Week 17 November 20-26, 2018 Chicharrón Thanksgiving

HEYYOOO!

This past week we have seen a lot of progress in our area we were able to visit a ton of our investigators and progress a ton. One of our investigators Brayan got baptized! It was so amazing. Brayan was super nervous, and you can see it in the photos a little bit, but we are so proud of his decision to be baptized. It was really awesome to see him be baptized, and that all of this occurred because we walked down a street as the spirit directed. It was really cool to see him baptized and i hope we can help his parents to enter the waters of baptism as well. 

On Tuesday we had a cita (an Appointment) go till 9:30, (were supposed to be home by 9 jaja(haha)) and the last bus to our home is at 9:30. The only other option is to walk 10k home. I started running, my comp saying we would never make it in time. I kept praying in my heart that we would make it but to get to the bus stop we must cross a hill that usually takes 20 mins, we crossed it in 5. Right when we got to the bottom of this hill we were able to stop the bus and take it the rest of the way home. It truly was such a great blessing because our feet are literally dead. 

So this week we decided one of goals would be to be very direct with our investigators especially the ones haven’t been progressing very much. One of our investigators name is Guadalupe. She is in a open union with a very inactive member named Alejandro. Alejandro{s entire family are members, and all are living in a similar partnership. This all stems from a bad marriage with an older brother and a crappy father. The entire family is super cool and trying to fix things (mostly the wives) but have a lot of difficulties. We have had multiple discussions with Guadalupe but her husband has never been home, so we haven´t been able to progress on the marriage situation. While we were teaching her on the plan of salvation her husband came home, and we heard him come up to the door and saw him turn around to hide from us- the missionaries, haha, but before he could leave i yelled to him "Alejandro, Come in!" Caught in the act he knew he had to join us for the lesson, it was awesome. We then had a really amazing lesson on the plan of salvation. I shared my experience that i had at AFY. And the spirit was so powerful in the room, I could see Alejandro’s countenance change and Guadalupe as well. The wall that he had been putting up now had a window in it. We testified to them how the gospel would bless them in their lives with their children and marriage. We finished with a prayer and then proceeded to be very direct, we told them that for Guadalupe to be baptized that she needs to be married. We told them that this is their eternal salvation and is not a game. We told them this with much love and complete seriousness. They realized the seriousness of this and told us we could come back Thursday for their decision, if we have to drop them or keep helping them progress. I sincerely hope for the later. 

After this we visited a less active family. We went inside and only the teenage kids were there. We were talking with them when Elder Cruz noticed they had a jar of coffee on the table. I was not happy they know better! We told them we were taking the jar with us. When we got out side Elder Cruz was like we can{t take stuff from the homes without permission, so I said fine I won’t take anything with me and emptied the jar all over the street. We returned the jar and the teenagers were a little stunned but. I know what I did was a little extreme but i was only following the prophets example and acting in love haha.

 “As I came to understand the Word of Wisdom, I wanted my parents to live that law. So one day, when I was very young, I went to our basement and smashed on the concrete floor, every bottle of liquor.”

-Russel M Nelson. 

This Thanksgiving was not very special, but was still a lot of fun. For the comida the bishop served it was a dish that I had heard a lot about. a dish that is known for making the Americans sick. Chicharrón with salsa Verde. Chicharron is pig skin with fat attached to it. It is absolutely discussion. Normally it is served in its dried form (fried) but in salsa Verde is literally chunks of wavy fat. Imagine Ron from harry potter when he is throwing up slugs except in reverse direction. I tried breaking it up in little pieces eating it with tortillas and even swallowing it whole.  I literally choked down four pieces before deciding that I could not eat this. My companion seeing my distress (with his spiritual eyes hahah) Let me dump my entire bowl into his, because frankly he loves Chicharron. I was so grateful for his sacrifice.... Later that night we made up for it with quesadilla and a super good homemade salsa Verde that I made. . 

But yeah that was my week!!!

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 16 November 13-19, 2018 Cloud 9

HEY EVERYBODY!!

This week has been super awesome. I have a ton of pictures, but I can’t upload them until I find another computer to accept the chip... But anyways we have been working super hard in Guerrero. We actually were able to teach a lot and we have a baptism planned for this Saturday! The boy’s name is Bryan. He is eleven years old and has actually been attending in another ward adjacent to us.  He has assisted since he was a little boy with his aunts and grandma. We were honestly led by the spirit to find this boy. For some reason (the spirit) we felt the need to go down this road that honestly is a trail that looks like no one has ever been on. We passed by this lady holding her 2-month-old baby and she invited us in and we talked about what we believe in our church. She cut us off and said I know, I go in Santiago. And we were like whaaaaaa? Her back yard literally is across the street from the capilla (chapel) here in Guerrero. She then asked us to prepare her son for baptism. We are super excited to help him in the process to be baptized! He will be the first convert baptism in the past two years for this area!

We have a few more investigators ready for baptism. They only need to attend a few more times and hopefully make it to the chapel before this next transfer. We currently have 15 people we are teaching, and we have grown a lot from opening an area that has been closed for more than half a year. One of our most promising investigators is Fernando. He is a twenty-two-year-old man that does construction for hire. He is super amazing and has a strong testimony of our Savior, we just need to get him to attend. In one of the lessons we had with him, he ended with a prayer. In the prayer he said something that melted my heart and re-invigorated my purpose here in my mind. To bring others unto Christ. He talked about how he was able to feel something from the lessons we had taught him and that he was so grateful for it. It was an absolutely amazing experience.

This past week was one of the coldest weeks in the history of the Mexico Pachuca mission. It got below zero here (c) and there was actually snow in several areas here on the mission. We could even see our breath inside the apartment. We also had eight-inch icicles outside our house. it was super funny there were even icicles on the cactuses. The outdoor lock on the chapel was even frozen shut and we had to break through ice to open the gate. It was super cold but was also an awesome adventure. Fog covered us on every side and we couldn´t see anything for few days. It was awesome. Thankfully the members were super kind and gave us gloves and hats to help us stay warm!

We also found another awesome family named Jimenez Almazan. They are a family of five with the oldest 16, 13, and 6 months. Their children are super receptive and like to hear our message. I really hope we can help them progress more fully to baptism. They own a tiendita (small shop) in the center of Tecomatlan. They are super awesome.
Everything is going great here in Guerrero with Elder Cruz and me.

Love you ALL,

Elder Snow

Week 15 November 6-12, 2018 The Lords Work

HOLA Everybody!

This week has been a blast serving the people of Guerrero! The English classes are going well! And my companion and I are doing great.

On Wednesday I went on companion exchanges with Elder Dale from Tepa! it was a blast! During the time with Elder Dale we were able to visit quite a few people and teach them about the gospel. We were able to visit one of my contacts from last week and teach them about prophets and our Heavenly Father. The family was very receptive, and I hope to keep progressing with them!  We were able to do a lot of work!

This past week end we were in the absolute middle of nowhere (also known as Guerrero Uno) we were contacting and visiting references with an RM. It was super dusty and windy so for some reason one of my contacts decided to fold in half in my eye. So, I pulled it out to fix it. As soon as I was about to put the contact in my eye it blew away. Never to be seen again (by me because I literally couldn't). I was kinda like shoooot. My other contact was fine but having the difference in both eyes was giving me a head ache, so I took the other one out as well. I was now completely blind. Well, I guess only mostly. But as the night went on, I really learned to appreciate my glasses and contacts. Safe to say I always carry glasses with me now. As the night drew on and I was able to visit people and contact. I ended up contacting several members I knew, and they were like “elder you have eaten at my house. (i then apologized and told them what was going on, but I don´t think they believed that I couldn’t see them). Anyways everything looked very different, the lights were a lot brighter and the darks darker. I had to rely a lot more on my companion and on our Heavenly Father. Riding a bike and not being able to see is not an easy task. It made me realize how grateful I am to have an eternal perspective because I know the truths of the gospel. I can see clearer and I never want to lose it. I know the Lord works in mysterious ways, because while I was in this state, I ended up contacting someone Elder Cruz and I had contacted before. The last time I contacted them they refused and basically ran a way. But this time she agreed to have us teach her this week. I hope it will all work out. But everything happens for a reason.

This week we were able to work a lot with the members to contact their friends and neighbors. They have been such a great help with the missionary work here in Guerrero. You all should go help the missionaries in your area members + missionaries = success. I know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of his children and wants us to help every single one of them to come to know him. Us as members have this divine role of gathering Israel. I know that God's hand is in all of our lives we just need to take a moment to see it. Love you all!

Elder Snow

Week 14 October 30 - November 5 Dia de los muertos

Hey Everyone,

These past few days have been so much fun. Honestly, it was such a great past week. Everything I have done/seen has been super interesting. For those of you who don’t know, November first and second celebrates the Latino celebration of Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). It was a super awesome that I got to experience this tradition. Here in Mexico fireworks are always going off, celebration saints, deaths and other things. These fireworks are more of a pop with almost no flash and a loud bang. They will sometimes go off at like 5 am. So that’s pretty cool. For Thursday and Friday, it was so cool to see the way that people celebrate it. Most just spend time with their family at the graveyard and in the centros (cemetary) where they have musical celebrations. The movie, Coco, is pretty accurate. Decorations and flowers are everywhere. The orange flowers can be seen literally everywhere. It is a cool holiday, and we were able to take advantage of it to teach the Plan of Salvation. It is super cool. Skeletons and Traditional Mexican Dances can be seen all around. It was really cool to see the people so animated about everything with their families. It was awesome to see the carpets made of flower petals, rice, beans, and other things.

This week has been super cold because it has rained a ton, which usually never happens this time of year. In our apartment, we could actually see our breath. Everything is super great though.

Yesterday, while we were on the way back from visiting one of my companion’s old areas for a baptism in ixmiquilpan, we were on in a combi (passenger van, like minibuses, super great) that was packed with about 15 people. I started to contact a 20-year-old mujer (woman) that went to the university in Tepa. It was super dark, being about 7 pm. A short while into explaining a little bit about the church, I realized that another college student was listening to us, so I began to talk a little bit louder. Also, the combis here have four rows that face each other like a rectangle. I gifted them both a Book of Mormon and I asked if I could read a passage. It was too dark to read, but without me asking, another woman shined her phone light that I didn’t realize was listening to me. When she turned on the light, I realized the entire combi was looking at me! I continued to testify of the Book of Mormon and responded to the questions people asked. The spirit was extremely strong. People asked me how much the book cost because they wanted one. A majority of the combi asked for one. After I started handing out Book of Mormons to everyone, and we ran out! I was so sad because not everyone was able to receive a Book of Mormon. It was so cool we ended up handing out 11 Book of Mormons on just that one combi. This experience was so amazing.

On Friday we had a super awesome zone conference. Valle de Mezquital and Tezontepec. It was great to be so spiritually recharged and to see other missionaries. In the talk given by Hermana Kimball, she talked about the Brother of Jared and how we need to be obedient like the boats they were instructed to make. Tight and strong so that we don’t let any water in to sink us. And God gave the Brother of Jared a solution, but not a perfect one. He didn’t give him a way to breathe or see. The brother of Jared had to ask God to help him fix these problems so that they could cross the waters and survive. God knew that there were flaws with this design, but because of it, the Brother of Jared had to come to the Lord with his own ideas, with his own work, and with his own faith. Because of this, the Brother of Jared was able to see God’s hand in his life. I know that God gives us solutions to our problems. He gives us companions, families, friends, and many other solutions. But not a single one of them is perfect. But because of that, we learn to grow, we learn to ask in faith for divine assistance. We learn that God is our Heavenly Father and that through Him, we can do all things. This is such a powerful story to me- that God gives us a perfect faith, a stronger testimony, a stronger family. I testify to you all that God loves us and hopes for us all to be better and we can do that through His Son, Jesus Christ.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Snow