Ambush phone calls

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Cheryl

I’m not sure many moms, knowing that their son is leaving the country, wouldn’t have that perpetually on their mind the day the flight is scheduled to take off. I sadly admit that the only thing to take my mind off of such a stressful thing involves, of course, chocolate. I was standing in line at a pastry shop, trying to decide what to order for my dessert, and my phone rang. I looked at the number. It was an unfamiliar number, but hailed from Utah. I looked at my daughter and said, “Hey, that can’t be the MTC, can it? Do you suppose something’s wrong with Aaron’s flight or something?” After thinking out loud about how that’s impossible, and having her agree with me, I let the caller go to voicemail and resumed the pastry inspection. I assumed that if it was important and NOT a telemarketer, I would get a voicemail and call them back.

I bought my stuff and waited for the voicemail that never came. Then I started to wonder if I’d just made a horrible mistake. Lucky for me, my son knows me and so he called back. This time, since it’s the same number, Kathryn and I agreed I should answer the phone, and lo and behold, it was Elder Snow calling from the airport! I burst into tears, having to leave the store so people wouldn’t call the police about the hysterical woman ruining the shop’s ambiance. His mission president had given the boys permission to call their families if they had time waiting for their flight to LA. Oh, such a surprise!

We had a fairly good amount of time to talk. I won’t bore you with the details. I will, however, point out two things:

  1. I wish I had started a list of things I needed to talk to Aaron about. I didn’t expect to hear from him, of course, and didn’t think we’d have a chance to talk until Christmas, but now in retrospect, it’s probably not a bad idea to just always have ‘issues’ on hand just in case. I was so overwhelmed just to hear his voice that everything I needed to talk to him about just went out the window. Thankfully, I had time to think of my ‘list’ when Aaron was talking to his brother and sister. However, I think our chat would have been more efficient, and I also think our communication in general (emails, letters, etc.) would be more efficient if I start just keeping that list.
  2. I am happy to report that my idea of packing an ‘MTC bag’ and a ‘Guatemala bag’ worked! Aaron only opened one bag while he was at the MTC, leaving his boots, his mosquito net, many of his pants and shirts, etc., safely tucked away in one bag, awaiting his first assignment after he leaves the training centers. AND, with all the stuff he packed, including books and everything, his bags still came in under 50 lbs. I feel happy that I didn’t smother that boy with all of the things we put in his bags. (Just as an aside, the ‘less universal’ universal soap we got him actually works quite well–he already asked for a refill before he left. You can find it here.)

So, after one of the most exciting 20 minutes of my life (I told him this whole experience is simultaneously the most horrible and the most wonderful thing I’ve ever done), I am happy to report that Elder Snow is on his way to Guatemala, and is excited to be getting there. Let’s just hope the Guatemala MTC’s computers let him upload pictures…

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Ken Jennings and Buckethead

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Aaron

So here is a funny story. Mom, I did get the email with the picture of that Doctor Farnsworth from Futurama and had a GOOD laugh, BUT as soon as I got out of it to reply to some other email, it got deleted! Ha! It is a good thing I did not reply or else it might not have been received. But I enjoyed that very much, so thank you. Keep em coming if they are good enough to see just once!

When it comes to the whole email address situation and sending stuff I have a few opinions on the matter. I think email should be family only, as I will have more time to communicate with them. I also can’t even email friends so that would just be a waste of an email. And even if some letters don’t get through, they will certainly help. They are most preferable, even though they are less likely to be received. So that’s the deal with that. And as for my address, I’m not sure what the full address is yet. I will find out though. There is a chance that it could be in my mission packet thing. If you find out, please do update the blog! Also, the Dear Elder thing works great. I highly recommend that to everyone, even though I do love your pictures that you include, a lot =)

So this week was interesting. We started teaching lessons WITHOUT notes, and simply relying on our past vocabulary and the Spirit. It worked surprisingly well actually, and we have already gotten one of our investigators to read the Book of Mormon, and is interested in baptism. Whether or not he is just going easy on us, or we are actually Spanish spiritual giants, I don’t know. I’m thinking it is the first one, but oh well. BTW the Alex guy we taught last week is our new teacher and is very very helpful. We are teaching him again, except he is a different guy. I think his new name is Lucio. We’ve only taught him twice, and the second time he said his name was Emmanuel, so I don’t know for sure. We are still finding lots of opportunities to be humbled and grow, that’s for sure!

“Who is Elder Snow’s Branch Presidency’s First Counselor’s son?”

So I have a few interesting facts for you all, fact one is that the 1st counselor in my branch is called Ken Jennings Jr. His son, Ken Jennings III retired when he was 30 years old, because he is THE Ken Jennings!! (The Jeopardy guy in case any of you don’t remember). Fact number two, I have withheld saying anything about Buckethead up until Tuesday. I have tried very hard not to bring him up so that I could focus on the work, but my companion got it out of me. So that’s cool. I hope that the family is keeping up with his record releases for when I get home =) I may be a missionary, but I can still like Buckethead, right? Third and last interesting fact. My “roommate” Elder Luttmer has some relatives with the last name of Gardner. I looked at his pedigree chart, and I’m pretty sure that he is my 5th cousin. Small world. I have yet to see Jon Jon Fitzgerald, but I see Tanner about twice a week, and another good friend of mine Robby Nelson who I grew up in Vegas with. Other than that, we go about our day hearing all sorts of crazy rumors about Guatemala. I hear about how great the food is, even though you get only one choice. I hear that it is just a box, not other buildings, but that It is super nice, like a vacation home, and I hear there is a lot of soccer. Either way, I just hope the 6 weeks that I will be there go by fast so I can learn the language and spread the Gospel. Holy cow we leave for another country on Tuesday! Please keep our travel party in your prayers as we have a lot of crazy things to do and a lot of late night flights to catch.

Sorry no pictures again, the MTC had some sort of picture printer, but it’s busted… just because I got here. But of the 600 picture slots on my camera I have only taken about 30, but I’ll take a lot more once I get to Guatemala I’m sure.

Thank you so much for your letters! They have easily been the best part of my week. Just a few more days until I will receive NO letters and packages HAHA! Just kidding… (I hope) But once again, thank you so much for your consideration and your love. It really is great to know that I have such a strong support group at home. I love you guys so much, and hope that your summer will treat you well. Continue to pray for the missionaries, we all have a lot of work to do.

-Elder Snow

I am super nervous for the future, but also very excited.

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“Suffering”

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Cheryl

I’ve had a bit of a setback the past few days.

I signed up for a Missionary Moms email list, and I was put in their Guatemala Missionary Moms group. What an invaluable resource that has been! I am now privy to all the chatter: from what kinds of rain ponchos the missionaries need to whether or not they get immunizations once they’re in the field. I posed a question to them: “now that my son is heading to Guatemala, what is the best way to send him letters (you know, my colorful, creative, coping letters) and packages, and how long does it take to reach them?” The answer was not good: many letters never get through. If they do, it takes two weeks or so. And, packages take around a month to get to there. I was used to the two days’ turnaround I was enjoying while Aaron was in Provo, so this information was a bit of a blow. Guatemala seems so much farther away now. Hence, the setback. The day I found out about this, there was only one thing I could do: send my husband out to bring me home some chocolate cake. I stayed on the couch and ate it with my stretchy pants on.

Thanks to lonelydinosaur.com for this great t-shirt that I bought from them in Portland’s Saturday Market. The first tenet of Buddhism is that suffering is universal and that we need to spend our lives learning how to relieve it: I agree with them!

I have had conversations with mothers who wish they were in my situation: they say they pray every day that their son would want to serve a mission. I cannot even imagine how much it hurts them to see their children make that choice. I do know what it is like to see my children make choices I don’t agree with, and it always hurts me. But I have realized these past few weeks that the sadness of missing my son is just as real as the sadness they have in seeing their sons stay home, though I will admit that in this situation, the order of magnitude is much different.

I’m wondering if for mothers, maybe there’s just plenty of suffering to go around. Our kids experience setbacks and we cry for them. Our kids experience great successes and go off into the world out on their own, and we cry for them.

I wonder if as soon as you become a mother, your ability to suffer seems to grow proportionally to your capacity to love. Perhaps the suffering is the price we pay for the incomprehensible joy we feel so often in our experience with our children. I’ll take the suffering if it means I get the joy too. I’m glad I’m a mom, even when it’s from a long, long distance.

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MTC Week 2

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Aaron

Daaaaa… it is my second week. It feels like I have been here for a month though! I’ve taken lots of pictures, but for some reason the USB drives on our computers do not let us upload them =( i’ll try harder. No worries. Our schedules have us in class for 6 hours, but really it is more like 12. All of our district’s time is devoted to language study. We were teaching this “investigator” named Alex who was from Argentina. We taught him about 4 lessons, eventually committed him to baptism, taught him the commandments and enduring to the end (Mind you that this is done by reading a notepad with the translated spanish on it, so we are still quite bad at the language, not good enough to just say it yet). The very last lesson we had with him, he took us into our classroom and told us his real name was Trent Park and that he was from Idaho. He served his mission in Argentina. He told us that although we mostly used notes to teach the lesson, we were one of the best districts he’d ever heard. He said our Spanish is very good for the first week, which surprises even me. I don’t feel like I have learned much. There is plenty to learn, I just can’t seem to get it down very well. They say that you should replace your vocabulary with spanish words you know even if you might not know how to say the entire sentence. I’ve been trying that. It helps, but I just hope I’ll be ready for Guatemala. Speaking of Guatemala, I leave for that MTC on the 19th!! I am then there for about 6 weeks. From what I hear, it sounds awesome!

Intense vegetables

The language is tough, the hours are rough, the food is intense (even when eating your vegetables) but the work needs to be done. It might seem like I am having a miserable time here, but i’m not. I love my companions, everyone here is really nice, and I have learned so much! I have never seen the Spirit manifest itself in so many ways before, It really has been an amazing experience so far. I am so grateful for everyone’s encouragement as well. The letters, again, have been the best part of the week, so please keep em coming. I love you all so much. I hope to hear from you often.

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Doubt

Posted on June 5, 2012 by K

Seeing Aaron go was very difficult because we have spent our entire lives together: in school, at church, on swim team, and we even worked together for a while.  Unlike many feuding siblings I know, we actually like hanging out together too!  What I will miss most about Aaron is his friendship.  My brothers and I together make such a great team.  With him gone, I feel as if a big chunk of my life is missing, so–to echo my other family members–saying goodbye was HARD.

But there was another reason why last weekend was so difficult.  Throughout the going-away festivities, I did what any single 22-year-old does best: make everything about herself.  While everyone around me–friends, family, peers, church leaders that I had grown up with–was celebrating Aaron’s life decisions to go on a mission, several people were incredibly callous when I shared mine with them.  This has happened before, so I was not surprised, but it didn’t make it any less hurtful.  When I told these people what my post-grad plans were and where in the world they would take me, I was either warned that I would be endangered or mistreated (based only on the fact that I was going to a Muslim country) or that I would be wasting away the precious years of my youth.  These people I spoke with seemed to be unwilling to celebrate my life decisions–in fact, many failed to understand why I would want to do something like Peace Corps at all–and I felt foolish as I tried to explain my reasoning.  I didn’t expect people to jump up and down about my life goals, but to dismiss them right in front of me was a different story.

I spoke with my mother that night.  Unfortunately, I had let these few people infiltrate my mind and give me some serious doubts about whether this was the right thing to do.  Really, these doubts had existed for a long time, but now they were blown out of proportion.  Would I be safe?  Would I be happy?  What if this was a huge mistake and I came back broken and miserable?  Why didn’t I just find a 9-5 job or settle down and get married?  Why didn’t I just do something less costly, less risky, more secure?  My mother, who is excellent in these types of situations, said something to the effect of: “Ignore those bigots and do what you think is right.”  As usual, it was excellent advice.

The day I was scheduled to fly back up to Oregon I came across this Celtic proverb: Those too weak to follow their own dreams will always find a way to discourage yours.  It seemed to apply almost too well to my situation.  People are always going to oppose you.  People are always going to think what you’re doing is wrong.  People, because of their own limitations, will never be able to understand what is taking place inside the minds of others.  And then, for the first time, I realized: Aaron probably went through the exact same thing!  Who am I to declare, because he had a big happy farewell speech and a party one afternoon, that he didn’t have the same difficulties in his decision-making process that I am encountering now?  He probably–no, most definitely–had the same worries as I do.  He may have even faced some opposition.  My admiration for my brother only increased when I realized that his decision must have been just as difficult and yet he was still so excited to serve.

My theory was further confirmed when, the following Sunday, one of my friends returned from her mission and gave a homecoming talk in my ward.  She described how apathetic her family had been prior to her departure for her mission–her non-member parents and brothers had given her little to no support in her decision–and how greatly that tempted her to just make her life simpler and stay home.  I had another breakthrough when I realized that even though people who didn’t understand me were quick to tell me they didn’t support my decisions, at least my family does.  I can’t emphasize enough how reassuring it is that my mother and father–and the vast majority of other people in my life who have been encouraging throughout this process–support me in my decision to serve my country in the Peace Corps.  I realized further that they have always supported me, and how lucky I am to have their comfort.

In conclusion: don’t let people who lead small lives deter you from living large.  A second conclusion: everyone struggles in life, so just leave them alone.  And the most important conclusion: my family ROCKS.

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My First Post as a Missionary!

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Aaron

Hey!

Hola, este es mi dia segunda…

So I have 30 minutes to write 4 days worth of stuff, BUT!! Like I said, day 4 in the MTC. I am lucky to be on the internet because there are a million people here. So I decided to be a jerk so I could send a quick word. It is our P-Day so I was very excited to give you the update. My companioin is Elder Barringer, he looks like the magician from the frosty the snowman cartoon, without the mustache of course, but he is great, and has a great testimony and isn’t afraid to share it. I room with 2 other super cool Elders, Elder Wright and Luttmer. They are both giant men filled with bowling balls, but they are cool. The work here is close to overwhelming, in fact it is. They say after Sunday things get much better, so I am one day away from a little break. Yesterday we had to teach our first investigator in Spanish!! Holy cow, what a humbling experience! I still managed to get the message across and had a decent conversation with him, but I still know absolutely nothing. I told him it was my second day though. Other than that, there has been a lot of studying, reading, and prayer. Haven’t had much free time to myself at all.

We had an Elder whose VISA did not come so he got sent to Des Moines Iowa English speaking, so that makes me nervous; however, he did not send his VISA in ASAP. He has been the only VISA problem for Guatemala……. I think ever! So keep that in your prayers.

It has been a very rough week, but I am here to spread the love of Christ to those who need it most. I look forward to being effective enough at doing so. I am excited to one day be hiking in the mountains of Guatemala! Serene told me that you put up a really nice blog post about me departing, so thank you 🙂 I miss the family so much and love you even more. I hope this upcoming week will go well for all of you. I look forward to your letters and emails. Make sure to tell Dee Allred and Mark Turner hi for me on Wednesday! iCiao!

Elder Snow

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Exchange Student Finally Known

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Ethan

I finally know who my exchange student is going to be! His name is Ivan Alverez Lopez. Yes… he is a boy… yes, I wanted a girl. But! This kid looks very nice. Overall he looks normal, and so does his family. Ivan’s interests aren’t many. He enjoys the computer, PE class, and chemistry and physics! Maybe he could help me with chemistry homework next year? I’m very excited to have this kid come for a few weeks, he seems like a nice guy and im sure we’ll get along well 😀

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Life-Defining Moments

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Jacob

So when the time finally came to send our son Aaron off on his mission to Guatemala I had one of those “I am so grateful that I decided to get married and have children” moments.  It was like living in London or Portland OR or Seattle WA where it is always cloudy and you wake up one day, the clouds are gone and the sun is shining, and you can finally see clearly–clearly enough to discern that you did the right thing and you know why and your sense of satisfaction and fulfillment goes through the roof. It was one of those biblical we look through a glass darkly and then we see each other face to face moments.

Now I have had similar moments, (dropping Misha off as a freshman at the University of Oregon, seeing each of our kids for the very first time, our wedding day, etc.,) but this one was the moment where all of those other moments seemed to combine into part of one mosaic and to be tied together in a way that made perfect sense.

On the Oregon Coast–looking through a glass, darkly!

When we put the boy into the hands of his escorts at the Missionary Training Center, life seemed to make sense.  He is a great kid.  He has tremendous potential to be a great missionary.  We don’t know what is going to happen to him or if he will realize his potential.  That is part of the excitement and the terror inherent in having a child grow up.  You no longer have any control or even any image or perception of control.

I don’t really know, nor can I explain, why he came to us.  He does not seem to fit in with the rest of the broken, snobby, boring and self absorbed Snow family.

I am left with a profound sense of gratitude.  Gratitude to God for giving me the wife and all the children, gratitude that this kid came to us, gratitude for my wife and her abilities and effort to get him ready for this great adventure.

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Sacrifice

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Cheryl

It is not a pleasant thing, letting go, even temporarily, something you love. Yesterday I watched my son march away to serve for two years, and yet that wasn’t all I was letting go. I must confess I LOVE my family–when we are all together, the five of us, I experience a depth of joy that I never thought possible. Yesterday I watched that go away for possibly as long as three years, God willing we all stay healthy and alive through that time. So, as Aaron headed up that hill to get his missionary name tag, more was leaving than just him.

I am somewhat physically ill from the experience, and that hasn’t been pleasant. I am not as excited as him yet for this two years to transpire (he was impressively excited to go). I have found some things that seem to help.

I read a book a few years ago called My Stroke of Insight about a brain scientist who experienced a stroke in the left side of her brain. What I remember most about her story was how difficult it was to MAKE herself recover and force her left brain to work again. She explained: the left brain keeps track of everything, all the obligations, all the grudges, all the stuff that causes us stress; whereas the right brain not only houses the creative side of our personalities, it is also the side that just enjoys life. There are no lists, no angry memories, nothing to cause us distress or pain. So, she was always just HAPPY while her left brain was off line. Who could blame her for not wanting to bring all that back?

He seems to be thinking, “Get on with it!”

When I got home from Provo last night, with that book in mind, I sat down and wrote Aaron a letter. But, it wasn’t a letter where I just gave him a listing of stuff that happened after we dropped him off. I included pictures and anecdotes and metaphors. I created my own little work of art, and that creativity gave me a wonderful reprieve from the grief of seeing Aaron go, just as writing this blog post is helping get my mind off of it now.

I know that Aaron is going to have experiences of a lifetime on his mission–he will change for the better, and peoples’ lives will change due to his tremendous influence. I know this is a good thing. I also know that my grief is real and that it will likely not go away entirely as long as he is gone. However, I am learning some things. I am learning that his experience is more important than my grief–I would never in a million years call him back home so I can feel better. I am learning to redirect and focus on other things so that my grief doesn’t shut me down for others who still need me. And, possibly most importantly, I am learning a little bit what it is like to give up my son to save (some of) the world. If some sadness and an upset stomach is the price to pay to learn those things in just 24 hours, bring it on.

There he goes with his helper, Elder Walton–just his presence helped me know Aaron would be escorted and would not feel alone at any time. They do a good job there at the MTC…
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Mormons in the Peace Corps

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Cheryl

I’ve been doing a little research, seeing how often Latter-Day Saints choose to serve in the Peace Corps. I came across a few blog posts that might be interesting for you all to read. I think missions largely exhaust our ‘volunteer years’ in this Church, and it is easy to see that the goals of both LDS missions and the Peace Corps are very similar. It’s probably just fine that we don’t do both, but it’s too bad that some don’t choose the Corps just to represent some diversity. It’s good to see that some venture out there in the capacity as Americans Who Serve, and just happen to be representatives of the teachings of Jesus Christ as well. I am glad I have a chance to have both at the same time. Let’s hope Kathryn’s assignment works out for her!

Check out the links below:

Here is just a little anecdote from a volunteer in Bulgaria

This is an interesting comparison of the two service opportunities (though I wish they’d back up their facts with some references or something–who knows what’s true and what’s opinion)

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