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 

JANUARY 12, 2015

JANUARY 12, 2015

aight so this is what happened this week. we saw some pretty sweet miracles so i gotta make sure i write it down so i don't forget.

we found 14 new investigators this week. 3 families. it was unreal, i've never had success like that before in my entire mission. 

so recently we switched some areas with the sisters that work in del rio because they're in a car share and we have a full car, and it would make it easier on everyone. so we were going through some potentials and referrals out in the new area (val verde), because we had never really been out there so it was a good place to work. there was a referral from the spanish branch president, president ""M", for this guy named "JO". so we get to the house, and what do i see in this guys yard? 5. freaking. bears. well, they looked like bears, but they were dogs. they were MASSIVE. so we walk up to the gate, hoping they're nice...nope, they started freaking out haha. but we had a feeling that we needed to stay and try to get in, so we sat there and developed a plan for like 15 minutes. the more we watched the ring leader dog, the more we thought he was faking his confidence...so we opened the gate, and elder hutchings started walking to the door (i was holding the gate in case he needed to run out, i was a wuss). hutchings kept walking, and the talk kept walking backward...but duuuuuuuude this thing was snarling and growling, it was so scary. then i had an idea. "hutchings, get outta there man i got an idea!" so he ran out and i closed the gate on the charging dog, and then we headed back to the car. i had JUUUST bought some bacon jerky a few days before, and it was sitting in the car, i had completely forgot about it. so i broke that bad boy out, and we started using the jerky as treats to get the dogs to like us (hutchings, i still stayed back) and to bait them away. we went for it...and we both almost got to the door (at this point i felt bad so i followed hutchings to protect him), and then...we ran outta jerky. yep, this dog wasn't being nice to us anymore after we ran outta jerky. he started freaking out, and he nipped at elder hutchings and we were like "oh crap oh crap oh crap." then, by some miracle, somebody pulled up in front of the house! we ran out and started talking to her, and she ended up being the wife of "JO". she went in and got him, and he came out and chained up the dogs and let us in. we had a suuuuuuuper powerful lesson with them, and they straight up told us we were sent from God and they needed our help coming closer to Jesus Christ. so we got a return appointment, and on our way out "JO" said "oh, and guys...don't ever come in the way you did earlier, that was incredibly dangerous. call me first. those dogs, especially the big one, are super violent. they have been known to bite and hurt people. you guys were super lucky, i don't understand why they didn't hurt you." it was a miracle man, it was so sweet haha. 

next set of people we found was in the same night. we were continuing to knock some potential investigators doors, and we got up to this door and realized we had talked to the people outside just a couple weeks earlier, and they weren't interested...but we decided to knock it anyways, and sure enough, this girl named "V" answered. she let us in and her ENTIRE family was there. all EIGHT of them. we taught them all, and they were super interested. we also set 3 of them with baptismal dates, and they want us coming 2-3 times a week. we taught them a few times after that, too.

finally, we were knocking on a less active's door the following day, and this guy named"J"  answered. we told the man that we were looking for someone who lived there, and he was like "uhh, no...nobody with that name has lived here" and so we were like "oh, our bad. well hey, can we come in real quick and share a message?" and he was like "yeah sure." so he let us in and we taught him, his buddy, and his buddy's sister and her kid. they were DOPE. they were super interested! i was blown away, it worked super well. we got a return appointment with them too, and they kept the appointment. so awesome. funny thing is, as we were walking out, we realized we knocked on the wrong door...the less active who we were looking for actually lived one house to the right. crazy how that worked out, right?

anyways, that's all for me this week! hope y'all have a great week! love ya!

Elder Snow

DECEMBER 22, 2014

DECEMBER 22, 2014

hey! another pretty sweet week in the life of mason, we had a lot of success and a lot of fun. here are a couple of the highlights -

so last week we met this guy named "A". he's this younger black guy, probably like 25 years old. the sisters actually contacted him, but he lives in our area so they gave him to us. anyways we had an appointment at his place with him last week, and we met him and his buddy "D". we walked in and these guys were highhhhhhhhh as a kite. totally high. it was pretty funny. anyways, he's this super nice guy and he's been meeting with Jehova's witnesses and all these other people so he wanted to learn, so we were like, eh, we'll give it a shot, he probably won't go anywhere, but we'll teach him. we taught him the first lesson, and him and his friend "D" had tons of really good questions, they were super funny, we all had a good time, etc. Then we set a return appointment and gave him a reading assignment...we show up for the return appointment, not really expecting him to remember, and he totally remembered and proceeded to tell us that him and his buddy read the chapter we left them, and they had questions about it. we were like uhh...okay haha. so we teach another lesson, and again, they're super high hah. like, he straight told us "hey, gonna be honest with you guys i was just smokin' a joint before you got here, so if you get a contact high or something and get the munchies let me know, i'll hook you up with some snacks" hahahahah we laughed so hard. that was pretty funny. anyways, we taught him, gave him another reading assignment, and we met with him again later that week...and he did his homework and remembered the appointment, again! we're like what? this guy is actually progressing, what the heck? but again, he was high, and so was his buddy...but they had all these super good questions, and"A" is like super smart. he came up with all these doctrinally correct answers to his own questions, then asked us to confirm and we were like, "uhh yeah man, you're right, good job" haha. it was super sweet. he wants to get baptized, so we'll letcha know how it goes :D

next story. so elder hutchings and i were going to this guy named "T"s house..we had met him earlier in the week, he's an older mexican guy, kinda seemed like he had alzheimers but he told us to come back so we did. anyways, we pull up to his house, and what is in his front yard? nope, it's not a guard dog. it's a freaking GOOSE. yep, a goose. he has a guard goose. if you didn't already know, geese are freaking mean..so we walk around this goose and knock the door, and this stupid goose is losing it's mind. it's squawking and yelling and warning his owner that people are here. he's a wuss so he's doing it from a distance though. then, "T" comes rolling in in his truck from behind, and he's like "hey! my goose doesn't like you!" and we're like "uhh...sorry?" and then he proceeds to herd the flippin' goose TOWARDS us. now the goose gets brave, and it starts hissing at us and freaking out even more...but it really seems to not like elder hutchings for some reason. he just had a thing for elder hutchings, so he starts advancing toward elder hutchings...hutchings was just looking at me like "is this seriously real life?" and i'm just laughing my face off, i think it's hilarious. then the goose attacked him! straight up attacked his foot, so dang funny. i busted up laughing, i couldn't hold it in anymore. then "T" grabs his goose by the neck and carried it to the back yard. it was so weird...hahah. then we sat on "T"'s front steps and taught him the restoration. very weird experience haha.

anyways, that's about it for me this week. hope y'all have a great christmas! remember what the reason for the season really is: Jesus Christ. check out this video for a cool christmas message!

christmas.mormon.org

have a good one!

love

Elder Snow

DECEMBER 15, 2014

DECEMBER 15, 2014

hey! another good week in the life of elder snow. i'll keep you posted on what's happened in my life the last 2 months or so.

so i got transferred from my 6 month area of parkwood. it was a bittersweet day, but it was awesome getting to my next area, which was the Marble Falls area! it was super sweet! huge country area, i loved it! we had a truck and everything, it was so much fun. elder lawrence was my companion, he had just gotten out of training and we were super tight. we had a great time together. we baptized 1 person named "SA". she was so golden, so awesome. then, something terrible (at the time) happened...i was getting transferred after only 6 weeks in marble falls. i was devastated. it seriously rocked my world. i loved marble falls, and we had like 2 people with a baptismal date when i left, so i was super super sad. but, all is well! that brings us to where i'm at now - the city of Del Rio. yep, it definitely means "of the river." i'm not sure where they get these names from, haha. i got here a few days ago...it's so awesome here. my companion's name is Elder Hutchings. he's been out like...18 months. he is an absolute STUUUUUD. he was like a fireman and paramedic before his mission, played rugby, super sweet super cool guy. we get along great, we're super tight. his spanish is awesome too. we've been having a ton of success together, and a ton of fun. it's just been great. i'm surprisingly more happy here than i was in marble falls, which i didn't think was possible cuz i loved marble falls haha. so sweet, haha. 

so a cool thing that happened this week...it was like my third day in this area. so be aware, my spanish is still awful. elder hutchings and i had a lesson in spanish with this man named "A"..he was a super nice guy from what i could gather, i was only picking up bits and pieces of what was going on. i was pretty dang confused. i was kinda just sitting there juco'in it (aka, not doing or saying anything cuz i was confused) and elder hutchings was doing most of the work cuz he's a stud. i hate just sitting there though, so i was really working hard trying to listen and understand what he was saying...then outta nowhere, i started to understand. i only understood for a few seconds, just enough to get where the conversation was so i could open my mouth...and i spoke, and i was able to speak some coherent spanish. it wasn't great, it wasn't pretty...but i was able to bear simple testimony of the savior and his atonement. then, it was gone. i was back to not understanding much, back to sitting there trying to think of what to say. for a moment there though the Lord blessed me so that i could speak. just for a moment. it was a pretty cool feeling. i'm by no means obtaining the gift of tongues yet...but i'm hoping with time and effort i'll get there.

i love you all! thanks for everything you do, thanks for all your prayers, and thanks for being great! have a great week, cya in 9 months! laters!

Elder Snow 

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

howdy! ah man i felt super lame saying that. i kinda just went for it, it didn't feel right. i'm not gonna do that anymore. anyways, another good week for us in the marble falls area! not a whole ton to report, we've been doing a ton of driving and a ton of dropping by people. but we're starting to see a lot of success, that's for sure. this area has so much potential to baptize, like sooooo much potential. i'm just trying to take things a little bit differently, because as far as numbers, lessons taught, and baptisms go, the past year or so has been a struggle. so we're changing up a few things, doing a lot more service and a lot less member visits, and we had the highest numbers this area's had in months this last week! so that was exciting. we were able to get 5 investigators to church, which is pretty dang good. we're excited about that one. we have a baptism for the 22nd of november for a lady named "SA". she's soooooooooo golden. she's super cool. she has 3 little girls, one of which is 9 years old, so she's working on getting baptized too...she'll just get baptized a little after her mom. but "SA" is sweet, she texts us every day, telling us the stuff she's studying and reading and listening to...it's so cool. she listens to general conference talks like..all day. she sends us referrals like every day of her friends and family that we should contact. she's so golden haha, it's so sweet. we're way stoked!

me and elder lawrence are having a great time together out here. it's nice..i kinda dig the country. everything is slowed down a bit. there's not really much to stress about, no worries...you just work and go all day, no worries, no stresses. well, missionary work always has it's stresses and stuff, but people aren't as fast paced out in the country. it's just nice, there's definitely a different feel and spirit to it out here. i enjoy it a lot. 

so good news! two of the young men that i worked with a lot in my last ward got their mission calls! "Y" and "H". they're leaving the same day! "H" is going to the berlin germany mission, and "Y" is going to columbia...bogota? something like that. they both called and emailed me and stuff, super cool. lots of the youth from my last ward are emailing me now, actually...its' super super cool. i feel like i was able to make an impact. that's one of the greatest feelings ever, haha.

other good news! sister "GS" from the parkwood area is getting baptized in december! i'm way stoked. i'm working out a way for me to be able to go down to see the baptism.

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

Elder Snow

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 of scenery, a new companion, 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 so 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. "GS" 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!

Elder Snow

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!

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!