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