Week 36: Transfers! Staying in the Cuidad Los Mochis Mission

With Elder Tellez and Flor and her mom and the other Elders in our ward

Buenas tardes mi amada familia!

Well this week we had cambios and what do you think happened!? Well Elder Tellez and I both guessed that we were going to stay the same, but it turns out that Elder Tellez has been transferred. So I am going to stay here in Libertad. We were both a little sad because Elder Tellez and I got along really well. Elder Tellez has been one of the best companions that I have had in the mission. Elder Tellez was a little sad because he said, "man I feel like the ball of the mission, I just keep getting kicked around and sent to all the different corners of the mission." So today, we had the crazy day of going to the bus station, saying goodbye to everyone that was leaving, and hi to everyone that was arriving.

My new companion is Elder Lopez. He is from Aguas Calientes. And he is going to finish his mission pretty soon. He only has 3 cambios left. I will try to send pictures tomorrow. 

This week Elder Tellez and I finally were able to teach a family that we found our first week together.  They have been working so much this entire transfer, so we have not been able to teach them. They all accepted a baptismal date, but they have not yet gone to church with us. And this Sunday, they told us that they were going to go, but when we went by to pick them up none of them were ready to go. It was super sad. We were going to have 5 people that were going to come to church, but none of them came. Super sad! That Satan and that darn agency.

But I am happy that I didnt get transferred. I get to continue to serve my mission in the Cuidad Los Mochis Mission. haha! But Everyone in the mission says that Los mochis is one of the best places that you can get sent, because the weather is nicer and the city is alot cleaner. Also I dont really want to leave because now I know the city very well. I will feel very lost if I go somewhere else, but I am sure that someday I will have to leave.

I am glad you all liked the video of Bonnie. That dang dog always has so much energy in the morning. Well this letter is a little short but I am sure that I will have alot more to talk about with my adventures with Elder Lopez.

Cuídense mucho

Les amo

Elder Snyder

Week 35: I finally finished El Libro de Mormón in Spanish!

Hola todos

The weeks are going by so fast. I can hardly believe that we have practically finished another cambio. We only have one more week left. This week we had to drop a few of the people we were teaching because they are just never home or dont have time. Ramiro is doing well, though. He is super awesome. We came to his house to have another lesson and right as we were about to start he said, "can you wait for one minute, I want to invite my sister to listen." 

Also we had one of our investigators return to church. His name is Jesus Cota, but right now he does not want to accept baptism. He says that if he receives an answer, then he will get baptized. So, we are praying that he will be able to read in the Book of Mormon and pray and ponder in his heart to know that Joseph Smith restored the church and the priesthood on the earth again. 

Something really weird happened this week. So, we were getting ready to study in the morning when we heard a "Buenos dias" coming from down stairs. And as I went to check to see who it was, someone had already started climbing our stairs. And then I realized it was Elder Chichia and Elder Choc from our zone. Sometimes the zone leaders go to the houses of missionaries in their zone to see if the missionaries are getting ready in time to study. But it was really weird because the zone leaders sent the district leader of another district. It was just funny because Elder Chichia said, " yeah I dont really understand what is going on either."

Oh and this week, the other Elders, Tice and Rivera, in Libertad A had a baptism. They baptized a grandmother and her grandson. The grandmother is an ex- Jehovas Witness. The elders started teaching her granddaughter, and they left her with a book of mormon. When they returned to teach, they found that her grandma had found the book of mormon and had started to read it…And she was already on page 100! She just got baptized and now she is about to finish Alma!!!! 

And finally, this week marks the week when I finished El Libro de Mormón in Spanish. It has taken alot of time, but I finally finished it. And it truly has felt like quite an accomplishment. It is so awesome to be able to read the book in Spanish and to understand that it truly is a book inspired by God and prophets of old. And it is such a blessing that it could be translated into Spanish. And it makes me realize what a blessing it was that it was first translated into english. I am so happy for the gift of tongues that Heavenly Father has given me. I know that it is only through his help and power that I have been able to learn and speak this language.

Les quiero mucho

Elder Snyder

p.s. Here's a video of "Bonnie, the attack dog," who lives behind our apartment. She's loco!! 

My keyboard

Week 34: The Fruits of our Labors

Qué onda!

Well, this week was the week where Elder Tellez and I began to harvest all of our fruits. This week, we had more lessons than we have ever had... More lessons than I have had in all of my time here in Libertad. We now have a few investigators that are listening and doing their homework!! We have been finding alot more people in their houses and we have not been walking quite as much :). 

Well, we credit all of this success to the Lord because Elder Tellez and I have felt that the Lord has been trying to teach us a lesson all this time in Libertad. And that message as been to rely on the Lord. These past couple weeks, we have been really humbled because we know there are alot of people in our area who are ready to listen to this Gospel, but we just have not been able to find them. We have been looking and looking, but I feel that we have been relying on our own strength more than on the help of the Lord. And I believe the Lord wanted to teach us this lesson... That we need to ask for his help. And not to just ask, but to really mean it. I can honestly say that we have not changed anything with our planning or how we walk and talk with the people. The only thing that we did differently was to pray more sincerely.

One of the most important things that I have learned from this expierence is that this work is impossible with out the help of the Lord. Of course, we always say our prayers, give our thanks, ask for help, and try our very best to fulfil our purpose. But this time, the Lord wanted a little bit more. He wanted more effort on our part and our faith. And this is exaclty what Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon teaches us. I have always read and loved this chapter, but it is not until we truly expierence how weak we really are, that we begin to understand what this chapter means. The farther we fall the more we feel the Lord lifting us back up. 

This week, we found a family!!! Kind of. We contacted this old Catholic woman about two weeks ago, and we have taught her one or two times. She kind of has a blind faith type attitude - "It doesnt matter what you say, I will always be Catholic." But her grandson always opens the door. So this week, we had the plan of inviting her grandson to listen and teach him instead of his grandmother. His name is Ramiro and he is 15 years old. He is very smart. We were teaching him the restoration, and we had just finished teaching the part where we explain that the Church of Jesus Christ was lost from the Earth, when Ramiro asked us, "If the church was lost, then who restored it?" He understood the restoration perfectly!!!! Long story short, he now has a baptismal date for the 19th of March. He went to church on Sunday and our goal is that we can invite his whole family to listen to our message. He has a mom and two sisters, one older and one younger, and we are so excited to teach them.

Also I had a really awesome experience this week with the gift of discernment. We contacted someone in front of their house and asked if they had a few minutes to listen to us. He said yes, and then we started to teach. But as we began to teach, I could tell that he was not really listening, that his mind was somewhere else. We started to teach the restoration, but I could tell that he was not listening. I was then praying that the Lord would help me to know what to say to spark his interest. Then looking in his eyes, I could see that he was sad, as if he was about to cry, but there were no tears. I then felt inspired to ask if he has ever lost anyone close to him. It was a completely random question at the moment and the truth is, I felt really uncomfortable asking that question while we were talking about the restoration, but I felt that I had to do it. In that moment, he immediately started talking about his family and how his dad is in the hospital and a bunch of other things. But from that one question, this man began to talk and to open up, and we were so happy to begin to share the Plan of Salvation with him. 

Well that was my week...a week of alot more success. We still have alot of work to do here in the "Restoration of Libertad B," but we have alot of faith that we are going to find more people this week and help them to come unto Christ.

Love You all so much 

Elder Snyder

p.s. I'm so sorry, I forgot my camera, so I dont have pictures to send. But will try to send some next week. Also, it's starting to get hotter here. :(

Week 33: A day of miracles!

Hola Cómo están todos?

So this week was a very special week. But to start out, everthing was going absolutely terrible. We started out the week with numbers that were absolutely terrible. We were so frustrated because we were talking with everyone and finding people that said that we could pass by another day, but then they were never home. Then we had a zone conference on Thursday and one of our zone leaders talked about repentance. But not just about how we need to teach repentance, but how we as missionaries have to repent sometimes. He talked about how we need to repent when we feel a prompting to talk to someone, but we choose to ignore it because we may feel scared to talk to someone. Or for the house that we pass by and feel that we should knock on the door, but then we think that is a dumb idea and choose not to do it. Or when we are not sincere enough in our prayers to our Heavenly Father and don't take the time to actually talk with him. For all the little things.

After that day, we had hardly any success. Then that night my companion and I both decided to do what our zone leader told us and we repented of the things that we didnt do. Then in the morning we continued with our daily routine (and this day was also Elder Tellez´s Bday). Then right after our studying, we recieved a phone call from the zone leaders. The zone leaders then told us that they had a present for us. And now I was thinking, wow, they know that it is Elder Tellez´s Bday today.They told us that they had a huge present for us and they wanted to meet with us. So, then I started thinking oh,  they want to have intercambios again because our numbers are so bad. :( But then they told us that we were not going to have intercambios, but that they wanted us to ask the ward member who was going to give us comida to prepare 3 plates. After they said that, all I could think of is that this is really weird... what is going on? They then told us that one of the Assistants of the President was going to work with us that day. 

Elder Tellez then thought, oh great we get an AP for my bday. So Elder Flores came to work with us during the day. And Elder Flores said the prayer as we left our apartment and one of the things that he said that caught my attention was that he asked Heavenly Father to help  us complete our goals and to have 5 lessons with investigators today. He asked specifically for 5 lessons. Then as we started the day, weird things began to happen. We started to find people in their houses!!!! And one of the other weird things was that people started contacting us and asking us if we could come visit them. Elder Flores even said, "I really like this area, the people here contact you." It was something that has never happened with just me and Elder Tellez. Then at about 6:00, we went to one of the appointments we had set and the person was not there. So far, we only had 2 lessons with investigators and we still needed 3 more. By this time, I started to doubt and thought that we were most likely only going to have 2 more lessons at the most. But we continued searching and contacting and we found someone that let us into their home. Then after we taught them we went to another house that told us to come back later and we had another lesson with them. And when we finished it was about 8:15 and we still needed one more lesson to complete our goal. And Elder Flores kept saying, "come on, one more." He then asked us where we should go. And at about 8:15 at night there is hardly anyone who lets us in their house that late. But I had one more idea, but this person lived very far from where we were, at the other end of our area. And I told them that we could go there, but we would have to walk really fast to arrive, have the lesson, and return back in time. So we started walking really fast to the other end of our area and when we arrived at the house no one was there. :( And at that point, I thought, well, we are really close to Flor´s house. We may as well go visit her, and her brother is not a member, but he is never home. So we went to her house and when she opened the door and I saw her brother I was like, "Wow! this is a miracle." So we had one more lesson and completed our goals for the day and received more references that day than the entire week.

Then on Sunday we had stake conference and one of the members of the Seventy was going to come and speak. So on Sunday, we were running around to every house of our investigators to remind them to come to church and if they needed a ride, we would give it to them. But as we were going around, no one was home and the people that we found told us that they most likely were not going to be able to make it. So then we went to the church to wait and see if they were going to arrive. At this point, we saw all the other missionaries that were arriving with all their investigators, and I wanted to cry because it seemed that everyone was bringing investigators to church but us. I kept trying to tell myself that they were going to arrive, but when the meeting started, I lost my faith and told myself that they were not coming. I felt so terrible. It seemed as if we were the only ones without investigators there. Then 10 minutes after the meeting started, we saw someone enter through the back door and it was one of people that we invited. I was so happy!  I could not believe it.

Then the talk given by the member of the Seventy was one of the best talks that I have ever heard in my life…and it wasnt even in my first language, but I understood everything. He spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it works and why it is so important. He first spoke about how nothing impure can enter into the kindom of God and then he explained what that really means...That absolutely nothing that is in the slightest bit imperfect can enter into the kingdom of God. So anyone who is impatient, mad, upset, ungrateful, lazy, etc. cannot enter into the kindom of God. But then he talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that He suffered for everyone and everything. That he suffered for the man who is impatient, so that he can repent and work to become more patient. And that he suffered in a way unexplainable. That Jesus suffered for everything, for all the women who suffer the pain of childbirth, and for all the people who experience the pain of cancer, he suffered for everything. Then he explained the way that He suffered. That Jesus didnt suffer for everyone's pains like in a package deal, but  He suffered for every person individually, because the pain that one person experiences is not the same as the pain that another experiences. And he would not know how we feel unless he suffered for us individually and experienced our own personal pains. Then he explained that he did that for every person that lived on this earth and that will live on this earth. Now this is the thing that blows my mind, That Jesus Christ suffered for all of Gods children on this Earth and all the other worlds that Heavenly Father has created. That is why the Atonement is so important. That is why it is a sacrifice infinite and eternal. And that at the end of His suffering, He walked out of the Garden of Gethsemane. And just as He walked out of the garden, we can also overcome our problems through Him, and continue walking in life. And the greatest blessing we have in this life is that every Sunday, we can take the sacrament and be cleansed of our faults and mistakes. We should always be looking forward to the Sabbath, as the day when we can cleanse our souls.

Sorry this letter is so super long, but a lot happened this week as you can tell. I know the Savior lives and that he suffered for each and every one of us. And that through him we can be made perfect. I love my mission and I am so happy that I have this time to learn so much and to serve as a missionary.

Love you all so much

Elder Snyder

Week 32: We are all part of the Restoration!

With Elder Loveland in my PINK room.

Jelooo!

So this week we had a special meeting with the President with 2 zones. My old zone and my zone. It is kind of nice to always be in contact with my old zone and to ask how everything is going in Macapule. In this zone conference, we mainly talked about how we can apply the fundamentals of preach my gospel more in our lessons and in everything that we do. 

Then after we had intercambios with our zone leaders. And this time I stayed and our new zone leader, Elder Loveland, came to Libertad. Elder Loveland is from my generation so it was really nice to talk with someone who has been out the same amount of time and it was fun to hear about things in Obregón (that's where he was before) because I dont really know anything about Obregón because I have been in Los Mochis all this time. 

This sunday, I had to give a talk in sacrament. And it went alot better than the first time I had to give a talk. I spoke about mission work and how it is for all members not just missionaries. And one of the things that I have really come to recognize is that we are all part of the restoration of the church. Sure the restoration happened with Joseph Smith almost 200 years ago, but that is not all of the restoration. Another part of it is bringing the knowledge of the restored gospel to everyone in the world. It is such a blessing to be in the very center of it, but also it is something that everyone can do…share the gospel by word and by example. I am so happy to be apart of the restoration of this gospel. I wish that I had more people that would listen to this great message, but that only means that we have to continue working so that we can find them and share this message of happiness. The true Church of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth and we are so lucky to be a part of it. 

One of my favorite scriptures that I have read is in 3 nephi 19: 9 where it says that what the people desired more than anything was that they could be given the gift of the Holy Ghost. And how lucky are we that we can receive this gift "that which they desired most" when we are 8 years old!

So this week was kind of hard... we have been doing alot of contacting and looking for people to teach. And this Sunday we were expecting a few of our investigators to come to church and we even had families from the ward that were going to pass by their homes to ensure that they came, but unfortunately, even that didn't help. We were so sad when none of them came to church. Like I said earlier, we had intercambios this week with the zone leaders…maybe they thought we weren't working hard enough or just wanted to help us. But the zone leader and I spent the whole day contacting people and we didnt find a single person who said that we could pass by another day. We taught a few lessons, but that was all. And so Elder Tellez and I were like,  well our zone leaders didnt find anyone either, so at least they now know that our area is kinda difficult. But we are happy. We walk a little more than we should, and we dont teach as many people as we would like, but we are talking with everyone and always looking for people to teach. This week we have intercambios again with our district leader because now he wants a turn to find people and hopefully we will find them. Pray for us. 

Oh yeah, and I bought a keyboard and it is awesome. I got it really cheap. I went to a pawnshop here in Mochis and found this excellent keyboard. It is made by Casio, which is a pretty good brand and it didnt cost too much. And it is really nice to be able to practice piano again. After we finish planning at night we usually have like a half hour or so and I use that time to practice. I have started with the easy hymns and they are pretty fun because i can learn a song in about 10 minutes.  But yeah I really like it. Hopefully it will not become a burden during transfers, but I have heard of other missionaries who have keyboards and have done the same, so I'm not too worried.  

Love you all so much thanks for everything

Elder Snyder

Week 31: More Contacting and Finding in Libertad

Me and Elder Tellez

Hola!

This week was alright. My companion Elder Tellez is awesome! He is from Monterey, Mexico and everyone in his family is a member of the church. He is like me and has been a member all his life. He is 18 and has about 10 months in the mission, so he's been out a little longer than me. But right now, the work is kind of hard because we feel like we are opening the area. We have hardly any investigators and we are spending most of our time looking for people to teach. We are not having much luck contacting people. The other day we contacted a JW and right after, we contacted an Apostolica. But we are finding a few new people to teach.

We found a great family on Wednesday. We showed up at the house to teach this one woman and then later her mom entered, and we invited her to listen to our message too. Then we asked them if they wanted to be baptized and they said yes. So we put a baptismal date for them and they both said that they would prepare to be baptized. Later in the week we had another lesson with just the mom and we brought a member with us and we invited her and her family to come to church. She then told us that she would go, but then the next day she didnt come. :(  I dont know why it is so hard to get people to come to church. But yeah we are not going to let that discourage us. Also one of Flor´s brothers moved to go to study in carretero so we will not be able to teach him.

Oh also this week we had a special broadcast from some of the Apostles about the fundamentals of missionary work. It was super cool, but right when it began to start, we lost the audio. So for like a half hour we were all listening to the broadcast from our president's Ipad. But it was really cool. I liked it alot. I liked mostly what Elder Bednar said... that we are the guides for the Holy Ghost. He explained that the Holy Ghost is what enters the hearts of the people and it is through the Holy Ghost that they can know that these things are true and have a desire to learn more. And our job as missionaries is to provide the means by which the Holy Ghost can enter into their hearts. And that in the end the people have to be willing to accept the Holy Ghost for it to enter into their hearts. But yeah it was really great. 

This week we are going to be doing more contacting and looking for new people to teach. Hopefully we can improve alot more this week. 

Well that is about it. I hope that everyone is doing well. I love you all and miss you so much.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Snyder

Week 30 - Flor's Baptism and another 6 weeks in Libertad, Los Mochis

Flor's Baptism

Hola 

Well today we had transfers! And this time my companion Elder Salomon left for Obregon and I stayed here in Libertad and recieved my new companion Elder Tellez. Elder Tellez is from Monterey Mexico also. But today I pretty much spent all my time at the bus station waiting for my companion to arrive. On the day of transfers, everyone goes to the bus station to change companions so I got to see all the missionaries that are leaving, the missionaries that are staying, and all the missionaries that are arriving from Obregon. I realized in this last transfer that I was one of the few people from my generation that was in Mochis because today a bunch of people from my generation arrived from Obregon. 

Also Flor got baptized!!!!!!! yay!!! Flor finally got baptized after all of our time in Libertad. But the day of the Baptism there were so many problems with the font. So on the morning of a baptism day, we always go to the church to clean the font (because it is always a little dirty). So we borrowed the keys from our ward mission leader and opened the church, then when we opened the font, we saw that there was still water in the font, along with a dead cucaracha, that had been there since the last baptism of another ward about three weeks ago. :( So we went to turn on the pump, but the keys we had didnt work to access the hallway where the pump was. So after a few phone calls and waiting for about 45 minutes, our bishop arrived with the keys. Then we went to turn on the pump, but nothing happened. So we spent 15 minutes trying to figure out why the pump was not working, and then when that didnt work, we ended up calling church maintenance. Then after waiting for about a half hour maintenance arrived to fix the pump. Then as they were working to fix the pump, I said a quick little prayer that they could find the problem really quickly and that we could begin cleaning and filling the font. Then before I could even say the word "Amen" in my head, they got the pump working. 

Then we pumped out all the nasty water that was in the font, got rid of the cucaracha that was floating in the water, and began cleaning the font. Then we filled the font and after that  everything went real smooth. 

We returned at 4 for the baptism of Flor. It was really awesome. We asked the mom of Flor to speak (because she had just been baptized about 2 months ago and, we thought it would be a great opportunity). She did a really good job, she mostly just shared her testimony, but it was really powerful. She just said that she was so grateful for the missionaries that had taught her and her family and that she hopes that Flor´s brothers can follow her example. Then she got baptized and after that, we went to work and every single one of our appointments fell through. But thats okay :)

Then the next day I got to confirm Flor a member of the church. It was really cool because she is the first person that I have every confirmed. 

Also this week we had intercambios with the zone leaders. And this time it was my turn to stay in Mochis and for Elder Salomon to leave. (I was kind of happy that I didnt leave because I found out after that the zone leaders shower with a bucket and cold water). I was with Elder Williams, un gringo. But it didnt go too well because we had about 18 people in our plans to visit and all of them fell through. So it was kind of sad, but sometimes those things happen. 

But that is pretty much it for this week. Thanks for all the pictures that you sent. I hope that everyone is happy and enjoying their time in school. The mission is awesome. We plan to contact alot this week, so pray for us that we can find the people that the Lord is preparing to receive this gospel. Love you all so much.

Les quiero

Elder Snyder

Flor with her mom  

At the bus station where everyone meets up for transfers…got to see Elder Ochoa again.

Goodbye Elder Salomon