(Elder S.) Shibuya Crossing

Hey everyone!

Last week started off really, really great, probably the best week of
my mission. We saw tons of miracles and met so many new people. It was
really awesome and Elder Canfield and I were feeling on top of the
world! We had five people promise to be at church on Sunday, which we
were super excited about. Only two of them came which we were kinda
disappointed about. Then Monday started off really well. We had a
couple lessons before dinner and set a new baptism date with Takano!
That was a great thing that happened. But... Then we had a lesson with
Flavio and he told us that he's not ready to be baptized on Saturday.
That was a pretty hard blow for us. We thought he was ready!! On
Sunday we decided to fast for him and I've been praying really hard
for him. He told us he hasn't felt the Spirit yet so he doesn't know
if these things can really be true. All we can do for now is try to
get him to have/recognize spiritual experiences and find out where and
why his faith is lacking. He met the missionaries about a year ago and
has been taught everything a few times... Tough!

Temple p-day was really fun today! I love that our mission does this
every transfer. It's sweet to see everyone from other areas of the
mission and talk to old buddies. But today for some reason, in the
Temple I felt the Spirit stronger than I ever have in my life. It hit
me pretty hard! I think Heavenly Father is trying to tell me to keep
having faith. We also went to the Shibuya crossing in Tokyo which is
the most crowded intersection in the world. It was pretty sweet and
there were tons of people there with video cameras and everyone
videoing on their phones. Pretty cool!

I hope you find ways to strengthen your faith every day. The church is
true and Christ lives! Praying for you all!

I love you! Elder Snyder
愛しているよ! スナイダー長老

(Hermana S.) Working hard, physically and spiritually

How great has this week been? Very great! Yesterday was a little stinky because it's the second week in a row that we went to pick up a bunch of investigators before church and no one ended up going. That's hard. But I actually turned out being pretty happy at church because two families and another individual, all less-actives that we have been working with, went to church! I must confess that my vision has changed a lot in these few weeks. I have become a lot more aware of the importance of working with the less-actives. There are so many members here and so few that go to church, relatively speaking. We have begun to work with more less-actives and really it's beautiful. I never knew the joy of hearing a less-active say that they've read 8 chapters of the Book of Mormon or see them in the chapel. It really lifts my spirits and gets me pumped to keep working!

Today we had a zone activity. Fun fact of Hermana Snyder: in my 10 months in the mission, I hadn't gone to one zone activity. To defend myself I'd like to say that I have only been in areas where you have to travel a ways to get to the stake center. Hahaha... But today was an activity of the whole mission at the Egbert's commands, so we had to go. We did a bunch of exercises and then ate a healthy lunch. Pres. and Sister Egbert are super healthy so they want us to understand the importance of exercise and diet. So it was fun. We played ball so I was happy. Haha. But just for the record, I'd like to tell you all that I am a good little exercizer! I really like to exercise in the morning and get a good sweat on! 

Judith (it's ju-DEETH in spanish) is doing good but she didn't show up to church yesterday. :( She had company that arrived on Saturday night and I can only guess that it's the reason she didn't go to church. Sadness. But we're gonna get her to stake conference next week!

What's more to say? I'm doing great in Actopan and I really love it here with all of my heart. The bikes are great even though sometimes they tire me out. But we get around so much faster, I can't complain. Hermana Cevallos is so great. I love her so much. We are working so hard. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for your emails, your prayers, constant support and love. You are my favorite people ever!

Hna. e-snay-dair :)

Our exercise zone activity:

The bikes tire us out but I'm still the happiest missionary you've ever seen!

(Elder S.) Sacrifice brings blessings

Hey everyone! We had a super busy week last week. On Monday we had
zone p-day and we went bowling with all the missionaries in the zone
which was pretty fun. I couldn't remember the last time I went bowling
but I think I had the best score I've ever had...like a 115, haha.
Pretty impressive! I also went on companion exchanges and got to go
back to Narita for the day which was my very first area! It was sweet
and I got to see some old members and investigators and they still
remembered me. It was pretty fun!

I've had a lot of great spiritual experiences lately. It's so awesome
to have that great feeling and knowing that the Savior is right there
with us. We had Zone Conference the other day and we learned a lot
about our new mission president, President Nagano. He is so awesome!
You can tell that he is just full of love for all the missionaries and
all of our investigators.  I think that he's very inspired and is
coming up with a lot of great new things that are really going to help
the work here in Tokyo. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be
involved in this great work.

We're still working really hard with Takano and Flavio. Flavio's
baptism date is coming up here on the 29th! We are super excited for
him but we're still trying to work with his parents to get permission
for him to be baptized. They've had some bad experiences with other
churches in the past so they're a little worried. I know that when we
put complete trust in the Lord, His will will be done. We have some
other new people that we're teaching too which is great!

Recently I've watched the church videos about John Tanner and John
Rowe Moyle. It's so amazing to me the sacrifice of the early saints.
We can all learn from their sacrifices and try to give just a little
more to the Lord each day. I know that we can recieve countless
blessings if we do. I love you all and stay safe!

Love Elder Snyder

スナイダー長老

 This is me in Dad's old missionary suit and a fun member!

Bowling pins!!

(Hermana S.) Are we doing our part?

How great has this week been? Very great! I am so happy to be in Actopan. It's one of the best wards in the mission and I feel so lucky. The area is... large. Haha. But it's great! We inherited some great investigators from the Hermanas that left so we're happy about that! And the bikes..... I think I am in love. Seriously, it's the biggest blessing! What used to take half an hour now takes five minutes. We are finding it a lot easier to do the work. We're teaching a lot of lessons and finding a lot of people! This week we taught 43 lessons and had 13 new investigators. What's important now is seeing who really is the Lord's elect. 

Judith is doing so great. She is soooooo awesome. She reads the Book of Mormon or talks from the General Conference Liahona we gave her every day for literally 2-3 hours. Yesterday she came to church dressed up in her cute little skirt and brought her granddaughter. Ahhhh, I just love her! We are looking forward to her baptism on the 29th and getting her good and prepared.

I have really come to learn the importance of the preparation for a convert baptism in these past few weeks. As missionaries, the First Presidency has recently counseled us to teach ALL of the lessons before baptism (including all of the commandments, laws, and ordinances in chapters 4 and 5 of PMG). Then, we must teach all of the lessons again after baptism. What has made me a little sad lately is reviewing the teaching records of many converts and seeing that they were only taught like 5 lessons before baptism and then not taught anything after. My comp. and I now have the huge responsibility of teaching all 5 lessons to about 10 recent converts in our area. The really sad part is that most of these converts are already inactive. 

I have come to understand the importance of the members in this process. How many less-active members do you know? Have you ever visited them? How is your visiting and home teaching? Ask the missionaries how you can help!!! If they're good, they'll give you a list of inactives to visit. If they're not so good, grab the ward directory and get to work! These people need us. They need love. They need you bring the Spirit into their home to help them remember why they were baptized in the first place.

Yesterday something happened that I think has changed the rest of my life. A family of recent converts didn't show up to church, so my comp. and I went to visit them in the afternoon. We hadn't been there a half and hour when an hermano and his wife with their RM son showed up to give a blessing and just visit. They keep the Sabbath day holy. They showed up in their Sunday clothes. No one had to tell them. They were quick to observe and act. I am forever changed by this great example. I understand better what the Lord expects of us and what His true disciples do to honor His holy day. Let's all do less sleeping, less watching TV, less cooking and less cleaning so that we can live one day a little more like what will be every day in the eternities. 

Love you all so much!!!

(Elder S.) Yachiyooooo!

Hello my family! It's been a great week. Elder Canfield and I are
just working like crazy. I don't remember waking up in the morning
feeling so sore since high school football camp! Haha. There aren't
many city places here in Yachiyo to do streeting so we do a lottt of
housing. It's really helping my Japanese out a lot. I'm glad your
vacation was awesome! I love good ol' Montana.

So this week we met a guy from America named Steve. He's married to a
Japanese lady and has been living here for about 10 years. He has a
Christian background and we teach him in English, two things that you
don't encounter much here in Japan. He's a really cool guy and is
interested in the church and wants to learn more! Takano and Flavio
are doing about the same. We're still just trying to find ways for
them to strengthen their testimonies so they can reach their baptismal
dates.

That's about all I have for this week. I've felt the guidance of the
Spirit in our missionary work as we strive to be obedient and work as
hard as we can. Sometimes it's just a small miracle of someone
accepting a pamphlet or giving you a bag of fresh tomatoes out of
their garden. When we seek this guidance through prayer, faith and
righteousness, God will bless us. This is the great blessing we have
as members of the Lord's church. I love you guys!

Love Elder Snyder

(Hermana S.) Another great week

Hola familia!

It's been a great week in Actopan! I had my interview with President and it was so great. He is so wise and spiritual. I feel like when we're in interviews, you can say two words that triggers a stream of pure inspiration from heaven. He helped me to understand many things, for which I am eternally grateful. More than anything, in my interview I was able to feel the love of Heavenly Father and a lot of gratitude for the opportunity to be serving a mission. Being a missionary is just the best. I can't think of a better place to mold yourself into the person that the Savior wants you to be.

This week with Hermana Cevallos has been great. I love her! We laugh and work hard and we are getting to be great friends. I told President in the interview, "At first you might think she's a little quiet or serious, but she's not! She's a little firecracker!" We love being together and received the confirmation today that we don't have cambios tomorrow, so it's Actopan for 6 more weeks! Whoo! 

It's gonna get crazy here, and fast, because tomorrow we're only going to be 4 missionaries. Zenteno and Langdon are outta here, which I am very sad about. I got used to having my mamá around all the time and now that we're going to be separated again (and probably for good), I'm sad. But I'll get over it with all the work we have to do here. The ward boundaries here are stinking huge! I am nervous. I feel like there is a lot riding on us and there are so many people to visit. So. Many. Members. There are about 800 on the ward list and the average number at church is about 200-230. We'll see how this goes...

The great news is... we got bikes!!! On Saturday Sister Egbert brought us bikes and we are loving it! We get around so much faster and I am so grateful. 

I feel like there are lots of great things happening but at the moment I'm not remembering anything specific. We have lots of investigators but we're having a hard time getting them to church. So we're kinda sad about that but we're just gonna keep working. I've got to start writing in my journal again every night. I've gotten into a bad habit of not doing it. I know that if I write every day, I will find it easier to recognize the hand of the Lord every day. 

I have been reviewing the General Conference talks and, wow, how great was this past General Conference? As I was reading and studing, an inspired question popped into my mind that I'd like to ask all of you: What changes have you made in your life since the last General Conference? I'd like to hear a short answer from everyone, please! 

 I love you all! I love the mission! 

Looooooooooove,

Hna. Spider

(Elder S.) What a week!

What a week! This week was great. We saw a lot of awesome miracles
here in Yachiyo. The weather here is a bit miserable sometimes. Mid
90s and 70% humidity... It's kinda funny, though. We leave the
apartment at 12:00 everyday after studies and lunch and get to work. By
about 1:30 my pants and shirt are just drenched in sweat. Crazy!
Lately, we've been walking around a lot trying to find people to talk
to and share our message with. We just carry around 2 liter bottles
with us cause it's crazy how much we sweat. But I think Heavenly
Father is really blessing us!

So on Friday we had an awesome experience. We were housing and just
went to this random apartment building and on the first 3 floors there
were about 5 doors on each floor. We knocked on each one and they all
looked out their little peep hole and not one of them answered the
door. On the last floor there was only one door for some reason. We
knocked it and out came a kid named Bamba. We taught him the Plan of
Salvation and he was very interested and told us to come back whenever
we wanted. It was an amazing tender mercy of the Lord. Sometimes
missionary work here in Japan is pretty deflating. We do everything we
can to share our message with everyone but as soon they read the "Iesu
Kirsuto" on our name badge or we tell them who we are they just say
"Sorry, I'm Buddhist!". But I've noticed that as we put all our faith
in Christ and just go out and give all you have, we are really
blessed.

We had great lessons with both Takano and Flavio this week. Right now,
Takano says the only thing that's holding him back is the Word of
Wisdom. He just can't give up is tea and coffee. He told us "I want to
find a loophole to receiving the gospel and still being able to
drink coffee and tea." We're doing our best to strengthen his faith
and his testimony right now. If you know any talks or scriptures that
could help him send them my way! Flavio is doing so awesome. 
We just need to get permission from his parents so he can get
baptized.

I love being here in Japan. It's tough, but when I kneel down at night
and talk to my Heavenly Father I know it's all worth it. I love you
guys and hope you're doing awesome!

Love Elder Snyder

Sushi!!

 The biggest bowl of ramen I've ever seen

It's so hot my shoe is sweating!