Joy in any situation

Hey everyone! It's been a great week. We were able to go to 3 areas
and work with some great elders. In one area, the Elders made us
homemade pizza and tortillas for tacos. I was pretty impressed. Much
different from the normal missionary meals that we usually eat, so
that was nice. We are heading out to the Niigata zone, which
is a pretty far and isolated area of the mission. We will stay there
for 2 weeks and visit all of the areas in the zone. It's also the
coldest and apparently most beautiful part of the mission, so it
should be a great experience.

Today we went to a young single adult ward family home evening,
 and I was asked to share the message.
I shared from a talk given by Sister Cook in a 2016 young adults
devotional called "Find Joy in Everyday Life" as well as President
Nelson's past conference talk "Joy and Spiritual Survival". We truly
can have joy in any situation. It's like in 1 Nephi 17 when they
have been traveling in the wilderness and eating raw meat, Nephi still
talks about how they have been blessed and are happy. I love the
gospel! Talk to you next week. Love,

Elder Snyder
スナイダー長老

God loves His children

Hey everyone, it's been another great week! We went to two different
areas last week, Oizumi and Kamagaya. Both were great! In Kamagaya, we
were doing some street contacting and had a great experience. We
testified to a man that the teachings of Jesus Christ bring peace and
happiness to our lives, and he replied saying that he already feels
peace and happiness in his life. As I thought about what to say to
him, the spirit told me that God loves each of His children and wants
all to feel happy in life. There are many activities that will bring
us happiness and different things that will bring us peace. But the
only way we can feel real and true happiness and peace, is through
living the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I testified of this to him, I
felt the Spirit giving power to my words. Whether he felt it or not,
whether he accepted it or not, I once again felt the confirmation of
the spirit that these things are true. I'm so grateful to be here in
this amazing country, sharing this great gospel with God's children. I
pray you all can have experiences as this as you share your testimony.
Love you all, God speed!

Elder Snyder
スナイダー長老

Pile o' food!

Well, another week come and gone. This past week we went on exchanges
in two areas called Maebashi and Kasukabe. They both went well and got
to work with some great elders. In Maebashi, I ate one of the bigger
meals I've had. 6 pieces of huge karaage, which is just fried chicken,
taken and rice. It was crazy, but I'll send a picture. It was so good.
So actually right now I'm in an area called Oizumi, which is actually
a Portuguese speaking area. I'm working with 2 Brazilian elders until
Wednesday, so it's gonna be great. I'm excited!

I hope you we all able to take the challenge to study more about the
life of Christ. I have and it has been great. He is our Savior and our
Brother. Look to Him! Love you all, have a great week.

Elder Snyder
スナイダー長老

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Sorry, I don't have a lot to write about this week. So,
New Years here in Japan is a really big holiday, which makes it hard
to be out doing missionary work. So we stayed here at the mission home
and had Book of Mormon reading and apartment deep cleaning days. Then
this past weekend we went on exchanges at an area called Urawa, which
went great. We saw some cool miracles! I also got a new companion,
whose name is Elder Seeger. He's great!

Today we went to ward activity called a "mochi tsuki". Mochi is
pounded rice, which makes this sticky pounded rice ball that you eat
with different stuff on it. It's pretty cool so I'll send some
pictures!

The church is true! Today I want to challenge you to look at Elder
Russel M Nelson's Facebook and read his challenge about studying the
life and teachings of the Savior. I will be doing it as well, and I'm
sure that our testimonies will be strengthened. Love you all, have a
great week!

Just some pics...

 Mt Fuji in the background

 First sunrise of the year in the land of the rising sun. Can also

see Fuji on the right side!

Went up to see the first sunrise

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! It was great to talk to most of you on Skype
yesterday. Glad to see everyone's doing well. So today was temple
Pday, which was great of course. This past week we did exchanges in
three different areas called Urayasu, Matsudo and YACHIYO! They were
all good, but it was great being back in my old home Yachiyo. I was
there for 6 months at the beginning of my mission and left about a
year ago. We were there on Saturday and Sunday, so I got to go to
church on Christmas and see all of the members which was nice. It's
great seeing different areas and working with different elders.

So right now I'm actually standing on a packed train headed out to
another area, Takasaki, which was actually my first area when I came
back out! I was only here for a transfer, but it'll be fun to work
there again.

Well, I hope you all had a great Christmas and put Christ at the
center. Love you all, talk to you next week!

Elder Snyder

Awesome baptism!

Hey everyone! It's been a good few weeks. Things are great here and
it's the Christmas season which makes it even better. As I think you
know, Japan is not a Christian country, but during this Christmas
season it gets them thinking about Christ and why so many of us
celebrate His birth. So it's awesome getting to have conversations
with people on the streets about Christ and why He is so important for
all of us. So in the past few weeks I've been able to work in some
different areas. It's great to get to see different areas and work
with different missionaries, but it's especially great to see the hand
of the Lord working in all of the areas. My testimony has been
strengthened as I've seen how God blesses His missionaries as they
work with diligence and faith.

Another awesome thing happened yesterday! Our investigator Brother
Tsunashima, from Tokyo 2nd ward which I just transferred out, of was
baptized. He asked me to do the confirmation so I was able to go back
and see the baptism, then confirm him in sacrament meeting. It was a
great experience and now he joins his wife and 3 daughters as a member
of the church! They were so happy.

So it's the week of Christmas! That means I'll be skyping home. It
looks like I'll be skyping on Monday morning around 10:00, which will
be Sunday night sometime for you. I hope you are all enjoying the
Christmas season and being proactive in spreading your light.

I'm grateful to be a missionary now, especially during this time of
year. Christ is our Savior and we get to celebrate and help others
celebrate His birth! Love you all, have a great week!