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!

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

Week 25: January 15-21, 2019 Molango

Hey everybody!

This past week has been amazing! Zacualtipan is so beautiful, I love it here. I now live on the third floor of a huge yellow building and there are so many people here who have never even heard of our church, which is great! This area is beautiful and is super foggy about 85% of the time. Some days we can't even see the other side of the street. Along with the high elevation, its pretty cold here, and on occasion can snow. It is extremely green and is super pretty. Here in Zacualtipan the chapel is a House of prayer. It has about 15 members that come every week - including us and the misioneras. Every Sunday I get to go to 4 hours of church because our branch has two services one in Molango about 50 mins from Zacualtipan where the sisters work and one here in Zacualtipan. So we spend most of our Sunday traveling and in church which is super awesome. This Sunday I was able to speak in church, and honestly, it was a super awesome experience, usually before a talk I spend hours writing it to make it perfect. This week I didn´t have that much time, so I kinda forgot about it. It was really awesome, I ended up speaking for 25 mins without anything prepared, which is something I have never done before, let alone in another language. It truly was great to have that experience and see the growth I have made since I entered the mission. 

So this past week I was a little bummed out that I was no longer training my son Elder Zacarias. But over the course of this week, I have learned so much and realized time and time again that this new area is exactly where I need to be. The will of God is much greater than my own. My companion elder Bolaños is super chido, and all of my weaknesses are his strengths and all of his weaknesses are my strengths, I feel like we are the perfect team. It is great. 

So the investigators here in zacualtipan here are golden they follow up with almost all the compromises we give them and have been progressing super fast. I love it here so much. Right now we have seven people with a baptismal date and they are all so amazing. In specific four of them are a family, named la Familia Rojas. They are super great and know the truth of the church but are struggling with dropping coffee. Which as you all know is my specialty. jajaja I was able to talk with the grandmother and help her understand the importance of the palabra de sabiduria, and so far in the past few days hasn’t drunk a single drop. This family is super awesome and they taught me this morning how to make bolas (a round tomal) They taste super good. This area is so great and I am so happy to serve here! 

LOVE YOU ALL; stay safe, stay strong.

LOVE ELDER SNOW 

  

Uno Mas from the mission home.

I have updated pics from Week 23