Week 23 - I Don't Have A Story

Hello. I'm sorry guys, I really have not figured out what to really write for this week.

1. Lesson at the Temple

2. I don't have a Story

1. Earlier this week we had a lesson with a lady named Tiashira. She's a really cool lady. We got in touch with her from some other missionaries who met her. She saw the Hawaii temple and was really impressed by it and had a very spiritual experience there. So when she got here she wanted to learn more and we thought it would be cool to have a lesson at the Temple here. She lives here so she's seen it before. What's really cool is that a lot of people here have seen the temple because it's just off the highway, so when we talk about it they're always curious. But it was a really good lesson. We taught about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She's super elect. As we were walking out she talked about going inside some day so that was cool.

2. I've been trying really hard to think of something story worthy. I don't know. Here are the 2 best things I got

- While street contacting we witnessed this homeless lady throw a soda can at some guy. It didn't hit him but it exploded a little bit. We did not talk to her as we walked by for our own safety.

- While street contacting the zone leaders pulled up out of nowhere (They cover Spanish speakers for our area do it makes sense). We were crossing the street and they were turning right and I thought they were about to hit us. But they drove over to tell us to not go down the street we normally go. There were some bashers on the busy street corner with a microphone reading from the Bible. They said they yelled at some lady telling her she was a sinner and stuff. Did not sound like a pretty situation so we decided to heed their counsel. Part of me wishes we did go over there so I would have another story for this week.

So yeah I think thats all. Note that both of the less exciting stories happened on University Ave. Fun stuff. So don't be worried that I'm not writing as much. I promise I am doing good. Just tired. The weeks fly by though. 

Love you all!

- Elder Wride

1. Went to the Temple this morning

2-3. Got food for Elder Tillmans birthday (Subway is better) 

Week 22 - Still Here

Hello. This email may be pretty short because I don't really know what to say. I'm doing good, business is usual. 

Being in this area for the past 12 weeks, I think I kind of forgot how wild of a place this is. So, since Elder Hayes went home last week I have a new companion who has a fresh set of eyes eyes the area. And he's like freaking out how weird this area is. This area is pretty weird but Elder Hayes and I adjusted together to it. He compares it to this videogame called GTA. I don't know a lot about it, but from what he's explained it sounds an awful lot like this area. There does sound like there's a lot of bad stuff in that game so I don't recommend it. Unless it would be cool if you could play as a Missionary in that game and share the Gospel with people while trying not get killed by homeless people. It's just so funny to hear him mutter under his breath saying "This is unreal". We'll see like homeless people doing drugs, we saw an old lady riding a pink motorbike, and people J walking in wheel chairs or with walkers. I feel like I'm not explaining it super well, you just have to be here. The funniest thing to me is when we were at an auto shop getting an oil change when this guy in a blue audi pulls up. He walks out and he's wearing like a blue and white, matching jacket and sweats or something. And Elder Tillmans like "Oh my gosh, this is literally GTA. Just give that guy a gamertag". I died. I don't think it sounds funny to you, but it was. 

 It is fun to walk down the street and talk to people. One inside joke was while we were crossing the street like 3 black dudes are walking across the street from the opposite end, and one guy is playing music with his speaker or something. Anyway, the leader I guess you could say, as he's walking by says with an accent, "A see ya'll doin yor thang". I don't know why but that's just so funny to us, I'm not sure how it sounds to you all.

So yeah, I have no motivation to write anymore so I'm going to stop here. Have a good week though

- Elder Wride

1. Us at the church 

2. Dropping Elder Hayes at the airport. This was from last week bit I didn't have a picture yet.

Week 21 - Elder Christofferson!

Hey Guys! This week was pretty good. The end of a 7 week transfer.

1. Transfer news

2. Temple and Spiritual Thought

3. Mormon Batallion 

4. Elder Christofferson

1. Got transfers today. Elder Hayes left this morning and will be released later tonight which is weird to think about. My new comp is Elder Tillman who we knew each other in Poway and came out at the same time. It's weird because I'm not District Monkey anymore! For my whole mission I've been District monkey, which I should probably explain. It means your the District Leaders companion. So yeah now I'm just Junior Companion but I'm still in the same area. 

2. I was not able to attend the temple this transfer. Elder Hayes Temple recommend expired which he didn't realize earlier. And President doesn't start Temple recommend interviews until the end of the transfer. So, Elder Hayes got a new Temple recommend for his departing interview after out last P day was over. Which was just in time for  Elder Hayes to go to the Temple on Friday for departing activities. But, since our last P day had passed and I'm not a departing missionary I wasn't able to go. Kind of lame, but Im ok. What was cool was being able to have Personal Study on the temple grounds while they were inside. I read in Alma 18 where King Lamoni just heard about Ammon defending his sheep and feeding his horses. I liked verse 10 which says "Surely there has not been any servant among all my servants that has been so faithful as this man: for even he doth remember all my commandments to execute them". It may seem like kind of a weird verse to pick, but I really liked it. I compared it to Heavenly Father and keeping his commandments, and I asked myself if I could be as faithful in keeping God's commandments, as Ammon was for King Lamoni. To please the Lord by remembering and executing all His commandments. I really liked it. Anyway, so yeah, we'll go to the Temple early this transfer.

3. The 175th Anniversary of the Mormon Batallion was this week, and we Elders got to March in it. Something super exciting is that Elder D. Todd Christofferson came to San Diego for the event! I've known he was going to come since like November, and I've been super excited. Even more so because, for those of you who don't know, Elder Christofferson was in my ward for many years so I was really excited to see him again. Well Saturday morning we went to the Historic site in Old Town and got dressed up and we were told we'd be given fake guns, which was a big motivator for me. But as my luck would have it, we were given Shovels. They said they didn't like the look of Missionaries with guns, so it made sense, but still. Eventually they ran our of Shovels so most of the Missionaries I think had guns. I was not pleased. While we were marching people were confused as to why we had Shovels and we didn't know either what we would do with them, but whatever. So we marched around and got to this spot where Elder Christofferson was! We had a little thing there and then Elder Christofferson gave us a motivational talk and we were off. I don't remember who I represented in the March, but something cool was two guys from my Distrcit were Levi Savage from 17 Miracles, and Ephraim Hanks from Ephraims Rescue. It's cool that they were also in the Batallion.

4. After the Batallion Elder Christofferson came and spoke at our church building. It was really good and our friend Taryn was also able to come! To be honest, I just really wanted to go up and say hi to him because he knows me and it would be really cool to be recognized by him because he moved like 3 years ago I think. Anyway, so he gave a talk and after he came down to shake people's hands. When he came around I said something like : "Elder Christofferson! It's Elder Wride from the Granite Ridge Ward!". He was like "Oh really? You made my day. Tell the folks I said hello". It was so awesome. That was the entirety of our conversation as he had things to do and other people's hands to shake. But it was just really good to see him again. I'm currently hunting for a picture of him shaking hands because there were a bunch of guys taking pictures so it's somewhere. I'll include it one of these weeks if I find it. But him coming out to San Diego at the same time as I was here, and being in one of the few wards that was allowed to go. We also couldn't go unless we brought a friend and Taryn was barely able to come it felt like. There were just so many things that lined up that made me really feel like I was meant to be here.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for this week I think. Hope you all are doing splendid and send me an email if you wish!

- Elder Wride

1. Shovel Company

2. Elder Christofferson at the event

3. Artsy temple Picture 

4. Our District

5. Ward Mission Leader

Week 20 - Homeless Guy II

 Howdy there

This week has been fine. It was pretty eventful.

1. Chiropractor

2. Homeless Guy II

3. Update on things

1. This week we went to a member's home to give a blessing. Before the blessing, the grandpa of the family points out my shoes are a little run down, (image below). And it seems that my feet lean outwards. He's a podiatrist and he asked if I had foot pain and other stuff. I said no. He said "Want to bet? Just give it time". I was like haha what? Not the best time to transition to giving the blessing because I was just thinking about if my feet are ok the whole time. But we gave the blessing and shared a thought. And after, he asked me to take my shoes off. I felt a little uncomfortable because before I knew it, I had my shoes off, with my feet on this 50ish year old man's knees. And he was feeling around using his podiatrist knowledge to figure out my feet. Basically, I don't know what it's called, but whatever I have is not good for my knees and feet, and he's a doctor who has these things to put in your shoes to fix it that are like a cast for your foot and all that. He said I have one of the worst cases that he's ever seen.  But no, foot and knee problems are really scary. A lot of people down here have issues and it's really sad. So, I'll be talking with them to see.

2. I'm grateful to be alive right now. I talked about this homeless guy a couple weeks ago who got mad at me or something. Well, I said I was ready to fight him and I was, but I had another experience this week with a different homeless guy. While Elder Hayes and I were walking down University Ave we're talking about how we want to be persecuted like in the Book of Mormon videos. Most people see us and will kind of brush us off, but we wanted a little action or something like that. Anyway, while we were walking we saw a friend we met a couple weeks ago named Larry. We had tried to call him but he never picked up. He said his phone hadn't been working but he really wanted to talk with us. Larry is in his 60s and can't walk very well. He sits in this walker chair thing. So while we're talking there's this random homeless guy shouting stuff. We walked by him earlier but didn't talk to him because he didn't seem alright in the mind. Anyway, as we were talking to Larry the guy starts rolling around on the ground in the alleyway behind Larry. We're like Ok, that's nice. We talked with Larry for a while and when we were getting close to wrapping up, the guy stood up and started yelling at us. He's walking toward us, coming behind Larry and is shouting something about how we're Satan. Then he grabs Larry around his neck, not quite choking him, but almost. Larry deals with street stuff and starts to fight back. The homeless guy hits him on the head and we intervene. The homeless guy has an extension cord thing and is yelling at us. Saying we're Satan and to F off. So yeah. We're standing there with Larry trying to make sure he doesn't get hurt because he's a pretty old dude. The whole time I was just like I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to fight this guy, he was kind of a big dude. But, if it came to it I was willing to defend myself and my boys. Although we would've gotten hurt really badly. Some cops drove by, and we called them, but they didn't end up coming over. There are just so many problems here I guess. So, after a while one of the homeless guy's old friends, I think, came and was able to calm him down and we left with Larry. Larry met some of his other good friends so we were able to leave him with them. But man, that was crazy. I was shook for the rest of the day. That kind of hate and anger makes me sick to my stomach. It's just awful. Definitely one of the more crazy experiences out here. Larry said we need people like you out here which was nice for him to say. It's a pretty crazy world. Elder Hayes said that was one of his craziest experiences being out 2 years. To be fair, a lot of his mission was during covid, but still. It may not sound so crazy when you realize it was just some random homeless guy, but yeah. 

3. Things are going fine. Our people struggle the most with keeping commitments to read the Book of Mormon, come to church all of that. Our main progressing Person is still Taryn. She hasn't been able to come to church but really wants to. Our next lesson with her is gonna be about the Word of Wisdom so that will be fun because she smokes a lot. Also, Isaiah, the guy I gave a blessing to, is doing a lot better! We haven't seen him yet but his mom told us he's been doing way better the past week or so. So that was awesome!

I think that's all for this week. Stay tuned for next week because it's going to be a good one. But I love you all!

- Elder Wride

Pictures

1. Zoom lesson didn't show up

2. Disappointing realities of Missionary work

3. Visited a friend of Elder Hayes today

4. President Gimenez poked me on Facebook

Week 19 - Iceland and Hot Tubs

Hello There

This week's been alright. I said last week I got into the groove of things, which is true, but I just feel more tired right now. To be honest, I'm convinced it's because I got a haircut this week. Diligence and Patience are like my 2 least favorite Christlike attributes.

1. Iceland and Hot Tubs

2. My Mental State

3. Taryn!

4. Spiritual Thought

1. So if it's okay, I'm just gonna go off for a second. Iceland is really cool. Like the geography and landscape just looks awesome. What really got me wanting to go was that scene in Secret Life of Walter Mitty where he's skateboarding. I also want to fo somewhere where it's snowing while I'm in a hot tub. That's all I wanted to say for that. Because, just last week people sent me emails like "Good job! You figured it out". And it seems lame to start talking about how cool Iceland is right after that.  Bit wven though I like Iceland, I still am still a Patriot 

2. My brain still doesn't work. 3 examples solely from today. 1 - While we were driving to the store we came to this light where it had just turned yellow. We were going to turn left, but the Left arrow was red. Anyway, I thought I was able to turn if I did it fast enough, and it didn't register that it was a red light for me. Don't worry, I realized in time and we were fine, but it scared Elder Hayes for a good minute. 2 - We were doing laundry, putting our clothes in the dryer from the washer, which were opposite from each other. So I'm throwing my clothes into the dryer, because it's door is sideways. And while doing so, I get confused. I think the dryer I'm putting clothes in is one dryer over, so I just throw my clothes at the dryer next to it which had the door shut. My clothes fell on the floor. 3 - I left my Debit card in the laundry room which I guess is a more common thing, because I just forgot it, but if Elder Hayes wasn't watching my back I would be in trouble many times. Let me know if any of you have any tips for helping my brain register things again after being scarred from Missionary work.

3. The works going along well, we have our areabook once having like 100 investigators down to like 30 people that we're actually teaching which was good to be able to filter through all of that over the past 10 weeks? However long it's been. One highlight is that our best progressing Person, Taryn, who I think I've already talked about, wants to be baptized! We didn't talk about it a whole lot, but we are going to next time we see her tomorrow. She said she's ready for change and it's been really awesome to see how much she's been growing the past week or so. She still has some things we'll have to go through, smoking is the biggest one, but it's still exciting. 

4. Sorry I don't think I've been great at including Spirtual thoughts, I'll try to get better. Today I just want to talk about the Temple. We only have 1 P day left in this transfer to go to the Temple. We were supposed to go last week but Elder Hayes Temple recommend expired so we're trying to set up an interview with President. Anyway, my testimony of the Temple has grown so much while I've been on a Mission. It like has worried me each time I go because I don't know what else giant thing God could reveal to me. So, alongside a lot of other people including the Prophet, I would encourage you to go to the Temple often. Thats all I wanted to say. Also, the San Diego temple is probably the best one

- Elder Wride

Sorry I didn't take pictures again really

1. Virtual Exchanges

2. Also, Brad Wilcox joined Zone Conference this week. He's top left

3. Meme 

Week 18 - My Brain is Malfunctioning

Bonjour

This week's been pretty good. I can confidently say I'm pretty into the groove of things. And I hit 4 months as a Missionary this past week on January 6th! Kind of snuck up on me. I didn't realize it until the day before.

1. My Brain is Malfunctioning

2. Guy with a Knife

3. Priesthood Blessing

4. Perfect Lesson

1. I think I've expressed it before that my brain doesn't appear to work as it once did, but I didn't have any examples. But I remembered some from the past couple weeks. Just to help you understand what I mean. Example one: We are on our way to the church, and I start backing the car out of our parking spot. I look over and see another RAV-4 and I panic for a couple seconds thinking we got in the wrong car. It's just such a stupid thing to get confused about, but I did. Example two: While in the car, I have a card to log into TIWI (The little device that makes sure you're driving safely and all that). And I have a little slot that I put my card in. Anyway, after logging in one day I try to put the card in the slot, but it doesn't go in, it just slides over the slot. And I thought I split the card in half for like a solid minute. I hope those 2 examples make sense. I feel so dumb after being confused or panicking or something. It's like my brain is malfunctioning.

2. We do a lot of Street Contacting which is fun. We still go pretty much in the heart of where we could get shot, but we haven't been in danger or anything. But we meet a lot of people there and see a lot of miracles. It's really awesome. But, fun story, yesterday we were walking and saw this guy digging through the trash. He called us over asking if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. So we explained and talked to him for a bit. A lot of homeless people will often just go on rants with us and we're just like ok. So this guys was talking about whatever, he's digging through someone's garbage to find food and then he finds this knife in the garbage and he's talking with his hands so he's just swinging it around. We're not sure if we'll get stabbed because you never know, but we didn't. He was nice enough talking about Jesus and everything. We just said ok and then he went back to his business.

3. I talked about our friend Isaiah in the Hospital last week I think. He came back and we went over to give the Priesthood blessing, and Elder Hayes asked that I give it. It was my first blessing of healing. Priesthood blessings are honestly pretty scary. The first one I gave was way scarier. It was right after I got set apart as a Missionary. The Stake president was like alright now you're gonna give your mom a blessing. I don't really remember what I said, but it was scary because it was in front of my Bishop and Stake President. And family and extended family. Anyway, I gave the blessing to Isaiah. Didn't really know what to say, but I guess that's kind of the point. Don't remember everything I said, but it was good. I think I almost passed out near the end. I was kind of nervous and zoning out, and my knees felt weak. It was okay though. It seemed to help him and everyone said it was good, so yeah.

4. One lesson we had this week was super Awesome. It was with a lady named Taryn, and it was like the perfect Restoration lesson. I was reciting the first Vision, explaining the Book of Mormon and the Spirit was so strong. It just all clicked for her and it was awesome to see and be a part of. She wanted us to come back asap.. What was weird, is I can't think of what I tried to do differently compared to other Restoration lessons. I think a big part of it was her end, her readiness for it. But other than that, I don't know why exactly the Spirit felt stronger. The Spirit really is a mystery to me. I try to get better at speaking by the Spirit, which I really felt I was in that lesson. I think a big part of it is trying to speak from the heart, instead of like a robot. Using a respectful and reverent manner of speaking in Para verbals and all that. And also, giving sincere prayer beforehand to be led by the Spirit. I think those are the big 3 things for me at least. It's just been something I've been thinking about. 

Well I hope everyone had a good week. Things have been good here. One other thing, we went to Soapy Joes today. Greatest car wash of all, but they're only in San Diego County. Also, sorry I didn't take many pictures this week. Love you all!

- Elder Wride

1. Exchanges

2. Talked with Elder Vickery who I miss

3. Soapy Joes is King

4. A Member who we were supposed to have a lesson with

Week 17 - It's A Girl!

Shalom Mi Amigos

We have entered 2022 which is my blackout year. For those if you who don't know what that means, 2022 is the year where I'm a Missionary for the whole year. Kinda crazy

1. New Baby Sister

2. Hospital Secret Codes

3. New Years Eve

4. Church - Johannas and Tima

1. So there is News! My Mom is expecting again! And it's a girl! Child Number 13! My Mom told me back in November, but we couldn't say anything because my siblings and extended family didn't know, but now it's out! It's exciting. Kind of sad I won't be there when she's born, but it's ok

2. This week we visited our friend Isaiah again. I talked about him a couple weeks ago, he has some mental health issues. He was in tbe hospital and it was an experience. When we went into that section of the hospital we were in this common area where there were other patients chilling. We talked to Isaiah for a while and here's the picture. So Elder Hayes and I are at a table and Isaiah is sitting with us. He's talking about how he's God and is fighting demons and put a Book called "Conversations with God" I think, on his head to shield himself from the demons. There's also 3 other people in the room. One guy us sitting on the opposite end of the table writing secret codes for us and names and addresses of people to contact to break him out of the Hospital. There's also another guy sitting away from the table smiling and chuckling at us? And a lady on a couch sleeping in a blanket. It was honestly really sad and we're not sure how to help him. We were there just to love him and talk to him. His family is inactive but working on coming back to church and all that good stuff. He's like 19 years old I think. Also, the guy that gave us secret codes, I'll include a picture if anyone can help me translate them, I'm not sure what to do with it.

3. Didn't realize New Years was coming up. It was funny when we were trying to set up lessons the first guy was like "Uhhh you want to meet Friday? That's New Years Eve". And we were like "Oh yeah". We still had a lesson with them but it was funny because we didn't even realize what day it was. But New Years was also pretty normal day. It was funny because for one of our visits we went to this complex. And everyone in the complex was out and had their little grills on just outside. There was also this kid lighting fireworks like really close to us in the middle of this crammed neighborhood thing. It was loud. He was doing it for attention and because it was funny because everytime he lit a firework, one of the ladies grilling yells "You ****ing IdIoT!". And all the dogs in every house start barking and everything. It was so funny. Also, I don't know what what stuff is called that falls from firework explosions but that also was falling on us. But we were unharmed.

4. Our goals for church attendance this week was to have 12 people to church. Normally we get like 2, but this week we got 7! What was kinda bad, was that we invited a bunch of people, and a lot of them we have never met before. So it was hard to see who came or not, because we also don't know all of our members. Anyway, we got there at 9 am for Ward Council. (Our church starts at 10:30). And that's when we met Johanas! We had only talked to him over the phone and he really wanted to come to church. He also invited his girlfriend Tima. She is in a scooter and has some sort of disability that also makes it hard for her to talk. But they are so sweet. During Fast and Testimony meeting I explained that anyone could go up and bear their testimony and he wanted to! He was very nervous and reciting what he wanted to say and then he bolted up there. He said something about how he's been with the Lord for one year and he's been with his girlfriend for one year and that's pretty much all I can remember. He pointed her out which was funny but she didn't like it. So, after his words, she decided she wanted to speak. But, she can't talk very well so she typed something up. And for Johanas it's hard for him to read. You should've seen him when we were singing Hymns, he just shoved his face right into the hymn book like an inch away to read the words. Anyway, so it was up to me to read it for her. I wasn't planning on bearing testimony, but it was sort of like the Lord was like "You thought you could get away with it". So, I walked up there with her tablet. Her testimony was pretty short, something along the lines of "Many of my family members tested positive and died because of covid. I pray that Jesus takes care of them". Not word for word, but that was the just of it. So, then I bore testimony. To lead off of that I fumbled a little bit about the importance of families, and then went back down. After that, I realized how trunky i probably sounded talking about my family up there, and now the whole ward will think I want to go home. Oh well. I'm not trunky. Sure, I love my family and home, but I don't feel any urgency to get there because I'm working over here. But I do really love my family. The sweetest thing for me is when someone we're teaching, or meeting with prays for them. Warms my heart. But anyway, that was fun. The rest of church it kinda felt like we were babysitting them. They were both hungry and we didn't have any food, but we found some mixed vegetables in the freezer. Heated it up and they ate it. That was for all of second hour. Also, the bus they rode to get here for her wheel chair wasn't coming until 3. It was 12:30 and we had to go. So we talked to our Bishop who is a stud and said he would be here for the next little while. We left and came back at 2:40ish and hung out with them until the bus came. So yeah, that was fun.

Anyway, hope you all are doing swell and having good times.

- Elder Wride

1. Street Contacting

2. The Secret Codes. Let me know if you can translate them

3. It's a girl pencil from Christmas package

4. Boba Fett Toy. As a Kid I would probably think this is really lame, but it's like the coolest thing ever right now

5. Meme. Sorry if I shared this before