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

Week 12 October 16-22 Sangre y piña coladas

HI FAM!!!!

how is everybody????!! love you all!!!!

This week was an adventure! On Tuesday, we were meeting with two investigators that have been progressing quite nicely we asked them to be baptized! Both responded with a yes and have been attending several church activities! It is a father and son (Jose Luis Leocadio Hernandez and Cristian) they have been making church a priority in their life and it is so cool to see how it blesses them with their lives. Cristian is going to be baptized next Saturday, hopefully, but his father needs to be divorced then get married again to be baptized. It will be difficult but with the Lord all things are possible. Serving a mission is truly such an amazing way to become closer to God and help others have this joy and peace. I know that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ. That Heavenly Father loves each and every single person here on earth, and that the gospel can help every one of them. If you need help in your life to remember God is there for you and he wants to help you. Learn how to receive personal revelation. It can be such a great help in your life.

So, on Friday we had to clean out the font to prepare for a baptism from San Augustine (Shania). The font here in Guerrero has not been used in over a year in a half. Elder Cruz and I started to clean it and we found several spiders including a tarantula the size of my fist! It freaked me out. We tried to clean the best we could with just water, but we couldn’t get all the stains out or even most of the stains. So, we had to start filling it, so it would be ready for the baptism. While Elder Cruz cleaned, I also worked on activities for my English class that I will be giving tomorrow. I am super excited to start teaching English, hopefully, we will be getting new investigators from it! Anyways the baptism was extremely cool. Before we opened the font, we knew that it would not look super good, so we added blue fish dye to the water to make the water look better, but it still looked a little dirty. We had the ordinance and I was able to be a witness for it. It was so cool to be a part of that ordinance. After Shania was baptized, I introduced her to Jose and Cristian. As I was talking with Cristian, I tried to listen to what Jose and Shania were talking about and I heard her say, “When I was baptized, I saw a blue light.” It took all my strength to not start laughing. I’m pretty sure she saw the blue dye....... hahaha but yeah.

Now there is a reason for why in the white handbook it says you should not fool around. While we were doing companion study we both had to go to the bathroom. Elder Cruz and I started to race to the bathroom. He, being closer, made it first to the bathroom and started to close the door. When he closed the door, I put my hands up to push back on the door. What I forgot is that there is a glass pane on this door, and my hand went straight through it. As my hand went through it my hand got a little cut up. But I am totally fine! Thanks for all the love and support you guys are great!!!!!

Love you all!

Elder Snow

 

Week 11 October 9-15, 2018 Intercambios

Hi Everyone!

This past week was great, it was a lot calmer, which has been very nice! On Tuesday and Wednesday, we went on companion exchanges with two elders in our district. On Tuesday, I stayed in Guerrero with Elder Gonzalez, and Wednesday, I stayed here with Elder Ponce. They are both nice missionaries, and both are from Mexico! It was nice to see different forms of teaching and contacting!

So, this week my companion was "sick" for most of the day on Friday. So, we didn’t make our goal of fifteen contacts daily and only got 3. It was really frustrating to me so on Saturday, I wanted to make up the difference, we ended up doing 40 contacts and me making up 30 of the contacts haha. I was a little overzealous. Guerrero needs some help in the interest category. Everyone here is very devout Catholic or drunk. It is very hard to teach these categories.

Every day, except Mondays, we go and eat at a member’s house. The sisters here are amazing, but sometimes they forget that we are humans and can’t eat as much as fifteen whole cows. Meals usually begin with Hot rice or Hot noodles in ketchup water, then we eat chicken (usually chicken) cooked in a spicy temperature wise Hot red sauce, or sometimes we eat other meat, but on rare occasions, (barbacoa, carnitas, and chorizo). Also, with the meals, we are served with either apple soda (manzanita) or fruit puree water (Floaties and everything).

Honestly, I can´t complain the food is really good, but with hot food and the hot sun mixed with carbonation, being overstuffed and spiciness, you can see why my American stomach begins to have issues hahaha.

Anyways I had a really great experience during one of my personal studies this week. I have been trying to study the topical guide scriptures on Jesus. It has been so cool too, little by little, come to know more about Christ, his life, and how he is our mediator between God. Because of Christ´s atonement, we come to know him and because we come to know him, we come to Know our Heavenly Father. This past Sunday, the primary had a program during sacrament and the theme of it was I am a child of God. It was cool to see how similar everything is between Utah programs and Mexico Programs. The children still act like the children in Utah, just they speak Spanish. It was cool to hear them sing about how we truly are children of a loving Heavenly Father. This fact is just so amazing. God loves each and every one of us with such an infinite and wholesome love. He truly wants us to be not just happy but joyful. I know that He knows me and that He knows you too. He has given us commandments to protect us, to help us find the best way back to him because we truly are His children. Love you all and God loves you all!

Elder Snow!

Week 7 September 12-17, 2018

HEY EVERYONE:

September 17, 2018

This first week has been awesome we have been doing mainly contacts and trying to get new investigators. We have about 5 people that we can start teaching this week. But we haven't taught a lesson yet. A lot of the work we have been doing is receiving references and getting to know the members.

On Sunday my companion and I gave talks in Guerrero 1. They were great. After church we went to a member’s home that happens to be beneath ours. I ate the food and it tasted great but after we left my stomach didn’t agree. As we were walking up to the apartment it all came out and when I got inside more came. I ended up sleeping the rest of the Sunday.

The water still isn’t clean, but we shower with our drinking water heated up on the stove. Also, Saturday I ate worms, yes worms, it tasted good but its worms so yeah. On Friday I had to go on splits so that my comp could go to the district leader training meeting, I was able to give a blessing to a girl that was badly hurt from a car accident. It was really a tender moment. On the way back from the splits we accidentally overslept our stop and had to ride for 30 mins more to get back to Guerrero.

It really has been an adventure. The food here can be great but also not. and for some reason the members think we need to eat as much as entire cows hahaha but its great!  It has been great to get to know the people. They truly are amazing and full of the spirit. There are a lot of good people here. The spirit really is essential to doing anything in the mission field.

Love you all! sorry its short and I didn’t have time to write today.

Love,

Elder Snow