Week 33 - "I Will Kill You"

Hey People, how's a going? 

1. Transfers

2. "I Will Kill You"

3. The Work

1. I'm actually so excited for this transfer. I'm staying in Otay Lakes and my new companion is Elder Hatch. I heard good things about him and the day has been great so far. I'm also going to be District leading this transfer which I have been prepared for from all of my months of service as a District Monkey. I know a good amount of missionaries in the District and it's going to be awesome. We dropped off Elder Pedlow at the airport this morning

2. In order to understand this point I am going to provide a little context. So basically there's a member in our ward that from day 1, Elder Pedlow has made it clear that he really hates. But she's a very Missionary work involved member, so we work with her sometimes. And every week we have a Family Home Evening with a couple families and the 2 kids we have on date. We normally just go there to share a spiritual thought, but they also have a game after. They used to stay for the game too, but every week this transfer Elder Pedlow has said we have to go because the Member is in charge of the game, and he doesn't want to be there. So this past week, she asked us if we could do a kahoot thing for FHE because she needed help setting up. We didn't know much about it and didn't know if we could because of phone restrictions. So we get there and she starts trying to set it up on the TV. I thought we could try and help because she didn't really know how to do it. I was about to ask if she needed help, but when I got about 2 words out, I heard Elder Pedlow say "Don't. I will kill you". Now, generally when someone says that, it's not supposed to be taken seriously. But the way he said it, combined with the fact that he seems to have anger issues sometimes, made me not feel safe. It didn't seem like he could be joking because we haven't really ever become friends or joked around. I wanted to help the member, but not that badly. She figured it out pretty quick, but we didn't stay for the whole game. Actually I just remembered that for the game, it was an lds kahoot game that one of the members had made. I think it only had 10 questions which I honestly don't remember. But the last question on the kahoot was "Did Jesus have a wife?" and the options were yes or no. We were like uhhhh, but we knew which one it probably was. The families there and kids were debating as the countdown was going. Keep in mind we had our 2 kids on date there (11+12), their non-member friend, and another non-member mom and her kids, along with a bunch of other members. The answer came up as yes. Elder Pedlow and I decided to then leave in a smoke grenade fashion. 

3. The work is going well. Our friends Brenda and Evert came to church again for both hours this time which was awesome. Partly because that made them miss their other church they like to attend. We also extended a soft invitation to be baptized but I don't think they're ready. Their biggest problem I think is going to be retaining information. They want to be baptized which is good. I just want them to be ready. Our family on date, Linda and her two kids are going ehh. Lindas ghosting us again and will have to either be taken off date or get it pushed back. But we hope to keep the kids on date for May 14th. We will just need Lindas permission because they are minors.

I also just realized that today 1 year ago is when I submitted my mission call to my Stake President which I think is cool. I also may have dented 

the car at transfers today. I was pulling into a spot and hit one of the other mission cars.... We're still driving it right now because it's drivable and the vehicle coordinator said he's busy and could deal with it later.

But remember that I love you all!

- Elder Wride

Pictures: 

1. The car this morning

2+3. Our district. I didn't advocate for Pedlows costume, but whatever. I also assume he won't care if I include it in the email because he wore it in public.

4. Caught sleeping

5. Meme

Week 32 - Not much

Hola amigos, como esta?

I'm doing well. It's hard to explain Missionary life when everyday is like the same. It's like Groundhog day. Not exactly the same, but the days are similar ish. So I don't have too much to say 

I've been listening to the book Saints for the past couple weeks. Almost done with Vol 1. It's been good so far. I don't know if I planned to share something specifically when I started typing this, but yeah.

Umm, other exciting stuff: Brenda and Evert came to church this week and they really liked it. I'm excited for them because they're doing very well. I also just finished 3 Nephi 22 which is actually the last chapter covered in Isaiah for Airheads. Shout out to Grandpa and Grandma Wride for getting that out because it did help.

Yeah to be honest there's not much new. Our friend Linda who is on date hasn't been coming to church because she works night shifts. We have a ward that starts at 12:30 for her which should hopefully make things easier. If she doesn't start coming to church we will probably just baptize her kids. 

Just remember I love you all!

- Elder Wride

Pictures

1. A member asked to take our picture. He wanted to so he could remember our names  You can't read our tags anyway

2. Service at a food bank. It's actually right on the border of Mexico

3. Funny flyer we found

Hyrum's mom here, sharing a photo that I took of Hyrum and Peter playing with the messenger filters. 

Corey usually knows it's time for him to leave when the filters come on, cause then people aren't visiting anymore, they're just watching themselves and distracted by choosing another filter.

Week 31 - Easter Devo

Hey all, not too much for this week

1. Interviews

2. Easter Devo

3. Quick invite

1. Had interviews with President this week and it was good. I talked to him a little about how I'm having a harder time with my comp, and he said "Well soon you will have a new companion". Thanks President. The transfers are only 2 more weeks, so I'll be good. I have also decided that I hate country music. 

2. We had the Easter Devotional this week and it was decent. We had 2 of our friends come! We had a really good member who offered to take them there and they had a really good time. It was just so sweet seeing other missionaries and members come up to them and talk to them. That, on top of our really good lesson last week, they are on fire so I am very hopeful for them. 

3. From October to this past conference, I did very bad at reviewing Conference talks. We are encouraged to study them right along with the standard works. I would encourage you all to do so, especially for President Nelsons. His talk was probably one of my favorites. Anyway, sorry I'm running out of time but that's my invitation.

I love you all very much!

- Elder Wride

Pictures:

1. A quote I really liked

2. Last minute picture I took at the Temple this morning, because I realized I didn't take any

3. Meme

Week 30 - Conferences

 Hey Everyone, hope you all had a great week and Conference weekend. Things are good here in the San Diego Mission.

1. Zone + General Conferences

2. Bahr Family

3. Spiritual thought: Helaman 12

1. We had Zone Conference and General Conference this week! Both were awesome. I don't remember how much of last Zone Conference I told you guys about, but this one was just as good. The past 2 have really answered a lot of my questions and issues I've been dealing with. We've struggled in being productive in a slow area (and my companions not really hard working), but the trainings were on planning and finding and they gave a lot of great information and tips. It was pretty hard so the trainings really felt like an answer to prayers. We're still going a little slow, but we're getting better. And then General Conference was awesome, we watched all the sessions at the church. I wish I had more questions, because I really didn't know what to go into Conference with. I just tried to be very open. But the main things I did want was 1. Find ways to grow my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and 2. Grow my testimony of President Nelson being a prophet. I really liked President Nelson's talk and I'm going to try and work on the 5 things he suggested to Maintain spiritual momentum. 

2. Just this past Sunday we also had a visit with the family called the Bahrs. We went over for some dinner, and we were talking to the dad while he was cooking some burgers. We were talking about very standard stuff like where we're from, how long we've been out, etc. Then when he asked about family, I told him I was the 4th of 12. He gave me a weird look and then said "We're related". Apparently during our whole talk he was making connections because he recognized the last name Wride. And we're second cousins (I think). My mom and the Dad are cousins so that's the connection. But it was really cool, they knew a decent amount of my family on my moms side.

3. For today's Spiritual thought I wanted to share from Helaman 11-12 where I read this week. In Helaman 11 the people go through one of their cycles where they become wicked, the Lord chastens them, and then they remember God and repent. It actually happens like a ton I feel like even as you get later on. Right now I'm in 3 Nephi 5 and just the last couple chapters it happens then too. But I really liked Helaman 12 first verses, especially 2+3

"2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him."

I have just been thinking about this during the week. Where's the honor in only remembering God when you are in trouble or need something? I feel like I've met a lot of members and missionaries that aren't necessarily like these verses, but they still feel passive about their testimony. And I don't like that. I want to be a kind of member that lives as a Disciple of Christ with all their heart, might, mind and strength. It just makes me upset especially with people that have served missions, gone through the temple, etc. I don't know. The Gospel is so large and important, it's like cmon. I feel like even if you don't feel the Spiritual awe that Elder Soares was talking about (My favorite talk), I have found that for me, doing those things like Scripture study, and praying will help bring that spirit if you didn't feel it when you started. And you may not feel it at all times anyway. But then you just have to remember those times and remain loyal and diligent. Anyway, I just wanted to get thag out

I love you all! Hope you had a great conference. Do your best to re listen to those talks, I think they should be side by side with the scriptures. Have a good week. 

- Elder Wride

Pics:

1. Study desk. I got a big mushroom power up from Mario bros as an addition to the set.

2. Dwayne the Roctopus Johnson. A member 3D printed that and randomly gave us one.

3+4. Zone Conference

5. General Conference set up

6+7. Bahr Family

8. Meme