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

Transfer 6 Week 2

¡Hola a todos mis queridos amigos! I hope you are all doing very well, and I know you all must miss me sooo much. So let me fill you in a little on what has been going on.

This last week we invited our friend Yahritza to be baptized and she said yes with the help and guidance of the spirit. It was very exciting, and now we are working to get everything else done that she needs before baptism. We have seen a really good amount of progress with her and know that there are still many things we can do to help her feel even more happiness in her life.

We also taught another friend, and her younger brother who was also very interested in hearing our message. It was very fun teaching them and just listening to their thoughts; very good people. At the end of the lesson we asked her to give us a closing prayer and she said in the prayer, "gracias por mis amigos Mormones que vinieron hoy" which basically means thank you for our Mormon friends that came by today. Which made me laugh a little bit because it was unexpected and it was very sweet that she thinks of us as friends :)) We of course see everyone as our friends, but when someone says that YOU are THEIR friend, wow, another level.

Also very humbling this week getting to see all of the really awesome hard work that went on in our zone. All together we found 84 news between 16 companionships. No, my companion and I did not contribute massively to this number but we did find a little bit. It’s inspiring to see how the work of the Lord will move forward no matter what. I'm grateful to be a part of just that little bit that I offer. Oh yeah, also our zone leaders have been setting a really good example for the rest of the zone. They get out and put all of their efforts forth. They have taught maybe on average 5-6 lessons a day, and in these last two weeks of the transfer they found 36 people. 36 new people in two weeks is absolutely crazy in our Mission! Finding 1 to 2 a week is good (a nice respectable number). 4 to 5 is great, anything above 7 is awesome, and so 36 in two weeks is absolutely incredible. It's a blessing to witness these things while serving the Lord.

In other news we played zone sports, meaning we got with our whole zone and partook in some fun games. There may have been a dislocated knee cap and some paramedics and a trip to the hospital though. Ok there definitely was. Not to me, another elder (I'm far too nimble and athletic to ever get injured). So don’t be surprised if zone sports get cancelled forever.

Spiritual thought: We have been teaching a lot about Repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is when Christ suffered and died for us and our sins and pains and afflictions so that we can be forgiven. We can only be forgiven if we repent though. Now repentance may sound scary, but there is no greater gift than the opportunity to cleanse ourselves of past transgressions, so really repentance is a really happy thing that we should be grateful for. I urge you all to partake in this gift as well. It will change your life. If you would like to learn more about how to repent let me know and I'll send some of my missionary friends your way to answer any questions you might have.

Ok I love you all, and miss you, please pray for me and my companion, and that one Elder who dislocated his knee, poor guy didn't get to stay for all of zone sports. I can not imagine any pain worse than missing out on zone sports. Talk to you all next week !!

-Elder Golden 

Pictures: 1. Really flat cookie the sister missionaries made; I mistook it for a piece of paper at first.

               2. Totally rad bloody nose I got; Thanks Utah for being so dry!
 

Elder Underwood and I showing off our really clean apartment

Transfer 6 Week 1

HI EVERYBODY! 

Not a ton to report this week, but a few things that I hope you will all want to hear. We have been meeting with our friend Yahritza often and she has been very intensive and asks very sincere questions. She's very busy and works really hard and yet she makes time to hear from us with her full schedule. We hope that she makes time to read from the Book of Mormon as well. So far she hasn't been able to.

We also had a big meeting with all of the leadership in the mission, we talked about how we can help the missionaries, all of us, focus on moving the work forward in the future. We talked about using cars in the mission, limiting miles on them, trying to get missionaries out walking or biking on the street so that people can see us and reach out to us, which is great because here in Utah it's an oven right now hahaha. It's seriously 100 degrees or more 6 days a week. And then it'll be about 20 degrees here by October or November. But I do agree, there have been missionaries who have more success because they're out on the street talking to people more often.  

Also our roommates moved out and so now it's just my companion and I, and we have a ton of room in the fridge because they had so much food all the time. And like didn't even eat all of it, so now we have so much room, and even some empty space in it which is nice. AND we pushed together the two bunk beds and so now I sleep up on top and have a bed that's twice as big now (very exciting). And we each get our own closet, so it's been good so far; just a little quieter.                                                                       

I would like to end this email by saying that I love the Gospel and I love the opportunity that I have to help others come unto Christ and know him better. We had the opportunity to help someone to change their life and repent, and repentance is a great thing, we all need to repent everyday because we are very imperfect, and thanks to the Atonement of Christ we have the chance to do that everyday.

Funny Moment: my mom's car battery died while she was talking to me on the phone, please someone make sure she gets home ok, hahahaha!


Well love you all and I'll talk to you later, nos vemos, chao chao

-Elder Golden 

A really beautiful Christ centered room in a members house

My motivation as a missionary

Transfer 5 Week 6

Ok wow we had a busy week and a busy day. It really helps the time pass by when you're busy. So one of my goals is to constantly be working throughout this next transfer, and the next 16 months as well haha.

This week we started teaching a new friend from Mexico, her name is Yahritza and she asks the best questions and is so sincere about her desire to learn more. She hasn't had it easy in the past but she is a woman of great faith and has seen blessings in her life despite the difficulties she's endured. It was really a blessing to be able to teach her and we have another lesson with her tomorrow.

Also we went on a hike for P-DAY today; it was a lot of fun! Someone said that it was 6 miles round trip. I didn't really notice until afterwards how tired my legs got though. Geezer I used to be in such good shape:( haha I'm not doing to bad in reality, but anyways this hike was very beautiful and we enjoyed the views from the top.

Recently something didn't really go my way, at first I was kind of bitter about it. Wow, so self centered of me right? But over time I'm starting to realize that everything happens for a reason and that God has a plan and knows what we need more than we do. It's funny too because the night before it happened we shared a video called "the will of God" with some members, and it talked about how God would sometimes cut us down so that we could grow to become something even better in the end. I also listened to a talk by Elder David A. Bednar called "The Character of Christ" from an MTC devotional (it's about an hour long, but if any of you would like to listen to it, let me know and I'll send it to you next p-day). In this talk Elder Bednar spoke on how Christ turned outwards toward other people and never turned inward even during the hardest parts of his ministry. I am learning a lot of things out here on my mission and I hope I can learn to do that too. As you can see though I still have a ways to go Haha

Spiritual thought: in this talk Elder Bednar also talked about the difference between having a Testimony and being converted into the Lord. He said a testimony is what you know to be truth by the witness of the Holy Ghost. But a testimony is not enough, we need to be truly converted, and conversion is consistently being true to what you know. Conversion is not just having a testimony, but being willing to act upon the things you know. Go out and become converted, serve others as Christ did and love God with all your heart, might, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Don't just know these things, go out and live them.

Well everyone I love you all and I miss you a lot. Things are well here so don’t worry about me; I even got an ICEE for 98 cents. 

One thing, if you could pray for William, he is a wonderful brother we know who's going through a hard time but he has the best attitude about it. I was blown away when we found out how well he was dealing with his challenges. He could use prayers though, thank you all and see you next week :)

-Elder Golden 

Transfer 5 Weeks 4 and 5

Week 4
Ever since I came out on my mission I knew that President and Sister Call were going to one day leave, never once did I really feel sad about it. I was always excited that I would have two mission Presidents during the duration of my mission. BUT WOW WAS I SO SAD THIS WEEK. On Friday we had the whole mission gathered for President Calls last zone conference. We all learned a really good deal about how to become better missionaries. Then we took a break and had lunch. Then at the end President Call said goodbye and it was very moving. He choked up and it made me emotional, and then we sang a closing song, we sang "God be with you till we meet again" also sad.

While it was sad I know it had to happen, and now we get to welcome in President and Sister Johnson, I even met them by accident at the Mission office this morning while picking up dish soap. They had meetings all morning but took their time to come out and greet 4 goofy elders with warm smiles and hugs from President Johnson. I know and I have a testimony that the Church is led by revelation and that President and Sister Johnson are meant to be here at this time. We are so blessed to have been able to learn from the loving and Christlike example of President Call and now to have President Johnson here with us.

Week 5
We had our interviews with President Johnson this week and I really enjoyed the time I got to spend getting to know President and Sister Johnson. One of the first things he asked me was if I would get my district to get up on p-day and clean their apartments. It was not what I expected but I said of course. It made a lot of sense how he explained it though. It'll be clean throughout the week and it'll help us to not worry about it and just focus totally on teaching. He also said that it'll help us to build good habits and be very organized with our time and such.

Also we have been getting to know a lot of the members in our ward, and they have been making us dinners during the week. The food is sooo good by the way and also, Latinos have the best sense of humor! I love joking around with them and when they make fun of me, that’s funny too. 

We have been staying busy and trying to find more people, we only found one new person this last week but I know that there are more out there who are prepared to hear our message. So please pray for us that we can find them and that they will be open to our message.

Ok well I gotta go but I love and miss you all.
Check out this cool scripture this week Jeremiah 4:18-20

-Elder Golden

Getting donuts from Krispy Creme

Patriotic Donuts

 

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