My Last Email - First Post-Mission Kiss

Enjoy my last weekly email

Dead Chicken

Well we were in a lesson with Orlando (who I'll talk about in a sec) and his 2 year old kid came up during a lesson with something in a bag and gave it to his dad. His dad opened it up and inside was a dead chicken. Orlando freaked out and chucked it over the fence and then his girlfriend got mad and told him to go get it. Then his kid started spazzing out because he wanted his chicken back and ran away crying.

First Kiss in a While

The past couple of days I have been seeing some of my favorite people for the last time. The time feels like sand just slipping through my fingers and it makes me kind of sad. Yesterday we stopped by an old lady named Orjina. I mentioned her a few weeks ago. She's just the sweetest old lady and is missing a leg. I would have loved for her to be baptized but it's kind of impossible to get her to church. She's also just so old that she can't really understand our message super well. But she's a sweetheart and I know the Lord will bless her for the goodness of her heart. As we said bye I gave her a hug and then she full sent it and gave me a big fat kiss on the cheek. I was like "whateva" and gave her a kiss on her cheek too haha. It was funny. But it's honestly amazing how much the mission has taught me about charity. I seriously love that lady so much! And not in a weird way don't worry 

Right before she swooped in on me we took a picture together. She also had her hand on my thigh haha. Pictures attached right before the scene of attack haha.

Orlando

The highlight of the week was seeing Orlando get baptized. We found him a few weeks ago when we sent a text to all the members asking for referrals. Then Cinthia, his girlfriend, asked us to teach her boyfriend, who turned out to be Orlando. He's been elect from the beginning, but they aren't going to get married until next month so we haven't baptized him. We thought they were living together, because everyone here does, but we found out last week that they aren't living together until they get married! So we asked him if he wanted to get baptized. He's been super excited about it. Cinthia too. At Orlando's baptism Cinthia talked for a while crying bearing her testimony and talking about Orlando and some trials they've been going through. Orlando cried too. After I baptized him I gave him a hug. We also had quite a few investigators that are getting baptized in the coming weeks as well. So I'm happy about that.

Cinthia was really sick though at the baptism. She has a kidney stone. So she was in a lot of pain at the baptism. Afterwards we asked if she wanted a priesthood blessing, and she said yes. So we went into the other room with the branch president. I anointed her with oil and the branch president gave her the blessing. He was really bold in the blessing which stressed me out a bit but the Spirit was there for sure. 

Cinthia is a really shy person so I don't know exactly what the blessing did. But yesterday when we stopped by she was all smiles and said that she felt good. So that's good!

Victor

Victor is one of my favorite people. I mentioned him a while ago. He really wants to get baptized. He was originally going to get baptized last Saturday but has had problems with smoking. We have been trying for the past two weeks to help him get off them but the addiction is really strong. We gave him a blessing last week that probably helped a little bit. We blessed him that in the Lord's due time he would be able to get off it. I was scared to say anything in the blessing that wasn't the Lord's will so I didn't say anything too bold.

But he was still struggling really bad. Like he's going to die really soon if he doesn't stop smoking. Thursday as we were talking we felt prompted to ask him to do a fast with us to ask the Lord to help. To be honest I really didn't want to fast. Especially in this country that is hot as freak. But we love him so much, so we did it, and he did it with us. We did the fast from Saturday at lunch until yesterday after church. He came to church and looked totally dead haha. But we visited him later that night and he said that since fasting he told us that he has no desire at all to smoke. Fasting works. He hasn't been able to go hardly a day without smoking for years and after one fast he gives it up in a few days. God is good.

Fun

There's a giant colmado by our apartment that is freaking loco. They are always blasting music and have pila de drunk people outside of it all the time. (A colmado is like a snack shop place). We had a lesson with a member a little while ago and she could find where we were at so I told her to meet by the crazy colmado on the corner where the people get super drunk or something like that. She knew right away where to meet.

Point is, the colmado is loco.

Tonight was my last night as a missionary who can actually go out and teach. On the way home I saw an opportunity. I went and asked the owners if I could change the song. They always say yes, but de una vez he said no. I was like uhhhh whut. Its my last night in the DR and you're not gonna let me play a sick song? I asked again and he said no. I was gonna say it was like my birthday or something but instead I just said "look man, it's my last night in the country". He was like, "we don't play Christian music here". So I told him I'd put on a non-christian song.

The day or so before I got set apart two years ago, me and my siblings watched the movie Despicable Me. In the movie there's a song called "Fun, Fun, Fun" by Pharrell Williams. It's super good. I remember listening to it over and over again before getting set apart. Some of the lyrics are -

"Take me, far away, anywhere

As long as it's fun, fun, fun, I wanna go"

And so forth. I remember listening to this thinking about where I was going as a missionary, it being far away, and hoping it was fun haha.

So for sentimental reasons I changed the song to that! It was super sick, even though it took some persuading. Nice way to wrap up my final proselyting night. As I walked out all of the drunk people turned there heads as the song changed from their normal 4 song playlist to something actually good. They all looked really confused.

Tonight I also said my final goodbyes to everyone. It was hard. I love them so much. Tears were shed. I will never forget them though. And I'll visit again soon enough.

Final Spiritual Thought

Man, I have loved my mission. I hated it sometimes, but it was always a love-hate relationship. I loved that I knew the Lord was helping me grow, but despised the pain. But all of the experiences have been for my good. 7 areas, 17 companions, 2 countries. It's been amazing. From Frontenac, to Paris, to Litchfield, to Navarrete, El Dorado, Puerto Plata and finishing here in La Vega. Things worked out great. 

From the beginning of my mission I have tried to keep as much of it documented here as I could to help me always remember it. I hope it has positively impacted you guys too.

And now to conclude my missionary weekly that's been going for two years, I want to read a scripture (revised) from Jacob 7, verse 26.

"And it came to pass that I, Elder Wride, began to be old; and the record of my mission being kept on this email list, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with me, and also my mission away like as it were unto me a dream…"

The time has passed away with me like a dream. I'm excited to go home and see my family, but I will miss my family in St. Louis and the Dominican Republic. But we are all children of God and one day we can all be together again, if we do out part.

I really hope I did my part as a missionary. I've prayed a lot for forgiveness, just really hoping with all my soul that I did the work the Lord wanted me to do. Although I haven't been perfect, I do know without a doubt that since day 1, I have tried the very best of my ability, with the knowledge and ability that I had, to do the work the Lord gave me.

I love you all a lot. I'm going to be giving my homecoming talk in two weeks if you want to hear more about my mission and see how I ugly I've gotten these past two years. Haha. But I'll talk about stuff I wasn't able to convey in my emails. 

After my homecoming talk I'm going to send one more email with it all typed out for any of you that want to read it.

But my talk is going to be on July 10th at 11:30 am @ 9575 S 3100 E, Sandy, UT 84092

Love you guys!

2 Timothy 4:7

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:"

• Elder Wride

Down to the single digits

Hey guys! This week was pretty great! I now officially have one week left which is nuts.

And my Bluetooth keyboard that I've used to type these emails is officially broken so I can't say everything I would like because typing on the phone is lame, but here are the highlights.

Got 'em

Me and my companion were waiting for an investigator to come to the door. I saw an open lock sitting there and thought it would be funny to lock it on my companion's pants. I figured it would be a good laugh and then our investigador would have the key to unlock his pants. Well, she didn't, and we ended up having to cut his pants. I felt kinda bad but we both thought it was really funny.

Orlando

A couple weeks ago we sent a text to every member in our branch asking for referrals, and from that found the boyfriend of a member named Orlando. He is freaking awesome. They are getting married next month and are even living the law of chastity! He's getting baptized next week and I am super excited! More news on that next week.

Carmen

The biggest miracle of the week was Carmen. She is a super evangelical lady but her heart is so open to our message. My comp found her like last week on exchanges but we didn't really teach her much until this week. On Friday we taught her the plan of salvation, and holy cow it was amazing. She (and her two daughters) had the most amazing questions and I literally don't think I've had a more enjoyable time teaching the plan of God. She was taking notes like crazy and I think it blew her mind.

And before we taught the plan of salvation, she kept looking at me weirdly and saying that I looked so familiar and she felt like she's known me her whole life. Then she jokingly said, "maybe I knew you in heaven or something". I was like (little devil emoji) because a I know I promised people premortally I would take the Gospel to them. And then we taught her the plan of salvation and about the premortal life. I kept my promise.

But the miracle was on Saturday. We helped plan a big ward activity and invited all the members and everyone we're teaching to come. For the activity we watched the movie, Joseph Smith: prophet of the Restoration. Carmen was one of the 15 investigators that came to the movie! Which I was honestly pretty surprised she came. I was sitting on the same row as her, and thought I heard her crying. And yea, she was bawling her eyes out! I went and grabbed some tissues for her and she just cried and cried throughout the entire movie. The Spirit was so strong in there. But yea it was definitely one of the sweetest moments of my mission to look over and see the Spirit hitting her that hard. It hit me hard too. I knew again so clearly in that moment that what I've been doing the past two years really is the most important thing I could have been doing with my life. 

After the movie ended I got to stand up and bear my testimony to everyone. I loved it. Then after the movie we all went outside and ate food, played games, etc. It was so amazing to see everyone all there together. I think I felt a taste of what being in the Celestial kingdom with everyone we love will be like. And Carmen was at church the next day as well.

Spiritual thought

I LOVE the Book of Mormon. I learn so much every day from it. One of the things I read this week that I loved was in Mormon 5:2. Mormon is talking about the battles and stuff going on and the situation about his army that he's trying to help. Talking about them he says - 

"...But behold, I was without hope, for I knew the judgments of the Lord which should come upon them; for they repented not of their iniquities, but did struggle for their lives without calling upon that Being who created them.."

I've just realized that the Gospel we're preaching really does bless people's lives. It blows my mind how freaking stubborn people are, who will struggle with their problems and be so prideful to not call upon God to help them. But if we look to God, He always delivers us.

Reminds me of a message I got from Kaira this week. Her and her kids are los que (the ones that) got baptized a few weeks ago. She texted me late one night and said -

"No me voy a dormir sin antes decirte, que gracias por llegar a mi vida gris y cambiarla por una vida de colores, como el arcoiris"

In English - 

"I'm not going to sleep without first telling you, thank you for coming to my gray life and changing it for a life of colors, like the rainbow"

The Gospel has totally changed her life. And talking to her since her baptism she told us how much closer and happier her and her family are. She says they hug and kiss each other now and don't really know why, but they just do! That's the power of the Holy Ghost right there. 

My response to Kairas text was - "Thank you for allowing the gospel we bring to change your lives for the better."

Kaira is one of hundreds and hundreds of people I have helped try to bring the message of the gospel to, but sadly she's only a small part of that group of people that accepted it. I've taught people who know it's true, but walk away from it. It's such a painful feeling for us missionaries. But on the other hand, when they accept it, words can't express the joy and satisfaction I feel. 

Love y'all! I'm officially in my last week, so next week will be my last weekly. Prepárense

Bye!

• Elder Wride

Mormon = Hell's Gate 😈(apparently)

This week I don’t really have a good update for you. It went by really fast.

Saved a kid’s life

Our area is on a mountain, so we are walking up and down hills all the time. On our way up a hill there was a kid (probably like 8) on a little bike that had no brakes cruising down the hill screaming for his life. The only brakes he had were his feet, and he wasn’t wearing shoes, so basically he was about to get wrecked. I saw him coming down and then moved myself to stand right in front of where he was coming, and he started to freak out even more haha. I put my foot out and the front of his little bike crashed into it, and he flew forward. But he is super tiny and with my reflexes I caught him with my left arm to keep him from flying into the pavement. It was pretty sick. But then I was confused because after I saved him he hopped on the bike and kept going. Hopefully he’s still alive. 

Victor

Last week I sent a voice message to a guy named Victor and invited him to church. I don’t even remember sending it, and it was sent like 5 days before we had church. I didn’t even tell him where it was or what time to be there. But he showed up last week and this week. We have been teaching him the gospel and it lights me up to see how much it lights him up.

He is defeated and broken about life. He told us how no matter where he goes he can’t quench his spiritual thirst. We told him he finally found it, and he is on date for the 25th. I hope he can make that date, but even if not, I have the faith he will get there eventually. 

It’s also super touching because he is so poor, but everytime we go he tries to give us everything. He even bought a chair for us so we didn’t have to sit on his cement blocks in his house. He also prepares snacks when we visit him. 

On Saturday night we visited him and he told us that he was sorry but wouldn’t be able to come to church the next day because he got called in to work the next morning. We then read the versus from the sermon on the mount. (3 Nefi 13, Matthew 6)

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.

He has no money, but he put his faith in the Lord and came to church the next day. I was super happy!

Cool Kid, mean basher

We found a lot of super cool people this week. One kid we found was walking around in a suit with a bible on the way to his pentocostal church, so we stopped and talked to him. He was way excited. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to church, and he was super excited. We planned to meet up at 8:30 on Sunday morning at his pentocostal church to walk him to church. Bad idea. 

We went there Sunday morning and his pentocostal pastor forbade him to come to church with us and then they started bashing with the dumbest things I have ever heard. Worshipping Joseph Smith, denying Christ, stuff like that. One funny thing though was he told us that we changed the name of our church from the “Mormon” church to “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. We told him that’s always been the name, but people just use the nickname Mormon. He told us that wasn’t true, and said that we changed it because the dictionary definition for “Mormon” is “la puerta del infierno” (gate to Hell). That one was actually super funny haha. Like I actually thought that was funny. But he was being serious. Anyways this guy was being nasty, telling us that we aren’t true followers of Jesus Christ and such. Eventually we just ended it by telling him the truth - that he was rejecting the truth of our message in the same way that the Pharisees and everyone else rejected Jesus Christ. But walking away from it I was really mad, which leads me to my spiritual thought.

Spiritual Thought

I’ve read the Book of Mormon cover to cover many times, but I haven’t ever really studied the Bible a lot until the last few months. I have been going really in depth and it’s blown my mind how consistent even the Bible is with the Church. This is totally Christ's true church! That’s why that Pentocostal guy drove me so crazy, because you can’t logically believe in the Bible and not the Book of Mormon, nor the message we share as missionaries. It’s Christ’s message.

I know this is the true Church of Christ! I hope you all know that too. 

Bye

- Elder Wride

🔥Baptism by FIRE🔥

Hello! This week was great. 

In this letter I am going to mostly just talk about the miracle of Kaira, Albert, and Scarlin who got baptized this week. Kaira is the mom, and Albert (9 years old) and Scarlin (10) are her kids. 

We found them my first week here in La Vega street contacting. Since then they have been to church almost every week and finally decided to get baptized

We had tried putting them on date a few times but  Kaira wanted more time. Then finally last week we invited them again (with a member in on the lesson) and she said yes, which was hype, and kinda surprised me. 

They are the cutest family. They have been doing super good on keeping commitments and have already seen a lot of the Book of Mormon videos. We went over and caught Scarlin watching them on her phone. It’s always so refreshing to see that!

When we were reviewing the baptismal interview questions with them, one of the first questions was if they believed that the true church was really restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. Her answer was super humbling. She just said, “from what you have taught me about him, yes, I believe he was a prophet of God”. 

Some people I’ve talked to who are learning about the church are overly confident about believing he was a prophet of God. It kind of concerns me sometimes. Like what about polygamy? What about the kinderhook plates? What about him digging for treasure? Are you sure you believe he was a prophet?

And Kaira says it so perfectly. That with the knowledge she has from what we have taught her, she does believe it. And because of that, she decided to get baptized. I just love that Kaira always tells us what she really thinks. She has such a pure soul. When she said that, it reminded me of Alma 19:8-10 when King Lamoni is unconscious and his wife is talking to Ammon about it. It says -   

   "8 And he said unto the queen: He is not dead, but he sleepeth in God, and on the morrow he shall rise again; therefore bury him not.

   9 And Ammon said unto her: Believest thou this? And she said unto him: I have had no witness save thy word, and the word of our servants; nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said.

  10 And Ammon said unto her: Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites."

And God definitely did and will bless Kaira and her kids for their faith.

The baptism was super great too. Seeing them show up early all dressed up was super touching and my comp who hasn’t even known them for that long started getting pretty emotional. Me too. There were also a ton of members there for the baptism which was a party. 

It was also funny right before I baptized Albert there was a little cockroach on my shoulder and I just flicked it off and then baptized him haha. I don’t think he noticed though.

Anyways it has all been great, but the best part was yesterday when they got confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Not gonna lie, when I’ve taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, teaching the gift of the Holy Ghost has always been one I’m less confident about. I just don’t understand it. We talk so much about baptism but just not a lot about confirmation. People don’t ask you after your mission about how many people you gave the Holy Ghost to on your mission, ya know? They just talk about baptisms. 

I also have been a little frustrated sometimes to think that I’ve never really known what life is like without the gift of the Holy Ghost. It just makes it harder for me to teach it to people. 

So on Sunday morning before the three of them got confirmed, I told them to remember how they were feeling right then, and I asked them to tell me afterwards the difference they felt before and after. And I knew they would tell me the truth, because they are like that. 

First, Kaira got confirmed. The second counselor in the branch presidency did the confirmation. It was a really beautiful blessing. He talked about how great she was and blessed her to go to the temple someday. After the confirmation, I thought I saw that Kaira was crying, which was surprising to me because she is super chill and tough. I haven’t ever seen her even get teary eyed. I wasn’t positive that I saw tears in her eyes so I just kind of ignored it and assumed I was imagining it.

Then Elder Killpack (my companion) confirmed Scarlin, and then lastly I confirmed Albert. They’re going to be a great missionaries someday. 

After the meeting ended, everyone was getting up moving around going to their next class, and I looked at Kaira and she was just sitting there looking kind of dazzled. But I didn’t have the chance to talk to her about it until that night. 

We went by again to fill out the baptismal forms. Even just walking in, you could feel the Spirit stronger in their house. I asked them how the confirmations went. 

I don’t even know if we had ever told Kaira that receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is compared to in the scriptures as “baptism by fire”. But that’s the exact way she used to describe it. She said that she felt fire. O sea, “fuego”. She also told us that she was crying but was embarrassed and didn’t want anyone to see so she was holding the tears back. Which really surprised me because of what a tough lady she is. She just told us about how strong the spirit was and how amazing she felt, and kept using the word “fuego”. Then she turned to Scarlin and asked “didn’t you feel that too when they said ‘receive the Holy Ghost’?” Scarlin also said that she felt “calor (heat)”.

Then Albert was like “yea it was pretty hot in there I guess” jaja. Albert is a freaking legend.

Anyways I was on cloud 9 low key walking away from that. I am so so so happy for that family. I could have gotten through every hard part of my mission without complaining if I had always known that this family would be waiting for me at the end. I love them so much. This morning I just laid in bed for like an hour thinking about how much I love them and am going to miss them. And how proud I am of them for what they have done. 

Also Albert wanted to play me in chess and it was one of the funniest moments of my mission. He was trash talking super bad in his high pitched dominican slanged voice so I was actually thinking he might be pretty good. The game started. I moved my pawn forward. He moved his pawn forward. I moved my horse forward. He moves his queen right into a spot for my horse to kill it. 

I was laughing so hard. Kaira looked at him and was like “are you serious?”. He was like “you don’t know what my plan is!” and stuff like that. And yea I won pretty quick. The best part was how surprised he was after he lost. He was like “wow, you really know how to play chess”. Like bruh, It’s not that I know how to play chess, you just don’t know how to play chess. But he thinks I’m a chess wizard now.

But anyways, I am just so happy here right now with the amazing people God has given me to teach. My mission has been the hardest when I know I’m giving it my all but the people just aren’t putting in any effort. That’s probably why I’m so happy right now, because we are all giving it our all. 

Also a couple last thoughts - 

• This week on June 4th was the five year anniversary since I got my patriarchal blessing. That blessing has been the hardest part of my mission. What it said about me as a missionary always seemed like more than I could ever become, and for most of my mission, I’ll be honest that I’ve had very little faith in the promises in that blessing, and have kind of resented them. But reading it again on the 5 year anniversary since I received it, as I end my mission, I don’t feel that way anymore. Everything has worked out just the way the Lord wanted it too. 

• I also had my last zone conference this week and got to bear my testimony. I think I’ve only cried 2 other times my whole mission while bearing my testimony. Once in the MTC, once at a zone conference with Elder Pugsley, and once here. It caught me by surprise. But bearing testimony of the Savior shook me to my core haha. But it was a good experience. 

• And my mom had another kid this week. Pretty exciting! 

Bye! See y’all this month