Elder Gold Goes To DC North: 2015

Hey Everyone!

This week was straight up packed! We were pretty much doing stuff every single day of the week! Monday was P-day, on Tuesday we had a conference with Elder Schweitzer of the 70 and Brother Gonzalez from the Missionary Department, on Wednesday we had our temple trip, on Thursday I had my departing dinner with the Cookes. On Friday we met with Anatole and the Phantumhives, Saturday we were able to go to Riches' house (a member from the Chevy chase ward) for lunch, then we had the transfer callouts and then Sunday we had church (but it was shortened to only Sacrament Meeting due to the weather).

Last Monday we went to a little shop, kind of a hole in the wall, and they have a ton of awesome sweatshirts, shirts, hats, medallions, and little trinkets here and there. It's great though because you can usually get it at a pretty cheap price. Shirts are usually five or eight dollars, a sweatshirt is maybe $15 and they sell hats at is two for $10. It's just really inexpensive. So we went there and got some stuff. Well I spent quite a good amount of money there, so as I was checking out the shop owner gave me this cool medallion/coin thing. It has the presidential seal on one side, and then it has the White House on the other side. Around both sides of the medallion/coin thing, it says what the coin depicts. I was super grateful and thanked him for it. As I was walking out I told the guys about it and they asked to see it. I took it out to show it to them, and as they were looking at it they noticed that there was a little bit of a typo on one side you'll have to look at the picture I'm attaching to see what that is. :)

Then after we went to that shop, Elder Manning was with us and he had told us that his grandpa used to live in DC as a kid. So he asked if it would be alright to go and find his Grandfather's house so he could take a picture front of it. We were all fine with it that because he said it wouldn't be too far of a walk from where we were. I'm pretty sure we ended up walking for about a half hour to 45 minutes, maybe an hour, trying to find his Grandpa's house. He had the address, and a picture from the maps application on our iPad, but we had no idea where we were on the map. We had a general direction of where we were going, but were still kind a lost. After a while of wandering around, we had a wonderful blessing from the Lord. Elder Humphrey got Wi-Fi on his iPad so we were able to look up exactly where the house was and where we were. We started going the wrong direction, but luckily we weren't too far off. When we finally got to his Grandpa's house we took a picture. He told me previously that his Grandpa's house number was 1258, but he took a picture for house # 1250. I brought that up to him and he said "no it's 1250". I didn't want to argue because I had no idea what the actual address was. I later found out that I was right, it was 1258 and he just didn't listen. Oh well.

On Tuesday, we had the conference with Elder Schweitzer and Brother Gonzales. They came to our mission because they were finally unveiling the iPads to the missionary world. In this conference they didn't really talk about how we were to physically use the iPads, or what the operating system looked like. They talked about how we would use it in our teaching, the importance of the iPads and missionary work. They shared with us what a gift that it is from our Heavenly Father, and how, while it is a gift, it can also be a temptation and a distraction. They told us and taught us how to set up barriers to keep ourselves from being tempted and distracted. They also passed out, I guess you could call it, the "online proselyting White Bible". It's not really a small white booklet like the missionary handbook is, rather it's a big booklet on the rules of the iPads, how they are to be used and such. Then the second book was how to use it for online proselyting and in our daily proselyting. It was actually very wonderful and inspired confidence really helped us to understand that even sometimes when I think something we're doing is good, it may not be how the iPad was intended to be used for missionary work.

Even though it was a great conference and super inspiring, none of it applied to me because none of this was going to take effect until we actually get the new iPads, which I'm pretty sure won't even come until after I'm gone. So really Tuesday, for most of the day, it was just kind of a waste of a day for me because I just sat there listening. For those who are staying though, I think it was a really wonderful conference.

Wednesday was awesome! It was finally the long awaited "death" temple trip for me! All the missionaries who are going home that transfer actually go to the temple about an hour and a half early before the session starts. In that time the temple President addressed us and just talked about the blessings of the temple and how we can use that in our lives when we get home from our missions. I also gained some new insight about the temple garment that I had never really thought of before. That is, it's not so much the garment itself that protects us, however its what the garment stands for and what it means, that protects us in our daily lives. As we keep it in our mind daily and remember the covenants that we took upon ourselves we will be blessed with protection. I knew the garment itself, (like the actual fabric), wasn't "magical", like the mithril chain mesh in the Lord of the rings, but for some reason I did have it in my mind that it was the garment itself that protected us and not what it represents. It was a really cool experience :).

After having such an amazing Wednesday at the temple, the next day, Thursday we had the departing missionary dinner at the Cooke's. That was such a blast! When we got there (we being Elder Treasure, Elder Porter, and I), we started working on a scrapbook page that the Cooke's have all of the departing missionaries make. What they do with that is once you've made it, they put it in a sheet protector and when you go home if you send them a wedding invitation,a graduation invitation or something along those lines, they put it in the sheet protector with your scrapbook page. That way they can keep track of all of the missionaries they have served with and what's going on in their lives. Then they also had us mark our favorite scripture and sign our name next to it. Last but not least, they had us sign a picture frame of the DC temple. The Cookes have a lot of memorabilia stuff from missionaries that go home.

After working on the scrap book, we had the actual dinner. It was a wonderful lasagna, Caesar salad, mixed medley vegetables, and garlic bread. As we were eating President Cooke asked us to go around the table and share the high and low of our missions. Some talked about investigators that they worked with that got baptized and some talked about investigators that were solid that they had to drop. I talked about how my high was the six months that I spent down in the Patuxent ward and my low was how hard it was at the start of my mission. Then for the rest of the time we just sat, talked, joked and laughed.

After dinner, we retired to the living room and sat in a giant circle around the room. At that time, President Cooked asked us to share the funniest story that we had experienced on our mission. I told the story of one of the ladies in one of my previous wards. Now you have to realize, this lady was absolutely nuts! I don't know if her brain was fried from drugs or if she's got some mental problems (probably a mix of the two), but she gets very aggravated really fast and then the next thing you know she's your best friend. So the first day that I met her at church, I was sitting in Sacrament meeting and we were singing. She came and sat next to me (about a foot away) so she was pretty much sitting on top of me, and began to sing extremely loud and off-key. Since she was so close, this ended up being sung pretty much right in my ear. Then a little ways into sacrament meeting, I felt a deep rumble on the bench and a few seconds later I got slapped in the face by a brick wall of smells! The worst part is that when she realized she had made some smells, she got up and walked away to finish "releasing the beast!" I scooted to the entire other side of the bench as fast as I could without being irreverent in Sacrament.

Later she cornered me and just went off about how some missionaries were being mean to her and started quoting Scripture at me, telling me that I was condemned and those that do evil will be damned to hell. Then she looked over and saw another Elder named Elder Andrade. He is from Mexico, but for some reason he looks like he has a little bit of Asian descent in him. So this sister, in the middle of "condemning" me, said "hold on just one second." She walked over to Elder Andrade and then proceeded to bow to him like a Chinese person and "spoke" Chinese to him. Haha! He paused for a moment and then said, in his Hispanic accent, "I'm from Mexico". Hahaha! You should've seen the look on her face when she realized the mistake that she had made. It was pretty funny.

Anyway, back to the departing dinner. After we had gone around and told our funny stories, President Cooke went around the room and shook everybody's hand and in doing so "shook" the mission coin into our hands. It's a pretty cool coin! It has the DC Temple on one side and then the outline of the mission with the DC flag and the Maryland flag on the other side. The best part is this one was actually printed right!

So after all was said and done, and all of the interviews the president had to do were done, we all went our separate ways to go home. It was a really wonderful night and a really wonderful experience! I'm going to miss the Cookes a lot.

Then Friday we had an amazing lesson with Anatole and the Phantumhives. With Anatole we taught him about the temple and the the blessings there in, We shared a bit about family history and how he could (once he became a member of the church) do the temple work for his father who passed away. When he heard that there is a second chance and a way for his father to hear about the restored gospel that he was learning about, that made him extremely happy and I think really brought it home for him. We invited him to go to the Visitor's Center right next to the temple so that he might be able to learn a little more about the temple and the work that is done there. He seemed kind of hesitant He was concerned that he wouldn't be able to get up there because it was such a far drive and he didn't have a car. We told him that we could find him a ride. Then he was more than happy and willing to visit. It was really good to be able to bear my testimony to him for the last time and be able to let him know of the blessings that are in store for him as he continually meets with the missionaries. I'm really going to miss Anatole, his sweet spirit and desire to learn about the restored gospel.

With the Phantumhives, they had us over for dinner which was really delicious! We had already had a humongous lunch so I was only able to eat one of them, but they have these really good burgers that she had infused with bell peppers and her husband had put in cubes of of Velveta cheese. Like I said, they were super, super good! We sat and talked for a while and in doing so I found out that they had pets, which we didn't know before. I asked what kind they were and I became as giddy as a little kid when I found out what they were. They had two ferrets! I was so stinking excited! I remember back in my mid-teens that I went to Petco and they had a whole display of ferrets. I tried convincing my parents to get us one, but they didn't. I have still wanted one ever since. We had to begin the lesson with the Phantumhives because otherwise we were going to be super late for curfew. But I asked if it would be okay if we held the ferrets while we gave the lesson. They were more than happy to bring them down! So we sat there and taught them about trials and how sometimes we don't understand why we have trials, but God does. He understand the bigger picture and understands why we need them. We did all this while holding the ferrets

. Best day of my life! Haha

That same night we got the transfer callouts. Turns out, they are whitewashing our entire apartment and the Spanish elders upstairs as well. They are completely getting rid of our apartment and moving the Elders somewhere else. We were super shocked to find out that they were white washing all of us. We didn't really understand why because although we had been probably the two slowest areas in the district, we were all starting to pick up new investigators. (Whitewashing is when all the current missionaries are moved and and all new missionaries are put in. It's a whitewash when Elders are put in and it's a pink wash when Sisters are put in.)

So on Thursday after transfers the other Elders have to come back to the apartments and clean everything out. Let me tell you that will be no small task! Haha. There is so much stuff in that apartment! We have a closet called "The Jones closet" It is completely filled with stuff that previous Elders didn't want to keep, so they threw it in the closet and future Elders can take what they want out of it. So they're going to have fun cleaning all of that out! Luckily I'll be home, so I don't have to help. Haha! Just kidding. I'll actually be helping out a lot on Tuesday to clean and get the apartment ready.

Saturday was an awesome experience! I met up with a dear friend of mine from the Chevy Chase ward (my first area). I remember that me and my companion at the time would go over to Rich's work and help him out by sorting carpet samples (he worked for a commercial carpet company). Then he would buy us lunch. He loved to give the missionaries nicknames. He gave elder Epperson the nickname of "hammer" because if you can throw a Frisbee upside down and still make it to the person, that is called a hammer. I guess Elder Epperson could do it. He gave me the nickname of "lucky strike" because of my first name and last name. Haha. THe also nicknamed Elder Gremillion the "gremlin" because he thought his attitude resembled that of a gremlin,(not so much that he was mean and nasty like onem but I can't remember what he real reasons was though.)

Anyway, Elder Humphrey, the Spanish Elders and I all went over to his house for lunch. It was really awesome catching up with him, seeing how he's been doing and what's been going on in his life. For lunch he provided an entire plate of potato salad with pork and chicken on the top. It was an interesting combination, but it tasted good! By the end of the meal though we were all extremely full! Rich told us that he knew of some previous Elders that when he would feed them, and they got too full, they would lay down on the floor and roll around. Then, when they got back up they were ready for more food. So we tired it! Yeah.. It didn't work Ha. I'm seriously going to miss that guy! He's one of the people that really helped me to make it through the beginning part of my mission by just showing kindness and love.

The next day, Sunday, the weather was forecasted to snow all day. We were interested to see whether or not they would cancel church. Well we didn't hear anything all morning so we went to church. After sacrament meeting we had "freezing rain", so they canceled the rest of church told everybody to go home. Well thanks to my wonderful Mama, she had one of her friends send her husband and daughter to the Church to deliver a package and a cake. Then they gave us a ride home from church as well, which was very much appreciated considering the weather. I'm extremely grateful for their generosity and willingness to come up to DC, because they live in Virginia. Later that night with the stuff from my package, we had a little bit of a going away party for all of us and ate the cake! I wanted to try and do it on Monday, but the next couple days are going to be so busy with packing and cleaning that there wouldn't be any time. The cake was wonderful, the company was wonderful and we just had a great time!

Well everybody this is the last letter that you will read from Elder Gold. I hope you have enjoyed reading my letters the past two years as much as I have enjoyed keeping you updated on my mission and the progress of my investigators, members, less actives, and even myself. It really, truly has been some of the best two years of my life. There's been some really high ups and some really low downs, but through it all I've learned, I've grown, I have progressed, and (because of my mission), I am forever changed into the man that I am today. Serving a mission has been one of the greatest honors, privileges, and choices I have ever made in my entire life. There were things on my mission that I learned and came to understand that I know I would have no other way of learning besides coming on a mission. I can't thank my Heavenly Father and my Savior enough for giving me this opportunity to serve them for these past two years.

I have come away from my mission with a testimony 10x stronger than when I left. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he is Jesus the Christ. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that through him our Savior Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father restored the true church of Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that "a man can get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." I have gained a greater testimony of prayer, the power behind it and the blessings that our Heavenly Father is willing to grant us as long as we ask. I love you all so very much and I promise you all, as a representative of Jesus Christ, that as you follow the teachings of the gospel and follow the commandments of God, you will never be lead astray and will prosper your lives. I leave this with you in our Savior's name, even Jesus Chris, Amen

Love,

Elder Gold