Week 93: Conference!

"Tall and handsome"  haha! What can I say?

Hola

I hope you all loved conference. It was really awesome. I had to listen to it all in spanish, but I could understand everything that they were saying. It is crazy to believe that my first conference I did not understand any of the talks and now I can understand all of them. 

We had a pretty great week this week. Starting off, we were able to find many new investigators this week. We also were able to have our first Branch FHE. It was really great. Most of the branch members were able to come and we were able to teach them about the importance of a prophet and how they can take full advantage of the conference talks. Also one of our investigators went to conference and really liked it. We hope that he can continue to progress. 

Of all the conference talks, the one that I liked the most was by Elder Rasband when he talked about obeying the first prompting of the Holy Ghost. I think that listening to the Holy Ghost is the most important thing that we can do in our life because the Holy Ghost will always guide us to make the right choice. It can also be one of the hardest things to do because it involves lining up our will with the will of God. I know that the only way that we can respond to the first prompting is by being obedient to the commandments and having a complete desire to do what it right. I also know that we will be happier if we live in this way. Our Heavenly Father desires us to be happy and if we do what we wants us to do we will be blessed. 

We are also planning a branch mission activity. What we want to do is some sort of "meet the mormons" type thing, but we want to do it here in Etchojoa. The town is kind of small so everyone kind of knows everyone. So we want to have an activity were we show all the different members of the church and what they do in their everyday lives. We still have not planned out all the details but when we do, I will be sure to let you all know. 

Today for our PDay we went to Alamos, which is a little town that is like an hour away from Navojoa. It was really cool. We went to see the catholic church (I know…it seems like we go and see catholic churches a lot, but there are a lot of them here), and we were also able to climb up one of the hills that is in the middle of Alamos and see the entire town. Also something interesting happened up top. One of the Zone leaders got to the top and then had an asthma attack and did not have his inhaler. So we brought him a plastic bag so he could breath in and out. Then when he had calmed down a little bit, he asked me to give him a priesthood blessing. So we went to a place where it would not call the attention of all the rest of the people and i was able to give him a blessing. And in that moment a miracle occurred. Like a minute after I had given him the blessing, his companion, out of nowhere, pulls his inhaler out of his backpack! His companion was like, "what the heck is this doing here?!?!" It was truly a miracle because he was able to receive instant relief. But it was a really fun activity. I will send you more pictures when I can get everyone else to send the ones that they took. 

Love you all. I hope that you all got the best out of conference. It truly is such a blessing that we have living prophets on the earth today that are guided to tell us exactly what we need to do and know. 

Con mucho amor

Elder Snyder

Hiking up the hill in Alamos

Hermana U with her super exaggerated tiredness!

My District

Me with Elder Martinez

Week 92: First Week in Etchajoa

This was waiting for us when we got to our house. A present from the previous Elders. 

Hello

Well Etchojoa is pretty awesome. It was very interesting my first few days here. My zone leader showed me around for 2 days. So I had to days to remember where all the members live and how to get around. But I got it down really quick. It was not that hard to learn where everyone lives. The hard part now is to find people to baptize. We kind of struggled this week in finding new investigators, but we were able work with a member and talk with one of the members of her family who is not a member. She seems really interested in going to church. She was not able to go last sunday but we are going to try and get her to go this week. 

Also the branch seems to be like a typical branch. There is a lot of drama between the members but we hope to be able to fix that. One of the member is super awesome. They own a restaurant that is very close to our house and they told us that the missionaries always eat for free :) They are the Velez family. They are some of the oldest members here in etchojoa and they also have a daughter that is out on a mission. The attendance here is around 34 with a lot of young kids. There seems to be an active primary here. We also have bikes. But my bike is not as good as the bike that I had in Alameda. I have had to invest money into my bike but it will be worth it. It is also kind of funny because this is my companions 2nd area in his mission and his first time with a bike. But Elder Martinez is a hard worker. He is going to help me work hard my last few weeks here. Can't believe I only have 11 more weeks. It sounds so short when I say it like that. 

I also forgot to tell you, but I am also the DL here. My district is really small. It is just us and the Elders and Sister missionaries that are both in the Huatabampo branch. My whole district is branches so it is pretty fun.  

Love you so much

I will try to write more next week

Elder Snyder

Week 91: Transfers! Etchajoa here I come!

So I know that you are all wondering what has happened to me this transfer. Well I have been transferred from alameda. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to everyone but I know that our transfers are inspired and that the Lord has work for me elsewhere. I just really hope that the family that we found gets baptized. They are just so awesome, I have faith that they will. 

Well I have been transferred to Etchajoa, which is a small town that is like 30 minutes from Navajoa. It is another branch, but I have heard a lot of good things about this branch and I imagine that it cannot have as many challenges as Alameda. But the most interesting part of this transfer is that I will be opening the area. President Myers did a white wash here. He took out the old missionaries and put us in. So I will be opening with a missionary that is very new. His name is Elder Martinez and he only has had 3 transfers in the mission. But because none of us know the area, right now I am in intercambios with one of the zone leaders who actually served here in Etchajoa. So he is going to be showing me the basics of where everyone lives and what buses to take. Hopefully I dont get lost :) Sounds like it is going to be quite an adventure here. 

Yesterday we had stake conference. So we got to go to Mochis again :) It was really cool because one of the members of the 70 was present and also the president of the temple in Hermosillo. The name of the 70 was Elder Felix. He is from Oaxaca. He gave really great talks. I was able to go to all of the sesions of conference so I was able to learn alot from him. One of the things that we talked about was that we need to align our desires with God's desires and that when we do that, we will be able to experience true joy. He also talked about D&C 9 and that when we want an answer to one of our prayers we must study the answer out in our minds first and then ask God if what we have decided is right. And when we do that 1 of 3 things will occur. 1st - we will have feelings of comfort and peace that will confirm what we have chosen is correct. 2nd - that we will have a stupor of thought and that we will feel confused or frustrated or worried or feel anxiety and that will tell us that what we have decided is wrong. And the 3rd is that as we pray we will feel neither of these 2 things. That when this happens it is because God trusts us enough to make our own decisions and that we have to trust that he will help us make the right choice. He also said that the majority of answers that come to us will NOT come when we are on our knees but when we go out and act. 

Well our house here in Etchojoa is definitely one of the worst houses that i have had. I like to compare it to the 3 degrees of Glory. When you first enter, you enter into the telestial world. The first 2 rooms dont have a floor, the walls are made of concrete and it is full of trash. The next room is the terrestrial world. It has a crappy floor (but at least it has a floor) it has the fridge and the tiny kitchen and all of our materials. Then the last room is when we enter into the celestial kingdom (it is where we sleep). This room has a nice tile floor, with painted walls and the most important thing…AC! I have heard rumors that the Elders before me had a cat and a dog as pets in the house. I will see if there are any stray animals that come lurking by. But one of the first things that we are going to do is clean up the house. 

I am pretty excited to work here. I also know that I am going to have to work hard because my companion is going to need my help. 

Well that is about it. I will let you know of our adventures here in Navajoa. 

Love you so much

Elder Snyder

12 more weeks

Week 90: Uh...Elder, I ripped my pants.

Hola

Sounds like you all had a super fun week. Tell oma and katie hi for me. I really wish that I could have seen the Lamb of God performance. I hope that some day I will be able to see it. 

Well this week was a lot better than the last. We started off the week with exchanges. I went to Estación Bamoa to work with Elder Mull. We had exchanges for 2 days, so I was able to help out Elder Mull who has kind of felt discouraged in his area and I was able to take a little break from all the problems that have been going on in Alameda. 

But the great news is that the family that we have been working with finally came to church!!! The mother did not come but the dad and his 3 daughters came. We were also able to have another guy that we have been teaching come to church. We were both really happy. They also really enjoyed church. Luckily one of the primary counselors came to church so she was able to teach the primary. I taught Gospel principles and my companion taught Sunday school. the 3rd hour was kind of rough because the elders quorum president did not come to church so one of his counselors gave the lesson. It was terrible because we just read the entire chapter in the Gorden B Hinckley book, but we did not die so that is the good thing. 

The only problem this week is that we dont know how our investigatores are going to attend church this sunday. This sunday we have stake conferance and everyone has to go to Mochis to go see it. idk what we are going to do. 

Also this saturday it was pretty funny because we went to visit this family that lives super far away. It is where we have to cross the suspension bridge to get there. The last time my comp almost fell off his bike so I told him to get off his bike this time. So Elder Sosa started to walk across the bridge with is bike. I was in front and had finished crossing and when he caught up to me he told be that he ripped his pants. So I started to laugh and asked him where they ripped. He then turned to the side and showed me that his entire pant leg had ripped open. It was pretty funny. When we got to the house Elder Sosa sewed his pants up and then we were able to go back to Guasave. 

Today some members invited us to go with them to las glorias to eat. So we got to visit the famous glorias. It was the first time that I had seen a beach in years. It was pretty cool and the food was also super awesome. The only problem is that I dont have the pictures one of the other member has them. So when I get them I will send them to you. 

Well this is the last week of the transfer. Next monday you will know  if I get transfered or not. I honestly have no idea what is going to happen. 

Love you all so much. 

Elder Snyder

Week 89: We are teaching a family!!!

Making Gorditas with Luisa

This week has been a week with much excitement. 

We have been focusing a family that has a lot of potential this week. They are a family of five. Their names are Rigo, Veronica, Brenda, Camila, and Valentina. They are really awesome. They always love it when we come to teach them. On Monday we went to teach them and we had a really great lesson. They also committed to going to church on Sunday. They also went to our branch FHE and they really liked it. Then on Friday they accepted to be baptized on april 8th. Then on sunday we passed by for them in the morning to confirm that they were going to go to church. But sadly they did not arrive. We passed by after church to ask what happened. They said that they had someone working on their house and they still had not finished when it was time to go to church and that they did not want to leave their house alone. But they said that they were going to go to church next sunday. 

Also on tuesday half of my district had to go to a meeting with the president in Los Mochis, so I decided to take the other half of my district out to breakfast. 

This week we have a zone conference with the president so that should be fun. 

And today we had a pretty great Pday. We started off the day by taking our friend Diego out to breakfast. He is one of the returned missionaries in the branch. He has been having a lot of difficulties in his family. (he is also the only active member in his family.) So we wanted to take him out to breakfast so that we could talk and cheer him up. Then in the afternoon we went to another member´s house. Her name is Luisa. She was inactive when we found her but now she is super happy and in love with the church. She also invited us over to teach us how to make gorditas. I made the dough and helped cook them. They ended up being super good. We also made a deal with Luisa. She has been having a hard time giving up tea. So we made a deal that we would not drink Coke, unless the members had already bought it for us, and that she would not drink tea. It is kind of funny. We will see how long it lasts because my companion loves coke :) 

I hope that you have a great week. 

Love you so much

Elder Snyder

Our church building

Week 88: A good week and more pictures of suspension bridges!! haha!

Another picture of a suspension bridge (haha!)  with my district

Hola

 

Well this week we had a pretty good week. We have been teaching some really great families. They are always so happy to receive us in their homes and they ask really great questions... we just cannot get them to come to church. It is really sad because they say they are going to come and then we call them in the morning and they tell us that they arent going to be able to. It is kind of frustrating, but we are doing the best that we can and I know the Lord knows that as well. We were also able to find a new family this week. We had contacted someone in the week and we realized that they lived really close to one of the members in the branch. So we went with this member so that she could come with us to help us teach her neighbor. So when we got to the house that we wanted to visit, they told us that they had visitors and that they could not meet with us right then. So when we thought we were going to go back to the members house and thank her for her help she said, " hey lets knock on the house next door, they are my neighbors too, right?" And as missionaries we are always like "why not." So we knocked on their door and they were really nice and let us in. They are a young family and we could not teach too much because they were kind of in a hurry to leave but it was still a good lesson. They told us that they are catholics (just like everyone else) but they said that we could come back again. But what I like most of this experience was how much this member helped us. Her name is Luisa and we found her about 2 months ago. We knocked on her door and it turns out that she is a member and has been inactive for like 10 years. She is 24 years old. She has been coming back to church and she loves it. She always tells us how she has completely changed her life and that she is much happier now. Also, she is super excited to help us out with missionary work. She is always looking for more people that we can teach, different activities that we can do, and how she can help improve the branch. I am glad we found her and the branch is a lot more fun with her around. 

We also had interviews with the president and a zone meeting. It was basically the exact same meeting that we had with all the mission leaders only this time with all the other missionaries. And it ended very well because the president decided to take everyone out to lunch. It was the best lunch of my life. We ate mixtas. For those of you who dont know a mixta is a steak taco but it is filled with melted cheese. They are like the best things that I have ever eaten and we got to have as many as we wanted. :)

Also this week Elder Sosa almost died, not really. It is actually a pretty funny story how it all happened. So we went to visit this family that lives super far away. We actually had the comida with them. They live like an hour away by bike. And the fastest way to get to their house is crossing the famous suspension bridge. So when we were going back to Guasave, Elder Sosa decided that he was going to cross the bridge on his bike. So he started going, but then his tire crashed into the side of the bridge and his bike made an immediate stop and Elder Sosa almost went flying over the handbars. Everything that was in his front pocket fell out including his nametag and the cell phone. The phone landed on the very edge of the bridge and almost into the water. Then when i realized that there wasnt any real danger i started to laugh :) Elder Sosa only got a little scratched up and nothing fell into the water. (We kind of wish that the phone would have fallen in so that we can get a new one but oh well) 

And this pday we had a district activity. Everyone in my district was jealous the last time that we went to Sinaloa de Leyva so we desided to go this time as a district. So yes there will be more pictures of suspension bridges!! haha! I know everyone thinks that it is funny that I always send pictures of the bridges, but it is because their are not that many more things to send pictures of!! :) So we went to a museum in Sinaloa de leyva of the worlds ugliest woman (Yes, its a real thing, I didn't make it up). I know that Sinaloa is famous for the beautiful girls but this time it also happened to have a museum of this woman. Her name is Julia Pastrana, and she was called the ugliest woman in the world, if you want to look her up on the internet. Then we went to the bridge. Then we walked to the top of this hill that is in the middle of the city. Then we ate lunch and went home. It was a pretty good pday . 

Well I love you all I hope that you have an amazing week. 

Elder Snyder

Museum of "World's Ugliest Woman"

Week 87: I love Sundays and Mexican Food!

Hola

This week we started off with intercambios. The other missionaries in my district had another person that was ready to get baptized so we had exchanges to take advantage of the situation. So I got to go to Estación Bamoa this week with one of my good friends Elder Chichia. Estación Bamoa is a ranch that is like an hour away from Guasave. So we had a pretty good time. Their investigator, Jesus, passed his interview and was baptized and confirmed this last weekend. 

Then when I got back to Alameda we had a branch activity, which was our branch family home evening. We have started organizing activities in the branch so that the members can hangout more rather than just on Sundays, and because the church is really far away from everyone, we have been hosting the activities in the houses of the members which are a lot closer. We hope to be able to have these FHEs every two weeks. We had a pretty decent turnout this week and we were able to have a few investigators come. 

On Saturday we were out working when it started to rain really hard. So we took refuge in hermana Pati´s house. There we waited for the rain to stop, but it never did. Then hermana Pati told us that she had to go to the grocery store to buy food to prepare for us the next day. (We eat with hermana Pati every sunday after church.) It was still raining super hard and hermana Pati does not have a car so she was going to walk with her little handcart to the store in the rain, so instead we offered to go because we have bikes. So she gave us a list and when we left the house, I felt like it started to rain even harder. We got to the store soaking wet, bought all of the things that she needed, and went back to her house. I was happy that we could help her. I knew that there was not really much we could do in the pouring rain, but I was glad that we had another opportunity to serve. 

Sunday was a great day also. I just love Sundays. We had a lesson in the morning then we got to go to church and help out with the classes. Then we went to hermana pati´s house to eat fish tacos. I just love the food here in Mexico. it is the best. 

The mission has been going great. I am happy and I know that I am working well. This area has been kind of tough because there have been many difficulties. And even though I have not had really any baptisms here, I have been able to help reactivate quite a few members so that has been were I feel some success. But I am going to keep going out and working hard because I know I don't have much time left. 

I cant believe how quickly the time goes by. I almost dont want it to end because i know that I will not have an opportunity like this in my life ever again. I only wish that I could have had more success in the past 20 months of my mission, but I also know that I have done my best and that there is nothing that I can do to change the past. I love this work and I love Jesus Christ and all that he has done for us. 

I hope that you all have an amazing week. 

Les amo

Elder Snyder

Riding in the back of a truck to Bamoa

Our Branch Activity