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| At the temple with Amadeus (center) and crew |
Hey everyone!
A cool thing that happened this week is we actually had teaching appointments (that actually went through!) every day this week.
On Wednesday we taught a guy named Ryan. His girlfriend, Channing, lives in one of our wards, and as we were texting people in that ward to try to meet with, she scheduled an appointment with us and invited her boyfriend to come to. That was a little while ago, but this week we finally got to meet with them again! Ryan has lived in Utah for like 6 years, and he's met with missionaries before actually, but a few years before he was dating Channing. He said he doesn't really remember much from what the missionaries taught him a while ago, so we just started from the beginning. After we gave him a Book of Mormon he said, "I actually don't need this cuz people keep giving me them so I have like 6 now!" He goes to church with Channing like every week, so hopefully we can keep meeting with him.
Thursday we met with Nanaka again. She's been reading the Book of Mormon, and she had lots of questions for us. Some of them were things she'd read that she was a little uneasy about, but thankfully we were able to ease all of her concerns through our friend Dallin who translates for us. She's been having quite the culture-shock moving from Japan to Utah while barely speaking English, but she's got some great friends that have been helping her. She reaches out to Dallin a lot too about questions in the scriptures because he actually speaks Japanese. It's really cool to teach her because we really are starting from nothing in terms of spiritual knowledge. I've never taught anyone like her in my entire mission. We taught her about faith and read from Alma 32. We talked about how faith comes over time and by diligently seeking after spiritual things. She loved the lesson and it really helped her put her journey in perspective for her.
Friday we met with the Amodo family. Their son, Jayden, is preparing to get baptized soon. The whole family wants Jayden to get baptized, including Jayden, they just have a really hard time coming to church. What they could use is some more exposure to the Spirit and its blessings so that they'll want to seek after those things even more. We could really use some prayers for them. Meeting with them is super fun because they make really yummy dinners every time we go, and they're such a fun family to be around.
Saturday we got to teach Zarian and his family. We usually go one exchanges with some other Elders in our zone because one of them was really tight with Zarian and his family and was actually teaching them when he covered their area for the family stake. After he got transferred out though they ghosted the missionaries, so this one Elder really is the key to them being taught at all. I actually went with this one Elder's companion on the exchange so Elder Barney went and taught them but it went really well.
On Sunday, Ryan, Nanaka, and Zarian and his family all came to church! Zarian and his family saw a couple old friends from their ward back in Laie at the Samoan ward which was really cool to see. Sunday afternoons and evenings are pretty busy because we just go to ward Come Follow Me groups and ward prayers, and with 11 YSA wards there's a lot.
We also went to the temple with Amadeus this week! He got baptized back in March, and the senior couple for our zone that specializes in recent converts have been preparing him to be able to go to the temple. They also brought another recent convert they've been working with, Ann, and she brought all of her friends too, so we went with all of these super sweet old ladies. Amadeus got to baptize someone for his grandpa and his grandma, who now have so many blessings available to them in the next life because Amadeus joined the Church!
At this point in my mission it's really easy to think about coming home, especially when people ask me about what I'm doing when I get home probably 3 times a day. What I love about the mission though is you have way less decisions to make, especially regarding how you spend your time. In some ways I'm not really looking forward to having that kind of independence haha, because it's really cool having my time almost completely directed to others. That being said it can be really frustrating having to be so dependent on others, but it really gives you a taste of how our Heavenly Father feels having to do a lot of His work through us.
Love you all!
Elder Snyder
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| MLC |
