I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas - November 29, 2010

Elder Snow and Elder Ramirez



Thanksgiving in Paraguay

 Dear Family!

Thanks for the awesome letter you sent! I feel bad because my last couple letters have been kind of crappy. Sounds like you had a great thanksgiving. The 3 elders I live with and I made a thanksgiving lunch last Pday with some thanksgiving stuff that Elder Phelps parents sent him. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was yummy but I`m sure it didn`t come close to what you all ate. I`m sending a couple pictures of our thanksgiving meal and a picture of Elder Ramirez and I.

So continuing on what Mom said about tender mercies and what I wrote a little bit about last week, last monday after I wrote you I had another great experience that was kind of a tender mercy. Elder Ramirez and I went to talk a little bit with a less active member that Elder Bonilla and I had been working with and trying to get to church again. We were talking about his baptism several years ago and how he was later able to go to the temple with the same missionary that baptized him as that missionary had finished his mission and was going through different parts of Paraguay with his parents. I remembered what I had talked about in my letter last week and I shared with him the scripture in 1 Nephi 1 that talks about tender mercies as well as what you had written me. I bore my testimony about the tender mercies of the Lord and it just felt like everything fit into place. Only a couple hours after I had written you last week, there was a tender mercy of the Lord right in front of my face. I felt the spirit so strong and I could tell that this less active member felt it strongly as well. I was getting kind of close to tears because I could just feel that that was what I was supposed to be doing in that time and that the Spirit was working through me to help this less active brother to realize the blessings of the Lord in his life. So thank you for sharing with me last week about the tender mercy that you saw in church with President Pace`s talk.

I really like what mom wrote to me about faith as well. Faith is such a powerful thing. You should also read Persident Scott`s talk about faith from last general conference. One thing I have been learning lately is the close relationship between faith and patience. Having patience is really having the faith that the Lord will bless us in His own time. If we do not bear our difficulties with patience, we are not showing to the Lord that we are willing to submit to His will for us. Patience is something that I can most definitely work on and I am humbled every day that I lack patience with investigators. Another cool thought is how we can build attributes. We can pray to the Lord to help us develop attributes such as these, but we won`t just wake up one morning and have them. Rather, the Lord will bless us with opportunities to develop them. If we ask for patience, we might have a trial in which we need to be patient. We need to work for it, to show the Lord that we really want to change or grow.

Another random thought, there is a General Authority named C. Scott Grow. He must have had it rough as a child. His name is a sentence: see scott grow. Haha, I`m so irreverent sometimes...

This week we have been working very hard with the goal to have a white christmas with baptisms all dressed in white. We have been working very hard to find some new ppl to teach and have been blessed to find several great investigators that I really believe will progress.

We are continuing to work with Cristian and Lucia, and German and Sunilda. Yesterday we had a great lesson with Cristian and Lucia and I felt the spirit very strong. If they pray, they`ll get an answer. It`s so important to have faith as a missionary that the investigators will recieve an answer. One cool part towards the end of Ether 12 talks about how it was by the faith of Ammon and his brothers and later Nephi and Lehi that so many lamanites are converted The faith of the missionary can make all the difference so it is so important to have that faith. The thoughts mom shared about faith were very appropriate in this sense.

Well I`m about out of time. I think this letter was better than others have been. I hope so at least.

Thanks for everything! I love you all more than I can express. I want you to know how grateful I am for you. It`s always important to show gratitude for others that help us. You should read Elder Holland`s recent conf talk about that. I love you all!

Elder Snow