Electifying Christmastime!

 Hello, My adoring Subjects! I believe it has been a while since you have heard from me last. A total of one week! Holy cow! That's a long time. Well, seeing that it has been so long, I guess that requires me to update on how this week has gone. Well, in the word of Peter Pan, "Here we Gooooooo!!!!"

     The first thing that happened during this week, was an Exchange with a missionary that I really look up to, Elder White. He is one of my Zone Leaders. I was reminded of many great things about being a missionary and the blessings which we receive from being out here. I also learned a great deal of how I can become better. President Riggs gave us the new theme for 2015 and Elder White focused on that for a good part of the Exchange. BE ALL IN! I can definitely say that there are times when my mission has felt "Electric" and there are times when it seems to just coast by. The thing that sets difference between the two are when we are "All In." I came out of that exchange with a new commitment to be All In and strive to do my very best. Love Elder White!

     Next on the list is Christmas!!! We didn't have a member's house to go and Skype at, so we just went to the church and use the Wi-Fi there. Elder Rickertsen called his family first and I got to talk to his family for a little bit, then I Skyped my family!!! Ah, so awesome to see my amazing family! I am so blessed to have a family where Love is the center of the home. I was able to see what everyone had received for Christmas. My personal favorite was Chip's Fech toy. HAHA! The poor guy.. He has to have his owners buy him something that he can play with by himself because nobody wants to give him attention. hahah! Priceless. Caden played the Marimba for me and Lexie showed off her skills on her Trumpet. They are so good!! I also learned that when I get home, Lexie might be taller than me because she is only a half inch shorter than me right now.... At least I will be taller than Mom. :P After talking to my Family, Grandma and Aunt Christine for a while, I had a surprise visit from my second family and Santa!!! I sat on his lap because I had been a good boy. :) I talked to them for a bit and then it was time to go. AH! I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

     Well, there are the Highlights from this week. I am so thankful for all that the Savior has given to us, especially for more than one second chance at life for when I screw up. I am forever in his debt and will always be grateful towards that wonderful Man.

     Love you all and until seven days!

~ Elder Zac Snell :)

Skype home on Christmas Day with Family :)

It's Time? It's Time? Did He Just Say It's Time?

    "Yeah, we haven't had a lot of fun in the Desert! We haven't had a lot of fun in the Sand, But we're going to the Promised Land!!!" Had to quote some Veggie Tales because that is what came to my mind when I thought of Christmas time. "I can't believe It's Christmas! I can't believe It's really coming." More Veggie Tales... anyways....

     This week has been pretty bland. Everyone is leaving for the holidays and the ones that aren't leaving, they are having family over. You can imagine why it would be difficult to create solid teaching appointments. For those that we have had set appointments with, it has been great! Harrison, of course has held up his appointments at the Iverson's. This last time, we watched the last half of the Christmas Devotional from Salt Lake City. I love being a missionary around Christmas time. Last night, we organized our district, chose some less-active members/investigators to go Christmas caroling to! That was a huge success! We sang our bestest! We made a bunch of peoples days and that is a success to me! there was not a single person on our list of people to see that didn't answer their door! That is even more impressive. Yes, Caroling was a blast.

     Earlier in the week, we received some bad news... Two of our investigators, are moving.... They have been living in the home of a member and they need to move out of her house now. We have had super awesome lessons over there, and we hope to continue to teach them over Skype, but they moved to North Carolina. We were really sad when we learned this because they were really promising and prepared to receive the Gospel. I guess if they are prepared, then they don't have to hear about the gospel from us, they can find it in North Carolina too. Hopefully, we can get some missionaries over to their house soon. :)

     Christmas time is the greatest. Last Monday, Elder Rickertsen and I bought some simple gifts to give to the other Elders in our apartment. We wrapped them and stuck them under our little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. I like having a tree. It seems to just complete Christmas. As soon as somebody gets a package, we wrap it and stick it under the tree. So when we open our presents, "Ooh! A package! It's just what I wanted!" hahah! Gotta love being a missionary. :P

     Looking forward to when I get to Skype home for Christmas! Love you guys!!! :D

 ~ Elder Zac Snell

-=iii=<{

Our family had an Awesome visitor on Sunday. Zac's first Companion and trainer in the DC South mission came for a visit!!!! Elder Cannon is a great guy. It was so fun to talk about Zac and their time they were companions. I had to give him several hugs. Here are some pictures! My favorite was that he was wearing flip flops in the middle of Winter and a down coat! :)

Christmas Palooza!

 Oh my goodness, where to start!?! This week was so action packed that I am having a hard time just starting to think of what to begin with.... Well... Let's start with the beginning of the week. MONDAY! We had a great lesson with Harrison. It mainly involved getting him pumped to receive the priesthood and then watching the Christmas Devotional that was given by the first presidency. He liked it, but we were not able to finish it, so we plan on doing that tonight with him. After the lesson, the Iverson's told us that we would be having dinner with them on Sunday and Harrison and his mom were coming over as well and then go to the temple lights after dinner. They proceeded to make the rest of my week by telling us that we were going to be joining them on their epic embark to the temple. AHHH!!! I have always wanted to go to the temple lights, but never had the opportunity to do so!

     Alright continuing on. Exchanges on Tuesday with Elder Wagner. They are doing great in their area! Our district is the best! They have a baptism on the 20th. super sweet guy! I will have to send pictures of that if I get to go to it. Interviews with President Riggs were on Wednesday! We mostly talked about my district and any foreseeable problems. I told him no and he then proceeded to thank me for all the hard work we were doing. I love President Riggs! He is a Stellar guy.

     On Friday, we had a mission Christmas Conference! That was super stellar! I saw so many missionaries that I had made friends with and met new friends on the way. I also saw a good friend that I had made before my mission. Sister Mylie Johnson! Great reunion with good awesome friends. We had a talent show and my talent was conducting the music! After that hilarious, yet spiritual upliftment, we went into the chapel and had a devotional given to us by a former mission president. It was all about giving your all and talking with everyone we are permitted to see. Great time.

     Sunday... Big day. I gave a talk that was assigned to me on Saturday. It was on receiving revelation. I had to tell my fire story of course. It always is fun to tell. After that, the rest of Sundaywas a little boring until dinner. WE went to the temple!!! AH! So amazing! Harrison is stoked to go inside. oh! a little bonus to it all was that his stepdad came! both are non members and theyloved the visitors center and temple. It was an excellent teaching opportunity. We saw Jenny Oaks Baker perform on her violin and she was amazing at that. I will send pictures that I took. more on the way later.

     Anyways, a Christmas week couldn't be complete with out sitting on Santa's Lap. thanks to our ward Christmas party, it happened! Pictures better be posted!

Love you All! Have an epic week!

~ Elder Zac Snell :)

Picture #1 Elder Snell and Sister Johnson- Mylie

 

Picture #2 DC Temple on Sunday with the lights

 

Picture #3 Elder Snell on Santas Lap with Elder Rickertsen the tall one in the back and Sister Winterton behind Santa and Sister Cordner in front.

Christmas Party for DC South Mission

DC South Missionaries- Wish I could tell you where Elder Snell is.

Wrong Kind Of Keys

 DEC 8, 2014

 HUZZAH!!! Yet again, another week has come and gone right before our very eyes! The events of this week were not as outstanding as previous weeks, but we have been working hard, none the less! Mostly work with less-active members. We really wanted to go to see the lights at the D.C. Temple, but we went to the special broadcast instead. It was way good. about an hour before the broadcast, our stake put on an orchestra/choir concert and it made me glad to have graduated from Davis High School where we have a superior band! I did also enjoy the talks given at the devotional. My favorite one was the one about the boy with Leukemia and how the entire neighborhood got together and made all the holidays in one week for him. Super awesome and inspiring!

     On the Less-active work side of things, this one night, it was raining super hard and it was really cold. If you are familiar with the job of missionaries, part of it is battling against the elements. Here we were, two missionaries, absolutely soaked! We bike to a Less-active's house and ask if we can borrow his backyard so we could put our bikes there while we walked around. The reason for this is because I had left the keys in our apartment and along with the keys to the bike lock, were the keys to the apartment. Now, let me fill you in on our current standings. Wet, Cold, Locked out, and yet Cheerful to share the message of love, warmth, and Happiness that will surely give you the keys to the kingdom (just not our apartment). Sure our condition wasn't the greatest, but that is no excuse to let our spirits drag. That night we let them soar as we talked to people about the gospel! Of course, most of the doors that we knocked on didn't answer, but we knew that we were doing a good thing.

     We had a special training on Thursday. President Riggs talked to us all about being out of the box towards everyone. When you are in the box towards somebody, you view them as an object, problem, or an annoying thing. The way to get out of the box is to have charity towards them. The funniest part of it all is that I made a video one day prior of me in a box that my parents sent me. Good stuff. After talking about being out of the box, we talked about key indicator stuff and how our mission shouldn't be run by them, but be used as a motivational force. After that, Sister Riggs talked about the power of following up on everyone! The meeting concluded with President Riggs opening it up to Q&A. Over all, it was an excellent conference.

     More is happening this week. We have an upcoming Christmas party for the mission and they asked me to be the chorister, so that is fun! I will write about that next time. oh!!! Harrison told us that he is planning on serving a mission!!!! We are so excited for him! Everyday, he surprises us with something new. We will meet with him tonight for FHE. Thanks for reading this email! Love you all!

   ~ Elder Zac Snell :)

P.s. always remember which keys you have with you. :P

The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree we sent to all the missionaries in Elder Snell's apartment. 

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, HA HA. Hmmmm. Hopefully Elder Snell's companion Loves Him ;)

#FillTheFont

DEC 1st 2014

 This week was indeed a STELLAR week! After three weeks of meeting with Harrison, he was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Here is his story.

     Harrison had been coming to church for a couple months with a member friend. Our Bishopric had just changed and Bishop Kerby noticed that he hadn't taken the missionary lessons, so he took the liberty of inviting him over to the church one evening so he could meet the missionaries and take the first lesson from us. We met him and right from the start, we knew he was prepared! Harrison loved Priest quorum, so we also had some of the priests come to the lesson as well. He loved the message of the Restoration and wanted to meet again. He scheduled the appointment for next week. We asked to have it at his friends house who he had been coming to church with and he agreed. From there, we met with him twice a week in the Iverson's home. The spirit was more present than it was in the church. He committed to baptism on the 29th of November (three weeks after we began teaching him)! He made it to every lesson and between each lesson, we had contact with him each day through us and other member fellowshipers reminding him to read and pray. There is power in unity with the members! Harrison was so excited when he was finally baptized and confirmed.

     I wish you could have been there to see his face. He had the opportunity to bear his testimony after he was baptized and he was beaming! He was speachless. The only phrase he could use at the time was, "This is the happiest day of my life so far!" There is no other joy that we can receive than helping another brother or sister find their way back to our Heavenly Father. I absolutely love being a missionary! I gave Harrison a tie of mine with my signature on the back. It said, "Harrison! Stay Strong, My Friend!" He wore it to church for when he was confirmed. He is already planning on getting his Patriarchal blessing and doing Baptisms for the Dead. If he prepares his own names to do, we get to go with him!!! We will be helping him with that, for sure.

 

     Anyways, Thanksgiving was on Thursday! We went over to the Larson's home and they made a delicious dinner for us and a nonmember couple from Chile. We had a great discussion with them. Elder Rickertsen and I played an epic game of Jenga. I lost.... What made this game really hard was the fact that the table was uneven and so we had to build accordingly.

 

     That's a wrap! Sister Iverson took all the pictures for us, so I will have her email them to my Mom and she can post them or something. Thanks for reading! Tootaloo!

 

     ~ Elder Zac Snell :)

Elder Snell, Harrison, Elder Rickertsen

Elder Rickertsen, Harrison, Brother Iverson, Elder Snell