Transfer 12 Week 5

Hi everyone, this week has been a bit of a wild ride but we are getting through it. The Lord has been good to us and we are trying our best to do His work. 

On Tuesday we got to help out the youth in the ward with an activity that the adults set up for them. It was the game of life and there were different stations and activities for them. They had to go buy cars, houses, pay insurance and taxes. We were in charge of the entertainment station where they could go pay to play games. We took some liberty, and we pretty much were running a casino by the end of it. I fooled those silly kids out of like 7,000 dollars. But it was really funny. Then afterwards we went and talked about it with them and had a debrief. They asked why we were doing it and what we learned. One of the leaders asked who in the room wanted to get married some day and all 4 of us missionaries shot our hands straight in the air and everyone laughed. 

On Wednesday we had exchanges with other missionaries. Elder Williams and Elder Hammer our district leader come over early in the morning to play basketball and it was fun. I'm getting better little by little. I'm gonna be a unit when I get home. Then we spent the day out working. I was with Elder Williams and it was a good day and we found someone new to teach. We also had some fun lessons together that night and we learned from each other. Overall good exchange. 

Thursday not a ton happened, but again we found someone new to teach and she seems really willing to hear messages about Christ. Very exciting. We also had a good time with our friends from Colombia that we're teaching. We read the Book of Mormon and watched some of the videos with them from Gospel Library. They're loving it and it's so great being a part of their progression.

On Friday we had another exchange with Elder Kolberg and Elder Smith. I went with Elder Smith, but first we had a meeting in the morning. We drove down to the mission office and talked about how we can help train the missionaries to be better teachers and servants of the Lord. One leader there said the analogy of sharpening a saw. That we could sit there and saw at wood as hard as we can, or we could take 10-15 minutes to sharpen our saw and then be more efficient at sawing the wood after. I like that, because when we do take the time to do the little things right it pays off. If we want to be the best disciples of Christ that we can be we need to work at it. Then on exchanges while we were teaching that night we found out one of the ladies we are teaching comes from a line of witches in their family, and was perhaps practicing some witchcraft. Well she told us she was, so it was definitely happening. That was kind of a curveball. 

Then we had soccer night and Elder Gray, who doesn’t even play soccer but is one of the biggest competitors I know, got a hat trick. He scored three goals in a row in back to back to back games. That was pretty cool. 

Then the weekend was good. We spent a lot of time out finding, and then teaching our friends during the evenings. And Sunday, we had some of our friends come and join us at church. It's always nice to have them come and feel the spirit there. 

Sunday evening we had a lesson with our witchcraft friend and we invited a very good member who is great at teaching. He helped explain to her why it's not good and why she needs to make sure to not do it, (it's been a long time since she's done it, but some weird stuff came up). Anyways, this member, Hermano Navas, really nailed it, he related to her really well, and he helped her understand that living the Gospel is the best thing she can do for her and her family. Now she's 100% down. 

We also watched a multi faith fireside about the Old Testament Tabernacle. There was a Catholic Priest, Jewish Rabbi, the Leader of a Muslim Mosque in the area and more. That was really cool and all the speakers were pretty funny. The Muslim man was fasting for Ramadan, and at the end he said, "please excuse, I need to go, I'm very hungry and very thirsty and I want to go before I pass out while driving". It was a really special meeting where I learned a lot. 

Today for p-day we climbed a mountain. That's right, a mountain. Last night the AP’s called us and said, “hey do you want to walk straight up the mountain tomorrow?” And after a little convincing we agreed to do it. 

We woke up at 4:00 in the morning to send off our roommate Elder Standage. He's flying to the Dominican Republic today to serve his mission there. I didn't fall back asleep and so after another hour or so we got ready for the hike. We showed up to the AP's house at like 6:00ish and then we took off along with Elder Hammer and Elder Williams who came with us. We started hiking at 6:40 and it was so cool. We eventually hit snow up top too and that was fun. The views from up top were so cool and it was just funny to think that we were on the mission and we hiked up to the top there. Good times. Afterwards we went and ate some Chic-Fil-A. What a day. I'm pretty tired. 

Well everyone, I want to say thank you to all of you. You're the best. I hope you are all doing well and that life is going good. Reach out to me if you would like and let me know how you're doing. Love you all. 

-Elder Golden  

 

Transfer 12 Weeks 1, 2 and 3

HI everyone!!! It's me, Elder Golden and I'm back to give you all another update on the last few weeks. Buckle up cause it's been crazy.

Week 1 
So week one of the transfer was good. We had lots of fun. Elder Bringhurst, my new companion and I helped move our old companions out; one of them all the way to Morgan which is about as far away from the rest of the mission as you can get. We dropped off Elder Hanosek at the mission office to do all his AP responsibilities and stuff, and he came and picked up all his stuff from the house later that night. 

Elder Gray my old companion and his brand new greenie moved in with us which is really fun and exciting. 

Second day of the transfer we had an MLC meeting and it went really well. They fed us spaghetti and I ate a lot. We talked about how we're right on the edge of a breakthrough, how if we tighten some little things up we can have tons of success as a mission. President Johnson is a great leader and a really loving Mission President. He said something during the meeting about going over to Elders apartments in the morning and making them scrambled eggs, and so we jokingly told him that we were struggling and that we needed that. He laughed and believe it or not he showed up the next morning at 6:30 and we had breakfast together. And yes his scrambled eggs were delicious and fluffy. Then he had a study with us and it was really spiritual. Afterwards he left us with a really powerful prayer. I love President Johnson a ton. He's great. 

We’ve also been having a good time with our roommates. We mess around a bit but we also work really hard too haha. We try to go to this Gelato place called Zeppes every Saturday now and it's been funny. We just enjoy being around each other a lot. 

As you may know we have soccer every Friday with our ward and our friends. It's always a lot of fun and one of our favorite members was there but not to play soccer. His name is hermano Melim and he's from Brazil. He learned Spanish on his mission in Chile and then he married a girl from Utah and they moved here. He's such a powerful teacher and always has something awesome to say. He also always says "puro fuego" which means "straight fire"... so yeah he always hypes us up. He talked to us about how to get the most out of our missions and how to be smart and powerful and all the good stuff missionaries need to be. He got us fired up and he even sent us some articles and talks and stuff. Then he gave us this book that he and another missionary wrote while they were serving the lord on their missions; it’s called "El Manual del Bautismo" and it's puro fuego. It's pretty much the best thing someone has ever given me. 

Week 2 
At the beginning of week two we had to move apartments. We switched homes with another set of Elders who didn't have a car and needed to be moved closer to their own area. So we spent a good long while packing up, moving and unpacking. HOW FUN! The new place is a lot bigger and so that's a bonus but I don’t like moving. 

We also did the coolest thing EVER. We got to go to the Temple in Bountiful and see the sealing of a family that Elder Gray and I taught and baptized a little over a year ago. We were in a trio with Elder Piñeres who has since finished his mission but came down to see it as well. It was an awesome reunion for all of us and it was super spiritual and super cool and probably one of the biggest blessings I have had to see that. They had us over for a quick dinner afterwards and it was nice to visit and chat a little. Afterwards Matthew (Elder Piñeres) went out with us to teach and it was awesome. He stayed out late to do it then he had a 3 hour drive home, but it was well worth it hahaha. 

Week two we met a couple of really special people. Some recent converts in our ward had friends move into their basement with them from Colombia and we started teaching them the Gospel. They have been loving it and really like reading from the scriptures and learning more about Jesus Christ. The parents are named Luis and Nathaly, they're really funny and we get along really well with them. They have three kids; the oldest is a 15 year old boy named Dave. The first whole week we thought his name was David which isn't too far off but we found out that it's just their accent that we weren't quite understanding hahaha. Then they have a 10 year old girl named Helen, and she's so sweet, a little quiet but funny too. And then their youngest is a 3 year old daughter named Luisa and SHE IS SO FUNNY oh my gosh. She has the funniest little attitude and she's really opened up to us and we keep wondering if she even knows who we are or what we do, or if she just thinks we're her fun new white friends who come over to play. Either way they are an amazing family. 

We also met this man named Alvaro who is so willing to follow Christ. His wife is a member of the church who hasn't been going because of Covid but now she wants to come back. Alvaro has been taking the lessons very well and doing a good job keeping commitments. His wife Kristi makes the BEST tacos. Elder Bringhurst, my companion, got her to send us home with some of her homemade sauce. 

The second week we also had zone conference but it was pretty different than all the others we have had before. President and Sister Johnson, when they lived in California were in charge of creating a life sized replica of the old Testament Tabernacle, so they had it brought out to Utah and set it up down in Bountiful. We had our zone conference there in a chapel by the Tabernacle and had a tour of the Tabernacle as well. It was a really, really awesome experience and I learned a lot. 

At the end of the week we had GENERAL CONFERENCE which was so good. General Conference is when we hear from the leaders of our Church and its super spiritual and full of great counsel. I would really encourage you all to go check it out. We had a good time watching it with our roommates. 

Week 3
This week was awesome and full of blessings as well. We talked to sister Daich one of the office missionaries and had her print, laminate, and cut these double sided pictures; one side with Jesus smiling and the other with Jesus being  baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist. We use it while teaching people or just meeting them on the street or in the store or something. We showed Jesus smiling and talked about what we can do that would make Jesus happy. Then we say, by keeping the commandments we can make him happy and we tell them about John 3:5 or a similar scripture which talks about the importance of baptism or why Jesus was baptized. Then we flip it over and talk about why being baptized the way Jesus was is so important. That we need to be baptized by someone who holds the authority of God, like John the Baptist had. And how we need to be baptized by full immersion, meaning going fully under the water like Jesus did. And how when we baptize people they need to be old enough to choose to be baptized. When Christ was baptized he was an adult, maybe around 30 years old. We ask them if they want to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized in that way with those 3 important steps and so far it's worked really well. 

Since we got those cards we have put 6 people on date for baptism. 4 being the family of four we had recently met, and that was within hours since we got the cards. We also had sister Daich print off one for every missionary in the zone, so 24. We then gave them out at zone council the next day. 

Zone council was an opportunity where we could get together and do some trainings on how to be better missionaries and do some things better. Elder Bringhurst and I being fired up from the focus we had placed on studying, talking about, teaching about, dreaming about baptisms taught about the importance of leading our friends towards baptism. The STL's in the zone talked about the importance of long term conversion and leading our friends towards the Temple. It was really cool and powerful and we had a great time together. 

If you want to learn more about these things reach out to your local missionaries and they'd be more than happy to tell you. 

We also put our friend Alvaro on date this week. His baptism is coming up on the 23rd of April. He still has some questions but we are all working hard to make sure he is prepared to send it. It's gonna be great. 

Week 4
This last week has been awesome. We had a few more huge blessings and we've been so busy we barely have enough time to thank God for all of them. 

We put our friend Maria on date. We've been teaching her for a long while, and it was really exciting to see the progress she has made and her commitment to the Lord. 

We had a Gospel Scholarship meeting with an amazing man named Brad R. Wilcox. He talked about a couple of really cool things, including journaling and keeping a study journal. It was so cool. He kept our attention super well with his humor. 

We also had a last minute meeting called to go over to President’s house on Sunday night for what they called an "Easter pow wow" which was a meeting with the whole MLC. We heard about it the night before and Easter Sunday got packed. We woke up, studied, drove around inviting friends to church, then went to church, went home for a quick snack, then had 3 back to back to back lessons. Then we went straight to the meeting. So the day was packed but it was so awesome hahaha. 

Well sorry I've been so busy everyone, but I promise I'll be better about writing in the future. 

3 Nephi 7
24 Now I would have you to remember also, that there were none who were brought unto repentance who were not baptized with water.
25 Therefore, there were ordained of Nephi, men unto this ministry, that all such as should come unto them should be baptized with water, and this as a witness and a testimony before God, and unto the people, that they had repented and received a remission of their sins. 

Love you all!

-Elder Golden

Transfer 11 Weeks 5 and 6

A quick catchup on a few weeks ago because I forgot to send this out last week. Hope you're all doing great! 

Well these last couple of weeks have just flown by, but it has been a lot of fun. Let me update you on how life has been for us and what we've been up to.

Week 5
We had some more exchanges with Elder Smith and Elder Kolberg. The day before Elder Kolberg hurt his shoulder playing basketball so we had to go and buy him a sling from Walmart. Of course him and I were together walking the streets that day while a snowstorm hit. It was a little funny, and very cold. He’s from Arizona too so I don't think he's all that used to the weather here. But we had a lot of fun. 

Elder Kolberg

Him and I randomly walked to some really nice town houses, very unusual of us to go finding there as Spanish missionaries but we had said a prayer before and it felt guided by the spirit. Along the way I was having some doubts though hahah, and it was snowing, and cold and all that. But we get there and have no idea what to do. So we find the driveway with the most cars in it and we knocked there. They guy opened up and asked how he could help us. We asked him if he knew any of his neighbors that spoke Spanish. It was kind of a long shot, but to our surprise he said that his neighbor directly north of him did, it was awesome. Then we went and knocked his door and he opened up, he was super nice, a man named Julio from Venezuela. We had a nice talk with him in his house and we found out he's a Lyft and Uber driver and that he wouldn't have been home then if it hadn't been for the snowstorm. It was an awesome experience of following the direction of the spirit. 

Later that week we got a text from Elder Daich, our Mission Vehicle Coordinator, that we needed to come and turn in our car for a full day. Come to find out that it was because Elder Hanosek had run a red light and we just happen to have a new fancy dash camera system where they can see literally everything we do, hahaha. So long story short, Friday morning we and some other missionaries went to the mission office and turned in our cars. We were told we were not allowed to get rides home from other missionaries, that we had to walk, bike or get rides from our members. Well our members are all at work at 8:30 on a Friday so we decide to walk home 10 miles due to our lack of a bike rack, and so that we could stick it to the man. So the four of us took off together and we shared a scripture with every person who was willing to hear one along the way.

We even found a cool tree house on the walking/biking trail and stopped to take some pictures. Due to our stop at McDonald's, a few gas stations to try and share scriptures with people at gas pumps, and a few sitting breaks along the way it took us 4 and a half hours to get home. Me feet really hurt from being in my Church shoes and my neck hurt from my collared shirt rubbing. We made the best of it though, got home, and made some muffins. 

Then that P-Day we had another Zone Unity day and there was a lot of Basketball played. I'm not very good but I still had a good time. I hope they have a wrestling day soon so I can dominate a little bit. I'm just kidding that would be problematic. 

Week 6
This was the last week of the transfer and honestly it flew by. We met a new friend named Constanza, she works with a member in our ward and had a lot of questions for us. She wants a better life for her and her son, she believes in God and Christ but doesn't quite have a relationship with them yet. So we have had the privilege of helping her along the way and we've really enjoyed it. We've had three lessons with her and they've all gone great. 

We also visit an old persons home sometimes for service and they had us help the residents there make March Madness Brackets which was SO FUNNY. They would just randomly pick teams and not really know who was good or bad or who was seeded higher. This lady named Beth kept unknowingly picking upsets and then she proceeded to say that she was playing it safe. It was adorable.

We also had exchanges with the AP's this week which were good. I was with Elder Jorgensen and we walked around Trailer Parks talking to lots of people. We also taught a couple of lessons and it was really cool. 

The next day was Elder Gray's birthday; he's one of my former companions and so we wanted to do something special for him. So we woke up really early, drove out to their house and made him some pancakes and eggs for breakfast. Then we zipped on home again after that.
Then on Saturday and Sunday nights we had some craziness going on. Our roommates were very suspicious of us and why we spent the two days before transfers with the AP's, so we started messing with them and pretending like we knew stuff that they didn't and that we weren't allowed to talk about it or anything. Then on Sunday in the afternoon my companion Elder Hanosek gets a call from our Mission President. He tells him that he's the new AP and so that kind of ruined our joke on our roommates but it was still cool and exciting and funny. 

 

Then on P-day last week we went on a hike. It was a lot of fun and there were a bunch of crashed cars in the canyon from a big tall mountain road above it. We found an old car door so I thought it would be funny to take it home with us. So I carried it for about 45 minutes down the rest of the hike and it was HEAVY. Then we gave it to the other elders and they took it and set it on the balcony of their apartment. 

Well I love you all and I'm really excited for the upcoming General Conference. General Conference is when we get to hear from our leaders of the church such as modern day Prophets and Apostles. If you want to know more about it, let me know and I'll tell you how you can watch it. 

Take care everyone talk to you next week!

-Elder Golden

Our stop at McDonald's

Zone unity day!

 

 

Transfer 11 Week 4

Sorry everyone forgot to send this out last week so here it is a little late 

We started off the week strong, we had exchanges both Tuesday and Wednesday. 

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with a District Leader companionship, my companion Elder Hanosek

went with the District Leader Elder Burgoyne, and I went with his companion Elder Southwick. He’s from California and he's only been out for a few weeks. We were on bikes all evening and it was kind of fun. Got a little cold, but we had a good time. We talked to a lot of people, knocked on a couple of doors, and taught a few lessons together. 

Elder Southwick

Then Wednesday I was with Elder Hammer. He's super funny and I enjoyed the day with him. We were on foot the whole night, but a couple of times some people would pull over and offer us rides. We even accepted a few of them which was actually pretty fun. It was also really warm that day, well compared to recently. It was 60 degrees which was a nice break from the cold. We went to Subway together and had some good food. We spent the night visiting people and enjoyed our time preaching the Gospel. 

Elder Hammer

Then Thursday Elder Hanosek and I finally got to spend the day together again. We taught this new guy named Fernando. Elder Hanosek and I taught really well together, and he was receiving the message really well.  After that we went and visited our other friend Maria. We always try to keep our visits with her short but every time they go long because she has so many questions and when she starts talking it's hard to stop her. We were there for quite a while and we both had the impression and felt that we should stay and listen to her. She has 9 kids in the house and most of the time they don't really listen to her and her life can be stressful so I think she really appreciated the time we took to listen to her. Right after that we left and said goodbye to Elder Blackwell because he was leaving the next morning to go home and get ready for surgery on his knee. It was sad saying goodbye but I know it won't be the last time that we see each other. 

Elder Blackwell

Friday we had some fun stuff going on. We went on what is called an inspired walk and talked to some people along the way. Right after we went to go do a baptismal interview, and finished the night by attending our ward soccer night. There were tons of people there that night and it was a little too much. Not everyone got to play all that much and our gym is a little small too. But I made friends with these little girls who came with their dad and they were super funny. We had a good time together and they told me my name was funny. 

Over the weekend we had some more fun as well. We got our friends to come to church on Sunday. We visited them Saturday, the night before and made sure that they would come. We woke up the next morning and it had snowed, so we went over to the house and shoveled the driveway and then we all headed to church together; it was really great. They said that they enjoyed it and their youngest son Carlos asked us afterwards if he could go to church again the next day. We told him sadly no but that they can come again next week!

Then on Monday we went to a Fun Center called Rush where we played bowling, laser tag, and go carts among other things; it was a lot of fun. OH YEAH, and they also had roller-skating which was lots of fun but I kept trying to do like jumps and tricks and stuff so I ended up falling a few times hahaha. 

Oh well, that's my update. Love you all… I hope you all know that. Have an awesome week!! 

-Elder Golden 

Cool Camaro "Lightning McQueen" we came across while out walking

Visiting the livestock near my apartment

Transfer 11 Weeks 1, 2, and 3

Ok some quick updates from these first weeks of this transfer that have happened. We are having tons of fun and feeling the spirit abundantly. 

Week 1
We moved into a new house and it's little and cute, but really fun. It's got a small little bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and a small study room. I can walk from end to end of it in about 5 seconds. It's a little tight with 4 people but I'm loving it. Our roommates are super funny. We were also having some toilet clogging problems but have since resolved them 🤢 

President and Sister Johnson

We also had MLC, a meeting with President and all the Zone Leaders and I wore a brand new suit that I got. Well they gave us lunch with dessert; the dessert was strawberry shortcake and a strawberry jumped off of my plate and onto my pants and marked it up. So I went and got a wet rag and spent the rest of the meeting dabbing at it. It came out luckily so nobody worry. But the meeting was great and we talked about how to help our mission. 

Then a few days later we had ZLC and we talked with our district leaders about the upcoming transfer and how to help each of the missionaries to succeed. 

On Sunday we drove around in the Morning inviting our friends to come to church that day. Then our roommate who was in the backseat opened the door and threw up while we were parked. So we were like, ope well let's take him home and let him rest. Then me and my companion went to church and it was good. 

 

Week 2

This week started great, we had a good P-Day with our district and played basketball and got to know each other a little better. We have new people in the District including Elder Blackwell my old companion from last year and it's so fun to have him up here in the North Zone now. 

We also planned for Zone Conference which was coming up. Elder Hanosek and I were in charge of the role plays for the conference and we decided we were going to make them really powerful and revelatory experiences for everybody. We were going to practice teaching one principle in a minute. There are times where we only have a short bit of time to share something and help people to feel the spirit, so it was good practice. 

  

Weekly planning in the font

We went on Exchanges with Elder Payne and Elder Morse. I was with Elder Morse for the day and we had a great time. We talked a lot about bettering ourselves and how we could improve the little things. How we can forget ourselves and serve others but also how to focus on ourselves when we need to and to refine ourselves.

Then zone conference did come around and it was great. It was in a chapel very close to us so we were asked to show up there early to help set up tables and chairs in the gym for lunch. We got there at 8:30ish and left around 5:00 in the afternoon so it was an all day thing, but it was super awesome. 

We started off hearing from President and Sister Johnson and having a big group discussion/reflection on last transfer which was good. Then we talked about what we were going to do differently this transfer. We also played a game where we were asked a question from the Missionary Handbook and we had to find the answer, it was good practice.

We had some lunch and it was delicious, and then went right back to Zone conference. Then we had a training and we were up to do the role plays. First we did a run down on why we practice and why it's important to have this experience. Elder Hanosek and I demonstrated a role play in Spanish and we tried to do it in a minute, but found out it actually took us three minutes. Then President started adding in, and other people came up and did role plays; afterwards we would always break it down and talk about what went well, all the fun stuff. 

Then we heard more from President, he talked about building strong foundations, and rooting ourselves to them. He talked about something called J ties, which connect houses to the foundation and how we need to have those strong connections. 

To conclude Elder Blackwell got up and bore his testimony. He went up to bear his testimony because he tore his meniscus and his ACL and he's going home for surgery in a few weeks. It was really sad, but very spiritual. He talked about the importance of this work; that this truly is the Lord's work. I cried the entire time. Like I actually cried the whole time he spoke it was so sad, he's an amazing missionary and he doesn't deserve for his mission to be cut short because he's one of the best missionaries we have.

To end Zone conference we had barbecue for dinner and it tasted really good. Then we took some sick picture out in the parking lot. 

On Saturday our ward threw a Valentine's day party and it was awesome, the food was good and the people were so fun. We invited some of our friends we are teaching and they came. Then they all started dancing at the end and let me tell you, the latinos can dance haha. Then the members sent us home with tons of food. 

On Sunday we got our friends to go to church and it was so funny because when we got to their house and they were all still asleep. We literally knocked till we woke someone up and got them to go wake up their brother. Then we pretty much busted in and woke up the kids and told them to get dressed. The one teenager we picked out his outfit and then we found a ride for them to get there. It was so funny and they said that they enjoyed it. 

Then for p-day we went to go eat at Señor Pollos and then went and played basketball with our district. I actually went to the Hospital with Elder Blackwell instead of playing basketball so that our companions could play and so that he could sign some paper work for his knee. We had a good time catching up and talking. We've grown extremely close on the mission. I'm gonna miss him. 

Week 3
This last week was interesting. Monday night I wasn't feeling good, at all. I decided to go out and teach anyways and at the end of the night I was dying. I got in bed and had flu like symptoms, nausea, fatigue, chills, headache and back pain. My companion and my roommates gave me a blessing and I started feeling better. 

Well pretty much I got sick and was in bed all of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I finally regained some strength on Friday and we went to a meeting. I was tired but feeling better. Then we went out and worked which was a nice change of pace for me. Then we get a text that President wants to meet with the MLC the next day. So the next morning on Saturday we get up at 6:00 and drive to MLC. We discussed the mission and what tweaks or adjustments we might want to make to help our zones. We had a few action items that we want to take like enforcing the daily schedule and making sure that people are being obedient to the directions we are given from our leaders, such as waking up at 6:30 starting studies by 8:00, and going to bed by 10:30. 

Then our roommates had a baptism, they are serving in the same ward as us so we went and supported them. The family was so excited and they're so funny. They've been in the states for only a few months and the sons are 14 year old twins. Hilarious. 

The twins, Felipe and Estiven

Today we had zone unity day. Pretty much that means we all get together on p-day and have a good time. Elder Blackwell borrowed a grill and everyone brought barbecue stuff. I bought a ton of burgers, someone brought deer steaks!! And it was a good time. We grilled and chilled. Everyone was talking, getting to enjoy each other's presence, then we played some basketball. Overall great week. 

Spiritual Thought: a verse I was reminded of was in Alma Chapter 5, it says: 
                       45 And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?
        46 Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.

I really liked these verses because it talks about how we can find truth for ourselves. We can find the truth by listening to the Spirit. God gave us the Holy Ghost to guide us and lead us. Here the Prophet Alma reminds us that the spirit testifies of truth and that we can learn these things through the spirit. 

I love you all and I'll talk to you next week, vaya con Dios. 

-Elder Golden

 

I'm going to miss this guy ~ Elder Blackwell!

Transfer 10 Week 6

So I'm sending this a couple of weeks late but here is my report haha. 
It was the last week of last transfer and we did some fun stuff. We had exchanges with Elder Burgoyne and Elder Kolberg. Elder Burgoyne is one of our District Leaders and I went with him for the day. He's from Minnesota and he's super good at basketball. He's like 6'2 but he can do windmill dunks and stuff. Super sick. 

Elder Burgoyne and me after exchanges

One morning we get a text from President like right at 6:30 am that he wants us on a zoom call with him as soon as possible so we were tripping out. It was in a group text with a few other numbers too and we guessed they were the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders from the other Spanish Zone. We threw on suits super quick and got on the call. Nobody else dressed up hahah but it was fine. President laughed at us and told us we didn't have to get dressed up. Then he asked if we were business up top and party down below. I look down and I was in shorts and Elder Hanosek was in slacks. So I told President what we both were wearing and he laughed again. Then we chatted about the zones and the missionaries. 

Same ties and suits

We also found out about transfers on Sunday night after a big zoom meeting with the whole mission. All the missionaries who were going home bore their testimonies and then we heard from President and Sister Johnson. We got the new transfer board and Elder Hanosek and I were still together which we were really happy about. But we found out we were moving to a new apartment with other Spanish Elders, one of our new District Leaders named Elder Bringhurst and his Companion Elder Roberts. 

We were super happy that we could stay together and have another transfer to work hard in this area, there is a lot of promise here and we really love the people. 

Spiritual thought: I read a lot about missionary work in the scriptures such as when Aaron taught King Lamoni's Father. In Alma 22 it says:

17 And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:
18 O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.

I really loved how the King humbled himself and his life completely changed from what he was taught by Aaron. Earlier in the Book of Mormon the King wanted to kill Aaron and his brothers, and now he was willing to sacrifice everything he had to know God.

I love you all so much and can't wait to tell you more about what I've been up to.

-Elder Golden 
 

Moving in to our new place

Me and Elder Williams

Transfer 10 Weeks 3, 4 and 5

So sorry that I didn't have time to write last week, it was pretty busy but just know that I have been good and we're having lots of fun. Let me give you a recap on what we've been up to these last three weeks. 

Week 3 
So last week some craziness was going on. We had zone conference on Tuesday which was a lot of fun. Elder Hanosek and I changed the topic of our training the night before because we were #inspired.  Our training was pretty simple but I thought that it was really cool and pretty powerful. I felt the spirit while we were doing the training and a few people told us "good job" afterwards, so we must've done a good job. Then they gave us these tiny little Jimmy John sandwiches for lunch... so we ate those then went and ate more afterwards. Some Elders who we gave a ride to have a cow at their house. Yes that's right, a cow. Their landlord is raising a cow and his name is Big Mac. So I took some pictures with him and he's really sweet. 

Thursday we had to say goodbye to Elder Arce :( he left to go home to Texas so that he could start school. But he's such a great guy and we will miss him LOTS. 

Then on Friday we get an email from our mission President telling us we have a mandatory whole mission meeting the very next day. So everyone was freaking out and trying to guess what it was going to be about. I was pretty relaxed about it for the most part, I knew whatever it was it was going to be good and that it would be inspired. 

Friday nights our ward puts together an indoor soccer night. So we go to the church gym and play 4 on 4 or 5 on 5 soccer. It's crazy how good they are at soccer. Those darn latinos cross me up and make me look un-athletic. But it's a lot of fun and there's a lot of fun people there to talk to. And we get to practice our Spanish as well. 

Saturday morning we arrive nice and early. We were some of the first ones there and we take our seats right at the very front. The meeting finally starts after everyone trickles into the chapel, and we get right into it. All we were told beforehand was that it would be about hastening the work here in our mission. Well they had some really good things to say and then they finally told us what it was all about. We were told we would be starting a new schedule for our planning and studies. Previously we would plan at 8:30 in the morning. Now we will plan at night as soon as we get home, which should be at 9:00 p.m. We previously would start our personal study at 9:00 a.m. and it's been pushed forward to 8:00 a.m. and so forth with our companion study and language study. The new schedule will now give us more time for our missionary efforts throughout the day. I was pretty excited to hear about the new changes and to implement them in the upcoming days.  After the meeting we went to Cracker Barrel and ate lunch. It was really good. I ate a lot.

Sunday we had a really good time at church. Their were some fun speakers and we talked to some of our fun people there. Then that night we went to a baptism that some of the sisters in our zone had.  It went really well and a lot of people from their ward showed up to support. There were even some sisters from the Temple Square mission because they originally met and passed off the guy, Diego. So that was kinda crazy. It was cool chatting with them. 

Week 4
So I can’t remember which morning, but Elder Hanosek my companion and I went to the hospital. A couple weeks ago he got his finger kicked while we played soccer hahaha. Well it was pretty decently swollen and it hurt for a little while. So we went and got it x-rayed and it was broken. So they put him in a finger splint and he has to wear it for a whole month. He still plays Basketball pretty well with it on though, he's a true baller. 

Wednesday we had our Gospel Scholarship meeting with one of our Former Mission Presidents Counselors. His name is President Hill and I love him so much. He talked about our Missionary Purpose as found in Preach My Gospel. 

Thursday a couple of missionaries that we know here in the Spanish Zone left for their original assignments in Argentina. It was sad to see them go but we're really happy they got to go. 

Week 5
Kind of a long story but Elder Hanosek and I are trying to get a new word to catch on. The word is "wope". Yiu use it when something is good or cool, for example, "hey there Elder Hanosek, that new tie is lookin wope!" It's gonna be a big thing soon, I promise. 

We had some real fun stuff happen this last week. Last Monday we had new cameras put in our cars, they're like dash cameras and are to keep us safe. They keep track of our speed and stuff. We aren't exactly excited for it but we will survive. 

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the AP's Elder Gray and Elder Bramble. It was actually the 1 year anniversary of the day Elder Gray and I became companions last year. So that was fun. I was with Elder Gray for the day and we were in his area. We visited some cool people and walked around from house to house. One guy gave us chocolate, and another older couple got us brownies and hot chocolate, so sweet, the people and the treats. 

 

Wednesday we had a really powerful evening. One of our members called us up and said he wanted to go visit some people with us. He had someone in mind but it didn't work out. So he said okay let's go visit this other member we know. So we go over to his house and they are the two best member missionaries that we know. They start bouncing all these ideas off of each other, and now pretty much were gonna set up a weekly class where we will do a training with our members on how to naturally share the gospel with their friends, and how they could invite them to come to church, or to talk with us, the missionaries. We got really excited and now we have so much energy and motivation. 

Ok well I really don't have too much energy left to write haha sorry. So let me give you a quick run down of the last few days. We went on exchanges with some of our District Leaders, first we went with Elder Jorgensen and his Companion Elder Morse. I was with Elder Jorgensen and we had a good day. He's a really energetic and go get 'em type of guy. A real full sender. He's served as a Zone Leader before and has a lot of good experience. We met some cool people and ate some fire Carne Asada Fries at my new favorite restaurant Señor Pollo's (which translates to Mr Chickens). Then the next day we got permission for Elder Payne and Elder Hammer to sleep over for our exchanges since they live kinda far away. It was a lot of fun. I was with Elder Payne, who I’m just getting to know as we are both pretty new to the Spanish North Zone. He was originally assigned to serve in Madagascar, Malagasy speaking but got temporarily reassigned here and President decided to put him Spanish Speaking and he's killing it. We had a good day and had some really nice visits with some people. Then we got home a little after 9:00 and we saw Elder Hanosek giving Elder Hammer a haircut because apparently President Johnson told him he needed one hahaha. 

Ok so today for p-day we got to gather as a whole zone and play some fun games and stuff together. Elder Hanosek and I came up with the idea of making an Escape Room for everyone to do. We spent HOURS, like legitimately hours planning, preparing and setting up two identical escape rooms in this church building. And then we finally announced it, split them into teams and gave them the backstory and everything they needed. Well, they finished it in like 10-15 minutes and one of the teams didn't even do it in the right order. Oh well. It was really funny and elder Hanosek and I had a lot of fun setting it up. A lot of people thanked us for being creative and putting in that extra effort to help them enjoy this time. 

Well I love you all so much. I would love to leave you with some powerful scriptures I came across recently. I have read them many times but they hit me differently recently. 

In Moroni 10:32-33 it says:
32 "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.”
33 “And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." 

As I sat there and read it I was blown away by the power that those two verses held. I knew without a doubt that this was the word of God, that through Prophets I am able to study these things today. I know I'll never be perfect in this life, but with Christ, and through His power and the Grace of God I can be cleansed of all my imperfections. 

I love you all, stay wope

-Elder Golden