Week 101: Don't Count Down Just Yet, Mom!

Don't cha love Utah!

Hey everyone!

We're really getting down to the wire here. It didn't really quite set in till maybe yesterday that it really is all gonna come to an end. I only have 2 full weeks left. The first three weeks of this transfer here in AF actually went by kinda slow, but this last one was really fast, and the next 2 will probably be faster.

Tuesday we went and visited Marianne. She's moving August 1st! She's off to an assisted living place in Kaysville. We'll be sad to see her go, but it'll really be an upgrade for her. She's currently living in a state-run care center, so like basically a long-term hospital, but now she'll be living in an assisted living facility. She also has a sister that lives in Layton, so she'll be closer to family too. She's getting closer to baptism though. On Sunday we came to the care center for their sacrament meeting and we went and grabbed her from the patio where she was smoking. She told us, "I'm coming to church today, don't worry!" So we said, "It's starting right now though!" So she put out her cigarette right then and said, "Guess we better go!" Later in the meeting she whispered to us, "Thanks for coming to get me." After the meeting she said she hadn't smoked at all yesterday and had only done one and a half today, and that the new place she's moving to might not let her smoke, so she's trying to quit before then. She really has come so far. I don't know if she'll be able to get baptized before she moves, but I'd love to stay in touch with her and go to her baptism up in Kaysville one day soon!

We also had some awesome lessons with Juan Carlos this week. He is pretty much all set for his baptism on Saturday. All that's left is his interview. We were looking for another person in his ward that speaks Spanish to help us with a lesson, but we couldn't find anyone. Then we got a random text from a lady in his ward saying, "I don't know why but I had a prompting to text the missionaries and offer to help with anything and everything." Turns out, she speaks Spanish, and she came to his lesson later in the week! She even invited him to the ward party this week, and he came! Juan Carlos is what we call in our mission "elect," and he's one of the most elect I've ever seen.

We had a great lesson with Fernando this week. His girlfriend was at FSY this week which was actually kinda nice because then I think he was a little more honest with us. We read through President Nelson's talk from Apr '21 about how to build faith, and he really liked it. He's just feeling really conflicted right now. He doesn't know if God is there, if Jesus died for him, or if the Book of Mormon is true, but he really wants to know. He hears a lot of bad things about the Church from his coworkers too, so he really wants to know what's right. He could really use some prayers right now. He said he and his girlfriend might try going to a YSA ward soon though. As much as I like teaching Fernando, YSA would be so good for him. I think that could really help him figure all of this out if he started having more good influences.

We also had a really good lesson with Irlanda. We finally got to sit down with her mom and talk about Irlanda getting baptized. She really wants to make sure Irlanda, so right in front of us she starts grilling Irlanda with all kinds of questions about the Church haha. Irlanda's mom speaks like no English, but she wants her family to go to church in English, so that's why we're teaching her. We told Irlanda's mom that Irlanda knew the baptismal interview questions pretty well, and she was like, "Really?" So I copied and pasted the baptismal interview questions into Google Translate into Spanish right there in the lesson haha, then texted them to Irlanda's mom. She really appreciated it though. She really wants Irlanda to go to church more, but she's only 9, so when the mom doesn't take her to church on Sundays it's a little frustrating haha.

I also went on exchanges with Elder Albritton this week. I was his zone leader the entire time I was a zone leader, and now he's my zone leader. We've been in the same zone for 8 consecutive transfers haha. He's epic though and it was really fun to chill with him for the day. His area is also a stake in Lindon that goes right up Orem, and it was such a treat to be back in Orem for the evening! We also went to the Purple Turtle, which is a UOM classic, and I'd never been until this week.

Saturday evening we went to a ward block party cuz Juan Carlos was gonna be there, and while we were there a lady walked up to us and started telling us about her 9 yr old son who wants to get baptized, and invited us over on Tuesday night to start teaching him! She also said they want to do the baptism before August 20th, and she said either the 18th or the 19th or August would probably be the day. So we put someone on date and all we did was show up to a ward party haha.

Sunday was epic because it was Pioneer Day! I think this was one of the first times in my life I looked forward to Pioneer Day haha. Elder Petersen and I spoke in one of our wards, and we spoke on the blessings of missionary service. I tied it into pioneers because I remember on trek I learned that the decisions we make today affect more than just us, because the good decisions my pioneer ancestors made 175 years ago are still affecting me today. Serving a mission is certainly something that can bless generations.

Some of my friends I came in with are going home this Thursday and they wanted me to do it too, but I never wanted to do that, and now I'm so glad I never even considered that because we have so much going on the next 2 weeks. We have zone conference, lots of lessons, Juan Carlos' baptism, and Ozzie's baptism too! These last 2 weeks are gonna be awesome!

Love you all!

Elder Snyder