Week 25: For unto US a child is born!

Navidad with Familia Hernandez

¡Feliz Navidad a todos!

I hope this email finds all of you well this Christmas day. For some, Christmas is a difficult time– but thanks to the reason for the season, we can receive comfort and hope in our difficult times, pains, guilt, and sadness. I know that Jesus Christ lives and is my Savior and your Savior. And that is why we celebrate!

This week was incredibly up and down but here are some things I learned.

---Prayers are answered. It may take a long time and a lot of prayers, but God always fulfills righteous desires in His time.

---When circumstances are inconvenient, try laughing with God and then accept the challenge He has given you with a growth mindset.

---Faith is everything. As missionaries, we often teach faith without works is dead. This applies for those first learning the Gospel. But for those of us who are familiar with the Gospel, we must remember that works without faith are dead.

---I have the best mission president in the world.

---Christmas Eve in Honduras is wild. Legit sounds like an active warzone on all sides. I love it.

---I am a pro at making tortillas by hand.

We saw a Christmas miracle this week and Rebeca's mom gave her permission to be baptized! However, she is facing some struggles with friends and the Word of Wisdom now so please keep her in your prayers so she can overcome this challenge and be baptized January 3rd!

Christmas on my mission has been incredible and filled with so much joy as I have been able to focus more on Christ this year and help others do the same.

Alma 11:40 “And he shall come into the world to redeem his people; and he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life.” Believe on His name this Christmas! (And always!) I also invite everyone to give a gift to our Savior this year. Think about what He wants this Christmas and then watch how much your life will improve as you strive to give our gift to Him. 

Merry Christmas! I love you!

Élder Snyder

Big Tree

Bus ride

More Navidad

Evanson and I are friends

Multizone Christmas Party

Teaching Chikis about Christmas

Me at the end of the week

Caroling in member homes

Week 24: I don't know Christmas is in a week

Hola, 

How's everyone doing?

We had a solid week down here in Copán Ruinas. Lots of really good lessons that helped strengthen my testimony and also lots and lots of walking.

We had transfers this week and child protective services did not take my kid away from me so we will ball out together one more transfer in Copán before I leave. I also got assigned to be district leader so that will be interesting having some more responsibility but I'm excited to learn more.

We did a lot of service this week and I just love service, especially at this time of year. It's the best way to celebrate Christ and remember his life. And we celebrate Christmas because of what he did during and after his life. Please go watch The Christ Child video and the behind the scenes video this Christmas. They are so powerful.

We had one lesson this week with an inactive recent convert that might be my favorite lesson yet in the mission. We were sitting in the back of a truck bed discussing the plan of salvation (my favorite thing ever) and just asking her question after question and the Spirit was so strong and guiding every word of every single one of us. Her face absolutely lit up at the idea of being able to go to the temple when it is finished in 4 months. I could not stop smiling as I saw the potential this girl has as a member of the church and thinking about all of the people who are so anxiously waiting for the temple to be completed. I am so blessed to be able to teach the plan of salvation in this special time in Honduras with a temple about to be completed in my mission. For all those reading who live close to a temple, please don’t take that extraordinary blessing for granted.

As I reflect on this week, I realized something that I have taken for granted my whole life. Prayer. This week, we had more opportunities than ever before to teach people how to pray. How special is that?! My whole life, I have been familiar with this gift and been blessed immensely by it. But there are so many people who don’t know they can talk with their Father in Heaven. People who don’t know they can lay out all of their problems, concerns, fears, joys, questions, etc. on the table to someone who knows exactly what they are going through and can help them exactly how they need. It is very special to help teach people of this comfort and constant help we all have access to through our faith and every day I am more and more grateful for the time I have to serve my Savior.

Love you all so much! The Gospel is everything!

Élder Snyder

Giddy up (bro came galluping up out of nowhere)

Frozen Chocolate Bananas

Libro de Mormón of a member

yuh

Isabel and fam

Week 23: I'm Lovin' It

Copanecos

Ok this week was very busy so we're just gonna get right into it.

Tuesday we just worked like dogs and found a new family who is super nice and they don't go to a church (super rare) so that is awesome and gives them a lot more potential. Almost died eating the beans they gave us but what's new🫠

Wednesday we did divisions with the other elders in Copán and it was fun and on this day I invited our friend Jorge to be baptized and he said yes! He is super elect and says he believes everything we have been teaching him right as we say it. We're already seeing some challenges from the adversary now that Jorge has made this commitment so please keep Jorge Paredes in your prayers!

Long story short, on Thursday we traveled to a nearby town to cast evil spirits out of a woman's home and give her a blessing. Some wild stuff has been happening at her house. She is not a member of our church but she has connections to the church that contacted us. Afterwards, she told us she already felt a huge difference in her home and in herself in comparison to the other pastors and priests who tried to help her previously. This experience was a huge testimony-strengthening experience for me of the priesthood and how we have this power of God on earth today to bless all children of God. 

Friday we had interviews with President McClellan in La Entrada and it was full of revelation, laughs, and super good/familiar food. We talked about acquiring the gift to identify promptings of the Spirit and how we can strengthen ourselves in our studies.

Saturday was slow but we worked and still had some solid lessons.

Sunday we traveled to Santa Rosa (3 hours in bus) to go to District Conference for all of the members in the state! Super awesome experience full of inspired teaching and honestly refreshing to see that there are areas here where the church is well-established with men who hold the priesthood and consecrated members. Copán is lacking a lot in these aspects (our branch president is basically inactive) and I honestly forget sometimes what the church should be so it is also great motivation to work harder with the members to strengthen them.

This week I want to talk a bit about something my mission president said. He told us that those who are disobedient to the commandments in life are disobedient because they do not truly understand the Gospel. This hit me. If we truly understand the Gospel and the plan of salvation, we would have no desire to be disobedient– no desire to commit our favorite sins. With true understanding, we can have an eternal perspective in all things. For me, this means putting the covenants I have made with God before everything else. However, true understanding is hard to acquire. To have a true understanding of the Gospel we have to study and we have to put it into practice. To understand the Atonement, we have to truly repent in the manner Christ established for us. To understand our covenants we have to try our best to complete our end of the promise and then recognize and remember the blessings we receive from doing so. As we do all this, God will give us more understanding and wisdom– more faith to do what is right.

God's plan is perfect! Difficult but perfect! By reading the Book of Mormon we can truly understand the Gospel!

Also go listen to “Sometime We'll Understand” from Rob Gardner's Lamb of God for me and also to learn more about this principle and feel the Spirit like crazy.

Love you all so much! Your prayers are felt every day.

Élder Snyder

Bonfire with some kids

Rebecca (The GOAT) in Santa Rosa

Oscar, The Warriors did NOT win the 2016 NBA Finals

Honduras

Kevin

Week 22: O Remember, Remember

Green

Hey everybody. Thanks for returning. Today might be the most tired I've been during my mission so let's see how this goes. 

Forgot to mention, last week we had the primary program and I somehow ended up being the chorister for every song. So shoutout to my mom who is the best there ever was at that calling and taught me to smile and give tons of thumbs up after the kids were silent after the first 4 words of each song. 

This week was really good. Honestly nothing super special we just worked like absolute horses. We had some incredibly slow days this week and the sun decided to crank it up a few notches but I'm honestly really grateful for these days because I learn so much. I learn more about mental strength and physical endurance. More importantly, I learn more about my love for the Savior. 

This week I pondered the concept of forgetfulness a lot. In my opinion, forgetfulness is one of the strongest tools of the adversary. It is something so natural, innocent, and subtle. We can't really notice it as it is happening and we are constantly forgetting things on our to-do lists, names, faces, and the list goes on. However, what is detrimental to us and victories for the adversary is when we forget our spiritual experiences. Those moments that act as anchors in our testimonies. Because when those hard days come and there is no one home, the sun is hot, you feel alone, your efforts seem in vain, and everything goes wrong, we can have hope when we remember the evidence God has already given us. How can we doubt when we remember miracles we have seen where the only explanation is God? It's hard to remember in the moment, when all we can see is problem after problem closing in. But if we do, there is light. There is Christ and his Atonement. There are solutions. There is hope.

In this time of year, we can all start by remembering Christ and His endless love. Remember the times you have felt His love and then try to share that love with someone who doesn’t have that testimony. If you can’t remember His love, ask Him for help and He will manifest it unequivocally.

If we remember His love, our experiences that anchor our testimonies, and our covenants, we have the strength of Christ to overcome everything and help others on their way.

Sorry for a kinda heavy email but that's what's been happening so hope you enjoyed haha

Much love,

Élder Snyder

Dope Nativity at a member's home

Elder Snyder