Week 17 - 4 Months Into the Mish

Hey fellas

I was kicking myself all week for sending a garbage email last week so I stayed up all night to write this one. Just kidding haha but I tried to give this one more attention so hopefully you enjoy it. This week was pretty decent honestly. Lots of ups and downs, but ending on a perty good note. Here we go boys!

1. Bathroom Prank

2. “Hi, is this Jerry?”

3. Compunity

4. Mini Golf

5. Jim and Stephanie!

6. Lady at the park

7. Scientology

8. Bible Bash

9. Sally

10. Shelina

1. Bathroom Prank

So as missionaries, we aren’t allowed to use our phone while in the bathroom. Which was a problem initially because throughout my childhood that was my only source of entertainment while in there. Anyways, the other day Elder Morgan was taking a shower while listening to music. But he can’t have his phone in the shower, so he connected his phone to the speaker, got his music playing, and left the phone outside the bathroom but the speaker inside. Then I, Elder Wride, in my infinite wisdom devised a plan. On my phone I recorded myself singing “Stayin’ Alive” by the bee gees in the worst way possible, which wasn’t very hard. But yea I went as high and obnoxious as I could. Then, I sent the voice recording to Elder Morgan’s phone. Since we’re comps I know his password, and I pulled up the file. Then at full volume I played it. It was pretty hilarious. One minute he’s listening to MoTab and the next he’s listening to Elder Wride screaming the bee gees and was powerless to stop it. But he takes super long showers, so eventually I felt bad and let him continue listening to MoTab. But yea for all you missionaries out there, that is a solid prank that brings a lot of joy.

2. “Hi, is this Jerry?” 

So I’ve been asking for lots of referrals, and one member gave us a list of like 6 referrals which was amazing. So I was going down the list, calling each one. I called the first person and said “Hi! Is this Marie?”, and she was super nice, but said that she couldn’t talk right then. So I was like “okay no worries!” and hung up. Then, the next person on the list was “Jerry”. Well the member who sent these to us goofed or something because Jerry’s number is the same as Maries. But I am a goon so I didn’t even notice. So, literally 30 seconds after Marie said she couldn’t talk, I called her again and said “Hi! Is this Jerry?”. I was expecting the response of a voice that one might expect with a name like “Jerry”, and was horrified when I heard Maries voice again. She was like “uhhhh” and yea so that was a rip. Definitely an Elder Wride type mistake.

 

3. Compunity

This just barely happened but I have to share it because I’m still in shock. So every week we send a text to our mission president on our key indicators, and how our Obedience, Diligence, and Comp Unity is. Man I’m still so shook. Okay so I was sending the report to President and was typing “Obedience, Diligence…” and then had “Compunity” typed out. We also have to approve all our texts with our companion so I showed it to Elder Morgan and he was like “you forgot the space between the p and the u” which was weird. “Compunity” is one word. Huh. Elder Morgan is silly. Anyways I didn’t understand what he meant but eventually my mind was blown when I realized that the word “Compunity” meant “Comp Unity”. I literally rolled over on the floor and just had my hands in my hair because my brain was hurting. So crazy! I still can’t believe “compunity” isn’t a word. Actually, I still think it might be. So if anyone has further information on whether or not compunity is a word, let me know. 

4. Mini Golf

So we did two exchanges this week which was good. One with the ZL’s and one with our district leader and his comp. I stayed here in Frontenac with my DL Elder Dugan and it was good. I think he was a little taken aback by how busy we were. After a lesson we came back over to the apt and he just sat on the couch ready to relax and I was ready to head out the door. He was like “Elder Wride keeps me movin” haha. Anyways we had a ward activity of mini golf that we went over to help out with. Basically throughout the church there were different mini gold activities set up, and me and Elder Dugan got put in charge of the “Hole in One” activity. Basically all the kids had 2 hits to get the ball as close to the whole which was 50-60 feet away. So they’d hit it, we’d measure how many inches away from the hole their ball is, and then the lowest number wins. For the first couple kids that came, I wasn’t lenient. I gave them two shots, and then they were done. But everyone was doing horrible so at the 6th or 7th kid I started giving them extra shots just so they could do better. Things kinda got outta hand. Mostly on my end. Even with extra shots people were doing horrible so for some kids I’d be like “pick a number between 20 and 30” and then use that as their score. Which, by the way, anything below 40 inches was impressive. So I was on the end where the kids hit the ball, and Elder Dugan was on the end where the whole was. At first Elder Dugan wasn’t thrilled that I was cheating the system. Eventually though, he just went along. Someone would totally biff a shot and if it was really bad I’d be like “Elder Dugan help them out” and then he’d stop the ball with his foot and move it close to the hole. There were a couple times where he’d move it way too close and I’d be like “too generous. Move it back” and stuff. Basically it was an hour of me not enforcing any rules and letting everybody win. I gave the bishops kid extra shots too and was like “Don’t tell Bishop. It’s my first day. I need this job.”. But anywho, it was a really fun activity and I loved playing with all the kids. Afterwards us Elders and some of the younger kids played football in the gym and I felt like a beast because I was the biggest one there and the best one at football. Have me play football with people my age? No sir. But, put me with the primary kids? Oh yeah baby. I was the alpha dog there. 

5. Jim and Stephanie

Okay brothers and sisters, if you’re needing some spiritual edification, don’t worry it will come soon. I know you’re thinking I’m about to tell an amazing story about a couple we taught named Jim and Stephanie, but don’t be too sure. So since I’ve been here, we’ve been driving a 2020 Toyota Camry. Pretty good stuff, but he’s a rental, so this week we had to exchange him for the new cars the mission got. I was sad to see him go. I haven’t told anybody this, but in my head I have been calling the Camry “Jim”. I haven’t said it outloud because apparently the cars are supposed to be girl names and I didn’t want to get wrecked by the other elders. But I was sad to see Jim go. We’ve been through a lot together. I took a pic with him before we swapped him out. It was actually super funny, because right before we dropped Jim off we went through a car wash, and then 20 minutes later we showed up again in our new car. The lady running the car wash was super confused at first but then just started laughing when I put my hands in the air and shouted “WEEEE” as the car wash started. 

Anyways, our new car is a 2021 Chevrolet Equinox. She is so fresh!!!! I’m literally obsessed with driving her. Funny story about this haha. Elder Bowles, one of my Zone Leaders, is awesome. He’s like the mom of the apartment but is also quite the softie. I mentioned this in one of my first emails, but he is engaged to a girl he met online playing D&D or something and they got engaged while he was a missionary. Her name is Stephanie, and Elder Bowles is always talking about her, calling her “Steph” for short. So I was on exchanges with the other ZL, Elder McConnel, and we were walking out and saw our new car for the first time. I was like, “Elder, we have to name her right now before it’s too late”. He then said “man it’s super messed up, but she looks like a Steph”. And bam, that was her name. I was a little scared to tell Elder Bowles at first. Idk if you guys have seen Twilight, but in it the werewolf Jacob “imprints” on Bella’s daughter (basically means that from now on Jacob is obsessed with her and they are soulmates) and then Bella get’s super triggered and rages at him. In my head that’s kind of how I thought this was gonna go down. Instead, I told him, and he looked at me and said “how bout no”. But it was too late. She looks SO MUCH like a Steph. He tried suggesting other names like “Carlie”, “Rainbow Trout” and ”Tiger Lily”, but it was too late. The name Steph had already imprinted on the Equinox. 

But anyways, I am obsessed with this car. It even has lane adjustments, so basically it knows where the lines are and you can let go of the steering wheel. It’s so awesome. Tomorrow I’m just gonna put on cruise control and go to sleep. I don’t even need to drive anymore because the car will just turn for me. Haha just kidding I’m not that dumb, but Stephanie is my new love. Don’t tell Elder Bowles. It’s gonna take a while for him to adjust to this. 

6. Lady at the park

Okay time for the spirit. So yesterday, I was mad at myself. I was a door to door salesman who literally sprinted door to door to talk to everyone, and now I’m scared to just go and ask people if they want to hear about Jesus. Coming into the mission field I wasn’t, but also my trainer is really quiet which has made it hard and kinda put out my fire. So we went to the park with the goal of just talking to everybody, but then chickened out and just tossed the frisbee. I wanted to just go up to people and bring up the Gospel, but Satan was working on me, and I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was praying in my heart, apologizing for not being a better missionary and saying “God, if there’s somebody here who needs to hear our message, you’re going to have to send them to me.”. So we tossed the frisbee for a while (there was a group of girls nearby that I’m pretty sure were really impressed with my air-bounces) at the top of the hill, and then this lady just started walking towards us from the bottom. She was looking at us (as everyone does) and I kinda waved but continued to focus on what was more important: frisbee. Anyways, she kept getting closer till she was in ear shot, so I was like “Hey!” and waved at her. I do this to everyone I can see, and normally nothing comes of it. Anyways, she responded and we just started talking. I don’t know how the Lord did it, but one thing led to another, and the next minute we were sitting down with her teaching her the restoration. She is amazing. She’s from South Africa and has the DOPEST accent I have ever heard in my life. All day I’ve sorta been trying to recreate it but can’t. She sounds like she’s got a Wakandan accent. Literally exactly like that. Mixed with a little british. Anyways, it was insane how receptive she was to our message. At the end we invited her to be baptized as she came to know these things were true and she laughed and said that she was gonna read it first haha. But she is super super elect and I am so grateful to God for making up for my bad missionary efforts and sending her towards me. We’re going to see her at church next week. But, like freaking everybody we find, she is in Elder Pugsley’s area so I have to send her to him eventually! I’m so issedperb! But, it was a really cool experience and I already love this lady so much. The Lord has prepared her. 

7. Scientology

We also got a guy that we’re teaching at church! Buttttt, I may or may not have offered to go to his church as well just to be nice. And he is a Christian Scientologist. So basically I went to a scientology church. It was suuuuppper interesting. Me and Elder Morgan had no idea what the heck was going on. We would stand up, recite stuff, sit down, stand up, sing, sit down, etc.. It was interesting. Cool experience! It was in this really big chapel the echo was super loud. There were a couple of times where it was dead silent, and I was terrified that my stomach was gonna start growling. Anyways, it was good. Elder Morgan was a lot more uncomfortable than I was haha. I don’t know why I’m always just vibing in these weird situations, but I enjoyed it. I kinda wanna go back too! There are some people in there that I think would love to hear our message. Going to other churches is also a huge testament that ours has Jesus Christ at it’s center, and that it is true. And I’ll be honest, I can’t say I didn’t feel the spirit there. God loves ALL of his children! I literally just felt so much love for these people and their desire to do whats right. 

8. Bible Bash

Oh boy. This one was interesting. So a guy I found forever ago we taught again this week. He is such a cool guy and I love em to death, but his heart it kinda hard. Since he’s in Elder Pugsleys area (as is everyone we find) we did a lesson with the four of us. We taught him the restoration, and then afterwards, he just kinda bible bashed at us for two hours. Elder Pugsleys brain checked out at that point the same way it did when we sat next to each other in AP stats. Side note, but I was in AP stats for two weeks and sat next to him back in the day when we went by the names “Truman” and “Ethan”. We spent every class making dumb jokes, putting pieces of paper on the hair of the girl in front of us, and not paying attention. Eventually, we both knew this wasn’t going to work out and we were going to fail, so I transferred out. Anyways, point being, this lesson was rough. Almost as rough as AP stats. He kept throwing out Bible bash verses on faith over works, and we would throw some back like James 2 and stuff. We would testify to him as well, but he wouldn’t really listen. At one point he looked at me and said “What do you say to someone who is a part of another religion, who comes up to you with their religious book and says ‘I know this is true, and I promise you that if you read it, you will know it’s true’.”. 

This is a great question, and something that I have learned on my mission so far. It’s funny, because this exact thing happened the other day. We gave a guy we’re teaching a Book of Mormon, testified to him it’s true, and promised him that if he read it, he would know it too. He then gave us one of his religious books. I looked at it and said “would you like us to read this and pray to God if it’s true?”. Instantly, he was like “no no no no” and was almost apologetic. I was kinda shocked! Like dude, this is important. Is this book true or not? For myself, I don’t want to believe anything that isn’t true. That’s the way I live. But, the Book of Mormon is, in fact, true. 

So, when our friend asked me what I’d say to those people, I basically told him that it is incredibly rare, like it does not happen, that someone outside of the church come with a book and testify about it the same way we do about the Book of Mormon, and leave a promise in the way that we do. It just doesn’t happen. For all you members of the church, don’t think that this is the norm. Our church is extremely different from the world. You can spend your entire life looking for something outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and you will not find anything that is as clear and simple as this church is. And that is because this is, in reality, Jesus Christ’s church. I promise you guys, you will not run into anybody that will testify that their scripture is true in the same way that we do about the Book of Mormon. There’s a reason they made a play about us, because it is so apparent how strongly we know of these things to be true. 

So this lesson made me sad. I wish he would just read the Book of Mormon and come to know it like we do. But, maybe one day he will!

9. Sally

I’m gonna wrap this email up but we had a lesson with Sally again and I asked if she had read the Book of Mormon and she said yes, but that she didn’t pray about it. We’ve been taught to be devastated when people don’t keep their commitments, so I literally started crying haha it was dope. The spirit was strong and I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. We just testified and testified and she felt bad for not doing it and now she’s gonna pray about it! So that was awesome. This lady is dope.

10. Shelina

And this lady Shelina is the best. She’s a referral, from guess who? My dad! Long story short, he was messaging someone but they had got a new phone so he just started talking to this lady from mexico and then told me and now I have her facebook and we’ve been chatting. She speaks spanish, so the other day I had my boy @Elder McKay Kimball who is learning spanish too join me for a zoom call. It was awesome! She is so elect! And her kids were intently listening too, which is not normal. We’ve taught her two lessons and they are so prepared by the Lord. She’s been messaging me too saying how good she feels and how grateful she is. And my spanish has been popping off! It’s great! I taught a couple more lessons in spanish this week which was dope. I’m loving it. 

I’m probably gonna call it there folks. I think from now on I’m actually not going to send everything that’s happening just so you don’t have to read so much. But don’t worry, because I am documenting them in my journal entries every night. So the memories are there, but I’m gonna start just giving you guys the highlights and doing shorter emails. But, thanks for reading this if you did. Hope you have a great week and remember who you are. Reminds me of what Mufassa said to Simba. 

“You are more than what you have become.”.

I’d invite you guys to look at who you are now, and then think about who God can help you become. If you completely surrender your will to his, it will happen. Give him your all. 

Have a good week hermanas. As always, love hearing from any of you. Except Elder Pugsley. Elder please stop sending me emails. I see you every week. We can talk then. 

See you guys! Also sorry if you're offended by anything in here. Don't remember what I said.

Week 16 - Nothing interesting this week

Hey guys

Sorry for the delay. P day was today for some reason so that's why I didn't email yesterday. And we've been at the zoo all day today so I don’t have time. Got a funny pic with a monkey though so it was worth it. I’ll attach it.

But I literally have nothing to say this week. Short email finally! Sorry boys. I’ll make up for it next week. One funny thing that happened is that we were on a zoom call with a new guy on our ward mission team and I was being dumb and said “welcome to the ward” and he was like “been here 10 years” so that was really awkward. This week was kind of rough though. I did have one really cool experience that I’ll share. 

So a little while ago we were down in Clayton and I saw this old lady crossing the road in a wheelchair. I was scared she was gonna get hit by a car because there wasn’t a crosswalk sign so I ran up to the street and kept an eye on the road for her as she came across. When she got to the other side I asked if she needed any help and from there we started talking. She is amazing. Long story short, she also knows some people in our ward so we talked about that. We exchanged numbers and told her we’d be in touch. Then this past week we were able to visit her again. 

She might be the most amazing person I have ever met. I felt so humbled to be in her presence. I’m getting teary eyed just typing about it. But basically when she was in her 20’s she was rock climbing with her boyfriend and fell to what should have been her death. But instead of dying, she became paralyzed. So she can’t walk, and her hands are closed shut. For 35 years she has been dealing with this insane trial, but not once has she ever complained. She is a hardcore Christian and has such a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. It was insane how strong the spirit was with her. It was such a good experience. It was pretty special so I don’t want to talk about it too much, but the moral of the story being that we are all so blessed, and joy in our lives comes from our focus, not our circumstances. I have been learning a lot about God lately, and one the most powerful things I’ve learned is the importance of prayer and faith. Faith has the ability to move mountains, but it’s the most powerful when it moves us to our knees. 

That’s all I got time for fellas. I’m gonna dip. But have a good week! Also thank you for all the emails. Last week I got some really solid emails and they made my week.

Week 15 - sprained foot + quarantine pt. 2

Hola hola hermanassss

I’ve been in quarantine all week so I’m barely alive right now and it’s been a really big mental battle. But yea most of this week was honestly just my brain not working. The other day we had a member lesson and I was like “Christ's church is built off of the foundation of postles and aprophets.” and didn’t even realize what I had said until a few minutes later. Luckily I don’t think she was paying attention to our lesson anyways.

1. Welcome to Missionary Work

2. Zoom council

3. Sprained Foot / Spiritual Rant

1) Welcome to missionary work

So, this week was rough. Most of my journal entries in weeks previous start off with “well today was pretty good” but literally everyone this week was “today sucked” haha. I had some low points for sure, but it was a good experience. So most of what we did this week was trying to message people on facebook. So I was sending tons of messages out and after a couple hours of not getting any responses I flipped. I just shouted “What is the point of this?! I’m wasting precious time! All I’m doing is reaching out to people and nobody is responding!”. 

Then, Elder Bowles (been out about 20 months), being a veteran and quite used to the labors of the mission field, heard my cry and ran into the room I was in. He looked at me, smiled, clapped his hands together and said “Elder Wride, welcome...to missionary work.”. 

Honestly that was pretty funny. I have to remember that I’m not the only one who’s struggling with this. It is kinda wild how you spend all day every day just trying to find people to teach and baptize but only see the results from it every couple months. Missionary work is hard!

2) Zoom Council 

So, it’s honestly pretty dumb. Me and my comp are quarantined, but the ZL’s who live in our apt aren’t. But if we have covid, they definitely have it, so anyways it’s just kind of irritating. Especially since we definitely do not have covid. We’re pretty sure Cassandra (who supposedly gave us covid) was lying and said she had covid just to keep us from coming back, because we’ve called her every day since quarantine and she’s never answered. There’s other details too I could add that attest to this hypothesis, but the whole thing just seems kinda fishy. So we’re basically in quarantine for no reason. We had district council this week, which is an in-person thing, but everybody was in person except me and Elder Morgan, who they zoomed in. It was pretty funny honestly. They started off by singing a hymn so we sang as loud as we could through the phone and then they muted us. 

3) Sprained Foot

This is a sad story. Okay I know you’re all thinking: “Elder Wride! How did you sprain your foot while being under quarantine?”. Well the truth is, I was trying to moonwalk while in the shower and slipped.

Jk that’s not it. So since we 99.9% do not have covid, we texted our mission nurse and asked if we could leave quarantine early. She said no (in a really nice way), but we were exhausted not seeing sunlight for many days, so we decided to go throw the frisbee in a secluded area and wear our masks. That way we could get some fresh air and not run the risk of “contaminating” anyone. So we were throwing the frisbee in an empty parking garage by our apt and Elder Morgan, bless his heart, threw the frisbee kinda straight at the ground. So it was skrrting across the pavement and I stuck my foot out to stop it and then slipped, rolled my ankle, did the splits, and fell onto the concrete. Boy that hurt. I am a man, so no tears were spilt, but I was in a lot of pain. 

So, we contacted our mission nurse. It was just funny because literally an hour before we were like “hey can we leave our apartment” and she was like “no” and then we text her right after and are like “so we were outside and…” haha. Anyways, she wasn’t mad don’t worry (she’s honestly the nicest person ever), we just felt pretty stupid. 

But I was in tons of pain. I was moaning and yapping in ferb latin on the couch for the remainder of the day and none of the Elders had sympathy. We still had lessons scheduled though, but our nurse said to keep it elevated and iced so we’d be at our desk doing a zoom call and my right leg is just chillin off the screen. 

But, fun fact, we have the priesthood! I found out Elder Morgan has the gift of healing, so he gave me a priesthood blessing. I was pretty emotional. He commanded my foot to heal and instantly as he did that it felt like a bucket of spiritual water got dumped from the top of my head where his hands were and down into my foot. He also said some other cool stuff in the blessing, one of them being that I “am being watched and cared for by many” or something to that extent. Thought that was cool too because my patriarchal blessing touches on something similar to that, and unless he’s been secretly reading mine at night, he wouldn’t have known that. He also blessed me to be able to see beyond the veil more so idk what that means but we’ll see.

After the blessing, I expected my foot to be totally healed, and thought I was gonna skip off into the sunset praising the Lord or whatever. But, immediately after the blessing, it felt almost exactly the same. I could now limp a bit better instead of crawl haha, but it felt the same. I was devastated. I cried on the couch for a bit haha. It just broke my heart to feel like God wasn’t keeping his promises. I’m not the most patient person, so it was a good experience for me. 

But now, two days later, my foot feels almost 100% healed. I had some epsom salt so the day after the blessing I soaked my entire foot in a trash can I filled with water and epsom salt haha. The Lord will provide blessings, but ya know you gotta do all you can as well. I wasn’t gonna just wait for the Lord to fix it, I was gonna do everything I could. But yea, point is, the blessing worked. I kid you not that my foot was sprained or something. We talked to a member about it too and she said that based on the sound/looks of it, it might have even been a fracture so…

And who knows, maybe if I hadn’t had the blessing my foot would have healed anyways, but I’m gonna choose to believe that this was divine haha. I can’t expect the Lord to show me greater miracles if I don’t believe the simple ones he’s giving. 

Reminds me a bit of satan ya know. At the beginning of 3 Nephi, all of these miracles and whatnot are going on, but people aren’t believing them! It’s pretty dumb honestly. You’d think that obvious miracles (such as no darkness for three days in 3 Nephi as a sign of Christ’s birth) would just prove to the whole world that Jesus is the Christ, but no!

3 Nephi 1:22 says 

“22 And it came to pass that from this time forth there began to be lyings sent forth among the people, by Satan, to harden their hearts, to the intent that they might not believe in those signs and wonders which they had seen;”

(also see Helaman 16:22-23, 3 Nephi 2:1-3 for more info on how satan tried to mess up these dudes lives).

Anyways, doubt, fear, disbelief, stubbornness, all of these things come from satan. Wake up fellas! Stop letting Satan prevail in your life! President Nelson said to “Let God Prevail”, not “Let Satan, the Author of Misery, Prevail”. It blows my mind sometimes at how quickly people choose Satan over God. We need to start practicing living God’s commandments now if we ever want to live with him presence again. And if you don’t believe in God, you need to wake up haha. Seriously, miracles everywhere. You think the world just one day blew up into existence? Does that make logical sense to you? Really? Atheists or whatever don’t believe in miracles, but if you ask about the big bang or whatever you know what their answer is? “Oh, well… it was a miracle! Now that doesn’t sound super smart does it. Thank goodness life one day just exploded into existence! It was always funny to me looking back in my science classes, and they would talk about some concept and be like “and if it weren’t without [such and such], life would collapse as we know it”. Whaaaattt??? There’s a million little things that we all depend on for our day to day survival, most of them which we don’t even realize or think about. And people believe that it just one day popped up? All of these intricate details and life sustaining things are just here. Now that is super lucky. A miracle one might say.

But no! There is a God! Everything attests to that statement. People, animals, life, all of this stuff is proof that God exists. Kinda like my boi Alma says in Alma 30:44-

“Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”. 

Just saying y’all, God is 100% real. At the end of the day (at least for me personally), either the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, or God doesn’t exist. Thankfully I know that this church is true, for many reasons, that I wish I could expound on more. That doesn’t mean I have a perfect knowledge of that though. I wish I could be like the brother of Jared, who was completely past the point of believing, where he just absolutely knew without a shadow of a doubt, so much that he saw the finger of the Lord. As much as I wish I could know to that extent, I simply can’t right now. Reminds me of what I read in my personal study yesterday that really spoke to my soul. 

D&C 78:17-18

“17  Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

18  And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.”

Just take a step back, breathe, and know that you can’t bear all things now. But, if you let the Lord prevail, he will lead you along. As you continue to practice putting your faith in him, you will see more. 

D&C 63:9

“But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.”

So that’s kind of my spiritual thought for the week as well. Just come on dudes! Let God Prevail! He will make so much more out of you than you ever could. This has been the pattern of my life. I want to go one way, and God wants me to go another. I remember praying for answers and getting them and then being PO’d because they weren’t the answers I wanted haha. But, when I choose to take the Lord’s path, I’m always better because of it. THE PATH OF DUTY IS ALSO THE PATH OF SAFETY. It’s my duty to be out serving our here as a missionary, but it’s also my source of protection. I’m preparing myself for a life full of dedicated service to my God. I’m learning now how to be a better son, and one day, father, husband (not in that order don’t worry), and one who is a true follower of Jesus Christ. 

That’s it for this week hermanas. If you made it this far, you deserve a gold star. Email me something nice if you can. If there is anything in here that is offensive to you, I apologize! I don't even remember what I said.

“Now I give no more unto you at this time. Gird up your loins and be sober. Even so. Amen.”     D&C 73:6

1) Me right before spraining my ankle

2) A pic I sent to the zone chat when I was bored of me and Elder Morgan

3) Meme

4) Cute pic

Week 14 - In Quarantine 😷

 Hey you guys

So I’m doing alright haha. This week was all really good until saturday when we got quarantined! Basically a lady we taught got tested positive for covid so now we’re stuck in our apartment. I’m pretty upset haha. We had a lot of good appointments/plans for next week and the week after that aren’t gonna happen. Basically me and my comp can’t leave our apartment for two weeks. Yesterday was our first full day in quarantine, and I about lost it. Spent part of the day in a cardboard box. I’ll attach photos. 

1. Wack Dreams

2. Ferb-Latin Crisis

3. This is President Bell

4. Lesson with the chick who gave us coronavirus

1. So apparently even since I’ve been here, I talk a ton in my sleep. Elder Morgan said at the beginning he just ignored it but now it’s waking him up. This was scary news to me, because I have such wack dreams and I don’t even want to know what kinda stuff comes out of my mouth while I’m asleep. For instance, the other day I had a dream that me, Elder Morgan, a guy we’re teaching, and my older brother were all Iron Man, but then Elder Morgan took the suit I wanted to wear and I got super triggered, and my brother Joe too told me just to deal with the suit I got and I was all mad. Eventually I accepted the suit they gave me, but the worst part was that they literally pushed me off the top of the building we were on to see if my suit was working. Like what in the world! So messed up! I could have died! They just knocked me off the building and I didn’t even know how to work the suit they made me wear. Luckily, I figured it out and flew. The next morning I was really upset with Elder Morgan but couldn’t remember why until I remembered that he took the Iron Man suit I wanted to wear. So my dreams are wack. Haha so as I was writing this I remembered that for a couple nights after I woke up I typed out my dream while it was still fresh. This is literally my dream entry for a few nights ago:

“i was like the flash and I was running around behind this car with blue lights and then I was Darth Vader and I cut off luke’s head but luke was a bad guy and there was this ship at the end with some yellow equipment and some depressed lady and we had to remake the yellow equipment”

It’s moments like these where I actually question my sanity. Anyways, I digress, but point is, I have some wack dreams, so when Elder Morgan said that I’ve been talking in my sleep I assumed the worst. Other than speaking straight nonsense, he said that one night I just was yapping in spanish. This was pretty neat actually! Looks like spanish is actually starting to get ingrained into my brain. 

The second thing he told me I said in my sleep I thought was super funny - so the past couple days I’ve been doing this P-90X type thing called “Insanity” by Beach Body. It’s freaking brutal. I actually hate it. As I was doing it yesterday a couple baby tears and naughty words slipped out. So my legs especially have been just super sore. This is funny too because a couple weeks back Elder Morgan’s legs were really sore from working out and I had absolutely no sympathy for him. We’d be walking and I’d be like “come on Elder man up” haha. So, karma baby! I was walking around like I was on stilts or something and my legs hurt SO BAD. Anyways, so while I was sleeping, Elder Morgan said I was just yelling “My legs hurt! My legs hurt!” haha. So that was exciting. They’re feeling a little bit better today, but yea my body is in a lot of pain. Especially since we got our flu shots the other day, and now my arm, and legs are sore. And my mind is kinda sore too being in quarantine. 

2. Okay so this past week we had a zone conference (in person) and met with like 3 other zones. Tons of missionaries. Me and the boys all rode down in our big van (Deb) and naturally, me and Elder P practiced Ferb Latin. A lot of other people have been practicing too. These two sister missionaries just came up to me and were like “elloherb” and I was way impressed. They said they’ve spent time practicing every night. Anyways, we’ve been speaking it a lot. Then at cemetery service the other day, we continued to practice. Tons of people are catching on, and literally our whole zone was speaking it. Except for some people that are getting absolutely triggered. Some people really just hate on Ferb Latin. Anyways, long story short, people were getting mad at the Ferb Latin speakers, and yesterday my district leader called us and said I need to chill with speaking it haha. So that was a bummer. I almost responded to him with “koerb” haha. Most people are cool with it, but yea some people just absolutely hate ferb latin.

3. Okay so this is a funny thing and I want especially all you missionaries to remember this-

So the other day I got a call from Lindell East (Elder Powell and Elder Pugsley). Everytime someone calls you and you call someone else, you say “This is Elder Wride and Elder Morgan” or whatever. So everytime we talk to any companionship we both introduce who’s speaking. So we got a call from Lindell, and we were like “This is Elder Wride and Elder Morgan” and then they said “This is Elder Powell Elder Pugsley and President Bell”. We just froze. Didn’t know what to say, because is our mission President actually on the other line? So we continued the conversation as mature as possible (no ferb latin was present) until we figured out that they were playing with us. But it’s a genius idea! So every once in a while when we talk to people we just throw in “President Bell” and it’s gets them every time. It’s especially funny when they say something dumb right of the bat. For instance, these one Elders the other day said, in a very high pitched voice  “holaaaaa hermanas! Somos misioneros por la iglesia de Jesucristo!” and we threw in the “President Bell” line and they just went quiet and throughout the call were being super awkward until they realized that President isn’t actually with us. It’s especially easy for us to tease people with it because he lives really close to our apt and we see him quite often. So for all you missionaries reading this, next time you call someone throw in your mission president’s name. It’s a good time!

4. I was just gonna end the email there haha, but I can’t leave this without you all feeling somewhat spiritually edified so here you go. Every night I type up a journal entry and that’s usually how I send my emails now. I just pull parts from my journal, so, here’s some pieces from my journal entry on Wednesday- 

“At 9 o’clock, we had a lesson with a named Cassandra. Oh boy. It was crazy. Not sure what I was expecting exactly but that definitely wasn’t it. 

She’s a self referral. So when Elder Morgan was with his last comp she went to comeuntochrist.org and referred herself. Well, Elder Morgan and them weren’t able to get a hold of her because she never answered the phone, but we have her address, so me and Elder Morgan decided to just swing by. Yesterday we met her and scheduled our lesson for today.

It was the craziest lesson I’ve ever taught. We were there for 2 hours. At first it was fine but still a little weird. She was getting into stuff that was irrelevant and she was taking complete control of the conversation even though we had been there to teach her. 

After 10-15 minutes, I was able to get an opening prayer in so we could start teaching her the first lesson. Man it was crazy. Some sick beats were playing in the background so I had to yell at Alexa to stop haha.

But, the very first principle of the lessons is that God is our loving heavenly father. The words had hardly escaped my mouth when she interrupted with why we were wrong. This happened for the next hour. We would try to teach her something and she would interrupt and tell us why it was wrong and what was right from her point of view. It was exhausting. Since Elder Morgan only had his Book of Mormon, she would tell me to open up to different Bible verses and all this stuff. The roles got totally swapped. She was taking over and trying to teach us. She would throw in lines like “I know you’re still learning” and “listen to what I’m trying to tell you”. It was mostly just me and her talking. Elder Morgan is a lot more quiet and reserved, and I wasn’t afraid to take her comments head on, so we were kinda just going back and forth. It was exhausting. It made me sad. My heart was pounding. 

Trying to be respectful and non-intrusive, I would say things like “we believe such and such” and “we believe this” and finally she was like “stop saying we believe. I want to know what you know.”

This made me really upset, because that’s what I’d been trying to do the whole time! But literally every time we started talking about something she would cut us off. She also said to me directly “I know that you’re shy, but don’t be afraid”.

This also made me upset, because shy is the last word I would use to describe myself. I was not scared by what she was saying in the slightest. It was honestly an incredible feeling. To have words and statements thrown at you left and right but to not be shaken by them in the slightest. I know that this was because of my testimony, particularly of the Book of Mormon. It is unshakable. After a while, I realized that she didn’t really know what she was talking about. She was just saying words and spreading noise. At first it was really loud and it was hard to think, but after a while it became easy to know how she was thinking. 

I love this lady so much, but really this is how the adversary works. Satan sends noise, confusion, distraction, and deception. It’s chaotic, and it’s there to overwhelm you. But, if you know what your foundation is, then it will have no power to overcome you. Me and Elder Morgan could not be overcome. Her technique was attack, and retreat. She would say something and then when we would try to answer or address it she wouldn’t listen and she would just throw something else out there.

Anyways, after an hour, the tension had built up, and Elder Morgan said this too, but my heart was pounding. The spirit had built up so much inside of me that I was ready to just explode. 

After she made another comment about us being afraid to tell her what we believe I said “look we want to tell you what we believe. Will you listen?” and Elder Morgan said too “yea every time we try to talk you interrupt”.

She said OK, and for a little bit, we were able to get her quiet. I then recited the account of the first vision. My hands were shaking as I said it, not because I was scared, but because my biggest desire at that moment was for her to know that what we were teaching her was true. I felt the spirit very strongly as I read that, and I know she did too, but she was denying it. 

Immediately after I finished it, she went off about Joseph Smith being a false prophet and such and such. I then remembered what I’ve heard from many friends and family members about how to deal with people who try to argue against the gospel: testify! So, I testified as hard as I could. It was exhilarating. During those two hours she had been looking at me straight in the eye, as if trying to get into my soul and get me to doubt what I believed. If I was not worthy to be a missionary for this church, and if I did not have a testimony, she would have broken me. Seriously though, I cannot imagine being out on a mission unworthily. But, I am worthy to be here, and I do know that this church is true. She stared at me as intently as she could, and I couldn’t have cared less. I could feel the spirit there. 

There were many times where I promised her that the Book of Mormon was true. One stood out in particular. She was always staring back at me, and looking directly at her I said 

“Cassandra, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I promise you that the Book of Mormon is true.”.

It almost felt like I shouted it. It was awesome! Only looking back do I realize how powerful the spirit was. She was clearly uncomfortable. She immediately looked down at her Bible and started rummaging through her notes and muttering to herself, very uncomfortable at what had just happened. So, we repeated this process. It was dozens of times of us promising her in the name of the Almighty God that the Book of Mormon was true. Gradually, she became more and more quiet. 

I digress, but anyways, by the end of the lesson she said “you know what? Fine. I’ll read your book. But I want you guys to read it with me.”

So, it was a cool experience. The lesson there for me personally was the power of testifying. It works miracles. Without the spirit, we are literally nothing! So all of you guys, when someone bags on the church, testify the hell out of them! Like actually, keep them from going to hell by testifying. It's not swearing when used like that, don't worry. But anyhow, testifying works miracles. My testimony is so much stronger after that lesson. The past couple days I have not been afraid of testifying to strangers. It’s pretty awesome! And it’s because this church is true that it works. Also yea this is the lady who got tested  positive for covid. Also slightly annoyed she didn’t tell us she had it. 

Anyways, there’s a little taste of what went on this week. There’s more I could write, but I’m getting tired and lazy. It’s mostly just this quarantine that’s killing me. I’ve never been in like full on 100% quarantine so it’s brutal. 

A couple small things that happened this week that you can think about

• went bowling and the lanes weren’t oiled (complete waste of time and money and I’m still super mad. I don’t want to leave a bad review for the place because I’m a missionary, so if any of you would be willing to leave a bad review regarding their completely unoiled lanes and over-priced services that would be appreciated!).

• Taught a lesson to a drunk lady over the phone and invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We texted her after the phone call so she could remember that she agreed to baptism but we haven’t really heard from her since. More details will come later. 

• HEALTH UPDATE: So yes I’m still gaining weight haha but it’s all good. I’m not noticeably fat to people who didn’t know me before the mission. JK I’m really not fat. Just a bit tubby. Jaw line is less defined. Anyways, Ierb ppreciateaerb heterb rayersperb ahaherb. But I’m doing good. Especially since we can’t go shopping I’ll have time to maybe add some more veggies to my diet. But don’t worry, I’m also working out on the daily. I’m gonna be huge next time you guys see me is the plan. 

That’s about it honesty. Haha every email I write in my head I’m thinking “I have nothing to say”. Like at the beginning of almost every email I start off with “this one’s gonna be short” but then I finish writing it and realize it’s absolutely massive so then I go back and delete the line about it being a short email haha. So yeet!

Send an email if you can folks! It’s going to be a long and lonely two weeks and honestly I’m not sure how I’m gonna survive it. Shoot me an email if you can. They are all appreciated eryverb uchmerb. 

Have a great week you guys! Don’t forget that the Book of Mormon is you latter-day survival guide. Also your patriarchal blessing. If you haven’t read that in a while, go read it right now and get some direction for your life!

One last thought - even if this church wasn’t true, this is the way you want to live. This path is peaceful and safe. The path of duty is equally the path of safety. This Gospel will bring you true joy. It’s insightful to be interacting with people who made poor decision when they were my age, and now the consequences of those decisions are so apparent. They are miserable. Really. Just sad. Whether or not you believe in God or keeping his commandments, breaking those commandments only leads to misery and pain in the end. Hold on to the iron rod folks! This is the right way! And yea even if the church wasn’t true this would be the way I’d want to live my life, but, the reason this is such a happy way to live is because the church is true! Don’t forget that! Please! Don’t be dumb and walk away from the safety and peace of the Gospel because one question/concern isn’t adding up right now. It will eventually. Don’t throw away everything else you know to be true just because of one thing that isn’t making sense at the present time. It will all make sense as you push forward. 

Take people who think the earth is flat for example (like my friends George Lewis and Truman Pugsley). There was this study the flat earth society did where they found this really big lake and put a laser going from one end to the other. Well apparently the measurements were totally flat, and there was no bend. Huh. Well logically, if the earth is round, it shouldn’t be a straight line, right? Obviously the lasers would show a curve! Do you hear that and start to freak out and question about the earth being round? No! (unless your truman or george). You know the earth is round! Point is, there will always be little things that don’t seem to make complete sense at the present time, but hold on to what you know to be true. The earth is round folks, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church upon the earth. I could go on for hours about why this is true, but that’s why I’m on the mission. If I didn’t know that this is the Kingdom of God upon the earth, I wouldn’t be here.

Also, speaking of flat earthers, I saw Elder Pugsley wearing a shirt the other day that said “Flat Earth Society - We’re Not Crazy!”. Huh. Just thought that was funny.

And then on the back of the shirt it said “We have members from all around the globe.”. Hmmmmmmm.

Okay I’m actually done writing now. Just know that the church is true! Send me an email if you can! I’m lonely!

Love you all! Have a good week!!!

1) felt cute. might delete later.

2) me in my box that I mentioned earlier

3) MEME

4) and 5) One year later comparison. I looked like a hippie

6) and 7) riding to zone conference

8) Call with the best mother on the planet and her 12th child

9) picture a friend sent me of me at 12 years old when I lived in Brazil at the temple. I used to be a egendlerb.