It's A Long Long Way To Ba-Sing-Se

Alrighty then! Quepasa??!?!! I would like to apologize to he fact
that I didn't email yesterday. But to make it up, I am emailing you
today! So this week was great! We hit a goal that Elder McInerny and I
set for our weekly goals. We had two member present lessons!!! Yay! It
is really rare to hit our goals and when we do, we feel really good
because when we plan, we plan to stretch us. So guess what!? We
stretched!!! I love me a good stretch.

    So now the fun part! I get to tell you all about my trip to D.C!
Of course it was epic, but the  decision came really late for us. It
all started about when we had just finished up our nightly routine and
we sat in the living room talking. I wanted of know what everyone had
planned for preparation day and we just go talking and someone threw
out the idea of going into D.C. so we all agreed that it would be way
fun! Ok. Now I got that part over with and here comes the adventure!
    At ten, we leave our apartment in our adventure to he Huntington
metro station. A good seven miles away. We hopped on our bikes and
went to give a sister a blessing, then leave to the metro. We stayed
at the members house talking to her for about a half hour. You could
just tell that our visit made her day. Elder Seely anointed and then I
sealed the blessing. That was a great experience. You could just feel
God's love for her. This was probably the fourth or fifth blessing I
had given and you could really feel the spirit during is one. I hope
hat I said what Heavenly Father had planned for me to say, but the
Sister looked happy and comforted after, so that's good. After we
left, we were biking for about a mile or so until Elder Farnes got a
flat tire..... Of course. We were six miles away from our destination
and we just had to find some sort of reason to not go to D.C. We began
to call the zone leaders to se if we could catch a ride to the Metro
with them, but just as ye picked up, this older gentleman named Ralph
came out of nowhere and started talking to Elder Seely. Turns out that
he is a member of the church and lives in Maryland! He talks to us for
about fifteen minutes and comes to the conclusion that we are in quite
the conundrum. He then proceeds to offer us a ride to the Metro. We
happily and readily agree to his offer, so we chain our bikes up to a
pole and hop into his old Honda Accord Station wagon. What a tender
mercy that Heavenly Father gave us. I know that He is ALWAYS aware of
our individual situations and loves us enough to help us out with what
we desire most if it is his will. Thanks to Ralph, I have a testimony
of that.
    We took the metro, used this futuristic bathroom (another story
for a future time), and hopped on a train. What then followed was soon
to be classified as the best trip into D.C. ever! We went to the
American history museum and I saw Dizzy Gilespi's Trumpet and
Coletrain's saxophone!!!!!! That was way too cool! We then went to
Good Stuff for food right by the capital. Mmmmmmm..... Then we looked
at the outside of the library there, and then checked out the capital
building. It was then off to the Air and Space museum. This quickly
became my favorite museum because of the flight simulators that they
had there. It was a space shuttle shaped capsule/ cockpit with an
interactive game inside. You could choose to be the pilot or the
gunner; I obviously chose the pilot. These simulators weren't just
those big red pod looking things, but they had the capability of doing
360's on the z-axis (barrel rolls). You could actually go upside
down!!! That was one of the coolest things I have done in a while!
Defiantly doing that one again. After that museum, we went to he
museum of natural history and spent our last half hour there. Can I
just say, I LOVE MUSEUMS!!! They are just the coolest.

    Well, that' my week and adventures for this week. Sorry it was on
Tuesday and not MONDAY. I hope you all are loving life! Bye!!!

~ Elder Zac Snell :)

THE PLAGUE

 Oh goodness, this week has been one of trials. At this current
point in time, our apartment is going through something we have called
"The Plague!" Let me tell you why using a brief story!

FLASHBACK!!!!! (In third person!)

     We return back to the scene with our Heroes, having edified many
through the truths of the gospel, get a little hungry and decide to go
out to dinner. Their evening schedule, packed with lessons, called for
only a short stop for food. With their tummies rumbling, and being
sick of the usual restaurants they visit, they scope out a delicious,
new place to eat. Suddenly, Elder McInerny spots an old, rundown
Mexican restaurant. "That one looks good," he said with a twinkle in
his eye and a glimmer of hope for satisfying food.
     "Agreed!" came Elder Snell's enthusiastic response. The dynamic
duo slowly pulled up to the front of this shady restaurant and
realized that everyone in there was speaking in a vernacular that they
were not entirely fluent in. Through broken Spanish, Elder McInerny
explained that they desired to consume quatro papusas. After ten
minutes of waiting, they finally received their allotted meal. To
their surprise and astonishment, when they took their first bites, the
delicacy called "papusas" were superb, so they continued enjoying this
meal.
     After the meal was devoured, our Heroes left a reasonable tip,
got up and left the business establishment. It was at this moment in
time when the surrounding birds and citizens heard a piercing scream.
Elder McInerny let out the loudest war cry ever heard by human ears.
To he Hero's great astonishment, his mode of transportation acquired
an unwanted flat tire. This was the second one in two weeks that the
duo had received. Little did they know what was about to go down in
the next twenty four hours. A little down hearted, but still with fire
in their eyes, the two ran to their next appointment with Evelyn.
     That appointment turned out to be the best one yet. She opened up
and let us know what she had on her mind. It was a miracle! She told
them that she had never prayed about The Book of Mormon and that she
will pray about it and read every day! In their opinion, the best
appointment of the transfer! With spirits lifted and smiles on their
faces, he companionship proceeded to walk to their next destinations.
Arriving a little behind, they apologized to the members they were set
up to teach. The family was grateful for the Elders' Diligence and
rewarded them with delicious chocolate.

      Ok. Back to first person. I want to rewind two weeks to remind
you what happened.
Me:  "Hey, we really need to hurry, or Grandma is going to end up
beating us with her cane"
Comp.: "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."
*POP* psssssssssssssssssssssshhhhh....
Me: "What was that?"
Comp.: "My tire..."

     Yes, there were multiple Walmart runs to get inner tubes. To make
it even more comical, our roommates had another flat tire this week on
Wednesday and last week on Saturday, Now, fast forward back to the
story from above and then twenty four hours from that.
     It's a Friday, and we have a bunch of appointments in the
evening. We are riding back from Walmart with a new tube on my
companions bike.
     *POP* psssssssssssssssssssssshhhhh....
     I couldn't believe it! Out of nowhere and about three miles away
from our apartment, Elder McInerny's tire popped again! This time it
was he opposite wheel! Over the irony of this all, I didn't know
whether to laugh or to break out in tears. We walked our bikes to a
nearby shopping center and called the Sister missionaries to come get
us because we had a dinner appointment in thirty minutes. We did get
is one fixed and replaced his tires as well. At the end of it all, we
called this string of five flat tires in two weeks, ”THE PLAGUE!" So
if you had any flat tires out there, the plague has struck again!

     Well, that's my week for you! Can't wait to hear back from you
all! Love ya!

     ~ Elder Zac Snell
-=iii=<{

Sent from my iPad

FUFU'S REVENGE!!

   Welcome back to the wonderful, spectacular, most incredibly amazing news letter of the week from Elder Snell. Please give a huge round of applause to the host of this letter and the voice of it all, Drum roll please! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The voice inside of your head! If you want, you can tell your brain to read it like Ryan Seacrest. That would be entertaining. Tom Bergeron would also do. Or if you are feeling adventurous, Jay Leno, or Jim Cary.

     So, to kick off the week: Soccer (all on Preparation day, of course)! We got the Spanish zone and our zone together and played soccer on a turf field. it was pretty sweet! as usual, I played Defense. That was way too fun.

     After that day, we set out on our daily adventures, as usual, and ran into some great people! None took a real interest into investigating, but they are all children of God and we have seeds to plant. as long as they left with a thought in their mind that the things we were proclaiming to be true, were.

     Of our visits we went about doing this week, two of them were with Grandma. That crazy lady has probably threatened to beat us with her cane or blow something up at least fifty times. This time, I think she just might have found a way to do something of the sorts. Elder McInerny thought it would be a great idea if we ate over at Grandma's house on Saturday night. I am assuming that he didn't hear about what happened to the last set of elders that ate over at Grandma's. This information was gathered from a primary source: the missionary that ate there last.

**WARNING:  THE FOLLOWING MAY SEEM REVOLITNG AND DISCUSTING. IF YOU ARE A LITTLE SQUIMISH OR FAINT AT THE THOUGHT OF SOMETHING NASTY OR DISGUSTING, I ADVISE THAT YOU SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH AND NOT LOOK AT THE PICTURES THAT MAY BE POSTED BELOW THIS LETTER. BECAUSE I HAVE PUT UP THIS DISCLAIMER, I CAN NOT BE SUED FOR ANY VOMIT ON YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN, CONCUSSIONS FORM THE BANGING OF HEADS AGINST KEYBOARDS DUE TO FAINTING, OR THE SUDDEN INFLAMATION OF YOUR FOURTH TOE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

     Apparently, she went to some market and bought a live chicken and some other meat that was unidentified. She threw it all in a pot with boiling water for a couple hours, then gave it to the missionaries. They have reported that as they were eating, they held back much vomit as they picked out the feathers from the Boiled Chicken from out of their teeth.

     Well, I must say that Grandma didn't feed us the exact same thing that was fed to those poor missionaries. Instead, Grandma fed us FUFU (refer to the first picture), Peanut Soup (Second Picture), and Fried Okra (Third Picture). FUFU is basically a dough that you swallow after it is dipped in the soup. you don't chew it, it is just swallowed. All together, it looks like the fourth picture. The battle with the food during the time to eat was lethal. there were stomachs that were too full of carbs, billions of half pukes, Gallons of Grape soda drank, and almost a life taken. Yeah, it tasted pretty odd, not the best thing I have ever ate in my entire life, but definitely an experience that I would force someone else to go through. At the end of that night, our stomachs in pain because of how much we ate. There wasn't a single person that didn't go to bed before 22:15. All in all, and truthfully, it has been a pretty awesome week.

     Thanks for joining me in the retelling of this week. I hope you have enjoyed your self and you didn't puke. Thanks you all and have a good rest of your life!!!

     Elder Snell, Out!

**This disclaimer does not apply to the citizens of Quebec.

This is an email I got from my ward mission leader in Reston. Thought You might want to see it. :P

"Elder Snell,

Finally . . . Here are your pictures!

Thanks for being the very best of missionaries! You're one we'll always remember!

Love,

The Glassetts"

Elder Rowley and Elder Snell

Glassett Family, Elder Rowley and Elder Snell

Elder Ogilvie and Elder Snell

Triangle of Destiny

 Oh, hello there! It's nice to see you again. Welcome to "Reading
an email from Zac." The part of your day when you get into your
computer/mobile device and treat yourself to reading an email from Zac
that he sent home, therefor, making your day just THAT much better.
(There won't be singing in this one...)

     Well, it has officially begun! Elder Lueckler has now joined
forces with Elder Stowell and me in fighting the battle of good vs.
evil. The Three Amigops have begun the era of the Triangle of Destiny
(even if Elder Lueckler may be in a training stage). ;) I thought I
just might point out that Elder Stowell has been faithfully serving
the people of Malaysia (Singaporites) for a full year now, so congrats
to him for his diligence and for his victories! We are all proud of
you!

    Meanwhile, over here in the USA, the fight has been perilous.
storms that have rained upon their heads trying to slow them down.
There have been many wounded, some almost fatally. Our heroes walk
down deserted streets, knocking on ghost town doors, left only to have
faith and pray for better.  It's two, against all the fiery darts the
adversary can hurl at them. Their only fear: a family that will not be
together for eternity.

     Ok. Now in all seriousness, this week has been pretty good. I
have had better weeks, bit I am not going to complain. :) We had a
lesson with Evelyn (eternigator from Sierra Leone) this week. She
doesn't quite understand the reverence part of church. She came from a
baptist church where  'praise The Lord!!' and 'Amen!!' and standing
and clapping your hands when you feel the spirit, are acceptable. We
had some fun trying to tell her why she shouldn't do that at sacrament
meeting.
     We went to  funeral for Laura Thompson. I loved how
peaceful it felt in our church building during the whole service.
There was an overall feeling of 'everything is going to be all right'.
Everyone noticed that and some even asked why the felt that way in our
church and not in theirs. Well, my dear friends, that would be the
spirit testifying to these amazing family and friends of Laura that
they will see her again.
    We had a half mission conference. It was about being a
consecrated missionary and devoting all your energy and talents to The
Lord.we talked about Captain Moroni and his title of liberty.
President Riggs got us so pumped and ready to dedicate all to The Lord
that every single missionary rent their shirt and wrote upon it as a
covenant to The Lord that we will be faithful and diligent! Of course,
we were told to bring a shirt that we wouldn't mind ruining and didn't
just rip off the nice shirts we were wearing.
    We took the Metro into D.C. To watch the Nationals
baseball game! It was way cool! The place was packed and there were
about 500 missionaries there (D.C. North came too). Of course the
Nat's won, it was Mormon night and we were all praying that we would
win. The Phillies didn't even have a chance. Final score: 11-0.

     That's about it for now! If you have any questions be sure to
submit them to me, via email or letter! Love you guys!

~ Elder Zac Snell
-=iii=<{

P.s. Only one missionary was harmed in the making of this letter.

P.p.s. I stubbed my toe.....