Golden Opportunities in the MCA: So Much! (June 10, 2014)

Wow! family of mine! what a week!

So! i guess i should try and start from the top but i dont even know if i can remember the top! it was REALLY cold! that is true! every night i have been running around in my sweater trying not to die! but we got by. then this sunday we went over to visit one of the members of the branch and we shared the message with here and then we went to leave and she told us to wait and brought out this bag, that had 2 jackets in it! i was totally shocked! She said that it was because she always saw me running around in my tiny sweater and she felt bad and because she wanted to thank me for helping her out, she has had some rough times in the past few months and we have tried to help her understand it and get closer to Christ... that was awesome! i didnt even know what to say! im pretty sure i said thank you like 40 times because i had no clue what else to say! but that was really nice! so now i will be super warm!

This saturday we went to do service in the house of one of our investiagtors and we helped her clean out a room! i didnt take pictures which is my bad but it ws way fun! she basically just had this junk room but the roof broke, and everyone says its actually gonna rain so she need to get it fixed and she didnt know how so we organized the branch to be able to go and help her out and we went to have a party! there was SO much cool stuff in there! she gifted us this sweet shoe shine stand and a little traditional flute thing. We brought Patricio with us... man! that guy is just a RIOT! i love him! he is so crazy but so fun! we all had a fun time together cleaning and organizing and throwing away LOTS of stuff haha. Plus when we went over there the first thing she said was that she was so happy because she had a whole bunch of friends come over and they all wanted to smoke but she knew that she shouldnt and she prayed for strenght and she didnt do it! she is already 1 week without smoking!

We also went on an intercambio this week with the ASSISTANTS! That was fun! i was nervous! i figured they were coming to like check up on us or something but i was nervous! but! it was sweet! we had some great times and i learned TONS! WE had a lesson with one of these old investigators that they had always talked about but i had never actually met with, and we went with Elder Cazier, who was here before and now is an assistant, he taught her a lot, and she opened the doors to us and we had an icredible lesson! so spiritaul! she was crying and i was about there and we just felt the spirit so strongly it was incredible! i felt great about it! so blessed! we talked about crist and what he wants from us. and it was just... wow. Then we went and saw Marjorie... who is just progressing like CRAZY. she has changed so much. This whole weekend was just great! We had a great day in church the next day, 3 investigators and like 4 other less actives that we have been trying to reactivate, and nice day in general of work! trying to apply some of the stuff we learned and just feeling good about everything.

Yesterday we had this conference! the zone conference with the President and it was GREAT! i cant describe it to you well but i just feel so PUMPED! we talked a little bit about faith, and a little bit about the book of mormon and just other rules, then we talked about Miracles. God works miracles! We have so much power if we will trust him! if we will TRULY trust in him. we NEED him, we know who He is but do we allow our will to be swallowed up in His? not very often. BUT WE SHOULD! i just want to be like PETER! he jumped off a boat! he jumped off into the thrashing waves because he asked for a miracle and he had faith! and he walked on water... at first at least! I have never ever felt such a huge desire to just be EVERYTHING that the Lord wants me to be... wow. ALso! we did this sweet activities where we had a box of questions of the Soul and we had to do scripture search stuff to find it in the Book of Mormon, for example they would pull out a card that said "why do i always fall into the same sin" and we had to find a scripture that could answer the question (i used Hekleman 3:23-25 BTW). I WANTED TO EAT THE BOOK! I just felt like there was so much more knowledge inside than i had. i dont know. i just feel so Hungry for more.

I love where i am! i am so happy to have this opportunity! you are always in my prayers! i hope that you are all trying to get to know your Savior a little more every day. it is SO worth it

Elder Gold