Loving This Ward...(1/13/2014)

Hey everyone!!!

This past week was great!!  First off we had a kinda short lesson with Erin on Tuesday of last week. We talked to her about tithing and how to donate it along with fast offerings. Elder bates wanted to have one last lesson with her before he went home. Then for Shanwessy, we're still trying to find out when she wants to get baptized. Her mom hasn't really been on top of it, so it's kinda left us in the dark. We're going to try to have a lesson this week with her though :)

Which leads into the other part of the week. Elder Bates went home!!  He served an honorable two years and is now starting and enjoying his new life back at home. It was funny though.  Two days later he asked for our number and then called us.  We were like "What are you doing calling us?!  You're home!"  He told us that it's just "weird now". I guess he was talking to someone and they asked him when he was going to start school. So he meant to say "I think I'm going to start next semester." but instead he said "I think I'm going to start next transfer" haha! I thought it was pretty funny. Oh! And he keeps trying to back his mom out of a parking space instead of just getting in the car. I hope I'm not like that when I get home, but I'm sure I will be. 

My new companion is awesome. His name is Elder Brimhall and he's from Provo!  It's nice to talk about home and actually have someone know what I'm talking about. It's pretty cool though because I went Sr. comp this past transfer!

We have been working with a lot of members lately to introduce our selves and trying to build relationships with them so they feel comfortable to give us referrals :)  Man!  Can I just tell you all how much I love this ward!!  I can't tell you how much it means to me what all of the families do for us.  Some of the families I will alwasy remember are the Watsons (President Watson's son), the McCombs, the Darrows, the Battaglias and the Smiths. They all just show soooo much love for me and my companions!!  Sister McCombs seriously feels like another mom out here ha. She reminds me a lot of my mom :) She's always making sure that we're ok and if we need anything. Brother McCombs Is freaking awesome!! He's a retired marine, but he's still got it! ha. He's building the best tree house i have ever seen in my life!! Its got a bunk bed, a zip line and a crows nest. It's way cool! I wish I was here when it was finished.

Sister and Brother Watson are always happy to see us and are always offering us food to make sure we're fed! We're actually going over tonight to give some service. The Darrows are just hilarious and love just talking with us. I mean we still talk about spiritual stuff, but they like just talking with to get to know us! I love it!!  Sister Battaglia knew my dad when he was growing up and they have been wonderful.  They act as a post office, receiving packages for us and made sure we had a Christmas tree this year.  

Last but not least, the Smiths!!! Brother Smith is just awesomely hilarious!! He's always cracking jokes and telling stories of funny things that have happened to him and others. Sister Smith is the relief society president, and just shows interest in what your saying and really listens. They have a daughter on a mission right now who comes back sometime this month or the start of the next, I can't remember. They are all just awesome, nice and very spiritual families that I'm so blessed to be working with :) 

Well I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Love Elder Gold

Goodbye Elder Bates!

New Companion Elder Brimhall

Awesome Spriritual Experience with Erin (1/6/2014)

Hey Everyone!!

So this past week was really good, but kinda dumb at the same time. Ha. So it started off on last Monday when I rolled my ankle AGAIN! For those of you who didn't know, I rolled my ankle about a year and a half to two years ago and was in a boot for like 6 months. Well this past Monday I was playing basketball and me having the luck that I do, stepped wrong and rolled the same ankle. Let me tell you that did NOT feel good at all!  So I went to get it checked out and it's not broken, but it's basically a severe lateral sprain in my ankle and I have to wear an air cast for about two to three weeks. Not so fun, but hey! It could be worse :) I am super grateful though, to my companion and my roommates for helping me out. They really stepped up when I needed them :)  Also I don't know if I mentioned this or not in my last email, but I also got super sick right after Christmas and they really helped out there too. They have been just great!

The reason the week was so great was because we had a overwhelmingly spiritual lesson with Erin. 
 

This past week the Castos came with us to the lesson. The Castos are actually recent converts. Sister Casto was a pastor and Brother Casto was a priest for their respective churches and they eventually, after meeting with the missionaries for over 6 months, decided to be baptized. So back to Erin!! Usually it's just Sister Casto that joins us for our lessons, but this time Brother Casto came a long because they had just come from a doctors appointment (Sister Casto is pregnant).  We talked to Erin about fasting and prayer, and how it can help her to over come the trials that she has in her life.  At the end of the lesson Brother Casto just..... i don't even know how to describe it. He shared with her his feelings about how sharp she is and how smart she is and how all of her posts on facebook are so mature, really thought out and spiritual.  He told her what an awesome person she is.  So then Brother Casto got closer and said Erin I want you to look at me, I want to see those beautiful eyes. Erin doesn't like making eye contact, but she did and he said "Erin do you know what impresses me most about you?"  She laughed and said no. He then said "What impresses me most about you is the fact that when you had hard and difficult choices to make you made mature and wise choices.  Now you have a beautiful family.  That is what impresses me about you Erin.". We where all pretty much in tears because of how strong the spirit was. It was really probably top two most spiritual lesson I have ever been in. The next day Erin messaged me on Facebook and just expressed to me how grateful she was that we take time out of our day to make her's better. She said that just about the entire dive home she was crying and just felt so good. It really was an amazing experience.

 

Last but not least, transfers are coming up and I am staying which I'm really happy about.  My companion is being transferred though. He's going to a "new area" where he will have to find his own companion now!  If you haven't caught on yet, yes he is going home.  Ha!  He has served a great two years and is going home this Wednesday. I'm going to miss Elder Bates, but I'm excited for him to start his new life and see what great things are in store for him :). I find out this Tuesday who my new companion is and I hope that I get along with him like I did Elder Bates.

Well I love you all and I hope you had an enjoyable New Year's with your friends and family!!

Love,

Elder Gold

Christmas Day Activities (12/30/2013)

Hey Everyone!!

This past week has been awesome!! It was also super busy! 

Monday was p-day and we played a lot of "Bang!", which is a card game we are addicted too.  Haha. Then we just kinda chilled around the apartment. Tuesday we had district meeting and it was super fun because we each took part of a talk from the Christmas Ensign and shared our testimony on it. It was a very spiritual meeting.  It was awesome! Then we had a white elephant gift exchange and that was way fun. I ended up getting a nose hair trimmer.  Ha!  (which by the way was stupid and cheap, and broke within like 5 seconds). I gifted some boxers with Scooby-doo on them that said "Sugar Daddy" on the back. Funny enough, my comp, Elder Bates ended up getting them which i though was pretty funny. 

So then Tuesday night we went to our Bishop's home and had a great Cafe Rio meal, homemade :). I love the Bishop and his family so much! We did the Christmas story and we acted it out ha it was pretty fun/funny. Then we all stood in a circle with a wrapped box in the middle that had a different strings coming out of it. Each string had someone's name on it. We grabbed the string with our name on it and then we said the "Little Jack Horner" poem and when we finished with "...and pulled out a plum..." We pulled on the string and at the end was a box of candy!!!  Of course I got the Reese's Pieces :) (p.s. for those that don't know, Reese's is my favorite candy). The night was wonderful and it was awesome to be with such an amazing family :) Then that night we opened Christmas presents (we had to because we didn't have time to in the morning). I got everything I asked for and then more :)  It was awesome!  Thank you so much guys! 

SO!  Then, Christmas morning we woke up early because we had to get to the Visitors' center which is like 1 1/2 -2 hours to get there. So on the way there we stopped by a family that Elder bates used to teach and to say hi and he talked to them for a little bit. Then we went to the VC and the sisters in our mission sang.  The songs were awesome!!  So their program went for about 30 min and then afterwards, we watched a movie!!!!!!!!  Haha! Boom Baby!!  We watched Monster's University.  It was hilarious!  I love Art (the purple weird monster).  My favorite line was when they snuck into Monsters Inc. and the security guards are like "Hey! What are you doing here!?" and the purple guy just stares for a second and then says "I can't go to jail again!!" and takes off running.  Haha!  I loved it! 

So after the movie we all went to the stake center and had a wonderful meal that was prepared for us by members that had sacrificed their Christmas to help us have a good one. We were so grateful to them for it :)  While we where eating, each zone had a different skit that they put together. They where all pretty good and funny :) I Really enjoyed the talents that were shared. So after that the Cookes gave us all a gift, which was a super nice looking pen and pencil set. I don't have a picture of it yet, but i will :) 

After all that was said and done we went to one last family that Elder Bates used to teach and visit a lot so he could say bye, and then we headed to the Oak's home so i could Skype my family!!  Elder Bates just called his parents in the car because he's going home soon so he wants too see them then :).  I was sooooooo excited to see my parents and sisters :). I was able to Skype Sairah (my sister) for like ten minutes. It was really good to see her and Caleb :)  After I was done talking to them, I Skyped the rest of my family!! It was so nice to talk to them again "face to face" ha. They thought it was pretty funny talking to me because of some of the lingo that I've picked up on out here. I realized that they probably had no idea what I was saying because I was so used to saying it that it didn't cross my mind that they didn't understand. We had a really good conversation with each other and I loved seeing them :) 

That night we went to two different meals and then went to a third house to have dessert. Holy Cow!  Was I stuffed with a ton of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was all super delicious!!  By the time we got to dessert, I was pretty much stuffed to the brim and then some. But I downed some anyways and man was that a mistake. I ended up having a really bad stomach bug and I stayed home the rest of the day and then all day the 27th. I still have some stomach... nastiness. So all in all i had a wonderful first Christmas away from home! :). 

I love you all and i hope your Christmas was fantastic!   

Love Elder Gold

Merry Christmas!! (12/23/2013)

Hey Everyone!!

So this past week was pretty good/fun!!  We had two lessons this past week. One of them was with Shawnessy! She's a nine year old little girl that's going to get baptized in January! Her mother is a less active in the ward that's returning :)  We taught them about tithing. The lesson went really well and I think it was really good for her mom too!  We committed them both to start living the law of tithing :)  Then later in the week we had a lesson with Erin. We covered the lesson on service and how service on her part can help her to gain happiness and overcome the trials that are in her life.

Erin has a lot of issues though that she has to deal with being that she is a 20 year old single mother. These trust issues are blocking her from progressing. She hasn't been to church since I have been in the area. So we are trying to work super hard to help her over come these trust issues so that she'll come to church. 

So this past Saturday we were able to go to the ward Christmas party and have a lot of fun! They did a talent show and had a lot of musical talents. My favorite one though was the Teacher's quorum. For those of you who remember the TV show "Between the Lions" and the "Smarty pants skit" they used to do?  Well, they did something similar to that. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up on YouTube because its to hard to describe.  Ha.

There was great food and treats and music. It was super fun :) Then, the best part is that we were able to drop off presents to those in our ward that needed them most :)

Sorry, this one is going to be suuuper short this week. We did a lot of less active and member work and it was mostly just getting to know them and building a relationship with them before the end of the year. (see last email).

Well I love you all! I hope you all have a great Christmas week and have a Merry, Merry Christmas!

-Elder Gold

The 4 Amigos! Elders Lanham, Manning, Gold and Bates

Missionary GQ

Sharlene Wells-Hawks came to speak at a Christmas devotional.  Ironically enough, Mark has a picture with Sharlene Wells and his companion from his mission.  I guess she is still making the rounds 25 years later.

Storm of the Century...NOT! (12/16/2013)

Hey Everyone!!

So this past week has been pretty good :) 

We had a lesson with Erin, our new investigator!  She was being taught by the Patuxent East elders, but when they split the area, where she lives became our area. So we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a member come with us so she should also teach about baptism and then also the gift of the Holy Ghost.  She is a recent convert since last February. The execution of the lesson went really well. The problem is that Erin doesn't trust anyone so she's not very open. Any question I asked her was always answered with a no, yes, or i don't know. She really wouldn't say anything more then that.

Then on top of that, it seemed that the entire time she was just looking out the window and not paying attention. It was kinda frustrating, but we continued on and the rest of the lesson went well :). So then a few days later Elder Lanham (my roommate and the elder previously teaching her) was talking to her on Facebook and I guess she told him that that was the best lesson she had had so far.  So i guess she really was paying attention to us :). 

She is really close to baptism too!  She knows the Book of Mormon to be true.  She's read it once all the way through and has started reading it for the second time! She posts stuff on Facebook all the time telling saying how the gospel has blessed her life, how she loves it and how she doesn't want to go back to her old life because she can see how horrible it was.  She talks about how grateful she is to have the gospel in her life. Her only hold up is that she won't come to church. She has a 5 year old daughter.  I guess that she has a hard time getting her up in the morning and she's afraid that her daughter is going to be loud in church.  She doesn't want her to be loud and embarrass Erin at church. So we're working with her on that.

Also we have an appointment with Shawnessy tonight. She is the 9 year old daughter of a returning member. She has been taught pretty much everything except for a few of the commandments. So we're going to finish the lessons with her and then she wants to be baptized! It's going to be awesome!! 

          

So here is something funny.  Saturday I called President to get permission to go to Victor's baptism up in my old area on Sunday. President told me that he wouldn't recommend it because the weather was going to be really bad and that if it happened to be nice weather on Sunday day then I could go. The next morning we got up and it's raining a bit with a little bit of hail. So we're like, "Oh we should be fine then".  We went to PEC and during the meeting the bishop and his counselors keep getting texts that people aren't coming to church because of the weather. Towards the end of Sacrament Meeting, the bishop stands up and says "For the safety of the ward we're going to cancel the rest of church, so you're all dismissed to go home". We thought it was the funniest thing ever!!!  It was hailing tiny pieces before church started and was melting as soon as it hit the ground. So It wasn't bad at all!  Then we go over to our WML's house, have hot chocolate, go over the ward roster, and then leave.

Well on the way home, the AP's sent a call out to tell us that President has decided to shut everyone down and that everyone was supposed go home and stay home until further notice. In the end noooothing happened. I mean it rained a little bit after but nothing like everyone thought it would be. So I have come to the conclusion that if you live in Maryland DO NOT MOVE TO UTAH!  Ha Ha! you'll think the world is coming to an end with an inch or two of snow :)  

Well that's all for now!! I love you all!!!

-Elder Gold  

(Side note from Mark and Liz:  Two crazy things happened this week that show what a small world it is when you are Mormon.  Sun, 12/15, Liz got a text from our former Orem, Heatheridge Stake President (Wayne Watson) that said, "Hi Sister Gold!  We are in MD, visiting Rob.  Guess who we just talked with?  Yes, your son, Elder Gold!  We are sitting here in Sunday School, where Rob, our son, is the instructor and teaching the lesson on missionary work.  Elder Gold here to bear testimony with his companion.  He is looking great, happy and bright.  What a great missionary!  Thought you would like to know.  What a blessing for us and them to have him here.  What a sweet and strong testimony your son has.  I am inspired by him.  

Also, we received a picture from Chance (see below).  He is standing with a family that Mark grew up with in CA.  Their daughter Carolee has grown up, gotten married and now lives in...Wait! You guessed it!  MD.  
Her parents, brother and a family friend came out to see Carolee's son get baptized.  Such a small world!

Chance and the Mathews Family from Mark's hometown.

 

Chance's newest 6-year old admirer drew a picture for him. 

Getting to Know the Members (12/9/2013)

Hey Everyone!! 

So this week has been mas o menos (so,so). We had an appointment with Erin this past week, but we had to cancel because the Leaders decided to pop Zone Training AND interviews on us. We felt really bad and she was pretty bummed about it as well :(  We will however be meeting with her tomorrow, so it will make up for the time we had to cancel :). 

We have been doing a lot of member work and getting to know the members lately.  The members sign up on a calendar and they can decide how many of the missionaries (that are in their ward) they want over. Right now the majority of our dinners are after 6pm because that's when the men come home from work.  It really is the only time they can have all the family home together. Well in January, the mission is changing that rule so there can only be meals after 6pm if there is a non-member or a less-active member present. When that rule comes into play, we're thinking that meals will go waaaay down and we won't have as many opportunities to get to know the members as much as we would like. So for the rest of the month we are trying to meet as many of the members as posible :)

We are also super close  to getting quite a few member referrals!!  We have been working with members and helping them figure out how to incorporate the missionaries into their conversations so they are able to ask their friends to take the missionary lessons!      

Also we went to dinner with the Krugman's this past week and after dinner they were going to go to a place called Flat Iron Ranch with some non-members. Just after we left they called us back and said and told us that the people that were going with them just canceled and would we like to go? He said there would be lots of people to contact!  We said, "Sure!"  So we went back to their house and then went to  Flat Iron Ranch :) 

This place was super cool!  They had a ton of antique John Deer toys and other just super old antique toys that you could buy. Then they also had animals there that you could see and pet. They had yaks, pigs, goats, long horn cows, a zebra (which i did pet!  Score one for me!), llamas, lemurs, and horses!  Two of the horses were Clydesdale's!!  I have never seen a horse that big in my entire life!! I mean they were HUGE!!  One of them walked up to us and took a deep breath and then let the air out.  A huge cloud of breath vapor, like enveloped us.  Ha!  We were super....impressed/shocked when it did that. Really, everything about it was just magnificent! 

    

Also this week we helped the bishop clear A TON of leaves! We had to go over twice to get all of the leaves. They share a little tiny forest with their neighbors, and so neither neighbor (that ever lived there) ever really took care of the leaves. We had huge piles of leaves that we had to move further into the forest so that it didn't overrun his yard. It was nice though because they fed us each time and each time they had butternut squash soup!!  Oh my goodness, that stuff is fantastic!!  I love it! 

Oh!  Also we thought that we wouldn't be able to have a Christmas tree this year because our apartment didn't have one and we couldn't afford one :(  So then a member in our ward came up to me and asked if she could borrow us for a second. So we went out to her car and low and behold, she gives us a tree!!  It's a little one that's probably 4ft, but hey!  We're just grateful to have a tree!!  Ha!

Well all, I love and miss you!  I hope everything is going well!  Don't forget the real reason for this wonderful time of year. The presents should be the after birth, not the birth of our Savior! (Note from Mark and Liz:  We aren't sure what he meant by this, but we thought it was hysterical, so we left it as is. I am sure he meant something profound, but it just didn't come out right!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

-Elder Gold    

First Missionary Christmas

Winter at the D.C. Temple

"Well, Hello there Mr. Goat!"

"What, he hates me?  I have food!!"

Bucket List:  Pet a Zebra.  Check.

New Area...Lots to Do!! (12/3/2013)

Hey Everyone!! 

So this past week was busy, but not so much with missionary work. As some of you may know, I opened up a new area in my mission with Elder Bates. We have been spending a lot of time trying to get the area in order!!  We have had to create all new area books and then we have to make a map. The map is what is taking the most time :/  We have been working on it for a long time. We started working on it and got pretty far, but then we realized that a few boarders didn't copy over but we had no idea that had happened until we were way into it. So we have to restart the project and try to figure out what to do.

 

Also we found out that we aren't getting iPads until about January. They told the leaders that it was because we weren't taking a survey that the church wanted us to take as training for the iPads. Really, the problem is that the iPads have a few bugs so they are going to fix them and apparently it won't be done till January. So I'm not entirely sure when we are going to get them. Elder Bates isn't too happy because he leaves January 8th and so he probably won't get one now. A lot of people aren't too happy about it.

That's pretty much it, I'm sorry that it was so short this week. There wasn't much going on besides trying to get the area in order. I love you all a lot!!

-Elder Gold

Steven's Baptism and Crazy Transfers! (11/25/2013)

Hey everyone!! 

So everything went.... pretty good with the baptism, so to speak. First we lost Steven.  After Elder's Quorum, we grabbed a TV to set it up for people to watch a movie after the baptism while Steven would be changing.  When we went back to Elders Quorum to get him, Steven was no where to be found. Now keep in mind this past week he had called and told us he wanted to cancel the baptism because there were things going on in his family that he didn't like and that he felt like he needed to leave the state. We convinced him to stay and go through with the baptism. So when we couldn't find him, we thought that he bailed!  We searched all over the church trying to find him and we couldn't!  We called him on his phone and he told us that he was in the kitchen trying to get a hold of his family. 

So everything is going good.  We get to the ordinance and my companion had to re-do the baptism like 6 times.  Every time he was dunked, part of his body would come out of the water. My companion also had to restart a few times because he was saying the prayer wrong.  Like once he started "Dear Father in Heaven..." and then another he just forgot the whole first sentence of the ordinance and started with Steven's name.  All in all I think he started over maybe 10+ times. 

After that we're watching the movie, (Finding Faith in Christ), and then Steven comes in, sits by me and says "Your companion needs you." So I go into the bathroom and come to find out, my companion forgot to bring an extra white shirt.  So I was about to take a member to our apartment and grab him a shirt when he tells me he found one in the closet by the font. It was soooooooo gross!!  The collar was completely yellow and brown and it was kinda stained. He said that he prayed and The Lord provided. haha The Lord never said though that it would be a clean shirt ha. So that is how Stevens baptism went. Ha!  Great.

So as for transfers, holy cow things were soooooo much more different!!  So, we were on our way home after a lesson with Vicotor when the President called.  He called to tell us that my companion is going to be a Trainer on these next transfers. I wasn't expecting that at all. So then we were trying to figure out what was going to happen to me. Was I going to stay in Glenn Dale, or was I going to leave because he's training here?  Then later, this past Sunday, when we where in our morning meetings with the ward council, the President called again. My companion took the call thinking it was him that president wanted to talk to about his new companion.  But then, like 1 minute later, he comes back in and says "President wants you to call him.", and hands me the phone. 

My stomach dropped and my mind started racing!!!  What in the world could he want with me? Especially so close to transfers!  So I call President back and, after a little small talk, he proceeds to tell me that I'm leaving my area and that I will be with Elder Bates. He then told me that he wanted to start training me to be a trainer!  I was like, "What the jones, man?" (mission slang, Ha Ha!)  Where did that come from?!?!   :)

So I knew that Elder Bates is in the Potomac Bethesda area, which is also the SUPER rich area. So I was like, "Oh, ok sweet!"  Later that night they sent out the conference call of who is leaving and who their new comp is, which is a new system for us.  So, we're listening to who's leaving, who's staying and who's training.  It gets to us and they said..."In the Gelnn Dale singles area! Elder Gold, yooooouu arrrrree leaving! (which I knew). Your new companion is Elder Bates! (which I also knew). And you two will be going to Patuxent East! You will be White Washing!!" 

Mind...Blown...!! 

So just to give some geographical background here, Potomac (where Bates was and where I thought I was going) is in the most northern part of our mission. Patuxent (where we are going to go) is the second to last most southern area in the mission!!  (also for those of who who don't know what "white washing" is, it when a companionship opens a new area (which is what we are doing), or there is an area that is doing poorly and they put a new companionship into the area that have no idea about anything and they "rebuild it"). I have never done this before so I'm pretty nervous, but I'm excited at the same time!! Man, just thinking about it, my mind is still blown! Ha! this transfer has been nothing I expected at all!!  HOLY COW!!!   

Well that has been my week! I love you all!

 -Elder Gold  

Steve's Baptism

Chance and his Ward Mission Leader, Jason

My Crazy Ward Mission Leader, Jason

Treats from Mom Through a Friend, Sophia

                

A visit from a memeber of the First Quorum of the Seventy (11/18/2013)

Hey everyone!!

This week has been a lot crazier!  So first off, last Thursday, Elder Zwick, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, came and spoke to our entire mission! It was super awesome! He talked to us about a lot of things, at least 5 hours worth of material. We arrived at the visitors center at 8:35 am and a didn't leave till 5:00 pm with a hour lunch break in between. He expressed to us how much he and his wife really appreciated being able to talk to us, be with us and how much they loved us. He ended up talking about how to teach simply and be effective at the same time. Sister Cooke talked about repentance and how it's not just something we have to do when we sin and then the atonement "punishes" us. We have to always strive to apply the atonement in our lives even just for the sake of having comfort, peace and joy in our lives. Then Elder Zwick went off that and said "We should never base ourselves off of our past mistakes! We are not the same person we where when we made them. We need to just keep moving forward trusting in the Lord.". That really hit home because I feel like I do judge myself for those past mistakes even though I know I have been forgiven, as I'm sure a lot of us do. Between Sister Cooke's talk and Elder Zwick's quote, I feel like i have a entire new outlook on life :) 

He also decided to show us how the IPad minis are going to work!!  We were first told that they will be here December 9th and would get them December 10th. Then he showed us the system we'll be using on it. The entire time he was showing us i had just an overwhelming sense of happiness, peace, and love come over me. It was 100% a confirmation that that this really is how the work is supposed to be progressing :). So, he showed us how our area book would be accessible from the cloud and he showed us how we are able to have the pamphlets right there at our finger tips. He showed us how we can update the area book and watch the Preach my Gospel videos on there, and we're going to have a data plan!!!  Last but not least, he told us that we will be able to take them home if we want......  and not have to pay for them!!  When we're done with our mission, they will factory reset it and then it will be just a regular tablet!! It's soooooooo awesome!!! I'm so excited!

Then on this past Sunday, well Saturday night really (10:38pm mind you), we got a call from our ZL's and they told us "Hey guys, we just wanted to make sure you haven't gone to bed yet. President is going to be calling in like 15 minutes and wants to talk to both of you. It's not anything bad, so don't worry!". That is all he told us so we're like, "What the heck does he want to talk to us so late for if it's not bad?"  Well 15 minutes later President calls. When we answered the phone he started telling us how we were going to get another companion! He told us that the Elder had gotten in a bike wreck and injured his tailbone.  The ZLs  called us later that night again like around 10:50 pm to tell us that he would be coming sometime in the morning around 8 am. Well in the morning, we're in the middle of re-arranging our apartment when we get another call. It's the Assistants this time and they told us that the situation had changed and the Elder would not be coming. So we ended up not having a third companion. It was pretty weird.

Then today was fun as well!  We went to the National Archives museum today!  It was super awesome :)  I got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and The Constitution! I'm just going to let everyone know now, National Treasure is a lie!!! ha That room with all those documents is not that big!  I kept turning to Elder Broadhead and saying "this looks different from the movie..." haha. It was really cool to see all the different letters between presidents and between the Union and the Confederacy. It also talked about how they restore all the documents after a while of being on display. We were going to go to the American Indian Museum after, but we decided to go home and relax.

Other big news!!  Steven is getting baptized this coming weekend!!  We went over the interview questions with him just to make sure he was good to go and now all he needs to do is have his interview!!  We're all super excited for him :) 

Well everyone that is my exciting news for the week!!  I love you all!  Till next time!

-Elder Gold