Last e-mail home, thanks for all your letters and support for the past two years, I love you all to death!

Hey everybody!!

     Well its very sad to say that this will be my last email home from mexico in the mission field . . . its not that real to me yet, but im really excited to see you all again. 

      This week it was raining all week, but we still worked our butts off haha my companion had to go to a doctors office because his feet were wet all week and his toes had some problems, but it was worth it because we found alot more people to teach, one of which will be getting baptized the following week. 

      This week we have been teaching a 35 year old lady named Andrea, she´s a lady that's been investigating the church for a long time but hasn't gotten all that excited about getting baptized yet, we have been pushing baptism with her for about a month now, she finally accepted to be baptized next week, i wont be there :( but on friday when we went to teach her, we were right about to finish the lesson when she says "Elder Snow, can i ask you a favor?" i said yes, and then she said "take off your shoes" . . . i was like . . . no haha but then she got serious, "take off your shoes Elder Snow". I didn't know what to say, so i did what she told me, i took off my shoes (the ones i´ve used my whole mission so they are kinda beat up) and then she goes in her room and comes out with a brand new pair of really nice shoes and then told me to put them on! This family is a really humble family, but this is how the mexican members of the church are, if they see someone with a need, they don't think twice about helping you with whatever it is, and especially for the missionaries. 

      I am so humbled to have been able to serve my mission here in Veracruz, i cannot express how much i have loved it here, if the Lord asked me to do it again i would without a second thought to it.

      Hey mom, tell Peyton that i have a two hour layover in Salt Lake, and that i want to see them there! :) i dont know what time exactly i will get there, i think it will be around 6 or 7, but tell them i will be going out to look for them, thanks 

      Well i will see you all soon, thanks for all your letters and support for the past two years, i love you all to death! 

nos veremos pronto, les quiero,

     Elder Snow

I'm so happy I got to serve here in Veracruz!

HELLO FAMILY WHO I WILL SEE NXT WEEK!!!

       Hey im way happy to hear that everything went well with steffi´s wedding, i wish i could have been there with all of you. This week for us went really well, we have been finding alot more people to teach, here in San Andres Tuxtla there are alot of people who love to hear a message about God and Jesus Christ with their family in their house so we have been teaching alot right now, but there are very few that end up coming to church with us on sunday, thats the tough part, getting them actually converted. 

       We had a really spiritual week though, we had Zone Conferences this week with President Treviño. In all the Zone Conferences they show a video about the Elders that are about to leave for home, they have a video of us getting to the airport for the first time in mexico and stuff like that, and then we had the chance to bear our testimonies for the last time in a zone conference, it got to be so spiritual in there for me, im so happy i got to serve here in Veracruz, the hardest and most challenging moments of my life i´ve had here, but also the best and happiest moments i´ve had in my entire life have happened to me out here too, and thats why its so hard to leave, i really do love it here. 

       Today i had my 2nd to last p day, and you will never guess what we did for a zone activity . . . we took them hiking up a hill that looks out over San Andres haha the view was great, if you guys are still thinking about coming down here when i get back, i will take you on this hike.

       Thanks for sending me chases letter this week, reading his letters makes me want to work super hard until the finish line.

Love, Elder Snow

Jonny - "I find myself in my prayers giving thanks more and more for the opportunity to put on this plaque(nametag) every day, i love this work."

Hola mama,

     Hey im way excited for stefi, tell her that im way excited to see those pictures of her by the temple next week! That was an awesome letter from chases new companion! i knew chase would be an excellente missionary, Elder Torrie sounds like an awesome trainer too :) 

     These weeks keep getting shorter and shorter, we blink and then its sunday again, I got to go on divisions a few diferente times this week with the Elders in our zone, we went about 2 hours south to a city named Isla on tuesday and then on friday we went to a little town about a half hour east named Santiago Tuxtla, it was really a blessing for me to work over there because two of my old companions, Elder Areneda and Elder Franco, two elders that i helped train, are working in those two places, seeing them and working with them again was awesome, they have grown a ton since the last time we worked together.

     Right now we are working with a lady named Andrea that has been investigating the church for about 3 months now, little by little she´s been growing her testimony, she even pays her tithing even though shes not a member, but taking the next step of being baptized is a tough decision she says, we are praying she gets baptized at the end of this month.

     I´ve still got 3 weeks left down here to do some good, i find myself in my prayers giving thanks more and more for the opportunity to put on this plaque every day, i love this work. Thanks for your support mom, your going to do awesome in you new calling :) i love you tons and don't forget to send me pictures of the wedding next week.

    Love,

    Elder Snow

This week was one of the most spiritual weeks

Hola mama como estas

     Hey im way glad to hear that shannon had her baby!! they are going to catch up to you and dad in kids soon haha hey thanks for the pictures! i used the one of me in i think like 2nd grade without a tooth. 

     This week was one of the most spiritual weeks i think i´ve had out here, we got to do a bunch of stuff, we had our first zone class here on tuesday, we went to a leaders council on wednesday in veracruz, we got to see general conference on saturday and sunday, and today i had the amazing opportunity on p day to go back to Catemaco and see some converts, Pedro and Mariana! they are doing great, they have their temple reccomends to go to the temple and get sealed all signed and ready to go. They just haven't been able to go yet because they don't have the money to get all the way up to veracruz right now, but before i leave Veracruz they will get sealed, they just need a few more weeks to save.

     I got my flight plans this week to go home . . . 31 of October . . . i feel wierd, i dont know whether to be happy or sad about it, happy because i know i completed what i needed to do, but sad because its over. 

     This up coming week we are going to be super busy, keep us in your prayer so we can find a soul here in San Andres Tuxtla to teach and baptize before i leave, i told President Treviño he will not take me out of this mission until we find someone to baptize here haha opening an area is a little hard to get started, but we have faith we can do it.

     Elder Snow

We have warm water here!

Hey!!

    Thanks everybody for the birthday letters, on Friday i got to go from San Andres Tuxtla to Veracruz again to have a leadership conference, it was fun to go up there and get together with alot of my companions that i had before and talk with them. This week was crazy let me tell ya, Here in our new area me and elder Conklin are totally new, we don't know the area, the members, and have zero investigator progressing, but its a pretty nice experience to rely on the spirit to tell us what to do. We found a house to rent and moved all our stuff in on wednesday, its a small brick house kinda by our church, and guess what, we have warm water here! i had forgotten what it feels like to shower early in the morning with warm water, its amazing, what a blessing.This week we have to go back to Veracruz for the months zone leaders council on thursday, we are going to have to travel alot in this next month.

       I hope Chase is excited and ready to go, alot of my companions that know that Chase leaves tomorrow are wishing him luck, is he leaving with anyone or going alone?

       Alright well i gotta go, but hey mom, i need a funny picture of me before the mission, The mission president is asking for before and after pictures of us, could you look for a picture of me when i was in high school, i dont know which, just a funny picture that shows how much of a doornob before haha, could you send me like 4 or 5 pictures of me before the mission like tomorrow so i can give them to the mission office, thanks :)

Elder Snow

Happy Birthday Jonnny! 21!!

Jonny - going to Los Tuxtlas, Catemaco in the Mirador Branch to train a new zone leader

     

     I´ve got some pretty crazy news, i just got a call from the mission president about an hour ago telling me that I´ve got transfers, right now in the mission we have 9 zones, Mocambo, Reforma, Villa Rica, Veracruz Mexico, Orizaba, Cordoba, Tierra Blanca, Tuxtepec, and Los Tuxtlas (it's pretty much a zone for every stake) but now we are getting so many new missionaries that it's hard to contain over 220 missionaries in just 9 zones, so they are as of this week splitting the zone of Los Tuxtlas, and they are sending me down there to be the new Zone leader with a brand new zone leader named Elder Conklin to train him.

     Im pretty excited :) honestly I didnt really want to leave, I wanted to end my mission here, but Los Tuxtlas was really fun when I was there before (in Catemaco) its so green there, it's like the jungle zone, so I'm happy to be going back, my new branch I'm going to be at is called Mirador.

     Well I dont have that much time to write this week, its a 3 and a half hour bus ride from here andI've  gotta start packing, I leave tomorrow morning early, but just so you know we are all ok down here, the hurricanes didn't even touch us, it just rained alot haha

      Elder Snow

(oh . . . I hope you like the picture, Elder Smith talked me into doing it high school musical style haha)

¡¡¡¡VIVA MÉXICO!!!!

     Today is a very special day for Mexico, its independence day! September 16th (everyone in the US thinks that its 5 de Mayo but its not) its like the 4th of July in the US but mexican style. We had a pretty fun activity with the ward on saturday watching some native dances and eating a lot a different types of food, the activities purpose was to get investigators and inactives to come see that us mormons are normal people, we had a great success.

       Well tomorrow we have transfers, my last transfer of my mission, BUT IM NOT GETTING CHANGED!!! :) i told the mission president in an interview i had with him a few weeks ago that i wanted to stay here in Magisterio until the end of my mission, so he let me stay! If we dont have any special changes in these next 6 weeks, i will finish my mission with 5 areas and 13 companions, im happy with that. 

       Elder Chamberlain right now is in the stake of Orizaba, he´s not getting changed either this transfer but his new companions name is Elder Merril from Texas who was one of our district leaders here in stake Reforma. Me and Elder Chamberlain were companions for a month and a half in Piedras Negras, i had some awesome experiences with him, thats awesome you saw his dad the other day! 

       Alright well i gotta get going, i will write you next week, thanks for the birthday present, i am going to love that mexican hammock i wanted! haha thanks for everything i´ll see you soon, i love you and miss you all a ton!

      Elder Snow

When she was getting out of the water, there is no better feeling than that

Hey mom,

     Hey sorry I didn't write you last week, don't call the offices haha I'm fine I promise :) Last week for us went well, we all had interviews with President Treviño, he told me that its for sure, I will be coming home on October 31, 2013, just in time to go trick or treating ;)  

     We had a great week, super busy, but a very good week, Sister Alejandra Ramos Perez is the newest member of the church here in Magisterio. her baptism was awesome. Working with her and her husband has been really fun, her husband Urbano still has to stop smoking 100% before his baptism, so we are still working with him on that. Getting those two married was hard, it's easy to get someone married here if you have their birth certificate, but if you don't have it its really hard to get it to register them again because the way they have things here in Mexico, but we got it!! I don't think I have ever worked so hard to get somebody baptized before, it took us almost a month and a half, but when it was all finished and when she was getting out of the water, there is no better feeling than that. 

     

    I hope you can congratulate Stefie for me, my goal was to get back and get married before her, but I guess I just lost the race (don't tell her I said that) Tell her I love her and congrats!

                                           

   Sorry I didn't write you this week, I wrote Chase a letter last week, but here are some pictures from last week

Last week we helped a couple get married so that our investigator Alejandra could get baptized, it took a while to get all the paper work done and everything because her husband didn't have his birth certificate, but after we registered him again they got married.

 Last week we helped a couple get married so that our investigator Alejandra could get baptized, it took a while to get all the paper work done and everything because her husband didn't have his birth certificate, but after we registered him again they got married.

 

This week was an amazing week and I want to share a cool experience that happened to us-the baptism of our newest convert Sister Angelina

     About 3 weeks ago me and my other companion elder Farnsworth one sunday afternoon were in the baptism service of our convert Jose Luis when we see a really old woman come into the room in a wheel chair to watch the baptism. We found out later that that woman was the 85 year old sister Angelina that had been investigating the church for more then 30 years. All of her family are members and she came with them to church sometimes but never wanted to get baptized, she knows the missionary discussions by heart haha. When i was walking past her after the baptism service that day i had a strong spiritual impression to go invite her to be baptized, then i walked over and started talking to her to get to know her a little bit and then i invited her to be baptized, but she kinda just laughed at me saying no haha but then she invited us over to her house to eat lunch in that up coming week, so we did. After about a week and a half of teaching her, she accepted to be baptized, her two grandsons, now return missionaries, baptized her.

     We are really excited for this next up coming week, i hope everything is going well there in St George, i still don't know my release date, and to be honest i don't really want to know it. i love you all a ton!

Elder Snow 

Bautismo de Hermana Angelina Noguerola Palacios(Baptism of Sister Angelina)

Estamos en otro pueblo como media hora oeste de Veracruz que se llama El Tejar

We're in another town 30 minutes east of Veracruz, called El Tejar

Loma del Faro

Estamos en un pueblo como una hora de la ciudad de Veracruz que se llama Loma del Faro

We're in a little town an hour from Veracruz - It is called Loma del Faro

Comiendo pizza en Dominos

Eating Domino's Pizza

El quórum de los Diáconos de la mision mexico veracruz jaja creo que soy el mas alto que todos, ¡POR FIN!

The Mexico Veracruz Mission Deacons Quorum-haha

I believe I'm the tallest one of all finally!

La Zona Reforma despues de una clase de zona

The Reforma Zone - after a Zone Meeting

Victor Manuel was baptized-it is way cool being a part of his conversion-he wants to serve a mission!

Hey family hows it going

     Those are some pretty awesome pictures you guys sent me!! its so dry there . . . its like the complete opposite of where im living right now, im not sure which climate im going to like more.

     For us this week was crazy, but crazy in a good way. We have 26 misionaries in the zone with 13 areas to supervise, so we have been all over the place this week, doing divisions, and doing baptism interviews with the new converts of the zone. In our own area right now we are helping a lady named Alejandra with her family teaching them the gospel, she's awesome, and has now accepted baptism so we are helping her get married so she can get baptized, but her husband isn't registered, he doesn't have a birth certificate so he cant get married until he gets registered, so me and my companion have been running around Veracurz all week getting their papers together to get them married and baptized :) this morning got the last of the papers we need, they should be getting married next week.

      On saturday we baptized a 18 year old young man named Victor Manuel. We found him from a referral that a youth named Luis Enrique gave us for one of his friends, we were working with them for about 3 weeks and on saturday Luis Enrique baptized him, it is way cool being a part of his conversion, Victor says he wants to serve a mission now that Luis Enrique will be leaving on his in a few short months, i bet he will go :)

      well i hope you like the pictures i sent, i will write you next week! love, Elder Snow

August, 2013

"The Prophet Missionaries"-that's what they call us now!

    Thats awesome that chase is doing so well in the MTC, reading his letter just reminded me of pretty much what i felt like being there haha thats awesome, This week for us went really well, my new companions name is Elder Morgan Smith from Fresno California, he's way cool, gringo companions are great! He's the youngest of 7 children in his family and has got about a year on the mission, his dad is one of the area 70s thats in California. Its pretty fun to walk around with Elder Smith because whenever we are around members they always ask us, ¿José Smith y Lorenzo Snow son los antepasados de ustedes verdad? We are the prophet missionaries, thats what they call us now haha.

    So Karla told me that she was talking to you guys on facebook, thats awesome! she speaks english because shes got family in Houston. Their family is turning out to be probably one to the coolest families that i have known on my mission, they are like brand new converts, but they look like they have years in the church. Karla is a ward missionary, and last week got her Patriarchal Blessing. It was so cool because after she got it we went to ask her how it went, and when i asked her she just started to cry because the spirit was so strong, shes an awesome convert. I´ve decided and made the decision that i want Karly to get married to Abdiel, Karlas little brother, so that we can be family.

     Well i gotta go im running late, I hope everything goes good for the first day of school week, tell Karly Kate and Grace that i miss and love them alot and that i hope they do great in school. 

Love, Elder Snow

Little Miracles

Hey family!

      This week i started to talk to Elder Farnsworth about living in a place like St George (hes from gilbert arizona so its kinda the same kinda weather) and one of the first things he told me was to watch out for the scorpions haha be careful ey . . 

      Well these few weeks have gone by super fast, and once again, we are having transfers :( Elder Farnsworth se va a la ciudad de Cordoba para ser Lider de Zona, and im staying in Veracruz with an Elder named Elder Smith from California, im excited for the changes, but being with Elder Farnsworth was awesome, im gonna miss that kid a ton.

      Me and my companion this week have been having some pretty cool spiritual experiencias, like finding golden investigators and stuff like that, a bunch a little miracles have been catching us by suprise here within our own area and in the areas of the Elders in our Zone that we have felt really blessed this week, we were able to see the baptism of our newest convert to the church, Hermano Jose Luis, his father in law baptized him, getting him baptized this week was just one of the miracles that happened this week. I keep thinking that the cool things that have been happening to us has something to do with chase being a missionary now, i hope hes having a blast there!

      Thanks for the address of the house, i dont know my release date yet but dont stress about that, ill take care of everything from here, i will let you know when they give it to me, but if my calculations are correct i will be getting off the plane in St George Utah the 31 of October, just in time for halloween :)

      well i gotta go i will write you next week! i love you all a ton!!! and chase, tell me how the russian is going and let me know what building your rooming in ok, i love you bro.

              con amor, Elder Snow

                                          Bautismo de Hermana Veronica 27 de Julio 2012

                                       

Fuimos al acuario de veracruz para nuestro dia de preparacion hoy, super divertido.

Our newest convert to the church, Hermano Jose Luis, his father in law baptized him, getting him baptized this week was just one of the miracles that happened this week.