Week 32: March 5-11, 2019 Showers and Carnivals

Updated Pics on the last post (Week 30)

Hey Everyone!                                                                                         March 11, 2019

Hope everyone is doing well! 

This week was definitely an adventure! We have been able to find a ton of really cool people by being directed to where we need to be by the spirit! It has been great, actually this past Sunday we had five of our investigators come to church and 28 people came in total it was super awesome! We definitely felt the help of God in this work!

Also, funny story, We recently just moved into the casa de oracion to help reduce the costs here in Zacualtipan. The casa de oracion is where we hold our weekly services on Sunday. It is a "House of Prayer," which is basically a house that is dedicated to be a church, so yes, I live in a church! haha, well, part of the moving into this house includes renovating it while we live here!  Well on Thursday we had an issue with the water, it was not there. So we called the owner, fixed the problem and we were able to get the water to rise to the tank.  We turned on the boiler and my companion went to shower. He came back out are you sure you turned on the Hot water? I told him I was sure and then I went and showed him that it was the left knob and opened it a little bit. Warm water came out. He then turned the knob a little bit more and it launched the knob across the room and steaming hot water started pouring out. Mind you my companion is in his towel. I run upstairs while he tried to put the knob back on. I shut off the boiler and climbed on the roof to shut off the valve that connected to the tanks. IT was an adventure. we definitely ran around like chickens with our heads cut off. But we were able to fix the shower and shower with five phone calls later. 

Also, on Tuesday we had a fun opportunity to see the carnival. It is a huge parade with floats and everything and everyone dresses up like Satan or weird stuff. It was super cool to see!

Love you all! 

Elder Snow

 You guys...  He has bed bugs in his place.  Any ideas.  The only thing they are telling him is to use a chemical that the FDA said causes all sorts of awful things.

Week 31: February 26 - March 4, 2019 Blessing of the Priesthood

Hey Everybody                                                                                 March 4, 2018

This week has been a blast with Elder Connover! We have been working a fetch ton here in Zacualtipan! It has been a blast! IT is so refreshing to be able to speak English!!

One of the things that I have learned so much about is the power of the priesthood. Much too often we feel as if we need to use the power of heaven for extremely dire situation. Of course, we should use this divine power with respect, but it is something that God has given us to call down the blessings of Heaven.

Our heavenly Father wants to bless and guide us! This is something I have definitely felt, specifically last night when this Sister in our rama was telling us about the difficulties in her life, which include her son abusing her and being murdered, taking care of abandoned grandchildren, and being left by her husband. I felt prompted to offer her the chance to receive a blessing of comfort. In it I truly just feel of God's love for her. It was such a special feeling to receive the words I need to say in another language for her. I knew that as I listened that these words were from God.

God is here for each one of us. Through prayer and the divine gift of the Priesthood, we can hear his plan for us. 

Love you all sorry I couldn’t write much!

Love Elder Snow

Week 30: February 19-25, 2019 Happy Birthday Elder Snow

Hey Everyone                                                                             February 25, 2019

Today was intercambios. (transfers)  I got a new companion Elder Connover from Denver, Colorado.  This is my first gringo since Elder Baker.  I will miss Elder Bolanos.  He is a great guy and we got along great.  So far I really like Elder Connover.  He seems super awesome. 

Today for my birthday we went out for ice cream and taco’s since it is P-Day.  I can’t believe I am 19.  It is super awesome. 

On Wednesday Fabiola told us she couldn’t be baptized.  Just on the Sunday before, she told us she would be baptized.  We went to pick out the spot because there is no font in the area.  I wasn’t feeling very certain about it but my companion was.  We picked out a spot under a waterfall.  Then we went to meet with her on Wednesday to reconfirm that she wanted to be baptized and she told us NO.  I was like are you kidding me.  I thought how sad.  She was progressing and everything.  We kind of just let them be.  So the mom said she wanted to be baptized still.  And we were like okay good, let's do it this Saturday.  The reason is that she had been like, “Yes, No…”  You know that song, “You’re, hot then your cold, your yes then you’re no…” The mom is that person.  She is so wishy, washy.  So we asked Fabis why she didn’t want to be baptized and she explained to us she is basically the equivalent to the young women’s president in her church.  She is in charge of 28 girls.  They told her that morning that if she joined the church, they would all stop going to their church.  They would become inactive.  She felt like if she joined the church, they would all die spiritually.  We told her that isn’t fair.  She said she didn’t care, she is in charge of them and she didn’t want to let that happen.  We left them for two days.  On Friday we went over to give her mom the baptismal interview because I was the district leader.  She was so excited that she was going to be baptized the following day.  We asked her if she had coffee or anything and it just went quiet.  She drank a ¼ a cup of coffee, she kept saying it was hardly any.  I said, you know the truth, and if you wanted to be baptized you wouldn’t be drinking coffee, you would obey ALL the commandments of God.  I bore my testimony, this is where the truth is.  This is where you find salvation.  Baptism is the entrance to covenant path of God.  I was talking to her about that.  Fabis was in the room as well.  I didn’t direct my conversation to Fabis at all.  And at the very end I said’‘Fabis, you are the only one here in this room that can be baptized tomorrow.  Why won’t you be baptized?”  And she was like “I want to be baptized.”  I went into the back room with her to interview her.  We started with a prayer.  I then asked her why she changed her mind.  On Wednesday she said she wasn’t going to be baptized and why is she going to now?  She said on Wednesday night after she said she wasn’t going to be baptized this anger and sadness came over her.  She knew she didn’t feel right.  She was fighting with her mom and sisters.  The anger and sadness wasn’t going away.  She said when she said she wanted to be baptized just barely she felt something special, I felt this joy and this peace come over her.  She knew it was what she needed to do and what God wants her to do.  It was a really awesome experience.  It was so awesome to hear her testimony because normally district leaders don’t interview their own investigators.  But because we live so far away from everyone else we got sent here.  So she did get baptized and it really was an awesome experience.  We are going to have her go to the temple on the 23^rd of March. 

We found some English speakers while we were tracking today and she is American.  They have been here for 23 years.  They teach English here.  They are Jewish.  We worry they will be antagonistic against us.  The husband is Mexican and the wife is from Oregon. Hopefully, it will be okay.

I hope you all enjoy some cake today, especially since all I can get is stupid tres leche. 

Love

Elder Snow