Week 29: February 12-18, 2019 First P-Day Phone Call

Elder Snow made his first phone call home today.  It was awesome to talk with him.  Unfortunately, he didn't have time to write a letter.  Here are the pictures from this week.   

 

 

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 27: January 29 - February 5, 2019 --- 6 MONTHS

Hi everyone!!                                                                                 February 5, 2019

Wow! I can’t believe I have finally hit six months. It feels crazy to have gotten this far! This past week we have been painting the entire casa de oracion.(house of prayer) It took us a while, but we were finally able to get everything done. It was great to have it all be finished. 

Finally, our Branch President came back from Texas. He is an awesome man. He was a lot older and whiter than I thought. His name is Presidente Jeronimo. He is a very smart man that has received several doctorates and study old maps and from one of those maps chose to move to mulango, where the branch is situated. He and his wife are super sweet and truly love the people here. They love to talk about the historical background and we drive every Sunday for an hour to go to both branches one in Molango and one in Zacualtipan. It is super fun and they listen to super cheesy Spanish songs like pollo con papas, y ella quiere un novio, ella quiere matrimonio. They are super funny people and super sweet. 

This week the family Rojas asked us to give them a week to pray and fast and ask God if they should be baptized. During the week at night, our investigator called us and told us that she felt dizzy and sick when she read the Book of Mormon and came to church. We asked her why she hadn’t said anything before and she said she felt avergonzado.(ashamed) Mind you this is our investigator who has read all the way to Mosiah and has attended church 5 times and has told us she loves it here and bared her testimony to us that she knows the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. The very next day we went and visited her to see how the family is going. Fabis (28) the one who called, basically ignored us and acted very strange, unlike her normal self. During the lesson we had she left to go buy bread for our fruit water. When she left her mother Elvira, told us that her pastora came and talked to them and that they should not let strangers in the house and other things to Fabiola. When she came back we continued to testify to her and then gave each of the four of them a blessing of comfort to help them feel closer to God. It was a really amazing experience and I think it helped them. The next day Fabis called us and told us that she felt bad for being grosero (rude) and ignoring us and that she wanted to keep coming to church but doesn’t want us to ask her about being baptized. This is a half win half lost kind of situation, but we are glad to have the hope that we haven’t lost them specifically Fabis yet. I know that God Loves each of his children and that we need to follow him to have full joy in this life and the next.

LOVE YOU ALL

LOVE Elder Snow!