Monday, December 1, 2014

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

PICTURES....COMING SOON

OCTOBER 27, 2014

 OCTOBER 27, 2014

well, i'm getting transferred! I've spent 6 months in this area. it's bittersweet. I need to be transferred. I need a change, and new people to work with.  However, I love this area so much. so much. I love the people here. it's hard to imagine; Those who have served missions can definitely relate...but serving in any area, especially one that you've been in for 6 months, you develop such deep of a love for the people that your serving. it doesn't make sense. why would you love these people so much? only seeing others through the eyes of Christ would allow you to do that. all of my investigators, all of my converts, all the members...they're all going to be sorely missed. I love them dearly, and leaving will be difficult. however, it's what the Lord has asked of me, and it's definitely what I need.
 
we didn't have a baptism this Saturday, but that's okay. Sister Sinclair still wants to be baptized, and it's just post-poned a couple weeks. Hopefully i'll be able to come back and see the baptism though! and I'll definitely come back to visit.
 
I've been blessed to see 8 baptisms in the Parkwood area, and 4 in the Alamo 2nd ward (since I've been living in this apartment). I don't know why the Lord has allowed me to see so much success, but I definitely feel blessed for Him allowing me to.
 
I'm gonna try to get as many pictures of the members and investigators and people I've worked with since I've been here in the upcoming couple days, hopefully i'll get a bunch so I can send them next week!
 
have a great week!

OCTOBER 20, 2014

OCTOBER 20, 2014

hey hey! so it was a bittersweet week in the life of elder snow this week. on monday night, elder funk got a call from the assistants to the president saying that he was going to be emergency transferred to austin, full bike. Elder funk's bike was broken, and he has 7 weeks left, and all he wanted to do was finish his mission in this area. he wasn't so happy. i was upset too. elder funk is my best missionary friend, and i was soooo sad that he had to leave. so he packed up and left at 9 am the next morning. i went with them to drop him off. it was so sad. i had to see my good friend leave. and for some reason, his leaving really freaked me out. i've lived with him for 6 months and known him my whole mission, and when he left i just like...idk. i had a pretty bad anxiety attack on wednesday, it was super weird. super super weird. i dont' stress about anything! i always just thought stress was made up, but man i guess i experienced stress for the first time ever! hahah. i got all sick to my stomach and stuff...but after talking about it a little bit, i felt better. i'm doing good now :)

so the important things that happened this week...first, "R"'s baptism. so i guess i never talked about him before, but "R" is legit. when i was in alamo 2nd ward, the singles ward, with elder funk and elder mccombs, he just walked in to play basketball with us on a pday once. it was crazy. i guess he lived in the apartments near the church, and someone invited him in as he was walking by and he just balled it up with us! and ever since then he's been there every pday to play basketball with us haha. anyways, we started teaching him, me, mccombs, and funk. while i was there he accepted a baptismal invite to be baptized, and we taught him everything...and saturday he got baptized! he's super cool, he and i are tight. i love that kid haha.

alright so the coolest thing ever happened this week. we've been working with the sinclair family for a while now...brother sinclair is a member.  His wife, Gretchen, has been in contact with missionaries for a while, but didn't really start letting them over until me and elder vega started working on them. we're super tight, i really like Sis Sinclair a lot; she's super cool. well, this week we had 2 really powerful lessons with her. she's made a lot of progress the past couple weeks, she's come to church for all 3 hours and watched conference and has been reading, so we went into our lesson thursday night planning on finishing the plan of salvation lesson with her and inviting her to be baptized. 
 
we taught it well, she had a lot of good questions, and at the end we talked to her about baptism. after a while and some really good questions, she said "i want to think about it a little more." so we were excited about that, because we could already see on her face that she wanted to be baptized haha. we met with them again on saturday. we were going to teach the gospel of jesus christ, so we read 2 nephi 31 with her and her husband and kids and stuff. again, really good questions, she was doing great. then when we started talking about the holy ghost, i felt like we should go into more depth and talk about what kind of feelings the holy ghost gives us. so we flipped to galations 5 and talked about the fruits of the spirit. then i asked her "have you felt any of these feelings as you've been meeting with us, or coming to church, or reading the book of mormon?" then she proceeded to tell us this super spiritual experience she had had, and she didn't know it was the spirit until recently. 
 
We testified to her that it was the spirit, and we testified that everything we've shared with her will help her come closer to God, and that baptism will help her feel of the spirit more in her life. then i asked her again if she would be baptized on october 25th. she said "when are you leaving elder snow?" and i said "i don't want you to make a decision because i might be getting transferred soon, i want you to do this for you." and she said "no...i want you to be there. i mean...i never thought i'd be where i'm at today, i never thought i'd be this close to becoming a member of this church...but since you've been here, everything changed. we really want you to be at the baptism. yes, i want to be baptized on the 25th of october." i seriously almost cried. i was so honored haha. it feels pretty cool to have someone tell you that. it feels cool to make a difference. she's getting baptized! i'm so freaking excited!

that's it for me this week! seeya!

OCTOBER 6, 2014

OCTOBER 6, 2014

heyhey! interesting week in the life of elder snow, that's for sure! so, we didn't have a ton happen this week, except for one cool experience with an investigator, which i'll get right into...

There's this guy named "G." He's like..63 years old, looooooooves the missionaries. he has been affiliated with the church since 1986 when he and his wife (mostly his wife) were being taught by the missionaries in california, but he never got baptized. he eventually got divorced, continued to work, and then went back to school to become a catholic priest, believe it or not. 7 years of seminary later, he was a priest. he practiced as a priest for a while, then he retired, and some missionaries knocked into him where he currently lives in the Parkwood area a couple years ago. nobody has really seen any progression with him, but he's just a super nice and charitable guy, so i've been dropping by him every so often since i've been here. he and i have become very good friends, and he has a lot of family in the area, so we've been trying to work with them as well. he's been telling me for a few weeks now that he wanted to see the temple here in San Antonio, and i've been kind of blowing him off because i didn't think it would be the best use of our time. he's already seen like 3 temples, he's already been taught all the lessons, he already knows what we do in temples, what's the point right?

i'm an idiot, i know, but i kind of just never got to it. Well, we got to it this week. we went out to lunch with him tuesday, then we all went to the San Antonio temple together. we walked around the temple and took pictures and all that good stuff, and then we found a shady spot to sit, pulled out a temple pamphlet, and taught him about temple work. the spirit was strong, and it was very peaceful as we were discussing important gospel truths with him. he then started to open up to us, which is not uncommon because we are very close, but he said some things that were very interesting like "there's definitely a different spirit about this place...it feels very peaceful and happy," something along those lines. then, in the MIDDLE OF HIM OPENING UP TO US, my companion cuts him off and says "do you want to touch the temple?" i was dumbfounded. i'm seriously just screaming in my head "What are you thinking? you ruined the moment, he was able to open up to us, you RUINED it!" but i didn't say anything. i kind of just looked down and controlled my rollercoaster of emotions that was currently being battled out in my head, and then "G" said "well sure! i've never touched a temple before!"

I reluctantly got up, and walked with them to a place where we could touch the temple. elder duncan touched the temple and closed his eyes and i was just like "you gotta be kidding me." then, G proceeded to do the same thing. i stood back and let them do their thing. i thought it was a dumb thing to do to be perfectly honest. boy was i wrong. G actually stood there for a good few minutes with his eyes closed and his hand on the temple...and he had one of the most spiritual experiences of his life. we were then able to teach him more about the spirit, how he speaks to us, and how we can recognize spiritual promptings. we told him that one day he would be able to enter the temple, that baptism wasn't the end goal, but that the goal is to go to the temple. we were able to set him with a date of baptism for the 25th of october. he's now a progressing investigator. after 28 years of being affiliated with the church, this is the closest he's ever been to being baptized...and it's all thanks to elder duncan. i thought he was gonna botch it hard, but he ended up being the hero. it was a brilliant idea haha.

anyways, that was my cool experience for the week. general conference was fantastic! i hope you all had as great of a time there as i did. 

have a great week everyone! stay safe, have fun. love you!

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

heyhey! another sweet week! ...well sorta haha. so i was pretty dang sick last pday, not gonna lie. i wasn't actually able to go out to work until like...Thursday. i was in sick almost all of tuesday, then i got super sick tuesday night so i was in sick all of wednesday resting up. Then Thursday, we had a big huge zone conference thing that was like...7 hours long. it was alright....but we had a super super sweet opportunity to see the "Meet the Mormons" movie before it comes out! man it was incredible! it was such a good movie, like, such a good movie. i'm super excited that the church is releasing it soon to be in theaters. i highly, highly encourage all of you to go and see it, and invite friends with you to see it as well. it's a super good missionary opportunity! and if they're not going to be playing it in a movie theater near you, you can request it to play in theaters near you and they'll do it! it's an incredible movie, i hope you all take the time to see it. super funny and entertaining, but spiritual and informational as well!

The other sweet thing that happened this week was this Saturday...we had another baptism! Sue was baptized in the Alamo 2nd ward. i had the opportunity to actually find, teach, and attend sue's baptism, which is super cool. we've become super good friends with her and Carlie and Ryan, her two fellowshippers who invited her to start coming to church. they're all great. i haven't been able to visit with sue since they put me back in the Parkwood ward, but it was great being able to see her and everyone at the baptism saturday. she asked me to give one of the talks, too. it was way cool. i've never done that before. they didn't give me a topic to talk about, however, so i kinda just stood up there and made it up as i went haha. i talked about the tree of life (lehi's dream, 1 nephi chapter 8, and also chapters 11-14 for nephi's interpretation of the dream) and how she had just entered the gate. i then talked about enduring to the end, and how the iron rod would help her do that. i'm not sure what else i talked about. i felt like it went pretty well. then sue gave her testimony at the end...it was freaking incredible. way way way sweet. i'm so excited for her. she's my 21st baptism! way cool!!!

Sunday night we had the opportunity to teach the Sinclair family again. it was great. super super good lesson. i'm getting to that point in my mission where i actually sorta feel like i know what i'm doing now haha. it's nice. we taught the plan of salvation up until the atonement. sister sinclair had a lot of really good questions. she's a very very intelligent woman, so it's awesome to be able to help guide someone and help them come closer to Christ. she's doing very well. Brother Mati, our ward mission leader, did great in the lesson as well. he committed them to come to church for 4 straight weeks...first general conference, then 3 more weeks, so she can see what a full month of church looks like, with all of the topics and lessons and stuff that we go through. i really feel that if she follows up with that commitment she'll be baptized, so we're super excited to see that one go through. 

that's about it for me this week! hope y'all have a great week! love you!

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

September 22, 2014

This week was pretty dang interesting! elder funk, mccombs, and I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of success in our last few days together, so that's great. we were able to keep teaching our main investigators, and they're all still set to be baptized so that's awesome :)

So wednesday... i gotta talk about wednesday. Wednesday was flippin LEGIT. So, the alamo 2nd elder always do the "border run," which is the day before transfers. the border is pretty far away, all of those areas and such so what we do is transfer everyone who's going to and from the border the day before transfers. i'm not sure why. but it's sweet. and i was able to go! so me, elder funk, and elder mccombs took all the people going down to the border, dropped them off, and picked up the other ones. it took ALL DAY. it was so much fun, we had a blast. i drove the way back, so that was fun. we just all piled into a big 12 passenger van and had a good time! i got lots of pictures so hopefully y'all enjoy :)

i received my new companion, elder duncan, on thursday. he came down from Austin, so i didn't meet him until like 5 PM thursday, but that was okay. It was nice having a little bit of time with elder mccombs and funk again haha. He's been out about 15, 16 months, but I'm the senior companion, so that's a little weird. iIm not sure why they did that, but it is what it is. The last few days have been a little slow...we didn't have a whole lot going on in parkwood, so we've just been biking, knocking, and walking. It's tough getting back on the bike after having the car for 5 weeks haha. my rear hurts again. that's all right; I'll get used to it. Elder duncan is a hard worker and a good guy..

That's pretty much it for me this week! I'm super sick today - not sure what happened but i think i might have the flu or something...hopefully i get feeling better, i don't know if i'll be able to go out to work tonight. i threw up this morning and have been dizzy and achy all day, so hopefully i'll get better. and yes mom, i've been taking oils haha.

love you all! have a great week! seeya!

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

We had some pretty awesome lessons with "S" and "M" again! they're both still set to be baptized in the upcoming couple weeks, so we're super super excited about that :)

we got transfer calls last night. flippin nuts. elder funk and elder mccombs are both staying in the alamo 2nd ysa ward, and they will be receiving a new companion. i will be back to covering just the parkwood ward again, and i will be receiving a new companion...and i'm going to be senior companion apparently, so the guy will be younger in the mission than me. i'm not quite sure how i feel about that, not quite sure how i feel about still living with elder funk and mccombs either haha. they're  like...my best friends ever. they're also my companions at the moment. it's gonna be really hard for the next two guys to come in when we've all already been companions, and the fact that me and elder funk have already lived with each other for like 5 months haha. but i think it'll be good. i don't think we have a whole lot of stuff to do in this area...sooooooo i'm probably gonna be knocking a ton of doors. and i'm back to riding a bike. man do i hate the bike haha. it's alright though. we'll survive. 6 months in parkwood, woooooooooooh!

anyways, love you all! have a great week!

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

September 8, 2014

okayokay, so it was a pretty eventful week!

this week we were able to meet with quite a few people, but the lessons that stick out to me the most we were "M" and "S". "M" was a media referral we received, she was taught the first 3 lessons in Houston and then moved here for school...she's super sweet, and super golden! we met with her Thursday night, and we were on splits so it was just me and a member named Savon (Savon is freaking legit, he's actually a top 15 football prospect in the nation right now for college football. he's awesome, he and i are super tight). We went in to teach the lesson, and since Savon is a convert he was able to relate soooooooo well. i could have just sat there and let him take the lesson; it's good practice for him when it leaves on his mission in a couple months haha. just kidding, we taught together. he killed it though. we were able to set a target date of October 4th for her baptism, and she seems super golden! we're super excited! so we leave, and as we were heading out and walking back to the car, we realize....that the car isn't there anymore.  It was Savon's car. we were like uhhhhhh what the heck happened. Turns out it got towed hahha. mannnnnnnnnnnn i felt terrible. so we knocked on M's door again and were like "hey, so we got towed, can you give us a ride to the church?" hahahah it was hilarious. it was good though because Savon got her number (thattaboy) and was able to chat with her some more. He's gonna be a sweet fellowshipper for her.

Then we met with "S". S is super super super super golden. she just came to family home evening one night with her friend K, and we've been meeting with them ever since. she comes to every FHE and institute every wednesday, and she's reading the book of mormon like crazy. this last lesson we just answered a ton of her questions about the book of mormon, then we set her with a date for the 27th of september. after we left she texted us telling us she couldn't wait to be baptized. wooh! we're meeting with her again tonight, so we'll keep you posted :)

other interesting things to note; i'm officially the driver of the car now, elder mccombs license expired, so that's like the best thing ever haha. i missed driving so much. also, tomorrow we're teaching flippin' seminary. i'm not happy about that. i'm supposed to be there at 6 am tomorrow and do a 30 minute lesson on DC 4. what the heck. it's like 7 verses. what. i guess we'll just rely on the spirit or something, i dunno what the heck we're gonna do haha. 

that's it for me! have a great week!

love you!

Monday, September 8, 2014

BAPTISMS ON BOTH SIDES OF SAN ANTONIO! (September 1)


September 1, 2014


okay! it's been another crazy week!

BUT, super fun!  Very productive and successful!

So, here goes!

This week, on August 30th we had a couple baptisms in the YSA Alamo 2nd ward (if you all remember, I am now covering both Parkwood ward and Alamo 2nd ward). The two baptisms were Joseph and Jonah. Therefore, most of the week was devoted to planning for the baptisms. 

On Wednesday night, we went to institute.  The building where we meet for church, the UTSA chapel, is actually the building that all of the young single adults go to for institute in ALL of San Antonio.  As we were waiting, this girl walks in and I recognized her from somewhere...As I was trying to figure out where…. I remembered.  That’s Sister Harston from 1st ward! Since I was only in that ward 6 weeks, I didn’t think she would recognize me, so I figured would just chill. But, when she saw me, she started freaking out saying "oh my gosh elder snow! it's good to see you..." blah blah blah.  

Mind you, I only met her two times.  Her family fed me twice (once being on mothers day) We talked for a minute, and she proceeded to tell me that even though I was only in the ward for a short time, and I didn't have the opportunity to get to know most of the people there, I had a huge impact on her. I guess something I said or did really had a big affect on her.  It was super cool to hear. She just continued to thank me profusely for everything i did.  I swear, all I did was make jokes and sing with Elder Montgomery for the spiritual thought, so i really don't know what she was talking about!  Then she went about her business.  It was super super cool, and it felt really good when she told me all that.

A couple minutes later, speak of the devil, I get a phone call from the missionaries FROM that ward – the SA 1st ward (my old area).  They called and told me the Pinguelo family, who I taught all the lessons to when I was in 1st ward, was going to be baptized on August 30th, and they asked ME to baptize them. I was blown away. super honored that they asked me to do it. I obviously accepted and rearranged the baptisms that we ALREADY had planned for the same day.

OK, fast forward to August 30th: the day of the baptisms. It was a hectic hectic day haha.

We had to fly down to the south side of San Antonio for the Pinguelo family baptism, which started at 10am. I was there, got all dressed, and baptized them.  I didn't have time to stay for the rest of the baptism.  I had to say my goodbyes and head out. We had to hurry back to our baptism, on the north side of San Antonio, where we hosted the service for the baptisms of Jonah and Joseph.

It was super super powerful – an absolutely incredible baptismal service. They both bore their testimonies at the end, and the spirit was present, and it was very very powerful. It was an incredible day!

By the way, Joseph  and Jonah were referrals we got from other sets of missionaries who were teaching them out of their areas (apostates, haha just kidding).

Also, throughout this week, we were able to find a new investigator, “S.” She goes to St Mary’s University, and is friends with members.  She’s great! She already wants to be baptized. We're super excited!

This coming Saturday (may have to be pushed back), we have a baptism scheduled for a girl we've been teaching named “B.” Then, the following week (September 13), we are going to be having a baptism for this sweet guy named “M,” who is totally ready to be baptized. He comes to church every week, even after he works a whole night shift at his job! Talk about dedication! He's the freaking bomb!

As far as the Parkwood area, we haven't had a ton of time to work in it, but it's still doing super good. We had an awesome, awesome lesson with the “S” family last night!

That's everything! Hopefully you guys had a week as great as mine Love you!

Photos (Click to enlarge)

















 

AUGUST UPDATES!


AUGUST 4, 2014
So this week not a toooon happened, as far as missionary work; we had to do a bunch of miscellaneous stuff throughout the week. so one of the missionaries last sunday, elder steggell, was called to be an AP, so another missionary has been living here the past week and we've been doing a lot of going back to his old apartment, getting his stuff, blah blah blah, lots of weird stuff. one time this week another set of missionaries car broke down, so we had to help them fix it and that took nearly the entire day. so we had a bunch of stuff like that happen unfortunately, but that's alright.
one cool thing that happened though.  Saturday, elder vega and i had a pretty long day...on our way home we got some icecream. a whole tub, half gallon tub, of bluebell chocolate chip cookie dough. we got back to the apartment and demolished it in one sitting, we ate the ENTIRE thing hahahah. insane. i've never eaten that much icecream before. i definitely didn't feel that good afterwards though haha.

anyways that was pretty much everything this week! we got transfer calls on sunday, and elder vega and i are staying another one together! we're suuuuper stoked! gonna do work!  We were blessed with a lot of baptisms last month, and we gotta keep up the work!

D&C 4
 4. For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

Hope y'all have a great week! love you!


AUGUST 11, 2014

yoyo! we had a pretty sweet week and we had some pretty funny stories, so i'll just hop right into it.

so first off we had transfers this week. elder funk received his new companion, elder McCombs, who is suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper legit. i love the kid, he's super cool ahah. he's the perfect perfect example of balance...unfortunately you see a lot of missionaries that turn into robots and lose their personality because they're trying so hard to be perfectly obedient, but every so often you find one that just does it right. he's obedient, loving, charitable, super nice, but he's also understanding and super cool and just a real fun guy. we're definitely going to have a great transfer, that's for sure!

okay so we've met some more than interesting people this week..”K”, “A”, and “J”. “A” is about 40 years old; he stopped us while we were biking one day and asked us if we could come over and start teaching him, so we were like oh wow, sweet, yeah! so we went over there, and he's like..well he's interesting.  We were teaching the restoration and talking about prophets, then he kind of proclaimed to us that he thinks that he is a prophet and wondered if he could write his own books and add them to the book of Mormon.  “J” was a referral we got from some other missionaries.  We ended up going by a few weeks after we get the referral, knock on his door, and we hear from behind us "oh, it's the mormons!" and we turn around to see this sweaty older guy wearing short shorts and no shirt, but he has this teeny tiny little black leather vest unbuttoned on haha. “K” was a media referral we got, and he told us he wanted us to come by as soon as we could because he was interested in meeting with us. When we finally find his apartment, we knock on the door and he answers it with no clothes on but he's got a pillow covering his lower area, and he says, "yeah guys it's not a good time, come over Monday night" and he closed the door. Yes, we do have some funny experiences.

But, we did have a great lesson last night with the “S” family.  It was a really really powerful lesson on eternal families.  We’re pretty excited about them. 

Anyway… that's me! Have a great week, love you all, seeya!

AUGUST 18, 2014

CRAZY week!
Alright, so some changes have been made...
We got a call on Wednesday at 10:30 am from the assistants to the president. The call went a little like this.
"hello this is elder snow"
"hello elder snow, this is elder steggell! so we're making some changes. elder vega is going to be transferred, another missionary went home for medical reasons, and we need him to fill his spot. meet us at the mission office at 12:30 with all of elder vega's things. elder snow, you will now be companions with elder funk and elder mccombs (the guys i live with). you three will now cover both the parkwood area and the young single adult ward, alamo 2nd. see you at 12:30! click."
We were dumbfounded. This totally came outta left field, we had no idea. The other crazy thing that happened is i got a call the day before from Elder Montgomery saying he had to go home early for medical reasons Basically, within a day, I lost two companions. Elder montgomery is home until further notice, and elder vega was transferred to fill elder Montgomery's spot in san antonio 5th ward.
It was pretty tough, not gonna lie. elder vega was like one of my best friends, we were super tight and the ward loved us being together, but the ward especially loved him. so he was pretty bummed out…especially since we had just gotten calls the week before saying we would be together for another 6 weeks.

On the bright side of things! now i'm with elder funk and elder mccombs, and we have a car! woohooo! no more bike… no more bike! i'm so excited. and these two guys are great, oh man. it's seriously so much fun. elder mccombs is one of the zone leaders of our zone, and elder funk is our district leader. it's pretty legit. they're both super super good missionaries, and they're way chill and fun and obedient. They are the epitome of balance. We’re having tons of success! now that we're covering both wards, we have tooooooons of work to do. we're literally just teaching all day, it's nuts. And, we have 3 baptisms planned for this transfer, so i'm way excited for that.
That's basically it for me this week. Teaching lessons and baptizing with elder funk and elder mccombs! having a blast, working hard serving the Lord!
hope yall have a great week! love you!

Latas


AUGUST 25

so this week..wasn't crazy eventful or anything, it was just a really good week haha. it's been an absolute blast being with elder funk and elder mccombs. they're both really seasoned missionaries, and they know what they're doing, and they know how to have fun while working hard. we're pulling the highest numbers in the zone for two weeks straight, it's been great. we have 4 people with a date right now, and as of now they're all set to be baptized. we're super super excited! I'm having so much fun. Nothing better than doing the work of the Lord, and having fun while doing it! love you guys! have a great week!
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Monday, August 11, 2014

THE MANTLE OF A MISSIONARY - JULY 29TH


JULY 29TH
My goodness, it was a great week! Alright, I'll tell you the two most major things that happened this week; they were incredible!

I had the awesome, awesome opportunity to witness the baptism of the “M” family, this past Saturday. This was hands down the best baptism I've ever attended or been a part of in my entire life. All week we were giving out invitations to the baptism, and the family invited like 20 people themselves to the baptism, so we were anticipating quite a bit of people to come. We set up a ton of chairs in the relief society room, because that's where the font is. We underestimated the amount of people that would attend. Seriously, nearly the entire ward was there, on top of non-members, other missionaries, and family friends! We had to move the service into the CHAPEL to fit everyone; it was insane!
It was SO powerful. The talks were phenomenal; the spirit was so strong. Then, we all walked over to the baptismal font, and all the chairs were taken and tons of people were standing all around to see. Elder Vega and I were the witnesses, and one by one we saw all 5 family members (who are old enough to be baptized) go into the water. A family friend came all the way out from Virginia, and he performed all 5 of the baptisms. He did them all in one go. The spirit filled the entire room. It was incredible.
Brother “M” was the first to be baptized.  As he came up, I looked over at sister “M” who was going to be next, and she was bawling. Then, I looked at the rest of the room and everyone was crying. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Even the other missionaries, who do this stuff all the time, were crying. It was insane. They were all baptized and entered the kingdom of God on the 26th of July, 2014. After the service, we had a little refreshment thing in the cultural hall, which I have a couple picture of to show you how many people came to the baptism! It was awesome. Relief society did a great job; it was pretty much a ward party. ahha.  It was great!  And, we got some new investigators that day, too!
The next day they were confirmed in church.  Our bishop did the confirmation of brother and sister “M,” and Brother “B” did the confirmations of the children. They. Were. So. Powerful.  Brother “B” gave the most beautiful confirmations I've ever heard in my life. You could tell he put a lot of spiritual preparation, and probably a lot of studying and fasting to be prepared to give them the confirmations they needed to hear. I wish you all could have been there; I was nearly in tears as I stood in the circle. There were things that he said that you knew he couldn't have known; there were things that each of those children needed to hear directly from their Father in Heaven. It was so incredible.
Finally, the other cool thing that happened: on church this Sunday, we were publicly congratulated and praised in priesthood for the work we've done in this ward, and the 6 baptisms we've seen these last two weeks. But, that wasn't the cool thing; I'm just leading up to something else.
After sacrament, there was a little boy; I've never seen him my whole life, he's not even in our ward...He came up to elder vega and me, with his family, and his mom said "can he take a picture with you guys?" We were like "uh, sure!" and she was like "we'll tell you why after the picture."
So, the little boy, maybe like 5 or 6 years old, has an iphone and takes a selfie with us. Then, his mom said "you guys just made his week. You're his heroes, he loves you guys. Thank you so much!" and they walked away. It melted my heart. I didn't know that little boy; I didn't even know that family. But he came up to us and wanted a picture with us because we were his "heroes." I just about cried. It was so humbling.
Then, after that, one of the girls we baptized last week drew a picture of her holding hands with elder vega & me, and gave it to us.
I realized yesterday, for the first time, the kind of mantle I bear as a missionary. You feel like you're the same person as you were back home, just refined and a better version. You don't feel like, when you're set apart, that you now "have the mantle" that everyone talks about. I still felt like mason. And, slowly as you continue your mission, that mantle becomes stronger. People constantly tell you they feel different when they're around you, and i'm like "psh, okay, I’m just some kid who actually reads his scriptures, that's all." but no, I finally realized it. As Mason Snow, I wouldn't be anybody to these people in the Parkwood ward. I'd be any other person there. But as elder snow, there are kids asking to take pictures with me, drawing me pictures, and praising us for the work we do in priesthood and over the pulpit. It isn't me that they're praising, though. it's the mantle that I bear. It took me 10 months to realize that, despite what I want to believe, I AM different as a missionary. I am a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ, and others recognize that. How grateful am I to bear that mantle and aid our Savior in His work.
I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Snow

Monday, July 28, 2014

July 21st - 2 baptisms!

July 21, 2014

hey hey! this week was pretty dang sweet!
This week has been all about the baptisms coming up. We've been planning and coordinating the baptisms for "N and "P" (sisters), as well as for the baptism for the "M" family on the 26th. You'd be surprised how much work goes into these things! Baptisms are a really really good opportunity to share the gospel, because a lot of non member friends come to them. we try to make them as good as we can and also invite as many people as we can to these baptisms.

On saturday, we were able to hold the baptism for N and P, and their grandpa was able to baptize them. it was super cool. he's been a member for about 3  years or so, so it was very cool that he was able to baptize his granddaughters. super powerful baptism, the spirit was very strong. the sisters who initially found the girls and taught them were also able to make it to the baptism, so that was super super cool! I've been very, very blessed to see a lot of success on my mission so far. i don't konw why i have, i'm not really sure what determines how much success you see on your mission, but the Lord has seen it fit for me to have quite a bit, and i'm very grateful for that. stay tuned for next weeks baptism for the "M" family; we're SUPPPPERRR excited for that one! it's the biggest baptism in the mission for the month of july, so we're super super excited.  Even President Slaughter is coming to that one! :)
Side note, we had a crazy crazy thunderstorm/rainstorm thursday night. like, insane. i didn't realize how mild of weather i had back home till i came here. they have all the extremes it seems like, at least to me ahha. i went to bed early that night cuz i was exhausted, and at like 2 am i woke up to our apartment shaking because of how loud the lightning strikes were. it was shaking the apartment! absolutely insane. coudln't get back to bed for like 30 minutes at least because they were so loud. oh, and it just dumped rain that night too. we woke up and tons of stuff was flooded haha. just absolutely insane, super cool rainstorm. one bad note - the storm ruined our air conditioning. we haven't had A/C since the storm, and it SUCKS haha.  The tempers are as high as the temperature in the apartment, tell you what. haha just kidding..sort of. nobody is mad at each other, just easily frustrated and kind of mad, period. like this morning i woke up and it was 90 degrees in the apartment, and i didn't sleep much last night, and i woke up at like 530 to work out and i wasn't in the greatest mood. i had to work out really hard to get it all outta me haha :D
anyways hope y'all are having a great week! love you! seeya!

July 14th - Knocking on doors...

hey!
Good week in the life of Elder Snow!
This week, we had a lesson with a part member family, the"S"  family.  Brother "S"  is a return missionary who has a super sweet testimony, they've just been struggling a bit. We haven't been able to get over there for a lesson, but he asked us to come over last wednesday and we had a lesson with the whole family! They are a blended family with 7 kids, and they're only in their 30's!  it's crazy. we had a lesson with all of em! it was a really really good lesson, we brought our ward mission leader and he just killed it the whole time; it really helped the lesson out and helped with fellowship. Brother "S" after a little bit just straight up asked "elders, we wanted to see if you guys could share a message on bullying." We ended up scratching the lesson plan and showed the mormon message about bullying. The kids were all into it, and we taught about our heavenly father's love for each and every one of us. It must have hit em all pretty good, because after we said the closing prayer they all started apologizing to each other and giving each other hugs for not being nice, hahaha it was great! we're meeting with them again this Tuesday!
 
This week we also had the baptismal interviews with the "M" family! they're good to go for the 26h of july! we're super super excited! ahhh man i can't wait to get that picture with all of them dressed in white, super stoked!
other than that we've been working real hard to build up our teaching pool because so many people are getting baptized, we won't have anyone to teach after they're baptized! we're doing a lot of finding, knocking doors and looking for the elect. hard work, but it's worth it!

the past couple weeks i've been in a little slump, i realized it's because i've been slacking on my fitness goals. so the fire has been rekindled (agaaaaaaaaaaain) to get ripped! haah i know i keep saying that, but man it's hard to do on the mission. working hard, hopefully i look better when i get home than when i left :D
love you all! have a great week! seeya!

July 7th, 2014 - Happy 4th of July

JULY 7, 2014
 
hey!

so we had a pretty dang good week this week.  Although we didn't teach a lot of lessons, we definitely had a lot of success! This week, we set a date with the "M" family for 26th of July. ALL of them are going to be baptized! we're so excited! everyone is finally ready, and they can't wait to be baptized. They even have their friends coming in from Virginia to see the baptism; they are the people who introduced them to the church.  Super super cool! They are so ready.  I'll be able to see them through the temple next year! how awesome is that? Man, I can't even explain to you how stoked I am for this baptism.
Ihad an epiphany this week. I probably should have known this before, but it just took me a little while to understand it. So on the 4th of July, I'm not gonna lie, i was not in the greatest mood. the 4th is literally one of my favorite days of the year back home. i love being in a swim suit all day swimming at grandmommy's house, eating burgers and homemade ice cream, hanging out with friends and family all day, and watching the fireworks over at the park, RIGHT underneath where they shoot them off. Seriously, it's like the best day ever. You can literally FEEL the patriotism in the air. it feels different when you walk outside on the fourth of july, it just does. i can't explain it, it's just different. 
 
So, when i walked outside to go out to work on the 4th, I could feel the same thing - only thing that's different is that i was a missionary and i can't do all those things anymore. it made me kinda sad, and it just got worse and worse as we were riding the bikes. everyone was out, bunch of kids and young adults driving around having fun listening to music all loud, and we got made fun of quite a bit. lots of honking, lots of pointing and laughing, and that sort of thing. you kind of get used to it on the mission, because lets get real, we look super weird riding bikes in church clothes...but it kinda got to me on the 4th of july because i was already a little upset. and we had 0 success. 
 
So the point is, i didn't want to work at all. like, NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST. all i wanted to do was go swimming and eat homemade ice cream. and what made it worse is that i felt bad for feeling that way, if that makes sense. I was like "man, i'm a missionary, i should love doing this work right now, even if it IS the 4th of july." i was upset that i didn't want to work. but i kept working. and when i went in that night, i got my epiphany.
 
I realized something...it's completely okay to not want to do things. it's okay to not like certain aspects of the gospel. it's okay to struggle with some things and wish you didn't have to do it sometimes. even Christ when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane asked for the cup to pass from him. he didn't want to suffer anymore, he wanted to quit. but he said "not my will be done, but thine." he submitted to the will of the Father. we all have opportunities to do the same. there are many times when we don't want to do things, but we still do it. We swallow up any sort of pride we have, and we just submit our will to our Father. this isn't doctrine here, but i think that He is more happy in that moment, that moment where you chose to be obedient to him EVEN THOUGH you didn't want to be, than in moments where it's easy to be obedient, where it's easy to do the things he's asked. i finally realized it's okay not to be perfect, it's okay that sometimes i hate riding the bike in 100 degree weather (okay, all the time. i don't like riding the bike haha). but i'm still gonna do it anyways, and i know that my Heavenly Father is proud of me for doing that.
sorry for the little bit more solemn letter this week, but i thought i'd just share that with you. love you all, have a great week, and keep doing good! seeya!

Elder Snow

ps - here's some pictures of me on the fourth of july haha.

Monday, July 7, 2014

THE TEMPLE WAS AMAZING...6/30/14



JUNE 30, 2014

gonna be honest with ya, not a ton happened this week. it was pretty slow with transfers and stuff, and we had this weird thing go on with being in a trio for 3 days with Elder Blakely because his companion went home. So, we actually worked in TWO areas from monday-thursday morning, so we taught quite a few lessons in spanish this week! It was pretty interesting...i didn't understand a whole lot haha. by the way, my trainer, elder wright, finished his mission last week! he's gone, he's back home in idaho, how crazy is that?!! ahhhh
okay, so the coolest thing ever happened this week. although just about all our lessons cancelled, and the "M" family was out of town so we couldn't teach them, this made everything alright....

I was sitting in the chapel yesterday and the meeting is about to start in like 5 minutes, and as i'm sitting there, i look over at the door and see BROTHER JUSTIN KENDALL WALKING THROUGH THE DOOR! I did a double take and was like no way, no way, there's no way that's brother kendall. so i freaked out and jumped up and ran towards him and gave him a big hug and he was like "oh man, we were definitely steered here; we weren't even going to come to this building, but we couldn't find the other building so we ended up here!" (or something like that). so we chatted for a bit and talked, and then sister kendall and the kids walked in after that! man it was so cool to talk to them. They were saying they were thinking about moving to this part of San Antonio, not necessarily the Parkwood ward, but somewhere around there. I was definitely trying to sell them on moving into my ward haha. they're so great. just imagine, any of you return missionaries reading this...imagine your favorite member family from your first area of your mission just walking through the doors of your chapel when you're serving in an area like 40 miles away, and you hadn't even talked to them in months. it was the most mindblowing thing ever, i couldn't believe it happened haha. so so cool.
this week on wednesday i had the opportunity to go to the temple..all i can say it was amazing. the new video was incredible. i just, ahh. i learned so much and it's just the spiritual recharge i needed. after a while of being on the mission and being exhausted and doing the same thing, sometimes it gets hard. but after going to the temple it rekindled the fire i needed...it was so great. i'm so grateful that i live near the temple so that i was able to attend it.

thank you guys so much for all your support and letters! i love you all, have a great week!

seeya!

BEST NUMBERS IN THE ZONE...


JUNE 23, 2014

hey hey! This was a FANTASTIC week everyone, my goodness. We're absolutely killing it!

First things first, we got transfer calls yesterday. Elder Vega and I are both staying! woohoo! what a relief. I totally figured i'd be getting transferred every 6 weeks the rest of my mission after last time haha. i'm glad we're staying together though, we are working super well together, and i'm learning a ton from elder vega. it's been a fantastic transfer, and i can't wait to continue working with elder vega these next 6 weeks!

So, we had the best numbers in the zone this week! elder vega and I worked are frikken butts off, and it paid off. We got personal calls from the assistants to the president telling us how proud they were of us and our hard work. it was awesome! we're just killing it right now, we're so blessed to be in Parkwood. There is so much going on, it's awesome. i love it.

This past Tuesday, we had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Jackson, one of the AP's (assistants to the president) in our mission. He's actually from Encinitas; I've talked with him before. he's suuuuuuuuper legit. he went to LCC high school and he's gonna go to the university of utah on a football scholorship after the mission. he's basically perfect. super handsome, super ripped, and a stud missionary. he taught us so much on that exchange, he really changed the way we worked and helped us improve as missionaries. fantastic fantastic exchange.

so elder vega and i have been working real hard on our personal goals, one of mine being that i want to be super ripped. so we've been going super hard! i'm down to like 178 pounds now. i'm running a few miles every morning, lifting weights 3 times a week with elder vega, and biking a tooooooon for the missionary work. i think i've put on like 5-10 pounds of weight in my legs alone from the bike. my legs are getting really big. like, i thought i was good in memorial..but being in a FULL bike area has made it even better haha. super cool! gonna keep eating good and working hard, hopefully i'll be shredded in a few months haha.

we had some great lessons with “J” this week. although he can't be baptized for a little while, he's progressing like crazy and can't wait to be baptized.  We had two very powerful lessons with them this week. Our last one, we watched the talk "i will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" by president monson, then we talked for a little bit about the enabling power of the atonement and how christ is always on our side. then we sang "i need thee every hour" and we prayed and left. Sister “B” was in tears. she texted us later thanking us profusely for coming over and for the "inspired message" we shared with them. it's incredible being able to influence people's lives positively guys, honestly. it's so great. there's no greater feeling.

oooooookay, funny story for you guys. LAST saturday (not the one we just had, the one before) we knocked the door of a guy named AB, a former investigator. He answered the door and seemed like this sweet sweet old man who told us that he just had gone through chemotherapy, so he asked us to come back the next saturday at 4 o clock. So, we just stopped by this past saturday (two days ago), and this time when he answered the door, he was in a flippin suit, not pajamas this time.  He sits us down, tell us he's a 7th Day Adventist, and then says he has a lot of questions for us. So, we pray, and we start to talk. He tells us he's a bible teacher for his church, and he has a PHD in bible studies.

As soon as he said that i was just like "ohhhhhhhh man i'm in for it, i'm sooooo in for it right now, this guy is gonna try to bash me" annnnnnnd i was right. haha.

He just kept asking questions without letting us answer, and he started talking about adam and eve and stuff, and i told him we'd love to answer his questions using BOTH the book of mormon and bible, and he was just like "no. i want you to prove that mormonism is true using ONLY the bible." and i said "sir, i won't do that. Our special message is that the gospel has been restored, and that we can obtain this knowledge by studying and praying about the book of mormon, which contains many precious truths lost in the bible." and he said "so you're telling me that the bible doesn't have EVERYTHING i need for my salvation?" and i said "sir, i believe that if the bible had everything i needed for my salvation, i wouldn't need the book of mormon." and he pretty much freaked out haha. we basically just testified to the guy, and i refused to bash back with him. he was throwing out scriptures, but i wasn't gonna fall into that trap; i wasn't gonna bash. He pretty much told me he wasn't gonna read the book of mormon because he's already read from it and knows it's not true.

Then, he said "you guys need to study the bible. like, you need to actually read the bible. i know your church says you can't read from the bible except for a certain verses that help prove your point, but i invite you to ACTUALLY read the bible for yourselves to know if what you're preaching is really the truth." and i said "sir i've read the bible, and i've read the book of mormon. i know them BOTH to be the word of God, and nothing in either the book of mormon or the bible contradicts each other. however, we'll do that. we'll be better students of the bible, because you're absolutely right - i study the book of mormon more than i study the bible. can we offer an invitation to you as well?" and he said sure, so i said "we invite you to read Ezekiel 37, and also to continue to read the book of mormon and pray to know of it's truth. will you do that for us?" and he said "you know what, i will. why don't you guys leave me with one of those pamphlets every week as well, and i'll do all the studies in the back of them and compare them with what i believe in the bible, and we can talk about it every saturday at 4:30." hahahhah so after all that, after him bashing us like crazy, he committed to read the book of mormon and all the pamphlets and study the extra sections in the back. the only thing he wants us to do is study the bible more. psh, i'll take that deal any day. so i started reading the bible again, and it's been great! instead of reading ALL book of mormon all day, i read half and half. it's improved my studies a lot!

That's all i got for you guys this week! have a fantastic week! love you!






Monday, June 16, 2014

SO MANY BLESSINGS...


JUNE 16, 2014

Hey-hey!

So, this week we set some more baptism dates! We set “N”, “P”, and “K” (family) with a date for the 12th of July. We're super excited! “N” is 10 years old, so she would be the only convert baptism, but we're still super super excited! Also, I heard that the “P” family that I taught in 1st ward is getting baptized either the 5th or 12 of July, and also the “Mc” family is getting baptized the 5th of July.  That’s like 10 baptisms in July! How awesome is that?!?!  I’m so excited; so so excited.

Side note: if you all didn't know, the Spurs won. Dad, you were right.. you told me I'd become a spurs fan on my mission. I didn't believe you. I'm definitely a spurs fan - haha. 

We taught a lot of lessons this week! We're super excited. We've been blessed so much in this area, and it's so motivating to keep working hard when you see success like that. Setting dates with investigators and having lessons, there's just nothing better!

We had a lesson with the “Mc” family this week on eternal families. We decided to have a whole lesson on it and talk about that and the temple. It went great. We really got to see what their questions and concerns were. The BEST part about it though was that he and his wife prayed together.  Sister “M” told us they had a great experience and definitely felt the spirit when they did it. She said they felt a lot of peace with their decisions so far, which is great! We’re so happy for them.

I'll have you all know that I’ve re-dedicated myself for the next month to go hard in the paint, fitness wise. I've been lifting 3 days a week and running 2 miles a morning, two a days a week, and biking all day, but now I’m really gonna push it and be super strict with my diet. I've slacked a little bit – I still eat real healthy at the apartment, but I've been cheating too much on dinners and meals with members/investigators. So, I wrote up a diet and workout plan and I’m sticking to it! Hopefully, I see some good results!

That's about it for me this week. Hope you all have a great week!
Love you!
Elder Snow