Week 68: On The Road Again

Hola people,

This week was pretty cool, pretty different. President McClellan goes zone-by-zone and does in-person interviews with all of the missionaries in the mission once a transfer. As he does all 170 of those, Elder Dávila and I run a training for all of the other missionaries and this week we started that process and we traveled to a different zone almost every day this week to do so. It was so awesome to be able to see so many missionaries as well as learn from all of them and their ideas. Our biggest focus right now is involving every member possible in missionary work and we are already seeing the fruits of it in our area. 

Had my big church news debut. Look out world. I'm just glad they got my good side.

This Sunday was the temple dedication! It was a surreal experience and some of the talks were especially powerful. Elder Renlund spoke about how he has a sure testimony and witness that Jesus Christ lives and how now we all need to develop our own, 100% sure testimony that he lives. He explained how temples are the fastest way to do so and how every covenant we make (and our faithfulness to said covenants) is absolutely essential in knowing Jesus Christ. His testimony was tangible. It was so powerful. It was a great reminder and motivator to continue trying to do more and more as a member of His church.

I heard something else this week that really impacted me. As we were doing our training about developing the correct trust, one elder shared a story of how some other elders received a very strong impression to contact a woman but didn't end up doing it. After that, they were not able to find anyone new to teach. They prayed for forgiveness and were still not able to find anyone all week. They prayed for forgiveness again and promised the Lord to find that woman. They ended up finding her and then began to find other people who showed interest in the gospel. The Lord blesses us with the guidance of the Spirit and then he trusts us to listen and follow. I found a quote I love by Elder Maynes of the 70 that states, "Being a man of integrity simply means your intentions, as well as your actions, are pure and righteous in all aspects of your life, both in public and in private. With each decision we make, we either merit more of God's trust or diminish His trust". It's truly incredible the potential trust we can have with the Lord when we try to be pure, kind, righteous, and loving with all people. 

With much love,

Élder Snyder