It's Important to Taste the Cake - December 6, 2010

This is one investigator that's not getting away!

View of Asuncion from Cerro Lamabre

Dear Family! 

Great to hear from you all! Sounds like you are having a great time getting into the Christmas Spirit.

I am going to send you a couple more pictures that I just took today actually. So you can look at the current Elder Snow and just imagine what I´m up to right now. In answer to your question, the camera is working great. Everyone tells me it´s super chuchi, which is the word for like richy. Is richy even a word in english? Haha oh well. Anyway, we went and hiked up this hill that is called Cerro Lamabre, which just means Lambare hill. I live in Ybate, which is part of Lambare, which is kind of part of Asuncion. there is this big monument thing on top and lots of statue things all over it. I took a couple of funny pictures with the statues, irreverant, I know. There is also a really cool view of all around Asuncion from the top, so I have some pics of that too.

This week has been busy as usual. We got the conference edition of the Liahona this week, so we´re all pretty pumped about reviewing the conference talks and what not. I looked and found where the story was about the guy who didn´t play basketball on a Sunday that I was telling you about that one time, and it was one of President Monson´s talks, I think it was one from Sunday. 

 

I was reading a talk from the May 2010 conference by Elder Bradley Foster. He is in the Presidency of the South America South area so he came and spoke to us a couple weeks ago and met all the missionaries. So I decided to read his talk and it was very good. He talked about his appreciation for his mother and the importance of good mothers in the church. I was definitely able to relate to this talk because I have been blessed with very great parents and an awesome family. He shared the scripture of the 2000 stripling warriors and how they did not doubt, for their mothers knew it.

 

I remember from the MTC there was one story shared about a missionary who had just finished sharing the story of the 1st vision. As he finished, the woman he was teaching started to laughed and said something along the lines of "how could you believe something as ridiculous as that." The missionary's response was along the lines of, "My mother told me this was true, and she would never lie to me." Then the missionaries turned and left. This simple testimony was powerful for the woman, and the next time she saw the missionaries, she invited them in and received the discussions. I can´t remember if they said she progressed to baptism or not, but the point of the story is plain that we are very blessed to have the testimonies of family and parents. Sometimes we have to live on borrowed light for a little while and it´s hard to believe that we have our own testimonies. This is why parents are so important. 

 

We have struggled a little bit to get investigators to church lately because it has rained 3 Sundays in a row and Paraguayans don´t like to do anything when it rains. This has shown me the importance of getting ppl to church so that they can taste the cake, so to speak. While we are still struggling to receive our personal testimony, it is important to press forward and do the things in order to receive one. I am very grateful to you, Mom and Dad, for keeping me going to church and doing the important things while I was working to develop my own testimony. Looking back, I realize the importance of being in church and I know that I have received some of the most important answers in my life as a result of that. 

 

So my point is, while living on borrowed light, or while struggling to develop a personal testimony, persevere and do the things so that you can get one! But I´m sure I´m preaching to the choir, because you are all awesome.

 

I love you all so much.

 

Love,

Elder Snow