Week 45: One more week till Mother's day!

Bueno!!!

Well I am super excited for mothers day as well. We will be calling on Sunday, not Tuesday, so we'll have to figure out a time. And that is pretty cool that you got to see my area on Google maps. Our house is pretty much in the corner of our area so we have to walk pretty far to visit some people. But I really like my area, only in Obregón there is a lot of dust. 

So to start off this week we rented a washing machine. Last week we could not find a single member who was home that could let us use their washing machine and we had about two weeks worth of dirty laundry so we had a ton of clothes to wash. Also all of the places that wash your clothes for you are super expensive. So we ended up looking for someone who rents washing machines. We saw a house that had a bunch of washing machines on his porch and asked if he would rent us one. Then after a  bit of bargaining, we got the washing machine for super cheap for the whole month. So we are super stoked. We have been using it pretty much every day haha. 

Well this week we had intercambios and I was so happy when it ended. I went with one of the weirdest people I have ever met in my life. I feel bad for his companion because he is going to develop the patience of the Savior. I barely lasted a day with him, I dont know how his companion is going to last. 

Also this week I did something that I have never done before in my life. I played the piano in sacrament meeting. No one in our ward plays the piano, so I offered to play this sunday. And lets just say that it didnt go as well as I would have hoped. haha. I made quite a few mistakes. I think it had alot to do with not having practiced to much on the keyboard they have at the church. But it turned out alright. I dont think they are going to ask me to play next week or the week after that, but I am going to keep practicing. 

This week we also had another miracle happen. We had a family come to church!!!! A mother, a father, and their 3 kids. They are friends of a recent convert in the church. And she invited them to come. We have not taught them yet but we have a FHE planned with them tonight. I hope that everything goes well and that they can accept the gospel. We have been praying for a miracle that we can have 4 baptisms in May and we feel like this family could be the answer. 

Love you so much 

Let me know what times would be best to call you guys. :)

Elder Snyder

Our Kitchen

The washing machine I rented. Best decision ever. 

Week 44: First week in Sochiloa, Obregon

Hello. 

Well this week was super exciting and yes, Elly is right, you pronounce Elder Tellez´s name like Teyez. He does speak English...After high school he went to san antonio in texas to study english, so he speaks pretty well. Also I dont know if you know, but Mothers day in Mexico is always May 10th. So I am not to sure about when we can call, but I am pretty sure that that day falls on a Tuesday. But in the next zone conference I know that they are going to talk about that.

So, this week was very interesting. First of all, our house is super close to everything. We have a little store that is right in front of our house and we also have a hot dog stand that sells hot dogs for 11 pesos right in front of the house too. We are about 15 minutes away from the mission offices by bus and we live close to the Church. So you know what that means...every morning at 6:00, its Sochiloa A Elders Vs. Sochiloa B Elders at the church. It is super fun. We play basketball for like a half hour or so in the morning, then we shower and eat and study and do all the other fun things that missionaries do. 

Well I feel like we are pretty much starting from scratch here in Sochiloa. Elder Tellez and I started our transfer together with a prayer and a fast that we are going to work as hard as we can and we have asked the Lord to help us find the people that he is preparing to be baptized. We have done alot of walking this week. Probably more than I have ever done in my entire mission. We walked so much that I have started to get blisters. In this area there are hardly any people outside, so when we see someone we take advantage. But we have recieved alot of references this week. We want to start working with the members more in this ward, so we have made plans to make our pastel de galletas marías (the lime cakes) to give to some of the members. Hopefully, we can excite them with the work and they will have more desires to look for people that we can teach and come with us to teach.  Oh, I am the only gringo in the ward haha. So this will be a new experience, but all of the ward members have told me that I speak really good Spanish, but I also think that they just have not had an american in their ward for quite some time haha.

One of the miracles that happened this week was that we were walking (big surprise, I know) and we were so tired of walking that we decided to sit down and rest in front of a house. Then an old woman opened the door to the house and we started to talk to her. She then told us that she was a member of the church and has been inactive for many years due to her health. So she invited us in and we talked for a little bit, then she asked if we could give her a blessing. We then gave her a blessing and she told us that she almost never gets up to check to see who is outside of the house. The chances that we were at that house at that time of day and we decided to stop and rest there are pretty much impossible. And it was so amazing how the Lord puts worthy priesthood holders in the paths of the people who need our priesthood service.

Well I dont have any pictures of the house. Sorry! We had such a busy day today that there was not even time to take pictures. We spent most of the morning cleaning and looking for a member that could help us wash our clothes. Also the assistants called us yesterday and told us that we were going to have interviews with the president today so that only complicated our busy schedule. And when we arrived at the mission offices for our interviews, the president told us that he didnt have us scheduled for interviews. Turns out the APs made a mistake, but the president was like "oh well, I still want to talk with you." He told us that he knew that we were companions in Libertad and that He knows that Sochiloa needs our help. He asked us what we are doing right now and what our goals are for the area. All and all it was a pretty cool talk/interview. 

Then we went shopping. And at the beginning of transfers everyone goes crazy with buying things, because everyone wants to buy things that will last 6 weeks. So we got together with the Sochiloa B Elders to go shopping. Also it turns out that Walmart and Sams are right next to each other like they are in Los Mochis so that was good. So we bought all of our things in bulk at Sams, then all the other things that we needed at Walmart. We ended up getting so many things that we need for our house and food that we wanted to eat for the week. But luckily we planned ahead to call a taxi. So right when we finished shopping, our taxi pulled up and me and Elder Tellez and the Sochiloa B Elders loaded the car and went to our houses. It was so nice to not have to deal with the struggle of taking the bus. And it saves so much time. 

But that is pretty much all that happened this week. I promise that I will send pictures next week. We are still in the process of cleaning. And there was no time to take pictures. But I will take pictures of the house and our morning Basketball games. We could really use your prayers to help us find new people to teach. Also I really do not want to walk as much as we walked last week. Haha!

Love you so much.

Elder Snyder

Week 43: Transfers! New City, Old Companion!

Elder Tellez and I - companions again!

Hola 

Well today we had Cambios, and I honestly could not be happier and more surprised with our transfers. Well, my time in Los Mochis has finally come to an end, and I have been sent to Obregón, in Sochiloa. But the best part is that my companiona is Elder Tellez!!! Again!!

I still can hardly believe that we are companions again. I am so excited to get to work with one of my best companions… again!! 

The past week in Libertad went pretty well. We were able to teach the son in law of one of the recent converts in the ward. I have never seen this man before, but it just so happened that he stopped by right when we stopped by. We started to ask him a few questions, then he opened up and told us everything. He told us how he has made a lot of mistakes in his life that he still feels the pain of, and he told us that he worries everyday that one day he will wake up and die and never see his family again. We were able to share with him the wonderful message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I shared Matt 11: 28-30 and explained that Jesus Christ is the only person that can lighten our load, and that we can be healed completely of all the pain and guilt that we feel from our past errors. Then my companion was able to share and testify how families can be together forever. Unfortunately, he does not live in our area, be it was quite a miracle that we were in the right place at the right time to share this message with him. 

Well we just had transfers today and I just arrived in my area so there is not much to tell. I was traveling pretty much all day today. But I arrived at our house to discover that it is awesome! It is a little small, but not as small as my house in Macapule. But it is super awesome because we have gas!! It is one of the only houses in the mission that has gas, so cooking is going to be alot easier. We also have an oven and a huge fridge. I am going to take pictures next week after we clean ;) haha! 

But that is about all. I will write more next week when I get to know my area and my ward. 

Thank you for all your letters and all of your prayers. Love you so much.

Elder Snyder

Reunion with my trainer, Elder Lowry

My District in Libertad

Week 42: Reunions and A Real Mexican Mariachi band

Hola

Well this week was pretty great. I got to see Elder Lowry again. He had special transfers with the Zone leaders in another zone. Because the rumor is that his old companion is going to become an assistant but we wont know til next week. (Transfers are next week.) But it was super cool to see him again. 

Also last week I didnt have time to write everything but the family that we live above, their daughter returned home from her mission in Columbia. So her parents had a big party, made dinner for everyone, and even called a mariachi band to come and play. 

As for our investigators... We have new investigators in the church each week, but we can't seem to get our old ones to return. It is really frustrating not to have people progressing towards baptism. 

Also we had interviews with the Mission President this week. And he asked us all the normal questions like how we are, how is our area, what can we improve. Then at the end, I asked the president if he could share how he receives revelation for the transfers. And he told me that he starts by listening to all of the zone leaders and the assistants that tell him about the missionaries. Then he begins to fast. Then during his fast, he starts to figure out where all the missionaries are needed. And he says that sometimes he feels that he needs to give leadership positions to Elders so that they can develop more talents with their new responsibility. Then when he finishes he continues to pray until he receives a confirmation that everything is right and he feels calm. I don't think I described it to well, but the process was pretty cool. 

We also had a zone meeting on friday and we got to practice with one of the sister missionaries who is new in the mission. She arrived about 6 weeks ago and she reminds all of us of how we first were when we arrived in the mission field. She hardly knows any spanish, but everyone is helping her and encouraging her because we all know how hard it is entering into the field with a new language. 

And to finish off...Today we had a zone activity. We all met at the church. We then had to clean the entire church, because we can only have a zone activity if the zone has alot of baptisms and/or if we give service. So the service that we always give is cleaning the church. But afterwards, we all got to play volleyball, then we all ate carne asada. I am really sad because I did not bring my camera, but I have pictures of the mariachi band that came last week. 

Thanks for writing me and keeping me updated with all the things that are happening in your lives. 

Love you all so much

Elder Snyder 

Week 41: Conferencia! Lots of Teaching, and April Fools

Hola!

I hope everyone had a great conference weekend because everyone here did. It was so great to get to listen to all of our church leaders and that we can recieve revelation through them. Thanks for all the pictures that you sent. I really enjoy seeing everyone. I did not realize that matthew was so tall. When I first saw the picture I thought it was Josh. haha! 

Well this week was one of our best weeks of teaching lessons. We were able to teach alot of our investigators and many members were able to come with us to teach them. The sad thing was that we had to drop a few of our investigators because they were not progressing. We had to drop one guy that we were teaching and it was really sad because he was about to finish 1 Nephi in the book of mormon, but he would not come to church with us because he would go to mass every Sunday and he was not willing to go to our church. Then we asked him that if he recieved an answer from God would he be willing to come and see. And he still said no. 

But this week many of the missionaries played April fools jokes that are all pretty funny. So I would like to tell a few. First, so one of the district leaders called one of the companionships in his district. He then told the missionary he was talking with to change the name that was saved in their phone for the DL to President Munive. So the hermana changed the name of the district leader to the name of our mission president. Then 10 minutes later The DL called back and the other sister thought it was the president calling. Then the district leader's companion (who has a very good President Munive impression) began to speak with the hermana. He then told her that she would be having a special transfer and that her companion would be going to obregon the next day. Then still using his president munive impression, he told the sister that there was someone else he wanted her to talk to before he hung up. He then passed the phone to his companion, and his companion then said April Fools and then hung up. :)

The other April fools joke happened in the other zone. One of the Zone leaders was going to pull a prank on one of his district leaders. He then told the district leader that one of the sisters in his district had a really bad experience and she wanted to end her mission and go home and that she does not want to talk to anyone. The district leader was then all surprised and said that he would call the ZL back in 10 minutes. He then called the Zone leader back and told him that he just finished talking with our mission president and that the president was going to go to the sister's house and talk to her. He said that the president was in a nearby city and was going to hurry to Los Mochis to talk to her. The zone leader then started to freak out because he was like, "oh great! now I have to call the President and explain all of this to him." But then the district leader said April fools. haha! The district leader countered his prank. The hermana that was supposed to be the person who was going to go home early from her mission called the district leader 10 minutes before the zone leader and asked, "Did the zone leaders do the prank yet?" haha! So the district leader was ready and had prepared a prank for the zone leaders.

And General Conference was the highlight of my week. All of the American missionaries went into a room to watch conference in English, and there turned out to be 12 of us in all. I really liked the priesthood session, Elder Uchtdorf was super funny. It was also funny because my companion and I arrived late because we were bringing an investigator with us. So I walked into the english room where conference was on the television screen, sat down, got out my note pad, got ready to take notes then I realized that it was in Spanish. Then the same thing happened with a zone leader that arrived late. He sat down, got out his notes, he even started to write down notes, then he also realized, "wait, its in spanish." We ended up watching the whole priesthood session in spanish because we could not figure out how to change it back to english. 

Then sunday morning when the conference started we still could not get it back to english. So the members and the workers were trying to get it back into english and they thought they had fixed it…And we were all waiting for the opening prayer and then when the prayer started, it was in french!! Ahhh! We all started laughing because now we really could not understand anything. Then they switched it back to spanish and we heard all of Pres. Monson's talk in spanish, then after he finished speaking they got it back to english. So I got to hear the prophet speak in spanish this conference! 

But I absolutely loved everything that was said. I especially liked what was said in the sunday morning of conference. Everyone gave such great talks. It was funny towards the very end of the sunday sessions, everyone in the english room started to chant very quietly, "Holland, Holland, holland" then the choir began to sing, and everyone was like there is just enough time left for Elder Holland to speak. And we all started cheering when they announced that he was going to speak. He gave such a great talk. The way he started we all thought he was going to planch us. (planch is what all the missionaries say when someone gets roasted, or chewed out.) But no, he ended the conference so perfectly. I really love the way that he speaks and that he is so direct with everyone. 

I am so happy to know that we have living prophets today. That we are part of the same church that Christ established so many years ago. And that this is the only church that has the priesthood authority to preform saving ordinances.

Well that was my week.

Love you all so much

Elder Snyder

Week 40: Felices Pascuas (Happy Easter)

Hola

This week was very different. Here in Mexico almost everyone is catholic and Semana Santa (Holy Week) is one of the only weeks when everyone goes to church. But still so many people don't know a lot about what they are celebrating. We had so many people tell us that Jesus died on thursday and was resurrected on saturday. Also there were people in the streets dragging a cross behind them and a bunch of other strange stuff. And on Friday and Saturday there was no one in the streets because everyone went to the beach.  But we had a lot of lessons this week and 2 of our investigators went to church, so that was great. Luz is someone that Elder Tellez and I were teaching, and she always told us how she wanted to come to church, but she never came, so we kind of stopped visiting her. But this week Elder Lopez and I prepared a lesson just for her about the Sabbath and we were so happy when we saw her walk through the doors on Sunday with one of the ward families. 

Gustavo also came to church. Gustavo is so awesome. He told us that he wants to change his life and he accepted our invatation to be baptized. The only problem is that he is pretty much impossible to find in his house during the week. We will go looking for him in his house like 3 times a week and will never find him. But on Sunday, we go by his grandma´s house and there he is. So it is pretty hard to teach him during the week. But we are happy because it is his second time coming to church and he is trying. 

Oh something funny that happened this week was that one day we had to return to our house for something. And when we turned the corner, we could see that 3 people were knocking on our gate. As we got closer, we realized that it was the Jehovahs witnesses. So we got to have a little fun. We walked up to our house and opened the gate like we owned the place (because it was our apartment). It was super funny to see their faces all super confused, they then asked us, "Excuse me do you live here." And my companion replied, "Yes, Are you looking for someone?" Then all super confused they looked at the man who seemed like he had the most experience, who then asked if he could give us a pamphlet. And we were very respectful and accepted and then he began to explain what it said. And he started with a question. "Who do you believe controls the world? God, Human beings, Or some unknown force?" (The Jehovahs Witnesses always ask questions in this form and the answer is always none of the options that they give you….pretty deceiving.) My companion then answered, "God." And the Man then asked us, "How could God be in charge of the world if he lets so many wars, terrorist attacks, and children die. Then I answered that God allows all of that to happen because he gives us our agency. It was kind of funny after because he was like, "um yeah that is true, but we know that satan controls the world." Then he explained a little more and said that if we wanted to learn more we could go online. But it was a funny experience. I am so grateful for the knowledge that we have about the Savior. And how we have hope that through Christ we can overcome our weaknesses and be cleansed of our sins. 

I know that my Savior lives. I know that He suffered and died for our sins and that he was resurrected. And because he was resurrected we will all be resurrected. I love being a missionary and I am so happy that I get to serve here in Mexico.

I love you all

Elder Snyder

p.s. Elder Lopez and I made a type of cake that they make here in Mexico. We made 4 of them and gave them to the members in our ward. It sounds kind of weird because it is made out of crackers, but it is so good. 

Week 39: Getting ready for Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Hola cómo están todos!

Well it is starting to get a little hotter here in los Mochis and its making me kind of scared for summer to return. :( Also, I finally went to see an optometrist here and it turns out I need glasses. It is going to be a little weird now that I have to wear glasses, but in the afternoon I honestly cannot recognize people in the street until they get alot closer. It is mostly just annoying. I know that other people get headaches when they cant see that well so I am grateful that that is not a problem. 

As you all know the church has made a new video for the Pascua (Easter). So all this week we have been sharing this video with all the members and have been giving them cards that they are supposed to give to their friends, so that they can see the video also. I hope that everyone back home can do the same and share this great video. 

This week we had a few more lessons, but we are still having trouble teaching our investigators more than once during the week. It is just that everyone here is so busy. They are all trying to finish with their work so that they can enjoy semana santa (holy week). These next two weeks is when everyone starts to leave for vacation. So we are going to have to work extra hard to find more people to teach. 

Our Investigator Ramiro has been working so much. He works from 8 to 8. And most of the time he gets home really late. Sometimes we go by his house at 9 at night and he is still not back. He still wants to get baptized. He likes all the youth that are in the church and he is going on a campout with them this week. But he didnt go to church last week because he had to work. We are just waiting till he can attend church enough times so that he can be baptized. But his mom has started to listen to us. She has started to come out and talk to us some more, so that is great, but we still need to teach her and invite her to be baptized. 

One of our investigators, Gustavo, went to church yesterday. His aunt that lives in North Carolina, who is member of the church, brought him. So we were so happy to have someone there with us. He stayed for all three hours and it was kind of a miracle that he came because we were not able to find him at home this whole week. 

We are also super sad because one of our investigators is going to change their house. And it is sad because it is a couple that has a little daughter and the man (Geovan) is member but he went inactive right after he was baptized about 8 years ago. Geovan went to church with us one time, but has been working alot and his wife, who is not a member, said that she will support her husband in everything including going to church and getting baptized. They are great people, but they are going to move, so it is a little sad for us that we won't get to teach them anymore. 

Oh this week we also had intercambios. I stayed in Libertad with Elder Garcia, our district leader, who is also in Libertad. It was nice for Elder Garcia to get  to know a little better our ward. 

Well that is about all that happened this week. I'll let you all know how our semana santa goes. There are going to be less people, but that only means that we will have to work a little bit harder. 

I love you all.  Hope that everyone has a great spring break.

Les amo

Elder Snyder