it was a sweet week, i'll tell you that. we had a lot of really cool stuff happen this week.
first
and foremost, we found a family that wants to be baptized! elder
hutchings, right before he left, just casually pointed out the biggest
house in our area, this huge white house that had an awesome yard and a
creek running through the property, so elder trowbridge and i decided to
knock the door. we knocked it, met this kid named "D" who's 18, and he
let us in. we taught him the restoration and had a really powerful
lesson, then we had a return appointment to teach the plan of salvation
and he loved that as well! then we met his mom, and she was super
excited to come to church too. we're super excited, they should be
getting baptized on the 21st of february!
second,
my boy "A" did his first fast this week. it was incredible. we had to
help him and come up with a big plan on how we were going to help him
do it, seeing as he has some pretty difficult addictions that he's
dealing with. so we took away all of his cigarettes and booze the night
before, and prayed with him that he'd have the strength to do the fast.
then we showed up at his house early the next morning after our work
out, at about 6:45 am or so, and started his fast with him. then we met
with him again at 2 o clock, and again at 9 to close the fast. he had an
incredible experience...he was hit soooooo hard with temptation, just
like we told him he would, but he held strong and got his answer that he
needs to be baptized! he's super excited to try out fasting again, he
thinks it's like magic haha. super cool!
finally,
we had the most incredible experience this last saturday. we had the
opportunity to listen to Elder Russell M. Nelson of the quorum of the 12
apostles. it was a 3 hour drive up to san antonio, and literally every
bad thing that could have gone wrong went wrong, but we just barely made
it on time, and since we were actually a little bit late ALL of the
seats in the regular congregation were taken, so what they had us do was
sit up on the stand with Elder Nelson! I sat RIGHT BEHIND HIM! it was
so sweet! when he walked into the room, it was just...power. you could
feel it as he entered. we all stood up, almost instinctively, as he
walked in. he stood in front of everyone with this big smile on his
face, and gestured for everyone to sit down. he then said he wanted to
shake all of our hands...so one by one he shook all 254 missionaries
hands that were in the congregation. it was incredible. i shook his
hand, and i even got to talk to him briefly. i also got to shake the
hands of Elder Robbins and Elder Wright of the 70. we heard some brief
talks from President and Sister Slaughter, Elder Robbins, and Elder Wright, then Elder Nelson got up and spoke. he was, hands down, the most
brilliant man i've ever met in my entire life. he is sharp as a tack.
it doesn't matter that he's 90 years old and has been an apostle since
the 1980's, and it doesn't matter that he has the stress of the
salvation of the entire world on his shoulders, he was still 100 percent
sharp as a tack, awake, alert, and brilliant. he was also the most
loving man i've ever met. when he shook my hand and smiled at me and
said "elder snow, it's nice to meet you" i've legitimately never felt so
loved in my life. he was full of love. you knew in an instant that he
loved you, and he had never even met me. the entire time he talked about
how much he loved the missionaries, and any time anyone made a comment
or answered a question he'd say something like "wow, these are some
brilliant missionaries you got here president, god bless i love you to
death." it was hilarious. and awesome. he was super funny, too. he made
some jokes that had me rollin. all in all, the meeting was incredible.
he talked about how the Lord makes impossible things possible. the
pattern that the Lord has of calling the most unlikely people to do the
most extraordinary things. he talked about the reason that the Lord does
that; that being that when he calls the unlikely they absolutely rely
on the Lord for help instead of their own strength, which, in turn,
makes them much stronger than they ever could have been on their own. he
talked about how much more powerful you can be if you allow the master
to mold you, instead of molding yourself. it was just...incredible.
then, at the end, he gave us an apostolic blessing, and then blessed us
with his testimony. i have legitimately never felt the spirit so strong
in my entire life than when he said "I know that Jesus is the Christ,
and that He lives." i've heard that phrase countless times, but when he
said it, you absolutely knew it was truth. it was incredible to be in
the presence of someone who had so much power and authority, and a man
who really is a prophet, seer, and revelator in these last days. so
cool, so cool. i wish you all could have been there! haha.
anyways, that's it for me. love you all, have a great week!
love
Elder Snow
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