(Hermana S.) Fear not!

Hellllllllllllooooo beautiful family! I just love reading all your emails. And I am so dang happy for Sadie! She is going to be a rocking missionary.

To update you: Judith is doing awesome! I love her... seriously one of the most incredible people I have ever taught. She's so cute! We give her the little pamphlets to read to prepare for our lessons. She reads them all, looks up the scriptures, and writes out the answers to the questions in the back!!! On Sunday she had to work, but she went to Sacrament Meeting before. I am so grateful for our sweet little Judith! Also, we are teaching a new investigator, Lucia, who went to church so we had a new baptismal date this week! She is doing very well but it's a little different because she can't read. We are going to read with her so that she can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  

This week has been very good. My companion really is fabulous! I love her so much ... she is a missionary with great potential. If after 4 weeks she is so awesome, wow, I cannot imagine how amazing she will be in a few months. She is very bold and direct and tries hard to be a worthy representative of Jesus Christ. We have the same vision in this work and I really enjoy every day because we arrive to the house in the night just about dead, knowing that we have given everything. 

This week my companion and I started missionary purification (I'm sure you can look it up on google to see what I am talking about. It's basially a 40-day fast from anything "worldly" that might impede you from having the Spirit). I'm really excited for the opportunity to do it again. But this time I feel something different, more of a desire to change everything - all my desires, thoughts, and really my nature. We have committed ourselves to being exactly obedient and the Lord has helped us a lot. Lately, the time in lessons has been stressing me out a lot, but thanks to the grace of God we have been able to be very obedient this week with 45 minutes or less. 

What has been a little more difficult is the things of the mind. I read recently the attributes of the "fourth missionary" and I realized that I need to give God my wishes. Everything that I love - singing, theater, sports, my studies - are good but I have to give them all to the Lord for the rest of my mission. And as it says in the purification, when I put them down on paper as things that I would fast from thinking about or doing, immediately the desire to do them grew. I just had a dream that I could not be in a musical because I was going on the mission and in the dream I began to cry, haha! The battle of the mind is the hardest. But I am confident that if the Lord can help us with some things on the list, you can help us with all of them. 

This morning I felt the impression to study a story from the Bible for an investigator. But now I realize that I also needed to read it for me. 2 Kings 6:16-17  

16.  And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
17.  And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 

I believe in the power of God. He has manifested it in my mission. I know that His armies are infinitely greater than those of the adversary. We have all the armor we need to defeat the enemy, even the natural man in us!

Love you so much! I hope you have a great trip to MT! I can't believe you're taking the dog! Hahaha

Hna. Snyder

Love these hermanas!