Character of Christ

Hoooooooola! Another week already? How crazy. It's been another great week in Huauchinango! It's always crazy that no matter how good or bad your week seems, it all comes down to how many people you have at church. When we have only a few, the week feels like a bit of a failure and I feel sad; when we have many people at church, I feel super ecstatic and like all of the efforts from the week paid off. With that in mind, we had 8 at church yesterday I am super happy! 8 more people who are progressing towards a baptism! How can you not be happy? I told Hna. Z. this week that I feel like I am in a Book of Mormon story because our experiences over the past few weeks have been so crazy and literal demonstrations of how: 1. Satan wants to stop us from having success 2. Blessings (many blessings!) come after the trial of our faith 3. We grow stronger from our tribulations

I am glad to say that we are in the back half of the story now and are seeing so many blessings! We have 3 baptisms scheduled for this week and more to come! No, we didn't end up having the baptism this week because Pao doesn't have enough Sundays at church, but she is going to have her baptism after church on Sunday - how beautiful it will be! 

Our baptisms for this week are going to be: Pao (the 19-year-old mom of 2 who we have been teaching since my first week in Mexico), Abi (the daughter of 2 pastors who has read almost all of the Book of Mormon and has a rock-solid testimony), and D. (the 12-year-old who has gone to church every week since the first time we met her). I AM SO DANG HAPPY!!!

Yesterday, a miracle happened. After church, almost all of our plans fell through because no one was home. After walking and walking, we decided to walk some more to look for a house in a place that we didn't really know that we had put as the backup plan the night. After asking around, we found the house - our potential investigator wasn't there, but her mother-in-law was. Long story short, turns out the mother-in-law is an inactive member of 10 years!!! She had been feeling forgotten and alone until we showed up yesterday. She is more than willing and wants to go back to church where everyone is so kind and she feels different in the best way. It surely is God's will that she return to the church after years of feeling lost. What a miracle! It is so easy to feel God's love for His children when things like this happen.

So it's been a good week! In a week I will be finishing up my training - crazy. I might just be feeling nostalgic, but it is crazy to think of how much I have grown and changed and all the things I have learned in this short time I've been in the mission. I can't tell you exactly how I feel and what I have learned, but I will just say that I feel so much closer to and am trying to be more like the Savior every day. Being a missionary is the best.

With that in mind, I want to share some things that I have been learning recently that are changing my life. Most of what I am learning comes from "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar and "The Fourth Missionary" by Lawrence E. Corbridge (EVERY FUTURE OR PRESENT MISSIONARY NEEDS THIS TALK!!!). What I have learned is that without the character of Jesus Christ, there would have been no Atonement. So what is the character of Christ? One very important aspect of His character is that in every moment of tempation, pain, or suffering, He always - without a moment of hestitation - reached out to someone else. In the very moments that He needed comfort, He comforted someone else. His very nature was such that when the people around Him needed something, the compassion within Him was "activated" (in the words of Elder Bednar) and He acted immediately. He truly conquered His human body and became completely God-like. 

So how does that apply to us?

Just as Jesus Christ is our example in everything, He is our example in His very character. Our purpose in this life is to become more like Him, and that implies completely dominating our natural desires. But it does not imply fighting every day against our natural man. No, because our purpose in life is to change. We must change our nature by developing a pattern of acting outside of ourselves at all times and in all situations. Eventually, and only possible through a lot of practice and the enabling power of the Atonement, our character will be more like that of Christ - when someone around us needs help, our compassion is triggered, no matter our personal circumstance. 

So that is my goal! I am working on changing myself, my very nature. It's only possible if you give your heart to the Lord - all of your thoughts, desires, and dreams. But it's possible! And really it's the only way that you will become even a fraction of the person Heavenly Father has given you potential to be. READ THESE TALKS! They say everything way better than me. But more than read them, apply them. A talk is only a talk unless you actually make changes according to the words. At least that's what I am trying to do. :)

Anyway, I just love you so much! I feel like I am starting to understand the potential Heavenly Father has for each of His children, and I just know that our family has the heavenly potential to do so much. I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love, 

Hermana Snyder

A beautiful Sabbath day:

Playing for the Ward Choir - you might as week call us the Mexican Tabernacle Choir!

I play the piano almost every Sunday - the Mexicans think I am Mozart!

And this is REAL pico de gallo:

There are these weird vegatable things that grow on trees here that apparently you eat with eggs. We decided to borrow this lady's picking-pole and give 'er a go! We're going to eat our harvest tomorrow for breakfast... I'll tell you how it is!