Hey everyone, I am so happy to have heard from all of you this past week and to have been able to get a glimpse of how things are going back in America right now. I hope you all are doing well, and are all following the counsel I gave last week with regards to faith. It was truly important to me, so I hope you will read it.
Anyway, this last week was pretty great. It was the last week of the transfer, and transfer news is...I'm staying! No surprise there, I've still got a transfer left of training Elder Leo. Anyway, we also had Zone Conference yesterday, which is why I am emailing today, as we didn't have enough time to do so yesterday. But that Zone Conference was absolutely amazing, as we had the opportunity to listen to Elder Cook, who is in the Presidency of the Area Seventy, and that was an incredible experience. Their lesson was so incredible. But I'll talk more about it later.
As for questions, the first one is a stereotypical "Mom" question. :) So yes, Mom, I am taking my malaria pills AND daily vitamins on a daily basis (when I remember to do so). Don't worry, I take them pretty consistently.
Secondly, again, yes Mom, my toe is healing up just fine after the African flea was taken out. No infections or anything. So it's all done, and there's nothing to worry about.
For the third question, my mom asked for about the average family size here in Madagascar. And the answer to that would actually depend on the area. If we go to the countryside and take a look at the the family sizes out there, they will be HUGE. I would say about eight or nine kids on average. I've heard of some as big as twenty kids, where the mother got married when she was about fifteen and had kids every year until she was almost forty. Yeah I was way surprised when I heard that. But then here in Tana, the average family size would be about two, maybe three kids. So it really just depends on where you go, because the different areas and tribes here in Madagascar all have different cultures and ways of living. It's been very interesting to see three different cultures thus far: the Betsimisaraka (Tamatave), Betsileo (Ambositra), and Merina (Antananarivo; it's in order of first to most recent).
Fourth question starts to get more spiritual now, as my mom asked me what spiritual impressions I've gotten during the past week. As far as that goes, I got some very distinct impressions yesterday at the Zone Conference. I got the impression that I need to be a better missionary, and follow the White Handbook more completely. It's not that I'm being crazy and disobedient, but just that I can do better to live the handbook and allow God to bless me. Because that was the topic of our Zone Conference yesterday. Elder Cook told the story of an Elder in New Zealand who called the White Handbook "The Book of Blessings" rather than a rule book. This really hit me as a different perspective than I was used to, because God truly can bless me immensely on this mission, but it is contingent upon my obedience to His will and the rules He has set. If I need blessings, I can simply turn to the White Handbook and take a look at the rules and see what rules I can follow more fully and completely. And if I do so, and show God my willingness to follow Him and turn my will over to Him, then He will truly pour out blessings that I cannot comprehend.
And now, lastly, my wonderful mom asked me about the things I have learned on the mission with regards to the importance of the attributes of humility and meekness. As far as this goes, I have learned a lot. I'll be honest that starting out on the mission, I wasn't too humble. But that quickly changed when I had to completely depend upon my trainer, Elder Christiansen. I couldn't talk to people, I couldn't understand them, and I didn't know how to be a missionary. So I quickly had to learn humility and teachability (meekness). If I didn't, then I couldn't learn or grow. I soon realized that this was very similar to our situation with God. If we aren't willing to learn and to be humble, and give our will over to Him, then we can't accomplish anything. We may find a little bit of success and learn a bit, but none of it will be lasting. The only lasting learning and growth comes from God, and our turning our will over to Him. I mean, what is the only thing that God doesn't have that He desires of us? I'll give you a hint: our will. Our will is the only thing that He does not have that He desires to have, in order for Him to make us into the best person we can possibly be. But that requires humility and meekness, and a willingness to follow God's will, rather than focusing on our own fallen will. This was another topic focused on at Zone Conference yesterday. Elder Cook drew a chart up on the whiteboard that had two lists, one of which had a list of traits of the natural man, and the other with traits of a saint. The natural man is our will. The saint is God's will. When we give up our will to Him and apply the gospel of Jesus Christ, following the steps of having faith in Him, repenting, being baptized by water and by fire and renewing those covenants through our reception of the Sacrament, and following that path--those steps--to the end, then God will have the ability to change us, and cause us to become a saint, as it says in Mosiah 3:19. So let us not be "an enemy to God" as the natural man is, but let us give in to the enticings of His Holy Spirit and follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the end, applying that process again and again until we become perfected through Christ and His Atonement.
As always, I thank everyone for their diligence in being great friends and family, in their supporting me every day, as it really does make a difference. I feel your help, and I hope you know how much I appreciate it.
I love you all, and hope you have a great week!
Am-pitiavana,
Elder Snell
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| Going on splits with Elder Evans |
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| Lunch with our district |
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| A kitten |
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| The view out of the church in Ampefiloha, which is MASSIVE. It's five stories tall and even has an elevator. First one I've seen in a year. :P That's sad, but whatever. Tsy raharahako. |
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| This is the new church in Manakambahiny which is also GIGANTIC! |
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| Zone picture going left to right: Elder Cyusa (Rwanda), Elder Razafimandimby (Mada), Elder Te'e (Tonga), Elder Ralaivao (Mada), Elder Tshuma (South Africa), Elder McCrary (Detroit), Soeur Ramiaramanana (Mada), me, Elder Evans, Souer Matsaba (South Africa), Elder Hammer (Orem), Elder Lehr (Orem), Elder Delbar, Elder Leo (Samoa, kneeling), Elder Kissi (either California or Ghana, take your pick), Elder Nelson (Provo), Elder Morse (Florida), and Elder Tangarasi (Vanuatu kneeling). |
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| Riding a posiposy |
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| Dinner after the Stake Conference we had at Manakambahiny last Sunday and Saturday. |
