Uneventful week, but we keep trying...(8/11/2014)

Hey everyone! 

 

This past week consisted of trying to visit with more members and then trying to get in to visit less-active members of the ward.  We didn't have too much success in the latter part, but we did have some. For a few weeks we have been trying to get in contact with the Flood family. Every time we went over, they weren't home. I think we dropped by three or four times with no answer. So one day last week we had to go get Elder Bodda a hair cut.  We ended up at a barber that is right next to the Floods. Well sure enough we walked by their house and they were home!  We knocked on the door and they invited us in.  We chatted and just got to know them for a while. In the end we invited them to start taking the missionary lessons and they agreed! So we just have to give them a call a few days in advance and we can set something up!  They will be one of the ones to help us get to 20 lessons!

 

 

This past week we also finally got a hold of Ransford!  We passed him to the other Elders and they tried to contact him but he wouldn't answer their calls or texts. So we decided to call him. We called and texted and he didn't answer us. Then two days later he texted us and told us he got our message and that it was a busy week for him, but that he would call us on Tuesday to set something up.

 

Also during the week last week we got a random phone call from the ZL's. They told us that one of the members of the ward was moving and that they were supposed to help, but they had meetings they had to go to, so they asked us to help in their stead.  We went and helped Brother Ormsby and his wife move! It was actually really easy!  Probably the easiest move I have done on my mission. There wasn't too much stuff and it was right up the road from us, literally like four buildings up. Then they got pizza for everyone and it was soooooooooo delicious!! It was just regular pepperoni, but I was so hungry it was the best tasting food in the world! Ha!

 

Sorry folks, that's all that really happened this past week! Since Elder Bodda was called to be the district leader he's been having to go to a lot of meetings to learn what his responsibilities are and how to do them. So while he's been doing that I have been hanging out with Elder Queen from the French program while his comp goes through the same meetings.

 

Well I love you all and I hope you have had a wonderful week! Don't forget to read your scriptures and pray!

Love,

Elder Gold

Praise The Lord! Amen! and Hallelujah! (8/4/2014)

Hey everyone!

 

This past week was really good!   We had two lessons, the Nationals baseball game, and a funeral that happened this week! 

 

Let's start off with the two lessons!   We met with Anthony and Danielle this past week. Our time with Anthony was spent answering a lot of questions again.  We started off answering questions that he had from the Book of Mormon. Then he had a question about what we believe happens when we die. So, we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He had a ton of great questions and a few weird comments. Like we asked him if he had heard of the spirit world and said, "Oh yeah! Of course I have heard of it. You go to the spirit world when you go to sleep!"  He then proceeded to tell us what it was like.  We then had the opportunity to share with what we believed the Spirit World was.  After the lesson was over, he started asking questions about what we as missionaries can do for fun, how we live and stuff like that. 

 

We were finally able to get an appointment with Danielle!   We had lost contact with her two weeks ago. Then we found out that she was homeless!   We met with her and talked about her situation.  We gave her some ideas as to some places she could go to, to get help. Then we taught her some of the Plan of Salvation. She speaks French and barely speaks English, so there was a bit of a language problem throughout the lesson. She was kind of embarrassed to explain some things because her English wasn't that good. So we will most likely give her to the French elders so she better understands what is being taught.

 

 

Well in both lessons they were invited to come to church and stay for a baptism that was happening in the ward. Neither one showed up. Danielle slept in and Anthony just flat out flaked and didn't show. We tried texting him and he didn't reply. We will see if we can set something else set up this week. 

 

Then last Saturday we went to the Nats Game! I love going to those! I mean it kind of sucks because we are always up in the "nose bleed" section, but I still enjoy watching the games! There were quite a few people that we (Bodda and I) knew there. There were some members from one of the ward he used to serve in and then the McCombs from the Patuxent ward were there! I loved seeing them!  Every time I see them, Sister McCombs takes a picture with me and sends it to my family.  I sat with them for a while and just talked with them :).  Then on our way out I found out that a hat that I had seen earlier (it was like 30 or 40 dollars) went on sale after the game for 10 bucks!!!  So naturally I bought it!:)

 

 

Last but not least we went to the funeral of a sister in a the ward that passed away two or three weeks ago. The viewing and service was held in a mortuary in NW D.C. some place. That was the most..... interesting experience... I have ever had on my mission, and hopefully the last of those. Most of this sister's family aren't members of the church and are of some kind of Baptist or Pentecostal denomination.  They had their preacher come to conduct the funeral. He started preaching and began shouting "praise The Lord Jesus!"  every other sentence.  Then, he started calling people to repentance and "speaking in tongues".  He had the crowd all riled up and a few people in the crowd started "speaking in tongues" and were getting even more wild than the preacher, shouting "Come on preacher! Amen! Hallelujah!!".   Then the preacher started pounding on the sister's coffin and yelling his sermon at the top of his lungs. I think he saw a few people were shocked by that so he was like "I didn't do that to offend! It's just a body in there! Her spirit has gone home to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!".   Although it was an interesting experience, I really hope I never have to sit through that again. I thought it was extremely blasphemous, disrespectful and irreverent of the situation.  It was also a huge testimony builder for me of how true this church is, how we have all of the truth and not just a portion. 

 

 

Well that was our week! It was pretty crazy, fun, interesting, and and spiritual! Ah I hope you all had a wonderful week and a wonderful one to come! 

 

 

Love, 

Elder Gold

 

Nose Bleed Section of White Shirts (First Three sections on the top left)

 

Another Week in the Life of Elder Gold...(7/28/2014)

Hey Everyone!

 

This past week started out going great!  We had lost contact with most of our investigators for a while. Every time we called them they wouldn't answer, and any time we texted them they would not reply. This past week was awesome though, because we were able to get in contact with a couple of them and set appointments.  The appointments were with Anthony and Danielle. 

 

For those that don't remember, Anthony was the one who was a referral and from the very first phone call, he started asking questions that do not pertain to his salvation. Questions like, why we believe that Jesus' name is Jesus when the Hebrew and Greek translations of his name don't mean Jesus. However, the last appointment we had with him, he had questions that actually pertained to the restoration. So then we were able to teach him that, and then at the end of that lesson he ended up having questions about the Plan of Salvation.  His questions are actually starting to get some place and we are actually beginning to teach the lessons, so I think that it's progressing really well. 

 

Danielle is also a referral from the church. We met with her a while back. She was struggling trying to find a place to live.  She found out about the church through, I think it was, her cousin. He had joined the church a while back and told her that she should have the missionaries over to begin teaching her. The lesson went really well and we believe that she really took it all in and understood it.  She told us at that time that she may not have a place to live in a few days and so that's why she couldn't come to church.  We lost contact with her for little while. We finally gave her a call and tried to set something up. She told us that she would need a ride to the lesson because she no longer had a place to live.

 

Well we had both of these awesome appointments set up and we were super excited to go to them, but then as we all know obstacles always have to happen before the good things happen. We ended up having to reschedule both of them. Anthony's appointment canceled because something came up that didn't allow him to meet with us on the day we had scheduled and he couldn't reschedule it until the following Wednesday (which is this Wednesday). Then with Danielle's appointment, we called her the day of the appointment to make sure that we were still good, however still hadn't found her a ride.  We continued working on it. We got to talk to her for a little bit on the phone to get directions where a member could go and pick her up. In the end we were unable to find her a ride and we couldn't reach her any longer.  We kept trying to call her so that we could reschedule for a day next week when we could actually find her a ride. Unfortunately her phone had been turned off and it kept going to voicemail. So we were unable to get a hold of her, and thus not able to reschedule. We are going to keep trying to call her to set something up because she seemed super solid. We are also going to try to get the Relief Society involved to see if they can help her to find a place to live. Hopefully this will all turn out all right.

 

We also had interviews this past week. This was a little bit different though because usually in interviews we meet with Pres. and Sis. Cooke individually, but this time we didn't. This time we actually only met with Pres. Cooke, and while Pres. Cooke was in interviewing missionaries Sister Cooke was giving what we call a workshop or basically a training on etiquette.  She taught us how to open doors for ladies, she told us how to sit at the dinner table and want to do with our napkin, she told us about how to use silverware (like where to start with it), she told us about standing up when the hostess walks in and or pulling the chair out for her when she goes to sit down, stuff like that. It was actually pretty cool though because after we listened to her workshop, we just kind of sat there talking.  We had a good time chatting and got to know each other a little bit better.  It was really cool just to sit and chill with Sister Cooke :).

 

So during all of interviews and Sister Cookes workshop, the APs had taken our iPads and we're doing iPad checks, making sure that nothing was on that wasn't supposed to be on there (I.e. Movies, apps, games, pictures, etc.). Once they had checked all of our iPads, they actually sat us all down and we went through the process of changing security systems on the iPad. It was kind of a pain in the butt because we had to delve deep into the settings of iPad and delete certain configurations and system operations settings. In the end though what this new security system on the iPads is supposed to do is give the mission office and the church more control/accessibility to our iPads to see what we're doing with them and make sure that we're not abusing them. Things like the App Store weren't available for our iPads before.  However, they are now, but we were told that if we were to access them at any point, an email would be sent out directly to the church HQ in Salt Lake, to us and also to the mission president letting everyone know that we had accessed them.  Not that I would access it in the first place, but I feel like it's a little more incentive to obey for those who would do it.

 

 

Then today for P-day, it was just kind of a relaxed day. We woke up, and went to the gym. I have this new workout that I'm trying, and it's really kicking my butt!   If you want to see what I am doing, go to bodybuilding.com to see my work out regime.  A member explained the website to me and downloaded my work out routine for me.  

Anyway, after the gym today we just kinda sat around the apartment, did laundry and stuff like that.  Then we went shopping and afterwards the zone leaders came over and hung out with us until we needed to leave for our dinner appointment. Elder Bodda and I went downstairs with the ZLs to play pool with them for about an hour and a half and then they left. Our dinner appointment  was a member who took us out to dinner to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of his baptismal day. He wanted to celebrate with the missionaries, so he took us out to a Chinese buffet!  It was really nice of him to do that for us. :)

 

Well everyone that was our week! I hope y'all have a blessed week and that we all recognize the blessings in our lives that we don't normally recognize. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Gold

Twenty Lessons a Week!...(7/21/2014)

Hey everyone! 

 

So this past week was pretty busy! 

 

On Wednesday we had our zone conference.  That we seriously the longest meeting of my life! We got there at 8:00 am and didn't leave till like almost 4:30 pm. The conference was really good though!  We learned how the mission is going to start doing referrals differently now and we that President Cooke has committed the mission to start teaching 20 lessons a week!  That's nuts!  He said he doesn't care who the lessons are with, he just wants us teaching. We now have a huge goal to work towards!  

 

 

We also found out that, during the car checks, our car was one of the most clean cars that had shown up that day. So the Sr. Elder who is in charge of the cars said that from now on, at car checks, he was going to find the cleanest car and take that companionship out to lunch or dinner! So our car and the car of the sisters missionaries were the cleanest cars that day.The Sr Elder has promised to take us to dinner.  

The other reason that it was a good conference was because the mission doctors (they're husband and wife) came and spoke to us about missionary work and how it affects our health. They talked about stress and what causes it and then how to get rid of it.  They talked about depression and the causes for that and what we could do to get rid of it.  They also talked about lack of sleep caused by stress or depression and that it was because we couldn't "turn off" our brains. So, they showed us techniques on how to shut it off at night. 

We learned a lot of stuff and had a delicious lunch provided by a few members from different wards. 

 

 

Then Thursday was kinda slow. Not too much happened. It was again just checking on people and them not being home. I am sure it is because of the time of day that we go check on them, but we couldn't check on them later because we had a meeting with our WML. 

 

 

We went to our meeting and as it turns out he had gotten a trampoline for his kids and he needed our help to put it together. So,we talked as we assembled it. Because no one was paying attention though, we ended up putting it together wrong. So we took it all apart, corrected the mistakes and then put it back together. Poor Elder Bodda though, got eaten alive!  He got like 5 bites from mosquitoes and they were all on his head. I almost got bit a few times but I got them before they could get a bite!

 

 

Then on Saturday we did service all day!  We helped a sister with her yard work.  We got there at about 10:00 am and left at about 2:00 pm. We got a lot done though! I mowed the lawn, and the others took down ivy (not the poison kind) vines and trimmed bushes. There was A LOT of ivy everywhere they they had to clean up. Then the battery died on the electric trimmer, so we had to pull everything back with a shovel and then try to mow over it. Yeah, that didn't really work like they thought it would so we just had to leave it. In the end she was really nice and bought us some pizza for lunch :) 

 

 

Then on Sunday we went to church and then later to a "Why I believe" fireside. At church Stephon was supposed to share his testimony with the ward and then (unknown to us) President and Sister Cooke were going to speak after him. Stephon was also supposed to say the closing prayer at the fireside. Well, during ward council before church, the Bishop announced that Stephon had texted the Bishop late the night before and asked if they could move his testimony to the following Sunday because he and his family were going out of town. This meant we had to re-arrange quite a few things.  

 

Anyway, the Cooke's talks were great!  They were very inspiring to the ward I think, to start doing missionary work and they also informed them that we were going to start trying to have 20 lessons a week. The ward was pretty shocked by that.  I hope we have good results.

 

The "Why I Believe" fireside was great!  They had Brother and Sister Jonas speak. Brother Jonas is actually one of the 5 physicians that takes care of President Obama. They were both really good speakers! I really liked Brother Jonas' talk because he told his conversion story, starting when he was about nine and how the first time he went to church, his mom was sick so she didn't go with him.  Then when he was at church the missionaries didn't sit by him, but they had a ward member sit next to him.  He spoke about how that that member saved his life and helped to bring him into the church. He told how he continued to attend church and how this member-friend helped him to grow in the church. Later, this member ended up moving and he hadn't heard from him since. He then told of all the things that he did growing up in the church and going on a mission and marrying in the temple and going to school. Well the newly married couple decided to take a trip to where Brother Jonas grew up and the ward he grew up in. When they went to church, lo and behold there was the member that had been his only friend in the beginning.  His friend who was a guide and "guardian". 

 

 

Brother Jonas went to talk to the member to say hello and told him he may not remember him.  Brother Jonas told the story of the little boy that the member had helped and the many things that young boy was able to accomplish. Then he said "and this is that young boy returning to thank you for everything you did for him".  All in all, it was a very powerful message of conversion that he shared with us.

 

 

Well that was the highlights of the week! I hope that you have enjoyed it and I can't wait to tell you about this week, next week! Ha. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful day and week ahead of you!

 

 

Love,

 

Elder Gold

Great Lesson on the Book of Mormon...(7/14/2014)

Hey Everyone!

 

This week we met with Ransford!  So for those that don't remember, Ransford was the guy that we met at the gas station.  We pulled into the same pump at the same time and then we backed out and gave him the pump. Then before we left he stopped us and told us he wanted us to come over so he could listen to what we have to say. Well, we went over last Saturday! We had an awesome lesson!   We took the first little bit of time to get to know him.  It turns out that he has been attending the Methodist church...kinda.  He feels like when he goes to church there, all they ask for and talk about is money and donating it to their church.  He feels like it's more of a business than it is a church. So sometimes he just doesn't even go because he can't "afford" to. They do the whole "pass the donation basket around" and he feels embarrassed when he gets passed the basket and he can't put anything in it, so he just doesn't go.  Because of all this he doesn't like that church and is looking for another.  

 

 

Ransford was very excited to meet with us. I think he thanked us for coming over and told us how excited he was to meet with us like 10 times.  Because we took so long in getting to know him, we didn't really have a lot of time to teach all of the first lesson.  We started off from the first vision and a background on Joseph Smith because he was very interested in how the Book of Mormon came about.  He asked a lot of great questions about all of it too. 

 

Brother Turner (WML) came with us and helped us teach Ransford that day. He pointed out a lot of stuff that I think was important about the first vision.  He brought up the fact that the First Vision helps us to understand the Trinity Concept and that the Godhead is made up of individual people.  We went over baptism at age 8 and that we don't have a paid clergy.  We talked about tithing as well.  All in all it was an awesome lesson and he was excited to meet again!  We invited him to begin reading the Book of Mormon and Brother Turner invited him to come to church. He said that he couldn't make it to church the next day, but he would love to come the next one. Unfortunately, as it turns out, he's not in our area. He actually lives in the other Elder's area that also cover our ward. So we have to pass Ransford off to them. But hey! We are all on the same team here so it's all good :). 

 

 

Even before Ransford's appointment though, we had an unexpected call from the AP's telling us that they were in the area and that they wanted to come visit. We told them that we had an appointment in about a half hour and if they wanted to meet before that, we went we could. They declined and said they would be over later. So for the rest of the night Bodda and I were freaking out!  We had no clue if we were in trouble for something (not that we would have any reason to be), or if was because we were getting a third companion or what.  We went to our appointment and then to dinner.  We called the ZLs and asked if they had any idea what the APs wanted and they had no clue.  We got home and about 20 minutes later the APs call and tell us there were outside.  We went outside to greet them and we saw that President Cooke wass with them, so now we really started worrying!   

 

 

They came into our apartment and President Cooke wanted to look around at our apartment because he hadn't been in that apartment before. He really like it a lot.  Then he sat us down and started asking us questions.  How the work in the area is going and if we were being obedient, like getting up on time and stuff like that.  After we answered those questions, he told us that he wanted us to start working with the members more. He wanted us to start teaching the lessons to the members so that we were teaching more. Then he said that in two weeks he wanted to go on exchanges with us and our roommates. He wanted to go on any appointment that we set up.  That could be less actives, active members, investigators, or recent converts. They were here for a total of maybe 15-20 minutes and then left.  So now we have exchanges to go on with the president and the APs in two weeks. 

 

 

Today, for P-day, there was a lot of sweating going on.  First we went to the gym with a couple of Elders. Naturally there was a lot of sweating there. Then after that Elder Bodda wanted to go throw a football around, so we did! Today was around 95 degrees and extremely humid.  If you were outside for longer then 5-10 minutes then you would start sweating whether you were being active or not.  We threw the ball around for a bit, and then other Elders showed up and we played a game of football.  Holy cow! I felt like I broke mission rules by going swimming by how sweaty I was!   Today was a pretty fun day :). It helped me lose a lot of weight too, which was really nice :).

Well I hope y'all have enjoyed this week's letter! I hope you have a great week and that you recognize the blessings that you have received.   :)   I love and miss you all!

Love,

 

Elder Gold