TAXI!!!! I mean.....Elders?

Hi everyone!

So, as you may have noticed, my preparation day was moved to Tuesday
this week. Elder Jensen hit hit year mark a couple weeks ago and is
currently on a temple trip. They only do temple trips on Tuesdays and
have it take a preparation day. Right now, I am on an exchange for the
day with Elder Parkinson and Elder Peńa. Their companions are also on
the temple trip.

Alright, here is my week for you :)

Last Monday was pretty bland and regular until something super cool
happened. We were at the laundromat doing what most people do at
laundromats: laundry! Yay! Haha anyway, we were planning to just throw
our clothes in the washer, go get lunch, come back and switch them to
the dryer, write emails while they dry, then take them back to the
apartment. This plan worked pretty well...for my clothes at least
haha. Elder Jensen wanted to save money, so he decided to wash his
whites and darks all together; something he had done for pretty much
his whole mission. In doing so, he didn't realize that he put a pillow
case, which his family had written notes on with red marker, in the
washer. When his clothes had finished washing, most of his white
shirts had large red stains on them. This altered our perfectly
planned laundromat experience just a bit. He showed his shirts to the
workers there, and they said they would fix them and to come back in
about 30 minutes to pick them up. At this point, we had both finished
our emails for the week, so we decided we would go street contacting.
We walk outside, and there is not a single person to be found walking
down the road. So, we then decide we will go knocking on the closest
street to us. We knock two houses down the road when we see a
door-to-door salesman. We went over to talk to him and had a really
good conversation. He asked us what organization we were from, so we
explained to him about our mission and what not. Then he asked what
set our church apart from other churches. We then taught him the
Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. We had him read the last
two paragraphs of the introduction. Right after he read it he said,
"Great! Now you got me interested!" Hahaha. He lives out of our area,
so we referred his information over to the missionaries in his area.
The Lord works in interesting ways to further His work :) haha

So, Sister Rivas asked me to be her accompanist for a musical number
in sacrament meeting. She gave me the sheet music on Tuesday night
haha she has an amazing singing voice! The musical number went very
well and definitely brought the spirit. I recorded it, but I don't
know if I will be able to send the whole thing. We will see I guess
haha

So, Nicole Juliano dumped us... She was the golden investigator who we
had on date to be baptized. She texted us and told us she was happy
with her religion and friends and didn't want to be taught anymore. We
were very devastated for her. However, we met Nadia and Chris this
week! They have been taught by missionaries for a while now, and when
we went to visit them for the first time, they said that they were
ready to be baptized! We gave them a date to work toward and are
really excited for them. They have a very strong desire to follow
Christ and both have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon! Our
goal with them is to have them at church four weeks in a row, then
they can get baptized :) the only problem with that is that they don't
have a car or very much money for the bus or a taxi. They have a
common problem with pretty much all of the people we are teaching. We
have turned our Ward members into a taxi service hahaha. We are
constantly trying to find people rides to and from church. It can be a
struggle, but the members here are so willing to help out!

We have a few CD's in our car, but a bunch of them are filled with
Christmas music! Hahaha so we have been listening to a lot of "Oh,
Holy Night" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman". I know we are 4 months
from Christmas, but the music definitely makes you happier :)

Quote of the week:
(We were talking to a nurse lady who was there to help take care of a
very nice disabled man named Ronald)
(Ronald comes to the door and cuts in the conversation)
Ronald: "Hiiiiiiii. I'm Ronald. I did not crap myself!"
Nurse Lady: "They don't want to know about that, Ronald."

Anyway...I love New York, and I love serving our Heavenly Father!

Elder Snell :)





There are wild rabbits everywhere out here!

Wild Rabits!

Nice tape job....

Your Friendly Neighborhood Gardners

Hello everyone!!


This week has been interesting. A lot happened, yet not much happened

all at the same time. I don't really know what to talk about haha. I

guess I will just start with Monday last week.



On Monday we helped Sister Ash move. She is a super nice Venezuelan

lady who is moving to Idaho after she spends three weeks in Venezuela.

When she asked us to help her, she made it seem like it was just a

couple of boxes and a TV that we would have to move. However, that was

not the case. We got to empty out her entire attic and fill an entire

UHaul truck! She didn't have air conditioning up there and it was 104

degrees outside. It was fun though! She also took us out for pizza

afterward. After we dinner, we gave her a blessing. The spirit was SO

strong and I could definitely feel the love that Heavenly Father has

for her. It was a great experience :)



Tuesday was pretty uneventful. The sisters did find us a family to

teach earlier last week -- Brad and Elisa -- so Elder Jensen and I

went to visit them on Tuesday. Elisa's father had just passed away and

same with Brad's uncle, so we talked about eternal families and the

Plan of Salvation. They absolutely loved it and really wanted to learn

more! We will be meeting with them later this week, hopefully haha.



Wednesday was fun! It was basically nothing but service projects. We

went to some kind of state park and did some service with Stella, a

bird specialist. She taught us a lot about which plants we should kill

and which ones would be spared as we disposed of the non-native

invasive species which were harming the native life-supporting ones.

It was a party! After that, we were going to pull weeds for a member

in the hospital, but it started dumping rain. We decided we would come

back some other time hahaha. After that we went straight to the

Verde's to move a bunch of furniture to their basement. Wednesday was

exhausting, but we found ways to make it fun! Stella trusted us with a

machete! Let's just say that some non-native invasive species never

stood a chance against a two districts of missionaries with sharpened

sticks of metal haha.



Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all pretty similar (except

for church on Sunday, of course). A whole bunch of knocking doors. We

got a phone call while knocking. The person just asked about

relationship advice for about 15 minutes. We did, however, sneak a

little lesson about the Restoration haha. He called us back later and

we set up an appointment with him! It was interesting...



Here are some fun quotes for the week:



Francis: "We're going to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus?!? Make a

request for a bowling alley. I want to go bowling with the Angels!"


Me: "Hi, we're the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-Day Saints"

Guy: "Mormons, right? My dad is a Mormon."

Me: "Really? That's awesome! Are you interested in learning more about Mormons?"

Guy: "Are you interested in gay couples?"

Me: "...so you said your Dad was Mormon? That's pretty neat."


Francis (talking about reincarnation): "I refuse to come back as a fly

sitting at a pile of HORSE CRAP! That is not going to happen!"


Anyway hahahaha! That's my week for ya. We were fed 8 times this week,

so that's pretty cool.



Oh! Also, before Elder Jensen and I left the mission office on my

first day here, President Reynolds pulled us aside. President was just

telling us about the area and why we had to be blinded in. Then, he

promised us (Elder Jensen and I) that if we are obedient and work

hard, we will eventually get to a point where we can baptize every

week! We took that to heart and are working very hard!


Here's my address:


1135 Walt Whitman Road

Melville, NY 11747



I love you all!


Elder Snell



The Zone




SAFE ARRIVAL

I FORGOT TO POST THIS ONE WHEN HE ARRIVED IN NY :)

Dear family of Elder Snell,

Sister Reynolds and I enjoyed meeting your son upon his arrival in the mission

field. I have enclosed a picture of him with Sister Reynolds and me at the mission home during his first night in New York. He is a fine young Elder and it is our desire to do all that is within our power to care for him and help him become the finest missionary he can be.

The first few months in the mission field are often critical to the success of a missionary.

For that reason, we encourage you to make your weekly letter and emails one that will lift and strengthen your son to assist in making this transition.  As a parent, we know that you are interested in your son's mission and have questions concerning policy and guidelines. Please read the enclosed document and hopefully it will resolve some of your questions and concerns. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Sister Reynolds and I are genuinely excited to have your son serve with us here

in New York. We love our missionaries and promise you that we will love and take care of your son.

Kind personal regards,

Gary R. Reynolds

Mission President

Get Your Dog Off My Lawn

Hello everybody!!!

Oh my goodness this past week and a half has been eventful!! I hope I
will be able to answer all of your questions, but I will probably
forget something haha. Anyway, here we go :)

So, on Monday we left the MTC at about 4 am. We flew to Detroit and
had a layover scheduled for about 15 minutes. However, something
happened in Atlanta with Delta Airline, so our 15 minute layover
turned into a 6 hour one! Hahaha it was fun though! We met a really
nice man who was very interested in religion, so we were able to give
him a Book of Mormon and talk to him for a bit. The Lord definitely
gave him experiences in his life which prepared him to start learning
the gospel and come closer to Christ :) we also helped an old Japanese
lady who lost her bag and couldn't speak English very well. We got her
to the right gate and the people at the desk were able to help her
find her bags. Yay! We eventually were able to make it to New York
around 9:30ish where we met President Reynolds and his wife!!!
President is the coolest man! He absolutely loves all of his
missionaries and wants the best for each of them. We spent the night
in the mission home and travelled to the mission office in Queens the
next day :)

At the mission office, we all met our trainers and were assigned our
areas. My trainer is Elder Jensen! He is super cool! He is from Heber,
Utah and has been out one his mission for a year. He is also the
District Leader, so that's exciting. We have one other set of elders
in our district and a set of sisters. Elder McCleary is in my district
too hahaha so I see him occasionally.

We are in the Plainview ward :) we are in about the center of Long
Island. Our area is huge (compared to other areas in the mission)! We
cover from the top to the bottom of the island. I will attach a
picture of our area. So, exciting stuff: we were blinded into the
area. Elder Jensen has never served in this area before, so we didn't
know anyone. The elders before us left the area book super messy too,
we have been trying to make sense of that haha.

 We have a brand new Toyota Corolla :) it's pretty sweet!

We met the Verde family our first day here, and they gave us about 6
pounds of lasagna hahaha that's about all we have been eating so far.
It ran out yesterday though, which is good because we can go shopping
today! We also met Francis and Bruce. They were baptized in May and
June, so we go over there weekly to help them still learn and
eventually get to the temple :) they are hilarious!! They have about
30 cats, so that's exciting hahaha. Francis also refers to Satan and
his followers as "Mr. Muffin-head and his luggage" hahahaha. I love
talking with them though! They are the greatest :) we also taught two
new investigators this week. Emmitt has been meeting with missionaries
for a bit, but we were the first missionaries to teach Nicole. Nicole
was SO prepared by the Lord for us to teach her. She has been having
little spiritual experiences throughout the last year. We invited her
to be baptized and she said she would! Her baptismal date is September
11 :) we also invited Emmitt to be baptized and he committed to the
same date as Nicole! The Lord prepares those who are willing to follow
him! I am so excited for this journey I have started! I love
missionary work and I love this gospel!!!

This happened while we were knocking one day hahaha:
"Hi. We're the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints and-"
 "-and we're the Jews from Apollo Lane!" *slams door*

Hahaha I don't think they really wanted to learn more about our savior
at the moment :) maybe someday though haha

There are ice cream trucks EVERYWHERE! Even at 9:00 pm! Hahaha

Sorry for the length of this email...This ward is amazing! I love the
people here! I am getting pretty good at a New York accent (hence the
subject) :) I see the Lord's hand in everything we do everyday. I love
you all! Have an amazing week!

Elder Snell
 :{D

Elder Jensen and Elder Snell

Plainview New York Area Map

Start Spreading the News!!!

Wow! What an eventful week! 

I am almost finished with the MTC! I leave for New York City on Monday at 3:30am. I am so excited to get out in the field and serve with all my heart, might, mind, and strength!

Elder McCleary and I finished teaching Braulio last Friday! He is so amazing! For our last lesson, he basically taught us hahaha he is awesome! I am going to miss him. Never hesitate to ask inspired questions!!!!

We have been teaching new investigators this past week. Their names are Jameson and Brooke. Jameson rides motorcycles and plays drums, so we are pretty good friends now haha. Brooke is a surfer from California and has such a sweet spirit and a strong love of God! They have been super fun to teach. Brooke and Jameson both said that they want to be baptized, so we set a date for them! It is super exciting!!!!!

I taught the lesson in Priesthood meeting on Sunday! I basically just led a discussion on Enduring to the End: A Pattern for Life. About half way through the meeting, I changed he topic to Enduring to the End: A Pattern for Your Mission. The spirit was UNBELIEVABLY strong as all the different elders shared their thought on the topic. I know that I could not have taught that lesson without the help of Heavenly Father and the spirit!

My district got to be New Missionary Hosts on Wednesday! It was so cool to be the person to greet new missionaries as they are being dropped off  by their crying families. I instantly became friends with them and showed them around the MTC and took them to their room and classroom. I was able to host 4 new missionaries, and they still say hi to me whenever they see me around. I has definitely been a blessing :)

Yesterday, I got to go help the Zone Leaders give the new missionaries a tour of the MTC and share some advice and my testimony with them! I memorized all of their names (only about 12 missionaries) so that I could say hi to them and help them feel welcome here. I love them all. Missionary work makes you instant friends with every missionary here hahaha It's awesome!

That's about all there is for this week! As usual, if you have questions, or just want to say hi, then email me!!!! I love you all! You are all in my prayers and I know that Heavenly Father is watching out for each and every one of you! Never hesitate to ask inspired questions to anyone you are talking to! 

New York, here I come!!!!!

Elder Snell :{D

Elder Snell's District

Not sure what he is doing???

Twinners!