Hello!

Hello everyone!!

We have had such a great week here in New Hope! It was crazy busy with exchanges and zone meetings and all of that fun stuff, but I have learned so, so much and most importantly, I have felt the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Their love is so real. I wanted to share from my notebook on Gospel Library what I've been studying this week. I chose the scripture Helaman 3:35 to ponderize this past week, kind of in a whim. But as I actually turned back to it and really read it, I realized that it contains what we need to do to love the Lord first and truly progress in this life. Too often we feel stuck in one place and like we can't move forward, but God sees the greet potential in each of us. As we rely on Him and our Savior, we are able to overcome the setbacks, to develop a deep love for God, ourselves, and others, and we are able to progress toward eternal life. I have loved starting this study and seeing the things we should always be doing in order to grow and align our will with a God's will. Here are my thoughts so far

How Do We Progress And Put God First?

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment. (Matthew 22)

When we want to put the Lord first and love Him above all else, we need to turn to Him, be humble, and give ourselves to Him through the Atonement. That is how we progress and draw nearer to God and become who He intends us to be. We learn how to do this in the Book of
Mormon, in Helaman chapter 3.

34 And they were lifted up in pride, even to the persecution of many
of their brethren. Now this was a great evil, which did cause the more
humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade
through much affliction. (Helaman 3)

35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and
stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of
Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea,
even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which
sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.
(Helaman 3)


1. "Suffer great persecutions and wade through much affliction"

We suffer through the challenges life throws at us and realize that we cannot make it through alone. It is not easy, we need help, but we keep going knowing that God is the one who can help.

2. "Fast and pray oft"

God cannot help us unless we out our trust in Him and act. We must pray with faith and with the spirit, and we must do it often. 2 Nephi 33:3 "But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry."We understand what prayer really is from the Bible Dictionary:"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt.7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."Praying with faith is knowing and believing that God hears you and that He will listen and answer your prayers when He know it is right. We share with Him our will, and more fully come to understand His will as well.

3. "Wax stronger and stronger in their humility"

'Wax' means to increase. 'Strong' means determined, self controlled, and firmly held and established So we need to increase our humility and make it firmly held. We need to get to the depths of humility and be willing to act on what we receive from the Lord. We need to be teachable, and we need to ask "What lack I yet?"

4. "Wax firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ"

'Firm' means strongly felt and unlikely to change, steadfast and constant, decided/fixed upon, and definite. Our faith needs to be unshaken. We need to be fixed upon Christ, and willing to give it all away to follow Him.Faith in Christ is built through prayer, through studying the word of God, and through attaining Christlike attributes."We do not know Him until we become like Him."

5. "Fill your soul with joy and consolation"

'Consolation' means giving comfort to someone who has suffered. Christ fills us with joy, he is our Consolation. When we are filled with that joy, it is because we are allowing Christ and the Atonement to change us. We read in 2 Nephi 2 that agency is essential to progression, and we choose whether or not we will be comforted by Him. We suffer every single day, and He is there to comfort and heal, and to allow us to be free of the scars. Through Him, our souls will be filled with joy.

6. "Yield your heart unto God"

We need to give up our heart to the Lord through loving Him, trusting Him, and doing His will above our own. We do this through prayer and humility, and acting upon the promptings of the Spirit. We are constant and definite in our Savior, and we allow Him to comfort us and bring us joy.

7. "The purifying and sanctification of our hearts"

"The pure in heart shall see God" -Matthew 5:8 'Pure' means free from guilt or sin, blameless. Being pure comes from clean actions and thoughts in every way. Zion=the pure in heart. 'Sanctified' is the process of being free from sin, being pure, and clean and holy THROUGH THE ATONEMENT. "Sanctify yourselves, that your minds become single to God." -D&C 88:68 "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do MIRACLES among you." -Joshua 3:5 We are sanctified by the blood of Christ. We are sanctified through the Atonement and the love of our Savior.

God's love is so real. It changes us and it allows us to be who we are
meant to be.

I love y'all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!

-Sister Snyder


Today while we were down in Austin :)

Hi y'all!!

10/12/2015

hello!!! how is eveyrone doing? Life is so, so good!! 

 

I want to share a quote that Sister Bateman shared this week from President Eyring: "Whoever you are, and wherever you may be, you hold in your hands the happiness of more people than you can imagine." There is so much we can choose to do!

 

There is always so much that happens in one short week, and it just shows time and time again that the Lord fulfills His promises and this work is moving forward "boldly, nobly, and independent." I can feel it each day as we study and prepare, and as we go out and work. The Restoration of the gospel continues to happen today, it is being restored to those who knew it once before in their life before this one, and they are again coming to know it. I see it every single day, and it has changed me. Every single person needs to hear what we have been blessed to partake of already!

 

We had MLC in San Antonio on Tuesday and talked a lot about faith and working with members and the Sabbath day! It was so good! I get to give some trainings this week about some of the things we learned and I'm so excited! I love the Slaughters so much. Everything President and Sister Slaughter tell us I just love. I am grateful to have them as my leaders here. I learn so much everytime I hear from them.

 

At MLC we also found out that the whole mission has to cut back a lot on miles for the cars, so now we basically just drive into our area and bike or get rides, and we have seen miracles from it! There are so many people to talk to and see and it has been such a blessing!

 

Tomorrow we are going on exchanges with Pflugerville, and I am so thrilled because I get to go there with Sister Reece!! It's always the best to go on exchanges with old companions!  I'll be sure to take some pictures!  

 

Funny story from this week. So Brother Johnston in our ward puts up the lights that flash to music for Halloween and Christmas, and he goes all out. Each year the missionaries help him put up lights. So after district meeting on Wednesday, we went over there and helped him. Then we continued on with our day. That evening, we parked again outside of his house and then biked from there. Then the next evening, we happened to park there again, then biked/walked. We had members take us to our coordination meeting that night, and it ran late, but we made it back to our car and Brother Johnston was outside on the phone. And he came over and asked where we had been and told us that he thought we had gone missing and he was worried! He had called a bunch of missionaries in the surrounding areas because he thought our car had been parked there for 2 days straight! Hahaha. So our zone leaders called us concerned about where we were and all that. It was pretty funny. We were just at our meeting. Good times. I'm glad we have a ward that is so concerned about us!

 

I want to share some of our best experiences from this week:

 

Last Monday we received a message from that young man named Tyler that we have talked to a few times and who has been to church at another ward. He's still a bit hesitant to meet with missionaries because he likes moving at his own pace, but he texted us and told us that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that he feels the spirit as he reads! He also watched general conference and loved President Monson's talk! It is incredible to see someone who is truly proving to us that they are prepared. And it also shows the power of the invitation. It took his friends inviting him a few times, but he finally attended church, and loved it. And now he continues to progress. I love it!

This week we received some referrals that we were able to meet with. The first one was a woman named Janice, who was a headquarters referral and she asked for a copy of the Bible. We hadn't been able to contact since we first received the referral, but on Saturday she answered the phone and we were able to deliver her Bible to her. She has been going through some hard times lately, and we were able to talk with her about the gospel and the priesthood, and she wanted a blessing, so some elders came over and gave her a blessing. She said after that she felt the power of it and could tell that there was something there. We're excited to meet with her again on Wednesday.

Our next referral was a man named Siddarth that we received from headquarters and he requested a Book of Mormon. We went over there on Saturday night with a member to deliver it and meet with him, and it was such a good visit! Sid recently moved in from Dubai and is from India. We asked him how he knew about the Church, and he told us that his son who goes to Penn State recently got baptized into our church and is dating an LDS girl! He said he was interested to find out if it was right. He asked great questions and was eager to read the Book of Mormon. He said, "You'll have to give me some time to read it all. At least 10-15 days." Hahaha. It was so awesome! We can't wait to meet with him again on Thursday! Our bishop lived in India for a few years, so that will be great fellowship!

 

President Slaughter has assigned us to study the topic of blessings and healings and this morning I was studying a talk from Elder Richard G. Scott called "To Be Healed" (April 1994 Conference). It is such a beautiful topic to study. He talks about how not everything we struggle with will be resolved here on earth, and that sometimes we are to learn to be cured and sometimes, we are to learn to obtain strength to endure challenges. Then comes the part I love---"In either case, the Redeemer will support you." Christ is there for us through it all, no matter what, all the time. He may not be able to heal or cure us in the way we wish, but sometimes he cures our impatience or lack of faith so that we can endure the challenges. No matter the case, He will always support us, because He loves us. As we do our part to come unto Him, to seek His help, we will feel that love. I know that without a doubt.

 

 

I love you all so very much and pray for you! Have a wonderful week!

 

Love always,

 

Sister Snyder

 

 

 

Here's a picture of all of the sisters at MLC on Tuesday :)