Week 9: August 31- September 6, 2021 Cool Kingman, Hot Havasu, Lovely Lauglin(not really though)

Hey Everyone

 

This week was busy, busy, busy. And so fantastic!!! To start off the week we had zone conference. Which was amazing. We had to drive to Havasu and boy is it hot there. So I nicknamed it Hot Havasu, very original. It was so nice to see everyone in my zone. I met so many people! And I learned so much. I'm very grateful for the out of valley missionaries. They really are amazing. And president and sister Rodarte are the most amazing people you will ever meet. I adore them. 

I really want to focus on a spiritual experience I had this week over the course of a few days. We are having a hard time finding people to teach and our teaching pool is sad... our ward is great, but we have received a lukewarm welcome. As a missionary, this is so frustrating! We love this area and all the people. I did not realize how quickly you can deeply love someone. Every person I meet I can feel the Savior's love for them. But it sometimes feels like that is most definitely not reciprocated. Sis Smyth and I have had many talks about how this takes a toll. It got to a point this week where we were really feeling down, especially with member trust in us. So we prayed about it. 

The next day, Sis Smyth felt impressed to search for a song during personal study. In many people's eyes, this is not a productive way to spend study time haha. But in her search, she came across the talk, "The Immediate Goodness of God" This talk! It is so good. It really helped change our perspective. I highly recommend giving it a read, especially if you feel abandoned by God. Major take away: God is our loving Heavenly Father (funnily enough I share this every single day), He never leaves us, sometimes we have to go through hard times but they are for our good and God will help us through even if we are not delivered from it. After reading it we decided to focus on the blessings we receive daily instead of what's going "wrong." 

That night, we had a member lesson with the Herseys. You guys. I love them. So so so much. They shared how excited they were to have the sisters serving in the ward and how much we mean to them. It was exactly what we needed to hear. After that lesson, both of us turned to the other and said how that was exactly what we needed. 

I also watched an inspirational video about Elder Peter Johnson of the Seventy. It was so powerful! I highly recommend it. He talked about all of us possessing attributes of deity and how that knowledge helps us overcome all challenges. If we know who we are (children of God) nothing else that defines us really matters. And Sis Smyth drove it home: "We are made of the same stuff God is made of" Don’t forget who you are and Who loves you  

 

Well it was a crazy week so I wanted to add a few bullet points from the week:

-someone has left treats on our doorstep many times now. We found out it was the Golden Valley Elders. They're so sweet. 

-the poor sisters in our zone had a scary experience so we had a sleepover at our place. 

-exchanges! So fun!

-i had horrible allergies and felt like crap all week 

-i gave a pic of Jesus to a little girl and it made my life to see her smile so big  

 

Anyways I love you all!! 

Con amor,

Sister/Hermana Snow