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

Transfer 3 Week 3

Well time has really been flying this transfer and we have been just so busy. We love having a car because our area is extremely massive. So yeah that's been pretty nice. My Spanish has been improving leaps and bounds from where I began but it’s still not perfect. I think I could probably have about an hour long conversation before becoming too mentally exhausted to keep talking in Spanish. I have made a couple of really long 30 minute phone calls to members in the ward where we do just chat and share a message which really shows me that my Spanish is better than I think it is and I should have more confidence in myself. But still, very scary you know hahah.

Well one of my buddies from my first area got baptized this week. I'm not in that area anymore but luckily I was able to go and see his baptism and congratulate him. We even got some pictures with him and Elder Gray and Elder Saunders since they are his current missionaries. 

They had me direct the music for the baptism and it was definitely not my best work. Directing and singing in Spanish and it was A cappella cause we didn’t have a piano player. It was fine though, just dandy.

Also, today we went to a restaurant called Sills and had these awesome breakfasts; they were so good. I may need to start a diet soon and try to shed some weight, keep my suits fitting for a little while longer. We actually did buy a 10 pound bag of chicken breasts and we've been cooking chicken breast and rice to stay healthier. We also made some really, really good breakfast burritos the other day and oooh they were good. 

A little more about food, well there's this place called FIIZ that missionaries love! They sell special sodas, and us missionaries get any size drink for only $1. Well, another missionary told us about this drink called the Mermaid and it comes with gummy sharks on the lid so I'll show you a picture of that too. It was very, very exciting to eat those. Probably one of the highlights of the week.

Something that we've taken to recently is when we are out and about and then we have a phone or zoom lesson, we'll go park in the Ace Hardware parking lot to teach which I think is so funny. So we hang out there sometimes and teach.

Spiritual thought: we have the chance to listen to a living Prophet of God, Russell M. Nelson this Saturday and Sunday during General Conference. In my life General Conference brings peace, hope and comfort. So if you have a little time this weekend, tune in on BYU TV or lds.org. I highly recommend it.

Funny thought: Elder Locke tackled Elder Gray, a Division one track runner, during our football game today. We were dying laughing about it, especially since he had already scored the touchdown.

Well love you all, but Jesus loves you best,
-Elder Golden

My Mermaid FIIZ Soda

Teaching in the Ace Hardware parking lot, haha!

Transfer 3 Week 2

Hey Guys :) I miss you all soooooo much. This week has been so good; we've been having a lot of fun and success. Elder Blackwell and I had our first Baptism together, and it was really good. When we were teaching him, his friend who baptized him would joke about holding him under the water for super long. They're extremely funny; every time we go over there we spend a lot of the time laughing.

We also just found out that we can accept food from members now, but still can’t eat in their houses which is sad but we can get food so I mean it's still good haha. We already got some Chilean bread and dang that was some really good stuff, keep it coming people ya know?

We still teach English class and have so many funny moments during those. The last lesson we helped teach about what foods we like and practiced conversations about it, "no I do not want fish, I don't like the taste" all that cool stuff.

We had Zone conference too which was really good. That's when all the people from the zone get together and do some training and hear from our mission President, President Call and his wife. We learned a lot of cool stuff and had a good time, I even got to be in a role play in front of everyone and I was named Stephen during it. They even gave us subway sandwiches afterwards.

We also went to this place called Tucanos with the Zone leaders for Elder Gray’s birthday which has all you can eat meat, so we ate all the meat that we could. Ten of us eating heaps and heaps of meat. Oh yeah and a salad and entrees bar sort of thing. I even tried chicken heart, little weird feeling, but it wasn't too bad taste wise. We literally ate for an hour and 45 minutes straight without stopping. Afterwords we all felt like we were gonna die a little bit. It started off as a competition but at the very end you could tell we were all suffering a bit. But we’re all doing good now so don't be worried one bit.

We have had a little bit of trouble with finding new people once again this week, so we have some new strategies to try out. Please pray for us hahah. We could definitely use some help out here.

Funny thought: BIG NEWS, we went to Cabela’s today for pretty much no reason, and we bought Turkey Calls. Like for hunting. We’re just using them for fun but it still makes me laugh.

Spiritual thought: this week during Zone Conference President call mentioned that we’re not always sure why something may be happening to us at a moment in time, and that we never know what we are being prepared for in the future. So think about that. These times may be tough but we might be very thankful in the future for how hard things have helped us become stronger.

Well I really love you all, and you are in my prayers. Stay strong and stay swag.

Sincerely,
-Elder Golden

Baptism

Tucanos Brazilian Grill

Chicken Heart

       

Yum!

Transfer 3 Week 1

Ok so as you guys know, transfers happened and I had to pack up everything I owned and move to "the hobbit hole" which is just a tiny basement apartment that I actually really like. In some places I can do a calf raise and my hair touches the ceiling... but it's cool you know. Also my new companion Elder Blackwell is so cool, he's from Mississippi. He's got an awesome southern accent, and he makes me laugh soooooo hard.

It was a little bit sad leaving my last area because the people and members there were just so much fun and so amazing. But now I'm in this new area and it's so fun as well. We even help teach an English class twice a week over zoom to all the funniest Latinos. Seeing how they speak English makes me realize how I must sound in Spanish so I wanna work hard to get better at Spanish hahah.

Also, HUGE NEWS, we got a car. We have a massive area to cover and we didn’t have a car but they gave us one and now we’re so happy, and Elder Blackwell drives and does a really good job of it too. Let's just say one of my past companions was a little bit of an aggressive driver. But that's over now. So yes we have a car and we named her Charlene, and I even bought her a camouflaged exhaust tip from Ross, the store. I'll put a picture of that in here.

So other than meeting the members and people we're teaching and giving some really good messages, I've just been vibing. Oh yeah we also have some new guys in our district. We got Elder Hanosek who was in another district.  He was my MTC companion and so we get to hang out in person sometimes. We also have two new guys who are a lot of fun; Elder Saunders from Alaska and Elder Robert's from Texas.

Well we actually have a pretty exciting night planned and I hope it goes well. We want to put one of our friends on date to be baptized this Saturday and hopefully he accepts. He's from Chile and is so funny. We like joking around with him and teaching him too.

Well I know this was a little shorter, but this week has really been good, and I hope next week will be even better.

Spiritual thought: I really like James chapter 2 when it talks about faith and works together. We need more than just faith, we need to do good also, and live like we have been commanded, loving our God and loving our neighbors.

Funny thought: Elder Blackwell does this thing where when we’re on the phone with Elder Gray our district leader and my last companion, he says, "oh yeah one more thing" and then he hangs up. He makes Elder Gray and I laugh all the time.
I am so blessed to have such a fun district overall where we can work hard, have fun, and speak a tiny bit of Spanish.

 I love you guys and I'm praying for you all.
-Elder Golden

Elder Blackwell, Charlene, and I

Charlene wearing the camo exhaust tip from Ross (forgot to take off the label, oops)

Elders Gray, Blackwell and I wearing our new Lululemon pants outside the store

Our super nice oven mitt at the new apartment!