Building Faith

Hey everyone! It's been another good week in Tokyo. The weather is nice and the Japanese food... Still delicious as ever. My companion Elder Broberg and I are doing great and we love working together. We had zone conference last week which was great. Love hearing from President and Sister Nagano and their guidance for the mission. We've been seeing a lot of great things in our area. We met a new guy who is a referral from Southern Japan who seems to have a lot of interest. His name is Hirotsugu and has lots of desire to change his life. Also, Yu is able to meet with us often and is progressing so well. He is my favorite! He comes to church and just loves it. 

Lately as a mission we've been focusing a lot on building faith and how it's through our faith that miracles are wrought. I know that our faith is so important in fulfilling the Lord's work. Not only in missionary work but as well as in our personal lives are miracles wrought by our faith. I know that we can build our faith through diligent prayer and study, as well as obedience and our righteous desires. I love the gospel and the work of Salvation. It's true. Love you and talk to you next week!
Elder Snyder and Elder Broberg

スナイダー長老とブローバーグ長老

Transfer 12!

皆さんこんにちは ! Last week was transfer week! Another one gone, which now makes me transfer 12... Getting old.  But Elder Broberg and I will be staying together for at least one more here in Senzokuike and Tokyo 2nd Ward. Things are going well as of late.. We're finding some good new investigators who are showing a lot of interest. One of them is Takuya, who is a really cool Japanese college student. He's doing great and really has a lot of interest in learning about Christ and the gospel. We still have our Chinese friends Michael and Yu who are doing well along with another new investigator from California! The work is hastening in this area! It's been well over a year and a half since either Ward in this area saw a baptism, but I can see it coming soon! The Ward mission leader here is an Australian man named Brother Curtis. He is an amazing man. He is helping us so much and helping this Ward so much. I haven't met many people who have as strong of a testimony of this gospel and desire to hasten the work of salvation as he does. But it's just awesome to see and be apart of the Lord hastening His work. 

Lately I've been thinking about Christlike attributes and the path that we're all on to attain those perfect attributes. We're all far from perfect, but one scripture that I love is Moroni 10:32, one that I'm sure you all know. " Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

 This mission experience has been one of ups, downs and in-betweens. I've been able to notice all of my many imperfections but I know it's a journey. Our Savior is the best! He sacrificed so that we can become perfect. Pretty sweet, huh? This is His work! We're on his errand. I love you and hope you have a great week!

The Purifying Power of Gethsemane

Hello everyone! Not a lot of time this week, but I just want to share something that I saw this past week that I really loved. This is from a talk from 1985 by Bruce R. McConkie entitled "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane".  I would suggest that all of you watch this talk (because it's really powerful) or at least read it. It's a great testimony builder of the Atonement of our Savior. For now I just want to share a little part that hit me:

"I am one of His witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in His hands and in His feet and shall wet His feet with my tears.

But I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God’s Almighty Son, that He is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way."

I love this powerful testimony of one of the Lord's Apostles. I hope that all of us will be able to gain this strong of a testimony of the Savior and His atonement. I know that Christ is our Savior and that through Him we will become perfect. I love you all and will talk to you next week!

Elder Snyder and Elder Broberg

スナイダー長老とブローバーグ長老

Temple p-day!

Happy Temple p-day! Today we had the great opportunity to go to the temple and enjoy the spirit there. It was even better since we live in Tokyo so we could bike there! But it was a great day. We also ate some Turkish kebabs, which is one of my very favorite foods ever. If you ever find a Turkish kebab restaurant, jump on the opportunity! 

This past week was pretty good. So we have an investigator named Michael, who is Chinese. His real name isn't Michael but that's his name for English speakers. Anyway, he's doing really well right now. He came to church on Sunday and we were also able to have a few lessons with him throughout the week. He's been an investigator for a while now and is trying to figure out which church is true between our church and also another church that he's going to every other week. We are basing most of our teaching out of the Book of Mormon, so he can receive a confirmation that it's true, meaning our church is the one he needs to join. Our ward mission leader, Brother Curtis who is wayyy awesome, also gave us the idea to use family history/temple work in our lessons to help him realize that through our church he can help his ancestors as well. He's making progress in the right direction! Our other Chinese investigator Yu is also great but just so darn busy that we can't meet with him often. We're hoping to teach him more!!

Well that's all the time have for this week! We are doing great, the weather is nice and perfect to find God's prepared children! I love this work! Love you guys too!

Elder Snyder and Elder Broberg

スナイダー長老とブローバーグ長老

Missionary adventures!

Another good week in the blazing, humid heat of Tokyo! Yeah, it's starting to get pretty toasty. But it's fun! Today we had a zone p-day which was quite an adventure. So we did an activity at Odaiba beach right outside of Tokyo. We played frisbee, soccer and volleyball with the Tokyo west and east zones both there, which was fun, but the adventure was on the way there! We had planned to take the train there, but we realized that we could probably just bike there and we would save 10 bucks in train fare and it should only take about 30 minutes. You guys probably don't know what Odaiba is but it's a man made island in the Tokyo bay and unless we would've taken about an hour long detour to come in from the other side, you can't go over the bridge on your bike. We were not aware of this and so we gave it a go! So, what ended up happening was, we biked for about an hour and 15 minutes, sweating like crazy, trying to find the nearest train station that would take us there, and then ended up paying 5 bucks in train tickets anyway and got there for the last 45 minutes of the 2 hour activity! Pretty funny experience to remember! 

Anyway, on to more important things. This week was another solid one! We had a really awesome miracle that strengthened our faith and is really going to help our area! So 2 weeks ago, we met an Indonesian guy on the street named Amar. He told us he didn't have any interest, so we gave him our flyer and we parted ways. Well, just the other day we met him again on the street, but this time he seemed to have much more interest, so we offered him a church tour and went right then since we happened to be only about a 5 minute walk from the church. So we showed him the chapel and then sat down and had a lesson with him. He told us that he had read our flyer, and one point that really intrigued him reads, "How can I know which church is true among so many?" He thought about it and said he decided to download the bible on his phone and try to start reading it. Anyway, we taught him about the Book of Mormon and how we can know which church is true. He said he'll be coming to church and will read the Book of Mormon and wants to continue meeting with us! Awesome! Also, our investigator Yu, told us earlier last week that he wasn't going to make it to church this week because he had some things going on. We were bummed about it but we showed up to church on Sunday and saw him there talking with some members in a white shirt and tie! He had to leave after sacrament meeting so we could get to where he had to be but it really showed us how much real intent he has! He's the man!

Well that's about it for this week. Isn't it amazing how God's hand is in this work? I love you guys and know the church is true!! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Snyder

My testimony of the Book of Mormon

Hey everyone! It's been a great week here in Tokyo. I'm finally starting to feel a little lighter on my feet after our 4th of July feast! Haha. So we had a good Sunday with 2 investigators making it to church! One of them is a Chinese man named Yu who has a lot of interest and is progressing really well. And he loves basketball so we have a good connection! The work here in Senzokuike is moving along well and Elder Broberg and I are contacting some great people so we're hopeful for the future here. 

We had MLC last week which was great, probably one of the best ones I've been to. We did a ton of teaching role plays, and as a mission we are going to be focusing on our skills because we are going to get lottts of green beans within the next few months. I'm excited to take it to zone meeting! I love President Nagano. He's so smart and full of inspiration. It's pretty sweet to here Sister Nagano's testimony of him being called of God. I also got to go on exchanges last week with a Japanese Elder named Elder Ammon Kido. He's literally the biggest Japanese kid I've ever seen. Biggest as in widest, most athletic I've seen. He said he was a swimmer since age 4, and so his shoulders are wider than mine! But, it was fun out with him. 

Well, that was about our week! I want to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon. So as I think you all know, we are doing the Christlike attributes Book of Mormon challenge as a mission. As I've read and focused on Christlike attributes, I've noticed how Christlike servants of the Lord truly are, Nephi for example. Anyway, as I've read I've been able to feel the power of the Holy Ghost strengthen my testimony of this great work. I know it's true and I'm grateful for the blessings we receive from the gospel. Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Snyder and Elder Broberg

スナイダー長老とブローバーグ長老

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July, America!