Hey
Everyone,
So
this past week has truly been a blast out here in Pachuca. (A pachanga) Elder
Palmer and I have been having a super fun time getting to know each other
and our area. It has been a little strange getting re-accustomed to all of the
food and speaking Spanish almost all the time, but overall it has been a
blast.
So we have been doing
a lot of contacting and meeting a whole lot of strange people, cool people,
crazy people, sad people, angry people, drunk people, happy people and all
other kinds of people. Even though everyone is different, all people are
children of our loving Heavenly Father.
Diego was the Ward
Mission Leader in my first area, he is a young man of twenty or so, when I
first met him, he told me of wish to one day serve a mission and in fact he
would visit nonmembers with us all the time. He suffers from some form of blood
disease and was unable to serve a mission because of it. He was working very
hard to get healthy so he would be able to serve. He was actually the first
member of his family to be baptized and wanted to help other families like his receive
the gospel. He is such a fun and happy guy, but towards the end of
my last cycle Diego disappeared, His phone had been stolen and we could no
longer get a hold of him. We talked to his mother who worried about her son and
his new job in a clothing company. Some nights he would not even come home. I
was worried for him, as was his mother. Soon
I moved areas and my heart ached to not know if Diego was okay and not mixing
with the wrong crowds. Over the past few months I have begun to notice
that God is mindful of each and every one of us.
This truth came alive
to me this past week with a wonderful daughter of God that lost her way from the
covenant path. Marya is a middle-aged mother of two twenty-year-old men. She
once was a very faithful latter-day saint, who enjoyed attending the temple
with her father and seeing the glowing angel. Soon after his death in her early
tween years, her mother withdrew herself from the church. Temple trips no
longer were made, and her memory of the truth soon faded. As a young adult, she
thought she fell in love and married the father of her two boys. They were
married in a Christian church, but soon he began to beat her. After years of
fear and pain, she finally escaped; confused about where to go. She educated herself
and became an engineer in textiles, and soon found herself as the manager of quality
control for underclothing company. Here she met Diego Cespeda. He reminded her
of her early baptismal covenants and the few times that she had received
ordinances for the dead. He encouraged her to read the Book of Mormon and
invited her to attend church. This really warmed my heart. He had been playing such an important role in
this Hermana´s conversion.
It seemed so unfair to
me that Diego could not serve a mission because of his health, He had such a
strong desire when some missionaries don’t even want to serve. It sweetly
reminded me that God´s plan is perfect. Diego is exactly where he was supposed
to be. Often we do not find out why our circumstances are the way they are, but
I believe one day we will. I know God loves his children and he constantly is
crafting a beautiful tapestry with such beautiful twists and turns.
He knows his children,
he knows how to bring them joy.
"I,(Elder Snow), will show unto you that the
tender cmercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen,
because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of ddeliverance."
-1 Nephi 1:20
Love you all! Keep an
eye out for those tender mercies!
Love,
Elder Snow
