We're All Smiles - March 28, 2011

Dear Family!

Thanks so much for your great letter. Sorry this letter is going to be really short because this computer has been sketching out really bad and I don´t have much time.

This has been another crazy/awesome week! On Saturday we had the baptism for Mariela, I don´t have pictures because my camera died that day just as we were about to take pictures, bummer. Maybe I´ll be able to mooch some from my companion this week and send you some next week. But it was a really great baptism! We had some more problems Saturday with the owner and the baptismal font so we ended up doing it in the kiddy pool again, which is kind of a head ache, but we had the baptism so we´re all smiles!


We're all smiles!  Mariela, Emerson, Mirta, Elder Bazán & Elder Snow



Mariela, Elder Bazán & Elder Snow

Also on Saturday, we had to move because we had to be out of the house by the next day. So on Saturday morning we were scrambling as fast a we could to move, then we had the baptism a little bit after that.

I can´t lie, you made me a little trunky with the mentioning of In-N-Out, we are about to go eat now and it doesn´t help that I´m hungry, haha. But 5 Guys is all the rage in Provo, so I´ve heard of that one. In-N-Out´s better hah.

Congrats mom for doing so awesome in the 10K. I was telling Elder Stewart and Elder Gleason (they are big time long distance runners) this week that you were prepping for it and were really excited, except I thought it was going to be a 5K, so needless to say I´m even more impressed. No way I could even run 6 miles, let alone in an hour.

There were lots of questions too, so I´ll go ahead and answer some of those:

So did they have to sit down in the pool and then lay back flat in order to get baptized?
Yeah, it was a little iffy but it worked out

Isn’t there a lake or something nearby that you can use for baptisms?On Saturday we went and looked at some rivers close by, but they were a little dirty/shallow so we decided to go with the kiddy pool. I know that they did baptisms here in a river before they got the pileta, but I´m not sure where they went.

So have you resolved what to do for future baptisms?
I think we are going to have to change the church location to somewhere we can use the pileta. We just finished moving houses and now we are looking to move the church, so it will probably be another few crazy weeks. But it will all be for the best

So as district leader, are you also responsible for organizing the sacrament meetings on Sundays since there are no ecclesiastical leaders in your area?  We do it together as the four missionaries in Santa Rita, so I was doing it a little before also.

What will it take before you can organize a branch there? 
We need a Branch President. Most of the members are recent converts so we haven´t quite arrived at that point yet. There are a couple of members that are members from a long time ago, we are working with them and hopefully we will have a branch here really soon. The members are so awesome, just a little young, but they are willing to work really hard because of the great testimonies they have received.

By the way, do you also play piano during your church meetings? Elder Snow was forced into retirement a little while ago, we´re rocking it a capella now. It sounds a lot better haha.

Sorry I´m out of time! I promise a really good letter next week. I´m doing really great here and love to hear from you! Thanks to all of you for being such great member missionaries! I love to hear your stories of sharing the gospel. Keep it up. I know the church is true. I love you all!

Elder Snow

Incredible/Crazy/Rewarding Week - March 24, 2011




Elders Stewart, Snow, Bazán and Villegas


Dear Familia!

Wow! This has been such an incredible/crazy/rewarding week. We´ve been looking for a new house because we have to move, on top of the baptisms and weddings we were planning, all with it being changes week. Needless to say, Elders Snow and Bazán had a little bit of stress, but it all worked out for the best.

So I´ll begin with changes. I´m staying in Santa Rita! I was so pumped. Elder Bazán and I will have another change together and we are really pumped. I really love that missionary. So now Santa Rita consists of Elder Bazán and I, then in the other area Elder Stewart and his new trainee!  I was so pumped he came here. He is from the same group as Elder Bazán and I, we all got to Paraguay the same day. Elder Stewart and I were on all the planes together on the way to Paraguay, so I already knew him a little. He is also coming from Ybate, my last area, so it´s been so cool to get updates and everything. Elder Stewart is training now, so cool! His new companion is Elder Gleason, from Pleasant Grove, Utah.

I will have the opportunity to serve as the District Leader here in Santa Rita. I´ll have to rely on the Lord a lot. Long story short, we are super young here in Santa Rita but full of excitement and ready to achieve a lot! It´s going to be a great change.

Now about the Baptism Guazu... Izaías and Mirta ended up getting married and baptized. It was such a cool experience. We really had to fight for our investigators last week. We were having all kinds of problems trying to find the judge first of all, because the one we had planned on using went out of town. We got that all figured out, made the cake (cakes are super expensive to buy, who knew, so we just made one, it turned out well) and were all ready for Saturday.



Cakes are expensive to buy...who knew?
No problem for Elders Snow and Bazán though...
they baked their own cake!

Then Saturday morning we go to clean and fill the font and all sorts of problems break out. We have a so so relationship with the owner of the place where we rent the chapple. The supervisor lady there kind of got mad that we were having baptisms and then told the owner and all heck broke lose. She doesn´t want us to do baptisms behind the church anymore. So we had a big problem with just a couples hours before.  So we started scrambling, trying to figure out how we are going to baptize them. Finally we found an old investigator that had a little pool thing we borrowed. We hurried back to the church, filled it up as fast as we could with bottles and buckets, then got ready for the marriage.


Mirta, Izaías and baby Emerson excited for marriage and baptism.



Check out the happy smiles!

Not even the lack of a font was going to stop this baptism!

We had the marriage alright then went to do the baptisms, but then one of the investigators couldn´t fit all the way in the water so we had to fill it up more. But in the end, they were baptized alright and confirmed the next day.

Throughout the whole experience, I really felt the Lord´s help. We were able to accomplish everything and help two of the Lord´s choice children enter into the waters of baptism. I think I learned much better this week what it means to lose myself in the work. We put in all this effort and time in the help for others. I worked probably harder than any other time in my life, and it felt so good because it was for the benefit and service of others. I know that the Lord will help those who help others. The promise in Mosiah 2:18 is so true.

Dad asked if we have the chance to see Falls of Iguacu. I personally haven´t. I know there are some really cool waterfalls over in Ciudad del Este, I don´t know if those are them or not. Lots of missionaries go there but we haven´t had the chance yet because Ciudad Del Este is actually a couple hours away from Santa Rita so it would take like all day on Pday. So our P days usually consist of rest and playing Monopoly, but I think we have to stop because there is a new rule on board games. Sigh, I´ll miss Monop, but oh well.

Well, I´m about out of time. Sorry this letter was going on and on about different themes. Oh! This Saturday Mariela is getting baptized! We are pumped about that. And the following Saturday we are hoping that Hernán and Sandra will get married and baptized. It will happen!

I appreciate your prayers and all your love. I´m am enjoying every minute! I love you all so much. Chau!

Elder Snow

Rollercoaster-Type Week - March 14, 2011

Excited to preach the gospel!

Dear Family,

We´ve had another great week here in Santa Rita! Sounds like your week has been full of cleaning, yard work, all that fun stuff.

Happy Birthday to Tate! That´s crazy he´s already 6 years old. Time flies when you´re playing with spider man action figures. Hopefully everything goes well in that area and that they like it lots.

I can hardly imagine mom bonding with the puppy, haha, after hearing her horror stories of growing up with big dogs. Speaking of dogs, there is this amazing two legged dog here in Santa Rita that I see sometimes in the street. He´s my new hero. He just walks on his front two legs, he´s so strong it´s really impressive.

Congrats to Mason on his baseball and basketball wins. That´s always a highlight in the letters haha.

Congrats to Talmage Jones also, tell him I say hi. I love Talmage, he´s such a good guy. When does he report to the MTC?

We´ve had another rollercoaster type week here! It´s been full of awesome experiences and a couple "days of patience" as Elder Woodruff called them. But all in all, we´ve seen some great miracles of the Lord this week.

Hernán and Sandra finally made it to church again, it was so great to see them there. I think they really enjoyed it. It was a special meeting because we had a member of the Stake Presidency from Ciudad del Este there. His name is President Gonzales, he gave an incredible talk and focused a lot on preparation. I felt the Spirit very strong and am grateful to have such great leaders here in Paraguay. It´s a great testimony to me of the strength of the church in foreign countries, that it really is a world-wide church.

Anyway, back to Hernán and Sandra. Earlier this week, there was kind of a panic. They wanted to buy some things they need for the house, but their circumstances are pretty humble and they didn´t really have the money to buy it. Hernán was trying to sell his motorcycle to buy furniture and things they wanted, but they couldn´t find a buyer. So Sandra was getting pretty upset and wanted to move back to Brazil with Nayeli, the 2 year old daughter. So we talked with them more about the important things and how much the Lord has blessed them. All the while, she was still having trouble quitting smoking because she was really stressed. But by about Saturday they had really settled down a lot more and were focusing a lot more on the important things. They are doing great now, they made it to church, Sandra hasn´t smoked in a couple days, and they are excited for the marriage and baptism this Saturday. They are such amazing people and we are going to work so hard this week to help them be super prepared. I really love their family, Nayeli is so great. She always waves to us and shakes our hand. She recognizes us all the time now. When we leave, she always says "chau, hermano!" She is still learning to talk so it comes out more like hermao- so great.

Maico is doing great as well. He also made it to church yesterday and hasn´t smoked for a couple days either. He is really seeing the blessings in his life by living the Word of Wisdom. We are working really hard with him as well for his baptism this Saturday.

Also great news from yesterday! Isaías and Mariela made it to church. After, we watched a movie about Joseph Smith with Isaías, Mirta y Mariela and they really loved it. Mirta and Mariela had already received testimonies and we were kind of waiting on Isaías. Yesterday he felt the spirit really strong during the movie and said after that now he knows Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was so great to see. They are also preparing to get married and baptized this Saturday. If all goes well, it will be a baptism guazu! Elder Bazán and I are praying and hoping so much, and we have felt so blessed these last few weeks.

There were also a friend of Sandra and her 3 kids that made it to church the first time yesterday. It was so awesome! We had a really good attendance and it was so perfect because President Gonzales´ talk was so great. We´ve been really blessed from the Lord

Oh random question. I heard a bunch about some big earthquake/tornado deal going on last week. Did that reach California? I´ve been kind of curious. You´ll have to let me know.

Thanks for being such a great family! I love you all very much and am doing great down here. Next week I won´t write till Thursday because it´s change week. I´m kind of nervous, I really love Santa Rita and it would be sad to leave. We´ll see!

Love,
Elder Snow

The Real Importance of Missionary Work - March 7, 2011

¡Dear Family! 

It was great to receive a letter full of updates from home also full of the Spirit! Thank you for always writing with a spiritual focus as well. It is always one of the most spiritual parts of my week as I reflect on what´s happened and read your testimonies! I´m very happy to say that reading emails from home is a spiritual boost. Keep it up!

 

This week we have seen some really great miracles along with some small disappointments. Hernán and Sandra are still progressing so great but they just can´t make it to church. We were planning to have their baptismal service on the 12th, but they didn´t make it to church yesterday so we moved it to the 19th. We talked really openly with them about the importance of attending church again before their baptism so that they can be very prepared and know for sure that the church is true. They also think that it is important to attend again to be better prepared. They really want to go, but it seems like they have obstacles and things coming up every week. Yesterday they had to go to Ciudad Del Este to help Hernán´s brother who recently was in the hospital. But they´re super pumped for next week and I know they´ll be able to be baptized the 19th. 

 

Also, awesome news. They quit smoking!! It´s so great to see. Hernán hasn´t smoked in about a week now and Sandra hasn´t smoked since Saturday. They are seeing so many blessings from living the Word of Wisdom and are really changing a lot. They are also willing to get married so we are planning a wedding ceremony before their baptism. I´m really looking forward to it.

 

We also saw a great miracle with Michael this week. I don´t remember if I´ve talked a lot about Michael, but he is so great. He is really good friends with the Souza´s and they have helped him so much to make the needed changes in his life. He really wants to get baptized, but also needs to quit smoking. So we had been working with him for a while, and he wasn´t progressing too much with the Word of Wisdom. His attitude was more like ´I don´t think I´ll be able to do it.´ It was disappointing because we knew how much he wanted to change. We talked with him a lot about putting his faith in the Lord and always praying for the Lord´s help. Then this last week he has been changing a lot! He is lowering the cigarettes a lot. Before he was smoking about 20 a day and now he is down to about 3 or 4. His attitude is totally different and now he is saying "I´m going to do it, I know I can do it." It´s been so great to see. He has a baptismal date for the 19th and so it is important for him to quit completely by the 12th. He´s so determined to do it. His faith has really grown so much and it´s a testimony to me that the Lord looketh on the heart and can change anyone in a moment.

 

I really appreciated Dad´s comments about the plan of Salvation. Thank you for being a great example to me and helping me understand more the importance of missionary work. It´s great to hear about your experiences at home because it helps me step back and think more about my purpose. Sometimes, being a full time missionary, I get caught up in numbers and plans and just getting everything done, done done. But then I read your experiences and feel the love that you have for others, it helps me to remember that the real importance of missionary work is to help others receive the joy of the gospel that we have. Reading about your wanting for Lydia to receive that peace that the Plan of Salvation provides helped me to think more about the awesome blessings that the Plan of Salvation provides.

Thanks Mom for sharing your thoughts about Elder Eyring´s talk. I really love it! Your comment/quote made me think more about Elder Scott´s talk on faith and character. There is one part I love from that talk, where he defines a testimony as confirmations from the spirit after a continuous string of correct choices. I love that! I know that my testimony has been strengthened so much here in the mission from the confirming truths of the Spirit after I follow its promptings. When we listen to the Spirit and see the beautiful fruits after, it´s such a testimony builder. 

Love you all so much!

Elder Snow

¿Jealous? - February 28, 2011

¡Dear Family! - ¡I can do upside down exclamation points and question marks! ¿Jealous? jaj

Thanks for sending another great letter! Must have been a very exciting week in the Snow house. What´s with the whole getting a dog thing as soon as I leave. Haha just kidding, there are millions of dogs here in Paraguay, it´s awesome. We actually had a dog wander into our apartment last week. It was pretty funny, Elder Villegas had to carry it out.

I really appreciated Mom´s comments about the talk from Elder Martino, I´ll have to read that a little later today. I really like the title of that talk, All Things Work Together for Good. It helps me remember that the bad moments also work for good, because they make the good moments even sweeter. The principle of determining good from bad is so amazing and is a great gift from Heavenly Father. 2 Nephi 2 is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. One of the parts I really like is verse 27 which talks about our freedom to choose. We are free to choose how we react, we choose if we complain during adversity or if we excel. When we choose not to complain, we choose the Savior and we choose happiness.

That´s awesome that Kim got her learner´s permit! Hopefully she can have some awesome experiences with those driving instructors like I did. Jaja wow. Mom do you remember Masoof and that other lady that called us after and left a message on the machine for about 10 minutes. She kept calling my foot skippy for some reason jaja. Good luck, Kim!

Thanks for sharing about the talks in Sacrament meeting as well. I always like to hear about those. What Chris Davis said is so true. I also like the phrase exactly obedient. It always makes me think of President Monson´s talk on the 3 R´s of choice, where he says that being 100 % obedient is easier than being 98 % obedient. We cannot practice selective obedience if we want the blessings. Obedience is such an important principle in the mission, one that I am learning to really appreciate. I am seeing first hand that commandments are what liberate us. Breaking commandments is what restricts us. This week Hernán and Sandra have been working hard to quit smoking. They are smoking much less and Hernán went all Saturday without smoking. They both have commented that they are more free this way. They don´t have that constant restriction and know that they are receiving blessings. It´s a very beautiful thing to see.

Thanks for sharing that fireside about missionary work. Sounds like that will be a great activity! My bet is that the girls will win because Kim and Melanie are such studs and will each bring friends! I´m really impressed with the focus the ward and stake have had recently with missionary work. I always get little stake updates that tell me how things are going from the high council members. Sounds like the missionary work is going great. Keep it up! The Lord will bless you. When you have time, read the talk from last conference by President Eyring, it´s called Trust in the Lord, then Go and Do. It´s really an amazing talk that will help all of you individually to become better missionaries. I know it has helped me tons in my mission to put my trust in the Lord, then go out and give it all I have. The feelings of peace that I have after doing all I can are so sweet come straight from the Spirit of the Lord. I promise all of you that that feeling of peace you will have after doing what President Eyring instructs will be so powerful.

Thanks for being such a great family, I love you all verrrrry much.

Elder Snow

Great Ups and Downs - February 21, 2011

Dear Family,

This past week has been filled with lots of great ups and downs that the mission provides! The ups have been so sweet and the downs just make the ups sweeter so they´re great too. Starting with Monday we taught a great lesson with an investigator that is progressing really well whose name is Michael. I think it´s spelled like that, not sure, but it sounds just like Michael in English, so I will write it like that jaja. Michael is really good friends with a recent convert family, the Souza Family (I´ve written some about them before). Michael has had kind of a rough life and has recently been having some rough times. We´ve been talking to him for a while, but before it wasn't too serious because he didn´t really show the desires to change and was drinking a lot. But the awesome example of the Souza family helped him to really press forward and he began to pray a lot more. Since starting to pray, he really began to change and we started talking more with him. We taught him the message of the Restoration and he had been praying about it, but still hadn´t received an answer. So then comes Monday, and we decided it would be a good idea to watch the video of the Restoration with him because he doesn´t read very well and that would help him to visualize better. So we watched the video, and he understood it all very well. The Spirit was so strong and he committed to ask God again that night. So we went back on Tuesday to verify a little bit and he told us about the answer that he received. He really wants to get baptized and is working really hard to quit smoking so he can. It´s been such a privilege and a testimony builder to see the changes in his life. His demeanor, countenance, attitude are all changing. One thing that Dad had told me before I left was that when he saw the changes in the lives of people through the Gospel, that was one of the greatest testimony builders he had ever received. I think I´m starting to understand that better now. So that was a pretty good day.

Then on Wednesday we talked with Isaias, Mirta, and Mariela. They have been reading so much and praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true. They are so sincere and really wanted to receive an answer. On Wednesday Mirta and Mariela told us that they had received testimonies about the Book of Mormon. It was so special to see. I know that Isaias will receive an answer soon as well because of the great faith that he has. I have really grown to love this family and want so much for them to be able to take that step of baptism. We´ll keep working very hard with them.
Hernán and Sandra have been progressing a lot lately as well. This week they also received answers that they need to be baptized and that the church is true. We had a great lesson with them last night about the Word of Wisdom. They both smoke, but are willing to quit. They are very determined to do it because they know that they need to be baptized. They are such amazing people and are going to be future leaders and building points of the church here in Santa Rita. Something really neat that one of the zone leaders told me when I had a division with him was that the Lord will prepare people like them to be future leaders in the church. If we as missionaries do all that He asks us to do, he is bound to lead us to those people who are prepared and will be the foundations of the church here. I really feel that Hernán and Sandra are some of those people who the Lord has prepared for the work to progress in Santa Rita. Just this morning I was reading in 3 Ne chap 21 when Christ is talking about the gathering of Israel in our day. In verse 29 it says something like ~I will go out before them~ It´s so comforting to know that the Lord is out there, preparing people for us to find.

So those were a couple of the great ups this week! There are ups every week and they are always so special and great to experience.

Mom had asked if Fidel and Alejandra were able to make it to church this week. They still haven´t made it to church. We have taught them several times and the Spirit is always there. The thing is they work a lot and it is tough to find them, so they haven´t been progressing very fast. But we will keep working with them. They are great people and really want to learn more. Elder Bazán and I know that they will progress.

I really appreciated the letter from you this week! Sounds like the 50´s dance was a blast. Although I have a tough time imagining mom or dad doing any kind of dancing, I´m glad you had a good time. Mom had a couple funny song references. I do remember very well when we talked about Jump and that one time we heard Free Falling while we were on Ventura Blvd. Haha what are the chances.

Thanks for sharing about the lesson on sacrifice. Whenever I feel like my mission is tough, I just think a little about John Groberg and then stop feeling sorry for myself. It really is a beautiful thing to think that when we sacrifice our time and provide service for others we can be the means of accomplishing the Lord´s will. Mosiah 2 is always great where is says when ye are in the service of your fellow being, ye are only in the service of your God. What a great joy it is to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands to answer the prayer of one of his children.

That´s about all I got for today. The church is true!

Love you all lots,
Elder Snow

Farmer's Tan, Power Walking & a Sweet Fanny Pack - February 14, 2011

Dear Snow Family!!

Great to here from you again. I´m impressed that you had so many great new things to say after writing only a couple days ago, seems like you had a busy/exciting weekend.

This weekend has been really busy for Elder Bazán and I as well. We´ve been working really hard to find new people and have really seen the blessings from our hard work.

On Saturday, we saw a couple of really great blessings of the Lord. We had been working really hard all day Saturday, but weren´t having too much luck. It was a little rough because Saturdays are usually really successful days because the majority of people are home.

But we kept working very hard and eventually at night we started to see some of the blessings. We were blessed to find a great family.  They are living in the home of a couple of investigators we had been visiting before. We had stopped visiting the old investigators a little while ago. During the day Saturday, I felt like we should go give them a visit, so we headed on over to their house. There were a couple young girls that answered the door who I hadn´t met and so I asked them if Favio and Beatriz (the old investigators) were there. The girls told me that they moved and that recently their family had moved there. So we asked their parents names and decided to try again another time. So then later on Saturday I felt that we should go back to that house again and try to meet the parents. So we headed on back and clapped the door (I don´t know if I´ve ever told you, but they clap instead of knock here, it´s awesome). The parents, Alejandra and Fidel answered and invited us in before we could even say anything. We started talking with them and from the very beginning we could tell that they were very sincere, nice people. They had the question why the name Mormon, so we explained the Book of Mormon a little bit. The lesson all went very well. They have about 6 daughters that live there and they all sat and listened super reverantly, I was really impressed because I know that whenever the missionaries would come to our house I was always super annoying haha. They weren´t able to attend church yesterday because they had a committment, but they are really excited to be able to go next week. They are really great and we´re very excited to work with them.

That was kind of a long story, I don´t know if I explained it well haha, but just know it was a cool spiritual experience that and that they´re awesome peeps.

Yesterday in church, it was my turn to give a talk and my topic was tithing. I focused a lot of the part about commandments and receiving the blessings. Elder Bazán also talked a little bit and introduced himself. He also talked a little about blessings from keeping commandments. I am really grateful for Elder Bazán and his great testimony. He´s an awesome missionary.

We have been working with a couple named Hernán and Sandra lately who have really been a great blessing. They are so humble and already believe that the church is true by the examples of missionaries and members, now they are just working on receiving that testimony from our Heavenly Father. I know that they will continue progressing. They weren´t able to attend church this week because Hernán`s brother recently had a motorcycle accident and so they went to Ciudad del Este to help take care of him. But they are excited to go next week! Sandra knows tons of people and wants all of her friends to be able to hear our message as well so she is introducing us to all of her friends. It was such a miracle to find Sandra and Hernán, they are so prepared!

To answer some questions...

So do they celebrate Valentine’s Day in Paraguay?Yeah, I think so. Just another day for the elders, though. Haha I actually didn´t realize it until I read your email. So happy Valentine´s day to you too!

Guazu doesn’t  sound like a Spanish word, is it?
Haha Guazu is a Guaraní word. It means big. I know a few select Guaraní words that I use to my advantage to make people laugh. The one that usually gets people rolling is chivivi, which means diahrrea.

You are looking pretty tan these days.  I’ll bet you are feeling pretty fit as well with all the walking you are doing.  Is walking your main form of transportation?Don´t be fooled, I´m tan on my face and on my forearms where the sun gets me. I have a farmer´s tan that could blind you.

Yeah I take pride in my power walk as well. I have a sweet fanny pack, I don´t know if you have seen it in any of my pictures. Just know that I´m working it Paul McMullin style.

Walking is our only form of transportation. I had some sweet blisters before, but I´ve just got calluses (no idea how to spell that) now so I´m good.

Well, that´s about it for this week I think, I love you lots and lots. I know that the church is true! I know that God answers prayers! So many times since coming on the mission I have received new witnesses that the Book of Mormon is true. I love it! I love you all!

Elder Snow