Elder Wride in California: Week 39

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