The time truly just flies by!

Dear Family! i love you all tons!

Well... Here we are again. another monday passed. time still just kindof freaks me out. i have already been here with Elder Turman for 3 weeks! the time truly just flies bye. These past few weeks have been really really interesting as far as cooking goes... im learning... i am content with eatng the same things for like 3 months in a row without too much problem... i can eat boring and it just doesnt bug me... but the other trhee Elders are all pushing for new and interesting food! so we have been having an adventure trying to figure out different meals, how to please everyone, keep it under budget. not take too much time and still have it taste good! Also... i do lots of the cooking... and i thought that i knew how to cook... but we dont have any recipes! so its all just kinda wingin it! WE have made fajitas. hot dogs and potatoes. this crazy soup that was really expensive and took like 2 hours to prepare. it has been really really interesting. SEASONING IS REALLY HARD! i almost always add way too little and its bland. then i convince myself to not make the same mistake AGAIN and i just kill the food with the seasoning! wow. it has been... entertaining to cook. adventures! but. we havent gotten sick or made anything to gross to eat. so thats good!

This week we have been trying to give Elder Turman more time talking... it is amazing how fast you learn the language. amazing. he still isnt like fluent or anything but the progress that he has made just in these past few weeks is phenomenal. he is really learning so fast. he is awesome.

I have been falling in love with the scriptures recently... sometimes i am just reading marking studying like normal and then i just hit this one verse that is really poweful so i start looking up cross references and definicions and all sorts of other thing and just like expand the single thought so much.. wow it is so satisfying. its such an intriguing moment when i am fully concentrated and just like excited and hungry for more and when i finish i just kinda sit back and breath deep and glory in the feeling for a moment.... thats happened to me before but it has happened a lot more within this last week.

Also, Elder Turman and i were talking about our lives and a little bit about my mision to this point and he made this comment "you seem like you arent the same person as you were before" he is so right. The change is intense. i have chnaged so much in the last couple months of my life... its just crazy. everytime i look back. i always think about the change in our lives and the overwhelming voice of the world right now that ays that we cant and shouldnt change who we are, or that its not our problem we are the way that we are. but that is so very wrong. we change every day. we make choices that chnage who we are. we make ourselves and its our choice. i am so grateful for the experiences i have had and the circumstances i have been under to be able to have made it to where i am today. so grateful.

I hope you are all very happy and content with your lives. The church is true. it blesses our lives more than we notice. or even are able to notice if we try. it is the oasis in the world of today.

Love you all

Elder Gold

We went to Antofagasta to pick up the new missionaries (April 14, 2014)

Hey fam!

Wow! it was a great week! on wednesday we went to antofagasta to pick up the new misisonaries! so we traveled 10 hours to go, got in in the morning and ate breakfast then had like a conference training type session there which was really good! really gives you the importance of training a new missionary. makes you feel it good. i was so excited. then we all sit in the room as they slowly pair of the missionaries 1 by 1! it was awesome! so much nervous! so i picked Elder Thurman before we started just who i thought it was going to be, and when that guy sat down to open his letter i was right! Elder Thurman is my new companion! my first gringo companion! We then had to wait for like 6 hourse for our bus so we went to the ocean in antofagasta and then to the mall and just kinda looked at things and wasted some time! then traveled 10 hours back! it was awesome! Then we started the week! it has been interesting to be doing everything! he doesnt speak any spanish! so we always speak spanish together but i speak really really slow that he can understand a little better. but with people... he is just silent hahaha. but it has been fun! we are learning really fast together! we have been having a good time! its a huge responsability but its incredible! im loving it so far!

One awesome experience this week was when i was passing the sacrament on sunday! i had a flasback kindof thing... welll not flashback but just an instant when i saw myself and the priests that were blessing as if we were doing it back in ancient israel, like with the ceremonial clothing that the priests wore... i know they didnt have the sacrament the same way but it just added a really big importance and specianess to what we were doing it was cool.

Like i said, now i just do almost everything! i speak to everybody, basically carry on the whole conversation, but then when we get teaching i always try to make him talk more because i know that thats how hes gonna be learning! its just all so different and such an adventure! 

I love this gospel! i love my calling! the church is true!!!

I hope you have all been well!

I love you all!

Elder Gold

Elder Cordoba preparing to serve with his new missionary

Elder Gold shining shoes for his new missionary - a Greenie!

Met up with Elder Mangum (MTC companion) in Antofagasta

My kid (a.k.a Greenie, new missionary) Elder Turman from Virginia

How great was the conference! (April 7, 2014)

Dear Beloved Family of Mine Who I Love Very Much,

This has been an interesting week! Luckily i am suuuper far away from all of the earthquakes and tsunami warnings... didnt feel a thing, so that was nice but it has still been huge news down here! But dont worry at all, i am super duper safe and im staying in Vallenar as well so i have no problems with that haha :)

This is a little paragraph we are supposed to send to you:

Sister Dalton has created a facebook group she is using to share news of the mission with parents of missionaries.  This was particularly helpful in sharing information during the earthquakes in the northern part of the mission last week.  If possible, we encourage you to connect to the mission in this way so that we can share information quickly with you.  We have also asked your missionary to share email addresses with us so we can contact you in that way.

You can become a member of the group by finding Hermana Sandra Dalton on facebook and sending her a friend request.  At the time you send the friend request, you must send Sister Dalton a message telling her the name of your missionary and how you are related (parent, brother, etc.)  Do not send a request to join the group directly, send a FRIEND request.  The group is not for extended family members, friends or girlfriends to just see what is happening in the mission, it is for the sharing of important information.

Also! How great was the conference! i dont know what you felt about it but i thought the music was Incredible this time! saturday night... the one about even tide. wow. hit me hard. I loved the conference! i felt so good! it answered a lot of questions and prayers for me! I personally felt like the thieme this week was to stick to your principles! have more faith in what you are doing and being more firm! as well as binding together with all people in order to do good! I love that even here in Chile we get to watch the conference in english. it just would not have been the same to watch Elder Holland "light it up" the first talk in spanish. wow! talk about power! like a punch in the face! but yes, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true :) im sure about that. 

This week, we ended another transfer. crazy how fast these six week peroids pass by. but! we got the call and i am going to be a trainer! I was TERRIFIED! gah! how in the world was i going to trian this guy??? but, conference solved all of my doubts, i was praying for help, comfort, and answers and i received in abundance! I know that i dont have to be 100 percent prepared to be ready to take on the challenge, this is is something that is going to last for my whole life, there will alw3ays be things that i dont feel toatally sure about, but i know that if i try my best, and keep having faith. we can ALL be filled with the Grace of the Lord and He will fill our gaps. that is beautiful.

Also, something that i loved was the talk about gratitud...  Elder Ucthdorf gave a talk about finding joy in the journey... then answered the questions how to do it... have gratitude.

So! Here we start with another spiritaul adventure and a new week to grow and try again. Life is good. I hope you are all very well! thank you for your love and your prayers!

God loves you! Jesus lives! He acts in our lives! i have felt the difference! i have planted the seed and i can SEE what it has done in my life. we can all do that.

I love you!

Elder Gold 

Post earthquake: All is well! (April 2, 2014

Hey! we have permission to write you guys a note today to let you know that all is well! it was a scare! pretty big earthquake! but where i am we didnt feel anything at all. None of the missionaries were harmed. Everyone is find. not even their houses were affected in anyway. They had fear of a tsunami but that didnt happen either. just some big waves. all is happy. the cities were well prepared to start the evacuation and everything. they evacuated almost the entire coast of chile. but im an hour inland as well. Lots of drama! but all is well and good. nobody harmed. no damage caused except for a lack of sleep for those in the office and those who had to be evacuated hahaha :) Im fine! dont worry about me! or any other missionary down here for that matter ha. Bye!

One year from my last surgery (March 31, 2014)

Hey family! 

Wow! sorry that i didnt write last week! we went to the beach in the city of Huasco like an hour away. The others went to play soccer in the sand and i went to play.... just in the sand hahaha. darn knee. cant do squat. but there it is. This week i completed 1 year from my last surgery! thats a little crazy!

The last week our trio ended! as im sure many of you know all of the foreign missionaries in venezuela got taken out. completely. They needed places to go, so we got to end the trio! Elder Claros! a Bolivian from La Paz! he has almost a year in the mission and is Elder Mirandas new companion! its been funny to relive through him what itwas like getting used to Chile. All the words and stuff that changed. Hes a good guy! I feel like a Giant around him! hes super duper short haha. sorry i dont have photos... my camera is throwing a fit.

We had a few great lessons this week. one of them where i almost cried. We were talking about the blessing the Gospel had made in our lives and one of the Hermanas who i feel like is on the point of leaving the Church sometimes who i feel like just hasnt quite been understanding realized what a proteccion the gospel can be in her life has been and woulds have been in her life. That was powerful. and beautiful. loved that moment.

And the other was with a Less active when we talked about the plan of salvation. I always know that the spirit is present and working through me when i dont have to try to talk and i feel like my mind is just working at full speed without any effort. i have a good memory ofall the important things i have learned and the words just kindof spill out of my mouth. the lesson wasa lot like that. and this guy was there with his two kids. they are with him through the weekend and with their mom in the week. I cant explain well all of the things that happened there, or why it was so special, but The spirit was strong. i was so happy. im looking forward to working with hime more.

Im so stoked for the conference! its gonna be awesome! i love knowing that when we are watching conference we are doing the exact same thing and hearing the exact same thing even though we are so far apart! i hope you all have your questions prepared!

You rock! thank you so much for your prayers and for your love! I love you all very much!

Elder Gold

Next week I will write better! (March 24, 2014)

Sorry! we went on an adventure this week so i dont have like any time! but next week i will write better! i love you all tons and hope you are very well!!! I hope the play is going... or ends great! weve had a decent week here. just working hard! trying our best every day! More next week! take care!

I don't know the word in English (March 17, 2014)

Hey Fam!

Its been a good week here in Vallenar! The day after Pday i went on a .... change? i dont know  the word in english. we traded spots for a day and i went to the other Sector with a newbie. so i got to meet a make friends with a whole  bunch of new people up there. we had a good day. His name is Elder Sherman. And my favorite part of the whole thing was that he plays  guitar.... ahhhhhh. I loved listening to that thing. we just chilled for like 20 minutes at night while he played and i listened or sang if i knew the song well. That rocked. Then i came back down to Centro and we finished out the week here. we have  been running around doing lots of paperwork and trying to get Elder Miranda in to a doctor. we thought he was going to have to get his tonsils out but it looks like we arent gonna be doing that. But we had a new family in the Church this week! that was sweet! and Another family who basically told us they were totally ready to learn more. they understand that this would be huge and they want to know if its  right so that is gonna be Awesome to work with! hopefully all keeps going well!

I had a sweet experience with the BoM this week. i was just reading one day when out of nowhere i just felt this big click in my head. and i felt 200 percent sure that all of this was true. That was amazing. it wasnt like powerful or flames or anything, just surity. Loved that.

I also gave 2 lessons this week. one of them off hand which i feel like went even better than the one i prepared. They aske dme to teach sunday school 2 minutes before it started so we just rolled with it. we talked about joseph and potiphars wife :) thank you drama! i have that story DOWN! but it went well. then we talked about the sacrament and The oath and covenant of the priesthood in priesthood meeting. I was really impacted by the last verse in there for some reason. We will recieve all that the father has if we magnify our callings.... big deal.

Also today! Elder TAnner And Elder Leal emailed me! they met eachother  over in engand! that was sweet!

I hope you are all well! im feeling good here! 

Elder Gold

Happy Birthday to me! Thank you!!! a pull up bar and some new sunglasses with UV  protection :)