MARCH 9, 2015

MARCH 9, 2015

things have been going well here in del rio. my companion elder trowbridge and i will be staying together for at least another 6 weeks, so we're pretty stoked about that. we've been doing a lot of the stereotypical mormon missionary things the past couple weeks looking for people to teach...we've been knocking on doors, walking around, talking to everybody, and knocking more doors haha. it's been pretty cool. as long as you got a cool companion, missionary work is easy. it doesn't matter how interested people are or how many people you're teaching...as long as you and your companion are tight, you're gonna have a good time. i've been putting a pretty big focus on my studies lately, especially spanish. it's been a little frustrating..my spanish ability is pretty mediocre. i've been studying and studying, and i fancy myself as a fairly intelligent guy, but my studies haven't availed to a whole ton. but that's probably because i'm putting more faith in myself than the man upstairs...reminds me of this scripture:

Ether 12:27

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves

before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

and also Jacob 4:7

"Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we

 may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things."

so there's my problem, probably haha. i should definitely be humbling myself a little more and realize that with the Lord's help i can learn this language a whole lot faster than i could on my own haha. so yeah, i might be pretty quick to learn stuff usually, but maybe spanish just aint my gig...hopefully it gets better in the upcoming couple weeks though :D

anyways, hope everything is going well with yall! have a great week! love ya!

Elder Snow

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

what's up what's up! pretty sweet week in the life of e. snow. here's what happened:

this week we had an exchange with one of the assistants to the president, elder hatch. it was pretty alright. we saw a lot of success, and we were super busy all day, i just kinda felt a little awkward during the day but that's okay. i'm pretty sure he was coming down to see how elder trowbridge was doing, i think they're going to make him a zone leader pretty soon here. but yeah on our exchange with elder hatch we taught a lesson to this guy named "R", who just showed up randomly to church last sunday. we taught him the restoration, and he's like...super set on being baptized! we're stoked! march 7th is the day. i'm super pumped for him! he's crazy ready, and i haven't been able to see someone baptized in a couple months, so i can't wait haha.

so saturday night we dropped by this guy named "AG", who's this super cool mexican guy who speaks only spanish. we had just gotten finished stuffing ourselves at a dinner appointment, and when we got to his place he was 100 percent banking on the fact that we were coming over to have dinner with him and his family. i ate so much i thought i was gonna be sick. elder trowbridge legit couldn't eat any more, so i had to eat his plate too. it was ridiculous. but we made some huuuuuuuuge strides with his family. elder trowbridge left me out to dry when he stepped aside to talk to "AG"'s son, "S" for like 15 minutes. "S" speaks english to us..."AG" only speaks spanish. so i was by myself with "AG". they were blasting some mariachi music from the truck and i couldn't hear anything he was saying, and everything i did hear i couldn't understand. it was so frustrating. he was getting really frustrated too that i couldn't understand him, but he's super nice and he was really patient with me and he kept repeating his story and his questions he had for me. i think i taught him about the word of wisdom...then he asked me about tattoos i guess. i didn't understand that part at all. i dunno. but hey, elder trowbridge basically got a baptismal acceptance from "S", so that's cool. i was dying over there with "AG", but trowbridge did great, so i guess it worked out. i was sweating bullets though i was so nervous and frustrated haha. whatevs.

so, the reason i told you that is because the next day, sunday (yesterday), i was assigned to give a talk in spanish sacrament meeting. you better believe i was freaking out about it all week, and even more so after my little stunt with "AG", not being able to speak spanish at all. i was told i could speak on whatever i wanted, and i prepared a TON for this talk. i was practicing all week long, and i had ZERO confidence going into the talk. i couldn't read the scriptures i had picked out without stuttering over the words, and the talk i had written out just didn't seem right the day of the talk. but i had done a lot of praying for help, and on sunday i actually did a short fast for some extra help. and, i mean, you guys know me...i usually don't get nervous for this kind of stuff. i'm usually pretty confident. but it was in spanish, and i had 10, 15 minutes to speak. i was so nervous as i walked up to the stand...but it was pretty crazy, i just started...and before i knew it, it was over. i spoke nearly flawless spanish. i was able to get through all the scriptures and all my notes and all the things i had written down with ease. i sounded very well, and i was able to deliver a good, heartfelt message and testimony to the members here in del rio. i spoke for about 10, 12 minutes, and for the first time my entire mission i felt as if i had been blessed with the gift of tongues. i mean, i just read the talk that i had written out off a piece of paper, and i didn't really get off script, so all i was doing was reading..but regardless, i was super stoked. i definitely received some help there..my spanish sounded great during the talk, but for the rest of the day i still sounded like an idiot. the Lord definitely used me as an instrument in his hands to deliver the message that he would have me deliver in that talk. super super cool. 

well, that's about it for me! have a great week! love ya!

Elder Snow

FEBRUARY 2, 2015

FEBRUARY 2, 2015

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

JANUARY 26, 2015

JANUARY 26, 2015

whatsupwhatsup!

pretty cool week here in del rio. transfer week. i received my new companion, elder trowbridge, and we're having a grand ole time down here in mexico (not really mexico, but it might as well be). he's pretty sweet,  his favorite bands back home are the same as mine, and we played all the same video games so that's awesome too. he's got pretty dang good spanish too, so that's good cuz mine is still awful haha. 

so highlights of this week! "A" came to church! we're way stoked about it! "A" is this 24 year old black guy, probably the only black guy in del rio, and he is the MAAAN. he's got some word of wisdom issues, and he has a lot of really bad influences in his life, but he's seriously like one of the most charitable, nicest guys i've ever met. we knocked on his door at 8:30 sunday morning and woke him up, and he was uhm...well, pretty hungover haha. but he was like "hey, screw it, i promised you guys i'd come to lets do this thing!" so we helped him clean up and pick out an outfit and we rolled on over to church! he loved it too haha, it was way cool! he made tons of friends, and we actually had a lesson with him a couple hours after church, and he had a great time there. he's really stoked to try out fasting and prayer, so he says he's gonna do that this week. he also taught me how to grill last week, i'm not sure if i told you guys that yet or not, and he wants to have another cookout this week, so we're going to see if we can hook him up with some members this friday night (instead of partying with his other friends) and have a cookout there so we can get some better influences in his life. 

other than that we're still just truckin along, knockin and walkin and teachin and preachin. there are a lot of people who are willing to listen to what we have to say down here, but not many that are really willing to act on our message. i think it has a lot to do with the hispanic floja culture. they're all just so chill and laid back, they're so nice and listen to us...but they never come to church or read or anything haha.

my spanish is getting a little better...i can communicate pretty decent, so that's cool. i've been blessed with a pretty decent accent as well, so that helps. as far as grammar and vocab and understanding...that's a different story, haha.

anyways that's it for me! have a great week, love ya!

Elder Snow