Hello Everyone!

To all of the beloveds of Hermana Snelson,

Good afternoon, for those of you who don't know me, I am Hermana Groll. I have the great pleasure of addressing you today as the wonderful Hermana Snelson's companion. She has asked that I speak to you today on the subject of "God is a God of Miracles" along with perhaps a few other matters as well. 

But first off can I just say that I LOVE HERMANA AUBREY NOELLE SNELSON! Really truly she is absolutely incredible and I have already learned so much from her. She makes me laugh, she has SO much energy, she is always happy and works so dang hard. She LOVES the people and serves her companion faithfully. She has a strong testimony and through her stories it is very clearly evident that she has gained this testimony throughout her life by always choosing the right, always having a desire to go to the temple and choosing to surround herself with good friends. Family and friends, Hermana Snelson loves you so much. There's not a day that goes by that she is not sharing stories of how much she truly loves you. :) She's just super great, and I love her. 

Hokay, week of miracles. :) So something we've really had a testimony of this week is the power of the Book of Mormon. It has the power to convert and fill our lives with the spirit but the people have just got to read it, darn it! First we have Perla. She's amazing and is just on fire! We were on divisions when Hermana Snelson visited her but she is loving reading the Book of Mormon and has already read almost 20 chapters (to win the promised prize promised by Hermana Snelson) but is just full of questions. But then we run into incidents like Jessica. She is our investigator that we love love love love love. She is a single mom and relies heavily on God to direct her and help her raise her boys. She loves reading the bible but seemed to have some doubts about Joseph Smith because of misunderstandings she'd heard in the past. We introduced  the Book of Mormon and bore testimony of it and read scriptures ABOUT JESUS. But when we asked if she would read it she shut the book, pushed it away and said "No. I only believe in the Bible." Well, the lovely Hermana Snelson bore a beautiful testimony of how much we love Jessica and how much the Book of Mormon can bless us and how she was denying herself blessings if she didn't read the book. afterwards we knelt down and prayed to ask God if she should read. She commented on the tremendous peace she felt after the prayer and asked "When are you coming back?..... Friday? But I will have only read 2 pages by then!" Prayers are answered!! The spirit testifies of truth. :)

Other miracle: We once had a little 8 year old girl yell at us in the street and bring us to her house. There we found a lady named Marvileth that seemed very ....... well not your typical golden investigator,. right? Just not that interested. But after visiting her we realized that she had been visiting with missionaries before and that she had wanted to get baptized but the man she lived with didn't want to get married with her. So we visit her a few days later and she just pours her heart out to us in a beautiful testimony. "I KNOW that this church is true. The missionaries told me to pray and when i did, GOD TOLD ME it was true. And I have a great faith that God is going to help me find a way to be baptized." Isn't that amazing? Years later and that impression from the spirit, that conviction of the truth is still with her. Her knuckle head of a partner still doesn't want to marry her but with her faith and ours I know that God always prepares a way for His children to keep His commandments. Afterwards she shared us a soup she had made.

 

 

 Hermana Snelson demonstrated great bravery in eating off the spoon that Marvileth had just slurped off of. :) Embrace Honduras. 

AND GUESS WHAT??? So one of our greatest challenges has been getting people to come to church.... So we really really focused on that being our main goal this week. Our investigators needed the blessings of going to church!! So we have these wonderful people (wonderful humans as Hermana Snelson would put it) that we found through opening the mouth. They've commited to coming the past few weeks but just haven't showed up. There is Gertrudis (the Grandma) Liset and Hazel (daughters of Gertrudis) and Stefani, Freddi, and Antony (Liset's children). Liset's husband is an alcoholic and Liset especially has expressed her desire to be clean and free from her past life of sin. So you see they need the gospel! :) And so we visit them Saturday night. They were all together (except Freddi) and we talked and bore testimony solely on the blessings of going to church. Friends and family, there is not a more beautiful sight to see that waiting at the entrada de La Modesto and seeing ALL SIX of them walking up the hill coming to church!!! All in their Sunday best jeans. :) We jumped up and down and ran to hug and greet them! OH! We were so happy. and! They were too. :)

There is so so so much more to tell. :) But for now just know that Hermana Snelson and I are more than alive and well.... WE'RE HAPPY! And the Lord is pouring out His blessings upon our little corner of the vineyard. He knows His children, and He loves them. He's aware of the details of our lives and His hand is in this work. And I as her companion can say that I love all of you! I've heard so much about you and just know that ya'll are such wonderful people.

Take care and say a prayer, cuz you know... He's always there. :)

Love,
Hermana Groll