Snowed In and Snow fun! (2/23/2015)

Hey Everyone!
 
This has been a really slow week.  We had a few appointments, but we have been snowed in for the the majority of the week.  This past week we met with Anatole and Sister D. and then we had tons of fun in the snow! Then rest of the time we were snowed in or checked on people. This past Friday we went over to visit with Sister D. She has been less active for quite a few years now and we have been trying to work with her to help her come back. Her health is going down hill and one of the senior couples said she has the beginning stages of dementia. Well we lost contact with her.  We tried calling her and dropping by but no one would come to the door and her phone service was shut off. Well we finally dropped by Thursday and she said she wasn't decent. We told her we could come back the next day if she wanted and she told us that it was up to us. That was our first bad sign.
    
We went back the next day and she let us in, but we could tell she was not happy. We were sitting there trying to get her to talk and she was hardly answering us. We asked how her day was and all she said was alright. Then we made the comment about her heat being back on, because it was off for a while, and all she said was yup.
Also any time she answered us, she had a tone of voice like she didn't want to talk to us. Since she wasn't answering us I asked if we could share a spiritual thought with her. She stared at me for a good minute with a look as if to say "Really? You're asking me that right now?" And then rolled her eyes and said no she didn't want us to
and continued watching TV. I told her I didn't  mean to offend her if I did and that I was just asking because I thought it could spiritually uplift her.  She was very cranky and said some not very nice things to us.  However, we worked it all out and did some more service for her.
     
Then the lesson with Anatole was awesome! The last time we met with him we read Alma 32, but we didn't finish it. So we left him with the commitment of finishing it before we came back. Well we went back and he had read the rest of the chapter! We asked him what the chapter was saying and he relayed back to us about how it's relating faith to a
seed and how if we don't nourish it it won't grow and so on. It was way awesome! We discussed a little more about what the chapter was saying and how he could apply it to his life.
       
After that, we taught him about the Ten Commandments! We asked him if he knew what the Ten Commandments were, like generally and not what each one was, and he understood they were "rules" given to us by God to help us grow our faith. Which is true! So we just explained a little more as to how we got them. Then we went through the actual Ten Commandments. Because he has a hard time reading in English, he had a little bit harder time understanding what some of the stuff meant. We explained where needed and he understood and it was awesome!!!
      
As I mentioned earlier, we had a few snow days! The Missionaries are all supposed to stay home when there is a big snowfall to avoid weather related accidents.  Well we had a lot of fun! The first snow day we went and tackled each other into the snow and white washed each other!  Then later, Elder Crandall and Elder Squire (an Elder in the Spanish program) grabbed their bikes took them off jumps and skidded around in the snow. Elder Squire biffed it pretty hard I guess.  He was acting all manly about it.   Haha!  It was pretty funny. I asked him if it hurt and he was like "Nah,
it was super fun!". Then like twenty minutes later Crandall asked him to go back out with the bikes and Squire told him no because he got hurt last time and didn't want to get hurt again.  Ha! I just laughed so hard. I called him out on how he said it didn't hurt and he was like "Ok, it did hurt! I just had to act manly for you guys!". It was too funny.
   
Then this past snow day we went to a park nearby and went sledding!! It was so fun! We kinda moved a round a few times to find just the right spot. We never really did find a good spot, so we broke out into a snowball fight that lasted at least a 1/2 hour! It was super awesome! I was on exchanges with one of our ZL's (he and I were companions that day).  We were like ninjas, dodging all the snowballs, one right after the other.  Then when we retaliated, we would nail the others.  Ha!  It was sick! The rest of the time we stayed inside and tried to be productive as we could.  :)
     
So about the iPads and Facebook... This past Tuesday, we got an email saying that two general authorities were going to visit the mission and give us some instruction on some things. Then Wednesday afternoonish, I got a call from Elder Squire and he tells me that he was told by other missionaries, who heard from president directly, that when the general authorities come that they will be getting rid of our old iPads and then giving us new ones! The reason they are doing this is because they are finally ACTUALLY unavailing the iPads to the world of missionaries. I guess in the church when they release new stuff the old has to be done away. I know all of the US is getting them and I think parts of Europe will be also. Then on top of that he said that they will be taking away Facebook for a few months. The reasons behind this change is that they want the missionaries to be retrained to use online proselytizing because new instructions are coming out for it.  President Cooke also said that people are spending way too much time on Facebook, so he's taking it away to show how much we need it, or something like that.
        
Thursday President Cooke and confirmed that with us as well.  Then Friday when I was on exchanges with one of the ZL's, he explained further that anyone going home within a transfer isn't getting either back. The ZL also said that we won't be getting the new iPads the same day as the meeting tomorrow. They will be there before transfers though. So I'll be iPad-less for a few days.  Ha!  That's ok though :).
       
Sadly to say, we have never been able to get in contact with Kenneth. We have called him and dropped by multiple times and he just never answers and/or is home. Needless to say we had to drop him. Also, Amy has fallen off the face of the earth. We can't get a hold of her at all. We would stop by, but she asked us to not drop the house where she is a nanny because she could loose her job. We will just have to wait and see if she turns up or not.
       
Well this has been our week! It was pretty slow, but super fun! Hopefully we have another great last week-and-a-half before I go home!
 
I love you all and have a great week!

Love,
Elder Gold

Trials of Faith and A Valentine's Day Blizzard! (2/16/2015)

Hey Everyone!

 

This week was great!  We FINALLY had a teaching appointment with Anatole! Then on top of that we had an amazing lesson with one of the members! Then on top of THAT, we had the ward Valentine's party that ended with a blizzard that we walked home in!  It was crazy!

       

We were so excited this week to finally meet with Anatole!  We hadn't been able to meet with him for like two or three weeks because his manager went on a super long vacation.  Anatole had to pick up the hours, so he was pretty much working every single day.  Finally his boss came back, so now his Fridays are free again and we can come over and meet with him.

         

If you remember a few letters ago, I mention that we were having some problems with the French Elders because they thought that they should be teaching him.  On top of that the Zone Leader said "It would be good for them (the French Elders) to have somebody to teach". Well we decided that we would pass the reference over to the French Elders, but not for either of those reasons. We decided that because Anatole speaks French, we wouldn't be able to find people to fellowship him as well as they could in the French group that is a part of their ward. So, for this lesson we brought Elder Winn with us. Elder Winn is one of the two French elders that are in our ward for the French group. His companion is from the Ivory Coast had to go back due to some passport problems.  So Elder Winn has just been floating around from companionship to companionship while mostly staying with the ZL's. We decided to bring him along so we could introduce him to Anatole.

          

In the lesson we read from Alma 32, which talks about faith. The whole point behind us sharing this particular scripture with him was so that way he could see how being humble brings blessings and opens your heart more to the gospel.  We were trying to help him understand what faith is so that he might apply it when asking his boss to have Sundays off. We felt like he was still extremely hesitant to ask his boss. For some reason that he won't express to us, he just won't talk to his boss about having Sundays off. Elder Winn brought up the fact that we have an Employment Specialist that he could talk to about getting a new job.  Anatole liked that idea, but told us that he was on a contract with the people he works for and that at the end of the year, if he did well, he would get a bonus. So I honestly have no idea what's going to end up happening with Anatole.  If he's going to have to stick with this job until the end of the year, and then on top of that he's not willing to ask his boss for Sunday's off, then he will never be able to make it to church and thus he won't be able to get baptized. It stinks that I have so little time left because I would love to see what happens with Anatole.

           

Also this week we met with Sister B! She such a wonderful lady! Sister B is an African-American sister who joined the church back in the early 2000s. She has had a lot of struggles in her life and still continues to deal with them today.  We shared with her a Mormon message called "The will of God". For those of you who haven't seen it, D. Todd Christofferson narrates this message.  He speaks about overcoming trials and why trials have a place in our life. It's really a wonderful Mormon message and I highly encourage you to watch it when you have the time.

         

Anyway! Back to Sister B.   We shared that message with her and Elder Humphrey also read the scripture in Ether 12 that talks about how when we come unto God, he will show us our weakness and help us to become strong. Then I shared a scripture in D&C 122 about when Joseph Smith was in liberty jail and he asked God where God was in all of this pain and suffering.  The Lord's response is basically something to the effect of "no matter what happens to you know that everything is happening for purpose and it will be for your good". All of this was done with Elderr Humphrey and I bearing strong testimony in between and asking her questions that really made her think about the hard times that she's been going through. During and after the movie she was crying and you can just tell how strong she felt the spirit. It was really an amazing lesson.  I was really glad that we are able to help her.

          

Then this past Saturday we had our Ward's Valentine's Day party!  It was super fun!  There was food, music, dancing, and just tons of fun!  It was a great missionary opportunity because there were a lot of non-members there.  We were able to walk throughout the party, mingle and get to know everybody. Elder Humphrey and I made red velvet, cream cheese brownies for the party. They were.... interesting...Haha. The cream cheese sauce on the top came from a packet that was in the box.  It had kind of a weird flavor to it.  I mean it had the cream cheese flavor, but you could tell there was just a little tinge of something else in it. All in all though the party was awesome, the people were awesome, and the night was awesome!  Especially with the storm!

           

The same night as the party, Elder Humphrey had the phone, which is key to the story I am going to share in a second. I had just gotten done talking to a table of people and I noticed that Elder Humphrey, and pretty much the rest of the missionaries, weren't in the gym anymore. I remembered that the ZL's were upstairs in one of the clerk's office doing numbers for the Stake, so I figured the other missionaries went up there to see them. Now depending on what exit out of the Cultural Hall take you don't pass by any doors or windows, so you never see outside when you're going upstairs. When I got up there and saw that they were all gathered around looking like they're already to go. I asked "where's everybody going?". They all kind of answered me at once, but I understood that we had gotten a call out from the AP's that had told everybody to go home because there was a snow storm outside. I didn't have the phone, so I didn't believe them at first. I ran downstairs really quick and looked out the window of the double doors that lead outside. When I did look outside, I saw nothing but a white-out blizzard! It was so crazy! We had been expecting a snow storm, but it ended up being a blizzard.

            

Like I mentioned the AP's had sent out a voicemail telling everybody to go home.  All of the missionaries grabbed their stuff and left. Unfortunately we didn't have a ride back to our apartment. The East and the South Elders were able to take the bus, but us (the North) and the West had to walk home in the Blizzard.  When we first started walking home it was still super crazy outside. The wind was mostly blowing the snow in one direction, so half of my head turned white because of the snow! I hadn't brought a beanie with me because I wasn't expecting it to snow and I thought the person who gave us a ride to the party would be giving us a ride home. By the time we got home we were all covered in snow.  It snowed the entire time we were walking, but the first five or 10 minutes  that we were walking it was a blizzard. After 10 minutes of walking, the snow started to slowly fade away until it wasn't snowing at all anymore. It was still super fun, but it was still also extremely windy.  Huge gusts of wind hit us as we walked. After we got home Elder Crandall and Elder Squire took their bikes and went skidding in the snow. We all went out there shortly (some of us with our bikes and some without), and everyone played in the snow. We were tackling each other, "whitewashing" each other, and just having fun!  After that we went inside and had some hot chocolate :) It was great :).

        

The next day, Sunday, we get another call out from the AP's. This time, even though it wasn't snowing, they told us that President Cooke wanted everybody to stay inside until further notice.  I think it was because of a few things. Probably the biggest one was the fact that the roads were still really icy.  Then the other things was it was still extremely windy and temperatures were in the low teens.   We went to church and then came straight home. Then about 5:30-ish we got another call out saying that it was okay for us to go out to do missionary work but to not use our cars if we don't have to. Well we don't have a car. number one and number two, it was still extremely windy with freezing temperatures.  So we decided to still stay inside, but to update records, our map, and do online time. That way we wouldn't get frost bite biking around :).

        

Well that's been our week! I hope you enjoyed reading and that you have as great of a week as we did. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Gold

Out With The Old...In With The New...(2/9/2015)

Hello Blogger Friends (where ever you may be...)

     

We had a great week this week!  We received three referrals, went to the Night of Music and Inspiration last night, we had interviews with President AND Sister Cooke this week. Then the not so good part was that Elder Humphrey got pretty sick during the week.

      

We were SO excited to get the referrals because the work had slowed down a lot. We had to drop a lot of our investigators the past few weeks, due to them not being interested anymore or because they have been out of town for a long time.  Some just weren't making progress because they don't speak/understand English very well.

      

The first referral we got was for a guy named Kenneth B. We got his info on our phone and then the same day the AP's called on behalf of President Cooke and told us that he was a referral from the D.C. South Mission President.  Kenneth works with a couple of members in Virginia at a Domino's store as a pizza delivery driver. They also told us that they would like us to report any progress that we make with him to report to President Cooke directly. It's kinda nerve racking that we have to do that, but at the same time I'm just fine with it because it holds us accountable.  We have tried calling him probably 3 or 4 times, and we have stopped by once. We'll stop by a few more times and if we can't get a hold of him, then we will most likely have to drop him. 

        

Then the other referral that we got was Amy P.!   She is sooooo solid!!  Elder Humphrey called her and said that we had received info that she was interested in learning more about our church and she was like "Oh! Yeah I am!" and we're were pretty shocked!  The referrals that we get over the phone are usually never really interested!  She was though!  She told us that she couldn't meet at her house because she's a live-in nanny and the family that she works for wouldn't like us in their home. We told her that we could meet at our church or at the library if she wanted to and she said she would love to! 

         

Then we had a hiccup. When the referral was sent out, it was also sent to the sisters in the singles ward for the D.C. area. So before we could even meet with Amy, the sisters had dropped by her house and left a note inviting her to church. Well we had to call the sisters and see what they were doing because at this point we had no idea what was happening.  If she was 31 years or older, then we would teach her. If she was younger than 31 but older than 18 then the Sisters would teach her. We checked and to make things more complicated, she's 30 and a half. So long story short, we told Amy that she could come to our ward and see how she likes it and then go to the 

Singles ward and see how she likes it.  Then which ever one she feels more comfortable in, then the missionaries that are assigned to that ward will teach her.  Another reason that we know she's solid Is because through this whole mix up, she's still willing to do what ever is necessary to get taught!  She just wants to learn and doesn't care how or who, just as long as she learns more :). She is totally going to get baptized!  Unfortunately, by the time she does I'll be home :(. So dumb! But I'll visit her when I come back out :). 

       

Anyway, she came to our ward and loved it! She had a concern that we tried to answer, but she still didn't seem quite satisfied.  So I'm going to study up more in order to better answer it.  Then on top of that, there was a Night of Music and Inspiration event that was going on at the Visitors' Center.  Well before Amy went to Relief Society, we invited her to go, telling her that we understood if she couldn't because it was such short notice. SHE CAME ANYWAY!  We were so shocked! That day was the first time that we met her and  she came to church and NMI! I t was crazy! We are super excited for her! :)

     

As for the last referral, we haven't been able to get a hold of them yet. We have tried, but we just can't. We'll see how that goes.

 

Then this past week was kinda bad because a member fed all the missionaries when he was feeling sick with a stomach bug and then two of the missionaries got sick!   Really early Thursday morning, like 2:30 am, I woke up to Elder Humphrey getting back into bed, but instead of laying down, he just sat up in his bed. A few seconds later he asked if I was awake. I replied "kinda" ha. He then proceeded to tell me that he had just thrown up three times and had been sick out the other end as well, if you get what I mean. I asked if he was ok and if there was anything I could do. He said not at the moment but that he wanted me to give him a blessing later. So we went back to sleep and before the other Elders left we gave him a blessing.  Then we stayed home the rest of the day to let him rest. All of our appointments canceled that day, which is the only time that has been a blessing.

      

Then last but not least the funniest part of all!  The Spanish, who live upstairs from us were in our apartment and they wanted to shave The Flash's (the superhero) logo onto Elder Stevenson's chest because he is REALLY hairy. Well he didn't want us to. So we started messing around and moving closer to him, like we were going to grab him. We weren't really going to, but we were making him think we were. In the process of us moving towards him, he kicked me where the sun don't shine! HaHa!  I was so not happy.  I tackled his legs off the bed and then everyone jumped on him and we tried shaving the flash's logo into his chest. Hahaha!  We decided that it ended up looking like Casper the Friendly Ghost, but it was worth it!!  Haha. Stevenson wasn't too happy about it at first, but then he thought it was funny how badly we sucked at shaving it. It was great!

        

Well today we had a Zone activity and we did a murder mystery!  It was pretty fun. I didn't want to go because I have a lot of stuff to see in D.C. and so little time, but the ZL's pleaded with us to go because it would ruin the activity if we didn't. So we decided to go, and it was pretty fun! I thought it was going to be really dumb, but it wasn't :). 

       

Well that was our fantastic week!! I hope that you have a great one as well! See you in a few weeks! ;P

 

Love,

Elder Gold