Week 34: 8 Months, 60 Degrees, and 12 new wards!

District Lunch after P-day Pickleball

Hey everyone!!

Hope yall had a highly interesting week. In some ways I did at least.

This week was spring break in the Alpine School District, and I think this is the first time in my life whe spring break is over. It has kinda sucked honestly having like literally everyone go out of town. The weather has still been great (see subject line) but there have been far less people outside to just talk to because literally everyone was just big gone. People are coming back now though which is great.

We also got an email from President Treadway this week about how the Utah County mask mandate was lifted on April 10th. He said 2 weeks after we all get our second vaccine dose (in 3 weeks from today), we don't have to wear our masks anymore! I've worn a mask for like my entire mission so far, which I haven't really minded honestly, but thinking about that going away kinda blew my mind.

Today is also my 8-month mark on my mission. It has seriously been some of the most interesting months of my entire life, mostly because it is so unlike anything that I've ever done before. Sometimes it feels like I've been doing this my entire life, especially now so that I'm training. Missionaries keep track of time better than most people too, so when I can recall things that happened like 2 transfers ago I'm like, "Bruh I'm getting old." When Elder Phelps asks me, "How do you know so many people in the mission?" I say, "Cuz I been around the block dawg." That's part of what makes the mission fun. When you can kick it with old homies at zone conference, or even at WalMart, it just makes things more fun.

Speaking of kickin it, that's what I did in my interview with President Treadway last Saturday. Now that I been around the block in the UOM, President and I already know each other pretty well. The sad part of that is that President Treadway is finishing his mission at the end of next transfer so we'll be getting a new guy.

President Treadway told me that he has heard about as much about the Philippines as I have, which is nothing. Things might be changing with us missionaries and the Philippines getting vaccinated, but we will just have to see. But he also said that all the people that are going to their original assignments, in places like Brazil, Chile, Japan, some parts of Europe, are all pretty locked down. It really made me think about if I'd rather be quarantined in the Philippines or in 5 weeks not even have to wear a mask in Utah? I really do like it here in the Orem mission. I've made a lot of awesome friends and have had a lot of great experiences that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

President Treadway also told me in our interview that since the Sisters in our district are both going to Brazil on Friday, we would be getting their area!! We'll be getting a whole other stake (the Lehi East stake), with TWELVE more wards! I'm honestly really excited because we will actually have people to teach now. And it's not a complete whitewash either because the Sisters know they're getting whitewashed out so we can do some combined lessons with some of the people they're teaching so that transition can be better. We'll have a grand total of 20 wards that we will most likely be covering on bikes. LET'S GOOOOOO!!

Love you all gtg

Elder Snyder