What Can We Learn From Alma and Amulek?

June 26, 2017

Happy Summer, Everyone!

I know that most of you who read this email are like, "Why is he talking as if Summer just started, it has been going on since the beginning of June..." Well, let me resolve your concerns :) This week was graduation here in New York. Literally everyone graduated. Everyone. I am not entirely sure why, but the school system here helps everyone celebrate the graduation of every grade. On the last day of school, there were 2nd graders, 5th graders, Juniors in High School, etc. all over the place, and they all were wearing caps and gowns! I definitely agree that advancing to the next grade is important and an accomplishment, but every grade had their own graduation with caps,  gowns, diplomas, huge luncheons, and everything! hahaha It was a party, for sure!

Anyway, with all of that being said, it brings me to my next topic of discusison. The beginning of this week was a little frustrating for me... It seemed that no matter who we talked to or where we went, absolutely no body would talk with us. I was getting a little disheartened. However, on Wednesday I was studying in the Book of Mormon in Alma. It was talking about how Alma and Amulek were preaching to people on the hill Onidah. The people he was talking to were a very hardhearted people and didn't really care much about what Alma had to say. In fact, a lot of them started trying to prove him wrong and make him second-guess himself. He and Amulek were cast out of synagogues, houses, and rejected on the streets. However, they never diminished their faith that the Lord was preparing the hearts of His children in their area. As they were preaching on the hill Onidah, a large multitude of poor people came to them. Alma then teaches them about growing their faith and acting on it. Many were converted to the gospel as a result of Alma and Amulek's testifying of the Savior. After my morning studies, I felt a renewed faith that there really are people out thee who are ready for the message we share. We set out at 10:00am to bring someone a Bible they requested. On the train ride there, we didn't hesitate at all to start conversations with those around us. Within the 45 minutes of travel, we were able to be led to find 3 new investigators! Heavenly Father is SO mindful of His children! There were too many "circumstances" that morning for them to just be circumstances. One woman I was able to talk with actually talked to me first. She asked if we were students here and was very surprised (almost excited) to find that we were missionaries. She loves God and Jesus Christ and attends the Rock Church (a church by the mall that performs heavy metal rock music for their worship services) every Sunday. We talked a lot about family and about Heavenly Father's plan for all of us. I was able to give her a Book of Mormon. However, when I asked if she could read a verse out of it, she exliained that she is 90% blind and can't read. So, I helped her download the Book of Mormon app on her iPhone! I am  so grateful for the technology Heavenly Father has blessed us with to further His work! Ginger (the super awesome blind woman I met on the train) is going out of town for a couple weeks, but is really excited to be able to meet with us when she returns! Heavenly Father is so good!

Recently, I have started praying for the gift of remembrance. I have found that during lessons, sharing personal experiences and using the sciptures to teach really bring the spirit and make a huge difference in how the lesson plays out. So, I have been praying to be able to remember experiences I have had in the past as well as to be able to recall scriptures I study. During lessons (especially this past week) I have had forgotten experiences pop up in my mind from my childhood, high school, mission, etc. that have had unbelievable relevance to the needs of the person we were teaching. I love missionary work!!! We were teaching our investigator, Charles, on Thursday. He had a lot of questions about his purpose in life as well as how he can develop the desire to change to become what God wants him to become. Throughout our entire conversation, different scriptures kept coming to my mind that I had briefly studied in the past. As we read them with Charles, I felt the spirit just flow out of the Book of Mormon as the scriptures answered the questions Charles has had for a long time. By the end of our lesson with him, Charles expressed how much love he felt from Heavenly Father for guiding us to scriptures that spoke directly to him. It was so neat to have Charles read a scripture and pause in the middle of reading and say, "That's me. It's talking about me!" Wow, I love the Book of Mormon! Charles determined right then that he wasn't going to let anything get in his way of reading the Book of Mormon everyday! We saw him yesterday, and he was super excited to tell us about Nephi's  vision of the tree of life! I love the Book of Mormon and I know that it is the word of God.

Continuing on my topic of being led by the Spirit: On Thursday night, we were at a complete loss of what we should do. Our lessons had cancelled and we didn't have the time to travel too far. So, Elder Afoa and I stopped on the sidewalk underneath some trees and prayed, asking Heavenly Father to please guide us where He needed us to be for the night. We both felt that we should knock doors for the rest of the night. So, we pulled up our AreaBook maps app and felt drawn to 81st street in Middle Village (just a couple blocks from our apartment). Once we got there, we prayed and felt that we were where we needed to be. So, we commenced some solid knocking! Well, actually, absolutely nothing happened for a good 30-45 minutes... Not a single person had answered the door yet. We were beginning to doubt if we were even where we needed to be. However, we relied on the answer we got from the Spirit to knock out the street. At the next house, we noticed there was a really old man sitting on the front porch of the house next door. We cautiously approached him (because most of the old people I have run into sitting on their porch have been extremely crabby...) and he very warmly invited us to sit down and talk with him for a bit! Our conversation was awesome!!!! His name is Paul, and he is as 71 year old Catholic. However, during our conversation, he expressed to us that he doesn't go to church anymore (except on Palm Sunday because "Palm" is his last name) because he believes that his church is not true. We testified to him of the restoration of Jesus Christ's gospel and shared with him the Book of Mormon. He was super excited that we gave him our Book of Mormon and thanked us kindly for the gift. We ended up talking with Paul about Jesus Christ, and church, and Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon, and prophets, for about an hour and a half. Sadly, he is moving to Florida at the end of July, but said we are more than welcome to stop by whenever we want. We ended our conversation with a prayer, felt the spirit very strongly, and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset! What a great end to a long and tiring day!

On Saturday night, we decided to go to Forrest Park to talk with people there. Lucky for us, we decided to go on a day where there was a Spanish quinceañera going on at night. There were hundreds of people all over the park!! Too many families to count! We had a hay-day talking with as many people as we could. We didn't find any new investigators there, but we planted plenty of great seeds. Some people we talked with have siblings and other relatives who are Mormon, so that was cool. Sadly, they weren't interested in learning more from us though. As we were going about talking with people at the park, we realized that we had scheduled with Naveen (one of our investigators) to FaceTime him. So, we found a quiet place in the park with a table, and were able to FaceTime him with our fancy new phones! It was really cool (and super productive) to be able to go immediately from finding to teaching a lesson without a minute of unproductive time in between. I am so grateful for the technology Heavenly Father has trusted us with to further His work!

I apologize for the insanely long email this week, but I just really wanted to share some of the cool things that happened this week. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ direct this work! They are so aware of all of our needs! I love being a part of helping others find their way to Christ, even if it is just giving them a card and bearing my testimony to them. I love being a missionary and I love this Gospel!

Have the most splendid of weeks and stay cool! Enjoy the rest of June!

Love you all!

Elder Snell

PICTURES:

1-6) Elder Afoa had some "ie" from Somoa, so we decided to put them on, along with our Mets jersies Sister Silvera gave us, and take some pictures! hahahaha

7) My district always sends me pictures of snails and tells me that they found my long lost uncle or something like that! I think it is hilarious! hahaha

8) This is a huge Catholic church we found while on our way to drop off a Book of Mormon and Bible to someone.

9) It is super hot outside, so last week on Preparation Day, we bought a watermelon! I'm not entirely sure why I felt the need to take a picture of it, but here you go :)

10-11) I guess they didn't have insulation? I don't know! hahaha Looks pretty cool though, right?

12) Graffiti of the week!

13-14) For all you jazz band geeks out there! I was just walkin' along, doin' the Lord's business. When Flash! Bam! Alakazam! I whipped out my phone and had to take a picture! (just for the record, I used absolutely no filter at all for that picture)

15-16) This is the garage door for the Glendale Fire Department, so I just had to take a picture with it! hahaha

From iPad Mini To Miniature iPad

June 19, 2017

Happy Father's Day!!

I want to start out by telling everyone how much I love and appreciate my Dad! He is always there to support me in anything that I am doing. My Dad has spent countless hours helping me and working with me in each and every thing I have been a part of. I can't thank him enough for everything he has done for me! I am especially grateful for his example to me and everyone of Christlike service. My Dad loves helping people and loves serving the Lord (Mosiah 2:17)! Happy Father's Day, Dad!!!! Love you!

This week, we had MegaZone Conference on Wednesday. It was amazing! This time around was a little different than most MegaZone Conferences. Each missionary here in the NYNYS mission was given a Samsung Galaxy J3! Crazy stuff! The Lord is definitely hastening His work! Most of MegaZone was about how we can use our new phones most effectively and setting up the phones. Along with our phones, each senior companion has a SIM card and 5 GB of data!!!! I have already seen the difference this is making in missionary work! Instead of asking people if they have a Facebook and then sending them a friend request when you get home or to the church, we can whip out our phones and send them a request and have them accept it right then! There have also been times where a certain scripture, video, or general conference talk would come to my mind that we could send to an investigator. In the past, I have often completely forgotten about the impression I had and wouldn't send the message. However, now that we have data, we can send those kind of messages literally anytime and anywhere!!! There is not a single minute that is unproductive with these phones. I love it!

The second thing I wanted to share from MegaZone Conference was what President Reynolds presented as "No Effort Is Wasted". He and the Assistants made a power point with the pictures of each recent convert who was baptized last transfer on their own slide. As each picture came up, President had everyone who had anything to do with the recent convert stand up (even if they had only taught them one lesson on an exchange, or if they found them, or if they said hello to them at church once). It was really eyeopening to see how much really goes into the conversion of God's children to the gospel. There were some recent converts who had a lot of missionaries standing for them. One of the pictures that came up was Chris and Nadia Keller. The love I felt for them and all the missionaries who stood with me is indescribable! There were so many missionaries who had a part in their conversion in the 6 years they were meeting with missionaries! The Lord works in mysterious ways and through a LOT of people! I am still baffled at the complexity of conversion. It is really incredible to think what actually goes into one being converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What is even more amazing is Heavenly Father's ability to keep track of it all! I am just so grateful to be a missionary and be a part (even if it is a small part) of someone's finding true and lasting happiness in the restored gospel of our Savior.

Update on Adrian: We finally heard from him on Wednesday after not being able to get in contact with him for almost 2 weeks! He called us and said he has been really busy with his new job and with finals for school. We were able to set an appointment with him for Saturday so we could help him start to resolve his concerns and solidify his testimony. We also had Brother and Sister Taylor say they wanted to come to our next lesson with Adrian. They are the best!! However, when Saturday came, Adrian didn't... It was dumping rain, so I am guessing that Adrian got called in to work some of his EMT magic. The sad thing is that we haven't heard from him yet! We have no clue what happened to him. We have been praying and fasting for almost 3 weeks now for him, and we haven't been able to meet with him at all. I guess I just need to trust in the Lord's timing and have faith that what needs to happen with Adrian will happen :)

We found a few new investigators this week who seem pretty cool! It has been a long week and a hot one (except when it rained all day Saturday. That was beautiful)! The work goes on!

I wish I had more exciting stuff to tell you all, but that is okay for now! I love you all and hope you have a magnificent week, or day, or month. It's up to you, really ;)

Anywho, love ya!

Elder Snell

P.S. I apologize for the complete lack of pictures this week 

Not really the best email I have sent out, but it will have to do ;)

June 12, 2017 Email

Hey, so I don't really have much time today to write a full on weekly
email. So, I hope these pictures with suffice for this week :) :)
sorry for the inconvenience ;)


Love you all!
Elder Snell



A couple of the little kids have called me Elder Snail in the past, so
I HAD to take this picture for them ;) haha

Roses are Red, Baptisms are Green

Letter on June 5, 2017


Hey, Everyone! :)

I don't even know where to begin talking about this past week. It has felt like the longest week ever! Lots of stuff happened, though. We just finished helping a member move today. New York moves are tough! Luckily they were only on the 8th floor! The elevator we had to move stuff into was really small though, so it took a lot of trips. Brother and Sister Taylor were there to help out, so I am so grateful for them! They are the greatest!!

Transfers were on Tuesday. I am staying here in Rego Park, and my new companion is Elder Afoa! He is from American Samoa and has been on his mission for 3 months, so he is fresh out of training. I actually served in his district in Plainview for his first transfer, so it is super cool to be his companion now! We are getting along pretty well, and I am excited to see what this transfer has in store. 

So, fun mission news: our entire mission is getting Samsung J3 smart phones starting in two weeks! They will be collecting our iPads for about a month while we get used to having the new phones. The Assistants, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders already have their phones. It will be really interesting to be using a smart phone again!

Sad story for the week: Adrian texted us on Friday saying that he wanted to postpone his baptism. He came across a website called "Difficult Questions for Mormons to Answer". He has a bunch of questions and doubts now that he wants to get resolved before he is baptized. I am happy that he wants to be 100% committed to it, though! Keep praying for him!

Church on Sunday was really good! It was fast and testimony Sunday, and the members who bore their testimony really brought the spirit. There were actually 3 less active members who randomly showed up out of no where. Better yet, all three of them went up to the pulpit and bore their testimonies! It was SO cool to listen to them talk about how their lives have been without coming to church and the difference they already feel in being there that day. We are going to be trying to visit them now so we can help them get to the temple soon! 

There was an eight year old who was baptized on Sunday right after church! His name is Leo! Elder Imlay and I actually got to teach him the last "missionary lesson" before his baptismal interview. His knowledge of the gospel is incredible! Elder Afoa and I filled the font before his baptism. When we came back to check on it, the water was GREEN!!! So we drained it, scrubbed the font walls and floor, and refilled it. It was STILL green!!!! Although Leo was baptized in green water, the spirit was still super strong! right before the baptism started, I was asked if I could give the talk about the Holy Ghost. I ran home and grabbed a flashlight to use as a little object lesson for a quick talk. My talk actually turned out pretty alright and Leo was really happy with his new light stick! Pretty great day!

Well, that's about it for this week! I am super proud of myself right now. I typed up this letter in about 10 minutes compared to my usual 60! Wahoo!!!!! *high five's self*

Anyway, I love you and and wish you the best in the next adventure life brings your way! 

Elder Snell

Week of Variety

Happy Memorial Day, Everyone! :)

This week was certainly an interesting one, that's for sure! I hope everyone is having a good time with all your Memorial Day activities! Here are a few highlights from this past week:

Transfer Calls

Yup! It is already that time again! This transfer just zoomed right past! It has been such a great one, though! The Zone Leaders called this morning to tell us who was being transferred. Here are the results for my district: Elder Sutherland - IN, Elder Cahan - OUT, Sister Persinger - IN, Sister Panoussi - OUT, Elder Snell - IN, and Elder Imlay - OUT! That is pretty much what we all expected. It's crazy though, because Elder Jensen is the only companion that I have had for more than a transfer. I have already had 7 companions in 7 transfers. Transfer meeting isn't until tomorrow, so I will let you all know who my new companion is next week.

Adrian Gonzalez

SOOOOO.........We have been meeting with Adrian for a little over a month now, and he has been progressing SO well! He truly loves the gospel and it has changed his life. He tells us almost everyday how much he loves the Book of Mormon and loves coming to church. Adrian accepted the invitation to be baptized at our fist lesson and is now ready for baptism! His baptism is going to be this coming Saturday. He is probably the most prepared person to receive the gospel that I have taught on my mission so far. It has been such a neat experience to see the gospel change him. Wow, missionary work is the best! :)

Family Home Evening

We have been having FHE every week with the ward for the past little bit, but it hasn't really gotten us anywhere. This week, Bishop jumped on board with the FHE and announced it in sacrament meeting! Yesterday (Sunday) we had about 15 members come to Family Home Evening! It is super cool how even just one activity like that has helped the member get to know each other really well! If FHE continues to go well, Bishop might give someone a calling to keep organizing it! The members said that they loved it and are going to try and invite some of their non-member friends. Super awesome!

Miscellaneous

On Tuesday, Elder Imlay and I were trying to visit one of our potential investigators. We were standing at the door when a Guyanese woman called out to us from across the street. She walked over to us and we started talking with her. She introduced herself as Hillary Clinton...... this through me off. This sweet woman was 100% convinced that she is Hillary Clinton. She told us that she was murdered and her body was eaten by congress. Her soul was then put into the body of a Guyanese woman. Hillary also told us that as she gets older, she is slowly turning white again. She was talking with us for about 20 minutes! It was very interesting! 

On Tuesday, we went to a funeral for the deceased husband of one of the members in our ward. It was a really beautiful service. Sister Persinger and I sang a duet of "I Need Thee Ev'ry Hour" which went pretty alright. I am so grateful the knowledge that I have of the Plan of Salvation.

That's about it for this week. At least, that's all I can remember right now hahaha. 

Oh yeah! I forgot that I got to speak in Sacrament Meeting yesterday! It was such a wonderful experience to be able to speak. I love this gospel so much and am so grateful for any opportunity I get to share my testimony with others. I definitely love this ward!

Have a wonderful week!!! Love you all!

Elder Snell

****PS- This is Added by Mom Snell-----
I received this letter in the mail today. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share my son with New York. He is and always has been such and amazing happy person and ALWAYS wanting to serve others. Please read.....

Pictures!

1) Ward Family Home Evening!

2) Last District Meeting for the transfer

3) Cute kid in the ward named Kayden had a bunch of these action figures which we hung on the table :)

4) Super awesome picture Adrian sent me!

5) Another message Adrian sent us! :) :)

6) SUPER AMAZING violinist we ran into in the subway station! WOW! It was cool! :)

I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go

May 22, 2017

Hey, Everyone! :)

So, nothing super out of the ordinary happened this week. It was just another fantastic week of good ol' missionary work! However, the weather just could not make up its mind. For two or three days straight it was over 90 degrees and SUPER humid and the next it was below 60 and raining a ton! Gotta love working in all types of weather, though! 

I absolutely love being able to be part of this divine work. It is really neat to be able to see how Heavenly Father works to put us in the right place at the right time. Take yesterday for example:

Elder Imlay and I had a lesson scheduled for 7:00 Sunday night. We show up at their house, and it turned out that the man we were supposed to teach was called into work and forgot to let us know. His wife was the only other one home, so we just rescheduled with her and went on our way. We found ourselves with no one to visit, so we said a prayer and felt that we should go knocking in Forrest Hills (where Spiderman's house is). We got out of the subway station an randomly decided to choose a direction to start walking. We ended up finding our way into a SUPER rich area of Queens, and decided that this is the street we were going to start knocking. After knocking about 5 unanswered doors, a man leaving his house told us that we are wasting our time in a 100% Jewish neighborhood (hence the reason that Elder Imlay has so loving given Kew Gardens the nickname of "Jew Gardens"). Despite his warning, we knocked his next-door neighbor's house. They actually answered, and as soon as they did the man we were just talking to yelled at them telling them to close the door and stop talking to us. This was just a little frustrating, so Elder Imlay and I said a prayer and felt that we should leave. We noticed that there was a man who used to meet with the missionaries about a year ago living really close by. We walked to his apartment building and the man at the front desk called up to his room for us. Once again, we were rejected and had to leave. It was about time that we needed to head home, so we started making our way back to the subway station. I tried my best to start a conversation with everyone we passed, but it was dark and no one was willing to talk with us. When we were about a block from the station, we passed by a grocery store where a man walked out and started walking right next to me. I asked him how his day went and he responded "You know, I used to be Mormon once." WHAT?!? His name is Frank Madina. He was raised Mormon, but never went back to church after he left his parent's home at age 17. Frank asked us if he could have a Book of Mormon and if we could come to his house with him and have a chat. Of course, we went to his apartment and talked with him! Over the years (his is in his 50s), Frank has started practicing small fragments of all sorts of religions! He practices parts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, etc. He asked us if we could give him a Book of Mormon and if we could come back to his house for dinner some time and continue coming back weekly! Frank's records aren't here in Queens, so we will have to have Bishop request them. I quickly found that I absolutely love Frank and his quirkiness, and I can't wait to keep working with him to hopefully get him to the temple and back to being an active member of the Church! :) 

I can only hope and pray that I am actually able to make a difference out here in NY, but I can definitely testify that the Lord (through all the people I have met) has already made a HUGE difference in me! I am learning and growing so much as a person and as a child of my Heavenly Father. I know that He loves me and that He is molding and shaping me to become the valiant servant He needs me to be in this life and forever. There is no place I would rather be right now that where I am serving the Lord with all I got! This work is hard, but it is worth it. I have learned how to truly put all my trust in the Lord. I am not perfect at that yet, but Heavenly Father is definitely working hard on me! The Plan of Salvation is REAL. Jesus Christ really DID atone for our sins and really DOES know exactly how we feel all the time, because He has felt it himself. I love Him with all my heart and can testify that He really does walk with us as we choose to walk with Him. I am so grateful for my Savior and the difference He has made in my life. 

I love you all, and I wish you all the best in the coming week! 

Elder Snell

A "Plethora" of Pictures

1) This is Leo Hewitt! He just turned 8 and is about to be baptized soon. His mom asked if missionaries would teach him before he was baptized, so this was our last lesson with him. Yes, it was at a restaurant. Yes, his mom was there, too :) Yes, he is a GENIUS, and probably knows more about the gospel than I do. And Yes, he is the greatest!!!

2) Here is the "average" door here in Queens. 8 doorbells! Hahahaha usually there are just 3-4 :)