Pues ya no temáis...‏ (December 8, 2014)

Well! There we go! one more week that has come and gone and i just didnt even realize it! we had this awesome FHE on monday, its a member who organizes it every week, and we brought 14 people! i put on a tiny video that shows 4 of the 6 members who were there... and 14 negritos! (i can say that in spanish. its not offensive, in english its just calling them black) but it was gret! its all coming from one family, we just keep finding more and more of this family who want to go to church! we went to church with them this week as well and found more kids! its awesome! 

Tghis week we had divisiones with the assitants, i dont know if i already mentioned thi, but Elder Mangum, my comp from the MTC is now the assistant so its cool to see him a lot more but they came down to work with us on thursday, i worked with the other assitant Elder Palomino... and i got to take the half of the sector that we didnt have as many people in.... soooooo that was interesting! plus we had this list of people that i always carry around in my folder in my bag but that day, Elder Gines had taken it! sooo we were basically just chillin over there with not much to do, however, intercambios with Assitants are awesome because we always see some miracle! we have this family that got baptized almost a year ago went for 3 weeks and then never went again... so that was sad, and we have tried to visit them a few times but they havent really been interested, and we went with Elder Palomino and they just let us in! so easy! and we shared with the whole family and one of the daughters that didnt get baptised! they are basically not members though... they are just people who got baptised... they never read the book of mormon... they dont believe that the church is the only true church... they dont know the doctorine, they just know that the church is good.... so we are gonna have lots of work to do with them but it should be good!! hopefully they will progress.

This week was a little bit hard for me in general, i was feeling a little bit sad but then i remembered something that i had learned earlier on in the mission that i wasnt doing... enjoying the journey, i was just living it, and working hard! but i wasnt enjoying what i was doing or counting my blessings. so i started that up again and ive been feeling a lot better. its funny how the world really does HAVE to be like that. WE have to go through some times that are worse than others so that we can remember what happiness is. bad times are truly inevitable, but so are GOOD times. and EXCELLENT times. we just have to find the joy that we can in all those times. thats the awesome part about the gospel, it helps us deal with this stuff and have a happy outlook, and even when things get beyond our control, thats when Christ comes in to save the day. I feel like he just works with us every single moment, its just that sometimes when we dont feel like we need him as badly, when things are good, we dont feel him as much, but when things get bad again we can notice his push as it gets a little harder. Basically... the Church is true and im so grateful for it. Carolina, the lady who got baptised had a REALLY hard week this week. but I know that she has the tools to get though it. its sad for us to that she had a hard time, but thats part of life. all we can do is juust keep on pushing! it all works out in the end!

Saturday morning we also helped dig a whole that these people are gonna use as their bathroom! Its incredible how these people can live so happily with so little. They dont have hot water, plumbing, a nice shower head, a sink, a bathtub. they have a hose and some big buckets of water that they use. they siphone the water out with the hose and use it in smaller buckets to do everything. There entire house is literally as big as the upstairs livingroom in our house. they have 2 beds and they are 5 people living there. and thats not the worst ive seen by a long shot. but they are happy, and getting happier as we are teaching them the gospel. so. the world.  its all about perspective. I am very grateful for all the things that i have. sometimes i miss taco bell, or driving. but i have running hot water and a house and a bed to myself. that is all that i need.

So! the church is true! Also with the He is the Gift thing... go online and share it with all of your frineds! all of those who put like on your post, write them a message and if they are members tell them to do the same thing! and if they arent, invite them to learn more on the website, or just in general! fast and easy plan to share the gospel using only faccebook! do it!

I love you guys so much! have an awesome week! next week or possibly the week after i will let you know what time i will be calling! be happy! Emvbrace and share the Gift!

Elder Gold

(Mom's Note: Pues ya no temáis...‏means "Then be not dismayed...")

Thanksgiving!!! (December 1, 2014)

well... thanksgiving was pretty lame haha. we went to antofagasta a week early for the conference thing and spent all day on a bus or in the meeting. i was sorta praying that the office would just decide to make us a deliscious turkey lunch... but no luck there. however the pizza was deliscious and i was grateful to have dominoes in antofagasta. with ranch dressing. I remember in the states when i felt like thanksgiving got forgotten always... here... even amongst misisonaries from the states.... doesnt exist. but thats ok. everyone is all sorts of prepared for christmas! sorta. its crazy how fast the time passes. its already almost christmas again! how crazy is that!

We had a really calm start off to the week. we did splits for a few appointments... man, its feels so strange to be without my comp! i was with another guy... but im still like alone... i feel like everyone is just looking at me. we no longer share the attention. but its great. it saves us lots and lots of time! and we get to work with members wich is SUPER important! 

We went to antofagasta and then got back and got back to work, started preparing for the BAPTISM that saturday! that was awesome!!! it went off great, Elder Gines and I baptized and She invited lots and lots of her family and the ward went. it was a great experience, we had a little refreshment thing after and we were able to just chat for a bit... i cant explain it that well but it was just a really excellent baptism. we will almost definately start teaching some of her friends and family now and the ward is also excited about it! i love that! so in the near future there will definately be more baptisms. coming soon! The baptism was the big thing this week and it was soooo super duper awesome!!! love you all my family! have a great week!

Also! i was gonna write more about this but learn about He is the Gift! the new video from the church! and then go do things with it! we just realized that we have to go right now so i ran out of time! but more next week! do it!!! 

Love you

 Elder Gold

Bautenivar! (November 24, 2014)

So we just had another awesome week! parties all around! had intercambios with Elder Cazier and his "son". i was with Elder Duke and we had a sweet day! Found a couple new people to teach, and met this awesome colombian guy who was super excited to learn a bit more about the church, e already goes to a church but he is just such a great person that i will be surprised if he doesnt start seriously investigating. he just had such sincere desires to come unto Christ! so hopefully be talked about a little bit later on! but we had a fun day together. learned lots.

On Saturday we went to a baptism in El Palomar, my old sector, and saw Mary get baptized. i taught her for almost 2 months, it was great to see her take that step in her life. and it was fun to go back to my old Chapel! i miss those people. it was great to see them too. The baptism was great, and Carolina and Noemy went and really enjoyed it! they are getting baptized this saturday at 4 in the afternoon! Carolina asked me to baptize her. its gonna be a great day! She is so prepared and so excited! so we will keep helping her aftere her baptism to retain her and reactivate her friend who lives down the street. thus the word bautenivar, bautizar, retener, reactivar! thats how the misison should work, we do it all at once.

We had a couple great lessons this week, more people that are progressing really well. We are so blessed with people who have sincere desires to learn the gospel. so blessed. We have lots of members who are helping us as well. tonight, we have 3 lessons with members planned. its gonna be great! so, the mission is just awesome. i am so grateful to have a companin that is willing to work. He is great, we are both doing our best to be the best we can. Its funny this is the second time that i have lived alone with my comp, like just 2 in the apartment, but its really easy because he is just easy to get along with.

Its getting really really hot here! and i am turning into qa tomato... everyone makes fun of me. i always put sunscreen on! always! but... the sun here is just so much. so its gonna be a fun couple of weeks here in copiapo. hopefully i dont dry up. or get cancer. Elder Gines i so lucky, he just gets tan. and i burn. but thats ok! each to his own. at least its a good conversqation starter. evryone talks about it hahaha.

We have had lots of sucess in the whole zone, and we can just see it keep growing! also, the church is starting some new program thing, its called, "He is the Gift". so be watching out for that because it looks like its gonna be big, and really cool, WE are going to antofagasta this week to learn a little bit more about it and it looks like they are gonna do lots and lots of work for it!

Im loving the work, and we are working hard. hope you guys all have an excellent week! have a great thanks giving and happy birthday Tommy! have a good one. Love you lots!

Elder Gold

Monday, Tuesday, Happy Days (November 17, 2014)

And the party continues! So i wrote you last week and efinately thought that i had already passed my birthday but.... i was misstookened! my birthday was just late. on monday we went to go eat lunch with Roman and Yanina from my old sector wich was DELICIOUS as always! and then afterward they big out this massive gift! "happy birthday!" whaaaat.... so that was crazy and then they definately got me a suit! a suit! way to much money! but... its pretty feakin awesome. i feel pretty sexy in it... hope thats not bad to say. but that was awesome, then on wednesday we we had a family home evening with some members and we just had the lesson and normal and then they made me close my eyes and bam! massie birthday cake! totes enexpected! but thats ok! it was tasty! 

Also, we made the cake from the states......... sooooooooooooooooooooo ggggooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddddddddddd. we were both just rememvbering what real cake tastes like... it was fantastic. if anyone ever get more random urges to send me stuff, you could definately include a cake mik and i would not complain. yyyyuuuummmyyy. though it does feel really wierd to make your own cake haha. 

This week we also had some awesome moments with investigators... i dont think i can explain them. but we were just there with members and everyone is just expressing their feelings and you just feel this awesome spirit and you just get the urge to start shout singing praises or something. those moments are my favorite. CAroline is getting baptised! we arent sure exactly when but she is currently living the commandments! sooo shes ready! she is so excited. she went through some really big trials but she has so much faith its just awesome. We also shaed with Carmen who has been an investigator for like 9 months and she got super duper excited! and this sunday they showed up at like 9 30 to churh, they were the first people there. that was awesome. we went and helped them out again this weekend, working in the dirt, that is full of rocks, and the suuuuuunnnn is crazy here. but its a great workout! and we always have a good time. and we wlso went to help out at another house... we just have a lot of people who are doing big projects right now, but i put down cement for the first time there, like go it all even and such... that was fun. and then they made us food. also, we had 8 people in church this week... the pricipio del evangelio class was suuuper full! awesome! lovin that!

And an intercambio this week as well. just havin a good time. workin hard. teaching the gospel! seeing miracles! enjoying every second, theres nothing better than that!

I hope you all have an incedible week, keep the faith. there is nothing that has changed me more than the mission. i love this experience. thank you all for everything you have done to help me get here!

Elder Gold

Birfday Week! 20?!?!?!? (November 10, 2014)

Wow! so we had a party this week! last week i tlaked about how we were gonna have to be in the bus terminal every night... that definately happened. every night this week until 4 in the morning until friday night. 5 nights in a row. and it cost 10 bucks to take a taxi back to the pensh... luckily we had a couple people that saved us so we didnt have to do that EVERY night. but it was fun! we were suuuuuper tired. but thats just the mish ;) lovin it. on thursday we went to antofagasta again for a conference and our bus left like 12 and a half hours late... so we got to the cnference when they were already taking the break... but if nothing else we got some dominoes pizza :) mmmmmmmmmmmmm hahaha. no but the conference was sweet. we read all together 2 nephi 2 and talked about  some of the doctrine in there and applied it to missionary work... but it just barely struck me, in like... Jarom i think some guy basically just right "i know that the plates are true and im writing this down, and i dont have to write anything else because they have already written the plan of salvation down here" really bad paraphrase but there it is. anyways, i always htought wow... the plan of salvation is really well hidden then because i definately didnt take it out from there! but 2 nefi 2 is definately a huge part of it! it talks all about the creation and the fall of adam and the purpose of Jesus Christ. When you read the chapter well and analize it you can see how well it explains everything, the need for good and evil. the patterns of choice and the agency principle. it tells us exactly wht we need to do to be saved.... awesome. so that was a really uplifting experience for me. one of those huge testimony builders when you just have this moment like... "wow, the church is so true" and you just feel it so much. basically loved that! This saturday was my birthday! crazy how things like that sneak up on you in the mish, i had told my comp but nobody else. he remembered in the morning and said, happy buirthday. then we just kep working, we went to a couple apointments, then in the afternoon we had this big activity with the whole stake and we went there. it was really cool, the missionaries in our city (like 30 of them) all sang a few himns in a choir, im so glad that we had some awesome really talented musical people there. i kinda got put in charge of it but i do NOT know enough about music to do this stuff, so one of the hermanas helped us out a lot. PResident Dalton and our stake president both spoke during the activity and then after that we had a few baptisms... it was really awesome to see that. 4 people who were just REALLY excited to be baptised. it made us really happy and you feel the spirit. when it was about to end 2 hermanas who had seen that it was my birthday in the mission newsletter said happy buirthday and my comp started telling people but i escaped most of it :) just a really chill normal day! then the next day we went to go visit an investigator and it was his brothers birthday so my comp told them and they re lit the candles for me hahaha. so i got a little bit of cake the day after. and your packages :) thank you so much!!! This sunday we had a TON of people who said they were going to church and something happened with EVERY ONE OF THEM! well not everyone. 2 of them went, but i was expecting like 9... cant say i was super happy that moment but thats ok. next week will be better. just barely realized that the organization of this letter is terrible... one huge pragraph... but thats what happens when you are in a hurry. i will upload a few pics and such next week! hope you guys have an awesome week! keep it strong! keep the faith! read your scriptures! love you all!

Elder Gold