Week 55: Admit defeat, then turn to Jesus

It was transfer week! Elder Springer is gone now, and I got to meet Elder Haws! It was great to talk with him, because he just barely left his baby area, which is also my baby area! So I got to ask him about some of the members and friends. It was also good to hear that I successfully eradicated the roach infestation while I was there. He never had any issues.

We didn't have as many friends come to church this week as we normally do, which was sad, especially because 5 other people said they would come, but didn't. But Adilene was finally able to make it! We've been teaching her since before I got here, and it was her first time coming and she liked it! She got to know some of the members really well and it was great 

Spiritual thought

Idk if I'm gonna say this right, but I'm gonna try. As I've been studying creation, fall, atonement, and repentance, I thought the first step in AA was very insightful. It wasnt new, but it did feel groundbreaking fothat.

The first step:

Admit that we, of ourselves, are powerless to overcome our addictions and that our lives have become unmanageable.

I thought that was so interesting, because at first glance that sounds like the end. That sounds like failure, and something to be avoided. But it really helped me understand humility and grace better. The key, is that it is we, of ourselves, are powerless. Humility is recognizing out desperate need of the Savior. We don't have the power, and we need to admit that. We need to admit that our way doesn't work, or in other words, we need to admit defeat. But that isn't the end, that is the beginning. Literally step 1 is to admit defeat. And once we truly admit defeat, we have no choice but to turn to Jesus Christ, the one who conquered.

Step 2, is come to believe that a higher power (God) can restore us to sanity, or complete spiritual health.

We all face temptations and all fail at times, and when we do, we need that spiritual restoration. Once we admit defeat, we're able to turn to him who already fought this battle, and has already overcome. Jesus Christ already fought this battle for us, but too often, we (me especially) keep trying to fight it ourselves, even when we're trying to exercise faith in him. Because I keep thinking "I need to do all that I can do." But I think I've been misunderstanding it. When God commands us to do all that we can do, it isn't that we have to do all that we can on our own before his grace kicks in. His grace really is the light that guides us through the tunnel. When he asks us to do all we can do, he's asking us to do all we can do to hold up that light, to hold up and follow that light. I hope that made sense. I love you all!!

I'm sorry, I need to take more pictures with friends, but I do need your opinion on whether or not I should get a buzz. I think Meta made me look to handsome to be reliable. Some guy put that paper on our wind-shield wipers, lol.

Week 54: God perfects the harvest everytime

I dont know what to write this week, other than that its been amazing. Hopefully it'll come as I start typing. We have been working hard and we found 9 people this week, 4 of them were all in the same circle.

Ok wait, John Briggs!! Amazing guy, I think I wrote about him last week, how he read Under the Banner of Heaven and stuff. (It's amazing how God can even use Anti-material to strike interest and build up his kingdom). The other Elders had a baptism, and so we invited John to come to that and to go to church. He came to the baptism and brought 3 of his kids!! The spirit was strong, and the testimonies born were so powerful. As they were walking out, I heard him ask a member if the member would be at church tomorrow. That made me so happy!! He then went to church and brought his wife and kids, and they stayed for both hours. 

And we got transfer news!! I will be spending the next 6 weeks here in Roswell again!! I've loved it here so far, and we have such an amazing district. It's sad to see it break up, but next transfer will be fun too. We're a 10 person dudestrict right now. They're so fun and they're hilarious. My companion Elder Springer is leaving and my new comp is the one who replaced me when I left Abilene, so that'll be fun. I get to ask him about members and friends down there.

A big thing I've been focusing on this week is loving the Lord with all my mind. There's the scripture that says to love the Lord with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. It's really hard, but this is the hardest I've worked to strive to honor the Lord in all my thoughts, words, and actions. It's been difficult, and mentally exhausting, but it's been so rewarding. Just make Jesus Christ your focus, and you'll see blessings. I've noticed that when we make plans and strive to be worthy of the spirit, things just tend to work better. Either God tells us what to do, or he makes the plan work as we faithfully take action. He perfects the harvest everytime.

I don't even really know what I just wrote, but I love you all. I feel like big changes have been taking place in me, and it's been fun! I love you.

- Elder Wride

I'm trying to lose weight, but these people aren't helping. Some friends of ours stuffed me full of 12 el pastor tacos, and then gave me this mountain of ice cream and a slice of cheesecake.

Also Ruidoso, New Mexico is beautiful. 

Week 53: Week of Tender Mercies

Ok, so we had just an amazing week!! The biggest miracle we had though had to be how we had 8 of our friends at church on Sunday! We had set up some contacts of who we would stop by that morning. We stopped by Jose Jesús, and he brought his daughter too! As we were contacting that morning, Elder Springer felt that we should go stop by someone else we hadn't put in yet. This person we'd only talked to once, when we tracted into her on exchanges. We gave her a Book of Mormon and hadn't seen her since, but when we went by her husband answered and he said they would come. We weren't sure they actually would on such short noticed, but they both came and brought her Mom! It was just so amazing. Normally it's hard to get friends we've been teaching for a while to come to church, but they came even though we haven't taught them anything. They all loved it though, and the members really made them feel welcomed.

Another miracle was this guy named John that we met. We had a funeral for a member who we actually got to know really well, and it was sad. His name was David. He loved helping us with missionary work. At the a funeral, John came up to us, and said he wanted to learn about our beliefs. He had no idea David was LDS, because he thought he was Catholic. His family is very catholic, but he joined our church in his 20s, and everyone admired his incredible faith in Jesus Christ. We visited John, and he loved all of it. He's read Under the Banner of Heaven, and was really curious about Joseph Smith, and our history, and also served in the Army and wanted to know about our beliefs on life after death. Anyways, we talked about a lot, and he asked us where he could get a Book of Mormon, because he loves reading and also asked if we had an audio book (so he can listen to it as he walks his dog. we showed him the app). It was just amazing. He's bringing his whole family to church. I've never seen someone so prepared my whole mission. Anyways, it was an amazing week. Sadly, we have to pass him off to the English missionaries now, (teardrop emoji)

For P-day last week, we did squid game elimination type games, and I got 3rd place. I was lowkey really upset about it, I was invested. But I lost because I wasn't fast enough at sudoku, even though my opponent had the game master helping him the whole time. Today we went and played in the sand for a few hours.

I also found a hockey stick and a golf ball, and I'm literally so happy

Week 52: Questions = Answers

So, this week was really good. Sorry I didn't get a ton of pictures, and I don't have a lot to say right now, but we worked hard. We set some high goals in our weekly planning. We found 8 people, had 10 member participating lessons, had 4 people at church, and put another friend on date!

A fun thing though, is there's a Muslim guy on messenger who reached out to me and is trying to convert me. I also just randomly found a Quran at the other Elders Apartment. It's kinda interesting though, some of the stuff he sends me don't quite make sense and he isn't really answering my questions.

That leads me to a small spiritual thought, and it's that our Church actually has answers, and even better, they make sense!! At times I get confused, but I've noticed that if I actually study, I find answers. And this week I relearned the importance of having questions. My studies have felt non-beneficial lately, because I couldn't think of anything that I really wanted to learn, but then I started to think about the sealing power. Like, let's say a Dad is sealed to his son, and one of them chooses not to believe in the Savior, and doesn't go to the celestial kingdom, but the other one was faithful. If the Dad was faithful, but the son wasn't, does the Dad still have claim over his kid in the next life? Anyways, I'm still reading up on it, but it's been a lot more fun when you have a question. So ask questions!

Quote from Elder Uchdorf

"We rarely find something we are not looking for. Seek, and ye shall find."

He was speaking about Joy, but I think the principle applies to everything. Love you guys! Sorry for the short email

- Elder Wride

Week 51: Make it Sacred

We were going to have zone conference on Thursday, but it snowed a TON here. Normally it snows once a year, and it's all gone the next day, but we lowkey had a blizzard. It felt like home. So Zone conference was canceled, and we spent 5 hours shoveling driveways. And so we had Zone Conference today instead!

I forgot to say, but they asked me to be an SMS again, and so we've been leading the Zone in that again. People kind of loathe Facebook work here, but it's fun to see them get excited about it when we send challenges out. I think we do a good job. We definitely have a lot of fun and it unites us as a Zone.

Anyways, January 8th was an interesting day. My estimated homecoming day is January 8th, 2026. And I was like "oh no, I don't have a lot of time left." It does not feel like I've been here for a year, and I've been told the 2nd year goes even faster. So I sort of panicked and said a pleading prayer asking God to help me make the most of it. I don't want to look back with regret. Anyways, and then at Zone conference, President talked a lot about the dangers of becoming casual about sacred things, and as a missionary, every day of the week is meant to be sacred. We talked a lot about things that we start to treat casually, and the dangers of doing that. There were a lot of things I realized I need to shape up at, and after Zone conference I realized that was God's answer telling me how to get the most out of this next year. But I guess it doesn't make sense to ask for a fruitful year and expect not to work and make sacrifices, even if they night seem miniscule. But to sacrifice literally means to make something sacred. By making the sacrifices the Lord asks me to make, my mission becomes his mission, which is what it was always meant to be.

Our friend Juaquin was going to be baptized this Saturday, but he's still been drinking coffee. So we rescheduled it for Feb. 1st, had an amazing lesson, and he gave us his coffee!!

They moved P-day to today for Zone Conference, and a food bank called us asking us to help. Normally we wouldn't because it's our P-day, but we decided to put other first, and the Lord Blessed us abundantly. We now have 15 DOZEN eggs in our fridge, 6 giant bags of apples, and 40 bags or BBQ chips. We have a lot of food, which is amazing because eggs are expensive

I finally got some Boots!! It's about time too, because I've had my blazers for 3 years now, and they offer no support anymore. Here in Roswell, it's close enough to all the Texans that they have a store dedicated solely to high quality handmade boots, but far enough away that they're actually really cheap for boots. They aren't at all like what I went in looking for, but I saw them and I just had to get them. I'm so excited to wear them country dancing after the mission (Emoji face with cowboy hat)

Week 50: Good = True

My brother Hyrum told me how each week is about 1% of your mission. I can't believe I'm basically 50% of the way done. The time goes by way too fast.

We have had some awesome lessons this week, and a wack one too. One guy really needs prayers, his name is José Jesus. They want to grow closer to God, but they're really struggling financially and might not have a home soon. Please pray for them. Also Adeline. She's basically ready for baptism, but her family is catholic, and her mom won't let her come to church. I'm not sure what the best move is to help her, so please pray for her and her family. I don't have a ton to say this week, but we had another lesson that was kind of weird. This guy has been meeting with missioanries for like 50 years, and isn't progressing. He came up to us and basically told us that all churches are good, and it doesn't really matter. He's read the Book of Mormon in 3 different languages (he speaks 7), and said it's a good book that we should read, but he doesn't think it's true. He said he's prayed about it, but we're not sure how open he is to an answer. It made me think though, because if the Book of Mormon is good, than it has to be true. It can either be good and true or evil and false, there is no in between. The Book of Mormon claims to be the word of God, and if it isn't from God, who's it from? Anyways, we explained that to him, but he didn't really hear us. Anyways, I don't have much to say this week. But at the very least, the Book of Mormon is good... that just also happens to mean it has to be true.

I need to get more pictures with our friends, sorry I keep forgetting. I love you guys