Thursday, September 8, 2011

Excerpt from letter sent on 9/5/2011

Well, it looks like that elder Snedaker here is going to be leaving his greenie area. We had transfer calls last Saturday, and it sounds like that im going to be leaving Vista 3rd ward. I have absolutely no idea where i will be sent to, i just know that im going and elder Barlow is staying here as district leader, and that he will not be training. So ya, im not too happy about leaving this area. It won’t be fun. I really am going to miss a bunch of people out here, especially the ward, and more especially the young men. They are dang cool, and this area has just become home for me. And now im leaving home again. But i have come to the conclusion that god has sent me to the vista 3rd ward for a reason, and somewhere along the line, that purpose has been finished. So off i will go, and i am actually excited to meet my new comp. and my new ward. It will be sweet! And now i feel ready to move on, start over, and become way better than i am now. Because i know that i can become something greater.

This week has been pretty good. Elder Barlow has pretty much broken his ankle, last Tuesday at district activity. We were playing Basket-ball, and he jumped up for a block, realized that it was a bad idea, and landed on someone else’s foot wrong and sprained his ankle super bad. It made some nasty popping noise. So that was fun! I had to pull out my super awesome boyscout skills, so that was cool. I really didn’t do anything but get a bucket of ice and water, but hey, i was prepared! And on top of all of this, we have had to help a less-active lady move all week! We have spent a crap load of time over there. It took so long because she has sooo much crap! She is big into restoring things, well i guess so, she has a bunch of old broken furniture and thousands of old picture frames that she will never get around to doing anything with them because she works ALL the time. And she pretty much has a clothing store inside of here little trailer house thing. She has sooo many clothes, it’s ridiculous! My wife will not be allowed to have more than one set of clothes. So, ya that was my fun experience.

Let joseph know that I’m sorry that i missed his baptism. But, tell him that that is what I’m trying to do out here. I’m trying to find other people that need to be baptized just like he was. I love you guys!

Excerpt from letter sent on 8/30/2011

Thanks mom for praying for those guys. We could use all the help that we can get, because i am a terrible teacher as it is. We just taught a lesson with them yesterday, which was pretty good. I was not pleased with how i did, but whatever. It's just that I'm not totally sure why or how to help them have more of a desire to go to church. That's the goal right now, if we could just get them to church, it would change everything. So, we will do our best and not let them fall.
Life here has been pretty good, I've now been out for 2 transfers at the end of this week. That's such a long/short time! It seems like a long time being here, but then its been so short because i feel that i haven't learned as much as i need to. But that's just how i am, i just want to know everything right now. i don't like having to go through the hard learning process, but it has to happen. And i know that the lord is there to help me, and he will if i do all that i can and stop complaining.
Even so, this area is picking itself up finally! We have started working with members a bunch more, and will continue to do that. We have come to realize that this missionary work is not ours, it is the wards. They are the ones that hold the keys and responsibility to find the people that are ready for the gospel. the Bishop and other leaders, hold the keys to finding people, we don't. So it has been our effort to work through those keys that they hold. That's why we haven't been teaching as much as we have needed to. So now its really cool to see how things are flowing together. And its right when im probably going to leave this area! O well, I wont be too bitter. haha, just kidding. I think that it is awesome that things are starting to work!
Love ya guys!!!
Elder Snedaker

**Some spelling has been changed to protect the spelling challenged missionary!