Week 6

Bitter sweet news, my trainer Elder Piñeres found out he gets to head back to Colombia on February 14th, or around then. Which is way cool and super exciting, but he said he wishes he could stay a little longer cause he loves this area. And we're both sad cause he's not gonna finish my training, but he's supposed to be there so it's super special.

Also we got a new car, the last one was the oldest in the mission so we had to turn it in but we got a brand new car.  It literally had 48 miles on it when we got it. So we are pretty excited about it hahaha.

Also we have some really cool people that we’re teaching and it's been a lot of fun. We laugh together and we feel the spirit together.  It's really been a lot of fun.

We sent off Elder Evan's to Chile and that was sad, but we’re excited to see him go back to his original assignment. Transfers are tomorrow and Elder Piñeres and I are gonna to be in a trio up until he leaves so we are gonna party nonstop. But like party spiritually hahaha.

And it snowed a ton, and it said it was 21 degrees out this morning and I really do not like the cold so please pray for me.

Love you all and I really gotta go so here's pictures of the old car, the new car covered in snow, and my new favorite hymn. Take care!!

-Elder Golden

WEEK 5 FEELIN ALIVE

So I am indeed doing good. We are better at saving money now, and we are still cold. Well some of us, mostly just me and my companion. We have once again been super busy and barely have time to breathe. Some of our investigators got covid so we've been teaching them through zoom instead of in-person like we usually did. So that was interesting, and it'll be like that for this next week too. We also are doing something called designated hitting. So the missionaries are not allowed to knock doors, so what we do is we go out with someone who is not a missionary and they knock the door for us, we stand behind them, and they say something like, "these are missionaries" (but better, and in Spanish) then my companion and I start talking to them after that and hopefully they want to be taught!!! Elder Piñeres knows a guy who served in his hometown while he was home between serving in Columbia and serving now, and he lives near us and so we called him and we were all like, "hey man wanna come knock doors for us" and he was all like, "yeah of course, but I don't speak Spanish so let me bring my other friend who served in Bolivia and speaks Spanish.”  And that is how the most powerful proselyting team on Earth was ever formed. So we went out a couple times this week and it actually worked really well. We go and knock doors of people who were referred to us or if we see something on their door or car that Latinos usually have one their door or car and yeah all that other definitely not stereotyping stuff. It's ok, Elder Piñeres is Latino. So the one guy who only speaks English wouldn't let the language barrier stop him; he would bare his testimony and have his friend translate it into Spanish which 1. worked really well and 2. was quite powerful. So we had a lot of fun doing that with them this week. OH YEAH ALSO to my dear three older sisters and my Mom, thank you for letting me live with you all these years. I never knew how much dirtier boys are; living with three other guys is kinda gross. So yeah I feel like I'm cleaning and organizing more than the other three (not to call them out or anything, and we are super busy anyways) mostly just to keep myself from going insane. Like it's not terrible, but maybe a little dirtier than what I'm used to.  Also, I attached some pictures down below that I hope you guys enjoy, maybe next time if you guys are lucky enough I'll put some pictures of myself for you to enjoy. One is a really cool house that we helped members move into. They said it was a hotel that was built back in the 1800's and I thought it looked way cool. Another is a cool Utah sunset with mountains in the back through a dirty car window. The other is snow in a parking lot.

Spiritual thought: Prayers are our way to communicate with our Heavenly Father. It is so special to be able to talk to him and just pour out your heart and everything you have been feeling or wanting. If you find yourself not praying very often, make a goal to pray, or try to pray more often this week, I promise it will be a great experience.

Funny thought: another little kid, again. So we were out knocking and went to this apartment complex, nice looking buildings, with a parking lot. This kid runs up to us, no shoes on, and he has one of those metal sticks with the pokey things on the end for roasting marshmallows. Well he kinda just followed us around but he seemed a bit grumpy >:( like that. Well I 100% thought he was gonna stab this guy we were with right in the hamstring but he didn't. But he even followed us up to this door we knocked on and nobody answered, so he followed us back to the parking lot when we left haha. And yeah it was just pretty funny in the moment. We also find ourselves laughing a lot sometimes for absolutely no reason, like during a lesson with this family over zoom, and they were confused and frankly we were too. But after wondering what we were laughing about for a second they just started laughing with us. And that did not help us to stop laughing any earlier. But yeah that was funny, good moment.

Well love you all I hope you are staying safe and healthy out there, so sorry if I didn't write you back it's been crazy hard to find time, but you are all in my prayers and thoughts, take care

-Elder Golden

OK Gang Week 4

So quick rundown. I don't have much time to write, so busy today.
My companion and I got pulled over this week. Yes that's right. It was so unbelievable like oh no way why, cause we were late to pick up some people and it was dark and like we were not quite speeding. So the officer walks up and he is very kind and asks what we were doing, "oh we were teaching.”
"teaching?"
“yeah, we are the missionaries.”
"Oh I see, well the reason I pulled you over tonight is because........ (drumroll please) you didn't turn your headlights on.”
We were dying laughing the whole way home.  Piñeres really got us pulled over and we were way late and we got a big scare because he just forgot to turn on the lights. Oh well it was a really good story and the officer was very kind to us silly teenagers who were poopin their pants. Ok so we also have been teaching a lot and we have met some super awesome people and are just having a blast. We went to Costco for lunch one time and that reminded me of the good old times going out to lunch with the boys in High School. We have potentially 9 people who could get baptized by the end of the transfer and we're doing everything we can to help them feel the spirit and stay on the right path. Also my Spanish is getting a lot better and I even gave a quick little talk in our sacrament meeting yesterday which was like only two and a half minutes but quite a few people told me I did a good job afterward. I also made a joke about how if we have faith, God can make weak things strong, and that one day my Spanish can be strong. I got a couple people to chuckle. But that statement is very true, Ether 12:27, look it up, and if you don't have a Book of Mormon (which you definitely should) either ask your local missionaries for a copy, or look up that verse on google and it'll take you to it.

Funny thought: well there have been so many, like getting pulled over, or that four grown boys/men had a sleepover in celebration of Elder Evans (one of the missionaries from the other Companionship we live with) getting to go back to Chile, which was just them dragging their mattresses into our room. But the real funny thought is back at the Samaniego's house, again... last time it was Dylan, but this time their middle child Edward (maybe Eduard idk they’re from Mexico) got up and went to the bathroom in the middle of our lesson with them and went pee while the door was open. It was down the hall so we could not see him but boy you could definitely hear it. My companion and I had to pretend to not hear it but we died laughing about it in the car.

Well signing off, love you all, and sorry if I cannot respond to you all it’s been very busy.

-Elder Golden

Subway gift cards sent with LOVE

 

WEEEEEEEK 3 (I think)

So I am indeed still alive. I know you were all so worried about me. It is still cold here, in fact it has gotten even colder since my last email. But alas I am tough and will not let a little cold get to me. So this week we have been busy, as usual, I know, big surprise. Humble brag but me and my companion are kind of killing it. I'm pretty sure we are on track to set world records for hardest workers. But that's not exactly measurable so maybe later on. However I wasn't kidding, we are literally always working, it's great. We have been teaching the same Venezuelan family, the Gonzalez's, whose one daughter got baptized. Well guess what, the mom and sister both accepted and the dad was a little more hesitant. So we went way hard on the last couple lessons and he accepted last night. Very exciting. Also that other family we are teaching named the Samaniego's are doing great and they still have the funniest kids. We have this family in our ward who have been getting pretty close to them so they feel welcome in the Church. They are really awesome. Also on New Years Eve we went to bed at 10:30 like usual but woke up at 11:58 to celebrate for maybe three minutes then went back to bed. So we went into the room of the other companionship who we live with to celebrate with us. Well they were really really tired and one of them sleep yelled at us. It was extremely funny so we went back to our rooms and could not stop laughing for the next twenty minutes. We still laugh about it to this day. My Spanish is still so so but it does get better each day. I'm still quite some ways from where I want to be but I believe I will get there through hard work and lots of practice, and my fair share of mistakes.

Spiritual thought: God created this Earth for us; we have so many opportunities to enjoy it so go do it. Have fun but be safe ya know.

Funny thought: We were teaching the Samaniego family, and their daughter who is only about 6 gave the prayer. Right after, their son Dylan who is maybe four years old said, "that was the worst thing I've ever heard" but he said it in English (side note, all the kids are fluent in English and Spanish). So we all started laughing cause idk it's a little kid who said that. His parents don't speak English, and so the Mom asked what he said, to which he responds (but in Spanish), "very good" with a big smile and the ok sign with both his hands. Very very funny.

Well everyone take care and happy 2021, lots of love
-Elder Golden