Elder Wride in California: Week 67 - God Takes Care of Us

Hello There! Hope everything is well.

First, here are some pictures from the temple last Tuesday

And the Brad Wilcox Zone Conference from last week

For finding this week we've done a good amount of Brownie deliveries which has been good. Mostly for our friends and some other members. My favorite delivery was to our friend Jonathon. He's just super happy and was very grateful. Said we might be able to meet sometime after Christmas. We've also still been doing a good amount of Tracting

Had two exchanges this week. One with Elder Hansen who is an Elder in the District. We're actually both from Sandy and when we first met we kind of had a feeling we knew each other. Haven't figured it out after 10 or so weeks. This was from a Christmas party we went to.

I also had exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Encinitas. I was with Elder Whetstone who was actually my seatmate on the plane ride here to San Diego. It was a good exchange and we got a lot of good work done. My highlight of that day was dropping off a Christmas tree to some members of the ward. Another member bought the tree and wanted us to deliver it to them because he wanted to remain anonymous. The couple has been going through a lot of challenges. One of them is going through chemotherapy for I think the 5th time over many years. They were super grateful. Even though I didn't know them well and it was my first time meeting them I still just felt a lot of love for them. It was awesome.

So, last week I included in my email that I crashed on my bike and broke the seat. When I first came into the field the mission took care of repairs, but the vehicle coordinator messaged us back and said that I would be responsible for it. I was concerned and didn't know how much of the bike seat would need to be replaced. If it was just the saddle, or if the whole seat post and up. From a quick google search it looked like a seat post and saddle replacement could be $100-$200. I was worried about it most of the week and was thinking back to some of the thoughts I've shared about the Lord looking out for me. I remember earlier this year when I needed to get Orthotic devices, which were very expensive. The Lord was looking out for me and Doctor Krage gave them to me for free. I've been blessed by many other members with mostly food, but also new shoes, and other needs me or my companions have had. This time, however, I doubted for a bit. It wasn't even that much money, probably the least out of the other things I've mentioned, but I still felt a little upset. The Rancho Carrillo ward Elders then told me that they had an unused bike saddle that I could have. Yesterday, as I tried to look at more of the damage, I figured out how to take the old saddle off and replace it and voila! It was all fixed! It was humbling and next time I will try to not be so quick to forget that the Lord can take care of even the little things. Just because he can, doesn't mean he always will, but it is important to be grateful when he does.

This kind of goes along with what I've been thinking a lot about, which is sight. Specifically, spiritual sight. In Ether 4:15 it says "rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind". I thought that the representation of being blind compared to a veil was really cool. I have felt so much sadness as I get further into the mission on the state of the world. I am surrounded by people who do not believe and their eyes are blinded to what the gospel really means and is. I know that is the case because I feel like my eyes were opened from coming on a mission. I feel like I have not understood what the gospel really is, and now that I know more, I struggle to help others to see. I like what the rest of the verse says: "mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel." I feel like these blessings I've been experiencing are only things we can recognize when we have faith. The Savior himself also said to the Nephites in 3 Nephi 19:35 "So great faith have I never seen among all the Jews; wherefore I could not show unto them so great miracles, because of their unbelief". It can be hard to have faith in things we cannot fully see, but it does not require perfect faith. The Lord just asks us to believe, and I believe that the things I have seen and experienced are witnesses that the scriptures are what they say they are.

Also, here are some fire pictures we took the other day