Week 94 - From Brawley to Del Cerro

My friends,

The day escaped me today and I have lots to say but not enough time. Let's see how fast I can write this email 

So, to start I got transferred! It was a big curveball as I anticipated that I would stay in Brawley for the last 15 weeks of my mission, but I only spent 6 there (1 transfer), and I will spend my last 9 in the Del Cerro area!

Saying bye to the Valley was kinda hard and sad. I'll miss it and I'll miss the people there. It was just too short *sniff* Our last few days we visited some of our friends and members and said goodbye to them.

We had transfers on Friday and, as I said earlier, I am now back in San Diego. Our area is just north of SDSU, covering the areas around Lake Murray, San Carlos and Allied Gardens. It is a beautiful place. If I were to ever live in San Diego, this would be it. A lot of the people are nice, and or the most part it seems to be a modest and family friendly area. My new comp is Elder Alllen, and he's been out for almost 6 months. We are working good do far! 

I don't know exactly what it is, but since transfers I feel like I've really tried to take it to the next level as it comes to talking to people, being bold and working hard. I feel like I was always trying to do those things, but we're in that "sprint to the finish" phase. I go home August 25th! That's less than 2 months away! We need to make the most of every day and every moment.

I'll share one cool experience from yesterday. We were out making visits to "gray dots" or people in our areabook who used to be taught. They weren't there and I just randomly decided to knock a door across the street. I do this a lot while we're making visits to just try and talk to more people and it wasn't anything unusual. We knocked on the door and began talking to this lady, and brought up the Book of Mormon. She smiled and said that she teaches at a University, and that one of the professors there gave her a Book of Mormon as a end of school year gift. She thought it was so funny that we were now knocking on her door and talking with her about it. She has been reading and exploring it but declined meeting with us for now. However, we exchanged contact info and might be able to meet with her soon. We hope she reads with real intent!

For my last thought, I wanted to share some things I've learned recently. I've been trying to read the Old Testament over the last few weeks and would like to finish before my mission ends. I'm 10% of the way there, and it is by no means an extensive study, but a run through, just to understand more of the basics more clearly. 

- The Abrahamic Covenant and Gathering of Israel are big themes in the first books of the Old Testament. Whenever the church talks about the promise to Abraham for some reason I always figured that it was just a handful of scriptures that mentioned it, but I felt like I just kept reading about it again and again through Genesis. It makes me wonder why we don't seem to hear much about this from the rest of Christianity.

- When Moses began putting together the Tabernacle, I thought it was cool that the Israelites all made sacrifices to put it together. It reminded me of how much work went into the Kirtland and Salt Lake Temples. Temples represent Sacrifice and it looks as though they have from the beginning. 

There was definitely more, but that's all I can remember right now. I'll have to share more as I go on I guess. I feel that a lot of us should study the Bible more than we have and I'm grateful for Come, Follow Me for that reason. I still have a lot to learn, but so far what I have concluded from my study of the Bible is that if the Bible is true, the church is true.

Love you all! I appreciate your love and prayers. God bless.

- Elder Wride

Week 93 - Some Last Milestones

Hello my friends

This week has been pretty good. It's really not that hot yet, only in the high 90s, low 100s. The locals are saying it should be in the 110-120s by now, but the Lord is sparing us for a season I suppose.

We do this service here in the ward where we put up flags for special days. We have done it 2x so far this transfer, on memorial day, and also on flag day. It is a fundraiser for the youth because the people we place the flags in pay to get it done year round and the money goes to the youth. We will do it again on the 4th of July. Here are some flag pictures:

 

When a missionary comes near the end of his mission, they also go through this course called "My Plan" . It is supposed to help missionaries transition home and is to be completed in the last 6 weeks of the mission. Considering that I have 9 weeks left, I don't know why they chose to send it now, but I got My Plan on Friday. We are hitting more and more of the last milestones a missionary has before he goes home.

We also have transfers coming up on Friday. We would originally have transfers today, but the MTC's are making a change, so the church is changing transfers to Friday worldwide. It is the first transfer that is going to be on Tuesday instead of Friday. So, we don't know exactly what the change is going to be, but I will probably stay here and get a new companion (He will probably be my last companion. Another milestone). We find out what the changes are on Wednesday. One of the Elders in my fourman, Elder De Osambela, is going to Peru on Thursday since he just got his VISA. We will miss him (He's the Peruvian looking one). But this transfer will be my last complete transfer! I will stay out for 3 more weeks after this transfer cycle, but this transfer I will be doing things like my departing temple trip, and departing dinner at the Mission home.

A lot of our friends are not being taught anymore, whether that be because they've lost interest, or have started ghosting us. We haven't been finding a lot of new people recently, but will keep at it.

I've been really enjoying my personal studies recently. Been studying the Book of Mormon (currently in Ether 12), the Old Testament (Just finished Exodus), and Jesus the Christ. It can be a little hard to match up the different timelines (reminded me of watching different Star Wars movies and shows and putting together the timeline), but I am enjoying it and learning a lot. One of the coolest things I have learned is how big of a thing the gathering of Israel is! When we talk about the promise made to Abraham, I guess I always assumed there was just one scripture or one comment about the promise because no other churches talk about it. But as I have been reading the Old Testament, it is cool to see how big the theme is of Israel, and how it will one day be gathered again. I haven't read the whole Bible yet (I hope to before my mission ends), but what I've read of the Old and New Testament so far leads me to conclude that if the Bible is true, then the church is true. I hope you all make time for gospel study. There is so much in life that causes us to be distracted and to harden our hearts, but a consistent effort of staying in the scriptures can keep our hearts soft, and our minds focused on the things that matter most.

Love you all! Thanks so much for all that you do.

- Elder Wride

Week 92 - Trip to San Diego

Hey Everyone,

This week went by really fast. Last Tuesday we woke up, went shopping, and were off to San Diego sometime in the morning. The whole zone went to San Diego for 2 reasons. 1) We had a Zone Conference on Wednesday in San Diego and 2) We wanted to go to the temple on our P-day to take advantage of the San Diego temple still being open. We typically go to the temple once a transfer, but since everyone in the valley is far away, we don't get to go at all. The temple is closing next month, and the mission decided to let us go as a last opportunity, as some of these missionaries have not gone to the temple at all or in a long time.

 

The temple was good! President and Sister Merritt came with us for the session, as did the Temple President and his wife. We went to the 4pm session which was different since we typically always go in the mornings. If it were up to me, we wouldn't have had the session at 4pm, because P-day ends at 6 which didn't give us enough time. After the session finished we realized it was past 6pm and we were late getting back to work. All of the companionships were assigned to work with missionaries in different areas in San Diego for the evening, and then we would spend the night in those missionaries' apartments. Elder Creasy and I went up to Mira Mesa and spent the night in the nicest apartment in the mission. It is on the same level as Marriott hotels and is often referred to as "The Great and Spacious Building" in the mission.

The next morning we had a Zone Conference with Elder Mark Bragg of the Seventy! He is the Area President for the North America Northwest Area, so he is in charge of San Diego, up to Alaska I think. He also gave a talk this past General Conference on Christlike Poise. But the Zone Conference was so good! I learned a lot and the spirit was so strong there. It is so cool to meet different leaders in the church. They are the best kind of people.

We drove home after that, and I think we got home sometime around 5 or 6pm for some missionary work. This week as a whole went by pretty fast, I think because of our trip to San Diego. It felt like a vacation since we were taking long drives and we spent the night in a nice new place (which we don't do) and we really only had Thursday-Monday this week for our missionary efforts. The week just felt different.

Our most progressing friend is still Yolanda. On Thursday we had a lesson with her about temples and we read the Book of Mormon with her. She really likes temples from what we have told her. She said that she knows all of what we are sharing is true and she was crying. She is such a great lady. We are still trying to get her to church, she just doesn't have what she considers 'church clothes' yet and she doesn't want to stand out. We've assured her that it doesn't really matter so much what she wears, and we'd love to have her there, but she wants to get more clothes first. Otherwise she is progressing well and could be baptized fairly soon. 

Some of our other friends are ghosting us, or not really progressing. The teaching pool continues to filter through people as we find new ones, and drop old ones that aren't ready. I suppose that it is less of a teaching pool, and more of a teaching river.

For my spiritual thought this week I wanted to share one of the many things that I learned from Zone Conference. Someone asked Elder Bragg about his calling as being a special witness of Christ. He said his calling is somewhat familiar to ours and he shared an analogy with us that I really liked. He compared a testimony and understanding of the gospel to a car driving in the rain. When it is very rainy, our windshield wipers go back and forth to help us have glimpses of the view on the road. When that happens we can see very clearly, but the rain comes back and inhibits our vision. It is similar to the gospel. When we're studying the scriptures or messages, engaging in prayer, attending the temple, etc., the gospel and the truth is so clear and it's amazing! The gospel is so true! But, with the way life is, we forget and get distracted. It is so hard to stay focused in this world, but if we exercise some discipline and continue on the path, it is so worth it! 

The gospel is true my friends. It is all so true. Stay on the path and keep the faith! I love you!

- Elder Wride

Week 91 - Windy and Less Eventfull Week

 Hello Everyone 

I don't have much to say for this week. It hasn't been a very eventful one. The main highlight would probably be that we were able to bring a member to our lesson with Yolanda! They both got along well and it was really cool to see their relationship start. Yolanda said she couldn't come to church this past week, but she'll for sure come next Sunday. She doesn't like making promises because she's afraid of breaking them, and she's never promised to come to church. We have high hopes for her.

Our other friends have kinda been in the same state. We haven't been able to meet with some of them for reasons unknown. 

We've been doing a lot of member work this week. We've gotten to know more of them by having lessons with them which had been good. We also have begun going through some ward lists given by our Elders Quorum President. We have a lot of members that are inactive, and we have a lot of information in our areabooks about if people have moved, if their phone numbers work, if they're open to visits or not, etc.

The weather's still moderate for this area: 90-100 degrees. Actually, this week it's been a little cooler in the 80s because it's been a windy week. We're working, and trying to find, teach and baptize. Some days it feels like we're just enduring. It can be hard to work with Elder Creasy, not because I don't love him or get along with him, but because we've been out the same amount of time. We do our best not to let the trunkiness get the better of us, but some days, it's a real battle. We always just have to say "Nevertheless" and gird up our loins.

I wanted to share a quick scripture for my spiritual thought. Nephi 28:10

"And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one".

I came across this scripture in my personal study and I really liked it. I've been thinking about being in the pursuit of happiness. The most obvious standard we should strive for when it comes to joy and happiness is God's happiness! In this scripture Christ us talking to the 3 Nephites who desire to live on the earth, serving others and sharing the gospel, until Christ comes again. Right now, that's been roughly 2,000 years! But the message I think this scripture gives is that if we want happiness, we should look to how God is happy. And God experiences a fullness of joy in fulfilling His purpose, which is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". Therefore, if we want to be happy, the best way is to engage in this cause. To love God, and to love those around us. 

Love you all

- Elder Wride