 |
| Temple photo shoot |
The days are getting hot. Summer in Utah can make you forget winter ever happened. I'd take heat over snow any day though, especially after what I endured in Draper haha.
Last pday after I sent my email with met with a guy we're teaching named Ozzie. He lives in the stake that we picked up right when I got transferred here, and he's been planning on getting baptized August 7th for a while. He is super big brain. Like huge. He talks like a philosopher, and he is very insightful. It's cool teaching him because he just perceives everything differently than most people. He is really looking forward to becoming a member of the Church. He really likes how inclusive and transparent the Church is. He understands that he still has a lot to learn about the Church though, so it's really cool just teaching him new things because his whole expression will change and he'll say, "Fascinating!" He also goes to BYU and is majoring in music composition, and plays the piano and the organ really well, so in our first lesson when I found that out I said, "Wow we could get so sidetracked."
Tuesday we met with Juan Carlos in the afternoon. This was our first real lesson with him. We went over the Restoration and invited him to read the Book of Mormon, and we also invited him to be baptized, and he said yes! He even accepted a date of July 28th! We told him that while 2 weeks might seem like a short amount of time, we can teach him everything he needs to know to be ready by then, to which he said, "Oh thank you!" He's even already letting his friends and family know so he's pretty pumped. We met with him again on Thursday and brought a guy from the ward who speaks Spanish which was helpful. We taught the first half of the plan of salvation, and also went over the Word of Wisdom, which he already lives too. The homie was straight prepared.
On Thursday I went on exchanges with a young Elder named Elder Baldauf. The kid was born and raised in Kansas and is pretty dang funny. We visited Marianne with President Evanson, and he was able to have a good talk with her. She's been really discouraged lately because she really wants to get baptized but is having a really hard time quitting smoking. She could really use some prayers right now. We also met with Fernando this week too. We went over the plan of salvation with him and he understood it really well. He just needs to recognize that the Spirit already is telling him that it's all true, but he'll get there one day.
On Friday we finally got to teach Irlanda. Her family was pretty much active before COVID, but because of COVID, she hasn't been able to get baptized. Elder Petersen said that him and his last comp were knocking door around where she lives and that Irlanda came up to them and asked, "Are you the missionaries?" so they said yeah. Then she said, "Okay well I want to get baptized." She's been hard to meet with because her mom is so busy, but she really knows her stuff. We had an awesome lesson with her and her older sister and another homie from the ward that we brought.
Saturday night we met with Ozzie again. In our lesson with him on Monday he mentioned that he hasn't been able to study a lot from or about President Nelson, so we decided to go over my favorite talk of his. We read "Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains" from Apr '21 with him, and he really liked it. He said he appreciated the clear and direct instruction from President Nelson, as well as his "sage-like" wisdom, and his complete avoidance of talking about himself. Ozzie was impressed that he stayed focused on teaching the doctrine, and even commented that President Nelson's directness is what he would want in a religious leader. So yeah, Ozzie is very big brain.
Sunday we went to a meager 6 sacrament meetings, and got to visit some really epic members. There was one family that had lived in the old part of American Fork, and that the house they lived in had been renovated several times, but that it had originally been built in 1893! Another family also told us about this OLD house by the stake center that straight up looks like a haunted mansion. Even though it looks abandoned I know there are people that live there though cuz I know some missionaries before me had a bad run-in with the residents. Then the guy telling us about it though was saying there are some local legends that it actually is haunted, and then he said it was called the Chipman mansion and I was like, "NO WAAAAAY."
Nanaka unfortunately didn't end up getting baptized today cuz she ran into a few roadblocks with her family in Japan. She still really wants to get baptized and knows it's the right thing for her though, so she'll get there one day for sure.
But yeah, this area kinda has it all. Good food, endless work, tons of people to teach, tons of homie members, and a rich and coloful history. Kinda reminds me of Vineyard haha. Sometimes I wish I could stay here for longer, but what're ya gonna do.
Love you all!
Elder Snyder
 |
| Visited Gramps |
 |
| At the hospital...to give a blessing. |
 |
| President Interviews |
