Transfer 4 Week 1

Ooooooookkkkkkkkkk everybody. I know you've all been dying to hear from me. So I want to update you on the Life of Luke, or Elder Golden. So last week Elder Blackwell and I thought we were sitting pretty. We got to stay together as a companionship, we were keeping the car, and we didn’t have to pack all of our stuff and move apartments.

Well Tuesday morning we woke up and got this phone call, guess what? They realized we live really far away from our new district and decided we should move all the way up to Kayesville. That's a pretty big move! So we spent the next few hours packing everything we owned for the next apartment. So every white shirt, tie, q-tip and book was stuffed into our suitcases, and what didn’t fit was tossed into an old cardboard box and into our car. We actually couldn't fit it all in one trip, so we took two trips.

Now we have roommates which is super fun. We live with some english elders and we have bunk beds, and we all sleep in the same room, so it's like a sleepover/party every night. I have top bunk of course, cause that's where the life of the party sleeps, logically. So that's a quick update on how we live and stuff. Oh and the landlord has a really cute pregnant dog that loves to come hang out with us sometimes, and I'm so down for that. I’m excited to meet her puppies soon.

Penny

We have a friend that we’re teaching who we just put on date for Baptism this last week. And just a quick reminder for all y'all, we teach every lesson completely in Spanish, so it’s kind of a miracle that he even meets with us two gringos who speak broken Spanish much less accept our invitation to be baptized. Actually I'm being a little facetious; our Spanish is quite understandable and I'm very proud of our ability to communicate with other people in a whole different language that I couldn't speak a year ago. So we do an alright job. But it is so amazing to me that even though we didn’t speak this language before that we are able to go and teach people about the gospel and they're willing to listen to us. I'll post a video of me speaking Spanish on my Facebook someday so y'all can check out my FUEGO Spanish there. Hit me up with that friend request. But yes things are moving along, the days, my Spanish, and most importantly, the work of God.

Also this last Saturday night, I get a call from a leader in our ward and they're like "hola este es el Elder Golden si? Ah bien, podria compartir un mensaje en la capilla mañana?" So I was all like, "claro que si hermano, seria un placer, pero que es la tema? Y para cuantos minutos?" "Ah solo para cinco minutos y sobre confianza en el señor" so yeah that was craaaazy. Haha so pretty much they asked me to share a message at church the next day about trusting in the Lord and for 5ish minutes. Sooo I did that real quick and it went pretty well I think. People thanked me afterwards for my message haha, I felt so special.

Funny moment: I had to lead my first District Counsel this week as a District Leader. I prepared it all and was ready to go, just a little nervous, and I show up and the Zone Leaders are in our district so they were there, and Assistants to the President were there. So I was like oh great so fun they get to watch me mess up my first District Counsel hahaha. I actually thought I did an alright job. But halfway through the meeting, President and Sister Call walked through the doors and just joined us for the last half so that was pretty funny to me. I just couldn't believe it was my first time and that they were all there.

Also another funny thought; the other day we were sitting at a stop light and Elder Blackwell said, "I haven't seen a frog this whole time I've been on my mission" just out of nowhere and I started dying laughing cause it was so random. Then I started thinking, and I haven't seen one either, pretty crazy.

Spiritual thought: Families can be together forever. Wanna learn how? Contact your local missionaries.

As always I love you all and hope you're not missing me too much, your favorite missionary

-Elder Golden

Elder Hanosek and I burning our ties

My last District ~ RIP

Transfer 3 Week 6

If you guys did not know, I am about to officially hit 6 months as a missionary. One and a half months in the home MTC, and now four and a half months in the field, so 6 months. Crazy! So I'm gonna do this tradition, when an Elder hits 6 months they burn a tie, so I'm gonna do that tonight. Woohoo.

And as this transfer comes to a close we have lots of big news. We just got the news for who gets transferred where and all that. Elder Blackwell and I are going to a new district, but we’re still over the same area we've been in if that makes sense haha. I also got a phone call from the Assistants to the President (two elders who are pretty much the highest up leaders besides our mission president) saying that I have been called as a District Leader and asked if I would accept this assignment. I told them that I was nervous but that yes I would accept the assignment. So that's big news, I'm a district leader over a district that I've never been to, but I get to keep my companion and the ward I'm over. A little scary and a little comforting. I guess Heavenly Father knows what I need; some growth and discomfort, and some comfort in other areas.

So we have also been teaching a lot of members recently and its been great getting to know the people in our ward better. We even did 4 service projects this week for ward members and it feels so great to help other people out. They're all so loving and just really, really great people. I love hearing their stories and just talking to them (well at least trying to in my broken Spanish). But it's been really great to connect with them all.

Well that's all I really have time for this week but I just want y'all to know I love you and I'm praying for you. Take care now.

-Elder Golden

Me at a cool sunset; even though it's blurry it's beautiful

Elder Hanosek cutting my hair

Transfer 3 Week 5

So some really big news, pretty sad. Remember that really cool camo exhaust tip that we put on our car? Yeah, it fell off on the highway today... it was pretty tragic. I spent a whole 7 dollars on it at Ross, installed it myself, and to see it fall off, just so sad. Well I didn’t actually see it but we heard like a banging and rattling at the same time and Elder Hanosek who was in the back seat saw it fly off and yeah. If I had to do it all over again I probably would, but I would ask to borrow some tools next time instead of just hand tightening it. That may very well be the reason that it fell off, cause it was only hand tight hahah.

Well other than that, we're actually doing so good. We did some cool service today. We pulled these three big stumps out of the ground. We cleared some of the ground around the stump then wrapped a chain around it and yanked it out with just my bare hands. I'm just kidding we actually just pulled it out with a truck.  I think they were afraid I'd snap the chain if they let me do it.

We also found a new guy to teach this week. His names Jorge and we met him through a guy who's friends with him and he told us Jorge was interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon. So we went over and he was so awesome, he was nice and really interested in learning and just a great guy. So we read the introduction, left him with a message, and invited him to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and pray about it and ask God if it's true and find out for himself. He said that he thought that it was cool, other churches always say that they're true, but we encouraged him to go and pray about it and find his answer from God.

Well I have to go but only one week left until transfers, I love you all and I'm praying for you guys, take care and if you want to send me a new camo exhaust tip in the mail, send me a quick email so we can work out the details.

-Elder Golden
 

A Pizza Restaurant we rated as 5/5 Stars

Me and my new favorite speed limit sign

The district and AP's (leaders)

Transfer 3 Week 4

Well hey there everyone, crazy seeing you here. I hope that you all had an awesome Easter and that you got to think about what the meaning of it is. For us out here in the mission, well we had a good time as well,  just probably a little less hunting for eggs and a little more taking notes at General Conference.

If you don’t know what General Conference is it's when the leaders of our church give talks and messages and we all get to watch and listen from all across the world. Well my district, we all got together and went to a church building, pulled all the couches and big comfy chairs we could find into a classroom, with a big pile of snacks and watched it on a cell phone and I took a huge like 8 pages worth of notes. It was a really, really good time. One of my favorite talks was by our Prophet President Nelson and he spoke a lot about faith. But I really loved one line, he said, "the atonement of Jesus Christ has changed all of our lives forever" which I thought was so true. Because of Christ, we will always be able to repent and change for the better.

Also today, p-day, our mission President, President Call, rented out a movie theater for us and we got to go see "The Lamb of God" which was like a big musical performance and show thing with instruments and singing that told the story of Christ's last week before he was crucified, and then after the resurrection. It was very cool; the music was amazing and we all really enjoyed it.

Funny thought: my companion Elder Blackwell and I snuck 16 inch Jimmy John's sandwiches into the movie theater (I made sure to wear my trench coat to sneak them as efficiently as possible) and we tried to really sneakily eat these massive sandwiches. Also if you have never been to a sandwich place, they wrap them in multiple pieces of really big, really loud pieces of paper. So once we were done with these sandwiches we didn’t know what to do with the paper. So we had to wait for the moments where the music got really loud and tried to crumple it up super fast. I wasn't fast enough, the music stopped and I waited with a half crumpled sandwich paper until the next time the music got really loud, then I finished and put it away.

Spiritual thought: Easter, because of Christ and his resurrection we know that death is not the end of our journeys. We also know that before Christ's death he paid and suffered for our sins. We are able to repent of our sins through the power of Christ’s Atonement and become clean.

Well everyone I love you all and Jesus loves you more. Take care and stay swag

-Elder Golden
 

Elder Locke, Hanosek, Blackwell I with lots and lots of soda drinks. (Sorry mom)

Elder Gray cleaning our party room with the Ghostbuster vacuum we found