Transfer 5 Weeks 2 and 3

Very sadly, my email was not functioning properly last week so I will recap last weeks and this weeks events, so buckle up cause it has been very eventful.

Week 2

For P-day we had a really big water ballon fight which was really nice because it has been soooo hot here. Remember like a few months ago when I first got here and said I was afraid of dying from the cold? Well now I am afraid of the opposite. It has been high 90's and low 100's by the afternoon every day this week. Well I do like warm weather a little bit more than the cold so I can handle it, but gosh dang is it caliente. But yeah my companion and I bought and filled up 200 water balloons. It was a grand time.

The absolute highlight of this week was getting to meet and listen to President Dallin H. Oaks, one of the leaders of our church, in person. It was truly incredible.

Some of my biggest take aways and thoughts and feelings from this meeting are these:                              He told us that our purpose was to invite other people to come unto Jesus Christ. A lot of missionaries have the idea that we try and get people to be baptized in our church, which is important and has its place, but first and foremost we invite people to come unto Christ.

He also spoke about the Doctrine of Christ. He said that one of the reasons that the Book of Mormon is so special is because it contains the Savior’s own account of his Doctrine in 3 Nephi Chapter 11 (I invite, no... I Implore you all to read it). The first principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Repentance, and I know that Repentance is one of the most important things we can do in this life; it helps us to become more like Christ. I also know that Repentance is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ which is the greatest gift we have ever been given.

And that was pretty much the most important thing that happened last week...

Our mission with President Oaks

Elder Smith picking cherries

Week 3
So this week has been very fun. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and it was a BLAST. Exchanges are pretty much where you just spend the day with some other missionaries and you get to work with them, learn from them, and overall just have fun together. I was with Elder Smith up in Layton and we taught some really good lessons together and had some laughs with the people we taught. We also drove around his roommates a few times and they are some of the funniest Elders I have ever met.

We met and taught this lady named Katherine from Venezuela and she was so nice. She said she wants to bring her whole family to church this Sunday so we really hope it works out. She is a very humble and happy person, and she said she's a woman of great faith. She also complimented our Spanish which felt really really good haha.

 

Spiritual thought: I came across this Scripture while studying and I would love to share it with you. It is in Acts chapter 2
"37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Funny thought: the members in our ward found out that we are now allowed to accept food, and oh boy do they want to feed us hahaha. They are the sweetest and I love them so much. We have truly been spoiled by them, but we always try to share messages with them and bring the spirit into their homes.

Well that is about all that I have for this week, but I hope you all take care and stay safe, I love you all and please keep me in your prayers

-Elder Golden

I tried to make homemade tortilla chips

Transfer 5 Week 1

Ooooohhhhh boy everyone buckle up cause this is the moment you've all been waiting for this whole last week, to hear from me. Well sorry because this will be short and not super exciting.

Last week I got a new companion, his name is Elder Underwood and he is from San Antonio, Texas and he is ready to work hard. I could not be more excited. We are going to get along just fine.

Something really neat real quick before I go; it feels like I've been praying a lot so that we could find more people to teach. I guess you could say that we've been having a bit of a drought. If you didn't know, Utah is also going through a bit of a drought right now. The other day it rained pretty good, and there were three rainbows above us in the sky. In the old testament God sent a rainbow as a sign to Noah that he would never flood the earth again. But to me it felt as though God were saying he was about to flood us with blessings and that's exactly what happened. This week we have been blessed with amazing referrals from people in our ward about their friends who would like to hear about the gospel from the missionaries. As it rained in Utah it felt that our drought was too ending and there would be work for us to do and people to teach and I couldn't be more grateful.

That's really all that I have but I love all of you, have a great week y vaya con Dios

-Elder Golden

Several different translations of the Book of Mormon