Week 16: Coke = Forgiveness

Two very Important Things to Remember

This week we worked like dogs. Still a lot of work to do but we're definitely seeing progress. Our teaching pool now is completely different from when I first got here and it's pretty cool to see the development from the start with a lot of these people. Sadly, we have to drop some of our most progressing amigos because their mom refuses to let them get baptized. But Elder Perry and I did all we could to help them feel the Spirit and learn the Gospel. Experiences like this are sad but it is a part of the work because all of us have our agency and we can only control what we do and how we react to the agency of others.

Okay time to switch up the flow. We had multizone conference this week and it was soooo lit. We met up with the whole zone (10 elders… best zone ever) in La Entrada on P-day and ate pizza, went to the promised land aka MEGAPACA, played basketball, and then went and taught some really fun lessons. The next day, we woke up at 3:30 to catch the bus to San Pedro Sula and at multizona, President McClellan talked all about my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon– Ether 12– and it was so good. He challenged us to find our weaknesses in any aspect of life, missionary work, etc. and start improving on them right away a little bit every day. I challenge you all to try the same! I've already seen huge improvement in my work as a missionary and I know the Lord blesses us for our efforts.

Made the mistake of playing fútbol this week with the teams of gringos vs. latinos. To many of your surprise, us gringos were dominating and the other team started playing pretty dirty and we had to stop the game to tell them to chill out. Everything was all good and the last of all hard feelings were lost when we pulled up to the house (most of the latino team lives in the same house) with an ice cold 3 liter coke. Coke solves almost every problem here.

One of our friends came to church this week and it was so awesome. One of the members helped her read the hymn book (Elder Perry and I were both up on the stand all meeting) and it was really cool to see her enjoying the meeting. Please pray for Lillian!

Other quick highlights:

Went to Guatemala today because why not.

Had some funnyyyy interactions with drunk men. Messing with them is so fun.
Taught a 97 year old woman and we had to basically scream for her to hear and I could not help but just die laughing. It was so funny. She then blessed us as we left.
Found some more promising people to teach that I am really excited to start teaching.
The weather was super nice this week. It felt like I was back at home with temperatures in the mid 70s and cloudy.
My stomach health improved a lot this week and for those wondering, my companion has never gotten sick. Bro is a vacuum for food with a stomach of steel. Huge blessing though because he can pick up my slack haha

This week, I experienced a large change in my teaching as a missionary. I was able to feel the Spirit so much stronger than before and just say and testify of the things I wanted to say with my heart. I like to attest this blessing to love rather than my own satisfaction. In the mission, numbers are very important. I often have found myself focused more on the numbers for my own satisfaction rather than focusing on the souls of the people I am teaching and the reasons I have a testimony of the things I am teaching. The moment I realized I needed to focus on the Spirit, everything changed. I started testifying with passion because of my experiences that helped me gain a testimony. My testimony has been able to grow more because of this and the Spirit has been stronger in my life. When we humble ourselves before God, who has given us everything, he blesses us in ways we didn't know we needed. When we choose to love others for others, the Spirit fills us with incomparable joy.

Love you all so much! Read the Book of Mormon too. You can find all hope, answers, and guidance in that book.

Élder Snyder