Elder Gold Goes To DC North: 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!!!!