Doctor's visits (8/14/2013)

Sorry for the short letter today, but I have a couple of Doctor's appointments.  

My knee has been hurting a lot lately.  Anytime I kneel or bend down or walk or some times even just sitting  it hurts. I was going to just leave it alone, but Sister Cooke made me promise to get it checked out. 

I went to the regular Dr. and she gave me exercises to do and said if it didn't help then she would send me to a orthopedic Dr. to look at it. They didn't help so she referred me to one. They want me to do physical therapy.  Hopefully that will help. 

By the way I am now losing weight.  I was at 205 or 206. Now I'm like 197. I lost 10 lbs and I'm still losing! love you!

 

I will write more later if I can...

Love Elder Gold

P.S. It would also be easier for me, if instead of emailing me a ton of pictures, you email a few, then print out the rest and send them through the mail.  It takes up a lot of time trying to look at them all on the computer (waiting for them to load), then I don't have enough time to email you guys :) Thanks!

Zone Leader Splits (8/7/2013)

Hello Everyone!

So this week we had a lot of exchanges.  I had one on Thursday with one of the ZLs named Elder Radford.  He is a super nice guy.  We talked to about 20 people on the street, visited3 less actives, 4 investigators and like 6 potentials.  It was a super busy day and we got a ton of work done!  He told me that I was a great missionary and a great teacher!  It made me feel really good.  He said the only thing that I need to work on was wen I first talk to people, I need to start up a conversation with them to get them to be comfortable with me.  Then I can start GQing them (asking Golden Questions).

That is something I still have to work on.  I think of conversation type questions before I meet someone, but when I start talking to them, my mind blanks and I "vomit" the gospel at them.  So I am going to keep working on that.  :)

Today, Elder Snow and I were together all day.  He is a really good guy, with a very kind heart.  He is really into anime and video games, but we found some common ground and worked well together.

Sounds like you had an awesome time at Granny's house for her birthday.  I bet it was awesome having the family there.  I miss all of them and seeing everyone.

Satan has been working really hard on me lately.  I have had a lot of tough things to deal with.  I decided to talk with President Cooke about it when we had our next interview.  He gave me some much needed advice and then gave me a blessing.  I really needed that blessing.  It has helped me a lot.

Well, time to get back to work.  I love you all...

Elder Gold. 

Bugs! (7/31/2013)

Hey everyone! 

So this past week wasn't the best week ever :(  Nothing major, just not a lot went on. 

I also had a really bad run in with bugs yesterday.  First off we had district meeting yesterday.  It was really good because we had a workshop on how to be better disciples of Christ. So after that we went to lunch at an Italian buffet. Elder Giles had chosen the place because one of their investigators had taken he and his companion there and he liked it a lot. The food was pretty good. I had pasta, bread, pizza, meatballs, and a moth....What a moth?!  Yes a moth! I had just finished the last meatball and in the marinara was a dead moth! I was seriously about to puke!! So I told the lady that they might want to change out the meatballs because I found a moth on my plate. She said "Oh my gosh." and went over and took the meatballs out of the buffet and that's all I heard about that. 

Then later that day, We were over at one of our less active's houses to do service work.  Elder Anderson started painting and I started mowing her lawn. Well I started going around the edge of the yard and mowed by this wood barrier.  I accidentally hit it a couple of times with the mower.  Mosquitoes were swarming and I was getting eaten alive! So I just ignored them and kept going. Well a little later it felt like one of the mosquitoes bit really hard, so I looked down at my calf and it was a wasp! But by the time I looked down he stung me again! I went to swat it away and then I was stung on my middle finger!  Finally I was able to swat him away, but not without him getting me one more time on my leg again!! So now I ran! I got stung a total of 4 times.  Needless to say the stings are super itchy/painful now. 

I love the care package!  The Air Hogs (huge styrofoam gliders), Cheetos, War Heads and Sour Patch gummies were all awesome!  And I really appreciated the flossers. We played with the air hogs and got two good flights out of them, but on the second flight, one of them landed on the balcony of another (same complex) apartment building. We tried to get it, but when we tried to go up to the floor of the balcony that it landed on, that floor was still under construction and we couldn't get it.   

Well I'm sorry it's not a lot this week but I love you all!

Elder Gold

Planting Seeds...(7/24/2013)

Hey everyone!!! 

It sounds like you had such an amazing trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons!!  I loved the pictures of the hot springs! The colors were beautiful.  I showed my companion (because he's from Wyoming) and he says, "It makes me feel trunky." I wasn't able to see all of the pictures that you guys sent because the computer I'm on wouldn't let me look at them!  But I loved the ones that I did see. I want to go there so bad!   You had better take me there when I get home! 

You bought fireworks in Wyoming on your way home?!  You guys are hypocrites!!  I was going to drive to Wyoming to get fireworks and you talked me out of it and told me I was going to get busted by the cops and crap!  But it's ok.  Being a missionary of the Lord, I'll forgive you.  Ha! :P t

So transfers were today! I stayed in the Capitol West area which covers Oxon Hill, Fort Washington, Suitland, Camp Springs and other areas around there. Anderson and I are still together, but we have a new roommate. Elder Tavana left and Elder Snow is now companions with Elder Giles. 

So this past week was really good! We got 4 new potentials, but then we had a really bad lesson with one of them. We had met Troy the week before and he seemed like a super awesome guy! We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and he said he would! So we went to his house the following Monday and as soon as we walked in we couldn't feel the spirit. We tried to ask him some BRT (building relationships and trust) questions just to get to know him and he would give us really vague answers. So then we asked him if he started reading and he said "ya".  So we asked ,"What did you think about it?" and all he said was "I didn't like it". We were really bummed! 

We tried explaining why we have the Book of Mormon and how it can bring us happiness.  We showed him how it's used with the Bible and he was completely shut off from the idea that there could be any other book besides the Bible!  We told him, "If God had scriptures, and prophets and all that back in ancient times, and He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, then why would God stop giving us revelation and scriptures? The Book of Mormon is that revelation".  But he shut that down and told us that he still didn't like it, that it wasn't important to him and that it didn't apply to him. so we left. We were both extremely depressed because neither one of us had faced that situation before. 

Elder Anderson changed that out look. he said, "Ya that lesson did suck and the spirit wasn't there, but he just wasn't ready to hear the Gospel yet.  We did everything we could think of to try to help him understand and he just wasn't open. We planted a good seed and that was what he needed for now.". That really helped me a lot to get over it. So that is my lesson to you all!  There will be those time that you share the gospel with someone and they completely shut you down.  It's uncomfortable and you don't want to do it ever again, BUT YOU MUST GO ON! YOU MUST CONTINUE ON IN THE WORK! Even if it wasn't a baptism right then and there, there was still a good seed planted and that's what they needed at that time and nothing more. Just have pacience and show that person as much love as you can.  The Lord will bless you.

I love you all!!

Elder Gold 

New Mission President! Welcome President and Sister Cooke! (7/17/2013)

Hey Everyone!

It's funny.  In your letter you said, "I guess at some point today you'll meet Pres. & Sis  Cooke."  Well, by the time I got this letter, I had already met them like 5 or 6 times.  It was great though!  :)

So the first time we met him, we were all sitting in the chapel and he was introducing himself and sharing with us the vision of where he wants the mission to go.  Every once in a while he would ask a questions and who ever raised their hand, he would have them stand up and say who they were.  So a few stood up to answer questions and say their names and each time President Cooke would say, "It's nice to meet you."  Well, when I stood up and said who I was, he said, "Elder Gold!  It's very nice to meet you."  He looked me straight in the eye and smiled a little.  It felt like a long lost friend had come back to me.

Then, that Sunday I met Sister Cooke.  She is sooooo nice!!  President and Sister Cooke wanted to take pictures of me with them to send to you guys!  They kept saying, "We've been waiting for this moment for a while, haven't we?"  I was really glad you met them Mom and Dad, and that they knew of me before they got here.

It has been hitting around 100 degrees here lately, but it feels like 109 because of the humidity.  What makes it even better is that the APs decided to do a mission wide "car fast" so that we would only use our bikes or walk.  They wanted to see how many people we could contact.  We only got 13, but it was because it was so hot, that no one was outside.

When you told me that your ward meetings were canceled last Sunday because of a power outage, I had to laugh.  Our meetings might be canceled this Sunday because they are working on a main water line in the city and so a few counties have their water shut off.

We decided that we are going to have to drop teaching Michael.  Unfortunately, he is not willing to progress.  He can't/won't stop smoking.  We taught him everything we could from the discussions.  Then, when we took him to the Visitor's Center at the DC Temple, the sisters there asked him some simple questions and he gave random answers to basic gospel questions that made no sense.

We have Art on a baptismal date of 8/18 though.  We took him to the Visitor's Center and he really liked the concept of the Holy Ghost and baptism.  The sister giving the tour asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes!

Well, I have to go.  I love you all and please let Christian know I sent him a letter to his house. It should be there soon.  I love you!

Elder Gold

PS  Read the June 2013 Ensign talk by Elder Faust on page 15.  Great talk!

Two Letters This Week! (7/17/2013)

We got two letters from Chance this week.  One via e-mail and another via USPS.  

Dad!

Yellowstone sounds wonderful!!  Man, you are going to have to take me there when I get back!  I saw the pictures that mom sent and it seems awesome!  That knife that mom took a picture of looked pretty sweet! 

(Insert explanation here for the next paragraph.  A few months ago, a member visiting DC stopped Chance and his companion on the street to talk with them  He took their picture and texted it to Liz.  It meant a lot to Liz (in fact it made her cry!) and she wanted to pay it forward so she vowed that the next missionaries we ran into, she would do the same thing for their moms.  Well on the way up to Yellowstone we stopped in Idaho Falls to see the temple and ran into 3 missionaries...) 

Hahaha!  Amanda told me how Mom approached the missionaries and I started laughing.  I can only imagine some strange lady coming up to me and saying "I'm here to take your picture!"  I would be like, "What the crap is this lady talking about?!" Haha I would have said to my companion, "RUN ELDER, RUN!"

The river rafting you did in Lava Hot Springs, ID sounds like fun!  In fact the rapids sound super awesome! I wish we could do stuff like that.  :(   I would have liked to see Mom and Amanda screaming as they almost got flipped into the river.  That would have been funny :)

When I read about Hercules (Chocolate Cocker Spaniel) getting attacked on your walk, I would have been really ticked off at those people that let their dogs run off leash.  I would have screamed so loud at the dogs trying to scare them away from Herc that all of Orem could have heard me!!!  How is Herc?  Did he fight back like the little man he is!?   Also, how long are you going to have Blu for? (A Husky we are dog-sitting for a while) You have had him for a while now, haven't you?  I was just thinking it's probably a good thing that you didn't have Brandy (our Golden Lab that doesn't like other dogs and attacks anything that growls), because it would have been a bad dog fight.

We got to visit the Natural History Museum this week again.  Pictures are attached.  Also I am including a picture from 4th of July that I forgot to send.

Meeting with the President and Sister Cooke was great!  I won't say too much because I'm talking about it in the letter I'm sending home, but they are wonderful people! I felt very loved by them. Well I have to go but I love you so much Dad!!!  I hope your having fun on your trip!

Love

Elder Chanceman

 

Parade route in front of the National Archives

That's one big boy!!

A giant squid!

A week in the life of a DC Missionary...(7/10/2013)

Hey everyone! 

This week has been OK. We had a golden investigator that we taught the first lesson to and she committed to a baptismal date!! She texted us a week later and said that she couldn't meet with us anymore because she is having job & home issues and she is moving back to Virginia. :(  We were so sad when we heard this. We are going to wait a month and then call to get her new address, then send the Elders there. 

We also decided we are going to have drop Michael. We have come to the conclusion that he may not be all the way "there". We have taught him everything we could.  When we took him to the visitor's center, they asked him questions that he should have known the answer to, and he spouted of some random answers that didn't even make sense!  He's probably still going to come to church, but I don't know that we're going to teach him anymore.

So today we actually had zone activity.  It was the "Zone Olympics"!  We played soccer, basketball, capture the flag (with nylon bags of flower called flower bombs), tug of war, and some other really fun games. They put us in to teams of four colors. I was on the green team and we dominated the games! We won the games with 12 points.  The others teams only had like 3 or 5 points each.

I'm really glad that you guys are having fun with all your activities for the month.  Lagoon (an amusement park), Yellowstone, the exchange students and Stadium of Fire! It sounds like you guys will have a blast at Yellowstone and I can't wait for the pictures!  I would have loved going to the stadium of fire because both of those singers are pretty good looking (It was Carly Rae Jeppson and Kelly Clarkson)   ;P Just kidding I can't say that as a missionary :).

As for my comp, it is true that Elder Gilbert was transferred.  He is now in Anicostia North area and my new companion is Elder Anderson. He's pretty cool and a very funny guy. 

Mom,  I'm doing just fine :)  I mean yeah I have times when I feel homesick and what not, but I get over it pretty easily now. So I am good :)

Please tell Christian that I hope he's OK and that I hope he feels better soon. I felt bad when I heard about his accident on his long board and I couldn't be there for him.  But he has like 6 of his nine lives left so I'm not too worried ;P  

I have to go  now but I'll send some pictures a little later OK?!  I love you all and I hope that you enjoy your trips!  I'm super jealous! 

Love,

Elder Gold