Elder Wride in the Dominican Republic: I'm still out here.

What’s up weekly!

Hope you are all doing fantastic and staying away from harmful substances such as drugs. Contrary to the beliefs of some, they are bad for you and will ruin your life.

Two Truths and a Lie

Other Cool Stuff

Naughty Spirits

Spiritual Thought

Two Truths and a Lie

This story kinda hurts. So we were on zoom call with some other missionaries playing two truths and a lie. It was Elder Powell’s turn, and one of his truths was that he had a beard before the mish. Apparently Elder Powell is just super masculine or at least more masculine than me because nobody thought he was lying. Well it was my turn next, so for my lie I said that I had a beard before the mish too. I had barely gotten the words out and everyone was like “yeaaaa that’s a lie”. It kinda hurt honestly. So that was a low for this week. So I’ve committed to not shave for the next little while until somebody notices and is impressed.

Other Cool Stuff

Teaching was decent this week. A lot of people are starting to shun us though. Nothing new haha. We lost two people on date which was a rip. But overall it was decent. We went to some thrift stores around town and offered service and that’s been a huge success. This one super nice lady is letting us help out and her store. Helping her with stuff gives me major flashbacks to when I worked for my Grandma Hibbert. They are basically the same person. Makes me excited to start sharing the gospel with this lady! I have a strong feeling that she’s one of those people who is “kept from the truth because [she] knows not where to find it.”. Also, update on Matthew...long story short, we have some good friends at a christian church here in town who were magically able to get him on a bus without any ID, so he is on his way back to TX right now and the missionaries are there waiting for him. So hopefully all that goes well.

Naughty Spirits

I’ve had experiences this week that I didn’t know I was capable of having, but not really in a good way haha. We were teaching this guy this week and were giving him a priesthood blessing and then as we were giving the blessing he started to like get possessed by an evil spirit or something and it was nuts. He started like heaving super loudly and squirming around and I was just like . I was on an exchange with my boi Elder Morgan and we tried to cast the evil spirit out and then the dude started cackling like crazy and it was low key terrifying. Anyways, after that I just felt sick and gross but overall it was a good experience that reminded me of what it’s like to have the Holy Ghost. I always have it with me and sometimes I think I forget it’s there. But when that happened I felt the spirit instantly leave and it was replaced by a really evil spirit. So yea it took a couple of days to get those bad vibes drained out haha but now I’m chilling. The Holy Ghost is back baby! And I really want it to stay since I was given that reminder of what it feels like to lose it.

Spiritual Thought

I find it interesting that there are those who don’t believe in God, but at the same time, those who don’t believe in God have a strong belief in Satan. Seriously, I’ve seen this out here. People are like “yea God is a joke” but then they’ll be like “there’s a lot of evil in this world” and then people talk about like evil spirits and bad stuff like that. I’m just like yooo do you hear yourself? How can these people believe in bad but not in good? I think we can all agree that there is evil in this world...so, in theory, shouldn’t there also be good? It just kind of blows my mind. If there is bad, there HAS to be good, and if there was no good, there could be no bad. And just as people believe in there being a driving force for the bad, (satan), likewise should there be a driving force for the good? (God). If there are bad spirits, there must be good spirits, and if there are good spirits, there has to be a God. And if there wasn’t a God, we would be here. Reminds of a bomb couple verses in the BOM that I wanna share with y’all.

2 Nephi 2:13

“And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away”

And then I love what Lehi says next in verse 14-

“And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon”

So yea I guess my testimony to you all is that God is real and that if you don’t make him the primary influencer of your life, you will fail. Miserably. You will get WRECKED. Don’t try to talk yourself out of something that is true. Don’t try and pretend that you’re capable of making yourself everything you ought to be. Only God knows that, and only God knows what experiences he needs to send your way to help you become who he needs you to become here and hereafter.

Another thought: we were talking to this dude the other day and he was like “what’s y’alls favorite thing about God?”

My answer to him was His “vision”. God always looks at us in terms of who we’re capable of becoming. He has a perfect vision and a perfect understanding of who we really are and what we can become. Therefore, he sends certain trials our way that can shape us in the way we should be shaped. This life was never meant to be easy. It was meant for growth.

Last thought haha. So they updated our music policy allowing us to listen to LDS artists, sooooo I skrrted and got the “Saturdays Warrior” soundtrack. Man that musical is absolutely baller! Don’t judge me, but I started getting emotional while listening to the song “Will I Wait For You” haha. I really got no clue why. I don’t even have any solid potentials for girls waiting for me (except you mom ). Been picking up some referrals on the mission though. Haha jk jk. My heart is locked don’t worry. Anyways, one of my favorite songs on that soundtrack is “Paper Dream”. Basically this dude is just singing about who he wishes he was and it’s pretty baller (don’t worry, the missionaries got to him and he gets baptized). But anyways, I think we’re all like that. We all have this vision of who we’d like to be, and guess what!? You can get there! But you’re not capable of doing it yourself. You need the Lord to help you. He knows exactly what you need so that you can become the best version of yourself, and that is Him. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what we need. Nothing else will shape us and make us more happy than that will.