Well, this is weird.
This is my the last time I will write you as "Hermana Snyder"...
What to say, what to say.
When I arrived in Mexico a year and a half ago, I was pretty excited. I thought I was pretty big stuff, having learned "lots" of Spanish and having had a great MTC experience. I'd always been pretty good at what I had done in the past - high school, college, etc. I always liked to win and be the best. I had a testimony of the Church and I was ready to serve.
I got here, I met Pres. and Sister Egbert, and then I arrived in Huauchinango after a 4-hour bus ride; it was cold and rainy. It was a great first day and we saw miracles. But my second day in the mission field was pretty humbling. I remember we were eating at a member's house and everything just felt so strange. We had to go outside to use the bathroom and "flush" with a bucket, they didn't have running water, their "house" was one room with two beds, a fridge, and a stove. I didn't understand a word, they gave us something strange to eat, and I didn't even like tortillas. I started to cry and cry and I didn't know what I was doing in this foreign country so far from home.
As the days went on, I kept crying. But after about a month I realized that I would live and decided to start working. My trainer loved me and helped me by making me feel understood, even though we kept working hard and didn't waste a second. We saw great success and I started to understand why I was here.
The companions came and went, and I did too. I arrived in Actopan and then in Tecnologico and now here in Villas. The mission has been filled with ups and downs. Lots of tears and worry and repentance and change. It's also been filled with joy and happiness, peace that comes from the Holy Ghost. It's been the hardest, strangest, realest, best experience of my life.
I remember in my first interview I said, "President, you don't have to worry about me. I know that this is true." But now, I can say with all the security of my heart and all the force I can muster: None of you has to worry about me. I leave different than I came. I now know. I really know! I feel like the blinders have been taken off and I can see a whole new world, a whole different perspective. I have been changed by the the habilitating power of the Atonement. I have seen His hand, felt His strength. The Holy Spirit has been my guide. The Father in Heaven has been my help.
I love this work. I am so grateful. Of all the greatest things that have happened and all the miracles I have seen in these 18 months, the greatest and most meaningful has been the change in me. I am so grateful for the Mexico Pachuca Mission, especially for President Egbert and the mission president, person, and "dad" he's been for me. I can't express in words all that he's done and the example he's been and the impact he's had in my life, he and Sister Egbert. I love them.
Now I must leave this safe bubble that is the mission and go off into the real world. I'm sad and happy and nervous and excited. But I have no fear. As Elder Holland taught me yesterday, "The fact of the matter is that none of us wants tomorrow, or the day after that, to destroy the wonderful feelings we've had this weekend (or these 18 months). We want to hold fast to the spiritual impressions we've had and the inspiring teachings we have heard. But it's inevitable that after heavenly moments in our lives, we have necessity to return to earth so to speak, where sometimes less-than-ideal circumstances face us... Please don't be cast down in spirit and give up. Please, please remember tomorrow and all the days after that, that the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments, and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues, and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is there to help you keep going. I we give our heart to God, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do the best we can to live the Gospel, then tomorrow and every other day is ultimately going to be magnificent. So keep loving, keep trying, keep trusting, keep believing, keep growing; heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."
So here's to tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that! With the Savior by our side, we will always be victorious.
With so, so much love,
Your daughter and friend and sister in Christ,
Hermana Snyder
Hermana Snyder
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