Week 92: Guess Who's Back?!?

Our first lesson with Nanaka

Hey everyone!

I'm so glad this was only the first week of the transfer because there are so many good things happening right now!

Last week out of the blue we got a text from a girl we'd met a couple times saying her nonmember cousin just moved in with her and wants to learn about the Church! So last pday after I sent my email we went to an FHE activity at the park, then we met with them! The nonmember cousin's name is Nanaka. She is from Japan and speaks very little English, but it still worked because we brought a translator! Elder Barney's last area was the Orem YSA 3rd stake (ours is the 1st), so it's not very far from us. One of the ward mission leaders he had in that area served his mission in Japan and has kept up his Japanese really well, so he did all the translating for us!

We actually met with Nanaka twice this week, and it's been great. She is super down to learn about the gospel, read the Book of Mormon (we got her one in Japanese!), and come to church and activities. She even came to church yesterday! Although she understands very little English, she's super outgoing. Sometimes they go to the Japanese family ward in Provo, but their services are kinda like the Poly wards where it's mostly in English. They also said it's mostly old people, so coming to the YSA ward they live in is a great way to make new friends. Our first lesson she had lots of great questions about just stuff she's been hearing from going to church, but it's been some pretty basic stuff that I haven't really had to teach very much before, like what is baptism, what is sin, and what are commandments. It's been super cool teaching her, and hearing her thoughts on certain things through our translator. She is so open-minded and she's like a sponge for the gospel because it's stuff she's never heard before in her life!

Wednesday we went to transfers to give rides and stuff, and everyone kept asking Elder Barney and I where we were going and who our new comps were. They were all very surprised to learn we were both staying. By the end of this transfer, Elder Barney and I will have been comps for 3.5 transfers, which is totally fine with me. Wednesday evening we went to a language class the Samoan ward does for people wanting to learn Samoan, or for all the people from Samoa to get together and talk about their native language. It was so fun, and the guy that teaches it is actually a Samoan language professor at BYU, and he was so funny. He had Elder Barney and I go up to the whiteboard and write sentences in Samoan and I really only learned how to say "The missionary goes to church" which is "Ua omai faifea'u tala'i i le lotu."

Now, in regards to the subject line, I'm sure you're all wondering who it is that must be guessed that is in fact back. Well.......it's TOBY!! I taught him when I first came in to this area back in January, and around the time I got Elder Barney he stormed out on his roommates and dipped out to West Jordan. It was pretty sad when that happened because he was on date for baptism when he moved. He was actually gonna get baptized around the same time Amadeus did. BUT, he recently hit me up on Facebook Messenger saying he was gonna move back to Orem either for a job or to find a new job. When he finally did move back he sent me his new address, but he didn't just move back to Orem. He moved back into our area, AND into one of our favorite wards!! He actually moved into Amadeus' ward, which we've been going to every week since Amadeus' baptism, so we know tons of people in that ward. We haven't been able to meet with him again just yet, but it'll probably be this week!

On Saturday we did a brief exchange. Last week I went on exchanges with a missionary named Elder Davenport, and he was telling me that in his old area in Orem he was teaching a Polynesian family with a son, Zarian, who wasn't a member. Well that family lives in the boundaries for the Polynesian wards, and so we exchanged again so we could go teach them! We brought Brother Perez, who is the ward mission leader for the Samoan ward, and he just talked up his ward the whole time. Zarian and his family moved here from Hawaii when COVID first hit, and they really miss Hawaii, so Brother Perez was telling them all the great things about his ward that will remind them of home. He also made a point of pointing out that the family ward they live in meets at 9am and the Samoan ward meets at 11am haha. They seemed really excited to come, and they said they would this week!

There's also more people that we're gonna start teaching soon that have been found purely through members. In our area, YSA and Polynesian, knocking doors just does not work. The cool thing about being a missionary is that people see you and know exactly who you are. They don't even have to talk to us to know what we're gonna say. As long as people see us, they know what we do. If it's a member of the Church that sees us, they know what they're supposed to do too. The more time we spend with members, the more they're reminded to do missionary work, and the more connections we make. Eventually, we make the right connections and get really good referrals from it. So we spend as much time with the members as we can! And then while we're at it, we get to eat some real yummy food, and maybe play some pickleball.

People ask me all the time if I'm trunky, but I always say, "How can I be trunky if I'm having this much fun?" Summer has barely even started too!

Love you all!

Elder Snyder