Pretty crazy stuff!

I remember last year, me and my good friend Truman Pugsley were both waiting for our mission calls. We were in our SBO class and both joked that we were probably gonna get called state side instead of foreign. Then the thought came up, “what if we were comps?”. Our friend Sarah was like “that would be a terrible idea”. 

Well now here we are, over a year later, and I’m comps with Elder Pugsley. It’s pretty trippy not gonna lie. But it’s great. And if you’re wondering what it’s like, just imagine it and that’s how it is. But at the end of the day, we’re just doing missionary work all the time. We’re both really obedient and diligent and that’s our top priority. But it’s a lot of fun. I’m excited for future missionaries to read some of the notes we leave in our area book. For example, this is the background information we put for our neighbor who shares a duplex with us-

“Marvin is our next door neighbor. He's cool. He kinda hates us though. Sometimes if we’re being too loud he'll start jumping super loudly on the floor shaking the whole duplex. He also doesn't like parking next to us. If we park in the back, he parks in the front, and if we park in the front, he'll park in the back. 

So we brought him some brownies to introduce ourselves and ease the tension. He seemed grateful and was nice to us. At the end of the conversation, Elder Pugsley said that if he's ever dying to give us a hollar. He seemed pretty taken aback but Elder Wride quickly saved the day and changed the subject”

Anyways, so things are going well in Litchfield. We are just non-stop grinding and performing at the best of our ability. And our friends are all progressing pretty well! Mark is doing much better. Hopefully he get’s where he’d like to be soon. Chuck is doing good too.

Our friends Dennis and his wife dropped us this week. They texted us calling us “wolves in sheeps clothing” which was kind of a shame. But that’s okay because we found a different couple this week and got to teach them the restoration and they seem pretty promising. 

We also invited our friend Dianna to get baptized this week. She said no, but it's all good. We gave her a priesthood blessing and it was good. She is progressing really well.

Scripture for ya - 2 Nephi 31:20

"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

We need to be steadfast or we aren't entitled to any blessings. I think probably the most important principle of the gospel is the concept of "enduring to the end". That's also the one people struggle with the most. We can recieve the gospel, but if we don't strive to live it every minute of every day of our lives, then we aren't entitled to recieve the blessings that God promises to give us. Even if nothing else makes sense to us, we just need to be faithful, and all will work out in the end.

I don’t have much else to say this week! Just keep up the prayers please haha. The mission is quite the adventure. 

Love you all!

Howdy

Heyyyy

I don't have much to say this week. We've been working super hard here in Litchfield and we're seeing the results of it. Pretty good stuff. But we also have had a lot of dissapointments.

So Mark didn’t get baptized on Saturday. It was super sad. The adversary is the worst. I felt like something was going to happen (because something bad always happens right before someones baptism) and yea it was rough. Satan does not want that man to get baptized. But Mark is amazing and will get there eventually. But it was super heart breaking. 

The scripture that got me through the week is 2 Nephi 2:24-

“But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things”

So powerful! Anyways that scripture helped me a lot and even though I’m confused, I know it will all work out as long as I am faithful. 

Also we got transfer news last night and Elder Petrucka is gonzo so I’ll be getting a new companion. I’m not really too stressed about it. It will be good. 

Other stuff-

So Chuck is doing great. He is reading the Book of Mormon a lot and during the opening prayer in our last lesson he said something along the lines of “I’m starting to accept this” which was just awesome. I love that man! He was also wearing some cookie monster pajamas which I just thought was the funniest thing ever.

We found this guy named Austin this week on Facebook. We taught him the restoration over the phone and it was one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission. While I was reciting the first vision he gasped and was like ‘no way…”. It was the perfect reaction. We had a good time with him. Hopefully he continues to be elect!

We also had a lesson this week with a family called the Zellers. They are great. We found them a couple weeks ago while we were walking out of a lesson with another family. We saw them outside their house so we walked over and started talking to them. Apparently the dad grew up in the church but hasn’t been active most all of his life. But our lesson with them was very spiritual. The dad (Dennis) is really quiet and reserved so he didn’t really say anything but during the entire lesson you could see that he was silently crying. It was just super awesome and I’m so excited to continue working with them. 

That’s about it for this week in Litchfield IL. Hope all is well wherever you guys are at. 

Adios

Another weekly

Hello there

This week was pretty decent. I thought I had a lot more to say but actually don’t have much right now. We got a piano in our apartment though which is pretty cool. Now our neighbor hates us even more haha

We just talked to a lot of people as always and it was fun. Had a lesson over facebook where the guy started cussing us out at the end and called us a cult which was fun haha. Also last P-day we went bowling!!! I didn’t say anything last week because I was afraid I might choke and then when you guys asked what I bowled I’d be embarrassed about it but I bowled a 167 so that was pretty good! Especially after not bowling for a long time. 

We had a lot of really good lessons this week (other than that one guy). Mark is doing great and will hopefully be baptized this Saturday if all goes well. We had a couple people ghost us too which was fun, but hey it’s all good. Chuck is doing great too. He’s actually reading the Book of Mormon for the first time so that’s exciting. Also another guy named Tracy we met wants to stop smoking and get baptized so we’re working on a plan with him.

Also this week I had a coolish experience giving a priesthood blessing to someone. For the first time when giving a blessing, I totally just let go of anything I wanted to say and committed in every way that I was going to say exactly what the Lord wanted me to say. It was cool to feel like I was being a mouthpiece for the Lord. So that was fun!

Spiritual thought for this week would just be that reading the Book of Mormon is essential to spiritual survival. We had a lesson with a girl this week who doesn’t have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and isn’t reading it. I’m pretty sure the two are correlated. We were like “well, would you like a testimony?”. Then I talked about how I didn’t have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, until something magical happened...I actually read it! She told us that she didn’t have time to read it but we were determined that she’s gotta have at least a couple minutes during the day to sit down and read. So we pulled up google sheets and had her tell us her daily schedule. She seemed kinda shocked at our determination but we went through her whole day and sure enough, we were able to find some time where she could sit down and read a little bit each day. I’m excited for her to get that testimony!

My point in sharing this is that we always have time for what’s most important to us. If reading the Book of Mormon isn’t important to us, we’re not going to have/make time for it. But if it really matters to us, we will make the time, and we will be all the better for it. So if you’re not reading in the Book of Mormon daily, you need to rethink your life a little bit. It will make all the difference

Honestly I really don’t have much else to say. But this upcoming week is going to be crazy busy so I’m excited for it. 

Adios chicos

Half of a sister mission - 9 Months

 Hey what’s up

I’m actually excited for this weekly because I have stuff to tell you guys. But this week was actually super awesome. I also hit 9 months this week. That’s half of a sister mission! Pretty crazy stuff

Elder Smith's Ankle

We were at the ZL’s apt a while ago for the night and Elder Smith who lives there has a big problem with sleep walking/crawling. He always wakes up in a different place every morning and it’s a bit concerning at times. So before we went to bed, me and my boi Elder Lewis went in and tied a rope around his ankle while he was asleep, and then tied the other side to his companions ankle. That way when Elder Smith tried to escape, his companion Elder Rust would be notified. Then the next morning we found the poor guy on the floor as if he was trying to crawl out during the middle of the night but was held captive by the rope that was tied to Elder Rust, who didn’t get out of bed. Just thought that was funny haha

Spikeball w/Elder Goodman

Just had to give a quick shoutout to @Elder Cole Goodman because the two of us destroyed the zone in spikeball a little bit ago. He also reads all my weekly’s without fail. What a guy

Wrong Referral

This week we sent a ton of referrals to missionaries all around the US. When they get our referral, they get the number of the person we’re referring and our number as well so they can contact us and get some more background info. So we sent a bible delivery referral and these elders accidentally texted us instead of the guy who wanted the bible. So I couldn’t help but mess with them. Our conversation is as follows (the red text is them and the blue text is me):

“Hey Alfred its the missionaries, whens a good time we can drop off a Bible?”

“rite now is good”

**they didn’t respond for a day**

“hey yiu still has my bible”

“Sorry we were pretty busy last night we can drop it off today if that works”

“wait”

“ate you mormouns”

“We're members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints some people call us mormons”

“do you do baotizm”

**didn’t respond for a few minutes**

“Yeah we do baptism”

“how can j do baprizm”

“We would love to help you, is there a good time we can stop by and talk today?”

“I alrwady read book of mromon many times”

“Thats amazing whats your favorite part?”

At this point, I was so excited. Seriously, I was bouncing out of my chair with joy. People say that a lot out here when we ask about the Book of Mormon. They’re like “oh I’ve read it”. And then we ask what their favorite part is and they say something like “that part where Joseph Smith wrestles the bear” or some nonsense like that. So these elders were calling my bluff, but I had a plan. I then created the most incredible response of all time. So following their question of “what is your favorite part?”, I said-

“all of it

but my favorite part is  in mosidh chahpter 2 3 and 4 whenn I read abotu king bejanmin testifie of jesus Chrost

so its all very  goos byt rite bow I am studying in alma 11 avout the nephite financial sistem and how it pertains to tbe authenticity of tbe book of Mormun and I find it very inresting. what is your favotie part?”

Pretty good eh? But then it fell apart. But sadly, as I was preparing to send it, they called me. I panicked. They were going to figure me out. As I was in this moment of shock and great alarm, I realized that if I didn’t answer they would hear my voicemail that says “this is Elder Wride and Elder Petrucka” so I went to answer the call, planning on just hanging up immediately after, but I missed it. So I missed their call and they heard our voicemail, exposing us as fellow missionaries. On the voicemail they left us they were just laughing and told us to give them a call back. So we were able to call them and get them the referral. But it was pretty funny! They said they totally bought it though and were ready to put me on date for baptism.

Who?

Yesterday we were looking for an inactive member family called the Owls. We went to what we thought was their house, preparing to ask them when they opened the door, “Is this the Owls?”. I then imagined them responding with “who?” and just died laughing. Get it? Because owls go “hoot” (and that sounds like “who”). Unfortunately nobody was there. But if they had said “who” after I asked if it was the Owls, I would have been like “ayee!! We found you guys!”. You might not get that joke but I thought it was really funny. 

Shelina!

Alright enough with the jokes and down to what really matters. Which is, as always, the people. 

So I’ve been telling you guys about Shelina for the longest time. She lives in Mexico, has been taught everything, and is way elect. I love her and her kids with my whole soul. She would have been baptized already, but the Elders down there are pretty rough. So it’s been several months now of me doing my best to teach Shelina without any help from people who live by her. I’ve tried contacting the elders several times about getting the information of members down there so I can connect her with them and get them at some video lessons, but the mexico guys just ignore me. 

So this week, I decided it was about time to just break into the system and get er done. So I had Shelina send me the zoom link for church down there. 

My initial plan was to sneak into the zoom meeting and then privately message everybody in the ward to get their personal information to get them at future lessons, however my plan was infiltrated when I saw that the host had disabled messaging people privately. So I decided to just message the host and get his information. 

I told him that Shelina is a non-member who wanted to join but needs some help doing it. He misread my text though and thought that I said that Shelina was a member already, so at the close of the zoom meeting with a ton of Mexico members, he called on Shelina to say the closing prayer. It was nuts!!! I was nervous for her but I knew it would be all good because me and her have practiced praying a lot. I could tell she was super nervous but she prevailed and did an amazing prayer for the entire ward. It was awesome. 

Long story short, we got the bishop at a lesson with Shelina and her kids and now the ward knows that she’s there! It’s amazing. I am so happy. So now it’s looking like Shelina will finally be able to get to know the members and go into full activation following her baptism. Pretty awesome!

Mark!

Mark is AMAZING! I love this man so much. We had a literal miracle at church with him yesterday that is probably too personal to share but it was amazing. I know that God is working on that man and y’alls prayers are working!!! We also watched the restoration with Mark, his wife (Sister Hunt) and another guy we’re teaching named Austin. The spirit was soooo strong during the lesson. I’ve watched the Restoration film many times on the mission with investigators but this time was the strongest. Mark cried and I got pretty teary eyed but contained myself. At the end we bore testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration. It was so powerful! I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God!

Chuck!

Another miracle was Chuck. This guy is amazing. I love him so much. It was his birthday so we made a short audio clip of us singing “happy birthday” on the ukulele. Afterwords he called us and was like “what did you do with the money?”. We were like “what money” and he was like “the money your mom gave you for singing lessons”. It was pretty good. But that wasn’t the miracle haha

Chuck has been taught by missionaries since the dawn of time and has never progressed or read the Book of Mormon. But at our last lesson he told us that he had read the chapter we left him, prayed before he read it, and taken note of the mentions it has of the savior. So awesome! He’s finally starting to see that all we want for him is to become closer to Jesus Christ through the ordinances of the gospel, which have been restored in our day!!

Other Stuff

We taught so many people this week, like I can’t even keep up. So I’m not going to into much more depth, but to sum up some other appointments, we taught a guy from guatemala named Bartolo who is a legend (he talks really fast but I understood all of it which was a miracle), a really sweet mother named Ashley who is super promising, a super cool street preacher named Andre who is also elect, a lady named Sabina who is super elect too and asked us to come teach her before we had the chance, a really sweet lady named Irene who says we’re super nice and wants us to start teaching her the gospel, another lady named Sadie who doesn’t seem as interested right now but is still super awesome, a guy named Tracy who is going through a lot right now and got emotional when we offered a priesthood blessing, a guy named Wayne who invited us to his bible study, and so on. These are just a couple of people we’ve had the privilege of teaching, and there’s still a ton more. Litchfield is such an awesome area. The Lord has got big plans for this little town. The people her are incredible.

Testimony

There’s a lot more I could say about funny things that happened and spiritual moments, but I gotta wrap this up. I want to bear my testimony to you guys that the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, this is the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, and that true joy and lasting happiness cannot and will not be found anywhere else. 

But yea overall this week was good. Some rough spots, but much better than the last couple weeks. I’ve been praying like I never have before and it seems to be working. I know I still have some rough weeks ahead but it’s in moments where you actually feel like you're actually changing someone else’s life through your message that it all feels worth it. I just hope the conversion lasts in the lives of those we’re meeting with. 

I'm thankful for Jesus Christ and His gospel that make it all possible

2 Nephi 25:26

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins"

That’s all I’m gonna say for this week. Love you guys. Adios

Weekly

 Hey guys! This week was very interesting.    

Rough Night

I really don’t have much to say. One super interesting thing was that we slept at the ZL’s apt a couple days ago and one of our ZL’s snored super loud for like an hour straight. But it wasn’t normal snoring. It sounded like those squeaky/wheezy chicken toys that you squeeze and then they just scream super loudly. It sounded just like that except it was coming out of his nose. It was the worst night of my life. I literally shed a tear over it. But he’s my ZL so I wasn’t about to hit him in the face with a pillow like I would with my family back home. But yea that was pretty eventful!

Mark

We had some good lessons with Mark this week. During one of our lessons we invited him to be baptized again and then together we all got on our knees to pray for a date. It was pretty cool because during the prayer I had a really strong thought that May 1st should be the date. After the prayer nobody was saying anything and then I was like “how bout May 1st” and both Mark and his wife were like “that’s what I was thinking!” so it was cool. And I love Mark so much. He is a Man of God and I honestly feel honored that the Lord has allowed me to work with him. Please please keep him in your prayers! Like right now, just pause reading for a second and get on your knees and pray that Mark will be able to get baptized on the 1st. 

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people are like “we’ll pray for you” but like, are you actually going to pray for me? So whenever I tell anyone I’ll pray for them, I literally stop whatever I’m doing and me and my companion get on our knees and say a prayer. So if you guys would be willing to do that for Mark I would appreciate it. Prayer is how we receive revelation, and Heavenly Father wants to enlighten our minds, but he can’t if we won’t put in any effort. So yea prayer is important.

Chuck

Also we had a lesson with another guy named Chuck who is super awesome. I love that man. But he is a bit stubborn/lazy when it comes to keeping commitments. So at our lesson when he told us he hadn’t read the part in the BOM we left him, we told him we were going to leave for 30 minutes so he could read and pray about it, and then we would come back and have our lesson. He seemed a bit annoyed haha and said he still wouldn’t read it. So we just asked lots of inspired questions and it was good. We asked him to give us his word that he would read it before next time and he said he wouldn’t. But after bearing testimony some more and asking more questions to find out what his real issue is, he gave us his word that he would read it which was super awesome. 

His wife is a member and she texted us after the lesson saying that no missionaries have ever pushed Chuck in the way that we did, and that it was inspired. So that was cool! We’re excited to meet with him again this week. 

Dianna

We met this amazing lady named Dianna this week and had a really good lesson with her. She is the very definition of elect. She told us that she’s been praying for someone to teach her about who Jesus Christ really is and then she met us. So we had a great lesson on the restoration and she is solid. We are planning on inviting her to be baptized this week.

Other Stuff

We had lots of other lessons this week but those were probably the most interesting ones. Also this week I heard a rumor that my mission in the Dominican Republic is gonna start sending north americans over there so that was cool to hear. I honestly totally forgot that I was originally supposed to go there. So we’ll see if that happens soon. 

Also we got vaccinated this week! I got to back to St. Louis and see a bunch of old mission friends, including my dad Elder Morgan! It was good to see him again. 

Spiritual Thought

A couple months ago I was really frustrated feeling like the mission was changing me, but now looking back at the past 9 months I have changed so much and it keeps going. The mission has totally broke me and it’s made me a better man so it’s good stuff. 

Also for my spiritual thought this week, I just want to testify to you guys of the prophet Joseph Smith. I’ve been reading a book called “Brother Joseph” and it is so dang good. That man was a LEGEND. Every time I think about him I get teary eyed. I’m so grateful for what he did to bring the gospel into our lives. And God was so hard on him. I feel bad. He just felt like a failure most of his life and was constantly chastised. But really all of those trials were what made him great. 

I love and respect Joseph Smith with all my heart, but most importantly, I want to testify of Jesus Christ. My eyes out here in the mission are opening, and now there is nowhere I look without seeing the savior in it. He is really the light and life of the world. I know he’s going to come again soon.

That’s about it for this week. Love you all! 

-Elder Wride

Still out here don't worry

 Hey weekly-

Sorry I didn’t write last week. I just wasn’t feelin it 

Transfers

New Comp

People we’re teaching

General Conference

Spiritual Thought

Transfers

So I have been transferred from one boonies to another. Now I am a little over 2 hours west of Paris in a town called Litchfield IL. Not gonna lie, I was really hoping I would be able to go back to the holy land (Missouri). Half of our mission is in Missouri and the other half is in Illinois, but everybody kinda hates IL for a number of reasons. For us missionaries, the biggest reason for that is that Illinois killed the prophet Joseph Smith. 

But I’m getting by just fine and litchfield is a nice place. It’s a small branch but we have a really nice building and the members are fantastic. No tweakers to be seen though which has been a weird change. 

New Comp

My new companion is Elder Petrucka. He is....interesting. But he’s super obedient and diligent so it’s been good. We’ve been working really hard and seeing a lot of success. Good things are happening in our area. 

The best thing about Elder Petrucka is that he’s the first companion I’ve had really that talks to strangers without me making him haha. We both have no fear when talking to random people about Jesus Christ, so it’s been really good. Sometimes though it’s not as normal and natural as it could be haha, but that’s okay. We were at Walmart, and since conference was around the corner, Elder Petrucka walked up to this guy and said “Do you believe in prophets?”. It was the cringiest thing mine eyes have ever beheld. The guy looked super irritated and confused. After a couple seconds of silence he was just like “I’m….not……..interested”. It was pretty funny! But yea it’s been a good time. We’ve both been working really hard. Nothing is more fulfilling to me than knowing at the end of the day that I gave it my all.

People we’re teaching

So yea there’s some really great people here in Litchfield. We’ve had a lot of success finding and teaching. One of our friends names is Mark. He is so awesome! He’s been married to a member forever and has always gone to church with her but has never joined, but he recently had a dream or vision or something that he needed to get baptized so now he’s speedily progressing. 

Another lady named Kathie wants to get baptized after praying about it which is cool.

This other guy we met this week named RJ had a cool experience with the BOM. We saw him and some other people walking around in this field so we went and talked to them and long story short we taught them the restoration and gave them a BOM. We promised him the Book of Mormon was true and invited him to read and pray about 3 Nephi 11. Then the next day he texted us saying-

“..after we had our talk yesterday. I had a little bit of extra time b4 bed and I read the chapter 11. I woke up this morning with a bee job offer in another state making excellent money. I believe it was a sign and/or answering to my question last night. U was right, it is his book. I appreciate you both and I hope you have the same effect on others as u did me. I thank you for that. Now I am being rushed, I have only two days to get my things in order and hit the road. Prayers…”

So that was cool I guess!

But yea that’s just a small handful of those folks in this area. I’m happy to be here and I’m guessing I’ll be here in Litchfield for a pretty good while. 

General Conference

The biggest highlight of the week was general conference! I haven’t been that excited since avengers endgame came out. But when I saw the intro to conference and heard that guy with the deep voice say “welcome to the 191st annual general conference…” I started to go nuts and in my head I could hear the avengers theme. I love conference so much!!! The talks were pretty fantastic. Our ZL’s live in a members mansion so we came up here to watch conference and it’s been real nice. But I’m excited to get back to Litchfield and get the work going again. 

We had a couple of people say that they were going to watch conference, but after talking to them about it, I’m not sure if they really watched it. This one guy who we followed up with after conference definitely gave that impression. He said it was very good but all of his answers were super vague too. But I didn’t want to just assume that he was lying, so to know for sure I was like “how did you like the dancers?”. Then he was like “oh yea! The dancers! They were fantastic!”. I didn’t call him out haha but in my head I was definitely like . But it’s all good. 

Spiritual Thought

For my spiritual thought today I just want to share my testimony of the power and importance of temples. 

I don’t think a day has gone by in the mission field where I don’t think about how much I miss going to the temple. Looking back, my favorite memories from jr high/high school are easily when me and my friends would go there. Those were good times. I miss it so much. There’s just such a feeling of peace there that can't be found anywhere else.

I loved President Henry B. Eyring’s talk about temples in the Saturday morning session of conference too. There’s just so much power in the house of the Lord! 

So in the last session of conference when President Nelson said he was about to announce 20 new temples, I lost it. So amazing! I started getting very teary eyed as he listed the names of places where temples would soon be available. Just super powerful stuff. Temples are literally dotting the earth as prophesied. Now more than ever! And I have the feeling that this is just a small beginning of the temples that are going to come. Temples are such a blessing. 

So that’s it for my week. Hope you all  have a good one. Feel free to email me if you want 

-Elder Wride

last pic of me and elder powell

cool clouds

goodbye to my paris apt

me and elder petrucka