Week 82: Rock Me Amadeus

Zone Temple Trip

Hey everyone!

This was a long week, but also an epic week. It started off cold, but then towards the end got better. Today for pday was gorgeous, and we stayed busy too. We always finish our shopping by like 9am, and then we played pickleball for 2 hours, then had lunch at home, then lifted for like an hour, then played spikeball for another hour. Pretty great.

Tuesday we got to go to the temple with our zone which was really great. It's always a good experience to feel the Spirit there, and it's a good bonding experience for the zone too. Afterward we went to Joe's Cafe on State St in Orem. It was very delicious, and we even got to meet Joe! I ordered Joe's omelet off the menu, and he came out with my food and yelled "Who's got my omelet??" across the whole diner. He was super funny and kept roasting one of the other Elders that was with us.

Wednesday we got to have interviews with President Evanson, and then I went on an exchange with the Elders that cover the Orem Park stake. Their area has that huge apartment complex called Midtown 360 on State St in Orem, or as we call it in the UOM, the great and spacious building. We had a lesson with someone there and we went to the roof and took some pics there too. A very interesting view of Orem, but you could see all the way to BYU in Provo! First time I've been able to see it on my whole mission haha.

I also went on exchanges with the Elders that cover the Orem YSA 2nd stake. Our area is the 1st stake. I went with Elder Davenport who is super cool and like the nicest person ever. He's from Payson, UT and is originally assigned to this mission but he has a lot of medical issues so he can't be too far away from home. It's awesome that he still gets to serve.

This week was a little stressful getting everything together for what we thought was going to be 2 baptisms. Toby didn't end up getting baptized this week, but his will be this Saturday now. He's just been working a ton so we haven't seen him in a while. We still got everything together for Amadeus' baptism though! It went really well and was actually a really good baptism. Amadeus is one of the funniest people I have ever met. It's like unreal how funny he is. He seriously is like a cartoon character with just how animated he is and some of the stuff he says. While the ward mission leader was giving a talk on the Holy Ghost, the draining font started making a lot of noise, and it was pretty distracting, but Amadeus said "It's my sins going down the drain!" He's super outgoing and goes up and meets people in the ward by himself! We usually have to get some people to come and meet the people we bring, but Amadeus does it anyway!

Sunday night we were planning on going to a Brad Wilcox devotional in Orem at one of the buildings by Costco. Some of the Elders in our zone asked us if they could leave their district so they could go, and we said only if we can come too haha. We thought it was going to be packed so we all got their pretty early. We all thought it was going to be a Brad Wilcox devotional, but it ended up being a concert for this choir of old ladies called the Chauntenettes, with Brad Wilcox giving a spiritual thought in the middle haha. He only spoke for like 20 minutes but it was really good. We got to meet him after too, and he actually remembered running into a group of missionaries at Mo Bettah's like a year ago, which was me!

But yeah, life is good. The mission lately has been an absolute dream. It's been so much fun and I love it so much. Every bit. I was biking down State St in Orem on exchanges this week and couldn't stop smiling and kept thinking, "This is iconic." There literally is so much to be enjoyed about the mission. It's literally so fun. Parts of it I won't miss obviously, but parts of it I don't want to end. And the best part is that the message we share is the way to real happiness in life. An all-knowing Father in heaven is helping His children to live better lives and be protected from pain and suffering. He lays out His plans and His desires pretty clear. All we have to do is obey. Literally all of it is true. Every bit.

Love you all!

Elder Snyder