He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands

Hey, Everyone! :)

Sorry for getting this out so late and for it being super super not very detailed at all! I will try harder next week. Promise.

Anyway, this week was really great! We had exchanges with the zone leaders and I got to be companions with Elder McConkie again! It was really neat to see how he has changed since the beginning of last year when we were companions in Plainview. The Lord really molds and shapes us if we let Him!

We had our district activity today! We all went to Flushing Meadows Park to take pictures at the Unisphere and then ran around at the park. It was tons of fun! I love my district so much!!!! 

So, on Tuesday, we had a lesson scheduled with our investigator, Jessica, right after district meeting at the church. Well, Jessica decided to be a little bit early and came to the church while we were still in district meeting. So, we invited Jessica to sit in with us until we finished! She gladly came in and participated in my workshop that I gave on connecting our investigators to the scriptures by helping them have meaningful and spiritual experiences through them. It was really fun! We had such and amazing lesson with her right after district meeting as well and she accepted a baptismal date! I am so excited for her!

On Sunday night, we had the opportunity to help some young men over in Utah prepare for their missions! We were asked if they could FaceTime into one of our lessons and teach our investigator the Plan of Salvation. So, Dustyn and Matt from Alpine, Utah taught the Vasquez family about God’s Plan of Happiness! It was so fun to listen to them teach and testify of the Savior based off of what they have learned in Mission Prep class. Super fun!

I love you all and hope to hear from ya next week! :) Have a phenomenal week and make someone smile!!! 

Elder Snell

This is our church building! It is amazing! :)

Super amazing day at the park with the best district in the Church! ;)

 

Year of the Dog continued

2.19.18

MORE PHOTOS and VIDEOS FROM THE PARADE IN FLUSHING NY

Year of the Dog

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!! :)

I took some pictures and videos this week, so I will let them speak for themselves.

Highlights of the week include:

 - A bunch of missionaries from my mission got to march/walk in the Chinese New Year Parade here in Flushing! It was such a blast! I got to do the lion dance throughout the entirety of the parade route. My legs are SUPER sore!!!! It was tons of fun though!

 - We had MegaZone Conference this week. I love being able to learn from President and Sister Reynolds :) it was a great day!

 - We had a miracle Investigator come to church yesterday! Elder Rice and I prayed that we could have at least one investigator make it to church, and Chrissy came right at the start of Sunday School!!!! God is good :)

 - I had another amazing week here in Flushing!!!!!!

Well, I guess I don’t have a lot of things to say today. So you get a break this week! Hahaha 

Enjoy the videos :) I love you all!!!!! Have a phenomenal week!

Elder Snell

 

🇨🇳 Welcome to China 🇨🇳

Hello, Friends! :)

I just barely got back from the TEMPLE!!!!! So I don’t have a whole lot of time to write today. Here comes a speed summary of my past week!

So, to start off, I would like to express that this past week has probably been one of the greatest weeks on my mission! No joke! It has been phenomenal! I wish I could explain half of the amazing things that happened last week. I will try my best :)

• Transfers were last week! I was transferred back to QUEENS! YES! So now I am in Flushing with Elder Rice. OH MY GOODNESS, I love it here! We live right in the heart of basically China hahaha It is the greatest thing of my life! There are sooooo many people that live here in Flushing and it is awesome! With Queens being the most diverse place on the planet (that’s a fact), comes the blessing of having missionaries serve here who speak different languages. There are two districts here in Flushing, the Chinese district and my district which consists of an English companionship, a Spanish companionship, and two Korean companionships. We have decided to call ourselves the ‘Spengleans’! I LOVE my district so much!!!!! 
• The branch here is pretty small. It is combined Spanish and English, so I am now working on learning a little bit more Spanish so I can communicate with the other half of my ward! The mission is definitely keeping me on my toes
• Elder Rice is a champ! He is from California near San Diego and has been on his mission for 7.5 months. I love him lots!
• This week was FILLED with miracles!!!! I don’t have time to go super into specifics about them, so I will give a vaguely general summary of them haha. Our teaching pool needs a lot of growth, so Elder Rice and I have been doing a lot of finding :) it has been amazing! We found 6 super solid new investigators this week where the ways we found them were 100% led by God. Remind me to tell you more about them next week! Let’s just say I know God lives and really does put us in the path of His children who are ready for the gospel! Jessica, Sylvia, Lucy, Jenny, Brian, and Jeffrey are miracles!!!
• Elder Randall K. Bennett visited our mission on Friday! Wow, was that amazing! I love being able to learn from the experiences and wisdom of general authorities! The things he shared were definitely an answer to some of my prayers :)

There is so so so much more I need to tell you, but I will have to leave it at that. I love you all so much!

Love ya!

Elder Snell

P.S. OH OH OH OH OH!!! We are going to be in the Chinese Lunar New Year parade here in Flushing on Saturday! I am pretty sure it will be televised on the news, so try and find it online and you might see all the missionaries dressed in the yellow Mormon Helping Hands vests! See you on TV!

1) Saying goodbye to Jose :( this man changed my life by changing his. It was such an incredible experience to work with Jose :)

2) Saying goodbye to John (recent convert in Midwood)

3)Barclays Center in Brooklyn (had to pass it on my way to the doctors last week)

 

4-5) Cinnamon peanut butter & mint jelly sandwich for lunch! 

  

6-7) Second to last temple trip here in NY! :( :( It was AMAZING to be able to go to the temple again :) I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!!!!!!!!

Moving Out of Midwood

Feb 5, 2015

Hello, Friends! :)

Alright, so I don’t have a whole lot of time this week to do much emailing... lots of stuff I have to accomplish today haha so Elder Lee and I will be running around all day :)

Tomorrow is transfers.... and yeah....I am out... it is super sad because I have only been here in Midwood for 2 transfers. But that is okay, because I know where ever I go is exactly where the Lord needs me! 

So, along with me being moved from Midwood (not sure where I am going yet), after a wonderful 5 transfers I have been released from being a Zone Leader. It was such a privilege and blessing to be able to serve the missionaries I serve with in a different way. I have learned so much from the examples of my peers and from my Heavenly Father. I feel that i have truly learned how to love and care for someone in the way our Savior loved and cared for others (even though it is just a fraction of the love and compassion the Savior felt toward His brothers and sisters here). I was also called to be a District Leader again! I am super stoked about that! Words cannot express how excited I am to continue to serve my fellow missionaries :) :) :) I have 4 transfers left on my mission :( so my next area very well may be my last area here in New York. I guess we will have to see haha

This final week here in Midwood has been a super long one (week 7 of this extended transfer), yet one so full of miracles! Jose is currently on a week long no smoking streak! *knock on wood* This is the first time in his life since the age of 12 that he has gone more than one day in a row without smoking a single cigarette! I am so so so proud of him! It has been such an incredible experience to witness the changes that have happened in his life and in his character. Over the course of just 3-4 months, Jose went from stealing cars, robbing houses, using about every drug imaginable, never smiling, never caring what God thinks of him, etc. to having immense faith in Christ, having utter disgust for his own sins, smiling and laughing and cracking jokes, serving strangers who need some help on the streets, and having genuine love for all people. Jose is the prime example of the changes that are made possible through the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is absolutely no way anyone could convince me that the is no God. Jose is a testimony that God lives. Jose along with thousands and thousands of others. What a joy this has been to watch the Savior truly change lives.

I love missionary work so much!! Over the past two transfers, the ward has grown a lot in regards to how missionary work is done here :) It is by no means perfect, but it has been great to be a part of the improvements that have been made! When I arrived here, there was little to no member involvement in missionary work. Right when I got here, we got a new Bishop who understood very well how missionary work should function in a ward. He called new ward missionaries and armed the Ward Mission with some great members! Our Ward Correlation meetings have become amazing over the past transfer! We have had ward missionaries at each meeting who have become key in helping the rest of the members become more excited for the work of salvation. It has been super neat to see the leadership of the ward take charge in missionary work :) Goodness, I love missionary work!!

Well, I guess I wrote a lot more than I thought I would haha  sorry for the long emails each week... If you have any questions about anything, feel free to write me! I love hearing from you all!

Have the most splendid week of your life, then do it again next week! :) 

Love you all!

Elder Snell

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. At least there is one with me in it, so I have fulfilled the requirements ;) haha 

1) Exchanges with Elder Morency (left) and Elder Bissereth (right, but not all the way. That’s Elder Lee)

2) Video of me on an “exercise machine” in the house of a Guyanese woman we knocked into hahaha

Going for Gold, Settling for Silver

Hey, Everyone! :)

Sorry for the super short email this week. I will try to write more next week. At least there are pictures, right? Hahaha anyway, here is a super fast summary of my week :)

- The Zone leaders in the Brooklyn Stake met with our Stake President on Thursday to go over every recent convert in our areas. It was really neat to be able to meet with the Stake Presidency to discuss how we can work with them to better the wards in which we serve. President Reynolds was there too. They also had a giant tub of jelly beans and mints on the table, so we were happy! 

- Angel came to church for the first time since I have served in Brooklyn! She is an investigator we have been working with since I got here and has refused to come to church because she doesn’t want to accidentally sleep in and break her promise to come.... but, she finally made it!!!! It was so great having her there! She absolutely loved it, too! Angel always mentions in her lessons, “when I am baptized I will.....” hahaha she is too great! I love her!

- I had the most spiritual experience with Jose this week. A couple weeks ago, Jose offered a kneeling prayer with us to help him decide a day that he will quit smoking for good. He chose January 25th. I was honestly surprised that he chose a date so soon, but he was certain that was the day God wanted him to choose. Over the two weeks leading up to Jose’s quit day, his faith grew exponentially! He KNEW that Christ was going to help him quit smoking. Keep in mind that when I first met Jose he was a full-time car their, cocaine and heroine and marijuana addict, and smoked multiple packs of cigarettes each day. He now has immense faith in Christ and always has a smile on his face. He has overcome all his addiction aside from cigarettes. The day before Jose’s quit day, we had a lesson with him. We taught him about the Priesthood and talked about some of the miracles Christ performed. We explained that that same healing power is on the earth today and is held by men in Christ’s restored church. After an intense spiritual lesson, Jose asked if I would give him a blessing to help him quit smoking. I know that God knows and loves Jose. I felt it. Since Jose’s quit day, he hasn’t smoked a single cigarette. I know God lives! I believe in and trust in the healing power of the Priesthood of Christ. It has been such a special experience to witness Jose’s growth in the gospel. Heavenly Father is always there and is always willing to lift us. Jose has a bright future ahead of him in the Lord’s church! 

- We had exchanges with Elder Bissereth and Elder Morency! I love those two so much! They are both Haitian Creole speaking missionaries. Lots of fun!

- We had our zone activity today! Elder Lee and I planned our own Zone 2 Olympic Games! It was awesome! However, during one the events I dislocated my shoulder while crawling on the ground and blowing a tissue across the gym and am now in a sling hahaha sadly, my team lost because of it... oh well... 

Well, this email turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it was going to be! Hahaha oops! I will stop now 🛑 

I love you all! 

Have a great week!

Elder Snell

Miracles, Math, and Mace! Oh My!

Jan 22, 2018  Hello, Everyone! :)

Really fast, before you skip down to the bottom to check out the pictures and not read the rest of the email, at least read the next paragraph! Then you may feel free to skip down to the bottom if you so desire. 

We got some super exciting news from the Area Seventy Presidency the other day. On Saturday, we had a mission-wide conference call where President Reynolds told us the big news. First, he told us who the new mission President will be which was cool. He and his wife is from California will be bringing some children with them, so it will be fun having a mission president with his family living with him. But the most exciting announcement is that on July 1, 2018 there will be a change to the boundaries of our mission! We will be gaining 1 or 2 new stakes. These stakes cover all of Manhattan, The Bronx, and a small part of Connecticut!!!! So, my mission will then cover all five burrows of NYC and will be called the New York New York City Mission!!! How crazy cool is that?!? We are all pretty excited! However, I will only be here for 20 days of the new change. It is still super exciting though! We will also now have a TEMPLE in our mission boundaries!!!!!!!!!!

Well, that is probably the most exciting part of this week’s email. I thought it was super cool! Anyway, sorry for not sending a weekly email last week. Our schedule was super off due to the holiday and our Preparation Day moving to Wednesday. However, there were some good things that come from that! Monday was an awesome day filled with some really great finding and some miracles! Also, the Brooklyn Museum was open on Wednesday so we were able to go explore the museum for a bit. It was a grand day! I will attach some pictures and videos from the museum in another email probably :)

On Friday into Saturday we had exchanges with the Dyker Heights Elders, Elder Rogers and Elder Jarman. Elder Jarman came with me this time and we saw some amazing miracles during our 24 hours together! Friday night we had some back to back lessons. We had a lesson with a woman from Haiti named Monica. Monica had requested a Bible and The Book of Mormon from mormon.org and has been talking with the referral center sisters for a little over a month now. She has now been reading the Book of Mormon on her own since then and Friday night was our first lesson with her. First, on our way to Monica’s, we ran into a Maggie. Maggie has a Mormon friend in our ward and used to come to church with her regularly! Maggie said that she actually misses coming to the Mormon Church and would like to come visit again! Maggie still has her Book of Mormon and is excited to start meeting with missionaries again! Now, during our lesson with Monica, she soaked in everything we taught her and loved it! It was a little awkward at first because Monica’s apartment is 6ft X 4ft, so I had to sit next to Monica on her bed and Elder Jarman sat on a little chair halfway out the open door of her apartment. Despite her cramped living conditions and very limited wiggle room, the spirit filled that tiny apartment barely big enough for her bed, dresser, and 42” flat screen TV. It was a really neat experience. Monica also come to church yesterday and really enjoyed it there. She said that she is planning on coming every week and is really looking forward to the day she gets baptized. Monica is a miracle!

Throughout the remainder of our exchange, we continued to see miracles! We had a lesson with Jose and helped him feel forgiveness toward someone who had upset him earlier that day. As we knelt in prayer with Jose in the front hallway of his apartment building, Jose poured out his heart to God and pleaded that he would be able to forgive the man that offended him just as God always forgives us when we try our best. After Jose finished his prayer, we all stayed on our knees. After a minute or so, Jose finally said, “Wow, I feel it. I don’t feel angry no more. Jesus really does help us feel His peace”. It is such a special experience to be able to watch Jose grow closer to his Savior and Father in Heaven through little moments like these. Now, for the first time in Jose’s life, he says that he actually feels confident he can quit smoking. So neat!

Saturday Morning, Elder Jarman and I had a couple of our lessons fall through, so we had some time to go finding and do a few look ups. We decided that we would go visit Joan for the final time before dropping her to see if she would still like her copy of the The Book of Mormon she ordered onmormon.org. We have gone to find Joan quite a few times with no success. However, I felt this time might be different. We got to her apartment building and went up to the 5th floor and knocked on her door. To our pleasant surprise, Joan answered the door!!! She said she would still love to have her Book of Mormon and that she was about too leave in 15 minutes (perfect amount of time for a lesson!). We stepped right inside her apartment and taught her the message of the Restoration along with giving her her Book of Mormon. She was super receptive and is really excited to read the Book of Mormon now! As we were leaving Joan’s apartment building, we ran into Hector, a man who I had run into a couple weeks earlier by accidentally knocking on his door in the same building as Joan while looking for someone else. Hector remembered me and was more than willing to have us over to share our message with his family next week! It was so neat to be able to see God’s hand guiding His work over the past week. I am so grateful be play a small part in all of it :)

Well, there is so so so much more to talk about from the past couple weeks, but this email is already long enough! So, here are a few quick highlights:

• District Leader Training Meeting
• We ran into a super rich 19 year old from Pakistan who likes flashing his money around so he bought us lunch on the spot.
• Jack the Jew has been coming to church for the past few weeks in a row. Last week we sang him some hymns after church and he definitely felt the spirit to the point of tears. He’s coming around. Slowly but surely.
• We got pepper-spray from a guy selling a bunch of things on the street, and WOW does that stuff work! Not a pleasant experience! Would NOT recommend!
• I hit my 18 month mark on this past Saturday...
• John, a 19 year old recent convert, needed a ton of help with his math in order to graduate high school. So, Elder Lee and I helped him with more math than I have ever touched our thought about in over a year and a half! It was kinda fun though. We helped him with over 50 different assignments in total. At least he will now be able to graduate high school, so that is good! :)
• We got on a train FULL of a large group of Haitians protesting against President Trump. They had instruments and were chanting super loud! It was awesome!

I guess I will leave it at that for this week! I love you all! Help someone have an amazing day and yours will be amazing too!

“God made you special, and He loves you very much!”

Love ya!

Elder Snell