Week 12: I'm in a Band!

Machete Gang

Yooooo we're back

Started off strong last Pday by getting burgers and tres leches cake to celebrate Elder Peterson completing one year in the mission. Twas fire to say the least. Also I bought myself a guitar because why not and I also missed playing my guitars a little too much. If you have any tabs for awesome church songs please send them my way. Evanson also bought a keyboard and Peterson and Perry both have harmonicas... so basically get ready world, the Copan Ruinas District is about to take over the music industry by storm. 

Tuesday we had a family home evening with a bunch of boys who are a part of a foster home a member works at and it was awesome. Although none of them are really old enough to be baptized, it is still so important to teach the gospel to these kids who don't have parents to help them. It made me so much more grateful for my family and parents for raising me in the Gospel. 

Thurday I went out and worked with Elder Peterson for the day and it was a really cool opportunity to see how another experienced missionary works and to just learn more about how to be an effective missionary. Also fun because we just talk about all the fun memories and mutual friends we have from BYU. 

Friday we got served some sketch food by a member and it was fun to say a prayer asking that we would not be harmed by the food. God answered that prayer for me a couple hours later with a few heaves on the side of the road. Not gonna lie though, I think I developed some sort of lactose intolerance or something because lowkey every day my stomach goes through it. But it's so chill.

Spoke in church on Sunday about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon and I hope it went well. In other words, I hope Google Translate worked well. Nah I know what I was saying but translate helped a lot haha. For real though the Book of Mormon is true. I know that more than ever now. If you feel so inclined read President Nelson's talk "The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It?" Fire. Also sooooo excited for General Conference this weekend. Watch it. 

Got to use more machetes this week so that's lit. 

Also right now we're on our way to go mess around at some member's farm with the whole zone so that should also be a jolly time. 

So this week I went through some frustration and discouragement because of the common difficulties of missionary work (rejection, people not progressing, sickness, apathy of others, etc.). But hey, I can't control those things. What I can control is what I do about it. One scripture that helped me with this is Ether 12:6. (Yes another Ether 12 banger). "for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." We have to endure our trials with faith, even if we cannot see the end. Sometimes we may never see the end, but these are the trials that are most important to endure with faith because God will help us along the way in so many miracles if we do have faith. Our faith needs to be in Him. Nothing else. I have to work on eliminating my will from the equation of this whole mission thing and suplicate myself completely to His will for me and for the people here. Humility is the key to enduring all of our problems and God helps us with this if we remember Him!

For real though I love it here. It's hard work and there's a whole lot of "inconveniences" but I love it. The people are so kind (most of the time) and it is just such a priveledge to dedicate everything I have to the Lord and try to help gather God's children back into his open arms. 

Anyways love you all! This church is true! Read the Book of Mormon!

Élder Snyder

#safetyzone4L

Fútbol

Just wow

Exchanges

Definitely bringing one of these home

FHE with the Boys

Me and Perrito

Week 11: "Cheese" They Call It

Interviews

Hola hola

Welcome back. If you're still reading these, I love you. 

So this week was mega slow in teaching compared to other weeks, but we still had some awesome lessons and the most fulfilling work keeps on going! 

Some highs and lows this week but definitely more highs.

Low #1 (honestly the only low outside of the normal missionary work so this is probably the only low): So there's this cheese here. And calling it "cheese" is generous. So the people think it is like the "american cheese" in the US that we put on burgers because it is the same color. However… it is quite different, and if you're not a fan of the authentic american stuff, my condolences if you ever get to try this biohazard of a delicacy here. This week, a member fed us a traditional food that is normally pretty good but LOADED it with this stuff instead of the normal cheese used in this meal and let's just say I had to play the "I had a parasite last week and am still recovering" card halfway through the meal. The street happily received the food I did eat once we were out of sight (and ear shot) of the members house😀

High #1: President and Hermana McClellan came to Copan for interviews and it was actually the best. President talked about so many things that had been on my mind the days before he arrived and Hermana McClellan is literally my 2nd mom. I am so incredibly blessed to have these two leading me for the next 2 years. Hermana McClellan also gave us homemade brownies and let me tell you, brownies are already my favorite thing, but having one after basically only eating eggs, beans, and tortillas for a month HIT DIFFERENT. 

High #2: President and his wife stayed in probably the nicest hotel in Honduras while here and they invited us to breakfast there the next day. It was a buffet. Yes, a buffet. Needless to say, I gained back the weight I've lost on the most delicious food I have had here. President continues to be the goat. 

High #3: Got serenaded with Evangelical hymns by a crazy old man for a length of time I will not reveal at this moment. Bro proved it is possible for grown men to sing like a bird. A bird who may have had a beer or two. 

High #4: Did splits with the APs (assistants to the president who are some of the most experienced missionaries here) and the one I was with decided to pretend like he didn't know Spanish for the first 20 minutes of our lesson🥳. I was slightly afraid that I was going to ruin this guy's testimony but afterwards the AP said the gift of tongues is real and I said everything that needed to be said despite me not understanding a ton of what the boy opened up to us about. Awesome experience that definitely helped my confidence in the language and trust in God. 

High #5: We play soccer every week with the youth in the branch and some of the people we are teaching and it was just super fun this week. Everyone was happy and just having fun. Twas lit. 

So as you can see there is just so much more to be happy about in this life than there is to be discouraged, afraid of, or just sad about! I started writing this email thinking this week was one of the worst weeks yet but now I see it wasn't! Be positive! Life is hard, whether you're a missionary or not. But it is all about your perspective. If you look for the bad things, you're going to find them and feel hopeless. If you look for the blessings, you will find them! But you'll feel so happy, full of gratitude, and strong enough to get up the next day and work through the challenges you have. God is real and has blessed every single one of you so so much. 

Honduras is surreal. I still can't wrap my head around it sometimes that I'm walking in some little town in the countryside of Central America sharing my beliefs and trying to help others find Christ. There is nothing quite like the mission and nothing I would trade it for. To all my missionaries out there (almost all of you), keep going and look for all of the blessings and it becomes so easy to love the work. 

Love you guys! And if you feel inclined shoot me an email!

Élder Snyder

Thee Buffet

Pollito

Spontaneous Backyard Fútbol

Mateo and his fire hat

Copan never gets old

Honduran Independence Day

First of many times using a machete

Independence Parade

Week 10: MEGAPACA

Wow what a week. For those who are wondering, I am feeling back to normal again and I am so so blessed for my health. Thank you all for the prayers!

This week we had multizone conference where about 70 missionaries all gather together and learn from our mission president. My biggest take-away from what was taught is that we need to believe miracles can happen in our own lives. Sometimes life can seem pretty hopeless, but even just believing gives us hope. So why not?

At multizone I finally got my hands on some Guatemalan ties that I have been wanting since I got the call to Honduras so that is super lit. Also… Megapaca. Megapaca is a thrift store here where everything is from America and I kid you not, it is a goldmine of vintage shirts and pants because no one here knows what's good and what isn't because they can't read english. And because of the conversion rate, each thing costs about $1. So basically, when I go home, my suitcase will be more than the 50lb weight limit– by a lot.

On the way home from the zone conference we were in a bus that seated maybe 20 small people and the ceiling was about 5 feet high. There were not 20 people on this bus. Maybe an easy 35. So imagine four 6ft gringos hopping onto this already packed bus that does not abide any traffic laws. Honestly, twas a lit 1.5 hours.

Taught some really good lessons this week and I can see my Spanish and my courage increasing each day. Most people here listen to us but don't actually care about our message and it kinda sucks. But this week we had some legit legit lessons and found some people who actually had questions and actually want to learn more. Please pray they continue to have this desire!

Tons of tender mercies this week. My stomach was struggling and I had no strength and then a taxi pulls up and offers to take us home for free. For 2 days, all of the meals made for us by our pensionista did not contain beans or eggs (extremely rare here and also the thought of those foods made me nauseous at the time). Exact answers to my personal questions were answered in my front-to-back reading of the Book of Mormon. Many many more I can't remember, but most importantly– God is in the details when we trust Him. Every detail. And then we need to thank Him. This is where the true joy of blessings is rooted. 

I studied the word "trust" this week. By definition, trust means "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something." So what does it really mean to trust Christ? As a missionary, I have to trust Him a lot. I am in a 3rd world country trying to teach my beliefs in a language I don't know. Meanwhile, I could be having the time of my life back in college with all of my family and friends. But no. I'm here, and I've honestly never been truly happier. Difficult things become blessings when we trust Christ and trust His perfect plan. His plan includes our trials so we can become perfected in Him. We trust Him when we act. Study, pray, put Him first. In this world, it's hard to do this, but it's worth it. We can have so much lasting joy and hope in this life when we prioritize Christ because we can overcome our weaknesses, we can know what is really important in this life, and we can experience real a change of heart– a change in our desires to always turn to Christ. Love Him. It's worth it. 

Sorry that was so long, but I have experienced so much change in my heart in my time as a missionary and now I truly know that this gospel is true. There is nothing more important in this life than giving everything we can to Jesus Christ. No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, He loves you and will help you. All you have to do is trust Him. 

Love you all so much! And you're a real one for reading these haha

Élder Snyder

Elder Perry's new hat

I love my mission!

Fiesta...Bro got rocked by that piñata!

Week 9 Parasite!!

At the Copan Clinica

Hola mis amigos!

Another week done and as the title says, yes I officially contracted a parasite. Only took me two weeks...so yeah you could say I'm embracing the culture.

I can tell that story first. So basically, some poor timing of our fast for fast Sunday starting and my stomach deciding to do some spring cleaning left me extremely dehydrated. We were at the baptism of 2 people the other missionaries here in Copan have been working with for a long time but unfortunately it was not the most enjoyable time for me because I was extremely dizzy and experiencing pain everywhere. After, we rushed me back to the house, and by this point I couldn't feel my legs, arms, or face and I had some gnarly chills. I was starting to get really scared. Elder Perry gave me a blessing and then I fell asleep for about an hour. I woke up with a 102.3 fever and started to feel better. Long story short, I couldn't eat anything the following day without my stomach rejecting it so we went to a clinic where they did some tests and gave me some meds so yeah. This is lit. Still going through it, so prayers are very much appreciated. 

Other than that though, it was a really good week. Still teaching a lot, but a lot of people just don't care, but hey at least we are able to share and plant a seed.

 

Quick Highlights:

-Attended the wedding for Byron and Seidy (the two people who got baptized)

-Ran into an American member of the church in the street. Just an awesome tender mercy. 

-Spanish is improving a ton. Still difficult to respond to people but I can understand almost everything if I really pay attention. 

-Didn't die from the parasite

Prayer is so powerful. I think I said more prayers this week than in my life, both in lessons and on my own. I just want to testify of and invite you all to pray. God listens. And why not pray? We can all receive guidance, strength, and peace of mind from the most powerful man in the universe if we take the couple minutes to close our eyes and just open up to Him. The blessings we have and the blessings we need. I invite everyone to say a prayer of just gratitude. Every time I do this, my testimony that God lives and blesses me individually grows so much.

Thank you so much to all of the prayers and words of advice/encouragement so many of you gave me this week! 

Love you all so much! 

Élder Snyder

Baptism

This spider was the size of my fist!

This cat sat with a cheeto on his head for like 15 minutes

More Copan