Week 60: A new family and a baptism this Saturday, hopefully!

Hey 

So, we still have a baptism planned for this Saturday…the day before transfers. We really hope that M. gets baptized. She comes to church more often than many of the members sometimes. She accepts all the commandments and the book of mormon and everything. The only problem is that she does not want to commit herself completely. She has a fear that she wont be able to fufill what is required after she is baptized. And she uses the excuse alot that she doesnt know why she has to be baptized again, even though we have explained it 100 different times in 100 different ways. She just needs a little inspiration to know that it is the right thing to do. 

I love President Myers more and more. This week we had our zone conference with him and a lot of things have changed in the mission. First, we are not going to have zone meetings anymore, which were like zone conferences only without the president. And I believe that is because in this mission, sometimes when the zone leaders are in charge, things don't always get communicated properly. So that is all going to be solved with the president in every meeting. Also we are now allowed to drink soda again. Woooooooo! I am so happy about this because sometimes soda is all people have and it was really hard to turn down their kindness. Yeah, president Myers says that the soda rule is not important to him. He just doesnt want us to drink water from the tap (like all the missionaries do in mochis). He says that he doesnt want to make a rule for everything that we can and cant do. He wants us to use our agency and follow the promptings of the spirit. 

But our Zone Conference was super fun. In the morning we played water balloon volleyball. Me and my companion brought our matching shirts. Then we had our normal meeting. It was also cool because President Myers called Elder Ramirez and I up to the front because he wanted to tell everyone how he first met us. He told everyone about how Monday night he was in his counselor´s truck in 4 milpas, when his counselor said, "look there are the missionaries." then he saw Elder Ramirez and I racing by on our bikes because we had to pay our rent. Then his councelor called us over to his truck and Pres. Myers got out of the car and gave us a big hug. Then the president told everyone that he felt like we had just gotten out of the shower because we were so soaked in sweat. Pretty nasty. It was pretty funny. 

Well this week we found a family of investigators!!!! We almost could not believe it because Elder Ramirez and I have not taught an entire family in a while. They seem really awesome. They live right in front of the Catholic church. haha. But we are not to worried, we have the truth. :) We hope they progress because their family has 2 sons and they both are like 20 years old. So we are hoping to get some future priesthood here in the branch extention. 

Love you all,

Elder Snyder

Check out the neck tan line! haha!

Week 59: Never a calm week in 4 Milpas!

This picture is kind of blurry, but this is a huge bug in my hand.

Hey

So, this week was another interesting one. We can never have a calm week! So to start off we when to Mochis on our pday to buy food and to take out money from the bank. But they did not deposit all of our money, so we decided to wait for the zone meeting to take out all of our money. So we went to Walmart and Sams and bought our things with the money we had left over, and when we got back home we realized that we only had enought money to buy water and the bus ride back to mochis. But then the zone leaders called and said that we were not going to have the zone meeting this week. So we had to go almost the whole week without money. On Friday, we learned from our DL that there is an atm in Mochicauhi, so we went there because our landlord was bugging us for the rent and we needed money. So that was a little challenge we had. 

So this sunday many things happened. There were very few that attended church this week. There were 3 families that came, and 1 of the 3 are investigators. It was Trini and her family. She is pretty much more active than the members here. And it was testimony meeting and Trini and her mom (who is not a member either) both shared their testimonies haha. But we are pretty sure that Maria (trini´s mom) is going to get baptized this 20th of August. She does not have any major obsticles that keep her from getting baptized.

So then later that night, we found out that the branch president in Rosales wants to throw in the towel. That he asked president Myers if he can be released from his office. And it is really sad because there is no one else in Rosales that is qualified enough to be branch president. But we are going to see what happens. 

I would like to share the testimony of the district president that was in our meeting  here in 4 milpas. He told us that his whole life he has never had anything. That at age 9, he had to start working because their was no one in his family that could provide. And that many of his brothers and sisters have died. He said that without the gospel he would have absolutely nothing in his life. That he would never have been able to find his purpose and happiness in life if it had not been for the gospel, and that now he has a large family through the church. Then he started to name all of the little branches in the district and said that all of the members are his family and that he loves each and every one of them so much. 

And it is truly amazing that here in 4 Milpas, where the people have almost nothing, yet they feel so rich and happy with the gospel. I have seen how priceless it is to obtain knowledge in this life. And how this knowledge helps us so much to progress in this life. We have so many investigators that do not know how to read and it is really hard for them to pay attention. It really is an impeeding factor in their spiritual progress. I know that the promise in Matthew is fulfilled here, "where there are 2 or 3 gathered in my name, there I am."

Thanks so much for your letters and the pics 

Love you all so much

Elder Snyder

Week 58: More adventures in 4 Milpas, a new investigator, and Tarantulas!!

Hola

So this week was very interesting. So for the past few weeks we have not had the highest indicators. That could be because of the many responsiblities that we have, and the fact that we have to work in 2 areas. So the Assistants want to check to see what we have been doing. So last tuesday, we had intercambios with one of the Assistants. Elder Wilkinson came to see the glory of 4 Milpas and the day was pretty normal. We found one new person to teach and we are hoping to see progress with her as the time goes on. But it was cool to talk with Elder Wilkinson for the first time since the CCM. But when he came, he could tell that we were working. We may not have the same indicators as other missionaries in other areas, but he could tell that we teach well and with the spirit. 

We also had interviews with president Myers the following day, Wednesday. It was so awesome. I love him and his wife. They are so supportive. Instead of getting mad at what we are not doing, they tell us the good things and help us to know what we can do to improve. My interview was awesome. I had it in english. But President Myers said that he knows we are doing a good job because he said that since the moment we met him (the night when we were racing on our bikes) he said, that he felt the spirit when we came to meet him and his wife. He also told me to enjoy my time here in 4 Milpas because on his mission his favorite areas were the small little towns. He also told me that in the tiny little branches is where the missionaries are needed most. And it is true. Pretty much all the wards can function without the missionaries. But in the branches, if their are no missionaries the members start to go inactive. And it is true. Pretty much everything that we do here is to help the members and to strengthen their testimonies. 

Then on friday, we went to Rosales to paint the house of one of the members. It turned out really good if I dont say so myself. We painted the outside of the house, purple and pink. The member´s son always jokes that it looks like Barney´s house. haha. But afterwards her son made us homemade pizzas. He let us help prepare them by putting on the cheese and all the toppings. I hope to someday learn how to make them because they were so good. 

Then Saturday we had a super long day. In the morning, they cut the water from our house again. So we had to wait until like 11 till the water came back to shower. We almost showered with purified water because the options were getting slim. Then we had to go to Rosales in the morning because our phone fell out of my pocket, and we had to go get it back. Then we went to the comida (lunch appt.) and the member that prepares the comida for us had to work, so she had her children prepare it for us. And they are a really poor family so all we had to eat was a bowl of rice and tortillas. 

Then we had to go back to the house because in the morning something very strange happened to the lock for our front door. In the morning, we locked the door to leave. Then immediately after, I tried to open the door to go get something that I left inside, but the lock would not open. The key would spin and spin in the lock but it would not move the dead bolt. So in the afternoon, we had to use our criminal minds to break into our own house. 

Plan A: We tried to dismantle the lock from the outside of the door. But after a few minutes we saw no progress. So we moved on to plan B

Plan B: we borrowed a screwdriver from the neighbors and started to take the screen off from the windows. (Remember that all of our windows have bars arround them to keep people from breaking in. People like us haha.) So our plan was to open the window and use a stick to push the deadbolt to the unlocked position. But after taking the screen off of the window. We ran into another problem. The window would not open.

Plan C: So we moved on to the window that was right next to it. We took of the screen off and opened the window. We then saw that someone had placed a bar on the inside to keep the window in plan B from opening. So we decided to try and remove the bar so that we could open the other window. So Elder Ramirez was trying to bend one of the bars that guards the outside of the window so that we could fit in the window more easily. But to our surprise the bar broke right off. 

Plan D: With the bar that had broken off from the outside. We then realized that the space was large enough for someone to squeeze through. So I then helped lift Elder Ramirez in through the window and he was able to get on the inside of the house. 

Plan E: After trying to open the door from the inside the deadbolt still would not move. So Elder Ramirez decided to dismantle the lock from the inside. And after taking out all of the screws we were finally able to take the lock off of the door and open it. 

We were very grateful for the little miracle we had when the lord broke the bar that guards the outside of the window so that we could enter. But after getting inside we decided that we had to buy a new lock right away because hello, we live in Mexico and you cannot leave your door unlocked in Mexico. So we went to the store and bought and installed our new lock. But that was the drama of Saturday. 

Then on Sunday as we were riding back home from Rosales, we found a couple of Tarantulas on the trail. So we took a few cool pictures. Then we started to play with them. We tried to get two of them to fight each other but they didnt want to. Also FYI, they can run really fast. It is pretty terrifying!!!

But that was my week. I hope that it explains a few of the photos that I sent. 

But I love my area, it has taught me so much. I love this mission. I love you all and I look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Love 

Elder Snyder

Week 57: Did someone say Heat?

Hey

It is always so nice to get and read your letters. It always makes me happy to hear about all the things that are going on back home. Sounds like Parker is excited to get his eagle project out of the way... haha. And I just want you all to know that none of your complaints about the heat will find any mercy with me!!! haha! This week was one of the hottest weeks, we have ever had. Its so hot, the sun is starting to hurt! Also it is so humid here that in 5 minutes you are drenched!! I also cannot continue to wear my lightly colored pants because you can see all the sweat lines. Pretty nasty! Now starts the time of sueros all over again. (Sueros is that salt drink that we are supposed to drink so we don't get dehydrated.)

This week was a little hard for us because our investigator, T., is not ready to get baptized. She says that she will be ready later on but we can tell she is not doing anything to make this happen, so we are kind of disappointed. But we found a new investigator that is friends with one of the members here. She introduced us to her. Her name is A. and she is the daughter of eternal investigators here in 4 milpas. She has seen the missionaries before, but has never really talked with them. She was home with her husband and her cousin, but her husband did not want to come out and meet us. We got to know them a little, and we left them with a pamphlet of the restoration. Then we set an appointment to come back and teach and with the member that introduced us. But when we went back, it turns out that her husband got a little upset and told us that he did not want us to come back to his house because after we left A´s cousin was talking about us all day. And it is really frustrating because the member we went with went and talked with her afterwards and asked what she would have to do to get baptized. ahhhh so frustrating. But Elder Ramirez is great. He is really funny and helps me to joke around and sometimes take my mind of the work, because it is really stressful here.

Also this week we had some crazy thunderstorms at night. At night we would sometimes spend an hour outside just looking at all the lightning. One night after planning we spent the rest of the night outside because it was a lot cooler outside of the house than inside. 

And today we had our first Pday where we stayed in 4 milpas. We woke up early to go climb a mountain and watch the sunrise. It was pretty cool because you can see our entire area. I took a few videos so you should be able to see them. But that is about it. 

I feel like I just wrote you guys so there is not to much more for me to tell. Sorry if this letter is a little short, but I will try to do better next week. But to make up for it I took a lot of pictures. 

Love you so much. Thanks for all your advice and support. 

Love

Elder Snyder

Here's some pictures of our hike this morning. And the other pictures with us in missionary clothes were from when we went to mochicahui. Ohh yeah, I forgot to tell you that friday night we got a call from one of the sisters in the Rosales Branch who wanted us to give her granddaughter a blessing because she was going to have surgery on saturday. The only problem was that they called us at night and mochicahui is like 10 kilometros away. So, in the morning on saturday we woke up early and left to bike ride an hour to go and give a blessing to this girl. The whole time I was thinking that I have never put so much faith into a blessing like this. I was thinking of the scripture in James that says that faith with out works is dead and how we show our faith by our works. And I was thinking that I have never worked so hard to give a blessing because we were dripping in sweat when we arrived. haha. But it all turned out ok.

Week 56: Mango Hunting and a Flood

Hello

Sorry I was not able to write on Monday. I went to Guaymas again to finish renewing my visa.  It was really fun. It was another party with my generation. Then when we got back we stayed with the missionaries in Macapule again. Only this time Elder Lowry was there. He asked President if he could end his mission in Macapule and he said yes. 

That video was so awesome of Jacob, Austin and Dakota. It was cool to hear a little bit of Spanish thrown in there. And I honestly laughed out loud at the picture of the LATE tag on Jacob's bag. It was so funny to see that it is the same old Jacob. 

But this week alot happened in such a short period of time. One of our favorite families from 4 Milpas moved. :( They went to Tijuana to live with their son and to work because there is not that much work here. But we are going to miss them because they were one of the few active families in the branch. 

Also, I dont know if I have already told you this but there are so many mangos here. After every lesson people ask us if we want mangos. We have like 5 kilos in the house. They are so good. So I have a couple of pictures of my companion and I hunting mangos. 

Last Sunday we were so stressed out when we got to the casa de oración...We got there to find that one of the pipes behind the building had burst and that the whole back room was flooded with water. There was so much water that it even entered the room where we have sacrament meeting. So we spent like 10 minutes collecting all the water with mops and we left the backroom flooded because there was not enough time to clean everything up. Then like 5 minutes before the meeting was going to start, someone told us that the person that we assigned to speak was not going to be able to come to the meeting. So that means that we both were going to have to speak. But it all turned out well. I presided and blessed the sacrament and my companion conducted and passed the sacrament. Then we both gave our talks. I talked about the importance of the sacrament and how we can make it more meaningful each time we come to church. That during the week we need to repent of our mistakes then when we come to church, we should prepare ourselves mentally to take the sacrament. Because it is not the action of taking the sacrament that gives us the remission of our sins. Just like how simply getting baptized does not wash away our sins. It is the sincere repentace process that takes place before and that is then sealed with a covenant. And when we partake of the sacrament, we get to renew that same covenant of baptism that we make, and we can still feel the same joy that we felt that day we were baptized all over again. 

So one of our investigators is proving to be very difficult. She has been investigating the church for about a year. She always comes to church, reads her scriptures, she even pays her tithing! But her problem is the law of chastity. She has a boyfriend that pays for the rehab of one of her sons who was a drug addict. But the worst part is that her boyfriend is married. He has a wife and kids. And she is struggling to make the decision to repent and get baptized. And we dont know what more we can do because she knows what she is doing is wrong and she knows exactly what she needs to do. 

But her mom is doing really well. We taught her the Restoration and she now understands more about Joseph Smith. She is progressing. She just needs more time, so that we can teach her everything.

And our other investigator just stresses us out. She has so much trouble paying attention. We explain things so basically, but she cannot understand and pay attention. She says she wants to get baptized, but we need her to understand what we are teaching before she can. 

But everything is going well here in 4 milpas. Ohhh... I got a new bike. The bikes that we have are for like 10 year olds, so it really hurts my back to be hunched over all day. But the family that left for Tijuana was selling all of their things including their bike. So I called up President Myers and he authorized me to buy the bike. I was super happy because now I have a bike that is my size :). 

Well I love you all so much. Congrats to Parker who got his braces off. Ohh and thanks for the package that you sent. The secretaries gave it to me when I went to Obregon to go to Guaymas. Thanks to everyone for all the letters. They were great. Tell Oma to be careful about sending money because they opened all the letters that were in my package. But I dont think that they took anything. 

Sorry for the late letter but it is better than nothing haha. I want to send the video of my shirt burning but the file is too big to send by email. I can try to send it by dropbox next monday. 

Love

Elder Snyder

Mango Hunting

Week 55: New Mission President and another transfer in 4 Milpas

Our new Mission President, Pres. Myers, and his wife

Hello Everyone

I am glad that everyone had such a great time at the family reunion. It sounds like it was a lot of fun.

So last monday, we had to pay the rent for the house. And it was about 9 at night as we were hurrying to meet with our landlord. So my companion was in front of me and we passed a truck, and we heard someone call out "Elders!" So we turned around to see who it was. The driver who called out to us got out of his truck and said "Elders, I have a surprise for you." Then I saw two people getting out of the car. One was very tall and the other was a woman. I then saw that they had missionary tags on and I realized that it was our new Mission President. haha! So then and there, all sweaty and late at night, we met the president and his wife for the first time in our pueblo. He said he came to meet the district president that lives in 4 milpas.

Then the next day we had a multizone meeting to get to know our president. President and Sister Myers told us many things about their lives and it was pretty cool to get to know more about them. They also told us that in our lives there are 2 types of zones. 1 zone is called the comfort zone, and the other is the miracle zone. They told us that when we start to do the same types of things, we get comfortable and start to receive the same types of results. And when we leave the comfort zone, we enter into the miracle zone. But then when we get comfortable in the miracle zone, the miracle zone starts to transform into a larger comfort zone. And the point is... that we have to work even harder to leave the comfort zone to enter into the miracle zone again. And they challenged us to start to do things differently. That if we are scared to do something, we should do it anyways because that is how we are going to see miracles. 

We also had cambios (transfers) today, but my companion and I stayed the same.  Elder Ramirez is the first companion that I have had for more than one transfer in a row. Not counting Elder Lowry. But speaking of Elder Lowry he only has 1 transfer left and he asked president if he could spend his last transfer in Macapule. And he got what he wanted. He got transfered to Macapule for his last transfer. 

Also the guy who we rent our washing machine from, finally brought back our washing machine. So we rent our washing machine by the week. But the guy who rents it to us is not that smart. We pay this guy every week, so that he can just leave the washing machine at our house. But this time he decided to go pick it up and bring it to his house. This happened about 2 weeks ago. Since then we have been going to to his house pretty much everyday asking him to bring the washing machine back. And it took him 2 weeks to finally bring it back. So during that time we had to wash our clothes by hand. And wow! It takes forever. Every night after daily planning we go outside to start washing our clothes. But it is all good because we finally have our machine back. It shocks us every now and then, but the important thing is that is works. :)

We had a baptism this week. A little girl in the branch extension turned 8 years old and she wanted to get baptized. So we had to fill the font and get everything ready for her. And because there is hardly anyone who has the priesthood here the girl asked my companion if he could baptize her. So it was fun to have a little baptism. We had to fill the font with a little garden hose and it took about 5 hours to fill with water. But the fun part was draining the font. We had a lot of help from the members. Someone brought a big hose and we used that as a siphon to suck some of the water out. And during that time we also used buckets to bail all the water out of the font. It took about an hour to get it done, but it was pretty fun.

Also this sunday we did not have our super attendance of 32. We were actually missing many priesthood holders, so my companion and I had to preside, conduct, and bless and pass the sacrament. But these experiences have only strengthened my testimony to know how important the priesthood power is and how there are so few people in the world that have the power and authority to perform the ordinance of the sacrament and the other ordinances of salvation. 

But this sunday not all of the people that we assigned for talks came, so I had to speak for the remaining time. It was not too hard, but I just felt like I talked alot that meeting. I conducted the meeting, confirmed the young girl that got baptized the other day, and I had to fill in the remaining time. 

But that is about everything that happened this week.

I love you all so much and I hope that you are enjoying your summer. Stay cool for me because here it is super hot!

Love

Elder Snyder

Zone Conference with Pres. Myers

Inside the Casa de Oración (our church)

The outside of the church

The baptismal font

Week 54: Miracle at the Casa de Oración and ...I fell in the channel!

Hola!

I want to start things off by saying your prayers have been answered. We got our AC fixed!!! haha! We can finally sleep super well at night. This week was a little crazy with all the Guaymas stuff. When I got back to the house on Tuesday, I felt a little sick because I had not slept well the past 2 nights because I was with my generation one night then on monday night we slept in the house of Macapule. But it is all good now.

Our mission president changed last week also. I still have not met our new president, but he is coming to Los Mochis tomorrow. So afterwards I can tell you a little more about him. 

This week we also had intercambios with the zone leaders, and I stayed here in 4 Milpas and Elder Robbins came to work with me. He is from Canada. But it was pretty fun... the intercambio. I got to show Elder Robbins how enormous our area is. And afterwards, he kept saying that he is ready for president to send him to a pueblo and that he wants to have the entire mission experience, which includes serving in a branch very far from the city. But it was pretty awesome because one of the members in 4 Milpas has a friend that she wanted us to go visit. Her name is B. So we went to visit her, and we realized that she lives super close to the casa de oración.  So we got there, and she was saying how she wanted to go to church with us before we even started teaching. She has had a lot of difficult things happen to her in her life and she says that she is ready to change her life for the better. She accepted a baptisimal date for the end of this month. And she went to church yesterday. 

We also have another person that we are hoping gets baptized this week. Her name is T. She has been an eternal investigator. She has been attending church for about a year and she likes everything about the church, but she is just not 100 percent willing to give up her vices. She has a baptismal date for this saturday, and we have been working with her to get excited to be baptized. We hope that she will be ready to be baptized this week.

This week we had a miracle happen at church. We were all sitting in the casa de oración waiting for everyone to arrive to start the meeting. And as the meeting started, a bunch of people started to come in. We did not have enough chairs for everyone to sit. We had to take some chairs from the primary room for some of the kids to sit. We had 32 people in our meeting this sunday!!  Now I know that it is nothing compared to the 1800 that you all saw last sunday in Bear Lake, but 32 is a lot for our little casa de oración.

Well, I have a really funny story for everyone. So last night it was about 8 and we had to head back home. (It is about an hour bike ride from where we were.) And to leave we have to cross the channel. And we always cross on this little wooden bridge that takes you to the other side. It is about a foot and a half wide and is made of all different sorts of random planks of wood. So my companion and I decided to ride across it to get to the other side. So when I went to cross, my bike tire fell into one of the little holes in the bridge and I lost control and fell 5 feet down into the channel with my bike. haha! Luckily, I did not submerge and my scriptures did not get all wet. They were the first things I took care of after I fell. But yeah, I fell in the channel and the only thing that was wounded was my pride. I now cannot make fun of all the other missionaries that have made the same mistake as I. But I hope you all get a good laugh out of it. :) Afterwards we called one of the few members with a car to drive us back home. I was pretty upset at myself the whole night, but its okay because all is well in Zion. 

I hope that you all had a great time at the family reunion. I look forward to hearing about it from the rest of the "tousins." Love you all so much!

Con Amor 

Elder Snyder

P.S. I didnt take pictures this week because my camera broke. The button to take pictures would not come back up. But I got that fixed today. It was just a faulty spring so dont worry mom haha. I will take more pictures this week