Drink the beer bro!

This week was actually pretty good! So here you go. 

Wendy's in the Dominican Republic!?

Huge miracle this week. Our church is like an hour walk away, but on the bright side, it is right next to a Wendy's. Pretty crazy. So we went there after district council and it was crazy. I don't know if this is a thing in the US, but they have churro fries. I almost passed out. So I got some with a vanilla frosty. I took a picture of it too because I was so happy. I was also super excited/shaking so the photo is kinda blurry. But the churro frosty was super good. Tears almost came from my eyes. It has been so long since I had something that good. Really expensive though. One Wendy's meal cost me like 4 normal meals but whatever! 

Mi Compañero

My comp and I have figured things out so it's going much better. Instead of being annoyed by things he does, I am deciding to think it's funny, which it actually kind of is. For example, in a lesson he asked the family if they are a part of Boy Scouts of America. I was like "uhhh, Élder. America?". It was funny. He also got a friend request the other day on Facebook from an obvious fake account. It had been created like 1 hour ago and the fake woman tried messaging him over messenger saying something like "hello，andrew". He asked me about it and I told him it was a fake account. Then he was like, "but it says she's from New York?". Haha it was good. I did Facebook finding for like a year. I know these kind of things.

Also there are a bunch of ants in our apartment and my comp went nuts and started killing them all really aggressively with his shoes. Then he quoted Anakins line from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. 

"they're animals, so I slaughtered them like animals… I hate them!!!". My pre-mission humor probably wouldn't have thought that was funny but I thought it was the funniest thing ever. 

But overall, the comp is good. People are always better than you think they are. There's a quote I heard once that says something like "there's not anybody you wouldn't love if you could read their story". So there ya go. 

Beer Guys

As we were walking the other day we saw a white dude. So I was like "hey, you speak english?". He said yea and we had a good talk to him. Apparently his whole family lives in New York but are also dominican, so they are super fluent in spanish and english. Their english has a huge new york accent which was super weird to hear, but they also have a total dominican accent when they speak spanish. It was weird. As we were talking to this group of guys they were like, "you want some blue moons?". I was like "uhhh no thanks". Then the guy grabbed some out of the nearby cooler and was like "broooo take the beer broooo". Me and my comp were both just like "uhhh no". It was weirdly aggressive. They kept insisting for like a minute just going "broooo drink the beer!" and one guy literally shoved the beer in my hand. They told us to drink it. It was just kinda funny. Like dude, I've been on a no-beer streak for going on 20 years. I'm not gonna drink it. But I still had the beer in my hands so I was like, "I'm just gonna throw it away" so they took it back. But it was... weird.                                                               

"I am a Monkey"

There was a group of kids we met who started to use some profane english words to us. I don't know who taught them these words, but it was sad to hear. So I asked them if they wanted to learn some more profane words in english. They were super anxious to hear it. I then told them that one of the most profane phrases in the english language is "I am a monkey". I told them that they weren't allowed to say it because of how offensive it is, but it was no use. They were super excited and ran around saying to each other "I am a monkey!", thinking that instead they were calling each other profane things. It was kinda funny. I enjoyed it. But don't worry I told them the next time we stopped by what it actually meant.

The Area

I am really liking the area now. The top part of our area is pretty poor and crazy like Navarrete but the bottom and top left part are all super rich people. So it's a fun mix of people. I was still really annoyed by the nice grocery store and tried to go to the poorer one last week, but then I realized that that is dumb. The nice place has good food. And it's actually cheaper. So we are shopping there and I am enjoying it. I hope I will start to gain weight again. Which will be great. I started MTC at 135, then went to 175 my whole time in Missouri, and now I'm 155.

Rip Navarrete

Anyways, I had a nice flashback this week of my time in Navarrete. We were at the mission office and I talked to a brand new missionary sister who said she was going to Navarrete. I told her I had just been there and she asked me about it. I then shared the following story. I never shared in my weekly because I didn't want to scare anyone. But I'm not there anymore so I'm gonna share it!

We were coming home late and the power went out again haha. So on our way home it was pretty sketchy. As we were walking, we heard some gunshots from behind us. They sounded closer than normal, so we turned around and saw that where we had just been walking, there were a bunch of people making noise and part of the street was on fire. So we started to walk faster haha. Then as we were walking a guy on a motorcycle with a gun and a mask covering his whole face pulled up and was like “you guys gotta get outta here”. So we walked a lot faster haha. 

The sister looked totally terrified. I felt dumb for telling her that realizing that it probably didn't help her not feel homesick but then tried to hurry and make up for it by telling her about all the good stuff. But don't worry she'll be fine! Navarrete is a good place. 

Pero Vs. Niño

While out and about this week we heard some screams from behind us. We turned around and saw a kid riding on his bike, being chased by a dog. He was screaming for help, but no help was coming. Haha. I felt like a superhero kind of, and ran at the dog. And I scared him off. It was epic. As the kid was riding away he turned around and was like "gracias señor!". And I saluted him. It was pretty epic. 

La Obra del Señor

We have found some super elect people. Here are a couple of them! 

Madelin and Dionoso

The very first person I contacted here was Madelin. She was mildly interested so we got her number. We did a lesson over the phone but then fell out of contact. Then we ended up accidentally walking by her house when she was outside, so we met with her and her husband. They are elect! We taught the restoration our first time, and when we came back for our second visit we saw that they were both sitting at their dinner table together reading the Book of Mormón with notes and everything. Totally warmed my heart. In our second visit we taught the Plan of Salvation, and they were so excited to hear it. We would tell them a gospel principle and they would look at each other with a "wow" expression. It was great! I get so annoyed with people who we teach them something crazy like that they lived before they were born and they seem totally unphased by it. But this couple reacted to everything so perfectly. The husband said that he wants to be baptized in behalf of his dad. So they are awesome! 

Alberto and Sairbel

This family was found by my last comp Élder Laureano a week before I got here. He said they were walking and he felt the spirit super strongly tell him to go talk to a guy outside his house. He turned to his comp at the time and asked if he felt the same, so they went and talked to Alberto García. Him and his wife are insanely elect. He  was apparently baptized as a kid but we can't find his records so he will probably have to be baptized again. But we have taught them everything and they are coming to church every week so I am really happy about that. They are also cruising through the Book of Mormón so that's great. 

Amilkin and Larisa

Another elect family! We saw him outside his house and started talking to him. To be brief, we found him this week and he's already been to church. In our third lesson he asked us what the difference between the aaronic and melchizedek Priesthood is, which was super cool. We haven't even talked about that so he's definitely been doing his own research. 

Bruno

We found Bruno street contacting too. He's 23 and also pretty elect. Honestly I don't know what else to say about him other than that he's elect. So it's good. 

Spiritual Thought #1

As a missionary I feel like I have "many revelations daily" like the scriptures say. Sometimes it blows my mind how much I'm learning. I hope I'm not too weird when I get back. But my biggest epiphany of this week was that life would be so much better if everybody just did what they said they would do. 

Of the dozens and dozens of people this week that we invited to church. Most of them committed to coming. My companion was excited to see all these people there but was surprised when I told him that we'll be lucky to get 1% of those people to actually come. And of all those people, 5 people came. Which is still great, but why can't people just do what they commit to doing? I looked these people directly in the eyes and asked if they would come to church, and they said yes. With a lot of them I kinda knew right off the bat they wouldn't come, but I don't know why they say that they'll come if they won't. 

As I was feeling frustrated at these people for not keeping commitments, I had the thought of "are you going to do what you said you would do?". Really I'm kind of the same way. I have committed to do a lot of things and live a lot of commandments, and I know they are right. But it's hard to keep those commitments sometimes. But when I do, life does become a lot easier. I am thankful for a Savior, who when he came to the earth didn't shrink from what he promised he would do. 

Spiritual Thought #2

There was another family that we met that was pretty elect. You could feel the spirit really strongly in their house. They read from the Book of Mormón we gave them and said they felt the spirit very strongly and they felt that it was true. So, we invited them to come to church. Then the excuses came, like "I have work" and "I go to another church". I am used to these responses, but I looked at my companion and he looked like a wall just hit him, being the first time he's seen the spirit testify to someone that the gospel is true and then watch them choose not to follow it. He just looked so confused. Then he asked them, he was like "but you felt the spirit! You said you believe it's true! Why won't you come to church?". We talked about it with them but despite the spirit they felt, they aren't willing to come to church. 

It is super interesting to see this happen all the time as missionaries. People believe in God, but they don't believe in living His commandments. They believe in the Book of Mormón, but they don't believe in coming to the church it testifies of. Super interesting. 

There was another group of kids we were talking to and they were all mildly interested in learning the gospel as well, but didn't want to come to church. We then had the following interaction.

"Who here believes in God? Raise your hand". 

They all raised their hands. 

"Who wants eternal life?" 

They all raised their hands. 

"Who wants to do what God said we need to do to have eternal life?" 

They all raised their hands again. 

"So who is going to come to church with us this Sunday?" 

All the hands went down and started mumbling a number of excuses. It was pretty sad! They know they should come to church, but don't want to. I've come to see in the world that everyone is, as Brad Wilcox said, "so focused on being saved by grace, that they aren't being changed by grace". 

Anyways, I thought that was interesting. 

Spiritual Thought #3

I've learned so much out here, and I've also been super humbled. I thought I was kinda cool when I first came out here, but now I know how small and weak I am. I am literally nothing without this gospel. It means everything to me. I am fighting so hard to learn as much as I can out here so I will be ready to face what will come after. Because life isn't gonna be easy. 

Not to hate on people who leave the church, because we love them, but I did hear something interesting a while ago. There's a guy who left the church many years ago, and since then has become super super anti and basically dedicated his time to fighting it. Also he is now atheist. In one of his podcasts, he said that at this point in his life, "the only thing [he] really knows is that [he] exists". I think that is pretty sad. Like has the gospel really answered that many of life's  questions, that without it, the only thing that you know is that you exist? It's just kind of sad. 

Sometimes I get frustrated that I was raised in the church. I know a lot, and because of that, I am obligated to live and share it. But it is hard with all of the wickedness of the world. Sometimes I just wish I was born in some little town in Canada or something where I could just live my life without all the stress of living and sharing the gospel. That is super selfish, but I feel that way sometimes. 

But I truly believe that if I hadn't been raised in the gospel, I would have found it quick. I can hardly sleep at night sometimes with all of the thoughts I have just about life, and even then, I know the answers to all of the big questions. So if I hadn't been raised in this church, I don't think I would have been able to rest until finding an answer to the primary questions. And those are found right here in the Restored church of Jesus Christ. 

Anyways there's my rant. This email is so long, I'm sorry! I love you guys! I love being a missionary! It's really hard and exhausting, but it's satisfying to look at the past nearly 16 months and know that I have been giving it my all. I love the Lord, and I am learning better and better to submit my will to His. There's a lot of things I'm still really scared and stressed about. I would love answers to them now. But all I can do is keep walking and trust that it will be okay. 

• Elder Wride

BYE