Week 28: February 6-11, 2019 Bye Bye, Virgen

Hey Everyone                                                                          February 22, 2019

So this week we decided that we did not want the familia Rojas to lose all the progress that they have made so far. We ended up having a really direct lesson with them that really helped them to feel more confident about being baptized. The Oldest daughter Fabis, decided that she would act upon the faith that she had and decided to be baptized on the 23rd of February. She did not come to church this Sunday because she wanted to make sure that someone had a place to fill her role in the old church as a panderista. She really is showing her faith and we hope that she will follow through with this goal. We are so excited for this baptism, it will be the first in eight months. I really am hoping that they will not listen to Satan. 

Here in Mexico, idolatry is something that is very prevalent and has strong beliefs tied to it. One of the largest sources of it is the Virgen de Guadalupe. Supposable there are multiple virgens that gave birth to Christ, but honestly no one really understands it. They just do it. So one of the less active families in our rama still have a 2 foot statue of the virgen and an altar dedicated to her. They have been struggling recently financially and spiritually, and they want help and need God in their lives. We have been going to their house for the past few weeks and we have seen it for a while. I felt the spirit tell me that they needed to get rid of it.  I asked the Hermana about her faith about what she felt for God, and if she had faith to obey all the commandments. She then told me that she did. We told her that this is truly what God wanted her to do and that she would be blessed temporally for removing it. This definitely was not something that I felt like I wanted to do, it honestly scared me to make promises that I had no power over. But It definitely was what God wanted me to tell this woman. We ended up taking the Vigen off the altar and she said she would give it to her neighbor. It was something that was hard for me to ask and something hard for her to do. But I truly know that by small and simple things, Great things come to pass. 

God truly does love each of his children and he wants te best for each one of them he wants us to progress and return to his presence. He really does have a love so strong for each one of us. It doesn’t matter who we are, or where we live, we, -you- are a child of our Heavenly Father. Remember that in times of hardship, remember that when you have negative thoughts come to mind. Remember your eternal purpose and your eternal identity. There is power in that. God truly wants us to become like him, and so he puts us through our refiner’s fire. He wants us to be better. Don’t t let the discontent in your life become destructive. Instead let it become something that pushes you that motivates you to be better to work harder, to love more. Our time here on earth is limited, aprovecharlo. Be the best person you can be. 

LOVE YOU ALL
LOVE ELDER SNOW

Uno Mas

Week 26: January 22-28, 2019 Fog, Fog, and More Fog

Hey Everyone,

The weather here in Zacualitpan is pretty cool. As you probably know from the subject, we almost have fog everyday here in Zacualtipan. It actually is super cool but makes it a little hard to learn the area. haha but its way better than being in the blistering heat. 

Right now we are working with a family of four females (51,28,12,7) They are super awesome. All of them have received a testimony of the Book of Mormon but still are afraid to take that jump of faith to change religions. The most promising of all them is the 28 year old Fabiola. She really feels then need of the gospel in her life and wants to make changes for the better. But Satan is working hard with her to make sure she does not get baptized. She decided that she was going to read as much of the Book of Mormon that she can this week and fast from food all week long, to find out her answer. We are praying that she receives the answer she needs to be happy for all eternity. We have been spending time with the family here and made peanut butter bars (google Snowdelicious.blogspot.com for the recipes) and no bake cookies they both turned out great! It was really fun and reminded me of home. The Family Rojas is super great they just need to take that leap of faith. 

So here in Zacualtipan we have a Branch that consists of fourteen people. 12 of those being women, the majority here are all recent converts and/or have a shallow base of knowledge of the gospel. We are spending a lot of the time helping to fortify them and help them progress together. The Majority of them have a strong testimony but don’t know what to do because the only example they have is us as missionaries. We definitely need more Sacerdocio (Priesthood) here in Zacualtipan and Molango. They people here are great. 

So the same hermanas give food the same day of each week. On Friday I was able to meet with an Hermana that is super sweet but medio loco.(kind of crazy) This family is very special and have a pet chicken that lives with them. It doesn’t have a tail and literally climbs over everything, the bed, the people, the dinner table, the clean dishes. It made it really hard to stomach down the food. They are super sweet, but it was really gross. 

This Saturday when we were coming back from a cita,(appointment) we got this impression that we needed to contact this group of people. This group of 30 or so people travel about 2 hours to sell all the vegetables that they grow by hand. They sell all of these in an open air market called Tianguis where everyone sells everything. The tianguis lasts two days and so they all end up sleeping overnight here. There were entire families- several of them in fact sleeping on the ground next to the presidencia. (presidency) They are all super humble and Elder Bolaños and I were able to share a message with all of them of the Book of Mormon. They were all really receptive and super sweet. We gave a way 3 Books of Mormon all that we had left so that they could read. They were all very interested and I hope we will be able to talk with them again. The spirit was extremely strong when we testified to the group of people about the Book of Mormon. 

Love you all!

Love Elder Snow.

Uno Mas from the Mission Home