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!

July 14th - Knocking on doors...

hey!

Good week in the life of Elder Snow!

This week, we had a lesson with a part member family, the"S"  family.  Brother "S"  is a return missionary who has a super sweet testimony, they've just been struggling a bit. We haven't been able to get over there for a lesson, but he asked us to come over last wednesday and we had a lesson with the whole family! They are a blended family with 7 kids, and they're only in their 30's!  it's crazy. we had a lesson with all of em! it was a really really good lesson, we brought our ward mission leader and he just killed it the whole time; it really helped the lesson out and helped with fellowship. Brother "S" after a little bit just straight up asked "elders, we wanted to see if you guys could share a message on bullying." We ended up scratching the lesson plan and showed the mormon message about bullying. The kids were all into it, and we taught about our heavenly father's love for each and every one of us. It must have hit em all pretty good, because after we said the closing prayer they all started apologizing to each other and giving each other hugs for not being nice, hahaha it was great! we're meeting with them again this Tuesday!

 

This week we also had the baptismal interviews with the "M" family! they're good to go for the 26h of july! we're super super excited! ahhh man i can't wait to get that picture with all of them dressed in white, super stoked!

other than that we've been working real hard to build up our teaching pool because so many people are getting baptized, we won't have anyone to teach after they're baptized! we're doing a lot of finding, knocking doors and looking for the elect. hard work, but it's worth it!

the past couple weeks i've been in a little slump, i realized it's because i've been slacking on my fitness goals. so the fire has been rekindled (agaaaaaaaaaaain) to get ripped! haah i know i keep saying that, but man it's hard to do on the mission. working hard, hopefully i look better when i get home than when i left :D

love you all! have a great week! seeya!

July 7th, 2014 - Happy 4th of July

JULY 7, 2014

 

hey!

so we had a pretty dang good week this week.  Although we didn't teach a lot of lessons, we definitely had a lot of success! This week, we set a date with the "M" family for 26th of July. ALL of them are going to be baptized! we're so excited! everyone is finally ready, and they can't wait to be baptized. They even have their friends coming in from Virginia to see the baptism; they are the people who introduced them to the church.  Super super cool! They are so ready.  I'll be able to see them through the temple next year! how awesome is that? Man, I can't even explain to you how stoked I am for this baptism.

Ihad an epiphany this week. I probably should have known this before, but it just took me a little while to understand it. So on the 4th of July, I'm not gonna lie, i was not in the greatest mood. the 4th is literally one of my favorite days of the year back home. i love being in a swim suit all day swimming at grandmommy's house, eating burgers and homemade ice cream, hanging out with friends and family all day, and watching the fireworks over at the park, RIGHT underneath where they shoot them off. Seriously, it's like the best day ever. You can literally FEEL the patriotism in the air. it feels different when you walk outside on the fourth of july, it just does. i can't explain it, it's just different. 

 

So, when i walked outside to go out to work on the 4th, I could feel the same thing - only thing that's different is that i was a missionary and i can't do all those things anymore. it made me kinda sad, and it just got worse and worse as we were riding the bikes. everyone was out, bunch of kids and young adults driving around having fun listening to music all loud, and we got made fun of quite a bit. lots of honking, lots of pointing and laughing, and that sort of thing. you kind of get used to it on the mission, because lets get real, we look super weird riding bikes in church clothes...but it kinda got to me on the 4th of july because i was already a little upset. and we had 0 success. 

 

So the point is, i didn't want to work at all. like, NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST. all i wanted to do was go swimming and eat homemade ice cream. and what made it worse is that i felt bad for feeling that way, if that makes sense. I was like "man, i'm a missionary, i should love doing this work right now, even if it IS the 4th of july." i was upset that i didn't want to work. but i kept working. and when i went in that night, i got my epiphany.

 

I realized something...it's completely okay to not want to do things. it's okay to not like certain aspects of the gospel. it's okay to struggle with some things and wish you didn't have to do it sometimes. even Christ when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane asked for the cup to pass from him. he didn't want to suffer anymore, he wanted to quit. but he said "not my will be done, but thine." he submitted to the will of the Father. we all have opportunities to do the same. there are many times when we don't want to do things, but we still do it. We swallow up any sort of pride we have, and we just submit our will to our Father. this isn't doctrine here, but i think that He is more happy in that moment, that moment where you chose to be obedient to him EVEN THOUGH you didn't want to be, than in moments where it's easy to be obedient, where it's easy to do the things he's asked. i finally realized it's okay not to be perfect, it's okay that sometimes i hate riding the bike in 100 degree weather (okay, all the time. i don't like riding the bike haha). but i'm still gonna do it anyways, and i know that my Heavenly Father is proud of me for doing that.

sorry for the little bit more solemn letter this week, but i thought i'd just share that with you. love you all, have a great week, and keep doing good! seeya!

Elder Snow
ps - here's some pictures of me on the fourth of july haha.