so fast. Last week I had my last zone conference and I got kind of trunky ;) I had to give my "dying" testimony and it was really weird because I remember my first zone conference and seeing the dying testimony of others and I thought that that moment would never come. Now that it has past it is weird to think that I will be getting home in 2 weeks. 

Victor is doing great. We finished teaching him yesterday and he is ready to get baptized. He just needs his interview on wednesday and he will be all set. It is also confirmed that he will be getting baptized at the beach. I am happy that one of my dreams is going to come true. To have a baptism at the beach.

I cant believe that I am going to be starting my second to last week, it is so crazy.  

Finishing my mission is bittersweet... I am really going to miss these experiences that have molded and made me into the person that i am today. But I am also so excited to see all of you guys again and jump back into life. 

I love you all so much. Thanks for all your great examples to me over the past 21 years. I could not have asked for a better family. Love you 

Elder Snyder

Our branch members

These sisters helped organize the party for me
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My last Zone Conference

Birthday party with my district

Week 100! Juan's Baptism!!

Juan's Baptism

Hola 

Well this week was a very interesting and stressful week but in the end Juan got batptized!!!! But before a baptism there is always a bunch of opposition.

To start the town has been preparing to pave the street in front of the church, about a week ago we realized the the church did not have any water. And everyone knows that it is essencial to have water at the church in order to have a baptism. So we started out talking to the workers in front of the church about why we didnt have water, and they said that they were going to check and figure out why. But I know how some people are and sometimes they just tell you what you want to hear. So the next day we went to check and they had not done anything. So that day we went to public works to talk with the people in charge of the project. But when we got there the engineers were not there, so we left our number so that they could call us. Then they called us and said that they had almost fixed the problem, but that they need us to come to the church. We got there and they showed us what we were going to do and they said that in the afternoon we would have water. So we went back to check again and we got there and it all looked connected but there was still no water. So we called a friend to come and help us out. His name is Ricardo. He is not a member, but the rest of his family is and he always comes to our rescue. So he came at night, after his work, and looked at what was the problem. He looked and he found the problem, but was not able to fix it in that moment. Then the next day (Friday) we went to talk to the engineers why they had not connected it yet and they said that they had to check something before they could connect the water to the pipes. They said that they could not find the old connection to the pipes in the church so they made a new connection but they didnt want to connect it because they said that if the water flows back into the old pipes it was going to destroy the street that they were going to pave. So we had to find the only person that knew about the pipes in the church which was an old plumber that helped build the church. We could not find him all day. So the branch president told us that we should just call Ricardo and connect it ourselves. So we waited until he got off work and at 6 he met us at the church to help us (we had already gone to buy all the parts that he was going to need). Then when he went to connect the pipe one of the engineers saw us and started to scold us for not waiting to check to see where the old pipes lead to. We explained that we had been looking for the Plumber all day and that we had not found him. So we decided to call him one last time, and in that moment it seemed like a miracle had occured because for the first time all day he answered his phone. But it was a victory short lived because when we started to talk to him we realized that he was completely drunk. So then it seemed like we had lost our last hope of fixing the plumbing before the baptism (which was the next day). So then we had an appointment and we went to the appointment and met back at the church at 730 with Ricardo. When we got there, the engineer was not their so we decided to connect the pipes :) (it was the city´s fault they should have connected the water 3 weeks ago but they decided to wait and see if anyone would notice). Then after an entire week of battling the opposition at 930 at night, at the very last minute we had water. The next day we filled the font without problems and were all ready for the baptism. 

Juan's baptism was great. He had to have special pants made for him because we could not find pants big enough for him :p But everything went just great. His in-laws came down from guaymas and his father-in-Law was the one who baptized him. We were afraid that his father in law was not going to be able to lift him out of the water but we taught him a technique and he was able to baptize him without problems. It was so awesome to see someone ready to accept the gospel and he did it without any problems. He did it because he loves his wife so much and he wants to do anything he can to make her happy and that includes her goal of being sealed in the temple. So he has taken the first step. They are also going to be attending the district temple trip in the following weeks. We are so happy for them. 

Also, Victor has decided that for sure he wants to get baptized and that he wants to do it at the beach. We also decided to move up his baptismal date to june 3rd because the 10th is the day that the branch is going to the temple. Everything is going great in Etchojoa. It is sad for me that everything is coming to an end. 

te amo 

Elder Snyder

ps. I finally took some pictures of our house and yes, the owl in the picture is real!! 

Our house

Our Priesthood Commemoration Activity