Receiving guidance

Hey everyone, happy Thanksgiving week! It's nice to have an extra
reason to think about everything we're grateful for. I'm especially
grateful for our Savior and His gospel and the blessings we receive
from them. I'm so grateful for my mission, for all that it has helped
me with and the opportunity that it gives me to help others. Also,
it's gonna be nice to have some good cookin' this year for
Thanksgiving. Being in the English Ward is extra nice for the
holidays! We actually have 2 Thanksgiving meal appointments, one on
Thursday and another on Saturday. I'm excited! Hope you all have a
good time with family this week and share my love!

It's it's been a good week here in Tokyo. This past week we were able
to go to the baptism of an old investigator named Brother Uchiyama. He
was a referral from a member back when Elder Broberg and I were
together. We taught him for a few weeks and then referred him to the
elders in the Ward he lives in. He's an awesome guy and is gonna be
such a great member! I'll send a picture of us with him at his
baptism. I do have some kind of rough news though.. Our investigator
Iwagi kyoudai has had a pretty rough time as of late. He's the one
that was in the accident and just had surgery on his hand, but he has
kind of decided as of late that he doesn't really want to study the
gospel as much right now. His body condition from his injury hasn't
been the best lately and so it's just kind of hurt him motivation wise
in all aspects. He's not completely rejecting it, and he still loves
us and the members, but he says he's going to stop living the gospel
and see if he notices a difference in his life. That has been pretty
darn tough, because I've really grown to love him over the past few
months that we've been teaching him. Sometimes people's agency just
makes you so sad! But that's just part of God's plan, huh. So, we'll
keep praying for him and definitely stay in touch so hopefully he'll
realize how much he needs the gospel.  Other than that, our
investigator Tsunashima Kyoudai is doing so well, he has his baptism
date and is progressing towards it! So lately our mission has started
a new free English teaching program, in which we are helping high
school and college students prepare for big entrance exams here in
Japan called the Eiken and TOIEC. Pretty much all Japanese students
have to take these tests, so by providing these prep courses it's
expected that we'll really increase the foot traffic in the church,
which will of course increase new investigators and baptisms. This is
going to BIG! So recently our days have been consisting of hitting the
streets finding new investigators and new students, teaching lessons
and English, and studying! It's the life.

I want to share an insight on something I've been studying and
learning about. It's about receiving guidance and revelation through
the Holy Ghost. God of course wants to guide us throughout our lives.
But receiving that guidance of course is predicated first upon our
obedience. We all know that one, so lets be obedient! But the
frequency and clarity of promptings kind of depend on a few things.
First, how willing we are to act on promptings and how much we're
actually seeking them. For example, are we praying to find missionary
opportunities but never opening our mouths about the gospel? It also
depends on how prompt we are to act on the guidance that we receive.
It's my challenge to you to always be seeking for the guidance of the
spirit, being willing to act and to act promptly. I have a sure
testimony that God is there and guides us through the Spirit. Love you
all, have a great Thanksgiving week!!

Elder Snyder and Elder Nitta

God answers prayers

Hey everyone!! Things are going pretty well here. I'm just going to
write about one great experience we had last week. So Iwagi Hirotsugu,
our investigator who has been in the hospital just got out on
Saturday, but before that, we had been wondering and praying about how
we can help him. So on Friday, we get a random call from a great
member here in the Japanese ward, and told us that he wanted to go
visit Iwagi Kyoudai in the hospital. So on Thursday night, we went and
visited him and it was great. The member was so kind to him and shared
great testimony and really got to know him. Through it we were able to
really help lift Iwagi Kyoudai 's spirits. It was a great example to
me as 1, how God answers prayers and 2, how important service,
especially from just normal members, helps people so much. I hope we
all look for opportunities to show love to others. Love you!

Elder Snyder and Elder Nitta

Transfer call!

Hey hey everyone! One more week, come and gone. Life in Tokyo is
great! Today was transfer calls! Elder Calhoun, an Elder that I've
lived with for the past 3 transfers is going home! We've become really
good friends so it's sad to see him go, but I've actually learned a
lot from him so I'm grateful for the experience. I'm still with Elder
Nitta, which is great, and also district leader again this transfer.
Looking forward to it!

These past few weeks have been kind of tough. Our investigator Iwagi
Kyoudai got surgery on his injured hand and has had to stay in the
hospital for 2 weeks. We've been able to visit him a few times which
has been good though. Yu is still in Beijing and a couple other
investigators have fallen off the map. We did receive a referral
though named Tsunashima Kyoudai, who is the husband of a member and
father of 3 returned missionaries. He has finally decided that he
wants to get baptized, which is so awesome! We are teaching him now
and it's been going well. We were also able to meet a new investigator
on the street who seems to have good potential, so the Lord is
definitely still blessing us!

This church is the church of the Lord. The miracles, the feelings and
the blessings that we receive are surely undeniable. Christ is at the
head of His church and I know that He is hastening the work of
salvation. Even in the world we live in today, I know that peace and
guidance can be found through holding to the rod and staying on the
path that leads towards eternal life. Love you all, have a great week!

God loves all His children

Hey everyone, another week in the books! The weather here in Tokyo is
finally starting to cool down a bit! It's now in the 50s in the
morning and 60s throughout the day. Prime proselyting weather! The
final week of the transfer has begun. Crazy! Still feels like I just
went and picked up Elder Nitta. But the work is great and I love
working with Elder Nitta. We have a lot of fun working and it's
awesome to experience miracles together. Tomorrow Elder Bednar is
coming to our mission for a conference. I'm pretty excited! It's
always awesome having general authorities come and train us,
especially an apostle of the Lord. (Even better when it's one you
(kinda) have a connection with!) I'm sure it will be a great
opportunity to learn from on high and receive lots of guidance.

So last week our investigator Hirotsugu Iwagi went into the hospital
to have surgery on his hand again. I'm not sure if I've explained his
situation before but he was in a bad work accident about 9 months ago.
So anyway he's going to be in the hospital for about 2 weeks. We went
and visited him the other day and it was pretty cool. I really don't
like hospitals but it was great to be there to talk about the gospel
of Jesus Christ. He's doing well and we're praying for a quick
recovery for him. Please pray if you would like! We also went on
exchanges this past week. I went with another first transfer Elder who
is our district leader Elder Calhoun's companion. It was great. I love
working with young missionaries! So our investigator Yu is still in
Beijing right now. He'll be back at the beginning of November, so
right now the finding game is on! We really want to find new people to
teach who are prepared to hear the restored gospel.

We also have been getting a lot of meal appointments with members here
and have had the opportunity to share messages with them and help them
with their own personal missionary work, because after all it is the
members who need to find investigators! We met with a great older
couple from the second Ward who is really on fire right now with
sharing the gospel. I learned a great lesson from him as he is a great
example of sharing the gospel with all of those around him. He is so
reliant upon the fact that he knows that God will guide him and help
him to find people who are prepared to hear the gospel.

Today, I'd like to share a paragraph from Preach My Gospel. "God loves
you and all His children. He is anxious to support you in your
practical and specific challenges. You have been promised inspiration
to know what to do and have been given the power to do it (see D&C
43:15–16). He will help you as you try to recognize and understand the
Spirit through diligent scripture study. He will guide you to people
who will receive the message of the Restoration. He will give you
power to deliver the message and to testify of Christ and His gospel.
He will shower His blessings upon you through the gift of the Holy
Ghost. He asks that you remain worthy of this gift and that you ask,
seek, and knock (see D&C 4:7; Matthew 7:7–8)." I hope you all are
willing and building up your courage to seek opportunities through the
spirit to open your mouths about the restored gospel to those around
you. It all starts with an example and an eye to see and find
opportunities to share your beliefs with others. Let's all try to be
better missionaries! I know God will help and strengthen us. Love you
all, talk to you next week!

Elder Snyder and Elder Nitta
スナイダー長老と新田長老

Tokyo Temple

Hey everyone! Today was temple p-day. It was great as always. General

Conference was awesome! I really love conference more and more each
time I watch it. There's so much that we can learn and apply from the
amazing leaders of the church. Always such a great testimony builder.
I hope you all start rereading the talks asap! Sorry, I don't have a
tone of time today to write a group email, but things are great! I
love Japan and missionary work! It's the best. Have a great week, I'll
write more next week. Love you!

Love and prayers from Tokyo

Hey everyone, it's been a good week. The weather is starting to get
cooler, which means fall is right around the corner. The work here is
still going well. We're also getting a lot of meals with members which
is the best! Love eating with the members and we usually take an
investigator along which is great as well. I haven't mentioned
anything about my Japanese lately, but it's getting decent. But, just
when I think it's good, I'll talk to someone or watch a church video
with tough Japanese and I'll realize how far I still have to go to get
this dang language down! Still working on it...

The work is good. Our investigator Hirotsugu is doing well right now.
He came to church in a full suit yesterday which was awesome! He is
progressing so well. Also doing some finding as well which is always
fun.

Okay well, that's about all for this week. I hope you're doing well!
Much love and prayers from Tokyo. I'm super excited to watch
conference next week, but I hope you were all able to feel a desire to
improve from it. The leaders of the church are amazing! Have a great
week!

Good but tough week

Dear all, it's been a good, but tough week. We weren't able to meet
with 3 of our top investigators last week which was tough, but
hopefully things will be better this week. Things could be worse!
Elder Nitta is doing super well and has already gotten into the groove
of missionary work. It's fun working with him.

So, our investigator Yu, who was supposed to be baptized in a few
weeks, just told us that he's leaving tomorrow to Beijing for a month
for an internship that he just got. That was a pretty sad hit since we
have become such great friends and he's gotten so strong over the past
few months. It's really hard since there are no missionaries in China
but we're going to try and keep in touch via Skype. Let's pray that he
stays strong! But, right now Hirotsugu is doing great. We got I'm in
the homes of members twice last week for meal and lesson appointments.
Those are great opportunities for him to strengthen his relationship
with the members and hear their testimonies. Right now he's
progressing really well, but is also having some worries, which I
think is normal. But, we love him so much and working with him hard!

Lately I've been reading from President Hinkley's teachings of the
Presidents book in my free time and I've been learning a lot about
gaining and strengthening testimonies. One part in particular is about
gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. When Gordon B. Hinckley was
a young man, he established a pattern for scripture study. President
Hinkley said, “As a missionary, I read each evening before going to
bed a few chapters of the Book of Mormon,” he said, “and there came
into my heart a conviction which has never left: that this is the word
of God, restored to the earth by the power of the Almighty, translated
by the gift and power of God to the convincing of the Jew and the
Gentile that Jesus is the Christ.” The Book of Mormon has such a
simple promise, that will be fulfilled to all who truly have the
desire to know. I know the Book of Mormon is true! Continue to
strengthen your testimony and help others do so as well! Love you all!
Have a great week!

Elder Snyder and Elder Nitta
スナイダー長老と新田長老

Hirotsugu, me and Elder Nitta, my new comp.

Elder Nitta and me with the Naganos!

Best ramen ever!