 |
| Juan Carlos' Baptism |
Last week was so busy. We almost didn't have any time to knock doors because we were so busy teaching lessons haha.
First I wanna shout out the Snyder tousins for writing me lots of awesome cards at the family reunion! I loved reading through them. You guys are the best!
Tuesday after weekly planning we taught Nathan. He's the one who's mom came up to us at the ward party and asked if we could teach her son so he could get baptized. He's actually super cool. I've taught a lot of kids on my mission, and Nathan is the kind that's fun to teach haha. Super talkative and engaged. His mom is really cool too so we're excited to work with that family more.
Wednesday was my last zone conference and it was really really good. President Evanson just taught about the gospel and doctrine of Jesus Christ, and that they actually are different things. We talked a lot about serving for the right reasons and how working and being obedient because you love Jesus Christ is much more fulfilling than doing those things out of duty or because it's expected. That really hit home because I've really had to sort through things like that on my mission. I made sure to get pictures with all my friends from the mission that are still here haha. I didn't get to play our mission song one last time, but I've played it at countless other zone conferences and MLCs. I did get to do the musical number which was fun, and share my departing testimony. I mostly talked about how a mission is meant to make you into something better just as much as it is to bring others to Christ. The more you let go of, the more He can do with you, and the better the person you can become by following Him.
Matthew 16: 24-25 says it all:
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
After zone conference we had dinner with a family that had already invited over Ozzie and his wife for dinner. It was fun to hang out with them. Ozzie and his wife are actually both super cool. We wanted to teach Ozzie more about the temple before his baptism, so we watched the video where E. Stevenson and E. Renlund give a tour of the Washington DC temple. Then we talked about it for a while. Ozzie is really philosophical and just very big brain. We got to meet with him again on Sunday to finalize some details for his baptism. We're having it at the Alpine Tabernacle, which is this super cool old building on Main St. It seats like 1,000 people or so and has this super epic pipe organ, and there's a baptismal font in the basement! We taught him more about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith that evening as well.
Friday we got to visit Marianne this week for the last time before she moved. She still really wants to get baptized, so hopefully I'll be able to stay in touch with her after the mission and maybe even go to her baptism. I'll miss her though. She's a really sweet old lady. She always says, "Thank you kindly." When we went to the care center on Sunday for church there was this old man that rolled himself right up to us and said, "Hey missionaries! I'm Gary. I'm not LDS, but I'm a believer for sure. I wanna keep coming to church here too." It never ends at that care center haha.
Juan Carlos passed his interview on Friday, and all day I was texting people left and right to fill up the program for everything that needed to get done. We had to double up with a few people but it worked out. Juan Carlos wanted his friend Moises to baptize him, and they've known each other for like 20 years. They went to college together back in Peru and now they both live here in Utah Valley. Moises was so excited and said he'd been waiting for this for about 20 years. Then Saturday morning Moises called us and said he wouldn't be able to make it, so Juan Carlos ended up asking me to baptize him. It was pretty sad that Moises couldn't make it, but it was really special getting to baptize him. Juan Carlos has an immense amount of faith. The missionaries weren't teaching him before I got transferred here, and I met him for the first time about 3 weeks ago, and then I got to baptized him after we'd taught him everything. He was so ready to join the Church and live the gospel when we met him. We just happened to be the ones here to be a part of it.
But it's not over yet! The night after his baptism he texted us that he wasnt feeling good, and then he didn't end up getting confirmed on Sunday because he was still really sick. We're planning on doing it this Sunday, but please pray that everything will work out and that it will go through!
Sorry to leave yall on a cliffhanger! 1 more week to go!
Love you all!
Elder Snyder
 |
| Cows |
 |
| Last Zone Conference |
