Week 38 - Welcome to the Neighborhood

Good day everyone! Well get right in

1. Exchanges and being a DL

2. "Welcome to Neighborhood"

3. Sacrament meeting

1. On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. A lot of the focus was on the zone and the district and what we could do. It was a really good exchange. I've been thinking about how I've liked being a District leader, and overall, I'm not sure. It hasn't been quite what I expected, but I don't know what I expected. I guess I'm just not sure how well I'm helping the district and being an example. It's still good. I just heard it was a lot of fun, and I wouldn't say I has had much fun because a lot of the people in our district are a little more wild, so I've felt like I need to be more Mr. Business if that makes sense so we can get things done.

2. After a lesson on Sunday we were walking and then this random lady pulled up and rolled down her window. She yells out asking us if we represent the community. We were like "Sure I guess?" She then talked about the hill we were next to is really fun for kids and we're like ok cool. She then said "Welcome to the Neighborhood!". She then asked if we knew the name of the school to which we turned around and read it. She said if we don't know the name of the school here nobody will talk to us. She also welcomed us to the neighborhood again. She also said she worked at that school and then once again welcomed us to the neighborhood. She had cars behind her so she had to go, but it was a pretty interesting interaction. We kind of hope she doesn't work at that school, because there were certain signs she was drunk or something. She said Welcome to the Neighborhood I think at least 5 or 6 times at random times during our interaction.

3. Church went well. We had 6 of our friends come! Aidyn, Alexis and McKinley. We also had Brenda and Evert come for their 7th week streak. And Remigio came! We told them we were speaking and so his wife dragged him along and we sat with him. It was cool because we had Rem on our right, Brenda and Evert on our left, and the other 3 were with their fellowshipper family in front of us. I wanted to include my sacrament talk, but it's a bit long and I'm running out of time. I talked on "We can experience God's wonders if we have faith in Jesus Christ'', and I talked about Elder Soares' talk from the April 2022 General Conference "In Awe of Christ and His gospel". 

I love you all! Sorry I'm a little out of time but I'm doing good. Mom is going into labor tonight for kid 13 and so I'll include that next week. I'm so excited!

- Elder Wride

Pictures:

1. Exchanges

2. Service

3. He fed us too. It was a Ukrainian beet dish and was really good.

Week 37 - Volleyball

Hello everyone. Time is passing by weirdly. I wouldn't say that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. But they both go by pretty quickly and before I know it I'm at the next P-day. And then the next, and the next, etc. 

1. Isabella Baptism

2. Volleyball

3. Remigio

4. Other business

1. We had a baptism this week. Sorry, not in our area, but in one of the other wards here. Which baptisms are a good thing to invite friends to. So, we invited ours, but only Brenda came. It was still really good though. She was running late and the program had already started. Then the talk on Baptism started, and the baptism was about to happen. She texted saying she was here and we hurried to the parking lot to see where she was. We walked back in just as it was starting and Brenda was able to see it. It was good and she really enjoyed it. Brenda and Evert are doing really well with desire and feeling the spirit when we talk, but they don't really follow through on reading or remembering what we teach. They came to church for the 6th time in a row which is good. I'm sure they would accept a baptismal invite, but I don't think they are ready. 

2. We also started playing volleyball this week to find people. We have a group we found online that had around 100 people. Most non-members. So, we started it back up again to try and meet some new people. We had our first meet up yesterday. Unfortunately not a whole lot of non-members actually showed up, but we're trying to get things going again. But we did have like 8 other people show up which were YSA I think. But I heard two of them could've been non-members. But they all seem to be in the same circle of friends I guess.

3. Remigio is doing well (Bro Rodriguez in the district). Our past couple lessons have gone well. The main issue is that Sister Rodriguez feeds us a lot of Filipino food. In our last lesson we read Alma 32 12-18 ish. Which was pretty good and Rem was engaged pretty well. We were talking about how much more blessed they are who are humble without being compelled to be humble. He used the analogy of how much better it is for parents and the kids, when the kids just do what they know is right. And he agreed that God works in the same way. Which was sort of a check-mate moment for us. At our first lesson he basically said he's content with Catholicism and so if God wants him to read the BofM or something, he should make it more clear. Once he realized he was trapped he was more quiet. But I think we got him and I hope he wrestles with that for a while. He likes movies, so we're planning on having him watch the Restoration movie. It will be good. 

4. Other than that things are going well. Linda and her kids are still progressing slowly. We learned that Alexis is afraid of the water to get baptized so she doesn't feel ready yet. Aidyns is doing well and actually went camping this weekend with the ward, which was good for him. And Linda is still ghosting us and not really engaged. We'll have to have an honest conversation with her next time we meet.

We also went to Coronado island today. It was good. I didn't like being that close to the coast because it felt like we were on vacation, but as a Missionary I have a mindset of not being able to relax essentially. Plus, we couldn't go on the sand. But I love you all! Mom is due next week for kid 13. Email me if you would like because I would love to hear from you. Have a good week.

- Elder Wride

Pictures:

1. Shot at a Mall that we go to

2. Biking coronado

3. Sister Rodriguez food

4. Eating with a member

5. Volleyball

6. The car

Week 36 - Karaoke Jam Sessions

Hey good people, it's been a pretty good week.

1. Jam Sesh pt. 1

2. Jam Sesh pt. 2

3. Work update

1. We had another lesson with Remigio this week. To refresh your memory, he is the Filipino man in the District, and is still being taught. He's pretty catholic, but all of his family are members and his kids are going/have gone on missions. Well this week we went by and while we were talking he brought up a Karaoke set. So, he shows us this probably 15 year old Karaoke set that he has set up with the TV and Luke 3 foot speakers and all. Before we know it he's singing Karaoke and performing for us. He also gave us a try. We think it was good for helping him open up more I guess. We then talked for a little bit and learned about his testimony which was good. That was on Thursday. We went over again Sunday for an actual lesson which could've gone better. We taught the Restoration, and his daughter taught some of it too for mission prep. It was kind of weird. Basically, his logic is that Joseph wouldn't have been confused if he didn't attend all those different churches. I guess he thinks any church is good, and he's staying catholic because he's always been catholic. We invited him to pray about what God would have him do and we'll see how that goes. 

2. We had another jam session with a returning member. It also wasn't planned. Basically this Member still believes but just hasn't been coming to church because of work. He lives on someone's property which is kind of weird. It's like a mini house on someone's front lawn I guess. It looks like a nice shed but he lives in it, with his bed and everything. It's kind of weird but I guess he has something figured out with the homeowners. So he wanted to feed us lunch too so he bought a little thing of rotisserie chicken, some potato salad and bread. It was nice and we all ate off this tiny table. It was sweet because we knew it was his best so it touched me. He also has a piano in the room and a guitar and asked if we could play. My comp Elder Ruske played (we were on exchanges) so he played piano, bro Riqueros played guitar and I sang. It was actually really cool that we were on exchanges for that day because Elder Ruske is a really good piano player and Bro Riqueros really enjoyed the jam session. We played Beatles music. I am disappointed in myself for not taking pictures but I'll try next time if it happens again. 

3. Our people are doing good. Brenda and Everts main thing keeping them from progressing is remembering things. They don't seem to remember a lot of the things we teach at previous lessons. But they remember things they read very well, so we're just trying to get them to do that more. They've been doing good on that though, but yeah. We also just got them set up on FamilySearch and it's been awesome for them. Linda is still in the same position where she's not really progressing and ghosting us. But we're still working with her two kids Aidyn and Alexis, but they might not get baptized until next month. 

Well I think that's basically it. I love all of you guys!

- Elder Wride

Pics + Video

1. Service

2. Zone Conference

3. Zone Conference pt 2

4. Zone Conference again

5. Elder Hatch got his own Roctopus

Week 35 - I Almost Got in Another Fight

 Hola good people. I'm pretty low energy right now but I'll do my best

1. Baby Godzillas

2. Second time we almost got in a fight

3. "Where were you when we were sacrificing this family?"

1. There's this lady we've done service for up in spring valley with our district. She's a super nice non-member and we pulled some cactus bushes, and other things. The reason for Baby Godzillas is that there are a bunch of lizards in her backyard that freak her out and that's what she calls them. It was super cool just because she was so grateful for all the service we did to the point of tears. She also talked about how there's a light in us and we said a prayer with her. She said next time she wants to hear all our testimonies. It would be really cool to see her progress.

2. Quick story was one morning as we were walking to the gym in our complex there was this mid 20s guy walking and shouting from a distance. I debated whether or not we should walk past him, because he looked a little crazy. That's something you would see a lot in my last area, but less here because it's more wealthy. I was also kind of surprised he was here because it's a really nice complex. He wasn't homeless though. Anyway, as we walked up to him he was crying and he looked at us asking us if we had a problem while we were just trying to walk past in peace. He then started calling us the n word and we just kinda walked away saying we didn't have a problem. He dared us to look back while he was walking away, but we didn't. We had hydro flasks in our hands and I would have given it to him if he tried.

3. Funny quote from this week was "Where were you when we were sacrificing this family?". We played this game called Sacrifice at a member lesson. It was actually the Bahr Family who are my relatives we found out a couple weeks ago. Anyway, the game basically gives you 3 cards with a bunch of stuff like "beauty", "church", etc. and the cards gradually get more important and gospel related. And the family has to decide on one card to give up. It goes all the way up to the Atonement. Well, at one point the family had to decide between "Family", "Prophets and Apostles" and the last one might have been scriptures. Anyway, they decided to get rid of the family but the dad wasn't paying attention. He later pointed out that scriptures maybe could've gone since scriptures are kind of the teachings of prophets and apostles. The mom was upset in a funny way realizing they gave up their family a little soon. It was funny. But the last cards are normally the Atonement and Family. The point of the game is to point out that everything goes back to the Atonement. I'm currently working on an essay about the Atonement that I might include next week. It's been a really cool assignment from President.

Love you all! Hope you're doing well and I would love to hear from you!

- Elder Wride

Pictures

1. Member feeding us

2. Another member feeding us. I dont think I'm gaining weight though

3. Elder Hatch wanted to try a wide lense shot

4. We switched out the rav because of the dent left in it a couple weeks ago

5. Felt cute at the temple today 

Week 34 - (Untitled)

Hola,

Things are going pretty good. This week has been full of me feeling tired but satisfied. Which I like a lot more than feeling like I'm not doing my best. The only problem is that I am still doing stuff by the end of the night so I go to bed later, so I am guilty of sleeping in like 15 minutes some mornings. But I'll work on it. But I've gotten to the point where a good day is a day that is full of lessons back to back, which I think is good.

Things are going good with Elder Hatch. He's a really fun and goofy guy, and I feel like we're working well together. 

Our people have been doing pretty well. Linda hasn't been coming to church still but I feel like we're gonna take that easy for a little while. I don't think she has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon so we'll work on that first. We also got her permission to teach and baptize her kids since she isn't progressing, so we're planning on how to teach them the rest of the principles. Our friends Brenda and Evert also came to church for the first time on their own, which was awesome. That's 3 weeks in a row they've come. 4 if you count the Easter Devotional from last month. 

I'm kinda in a rush to write this if you haven't noticed. I don't know what to title this email. Sorry. 

Pictures:

1-2. More pictures

3-4. We went to an inactive member who had a crazy dog

5. Facebook and Areabook

6. Mission Leadership Council (I'm a cool kid now. I'm also on the edge of the screen)