Hey how are you? I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that we got double the new Latinos this week so our email schedule is different… most likely every week, but I have good news as well.
This has been a VERY interesting week.

First, I am my districts new District leader!! Not sure exactly what that means, something about being an example and loving and leading etc… whatever that means, but hey! Shouldn’t be too bad.

“Yes, I WOULD like to read the Book of Mormon!”

Second, one day of class, we learned how to do quick street contacts concerning the first lesson and Book of Mormon. So, our teachers told us… get up… lets go outside and place some pamphlets! We got 2 pamphlets about the Restoration, and a Book of Mormon. My companion is much better at Spanish than I am, and placed the first pamphlet easy, then I saw a guy in a van with a security guard jacket on, eating a cheeseburger, holding a shot gun (these guys are everywhere around here, Guatemala security is top notch since the drug cartels have been aboot) and so I told Elder Smith to follow me to go talk to him. He introduced our message, he said his name was Eddy, I told him about the Book of
Mormon, had him read a few paragraphs from the introduction, testified of its truthfulness, and gave a personal experience, then asked him if he’d read it, and he said he would! He was very interested for a security guard (they are usualy quite surly… no matter where you live in the world that’s for sure.) So I placed my first Book of Mormon!!! It was amazing!! I never really appreciated proselyting before until that point… it was really cool. Anyway… next thing…

Like I said, we got a lot of new Latinos, but not many Nortes. The Latinos are great (as usual) we’ve even swapped foreign money with each other as a memento for remembrance. However, this bunch is particularly disobedient for some reason. Luckily they have a lot of time to learn how to represent the Lord. Don’t get me wrong, they are
all super nice. I love em to death…. but still.. come on guys… you’re on a mission. BTW when the old Latinos left, they certainly DID lock us up in the kitchen until they had left. Just for security reasons. Kind of an interesting experience.

Possibly the coolest part of the week was on Tuesday when we got to go into the
city to this GIANT topographic map of Guatemala and see all the missions, cities, and physical representation of all of the zones. I got to check out what Quetzaltenango is like, and my mission is VERY VERY mountainous. In fact I have talked to lots of Latinos who say that buying boots in the states was smart because I will USE them… a lot. Man I’m so excited… President Nicolayson came with us and told us why he thinks the events described in The Book of Mormon could well have taken place in Guatemala… and he could be right. It was very interesting seeing it explained in person. That wasn’t the best part though. We got to eat lunch at Wendy’s.. AND shop at the markets there!! There were lot of interesting things there… so if anyone has a suggestion for something they want from Guatemala, WRITE me and I’ll get it for you when I get back… but while I was there I bought a Guatemala iFutbol Nacional! jersey Jacket. Ohh it’s nice too… the lady had to get out this long stick so she could get it… maybe because I’m a monster and the only size they had left was at the top… and I’m pretty sure it was the last one. It doesn’t fit me perfectly, but it works and it is beautiful. Anyway… shouldn’t be proud for my material things… Gospel is true!!

Well that’s the update. I got some letters this week to which I was very VERY happy to
receive. Thank you so much to those of you who have taken time off of your summer break to write. The longest day for us in the CCM is Thursday because we are all anxious for our letters we get that night. Dead Elder is great… but you only have 2 more weeks to use it
successfully! After that… normal letters are said to be better. I go to XELA on the 31st. Once again thank you so much… and I love you all. I hope everyone is having a great summer. Keep in touch… have fun… and God bless!!!

-Elder Aaron Jacob Snow

P.S Picture on the way Mom and Dad =)