Can't keep me down

hey yall.

This week literally was like a present wrapped from satan. kidding that was a little bit dramatic.... let me just explain to you my week:

 

Monday and Tuesday were some of the best days of this transfer! i got to see my home :) i am grateful to have the chance to go on exchanges down in nagshead. it really is such a tender mercy from the Lord. Sister Hymas and i were companions for the day and we killed it! recieving all this revelation, teaching in unity, feeling the spirit strongly-it was the best. I got to see Kyle and Patrick! Kyle is doing soooo well. I am so proud of both of them!!! they are thinking of going to SVU. It really has been the most amazing blessing to see the gospel of Jesus Christ literally change peoples lives. That is what this gospel is all about. how lucky are we to have the chance to be changed everyday??! and as a missionary to have a front row seat to witness these miracles take place everysingle day?!?!?

We found a new investigator on tuesday. this was a new one:teaching the restoration and reciting the first visio, only to get interrupted by this lady spitting tobacco into the trash can while we are in mid sentance. She stilll kept perfect eye contact. that is talent.

We left nagshead and drove to elizabeth city o do exchanges with the hermanas. this was an adventure. We knock on a beaten up door and this nice mexican lady lets us in and just starts talking and talking and talking. It was so fun to kind of understand them! I even recieved some promptings to say el libo de mormon. whats upppp. hahaha it actually was probably the funniest thing to see. i always try to speak spanish and i cant...

Anyways..while we were talking to Rosa and Ceasar...i looked out the window and it was SNOWING!!!! WHATTT!!!!! it was AMAZING!!! president wanted all of us back inside and no more driving because people in virginia dont know how to drive in the snow.

So we got in a 830, planned, and then played in the snow. i am so mad i forgot my camera.. i have lots of pictures!

the next day we still werent allowed to drive. literally there was like 3 inches of snow and the whole town shut down in elizabeth city. the banks even closed! hermana bennet and i walked around town all day, looking for hispanics to talk to. It was sooo cold... and i was not prepared for this weather. the day before is was 60 degrees out! i didnt even have boots. it was quite an interesting day!

we luckily got permission from president baker to drive home because we had appoinments for that night. So as we got in the car, we decided to stop somewhere for dinner. We didnt find anything so we decided to go straight home before the roads go even MORE icey. lesson #1) ignore the natural man! if you are hungry.. wait  until you get home

So we are stopped at a red light, literally 2 feet from being out of elizabeth city, and i was looking through the glove compartment for food.(once again... the natural man took over.)

 all of a sudden... BOOM. my body gets jolted and i am in shock. What the? what just happened? Sister tartwater looks at me so calmly of course and says "we just got in an accident." there is such a hilarious difference between us two. She is always so calm and collected and im in the passanger seat in shock because we just got hit. This guy comes out and tries to get away with  it because there was no dent. actually there wasa huuuuuge crack along the back of the car. The cops came, tow truck for his car, ect. We decided to stay in elizabeth city for the night so we didnt have to drive at night.

poor president baker... he just gave us permission to leave and then we get rearended.

we got permission to leave again in the morning, and so we got home safe and sound in time for our appointment with biker dude who came to church on sunday! he didnt show... it was a blessing because i was feeling extra tired and dizzy. I was so confused because i thought i got a pretty good nights sleep.... Sister Baker told us it was protocall for us to go to urgent care even though the car accidnet was minor.

We get to urgent care and the doctor tells me i have whiplash and a concussion.

Everything made sense to me why i was so out of it. My head throbbed and i didnt even know what was going on.

Doctors orders were to rest. Sister baker made us cancel all of our appointments and go home and sleep. I was SO devastated. This is the worst news you could ever hear. We finally got back to our area and now we are ordered to stay inside. I have such a problem with resting as a missionay. i can rest when im home! sister tarwater took very good care of me and made sure i didnt move around.

Towards the end of thursday night, my right hand started going numb and tingly and it changed color. ( i just had a freak out because i forgot how to spell color... i had to ask the elder sitting next to me! oh GOSH) we had to call the missonary doctor who lives in like iowa and we were almost sent to the hospital. it was scary! I lost strength in my right hand and i couldnt grip anything.

The next day i got sent back to urgent care and they said the weird hand thing is becuase of a spasm in my neck due to the crash.

sister tarwater let us go to 3 teaching appointments this weekend, which probably wasnt the smartest for me to do but i couldnt just sit and watch all our appointments with investigators just cancel!

The funny thing about all of this is how small the car crash was... and i am walking away with a concussion. God definately has a plan for this!

I am feeling a little bit better. We have a busy week this week, too. God has a plan for all of this. There is a reason why i am consussed. Is that a word?

His will and timing is PERFECT. we are the ones who need to align our will with his and repent.

I am learning a tough lesson on humility.

Dont worry momma, i am going to be okay :) i bet that was a weird call from the mission! sorry if that ruined canada!

Love you all! Chose Christ.

xoxox

Sister snow fall.

 

Great Bridge Goodness

Dearest Family,

As you know, yesterday was Martin Luther King day, so the library was closed. I will try- keyword- to keep this email short because we have got a lot of WORK to be doing here!!! Right now I am on an exchange with Sister Hymas one of my BEST friends and my old companion. Ahhhhhh we are so happy right now. anyways... this week has been the best week Greatbridge has seen in ages. Things are really picking up here and man it is humbling and a testimony builder to be able to see miracles happen every single day. God is SO real and SO kind.

Last Monday- Tuesday we had an exchange with the Norfolk sisters. Sadly the sister I was with was deathly ill so we didn't have the time we wanted to work. We did luckily meet a new investigator named G. He is super awesome. We saw him walking outside while we finished contacting a less active, and we went over to him and the rest was history. That night after we exchanged back we had another lesson with N, who is our investigator who is dating a less active member. N is set for baptism on Feb 1, but sadly we are going to have to push back her date. The lesson with her on Tuesday was one of the most powerful lessons I have ever been in. Oh mannnn the spirit was SO strong. We were talking about the plan of salvation, it was nearing 9:10 pm and we needed to get going so we could be home on time. But we felt prompted to get to the spirit world portion of the lesson. N's mom died when she was 14 and she didn't know there was a place for her mom right now. The spirit was bringing so many things to our minds to share with her, and the room was filled with tears as we testified of the power of the atonement, the peace of the plan of salvation, and TEMPLE MARRIAGE. They want to be sealed in the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so cuttteeee. We are so excited for them.

Wednesday was another exchange, I was in Kempsville where me good friend ISHEL BRIMHALL lives... guess who happened to be signed up for dinner that night? The Brimhalls. So fun. Ishel is at school right now but it was fun being with her family!

Thursday we celebrated my one year mark by getting froyo and setting M for BAPTISM on Feb. 15. best way to celebrate EVER!!! M is a friend of a less active we have been working with forever, and she told us at dinner she had someone she wanted to introduce us to, so we told her to call him right now. The amazing part of this story is that we had mulitple lessons scheduled but at the last moment they ALL cancelled. We were def meant to teach M. He has a rough past and is very ready and willing to change his life. What a better way to change your life than by joining Christs restored true church?!?!?

Friday we had the craziest break up happen. Remember when I was telling y'all about the two college age guys who said the book of Mormon is a lie and all that? Well for some reason we had another appointment with them... we show up-with a member who went out of her way to come.... and they both are standing outside waiting for us. uh oh.... So we go up to them and Sister Tarwater is like "is something going on upstairs?" all innocently. They turn and look at us all dramatically and look back at us and say "We cant meet anymore. We wont let you in." They brought up a scripture in second John how "if someone comes with you with a different bible, bid them farewell, don't let them in, and don't wish them godspeed" or something like that.... We stared at them and told them the scripture actually says another gospel, and we have brought them the same gospel that Jesus Christ set up. They started to get the look on their face like they were going to argue.... and one said "Joseph Smith is not a prophet and the Book of Mormon is a lie."  we asked "did you read it?"

"no." Well then you can't say that. I asked where this conclusion came from and the first one said God and the second one said research and advice. ohhhhh that all makes sense now. It was so sad. They both completly closed off. We asked them why they didnt just call us or something weird like that and dustin said because they wanted to give us our book back. Guys... it was SO intense! The only thing I knew how to do after that to cope was to laugh... so we all laughed, even the member. laugher heals all. Jk, that's the atonement. That whole sitch ( translation=situation ) seriously looked like it was out of a movie. To tell you the truth, we both knew it was coming. They weren't even willing to read the Book of Mormon. When you are in a slower area, alot of times you cling on to those investigators who aren't progressing. In realilty they are a distraction from finding the ELETE. So we are moving on to better things!

We got  a mormon.org referral for a man wanting a missionary visit, and so we went over to meet him. This biker dude walks out in a harley leather jacket, a long gray pony tail, and this big rider boots. He asks who we are and then goes... oh i didn't realize I was inviting the Mormons over.. I just google free king james bible and this thing popped up so I put my name on it and then after that I realized it was the Mormons. I am not interested. We talked to him more, gave a BOM, set a return apt, then invited him to church. We didn't think much of it sadly. After this we had a lesson with Atlantis, still set for  Feb 7th. We had to teach the law of chastity and word of wisdom to her. She's ten... and her mom was running around the whole time. most awkie lesson ever. hahhahaha

For dinner on Friday we had SUSHI!! A member couple takes the missionaries out for sushi sometimes! First time I have had real sushi in a looooong time. Wow I am using my email time to talk about food... the south is getting to me...

gross.

After dinner we had an amazing lesson to top off or not so peachy day. We taught Chris, the boyfriend of a member who is at college, who Sister Tarwater tracked down after church :) It was amazing. he agreed to be baptized but wouldn't commit to a date yet, but all is well. He doesn't have much religious background. He doesn't really know if he believes in God yet. So this is  new to me. I'm used to teaching people with a very STRONG background. But it was very good. The spirit was so strong.

Saturday  we had interviews with President Baker. That man is so inspired. He always boosts me up. The begining of our interview he had me and Sis T teach him a portion of the restoration and extend a commitment to him. He was pretending to be M and he recieved revelation for him that he is more interested in us than the lesson, that he thinks he has a chance... SCARY. so we got freaked out by that one. hahaha

President Baker has a way to help me realize that I AM doing a good job and that I am listening to Satan  alot STILL. So many of the sisters I have been blessed to work with struggle with this same feeling.. inadequacy. Its horrible, and satan just loves to twist things and make us feel like we aren't 

good enough. But we ARE. We all have those imperfections, and the adversary knows what we are self conscious of. He will make us believe that we are bad teachers,  aren't good at following the spirit, or we aren't good daughters, or good examples, or good parents.. What ever it is. we arent! We cant let him hinder our progressions!  I am sick of it! President Baker reminded me of my strengths, and once again I got out of that interview feeling like a different person. I never realized how much satan is trying to attack me. It's because I am on the Lord's errand, and too bad he hasn't realized thatI'm  not giving up! Never ever. We already know which side will win.

 

Sunday we were on exchanges.. I was at another church but I get back to Greatbridge that night and hear the miracle...

The biker dude came to CHURCH!! We had thought nothing of it... even scheduled over his return apt..so bad on our part... but he came to church, reschuled our apt because he couldn't make it, and then he told sister tarwater he had read 50 pages of the Book of Mormon already... WHAT!!!!

miracles are happening every second of everyday. I cant even keep track of them!!

N told us she isn't ready to  live the law of chastity so we might have some issues here....

 

Thanks for all you do fam! I love you all to the moon and back! SHOUTOUT TO CHANDLER SNOW!!! 18 YEARS OLD WHATS UP!!!! hope is was a great day! love you bro

Thanks for the package momma! 1 year out... I can not believe it....

have a great week!! choose Christ!!

xoxo

sister snow

ps:  I saw Kyle last night (recent convert in Nagshead) and he passed the sacrament Sunday AND he's  giving a talk in church

One year mark!!

I can not believe that I am about to be celebrating my one year mark as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It has by far been the best, most rewarding, and most challenging year of my entire life. I want to keep being a missionary for eber!

I have so many things to tell y'all and so little time! This week was filled with miracles. We have been pushing along here in Great Bridge for a while now, seeing a few fruits of our labor. But this week the fruits were fully ripe and feel into our laps!

We started this week to a not so exciting lesson where more people tried to bible bash us. This time was different... I was so ready to BOLDY proclaim the truth, because I had no doubts. These two guys we are teaching both go to a bible college and they wanted to know what we as Mormons believe. One refuses to read the Book of Mormon because he believes it's evil, the other is just reading it because he secretly has felt the spirit  but doesn't want his friend to know. So we read 3 Nephi 11 with them, one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. After we finished reading, the spirit was strong. "J" said that there definitely is truth to this book. They both sat in silence as the spirit was hitting them. Then all of a sudden BAM they tried to fight it and started bringing up all these weird concerns and then "d" looks at us all fiercely and says straight up..." The Book of Mormon is a lie."

I can not express the feelings that came over me. I had so much fire built up inside of me. That book is my LIFE, and it was the most heartbreaking, disappointing thing to hear and see someone jump to those conclusions with out even reading it. WE testified of it and said that we were disappointed in him for not taking the chance to come to a conclusion on his own and to take a formed opinion from an outside source other than God.

I really felt like a mother protecting my child or something…

Wednesday -Thursday we had an exchange with sisters who serve in a young single adult branch. Then when we got back together we had an appointment with the S's. We felt prompted to focus on the temple as we taught the plan of salvation. The spirit was SOOOO strong! Momma, remember to ask me about this lesson! There are so  many other things I need to share in this email, but remember in my setting apart blessing how I was told I would have angels on the other side of the veil helping me? The veil was very thin in this lesson. It was such a powerful experience.

Okay! So we have been struggling with finding new people to teach through members. We have asked for referrals, taught members the lessons in their homes, brought them out with us, we were working as hard as we could. This week we got a text from the elder's quorum president that a less active member's girlfriend is interested in learning more. So on Saturday after another exchange we had we met N. Her boyfriend who is a member is extremely less active. I remember seeing is name when I first got here and hearing that he isn't interested in changing and is not progressing. So the fact that this member reached out to the elder's quorum pres. is a miracle of its self! N is amazing. Her mom passed away when she was a teenager and that's when she "found God and was saved." Everyone says saved here its cray. Anyways, we taught her about Heavenly Father and how much he loves us, and went on throughout the lesson of the restoration and the spirit was so strong. Her boyfriend was commenting, she recognized the spirit, and throughout the lesson the prompting to invite her to be baptized on a specific date was pounding through me! N quickly agreed and was sooo excited about it. The next day she and her boyfriend were at church :) She is getting a lot of opposition from her dad right now, he had heard a lot of anti- so please keep her in your prayers! She is set to be baptized on Feb 1, and is already working on living the word of wisdom!

Before I tell the next miracle I need to give some background: a member who is up at BYYI right now has a boyfriend who is not a member. We have been working with her to invite him to church, to read the book of mormon, etc. He came to church a couple times with her and really enjoyed it, but the member was a little apprehensive about extending any other commitments to him. Well, she is at school now, and yesterday C came without her! He just showed up. As we were listening to the talks, the spirit was so strong. I could sense he was feeling the spirit and that we needed to talk to him after sacrament meeting.  Right after the prayer,  N and her boyfriend were about to leave so I talked with them and explained to them about the next class and Sister T jumped up and went over to C! Companionship unity at its finest. We have an apt with him on Wednesday! After church his girlfriend texted us soooo excited and said that he told her he felt the spirit so strong today at church. What a miracle! All of these people are just falling in our laps!

I am so excited about this week and am so grateful I made the decision to serve a mission. I have never ever regretted it. I love you all so much! Please keep N, A and C in your prayers this week!

miracles are happening in Great Bridge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Choose Christ!!!!!

xoxo
Sister Snow

2 nephi 10:23..... "23 Therefore, ^acheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are^bfree to ^cact for yourselves—to ^dchoose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life."
Cheer up your hearts-this is my new moto!

Weekly Planning Nightmare... fun pics too

Hey Y'all!
Like my email title? Trying to keep it interesting here. tehe
Okay so this week was a party. At least on New Years Eve. We had to stop proselyting at 5, so we spent the hours we did have working as HARD as we could to find the elite. We were pushing 4:45 and one of our "investigators" came to mind that we could stop by, who NEVER answers the door and was at the brink of being dropped. We knocked on his door and he actually answered! Thank you Holy Ghost!! So he ended up telling us that his dad has been in the hospital and he was sorry he had never been home. Poor Man. We testified that the Book of Mormon would bring more peace into his life.  I don't know what I said to him but he looked over at Sister T and said, "This one is serious! No messing with her, shes determined." Yolo. We have an apt with him this Tuesday so fingers crossed!
New Years Eve we went out to a Chinese restaurant and then went over to the Schlossers. It was fun, we bought dino hats and mustaches and blower things. Sister Tarwater and I went home and after we finished planning we called like everyone in the mission, banged on pots and pans, blew in our little noise makers, and yelled happy new years for about an hour. We thought we were so funny. hahahha It was one of my favorite memories on my mission so far. You gota make the most of having to be in bed at 10:30 on New Years Eve! Confession: We did set our alarm for 11:55 but we woke up to our alarm at 5:45 the next morning... we slept through it :( we even had Martinellis and glasses lined up!!! God is funny how he wants us to be exactly obedient.....
The rest of this week was pretty slow as to finding new investigators. We had two exchanges we went on. It was very exhausting. There are some problem companionships this transfer we are working with. It is going to be a very interesting transfer for sure. But- we did have a whole bunch of lessons this week!!!!!!!! It was a miracle-The most lessons this area has had in a very long time. My impression when I first got here is coming to light-Great Bridge is going to explode with people to teach!!! One investigator couple we are working with apparently had a very interesting lesson with sister Tarwater and a sister she was exchanging with. This couple, the S's have been on the radar for the ward and missionaries all year and we are finally teaching them. They are taking the lessons more for academics because their 18 yr old daughter joined early in 2013.Keep them in your prayers. we see a lot of potential with them.
We taught one lesson that was the worst 1 of my life. Literally. We taught them the plan of salvation and everything we said they argued with, from Adam and Eve, to God having a body, to the priesthood. And I mean ARGUE. They were so contentious. I was literally shaking in my rain boots when I told them they needed to act on faith and open their hearts. We couldn't get out of the house. We testified powerfully and then they even started arguing with THAT. We pretty much ran out of there. Afterwards I was still shaken up. This was my first real encounter with the dreaded southern bible bashers. Afterwards I said one of the most sincere prayers I have ever said in my life. When situations arise that can cause doubts, don't ponder on them and let Satan fan these flames. Go to the the source of truth. After I knelt down and pleaded with my Father to bring me comfort. I felt a little better, but I was still shaken up. I wanted a strong spiritual experience to make all the doubts go away. I continued to pray for strength the rest of the week, and I even fasted for the strength to shake off that lesson. It really did shake me up. On Sunday I had such an amazing experience during sacrament. We were singing "I stand all amazed," one of my favorite hymns and suddenly I couldn't even speak. I felt that usual warmth I feel start to grow. I couldn't even sing. I just started crying. The words came to mind, I am here for you, you know this already. You know this is true. Instantly all  my fears, doubts, and concerns were washed away. As I took the sacrament this week, I really did feel like I got to start over.
As for the weekly planning nightmare... on Tuesday after our conference call with all the mission leadership president baker asked us to stay on the line after. He began to ask us to come over to his house and do weekly planning in front of him. WHAT??. Sketch. Of course we said yes... so on Wednesday before our exchange we drove over to President and Sister Baker's house and weekly planned while they watched us and took notes and then made copies of our planners... then they fed us lunch so that was a bonus!
I am not sure if my email this week is making any sense as usual. I am probs just rambling on, but this week my testimony has grown so much. You receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. This was a perfect example of this scripture! Something else I realized this week was how scary and powerful Satan is. I thought that I had a super strong, unshakable testimony, but no matter where you are in life, Satan can still try and knock you down. It's okay to ask Heavenly Father for answers. He will not make us feel dumb for doing so! (James 1:5) I KNOW now more than ever that this is the one true church. I know now more that ever that Jesus Christ is literally there for us every step of the way. He lives. I know that the Book of Mormon is SO true and so powerful.
I love you all so much!!!! May we all commit ourselves more to the Savior and sharing His gospel this year :)
xoxo
sister snow