Elder Wride in the Dominican Republic: Week 12 - "can't think of what to call this email"

Hey everybody

Hope you are all doing well. This week was really an adventure. It's been weird and honestly pretty difficult having another man attached to me 24/7 but things are going better. Lot’s of weird little miracles. I hope I can remember all of it or at least everything that is important. And I’m not gonna talk about all the miracles this week because I’m still processing some of them haha and I’m waiting to see them unfold further. Success is never final, and although I’ve had a good start with a lot of people, I don’t want to get relaxed. Also I’m going to be completely honest with you guys, my mind is totally fried. P-day got moved to tuesday because of transfers, that’s why I didn’t email yesterday. It’s Monday night right now though. I don’t want to waste all of my p-day tomorrow writing my email so I’m trying to get it done tonight. But I am only 23.76% awake as I am writing this so my english/grammar/enthusiasm might not be super great in this email. Sorry. Deal with it.

1 - Puppy Plunge

2 - TENT CITY

3 - Sally and Sally

4 - Cool stuff

Okay you guys, this week starts off with a flyer I we got on our apartment door that said the following:

"Join us for a splash with your pup!

The pups will be able to munch on delicious treats from treats unleashed & yummy popsicles and pretzels for the humans from Pete's Pops!

There will also be a drawing to win a paid bark box subscription for three months!"

Well, I’m a lot like my dad and my grandpa wride in this way. I find weird people and weird activities interesting haha. When I got this flyer, I knew I was going to be in attendance. The only question was - where am I gonna get a dog? Even without the logistics figured out, I told my companion Elder Morgan - “we’re going to the puppy plunge tomorrow and we’re gonna find someone to teach”.

Still needed a dog to take as an excuse to go, I remembered that president has a dog! So we sent him a text and got the green light to steal his dog and drive him to our puppy party. We picked up President’s dog named Steve/Toby. He is adorable haha. I’m not a huge fan of dogs but Steve/Toby has grown on me. His Dog’s name is Steve and Toby in case you’re confused. If he doesn’t respond to one, he’ll respond to the other...so we use both haha. I’ll refer to him as both during this story so don’t get confused...it’s the same dog. Yea he’s stinky and yea he’s kinda gross, but he is a sweetheart. He’s super tiny and is terrified of everything. Let me tell you, he was NOT excited for the puppy plunge. Took a while to get him out of president's house. Sometimes we take him on walks, and he takes a pee every 2 minutes I swear. He’s a nervous lil pup haha.

But man, the puppy plunge was truly hilarious. One of the most awkward social events I have ever participated in. When we got there, literally nobody was there except these two teenage boys running a pretzel stand. I think the idea of the puppy plunge was to have all these owners and their dogs playing in the hot sun and in the cool pool, having a silly goose time and enjoying the weather. But, it was freezing, cloudy, and the dogs did NOT want to be there haha. We were one of the first one’s there. This one lady was in the pool trying to drag her dog in the pool and holding her by a leash. That poor dog was sopping wet and just wanted to leave. The dog was doing it’s best to try and stay out of the pool but the owner would pull it closer and be like “no no no, you have to come swimming!” stuff like that. Super funny. And I became super acquainted with many dogs throughout the night.

Steve was not excited to attend. It took 20 minutes to even get to the pool area because he was peeing so much, and even when we got there he was fighting to leave. Basically we were trying to force him in the pool area and he was fighting to get away but we had him on a leash so he couldn’t. Then some elders were watching us from their balcony (our apt complex has lots of elders) and they were like “did you steal someones dog?” and I was like “yea it’s presidents dog” and they were like “NO WAY” and “THAT IS LEGENDARY”. I agree that it was legendary but it was also pointless because we couldn’t get Toby near the other dogs. The idea was to have Steve talk to other dogs, and while he talked to the dogs I would talk to the humans, get all of their personal information and then quickly baptise them. But, Steve was not cooperating. So I asked the other elders if they had any bacon, which they did. They brought me a bag with bacon and sausage. After a good 10 minutes of reeling Toby in, we were in the area. Other dogs liked my bag of sausage too. I was a hit. Tons of dogs coming for food. This one dog was insane though. I can’t explain it. He was literally jumping everywhere and licking everything and jumping on people. I was trying to talk to his owner and he jumped on me and nearly pushed me into the pool. He also took a poop in the middle of the area where people were talking so that was nice. I do not like that dog.

But, despite our use of bacon and our sincere prayers, Steve wasn’t cooperating. So Elder Morgan spent most of the time holding Steve’s leash and trying to keep him from totally escaping, while I went around and got numbers for people. I’m dragging this story on way too long, but basically it was great. Got lots of numbers of people in the area who we are going to be in touch with. All around, the Puppy plunge was a super weird but awesome experience. Steve had diarrhea twice though. Poor pup was super nervous. And I had to hold him on the way back so there was still poop on him. I told him not to get it anywhere but he disobeyed me. Come on Steve! Control yourself! Stop listening to the natural man.

And I’m waiting a couple days to totally spam the people who’s numbers I got just to play it cool but I think it’ll be good. There are a couple of people who I think will have particular interest in the message of the gospel. I’m grateful I was a salesman and learned the lesson of not fearing anyone. I really am not afraid to start off a conversation with anyone. The only thing that prevents me from doing so is how awkward it can be. Like I’m at the store and talking to the cashier about the gospel. I just don’t know how to get it gospel related super fast but I really am not scared to talk to anyone. So while Elder Morgan watched Steve I went and talked to everyone I could. Did I already say that? I don’t remember. Wow I am so tiredd. If you are still readin this I apologize. But anyways, it was really good.

Alright y’all, this week was especially awesome because of TENT CITYYYY. I talked about it last week a bit, but basically it’s this place where a bunch of homeless people live and there are tents everywhere, Not gonna lie, it’s pretty sketch. So yea last week me and Elder Kimball had a good conversation with el presidente of Tent City, and got a lesson with him. Except he is in Elder Truman Pugsley’s area, so they came with me and my comp. As we were going to tent city, we got a call from president asking for more details about it. I love president bell so much. He’s amazing. But anyways he was just checking in making sure we would be safe and that tent city wasn’t too scary/dangerous and we were just like “yea it should be fine” but after the call we started to get a little scared too. But as it says in D&C 66:6 “inasmuch as ye can send, send.”. So we sent it. I was honestly scared until we turned the corner to tent city. All of the fear was gone. I sold people pest control in areas this sketch! Maybe not quite this sketch but close. Anyways, my man Rudy (Tent City Governor) was there so the four of us did a lesson with him. He talks a ton though, so it took literally an hour to get through the whole first lesson. He would just start talking about random stuff and we would have to real it back into the lesson. At one point he was going off about truck driving and I was like “man that ties really well into the apostasy…” and stuff. Honestly, it was mostly just me and Rudy talking. I think the other Elders were a bit sketched out.

So after we talked with Rudy for a while, a super nice christian couple came to talk with him too! Once a week they come and do a Bible study with Rudy. So, when they saw us there, they started talking to us quite a bit. They’re a super nice couple. At one point the husband asked about us being Gods after we die hahahahaaaaa so that was exciting. Most of the night was basically them throwing out questions and then us doing our best to answer them. I’d say it went pretty well. At the very end, I pulled out a Book of Mormon and bore my testimony to them. I told them I knew it was true and promised if they read it they would get an answer. They both seemed a little bit uncomfortable as I bore my testimony, but I felt good! I know these are righteous people and I know that the gospel could bless their lives SO MUCH. Whether or not they every join the church, they are fantastic people and God loves them very much. Tomorrow me and Elder Pugsley are going to meet up with them again at Forest Park and we’re gonna jam. Play some frisbee, spikeball, and music. Just get to know them better. It’s gonna be awesome.

So two of the ladies we’ve been talking to/kind of teaching are both named Sally. We go to one of the ladies house every week to do her bird feeders. We’ve going for a long time, and we’ve been trying to schedule an actual lesson for a long time, but it hasn’t happened. Then this past week as we were leaving she was like “are you guys gonna get in trouble if you don’t give me a lesson about the Mormons?”. Elder Morgan started to respond with “No” but then I came in and said “YES” haha. So, we got a lesson scheduled. It was great. She said she was really impressed with our lesson and said that we’re “handsome” (;

Funny thing happened during the opening prayer though. She’s old, and doesn’t remember things super well. I was like “can we say an opening prayer?” and she was like “okay” and then asked how we pray. So, since she asked, I began to explain. I said-

“So first, we address our heavenly father”. Then things got confusing. Right as I was saying that, she bowed her head and folded her arms. In my head I thought maybe she was just practicing her posture for the prayer or something so I kept going - “then, we say what we’re thankful for…” she kept her head down. Then in my head I was like “oh shoot, does she think we’re praying right now?”. Then I said, “and lastly we ask for certain blessings and then we close in the name of Jesus Christ.”. Right after I said that, her head popped right up and she said “Amen.”. It was mega awkward. Me and Elder Morgan just sat there awkwardly. She thought we had already prayed! So now how were we supposed to say an opening prayer! Then she was like “are they really that short?” and I didn’t have the heart to tell her what had happened.

But she is seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met and we love talking with her. Sally #2 is also amazing. It’s hard to coordinate stuff with her though. Every time we schedule something, something else comes up. Betcha satan doesn’t want her baptised. But, I have a feeling that our next lesson is gonna go great. Just a matter of getting it to actually happen haha.

Probably the biggest miracle this week was earlier in the week. We were in a district council and we were talking about our goals for people we wanted to get baptised that month. Our district leader went around to hear everybody’s thoughts about how many people they thought we could baptise this month. All the answers were like “2” or “3”. “4” was the highest. Well when they asked for my opinion, I gave it to them straight. I told them that I thought we could get 10 easy dubs. I told them that I felt like generally speaking as a mission, we are lazy haha. It may have been a bit extreme, but I meant every word. I just feel like as missionaries and as a mission we can do so much better. I just feel like we should be doing so much more! And in my apartment too. I hate watching precious time go away and I feel like some of the veteran elders have almost forgotten part of why they came out in the first place.

So as I was expressing my concern in district council, I kinda just went off. It ended with me going off for like at least 10-15 minutes standing up in front of everyone. I said how I only have two years of my life to only do missionary work, and I want to make the most of it. I talked about my experience selling pest control, and how I KNOW we can all be doing so much better. I learned a lot down there, and I think so much of it applies to us today. I also talked about 3 Nephi, how Nephi was able to accomplish the miracles he did as a result of his unshaken faith in Jesus Christ. I talked about how if we believe in the Book of Mormon and the miracles in that, how can we not believe we can’t get 10 baptisms this month? I also talked about the sons of helaman - how literally NOT ONE SOUL of them doubted what their mothers taught them, and as a result none of them perished. The theme of it I guess was faith combined with obedience. By the end of my rant, everyone kinda changed their opinions haha. The zone leaders were in the meeting too, and Elder McConnol said he totally agreed with me and he felt like we were only giving like 30-40% of everything we could be doing. After my shpeel, as a district we had an idea of doing 12 baptisms this month as a zone haha which was awesome. However, it was gonna take some convincing to get the whole zone on board.

Last month our goal was to baptise 1, and we baptised 2. I guess maybe my faith was so strong because I haven’t been here long enough to know what’s normal, but I literally did not have a DOUBT in my mind that if we were willing to work for it, we could easily get 12.

Weeeellll, little did I know that they were having a mission leadership conference the next day. This is basically where all of the ZL’s and STL’s in the whole mission meet with president and all the mission leaders to set our plans and goals for the month. I didn’t really know what it was or what was going on, but Elder Morgan was going to play piano for a musical number at the conference, so we went about halfway through the conference during their lunch break. Elder Bowles came out after the meeting was adjourned and was like “Elder Wride! You’ve inspired the mission!”. Then Elder McConnol too said something like “no like actually. You changed the mission.”. It was insane. So basically after my rant to the district, we were all feeling super hyped. Elder Bowles and McConnol prayed about it too and they said they had a burning in the bosom that we could accomplish whatever goal we were unified in achieving. So, when they went to MLC, they talked about me and my faith. Basically, the zone leaders said what I said and the entire mission got pumped up. They talked about how I have a really good attitude of finding. Then, apparently president pulled up text from me asking him about the puppy plunge and read them to the mission leaders about my faith. It was insane. When I heard all of this I was kinda shaking a lot. The text president read that I had sent him was -

“Hey president-Got a flyer on our door with the following- ‘Join us for a splash with your pup! The pups will be able to munch on delicious treats from treats unleashed & yummy popsicles and pretzels for the humans from Pete's Pops! There will also be a drawing to win a paid bark box subscription for three months’. Basically it's like a puppy get together in our Apt complex. Do you think Steve/Toby would be interested in attending with us? We think it might be a good chance to connect with some neighbors and find someone new to teach! It's from 5 to 7 tonight.”

So that was crazy! President read my puppy text to the mission! And it hyped people up!

But anyways, as far as I know, after the zone leaders shared their thoughts and president shared his thoughts, the whole mission mindset had changed. Everyone re-wrote their goals. Crazy to think that one thought that we could baptize more people lead to the entire mission setting higher goals. What was going to be a goal of probably 19 or so people to get baptised this month as a mission is now at 39. As a mission, we are now committed to bring 39 people into baptism this month. That is so amazing!!! I’m so glad I ranted in district council.

There is a lot more that happened this week - exchanges, frisbee, zone council, transfers, conference, fruity dino bite pancakes, im gaining more weight, I reorganized my desk, etc - but I’m mentally drained and think I’m gonna call it for this email. Honestly, if you’re still reading these emails let me know haha because it’s mentally draining to write these. I love it and it’s great, but it takes a big chunck out of my P day. Would love to hear from you guys. Sorry that I suck at responding. I’m a busy bee.

Want to end with my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. It really is the keystone to everything we know. If you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, you are able to answer every question you have in the church. Really. It’s bulletproof! So, I would invite you guys to not just read the Book of Mormon, but STUDY it. It’s true and will bless your lives. Like my man Russell said in conf “The Book of Mormon is our Latter-Day survival guide.”. It’s facts though. I don’t know if you guys got the same vibes, but this last conference talked a lot about being prepared. I got a feeling some crazy stuff is gonna keep going down and if we’re not all in with the church, it’s going to be really hard. The days have passed where you can have one foot in the church and one foot out. You got to be all in you guys! That’s how we’re gonna get through these crazy times.

One of the questions I had going into conference was “Is Jesus Christ coming back soon?”. I had multiple impressions throughout the whole thing- “Yes. He is coming soon.”. You guys, Christ is coming, and those who aren’t ready to receive him are not going to be happy to see him. Be prepared. Don’t forget what matters most! Don’t be the person who decides to accept that everything is true the moment Christ comes. Be the person who believed from the beginning. It’s all true you guys!!! Otherwise I would NOT be here! I would be chilling at the bowling alley with elder pugsley back in utah if this church wasn’t true. Actually, speaking of bowling, me and Elder pugsleys gang are going to the arch and then bowling today, so I gotta dip. But thank you guys if you made it to the end of this email and I hope all is well back in Utah! Be prepared for Christs return! Read daily! Pray daily! Re-double your efforts! Remember what matters most! Go read helaman 5:12.

Also I seriously do not remember what I wrote in this email so hopefully nothing I said is offensive to you guys! Love you all! Email me if you can!

Adios hermanas

1) me and Elder Morgan