Week 4: Exchanges, Cockroaches, and a Stray Cat

Hello everyone!

The biggest congratulations to my best friend Courtney Bateman who is going to SWEDEN on her mission!

This week was really hot and really fun!

On Tuesday, before we both got in the shower, we found a cockroach in our room. GROSS. so big and moving quick! we caught it in a container, then threw it off of our balcony, so hopefully the people on the first floor enjoy that. haha. but so gross. we visited some LAs, then taught our investigator from Ukraine. She wouldn't let us teach until we drank the water and ate the Butterfingers that she gave us. Haha she's the best. Our lesson went really well, I've never seen someone so willing to pay tithing. That day we also knocked this LA house where no one ever answers, but every time we knock, this dog just howls and barks like nothing I've ever heard. This time when we knocked, someone inside screamed at the top of their lungs, "COOKIE!!" over and over trying to get the dog, whose name is apparently Cookie, to stop barking. We stood there on the doorstep and laughed and laughed. Ah man, good times. Also we see like 5 dead birds a day here. I think the heat just gets to them.

Wednesday was awesome, we had exchanges. I went to Balcones Heights with Sister Simonsen, a Sister Training Leader who heads home in 2 weeks. I learned so much from here, and we talked to literally every person we saw. It was awesome.

Thursday we exchanged back, and Sister Simonsen and I ended up having matching shirts, so we wore them and it was hysterical. I'll try to send pics next week. So after we exchanged back, we headed out for the day, and we really tried hard to talk to every single person we saw. It was so beyond hot and we were just sweating and feeling miserable and knocking and knocking. Then someone let us in and listened to us, and it just made everything so much better. Seriously changes everything and makes any amount of biking or sweating so worth it! Later that night we had another lesson with the father and son we're teaching, but only the father was there, and the lesson went soooo well. He committed to baptism, and really understood what we were teaching. And yesterday, he came to church!! yay!! so hopefully things continue to go well with them.

Friday we had some really good experiences, and some really funny ones. We came across the scroungiest stray cat you could possibly imagine. He looked wasted and was so dehydrated, it was sad. So being the good sisters we are, we went to our car, filled a container with water, then brought it back to the cat. We set it down, the cat looked at it, then ran away so fast. #rudecat haha it was so darn funny. the other funny thing was when i was backing the car out, this guy was taking out his trash. I asked him if I could give him a card. He was like" wait, hang on i think i sense something. Yeah i do. Religion. I sense religion. Starts with an M....hmm... Mormon!" and he waved his hands around while he said it. so funny. so i said "yep, that's us." and he took the card and went on his way, but i just sat there laughing because it was the funniest thing ever.

Saturday we had another great lesson with the father and son, things are really going well there, so we're so happy about that.

Church yesterday was awesome. The very best.

Another thing: I've been able to use my spanish missionary intro like 5 times this week, so that's fun.

So it was a great week, and I'm sure this week will be too! Today we're emailing from the Parsons, then they're taking us to the Mercado, where we can buy our TSAM rings and fanny packs! haha. I'll send pictures next week!

Thank y'all for the continued love and support! Keep praying for missionary opportunities, and don't be afraid to talk to everyone!

love y'all!

-Sister Snyder