Together Again....(6/30/2014)

Hey everyone!

 This past week has been pretty full of dogged appointments but also a couple of miracles!

 Great news!  My new companion for this transfer is Elder Bodda, my first companion from the MTC!

Saturday night, we had to fill up on gas before we turned in for the night (so that we didn't do it on Sunday :)). We pulled up to the pump and right as we pulled up, another car pulled up at the same time facing us! Well there was an open pump behind us, so we backed up into that spot instead. The man graciously waved at us and gave us a big smile. As I was pumping the gas, he went into the gas station a couple of times and both times that he passed us on his way in and out, I would smile and wave.  I finished pumping gas and got into our car.  Right as I did the man walked past us on his way to his car. Then he stopped and looked at us to wave goodbye, but then he motioned to us to hold on for a second. He came over to the window and the first question he asked, (which is always the first question we get asked) was "Are you J-Dubs (Jehova's Witness)?". Ha!  We laughed a bit and said, "No, we are Mormons!"  He gave kind of a sigh of relief and said "Ok, good" haha.  He then proceeded to ask for a card. He said "Do you have a card that I could have?"  We gave him our card and he said "Awesome! I'm going to call you this weekend and you can come over and talk with me and my little girl!"  We were speechless!   He continued by asking if we were brothers because we both had the same "first name". We explained to him that we were just really good friends and that Elder is a title given to us by our church.  He said, "Oh! Like Pentecostals!".   We laughed again and said "Yeah, kinda". He then introduced his daughter to us and we talked with her for a bit. I can't remember her name off the top of my head but the guys name was Ransford. So hopefully we'll meet with him this weekend!

We also received a referral the day that Elder Bodda came into the area. We have been playing a bit of phone tag with her! Until today!!! She finally called and we were finally able to talk with her. However, I have no idea what the heck she said, because of her think African accent, other than the fact that she wanted to meet with us. Due to her financial situation, she may be leavening her residence because she can't afford it.  She is still very interested though!  We BRT'd (Built Relationships of Trust) with her for a while and then informed her of the lessons that we teach. After that we still had time left over so we ended up teaching her the the Restoration. She really liked it a lot! She kept telling us how happy and grateful she was because we had come to visit with her. We committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and also to come to church.  She accepted both!  She said though, that she might not be able to come this Sunday because she doesn't know where she'll be living. However, she said she would call us and let us know.

It's pretty awesome/weird being with Elder Bodda again! I remember when we were teaching together in the MTC and we thought that teaching was the hardest thing in the world! Now we can pound out all the lessons without our planners or anything to help us remember stuff. It's awesome to see the progress we've made and the men we have become :)

Well last but not least! Today is actually not our P-day! Due to the 4th of July coming up, we switched our p-day to Friday and it's an all day P-day! They realized however that parents, family and friends would be waiting for our emails or letters and that we needed to buy food for the month, so they gave us two hours to do both, then told us to get back to work. So Elder Bodda and I went shopping. Ha!  Worst experience ever!  We were almost robbed.


So here's the story: We went shopping at a store called Aldi and on our way in we said hi to this elderly gentleman, who just stared at us and then kept walking.  We just blew it off and went in. Well while we were shopping, a guy comes up to Elder Bodda and tells him that security needs us outside of the store because there was a man who was in our car going through our stuff!!  So we ran to the front of the store, asked the lady to save our stuff so we could go out, then went out side.  We got there and the guy who came up to Bodda from the store said, "The guy is right over there!!"  We thought he had pointed to a guy who was just pulling out of the parking stall. So we ran over there, stopped him and asked him if he had been in out car. Of course the guy denied it and got all defensive.  Then he pulled the race card on is and said he was accused because, "You white people think everyone looks the same out here."


Then the guy fro the store who came up to Elder Bodda said, "Look, he's right over there! He's walking by the gas station with the cane!!". So we apologized to the man many times (although he drove away all grumpy).  We ran over to our car to see if anything had been taken (we had time to get him if he did. I mean he was walking with a cane for crying out loud). Elder Bodda had left his iPad sitting right in the open on the back seat and my camera was in my back pack, (which was wide open AND my gps was accessible as well!)   We checked the car, and ALL OF IT was still there!  He haven't taken anything!  We felt so blessed!  I, however, just felt sick at the thought of what could have happened.  I mean when I first heard about it, my heart and stomach dropped and just that sickening feeling took over.


We're all good though because again, nothing was taken. So we go back into the store and we continue shopping.  We passed by a lady who was stocking the shelf and she says to us, "So which one of you is the cook?" Elder Bodda (trying to being "funny) said, "Oh he is! Can't you tell?!" And she was like "Ha I'm just saying." Later though, I turned to Bodda and asked, "Did that lady just call me fat?"  Elder Bodda was like, "No I just made that joke. I don't know what she was talking about." Then it dawned on me, she was calling us gay!! Freaking insult to injury! I tell you what! I was not a happy camper!!  So I was just kinda grumpy for quite a while.

 Well that has been our week! Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed the update on my mission! I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gold