pretty exciting week

Hey guys! This week was pretty great actually. Me Elder Pugsley and Elder Hess are having a good time here. I’ve really lucked out with all my companions. 

Old Lady

So we went to this rest home again and played piano for the people there. It’s a lot of fun! This one old lady came up and started talking to me and Elder Hess a lot while Elder Pugsley was playing piano. She started trying to hold my hand and stuff and tried to dance with me haha. Then she asked me and Elder Hess if we had girlfriends. The answer should have been no, but we said yes out of fear. Then she was like “alright I gotta go. Bye” and left.

More Priesthood power

We had some other cool priesthood experiences this week. One member has had some really bad back pains. We gave him a blessing and when we saw him the next week he said that his back was fine the next morning. Pretty neat!

We had another member who was going into a surgery that was supposed to be pretty serious. All of her family and the doctors were telling her she shouldn’t do it because there was good chance she would die during it. But she decided to go through with it anyway, only after getting a priesthood blessing. We blessed her that her body would be able to be strong during the surgery and that it would work out. It was a bit nerve racking to hear those words when everything else was saying otherwise. But it worked out! She got through the surgery okay. 

Church!

The biggest miracle of the week was that we had four of our friends come to church in person this week! Mark, Chuck, Heavanah, and Jennifer. Jennifer is still good for her baptismal date. During the entire church service she was crying. Especially during the sacrament. It’s so fulfilling as a missionary to see someone feel the joy that comes from living the gospel. 

And it was so great to see our friend Heavanah at church!! We’ve had someone ready to give her a ride the past two weeks but when we show up at 8:30 in the morning she never comes to the door. So during one of our lessons this week we asked what we could do to help her wake up. She mentioned that the window on the west side of the house is where her bed is. So we were like “if you don’t come to the door again on Sunday morning, can we come to the window and blow our bike horn?”. 

Flashback - a couple weeks ago we were doing service at this place and Elder Pugsley found a bike horn thing and kept scaring me with it. So I bought it and we’ve been using it to scare each other when we least expect it. So we thought it would be a perfect incentive to help Heavanah wake up on time for church. 

Anyways, Sunday came, and before we could even knock she texted us saying that she was ready. We talked to her a little more later and she said that the fear of the horn going off is what got her up. Pretty good stuff!

But yea church was so great. Me and Elder Pugsley both gave talks and it was just super fulfilling to see all of these friends we’ve been working with there together. I’m going to miss Litchfield.

Elder Christofferson
Yesterday we had a devotional with Elder D. Todd Christofferson and our mission. It was great. Especially since he used to live in my home ward. He is really an apostle of the Lord. I remember in elementary school after I had sprained my foot and was walking home on crutches, he was outside of his house on the phone. When he saw me walking he told the person he was talking to to hang on for a sec and then he asked me how I was doing. It was forever ago but I still remember that.

One of the things he said last night that really hit me was about the people we teach. He said “they may not be baptized, but they can at least know that your message is true”.

I loved that so much. I’ve seen this pattern several times on my mission where we teach someone and I know that they know the message we’re sharing is true. The spirit touches these people and they start to change their lives through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, after so many spiritual moments and the confirmation of the spirit telling them that this is the path God wants them to take, they choose to walk away from it all. It absolutely breaks my heart. But at least they know that what I taught them is true!

There was another cool story Elder Christofferson shared about a returned missionary. Following his mission, he gradually stopped doing things like reading his scriptures daily, going to church, praying, etc., and eventually he was filled with doubts about the church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He went to his former mission president (Apostle M. Russel Ballard) with a list of questions that he wanted answers too. Elder Ballard said-

“When was the last time you read the Book of Mormon? When was the last time you went to church? When was the last time that you prayed? I want you to come back into my office in two weeks. I will have answers to all of your questions, but I want you to read from the Book of Mormon every day until then.”

So the returned missionary came back two weeks later after having studied from the Book of Mormon every day. Elder Ballard had answers to his questions and was ready to talk about them, but the guy said “just forget about all of those questions. They don’t matter.”. He had gotten his testimony back.

Just another cool testament of the power of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is true! 

So that’s basically it for this week! I hope you’re all doing wonderfully and are having good lives. Love and miss you all. Never hesitate to email me if you’re bored

See ya!

- Elder Wride

Weekly

 Hello again everybody. This week was exciting.

So yea we’re in a trio now which is pretty exciting. They new Elders name is Elder Hess. He’s a pretty new missionary so it’s been fun for me and Elder Pugsley. There are a lot of inside jokes that he doesn’t get but he rolls with it pretty well. We also totally forgot to tell him about ferb latin. In the car the other day he was like “whats up with you guys suddenly speaking to each other in tongues?”.

We had less lessons this week but the ones we had were super good. One was with this lady named Donna who we met a while ago at a thrift store. We had a really powerful lesson with her just about the Book of Mormon and stuff and she loved it! She told us that from the minute she met us that we glow and she knew that our message was true even before we shared it. So that was pretty cool.

Another lesson that was just so good was with Jennifer yesterday. We started off reading with her where she was at in the Book of Mormon. We answered her questions and she was taking tons of notes. It was way sweet. Then we felt prompted to show her a short clip of Joseph Smith’s first vision. At that point the spirit was super strong. During the video she was gasping a ton and it was just perfect!

Then we felt really prompted to watch another video on temples. If you haven’t seen it, you need to go watch it. It’s a tour of the rome italy temple given by Elder Ronald Rasband and Elder David Bednar. During the video she was gasping a ton again and it was awesome. Then at the part when they talked about baptisms for the dead, she was like “REALLY!?” and it was SO good!!

The part that really got us all was when it showed the celestial room in the temple. At this point, Jennifer just started sobbing and was crying uncontrollably during the rest of the video. At the end of it, we all just sat there in silence. All of us were in tears. We asked her what her feelings were and she said through her tears “That is truly the house of the Lord. I can’t believe I’ve never known about this until now.”. 

And then the line that broke my heart. She said, “I have wasted all my life”.

We talked some more about it and it was really spiritual but also sad. She is so sad that she hasn’t found the gospel until now and feels like she’s wasted her life. We told her that her life isn’t a waste and that the Lord has been preparing her to receive the Gospel in its fullness. 

Seeing how heartbroken she was to see a temple for the first time and realize that she’s never been able to go there also made me a little upset with people who take advantage of the gospel. Me included at times. It’s just so frustrating to see how much the Lord has blessed some of us and how little it seems like we show our gratitude for it. Like for all of us in Utah, there are temples everywhere. I know they’ve been closed for a while, but are we really taking full advantage of the blessings there when they’re available? 

And it also breaks my heart to see great people let secondary questions shake everything that they know to be good and true. I just wish we could all appreciate more fully how blessed we have been to have the gospel in our lives and focus on the big and important things instead of the small and insignificant ones.

So at the end of the lesson we asked Jennifer if she would like to go to the temple someday. She said she didn’t feel worthy but that she would like to go. So we invited her to be baptized and pursue the path that will lead her there. She said she would. So yea hopefully Jennifer will be baptized on our set date! I feel pretty confident about it. 

That’s all I’m gonna write for today. But just remember how good the gospel is and how lucky all of us are to have it! And if you aren’t a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you gotta go talk to the missionaries near you. Do it!

Also shout out to @Corey Wride for being the best father and for having a birthday. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the man he’s helped and continues to help me become. 

Alright bye

11 Months Tomorrow - I ran into a car door at my top speed

 Hey guys! Hope you’re all doing good. This week was quite nice. Hope you are all having a good time in your own lives as well. Let me know how things are going!

Litchfield Police Continued

So last week I talked about how the police dept here isn’t very fond of me because of how often I’ve gone over and asked them to help me with my visa for the Dominican Republic. The last words they said to me were to “go to the Dominican Republic and never come back” haha. So you can imagine how freaked out I was when I got an email from the church saying that I needed to redo my police letter because it wasn’t done right. Me and Elder Pugsley tried to talk ourselves out of having to see the police again but eventually realized that we had no choice. On our drive there we listened to depressing music about the afterlife knowing that I may not come out alive. We got there and before we even had the chance to explain ourselves the policeman came out, looked at me, pointed at the door, and said “get out.”.

Haha jk that didn’t happen. It was totally fine. There was a different police officer anyways so we didn’t end up bothering the same guy again. They reprinted the thing and gave it to me. It was pretty fun! The Litchfield Police department is actually quite awesome. We’re probably gonna bring them donuts right before I fly out.

Car Door

This was a pretty epic story! So last P-day, I ran into a car door. We had just parked the car outside of our zone leader’s place where we were gonna have dinner. Because it was raining so bad, I sprinted as fast as I could to get shelter. While I was sprinting, I was in the middle of passing by Elder Goodmans car door (don’t worry elder it wasn’t your fault <3) when suddenly the door came open (he was trying to get inside as fast as he could too) and I ran right into it. It mostly just impacted my right side but I was in a lot of pain. My entire right arm was dead and I couldn’t move it all. My wrist too instantly started swelling and I couldn’t move that either. Things were looking pretty bad. We called our mission nurse and sent her pictures of my arm and wrist. She said to go to the ER asap because my wrist may have been broken and if it was, it needed to be checked out as soon as possible so it could heal right.

Cool thing is though, me and the Elders here hold the priesthood of God! So before we went to the ER I asked the Elders in our district to give me a blessing. The blessing wasn’t anything crazy. It just said that I would be able to accept whatever news the hospital gives me and that I’ll be able to continue doing the Lord's work.

So we went to the ER and I walked up and was like “heyyyy so I ran into a car door....”. Anyways they took me into this room and checked my heart rate. For some reason when they hooked me up to it it started beeping really loud and faster and I was freaking out for a sec. So the guy just turned off the machine haha. 

Anyways they took me into the X-ray room. This was probably like 30 minutes after getting the priesthood blessing. I looked down at my wrist and saw that the swollen wrist was almost non-existent. It was wild! And while they were doing the X-ray I was just looking all along my arm and yea it was bruised pretty bad but I could move it and the swelling was almost nothing compared to what it was.

After the X-ray me and Elder Pugsley were both there waiting for the results and we were both just freaking out because I could move my arm totally fine! We were both really grateful. And sure enough the lady came back and said that there is no fracture or anything. It was such a big miracle! I was certain that my wrist was probably broken, and if not broken at least fractured. And I was in so much pain before. I couldn’t move it, lift it or anything. I even had to get the other Elders to help button my shirt for me haha. And then an hour later, it was just a bruise! Afterwards we said a prayer of thanks for fixing my arm. It was a neat experience. 

The Priesthood

Going along with that, I just wanted to say that my testimony of priesthood power is getting a lot stronger. We give people priesthood blessings all the time. I have grown to really love giving those blessings.

That’s one thing my last companion Elder Petrucka taught me really well. I remember when we were at a friend of ours and gave him a blessing. I ended up doing the blessing and I don’t know why, but it almost seemed like the spirit was absent from it. I was trying so hard to make it good, but my words didn’t carry the spirit because I was forgetting whose blessing it really was. It was the Lords, not mine. Then right after this we went to a members home and the dad asked for a blessing. Elder Petrucka gave it. It was just a couple short sentences. But by the end, everyone in the room seemed to be emotional. Elder Petrucka looked at the member, pretty aware of how short and simple the blessing was and said kinda apologetically “I was expecting it to be longer, but that’s all that I felt prompted to say.”. That really struck me. 

Since then, I have always tried to remember whose blessings they are. I listen harder than I ever have for the spirit to impress on my heart and mind what I should say. I know that I am a worthy holder of the priesthood, so that means I am entitled to the Lord's power when one of His children wants/needs a blessing. 

But yea we gave lots of blessings this week especially. In one blessing we gave to the member who is in the rest home, there were some things said that I really pondered during and after. It was something along the lines of “I know that sometimes it feels like God isn’t there, and he doesn’t care. But I promise you, although it is difficult to comprehend, the Lord is aware of you on a very personal level. Surely He who is aware of all that happens in the world is just as concerned and aware of the trials and feelings of one of His faithful sons”.

But yea the priesthood is super cool! Another cool experience was when we gave a priesthood blessing to a member who’s husband we’re teaching had to get part of his foot amputated. We gave her a blessing of strength and promised her that he would be back at her side sooner than she thinks. Then we got a call a few days later that now in addition to him losing his foot, his brain collapsed or something and he went unconscious and was sent up to Springfield for emergency care. I heard that and was like “well that’s awkward. Guess he’s gonna be gone a while”. But then all of the sudden he just went back into good health as fast as he had lost it and was back home sooner than any of us thought. Pretty cool! The Lord really does fulfil his promises! But it seems like he always does it in a way we don’t expect. I think he does it that way because he wants to see how we will handle the pressure of a situation where it looks like none of His promises will be fulfilled. And then right at the moment when it seems like all is lost, he comes and fulfills his word. But we will never see that he fulfills his promises unless we push through the hardest part with faithfulness. We receive no witness until after the trial of our faith (Ether 12:6). It’s just pretty cool! 

Piano stuff

Another cool thing was when we were visiting a member who is in a rest home. After our lesson we went out to the lobby and saw a piano. So we asked the lady there if we could play some music for the people there. And we did! It was pretty cool because back in high school me and Elder Pugsley would go and play piano at another rest home down there. It gave us both flashbacks. So we both took turns playing piano for these guys. I started off and there wasn’t anyone listening yet. Then Elder Pugsley whispered behind me. I looked at him, and he pointed up. I looked up and there was this old lady staring right at me from the balcony and it scared me at first haha but it was great. 

Elder Pugsley then played “I am a child of God” and a bunch of other really moving pieces. The member who we had taught came out to listen. By the time we were done all of the old people were crying. It was a great experience.

Jennifer

One of the greatest lessons this week was with a really awesome lady named Jennifer. We found her while visiting people whose addresses we have. She was happy to meet with us and we taught her the restoration. It was probably the best restoration lesson we have ever taught! She had the best reactions ever. She would gasp at the perfect parts and then when we finished telling her one thing she would be like “then what happened??”. It was SO good! During the lesson too she started to look pretty annoyed and was like “why hasn’t anybody ever told me this before!? I’ve been looking all my life.”. It was just a super spirit filled lesson and yet another testament to me that the work I’m doing is real. 

Austin

We had a great lesson with Austin this week. We’ve been out of touch for a while but we finally got something scheduled. We talked to him more about the Book of Mormon and how much it would bless his life. At the end of our lesson he told us that we blow his mind every time we visit with him. It was great! He said he would pray about if he should be baptized. 

Shawn and John

We had another great lesson with Shawn and Johnathon this week. They are so cool. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ but it took nearly two hours to get through the whole thing because of all of the questions they had. 

One of the coolest parts was during the lesson when Shawn interrupted and was like “alright, I can’t hold this question in any longer. But how long have you guys known each other!? I feel like there’s some deeper connection there. Like when one of you talks the other one seems to know exactly what they’re gonna say and then when one of you is done talking the other one is ready and it’s like you already know exactly how the other person is working. You just seem to work together and know each other super well”. I’m paraphrasing but that’s basically what he said. So to answer his question I pulled up a video I had saved on my phone of me and “Truman” in high school recording an ad for our bowling club. Jonathan and Shawn both went nuts about it. It was a good time. But it was cool to see how the Lord has used our connection to help other people come closer to Christ. We almost invited them to be baptized but decided to wait a bit longer. This week we’re gonna watch the restoration movie with them and it’s gonna be a good time! 

Transfer News

We got a call from our housing people yesterday that we are going to be put in a trio! So tomorrow me and Elder Pugsley will drive to St. Louis and pick up the new guy. It’s gonna be a good time. It will only be a trio for like 3 weeks though because Elder Pugsley is flying to Mexico on July 6th. But yea it’s exciting. 

Spiritual Thought

Just wanted to share another short testimony about the Book of Mormon. It is so true you guys! I can’t see how any intelligent person could come to the conclusion that it didn’t come forth the way Joseph Smith said it did. If you read it, you will understand!! It’s true! It’s the foundation of everything else I know!

I could leave the church and try my hardest to forget every spiritual experience I’ve had, but I could never deny the power of the Book of Mormon. And I see that time and time again with people we talk to. Even if they are struggling spiritually and question if they have a place in the restored Church of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon isn’t really the issue. And it’s because it’s true!

If you have a sincere question about the gospel, just ask yourself if the Book of Mormon can still be true with that question/problem in mind. The answer will always be yes. Just do some praying and studying and you’ll see that it all checks out!

But yea that’s our week here in Litchfield! I love all of you guys! My inbox is always open. 

Adios!

- Elder Ethan Wride

Pretty eventful week

 Hey guys!

This week felt like it was 5 minutes long but so much happened. 

Two Females

This story is pretty scary. So me and Elder Pugsley went to the lake by our house to do some street contacting. Nobody was even there, except for one car. So we decided to just skip rocks for a few minutes and then head out. While we were skipping rocks, we saw two girls our age come out of the car that was there. We always wave to people, so we waved at them. They started to giggle. I was like “ohhhh boy” so me and Elder Pugsley decided to go. We got in our car, and then out of nowhere, the two girls pulled up right next to us. My heart stopped.

They rolled down the window and were like “heyyyyyy what are you guys doing”. So we were like “uhhhhhh we’re missionaries”. They were giggling a lot and it was pretty nerve racking. So we decided to scare them away and teach them a short lesson about the Restoration.  

Long story short, we were both pretty shook. Why couldn’t something like this have happened while we were in highschool?

Anyways, we eventually coordinated a time for them, us, and our zone leaders to have a lesson at our church. It was a really awkward lesson. At the end they texted us asking if we were mormons and have multiple wives. I’ll attach a picture of the conversation. 

Anyways it was just a really funny experience for some reason. Just thought I’d share

Police

So, I finally got word a little while ago that I can submit my Dominican Republic visa application! But it’s been super confusing. To sum it up, I’ve been going to the same police station here in town a bunch trying to figure it out. I probably went in about 10 times and talked to the same guy each time. And for some reason, literally nobody knew what I was talking about. But I had nowhere else to go so I would just go back and try to rephrase it in a way that they would understand. After a few days I was able to get an Elder who had already done it to send me a picture of what his police form looks like. When I showed it to the officer he was like “well shoot (didn’t say shoot) I can do that”. Finally they got me the stuff I needed and on the way out the officer was like “Elder, I want you to go to the Dominican Republic and NEVER COME BACK”. I think he was mostly joking but I’m actually not totally sure. But it’s all good because now my visa is submitted!

Exchanges

This week our zone leaders told us that they would be coming down to Litchfield for an exchange. We were both super excited and wanted to tidy up the place. So before we went to bed the night before the exchange, we made everything look nice, decorated our apartment with lights, and decorated a sign that said “Welcome ZL’s to Litchfield! We love you!”. The next morning we called them to see what time they were gonna be there and they told us that they are actually going to have to cancel the exchange because of other stuff. We were heartbroken. 

We had a zone zoom call that night after hours to talk but me and Elder Pugsley were too sad. So during the zoom call we sat on the couch holding the sign that we had made. The ZL’s saw the sign and apparently it broke their hearts so they surprised us the next day and came for an exchange. It was a miracle. 

Funerals

This week was really awesome but it was also pretty sad. We had two active members of our branch pass away unexpectedly. So on wednesday we went to the funeral for one of them. Although it was really sad, I felt a lot of peace. I had many spiritual witnesses that she and all of us will be resurrected in a coming day. It was really sad on Saturday to hear about the passing of the 1st counselor in the branch. He’s been so good to us and will be missed dearly. During fast and testimony meeting there were a lot of thoughts on his passing. 

The really cool thing was that the wife of the man who died bore her testimony as well. She said that people were surprised to see her at church today. Her response was “where else would I be? On Sundays, I go to church.”. It was just such a powerful thing. She is grieving, but her conversion to the gospel is so strong that she came to church anyways. The gospel is awesome. But please keep the Litchfield branch family in your prayers!

THE WORK OF SALVATION

This week I’ve seen a lot of good things the Lord has done for us missionaries. We’ve had super elect people this week just walk right into us and it’s been incredible. Especially after several weeks of virtually no progression with our friends. Here are a few cool ones.

1. We were walking out of a lesson and waved to the cars that drove by (like we always do). So we waved at this one car and the guy pulled over, rolled down his window and was like, “yea what’s up”. We were like “uhhhh” but went with it. We got his information and have a lesson with him this week! And he seems pretty interested. Super cool.

2. As we were driving home the other day we felt prompted to go talk to a guy we saw sitting on the side of the street. So we parked and went to talk to him. He ended up not being interested but we were looking for dinner anyways so we walked into the Dominos that was right next to us. We walked in, and one of the pizza workers looked at us and shouted “can I hear about Jesus Christ?”. We thought he was just mocking us at first but he’s actually super elect and wants to talk with us. He’s really into religion but isn’t associated with one right now and wants to learn more. So we have a lesson with him this week. Pretty sweet!

3. We had just finished doing a service project at this place and as we were walking out we said “how are you” to a lady walking by. She instantly stopped and said something like “I’m all good thanks to Jesus!” and then started talking to us. She seems pretty elect too! Like really! She said that we have a glow about us and we really stick out. She wants to meet with us and we have a lesson with her this week. Pretty niceeeeee

4. We went to visit someone we’re teaching who has kind of been ghosting us. She was home which was great and we were able to meet with her on her porch for a few minutes. We noticed that there were two grown men inside (two of her sons) and we asked if they’d be interested. She said no, but we both felt prompted to still try something. So we asked if we could try anyways and she said sure. 

The two guys names are Johnathon and Shawn. They are ELECTTTT!!! We sat down and Jon was like “yea I’m ready to hear whatever you have to say”. He had seen the Book of Mormon musical and had a lot of questions haha. So we taught him and Shawn the restoration and it was such a spirit filled lesson. We both taught and testified, and you could feel the spirit move them. At the end they were like “wow, you guys are nothing like we thought you would be. You’re like….normal people!”. Then we decided to be funny and were like “just wait, we haven’t done our ritual dance yet”. They thought that was pretty funny. Elder Pugsley said that we left our maracas in the car and would have to go grab them. Ha!

5. Chuck is doing great too. We did some yard work for him this week and then had a sit down discussion with him. He says he feels like the Book of Mormon is true, but he’s a bit nervous to ask God because he’s afraid the answer will be yes. But he gave us his word that he would pray about it so we’re super excited for him.

There are some other lessons and stuff we had that were actually really good but those are some of the highlights!

Mission Life

We had a zoom call yesterday with the whole mission for departing testimonies. I was teary eyed the whole time. Missions really change people. Me and Elder Pugsley both were super emotional during Elder Powell’s testimony. I was with him for three transfers and Elder Pugsley was trained by him. It’s pretty awesome how much the mission makes you love people more. Reminds me of a poem I heard this week about mission life in general. Here it is-

A mission is a strange experience

It is a trial and a test

A mission throws at you the worst

Yet, teaches you the best

I’ve never been so happy

I’ve never been so depressed

I’ve never felt so forsaken

I’ve never felt so blessed

I’ve never been so confused

Things have never been so clear

I’ve never felt my Heavenly Father so distant

He’s never been so near

I’ve never been so discouraged

I’ve never been so full of hope

I feel like I could go on for forever

I think I’ve come to the end of my rope

I’ve never had it quite so easy

I’ve never had it quite so tough

Things have never been so smooth

Things have never been so rough

I’ve never traveled through more valleys

I’ve never ascended more peaks

I’ve never met so many nice people

I’ve never met so many freaks

I’ve never had so many ups

I’ve never had so many downs

I’ve never worn so many smiles

I’ve never had so many frowns

I’ve never been so lonely

I’ve never had so many friends

Boy, I hope this is over soon

Gosh, I hope this never ends

Love you guys! The gospel is true! 

- Elder Wride