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.