Week 19: Dominoes Saved Christmas!

Our Christmas Eve Dinner! We watched The First Presidency Christmas Devotional while we munched.

Kamusta kamo?!?

What a week this has been. Lots of fun things and plenty of fun for Christmas too.

Christmas Eve was a really chill day, but not weather wise actually because it was pretty nice day haha. A member here offered to DoorDash us some food for our Christmas Eve dinner, and we decided on the best sounding place that would probably be open on Christmas Eve: McDonald's. She told us to get as much as we wanted so we ordered a FEAST from McDonald's. We skipped lunch that day to save room for the all the food we were gonna eat. However, when the time came, the lady that was ordering the food for us texted us and said the order got cancelled because McDonald's was closed!! We were pretty sad and hungry when we heard that, but by some miracle the Domino's right by our house was open so we ordered a pizza for our Christmas Eve dinner! Domino's really saved Christmas!!

On Christmas, we got together with all the other missionaries in Eagle Mountain and just played some games together. We played the signs game we played on Thanksgiving together, which apparently is called Thumper, and I once again wrecked everyone. Elder Sherrod and I also performed a duet of Away In A Manger, and I also accompanied a sister missionary that was singing O Holy Night. After that, we all went home and made our Christmas dinners that the mission provided for us, which was actually pretty bomb, then we had a mission wide Zoom devotional where we watched It's A Wonderful Life. First time I'd seen it all the way through, and to be honest it could've been like an hour shorter and still gotten the message across. It was still good though hehe

After Christmas we were just trying to get caught up on all the work we hadn't been able to do on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and we were just going around meeting people. We had a really good lesson with our friend Nicole Sunday night. We've been doing the new member lessons with her family because they joined the church about a year ago, and she moved in with them earlier this month and she kinda wants to join the church too! The problem is she is also really trying to English, so we were thinking of getting the Spanish Elders involved in teaching her. However, the Spanish Elders were still in a quarantine because they got COVID, so we tried having the family meet with them on Zoom while we were there, but they decided to just hear the lesson from us because we were actually there. Turns out, Nicole understands more English than we thought, so her family wants her to take the missionary lessons in English from us so she can practice her English too! We thought we were going to have to pass her off to the Spanish Elders, but I guess not! Sorry Spanish Elders......

Anyway, probably the biggest news of the week is that I'm getting transferred. My new area is the Cedar Hollow stake in Lehi, UT. For you Utah homies, we're gonna be living right by the Costco, Deseret Book, and WalMart in American Fork. My new companion has been in the mission as long as I have, and we're whitewashing our new area! That means they're replacing both the missionaries that were there previously, so neither of us know anyone there! It'll be fun because we can just full send it because we don't know anyone haha. I will really miss Eagle Mountain East though. This area is very special to me now, and there are some amazing people here. There are a lot of good things going on in this area, and as much as I feel like I could've done more, I feel like I really gave a lot to this area. The next transfer will be dope for Elder Sherrod and his new companion. This area will be in great hands. And now Elder Sherrod and I will both have new missionaries to convert to kendamas......

Anyway, that was pretty much the whole week. For my last pday here we took one last trip to Village Pizza, and it was snowing a ton but it was worth it as always. 

I love you all! Thanks for keeping up on my adventures! 

Elder Snyder

Our Christmas Day Dinner

A tower we built out of all our recycling.

Last Day at Village! :(

Week 18: Boop, bop, ba-da-bing, POW

BIGG snowman!! (It's taller than me!)

Kamusta kamo tanan?!? Malipayon Paskwa!! Merry Christmas! 

This has been a big week not gonna lie. A lot of things have happened, and the mission continues to prove to be an adventure, even if it is Eagle Mountain, Utah. It really is something new everyday, and it's so unlike anything I've ever done before, which is what makes it fun. And serving a mission in 2020 is really cool too, because I guess I'm not missing out on a whole lot otherwise hahaha. Joke langgggg

Anyway, this week had a lot of ups and downs. We technically put Kennedy, a girl we're teaching, on date for the 26th, but then her mom realized that would be too soon because they want their grandma to come down for that. So a couple days later she wasn't on date anymore. Big sad. This is the second time she's been taken off date, but it's definitely gonna happen next month haha. 

Also, that family of crazy boys we're working with had a big week too. Their mom had a baby this week, so now they have 5 boys! The 2nd oldest, Skylar, is the one that we're mostly teaching, except the whole family is there for all the lessons because they're working on reactivating in the Church so it's good for everyone. All the boys are so funny too, and they remind me of me and my brothers at times haha. Except these boys are 9, 7, and 5, not 24, 19, and 16 haha. And we found out this week that their dad just got approved by the bishop to baptize Skylar so we're probably going to be putting him on date soon!! The ward has a whole plan for them too so they don't lose steam with this new baby, and somebody different in the ward is making them dinner every night for like the next month haha. 

One of the benefits of covering a whole stake is that we got to go to 3 different Christmas programs this Sunday! And these wards popped OFF for Christmas. In one ward, the stake president got up and played Simon Says with the Primary kids from the pulpit, then gave a quick talk, then SANG a solo of "This Is The Christ," accompanied by his wife, and it was AMAZING. I literally was so shocked and it blewwwww my minddddd. He's already a super baller stake president, and he sings too.   

Shoveling snow is actually a great service opportunity as missionaries here. Every time it snows we put on our boots and shovel all the driveways on our street. It's super easy and we don't really mind doing it either. We only sometimes get in random snowball fights with each other.

Also, I have a confession to make. I haven't been totally honest with you all. Elder Sherrod has converted me to kendamas. Yes, the Japanese ball-cup toy. I thought it was stupid at first, but now I'm totally hooked. We play with our kendamas everyday now. Obviously, we still do our work and invite others to come unto Christ and everything, but whenever we have a spare moment like between Zoom calls, the damas come out. Every night after 9pm, the damas come out. It's really stupid, but you're hooked when you lace your first spike on the kendama. Just try it. You won't regret it. I laced my first whirlwind the other night!! (see video attached)

I am really looking forward to Christmas on the mission. My mom sent me a package of a bunch of Christmas presents to open every day before Christmas, and my mom really knows me because most of them have been food haha. A lot of the Trader Joe's seasonal Christmas stuff. And a member offered to DoorDash us dinner on Christmas Eve, and we're probably gonna get McDonald's 

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!! 

Love, Elder Snyder

My parents sent me my favorite mint chocolate star cookies and I found 5 stuck together

We look like Ninjas now when we bikin'

Elder Sherrod improperly, but humorously wearing his neck scarf

A sesh with the Dama

When I landed my first whirly!!!!

Week 17: Shkrate up shnow

 

Elder Sherrod's "Light the World"

Kamusta kamo?!?

Lots of ups and downs this week. A good week nonetheless though. It is really great being a missionary during Christmas, and even though it's really starting to get cold now, we will all press on in the work of the Lord!

Our mission president told us in a mission wide Zoom meeting yesterday that there are too many missionaries getting COVID in our mission (which is still very few), but we have to start cracking down again on rules. The main one is that missionaries with cars can no longer give rides to other missionaries. That means no more trips to WalMart, or the Saratoga Springs temple, and most tragically, no more Quick Quack. However, the elders in the area next to ours that have a car were gonna lose their car anyway, so even without these updates, this was inevitable. We just have to get members to pick up our groceries now or something.

We did a youth activity for one of our wards this week which was super dope. Elder Sherrod and I had a lot of fun with it. I wanted to show the kids how a mission seems a lot farther off than it actually is. Growing up I always thought the missionaries were so much older than me, but I had the kids who were juniors or seniors raise their hands and then I told them that we were in high school at the same time. They were all pretty surprised at that actually, so it was cool to see that haha.

We did a member message this week with a younger couple, and Elder Sherrod kept talking to the guy about buying and selling streetwear and stuff. Then he goes down the hall and he comes back with a box of Dior Jordan 1s! He said he won them in a raffle straight from the Dior store, and he had to drive to Vegas to go pick them up. They're worth like $9000!

It also snowed on Saturday! Elder Sherrod and I got to shoveling snow right away and it was kind of fun because there wasn't a lot of snow. We messed around and made some fun designs in the snow, and Elder Sherrod wrote, "Light The World" in the snow on the basketball court across the street from our house! 

Seeing as how there was snow, there was also ice on the roads too, and Elder Sherrod and I have both fallen off our bikes since Saturday. Mine was on the way into church in the church parking lot, so plenty of members saw it haha. I was in my suit too, but nothing happened to it thankfully. It was honestly hilarious, and we're both a little more cautious now haha. 

Okay, it's already a long email, but if you had made it this far, you a real one. The members here are literally amazing though. I don't know what I did to get to spend my first Christmas as a missionary in the Eagle Mountain East stake. One family gave each of us a huge box of hand warmers, and another family got us both stockings full of stuff! The stockings had socks, a little wood Nativity scene, loofas, and a neck scarf for each of us! That neck scarf literally is a game changer when we're riding our bikes. 

Anyway, that was my week. For those of you that didn't make it to the end, I'll add a lot of pictures too haha. I am still excited to go to the Philippines someday, but I really feel so blessed to be a missionary in 2020, in the Utah Orem mission, and here in Eagle Mountain too! I have met some really, really great people and I am growing to love Utah even more than I already did. I will go to the Philippines someday, and the day I get that call will be a very exciting day and very sad day all at once. I know the people there need help, but there are plenty of people here that need it too. 

Palangga ta kamo tanan! Sulaton sa akon (write to me)!

Elder Snyder

Our Stockings that we got from a member here.

Our Little Hotties!

More Shnow Shoveling

Elder Sherrod with various kitties. I don't know what it is, but we see like 50x more cats now than we ever did with Elder Petersen.

Week 16: Best Pday Ever!!

Eagle Mountain Temple View District Elders at In N Out

Kamusta Kamoooo

This week has been a long one but a good one. We have been super busy with our new member message for Light The World which has been a little crazy. And we have been biking in very cold weather, but it has been fun. 

We have been doing so many Light The World messages for people that it has been hard to keep track of them all. In fact, I haven't been able to keep track of them all. Twice this week somebody texted us saying they needed to cancel on us, even though I had no idea we set something up with them. Continual blessings from the Lord, who knows our schedule better than us, and had unknowing overlapping appointments cancel so we wouldn't have overlapping appointments that we didn't even know we had. 

Christmas really is upon us and we still have had like no snow at all. We keep thinking if it's gonna be cold, it might as well be snowy too. Cuz it's been pretty dang cold here. Some mornings it says "20⁰ out, feels like 12⁰." Sometimes riding on the bike makes it not so cold when you're moving around a lot or going uphill, but going downhill gets very cold. 

Anyway, the family of rowdy boys that we're teaching all came to church yesterday! It was so cool to see them all dressed up and at church, and it was so surprising because they came in after us and sat behind us, so we never knew they were there until after. It was amazing though. 

There are some other people we're trying to start teaching. There is one guy named Josh, and there are some really hard things happening in his life at the moment. We have talked to him plenty of times before so he knows us and he likes the missionaries. He really could use the hope through Jesus Christ that our message carries, but he just hasn't realized how it can help him yet. Please pray for Josh!

We met a guy who apparently is a triple platinum artist as a Christian rapper, and toured with Ice Cube haha. His rapper name is Flexx. When we knocked his door he told us to come back Monday night, so we legit canceled some member message appointments so we could go meet this guy again! Our mission president has told us to cancel/reschedule member messages whenever something more important comes up actually haha. 

Anyway, pday was super fun today because we went to In-n-Out and Target!! We drove to American Fork, and it was totally fun haha. We also went to Deseret Book and ran into like 6 other missionaries there, and we also went to Walmart. Then we went to a church parking lot and drew with sidewalk chalk with our whole district. That ended up being super fun too. We decorated a handicapped parking spot to look like Santa, and I drew a Philippines flag too. 

Anyway, we've got another busy week ahead of us too. Lots of members messages, a youth activity, some lessons, and lots of work! We've got some people that are so close to being ready to get baptized. We're in an interesting spot right now, because we've basically taught them everything they'd need to know, so we just need to help them feel the Spirit and eventually know for themselves of the truth of the gospel! When they're ready, they'll let us know. 

Anyway, I love you all. Being a missionary is hard, but nobody ever had an easy mission. It's a really special work we have too. If Jesus' ministry was here in the Eagle Mountain East stake, he'd probably be doing something like what we're doing, but wayyyyyyy better than how we're doing it. We get to share a nametag with Him!

Palangga gid ta kamo!!

Elder Snyder 

Elder Sherrod and I messing around before a Zoom

My Philippines flag I drew

At In N Out with Elder Faupula jumping in the back