Week 60: ZONECON

Zone Conference

Hey everybody!

Things are starting to cool off again here in the Happy Valley. There's snow on the tops of the mountains, and Suncrest is probably next. Not looking forward to that, because apparently Suncrest gets like whole FEET of snow in winter.

We found a new person to teach this week! Her name is Ali, and her and her husband moved to Suncrest about a year ago. She already has so many friends in the neighborhood, and her son plays with all the kids around here too. When we knocked her door, we had a lesson with David to get to but she said we could come back tomorrow. The next day we called one of Ali's neighbors/friends that mentioned to us, Sister Koch, to invite her to come with us to the lesson, and she already knew about our lesson because Ali had told her! We taught the plan of salvation and she really liked it. She grew up Catholic and already has a firm relationship with God and Jesus Christ, but she said she loves learning new things! And according to Sister Koch, Ali could really use the gospel because of some things going on in her life that Ali has told her about. She really wanted to come to church, but she didn't end up making it. We've got another lesson with her this week which should be awesome! It's great finding a new person that comes with built-in fellowshippers!

We got to meet with David twice this week, which was awesome. We talked to him about different commandments, like tithing, fasting, and the Word of Wisdom, and he was already very familiar with all of those things because of his knowledge of the Bible. He really likes the consistency that he sees between the Church and the teachings of the Bible. We even went over the baptismal interview questions with him, and after that he was like, "Okay so all I need to do is get a witness of the Holy Ghost about Joseph Smith and the Restoration." He's confident he can get an answer too because of his conversion experience to Christianity in general. He came to church on Sunday too!

Wednesday we had a super epic zone conference! I got to see and hang out with a lot of old friends, like Elder Dickemore and Elder Dieker. I found out I was playing all the music when they said from the pulpit that I would be doing it haha. All the missonaries that are going home soon get to bear their testimonies, so Elder Ropka got to, but there were some amazing testionies born. One of the first people I met in the UOM, Sister Tia, gave her departing testimony and she said, "You've had eternity to prepare for your mission, and you'll have eternity to reflect on it, but only 2 years or 18 months to actually do it."

President Evanson also gave an amazing opening training about consecration. The more that we can give to the Lord the better. The more that we sacrifice, the humbler we can become and the more dependent we will be on Him. He knows what is best for us and only His will matters. This is how we truly WORSHIP the Father. Our everything is His. It was an amazing zone conference and I felt so uplifted and ready to be a consecrated servant of the Lord!

On Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Reed, and I was back on a bike! It was actually really fun and I low key miss biking. I even taught Elder Reed how to ride a bike without hands, which he thought was pretty funny. Elder Reed has only been out for like 3 months and grew up on a cattle ranch in Colorado. He's a total farmer boy which was funny. He said after the mission he just wants to go back and work on the cattle ranch and maybe just be a farmer for the rest of his life. We got along really well because of our mutual love for country music haha.

On Sunday Patrick came to church! We told him it was gonna be a testimony meeting and he said he likes those, and he actually came! He's been meeting with the missionaries since like March, and this was only his 2nd time coming to church. He's got a lot of kinda nit-picky concerns about the Church, but he's a super chill guy. That night to break our fast we had dinner with an inactive family that Elder Ropka is really good friends with, but they also just love feeding the missionaries. And they went OFF for a kind of send-off for Elder Ropka. They made mashed potatoes, salad, broccoli, steak, and crab legs! I'd never tried a crab leg before, but it was pretty good.

We are heading into the last week of the transfer brothers and sisters! Next week I'll have news about who my new companion is. Elder Ropka heads back to Kansas City, MO on the 20th, so this is his last full week. This transfer has flown by, but there's still a week left!

I also hit a year of being in the UOM this week! I could not have dreamed of a better place to serve the Lord and His children. I think I like it here too much to ever leave. The gathering of Israel happens everywhere, but people are literally being gathered to Utah nowadays. They think it's for a job, for family, a better house, or maybe they don't have a clue. But we sure know why!

I love you all! Pray that we don't get any snow!

Elder Snyder