Week 48: The Last Two Weeks

Hey all you people!!

So this will basically be about the last 2 weeks because I really only had like 30 seconds to write an email last pday.

But yeah, 2 weeks ago was a super long week, but this last week was so fast! It blew my mind! We had our first Zone Conference with President Evanson, and it was pretty awesome. He's still clearly settling in to things, but it was good. The lunch for Zone Conferences is always provided by some local stake, and this time if was the epic Vineyard stake!

We had a really awesome lesson with Diana last Sunday about the plan of salvation. She has a very Christian background, so some of it was basically what she already believed, but some of it was really foreign to her. She's very open to our message though and is always willing to learn more.

A great thing about serving in Utah is that you meet a lot of really dope members. We met a guy who assigns mission calls for the Church! He also wrote part of Preach My Gospel, and he taught Russell M. Nelson Spanish! We also have met so many former mission presidents, and so when we go to houses like that to share member-missionary-messages it's really more to motivate and inspire us than them haha. We also happened to meet a lady who works for Coca-Cola and told us we can come by and get BodyArmors anytime haha. I guess those are made by Coca-Cola. I'd never had them before this week and now I have one almost every day because people always wanna give us stuff cuz it's so hot.

We also ate so good this week, but we almost never went out to eat. It was the Vineyard 7th ward's week to feed us and they pulled up to say the least. We had smoked pork chops, homemade street tacos, some fire lasagna, and for Sunday dinner we had t-bone steaks!

Anyway, I'm sure many of you saw on Facebook that my Grandpa Snyder passed away a couple weeks ago. It was pretty sad hearing about his declining health over the last 6 weeks or so, but I know he's much better off now and that he is so happy to be with his family that has already passed on. I got to watch his funeral on Zoom last Saturday, and it wasn't even a sad funeral. Everyone was laughing and remembering how awesome Grandpa Snyder was. All of my cousins got up and sang "I Am a Child of God," and I sang along with them from my apartment ;)

One of our ward mission leaders told us that anytime we just have a thought finally click in our minds, or have some kind of new knowledge come to us, it is revelation. After all, the Lord knows everything and wants us to learn a lot in our lives, so those experiences we have where that happens is actually just the Lord helping us to learn through the Holy Ghost. I thought, "Why not?"

With that in mind, I have had a lot more experiences with receiving revelation in my life than I thought haha. So the other week, I guess I had a revelation about my mission here in Utah. Before I left on a mission, I really wanted to learn a new language and experience a new place, because I thought, "When else am I going to do that?" So now, almost a year into my service in the Utah Orem mission, I'm obviously not learning a new language and I'm living in a place I already knew a TON about. Yet, I'm still here! I remember Brother Cobabe in the online MTC told us, "The reasons you leave on a mission don't matter; the reasons you stay on a mission do."

I've found that I don't have to go to some faraway place to have an awesome mission. The Lord knew that the place I served wouldn't matter a long time ago, and I'm finally learning that from him too. My mom showed me that D&C 80:3 says "Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss."

Love you all! I'm gonna add 2 weeks worth of pictures now!

Elder Snyder