Week 5: Standard Week

Sorry guys, nothing too crazy happened this week. Lol, I'm sorry to disappoint you. This week was when we started our "solo español" week. We're supposed to only speak Spanish in all situations, but I keep forgetting. Hermano Bautista said that I have to also write in my journal en español, but I'm not going to do that. I want my kids and mi futura esposa to read it, and how're they supposed to read it if they don't speak spanish. Anyways, I'll share one or two things, the most interesting thing that happened though, and then a spiritual thought. Oh, I also learned how to solve a Rubick's cube

One thing: Ties & Prayers?

We've done lots of tie trades here, and that's been fun. This morning we went to the temple to do endowments. I'm literally typing this on the bus right now. Anyways, they have a little store at the temple, and they had some really really nice ties. There were two ties, and some small "future missionary" that I really wanted. I wanted the ties for me, and the tags for my little brother's, but I only had my card, and they only accept cash there. We have an ATM machine here, and I felt like I should get some cash out of it, but I didn't. Maybe that was a prompting. Listen to the spirit guys. The lady said we could try my card, but like she said, it didn't work. I have a little bit of cash at the casa, so I asked her if she could hold the ties and tags for just one week, cuz we go to the temple every P-day. At first she said no, but then she said yes, and I was really grateful. But, Elder Allen said, after we were already on the bus, that he can guarantee she went and put them back on the shelf as soon as I left. That made me sad. Like Elder, don't rob me of my hope. Anyways, so I said a prayer that the lady would be true to her word, or that if she isn't, no other missionaries will notice/want the ties. We'll find out in a week if I can get them. They're just ties, but you guys are welcome to pray too.

Or two things: mini fridge

So Elder Allen and I became zone leaders for zone 8, and the previous zone leaders gave us a gift. It has been passed down, zone leader to zone leader for about 3 years now. That's just what they said. It's a mini fridge, which is actually nice, although I probably won't use it, because I don't drink lots of soda, and it's not cold enough to keep an ice cream cold. It's still pretty funny tho, and its covered in signatures and stickers, and we get to add ours when we pass it on to the next ZLs.

The most interesting thing this week: Latinos

Ok, so there are lots of Mexicans here at the Mexico MTC, and they're normally only here for 3 weeks because they already speak Spanish. Anyways, a little context, Elder Wilcox is lowkey famous here among the elders. Not for his miracle tho, he's famous for cutting hair. There is a lady who cuts hair here, but she doesn't do fades. So Elder Wilcox gave his comps fades, and then everyone in the casa wanted fades. I didn't really want one, but I got one. Next time I'm just gonna do a taper. I do want to buzz my head at some point on the mission tho, just to see what I look like. And since I can't date on the mission, there are no consequences. Anyways, everyone in casa 23 got fades, and then every night after that, we'd always have a few elders show up for fades. And then 3 nights ago, I'm not even joking, we had 20 Latinos show up at 9:20ish, and they ALL wanted fades. Elder Wilcox was known the middle on his 2nd, and then one Latino Elder ran over and said that President Allred was at their house to join them for their house devotional!! I've never seen Latinos run so fast. The guy getting is hair cut only had one side of his hair cut. Then we did our house devotional, and spent 30 minutes wondering if we were gonna have an angry President Allred at our door. And then we heard a knock... and ALL OF THE Latinos walked in!!! One of them even brought a ukulele, and so people were singing and getting hair cut at our house until we were able to get them out at 10:27, 3 minutes before lights out. Apparently, what happened was they brought President Allred in, and he sat down in the living room. There were still like 3 Elders at the house, and so two Elder kept him busy, talking about who knows what, and the other ran to our house, and told everybody that the president was at their house. When they all ran back, they walked in through the BACK door, and then told the President that they were just hanging up their clothes to dry in the backyard, and they didn't get in trouble. For those reading this that are future missionaries, please be honest to your mission president, and more importantly, please be more obedient than we were that night. The quality of your life is greatly dependent on your obedience to the Lord.

Spiritual thought

So we had one of the 70 come and speak to us on Wednesday, and he shared a lot of really cool stuff. I've taken more notes from his talk than anyone else I think. One thing he said was that there a lot of rules as a missionary, but there is a reason for it. There are a lot of things that people use to relieve stress in life, like music, family, friends, social media, sleep, etc. All of these things, are things we're asked to leave behind for 2 years as missionaries. You aren't allowed to listen to certain music, have to wake up at 6:30, go to bed at 10:30, no scrolling on social media, you can't hang out with friends, watch movies, and on and on. Surprisingly, a lot of missionaries don't like, and don't obey these rules. It reminded me of something Elder Holland said though. He said "Show me your level of obedience, and I'll show how your mission experience will be." I've tried to apply that to my mission, but it also applies to your life. Those who are happiest, are those who keep the commandments of God. That's just the way it is. In Mosiah 2:41, it said "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." When you're not feeling happy, usually there is something you're needing to change. If you're not having the time of your life living the gospel, you're missing something. When serving a mission, are you serving a mission, or are you being a real missionary? Are you having kids or are you being a real father/mother, someone who raises their kids? In this church, are you simply being a member of the church, or are you being a true disciple of Jesus Christ? There is a very big difference.

Week 4 - What Prints Are You Leaving in the Sand?

My emails look a lot like my journal entries. I sort of just talk, and I'm worried I share too much, lol. Anyways, this past week has been good. Nothing crazy happened, we've just been doing lots of classes, scripture study, Spanish study and prayer. Although there is a bit of sad news though about our house.

Our House

One of the elders in our house went home on Monday. He had mentioned this past week about how things were not going well back home, and how he really felt he needed to be there. None of us wanted him to leave, and I'm worried that it wasn't the spirit that was telling him to go home. I hope he is able to come back out on a mission when he's ready. The problem with that though is that you're never really going to be ready. Often, you just have the take a step into the dark. So, right now we're down to 8 elders in our house. But, we're gonna be 7 on Monday. One of the other elders is going home early, because he talked to some of the leaders, and there are some things he's got to take care of, but he'll be coming back out in 4 months. This one, I do feel was the right choice, as sad as it is to see him leave. He wanted more than anything to stay out here, but he also said how he feels so much peace now, since he's not only serving a mission, but is also going to do it right. I admire his willingness to obey, even when it is very hard. 

Spiritual thought

OK, it's kind of funny, because I've had this realization like 5 different times, and then I forget it, or I'm not as diligent, and then I have to relearn it. I'm really trying to just apply this lesson to my mission. We were doing a practice lesson with these two Hermanas from a different district, and I was getting really frustrated. We were supposed to answer this question "How can I know that God loves me?" Like individually, and not me or my companions could find anything. I realize now that my day up until that point hadn't been ideal either. I wasn't taking things as seriously as the first week, and I should have been more involved in learning. With the excitement wearing off, and this all feeling more routine, it's hard to keep the enthusiasm high. I decided to tell them honestly how I felt, and how I was feeling frustrated. I told them that today especially, I was frustrated how I wasn't feeling the spirit as strongly as I had at back home. They had to give their lesson in Spanish, but I was able to understand enough to know what they were talking about. One Hermana shared the poem footprints in the sand, which is a popular, and very good poem. You should go read it, but in short, it talks about how Christ doesn't abandon us in our times of struggle, but he is the one who carries us through them. As much as I like this poem, it wasn't what I needed to hear. But, it did remind me of a poem that had the message I needed to hear that day. Most people don't know this, but there is a sequel to footprints in the sand. It's kind of funny, and sort of a joke, although it also has a very powerful message. Don't judge a book by its cover, but it's called "Butt prints in the sand." It goes like this:

One night I had a wondrous dream.

One set of footprints there was seen.

The footprints of my precious Lord,

But mine were not along the shore.

And then the strangest print appeared.

I asked the Lord, "What have we here?

This print is large and round and neat,

But Lord, it's much too big for feet."

"My child," He said in somber tones,

"For miles I carried you alone.

I challenged you to walk in faith,

But you refused and gained no strength."

"You laid quite still. You would not grow.

This walk is not for me, you know.

So I got tired. I got fed up.

And there I dropped you on your butt."

Because in life, there comes a time,

When one must walk, and one must climb,

And one must rise and take a stand;

Or leave their butt prints in the sand."

As you can see, it's sort of a funny poem, but it was really what I needed to hear. There are two lines in particular that hit me. The first is "I challenged you to walk in faith." This day in particular I felt that I couldn't really feel the spirit, and I realized that I was being challenged. The past few months, maybe year, Jesus has been carrying me. He carried me through school, hockey, and the first few weeks of my mission. However, we're not meant to be carried through this life. We're meant to learn and grow, and we can't do that unless we're making a conscious effort. This walk is not for the savior. The savior didn't do all of this for him. Your life is yours, and Jesus doesn't ask us to live his gospel for his sake. He suffered and died for you, so that you could have the chance to live in joy forever. "This walk is not for me you know." You journey is your own, and if you refuse to grow, I think more often than not, Christ will drop you. He won't leave you. He'll still walk with you, and he'll carry you when you really need it, but this is your life. Sorry for writing so much, but I enjoy it. Thank you for making it this far!! I hope it was worth reading.

- Elder Wride

Week 3: Miracle

OK so this week was honestly insane, and I am not using the term miracle loosely. We all asked Elder Wilcox if we could share this story, and he said if course. He is amazing, literally Alma the Younger in our day. I'll write about what happened at the bottom, after a little update.

Update

So, this week was a little harder for me. I was super filled with enthusiasm and excitement the first few days, saying Hola to everyone, but the high energy rush I was feeling has been wearing off a bit. They really keep us busy here. During our split Spanish class, Elder Springer started to throw up. We think it was something he ate, because after he threw it up, he was mostly OK. We had to skip the service activity, and he was able to get some rest. The same night, right before a workshop, Elder Allen got sick, and spent a long time hovered over the toilet. So we had to miss the workshop too :( That night, I slept fine, but Elder Allen was up a lot throwing up. Haha, he said that he heard me praying in my sleep, and that was really funny. They're both feeling better now though.

Wifi

OK, the leaders here are good, but they are also not that great when it comes to wifi. They keep on shutting it off, which I'd normally be fine with, but it makes us unable to do a lot of the things they want us to do, and it's the reason this email is 2

Days late. So that's a little annoying.

Miracle (sorry it's long)

Alright, if you don't believe in miracles, don't bother reading this. Everything that you read here, I bear witness is true. I saw it. I'm not making this up. OK, so our house here is literally so crazy. Every house devotional we have is so amazing. On Wednesday night, Elder Wilcox gave his devotional, and told his story. He is amazing. He is an insane skate boarder. When he was 15, he downloaded tic tok and started to upload some videos with his friends, and things really took off. His videos were getting lots of views, and he gained 730,000 followers on tic tok from his videos!! He started getting paid to skate, and converse paid him a few thousand dollars to wear some shoes in a video and crazy stuff like that. He said that he doesn't know how much money he made, but he was spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars a week just because, and people would often stop him in public because they watched his videos. His channel was called Sam'sW3rld, if you wanna find his videos, that'd be cool. He was super big into skating, and he was also a total gym rat. He was big and tan, and very popular. Then one day, this severe pain started. I'm going to use the medical term to avoid confusion (sorry). Something went wrong in his testicles, and so he was in severe pain. He said it felt like someone was repeatedly punching him right there, and it never stopped. The pain was so bad, that he physically could not endure it. And it was consistent pain, it would not stop. It was so bad, that he wasn't able to keep skating, and he couldn't go to the gym. He couldn't do like anything physical. Skating and the gym was like all that really mattered to him, so he was devastated. It was bad, and he went to many doctors, and had someone cut it open to find what was wrong. They found that there was a kink in his left testicle, but for whatever reason, they couldn't fix it. When he decided to serve a mission, he was still in severe pain, and he hadn't resolved a lot of issues. He spent only two weeks doing online MTC, and after those two weeks, he realized that he was not ready for a mission. He didn't get into details, but he was living pretty worldly. He sent a long paragraph to his bishop, who then told him, "yeah you're not flying to Mexico." He had many things he needed to fix and change. He was told he couldn't go out for at least a year, and even then there were no guarantees. He also couldn't go to the temple for a year, couldn't take the sacrament for a year, and a bunch of other things. A lot happened during that time, and I can't type it all. Because he couldn't skate anymore, his channel died down, so he stopped making money, his family moved to Utah, he lost his girlfriend, etc. Anyways, he lost everything basically. But, after a year of living worthy, he was allowed to become a full member again. Then his bishop called him, and he was able to come out and serve a mission. Anyways, he was still in constant pain. He had many blessings before the mission hoping to be healed, but was told that sometimes you just have to take a step in the dark. So that's what he did, he began his mission for the second time, even though he was physically incapable of doing much. After he finished sharing his story, he asked us if we could give him a blessing of healing. He said he didn't want to do it right then, but the next day, because they would be exactly two years from when the pain started. He also knew who he wanted to give him the blessing. He said that it hit him during his Preach My Gospel class a week before. He'd been thinking about it for a long time, and had his eye on February for months now, hoping that it marked the end of his pain. He wanted Elder Muhlstein to give the blessing. After that, we found out that Elder Muhlstein once had a knot down there too, and so he actually knew exactly what kind of pain he was dealing with. I think Elder Muhlstein only had it for a month or two? Idk for sure, but still. I don't think it was a coincidence that he asked Elder Muhlstein. That night, I seriously prayed so hard for Elder Wilcox. I was like, Heavenly Father, please let him be healed for like 15 minutes. That day, I was so nervous because there was a lot of anticipation for the next devotional. When we gathered around, we kept it short, about 10 minutes. Elder Stephens anointed the oil, and then we did the blessing. Before we all gathered around him, he said to Elder Muhlstein (this isn't an exact quote) "I'm ok with whatever the Lord says, even if I'm not healed." All of us stood around him, except three, and we put our hands on his head. When Elder Muhlstein started talking, I was so nervous. I wasn't sure if he was speaking by the spirit or not, and I honestly did not think that he was. He compared Elder Wilcox to Alma the Younger, who turned from a life against the church to a life for the church. Then he boldly said "I bless you that you will be healed, that you will be free from this pain." I felt like that was too bold to say, but I wanted it to work. So during the blessing, I was praying "please let this be true, please let this be true" over and over again until the prayer was done. When he closed the blessing, I did not think it worked. But then Elder Wilcox stood up, looked around at all of us, and then he started crying. Some of the other elders were in tears too, and I started laughing with joy. Then Elder Wilcox, who always walked stiffly because of the pain, started jumping and running around. "It's been so LONG!! This leg feels like THIS leg!!" And "Oh, I am so playing baloncesto tomorrow!!" We were all so happy for him, and we all rejoiced together. It was also Elder Stephen's birthday, so we felt an extra need to celebrate the night. Some of the other missionaries bought a bunch of Dr. Pepper, so we all went outside to shotgundit, which basically means we drunk it really really fast. It physically hurt my stomach, until I managed to burp it out. I guess that's the sort of stuff young men to do fun? Idk it seemed dumb to me, but it was nice to celebrate with them. I made sure to wash my Dr Pepper can, and it's on my shelf to help me remember the night and the miracle I saw. When I had Elder Wilcox proof-read this, we started talking and there's another point I wanted to bring up. 2 years, although it feels like a blink of an eye now, was a long time. Why would God let him suffer like that for 2 years? Why did he let the woman with an issue of blood suffer for 12?! When we talked about it, it became clear that the Lord lets us suffer so that we can become the people he wants to be. His two year struggle turned him into the disciple he is today. We need to go through hard things to become more like God. Guys, I'm so happy to be a missionary right now, and I was truly so blessed to get to be here at such a special moment. I know that this church is true. The Gospel found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has the fullness of the Gospel. Just do it! Just choose to follow him now! There are insane miracles ahead. God is giving everyone a chance to discover and accept his gospel, and I know you'll be so much happier choosing to follow the savior than choosing not to. I know these things are true, and I bear witness of our savior. He lives, and he loves us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amén.

- Elder Wride

Week 1 & 2

¡¡Hola Hermanos y Hermanas!!

Intro

So it's technically week two of my mission, but I've been at the Mexico MTC for five days. 

I would've written about my experience doing online MTC, but I didn't. That's because I lost the email list paper on my P day, and not much really happened at all. I did meet my district and my companions, and that was nice, but I didn't quite feel like a missionary while I was online. 

District 8c

Anyways, I am in a trio right now. I'm with Elder Allen, and Elder Springer. Elder Allen is a very tall guy and a cowboy wannabee and Elder Springer is muy fuerte, a total gym bro. 

They're both really funny, and have shared many powerful spiritual thoughts. I love having them for companions.

The Hermanas in my district are cool and they're all pretty funny. We've got 9 missionaries in the district. Both of my companions already speak Spanish very well. Elder Allen did Spanish immersion for 12 years, and Elder Springer took 5 years. That's been a major blessing because they've been able to teach me a bunch. I've learned a lot from them. Sadly, they were both put in a more advances Spanish class so my teacher is my companion during Spanish class. Anyways, our district started doing our practice lessons in Spanish from day 1, even though everyone does English for their first three weeks. So I guess we're pretty cool. We're ahead of the game.

Spanish Progress

So I mentioned in my farewell talk that I took 3 years of Spanish in school, learned very little (if any) and my teacher told me I should drop out of the class. Haha I don't think he liked me very much. Anyways, I want to learn the language asap, and the preach my gospel said to speak Spanish at every opportunity. I've been speaking to everybody. I realized there's an opportunity to speak Spanish every time someone walks bye so I've gotten really good at saying "¡HOLA HERMANAS!" and "¡HOLA ELDERES!" My companions think it's funny, and it's helping me learn more Spanish. I've been able to learn a lot, and I'm really enjoying learning it! I hated it when I tried to learn it at school, but it doesn't feel like I'm learning the same language.

Spiritual thought

So this is something I testified of to my house two nights ago, and I feel like sharing it here too. So, I'm the house leader. I guess that means I'm pretty cool, but 5 of the other elders in our house are house leaders, so I guess I'm not special. ): Anyways, as a house, everyone shared their favorito scripture, and one elder shared Doctrine and Covenants 31: 3-13. I wont talk about all of it because that would take too long, but verse 3 is enough to share my thought. "Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation." When he read it, the words lift up your heart and rejoice stood out to me. It helped me emphasize how a mission isn't supposed to be sad, depressing, and you don't have to only enjoy it at the very end. It's meant to be a wonderful experience! And you're supposed to enjoy it, which is why everyone is so sad to go home when it's time. Why not start early and choose to enjoy every moment now? Why wouldn't you choose to enjoy the process of learning a new language? I think it's OK for me to share this, but in my patriarchal blessing, it specifically said that the first 6 months of my mission would be a challenging and difficult time. At first, I took this to mean that I would be depressed, upset, or that I would just hate it for 6 months. But, after I testified of how the mission is supposed to be a joyful experience, that phrase popped into my head with a new meaning. Rock climbing is challenging and difficult but I love rock climbing. Ice hockey is challenging and difficult and I love Ice hockey! In fact, the fact that it is challenging and difficult is what makes it so wonderful. The gospel literally means the good news, so rejoice! There is so much joy in this gospel. I think the best way to say it is "If you're not having the time of your life living the gospel, you've missed something." - Brother Osborne

Let the adventure begin!

I know that this church is true, and that it is so so good. This gospel makes me so happy, and I know that true joy comes from following our savior, Jesus Christ. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amén.