Elder Wride in California: Week 16 - A Missionary Christmas

I don't know what to say anymore. These emails are starting to feel like that scene from Black Panther. "As you can see, I am not dead"

1. Our Friends

2. TIWI is my enemy

3. A Missionary Christmas

4. Homeless Camping

5. Spiritual Thought

1. So the work is going along. We had 3 people on date for baptism, now we have 2. But the 2 probably won't be baptized anytime soon. They want to be baptized, it's just gonna take a lot of work to get them ready. But for the good news, Peter, a guy we met a couple weeks ago has been reading the Book of Mormon! And he wrote down questions he wanted to ask us. Like what? That's amazing. We will meet with him tomorrow I think. But yeah we do a lot of Street Contacting and have placed some BofMs, got some phone numbers.

2. I don't know how many of you know what TIWI is. Basically it's this little device that sits on the windshield of the car and makes sure you're doing a good job driving. And she's out to get me. I've gotten a lot of violations, and as God is my witness, I am innocent for most of them. Most of them have come from 1 of 2 things. 1: You get a violation if you don't log in when you start driving. You log in with this card thing that you put under the device and it's supposed to scan and log you in. TIWI is supposed to remind you to login but sometimes she doesn't and then I forget and get a violation. Other times, I have held the card under the scanner and she isn't reading it so I get a violation. 2: Check your speed violations. I'm normally pretty good. I will admit I have gone too fast sometimes, but for most of them I plead innocent. There's this ramp onto the highway that goes from 30-55 or something. And TIWI always detects the new speed limit late, and so she thinks I'm going too fast when I'm trying to speed up to the coming speed limit. I don't know if that made sense, but basically, TIWI is out to get me.

3. Christmas was this week. I honestly didn't even think about it because there's no snow here or anything. It didn't really hit me until my Beloved Grandma sent me a Christmas tree that I set up this week. It did make me a little trunky but I'm ok. Christmas Eve was alright, even if I was a little trunky. We met a bunch of people and were able to send Christmas messages to our friends. I kept with the family tradition of sleeping by the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. I thought Christmas day would be a day off or something but it was just a normal working day. It almost felt like we didn't even celebrate Christmas. But we were able to open presents and call home. Then we went out street contacting and placed 2 BofMs which was good. We had some other Elders over for some hamburgers for dinner. I also drank EggNog which is Christmasy, so that was a good time.

4. Homeless Camping. So, it may be just me, with how many people I've pitched this idea to, so far it is just me. But hear me out. I think it would be cool to be homeless for a little bit. I could take a nap and not have responsibilities. But, since I wouldn't want to be stuck being homeless, I could go homeless camping. You load up a bunch of stuff like a tent, money for food, it would also be cool if you got a TV and an Xbox Xbox play at parks where they have a pavilion and public outlets. And I know homeless people probably wouldn't have an Xbox, but the idea is that. You could also just talk to missionaries who are trying to find people. The idea is just to see what it's like to be homeless but you're camping so it's just an experience where you're just chilling for a couple days. I wouldn't want to be homeless here in San Diego, because I very well could get shot. I think Utah is safer. So, anyway, that's the idea. I haven't found anyone that's interested so if anyone here is down, let me know.

5. Trying to get better at putting Spiritual thoughts in. Today, I'd like to talk about Alma 26:12 "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things, yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever". I love this verse. Missionary work in this area is a lot. Just while typing this email we've gotten two referrals. I really can't do it without the Lord working with them. The Spirit they feel when we teach does not come from me or my companion, but the Lord. And for example Peter, we invited him to read the BofM in the same way we invited many others. And it was amazing that he took the initiative when many other people didn't. It's just cool because I feel like I'm beginning to see how Missionary work goes. Like I'm seeing the stories that you hear about now. I don't know how much of that made sense but it's cool.

Anyway, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a great week. Email me if you can or want to, sorry if I don't respond. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

- Elder Wride

1+2. Christmas Devotional