Week 11: Favorite Pday Ever: A day at the Beach

Hola Familia!!

I miss you guys a ton!! Remember how I told you we were going to have a conference with the whole mission with a member of the 70? It was canceled which kind of stinks but we get to watch a broadcast of the dedication of the Concepcion temple this Sunday which should be super super awesome! I'm really excited! 

Also today FUIMOS A LA PLAYA!!

We had an activity with just the hermanas in my zone and the mission presidents wife! By far my favorite p day ever!! we went to the beach in Viña and it was a beautiful day!! perfect weather and the water was beautiful but freezing ( we didn't go in just felt it with our toes) We had a picnic and made sandwiches and asked Hermana Romeu all sorts of questions about her life and how we can be better missionaries!! She is sooo sooo amazing and I love her so so much! We had so much fun. I love all the sisters in my zone and I'm going to miss the ones that are leaving next cambio! 

With our investigators, Alejandro didn't come to church this Sunday and I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart! He is so faithful and never missed church before. I thought something must have happened and when he finally answered his phone and said he was sleeping, I literally cried. I felt so awful like he was losing his testimony. Hermana Wurdel told me something really awesome though. She said in the mission we feel a tiny part of what Heavenly Father feels for his children when we disobey. That really made me gain perspective. I want Alejandro to find the truth and when he didn't come to church, I felt so discouraged. Later that night we had a lesson with him and he felt so bad. My companion told him I cried for him and he felt awful. Haha I was happy he felt awful for missing church. HE is so complicated. He has a testimony! He told us he knows the book of Mormon is true. He is just scared to commit to baptism. He is nervous and a little stressed, so I asked if we could all kneel and pray together and I asked him to pray if this church is true. He said the sweetest and most sincere prayer. He said I know this church is true God please help me to not feel doubt and to know this is the right path.  he felt really good after we prayed. Pray for him that he will be able to commit to baptism because I know it will really help him!! 

Also I ate my first completo! (Chilean hot dog) We had an FHE with Cristobal and his family and the zone leaders! Cristobal made all of us completos and we were able to teach him and his mom! We didn't bring up the topic of baptism though. It just didn't feel right at that moment. But the completos were delicious! Its basically just a hot dog with onions, guacamole, mayonnaise, and tomatoes ( I ate mine without tomatoes haha) 

I am learning so much being a missionary! But most of all that I need to put my trust in God. I have been beating myself up a lot this week thinking what if we did this differently maybe things would be different. I am working on having faith that in doing the Lord's work I will have help. I am far from perfect, but if I put my faith in God he will make up the difference! 

I love and miss you all so much! Pray for Alejandro, Kevin, also Bemjamin y Pedro ( our other investigators with a baptismal date) The work is so hard and pretty discouraging at times so I need your prayers!!

Con mucho amor

Hermana Snyder

With Sister Romeu, our Mission Mom

Week 10: Lots of Ups and Downs this week...Wait! That's every week! haha!

Hola!!

This week soooo much happened. I don't even know where to begin. First of all thank you sooooo much, Mom, for the package. I got it on one of our rough days so the timing was perfect!  This week was so busy. We found so many new people and taught like 4 lessons every day! We have a lot of new people to teach that I'm really excited about!! 

Our investigator Cristobal is really really awesome! he came to church on sunday and wants to be baptized! Ok the bad news is his mom was driving by and pulled over and waved for us to stop and talk to her. She said Cristobal loves learning from the missionaries but she doesn't want him to get baptized because their whole family is Catholic. She said if he wants to go to church and learn from you thats totally fine because we never go to church anyways:/ what the heck. They are all really Catholic but never go to church. I don't understand! She said we can keep visiting and was worried we were going to stop coming if she told us he can't get baptized. We were really really sad because Cristobal is soo awesome and we just really love him and his whole family (especially his little brother. He is hilarious) we went home and cried together (that was the day I got the package)  WE are going to keep teaching him and we have been praying that his mom's heart will be softened! So please pray for Cristobal and his mom! 

Ok next investigator. About two weeks ago we met a man who is a less active and wanted us to come teach his 16 year old son! We were finally able to contact them again and we taught his son and set a baptismal date for his son Kevin! We brought him to church (haha we had to call him a million times and wait outside his house for like 30 minutes but he made it) I'm not sure how he felt at church because I still can't really understand people and he left really fast. But we are going to visit him again this week and invite him to church and mutual. So please pray for Kevin and his father that they will have a desire to come to church!

The best part ever of this week was our lesson with Alejandro last night. He is so awesome. The whole time we`ve been teaching him he just feels like he isn't receiving an answer that this church is true like we`ve been promising him. He has lots of doubts and questions that we have tried to answer to the best of our ability and he felt skeptical about his baptismal date. Last night we showed him a video of the first vision because we feel like he relates a lot to Joseph Smith. After the video he basically just poured out his feelings and said before we met with him he looked into a lot of other churches but felt nothing. He was looking for the truth. He said when he comes to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he said he feels "calor en mi alma" warmth in my soul! He said he knows this is true and that he knows the book of Mormon is true! We just about cried with joy! He has so much faith! His testimony strengthened my testimony for sure!  I bore my testimony to him and told him I pray for him every day and night that he will receive an answer and about the blessings of baptism. He said he is ready for his baptismal date on the 27th and that his mom supports him! WE were so so so happy! Alejandro is the best but pray for him too! 

Also we had zone conference this week! It was really awesome we had it with 1 other zone and I was able to see some friends from the MTC! 

Ok to answer your questions... Peña Blanca is a suburb and most of the people are pretty well off financially. There are poor parts but for the most part its really nice! WE live in a house thats kind of like a townhome with two homes in one. We meet in the chapel for church and the chapel is really close! These past two weeks have been harder to get people to church because of conference and then we had stake conference in Villa Alemana which is a little farther. We had to ask help from the elders to get our investigators to church because the ward mission leader won't help us :/ But Cristobal, Kevin and Alejandro all came so it worked out! The food is good we have chicken and rice pretty much every single day. Cristobal made us crepes the other day with manjar which is like dulce de leche and is SOOOO good!! Im addicted to manjar haha. I feel fine physically. I sleep really well every night. 

Also last pday for our zone activity we watched the movie Coco. It was all in Spanish and I only understood about 50 percent but I still cried. It is so cute and so touching! Go watch it! 

Anyways I love you all so much I know with all my heart this gospel is true!! I'm so happy to be out here serving the Lord and whenever I feel sad and no one wants to listen and baptismal dates fall through I just think that no matter what Heavenly Father is still with me. As long as I'm trying my best, he is proud of me!! Please pray for my investigators. They need your prayers way more than I do!! 

Con mucho amor

Hermana Snyder

p.s. Here are pictures of my zone! I love my zone and my zone leaders Elder Robinson and Elder Villanueva! They are the best! Elder Villanueva is from Mexico and probably one of the funniest people I've ever met! Also he lived in Arcadia for three years while his dad was mission president there. We found out that we went to the same mormon prom at the science center haha!!

My Zone

Week 9: General Conference - The Best!

Hola!!

First of all conference is the best! I know with all my heart that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet and is called of God. I just feel love and happiness whenever I even see a picture of him. I got to listen in English which was amazing! All the gringos had a room in the stake center and we bought food and had a little party watching conference. haha! It was really fun. I love the missionaries in my zone they are the best. 

Also our investigator Alejandro came to conference and said it answered all his questions!! He came to the Sunday morning session and in between the sessions called us and asked if he could come to the second session!! We said OF COURSE! He came back and is just so awesome he wants to learn and has a baptism date! We also have dates for two other investigators! Cristobal and his uncle Oscar. They didn't come to conference but we had an FHE with them after and brought a Brazilian cake that Hna Wurdel made! It was super fun and I think they are progressing! 

Hermana Wurdel and I are getting closer. She really is a great missionary...very hardworking and obedient and good at talking to people. She is super duper positive and happy all the time which is awesome!! I still get frustrated with not being able to communicate, but we are figuring out how to deal with it. 

Also this week I had a pretty life changing experience. We got a reference from other elders about a family they were teaching that just moved into our sector. We went to visit them and the little girl came out to the gate after we said Halo! We noticed that she was blind and started talking to her. Then the son came out and we realized he is blind too. They said their mom was cleaning the house so we offered to help and they let us in. We discovered that the mom is blind too and the house was filthy. some of the rooms didn't have a floor and there was just trash and filth everywhere. The bathroom was nasty and the kitchen was awful. We started to help her clean and it was really hard for me to see a family in this situation. We talked to the family a little bit about the gospel and the mom said she believes in God but doesn't want to ¨be Mormon¨ or get baptized. We just talked to her and told her to call if she ever needs help. We left the house and I just sat on the curb and cried for like 20 minutes. It broke my heart to see a family that is all blind and is living in a situation like that. I realized that I honestly have nothing to complain about. Ever. I have been so blessed with my family, education, knowledge, home, this gospel. Seriously everything. I don't know why I have been blessed so much while others live such different lives.  I don't know what I can do to help this family but i want to do something whether they want to hear the gospel or not. 

Nevertheless I know God loves all his children. I know this church is true and I have never been more sure of anything in my whole life. The book of Mormon is so true and I feel the love of God so strong when I read it. I know with all my heart that Christ is my Savior.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!! My heart is with you, but more than that, it is with the people in Chile and with my Heavenly Father!

Love Hermana Snyder

p.s. One of the pictures is us with Cristobal. He sells socks and we bought some and took a picture with us all wearing our socks. haha!

General Conference Party!!

Week 8: I Felt Your Prayers!

Hola Familia!!

This week was better than last! I still have really hard days, but I'm doing better! Thank you so much for all your prayers. This week whenever I felt sad or discouraged, I thought of all you and how you are all praying for me and I am so so so grateful! I love you guys so so much!

This week our investigator with a baptismal date fell through. She had some problems in her life and she was living with a member and that member basically didn't want to deal with her problems so she doesn't live in our sector anymore. But we had two people come to church yesterday!! They are the cutest little old couple but they both came to church and loved it and we're teaching them tomorrow. We also have two other new people we're teaching who are awesome! One of them is named Alejandro and he is so receptive. He basically said he is looking for the truth and doesn't know where to find it. We said he is just like Joseph Smith and we bore our testimonies to him. I'm not sure exactly how he feels because I still can't understand that much, but I hope he continues with the lessons and comes to church ( or general conference this week).

Mom, I don't know if you got a picture the other day, but the sister that always sends you pictures is Hermana Duran. So this week Hermana Duran's house sort of caught on fire. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but her whole kitchen was completely black and she called us in tears to come help. Of course we did because she is like the best. Hermana Wurdel and I and the other elders in the next sector scrubbed her whole kitchen clean of ash. Nothing was destroyed just covered in a thick layer of ash. But it was kind of fun. We listened to efy music and sang all the words, and I think her kitchen has never been cleaner.

We also had intercambios and I was with Hermana Crook! I'm not gonna lie it was sooooo nice to be with a gringa and we basically talked in English the whole time! She's also a dancer, so we had a lot to talk about... it was so fun! 

Ok some stuff about Chile, We have almuerzo (lunch) everyday with members and its sooooooo much food. We never eat dinner and I hardly eat breakfast cuz we get so much food at lunch haha! Also there are dogs EVERYWHERE!!! Peña Blanca has its fair share of hills, but nothing compared to Viña del Mar. I love the people here though...for the most part. haha! They almost never keep their appointments, so most of the time we teach lessons if they just happen to be home and let us in. But we teach lessons everyday. We have the cutest family we are teaching! The mom always cancels appointments with us, but whenever we pass by they let us in haha. The kids are so cute and they love us. I gave them a Book of Mormon and testified of its truthfulness and I think the dad in the family was interested. 

Anyways I love you all so much and want to thank everyone for the prayers and love! I really felt it so much this week! 

Intercambios with Hermana Crook.

Super delicious empañadas and the brown stuff in the bowl is brigadera, a yummy carmel stuff from Brazil that Hermana Wurdel made.

Cleaning the ash from Hermana Duran's kitchen

Weeks 6 and 7: I'm in Peña Blanca - Miracles and Struggles

Hola Familia!

I'm in Viña! My sector is called Peña Blanca and is inland about 45 minutes from Viña. We left the CCM last Tuesday and when we got to the mission home we met the mission president and his wife and kids. We had our interviews and kind of just waited around and played games until all the interviews were done. That night we met the other missionaries from Mexico. There was one more sister who came from Mexico. We stayed in this random little hotel that night on a little street in Viña. haha it was funny. The next day we took pictures at a really pretty overlook and at the famous Flower Clock. Viña del Mar is seriously such a beautiful city! Next, we had training that whole day at the mission home and then that night we met our trainers. My trainer is Hermana Wurdel. She is from Brazil and doesn´t speak or understand any English. I wish I could say that I love her and she's awesome, but I am so frustrated that I can't communicate with her. I do feel pretty lonely a lot of the time. 

I really do love the members in Peña Blanca. I can't understand much, but they are so kind and say that I speak Spanish really well. This Sunday, my first miracle happened! A friend of one of the members came to church and after sacrament meeting, we taught her the first lesson and I could tell she was really feeling the spirit. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes! We set a date for October 14!. It was crazy my first week in the mission and I have an investigator with a baptismal date. We are also teaching an old couple that we contacted in the street and we taught them the first lesson. They are super receptive. And we are teaching a 15 year old boy named Cristobol who is awesome too! He actually kind of reminds me of Matthew. He's like a Chilean Matthew haha. 

Today was fun we had a zone activity. We played kickball and ate Churipan (its like a little mini hot dog) My zone is AWESOME! One of my really good friends Hermana Sanchez from the CCM is in my zone. I love my zone leaders too. Today was good because I talked to an elder in the zone who had a hard first companion too who only spoke Spanish. He was able to relate and tell me that it gets better which I really hope he is right cuz this is really really hard. 

Keep me in your prayers. I know that God hears and answers prayers.

I love you all so much,

Hermana Snyder

With Hermana Klein,  friend from the CCM

Me and my trainer, Sister Wurdel

At Church

Zone Activity

Week 5: One more week at the CCM!

Our Dining room was all decorated for Chile's Independence day

Hola!!

I have 5 days left here and I'm so excited to be out in the field. The CCM has started to kind of feel like a prison and I can't wait to go to Vina. I'm a little nervous of course but mostly excited!! Im gonna miss everyone so much though. I've made some of the best friends of my life here and I'm so sad I have to leave them. 

FUTBOL: yes mom, we still play soccer everyday, but I don't know if I can say I'm getting better. Last week on Pday we had another CCM soccer tournament. The teams were by district and In the last 10 seconds of our game I scored a goal and it went right between the goalie´s legs! Probably one of the proudest moments of my life. I also have so many bruises. I really need some shin guards!!

Another funny story, a few nights ago the fire alarm started going off in the hospedaje (the building we live in) it was like 10:15 pm so everyone was in their pajamas and we didn´t know what to do so we were all kinda just standing around and trying to find the mission president and his wife to know what to do. No one knew if it was real and finally the CCM president's wife came out and turned it off and said it was a false alarm. The next day one of the Elders confessed that he was taking a really hot shower and opened up his door to let all the steam out and thats what made the alarm go off haha. It was sooooo funny. 

We watched this devotional by Elder Bednar called Character of Christ and it was AMAZING. Every other missionary probably knows what I'm talking about. But it was about turning outward like Christ instead of inward and it really hit me how much I need to work on my Christlike attributes. I have a long way to go before I have the Character of Christ but we all learn line upon line. 

I've adjusted to the food and I love it now. I think I just love meal times because its the only breaks we have. haha! I do have a Spanish set of scriptures and Im doing great health wise! Its stressful and hard here but I can´t wait to be a missionary out in the field!! 

I love you all! Good luck with everything! volleyball and band. And Matthew looks so good with glasses! Hermana Segovia said Aw your brother is sooo cute when I showed her the picture. haha! 

Con Mucho Amor

Hermana Snyder

Week 4: A Day in Santiago

HOLA TODOS!

I attached a video so hopefully you can open it!!

This week was PACKED. Last p day after I emailed we went contacting out on the streets. We walked so far and were able to give out some pamphlets and see some cool stuff in the city. Honestly I have no idea what people are saying when we talk to them but they seemed interested in the church haha! The next day we went contacting for one of our MTC classes and we gave out a Book of Mormon! Its so cool to have the experience to leave the MTC and go actually meet and talk with people even though its super scary and I usually have no idea whats going on. 

Last friday we went proselyting!! They bused all the missionaries from my group to the Santiago west mission and we were paired up with a missionary in the field. My companion was Hermana Ribodino. She was from Argentina and spoke no English so it was a great opportunity to work on my Spanish. I sent a picture of us. She's the one with the purple scarf. She was such an awesome missionary she was so good at starting up a normal conversation with anyone. We walked around a neighborhood with tiny little houses and gates around every house. What you do in Chile is stand outside the gate and yell ¡Halo! and wait for people to come out. Most people didn't come out but a few did and I had an awesome experience with this man named Guido. We said Halo outside his gate and after a few minutes he came out. Hermana Ribodino started talking with him and I picked up that he didn´t really believe in Christ and that he's from Vina! As she was talking I felt the strongest feeling that I needed to give him a book of Mormon. Seriously, it was such a strong prompting and then my companion turned to me and motioned for me to speak. I bore my testimony in the little Spanish I knew and asked him if he knew about the book of Mormon. He said no, so I pulled it out and showed him. When he saw it, his expression totally changed and he was so interested in it. He was flipping through the book and my companion and I ended up teaching him the whole first lesson right outside his house by the gate! It was so cool and I taught him how to pray right there on the street. I gave the simple prayer I knew but the spirit was so strong and it was the coolest experience. My companion was a little sad he didnt actually live in Santiago West so Ill just have to find him in Vina! 

Also there are so many dogs its ridiculous!! At times we couldn't hear what people were saying on the street because every dog in every house was barking its head off haha!

Yesterday I kind of freaked out when I realized how much Spanish I don´t know. haha! it was super random but we were learning a lot of grammar and I didn´t understand any of it and I was just getting so frustrated. Its also so so hard to sit in class for so long and stay focused. I fell asleep yesterday for like 25 minutes and when I woke up the Elders had written on the board, Points for Sleeping in class, Hermana Snyder: 1. haha it was funny but I also felt kinda bad. 

The new group arrived at the MTC! We have two new Latinas in our room who are so awesome. One of them, Hermana Valenzuela is from Chile and she going to Los Angeles Temple Visitors Center on her mission! The other is Hermana Sanchez whose from Colombia and she is going to Vina! They are so so cute and also speak amazing english. Hermana Segovia and I went contacting with them today and we were able to get a name and number of a man and give him a book of Mormon. Hermana Valenzuela also bought all of us Super8 chocolate which is EVERYWHERE here in chile. Last night they were trying to imitate Americans and how they speak and it was the funniest thing of my life. My stomach hurt from laughing when they tried singing britney spears in their best american accent. 

Anyways I love life in the CCM! Sometimes sitting in class for 12 hours a day gets pretty long but thank goodness for PDay haha. Im so thankful for my experiences here and I seriously feel the spirit so strong! Spanish is super hard and its a little scary that I leave the CCM in two weeks but I know if I rely on the Lord everything will work out! 

 I miss you guys and love you so so much. Good luck with school and life and everything. I pray for you guys all the time!

Con amor

Hermana Snyder

With Hermana Valenzuela and Hermana Sanchez - our new roommates