Week 68: The Most Wonderful Time

Giving Machines!

Hello everyone!

I've got lots of stories for yall so lets just get started

Last week after writing my email Elder Parker and I got a call from some Elders in our zone saying that one of them ran into a wall playing football and got a concussion! He was alright, but they needed us to run to the WalMart in Saratoga Springs to pick up his antibiotic prescription. On the way to their apartment to pick up his insurance stuff, they called us again and told us to hurry because now they needed to take him to the hospital! After grabbing the stuff and waiting in the pharmacy line at WalMart, they told us the prescription wouldn't be ready for like 45 minutes. We walked out of WalMart like "What're we gonna do for 45 minutes?" So we went to McDonald's and drove around the Saratoga Springs temple. Pretty epic. The missionary that got a concussion is totally alright though. He was playing basketball and volleyball with us today haha

Tuesday night Elder Parker and I found some AMAZING people to teach. They invited us in right away. Their names are Bostin and Tara, and they moved here about a year ago. They have 3 kids, and they're very devoted Christians. Bostin has already heard a lot about the Church from his friends/coworkers, and he really likes the Church and its members. They love it here in Utah too. Bostin has lots of great unskeptical questions for us about doctrines and beliefs, which is awesome because he actually wants to know. Lots of people up here just ask questions to ask questions (legit Pharisees). We invited them to read 3 Nephi 11 after our first lesson, and we came back on Saturday, they had read it together! Elder Parker, along with the member we brought, were so surprised that Bostin and Tara asked, "Does that not normally happen?" We're really excited to continue working with them.

Wednesday was transfers which was really fun. Another small mission thing is everyone just meets at the mission office for transfers, so you basically just get to see all your friends if you're there. We got 21 missionaries coming in this time, and they're ALL OGs! There hasn't been a group like that come in since before COVID! Things are a-changing for sure...

Thursday morning we got to man the Giving Machines at the University Mall in Orem! Basically all we did was explain to people how they worked and helped them actually use it, which was very frequent because you really just get a lot of old people at the mall at 10am haha. The missionaries I was working them with were awesome too, and some of my family came and saw me too which was super cool! The Giving Machines make donating to charities super fun, and you can pay for some really cool and useful stuff, like 3 chickens for $18, 100 polio vaccines for $22, or even a goat for $86 haha.

Friday we had like 3 lessons in a row. We had a pretty usual lesson with Chris first. Chris is one of those "eterna-gators" (eternal investigators), but he's reading the Book of Mormon very consistently and wants to keep meeting with us. He's a really nice guy and we'll keep trying. Then we did a tour of a church building with William which was cool because he'd never been in a church building before. Then we sat down and talked about his reading too. William really doesn't have any intentions to join the Church, but he also reads the Book of Mormon consistently and has some really good questions for us too. This last time he was even asking about stuff that confused him in Jacob 5, but moreso in its differences to Paul's metaphors of olive trees found in the New Testament. Pretty big brain stuff.

Then we had a lesson with Jenna and Tanner. Jenna is not a member but she really likes the Church. She could totally become a member one day with very little difficulty honestly. We brought some of their neighbors too (Utah missions = their neighbors are members), and it was awesome because the neighbors also have really young kids like Jenna and Tanner do, so as we taught they related everything to how that helps in their parenting, which Jenna and Tanner loved. That's the kinda of stuff you can't relate to at all as a missionary haha

Saturday morning we had MLC, but the fun part was just kicking it with all my friends the whole time. I've got so many old homies there now. Elder Dieker just got put in, but he's actually leaving for Chile next month! It's sad but it's also pretty exciting that he'll be leaving for his OG at like 17 months on our missions. He really won't be gone for that long, so it'll be alright.

Also somehow the Portuguese Sisters here in the UOM found out that I sing, so now they want me and another Elder to sing "Silent Night" in Portuguese for a video on the Portuguese Facebook page for the mission. I've been practicing a lot because I have to have it memorized, and I have no idea what I'm saying haha.

Anyways, I hope ya'll are having an amazing Christmas season thus far. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Jesus is such an important person that we're still celebrating the day he came to earth 2021 years later! Find ways that you can serve others this Christmas season, because there really are so many in need. This time of year can be really hard for some people, so look around you and see who you can lift up this year!

Love you all!

Elder Snyder