Super Successful Week...

March 3, 2014

Hello hello! How is everyone doing? Sorry about last week everyone; I didn't really have much to write about, it was a pretty big transition last week with transfers and everything so i didn't really have anything at all to write about. But, now I do! So, here we go!

My last companion, Elder Wright, got transferred down to Uvalde, which is in the border zone.  He spent 7.5 months here in New Braunfels, and he absolutely killed it.  He built a lot of relationships and found a ton of people to teach, and he was a great guy and did his job here.

My new companion, Elder Wride (I know, I thought i got another elder WRIGHT as a companion when they called his name during transfer meeting, but it's WRIDE, as in taking a ride in the car) just came from Eagle Pass, which is basically Mexico. It's right on the border. Like, right on the border. It's across the border from Piedras Negras, which is a town in Mexico. So, he's a Spanish speaking missionary as well, and he's been out for a little over a year. When I first met him I'll be honest, I was slightly disappointed. He seemed lame. But, I repented of that, because, man is he great. He's hilarious and super hard working and we have so much fun together. We've just had a blast this week, and we're both getting to know the area super well and working hard with potentials and part members, and guess what? We found a family! It was LEGIT! I'll tell you about it in a little bit though.  Let me talk about Elder Wride a little more. He's from Ogden Utah, 20 years old and he was actually in ROTC at Utah State before his mission and has his spot saved for him in the army for when he goes home. He's legit though, super smart, super cool guy. He has that witty kind of humor that I like. He's also probably the nicest person I've ever met. We've had like two minor, minor, minor disagreements. And, both times like 5 minutes afterward he would apologize to me profusely, even if “I” was the one in the wrong, and ask me for my forgiveness.  He seriously compliments me all day about things; he's super nice. It's a nice change of pace though. He's definitely upped my confidence in the mission, and it's paid off because we've been doing work!

Let me tell you about some of the events that happened this week.

We set Austin’s baptismal date! It’s set for the 16th of march. We're so excited. We can't wait. We're teaching him the final lesson tonight, and we're going to reset that date to make sure he's still good with it. We're super excited!

We also found another family. We got a referral from the Call family a couple weeks ago, for a part member wanting to get involved with church again. We FINALLY knocked at a time where they were home; they answered the door and let us in and we met the whole family. Oh man, GREAT family. We invited the family to church this Sunday, and all the kids and mom made it.  We hung out with the 15 year old son, during church, and he loved us.  The little ones loved us, too, from our visit earlier that week.  But no joke, after church they all came up to us, and both the 15 & 9 year old asked us "can we get baptized? What do we have to do to be baptized?"  We were like oh wow uhh yeah of course you can be baptized! Can we come over tomorrow? They said yes.  So, we're going over tonight with the bishop to teach them all the first lesson! Then, again Wednesday, and twice more next week, and we're going to set them for the 15th of March tonight (hopefully). So, we should have three baptisms this month! How legit is that? It all just fell into place, so sososooso cool. We're so excited you can't even believe.

We also have been doing a lot of work to visit with all the part member families that we can this week. I'm befriending all of the youth of these part member families so they're parents feel comfortable having us over, and it's been working like a charm. We have two more part member families we're wanting to start teaching the lessons formally.  I feel really good about both of these families, they seem to like us a lot, so I am very excited! The work is really picking up in this area.  The Memorial Ward had only 2 convert baptisms last year, and after this month we'll have at least 4 for this year already! We're stoked!

We had a real busy week.  I knocked more doors than usual, but it went well. I met some really cool people, including this 23 year old guy who just let us in and told us he wanted nothing to do with religion, but he felt bad because we were sweating and it was hot and he just talked to us for like 20 minutes and learned a lot about what we do. He's atheist, but we planted a seed. Now he'll know what missionaries are when he sees them, and maybe some day he'll want to hear the message.  I don't know, but either way, he was a real cool guy and saved my life because I was super super thirsty haha.

Oh, I forgot to tell you this! I went on an exchange last Friday with the AP's! Elder Rogers came here and we just did a mini exchange. Man, he's a cool guy. So nice, so funny, so goofy. We had a blast. He also hasn't been on the bikes for a while since he's had all car areas for a while.  So I kinda kicked his butt a little bit for fun haha. I thought it was funny.  I don’t' know if he did, but oh well! haha. we had a great time. He taught me a lot about Spanish studies and how I can improve my Spanish studies. He also taught me a lot about just the attitude of missionary work. He's a great guy. Very inspiring, I'm glad I could go on exchanges with him.

Well, that was my week! Super successful week, we got baptisms coming up folks! Be excited! I sure am! Have a great week, i love you!

Love,

Elder Snow