Winds of Change

Hey, Friends :)

This week has been a full one!

First off, there have been some amazing changes to the missionary
schedule as well as the key indicators. I will include a picture of
the schedule, but with the key indicators we basically only report on
investigators baptized and confirmed, investigators with a baptismal
date, investigators at sacrament meeting, and new investigators. I
have definitely been noticing the blessings from these changes. I have
been able to focus more on the individual people and their personal
progression in the gospel. It is amazing!

On Tuesday, Elder Flora and I were able to sit down with Sister Ní
Lochlainn and work on our own family trees so we can then help those
we are working with! The spirit of Elijah is so real! I found out so
many things about a few of my ancestors that I didn't know before.
Family History is definitely something worth checking out if you
haven't already!

Sacrament meeting yesterday was really neat! Elder Flora, Elder
McCleary, and Elder Casares all gave talks. They did such a great job
and I learned a lot from hearing them speak to the ward. I love my
district and am so blessed to be serving with some great missionaries!
I was also able to do a musical number during sacrament meeting. I
always love when I have the opportunity to play in sacrament meeting.

Update on Richard & Renanta: They are absolutely loving the gospel! I
can't believe how prepared they are to accept and keep commitments.
They are on date to be baptized on March 4 and are so excited to
prepare for that day. I love them so much! It is truly incredible to
be able to watch the gospel literally change people's lives!

That's about it for this week! I love you all and keep you in my prayers :)

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Snell

Creative Subject line

January 23, 2017

Wow, time flies when you're having fun! Also when you are a
missionary! Friday was my 6 month mark! Crazy, right?

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!!!!!!!! The most amazing woman I
know is officially one year older as of yesterday! WOW! Incredible
stuff! Thanks Mom for being such an amazing mom, homework editor,
personal nurse, financial aide, life counselor, example, teacher, and
friend. I love you and look up to you so much!

Church yesterday was amazing! Richard and Renanta came! We had 18
people in Gospel Principles class! That is a TON compared to the 4 or
5 we have had in there for the past month. Richard had a lot of
excellent questions and made some really nice comments in the class.
They are the coolest! I am so excited for them to continue to progress
in the gospel. Richard told me after church that he feels that he has
finally begun to find a part of him that has been missing for a long
time. Renanta said she absolutely loved church as well! The spirit was
so strong in church and they can't wait to come back next week!

The weather out here has been really weird this week. It has rained a
lot. Yesterday morning there was super thick fog. Today has been
extremely windy (about 50mph)! Long Island weather definitely keeps it
interesting!

Transfer calls were this morning which means transfers are tomorrow!
Elder Snell is..............................................................................................................................................................................IN!
Yup! I will be in Plainview for at least 6 more weeks! Yay! I love
Plainview so much :)

Brother Margiotta was released as our ward mission leader yesterday.
He has been in that position for a few years now. It is sad that he
won't be our ward mission leader anymore. However, the new one is
AWESOME! His name is Brother Hallaran. He is an older guy and is
hilarious! I am pretty excited to start kicking things into gear with
him.

That's pretty much it for this week! I love you all! Have a fantastic week.

Jacob 4:6

Elder Snell


Brother Margiotta

Brother Margiotta

Centerport, NY

Elders and Sisters in a Car...

A semi fell off the side of the Freeway onramp while we were on our way to Queens.

Elmo's Adventures by Elder Perry

All That Glitters is Gold and Snow

Hi, Friends! :)

I would like to start off this email by apologizing that I was not
able to write an email last week. We got super busy all of a sudden
and I didn't have time to write one.

Anyway, here are the highlights from the past little bit:

1) Snow! Finally! It snowed a whole 4-6 inches last Saturday! It
really wasn't that much, but it was the most we have seen so far. The
roads got a little rough, so President asked that we not drive for the
day starting at noon. So, we braved the blizzard on foot! It was
pretty fun, actually! We decided to walk to the closest person we were
teaching: a super kind less-active lady who lived about 2 miles away.
Along the way, I made a snow angel in the middle of the highway, and
Elder Flora lost his tablet... pretty exciting stuff. We looked for
his tablet for about 45 minutes, but were never able to find it.
That's really the only notable thing about last week.

2) Traffic! Wow! That was the worst traffic I have ever been in! On
Wednesday, we had to go to the mission office in Queens at 4. Rush
Hour on Long Island starts at 3pm and goes until about 7 or 8pm.
Crazy! We left the mission office at 5. What usually is a 45 minute
drive turned into a 2.5 almost 3 hour drive. I asked my GPS for a
detour to stay off the Long Island Expressway, and it took off one
hour by taking us through Flushing. That is an interesting place! All
road signs, bill boards, etc. are written in Korean and Chinese. Not a
single word in English! It was pretty fun!

3) Zone Training Meeting! I always enjoy Zone Training Meeting! This
one was fun because I was asked to give a workshop to the zone about
Repentance and Everyday Missionary Work. Elder Perry was supposed to
give it, but he got sick and asked me if I could do it. It was a good
experience!

4) GOLD! Pure Golden Investigators! Richard and Renanata are a
self-referral from Mormon.org. So, here is how they were found. Both
of Richard's bosses are Mormon, so he knew a little about the Church
but not too much. One of his bosses is actually in our ward! So,
Richard and his girlfriend, Renanta, moved here from Flordia. On their
way here, they drove past the Washington D.C. temple and Richard felt
that he should stop and check it out. They went into the visitor's
center and they both loved what they were learning, but they still had
a bunch of questions. They requested to meet with missionaries to
learn more. So, yesterday, we went to their house. Turns out that they
live in the same apartment complex and Brother and Sister Rivas! So,
we brought the Rivas's with us to our lesson. It was THE MOST
spiritual lesson I have ever been apart of! They agreed to be baptized
and were more than excited to start reading the Book of Mormon. They
also expressed that they knew we were an answer to their prayers. They
are so amazing!

That's about it for this week! I love you all! The Church is true! I
love this Gospel!

Elder Snell




I found this whilst knocking





Brother and Sister Verde's Dog




Irma and her magnificent desserts!



Here is me inside of the thorn bushes from a couple weeks ago.





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Every Rose Has Its Thorns

Happy New Year, Everyone!

This week was really great :) We found a super awesome new investigator on Tuesday! Before we started knocking, we prayed and asked Heavenly Father if we could have an experience that would help increase our faith to find those He has been preparing to receive the Gospel. We knocked on her door and she let us right in because "we aren't Jehovah's Witnesses". Her name is Christine, and she is super funny! Her's was the first door we knocked on that night and we ended up talking with her for about an hour and a half or so. She absolutely loves Jesus Christ and said she posts stuff about Him on Facebook all the time. We shared the message of the Restoration with her and she thought it was really interesting. At the end, she asked what the book was that I was holding in my hand. She recognized it as "the Mormon's Bible", and was really curious about it because she had never gotten to read it before. We said she could have it, and she then invited herself to read it and pray about it. She also said that she will have to pray about there being a living prophet on the Earth today! Christine is definitely going to get baptized and do some real good in the Church! We were about to leave when she brought up her neighbor across the street. She told us that we were an answer to her prayers. Her neighbor is have a really hard time in her life right now dealing with some marriage struggles and Christine has been trying to share the light of Christ with her for some time now. She came to the conclusion that she was not going to be able to get to her, and that God sent us to get through to her. This week we are going over to the neighbor's house with Christine! It will be awesome! Christine also said that she wants to come to our church this coming Sunday! I am stoked!

So, on Saturday we went and did some service. This service consisted of walking into a forest preserve and taking very large loppers and cutting down very large thorn bushes/trees. In order for this to work best, we had to cut them from the base of the plant. They didn't inform us beforehand as to what we were going to be doing that day, so I was wearing my regular service attire: shorts and a T-Shirt. Turns out that they needed someone to climb inside of the bushes in order to cut the base. No one wanted to do it really, so I volunteered to be the one to climb inside the thorn bushes. To make a long story short: most of the bushes are no longer living, but they did put up quite the fight! (Picture attached below) 

We didn't really get to do too much for New Year's. As a mission, we all had to be back in our apartments by 6:00pm. We were able to teach a few lessons before then, so that was good! We bought some lemon cake and apple cider and went over to Gary's house for a little bit before we had to get home. It was fun! We spent all of New Year's Day knocking and doing other methods of finding.

That's about it for this week! I hope you all had an amazing week. I am so grateful for the Christmas season. I love the feeling it brings and the sense of love everyone has for each other and for our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives! Even though Christmas is over, we can still serve others and celebrate His birth. Christ is the reason for the season and my reason to keep on going every day all year! 

Love you all!

Elder Snell

Twinner Ties- Elder Snell & Elder Rhodes

Attacked by the Rose Bush