Week 74: Who Knew Buses Were Holy Places?

Hello world,

I just once again went to that sushi buffet and broke my old record and I am now immobilized. So yeah it's been an incredible day.

This week was actually so awesome. President McClellan has started going around the mission doing interviews again so that means we're hoping in the car with him again to give a new training to all of the missionaries. It has been really awesome to get to know each missionary on a personal level and to now see their progress over the past few months. 

I had the privilege to do exchanges with Elder Randall in Puerto Cortes this week. I don't know if I have ever loved an exchange more in my mission. First of all, Elder Randall may be one of the most loving, caring, and sincere missionaries on this planet. Each lesson was completely focused on the need of the person and allllll of the promised blessings the Lord is preparing for that person if they come unto Him. I learned many life lessons with Elder Randall and how sometimes the most unconventional conversations are the most powerful moments of divine intervention. These exchanges were also incredible because I got to see the ocean!!!! After having grown close to the beach, I have been missing it these past months in Honduras. I literally can't get enough of the Caribbean vibe over there and will probably be planning to buy a house there one day. So that was an awesome day.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a family in our ward and I felt right at home. They made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, that sweet potato marshmallow thing, and jello. Twas a very authentic Thanksgiving. And it makes sense because the dad of the family is a gringo from the United States. But still it was awesome to eat that meal here in Honduras. Speaking of food, I ate pig feet for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I got it down but I do not recommend it. It's weird.

We did not have very much time this week to work in our area but we're taking advantage of every chance we can get to share the gospel. While in the bus on the way to Puerto Cortes, Elder Randall and I set a goal to talk with every person who sat down next to us. We sat in separate rows and got to work and one person after the next sat down next to me, I talked to them, invited them to church, to read some material I gave them, and to get in touch with the missionaries. Eventually, a young man sat down next to me. He spoke to me before I could talk to him and asked me if I was assigned to the Campanas Ward (I served there about 10 months ago). Turns out he got baptized right before the Pandemic and went teaching with the missionaries super often but then went inactive due to the Pandemic. We talked and I invited him to come back to church and shared 3 Nephi 13:32-33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things shall be added unto you. He promised to come to church and then I asked him why he liked to go teaching with the missionaries. He told me it was because he felt like he was one of them and has always loved sharing the gospel. I asked him how old he was and today he turns 21 years old. I told him he could still serve a mission if he wanted and then he told me the only reason he didn't serve before was because his parents didn't give him permission. But here in Honduras, you become independent when you turn 21 years old. We both had the realization at the same time and the Spirit entered that bus so strongly. He then expressed his fear of leaving behind his home, work, and family for two years. I asked him if he remembered the scripture we had just read prior and immediately both of our eyes filled up with tears. We exchanged phone numbers and he was filled with excitement to go back to church and to go serve the Lord.

The best way to light the world this Christmas season is to open your mouth and share this good news with the people around you. You never know who is really sitting by your side until you invite Christ to sit by their side.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 73: In n Out

 

Well... everything that could've gone wrong this week went wrong🥳 However, I did learn that as we are on the Lord's errand, it always works out-- especially in the details.

We had transfers this week and we had to get 20 missionaries out of the country and get 18 more in. The first couple of days were a little chill and we basically babysat all of the missionaries who were finishing their missions so they would stay obedient until the end. We got to eat a fancy italian lunch with them and even better, go to the temple! This was the first time I have gone to the temple in 16 months and it was incredible. Never before have I learned so much in such a short time frame and it is truly incredible to be in a place where we can be so close to God and progress so much as one of His children. I absolutely love the reality of the Gospel.

I got my new comp who is Elder Cano!! Yes, we were already comps back in Jardines and I am so stoked. We have jumped right back into our rhythm that we had before but now with more experience and more energy. We have been grinding making new trainings and organizing a bunch of events coming up in the mission. 

On the day that the 18 new missionaries were supposed to come, only 13 showed up in the airport... the other 5 got stuck in Panama. So we had a little bit of a hectic couple days rescheduling everything and trying to get all of the trainers with their companions as soon as possible but as we worked through each problem that kept arising, everything and more always fell into place. I am very grateful for low maintenance missionaries who are always willing to help. We ended up getting the 5 missionaries and getting them to their areas so that's lit.

This week was an absolute marathon but we finished it off this week with some Buggy's (a restaurant that is only in Copán but they just made one here) and some basketball so that was awesome.

I'm loving life and learning so much right now and I'm really excited to see what happens this last transfer I have here in the offices. Pray for love, pray for energy, and pray to serve. It's awesome.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 72: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

It was another great week this week because BYU won. More prayers for them would be appreciated tonight as well. 

This week was also great because I got to go on some more exchanges with some really amazing elders. The first one was with Elder Conejo and that might have been one of my favorite exchanges from everything I learned and how awesome of a friend he is. He was so incredibly good at immediately becoming everyone's best friend and he testified boldly in every interaction. I have already found so much more satisfaction in the work as I have tried to put these things into practice. I also went to the most successful area of the mission for a day and just worked with Elder Calderon. While there, I got to make flour tortillas by hand for the first time. Abuelita Sofia is an absolute dawg. She then proceeded to make me 7 baleadas that were gratefully eaten.

Christmas is in full swing here in the office. We decorated President's office and put up a tree and put every missionary's package underneath it. Music from the First Presidency Christmas Devotional is constantly playing and it's a vibe.

A hurricane is pounding Honduras right now so that's new. Everything is chill here in San Pedro. We have only had some mild to heavy rains for 3 days straight but in the East Mission along the coast they are getting hit harder.

We had the transfer meeting yesterday and it was once again so cool to see revelation in action. It's gonna be a hectic week getting 20 missionaries home and welcoming 18 new ones but I'm stoked, transfer week is always a grind. President also just got back from a week-long conference in Guatemala and he shared with us some of the insights he received from Elder Anderson from the Quorum of the 12. He spoke to us a lot about really getting to know the scriptures better and to memorize the scriptures that we truly believe and to use those as testimony of the truth of the Gospel. 

Last Saturday night, there was a double baptism between our ward and Jardines and it was so special. The woman who got baptized in Jardines is the best friend of my convert Yuk Shan and it was so awesome to see a person I had the privilege to help come unto Christ help someone else come unto Him. 

Sharing the Gospel is a priceless experience and a gift that keeps on giving. Light the world this Christmas season and share your knowledge of Christ with someone so that they too can have this light. 

With much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 71: Holy War!

Another week in the books and it was just so great.

Started the week off well with MLC and it was sooo good, so productive. I love how the Church uses counsels to keep progressing and improving and I love getting to learn so much from my friends out here. 

Because we finally finished interviews of the whole mission, we finally got to do some exchanges! I got to go with Elder Evanson to his area and then my area with Elder Rosales, two absolute dawgs from my MTC group. The last time Elder Evanson and I were companions was almost exactly one year ago in Copán as we watched our trainers hop on a bus to their next areas. It was so awesome to see how we have grown in a year and how powerful of a missionary he is. We also had such an awesome lesson with some members with the intent to try to receive a reference from them. We helped them remember their favorite experiences from their missions and the spirit was so strong and they gave so many references and promised to go help the missionaries teach the next day. The members are so key and so willing to help if they taste the joy of sharing the Gospel.

With Elder Rosales it was awesome and he helped me see how powerful it is to just think positive and only focus on the future miracles the Lord will give us the privilege to see. We have not had many people progressing in our area these days so we just focused all day on finding and we saw miracles. We found a single mother of 6 and a few teenagers who all showed real interest and said they wanted to come to church tomorrow! The Lord loves effort, especially optimistic or faithful effort.

Other stuff:

- Just hiked the only hike in San Pedro Sula (apart from my area) up to a massive "COCA-COLA" sign. It is literally the size of the Hollywood sign but says "Coca-cola". And now you all know who really controls this country. There were colorful spiders the size of my hand every 5 feet but I didn't see any monkeys other than the secretaries :(

- Someone broke into the office car the other day but only stole the spare tire? He will be missed 😔✊

- The AC went out in our whole house so we threw all of our 7 mattresses into the front room and opened up all the windows and it might have been the best I have ever slept on my mission.

 - BYU plays Utah tonight and we are a divided office. It will be an interesting week next week.

Yesterday, I had interviews with President McClellan and he taught me about the connection between faith and willpower. I love the idea of faith and consecration and one thing that has always been a concern of mine is remaining so faithful and diligent in my faith after my mission. I learned that it all comes down to really how much I believe in my covenants and how much and believe that it's worth every sacrifice. I am excited for the future of this mission and to continue trying to be a little more positive and a little more like Christ.

As always, with much love... and Go Cougs🤙,

Élder Snyder

Week 70: The Best Traffic

Teresa's Baptism

What a week

Teresa's baptism was one of the most spiritual and special baptismal services of my life. I had the privilege of performing the ordinance and when she came up out of the water, she just started bawling tears of joy. She had made some very large changes in her life to finally make her first covenant with the God that will bless her family for eternities. After the ordinance, all of the people present took turns to share their conversion story or how they found the church and the Spirit was tangible. There is a mother who got reactivated recently and her three adult daughters were recently baptized and all of them were there. The mother shared how she was alone in her faith as a teenager and for that reason fell away from the church. However, now she has her family in the Gospel. Now she has hope. Covenants are hope. Let's just say that there was not a dry eye in that room.

It was Elder Dávila's birthday on Sunday. We ate tres leches cake and had a jolly time.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had multizone conferences and I got to see the whole mission which was super cool. Elder Porter, Elder Evanson, and I whipped out a musical number with like 8 minutes of practice before the conference started and it went well so that was fun. I had the opportunity to make a presentation/training for this conference and I spoke about having confidence in our covenants. If there is one thing I learned while studying for this presentation, it is that the Lord keeps his promises. There are countless examples in the scriptures and personal experiences that I have had but I just want to testify that He knows you and he will not forget you, in fact, He remembers you. He will keep his promises.

On Thursday morning, we hopped in President McClellan's car for a 2 day road trip out to Santa Rosa to do interviews and trainings for the missionaries way out there. The weather in Santa Rosa is identical to that of San Diego in California and I immediately fell in love. I took every chance to be outside in the cool breeze. It was also so awesome getting to spend so much time talking with President and to hear his stories and his insights. We got stuck in 6 hours of traffic on the way home yesterday so we had a lottt of time to talk (some good LLC ifykyk). One thing that touched me in his many stories was the confidence he has in the promptings of the Spirit. It made me think of how it can be possible to be so confident in the whisperings of the Spirit-- no matter how unconventional they may be-- and I came to the conclusion that it comes from confidence in worthiness. This confidence comes from obedience. I love the real simplicity of the gospel formula.

It has been a great week and I feel like I am learning a lot. Charity is so important. I pray to be more grateful and I hope to be a little more like Christ each day. I love being a missionary and working full-time for the Lord. 

With much love,

Élder Snyder