Monday, April 1, 2024

Week 10: Chew your food


So this week was good. I honestly don't know what to write in this, because most of what I have worth writing is probably a bit too personal. I'm kinda struggling a bit with my own faith, but if the church is true then it'll work out. But anyways, some fun things happened.

Church
So we are the Spanish missionaries for like 4 wards, but we have a home ward, because it's the only one with the Spanish group. We only have 4 Spanish Speaking people who are actually members, which is not enough to become a branch or ward or anything but a group yet, so right now, our Spanish group is still part of the Fort Phantom Ward. For Easter Sunday, we combined the Spanish group sacrament meeting with the fort phantom sacrament meeting, and since they don't speak English, we had to set up a mic and headphones so brother reynoso could translate for them. Also, we've been teaching some investigators, who are wanting to be baptized and they love all that is in the gospel, but are struggling a bit with Coffee. They've been showing up consistently though, and Betsy's (the mother) daughter, along with 9 other people arrived into the states the morning of church. Its like a 2 month journey, and they did it all legally, so we're good, but they didn't get any sleep and didn't have time to in order to come to church. Betsy's not a member yet, neither is anyone in her family, but she told us that if they showed up before church they'd all be coming to church. So Betsy made our Spanish group jump from a size of 4 to 14ish. It was a big jump, and Elder Rochelle is really happy about it. I am too.

Steakhouse EMT
So, for the eclipse, my Uncle Mark, Aunt Chalane, and my cousin Isaac all are driving to Dallas (I think) for it, and Mark asked if he could take me and my comp for lunch. Because of my poor money choices, we literally had no food for lunch, and so that was a blessing. The food was amazing. My first Texas Steakhouse was actually in Texas and that felt pretty cool. It was wonderful to see them all again, and get to talk to them. Funny thing tho, I have this problem where if I really enjoy my food, I tend not to chew enough, and with steak that's not good. While we were talking, I swallowed a piece of steak that was too big and it got stuck in my throat. Usually if I just keep swallowing I'm able to get it down, but it was just too big, and I was dying. I kept trying to swallow and drink water but that just built up the amount if stuff I was trying to swallow, and it was getting hard to breathe. Eventually, even though I said I was fine, they all made me run to the bathroom, and while I was running I realized I was definitely not fine. As I ran, my eyes were really watery so I couldn't see that great, and snot started dripping down, and I was basically throwing up while running (but only saliva), and it was really gross. I tried to catch it by cupping my hands below my mouth but it was just nasty and dripped all over my tie and pants but miraculously not on my white shirt. I got to the bathroom and started heaving over the sing but I had swallowed too much and now it was stuck. So I had a piece of ribeye steak just lodged in my throat making it hard to breathe. Then a guy walked in named Tyler who told me he was an EMT and that he saw me run in, obviously not ok. He asked if I was choking, and I said yeah, (I could still speak), and after hitting my back and stuff, Elder Rochelle walked in and Tyler was giving him info to the nearest ER, but then I managed to swallow it down. I don't really know how to describe the sensation of having something lodged in your throat, but I tried. He then asked if I wanted to say a prayer, and so we did. He said that he's christian, and even though we're "Mormons", we're all on the same team. I liked that. Tyler said the prayer, and it was great. I finished all my good, which might've not been smart but it was steak. When Tyler was saying I should go to the ER, I started to panic a bit inside not because of the ER, and struggling to breathe, but because I wouldn't be able to finish my steak if I did. Luckily I got to eat it all, and I've had no issues. Except the muscles in my body are a little sore.

Spiritual Thought
I've got a few spiritual things I'm wrestling with right now, but I don't really wanna talk about all them on this. Personal stuff, lol. But one things my Dad mentioned on my call with him today was that if the church is true then it can handle a little scrutiny. It's OK not to know everything, and don't pretend you know stuff if you don't. That's my personal opinion. I think a lot of people say they know things when they really don't. I think a lot of people say they know in things that they really know, but the difference is that they've put in the work to know it. When I put my title as chew your food, that doesn't just apply to our physical food, it applies to our Spiritual food. If we just try to showed food down, it can get stuck. This causes us to choke, and it sometimes kills. Some food requires more chewing the same way that some Doctrine requires more study and more wrestling. You can't just eat the spiritual food, you can't just accept the Doctrine without truly understanding, savoring, and feasting on it. Chew on it. If the church is true, then go ahead and find the answers, because all the answers are there somewhere. And if it isn't true, then you'll realize that sooner and then you don't have to be a part of it. Either way, you can't just ride on the testimonies of others forever. You can't just trust the opinions of others forever and just believe thay steak tastes good without trying it. Eventually you've got to try it, cut it, put it in your mouth, chew on it, and swallow so that you can know for yourself. Idk if that analogy totally works, but I thought of it just now and it makes sense to me. Basically, you need you gain your own witness of the savior. I'm still trying to gain my witness, but I do know that if this church is true, and all that entails is true, nothing else is of greater importance than this work.

- Elder Wride

1. My lunch
2 & 3. The Wrides
4. My photoshop skills
5. Elder Rochelle and I
6. Mel's photoshop skills (my sister)
7. Mel playing a piano in an elevator. One of my new bucketlist items







No comments:

Post a Comment

Week 44: Do you want to be happy?

I feel like I've been asking myself this question a lot this week. A few days ago it felt like all the doubts I've ever had came bac...