Diggin' the New Digs

If you guys have seen Incredibles 2, you should go look up the soundtrack and listen to the song “Diggin the New Digs” for me. That’s the vibe I’m feeling right now. I remember in high school I would listen to that all the time, especially at the start of a new phase of life. And everything here is pretty new and exciting. New comp, new area, new people, etc. Anyways, that song is stuck in my head and it’s pretty good. I’m diggin the new digs out here. 

Vamos a La Playa

Last week I sent an email out, but my phone is super wack and it didn’t send. It wasn’t a very good email anyways though so it’s fine. But last week I got a call that I was getting transferred to Puerto Plata! THE BEACH. When he told me, I tried not to be too excited over the phone but when he hung up I went crazy. Super sweet!

Pretty Embarrassing

Yesterday we were in a meeting with President, so I was on my best behavior haha. He asked one of us to read D&C 78:18. I thought he said D&C 68, not D&C 78. They sound pretty similar in spanish. So instead of reading the cool scripture about “[being] of good cheer”, I read the following:

“No man has a legal right to this office, to hold the keys of this priesthood, except he be a literal descendant and the firstborn of Aaron.”

After I read it, I paused and thought “fetch, that doesn’t sound right”. But Presidente Breton is a loving soul and was just like “gracias Elder Wride” and then had someone else read the right one.

It took a couple minutes for me to process what had happened, but I’m still cringing super hard at myself. 

Comp

My new comp is great. Especially during the first couple days, you always try to be on your best behavior. It had just rained and he was shaking the water off his umbrella and was like “isn’t this cool?”. I thought that was weird but was like “dang Elder that’s sweet”. But apparently he wasn’t talking about the umbrella, he was talking about some tourist thing that we had walked by that looked cool. He had just happened to be shaking the water off of his umbrella at the same time. But I was just so committed to agreeing with everything that I told him the way he shaked the water off of his umbrella was cool. It was funny. 

Puerto Plata!

This is probably the coolest place I have ever been in my life. I can’t even describe it. Like you guys don’t even know. There’s this whole world over here and I wish you could experience it like I am. 

It’s a concrete jungle. It’s SO cool! We live like a 2 minute walk from where the craziness starts. You walk down the street, into a little alley way, and the whole world changes. It looks like it’s from Dr. Suess. Just insane hills everywhere with crazy buildings. It’s a maze. And then if you walk down another alleyway it opens up another whole new world with tons more houses and buildings. Ahhh I wish I could explain it better. But it is absolutely the coolest thing ever. 

My area is right by the beach. We live like a 5 minute walk from it. So in the mornings we have been going running on the beach. It is so sweet. I literally cannot even describe how much I love the area. But what makes it really good, as always, is the people. Because all of the houses are super close together it’s really easy to find people to teach. And the ward is so awesome. There’s a lot of members so we get fed a lot. Which I need big time because I’m getting too skinny. I want you all to see me when I’m fat.

El Apartamento

Puerto Plata is super touristy and cool, but we’re still in a third world country. A lot of these things I’m used to, but it’s still funny. When I first got here we didn’t have water for the first couple of days. It was rough. Water is so essential to our survival haha. So we had to take buckets over to this emergency water supply and fill it up. We used all of that to shower and clean for a few days. As I stood there in my broken little bathroom showering with my little bucket of water I had the thought, “wait, this isn’t normal”. But it is now! I would never have done anything like that before the mission. 

The bathrooms have some problems, and water is hard to get. When we do have a water supply it comes from the tank behind the apartment. And if we ever want to use the sink or anything, we have to flip a light switch or it doesn’t work. Weird stuff like that. 

The mosquitos are interesting here. I was happy to get mine set back up. Makes me feel like a jungle man. My comp hasn’t been using the mosquito net and his ankles are bleeding from bites haha. 

We have this kid named Daury who lives in the apartment next to us. He’s a member and he’s super cool and also super annoying. He basically lives with us and speaks broken english so it’s a lot of fun. He made us jello last night that was super nasty. 

Also my shower is pretty funny. There’s just a PVC pipe sticking out of the bottom of the wall and when I turn the water on, instead of coming from the top it shoots from the bottom. Not sure how to fix that.

Motor Bikes

I haven’t been good at getting all the insane stuff that happens here in my weekly’s. My bad. Some of it just seems normal. Like I didn’t think to tell you guys last week about when we were walking and a motorcycle flew at like 60mph through the air in front of us and into a ditch. We probably would have been decapitated if we had been closer haha. It was nuts though. I saw the bike fly and crash, so me and my comp sprinted over there. I was totally ready to see a dead guy, but by some miracle he was alive. In the air he had landed in the different side of the ditch. When he came out, he was covered in mud. I though it was blood at first and was ready to whip out my oil vile and bless him haha, but yea it was just mud. He did have a dislocated shoulder though (at least). And the car that hit him just drove away which was pretty messed up. 

Motor Bike #2

This is a cool story! So a few days ago we saw another motorcycle accident. We heard a crash and turned around just in time to see the guy face-plant on the cement. So we sprinted over there to help him out. He was okay. His bike was kinda broken though. We helped him up and helped him move his bike. We didn’t really know what else to say and had to go to another lesson so I handed him our number and told him to text us if he needed anything. A couple hours later we got a text from a lady who told us that her husband was the one from the accident and she wanted to thank us for being there for him. 

My companion has been in this area longer than me and saw the lady’s whatsapp picture and said that he’s met her before. He said a few weeks ago she was driving by and pulled over and told them that she is looking for a church and asked where the church is. They told her, but haven’t seen her since. 

So we talked more to her over whatsapp and invited her to church and she said she would come because her and her husband have been looking for one. Pretty sweet! Basically we lost contact with an elect lady until her husband face-planted in the cement and now we’re gonna teach the family! I’m super hyped about it. 

Sax Guy

We met with a member this week who has a tenor saxophone. I told him that I play and he let me go at it for a few minutes. It was magical. I totally forgot that I even did that with my life before. So I let out a lot of stress I was feeling through the horn and it was pretty sweet. I also played some hymns like “praise to the man”. It was cool. 

The Book of Mormon

This week I grew a lot spiritually. I’ve been feeling empty lately and it was driving me nuts. So I decided to start the Book of Mormon over again but in english, and decided that I would mark every time it refers to Christ. I had been reading the Book of Mormon every day, but in spanish. I was also in the war chapters so I feel like I wasn’t getting spiritually filled like I could have been. 

After just a few minutes of reading, the light came back and I felt such peace in my heart. The days since that have been amazing. 

It’s Probably Going to Happen

Me and my comp were having a spiritual discussion about the last days. He told me about how he was reading in Jacob 5, the coolest chapter ever. Basically it runs through the whole world history in a really cool way. It goes over the apostasy, restoration, and so forth. Then the last part of the chapter talks about the servants going to prune the vineyard one last time. In other words, the missionary force going out to preach the gospel one last time before the Savior comes again. And then, the last verse of the chapter - 

“And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire”

Super intense. My companion then said, “you know, everything else it talks about in this chapter has already happened. So this is probably going to happen too. 

And it’s true! I’m seeing it first hand out here. The Lord is coming soon. 

We went to the beach today so I don’t have time to write everything that I wanted to. Sorry. But I love you guys! Hopefully next week I’ll have more time because I have a lot of cool things on my mind. I also had a couple times this week where I would read a scripture about Christ and just get major chills. I feel like I am getting to know Him a lot better out here. I hope I can remember all of these feelings I’m getting. 

Love you guys

- Elder Wride

Otra Semana

This week was hard for me, but it's all good. I don't have a lot of time but here are some of the things that happened. 

Elder Wrieder

Nobody here knows how to say my name. Instead of saying it right they say stuff like "weeder", "weride", "wrider", etc. It's kinda funny. Also they called Elder Lloyd (my companion) Elder "Yoyo" because the d at the end of his name looks like an O on his tag, and the double L in Spanish makes the y sound. It was iconic. Elder Wrieder and Elder Yoyo. Los gringos.

Interesante

People here are so nice but also super bad at being upfront and honest about if they want to talk or not. We stopped by a house for a follow up visit and we knew the lady was home because the door was wide open. After we shouted to see if she was there, a little girl came out shaking her finger at us and told us that her mom wasn't home. But I'm smarter than that, so I asked the girl to ask her mom what time she would be back. So she went back into the house. A couple seconds later the little girl came and shut the door on us.

Lubenson vs Tik Tok

Our friend Lubenson is progressing super well. He can't read though so he hasn't been able to read the Book of Mormon which has been a challenge. So during one of our lessons this week I tried to download the "Libro de Mormón" app on his phone so he could listen to the audio, but there wasn't enough space on his phone. But, there could be enough space if I deleted Tik Tok which was on there. I asked him if I could delete it and he was obviously very reluctant. So I opened the app and had him take a minute and ponder about if the things in there were really bringing him closer to Christ. Then he let me delete it and replace it with The Book of Mormón! Now when he gets on his phone he has nothing else to do but listen to the Book of Mormon. And he's always on his phone. During church he showed me where he was at and it looks like he's in Alma! I am excited for him. 

José and the Plan of Salvation

The greatest part of the week was teaching our friend Jose the plan of salvation. He had the best reactions ever. When we started off by telling him that he lived before he was born he looked totally shocked. It was a huge relief because most people don't even seem phased by it and it's kind of annoying. But he was totally shook. The whole lesson was like that. He just looked at us in total awe the whole time. We were also using his Bible to show him the verses that back it up and he was shocked by that too. He was like "is this really my bible? How come I've never heard that?". It was priceless. When we taught him the doctrine of the three kingdoms of glory he put his head in his hands totally blown away. It was great. Also his mom is dying and was laying down in the next room. After we taught the plan of salvation he turned to his mom (who was asleep) and said "did you hear that mom! You can die in peace!". That part was a little weird haha but it was good. It was a really powerful lesson and José told us that he feels a lot of great changes are coming his way. 

Teaching Pool

Good things are happening in our area. Rances and Lubenson are getting baptized this week so hopefully all goes well with that. We had 3 other great friends come to church yesterday in addition to those that already come. Fran, Dionoso, and Burno. It was cool to see the sacrifices they all made to work it out in their schedules. Bruno was working all night and still chose to come. So I am excited for all of them. 

Spiritual Thought

I've been studying the plan of salvation a lot this week and I thought one of the scriptures I read was pretty interesting. D&C 88:22 - "For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory". 

I love that the plan of salvation puts everybody where they feel comfortable. If we don't go to the celestial kingdom, it will be because we can't. We will not be able to withstand being under that amount of glory if we haven't practiced living the celestial laws here on earth. So for that I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who's plan puts everybody according the law that they decided to live, and where they will be comfortable. 

Love you guys! Nos vemos

• Elder Wrieder

"No quiero galletas!" - 16 Months

This week went by so fast holy cow. It was good I guess! Here's my update. 

Chess Guy Who's Actually Pretty Good At It

There are these two dudes that are always playing chess on the side of the road. I told them a while ago that I wanted to play them but we haven't ever had time. Finally this week we had time and we stopped and I played one of the guys in chess. 

Well, looks can be deceiving. I figured he was just this old dominican dude who didn't know anything but he was insanely good and absolutely wrecked me. And every time he moved a piece to kill one of mine he did it super aggressively. It was kinda scary. He also was muttering stuff during the whole thing roasting me. He'd be like "I thought he was gonna be good" and stuff like that. I played him twice and each game lasted about 3 minutes. And I thought I was pretty good because in St. Louis I was kinda undefeated.

At the end of our match I asked if we could share a spiritual message with him and he said yes. He's one of the few people I've met as a missionary that has been like anti-God. He went off and just kinda ripped on religion and stuff. It was cool though because he wouldn't deny the existence of God. I kept pushing for him to tell me whether he believed he existed or not and he would say "I'm not going to say whether he does or not, but I don't believe he exists". Reminds me a lot of Alma 30:48 - "48 Now Korihor said unto him: I do not deny the existence of a God, but I do not believe that there is a God; and I say also, that ye do not know that there is a God; and except ye show me a sign, I will not believe". 

We talked for a while. It's also super fun talking in Spanish. Honestly I think I'm basically fluent. Like I understand every word everybody says and I can talk really fast like them. Anyways we talked for a while and it was pretty entertaining. He said he believes in theology, not in God. So at the end of our visit I felt prompted to give him a Book of Mormón and invited him to read Alma 30. He said he would, and tonight we're gonna follow up. I also gonna play him in chess again. My goal is to survive at least 5 minutes. Fingers crossed

Lots of kids

A lot of people ask about our families, so it's always fun to see their reactions when I tell them that I have 11 siblings. I always let my companions go first because they always think that 3 or 5 kids is a lot. And then I come in and do a mic drop with 11. It's pretty great. With one of the families that asked I decided to make it more interesting. I found a picture of me and all my siblings that has us all lined up in a line from oldest to youngest. I zoomed in on the oldest and slowly started moving down the line. The line just kept going and it blew their minds. I'll attach the picture I used. 

Misinformed Dominican Woman

This dominican lady we talked to this week asked us if it's true that if we are married and our wife dies, we marry our deceased wife's sister. Not sure where she heard that. I told her no though. I then made a joke that there are some people in the world who think that "Mormons" have horns. She didn't think that was funny because she said she had thought that too. Me and my companion then both started going through our hair to show her that we don't have any horns. 

Angry Old Man

Another really cool thing this week was that I got spit on! I thought it was cool because I really felt like Christ's disciple. We were walking down the street and an old guy was like "hey give me money". I was like "sorry, we can't give you money, but do you want a cracker?". I had some ritz crackers in my bag. I pulled one out and handed it to him. He then looked at me and was like "no quiero galletas!" and lifted up his hand about to hit me. I was able to get out of the way in time to avoid getting hit but then he spit on me. It was interesting!

Spiritual Experiences

We had great lessons this week. Another one was with Jose. We were testifying to him that the Book of Mormon could change his life. As we said it, it looked like a wall just hit him. He looked at me and was like "why are you giving me goosebumps?". I told him that that was the spirit. Then I got major goosebumps too. Pretty fun!

But there are lots of great families we are working with! Things have just been great with all of them the past couple weeks. This week we're gonna just start going hard with baptismal invitations. Because really that's why we're here. So it will be exciting to see how that goes. 

We also met an amazing lady yesterday! We stopped by a little shop on the side of the road to talk to a guy we felt prompted to talk to. But the lady on the other side of the counter listened to the conversation and absolutely drilled us with questions. It was super fun. At first she was really antagonistic and told us that organized religion is bad and so on. But then when we explained the first vision, it was like a flip switched in her head. She got so excited that she left the counter and came out into the front so she could better see the Book of Mormon. And she drilled us with more questions. Before we even had the chance to offer her the book, she asked for it. So I'm super excited about her. 

Also our two friends Rances and Lubenson are doing great. We originally had their baptisms planned for this week but we're thinking we're gonna move it to next week instead. I am really excited for them though! You can tell that they both want this gospel to start to become a big part of who they are. 

Spiritual Thought

I hit 16 months yesterday. I will have 7 months left at the end of this month. Pretty crazy. I had a nightmare this week that I wasn't in the Dominican Republic and it made me really sad. So I am happy I am still here. 

My mind has been racing a lot lately just about the mission and life and stuff. Everybody told me that the time would pass, but now it's actually starting to look like it is. Not sure exactly how I feel about it. 

A big change that I feel like has happened to me lately is that I am letting go of my pride. I am accepting that I don't have all of the answers. And it's kinda funny, I feel like as I accept that I don't know all I would like to know, I learn the most. 

Also my testimony of this gospel has gotten so strong. I am seeing first hand the way the Book of Mormon describes that the world would be before the Savior comes again. Another testament to me that He really will come. It's gonna be great! 

Last thought I just had - 

My companion has been pretty annoyed with all of these dominican people. He's mostly just annoyed with them blasting music all night. But his patience is pretty low with them. 

So when that dominican guy spit on me, my companion almost lost it. He like wanted to go and beat the guy up. I was annoyed that I got spit on, but I wasn't mad. We just walked away and I was fine even though my companion kept looking back, clearly thinking about retaliating in some way haha. He was also surprised that I wasn't mad and was like "doesn't that just make you angry?". Before the mission I probably would have been, but as a missionary I really feel like I have Christ by me and it's easier to react in the way that He would. So I responded and told him I that it really didn't bother me too much. My companion then said, "But you didn't deserve that! You didn't do anything wrong". 

Those words kinda hit me. I then thought about Jesus Christ. He literally did not do anything wrong. Absolutely nothing. He made no mistakes. And not only did He not do anything wrong, but He did so much good. He healed, comforted, and blessed everyone that was near Him. 

He was totally flawless in every way. But yet, in addition to suffering for all of our pains and sins, he was beaten, scourged, and crucified in the most cruel way. 

There is no way I or any of you fully comprehend what He did or how amazing and important it really was, but if there is anything I am learning out here, it is that Jesus Christ is really the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and nobody get's to God, but through Him, and His atonement. 

I love you all! 

- Elder Wride 

Perrito Gordito

 Que lo que bacanos! I did a terrible job of keeping notes this week so this email will be pretty short but here it is anyways.

Fat Dog

There are a lot of dogs everywhere here in the DR. They are pretty bad. They are always either barking at people, breaking the law of chastity, or just laying down on the side of the road. And all of the dogs are super skinny and got a lot of weird diseases. So it was super funny this week when we walked by a dog laying on the sidewalk who was just super fat. I thought it was so funny. That's the only fat dog I've seen here. I don't even know how he got fat. Maybe he ate another dog haha. But I thought it was so hilarious that I had to get a picture so there ya go. Que pobrecito es este perrito gordito con su pequeñito descansito.

Costa Vida

At the end of a lesson with our friend Amilkin we started talking about food. He asked if I knew how to cook, and I told him I used to work at a Mexican restaurant. My companion was skeptical and asked where. I didn't want to admit where because it doesn't make me sound nearly as cool but I told him it was Costa Vida. Long story short I basically got roasted by everyone for a few minutes for claiming to have worked at a "Mexican restaurant". Which Costa Vida is, but it's definitely very americanized and I actually didn't cook hardly anything. It was kinda funny though! 

Las personas

We have found some really elect people. One guy is named Jose. He's dominican but actually grew up in New York. So he's fluent in both English and Spanish. It's been fun teaching him with both. But he's had a really hard life. In New York one night his house got lit on fire and his 5 kids died in the fire. He told us in our first meeting how much he needs something more in his life. He accepted a Book of Mormón and has really been studying it which has been super great. I am way excited for him. He also asked us where we've been all these years haha. So José is awesome. We also gave him a Priesthood blessing and many tears were shed. It was good stuff. 

There are a ton of other elect people. It's great! Our two best right now are Rances and Lubenson. We actually thought Rance's name was Frances until like two days ago which was awkward. Glad we found out before his baptism though. But they are both coming to church and it's a good time.

Rances is 13 and has really been great. Last week I mentioned a group of kids we invited them all to church. Apparently that had an impact on France who was in that group and he saw us in the street the next day and asked us to come and teach him. He's awesome! He will probably be getting baptized pretty soon. 

Lubenson is great too. He's from Haiti and has a really weird story. I spent like 10 minutes trying to type out an explanation about him but it is just too hard to explain. But for reference, in the pictures below he is the one in the banana shirt. But he's been coming to church as well so he will probably end up getting baptized within the next couple weeks as well. 

There are a lot of other families we're still working with that I'm excited about. Last night while walking around I saw this guy in a suit with a Bible and we both instantly smiled at each other and started talking like we have known each other for a long time. He couldn't remember his number so I gave him a card. Which, 99.9% of people don't text you when you give them a card. But he did! We are gonna teach him and his family tonight.

Spiritual Thought

I had two really big spiritual insights this week. A couple days ago I was really having a terrible day. Just super stressed out and feeling kinda angry at God for some problems. So I did something dumb. I prayed angrily. It wasn't with humility or with faith. Instead I prayed with disrespect and anger. Which ended up having the total opposite effect. I felt the Holy Ghost leave so fast, and I was left feeling way way worse than I had felt right before. That emptiness and absence of the spirit was with me for the rest of the day. It was bad. Then that night I prayed really hard for forgiveness and was able to get it sorted out. 

But the lesson there that I learned is that we need to pray to God with faith and respect. He knows all the thoughts and desires of our hearts, and he knows if we're sad or angry, but we need to pray with humility and faith to get the help we desire. So I won't be making that mistake again!

The other thought I had this week is that we really just need to choose to believe. There are always going to be reasons to doubt the gospel. If you're looking for that stuff, you're going to find it! But if you look for reasons to believe, you're going to find it as well. So after you learn some stuff and get answers from God, you need to choose to believe it. It will make you happier. I have been feeling overwhelmed by questions too lately which has caused me problems. But as I choose to believe, I feel so much better. And that doesn't mean I just have blind faith. We have some pretty dang solid evidence of the truthfulness of the Gospel. But we also need to make the conscious choice that we will continue to believe after we receive the witness because the adversary is always going work hard to make us doubt. 

I love you guys so much! Let me know how you're doing!

- Elder Wride

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