Jusqu'à ce que nous nous revoyions Paris

 This week was a wild one. Lots of stuff going on. 

I found out last night that I will be leaving the great city of Paris. I knew it was coming though. Last night me and Elder Powell were driving back from some appointments and as I was looking at those good old corn fields listening to Saturday’s Warrior I had a really strong feeling that I was about to get pulled out. And yea I was right. 

But yea Paris has been an amazing experience. I have grown so much here! Haven’t learned as much french as I thought I would though. 

So yea this week was neat. Here we go baby!

The Running Tweaker

Interesting Woman

The Refiners Fire

The Refiners Fire Pt. 2

Irthdayberb

Last Thoughts of Paris

Concluding Remarks

The Running Tweaker

Man I am going to miss tweakers SO MUCH! They are just the best.

So yesterday we were trying to visit some peeps but nobody was home, but we saw a tweaker out. We went up to try to talk to him but he was being all weird and when we asked how he was doing he just made a grunting noise and walked away. So we started to make our way back to our car, when I heard a nearby train whistle blow in the direction that the tweaker had started walking. 

Then, I beheld the most glorious scene of my existence. This poor tweaker must be terrified of trains or something because there he was, running away from the train, at full speed. Seriously, I have never seen a tweaker run so fast. Actually I don’t even think I’ve ever seen a tweaker run at all. They’re always just walking slowly in a zigzag pattern. But yea I’m really not sure what it was about the train that got to him but he was running for dear life. Me and Elder Powell were laughing so hard. 

Then right after that another tweaker we tried talking to told us to “get the f*** away” and it was pretty good. Ah I’m gonna miss that so much!!

Interesting Woman

We went to this ladies house and as we were talking to her she said that she put Jesus’ blood on the whole perimeter of the house which keeps all evil from entering. She then looked at us and said, “so you passed the test”. Not sure to react, I just kinda threw my hands up and said “yahoo!”. Also when she said that I thought about some tweakers that we know that could help us test that theory. But yea we taught her the whole restoration and she’s a great lady. I love meeting people outside of our faith who have a strong faith in the Savior. Maybe there’ll be some potential there! 

The Refiners Fire

This week was the most spiritually draining time I have ever experienced in my lifetime. I can’t think of another time in my life where I felt the power of Satan working harder than ever to tear me down. 

So I was up late just praying in my bed for strength. It was probably an hour or so of just pleading to the Lord for strength and guidance. After a little while I went to the other room to get a tissue, when the whole room lit up from behind me. My heart stopped. No joke. I was like “ohhhhh my goodness it’s an angel”.

I turned around slowly ready for like a Joseph/Moroni experience when I saw that Elder Powell’s phone had gone off for some reason and the screen had lit up the room. It was pretty funny haha. He never leaves his phone in there either so I would never have guessed it. 

But yea an angel definitely did not appear to me, as cool as that would be.

But long story short, I fasted and prayed for a couple days and got a lot of strength. I read in my scriptures like I never have before, clinging to the words in there. I can not adequately express how grateful I am for scriptures that lead and guide me on a daily basis. 

The Refiners Fire Pt. 2

So yea that was one challenge this week. Another challenge is Dusty. It is one of the saddest points of my mission. 

So as I’ve been talking about in my past emails, Dusty is just incredible. She is so elect and everything has been more perfect than I could have ever imagined. She was set to get baptized on Monday the 15th (like I talked about last time), and was super excited about it. She was inviting all of her friends and we were inviting all the members. Then after church on Sunday, right before her baptism, she got sick with covid and has been under a 2 week quarantine. 

So every day we have been doing video calls with her. We have been taking her food and medicine and all this stuff. We’ve also had members at almost all the lessons so she knows them all super well. It could not have been more perfect!

Then the other night, right before we were about to call her for another video lesson, she texted us saying that she doesn’t want to learn about God anymore and that she has unfriended us and the rest of the ward on Facebook. Me and Elder Powell were shocked. We tried to get more information about what happened but got nothing. She told us to come by and pick up all the stuff we’ve given her. 

So we both wrote her letters with our testimonies in them and dropped them off. When we saw her, she was crying. We and she both know that she wants to keep meeting with us, but the power of the adversary is so real. She’s been being beaten on all week and hit her breaking point. She said none of us did anything wrong, but that she just wants to be alone. It was heartbreaking!

I was super discouraged. But after listening to some Saturday's Warrior I was able to get through it. 

So yea I’m not sure what’s going to happen with Dusty. But that was a huge challenge this week. She was so close! But I continue to pray for her daily and I have faith that she will get back on the covenant path hopefully soon. 

Irthdayberb

Yea so it was also my birthday yesterday! Weird stuff! I honestly totally forgot. Even during the day while doing missionary work I would forget haha. But that’s exciting. Elder Powell baked me a cake and his mom got me a shirt that says “It’s my birthday”. It’s only good to wear one day of the year haha but I wore it proudly.

Last Thoughts of Paris

I have really truly loved my time here in Paris. I have learned and grown so much. One thing I have definitely learned is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what makes people happy. 

Paris is a pretty lost town. The vast majority of the town seems to be pretty depressed. The only people I have talked to here that are happy with their lives are those who have a belief in Jesus Christ (whether or not they are a member of our church). 

The reality is folks, that choosing the right makes you happy and sinning makes you sad. And that goes for whether or not you are religious or anything like that. Happiness comes from obedience from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and sadness comes from disobedience. And that’s because our spirits long to progress, even if we feel that our bodies sometimes don’t. You will always be happiest as you are faithful. “Wickedness never was happiness”. Never forget that! And if you don’t feel bad yet for deliberately doing things contrary to the commandments of God, don’t worry. You will.

Alma the younger didn’t feel bad until the moment he realized he would have to stand in the presence of God, after which he said “the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror” (Alma 36:14). So just keep that in mind. 

But I absolutely love the Paris ward. We have incredible members and I would not have survived without their help. I am going to miss them all so much. My faith has grown as I have literally seen how the Gospel is spread far and wide. Good stuff is happening before the second coming of the Savior. But yea Paris will have a piece of my heart forever. I have loved my time here. 

Concluding remarks

I would like to end with a scripture I read this morning in my personal study that hit really hard. Alma the younger is talking to his kids about the importance of living the gospel in comparison with how Nephi used the Liahona to be guided to the promised land. (Alma 37:44-46). It’s good stuff-

“44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.

45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

46 O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.”

The journey can be rough you guys but the idea is simple. The Book of Mormon repeats this phrase all throughout it- “Inasmuch as ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land”. 

You don’t have to have a perfect knowledge! You don’t! You just gotta be faithful. 

I promise you guys with all the energy of my soul that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that. I don’t know a whole lot haha but that’s something that I do. We talk to people who are like “satan wrote that book” and it just cracks me up. The Book of Mormon persuades people to do good! It makes people happy! Just look at all the good it’s done in the world! So therefore, the source by which it came needs to be good as well, meaning Joseph Smith is a prophet, which means he saw what he said he saw, which means all of this is true and Jesus IS the Chirst!

I promise you guys in the name of Jesus Christ that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. 

Read, study, pray, and be faithful to the Gospel. As you go forward with faith, you will understand more

I could go on forever but I gotta hit up some spikeball and start some packing. But yup there’s my weekly. Hope you guys have a good one. Love you all tan mucho. 

Adios. 

I'm not a scammer (8 months today!)

 Sup weekly!

So not sure what’s been going on with my email but my weekly’s have been showing up in peoples spam saying that I’m “dangerous”. I’m not trying to scam you guys I promise. So yea sorry about that. 

But yea another week just absolutely flew by. I cannot believe how fast time is moving. I hit 8 months today! That’s just absolutely nuts. But yea this week was interesting so here you go. 

Logistical Stuff

Whoops

Dusty

Logistical Stuff

So I don’t have any super noteworthy stories unfortunately. Most of the week was just us talking to people about Jesus and them not wanting to talk to us haha. It was pretty fun though. One of my favorite parts of being a missionary is talking to strangers. I only wish I had more opportunities to do it. We were driving back home yesterday and I saw another tweaker walking so we pulled over and asked how he was doing. Poor tweaker was stunned about the whole situation. He also looked like he just had some pasta or something because his mouth had pasta stains haha. But yea he said no to hearing about Jesus but idk it was just really funny for some reason. 

But yea so lots of that this week. Also had some exchanges and some meetings and stuff. So nothing too exciting 

Whoops

We were meeting with a friend who needed us to help get some stickers off of their wall because they couldn’t do it without peeling the wall paint off. Well apparently we couldn’t either because it didn’t turn out too hot. I’ll attach a photo. But we tried our best and came back a couple days later with some wall fixing stuff so it’s all good. 

Dusty

In addition to people rejecting us, a very big portion of our time this week was spent inviting people to Dusty’s baptism tonight! So many people were coming and it was going to be so awesome. But, yesterday everything fell apart when she got tested positive for covid! It was an interesting moment. Me and Elder Powell were both just like “well that’s an oof”. We know she’ll get baptized eventually, but now she’s under quarantine for two weeks and transfers are next week, so that means that one of us won’t be here for the baptism. This is kinda tough because she really wanted us both to be here for it, and so did we. But Dusty is without question the best investigator I have ever taught on my mission and I know that she will push through.

But long story short, she is really sad right now because of the whole situation. So we called her yesterday and we read some scriptures with her and watched the Book of Mormon Tree of Life video. As we were watching it she started to stop crying. Then at the end of the video we were like “how do you feel?”. Then she said pretty calmly “well I don’t feel sad anymore”. 

That line just blew my mind haha. Because it’s so true! The gospel makes us “not feel sad anymore”. 

But yea I seriously love Dusty so much. I never really understood what people meant before by “love the people” but I think I do now. Earlier in my mission I was just so focused on not sending in 0-0-0-0 for key indicators that I kinda forgot the whole purpose of it all. Since I have stopped making the work about myself, I have become a different man. It’s good stuff!

Another thought I wanted to share…

I read this scripture yesterday and thought it was super profound. This goes to any of you guys that are struggling spiritually and don’t think you know if this Gospel is true. It’s in a revelation directed to Oliver Cowdry after he’s questioning yet again whether or not the Book of Mormon he’s been writing from Joseph Smith's dictation is true. D&C 18:2-

“Behold, I have manifested unto you, by my Spirit in many instances, that the things which you have written are true; wherefore you know that they are true”

This gave me goosebumps when I read it. The number of times that God has impressed upon my heart by the spirit that these things are all true is innumerable. And we have all had that experience as well. But, because we’re human, we forget these things. 

Never forget it! It’s true! Don’t forget it! You can have questions but don’t give up on the Savior. Just be faithful, keep the commandments, and in time it will all make sense to you!

I bear my testimony to you guys that the Book of Mormon is true. Don’t ask yourself weird and unimportant questions. Just ask yourself if the Book of Mormon is true and every other question gets answered. 

Okay y’all hope you have a great week. Email me if you so desire

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

-I got some cool frozone type glasses

-my brother Joseph is dating a woman and she is bowler so that's a relief

-cool pic of the sunset I took

-Elder Wride

This Weeks Weekly

Hey howdy hey y'all

This week was rough. Or as the people here in Paris spell it, “ruff”

Dusty!

A big highlight for this week and my mission so far has been Dusty. She is amazing! You can tell the gospel has totally clicked with her, which has been my prayer for 8 months so it’s nice to see some progress there haha. She said she’s not waking up mad anymore, she’s smiling more, and life is just so much better. That was super cool to hear, because our first lesson she mentioned how she wished she could have the same bright countenance she see’s reflected in members of our church, and we promised her that as she moved forward with the gospel, other people would see that same light in her. Since then she has told us that multiple people have remarked to her about how different and happy she seems. She was on date for March 20th but since then asked if we could do it sooner. She is ready!

Church Callings

So in one of our lessons with Dusty we were teaching her about church callings and we mentioned how God will use her talents to help build his kingdom. Then she started going off about how much she loves animals and in my head I was like “shoot we don’t have any callings for animal loving people”. Then, I realized that we do. I was like, 

“Ya know, Dusty, we have this part of the church called ‘Primary’. Your love for animals just might come in handy.”. 

Ruff Week

Yea so I don’t know exactly what’s going on with me but it’s been ruff lately. I’m just kinda mad. I’ll wake up in the morning and just think “what is the point of this”. And same thing when I go to bed. Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time trying to share the gospel with nobody that wants to listen. I also just really wish we could go tracting. I fell in love with knocking doors doing summer sales haha and it would be so awesome. I just want to get OUT and yea.

So yea it’s been “ruff”. Reading in D&C 6 though helped a lot. Especially the last verse. Just remembering that I just need to be faithful and obedient right now, and eventually things will work out.

So that’s my week haha. The mission is full of ups and downs. But at the same time, there is literally no where I would rather be (besides the DR). My family sends me funny videos of them hanging out and I love and miss them, but at the same time, I truly have no desire whatsoever to be home. My biggest desire since day one of being a missionary is for God to make this mission every good thing it’s capable of being. Sometimes it just feels like I’m the only one trying idk.

But yea it’s all good I will come back like I always do haha. Love you all and never hesitate to email me if you so choose.

Ciao

-Elder Wride

(Last Weeks Weekly)

 This is my email for last week. I sent it out but my phone glitched out big time for some reason and it didn't actually send. So here ya go

-------------------------------------------

Mar 1st -

Hey tweakers

I don’t have a lot of time this week because I’m tryna hit up some spikeball (pro) right now haha 

Muscle Man

Bounce Skrrt Dip

Lil Spiritual Moment

Other Stuff

Muscle Man

We were doing service at this store and the door got jammed and nobody could open it. Then I took my 15 pounder bowling arm and yanked it open like a piece of cake. The lady there now calls me “muscle man” on occasion haha. I was on an exchange with Elder Lewis at the time and he always makes fun of me for being “weak” so it was a happy moment for me. He tried to tell the lady who thinks I’m shredded that I have tiny arms but she’s mostly deaf so she couldn’t hear him. So it was good! I was pleased. 

Bounce Skrrt Dip

So our very good friend Dusty is progressing fantastically and accepted an invitation to be baptized on March 20th! Two days before transfers and two days before my birthday haha. The other day we were in a lesson with her and at the end of the lesson I told her that we had to “bounce”, not remembering that the older generation isn’t familiar with that language. She was big time confused but I explained to her that it just meant we had to leave. She was still confused so I bounced on the couch like a trampoline for a better visual. 

Another day instead of saying that we had to “bounce” I said we had to “dip” and she was confused again haha. Not sure how to explain it this time I just told her to think of dipping a chip into some queso and then you pull it out of the dip, therefore, you “dip”. Right there I figured I might as well explain all the other slang terms like “skrrt” and “yeet” and stuff haha. Anyways so that was good I guess!

Lil Spiritual Moment

We were in a lesson with a lady who we have been trying to visit for ever. We don’t want to stop coming but she’s kinda been ignoring us and it’s been really hard to contact her. One night, we just decided to try and see her again, and she answered! We talked to her about stuff she’s going through and she opened up saying that God hasn’t seemed to answer her prayers despite how many times she prays for help. Then I was like,

“When was the last time you prayed for God to send you help?”

“Right after dinner” she said. 

“What time did we knock on your door?”

You could see the wheels start turning in her head and through tears laughed and said “a few minutes after I prayed” . It was just a cool moment realizing that God most often answers our prayers through others. I don’t doubt for a second that the gospel is the key to her problems. The only issue as of now is helping her see that. 

Other Stuff

Missions are really hard you guys! But they are also super fun. I laugh a lot but I also feel like a total failure most of the time too haha. It’s a constant struggle between the Lord and the natural man inside of me, but I am sincerely doing the best I can and I have complete confidence that the Lord will fulfil his promises and do what he said he will do. It’s such a trying experience that I love and am so grateful for. I am setting the foundation for the rest of my life out here. 

We had a zoom call with the youth to talk about our missions, and only being out like 8 months I didn’t really know what to say, so I just told it to 'em straight and was like “they are really hard and you’re going to struggle the whole time”. I’m not sure they liked that answer haha. Mostly because one kiddo didn’t mute himself accidentally so I heard him tell his mom “did you hear him? He said if you go on a mission you will struggle the whole time!” haha. But yea it’s totally true. But it’s all good because there’s no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone. I have dreams occasionally where I’m near the end of my mission and I get super depressed haha. I know that when the time comes I won’t want to leave. And I do feel that way now. It’s hard and stuff but really I have no desire to be anywhere else (except maybe the DR). I am SO grateful the Lord has sent me here to learn these things. I really do love being a missionary even if I don’t always realize it. 

I’ve also started reading the book “Saints: Volume 1” again and I absolutely love it. This church is so true and the work is so real! Grateful that I can make this my focus 24/7.

So folks, just remember that Jesus Christ lives and he is your savior. Please don’t forget how important this all is. Nothing will bring you greater satisfaction than living this Gospel. 

I love you guys so much. There’s just one exception (you know who you are). Haha jk I love you all TAN MUCHO.

And there really is a ton of other stuff going down out here but I don’t have time or motivation to tell it to you haha. But the mission is definitely making me a better man. 

Hope you have a great week and stuff

CIAO