Week 17 - The Missionary Tower

Our Missionary Tower

Hola ¿cómo están?

That is so cool that Jon is back. Make sure to tell him hi from me. And wish Noah the best from me as well. 

So, the sisters in our district had their house robbed about two weeks ago. Luckily, they said not too much was stolen. But they said that someone had tried to steal their air conditioner because they found it outside their house. I don't think it was the same sisters you all heard about because our sisters were living in a house, and I know that they don't have an ipad. I'm actually pretty sure that no one is allowed to have an ipad in this mission because if they did someone would definitely try to steal it. But ya, in answer to your question, I feel very safe in our area and our apartment. Alot of people live in our complex, so it would be kind of hard to steal anything and because they all know that missionaries live in our apartment. And for extra safety, we also have a picture of Christ in our window :) so I dont think that we will get robbed. 

So this week we had a few long days. We pretty much walked all day and could not find anyone to teach. There was hardly anyone in the street that we could talk to and nobody was home or they just didn't answer the door, so for like two days this week we were just walking for hours in the blazing sun. Also this week the heat decided to return for some reason, so we have been battling that as well. But we were able to find someone new to teach this week. We were with a member and we went to visit an investigator that we had not visited in a long time, but she was not home. So then we decided to go to the home of a recent convert/less active member. (The retention here in mexico is not very good. For this reason people have to go to church 5 times before they can get baptized, but sometimes that is still not enough. So if you have any ideas that can help with the retention of members that would be great. Because it does not benefit a person anything if they are baptized but do not keep their covanents.) So we arrived at his house and he was asleep, but his step daughter was home and we asked her if she had ever spoken with missionaries before. And she told us that she has talked with a lot of religions but none could answer her questions. Well that phrase was like music to our ears, so we asked her  "well what questions do you have?" And all her questions were like Where did we come from? and Who is Jesus Christ and why is he so important in so many religions? So it was really awesome to teach her about the plan of salvation. And it seemed to all make sense to her... everything that we were explaining. 

So she all of a sudden had a huge desire to learn about our religion and she asked for more pamphlets and has been reading in the libro de mormón that we left with her. We even brought her to a baptism that the other ward was having to see an example of a baptism. But for some reason we seem to always lose our best investigators. So her name is Kimbery and she is moving to some place in Tijuana because she has some family problems here. So we are going to lose her in about a week. :( I'm happy we can at least teach her right now. But we are still looking for people that want to learn and actually stay in our area. And I feel really blessed because I have been lucky to have three baptisms already where as my other friends in other areas havent had any, so I am really grateful for that.

We also had an actividad de zone today where we cleaned the church, played some soccer, and ended up making a human tower. We made this human tower because we were playing with a vollyball in the multipurpose room and one of the sisters hit the ball into a screen that covers the vent and the screen fell off. Well, we did not have a ladder, so we did the next best thing and built a tower out of missionaries because the ceiling is like 15 feet high. So because I am one of the tallest and one of the lightest, I was on the top. I will send a picture so that you can understand what I am trying to explain. 

Also there is a tradition here in Mexico called "The Bite" that when it is someone's birthday they have to take a bite of the cake without their hands and then their companion shoves their face into the cake. So it was really funny because there are 3 birthdays this month. One set of the sisters was really funny. The sister went to take a bite of cake and yeah her companion shoved her face into the cake, but then her companion did not feel like she had enough cake on her face, so she shoved here face into the cake again only with alot more force. It was just really funny because it was like 1...2 times that she had her face shoved into the cake. Then at last, it was time for the other elder to take "the Bite" and he said that he wasnt going to, but then his companion told him to do it and four other hands from all the surrounding elders shoved not only his face, but his entire head into the cake. It was just so funny because no one was expecting that and he had cake all over his face and his hair. 

So this week was pretty fun and also this week is the last week of my training. We have cambios this Sunday, so we will see if anything changes or if it all remains the same. Thank you for all your letters and sorry this one is so long.

Love,

Elder Snyder

Week 16 - The coolest fast Sunday ever!

Hola!

This week, we had another junta de zona. It was great. I always love to see all the other missionaries that are serving in our zone and alot of the missionaries that were from my generation in the CCM. Also it was funny to see them lugging this huge suitcase that was full of Libros de Mormón for our zona. But we learned alot about how we need to use our ward mission leader and members of the ward to help us find and teach and help our investigators feel comfortable in the church.

Yesterday was fast sunday and it was honestly the coolest one ever. First off Carlitos was confirmed a member de la Iglesia de los Santos de los Últimos Días by his dad and it was so awesome to be a part of it. Next, all of the stake presidents in our mission were meeting that day so they were attending our sacrament meeting and our mission president was there too. Then to add to that I didn't realize this till after, but there was a member of the 70 of Mexico who was presiding at the meeting. So it was so awesome to hear everyone share their testimonies most of which were about how they know that prayers are answered by seeing the baptism of Carlos. And then at the end, one person got up who we had never seen before and she bore her testimony of how she felt the same as Carlos to know that she needed to be baptized. She felt the same way that after the missionaries left her house she tried to run and find them to tell them that she wanted to be baptized. She said that she has been less active for many years and this meeting reminded her so much of the love our Heavenly Father has for each and every one of us. Then the member of the 70 got up and started saying "Brothers and Sisters, we have witnessed a miracle today..." and talked about everything that happened in the meeting. It was super cool and the spirit was so strong in the room. 

So Sunday afternoon Elder Lowry went to Cuidad Obregón to renew his visa along with all the other american missionaries in his generation. So I spent the night and today with the Elders in Barrio Central. It was really cool to see their house and how it is much bigger than ours, but also to go to a different area even if it is across the street from us. And it is really funny because all the missionaries ask each other what they do on Pday because everyone is looking for something fun to do. It is really funny when we read the mission handbook and read about things you can do on Pday like go to a zoo or a museum. We always just laugh because there is nothing like that here. So we usually just stay in the house and study and read the Liahona. It sounds kind of boring, but I really like having the opportunity to read the messages that we recieve every month from our church leaders. But when we find something cool to do, I will let you know, but for now all we do is study and buy food for the week. 

Love you all so much and I hope that everything is great at home. 

Con Amor

Elder Snyder

p.s. Mom, I still haven't gotten my package because there were so many packages for our zone that the zone leaders could not bring them all back, but I think Elder Lowry is going to try and bring them back today.