Elder Wride in California: Week 11 - Launching a Rock With a Weed-Whacker

Hello

My P-day got switched to today instead of Tuesday because of Thanksgiving. Which I don't consider ideal for a couple of reasons which I'll get into soon. But this week was a rollercoaster

1. P-day Vent

2. Shirtless Skateboarder

3. Hany and Kalan

4. Launching a Rock with a Weed-Whacker

5. God is More Powerful than Satan

6. Soapy Joe's and Zone Conference

7. Thanksgiving and the Health Train

1. So yeah, our P-day changed for just this week. So the hardest part was enduring 10 days without being able to take a nap. Last week I did not take a nap, which pleases Lucifer because he knew that that would make the next week and a half feel a lot longer. That jerk. I worry that our schedule today will not allow me to take a nap. I would rather just have a normal P-day and and we get to call Family 2x this week, but no. And today is also cut short because we have Thanksgiving dinner with a member at 3:30. Thats my second P-day in a row that is cut short. I am not pleased with how this transpired or filled with a spirit of Charity. I feel bad that I tend to vent on my emails. It does help, so thanks for allowing me to write negative feelings I guess. Sorry if it's not uplifting But this next week will be shorter because our P-day is back to Tuesday. So that's what I'm grateful for. And I may be able to nap today.

2. There are a lot of people here that we've met that have a belief in God and are "spiritual". I guess it goes back to how we need faith and works. For example, we met these ladies at a park. When we talked to them they said they were already saved and going to heaven so they said to go find other people because other people need help. Not them. At some point while we were talking some birds flew over and one lady said something about how it's a sign and raised her hands and she's a very spiritual person. But they also started talking about how they're gonna go smoke weed. To me, they don't appear to be taking care of themselves very well. I guess I feel like a lot of people I meet say they believe in God and are going to heaven and whatever, but I don't see Christ's countenance in them very well. They have the Light of Christ, but it's not the same as His countenance. 90% of the time they act and smell in a way that would indicate they are not following the Word of Wisdom. So it's just weird. There was another interesting lady we were talking to, and then this guy comes by skateboarding and shirtless. He comes by says like "Praise Jesus" or something, gives us all hugs and skates off. As he's going the lady yells "Keep up the good work!". Not sure exactly what she meant by that. They said they never met each other before. But it didn't seem like they were doing work? Or I don't know what their work is? I don't mean to judge, but then he goes to the 7-11 we were close to, steals a bundle of wood, and skates off. That's kind of sad. Why would he do that? I guess I feel like what these people say doesn't support what they do a lot of the time. But yeah they are quite interesting.

3. There's one guy in our areabook that we were trying to meet with. Hany is his name. He like wouldn't always respond when we would reach out and it was kind of weird. But we agreed to meet at a park at 4 pm one day. So we got there with a member and were waiting. And waiting. Hany texts us and asks to push back to 5:30 and meet at a Starbucks. Ok, we won't get any coffee but I guess we can go in Starbucks. We do some street contacting while we're waiting m. Well then at 5:45 we call him and other missionaries pick up. Like what is happening? They were having a lesson with him at the park we were at earlier. Still don't know why he didn't answer his own phone? But he was apparently texting both of us but thought we were the same group or something. Anyway, so I was a little upset because we just spent our afternoon not super effectively and it was dark. We were gonna go to the church and do Facebook. But while we were getting in the car, Elder Hayes just walks away to go talk to a guy. I chase after him and we met Kalan. He was receptive, and opened up about how he's felt lonely since his brother died. It was a cool visit. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a Bible. It was just cool because without all that mess with Hany, we wouldn't have been there at all. Unfortunately though, we haven't been able to contact Kalan since. We were gonna meet with Kalan on Tuesday but he gave us a wrong number. He has our number but hasn't called or anything. Sad.

4. Earlier this week the Sisters asked us to help with a project. I don't know if I've already said, but we share this ward with 3 sisters so we've got 6 missionaries. Honestly we need it because there's a lot to do. But they called us over to help with this service project. The lady isn't a member, I think she just clicked on a service ad from Facebook. The only things she needed done were weed-whacking and mowing, so we didn't need 6 people there. I ended up just picking weeds and grass out from in between bricks on the patio. Very helpful, I know. So after we finished the Sisters went to go talk to her and try to set up a lesson. We didn't know what to do so we started weed-whacking the front. After that, Elder Vickery started weed-whacking inbetween side walk slabs to get the grass out there. I probably could've just picked them out, but yeah. I was holding the cord because it was a plug in weed-whacker. Elder Vickery hits a rock in the sidewalk or something, a little bit bigger than a pebble. My eyes just locked onto it as it soars through the air at I don't know how many mph. And it heads right to the ladies back door of her CAR. It made a pretty loud noise, and the Sisters were talking to her on her porch like right there. But none of them turned around or anything. So we just decided to not do anything else. We put the stuff away. We were done and the Sisters left, but we went over to the lady to tell her. We pointed to the dent in the door and there was a moment of silence. She turns around and says "You didn't do that!" In like an upbeat way. She goes on to say that it was already there before and something about a guy in the parking lot. So we walked away as free men. But that's crazy because I literally saw it hit the car with my own eyes. I have 2 theories: 1- She was just being nice. This was my first reaction, that she just made that up so we wouldn't have to pay anything. 2- An Angel intercepted this rock, soaring through the air, and hit the car at the exact position where a dent already was. While I saw the rock hit the car, I don't know whether or not a dent was already there. But I know it hit that spot on the car. We may never know, what I do know is that that rock hit the car.

5. The church building in our ward is on top of the Mission office and doesn't have computers because all the computers are at the Mission office / Family History center. So we often go to another building that we don't have the keys to. We've gone there enough times, we forget that we don't have keys to get in so we need to coordinate with other missionaries. We've not been able to get in more than once. Well yesterday, as we pulled up, we realized we hadn't coordinated with any missionaries and there weren't any cars parked so we just went up to see if it was unlocked because we were already there. Being the motivational speaker I am, I said something along these lines as I went to open the door: "Satan is working against us. He has prevented us from entering this building to do the Lord's work before. But God is more powerful than Satan, and if it be His will, we can enter this building, which is His house". At that moment I pull on the door and it opens. I was being like not serious with my motivational talk, but the door actually opened. So the Elders went in and I went back out to see if it was actually locked. And it was. So that was cool. There was also some random guy talking on the phone in the hallway so he also could've let us in.

6. Never once in my life did it occur to me that I would support a car wash. But I am impressed with Soapy Joe's. For Zone Conference we took our car to go get cleaned. And man, I did not expect much. We like pulled around and it felt like Disneyland. The employees were dressed and we paid at a little thing. Then the sign says to like put your car in neutral, let go of the brake and other stuff and I was like what? Then we're on this like machine thing and it's carrying us through the car wash. And there's flashing lights and it says "Start". Then we just went on through and got sprayed on, scrubbed with spinning things, rinsed and air dried. It doesn't sound cool, but it was cool. If you can't afford Disneyland go to a Soapy Joe's and bonus, your car is cleaned. They had little vacuum stations as well. And their car tags smell like fruit Tic Tacs. Zone Conference was good, Elder Cordon from the Seventy came. The main takeaway was Christlike attributes. The main one I'm trying to work on is Charity. So that'll be good.

7. 2 Weeks ago I was doing great. Exercising good, eating healthier. That lasted for about 4 days. We got transferred and I completely fell off the Health Train. We don't have a gym anymore. I got spoiled in my last area, I did not realize a gym was a luxury. And boy am I in the wrong ward to try and stay healthy. The first lady is Nancy. On our first ward council she comes in with a pan of cinnamon rolls and smore cookie things. Since then, I have been fed to an exceedingly great amount. One family got us Domino's, another cooked us stew and fried rice. Another member is apparently good enough that he once went into a contest in something something do with Gordon Ramsay. He cooked us some like meat sandwich roll things with corn on the cob, home made fries with ginger ale. Which was really good. We're also having Thanksgiving dinner with a member. They have 5 other missionaries coming so it will be a large feast. The point is, this is what I've been warned about. The Holiday season is not a slim one, and it has only just begun. I might just allow myself this transfer until I out of this ward. Because this ward feeds us way too much and it feels wrong if I were to not accept it. Because they are very persistent. One member said feeding the Missionaries is the 11th Commandment. Maybe I'll try to be healthier after today. But Happy Thanksgiving.

So that's this week. We also went to film a music video which I did in no way contribute to. If you see the "Mary Did You Know?" Video on the San Diego page, when it comes out, know that Elder Wride was there. But there I saw the ocean and got a picture. So thank you all for reading, I hope you have a splendid day, now I am going to try and take a nap. Love you all!

1. I did end up getting a California Burrito