Three shouts for Israel

Here’s another update for you guys

This week was alright. Most everyone is still ghosting us pretty hard. It’s pretty frustrating sometimes. But it’s whatever. Still keeping on.

I don’t have much to say today. One highlight though is that one of our member friends gave a talk that we helped him write. It was kinda scary though when he went up to the pulpit and the first thing that came out of his mouth was “today I would like to talk about the reincarnation of Jesus Christ”. Me and Elder Pugsley both freaked out for a second but he ended up giving the talk super well. He’s a legend. 

We did find a lady to teach this week that was pretty great. We taught her the plan of salvation and she seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully she doesn’t ghost us this week like everyone else is haha

Despite most people ghosting us, I’m doing pretty decent. Doing a gratitude journal helps me a lot haha. But me and Elder Pugsley are having a great time and it’s a lot of fun to work together. I don’t totally know why the Lord put us in this place at this time, but in a priesthood blessing I gave him a while ago I felt prompted to say that we were always meant to serve together as mission companions, but we may not realize it’s importance for many years to come. 

So even though it’s hard to see the success that we’d like, I know that I’m giving it my all so I’m satisfied with myself. 

One spiritual moment was when we were driving past this cemetery and saw the cross and the sunset lined up perfectly. Me and Elder Pugsley went over and got some cool pics with the cross. Then we got a shot of us holding the Book of Mormon and we’d shout “Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah for Israel!”. It was epic. The gospel is awesome. 

Also a cool spiritual thing was that I actually understood Jacob 5 for the first time in my life and really enjoyed it. These really are the last days and I’m honored to have been called to serve in the Lord’s vineyard with Him. 

See ya

-Elder Wride

PICS

Elder Pugsley

Sunset

Cross

Sunset pt. 2

Spanish Calls (@Elder Goodman <3)

Hike

The field is white

Heyyyy

Hey again everybody

This week was pretty alright. The highlight was definitely learning how to shoot a carrot like a slingshot by just using my fingers. Elder Pugsley showed me this secret and I didn’t hesitate to use it against him. Pretty sweet!

I really don’t have much else to say unfortunately. We did a lot of missionary work. A lot of contacting, a lot of rejection, a lot of learning. It was a good time. Most of our friends we’re teaching ghosted us again this week but we were able to get back into contact with some. We also found two new people and they both seem pretty solid! 

My most spiritually moving moment this week was while listening to the “Saints: Volume One” audio book. I’ve read it before so I thought I’d just listen to it. So every morning I’ve been playing it on my phone while I’m in the bathroom getting ready for the day. I finished the book this week, and one of the final chapters recounts the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. I’ve already had lots of really spiritual confirmations in regards to whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet, but this one was especially memorable. As I listened to Joseph’s last moments on earth, I just started sobbing. Like full on sobbing haha. I get teary eyed sometimes when I have a cool experience but this time I just totally lost it. Joseph Smith was really a prophet, and I’m grateful for what he did to help restore the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. 

And it’s so obvious to me that Joseph was really a prophet. So why don’t more people believe it? And in addition to his prophetic call, why can’t more people see that the Book of Mormon is true, and in it, the fulness of Christ’s gospel has been brought back on earth?

The people who have trouble seeing this are always those that aren’t studying. They aren’t reading, and they aren’t praying. And if they are reading, they are putting their time and effort into sources that twist the truth and focus on the insignificant secondary questions instead of the overwhelming amount of positive truth. 

The scriptures describe the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be an “anchor” in our lives. As my good friend google describes it, “An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current”.

So an anchor is there to keep us in place when the “wind” comes. So isn’t it implied here that if the Gospel is an anchor, then there is going to be wind? Too often people lose their faith because of the metaphorical “winds” that come in our lives, but the winds and the trials are a part of it. So once you have an anchor, like Joseph Smith being a prophet and the Book of Mormon being true, then you need to let that anchor hold you in place despite the winds that come. And don’t let the fact that there are winds shake your faith. Winds are a part of the experience.

I just want to bear testimony to you guys that I have never been more sure at any point in my life that this is Christ’s true church. I always believed it, but I am seeing it more clearly now than I ever have at any other time in my life. I can feel the Lord shaping me into a better man and strengthening my faith. I really wish the whole world wanted to know that these things are true as bad as I want them to.

Anyways that’s about it this week! The mission is a very eye opening experience. I’m learning a lot of stuff. I’ve also started keeping a gratitude journal which has helped me a lot. Would highly recommend it. 

Ciao

- Elder Wride

Litchfield stuff - 10 Months & 1 Day

Hey guys! Elder Wride here with another weekly update.

Things are honestly pretty fantastic here in Litchfield with Elder Pugsley. Easily the best comp I could ask for. Except for the fact that he snores super loudly and I have to hit him with a lightsaber in order for him to stop, things are going quite nicely. 

I’m Handsome

At church yesterday these two little primary girls came up to us and kept saying “Handsome! Handsome!”. Of course I had to ask which one of us was more handsome, and they pointed at me. Elder Pugsley was pretty distraught over it. Jk. 

Sunglasses

Elder Pugsley has some really sweet sunglasses that I like to wear on occasion but he get’s pretty upset about it for some reason and made me go and buy my own. So at the gas station I bought a 15 dollar pair just like his. Then a short time later, we were leaving the car and I set my new sunglasses on the car seat. I had the strongest thought that I would probably sit on them later and break them, but I ignored it. Then an hour later when I sat back down in the car, my heart sank. I totally destroyed them. I spent some time later trying to bend them back in place, and they snapped. I was outraged. Not sure why I’m telling this story haha but whatever. It was my lowest point this week. Luckily I have the sweetest mother ever who took pity on me and sent me some money to get some new ones. Thanks mom <3

Teaching Pool

Our teaching pool kinda took a hit this week. Most people are just ghosting us. But we’re used to it haha. Mark is doing great though! He’s the greatest guy ever. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him. But yea it was kinda frustrating this week having so many lessons set up and then everybody bailing right before. The adversary really works on these people. 

Spiritual Epiphany

We met some really interesting people this week. The more people I talk to as a missionary, the stronger my testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ becomes. Most everyone believes in God, but the amount of people who actually live His commandments is a lot smaller. 

But this past week we were talking to this guy about the Gospel, and he said he had read the Book of Mormon. I was skeptical right off the bat, because based on my experience, anyone who’s truly read the Book of Mormon doesn’t talk about it that casually. Anyways so I asked him what his takeaway was, and sadly, he just wanted to try and disprove it. He said that he read about goats and that they didn’t exist in that time. I was pretty annoyed. This guy claims to have read the Book of Mormon, but his only take away is that goats prove that it’s false? So we were like “is that really the only thing you learned?”. 

The Book of Mormon has the strongest testimony of Jesus Christ that I have ever read. I can’t read more than a verse without it referring to him. I know it’s true.

So we left him a passage from the Book of Mormon to read and pray about. 

We talked for a little bit more and long story short, he won’t read and pray about it. It’s just so sad and frustrating. I know this Gospel is true, and the fact that others won’t humble themselves and take their questions in sincerity to God breaks my heart. 

It’s also just so interesting talking to these people who believe in God and nothing else. We talked to another guy and he was like “I’m catholic.”. We were like “great! Could we talk more about Christ with you?” and then he was like “no no no I’m not into that whole religion thing”. Like come on dude! Faith requires action! So many people talk about their faith in Christ but then don’t live it. They’re so focused on being saved that they forget what we’re trying to do is be changed. 

Another talk we had with this guy named Jason was great. He’s a super cool guy and we had a long talk with him about the Gospel. He told us how we’re the only religion he’s met that doesn’t talk bad about other religions. He also talked about how he’ll go to churches where their entire service is just talking bad about other religions (particularly members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Like aren’t we all here just to love one another and live the way that Christ did?

Anyways, I just had a lot of spiritual epiphany’s this week that really strengthened my faith. I know that this is literally Christ’s church restored to the earth. We have prophets and apostles like Christ did, temples, priesthood authority, and the list goes on. You guys should go listen to “What is the Blueprint of Christ’s Church” by Tad R. Callister. It’s pretty good. But yea this church is totally Jesus Christ’s.

But at the end of the day, the keystone of everything I know is the Book of Mormon. If you haven’t read and prayed about that book, you got to do it!!

That’s about it for this week. Hope all you guys are doing good. Ciao

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