Trading Spaces

Oh! Why hello! I didn't see you there. What can I do for you?
Anything? Anything at all? Well, if you don't speak up, then I guess
you are going to have to do something for me! Listen to my story I
have this week, that is. It's pretty legit.

     Let's go back to a land that is a good distance from where I am
now, back to the Fort (Belvoir). Monday night. We were sitting around
the table casting our votes as to where we thought everyone was going
to go. Everyone guessed that I would probably go to the Ashburn zone
and Elder Farnes would go to the Oakton zone. We were pretty sure that
we were both leaving. Well after our lots were cast, we decided to go
to bed early so we would have more energy for the long day that
awaited us. I say my prayers and get into bed, as does Elder McInerny.
The lights are shut off and we start to fall asleep. Suddenly, our
attempt to sleep was disrupted by the noise of our phone's ring tone.
I shot out of bed, butterflies in my stomach and only to discover the
sensation which we humans call nervousness as I read who was
calling—"AP Ni"—an assistant to President Riggs, and he only reason he
would be calling is to give a calling to one of the two missionaries
who use that phone. I throw the phone over to Elder McInerny for him
to answer as I sat on the floor shaking from nervousness. Elder
McInerny then said the words that will change my mission for a while.
     "Uh huh. Yeah. Sure. Ok, here he is."
     Yeah. I was pretty nervous. I answered the phone to hear the
cheery voice of Elder Ni. He then told me that The Lord has called me
to be a district leader and I would be one of the most enthusiastic
and energetic district leaders in the mission. I gladly accepted and
he then gave me a reading assignment to study before a meeting with
President Riggs after transfer meetings. Stressed out? Yes. Happy?
Thrilled! I am excited to serve the missionaries in my district. Now I
get to teach district meetings. That is what I am most stressed about,
but I know that if I put forth diligent studies and exercise a great
amount of faith, I will be told what to teach and how to inspire and
motivate the district. Anyways... That's my rant on m new calling. Now
on to the rest of the story.
     I recorded transfer meeting on my voice recorder, so that was
cool. I wish you guys could be there and feel what it is like to be
transferred to somewhere to be with someone you don't know. It is
really a rush. Believe me. So, I got my name called and was told that
I was going to be serving in McLean with Elder Cline. "And there will
be a lot more energy in that apartment." End quote, President Riggs.
He says that every time I get transferred. It's pretty funny and it
makes my day. I got to be the chorister for the meeting! That was fun!
Anyways, so we show up in my new area and find that my prayer was
answered. I am on bike still!!! The funniest part is the fact that
this is the hardest bike area of the mission. Be careful for what you
pray for. Haha! I am going to be in the best shape by the time I get
transferred again. The houses here are HUGE!! I will attach some
pictures for you to see just how big these houses really are. I can't
wait to get to know the members here!

Thanks for listening to my story, I really appreciate it. Love you
guys! Oh, and welcome Drue Harvey to the spectacular calling of
Missionary.

Love you all!!!

~ Elder Zac Snell


This letter sent home has been brought to you by viewers like you.
Thank You!

Interpreting Tongues

  Hey, everyone!!! Elder Snell here, ready to update you upon the
topic of missionary work here in Fort Belvoir, most likely for the
last time. You would think that they would keep you in an area once
you get to know all of the members, but as soon as you get to know
them all really well, they ship ya out! Very annoying if you ask me.
     Fort Belvoir has been an awesome place to serve! Working with
military people has been great. Oh, and it has all been on bike! That'
stone of the best parts! So far, I have served my whole mission in
biking areas! Whoot! Huzzah for keeping in shape! Hopefully I can say
that I served on bike for a whole year. That's my goal. Anyways....
Other than being on bike, some other awesome things that were part of
these three transfers here have been some of the crazy miracles!
Yesterday, we had a less-active member come to church hat hasn't been
to church since I have got here. We also had an investigator come to
church for the blessing of his baby. His wife is a member of the
church and we helped her out A LOT, so she thought it would be cool if
we got to stand in the circle for the baby blessing. That was a really
neat experience!

     While we are on the topic of miracles, let me tell you something
that happened on Friday afternoon. We were on our way back from
filling out the progress record at the Library and we planned to drop
by some investigators' houses to invite them to a ward BBQ that was
going on the following day. We are teaching a man from Ruanda named
Ganza. He lives in a house full of potential investigators, so if we
got him to come, we would get the rest of those in the house to join
as well. We knocked on his door and nobody answered, so we did what
any desperate missionary would do. Knock again! So we did, waited a
few minutes and we heard the door knob shuffle a little and the door
creaks open to the father figure of he house hold, Pascal. The only
problem with us teaching Pascal is the fact that he only speaks French
and barely any English. We ask him of Ganza is home in hopes of
talking to him. His reply was, "Ganza....... Home?...."
Me: *facepalm*
Great.... He then puts up his finger as if to say hold on a second,
then slowly climbs the stairs to what we assumed was to find Ganza. We
wait at the door for a good three or four minutes and he finaly comes
back, this time with a French Book of Mormon in his hands. Elder
McInerny and I look at each other, confused, but we both have an idea.
We were going to do our best to teach him a lesson right then and
there. Literally. We asked him if he has read the Book of Mormon. He
then goes off in French about something. We listen intently to see if
we might even be able to understand him. Now here is where the miracle
begins. If you have been reading the Book of Moroni, he talks of the
gifts of the spirit. There are certain things god allows us to do
through the spirit. This one just happened to be the one mentioned in
Moroni 10:16, which says:
     "And again, to another, the interpretation of languages and of
divers kinds of tongues."
As pascal was speaking to us in French, I could have sworn that I
caught some words that were English. "Is this like the bible?" I
couldn't believe my ears! Did I just hear that right? The spirit
confirmed to me that this is what he was asking. I I directed him to
the front of the Book of Mormon where it talks about it being
comparable to the bible. He smiled, nodded, and went off in French. I
then had an impression to ask him if he would be baptized if he knew
the book was true. He said yes! Elder McInerny then showed him
Moroni's promise and we said a prayer with him. We had just taught
someone in French!!! Hey yeah!!!! Mission accomplished!

     Today, I went to the Temple with Elder Seely! It was a really
awesome feeling being in the presence of Heavenly Father and feeling
his love that he has for all of his children. He loves us all so
dearly. I hope you know how loved you are, we have a way shown forth
unto us by our Savior, Jesus Christ, of how to get back to our
Father's presence. It is my hope and prayer that this is your goal, as
it is mine. I am ecstatic that my family can be together throughout
the eternities. I love them so much! Cherish the moments you spend
with them.

     With that, I bid you farewell for now. Until we shall meet again.

~ Elder Zac Snell :)

P.s. I ran into Elder Harrison Sturgeon when I was at the temple
visitor center today. He is doing great and is loving his mission.
Glad that I could run into an old friend.

Sent from my iPad

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.....