Following Promptings Brings Blessings... (2/24/2014)

Hello Utah! (And any other states that people might be reading my blog from haha)

This week has been a pretty good week! So first off, as I told you guys last letter, there were transfers this past Wednesday and I have the awesome opportunity to be a trainer! Wednesday started off very early. We got up extra early so we could get to the visitor center on time because I had a Trainer meeting that I was supposed to go to. Well that didn't work out as planned.  Although we got up on time we ended up leaving a little late. Then on the drive up to D.C. we hit crazy traffic! What usually is about an hour and a half drive ended up taking us probably 2 1/2 hours. We tried to take a detour to the temple, but that just added on a ton of time. So we got back onto the 495, which is the main highway that loops around DC, and endured the traffic until we got to the Visitor's Center.

We got there about five minutes late. As it turns out the new missionaries and the Assistants also got caught in the traffic, so they got there just a little bit before I did. The trainer meeting wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I thought we were going to be trained on how to do the 12 week program and other things we were supposed to teach the new missionaries. For those of you that don't know, the church has come out with a 12 week program that is a new way of training new missionaries on how to teach and become good missionaries. 

Anyway! Back to that Wednesday. The actual meeting itself just turned out to be introductions to our new missionaries.  President Cooke went over pretty much the intro to the 12 week program which basically told the missionary that this program will help them to learn how to become an awesome missionary. But, we didn't actually learn the 12 week program yet, so basically I'm just going off of what I remember my trainer taught me and the things that we did.

Then I met my new companion, Elder Fisher! He's a really awesome guy! He's tons fun, full of energy and really has a great love for the gospel. As you might imagine he is from Utah!  Bountiful, to be exact. It was really awesome to take him into the temple after the transfer meeting. I guess he wasn't able to go to the Provo Temple while he was at the MTC, so this was the first time in about three weeks that he was able to go to the temple. It was a really awesome experience.  I loved sharing the experience with him and spending time in the Celestial Room. 

We didn't get home until about… I think it was about 5:30 or 6:00 pm that night. We spent the rest of the time until dinner getting him all unpacked and settled.  Then we took him shopping so he could have groceries for the week. That night we took him to his first member lesson. We went over to the Darrows to talk about their family mission plan. It was a really awesome experience for him to meet some of the members and also get a teaching experience in on the first day.

I don't know if I told you guys this story, so I'm going to tell it to you anyway!  So this past week (maybe the week before) we had received a text referral from the mission office. The text referral was for a woman named Sandra Aragon and that she requested the sister missionaries to visit her. Well the problem with that is that there aren't sister missionaries down here so we just decided to call her anyways. The first time we called her she didn't answer, so we just left a message.  We figured if she calls us, then great!  If not, then, oh well!   Later that day, Elder Manning had been driving to an appointment and she called us! She told us in that phone call that she been an inactive member for about 13 years, but really wanted to come back to church. She also told us that her husband was not a member, but that he wanted to start taking lessons and that it wouldn't hurt if she sat in on them either. It was really such a blessing and a miracle to have that happen! We set up an appointment with him for later that week. Unfortunately we are not able to go to that appointment because she got a cold and her son had strep throat. So we rescheduled for February 25 and now Elder Fisher and I will go. I really hope we're able to teach them not only as an opportunity to bring them the Gospel, but it'll be a great teaching and learning experience for Elder Fisher.

 

On a more crazy note, last, Friday, at about 10 o'clock in the morning we got a voicemail, from the Assistants telling us that there was a tornado watch happening and that we were to go to the church as soon as we could and to stay there until about 5 o'clock.  We were to keep away from the windows and not to go outside.  While we were there, we received a text message that told us there was an actual tornado happening and to take cover. Don't worry, it didn't get anywhere near us :) It was about 20 minutes away and they said it was extremely small and only a tiny bit of damage was done. I kind a wish I'd seen it!  Ha!  I've never seen a tornado in real life before. It was really cool to see the crazy weather as well! It was raining super hard and the wind was blowing pretty good too. All in all we were safe and sound in a church and protected by the Lord :). 

Then Saturday night we had a really cool experience. It was about 8 o'clock and we had just gone to check on a former investigator, which didn't go too well. We knocked on his door, and when he came to the door he saw us and just put his hand up and shook it like "go away I don't want anything to do with you" and walked away. So we told him to have a nice night and left. On the way to visit another former investigator, we were driving past some houses and Elder Fisher said "I have a feeling we need to go back and talk to some one in the house that is back there". So I turned the car around and headed back to the direction of where he said the house was. When we got to the house we knocked on the door and a woman came to the door. Elder Fisher told her that we were missionaries from the church and that we had a message of Christ that we wanted to share with her.  We asked if we could come in and talk to her. Surprisingly she let us in!  

As we were talking to her she told us that we were lucky that she happened to be downstairs to cook some food for her and her husband and that if she had been upstairs she definitely would not have come down to answer the door. So we found out that she goes to a Methodist Church, but she likes to visit other churches and believes that all churches are good if they preach and talk about Christ and God. We told her that the message that we had to share was that Christ and God in their love for us, brought another book of scripture that has come through a prophet of God. We began to tell her of the Book of Mormon and what it was about and how she could come to know for herself the divinity and truthfulness of the book. She seemed very open minded and somewhat interested in the book. She then asked us what time our church service was, so we told her the time and she said that she would be interested in coming to church to see what our church was like. We invited her to come to church and to read and pray about the book of Mormon. 

She's pretty busy this week so we are unable to meet with her, but she said to call her next weekend and set up an appointment for that following week. It really was a blessing that we are able to follow the promptings of the spirit that were given to Elder Fisher to find this woman that was prepared by God to receive us and to listen to the message that we had.  What a great Miracle!

Well that was our awesome week!  And we're hoping to have another awesome one this week.  I hope that you all have a wonderful week and feel the many small and large Tender Mercies of the Lord! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Gold

New Companion Elder Fisher

Elder Gold's new "son"

Selfies at the D.C. Temple

Birthday Ties for March Birthdays!

I'm Going to be a "Father"!! (2/17/2014)

Well Good Afternoon Everyone!

There isn't too much to report on this past week. We had a couple of snow days, so they shut down the mission again. We did however have the wonderful opportunity of going to the temple this past Wednesday! It was really awesome. I don't know if you know this or not but the temple has a newer movie (newer than the most recent new one!)  There are different things I like about it, but I like the more theatrical acting of the old new one most. However I like the more personal attitude that they have in this newer one. In the first movie that came out, I thought maybe there was a little too much emotion, but I think this newer movie has just the right amount. 

It was nice though, because not only did we have the opportunity to do an Endowment session, we also had the opportunity to do Initiatories. I haven't had the opportunity to do Initiatories since I went to the MTC. We were only able to do about three names each, but it was still a wonderful blessing to be able to do those three names! 

So now about Erin! We weren't able to meet with her this past week, but we strongly encouraged her to come to church this week. Unfortunately she was not able to come due to her car not working. I guess the power steering pump and fluid stopped working and was leaking, so she wasn't able to come. We told her that was alright, and there is always next Sunday! 

Last but not least, transfers are this week! So if everyone remembers, Elder Brimhall was transferred out mid-way through last transfer for medical reasons. So everyone thought that for this transfer Elder Brimhall would come back down here to be my companion and Elder Manning would go back with Elder He, who is working in the west area. Well to our surprise only half of that is coming true! Thursday night we got a phone call from the Assistants. So Elder Manning answered the phone and talked to them for a second and then the phone was handed off to me. I spoke with one of the Assistants and he said to me "Hey Elder Gold!  Pres. Cooke would like to speak with you.  Can you hold the line until he comes on?"  

Now in this mission (I don't know about others) when the assistants call you and say that the Pres. would like to talk to you and to wait on the line to talk to him, you know you're either going to be a district leader or you're going to be training. So I wait on the line for a minute, and then President Cooke gets on. He says to me in short, "Elder Gold!  We we want to put your knowledge to the test, and I think it's about time that you train!  So will you accept this calling to train a new missionary?"

Boy I tell you what!   I was floored! . At first I thought he was going to call me to be a District Leader because of the way that he worded it. Then when he told me I was going to be training, it completely threw me off guard!   So as of this Wednesday, I'm going to be training a new missionary! Or, as they say in the mission lingo, I'm going to be a "father"!  I'm kind of nervous because I don't want to mess up and somehow miss-train this new missionary. But I know that with the guidance, love, and direction of Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ, I know I'll be able to train him and that he'll be an awesome missionary :)   As soon as I'm able to, I'll post a picture of me and my new trainee :).

As for Elder Manning,he's moving back to the west area with Elder He. He's an awesome missionary so I know he'll do great in that area again. And Elder Brimhall is leaving the area he was in, but he's not coming down here anymore.

Well everyone, that has been my week! I hope your week was awesome as well, and that this upcoming week will be full of blessings and that you all feel the love of your Heavenly Father and your Savior, Jesus Christ!  I love you all!

Love,

Elder Gold.

Why Do Ice Cream and Butterflies Make Me Happy?... (2/10/2014)

Hey everyone!

This past week was pretty… I guess you could say eventful.  Ha!  We have been working on the "unknowns" in our ward directory. The unknowns are the people in the ward directory that we have no idea who they are. So we go and drop by to see how they're doing and offer any service that we might provide. Most of the time they'll say "no we're okay". So at that point we ask what kind of contact they would like with the church. You know, like if they mind missionaries stopping by or home teachers coming by to visit them... that kind of stuff. Most of the time they're pretty nice about it and just say that they're good with the contact that they have right now (which is very little contact with their home teachers or visiting teachers). But sometimes you get the ones that seem kind of irritated or they become agitated by the fact that we're there, so they (grumpily mind you) say they don't want any contact whatsoever and that they have joined some other church.  They will say that they're happy where they are at and with their relationship with Christ. 

When they say that, we just ask them if they would like their names removed from the records of the church,  because if they don't then missionaries or other church members will most likely stop by again. In case you were wondering, yes, we're allowed to ask that. The process to remove a name from the records of the church is time consuming and lengthy, most of the time during the process they just give up because it's too much of a pain in the butt. So visiting "Unknowns" and checking up on them to see what... I guess you can say... stage that they're at with the church has taken up a lot of our time this week.  

Then also this past week we had a wonderful lesson with Erin! We brought Sister Battaglia with us!  She is the primary president, so we thought it would be a good idea to bring her along so Erin knows what to expect for her daughter Ky when she's in Primary. 

Speaking of which, Erin came to church!  We were so happy to see her there. She told us it was really hard for her to do, but we knew that through her own prayers and through the prayers of the members she was able to come to church :). A few days before, she said that she would most likely just stay for Sacrament Meeting and see how that was first, just to take it a step at a time. At the end of Sacrament Meeting we asked how she liked it, and she said she did like it. So then we asked if she would like to go to the next class, which is Gospel Principles. At first he was hesitant and said maybe, but then we are able to talk to her about it, and she decided to stay for the second class. I think she enjoyed it :).

About 15 minutes before gospel principles ended, Elder Manning and I had to leave so we could go teach a lesson in Primary. We asked Erin if she would like to accompany us.  She said yes. On the way to Primary though, she said that she was going to go home. So we thanked her for coming and said that we would call her this week to set up another appointment.

As I mentioned above, Elder Manning and I had the opportunity this past Sunday to teach the Primary!  It was really fun! We taught the kids how part of Heavenly Father's plan for us was to be separated from him for a time so we could learn and grow. In order to do that, He had to have someplace for us to live, and that place was earth. So we went over the different things on the earth (mostly nature) and things that make us happy, like ice cream, cats, trees, flowers or butterflies and discussed why those things made us happy. It was a great lesson!

Then after we were done teaching Primary, we had to run over to the Relief Society. Before Sacrament Meeting had ended Sister Ray had asked that all four of us Missionaries go to relief society at about 3:30 pm and that we would really enjoy being there if we came. So after primary was done, we went and grabbed Elder Lanham and Elder He and went to the Relief Society room!  

We walked in and a sister a stands up and the person teaching the lesson sits down. After standing there for a second, Sister Ray says, "Elders, this past week the Relief Society got together and decided that we would like to give you "sacks of love". We really appreciate the sacrifice that you guys are making to serve the Lord and to share the gospel with those who are here in Maryland. So behind you are sacks full of things that you Elders might need. And they're from all of the Sisters!  So we turned around and there were laundry sacks full of stuff for us! They had dish soap, toilet paper, towels, candy, shampoo, conditioner and body wash, cereal, deodorant, new insoles for shoes, and list just keeps going on!  We really appreciated what the Relief Society did for us and felt a lot of love from it. So to any of the Relief Society from the Patuxent Ward that might be reading my blog, thank you again very much!

On Sunday night, we had the opportunity to go over to the Watson home! It was really awesome because they had invited their neighbors from across the street to join us for the spiritual thought and the neighbors had were happy to come because they want as much spiritual interaction for their kids as possible. I guess when the kids go over to their mothers house, it's just a kind of free-for-all and she doesn't really care what they do. So when they're at their dads house, he and his wife try to share with them spiritual things to help them stay on the straight and narrow path. We thought it would be appropriate to share with them that families can be together forever. We had an awesome lesson on that and the spirit was very strong. The Watsons are a wonderful family and the spirit really does radiate from them. In the end it was really awesome because they were interested in having more lessons so that their kids can learn more. We kinda think the parents are taking it as "I don't care what's being taught as long as it is about Jesus and in line with his teachings so my kids can learn." We're not too sure that as of right now they're taking it as "Wow!  Here is some truth that I had not known before. Tell me more!", kind of thing. We're just going to keep talking with the Watsons and setting up appointments for us to teach their neighbors. Their names are Bruce and Alicia. 

Last but not least, today was P-day and zone activity! So our zone and the Anacostia zone got together and played flag football and ultimate frisbee. It was way fun! We probably played four games of each. Oh!  Also did I mention that the temperature for pretty much the entire time was between 29 and 30°? Yeah it was pretty cold. I had to take my jacket off while I was playing though because it got too hot! It's funny how that works.

When we were finished playing, we had some delicious pizza from Little Caesars, and everybody slowly just started leaving for home. Overall today was an awesome day!

Well I love you all and I hope that your past week has been awesome and full of the Spirit! Hope all goes well for you this week.

Love,

Elder Gold

iPads!!!!!!! (2/3/2014)

Hey everyone!

We have iPads!!! 

They are pretty cool, but at the same time the apps they have provided for us to use now to set up our day are a big pain in the butt. In my opinion the app designers just got way to complicated about it.  But, Hey! It's a learning process. I'm sure I won't mind after a week or two. :)   They are super fun to use though! We have to use WiFi, but when we do it's super fun to explore :)   Of course,  we are not allowed to play games on them, like Angry Birds (which is lucky for you all because I would have owned all your scores!!! haha). They are all very locked down with only things that we need as missionaries being accessible.  We were also told that the iPads take screen shots automatically and then send them to Salt lake so they can review what we're doing on them. We can access Facebook, Gospel Library and other a few other apps that I can't remember. 

SO something else that happened this past week..... prepare yourselves... Shawnessy's mom ended up texting us to tell us that she has decided that she doesn't want Shawnessy to get baptized.  She said that she hopes we will respect that decision. It was a sad day :(. We think it's because she got embarrassed at our last lesson. We were talking about the word of wisdom and every time we brought up something we weren't supposed to do like smoke, drink coffee or alcohol, or drink tea, Shawnessy would be like, "Oh my mom does that when she's stressed!!" or "My mom does that every once in a while!!". We think she just got super embarrassed about it. A few of the members are going to go visit her to see if they can help.

Then, last but not least, my companion is gone!!! :(. Elder Brimhall was moved to Montgomery Village up north for medical purposes. So now I'm with my roommate/new companion Elder Manning!!  I love that guy! We are going to get work done!!  Well I know I always say this, but I'm sorry that my letter is so short. We are on a time crunch today so I have to get going. I'll try to send a letter later with more!! 

Love you all!!

Love, Elder Gold 

Elder Gold and Elder Manning

Pretty excited about that iPad Mini!!

Weather Shuts Down the Mission... (1/27/2014)

Hey Everyone!!

So this past week really didn't have a lot going on. Last Monday was P-day and then Tuesday they shut down the mission, which means we aren't allowed to drive anywhere. Well, we had money from a member to get pizza, but the pizza places near by weren't open because of the storm.  None of the cities around us would deliver ether, so we decided to walk like 4 miles (there and back) to Walmart so we could get pizza :) Haha!  It was really fun walking in the storm!!  We got the pizza and some soda, then just had a good night hanging out.

This week, we also had a lesson with Erin!  We taught her about the Priesthood body and the auxiliary organizations of the church.  It was a lot of info so I told her I would make her a little chart that would show her how things are set up. She was also a little more open with us this time too. 

Then today, we went to the church and played some basketball!  That was super fun :)  Then, the best part, We had a Nerf war!!! I got a gift card from my grandparents this past Christmas and I used it to get Nerf guns! haha ^_^ we have played A LOT with them!!  We even took some of the darts and put tacks in them and then shot at a cardboard box for target practice. It was pretty fun! :)

Well I'm sorry this is so short guys! Just not a lot happened because of the weather :/ I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Gold

Work hard...Play hard... (1/20/2014)

Hey everyone!!

So this past week almost nothing happened...EXCEPT!!!! Saturday night, we where over at the Watson's home  to help with some service. They are trying to move, so we have been  helping them get stuff into a storage. We went over Saturday at around 3:30 pm and got done with service around 5:30 pm. Then Sister Watson asked if we had dinner with anyone tonight, which we didn't, so they made us dinner as well.  By the time we're done eating it's probably like 6:30. Brother Watson then asked if we could teach the first lesson to his family so his boys could start getting use to the discussions. So of course we said we would love to. Then, Sister Watson said,  "We should try to see if Bruce can come over to listen to the lesson!"

Now Brother Watson has had a couple of people in mind that he has been wanting to share the gospel with and Bruce, his neighbor, is one of these people. So Brother Watson calls him up and asks if he could come over to listen to the lesson we where about to share with his family. Unfortunately Bruce wasn't able to come because he and his family were in the middle of making their dinner, but they wanted to come another time, which I thought was cool in and of it's self. 

So we went on with the lesson for the Watson family and taught them the restoration. Well in the middle of the lesson, Brother Watson's phone had gone off, so he waited till the end of the lesson to answer. While we where playing a short game of Red Light-Green Light with their kids, Brother Watson read the message and it was from Joe, another one of his friends, and he had invited Brother Watson to go over and hang out with him.  Brother Watson has been trying to share the gospel with him, so Brother Watson replied and said he would love to come over and asked if it was ok if the missionaries came over too.  Joe said, "Sure that would be great!!". 

We went over, just talked for a while and got to know him. It was getting pretty late at that point, so Brother Watson was like "Hey we actually have to get going soon, these guys have a curfew that they have to keep."  Joe asked what our curfew was. We told him that if we weren't teaching anyone we had to head home at 8:30 pm, but if we were teaching someone, then we head home at 9.  Brother Watson, being a genius, played off of that and said "Well hey if you do want to talk more these guys could share the first lesson that they teach."  Joe was like "Sure! that's fine" (but in a good way). So we sat back down around the fire pit because it was freezing cold and I was still in shorts from having helped the Watsons move, and we taught him the first lesson!! It was such an awesome experience!!  He was very receptive to the lesson and answered the questions that we asked with actual thought and feeling. We invited him to come to church this coming Sunday, so we'll have to see how that turns out!!  It was super awesome! 

Then, I think it was Thursday we went over to the McCombs' house to see how Brother McCombs was doing because he had just had surgery.  We were visiting him and gave him a get-well card, then one thing led to another and we ended up in an all out nerf-gun war!! Ha!  That was awesome!!  Brother McCombs took pictures and Sister McCombs and their 4 kids were all in the war!!!  It was epic!!!   I'll have to see if i can get pictures :) 

Well I love you all and I hope you're all doing well!!  Until next time.....

Love,

Elder Gold