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 30^th: 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!

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

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!