Week 36 - Karaoke Jam Sessions

Hey good people, it's been a pretty good week.

1. Jam Sesh pt. 1

2. Jam Sesh pt. 2

3. Work update

1. We had another lesson with Remigio this week. To refresh your memory, he is the Filipino man in the District, and is still being taught. He's pretty catholic, but all of his family are members and his kids are going/have gone on missions. Well this week we went by and while we were talking he brought up a Karaoke set. So, he shows us this probably 15 year old Karaoke set that he has set up with the TV and Luke 3 foot speakers and all. Before we know it he's singing Karaoke and performing for us. He also gave us a try. We think it was good for helping him open up more I guess. We then talked for a little bit and learned about his testimony which was good. That was on Thursday. We went over again Sunday for an actual lesson which could've gone better. We taught the Restoration, and his daughter taught some of it too for mission prep. It was kind of weird. Basically, his logic is that Joseph wouldn't have been confused if he didn't attend all those different churches. I guess he thinks any church is good, and he's staying catholic because he's always been catholic. We invited him to pray about what God would have him do and we'll see how that goes. 

2. We had another jam session with a returning member. It also wasn't planned. Basically this Member still believes but just hasn't been coming to church because of work. He lives on someone's property which is kind of weird. It's like a mini house on someone's front lawn I guess. It looks like a nice shed but he lives in it, with his bed and everything. It's kind of weird but I guess he has something figured out with the homeowners. So he wanted to feed us lunch too so he bought a little thing of rotisserie chicken, some potato salad and bread. It was nice and we all ate off this tiny table. It was sweet because we knew it was his best so it touched me. He also has a piano in the room and a guitar and asked if we could play. My comp Elder Ruske played (we were on exchanges) so he played piano, bro Riqueros played guitar and I sang. It was actually really cool that we were on exchanges for that day because Elder Ruske is a really good piano player and Bro Riqueros really enjoyed the jam session. We played Beatles music. I am disappointed in myself for not taking pictures but I'll try next time if it happens again. 

3. Our people are doing good. Brenda and Everts main thing keeping them from progressing is remembering things. They don't seem to remember a lot of the things we teach at previous lessons. But they remember things they read very well, so we're just trying to get them to do that more. They've been doing good on that though, but yeah. We also just got them set up on FamilySearch and it's been awesome for them. Linda is still in the same position where she's not really progressing and ghosting us. But we're still working with her two kids Aidyn and Alexis, but they might not get baptized until next month. 

Well I think that's basically it. I love all of you guys!

- Elder Wride

Pics + Video

1. Service

2. Zone Conference

3. Zone Conference pt 2

4. Zone Conference again

5. Elder Hatch got his own Roctopus

Week 35 - I Almost Got in Another Fight

 Hola good people. I'm pretty low energy right now but I'll do my best

1. Baby Godzillas

2. Second time we almost got in a fight

3. "Where were you when we were sacrificing this family?"

1. There's this lady we've done service for up in spring valley with our district. She's a super nice non-member and we pulled some cactus bushes, and other things. The reason for Baby Godzillas is that there are a bunch of lizards in her backyard that freak her out and that's what she calls them. It was super cool just because she was so grateful for all the service we did to the point of tears. She also talked about how there's a light in us and we said a prayer with her. She said next time she wants to hear all our testimonies. It would be really cool to see her progress.

2. Quick story was one morning as we were walking to the gym in our complex there was this mid 20s guy walking and shouting from a distance. I debated whether or not we should walk past him, because he looked a little crazy. That's something you would see a lot in my last area, but less here because it's more wealthy. I was also kind of surprised he was here because it's a really nice complex. He wasn't homeless though. Anyway, as we walked up to him he was crying and he looked at us asking us if we had a problem while we were just trying to walk past in peace. He then started calling us the n word and we just kinda walked away saying we didn't have a problem. He dared us to look back while he was walking away, but we didn't. We had hydro flasks in our hands and I would have given it to him if he tried.

3. Funny quote from this week was "Where were you when we were sacrificing this family?". We played this game called Sacrifice at a member lesson. It was actually the Bahr Family who are my relatives we found out a couple weeks ago. Anyway, the game basically gives you 3 cards with a bunch of stuff like "beauty", "church", etc. and the cards gradually get more important and gospel related. And the family has to decide on one card to give up. It goes all the way up to the Atonement. Well, at one point the family had to decide between "Family", "Prophets and Apostles" and the last one might have been scriptures. Anyway, they decided to get rid of the family but the dad wasn't paying attention. He later pointed out that scriptures maybe could've gone since scriptures are kind of the teachings of prophets and apostles. The mom was upset in a funny way realizing they gave up their family a little soon. It was funny. But the last cards are normally the Atonement and Family. The point of the game is to point out that everything goes back to the Atonement. I'm currently working on an essay about the Atonement that I might include next week. It's been a really cool assignment from President.

Love you all! Hope you're doing well and I would love to hear from you!

- Elder Wride

Pictures

1. Member feeding us

2. Another member feeding us. I dont think I'm gaining weight though

3. Elder Hatch wanted to try a wide lense shot

4. We switched out the rav because of the dent left in it a couple weeks ago

5. Felt cute at the temple today 

Week 34 - (Untitled)

Hola,

Things are going pretty good. This week has been full of me feeling tired but satisfied. Which I like a lot more than feeling like I'm not doing my best. The only problem is that I am still doing stuff by the end of the night so I go to bed later, so I am guilty of sleeping in like 15 minutes some mornings. But I'll work on it. But I've gotten to the point where a good day is a day that is full of lessons back to back, which I think is good.

Things are going good with Elder Hatch. He's a really fun and goofy guy, and I feel like we're working well together. 

Our people have been doing pretty well. Linda hasn't been coming to church still but I feel like we're gonna take that easy for a little while. I don't think she has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon so we'll work on that first. We also got her permission to teach and baptize her kids since she isn't progressing, so we're planning on how to teach them the rest of the principles. Our friends Brenda and Evert also came to church for the first time on their own, which was awesome. That's 3 weeks in a row they've come. 4 if you count the Easter Devotional from last month. 

I'm kinda in a rush to write this if you haven't noticed. I don't know what to title this email. Sorry. 

Pictures:

1-2. More pictures

3-4. We went to an inactive member who had a crazy dog

5. Facebook and Areabook

6. Mission Leadership Council (I'm a cool kid now. I'm also on the edge of the screen)

Week 33 - "I Will Kill You"

Hey People, how's a going? 

1. Transfers

2. "I Will Kill You"

3. The Work

1. I'm actually so excited for this transfer. I'm staying in Otay Lakes and my new companion is Elder Hatch. I heard good things about him and the day has been great so far. I'm also going to be District leading this transfer which I have been prepared for from all of my months of service as a District Monkey. I know a good amount of missionaries in the District and it's going to be awesome. We dropped off Elder Pedlow at the airport this morning

2. In order to understand this point I am going to provide a little context. So basically there's a member in our ward that from day 1, Elder Pedlow has made it clear that he really hates. But she's a very Missionary work involved member, so we work with her sometimes. And every week we have a Family Home Evening with a couple families and the 2 kids we have on date. We normally just go there to share a spiritual thought, but they also have a game after. They used to stay for the game too, but every week this transfer Elder Pedlow has said we have to go because the Member is in charge of the game, and he doesn't want to be there. So this past week, she asked us if we could do a kahoot thing for FHE because she needed help setting up. We didn't know much about it and didn't know if we could because of phone restrictions. So we get there and she starts trying to set it up on the TV. I thought we could try and help because she didn't really know how to do it. I was about to ask if she needed help, but when I got about 2 words out, I heard Elder Pedlow say "Don't. I will kill you". Now, generally when someone says that, it's not supposed to be taken seriously. But the way he said it, combined with the fact that he seems to have anger issues sometimes, made me not feel safe. It didn't seem like he could be joking because we haven't really ever become friends or joked around. I wanted to help the member, but not that badly. She figured it out pretty quick, but we didn't stay for the whole game. Actually I just remembered that for the game, it was an lds kahoot game that one of the members had made. I think it only had 10 questions which I honestly don't remember. But the last question on the kahoot was "Did Jesus have a wife?" and the options were yes or no. We were like uhhhh, but we knew which one it probably was. The families there and kids were debating as the countdown was going. Keep in mind we had our 2 kids on date there (11+12), their non-member friend, and another non-member mom and her kids, along with a bunch of other members. The answer came up as yes. Elder Pedlow and I decided to then leave in a smoke grenade fashion. 

3. The work is going well. Our friends Brenda and Evert came to church again for both hours this time which was awesome. Partly because that made them miss their other church they like to attend. We also extended a soft invitation to be baptized but I don't think they're ready. Their biggest problem I think is going to be retaining information. They want to be baptized which is good. I just want them to be ready. Our family on date, Linda and her two kids are going ehh. Lindas ghosting us again and will have to either be taken off date or get it pushed back. But we hope to keep the kids on date for May 14th. We will just need Lindas permission because they are minors.

I also just realized that today 1 year ago is when I submitted my mission call to my Stake President which I think is cool. I also may have dented 

the car at transfers today. I was pulling into a spot and hit one of the other mission cars.... We're still driving it right now because it's drivable and the vehicle coordinator said he's busy and could deal with it later.

But remember that I love you all!

- Elder Wride

Pictures: 

1. The car this morning

2+3. Our district. I didn't advocate for Pedlows costume, but whatever. I also assume he won't care if I include it in the email because he wore it in public.

4. Caught sleeping

5. Meme

Week 32 - Not much

Hola amigos, como esta?

I'm doing well. It's hard to explain Missionary life when everyday is like the same. It's like Groundhog day. Not exactly the same, but the days are similar ish. So I don't have too much to say 

I've been listening to the book Saints for the past couple weeks. Almost done with Vol 1. It's been good so far. I don't know if I planned to share something specifically when I started typing this, but yeah.

Umm, other exciting stuff: Brenda and Evert came to church this week and they really liked it. I'm excited for them because they're doing very well. I also just finished 3 Nephi 22 which is actually the last chapter covered in Isaiah for Airheads. Shout out to Grandpa and Grandma Wride for getting that out because it did help.

Yeah to be honest there's not much new. Our friend Linda who is on date hasn't been coming to church because she works night shifts. We have a ward that starts at 12:30 for her which should hopefully make things easier. If she doesn't start coming to church we will probably just baptize her kids. 

Just remember I love you all!

- Elder Wride

Pictures

1. A member asked to take our picture. He wanted to so he could remember our names  You can't read our tags anyway

2. Service at a food bank. It's actually right on the border of Mexico

3. Funny flyer we found

Hyrum's mom here, sharing a photo that I took of Hyrum and Peter playing with the messenger filters. 

Corey usually knows it's time for him to leave when the filters come on, cause then people aren't visiting anymore, they're just watching themselves and distracted by choosing another filter.

Week 31 - Easter Devo

Hey all, not too much for this week

1. Interviews

2. Easter Devo

3. Quick invite

1. Had interviews with President this week and it was good. I talked to him a little about how I'm having a harder time with my comp, and he said "Well soon you will have a new companion". Thanks President. The transfers are only 2 more weeks, so I'll be good. I have also decided that I hate country music. 

2. We had the Easter Devotional this week and it was decent. We had 2 of our friends come! We had a really good member who offered to take them there and they had a really good time. It was just so sweet seeing other missionaries and members come up to them and talk to them. That, on top of our really good lesson last week, they are on fire so I am very hopeful for them. 

3. From October to this past conference, I did very bad at reviewing Conference talks. We are encouraged to study them right along with the standard works. I would encourage you all to do so, especially for President Nelsons. His talk was probably one of my favorites. Anyway, sorry I'm running out of time but that's my invitation.

I love you all very much!

- Elder Wride

Pictures:

1. A quote I really liked

2. Last minute picture I took at the Temple this morning, because I realized I didn't take any

3. Meme

Week 30 - Conferences

 Hey Everyone, hope you all had a great week and Conference weekend. Things are good here in the San Diego Mission.

1. Zone + General Conferences

2. Bahr Family

3. Spiritual thought: Helaman 12

1. We had Zone Conference and General Conference this week! Both were awesome. I don't remember how much of last Zone Conference I told you guys about, but this one was just as good. The past 2 have really answered a lot of my questions and issues I've been dealing with. We've struggled in being productive in a slow area (and my companions not really hard working), but the trainings were on planning and finding and they gave a lot of great information and tips. It was pretty hard so the trainings really felt like an answer to prayers. We're still going a little slow, but we're getting better. And then General Conference was awesome, we watched all the sessions at the church. I wish I had more questions, because I really didn't know what to go into Conference with. I just tried to be very open. But the main things I did want was 1. Find ways to grow my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and 2. Grow my testimony of President Nelson being a prophet. I really liked President Nelson's talk and I'm going to try and work on the 5 things he suggested to Maintain spiritual momentum. 

2. Just this past Sunday we also had a visit with the family called the Bahrs. We went over for some dinner, and we were talking to the dad while he was cooking some burgers. We were talking about very standard stuff like where we're from, how long we've been out, etc. Then when he asked about family, I told him I was the 4th of 12. He gave me a weird look and then said "We're related". Apparently during our whole talk he was making connections because he recognized the last name Wride. And we're second cousins (I think). My mom and the Dad are cousins so that's the connection. But it was really cool, they knew a decent amount of my family on my moms side.

3. For today's Spiritual thought I wanted to share from Helaman 11-12 where I read this week. In Helaman 11 the people go through one of their cycles where they become wicked, the Lord chastens them, and then they remember God and repent. It actually happens like a ton I feel like even as you get later on. Right now I'm in 3 Nephi 5 and just the last couple chapters it happens then too. But I really liked Helaman 12 first verses, especially 2+3

"2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him."

I have just been thinking about this during the week. Where's the honor in only remembering God when you are in trouble or need something? I feel like I've met a lot of members and missionaries that aren't necessarily like these verses, but they still feel passive about their testimony. And I don't like that. I want to be a kind of member that lives as a Disciple of Christ with all their heart, might, mind and strength. It just makes me upset especially with people that have served missions, gone through the temple, etc. I don't know. The Gospel is so large and important, it's like cmon. I feel like even if you don't feel the Spiritual awe that Elder Soares was talking about (My favorite talk), I have found that for me, doing those things like Scripture study, and praying will help bring that spirit if you didn't feel it when you started. And you may not feel it at all times anyway. But then you just have to remember those times and remain loyal and diligent. Anyway, I just wanted to get thag out

I love you all! Hope you had a great conference. Do your best to re listen to those talks, I think they should be side by side with the scriptures. Have a good week. 

- Elder Wride

Pics:

1. Study desk. I got a big mushroom power up from Mario bros as an addition to the set.

2. Dwayne the Roctopus Johnson. A member 3D printed that and randomly gave us one.

3+4. Zone Conference

5. General Conference set up

6+7. Bahr Family

8. Meme