Elder Wride in California: Week 26

Hey All, this past week I hit 6 months! Feels weird and not quite real to be 1/4 of the way done. Also, it's apparently supposed to go even faster as time goes on...

1. Duolingo

2. Car Contacting

3. Orthotic devices

1. So I got Duolingo a couple weeks ago and it's been good trying to learn Spanish. I give credit to my junior high and high school years for bringing back a lot of simple words to my remembrance. In Duolingo they also have a leader board for whoever gets the most points. And as a Missionary, you don't have a lot of avenues to compete with others. So I just have done a lot of grinding on Duolingo. It's not even about learning Spanish anymore, it's just about making sure that Anna and Emily know their place (see image below). I plan to be in first place every week.

2. We have been encouraged to look for new and creative ways to find people. A new method Elder Tillman and I have developed is called Car contacting. Basically when you pull up to a red light, hold up a Book of Mormon and roll down the window to get their attention and then try and give a super brief pitch. Most of the time it's just like "Do you want a Book of Mormon? It'll change your life". We haven't had much success. Except one time some probably intoxicated college boys wanted one but they were a couple lanes down and we weren't able to get them one. But each Book of Mormon has a Restoration Pamphlet, contact info, church address and everything.

3. A couple weeks ago I saw a Chiropractor to get my feet casted because I have some foot issue. Basically, I lean on the outside of my feet and it can lead to long term damage to walk like that. So, he is helping me to improve my walking performance with these little insole molds to wear in my shoe. And they came this past week in the mail! It does feel weird walking around a lot with them on, but it hasn't been painful at all which is good. The night they came in the mail I tried them on and it actually felt good. My feet were a little sore and it just felt like a foot massage because it hit all the right spots. I don't know if that last sentence made sense. But yeah I'll be wearing this for the rest of my life so that's exciting. But I'm actually super grateful to have these. I will now segway into my spiritual Thought which is related to this section. Basically, this past summer I got a summer job, from which I hoped I would be able to earn enough money for college, and maybe my mission. It was originally sales, so I wasn't sure how much money I could make. I was in sales for a whole month without a lot of success. So after talking with some leaders and my parents, I switched to technician work. I wouldn't make as much money as I could in sales, but I knew I would make money. Over the months I was worried I would not make enough money to be able to pay for school. I was working 12 hour days, 5-6 days a week and I felt like I was doing all I could. I wanted to quit and go home, because I didn't see the point if I wouldn't even have enough money afterwards. Through one Sacrament meeting I was able to change my mindset. I don't remember what the speaker was saying but the phrase that hit me was "Trust in the Lord". That really stuck with me. I was doing what I thought was right, and what was in my control, so I just needed to leave it to the Lord. So yeah. I think I may have explained it better in my farewell talk, but whatever. But I am still going through this process of being like "hopefully I'll be able to avoid student loans, because right now money will still be pretty tight after the mission. The reason this relates to the Chiropractor is because I feel like this is the Lord watching out for me. The doctor (who is a member) talked about praying and trying to figure out what to do with me. The original whole program they offer costs $6k. I definetely could not pay for that myself, even though my parents would probably take care of a lot of it, if not all of it. But this doctor decided to give me these devices for free. I did not pay anything. The only thing I had to get was new shoes. This is kind of where the spiritual Thought ends, but if anyone wants more details I'm going to continue typing. But if you want to stop reading here is a good place to do it. But I'm just so grateful. To explain all the details, I ran into this doctor because I went to a members home to give the dad a blessing (Dr. was the grandfather). And the Dr just happened to be there and they were supposed to leave earlier than they did but they stayed. I think it's also cool that they even noticed that I needed help, because I didn't know. I knew it probably wasn't good for me to lean out like that, and my shoes didn't look well, but I figured it wasn't a big deal. But he noticed my shoes were worn, checked my feet out and then said i could come by to his office. Then, when I got there he casted my feet and gave them to me for free. It's just so cool. There are so many other variables that play in: me being in this area, me going to the house because we weren't planning on it, it was sort of a last minute thing, etc. I'm also so glad I was able to get this problem addressed at 18 years old, and not further down the road where more damage would've been done. I just really feel like the Lord is watching out for me.

Anyway, sorry for the long thought, but it's a good one I think. I hope you all had a good week. Shoutout to my sister Melodie who just completed her mission from Brazil . Also, sad news, this is my last week in College Area. No its not YSA, it's just the family ward around SDSU. They're changing the name. But I have been here since November and it's been a really good area.

I love you all so much!

- Elder Wride

1. Duolingo