This is the Season Beloved of the Year

Merry Christmas Christmas Christmas Christmas!!!!!!!!

Today is so good! I love Christmas! I hope you are all enjoying your beautiful day celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love my Savior! This truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

This week was super crazy! As usual haha. Transfers were on Tuesday, so I said goodbye to Elder Pratt and said hello to.............  Elder Lee!!!!!! Elder Lee was my district leader for my last two transfers in Astoria so we already knew each other and are getting along super great! I loved him as my district leader and I love him even more as my companion! :) this is going to be a phenomenal transfer! I am so pumped!

Something that seemed to be kind of a theme for me this week was noticing how the gospel can uplift and inspire others with even the smallest of exposure to it. We went knocking the other night trying to share the #LightTheWorld video. Not a whole lot came out of the night in the sense of finding new investigators. However, I grew personally from that night of knocking doors. I have three small stories to tell from that night :) The first person that changed me a bit was Dr. Stephens. It was 6:00 - 7:30 that we were knocking. It gets super dark here by4:30, and people get really scared when their doorbell rings after dark. Well, Dr. Stephens was no exception. We rang her doorbell and waited for a bit. After a minute or so, we heard a very cautious voice ask who it was. We kindly introduced ourselves through the door and she opened it just a crack. However, she refused to open the huge metal screen door haha. She seemed extremely nervous and said that we scared her half to death. We apologized and tried to share our video with her. Dr. Stephens, still really skeptical of us, refused to watch the video and started to leave. I can’t remember specifically what I said, but I asked her a question that instantly stopped her from leaving. She then began to talk about her family and what they meant to her. That topic led into her belief in Christ and the love she has for Him. We ended up talking with her on her doorstep for about 30 minutes. By the end of our conversation, she told us that she was having a hard time recovering from a surgery and was losing hope and that God sent us to her to show her the light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Stephens said we could come by again at any time. It was such a special experience for me to see the light of the gospel touch her heart and brighten her life for the day.

The next door we knocked on that night was Annie’s. Annie is a college student who moved here to Brooklyn on her own. Her family is back in her home country, so she would be spending the holidays alone. We knocked on her door, told her we were sharing an uplifting Christmas video, and pressed play. As Annie was watching, I could see something change in her eyes and on her face. She started to smile, and when the video ended I asked her what she felt. Annie told us that she felt so inspired and uplifted and determined to serve others just as Christ did this Christmas season. I left that conversation knowing that the gospel had touched her life in a simple, yet profound way that will bless her life :)

The last one for that night of knocking happened immediately after talking with Annie. Elder Lee and I were walking toward the next house as a woman with some Christmas gifts in her bag was passing us on the sidewalk. I forgot my glasses that night and it was super dark. I couldn’t tell for certain, but I was pretty sure it was one of our current investigators, Angel! So, I greeted the woman with enthusiasm and excitement as if I already knew her. It turned out now to be Angel, but the woman was somewhat curious at how happy I was to see her haha! She agreed to watch our video :) at the end of it, she said she felt really inspired and determined to do her best to serve others. She is from Haiti, so told her we have Haitian Creole translators at our church. She was super excited about that and instantly wanted to learn more about our church! After talking more about it, she said she will definitely come visit our church some day! 

Christmas Eve was phenomenal! Church was the best! The program was laid out like Music and the Spoken Word. Brother Kelly would read a snippet of the Christmas nativity story and then there would be a musical number. There were 8 musical numbers in total! It was amazing! Our ward is a little short on accompanists and somehow the word got spread around the members that I played the piano. So, I got to play the piano for 4 musical numbers yesterday! It was very special to be able to fill the chapel with the sweet feeling of Christmas music praising our Savior and Father in Heaven! I love Christmas! Also, our investigator, Jessica, came to church for the first time yesterday! She is doing really really well! She is reading the Book of Mormon on her own and praying every single night! What’s also crazy is that our ward mission leader knows Jessica from work! Instant fellowshipper! YES!!

Yesterday, we were walking down the street and both felt that there was somewhere we were needed. We said a quick prayer and asked where it was we needed to go. Elder Lee asked me if there was anyone who might be alone tonight (Christmas Eve) that we could go visit. The first person that came to my mind was Sister Tisch. She is a widow and has no family here to be with her. I looked up here address and a miracle happened! We were standing right outside of her apartment building! We ran up to her room on the 7th floor. Sister Tisch was super happy too see us. We sat down with her and sang Christmas songs and watched a talk from the First Presidency Christmas devotional. She called us this morning (Christmas Day) and thanked us for the blessing we were to her last night. She said she was feeling kind of down without actually celebrating Christmas with anyone, and that our songs filled her home with the Spirit. I am so grateful to God for sending us there last night! It is so neat to see how God can use us as his instruments for blessing the lives of others. Heavenly Father is so amazing and really really really loves each and every one of His children! God is so good!

Our investigators are making great strides in their progression! Jose is consistently hitting his goal for the Word of Wisdom and has had a couple days of not breaking it once! I am so proud of him! 

Last thing, I promise! Hahaha #LightTheZone is now finished and has made the biggest difference in our zone! The difference between when I first got here and now is night and day! I see and feel the spirit with each of the missionaries here and can feel the Christlike love they have for each other and for all people. I am so grateful for the Spirit that has touched the missionaries’ hearts as they have served each other and others and have opened their hearts to the love of the gospel! What an incredible experience this has been to be able to see the change here in Zone 2! God is so good! 

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas! I love you all!

Merry Christmas!  

Elder Snell

Gotta just love the Christmas decorations you find here in the Brooklyn projects! Hahaha :)

If You Give A Russian Cat Lady A Wheelchair

DECEMBER 18, 2017

Hey, Friends! :)

Just in case I forget to say it next week............

  ⭐️    MERRY CHRISTMAS   ⭐️    

This week has been super crazy! I will start out by telling you about our investigator, Irina. 

Irina is from Russia and has been living here in New York for around 10 years. She is pretty good friends with our Russian recent convert, Valerii, and his wife, Galina. Galina and Valerii pick up Irina every week and bring her to church. Irina is an older woman and is bound to a wheelchair. So, each week, Irina comes rolling into the chapel in her electric wheelchair and starts talking with everybody there in her super thick Russian accent! I love it! Irina is also a huge cat lover! It is kind of ridiculous how much she loves cats. Last week, we were in Gospel Principles class and realized that Irina had left and didn’t come back for a long while. Elder Pratt and I decided to go search for her. After looking around for almost 15 minutes, we ran outside to find Irina strategically placing small dishes of cat food around the premises of the church for all the stray cats to eat!!!! She then took it upon herself to talk with the bishop about making sure that all the cats around the church are getting properly fed so they don’t starve and die. It was pretty hilarious! Despite Irina’s insane love for stray cats, she is a pretty solid investigator and has a lot of faith. We met with her earlier last week and taught her the restoration. She doesn’t completely understand English, so Valerii and Galina had to translate for us. However, Irina told us that she knows that the Book of Mormon and Church are true and that she really wants to be a member. We invited her to be baptized in February, and she got all upset that we wanted to do it that far away. So, we moved her date a little closer toward the end of January. She is really excited!

What made this week really weird was Elder Pratt being sick since Wednesday or Thursday. We have had to stay inside as much as possible for the last half of the week so Elder Pratt could get better. So, I have been acting as his nurse/mom for the past few days! It has been fun. I have also been on the phone all day since Thursday trying to have lessons over the phone with our investigators and set up all of our Bible drop off appointments for the coming week. It has been super crazy! Luckily, Elder Pratt is starting to get better. However, the sad thing is that transfers are tomorrow and Elder Pratt is leaving!!!! We only had 5 weeks together! Sad stuff. At least I can trust that the Lord knows what He is doing :)

Valerii gave his first talk in sacrament meeting yesterday! He wrote the entire thing himself and gave it in Russian. Sister Brown was there to translate for him. He share his conversion story of how he was the last member of his family to be baptized. It as really powerful! He also testified of the Plan of Salvation and taught it better than I ever could! I am super proud of him! He passed the sacrament for the first time last week! Valerii is becoming a really strong member of the Church! 

One last story: so, last week, we were on our way to visit a less-active that was referred to us by some missionaries over in Queens who supposedly ran into her on the street. While we were on our way there, we were walking down a dark road with about zero people on it. As we were walking, we heard someone start coming up behind us. Pretty soon, the person called out, “Hey, Elders!” That always surprises me! Anyway, we stop and turn around and there is a man running after us. His name is Kyon and has been a member of the church for a little more than 10 years. However, Kyon has been in-active for a long long time. He told us that he was thinking about trying to come back to church but never knew where to start. He was praying earlier that week that God would lead him in the right direction to be able to work on coming back to church and getting to the temple. Well, God definitely sent him and us down the right street that day. We started teaching Kyon regularly and are helping him get back to the temple! It is so neat to be able to witness God’s hand leading us in our lives. I know He lives and I love him with all my heart! 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas season! 

Elder Snell

Monday Dec 11, 2017

DECEMBER 11, 2017 (A letter to Mom, his mass email was a voice recording)

HI MOM!!!! :)

I hope you didn’t think I forgot you! :) hahaha I was in the middle of responding to your email. Hahaha I haven’t had the chance to write my mass email yet, because I wanted to write a ton of personal emails today first. 

Everything is going really well over here! No need to worry about all the terrorist attacks. There was a bombing over in Manhattan today... hopefully they don’t decided to hit the rest of NYC...

The Zone is getting much much better! Light the Zone is going great! The missionaries are loving it and are really catching the spirit of what we wanted to have happen with them :) they just seem to have more light in their eyes! It has been really fun to do simple little acts of charity for the missionaries here :) It is amazing to see how Heavenly Father turns one small little thing into a life-changing experience!

I love Elder Pratt! Speaking of Elder Pratt, here’s something that I just wrote to Elaina:

Life is good :) I am doing really really well. Elder Pratt has been having a super hard time being satisfied with his mission. He goes home in 4 months. He has some depression he is working through and goes to the doctor for each week. Saturday morning, we sat down for personal study, and Elder Pratt seemed just super down. I asked him what was up and he just broke down in tears. I spent the next couple hours trying to comfort him and give him hope. Wow, does Heavenly Father love my companion! The Spirit gave me some very specific things to say to Elder Pratt and brought to my memory some things I had been studying a few days earlier. I talked with Elder Pratt about Jesus Christ’s Atonement and how it isn’t just something He did for our investigators and members, but it was something for everyone including ourselves. Jesus Christ has the power to take away the sting of any mistake and any wrong choice and any trial. After our two hour talk full of tons and tons of tears, I hugged Elder Pratt like I imagined the Savior would hug him if He were here talking with Elder Pratt. I certainly know that Heavenly Father loves his children. After that, we hit the streets with our iPads ablaze with #LightTheWorld. Our entire day was unbelievably successful! We found 5 new investigators that day and had 6 super solid lessons (3 of which were with our top priority investigators). It was an amazing day that I know was given to us straight from Heaven. When we got home that night, we laid on our new rug and talked for a long time about everything. Elder Pratt helped me with some things I have been worried about as well. It was much needed for both of us :) it amazes me how well Heavenly Father can orchestrate our lives and put us with the right people right when we need to be with them. I have such a deep love for Elder Pratt because of the things we have experienced together. I am so grateful for everything we have been blessed with! :) 

There is a really good pianist here in this ward, so that is good! I really do love playing the organ though! I played it for our Christmas MegaZone conference on Friday. It was way too fun :)

Lexie sounds like she is running herself all over the place! Hahahahaha I really enjoyed always having places to be, though, so I can see why she would want to do it :) Love you!

Thanks for all the updates and pictures!  I like that they decided to go to Pond’s Park where I had pictures taken for Prom Junior year! Super cute! :) :) :) 

I love you, Mom! Have the most amazing week! :)

Elder Snell

Elder Snell, Meet Elder Snell and Elder Snell and Elder Snell

December 4, 2017

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!  

AHHHH!!! I love this time of year so much!!!!! It is such a great time to be a missionary!!!! So neat :) 

The past few weeks have been super super crazy! We have been just swamped with things to do. I love it! However, there is no way I am going to be able to put it all into an email haha

 Elder Pratt and I have been putting a lot more focus and effort into helping the zone this week. Since I got here, I have felt a super weird vibe in the zone. It feels kind of cold between all the missionaries here. There’s a sort of disconnect between everyone. It’s really weird! No body really trusts each other. There is a lot of judgment and lack of trust. So, Elder Pratt and I have been trying to think of ways to help the missionaries be filled with Charity for each other in hopes to unify the zone and stop the weird judgement stuff haha. We brain-stormed for a little bit and came up with an idea that is already making a HUGE difference! As you should all know, #LightTheWorld is up a running :) Elder Pratt and I have made a little spin off of it for our zone called #LightTheZone! Each day of December we have a little activity for the missionaries in our zone to do in order to low-key help them develop charity. Today was “take crazy selfies with each companionship in your district. Best picture wins!” A couple days ago was, “play rock, paper, scissors with each missionary you run into today”. We have also had, “fist-bump everyone today” and “today, write a letter for your district leader or someone who needs their day brightened a little”. We’ve only been doing it for 4 days now, but it has completely changed the feeling of this Zone 100%!!! God is so good! :) I can feel a difference in the way the missionaries here feel about missionary work now :) I love Christmas!!!

Fun stories for the week: So, we were dropping off a Bible to a very kind woman in a very crusty apartment building. We were in the middle of teacher her the Restoration of the gospel when, all of a sudden, a fire truck comes speeding up to the building, lights flashing and siren wailing! An entire team of firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics come rushing into the building! One of them asked me if I had called them and I said nope. So they all ran upstairs as fast as they could! After a few minutes, they casually came walking down the stairs and waved goodbye to me hahaha. False alarm, I guess!

Next story! So, we were doing another Bible drop off to a man named Edward. Edward is a very interesting individual hahaha. He says he is a retired Catholic Priest who served in the Vietnam war. He is very short, smokes, and has 3 really nasty looking dogs. Anyway, we went to his house to give him a Bible which he requested, and he invited us in! Apartments here are super super tiny. He had stuff stacked floor to ceiling in his super small apartment (which was THICK with smoke) with 3 dogs. All three of us stood in his 4-4 foot kitchen while Edward took the reins on the conversation. He proceeds to talk about how we are polygamists and how we follow an earthly law. It was actually kind of funny haha. While he spoke, he lit cigarette after cigarette. At one point, while he was telling us a story, Edward grabbed Elder Pratt’s arm and proceeded to rub his face all over Elder Pratt’s shoulder!! I was dying! Elder Pratt looked like he was going to punch Edward in the face. I am glad he didn’t! Hahahaha we didn’t get to share all that much with Edward, but as we were leaving he said that our conversation with him was one of the best conversations he has had in a long time. He told us that we made his day and really lifted his spirits :) It makes me happy to be able to help brighten people’s days :)

Well, we have to get going to a lesson right now, so I am going to have to cut this off here. 

I love you all!!!!! See how many smiles you can make this week :)

Elder Snell

Elder Pratt and I found this super Jewish neighborhood! They had a giant sculpture of a Dreidel! Fun stuff!

Christmas TREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!

District Selfie!

Willkommen to Das Shtick Department

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!  

Wow, this week has been super super crazy! We had transfers on Tuesday, and I was transferred over to Midwood, Brooklyn. It was really hard to say goodbye to Queens and all the people there I have grown to love. I have never been really good with goodbye’s... but hey, I guess I am getting some more practice? Still hard though :)

Well, Brooklyn has proved to be a very interesting place so far! Haha The people here are very different than what I am used to. We are constantly surrounded by people from the Caribbean islands, Haiti, Africa, the West Indies, Russia, and a whole lot of Hasidic Jewish people. Lots of fun getting to know people from all over the world! Oh! I almost forgot! My new companion is Elder Pratt! He is from Springville, Utah and has been on his mission for 20 months. He and I have been getting along super well! I am really excited for this transfer!

Sorry for not sending out a mass email for the past little bit. Hopefully I can get better at doing that. So I guess I will update you on the last two weeks of being here in Brooklyn!

We have been running all over the place with lessons!!! I don’t know what it is, but we get at least 3 Bible requests every day here! Our schedule is packed with going from place to place, dropping of Bibles, and teaching those Bible referrals. It has been really helpful in building our teaching pool! Almost all of our investigators who we are consistently teaching have come from ordering a free Bible on Mormon.org! It is fantastic! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving on Thursday! Ours was pretty great! We were allowed to have a zone activity in the morning and had a couple dinner appointments later on. For our activity, we just all gathered at the church and played some games. It was a blast getting to know my new zone and becoming friends with the missionaries over here :) For dinner, we went to the Miller’s house. Wow, Sister Miller make some great food!!!!! They are both a little older and had their son’s family over for dinner as well. It was lots of fun and super tasty! 

Well, there wasn’t really anything else out of the ordinary that happened this week. Actually, I will tell you a little bit about Jose! He is one of our investigators who we meet with 2-3 times a week. Jose has one of the most pure hearts I have ever come across! He is so sweet and always thinking of others. Jose is just all around a pretty fantastic and Christlike guy. He is a little bit of a slow learner and doesn’t always remember everything we teach him, so we have been teaching him only one principle of the lessons each time we visit. It is super fun teaching him because he gets really excited and happy over each new thing we teach him. Because he doesn’t have the best memory, we sometimes get to teach him the same thing two visits in a row and he gets just as excited about the new things he is learning the second time as he did the first :) it makes me happy seeing him get really excited about the gospel over and over again! This week, we taught him about our pre-mortal life and how we used to live with our Father in Heaven as spirits before coming to Earth. He never knew that we used to life with God and that we are His literal spirit children. When we taught it to him, the spirit filled the little hallway we were sitting in as Jose started tearing up and just saying, “Wow...I never knew that before. I feel so special”. The next lesson, we reviewed what we taught him about our pre-mortal life and he didn’t remember. So, we taught him again where he came from and who his Heavenly Father is, and again the spirit was tangible as Jose stood in amazement and marveled at the fact that he is a child of God saying, “Wow, I never knew that before. I feel so special”. Jose has helped me better appreciate the knowledge that we have of our divine nature and of the basic principles of the gospel. Just like Jose, I feel so special to be able to say that I am a child of God :) 

It’s little moments like those with Jose where I am reminded why I am out here. I am so grateful for the thousands of tender mercies and miracles I have experienced on my mission. Each and every day brings me close to the Savior. I can’t express how much I love this work and how grateful I am for our Heavenly Father and our Savior. 

I love you all and am thankful for each and every one of you! 

Elder Snell

P.S. Elder Pratt and I were riding the bus the other day and saw an huge poster on a building that said “Shtick Dept.”. We decided that it was a German man who was trying to sell his stick collection, so we have been speaking in a German accent all week trying to get each other to purchase our vast collection of sticks of various shapes and sizes  I think it is hilarious!

Pictures!!! (+ video)

1) My new area boundaries

2) Domino’s employees are very protected here in Brooklyn!

3-5) It’s not Halloween nor is there a comic-con anywhere nearby; they just wanted to dress up today I guess :)

6) Video

7) This is a map of all the different ethnicities here in my mission! It is insane! I love it!

Welcome to New York!

11.20.17

Hi, Family!!!! :) :) :) Welcome to my home!

First off, I checked out your itinerary, and I am super jealous that you are getting to do all the stuff I have been dying to do since I got here!! You are going to have tons of fun! Man, I miss band trips hahaha

Anyway, where are you at? Did you land at the LaGuardia or JFK airport? Both of which are in my mission, btw ;) hahaha but I am sure you already knew that. Last week, both airports were actually in my area! Mom asked me about the possibility of coming over to the mission office? You are more than welcome to do that! Hahaha that would be sweet! Not sure if President Reynolds will be there today, but the office missionaries and the senior couples will definitely be there. Just don’t take a cab there from Manhattan!!!! That would be mad expensive! If you are going to try to get there, the best route would definitely be by subway (it’s the cheapest and probably the fastest due to traffic). Or you could take the Long Island Railroad from Penn Station over to Woodside ($20 round trip...), then take the subway over to the mission office. If you need to know what trains to take, let me know hahaha :) Regular subway is the cheapest! You can just get on the R train (Queens bound) at Times Square and go straight to Woodhaven Blvd. in Elmhurst, Queens. No transfers or anything :) 

If they give you any time for lunch or dinner on your own, you definitely need to go get some real pizza! ;) hahahaha just go to any hole-in-wall looking place. They will have the best pizza :) any of the suggested pizza places they gave to you should be great! As long as it is the kind where they have all the pizza laid out for you to look at, you pick one, and they put it in the oven for you right then! Those kind are the best! Also, go to a NY deli! They are super super good! Most NY Hero sandwiches are phenomenal :) 

So, what are your plans for today? Guess what?!? So, Elder Pratt was supposed to have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow in Manhattan around where you are going to be!! But, the doctor asked if we could schedule it for next week instead.... oh well! Hahaha probably for the best ;) it would’ve super crazy to run into a bunch of Davis Band kids, though hahaha. Let me know what you are up to for the day!!

It is still super crazy to think you are literally just a 30-45 minute train ride away from me! Just on the other side of the river! When you go on your Statue of Liberty cruise you will be able to see Brooklyn :) so, you can wave and say, “Hello, Elder Snell!!!” I won’t be able to hear you, but that is okay hahaha I am in the very center of Brooklyn and cover down to the bottom edge of it. 

OH!!!!! Go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE that temple! :) :) :) so cool how when you walk inside, it becomes silent! The temple is on one of the busiest streets over there, but when you walk inside, you can’t hear a thing going on outside! So sweet! Just take the 1 train (uptown bound) from Times Square up to Lincoln Center plaza :) It’s just like 3 stops or so :) the temple is right next to the subway station, so you can’t miss it :)

Wow! This is so cool that you are here! Still super jealous that I can’t come with you, but that is okay! We will have to do it all again after my mission ;) hahaha 

I love you all! Have so much fun here in NYC! Email me if you need anything :) love you tons and tons! Take lots of pictures for me!

Elder Snell

P.S. Be sure to always have some cash on you. Most pizza places/deli’s are cash only... some accept card though with a minimum of $10 or something like that :)

P.P.S. Please be careful in Times Square! There have been quite a few terrorist attacks over the past couple months in Times Square. If you see any sketchy looking vehicles, get out of the way :) some terrorists have mowed over and killed a number of people very recently on two different occasions... Also, there are a lot of nude protestors and nude “street performers” in Times Square... please be careful :)

P.P.P.S. If you really want to, I could give you Sister Reynold’s number and you could text her to see what they are up to today. Just if you wanted to meet them :) 

Love you!  Have a great time! Hope to hear back from you :)

Got Glasses!!!! Mommy letter

11.13.17

Hello from Queens, New York!!!

Hi Mommy! My glasses are very nice! Definitely helping with the headaches! I originally had the progressive bifocals, but they were not helping at all hahaha so I went in and was reevaluated by a more experienced doctor. He said that the other doctor messed up on my prescription. So, he increased the strength of my glasses and did away with the bifocals, thank goodness! Hahaha the Doctor told me that my case is very common in college students who have to read a lot. As they read things close up for an extended period of time, they become near-sided due to the muscle on their lens losing strength from being strained so much. So, basically, I have ruined my eyesight by studying the scriptures! Hahahaha I think that is awesome! I also have a small stigmatism in my left eye. So my left eye has -1.00 and my right has -0.75. They are a little strong for now, but the doctor said that he was shooting for me being able to keep these glasses for years and years without having to get them updated. So, my eyes will adjust to them :) I am really enjoying being able to see far away again hahaha :) I will put some pictures at the bottom :)

I am so happy that you are doing well with your lip. Those pictures look very painful and sad.... I can’t wait until you get to smile again! 

So, transfers are actually tomorrow. I am being transferred to Brooklyn! Next transfer will be a 5 week transfer and the one after that will be 7 weeks. Usually they are every 6 weeks :) 

I am super excited for you to come to NY next week!!!!!! You are going to have tons of fun! I was thinking of getting a giant flag and standing at the edge of the East River and waving it to you hahahaha I doubt I will be able to do that though haha. It will probably be weird for you looking at my mission from the other side of the river though! :) take lots of pictures :) Go exploring! Use Google Maps! Go to Serendipity Ice Cream Parlor! Central Park is a blast! Usually there are a lot of street performers there :) 

Things are going really well with Elder Fausett and I! I have learned a ton from him! It was a good 2 transfers with him :) It was really nice to stay with someone for more than one transfer Hahahaha.

I love you Mom!