Tratra ny taona vaovao daholo! Enga anie hitondra fahasambarana sy fifaliana betsika ho antsika jiaby ity taona vaovao dimy ambin'ny folo sy roa arivo ity. (Happy New Year's everyone! Hopefully this new year of 2015 will bring much happiness and joy for us all.)
It has been a pretty crazy week, with lots of ups and downs, and it was especially hard for me this week when I realized I was missing my mom's birthday this last Friday (and no, it's not just because I missed or will miss the yearly trip to IHOP for the birthday breakfast, though that has been a substantial contributing factor :). But it's okay. Conviction is a very strong support, and so is God, both of which have helped me through both the good times and the bad here on the mission. I have maintained and still maintain the conviction that this is where I am supposed to be. Also, God always helps His servants who are in need, and I have seen examples of that fact time and time again here in the mission field and in my life: God always sends help when I have been in need, whether the help is physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, or even all of the above. He is God, after all, and our Father in Heaven; He has an unlimited capacity to help us when we are truly in need, and it is my testimony to all of you that He will help us when we are truly in need of His heavenly assistance. He will always send the help that we are in need of, if we only but ask for it.
Anyway, now on to the questions: I'll start with the second one first, and then end with the first one (just a heads up, Mom). So first, about our investigators, things are going fairly well. It's hard to catch people during the holidays, but Jean Pierre has been making some significant improvements, as he has been asking his work if he can get Sundays off so he can come to church, which would be absolutely incredible. Aldo has been a little hit and miss lately, so we will see where that goes. As far as our American friend who works on the Mercy Ships, we still keep in touch and hopefully will get together for lunch again sometime soon.
As for the second question and the things I've learned about unconditional love, that is a much longer answer. Unconditional love is definitely something I have had to work on out here in the mission field, because the people aren't all those cute little men and women and kids you just want to hug and squeeze to death. :) That may be what it seems like from my pictures and whatnot, but there are a lot of people who make it really hard for me to love them. I have been sworn at, cursed out, and turned away more times than I'd like to count. It is very hard to love a drunk man who is walking around, following you, cursing at you, and every once in a while trying to hurt you (not too dangerous, as a man who is staggeringly drunk usually can't throw a punch and hit the broad side of a barn, but very annoying). For instance, this past week while doing some street contacting, I went up to a man who was just standing on the side of the road and started talking to him. I quickly learned that he was stoned and drunk out of his mind, so I tried to back track and get away. But before I could do so, he had grabbed my hand and pulled me into the French cultural greeting of kissing on the cheek three times. So needless to say, I pretty much got kissed by a drunk man this last week. I don't think I really need to explain why that makes it kind of hard to love, not only that man in particular, but also all the drunk people staggering around the streets during the holidays. Also, as I have explained previously in some of my emails, I have now learned that common sense is actually a cultural phenomenon. In other words, common sense as we think of it in America does not exist here in Madagascar. People do things that are sometimes only mildly annoying, and other times it takes all I have not to burst.
That brings me to the biggest thing I have learned about unconditional love: it takes time. A LOT of time. And hard work. But, I have seen that the more I try to focus on the needs of the people rather than their actions, I have been able to grow to love them more and more. Unconditional love doesn't come from sitting idly and trying to think your way into loving the people. The more you serve, the more your heart grows. And the more your heart grows, the greater your capacity to love unconditionally grows. And that comes step by step, tsikelikely fa tsy mandritra fotoana iraika ihany (little bits at a time but not during one time only).
Sometimes there are special, one-time experiences that come, but I've come to realize that the purpose of those one-time experiences is to mampahafantatra anao (cause you to know/realize) about the step by step growth that you have made. I had one of those experiences just yesterday. After eating dinner at our District President's house, it started to DOWNPOUR rain. Luckily I had my raincoat, so my shirt stayed dry, but my pants were soaked through completely in about two minutes. Also, my bike's chain likes to slip a lot when it gets wet, so needless to say, I was soon way behind my companions. So, riding down a small Malagasy road, wet, tired, alone, and frustrated, I was about at my wits end. But then a song came to mind that my companion Elder Bowler had been singing shortly before, when I was still within hearing distance of my companions: the Baptism Song in the Children's Songbook. So I started to sing as I rode. And as I sung, I had one of those special, one-time experiences. Because
"I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain," God has been providing me with experiences that have been purifying and strengthening me. They may be hard, and they may be really annoying during such trials, but that's the great thing about life. My trials, my hardships, all the experiences that make me go absolutely crazy, all help me grow and learn and become more like the person that God wants me to be.
I may have been riding down a dinky little street in pouring rain, soaked to the skin, alone and tired, and not even close to home, but I was growing. I was becoming stronger, and learning how to become the person God needs me to be. And that is the case with all our trials. We just need to take the time to listen to the Spirit whispering that truth in our ears, and we will have our eyes opened to what the hardships and trials we face really do for us, for our character. Just as with metal being refined into something more glorious and beautiful, so are we being refined and purified into something more, something beautiful, something Godly. And that is why bad things--hard things--happen to good people. Because, if taken in the correct fashion, and with the help of God, those good people become more. They become great people, that we "may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." (Ephesians 4: 15) Through that, we can obtain those Christlike attributes that are demonstrated throughout the life of Christ.
And that is our goal: being like Christ.
Anyway, those are my thoughts of the past week. No real crazy stories. I miss all of you, and hope that the holiday season treated you all well.
Keep up the faith, even through the hard times, and you will see what the refining fire can make of you, because you are in God's hands.
Am-pitiavana (with love),
Elder Hyrum Snell
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| This is a selfie of me and some
kids. They love throwing up peace signs, so I thought I'd join in. I
know, I know, I'm white, don't judge me. |
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| This picture is of a Kansas license plate I saw in a hotely.
Weeeeiiiiirrrrddd... |
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| Here's a picture of some people on a
moto in a Madagascar rainstorm. Very hard, and very crazy. |
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| This is a picture is of a member named Mario sitting down in a spot where we taught him the other day, which I thought was super pretty so I took a picture, and he wanted to get in on the action. |
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| This picture is of Elder Godfrey and Mario, who is VERY short. Like five-foot even, if that. |
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| This is a spider I found in our house one morning, just sitting on the wall. About the size of my hand. Pretty freaky. |
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| This is a picture of an ADORABLE little puppy we found on the side of the
little sand path we were on. |
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| This is an example of a Malagasy chicken, the most beautiful animal on earth (not). :) |
