Week 41: Its all about the LOVE!

Las Hermanas

Hola Familia!!

This last week was sooooooo crazy and a way stressful! One of the hermanas has been really sick so Hermana Mackay and I have had to do divisions almost every day to help them teach all the people in their sector. Also one of the other companionships was having some problems so we did divisions with them too and helped them work it out. We hardly had any time to work in our sector but had an activity on Saturday! It was an activity on missionary work and Hermana Mackay and I tried to excite the members to share the gospel with their friends! We played games and ate food and it was really fun! We were worried that not a lot of people would show up because our ward mission leader said that not many people go to the activities but so many people came!! and a lot of nonmembers too! It was so awesome!

We were able to find a few more people to teach but we are still searching with all our effort! I have been reading a talk that is called "El cuarto misionero" I think its like fourth missionary in english but it is so so so so so good! It talks about how there are levels of missionaries and how the fourth missionary is the one who gives EVERYTHING to the Lord. The one that not only serves with their strength but the one that serves with their heart. It talks about giving 100% to the work. Sometimes on the mission we do the things we do because we have to not because we want to. That is the third missionary. The one who works really hard but in their heart doesn't want to be there. The fourth missionary is the one who works hard and loves the work in their heart! The one who knows why they are there and enjoys serving the Lord. The talk explains it way better but I was able to kind of re-find my enthusiasm for the mission! It's still hard but with a positive attitude, it makes everything better! Loving the work makes the mission easier, more enjoyable, and much more meaningful and I am thankful every day for the opportunity I have to be here! 

Some things that happened this week:

a drunk guy tried to kiss me on the bus :(

we had a barbeque with the zone for our zone activity

we overheard two guys getting in a car and one of them said " Do you have the cocaine?"

Haha! A crazy week here in Viña! Love you guys so much and hope everything is good back home! 

Love Hermana Snyder

Barbeque with the zone 

me dying on the floor cuz I was so tired I literally couldn't get up and Hermana Mackay took a picture. haha!

Week 40: 9-Months!

Hola!

I hit my 9-month mark in intercambios and the hermana I was with (Hermana Scaroni) made me take a picture with a balloon in my shirt like a 9-month pregnancy. Its something all the hermanas do down here in Viña when we hit 9 months. Also hermana Scaroni taught me how to salsa and I taught her some gringo dance moves. I had a lot of fun in intercambios this week and learned a lot from the other hermanas in my zone. They are so positive and motivated and have really taught me a lot! 

Also in intercambios with Hermana Brooks, she told me all day she was going to make me tacos but when we got back to the pension we realized we didn't have tortillas. We were so disappointed for about 5 seconds but then we just decided to make homemade tortillas and they were so good!!

Oh also we saw a cow in the middle of the road so I had to take a picture of that. 

Today one of the Elders in my district wanted to have a barbeque and he cooked for everyone so that was awesome! 

This week was pretty hard. We don't have anyone to teach so we are searching high and low and talking to everyone that we see. We know there are people waiting, we just have to find them! I know I'm in a growing point in my mission and that I need to keep working even when it's hard. I know this gospel is true with all my heart and even though it's hard to have faith in the people sometimes its never hard to have faith in Heavenly Father and Christ. They love us so much and understand exactly what  I am going through. He knows the rejection and disappointment that I am feeling right now and I am trusting in him all the way!! It's not all sunshine and rainbows on the mission! It would just be a year and a half vacation if it was like that. But I know that I'm growing and that I have to trust in the Lord more now than ever before! 

I love you all!

Con mucho amor

Elly 

Week 39: Back to Villa Dulce for a Baptism!

Carolina and Franco's Baptism!

Hola!
This week we were able to set the date for Yarel's baptism! If everything goes well she should be baptized this Sunday! She had to ask her parents' permission to be baptized because she is under 18 and her dad said that it was fine with him as long as she kept her grades up. haha! She is a little nervous but really excited! She is so cute and cracks me up every time I talk to her. It's hilarious having lessons in her house because her whole family is exactly the same. Their minds are always all over the place and the grandma is always interrupting to say random things. It's pretty funny. 

This week I did 2 intercambios and next week we have 2 also! It's crazy but its really fun to get to know the other hermanas better. Today for p day we had a little birthday party for hermana Brooks and played games! We played this game called Gincana which is a typical game here in Chile. Its a relay with stations and in the first station you have to bob for apples, in the next station you have to find an m&m in a pile of flour just using your mouth, then you have to thread a needle, and the last station is blow up a balloon and pop it. It's super random but it was fun. Then all the hermanas...we played a game of soccer in the cancha. It was fun.

OH MY GOSH this week our sink flooded and I had to fix it! I attached a video of the whole thing so hopefully it works. you'll see all the details in the video. 

And last but not least, I was able to go to Carolina and Franco´s baptism in Villa Dulce!! It was last Saturday and it was so cute! They were so excited and it was a real blessing that I was able to go back and see it! 

President upped the number of contacts we have to do from 10 to 20 each day (contacts are # of people we actually talk to) At first we thought it was impossible because there aren't that many people who want to talk to us but this whole week we were able to talk to at least 20 people every day! Now our problem is finding again the ones that give us their address or number. We meet people every day who seem so great at first, but we can never find them again because they are either never home, never answer their phones, or decide they don't want to talk to us again (normally its the third option) haha!... but its all good! I know I am on the winning team and that I can punch Satan in the face by talking to EVERYONE and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as I can!! 

I love you guys and hope you have a great week!! 

Love Hermana Snyder

With my old companion, Hermana Del Valle and my new one, Hermana Mackay

Intercambio (Exchanges) with Hermana Suarez

Our apartment 

Week 38: A Conference in Santiago with Elder Neil L. Anderson!

A reunion with my friends from the Santiago CCM 

Hola Familia!!

So this week was way better than last week! This is gonna surprise you all but the best part of the week was... CLEANING!! When I got here to the apartment in Quilpue it was the nastiest things I'd ever seen and I told my companion I cannot live like this. So this morning we got up early, bought a bunch of cleaning supplies and did a deep clean of EVERYTHING. We threw away like all the trash and stuff that the other hermanas had left behind and now I can finally breathe. I was going crazy in that tiny nasty apartment for two weeks haha.

But on Thursday, we went to Santiago and Elder Anderson spoke to us. Another companionship of hermanas had a sleepover at our house the night before because we had to wake up at 4 in the morning and walk to the stake center to catch the bus at 5 am. We got to Santiago at like 8:30 and heard from Elder Villar (who spoke in general Conference btw) and Elder Anderson!! It was so awesome and Elder Anderson gave almost his whole talk in Spanish. He chastised us a little bit and said we had to be better at talking to literally every person we pass on the street. We need to talk to EVERYONE! We always pray to find the elect on the mission, but how are we going to find them if we don't talk to everyone that we see? Hermana Mackay and I have really improved and we have started to talk to literally every single person and just opening our mouths more! 

I also got to see a lot of my friends from the CCM at the conference with Elder Anderson because we had it with the Santiago West mission too!! 

This week we were able to teach Yarel! She is the funniest, sweetest 17-year-old I've ever met. She is so eager to learn and has already come to church 3 times!! She wants to get baptized but just has to ask her parents for permission! But literally, she cracks me up. haha! She is kind of like Parker and just has a never-ending encyclopedia of random facts in her head and she doesn't have any shame in sharing them hahaha. 

So that was my week haha!! It was great! I love the mission and have such a strong testimony of missionary work! I am so blessed to wear this nametag and to have this experience!! 

I love you all sooooooo much and hope you have a great week!!

Elly 

All of the missionaries in my mission with Elder Anderson...Good luck finding me. haha!

The bus ride to Santiago...My companion, Hermana Mackay, is sitting next to me. 

Got to see Hermana Wurdel again. She was visiting Quilpue with her parents. 

Just a random cow in the middle of the park!!

Weeks 36 and 37: Saying goodbye to Villa Dulce and Hello to Quilpué!

Goodbye Villa Dulce

Week 36

Hermana Snyder's email wasn't working 2 weeks ago, so we didn't get an email from her, but the pictures in this post are of her last few days in Villa Dulce. She loved serving in that area and especially loved the people.

Week 37

Hola Familia!! So I am now in Quilpué! It's a little different than Villa Dulce. Right now we don't have that many people to teach and it seems like everyone that lives here is over 80 years old. Not a bad thing...just different. :) We have been walking a lot haha. My companion and I have been praying and thinking a lot about how we can work smarter not harder. Every sector is different and we just haven't figured out the best way to work here yet. But yesterday in church we received like 7 references from members of people that they would like us to visit... and then one more at night! So that was a miracle because my whole mission it has been really hard to get the members to give us references. 

Hermana Mackay is my companion and I love her!! She is from Utah and she is probably the sweetest, kindest person I have ever met. She is a little shy but is a great missionary and we get along really really well!

Oh yeah we have 2 wards and 2 sectors! The elders were taken out of a sector and now we are in charge of 2 wards that meet in two different chapels at the same time! So I have no idea how we are going to be able to go to two wards and teach people in two sectors haha. It's going to be a crazy cambio. 

I really like my new zone. All the missionaries are awesome and a lot of fun. We played dodgeball for like 3 hours today and it was soo fun. 

Honestly, this week was kinda hard for me. I really really really miss Villa Dulce and I'm trying to love my new sector and the Ward. But it was really hard for me to leave the people we were teaching because I know they are so close to being baptized and we just became such good friends. 

But I love you guys I hope you had a great Easter! I know Christ is our Savior and I'm so grateful I am here sharing his gospel with everyone!

Hermana Snyder

Week 35: I love being a missionary!

Hola Familia!!!

I just love the mission! With all the stress, being tired, walking forever, and having people reject us every day, it is all worth it!!! I have never felt the spirit more in my life and I have never felt the presence of my Savior more. It is soooo awesome!! 

Isn't Conference just the best weekend of the whole year! General Conference on the mission is like Christmas! I was always excited for Conference, but I think before the mission I was just excited that I could stay home in my pajamas. But seriously it is a lot more than just being able to stay home. It is literally the words of the prophets. I was able to watch it in English so that was awesome! I just hung onto every single word and when President Nelson said "Do it now, time is running out" I literally felt my heart pounding so hard. There is a lot I need to work on and I don't think we realize how little time we have. Of course, I loved Elder Uchtdorfs talk because he said that missionaries are angels haha. I have to agree to that.

With lots of faith we are going to have two baptisms this Saturday! Carolina y Franco came to conference with their mom and now they just need the interview! We have a lot of faith in them so please pray that they will be able to be baptized this week!!

We went to Valparaiso for p day which was hype! This city has so many cool little streets with lots of murals, and we just explored all day. I have lots of pictures to send!!

But yeah, I just have to say how much I love being a missionary. The best part is the people. I can't even express the love I have for the members, investigators, and other missionaries. I have definitely made some lifelong friends here in the mission and some memories that I will never forget!! 

I love you all! 

Hermana Snyder

Week 34: So much teaching...So little time!

It's getting cold here! Winter is coming! 

OMG, this week has been crazy!! 

First of all, it got really really cold, really really fast. I am now wearing tights and a coat every day. It's so weird because last week I was sweating from the heat!! 

We also had zone conference and I was able to see a lot of mission friends from other zones so that was awesome!! 

The crazy part is we have 4 people with a baptism date in 2 weeks and cambios (transfers) are also in 2 weeks!! Abraham is finally going to get baptized and we have been working really hard with Daniela! Daniela's mom was inactive but since we started teaching their family her mom (Maricel) has completely changed!! She goes to church every sunday, is sharing the gospel with her friends, reading the book of mormon, and is a part of the ward now! Daniela wants with all her heart to get baptized but wants to wait a little bit. She doesnt feel ready just yet. 

We had a FHE with Daniela and her whole family and it was super fun! We played games, ate churipan (its like mini hot dogs) and also shared a spiritual message. When we got there they were all watching a soccer game between ColoColo 

(the team from Santiago) and Iquique (from the north) Daniela pulled out two ColoColo jerseys so we could put them on and take pictures haha. IT was waaaayy fun and I just love their family! Daniela is the cutest and I just really really hope she gets baptized before cambios! (Idk but I have a feeling I'm being transferred)

Carolina and Franco are also progressing and man we are teaching so many people!!! It is such a blessing that there are so many people who want to hear the gospel! The last two weeks so many investigators, recent converts, and less actives have been coming to church and it just makes me so happy every Sunday!! The field is white and ready to harvest especially in Villa Dulce!! I love being here and having so much work to do! I love the gospel and I'm pumped for General Conference!!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Snyder

Zone Conference