Week 26 - Orthotic Devices

Hey All, this past week I hit 6 months! Feels weird and not quite real to be 1/4 of the way done. Also, it's apparently supposed to go even faster as time goes on...

1. Duolingo

2. Car Contacting

3. Orthotic devices

1. So I got Duolingo a couple weeks ago and it's been good trying to learn Spanish. I give credit to my junior high and high school years for bringing back a lot of simple words to my remembrance. In Duolingo they also have a leader board for whoever gets the most points. And as a Missionary, you don't have a lot of avenues to compete with others. So I just have done a lot of grinding on Duolingo. It's not even about learning Spanish anymore, it's just about making sure that Anna and Emily know their place (see image below). I plan to be in first place every week.

2. We have been encouraged to look for new and creative ways to find people. A new method Elder Tillman and I have developed is called Car contacting. Basically when you pull up to a red light, hold up a Book of Mormon and roll down the window to get their attention and then try and give a super brief pitch. Most of the time it's just like "Do you want a Book of Mormon? It'll change your life". We haven't had much success. Except one time some probably intoxicated college boys wanted one but they were a couple lanes down and we weren't able to get them one. But each Book of Mormon has a Restoration Pamphlet, contact info, church address and everything. 

3. A couple weeks ago I saw a Chiropractor to get my feet casted because I have some foot issue. Basically, I lean on the outside of my feet and it can lead to long term damage to walk like that. So, he is helping me to improve my walking performance with these little insole molds to wear in my shoe. And they came this past week in the mail! It does feel weird walking around a lot with them on, but it hasn't been painful at all which is good. The night they came in the mail I tried them on and it actually felt good. My feet were a little sore and it just felt like a foot massage because it hit all the right spots. I don't know if that last sentence made sense. But yeah I'll be wearing this for the rest of my life so that's exciting. But I'm actually super grateful to have these. I will now segway into my spiritual Thought which is related to this section. Basically, this past summer I got a summer job, from which I hoped I would be able to earn enough money for college, and maybe my mission. It was originally sales, so I wasn't sure how much money I could make. I was in sales for a whole month without a lot of success. So after talking with some leaders and my parents, I switched to technician work. I wouldn't make as much money as I could in sales, but I knew I would make money. Over the months I was worried I would not make enough money to be able to pay for school. I was working 12 hour days, 5-6 days a week and I felt like I was doing all I could. I wanted to quit and go home, because I didn't see the point if I wouldn't even have enough money afterwards. Through one Sacrament meeting I was able to change my mindset. I don't remember what the speaker was saying but the phrase that hit me was "Trust in the Lord". That really stuck with me. I was doing what I thought was right, and what was in my control, so I just needed to leave it to the Lord. So yeah. I think I may have explained it better in my farewell talk, but whatever. But I am still going through this process of being like "hopefully I'll be able to avoid student loans, because right now money will still be pretty tight after the mission. The reason this relates to the Chiropractor is because I feel like this is the Lord watching out for me. The doctor (who is a member) talked about praying and trying to figure out what to do with me. The original whole program they offer costs $6k. I definetely could not pay for that myself, even though my parents would probably take care of a lot of it, if not all of it. But this doctor decided to give me these devices for free. I did not pay anything. The only thing I had to get was new shoes. This is kind of where the spiritual Thought ends, but if anyone wants more details I'm going to continue typing. But if you want to stop reading here is a good place to do it. But I'm just so grateful. To explain all the details, I ran into this doctor because I went to a members home to give the dad a blessing (Dr. was the grandfather). And the Dr just happened to be there and they were supposed to leave earlier than they did but they stayed. I think it's also cool that they even noticed that I needed help, because I didn't know. I knew it probably wasn't good for me to lean out like that, and my shoes didn't look well, but I figured it wasn't a big deal. But he noticed my shoes were worn, checked my feet out and then said i could come by to his office. Then, when I got there he casted my feet and gave them to me for free. It's just so cool. There are so many other variables that play in: me being in this area, me going to the house because we weren't planning on it, it was sort of a last minute thing, etc. I'm also so glad I was able to get this problem addressed at 18 years old, and not further down the road where more damage would've been done. I just really feel like the Lord is watching out for me. 

Anyway, sorry for the long thought, but it's a good one I think. I hope you all had a good week. Shoutout to my sister Melodie who just completed her mission from Brazil . Also, sad news, this is my last week in College Area. No its not YSA, it's just the family ward around SDSU. They're changing the name. But I have been here since November and it's been a really good area.

I love you all so much!

- Elder Wride

1. Duolingo

2+3. My old shoes (angles)

4+5. Orthotic devices (Angles. They're like bullet proof. The lump at the top is the most uncomfortable)

6. Clerks office doing some media work

7. District

Week 25 - True Respect

Hey everyone, this week's been pretty good. But time is just so weird.

1. Russia and Ukraine: Alma 35

2. True Respect

3. Elder Tillman

4. Spiritual Thought

1. Even though we don't pick up on all news as missionaries, word still gets around. We heard about Russia invading Ukraine from a friend this past week and it did sound pretty bad. The next morning Elder Tillman was talking more about how crazy things are going on in Ukraine. It's sad. We started talking about how crazy it would be if we got sent home to go to war. Later that morning as I was thinking about it, I got to Alma 35 in my Book of Mormon Reading. I got a little shook when I read verse 14: "And Alma, and Ammon, and their brethren, and also the two sons of Alma returned to the land of Zarahemla, after having been instruments in the hands of God of bringing many of the Zoramites to repentance; and as many as were brought to repentance were driven out of their land; but they have lands for their inheritance in the land of Jershon, and they have taken up arms to defend themselves, and their wives, and children, and their lands". I was like uhhh, does this mean something? Nothing has happened yet. And for now, we will proceed to do Missionary work as usual.

2. I just wanted to record this moment. Elder Tillman and I were street contacting talking to a guy. And while we were talking this black guy, who likely was intoxicated, comes up behind me. He grabbed my left shoulder so I turn to him. He gives me a firm handshake with a little, confident, grin, and then continues walking down the street. This was all while Elder Tillman was talking to this other guy we approached. But it was just so awesome. I have never felt so respected. 

3. For all my companions I try to introduce them by pointing out the weird things about them. I realize I never gave Elder Tillman a formal introduction. He has been my companion for a month now and things are going good. He's from Texas and turned 19 a couple weeks ago. It's harder to describe a guy like Elder Tillman, but here are some random things: He likes to scream randomly sometime, or just likes being a loud person in general. He is also the designated driver so I don't always feel safe. Sometimes when I'm backing he likes to go in reverse really fast and thinks it's funny when he almost hits me with the car. I have come closer to being hit than I'd like. So a lot of the time I'll just stand on the curb or somewhere he can't drive. These all sound like bad things, but I need to get out the weird things about my companions to someone. He is a good guy, has a strong testimony and a good work ethic, I just may end up in the Hospital, or in a Let's Get Real segment of Safety Zone. 

4. Today's Spiritual thought comes from Alma 36, the same day I read Alma 35. This is when Alma is talking to his son. My favorite verse is verse 5: "5 Now, behold, I say unto you, if I had not been born of God I should not have known these things; but God has, by the mouth of his holy angel, made these things known unto me, not of any worthiness of myself". I don't think I would have a testimony of this Gospel and be a Missionary if I didn't grow up in the circumstances I did. If I hadn't been born in the church and was given the opportunity by missionaries or something, I probably would've done what a lot of people do and brush it off because they've got other things going on. But because I went on a mission and was given the time and resources I feel like I was able to realize how important the Gospel is. So I feel like I have been born of God like this scripture says: "Not of any Worthiness of myself". In the past I've felt bad for being unwilling to invest in the scriptures because I just never made it a priority. I needed to be given the time as a Missionary to really invest in the church. Which that's why I'm so grateful for the environment of the Mission, and for being in the true church. 

Sorry I don't know if the spiritual Thought made sense. I don't have much time and I'm writing it while multitasking, but you should be able to get what I mean.

Love you all! Sorry I didn't take any pictures this week

- Elder Wride

Week 24 - Money Family

Hello all, hope everything is well. This week has been good. They're going by so fast right now, this transfer is halfway over already.

1. Zone Conference

2. Money Family

3. Balboa Park

4. Adams Ave

1. We had Zone Conference this week which was really good. It was really cool that it answered all of my questions or major things I've been struggling with. The different presentationts went all over the place from Prayer and the Spirit, Preach My Gospel, working with members, etc. Also, we don't have to wear masks anymore! It's still advised, but not required if you're vaccinated. I just don't like wearing masks while street contacting. 

2. We met a cool Family this week. They're the Mwenyemali's, a family of 9 that are refugees from Africa. They're super cool and were meeting with Missionaries before covid, but they haven't been taught since. We went over and played a board game on the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. The kids were having fun and it was good. But their last name Mwenyemali actually means Money which is kinda cool.

3. It's kind of stupid how many things don't end up happening in this area. People coming to church, lessons, etc. One lady this week said she was coming to church and we confirmed with her the morning of, but then she didn't come. After she asked if we could meet in Balboa Park which is pretty close to the Zoo but out of our area. And it was packed. We got there an hour before we found her because of parking and traffic. It was terrible. But, we met her and it was a good visit. The point is, I do not want to live in San Diego. The weather is nice, but it's not worth how expensive it is to live here, and the amount of people. In my opinion.

4. We've been street contacting a different street for this week and it hasn't been fun. It's in a part of our area called Kensington, and there's this street Adams Ave which has a lot of people. But it's a more wealthy area and the people are not open at all to talking with us. We've been street contacting there a couple times but we'll probably go back to University and do both or something.

I don't know, something feels wrong with my weeklys. For the past couple weeks I haven't been able to figure out what to write about because the weeks and the days mesh together. I also can't think in movie or videogame analogies anymore. I guess it's just an effect from the Mission. But I love you all and hope you have a great week!

- Elder Wride

1-3. Zone Conference Pics

4. Me

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