Elder Wride in California: Week 7 - Bible Bashers: Super Smash Bros Analogy

Alo. I have run out of languages that I remember how to say Hello in.

This week has been good! There are a couple things I forgot from last week. I was just a little off I think, but this week has been a lot better. The email is long, but I would love it if you read it all.

Last Week

1. Anti Vax Ladies

2. Tesla Ride

This Week

3. Potato Chip Hike

4. White Shirts and Bicycle Rides

5. Bible Bashers: Super Smash Bros Analogy

6. Beard

7. Spiritual Thought: Brittany

1. So last week while we were street contacting we went over to this Veterans Memorial part of the park. There were two ladies crying. They were Mom and Daughter, and the Daughters son. They were talking about their Husband/Father who died in January. We didn't go too in depth into the gospel, but we just talked about Spirits and how his Spirit is still with them. Then, it took a turn. They started talking about how he would be really sad to see what America was today, talking about covid, politics, how they didn't trust the vaccine, and it was really weird. They were just those people. The look in the Mom's eyes was very different, and kind of scary. Then I just sort of realized that the Spirit had left at that moment. And when the Spirits gone, Missionaries are essentially powerless. We can't do our job. Luckily, Elder Palmer was able to bring it back when he asked if we could pray for them. So we did, and the Spirit came back. We gave them pass along cards and they left.

2. Our bikes have broken a lot. We've had to get rides from people sometimes while they're getting fixed. So for one member lesson we didn't have our bikes with us and asked if they could drop us off. They said it was fine and the Dad pulled around with his Tesla. I wanted to ask if we could accelerate really fast like they do, but they gave us food to take and I didn't know if I would be able to keep it all from going over the place. But he did it without us having to ask. We accelerated from like 0-60 mph in like 3 seconds. It was cool. I did keep the food, accelerating that fast didn't have as much force as I thought.

I guess I just felt like I needed to include it here because Elder Palmer said that's going on his top favorite experiences. And I was like what? He's been out for a year, if that's one of the coolest things that's happened that's kinda sad. It was cool, but it wasn't super cool. It was like a 6 cool. But I thought I'd include it just in case that ends up being one of the coolest things from the mission.

3. This morning we went on a hike in our area called potato chip rock. It was pretty good, kind of pushed back everything else we need to do today though. Also turns out it isn't an actual potato chip. It doesn't even look like one I think. I don't know what I would call it, the closest thing I've come up with so far is that mountain the grinch lives in. But California is pretty. I found a new way to describe the landscape here. It's like that episode in the Mandalorian, I think the planet is called Tython. I won't say much more because of spoilers but yeah. That's what it's like down here, and it's like 60 degrees most of the time. See images below.

4. Before I left on my mission, my Dad got really into Mountain biking. He and the Kids are loving it from what I can tell. I don't love it, it's alright. I'd go biking, but I'm not as into it. So, when my Dad heard I was on bikes for the transfer he got excited. He said his dream had come true. But, it has started to have the opposite effect on me. Biking was fine before, but I'm developing a strong dislike for it. My heart goes out to Elder Higginson who is biking in Arizona, I am sorry it is hot over there. So I just need to vent a little, because my gosh. I don't feel like I have gotten used to biking at all since week 1. My comps have been getting better and faster but I'm still lagging behind. I'm like pedaling as hard as I can, switching gears, whatever. There are just so many hills here and it's hot and a little humid. Yes, it gets hot here too guys. I'm always sore. I don't know if anyone could make a more uncomfortable bike seat, because it's like sitting on a rock. Who's idea was that? And our bikes are old. We've had issues with a bike at least once a week which makes none of us able to ride. The chains also come off a lot, so we have to pull over and put it back on, which is hard to do with white shirts. Speaking of which, white shirts should not be a thing when you have bikes. I now have oil stains on them and some Costco pizza grease on one. These are my AndCollar shirts too. I've tried bleach, stain remover, I have one more thing to try, but if that doesn't work I don't know what to do. The oil might be there forever. I also got a little blood on one of my shirts because I crashed on Sunday. We were biking uphill, for like 20 minutes but we were almost there. We got to a point where it was going downhill for a little bit, but there was this huge hill ahead so I had to pick up speed. I went from 1st to 7th gear too fast, and my bike just had a stroke. I couldn't explain it, because I didn't see how it happened. All I know is I was down on the asphalt, my leg was kind of tangled in the bike with the bike kinda on top of me, and I was laying on my bike. Nothing broke, just my shoulder hurt for a couple minutes, but I was fine. I scraped my arm a little bit. I had long sleeves, but the asphalt scraped my skin through the AndCollar shirt. But the shirt hadn't ripped or anything. So that was pretty cool.

5. Jesus taught with parables, I teach with analogies. Most of them are from Movies or Video games. Well today's analogy is based on my experience with Bible Bashers this week. I felt like I wasn't really reaching anyone on Facebook. I've messaged a lot of people and sent out friend requests but nothing came from it. So, I started joining more Facebook groups, introducing myself, and asking if anyone had any questions about the church. Just because people hear a lot of weird things about it. I got a handful of responses, but after talking, they either stopped responding, or turned out to be Bible Bashers pretending to have legitimate questions. But I've been ready for this. Through the whole mission so far I've kinda wanted to talk to Bible Bashers, just to see how I would handle it. The Spanish guy from earlier doesn't count because there was a communication barrier. Anyway, they were attacking the Church for like polygamy, saying we married off our daughters at 13 years old, and practiced child abuse. And like, alright, I have to deal with these misinformed people. One of my favorite quotes from Elder Palmer is that Bashing isn't trash, it's recycle. And I agree! They make the same claims over again no matter what you say to resolve it. This is where the Smash Bros Analogy comes in. This is going to sound very confusing if you don't know what Smash Bros is or haven't played it.

You know when you're Donkey Kong, your sister is playing Kirby, and you keep punching her off the map. But because she's a stupid balloon thing, she just keeps flying back up. It's the worst thing to ever exist. But it's super satisfying when you damage their health enough so that when you punch them they just fly off. As Donkey Kong, you head butt them into the ground, wind up your punch, and just send them away and they blow up on the edge of the screen. I miss that feeling. But, that's kind of how I felt responding to the Bashers. Because I kind of roasted them, but with the Spirit. And I felt like Donkey Kong, I just sent them away. And it's easy to combo them because they don't change their technique. Except in this case, instead of trying to destroy them, you also want them to read the Book of Mormon. I don't think any of the people I messaged are going to though. Maybe I should change my approach. Maybe. Probably.

6. Earlier this week, I got some pictures off the computer to get on my phone, but I didn't delete them permanently. Later an Elder from our district saw one of the pictures of when I had a beard. They didn't recognize me at first, but were like "I know this person". But they have more respect for me now because they can't grow facial hair.

7. So Saturday was rough. With three people in a small apartment we struggle to get everyone showered and everything in time so we can have Personal Study. So I got out of the shower last, a little late, but I wanted to try and clean out some of the oil stains of my AndCollar shirt with a stain remover spray bottle. I was scrubbing for a while but it wasn't working. It literally advertises on the bottle that it removes oil stains. Anyway, I was getting frustrated and beginning to have a spirit of contention. So I decided to go and Read the Book of Mormon and start Personal Study. This sounds like a good moment for a little spiritual experience or something, but it didn't really go that way. I was on 1 Nep 20 when he started quoting Isaiah. I tried to read for like 30 minutes, but it wasn't working. I just could not do it. I gave up, feeling worse than before. I decided to work on an invitation from my Dad to compare two scriptures and find common words, and after like 20 minutes I didn't get like any words except and, is, to, from, for, the, etc. The only word that had any meaning was Christ and God, but the verses weren't related at all. And I was like what? What the heck am I supposed to learn from this? So then we were out of Personal Study time and the day wasn't off to a great start. We later had a lesson with a lady, and the bike was all uphill. I won't talk about it too much, but I said "Fudge" and "Fetch" the whole ride up. So we got to the house, and the lady had some family and friends over. It was her, her parents, her younger brother, his wife, and their daughter Brittany. Brittany has some sort of handicap or special needs. She is in a wheelchair and has a neck support thing, I think she's 30 years old, and can't talk as well. So that was sobering when I walked in. We met everyone and had a lesson on Missionary work and it was good. Brittany served a Mission in the San Diego temple as I assume, a temple worker. And it was really cool. Near the end of the lesson Birttany gave us a paper and it's one of the pictures down below so go read it really quick.

I needed that. She also said that when we walked in, she felt that Christ walked in too. I haven't talked about this as much, but something I've been struggling with is I haven't felt like God is really with me. Like He's watching me, but that's pretty much it. And like c'mon man, I'm working out here, gimme a little help. And even though it's still something I'm trying to get better at recognizing, I can take that testimony from Brittany and hold onto that. It was really cool to meet them. They weren't actually even going to be there, but Brittany's scooter wasn't working or something, so they stayed when we came in. Another cool thing from that lesson was that Brittany's Mom was in contact with a lot of people that she wanted us to record our testimonies and send them out, and also to find the Missionaries in those peoples areas.

Well sorry that was long. It's weird how short weeks feel, because there's also a lot of stuff that happens during the week. I'd love to hear from you guys, let me know how things are.

And it turns out, that quote from last week "Keep your heart locked, but your eyes opened", did not come from a Missionary. It came from Elder Stevenson. That's right, a frickin apostle in an MTC talk. You see a different side of apostles in MTC devotionals.

Also, I heard this song this week and I really liked it so please listen to it. Save Me (Peter's song)

Hasta la Vistan

- Ewder Wride

1. Brittany's Testimony