First Email from Our New Missionary

The highlight of today was Ethan's first email to us as a missionary. I thought it was really funny. It's always exciting when they first start out, even if we are probably going to see him tomorrow. It's just fun to see how it's going from his perspective. I just created a mission blog for him, like I did for Joseph (and like I still need to do for Mel...) so anyone who is interested can check there from now on (in my blog list in the right side bar →). I might post a thing or two from him now and then, but that blog is where to find all the detail. ...Or get on his email list. We read his email with the kids tonight.

Here it is, fun stuff!
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Okay, WOW. I have SO MUCH to tell all you guys, which is weird because I thought being in online MTC I would have nothing to say but I really have lots I want to share with you guys, so if you have the time, I hope you'll read through this whole thing.

Here's what I want to cover in this email...

1) What online MTC is like

2) Funny story

3) My reassignment!

4) Crazy news about my reassignment

5) My companion who's actually famous (tik tok)

6) Giving my first priesthood blessing

7) Getting set apart as a representative of Jesus Christ

8) Spiritual thoughts

1) Okay so online MTC is super interesting. Honestly, I have ZERO complaints about it. Truly. Actually that's not true. My only complaint is when I try to change my background on my screen on the zoom calls to make it look like I'm in outer space the green screen feature is busted so it takes out my entire face too. That's kinda a bummer but I'm working on getting that fixed so I can be one of the cool elders who is in outer space. 

Anyways, but here is what my schedule is like....

6:30- wake up, workout, that sorta thing

8:00- zoom workshop with like 400 missionaries

9:00-12:00- district class

12:00-5:45- during this time I have to eat lunch and dinner, do 1 hour of personal study, 1 hour of companion study, and 1 hour of language study. 

5:45-8:45- district class

9:00-10:30- go to bed and check in with my companion

Every district is a bit different, but that's the basic idea. So it's lots of zoom calls during the day. 9 hours to be more exact haha. Originally, I was at my house, but as you guys know the place isn't very ideal for being a missionary. Not to say that the spirit isn't there, it's just...insane. I did my first day or two there but kids were trying to play with me while I was on calls or screaming things like "HELLO ELDER WRIDE" through the vents into the room I was in, so I had to get out. I am currently at my grandparents house who live in holladay. It's SO NICE. My grandpa set up computers for me to do my stuff on, and I have the whole basement. 

It's seriously just so great. I also love talking to them about stuff. The spirit of God is strong in this house haha.

2) So my district is a total party. Not totally, but just enough. I honestly feel like I've known these Elders my whole life. We are all homies. We should also probably stop calling each other "homies" because Hermana Kerr gets very upset. I do a good job of calling everybody Elder but it's gonna take a bit to get used to. Anyways but yesterday we did a show and tell, so I showed them my bowling ball and was like "I bowled a 243 with this bad boy" and everyone was super impressed and I got lots of respect. But then, Hermana Kerr apparently is like a pro bowler and was like "not to make you look unimpressive Elder Wride, but I bowled a 263" and the entire district was like "OOHHHH" and I kid you not I almost cried. That was my chance to prove myself and I blew it. I'm gonna bowl with Hermana Kerr one day and show her up.

3) Alright you guys, so I was pretty sure I was gonna get reassigned and honestly I'm not mad about it, at all. So me and my district were all chatting on google hangouts and one by one they all started getting their reassignments, so I was like "oh shoot here we go" and sure enough, I got a call from mi madre. She was like "President England just called" and I was like "Oh shoot" and then she was like "you've been reassigned to the wyoming mormon trails mission!!!."

Just kidding no that's not it, but for some reason I love telling people that. Not to hate on Wyoming, but dressing as a pioneer every day would be hard for me. Actually we had a zoom call with my district and we were all announcing our reassignments, and my district already knew where I was going but our teachers didn't so I was like "wyoming mormon trails!!!" and it was totally silent and then my teacher hermana kerr was like "wow that's so awesome!!" and then I told her I was kidding and she was lowkey kinda mad that I fooled her but it was great. Anyways, until they can send me to la Republica Dominicana voy ay servir en la St. Louis Missouri mission! I leave August 25. I'm pretty hyped, but the story doesn't end there...

4) So obviously I'm excited, but it's hard to be super excited when I've thought for months that I'd be in the DR a month from now, but the Lord knew that too I guess.

So most of you guys probably know mi amigo/friend Truman, or Elder Pugsley. Me and Truman have literally been mejor amigos for the longest time, and if you knew us in HS then you know how tight we are. We were in Student Government together, both play lots of music together, we're bowling all the time, etc. Basically outside of my family, there's no one i'm better friends with than him. He started his online training my same day and is supposed to go to Tijuana Mexico. After I got my reassignment I sent him a google hangouts message right away about my call to st. louis missouri, then a few hours later he said 

"bruh (should have called me Elder but whatever) my stake president just called. this is literally insane. like i don't think you realize. I'm going to the st louis missouri. no joke. august 25. my mind is blown."

LIKE WHAT!!! It took me a minute to process but then I responded with "dude (should have said elder my bad) we can just not get enough of each other. maybe we should just get married" and then he was like "uh. hasta luego"

Anyways, I got pretty emotional if I'm gonna be honest. Like this was such a tender mercy for me that just proved to me that st louis missouri is where the Lord needs me to be right now. I don't have a doubt in my mind about that anymore. We'll see if we become companions, and if we do let's hope it goes well. I dropped AP stats because we sat next to each other and our combined mental capacity plummeted in there and I knew we were both going to fail the class so I left. Either way, this is a huge blessing. Me and Elder Pugsley are gonna fly out on the same day, same plane, to the same place. How did the Lord do all of that?!

5) Alright fellas now it's time to talk about my companion. If any of you guys use the app Tik Tok, I guarantee that if you don't follow him you have at least seen him. If you don't know what tik tok is, it's basically like Instagram except all videos and honestly it's a pretty stupid social media platfrom. Even Elder Hansen said so. Go look up Ben Hansen on Tik Tok right now. Seriously, unless you don't know what Tik Tok is, go look him up. That, ladies and gentlemen, is my companion. He's 6'6'', famous, ripped, tan, and has a perm. He also surfs. Meanwhile I'm chilling at 5' 9'' or so, skinny, not tik tok famous, very white, and my mom buzzed my head a few days ago so I'm not lookin' too fresh. I also don't surf, I just bowl. Not the most attractive thing in the world. I feel kinda inferior to him because he's so awesome, but yea. Elder Hansen is seriously the best. At first I thought like "okay if he is tik tok famous he can't be a good companion" but he's awesome. Our comp study's are great, we discipline ourselves really well and there's no one else I'd rather be comps with. There are some people in our district who aren't as disciplined, because with this online MTC nobody is making you get up in the morning, it's all up to you whether or not you're going to do those things that invite the spirit. Elder Hansen does a great job, and we make a great team. So ladies, I have an in with the famous Ben Hansen of Tik Tok so maybe be nice to me for the next two years and send me lots of emails and maybe I'll hook you guys up. Elder Hansen is also going to the Dominican Republic Santiago mission, but first he's been reassigned to the SLC west mission. He's such a stud. Maybe you guys will see him while he's up here!

6) Okay, so now lets talk about my experience about giving my priesthood blessings. It's kind of a long story. So I was supposed to get set apart on tuesday, but then my little brother Wesley got sick. They thought it might be covid, so while I was running errands they got him tested. While driving home my mom called and told me about the situation, which meant that I wasn't going to be able to get set apart. Not gonna lie, I was really upset. I kinda went off over the phone about how I "need to leave this crazy house" because the situation also meant that I wasn't going to be able to go to my grandparents. That night, me and my dad gave all my siblings priesthood blessings. It was awesome. He showed me how to do it, and my dad blessed two kids who were feeling sick and I did the other two. I must have done it right because I made one of the kids cry, so that was sweet!!! My dad said on the phone yesterday that my siblings said that my "priesthood blessing worked". And yes we got Wesleys tests back as negative! So all was well and I was able to get set apart

7) My setting apart experience was super neat. My stake president gave an awesome blessing, and no joke right when he said amen and I opened my eyes, I was a new man. Like, it was really weird. In 5 minutes I feel like I turned into my older brother. I've never wanted to do something well as bad as I want to be a good missionary. It honestly felt like right when I got set apart like a big blanket got put on my back, and it's still there. Maybe it's just the millions of people who pray for the missionaries every day, and I just got added to the list! Elder Hansen told me the exact same thing. He literally said "It felt like someone put a blanket on me" and my mom said that when she got released, it "felt like a mantle was taken off me" so I guess God just really likes blankets!!! Anywho, if you're about to get set apart be ready for some weird but good vibes. To put it as simple as possible, I feel like I have a spiritual gun to my head 24/7. It's great, but I really don't want to mess up this time that's been given me to represent the Lord Jesus Christ.

8) Man I already feel like that in just this week, I have grown so much. How is that possible? I'm still in the basement 5 minutes from where I went to high school, but the MTC spirit is here and it's so strong. I know this gospel is real, like I KNOW it. Nothing can or will ever change that, but I'm also excited to serve in missouri and the dr to see that continue to grow. The gospel in the bible is the same gospel here today. It was restored! It's real. And the Book of Mormon has it all. I know it's true. This church isn't the church of mormon, joseph smith, or even president nelson. This is the church of JESUS CHRIST and he's at the head of it. I promise you it's real. A testimony of that comes from reading the Book of Mormon. Honestly it should be called the Book of Jesus Christ, because that's really what it is. Some form of Christ's name is mentioned on an average of every 1.7 versus in the BOM, with an average of I believe 2.5 or something in the Bible. It is all about Jesus. I am so grateful for this time I have to be a disciple of Christ, and I know that if the church wasn't true, the missionaries would have destroyed it a very long time ago. Honestly, two years almost doesn't seem like enough time. 

I love you all and would love to hear from all/any of you! Like seriously. I just talk to my district elders all day every day and I love em but it'd be nice to hear from some of you guys.

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Pretty fun, huh! He's already grown so much! Ha. And that's so cool that Truman and him are both going to St. Louis. Ethan is going to do great, and we're super stoked for him going to Missouri! It feels a bit more real with that, since it appears he is really going to leave next month. Way cool. One other thing he told us - he and his district were talking and Ethan mentioned/bragged a little bit about how Elder Christofferson was our neighbor and signed Ethan's Book of Mormon that he got when he was baptized (cause they sat up on the stand together during the meeting) and then later in another zoom meeting, Ethan finds out that Elder Nelson in his group happens to be the son of Pres Nelson's tenth child and only son. Ethan is second column top, Elder Nelson is 2nd column 3rd row. Funny.

Ethan told Elder Nelson "Well now I just feel dumb" and Elder Nelson said he was just quietly smiling when Ethan was flexing. "You can just sit back knowing that you can trump anybody's story, whenever you want... 'I walked on the moon!'" - Brian Regan. So that was a funny story.


Other than that, we spent most of today working in the basement. Corey and the kids organized legos by color and I sorted bins of junk with Hyrum. It doesn't look like we made a lot of progress, but we did make a small dent. The little kids avoided work by finding things I was trying to sort, like the costumes, and getting them out to pay with. Natalie as Cleopatra.

Wesley made them crowns. Prince Owen

Prince Daniel enjoying a pb and J sandwich for a late lunch at 2.

And here's a random picture from this morning. I'm not sure what Owen and Hyrum are doing, but I took this photo to capture our Grumpy Peter moment of the morning.

We are staring to let him try sitting at the bar, he hasn't fallen, so that's good. It was a good day, and with that, another week of the pandemic is done, check.