March 12, 2018
Hello, Everyone! :)
Welcome to my weekly email for the week taking place between March 5th and March 11th.
Wow, has this week been an adventure!!!! Oh my goodness! This week has taken us through just about everything from miracles to a lightning-thunder-snow-hail-wind storm!! Goodness, I love it here so much! I haven’t found anything to dislike about the area, really. My district is amazing! The members of the branch are amazing! My companion is amazing! Life is just amazing!
Alright, I will get into what happened this week now
Elder Lee (Korean elder in my district) had to go home for 3 days for a green card interview. So, while he was knocking hotel doors with his Dad back in Idaho and going out to eat with his family every night, Elder Rice and I got to have Elder Smith join our companionship for the time Elder Lee was gone! Tons of fun! I have served around Elder Smith before, so it was really fun to be his companion for 3 days. Since Elder Lee is a Korean speaking missionary, we were in a zebra pool (bilingual teaching pool) for the time he was with us. Lots of fun! I love Koreans!!
Last week, we got to have our second lesson with one of our new investigators, Jou (pronounced Joe). Jou is from the Philippines and is somewhere around his 50s. He is super awesome! Originally, Jou had texted us Sunday night last week and asked if we knew how to play table tennis. We told him we have one here at the church, and he REALLY wanted to play with us! He was going to come during preparation day last week to play with us, but our plans had to change, however, we were able to set up a lesson with him for that night. Well, Jou came to the lesson and after having our discussion, he whips out his own professional ping-pong paddles from his backpack and insists that we play him! He refused to leave until we played a couple games with him, so we set up the table and played a few rounds. Fun times!
This week has been FILLED with some amazing experiences and miracles! Elder Rice and I set some goals for finding new investigators and investigators at church which were a little higher than seemed initially possible. However, we decided to exercise our faith and prayerfully set those goals. I was confident that the Lord would help us achieve them throughout the course of the week. So, we went forth excited to find some solid investigators who would be interested in coming to church yesterday! Almost all of our lessons for this past week fell through, so we had some extra time to go finding. However, a lot of that extra was filled with meetings that came out of nowhere haha. Well, by Friday we had not found any new investigators yet. Friday night, all of our lessons cancelled. I was a little frustrated with the circumstances, but I knew the Lord needed us somewhere else :) So, after praying, Elder Rice and I went to the apartment building next door to our investigator who had to cancel and decided to knock the entire building. The first floor was super bad! Hahaha! Some nasty rejections and some older Korean ladies. However, when we got up to the second floor, the first door I knocked swung right open to reveal Ken! Ken is awesome!!!!!!!! He is from India and his family is Hindu, however, he has just recently taken an interest in Christianity despite his families tradition of Hinduism. Ken was really interested is what we had to share and said he would like to come to church on Sunday! Well, Sunday came and so did he! Ken told us that he will be coming again next week and would like to meet with us during the week to learn more! Miracle!
Alright, here is my last story and then I will be done. Promise!
Lately I have been praying really hard that we will be able to get more support from the members in the branch with missionary work. Our branch is just barely scraping through to stay alive and I know that getting the members involved in missionary work will really help to unite them together! Anyway, needless to say, God has been helping a TON! Although, it is in very interesting ways. I am actually super grateful that God answers prayers in a completely different way than I would expect. The ways my prayers have been answered lately have had a far greater impact on the situation/lives of others than I ever could imagine! Here is an example of what happened just yesterday at church:
Yesterday morning, Elder Rice and I were calling and texting all of our investigators to invite them to Church. One of our investigators, Yvonne, responded that she will come! That was definitely a surprise! She hasn’t been keeping any commitments we have extended to her lately, so we were super pumped that she agreed to come to church. Yvonne is a single parent and has two children: the most adorable 6 year old girl and a 16 year old son who is mentally disabled. So, Yvonne needed a little help getting her family to church. We told her we could be there 30 minutes before church started to help push her son to church in his wheelchair. Well, we got there at 12:30 and Yvonne had forgotten that it was daylight savings! So, she was running an hour behind schedule. She frantically got her son and daughter ready for church, and an hour later we were ready to go to church :) Church starts at 1:00 and we got there at about 1:45. Well.........yesterday was our Branch Conference, and the branch president’s wife had put together a little musical number with a small choir. She asked me if I would accompany the choir on the organ. I was praying that we would be able to make it to church in time for me to accompany the choir for the musical number. However, as we walked into the church building with Yvonne and her family, I heard the choir performing the final verse of the song a cappella......I had missed the musical number..... Right after they finished performing, I pushed Yvonne’s son into the chapel in his wheelchair, and we enjoyed the rest of sacrament meeting with Yvonne’s family. After church almost every member of the choir and the branch presidency approached me. I found out that President Garcia (branch president) had tried to stall the meeting while he sent his counselors around the entire building to hunt me down before starting the musical number. They had all thought I decided to abandon my duties and not come to church that day! Hahahaha! However, once they say Elder Rice and I wheel in Yvonne’s son in his wheelchair, the members hearts changed. Instead of being chewed out after church for not being able to play for the musical number, we received more love and support from the members than ever before! Almost all of the members were making sure we had their phone numbers and telling us that if we ever need anything to just call them and they will take care of us. One member even gave us pens that her husband made that say “Mormon Forever” on them! God works in mysterious ways, but I know they are correct and perfect! Heavenly Father answers every prayer according to His will, in His own time, and in His own way.
Sorry for the long email today! If you decided to skip the long part, just know that I know God lives and that He is aware of each and every one of us! His ways are perfect and His gospel is true. I love Him! He loves you! He truly sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to Atone for our sins and offer us redemption and salvation on condition of our repentance. Our Savior lives! He loves! He lifts!
I love you all!
Don’t keep the faith! Spread it!
Elder Snell
Pictures!
1-4) These were taken by my current Stake President, President DaRosa! Long Island City!!!!!! Spent a lot of time there when I was serving in Astoria :)
5) This is my wonderful companion, Elder Rice! What a champ! :)
