A Challenge To Be Grateful For!

Although we may not be able to swing from webs off of buildings and climb skyscrapers, we are still here for the same intentions: Help others have better lives. When you think of what the effects of misionary work are, you come out to help others come unto Christ, yes, but doing so leads to a happier life! 

 

     This week we have been focusing on being grateful for anything and everything. There was a gratitude challenge issued in the December 2011 Ensign by President Eyring and it is garunteed to make your day/week/year go a billion times better! I challenged our district this week to take the challenge and then report on how your week went during district meetings. THus far, my week has been greately improved since last week. Oh, the changes you will see in your life when you focus on what you are grateful to have than to sulk on what you don't. I challenge you to take up the gauntlet and Be HAPPY!

 

The Challenge is this:

1.Write 10 physical abilities you are grateful for.

2.Write 10 material possessions you are grateful for.

3.Write 10 living people you are grateful for.

4.Write 10 deceased people you are grateful for.

5.Write 10 things about nature you are grateful for.

6.Write 10 things about today you are grateful for.

7.Write 10 places on earth you are grateful for.

8.Write 10 modern inventions you are grateful for.

9.Write 10 foods you are grateful for.

10.Write 10 things about the gospel you are grateful for.

When we make a list like this, we discover that a list of 100 doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all the things God has given us.

 

     Take it! You will feel an increase of happiness in your life! Remember that Gratitude is a Choice.

 

     As for other news in the mission, Harrison Trinca is going to be baptized this saturday!!! We are super stoaked for him! He has come a ways and has learned a lot! A total of three weeks of meeting with him and now he is super prepared for baptism. If you want to know what Harrison was like to teach, read this scripture.

16 Therefore, blessed are they who humble‍ themselves without being compelled‍ to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness‍ of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe.      

~ Alma 32:16

 So Prepared!!! It is always a fresh breath of air to go and teach him. We have a lesson with him tonight and on Wednesday and then he will be baptized on Saturday, November 29th! I am SOOO Excited! We have to be at the church at 06:00 to fill the font because it takes three hours to fill and there is a childs baptism before Harrison's. Wish us luck!

 

     That, my friends, is my week for you! I love hearing about others reading my emails. Makes me feel that I am loved and not insignificant. :P Thanks for all of your support! Love ya!

 

Stay Stellar!

~ Elder Zac Snell

Deny Everything!

    Heyzhloh, Everyone!!!! I am terribly sorry for the lack of a long email last week. If you didn't get the full one last week, Email me and I will get it to you as soon as I can!

 

     I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!! We have an investigator named Harrison and we have been teaching him for about 2 weeks now and he is super solid! Everytime we come out from teaching him a lesson, we are always sailing on Cloud 9. He just loves the Gospel and anything we teach him! If any of you are familiar with the promise that Presidnet Eyring said in Preach My Gospel about finding the prepared, you know that it works. the promise states that the Lord will place prepared people in the paths of his prepared servants! We have been working on preparing ourselvs so this very thing can happen and guess what!? IT DID!!!! Harrison has a date for Baptism. November 29th. He is really excited to be baptized. One time when we were teaching him about baptism, he straight up said, "Sweet! Let's do it right now!" He is SO PREPARED!!! It is like a breath of fresh air when we teach him.

 

     Now about the title. DENY EVERYTHING. This is the "slogan", if you will, of the spies. If you were uninformed of what last Preparation day was about, then this is it. This was one of the coolest museums I have gone to. It is pretty interactive and fun! You start in this elevator filled with lights that change colors and you totally feel like a spy going up it. It takes you to the breifing room where you get your new identity. You have to memorize the facts so you can get out of the museum at the end. My name was Colin Walker, an Art Student in Turkey. There was a ton more information, but that is all that I remember. In the breifing room, it goes over the benifits and risks of becoming a spy. Pretty sweet if you ask me. After the Brefing, you are free to explore the museum and learn as much as you can about being a spy. You even crawl through ventelation shafts to spy on other people. You wiill listen into converstaions going on in the museum of other "beginner spies" and find out their dirty secrets. All of which is Super stellar! There was an epic James Bond floor that had all of his adventures and details on the bad guys. You can test your hanging abilities and pretend as if you are hanging off a helicopter. I hung on for 1 minute. I beat James Bond's time. Killer on the forearms, though. But the thing that you are to remember the most is to deny EVERYTHING! I would deffinately go to the museum again.

 

     The work here in McLean has been going swimmingly. The momentum of awesomeness is just picking up and everyone is excited to be missionaries. The ward is being super active in missionary work too. We had two non-members there who we weren't even teaching! I love our ward! Of course, something that everyone always dreads/ looks forward too is Transfers. This Thursday is Transfers and we will get calls for what will happen tomorrow night. My prediction is that Elder Rickertsen and I are going to stay together for one more transfer and then I am going to leave the next. Our roommates won't have the same fate. Elder Annis is subject to leave, so I will have a new roommate soon. I really like Elder Annis, so it will be sad to see him go.

 

     Well, I believe that is it for this week. Nothing that was super crazy, but still an awesome week. Thanks to everyone who reads these emails. I know that they can be boring sometimes, but they are better when I read them, trust me. :P Oh, also tomorrow is my 14 month mark! Crazy how fast time flies!

 

Love you all! Live Life to the Fullest!!!

 

  ~ Elder Zac Snell :)

Something Smells Stanfordy

This is all we got this week........LOL. That's ok. We had fun celebrating Stanford day yesterday too. For those who don't know Stanford, he is a neighbor that my kids have tormented for years ;) Zac was right about a pinata being smashed. I'll include the pics. I will forward the videos he sent this week as well. It's good to see that he hasn't lost his sense of humor and Happiness. Love this kid!!!!

 First off, I want to wish everyone a very Stanfordly Stanford, Stanford Day! This awesome holiday was on 11/9. I participated the best I could, but I knew somewhere in the world there was a pinata being smashed in the Stanford Home.

     Anyways, Besides the awesomeness of Stanford day,

The REST OF THE EMAIL came the next week....................

 First off, I want to wish everyone a very Stanfordly Stanford, Stanford Day! This awesome holiday was on 11/9. I participated the best I could, but I knew somewhere in the world there was a pinata being smashed in the Stanford Home.

Anyways, Besides the awesomeness of Stanford day, we had a pretty Stanford week. We found a super solid investigator who has been friends with members for a while. He is 18 and has been to church for the past 2 months. HE IS SO PREPARED!!!!! His name is Harrison.

Last Preparation day was Stanford, as well! We went to Arlington to see the Cemetary and if you want to see how files should look, go there! The Diagonals are insane! We saw the changing of the Guards and the toomb of JFK. Way coolieo! It is a must see type of thing. I took tons of pictures and they are all on my camera, so i will upload them later.

I wish I had more time to write about this week. sorry it is so short. We going to the Spy Museum in DC. Pictures and a long description will follow in the next email. I will include a video and pictures to tell stories of awesomeness from this week. the video is of an epic battle to use the car on sunday. the pictures are of Stanford Day. Elder Annis joined in on the fun.

THanks for all the support I get from you all.

Elder Snell with a Stanford Hair do

Not sure what facial of Stanford's this is but hey, it's working

The things Stanford puts up with......

I have to add Lynette was a great sport too!!!!

Did I mention who cleaned it all up. Yep, I helped :)

Being Stanford and the mess of the Pinata! I'm sure they will continue to enjoy the glitter and beads that spewed out all over the basement. I''m glad they haven't disowned us as friends. 

Friendly Suprises!

Not too long of an email today because of the epic things we have planned today, but I will recap for all of those there that were there with me in spirit.

     Monday: we had Elder Kapishka come talk to the Misson. for more information on that, see my last email.

     Tuseday: Preparation day for us. We didn't do much concidering that we didn't have any time to plan because they cancled district meetings. We resorted to a zone game of Basket ball. of course, i did my best and still didn't win because I was up against super tall people, but I was faster than them all. I counted it as a win in my book.

     Wednesday: This day was our one of our two full work days concidering that we had someting else going on every other day. So, I decided that it would be an excellent day for an exchange. I had Elder Rickertsen stay in our area to go and teach Michael Scott with Elder Annis. I went to Elder Wagner's area and did a lot of checking up on potentials and tracting. We check up on one potential and then knock five houses next to it. This makes our nights much more effective.

     Thursday: This was weekly planning day. We sat down and talked about all the people in our area after that, we checked up on some potentials. Huzzah!

      Friday: HALLOWEEN!!!! I love Halloween on my mission because we get to watch two movies! But to kick off the day, we had a Zone Confrence. President and Sister Riggs came and talked to us for about eight hours. We learned a lot about using the spirit and having the spirit use you. There was a big focus on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that it is the Why of missionary work. I had fun. I think that this was my fourth or fifth zone confrence on my mission. That made me feel older. The two movies we watched were Frozen and Planes. I loved Frozen! Sang with it through the whole movie. Planes was alright. good stories, but they both seemed like they rushed the plot a whole ton. oh, p.s. I got a package form the Pages this day. Thank You!!!!!!

     Saturday: this was our other work day. We talked to Michael Scott and made sure that he was coming to church, which he did! We also went around and talked to a bunch of Less active members. oh, and don't forget checking up on potential investigators. that is always important to do.

     Sunday: This day made my life. First off, we got to sleep in for one extra hour because of Daylight Savings. Next, Michael came to chuch! And if that wasn't cool enough, I got an unsuspected package from a friend. Sacrament meeting just ended and I go out into the isle to talk to a member and from behind me, i hear a familiar voice say "Hi, Zac." I nearly ignore it because I havn't heard my name been spoken since I was home. After about a second or two, I register that it was my name that the familiar voice was asking for. I turn around an see my old Young Men's President and Scout Master, James Burton. He scared the Heck out of me! it was like two very different worlds collided and became the same world. I hugged him, of course and got super excited! I then introduced him to Michael Scott and my Companion. Anyways, Long story short, the only think keeping me from screaming was the fact that I was in the Chapel. :)

     Well, I guess that it was a longer email after all.... Shows what I know. anyways, Congrats to the Davis High Marching band for their awesome performance at BOA! Hope they have a fun time in Cali! Happy birthday to Elder Jake Lueckler!!! his birthday is tomorrow! Love you, Bro!

Thanks Everyone for all your support! I love you all!

To infinity and beyond!

~ Elder Zac Snell :)

-=iii=<{

"Stop Hunger NOW" Interfaith Service Project. A sister sent this pic to me and said that Elder Snell is Always Smiling!!!! Elder Snell led the effort to get missionaries from his Zone to attend. 

Elder Snell and Elder Rickertson for Halloween- Secret Agents

Elder Snell and Brother Burton