Elder Wride in the Dominican Republic: Week 14

Hey you guys

So I’m doing alright haha. This week was all really good until saturday when we got quarantined! Basically a lady we taught got tested positive for covid so now we’re stuck in our apartment. I’m pretty upset haha. We had a lot of good appointments/plans for next week and the week after that aren’t gonna happen. Basically me and my comp can’t leave our apartment for two weeks. Yesterday was our first full day in quarantine, and I about lost it. Spent part of the day in a cardboard box. I’ll attach photos.

Wack Dreams
Ferb-Latin Crisis
This is President Bell
Lesson with the chick who gave us coronavirus

So apparently even since I’ve been here, I talk a ton in my sleep. Elder Morgan said at the beginning he just ignored it but now it’s waking him up. This was scary news to me, because I have such wack dreams and I don’t even want to know what kinda stuff comes out of my mouth while I’m asleep. For instance, the other day I had a dream that me, Elder Morgan, a guy we’re teaching, and my older brother were all Iron Man, but then Elder Morgan took the suit I wanted to wear and I got super triggered, and my brother Joe too told me just to deal with the suit I got and I was all mad. Eventually I accepted the suit they gave me, but the worst part was that they literally pushed me off the top of the building we were on to see if my suit was working. Like what in the world! So messed up! I could have died! They just knocked me off the building and I didn’t even know how to work the suit they made me wear. Luckily, I figured it out and flew. The next morning I was really upset with Elder Morgan but couldn’t remember why until I remembered that he took the Iron Man suit I wanted to wear. So my dreams are wack. Haha so as I was writing this I remembered that for a couple nights after I woke up I typed out my dream while it was still fresh. This is literally my dream entry for a few nights ago:

“i was like the flash and I was running around behind this car with blue lights and then I was Darth Vader and I cut off luke’s head but luke was a bad guy and there was this ship at the end with some yellow equipment and some depressed lady and we had to remake the yellow equipment”

It’s moments like these where I actually question my sanity. Anyways, I digress, but point is, I have some wack dreams, so when Elder Morgan said that I’ve been talking in my sleep I assumed the worst. Other than speaking straight nonsense, he said that one night I just was yapping in spanish. This was pretty neat actually! Looks like spanish is actually starting to get ingrained into my brain.

The second thing he told me I said in my sleep I thought was super funny - so the past couple days I’ve been doing this P-90X type thing called “Insanity” by Beach Body. It’s freaking brutal. I actually hate it. As I was doing it yesterday a couple baby tears and naughty words slipped out. So my legs especially have been just super sore. This is funny too because a couple weeks back Elder Morgan’s legs were really sore from working out and I had absolutely no sympathy for him. We’d be walking and I’d be like “come on Elder man up” haha. So, karma baby! I was walking around like I was on stilts or something and my legs hurt SO BAD. Anyways, so while I was sleeping, Elder Morgan said I was just yelling “My legs hurt! My legs hurt!” haha. So that was exciting. They’re feeling a little bit better today, but yea my body is in a lot of pain. Especially since we got our flu shots the other day, and now my arm, and legs are sore. And my mind is kinda sore too being in quarantine.

Okay so this past week we had a zone conference (in person) and met with like 3 other zones. Tons of missionaries. Me and the boys all rode down in our big van (Deb) and naturally, me and Elder P practiced Ferb Latin. A lot of other people have been practicing too. These two sister missionaries just came up to me and were like “elloherb” and I was way impressed. They said they’ve spent time practicing every night. Anyways, we’ve been speaking it a lot. Then at cemetery service the other day, we continued to practice. Tons of people are catching on, and literally our whole zone was speaking it. Except for some people that are getting absolutely triggered. Some people really just hate on Ferb Latin. Anyways, long story short, people were getting mad at the Ferb Latin speakers, and yesterday my district leader called us and said I need to chill with speaking it haha. So that was a bummer. I almost responded to him with “koerb” haha. Most people are cool with it, but yea some people just absolutely hate ferb latin.

Okay so this is a funny thing and I want especially all you missionaries to remember this-

So the other day I got a call from Lindell East (Elder Powell and Elder Pugsley). Everytime someone calls you and you call someone else, you say “This is Elder Wride and Elder Morgan” or whatever. So everytime we talk to any companionship we both introduce who’s speaking. So we got a call from Lindell, and we were like “This is Elder Wride and Elder Morgan” and then they said “This is Elder Powell Elder Pugsley and President Bell”. We just froze. Didn’t know what to say, because is our mission President actually on the other line? So we continued the conversation as mature as possible (no ferb latin was present) until we figured out that they were playing with us. But it’s a genius idea! So every once in a while when we talk to people we just throw in “President Bell” and it’s gets them every time. It’s especially funny when they say something dumb right of the bat. For instance, these one Elders the other day said, in a very high pitched voice “holaaaaa hermanas! Somos misioneros por la iglesia de Jesucristo!” and we threw in the “President Bell” line and they just went quiet and throughout the call were being super awkward until they realized that President isn’t actually with us. It’s especially easy for us to tease people with it because he lives really close to our apt and we see him quite often. So for all you missionaries reading this, next time you call someone throw in your mission president’s name. It’s a good time!

I was just gonna end the email there haha, but I can’t leave this without you all feeling somewhat spiritually edified so here you go. Every night I type up a journal entry and that’s usually how I send my emails now. I just pull parts from my journal, so, here’s some pieces from my journal entry on Wednesday-

“At 9 o’clock, we had a lesson with a named Cassandra. Oh boy. It was crazy. Not sure what I was expecting exactly but that definitely wasn’t it.

She’s a self referral. So when Elder Morgan was with his last comp she went to comeuntochrist.org and referred herself. Well, Elder Morgan and them weren’t able to get a hold of her because she never answered the phone, but we have her address, so me and Elder Morgan decided to just swing by. Yesterday we met her and scheduled our lesson for today.

It was the craziest lesson I’ve ever taught. We were there for 2 hours. At first it was fine but still a little weird. She was getting into stuff that was irrelevant and she was taking complete control of the conversation even though we had been there to teach her.

After 10-15 minutes, I was able to get an opening prayer in so we could start teaching her the first lesson. Man it was crazy. Some sick beats were playing in the background so I had to yell at Alexa to stop haha.

But, the very first principle of the lessons is that God is our loving heavenly father. The words had hardly escaped my mouth when she interrupted with why we were wrong. This happened for the next hour. We would try to teach her something and she would interrupt and tell us why it was wrong and what was right from her point of view. It was exhausting. Since Elder Morgan only had his Book of Mormon, she would tell me to open up to different Bible verses and all this stuff. The roles got totally swapped. She was taking over and trying to teach us. She would throw in lines like “I know you’re still learning” and “listen to what I’m trying to tell you”. It was mostly just me and her talking. Elder Morgan is a lot more quiet and reserved, and I wasn’t afraid to take her comments head on, so we were kinda just going back and forth. It was exhausting. It made me sad. My heart was pounding.

Trying to be respectful and non-intrusive, I would say things like “we believe such and such” and “we believe this” and finally she was like “stop saying we believe. I want to know what you know.”

This made me really upset, because that’s what I’d been trying to do the whole time! But literally every time we started talking about something she would cut us off. She also said to me directly “I know that you’re shy, but don’t be afraid”.

This also made me upset, because shy is the last word I would use to describe myself. I was not scared by what she was saying in the slightest. It was honestly an incredible feeling. To have words and statements thrown at you left and right but to not be shaken by them in the slightest. I know that this was because of my testimony, particularly of the Book of Mormon. It is unshakable. After a while, I realized that she didn’t really know what she was talking about. She was just saying words and spreading noise. At first it was really loud and it was hard to think, but after a while it became easy to know how she was thinking.

I love this lady so much, but really this is how the adversary works. Satan sends noise, confusion, distraction, and deception. It’s chaotic, and it’s there to overwhelm you. But, if you know what your foundation is, then it will have no power to overcome you. Me and Elder Morgan could not be overcome. Her technique was attack, and retreat. She would say something and then when we would try to answer or address it she wouldn’t listen and she would just throw something else out there.

Anyways, after an hour, the tension had built up, and Elder Morgan said this too, but my heart was pounding. The spirit had built up so much inside of me that I was ready to just explode.

After she made another comment about us being afraid to tell her what we believe I said “look we want to tell you what we believe. Will you listen?” and Elder Morgan said too “yea every time we try to talk you interrupt”.

She said OK, and for a little bit, we were able to get her quiet. I then recited the account of the first vision. My hands were shaking as I said it, not because I was scared, but because my biggest desire at that moment was for her to know that what we were teaching her was true. I felt the spirit very strongly as I read that, and I know she did too, but she was denying it.

Immediately after I finished it, she went off about Joseph Smith being a false prophet and such and such. I then remembered what I’ve heard from many friends and family members about how to deal with people who try to argue against the gospel: testify! So, I testified as hard as I could. It was exhilarating. During those two hours she had been looking at me straight in the eye, as if trying to get into my soul and get me to doubt what I believed. If I was not worthy to be a missionary for this church, and if I did not have a testimony, she would have broken me. Seriously though, I cannot imagine being out on a mission unworthily. But, I am worthy to be here, and I do know that this church is true. She stared at me as intently as she could, and I couldn’t have cared less. I could feel the spirit there.

There were many times where I promised her that the Book of Mormon was true. One stood out in particular. She was always staring back at me, and looking directly at her I said

“Cassandra, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I promise you that the Book of Mormon is true.”.

It almost felt like I shouted it. It was awesome! Only looking back do I realize how powerful the spirit was. She was clearly uncomfortable. She immediately looked down at her Bible and started rummaging through her notes and muttering to herself, very uncomfortable at what had just happened. So, we repeated this process. It was dozens of times of us promising her in the name of the Almighty God that the Book of Mormon was true. Gradually, she became more and more quiet.

I digress, but anyways, by the end of the lesson she said “you know what? Fine. I’ll read your book. But I want you guys to read it with me.”

So, it was a cool experience. The lesson there for me personally was the power of testifying. It works miracles. Without the spirit, we are literally nothing! So all of you guys, when someone bags on the church, testify the hell out of them! Like actually, keep them from going to hell by testifying. It's not swearing when used like that, don't worry. But anyhow, testifying works miracles. My testimony is so much stronger after that lesson. The past couple days I have not been afraid of testifying to strangers. It’s pretty awesome! And it’s because this church is true that it works. Also yea this is the lady who got tested positive for covid. Also slightly annoyed she didn’t tell us she had it.

Anyways, there’s a little taste of what went on this week. There’s more I could write, but I’m getting tired and lazy. It’s mostly just this quarantine that’s killing me. I’ve never been in like full on 100% quarantine so it’s brutal.

A couple small things that happened this week that you can think about

went bowling and the lanes weren’t oiled (complete waste of time and money and I’m still super mad. I don’t want to leave a bad review for the place because I’m a missionary, so if any of you would be willing to leave a bad review regarding their completely unoiled lanes and over-priced services that would be appreciated!).

Taught a lesson to a drunk lady over the phone and invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We texted her after the phone call so she could remember that she agreed to baptism but we haven’t really heard from her since. More details will come later.

HEALTH UPDATE: So yes I’m still gaining weight haha but it’s all good. I’m not noticeably fat to people who didn’t know me before the mission. JK I’m really not fat. Just a bit tubby. Jaw line is less defined. Anyways, Ierb ppreciateaerb heterb rayersperb ahaherb. But I’m doing good. Especially since we can’t go shopping I’ll have time to maybe add some more veggies to my diet. But don’t worry, I’m also working out on the daily. I’m gonna be huge next time you guys see me is the plan.

That’s about it honesty. Haha every email I write in my head I’m thinking “I have nothing to say”. Like at the beginning of almost every email I start off with “this one’s gonna be short” but then I finish writing it and realize it’s absolutely massive so then I go back and delete the line about it being a short email haha. So yeet!

Send an email if you can folks! It’s going to be a long and lonely two weeks and honestly I’m not sure how I’m gonna survive it. Shoot me an email if you can. They are all appreciated eryverb uchmerb.

Have a great week you guys! Don’t forget that the Book of Mormon is you latter-day survival guide. Also your patriarchal blessing. If you haven’t read that in a while, go read it right now and get some direction for your life!

One last thought - even if this church wasn’t true, this is the way you want to live. This path is peaceful and safe. The path of duty is equally the path of safety. This Gospel will bring you true joy. It’s insightful to be interacting with people who made poor decision when they were my age, and now the consequences of those decisions are so apparent. They are miserable. Really. Just sad. Whether or not you believe in God or keeping his commandments, breaking those commandments only leads to misery and pain in the end. Hold on to the iron rod folks! This is the right way! And yea even if the church wasn’t true this would be the way I’d want to live my life, but, the reason this is such a happy way to live is because the church is true! Don’t forget that! Please! Don’t be dumb and walk away from the safety and peace of the Gospel because one question/concern isn’t adding up right now. It will eventually. Don’t throw away everything else you know to be true just because of one thing that isn’t making sense at the present time. It will all make sense as you push forward.

Take people who think the earth is flat for example (like my friends George Lewis and Truman Pugsley). There was this study the flat earth society did where they found this really big lake and put a laser going from one end to the other. Well apparently the measurements were totally flat, and there was no bend. Huh. Well logically, if the earth is round, it shouldn’t be a straight line, right? Obviously the lasers would show a curve! Do you hear that and start to freak out and question about the earth being round? No! (unless your truman or george). You know the earth is round! Point is, there will always be little things that don’t seem to make complete sense at the present time, but hold on to what you know to be true. The earth is round folks, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church upon the earth. I could go on for hours about why this is true, but that’s why I’m on the mission. If I didn’t know that this is the Kingdom of God upon the earth, I wouldn’t be here.

Also, speaking of flat earthers, I saw Elder Pugsley wearing a shirt the other day that said “Flat Earth Society - We’re Not Crazy!”. Huh. Just thought that was funny.

And then on the back of the shirt it said “We have members from all around the globe.”. Hmmmmmmm.