Hello, Everyone! :)
I guess I should start this week’s email by apologizing to those who were led to imagine what terrible things could have happened to me that would cause me to not be able to write you all an email last week. My Mom has “rebuked” me and I have repented!
This week was super busy, fairly long, and flat-out fantastic (and insane)! We had two exchanges this week; one with Elder Meliza and Elder Bodily, and one with Elder Weisler (one of the Assistants). My exchange with Elder Bodily has easily got to be my favorite exchange I have been on. Elder Bodily has been in the mission field for 5 weeks now and is killing it! He is extremely intelligent and very fun to be around. Well, to start out our exchange, we had planned to go visit a few of our less-actives we are working with. We started out with visiting Nelly, a convert as of two years who had a minor issue with keeping a commandment and got offended when the bishop asked to talk with her and counseled with her about how she can start keeping the commandment. Her being offended led to her not wanting anything to do with the Church for a while. However, she is somewhat close to coming back again! So there is still hope! :) Anyway, she was the only one home, so she grabbed a chair from inside and sat right inside the door while Elder Bodily and I had a lesson with her from standing outside. Nelly said that she will try to make it to church soon, so that is pretty good.
After we finished with Nelly, I had the impression that I needed to take Elder Bodily knocking (which, sadly, is something not too many missionaries do in the city...). I had him chose a less-active we could look up and then we would knock their street. The less-active sadly wasn’t home, but I knew that is not what the Lord had brought us to that location for. As we left the front porch, I made my way over to the next house. Elder Bodily asked me what I was doing and if I knew who lived there. Apparently, he hadn’t had the chance to do any finding yet! I got super excited and super determined to help Elder Bodily have some really incredible experiences that day. He didn’t feel comfortable doing the first door, so I told him I would go first :) No body answered the door. We moved on to the next. As we were walking up to the door, some 6 year old kids passed us riding some scooters. Not entirely sure why, but I yelled after them and asked if they lived in the first house we knocked. To my surprise, they said yes! I asked if they could run inside and get their mom for us. The little kids happily ran inside and sent their mom out to talk with us. The mom came out and we had a wonderful conversation with her where we were able to teach her the message of the Restoration. She was excited to be able to read the Book of Mormon and said she will definitely ask her husband if we can come over again for another lesson. After we set a return appointment and said a prayer with her, we walked on to the next house. It was Elder Bodily’s turn. He asked me if how the last door went was how knocking usually goes. I told him it wasn’t the most common thing haha :) Well, he nervously knocked on the door. No answer. We moved on to the next door. A kind looking lady in her lower 30s came to the door. Elder Bodily introduced himself to which the lady responded, “Ah, No! I’m an Atheist”, then slammed the door. Elder Bodily came down from the steps and jokingly I said, “that’s more like how it usually goes.” He thought it was funny and was super excited to get the next one! He confidently walked up to the third door for the day and knocked. A 15 year old girl came to the door and they started to have a conversation. As they were talking, the rest of the girl’s family came home from a walk. We now had the attention of a church-going family of 5! I got excited! They were fantastic! We ended up talking with them for a good hour and a half. They asked us what set our church apart from the other churches around the area. As we shared the message of the Restoration, the spirit definitely touched their hearts and they loved what we had to share with them. Elder Bodily had never taught the restoration yet in the field, so he was really excited about it! He did such an incredible job! If he wasn’t there, we definitely would not have found this wonderful family! I got their phone numbers and set up a return appointment. They also said that they would love to come to church with us someday! Heavenly Father led us to find 7 new investigators that day including a new investigators for Elder Bodily and Elder Meliza’s Spanish pool. I am so grateful for the guidance the Lord gives us in doing His work! As you give yourself to Him, He really does use us as an instrument in His hands!
There have been a ton of other incredible things that have happened over the past week. Our new investigator, Mario, has now been to church 6 times! He was invited to church by his friend in the ward, Gabby, and we now have been able to teach him about the restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon. Mario also expressed that he feels an incredible and noticeable difference in his life as a result of coming to church regularly! I wish all members understood the impact they can make on their friends and their ward just by inviting them to learn about the gospel.
One last event this week: Mikee and Happy have been experiencing a lot of adversity from their Mom at home. Yesterday, there was a baptism in the family ward that they really wanted Jacob to be able to see. They asked their mom if they could bring him. She said absolutely not, which started a heated argument. It escalated to the point of the Mom kicking Happy and Mikee out of the house. Mikee and Happy then packed their bags and got ready to live who knows where... Jacob really wanted to come to church and is really upset with his mom for not letting him go, so he decided to pack up his bags as well and leave with his older sisters. We were still at church for the family ward when we got a text from the YSA sisters saying they needed us ASAP. We ran out of church to go help Happy, Mikee, and Jacob. They stayed at the church for some time, watched the baptism, went with some members to a post-baptism BBQ, and eventually we convinced them that they need to go home and make things right with their mom. It was a crazy day full of confusion and lots of emotions from everyone. When they got home, their mom apologized for causing them to have a split family and for kicking them out. From what we have heard from Mikee, everything is okay for now. Keep them in your prayers, though! They definitely need the strength to mend their family bonds :) Heavenly Father definitely had His hand in the situation that day, though! When Mikee, Happy, and Jacob finally when home, their Mom wasn’t home. She had decided to go cool off around the city and texted the girls saying she was sorry.
Lots of miracles this week, that’s for sure! Sadly, we will be taking a break with teaching Jacob for a little bit just to prevent any more blow ups within their family. I have full confidence that Heavenly Father will continue to prepare their Mom’s heart for the gospel.
I love you all and hope you have had an amazing couple of week! Let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you :) Have a good one!
Elder Snell
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