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| Posterity pic, but also just me with some of my comps |
Hey Everyone,
This was a super fast week. Let's get started!
On any day it's about 7 seven degress cooler up in Suncrest, but it's also a lot windier up here so sometimes it's more. This place has a much shorter fall than the rest of the mission, so bruh moment
Last pday in the evening, we had a lesson with a guy we're teaching named David. He and his wife moved here to UT last December. He is already very Christian, but he says he is a convert to Christianity. He said earlier in his life he was feeling pretty purposeless, but in (in David's words), "through intense study of the Bible, I came to accept Christ as my Savior, and have felt the Holy Spirit poured over me ever since then." He is very well-versed in the Bible, and is very much a faithful man. He is very open to our message though, and he's liked everything he's heard so far from the missionaries. He's reading the Book of Mormon too, and has a lot of really great questions. He even came to church yesterday, which was his first time coming to our Church. He said he really liked it and that he'll plan on coming next week!
As for some sad news, this week I found out that a big group of Elders that came in with me last October are leaving for their original assignments on the 30th. A lot of them are my friends, including Elder Thomas who I lived in an apartment with and was comps with. They're all going to Mexico, Brazil, Canada, or the Dominican Republic, which is exciting, but I'm sad to be losing some of my really good friends here in this mission. I've realized I need to make friends with people who are younger than me, OGs, or are reassigned from Argentina or Peru cuz they're not going anywhere either haha....
On Wednesday we had a lesson with a guy we're teaching named Chris. He's super chill. He plays pickleball with a lot of the guys in his ward up here. He's very active in a non-denominational Christian church down in the SL valley, but he likes hearing our messages too and he reads the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure how willing he is to like come to our church, but if he wants to meet with us we'll take it haha. He's an optometrist though, and I guess I know a bit more about optometry than most missionaries with my dad being one haha.
That same night we had a lesson with Patrick. He's been meeting with the missionaries ever since Elder Ropka has been in this area. He is also active in another church, but he's read the whole Book of Mormon before and now he's reading it again. In our lesson with him, he just kinda told us that lately he's been looking for basically a purpose in his life again. He told us that all the things that used to make him happy don't really do that for him anymore. He said he feels like he's at like a tipping point with all this. His friend/neighbor, Brother Morrison, comes to all of our lessons with Pat, and told us that he thinks Pat is coming to know that the Church is true but he's just really unsure about the repercussions of that. I'm sure he's worried about what people might think, or about other stuff he's heard about the Church. Pat is a super chill guy, but like he said, I think he's at a tipping point too.
Thursday I got to do a baptismal interview for a guy named Chris. It was such a cool experience. He said he'd been taught on and off by the missionaries for about 2 years. He also said he's read stuff from LOTS of different religions, but that the Book of Mormon was the only one where he really knew it was true. He said the only thing that was keeping him from getting baptized was the resistance he was getting from his family about joining the Church, and that he used to ignore the missionaries a lot because he was just so conflicted. He said there came a point though where he was just like, "I don't care about any of that anymore," and that was when he told the misssionaries he was ready to be baptized. Hearing him bear his testimony was so cool, and when I asked him what he's most excited about to get baptized, he said "I know getting baptized is just the beginning, and I'm so excited to just keep learning more!"
I also spoke in the Eagle Crest 2nd ward yesterday, and turns out 2 of my dad's cousins are in that ward and texted my dad about it while I was speaking. Then other people came up to me and said they were from the Thousand Oaks area, or that they were friends with people there. So many random small-world things haha. Utah missions be like...
Those were some of the highlights of the week. Other than that just a lot of knocking, doing member messages, and meeting great people. Elder Ropka and I have a lot of fun together, and I can really tell he's helping me become a better missionary. He's also telling me about some of the free or discounted for missionaries food places here that I didn't know, but it's cuz he's been around the block and has seen them all haha.
I started reading the book Saints this week and it's soooooo good. It's helping me grow my testimony of Joseph Smith actually. That man truely devoted all of his time to the building of the kingdom of God. His service and sacrifice can be an example to all people. The book seriously slaps so go read it.
Love you all!
Elder Snyder
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| Some good kitty bois |
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| Action Shot |
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| Some more good views |
