Air Conditioning: A Modern Miracle

Hey Everyone :) :)

This week was amazing!!! I just got back from the temple a little bit
ago, so I don't have a lot of time to write. I will try to be super
quick though hahaha

First off, exactly one year ago from today, I hit the mission field!
August 9th was the day I got Elder Jensen as my trainer and started
off in Plainview! Crazy how time flies (I feel like I say that every
week)!

I guess I will just tell you a little bit about the pictures :)

I got the first two from someone else, but I took the rest of the
pictures of Manhattan!! Orfatt, recent convert here who Elder Jensen
(my trainer) baptized, lives right next to the East River, overlooking
Manhattan! He invited us over to his place for a lesson (which we had
on the roof top of his 35 story apartment! He also showed us around
the park next to his place. It was awesome! I got some really sweet
pictures, too!! :)

The next grouping of pictures is from my exchange with the Assistants on Monday
 and yesterday. I was with Elder Brown for the exchange. It
was amazing! We had a pretty solid lesson with their investigator,
Hope. Theses adorable kids wanted to sit right between Elder Brown and
I during the entire lesson! They were SO cute! Definitely one of my
favorite exchanges I have been on.

Best for last: I went to the Manhattan Temple today! It was so amazing
to be in the temple again. I have really missed that place. Elder Jensen joined us on
our temple trip! We talked the whole time. It was really cool to sit
with him during the session and in the Celestial room. I love him to
death and can't believe it has already been a year from today that we
met!!! I am going to miss him tons! I feel like he's my brother :)
well, another exciting thing about the temple was that the air
condition was super broken! As we were walking into our session room,
the temple workers passed out envelopes for us to use to fan ourselves
during the session! After our session, the officiator told us that it
was 92 degrees in the room we were in! Crazy hot!!! Everyone was
sweating hahaha! Definitely a first for me. I love the temple SO
much!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to go to the house of the
Lord! I am also super grateful for the miracle of air conditioning.

Well, that's about all I have time to write this week. A ton more
happened, though! Haha oh well..

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Snell

#AskandReceive

July 31st, 2017

Hey, Friends! :)

Wow, this week has been absolutely incredible! SO many miracles!!!! These scriptures have been a major theme for this week.

2 Nephi 27:23

23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

3 Nephi 14:7-8

7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

So, earlier this week Elder Cubas and I decided to go do a look up in Corona for the YSA. We found them and were able to talk with them for a while. All three of them said they would come back to church this coming Sunday! Yay! After we finished talking with them, we decided to knock on the next street over. Well, as we were about 5 or so houses in, we saw a YSA aged girl walk past us. I had the feeling to talk with her, but I didn't because I had just knocked on a door and didn't want someone to open it without anyone standing there. Well, the girl gets about 5 yards past us when she stops dead in her tracks, turns around, and walks over to us. She comes up to me and asks, "Hey, I was just wondering what church you from." After a bit of a conversation, we got her (Leidy) number, and set up an appointment to meet at the church.

So, the day of our appointment comes and she texts us and asks if she can bring her best friend to meet with us as well. We had the YSA Sisters there with us so we could pass Leidy and her friend, Eslie, off to them. The Sisters brought Zarah, a member from the YSA, with them as well! The lesson went REALLY well! Leidy and Eslie are both Catholic but had never really connected with the religion. They both expressed that they were trying to come closer to God and find a religion that really suited both of them. We taught them the Restoration, and they absolutely loved it! They were both really excited to be able to read the Book of Mormon and start their journey of finding out for themselves if this church is true.

Here's another miracle this week: Mikee was a potential investigator in our phone who the elder I replacee here talked to on the train on July 4th. We have been texting and calling Mikee every once in a while trying to set something up. Well, this week we finally got a response!! She said that she would be super happy to meet with us. So we set up yet another pass-off lesson with the YSA sisters (Mikee is 21). The day came, and Mikee asked us if she could bring her sister, Happy, too!! They both meet us and the sisters at the church and we had an amazing lesson!!! They texted us later that night thanking us for everything and telling us how amazing they felt! The Sisters met with them again a couple days later where Mikee and Happy prayed about a baptismal date and decided to be baptized on August 18th! 

Mikee, Happy, Leidy, and Eslie all came to church yesterday and had such an amazing experience! They all love the branch and are super excited to continue meeting with the Sisters! Mikee and Happy went to FHE on their own on Friday and were able to make a lot of friends in the YSA! They are amazing!!!!

So, Sister Elaina Olsen told me about something they are doing in her mission. She told me that they had been praying specifically for someone to find (she gave me the example of praying to find someone in a read hat, or a man in a yellow shirt). So, I told Elder Cubas about it and we decided that we wanted to try in out in our zone. On Thursday, we held District Leader Training Meeting. It was incredible! I was going to introduce this new thing we were going to start doing in our zone, so I decided to focus my workshop on miracles! I talked about how God is a God of miracles and that miracles have not ceased. The spirit was unbelievably strong as we all shared miracles we have experienced in our lives and on our missions. At the end of my workshop, I presented the praying specifically idea and everyone was super down to give it a try. So, the next day at interviews, we pulled each companionship aside, trained them a little bit more in simplified planning, and set our Zone vision (#AskandReceive) in action by having each companionship pray to find someone specific that night (I will attach a picture of what each companionship prayed for below). We also wanted everyone in the zone to be able to see the miracles that everyone is experiencing, so we set up a group Facebook Group Messenger with the zone for everyone to share miracles. That night -- and every night since -- our phones have exploded with miracle after miracle!!! It has been truly amazing! Heavenly Father is truly a God of miracles! "Ask, and ye shall receive"!

Here are a few of the miracles shared in our group message:

Elder Smith and Elder Afoa (Prayed to find a man who lost his daughter):

"We found our man! He lost his children his two daughters, to family services. Not one daughter but two! He is cool and he lived in Samoa for 13 years and his wife is Samoan. He knows some Samoan so it was cool for Elder Afoa! 

Miracles do happen! It works keep praying!!!!!! 

✔️️"

Elder Nixon, Elder Meliza, and Elder Serna (Prayed to find a family of 10 that morning, prayed to find a family of 7 when they prayed with us):

"We found a family of 10!"

"We also found a family of 7"

WHHAAAAAAAATT!!!! Talk about Miracles!!!!

Elder Heiner and Elder Adams (Prayed to find people in purple shirts):

"We were on our way to do a look up tonight and got on a train FULL of people in purple shirts! We were able to talk with a few of them and get a few numbers."

Hermana Amaro and Hermana Stubbs (Prayed to find a grandmother with a little child:

"Yesterday during planning we asked to find a grandma with a little kid. When we were sitting on the front steps of the church she walked by. But we didn't notice until we started walking shortly after. We saw her and were amazed! We talked to her but she didn't speak much English she was Chinese. We still gave her our card and said that we have English classes at the church. Miracles happen!!!"

Sister Reynolds (Mission President's wife):

"Last night as I said my prayers, I told Heavenly Father about my day, where I was going and what I would be doing . I then asked who should I look for. The impression I received was to look for a man in a white type shirt. That same impression came to me again this morning as I said my prayers. So I'm at the grocery store this morning, and I'm looking all over for men in white type shirt, then I see a man in a white coat from the meat  department. So I go over to the man and ask him a question about meat, but it didn't really go anywhere. So I went about my shopping and I turned down an aisle and there he was again putting frozen meats into  the freezer and he recognizes me and we start talking. I was able to get his information and give him a Book of Mormon and I told him that the missionaries would be contacting him. I also gave him my phone number if he had any questions . Miracles are happening!!!!"

Elder Cubas and Elder Snell (Prayed to find a family of 4--Dad, Mom, Son, and Daughter):

"This is sooo awesome! I love how the Lord is blessing us all. So yesterday before leaving Rego Elder Snell and I knelt down and prayed and specifically asked Heavenly to help us find a family of four. A man that is looking for the truth with a wife and two kids. We prayed that the kids would be from ages 8-10, however what ever the lord had planned in his will if they be a different age. As we got on the bus we met this Hispanic guy with his wife and he said that he has two kids, but their ages were 14 & 23. Still was a family of four. Unfortunately we lost their contact, but if it's the Lords will we may see them again. Love you all!  (in a mission appropriate way)."

Sister Panoussi and Sister Kim (Prayed to find a woman in a green shirt interested in family history):

"We had prayed for a woman in a green shirt interested in family history.  At the end of the day we met a woman in a punk & white stepped shirt that filed out her pedigree chart with us and set up a return appointment.  On her phone case there was a picture of a green t-shirt. Sister Kim said after she left that on her button she'd pinned to her bag there was a man in a green shirt. "

Sister Borges and Sister Romney (Prayed for a lot of things haha):

"At interviews Sister Borges prayed for a girl wearing a beach hat. Yesterday I prayed for a dad who was looking for peace for his family (the thought came to my mind to pray for a referral for the Spanish elders but I didn't specifically say it). Then today we prayed for a girl with a cat. Today we were door knocking a street and we knocked a door of this lady who showed us she had a book of Mormon, although she was actually pretty rude and wasnt interested. We turned around and there was a cat on her porch. A few minutes later we saw a Hispanic dad come out of his yard and heard a little girl behind him. We went over to talk to him and the little girl was wearing a beach hat. He is interested in learning about eternal families and wants us to come back. "

Hermana Amaro and Hermana Stubbs:

"Oh my goodness this is crazy! We just prayed at the bus stop because we forgot to pray for specifics this morning. So we sat down and prayed here at the bus. So we wanted to pray to find a less active. Then this lady walked across the street. And I had yhe feeling to talk to her but then we said the prayer. Hma Amaro prayed to find someone in a flower blouse. When we ended the prayer I was like wasn't the lady who walked across the street in a flower blouse? She was standing by us...and she was wearing a flower blouse!!!! How crazy. So we talked to her, and she said her name was Milagros which is miracle in Spanish!!! Wow, it was an instant answer! Love this challenge that we are doing "

I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and the faith the amazing Zone 4 has displayed in asking for miracles. I love this work and I love the people I serve and serve with. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. I love being a missionary and am so grateful for our Heavenly Father who truly is a God of miracles! 

I love you all so much and wish you all the most amazing of week! I hope you had a wonderful July! Can't believe it is already over!!! Crazy! 

Love you all!

Elder Snell

Pictures

1) Just doing some weekly planning after a super exhausting service project!

2) #AskandReceive

3-4) Just preparing ourselves for a great 7 hours of church! WHOOT! I love Sundays!!! :) :) :) :) :)

Stick of Apple, Stick of Android

July 24th, 2017

"... And they shall be one in mine hand."

Happy Pioneer Day!!! :)

Wow, what a week this has been! I have seen so many miracles, it is incredible! So, I didn't really get to tell you all much about last week, but that is okay because nothing uber special happened.

Last week was a really hard week for me. Our teaching pool was super dead. We didn't have anyone to teach. No one would give us the time to listen to our message. My attitude was a little sour and my motivation fire was a little dimmer than I would have liked. It made me feel like I wasn't capable of anything and I started comparing myself to others. It was not good for me or the work at all! So, I was studying the scriptures and a bunch of talks hoping to receive inspiration about how I could flip my mood around. I came across a talk about becoming a successful missionary. In it, there is a quote that says, "Gratitude is the antidote for comparing yourself to others". I thought to myself that they are right! Being grateful for the things you do have helps you to notice more blessings that you are receiving, and ultimately brightens your mood and helps you to be much more productive. So, I decided that every night I am going to write in a "Gratitude Journal", much like the one I would always see my Mom writing in every night back home. I wrote in this journal little things that would happen throughout the day that I was grateful for. I noticed a change within myself almost immediately! The next day after I started this journal, I was so much happier and was so ready to get out and work hard. This mood hasn't slipped since! This past week, we have found 9 solid new investigators!!! God is SO good!!! Each person we found was a miracle and we wouldn't have found them with the guidance of the Spirit.

Tonya

We found Tonya the morning after I started my gratitude journal. We had district meeting scheduled for 11:00 that day, and we had to be out of the apartment around10:00. So, Elder Cubas and I decided we would walk around the block the church is on and talk to everyone we could see outside. We passed the church and hadn't run into anyone yet. As we were walking just after the church, we saw a woman sitting in her car with the window rolled down. So, we started talking to her. She said she was just waiting for her friend to come out of an appointment in 30 minutes. Wahoo!!! She had time to talk! We found out that she just lost her apartment and was living with her friends and family while looking for a new apartment. We expressed to her that Heavenly Father knows exactly how she feels and that the message we share is one of happiness, hope, and peace. Tonya said that she used to be religious but fell away, but now as an adult wants to get closer to God and improve on her spiritual side. So, we told her our message can do exactly that, and she asked us what our message was. That was probably the most powerful, spirit-filled 5-6 lessons I have ever been a part of. As a mission we have been focusing on becoming better at short, powerful lessons, and our lesson with Tonya standing outside her car was definitely one of those. As I told her the story of Joseph Smith and told her about his vision of God and Jesus Christ in Joseph's own words, Tonya had tears streaming down her cheeks. I know that the Spirit told her what we were saying was true. At the end of our lesson, and after her asking us for the Book of Mormon we talked about, I invited her to be baptized on August 19th. She immediately grabbed a pen and paper and wrote down the date for her baptism so she wouldn't forget and said, "Yes!". 

Marcos

So, Elder Adams and I were on a split for the night right after church yesterday. We grabbed some dinner, and headed out of the house to do a look-up and knock doors around the house we planned on going to. As we were walking, I was thinking about something one of my favorite people in the world told me the day before. Something they had done was asking Heavenly Father to help them find someone specific (like a man with a red hat, or something like that). Well, I was thinking about this and said a silent prayer to myself that we would find a man with a red hat that night. Well, we kept walking and talking to whoever was outside when I saw a man with his daughter putting the trash out on the curb. I asked him if he needed any help and made my way over to talk with him. He started asking who we were and what we were doing. One thing led to another, and we ended up teaching him the Restoration through our conversation. Elder Adams and I also talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and he (Marcos) said he would love to read it! We ended up talking with him on the street for over an hour! As I handed him the Book of Mormon while testifying of it, I looked down an Marcos shirt. On it, there was a black and white picture of a man wearing a fluorescent red hat! Marcos eagerly set a return appointment with us when his wife and all three of his daughters would be home! We found a family!!!!!!!!!!

Miraflor

Miraflor is a super kind and sweet old Philippino woman. Her husband had recently passed away, so she moved to New York to have a change of pace and get her mind off of things. One night, she was searching the internet for a church nearby and came acrossMormon.org. So, she requested a Book of Mormon. We got the referral for her request and gave her a call. She told us that she would love to come to church and meet with us on Sunday! So, yesterday, Miraflor came to church! Before church started (she came over an hour early), we taught her about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and gave her what she had requested from Mormon.org. Miraflor is really excited to continue coming to church and learn more and more from meeting with us!

Zaida & Christelle

Elder Cubas and I decided to go knocking one night really close to our apartment. We knocked for quite a bit with almost zero success. As we were knocking a door, we noticed a woman sitting on the balcony outside of her second floor apartment. So, with the drive to talk with everyone, we started yelling up to her. She (Zaida) though we were really weird, so she was curious enough to continue talking to us from her balcony. We attempted to teach her the Restoration, but cars would not stop driving past us and making tons of noise! Eventually, Zaida decided she was curious enough to come down to us to talk more. When she came to the door, she brought her 19 year old daughter, Christelle, with her! We taught them both the Restoration and invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. They both committed to read and pray about it. We set up another appointment with them and invited them to come to church. They said they would definitely try it out sometime soon! They are both really awesome investigators!!!

Wow, missionary work is the best!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I am sorry for the super long email this week! I am just blown away at how much the Lord is truly blessing this area right now! This field is definitely white and Heavenly Father has just hit His harvest season in Astoria. 

I will wrap up my email with just a couple other highlights from the week:

After 60 days of our new smartphone test, we finally got our iPads back! In better news, we passed our trial run and now the Church is starting to introduce smartphones into other missions in the United States! I honestly can't imagine trying to do missionary work without the technology we have been blessed with. It is so incredible! President Reynolds always says that mission presidents from other places in the US ask him how he handles having Facebook and smartphones with data and how they could never be able to do it. He just tells them, "Well, if you haven't ever driven a Cadillac, you don't miss one!" 

I gave my talk in the family ward yesterday! I thought it went very well :) I talked about how members and full-time missionaries can become more united in the work of salvation through studying and applying Preach My Gospel! If you would like a copy of my talk, just let me know and I will send it your way :)

I had exchanged with Elder Adams on Thursday and Friday. He is going home in 4 months. Elder Adams is a really great missionary and a fantastic teacher! I had a lot of fun on my exchange with him and learned a lot from him. I only hope that I was able to teach him something new and help him out a little.

Well, I think that is finally it! Hahahaha Thanks for sticking with me and reading this much. I sure do love each and every one of you! I hope you have the most amazing of week! Know that Heavenly Father loves and knows you!

Love ya!

Elder Snell

1-4) Me and my bird friend! He was the best! Sadly, he wasn't able to
fly very well. It was slightly windy, so when he tried to fly he ended
up doing summersaults into oncoming traffic. I rescued him, and he
tried to fly one more time. This time, he made it a little further,
but the wind was again not his friend and he ran into a light attached
to a building 3 stories up and fell to the ground. I ran over to him
and watched him take his last breath before passing on into the next

life.

5) Elder Adams giving a workshop in District Meeting! :)

6-7) I made Ninjabread Men for Preparation Day! They were super yummy!
8) Sweaty man with a stick! He told me he was planning on using the
stick for firewood.
9-10) District pictures! (Sister Kim, Sister Panoussi, Elder Adams,
Elder Snell, Elder Cubas, Elder Heiner)
11-14) Here are some pictures of Long Island City! Welcome to my new area :)
15) Just a quick video :)

More Than A Bumblebee

Busy! Busy! Dreadfully busy!

Hey, Everyone!

I hope you all had an amazing week! My week has been one of a lot of adjusting. As you know, I was transferred on Tuesday. I am now in Astoria, Queens with Elder Cubas. He is from New Orleans, Louisianna and has been on his mission for 19 months. 

So, it is super different being here in Astoria because we actually cover two units. We are assigned to the Astoria family Ward as well as the Queens YSA branch!!!!! I have only been here for a week, and I love the members here so much! The YSA has about 40-50 members who come to church semi-regularly. However, when sacrament meeting starts there are only about 25 or so. The rest like to come just a little late haha. There is such a special spirit here in these units and I love it! So on Wednesday, I was surprised with a text from the YSA branch presidency asking me to speak in church on my first Sunday here! Speaking in church again was really great! So far, I have only been able to speak once in each area I have served in. During the family ward church yesterday, I was asked to give a talk this coming Sunday as well! I love being able to speak in church! 

So, being over the two units is really interesting. YSA starts at 11 and the family ward starts at 1, so we only get to go to YSA's sacrament meeting before going to the family ward's sacrament meeting and the rest of church with them. I LOVE the people here (and everywhere)!!! 

This week has been super busy!! Our teaching pool is somewhat dead, so we haven't been able to teach a whole lot so far. Most of our time is spent trying to find new people to investigate the church and contacting the potential investigators we have in AreaBook. 

Actually, we have a bunch of lessons happening tonight. So, that is good :)

Well, that's all I really have time for today! Sorry for not really explaining that much. 

Anyway, here is my new address if you ever felt like sending mail to me or something like that hahaha :)

(message his Mom if you would like it)

Have a wonderful week! Love you all!

Elder Snell

Still Learning How to Say Goodbye

July 10th, 2017

Hello, Friends!! :)

I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July week! I sure did! We had a phenomenal ward party on Tuesday morning. Bishop Lindstrom asked the missionaries if we would put it all together. We decked the gym out in all sorts of decorations and put together a sweet game of Jeopardy! We also had mass amounts of food! Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruit, you name it! It was awesome! The ward really loved it and said they need to do more ward parties like this. The party made a HUGE difference in the unity and love within the ward. We put up just barely enough tables and chairs so people were practically forced to sit with people they didn't know. By the end of the party, everyone had gotten to know each other and the ward is beginning to become a large friendship! It has been incredible to see the progress and change this ward has gone through while I have been here. I am really going to miss the Rego Park 1st Ward.

That's right, transfers are tomorrow and I am OUT! The rest of my district is staying, though, so I am the only one that has to say goodbye... It is all okay though, because I know the Lord is in charge and will put me right where He needs me. Although I was only here in Rego Park for 3 months (2 transfers), I feel like I have been here for years! I have really grown to love a lot of people here, and am going to miss them a ton! I am so grateful for the things I was able to learn here and the incredible people I was able to work with and learn from. This last transfer has been pretty difficult for me, but I can honestly say that I grew SO much because of it. I have made a lot of personal growth here and am so grateful for it :)

So, on Saturday, we were at the church waiting for one of our investigators for a lesson. President Reynolds was there for a meeting with all the new trainers, and asked if he could talk with me for a bit. He told me I am going to be transferred on Tuesday and he also asked if I would serve as a Zone Leader. I am so humbled that the Lord feels I am ready to take on such a task haha. I nowhere near qualified to serve in that position, but I have confidence that the Lord will help me figure it out!

Well, I am really short on time this week, so I am going to have to wrap this up with a quick story haha. Another member of our ward had to move this week, so they asked us at the last minute if we could come help them out. We were on our way to pop in on one of our investigators who we haven't seen in a while (we went back later on), but they really needed some help so we happily said, "Sure" :) Well, we were dressed in our Proselyting clothes, and on our way there the heavens opened and let loose everything they had. I wish I had built a ship or something prior to this one, because the roads in Corona became little rivers! It was insane! Our umbrellas weren't all that successful at shielding us from the rain coming at us from all directions (down, left, right, diagonal, up, etc.)! It was pretty fun jumping over mini lakes and full on streams :) the move went alright, too! We had to wrap everything in large garbage bags and walk it all 6 blocks to their new apartment. Our mission Nurse, Sister Peterson, (bless her soul) came to the rescue and took a load over in her Prius! What a blessing she is!

Well, that's pretty much it for this time around. I love you all! I don't know here I am getting transferred to until tomorrow, so I will send you my new address next week! Have/Make an amazing week!

Love ya!
Elder Snell

1) District Picture! (on my Polariod)
2) Avery Peña    A.K.A. Sloppy Joe
3) Brother Sanchez
4) Peña Family
5) Sister Baynes
6) Charles Kwon (Investigator)
7) Tony Alvaira (Recent Convert)
8) Sister Harsono (plus a few)
9) My last Family Home Evening here in Rego Park! This was the biggest one yet! FHE has been one of the best things for this ward. Everyone who has come has absolutely loved it and have really grown closer to the other members of the ward!
10-14) Ward 4th of July Party!
15) Jonathan
16) Yocheved
17) Brother Nuñez (Ward Mission Leader)
18) Brother Sukraj