This week was good, a lot of stuff happened. Here it is
T-3 Months
I officially have three months left. I’ve been having dreams that I’m home almost every night. In one of my dreams I was cruising on I-215 in my ford fiesta blasting earth wind and fire being super happy I was home and could finally listen to whatever music I wanted. But other than that, in all of my dreams that I’m home I am just super depressed and try to get back to the DR somehow. But I am definitely coming to the end of my rope a little bit. My shoes are getting holes in them. They were holding up pretty good until I started megging my companion a ton. Now the holes are getting bad and the soles are rotting jaja.
Feliz Cumpleaños
My birthday was on Tuesday which was good. Holidays and birthdays as a missionary are kind of non existent, but It was still good. By the end of the day I laid in bed and thought, “you know what, today was a pretty good birthday.”. And then I realized that I didn’t open any presents or eat any cake and was depressed for a sec jaja but I got over it quick
El Templo
We went to the temple in Santo Domingo the next day at like 4 in the morning. I went to the temple praying and fasting for a spiritual experience, and I definitely had one. Not the one I expected and it was kind of hard for me and I was depressed for a little while jaja but I know the Lord is teaching me.
El Espiritu Santo...?
My companion and I have a lot of crazy experiences that I forget to tell you about. I remembered this experience that happened a few weeks ago that I thought I’d share. We taught a lesson to a brother and sister. They are both in their twenties. They were bashing the whole lesson so it wasn’t great and we decided to end it. They asked if we could pray with them at the end, so we said yes. They told us to stand up, so we did. Then they pulled out a speaker and started blasting super loud crazy music. They were yelling and shouting about the Holy Ghost and it was kinda crazy. They also told us to close our eyes. My companion told me after that while the music was playing and they were shouting, the brother had grabbed him and was shaking him trying to command him by the power of the Holy Ghost to fall to the floor and all this crazy stuff. The sister had been a little crazy to me but not like that. It was just crazy. Elder Opheikens told me that when the guy tried to command him to fall to the floor by the power of the Holy Ghost, he felt something powerful, but not of God, trying to knock him down. For a second he was scared, but then he prayed to the Lord for help and got his strength back and was able to stand strong even while being yelled at.
At the end of it, I was pretty annoyed jaja. We are now avoiding that guy at all costs. He is kinda nuts. But it was a cool experience too. They asked us how we liked their "prayer", and we both read scriptures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon about the real power of the Holy Ghost. The one I read was in Helaman 5:30, one of my favorite verses. It says -
“And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul - ”
Missionary Night
We had a night the other day with the returned missionaries in the ward, us missionaries in the ward, and the people preparing to go on missions. It was super cool to sit there and reflect on everything I have learned on my mission. It has been so much harder than I thought it would be, but also more rewarding than I thought it would be. I have grown a lot in these past two years.
Yudelca y Joaquin
There’s a recent convert in a different ward in the stake who since she has been baptized, has dedicated herself to helping other couples get married so that they can get baptized. In addition to helping Noely and Loren (who I’ll tell you about in a sec), she helped this couple named Yudelca and Joaquin. They got married, and then she sent us their information to teach and baptized them.
Last Sunday morning, like an hour before church, we texted and invited them. Most people here take all week plus Sunday morning to help them keep their commitment of church, but this family right away, with hardly any notice was like “ye okay we’ll be there”. We were like “uhhhh you sure?”. We were just super surprised that they said yes so fast. But they came to church last week and this week.
Teaching them the gospel has been amazing. I am so amazed at all the amazing people God puts in our path. During our first meeting, we met the rest of their family. They have a 10 year old daughter who is special needs. Her whole body is crippled and she is constantly moving and shaking. I felt the Spirit of God so strong when I saw her being carried out of the room in her dads arms.The first thought that I had when I saw her was imagining that Christ had just come and asked everyone to bring him their sick to be healed, and itt was a powerful moment. The second thought that crossed my mind was that I wished I had enough faith to heal her. Then my thought was that I hope that when Jesus Christ really comes, He will be sure to visit and heal her. It’s what he did the whole time he was in Jerusalem, and one of the first things he did when he came to the Americas. I can only imagine that it will be one of the first things He does again when He comes back.
But anyways, I already love this family with my whole soul! Their special needs daughter’s name is Angie. Itt was so cool looking into her eyes. I could just feel that she had a strong spirit inside of her that wanted to get out. I could see the light of Jesus Christ in her eyes.
But anyways, they also have a little puppy that is freaking cute named Blancita. They also have a giant spider hanging from the roof that almost ate me but my comp saved me. Anywas, I don’t think I’ll be here for their baptisms but I’m sure they will get baptized next transfer.
Noely y Loren
We have been teaching Noely and Loren for months. His wife Loren is a member already that we were led to and were able to help reactivate. I’ve talked about them before, but we just found out this week that his name is Noely, not Noel. So we’ve been saying it wrong. Oops. But this week they got married (on my birthday) which was super sweet! They have been working for months to do it and God finally made it happen.
Then on Saturday Noely got baptized. The baptism was a great experience. There have been angels seen and unseen in this whole process. He’s a big dude so I was kinda scared but it worked out okay. There was just a little splash zone. As we walked out of the font after I baptized him he looked at me, pointed to my bicep and flexed. So let’s gooooo
Church
Sunday mornings are almost always my favorite part of the week. So many people have been coming lately, it’s been crazy. It’s been more full than my home ward honestly, which is crazy. It is so fulfilling to look around on Sunday and see people in the church building that I have come to know so well. I am so grateful that the Lord has put them in my life. I am going to miss them so much.
Transfers
We also had interviews with Prez this week and he told me that I am probably gonna be out of here at the end of the transfer which is next week. I’m not surprised, but I am sad. This area has changed my life. I feel like all of my mission has prepared me just for these three transfers I’ve had here. So I’m trying to mentally prepare myself to leave this area and become depressed for a while because I’m convinced this is the best area any missionary can serve.
Also sorry if I am bad at responding to your emails. I definitley read and love them all and will try to get back to them asap
That’s it, bye! Love you guys
- Elder Wride
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