Transfer 6 Weeks 3 and 4

Sorry everyone I couldn't send out an email last week. It was because my email was mad at me :( but now I'm here. So let me give you a recap of what I have been up to these last 14 days.

Week 3
We got to go and see a movie with the mission called witnesses. It's about the 3 witnesses of the Gold Plates used to translate the Book of Mormon and shows the things they went through. Eventually all three of them had completely separated themselves from the church but never denied the things that they saw and knew to be true. Two of them eventually returned, but overall it was a really cool story. 

We also went and walked around the Temple grounds with our friend that we are teaching, Yahritza and her 5 year old son Christopher. (Probably spelled Christofer cause they don't use ph in spanish). It was really cool. Some members from our ward picked them up and we met there. 

Christopher and I ended up looking at and talking about the flowers and other botanical decorations around the temple. He kept wanting to pick a ton of them, but we decided to only take real small ones or ones that had fallen onto the ground. He asked if he picked a big flower if it would make God angry, and it was so funny to me. Then he looks up to the sky and calls out to God and asks if he would allow him to pick a flower. That was hilarious. He's a little ball of energy and speaks super fast and only in Spanish. I told him I was learning Spanish and that English was my first language, and he just responded,"really? Why? When can I learn English?" We also talked about Dinosaurs, and I told him they were scary, and he explained to me that I didn't need to be scared because they were all dead, wow what a relief. I'm glad he was able to comfort me in my time of great fear hahaha. 

Week 4
This week we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders Elder Gray and Elder Blackwell. I looked around, saw them two, saw Elder Underwood, and thought “wow, I've been companions with all three of them at some point in my mission.” All super great and fun guys who love the Gospel and love sharing it with others and seeing the blessings that it brings to others. 

On exchanges I went with Elder Gray and we went on a walk for an hour in 100 degree heat. It was hot. We talked to a couple of people along the way and 3 of the 4 times we talked to people it was in Spanish which was cool. Just any people we bumped into along the way we would say hi to and start a conversation. One guy was named Clemente and was grilling up some mean  hamburguesas, and right at the end of our conversation we found out it was his birthday and his boss gave him the day off work haha and he still didn't mind taking some time to chat with us and told us about his faith and talking about the Gospel. 

We also played volleyball with the Zone Leaders ward, and my team got wrecked. Not my fault though cause they wouldn't pass me the ball. Even when I kindly yelled at them to pass me the ball. I'm kidding I didn't tell them that but we still had a lot of fun.

So some people kind of act or just are different when they switch between English and Spanish. So one of my goals while learning and speaking Spanish was to make sure my Spanish and my English personalities were the same. Because you know I want to be myself and make jokes with the Latinos, cause if you all didn't know, latinos love to joke around. They have awesome humor. Well anyways, Elder Gray told me that I seemed pretty similar in Spanish and English so I'll take that as a win. On another note if there're any Spanish speakers reading this email and can give me some tips with the Subjunctive form, I'm all ears. I understand past subjunctive, but regular subjunctive has been messing with mi cerebro (my brain). Thank you muchly.

I don't have much else to say, but know this everyone, the Lord loves you all and he's there for you in your hardest struggles and in your times without trouble as well.

Love you all and see you next week!

-Elder Golden

District Council

A driveway with a cool giant rooster statue