Rain On My Parade - May 16, 2011

Dear Family!

It was really great to talk to you all yesterday. You all sounds pretty much the same. Except Mason actually did sound a little bit older. We won´t talk again for 7 months so I´m sure the next time you will all sound super old. Sorry if I kept saying "What?" like a million times. I couldn´t hear very well during some parts. But no worries, it was good to hear your voices. I think my English is starting to get kind of bad, it was hard to explain a few things haha.


So Grandma and Grandpa are in town! That sounds fun. Tell them hi for me.

So mom asked what "La Expo" is. Haha. The expo is this big fair type thing that is in Santa Rita every year. It´s famous throughout all of Paraguay and people come from really far away to attend. It has like some roller coaster ride type things and a bunch of booths from companies and food and what not. It´s been a little rough this week in Santa Rita because of the expo. Most of our members and investigators have been working there like non stop so it´s been a little bit tough to teach lessons and what not, but this week should be better.

Another fun thing from this week! Saturday, el 14 de Mayo, was Independence day here in Paraguay. It was the bicentennial, the 200th year anniversary of the independence of Paraguay. So it was a big party. Saturday morning we planned to walk out to Rosa, Gunter, and Jorge´s house to visit them a little bit. So we headed out that morning and there was a big parade going down the freeway with kids from all the schools marching and what not. It was cool. We just saw like 2 minutes worth on the way to Rosa´s.  They had this big giant stuffed lion on a giant float. The big lion is still there in centro so I´m going to take a picture with it today haha. But then it started raining and the parade ended. I laughed super hard at the irony "rain on my parade." Hahaha... I chuckle still.

But apart from difficulties with the Expo it really has been a great week. We´ve been working hard and working a lot with the members.

Dad asked about Hernán and Sandra. We tried to visit them last night after the call but couldn´t find them. It´s a little up and down with them but I know that they´ll be baptized one day. They are super prepared but there is just something that is holding them back. They just a need a little boost of faith to take that step to be baptized.

This week I´ve been focusing a lot on the Spirit and how I can follow it better. The Spirit is so important in this work. I love the theme of the Spirit. It´s such a wonderful thing. I love receiving the confirming truth after following the Spirit. It´s always such a testimony builder and those are the moments most special in the mission when I follow a prompting and feel the Spirit confirm to me after that I did the right thing. It´s a blessing that is so prevalent in the mission, one that I really love.

Other news this week. I´ve started reading Jesus the Christ. I´ve got quite the project ahead. Before my mission I couldn´t imagine why anyone would read a book that long that wasn´t Harry Potter. But I started reading it and I know why now. It´s really incredible. I´ve been reading a little less than a week but I can already feel my testimony of the Savior growing so much.

That´s awesome that Elder Merrill is in President Franco! I´ve heard of that area and know some elders that were there.

From what I hear, that´s the area that has some really cool water falls. Haha I´ve also heard that about Ciudad del Este. I hear it´s the biggest black market in South America and 2nd biggest in the world or something like that. It´s a fun place.
Don´t worry though mom, Santa Rita is nice and safe.

I love you all so much and love hearing from you! Thanks for all your support and love!

Elder Snow

Note from Carrie:  Here are some pictues of Mariela's baptism that Zach just sent.  For a few more pics, go to the March 28, 2011 letter from Zach.

Mariela, Elder Bazán & Elder Snow
March 26, 2011

Mariela, Emerson & Mirta

Mother's Day Mix-Up - May 9, 2011

Dear Family,

Hey sorry again about the mishap yesterday. Mother´s Day in Paraguay is on the 15th, I guess I just assumed it would be the same day in the United States, hah.  So we can do the call this Sunday, the 15th, at 6:30 my time, 3:30 your time.

Sounds like you had a good Mother´s Day get together even if we didn´t get to talk. Definitely made me a little trunky with the mentioning of the tri tip. Spinach quiche, not so much, you can write about Spinach quiche all you want.

Sorry I don´t have too much to write about again. I was trying to figure out how to fix the call thing, so I don´t have much time. But it´s been a good weekend here in Paraguay also. Yesterday in church was kind of a roller coaster. Right now in Santa Rita there is this big event going on called La Expo. It´s kind of like a big fair type deal. Everyone is working a ton with overtime for the expo and many of the members couldn´t make it to church. We had some talks lined up for people that couldn´t make it, so Elder Snow was called in to sub. The mission is definitely an adventure sometimes, I had like 10 minutes to talk and 1 minute to prepare. But I think it turned out alright. Elder Gleason was also a champ and gave a great talk with little time to prepare. But the best part of sacrament meeting was this awesome testimony that Reinaldo gave. Reinaldo is the young man that was baptized with Jorge last week. Elder Stewart and Elder Gleason have been teaching him. He gave an awesome testimony about prayer and the Book of Mormon. His mother is a member from a while ago, but his dad is super devout Catholic. Reinaldo and his mom went to church for a while before they moved to Santa Rita, but moved here whent the church still hadn´t started in this area. So after the church started up in Santa Rita, Reinaldo started coming. He didn´t have a lot of support because his dad isn´t a big fan of the church and doesn´t want them to go. But Reinaldo´s a stud and started coming to church by himself. He shared in his testimony about how he prayed and started reading the Book of Mormon because he was confused about what to do and wanted to know the truth (basically like the Joseph Smith story). He talked about how he started to change a lot when he began reading the Book of Mormon and praying more, so he made the decision to get baptized. The spirit was very strong and I was so impressed with his maturity.

I really love serving in Santa Rita because I get to see all the time the fire of recent converts. It´s incredible that it´s practically an entire church unit with people that have recently gained testimonies from God about the truth of this work, I love it.

We had another great miracle that was on.. I think it was Saturday.  Elder Bazán and I were walking down the street and there was a man walking towards us. I went to contact him, but he basically contacted us. He asked us where the church was, it turns out he is a member from Brazil. His name is Wager. He was kind of in a hurry so we got his number, explained where the church was and at what time. I didn´t think too much of it because I figured he was just there for work, because he said he was in town for the expo, because his business had a stand there (again with the expo, this time it helped us). But lo and behold, the next day he was there like 15 minutes early for church. I started talking to him and it turns out he served a mission and is a high priest. He´s also a temple worker and served on a Stake High Council. Who knew? And it turns out that he might move to Santa Rita with his family because he will be working here more permanently. I know that the Lord has so many people prepared for the work here.

I want you all to know that I have a testimony of this work. I know that the Lord is blessing us. It is great to feel the Lord´s love towards his children as I try to lose myself in this work. I remember in the MTC, there was a talk that a member of the MTC presidency gave. He referred to an experience where he talked with... I want to say it was a stake patriarch, and he asked him, "What is the most apparent thing in a patriarchal blessing?" Without hesitation, the stake patriarch said, "The love of God towards his children." I have felt so strongly God´s love towards me and towards others. I am so grateful for you, my family. Thanks for being so great!

So, for the final decision, call at 3:30 your time.

Love,
Elder Snow

It Was Really Safe Mom, Don't Worry - May 5, 2011

Dear Family!

It was so great to hear from you all! It feels like it´s been a while since I´ve written, change week is always a little bit longer.

So I´ll start with the news of the changes. Drum roll...... Elder Snow will be serving in............ Santa Rita! All four of the missionaries in Santa Rita are staying for another change. Elder Bazán and I will have our third change together as companions. This will be my 4th change here in Santa Rita. It´s crazy the time really flies. Santa Rita is a smaller city so I feel like I know just about everyone in the entire town. I really love this place and the people here, so I am very glad to be here for another change.

Elder Snow, Gunter, Rosa, Jorge & Elder Bazán

Elder Gleason, Reinaldo, Jorge & Elder Stewart

The other big news of the week is that we had the baptism of Jorge. It all turned out really well. I´m trying to attach some fotos but this computer is kind of spazzy so I hope it works. I also snagged some pictures from Elder Bazan of the baptism of Mariela so I´ll try to send those some time as well. We had the baptism on Saturday. Jorge and another young man, Reinaldo, were both baptized. Elder Stewart baptized Jorge and Elder Gleason baptized Reinaldo. During Jorge´s baptismal interview, the elder asked Jorge who he wanted to baptize him. Jorge responded "Elder Stewart, he´s stronger." Haha Rosa, Gunter, and Jorge are all very funny and make me laugh. Rosa gave a talk about baptism at Jorge´s baptism and it was very special. She is so grateful to Heavenly Father for having brought them the gospel and for children that are happy and willing to make covenants with the Lord.

Before I forget, I´m still not positive with all the details of the Mother´s Day call. You will finish church at 5 my time. I think it would be best to do it a little later than that. Would it be possible to do it at about 3:00 your time, 6:00 my time? I think we will be able to do it at the house of a member. There are few people that have land lines. We talked a little bit with one member and they will be there Sunday afternoon so that would work just fine. 

Sorry, I´m about out of time because I was trying to figure out all the stuff for the phone call.

I love you all lots and lots. I promise a nice, long letter on Monday. I know that the Savior lives. I´m very grateful for his church and for the blessing that it is to be here in the mission.

Before I go, a quick funny story. Last Saturday, we were scrambling to find out how we were going to do the baptism, because we are still having problems with the owner about the font. We didn´t want to do it in the kiddy pool again because it would be difficult for Jorge to bend all the way backwards. So we decided to take the giant font to a member's house not too far away. But we didn´t really have a way to do it. So we asked the help of the lady in charge of the building where we have church, she works for the owner. She has this little motorcycle with like a carriage hooked on back. So we threw the font on and were holding it on all sides. The members live close, but it´s straight up hill. So the 4 missionaries were running on the side of the moto, holding the font on (it was really safe mom, don´t worry) up hill as fast as we could. Sounds like something dad would say " up hill, both ways, in the snow, wet hair on my neck."

Anyway, I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Snow

P.S. I got the Easter package, so delicious, thanks so much.

Wow, I Feel Like a Ganso! - April 25, 2011

Dear Family,

Wow it was really great to hear from you all this week.  Sounds like it has been a week full of fun up there in Utah.  It´s been a great Easter down here too.  Don´t worry Mom, I didn´t get too homesick for Easter, except when I was thinking back to Easter egg chases on Sunday mornings haha. Elder Bazán and I were eating at Rosa and Gunter´s house a couple of days ago and were sharing some of our Easter memories. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Easter Bunny exists in Paraguay also and that Rosa´s kids used to have presents from the Easter Bunny and all that haha. We ate with Jorge also, he is so great. Jorge and Rosa made it to church again yesterday (Gunter is out of town) and really enjoyed the meeting. Jorge continues to progress really well. Right now we are teaching him the Commandments and he is understanding everything very well. I love his spirit and his want to learn more. Jorge accepted a baptismal date for this Saturday. He is preparing himself very well. Whether he is baptized or not will depend on his interview. I´ve explained a little bit before that he has some learning disabilities and so are trying to find out if he needs to be baptized or not. But he understands well the difference between right and wrong and has lots of desires to get baptized (except for a little fear and dunking his head in the water!).

Yesterday in church Izaías also gave a talk! It was so awesome. Mariela, Gunter, and Rosa have all given talks as well. It´s so neat to see recent converts share their testimonies and the Spirit is always very strong. Izaías talked about Christ and the Resurrection (not sure how to spell that in English sorry). He used a couple of really good scriptures that talked about Christ´s resurection and bore his testimony. It was a very sweet experience.

We´ve continued talking with Hernán and Sandra also. Last night we asked Sister Delvalle to meet us at the house there to teach a little bit with them. The lesson turned out really awesome. Sister Delvalle shared this awesome story about how her family was baptized. They were attending a couple of churches, but were really confused. Her family prayed to ask God what they should do. Her mom had a dream of a couple of missionaries coming to there house, but had no idea who they were or how to talk to them. But then a couple of days later the missionaries showed up at their house, which was in the middle of nowhere in a mountain. They had talked with her brother in Ciudad Del Este and he told them that they should go by. After that the entire family was baptized. Sister Delvalle shared her testimony of prayer. All in all, it was so great for Hernán and Sandra to hear. Lessons are so much more powerful with the help of members. I´m really excited to see the progress of the friendship between Sandra and Sister Delvalle

One funny story from this week, I tried to make cookies.... Needless to say, they didn´t turn out quite like Mom´s. Mom, if you could send me your chocolate chip cookie recipe, with some hints, that would be much appreciated. Anyway, about the cookies, I don´t know if we were lacking flour or what (p.s. i almost wrote flower there) but the batter was super thin. So I just plopped it on the tray anyway. Then threw it in the oven, that´s another problem. The gas switches on our stove don´t have temperature, so it´s just a guess as to how far on the knob might possibly be 325 or whatever it is. So they turned out like flat, spongy, chocolate chip pancakes. I ate them anyway...

Before I forget again, Happy Birthday, Steph! Wow I feel like a ganso (goose, as Elder Woodruff would say) for forgetting like 3 weeks in a row. The big 23, I hope you are doing well, Steph, I love you lots!

To answer your question, I did meet Elder Merrill! I had forgotten that Dad told me he was in this mission. After your email last week, I went home and looked on the calendar with the pictures of all the missionaries and looked up Elder Merrill. I recognized him from the leadership conference in Asunción! I think he´s a district leader somewhere in Asunción right now. When I met him at the time, I didn´t recongize he was Rodney´s son. But it was a pleasant surprise. I remember he is short also, about my height. It reminded me of Dad´s story about him and Rodney fighting on the first day of school or something like that. I remember I was surprised to hear that Dad was in a fight haha. The next time I run into Elder Merrill, I´ll give him a big hug!

To answer another question, I haven´t received the Easter package yet, I´m sure it will get here soon. And about Skype, I would like to do it.  It will be hard to find a place to do it. I think missionaries usually do it at member´s houses, but none of the members here have a computer, so we´ll see.

All in all, it´s been a great Easter! Here, they celebrate all week. Everyone makes chipa, I don´t know if I´ve ever mentioned chipa. It´s like a little bread type thing, it´s really hard to describe. It´s different, but once you´re used to it it´s really good. During semana santa, everyone makes chipa and hands it out. It´s pretty fun.

I tried hard to write a nice, long email this week. Hopefully I´ve succeeded at least a little. The most special part of the week, however, has been the blessing I´ve had to think more about the Savior. This week has been very special to reflect a lot about Him, about everything that He has done and does for us. I was reviewing a conference talk from President Monson in April of 2010. He spoke on Easter Morning and spoke of the Resurection. It is such na incredible talk and  I love to reflect on the words of the angel to Mary Magdalene, “He is not here, for He is risen.” I know that Christ lives. I was reflecting a little on my patriarchal blessing this morning, and realized that I am so blessed to have this testimony of the Savior. I hope you all know that I love you so much. Have a great week!

Elder Snow

Submitting Our Will to the Lord - April 18, 2011

Querida Familia! (This computer doesn´t have a key for upside-down exclamation points. Oh well.)

Thank you soo much for your great letter from this week. I always enjoy hearing about what´s going on back there.

Please tell Jenn, Joel, Lucia and Cortez hi for me! You should send some pictures one email, I want to see how big they are getting!

Sounds like you have had another crazy/fun week.

I really enjoyed reading about dad´s talk in ward conference. That has been a theme that President Callan has touched on a couple times recently, having a change of heart and submitting our will to the Lord. I really love that topic. The quote that Dad shared from Elder Maxwell really hit me. It is really awesome to think that we can give that to the Lord, our will and our obedience. There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that comes to mind...not sure exactly where it is... I think it´s in Mosiah 4. Nope, Mosiah 2:23-24 It says something like, even if we do everything the Lord asks of us, we will still be unprofitable servants because he will bless us immediately after. And because he gave us life and the ability to choose in the first place. The Lord is always looking out for us and will bless us when we submit our will to him.

Things here in Santa Rita have been going really great! This week has been kind of crazy. On Tuesday, Elder Stewart and I went to Asunción for a training for leaders in the mission. It was really great to see some of the missionaries I have come to know. They all are such great people. Elder Bradley Foster from the second quorum of the 70 was there and gave us training. He is an amazing man. It was really neat, he arrived there during lunch time and walked right in and sat down at the table where I was eating. He served as a mission President in Arcadia and said he knew Thousand Oaks, small world.  He talked a lot about work with the members. We received some really good personal revelation for our areas and how we can do better.

Last week I made the decision to be better about writing in my journal, but so far it still hasn´t stuck. I´m really bad at writing. But this morning I was reflecting a lot and received the impression that I need to write down the miracles I see, and realize how much the Lord blesses me and how His hand is in this work. So I think I will do better hah.

I really love that talk that Dad mentioned from Elder Uceda. Many times in my mission I have had to slow down and really humble myself. I realize that I am too often a victim of the pride that President Uchtdorf spoke about in October and that I need to do better in my humility.

This week was so great in church! The second counselor of the Stake Presidency of Ciudad Del Este came and spoke. It was a really great talk and many of the members made it to church so it was really great that they were able to hear.

Jorge, Rosa, and Gunter made it to church again. Gunter is preparing to receive the Aaronic Priesthood, I love that kid. He is so awesome, they are a phenomenal family. We are talking a lot with Jorge and think he will be able to get baptized. We are preparing him well and he really does understand well.

Sorry I´m short on time, as always. The Rojas family also made it to church yesterday. They were investigators from a super long time ago that almost got baptized, but ended up getting baptized in another church. The hermano has been praying and reading a lot lately and got a little answer about the church in a dream. So know they are dedicated to attend again. We will see how things go. They are a really great family.

I love you all so much! I am very happy here and know that the church is true!

Love,
Elder Snow

Más Tranquilo - April 11, 2011

Dear Family!

Thanks so much for your awesome letter! It really was a crazy week last week to get to conference but it was all so worth it! This week I have been trying to review my notes and think more about the conference so that I can gain more out of it. We have been able to apply many of the messages from the General Authorities with investigators and help them. I love to apply the general conference messages to myself as well as investigators, it always provides me with the testimony that their messages really are inspired from God and that these messages reflect God´s will for us in these moments.

You asked if that was my first time being to Ciudad Del Este. I´ve been probably 7 or 8 times now. In order to get to Santa Rita from Asunción, we have to go first to Ciudad Del Este, so the first time I went there was in December. The missionaries here in Santa Rita are really isolated, so whenever we have zone conferences or activities, we go there as well. We went there for the baptism guazu also. It´s always fun to go to Ciudad Del Este, until you have to cross a street. I fear for my life every time hah. It´s like playing on a freeway. It´s always nice to come back to Santa Rita, más tranquilo, as the Paraguayans say.

We have had a really great week. We´ve been working really hard to find new people and to prepare them for baptism.

Mom had asked about Hernán and Sandra. They haven´t really been keeping their commitments to go to church and she is too laid back about quitting smoking. I´ve been praying a lot for them lately and really know that they are among those chosen people that God has prepared. It´s just tough sometimes when they don´t do their part. It´s been a little difficult because they have some neighbors that are from another church that are putting a lot of negative thoughts in their head. We shared one lesson with them along with Izaías and Mirta. Mirta gave this awesome testimony about how happy they have been since their marriage and how they also had people who were putting negative thoughts in their heads but just decided to follow what the Spirit told them. But I really believe that we can do more and that they will be baptized one day.

This week we have also started visiting Rosa´s other son, Jorge. Rosa has two sons, Jorge and Gunter. You´ll remember Gunter who was baptized a couple of months ago. They are all doing very well. Koki (that´s what they call Jorge) was living at his dad´s house for a couple of months and just finally came home this week. He wasn´t baptized before with Gunter because he has some learning difficulties and there was the question of whether or not he needed to be baptized. On top of that, he wasn´t there very often so it was hard to talk with him. But he moved back this week and it seems like he´ll be there for a while. He understands the doctrine well and also understands the difference between right and wrong. We will need to work with him a bit, but he really wants to get baptized and we believe he´ll be able to. All three of them made the long walk to church yesterday (they are such studs, they walk like 45 minutes to church) and Rosa gave this incredible testimony. She shared a story about how when Koki was born, the doctors told her he would never walk or talk. She prayed so hard for the Lord´s help. She is a woman of really great faith. Long story short, Koki walks and talks and is such an awesome person.
I really love this Gospel. I know the church is true. Thank you so much for your testimonies and the support that you always have for me. I know that Christ directs this church.

I hope you have a great week!


Love
Elder Snow

The Thing That I Love Most About Conference - April 4, 2011

Dear Fam,

Wow! What a great week it has been. 

As usual, we´ve been working very hard to find great people, teach them, and run a church unit all at the same time!

To answer some of your questions, Hernán and Sandra have not been married and baptized. We were planning for last Saturday but it didn't happen. So now we are working with them more.  On Tuesday night we were there teaching. We taught this great lesson about the plan of Salvation. They really enjoyed it and the Spirit was there. I always enjoy teaching the Plan of Salvation. One thing I really love about Elder Bazán is his love of this lesson. He loves to teach the Atonement and really bears an awesome testimony, he´s a great missionary. So we taught that lesson, ended it and went off on our merry way, todo tranquilo as the Paraguayans say.   I think I am learning more patience and I really believe that the Lord will help them to be baptized, they just need to do their part.

We have found a couple of great new families also. There is one family named José and Nancy that we have started teaching recently. They have three daughters and are a really great little family. They have been progressing really well and really enjoyed the video of the Restoration of the church. It was so great also, Nancy and her mom and the 3 daughters and another nephew named Victor all made it to general conference with us. The kids lost their attention a little bit, but Nancy and her mom really enjoyed it I think.

Speaking of conference, it´s been a wild week getting all ready for it. We rented a bus to take us to Ciudad Del Este, the closest place where it would be showing. So we headed up there to watch both of the Sunday Sessions. So I´ll have to wait for the Liahona to be able to read the rest of the talks. We prepared some sandwiches to eat between the sessions and we had a good time. The first session I really enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf´s talk as well as Elder Bednar´s. In the afternoon session, I couldn´t pay as much attention as I wanted because I was trying to chase some kids down and help others out. But I really enjoyed Elder Scott´s talk a lot. Like Dad said there was a strong theme of the temple. I am very grateful for the blessings of the temple in my life. It really is a comfort to know that I was born into an eternal family. Elder Scott´s testimony of the opportunity to see his wife and 2 deceased children really hit me strong.

But the thing that I love most about conference is the blessing to receive a confirming witness of the truth of this church. I know that the Lord is directing this church and that what we heard this past weekend is His will for the church. Elder Holland´s talk was also very powerful and I know that as we study and restudy the messages from conference, we can pick some of the Lord´s will out for us personally in every message. I am so excited to reread and put it in practice.

I love you all so much. Keep it up with the great missionary work, Melanie. You are a great example!

Love,
Elder Snow