Week 94: Oh, the Deep, Deep, Love of Jesus

Continuing to see tons of miracles out here in Mochito. 

This week we found a bunch of super prepared old people through members and it was so special to see these people accept the baptismal invitation so quickly and with such assurance.

This week, we got a referral for a family that lives in a little village that is like an hour bus ride from the town we work in and it was such a special experience going all the way out there. Honduras is such a beautiful country. This village sits almost on top of one of the tallest mountains in Honduras and the view was breathtaking. Photos don't do justice to the beauty. We taught them the Restoration and it was just one of those moments when I realized what I am actually doing in this special time as a missionary.

On Saturday, a 16 year old I found in Campanas got baptized! Shoutout to Elder Prior for that one for real. Also shoutout to technology and being able to watch the service by videocall. A further testimony to me that no effort is wasted.

We also went out teaching with the Stake President yesterday which was super random but it was so awesome to learn from him and his high love and high efficiency in every interaction with every person.

Today we went to these suuuuper dope waterfalls in our mission. Not gonna lie, I have been wanting to cross this off the mission bucket list for almost 2 years so it was awesome to do that with the whole zone. 

Please pray for Heydi, María, Marvin, Cristian, and Nila. These are our friends with baptismal dates soon and I know that every prayer will help them find even more joy in the Gospel.

One verse in the Book of Mormon that really stood out to me was Helaman 15:3 which ends with the words “yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them.” This is so beautiful. All things that the Lord does is because of his love and the VERY high potential he sees in all of us. When we mess up– and we will do so very frequently– the consequences of our actions are not expressions of the Lord's disappointment or anger, better yet, expressions of the purest love known and still incomprehensible to mankind. Keep going, keep messing up, keep growing, and keep recognizing God's perfect love.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 93: The Infinite Atonement

Feliz Holy Week! Here in Honduras, Holy Week is everyone's favorite week because the whole country takes off work and barely celebrates Jesus! We decided to make people celebrate correctly by inviting literally everyone we talked with to come to church and change their lives through Jesus Christ.

We had a multizone conference on Tuesday and it was awesome. I learned so much about repentance and how to help others want to repent of their mistakes. It was also so fun to see some good friends. One of Elder Evanson's converts in San Pedro then took us out to get Gelato before our bus left and it was sooooo rico.

Wednesday, Juliet and her husband invited us over to their house for lunch and it was so awesome and they are just so prepared to hear and understand the restored gospel. We also planned and carried out the most successful youth activity of my mission and a bunch of kids showed up and loved it. It's so fun working with the youth.

Thursday, the APs came all the way out to Mochito to do exchanges with us (super random but super lit) and it was so fun. My first kid, Elder Abarca, is AP right now and he went teaching with us and it was so awesome to see how great of a missionary he has become. He helped us put down 5 more baptismal dates and we are hoping to see some fruits very soon!

We met this one little 8 year-old girl who's older sisters are members and she is the funniest kid ever. We walk into her house and she says, “I want to get baptized. I just don't know what day, because I can't tomorrow.” So she's on date for May 11th and she's awesome. As we taught her the Word of Wisdom, she reassured us many times that cocaine is against the Word of Wisdom and that she does not take cocaine. Keep up the good work Maria 🙏

We had so many special lessons this week testifying of the love of Jesus Christ. There is such a need for the knowledge of the Atonement in all corners of the world. I was asked to speak in church on Sunday about the Atonement of Christ and it was a special experience preparing for that. I love the scriptures and how we can always find more every time we read. One scripture that I pondered for a long time this week was Doctrine and Covenants 19:16 “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;” The love, the gratitude, the motivation, the humility, the peace I feel as I read this over and over again really causes me to “stand all amazed”.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 92: Finding Families

Hi

This week was honestly so awesome. Had some days where we literally were rejected by every person we talked with and then some other days where it was just miracle after miracle.

We had interviews with President McClellan this week and, as always, it was what I needed and I learned a ton from him and the APs. We put into practice what they told us and we contacted an old Facebook reference that came in a year ago and never got taught. Turns out, this man was baptized in the Church as a kid and then moved to the United States and attended church there for 3 more years before going inactive. He is now back here and has his own little family. They had been attending another church but about a month ago, they had some issues there and have since been looking for a new church. His wife just recently found out that her mother- who lives in the United States- attends the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that her grandparents were married and sealed in the temple. This little family is now doing everything to learn about and become part of the church. The Lord has the most perfect timing in everything. Please pray for Juliet and Guillermo!

This week we were also able to put down 4 baptismal dates, 2 of which are part of an inactive family that we visited and helped get back to church for the first time in years this Sunday. It was so sweet to see so many members flock to them and welcome them back. That night we did a Family Home Evening with them and it was just so much fun and their children agreed to be baptized.

Other dope things:

---Met a lit inactive kid named Snyder. Certified dawg.

---It has been suuuuper cold here. So wild. I never thought I would experience weather like this in Honduras

This morning, I read one of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon, Helaman 3:35. I'm pretty sure I've shared this verse like 10 times in these emails but I love how in context, we learn that if we choose the Lord during the hard times, we really do grow and become stronger and stronger in our faith and in our joy as disciples of Christ.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder

Week 91: Christmas in April

I don't know how it's already Monday again but we ball. I probably climbed up 10,000 stairs this week.

First of all, General Conference was incredible and so many questions of mine were answered. In my opinion, General Conference weekend is way better than Christmas as a missionary. I really loved Elder Holland's talk (definitely a machete that I needed to receive) and Elder Rasband's talk. Definitely excited to go back and study this conference in depth.

As for the work, this week was honestly pretty slow but we're on the come up and I'm very hopeful for this coming week. We contacted, tried working with members, and tried meeting up with references but it just seemed like everything seemed to fall through but this week we should be meeting with like 4 new families that are references from members.

Not gonna lie, it has been super hard to click with my new companion because we are very different, but this week we are finally starting to see some progress after some better communication and some machetes from Elder Holland. I am so grateful for my mission and everything I can be learning about life. It's hard but there's no growth in the comfort zone.

Elder Evanson is training to play basketball in college after the mission so today we went and played for a few hours in the morning and I got suuuuuper sunburned but man it was so fun. I miss sports.

I got my plane ticket this week. 💀🥲

This week I want to testify how much writing in a journal helps. I have not been very consistent in keeping a journal but this week I learned that looking for the Lord's hand every day really does change our mood and our outlook on things.

I am also so grateful for the guidance of living prophets and for the Gift of the Holy Ghost that truly does speak to us to teach us the will of God. 

Sorry for the short email but I can't remember anything else.

With so much love,

Élder Snyder