Week 80: Icicles!!!

MLC Breakfast

Hey everyone!

This week there were icicles everywhere. Like everywhere. I will attach several pictures. All week we'd be breaking them off stuff and playing with them. I think it was cuz it was really sunny this week so the snow would melt, but it was still super cold so the melted snow would just freeze into icicles. I'm still not a winter person though so I could still be very wrong about the formation of icicles. Also there's a new Chubby's in Orem by the mall, and I'm really not that big of a fan of Chubby's, but they had 6 different kinds of Mtn Dew in their fountain so that was cool. 

We had some really awesome lessons with Amadeus this week. He's the guy that we missed at church last week. He started off giving us a hard time about missing him at church, but then we found out he went to the family ward at 9am instead of the YSA ward at 1! He's a very interesting guy. He's very eccentric and outgoing and free-spirited. He started dating a girl online who introduced him to the Church, so he went to church by himself in San Diego, and then he started meeting with the missionaries there for a while. He was actually on date for baptism there, but then Amadeus pretty impulsively decided to move to Utah to meet up with his girlfriend. He legit found a place to live on Craigslist with a guy that gives him free rent for walking his dogs every like 4 hours.

He really understands the gospel though. As we asked him about how he gained a desire to get baptized and as we went over the baptismal interview questions, he shared some really cool experiences. He reads the Book of Mormon every day and he applies the stories to his life really well. He said that he knows he doesn't know everything, but that he knows enough. He knows there's answers to the questions he has, but he just hasn't found them yet. He likes what he's heard so far, enough so that he was willing to move to Utah for it. He was already agreeing to live certain things like the Word of Wisdom and the law of chastity, but when we explained them to him a little more in depth he kept saying it made a lot of sense. It was cool to see him understand things better, but already have the faith to live it before he understood it. He's going to get baptized on either the 5th or the 12th, and we're really excited for him. 

That's what I love about serving in Utah. We always talk about the gathering of Israel, and that it's the most important work in the world. All people everywhere are being gathered in to be the Lord's elect, but what's great about Utah is that people are LITERALLY being gathered here. Utah has been a gathering place since day one back in like the 1840s, but it still is. People come here for one reason or another, but many of them are brought here by the Lord to become part of His kingdom. 

On Wednesday some Elders in our district had a lesson come up at the same time they had already agreed to do boys Activity Days activity, so they asked if we could sub in for them, and it was soooo fun. They planned a mini MTC activity and all the boys had missionary tags made for them. They wanted the missionaries to come in and talk about our daily schedule, show them how to tie a tie, and then the leaders gave all the boys these hard questions about the Book of Mormon to try to stump us. Then some of the boys got Nerf guns and would run around the gym trying to shoot other boys that would use a Book of Mormon as shields. It literally was soooo fun. Those other Elders missed out big time.

Thursday we had the MLC breakfast. At the beginning of every transfer, President has the whole MLC over to his house for waffles and training for the new ZLs or STLs. I just like getting to hang out with my friends and eat waffles, but President Evanson is so cool so I like getting to hang out with him too. We also finally got to meet with Toby again and he's now off smoking! It's pretty amazing to see how far he's come, especially since he moved to Utah to start rehab like 7 months ago. I think the Lord is helping him more than he thinks. He's getting baptized on the 12th which is super epic. 

Saturday we had CDC (combined district council, whole zone), and we found a cool church building with a basement to hold it in. I spoke on how we want our areas to be like escalators and not elevators. Elevators are like where we find people, then teach people, then baptize people, then start over again. Escalators are like when we're always doing all of them, but the other things are fueled by finding. The finding grind never stops, but it's all part of the job. I think the Lord works on us the same way. I don't know if there's an elevator that takes a straight shot to the celestial kingdom. I think there's probably like a series of elevators where there's lots of different stops, and maybe that last escalator is a looooong way away, but every time we're on an upward escalator it's a great thing. 

Sunday was super busy. We went to 4 sacrament meetings, and then we got to go to a devotional at the UVU Institute building with Kalani Sitake! He's the BYU football coach for those of you that dont know. It was really cool to hear him speak, and just to see that he's a super active member too. He told a lot of really cool stories about how the Lord taught him to be obedient through experiences, and then how the Lord has blessed him through righteous living.

I think I've kinda included my spiritual thoughts throughout the email instead of just at the end, so I guess it's just gonna end here haha. Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Snyder

Icicles!

Another sunset

Homies at Transfers

Activity Dayz

Kalani Sitaki

This homie was my first DL and now he goes to one of my wards.

Week 79: Tacos!

Mexican Market

Hey everyone!

This was a pretty cool week. I love my new comp, Elder Barney. He and I straight kick it all the time and he's just super chill. This is his 3rd YSA area, so even though I've been out more than twice as long as him, he's actually been in YSA for longer than me. 

We found a new person to teach this week! His name is Xander. He grew up in St. George and in a part-member family where his mom was a member and his dad was Catholic. He said was given the choice and chose to join the Catholic church when he was a teenager. When we came by for our return appointment, we just talked about why faith in God is so important and beneficial to us. He actually asked for a Book of Mormon and said he wanted to try our church again, so now we're teaching him! Elder Barney and I did not expect to find a new person to teach out of our appointment with him, so we both were pretty excited as we left.  

We actually had tacos 3 times this week. Don Joaquin's on Tuesday of course, then we went to a Mexican market in our area with really good chicken tacos. Friday we were on our way to Chick-fil-a, and then I started thinking, "You know what, I'm in Orem, and I could get food anywhere right now, and I'm gonna go to Chick-fil-a again?" Then Elder Barney says "I do wanna go to Jurassic Street Tacos sometime," to which I said, "Oh I've never been there," and then turned the car around to head to Jurassic Street Tacos. They've got a truck in Eagle Mountain that Elder Barney used to go to a lot, so when they opened up a store here in Orem we wanted to go. They have these huge tacos that you eat with a fork and knife with lots of yummy stuff on them. They're not street tacos haha. Would recommend. 

What's cool about YSA is that other missionaries find people for us. There are probably like 10 family stakes in our 1 YSA stake, and all of the family stakes have their own missionaries, and some sister missionaries found like 2 people for us this week! One of them got handed a Book of Mormon by some missionaries on the street, and then apparently he's been reading it! We haven't gotten to meet him yet but there's some potential. The same sisters also got a referral for a guy that just moved here from California and was meeting with missionaries there and going to a family ward, but now that he's here he wants to go to a YSA ward! Apparently he's like already ready to get baptized. He was gonna come to one of our wards, so we were gonna try to meet him at it. We sent him the time and the address, and called him and texted him before he got there but he never responded. Later in the day we asked him if he'd made it and he said he was there! It was such a bruh moment but still good for him to come to church. Hopefully we'll still meet with him this week. 

Friday night I started losing my voice, and then I woke up Saturday and couldn't talk at all. Elder Barney was kinda stressed about having a mute comp but he did a great job. I just did a lot of whispering haha. Some of the people we met with on Saturday called me the still small voice. Sunday I started to get my voice back but still did a lot of whispering. I'm kinda back to normal now but it was so weird not being able to talk, especially for someone who likes talking as much as me haha. 

We actually had transfer calls last night, but our whole apartment is untouched. Last transfer was such an earthquake, and we lost so many people to OGs like two weeks so we had a mini transfer then, so it was probably the most uneventful transfer call night of my entire mission honestly. 

So for the last few weeks or so I've been hearing about missionaries leaving for the Philippines; missionaries that had been out as long or even longer than me. There's even an Elder in my mission who's going. You'd think after all this time this would be good news, and it really is, but for me it was not. I honestly was really frightened that I'd get a call about it. I've been planning on finishing here for like 6 months. I don't even tell people I'm reassigned unless they ask. I'd still have the choice to go or stay, but not having to make that decision would just be a lot easier. As I thought about it, I eventually came to the conclusion that leaving the Utah Orem mission for the Philippines would probably be the hardest thing I'd ever do.  

This week I did get a phone call, but it was to say that I've been permanently reassigned to the Utah Orem mission. It was such a relief honestly. I've loved this mission since day 1, and it's been such a blessing to serve here. There was a time where I really didn't want to be a UOM OG, but now I happily tell people that I finally am. 

Love you all!

Elder Snyder

Me and Elder Barney

Week 78: Winter Is Actually Over

My Epic Zone #brozone

Hey everyone!

This was another crazy week, but an epic one. It really isn't very cold anymore which is really nice. This has been such a great winter for someone from California haha. It was like mid-50s and sunny all week, and we even rolled the windows down a lot.

Tuesday we had a really good lesson with Mike. Mike really wants to know if the Church is true and if it's the right thing to pursue, so he is actually really diligent about reading the scriptures, asking in prayer, and going to church. We always bring Blake to our lessons too which is really cool because he only got baptized like 3 weeks ago. We told Mike that instead of praying and asking for just an answer, he should ask if the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He really liked that approach because it's much more specific, and we pointed out that the story of Joseph Smith shows us that God answers prayers. Blake put it really well in a way that spoke to Mike a lot, and he said, "If God could answer the prayer of a 14-year-old boy like Joseph, why couldn't he answer one for a 25-year-old guy like me?" 

We also had a good lesson with Ian that night. He's a lot younger than most of the people we teach, but really is a great guy. We read the first couple verses of Enos, and when we invited him to read the rest he said he actually was excited to read it! He doesn't really have any kind of religious background or belief in God, but he's really open to it. Or at least was hehe. A couple days later he texted us and said he didn't think any of it was really for him, so we're not really teaching him anymore. I'm sure someday down the road he'll talk to the missionaries again, and hopefully remember the things he felt with us. 

Zone Conference was super fun, but it was a crazy day. There were so many kids leaving for their OGs that day that they basically had mini transfers that morning. We were scrambling around moving people's stuff, and then we were understandably late to Zone Conference. Our mission is so young now so everyone is just kinda figuring things out, but it's fun to be around young missionaries all the time. Almost everyone I came in with or around have gone to their OGs, so the mission legit is sooo young. To give you an example, there's 20 missionaries in my zone and 15 of them have been out less than 8 months, including my new companion! The night after Zone Conference we took Elder Burris to the mission home, and there were so many missionaries there dropping off other missionaries. We all hung out for a while which was really fun. 

My new companion is Elder Barney, from The Colony, Texas. He's been out like 7 months but he's a pretty awesome missionary. He teaches very well and is super talkative and outgoing. He got transferred from within the zone so I already knew him pretty well, and the area he just got transferred from was the UVU YSA 3rd stake, so getting transferred to my area (the YSA 1st stake) was no big deal for him. This is actually his 3rd YSA area on his mission. One of our roommates got transferred too, and the new missionary that just got transferred here has a full-size keyboard, so now we have a piano in our apartment!

We had a great lesson with Kyle Saturday night about the plan of salvation. We also got to find out a little more about his own spirituality too. We asked him what believing in Jesus Christ means to him, and he said "Actually I don't know, I've never been asked that." We got to teach and bear testimony of faith in Jesus Christ a lot too. Kyle is so fun to meet with. He unfortunately didn't come to church the next day (or anyone we're teaching) but it was still an eventful Sunday.....

We had a meeting at 7:30am on Sunday, and when we got to our car there was a boot on the tire! We missed the meeting, got a ride to a church building with computers to pay to get it taken off, and then another ride to church, and then another ride back to our car, and we made to our 10:30 sacrament meeting on time! Between Elder Barney and I it was only like $30 each to get it removed. It just wouldn't be serving in Vineyard with a car without having some kind of parking mishap.

I also hit 18 months on my mission this week. I love my mission so much. It's so much fun, I've made so many friends, I've learned so many things, and I've grown and changed so much. I love Utah more now than I ever thought I could or would. I just love it here. I've learned so much about my testimony and about lifelong discipleship, and it's honestly just been such a good time. I'm honestly relieved to have another 6 months (or 4 transfers how I think of it now), because I really am gonna miss it a lot come this summer.  

Love you all!

Elder Snyder

Me with a super old church building...its legit in downtown Orem by Costco

Sailing on Utah Lake?

I held a puppy.

Sunsets...my favorite

Week 77: Vineyard Winter Ain't Bad

Utah Lake

Hey everyone!

Another crazy week. Lots of good lessons, exchanges, and just running around all the time. 

We got to meet with our friend Mike this week twice. He really wants to know if the Church is true, and wants to be able to defend his decision to join the Church if he were to. His family is pretty Muslim and wouldn't be very happy with him joining, but he said if he finds out it's right then it's right and he'll do it. He's pretty diligent about praying, reading the scriptures, and coming to church too, so he'll figure it out if he keeps that up. We brought Blake, our recent convert of like 2 weeks, to our second lesson with Mike which was really cool. They have similar stories of being around the Church a lot and not wanting to get baptized just for friends. Blake bore a really powerful testimony of how he came to know he needed to get baptized that I think really helped Mike. 

We also did a lot with Toby this week. He was going to get baptized on Sunday, but our mission president said he needs to be more off of smoking and for longer before he can get baptized. That didn't put Toby off at all though. He'll be just fine honestly. Toby understands the why of the gospel so well because he was so far gone at one point in his life. Toby lives in a rehab house with a bunch of other guys, and he used to do some pretty heavy drugs. He understands the Word of Wisdom so well, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ too. He's definitly looking forward to getting baptized. It's always a fun time at the rehab house because all the guys are pretty funny. Toby is just such a goofball too. His roommate Leon joined in on the lesson, and he's not a member either and wants to learn about the Church now! 

I went on exchanges twice this week! And I got to be back on a bike for both those days! First I went to the Cherry Hill stake in south Orem; right on the border of the mission. I was with Elder Worrells and he's only in his 2nd transfer so it was fun to be with such a young missionary. That stake is only about a mile by a mile, and it's a really old part of Orem, but it was really cool so learn some things about old Orem from some of the members there. My second exchange was with Elder Cecil, one of my roommates, in my old area: the epic Vineyard stake! Elder Cecil and his companion whitewashed into that area, so they didn't know some of its secrets hehe. It was really cool to pull up on some of the people that I taught, and some of the member homies too. I thought they wouldn't remember me, but some of them had forgotten I'd left haha. 

Satruday night we had a lesson with Kyle. He's flying throught the Book of Mormon! He said he's been listening to it in the car and while at work all week, and he's already in 2 Nephi 25! He's holding on to it pretty well too. Sunday was absolutely nuts because we had 5 people come to church in 4 different wards. Thankfully in YSA so many people are so willing to help out, and are actually really good at helping out with people we're teaching because they were all missionaries just a couple years ago. We'd see them when they showed up, introduce them to a couple people, and then have to leave to get to the next one! 

Sunday was also nuts because we had transfer calls! Not really actually, but since Elder Burris leaves for Uruguay on Friday, I got a call Sunday night about who my new companion would be. His name is Elder Barney, and he's only been out like 6 months and now he's a ZL. I think he's kinda nervous about it but I think he'll do a great job. He's pretty good at pickleball too. The whole mission is getting shaken up a lot because there's so many people leaving for original assignments nowadays...

Anyways, that was basically the week. I hope you all are doing epic! God's love truly has the power to pull us through any kind of challenge in our lives. The Savior is the one that can make us whole. Our imperfections and shortcomings mean absolutely nothing to Him. He knows it's hard, how it will help us, and how HE will help us every step of the way. 

Love you all!

Elder Snyder

Me with a cool old church building

Biscuit Sandwich at TruReligion

P-day Breakfast at TruReligion