Week 47: The Gospel = Ultimate Happiness

I never have time to write. Anyways, this week was kind of rough, I hurt my back somehow and was having really bad muscle spasms, so Elder Pfeifer got to use his CNA skills to help me get in bed and get the ice pack in the right spot. #CompGoals

He was also in a lot of pain this week, so we were both struggling. But I got news that I will be leaving Dalhart, and on Wednesday I will be going to Roswell, New Mexico!! I hear it's Alien town. Tons of alien/ufo sightings, so it's like the alien conspiracy capital of the world, and they've just embraced it. I'll be getting some funny pictures. I heard they painted their Walmart green (insert little alien head emoji)

I have been saving up for boots, and I was gonna buy some today, but they were so expensive. It's hard to get genuine Texan Boots, but it'll be worth the wait. I'm gonna take them country dancing every weekend.

Spiritual thought:

Although we were physically in pain most of the week, we had an amazing lesson with Ryan, he's pur friend on date. He is the best. He is now completely free of Marijuana, he's been waning off this transfer, and he really wants to get baptized. We hadn't taught him the tithing yet though, so we were really worried. We wanted our Branch President there when we brought it up but it just never worked out. So we just did it. We taught him about tithing, and the promised blessings, and then asked him what his thoughts were. And he kind of laughed, and was like "listen guys, ever since I started listening to you guys, I've been so much happier, and life has been so much better." We were so worried that it would slow him down or be a roadblock for him, but he didn't even bat an eye, and it's because he's already seeing the fruits of the Gospel in his life. It was wonderful to see it. I'm sad I'm leaving, because he's getting baptized in 12 days, and I won't be there... but he's been an amazing example to me. Guys the gospel can be hard sometimes, but the laws of the gospel are the laws for ultimate happiness. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the happiest people in the universe. If you want to be happy, the happiest you can be, and be that happy forever, then live the Gospel. Live it Joyfully.

- Elder Wride

Week 46: Be a Believer

Sorry, but today we has Zone P-day, and we live an hour and a half away, so 3 hours immediately is just gone from our P-day. So I don't have time to write an extensive email. I love you guys. This week was good, but everything is a blur. I don't even know what happened this week. I've been listening to all of President Nelsons conference talks, starting in 1984, and that's been insightful. I've also been listening to some things from Hank Smith, and one I listened to today I really enjoyed. He talked a lot about what it means to be a believer. Being a true believer is a lot deeper than a lot of us think. We believe in Christ, but often when we are called to do something or make a change, we're like "well I believe, but that's too hard." And it just points out the difference between believing in Christ and believing Christ. When Moses and the people of Israel were wondering in the wilderness after fleeing Egypt, they could have gone to the promised land, but they were scared of the people there. And on Numbers 14:11, God asks Moses 

"How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?"

It's not too hard to raise our hands and bear testimony and say "I believe!! I'm a believer!!" But when you're called to act, do you still believe? Do you believe him and in his power to deliver?

Anyways, I love you all!! Work hard, be good, and learn to love Jesus

Week 45: Unshakeable

This weeks been good! I feel like not a ton happened, everything seems to blur, so I don't even know what memories I have are from this week. But Ryan and Ximena are on date, and both progressing to baptism!! Ximena's mom is a member, but her Dad's Jehova's Witness, and she needs his permission if she wants to get baptized this month, which she does!! So please pray for her!!

Thanksgiving was great!! We ate well. I feel like there isn't much to say about holidays. I prefer normal missionary days. They feel more productive

 Throughout my mission, I've been collecting devotionals, podcasts and talks that have been helpful and pivitol throughout my mission, and I recently gained access to a ton of tapes from Hank Smith that I've started going through, and the ones. One was about unconquerable spirits, 5 temptation killers, and another one about how to earn an unshakable testimony. That's the one I listened to today, (we have lots of long drives here).

I don't have a ton of time right now, but there's a quote I want to share that I really like.

"A person with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with an opinion."

I loved that, because as a missionary, I'm not trying to convert people to me, or to my church. I'm inviting them to turn to God and have their own experiences with him. But something I've noticed, is that if we hold back, God will hold back. He will not give us those experiences if we aren't willing ti use them. If you get the answer you're looking for, what are you going to do with it? God wants to bless us with experiences and blessings, but we can't hold back on him. You can't hold back water and demand the seed to grow and produce fruit. And once that tree is grown, it's rooted in your heart, it's unshakable.

Love you guys!!

- Elder Wride

Pics:

- I got a banana nerf gun. Felt cool, might delete later

- memes

- scandalous pig

- I feel like Duo Lingo is kind of mean

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 back and I just got kind of depressed. After some pondering, I asked myself a question: "Do you want to be happy?"

One thing that I've learned on the mission, is no matter what or how much you read, you still won't have all the answers. Everyone is eventually backed up to the wall of faith and has to take a step in the dark. The only way to really find out is to be believing.

Our friend Ryan is back on date and wants to be baptized before I get transfered, so we're really excited for that!

Sorry for the short email, but don't forget about your favorite missionary this Christmas!!

- Elder Wride

I made gluten-free crepes for the district

I'm a master at tetris. I fit all the chairs and the podium in a small room

Zachery just got baptized! He was a guy I randomly messaged on Facebook, and it must've been spirit led because he was so ready

Week 43: Spiritual Thoughts

Eulises and Naomi were baptized on saturday!! The heater broke, so the water was cold, but it was good, and they are very happy.

This week was one of deep thinking, and it was great. I love deep thoughts. Our Branch President is amazing, if you ever happen to visit the Dalhart Branch, they're amazing people. One thing President Baumert told us something I thought was really profound. He was telling house his conversion story, and he said "You don't have to prove anything, but you sure got to be something." That's led Elder Pfeifer and I into a few discussions, and I really like how he put it. You need to "Choose your keystone." We need to choose what our keystone is, and check our motivation, the why,  behind everything we do. If you choose a bad keystone, it may hold you for a bit, but everything will eventually fall.

Are you doing missionary work? Or are you inviting others to come unto Christ?

Are you trying to be a missionary, or a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Are you reading the scriptures, or are you trying to grow closer to Jesus Christ

As we've talked, and my mission President talked about this, our motivation should be our love for the Savior. Why do you hey up at 6:30? Because I love Jesus Christ. Why do you go to church? Because I love Jesus Christ. Why do you study the scriptures? Because I love Jesus Christ. Sometimes that isn't our answer, but that's what we're working towards. He is the only Keystone that will support everything else forever. He needs to be our keystone.

Hesed

Also, I forgot to write what I learned about Hesed in my email last week. So for Hesed, President Nelson described it as a covenant type love, and those which make Covenants have access to a special kind of love and Mercy, and how God will never tire in his efforts to bring them home. That bothered me at first, because that made it sound like by making Covenants, God loves us more. So I thought, "God never tires in his pursuit of anyone, despite if they've made a covenant yet. How does making a covenant change the relationship if God already never tires in his efforts to bring you home." Then I found an interview between David Snell and Brad Wilcox about Grace and Covenants on Facebook. It really helped, and I thought about it while I tore apart and cleaned our now spotless fridge. God loves all of his children perfectly, equally, unconditionally, but he can only show his love as far as we let him. We need to be baptized and make that covenant with God because that gives God greater access to our hearts, because now we're bound in a marriage like covenant. Covenants don't increase God's love for us, but it does increase God's ability to show his love for us, because now we're opening the door to receieve it. Brad Wilcox defined an ordinance as "a symbolic representation of a spiritual reality." We are not saved by the ordinances, we are only saved by Jesus Christ. But by making Covenants, we draw nearer to him, gain access to his power, and open ourselves to recieve more of his love.

- Elder Wride

I taught Eulises how to tie a tie

Week 42: As you can see, I am not dead

My brother Hyrum sent me a meme a while ago about how after 6 months, you don't know what to say in your emails anymore, and after 9.5 months, I think I'm getting to that point. I'll put the meme in the pictures.

We got transfer news, and Elder Pfeifer and I are staying together for the next 5 weeks!! Go check out my story, and maybe heart it... Anytime one of us makes a post or story, we compare who has the most views and reactions, like its a competition. So if you want to help me win/prove my superiority, go view and like my stories!! Jk, but not really

Something super exciting though is that Naomi and Ulysses were interviewed for baptism last night and plan on getting baptized on saturday! Please pray that we can get a lot of people to come!!

It also rained a ton, and so I've been splashing in the puddles. I accidentally drove into a lake in the middle of the road, but I was able to get out without getting stuck. I also saw my first snow on the mission, and threw my first snowball.

Also just finished the wheel of woe 2.0. Its so much worse...

- Elder Wride

Week 41: Halloween and Hesed

I can't believe I'm on week 41. That number seems way too high. This week wasn't as much of a grind as last week. Halloween slowed us down and not a lot of people were home. We still found a lot of people though. Just on Monday night, which was a P-day, meaning we only had 3 hours of real missionary work, we found 3 people. One of them is a kid named Denilson. We talked with him and his parents and it was crazy. They're all super excited about the Book of Mormon. They called it a preparation Manual for the second coming which I really liked. We then showed Denilson the Gospel Library app, and he was like "oh yeah, I'll for sure use this. At least like 30 minutes a day or something." That's just incredible.  Normally it's such a struggle to get someone to read 1 verse in a day.

We had interviews with President this week, and it was really good. We talked a lot about what our motivation for everything we do should be, and really it's all about Love. Our motivation for everything we do should be our love for Jesus Christ. If it isn't, that's OK, but that's where you want it to be. So I'm going to do a deep dive on everything Jesus and see how things change.

We also had an Area 70, Elder Vest, join us in our Branch service this week. It was really funny though, because there were only like 18 of us. I got to talk with him quite a bit though and it was really nice. He led a short lesson and talked a lot about Hesed, which is actually something President Nelson has talked about a few times now. It's a Hebrew word, חֶסֶד. And it is a covenantal love. There's not quite a translation for it in English, and so it's translated many different ways in the Bible (lovingkindness, mercy, goodness, etc.) President Nelson explained that when we make a covenant with God, our relationship is deeper, more intimate, and is now Hesed. It's a covenant type of love, like a marriage. I'm still studying it because I have questions about it, but if any of you want, feel free to study it as well. And please let me know what insights you have! I'll put some of what I learn about it in my next email. Elder Vest invited me to study this talk if you want somewhere to start.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/10/04-the-everlasting-covenant?lang=eng

- Elder Wride

Sorry for not a lot of pictures this week!

I've learned how to cook, but not a lot of healthier stuff yet. Lots of BBQ. There's some BBQ Bacon-wrapped Cheese-filled Hot Dogs.