Week 82: Little by Little

Elder Sosa and I with Johan (He is the autistic boy, who LOVES Jesus Christ and the church so much!!)

So this week was interesting. We have been having trouble finding new investigatores and our current investigators don't seem to want to progress. But we have been having a lot of success with many of the less active members. The less active family that we have been teaching came to church again!! Wooo 3 times in a row!! We are excited because we have made it a goal for the father of this family to baptize his two daughters, so now he is even more committed to going to church. We also found a couple other less active members and we were able to get one of the young adults to come to church. 

We also had our zone conference last friday. It is kind of sad because we are one of the only zones that has their conferences by themselves but that is because we are the farthest away in the mission. We learned about repentance and about how great a gift it is that we are able to repent. That we are able to escape the punishment of sin because of the Savior´s sacrifice and by following his instructions of repentance and baptism. 

So our goal right now has been to help out the branch. And we decided to focus on the little things that everyone should be doing like praying and reading their scriptures. We have noticed that the majority of the members do not do these simple things. Also we have been waiting for one of the branch leaders to take action, but that has not happened and because we are not going to sit and watch the grass grow, we have decided to take the initiative. So we basically taught everyone that they need to read their scriptures and study their scriptures everyday. Also we started a class of gospel principles to teach all of the less active members that seem to not know the basics of the church, like the restoration. But it is going along well and I think that we are going to see some progress in these next few weeks. 

It was also Johans birthday yesterday so we celebrated his birthday on saturday (because Johan likes to keep the sabbath day holy). And on sunday we had a little party but it was without music. 

Oh something else cool that happened was we decided to help out the Elders quorum president with the lesson. Every sunday the class is always so boring because we just read out of the manual. It is like the priesthood lesson in the movie, The RM. And that is because he never prepares the lesson. So we decided to go in the week to help him out and teach him how to prepare the lesson. So we taught him how to study the lesson first and to answer the questions. Then on saturday when we came back to help him finish he thanked us for helping him and told us that we are the only people that have ever taught him how to prepare a lesson since he has been Elders quorum president. That was over 4 years ago!! Then on sunday he was pretty nervous to give his lesson but we helped him out. We participated alot in his class and it still wasnt super great, but it was a lot better than the other lessons he has had to teach. But after the last hour of church he thanked us for our help and told us that he is excited to start learning this year.

But that was pretty much our week. We are hoping to start focusing more on helping out the less active members but we know that we cannot do it alone and that we need the help of the other members. 

love you all so much hope you have a great week. 

Elder Snyder

With Johan and some members of our branch

Week 81: 101 Contacts!

Guasave…a big change from 4 Milpas - paved roads!

Hola

We had an interesting week. We did not have too much success but we were able to see a few miracles. To start we made it our goal to invite 100 people this week to listen to our message. And we ended the week with 101 street contacts. The only problem was that we only received 6 new investigators out of all of that and of those 6 it does not seem like we will have much progress. So it has been kind of a hard week. But we are trying hard to do our part. 

Some of the miracles that happened were when all of our plans fell through in the morning and I remembered someone that we taught a while back that said that he was going out of town and that we could visit him after new years. I really did not want to go see him because he lives in the complete opposite direction from where we were going, so at first I decided not too. But then I felt again that we should go look for him. So this time I decided to listen and we started heading in the opposite direction. As we got closer to his house a girl called out our names. So we started to talk to her and she said that she is a member of the church and got baptized in Tijuana and moved here to Guasave and has not been able to find the church. We then told her where the church was and gave her a copy of the BOM because she left hers in tijuana. Afterwards I could not remember exactly where the house of the guy we were looking for was and I felt that maybe the whole purpose of us going to look for his house was to find and talk to this girl. She did not go to church or any of our appointments this week but I still feel that it was inspired. 

The less active family that we have been teaching went to church again!! wooo!!! I also got the stake presidency to talk to the branch president so hopefully that will help. 

Oh our district is doing really well. It looks like everyone is going to baptize this transfer. Finally i will get to do a baptismal interview. ;) I still feel kind of discouraged and impatient. I feel like we are doing everything we can to have success, but we seem to be having very few results. But I know if I keep doing my part that is what counts. 

Love you lots

Elder Snyder

Week 80: Feliz año nuevo!

Happy New year!

I hope that everyone had an incredible new years. And that you were all able to enjoy the company of familia. 

This new year we were able to start it off with a couple miracles. So we are teaching a less active familia right now. They have not gone to church in years, but they give us lunch every friday and we have been trying to help them come to church. And this week we comitted all of them to go to church. Then right before the sacrament hymn they entered the chapel and they were the only complete family that was there. 

Also we had another miracle. There is another family that gives us lunch on tuesday. They all have a testimony that the church is true and I think they are the only family that has FHE in the branch. The only problem is that they are not married and they live together. (the problem is that the woman was married to someone else and she still has not gotten divorced, so these two cant get married yet). So with my other companion we have always avoided the talk about the law of chastity and what they need to do to fix it. But the other day I felt that we should go and teach them and invite them with love to repent. So we visited with them and reminded them of how they felt the day of their baptism and told them that they can all feel these feelings again. We told them that the lord was calling them and that he needs them now. Then we invited them to set a goal as a family so that they can get married and become active members of the church. It was kind of uncomfortable, but i felt fine afterward. Then the next day the mother of the family called me and thanked me for the message that we had shared the other day. She said that it was exactly what she needed to hear and she felt as if the Lord was speaking directly to her. Then on Sunday their entire family came to church for the first time in a long time. I know that the spirit touched their hearts. I know that this work is impossible without the spirit and it is only with the spirit that we can help and teach others. 

Well those were the two large miracles that we had. But miracles would not be miracles if they did not come with many difficulties which we had this week. So I tried to talk with the branch president about how he needs to call people to be his secretary and counselors. I even suggested that he make one of us his secretary, so that we can help him out with all of the work that he has. But so far he hasn't done anything about it yet. Then on sunday all of the teachers did not show up. There was no one to teach relief society, primary, gospel principles, or priesthood. So we had to teach the primary kids because there we so many. The seminary teacher taught sunday school. Then the third hour we were able to get the branch president to teach priesthood because we really needed his help. But that was our sunday. I was pretty stressed out with all that was going on. 

I hope that things will start to change soon. I am trying everything I can to help out this branch but sometimes I feel like what I am doing goes in vain. Hopefully we will start to see more success this next month. I know that the Lord will help us and that he never sets us up to fail so I know that we will find a way.

My new companion Elder Sosa is pretty shy. He is 18 years old and has about 5 months in the mission. It is just such a change from my last companion, Elder Chavez. We always had something that we were talking about but with Elder Sosa I feel like i am always trying to think of something to talk about so that we dont stay in silence. But he is a great guy. He is very humble. I hope that I will be able to help him feel more comfortable talking with other people and in the lessons. 

Well that is all. I love you so much and wish you all a happy new year. 

con amor

Elder Snyder

Week 79: Gifts of Christmas

My District

Hey long time no see :) 

It was so great to talk to all of you yesterday. It is always so much fun that I just forget what to say and just wait for you guys to ask me all the questions. I cannot believe that there are only 6 months left. It kind of scares me that it is going by so fast. It makes me sad that it all has to come to an end. When you asked me what my goals were for the last 6 months of my mission. I could hardly believe that I was at that point. I hope that in these last few months I can give it my all and enjoy the time that I have to serve the lord here. 

I have been very terrible about writting in my journals. I need to start again. I love reading and studying, but hate writing in my journal. But I am going to start again this transfer. 

One of the things that we have been sharing with the members this Christmas that I want to share with all of you is about the gift of Christmas. Our Heavenly Father has given us the greatest gift that we could ever hope for, which is the Gift of a Savior. Someone to redeem us from physical and spiritual death. And this year it is our turn to give our gift to Our Heavenly Father. But it is not something physical that we can give to him because all things physical are things that he has already given us or has loaned us. No, the only thing that we can give to Our Heavenly Father is our will. That we can give up something that keeps us from being like Christ or start to do something to make us more like him. It can be something keeping our thoughts clean, listening to good music, not complaining, or setting a goal to memorize hymns or scriptures. But that is what I want to invite all of you to do. That this christmas and new year we can all put aside the desires of "the natural man" and come to be more like Christ little by little. 

Well, I know you all want to know about the tranfers so here they are. I am staying in Alameda and will be reciecing Elder Sosa. He is a new elder that has not been in the mission very long. Elder Chavez is getting transfered and is going to be a DL. It was pretty funny because when they told us Elder Chavez was like, "ahh I wasnt ready to give up being minor comp and have a bunch of responsibilities." haha. it was pretty funny but he is going to do really well. 

Well I got here late, so I dont have that much time. I hope that everyone had and amazing Christmas and that you all have a happy new year. 

Les Amo

Elder Snyder

Ornaments we made for the branch members

Our little Christmas Tree

Week 78: Feliz Navidad!

Hola 

Well this week was pretty great. We had a pretty average week with a baptism at the end of it. Everyone is getting excited for christmas and lucky for us no one is leaving to go visit family (unlike last year when we felt like we were in a ghost town.) 

This week we were able to find more new investigators but other than that that is pretty much it. 

We had our baptism on sunday morning because the family lives really far away and they dont even have enough money to pay for buses each week, but they come as often as they can. The boy who got baptized is named Rubén. He got baptized 4 years ago but the president never sent his record to the church HQ and we found the old record, but it didnt have any signatures or dates so the mission just told us to baptize him again. So we got to have another early christmas baptism gift. 

Today for our last free Pday we went to the suspension bridge that is in our area but this time we brought the zone leaders because they wanted to come see it. So we were all on the bridge and sometimes I forget that we are all still 20 year boys, so when we all got to the middle of the bridge everyone started to shake the bridge back and forth. It was pretty scary... it moves so much when we are on it but it is totally safe to cross (dont worry mom ;) ). So yeah we messed around on the bridge for a little bit then crossed our bikes over to the other side. Then when we were waiting on the other side, some guy on his bike came out of nowhere and crossed the bridge while riding his bike. So then all of us were like "oh so it is possible to cross while riding." Then a team of bikers came and they all went to go cross the bridge. And they all crossed the bridge super fast while riding their bikes. But while one of them was crossing the bridge one of the wooden planks fell off and into the water. So of course, all of us were like "okay on our way back we are all going to cross riding our bikes." 

After we went to a members house to go eat breakfast and then we returned to the bridge and this time everyone crossed the bridge while riding their bikes. I will send you a video so that you all believe me. But it was pretty fun. It was the biggest adrenaline rush that i have ever gotten my entire mission. haha

Well I love you all so much and I am so excited to see you all this christmas. I think that I will be calling around 4 on sunday. And we will be calling from the church computer, so I hope that the internet connection does not fail. It has not been working too well the past few weeks. 

Feliz Navidad... see you soon. 

Con Amor

Elder Snyder

Ruben's baptism

The suspension bridge

Week 77: Let's give it up for Los Elderes!!

Hola 

Pues we had a very fun week. We got to go to a baseball game and we had a baptism! On friday we all left Guasave and traveled to Mochis. We all met together in the church building in mochis... all the missionaries in Sinaloa. It was like a big reunion. Pretty much all my friends in the mission are in Sinaloa, so it was pretty much a party. At the baseball game we were pretty much the loudest fans there. We got put on the big screen a bunch of times too. We were right in front of the camera. And our presence was announced like 3 times throughout the game. The announcer would say, "Lets give it up for Los Elderes!" and when he would say that they would put us on the big screen and everyone would start going crazy. It truly was such a fun night. Then we had to spend the night with the different Elders in Los mochis and travel back the next day. 

Saturday was a pretty stressful day because when you have a baptism planned the opposition almost always gives you everything it has. So on tuesday we found out that there was no water in the church and that the only person in the church that had the key to the baptismal font had lost the key. So we spent the whole week trying to find the guy that has the key (another challenge: he does not have a cell phone and is almost never home). So on thursday the zone leaders told us that the guy had lost the key, but that there was a member in their ward that knows how to open locked doors. So we asked this guy if he could come to the church Saturday morning when we got back from the baseball game to open the door. So we got the door open after the guy battled with the door knob for a half hour. Then when we opened the door, we realized that the font was still full of water, and it smelled a little bad. So we had to drain the font, clean it, then deal with the problem that the church still didnt have any water. Luckily the bishop of the other ward was able to help us solve the water problem. So we were able to get the font filled and then we finally got to go home. 

Then we came back at 5 and the only people that were there with us was the girl's family. The person who got baptized is called Nohemy and she has been attending church for a long time but what happened was that she got baptized by a suspended member when she was 7 years old. So she had to get baptized again the proper way. And she asked me to baptize her :) But it was really frustrating because the branch president told us that he was going to come but when we called him he said that he was at a party and wouldn't be coming. So it was really sad nobody from the branch came to support. I got really sad I almost cried. I was so frustrated with the members. But it turned out to be a good experience and the zone leaders were able to come and helped us out by being the witnesses because no one else came. But Nohemy was happy and the next day she was able to be confirmed without a problem. 

Now this sunday we are going to have another christmas gift baptism. Another kid is 12 years old and has been in the branch for 4 years. But because of bad record keeping his baptism never made it into the system. I called Salt Lake with his data and they dont have him recorded as being baptized, so we will be having another baptism this Sunday. 

But I am so excited for our christmas call. I think that we will be calling from the church building because there isnt anyone in the branch that has a computer. And the president said that we can call for 45 minutes. Also our sacrament meeting gets out 1130 but I am pretty sure that I can call in the afternoon. I am going to check with the missionaries in the other ward because i think that they were also planning on calling from the church building. 

Well that is pretty much it. I love you all so much

Les amo

Elder Snyder

P.S. i forgot my camera again :( So I will send you pictures from elder Chavez´s camera and i will try to send the pictures from my camera tomorrow in the church building

At the baseball game!

Staying with the Elders in Los Mochis

Week 76: Visiting a Care Center and a Baby Blessing

We went and visited with people at a care center for our service activity. 

Hola

This week was a pretty fun week. On Wed we got a surprise call in the morning that one of the Assistants was in Guasave and that he wanted to work with us that day. At first, I could not help but think, "what are we doing wrong? Why do the assistants always want to work with us?" but it turned out to be a really good experience. We were with Elder Funes. He is pretty cool and he shared some pretty cool experiences with us, but most of all we could see that he is always just so excited to go to work. It is a really great atribute that he has. 

Then on Thursday we had our zone service activity. We went to a care center to take care "play" with the old people. It was actually pretty fun. Some of the old people are just hilarious. They remind me of toddlers haha. One of them was named manuel and it was really funny because he did not want anything to do with us. We would say things like "Manuel, we are going to sing." and he would respond "I dont like that." "Manuel we are going to go outside." " I dont like that. " Then we told him that we brought presents and he said, " Presents? okay here I come." haha! Super funny... the old people. At the end most of them went to bed early so the ones that stayed awake were the only ones who got presents. I gave my present to one of them and you could just see his face get so excited. He did not want to open it with us there, but it was just fun to see his reaction to everything. 

Then on sunday, I did something that I never imagined that I would do on my mission. I blessed a baby. Yeah, I was forced to break the mission rules and had to hold a baby in my arms to give her a blessing. I had to look up the ordinance in the missionary handbook because it was something that I had never done or participated in, but it was a really great feeling. I felt very blessed to have that experience. The Sister in the ward attends with everyone in her family exept her husband that works. But no one in the family has the melchizedek priesthood, so I had the privilege of performing the ordinance. It helped to strengthen my testimony of the power of the priesthood and how important it is that we have it. Because without it we would not be able to do any of the ordinances that make our salvation possible. 

Well I forgot my camera today, so I am not able to send all the pictures from last week. But I have some pretty awesome pictures of this sketchy bridge that Elder Chavez and I found out in the pueblos. So a little something to wait for next week haha. 

Oh and this week because we have the best mission president in the world, he is going to take all the missionaries in Sinaloa to a baseball game. Yeah that is right we are going to see Los Cañeros de Los Mochis!!!!!

We are so excited. So this friday we will all travel up to Los mochis to see the game. 

Well I love you all so much hope that you are all finding ways to give service this month. Enjoy this last christmas without me. love you

Elder Snyder