Week 42 - Goodbye President and Sister Giménez

Happy Tuesday everyone. Hope everything is well. 

1. Last ZC with President and Sister Giménez

2. Tender Mercies

3. Spiritual thought

1. We had Zone Conference this week. President asked me to speak there which was cool. I just talked about teaching with power and authority from PMG. But it was President and Sister Gimenez last Zone Conference. I really will miss them. President Gimenez really taught me a lot. The most important thing I learned from him was about being a disciple of Christ. President Gimenez has a really strong testimony of the Savior that he shares with us all the time. His testimony and example helped me realize that that's what I want to be: A Man of Christ. They've really emphasized the importance of life-long discipleship to us, and have been really good examples of being followers of Christ. I will miss them but I look forward to what comes with President and Sister Merritt. They come in on Friday I believe

2. I've been thinking a lot about Tender Mercies recently. I've been really trying to see the Lord's hand in my life. I feel like good things happen, but I often would appreciate more divine manifestations or miracles if it is the Lord's will. So for a while I have been praying to have the eyes to see Tender Mercies and miracles in my life. Therefore, I will try to acknowledge everything as I'm looking out for them. And this week there was something I would consider a Tender mercy. On Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat. It kinda sucked and hurt but I was like oh well, I'm fine. I was a little more tired and achy than usual but nothing to excuse not going about a regular day. However my energy slowly drained throughout the day and around 4pm I was not doing well. I had a sore throat, but the aches, especially my headache were not super bien. We had lessons and I was pretty determined to complete the day. It was a rather miserable rest of the day but I did it pathetically strong. After dinner I just laid down for like an hour and tried to write in my journal. But I couldn't lay down well and was feeling a little nauseous too. I was pretty certain I wouldn't be working the next day. Which I was also upset about because I wouldn't have much I could do the whole day except study and find on facebook I guess. We also had a lot of important lessons the next day. I prayed that I would be able to get better and work tomorrow and ended up going to bed at 9:30. The next morning I felt great! The headache was gone completely, and I felt probably the most rested that I ever have.  It was like birds were singing and the heavens were open. I was super grateful and I consider it a lovely little tender mercy.

3. I had a thought today, so I'll include my other Sacrament talk later. Something I think a lot about is how crazy it is to me that there are so few members of the Church. In my mind it makes more sense that there should be a ton of members because the church is so true. The church's worldwide membership is pretty small compared to the rest of the world. But even of those members, most of my ward here have been around 60% or so inactive. This thought used to bother me for a long time up until a few months ago. During a Stake Conference the Stake President was talking about our inactive members and people who weren't there that night. And while he was talking I had the realization that there isn't anything else better that the world is offering. It would seem that since there is a vast majority of people who aren't involved in the church, there should be something better that everyone else is doing, that we're missing out on. But that is definitely not the case. It is very easy to see what other people are doing and it's pretty clear to me that that's not where lasting peace is. But because there are so many people out there who aren't involved, it just really makes me wish I could help them realize how important the Gospel is. This week we were talking to people at a park and no one was interested. I thought a lot about Alma 29 and read the chapter afterwards. I wish I could just make people wake up and see the Book of Mormon and Christ as they really are. So many people have a wrong idea of things. So I hope you are all following the call to share the Gospel, there was a great devo this week on it. It's cool to think about with all this stuff going on with the world and Ukraine, that the second coming is not yet. The Prophets and Apostles are still being guided by Christ. And with their foresight, they are telling us to continue sharing the gospel and continue sending out missionaries. 

I think that's all for this week. Quick shout out to the other Elder Wride who gets home tomorrow from the Dominican Republic tomorrow! Other than that I love you all very much and will see you later

Pictures:

1. There were a lot of pigeons in this tree. I was trying to scare them so they would fly around for a cool picture

2. I know it doesn't look cool. This was later when the birds were flying. I was trying to capture this big flock of birds flying more behind which would have looked cool. Buy I'm sharing it anyway

3-4. Zone Conference pics

Week 41 - Mountain Goats Raking

Hey Everyone, all is well here. This email is going to be long

1. Car Wash

2. Mountain Goats Raking 

3. The work

4. Spiritual thought - May 29th Sacrament Talk

1. We had a car wash activity this week with the young men. It was a good time. Some members were loaded with some sweet car washing gear like a power washer, and they got a whole water hose system and everything. They were doing it to raise money for the YM camp. I thought it was interesting that they decided to do the car wash for free, and then people could donate at a booth after getting dried off if they wanted to. I think they raised around 2k if I remember  correctly. But it was a good time. I got sprayed a lot by young men who couldn't properly handle a hose but it was ok. The cool air from that was actually kinda nice and I got a little trunky because it reminded me of swimming. And my family is at Park city swimming this week. But, it's okay. The soap we used smelled like banana Popsicles so it all worked out. But I just keep thinking about swimming. I also just put on sunblock for our P day activity and it just made me time travel back to when we put on sunblock for swimming. But it's ok

2. We had a service yesterday with a lady who had been in contact with Missionaries previously. She has this huge hill behind her house (There are a lot of hills here), and she wanted us to rake the dead weeds up there. I was so confused at first just because I'm like there's no way she's talking about that hill, but she was. It wasn't very fun. It was hot, and we were standing on this hill like mountain goats, trying to rake out these dead weeds or something. I also just really hate the heat and we were getting pretty cooked up there. So I was sweating, and my nose was acting up and getting runny so I was sneezing, and it was all just a mess. I was not having a good time, and was murmuring internally. It took 2 hours but we got the section of it done that she asked. There was still this other side of it but she didn't bring it up. I was kinda just hoping we wouldn't have to do it. We went over and talked to her after we were done and she opened up about a lot of stuff. She lives alone after the death of her mom, and has definitely experienced trauma in her life. She has a lot more work to do and was really grateful we came. She had this whole other section of it that we hadn't done and she didn't want to ask us to do it. In her own words, it was because she could tell we didn't "work on a farm back home". But as she talked about a lot of the things she has been going through I thought back to the chapters in Matthew that I've been reading. Specifically all the times the scriptures say that Jesus has compassion on others. I think I had read the end of Matthew 20 the night before. So, we offered to come again, and are going to be going over weekly. I felt, and still feel bad for murmuring, even though it was indeed not fun at all. But it feels good to be helping her. I'm sure the Savior did a lot for others that the natural man wouldn't want to. We know he didn't really want to perform the Atonement. But because of His love he does what is best for us according to God's will. So that was a cool learning experience this week.

3. The work is going pretty bueno. Our main person is part of a member family who's been meeting with Missionaries for 25 years. We had a good talk with her about a lot of stuff: Prayer, other religions having truth, and if it was good. Her main concern is that she doesn't want to commit because she's had really powerful experiences with other religions too, and so she feels like she's giving it up. But she has faith in the Church, she just likes other religions too. Our other friends are doing ok too. We had a meeting with our new friend William this week. We met him when we stopped by what we thought was an inactive member's home. They moved but we talked with him and went by later to teach the Restoration. It went really well and he said he'd get started on the Book of Mormon. That was on Wednesday and we haven't heard from him yet but we remain hopeful. Other than that things are going good. Brenda and Evert in my last area are getting baptized on July 9th is the plan. Since the mission is trying to Crack on gas because of gas prices I was worried I wouldn't be able to go. Elder Hodes had a baptism that he wanted to go to, but the APs said no because he wasn't on the program. I have learned from his misfortune and Elder Hatch is going to give me an assignment on the program so I get to be there. Mwahaha 

4. For my spiritual thought I decided to share my talk from May 29th. It was also in my last area. I finally typed it out on my phone (it was all on paper). I'll probably do my other talk next week . Disclaimer: I did edit some things as I was typing it out again, because I wanted to fix mistakes that bothered me, or just rephrase things to sound better. But it all has the same meaning as the original.

- My topic today is on "We can experience God's wonders if we have faith in Jesus Christ". I wanted to start by looking at Elder Soares talk from this past General Conference "In Awe of Christ and His Gospel". In his talk, Elder Soares defines wonder as "The sensation of emotion, awe, or amazement, common to all who wholeheartedly center their lives on the Savior and His teachings, and humbly recognize His presence in their lives". This awe and wonder truly is joyful. It is full of love and is accompanied by the power of the Holy Ghost, and is a natural result of centering our lives on Christ. One of my favorite scriptures that defines this wonder is 1 Nephi 11:22-23. This is when Nephi is seeing the vision of the Tree of Life that His father Lehi saw. An Angel asks him to explain what the tree represents, and he responds saying "Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul". The love of God really is the most joyous to the soul. It is a joy that the Lord wants us to have. It gives us love and strength to serve Him and others, and is central to our conversion and discipleship. 

- Later in Elder Soares's talk he warns about spiritual apathy, which he defines as something we experience when we "take the Gospel for granted, lose our excitement for the gospel, and as a result, distance ourselves from God". I would like to share my own experiences with spiritual apathy. Being raised in the church, the gospel is something I have been taught my whole life. But I wanted to know if what I was being taught was true. I wanted to know if the Book of Mormon was true, and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. While I can say that this desire was genuine, I did not take the initiative to gain a testimony. I did not work for it. I had read the Book of Mormon around 3x growing up, but my heart was not in it. I didn't study with intent, ponder the things I was learning, and I probably couldn't even tell you where I was reading or what I was learning. I had some testimony, and experienced the light of Christ. I had had sustaining experiences like receiving my Patriarchal Blessing and going to the temple for my Endowment. But I lacked faith and in wonder of Jesus Christ, and I definitely felt distant from God. Quite frankly it was a really pathetic state, and Elder Soares explains very well what it was like: I had taken the gospel for granted, lost my excitement for the Gospel, and as a result distanced myself from God

- This is basically where I was up until about 9 months ago when I got set apart as a Missionary. It's almost like there's something special about serving a mission. When else is your life so structured to be centered on the Savior and His gospel? It was in this state that I began to invest in the Book of Mormon. I had been given 1 hour of personal study everyday, and could spend time in its words. It really felt like I was reading it for the first time. Little by little my testimony grew, and I realized how divine the Book of Mormon was. It was physical evidence that I could hold in my hands to know if the church was the church of Jesus Christ. This new environment and perspective also brought new challenges. These challenges made the Book of Mormon a refuge. I was humbled and turned to its words for answers to my questions and struggles. As I learned I ruled out the possibility of Joseph Smith being the author, and knew it was the very word of God. There was no other explanation for how it came to be and for the Spirit that came with it. I gained a strong testimony of its truthfulness. The scriptures and stories filled me with joy. I cannot adequately express the way I felt reading about the Saviors visit to the America's in 3 Nephi. I learned more about His sacrifice and redeeming love. The Book of Mormon really is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. 

- Before I continue, I would like to share a quick personal testimony of Missionary work. I have never had a more rewarding or challenging 9 months. It has brought me so much light and I can feel joy everyday in the work. If anyone missed the emphasis from General Conference, or if you need another reminder, I would like to share my testimony of the importance of Missionary work. I promise that participating in this work will be one of the greatest things you'll ever do. In every mission call, the First Presidency promises: "Greater joy and more blessings than you have yet experienced await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children". I promise and can testify from my own experience that this is true. The blessings from serving the Lord are real, and I invite you all to serve when and where you can. Along with that, I would like to invite every able young man to prepare to serve a full-time mission. 

- Sorry, I just wanted to say that. I'll now go back to my topic. Alongside gathering Israel, there are many things that fill us with the Lord's awe and wonder. These things include attending the Temple regularly, studying the scriptures and words of living Prophets, and sincere prayer towards Heavenly Father. Brothers and Sisters we will experience spiritual droughts in our lives. Some of you are experiencing them now. But in these times remember that the root word of disciple is discipline. When you do not feel the joy of the Gospel or love of Christ please do not slow down. Keep trying, praying and doing your best. Do not deny yourself further light or love in any degree. Acting in discipline is an act of faith. And as we exercise this discipline the wonder of the Gospel will follow. Brothers and Sisters may we never lose the light and the joy of Jesus Christ. During darker times I pray we continue to have the Humility and discipline to do what is right. I bear my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, that President Russell M. Nelson is the Lord's prophet today, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's New Testament church restored. The light of these things are real. As Alma said in Alma 32:35 "Oh then, is not this real? Yea because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good; because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good". The light of the Restored Church and Gospel are real and discernible, and they are freely available to us. I bear my testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the very Savior of the world. And I say these things in His name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sorry this email is so long. You make me happy if you read it all. I hope you all are doing well and would love to hear from any of you. Love you much!

- Elder Wride

Pictures:

1. Temple trip this morning

2. Temple trip pt. 2

3. A member we visited has a house on a really big hill

4. Car Wash. The Elders Quorum 2nd counselor did me dirty. He called "Elder!", in the middle of my intense scrubbing for a picture. I turned my head instinctively 

without having the reaction time to give a better smile.

Week 40 - Outhouse on the Hill

Hello from Lakeside California! Hope you are all doing fabulous.

1. Lakeside and Outhouse on the Hill

2. Maggie

3. Spiritual thought

1. Lakeside is definitely a unique area. It reminds me of the college area in some ways. The people are interesting. The night before transfers we were at a member lesson at my last area. When I told them I was going to Lakeside the dad said "The toothbrush must've been invented in Lakeside. It would explain why it's called a toothbrush instead of a teethbrush". I haven't really had any super weird interactions but I've seen some interesting people. Nothing too noteworthy though. There was a man yesterday who was having a good time chasing pigeons at the park. He was probably on drugs. The reason for the title of the talk is stupid but it's the best I got right now. Basically there's a lot of hills in the area which is really cool. It feels like we're kind of enclosed around mountains and hills. Our apartment is next to this hill that has a tiny building on it that I don't know what it is. But it's been my landmark for where the apartment is as I'm getting oriented to the new area. I have just decided that it's an outhouse. My new comp is Elder Hodes. He's kind of a weird dude but he gets stuff done which is good. I guess he's just an awkward guy. The poor man dropped his drink at Panda express today too.

2. Maggie is one of our friends that I met this week. They haven't been able to get a lesson with her in a while. We talked about the Book of Mormon and it went well. I have been more anxious than usual to bear my testimony with people, so it felt really good being able to talk about the Book of Mormon because there are not very many people that want to hear it. We read the introduction with her and she said she's open to it being true, and we invited her to read and challenge it which she said she would do. It's so funny though because she's literally exactly like Dory from Finding Nemo. I don't know how to explain it. But she kind of looks like Dory if she was a real person, and just has that demeanor. 

3. I gave another talk this Sunday in the new ward. It's what I get for asking the Bishops 2nd counselor for a lesson. I was planning to have it included for my spiritual thought, but it's all written out on paper and I don't have it with me to type it out. I'll include it one of these weeks. I'll also include the talk I gave May 29th which also isn't typed out yet. But those are 2 backup spiritual thoughts for the future I guess. For today, I'm just going to bum off the one I made on facebook a few days ago. I'll add a few more details. In Moroni 7:48 it says: 

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen"

I really like this verse and this chapter in the Book of Mormon. I've been studying and thinking a lot about Charity and what it means. My favorite part is when it says "when he shall appear we shall be like Him", and "be purified even as he is pure". The pure love of Christ is the defining attribute of Christ. And when we do what the verses say earlier, to pray with all the energy of our hearts, we can be filled with this love. And it is purifying to us. True and pure love removes all feelings of despair, sorrow, guilt, anger, or any form of wickedness or ungodliness. I can't really comprehend the kind of love the Savior has. In my experience some of the closest things I can compare it to include the love I have for Him, my family members, friends, etc. Back in the MTC we had an experience called "Go and Do". Basically we were given like 2 hours to learn about the Love of God in silence. It was really cool. I was in one of the rooms in the new buildings and I was studying, and praying, trying to feel or understand God's love. It was hard because I didn't feel like I was getting anything. I decided to take a break and listen to some music. One of my favorite songs is "Consider the Lilies". I put on headphones and just tried to clear my head. It was nice and part way through the song, it says "Consider the sweet, tender children Who must suffer on this earth. The pains of all of them He carried from the day of His birth". I started crying a little because I was a little bit homesick at the time. I was thinking about my family back home and those little kids that are dear to my heart. I thought about how much I love them and want the best for them. And in that moment, I really felt how much more God loves us. How the love I feel for them is not comparable. It was really cool. And just writing this email now, I am just noticing the second part that says "The pains of all them He carried from the day of His birth". That's so cool thinking about the Savior's love for us. I love you all and am grateful for all your support.

Anyway, I am doing well. It's weird how much I love doing missionary work at the same time as not wanting to. I can't explain it. It feels good, but I'm also still internally not wanting to work a lot of the time. It's better than before, where I knew what I was doing was good, but I didn't really feel the joy of it. So I was pretty much running on grit. Now it's easier but still takes discipline. I hope you are all doing well and thanks for checking in. Love you all!

- Elder Wride

Pictures:

1-3. Church pics

4. Outhouse on the Hill from our apartment

5. From the park we proselyte at

6. Got this text this week too. It's because I hit a car like 7 weeks ago. If you want to see it, it was the morning I sent Week 33 - "I Will Kill You". I haven't driven since voluntarily, and I don't think it's necessary to confiscate my tiwi card. It's already deactivated. It makes me feel like a criminal or something.

Week 39 - Kid 13

It may not seem that cool, but 13 times 3 equals 39

1. Transfer News

2. Kid 13

3. The Marshalls

4. Brenda and Evert

5. Spiritual thought: Prayer

1. We had transfers today. I am leaving Otay Lakes and am now in the Lakeside ward. To give a brief run-down, here are all my areas thus far. I served in Poway for 6 weeks (1 Transfer), and then got moved to the College area around SDSU and was there for 3 transfers. I then spent 2 in Otay and am now in Lakeside, so this is my 4th area. I thought it would've been kind of cool to get transferred to being a Zone Leader with one of my other former comps, but didn't really think it would happen. And then on Transfer Doc Sunday, we got a call from President Gimenez during a lesson. And President only calls you on T-doc sunday for 2 reasons: 1 You're training a new missionary, or 2- You're becoming a ZL. I thought it might actually happen for about 15 minutes. We talked to him after the lesson and he told us Elder Hatch would be training. And I got demoted back to Junior Comp, which is ok. My new comp is Elder Hodes and he seems like a cool guy. He said when he first saw I was his new comp, his old comp said "Elder Wride? That's the guy who hit a car!" Yes, at the last transfer meetup I hit a car 6 weeks ago, and apparently people won't forget about it for a while. It got brought up at least 3 other times today while we were at transfers.

2. It isn't really my news, but in case anyone didn't know, my Mom had a new kid last Tuesday! Her name is Katharine Wride. I got to call on Tuesday night which was nice and got to be there. However, the family was pretty distracted so you could say I wasn't completely there. But it's awesome. A lot of members found out and I appreciated all the congratulations from them. Mom really is a powerhouse. 

3. On Sunday we had a visit with the Marshalls who are an inactive family. It's pretty much just the Mom and the Dad but they're awesome and super friendly. I'm not 100% sure how they got baptized though because they don't know a lot. Last week when we were there they asked us about what temples were for, so we showed them the Washington D.C. tour video. They also needed a refresher on a lot of principles and are basically investigators. I think they're inactive just because of all the commandments we have like tithing, word of wisdom, etc. They got baptized some years ago, but went inactive shortly after. But we've had like 3 visits with them and they've always been friendly with missionaries. I'm not a super social person, and don't always enjoy being around people, but this couple were genuinely fun people to be around and I'll miss them. On Sunday they were asking a lot of questions about home and it led us to watching the House video with them. They really liked it, so good job Ethan. I'm not sure how far we'll be able to go with them, but they're really cool people.

4. Also had my last lesson with Brenda and Evert yesterday. Their progression has been kinda slow but they're still in the right direction. They just don't remember a lot of things that we teach them. But I think they'll be able to be put on date soon. We read the story of the tree of life with them and it was really good. I hope to be able to visit them again one day, and that I'll be able to come down and see them if they decide to be baptized. It was kinda sad saying goodbye that last time but they're in good hands. I should've got a picture or something but I don't have one. I'll try again for their baptism or something

5. I'm running short on time, but I wanted to give a quick spiritual thought on prayer. Some months ago, I included in my email the section on Prayer in the Bible Dictionary. Since then and especially this last transfer I've really been trying to improve my prayers. I feel too often they're just a check the box type thing and my heart is not really in it. But something I realized is that prayer is a form of work. I still sometimes don't feel like praying and struggle to focus completely. But I really have been trying to pray to God with all the energy of my heart. It's been really cool to grow closer to God in that kind of way but it's hard to explain. What was really cool was one evening I was on my phone scrolling facebook. It was around 9:30 PM and I wanted to keep my night routine more edifying (That's also something I've been working on). So, I decided to put it away, right in my journal, and wind down for bed. I then went into the closet to pray and I have some post-it notes and papers on the wall that help me stay focused and make it more complete of a prayer. I didn't really feel like praying and kind of just wanted to go to bed, but I wanted to want to pray. So, I started by asking for strength and focus and gave a pretty long prayer. I prayed for a lot of things that I don't remember. Family, friends, investigators, ward members, myself, etc. I prayed that I would be able to receive the countenance of Jesus Christ and become more cheerful. I also prayed for strength to resist temptation, have the Holy Ghost with me, and probably a bunch of other things including a report of the day. It was just a prayer I put effort in. After I was just silent for a while, trying to listen for the Spirit to make it more of a conversation. No words came or anything like that, but I just felt really good inside. I felt like the Lord was grateful that I had put in effort to talk to Him. I can't completely describe it, but it felt really good. It was like God asked us to pray not for him, but for me. I should be the one thanking him for prayer and for my connection to Him. That was a really cool experience, and I have since then worked on putting more effort into prayer. My invitation to you all is to seek ways to improve your personal prayers and make them more meaningful. It really does fill us with the Love of God.

Anyway, I think that's all for this week. I love you all mucho!

- Elder Wride

Pictures:

1. Calling the fam to see the new baby

2. Another one

3. Finished the service from last week

4. Mission leadership for the Zone

5. Our district

6. Our Pinewood derby car for the activity that I'm missing out on tonight

7. Cute photo

8. I didn't know he was taking a picture this morning